Posts

Facebook is introducing a new rating system for users that evaluates them on their trustworthiness, the Washington Post is reporting. The system is part of a broader effort to fight misinformation on the platform.Facebook has long had a problem with fake and misleading stories on its platform, and the company has launched a number of initiatives to reduce the number of those stories. One of those is a feature that asks users to vote on how truthful certain news stories are....

French defense contractor Nexter has unveiled a prototype of its new Jaguar armored car. Designed to act as both a reconnaissance vehicle and tank killer, the Jaguar is even more heavily armed than the U.S. Army’s Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The vehicle was unveiled before the start of the June Eurosatory 2018 defense trade show.The ERBC Jaguar (Engin Blindé de Reconnaissance et de Combat) is a 6x6 armored car designed for both French Army reconnaissance and anti-tank units....

Hydraulic press crushing videos are strangely mesmerizing. But if enjoying the carnage from behind the safety of your computer screen isn’t enough for you, don’t worry. The folks who brought you most of those videos have shared a simple DIY tutorial for building your own mini hydraulic press.View full post on YoutubeAn industrial sized hydraulic press is extremely heavy and expensive, but a smaller version can be made using a standard 4-ton bottle jack—the same type used to change a car tire....

Choose your methodThere isn’t one welding process suitable for all applications, so you need to consider these factors: the type and thickness of the metal you’re welding, how big the job is, whether you’re welding indoors or outdoors, what you want the welds to look like, and your budget.The most widely used form of welding today is electric arc welding, in which an electric arc melts an electrode (welding wire, for instance) and partially melts the base metal....

An object beyond the orbit of Neptune is acting oddly, violating the traditional rules of orbit, and scientists can’t quite explain it yet. The trans-Neptunian object, or TNO, has been nicknamed Niku, a Chinese word for “rebellious.” When you consider the fact that Niku orbits the sun in the opposite direction of almost everything else in the solar system, it’s not hard to see where the name came from. About 124 miles in diameter, Niku has risen above the plane of the solar system....

(Published in the July 2005 issue)More: Learn how to build your own speakers.High-def TVs with movie-screen proportions are giving home theater fans new incentives to plunge into the dizzying sonic experience that comes only from a surround-sound system. Purists say the best approach is to envelop yourself in a constellation of speakers. Minimalists might opt instead for a virtual system that uses technical trickery to produce a similar effect with fewer speakers....

NASA is best known for building rockets and spacecraft, but don’t forget that “space” represents only one of the letters in the acronym. NASA also focuses on aeronautics, which means it’s continually trying to improve the planes we travel in every day.The most recent idea is called STARC-ABL, which stands for “Single-aisle Turboelectric Aircraft with an Aft Boundary-Layer propulsor.” It’s a terrible acronym, and for such a long-winded phrase you might expect something fancier than what it really is: an engine on the back of the plane....

Jupiter’s moon Europa probably has a vast ocean under its surface, and it may blast plumes of water out into space.It turns out that Galileo, a probe that visited Jupiter in the 1990s, probably flew through one of those plumes.The finding backs up the idea that Europa has liquid water and enough energy to possibly support alien life.About a year and a half ago, astronomers reviewing Hubble Space Telescope observations caught a blurry glimpse of what they believed were plumes of water erupting from Jupiter’s icy moon Europa....

The Pentagon has agreed to fix a litany of problems with the F-35 before moving to full production of the controversial jet. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, nicknamed “Panther” by pilots, is on the verge of going into full production. Yet even now the jet has nearly a thousand “deficiencies.” In response to a General Accounting Office report, the Pentagon has promised to fix the most critical deficiencies plaguing the plane....

Media Platforms Design TeamProtect Your RoofBuilt-up ice can lodge under shingles. This is not good, as Romy Sheynis, product marketing manager for EGS Electrical Group, explains. As the ice expands, it can damage shingles and cause them to peel. In fact, Sheynis says, over time ice buildup can compromise the roof’s integrity and cause leaks. He advises installing an electric heating system to prevent snow and ice dams.Ice dams form when blocks of ice develop on the edge of the roof and in the gutters, preventing water from running off, says Wally Lo, product manager for Nuheat....

Last night, Samsung Galaxy users were hit with a strange notification from the company’s “Find My Mobile” app.All the alert said was “1” with another “1” beneath, prompting mass confusion.Samsung U.K. has tweeted out that this was a testing error. We’ll update this story as we learn more.Samsung Galaxy owners awoke to a curious notification in the middle of the night on Thursday. Samsung’s “Find My Mobile” app, which comes pre-installed on devices like the foldable Galaxy Z Flip, the Galaxy S10, and the Galaxy Note 10, popped up with a weird message that only said “1” with another “1” right underneath the subject....

