Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2014 i Popular Mechanics

A 60-foot-wide floating wind turbine is coming to Fairbanks, Alaska. From a height of 1000 feet, the Buoyant Airborne Turbine (BAT) will harness winds that are six times more powerful than the winds at ground level, supplying electricity to a dozen local homes. An 18-month experiment targeted for launch in 2015, BAT will fly 275 feet higher than the tallest stationary wind turbine, and could eventually get up to 2000 feet high. At 30 kilowatts, BAT has a larger capacity than the 20-kilowatt Makani Power airborne turbine that received a 2011 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award. Whereas Makani's turbines are supported by an autonomous airplane, BAT stays aloft via a helium-filled shell. At its center, three turbine blades spin a shaft that turns a generator to produce electricity. Tethers hold the…

When the world's top national teams take the field in June to crown a champion, the tournament will culminate years of training, strategizing, and qualifying. But it's not just the teams that'll be on display. Every minute aspect of the tournament will be pored over by a global audience nearly five times as big as the Super Bowl's. And everyone involved—from stadium architects to sports-equipment makers—is aiming to impress. 1. Stadium Smarts To host the World Cup final on July 13, Rio de Janeiro's Maracanã Stadium underwent a $500 million remodel, including the construction of a 50,000-square-meter roof with 18 filters to collect and clean rainwater used to irrigate the field and flush toilets. The roof also features 1556 solar panels generating 529 megawatt-hours per year, enough to power 240…

Mars is no stranger to life. Seven U.S. spacecraft have successfully landed there, and all of them took microbes to the planet's surface (though the bugs probably did not survive for long). Yet the world's space agencies continue to maintain strict spacecraft sterilization procedures in the hope of minimizing the spread of Earth life beyond our planet. For decades this ethos—known as planetary protection—prevailed. Now, some scientists say, these precautions are undermining the search for life beyond Earth by raising costs and inhibiting innovative missions—without meaningful benefits. Of all missions to Mars to date, only the Vikings, the first trips to the Red Planet, were intended explicitly to test for life. Spacecraft that went later did not have that ability. But a future mission will, and, the protectionist thinking goes,…

1. SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTEPRO 12.2 ($700) Sure, 12.2 inches seems like too much tablet. But the more we used the NotePro, the more it felt like an adequate laptop substitute. The Android tablet has business-friendly apps, and the giant screen provides the best typing experience we've had without a keyboard. 2. SIGMA DP2 QUATTRO (TBD) DP2 Quattro contains one of the biggest deviations in camera technology we've seen in years. The DSLR's sensor is built with three layers of photodiodes, which allows it to process light and color separately, through multiple layers, producing picture quality you'd expect from film. 3. BEEP ($150) The Beep is a sleek touch-sensitive knob that turns most speakers into a digital-music streamer and syncs with multiple devices via Bluetooth. We wish we'd known about it…

"You can buy things wherever you are. If the locals can get by, so can you. I could live without anything but pens and pencils." Carl Hoffman's award-winning journalism has taken him to some of the world's most remote and dangerous places. His latest book is Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art. ZOOM VOICE RECORDER I recorded people singing when I was in the Asmat region of New Guinea, working on Savage Harvest. They would wake me up in the middle of the night. STAPLES NOTEBOOK I use these 5 x 7–inch spiral notebooks for everything. Always. I have hundreds of them. I can't write fast enough in reporter's notebooks. KINDLE I prefer books, but if you're away for two months…

We've seen the future, and at least as it pertains to drills, it's cordless. That was our take after testing six new 20-volt drill drivers. These tools can be equipped two ways: with a large battery for long sessions of boring holes or driving screws, or with a small battery that decreases their weight and bulk. Regardless, they have an astonishing ability to bore and screw. To evaluate these machines, we used a 1-inch-diameter spade bit and made holes in Douglas fir2 x 8s; then we drove 3-inch-long lag screws into pressure-treated 4 x 4s of southern yellow pine. Finally, we examined the tools' performance after leaving them in an unheated garage for several days. All the equipment met or exceeded our expectations for performance and value. BLACK & DECKER…

