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A new concept in auto entertainment/information systems is being rushed to market by the Motown Three. They’re each slightly different, but share a mission: To incorporate multiple technologies–such as entertainment, communication and navigation–in one box. To see how these “infotainers” stack up, we put all three through their paces. seamlesstabbing=“false” type=“application/x-shockwave-flash” swLiveConnect=“true” pluginspage=“http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash">>Next »>Ford SyncMedia Platforms Design TeamWhat it is: A small PC, running a rugged version of Microsoft Windows called Windows Auto....

Media Platforms Design TeamAerial view of Super Bowl XLVIII. Credit: Getty Images.If the thought had crossed your mind to fly a drone over last night’s deciding World Series game in Kansas City, then it’s a good thing you decided to watch the game on TV instead. The FAA has posted an official warning threatening people with major fines or jail time for flying an unmanned aerial vehicle around a major sporting event....

Media Platforms Design TeamIn a speech today, President Barack Obama both defended and limited his administration’s global air campaign against terrorist targets using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It was the clearest statement the president has ever made on the use of UAVs to kill terrorists and militants—one that seemed to critique his own administration’s actions. “This is the moment to ask ourselves hard questions about the nature of today’s threats and how to confront them,” Obama said in his landmark address....

One of the five new nuclear weapons systems Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled last week was a terrible new doomsday torpedo that can cross entire oceans to deliver a multi-megaton punch. A video that originally part of Putin’s presentation has surfaced on the Internet to explain how it works. Images of the system known as Kanyon, or Status-6, were first leaked in 2015. The details sound so terrible there were initially doubts it was real, but those were put to rest last month when the weapon surfaced in the Pentagon’s Nuclear Posture Review....

The tsunami that struck Indonesia’s Sulawesi island last week has proven devastating. With death tolls in the mid-800s and still rising, the true devastation of the tidal wave will not be known for weeks, and possibly months. In its aftermath, the Indonesian government has made a stunning admission: The tsunami early warning system in place around Sulawesi has not been working for six years.The warning system, a network of 22 buoys attached to seafloor sensors, is supposed to transfer data to the Indonesian meteorology and geophysics agency known as BMKG....

Riders take a sharp turn at the Kawasaki Autopolis.The speed of these bikes is too intense for even our high speed cameras.A shot of the track from ground-level.A birds-eye view of the 20-turn, 2.9 mile Autopolis test track.A Kawasaki touring bike in the making.A conveyor belt of bikes at Akashi Works.The bikes are ready to be tested…Kawasaki makes bullet trains too… Here is the Series 700 “Hikari Rail Star”, one of the fastest trains in Japan reaching speeds of 285 km/h....

Media Platforms Design TeamSlowly, but surely, the dreaded fish approach. Steady northward migration over four decades has brought the so-called Asian Carp—actually four different species of non-native carp that were introduced to Mississippi River tributaries in Arkansas—to within 25 miles of Lake Michigan. Alarmed experts predict it is only a matter of time before America’s inland sea becomes the world’s largest carp pond. Somewhat less slowly, and certainly less surely, a hodgepodge of state agencies, regional authorities and federal officials, along with Midwestern research institutes and business interests, have mustered under a common banner to halt the advance of the silvery hoard....

An incredible dog has aided U.S. Navy SEALS in taking down the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.The dog, a Belgian Malinois whose name remains officially classified, suffered some injuries due to a suicide vest detonated by al-Baghdadi.Some outlets are reporting that the pup’s name is Conan—but nothing regarding its name has been officially announced.A very good doggo has been hailed a hero after the canine chased down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leading to al-Baghdadi’s demise....

Update May 19, 2021: This article was originally published in July, 2007. We’ve updated the article to include information about recent advances in volcano monitoring and to reflect current information about the Volcano Hazards Program’s budget.“Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!” On May 18, 1980, U.S. Geological Survey volcanologist David Johnston had a clear view of Mount St. Helens’s north flank from his monitoring station 5.5 miles away. Just seconds after the 30-year-old radioed his final words to colleagues, the snow-capped volcano blew itself spectacularly apart....

Researchers in Moscow have made advances to a device called a memristor, building one that works like a synapse in the human brain. “Memristor” means both memory and resistor, a term coined in 1971 and realized in some form beginning in 2008. The new “second generation” memristor is able to eventually forget data that isn’t accessed often enough, which mimics how human synapses work and the quality of the brain known as plasticity....

