This week, Manhattan opens on a woman in search of the truth. It’s not Abby Isaacs or Liza Winter, although they are both on their own searches, but a newcomer to Los Alamos, Annie Liao. She’s come to New Mexico in search of answers regarding her dead husband Sid, the Chinese-American mathematician who was shot trying to drive off the base. She’s in good company, because everybody in town is looking for their own answers....
We are in a curious era in the development of smartphones right now. At the beginning of this month, Apple unveiled its iPhone, which, if it comes anywhere close to its technological potential, will be nothing short of a revolution in the way smartphones are designed. Also, Microsoft is planning to launch its version 6.0 of Windows Mobile (codenamed Crossbow), which is expected to be the Vista equivalent for mobile devices....
Your car is running beautifully, and all seems right with the world. You have no trepidation whatsoever when the time comes to take it in for your state or local emissions test. After an interminable wait in line at the inspection station, a smiling, snappily dressed functionary shoves a probe up your tailpipe and asks you to gun it. Moments later, the inspector smiles wearily as he hands you an envelope–not a new inspection sticker for your license plate, but an envelope that says “FAIL” in bright red letters....
Media Platforms Design TeamLast weekend, 66 high school robotics teams from across the tri-state area gathered at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan to compete in the New York City FIRST Robotics regional competition. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) is a high school robotics competition created by Dean Kamen that combines DIY skills, science, technology and sports into a rough-and-tumble competition. It begins in January each year, when teams from all over the United States receive standardized parts kits and a set of rules for the game....
Sinkholes are depressions in the ground without any natural external surface drainage, according to the Reston, Virginia-based United States Geological Survey, a government agency that studies our country’s landscape. That means that rainfall gets stuck inside the sinkhole and drains into a subsurface, like limestone. ⚒️ You like DIY projects. So do we. Let’s fix something together.That creates some pretty troubling circumstances when a collapse eventually occurs. Take the sinkhole that opened up in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in fall 2019....
Meet the GimBall, Flyability’s new rescue drone that flies like an insect and looks like something out of the Buckminster Fuller playbook. The drone has a motor in the center surrounded by a flexible geodesic sphere, giving it the ability to collide with objects without breaking.The GimBall recently won the Drones for Good competition, taking in a nice million dollars from the United Arab Emirates. It’s designed to work in dangerous or disaster-stricken areas....
Media Platforms Design TeamIn the years since Logitech bought Ultimate Ears, the brand has turned out quietly brilliant speakers and headphones. I rotate between several, but when camping or traveling, I always throw a two-year-old UE Boom speaker in my bag. It’s water-resistant, compact, and can get loud enough to hopefully scare off bears.Now there’s this: the UE Megaboom. Like the UE Boom, the new beast offers 360-degree sound output from the cylindrical design and an exterior that’ll withstand some light abuse....
There was a time before checking out at the grocery store was a simple as sliding bags of chips over a laser. The barcode as we know it today didn’t exist before 1974. But what did exist was its strange circular predecessor. Smithsonian has a fantastic history of the barcode which covers both its invention, and the development of the bullseye that came before it. The whole concept was initially developed by Joe Woodland, who was inspired by Morse Code....
Toyota calls this sports car the FT-HS Concept. We call it the next Supra. You remember the Supra, right? It was the high-performance sports car Toyota produced in the ’80s and ’90s, the last of which rolled off the assembly line in 1996 and became a favorite for the import-tuning crowd. Well, this concept hints that a future Supra is indeed in the works—and it’s a hybrid.The FT-HS isn’t Toyota’s first sports-car hybrid concept; we were smitten by the mid-engine Volta concept a few years back....
This past week I paid a visit to what is perhaps the ultimate sustainable house-in-progress. It’s a multi-million dollar project, way beyond the means of financial mortals like myself, but sure was fun to do a walk through. They’ve got 30-kilowatts of solar PV (we have less than 2, and think we’re living large), and three masonry heaters in the main house (probably $100k right there). In the nearby barn, there are going to be four Tarm wood boilers that will heat 1200-gallons of water for storage for use in the radiant slabs that run throughout the house....