2015 CHEVROLET TAHOE CHEVROLET SUBURBAN GMC YUKON GMC YUKON XL PRICE:$45,595–$69,375 AVAILABLE: NOW MPG (CITY/HWY): 14–16/20–23 Meet GM's 2015 Full-Size SUVs GM dominates the market for big SUVs, with seven of 10 sales going to the General. So overhauling the 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban—and their GMC Yukon and Yukon XL twins—demanded a deft touch. A golden touch too, because, while this corner of the market has contracted considerably since the late 1990s, both the prices and equipment standards have gone up. Based on our test drives, we'd say GM's new fleet of big SUVs largely delivers on the promised refinements. Seats are better bolstered, and cabin noise is reduced, thanks to redesigned doors with thicker glass and triple seals. Opt for leather (standard on the GMCs), and you'll find…

Because being a father today means more than just following your son or daughter on Instagram. And while they may think you're an idiot when you can't jailbreak your iPhone, there are still some things a kid can learn from dear old dad. Age 1: You're new, I get it. Just remember, if it's hard or shiny, you're still too tiny. If it bounces or bends, it's all yours, my friend. Age 2: Let sleeping dads lie. Age 3: You'll learn some of the best lessons when holding a flashlight for dad. Age 4: Don't throw away the jelly jar. Army men, nuts and bolts, loose change, fireflies, arrowheads, cuff links. These are just a few things you can put in an empty jelly jar. You wanna save the planet?…

What You'll Need      • Can of gas duster      • Can of beer      • Pliers      • Nail or screw      • Cigarette lighter      • Plastic container with lid      • Duct tape      • Kitchen gloves Directions STEP 1 Scrounge a spare nail or screw from your toolbox; make sure it's long enough that you can grip it with pliers. Heat it up with a lighter, and while the screw is still piping hot, melt a tiny hole through the plastic container just wide enough for the straw on your can of gas duster to fit snugly through the gap. STEP 2 Place your beer inside the plastic container, and tape the lid closed so it doesn't fly off. Make sure to wear your gloves—they protect against frostbite. Turn the can of gas duster…

What You'll Need Recommended Tools Table saw with sliding miter gauge or custom-made sled, and a dado set Miter saw Band saw or jigsaw Cordless drill Pocket-hole jig No. 8 countersink drill bit Router table with round-over bit Basic Supplies ½ sheet of plywood 1½-inch No. 8 pocket screws 1½-inch No. 8 stainless-steel wood screws PVA wood glue Open-top toolboxes trump lidded boxes because they provide easy access to the tools I use most. Best of all, they're customizable. As a high school shop teacher, I have my students riff on the design and build something to suit their own needs. But they always start with the same A-frame template. Here are five examples I created for PopMech, which I made primarily out of plywood and screws. Rough and ready?…

To me, detailing is about chasing perfection. The addiction is believing that one day I might be able to achieve it. Larry Kosilla For starters, never even touch your car without a lubricant such as water, spray wax, waterless wash, or soap. These lift contaminants from the surface, "so you won't grind soil into the paint and spend the rest of the day buffing out the scratches," Kosilla says. Try to be methodical and work in this order: wheels, paint, interior, and glass. Otherwise, you'll waste precious time fumbling around washing and rewashing. Doing the wheels first, before you wet the rest of the car, prevents water spots from forming on the paint. Wash the glass last in case you smudge the windows while cleaning the interior. Dirty wheels often…

The engine sat there on the stand, seemingly glowing in the low morning light that streamed into the shop: a flat-head, 327-cubic-inch Packard inline eight, circa 1950. In its heyday it was one of the finest engines Detroit ever built, producing 150 hp and 270 lb-ft of torque. It idled so smoothly you could balance a nickel on its edge atop the block's head. It was big and beautiful in a way that never made sense for a passenger car. It was unabashedly American. Mine had logged more than 100,000 miles and was due for a major overhaul. But engines are complicated things and require expertise to assemble properly. Luckily, I'm an auto journalist, and I know lots of people who've built engines. And with the Detroit Auto Show coming…

