View full post on FacebookWhen chaos struck on Southwest Flight 1380 yesterday, as an engine exploded killing one passenger and injuring seven others, the pilot at the helm who guided the plane’s emergency landing was reportedly Tammie Jo Shults. It should come as no surprise she was cool and composed in her contact with air traffic control given her history as one of the first women to fly the F/A-18 for the U....
Media Platforms Design TeamA group of Marines fighting in some far-flung locale are trapped in harm’s way—they need water and ammo but can’t be safely resupplied. On the battlefield of the future, unmanned helicopters might answer the call. The Office of Naval Research recently demonstrated this concept with a test at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., in which troops moved cargo via the (ACCUS).Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility SystemResupply at the Press of a ButtonACCUS is a suite of hardware and software placed on an unmanned or manned aircraft that’s coupled with a tablet device troops can carry in the field....
Today, after months and months of teasing, Samsung unveiled its folding-screen smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Fold. While its namesake trick is technically impressive, it’s also questionably useful. Oh, and it will launch in April at a sky-high price of $1,980 at the very least. The Samsung device may be on-trend in a world of increasingly glitzy and expensive handsets. But it is bucking conventional wisdom in one good and important way: it is extremely thick....
From the floor of the New York International Auto Show, contributing editor Ken Juran files up-to-the-minute reports and photos.NEW YORK - Scion, Toyota’s newest division, was unveiled here at the New York show just four years ago. Although the Toyota nameplate does sell to some young mainstream buyers, it’s Scion’s mission to zero in on a smaller slice of that market — to go after the trend leaders. It’s been so successful with three distinct models on the market — xA, xB and tC — that Scion has searched outside of the auto industry to find new market share....
The Air Force awarded Boeing a contract to build 112 new sets of wings for the A-10.Sixty percent of the A-10 fleet has new wings, but critics were concerned the last 100+ jets would be retired instead of rewinged.The Air Force will eventually replace the A-10 with the F-35 in the close air support role. The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a contract to manufacture new wings for the A-10 Warthog....
The Air Force’s famous AC-130U “Spooky” gunship is on the verge of retirement with the heavily armed cargo plane returning on Monday from its last scheduled overseas mission. The Spooky is being replaced with a newer gunship, the AC-130J Ghostrider, which boasts greater precision firepower, as well as the new ability to carry laser-guided missiles and bombs. The gunship concept dates to the Vietnam War, when World War II-era C-47 transports were fitted with side-firing Gatling guns to provide close air support for remote outposts, as well as rain bullets on enemy convoys navigating the Ho Chi Minh trail....
Researchers discovered the oldest known color produced by a living organism. It’s over one billion years old, and colored bright pink. Researchers discovered the color in cyanobacteria fossils preserved in rocks in the Sahara Desert. When scientists extracted pigment from the bacteria, they found dark red and deep purple spots in concentrated form. Distilled, it turned bright pink.“The bright pink pigments are the molecular fossils of chlorophyll that were produced by ancient photosynthetic organisms inhabiting an ancient ocean that has long since vanished,” explained Dr....
The 2016 film Deadpool brought some much-needed irreverence to superhero films. By the looks of things, its upcoming sequel, Deadpool 2, isn’t going clean up its act—and we’re okay with that, since it is one of our most anticipated movies of the year.Marvel/20th Century FoxThis is an exclusive look at the final poster of Deadpool 2, and the gang has gotten much, much bigger. With Josh Brolin’s Cable looming large in the background, a few other new faces stand out as well....
The U.S. is halting the delivery of equipment for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Turkey. Turkey, a longtime partner in the F-35 program, is also determined to purchase the S-400 surface to air missile system from Russia. The U.S. is concerned that secret data related to the F-35 could flow from Turkey to Russia, compromising the stealthy fighter jet. According to Reuters, the U.S. is halting the delivery of training equipment and other hardware associated with the F-35 to Turkey....
There are all sorts of alternative energy sources out there powering engines. But if you want to move beyond solar and ethanol into an everyday sort of fuel like WD40, you’ve got to get small. YouTuber JohnnyQ90 shows exactly how small.View full post on YoutubeThe RC Nitro engine is able to make quite a fuss while partially running on the penetrating oil and water-displacing spray that first went on the market in 1953....
