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On-Sale Date: SeptemberPrice: $14,115–$17,200 (SE)Competitors: Nissan Versa, Honda Fit, Hyundai Accent, Chevrolet SonicPowertrain: 1.5-liter I4, 106 hp,103 lb-ft; five-speed manual or four-speed automatic, FWDEPA Fuel Economy (city/highway): 30/35–38 mpg What’s New: Not long ago, the subcompact class was peppered with wheezy, dimwitted and downright unpleasant transportation pods. You bought these cars because you didn’t have a choice. Then came the rebellious Scion. And soon after, Honda brought out the Fit, a car simply overstuffed with clever features....

Six years after an accident that nearly saw the jet written off, a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor is about to take to the skies again. The fifth-generation fighter was damaged during a training mission in 2012 that sent it skidding thousands of feet down an air base runway. Now, after extensive repairs, the stealth jet is about to re-enter service.The Raptor was damaged on May 31, 2012, when a trainee pilot was conducting touch and go landings at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida....

Media Platforms Design TeamWith Halloween fast approaching, it’s time to explore costume options for every member of your entourage. Socialites will dress their dogs, parents will outfit their kids and commuters and runners will adorn their iPods. That’s right: Thanks to the online endeavor iAttire, now you can take your portable music player trick-or-treating with you.There are outfits for every type of iPod—from nanos to shuffles and probably anything Apple thinks up next....

Media Platforms Design TeamThe first-ever manned aircraft powered by a hydrogen fuel cell successfully completed a flight in Spain this year, aerospace giant Boeing announced today. Though the plane needed an extra boost from a lithium-ion battery to reach the skies, it relied solely on a single Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell to cruise for 20 minutes at a maintained speed. Boeing’s Phantom Works led a team of companies and universities from the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Spain and France for a five-year effort to create the two-seat plane, an adapted Dimona motorized glider....

Engines: 3-liter I6, 277 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque (1500 Duramax); 6.6-liter gas V8, 401 hp and 464 lb-ft of torque; 6.6-liter turbocharged diesel V8, 445 hp and 910 lb-ft of torque / Transmission/transfer case: Six-speed auto (6.6-liter gas) or 10-speed automatic (diesels) / EPA Fuel Economy / (1500 Duramax): Not yet announced, but we estimate 24 mpg combined / 0-60 (3500 Duramax 4x4 Crew Cab Dually): 7.4 seconds / 0-60 for that truck while towing 18,000 pounds: 19....

Authorities in Wuhan, China have begun construction on a new temporary hospital in the region, designed to isolate and treat patients of the coronavirus. City officials plan to complete construction in just six days.This isn’t the first time China has pulled off such an enormous feat; During the SARS outbreak in 2003, Beijing built a similar medical facility in just under seven days.Update: Check out this incredible time-lapse video of the construction of Wuhan’s temporary hospital, which ultimately took 10 days to complete....

The Claim: Though necessity may be the mother of invention, infomercials often invent the need they intend to serve. A jarring edit up front seems to confuse the problem for which the $20 Wearable Towel is the solution: “You want to stay covered after being wet, but your towel just won’t let”—the viewer hits the awkward edit then—“Robes are heavy and hot—and towels with fasteners? I think not.” So the Wearable Towel fills some unnamed, unknown need for a hydrophilic textile that “keeps you totally covered, and gives you the freedom to use your hands....

New artificial organs may have a familiar, slimy face to thank for their near-future tech: electric eels.In a study published today in Nature, researchers at University of Fribourg in Switzerland and other schools reported a new bio-inspired power source. A series of 3D-printed gel layers use charged ions to produce energy. Because it’s a “soft” technology, it can be used more easily in biological tissue, which can also serve as a continuous battery source....

As the world’s tallest buildings reach toward the 3000 ft. mark and beyond, the pursuit of height might give way to practicality. From Dubai to Taipei and Chicago to Boston, the engineers of budding superstructures get plenty of attention for the tale of the tape. But as some of the field’s leaders tell PM, they are also beginning to install new technology that will increase safety in skyscrapers currently on the rise....

Perovskite solar cells have been making leaps and bounds in progress over the last several years. A relatively new material in the world of solar, it has come close to its silicon cell siblings in terms of efficiency in a shockingly short period of time while its price point has been reduced by 80%. It’s been a rapid rise through the ranks, and the good news keeps on rolling: scientists have been able to solve one of perovskite’s few snags, allowing it to become, yet again, even more efficient....

