Posts

After facing internal complaints, it appears that Google has shuttered its long-running, on-again, off-again project for a censored search engine in China known as Dragonfly. Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Google executive Karan Bhatia said that the company had “terminated Project Dragonfly.“The Intercept, which first reported the story in 2018, claims that Google “effectively ended” the project in late December. Knowledge of Dragonfly first became public knowledge in 2018, and many Google employees learned about the project to create a search engine meeting the Chinese government’s restrictive standards According to The Intercept, the internal dispute stemmed from another Google holding, the Chinese homepage 265....

It’s 10 am on a Wednesday in February and the eastern United States is covered with snow and ice. Schools are closed, flights delayed, interstates barely open. But light bulbs need to be lit and laptops need powering. So Frank Dankovich and Doug Conklin suit up for another day at the office: steel-toed rubber boots; layers of warm clothing; hard hats and headlamps; belts heavy with emergency breathing apparatus, gas meters and two-way radios....

Media Platforms Design Team For the past few years, an arms race in thinness has been shrinking everything from cellphones to laptops. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, the battle officially migrated to flatscreens, with gadgetmakers big and small each proclaiming their ultra-svelte new monitors to be The World’s Thinnest.Of course, most of the sets turned out to be vaporware of mere design concepts. But Hitachi is actually coming to market with its entry into the ultrathin battle: the Hitachi UltraThin 1....

Proper air filtration is an often overlooked safety feature in many workshops. Most woodworking tools are setup with a vacuum system, but for those that don’t have one, a mobile air cleaner cart can work wonders when it comes to providing a cleaner environment.Jay Bates has found a way to repurpose an furnace blower into an air filtration device for his shop. He built a frame around the blower from plywood and 2 x 4s, and attached a switch to control the fan....

Iran’s home-brewed space program suffered an embarrassing failure today as its Safir rocket failed to deliver a Payam satellite into orbit. But to some U.S. government officials, this launch is not what it seems. They believe Iran’s space program is just a cover for the development of long-range missiles, though that view is not universally shared. The Safir rocket’s third stage reportedly ran into trouble after the launch from Imam Khomeini Space Center in Iran’s Semnan province early this morning....

Media Platforms Design TeamWhen federal prosecutors revealed this past weekend a foiled terrorist plot to blow up jet fuel tanks and a pipeline at JFK International Airport, there were equal sentiments of relief and fear: While it quickly became clear that the suspects had hatched a plan that was far from operational—if even feasible—the news still brings to question the security of miles of explosive fuel flowing under population hubs such as New York City....

In the waning days of World War II, a last-ditch effort to shoot down American bombers ravaging Germany took to the skies—and promptly crashed. The Natter (“Grass Snake”) was designed to be an inexpensive, easy-to-build interceptor using newly developed rocket technology to achieve flight. The single use aircraft was developed too late to have an impact on the war, with only a handful of planes developed before V-E Day.View full post on YoutubeBy 1944 Germany was suffering heavily from continuous Allied bombing....

To reach another star system, we need a method of propulsion other than current rocket technology. Alpha Centauri, the closest star to us, is about 4.4 light years away, or about 41 trillion kilometers (or a little under 26 trillion miles). With Voyager 1—the most distant spacecraft we have ever launched—traveling at about 17 kilometers per second (38,000 mph), it would take more than 76,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri (if it were going in the right direction, which it’s not)....

In any interview on the woes of America’s infrastructure, conducted with a civil engineer, city planner, energy researcher or water resource manager, a reporter will eventually be lectured on the subject of money. There’s never enough being spent, according to the professionals, and the gap between the to-do list and the funding is always increasing. Fix one bridge, and meanwhile three more will pass their expiration date and start to emit the scent of decay....

It’s a simple concept: take a race car and make it street legal by adding turn signals, headlights, and the other accoutrements required by the local authorities and inspection station. In the South, street-legal NASCAR racers are a relatively common genre of track toy. But an IndyCar is on another level of difficulty—open wheel, single-seat, and with an unobtainable engine that that’s actually a piece of the chassis itself. Gary Cheney, a serial car builder from New Hampshire, knew better than most how hard it would be to make an IndyCar tolerable for the street....

