Last week I stopped by the Ford truck plant in Dearborn to get the first look at the 2017 Ford Super Duty, the next frontier in utterly preposterous towing and hauling capabilities. It’s too early for Ford to play its card on hard numbers, but what we do know is that the current truck can tow 31,200 pounds, and the 2017, Ford says, will tow more than that. Time to start training for your commercial driver’s license!...
Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force will allow recreational WiFi on its ships.The move comes after sailors complained about a lack of internet on longer voyages.Officials insist it will not compromise security. Japan’s navy will install WiFi for sailors to use throughout the ship as a means of inducing new recruits. The service, which is failing to meet recruiting goals, is relaxing the rules in hopes of boosting enlistment numbers. The Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF), the official title of the Japanese navy, is planning to allow sailors to access the internet while off duty....
This isn’t the first time the Jetman, aka Yves Rossy, has taken to the skies with carbon fiber wings and jet engines strapped to his back. In 2012, he flew around some of the most iconic landmarks in Rio de Janeiro, and last year, his protégé Vince Reffet joined Rossy for an afternoon flight over the city of Dubai. Yesterday, the two soared over Dubai again, this time in formation with an Emirates A380 Airliner, the biggest passenger jet in the world....
Scientists have finally analyzed data from Voyager 2’s journey to interstellar space and discovered remarkable insight into conditions at the edge of our solar system.The spacecraft reached the interstellar boundary between our solar system and interstellar space in 2018. Voyager 1 reached the boundary in 2012. Both spacecraft were launched in 1977, and have far surpassed scientists’ expectations. Scientists have finally analyzed data from Voyager 2’s journey to interstellar space and discovered a number of surprising differences—plus a few strange similarities....
Media Platforms Design Team F-150 pickups on the sales lot at a Ford AutoNation car dealership in North Miami, Fla. Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty Images. Last week I traveled to Ann Arbor, Mich., to participate in our sister pub Car & Driver’s annual week-long testing in which it determines its 10 Best. The experience is as glorious as it sounds: meeting every morning at a remote location surrounded by excellent country roads to sip coffee, eat doughnuts, and hop from car to car all day long....
Snowball ScienceIt’s not just a myth: No two snowflakes are alike. Ken Libbrecht, a physics professor at Caltech, became obsessed with the physics of the snow crystals that constantly covered the ground during winters in his native North Dakota. He tells PM that snow is a lot more complicated than you might think–humidity, temperature, pressure and particulates all affect crystal formation. The crystals forming the fluffy powder that experts skiers crave are thin plates only a few microns thick....
After decades of looking to the outer solar system and beyond for signs of extraterrestrial life, an international team of scientists is suggesting that humanity take another look at a planet a little closer to home: Venus. Although the surface of Venus is much too hot and inhospitable for life as we know it, scientists have long thought that microbes could be comfortably reproducing in the clouds of the Venusian atmosphere....
Carbon RevolutionCarbon Revolution WheelsOne part that unequivocally benefits from being made of carbon fiber. If terms like unsprung weight make you sleepy, look at the Shelby GT350R and the new Ford GT (which come with these wheels) as evidence. Price: Starting at around $4,000 eachDickies Multi-Pocket Performance Shop Pant Like regular work pants, they’re strategically reinforced—knees, belt loops, crotch. Unlike regular work pants, the fabric stretches and wicks sweat. Worth wearing for the dedicated phone pocket alone....
NetbooksMedia Platforms Design TeamTiny, low-priced, low-power PCs were the tech product story of the year. However, these high-selling devices are a mixed blessing for PC makers and consumers. While hardware manufacturers are thrilled to have a hit on their hands, the computers generally have razor-thin profit margins. Meanwhile, consumers who buy netbooks get cheap, super light computers that frequently run old operating systems (like Windows XP), lack optical drives and are far slower than they’d otherwise expect on a desktop or full-sized notebook....
Getting a pair of AirPods is hard to justify due to the hefty price tag ($159 for the set, $70 apiece). That price only increases when you factor in the near certainty that you’ll lose one of them at some point.AiryBuds Bluetooth Wireless Earbuds + Charging CaseAiryBuds Bluetooth Wireless Earbuds + Charging Case$25 at shop.popularmechanics.comThe AiryBuds Bluetooth Wireless Earbuds are an alternative pair of true wireless earbuds that won’t induce buyer’s remorse....
