Ford Motor Co., like GM before it, has admitted that it has way too many people and too many factories building too many vehicles that people aren’t buying. So the hard truth is the company must downsize to survive. And downsize it will–like right now! With buyout offers on the table to all of its union workers and pink slips in the mail for more than 10,000 non-union workers, Ford Motor Co....
The Litter Robot puts forth a straightforward proposal: For $500, the mechanized litter box will transform the chore of constant scooping into a breezy task no more bothersome than taking out a garbage bag. Beneath the surface lurks another promise: Owning a high-end toilet pod will make the dirtiest parts of cat ownership—the poop scooping and the litter tracking—disappear. You can see the lifestyle messaging in the machine’s deeply curated social media presence, in which the glittering globe sits proudly among the plants and the concrete floors of a design-blog’s dream living room, not hidden away in shame in the bathroom....
Owner: Amos SneadPurchase price: $23,000Location: Washington, D.C.Years owned: ThreeI’m from just outside Centre, Alabama. Cotton fields in all directions, neighbors a quarter-mile away. My grandfather lived nearby and drove a ‘76 Bronco. It was army green with a white hardtop, three-on-the-tree, backseats removed so his hunting dogs could ride with him. My brothers and I would pile in and watch him drive. We idolized him and talked about getting old enough to drive it....
Starting in 1914, Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton led his third expedition to Antarctica with hopes of making the first land crossing of the continent. However, Shackleton’s ship Endurance was trapped in the ice of the Antarctic seas before he could begin his crossing. Though the ship was lost, photographer Frank Hurley managed to save his camera equipment and documented the crew’s 17-month struggle to survive. Media Platforms Design TeamShackleton and his crew got trapped in the ice floes of the Weddell Sea before they could reach Vahsel bay, where they intended to disembark and continue over land....
Give an octopus a little MDMA and the usually solitary creature will open right up. That’s according to research published today in Current Biology. In the study, Johns Hopkins Medical researchers gave MDMA—a drug more commonly known as ecstasy—to a group of California two-spot octopuses. The genome of that octopus is well understood, making it an ideal study. “It’s really hard to dismiss that with an octopus because they’re pretty smart....
PopularMechanics.com, Oct. 12, 2006 – When I was a newly minted private pilot like Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle, I did the same thing that he did: I hired an instructor to show me how to fly the Hudson VFR corridor–a flyway of unrestricted airspace that follows the western edge of Manhattan along the Hudson River. (VFR stands for “visual flight rules,” which means the only things keeping you out of trouble are your own eyeballs....
In the not so distant future, for-profit space-mining companies (like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries) will be collaborating with NASA to send out tiny satellites to measure and assess cosmic debris, harvesting lucrative options. But just because we can start mining in space, does that mean we should? Ramin Skibba, an astrophysicist and space enthusiastic, explores at Nautilus.The Space Act, passed in 2015, authorized the U.S. president “to facilitate the commercial exploration and utilization of space resources to meet national needs....
A trio of CubeSats.NASAResearchers at Shizuoka University, working in conjunction with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), will begin trials on a miniature version of a space elevator next week.The test is very small and simple, the tiniest step towards an actual elevator to the stars. This space elevator will consist of a small box 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) long, 3 cm (1.18 inches) wide, and 3 cm high. This box will move along a 10-meter (32-foot) cable suspended in orbit between two small CubeSats....
If the promise of self-driving cars is ever fully realized, it will offer a profound change for wide swaths of society. But those changes haven’t been instituted quite yet, as a drunk Tesla owner in San Francisco recently discovered. The inebriated driver tried and failed to talk his way out of a DUI by insisting the his car’s Autopilot feature was guiding his way home.On January 13, police discovered a passed out man in his Tesla on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge....
Media Platforms Design TeamCost of ownership is higher on newer cars, largely because they’re more capable, far cleaner and fuel-efficient and far safer. That 1965 Mustang you used to fix for a few bucks doesn’t come close to meeting today’s government regulations, goes down the road like a tractor compared with a modern car and had few of the electronic doodads we now take for granted. Ultimately, however, we pay for the technology—a 1965 Mustang cost just $2500—both initially and for repairs....
