popular mechanics - january 2015 usa

8/19/2019 Popular Mechanics - January 2015 USA

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T H EHow to

Damp-ProofYour

Basement

p.90

IS THIS

STUPID ORAMAZING?THE WORLD’S FIRSTFAMILY ROBOT : )

Its name is Jibo.

Read about it on p.100.

Real Innovation vs. Fake InnovationA MANIFESTO BY

Steve Wozniak

41

eo-Game-Free Edition)65

55

e Car Awards p.77

clusive: Insidedley Scott’s New Epic p.34

hat’s Coming in 2015od Things. A Lot of Good Things)

HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS

December /January 2015

PopularMechanics.com

America’s MagazineSince 1902


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H O R AC E D O D G E

O UCT IION M DE H .WN .. AI L BL TR 20 .1 .. E T RA D MAMA RRK RY LER GR O P CLL .


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J O H N D O D G E

AT D O D G E . CO M


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2 December / January 2015 _ P O P ULAR M E C H ANIC S ILLUSTRATION BY KATE COPELAND

The transistor brought us to a unique point, shifting ourtechnological progress from hardware to software. When

I was young, a vacuum cleaner was basically the same asit is 40 years later. Maybe a different company name is onit, and it’s made with plastic instead of metal, but vacuumshaven’t really changed a lot. Back then you designed a

better rake or a better door handle, and you sold it. Those were hardware changes. They were slow to happen. Butsoftware lets us move at a faster pace than ever. You canadd all the changes you want and push it out to millions ofpeople almost instantly and virtually for free.

Take this example: I designed a video arcade gamefor Atari called Breakout—a bunch of bricks at the topof the screen and a paddle that moved along the bottom,

bouncing a ball up to destroy the bricks. I wrote that gamein half an hour. I could easily change the colors, change

the speed of the ball, change where the score appeared onthe screen. If I had been working with hardware, it wouldhave taken me 10 years to do what I did in 30 minutes.That’s 175,000 times faster. That’s the advantage softwaregives us over hardware. Things are changing more quicklytoday than ever before. Past eras simply can’t compete.

For proof, just look at the Internet. Nobody could haveimagined typing something and everyone in the world

being able to see it instantly. The Internet really is the biggest innovation in history. It’s more important thanthe computer, even more important than the transistor.The Internet came and everything became for everyone.

We were set free. Let’s see the pyramids do that.

T H E

T E C H NO L O GY

I S S U E

Innovation, Defined By Steve Wozniak

HE PYRAMIDS WERE HARD TO PUT TOGETHER,

but being hard to do doesn’t make somethinginnovative. Technology has to move mankindforward, and the pyramids were not muchmore than a kid trying to build the biggest

sand castle at the beach. It’s the same with the moon land-ing: Maybe it’ll get us closer to colonizing other planets,or maybe we did it just because it was there. Right nowit’s hard to say. The loom, though. There’s an example of apiece of technology. It made a person 100 times more ef-ficient and was a step toward the industrial age. And whenthe printing press came along, it let us spread an idea fur-

ther than ever before—much more than was possible by aperson talking to another person over dinner.

That’s where the distinction comes in. Technology isreally just an amplifier of our abilities. It builds on itself,letting us do more—and do it faster. If you’re a great scien-tist, like Newton or Einstein, you unravel some mysteriesand pass that information on to others.

There’s always a starting point, like a seed. And theone seed of technology with the most things emergingfrom it is obvious: the transistor. The transistor led to themicrochip, and that led to the incredible amount of intel-ligence we have in the palm of our hand today. Every bit oftechnology we have in our computers, smartphones, andtablets, or in the huge computers and hard disks in the

data centers, that’s all thanks to the transistor. It’s the oneinvention that hasn’t really been replaced.

Don’t assume it’s all a matter of perspective. Thecomputer isn’t this generation’s abacus or even thisgeneration’s typewriter. The difference is that the

typewriter—and the Internetcurrently threatens the printingpress with a similar fate—isgone. Completely obsolete. Even

when the typewriter was the bestthing out there, barely any kidslearned how to type. Maybe afew in a summer class. But nowevery kid has to learn how to use

a computer keyboard. You can’tfunction without it.

Or compare the iPhone and thetelevision. The TV was invented

just before I was born, and thereaction was astounding: What

would we ever have done without it? Well, you know what? We had movies before TV. Before that we had plays, allthe way back to ancient Greece. There was always someform of entertainment, so how can we say one is better ordifferent than another? But the iPhone isn’t just anotherform of entertainment. It changed productivity. It changedour habits. And what’s running the iPhone? A transistor.

Technology isreally justan amplifier ofour abilities.It lets us domore—and faster.

T


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Water with

the wave of a hand.MotionSense™, only from Moen.

Wave over for a pot-filling

stream. Reach under for a

quick rinse. It’s water how

you want it, when you want it.

moen.com

2 0 12 M oe n I nc or por at e d .


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T H E

T E C H NO L O GYI S S U E

A G ift We’d Be Happy to GetThe Om/One ($199) by OM Audio

is a Bluetooth speaker that

hovers over a magnetic base in

a small feat of audio engineering

and modern design. The orb

itself is the speaker that works

independent of the base, so you

can take it with you wherever you

go. For more gift ideas, see page

41. And page 65. And page 123.

D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y

20 1 5

A t h o u g h t f u l b u t

e x u b e r a n t l o o k a t t h e

i n n o v a t i v e p e o p l e ,

h a r d w a r e , a n d s o f t w a r e

c h a n g i n g o u r w o r l d .

T H E S T A T E O F

T E C H N O L O G Y 0 2

B y S t e v e W o z n i a k

CONTENTS

PH O T O GR APH BY W IL L S T YE R P O P ULAR M E C H ANIC S _ December / January 2015 5


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8

106

P A G E

A BEAUTIFUL

THING

114

P A G E

THE GADGET

BROTHERS

112

P A G E

100

P A G E

C O N T E N T S

FEATURES

D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y

2 0 1 5

PREAMBLE 1 0

Your letters

Boots for women

A brand-new contest!

Catching up with

Elisha Cuthbert

GIFTS FOR

SMART KIDS 6 5

The year’s very best toys,

none of them video games.

THE ALL-TECH

GIFT GUIDE 41

Speakers, headphones,

chargers, and fitness-tracking

bangles guaranteed to please

even the Luddites on your list.

HOW YOU RWORLD WORKS

Launching salmon

over dams.

How snow will save

California.

Cameras that are just

cameras.

The guys who turn

ovens into instal-

lation art.

And how to make

a scene in Ridley

Scott’s new movie.

2 1

THE UNSUNG INFLUENCERS 55You already know Bezos, Brin, Cook,

and Page. Now meet the people who are

directing the evolution of technology

throu gh government, real estate, the law,and groundbreaking innovation.

CARS: THE POPULAR

ME CHAN I CS CAR AWARDS 7 7

The year’s best vehicles, engine,

reclining seat, and exhaust button.

Alfa Romeo returns to the U.S.

And Toyota’s FJ Cruiser departs.

SK I LLS 8 5

Holiday light displays, three ways.

Lyndie Greenwood from Sleepy Hollow

teaches you how to kee p yo ur bas e-

ment dry.

How to make a smartphone app.

Blizzard tools. The very best in stud sensors.

ASK ROY 9 6How to fix a wobbly ceiling fan, deal with

a squeaky door, and prevent condensa-

tion on you r storm windows.

PROJECT 1 2 3Two homemade gifts to give the people

you love most, including yourself.

“ IT SOUNDS EXTREME, BUT DAN AND MIKE’S VIEW IS THATPEOPLE DON’T BLOW THINGS UP ENOUGH ANY MORE.”

Astro Teller on the creators of Gadgetoff

MIT researcher

Cynthia Breazeal

is building a robot

that, for better or

worse, will become

part of the family.

Forty-nine events

and products in

2015 that we’re

looking forward to.

Including: mobile

TV, new batteries,

and Jurassic World.

DO YOU

NEED J IBO?

A YEAR O F

GOOD THINGS

Dan and Mike

Dubno are master

tinkerers—but their

greatest invention

is something you

can’t touch.

The Sota Moon-

beam Series II

turntable is a

modern miracle

of throwback

technology.

POPULAR MECHANICS

FOR KIDS

How to make snowshoes.

1 3 6


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WHEN INSPIRATION STRIKES, STRIKE FASTER.

