Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Popular Mechanics South Africa

The last person to do it in public was the other man on this page, Zoaib Hoosen, MD of Microsoft South Africa. To be fair, I don’t think a magazine editor has ever asked him to drop to his knees and play with toys before. But that’s par for the course when you’re bringing the world’s largest software company to the level of the average consumer. It’s encouraging that there are tech companies trying to empower the man on the street to do greater things. And most of it works on the device you already own. We’re truly at the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution. Ironically, our rampant growth in technology will be our ultimate end. The incessant churn of consumer devices is creating electronic waste at a never-before-seen…

WHEN THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE launched in 1990, becoming the first truly powerful telescope not handicapped by interference from Earth’s atmosphere, there were nine known planets. In the entire universe. One of which would turn out not to be a planet. (Sorry, Pluto.) Today, we know of about 3 700, and most weren’t found by Hubble. In retrospect, though, it was the beginning of a sequence of missions NASA would go on to formalise as the Exoplanet Exploration Program in 2009 (planets outside our solar system are called extrasolar planets, or exoplanets for short). That program is exploding our conception of how crowded space may be. After final preparation of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite departed Cape Canaveral on 18 April. Smaller than a smart…

Fitbit’s launched a new fitness smartwatch (yes, another one). The Versa has a rounded-square design, meaning it bears more than a passing resemblance to the Apple Watch. Looks aside, it has a ton of features, including wireless syncing to more than 200 iOS, Android and Windows devices, heart-rate tracking tech from PurePulse, on-screen workout guidance and that impressive four-day battery life. This also happens to be Fitbit’s first device that monitors women’s health, giving you the ability to log your menstrual cycle, track your ovulation and discover patterns in your cycle. NOKIA 8 SIROCCO Nokia’s steadily been making a comeback over the past year and the all-new Nokia 8 Sirocco is arguably the pinnacle of the company’s design prowess. It has a nearly bezel-less design and a 5,5-inch P-OLED display…

DISASSEMBLY REPORT NOTES: When the Razor scooter craze started in the early 2000s, the lightweight, foldable scooters were mostly just for kids. But the design has proved enduring, even for adults, because it offers some of the efficiency of biking while being easier to stow. And perhaps because the technology has improved: back when the scooters debuted, acceleration assistance meant looping your dog’s leash over the handlebars and chucking a tennis ball. Today you can get the eMicro One, which uses an electric motor to lift some of the burden from your kicking leg. Like pedal-assist e-bikes, it manages the trick of making a ride easier without changing the experience. THE STANDARD PART The front part of the eMicro One is exactly like a standard kick scooter. At the top,…

WE SELDOM THINK about spices as plants, and we really don’t think about the people who grow those plants. Spices are almost entirely grown on small farms, picked by hand, and dried in the sun. Through my company, Burlap & Barrel, I’m trying to connect people with their spice farmers. We work directly with farmers across the world who grow unique, wonderful spices – think cinnamon with hints of citrus peel and sea salt – that don’t fit the mould of growing generic flavours for giant companies. Eight years ago, I was a pastry chef with an itch to do good. I left my kitchen and got into a graduate program for conflict and development. After school, I went to a remote northern province of Afghanistan with an NGO (non-governmental…

Come Here Often? A compilation of excellent writing about bars, this book includes dives, music joints, and even a bar in Antarctica. Read it while you have whatever you’re having. Drink Like a Man The closest thing to a modern classic, by Ross McCammon and David Wondrich, this will set you straight on old-school drinks and the tastiest ways to riff on them. Also: It contains plenty of booze history for lording over people at parties. The Flavor Bible Not a drinks book, per se, but very handy for determining which flavours go with which. “If you try something and you like it, it’s a cocktail,” says Weissert. “Cocktails come from somewhere, you know?”…

I USED to be a Porsche purist, seduced by the superior roar of a fine-tuned flat-six. I also just hated the Boxster when it was first launched, because I felt it watered down the brand too much, a similar criticism I had for the Macan. You can then imagine my outrage when Porsche invoked the glorious 718 heritage and placed that hallowed mantle on the very model I loathed. And then I drove the GTS. It wasn’t really mind-blowing on the refined Kyalami circuit and the 2,5-litre flat-four still sounds like a tarted-up GTI, but you can definitely tell that the engineers really tried to turn it into a proper Porsche. The 718 GTS is sharp, responsive and well balanced, so retaining just enough of that quintessential Porsche edge to…

I picked it up on a hot summer night and tried the air-con. Not only did it not work, but the fan resistor blew out and the cabin filled up with electrical smoke. Another time, the ignition switch failed right there in my driveway. Once, when I was driving to work, a pinhole leak in the auxiliary transmission cooler bled pink fluid all over the windshield. There’s a quote I found on one of the forums: “Land Rover: turning drivers into mechanics since 1948.” And that’s the anti-charm of these trucks, the myriad potential electrical gremlins on obsolete out-ofproduction components. But it’s all worth it to possess a classic three-ton, four-wheel-drive head-turner. Mine is a short-wheelbase model, with the oldfashioned coil springs, a factory brush guard and a front tow…

The worst drought in Cape Town continues unabated in “The Fairest Cape in all the circumference of the Earth” (Francis Drake, I believe), and lately we have lived our daily lives, from morning till evening, to the surrounding background syncopation and “ heavy-metal” throb and pulse of borehole drilling machines. Like giant mosquitoes, they probe the fragile, dry, skin of our gardens in order to suck the life-blood of the water-bearing layers below. I fear that these thirsty bores that surround my home of 50 years bode ill for the future productivity of my hitherto trusty well point, and I have distinct reservations about tapping the aquifers below while my roof-water continues to find its way down to the sea. The proposed tapping of the major aquifer under the Cape…

