Posts

Media Platforms Design Team(Photograph by Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo)The likely hero of the crash of Flight 1549 is the pilot, who set a malfunctioning airplane into the Hudson River without a loss of life on board or on the ground. It was an impressive piece of flying, for sure, but it was not a miracle: Experts say airplanes are designed to fly without any engine power. “There are FAA design requirements that state that an airplane has to be maneuverable even in complete power failure,” says Kevin Darcy, an accident investigation expert with Safety Services International, who has taught advanced accident investigation topics at the FAA and at the NTSB....

If you ask the Pentagon, the first space war was more than 25 years ago.“People reference Desert Storm as the first space war,” General John W. “Jay” Raymond, commander of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), said during a recent visit to the Popular Mechanics offices in New York. “It really was the first time that we took strategic space information and integrated it into a theater of operations.” The “left hook” of Operation Desert Storm, when U....

On Thursday, Israeli company SpaceIL attempted to become the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon. Their lander, named Beresheet, came extremely close before a software glitch caused the main engine to shut off at the last minute. The spacecraft crashed into the moon’s surface—an unfortunate end to an ambitious mission.Now, SpaceIL says they’re ready to try again. In an announcement on Twitter, SpaceIL board member Morris Kahn confirmed that the company was ready to try again with a new lander, named Beresheet Shtayim (which means ’two’ in Hebrew)....

Taking the first steps beyond a basic TV or stereo setup can be intimidating. The options are nearly endless and the costs can quickly add up. But whether you put in an elaborate home theater or a more modest living room setup, a well-designed home entertainment system can bring out the very best in your favorite music and movies.So…What’s Your System?Before you start shopping, consider how much sound you really need....

Turns out the Doppler effect is good for more than just finding aircraft, explaining the expansion of the universe, and teaching students why a police siren sounds the way it does. You can use it to scroll up and down on a computer screen.Wait, what? Built by Daniel Rapp, the Doppler app lets you control your computer via hand gestures. First, the speakers emit sounds at particular frequencies. When a hand passes through the waves, it changes them in subtle ways, and the microphone senses those changes when it pics up the sound....

border=“0” cellpadding=“0” cellspacing=“0”>Media Platforms Design TeamVoltree Power’s big idea started as a rumor on the Internet: If you drive a nail into a tree trunk and another piece of metal into the ground nearby, the claim goes, you can measure a voltage difference between the two. It turned out to be true. Now the startup company is racing to complete prototypes of miniature treepowered forestfire sensors in time for this spring, when it will fieldtest its detection gear during a controlled burn set by the U....

Lasers are going to become an increasingly important part of US military strategy, with a goal of using them as missile defense. That’s the takeaway from the recent 19th Annual Space & Missile Defense Symposium (SMDS), held in Huntsville, Alabama. The militarized potential of lasers, which originally was an acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation,” has been a military priority since the late 70’s, when nuclear scientist Edward Teller began developing lasers that could hypothetically be launched from space to shoot down Soviet missiles....

Media Platforms Design TeamEvery time I download or install a file, I get a progress bar that gives me no indication of how long the process will take. Why can’t anyone make these things accurate?A progress bar is never a good sign. It means that your computer is held up and that you’re in for a wait. The frustration of waiting for a process to complete itself is compounded by another unfortunate fact: The progress bar is essentially lying to you....

Update 6/19/18: At a meeting of the National Space Council in Washington D.C. on Monday, June 18th, President Trump called on the Pentagon to create a space force, saying “I am hereby directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces.” While the Pentagon can create a plan for a space force, the power to finalize such an organization and to fund it ultimately falls with Congress....

Ever get the feeling that the new car you just bought might not actually be as good as the previous model?As we reported in July, Special Operations Command has hired Lockheed Martin to provide a miniature submarine for the Navy SEALs: the Dry Combat Submersible (DCS). Capable of carrying eight SEALs, the DCS would be used to infiltrate hostile areas, carrying soldiers to within reach of accessible coastlines. The submersible will be delivered in 2018, answering what SOCOM calls an “urgent need....

