Time magazine has called it the invention of the year. This outrageously expensive piece of furniture vibrates all to pieces of your body that need vibrating. The H.9 Shaiatsu massage chair will only set you back a cool $3,500. More Here
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The Norwegian Leonardo Project
In 1502 Leonardo da Vinci did a simple drawing of a graceful bridge with a huge span of 240 meters. It was a design commissioned by Sultan Bajazet II to span the Golden Horn, an inlet at the mouth of the Bosporus River in what is the modern nation of Turkey. It was never built. When Vebjørn Sand saw the design in an exhibition on da Vinci’s engineering genius in 1996, he was overwhelmed by the beauty of the design. His great gift to the people of Norway was his ability to communicate this vision to the public sector.
More about The Bridge here
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Air Keyboards
For those who think there’s a future in playing air guitar, two companies have prototyped invisible keyboard technologies. Samsung’s Scurry and the Senseboard are both a couple virtual keyboards that use sensors on the back of your hands to track the movements of your fingers. However, they’ll never be real useful for those of us that have to look at the keys.
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Satellite Radio
Most analysts agree that satellite radio will be a big winner over the long run. Some estimates say the music-from-the-sky format will have 25 million subscribers by the end of the decade. But XM and Sirius have a long way to go to see numbers like that. Sirius has yet to launch. XM boasts 30,000 subscribers, but will need 4 million before it breaks even.
More Here
Microsoft’s New eHome Strategy
The idea of making your home an extension of Bill Gate’s computer network is alive and well. Thinking that Windows XP and the XBox were just stepping stones to total world domination, Microsoft unveiled new initiatives designed to further the company’s vision of turning homes into digital media networks linked to its software, video game machine and Internet services. More Here
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SoloTrek – Tethered-Hover Flight Testing
In a recent beakthrough, SoloTrek has achieved about 27 hours of tethered-hover flight testing. By design, the maximum altitude has been limited to about 12 inches, and the longest ‘flight’ had an endurance of about 15 seconds. They are being very careful to walk before they run. More Here
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Underwater At Its Best
This is a far cry from the old deep sea diving bells. Deep Flight I is an experimental, one-person sub that was built to prove the concept of underwater flight and has broken through to an entirely new class of submersible craft which operate on the principles of dynamic wing forces and flight control rather than the static system of ballast adjustment and vectored thrust of conventional submersibles. More Here
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Powerline Dataline
Since we already have powerlines running all over the country, why not just send data down them as well? Media Fusion claim to have a technology that does just this. The technology let you send data at GB/s, hundred of km’s over ordinary powerlines. It uses the magnetic fields generated by the power lines as a waveguide for a microwave signal. More Here
Money Tags
In a recent article in EE Times they talks about adding Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags to the Euro
paper money by 2005. The US government may be considering the
same thing. The article concludes by
saying that there are a number of challenges to overcome with putting RFID
tags into paper currency (cost and durability), but it is highly likely that
they will be added to passports. If this prospect doesn’t frighten you, it should!!!!!
New approach to levitating trains
Lawrence Livermore scientists have recently developed a new approach to magnetically levitating high-speed trains that is fundamentally much simpler in design and operation (requiring no superconducting coils or stability control circuits), potentially much less expensive, and more widely adaptable than other maglev systems. The new technology, called Inductrack, employs special arrays of permanent magnets that induce strong repulsive currents in a "track" made up of coils, pushing up on the cars and levitating them.
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“Mapping the Future” with Gus Jaccaci.
In two weeks time, the local World Future Society is hosting a
five-hour seminar on “Mapping the Future” with Gus Jaccaci.
I first discovered Jaccaci’s METAMATRIX(R), or futures mapping
methodology three years ago at the World Future Society
national conference. Since then, his insights on how to take
for-profit or non-profit enterprises to a higher level of
innovation and service has revolutionized my consulting work.
I encourage you to spend Saturday, January 12th with Gus at the
Penrose House for the “Mapping the Future” seminar. Gus is a
dynamic workshop leader. The cost is just $19, including lunch.
The brochure text is below, or you can view our color brochure
at: http://www.wnrf.org/metamatrix.pdf
Registrations must be postmarked by January 7th. Please
register today for this extraordinary workshop, and get ready
to map the future of your domain of service.
–Jay Gary
coordinator, World Future Society, Colorado Springs, 719-636-
2000
P.S. Want more input before you register? Read Gus’ essay on
how nature can be a thinking tool relative to the future:
http://www.wnrf.org/metamatrix.htm
Hot Shirt Smoothes Wrinkles
Its maker, Italian fashion house Corpo Nove, calls it “memory metal.” We call it high-tech fashion. The Oricalco shirt, unveiled this year, is made from a lightweight half-titanium alloy that recovers any preprogrammed shape with a simple application of heat. Crumple it up, stuff it in your carry-on, fall asleep wearing it — a simple blast from a hair dryer ren-ders it wrinkle free. Of course, you’ll pay for such couture: $4,000 (that’d buy a lot of irons). The company is now working on a shirt that automatically rolls up its sleeves in hot weather. More Here
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