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Q: I read your answer concerning “Would The Prius Get Better Gas Mileage If It Weighed Less?”. It was very interesting and I agree with your discussion but I’d like you to go a step further. The thing that is confusing about hybrids has to do with their efficiency. It seems to me that using an internal combustion engine to charge the batteries which power the electric motors that move the car would be less efficient that moving the same car with the internal combustion engine....

From the land of misfit single-serving Tumblrs comes this one, What Is This Thing Called. It’s exactly what it sounds like: A collection of familiar items or substances—like the sticky polymer that holds a mailed debit card in place or that thing your check comes in when you order at a restaurant—for which you’ve probably never heard the name.You might impress people at parties by knowing the plastic or metal sheath at the end of a shoelace is called an aglet, but can you ID these?...

Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale Date: October 2012Price: Starts at $24,580Competitors: Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-150, GMC Sierra, Nissan Titan, Toyota TundraPowertrains: 3.6-liter V-6, 305 hp, 296 lb-ft; 4.7-liter V-8, 310 hp, 330 lb-ft; 5.7-liter V-8, 395 hp, 407 lb-ft; six-speed auto, eight-speed auto, RWD or 4WD.EPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 14–18/19–25 (est.)What’s New: Ram pickups left the Dodge garage in 2010 to become a separate brand, and the 2013 model represents the first major makeover of the bread-and-butter half-tonner....

In the toy business, you only hear about the successes, the Star Wars and Barbie. But what about the second wave of Coleco’s Sectaurs, or Kenner’s 3¾-inch Alien figures? Blake Wright, a veteran energy reporter from Houston, decided to ask what might have been and go beyond internet searches to the men and women who worked on these aborted lines. Toys That Time Forgot, Volume One, was published in 2017 through a Kickstarter campaign, and Volume Two is no different....

Media Platforms Design TeamIt was the claim that caught our eye: a cordless screwdriver that charges in 90 seconds. It’s either the first capacitor-powered cordless tool we’ve ever seen, or just one of those physics-defying accomplishments that exist only in the rarified pocket dimensions of late-night infomercials. And the YouTube commercial for Coleman’s new 5.4V Cordless FlashCell Screwdriver doesn’t help—it’s silly to the point of camp, an unintentional self-parody of zany product spots that themselves may only exist in Saturday Night Live skits....

A former Apple employee has been charged by federal prosecutors with stealing trade secrets relating to the computer and phone giant’s self-driving car program. According to the FBI, Xiaolang Zhang was attempting to take these trade secrets to a Chinese self-driving startup.As detailed by FBI Agent Eric Proudfoot in an affidavit, Zhang used his position within Apple’s secretive program to access secret information the same day he announced his resignation within the company....

Disney dropped the first teaser trailer for the final film in the Star Wars saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Announced at Celebration Chicago, the trailer is equally exciting and revealing. We see Lando, Leia, Rey (doing some amazing acrobatics), and the most intriguing of all—the evil cackle of should-be-long-dead Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid was on stage to introduce the clip). Luke Skywalker’s voice over and the film’s title also suggests that the famous Jedi, who seemingly met his demise in The Last Jedi, will be sticking around for the saga’s final installment....

This article was originally published on April 30. It’s been updated for Framing John Delorean’s wide release on June 7.Even if you’re not into cars, you’ve heard of John DeLorean. He’s the guy who made the Back to the Future car, right? Yes. And he’s also the guy who created the Pontiac GTO, kicking off the 1960s muscle car wars. And he’s the guy who got a chin implant and married a 19-year-old model, then a supermodel....

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — I’m here at the U.S. Patent and Trademark’s new digs (they moved from Crystal City), for the Collegiate Inventors Competition: cocktails in the atrium, fountains cascading, glass ceiling a dozen stories above.Among the inventorati on hand are Ted Hoff, who basically invented the microprocessor, Tom Fogarty, whose balloon embolectomy catheter revolutionized vascular surgery, and Don Keck, who came up with fiber-optic cable (and now the world’s wrapped in the stuff)....

Media Platforms Design Team Will there be a touchscreen tablet? What will the new iPhone have in store? Will Steve Jobs show up? We’ll be answering all these questions and more as senior technology editor, Glenn Derene live-blogs Phil Schiller’s keynote speech that opens Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. 9:25—Welcome to our live coverage of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2009. I’m in the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and, like all the other press, I’m gathered in the large keynote antechamber....

