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Weather is complicated and ever-changing, and in order to predict what it will look like our scientists are going to need the best tools. Especially in recent years, when climate change has triggered all kinds of strange and severe weather events, which makes those climate prediction harder and the tools more essential.One of the most crucial tools for meteorologists is data from weather satellites, and this week a next-generation satellite will be launching to provide high-definition data on weather patterns for a significant chunk of the globe....

Media Platforms Design Team· The reason people need advice on using social media is that they’re a much more complex and nuanced way to communicate than a conversation or email. · I started learning about this complexity when I was a teenager. I used to go online and use the Microsoft Comic Chat program, which had an interface like a cartoon storyboard. You’d choose an avatar and chat with people via comic-strip speech bubbles....

Russia’s Ministry of Defense shared video of the country’s new Altair/Altius unmanned aerial vehicle yesterday, uploading a video of the twin engine drone to YouTube. The drone, under development for several years, reportedly experienced cost overruns and was behind schedule for several years. The airplane is described as a spy plane but appears to have the ability to carry weapons.View full post on YoutubeRussia, despite its reputation for being a military giant has lagged behind the United States in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles....

Download NowPLNARLast winter, we hired an interior designer. She scheduled a time to come over, spent 30 minutes measuring our living room, and sent that info to a CAD artist who set it up with all the proposed furniture. We had to pay that CAD artist, too. PLNAR, a new room-mapping app that runs on Apple’s ARKit, doesn’t totally replace that, but it definitely would have saved us time and a little money....

The A-10 Warthog, beloved by American troops and feared by American enemies, isn’t on its way out the door just yet, but the Air Force does plan to phase out the heavily armored attack plane starting in 2018. This means the military is going to need a replacement warplane devoted to close air support (CAS)—or perhaps two. At a meeting held July 20, U.S. Air Force officials discussed the advantages of replacing the Warthog—officially designated the A-10 Thunderbolt II—with two aircraft, according to Aviation Week....

USS Little Rock will receive a laser weapon during an upcoming deployment.The new laser is five times more powerful than the first laser, deployed five years ago. The laser is probably strong enough to seriously damage small vehicles but is dependent on atmospheric conditions. One of the U.S. Navy’s newest and smallest warships is the latest to receive a laser weapon system. The USS Little Rock, which made the news last year after being trapped in Canada by ice, will get a laser during an upcoming deployment sometime this year....

At the end of Return of the Jedi, Ewoks and Rebel fighters celebrate on the forest moon of Endor, ecstatic in the Rebel Alliance’s decisive victory over the Galactic Empire once and for all. But their celebration may have been a little bit premature according to one economic researcher because by his math, the Rebels’ victory would immediately plunge the galaxy into an economic depression the likes of which has never been seen....

Asus EEE WiMax PCMedia Platforms Design TeamHow it works: The EEEPC is a full-fledged computer in a tiny package. Costs stay low by integrating a free, Linux-based operating system that includes everything from Web-browsing software to sophisticated productivity applications such as a word processor and spreadsheet program. It’s a great little machine, but it’s going to get a whole lot better: This year, Asus plans to integrate a WiMAX card, which will offer multi-megabit per second bandwidth that rivals current cable Internet connections....

As any stingy electronics tinkerer can tell you, eBay is a great place for getting components in bulk and on the cheap. They may not be high quality, and they may not be 100 percent reliable, but for simple jobs that require simple components, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better deal. There is one thing you should never buy on eBay though: lasers. As experienced and cautious laser-maniac Styropyro points out, there are scads of overpowered lasers on eBay that are being marketed as much safer than the actually are....

Though they look indistinguishable from the other cows on a dairy farm in Utah, three cyborg cows with implanted sensors are munching on grass and sending data to help train an artificial neural network. A biohacker named Tim Cannon created the subcutaneous trackers for livestock after his own experiments with RFID implants. Eventually, he wants to bring the technology back to humans. Cannon got a Circadia Sensor implanted into his arm in 2013....

Ford recently patented a support system for bicycles that would let you ride and stop without ever taking your feet off the pedals. The system automatically deploys a kickstand-type device with two small wheels—a bit like training wheels—when the bike slows down. This way you can stop at a traffic light and just keep your feet in riding position, and when you start up again, the two little wheels retract to give you full mobility to lean the bike....

Media Platforms Design TeamImproving Your Powers of RecallSix government agencies oversee product recalls, creating a morass for consumers hoping to determine if something they own has been pulled from the shelves. There’s a good chance they do: Half of U.S. households are likely to own a product that’s been recalled in any given year. Here are strategies to make your home genuinely safer.STUFF YOU ALREADY OWNStart by performing triage: Identify products, such as car seats or ATVs, that are most likely to pose an immediate danger if defective and see if they are listed at recalls....