Media Platforms Design TeamFew vehicles are as iconic as the Jeep Wrangler. But there would be no Wrangler without the wartime Willys MB or the civillian CJ2A model that followed. To honor Jeep’s heritage, the company unveiled a new Willys Wheeler special edition with old school “4-Wheel Drive” graphics and plenty of hardcore trail parts.The drivetrain is similar in spec to the Moab Edition, with a rear Dana 44 axle, locker and 3....

Media Platforms Design TeamI’m a huge fan of Lost, but sometimes my schedule keeps me from being able to watch all the episodes on time. Yesterday, after a 6-hour Lost marathon (I had no idea how far behind I’d gotten!), I was finally ready to take in last night’s season finale. And after watching it, all I can say is: Holy crap. First things first: the explosives. We blow a lot of things up on MythBusters, so I know from experience that last night Lost missed the mark....

At the furthest reaches of the solar system, 2019 will start off with exploration. NASA has given the final green light to its New Horizons spacecraft for a January 1st flyby of Ultima Thule, an object in the Kuiper Belt around a billion miles beyond Pluto. It will be the most distant planetary flyby in human history.View full post on TwitterBefore giving the okay, NASA wanted to make sure that it wasn’t passing up any other opportunities for either study or disaster in the area—rings, small moons, and anything else that a probe like New Horizons might want to observe....

Dubai International Airport briefly grounded all air traffic on Friday after unauthorized drones were seen close the airport. The closure was brief, only lasting just under 30 minutes between 10:13 a.m. and 10:45 a.m., per a New York Times report. Dubai’s state media office later tweeted that all activity had resumed as normal after the roughly 28-minute closure: View full post on TwitterDubai’s airport is the third largest in the world, and the biggest to see its operations stymied by drones encroaching upon its airspace....

The U.S. Navy has awarded $542 million contract to Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, to build six new VH-92A helicopters. The helicopters will replace the current VH-3D and VH-60N helicopters used to ferry the President of the United States and his staff worldwide. Today’s contract is for six VH-92A twin-engine helicopters. Two helicopters are already in testing and the Marines will eventually order a final fifteen, for a total of 23 aircraft....

Our nearest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, is hurtling toward our own Milky Way at around 250,000 miles per hour. The two galaxies will collide in a few billion years.Until recently, scientists believed that our galaxy would get the worst of this galactic smash-up because the Milky Way was the smaller of the two. Well, maybe not. New research from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research finds that Andromeda actually isn’t much heavier....

The skies over Afghanistan once again echo with the sound of brrrrrrrt.The U.S. Air Force has sent the A-10 Warthog close air support aircraft back to Afghanistan. It’s the first time in six years that the warplane has flown over the country and is part of a surge of troops and equipment into America’s longest-running current war. The Air Force sent a squadron of twelve A-10s to operate out of Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan....

The U.S. has been quietly working on a new air-to-air missile meant to “out-stick” next generation Chinese and Russian missiles. The existence of the AIM-260, or Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, was revealed last week, with the expectation for the missile to enter service in 2022. Air Force Weapons Program Executive Officer Brig. Gen. Anthony Genatempo revealed the existence of the Joint Advanced Tactical Missile to reporters, stating that it had been under development since 2017....

If you’ve ever wondered what beer from the 18th century tasted like, well now’s your chance to find out.A group of researchers have developed a new beer, called Preservation Ale, with yeast recovered from the world’s oldest known bottle of beer. The bottle was recovered from the shipwreck of the Sydney Cove, which sank in 1797.The Sydney Cove was sailing from Calcutta when it was wrecked on Preservation Island off the coast of Tasmania....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/9IRC_b4g7Sg?version=3&hl=en_US[/youtube]If reports out of the U.K. (and this video) are to be believed, then stuntman Gary Connery today became the first person to skydive from a helicopter and land safely without a parachute. The 42-year-old Englishman jumped from the aircraft at an elevation of 2400 feet, wearing a wingsuit intended to help him glide and manage his speed. After cruising through the air, he landed in a sea of cardboard boxes his team had set up near Henley-on-Thames, located west of London....