As we near the date when Marty McFly visited the distant future, many of us have complained about the glaring lack of flying cars. Well, they may not be all that far away after all!

Behold the face of a doll that can write. Built by Jaquet Droz in the mid-1700s, this automaton is programmable with any combination of letters and writes them with a feather and ink.

There's a video here of how it works. I found it quite creepy, yet fascinating at the same time!

Now I'm probably a bit behind the times here, as I haven't concerned myself with the methods of universities since I finished my last courses almost 13 years ago. All I know is that back then, we did most everything by hand. Computers were available in the labs, with a rather harried punk chick who assisted us hapless newbies into their mysteries. I often wondered what became of her.

Anyway, I was interested to read that exams, that final bastion of handwriting, are starting to be trialled online at a local university. A webcam monitors the student's attention to ensure there is no cheating. I agree with the thought that I would find it hard to write by hand for three straight hours these days.

"We've digitised our curriculum heavily at Massey but the one aspect still a bit of a contradiction is we then ask people to sit down and write for ... hours on paper. There's a physical issue about people's ability to do that and we think we have to invest in this technology to work out how we're going to address that problem in the future." ~ Professor Mark Brown

Check out the whole article here.

This is a hearing test whose results vary by age. I stumbled on it after needing to look up the term "Teenager Repellent" - apparently, some establishments emit unpleasant sounds that adults cannot hear, thus discouraging youngsters loitering. The video has beeps at various pitches that purport to tell your age...

Ever wanted to reach into a photo and adjust the position of an object? No? Well, some of us have. :P

3-Sweep is a new program allowing just that. With three simple mouse strokes, the user's human perception is used to snap the three dimensions to lines in the image. Of course it has to be a sharp image with good contrast. The video at this link is fascinating!

The Turanor PlanetSolar is an intriguing vessel, designed by a New Zealander, built in Germany, and now being put through its paces on the Thames River in London.

It is completely solar powered with no emissions, and its name Turanor means "power of the sun" in Elvish. Tolkien's, I suppose? Nice notion, in any case. Perhaps the future of more than just boating.

More in the full article here.
And more pictures of the inside (and out) here.

Have you ever felt the need for a theme tune that defines you completely? Look no farther. All you need is an iPhone and a certain little app that will convert your DNA attributes into a melody. The NZ Herald reports:

Created by MEA Mobile, the iDNAtity Audio app lets users create a DNA profile by uploading a photo of their face and then filling in details about hair, skin and eye colour.
Users are then asked a series of questions, such as whether they can roll their tongue, whether they have cheek dimples and whether they have fixed ear lobes.
The app crunches all the data, spits out a DNA code and converts it into song.

Check out the whole article here.

So of course it doesn't actually test your DNA, but ascertains the aspects from these questions. I'm not convinced this really works in the manner stated - however, it's definitely interesting to think about.