Media Platforms Design TeamAs long as there are homes and cars, there will be driveways–those personal sections of highway that link Main Street U.S.A. with the garages, carports and backyards of suburbia. And, like the public roads we keep maintained through taxes, your private stretch of blacktop needs care, too. However, you don’t need a road crew to get the work done–keeping an asphalt driveway in shape is less work than you might think....
Timing is everything—and that’s especially true when you’re the person responsible for coordinating a successful landing on the moon. Just ask Charles M. Duke, the designated spacecraft communicator during Apollo 11, the first manned moon landing that occurred nearly 50 years ago. OMEGA Speedmaster Moonwatch OMEGA Speedmaster Moonwatch Shop at omegawatches.comCredit: CourtesyTo get the job done, Duke kept time on an OMEGA Speedmaster. The watch was carefully selected by aerospace engineer James H....
As the fight for the White House turned into an all-out energy policy battle this summer, both Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have thrown their weight (inflated tires aside) behind plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). While Detroit and Japan race to deliver mainstream electric cars to market for fleet sales as soon as early 2010, Obama has called for 1 million PHEVs on American roads by the year 2015, on the heels of McCain’s initiative to jump-start research for the vehicles’ batteries....
Have you ever tried to drive off in a car only to have it buck and bray in protest because you forgot to release the parking brake? Of course you have. What about eyeing the gas gauge creeping toward empty and feeling that knot of anxiety as you wonder whether you should stop for a fill-up or keep going? Sure. How about the blissful thrill of going for a drive with no particular destination?...
The room was hot and sweaty and smelled like feet, and Red Bull skydiver Jeff Provenzano was struggling to hold a squat on tiptoe. It was only the second pose in his regular Bikram yoga class. Normally he would find his eyes in the mirror, suck in his abs, and easily steady himself. Today, it wasn’t happening. First his hearing went fuzzy, like he was listening to the room through a cone....
The Advanced Capability Extended Range Mortar (ACERM) takes portable firepower to an entirely new level, transforming one of the humblest infantry weapons into one of the most powerful.The mortar is a mechanically simple device—not much more than a tube with a firing pin—and the design is little changed from the 81mm mortars of WWII. Recoil is absorbed by the ground, so the weapon does not need the complex mechanisms of other artillery....
The U.S. Army’s next generation rifle and machine gun will have a number of features borrowed from other products, whether computers that used to fit inside tanks to cameras that come with high-end smartphones.The Next Generation Squad Weapon, which will arm infantry and other ground troops, will incorporate new technologies never brought to the field of small arms before, including target tracking, facial recognition, and hydrophobic coatings for lenses.According to Military....
Our world is filled with dangers, but we don’t expect one of those dangers to be a color. And yet, some of the dyes and paints we’ve used on our walls, fabrics, and other possessions over the years have been as harmful as they are colorful.In this brilliantly animated video, Ted-Ed walks us through some of the deadliest colors in history:View full post on YoutubePerhaps the most famous of the deadly colors is white lead, which can still be found in houses across the country....
Your body is not your own. The bacterial cells seeking safe harbor inside your gastrointestinal tract outnumber your actual cells by a factor of 10. According to the NIH, the genes encoded by the bacterial carpetbaggers outnumber your own genes by more than 100 times.But that’s no reason to fear them. We’re in a symbiotic relationship with creatures, just like whales who get their teeth cleaned by tiny fish. For the most part, anyway....
Cars are cool. Motorcycles are cool. But up until now, Batman was the only one who really converged the two. Recently, though, Fast Company’s Mark Wilson got to tell Cadillac what to do for a day. He asked them to design a car that converts into not one, but two motorcycles. They passed. So he went to argodesign instead. Former NASA designer Chipp Walters designed the car / motorcycle and tackled the mechanical problems inherent in building a car that divides in two....
