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Media Platforms Design TeamThere’s a wondrous arcade in London called Novelty Automation. But if you visit, don’t go in expecting Pac-Man, Dance Dance Revolution, or that game where you shoot Aerosmith CDs at corrupt government agents. Most of the games are handmade and delightfully analog—a throwback to automatons and other similar pre-digital amusements. That’s not to say that Tim Hurkin’s baby is unsophisticated – far from it. The often handmade and hand-carved pieces allow some unique games and other diversions, whether that’s you and a friend going head to head in a divorce game where you literally try to split up the house, or just you trying not to get bitten by a robo-dog....

China launched its first domestically produced aircraft carrier today. Amid great fanfare, streamers, and a champagne bottle broken across the bow, six tugboats tugged the enormous ship out of drydock and into the waters off the coast of Dalian. Built by China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, the carrier is the largest warship ever built by China. It is rumored (but not confirmed) to be named Shandong. China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was built during the waning days of the Cold War as an aircraft carrier for the Soviet Union....

It’s no secret that Chinese cities have some of the worst air pollution on the planet. Many citizens of Chinese metropolises are forced to wear masks when they go outside, and Chinese life expectancy has suffered as a result. This crisis prompted the Chinese government to declare a “war against pollution” in 2014, and according to recent data, the country appears to be winning. Over the past four years, pollution in China’s major cities has decreased by an average of 32 percent, with some cities seeing an even bigger drop, according to professor Michael Greenstone of the Energy Policy Institute....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe buzz at last weekend’s United States Grand Prix may have focused on Infiniti Red Bull’s perennial race winner (and current world champ) Sebastian Vettel, but a different sort of battle was being waged at the back of the field. Team Caterham, which was developed in near record time four years ago with the technological aid of Texas-based Dell, Inc., has yet to score a point this season… and if you think there isn’t much difference between finishing the season in 10th and 11th place, think again: this year, the dead-last team will score zero prize money, while the second-to-last team will walk away with a cool $10 million....

Nick FerrariThere’s maintenance you should do, the kind of work that demonstrates or imparts mechanical aptitude. But sometimes, it doesn’t seem worth the bloody fingers and oil stains. That’s okay! You’re a car owner who understands opportunity cost and has better ways to spend an hour. Here are four tasks worth handing over to the mechanic. Oil Change If you can drain and refill a bathtub, you can do an oil change....

When SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off the pad next week at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A), it will become the most powerful rocket currently flying. The launch spectacle will feature more than 5 million pounds of thrust erupting into LC-39A—the first time that kind of power has been deployed since the last space shuttle flight, STS-135, which saw the Atlantis orbiter lift off from the same site on July 8, 2011....

The F-35 Lightning II can evade radar while infiltrating enemy airspace to deliver a knockout blow. It’s a sophisticated, stealthy fighter with one big vulnerability—being hacked. As the plane finally reaches full production, the Air Force is racing to plug holes that could allow hackers to exploit the jet’s connected systems—with disastrous results. The aircraft itself is pretty secure. As Air Force Times explains, there are multiple layers of security surrounding the jet, including PIN numbers for individual pilots and secure authentication in crafting mission packages for uploading into the aircraft computer....

The December 21 vertical landing of a rocket’s first stage was a historic achievement. To aggressively explore space, we need to make blasting off our planet much cheaper, and building reusable rockets is the best way to significantly reduce the cost of putting things into orbit.But the SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage that was recovered after a successful ground-based landing at Cape Canaveral will not be sent back into space. It will likely be put on display instead....

Media Platforms Design TeamMuch stink has been made about the BMW i8’s piped-in engine noises which, like the M5, dispatch a simulacra of exhaust and motor noises through stereo speakers to convey a sensation of sportiness since its turbocharged mill is presumably too soft spoken to utter such a glorious racket.To considerably less enthusiast hoopla, the swoopy i8 also introduces the first automotive usage of Gorilla Glass, the same stuff that keeps smartphones scratch-free....

Media Platforms Design TeamHere’s a thought experiment: imagine that activists, concerned with official misconduct, install license-plate readers on private property to track the location of every car belonging to the police department or a politician and upload the locations to a public database. The result: a map of where the police go, and where they don’t—along, perhaps, with politicians’ visits to motels or strip clubs. Given that police often respond with hostility to simply being videotaped, I expect that a venture like this would prompt an outcry, and probably some efforts to shut it down....

