PM GARAGE

Opinions on cars we’ve driven

Pasta's Backstory

The Geometry of Pasta is a book that adds deeper meaning to our love affair with this Italian staple.

Dead On Target

For Hitman fans, the third instalment in the trilogy won’t let you down, delivering near limitless solutions to missions, enhanced graphics, and countless plot twists and surprises.

I Built This Boat With A Book From 1935

The gentleman’s racer design came from old popul ar mechanics pl ans.

The iPad's Handwriting Recognition Tech Shows How Apple Does Machine Learning

The more intuitive a task is for humans, generally, the harder it is for artificial intelligence.

Reader Challenge: Build Something Useful With LEGO

The missive to pop mech us readers, via Instagram, was this: Make something with LEGO that will make your (or someone else’s) life easier, and show us the results.

Cracking The Chip: How Hacking The NES Made It Even Better

In 1985, American video games languished in a wasteland. The gaming giant Atari had just folded in a wave of terrible and unplayably buggy third-party games.

The Magnetic North Pole Is Racing Towards Russia

The magnetic North Pole just isn’t where it used to be.

Uncovering The Hidden Secrets Of Procedural Generation

Mathematicians from the California Institute of Technology have solved an age-old problem related to ‘random walks’, a mathematical process that traces a path based on random decisions at various junctions.

DEFIANT VS VALOR

INSIDE THE HEAD-TO-HEAD BATTLE TO REPLACE THE BLACK HAWK

Develop Your Own Home-Brewing Philosophy

Beer is a catalyst for community building. At our brewery, Dogfish Head, my wife Mariah and I have tried to show our kids that we make fun, creative, off-centred ales that connect us to awesome people such as the Grateful Dead and our co-workers. We hoped one of them might be interested in carrying on this tradition, but we didn’t want to put that weight on their shoulders.

Sky's The Limit

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be a pilot? To take to the skies and soar above places you’ve never visited before?

The History Of Maps

The map has no single origin or known inventor. But these breakthrough maps illuminate the milestones of science and discovery that guided civilisations – and define how we view the world today.

Use A File To Make A Handcrafted Knife

Use a file to make a handcrafted knife

This MakerBot Made 3D Printing Hot

Released in 2012, THE MakerBot Replicator sold for $1 749 (or about R15 200 at the exchange rate back then).

Riding With The Current

Electric cars are ever-present in the news, but what about electric motorcycles? Well, in a scoop for local enthusiasts, electric superbike brand Energica has recently hit South African roads, with some jaw-dropping performance figures.

The B-52 Is America's Longest-Serving Plane – And The Most Badass

Like many of America’s legendary aircraft, the B-52 was built to offset the Soviet threat that characterised the Cold War. The US needed a bomber to reach far-flung Soviet targets, defeat their air defences, and carry a massive atomic payload.

Making Music With Machines

From artificial-intelligence song writers to virtual-reality playlists, technology has completely changed the way music is composed and consumed. Here, we unravel some instrumental audio developments worth taking note of…

Should Your Car Have Solar Panels?

You can get them on the new Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Limited (only available in the US, for $35 300), which I tested for a week, under existentially strange but mechanically ideal conditions. Except for a 16 km drive to the grocery store and back, the car sat in the driveway, its 205watt system earning free, clean power, I thought.

Building Da Vinci's Forgottten Bridge

When Sultan Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire requested proposals for a bridge connecting capital city Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) with the neighbouring city, Galata (Karaköy, Turkey) at the turn of the 16th century, famed inventor Leonardo da Vinci was eager to win the contract.

Keeping track

Lost a leopard? Hunting down a hyena? It’s time for an adventure with two intrepid wildlife trackers…

Flying In The Face Of Gravity

The universal association with Red Bull Sports is that it’s the real-life equivalent to a guild of superheroes, their sponsorships reserved for an elite few who are pushing the boundaries of human capabilities. Red Bull Aerobatics Pilot Patrick Davidson is one such superhuman firmly rooted on South African soil (when he’s not hurtling through the sky).

Inside Britain's Anabolic Steroid Epidemic

It starts with a little prick. Then it takes over your life.

Clever Tips And Lifehacks

Foggy Fix

Could TikTok Be Spying On You?

TIK TOK Has our children’s home addresses.

This 20 kg Star Destroyer is leading a LEGO revolution

Charles Anderson’s Star Destroyer stretches almost 1.5 m long, but opposite the enormity is an attention to detail – the filigree of LEGO figurine hands ringing the docking bay; the barnacle-like swath of pipes that make up the vents, pipes, and cannons – that makes the ship an artistic, architectural marvel.

Pocket gamer

THERE IS a reason why the mobile-gaming industry is booming – mobile games are inexpensive, accessible and addictive.

POISE, NO NOISE

BMW’s R18 cruiser seems absurdly late to market, and does a 1800 cc, 345 kg leviathan make any sense in this day and age? PM took a closer look.

PM's sci-fi film guide

LAST YEAR was a very good year for sci-fi. With no major Avengers blockbusters (thanks to Thanos’s shenanigans in 2019) and Star Wars going on a cinematic hiatus, other films were given a chance to have their own moment. Because of the pandemic, a few others expected in 2020 have had their release dates pushed back to this year.

DOWN TO THE WIRE

Where does the internet come from? Is it from satellites beaming connectivity down from the sky? For the most part, when data moves between countries, it’s thanks to undersea cables.