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Heavy Metal Exoskeletal War MachinesMedia Platforms Design Team(Photograph by 20th Century Fox)In Avatar: For work, combat and stomping through Pandora’s rainforest, the humans gear up in Amplified Mobility Platform (AMP) suits. These armored exoskeletal vehicles are very similar to the Armored Personnel Units featured in The Matrix Revolutions and the power loader in Cameron’s own Aliens, but with an enclosed cockpit. From this perch in the machine, the movements of a human operator’s arms and legs are translated to the suit’s exterior limbs and “amplified....

Any home cook or aspiring chef is aware of the value of a good knife. It’s integral to the cooking process and worth the investment. Of course, that investment doesn’t necessarily have to put a hole in your pocket.The Damasukasu 3-Piece Handmade Japanese Chef Knife Set features a collection of intricately crafted knives that would be a great addition to your cooking arsenal. Just as cooking is an art form, forging these knives entail an artistic process....

A high-volume water generator that can create water out of precipitation, and can be used in any climate, has been awarded a $1.5 million XPrize. The culmination of a two-year water extraction competition, the Skysource/Skywater Alliance was awarded for developing the machine that can produce, at minimum, 2,000 liters of water per day from the atmosphere using 100 percent renewable energy.View full post on TwitterLike many innovations, the new machine steals from nature....

In 2016, scientists discovered a massive floating object in our galactic neighborhood. It was more than 12 times the size of Jupiter (the biggest planet in our solar system), with a magnetic field that was 200 times more powerful. The mass lived just 20 light years outside of our solar system. Unlike Jupiter and other planets that orbit around a parent star, this space oddity was completely rogue.At first, scientists speculated that it was a brown dwarf: a failed star dimmer than a red dwarf, but larger than gas giants....

A new unmanned ground vehicle pairs a new and deadly anti-tank missile with a robotic platform. The result is a drone vehicle that can kill the most advanced tanks at ranges of up to three miles—and if it gets destroyed, you haven’t lost any soldiers. The combination of expendability with lethality forces the question: At what point will the battlefield simply become too lethal for humans?The THeMIS unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) is the product of Milrem, an Estonian defense firm....

1904 Ford 999Media Platforms Design TeamIt was a typical cold, biting January day near Detroit. Lake St. Clair was frozen, providing the perfect long, flat venue for driving a car as fast as it could go. Henry Ford climbed aboard the 999, a car he designed and built, and reached an astounding 91.37 mph. His record would stand for just one month, but remaining in the record books was the not the goal....

A U.S. Army soldier was found guilty of manufacturing, possessing, and detonating a chemical weapon. The bomb released toxic chlorine gas, seriously injuring two other soldiers responding to the incident. A potentially lethal chemical weapon, chlorine gas was first used on the battlefields of World War I.Ryan Keith Taylor, 24, of New Llano, Louisiana was sentenced to 135 months in prison for producing and detonating a chemical bomb near Fort Polk, Louisiana, where he was stationed....

Rebooting your router disrupts the VPNFilter malware, but does not remove it.To wipe it completely, do a full factory reset. Look for a ‘reset’ button on the back of your router and hold it down for about ten seconds. This will also wipe all custom settings. Change your router’s admin password to anything but the default. Last week, the FBI sent out a warning: Reboot your router because a dangerous piece of malware, VPNFilter, has compromised hundreds of thousands of them....

The Airbus A400M Atlas is a big ol’ four-prop tactical airlifter that can carry heavier cargo than a C-130, and land in situations rougher than a C-17. It’s designed to “transport what the C130 cannot to places that the C17 can’t.” Since it’s made to handle sketchy landing areas with ease, it can perform a hell of a ’tactical’ or ‘combat’ takeoff, and you can see one for yourself in this clip from the 2017 Royal International Air Tattoo airshow in the UK....

Allen Zderad can see for the first time in years—and just saw his wife for the first time in a decade—thanks to a bionic implant from the Mayo Clinic. The device bypasses damaged retinas and sends signals directly to the optic nerves, enabling Zderad to see shapes, light, and closer objects. He’s just the 15th person to receive such an implant. “It’s crude, but it’s significant,” he said of the technology....

