Chief Prognosticator

Did you notice or did it sneak under your radar? I’m talking about the new way Music is being sold in stores. Sure it’s old fashioned CDs but now they are being sold with the digital copy (MP3) included in the purchase price. Of course you can easily convert a CD to MP3 once you get it home, but these new packages include the digital download with the CD Price. Another trend is to sell a “cheap” ($9.99) CD only price (that’s significantly less expensive than CDs were a decade ago) and an “enhanced” release ($14.99 or more) with included music videos, exclusive content, or concert footage. Will these new techniques be enough to keep the music CD alive? Nah, but it has at least slowed down the decline.

Do you know who Virginia Dare was? She was the first English baby born in the New World. She signified a new generation of immigrants who would eventually colonize an entire continent. So my question is, who will be the Virginia Dare of the 21st century. I’m talking about the moon or Mars! Eventually (maybe not in the 21st century, but then for sure in the 22nd century) a baby will be born outside of Earth. That will be itself a new era in human civilization. Who will it be and where will he/she come from?

Seriously — what’s going to happen if and when coastal waters continue to rise and start to reclaim inhabited land? I mean, what happened to New Orleans could only be the start. What if Manhattan, Miami, Galveston, and other major coastal cities start to be encroached by rising cost lines. Sure the rise would be gradual but there would come a point where the effect would be noticed. What could be done then?

Want to unlock the secret to driving innovation? It’s easy — make a contest. No seriously, when you leave innovation up to businesses (especially publicly traded ones), you end up with slow innovation. Profits are more important than taking risks, so what you’re left with is just enough innovation to stay competitive.

No the real way to drive innovation is to make it into a competition. Think about probably the greatest contest of all time — the race to the moon. Who was competing? The U.s and the Soviet Union! Two superpower governments with billions and trillions of dollars behind them. Now that was a contest which pushed the limits of innovation. Now, on a smaller scale, there are contests like the Lunar X-Prize and the 100-MPG Car contest which push small, private teams to do really big things. Sure there can be corporate sponsors to these activities, but the real name of the game is competition. This is how we will take the next giant leaps for humanity.

Here’s another bold prediction out of the Chief Prognosticator lair — the next Mini-Mac won’t be mini anymore, it will be nano!

With the release of the MacBook Air, the ultra-thin laptop, it only makes sense that the next Mac mini will be a lot smaller. Sure it’s small now, hence the “Mini” tag, but Apple is known for going from Mini to Nano in a blink of an eye. Watch for this prediction to come true!

[Photo from APPLE.COM]

Here’s a great idea I came up with — how about if Apple Inc. partnered with XM or Sirius Satellite radio? How would it work? Well all the songs you purchased in iTunes would be made available to play on your satellite radio receiver. The music could be streamed live or downloaded (temporarily) on demand to your car and enjoyed. Another feature would be to hear a song on XM, press a button, and buy it with iTunes seamlessly! How about that?

Did you know that the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a nearly 4-month high yesterday? How is this possible with all the financial markets turmoil? Is the worst over? Or is this a bounce? Closing at its highest point since Jan. 3, 2008, the Dow has recovered almost all its losses this year. So what’s this all about? I have no idea! Oil is over $115 a barrel and many states now appear to be firmly in recession. How can the market still be so strong? Any ideas?

(I wrote this post as I sat in the middle seat of Delta Flight 252 from Mexico City to Atlanta and first published it a month ago. It’s reposted because it’s a really great idea!).I am currently sitting in the most dreaded part of the airplane — the middle seat. Luckily the two people next two me, on my right and on my left, are not overweight. With obesity as an epidemic in America, this is becoming an exception instead of the rule. The middle seat stinks — you don’t have the view of the window seat and you don’t have the space and openness of the aisle seat. On top of that you have a human being 6 inches away from either side of you. You must ask permission to use the toilet and ask permission to adjust the window shade. So what to do to alleviate this problem?
Here’s the best idea I’ve come up with week — Make The Middle Seat A Few Inches Wider!
It has to be possible somehow. And I wouldn’t keep it a secret either. It could be a selling point. I can see the commercials now. “We have no bad seats!”. Publicize it — imagine people might actually be asking for the middle seat. Obese people might be major users of the Middle Seat 2.0. More space for all. Help me spread the word by writing about this or commenting on it. I don’t have contacts with the airlines, but maybe you know someone who does. As always, my ideas on the Chief Prognosticator are free to use — just consider some compensation if the idea is used! The dreaded middle seat could become the best seat on the plane.

Check out this article from the Times Online website:

Surgeons give hope to blind with successful ‘bionic eye’ operations

Now that’s amazing! And it also means that the future is here (or at least just around the corner) when it comes to the subject of bionics and medical implants. I see a future where organs like the eye, liver, heart, and kidneys can be either grown in the lab to match your body perfectly or augmented with technology in a bionic way. Research continues in the field of cloning and growing (re-growing) specific body parts and organs in the lab. There is even the subject of Neurogenesis which is, get this, the regrowth of human brain neurons! That’s right — regrowing the human brain! Now that’s the next brave step in the direct of human immortality.

So what’s the reason behind the resurgence in gaming? I think it has a lot to do with the amazingness of the current generation of video game consoles. Video game sales jumped 51% year over year. Even more amazing has been the resurgence of the the XBox 360 which now is the 2nd highest seller, leaping ahead of the PS3 and fighting against the Nintendo Wii. How many consoles do you own and what’s the biggest attraction for you?