This year we’re going to have a white Christmas. At least in the sky, anyway. For the first time since 1977, there will be a full moon on Christmas Day.The full moon lands on or near the same calendar day every 19 years. This occurrence is known as the Metonic cycle, named for the 5th century B.C. astronomer Meton of Athens, who discovered the pattern. In 1996, however, the December full moon occurred at 3:41 p....
Media Platforms Design TeamIn 1998, Motorola—then the largest manufacturer of cellphones—was locked in battle with Nokia, which eventually stole its crown. That same year, two Stanford students named Larry Page and Sergey Brin filed for the incorporation of their new search company. The name on their filing: “Google.“Google, now a much larger company with dozens of products, today announced its intentions to purchase Motorola Mobility, one of two companies formed during a spinoff maneuver that started in 2008....
Media Platforms Design TeamYesterday, New York City officials closed portions of the West Side Highway as pummeled the pavement below One World Trade Center. It wasn’t the first report this winter of ice falling from the sky. In a city packed with skyscrapers, the danger of ice aggregating on rooftops and tumbling onto passersby is a routine and terrifying winter reality.large chunks of ice"When a thin layer of ice forms on a rooftop, it often falls like a sharp blade," says JJ Lou, a professor at New York University’s Department of Civil and Urban Engineering....
Media Platforms Design TeamFINAL REPORT - November 2009Media Platforms Design TeamOur Subaru has been in high demand by PM staffers recently, thanks to its spunky dynamics and generous cargo capacity. Since our last report we’ve hauled a dresser from Pennsylvania to New York, thrown bicycles in the back to escape for a day of riding and packed it tight with camping supplies for numerous weekend trips. Unfortunately, the last 5000 miles haven’t taught us to love the Subaru’s display and navigation system....
One of the best ways to spend time on the Internet? Watching hours of ancient news roundups and early 20th century archival footage, of course. The Associated Press, in partnership with British Movietone, has just made that a lot easier by uploading a million minutes of historic video onto YouTube for everyone to watch. The whopping collection of more than half a million videos covers everything from celebrity news to vintage war footage, ranging from 1895 to today....
Media Platforms Design TeamSAN FRANCISCO—Ford’s 2011 Fiesta has joined the fight for hearts and minds in what is becoming a hotly contested small-car arena. Between 2004 and 2009, the annual small-car market in the U.S. grew by 2.2 million units. According to Ford’s statisticians, this so-called B-car segment will continue to grow, reaching 30 million by 2012. Which explains the recent addition to local showrooms of cars like Honda’s Fit, Toyota’s Yaris and Nissan’s Versa....
Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale Date: NowPrice: $36,820-$39,940Competitors: Lexus ES 350, Lexus ES 300h, Acura TL, Cadillac XTS, Hyundai Genesis, Toyota Avalon, Buick LaCrosse/LaCrosse eAssist, Audi A6Powertrains: 2.0-liter four-cylinder Ecoboost, 240 hp, 270 lb-ft; 3.7-liter V-6, 300 hp, 277 lb-ft; 2-liter, four-cylinder hybrid, 188 hp, 129 lb-ft; FWD/AWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 22/31-33 (I-4), 18-19/28-26 (V-6), 45/45 (hybrid)What’s New: It’s been a tough road for Lincoln. After Ford killed Mercury in 2010, the company set out to reinvent its luxury brand as a player in the upscale market once more....
Media Platforms Design TeamAutonomous vehicles were in the news again last week, when one of rear-ended a Prius, which rear-ended a Honda Accord, which rear-ended a Prius, which rear-ended another Accord. A human—not the autonomous system—was driving the car at the time. Still, the great Mountain View, Calif., Prius-Accord fender-bender of 2011 raises many questions, both serious and somewhat ridiculous, about the future of autonomous cars.Google’s fleet of self-driving Priuses1. Does This Mean Robot Cars are Unsafe?...
Media Platforms Design TeamPrivacy, we say, is about to come roaring back. No, it’s not too late. Yes, we know that Google monetizes both our emails and our search histories. It’s true that data brokers market our personal dossiers, listing everything from our favorite blogs to our old parking tickets (identity thieves must love it). And NSA leaker Edward Snowden really did prove the paranoids right: The United States government spies on everyone....
Media Platforms Design TeamAs part of a new campaign launched by Toyota of Sweden, the company is asking all drivers, regardless of their allegiance to the Toyota brand, to imagine that they have a cup of water on their dashboard when driving. In so doing, Toyota says you can lower your fuel consumption by 10%.Called the “Glass of Water” initiative, the idea is to make saving fuel fun by turning it into a game....
Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s an EV early adopter’s worst nightmare: running out of juice, miles from the nearest charging station. With the Volt, Chevrolet is intent on squelching those fears. When the car’s 16-kilowatt-hour battery pack becomes depleted, the car automatically switches to a gas engine—a transition that is remarkably smooth (it’s nearly impossible to discern on the road). And while the Volt may not be as fun to drive in the conventional sense as, say, a Corvette, there’s still a sense of occasion behind the wheel....
Our comparison test field reports.Matt Ward, a television writer in Los Angeles, bought a 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid CVT two years ago. Like most hybrid buyers, he was looking for better gas mileage. He found it–but not quite as much as he expected. “I guess I’m mildly disgruntled with the mileage,” he says. The EPA estimates his Civic Hybrid’s fuel economy at 47 highway and 48 city. Ward says he averages in the high 30s in stop-and-go driving....
Now that you’ve traded in all your analog cords for expensive DVI and HDMI digital cables to work with your new AV and computer equipment, you’ll be less than thrilled to learn that another video standard is coming next year. Recently certified by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), DisplayPort is supported by such digital heavyweights as Dell, HP, Samsung, AMD and Nvidia as the successor to DVI for computer monitors....
In an average year, about ten pilots will accidentally run their airplanes right off the end of the runway while taking off or landing. These “overruns,” as the mishaps are called, often occur on slick runways or because of mechanical problems like failed brakes. In the past 30 years, overruns have caused at least 23 deaths and 300 injuries to passengers and crew at U.S. airports.These errors are especially dangerous at airports closely surrounded by a city or natural hazards—like at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), where runways are bounded by the San Francisco Bay at one end and a busy highway at the other....
Ben GoldsteinIncandescent era, RIP. Like it or not, it’s time to move on. Traditional incandescent lightbulbs are gone—not banned, precisely, but phased out because the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), passed in 2007, requires them to be about 25 percent more efficient. That’s impossible to achieve without decreasing their luminous flux (brightness), so, instead, manufacturers have shifted to more energy-efficient technologies, such as compact fluorescents (CFLs), halogens, and LEDs. Of course, not everyone is embracing these next-gen lightbulbs....
General Motors announced the production plans for the new Saturn Vue Green Line plug-in hybrid at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. And it was exciting news because Saturn could become the very first OEM plug-in hybrid on the market. But in order to get the kind of battery capacity needed to support a plug-in powertrain, a lithium-ion pack was a must.GM has announced that it has awarded two contracts to produce the high-tech packs: one to a partnership between Johnson Controls and Saft Advanced Power Solutions, the other to Cobasys—a Michigan-based joint venture between Chevron Technology Ventures and Energy Conversion Devices—that will work with A123Systems in Watertown, Mass....
Media Platforms Design TeamIn Harry Potter’s world, changing one’s appearance is as simple as taking a few sips of Polyjuice Potion. But in real life, faking that magic on film is not so easy. For a sequence early in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One, six characters must morph into doppelgangers of Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) in order to confuse the evil wizard Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and his Death Eaters....
Media Platforms Design TeamAgricultural robots are already among us: mowing grass, spraying pesticides and monitoring crops. For example, instead of regularly dousing an entire apple orchard with chemicals, towed sensors find diseases or parasites with infrared sensors and cameras, and spray only the affected trees. But could a robot wholly replace a migrant worker? The idea appeals to farmers, because temporary labor can arrive one season but go elsewhere the next, leaving tons of fruits and vegetables to wither....
Media Platforms Design TeamJetman didn’t fly out of a comic-book, but he sure looks like he could have. The man in the suit is pilot Yves Rossy, who is the closest thing to a superhero we can get in the real-world.In 2006, Rossy became the first person to fly with jet-propelled wings in his custom-built machine. Since then, he’s flown over the Swiss Alps, crossed the English Channel by air, and even soared above the Grand Canyon....
The lithium-ion power tool revolution roared to life two years ago this month when Milwaukee Electric Tool introduced its brawny 28-volt products. Other manufacturers soon jumped in. Now the power tool market is awash in lithium-ion technology. For a look at safety issues associated with li-ion batteries in consumer electronics, see “Is Lithium-Ion Safe?">Milwaukee’s V18Ridgid’s14.4-volt drillSkil 2410Media Platforms Design Team allows users to run earlier 18-volt nickel-cadmium (NiCd) tools with a lithium-ion battery....
