Dear Kid,
George Jetson (the protagonist in a TV cartoon waaay before your time) lived in 2062 in a time of robots and flying cars and futuristic clothing. (And anyone reading this who ever watched the show now has the theme song running through their head. Meet George Jetson!) Since the cartoon debuted in 1962, a hundred years in the future was pretty far away and all sorts of things were deemed possible that we now know really exist only in Star Wars.
But WAIT! Turns out a company called Terrafugia has created a flying car which is part sedan, part private jet and will begin selling them in 2015. Be still my techno-driven heart. One version of this is small enough to fit into a garage and since it takes off vertically, no runway is necessary. I’m afraid the price tag (and the insurance tag) are a little out of my reach. And by “a little” I mean baahahahahahhhaaaaaa. Which is too bad because this baby is super cool. Check out the video.
In other techno-news it seems that scientists thought that maybe perhaps possibly perchance they had discovered a planet that was mostly made up of diamonds. The planet is called “Girl’s Best Friend.” Just kidding, although that is probably a better name than “55 Cancri e” because all the other planets will pounce and pronounce “cancri” as “can cry” and even a diamond-studded planet doesn’t like to be made fun of. Even if it is considered a “super-Earth” due to its size and has the good sense to be orbiting a sun-like star.
A bunch of party-pooping scientists have now decided that maybe it’s not made out of diamonds at all, or maybe not as many, or well we’re not sure. I have decided that scientists can decide pretty much anything when no one can actually go to 55 Cancri e to see if there is a Tiffany’s on every corner.
In more upbeat techno-news, Angry Birds Go! is launching December 11 just in time to be sure college students have a really good reason for not studying for exams. The app is free, I mean, will cost a gazillion dollars so you might as well stick with studying.
If you’ve done as little business traveling recently as I have, you may have missed the Big Airline Upgrade News. Some airlines on some planes now have power outlets and/or USB ports Right At Your Seat. Well, probably not your seat because most of the outlets are on carriers we don’t generally fly (like Canada Air) and on routes we don’t usually take (the really long flights) in seating areas we don’t usually pay for (like first class). But it’s cool to know they are adding in-flight charging for computers in addition to in-flight charging for meals.
Finally, in Other Things That Technology Lets Us Do Today That We Couldn’t Before, I was going to ask if you’d participated in the Get Swabbed event for registering bone marrow donors. Guess I don’t need to ask, do I? For grandparents or anyone else who wants to kvell https://www.facebook.com/OhioUniversity (who says moms don’t know all?—at least moms have friends who point out their kid’s photo in a Highly Public Place—thank you, Julie!).
Proud of you, kid.
I like it