Rising sea levels threaten every coastline in the world, but the areas most at risk are islands—they’re pretty much all coastline. The several feet of sea level rise predicted over the course of this century would be enough to make more than a thousand islands uninhabitable. The Marshall Islands, a chain in the western Pacific, have a strategy to keep themselves above water: simply make the land a bit higher.The Marshall Islands is a collection of 29 atolls in the Pacific, and is home to around 70,000 people....
MOSCOW – For years, it’s been China and its relentlessly strengthening economy–including an ever-expanding Chinese automotive industry–that have captured the world’s notice. And of course the Beijing Olympicshas drawn even more attention to the Far East. But it’s our comrades from the former Soviet Union who may have the next hottest car market. The auto industry is booming in Russia, and carmakers are rushing to expand operations there, with a flood of new manufacturing plants and products....
Media Platforms Design TeamView full post on YoutubeFrancois Englert and Peter Higgs, the latter of whom is the namesake of the recently discovered Higgs boson, are the 2013 winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics, announced this morning. “This year’s prize is about something very small that makes all the difference,” said Staffan Normark, who announced the winners. When he says small, he means very, very small. The Higgs boson is a subatomic particle that explains why some particles acquire mass....
Update 1/12 5:15 p.m. EST: ULA’s Delta IV rocket successfully lifted off with the NROL-47 satellite at 2:11 p.m. PST/5:11 p.m. EST. You can rewatch the launch below. Update 1/12 4:30 p.m. EST: The NROL-47 launch is now scheduled for liftoff at 2:11 p.m. PST/5:11 p.m. EST. You can watch a live webcast of the launch below. Update 7:45 p.m. EST: ULA scrubbed the launch for Thursday, January 11. They will try for Friday, January 12....
LOCATION: TEXAS CITY, TEXASEVENT: OIL REFINERY EXPLOSIONDATE: MARCH 23, 2005For safety inspector Charles Ramirez, March 23 got off to a good start. His team of specialized contractors from Houston-based JE Merit had just polished off a celebratory lunch held on the grounds of BP’s massive Texas City, Texas, refinery. The 1200-acre facility processes up to 460,000 barrels of raw crude oil a day, and the contractors had just wrapped up their part in its complicated, nine-week “turnaround,” or scheduled maintenance cycle, accident-free....
Graco TrueCoat 360DS paint sprayer Price: $160At first we thought it might have been overkill to equip ourselves with two sprayers, but in the end we were glad we could shoot two colors independently. The TrueCoat doesn’t pump paint out of a bucket. It carries the paint with it in a disposable flex liner bag attached to a frame on the bottom of the gun. We found it was the perfect solution....
They say kitchens sell houses. Can a tailgate sell a truck?The calling card of the 2019 GMC Sierra isn’t the hulking engine or the trademark grille, but the six-way MultiPro tailgate, GMC’s attempt to turn the ordinary up-or-down tailgate of old into a multitool meant to get you in and out of the bed easier and help you do more with the back of your pickup.MultiPro is one of several new technologies meant to give the new full-size truck more wow factor, and also to make the Sierra feel like a truly elevated truck (and not a rebadged Chevrolet Silverado, a stereotype GM is trying to shed)....
Four days after the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia wrecked off the Tuscan island of Giglio, investigators are still trying to account for all the passengers and figure out just how a modern cruise liner hit a known island. We’ll keep you updated as more details about this wreck come out. But here’s what you should know about maritime disasters in the meantime.1. Ships Sink More Often Than You ThinkThe wreck of the Costa Concordia feels like an extraordinary example of either technological failure or human error....
Add alien hunters and scientists studying the origins of the universe to the list of people getting frustrated with the cryptocurrency trend. The stories of overnight millionaires and digital mining have caused a global run on computer chips. Scientists at SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) find themselves left out in the cold.The issue lies with graphics processing units (GPUs). These specialized circuits are designed to alter and manipulate a computer’s memory to speed up the creation of images....
More details are emerging about what exactly will be heading to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program. The Agency recently announced three private partners with its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to deliver scientific payloads to the Moon. One of them will be a four-wheeled robotic rover and arts package from Carnegie Mellon University.“Carnegie Mellon is one of the world’s leaders in robotics. It’s natural that our university would expand its technological footprint to another world,” says J....
