Cool Websites and Tools [December 30th 2012]

Cool Websites and Tools [December 30th 2012]: "Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. Most of the listed websites are FREE or come with a decent free account option. If you want to have similar cool website round-ups delivered to your daily email, subscribe here."

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TaskOne turns the iPhone into a legitimate pocket knife

TaskOne turns the iPhone into a legitimate pocket knife: "The smartphone is already a modern-day multi-tool, combining communications, entertainment, information access and all kinds of personalized content. But while the smartphone can multitask in the virtual world, it can't do quite as much back in the physical world. The TaskOne iPhone case changes that, giving Apple's smartphone the functionality of an old-school Swiss Army pocket knife. Like the Morgan E Pulse, it seamlessly blends cutting edge technology with retro-inspired design."

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64,000 mph asteroid was fastest on record

64,000 mph asteroid was fastest on record: "At about 14:51 GMT on April 22, 2012, a fireball was seen throughout the western United States, accompanied by a loud booming sound heard over much of California's Sierra Nevada mountains around Lake Tahoe. Scientists have now carried out a thorough analysis of the meteorite and found that it was the fastest meteor ever recorded at 28.6 km/s (64000 mph)."

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Hyundai Connectivity Concept turns your car into a rolling smartphone

Hyundai Connectivity Concept turns your car into a rolling smartphone: "Car makers have been slowly but surely sucking content off your phone and into your vehicle. With the help of a smartphone, you can now access navigation, music, text messaging and other phone functions from the driver and/or passenger seat. The Hyundai Connectivity Concept takes things a step farther, wirelessly transferring all of the phone's content to the car's touchscreen display and adding other wireless functions."

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Fully Automatic FAL! - YouTube

Fully Automatic FAL! - YouTube: ""

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10 Great Pilots | History of Flight | Air & Space Magazine

10 Great Pilots | History of Flight | Air & Space Magazine: "WHEN WE ASSEMBLED THE FOLLOWING LISTS OF GREAT PILOTS (and the list of milestone flights that follows), we faced the same dilemma that Von Hardesty, a National Air and Space Museum aeronautics curator, faced as author of Great Aviators and Epic Flights (Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., 2003)."

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Evacuating the Injured | Military Aviation | Air & Space Magazine

Evacuating the Injured | Military Aviation | Air & Space Magazine: "After graduation from the Naval Academy and commissioning as a Marine Corps pilot, I went to flight school and selected the CH-46E Sea Knight out of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. The CH-46 is the Marine Corps’ medium-lift assault support platform."

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The X-47 Ships Out | Military Aviation | Air & Space Magazine

The X-47 Ships Out | Military Aviation | Air & Space Magazine: "The U.S. Navy’s dream of a pilotless combat jet that can fly off an aircraft carrier, refuel in the air, complete its mission and then land safely back on the flat top has taken a couple of steps closer to reality."

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Pedal Power | Flight Today | Air & Space Magazine

Pedal Power | Flight Today | Air & Space Magazine: "t was difficult to take in all at once: Four giant Mylar-covered rotors the size of windmill blades rotated, fishing line winding around a spool plinked like an untuned toy harp, and a vast, spidery structure trembled with the effort of a madly pedaling figure at its center. The pedaling figure turned the spool that wound the fishing line that worked the pulleys that drove the rotor blades. Late in the afternoon of May 4, 2011, no one was breathing in the University of Maryland gym."

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Inside China's Secret Arsenal | Popular Science

Inside China's Secret Arsenal | Popular Science: "In a single generation, China has transformed itself from a largely agrarian country into a global manufacturing and trading powerhouse. China’s economy is 20 times bigger than it was two decades ago and is on track to surpass the United States’ as the world’s largest. But perhaps most startling has been the growth of China’s ambitious and increasingly powerful military"

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Q+A: Cody Wilson Of The Wiki Weapon Project On The 3-D Printed Future of Firearms | Popular Science

Q+A: Cody Wilson Of The Wiki Weapon Project On The 3-D Printed Future of Firearms | Popular Science: "While many call for tighter firearm restrictions in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, the Wiki Weapon project believes technology is about to make such regulation irrelevant--and that that's a good thing."

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NASA's NEXT ion thruster clocks up continuous operation world record

NASA's NEXT ion thruster clocks up continuous operation world record: "NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) ion engine has set a new world record by clocking up 43,000 hours of continuous operation at NASA’s Glenn Research Center’s Electric Propulsion Laboratory. The seven-kilowatt thruster is intended to propel future NASA deep space probes on missions where chemical rockets aren't a practical option."

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