Month: July 2021

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  Bentley is adding a second plug-in hybrid to its lineup this year in the form of a new Flying Spur Hybrid. [credit: Bentley ]

British luxury brand Bentley has a second plug-in hybrid in the works to join the Bentayga plug-in hybrid SUV. It's an electrified version of the Flying Spur sedan, and it represents the next step in Bentley's decade-long journey to becoming a completely electric car maker.

Instead of the usual V8 or W12 engine under the hood, this Bentley makes do with just six cylinders and 2.9 L of displacement. If that sounds a bit familiar, it's because it's a version of the same powertrain you'll find in the hybrid Porsche Panamera. Like Porsche (and Audi), Bentley is owned by Volkswagen Group.

The output of the V6 has been increased somewhat for use in the Bentley and now provides 410 hp (305 kW) and 406 lb-ft (550 Nm). It works in combination with a 134 hp (100 kW) permanent magnet synchronous motor that's located together with the transmission and is powered by a 14.1 kWh battery pack.

Enlarge / A brown widow spider feeding on a Brahminy blindsnake in a garden house in Zaachila, Oaxaca, Mexico. (credit: Matias Martinez)

What's a spider with a discriminating palate to do when it gets tired of chowing down on its usual insect-heavy fare? A few nibbles of fresh snake might do the trick. Yes, some species of spider do indeed occasionally feast on snakes, according to a recent paper published in the American Journal of Arachnology. And that paper is chock-full of pictures to prove it.

Scientists had previously believed that spiders consumed live insects or other arthropods almost exclusively, but more recent research has shown their diets are more diverse. According to co-authors Martin Nyffeler (an arachnologist at the University of Basel) and J. Whitfield Gibbons (a herpetologist at the University of Georgia), various spider species have been found to feed on earthworms, velvet worms, bristle worms, slugs, snails, shrimp, crayfish, freshwater crabs, bats, mice, voles, rats, shrews, frogs, fish, newts, and salamanders, among other prey. There have also been multiple observed instances of spiders overpowering and feeding on snakes—usually baby or juvenile snakes.

Nyffeler and Gibbons decided to conduct the first synthesis of the various documented cases, poring through published reports, Google pictures, Google books, social media sites, scientific  journals, and relevant academic dissertations and theses. The team ultimately found 319 individual reports of spiders preying on snakes, most of them naturally occurring incidents, although about seven percent were laboratory feeding trials or staged field experiments. Nearly 80 percent of those reports included photos or videos documenting the gruesome acts for posterity.

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  Peugeot is returning to Le Mans for the first time in over a decade with a new hybrid prototype called the 9X8. [credit: Peugeot Sport ]

No race is as important to a French company like Peugeot as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The annual endurance classic is arguably tougher than ever, now requiring not just complete reliability but also outright speed as the little hand goes twice around the clock. To up the pressure, it all happens in front of a larger crowd than practically any other sporting event you can think of. So after more than a decade's hiatus, Peugeot is returning to Le Mans with its eyes on the overall win. And the company hopes to do it with a new hybrid formally revealed to the world on Tuesday morning; it's called the 9X8.

Peugeot first saw success at Le Mans in 1992 and 1993, during the very final days of Group C. It then switched its attention to Formula 1 for a while, supplying engines to McLaren, Jordan, and then Prost with diminishing success. In 2007, Peugeot returned to endurance racing to face off against the might of Audi's domination, and in 2009 it beat the Germans at Le Mans with its 908 prototype. In 2012, the company was going to field a hybrid version of the 908 before the entire program was cancelled following an economic downturn for the business.

We got a brief golden era of hybrid endurance racers anyway between 2013-2017 as Toyota and then Porsche joined Audi in the LMP1h category at Le Mans. But LMP1h proved to be prohibitively expensive, even if it did give rise to some of the coolest racing cars to ever turn a wheel. The new Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) regulations are an attempt to fix that, allowing some (hopefully road-relevant) technical freedom and road car styling together with other measures meant to keep costs sane.

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  Welcome to the family.

After months of rumors and reports of a coming "Switch Pro," Nintendo has finally and officially revealed the upgraded version of its core Switch hardware. The "OLED Model" as Nintendo is calling it, will be available October 8 for an MSRP of $349.99.

As the name implies, the most immediately noticeable improvement is in the screen, which uses pricier OLED technology instead of the more common standard LCD found in previous Switch models. This should provide deeper blacks, better color display, and less motion blurring than existing Switch systems, if existing OLED TVs are anything to go by.

The OLED Model also expands the Switch's screen to 7", up from the 6.2" of the original Switch and 5.5" of the Switch Lite. This is accomplished without increasing the size of the standard Switch unit itself, thanks to a reduction in the space used for the black bezel around the tablet screen.