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Media Platforms Design TeamCES loves glitz and spectacle, but Monster’s press conference here eventually devolved into what can best be described as self-parody. To unveil its latest round of headphones (or “fashion music accessories,” as founder Noel Lee called them), the company turned the ballroom at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas into an ad hoc runway. Professional models wore the headgear while swaggering, pouting, and, in the case of one enthusiastic gentlemen, spinning in place to fire index fingers back at Lee....

This story was originally published on May 5, 2016. On June 23, the U.S. Marine Corps released an official statement saying it had misidentified one of flag-raisers in the photo. Indeed, as Matthew Hansen’s original Omaha World-Herald story had suggested, John Bradley—father of Flags of our Fathers author James Bradley, was not in the photo. The figure believed to be Bradley was actually Franklin Sousley, and the figure previously believed to be Sousley was a soldier who went unrecognized for decades, Harold Schultz....

This year, for the first time, technology is making the tough calls at the World Cup in Brazil. And with replay tech, it is actually several types of technology working together.In the weeks leading up to last year’s Confederations Cup, also hosted in Brazil, FIFA granted the German company GoalControl access to install 14 high-speed cameras in each of the stadiums, with seven cameras monitoring each goal line from various points along the upper levels of the stadiums or the roof....

A team of researchers has discovered an incredibly intact fossil of a monstrous apex predator that lived more than half a billion years ago.The team is excited to discover more about the mysterious creature, dubbed Cambroraster falcatus, a name inspired by Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon, and its interesting physiology.Cambroraster falcatus was an ancient, primitive arthropod that dominated the ocean approximately 506 million years ago during the Cambrian period. The creature’s name was inspired, in part, by Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon due to its similar resemblance of the fictional spacecraft (sort of)....

Last October, Swiss archaeologists were presented with a momentous and possibly history-making discovery: a bronze hand with a gold cuff glued to its wrist, alongside what appeared to be a withered dagger and a human rib.Placed in the stead of the Bern Archaeological Service by two treasure hunters who made the discovery near the municipality of Prêles, the antiquities confounded experts. After conducting tests, the hand’s provenance and significance came into sharper focus....

Media Platforms Design TeamAs Syria’s bloody uprising continues into its second year, there’s a growing realization that President Bashar Hafez al-Assad just might outlast the rebels. While many had hoped that al-Assad would soon go the way of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, it’s clear that even if it happens, his departure won’t be so swift. There are a number of reasons why Syria’s Assad has stuck around, and why some people are even predicting the Syrian strongman may ultimately prevail....

September 2022: The Tower of Voices in Pennsylvania stands 93 feet tall in honor of United Flight 93, the plane that crashed on September 11, 2001 when passengers thwarted hijackers’ attempt to crash the plane into a building. The tower features 40 wind chimes for the 40 heroes who died that day. In the two decades since the 9/11 attacks, the kinds of conspiracy theories that swirled around the World Trade Center attacks in Manhattan have touched the crash of Flight 93, too....

The U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman released the first new images of the B-21 Raider in nearly four years. The new bomber is similar to the B-2A Spirit, but subtle differences hint at some major changes.The B-21 Raider is expected to fly for the first time sometime in 2022.The U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman have released the first new image of the B-21 Raider bomber in nearly four years....

Even the world’s great military powers sometimes open a delivery box only to find their merchandise broken. China recently ordered a number of advanced surface-to-air missiles from Russia. But the boat was caught in a major storm that jostled the weapons in every which way. Upon arriving in China, the shipment was too damaged to be used, so the deadly 40N6 missiles had to be returned to Russia and destroyed. Aviation Week & Space Technology’s Steve Trimble was in Abu Dhabi for the IDEX 2019 defense show when he asked Sergey Chemezov, CEO of Russian defense contractor Rostec, whether a recent shipment to China of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems would include the new 40N6 missile....

The Model 3 is a make-or-break vehicle for Tesla. But when it comes to building the more affordable electric car, things hadn’t been breaking Tesla’s way.The prototype was a week late. While Elon Musk promised to deliver more than 1,500 units by the end of September 2017, the company had shipped just 260. Musk suspended production in February, then again in April, which led the charismatic CEO to tear down and re-imagine his high-tech robotic assembly line to “improve automation and address systemic bottlenecks to increase production rates,” according to an internal memo....

