Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today, we have reports from IEEE Spectrum, The New Yorker and Cabinet Magazine.
Magnetic Fields in Electric Cars Won't Kill You – IEEE Spectrum
That's good to know.
This may seem like a non-issue for most drivers, but worries about the possible dangers of magnetic fields in hybrid and electric vehicles had already started to flourish on Internet forums as early as 2008. The New York Times ran an article titled, "Fear, but Few Facts, on Hybrid Risk" that noted how hybrid car drivers were using their own detectors to take magnetic field readings. A search of the online forums hosted by Tesla Motors—Elon Musk's electric car company—also shows a small number of electric car owners asking about the possible dangers of magnetic fields over time.
Game Of Thrones: How Airlines Woo The One Percent – The New Yorker
Flying is still fun if you can afford to do it right.
The modern aircraft-seating industry is highly specialized. The number of manufacturers is small, in part because creating new seats is so complex that moving from conception to installation takes years and entails large financial risks. It also poses unique design challenges, since a premium-class seat has to create an impression of opulence in what is actually a noisy and potentially nausea-inducing metal tube filled with strangers.
Whitewood under Siege – Cabinet Magazine
Because shipping pallets.
There are approximately two billion wooden shipping pallets in the United States. They are in the holds of tractor-trailers, transporting Honey Nut Cheerios and oysters and penicillin and just about any other product you can think of: sweaters, copper wire, lab mice, and so on. They are piled up behind supermarkets, out back, near the loading dock. They are at construction sites, on sidewalks, in the trash, in your neighbor's basement. They are stacked in warehouses and coursing their way through the bowels of factories.
Photo: Nissan