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Even if you don’t actually want to buy a Microsoft Surface tablets, you have to admit that the kickstands are awesomely engineered. Unlike the stand on the Surface Pro 3—which offers a smooth slide—the new Surface 3 has three clicky pre-sets. That is, unless you smack it to find hidden setting number four.This secret fourth setting was surfaced by Redditor winterharvest, and is shown of in a hands-on video by Clubic (GIFed above, for your pleasure)....

The U.S. flew four different types of spy aircraft near North Korea over Christmas.The flights were in response to North Korea’s veiled threat to send a “Christmas present” to the U.S.In the event of a missile launch, each of the four planes reportedly involved has a different mission. U.S. military aircraft kept vigil in the skies near North Korea yesterday, waiting for a threatened “Christmas gift” from the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un....

Superhard materials are valued, but not always easy to find. That’s why scientists tasked A.I. with creating them.The A.I. created 43 potential materials that could be superhard. Now, all the scientists have to do is test them.Superhard materials are highly prized, ironically enough, for their flexibility. Not in terms of bending, but rather in terms of what they can be used to build. Creating scratch-resistant coatings, for example, could have any number of uses....

After an increasingly intense series of missile tests, a suspected North Korean has been found near the country’s border with South Korea, apparently having crashed on its way home after surveying anti-missile defenses. The drone was armed only with a digital camera, and on its memory card officials found about 10 photos of the THAAD anti-missile system, an American-made defense system that sits unfinished after the recently-elected South Korea president Moon Jae-in decided to halt its deployment....

You’ve probably heard of the spring equinox but do you know what it is? Or what causes it? We created a guide to answer all your questions about the day—which this year falls on Thursday, March 19—that heralds the beginning of a warmer season.What Is the Equinox and When Does It Occur?The spring equinox, formally known as the vernal equinox, marks the beginning of spring measured by astronomical movements. The date varies slightly but usually occurs on or around March 20 for the northern hemisphere and around September 22 in the southern hemisphere....

On February 5, a windy day in Lower Manhattan, a 565-foot crane collapsed and killed a man when it struck the parked car in which he sat. Crews had been planning to secure the Worth Steet crane because the forecast projected sustained winds at stronger than 25 mph, but they were too late.After the collapse, Mayor Bill de Blasio required crawler cranes, the mobile type of crane that can move around a work site, to cease operation and transition to safety mode anytime there are sustained winds of more than 20 mph or gusts of more than 30 mph forecast in New York City....

Carmakers torture test their creations to make sure they won’t overheat in almost every situation imaginable—from Death Valley to the northernmost reaches of Norway. But parts break over time, and one day you may find yourself roadside with a smoldering engine. So what happened and what should you do about it?Cooling IssuesPixygirlly//Getty ImagesThe most common culprit involves your coolant. This liquid is responsible for cooling your car as it circulates throughout the engine....

About 4.6 million miles from Earth, a “contact binary” asteroid is in orbit around the sun. The asteroid 1999 JD6 has two “lobes” that are separate objects gravitationally bound. The Deep Space Network and the Green Bank Telescope were able to capture this image, bouncing radar off the objects to obtain a series of images showing the dance of the lobes. A handful of contact binaries are known, while there are a few other candidates, including Comet 67P / Churyumov–Gerasimenko....

Have Your Computer Read to YouDon’t feel like reading that enormous document yourself? One of the accessibility features in OS X is its ability to read text aloud. Highlight the section of text you would like to have read to you and then select Edit from the top of the page, followed by Speech and then Start Speaking.If you don’t like the sound of your narrator, you can change its voice by going into the System Preferences on your computer and then selecting Dictation & Speech....

The ballistic missile submarine is the most reliable means of nuclear deterrence. These vessels would survive a first strike and retaliate, which is meant to prevent an enemy from ever using its weapons. These fearful underwater giants stay hidden in the oceans avoiding detection at all costs and are always ready for the moment they might be needed.USS OhioGetty ImagesUntil the early 1980s, only four countries in the world had nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) in their inventory: the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, plus the United Kingdom and France....

