Home tecH

Spectacular

How Your world workS

Plus

sPecial RePoRt

How Safe

IS Your Car?page 86

The

World SerieS

page 13

CompoSTing!

page 99

ASk roy

page 60

SCienCe FiCTion

For everyone

page 92

hoW To Be

hAppier

page 22

FAll CAmping

geAr guide

page 37

ChAinSAWS!

page 53

do you need

A neW phone?

page 108

Th

is s

ho

p v

acu

um

m

ou

nts

on

th

e w

all

!

Americas Magazine Since 1902

October 2014PopularMechanics.com

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PhotograPh by Jason Madara October 2014 _ pOpular mechanics 1

Contents

10.14

Things you will know how

to do after reading this issue

of Popular Mechanics:

Getoutfttedforaweekend

campingtrip(page 37)

Saveafewbucksona

brand-newishcar(page 44)

Properlywieldachainsaw

(page 53)

Carveapumpkinthat

willdisturbyourneighbors

(page 57)

Speakfuentlyabout

thechallengesoftunnel

digginginthePacifc

Northwest(page 78)

Compost(page 99)

A completely hollow handblown-glass

model of the brain artery system from

Farlows Scientifc Glassblowing, and

a beautiful thing. page 84

The Great American Home Upgradeeverything you need to know and do to fully enjoy your home. including: kitchen retroftting tips from a professional chef, the smartest bathroom ever, energy savings in your living room, what to look for in a washing machine, and so much more. page 64

A Debacle in Seattle:

When Bertha Got StuckThe worlds largest tunnel-boring

machine, Bertha, is stuck 60 feet

beneath the surface of Seattle. Now

a billion-dollar infrastructure project

meant to revitalize the citys waterfront

has become a rescue mission.

By Christopher Solomon

page 78

A Beautiful ThingA handcrafted, anatomically correct

glass trachea from Farlows Scientifc

Glassblowing is the proving ground

for the latest advances from medical-

device makers.

By Tim Hefernan

page 84

The State of Car SafetyIts amazing. Among the improvements

in the steel, the advent of vehicle-to-

vehicle communication

systems, advanced crash testing by

automakers, and self-braking

and -steering technology, driving has

never been safer. Or more fun.

By Ezra Dyer

page 86

Science Fiction for

Everyone

A defnitive list, in no particular

order, of the science fction you

need to read noweven if you

think you dont like science fction.

page 92

I cant get with any religion that advertises in Popular Mechanics. Woody Allen,

An

nie

Ha

ll

page 4

Preamble An obituary for a pig Our new automotive editor interviews his favorite person

Letter from the editor Hardware mysteries, solved

page 13

How Your World WorksA Seinfeld writer teaches you how to buy a car, a virtual visit to the doctor, how you hear a ball spin at the World Series,

2 October 2014 _ POPular Mechanics

Contents

pXX

pork for whiskey lovers, the $400 billion warplane, and the best telescopes for backyard stargazing.

page 25

InterviewSteven Johnson, the best-selling science and technology author with a new PBS series, explains the evolutionary impact of human innovation, including the connection between Gutenbergs press and the telescope.

page 32

Great UnknownsToilets in skyscrapers, black boxes in cars, and shoes in the airport-security line.

page 37

SPECIAL: Fall GearYour guide to the very best of the season, including: Camping recommendations from a prodigy explorer

The boots you need for every preoccupation

Brand-new antique jackets

page 43

Cars: The Can-Do EditionWhether you are of-roading or towing 30,000 pounds or just want a great car and only have $20,000 to spend, we know just the thing. Also, the last of the gated gearshifters.

page 53

SkillsThe new rules for chainsaw operation, navigating junkyards, and carving a pumpkin that will terrify your children. Plus, a nail-gun showdown.

page 60

Ask RoyYour questions about leaf stains, storm doors, sidewalk surfaces, and leaky roofs answered.

page 99

ProjectA trommel rigged from bicycle-tire rims, chicken wire, and a small electrical motor takes away the backbreaking labor of composting and any of your excuses for not recycling those cofee grounds.

page 108

The Back PageDo you need a new smartphone?

When the World Series airs this month, more

than 60 microphones will be rigged throughout

the stadium and controlled from this panel, so

you can hear every drop of tobacco spit. Page 13.

PhotograPh by DaviD boWman

Cover Photo by Philip Friedman.

Clothing by J. Crew. Cover story

photographs by Russ and Reyn.

4 October 2014 _ POPular Mechanics

The Popular Mechanics Science-Fiction Literary Panel

in assembling our list of the best sci-f books of all time (page 92) we consulted eight highly credentialed enthusi-asts on what they felt must be included. We asked how they got into sci-f:

James Gunn, founding

director of the Gunn

Center for the Study

of Science Fiction,

University of Kansas

id met sam Merwin Jr., the editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories, which bought my frst story, Paradox, in 1949 at a convention in anaheim, california.

illustratiOn by diegO Pat iO

Preamble

WhaT You

WroTe abouT A highly scientifc, fully

comprehensive look at your

response to our July/August

issue, in helpful bar-graph form.

Cutting live wires

with nail clippers

Syrias

chemical weapons

Air-conditioner

history

The right way

to drive a Corvette

Good Enough

not being good enough

The New

American Soldier

Weekend Woodworking to Envy

Wed been asking you guys

on Twitter to share with

us your weekend projects,

using the hashtag #PMDIY,

over the course of the

summer. Our favorite is a

bit of repurposing from

@sadhubob:

i had two Polynesian heads (i dont know why) and a mess of scrap wood. so, a tiki bar for the patio.

In MeMorIaM: a PIg

A Duroc pig passed away

in July during the course

of reporting this months

food story (How to Raise

a Whiskey Pig, page 20).

The cause was dinner. The

pig, 20 weeks old, was

raised happily among 25

brothers, sisters, and cous-

ins in a large open pen in

Woodward, Iowa, where

he enjoyedwe assume

rolling in mud and the fne

taste of Templeton whis-

key mash. Though he often

kept to himself, he became

known for his generos-

ity toward others, serving

himself up as the main

course at Top Chef winner

Stephanie Izards Little

Goat Diner, in Chicago. He

lives on in our hearts, and

stomachs.

22%

20%

18%

15%

15%

10%

Christopher McKitterick,

director of the Gunn

Center for the Study

of Science Fiction,

University of Kansas

robert heinleins Rocket Ship Galileo got me started reading sci-f, and inspired my teenage eforts at building liquid-fuel rockets.

Charles de Lint, book

reviewer for the Magazine of Fantasy and science Fictioni cant remember the frst sci-f book i read, but it was probably by andre norton, whom i came to by way of her fantasy novel Huon of the Horn.

Annalee Newitz, editor in

chief, io9.com

i used to teach an ameri-can studies course at uc berkeley, and would

often begin the section on environ-mentalism in the 70s by teaching the movie Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster.

Ash Kalb, cofounder

of sci-f bookstore

Singularity & Co.

William gibsons Neuromancer is one of the books that put me on the path to becoming a recover-ing lawyer who runs a science-fction bookshop.

Cici James, cofounder

of sci-f bookstore

Singularity & Co.

My now-husband won me over by posting witty yet knowing comments on my then-nightly Star Trek: The Next

Generation Facebook updates. in our case, cupids arrow was more like a phaser beam.

Hildy Silverman,

publisher of space and time magazineive been hooked ever since i read The Book of Three, by lloyd alexander, which was actually the frst book of his Chronicles of Prydain.

Veronique Greenwood,

science writer and

sci-f fan

i had a teacher in high school who encouraged me to aim high for colleges because hed caught me reading A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller Jr., under my desk.

The non-habit forming

sleep-aid from the

makers of NyQuil.TM

Sleep easily.

