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UPDATE: Sellers confirms that the spatula re-entered the atmosphere about four months later. “NORAD sent me a nice note which had a blue square with an X in the middle of it, and some coordinates,” he told us. “This was apparently where the ashes of the spatula fell in the Atlantic, about four months after STS-121.“On July 15, the New Horizons spacecraft will complete its nine-year journey to Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft to visit the system....

It’s official. After a long and contentious battle, the government and automakers have settled on the new 2025 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations that will begin taking effect in 2017. At a ceremony today in Washington, D.C., President Obama announced that the new CAFE standards for vehicle fleets will be 54.5 mpg by 2025. The increase piggybacks Obama’s 2009 mandate for a CAFE average of 35.5 by 2016 and is the largest mandatory fuel economy increase in history....

Pacific Ocean, 142° W, 12° N – For the last two years the drillship JOIDES Resolution has been in the Singapore shipyards, where it was stripped right down to the hull and built back up again with the latest technology for investigating deep-sea drill cores. Altogether, I have spent nearly a year of my life on this ship, but now I hardly know my way around it–the bridge, galley and science labs all expanded or moved....

As of today, Google Cardboard now functions with Google Street View, bringing the streets and byways of the world to the company’s virtual reality app. All the ones on Street View anyway. Google Cardboard is best known for being dead simple, a VR experience that requires only cardboard and a smartphone to become a DIY VR headset. And while that’s the entry-level bare minimum, the design is open source and there are several other devices that take advantage of Google Cardboard now....

In the “this could be a great idea/this could be a terrible idea” department, the Indonesian shipbuilding company PT Ludin has invented a hybrid tank-boat. Capable of sailing at up to 30 knots and blasting targets with a 105-millimeter gun, it’s officially named the X-18 Fire Support Vessel. For obvious reasons, everyone—including the manufacturer—just calls it “Tank Boat”. It’s no surprise the Tank Boat was invented in Indonesia. The country consists of over 18,307 islands, and ships and marines figure heavily in its defense....

Media Platforms Design TeamWriting by hand, which speeds literacy and information retention, is on the decline. That worries neuroscientists, educators—and Bic. Never fear: The pen giant has a plan to preserve handwriting by turning it into a typeface.Part marketing ploy, part social experiment, Bic’s Universal Typeface Experiment aims to average all handwriting into a single typeface. So far, the ever-changing result is a whole lot better than Comic Sans, the current standard handwriting font....

Spring arrives late on the Great Lakes. This April, while the rest of the country was already enjoying picnic weather, there was still so much ice on Lake Erie—the southernmost and warmest of the lakes—that a floating steel boom had to keep icebergs from drifitng down the Niagara River and wrecking a hydroelectric project. Up north, ice on Lake Superior was stopping ships in their tracks and punching holes in their hulls....

When people get creative with their home Wi-Fi, it’s usually by naming the network with some delicious pun or obscure reference. Not the reddit users behind this WiFi-broadcasting USS Enterprise: Their five-year mission was to show the world that a router needn’t be a boring black box.Christoph Kauch and Rol Schwarz started with a Ubiquiti Unifi router and an Revell build-it-yourself model of Enterprise. As they assembled the plastic NCC-1701, the creators built the components into the saucer section and ran the wiring down to the point when the Enterprise connects to its stand....

Unmanned aerial systems could become so individualized that every soldier will have one.Media Platforms Design TeamThe Army envisions a 1:1 ratio of soldiers to handheld UAVs.In an ideal world, every soldier will have a flying robot. “We’re talking about getting into nanotechnology that will allow us to reduce unmanned systems’ size to the point that a soldier would not have to stand up or launch one by hand,” Carlile says. “In the future they will have something man-packable that a soldier can carry....

A GoPro user in southeastern France recorded an unusual sight: four CL-415 water bombers taking on water to fight wildfires burning out of control in the region.Twitter user @niceamine06 recorded the CL-415s flying low over Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, scooping up water to fight local forest fires. The CL-415s are currently fighting wildfires across southeastern France and Corsica.View full post on TwitterGet more planes in the PM newsletterAs David Cenciotti at The Aviationist points out, the planes are operated by France’s Sécurité Civile, a civil defense agency that tackles diverse threats including forest fires and unexploded bombs left over from World War II....

