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Media Platforms Design TeamThe routine part of SpaceX’s historic mission to the International Space Station is done.This morning, Elon Musk’s company successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket. But while launching a rocket to deposit a capsule into orbit is not easy (Saturday’s last-second launchpad abort was a reminder of that) the Falcon 9’s liftoff was not the milestone of this mission. Indeed, it was the third consecutive successful Falcon 9 launch and the fifth straight launch success for SpaceX....

Late last year, hackers were able to take dozen of power substations in Ukraine offline through the use of malware, leaving tens of thousands without power for hours. It was one of the first clear instances of hackers successfully disrupting a power system on a large scale, and it surely won’t be the last, especially considering that powerful state-sponsored hackers are blasting critical U.S. infrastructure with similar malware as we speak....

If you’re scanning Netflix for something worthwhile tonight, consider AlphaGo, a new documentary added on Jan. 1. The movie goes behind the scenes of artificial intelligence’s landmark victory over a human champion, and more profoundly, hints at what the AI-driven future really looks like.“These ideas that are driving AlphaGo are going to drive our future.“In March 2016, an AI by Google’s DeepMind took on South Korea’s Lee Sedol, perhaps the world’s greatest flesh-and-blood Go player....

The U.S. Army is working on a new artillery shell capable of locating enemy targets, including moving tanks and armored vehicles. The shell, called Cannon-Delivered Area Effects Munition (C-DAEM), is designed to replace older weapons that leave behind unexploded cluster bomblets on the battlefield that might pose a threat to civilians. The shell is designed to hit targets even in situations where GPS is jammed and friendly forces are not entirely sure where the enemy is....

There is a dedicated community out every passion, including people who really, really like vintage washing machines. The organization of laundry tech lovers numbers 3,000 strong. That’s a lot of detergent.A recent CBS Sunday Morning segment followed a number of the club’s disciples as they participated in a “Wash-In,” where they gather to do laundry together over the course of three days in a basement stuffed with vintage washing machines. I’ve seen people excited about old gear before, but the men featured are practically giddy at doing laundry before they even see a washer....

The ocean waves were almost as tall as Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza, and they barreled across the red planet. Today, a team of scientists has announced the first discovery of extraterrestrial tsunamis.A team of astronomers and geologists led by J. Alexis Rodriguez at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona has uncovered evidence of massive tsunamis on Mars billions of years ago. As Rodriguez reports, two separate megatsunamis tore across the red planet around 3....

A U.S. Navy plane carrying passengers and cargo to the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan crashed in the Philippine Sea this week, Pentagon officials stated. Rescuers recovered eight individuals from the crash and another three are missing. The rescued eight are described as in good condition and a search continues for the remaining three.The aircraft, a C-2A Greyhound Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) aircraft, took off Wednesday from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, to rendezvous with the USS Reagan at sea....

Continued investigations into the deadly BP refinery explosion in Texas City, Tex., in March 2005 have turned up alarming new details.According to preliminary findings by the non-regulatory Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), BP had ample warning of the unsafe conditions that precipitated the accident, which killed 15 and injured 180.“The CSB’s investigation shows that BP’s global management was aware of problems with maintenance, spending and infrastructure well before March 2005,” according to CSB Chairman Carolyn W....

The USNS Herschel “Woody” Williams is neither fast nor heavily armed. And while she may look like a commercial cargo ship, the Navy’s new vessel is also one of the most useful ships in the entire U.S. military. Called an “expeditionary mobile base,” the Woody Williams can do just about any job, whether that means supporting a fleet of minesweepers or potentially hosting F-35B Joint Strike Fighters. The Williams was recently christened by builder General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) and is set to join the fleet soon....

There’s a strange image floating around on Twitter showing a German Navy frigate with odd markings on its surface-to-air missile launcher. An undated photograph of the German ship FGS Lubeck appear to show the ship’s Sea Sparrow launcher with “kill marks” indicating it has shot down nearly ten drones. The photos were posted to Twitter by the account AegeanHawk, which routinely posts pictures and video of naval vessels in the Eastern Mediterranean....

