We're now located at UnwindMedia.com/FutureChat, so move your bookmarks, because this website is going to disappear completely very soon!

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Future Tech Chat #19: Activity Tracking


This week, we talked about different ways our technology uses sensors to track our activity. We talked about location services and how apps know where you are, running and cycling apps that help you keep track of distances and calories burned, as well as sleep monitoring apps to make sure you're getting a good night's sleep and waking up rested. I hope you enjoy the show!

Apps we talked about:

Withings Aura - http://www.withings.com/us/withings-aura.html
Strava - http://www.strava.com/
Azumio Sleep Time - www.azumio.com/apps/sleep
Sleep as Android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.urbandroid.sleep

Check out the next episode of Future Sci Chat, live on YouTube next Saturday at 12:30 PM Eastern.

Be sure to direct any questions you might have before, during, and after the show to Google+, Facebook or Twitter, or send them via email to futurechats@gmail.com

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Future Sci Chat #4: Beer

We are changing things up a little on Future Chat as of this week. You'll notice that as you read this, the webcast has already happened. If you want to follow the chats live, they normally happen on Saturdays at 12:30 PM. Subscribe to Future Chat on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ to keep up to date on when the live webcasts are happening. However, by the time you see this article now, it means that you can watch the video itself, and it also means you'll be able to go listen to the podcast version of the episode. These should in most cases appear within 24 hours of the airing of the show.

I'd love to hear from viewers if you like this system more or less than the old way, and to everybody else, I hope you enjoy our episode on beer, which can be found below!



In this episode, we talked about beer! Nick is brewing his own beer, so we chatted about his experience and results in brewing, how you can absolutely tell beers apart by taste, and how provincial regulations are taking money from beer out of Ontario.

Links:

Interesting Beer Links
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/beer

https://www.google.ca/search?q=facts+about+beer&oq=facts+about+beer&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.6609j0j7&bmbp=1&sourceid=chrome&espv=213&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8

Ontario "Propaganda" paid for by the big profitable breweries.
http://www.ontariobeerfacts.ca/

Craft beer facts
http://www.foodbeast.com/2013/11/14/22-craft-beer-facts-you-can-toast-to/

Sixty Symbols - Guinness

Subreddit on Homebrewing


Next week we will be chatting about activity monitors, including run/bike apps, heart monitors, and sleep monitoring apps. Check out the episode live on YouTube next Saturday at 12:30 PM Eastern.

Be sure to direct any questions you might have before, during, and after the show to Google+, Facebook or Twitter, or send them via email to futurechats@gmail.com.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Future Tech Chat #18: Sports Tech



This week on Future Tech Chat, we will be taking it to the pitch, as we discuss the world of sports and all the technology used in professional and amateur sports alike.

Starting with slow motion cameras, going all the way through the FoxTrax puck to the goal-line system used in the World Cup going on right at this moment. We will take a look into the possibility of future technological upgrades to your favourite sports, and I'm sure we'll also get into wishful thinking about tech advances in our favourite sports.





I hope you'll tune in live at 12:30 PM EDT on Saturday, July 12th for the episode, and you'll be able to watch it in full above live or after it's aired.

You can direct any questions you might have to the Q&A on the event page (https://plus.google.com/events/c8idnr8qeghbvialb9ll82gnlms), or on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. We look forward to seeing you here live!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Future Sci Chat #3: Vaccinations

Outbreaks in North America of measles (red), mumps (brown), and whooping cough (bright green). Source (retrieved 2014-07-02).
So, The handsome gentlemen co-host of Future Chat and future new-media baron Rob Attrell has asked me to write a brief summary on vaccinations in preparation for Future Sci Chat #3.  I told him I'd do what I can, and you may see the results below.  For those of you wishing to read the post I wrote in 2011 on the very same topic, have a link.

So what's a vaccination?

They're a good thing.  A vaccination is often an injected dose of a live, or sometimes dead virus.  The virus has either been sterilised (no reproduction means no infection) or treated in such a way that it will not be able to harm the patient.  The body then produces the antibodies required to fight off the virus, which are then able to fight off or otherwise discourage a future infection of the same virus.  It is not uncommon for the patient to experience symptoms similar to viral infection such as elevated temperature, fatigue, and/or soreness because the body earnestly believes it is fighting off an infection.

Sounds unpleasant, why bother?

Short answer?  Because people die.  Significant investment was made by North Americans in the mid-twentieth century to cure things like polio, smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, and whooping cough because those diseases cost lives.  Further, when governments are on the hook for health care costs (as is the case for the Canadian provinces), vaccinating the citizenry is a lot easier than dealing with hoards of sick and potentially dying people.  This is compounded by the fact that diseases can spread through hospitals, which is why health care professionals are the first to be vaccinated.

So what's the catch?

You have to deal with a needle and the associated symptoms for a day or two.  There are some instances in which people have had adverse reactions to vaccinations, but this is usually due to an allergy to one of the ingredients (or often a preservative agent), or due to a pre-existing complication.  Healthy people are not normally in jeopardy.

Doesn't the MMR (Measles-Mumps-Rubella) vaccine cause autism?

No.

But Jenny McCarthy said - 

Jenny McCarthy isn't a doctor, nor is she in any way trained to formally review or interpret the relevant literature.  The medical journal The Lancet published a since-[thoroughly]-discredited paper suggesting a causal link between the MMR vaccine and onset of childhood autism.  Recent research has indicated that autism develops while the baby is still in the womb, and therefore cannot be caused by vaccinations.

What if I don't vaccinate my child(ren), aren't they safe because all the other kids get vaccinated?

Ah, I see you've heard of "herd immunity."  See that map at the top of the page?  That's what those parents thought, too.



You will be able to watch Future Sci Chat episode #3, on Vaccines, live at 12:30 PM EDT on Saturday, July 5th, either here below, or by clicking on the link that is this sentence.


Be sure to direct any questions you might have before, during, and after the show to Google+, Facebook or Twitter, or send them via email to futurechats@gmail.com.