Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2015 i Popular Mechanics

FACEBOOK MAY HAVE ITS DANGERS, BUT THE QUIZZES ARE FUN When I finished reading Bill Gifford’s article (“The Benevolent Overlord,” November) I put the magazine down and couldn’t look at it for a week. Despite its many advantages, Internet technology has become more threatening to individual rights every day. Facebook, I’m sure, has been an unwitting vehicle to suicide, homicide, and personal, financial, and professional ruin. Internet figureheads, or their worshippers and emulators, may see themselves as visionary, innovative, and ambitious, when they may instead lack the necessary insight, wisdom, or morality to be so. MARK HAWLEY Seattle ACKNOWLEDGING A PREDECESSOR Before you become so impressed with the Brooklyn building that you cited in your Breakthrough Awards (“The Prefab High-Rise,” November), I recommend you learn about one of the first…

HIGH POWERED BATTERIES FOR HIGH POWERED DEVICES In today’s high-tech world, you have countless electronic gadgets that you can’t live without. Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries are the world’s longest lasting batteries in high-tech devices and perform in extreme temperatures from -40 F to 140 F. Visit Energizer.com/UltimateLithium for more information. KING SOLOMON’S SECRET TREASURE: FOUND Ancient beauty trapped in mines for centuries is finally released and available to the public! Now this legendary treasure can be yours with our stunning 325 total carats Chrysocolla Necklace! Earth & Sea Chrysocolla 18” Necklace — $49. Call 1-888-870-9513 with promotional code ESN167-01 or visit Stauer.com for more information. INVENTIONARIES Every great idea has a starting point. Toyota Prius proudly profiles a new generation of innovators and reveals what inspires them. Visit PopularMechanics.com/inventionaries to…

Unnecessary but enjoyable ways to use your new thermal sensor: dominating hide-and-seek • picking the freshest bread at the bakery • determining where the fewest people touch the bathroom-door handle • instantly knowing who’s nervous IT WAS IN AN M1A2 ABRAMS main battle tank that I first discovered how to see properly. The U.S. Army Armor School had invited me to spend a day in its simulator in Orlando, Florida, and, after looking through the commander’s thermal camera unit, it occurred to me that I should have one of my eyes replaced by a cybernetic thermal device. The imager allowed us, day or night, to penetrate camoufage and clearly observe adversaries glowing several thousand feet away. For the past two decades, civilian infrared options have been bulky and expensive, used…

LAST FALL, WHEN THE EBOLA frenzy had everyone focused on where a nurse in Maine rode her bike, or what train a New York doctor took in a feverish trip to a bowling alley, many scientists were concerned with something else entirely: enterovirus D68 (referred to as EV-68). It’s a pernicious bug that causes respiratory illness, and in three months it sickened more than 1,100 children in 47 states, killing 12. In some cases, EV-68 is linked to an unexplained kind of paralysis that appears indistinguishable from polio. The most severe cases of paralysis have left children in wheelchairs, requiring assistance to speak and breathe. At this point there is no treatment. If you get EV-68, there’s nothing you can do but wait and hope. The disease is not new—the…

HOW TO THE NO-FAIL BREAK 1. Center the cue ball opposite the triangle. 2. Aim directly for the lead ball. 3. Hit the cue ball just above its center to impart spin. COME FEBRUARY, WHEN YOU’VE SEEN every last movie and burned through every last ounce of holiday joy, and it’s still goddamned snowing outside, the only thing saving you from reenacting a scene from The Shining is your basement rec room. Or the local bar. Anywhere you can stand indoors, comfortable and warm, and use your wits and a basic understanding of geometry and physics to defeat your friends in pool, darts, air hockey, Ping-Pong, and Foosball. Make no mistake: Under these conditions, bar games are sporting events. The people who win them are champions. Champions at defeating crushing…

PING-PONG 1. In general, a shot fired into the center of the chest is the most difficult kind to return, so aim for the middle of your opponent’s body. 2. To give topspin: Using a paddle with a bit of rubber on it, like the Tibhar Volcano X, push up and over the ball, adding a little extra oomph to counter any spin from your opponent. In Ping-Pong, as in cable news and politics, winning is all about spin. A ball flying through the air is moving in two ways. There’s straight velocity, the motion of the ball directly toward or away from you. And then there’s spin, the angular velocity of the ball rotating over itself. The latter is what causes the ball to do spooky, spectacular things, like…

When we moved in, our new house had that cat smell. We cleaned the carpet and everything seemed fine—until we turned on the heat. Now it’s back. What can we do? It’s a rude awakening, in the literal sense of that phrase, when a foul pet odor returns once the heating system comes on. If areas of the carpet were saturated, it’s likely that the subfloor is thoroughly stained and the odor is coming from the lumber below. Here’s the bad news: The carpet has to come up, and the subfloor needs to be sealed. The good news is that this is a relatively simple job. Once the carpet is up, use an odor-sealing paint, such as Rust-Oleum’s Zinsser B-I-N 2 Primer/Stain Blocker/Odor Sealer. This is a soy-based alkyd- resin…