Sleep soundly.

And wake refreshed.

6 October 2014 _ POPular Mechanics illustratiOn by Peter OuMansKi

Preamble

The Instructables Gadget and Accessories Hack Winner

in the spring we teamed up with instructables to hold a

Gadget hacking and accessories contest. the grand-

prize winner was Doug urquhart, who, via some 3D

printing, modifed his original time-lapse rigan

eMotimo tb3 motion controller and a Dynamic Percep-

tion stage One dollywith lightweight carbon fber

and nylon to make hauling his setup into the wilderness

easier and to increase battery life. urquhart and his rig

had just returned from six days in high sierra backcoun-

try when he got word he was a fnalist. he ofered a brief

and humble acceptance speech: this was a good way to

come back to civilization.

L ET T ERS

Welcome Back

I just read the latest issue (July/August),

and all I can say is wow! This took me

back to when I was 10 years old and

couldnt wait for my dads next issue to

arrive. As the years passed, I always said

one day Ill subscribe to that magazine

again. And now that Im in my 70s and a

new subscriber, Im enjoying it as much

as I did 60 years ago. This issue, particu-

larly, was excellent.

Betsy Decker

location Withheld

an even Better knot

You provided your readers a great ser-

vice by highlighting the truckers hitch

knot (Skills, July/August). But I think it

is much more useful if it is ended with a

rolling hitch instead of the series of half-

hitches. It allows for an easy and secure

way of tightening or loosening the ten-

sion on the overall knot, useful since

loads may shift once underway.

tom maDDen

Junior staff commodore,

bahia corinthian yacht club

corona Del Mar, ca

We Are Very Sorry

Your font and background colors are

quite artistic, but the contrast is too low,

making the smaller font size difcult to

read. Here are some examples:

Virtually impossible to read.

Marginally readable.

DaviD mcclune

scottsdale, aZ

Whats that line aBout

Denial Being a river

in egypt?

I am somewhat dismayed by the article

pertaining to the destruction of Syrias

chemical weapons (The Neutralizer,

July/August), which, it claims, . . . the

Syrian government used to kill its own

people . . . I have followed this situa-

tion fairly closely and have yet to come

across information, other than what I

interpret as rhetoric released by U.S.

government ofcials, indicating the

Syrian government is to blame for the

attacks that spurred this disarmament.

eric morton

Vancouver, bc

Editors note: Reports from outside the

U.S. indicated that government forces did

carry out chemical attacks, even if they

were without President Bashar al-Assads

permission. And as recently as May chlo-

rine attacks by the government were

taking place. [continued on page 10]

Four Questions for New Automotive editor ezra Dyer

Interviewed by Ezra Dyer

1. how long have you been reading

Popular Mechanics, you handsome devil?

i dug through my back issues and found

one from October 1987the 1988 new

cars issue. headline: horsepower War

heats up! When i bought this issue, i was

9 years old.

2. and how hot was that horsepower war?

the section on cadillacs new V-8 men-

tions that with 155 hp, the new eldorado

will do 0 to 60 in just over 10 seconds,

which is the kind of performance cadil-

lac drivers have missed for more than a

decade. the 80s were a good time to not

be old enough to drive.

3. how many cars have you driven in the

past 10 years?

at least 600 in the course of writing for

automobile magazine, mens Journal,

the new york times, and esquire.

high points: camaro concept car, 1988

lamborghini countach, and the 2,700-hp

cigarette racing team 46 rider XP. Doing

100 mph in a boat is like doing 200mph

in a car.

4. Which new technology featured in that

1987 issue do you wish you had now?

Probably the intelligent typewriteryou

Dictate, it types. two things i have in

common with my 9-year-old self: We love

cars and dont know how to type.

the truckers hitch,

improved.

HAIKUFAN.COM/OFFER 855-490-3043

The quietest, most efficient ceiling fan is now the smartest.

Visit haikufan.com/OFFER and use

promo code PM1014 to receive

a free Haiku info kit.

Big Ass Fans reinvented the ceiling

fan with the silent, hand-balanced and

energy-efficient Haiku. In fact, Haiku

holds the top 11 ENERGY STAR rankings

for efficiency, and its patented LED

module offers 16 unique brightness

settings. Winner of more than 25

international design awards, Haiku

brings both form and function to the

ceiling fan. With the introduction of

SenseME technology an on-board

computer and array of sensors designed

to automate your fans speed for

effortless comfort Haiku is now one

Smart Ass fan.

8 October 2014 _ POPular Mechanics

Preamble

I lIve In an old house (have I told you about my

old house?) that my wife and I are attempting to reno-

vate and restore, room by room. Its really fun and

inspiring and satisfying and often a pain in the head.

But we love it. I recently spent the better part of three

days over two weekends sizing, painting, and hang-

ing a wooden screen door. Nearly killed meevery

angle of the frame was diferent, requiring endless

hand planing and shimming. It wouldnt close right,

the paint wasnt drying quickly enough, I stripped a

screw, the kids kept asking when I was gonna be done.

It looks great now, but in the end its . . . a screen door.

Guests pretend to be impressed, but I admit it doesnt

look all that impressive. Its a screen door.

Nearly killed me, though.

The door was one of those home improvements where you wonder if its worth the

hours shaved of your life. Very diferent from the tremendous home improvements

weve gathered in this issue. For the most part, you just buy them, put them in your

home, and your life is immediately improved. We live in a golden age of home tech-

nology. Not necessarily the smart-home, Internet-of-things productsIm not sure yet

how to feel about those. (Do I need to be able to control my washing machine with my

iPhone?) Im talking about new dishwashers that recycle water, new vacuum cleaners

that could turn vacuuming into a hobby, innovations in upholstery that let you pour

mud on the couch, no problem. Mold-fghting wood foors, plasma-quality projection

TVs, and toasters that can roast a chicken. Ways to improve rooms you didnt know

needed improving. For anyone who cares about the space they live in, its an irresist-

ible 14 pages.

With all the time youll save by not hanging screen doors, youll need something

to read. So, youve got Chris Solomons magnifcent story about a giant machine con-

structed by heroic men that is stuck in the mud 60 feet beneath the city of Seattle,

where it is being resurrected by other heroic men (The Tunnel, page 78). Youve

got a historic list of essential science-fction booksnot the nerdy ones but the kind

everyone should read, even people who dont think they like science fction (Science

Fiction for Everyone, page 92). Youve got a groundbreaking report on car safety by

our new automotive editor, Ezra Dyer, a story that will make you feel safer just know-

ing what new technology is showing up on American roads (The State of Car Safety,

page 86). And youve got an exclusive look at how a network-TV crew wires a ballpark

to capture the sounds of the World Series (The Wired World Series, page 13), which,

as it turns out, is fascinating. (A shoutout to my brother-in-law, sound man Joe Carpen-

ter, for all his help on that one.) And a lot of other stuf. So, enjoy the issue. And keep

in touchunless youre replacing a door, in which case, God be with you.

