Sci/Tech

Star Trek Into Darkness: Eye candy for the amygdala. Yes, this is another Hollywood blockbuster depicting a dystopian future with big explosions and small innovations. However, the first ten minutes are worth the price of the ticket. I was pleasantly surprised to see J.J. Abrams using the Ancient Aliens theory and a huge wink to author Zecharia Sitchin's work in the opening scene located on the fictional (depending on who you ask) world of Nibiru.

This is my last posting for the next few days. I will be taking my office apart so that we can move to our new apartment downtown next Tuesday. I will be unplugged and disconnected except by tablet. Expect me to be back in the saddle before the end of next week probably in time to provide you with some more headlines. In the interim these are the stories I share with you this week:

Everyday brings new technological breakthroughs – and one of the most fascinating is the development of sensors that enable the tongue to actually see. This ability is rudimentary now, like seeing a series of pointillist patterns, perhaps a little like the earliest video games.

My wife and I have been downsizing and ridding ourselves of over 40 years of furniture collecting as we prepare to move to our new apartment in downtown Toronto. IKEA, the assemble-it-yourself furniture store, has figured largely in our lives in the last few months as we replace the old with some new things that are a better fit for our smaller space.

It’s the stuff of sci-fi movies – mind control, where you just direct your mind to make something happen and it does, such as using your thoughts to mentally control a space ship. But more and more your brain waves have the power to actually manipulate and move objects.

Recent developments suggest that wearable computing may finally be gaining traction. Intel evangelist Manny Vara believes that comfortable and convenient wearable computers may be just two to five years away.

originally posted to the Trends & Foresight blog

I don't know how I missed this gadget which won a design award back in 2010.

It lasted a mere five minutes, but the X-51A Waverider Scramjet last test flight on May 1st reached speeds of Mach 5.1 before crashing into the Pacific Ocean. Scramjets are seen by many aviation engineers as a less expensive alternative to rockets for launching payloads from Earth to the edge of space.

It isn't just newspapers and mass circulation magazines that are being impacted by the rise of e-publishing and the Internet. Science journalism is also taking a hit as traditional print media advertising revenues dry up. Those who write the journal articles may not see it hit their pocketbooks since they are primarily funded by their research.

A resort hotel to be built in China plans to use surface heat from the ocean to provide its energy requirements. Called Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion or OTEC, this is technology that uses the difference between warm tropical ocean surface water and colder deep water to generate electricity.