Innholdsfortegnelse for May - June 2021 i Popular Mechanics South Africa

Tapestry R2 200 If you’re looking to sink your teeth into something long and complex, Tapestry is your game. Take a couple of hours, whether by yourself or with up to four friends, and build your own civilisation using ‘advancement tracks’ such as science, military, technology, and exploration. Designer Jamey Stegmaier built in some flexibility here: You can choose to focus on one of the four approaches (and reap improved benefits as you progress) or take a more ‘jack-of-all-trades, master of none’ track. Abandon All Artichokes ±R450 Abandon All Artichokes requires players to become ‘heartless’ by ridding their starting deck of any artichokes, as the title suggests. To do so, they must take new vegetables from the ‘Garden Row’ – a series of five face-up vegetable cards from which players…

Abacus Brands Professor Maxwell’s VR Science Lab $50 (±R730) + shipping This science-lab kit opens doors to fun, hands-on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) experiences. Kids can conduct 25 experiments (with step-by-step instructions and help from augmented-reality videos), then put on the included VR goggles to explore how each experiment relates to real-life examples, such as flying over an active volcano or going deep into a crystal cave. LEGO Creator Ford Mustang R2 600 Pass on your mechanical knowledge by working with your child to build this LEGO Ford Mustang. Modelled after the GT 1967, the 1 471-piece replica includes a detailed interior, opening bonnet and boot, and add-ons such as a supercharger and spoiler. Crayola Marker Maker R225 Don’t constrain creativity to pre-made colour options. Crayola’s Maker Series…

CYBERCRIME IN THE TIME OF CORONA ‘Cybercriminals don’t operate in the physical world and they certainly did not stop their activities during the pandemic,’ says Amy Hogan-Burney, the general manager of the digital crimes unit at Microsoft. ‘The security barrier changed. Having a dispersed workforce and a large number of people no longer in a central location meant a lot more things to secure.’ Cybercriminals are skilled, relentless and constantly looking for ways to adapt their techniques and increase their success rate. While the coronavirus pandemic didn’t necessarily change how cybercriminals operate, it did cause them to use different lures to execute their attacks. ‘At the very beginning of the pandemic, what we really saw is criminals taking and leveraging fear associated with COVID-19 for great success,’ says Hogan-Burney. ‘We…

THANKS TO GPS-ENABLED PHONES and watches, we take for granted that we can easily navigate into (and out of) any place or situation. But it wasn’t until a foggy day in 1985 when an investor and electrical engineer named Ed Tuck piloted a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron across Northern California that the widespread potential of an emerging tech began to become clear: What if someone could harness the power of military global positioning satellites (GPS) to enable everyone to navigate the skies, waterways, and roads without aerial maps or radar signals, Tuck wondered. Same now as when they were first launched in 1978, the GPS satellites flying 40 000 km above the Earth send a signal at light speed, and a receiver on the ground reports your relative position. In 1985,…

1. REAR-WHEEL Pull the mower’s handle to apply tension to the drive cable and a spring attached to the transmission. The transmission pivots; the pulley at its top moves away from the engine. This tenses the drive belt coming from the engine output shaft, spinning the transmission pulley. That rotates gears at the rear axle, turning the wheels. 2. FRONT-WHEEL The process here is much the same as with rear-wheel drive, except the configuration is flipped. As you pull back on the drive handle and tension moves through the cable, spring, transmission, pulleys, and drive belts, the gears at the front axle turn the wheels. This leads to better manoeuvrability but less traction going uphill. 3. ALL-WHEEL Once again, pull the mower’s drive handle to tense the drive cable and…

EVER HEARD anyone say they’ve got too much storage space in their bathroom? No, thought not. To solve this problem, here’s a simple wood-working shelf project from Kreg, that includes a towel rail. WHAT YOU’LL NEED TOOLS REQUIRED: Drilldriver KregPocket-Hole Jig Mitresaw Sander Tapemeasure HARDWARE: 60 Kreg 32 mm fine-thread pocket-hole screws16 Kreg wood pocket-hole plugs (we used cherry wood for our project)4 #12 × 65 mm panhead stainless-steel screws4 Auger-style wall anchors1 13 mm × 900 mm aluminium rod or wood dowel1 #0000 steel wool1 Epoxy adhesive WOOD: 4 19 × 38 × 2 400 mm board (we used cherry wood) PARTS LIST:…

