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Media Platforms Design Team (Photo courtesy Normal) Normal, a startup that opened up shop recently in New York City, has the bright, minimalist look of an Apple store, but it functions at a higher level, doubling as the retail outlet and factory for the company’s only product: earbuds. I visited Normal on a recent morning and felt like I’d stepped onto the production line. A technician/salesperson used a smartphone equipped with the Normal app to photograph and create 3D digital images of my ears, holding up a shiny quarter beside them as a size reference....

Lexus LF-Xh ConceptThe popular Lexus RX350 crossover is due for a redesign soon. This concept is probably very close to what the next generation Lexus RX will look like. It’s powered by a V6 hybrid all wheel drive powertrain. But don’t expect plug-in lithium ion technology quite yet. The next RX will use the more conventional nickel metal hydride battery packs. Lexus has been emphasizing more dynamic designs in recent years and the LF-Xh is one of its best executions yet....

Media Platforms Design TeamTruly secure email is like some out-of-focus mythical creature, brother to Bigfoot and second cousin to the Jersey Devil. You hear of a potential solution, maybe you test it out, but excitement soon sours as you find the community to be too isolated or the process too cumbersome to adopt. But these days, as continuing revelations lay out the extent of data monitoring and privacy intrusion by the NSA, the vulnerability of email is clearer than ever....

Media Platforms Design TeamYesterday, a Russian Su-34 warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb in Syria, destroying both a surface-to-air missile launcher and the concrete shelter in which it was housed. It was one of 33 combat missions that Russia flew over Syria yesterday. While diplomats and defense strategists are busy examining where Russia is bombing Syria—and debunking Russia’s claim that this system was in the hands of Islamic State—tacticians can look at what the Russians are bombing to glean new insights into battlefield conditions....

After the infamous eruption in 1980, Richard Waitt, a surficial geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, was went to survey the devastated area and soon found himself as the audience to unsolicited survivor stories. A few weeks into his new position, Waitt realized that no matter how much field work he undertook, he’d never be able to put together the true story of Mary 18, 1980, without those first-hand accounts.What was so unique about the Mount St....

Media Platforms Design Team DETROIT — In the bad old days, when a manufacturer built a fourth vehicle off a common platform used by three other brands, there was little—if any—excitement left. Been there, right? To be honest, there’s a bit of that going on here with the new Chevy Traverse. Mechanically, it’s largely the same as the GMC Acadia, Buick Enclave and Saturn Outlook. All of these crossovers are built on the so-called Lambda platform....

Media Platforms Design Team DETROIT — Ford’s bread-and-butter pickup, the F-150, gets a thorough remodeling for ‘09 with a new fully boxed and partly hydroformed steel frame and 6-in. longer rear leaf springs for improved load carrying and ride quality. And all models come with a V8 paired to a four- or six-speed automatic. The 4.6- and 5.4-liter V8s receive only minor changes, so don’t expect class-leading horsepower. A bigger V8 and a diesel engine will both show up in about a year....

The next time you encounter a Choose Your Own Adventure-style story, perhaps its author will be a machine. Scheherazade-IF is AI built by a group of researchers at Georgia Tech that writes its own interactive fiction.Interactive fiction, at its most basic, is a series of branching narrative paths. Beyond the classic Choose Your Own Adventure series, there are a number of uses for interactive fiction, like Twine games. You’re standing at a door....

Are you still working on the Kepler mission, even though it has been crippled by reaction-wheel blowouts that left it unable to hunt for more new worlds?The spacecraft is not taking data anymore, but we’re still working on analyzing the second half of the data. There are still discoveries to be made out of the data, and lots of work to doto follow up and confirm the [planetary] candidates using ground-based telescopes, and to measure the mass and the radius of each candidate....

Virtually every car manufacturer performs cold weather testing near the tiny town of Arjeplog, Sweden, just south of the Arctic Circle. In fact, so heavy is the automotive presence there that the city’s population swells with up to 1,800 test drivers during high season. Though development is usually the name of the game in these icy parts, Mercedes-Benz’s consumer-based AMG Winter Sporting Academy commands the largest garage of its kind in the area, housing 8 SLK55s, 8 E63s, 8 C63 Coupes, 2 fully kitted race taxis, 2 drift cars, and 2 G55s– all within a nearly 10,000 square foot space....

