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Give us your best quick definition of net neutrality.Net neutrality is the idea of unfettered access to lawful content on the web. Most people have come to take it for granted, but we’re talking about being able to access video, websites and print materialand to do so without discrimination or interference from your ISP [Internet service provider] or broadband provider.Why can’t the FCC just enforce net neutrality?It all comes down to a classification problem, which, in part, stems from a ruling in 1980 that separated telecommunications into “basic services"or pure telephonic transmissionsand “enhanced services"or data transmissions....

The U.S. military’s old way of thinking about satellites goes something like this: Pack as much technology as humanly possible onto every spacecraft because they are so expensive. Strap that big satellite onto a rocket. Once the satellite reaches orbit, the dangerous part is over. “It was assumed when you put a satellite up there, it was not going to be contested,” says Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, commander of Air Force Materiel Command....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn an early morning touchdown, the X-37B landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base after a 220-plus day mission in orbit. The unmanned space plane, which looks like a scaled-down version of the space shuttle, fired its maneuvering engine to put itself into position for an autonomous landing. The Air Force is not saying what experiments the X-37B conducted while in orbit, but satellite watchers and defense wonks say the shifting orbits indicate the vehicle was being tested as a reconnaissance platform that could be launched quickly and move around in space to make its snooping more unpredictable....

The South China Morning Post recently revealed plans for a new Chinese radar facility on the island of Hainan, China’s southernmost point. Described as a “high-powered incoherent scatter radar,” this installation will bounce radio waves off the Earth’s high-altitude layer of charged gas called the ionosphere.Although the project is in step with the county’s other mega-science projects—like planning the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, building the largest single dish radio telescope, or racing other nations to the nuclear fusion finish line—experts think the new facility is more interested in military matters than discovering the secrets of Earth’s upper atmosphere....

Media Platforms Design TeamHere’s something that will make your day the next time you have to pump gas: Briggs & Stratton Gas Off, a cleaner that removes the odor of gasoline or diesel fumes from your hands or clothing. The goes for if you spill gas or diesel, say, on the garage floor. That’s enough to make the whole house stink, but Gas Off removes the odor.Briggs is careful to say that the cleaner does not mask the odor, but rather uses nanoscale chemistry to remove it....

Each year, an impartial panel of 49 of North America’s most important automotive journalists, including PM’s Auto Editor, vote for the North American Car and Truck of the Year. The prizes are judged on factors such as innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value—categories we use to break down our own Automotive Excellence Awards. For the big panel, though, only vehicles that are all-new or substantially changed from the previous model are eligible....

Media Platforms Design Team LAS VEGAS — Legend has it that audiences at some of the first motion pictures were so startled by the grainy, black and white image of a moving locomotive, that they ran screaming from the theaters. Today, it’s hard for us to imagine being so fooled by a projected image. Until, that is, you try out some of today’s new 3D technologies. This past year saw a revival of sorts for big-screen 3D, with the big-budget Beowulf causing audiences to reach out and put their hands through stabbing swords and flying dragons....

A massive solar eruption is about to hit Earth, and the resulting northern lights could be spectacular just before New Year’s Eve for those in the right latitudes. NOAA forecasts the aurora borealis will dip clear down to Oregon, with a small chance of even the Bay Area seeing the northern lights.“It’s certainly possible,” Terry Onsager, a physicist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told SFGATE. “It depends entirely on the strength of the storm....

Multiple fatalities have been confirmed after a B-17 Flying Fortress crashed near Bradley International Airport shortly before 10 a.m. Officials are investigating the cause of the crash.The workhorse of World War II, only 10 air-worthy bombers exist today. Multiple people were killed and several were injured this morning when a B-17 “Flying Fortress” crashed just outside Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn., at 9:45 a.m. this morning. According to officials, the World War II-era plane, dubbed Nine-O-Nine (pictured above in 2018), crashed during an emergency landing....

Americans use and dispose of 500 million plastic straws every single day—and that’s 500 million too many. If people continue to uphold this wasteful practice, there will be more plastic polluting the oceans than there are living fish sooner than you think (it’s predicted to be 2050). And while doing away with straws seem like a minuscule contribution to the world’s massive plastic problem, it’s still a step towards helping fight it....