ICON: A THING (or person) regarded as worthy of veneration, or great respect. That’s according to my dictionary. ‘Land Rover Defender’ could be added to the list of definitions – surely few would disagree? The brand dates back to the 1940s, when there were no civilian vehicles with four-wheel-drive capabilities. The emergence of Land Rover, an off-road-capable vehicle from Rover Company Limited, changed all that. Design work on the concept commenced in 1947, and later that year a prototype dubbed ‘Centre Steer’ was produced. The very first Land Rover, original ancestor of today’s Defender, was officially launched in April 1948 at the Amsterdam Motor Show. An excerpt from Epic: New Land Rover Defender, a limited-edition book about the latest vehicle’s genesis, explains that this first model had a permanent four-wheel-drive…

As a woman who enjoys spending time in nature while trying to be conscious of my impact on the environment, I was delighted to come across the recent Pop Mech piece focusing on off-road electric vehicles. I’ve always been struck by the paradox of outdoor enthusiasts burning holes in their pockets (and the Earth) accessing the ‘great outdoors’ in enormous fuel-burning vehicles. This article highlights a welcome change, show-casing spectacular electric off-road vehicles expected to be launching in the global market soon, but there are a few points that I think make it tricky for this to be viably considered in the South African setting. Most of our electricity is generated in coal-burning power stations. Electric cars operating here, then, aren’t entirely squeaky clean, are they? We could get around…

SINCE THE GERMAN PHYSICIAN CARL Reinhold August Wunderlich published his research on human body temperature in 1868, 37°C (or 98.6°F) has been the gold standard. Now scientists say that number may be inaccurate. Thanks to improved health outcomes – meaning people are generally healthier and getting better overall medical treatment – the average human body temperature has fallen gradually over time. ‘Much as we have changed the Earth’s ecosystem, we are changing our own ecosystems,’ says Julie Parsonnet, MD, a professor of epidemiology at Stanford University. ‘We have changed who we are over the modern era.’ She and her team analysed more than 670 000 reported temperatures spanning 157 years of measurement and 197 birth years, and found that our temperature has dropped by 0.028°C (0.05°F) per decade since the mid…

Mattel Hot Wheels Cybertruck $400 (±R5 900) + shipping One-tenth the size of Tesla’s real Cybertruck, this version from Hot Wheels features functioning head- and tail lights, a teles-coping tailgate, and ‘Chill’ and ‘Sport’ modes. Tesla and Mattel are even leaning into the now-infamous incident from the actual Cybertruck’s unveiling – a cracked window sticker comes included. It’s a fun distraction for those of us who may never own a Cybertruck to pretend like we do. Spin Master Kinetic Sand Kalm $30 (±R450) + shipping This tiny sandbox is like a Zen garden for adults, but more fun. The squishy, granular kinetic material feels like something between sand and Play-Doh, clumping together so you can mould it with the included scoop, rake, and knife. Our testers loved its therapeutic effects.…

STEP 1: CUT THE WALL BRACE AND FRONT LEGS Cut two wall braces and two front legs to size from a 19 × 38 mm board, as shown in the cutting diagram above. In the wall braces, drill two holes where shown for screws that will be used to mount the finished shelf on the wall. In the front legs, drill a hole for the aluminium rod that will serve as a towel bar. STEP 2: MAKE THE SIDE RAILS Cut four side rails to size from a 19 × 38 mm board, as shown in the cutting diagram. Then, with your Kreg Pocket-Hole Jig set for 19 mm material, drill pocket holes in these pieces where shown. STEP 3: CREATE SIDE ASSEMBLIES Begin assembling the sides by assembling the…

BMW’S BREAD and butter is touring, mostly dirt-road adventuring – witness the success of the GS brand. It also has its lauded K and RT ranges, pure road tourers, though their heyday is over; as the world seeks out ever more inventive ways of getting away from it all, road-bike sales have dropped substantially. The rest of BMW’s line-up is a mix of retro bikes, commuters and out-and-out superbikes, unimportant in the larger (sales) scheme of things. All of which serves to ask the question: What the hell is this thing, sitting in my drive-way, idling none too quietly in front of me? The answer, suggest the Bavarians, is all of the above. BMW’s updated S 1000 XR is an adventure bike they say, the apparent love child of a…

