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Media Platforms Design Team The Obama administration tapped Vivek Kundra to be the federal government’s first CIO yesterday. Kundra was the Chief Information Officer for Washington, D.C., and should not be confused with Obama’s long-promised Chief Technology Officer, who has still not yet been named. But based on Kundra’s previous experience and comments thus far, he could have a pretty significant impact on the government’s use of technology. Kundra’s main goal will not be to set the nation’s tech policy—that, presumably, will be the CTO’s job—rather, he will be in charge of a $71 billion budget for technology acquisition and support for government networks....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen the 748-foot Stena Forth plows into the deep waters of Greenland’s Disko West zone next summer, the advanced drillship will be taking the first crack at what could be the world’s biggest untapped reservoir of oil and gas. The ship, built by Samsung in South Korea’s Geoje shipyard just over a year ago, can drill to 35,000 feet, in 10,000 feet of water. It is being leased by Cairn Energy, making that oil company the first to drill in Greenland’s waters since five exploratory wells were sunk in the 1970s....

A clay tablet holding what is believed to be the oldest copy of Homer’s Odyssey has been found in Greece. The tablet has been dated to Roman times, possibly to the third century A.D, according to the Greek Ministry of Culture.While this is just a preliminary dating, the Ministry notes in a statement that “the clay slab will perhaps preserve the oldest written extract of the Homeric Epochs which has come to light and is, beyond its uniqueness, great archaeological, epigraphic, literary and historical evidence....

Every year, the Michelin tire company gathers the smartest minds in transportation for Movin’On, three days of panels, presentations, and people wearing lanyard ID tags. It’s a tire convention—and it’s fascinating. This year, engineers at Michelin showed off a plan to make new tires from 80 percent renewable materials like wood, straw, or beets (seriously). Each year, automobiles produce 246 million waste tires in the United States alone.Why does Michelin spend more than $800 million a year researching sustainability so it can make tires out of root vegetables?...

Media Platforms Design Team The muscle truck is back. Sensing a gap in the market for the genre pioneered by the mighty El Camino SS back in the 1960s, Pontiac has chopped and resculpted its all-new G8 sedan into a sport truck that offers a 42.7-cu.-ft. cargo bed and a 0-60 time of 5.4 seconds. Pontiac uses the same rear-drive architecture as the G8 sedan on this truck, but the wheelbase has been stretched 4 in....

The Russian government plans to demonstrate “stealth camouflage” technology for ground forces capable of changing its appearance. The camouflage, developed by Russian defense contractor Rostec, will be shown off at this week’s Army-2018 defense exposition in Moscow. According to Russian state media the camouflage can change its color and pattern depending on the soldier’s environment. Rostec CEO Sergei Chemezov stated that the technology, “can reflect color changes and imitate complex graphical depictions, up to the leaves wavering in the wind....

In late August, the Air Force awarded Boeing a contract to build 112 new sets of wings for the A-10.Now, more improvements are coming, including new weapons, cockpit upgrades, and helmet-mounted controls. The Air Force will eventually replace the A-10 with the F-35 in the close air support role.The A-10 Warthog ground attack jet, already in the process of receiving new wings, is also set for a series of improvements including new weapons, cockpit upgrades, and helmet-mounted controls....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen Tata Motors teased the market with a car powered by compressed air, the buzz around the Web was palpable. The momentum continued when Zero Pollution Motors told PM that it expects to sell the world’s first air-powered car in the U.S. by early 2010. Now the AirPod, ZPM’s three-person working prototype, has made global headlines. The company plans to market the vehicle to tourist destinations in the U....

The annual Leonid meteor shower will occur this week, peaking between midnight and dawn on November 18 (Wednesday), though you should be able to see meteors before dawn on November 17 (Tuesday) as well. Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the orbital path of a comet—the Tempel-Tuttle comet in the case of the Leonids. All comets leave a trail of debris in their wake as they orbit the sun....

One of America’s very first warships, and a vessel that would become the namesake of a distinguished line of warships, was just discovered in waters off the United Kingdom. The Bonhomme Richard, commanded at the time by Captain John Paul Jones, was sunk during a duel with two Royal Navy warships during the Revolutionary War. The ship, from which Jones uttered his famous line, “I have not yet begun to fight,” was found literally yards from shore....