Astronomers have captured a brilliantly colored image of a heated battle between two stars.A large star and its much smaller companion are circling each other at the center of the HD101584 binary star system.The researchers used the ALMA radio telescope array, along with data from the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment, to image the nebula.Two stars in a distant binary system are locked in a heated battle, and astronomers were able to spy on them thanks to the gaseous clouds created from their cosmic scuffle....

The Soviet Navy nuclear-powered attack submarine, Komsomolets, is back in the news more than thirty years after it sank off the coast of Norway. The experimental submarine is leaking radioactivity from her nuclear reactor, leading to headlines that the leak is “800,000 times” the radioactivity of the surrounding water. The leak, while ominous, is actually not that big a deal.On April 7, 1989, the experimental attack submarine Komsomolets (above) was on patrol 200 miles north of the Norwegian mainland....

The Blue Angels’ C-130T Hercules transport, affectionately known as “Fat Albert," needs replacing. And the new support plane for the Navy’s demonstration flight team could come from an unlikely source: the Royal Air Force. The Navy grounded its fleet of C-130Ts in the wake of a deadly 2017 accident that killed 16, and last week the service announced its intent to purchase a newer, used C-130J from the United Kingdom. So badass…Why the C-130 Is Such a Badass PlaneFor decades, the Blue Angels have travelled from air show to air show with Fat Albert in tow....

There’s something uniquely satisfying about the CLICK of putting a 3.5-inch floppy disk in the drive, and it’s a shame you don’t get to enjoy it anymore. That is, unless you are Dr. Moddnstine and you trick out an old drive to work with disks that are modded to have the space of a thumb-drive. If you haven’t guessed already, that’s not a typical disk or a typical drive. Instead of the little pancake of magnetic tape that most floppy disks have inside, thess disks are actually just mostly empty pieces of plastic that have been modified to fit normal SD cards—which can sport capacities in the hundreds of GB instead of the paltry 1 MB an actual floppy can hold....

The U.S. Army is set to test its first augmented reality system sometime in 2019. The system, called HUD 3.0, will allow soldiers to quickly figure out where they are, where the rest of their unit is, and where the enemy is. The heads-up display (HUD) is designed to allow soldiers in combat to orient themselves in the fight and rapidly come up with a plan to defeat their enemies.According to Breaking Defense, the U....

Media Platforms Design TeamPininfarina, an Italian design house behind some of the most iconic Ferraris, has designed a bicycle fit for kings. This is the Fuoriserie, made in collaboration with Italian bike manufacturer 43 Milano, will start at €6,000 ($7,500). With an electric motor assist it goes up to €9,000 ($11,300).The handmade bike frame is crafted from chromed steel tubes covered in a “walnut briar-root coating” and the handlebars are made of hand-woven leather....

Managing your finances is hard. Even if you’re lucky enough to have a naturally fiscal mind, it still helps to have a set of skills and tools that can be used to save more money for the future, invest more wisely in up-and-coming technologies, and harness the latest financial trends having to do with money management and predictive modeling. These eLearning bundles will help you do just that, and they’re all available at a significant discount for a limited time....

Okjökull, better known as ‘Ok,’ Glacier has melted, thanks to climate change and scientists warn that this is just the beginning of a grim future for Iceland’s ~400 glaciers—and us if climate patterns continue melting ice caps and glaciers.An Icelandic author has written a eulogy on a memorial plaque for the lost glacier and plan to place it atop Okjökull Mountain on August 18, 2019.The latest climate change victim is Okjökull, more commonly known as ‘Ok,’ an Icelandic glacier which scientists from Iceland and Rice University in Houston will memorialize in August with a heartbreaking plaque reading:“Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier....

Media Platforms Design TeamAs Brazil scrambles to finish its World Cup venues in time for the June 2014 event (six still aren’t completed), a deadly accident occurred this morning in Sao Paulo, killing two workers at the stadium intended to be the host of the opening ceremony.A crane fell into Arena Corinthians, which was 94 percent built according to construction company Odebrecht. The crane smashed into the metal exterior of the southern stands, collapsing part of the stands in the process....

Media Platforms Design TeamIts rare that a hacker convention makes national news, but three MIT students caused a whole lot of controversy when they planned a presentation about security holes in Boston’s subway system for DefCon in Las Vegas earlier this month. They were forced to cancel the talk at the last minute by a 10-day federal restraining order, requested by Boston’s Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA). On Tuesday, a judge denied motions by the MBTA to issue a preliminary injunction aimed at keeping the students quiet for a further five months....