Time is running out to preorder the iKamper X-Cover truck-top tent at a steep discount. The iKamper previously ran the most successful rooftop tent campaign on Kickstarter, and they’re coming back with their new tent. If you pre-order before February 17, you’ll save about $1,000. The new X-Cover has a number of design features that make it a great option for your next overlanding adventure. The tent doesn’t have a dedicated cover that needs to be removed, so you can deploy it in as little as three minutes....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe more stringent 2008 auto emissions regulations are even affecting the custom motorcycle industry, but in the case of Boss Hoss, it may end up actually helping performance. Boss Hoss Cycles, the Tennessee manufacturer of V8-powered torque monster motorcycles, announced that its largest and highest horsepower machine, the 502-hp 8.2-liter big block (which Jay Leno praised here two years ago), is riding off into the setting sunset—a victim of the feds, its old-school design and its plain ol’ Quadrajet 4 bbl carburetor....

Media Platforms Design Team(Photo Credit: Christie’s)Are you in the market for a new Mac? An original Apple-1 computer built and sold out of Steve Jobs’ parents’ garage will be auctioned off by Christie’s on December 11, and it’s estimated to sell at $400,000-600,000, the highest estimate yet for an original Apple-1 offered at auction, according to Christie’s. (An Apple 1 has sold for more than $900,000 at auction, but its initial estimate was lower....

POPULARMECHANICS.COM, October 3, 2006 – Squinting against the scorching, 150 mph tornado tearing through the BlackHawk’s open windows, I can see the ground unit about a mile off the bird’s nose. Five Humvees, all gun trucks, their turrets sprouting machine guns, are strung along the road below us. We’re flying flat-out, 300 feet off the desert floor.I’m on a month-long embed last year with the Army’s 50th Medical Company (101st Airborne Division, Air Assault)–the BlackHawk medevac crew known as “Eagle Dustoff” that I chronicled in the October 2005 issue of Popular Mechanics....

In August, during the Carr Fire—one of northern California’s largest wildfires this year, which the Menlo Park Fire District, from the heart of Silicon Valley, helped fight—Jack McCandless managed to get a piece of drone-detection equipment hooked up to a statewide command center. A specialist with the police department had been unable to figure it out for a month; McCandless got it up and running within a few minutes. “Now we’re getting calls from members of the statewide system: ‘Oh, this is great, how did you make that work?...

Media Platforms Design TeamThe 2012 Citigroup reports offer a best-case scenario on how the U.S. could achieve energy independence by 2020.SHALE OIL: 1.1 BILLION BARRELS/YEAR (B/YR) To reach this figure by 2020 would mean a lot of drilling. Shale-oil plays tend to deplete far faster than conventional fields. The Bakken’s 25 percent increase in output between 2009 and 2012 required a 280 percent increase in the number of wells, from 891 to 3350....

Whether you watch the Super Bowl for the game, the commercials, or the food, there’s one aspect of football’s biggest day that nearly everyone can appreciate: prop bets. These small bets go further than just picking the winner and dive into the minutia of the game, some of it only tangentially related to the broadcast. On this week’s episode of the Most Useful Podcast Ever, Raphael Esparza of Doc’s Sports Service talks about how betting lines are set—and explains what they are, in case the idea of “going chalk” makes you think of a high school classroom....

Pity our poor seventh and eighth planets. Mars has played host to a small army of robotic visitors. Jupiter and Saturn have been imaged in breathtaking detail by spacecraft like Galileo and Cassini. Even Pluto got its moment with this summer’s visit from New Horizons. Yet we’ve visited Uranus and Neptune only once, in 1986 and 1989 respectively, when Voyager 2 flew past.But plans are in motion at NASA to change that....

Media Platforms Design TeamSometimes Mother Nature is so overwhelming that you simply can’t prepare for it. That’s what happened in Nashville and the rest of middle Tennessee last weekend when a severe storm blew through town, dropping 13 inches of rain in a 36-hour period. The record rainfall before that was way back in 1979 when the remnants of Hurricane Frederick dropped a relatively measly 6.68 inches on the home of Opryland....

“You can be different and not be considered an oddball.” So Conrad Milster describes his time at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. For the past 60 years, he’s been the man in charge of the ancient steam engines that provide the institute with its heat and hot water, and he’s the subject of this illuminating short documentary about his life and quirks.One of those quirks is his love of stray cats, who started showing up in droves after he fed just one....