Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2019 i Popular Mechanics South Africa

THINK THAT the concept of vehicle autonomy needs a lot more discussion. The way forward, for now, should focus on merging the technology better with humans, rather than fully replacing us. The notion of having cars that entirely drive themselves sharing the roads with us has always frightened me a bit. Call me old-fashioned, but I find it comforting looking across while stopped at a red light, and seeing a human of some description sitting in a position of control behind the steering wheel. (Sure, these days, about 80 per cent of the time that person is staring down at their cellphone, but that’s another story altogether.) While I acknowledge that untold hours of research and development have gone into the technology that governs self-driving cars, until every vehicle in…

‘Code shapes coders, and coders shape the code that changes how we think, every day of our lives. If you want to create a more humanistic digital world, read this book to get started.’ – Sherry Turkle, MIT professor and author A SINGLE SOFTWARE update can break an entire computer system. Cyber weapons are, in fact, malicious code. And if you really think about it, we use and depend on software every minute of every day … and every detail of this software was crafted by a coder. So who are these coders, the elusive software developers that are ultimately in charge of shaping our digital culture? In a fascinating new book titled Coders: Who They Are, What They Think And How They Are Changing Our World, Clive Thompson (a Wired…

Refrigerated food (10) Heat (10) Hot water (10) Air conditioning (10) Clothes washer (10) Clothes dryer (15) Oven (5) Microwave (5) Xbox (1) Laptop (5) TV (5) Sony Walkman (5) (Just kidding! Remember those?) Incandescent lighting (5) DStv decoder (5) Outdoor floodlights (10) Vacuum cleaner (5) Paper shredder (1) Wine fridge (10) Cellphone (5) Elevator (10) Anything from the Gadget Shop (5) Sewing machine (5) Massage chair (10) Espresso maker (5) Air-hockey table (5) Electric toothbrush (1) Automatic pet feeder (5) Karaoke night at your house! (5) Kohler Intelligent toilet (R100 000, but totally worth it) (10) LED lighting for the display case showing off your Popular Mechanics collection. (You have one too?) (5) ANSWER KEY Fewer than 30 points: You are as off-the-grid as they come. You can probably…

YOUR TOILET IS… SEPTIC Fills up a septic tank buried on your property, which you’ll periodically have to pay a stranger to empty. MARINE/RV TOILET A small but otherwise normal toilet connected to a holding tank elsewhere in the vehicle. The tank is regularly emptied. COMPOSTING TOILET Commode connects to a tank that makes compost from storebought or DIY ingredients – carbon-rich material, microbes – and your contribution. ARBORLOO Dig a pit. Build an outhouse over it. Poop in the pit. When the pit is full, plant a tree. Cover it with the old soil, dig a new pit, and move the outhouse. AT A BATH - ROOM CENTRE There’s bound to be one nearby. *Self-contained units require about 1.5 times the space of a standard toilet.…

I didn’t go out into the woods for a noble cause. I went out of desperation. I always had an underlying hunger for a good life, but drugs, prison, my associates, and other distractions always prevented me from reaching it. I was 50 years old and I was not good. In 2003, I got rid of everything. I was so desperate I even shaved my head. I packed up a backpack with gear, maps, food, and books. I was by no means a survivalist, but I knew how to begin. My dad was an outdoorsman, and when I was young, he’d taught me how to take care of myself in the woods. I first headed to Coconino forest in northern Arizona. The longest you can stay there, however, is 14…

You bring your own lunch to work? Excellent – tradespeople have been employing lunch boxes for generations, and the virtues of this practice translate to any profession: It’s economical, saves time and allows you to control what you eat. But in these modern times in which salad has become a meal, it also remains as one of the most challenging meals to pack and carry. It grows soggy and unappealing with every minute it spends in that plastic container. But there is a way. It’s simple mechanics. If you’d like to put together a good green lunch that travels well and stays crunchy, take everything you’ve ever learned about making a salad and turn it upside down: The lettuce doesn’t go on the bottom, but on top, and the dressing…

THULE ENROUTE 25L CAMERA BACKPACK IT’S REALLY HARD to fault Thule gear, from roof racks to bike carriers, baby strollers to luggage solutions. Build quality is exemplary, and the styling appealing to a broad target market. With its rabbit warren of dedicated pockets, two access points to the main compartment (including a large magnetically closing roll-top flap), protected laptop compartment with its own zipper access, and side-pouch for your water bottle, the Enroute 25L is a bag for many occasions. But that’s not even the primary selling point. Tucked away on the bottom of the one side is a pouch designed to accommodate your DSLR camera, plus its charger. Padding in all the right places cossets your gear, and the little compartment is fully removable, akin to a small cooler…

A genome is a collection of the DNA that makes up a human. Each genome contains all of the information needed to create and maintain that organism. When two people pass on genetic information to their children, the offspring then receive a rearranged mixture of their mother and father’s DNA. The Human Genome Project was a thirteen-year study into understanding the sequence of the genome and identifying the different genes that it contains. A combined effort of researchers from universities across the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan and China, this study has enabled scientists to understand the blueprints for building a person and has essentially ushered in a new, more informed, era of medicine.…