The U.S. Air Force certified its first piece of equipment to be 3D printing for its aircraft—a toilet seat cover.Many of the U.S. Air Force’s aging planes have a tough time finding replacement parts, but 3D printing could change that. While it’s a small step, additive manufacturing has the possibility to drastically shorten supply times and allow aircraft, like the aging C-5 Galaxy, to fly for longer.The U.S. Air Force, faced with an aging aircraft fleet, is turning to 3D printing to dramatically cut down the time and cost of manufacturing spare parts....
In new comments to the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Mark Milleyhas said the Army is “taking a hard look” at a new German assault rifle and other designs to replace its existing weapons. The M4A1 carbine is currently issued to U.S. Army combat troops worldwide. A descendant of the original M16 rifle, the M4A1 has a 14.5" barrel, is chambered for the 5.56-millimeter round, and weighs approximately nine pounds when fully equipped with optics, lasers, foregrips, and other attachments....
Media Platforms Design TeamFRANKFURT — Volkswagen is building the Beetle again. OK, not really, but thanks to a trendy campaign and a cute little car called the Up!, VW is set to take on the likes of Smart and Scion as early as 2010. The new mini-car is part of the company’s plan to get back to its roots, building affordable rides for the masses.Despite its diminutive size, the concept has four seats and room for a fair amount of luggage—plus a variable interior for fitting in awkward objects....
A year after a dramatic accident took the life of one of its pilots, Virgin Galactic says it’s ready to fly again. In an interview with Miriam Kramer and Jessica Plautz at Mashable, Virgin Galactic CEO Richard Branson says his company is ready to resume flight testing of SpaceShip Two, with a new model ready to be unveiled by February 2016 and flight testing to begin shortly after. In the interview, Branson says the accident had him ready to leave it all behind in the aftermath, but not wanting to disappoint his team, he pressed on....
Media Platforms Design TeamMore than once, Popular Mechanics senior automotive editor Mike Allen has debunked the myth that you can triple your fuel economy by burning the hydrogen from water in your car. Now, he’s teamed up with Dateline NBC and an EPA-certified emissions lab to test hydrogen generators, fuel heaters, fuel-line magnets and acetone fuel additives, once and for all. For more on HHOs, see Dateline’s coverage here.I get mail....
Most ATVs make some pretense of usefulness. Sure, you’re going to use them to screw around in the woods, wallowing in mud holes and pulling wheelies on the straights—but they could do work around the farm. When an ATV has cargo racks or four-wheel-drive or a hitch, you can envision slinging a load of just about anything back there.That’s not the case with the Yamaha YFZ 450R SE. It doesn’t have racks, or four-wheel-drive, or even reverse....
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, a quasi-horror flick (it came from the guys who made Re-Animator after all) dressed as a family-friendly comedy, still holds up for various reasons, but mostly because of how it made shrinking technology seem so…plausible.From the radioactive rain in The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) to the never-actually-explained shrinking tech in Fantastic Voyage (1966) movies about shrinking people have tended to fall back on “because we said so, that’s why” science....
Media Platforms Design Team(Photograph courtesy Port of Los Angeles) Ports serve as the international gateways for bringing goods produced abroad into the United States—and no other port in the country handles more containerized goods imports than the Port of Los Angeles. PM spoke with the port’s veteran executive director about trends in port infrastructure and development. —Emily Masamitsu What are the big trends and issues in infrastructure facing port authorities over the next 10 to 20 years?...
Mattel, the makers of Hot Wheels and Barbie dolls, have really outdone themselves this time. In an insane and possibly brilliant attempt to combine two of young boys’ favorite activities—racing toy cars and catching bugs—Mattel created the “Bug Racer,” an electric toy car that is steered by a live cricket.Sensors in the car detect where the cricket is and steer according to its movements from one side to the other. A little habitat for the cricket, complete with a spacious living area and a feeding area, slots into the car....
Five years ago, when I started my own private couch-to-5K program to get in running shape for once in my life, all I really needed was a half-decent pair of running shoes and enough willpower to keep hitting the treadmill. Not so when I decided to tackle the half marathon. Trainers will tell you that if you can run the 3.1 miles of 5k, then you can run the 13.1 miles of a half marathon, and they’re right....
