Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i Popular Mechanics South Africa

I LOOKED ACROSS at the magazine holder on my desk this week and suddenly realised that this issue – October 2019 – marks one full year at the helm for me as editor of POPULAR MECHANICS. Well, I guess it’s actually one year plus one issue – my first edition was October 2018. Time really flies when you’re having fun (or when you’re constantly snowed under by monthly deadlines). During the past 12 months, I’ve been amazed at the number of interesting people I’ve got to engage with, the different projects and technologies I’ve learnt about, and the humbling response I’ve received from you, the readers. For the most part, you seem happy with the direction we’re taking the mag, and that’s what really matters to my team and me.…

DISASSEMBLY REPORT MODEL: MAVEN B2 PRODUCED: USA TIME TO DISASSEMBLE: 2 HOURS, 5 MINUTES NOTES: Whether you’re gazing up at the stars through a telescope or sighting a bird with a trusty pair of binocs, whoever made your glass put a lot of thought into how to gather light and hold on tight to it. This is why telescopes, primarily used when it’s dark out, have such big objective lenses. Inside a pair of binoculars – really, a joined set of telescopes, allowing for the sense of depth that comes from two-eyed vision – light passes through multiple lenses and prisms to be magnified, oriented, and shaped. Every time light strikes a surface, some of it is lost. According to Maven’s Brendon Weaver, the cheap binoculars you grew up with…

DIGITAL MINIMALISM HAS a prescription: a month of abstinence from all modern technology except the essentials, such as work email and texts with family. After that, a slow, selective reintroduction of devices and apps, each one allowed back if, and only if, it boosts productivity or gratifies leisure. But really: What does Cal Newport, a father of three, Georgetown professor, bestselling author, theoretician, and aspiring maker, know about using time well? – Alexander George POPULAR MECHANICS: This book made me think of how much I covet new gadgets and apps, even though most of them don’t enable anything I can’t already do. So why do I still want them? Cal Newport: The way we think about new technology, such as social media or smartphones, is different from any other tool.…

OUR BRIEFING on how to operate the locks had felt, well, brief. Now it was game time. We’d travelled only a short distance upstream from the boat base in Douelle and soon encountered the first lock on our seven-day Le Boat cruise up (and back down) the Lot River in south-western France. As luck would have it, there were no other boaters around to watch and mimic, so the only option was to tackle it ourselves. If you’re a South African, for argument’s sake, who’s had few to zero run-ins with locks in your life, these large stone- and steel structures can at first appear quite intimidating. We were on a wide natural river after all, and not a constructed canal, and adjacent to this lock (and almost every other…

THE SPACE RACE IS GETTING CROWDED While we worked on our September cover story on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and the next era of exploration, space news just kept hitting. Among the biggest we covered: 1. Jeff Bezos’s spaceflight company Blue Origin unveiled Blue Moon (pictured), its lunar lander. POPULAR MECHANICS reporter Matt Blitz was in Washington, DC, to cover the presentation, in which Bezos proposed O’Neill cylinders – giant, tubular space colonies, named after physicist and inventor Gerard O’Neill. 2. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced that Chandrayaan-2, the organisation’s second unmanned mission to the Moon, would land its probe in September. It’s the organisation’s second mission (the first landed back in 2008). 3. China’s space programme is set to launch a probe into…

IT’S A WEIRD time for microbes, a sort of interspecies interregnum in which humans have realised that microbes hold way more power than we previously thought, but haven’t yet wrested any of it back for ourselves. Over the past several years, studies have implicated the community of bacteria in the human gut in pretty much every widespread malady that cannot currently be reliably prevented or cured (see: autism, cancers, neurodegenerative disease). So far, it’s pretty clear that exterminating the entire internal rain forest with broadspectrum antibiotics is a poor choice, but what else are we supposed to do? Eat kimchi and cross our fingers? For now [checks notes], well, yes. But in a few years, everything is going to change. ‘There’s been a lot of interest in manipulation of the…

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 99% Invisible focuses on design, architecture, cities and technology, uncovering all sorts of hidden stories behind everyday ideas. 99percentinvisible.org The Future of Everything, from The Wall Street Journal, looks at how science and technology are shaping our future. wsj.com/news/tech/future-of-everything Stuff You Should Know explains everything from how time zones work to the ins and outs of the Black Death – you’re sure to find something that interests you. stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts STRICTLY SCIENCE 60-Second Science from Scientific American gives you the low-down in – you guessed it – just one minute. scientificamerican.com/podcast/60-second-science Houston We Have a Podcast is the show for those of you obsessed with all things NASA. nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP The Infinite Monkey Cage takes a look at the world through the eyes of physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin…

The ringing of the phone echoes through the shop. Dave Phelps, 34, walks away from the transmission he’s dropping, wipes as much grease off his hands as he can, and picks up the handset. It’s hard to hear the customer over the soft diesel rumble of one of the nearby VW Caravelles. They’re not the original hippie vans, but rather more capable vans made from 1980 to 1991. Dave sticks to the late models, and all of his fleet are Westfalias, the pop-top camper style. Surrounded by these ‘Westys,’ Dave talks the customer on the phone through Big Sur, Tahoe, and other secluded spots he could drive off to. Dave spent most of his 20s driving his ’89 Westfalia across the United States, finding work and fun along the way:…