RYAN DAGOSTINO, eDiTOr in chieF

Ryan dagostinoEditor In Chief

Design Director Rob HewittExecutive Editor David HowardDeputy Editor Peter Martin

Managing Editor Michael S. Cain

Editorial Director David Granger

editorialSpecial Projects Director Joe Bargmann

Senior Editors Roy Berendsohn, Andrew Del-Colle,

Jacqueline DetwilerAutomotive Editor Ezra Dyer

Senior Associate Editor Davey AlbaAssociate Editors David Agrell, Matt Goulet

Copy Chief Robin Tribble Research Director David Cohen

Assistant to the Editor In Chief Theresa BreenEditorial Interns Kevin Dupzyk, Niko Vercelletto

artAssociate Art Director Kristie Bailey

Interactive Designer/Animator Anthony VerducciDesigner Jack Dylan

Contributing editorWylie Dufresne

PhotographyDirector of Photography Allyson TorrisiAssociate Photo Editor Devon Baverman

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. Smith (MIT)

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

ImagingDigital Imaging Specialist Steve Fusco

PopularMechanics.comOnline Editor Andrew Moseman

Online Producer Carl Davis Online Associate Darren Orf

Popular Mechanics InteractiveProducer Jeff Zinn

Published by hearst Communications, Inc.Steven R. Swartz

President & Chief Executive OficerWilliam R. Hearst III

ChairmanFrank A. Bennack, Jr.Executive Vice Chairman

hearst Magazines divisionDavid CareyPresident

Michael ClintonPresident, Marketing & Publishing Director

John P. LoughlinExecutive Vice President & General Manager

Editorial Director Ellen LevinePublishing Consultant Gilbert C. Maurer Publishing Consultant Mark F. Miller

S I N c e 1 9 0 2 editors note

PhOTOgraPh by russ anD reyn

unRelaTed: ReadeR TIP of The MonThI used a car jack with a book on top to hoist a garbage disposal up to the

bottom of the sink. It made tightening the large nut an easy, one-person job.

JIM FREEMAN, Peachtree City, GA

Kraf

t Foo

ds is

not

affi

liate

d w

ith K

eurig

, Inc

. KEU

RIG

and

K-C

UP a

re r

egi

ster

ed tr

adem

arks

of K

eurig

, Inc

.

10 October 2014_ POPular Mechanics

S i n c e 1 9 0 2

Cameron ConnorsPublisher; Chief Revenue Oficer

National Director, Integrated SalesEstee Cross

Executive Director, Group MarketingLisa Boyars

Advertising Sales OfficesNew York

Integrated Account Manager Joe Dunn212/649-2902

Integrated Account Manager Alex Gleitman 212/649-2876

Assistant Jennifer Zuckerman 212/649-2875Los Angeles

Integrated California Sales Manager Anne Rethmeyer 310/664-2921Integrated Account Manager

Amy Suprenant 949/610-0458Integration Associate

Michelle Nelson 310/664-2922Chicago

Integrated Midwest Director Spencer J. Huffman 312/984-5191

Assistant Yvonne Villareal 312/984-5196Detroit

Integrated Regional Director Mara Filo 248/614-6055

Integrated Sales Director Mark FikanyAssistant Toni Starrs 248/614-6011

Hearst Magazines Sales, LLCDallas

Patty Rudolph 972/533-8665 PR 4.0 Media

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

Marketing SolutionsArt Director George Garrastegui, Jr. Marketing Director Jason Graham

Associate Marketing Director Bonnie Harris Senior Marketing Manager Amanda LuginbillIntegrated Marketing Manager Rob Gearity

Integrated Marketing Coordinator Holly Mascaro

AdministrationAdvertising Services Director Regina WallAdvertising Services Coordinator Aiden Lee

Executive Assistant to the Publisher Ilona Bilevych

ProductionGroup Production Director Karen Otto

Group Production Manager Lynn Onoyeyan Scaglione

Associate Production Manager Karen Nazario

CirculationConsumer Marketing Director William Carter

Hearst Mens GroupSenior Vice President & Publishing Director

Jack Essig Associate Publisher & Group Marketing Director

Jill Meenaghan General Manager Samantha Irwin

Executive Director, Group Strategy & Development Dawn Sheggeby

Digital Marketing Director Kelley GudahlExecutive Director, Digital Advertising

Bill McGarry East Coast Digital Account Manager

Cameron Albergo East Coast Digital Account Manager

Drew OsinskiDigital Account Manager Amanda MarandolaDigital Account Manager Kameron McCullough

Digital Marketing Manager Anthony Fairall

POPulAR

MeCHAniCS,

FOR KiDS

I know dry ice is carbon

dioxide in a solid state and

I know it changes directly

to a gas, skipping the

liquid form. But is there

any way at all to make

liquid carbon dioxide?

Landon James B.,

age 14

lynden, Wa

sure. You just need a whole

lot of pressure and antarctic

temperatures. according

to Jefrey reimer, chair of

university of california,

Berkeleys department of

chemical and biomolecular

engineering, if you put

dry ice in a pressurized

container at minus

68F, and pump the air

pressure up to 100psi

about the same as

inside a skinny bike

tireyoull see solid

cO2 melt into a liquid. not

exactly something you can

do in the kitchen. at normal

temperatures and at 75 times

the earths atmospheric

pressure, carbon dioxide

enters a state where it

behaves as both a liquid and

a gas. scientists like reimer

are actually working on ways

to separate cO2 from power-

plant emissions, pressurize

it to that in-between state,

and then pump the cO2 into

depleted oil wells.

[continued from page 6]

JOHN, ROy, AND tHE MyStERy Of tHE Butt GAuGEI bought this tool at a yard sale but dont

know what it is. Do you?

John Ruckman

Yreka, ca

Preamble

letters to the editor may be emailed to popularmechanics@hearst.com.

include your full name and address. let-

ters may be edited for length and clarity.

Subscribesubscribe.popularmechanics.com

800-333-4948

Who We Follow

Four like-minded accounts worth adding

to your Instagram feed. Plus, our own:

@popmechmag. (Clockwise from top right.)

NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center,

@nasagoddard:space! solar fares! rockets!

The Hudson Company,

@thehudsoncompany:

Wood. Beautiful, old wood.

Cedar Point, @cedarpoint:

roller coasters. Beautiful old and

new roller coasters.

Adam Senatori, @adamsenatori:

a pilotphotographer posting loads of

fantastic aerial shots.

Your yard-sale discovery stirred up a bit

of nostalgia for longtime home editor Roy

Berendsohn. What you picked up is the

famous Stanley butt gauge.

Heres Roy: Butt hinges are used for architectural woodwork and doors. The

No. 95 butt gauge was widely used in its

day to scribe hinge thickness and width.

The carpenter would then carefully chisel

out the hinge mortise along the scribed

lines left by the gauge. The gauge is from a

diferent era of carpentry, when men sawed

and planed their lumber by hand. Any

American carpenter who practiced his craft

between 1920 and 1950 would have been

familiar with it. As a teenager I remember

these carpenters in New England. People

looked on these men as somewhat quaint

anachronisms. But their carpentry was

good and has stood the test of time.

the butt gauge

doesnt do what

you think it does.

illustratiOn BY Jack DYlan

To see it in motion,

scan the code.

Download reader at

getscanlife.com

Water with the wave of a hand.

MotionSense, only from Moen.

Wave over for a pot-filling

stream. Reach under for a

quick rinse. Its water how

you want it, when you want it.

moen.com

2012 Moen Incorporated.

October 2014 _ POPular Mechanics 13

how your world works

The Wired World Series how the sounds of the years biggest games get from the batters box to your living room. By Paul John Scott

W A R P L A N E S S H I P W R E C K S V I R T U A L D O C T O R S F A L L G E A R

MLB on Fox

crews attach

microphones

(inset) to all

bases used in

the Fall Classic.

PhOtOgraPh by ben gOldstein

10

5

11 8

1

During the 2013 WorlD SerieS, Red Sox slugger

David Ortiz crushed a pitch for what looked like a certain

grand slam. But Cardinals outfelder Carlos Beltrn

sprinted back, stuck his glove over the right-feld wall,

and made a catch that was all the more memorable for

the sound of the player plowing into the fence like a

hay bale thudding into a wagon. Watch this years Series

and, while you may not see Ortiz, youre sure to hear

similar on-feld reverberations, thanks to an elaborate,

multiday microphone-rigging campaign by the audio

production team at MLB on Fox. The crew has trans-

formed our expectations about watching live sports. Its

helmed by a soft-spoken, 44-year-old New York native,

Joe Carpenter. The Super Bowl, March Madness, Nascar

Carpenter and his team have wired all of them, deliver-

ing a signature hybrid of background noise and sounds

you would never hear even if you were the person

making them. Over the past 15 years Carpenters crew has

taken home seven Emmys

for live baseball on Fox.

