All posts by Jeremy Eades

I'm an English teacher in Japan. I have an interest in the brain and language acquisition, not to mention writing and the pipedream that I'll become the next Asimov. Or something like that. Nice to meet you!
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Scientist brings laser engines into realm of possibility

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Destiny Gundam light propulsionImagine a spacecraft that could travel faster than 100km/sec. Something like that might get us to Mars in about a week. Well, as happens so often, technology seen in Japanese anime is stepping out of the pages into real life. Dr. Young Bae of the Bae Institute demonstrated his engine back in 2006, and this week he presented his concepts at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Space 2007 Conference.

All this may seem rather far-fetched and crazy, but Dr. Bae is publishing his discovery in the AIAA’s peer-reviewed journal (scheduled out later this year), so it must have some basis of truth behind it. I’d caution skepticism all around, and I’ll believe it when I see it. Too often, somebody forgets to carry the one or they realize that the technology causes babies to be born with an extra appendage. On the other hand, this could be really cool, and I’m sure it will have applications elsewhere, too. Oh yeah, did I mention this contraption was built with off-the-shelf parts?

(via DailyTech)
{image from sunrise anime

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Bubble wrap to your heart’s content (or until the batteries run out)

Translation - now let's pop bubble wrap! Here’s something to start off your weekend. Probably the most universally pleasing thing in the world is (no, not THAT – Puritans hated that) bubble wrap. But you can’t always carry around a big wad of bubble wrap to de-stress. So the Japanese, who make everything better, came up with the Mugen Puchi Puchi bubble wrap gizmo.

You can get 10 hours of battery life from it, and the highlights are a mute button for public places (I’ll strangle you if you use it next to me on the train) and a special bonus sound every one hundred pops. For US$7, I might have to spring for one of these if I run into it in Tokyo this weekend.

[story via Mainichi Daily News] [image via the official website]

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Podcasting for the next 10,000 years

podcast logoSo you really want to know how come I’m so informed about the challenges facing us in the future? How I can tell you what the ‘long tail’ is and why it works, when Bruce Sterling thinks the singularity will hit, or how I smell so darn good? Well folks, I’ll let you in on my little secret.

The Long Now Foundation is a group of people dedicated to fostering responsibility in humanity over the next 10,000 years. They go for the slow and better, rather than the faster and cheaper that we’re used to. There’s a section I came across called Seminars for Long-Term Thinking, that has roughly one speaker a month come and give a talk. Everything from long-tail sales of books via the internet to philanthropic investment over the next fifty years is covered. Between this and a few science/news podcasts, my daily commute has been covered for over a year. The seminars are available via iTunes or whatever your favorite podcasting program may be. Some of my favorites are Jared Diamond, Bruce Sterling (though I honestly didn’t get much of it – but it was fun!), and Robert Neuwirth. Subscribe to the podcasts, but also check out the website for slideshows and occasionally video presentations. Or, if you’re in the Bay area, attend the seminars.

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Slideshow shows a world without us

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A World Without USOne of my favorite settings for science fiction is after the fall of Man. You know the one, where cities are deserted, weeds growing up through the streets, etc. Occasionally there are humans eking out a living, but they are no longer dominant. Yeah, that kind. Well, a book that came out recently, The World Without Us, imagines what would happen environmentally if humans just vanished from the face of the earth. I prefer humans to still be around in my stories, but this concept is fascinating.

If you scroll down on the website’s main page, you’ll find an artist’s rendition of New York between 2 days and 15,000 years after the disappearance of humanity. According to the book’s author, the subways would flood after only three days, after twenty years streets would collapse and rivers would form in the space left over.

Meanwhile, I’m waiting for the post-nuclear holocaust genre to pick back up.

[image from mondolithic.com]

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Robot toy can now recognize human faces, new torment for cats on the way

Zeno's paradox A new toy that’s been developed will be able to greet you and your family’s pet by name, as well as display emotions. The 17-inch doll comes in at 1/5 the price of the now defunct AIBO at $300, primarily due to the outsourcing of processing power to your computer, which it will connect to using Wi-fi. Zeno will be able to learn faces and names, as well as being fully mobile (walking, at least, no jump jets – yet). Its first debut was at Wired Magazine’s NextFest conference Sept. 13th-16th in LA. The developer’s website has an email list for those of you dying to keep track of its next appearance. [image courtesy Wikipedia Commons]

Zeno covers pretty much everything you need — vision, hearing, speech — to move about the world and the crafty outsourcing of computing power potentially allows for updates. Combine it with this guy and I’m definitely in!
(via PC World)