DEEP-CYCLE BATTERIES are central to every off-grid solar, wind, or hydroelectric system because they store the excess energy created by your renewable resource and make it available when you need it. Your storage capacity needs depend on two key factors: the amount of energy your system can generate and your home’s average energy load. (Ideally, you want to always have three to five days’ worth of power saved.) In terms of space requirements, these systems range in size from a narrow bookcase-sized space for a modular system up to a laundry cupboard or small attic space for a bank of wired cells. – JK SEALED MODULAR Sealed modular systems use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The Tesla Powerwall’s batteries each have 13.5 kilowatt-hours of capacity and can be linked with up to…

THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER is one of those things you think about only when you actually need it. It’s a bit like legal representation. Or AA batteries in your TV’s remote. Bizarrely, if you think about it, the risk of a fire breaking out in your home or office is casually disregarded during the course of everyday life. When it comes to a real emergency situation, not too many of us can claim to know exactly how to react, and what procedures to follow. A fire can start and spread alarmingly quickly, and if you’re the one to put it out, you have to take care not to get hurt, or end up helping it spread by taking the wrong course of action. South African legislation states that commercial and public…

IT STARTED INNOCENTLY enough. (They always do.) A small heap. Trimmings from the hedges. Leaves. Weeds. Some branches that blew down in the last storm. You even tossed the Christmas tree on there. It was convenient. And you’ve earned this, right? Look at my big garden! I have a brush pile! But now it’s a mountain that seems to grow on its own. It’s unsightly. Brush piles can harbour ticks, rodents, fleas, and snakes. They can cause wildfires – the woody vegetation provides the fuel and the open, airy assemblage speeds and spreads the flames. The worst part? A brush pile alerts the world that you’re a procrastinator, you don’t care what your neighbours think, and you don’t like getting your hands dirty. And because none of these things is…

GREASY SOLUTION Here’s a tip to sort out the problem of what to do with cooking grease. Usually, after frying bacon, lamb chops or boerewors, you’re left with a pan of nasty hot grease. If you leave it in the pan, it sets and is difficult to clean later. If you toss it down the drain, you can clog up your plumbing, which can create an even bigger problem. Throwing it in the bin is one possible solution, but I’ve come up with another that’s even better. I realised that you can soak up the oil with paper towels while it’s still hot. Fold the soaked towels into small bundles, and then cut them in half. Leave to cool and then store in a ziplock bag… You’ve just created your…

THE I.T. GUY AMONG THE GEEKIER of my geeky habits is checking the log of an app I have called Disconnect. It analyses my data traffic and identifies and blocks tracking systems, recording what it does along the way. Usually after I search for something or use a Google product, under Disconnect’s Recent Trackers, I’ll see ‘paged.l.doubleclick.net.’ DoubleClick is a Google company that helps direct advertisements to the right people. In that same log, there are names such as AppsFlyer, Eyeview, and BidSwitch, all companies most of us have probably never heard of but that help run the modern internet economy of knowing lots about your audience’s habits. So many recent tech news stories have shared the same theme: Big Internet Company Creepily Watches Unsuspecting Users. We learned that Google…

RWANDA HAS COME a long, long way in the 25 years since its horrific genocide. The country now boasts universal healthcare, a life expectancy of 67 (higher than the 63 years of the average South African) and a parliament that’s nearly two-thirds female. Despite these advances, the 18th-poorest country in the world probably isn’t exactly where you’d expect to find an advanced network of delivery drones. However, since 2016, California-based automated logistics company Zipline has been working together with Rwanda’s Ministry of Health to use drones to deliver life-saving medical supplies to patients in outof- the-way rural areas who would otherwise not receive them in time. Rwanda is small (26 338 km2) but densely populated (at 12 million people); only about 25 per cent of its roads are tarred, and…

Don’t plan on using a generator as your main energy source. It’s unlikely to be the most effective, efficient, or economical. That said, a critical component of every off-grid system is a reliable backup generator for times when the sun doesn’t shine, the wind doesn’t blow, and the stream dries up in the hot season. There are two options to consider: A. PERMANENT A fixed-installation generator could be installed in an outbuilding and connected directly to the electric system in your home. You want an automatic start, which will kick on when your battery bank needs recharging. For example, Kohler’s 14-kilowatt generator has the auto-start, plus a wireless remote-start switch, so if you ever do need to turn it on, you can do it from inside. It runs on either…

ONE QUESTION that most off-the-grid homesteaders have to deal with is whether to use direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC) to power their home. If you’re supplying your own power, most sources, such as solar panels, output electricity as DC. You can leave it at that, or add an inverter to convert the power to AC. There are advantages to both. DC IN DC SYSTEMS, current flows in only one direction, and at 12, 24, or 48 volts, instead of the 220 volts you’re used to in a typical home. Solar panels feed a battery bank and the bank supplies the load, whether that load is a small DC refrigerator, lights, or whatever. Generally speaking, all DC appliances, light fixtures, and bulbs are specialty products, so they’ll be more…

