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Media Platforms Design TeamThe Skydive was meant to be a 16th birthday present for Mackenzie Wethington. The Texas teenager stepped out of the cabin of the small Cessna aircraft. As she entered free-fall, 3500 feet above the ground, a yet-to-be-determined glitch happened. She began spinning, spiraling downward. .She landed, remaining consciousThe girl was rushed to a local trauma center with a lacerated liver, broken teeth, and multiple broken bones. But her doctors said she was expected to live, and, surprisingly, would not even need any surgeries....

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this morning.Mechanical engineer John B. Goodenough, chemist Akira Yoshino, and chemist and materials scientist Stanley Whittingham will share the prize for their work developing the lithium-ion battery.Together, their work has paved a way for technical innovations in how we power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced this morning that it has awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to three scientists—John B....

A lucky couple from Long Island bought a $100 storage unit and discovered it contained a unique item: a 1976 Lotus Esprit sports car from the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me.In 2013, Tesla and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk purchased the vehicle at auction for nearly $1 million.Musk has said the sports car served as inspiration for the design of his recently unveiled Cybertruck.A Long Island couple spent about $100 on an unclaimed storage unit in 1989, and stumbled upon a fortune....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn the 1960s and 1970s, we set our sights on the moon with a fairly specific goal: to be the first to plant a flag in the lunar soil. , and we also shed new light on what makes the moon tick: The 841 pounds of brought back by Apollo astronauts, for instance, allowed scientists to examine everything from mineral composition to radiation history. Now, scientific curiosity has become the driving force for moon missions....

Animals aren’t the only living organisms with veins. If you’ve ever seen a leaf, you’ve probably guessed that most plants also use vein-like structures to draw water up into their branches and leaves. Now, a new study suggests that scientists may be able to harness these naturally occurring plant-veins as an alternative to our own organic matter. There are already several ways to create human tissue to be implanted into our bodies....

Media Platforms Design TeamDogging it while the coach looks the other way isn’t an option for elite-level athletes. Coach is always watching. And now, in addition to all-seeing video cameras, he has indoor GPS to track every player’s location, speed, and other factors with pinpoint accuracy during every second of a practice or game.Catapult Sports, based in Melbourne, Australia, already has its wearable GPS and data-tracking devices strapped to the backs of athletes in the NBA, the NFL, soccer’s English Premier League, and even Australian Rules Football....

Media Platforms Design TeamAfter Apple spent a few billion dollars on Beats—a move aimed as much at buying Beats’ streaming music service as its headphone hardware—it was only a matter of time before Google shot back. Well, yesterday Google shot back in its trademark manner—by buying up a streaming service of its very own, Songza. The exact details of the deal have not been revealed.The app is designed to play music for any situation or mood....

An officer with the Virginia National Guard took police on a low-speed chase through the streets of Richmond, Virginia before being apprehended. The soldier, a first lieutenant with the Virginia National Guard, stole the armored command post before taking it on the interstate. He was later apprehended and booked on multiple charges.Yesterday, June 6th 2018, First Lieutenant Joshua Phillip Yabut drove the M1068 armored command post vehicle off the grounds of Fort Pickett, an Army National Guard base in Blackstone, Virginia....

The Space Force is still a thing, and Air Force planners have begun to sketch out what it would look like once it’s formally established.We don’t know when that will be.Whenever it happens, the Space Force could be operational within 90 days, and will initially be made up of fewer than 200 troops from the Air Force, Army, and Navy, as well as a few additional personnel from the Pentagon and the U....

A professor at the University at Albany has come up with a new way to determine blood alcohol concentration through sweat analysis. Jan Halámek, the forensic chemist whose lab came up with the new process, says that because sweat glands are positioned closely to circulating blood, some ethanol is actually passed to our sweat.In the past, Halámek has come up with other clever uses for sweat, including as a biometric for unlocking phones....

The U.S. Navy has picked five semi-finalists in the competition to field the service’s next generation frigate. The five competitors include two foreign designs, from Spain and Italy, as well as beefed-up versions of the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship.The Navy announced last Friday the five semi-finalists for the FFG(X). FFG(X) stands for fast frigate, guided, experimental and will effectively replace the Littoral Combat Ship shipbuilding program. The frigate class is one of the smallest class of warships in the U....

