San Jose, California
When the landlord hikes your rent it’s usually not welcome news. But a surge in rents this year represents a counterintuitive bit of good news for the economy and perhaps even for the beleaguered housing market.
Future High-Speed Trains Could Ride on Cushions of Air
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaN7Kxk1_e8&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
A Japanese research group looking into ways to build the next generation of high-speed trains has set their sights on ground-effect vehicles, or vehicles that move just fast enough to fly at very low altitudes and use the fast-moving air under them as a cushion to keep them airborne. In this case, when we say “ground-effect,” we don’t mean neon lighting on the underside of the chassis.
We already know a lot about high-speed rail, and in European and Asian countries, high-speed trains are the best and even preferred way to travel long distances. Still, the speed of today’s breed of high-speed trains is limited by the fact that they ride on rails that they’re physically connected to. Trains that use a rail or track only as a guide, and hover or fly over it could potentially travel much faster and farther on less fuel…
Continue reading… “Future High-Speed Trains Could Ride on Cushions of Air”
Moving Pictures: Pop-Up Cinemas are a New Trend for Summer
Time for the BIG screen.
After pop-up restaurants and stores, we now have The Nomad,the UK’s first “roaming pop-up cinema.”
It uses inflatable screens of up to 60 square metres, shows up at unusual places across England and encourages you to watch their films in costume.
Continue reading… “Moving Pictures: Pop-Up Cinemas are a New Trend for Summer”
Environmentally Friendly Ammunition
Green for your gun.
If you are going to kill people and blow things up, at least you can do it so the rest of the living can have a pollution free Earth. It seems the US military has been developing “green” ammunition for some time now.
In 2007, responding to reports from the field that current rounds weren’t deadly enough, the Army jump-started efforts to make a more lethal round that was also environmentally friendly…
Is Google Running Low on Ads?
Google’s filler ads when they are out of inventory
If you are a avid reader of blogs like I am, you have probably started seeing an increase in the number ad blocks inviting people to advertise on Google. These “filler ads” show up for a number of reasons such as bringing in more advertisers. But more often, it would appear, its because the giant ad company is out of inventory. Here is what we found out from some of our contacts within the company.
Prize Competition #1: The Race to the Core
Futurist Thomas Frey: Over the next year I will be proposing a series of eight major prize competitions, competitions designed to pit the countries of the world against each other in a series of extraordinary tests of skills and abilities.
Continue reading… “Prize Competition #1: The Race to the Core”
Spoonful of Sugar Can Help the Medicine Go Down – Sugar Improves Effectiveness of Antibiotics
Antibiotics made more effective with sugar.
A spoonful of sugar, it seems, can do more than help the medicine go down – it can also help make it work. Sugar can improve the effectiveness of antibiotics against infections, according to researchers.
Google Lobbies Nevada Legislators to Allow Self-driving Cars
Self-driving Toyota Prius, modified by Google.
Google is quietly lobbying legislators to make Nevada the first state to allow autonomous vehicles on public roads. The company’s self-driving cars might soon become more than a pet project. (Video)
Continue reading… “Google Lobbies Nevada Legislators to Allow Self-driving Cars”
Predictions for money, currencies and payments
In the future, paper money may be displaced with digital points of a vendor.
Karl Dakin: The subject of how we will be paid and make payments in the future was presented at the DaVinci Institute’s Night with a Futurist on Monday night. The presentations covered potentially major changes in the way we conduct business and interact as a society as technological advances in mobile computing enable new ways of exchanging things of value.
Continue reading… “Predictions for money, currencies and payments”
Foursquare Checkins Get Customers Gas Discounts
Here’s one way to bring location-based checkins to the masses — use them to shave off a few dollars at the gas pump…
Continue reading… “Foursquare Checkins Get Customers Gas Discounts”
Interview with Ukraine’s InvestGazeta
What will cause the power to shift among nations between now and 2050?
Futurist Thomas Frey: I often get interview requests from newspaper and magazines as they probe for a better understanding of the world ahead. However, the request I received two days ago was a bit unusual.
Babies to be Given Anti-obesity Drugs in the Womb
Doctors hope it will prevent the birth of oversized babies.
In a trial described as ‘disturbing’ by weight loss groups, babies will be given a diet drug in the womb to stop them being born overweight. One hundred obese moms-to-be will be given Metformin as part of a three-year study to tackle obesity rates and reduce the number of difficult births.