© 2 0 1 4 C a n o n U . S . A . , I n c . A l l r i g h t s r

e s e r v e d . C a n o n a n d E O S a r e r e g i s t e r e d t r a d e m a r k s

o f C a n o o n I n c . . A r t i s t i c

e r e p r e p r e s e n

s e

t a t t a t i i n o f t h e 6 5 - p o i

n t

A l l C r o s s - t y p e a u t o f o c u s t e c h n o l o g y . * T h e n u m b e r o f a v a i l a b l e A F

o i n t s , a n d w h e t h e r s i n g l

n g

o e o r c r c r o s r o

s - s -

p e

y p e , , v a r i a

e s e s d e p e n d i n g o n t h e l e n s .

system, it was built to keep anything and everything sharp and stunning.

Show us how you bring it at bringit.usa.canon.com

per

ocus


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LETTERS

10 December / January 2015 _ P O P ULAR M E C H ANIC S

THERE ONCE WAS AN ISAAC ASIMOV FAN

FROM INDIANA . . .

The members of your sci-fi selectionpanel (“Science Fiction for Everyone,”October) must have been teenagers.How else could they have ignored Isaac

Asimov, the greatest science-fiction

writer of all time? His Foundation series books alone should have qualified him.Then you could have also mentionedhis irreverent non-sci-fi limericks in thestory’s footnotes.

T O M B R A N U M S R .

Noblesville, Ind.

AND ONE MORE WORTHY SUGGESTION

You seem to have forgotten to includeClifford D. Simak in your list. His bookCity should be required reading for any-

body who claims to love sci-fi. Actually, it

should be required reading for anybody who claims to love great literature.

G E O R G E R O T E N

Bloomington, Ill.

THE TECHNICIANS AT DEALERSHIPS

WE’RE COOL WITH

I took offense to Spike Feresten’s sug-gestion to avoid dealerships in “How toBuy a Car” (How Your World Works,October). As a retired technician for adealership for 35 years, I can assure you

that every job I turned out was quality.

G A R Y B A R A C KMA N

Melbourne, Fla.

UNDERSTOOD, BUT LOOK OUT FOR THE

JOCKSTRAP-TECHNOLOGY STORY SOON

As both a female engineer who regu-larly wears safety boots, and the handierperson in my home, I was irritated that

women’s boots were omitted from your boot selector (“Fall Gear Special,” Octo- ber). Unless you’re praising the latest

advances in athletic supporters, realize you’ve got women in your audience andreport accordingly. I would love to know

which manufacturers are bringing safety boots for women to the table.

L A U R E L M . J O H N S O N

Sterling Heights, Mich.

THE OTHER CAR-SAFETY FEATURE

It wasn’t until the last paragraph of EzraDyer’s excellent article “The State of CarSafety” (October) that the real problem

was addressed: We don’t need safer cars; we need safer drivers. When people arein control of a 3,000-pound vehicle,they should be thinking of their drivingand little else. If 33,000 people werekilled in aircraft crashes every year as arekilled in car accidents, something would

be done about it, and it wouldn’t bestronger airplanes.

J O H N S H O M I N

Liberal, Mo.

Something I would love to see improved

is the rearview mirror. Many cars todayhave large blind spots in the back cor-ners. But the bigger issue is making suredrivers are educated behind the wheelso that they rarely need all the “helpers”

built into their cars.

G E O R G E S T AMM

Chippewa Falls, Wis.

ADDENDUM:

THE POPULA R

MECHANICS

(WOMEN’ S) BOOT

SELECTOR

YOU ARE:

A HOU SE

FLIPPER

Your boots:

Carhartt’s

Wellington Boot

($170). Job-site-

approved, with a

steel toe. But bestof all, they don’t

look like a safety

boot.

YOU ARE:

AN URB AN

HIKER

Your b oots:Wolverine Evelyn

1000 Mile Boot

($380). An archi-

val boot given a

modern update,

the Evelyn is

made right here in

the States.

YOU ARE:

AN ENGINEER

Your b oots:Chippewa Engineer

($320). The classic

favored by guys

on the line since

1937 is finally

being released in

a women’s style.

THIS MONTH IN INSTAGRAM

Everyone must be cleaning out their grand-

parents’ garages: (1) @weinbenlick, (2) @

paintandpixels, (3) @jsdigital, (4) @katherine.forest, (5) @mediumcontrol, (6) @glamisyco.

Letters to the editor can be emailed to

[email protected].

Include your full name and address. Let-ters may be edited for length and clarity.

Subscribe: subscribe.popularmechanics

.com, 800-333-4948.

For the record:

On page 58 of

the September

issue, the

figure for AceHardware’s 2013

global retail

sales shouldhave read

$12 billion.

1

4

2

5

3

6

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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12 December / January 2015 _ P O P ULAR M E C H ANIC S P HOTOG R A P H B Y D A N D U B N O

S I N C E 1 9 0 2

Ryan D’AgostinoEditor In Chief

Design Director Rob Hewitt

Executive Editor David Howard

Deputy Editor Peter MartinManaging Editor Michael S. Cain

Editorial Director David Granger

EditorialSpecial Projects Director Joe Bargmann

Senior Editors Roy Berendsohn, Andr ew Del -Col le,Jacqueline Detwiler

Automotive Editor Ezra Dyer

Senior Associate Editor Davey AlbaAssociate Editor Matt Goulet

Assistant Editor Kevin Dupzyk

Copy Chief Robin Tribble Research Director David Cohen

Assistant to the Editor in Chief Theresa Breen

ArtDeputy Art Director Kristie BaileyAssociate Art Director Tim Vienckowski

Designer Jack Dylan

PhotographyDirector of Photography Allyson Torr isi

Associate Photo Editor Devon Baverman

Contributing EditorsWylie Dufresne, Francine Maroukian,

David Owen, Richard Romanski,Joseph Truini

Editorial Board of AdvisersBuzz Aldrin (Apollo 11 astronaut)

Shawn Carlson (LabRats)David E. Cole (Center for Automotive Research)

Saul Griffith (Otherlab) Thomas D. Jones (NASA astronaut)

Dr. Ken Kamler (microsurgeon)Gavin A. Schmidt (NASA Goddard Institute

for Space Studies) Amy B. S mith (MIT)

Daniel H. Wilson (roboticist)Wm. A. Wulf (National Academy of Engineering)

ImagingDigital Imaging Specialist Steve Fusco

PopularMechanics.comOnline Editor Andr ew Moseman

Online Producer Carl Davis

Popular Mechanics InteractiveProducer Jeff Zinn

Published by HearstCommunications, Inc.

Steven R. Swartz

President & Chief Executive OfficerWilliam R. Hearst III

ChairmanFrank A. Bennack, J r.Executive Vice Chairman

Hearst Magazines DivisionDavid Carey

PresidentMichael Clinton

President, Marketing & Publishing DirectorJohn P. Loughlin

Executive Vice President & General ManagerEditorial Director Ellen Levine

Publishing Consultant Gilbert C. Maurer Publishing Consultant Mark F. Miller

I JUST SAW THE NEW MOVIE ABOUT ALAN TURING, The Imita-

tion Game, which we wrote about in the November issue. It’sa riveting film, well worth seeing. Turing was the mathemat-ical savant who cracked the Nazi Enigma code, helping the

Allies win World War II. He also created the Turing test, amethod for measuring a computer’s ability to behave likea human. Turing wrote in his paper introducing the test(which he called the Imitation Game), “I propose to considerthe question, can machines think?”

That was in 1950. Sixty-one years later we had Siri. Next year, if everything goes as planned, we will have Jibo, billed as the world’s first family robot, which ison our cover and which you canread about on page 100. Jibo relays

your texts, orders dinner, reminds you of appointments, takes photos when you ask it to. Its movementsare fluid, even natural. It may revo-lutionize the way we interact withdevices, or it may not, but it’s a big,ambitious undertaking by a pioneerin the industry, and it’s raising ques-tions about where technology isgoing—or should go.

I asked Graham Moore, who wrote the screenplay for The Imitation Game (based on a book by Andrew Hodges), what Turing

would have thought of social robot-ics. “He would have been a huge fanof Siri,” he said. “For Alan Turingthere was no core thing that makes

you human or makes you intelli-gent. It was only what you were inother people’s eyes.”

