Canola Oil Wasn't Always Food, Exploding Rockets and More

Canola oil is the third most used cooking oil in the world, falling just behind palm oil and soybean oil in terms of global consumption. But did you know that before the oil was a staple of almost every recipe you’ve ever followed, it was used to lubricate things like warships and aircraft during the war? - Owen Bellwood Read More

Taking a chance on a 1950s German vehicle listed on Craigslist can be tempting, but there’s typically a lot of work involved in getting them running reliably. When the vehicle in question is a cruise ship, and not a Mercedes-Benz or a Porsche, the task is exponentially more difficult. California resident Chris Willson found this out the hard way after buying the Aurora, a rusted-out vessel built in 1955. The City of Stockton is now looking for a way to move a sunken 2,800-ton ship to a salvage yard. - Ryan Erik King Read More

Little-known fact: Motorcycles are very cool. Old pickup trucks, similarly, are much cooler than their modern counterparts. Yet, while you’d think the two would go together like chocolate and peanut butter, seeing them actually mixed just feels wrong. - Amber DaSilva Read More

If you’re looking for a new house in the Guilford, Connecticut area and you absolutely must have a go kart track and oceanside views, this might be your only option. Located at 215 Uncas Point Rd., this 13-acre property—featuring a 5,354 square foot mega main house, a 3,583 square foot guest house, and an in-law suite bigger than my apartment—is currently on the market with a very affordable $35,000,000 price tag. That’s a small price to pay for a private karting track right on the wide open Atlantic Ocean, especially one that includes a “circle of life,” a pool, and tennis courts. - Bradley Brownell Read More

Chinese space startup DeepBlue Aerospace conducted a near-flawless flight test of its first vertical launch and vertical landing rocket on Sunday. However, the Nebula-1 reusable rocket failed the test’s final component, the landing. The rocket slammed into the pad and exploded dramatically in front of drones there to capture what was intended to be a marketable achievement. - Ryan Erik King Read More

The sky doesn’t seem crowded at a glance, but there are 5,400 planes in FAA-controlled airspace at any given time. A United Airlines flight took an evasive maneuver while approaching San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday, injuring two passengers onboard. The plane stopped its descent at 31,000 feet to avoid dropping into the vicinity of two other commercial aircraft. - Ryan Erik King Read More

The New York City Subway is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. While the wait for a train can be lengthy late at night at some parts of the system, even on rare occasions when everything’s running smoothly, it doesn’t permit anyone to steal an empty train. The NYPD arrested two teenagers last week for allegedly joyriding and crashing a subway train on September 12. - Ryan Erik King Read More

Nothing adds gravitas to a major sports event like a blimp causally patrolling the skies around the stadium. A soccer club’s blimp slowly crashed into a residential neighborhood in São Paulo, Brazil on Wednesday. Thankfully, only one person was injured in the slow-motion disaster that caused people to jog for their lives. - Ryan Erik King Read More

In June 2023, privateer sea exploration firm OceanGate sent its Titan submarine to the wreck of the Titanic with four paying customers onboard. The craft experienced a catastrophic failure during the dive, killing every passenger as well as pilot and CEO Stockton Rush. Now, a probe into the disaster has found that Rush once said he had “no desire to die” in a craft he called the “safest thing I will ever do.” - Owen Bellwood Read More

Range anxiety is one primary roadblock that prevents people from transitioning to an electric vehicle for their daily driver that often covers under 50 miles a day, so the concept of an electric recreational vehicle sounds like a sales disaster. To assuage those fears, Airstream’s parent company Thor Industries has partnered with commercial EV chassis builder Harbinger to create the world’s first plug-in-hybrid Class A motorhome, and it could be a real winner. - Logan Carter Read More