The Hellfire R9X missile is a modified Hellfire anti-tank missile.In order to reduce the chances of civilian casualties, it trades an explosive warhead for steel blades.The weapon is used by the CIA in targeted assassinations and was apparently used this past weekend in Syria. A new unique new missile designed by the CIA in targeted killings was reportedly used again, this time in Syria. The Hellfire R9X, also known as the “Flying Ginsu” after the knives advertised in campy infomercials, kills its enemies by flying directly at them, popping out several steel blades at the last moment to slice its targets into bits....

Since its invention in 1928, magnetic tape has played a role in recording all sorts of data. One of the odder such devices was the Ricoh Synchrofax, an early attempt to bridge visual and auditory worlds. Sold in the United States by 3M as “Sound Paper,” it was pitched as an educational tool that could help children bridge sounds and pictures. Youtuber Technmoan got his hands on one and gave it a spin....

Riding high off its recent surprise victory at the Screen Actors Guild awards, Stranger Things now has a new video game—and it’s also reliving and celebrating its heavily ’80s influences. View full post on YoutubeOf course, visually, games from the early 80s haven’t aged very well. The notorious 1982 E.T. game is widely considered the worst video game of all time after all. But the mini-games in Stranger Games, built by Netflix UI engineer Joey Cato, are vast improvements....

Hoverbikes are an enticing idea. After all, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to ride a Star Wars speeder bike but in real life? The Army is so enamored with the idea that its trying to develop its own, but in the meantime consummate tinkerer Colin Furze has built one by himself. It looks incredible to ride, but maybe not to actually get around on. Builder of apocalypse bunkers and jet-powered go karts, Furze is no stranger to extreme DIY engineering, but this is his first project to ever actually leave the ground....

Are you afraid of fire? Good! You should be! That keeps you alive. Fear of fire has been carefully cultivated by evolution over millions of years and that stuff tends to stick. Besides, getting burned really smarts. But sometimes, when you are a soldier in protective gear for instance, the fire isn’t that much of a threat, and you need to learn how to get through it. This is how you learn to do that: View full post on YoutubeWhat you see above—other than dudes throwing molotov cocktails at each other—is the 1-41 Infantry Battalion undergoing the Joint Multinational Readiness Center’s “Fire Phobia Training” before deployment to Kosovo as a peacekeeping force....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf you can imagine the societal desperation of post-WWII Italy, you might grasp how shocking it was for war-torn citizens to witness the dawn of Vespa’s newly introduced step-through design.We’ve come a long way since 1946, but Vespa offers a visual hat tip to the original MP6 prototype with their 946 scooter, which debuted at this year’s EICMA motorcycle show in Milan. The jaunty two-wheeler is more than a styling rehash: The ABS and traction control-equipped ‘scoot boasts full LED lighting, an LCD dashboard, and aluminum components for weight reduction....

After months of cold temperatures and gray skies, Mother Nature has recently been teasing several parts of the country with unseasonably warm weather. Spring feels like it’s right around the corner, and if you’re anything like us, you’re already plotting your next DIY home project or spring hike with the family. Maybe this is the year you’ll hike the Appalachian Trail or finally build that backyard fire pit. Already have one?...

Media Platforms Design TeamLong, low and fearlessly styled, Victory’s all-new Vision intends to play hardball against the touring flagships from BMW, Harley-Davidson and Honda. But don’t let its slick, fashion-forward bodywork fool you: The 450 miles we logged on Vision’s Street (pictured below at right) and Touring (above) models were a surprisingly visceral experience.The heart of the Vision—both visually and emotionally—is a throbbing, 1,731-cc, air-cooled V-twin. Exposed within the bodywork for all to see, the fuel-injected, 92-hp mill warms your calves and thumps out a guttural song, providing 90 percent of its 109 lb....

Bats! They’re on quarters now.The bat coins are part of the U.S. Mint’s National Park and Historic Site quarters.The “America the Beautiful” series started in 2010 and will end next year.Finally, you can pay for your laundry using a baby bat quarter as part of 2020’s National Parks slate.The U.S. Mint has released a series of five National Park and Historic Site quarters for 2020., part of the “America the Beautiful” set that kicked off in 2010 and will conclude in 2021....