I suppose I’m like most people when I consider home improvement ideas–I tend to think big: adding a master bedroom suite, building a multi­level deck, expanding the kitchen, replacing windows and doors, and other dream projects. But over the years I’ve begun to realize that smaller, quicker projects can offer the greatest satisfaction–and the most impact for the money and time spent. For example, our current home has a beautiful red-oak formal staircase leading up to the second floor....

At 2 a.m. on my ninth day of troubleshooting, I lost my mind. I had expected to face some obstacles as an amateur app developer, but I hadn’t foreseen this. Alone in a room whose landscape comprised ziggurats of crude design sketches and empty Red Bull cans, I was wrestling with a picture of bacon dumplings. It didn’t have enough dots per inch for an Android smartphone screen, and I didn’t have a version of Photoshop that would let me fix it....

Nerf blasters are two things at once. First, and most obviously, they’re fake firearms for flinging foam at your friends and foes. But secondly, they’re also ingenious works of engineering, with clever mechanisms of springs and levers to store and launch darts, with varying capacities, accuracies, and firing rates owing to the nature of their innards and projectiles. Related StoriesThe Design Behind Nerf’s New 70 MPH GunsHow Multi-Barrel Nerf Guns ‘Know’ Where Darts AreIt’s this clockwork nature that’s given rise to a whole generation of tinkerers and engineers who take Nerf blasters far beyond their stock performance....

A previously unknown, very tiny dinosaur has been discovered. The tyrannosauroid, named Suskityrannus hazelae, stood roughly 3 feet tall at the hip and was about 9 feet in length—only slightly longer than the skull of its full-grown cousin, the famed Tyrannosaurus rex.S. hazelae weighed between 45 and 90 pounds, with a diet likely made up of smaller animals. The fossilized remains of a 3-year-old dino, dated 92 million years to the Cretaceous Period, speaks to the evolution of tyrannosauroids....

U.S. defense giant Northrop Grumman says it is “very interested” in Japan’s F-3 program to build the nation a new fighter jet, setting up Northrop to compete against Lockheed Martin. Such a battle could mirror one that took place in the 1990s and resulted in the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor.Japan’s F-15J fighter (left) and F-2 fighter (right). Getty ImagesJapan’s fleet of fighter jets is a pillar of the country’s defense....

frameborder=“0” scrolling=“no”>1. The TrophyMedia Platforms Design TeamThe trophy for the World Championship Punkin Chunkin held annually near Seaford, Delaware. The 3-day event draws more than 60,000 people from around the world to watch people and machines compete at hurling pumpkins for charity.>CLICK FOR MOREPumpkin Throwdown at Punkin Chunkin 2008 –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> align=“center” style=“padding:1px; background-color:#333333; font-size:8pt; font-weight:bold;"> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> align=“center” style=“padding:1px; background-color:#333333; font-size:8pt; font-weight:bold;"> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> align=“center” style=“padding:1px; background-color:#333333; font-size:8pt; font-weight:bold;"> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> align=“center” style=“padding:1px; background-color:#333333; font-size:8pt; font-weight:bold;"> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> align=“center” style=“padding:1px; background-color:#333333; font-size:8pt; font-weight:bold;"> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> align=“center” style=“padding:1px; background-color:#333333; font-size:8pt; font-weight:bold;"> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> align=“center” style=“padding:1px; background-color:#333333; font-size:8pt; font-weight:bold;"> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> align=“center” style=“padding:1px; background-color:#333333; font-size:8pt; font-weight:bold;"> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –> –>RELATED STORIES* PLUS: 10 Best Old-Is-New Gadgets from 2008 Steampunk Con* EARLIER: Will Catapults Out-Chunk Air Guns at Punkin Chunk?...

Every winter, snow and ice storms tend to knock out our power—and my pellet stove. What’s better backup, a battery or a generator?—HENRY B., HAZLETON, PENNSYLVANIAMy advice would be to use both. The auger, convection fan, and exhaust blower on your stove all require power. Fortunately, their power draw is not so great that they can’t be run on a properly engineered battery backup. Notice I said properly engineered. Don’t cobble this together yourself....

As far as weird stars go, few are as strange as KIC 8462852, nicknamed Tabby’s star. Tabby’s star randomly dims and brightens for apparently no reason, which led some astronomers in 2015 to hypothesize that some sort of ‘alien megastructure’ was orbiting the star, occasionally blocking the light. Other scientists proposed a large asteroid field or a swarm of comets instead, but we still don’t really know what’s going on.All of that might be about to change....