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Haynes Publishing, known for its exhaustive line of automotive repair guides, has expanded into the world of military hardware. The company has partnered with technically minded military historians, veterans, and specialists to create the Owners Workshop Manual series of books. The books cover a wide range of military vehicles, including the M1 Abrams main battle tank, A-10 Warthog close air support aircraft, and more.Anyone who has ever bought a used car, dealt with an aging car, or who just wants to know how their car works knows U....

Media Platforms Design TeamUpdate: Today, six of the seven scientists convicted of manslaughter in 2012 for failing to predict a disastrous earthquake . In this story originally published on Oct. 23, 2012, PM contributor Glenn Reynolds explains why we shouldn’t scapegoat scientists.Science fiction writer Robert Heinlein once wrote: “Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded—here and there, now and then—are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people....

After years of debate—and at least one week of official deliberations—astronomers have decided to strip distant Pluto of its planetary status. In the process, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has determined what constitutes a planet, what doesn’t, and what becomes of the rest of the heavenly bodies in our solar system.In a vote that has reduced the number of planets in the solar system to eight, 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries have defined what criteria defines a “classical” planet....

The common zipper is a remarkably durable device that has remained ostensibly unchanged for more than a century. And today, zippers remain popular as the simplest, most reliable way to quickly open and securely close everything from jackets and jeans, to tents and backpacks. However, when a zipper stops working properly it can send the most mild-mannered among us into a fit of rage. Here are five quick ways to fix a faulty zipper—without losing your cool....

MIT’s AeroAstro labs is working to develop a drone that can fly at speeds up to Mach 0.8, or roughly 614 mph. Dubbed the Firefly, the drone is essentially a mini-rocket and has a similar shape to a zeppelin. It is designed to launch from a fighter jet and collect data or distract enemy weapons systems.The Firefly is designed to meet a challenge presented by the U.S. Air Force: develop a UAV no more than 2....

It’s not enough to simply stop pumping carbon dioxide into the air to minimize the effects of global warming. We also need to start taking out some of the carbon dioxide we’ve already put there. Swiss startup Climeworks is in the business of doing just that, and recently began operation of a facility in Italy that sucks carbon dioxide out of the air and converts it into natural gas.Climeworks has been in the business of collecting atmospheric carbon dioxide for a few years now....

Media Platforms Design TeamA few months ago, subatomic particles called neutrinos zipped through the news faster than the speed of light, supposedly breaking the universal speed limit, toppling Einstein in the process, and igniting arguments among physicists everywhere. It turns out, however, that those extraordinary results might have a rather mundane explanation: a glitch in the wiring of the experiment. The official statement from CERN says that the team behind that experiment identified two different problems that could have affected the timing of the experiment, one that would have overestimated the time, and one that would have underestimated it....

Media Platforms Design TeamTiago Campante/Peter Devine.Hello, old friends. And we do mean old. Astronomers have discovered the oldest known rocky planets, which formed just about two billion years after the universe began. Oh, and they’re right in our neighborhood.Located a mere 117 light years away, the planets orbit Kepler 444, a stable orange dwarf star that is smaller than the sun. The star is 11.2 billion years old, give or take a billion year and will continue to burn for billions of years more....

Researchers from MIT are using lasers to turn petroleum byproducts into useful stuff.Tar and pitch, usually used for paving or burned as waste, could be studied for more uses.The researchers believe a post-fossil fuels future requires new uses for these products.In a future where we no longer process and burn up our heavy hydrocarbons like coal, tar, and pitch, could they have new life as sophisticated manufactured goods? Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology have published a new paper in Science Advances describing case studies for new ways to use these complex chemicals....

Boeing is set to debut its biggest plane ever next month, and the 777X has finally been paired with the gargantuan GE9X engine that will propel its flight. The plane is currently housed in Boeing’s Everett, Washington, assembly plant, where pictures show it looming over workers as they prepare it for its maiden flight. The GE9X engine is the biggest turbine engine in the world. At roughly the size of an entire Boeing 737’s fuselage, it was subjected to test flights last March when a single turbine was hitched to a 747 testbed....

