A Texas woman took to Facebook after her 9-year-old left his stuffed gorilla at a California hotel. A stranger saw the post, went an hour out of her way to pick it up, then documented the gorilla’s journey home. Absolutely watch this if you need a smile!
Get a dashcam, trust me
The Fourth of July is just around the corner, and AAA says about 71 million people will be traveling over 50 miles that week. Make sure you’re prepared for anything that might happen on the road.
🚀 A giant step: On the morning of Sept. 12, 2024, the Polaris Dawn mission made history. Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and an engineer floated 435 miles above Earth, making them the first private astronauts to complete a spacewalk. Isaacman spent 12 minutes outside the spacecraft, relying on SpaceX’s new spacesuit for oxygen. Here’s the video. It’s incredible.
What human-made object is the farthest from Earth right now? Is it … A.) The International Space Station, B.) The Hubble Space Telescope, C.) Voyager 1 or D.) The Mars Rover?
Every 13 miles
How often Tesla’s Full Self-Driving mode requires human intervention. In a 1,000-mile test, drivers had to intervene to prevent dangerous behavior more than 75 times. The good: Self-driving mode brakes for pedestrians and lets oncoming cars through. The bad: It also runs red lights and drives into oncoming traffic. Just say no.
1,500 miles traveled
To return a kid’s beloved stuffed animal. A Texas woman took to Facebook after her 9-year-old left his stuffed gorilla at a California hotel. A stranger saw the post, went an hour out of her way to pick it up, then documented the gorilla’s journey home. Absolutely watch this if you need a smile!
9.9 miles
New world record for how far a Wi-Fi signal can reach. The testing happened in Joshua Tree National Park, which is ideal, given how little interference there is. I know what you’re thinking: “I can’t get decent Wi-Fi in my house!”
What’s the name of the asteroid that’s going to fly pretty close to Earth in 2029? Is it … A.) Apophis, B.) Halley, C.) Kimster or D.) Eros? Make your best guess, and bonus points if you also know how many miles above Earth it’ll be.
5,780 miles
Distance from Hong Kong to Switzerland, where surgeons remotely operated on a pig. In Hong Kong, they set up a robotic system with a magnetic endoscope. In Zurich, a doctor watching a real-time video feed controlled the entire process with a video game controller. Imagine getting a procedure from a world-class surgeon from halfway across the world!
600 miles in 9 minutes
Charge capacity for Samsung’s new EV battery. Oh, and the solid-state battery has a 20-year lifespan. They say it’ll be ready for mass production by 2027. Luxury carmakers will be all over this.
🚀 Polaris Dawn: Billionaire Jared Isaacman, the guy who led the first all-civilian spaceflight to orbit Earth, is gearing up to be the first private astronaut to take a spacewalk. The team is zooming there on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, reaching an altitude not seen since the Apollo moon missions. At around 435 miles from Earth, they’ll open the hatch and exit the spacecraft (paywall link).
60 miles
Swimming in the wrong direction. A long-distance swimmer attempting 80 miles across Lake Michigan had to call it quits after his GPS watch died and he got way off course. Stinks it ended this way for 60-year-old Jim Dryer, aka “The Shark.”
700 miles per charge
For the new breed of EVs known as extended-range electric vehicles. The catch: You’ll have to gas up every now and then (paywall link). EREVs have a small combustion engine that’s there to charge the electric battery as you drive.
NYC to London in 1.5 hours: NASA’s officially working on commercial aircraft with speeds between Mach 2 and Mach 4, or from 1,535 to 3,045 miles per hour — twice the F/A-18’s Mach 1.8. That’s so fast your in-flight peanuts will catch up with you at the baggage claim.
$1.2 billion
For Israel’s “Iron Beam” defense laser. The laser can take out air threats from over four miles away and never runs out of ammo (paywall link). The Iron Beam can destroy threats for about $2,000 a pop (the cost of electricity), compared to $50,000 for traditional missile defense. I hope this is on the U.S. military’s wishlist.
$22,000 price tag
For a 22-year-old Camry with 17,000 miles. That’s only a few grand off its original retail price. The 2002 commuter classic sold on Bring a Trailer, an auction site for “vintage and classic” cars. Feel old yet?
🌊 Sail-ebrate the good times: A guy who quit his job to sail the Pacific is over 1,000 miles from land — the furthest point you can go on the planet. He says it’s incredibly disorienting. Why? He’s in the “doldrums,” where there’s no wind at all. My sailing friends told me about that! Watch the vid here. Could you do this? Not me!
310 miles
Of conveyor belt could replace 25,000 cargo trucks in Japan. The zero-emissions solution could connect Tokyo and Osaka by 2034. Why? Japan’s population is shrinking so quickly that they’re running out of truck drivers to deliver packages.
298 miles per hour
Speed of record-breaking new quadcopter drone. Father and son Luke and Mike Bell’s remote-controlled Peregrine 2 flew past the competition for the title of world champ. See it in action here. Talk about bonding!