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Media Platforms Design TeamIn the shadows of the multimillion-dollar concepts Chrysler debuts each year on the auto show circuit, the automaker develops its Jeep “Underground” concepts. These aren’t the futuristic and fanciful concepts designed for the mainstream stage. The Underground vehicles are one-off Jeeps meant to grab the attention of the most hardcore Jeep fans—and to be driven.The renegade group of dedicated Jeep engineers builds three or four of these trucks per year....

With a rainy day in Cleveland, a baseball game between the Indians and the Toronto Blue Jays was forced to take a backseat to America’s other, newer past time: Battle royale video games. Someone who works for the Indians decided to use the rainy off time to play Fortnite on the scoreboard.View full post on TwitterThe Indians scoreboard was upgraded in 2015, meaning that whoever was playing the popular game was taking out enemies with 13,000 square feet of high-definition screen space....

North Korea has tested a new missile system, a short range ballistic missile whose exhaust plume was visible in a dramatic shot from space. Analysts believe the unnamed missile, which was first seen in public in 2018, may incorporate new features that indicate progress in the country’s missile development. Pyongyang is developing a wide variety of ballistic missiles, some of which would carry nuclear warheads, to threaten its neighbors and even the U....

UPDATE: As one reader noted, the Solar Challenger crossed the English Channel entirely by solar power in 1981, with no battery assist. Somebody, within the last 24 hours, became the first pilot in an electric, battery powered plane to cross the English Channel, a choppy, nasty stretch of air.The problem is … who did it?At 5:20 EDT this morning over in Europe, an Airbus e-Fan piloted by Didier Esteyne flew over the channel in a completely electric plane at 100 mph, starting at Lydd in Kent, England, and flying to to Calais in France....

A video has appeared on social media of the terrorist organization Hezbollah using armed drones against enemy forces on the ground. The video, taken in Syria, shows a quadcopter dropping cluster bomblets on fleeing Syrian rebels.The video shows drone attacks on three rebel positions. The first video shows an attack on a cluster of buildings. The second shows an attack on a car. The third actually shows a pair of small bombs tumbling away from the drone toward a building, with a man fleeing from the building just in time to avoid the attack....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamAt the end of this week, there will be two types of nerds: those who managed to get themselves an Apple iPhone and those who’ll be staring over their shoulders trying to get a look. Regardless of which position you find yourself in on the evening of the 29th (or 30th, or 29th of the following month—it’s hard to know how long it will take for the dust to settle, though we’ll be hands-on for you ASAP), I would like to direct your attention to the bottom right corner of this groundbreaking gadget’s home screen....

The head of the U.S. Navy would like to transfer the mission of ballistic missile defense to land-based forces, freeing up his ships for other missions. The remarks by U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson come as the navy is showing increasing signs of wear, the result of a shrinking fleet and growing set of responsibilities. According to DefenseNews, Richardson told U.S. Naval War College’s Current Strategy Forum that “it’s time” to transfer the mission of defending Europe and Asia from Navy destroyers and cruisers at sea to a land-based ballistic missile defense system....

HMS Queen Elizabeth, the United Kingdom’s newest aircraft carrier, has sprung a leak and is undergoing repairs. The ship, which was commissioned into the Royal Navy just two weeks ago, is taking on water through its propulsion system. The Royal Navy says it is a minor issue that does not affect the ship’s ability to go to sea.HMS Queen Elizabeth is the first of a new generation of aircraft carriers built for the Royal Navy....

It’s Sunday at the Texas Theatre, and more than 150 of people have packed into the seats. Today’s show is something special: a 35mm screening of the cattle-and-oil epic Giant, starring Rock Hudson, Liz Taylor, and James Dean.It’s a complicated challenge to screen Giant. Projectionist Ryan Culbert must run more than 4 miles of film on multiple reels to complete the three-and-a-half-hour runtime of this 1956 epic. As showtimes draws near, theater operator Barak Epstein watches his progress, making sure everything goes as planned before he heads below to introduce the movie....

Media Platforms Design TeamUnless you have been living under a rock (or in California), you probably know firsthand that this winter has been colder and snowier than recent seasons. It’s been so wet and cold that, in an effort to maintain life as usual and keep people safe on the roads, cities from Cleveland to New York are using up the nation’s supplies of rock salt.Well, not exactly. New York governor Andrew Cuomo said this week that the state was facing a salt shortage, and news outlets around the country are reporting the same woes in small towns and populous cities....