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, motivated by the primal appeal of wood-fueled fire (and a little by my peculiar compulsion for chopping firewood), my wife and I replaced the gas range in our Vermont farmhouse with a wood-burning cook stove. Every day since, I rise before dawn, lay a bed of newspaper and dry scrap wood, and kindle the day’s fire. This is a necessity, considering that the stove heats our home and our water, but it has also become a comforting ritual. As the fire takes, I tamp grounds into my little stovetop espresso maker, which sits on the cast-iron cooktop in the exact spot I’ve found to heat up the fastest. If it’s winter, I open the door to the firebox – in violation of every fire-safety code known to…

AS THE MASTER of a ship (master is the rank, and captain is the title), you have the overall responsibility and accountability for its safe and efficient operation. Safety is relatively straightforward: Safety of people, the ship and the environment are paramount and rank in that order of importance, followed by safety of the cargo. ‘Efficient’ relates primarily to cost and, since every captain carries the responsibility to operate the vessel to the commercial benefit of the owners, one has to keep an eye on the spending as well. All of that accountability can’t be shouldered without the authority to make decisions that affect these outcomes. This is where the ‘captain’s word is law’ idea comes from and that authority is specifically mentioned in his or her appointment document. TECHNOLOGY…

POPULAR MECHANICS: What do you love most about your job? CAPTAIN JONATHAN MCCARTHY: Being a mariner is a visceral job where, despite all the technology and information provided to you, you still need to observe the sea and the weather, and be in touch with the feel and motion of your ship in order to make the best appraisal of any situation and the most beneficial decisions. I also enjoy the disciplined lifestyle, the chain of command (not only because I’m at the top of it…) and the competence of my crew, because it gives you a fantastic feeling of self-sufficiency and independence, and a sense that you can do what is asked of you, despite what nature may throw at you. PM: Where has your job taken you? CJM:…

SMOKED YELLOWTAIL Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 20 mins Serves: 4 Difficulty: Medium WHAT YOU’LL NEED 1 whole yellowtail, filleted For the brine ½ cup table salt½ cup white sugar2 litres warm water For the spice rub 1 tbsp brown sugar1 tbsp whole black pepper1½ tsp salt1 tsp red chilli flakes½ tsp mustard seeds½ tsp fennel seeds2 tbsp olive oil EQUIPMENT Aluminium foil1 roasting pan1 tbsp of smoking woodchips1 wire rack Mortar and pestle Get down to it 1 Create a brine solution by dissolving the salt and sugar in the water. Allow to cool before submerging the fish in the solution. Place in the fridge and let it chill for 45 minutes. Remove from the brine and dry completely. 2 Cut a 6 cm-diameter hole out of the…

HEADING INTO retirement finally gave me the time to indulge properly in a hobby in which I have always dabbled – woodworking. But I was stumped as to what to create. A conversation with my son, an architect, resulted in a plan – and subsequently a beautiful design – for an oak bench, and I soon found myself excited to see the fruits of my labour. When shopping for materials and looking at the prices of the first-grade boards at Rare Woods, I quickly opted for second-grade, and instantly saved about 30 per cent on the raw materials. In the end, this decision proved fortuitous, as the extra knots and irregularities in the wood actually gave a lot of character to the finished item. The easiest way to describe how…

BLOTTING MATERIAL Spill something on the workshop floor? Throw down some sawdust and let it sit for a few minutes, then scoop or sweep up the pile. Let’s say the spill was something gross, such as your dog taking a leak. Scoop up the soggy first coat of sawdust, then apply a fresh scattering of it. Sprinkle a generous helping of liquid disinfectant over the pile and let it set for a few minutes. The sawdust forms a poultice with the cleaner. Scoop it up, let the remaining dust dry, then sweep. You would never know. Pro tip: Pine sawdust is particularly absorbent. HAND CLEANER Table-saw sawdust makes an excellent heavy-duty hand cleaner when mixed with dish washing liquid or other gentle home cleaners. My favourite blend consists of hardwoods…

Write to us with your tip and you could win a prize hamper from Master Lock. This month’s top contribution has won: Master Lock Small Security Chest: The continuous jamb and waterproof seal completely insulate contents from water. Ideal for protecting valuables from fire and water damage. Resistant to fire for half an hour, up to 840°C. Master Lock Spin Dial Combination Lock: Anti-shim technology withstands attempts to tamper with the latch mechanism. Features a 48 mm-wide double-reinforced stainless-steel body, 22 mm-tall hardened shackle, and a 3-number dialing combination lock. Master Lock Keyed Locking Cable: The 1.8 m long, 10 mm diameter braided-steel cable is designed for maximum strength. The vinyl coating prevents scratches and protects the cable. The keyed lock is designed to resist picking. Carries a lifetime warranty.…