Over the summer I went to Bos-ton to meet Jibo’s creator, Cynthia

Breazeal. She showed me a prototype, and I have to say, I wantone. At least I think I do. Many people consider Breazeal agenius, and 4,800 people have preordered a Jibo. But there areplenty who think her project is misguided. They pontificateabout whether Jibo will divorce us from our fellow humans,

replacing actual interaction. Plenty of people thought Alan Tur-ing was misguided, and that guy Steve Jobs—and that otherguy, Steve Wozniak, who thinks about all of this in his essaythat begins on page 2. But they kept working and, you know, we

won the war, and Apple exists. I guess we’ll see what happensnext, but we’re hopeful.

RYAN D’AGOSTINO, EDITOR IN CHIEF

Dan Dubno took this picture of mewith his phone, which is equippedwith thermal imaging capability.We were at a big party in New YorkCity celebrating the 10th annualPopular Mechanics BreakthroughAwards—glittery room, sweep-ing views of the skyline, greatcocktails, geniuses everywhere.Dan stood in the middle, scan-ning the room with his phone,which turned the crowd into anundulating human heat map. (He’llbe writing about the technologyin next month’s issue.) Dan and

his brother, Mike, have devoteda good part of their adult lives tohosting the world’s liveliest DIYgadget summit, Gadgetoff. Theyare brilliant and hilarious, and youcan read Scott Eden’s story aboutthem on page 114.


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A N N O U N C I N G : T H E P O P U L A RM E C H A N I C S H O M E

W O R K S H O P C H A L L E N G E

C O N T E S T N O . 1

Emai l your p lans and

a p icture of the resu l ts to

PMWorkshopChal lenge@

popularmechanics .com by

J anuary 13 , 2015.

PARAMETERS:

Your item(s) mus t be

made out of one 4 x 8–

foot sheet of p lywood.

The p lywoo d can be

any type, an d you can

cut i t as many t imes as

you l ike .

You’re free to use a ny

type of fastener. G lue,

screws, na i ls , bo l ts ,

c l ips , h inges, and

brackets are a l l okay.

You can augment your

project with w hee ls ,

hand les , meta l tub ing,

or any other sort of

hardware, but n o other

lumber is permit ted .

P R I Z E :

T he w inner w i l l r ece ive a

D eW alt 1 08 - P iece Mechanics

Socket Set , and your p r o ject

w i l l ap p ear in a futur e is s ue

of Pop u lar Mechanics . ( Seepage 131 for rules. ) Good luck,

have fun, and d on ’ t for get your

s afety gogg les .

S I N C E 1 9 0 2

Cameron ConnorsPublisher; Chief Revenue Officer

Advertising Director Adam C. Dub

Executive Director, Group Marketing Lisa Boyars

Advertising Sales OfficesNew York

Integrated Account Manager Joe Dunn212/649-2902

Integrated Account Manager Alex Gleit man212/649-2876

Assistant Jennifer Zuckerman 212/649-2875Los Angeles

Integrated California Sales Manager Anne Re thmeye r 310/664-2921

Integrated Account Manager Amy Supren ant 949/610-0458

Integration Associate Michelle Nelson 310/664-2922

Chicago Integrated Midwest Director

Spencer J. Huffman 312/984-5191Assistant Yvonne Villareal 312/984-5196

DetroitIntegrated Regional Director

Mara Filo 248/614-6055Integrated Sales Director Mark Fikany

Assistant Toni Starrs 248/614-6011Dallas

Patty Rudolph 972/533-8665 PR 4.0 Media

Direct Response AdvertisingSales Manager Brad Gettelfinger 212/649-4204Account Manager John Stankewitz 212/649-4201

Marketing SolutionsArt Director George Garrastegui, Jr.

Marketing Director Jason GrahamAssociate Marketing Director Bonnie Harris

Senior Marketing Manager Amanda LuginbillIntegrated Marketing Manager Rob Gearity

Integrated Marketing Coordinator Holly Mascaro

AdministrationAdvertising Services Director Regina Wall

Advertising Services Coordinator Aide n LeeExecutive Assistant to the Publisher Ilona Bilevych

ProductionGroup Production Director Karen Otto

Group Production ManagerLynn Onoyeyan Scaglione

Associate Production Manager Karen Nazario

CirculationConsumer Marketing Director William Carter

Hearst Men’s GroupSenior Vice President & Publishing Director

Jack EssigAssociate Publisher & Group Marketing Director

Jill MeenaghanGeneral Manager Samantha Irwin

Executive Director, Group Strategy & DevelopmentDawn Sheggeby

Executive Creative Director, Group Marketing Alis on DeB enedictis

Digital Marketing Director Kelley GudahlExecutive Director, Digital Advertising

Bill McGarryEast Coast Digital Account Manager

Cameron AlbergoEast Coast Digital Account Manager

Drew OsinskiSenior Digital Sales Strategist

Amanda Mar ando laSenior Digital Sales Strategist

Kameron McCulloughDigital Marketing Manager Anthony Fai rall

Off ic ia l ru les can be found at popularmechanics.com/workshopchal lenge.

A little inspiration: a

plywood umbrella.

Cumbersome but

functional.

For 113 years Popular Mechanics has pushed the limits of what we canachieve in our workshops, whether it’s making a rolltop desk (January1976) or shaving cream (September 2014). Throughout, we’ve alwayshad the same goal: inspire craftsmanship and creativity.

Now we’re putting the challenge to you—and there are prizes. A fewtimes a year, you’ll find a contest. The directions will be specific. Victory

won’t be easy. But just by giving it a shot, you will test and improve your

skills at making, building, and creating. And you might win a socket set.


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C A R B RA N D GRA P H IC T E E SChannel the golden era of American muscle

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S A V E T H E M A N U A L S C O L L E C T IO NCelebrate the season and manual transmissions

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with Save the Manuals ins ignia

H U N T V S . L A U D A B O O KVeteran racing journal ist Paul Fearnley

takes you ins ide o ne of the greatest seasonsin Formula 1 h istory, tel l ing the story of two

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Y O U R P H O T O O N A C O V E RPut your favorite car maniac and h is

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16 December / January 2015 _ P O P ULAR M E C H ANIC S I L L U STR ATION B Y HA IS A M HU SSE IN

The show goes all the way backto 1997.I was 15. Crazy, right? I’ve been actingfor that long. The funny thing about

PMK was that I was playing myself.

Did you know much about any of thesubjects you were covering going in?No, but I was really familiar withthe magazine. My dad is an engineer,so he bought it. I’ve actually retaineda lot from what I learned on theshow, though.

Like what?I know the inner workings of so manythings. Like the sewer system. It’samazing how much I can talk about ata dinner table.

More than you would have learnedin a classroom.

We got to meet real on-the-job people working their butts off to make the world run. We got to go up in a blimp.I was in a fricking blimp. I remembergoing to San Francisco and gettingto see how a recycling plant worked.I know why I recycle now and whereit goes. That is knowledge that sticks

with you.

What happens at the recycling

plant? You recycle, it goes to a recyclingplant. They separate paper, glass,plastic, and it goes into thesemachines, gets melted down andreused. You don’t know that?

I thought it’d be more involved. Youalso filmed on an aircraft carrier.The USS Eisenhower . Boat No. 69.That was one that Jay [Baruchel, her

cohost the first season and star of This Is the End ] and I got to do together, which didn’t always happen becausehe was off doing one thing and I wasoff doing another in most cases. It

was one of the wildest things that Ihave ever done, probably to this day.

We were catapulted off the carrier in aplane at the end to get us back home

because the ship was out to sea for sixmonths. That plane got going to, like,300 miles an hour in 4 seconds.

Should you have kids of your ownone day, will you be screening backepisodes?I may pull out a VHS. And they’re

gonna go, “What the hell is that?” Imight have to track down, at least,some DVDs. I think I have everyepisode in my parents’ basement on

VHS. It’s old-school, but it’s good stuff.

Cuthbert’s newest comedy, OneBig Happy, where she playsa surrogate mom, will premieremidseason on NBC.

On page 136 this month you’ll find instructions for a project that you can build

with a kid. We’re calling it Popular Mechanics for Kids. But before there was

the page in th is magazine, there was Popular Mechanics for Kids, the educa-

tional TV show that ran from 1997 to 2001. The mainstay throu gh al l four sea-

sons was Elisha Cuthbert, who would grow up to have a bona fide Hollywood

career starring in The Girl Next Door, 24, and Happy Endings. The first love of

many a future engineer deigned to reminisce with us. — MA T T G O U L E T

R E A D E R T I P

Kevin Lindberg picked up this storage trick

from his father-in-law, Ed Nista, of Bruns-

wick, Maine: Stack cinder blocks three high

and three wide for a remarkably stable way

to store long-handled tools in your garage.