This summer Godzilla is back in theaters, and he's big. Since his first awakening, the radioactive, fire-spewing kaiju has grown 200 feet and put on more than 150,000 tons. Godzilla is now 30 stories tall and weighs as much as a cruise ship. No actual animal could take the pressure of being so massive: It would overheat, its organs would implode, and it would need to mainline butter to get enough calories. For fun, we surveyed scientists to help us break down the beast's biology. If Godzilla were real, he would be an incredible specimen. LIFE SPAN 2000 years HEART SIZE 60 feet across 100 tons BLOOD VOLUME 530,000 gallons WEIGHT 164,000 tons WEIGHT PROBLEMS Godzilla would weigh 164,000 tons, according to our keen analysis of the 2014 Godzilla toy…

Q How did the video-game industry get started? A In the late 1960s Ralph Baer, an engineer at defense contractor Sanders Associates, invented video games. But the company didn't know how to monetize this contraption, so it licensed the idea to Magnavox, which created the Odyssey, the first commercial game console. Odyssey had 12 available games, each involving a ball and slightly different gameplay. The games inspired Atari's Pong—a major hit. Home consoles became popular, arcade games became popular, and video games became a billion-dollar industry—until 1983, when the so-called Atari crash happened. The culprit was a glut of bad games. Because the early years had been so successful, Atari and its competitors seemed to think anything would sell. Q When did Nintendo take over? A While the rest of…

New Hands-Free, High-Seas Defenses LOW TECH The Guardian is a series of bright-orange plastic barriers that fit onto ships' safety rails to thwart potential hijackers. Designed by a British couple, the system uses a bullet-resistant, high-density compound to form a slippery, 3-foot-wide overhang that renders ropes, hooks, and ladders ineffective—they simply can't attach. Guardian barriers are custom-made, and crews can install them more safely than they can barbed wire. In May 2013 a container ship fitted with the barriers successfully fended off an attack by Nigerian pirates. HIGH TECH WatchStander uses patented software algorithms developed for the U.S. Navy along with off-the-shelf hardware parts to track and deter pirates. The system's radar can spot small boats from up to 2 miles away. If suspicious vessels approach, a tracking spotlight becomes…

Be you pro-privacy or paranoid, this month you can buy the first secure smartphone. Silent Circle's Blackphone ($629) uses a heavily modified Android OS with a 2-GHz quad-core processor and 16 GB storage. The only difference is that users can choose when they want to go off the grid. Ordering Chinese food? No encryption necessary. Ordering Chinese M-80s? Turn on Silent Phone mode—although it's a bit more complicated than that. True encryption only works with Silent Circle subscribers. We support the company's mission, but that doesn't mean we haven't formed opinions about the first people who ordered it. In fact, we have assumptions about every phone and its users.…

Razor Laser PRICE: $90 LENGTH SETTINGS: 17 Tycoons, MLB pros, and archvillains, rejoice: The Philips Norelco Beardtrimmer Series 9000 will help you fine-tune your facial fur with laser-guided precision. An extension pops out from the top of the device and casts a red line of light across the body part you want to shave. You can also use a wheel to adjust the trim length to 17 different settings, each one a mere 0.2 mm apart. That's enough variation to re-create the gardens of Versailles on your mouth brow—if that's your style. Need some stache-spiration? Here are the precise angles of a few of our favorite whiskers. TONY STARK Shaving angle: 93° HULK HOGAN Shaving angle: 90° DAVID ORTIZ Shaving angle: 128° WORF Shaving angle: 74° BURT REYNOLDS Shaving angle:…