In an exclusive tour, the

network gave Popular

Mechanics access to their

work during the July 15 All-

Star Game at Target Field in

Minneapolis, which serves

as a test run for the World

Series. We watched as

they installed hardware for

60 streams of sound and as

Carpenter mixed the game

a hyperkinetic process of

active listening and control-

room manipulation. Follow

along and youll never

listen to a slide into third

the same way again.

sportsHow Your

world works

D

1. AudiovisuAl

input terminAls Newer parks are outft-ted with terminals for three-pin XLR cables that snake to broadcast trucks in rainbows of color-coded, rubber-encased fber.

2. Wireless

routing stAtion Radio-frequency listen-ing stationsclusters of antennas that collect signals from eight wireless microphones situated in hard-to-wire places around the parkare placed near both dugouts. Sennheiser 5000 black globes and steel antenna plates are Fun sounds picked up by the home-plAte microphones: DEREK

7

2

9

6

3

4

dugouts to capture player conversation. This chatter can be broadcast in replays after MLB oficials approve it.

8. Warning Track Microphones ring the base of the outfeld wall at 15- to 20-foot intervals in dozens of locations. They capture everything from outfelders footsteps to players hitting walls.

9. Manned

Parabolic Mics In the stands behind frst base and third, two techs carry manned parabs, or parabolic dishes, ready to catch the sound of foul balls and pick-of throws.

10. Foul Poles We always want one on the foul poles, says feld technician Anthony Rug LoMastro. If that ball hits, we want to hear the pole going boing.

11. Wired Players Three or four players per game may opt to wear a wireless microphone but again, for replay only, after an MLB review.

the heads are aimed at the outfeld.

5. bullPens To grab the sounds of a pitcher warming up in the bullpen, an 8-inch shotgun microphone is attached along the railing.

6. croWd noise This is captured by pairs of microphones on the frst deck aimed at frst and third base, above the left- and right-feld foul poles, in center (for home-theater rear-surround content), and near the broadcast booth.

7. dugouT Small plates holding mics are placed atop

part of the stadium. If a batter has pine tar on the handle, Carpenter says, you can hear his gloves going thlop, thlop, thlop.

4. bases Custom-designed bags contain battery-powered wireless microphones and transmitter systems. To keep base runners from kicking the receivers,

JETER BLOWING IN HIS CUPPED HAND THE PITCHER GRUNTING WHEN RELEASING A PITCH If ITS A HUMID DAy, CARPENT ER SAyS, yOU CAN ACTUALLy HEAR THE BALL SPIN

NIN

G IN THE AIR. THE HITTER KNOCKIN

G DIRT O

UT O

f HIS SPIKES W

ITH A BAT

conversaTions

We Wish We could

have heard:

secured on railings to scoop up sounds and send them via fber cable to a broadcast truck, where another device digitizes the signal before its sent up to the broadcast booth.

3. hoMe PlaTe Three parabolic micro-phones are positioned in padded boxes camoufaged to look like

JOS CANSECO AND MARK McGWIRE, 1992

DAVID ORTIZ AND MANNy RAMIREZ, 2005

REGGIE JACKSON AND BILLy MARTIN, 1977

ILLUSTRATIO

N B

y Francesco M

uzzi

16 October 2014 _ POPular Mechanics

How Your

world works

military

The Inevitable F-35Its easy to pile on when it comes to

historys most star-crossed military project.

But this one might just be worth the

aggravation. By Joe Pappalardo

f we can all agree that war is hell, then how might we

think of life at the Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth,

Texas, where people toil to build the worlds most expensive

war machine? You might reasonably picture it as a kind of

purgatory. The F-35 stealth warplane is without precedent

in military historymaybe any kind of history. The Pentagon

frst sought bidders for it 18 years ago; development began

when Bill Clinton was still saddled with the presidency.

Cost overruns and failed tests and delays accrued steadily, until the

plane became a $400 billion piata. That cost is nearly twice initial

estimates, and full production might not ramp up until 2019, which

is six years late.

But if you stood on the factory foor with some aircraft engineers, as

I did recently on a company tour, you would not sense any existential

torment. You would see, instead, the workers studying part of a door

that opens when an F-35B swivels an exhaust nozzle toward the ground

THIS MONTH IN WEAPONS PROLIFERATION: ANTIAIRcRAFT MISSILES

The shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 made a lot of people wonder just

how many surface-to-air missiles of that magnitude are lying around. But the weap-

onry used in that tragedy rarely leaks beyond oficial militaries. I know of no other case

where a nonstate group has successfully used this system, says Matt Schroeder, a

weapons-proliferation expert with the Federation of American Scientists. A bigger con-

cern: simple-to-use shoulder-fred missiles that can target planes at up to 11,000 feet;

they have multiplied during the conficts in Syria and Ukraine.

The F-35 pictured

above received a

robotic spray of radar-

bafling coating along

the leading edge of its

wing and air intake .

I

to hover. The part was structurally

sound, but they had noted a little

too much material in placesjust

enough to generate returns from

millimeter-wave radar. They

pivoted to a screen displaying a

freshly made 3D scan captured by

a four-lensed white-light imager.

The image is essentially a topo-

graphical map of the part and can

distinguish diferences of a thou-

sandth of an inch, the same scale

on which eye surgeons operate.

One of the engineers would later

touch the part with a sander. Its

like sanding a Goodyear tire, says

Rick Luepke, a technical fellow

and applications engineer.

Up and down the production

line, applications engineers use

3D scanners to inspect parts, and

workers in white suits apply tape

between spray jobs by robots

to ensure that the tapering of

the coating is microscopically

smooth. Once all the tinkering is

dialed in and tested, the plant will

deliver almost a plane a day; now

it takes 10 days. By 2037, 3,000

F-35s may be fying worldwide.

If all this comes to pass, every

branch of the U.S. armed services

and several key allies will have

an aircraft capable of process-

ing data from on- and of-board

sensors that allow pilots to see,

shoot, and evade almost anything

in the air or on the ground.

All the new technology is

designed to save time and money

in full production. The cost over-

runs wont be recouped, but the

price per plane is on track to

eventually shrink from $100 mil-

lion to $80 million. And the tools

and tricks developed for the F-35

will migrate to other Air Force

programs, includ ing a planned

bomber and unmanned aircraft.

Here in purgatory, Luepke and

his colleagues know innovation is

often stop-and-go and nonlinear.

But the battle for the right to exist

has been won. For them, every

day the improvements come in

thousandth-of-an-inch increments.

But those increments add up.

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18 October 2014 _ POPular Mechanics

1684 The La Belle departs fro

m France for th

e New W

orld

. 1686 The L

a B

elle wrecks in M

atagorda Bay. 1995 The Texas Historical C

ommission conf rms the f nd. 1997 Portions of the hull and more than 1 million artifacts are sent to the Conservation Research L

aboratory at Texas A&M University. 2

001 The L

a B

elle is reassembled for the f rst time, in water. 2

002 The ship is disassembled and placed in polyethylene glycol.

2011 Freeze-drying

begins. 2014 The La Belle, now dry, is reassembled for the last time at the museum.

A rendering of the La Belle as she

looked when she set sail. The blue portion is all that remains today.

