Design

Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Email this to someoneShare on FacebookShare on VkontakteShare on Vkontakte

US Launches futuristic ship USS Zumwalt, captained by James Kirk

“We are absolutely fired up to see Zumwalt get underway. For the crew and all those involved in designing, building, and readying this fantastic ship, this is a huge milestone,” the ship’s skipper, Navy Capt. James Kirk, said before the ship departed.

The ship has electric propulsion, new radar and sonar, powerful missiles and guns, and a stealthy design to reduce its radar signature. Advanced automation will allow the warship to operate with a much smaller crew size than current destroyers.

Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Email this to someoneShare on FacebookShare on VkontakteShare on Vkontakte

Jeep. History.

The Jeep was made for war. In 1940, the impending U.S. involvement in World War II pushed the army to call for a new vehicle suited for battle. And so the Jeep, a works-in-progress vehicle, constantly evolving on its open patent, tailoring to changing demands of conflict, was born—and then shipped off to war.

More blurry is its etymology. Jeep legend is seeped in heavily contested mythologies, but one roots the name in a slurring of GP, or General Purpose, which may have been the original name of the military-design vehicle.

Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Email this to someoneShare on FacebookShare on VkontakteShare on Vkontakte

Emoji Deciders

“The Unicode Consortium” may sound like the dark cabal of villains in a James Bond movie. And though they aren’t plotting world domination in a volcano lair, they do hold a lot of power — over your text messages.

Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Email this to someoneShare on FacebookShare on VkontakteShare on Vkontakte

The box that build the modern world

The container’s efficiency has proven to be an irresistible economic force. Last year the world’s container ports moved 560 million 20-foot containers—nearly 1.5 billion tons of cargo altogether. Though commodities like petroleum, steel ore, and coal still move in specially designed bulk cargo ships, more than 90 percent of the rest—everything from clothes to cars to computers—now travels inside shipping containers. “Reefer” containers, insulated and equipped with cooling units, carry refrigerated cargo and are plugged into power sources on ships or at dockside. Because the containers are all identical, any ship can move them.

Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Email this to someoneShare on FacebookShare on VkontakteShare on Vkontakte

World’s first underground park – The Lowline

The test lab was built with $225,000 raised on Kickstarter and sees 60 species of plants growing in conditions that simulate the underground space. It is only a fifth of the size of the trolley terminal site, which will use a system of pipes to funnel natural light, and magnify it to 30 times the intensity of regular sunlight.

Tweet about this on TwitterPin on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Email this to someoneShare on FacebookShare on VkontakteShare on Vkontakte

Kitchen specs: sexist?

One of those engineers, Christine Frederick, studied women at work to create a chart pairing work-surface height with woman height; a 5-foot-6 women, for instance, would be most comfortable with her countertops and the bottom of her sink 31 inches from the floor. Correct heights, combined with efficient kitchen layouts, could make cooking slightly less of a burden, she wrote.