2015 MERCEDES-BENZ GLA45 AMG Price $47,500 (Est.) Available Fall 2014 MPG (CITY/HWY) 23/31 (Est.) Horsepower 355 hp Torque 332 lb-ft AMG. Typically those three performance-packed letters are enough to make us swoon over any model Mercedes. Not so with the new GLA-Class. Hold on, hear us out. With its turbocharged 2.0-liter supplying 355 hp—an extra 147 hp over the standard GLA250's engine—the 45 is certainly good fun. Steering is precise, and acceleration is immediate. But here's the catch: The standard GLA250 is a superb small luxury SUV for the price (est. $30,000). It lacks the power of the AMG or Macan S, but it's no slouch and is easily the best deal in this segment. So much so that we can't justify paying the AMG premium. — Andrew Del-Colle VS…

There are certain sounds that I feel in my bone marrow: the scraping of metal on metal, the death grind of misaligned gears, the low clanking of an engine on the verge of failure. These are the noises that have defined my life. I'm a tinkerer by inclination and a fixer by profession. Ten years ago my college roommate and I founded iFixit, a free online repair manual. We teach people how to repair the stuff they own, in part because most of them have lost both the skill and the inclination to repair. Fixing things is a dying art. This cultural lapse is reinforced by society's celebration of ending over mending. But here's the thing: Broken isn't a permanent state. It's a challenge, as if entropy were issuing us…

THE HELICOPTER AS WE KNOW IT, AND DEVISING RADICAL NEW ROTORCRAFT TO REPLACE IT. THE RESULT MAY CHANGE MILITARY OPERATIONS—AND CIVILIAN SKIES—FOREVER. Sikorsky technicians at a hangar in Florida work on the S-97 Raider, the first production-ready prototype of a compound-coaxial helicopter. THE BUILDING doesn't look like much—one of several nondescript hangars alongside an airstrip on the edge of the Everglades, baking in the eternal monotony of the central Florida sun. This is the home of Sikorsky Aircraft's Area 31, where the company works on its most advanced rotorcraft projects. Like Area 51, the famously clandestine Air Force base in the Nevada desert, this airfield is home to experimental aircraft being built and tested. The mystery projects here need to be kept not only from other nations but from…

I was having way too much fun trimming a large shrub recently, and I think I got a little overenthusiastic. As I swung the bar of the trimmer up and down one of the bush's sides, the cord swung too—right into the slashing jaws of the trimmer. Thunk. Trimmer silent. Breaker blown. Pride dented. I just spliced the cord—I wasn't going to throw away a 40-foot extension cord—and kept working. (Yes, I'm fully aware that my actions probably violated multiple UL standards, warranties, and codes.) Twenty minutes later it happened again. I really needed a better system. Or more electrical tape. The Fix: I hang a carabiner (a spring-loaded clip that climbers use) off my back belt loop and run the cord through that to keep it from swinging in…

Even sunny April days can be cold in south-central Alaska, so my family and I bundled up before we went bird-watching. My wife, Laura, and I loaded our three kids—Grace, 11; Damien, 8; and 7-month-old Camille—into the car, and we drove about 20 minutes from our home in Kenai to the mouth of the Kasilof River and set off across the dunes to look for shorebirds. We'd been walking for only a few minutes when we spotted an adult brown bear 300 yards down the beach. It had probably just emerged from its winter den and looked lean and shaggy. It must have been very hungry. The bear disappeared behind a dune, but for safety's sake we started moving in the other direction. That's when Grace said, "Dad, it's right…

1 A diesel-like clattering in your gas-powered car. Worst-case scenario: Detonation, also known as pinging or knock. Bad stuff that can happen: Damage to spark plug electrode, pistons/piston rings, and/or knock sensor. Why: Things like bad gasoline or incorrect ignition timing cause the fuel to go boom too early. If left unchecked, you risk serious engine damage. What to do: Switch to higher octane gas, which resists detonation, and check the timing. 2 Questlove drumming underneath your car when it's moving, increasing with vehicle (not engine) speed. Worst-case scenario: Failing universal joint or driveshaft bushing. Bad stuff that can happen: U-joint fails completely, driveshaft digs into pavement, and the car pole-vaults and crashes. Why: Both the U-joint and bushings simply wear out. The noise comes from the driveshaft flopping around…