O U R F A V O R I T E A L U M N A :


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W E G AV E C H I L D R E N T OYS A N D T H E N

T O O K T H E M A W AY, A L L I N T H E N A M E

O F J O U R N A L I S M .

In compiling our toy gift guide (page 65), the

editorial offices of Popular Mechanics were

inundated with products intended for children.

It has been both embarrassing and fun. Some

numbers behind the undertaking:

T H E C R E D E N T I A L S O F T H E W O Z

The fella who introduced this issue, Steve

Wozniak? He cofounded Apple with Steve Jobs and

Ronald Wayne in 1976 and designed the Apple I and

Apple II computers, ushering in the era of personal

computing. If anyone could tell us whether we’re

truly living in a golden age of technology, it’d be

him. The 64-year-old currently serves as the chief

scientist for data storage company Fusion-io.

Our office. Not a toy store.

S T O P W O R R Y I N G

A B O U T T H E

C U R I O S I T Y R O V E R

Curiosity has holes

in its wheels. Huge

ones. In the two years

Curiosity has been

motoring around the

planet, sharp rocks

embedded in the

surface of Mars have

worn through the

aluminum. But thisis not a big deal. The

mission achieved its

goal—finding suitable

conditions for life—

almost immediately,

so all the information

NASA collects now is

just a bon us. NASA

estimates the Rover’s

nuclear power source

will give out before its

wheels do.

A BRIEF ADJURATI ON

115

15

9

8

1

Estimated number of toys that were

delivered to our offices.

Staffer’s kids tasked with playing with

(or testing) the products.

Paper airplanes that were folded before

we could get one that would fly.

Estimated miles logged on the EzyRoller

Classic up and down the office hallway.

Big thank you to Norman & Jules Toy Shop

in Brooklyn, New York.


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EAR AN OTHERWISE TRANQUILWashington river, a bewilderedChinook salmon flops out of whatlooks like an air-conditioning duct,tail flapping fruitlessly. This is not

an accident, or animal cruelty, or even a newway to deliver sushi. It is a moment engi-neered by man. Specifically, it is a momentengineered by a man with a cannon thatshoots fish. It is also, one company hopes,the future of ecological conservation.

N

Why launch a fish over a dam?Because we can. Also: Becauseit could save the environment.BY C H R I S T O P H E R S O L O M O N

T H E SA LM O NC A N N O N

O V E N S ! G Y M S H O R T S !

A salmon

about to take

a trip through

the Whooshh

Fish Transport

System.

P O P U L A R M E C H A N I C S _ December / January 2015 21P H O T O G RA P H S B Y K YL E J O H N SO N


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22 December / January 2015 _ P O P ULAR M E C H ANIC S ILLUSTRATIONS BY MICHAEL HOEWELER

The Fish

in Question

This is a salmon.He was born in

a river, and he’ll

return to that river

to die. But first

he’ll change. Not

as much as your

ex-wife. Close,

though.

Before migrating to

the sea, small fresh-

water salmon, known

as parrs, develop the

necessary cells and

enzymes to process

salt water through

their gills.

Adult salmon live in

the ocean for two to

four years. About a

year before spawning,

they use an unidenti-

fied form of magnetic

navigation to find

their home stream.

At puberty, melanin

and carotenoids red-

den and darken the

salmon’s skin. Males

also develop a hump

and a hooked jaw to

fight off other males

during spawning.

Whooshh Innovations, thefledgling transport companythat launched the salmon, neverplanned for this moment. In thelate 2000s it was struggling togain a foothold in the agricultureindustry. Whooshh had invented atube that transported odd-shapedobjects, like apples, from tree to

bin without bruising them—adevice much like the differential-pressure tubes they use in bankdrive-throughs. Then, in 2009,

Whooshh vice president ToddDeligan and CEO Vince Bryan IIIhad a moment of entrepreneur-ial inspiration. They inserted alive tilapia into their machine. Itzipped across the room, appear-ing Star Trek–like on the otherside, unharmed and reasonablysanguine. The Whooshh FishTransport System was born.

Around the office Whooshhexecutives call it the salmoncannon. But the transport sys-tem offers a cheap, clever, andlucrative solution to a seriousproblem. There are about 80,000dams across the U.S., many of

which block spawning salmonand steelhead trout far fromthe birthplaces they struggle to

PARR

—

SPAWN ING

—

measures over the years to helpsalmon migrate across the dams

without these ladders: barges,tankers, even helicopters. Butnever a cannon.

Though it can fire a fish 100 vertical feet at speeds of 30 feetper second, the salmon cannondoesn’t usually blast its pas-

sengers over the ramparts. In Whooshh’s fish lab, a garage in anindustrial park in Bellevue, Wash-ington, chief engineer Jim Ottenexplains how it works: A fishswims near an entrance, wherea small blower of the sort thatdrives fans and belts sucks it intoa flexible conduit. When the fishpushes through a valve, a tubeattached to the blower introducespositive pressure behind the fish,

which propels it into a moist,flexible, plastic sleeve, whose rub-

bery shape creates a seal. Off goesthe fish. Otten inserts a big wetsponge into the machine to dem-onstrate. With a ttthhwwwhpp, the sponge disappears. Sevenseconds and 130 feet later it plopsout of the sleeve’s other end.

The sponge (and the tilapia)seemed unchanged after shootingthrough the system, but regula-tors plan extensive tests to ensurethat fish are safe inside it. Therespected Pacific NorthwestNational Laboratory anticipates

testing 40- and 250-foot-long fishcannons at a hatchery along theColumbia River, looking at factorslike scale loss and egg viability,

both of which affect whether afish can go on to produce healthyoffspring. If all goes well, thetubes could eventually becomefixtures throughout the region,catapulting migrating fish overdams in constant streams like

baseballs from an automatic pitchmachine. No one tell the bears.

During a test on the

Washougal River, an

(undoubtedly con-

fused) salmon is fed

into the cannon.

ADULT

—

F I SH

40 fish per

minute!

30 feet

per second!

Fish are sucked into a conduit (1 ), then projected (2 ) up to 230 feet through a tube.

return to. Fewer than 10 percentof these dams have built-in fishladders, waterborne sets of stairsthat help fish traverse the cre-

vasse between the downstreamriver and the pool of water thatsits above it. Conservation crewshave tried all sorts of expensive

2

HOW IT

WORKS1


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24 December / January 2015 _ P OP U L A R M E C HA N IC S

WATER

How a new way to measure snowpack is changingthe drought in California. BY R A C H E L S T U R T Z

T H E S N O W P L A N E

And theSnow-PoweredSubway

The Hetch Hetchy

reservoir—a

dammed-off valley

in Yosemite National

Park—releases

290 million gallons

a day, servicing2.6 million custom-

ers on the San

Francisco Bay

peninsula. The

water’s 167-mile

trek generates

enough hydroelec-

tric energy to power

local police and fire

stations, along with

most of the city’s

subway system.

NE HUNDRED AND FIFTY miles outside SanFrancisco, a reprieveto the city’s crippling

water crisis could befalling from the sky right now:snow. When it eventually meltsin the spring, the snowpackthat piles up in the TuolumneRiver Basin in the eastern SierraNevada Mountains will collect in

the Hetch Hetchy reservoir before being doled out in San Francisco,directly determining just howmuch water will be available forevery shower, lawn, and carbon-neutral backyard chicken coop inthe city. But all that stored waterhelps only if city water managersknow exactly how much is coming.

Two years ago NASA’s JetPropulsion Lab (JPL) teamed up

with the California Departmentof Water Resources to create

the Airborne Snow Observatory(ASO), which allows research-ers to predict spring runoff withmuch greater accuracy—and alot less walking around in thesnow with yardsticks. Led byJPL’s Tom Painter, ASO tradesmanual ground surveys for aplane-mounted, dual-instrumentsystem. The plane is rigged withan imaging spectrometer, which

measures snow albedo—the meltrate, based on the amount ofsunlight reflected and absorbed

by the snow. It also has lidar,a pulsing infrared laser thatdetermines snow depth, allowingresearchers to calculate howmuch snow is there, and thushow much water it will create

when melted (called snow-waterequivalent, or SWE). Combin-ing the two gives researchers thefirst-ever 3D model (above) of the

snow-covered mountains—and agood idea of just how much waterflow city managers can expect inthe summer.

