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- This car runs on 500 discarded vapes. Seriously.
This car runs on 500 discarded vapes. Seriously.
An engineer gives disposable batteries a second life, and wildlife photographers catch nature at its weirdest.
Greg Sullivan
October 12, 2026 • Est. Reading Time: 4 minutes
“I crave space. It charges my batteries. It helps me breathe.”
― Katie Kacvinsky
Some people see a pile of 500 used vapes and think, "Gross." British engineer Chris Doel thought, "I could build a car battery out of those." Elsewhere, Tod Perry introduces us to wildlife caught behaving badly, and offers a little advice on what you should stop asking people you've just met.
Technology
A British engineer turned a pile of electronic trash into a working car battery.
Some people look at a pile of 500 discarded vapes and see an environmental disaster. British engineer Chris Doel looked at that same pile and thought, "I bet I could drive a car with those." And the magnificent madman was right. Discarded vapes contain rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that people often throw away after a single use. Wasteful? Obscenely. But also an irresistible challenge for someone who likes building things.
So Doel salvaged 500 of them, assembled a homemade battery pack using 3D-printed components, and hooked it up to an old electric car. The result? His Frankenstein creation traveled 18 miles and reached speeds of 40 mph. On batteries rescued from the trash!
“I can’t believe this car has just accepted this crazy Frankenstein battery that I’ve just slapped in it.”
As Erik Barnes reports, the experiment also makes a serious point about how much useful technology we casually throw away. But instead of lecturing us about waste, Doel showed us what a little ingenuity can do with things we've already written off.
GOOD reader Lori Wilson-Patterson found a mysterious, secret path to a beach at Pointe Betsie in Mission Point, Michigan. Oh. On second reading, this may not be secret. It’s part of a tour. Still, if I saw a path like this, you couldn’t stop me from running down it.
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Together with  |
The Inheritance You Leave Your Kids? Surprisingly Public |
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What you leave your kids and grandkids doesn't stay private. |
What you had. Who received it. Filed with a court, open to anyone who looks. |
But there's one asset that stays off it. No bank, no brokerage, nobody to notify. |
And the best part? You can buy it inside your retirement account, tax-deferred and penalty-free. |
See what it is: |
| Read the Full Story |
Which of these animals can remember a human face for years and warn others about someone it considers dangerous?One of these creatures has a surprisingly sophisticated enemies list. |
Last Week's Results
In Friday's issue, we marked 40 years since The Phantom of the Opera opened in London.
And we asked: Which Broadway show is currently the longest-running production still performing? Just 23.9% of you knew it was Chicago, which turns 30 on Broadway next month. The Lion King won the popular vote at 45.4%, and honestly, fair: it opened on Broadway almost exactly a year after Chicago.
Chicago (23.9%) ✅
The Lion King (45.4%)
Wicked (20.6%)
The Book of Mormon (10.1%)
It pays to give ‘em the ol’ razzle dazzle, I guess.
Animals | Courtesy of Upworthy
 | ||
17 of the funniest finalists in the 2026 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards | ||
A sexy mantis, a laughing hare, a chatty polar bear, and more! | ||
By Tod Perry | ||
It’s time again for one of Upworthy’s longest-running traditions: announcing the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards finalists. | ||
The 2026 competition received over 10,000 entries from 112 countries and has been narrowed to 40 finalists, including a laughing hare, a “sexy” mantis, and a very angry goldcrest. The photographers are competing for the top prize—a once-in-a-lifetime safari with Alex Walker’s Serian in the Masai Mara. Other prizes include Nikon Z6III and Nikon Z50II cameras. | ||
“The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards started very gently, somewhere out on the vast plains of the Serengeti. What began as a small effort to raise awareness of wildlife conservation has grown into something far bigger than we ever imagined,” Tom Sullam, the competition co-founder, said in a statement. | ||
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Culture
There's a better opener, and it's hiding in plain sight.
You think you're being friendly. You meet someone new, you reach for the safest icebreaker in the English language, "So, what do you do?", and according to the experts Elyssa Goodman talked to, that's roughly the moment they start to like you less.
The problem isn't the words. It's the subtext. Ask someone what they do, and their brain quietly translates it into a different question, one about ranking, value, and whether you're worth the next ten minutes. In a world where more and more people are trying to pry their self-worth loose from their job title, it turns out to be a clumsy way to say hello.
The good news: there's a swap so simple you'll wonder why nobody handed it to you years ago, plus one gloriously silly dinner-party question that reveals more about a person than their LinkedIn ever could.
On October 12, 1810, Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, and Munich was invited to celebrate. The festivities lasted five days and culminated in a massive horse race on a meadow outside the city. Everyone had such a good time that they decided to do it again the following year. And the year after that. And the year after that.
That royal wedding became Oktoberfest, now the world's largest folk festival, drawing millions of visitors to Munich for beer, food, music, and an impressive amount of lederhosen. The original celebration didn't even have beer tents or carnival rides. Those came later, along with a tradition so beloved that the festival now usually begins in September. The happy couple's marriage may not be particularly famous today, but 216 years later, people are still celebrating their wedding.
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Until tomorrow, if you’d like to make friends with a crow, remember not to ask them what they do.