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Media Platforms Design TeamCasting a Wider NetI live in a rural area that is not serviced by cable and my local phone company doesn’t offer DSL. I looked into satellite Internet service years ago and was disappointed to learn that it was slow, awkward and expensive. Are there any reasonably priced, easy-to-use satellite ISPs?The earliest satellite broadband services were launched in the 1990s and were generally sold alongside satellite TV service....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Solar DriverReader: Robert LangeMaterials: $1500Time: One yearResult: Emissions-free speed* See Electric-Powered Dragster Runners Up* Submit Your Own DIY ProjectHere’s proof that green design can be kick-butt cool. Retired mechanic Robert Lange of Kelseyville, Calif., transformed the fuel tank from an F-4 jet into this three-wheeled dragster. Four motorcycle batteries power the 225-pound vehicle that, says Lange, “handles like a go-kart and moves like a rocket ship.” Lange started building electric vehicles in the late 1960s – a racing bar stool was an early effort – and began powering them using solar panels in 1983....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Air Force is racing to break down the thousands of gallons of oil released from the oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana —but is there another best way? In its May 1991 issue, Popular Mechanics covered SeaClean, a revolutionary vessel built for cleaning deep-sea oil spills. The problem? It was never built because of its $100 million price tag.with sprays of chemicalsLouisiana-based Schellstede and Associates designed the 4000-ton crude-oil carrier that could pump oil at 38,000 gallons per minute, one with submerged pontoons to make it unfazed by 23-foot-tall waves....

Update: Friday, 9:14PM ETThe Philae lander’s battery was meant to only last for two days, after which the craft was supposed to rely on its solar panels to recharge its batteries. Unfortunately, it’s unable to recharge due to its position following the rough landing earlier this week. After a day of drilling where it was able to collect and send essential mission information, Philae was rotated in a risky attempt to better position its solar panels....

Media Platforms Design Team SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Imagine a conventional BMW X5 morphed into a hatchback coupe with a 400-hp twin-turbo V8 and a bleeding edge all-wheel drive system thrown in for good measure. Well, that’s the new X6, which furthers the four-door coupe trend started by the Mercedes-Benz CLS and Jaguar XF. Soon the mini segment will also include the Aston Martin Rapide and Porsche Panamera, but this BMW is the only crossover four-door coupe we’ve seen—ever....

Pedal-Powered SnowplowMedia Platforms Design TeamKevin Blake’s Pedal Plow is equal parts lawn-tractor chassis and snow-shovel. Blake, an engineer for Trek Bicycles, says the device saves him the backache of having to scoop and carry snow across the width of the driveway. But does it work? “It depends how you define ‘work,’” he said. Blake is currently tinkering to upgrade the blade that we hope will land Snow Plow 2.0 a place alongside Mr....

At a time when the federal government is grappling with yet another Metro-North Railroad tragedy and potentially dangerous oil-carrying freight trains are proliferating, the agency charged with making railroads safer is being run on an interim basis by a Democratic political operative with scant rail experience.The Federal Railroad Administration, the embattled safety regulator for the nation’s freight and passenger rail, is currently headed by an acting administrator, Sarah Feinberg. In January, Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx put Feinberg, 37, then his chief of staff, into the role after former administrator Joseph Szabo resigned....

Media Platforms Design TeamIT’S TIME. Gary Calvert, a 65-year-old member of the Muckleshoot tribe, lowers himself into the coffin-size cockpit of a 14-ft.-long cigar-shaped race car that he built back home in tiny Enumclaw, Wash. He scoots his legs forward until he’s lying nearly flat on his back, then watches as his chief mechanic, Gary Tripp, lowers and secures the hatch over him. Sealed inside his machine, Calvert stares into a periscope prism, looking upward in order to see straight ahead....

Media Platforms Design TeamTreasure Seekers Metal-Detecting Sandals /// $60 The Promise: These beach-friendly sandals have a built-in metal detector, purportedly allowing you to comb the beach for buried treasure at your leisure, without all the traditional beach-combing gear. Step on a metallic object and the leg-mounted control console vibrates or squeals. The manufacturer claims the sandals have a metal-detecting field of two feet, allowing you to get under plenty of grains....