SHIPWRECKS

How Your

world works

n a WIntER StoRm In 1686 a 54foot

French frigate carrying a skeleton crew

on an exploratory mission of the Texas

coast sank in Matagorda Bay, halfway

between Galveston and Corpus Christi.

For more than 300 years it sat and

decomposed, but portions of its keel and hull

were mummifed in 6 feet of mud. When those

diminished but very important remains were

raised in 1996, preservationists had an aston

ishing piece of good luck almost unheard of in

the world of shipwreck rescue: Every important

plank of wood had been marked with a Roman

numeral, like a model in a box. Jim Bruseth,

one of the research archaeologists leading the

$17 million efort to recover and rebuild the frig

ates remainswhich are currently in some 600

piecescalls it a ship kit.

Starting this month Bruseth, along with

Peter Fix, assistant director at the Center for

Maritime Archaeology and Conservation at

Texas A&M University, will reassemble whats

left of the LaBelle at the Bullock Texas State His

tory Museum, in Austin. Theyll ft the ships

remaining timbers around a carbonfber endo

skeleton, using dowels in places to shore up the

original joints. Theyll work outward from the

keel the same way the French shipbuilders

would have, determining what goes where using

historical drawings as well as sketches and

photo graphs of the original fnd. Theyll also

use those Roman numerals, instructions from

the French designers who planned to have the

ship carried to the New World in a storage bay.

Even with that guidance this is no fea market

cofee table restoration, but at least it will be

less risky than what they had to do frst. To dry

out the sodden pieces, the team soaked them in

polyethylene glycol, a waxy derivative of petro

leum that slowly displaces water. When gas

prices shot up in 2008, driving up the cost of the

chemical, they bought an 8 x 40foot vacuum

freeze dryerthe same kind used in making

Lucky Charmsto remove the rest. Throughout

the process, the timbers could have warped or

shrunk, making reassembly impossible.

It took a long time. The fnal reconstruction

will be completed in November 2015, nearly

20 years after the La Belle was found. Fortu

nately, youre not dealing with something like

the Mona Lisa, Fix says. Youre dealing with

something thats a little bit hardier, and you

set about to aesthetically repair it as best as

possible. In this case that means using state

oftheart tools, the most important of which

has been in use since the frst time the La Belle

was built: a hammer.

A Ship in a BoxThree centuries after it sank of the Gulf Coast,

a French supply vessel is being resurrected. At least it

comes with instructions. By Jacqueline DetwilerI

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20 October 2014 _ POPular Mechanics PhOtOgraPh by adaM vOOrhes

ne day last year, while sitting at a bar

with coworkers, Scott Bush, founder of

Templeton Rye, a superior spirit aged

in the Iowa cornfields, had an epiph-

any: He should raise a batch of pigs on

spent rye mash, the leftover grains from

the whiskey-making process. That way, the rich favor

of the mashand, by extension, of Templeton Ryemight

fnd its way into the hogs fesh. And then the porkand

the bacon!would take on the favor of whiskey.

Maybe it was the booze, but it sounded like genius

at the time.

Scientifcally, Bushs idea made sense, sort of. Just

as the ham from black Iberian pigs gets its unique fa-

vor from the acorns they eat, these pigs would get their

own favor from the mash, which in Templetons case

is made up of 90 percent rye and 10 percent barley.

To create the pigs diet, Bush recruited Mark Bertram,

who holds a doctorate in the extremely specifc feld of

swine nutrition from Iowa State University. The process

is pretty straightforward from a biological standpoint,

Bertram says. The pig is breaking down the nutrients

and rebuilding them into muscle. Its the diferent fatty

acids in the food sourcehere, the mashthat can change

the taste.

Breed matters, too, so Bush and Bertram chose Duroc

pigs, a heritage breed known for its tender, flavorful

meat. This past February, 25 piglets began eating their

carefully crafted diets as little 50-pound 9-week-olds. A

friend of Bushs raised the reddish-brown, foppy-eared

swine on a small family farm in Woodward, Iowa, feed-

ing them 20 percent mashthe upper limit Bertram

calculated they could safely consumecombined with

corn and soybean meal. The hogs grew fast, doubling

in weight every three to fve weeks, until they were 20

weeks old and 210 pounds each.

On the last day of their lives, in early July, a heavy rain

pattered on the metal roof of the pig barn, located at the

end of a remote gravel road. The open pens smelled as

expected, but faintly mixed in with the scent of swine

and manure was the sweet, molasses-like hint of mash.

It smells wonderful, Bush says. They seem to really

enjoy it. Bertram agrees, though in slightly more scien-

O

How to Raise a Whiskey Pig It was only a matter of time. By Rachel Z. Arndt

eating & drinking

tifc terms: Theyre very adaptable creatures.

The pigs, available for preorder, had all been spoken

for, with about half going to restaurants. The verdict: The

pork didnt get you drunk or scream whiskey, but it was

fantastic. Theres no way for anyone to take a bite of the

pork and taste that it has 20percent Templeton mash

in the feed, says Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard, who

cooked one of the pigs for a themed dinner at her Little

Goat Diner, in Chicago. Still, Izard thought the pork fa-

vorful and the fattiness perfect. If we had made bacon,

it would have been beautiful, she says. One attendee

said this after Izards dinner: It was hands down the

best-tasting pig Ive ever eaten.

Considering its inaugural success, Bush doesnt dis-

count another whiskey-pig program next year. Were

whiskey makers, not pig farmers, he says. But its some-

thing wed like to continue. Hes also considering two pig

crops a year, one in summer and one in fall. And though

there are no solid plans yet, hes even talked of expand-

ing to chickens, turkeys, and cows. If so, the menu line

writes itself: Whiskey-raised flet mignon wrapped in

whiskey bacon. People would order that.

How Your

world works

did yOu like this

stOry?

Are you a

vegetarian?

Do you drink

whiskey?

YES

YES

Sorry.

NO

NO

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this story.

Pour a glass.

Try again.

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How Your

world works

illustratiOns by paul jOhnsOn (bOOKs, MOViEs) , V iC Kulihin

n the new movie Hector and the

Search for Happiness (out Sept.

19), Simon Pegg plays a therapist

who goes of in search of his own

happiness. If you can get through

the early parts, when Hector has

the frantic visual structure of a music

video, its a good moviefunny, thanks

to Pegg, with legitimate insights. Like:

Avoiding unhappiness is not the road

to happiness. And: Sometimes hap-

piness is not knowing the whole story.

Christopher Plummer even shows up

dressed like Steve Zissou to tie every-

thing up neatly in the end. In case your

troubles cant be solved with a movie,

we asked Elizabeth Dunn, head of the

Social Cognition & Emotion Lab at the

University of British Columbia, for a

few other ways to brighten your mood.

Spend money on other people. In

an experiment Dunn found that peo-

ple were signifcantly happier after

spending unexpected money on some-

one other than themselves.

delay conSumption. Say youre

going on a trip. The larger the gap

between when you pay and when you

go, the less you feel the stress of hav-

ing paid for it. Plus, anticipation is an

important source of pleasure thats

often overlooked.

talk to StrangerS. When youre

around new people, you subcon-

sciously strive to be your best self. Your

happier self.

have a kid. It may be the comfort of

family life and not specifcally the kid,

but either way, its good for you.

Stop worrying about being happy.

Genes determine peak disposition. So

if youre trying everything and still not

as happy as you want to be, realize that

not everything is under your control,

and be grateful for the joy you do have.

maybe try the kid thing again.

What could go wrong?

The Science of HappinessAnd what that might have to do with Simon Pegg.