Geologist Trevor Williams, of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, will be spending six weeks at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, taking part in a study of the sea-floor sediments beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. The results could aid our understanding of climate change. Williams will be filing reports here throughout the project.ROSS ISLAND, Antarctica, Dec. 8 — For the first half of the Antarctic field season, the 10-foot-thick sea ice right next to McMurdo Station makes an excellent airfield....

Media Platforms Design TeamThis past summer, Apple and IBM announced they would be working together to “redefine the way work will get done.” Today we’re seeing the fruits of that collaboration in the form of 10 new iOS apps aimed squarely at business users.An app called Sales Assist, for instance, helps store associates keep track of what’s in stock and can make smart suggestions to customers based on their previous purchases....

On the forested coast of southern Finland, in the town of Turku, a brass band plays to a festive crowd gathered along the lip of a 1200-ft.-long, 50-ft.-deep hole. An antique cannon fires, its boom echoing off the colossal white cruise ship that looms up out of the dry dock. After a brief speech, a trio of dignitaries turns a valve. A stream of water gushes onto the floor of the pit far below....

In 2013, Google and NASA bought a quantum computer. But not everyone agreed that that’s indeed what they had purchased with the D-Wave Two. As Google director of engineering Hartmut Neven explains, “the larger community doubted whether it was a quantum computer at all, questioning if it even had the presence of [the] quantum effects” that should eventually give quantum computers like the D-Wave an absurd number-crunching edge over traditional computers....

The civil war in Yemen appears to have claimed an American-made F-15 Eagle fighter. Over the weekend, Houthi rebels released a video in which they claim to have shot down a Panavia Tornado fighter, but later changed their story to an F-15. In response, the Saudi government reported the loss of a “twin seater fighter jet” to a “technical malfunction. The truth of the matter will be hard to get to in this case, with multiple sides spinning their own versions of the story....

A new study out from the Renewable Fuels Association suggests that gasoline containing 15 percent of ethanol (E15)—rather than the current 10 percent standard mix—will not adversely impact fuel systems in older vehicles. The study is not the final word on the issue. That verdict rests in the hands of the Environmental Protection Agency. By the end of this month, the EPA will rule whether to approve the new fuel blend on vehicles made since 2007....

Making clean, alternative energy competitive with fossil fuels in the next five years is going to be a challenge. But it’s one that Popular Mechanics’s award-winning Breakthrough Conference panelists agreed this afternoon that the world can take on by boosting efficiency–and agreeing not to reinvent the wheel while doing it.Making any kind of cleaner alternative energy become really competitive with fossil fuels in the next five years will take radical new ideas, but it also means not reinventing anything that doesn’t need to be reinvented, a panel of energy experts said at the third session of Popular Mechanics’ Breakthrough conference held today in New York....

The U.S. Navy’s submarine fleet is one of the largest of the world, and certainly the largest and best equipped in the world. This infographic shows the six dozen nuclear-powered underwater titans of the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy’s undersea fleet is larger than the surface fleet of most countries. The excellent website Naval Analyses (Twitter), producer of visual aids that show U.S. naval aviation from 1917 to 2010 and attack submarines of the Mediterranean 2018, shifts its attention to the submarines of the U....

September: Time for school supplies, Pumpkin Spice lattes and, yes, new Apple gear.Apple’s latest event will take place on September 10, 2019, at 1 p.m. ET., and as is the case every year, predictions, rumors, and leaks have been steady in the weeks and even months leading up to the event. Lots of them provide fanciful concepts, some even creating their own drawings of what new iPhones could look like based on reports, and some are even trustworthy....

Nintendo is turning the Legend of Zelda into an ’escape room’ game, and touring it around the country for lucky fans to experience, starting in late January.If you’re not familiar with escape room games, they’re real-life versions of the popular ’escape the room’ type of puzzle games. Typically, a small group of people will be locked in a room and have to solve puzzles, decrypt messages, and find clues in order to escape the room....