A European/Polish tank destroyer could very well become the deadliest weapon system on a future battlefield.The tank destroyer packs up to 24 Brimstone anti-tank missiles, each of which uses radar to search for and destroy enemy armor.A single vehicle could cripple enemy tank columns, rendering them incapable of attacking and stopping an invasion dead in its tracks. A new tank destroyer concept, built for the Polish Army, could become the most effective tank killer in any army....
ThinkGeek//Gallery StockMarvel is good at creating mythic objects. There’s Captain America’s shield, Tony Stark’s suit, and perhaps the most mythic of them all, Thor’s hammer Mjölnir. Odin once decreed that “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.” ThinkGeek has made it a little easier. Now you can buy Thor’s hammer and possess the power of a 44-piece tool kit.Officially licensed by Marvel, the kit looks exactly like the one you’ll see in any number of films or comics....
Media Platforms Design TeamI’m considering switching from an Android phone to an iPhone, but I’m wondering if I have to reenter all my contacts and other info. Can I transfer my data from one phone platform to another?There are some things you’ll have to say goodbye to when switching smartphone operating systemsnamely, most of the apps you paid good money for. But the good news is that many of the services we use our phones forlike email, Facebook, and other social networking platformsactually store your data in the cloud....
A music video with some guy singing on some old television set is just a music video. But when that TV is actually 20 miles up in the sky, well, then you’ve got something. That’s exactly what director Joe Connor did for the Kelvin Jones “Call You Home” music video.While the footage of the high-altitude TV set is captivating, it was relatively simple to capture. Connor used a weather balloon kit provided by the company Sent Into Space, several GoPro cameras, and two vintage Sony television sets....
Media Platforms Design Team"Our team really wanted to think about solar houses in a way that’s very familiar to people," says Shengyin Xu, the student project manager for the University of Minnesota and a graduate student in architecture. “So we started with a gable but began to play with the shape.” The result is a home profile that’s skewed to the north in order to increase the south-facing surface area for solar panels....
Voyager 1 is the farthest manmade object from the Earth. But right now, it’s getting a little closer. Let Tom Scott explain as he catches up with the probe NASA sent out in 1977.[youtube ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLlzx6v8CcA&feature=push-u&attr_tag=G-5mTAo1QFZwhT_L-6[/youtube]The Earth’s rotation and Voyager’s trajectory match up annually, bringing about a short time in which the two grow slightly closer (because they’re moving in about the same direction, but Earth is moving much faster than the spacecraft....
Building a house is no simple task, and even if you’re skilled enough to know how to do every part, you might think that at some point you would at least need a helping hand. It turns out that you don’t and there’s footage to prove it. Related StoryA House by the LakeThis endeavoring handyman, who goes by Thecrazyframer on YouTube, took to framing an entire 2,300 square foot house without any help and was kind enough to film and explain the process in a series of videos....
The .45 caliber pistol, also known as the M1911A1, is one of the most iconic handguns ever made. Perhaps the rarest of this common breed are those made by the Singer Corporation. Best known for manufacturing sewing machines, Singer produced a handful of .45s on the eve of World War II, and their guns were so good the U.S. Military asked the company to build more complicated equipment instead.The M1911A1 handgun was designed by prolific arms developer John Moses Browning....
The Pentagon’s 2020 request for eight F-15 Eagle fighters is a testament to the fighter’s versatility. Nearly five decades after first flight, the F-15 is still relevant on the modern battlefield, proving the value of continuously upgrading platforms with the latest technologies. The jet, which observers believed would die out after the introduction of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, is embarking on an unlikely second career as a sidekick to fifth generation fighter....
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has made it pretty clear he wants to die on Mars (just not on impact!). He believes we should be a multi-planetary species, and SpaceX has been marching toward that goal since its founding in 2002. Every new rocket engine, every launch, every trip to the International Space Station is not just a business transaction but also an opportunity to upgrade SpaceX’s engineering savvy and expand its portfolio of launch capabilities....