DARPA awarded Northrop Grumman $13 million to study defense against hypersonic weapons.Hypersonic weapons differ from other weapons in traveling at extremely high speeds through the atmosphere, passing under existing ballistic missile defenses.Russia’s new Avangard hypersonic weapon system travels at up to Mach 27, or in excess of 20,000 miles an hour. The Pentagon’s main research and development agency is pushing to start testing anti-hypersonic weapons this year. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA for short, wants to test systems capable of countering hypersonic weapons as they zip through the atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound....

At its most basic level, an engine is an air pump. Internal combustion engines breathe fresh air and expel wasted exhaust gases to make power. Something has to tell those intake and exhaust valves when to open, and how far, and that job falls to the brain of an engine: the camshaft. A mechanical piece attached to the valves, the camshaft is turned by a crankshaft via a pulley, while the pulley itself is turned by a rubber timing belt or metal timing chain....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamFINAL REPORT - June 2010Media Platforms Design TeamThe Ram has had little time to rest. Whether flat-towing an ice-racer to Michigan’s Chippewa Lake or ferrying the kids to school, it’s been an unflappable and tireless workhorse. It spent much of its time this past winter cutting through snow, and in those conditions we found that rotating the 4WD switch from “auto” to “lock” provided the most sure-footed traction....

So you can grill a mean steak. Congratulations! It’s a good skill to have. But maybe, just maybe, you want to branch out to some new meat-cooking techniques that are a bit more…unorthodox. The folks at The Royal Institution have a few you can try, but maybe don’t expect great results. For their “Extreme Physics BBQ,” our two chefs Andy and Greg tried a few different approaches including electrocuting a brined steak (meh) creating a hot dog circuit that lights LEDs (functional!...

It’s not quite like tobacco companies warning about the dangers of smoking, but Facebook is acknowledging something many already know: Using social media can be bad for your health.The social media giant whose platform has become a daily addiction for hundreds of millions of people sheds light in a blog post Friday on what it says are two sides of the issue.It notes research showing an increase in teen depression with technology use....

If scientists wanted aliens to find Earth, how would they arrange such an encounter? A new paper from MIT suggests that a giant laser, magnified by a giant telescope and aimed out into space, could do the trick. In what author James Clark calls a “feasibility study,” he proposes that a high-powered 1-to 2-megawatt laser be focused directly into space. While the Earth has been sending signals like radio waves into space for over a century, like those famously seen in the opening of Contact, it’s possible that solar entities like the sun and exoplanets beyond the solar system have been interfering with signals, making it harder for potential aliens to touch base....

North Korea held a major military parade today, displaying thousands of troops and major military equipment—much of it nuclear-capable.The regime made a point of flaunting its nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, including the new long-range missiles potentially capable of reaching the continental United States as well as previously unseen short-range missiles. These weapons are North Korea’s strategy for ensuring the survival of leader Kim Jong-un and the survival of his regime.The parade was held in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army....

Media Platforms Design TeamMy yard is littered with ­unsightly items such as garbage cans and a generator. It’s all essential stuff that I can’t get rid of, but it’s a mess. I might as well have a rusty old Dodge out there too. Any suggestions for bringing order to the outside? Often our homes look better because of what we can’t see rather than what we can. In other words, your best bet is to hide that stuff behind a privacy screen that complements your home’s architecture....

.For more than a century, Popular Mechanics has provided life-saving advice for outlasting storms, surviving the outdoors, and preparing for disaster. Find out how you can survive anything right here.Don’t ask why—you need to escape, stat. So how do you make a break without breaking every bone? We asked Rhett Allain, an associate professor of physics of Southeastern Louisiana University, to walk us through the best way to jump from a moving train (while limiting risk of injury, of course)....

A total lunar eclipse will occur on Wednesday, January 31, starting at 4:52 a.m. PST. The total eclipse lines up with a supermoon, when the moon is biggest in the sky, as well as a blue moon, the second full moon in a calendar month. In the United States, the total lunar eclipse will only be visible in the West, Alaska, and Hawaii.NASA will livestream the total lunar eclipse from three observatories in the West for those who cannot see it due to geographic location or weather....