Last night I had dinner with 35 PopularMechanics readers here in New York. There was Scotch whisky, shrimp cocktail, impassioned discourse about the history and future of Popular Mechanics, and—because we were at Keens, the old steakhouse on 36th Street—there was mutton. A little context: A few months ago, someone had the idea that we should have a few dinners with readers. Not like those focus groups in sterile rooms with one-way mirrors. These would be informal and fun. We wanted to know what readers like, what they skim past, what they do on weekends, their hopes and dreams. Why? So we can make the magazine better. For them. For you. So we had these dinners, and they were fantastic. In Boston the room was so loud with conversation you…

OFFSHORE OIL PLATFORMS FACE AN EXISTENTIAL crisis similar to the rest of the world’s: They’re in trouble when the oil runs out. But whereas people can turn to other forms of power, rigs are doomed. If they’re in the Gulf of Mexico, they’ll often be sunk in place for marine life to colonize. (Quite successfully too. A recent study found that rigs are among the most productive fish hatcheries on the planet.) But by law, the dry rigs in the North Sea oilfield, Europe’s largest, must be completely removed. Until now this has meant a long process of piecemeal dismantling, but this summer, when the Dutch company Allseas’ newest ship, Pieter Schelte, goes into service, the job will get much simpler. The Pieter Schelte’s enormous size allows it to lift…

“The year may seem young, but it’ll be gone before you know it,” says PopularMechanics.com Site Director Thomas Houston. “Keep yourself focused with a clean workspace, a few smart digital accessories and a strong coffee.” 1. QUELL & CO SPOOL DOCK The Quell & Co spool dock is beautifully handcrafted and built in the USA—it looks and feels great sitting on your desk. This innovative dock works with everything from the latest iPhone 6 to the iPad mini. www.quellandco.com 2. STUMPTOWN COLD BREW Yes, you can make your own cold brew, but there’s no more convenient way to get a great iced coffee than grabbing a Stumptown Cold Brew. Perfectly smooth, impeccably caffeinated. buy.stumptowncoffee.com 3. SMARTER EMAIL:MAIL BOX APP I keep my email inbox clean with Mailbox, a powerful app…

In the professional soccer world there exists a style of play known as tiki-taka, in which small, technically skilled players work their way up the field using short, quick passes. You should not try to use tiki-taka to play Foosball. Unless you plan on spending years honing your craft, you will be aggressively bad at it. You will attempt to pass to your midfield 5-bar, and it will bounce off and squirt back into your own net as you pump your 3-bar back and forth. Instead, use your goalie to shoot long shots. No one expects it, and your opponent will not have aligned his defenders, allowing you to catch him off-guard. Also, angle your 3-bar so your guys are all leaning forward. When a pass comes from the back,…

BEST OVERALL W HEN YOU’RE SLICING STEEL REBAR, the resounding clang of metal hitting the floor of your garage might as well be a carnivalgame winner’s bell. Steel is hard. You could use a hacksaw, an angle grinder, or even a torch to cut it, but an abrasive chop saw is a better choice: Because it uses an abrasive disc instead of a saw blade, it has no teeth to get stuck and can plow through rebar, cast iron, steel pipe, or chunky angle stock. With one of these saws, you could cut yourself a mailbox post—or you could build an entire hot rod. We gathered five 14-inch chop saws, mounted an industrial-grade Norton Gemini Rapid Cut abrasive wheel on each, and chopped through stacks of steel studs and a…

WAY BACK IN THE 1990s, when my wife and I were first beginning to think seriously about remodeling our kitchen, I bought a software package that was billed as a home version of the computer-aided design programs that architects had begun to use in preference to pencil and paper. I spent a couple of days wrestling with it, but in the end the “plans” I produced were so dumb-looking that I couldn’t bring myself to show them to my wife. Consumer computer programs have come so far since then that we don’t even call the majority of them programs anymore. There are Photoshop-caliber consumer CAD programs for desktops, sure, but there are also more than 1,500 architecture apps in the iOS App Store, and almost all of them can be…

PARET 2 IN THE AIR THE LAND-BASED AIRPLANE BOMB USED BY: THEM WAR AND REVOLUTION IN the Middle East have opened military arsenals in Libya and Iraq to extremists and black markets. This is not good no matter what the bad guys buy, but it’s especially dangerous if terrorists get their hands on shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles. Though many international fights avoid taking paths over known conflict areas where they might be at risk even at 35,000 feet, shoulder-fired missiles are portable and could be smuggled near enough to an international airport to do serious damage to planes during takeoff and landing. Missiles like the heat-seeking Russian Iglas, which are already in Iraq, can fire up to 11,000 feet in the air along a 2-mile-long corridor, making most airports viable targets.…

BumpStep® ITCH MOUNTED BUMPER PROTECTION WeatherTech® BumpStep® is molded out of a proprietary resin in the USA and fits any vehicle with a standard 2” receiver hitch. The BumpStep® protects against bumps, dents and scratches to your vehicle’s bumper. With the BumpStep®, you will have the reassurance of bumper protection from other motorist’s mistakes and small accidents from backing up. As the “step” portion of its name describes, BumpStep® also allows you to safely stand on the step (up to a 300lb max) for every day tasks such as loading a roof rack, racking a bike or kayak or washing the upper area of your vehicle.…

