BDC Now: Airplanes Won’t Have Windows in 10 Years
Traveling through the sky in a windowless metal tube sounds like a horror movie, but it’s the future of air travel. Don’t worry, the bigger seats and smart screens should make things much better. Learn about the proposed new planes on today’s BDC Now, and read more about OK Go’s reign over the world of music videos, failed dodgeball strategies, the death of the desktop computer, and amateur science gone very, very right.
Move Over Wright Brothers, Air Travel Is Being Reinvented
If you’re claustrophobic, a windowless plane may sound like a nightmare. But if the Centre for Process Innovation is to be believed, it’s actually going to be really, really awesome. Its main motivation seems to be that a windowless plane will also be a lighter, more environmentally friendly plane because it will use less fuel. That’s all well and good, but the real selling points are the wider seats for passengers and “full-length smart screens’’ lining the walls of the cabin. Those smart screens not only show you the view outside your plane, but can also be used to watch movies, track your flight’s progress, and ask your stewardess for a drink. It’s a little hard to believe, but CPI estimates that this type of flight is only 10 years away and all that saved fuel may actually make tickets cheaper than today.
This Is Better Than a Rube Goldberg
OK Go is the King of the Music Video. It may not be an undisputed title, but the people who would dispute it are pretty much always wrong. Just look at this video for “I Won’t Let You Down.’’ Seriously, watch the whole thing – all five minutes and 20 seconds. What starts out as a seemingly difficult, cleanly choreographed dance routine performed on unicycle-Segway scooter hybrids becomes increasingly elaborate with each scene change, ending with a visually stunning umbrella-laden flourish. It’s so good that we aren’t even sure if it’s real life or computer generated, though we’re inclined to believe it’s real. After all, this is the band’s first new video in four months and choreography this good would probably take that long to plan and execute. The song isn’t half-bad either.
Mobile Devices Are Going Viral
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced on Monday that half of YouTube’s views are coming from mobile devices. We’re not here to declare that YouTube is a barometer for technology as a whole, but this can’t be good news for the desktop computer. Wojcicki claims that the spike is due to the increasing popularity of YouTube’s app, but the announcement also speaks to the increasing quality of phones and tablets, as well as the advantage their smaller size provides. With more technology consumers looking to watch (and read and tweet and do all the other stuff Internet folks do) while they’re on the go, it was only a matter of time until the computer on your desk was surpassed by the miniature one in your pocket. It may not be moving forward at full steam just yet, but the end of the computer has probably begun.
It’s Dodgeball. Don’t Get Fancy.
There are two rules in dodgeball: Hit other people with balls, and don’t let other people hit you with balls. It’s a pretty simple game that most grade schoolers can understand, so we’re not really sure what happened here. An athlete playing dodgeball at the University of Kentucky perhaps confused the game he’s playing for a gymnastics tournament because, in the middle of the game, he decided to whip out an impromptu back flip. It did not go well. Listen, we know that college-aged men are stronger and capable of more elaborate techniques for dodging their opponents’ throws. But just because you’re capable of something, does not mean you should do that thing.
Yeah, Science!
We know full well that there is literally no research value to packing a microwave full of eggs and running it until something interesting happens. But that doesn’t mean we have a problem with someone else doing it, calling it an experiment, and recording it on video so we can see what happens. That’s why we were so happy to stumble upon video of a dreadlocked scientist doing exactly that. He may not really be contributing anything substantial to the world, but for 51 seconds, he indulged our bizarre curiosity and proved, once and for all, that science in its purest form is about just having an idea and wearing a lab coat.
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