From icy world trade and chilled beef to magnets that fight melting, we bring you the cold, hard truth about ice. • 1806: Frederic Tudor sells river ice from Massachusetts to people in Martinique and Cuba. Tudor lands in debtor's prison, later finding a better way to harvest ice that won't melt en route. • 1878: Gustavus Swift is the first to ship dressed beef, not live cattle, by train from the Midwest. He keeps it fresh by hiring engineer Andrew Chase to perfect the ice-chilled railcar. • 1913: Fred Wolf Jr. upgrades kitchens with the DOMELRE (DOMestic ELectric REfrigerator), but the device is just an electric fan atop an icebox. • 1924: Though dry ice was known in 1835, Thomas Slate is the first to sell it for railcar…

When Tesla's Model S sedan proved vulnerable to impact-related battery fires last year, the company acted quickly. Although only three cars caught fire, Tesla developed a new aluminum and titanium underbody shield system to further protect the battery, which is located under the floor (existing models will be retrofitted). With its flexible, high-tech Model S assembly plant, the company was able to swiftly implement the safety modifications. — ANDREW DEL-COLLE…

1. Stop–assist lever To stop or slow down more aggressively, the stop–assist lever drives the wheel slightly ahead of the bike so the rider leans back more. 2. Balance Together with an accelerometer that establishes a center of gravity, three silicon gyros, each the size of a human hair, monitor side-to-side and front-to-back balance. If a rider leans too far forward, the Ryno's software automatically moves the wheel forward under the rider to maintain stability. 3. Battery Bay A 6-hour wall outlet charge provides enough juice for about 10 miles. 4. Tire and wheel A 635-millimeter-wide tire wraps around a wheel that contains the Ryno's innards—including two electric motors, two motor controllers, three gyros, a circuit board, five processors, the drivetrain, and two lead–acid batteries. Everything remains stable as the…

TECH. TOOLS. AUTO. Certified bear-resistant. Virtually indestructible. Toughest cases on earth. These are the claims of some of the high-end coolers on the market today. To which we say: Challenge accepted. We threw three of these ice chests off a cliff and out of a moving car to see if the claims were true—and then had a live bear try his own paws at it. Ondar, the 450-pound grizzly bear, lives in King George County, Virginia, and loves marshmallows. ABUSIVE LAB TEST @jenningsbrown THE GEAR PELICAN PROGEAR 35QT ELITE EXTERIOR DIMENSIONS: 26½" x 20" x 18¾" WEIGHT: 32 pounds PRICE: $260 YETI TUNDRA 35 EXTERIOR DIMENSIONS: 21" x 16" x 15½" WEIGHT: 17 pounds PRICE: $300 YUKON 50 EXTERIOR DIMENSIONS: 33½" x 17" x 17½" WEIGHT: 32…

DJI Spreading Wings S1000 PRICE: $3600DIAGONAL WIDTH: 41.1" Flaunting eight powerful blades on retractable carbon-fiber arms, the S1000 octocopter is as steady as it is daunting. The remote-controlled workhorse lugs up to 15 pounds of camera equipment—enough to shoot next summer's blockbuster. What's more, the UAV stays aloft for 15 minutes and can maintain stability even in the event of a midair rotor loss. Watching the attachable lower gimbal fluidly move to keep a camera steady as its rotors maneuver above is almost creepy. Blade 180 QX HD PRICE: $150DIAGONAL WIDTH: 11.5" The 180 QX is compact enough to land on the palm of your hand, but this 3.3-ounce bot packs a lot of tech under its shell. With the drone's adjustable flight-stability software, built-in 720-pixel camera, and intuitive remote…

Good man. You don't hear people say that much anymore. On the rare occasion when they do, it's as if they are deliberately being old-fashioned. It seems we can't speak from the heart the way we once did. Which brings me to Louis Peterson, a man for whom that was a particularly apt description. An industrial engineer, Navy man, and World War II veteran, he was also a self-taught carpenter, and a fine one at that. Pete, as he was called, built the house where he and his wife, Beatrice, raised their seven children, whom they had in orderly boy-girl-boy-girl fashion. No. 6 grew up and married me. That's how I met Pete. At the center of Pete's projects was a gigantic1950s Skil circular saw, the very embodiment of the…