The best reason to get excited about the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con isn’t the teases about new releases or the world-class cosplay. It’s tiny Spock leaning against a Buick.One of the many toys that will fill the convention halls, this little die cast by Hot Wheels is modeled after a famous photo of Leonard Nimoy from the 1960s. Following the success of the original Star Trek TV series, the Spock actor bought this land yacht of a 1964 Buick Riviera and posed with it on the studio back lot....

Legendary actress Carrie Fisher, known best for her iconic role as Star Wars’ Princess Leia, died on Tuesday, resulting from an earlier cardiac episode during a flight to Los Angeles on December 23. A family spokesperson made the announcement saying Fisher passed away at 8:55am PT this morning.Although Fisher will forever be remembered as the cinnamon bun-wearing Princess that stole the hearts of a generation of science fiction fans with the release of Star Wars in 1977, her accomplishments reach even further than a galaxy far, far away with more than 90 film credits to her name and the author of a half a dozen books (including the most recent The Princess Diarist)....

Russia is sending newer and better air defense missiles to arm its Syrian allies even as it acknowledges Syrian surface-to-air missiles accidentally shot down a Russian spy plane this month. The Russian-made S-300 surface-to-air missiles will make Israeli air raids against its civil-war-wracked neighbor more difficult. Last week, a raid by four Israeli Air Force F-16 fighters on Hezbollah facilities in Syria triggered a series of events that resulted in Syrian air defenses shooting down a Russian Il-20M “Coot-A” intelligence gathering aircraft....

The Great Barrier Reef, one of the world’s natural treasures, is under threat from climate change. Climate change can alter the ocean’s chemistry and the kind of fish that live in the reef.A new study find five times in history that the reef survived natural changes to the climate, but they’re not so sure it can survive this time around.A major new study looking at 30,000 years of the Great Barrier Reef’s history shows the world’s largest living structure to be especially resilient....

Loft your eyes toward the skies on Sunday, Dec 3. The only supermoon of 2017 will be appearing over your head.“Supermoon” has become the widely popular term for what an astronomer would call the perigean full moon. That is, when the moon gets full right around the time of its perigee, the closest it gets to Earth. The moon’s orbit varies a lot. On average, our natural satellite is 238,000 miles from here....

As an expeditionary force, the U.S. Marine Corps is expected to operate in distant, faraway places with little support from the other services. That’s why, for example, it operates its own heavy artillery, fighter jets, and even aerial refueling tankers. That’s also why its largest helicopter, the CH-53 Sea Stallion heavy lift helicopter, can lift other helicopters in the Marines’ inventory if the latter run into a jam. View full post on YoutubeIn this video, a Sea Stallion lifts a AH-1Z attack helicopter during an exercise on Idesuna Jima, an uninhabited island off the coast of Okinawa....

Moons are abundant in our solar system: Earth has one, Mars has two, Jupiter has 79 and counting, not to mention the other gas giants. Even objects as small as asteroids can have moons. But astronomers have never confirmed an exomoon—a moon that orbits a world outside of our solar system.Until maybe now. And here’s the really weird part: The tentative exomoon seems to be as big as Neptune.A Faint Signal of Something HugeIn research published this week in Science Advances, Columbia University professor David Kipping and graduate student Alex Teachey reported using the Hubble Space Telescope to spot something trailing the planet Kepler-1625b....

Push[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/xNGu1QWwK9I&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0[/youtube]Release Date: February 6, 2009Push might seem like Heroes for the big screen, but instead of the characters’ powers being dictated by an eclipse, it’s a clandestine government agency called “The Division” that calls the shots. The organization has toyed with the genetic makeup of the characters to engineer warriors that can see the future, move things with their minds, create new realities and kill victims without touching them. Those who don’t cooperate are hunted down and killed....

Media Platforms Design TeamMotard is a European phenomenon. Usually, we don’t care how they do it in Europe, but in this case, they may be on to something. Start with a dirt bike, with its minimalist bodywork, ultra-light weight and pothole-absorbing long-travel suspension. Spoon on a set of grabby, nearly slick street tires instead of the off-road-capable knobbies, and you’ve got a motorcycle ideally suited to the cut and thrust of urban jousting—I mean commuting....