Back To The Future’s Future Almost The Present

Exactly five years from today we will all be using hovercrafts. And that’s a documented fact.

That’s because October 21, 2015 is the date upon which Marty McFly arrives in Hill Valley in Back to the Future 2.

(This is the real date mentioned in the movie. Back in July a rumor went around the internet that it was actually July 5, 2010. Although in the 1985 present of the first movie Doc Brown mentions going “25 years into the future”, this never happens. A supposed screenshot of the DeLorean’s time settings showing the 2010 date was soon confirmed as a Photoshopped hoax.)

With that in mind, it’s time to check through some of the technological innovations the film promises, courtesy of Futurepedia, a site dedicated to the trilogy, and see how likely they are to be a reality.

A telescopic baseball bat that could extend to twice its length. I’ve never seen one, but I can’t see any reason why it couldn’t be made.

A jacket that automatically adjusts to fit the wearer and then dries itself. No sign yet, but we have previously reported on efforts to develop clothing that monitors the wearer’s heartrate and alerts medical staff in case of problems.

Barcodes in place of number on license plates. Nope, we’ve gone beyond that: the Californian government has looked into issuing plates that can display digital advertising.

Holographic movies including Jaws 19. James Cameron must surely be on to it.

Mr Fusion, a home device that uses nuclear fusion to produce 1.21 gigawatts from a banana peel and a discarded beer can. Erm, no.

A video screen that can show up to nine channels at once from a selection of more than 300. Three hundred? Is that all?

Portable thumb units to allow people to make cashless payments. We’re not quite there, but credit card payments via an RFID chip in a mobile phone are currently being tested in New York and Los Angeles.

The Scenery Channel. Well, apparently this is “coming soon.”

Slamball. Check.

Videophones. That would be a yes. And in your pocket, too.

As for the cultural events of 2015, the Chicago Cubs winning the world series was clearly intended to be a joke, Princess Diana becoming British queen is looking unlikely, and we don’t yet have a female president of the United States. For that to come true, a woman would have to run and win in 2012, and when it comes to the most likely candidate for that to happen, I should probably shut up now and attempt to maintain some degree of journalist objectivity.

As for the hoverboard, keep it under your hat, but we’re already there:

The only problem, is that no matter how much 2015 technology becomes a reality, we won’t be able to use it in Hill Valley’s Courthouse Square.



Clever Physics-Themed Bumper Sticker [Pic]

For those who don’t get it, please read thisL

A blueshift is any decrease in wavelength (increase in frequency); the opposite effect is referred to as redshift. In visible light, this shifts the color from the red end of the spectrum to the blue end. The term also applies when photons outside the visible spectrum (e.g. x-rays and radio waves) are shifted toward shorter wavelengths, as well as to shifts in the de Broglie wavelength of particles. Blueshift is most commonly caused by relative motion toward the observer, described by the Doppler effect. An observer in a gravity well will also see infalling radiation gravitationally blueshifted, described by General Relativity in the same way as gravitational redshift. In a contracting universe, cosmological blueshift would be observed; the expanding universe gives a cosmological redshift, and the expansion is observed to be accelerating. [Source]

Shoot Nickelback with Mega Man Beams!

A little something to wake you up this morning:

Shoot Nickelback with laserbeams! Shoot Nickelback with Mega Man beams!



WTF: Introducing the Condom Bagpipe

Two condoms are used (one inside the other) to create the bag for this bagpipe. The chanter and drone are aluminium tubes with a membrane reed at the top of each.

[Via Buzzfeed]

Space gets a true universal dock


Computing has the USB cable. Analog audio visual equipment (in Europe at least) has the SCART lead. High definition has the HDMI cable. And now the International Space Station has its own standard plug/socket combo.

Five international space agencies have agreed a standard for the docking system used when spacecrafts dock in space stations. While there may still be international competition when it comes to space missions, those involved say the move was necessary to allow “emerging international cooperative space missions.”

The agencies also noted that the standard will mean it’s now possible to embark on international crew rescue missions if needed. You can see their point: if you’re stuck on a space station, you don’t exactly want to be turning a “foreign” rescue craft away because it won’t dock without one hell of a roll of duct tape to hold it in place.

The standard is the work of the International Space Station Multilateral Coordination Board, which is made up of representatives from space agencies in Russia, Japan, Canada, Europe as a whole, and NASA.

As part of the agreement, agencies will continue to be allowed to design spacecraft however they see fit, as long as the docking system is compatible with the standard.

Docking system compatibility is slightly more complicated in space than on Earth. For example, when you push a USB plug into a computer socket, it slots in relatively easily because the computer is too heavy to be pushed out of position. In a zero-gravity situation, objects can easily move continuously in any of the three dimensions; there’s also no friction to hold them in place.

The international standard also confirms the “androgynous” design as official. That’s a reference to the usual design of socketry as either male or female (think of plugs and sockets in terms of human gender differences if you don’t get the reference.) The standard — which stems from a compromise introduced in the early 1970s between Russian and American designs — means that both docks contain raised “petals” that slot together a little like the grooves of a screw-cap lid and the neck of a plastic bottle.

EPIC: Darth Vader Tie Fighter Costume [Pic]

Who said being in a wheelchair meant that you couldn’t have an awesomely epic costume for Halloween?

[Via Neatorama]

The Evolution Of The Geek

When one hears the word geek, images are conjured of pocket protectors and nightstands made out of old comic books. That old notion of geek-dom has since evolved into a new, tech-savy, and dare we say, cool geek.

Continue reading