Consumed ,

by david

Cronenberg

If youre a fan of director David Cronenbergs flms (Scanners, The Fly) then youll relish his frst novel, Consumed. At the heart of the story are Naomi Seberg and Nathan Math, freelance Web journalists investigating the gruesome death of Clestine Arosteguy and the disappearance of her husband/potential murderer, Aristide. Add in ample doses of violence, virtual voyeurism, a few dashes of experimental surgery and geopolitical philosophizing, and more than a hint of cannibalism and youll get a good sense of the disconnected world that the author has rendered. Admittedly, the various disconnections and indulgences in the novel are often glaring and distracting, but this also seems to be Cronenbergs point: Were a society, a world, that fetishizes the latest and most powerful technology, and our unchecked desire for more speed, access, and pixels is isolating us, eating us, consuming our very fesh. BRET ANTHONY JOHNSTON

I

22 october 2014 _ popular mechanicS

On his new show, Car Match-maker (Tuesday nights at 9 pm Eastern, starting Oct. 14 on the Esquire Network), car buf and comedy writer Spike Feresten (Seinfeld, Letterman, SNL) fnds men in desperate need of new vehicles and gets them into something more appropriate. Its fun. Like House Hunters for people who can grow a full beard. We asked him for some advice, whether you are buying your next car or just want to assess what you already have.

To improve your life, a car

needs to function in it,

otherwise youll reach that

awful moment when you

How to Buy a CarBy Spike Feresten

have to take your family to

the airport and you cant ft

grandma.

Never buy the paint. When

it comes to vintage or

preowned, buy the car frst,

not the color.

If you can, rent the car you

want to buy and live with it

for three days. On the third

day it either clicks or you get

it out of your garage.

Instead of traditional car-

review websites, go to

YouTube. Its flled with

people in their driveways

talking about their car:

unfltered, unprofessional,

and generally awesome.

Never buy a beautiful car for

a wife who doesnt care about

cars. Youll be in pain as you

watch her destroy it. [Fig. 1]

If your kids can take care of a

car, reward them. If not, used

Pontiac Azteks.

Avoid the dealership at all

CulturE

costs. Find a consultant and

let him do the work for you.

People dont know these

guys exist. You call him and

tell him what you want. He

fnds the car, deals for it, and

delivers it to your driveway.

You never set foot in the

dealership, and the price is

usually better.

If you do go to a dealership,

no pity. Allow yourself

20 minutes to make

this transaction. [Fig. 2]

Announce it: Heres the car

I want and the price I want to

pay. You have 20 minutes to

make that deal or Im walking

away. Otherwise, they will

walk all over you. It happens

constantly. That feeling

bleeds into the life of the car.

Youll remember that.

If its a valuable old car,

overpay for the best-possible

original, low-mileage one out

there. Youll rarely go wrong.

Youll know youve done it

right if you enjoy being in

trafic. [Fig. 3] Thats really it.

Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3

movieS

tv

bookS

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How Your

world works

photograph by adam Voorhes

OU WAKE UP one morning with some

strange malady and fgure youd better

see your doctor to determine whether

its something or nothing. But the next

open appointment is weeks away, and

the thought of going to the ER flls you

with dreadthe nimbus clouds of germs, the waiting.

There may be a third optionone that involves an app,

describing your symptoms to a physician, and getting a

prescription, all without visiting a doctors ofce.

That option is known as telemedicine, a term

encompassing any remote technology that replaces a

doctors visit. Could be a videoconferencing diagnosis

of a case of shingles. Could be a big-city surgeon talking

a small-town doctor through an operation. Or sensors

worn by elderly patients that can be monitored from

The Doctor Is Online NowTelemedicinevisiting your doctor via phone or video chathas been around for years. But Obamacare may make it a lot more common. Ready? By Joshua A. Krisch

Y

afar. And the trend is growing. In June the American

Medical Association released guiding principles on the

provision of telemedicine services, including seemingly

obvious ideas like having practitioners abide by the

same standard of care as in-person services. A recent

study by IMS Research estimated that the industry

could be worth $6 billion by 2020. And last year three

of the nations Web-based healthcare companies

Teladoc, MDLive, and American Wellprocessed over

400,000 interactions online, more than double the

amount in 2011. With 32 million Americans becoming

insured under Obamacare, telemedicine could help

avert a doctor shortage.

Telemedicine actually began in the 1960s in tandem

with human spacefight. In that era NASA developed

monitoring systems to remotely record biometric data,

which was beamed to scientists via a telemetric link.

Today all you need is a camera on a computer, says

Dr. Peter Yellowlees, director of health informatics at

the University of California, Davis, who provides remote

care to Native American reservation communities. Its

not technology thats the barrier, he says.

Not all physicians are on board yet. Its really

a personal choice that the doctor makes, and for

many, its an economic issue, Yellowlees says. Unlike

specialists, who do revenue-generating procedures,

primary-care physicians get paid by the visit, so some

membership providers, like Kaiser Permanente, pay

in-network physicians to use their message services.

Other doctors choose to practice concierge medicine,

which lets consumers add remote services for a fee.

But plenty of apps and Web-based companies

let you access remote healthcare, with more joining

in. Teladoc, MDLive, American Well, and Doctor on

Demand are available in most states.

Heres how they work: Determine whether your

condition is appropriate for an e-visitsay, the fu,

allergies, or sports injuries but not breathing problems

or broken bones. (Most websites list what they will

and wont treat online, and whether theyll accept

your insurance.) Youll upload your medical history.

Then you can consult with a doctor licensed in your

state, who might prescribe an antihistamine but not an

antidepressant. It costs $30 to $50 for minor illnesses

and $250 to $350 to see a specialist. And as long as

both physicians and patients can recognize when an

in-person visit is best, telemedicine is a good thing. As

anyone in a long-distance relationship will tell you, the

invention of video chat was groundbreaking.

thINgs We WoNt mIss aboUt the doCtors oFFICe

1. WaItINg-room reVelatIoN that Judge Judy Is stIll oN tV.

2. hearINg the NUrse loUdly aNNoUNCe oUr WeIght.

3. Fear that CoUghINg gUy WIll traNsmIt the FlU.

4. sIttINg oN CrINkly paper.

5. does It hUrt WheN I do thIs?

6. the same paperWork, eVery tIme.

24 october 2014 _ popUlar meChaNICs

HEAltH

PUTTING PEOPLE ON THE ROAD TO

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clinical social worker ALMA SCHNEIDER helps clients

overcome their resistance to cooking. To match Alma with

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enthusiast PETER HA. Will the CHEVROLET TRAVERSE

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MOM SHES NOT. AS THE

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WHO ROCK, SHE RAISES

MONEY FOR LOCAL

CHARITIES WITH

HER BAND,

NO REHEARSALS.

extract the nectar. So here you have

a relationship between insects and

plants, and it ends up transforming

the physical structure and function-

ing of the bird. Something similar

happens in the history of tech and

ideas. Someone comes up with a

new technology to solve a problem,

but the solution also has an efect on

seemingly unrelated felds.

PM: One example you cite is the link

between early printing technology

and the summer blockbuster.

SJ: Right. At the start of the 20th cen-

tury, in Brooklyn, a printer was doing

full-color magazines. In the sum-

mer the ink didnt set up properly.

The printer hired a young engi-

neer, Willis Carrier, to

devise a way to bring

down the tempera-

ture and humidity in

the room. He built this

contraption that made

the printing possible.

Then the workers

were like, Im gonna

have my lunch in the

room with the con-

traptionits cool in

there. Carrier says,

Hmm, thats inter-

esting. He sets up the

Carrier Corporation,

which air- conditions

movie theaters, pav-

ing the way for the

summer blockbuster.

Before air condition-

ing, a crowded theater was the last

place you wanted to go. After a/c,

summer movies become part of the

cultural landscape.

PM: Air conditioning and politics

are also related by the hummingbird

efect. How?

