Posts

When Nintendo announced the NES Classic in July 2016, people were excited—even more excited than Nintendo predicted. Demand far outstripped supply, and trying to get your hands on one was a small nightmare. The NES Classic then went away, replaced by its successor the SNES Classic. But Nintendo announced today that the original mini NES will be making a comeback in 2018.View full post on TwitterAccording to Nintendo, the console will relaunch sometime next year; exact dates will be announced later....

The U.S. Air Force’s F-35A Joint Strike Fighter saw combat for the first time earlier this week, dropping a satellite-guided bomb on an Islamic State target in northeast Iraq. The mission was the first for the service’s variant of the F-35 since the jet was declared initial operations capable in August 2016.According to U.S. Central Command, the target was an “entrenched tunnel network and a weapons cache” in Iraq’s Hamrin mountain range....

When the American Heritage sank in 1995 off the California coast, the Coast Guard was able to save everyone onboard. Owned by the diving and remotely operated vehicles (ROV) company American Pacific Marine, the ship’s loss was seen more as a financial burden than a tragedy. But a new study of the wreckage has shown the ship’s second life as a gorgeous reef.“The propeller shaft separated and there was water coming through a six-to-eight-inch hole in the engine room....

A new vaccine for the Ebola virus has shown an “efficacy of 100 percent” in stopping the deadly disease, potentially offering a final defeat of a scourge that has haunted humanity for forty years.Funded by the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders, and the Norwegian and Canadian governments, the new vaccine was created in direct response to the Ebloa outbreak in west Africa, the largest outbreak ever recorded. The outbreak, which ended in March 2016, hit Libera, Sierra Leona, and Gambia hardest, saw over 20,000 cases of the disease resulting in over 11,000 deaths....

Media Platforms Design TeamIf you buy the seemingly endless barrage of marketing from carmakers, you probably believe that the best cars are the absolute latest, greatest models, hook, line, and sinker. But ask any bona fide gearhead, and they’ll argue that contemporary safety and smog regulations have put a damper on the driver-focused fun, making the cars of yesteryear superior to their bloated, sullied descendants.While manufacturers rarely bridge the gap between the dearly departed and the here and now (let alone wax poetic about past offerings beyond museum walls), I was lucky enough to savor two OEM-sanctioned automotive experiences that honored the past to glorious effect....

Every year during the Oscar telecast, there’s that moment when a buzzworthy young actor goes to the podium and mentions that recently she had the honor of hosting the Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards. Then, the producers cut to footage of that event, which features people you don’t recognize winning for things you don’t understand. The whole thing sounds very technical — and also, admittedly, rather boring.Attend what’s known more informally as the Sci-Tech Awards and you get a much different, warmer impression....

(Published in the August 1999 issue)Plus tough new side-by-side ATV packs.They say: Always ride with a buddy. So I’m riding this new Yamaha Big Bear 400 4WD in Florida’s Apalachicola National Forest with my buddies, and we slog through a mudhole and stop to wait for a couple of laggards. Mike Martinez finally clears the mudhole and pulls up behind his boss, Scott Heath, who’s resting on the machine behind mine....

Air conditioning, the treat we take for granted when those hot summer months roll around, is one of the luxuries we enjoy today that has a long history dating back to the 1800s. But it wasn’t until 1902, when a 25-year-old named Willis Haviland Carrier created the Apparatus for Treating Air in Brooklyn, NY, that the world was gifted with the cooling relief an air conditioning unit offers. In fact, it’s highly probable that our lives would be very different if we didn’t have modern cooling to make us comfortable when the weather is scorching hot....

An innovative nuclear plant that runs on lower waste fuel hopes to be online by 2022-2025.The plant’s creator, Oklo, joins startups around the world working to innovate safer, smaller nuclear power plants.But experts suggest that Oklo’s timeline is unrealistic with years of nuclear approval process ahead.An experimental nuclear reactor in Idaho could be the first of its kind in the United States: a commercial reactor providing power using fuel that reduces nuclear waste....

Touchscreen, keyboardless computers (slates, tablets, whatever you’d like to call them) provided a sort of background theme to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show. In his keynote speech, Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer showed off several “slate” PCs running Windows 7 to demonstrate the potential of the OS’s built-in multitouch support. On the floor, I saw several touchscreen tablets in various states of product development–from the real and available now (Archos’ 8.9-inch, non-multitouch, resistive touchscreen pctablet, yours for $550) to the most ethereal of vaporware (Asus’ Waveface Ultra flexible translucent OLED wrist computer)....

