 Here is a book that I saw over on Google Books which was published in 1881. It is a futurist prediction of the time between 1881 and 1931. The author makes quite a few good preditions but also is a bit over optimistic is some of his other predictions. For example, some of his predictions which did not come to pass were that by 1931 racism would cease to exist, France and Germany would have peacefully resolved their differences over the Rhineland, and the failure of man to be able to fly. Some of the things which he predicted which did happen were the Panama Canal (he names three places where a canal would probably be built), the death of the telegraph and rise of the telephone, prohibition, the fall of Russia to communism around 1900 (though he predicted it would be peaceful), fax machines, and a bunch of other predictions. It's quite a few pages and I think I got to around 40 pages or so.
Head over and check out the book with predictions from 1881 for yourself.
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Here's an article about a flexible video display that Sony is working on. Apparently it is a combination of TFT and electroluminescent display technology. Electroluminescent is a cold light backing which takes very little electricity like you would use on a security vest. Sony is showing off a 2.5 inch flexible prototype display using the technology. Call me when I can actually buy it 5 years from now. I'm putting this one up there with e-ink and the laser laptop keyboard.
Here is an interesting article about an inventor from England who has created a hoverdrone. It is basically a cross between a hovercraft and a helicopter which looks like a flying saucer. It's shaped like a bell with the rotating blade above the bellshape. The air is forced down around the sides of the bell which I assume causes lift. This thing looks like the hover drones from the Dark Angel TV series. The real question is can they scale this thing up so it can carry a human?
Here's an article about a time capsule vault crypt built around 1940 in a basement room in Oglethorpe University in Georgia. Apparently it is suppost to be a Crypt of Civilization to be opened around 8113 AD. The head of the university at the time didn't want future generations to have to guess about the current civilization or some such. They put togather a bunch of microfilm (which had just been created) of important books and other information plus whatever other cultural items they could stuff into the size of the vault.
