Media Platforms Design TeamThe idea of a tiny city car for US customers is has been met with a degree of skepticism over the years, but with Smart Cars paving the way for cars like the upcoming Scion iQ more automakers are pushing forward with city cars of their own. Honda’s Personal Neo Urban Transport (P-NUT) Concept debuting here at the LA Auto Show, like the iQ, uses a three passenger layout....
Buying a new car can be a confusing, frustrating and downright unpleasant experience. But behind the haggling and the anxiety and the dramatic theater of the salesman going to talk to the manager, how does this process really work? One anonymous car salesman lifted the veil and gave us a taste of what it’s like on the showroom floor. And most importantly, our informant lets us know how we can get the best deals the next time we’re shopping for a new car....
You’re hanging out in your backyard when suddenly a drone approaches, a friendly little recreational quadcopter. It zooms over your house before it doubles back and sits there in the sky, hovering over you and staring you down. It doesn’t look so friendly anymore. It looks like a spy. In the past few years, there’s been a lot of time and effort devoted to the complicated question of whether you ought have the right to shoot that sucker down....
Media Platforms Design Team3D PrintingNow available for as little as $500, 3D printers can turn almost any CAD creation into a physical object. Sophisticated desktop units such as this MakerBot Replicator 2X ($2800) use dual extruders to print in two colors of plastic.Laser CuttingNow available for as little as $500, 3D printers can turn almost any CAD creation into a physical object. Sophisticated desktop units such as this MakerBot Replicator 2X ($2800) use dual extruders to print in two colors of plastic....
View full post on YoutubeWho says you have to hit the gym to have muscles? Researchers in Japan have created a “muscle suit” that gives its wearer some serious power just by strapping it on.The 12-pound wearable power-assist device is worn like a book bag and uses a mouthpiece for controls. Wearing it won’t make you suddenly be able to move buildings, but it does make moving larger everyday objects a little easier....
Consider using your mower to mulch leaves that litter your lawn. It’s a great way to prep the yard for the winter.Leaf-Mulching BasicsMulching leaves is a great way to dispose of them. It can reduce a pile of leaves to about one-tenth of its volume. Mulching also mixes grass clippings with the leaf particles. The nitrogen-rich grass particles and carbon-rich leaf particles compost more quickly when they’re mixed together than they do separately....
Paint Sprayers used to exist in the category of “pros only” tools but today, a number of sprayers are now available at affordable prices for the amateur, DIY painter.But just because it’s on the shelves doesn’t mean that it’s good. It’s tough to beat the tried and true painting tools, the brush and the roller. The first is perfect for clean edges and cutting in around wall transitions, the second is unbeatable at quickly covering large, flat areas....
The future of American motoring can be found in any hardware store. It’s not in the automotive section, but over in the power tools aisle. There it sits, proudly displayed as the newest must-have tool in DIY America: the high-powered cordless drill. It’s the battery we’re interested in, a lithium-ion pack so densely charged with energy that a new 28-volt power pack is slimmer than an older 18-volt nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery....
Media Platforms Design TeamToday SpaceX launched its first satellite into geosynchronous orbit, positioning the young company as a disruptive player in an international launch market. Elon Musk’s company is officially a launch industry upstart. The success comes after two launch delays last week caused by technical glitches.At approximately 5:41 pm Eastern, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 left the launch pad at Cape Canaveral carrying a 6400-pound communications sat for the operator of the world’s second-largest sat fleet, Luxembourg-based SES....
Media Platforms Design TeamHard drives wear out. Libraries burn down. Insects chew up the delicate paper or papyrus upon which priceless documents are written. So what’s the best way to store information for 5000 years? According to a new study in Nature, it might be the same way our genetic code has survived for so long: DNA.Scientists report that they have converted a record number of digital megabytes into genetic code....
It’s one thing to take down a website with a DDOS but hacking into power plants, factories, and other infrastructure is a much more involved and serious task. And when it comes to breaking into these sorts of networks, industrial ethernet switches are a hacker’s best friend.Industrial ethernet switches are widely used pieces of tech that serve to connect the various devices in power plants, dams, and other facilities with physical ethernet cables to create an insulated, private intranet....