If you live in a town or city, you probably don’t give much thought to how the water you use each day gets to your house. Even small villages often provide a network of supply pipes that transport water to each home in the neighborhood. All you need to know is how to open the tap at the sink. Move a few miles out of town and the picture can change....

Media Platforms Design TeamThis afternoon, just before the country was heading out the door for a three-day weekend, the journal that published that controversial Facebook study on Monday issued an “Editorial Expression of Concern” about the study.The editor-in-chief of the The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences—one of the biggest and most important peer-review journals in science—didn’t exactly apologize for the study, and said that “PNAS editors deemed it appropriate to publish the paper....

DETROIT — With concept cars like the 2007 Jeep Trailhawk, the interest is all in the viewing—checking out variations on the Jeep styling themes of the present, comparing them with possibilities of Jeeps of the future. And with the Trailhawk’s exterior, there’s a lot to look over. The contrived curves of the rear view plus the identifiable Jeep front end make for a number of interesting styling ideas. Trailhawk Concept uses the four-door Wrangler chassis as its base....

Planning AheadPurchase a generator before a disaster, not afterward, when the local home center has become a mob scene. Then, practice setting it up safely. Consider hiring an electrician to install a transfer switch. (See “Transfer Switches,” below.) * Load AssessmentBefore shopping, determine how much output the generator must have to power all the devices you want to run simultaneously. You’ll need to know both the running load and the surge wattage–the added power required when a large motor such as a refrigerator compressor starts up....

Apple’s mysterious minivans have been in the news the past few days, and a major report suggests the Cupertino-based company is looking to expand far beyond its consumer technology base. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is planning to get into the electric car game with a “minivan-like vehicle” with a project code-named “Titan,” which is being worked on by a team of several hundred people. Daisuke Wakabayashi and Mike Ramsey say that people familiar with the project said initial designs resembled a minivan....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s yet another example of competitive reality television driving technological innovation. Thanks to the programme “Scrapheap Challenge,” on Britain’s Channel 4, that nation’s venerable sport of “welly wanging”—hurling a tall rubber boot, or Wellington, as far and accurately as possible within prescribed boundaries—is going mechanized.On August 30, 16 teams and their robotic boot-flingers will stage a showdown that is likely to produce boot-flight distances previously undreamt of in the world of welly wanging....

Media Platforms Design TeamAfter a disaster, people scatter. Earthquakes, hurricanes, or even droughts are surefire ways to clear out a city. But no matter where displaced people move, their exodus creates a serious issue for aid workers: You can’t help anybody unless you know where they are. “It’s almost impossible to study these things,” says Linus Bengtsson, of the department of public health sciences at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. “Having people count other people on the sides of the streets is extremely difficult....

Charge #1After a 11-hour overnight charge using the cord stored in the cargo area and a 120-volt outlet in our garage (a 240-volt charger will sell for $490 before installation and will drop the recharge time by at least half), we set out to maximize EV range. The dash display said we had 48 miles of EV range, which dropped to 43 after the first quarter mile. It must have known of our usual lead-foot nature....

Six Flags took the title Dark Knight literally. Its new roller coaster based on the record-bashing, IMAX-thrashing, vehicle-smashing Batman movie is set entirely inside, in the dark. The ride, which opened in May at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, is an indoor ‘coaster geared toward families, but it still packs plenty of thrills—largely because it happens in total darkness. Though Batman is hidden in there, watching over Gotham, “This is really the Joker’s ride,” says Six Flags’ Chief Engineer Larry Chickola....

Media Platforms Design TeamFormer Army Staff Sgt. Glen Lehman, standing tall in a white tank top and jeans, takes a blue piece of tulle in his left hand and then tosses it in the air. As it drifts to the floor, he snatches it midfall with his right arm—or, more precisely, his mechanical right arm. As the short video continues, he also uses the artificial limb to perform other feats of dexterity such as picking up a tennis ball and lifting a coffee cup to his mouth....