It’s not just that smartphone designers can pack fantastic image sensors and lenses into a device that fits in your pocket. Today’s powerhouse phones also lean on their computing prowess, relying on smart software tricks to deliver stunning photos. I still love standalone cameras, but the new iPhone XS set a bar for phone photography so high during my recent test that I have a hard time convincing myself to bring out my mirrorless Olympus....

Media Platforms Design TeamA new semiconductor is coming to Silicon Valley. Researchers at IBM’s laboratories announced their newest integrated circuit in a paper published in Nature Communications, and the device is among the first to employ graphene, a single layer of carbon molecules, in place of silicon, the industry favorite.Although the graphene circuit performed rather modestly—as a proof of concept, scientists used it to send a single text message containing the letters I....

Media Platforms Design TeamVW didn’t unveil any all-new world debuts at the 2013 LA Auto Show but the German company did showcase a trio of cars for the first time in North America.The E Golf is a fully electric Golf that will arrive next year packing a 150 hp motor, a 24.2 kWh battery pack and a range of 100 miles.The Cross Coupe concept is a look at what promises to be the shape next VW SUV....

Researchers are engineering new, surprising medical uses for silk. The material, produced by silkworms and spiders, has long been valued as a material to make clothes. It’s strong, stretchy, and safe to use even inside the human body, which means scientists are exploring how to weave into bulletproof vests, use it to heal wounds, prop up bones, and maybe engineered to replace tendons.Scientists from Pursdue University engineered a silk that can kill pathogens when activated by a light....

Media Platforms Design TeamI was barraged by TV commercials about “viscosity and thermal breakdown” throughout my youth, and those relentless ad campaigns enabled me to visualize the tortuous conditions inside a combustion chamber. But there’s nothing quite like picking an expert’s brain to reinforce how much you don’t know about the intricacies of engine lubrication.A recent chat with Royal Purple’s Kyle Neal uncovered a few of the details behind the black art (pun intended) of oil design....

You’d be forgiven for thinking that things like the process of refining gold are complex and complicated procedures that can only be performed in special labs and factories by seasoned and experienced professionals with a wealth of custom equipment. And if you want to do it well, fast, and in great volume, that’s probably accurate. But, in a pinch, you totally could refine some gold in your own home. It’s not even that hard....

The PromiseDeath to the UMD! The Universal Media Disc, Sony’s long-reviled mobile media format, finally calls it quits with the latest PSP Go. Instead, Sony relies on download and MemoryStick-only gaming. To accommodate this, the system now has 16 GB of built-in memory. The result: a thinner, more pocket-friendly system. In PracticeThe biggest problem with previous PSPs was their size. It was often hard to justify carrying one around when a phone could handle stripped down games in a pinch....

Media Platforms Design TeamAstrobotic Technologies is the bigger winner in the latest round of funding for the Lunar X Prize, a competition to build a new moon rover. The company banked $1.75 million of the $5.25 million that Google doled out to five competitors. The other competitors—Hakuto, Moon Express, Part-Time Scientists, and Team Industries—won $500,000 to $1.25 million each.Astrobiotic is working on the Griffin, a lander, as well as the Polaris rover, which has a scheduled launch date of October 2015 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 that will take it to the moon to mine water ices on the lunar north pole....

The battle between the FBI and Apple over whether or not the California tech company can be compelled to help law enforcement decrypt the protected phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters is continuing to build. Apple’s placing the blame for the situation on the FBI’s own mishandling of the phone, meanwhile victims of the shooting are coming out to support the FBI. But while the FBI claims Apple’s help is essential to digging valuable data out of the phone, it’s likely they do have another option, but it’s a brute-force operation that would destroy the phone—and perhaps its data—for good....

A group of Norwegian fishermen made a strange discovery last week: a beluga whale wearing a harness floating in the waters just off the side of their boat. The whale seemed incredibly tame and comfortable in the presence of humans, but the harness it was wearing looked far too tight. The fishermen were concerned with the whale’s safety, so they contacted a group of scientists to see if they could try and save it....