CHICAGO — After unveiling the new Avenger, Dodge introduced an extensively revised 2008 Dakota pickup series here, offering more engine power, more interior space and revised styling inside the out. The big news for the new model is the optional 4.7-liter V8 engine that produces 25 percent more horsepower and 10 percent more torque than the 4.7-liter it replaces. In detail, here’s what the new model has to offer:290 hp and 320 lb....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen the good people from Maker Faire decided to move to the Midwest, they couldn’t have picked a more fitting locale than the Henry Ford museum. After all, the original Mr. Ford was the quintessential maker, building cars in his shed and starting a car company from scratch three times before he got it right. Later he reinvented the industry itself through innovations like the Model T, moving assembly lines and the massive River Rouge Complex, in Dearborn, Michigan....

Media Platforms Design TeamDENVER — I got into the spirit of the yesterday by donning a hard hat and actually going out to see . When it’s finished in December, the regional headquarters of the in lower downtown Denver will be applying for gold certification under the .GreenBuild conferencea green building under constructionEnvironmental Protection AgencyU.S. Green Building Council’s LEED systemUnder LEED, points are awarded for incorporating various sustainable design features into a building project, and the total number of points determines the level of certification....

View full post on Youtube Some of the most intense energy bursts produced on our planet are happening up in the clouds. New research suggests that lightning is so intense it can even produce x-rays and gamma rays.Gamma rays produced by black holes and neutron stars are among the most powerful things in the universe; they’ve inspired speculation that a flash pointed right at Earth could cause a mass extinction. Lightning doesn’t pack quite that much punch....

Media Platforms Design TeamFrom left to right, Nobel Prize winners Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, Luc Montagnier and Harald zur Hausen. When the AIDS epidemic broke out in the 1980s, researchers scrambled to figure out what caused the deadly disease. Today, two French researchers, Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the HIV virus and identifying it as the cause of AIDS. Barre-Sinoussi is only the eighth woman winner in the medicine category in the 100-plus years of the Nobel....

Media Platforms Design TeamMothra[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/4bhoWfC1L9k?fs=1&hl=en_US[/youtube]Movie: MothraSpecies: Half giant moth, half killer butterflyBackstory: Mothra—the Earth’s gargantuan lepidopteran guardian—may be a moth-butterfly hybrid, but she is still extremely powerful. She can create gale-force winds with her wings which are strong enough to level buildings, shoot laser rays and lightning bolts, and even read the minds of her enemies.Why We Love It: She’s Godzilla’s most feared opponent, that’s why! Technically, Godzilla has defeated her twice....

As a new day of searching for evidence of the missing MH370 was put on hold because of foul weather, the news that the U.S. is shipping out a high-tech pinger locater to attach to a search vessel off western Australia was one of a few scraps of hard information that amounted to real, tangible progress in the case.But the unexpected announcement early Monday that the Malaysian government is confident that the plane went down in the southern Indian Ocean produced more consternation than consolation for those involved....

The Maxtor Fusion isn’t the simplest concept to explain: it’s a combined hard drive and media server, providing you with 500GB (or more, if you connect additional hard drives) of network-attached storage. Think of it as a huge multimedia closet built into your home network, with files that can be easily accessed either directly (through one or more PCs in your house) or over the Web. It’s compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems....

ATHENS, Greece — Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Okay, I am in Greece to test drive the new Volkswagen Eos. The weather’s perfect for driving a convertible (or convertible coupe, or hardtop convertible, or folding hardtop or whatever the current popular term is), especially one named for the Greek goddess of dawn, along the Aegean coast and into the Greek countryside....

Media Platforms Design TeamWelcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.View full post on YoutubeSpecial effects are now arguably the biggest part of a summer blockbuster, but there was a time when filmmakers had to be a little more inventive to tell stories about the strange and the fantastical. Within three minutes, this video captures the evolution of the graphic arts in film....

Media Platforms Design TeamAs the temperature outside drops, we cozy up inside our nice, warm houses. Unfortunately, so do insects and rodents. Whether the invaders are as small as an ant or as big as a family of skunks, your best defense against pests is sealing off their entry points into your fortress. Here’s what to do:Evaluate the ExteriorMice are probably the biggest wintertime pest concern, says New York City–based exterminator and president of Green Earth Pest Control Josh Alpert....