ASO’s accuracy is unprec-edented, predicting snow depthto within 4 inches, and SWE to

within 5 percent. And it’s highlyefficient: Researchers can cover460 square miles (300,000 acres)in only 4 hours, and maps of

basin-wide SWE and snow albedocan be created every 24 hoursinstead of once a month. As the

ASO obtains aircraft that can gofaster and higher, its acquisitiontimes will drop even more. Ulti-mately, the goal is to place ASOinstruments on satellites, or eventhe International Space Station,for global observation. The newtechnology may not be able to stopdroughts, but at least it can helpmanage them.

O

IL L U S T R AT IO N BY S INE L AB


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CVS – Expensive.Slow. Shots look

muddied.

Costco – The

cheapest online service—

if you happen to be a

member. Fast shipping,

decent quality.

Epson XP-820 Printer

– Pricey

($200), and can be a pain

to set up, but produced

the richest colors and

highest levels of contrast.

Fast, too, printing a 4 x 6–

inch image in 12 seconds.

Shutterfly.com – Robust

online editing tools, like

cropping and effects.

Good contrast, but

photos take twice as long

as Snapfish to get to you.

Snapfish.com

– The easiest

of the online services.

Great overall quality.

Cheap and quick.

TECH

Not a smartphone camera. A camera.BY D A V E Y A L B A

T H E C A S E F O R A C A M E R A

NOBODY CARRIES A SEPARATE CAMERA anymore, and that makes sense.Smartphone cameras havegotten good enough that, inmost instances, they take

perfectly passable photos. And they can’t be

beat for convenience.But a smartphone will never be as good

as a camera. It can’t be. A quarter-inch slabof metal doesn’t leave room for importantfeatures like lenses or large sensors—neces-sary things when you are shooting in less-than-ideal light or want to zoom in withouthideous pixelation. The shots you want to get

just right—the ones of your kids that you may want to one day appreciate on a screen largerthan 2 x 5 inches—deserve to be taken on areal camera. Maybe one of these.

The most interesting point-and-shootreleased this year is the Canon PowerShot

SX700 HS ($350). It has a sharp lens with a30x zoom and, if you’re so inclined, manualshooting modes that let you set shutter speedand aperture. It’s also Wi-Fi enabled, so youcan use your phone as a remote control toadjust zoom and flash, and trigger the camera.

One step up is Sony’s mirrorless A6000 ($650). The 24.3-megapixel A6000 has an

APS-C sensor that delivers a sharp image with very little noise (graininess), even in low light,and can capture a huge dynamic range. Plus,Sony claims the A6000’s ultrafast autofocussystem can lock in a subject within 0.06 sec-onds, which no phone could touch.

If you really want to take great photos, you need a DSLR. The new Nikon D810 ($3,300) is Nikon’s highest-resolutioncamera, with a 36.3-megapixel full-framesensor that produces the lowest image noiseand widest dynamic range of any camera outthere. Its 51-point focusing system, combined

with a 5-fps capture speed, ensures you’ llsnap special moments with more reliabil-ity, whether you’re shooting flag football orNascar. No way will it fit in your pocket, butneither will your car. And you wouldn’t want

your phone to replace that, either.

What good is a great photo if it stays on your camera?We printed a snapshot taken at this year’s World Cup (below)using the best photo-printing options available,then had our photo editor judge them. Her findings:

CASESTUDY

P HOTOG R A P H B Y D A V ID L A WR E N C E


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PM: But is all of this actually bring-ing in more money? Does the influxof workers help the city earn moremoney that it can then use to encour-age growth?

BP: What we put back into the cityfrom the increased revenue areprotected bike lanes, open spacesand parks, and events. We make it sothat this is a place where people wantto stay, a place with vibrancy, and,hopefully, where they’ll want to raise

their family.

PM: What about concern

that Pittsburgh lacks ade-quate venture capital?

BP: We have a VC com-munity. It’s obviously notas large as the others, butthere is a support network

that comes out of the universities andgroups like AlphaLab that are hereto be able to take startups to the nextphase. Once companies are lookingfor that 2 to 10 million dollars, that’s

where [we can improve]. There is anopportunity, though, for Pittsburgh’straditional corporations to help invest

in the emerging community.PM: And the winters aren’t that bad?

BP: They’re moderate. I like winter.

POPULAR MECHANICS: No offense, but why Pittsburgh? Why is it suddenly a

capital of the maker movement?BILL PEDUTO: It’s in our DNA. Wehave been making things since thedays of the French and Indian War,

when this was just a little fortresstown in the western frontier. First it

was glass. Then it was iron, then steeland aluminum. We basically built thiscountry—every bridge and skyscraperof every city. That history is whatseparates us from Silicon Valley.

PM: Did you have to nudge the recentgrowth along? There was a bit of alull after the steel industry shrank.

BP: It’s taken awhile, but it wasorganic. Although big steel and bigindustry left the region, advancedmanufacturing never did. In fact,in many ways it continued to growas improved quality was needed tomake up for the mass productionthat we were losing to Europe and

Asia. Then, as the robotics indus-try started to take off, and Pitt andCarnegie Mellon University createdthe first robotics curriculum in the

world, the demand was there tocreate the products designed in the

classroom. And that led to companieslike Google and TechShop opening uphere in the last few years.

T H E M A K E RM A Y O RPittsburg h has become one of themost encouraging spots for innovationin the United S tates. We askedMayor Bill Peduto how that happened.

PM: Can any city do what you guyshave done, or do you need certaininfrastructure that’s already there?

BP: Today’s infrastructure is the tal-ent. You need to be able to have that—the people who understand how toinnovate and those who understandhow to build the innovations.

PM: Is it getting easier to draw talent?Pittsburgh’s reputation will never belike California’s or New York City’s.

BP: Twenty-somethings want theglamour of the coasts, but

what we offer is more of a

total quality of life. Insteadof living in a cupboard,here you can actuallyafford to buy a home. Thecost of the software en-gineer that you’ll need tohire in Pittsburgh is a fraction of what

you’d have to pay out in Silicon Valley.

PM: With all these new people andcompanies, have you seen small-busi-ness tax incentives actually working?

BP: We’re seeing it work in the rede- velopment of neighborhoods. When Ifirst started working for the city in the

mid-’90s, East Liberty was the drive- by capital of western Pennsylvania.Now it’s a home to Google.

“We basically

built thiscountry—everybridge andskyscraper ofevery city.”

CASE

STUDY

Company: SolePower

Number of Employees: 7

Product: Inserts that convert

footsteps into stored energy

to charge cellphones and such.

Likely Clientele: Hikers, run-

ners, and anyone in developing

countries, where reliable power

is often a commodity.

Founded: 2012 by Carnegie

Mellon University gradu-

ates Hahna Alexander and

Matthew Stanton

Why Pittsburgh:

Convenience.

SolePower’s manu-

facturers are all

within 2 to 3 hours.

Launching:

Spring 2015

STARTUP

CITY

28 December / January 2015 _ P O P ULAR M E C H ANIC S PO R T R AIT BY PE T E R S T R AIN


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Actual Prius owner made previously aware their likeness and statement may be used for advertising. Cargo and load capacity limited by weight and distribution. ©2014 Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.

“We went across the U.S. three times in

our first Prius. The new one’s got a lot ofadventure ahead of it.”

The Russes, Prius owners

toyota.com/prius


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30 December / January 2015 _ P O P ULAR M E C H ANIC S PH O T O GR APH S BY AL E XI H O BBS

LTIMATELY, IT’S ABOU T FUNC-

tion. Nothing cooks foodlike a wood-fired oven.Eight hundred degreesof radiant heat and the

penetrating power of woodsmokeleave a flavorful mark. But take onelook at a Maine Wood Heat ovenand the form is equally impressive:

A gleaming copper dome designed by a Maine artisan sits atop anoven core made of highly reflective

white clay found only in Larnage,France. “We’ve created a new iden-tity for the traditional Parisian-style

bread oven,” says Scott Barden, whoco-owns Maine Wood Heat, a sec-ond-generation family company.

Founded in 1976 by Barden’sparents as an itinerant businessinstalling ceramic–masonry heat-ers, which are integral to Yankeetraits of thrift and self-reliance,

Maine Wood Heat has evolved tofocus on making wood-fired ovensat its shop in the central Mainetown of Skowhegan, home to athriving artist community. Thecompany’s signature products areovens with handcrafted copper orsteel caps for homes and restau-rants. Each built-to-order oven cantake 25 shop hours for the interiormasonry portion and up to triplethat time for the outer metalwork.