NASA is releasing more information gleaned from the Cassini spacecraft’s final mission, focusing on Saturn’s moon Titan. Long considered one of the solar system’s possibilities for life, Cassini has found that the small liquid lakes on Titan’s northern hemisphere are deep, resting upon hills and filled with methane. The discoveries took scientists by surprise.Cassini was studying Saturn from 1997 through 2017. On the spacecraft’s last mission, known as the Grand Finale, it was able to get a closer look at the Titan by using the moon’s gravity to alter its trajectory....

The E-6B Mercury is designed to act as a communications relay in a nuclear war.Only a handful of E-6Bs were ever built.A bird strike disabled the engine on one of the planes, crippling it and forcing a landing.A E-6B Mercury airborne communications aircraft was forced to land after a bird was sucked into an engine, destroying it. The E-6B is designed to act as an important communications relay during a nuclear war, ensuring that the President of the United States can send orders to the nuclear triad, including launch orders....

The YF-16, the aircraft that eventually lead to the F-16 fighter, flew for the first time 46 years ago this week.The flight was actually accidental, with the pilot taking off rather that crashing the plane.The YF-16, of which there was only one, flew for six minutes before safely landing. Forty six years ago this week the legendary F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet got off to a wobbly start. The prototype YF-16 jet nearly crashed during high speed ground tests, an incident that could have killed the pilot and quite possibly the aircraft program itself....

Two recent studies came to opposite conclusions about the same evidence of life in a caustic pool in Ethiopia.Extreme environments on Earth may model habitats on other planets, like the moon Titan.The evidence of life found in Ethiopia is DNA from archaea, an organism similar to bacteria.Live Science reports a lively he-said-she-said over the potential for life in an extreme environment around a volcano in Ethiopia. One group sought to prove a negative and demonstrate that the really hot, acidic, and salty pools don’t and can’t support life....

Imagine blasting the “Dukes of Hazzard” Dixie horn to get another driver’s attention. Adding a custom car horn sound is a fun and simple modification that will put a smile on your face.Bob Clagett from I Like to Make Stuff, added a custom set of car horns to his Land Cruiser by setting up a basic system that starts with an Adafruit sound board, small amp, cigarette lighter adapter, 12V to 5V adapter, buttons, and of course a horn....

A 3D printer turns digital designs into physical objects using a variety of substances, from plastic to ceramic to something that kind of looks like wood. Before you even touch a printer, you’ll need a design—a precise computer-generated model that will tell the printer what to make. You can use one of the millions of free design files online—vacuum-hose adapters, water-bottle holders for your bike, and much, much more—or your own imagination, which will require you or someone else to create an object using computer-aided design, or CAD, software....

Media Platforms Design TeamConstruction workers are seen completing some work on the north side of the Bay Runway as two arriving aircraft taxi to the terminal. (Photo by Matt Molnar)Unlike your flight to visit grandma in Boca Raton, the massive $376 million project to renovate the longest, busiest runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York is running right on schedule, according to those running the operation. Jim Steven, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey manager in charge of the project, took us on a tour of the job last week and seems very optimistic the Bay Runway will reopen on July 1st, just as planned....

After an extraordinarily durable run, NASA’s Kepler space telescope is finally running out of gas. The agency expects Kepler to burn the last of its fuel within the next several months, ending nine years of incredible science searching for planets beyond the solar system. Trailing behind the Earth as it orbits the sun, the space telescope has located more than 2,500 confirmed exoplanets. Launched in 2009, Kepler is designed to scan the skies for planets by detecting the dip in brightness of their host stars as the planets pass in front....

NASA’s InSight Lander, currently exploring Mars, has captured more of the planet’s sonic landscape. Normally these sounds couldn’t be heard by human ears, but NASA has sped up the sounds by a factor of 10 to make them audible.Amidst the Martian winds, the InSight lander makes small noises as it expands and contracts within the planet’s weather.NASA has released a set of sounds which the Agency’s InSight lander has recorded on the surface of Mars....

Forget the theremin—now you can make science fiction-sounding music just by waving your arms in the air. London-based singer-songwriter Imogen Heap has designed a pair of digital gloves that allow her to perform elaborate otherworldly symphonies by sculpting the air with her hands. For the past four years she has worked with a team of engineers and designers, including scientists from NASA and MIT, to create the sleek e-textile gloves, which are full of chips and sensors....