SJ: After World War II air condition-

ers shrink to window-unit size, and

central air is developed. This enables

a massive population shift from the

POPULAR MECHANICS: Your new book and PBS show,

How We Got to Now, are about the history of various tech-

nologies, and the unintended way that one invention can

spawn anotherand even lead to social changebecause

of what you call the hummingbird efect. What is that,

exactly?

STEVEN JOHNSON: I live in a part of California where

there are a lot of hummingbirds. I saw them fly-

ing around, and I started thinking. Bees and plants

co-evolve: Bees go into fowers to get the nectar they

need to survive, and they transfer pollen that helps the

fowers reproduce. Then this bird shows up and goes

through an incredibly elaborate set of evolutionary

adaptations to learn how to hover next to a fower, to

The King of Cause and Efect Author Steven Johnson on birds and bees, the origin of eyeglasses, and how air conditioning changed politics forever. Interviewed by JoeBargmann

North to places like Southern Califor-

nia, Houston, Phoenix, and Florida.

I joke that its the frst mass migra-

tion of human beings triggered by a

home appliance. And then there is

a realignment of American politics.

Before 1952 only one presidential

and two vice presidential candi-

dates hailed from the Sun Belt. From

1952 until Obama, every single win-

ning ticket had someone from a Sun

Belt state on it. You cannot tell that

political story without mentioning

air conditioning.

PM: Gutenbergs printing press and

the telescopewhats the link?

SJ: In a word, glass. In the 15th cen-

tury a glassmaker discovered how to

make clear glass. Clerics

who were reading schol-

arly manuscripts started

using convex pieces of

clear glass to magnify the

text. Gutenberg invents

the printing press and all

of a sudden more people

are trying to read and fnd

out theyre farsighted.

The market developed for

spectacles and lens mak-

ers cropped up all over

Europe. Before long they

think, What else can I

do with these lenses?

They line up two of them

and discover, Hey, I see

things that are very small,

and they seem a lot big-

ger. And then, by aligning

the lenses diferently, Now I can see

things in space! The telescope and

the microscope are invented within

20 years of each otherin the same

village in the Netherlands. Amazing.

The story about the printing press is

a great example of the hummingbird

efect: People must wear spectacles

to read, and lenses are used to create

the microscope and the telescope.

These discoveries changed humanity.

October 2014 _ POPular Mechanics 25illustratiOn by alvarO taPia hidalgO

INTERVIEwWere rigorous about not

telling stories people have

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techHow Your

world works

A hAndy guide to telescope tArgets: there are plenty of stars to look at, but theyre not all worth the time it takes an amateur stargazer to fnd them. Astronomer tyler nordgren at the university of redlands, in california, suggests starting with the celestial body right in front of your face. go out on a night when there is a half or crescent moon, and point your scope at the line between the dark and light sides. the striking contrast will show of craters like the Kepler (looks like a cup), the eratosthenes (looks like a cup with terraced sides), and the copernicus (looks like a cup with terraced sides and rays coming out of it). When youre ready for something more dificult, locate orions Belt and move south toward where his sword would be. here youll fnd the orion nebula (Fig. 1), a rainbow-colored cloud of gas and dust that sits about 1,600 light-years from earth. it can be seen with the naked eye but glows pink and yellow-green through even a low-powered tele-scope. Mastered that? download a star chart. NIKO VERCELLETTO

30

FOR DEDICATED BEGINNERS

At $580, the orion starseeker iii 127mm (below, right) costs more than many beginner scopes,

but it has the capacity to grow with you. this fully computerized telescope has a 49,000-object database that is searchable by type. the best feature is the touring mode, which takes into

account the date, time, and location to show you the best stars. All you do is push a button.

Fig. 1

Orion Nebula

Where Do I PoInt thIs thIng?

The Smartest TelescopeWi-Fi-enabled stargazing takes a lot of the work out of astronomy. Which is good. But also not so good. By Peter Martin

Astronomy hAs one bIg Problem: using a telescope is hard. Move it a quarter-inch and suddenly youre halfway across the sky. you might as well be looking for an ant with 80x binoculars. But the celestron nexstar evolution 8 (above, right), at $1,600, makes things much easierby doing the searching for you. it has a built-in Wi-Fi network you can connect to through your phone or tablet. All you do is touch the star you want to see on the app and the nexstar takes you there.this is only if you can get it set up,

though. to orient the scope, the app

asks you to fnd three bright stars in the viewfnder. problem is, when you maneuver the telescope toward a star, the display changes, so by the time you have the scope oriented correctly the app thinks youre looking at something diferent. the secret, buried in an instruction book that takes monk-like patience and a ph.d. to understand, is to ignore what you see on your screen during this process. then the nexstar takes over and things fnally get easy. youll fnd clusters and nebulae you didnt even know to look for, and you wont have to work that hard to do it.

the automatic navigation takes the uncertainty out of stargazing, but it can easily turn you into a spectator. the next logical step would be to wirelessly transfer the image from the scope to your tablet. But then you might as well not be using the telescope in the frst place. you might as well be on google. on the couch. With the telescope in the closet. or not looking at stars (or star images) at all. part of the appeal of stargazing is gaining a respect for the vastness of space by attempting to navigate through it. even if that involves getting lost.

FOR PhOTOGRAPhERS

the sky-Watcher esprit ed 100mm Apo (below, left), at $2,499, uses a feld corrector to fatten the image and has a three-piece lens design that prevents false color. All of which is very important when youre taking advantage of the scopes main selling point: it can be hooked up to your dslr, like a 150x zoom lens. your

slide shows just got so much better.

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32 October 2014 _ POPular Mechanics

A building like the Willis Tower

doesnt rely on a single plumb-

ing system. If it did, thered be no

water pressure at the top. Instead,

a high-rise might employ, say,

four individual plumbing systems,

each serving a certain portion of

the building, and each with its

own dedicated water tank kept

at optimal pressure to serve the

foors within its zone. If every

toilet in the building were fushed

at oncedue, presumably, to

some apocalyptic gastrointestinal

circumstance best left unimagined

(or perhaps related somehow

to the play of the Cubs)each of

the four tanks would be stressed,

likely resulting in weak fushes, but

the building as a whole would be

unharmed. The same may not

be said of its occupants.

Now that cars have black boxes, do car companies know where we go? Am I being followed?

A black box, formally known as

an event data recorder (EDR), and

informally known as a narc-in-the-

box, logs a variety of data regard-

ing the operation of the vehicle in

which its installed. The good news

is that EDRs do not (yet) track your

location, nor do they beam real-

time information to feds, cops, car-

makers, or mothers-in-law. Thats

what your smartphone is for.

EDRs, standard these days in

96 percent of new cars, do, how-

ever, take note of how fast youre

going and whether youre wearing

your seat belt, along with details

like the status of your cars throttle

and brakes at any given moment.

This is the sort of data most likely

to have legal implications, particu-

larly in the event of an accident.

Police and lawyers can indeed

subpoena the data from your cars

EDR and use it against you. The

Couple of things: First, there is no Sears Tower

anymore. The iconic 110-story building on Chicagos

Wacker Drive, for a time the worlds tallest, is now

known as Willis Toweran enduring and richly

deserved monument to the character portrayed by

actor Todd Bridges on Difrent Strokes.

As to the rest of it: No, a building-wide fush

would not harm the structure. Believe it or not,

engineers actually consider things like the probability

of contemporaneous toilet use. The industry rule of

thumb holds that there is a 1 percent chance that a

freak simul-fush will occur once over the life of a tall

building, though in truth the odds are probably more

like zero. Even so, skyscrapers are built to withstand

such potential infrastructural events, and the design

of their plumbing would spread the stress among mul-

tiple self-contained zones.

Ive heard that if all the toilets in a high-rise like the Sears Tower were fushed at once, it could destroy the building. True?

