The Wednesday, August 12, 2026 Edition
Trump Confirms Decoy-Plane Swap, Eclipse Darkens Europe, and a 406-mph Car
4 min read
406 mph
The new world speed record for a hydrogen-powered car, set by Andy Green -- the only person ever to break the sound barrier in a car. That's roughly five times a typical U.S. highway speed limit, achieved with a fuel whose main exhaust product is water.
Source: Scientific American
Tonight: The Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight into Thursday morning, offering one of the year's best skywatching displays for anyone away from city lights.
This week: Kyler Murray gets his first game action as Minnesota's starting quarterback when the Vikings open their preseason schedule in the coming days.
Later this month: The U.S. Open, tennis's final Grand Slam of the year, gets underway in New York later this month.
- 1851Isaac Singer is granted a US patent for his sewing machine
- 1898Hawaii is formally annexed to the United States in a Honolulu ceremony
- 1960NASA launches Echo 1, the first communications satellite, into orbit
- 1981IBM introduces its first Personal Computer, launching the PC era
McDonald's Built a 515-Page Dossier on Me. It Says I'll Never Stop Eating There
How McDonald's compiled a 515-page dossier on one customer's every order -- and what all that data says about why he'll never stop eating there.
Wired · Reece Rogers
China's great jobs squeeze
How China's slowing economy is squeezing an entire generation of job seekers -- and what the great jobs crunch means for the country's future.
Financial Times$ Subscription
Zap Rocks. Add Water. Get Clean Hydrogen
How zapping iron-rich rocks and adding water could stimulate underground reactions that produce clean geologic hydrogen at scale.
IEEE Spectrum · Ariel Bleicher
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