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Media Platforms Design TeamOn our show, we like extreme tech. And, as far as we’re concerned, racing go-karts at 90 mph with your butt half an inch off the ground certainly qualifies as extreme. With scary acceleration and speed, high-performance karts are as exhilarating as it gets in racing circles. But these track-only rides use two-stroke engines, which are notoriously dirty–one kart can spew as many pollutants as 100 cars. We care about the environment and want to do our part, but still have a little fun....

Media Platforms Design TeamUpdate: Firefighters by bringing them through a hole cut in the side of the building.successfully rescued the two workersThere were some wild pictures from the new 1 World Trade Center in New York this afternoon as two window washers got stuck 69 stories up. The New York Times says the workers are safely harnesses to the scaffolding and talking to fire department officials on the ground. But in the meantime they’re certainly in a harrowing position:View full post on TwitterView full post on TwitterView full post on TwitterThe building just officially opened for business last week....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn July, President Obama announced . The rules, known as the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, set a 2025 target of a 54.5 mpg fleetwide average. That includes a 5 percent mpg increase every year from 2017 to 2025. an aggressive new set of fuel economy regulationsConsidering that today only a handful of cars, such the Toyota Prius, have window stickers that display estimated fuel economy figures even close to 54....

Media Platforms Design TeamMechanical engineer Justin Jaworski was inspired—and scared—when a great gray owl suddenly flew at his face during a visit to a bird sanctuary. The experience made him wonder how the animal could approach so silently. Using mathematical modeling and wind-tunnel experiments, he showed that the owl’s wing is designed for stealth attack. Jaworski says that elements of the wing could be replicated to mitigate noise. Here are three fields that could benefit from silent owl technology....

Media Platforms Design TeamPopular Mechanics: With all the advancements in CGI, you have all these really great tools at your disposal. So why did you decide to go old school with The Wolfman and put Benicio del Toro in makeup?Joe Johnston: I sensed a certain negative reaction to the whole CG thing over the past couple of years. Because you can do anything in CG, I think a lot of filmmakers do just that, and sometimes they cross the line and break the laws of physics or they go beyond what is believable to an audience....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s official! The Nor’easter that gusted along the East Coast this morning with 60-mph winds is the biggest ever to hit New York City. It dumped 26.9 in. of snowfall on Central Park, an all-time record besting the 26.4 in. set in 1947. And from where I was sitting in Brooklyn, it was beautiful–until it needed to be cleaned up for tomorrow morning’s rush hour.Just what is a “nor’easter” anyway?...

The military is becoming more and more reliant upon drone strikes, which is creating a new problem for the U.S. Air Force: Its pilots are burning out.The New York Times reports that the 1,200 existing drone pilots are wearing down physically and psychologically, not only because of the grueling nature of their work but because they’re doing so much more of it. To confound the problem, the Air Force is have problems finding new recruits, too....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Pioneer AVIC-F90BT in-dash receiver offers GPS navigation and DVD playback.Q: My car navigation system has a DVD drive for map discs. If I install monitors in the rear of my car, is it possible to hook this drive up to them to play movies?A: It’s possible, but unless you’re an especially avid DIYer, you’ll probably want to get professional help to avoid damaging your car’s interior.The job is really pretty simple–you just need to run a video cable between the DVD player and the monitors....

Media Platforms Design TeamYou’ve had an unusual career. You’re often credited as a leading force behind the government’s development of nonlethal weapons, yet you’ve also participated in far more unconventional projects like psychokinesis. How did you get involved with UFOs? I’ve been interested in the topic for decades. From my work on esoteric projects, specifically in the intelligence community with psychokinesis, I was familiar with remote viewing and other research. So, UFOs are not a big leap from that....

Transforming furniture is already cool. This project from Izzy Swan is something else: an entire set of a table and chairs that folds down into a tiny cube.Check out the demo in the video below, in which the picnic table folds out in seconds and then compresses back into its originally tiny box. The whole thing is just mesmerizing to watch in action, although we imagine this falls under the “easier said than done” category....

It’s one of those experiences you didn’t think you could still get away with in the United States. I visited the New York District headquarters for Morrow cranes, a sprawling facility where a team of hard-hatted workers move heavy steel and rehabilitate core components. In the middle of it all is a big-armed crane on tracks, used to lift the steel beams that stack to make the cranes you see building skyscrapers in cities across the Northeast....