“The weatherproof copper facade

U

Anatomy of a Wood-Fired Oven

Wood-fired ovens rely on a balance of stored, reflected, and circulating

heat to cook food at intense temperatures, directly and indirectly, with a

live fire or warmth that remains days after the coals have been removed.

1. Pan: 6 inches of mixed-material i nsulation.

2. Floor: Fired tiles made of a food-safe, reflec-

tive whi te clay.

3. Ceramic dome: Supplied by Le Panyol and

made of the same clay as the floor tiles.

4. Dome cover: A blanket of ceramic-wool

insulation to trap heat.

5. Cast-iron firing door: Regulates combustion

and airflow.

6. Metal cap: Copper or steel. For lo oks.

7. Chimney: Copper or steel. If it’s near anything

combustible, an insulated pipe is safer.

MAKER

HOW IT

WORKS

43

215

7

6

AS C U L P T U R ET H A T H I T S800°The wood-fired oven gets

a New Eng land makeover.BY F R A N C I N E MA R O U K I A N


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came from an early idea of my father’s,” Barden says.That idea was to have family friend and local metalsculptor Barry Norling create the template for a copperoven cap. Norling, known locally for his creative copper

weather vanes, a significant feature of New England’scolonial architecture, still makes most of the compa-ny’s copper caps, signing every one he completes.

From left: Scott Barden, co-owner

of Maine Wood Heat, TIG- welds

deoxidized copper rods to make

smooth seams on the company’s

signature copper oven caps; insideeach oven cap si ts a Le Panyol

white-clay oven hearth, shipped

from France in pieces and then

assembled at Maine Wood Heat’s

shop; a cap interior before the

hearth is placed.

With its signature copper caps,Maine Wood Heat has createda new identity for the classicParisian-style bread oven.

The heart of each Maine WoodHeat oven is a ceramic core supplied

by 174-year-old French ovenmakerLe Panyol. For optimum cooking,each core is constructed of Terre

Blanche de Larnage, a fast-heating white clay that remains food-safeat the highest temperatures. Madefor kitchens or outdoors, the ovensare available in various sizes; themost common residential ovenhas a diameter of almost 33 inchesand costs $14,500, including ship-ping. What you get: a piece of art

that will bake 50 pizzas an hourand retain usable cooking tempera-tures for days after the last coals areremoved.

For Barden, who now largely

focuses on cap designs, inspirationis everywhere. Recently, while driv-ing through Midwestern farmland, acorn silo gave him the idea to marryfired antique tile and aged steel.

At this point it’s just a fantasy: He wants to make it because it’s beauti-ful. But with the right assembly, healso hopes that it can cook.


34/134


HAVE A BAD LEG, LIKE A CHARACTER IN A

Dickens novel, only I got it by dancing ballet. Alone. In my bedroom. I was 16and practicing a move called a penchée

when my right hamstring made a soundlike the end of a string bean snapping off. Ihad to use crutches for six weeks and, becauseI couldn’t sit comfortably in any of the usualconfigurations, rode everywhere in the back of

the family pickup.More than a decade later this one injury

has caused every other muscle in my right legto self-destruct. It’s responsible for hip flexortendonitis, sprained ankles, runner’s knee,and a case of IT band syndrome. This is thesad truth of living in a body made up of com-plementary muscular circuits: Tear one lousyhamstring and you spend the rest of your lifekeeping watch against the avalanches of painthat poor alignment sends caroming down

your beleaguered skeleton.This is why I would actually use Athos’s

new EMG shorts ($99, plus $199 for a

plastic core that transmits to a free iPhoneapp). EMG stands for electromyography, amethod of measuring the electrical signalthat motor nerves send to muscle fibers tomake them contract. The stronger the signal,the more muscle fibers are being recruited,and the harder the muscle is working. EMGis normally available only to elite athletes,

but Athos has worked it into a pair of shortsfor regular humans. Once the shorts are onand calibrated, a tiny, light-up version of your

body appears on the app. As your muscles work harder, the inner and outer quads,hamstrings, and glutes on the screen change

color, from blue to red.The app can show you, in real time, how

tiny imbalances in form and strength can wreak havoc across your entire muscular sys-tem—as well as how to fix them. Wearing theshorts is like having a personal trainer with

X-ray vision. Lean too far forward in a lungeand the opposite hamstring stops lighting up.Slack off during squats and your glutes nevergo full red. I had to go to Olympic lengthsto get my useless right hamstring out of the

blue–green zone. But at least I could finallysee the path toward fixing it.

A C O M P U T E R I NY O U R GY M S H O R T S

I

Activemuscle

Inactive

muscle

Five sensors on each leg

transmit information to

Athos’s core, which then

relays it to your phone.

This diagram shows how

your muscles should light

up when you do a lunge.

HOW IT

WORKS

How a piece of workout gear could keep yourbody from falling apart. BY J A C Q U E L I N E D E TW I L E R

Built-in

sensors

Athos

core

And One on Your Forearm

The Push Strength Tracker ($189) has one big advantage

over wearables like Fitbit and NikeFuel: It does something

legitimately useful. Slide the cuff over your forearm, sync to

an app, and Push records every rep, constantly measuring

force, speed, and power in order to let you know when to

lift heavier or lighter, faster or slower. The power light is a

little bright and unsubtle, but so was spandex, and people

got through that.

ILLUSTRATION BY BRYAN CHRISTIE DESIGN


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Toyota Prius proudly proles a new generation of innovatorsand reveals what inspires them.

PROMOTION

Visit PopularMechanics.com this November as we goinside the creative minds of our favorite Inventionaries.


36/134


EXODUS:GODS

A N D K I N G SDirector Ridley Scott’s epicnew reimagining of the biblical

story of Moses (out December12) stars Christian Bale andJoel Edgerton—and a wholelot of CG magic. Visual-effectssupervisor Peter Chiang shareshow it was done.

MOVIES

If a chariot had been in the foreground, between the

drummers and trumpeters, we would have had to do it

computer-controlled to get the perspective exactly the

same. But when objects are a certain distance away, like

this, you get a bit of leeway with the perspective.

In this scene Ramses and

his army pursue Moses and

the Jews as they flee Egypt.

Everything from the pillars to the

trumpeters is real. It was shot

on the lot at Pinewood Studios

in London on a cloudy day. Theshadow line you see in front of

the trumpeters marks the edge

of the Pinewood shot.

The troops in the main aisle are

also real, but they were reshot in

Fuerteventura, Spain, after Ridley

decided the scene didn’t work

without sunlight. When we got to

Fuerteventura, the crane didn’t

rise as high as it did in Pinewood,

so we had to manipulate every-

thing a bit, digitally, to get the

perspective to work.

HOW’D THEY GET THAT SHOT?

The sphinxes were originally shot in

Pinewood, but they were also in flat light,

so we had to rebuild them in CG, light them

properly, and place them in the scene.

Ninety percent of the soldiers

are CG. We digitally built models

of horses and chariots, and

simulated cloth flags, dust,

hooves, and wheels to blend in

seamlessly with the live action.

Complicating all of this is the fact

that we shot in 3D, so everything

had to be done from two angles.

There’s no cheating or simply

painting a scene.


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P O P ULAR M E C H ANIC S _ December / January 2015 35

Those birds are CG.

Ridley suggested them.

The overcast sky was added

later on Ridley’s direction to

heighten the drama.

To shoot in Spain, we needed to know where these digital

sphinxes were so we didn’t have horses and chariots riding

through them. We marked out the corners of each sphinx

and statue, in the dirt, with green wooden posts.

In the movie you’ll see the scene

swing around in reverse. Since the

columns were built only 10 to 15 feet

high, we had to add the rest in CG.

AFTER

BEFORE


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GREAT

UNKNOWNS

IRLINE PILOTS ARE RIGOROUSLY TRAINED , HIGHLY-skilled professionals. During long flightsthey may pass the time performing complex

weight and balance calculations in their headsor quizzing one another on arcane emergency

checklists. Generally, though, they do what workers inany profession do when they’re out of earshot of the

boss man: They gossip about their coworkers and bitchabout management.

In fairness, golf, fishing, and girls are also populartopics, according to Patrick Smith, a pilot and author ofCockpit Confidential, a book about life behind the con-trols. Airborne gabfests (“nonessential communication,”in the parlance of the trade) are restricted by the Federal

Aviation Administration’s “sterile cockpit rule” to certainphases of flight—namely, above 10,000 feet, just like the

use of your electronic devices backin the Sardine-o-Riffic Economysection. Indeed, idle cockpit chit-chat at critical times has resultedin near collisions, flights at incor-rect altitudes, or attempted land-ings on incorrect runways andeven at incorrect airports, whichmay explain how anybody everends up in Wichita.