Netflix has announced that Steve Carrell and Greg Daniels, two of the creative forces behind the hit American version The Office, have a new science-fiction show based around a version of the Space Force, the still-hypothetical sixth branch of military proposed by President Trump.View full post on YoutubeThe series appears to be taking the satirical route toward the Space Force, which President Trump called for on June 18, 2018, after signing Space Policy Directive 3, a document mostly dealing with satellites in low-Earth orbit and space junk....

Wireless earphones are rapidly outnumbering their soon-obsolete wired counterparts. The market is now swimming with a deluge of options, but the fact remains that 100 percent wire-free earbuds aren’t cheap. The prices get even more ridiculous when the listening tech is advertised as “sports” headphones or “workout” earbuds.True Wireless Fitness Bluetooth HeadphonesTrue Wireless Fitness Bluetooth Headphones$45 at popularmechanics.comThere really is no need to spring that much for a pair of audio devices....

No, this isn’t the desert world of Tatooine. It just looks like it.The now-famous “Star Wars Canyon” in Death Valley, Calif., is so named for its resemblance to Luke Skywalker’s home. Among aviation enthusiasts, though, the place is best known as the best place in the Western U.S., if not the whole of the North America, to watch fighter jets and even transport aircraft practice flying low and fast. A new video on YouTube shows a number of U....

In late August, astronauts aboard the International Space Station awoke to a message from the ground saying that there could be a leak somewhere on board. Atmospheric pressure was slowly dropping, and the ISS crew spent the next few hours hunting down that leak. Eventually, they found it hiding in one of the Soyuz capsules used to bring supplies and people to the station. The hole was patched, but speculation about how it got there remained....

As climate change gets worse, and as no clear path to cutting down emissions in a major way emerges, scientists are increasingly considering ways we could re-engineering the Earth itself to cool it down. One of these geoengineering ideas is to pump gases into out upper atmosphere. As we’ve seen after volcanic eruptions, sulfuric gasses like SO4 will marginally shade the Earth by blocking certain segments of incoming light.This sunglasses-effect, if sustained, could help to put the brakes on our planet’s rising temps....

In 1965, Walt Disney began buying land for a new theme park in Florida. The success of Disneyland, and the subsequent sprawl of trashy businesses around it, made Disney aware of the potential for a second park on the East Coast, and fueled his desire to control a larger area of land. He got his wish in Central Florida, which was hardly developed in the mid-’60s, mostly consisting of swampland and orange groves....

Media Platforms Design TeamArms still intact, Mark Cutrone, an ex- fighter pilot, survived to recount the story of his test ride on a new breed of roller coaster during trial runs. The Swarm, which opened at Thorpe Park in London last week, is a “wing rider”: a coaster that suspends passengers next to the tracks, as if on wings. This spring, three wing riders make their debut at U.S. amusement parks....

It seems like every few months now, I get to experience some sort of first in vehicular autonomy. There was the 2010 Lincoln MKT that could parallel park itself, the Volvo XC90 that could handle speed and steering in stop-and-go traffic, and the Cadillac SuperCruise hands-free highway system. There’s wonder aplenty when it comes to cars and autonomy. But I haven’t had much recent experience with Tesla’s AutoPilot system, simply because I wanted to drive the Model 3 during my recent test, not consent to a collaboration with an eight-eyed computer assistant....

Media Platforms Design TeamAn unmanned experimental aircraft has finally succeeded in doing what no other air-breathing airplane has done before: fly faster than Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, and remain stable until the fuel tanks ran dry.The X-51A project is managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, with funding from the Pentagon’s mad science division, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. Charlie Brink, the program manager for the project at the AFRL, said in a conference call with reporters on Thursday that while the program had endured three previous failures, the fourth and final flight of the X-51A design, which took place on May 1, was a resounding success....

Media Platforms Design TeamA jet fighter factory has teamed up with a Swiss tour company to offer flights in one of the Soviet Union’s last fighter planes. Starting from $12,466, tourists from around the world can travel to Russia and zip around in a MiG-29 fighter. The unique tour is offered by Sokol, a Russian aerospace company, in conjunction with Swiss company MiGFlug. Founded in 1932 outside the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod, Sokol has built fighters for 80 years, including the MiG-29....