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Media Platforms Design Team(Photograph courtesy of SpaceX) The private space race is go for launch. SpaceX’s Falcon 1 became the first privately designed liquid fuel rocket to reach Earth’s orbit when it finally hit the stratosphere on Sunday. The California-based company launched the rocket from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean and it successfully reached orbit more than 300 miles above the surface of the Earth. The sweet taste of success came as a huge relief for Elon Musk, the PayPal co-founder who started SpaceX in 2002....

Media Platforms Design TeamOn a foggy spring morning in 2009, Dartmouth College junior Greg Sokol and a few friends got up before classes and paddled canoes down the Connecticut River in New Hampshire to check on a log cabin not far from campus. It was owned by the school’s Ledyard Canoe Club, of which Sokol was a member. Recent rain had swollen the river, and the current was running fast. Sokol led, angling his canoe away from the mouth of Mink Brook and into a tiny cove along Gilman Island’s steep northeast shore....

Rats have been a problem for people for a long, long time. But scientists are now offering what they say is a fresh take on the urban rat problem: the rodents’ own sense of smell. The scientists are relying on rat pheromones, studying which ones repel the rats and which ones bring them closer.So far, rats stay away from male scents and repeatedly visit female scents. That could be used against them....

Small garage workshops gather dust and dirt quickly, but many dust collection systems are too costly or large to install in smaller shops. A secondary option is to build your own dust collection system using a shop vac, which can be picked up for less than $100.The Wood Whisperer breaks down the leading budget dust collectors, with the Dust Deputy Cyclone being the winner. It also happens to be the least expensive, at $60....

Ten years ago this week, the last McDonald’s in Iceland closed its doors. An Icelandic man named Hjörtur Smárason has worked to preserve the hamburger meal he bought on its last day.The seemingly unsullied burger and red carton of fries can be found at the Snotra House in Þykkvibær, South Iceland, or on the hostel’s live stream. You may have missed it yesterday, but Iceland celebrated a strange anniversary: Ten years ago, Hjörtur Smárason walked into the country’s last McDonald’s restaurant shortly before it closed and ordered a hamburger and french fries....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt’s budget cutting season in Washington, D.C., and the news is full of dire warnings of services lost and projects delayed. NASA is not immune: The agency has already dropped funding for an international trip to Mars planned for 2016. Yet it turns out the agency could save some money simply by being a smarter landlord.NASA’s inspector general Paul Martin released a report (full report pdf) last week detailing ways the agency can save money....

NASA just announced that they’ve discovered a nearby solar system with eight orbiting planets, making it the first solar system to tie our own in number of planets. The system was discovered thanks to artificial intelligence software from Google.The star system is called Kepler-90, and it’s got quite a lot of planets. Seven of those planets were discovered in 2013 by a group of researchers, but they missed that the system had a hidden eighth planet that was harder to spot....

Media Platforms Design TeamGiant grilles. They started with luxury and performance cars, and for good reason. After all, a big engine requires a lot of air. But as mainstream carmakers have latched onto the big-grille look, the grille has become more about ornamentation and styling rather than performance. Engines are getting smaller and more efficient, so they actually need less airflow to cool the radiator than ever before.Now, with the 2015 Toyota Camry, it’s official: giant grilles have jumped the shark....

The head of U.S. Pacific Command warned that American missile defenses that protect Hawaii and other U.S. territories could be insufficient to stopping a North Korean missile attack. He worries there simply are not enough interceptors to stop a determined attack by Pyongyang’s Strategic Force.Pacific Command is the sprawling joint headquarters that commands all U.S. Forces in the Asia-Pacific region. Admiral Harry Harris is its head. “I believe that our ballistic missile architecture is sufficient to protect Hawaii today, but it can be overwhelmed,” Harris told the House Armed Services Committee....

Media Platforms Design Team We were pleasantly surprised when we tested Pontiac’s 361-hp G8 GT last month—it could be the best sedan Pontiac has ever built. But we’re prepared to be blown away by the even higher performance of its G8 GXP, which hits the streets later this year. Propelled by a 6.2-liter LS3 small-block (the same one you’ll find in the new Corvette), this über G8 is currently rated at 402 hp and 402 lb....