In this video from the Slow Mo Guys, we learn a couple things. First, a vacuum cleaner motor can tear up a compact disc like nobody’s business, shattering it in a matter of seconds. Second, if you record the carnage in incredible slow-mo, you can watch the CD warp first before it shatters in a borderline unnerving way. Media Platforms Design TeamAs they discover, conventional slow-mo technology isn’t enough to capture the amazingness that’s happening here....
View full post on YoutubeRibbon cutting is so boring. If you’re going to celebrate extreme sports, then you might as well mark your opening ceremony in an extreme way. Like having two guys on flyboards hold the ribbon and a stunt pilot in a Learjet cut it.That’s exactly what happened this summer at State Of Mexico To The Max, a government-sponsored event bringing together extreme athletes from around the world. (Skip ahead to about 17:00 into the video....
Media Platforms Design TeamFumarolic activity on the north side of the volcano is associated with the most recent unrest at Redoubt Volcano. (Photograph by Kristi Wallace/AVO/USGS)Mount Redoubt’s volcano sits just 100 miles upwind of Anchorage International Airport–the third-largest air-cargo hub in the world. Redoubt’s last eruption, in December 1989, led to a close call–what could have been one of the worst aviation disasters in history.On Dec. 15, 1989, KLM flight 867 intercepted an ash cloud that Redoubt had exhaled just 90 minutes earlier....
Media Platforms Design Team VALENCIA, Spain — Engineers follow our every step as we scope out the clean body lines of Audi’s new Q5 crossover. Audi’s team is ready, with an answer to any question we might ask. There’s good reason for this special attention: Audi’s entry into the growing luxury small-crossover segment will do battle with tough players like the BMW X3, Acura RDX and the upcoming Mercedes-Benz GLK. Ah, but Audi may have an upper hand over these rigs....
Media Platforms Design TeamBack in 2009, when PM reported on the early stages of the investigation into the crash of Air France’s doomed Flight 447, which disappeared over the Atlantic en route from Rio de Janiero to Paris, the earliest facts about its demise were just coming to light. With recordings of automated maintenance messages broadcast by the plane’s computers and from scraps of floating wreckage and human remains, France’s civil aircraft investigators pieced together preliminary guesses as to what might have gone wrong....
Pneumatic GunReader: Casey SmithPalestine, Texas For just $10 worth of materials, Casey Smith built this ultra-simple pneumatic gun out of PVC pipe. The design is simple: two air tanks provide a base for the angled barrel. Firing it is as simple as pumping up the tanks and throwing open the valve at the base of the barrel, unloading all the compressed air at once and shooting whatever’s in the barrel out in a hurry....
We live in a throwaway society. A generation ago, if your starter motor, brakes or even engine be-came tired and worn out, the local mechanic would remove the offending part and fix it. And every gas station mechanic knew how to fix pretty much everything on your car.Times change. Most mechanics today find it more economical to simply swap in a new or rebuilt part for a faulty one. The parts are readily available at local warehouse distributors, and the prices are reasonable....
Media Platforms Design TeamTwo cars collide in the opening moments of “Old Town.” A man, bleeding, stumbles away from one car, but the SUV is more of a mystery. Supposedly, it was being driven by Agent Dunham, who is nowhere to be found. “No one saw anyone leave the SUV,” says FBI Agent Amy Jessup. “The doors are locked, the seatbelt is buckled, the airbag is deployed, but there’s no indentation–implying that no one was behind the wheel at the moment of impact....
Media Platforms Design TeamHaving been a home improvement editor here for more than 20 years, I can make one prediction with uncanny accuracy: As cooler weather settles in, heating questions will arrive. It may seem obvious. Yet, there’s a specific skew for our readers in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions. They ask us which heat source is less expensive over the long haul–oil or natural gas. Based on past experience, these are oil-heat customers, and in the heating battleground that encompasses this region, they’re bombarded with claims about the benefits of both fuels....
Thinking about finally getting your motorcycle license and taking to the open road on two wheels? It’s a pretty straightforward process, but there are some key things you need to know going in. We’re here to explain how much it costs to get a motorcycle license, how long it takes, and what the process of learning to ride and getting your license is like.The Short VersionStep 1: Book a Course. Go to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s (MSF) site and find a RiderCourse nearby....
