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Telectroscope connects London & New York

We know quite a few of our readers reside in the Big Apple, whilst others reside in the UK. With that in mind we thought some of you would love this. The Telectroscope is a steam punk looking 'telescope' that joins New York and London. The term 'Telectroscope' was thrown around in the late 19th century and used mirrors and other gadgetry in its blueprints to 'connect' New York and London in real time.

Technology has come a long way and now the Telectroscope is real, though it isn't a huge underground tunnel as depicted in the *original blueprints. Now it's a modern piece of installation art, one situated at London's South side of the river near Tower Bridge and the New York end at Fulton Ferry Landing near Brooklyn Bridge. The installation is sadly only on from now until June 15, so be fast.

If you want to arrange to 'meet' a friend at a specific time you can contact this site with your request to be fast tracked at a specific time.

We suspect those 'original' blueprints and the back story may be an artists vivid imagination, but it's cool either way.

Future warnings from Sci-Fi

I love science-fiction, I love technology, I hate robots. Those three little statements sum me up. Whereas most people coo and woo at Asimo, that thing creeps me the hell out. Sure I'd pay money to go see it, but I'd sit in the back row, out of its way. My favorite 'ride' at Universal Studios is Terminator 2, I love it because it's robots, but I know they can't hurt me.

So what's this got to do with future warnings from sci-fi, well, it never ceases to amaze me how many handy tips we get from science fiction that we readily ignore and bin. One of them is AI robots taking over the world and destroying mankind (see Terminator, WestWorld, Battlestar Galactica and others). So why is a Japanese company called Cyberdyne making cybernetic robo suits called HAL?! Oh good grief, don't these people watch movies with killer robots and AI in them?! Anyways, I thought it was interesting and just wanted to share. Here's a movie of creepy little Asimo.

Large Hedron Collider - LHC

In June this year, the Large Hedron Collider (LHC) will be switched on. What is it? Well essentially it's a giant particle accelerator. Around about August scientists are going to smash particles into one another using the accelerator to try and find the elusive 'Higgs boson'-a theoretical particle.

Why is this important to geeks, well it depends which side of the fence you sit. One side (that of science) is hugely excited about the LHC and the discoveries it may uncover. The other side, that of the worriers think when the LHC starts smashing things, it could open rifts and cause tiny black holes and strangelets to appear, which will essentially mean bye bye us. Scientists assure us there is "powerful empirical evidence against the possibility of dangerous strangelet production." Scientists from the mid 1900's to as late as the 1970's assured us there was evidence homosexuality was a disease that could be cured with high voltage shocks to the head and body or even lobotomy... hmm.

Parthenogenesis – Two lesbians reproduce

The possibility of two women having a child may well be available to women in the future. Parthenogenesis is the process by which two females can reproduce without the need of sperm, thus the name Parthenos [virgin] Genesis [creation].

Some plants and animals already produce offspring in this manner and scientists have used the procedure that enabled two female mice to have children together. Despite many ethical concerns and other stumbling blocks, historically speaking we may one day see this sort of reproduction as normal.

Korea's first astronaut is female

You’re looking at Korea’s first astronaut Yi So-Yeon. We thought this was pretty cool, but Korea is not the first country to choose a woman as their first person “to boldy go”--the UK’s first astronaut was also a woman (Helen Sharman).

Yi was actually second choice for the flight, which will take off from Russia at the beginning of next month (all things going to schedule). Yi replaced another astronaut after he was found to have broken the rules of the Russian Federal Space Agency.

For those interested the first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian cosmonaut who went into space aboard Vostok 6, 16 June 1963. Isn’t it strange how most of us will know the male astronauts by name, put probably not these pioneering ladies.