On October 14, 2017, an oddly shaped object stretching roughly 400 meters long and just 40 meters wide made a close pass to Earth, buzzing our home planet at a distance of about 15,000,000 miles (24,000,000 km). Five days later, on October 19, University of Hawaii astronomer Robert Weryk spotted the object for the first time using Pan-STARRS 1, a survey telescope that observes large sections of sky from the top of the volcano Haleakalā in Maui....

The company named after the inventor of the AK-47 rifle is planning to build a new unmanned combat ground vehicle, or UCGV. The vehicle will carry both machine guns and anti-tank missiles and weigh up to 20 tons.Kalashnikov currently markets the 7-ton BAS-01G Soratnik (“Comrade-in-Arms”) combat vehicle. The vehicle, which looks like a miniature tank, is designed to support infantry with a Kalashinov PKTM machine gun and up to eight Kornet-EM anti-tank missiles....

The carrier is named Shandong, after a province of China.Shandong is the first aircraft carrier entirely constructed in China.The new carrier is more capable than the country’s first carrier, carrying 50 percent more fighter planes, though still inferior to a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.After months of trials, this week China inducted its second aircraft carrier into the Chinese Navy. The carrier, named Shandong, is the first aircraft carrier built entirely in China and the largest warship ever built in the country....

Drills and drill bits are an essential part of every handyman’s toolkit, and for good reason. These spiral shafts of metal are indispensable when it comes to precisely placing holes in virtually any material, providing you’ve got the right ones. But if you’ve never given much through to the mechanics that make them work—or how to actually make a drill bit yourself—there is plenty to learn. Probably more than you actually need to know, honestly....

While reporting on the war in Syria, Russian state television included footage from a realistic video game, presenting it as the real thing. This was the second time in four months that the Russian government, knowingly or not, tried to pass off video games as footage of real events. Russian TV viewers quickly spotted the bogus footage.Russia’s state-run Channel One network ran a segment on the country’s “Defender of the Fatherland Day....

Saturn is arguably the most beautiful planet in our solar system, and that’s in no small part due to its rings. It’s tough to imagine Saturn ringless, but new research finds that was the case for most of the planet’s existence. Saturn only acquired its rings relatively recently, and for most of its existence it has been as bare as Earth.This discovery comes thanks to NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn for more than a decade before plunging into the planet’s atmosphere in late 2017....

How do you find out what’s inside a building if you can’t go in? It’s a question that’s surprisingly relevant in areas like disaster relief, when being able to see inside a collapsed structure could mean the difference between life and death.So how exactly do you find out what’s inside a building without going in? By detecting tiny particles called muons. Muons are produced in the upper atmosphere by collisions between air molecules and cosmic rays from the sun and other stars....

Exoplanet discoveries—finding a planet outside of the solar system—have become a regular scientific occurrence, but they can still manage to surprise scientists. A new Neptunian planet, for example, has been discovered amidst what was previously described as a “Neptunian desert.” Scientists on the international team that made the discovery have taken to calling it the “Forbidden Planet” as it defies expectations.A Neptunian desert is a region of space where no planets around the size of Neptune, the fourth-largest planet in the solar system by diameter, can be found....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe CarnivoreReader: Nathan MooreMaterials: $15,000Time: Two yearsResult: A hands-off, slow-cooking oven that can now be built for $4000.* See Self-Tending BBQ Runners Up* Submit Your Own DIY ProjectLiving in Cincinnati, Ohio, Nathan Moore yearned for the smoky brisket and ribs he had devoured as a student at the University of Texas at Austin, but dreaded the tedium of tending the BBQ for 16 hours. “You had to add fuel, stoke the fire, move the meat,” he says....

Media Platforms Design Team One of the reasons the DVD persists, even as superior technology vies to take its place, is that DVD players are everywhere. If Blu-ray is to succeed over the long term, it needs to find ways to cast a wider net, and it seems that companies at CES have taken note. Today at CES, Sharp and JVC both announced 1080p LCD HTDVs that feature built-in Blu-ray players....