A SCIENTIFIC COMPANION TO . . . JUDE LAW STARS IN THE NEW MOVIE BLACK SEA (out January 23) as a moody and recently laid-off submarine captain hired to find Nazi gold entombed in a U-boat at the bottom of . . . the Black Sea. The characters may feel a little familiar, but the movie is good. Entertaining. And it brings up some fascinating science, which we consulted with leading experts* to explain. Just be ready for a few minor spoilers. — CAMERON JOHNSON 1 PLOT POINT: Miraculously, the German sub did not rust away. WHY NOT? The Black Sea is a combination of fresh water and salt water. Because of its higher density, the salt water sinks to the bottom and remains mostly separate from the fresh water…

MEANWHILE, IN BEVERAGE NEWS... IF YOU’VE EVER TASTED A MILLER LITE, YOU KNOW IT TAKES a lot of water to make beer. That water is heavy— 8 pounds per gallon. Which means that there’s a huge monetary and environmental expense in transporting and distributing kegs and cases around the world. But in 2008 Pat Tatera of Pat’s Backcountry Beverages in Golden, Colorado, came up with a solution: Add the water after you ship the beer. Previous efforts to concentrate beer have involved removing water from full-fledged brews, taking away much of the beer’s favor in the process. Tatera, a chemical engineer and home brewer, came at it a different way. He devised a process he calls nested fermentation, whereby a beer is brewed in the largest amount of malt and…

Do you have unusual questions about how things work and why stuff happens? This is the place to ask them. Don’t be afraid. Nobody will laugh at you here. Email greatunknowns@popularmechanics.com. Questions will be selected based on quality or at our whim. A WHY STOP THERE? WHY NOT MAKE EACH BRICK THE SIZE OF a typical suburban home, hollow it out, bash an entrance and some ventilation holes into it with a sledge hammer, and have people move right in? That would be a time-saver, for sure. In fact, brick sizes do vary, though the overriding constraint is that a brick must fit readily into a mason’s hand, which rules out the one-brick-abode idea, and ensures that the mason is able to deploy said brick upside the head of anybody…

DARTS Darts are like really sharp, slowmoving bullets: They travel on a ballistic parabolic trajectory, arcing up and then down. The harder you throw, the straighter the dart will fly, but you’ll have less control. So control your stance. Point the toe of your throwing side toward the board and open your other leg to the side. Limit your movement to the elbow and wrist. Extend your arm about three-quarters of the way and release the dart. Follow through until your finger is pointing at the board. See, it’s just like a gun.…

WE LIVE IN A GOLDEN AGE OF CINEMATIC INNOVATION. EVERY YEAR THE EFFECTS INDUSTRY—AND IT IS AN INDUSTRY—INVENTS NEW TECHNIQUES, SOFTWARE, AND ON-SET GADGETRY THAT ALLOW FILMMAKERS TO TELL THEIR STORIES IN VISUALLY STAGGERING WAYS. OVER THE NEXT NINE PAGES, WE SALUTE THE YEAR’S MOST STUNNING TECHNOLOGICAL MOMENTS IN FILM, INCLUDING MINIATURE HOTELS, DIGITAL ALIENS, LOTS OF FAKE BLOOD, AND MICHAEL KEATON. With your host, Ms. OLIVIA MUNN, star of screens large and small, former tinkerer, the funniest person in HBO’s the Newsroom, and the best reason to see Mortdecai, the most strange and wonderful movie of 2015. THE INCREDIBLY SPECIAL EFFECTS AWARDS Best Scale Shift The Grand Budapest Hotel In Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, intricate miniatures were built to give a sense of the hotel’s magnificence. According…

THE MAN’S DEEP VOICE BOOMS from inside his office, his accent thick and Ukrainian and a little menacing. “I want to show you the black market,” he says. He is big—a few inches over 6 feet, round in a sturdy way, goatee trimmed short. He strides around his desk, his feet and belly leading the way. He wears shiny black shoes, black pants, a black pinstriped suit jacket. His name is Alex Holden, although that’s not the surname he was born with. The room is in an office park in the grassy Milwaukee suburbs, across the hall from a meat broker that sells beef to school-lunch programs. Hold Security, the name of Holden’s firm, is spelled out on the door, slightly crooked, in those reflective letters people stick on their…

THIS LITTLE MACHINE is loaded with lessons about engineering and mobility. The gearbox teaches kids how gear ratios affect speed. And when it walks, the robot’s feet can slip unless you add a dab of glue to them. That’s a great introduction to problem solving: increasing friction to create traction and enable faster movement. The pipe cleaners are just pipe cleaners. Have fun! MATERIALS AND TOOLS (all available at hardware and craft stores, except where noted) INSTRUCTIONS parent only parent and kid kid only STEP-BY-STEP 1. Assemble gearbox using the manufacturer’s instructions. 2. Strip 1 inch of insulation from the end of each wire. 3. Twist a red wire onto the long leg of one LED, and a black wire onto the short leg. Repeat with second LED. 4. Attach…