Samsung is building the biggest cargo ship ever. It’s a quarter of a mile long. Or four football fields. Or 1,300 feet. You get the point. The thing is huge. Built for Mitsui OSK Lines, the megaship will carry 20,150 shipping containers. That’s a little over 5,000 containers more than the previous largest ship in the world. We imagine unloading that could keep a few stevedores in business for a while....

Delayed but undaunted by a partial government shutdown, Elon Musk has announced that SpaceX’s first commercial crew mission is “about a month away.” While the flight will lack a crew, the company hopes that a successful launch will provide a crucial demonstration of its ability to send humans into space.View full post on TwitterView full post on TwitterThe launch was supposed to take place on January 17, but the government shutdown has made such a scenario unlikely....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe hinted-at collaboration between Disney and toymaker Sphero on the BB-8 droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens has now been confirmed, intensifying hopes that we’ll soon see a version of the cute rolling bot you can buy.“Our hardware and software technology advancements make it possible to build the toys of the future now,” Rob Maigret, Sphero Chief Creative Officer, said in a statement. “We are deepening the user connection in ways that, until today, have only been portrayed in science fiction....

A New Spin on PowerBy Erin ScottbergThe construction of yet another emissions-belching turbine might not seem like cause for celebration. But like it or not, the world continues to run on fossil fuels–and General Electric’s 7H turbine is a breakthrough in efficiency. Like its predecessor, the 7FA system, the 40-ft.-long, 400,000-pound 7H runs on relatively clean-burning natural gas. But, it produces 50 percent more power than the 7FA–with even lower NOx and CO2 emissions....

A Cirrus Vision jet costs around $2 million, making it the most affordable new private jet. You can buy a propeller plane for less, but if you want a turbine engine, this is your starter. It’s smaller than Gulfstreams most of us imagine — in the Vision, the pilot and passengers share the same space. That’s because Cirrus engineers designed it for owners who also want to be the pilot, no flight crew required....

The U.S. Army is pushing forward with plans for the most powerful laser weapon to date. The Indirect Fires Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) will be a 250 to 300 kilowatt weapon, up to 10 times more powerful than the U.S. Navy’s Laser Weapon System. The power boost should be enough to destroy targets as large as incoming cruise missiles.The U.S. military is pushing into lasers in a big way, with all three of the main services—Army, Navy, and Air Force—pushing hard to get them onto ground vehicles, ships, and aircraft....

It took Elon Musk and his SpaceX friends years and a handful of explosions before they could successfully land a Falcon 9 rocket on a barge. I have no idea why, because this video from YouTuber ajw61185 shows that even some yahoo goofing around in the backyard can do it. View full post on YoutubeOK, OK. To be fair, this isn’t exactly a rocket. Instead, it’s just a quadcopter with a rocket-type thing attached to the top....

People still buy cassette tapes. Not many, granted, but a niche industry has formed around the decades-old music format. The sole refining factory that makes tape material is apparently facing renovations. That means a shortage has hit manufacturers.While a small influx of refined material is on its way, the revelation has put a damper on the upcoming Cassette Store Day.According to an undated letter distributed on Twitter by a small record label in Illinois, the largest audio cassette tape manufacturer in the United States has faced a materials shortage for most of 2019....

LANGLED PIPELINELocation: North SeaPrice Tag: $3.3 billionCompletion Date: October 2007Total Length: 746 milesMaximum Depth: 2953 feetMedia Platforms Design TeamThe North Sea between Norway and the United Kingdom is cold, windswept and unforgiving. But half a mile beneath its waves lie some of the planet’s richest reserves of natural gas. To tap that wealth, the Norwegian energy company Hydro has developed the giant Ormen Lange undersea gas field 60 miles offshore, and is now putting the final touches on a monster 746-mile undersea pipeline to connect it to processing plants in Britain....

Media Platforms Design TeamYou’re looking at the first Porsche 911 that will top 200 mph right off the showroom floor. It goes 204 mph to be exact. That’s faster than the regular Turbo and much quicker than the GT3 version homologated for racing. And it bristles with some of Porsche’s best technology. It will go from 0 to 62 mph in 3.6 seconds and hit 100 mph in less than 7....