Media Platforms Design TeamThis evening at 7 p.m. Pacific (10 p.m. Eastern), SpaceX promises to unveil the Dragon V2, an updated version of its Dragon capsule that could soon carry humans into orbit. Stream the event live here.If you’ve been keeping up with Elon Musk’s adventures in space, you’ll know that SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon capsule has become the first spacecraft of the new private space race to berth with the International Space Station, and has delivered a load of cargo to the astronauts in orbit....

A test of the SM-3 Block IIA ballistic missile interceptor this week ended in failure, the second failed test in six months for the controversial missile system. The failure was particularly notable coming after a string of North Korean missile tests, the very missiles the SM-3 is meant to defend against.The test took place off the coast of Hawaii at the Barking Sands Pacific Missile Test Facility on the island of Hawaii....

Last night, SpaceX made history: it brought the first stage of an orbital rocket to a successful vertical landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It was the moment the company had long waited for, and the above footage shows just how impressive a feat that was from a helicopter’s eye view. It makes it clearer how it all went down, as the SpaceX live stream of the event (embedded below, starting at 32:25) had the craft surrounded in thick smoke before emerging from the dust, standing tall....

Mercury Marine 6 HPProduced: Komagane, JapanTime to disassemble: 9 hours, 20 minutesNotes: Outboard motors can be big, bolt-in-place monsters that produce more power than a sports car or, like this 57-pound Mercury Marine 6HP model, smaller clamp-on powerplants with just enough juice to troll for walleye on a nice afternoon.1. Cylinder Head: As in your car, the cylinder head is where the spark plug plugs in. But this cylinder head also houses a thermostat....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s a gorgeous day in May, perfect for a bike ride, but Josh Poertner is indoors. He’s hustling around Silca’s new Indianapolis headquarters, half a world away from the company’s Italian roots.Poertner, the former technical director for Zipp Speed Weaponry, built his professional reputation on convincing professional athletes and weekend warriors the benefits the best gear available (no matter the cost), such as the company’s $2000 carbon wheels....

On this day in 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright were ordinary men, not household names. For seven years, the brothers had been working toward a grand, larger-than-life invention, beginning in 1896 with glider experiments that they conducted while working as mechanics at a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. No one seemed to notice what they were doing. No one seemed to care. In fact, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough, many considered the duo to be “crackpots....

SpecsPrice: $16,000Engine: 847-cc three-cylinder with double-overhead camTransmission: Six-speedHorsepower: 115Torque: 64.5 lb-ft at 8,500 rpmWeight: 580 lbKickstand: NoneNo one in the community of motorcycle enthusiasts was clamoring for anything with three wheels. And I know what you’re thinking: I ain’t riding no fargin’ tricycle.But Yamaha has a history of taking chances for no obvious reason, only to end up being completely right. “We wanted to make a motorcycle with more grip,” says Leon Oosterhof, Niken’s product planning manager....

A suspicious envelope sent to a military base in Virginia sent three people to the hospital and caused eight more to fall ill. The envelope contained an “unknown substance” and a ranting letter addressed to a commanding officer at the base. Who sent the letter and why it was sent is a mystery.The incident took place yesterday afternoon at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, in Arlington, Virginia. Shortly after the envelope was opened in an administrative building eleven individuals reported feeling sick, with symptoms including a burning sensation on the hands and face, and at least one nose bleed....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe all-new sixth-generation 2011 Hyundai Sonata is the second in Hyundai’s so-called 24/7 string of releases, which drops seven all-new models over the course of 24 months. It’s also the first to wear the Korean carmaker’s new “Fluidic Sculpture” design language, which incorporates near-coupé-like lines as seen in sedans such as the Volkswagen CC, as well as unusual touches (a chrome accent that wraps from the edge of the front headlamp all the way to the tip of the C-pillar)....

1.Star Wars: The Empire Strikes BackMedia Platforms Design TeamThe Scene /// Cloud City’s central air shaft The Act /// Lightsaber duel between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.The Problem /// Lightsabers violate the rules of physics in several important respects. For one thing, laser light is continuous so it wouldn’t be possible to make it end in a tip to form the blade. Furthermore, when brought into contact, light sabers wouldn’t repel each other unless the photons in the beams were at extremely high intensities....