We Live in a Science Fiction Future

the future is now and the world is an amazing place

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Rocketlab ready to launch it’s first 3D printed and battery powered rocket

The countdown is on to the launch of RocketLab’s first Rocket. Mark your calendars - May 21st is the 10-day launch window!

The RocketLab launchpad is based out of New Zealand and is the world's first private satellite launch pad. Rocket Lab produce 3D-printed rocket engines powered by batteries, with the ultimate goal of being able to offer commercial satellite launches for a fraction of the going rate.

The company is also New Zealand’s first ever Unicorn - reaching a $1.4B NZD valuation earlier this year and already have some clients lined up for their services, including Moon Express, a Google Lunar X Prize contender that wants to land a rover on the moon.

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25 Predictions about the Driverless Car Era

A great deep drive dive looking at what will happen once human based drivers are off the roads. Yes, it’ll be a messy transition period, but once we develop fully automated transportation systems, what then?........

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New data storage solution puts all of the data ever created into a piece of glass that fits in your pocket.

The Fuck Science? This is some Superman-in-the-fortress-of-solitude kind of shit. We now live in a superman fiction future......

Some magician freaks at Southampton University in the UK have figured out a process where they can store 360 TB of data in one square inch of glass quartz crystal, oh and it’s good for about 14 billion years. 

Which gives us plenty of time to create space ships for our super human babies for when our own sun dies - set to happen in about 5 billion years time.

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100 years later........

Einstein is a bloody show off. 

One hundred years ago he predicted the existence of gravitational waves and finally, today, Scientists have finally confirmed the existence of these elusive ripples in space-time.

It’s a key prediction in Einsteins Theory of General Relativity.

So what?

Listen! This is a MASSIVE deal, we should all be jumping up and down with our hands on our head with our jaws open. Scientists spent decades conceiving and constructing LIGO, which was the  (really, really expensive) facility to detect these ripples, that are basically formed when two black holes merge.

This opens up a whole new filed of gravitational-wave astronomy people! And will lead us into a new era of Science, icluding finding DARK MATTER!

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Edgar D. Mitchell, one of the few people to have set foot on the Moon passed away this week, aged 85.  This guy moonwalked before Michael Jackson made it cool, but he also was a deeply quotable man. He had a cosmic awakening that changed his life. In summary about his time away from Earth:

‘I got to look out the window a lot,” he recalled. “I had a powerful insight looking at the heavens. Suddenly, it became damn personal.”

He also dreamt of dragging politicians up there:

“Look at that, you son of a bitch”

Check the video for more context.  So long moonwalker!

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An infographic showing how the original Star Wars trilogy employs 7 fundamental design principles.

From a galaxy far far away a long time ago we can find 7 Fundamental Design Principles: All Used in Star Wars Movies

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18 years later - Texas Instruments show us that Moore's Law can sometimes go fuck itself.

I give you the awesomeness that is (still) the TI-83, complete with 24K of RAM power!! 

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Help Wanted: NASA Astronaut

Time to sharpen the resume folks, NASA is looking for explorers for their future Space Missions.

They are (thankfully) getting back to the old human-spaceflight-launch thingy and as such, have a coupla vacancies.

Think you got what it takes? Then apply here (but get in line behind me yo). The agency will accept applications from Dec. 14 through mid-February and expects to announce candidates selected in mid-2017:

http://www.usajobs.gov

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Because we live in a Science Fiction Future, we often need to ponder Life, the Universe, and Everything while in orbit/outer space.

All pondering is best done when paired with a good Whiskey and our fellow Kiwi, friend, dreamer, inventor and co founder of the Open Space Agency, James Parr, knows this.

He has created the Space Glass Whiskey Tumbler, for Ballentines and Astronauts can now safely ponder away, sipping whiskey while floating along in microgravity. 

Because this is a Science Fiction Future, it’s not actually made of glass but of a 3D-printed medical grade plastic.

Inside the glass, small channels move liquid from the stainless steel base (coated in rose gold, allowing the liquid to stick to the base), around to a mouthpiece, which is also made of gold (as it is non-reactive) and this is where the space traveller sips their wee dram from.

Watch the video above on how this piece of awesomeness was created and keep in mind that you too can now be drunk in Space

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Tesla took it to eleven

Consumer Reports is awesome, their publications and magazine are the trusted source of all things consumer oriented, including automobiles.

Then along came Tesla with their new all wheel drive Model S P85D. Out of a possible 100 points Consumer Reports can allocate, it scored 103.

Technically this is now the best car ever according to Consumer Reports (it bumped the older model S of the podium). The review crashed their website but more importantly completely broke their rating system (it also broke the Crash Test equipment last year used to evaluate the safety of cars)

Thats right. Tesla took it to Eleven - it’s so good it’s actually changed the way we rate cars and test their safety. 

Slow clap Mr Musk, slow clap.......

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Oliver Sacks Dies at 82; Neurologist and Author Explored the Brain’s Quirks

Dr. Sacks explored some of the brain’s strangest pathways in best-selling case histories like “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” achieving a level of renown rare among scientists.

A tip of the hat (not the wife) to you Mr #OliverSacks and adieu. You will be missed. http://goo.gl/LOFZ0q Thanks for the amazing #science

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We all need to revisit the Wisdom of Louis CK sometimes. It’s a great refresher. Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy

 https://goo.gl/L0chsX  

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Forget Mobile Phones - telepathy is coming

This is not hot off the press news, but still epic and noteworthy. 

In a first-of-its-kind study, an international team of researchers has successfully achieved brain-to-brain transmission of information between humans.

The team used a combination of internet-connected electroencephalogram and robot-assisted, image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (which, as the name suggests, of course, uses electromagnetic induction to stimulate the brain from the outside).  

TL;IDR - They were able to communicate words from one human to another using words and shit.

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Anyone else super excited about “The Martian”?

OK  - Matt Damon playing an astronaut trapped on a remote planet may be a little de ja vu. But this movie looks awesome.

In the video below we get an inside look at the crew from the movie as the psychologist wants their insights into what they were thinking during that isolation period. Damon lets him know exactly what he was thinking during that time with one of his important questions being how can Aquaman control whales as they are mammals. I know, right?

Matt Damon being soooooooo Matt Damon

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What is the Fastest Ship in the Universe?

Comparing the abilities of spacecraft in different fictional universes is one of my favourite drunk geek debates. 

Well the good people over at Fast Wallet have gone all in and decided to figure out the answer once and for all by creating an infographic to wow and amaze us all - sourced from a variety of different places. Can you guess who wins? (The answer is 42)

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This is some for real CSI Shit

This ain’t your standard Photoshop technology. MIT have coded some magic into this thing.

Those Ivy League tech nerds have created an algorithm that uses multiple images taken from different angles to separate foreground obstacles from the subject that's in the background. Don’t look to me for an explanation though. Check the link below to watch a video of how it’s all done. ENHANCE!

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HELLO! MCFLY?.........So we’re in 2015, which is THE year Marty McFly travelled to in Back to the Future...........and because we live in a Science Fiction Future, we now finally have godam Hoverboard’s. 

They are made by Lexus, so there is that. The hoverboard also needs a metallic surface to work, more of a yup, we got this, than something more awesome.

But hey - watch the video above. It really works!