When innovative minds are at play, you get some great solutions. Shower Buddy is ready. A FRIENDLY GUIDE TO THE DIGITAL AGE. WHY YOU GET SPAM PHONE CALLS WHENEVER YOU SHOP online or even set up a new Bluetooth speaker, you probably have to create an account. That used to mean entering an email address, then clicking a “verify” link. Now, some services such as Lyft and Square’s Cash app verify you by text. But just as your inbox has become a cache for 50%-off-sale emails and scammers disguised as customer support, disseminating your phone number across the internet creates opportunities to find you and obtain your sensitive info. Some bad guys use a technique called neighbour spoofing, which gives incoming numbers the same area code as yours in hopes…

LATE AFTERNOON. Cocktail hour. Whisky-tinted light canting in through the windows. Dust motes. The whole bit. You could have a beer. But that’s just taking something out of the fridge. Have you ever been impressed by a person who took something out of the fridge? Maybe if the something was a cheesecake. And the person was a dog. No. You’re going to have a cocktail, because our ancestors invented cocktail hour to give much-needed structure to what is otherwise an inconsiderate march of unregulated, haphazard moments. Friend in from out of town? Make a set of sidecars in a punch bowl. Lay-offs at work? Make a stiff martini that you can stir yogi-like until your thoughts dissolve into vague wisps of horror and indignation. I’m not saying you should structure…

THE CAT CAME with my girlfriend, who brought the most basic of litter boxes: an ugly plastic dome. I couldn’t handle looking at such an unattractive thing. We needed something better. My friend Amanda is an artist, and she connected me to a woodworker, a fellow artist she knew named Scott Chasse. Chasse had just started making birdhouses, but for cats. After talking to him, we decided we could tweak the design a little to make it perfect for my living room. And my cat, Pico. I sent him a simple schematic of exactly what I was looking for. I wanted the tray of litter to rest directly against the walls of the box. That way, the litter couldn’t spill out. We added vents to the design, too. Chasse spent…

1967 The first new “instant print” system in almost 20 years that can print a black and white picture in 60 seconds comes on to the market. A battery-powered flash gun that attaches to the camera was also included. This was an attempt to compete with Polaroid instant cameras, first released in 1948. 1972 Popular Mechanics looks at what it takes to be a road-racing legend. There’s more to it than just driving fast – it also takes extraordinary balance between accelerating, shutting off, hard braking, dozens of gear shifts and so much more. 1954 We looked at the unveiling of the ’55 Pontiac and the newcar parade, which showcased all the advancements in the automotive industry that would thrill the world in 1955. 1961 X-ray was researched as an…

If I switch from bagging my grass clippings to mulching them, do I need a new blade? There are three basic blade types, and numerous hybrids: standard for side-discharging clippings, mulching for recirculating clippings back into the lawn, and high-lift for bagging. Blade shape, profile, and curvature on the blade’s back edge determine performance. At this point, blade manufacturers have engineered blades that handle two or three operations very well, if not perfectly. That way, if the homeowner does change his mind – as you have – in most cases, he wouldn’t need to also change his blade. Assuming your blade is still sharp and balanced, many times all you need to do is adjust two variables on your mower: 1. Raise the mower deck to an appropriate level relative…

TAKE A STAND, SOMETIMES Here’s the thing: the workplace isn’t really the best place for, well, people. Dr Josephine Chau of the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health headed up a 2015 study that found a dramatic increase in overall energy among workers who had the chance to spend between 60 and 90 minutes of their work day standing. “They reported being more satisfied and feeling more productive at work. In addition, the proportion of workers who reported they had more energy throughout the day increased seven-fold, from six to 44 per cent, when using sit/stand desks,” she said. You know the drill. There’s mounting research correlating prolonged periods of sitting with higher risk of developing chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. Sitting is…

Catch a marlin from a Kayak. 2. Explore a house that’s still under construction. Driving around, a friend and I stopped at what we first thought was a small lakeside park, but it was actually the frontage on a massive piece of property. The house on the property was under construction, a big extravagant thing. They’d carved a sweeping driveway into the hillside down from the road, and lined it with huge rocks that must’ve taken several truckloads to deliver. There was an outbuilding, some kind of shed, with better workmanship than any house I have lived in. We walked through the open studs across plywood floors where one day people would dance and fight and watch TV and learn to walk. We poked around – the skeleton of a…

BARTENDERS LEARN TO make drinks the same way chefs learn to cook – one recipe at a time. Are there general principles? Sure. But those will emerge the more cocktails you make. “If you pick up a decent cocktail book, you’ll eventually be like, wait, that recipe looks exactly like this one. And it is, just with different ingredients,” says Kimber Weissert, bartender and bar manager at Pittsburgh’s Butcher and the Rye. For now, start with the basics. 1. The Martini (60 ml, 30 ml, 2 dashes) “I think the first drink a person should make should be a Manhattan or a martini. In reality, they are the same recipe,” says Weissert. “A Manhattan is 60 ml bourbon or rye, 30 ml sweet vermouth, and two dashes of Angostura bitters.…

Anyone can shake a cocktail – just close your shaker and move it up and down. Proper stirring, however, is a challenge worth mastering. 1. Hold your bar spoon like a pair of chopsticks, lightly between your thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers. 2. Pull back and forth with your middle and ring fingers. 3. The ice should spin your spoon around in a circle, so that the spoon’s back is pinned against the glass. 4. Hate everything about this? Try Oxo’s spinning bar spoon, which spins correctly even when held like a normal spoon.…