Media Platforms Design TeamLife at America’s lonely nuclear missile fields is hard for the airmen who work at these remote installations. Yesterday it got harder, as the Air Force announced that 34 launch control officers in control of nuclear-tipped missiles have been relived of duty because they were cheating on proficiency tests. In the wake of a scandal alleging widespread cheating at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James ordered all the members of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) force be retested on the exams by today....
Looking on in reverence is, perhaps, the proper way to enjoy a vintage Italian bike. The old models aren’t like the modern reliable craft coming out of that country today—bikes like the Ducati Monster, Aprilia Caponord or the Moto Guzzi California. But these old motorcycles just ooze sprezzatura, that distinct Italian style.They are works of art. And now they’re on display in a gallery. The exhibit is called “Art of the Italian Two Wheel,” and is on display through July 18th at 285 Madison Avenue in New York City....
Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design Team1 – ROPE WORKThe elaborately engineered rope system shown here includes two double pulleys, 50 ft. of rope, and a block and tackle with a classic climbing knot called a prusik. “If it’s not under tension it slides,” explains Rollins. “If it is under tension, it grabs with a 5:1 mechanical advantage.“2 – RESCUE LITTER"Ending up in one of these means you have broken bones, spinal injuries or hypothermia,” says Rollins....
Media Platforms Design TeamToday, Google’s homepage features multiple doodles honoring Sally Ride, the first America woman to fly in space. Ride served as the ground-based capsule commander for the second and third flights of the space shuttle before going to orbit on STS-7 in 1983 and then again in 1984. Ride died of pancreatic cancer in 2012 and would have been 64 years old this week.Google writes in its blog post that it spent months working with Tam O’Shaughnessy, Ride’s life partner, to put together a tribute worthy of the late astronaut’s legacy....
Media Platforms Design TeamI love a good play on words just as much as the next guy, but sometimes a press release takes it too far– like this gem from Sudco, distributor of so-called VamPLIERS.“It sucks to try and remove difficult fasteners, screws and bolts, especially in the dark of the night!” proffers the PR piece. “What you need is a pair of strong sharp teeth that can bite into any metal fitting, or possibly a Liken or Werewolf, and have it exercised [sic] without a prolonged, strength sapping struggle....
Media Platforms Design TeamIf all goes according to plan, Hamid Hemmati’s plan will fall flat.Hemmati is the project lead on the Two Dimensional Planetary Surface Landers, a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) project that is in the planning stages. These flat probes would resemble solar panels, but with a flexible electronic body. Each lander would be less than a half inch thick and just over three feet on each side—small enough you could stack 10 to an orbiter....
So a few of us on Pop Mech’s crack staff cruised down to the big Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 launch party in Times Square last night and got there just in time to miss Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates’ big speech—hey, we’ve got editing to do, we can’t just abandon our manuscripts every time a new operating system is launched. We apparently missed Bill and Steve’s photo op with a showcase Vista family, but we arrived in time to see almost nobody watching an up-and-coming band on stage after the Microsoft exec’s speeches....
“This is KD4DYV,” I said, announcing my ham-radio call sign for the first time in twenty years. “Can anyone hear me?“Static.I fiddled with my handheld radio, an old Icom IC-W2A, and tried again. Nothing. The radio was all that remained of a childhood hobby, back when I also had a big, boxy rig hooked up to a thirty-two-foot antenna in my parents’ backyard, and a Morse-code key for tapping out messages....
Give Your Plants a BoostSterilize soil for growing seedlings by heating it up in the microwave first. Colorado State University horticulturist Laura Pottorff suggests filling plastic containers with a thin layer of soil and microwaving them for 90 seconds per kilogram.Save That StampYou can remove a stamp from an envelope by putting a drop of water of it and then microwaving it for 10-15 seconds. Disinfect SpongesAccording to Good Housekeeping, microwaving a sponge can kill 99....
