Satellite Radio Traffic Info
Free with satellite radio: xmradio.com; sirius.com
Tech Continually updated local traffic reports
Roadworthy? Yes for both, but XM is better


It was the friday before Father’s Day weekend, and we faced a long, hot drive from New York to D.C., fighting beach-bound traffic and swarms of commuters.


But we had a secret weapon: satellite-beamed, continually

Dept.: Geek Guide
Tech: Mobile Entertainment
Cost: $100 and up


You have every right to think your car stereo is hot. After all, the dealer said it was the “upgraded” system, with speakers all over the place and a name you actually know on their grills. There’s probably even a screen in the dash.

Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has received at least 300 applications for devices designed to win the war on terrorism. “Historically, when there is a cataclysmic event, there is a surge in inventor response,” says Richard Maulsby, public affairs officer at the agency. Among the newly minted patents is Boeing’s “intruder-proof flight deck door,” which secures an airplane’s cockpit from the cabin.

For two decades, Jill spent one month a year in the hospital trying not to kill herself. Her severe depression was immune to medication and even electroshock therapy. But a silver

David Rose wants to make a splash at Reno this year, followed by a bang--or rather, a series of excruciatingly loud bangs. He is racing what he hopes will
become the first propeller-driven aircraft to break the sound barrier in controlled flight--a feat that will make so much noise and produce so little tangible benefit that he doubts anyone will ever attempt it again. "I won't achieve anything," says Rose, a steely-eyed 67-year-old. "It's just one of those things that should have been done many years ago but hasn't."

As Darryl Greenamyer approached the last turn in the final Sport-class race of the 2003 National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada, he heard a sound. It was a roar, really—so loud it seemed to come from inside his plane, just behind his head. Greenamyer was flying 40 feet above the ground at something faster than 320 mph. But Rick Vandam was passing him.


Over the course of 38 years, Greenamyer has won nine championships at Reno. There is nothing he hates more than second place.

In 2002, using data collected during the three-day grounding of all aircraft in the U.S. after 9/11, scientists discovered that contrails—the wispy white streaks that trail jets—were narrowing the natural day-night temperature cycle in well-trafficked areas. Now a NASA study indicates that warmed-up nights are outpacing cooled-down days. In the U.S., for example, detailed atmospheric modeling suggests that contrails could account for a climate-warming trend—just under 0.3�C per decade—measured between 1975 and 1994. That amount may seem trivial, but

Shih-Ger Chang, a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has developed a recipe to feed astronauts on a three-year round-trip mission to Mars. His secret ingredient?

Tag Heuer has always ruled the racetrack—from its Carrera chronograph in the 1960s to last year’s SLR, designed to resemble the Mercedes-Benz supercar of the same name. But never before has the Swiss watchmaker gone so far as with the Monaco V4, which reaches under the hood to take inspiration—both aesthetic and technological—from the internal combustion engine. Unveiled as a prototype this past April in Basel and not yet scheduled for release, the V4 is the first wristwatch ever to run on drive belts.