1 MAY 1992 Wingships The eye-catching cover illustration on this issue showed a craft that was ‘part plane, part ship’ in full flight, just above the ocean surface. The accompanying story discussed the Orlyonok, a Russian-made wingship designed to skim ‘a few feet over the wavetops at 250 mph’, carrying troops and supplies. But the crux of the story was about the viability of this technology for passenger transport. 2 JUNE 1921 Weatherproofing Huge Suspension Bridge Tests Skill of Engineers and Craftsmen Black-and-white photos depicted the components of bridges that need to be protected from the elements, to ensure structural integrity and safety. Detailed captions explained the immense challenges the workers encountered while weather-proofing these giant structures. 3 MAY 1926 Wiring Your Home Electrical circuits in your home can be…

The Last of Us Part II R800–R1 100 Few games hit as hard as this tale of revenge, which combines a mature narrative with visceral gameplay that continually asks you to question the morality of your actions. The original The Last of Us was the pinnacle of PS3 game design at the time, with its painstaking attention to detail, realistic character models, and beautifully orchestrated story. The sequel improves on virtually everything, imbuing the title with a sense of humanity, raw violence, and heart-rending emotion previously unseen in any game. Ellie’s pain practically seeps through the controller. 2K Borderlands 3 R400–R620 We always appreciate cooperative shooting games with a sense of humour. Of course, humour is subjective – don’t look for elevated comedy here. It’s more like crass jokes and…

THERE IS A CENTURY-OLD MAGIC TRICK THAT JIM STEINMEYER FINDS PARTICULARLY FASCINATING. A group of random audience members file on stage and each places a personal possession inside a sturdy, commercial-model safe, out of view of the magician, Charles Morritt. The safe is locked before anyone looks inside, and after a beat, a burglar appears. The lock-picking bandit looks at the closed safe with a pair of field glasses and disappears. Moments later, a telegram arrives for Morritt. It’s from the master thief. It says, in essence, ‘I’ve decided not to crack that safe and steal the contents – it’s not worth my time. But here’s a list of everything inside.’ When the safe is opened, the list matches up, item for item. By almost any estimation, Steinmeyer is the…

SLOOM WITH A SLOOM mattress, or bed for that matter, gone are the days of struggling to get a heavy, awkward, full-size bed into your bedroom when it comes time to upgrade. And to ensure comfortable sleep, upgrading your sleeping hardware is crucial. Whether you like it or not, we humans spend a large chunk of our lives sleeping, and good-quality sleep makes for better and more productive awake time. Globally, the bed-in-a-box industry is thriving, and locally Sloom is leading the charge. The concept is simple: First, create a high-quality, customisable foam mattress made from four different comfort layers. (You can choose how firm you like it by rearranging the order of the layers. There’s even a split-comfort set-up in the larger mattress sizes, allowing partners to have different firmness…

WE’VE SEEN artificial intelligence take over many tasks in the everyday world – from parking cars to stocking grocery-store aisles. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that AI has found its way into the creation of alcoholic beverages, which often involves a host of different ingredients, flavour notes, and precise recipes. A Swedish distillery and a Philadelphia brewery are among the increasing number of manufacturers that have incorporated AI and other out-of-the-ordinary technology in their production. Why involve machines in these venerated crafts? Both companies saw it as an exciting learning experiment, but more importantly, they recognised technology’s ability to develop flavour profiles at lightning speed and standardise production. Just outside Gävle, Sweden, Mackmyra Whisky partnered with Microsoft and Finnish tech company Fourkind to create the world’s first AI-generated whisky. The…

SO MANY PLANTS THAT WE ENJOY – especially trees – are the gift of someone else’s foresight. A sapling in one generation becomes a landmark in the next. My parent’s forest garden, an 8 × 8 m space behind the driveway, layered with trees, shrubs, and ground cover, technically started with the Holtzes. As the prior owners of the home, they planted cedars along the back fence. When my parents moved in 30 years ago, their neighbours had an enormous hackberry tree that dropped seeds into our garden. A few of those seeds grew into trees that ultimately stretched into a canopy above the cedars. Then 10 years ago, my mom dug up two redbud trees, the size of twigs, from her father’s garden when he died and replanted them…