Q

Skyscraper Toilets, Black Boxes, and Airport Feet

Do you have unusual questions about the world and how it works and

why stuf happens? This is the place to ask them. Dont be afraid.

nobody will laugh at you here. email greatunknowns@popularmechanics.com.

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

info can also make its way into the

hands of your insurance company,

which might join authorities in tak-

ing a dim view of the fact that you

thought to apply the brakes only

after youd sailed of the end of

the pier toward that passing barge

hauling kittens and dynamite.

Are we ever going to be allowed to keep our shoes on through airport security again?

Two reasons were still shedding

our shoes 13 years after scraggly

would-be evildoer Richard Reid

tried to set of a device in one

of his high-tops: For one, intel-

ligence suggests terrorists remain

interested in smuggling explosives

in shoes. The second is more politi-

cal than practical: Once instituted,

security measures are notoriously

difcult to revoke. Who, after all,

wants to take responsibility for

declaring that shoe bombs are no

longer a threat? Its like promising

someone ol man Charlie Manson

wont hurt them.

Still, theres hope for the

barefoot masses. The Transporta-

tion Security Administration is

investigating foor-mounted explo-

sives detectors that passengers

could walk on completely shod.

And authorities are beginning to

shift toward whats known as risk-

based security, in which passen-

gers deemed trustworthy would

undergo abbreviated screening.

(Kids, for instance, have been able

to keep their Buster Browns on

since 2011.) So hang in there.

Now for the real question:

Is there ever gonna be a law

requiring the guy in the seat

behind you to keep his footwear

on for the duration of the fight?

Talk about a shoe bomb! Thank

you very much, and dont forget to

tip your waitress.

greAT uNkNowNSHow Your

world works

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illustrations by joe mckendry october 2014 _ PoPular mechanics 37

How to Camp Like a Polar Explorer

Parker Liautaud made it to the

South Pole last year in a record 18 days, pulling his gear on a sled behind

him the whole way.

Last year, at 19, Parker Liautaud became the youngest man ever to ski to the South Pole. In case that didnt give

him enough to talk about at parties, he also owns the speed record in walking the 314 miles from the Ross Ice

Shelf (the edge of Antarctica) to the South Pole, completely unaided, with his teammate, Doug Stoup: 18 days.

Its all part of his campaign to raise climate-change awarenessand inadvertently make you feel bad about what

you accomplished last weekend. Over two months we inundated Liautaud with the latest packs, sleeping bags,

jackets, and gearover 100 itemsand asked him to pick the best. If it meets the standards of a South Pole

explorer, theres a pretty good chance itll get you through a weekend in the Rockies.

IncludIng:

The seasons best camping equipment, our authoritative boot

buyers guide, and one great-looking jacket.

Fall GearSpecial

A box of matches weighs almost nothing. So far, its the most reliable item Ive used.

gutter c

redit tk

38 October 2014 _ POPular Mechanics

camp stove

With 10,000 Btu, the Jetboil Joule ($199) boils a liter of water in less than

3 minutes, even when its 10 below, forever revolutionizing when and where

you can eat chili.

parkers take:

Boiling water so quickly is a big deal, espe-cially when youre in extreme conditions.

flask

The Stanley eCycle ($20) has a seemingly simple innovation: It opens up across the

width of the flask for easy cleaning.

parkers take:

This would be good if I wanted to save a little bit of a fancy whiskey for the end of a South Pole expedition. Not that I could. The South Pole is run by the U.S., and Im still 20.

water filter

Instead of a pump, the Platypus GravityWorks Water Filter System

Reservoir 2-Liter Kit ($109) uses gravity to filter water. Hang it up and let it work.

parkers take:

We didnt use a filter often. Wed just boil snow. But this works really fast, and it only has a few parts, which makes it very light.

sleeping bag (hybrid)

Eddie Bauers Airbender 20 ($799) is the first sleeping bag to seamlessly

incorporate a sleeping pad.

parkers take:

The pad grounds the direction of the sleep-ing bag so it doesnt end up twisted around you a few hours after youve gotten into it. Plus, having the bag and pad built together

saves on space and weight.

tent

At 3 pounds, MSRs two-person Hubba Hubba NX ($390) packs as easily into

a backpack as it does a trunk. And the clip-on system connecting the

poles to the tent makes for simple setup.

parkers take:

There are relatively few parts. I could live with this if I was dropped in the wild with it.

pillow

The inflatable Sea to Summit Aeros Ultralight Pillow ($35) is made from fibers

weighing about the same as a strand of hair and packs down into

a tiny stuff sack.

parkers take:

Normally even tags add weight, but theres no downside to this.

Its the size of a baby mouse.

knife

Moraknivs Bushcraft SRT knife ($60) has a half-serrated steel blade and a spine that conveniently works with a fire starter.

parkers take:

This is beyond what I would usually usemore for a rugged explorer with a scraggly beard who hunts deer with his bare hands.

But it is such a cool piece of equipment.

PhOtOgraPhs by eric helgas

Fall Gear Special

A Few Suggestions for the FutureWhat a South Pole explorer would like to see in gear.

By Parker Liautaud

soft shell

Mountain Hardwears Super Chockstone Jacket ($135) repels water and is extra

durablemade not to be bothered by sharp branches off the trail or a scrape through

close rocks on a scramble.

Parkers take:

It seems like a minor reason, but the Chock-stone has a big, easy-to-use zipper. Thats

important. Theyre often too small.

gloves

SealSkinz Ultra Grip Gloves ($50) are waterproof and lightweight for mild, wet

weatherwithout sacrificing any dexterity.

Parkers take:

If I were headed anywhere other than the South Pole, Id go for these. Its nice to

have something against your skin thats not synthetic but still waterproof.

I cant stand backpacks that have straps laid across

the main zipper. You cant unzip all around the pack without stopping and pull-ing the zipper underneath a strap. When your backpack is your home, that gets

really irritating.

Most zippers, especially on sleeping bags, need

tags to make pulling them closed easier. For all

my stuf for the South Pole, I looped a string on

every zipper.

People want to be able to travel with their tech. Backpacks really need to start having a waterproof

pocket made specifcally for a tablet or smartphone.

Little things add up fast. Strike igniters, compasses, knives, watches. Maybe you want a titanium spoon instead of the plastic one. Dont spend 30 extra dollars for a feature on a $5 tool. You wont miss it if you dont have it.

headlamP

You dont need the same amount of light at dusk as you do at midnight. The Petzl Tikka

RXP ($85) reads light conditions with a sensor and dims or brightens on its own.

Parkers take:

The reactive lighting really helps save power. Its worth spending the few extra bucks.

down jacket

Columbias new material, TurboDown, combines down and synthetic, capturing

the best properties of both. Its lightweight and warm, like down, but dries out after

getting wet, like synthetic. And the Diamond 890 ($325) weighs only 13 ounces.

Parkers take:

Its a very lightweight jacket for how warm it is. More than that, I really

like the way it looks.

sleePing bag (classic)

Sea to Summit Spark SP II ($359) claims to be the worlds smallest

down sleeping bag.

Parkers take:

In the South Pole, we folded our sleeping bags on top of our sleds because they were a pain to pack up. This bag is remarkable. It

stuffs into a sack the length of my hand.

backPack

The First Ascent Sorcerer ($499) pack is made out of a lightweight military-grade fiber thats said to be as strong as Kevlar.

Parkers take:

Unlike most packs, this one has plenty of pockets. And bigger buckles, which, from my

experience, are always easier to manage.

Fall Gear Special

Fall Gear Special

Popular Mechanics Boot SelectorThe best new boots of the season (and a couple of classics) for every man.

4

3

2

1

You Are:

A MountAineer

You wont