Human—robot teamwork has reached a deadly new level. Upgrades to the AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter have enabled its airborne pilots to control unmanned aerial vehicles and use the UAVs’ video and targeting data to launch a missile attack. The Army will send the advanced Block III helos to combat aviators at Fort Riley, Kan., this spring. Combat deployment could come in 2013.Media Platforms Design TeamOther UpgradesNew gear is allowing Apaches to fly, fight and land more safely....

“Thirty days has September” begins the ancient mnemonic rhyme for remembering the number of days in the month, and few months fly by more quickly than the last partial summer month. Ready to Rake Northern states start getting small amounts of leaves to rake, usually by the end of September. Be sure that all equipment you use for leaf removal is ready to go. Check whether the gas engine leaf blower will start or that your exterior extension cord is still in good shape....

You slip behind the wheel for the morning commute. The engine starts easily, runs fine while fast-idling down the driveway and down the street for a few miles, but then stalls. You know instantly when the stall occurs because the air horn in the tractor-trailer rig immediately behind you curdles the fluid in your inner ear’s semicircular canals when forward motion fails to proceed at an orderly pace. You restart, your car accelerates with a slight stumble, and when you coast to a stop at a traffic light, it stalls again....

Media Platforms Design TeamAfter 25 years on the air, Click and Clack—aka the Tappet Brothers, aka the Car Talk Guys, but originally known as Tom and Ray Magliozzi—are hanging up their tools and retiring.The self-deprecating hosts of NPR’s “Car Talk” have completed more than 1200 one-hour radio programs over the years, serving up homespun auto repair advice to callers who have often been encouraged to make onomatopoeic examples of the wheezing and grinding sounds their ailing cars are producing....

Media Platforms Design TeamPaint maker PPG has jumped into the smartphone application game with a nifty app called The Voice of Color. Available for both Android and iPhone, the free app will help users select paint colors on their mobile device. One useful feature quickly assembles color palettes from images from your device’s library. So, next time you’re in a space you just love, snap a picture and steal the colors....

Media Platforms Design TeamOver the past eight years, all the bone-crunching tackles, hard hits on the blitz, head-on collisions and even celebratory helmet slaps endured by the Virginia Tech football team have produced more than pain. They’ve produced data. It’s all a part of a study published this month in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering to rank how well football helmets prevent concussions. This is the first time such information has been made publicly available, according to study co-author Stefan Duma, who studies biomechanics at Virginia Tech....

LAS VEGAS—At last year’s Consumer Electronics Show, the handful of hi-def camcorders announced seemed newsworthy, but the cameras themselves were essentially novelties. This year, the category has exploded, with Panasonic and Sony both announcing multiple HD camcorders—and the show hasn’t even officially started yet. The prices on the various HD models are still high, generally $1000 and up. And while media storage is growing at a brisk pace, it still can’t meet the high-capacity demands of 1080i-resolution video capture....

Q: I have a new LCD television, and I’m not sure how to clean it. With my old tube set, I just spritzed it with Windex, but the surface of my new TV isn’t glass.A: “We recommend using LCD cleanser that can be purchased at any electronics store,” says a customer service tech for Westinghouse, a manufacturer of popular LCD televisions. The cleaner can be found in both spray and wipe form....

Media Platforms Design TeamQ: The plastic windshield-washer-fluid reservoir in my RV has a 2-inch-long crack in it. I suspect this happened last winter when the year-old water in it froze solid. The RV dealer near me has gone out of business, so I can’t even order another reservoir. I tried to patch it with silicone sealant and duct tape, but the reservoir always leaks within a few days. The mechanic at the RV dealer across town says he can have it welded, but it would cost over $100....

Media Platforms Design TeamLet’s just get this out of the way: The is not better than the iPad. : In a category defined and dominated by one company, that is the only question that any new tablet—be it a BlackBerry or one of the growing army Android slates—needs to answer.HP TouchPadMany others have said it beforeNow, about the product. The HardwareIn a modern tablet, the hardware has one job: To disappear....