Media Platforms Design TeamCarver: Jim BarnesLocation: Williamston, MI Chain Saws Used: Jonsered 2159, Husqvarna 142Ideal Trees: catalpa, cedar1. Mill Seat Slabs"For me, it’s easier to stand the log on end to make vertical cuts," Barnes says. He sinks a 6-foot log into a shallow hole and uses a chain saw to mill two 3-inch-thick slabs for use as a back and seat. To guide the cut, Barnes marks a line or follows a straight 2 x 4....

An unidentified man claiming to be an active duty military member tried to get a missile launcher through TSA.TSA detained the man for questioning and ultimately let him catch his flight back home sans launcher.An active duty military member tried to pass a missile launch tube through TSA at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (BWI) Airport on July 29. The unidentified man was returning to Jacksonville, Texas, after touring in Kuwait and told TSA officials that he had wanted a service souvenir and so he opted for a piece of a military-grade weapon....

Media Platforms Design TeamTrooper Stephen Bunker died flying a mission that never should have happened, looking for a hole in the clouds that never appeared. Shortly after 11 pm on Sept. 27, 2008, Bunker’s phone rang inside the Maryland State Police aircraft hangar at Andrews Air Force Base. Two young women were injured in a car crash in Waldorf, Md. They needed transport to Prince George’s Hospital Center. Would Bunker accept the flight?...

Media Platforms Design TeamYour article recommends that all research at BSL-4 labs be shut down for a while, and that future plans to build BSL-3 & BSL-4 labs should be limited. Why? Im an infectious diseases physician, so Ive been very aware of the increase in the number of laboratories, both in the United States and globally. Much of this increase has happened since 9/11. Im aware of the need to do research on pathogens that require close scrutiny and careful attention to safety....

While Tesla hustles to get its Model 3 production up to speed, there’s a new electric vehicle company strutting its stuff at the LA Auto Show this week. That’s where upstart Rivian is unveiling an all-electric pickup truck and SUV, both of which have been built from the ground up with the outdoors in mind. Rivian’s five-passenger pickup truck is dubbed the R1T, while its SUV is called the R1S. Both are built on the company’s “skateboard” platform, which places the battery pack and drive units, as well as the suspension, braking, and thermal systems, below the height of the wheels....

Astronomers have found plenty of exoplanets—planets orbiting other stars—over the last few years, and usually they can measure some of the properties of these planets. At the very least, astronomers can generally measure the size of the planet and how fast it orbits, and often they can figure out a planet’s mass as well.But for one planet 466 light-years away, there’s almost nothing that astronomers can measure. That’s because this planet is one of the blackest worlds ever discovered....

Media Platforms Design TeamA hundred years ago, electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla was working on a radical new type of radio using waves that skim the surface of the earth rather than radiate into space. Tesla believed he could transmit signals across the Atlantic using these but never succeeded in his lifetime, and the idea faded into relative obscurity. Today it’s back, with the promise of a new system for high-speed data transmission that would combine the benefits of wired and wireless communication....

Dogs live about 13 years on average. As it turns out, Sony’s $2,000 robotic dogs are barely outlasting that. Last year, Sony discontinued repairs on the robo-pups that debuted in 1999. Now many of them are slowly but surely reaching a point where they can no longer be repaired.One big problem is that many of the parts that went into Aibo (the name of the dog robot brand, though surely many people gave them different names) are no longer fabricated....

If you know one fact about South Dakota, it’s probably that the state is home to Mount Rushmore. Well, here are two more facts: It’s got air, and it’s not Mars!That’s the message of this inspired ad by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. The 30-second spot channels the imagery of Mars One and the many applicants willing to leave the Earth, never to return. Then it asks: Why die on Mars when you could live in South Dakota, an earthly paradise that is “progressive, productive, and abundant in oxygen!...

Media Platforms Design TeamVlambeer is really good at blowing things up. From mobile games like Super Crate Box to Ridiculous Fishing, the Dutch indie developers show that they’ve found a formula that works: great design, music, gameplay, and of course, lots of guns. With pixelated visuals and classic shoot-em-up gameplay (think Asteroids meets WWII-style dogfighting), Luftrausers is a title that’s deceptively simple and mercilessly addicting. The game presents a beige-and-maroon canvas for players to paint aerial destruction with the help of their lone warplane....