Senator Chuck Grassley has asked the Department of Defense to look into claims Lockheed Martin instructed employees to work under chemically toxic conditions.The senator claims employees were told to improperly apply chemicals, leading to health issues. Whistleblowers allege the company ignored health and safety laws. A U.S. senator has called for an investigation into defense contractor Lockheed Martin after whistleblowers alleged employees were suffering health problems. The problems stem from the alleged misuse of an adhesion promoter used on the fuel tanks of C-130J Hercules transport planes....

In the 80 years of racing at Le Mans, the track stewards had never seen anything like it. As the sleek black auto eased its way onto the grid, they could not help but marvel at the long thin nose and the bulging, Batmobile-like tail. Even among the various classes of cars—the winged prototypes, the Porsches, the Ferraris—that surrounded it, waiting for the race to begin, the DeltaWing stood out like a beacon....

Media Platforms Design TeamDyson’s vacuum cleaners have a superpower: They make you want to vacuum. The unparalleled suction, the storm of debris sweeping like a funnel cloud in that transparent chamber—it’s all more exciting than any vacuum should be. You’re happy to scour every nook and crevice in your home, and even happier to dump the resulting block of filth in the garbage. The only drawback, for any Dyson, is a price so steep it’s practically a joke....

On Monday, the European Space Agency and Roscosmos will launch a Proton-M rocket toward Mars. Once it arrives, the ExoMars probe will be the first Mars mission in more than 40 years to hunt for direct evidence of life on Mars, whether past or present. ExoMars is actually a suite of missions. Monday’s launch will be the first of two, with the next to follow in 2018. This leg of the mission will bring the Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli EDM lander to Mars....

One of the worst things about traveling happens before you ever climb in the car or set foot on the plane. Packing is not only a timesuck but sometimes a stressful ordeal, so much so that it’s actually surprising it took this long for someone to invent an app that does it for you.Meet Dufl, a “premium baggage handling service” that (almost) puts an end to packing. For it to work, you actually have to pack once with a Dulf-provided duffel bag....

Researchers say the Greeks developed the crane even earlier than we thought—as far back as 700-650 B.C.“It has remained central to building construction without remarkable changes for nearly 25 centuries—because it was perfect,” says the new study’s lead researcher.It’s hard to overestimate the influence of ancient Greek society on architecture. Buildings like the Parthenon of Athens, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion have astonished visitors for thousands of years....

View full post on YoutubeA wooden mallet won’t grant Superhero powers (sorry, Thor fans), but it could save the surfaces of your woodworking projects. Wooden mallets are used extensively in woodworking and carpentry to secure pieces of wood together. They are also used to strike and shape other tools and metal. These tools are handy because they are less likely to damage whatever it is they are striking, compared to heavier mallets and hammers....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe year is 2012. A quarter-million miles from Earth, a small spacecraft is nearing the surface of the moon. When the unmanned craft touches down in a cloud of rocket-blown dust, it becomes the first man-made object to arrive intact on the lunar surface in 32 years.But the logo on the side of the spacecraft doesn’t belong to NASA or any other government space agency. Instead, the images beamed back to Earth by the small rover that emerges from the spacecraft reveal a familiar multicolored corporate logo: Google’s....

Media Platforms Design TeamInfiniti continues to hold BMW clearly focused in its crosshairs. The first G35 Coupe came very close to matching BMW’s superb driving dynamics, and the all-new G37 Coupe could close the gap further. Infiniti plans to reveal the coupe’s sleek and sexy bodywork at the New York International Auto Show on April 4.From the chiseled hood to the enhanced grille, this Infiniti coupe will likely win as many new owners as its G35 predecessor....

Japan’s decision to purchase two sets of ballistic missile defense systems from the United States has run into opposition from Russia, which claims that the missile launchers are a violation of a missile treaty. Russia claims the missile launchers can house cruise missiles and are destabilizing Russian-Japanese relations despite indications that its concerns about the Aegis Ashore system are sketchy at best.Japan, worried about neighboring North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs, has gradually built up a ballistic missile defense system centered around navy destroyers outfitted with the Aegis Combat System....