[16] With its rocket competition, the X Prize Foundation got civilians off the planet, and now it's trying to bribe them into saving it. The AUTOMOTIVE X PRIZE will give at least $10 million to the first team to create a production-ready 100-mile-per-gallon car.

[17] In May, a group of scientific institutions—backed by MacArthur Foundation millions and supported by legendary Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson—announced the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE, an effort to document all 1.8 million named life forms in a network of formatted, interconnected Web pages.

[18] Provided you understand the caveats made necessary by the title of this magazine—something is preventing you from being outside, you have nothing better to do while you're inside than watch television, and you positively must watch football inside on said television—please watch FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. There is no better show right now on the planet. Not inside, at least.

[19–23] The Green Apple! New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the city's 13,000 TAXIS WILL GO HYBRID by 2012, suggested FEES FOR DRIVING INTO MANHATTAN (to ease congestion and pollution), and BANNED TRANS FATS in restaurants. Wait, New York gets even better. Three years after completing a 32-mile commuter bike path around the edge of Manhattan, NYC authorities opened a four-mile mountain-bike trail in Manhattan's HIGHBRIDGE PARK and another six miles of off-road fun on Queens' CUNNINGHAM PARK trail systems.

[24] Though unicorns still elude us, scientists can now PREDICT MOONBOWS—rare nighttime plays of mist and moonlight—at Lower Yosemite Fall, with precise dates and times. Schedule: uweb.txstate.edu/~do01.

[25] Thanks to well over 100 outdoor groups and adaptive-recreation programs like Colorado's Challenge Aspen and the Washington, D.C.–based Team River Runner, rehabilitation for WOUNDED U.S. SOLDIERS now often involves adventure sports and nature retreats.

[26–27] The new BOEING 787 DREAMLINER, built largely of lightweight composites, and the 555-seat AIRBUS A380, the world's largest commercial passenger plane, are considerably more fuel efficient than current airliners, while promising quieter, plusher rides.

[28–32] In July, FIVE NEW ZEALANDERS set out from the South Island in a fully functioning pub set atop a barge. Bound for London, they stopped along the way to serve cold beer and good times in Panama, Samoa, the Bahamas, and New York City.