Popular Mechanics Awards Technological Innovation 45
PreacherTom writes "Every year, Popular Mechanics attempts to find the most innovative tech products and hand out a little notoriety. This year's honorees range from everyday items like a $17 Crescent RapidSlide wrench, which puts a new, faster spin on an already well-designed tool, to a high-end Lexus that can virtually park itself. PM took an extra step by honoring innovators in science, having solicited nominations from a board of editorial advisers that includes Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Dr. Amy Smith, a professor at MIT. Winners include Burt Rutan (of SpaceShipTwo fame) and Angela Belcher (for her work with virus nanofabrication)."
Submission standards slipping (Score:4, Insightful)
Forget the fact that businessweek.com is one of the most poorly designed and annoying web sites on the internet. To be avoided by anyone who might want to actually read something without grinding their teeth flat.
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Hey, at least the BW link didn't "let the smoke out" when we browsed to it; ColdFusion at PM can't handle the load...
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Oh and WTC 7 thats been explained. It was a fairly tall building compared to the rest and it was riddled with holes from debris (as was the rest) You figure it out.
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about the article, does that crescent wrench slip? if it does not, I want one; otherwise its as worthless as a normal crescent wrench.
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That didn't take long...
Next article: George W. Bush's top iPod picks!
IRL (Score:4, Funny)
"...to a high-end Lexus that can virtually park itself."
Wouldn't you prefer a car that would *actually* park itself, not just park itself in VR?
Excellent (Score:1)
Of course I'm stuck with IE 6 at the moment, so this problem may not afflict more capable browsers.
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Slashdot Demonstrations Appalling Grammar (Score:5, Funny)
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Notoriety? (Score:5, Informative)
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Reminds me of one of Lord Dunsany's shortest stories.
not innovation--try some real innovation (Score:3, Insightful)
All of this is just incremental stuff, hardly any real improvement, and much at price levels that ordinary people should be smart enough to realize they simply cannot afford. If you want some real innovation try making something trusted work as it is needed, or even better yet try to do without all the latest gizmos. This could be the most important innovation of all since Affluenza is an empty experience and Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, has assured us that the future strength of nations globally is strongly related to their saving habits. Real innovation and empowerment, or the curse of some junk that will weight down your budget without providing genuine utility. The choice is yours.
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You say "incremental" like it's bad. (Score:2)
You might not think much of low-sulfur diesel, but if it results in 10% of U.S. automobiles becoming diesel, it will probably have saved more gasoline than any alternative-energy scheme t
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Crescent wrenches and Vise grips (the generic term is "locking pliers", I think) require multiple little adjustments to the nut just to get them attached to the work. This one lets you place the jaws around the bolt and slide until it clamps down. That will save lots of time and frustration from rounding off or stripping bolts. Hey, this is an innovation award: don't expect flying cars or Segways-- you're mor
Pruning techniques (Score:2)
The RapidSlide is neither new or innovative. (Score:4, Informative)
vendor than Crescent. Bought them out at Canton from a tools vendor. The things
have been around for decades now.
New and innovative, my backside...
20+ year old "RapidSlide" (Score:1)
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Self-Parking Lexus (Score:3, Funny)
Considering some of the Lexus drivers I've seen around Cupertino, what's really needed is a self-driving Lexus.
If Toyota can pull that one off, the number of defensive driving maneuvers required within a block of Cupertino's major arterials can be considerably reduced.
Popular Mechanics: for those too dumb for Discover (Score:3, Informative)
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In a related story. . . (Score:1, Flamebait)
The legendary Milwakee, a company up to now renown for high-quality, durable power tools, has issued a recall of every V28 power tool kit, citing potential fire hazards. The V28 series power tools have been identified as the cause of a five-alarm fire in an 18th century apartment complex when their lithium batteries carelessly left loose in toolboxes spontaneously caught fire, presumably when the contents
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Just pointing this out so that folks don't take my post seriously and falsely believe that the above has occurred. My point is that it could and they should have chosen NiMH, secondary alkaline, or other technologies long before even considering Li-Ion.
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Thanks for nothing!
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All except the part about their stock tumbling 78%. First off, I doubt that news of a battery recall would sink a tool manufacturer. Secondly, there is no such thing as Milwaukee stock - they're a subsidiary of the Hong Kong corporation, Techtronic Industries, and make up about 10% of that company's revenue (their revenue was less than $700 million at the time of their acquisition in 2005, compared to Techtronic's 2.8 billion).
-BbT
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But he was just using them to illustrate a point.
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How embarrassing, especially when I'm being pedantic.
-BbT
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If you've ever done ANY reading on battery technologies, you would know that lithium ion is an extremely poor choice for power tools due to the above (fictional) scenario.
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20 AH life, 2A pulse, 250mA continuous drain.
Yes, they're explosive. Yes, they're restricted from travelling in aircraft. Yes, they can overheat and cause a chain reaction which can blow apart cinderblocks.
Yes, those batteries come with fuses to prevent short-circuiting.
The purpose of a battery is to store energy. If that energy is converted to heat at an unsafe rate, the bat
Speaking of Burt Rutan (Score:2)
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I'm surprised your allowed to accept gifts.
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Anyway, there is a difference between being an employee of the state and an elected official of the state. AFAIK, the rules on gift
How does one *award* innovation? (Score:2)