Occasionally the cockpit voicerecorder will memorialize some-thing untoward—jokes beforea fatal accident in Buffalo, New

York, in 2009; snoring before a2010 Air India crash—but bearin mind that the tapes are notchecked as a matter of course.If cockpit recordings are underreview it probably means thepilot has suffered a fate far worsethan embarrassment.

Why do you have to sign yourname on those little machineswhen you pay with a cr editcard at the sup ermarket? It’s

always illegible, and no bodychecks it against your card, sowhat’s the point?

Like so many of the arbitraryindignities to which we are sub-

jected at the hands of authority,the signature charade is osten-sibly played out “for your pro-tection.” In theory the cashiershould compare the scrawl onthe screen to that on the back of

your card to establish that yourcard has not been swiped in more

ways than one. In practice thisalmost never happens—and evenif it did, as you note, the outputof the typical stylus on the typical

sensor screen is the graphologi-cal equivalent of a lusty fart on ahardwood bench.

No matter. The fraud-detectionalgorithms employed by creditcard issuers have become adeptat detecting bogus transactions

whether or not anybody signsanything.

So why do they still ask youto sign? A few reasons—none of

which actually benefits you. Sig-natures are important to vendors

because they pay higher commis-

sions on sales without them andthey bear a greater risk of gettingstuck with the cost of a fraudu-lent charge if they can’t producea signed receipt. Moreover, if

you incur a charge that somehow“slips your mind” and results in adispute, the credit card companycan “jog your memory” by show-ing you the scrawl on that tabfrom the Platinum Kitty High-Class Gentleman’s Booty Bar andBuffet, which it assumes you areable to recognize as your own, no

matter how carefully you tried toforge your boss’s name.

It is said that the camera adds10 pounds. Is there any scien-tific basis to that claim?The bacon cheeseburgers add10 pounds. The camera merelyreveals this stark truth more effi-ciently than the human eye. How?Let us count the ways.

In real life we tend to seeourselves several times a day,

WHAT DOPILOTS TALK ABOUT ONLONG FLIGHTS?

A

ILLUSTRATION BY GRAHAM ROUMIEU


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Do you have unusual questions about the world and how

it works and why stuff happens? This is the place to ask

them. Don’t be afraid. Nobody will laugh at you here.

Email [email protected].

Questions will be selected based on quality or at our whim.

every day, so we may not noticethe insidious encroachment ofmiddle-age spread. Freeze a

moment in time and examine it inisolation and it’s suddenly, “Dang,

when did I get so fat?” Lightingplays a role, as well. Usually partsof our faces or bodies are shad-owed, which helps define edgesand contours. A flash photograph,

which fills in those voids, can flat-ten—and thereby fatten—us.

Moreover, we’re used to

seeing ourselves and othersfrom certain conventional dis-tances. Alter those apparentdistances and a person’s lookscan change. That’s because the

brain assesses the size of a face byusing the distance between fea-

tures seen from a typical vantagepoint to establish scale. Changethe ratios substantially and

the brain interprets a person’sappearance differently. Rule ofthumb: The closer you are to thecamera, the thinner you’ll look.

Finally, the fact that we havetwo eyes, whereas the camera hasonly one, works against us. Ourtwo-eyed view contains more

background than a typical cam-era lens captures. An object lookslarger against the camera’s seem-ingly smaller background, and

vice versa. So try to pose in frontof, say, the national debt.

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POPULAR MECHANICS_December / January 2015 41

THE ALL - TEC HGIFT GUIDE

27 gadgets—and one cutt ing -edge jacket—thoroughly tested

and al l but guaranteed to improve thel ives of the people you care about.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY WI L L STYE R

1. JBL CHARGE 2 ($150) A

Bluetooth speaker with dualdrivers and twin passiveradiators that delivers room-filling sound with decent bass.The battery lasts 12 hours,and you can charge anotherdevice through the USB port.

2. SOL REPUBLIC PUNK ($70)Good sound, good price,and small enough to pocket.

3. AETHER CONE ($399) A Wi-Fi speaker that thinks,sort of. Press a button in thecenter of the speaker grille—or

simply talk to it—and it streamsfrom either Rdio (for music)or Stitcher (for radio andpodcasts). If you don’t like thetrack, spin the outer ring.A small twist plays a similar-sounding song; a bigspin changes the genre.

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42 December / January 2015_POPU LAR MECH ANI CS

GIFTING TIP!

Before you buy

something on the Web,

always Google online

coupons. Or do your

shopping through

ebates.com, a portal

to 1,700 participating

stores that gives youcash back (usually

3 to 6 percent) on

everything you buy.

1. JABRA SPORT PULSE WIRE-

LESS ($200) The first wirelessbuds to integrate real-time voice

coaching, plus a heart-ratemonitor and a motion sensor to

pick up on exercise intensity.

2. SHURE SRH1540 ($500) TheSRH1540s are huge. But they’re

also comfortable and surpris-ingly lightweight. The head-

phones’ 40-mm drivers deliver

sound so accurate, it ’s like

you’re sitting in the studio.

3. MERKURY URBAN BE ATZ

TEMPO ($20) Far from thebest option, but sound quality

is decent—and for $20, they’renearly disposable.

4. BOSE QUIETCOMFORT 25

($300) The new QC25s havethe same excellent noise-

canceling system as theirpredecessors but with fuller

bass, plus the ability to con-

tinue to play music when thebatteries die.

5. BOWERS & WILKINS C5

SERIES 2 ($180) The updatedC5 Series 2 are 10 percent

lighter and have new driversthat make them sound even

better than the originals. For

the same price.

6. MASTER & DYNAMIC

MH40 ($400) An alternativeto plastic headphones, t he

MH40s are made of for ged

aluminum and real lamb skinleather. (They smell like it too.)

If you stop looking at them long

enough to put them o n, thebass is amazing.

7. NUFORCE PRIMO 8 ($500)You will struggle a bit to get

a good seal, but it ’s worth it:

Four balanced-armaturedrivers produce almost the

same quality you’d hear live.

Detachable cables are a plus,

since you won’t need toreplace the entire headphone

if they break.

Headphones

and

E a r b u d s

T

E C H

G

I F T

G

U

I D

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So you can stream the action from virtually anywhere.

AT&T. The nation’s

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Accessor ies

44 December / January 2015_POPUL AR MECH ANI CS

1. TOSHIBA CHROMEBOOK 2

($330) A cloud-basedlaptop stripped down to only

the essentials . Toshiba’sChromebook gives youa pixel-dense 13.3-inch1080p IPS display with goodcontrast and wide viewingangles. It also comes withSkullcandy-branded speak-ers that deliver better soundthan other options in thesame price range.

2. SPRINT LIVEPRO PRO-

JECTOR ($450, $35/monthfee) The idea is great,if expensive: A battery-powered projector with a

built-in speaker and cellservice means not having tolug around much equipmentto turn your backyard into anoutdoor theater. Downloada movie from Google Playdirectly to the LivePro, cueit up on the 4-inch touch-screen, and project an imageas big as 10 feet (diagonally).All you need is a sheet.

3. TRANSPORTER STORAGE

DEVICE ($200 for 500 GB)Cloud storage gives youaccess to your files anytimeand anywhere, but cloudstorage is not alwayssecure. With the Trans-porter, you don’t have toworry. Sync the devicedirectly to your router, andall your files are encryptedin your own personal cloud.Then, get remote accessthrough mobile and desk-top portals.

4. WD MY PASSPORT

WIRELESS EXT ERNAL

DRIVE ($130 for 500 GB)A portable hard drive with abuilt-in SD card reader is agreat gift for shutterbugs.Insert any memory card intothe drive and you get accessto it on your phone, tablet,or computer through a freeapp. You can set it so thecard automatically transfersfiles and is wiped clean. Upto eight people can connectto the drive simultaneously.

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SmartphoneAccessories

1. UNE BOBINE ($35) A stiffsmartphone-charging cable that alsoserves as a flexible stand. Use it as adock or a tripod or a sturdy coil for avideo-chat session.

2. NATIVE UNION JUMP CABLE ($50)A charging cable that has a built-in bat-

tery, for those times you can’t find some-where to plug in. The 800-mAh capacitygets you through 3 additional hours.