Gen. Stephen Wilson sips from a plastic cup of cold brew as he eyes the drone before him. Wilson is not wearing a uniform, but everyone here at the Capital Factory, an 81,000-square-foot startup incubator space in downtown Austin, defers to the Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, uniform or no. The drone’s maker, Gareth Block of Third Insight Inc., holds the flying disc in one hand, telling Wilson it could be the key to the future of unmanned aircraft....

One of the cornerstones of science fiction history is coming to the small screen. According to Deadline, it would appear that Apple plans to turn Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series into a TV show. The tech giant has reached a deal with Skydance Television, which last June reached a deal with the Asimov estate to create the series.The California company has long looked to strengthen its own creative output, sometimes with disastrous results....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s hard to pinpoint the worst part of Danny Tracewski and Courtney Jansen’s pre-renovation basement (1) in Brookhaven, Pa. The rickety bar comes to mind, with its sticky, matte black counter surrounded by mustard-colored brick and sooty gray grout. Or there’s the foam drop ceiling with knobby plastic fluorescent fixtures and, beneath it, an industrial brown carpet best suited for indoor soccer. The couple wanted a space where they could work and entertain guests....

There’s a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. According to scientists who have been studying it for years, it has suddenly expanded.Nobody’s sure what has caused the expansion, but scientists have theories concerning stars and asteroids close to the black hole.Earth is not in any danger from the expansion, astronomers say.It’s easy to forget, so as a reminder: There’s a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Earth’s galaxy....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhat you do first is practically from muscle memory: Sprint across open ground and up the stairs to an elevated sniper’s perch, where you instantly drop down and begin sighting down your scope. If you’re the camping type, this is standard operating procedure for an online match in a first-person shooter (FPS). You find your position, you watch for the alleys and windows where enemies tend to appear, and you wait for one or more suckers to die for your personal cause—racking up a kill count worthy of leaderboards and other accolades....

Q: Just recently I had to replace my car battery. Some weeks before, my battery bracket loosened and the battery shifted, knocking off one of the caps, which I didn’t know until I needed a jump. I put regular tap water inside and replaced the cap. Tap water was all I had at the time. After that the battery continued to weaken until it needed to be replaced. Could I had put any of the following substances in the battery to extend its life?...

Officials are confident that Germanwings Flight 9525 copilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately sent the plane into the ground while the pilot was locked outside the cockpit. It’s another grim reminder that these craft are lethal devices with imperfect humans at the controls. So how do airlines screen the psychology of their employees when so much is at stake?In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration has a public document explaining its pilot evaluation procedure, which is conducted by a board-certified clinical psychologist....

Stainless steel appliances are beautiful when clean, but they attract fingerprints and smudges easier than any other type of finish. Fortunately, stainless steel is easy to clean using simple household products found in most kitchens.Avoid AbrasivesStainless steel can be easily dulled and damaged by using an abrasive scouring pad or cleaning agent. Always use a clean terry cloth or microfiber cloth to clean stainless steel. Avoid any type of cleaner that contains acid or scrubbing particles....

January 14, 2016: This week there’s been a new storm of rumors suggesting scientists might have detected gravity waves, finally. But this time around, everyone is taking the announcement with a big grain of salt. Back in May 2014, we published this interview with Rana Adhikari about why the chase is so difficult and fraught with false starts.So what exactly are gravitational waves?I think it’s easiest to explain by analogy. For an ocean wave, the wave is just the movement of the water....

Media Platforms Design TeamMedia Platforms Design TeamIt’s a dusty, windy, hot day. You, however, are secure, cool and comfortable inside the passenger confines of your car as you pull into the gas station. It’s so evil outside, you actually pay extra for Full Serve gasoline–but the attendant neglects to clean your windscreen before scurrying off to the next car. And you don’t really notice until you head back into the sun, at which point every particle of dust and smeared bug carcass seems calculated to scatter sunlight....