In a victory for several of the state’s biggest tech companies, the California Department of Motor Vehicles announced “a path for companies to test or deploy light-duty autonomous motor trucks (delivery vehicles) on the state’s public roads.” California is home to some of the biggest players in autonomous driving, including Tesla and Waymo For years, these companies have tested self-driving vehicles in states like Arizona and Pennsylvania. In 2018, the California DMV issued its first permit for testing self-driving cars on public roads to Waymo....

Two days ago, August Germar of Chico, Calif. launched a Kickstarter campaign for anonabox, an open-source networking device built to run Tor as a way to render a user’s online activity anonymous. Germar’s team asked for $7,500. On Tuesday afternoon, as I write this sentence, the pledged amount just blew by $350,000 (!) and the number is ticking upward rapidly.The creators write that they were inspired by the Egyptian Arab Spring protestors to build an “anti-censorship box” that simply could be mailed to people....

After hearing so much about the Hyperloop—that conceptual high-speed transportation system originally dreamed up by Elon Musk—we finally have some physical evidence that a test track is going to be built. Hyperloop Technologies Inc. announced last month that they were beginning to construct a test track at a 50-acre facility in North Las Vegas, and now we have seen some of the tubes for the track. A Hyperloop would involve sending passenger pods through a depressurized tube system that slings the pods along a cushion of air at speeds in excess of 700 mph....

We live in an unpredictable universe, and making sense of it all can be exhausting. Luckily, our phones are packed with helpful tools that can help us understand our ever-changing world. There’s no question our phones are powerful. (An iPhone 5 with 16 gigabytes of memory has 240,000 times more memory than the Voyager 1 spacecraft. Imagine! An iPhone 5!) But would you be surprised to find out your phone can help track earthquakes, scout out the universe for extraterrestrials, and help you pinpoint exactly which bird is chirping so early in the morning?...

In 1987, Fisher Price decided to create the video-making monstrosity known as the PXL-2000. It cost $180, just one-tenth the price of your average VHS camcorder at the time, and while it’s normal to cut some corners for a discount device like this, the PXL-2000 takes it to a new and remarkable level. Here, The 8-Bit Guy breaks down exactly why this camcorder was so unique and also so very, very bad....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Toyota Camry, as much as any car on the market today, lives on its reputation for boring reliability (hey, I totaled one at age 18 and lived to tell). That sterling name took a public relations dent today, though, when Consumer Reports dropped the Camry from its influential recommended list. The vanilla sedan wasn’t alone: The Toyota Prius V and RAV4, as well as the Audi A4, are no longer recommended....

View full post on IframeUpdate: It appears to be a successful launch, with booster rockets firing successfully, and smooth firing and separation of both first and second stage rockets. The Kounotori 5 is now about in orbit about 170 miles above the Earth, and will begin its journey to the ISS, which will take approximately 5 days.After a series of failures to get supplies to the ISS, an unmanned Japanese H-2 Transfer Vehicle is set for launch at 11: 50 GMT (7:50 a....

An oil rig owned by Royal Dutch Shell that ran aground near Kodiak Island, Alaska, on Monday night is still being battered by winds and high seas, raising fresh questions over the company’s plan to open the Arctic Ocean to offshore drilling. The oil rig, the Kulluk, was being towed south for repairs and improvements at a shipyard in Washington State in advance of the 2013 drilling season when crews ran into trouble during a winter storm on December 27....

In 1919, Admiral William Benson tried to eliminate the Navy’s Aviation Division, claiming he could not “conceive of any use the fleet will ever have for aviation.” By the end of the war, engagements like the Battle of the East China Sea were showing American naval air superiority.Such success bled into the 50s, with jets becoming increasingly common aircraft carriers. But as carriers became more widely and commonly used, problems arose....

Q: I have a 2003 Ford Focus and every time I use the windshield wiper fluid, the fuse blows. The wipers work fine otherwise. What can I do?A: The wiring to the washer motor is shorted, or the motor is bad. Fix it. Or just stay home on rainy days. Okay, seriously: start by unplugging the wiring connector to the washer motor. Replace the fuse, and try again. If unplugging the motor keeps the fuse from blowing, replace the motor....