@andrewdelcolle "Man, that isn't your GT-R, is it?" It took me a second to realize the guy was talking to me. I was busy scanning the collection of old thermoses at the quirky barbecue joint I'd stopped in for lunch about 2 hours outside Nashville. Pig and horsepower occupied the majority of my thoughts. "Because I was just telling him," he went on, nodding toward his friend standing in line at the counter, "that car will blow away that Camaro out there." Turning toward the man, I grinned. "Oh yeah." When I revealed my destination, he let out a big laugh. As if being handed the keys to a $100,000 545-hp supercar nicknamed Godzilla weren't fantasy enough, I was heading to Tennessee's infamous Tail of the Dragon, an 11-mile stretch…

At the age of 19 he succeeded, unveiling the first affordable system that would allow users to explore three-dimensional digital worlds. The Oculus Rift won support from an army of Kickstarter backers, attracted big-money venture capital, and turned Luckey into a rising rock star in the tech world. And then Facebook came calling. Palmer Luckey likes to go barefoot. However, when he met the men who would become his business partners in Oculus VR, a company that was recently sold to Facebook for $2 billion, he decided to wear flip-flops. It was an important meeting. This was in the summer of 2012, and he was 19 years old. Luckey was also wearing shorts and a T-shirt, and he was carrying a plastic bin. Inside were a tangle of wires, a…

My perennials always died because I watered them too little or too much, or put them somewhere too dark or too hot. Recently I vowed to keep my plants alive, so I turned to Arduino. I'd been looking for an excuse to try out this microcontroller platform, which I knew could be programmed to do a lot of cool things. Why not use it to save my ailing amaryllis? In an afternoon I built a smart sensor that reads and displays soil-moisture levels, light intensity, and temperature. Getting Started Arduino uses open-source hardware and software, so I was able to borrow ideas from other well-tested devices. I found instructions for several Arduino-based plant sensors online, including the GardenBot, the ArduGarden, and a solar-powered sensor that measures soil fertility and weather…

Plastic sleeves provide enough friction within drywall to hold small picture frames and mirrors. Back in the day, DIYers made their own sleeves from scrap wire insulation. Split-ribbed anchors open up as you install the screw, so they hold better than sleeves. They don't endure daily abuse, though, so use something else for the towel bar. Self-drilling anchors save you the hassle of finding a bit, but they shred if they hit a stud. Don't know what's beneath the rock? Use the metal version. A renter's dream: Once removed, hammer-in anchors leave a small slit that's easy to patch. Your landlord's walls—and your security deposit—remain intact. These anchors hold up to 159 pounds, but Toggler recommends no more than a quarter of that load. That's real talk—and wise advice for…

CLAIM: At 1000 words per minute, you could read this issue in 20 minutes! HENDERSON: Aside from becoming a genius,that would be hard, because difficult words and complex grammar slow you down. It's not the text that's the problem; it's the content that requires extra processing. We know how people normally read, from eye-tracking experiments. Their eyes stop on a location for about a quarter of a second and then hop to another location and pause. As text becomes more difficult, those pauses increase by up to a tenth of a second. It doesn't sound like much, but it's critical to understanding the text. With this new method, Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP)—which is what Spritz uses—words are quickly presented one after the other at a constant rate,…

1. Straight Got an old CD lying around? Of course you do (thanks, Spotify!). Place it label side down on the workpiece and centered over where you want the hole. Set the drill bit into the disc's hole, and position the drill until the bit is in a straight line with its reflection. 2. Straighter Nail together a couple of 1 x 2 scrap pieces to form a right angle. It's important to make everything true and square or you're wasting your time. Position the drill bit tight into the corner of the jig and bore your hole. 3. Straightest A guide attachment turns your hand drill into a portable drill press. Like a drill press, you can set the depth of the hole and change the angle of attack.…