Author: quannd
General Motors has filed a patent application for battery cells with unusual shapes designed to aid cooling. Instead of the rectangular shape of the automaker’s current Ultium cells, the patent application, first spotted by Motor1, discusses Lego-shapes that leave channels when the cells are assembled into modules. These channels could be used for cooling, helping to extend battery life, GM claims in the application. The idea seems to be that cool air will flow directly onto a larger surface area compared to current GM Ultium modules, in which a cooling plate is placed underneath a solid mass of cells. A…
For desert ants, Earth’s magnetic field isn’t just a compass: It may also sculpt their brains. Stepping outside their nest for the first time, young ants need to learn how to forage. The ants train partly by walking a loop near their nests for the first three days. During this stroll, they repeatedly pause and then pirouette to gaze back at the nest entrance, learning how to find their way back home. But when the magnetic field around the nest entrance was disturbed, ant apprentices couldn’t figure out where to look, often gazing in random directions, researchers report in the…
Apple has patented a modular battery system for phones and computers.It would standardize user-swappable batteries—kinda.The main problem with non-removable batteries is one of repairability, not convenience. Removing swappable laptop battery. Tomasz Majchrowicz / Getty Images Apple has designed a modular battery that can be swapped between devices, and of course, it is a typically slick Apple idea. There is currently no Apple device that has a user-removable battery. You can sometimes get to them with the right tools (iPhone, Mac), and sometimes not (Air Pods Pro). But Apple’s new patent introduces a modular, standardized battery that could be swapped between…
Now you can chat with an AI chatbot without having to create an account before you do it. Been a little worried about providing your personal information to create an account so you can chat with ChatGPT? No worries, OpenAI is taking that barrier to use away. In a blog post today, OpenAI announced that it’s making ChatGPT free to use to everyone, without the need to sign up for an account. The company said it wants ‘to make AI accessible to anyone curious about its capabilities.” That doesn’t apply to other types of paid OpenAI accounts (premium ChatGPT account,…
The one-off 1964 Pontiac Banshee coupe concept is once again for sale, this time in a listing at Hemmings. The asking price is a cool $1.2 million. The Banshee was an early attempt by General Motors to counter the Ford Mustang. Known internally as the XP-833, it was the brainchild of John Z. DeLorean, who was head of Pontiac at the time. More sports car than pony car, it featured sleek fiberglass bodywork that resembles the later C3 Chevrolet Corvette and Opel GT. Instead of a bespoke sports-car platform, though, the Banshee borrowed mechanical hardware from the first-generation Pontiac Tempest.…
More than halfway through the current two-year Congress, the “lawmakers” there bring to mind the old schoolyard quip about slacker students: They’re really good at recess.This pre-Easter week is the first of two that the House and Senate are taking off, though it seems like only yesterday they recessed for two weeks to mark Presidents Day. Lucky for them, members of Congress get recesses regardless of how well they perform — just like kids in elementary school. And they haven’t been performing well at all, which explains the quotation marks above: The “lawmakers” aren’t doing much law-making. Opinion Columnist Jackie…
Marilyn Lands, who campaigned on abortion rights in deeply conservative Alabama, won a special election to the Alabama Legislature, in a victory that Democrats say illustrates voter backlash to extreme reproductive restrictions imposed by Republicans. Lands, a Democrat, on Tuesday decisively defeated Republican Teddy Powell to win the open House of Representatives seat in a suburban district that — while increasingly politically moderate — had long been held by the GOP. Her victory was celebrated by Democrats who said it underscores the importance of reproductive rights as an issue across the country ahead of the 2024 elections. “Voters want something…
ATLANTA — The Georgia House of Representatives on Thursday approved new rules for challenging voters and qualifying for the state’s presidential ballot that could affect the 2024 presidential race in the battleground state.The House passed Senate Bill 189 by a vote of 101 to 73. It now goes to the state Senate for consideration. Republicans in Georgia have repeatedly floated election changes following false claims by former President Trump and other Republicans that he lost Georgia’s 16 electoral votes in 2020 because of fraud. SB 189 would grant access to Georgia’s ballot to any political party that has qualified for the…
NEW YORK — Former Presidents Obama and Clinton and some big names from the entertainment world teamed up to deliver a rousing New York embrace of President Biden that hauled in a record-setting $26 million for his reelection campaign. The mood at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday night was electric as Obama praised Biden’s willingness to look for common ground and said: “That’s the kind of president I want.” Clinton said simply of the choices facing voters in 2024: “Stay with what works.”Biden went straight at Donald Trump, saying his expected Republican rival’s ideas were “a little old and out…
Immigrants built America. That’s an indisputable fact. But today there are many politicians and pundits who would like us to believe that the great contributions of immigrants stopped somewhere in the late 1800s with the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge.This week provided a stark reminder of just how integral immigrants are to the nation’s infrastructure when two men died, and four more are missing and presumed dead, following the bridge collapse in Baltimore. A construction crew was working the overnight shift on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, filling potholes and fixing masonry issues, when a cargo ship hit one of…