The subtle difference between when a massive dying star compresses into a core and when it collapses entirely may have been found. In a study published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers at the Goethe University in Frankfurt say they’ve found the dividing line between compact objects called neutron stars and black holes.When a massive star reaches the end of its life, it goes out with an immense bang called a supernova....
There’s a sense of triumphant accomplishment that comes from cutting down dead or unwanted trees. (Not to mention the thrill of yelling, “Timber!”) But that feeling fades pretty quickly when you look down and see unsightly—and very stubborn—stumps. If you hire a landscaper or arborist to cut down the trees, they typically leave the stumps behind, unless you pay an additional fee. Stump-removal prices vary widely across the country and are based on the diameter of the stump, but it typically costs between $100 and $200 to remove a stump that’s 24 inches in diameter or smaller....
Climate change is an increasingly big problem, and the more we learn about it the worse matters seem to be. Just last week a study was published that showed the most severe climate change predictions are the most likely to come true, which means the future might be worse than we thought. In the face of this extreme threat, extreme solutions might be required.One of the most extreme possible solutions to climate change is geoengineering: altering the planet to reflect more heat into space or minimize the effects of the planet warming....
Media Platforms Design TeamHere they are: live photos of the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. It’s a ground-up rework of America’s classic two-seat sports car, and GM engineers threw everything they had at it. With styling that’s edgy and much more aggressive than the sleek-but-aging C6, this car is modern, well proportioned, and festooned with vents—all of which are functional.The big story is the interior, a constant source of complaints in past cars....
Wind power is seen as notoriously unreliable. To add some predictability to an energy source of the future, Alphabet (the parent company of Google) is digging into its machine learning know-how. Critics of wind power note that windmills can have problems operating efficiently, thus forcing conventional backup generation units to cover the gaps. Using the Google’s Oklahoma-based wind farm, the Great Western Wind Project, British artificial intelligence company DeepMind was able to build an algorithm that could reliably predict wind power output 36 hours ahead of actual generation....
LAS VEGAS—In a pre-CES announcement Friday, Hitachi revealed its plans to build the first consumer terabyte hard drive—which would offer a full 250 more gigabytes of storage than the current largest capacity drive. Some current external backup drives are currently sold as terabyte drives, but they are generally two separate drives digitally fused in a RAID configuration to make them work as one. Hitachi, normally a supplier of drives to electronics manufacturers, will begin selling its drive early this year directly through stores under the DeskStar 7K1000 name for around $400....
Media Platforms Design TeamIt is 2 AM inside the bunker-like surveillance room at the Mirage Resort in Las Vegas, but 28 wall monitors show there’s still plenty of action down on the floor. A surveillance worker we’ll call Tom logs in and starts the graveyard shift, taking an overhead tour of the 100,000-square-foot casino. Using a joystick, keypad and three desktop screens, he surveys video from some of the 1000 ceiling cameras....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe United States government has arrested nearly a dozen people that it alleges were part of a long-running, cross-country spy ring called the Illegals. According to court documents released by the Southern District of New York, the group’s supposed purpose was to act as sleeper agents, chiseling information about the United States’ positions on Iranian weapons and on its nuclear technology and buttering up financial gurus to provide information to Moscow....
Over the second half of the 20th century, the Earth’s ozone layer grew increasingly thinner, and in some places disappeared entirely. It took us decades to realize the culprits were chlorofluorocarbons, commonly called CFCs, but eventually the world’s nations came together to ban them. This agreement, the Montreal Protocol, has been ratified by every United Nations country and has led, in recent years, to the ozone layer actually making a significant comeback....
For many years, I thought of leasing as the thing you do when you can’t really afford the car you want to drive—a way for people to parlay a Civic monthly payment into a Benz. That impression was bolstered some years ago when I talked to a guy in Boston who runs a business that makes loans based on car equity. He knew for sure that many of those luxury cars parked on Newbury Street represented not wealth, but debt....