The central component of a wood working vice is the screw, which is really just a wedge in the round. Today, most vices use a steel screw. I use 38 mm wooden-thread vice screws on my main bench, and they have stood up to my abuse for nearly thirty years. So don’t overlook making your own vices. Woodworking vices are generally divided into two types: Front vices (or face vices) on the primary working side of the bench, and end vices (known as tail vices) mounted at the end of the bench. 1 FRONT VICES Probably the oldest front-vice design is the leg vice. It’s called this because one of the bench’s legs is an integral part of the configuration, forming the inside jaw. The outside jaw also goes almost…

LIKE THE bizarre death hoax of Jamaican-American rapper Sean Kingston in 2018, the timeous demise of the internal-combustion engine in the next decade appears to have been somewhat exaggerated. Even if the most ambitious prediction that 25 per cent of all new cars sold globally will be pure electric vehicles (EVs) by 2025 is to be believed, that means more than three quarters of the world car park will still be left burning good ol’ fossil fuel. For some, that shift to EVs can’t come soon enough. For combined with the improved fuel economy, compression, and torque delivery of a diesel. The technology in question is Mazda’s Spark Controlled Compression Ignition (SPCCI) and forms part of the firm’s breakthrough new Skyactiv-X engine design. If you’ve driven an older car for…

HAVE YOU EVER played a video game and wondered what it would be like if you could design your own videogame level? Maybe then you could change the part that you always get stuck on, or add so many coins that they fill the whole screen. With Super Mario Maker 2, a new game for the Nintendo Switch, you can do both of those things. Or anything else. The game is easy to use. Click the type of block you want to add, or bad guy, or power-up, and then put it where you want it to go. When you’re done building a level, you can play it yourself or send it to a friend to play. SUPER MARIO MAKER 2 was launched in June.…

BOTTLE IT Here’s a trick I use to easily drag heavy workshop equipment or furniture that’s standing on legs over rough surfaces (or even a normal floor). Use plastic cooldrink bottles (one- or two-litre sizes work well) and cut off the tops so that the bottom part can slide over the feet. Stuff paper (for example, a double page of a newspaper) into the bottom and then fit over the legs of the item. The plastic is extremely tough and has a low coefficient of friction. With this set-up in place, you can easily drag the equipment over any floor. However, you should still be careful when encountering large holes and obstacles – so remember to just take it slowly. I even once dragged a large off-road motorcycle using a…

ALL AROUND the world, sea levels are rising and temperatures are climbing. Here are the must-know local facts: South Africa is 2°C hotter than it was in 1900 – our average annual temperatures have increased at double the global average. The rainfall season has shifted throughout the country, with spring rains generally coming earlier, but also occasionally later. This means the planting seasons for our farmers have shrunk – when it rains later, crops struggle to grow to full size before the winter frost wreaks havoc. Our actions will define what climate change means going forward. What we do now, or don’t do, will decide our future. South Africa’s Survival Guide to Climate Change by Sipho Kings and Sarah Wild is not all doom and gloom, though. Rather, it’s a…

MEET JACQUES CELLIERS, the (future master) distiller behind Ginologist gin, and one in a handful of distillers in South Africa with an international certification and a background in chemistry. But what does chemistry have to do with gin, you ask? Ginologist gin is considered both purist and a scientifically distilled gin, something related to the process that Craft Link uses to make its celebrated gin, as well as the quality control. ‘We use a scientific method by changing single variables at a time. It is a constant process of changing tiny variables, and eliminating certain factors, to get to the flavour profile that we want,’ says Jacques. As a spirit, gin is easy for distillers looking to differentiate themselves from a flavour perspective. Craft Link, however, uses a more scientific…

▸Keep that length of paracord you like to take camping organised using the Scout’s coil, which ends in a nice tight loop that can be hooked on a carabiner. Note: For a long span of rope – something with some size and heft when it’s all coiled up – you’ll want a different technique. Two ways to avoid potentially harmful chemicals ▸Maybe you only discovered the jug was empty after making your big supply run. Maybe you’re concerned about the chemicals in that stuff you spray on your lawn all year. Maybe you’re just in a pinch. Whatever your reason, there are many home-care products you can easily mix up at home. Here are two that will undoubtedly come in handy. WEED KILLER WIPER FLUID Mix and put in a…

FIRST, STIR YOUR PAINT. When paint sits for too long, the components start to separate. By stirring the paint slowly, you ensure that its colour and shininess will be even. Next, pour some of the paint into a special container called a paint pot. It has a wide mouth to make it easier to dip your brush, and it lets you take only as much paint as you need. Dip your paintbrush into the container so that about a third of the bristles are submerged in paint. Although a lot of people wipe the brush against the rim of the container to remove excess paint, that is a mistake. It removes too much. Instead, tap the wide side of the bristles against the side of your paint pot. (Gently! You…

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 three-number dialing combination lock. Master Lock Fusion Padlock: Features a 44-mm-wide zinc-plated body for strength and durability. The shrouded design minimises shackle exposure and protects against attempts with bolt cutters. The 6-mmdiameter shackle is 18 mm long, and made of hardened steel, making it resistant to cutting and sawing. Dual-locking levers resist prying and hammering. Limited lifetime warranty. Send your tips to popularmechanics@ramsaymedia.co.za with the subject line: ‘Do…