3. BELKIN BOOST UP CHARGER ($40) With its 12-watt/2.4-amp power output,Boost Up delivers 40 percent fastercharging than the typical 5-watt mobilecharger. A great gift for travelers.

4. PHONESUIT ELITE ($89) Unlikemost battery cases, the Elite is actuallyattractive. That it gives you 120 percentmore power for the day is just a bonus.Versions for the iPhone 6, the iPhone 6

Plus, and the Samsung Galaxy S5 are ontheir way.

5. UNU ULTRAPAK GO ($60) A 3,000-mAh portable battery that rechargesitself in less than 30 minutes—up to eighttimes faster than other options.

6. BOLT CHARGER ($60) There’s a

battery built in to this mod wall charger,and it has nearly four times the capacityof the JUMP Cable (3,000-mAh).

T E

C H

G

I F T

G

U

I D

E

GIFTING TIP!

ReturnGuru (iOS,

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O u tdo o r G ea r

POPULAR MECHANICS_December / January 2015 49

1. MOUNTAIN HARDWEA R

GHOST WHISPERER JACKET

($320) At 7 ounces, GhostWhisperer is the lightest

down jacket in the world. It’salso windproof and water-repellent, and packs into itsown pocket.

2. TOMTOM RUNNER CARDI O

($270) By measuring bloodflow through your wrist, theTomTom is the only hi gh-en dheart-rate monitor we’ve seenthat doesn’t require a chest

strap. Which means you canfinally keep your heart pump-ing at the right pace withoutgetting a rash.

3. TAD GEAR SKELETON KEY ($99) Add it to your key chain.Open anything. The key includesa bottle opener, pry bar with nailpry, hex wrench, and flat-headscrewdriver.

4. POLAROID CUBE CAMERA

($100) This weatherproofcube uses a built-in magnetto stick to any metal surface.

It shoots up to 90 minutes of1080p video with a 124-degreewide-angle lens. Great for get-ting POV shots on vacation or

at a pool party.5. ZOJIRUSHI STAINLESS MUG

(16 oz, $40) Keeps drinks hotor cold for up to 6 hours, with aslim silhouette that fits easily inyour hand (or bag).

6. SCHWINN CYCLENAV ($60)A GPS for bikes, the CycleNavmounts to the handlebars andrelays turn-by-turn directions

(both audibly and by lighting upas a turn signal) from Schwinn’sphone app via Bluetooth. It evendoubles as a headlight.

7. WITHINGS ACTIVITÉ ($390) Most fitness trackers are hor-ribly ugly. But the Activité tracksyour steps, sleep, and calorieswhile looking like an actualwatch. For the fitness-mindedwoman in your life the ToryBurch bracelet (not pictured;$195) hides the clunky Fitbit in abangle suitable for a night out.

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YOU’VE NEVERHEARD OF

E M O S T

P L E I N

P O P ULAR M E C H ANIC S _ December / January 2015 55

There isn’t a household namein the bunch, but these 12

innovators play huge roles inshaping the way we live—in the

digital realm and beyond.


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DIRECTOR OF STORYTELLING Microsoft DIGITAL PROPHET AOL JOLLY GOOD FELLOW Google

YOU KNOW HOW WHEN you want to check for new email or tweets on

your iPhone, you pull down the page and it automatically refreshes?

Brichter invented that, along with a whole lot of other stuff you useevery day but rarely think about. “To quote Einstein, ‘Everything should

be as simple as possible, but no simpler,’ ” he says. Brichter also cre-

ated the addicting word-strategy game Letterpress, which he says was

a kind of pilot test for a new style of programming he hopes to release

soon. “The problem with programming now isn’t that you’re an idiot, it’s

that the l ang uag e i s t oo com pli cated ,” Bri cht er says. Just 30, he has

already helped make even the most granular parts of the digital world

more elegant and user-friendly. — B I L L G I F F O R D

During her four years on the bench inU.S. District Court in San Jose, Kohhas become Silicon Valley’s referee.She has decided, among other semi-

nal rulings, whether Google can readyour emails (it can, but not if you’re aschool, business, or government cus-tomer), and which smartphones youcan buy. She spurned Apple’s requestto ban sales of Samsung smartphonesafter a jury found Samsung guilty ofpatent infringement, and ruled thatGoogle hadn’t stated clearly in its termsof service that it scans users’ emailto deliver targeted ads. Last August,in a suit alleging that four companies—

Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe—col-luded to hold down wages by not hiringeach other’s employees, Koh rejected a$324.5 million settlement she deemedtoo low. A former federal prosecutor,Koh displays an almost superhumanability to move cases along. With asmany as 350 on her docket at times,she has little patience for lawyers whogum up the process. Her jurisprudencehas inspired an Internet meme and

launched a Wikipedia editing war. “She’s the most important personon the bench dealing with Internet technologies in the country today,”says Tracy Beth Mitrano, director of the Institute for Internet Culture,Policy, and Law at Cornell University. “She has not been starstruck bythe influence and power of corporations.” Koh’s commitment to expedi-ent justice helps firms avoid getting bogged down in courts—and pushesthem to operate with more transparency. — D A V E Y A L B A

NAME Judge Lucy H. Koh, 46

LOCATION San Jose, Cali fornia

TITLE Judge, United States

AT GOOGLE , AMO NG

tho se who make t he

search engine go,

Dean is a near-

deity. Apart from

getting credit for

codesigning the

core query system,

he built some of

the prog ramm ing

products. He’s so

engineer set up a

coding prowess.

in a vacuum used to

be about 35 mph.

Then Jeff Dean spent

a weekend optimiz-

ing physics.”) Dean,

who was hired when

Google employed

about 25 people,

leads the spadework

tha t makes t he firm

run, but says he

hasn’t done anything

on his own. His team

once built a neural

network that taught

itself to recognize

cats from 10 million

YouTube images.

Next up: Dean is

exploring computer

vision, natural lan-

guage understand-

ing, and machine-

learning systems for

image and speech

processing. — D . A .

NAME Jeff Dean, 46

LOCATION Palo Alto, California

TITLE Google seniorfellow

NAME LorenBrichter, 30

LOCATION Philadelphia

TITLE App designer

“Unless you’re smoking crack,you know these witnesses

aren’t going to be called,” Kohsnapped when an Apple

lawyer handed her a long list ofwitnesses with just 4

hours of testimony to go.

I N F L U E N T I A L P E O P L E

REAL TECHNOLOGY

JOBS OF

UNCERTAIN INFLUENCE


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CHIEF TROUBLEMAKER Matrix Group INTERGALACTIC FEDERATION KING ALMIGHTY AND COMMANDER OF THE UNIVERSE Google

“IF YOU’RE NOT A TEENAGE GIRL, you’ve probably never heard of our stars,” says Valiando Rojas. Her business creates and produces tours and festivals that put You-Tube and Vine influencers with huge followings—like the hip-hop duo Jack and Jack(4.5 million Vine followers) and sketch-comedy artist Matthew Espinosa (4.4 mil-lion)—onstage in front of hordes of 13-year-olds. Ticket sales for the IRL (in real life)social-media shows will hit 300,000 next year. “There are thousands of phones in theair, there’s hysterical screaming, there’s fainting,” she says. Valiando Rojas got her startdeveloping talent at Columbia Records while she was still a sophomore at New YorkUniversity, took a top job at Spirit Records two years later, and founded DigiTour at25. The festivals include comedy, music, short skits, improv, and more, and the longerevents pack 80 artists into 8 hours. “It’s very ADD,” she says, “but we’re just re-creating

the way kids consume media on a daily basis.” In the old days a performer would playgigs as a way to get a record deal and shoot a video; now it’s the other way around, as YouTube is often the first step—the building block to lucrative contracts and con-cert stages. By flipping the model on its head, DigiTour has become a fresher versionof the way reality shows minted new celebrities in the early 2000s. Valiando Rojas’sperformers are about to spill over into the mainstream, appearing on TV shows, com-mercials, and more. This will baffle some viewers—you can already hear the grownupsasking, Who are these people? But teenagers are technological tastemakers. So in areal way, Valiando Rojas is shaping the future of entertainment. — E V E L Y N S P E N C E

IN SEPTEMBER THE OBAMA administration chose Smith, a Google X vicepresident and MIT-trained mechanical engineer, to be technologist-in-chief.

The obvious reasons were her business savvy and direct line to Mountain

View—she led ac

popular mechanics - january 2015 usa

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