Historians have unmasked a fourth Soviet spy who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory during nuclear bomb development in the 1940s.Los Alamos is still one of the foremost nuclear research facilities in the world.The fourth spy was much more involved in high-level explosives research than historians could extrapolate before.The New York Times reports that historians have unearthed a new, fourth Soviet spy who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory during development of nuclear bombs in the late 1940s....

We know you Popular Mechanics readers are busy DIYers. From fixing leaky faucets, to changing gear lube to tackling growing lawns, your weekends are devoted to the noble art of making things work, and making them work right.With all the care, skill and thought we devote to our projects, it’s shame that most of our Adirondack chairs, Parsons tables or nesting tables rarely get out of the house. That’s why Popular Mechanics created a place for you to share your craft with other DIYers in the online community, instructables....

The latest threat for the Pentagon to worry about: swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles designed to overwhelm their under-equipped target. ISIS combatants abroad and hostage takers in the United States have started using squadrons of off-the-shelf drones to annoy, surveil, and even drop munitions. But there’s a new way to fight back.Armed Forces and law enforcement have surprisingly few effective anti-drone tools, and none—that are declassified—to target multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or swarms....

Yesterday, during a meeting at the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation and Space, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz extolled reasons why the U.S. needs to adopt a sixth branch of the military, known as the Space Force.While there are certainly valid reasons for the U.S. to invest more resources into protecting space assets, Cruz decided to highlight one threat in particular that’s pretty perplexing—the advent of space pirates.View full post on IframeHere’s exactly what he said:Since the ancient Greeks first put to sea, nations have recognized the necessity of naval forces and maintaining a superior capability to protect waterborne travel and commerce from bad actors....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe Sims series is a powerful world-building toolbox with 14 years of experience. And it’s about to get even better.On September 2, 2014, Electronic Arts’ Maxis studio will launch The Sims 4, the new core installment of the hugely successful PC franchise. Like any sequel, the game will feel like an old friend: You’re still going to create your own sims, build your own house, determine your own lives, and hopefully not kill or neglect your own avatar....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe humble hand file is a such a common tool that you’ve probably used one at some point. But most people are using them incorrectly. A file should not be used in a “sawing” motion (pressed back-and-forth), but rather pushed forward then lifted off the work piece each time.The cutting teeth on a file are forward-facing, which means they work only when the file is moved in that direction....

They kill crops, coax snowfall to fall out of the atmosphere, and help ski resorts stay open during unseasonably warm weather. These tiny life-forms are called ice-minus bacteria, and their talent is forcing water vapor to form ice—creating frost at temperatures where the water wouldn’t otherwise freeze. Today scientists may finally understand how these bacteria work their molecular magic. A team of scientists led by Tobias Weidner, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany, has just completed a fascinating new study on how ice-minus bacteria manipulate water into freezing....

Media Platforms Design TeamElectric CompanyOkay, they’re each sold separately, but Ideal’s PocketPro digital multimeter, Ratch-A-Nut screwdriver and Kinetic Reflex T-Stripper wire strippers work so well together, we can’t imagine them apart. The perfect homeowner’s back-pocket electrical toolkit, this new trio delivers sturdy construction, good industrial design, affordability and innovative features. If you can’t handle the job with these tools, call an electrician.WISH LISTBetter Mousetrap?Media Platforms Design Team Key Grip Sometimes, all it takes to make a great design even better is one little tweak....

Media Platforms Design TeamJournalists and carmakers love to toss around the term halo car. But what the heck is it really? Do we even know?The halo car is often described as a figurehead for a brand, a car that may sell in smaller volumes but that captures the public imagination. Traditionally halo numbers have been sexy sports cars. Think Mustang, Miata, 911, WRX, or M3. But a halo car is really how a brand says, “This is what we’re all about....

Media Platforms Design TeamYou’re about to head out on long business trip or extended working “vacation.” The question is, do you bring a smartphone, your laptop, or a tablet? For many people, the answer is all three. The phone is for answering calls, checking email, and sneaking Angry Birds; the tablet is for streaming videos; and the laptop is for all things truly work. But will lugging around a computer always be necessary?...