Media Platforms Design TeamIraqi security forces on the outskirts of Amerli on September 3, 2014, after securing the area from Islamic-State militants. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)How do insurgent groups like ISIS get their weapons? Are they U.S.–made? The unfortunate fact is that the world is awash in armaments, and, yes, many of them are (or were) ours.Leaving aside homemade weapons, insurgents looking to arm themselves may turn to state sponsors or, failing that, to a richly stocked global black market, assuming they have money....

Media Platforms Design Team(Credit: All U.S. Navy Photos By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Edward Guttierrez III)The U.S. Navy just completed its first round of salt water testing of GhostSwimmer, a five-foot-long prototype UUV (unmanned underwater vehicle) that looks and swims like a tuna. Some day soon, the Navy might deploy robotic fish to spy on enemy forces or protect friendly harbors and ships.Typical UUVs are torpedo-shaped and propeller-driven. But Project Silent NEMO, which began in 2013 at the Chief of Naval Operations Rapid Innovation Cell (CRIC), seeks to develop a drone sub that piggybacks nature....

Media Platforms Design Team NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.— The gold lettering on the glove box and engine cover of Chris Toy’s pristine black 1964 Porsche 356 reads “Outlaw.” It’s an appropriate handle for this car. Anyone riding with Toy when he nails the gas had better be ready for front-end-lifting acceleration that makes you “reach for the sky, pardner.” This is a 356 with the soul of a Porsche 911 Turbo. —Patrick C....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamMORE BREAKING NEWS FROM THE 2008 L.A. AUTO SHOW• 2008 LA AUTO SHOW: All of Our Updates and Analysis in One Place LOS ANGELES — Mazda’s compact car, the Mazda 3, has always been a favorite. It’s great fun to drive and was the first of the genre to offer big-car luxury items like leather seats and a full-screen navigation system. Even though the 3 is in its fifth year of production, the car still feels better than its rivals....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn-Sale Date: NABase Price: $27,000 to $28,000 (est.) Competitors: Ford Focus ST, Volkswagen GTI, Audi A3, Mini Cooper S.Powertrains: Turbocharged 2.0-liter diesel I-4, 184 hp, 280 lb-ft; six-speed manual, six-speed dual-clutch automatic, FWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy) (est.): 30/42What’s New: As a seventh-generation Golf, the new GTD gets an attractively tapered-and-creased body shape—the most appealing styling update the enduring hatchback family has seen in years—along with an entirely new modular chassis architecture....

After another solstice, summer is officially here—and that means long days and cool nights for some much-needed outdoor work at home. From sunup to sundown, these half-dozen projects will help you make use of the longest summer days without cooking yourself in the process. —Roy Berendsohn___ Wash your deck, patio furniture and even house siding in the morning or late afternoon, when it’s a bit cooler and the water has less tendency to suddenly evaporate off the siding....

Media Platforms Design TeamTraffic outside the Javits Center, site of the New York International Auto Show, is heavy—even by Big Apple standards. That means that you probably could walk across 11th Avenue from the roof of one taxicab to another without seeing asphalt. The pungent aroma of a flotilla of bright yellow Ford Crown Victorias rises into the air over the sidewalk. It’s a perfect venue to test drive the BMW Hydrogen 7:Imagine if every taxi in NYC were powered by the BMW’s hydrogen-fueled V8: The only thing coming out of their tailpipes would be water vapor....

Media Platforms Design TeamCuriosity captivated the country when it made its landing on Mars last August. Since then, the rover has traveled 2.3 miles and uncovered a multitude of new data on the red planet. James Erickson, the project manager at NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, and Justin Maki, the camera engineer, sat down with former astronaut Tom Jones as part of Popular Mechanics’ 2013 Breakthrough Awards panel to talk about what’s next on Curiosity’s journey....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photo by swanksalot)The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations were recently stiffened by the largest degree in over two decades. Also, fuel-economy targets will be based on the car’s footprint—the area defined by multiplying the vehicle’s wheelbase by the track width—and every model must improve. It’s estimated that these changes will increase new-car fuel economy by about 24 percent by 2016. Here’s what automakers will do to get there....