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The Concorde failed for a lot of reasons, not least of which the fact that it was very, very expensive. So far, hundreds of people  have shelled out $250,000 to take a quick suborbital spaceflight with Virgin Galactic, but are they going to be willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to save 12 hours flying halfway around the world?

The current version of Google's Field Trip sends you notifications about surrounding points of interest, but the upgrade, released in April, lets you specifically ask what's nearby.

Word Lens completes the travel package. The app has been on Glass since last November, but its augmented-reality translation abilities are arguably perfectly suited for smart glasses. With Glass, all you need to do is look at a sign or menu, aim Glass' camera so the text you need translated is in an onscreen rectangle, and the words will change — from, say, Italian to English — before your eyes

Aerion is developing a $110 million, 12-passenger business jet capable of hitting Mach 1.6 -- or close to 2,000 kilometers per hour

Expected delivery of this new supersonic plane: 2022.

Fewer cars may also mean shorter travel times, less congestion, and a smaller environmental impact.

Real-time data planning and smart routing are already a reality, and more advances are coming in the wake of "intelligent city" initiatives around the world,

Imagine a world without traffic lights, where vehicular flows "magically" pass through one another and avoid collision

Traffic accidents, though rarer, would still be a possibility; in fact, they might be one of the main impediments to implementation of autonomous systems, demanding a restructuring of insurance and liability that could sustain armies of lawyers for years to com

We are all familiar with viruses crashing our computers, but what if a virus crashes our cars? Resolving these issues is crucial, but none is insurmountable.

The super-plane will rely on cooling an incoming airstream from 1,000 degrees C to minus 150 C almost instantly, at close to 1/100th of a second.

On the other hand, Yakutin may be a plausible successor to Russian president Vladimir Putin, and the two are said to be close personal friends.

Even if the TEBD never breaks ground, the idea lends itself to all sorts of speculation. You could, in theory, one day make it from the northern tip of Scotland to the southern tip of Chile using a combination of roads and railways.

Entire new societies have formed in cyberspace

By the mid-2050s, traditional Western news corporations no longer exist

News gathering, analysis and distribution has fragmented - shifting to millions of creative individuals, bloggers, citizen journalists and small-scale enterprises.

Traditional Western TV channels have largely disappeared

replaced by unique "personalised" web channels, covering practically any subject or combination of subjects imaginable

Debates are now occurring over "synthetic people" entering the population.

Harford argues that much can be done to make public space safe for children. “I would like to see pedestrian-friendly crossings more frequently on streets. I would like to see the streets be more kid-oriented with wider sidewalks, as well as a more coherent attitude amongst people on the street to be watching out for kids.”

It is in public space that we encounter a wide variety of people different from ourselves. Public spaces are important because they provide room to negotiate how we will live together in a highly populated environment. Encountering people of different races, classes, ages and abilities on a daily basis has the potential to cultivate a citizenry that is more tolerant of diversit

Ronda Howard, a Vancouver senior city planner, notes that when there are greater incentives for people to walk in their neighbourhoods, there are more eyes on the street: thus the streets become safer.

Despite the challenges facing parents raising children in the city, different social networks can augment child involvement in public space. Harford says that strong social ties help increase her son’s autonomy in Vancouver

When we actively engage with others who are different from us, we have the opportunity to become more sophisticated and tolerant citizens. When we get to know the diverse members of our communities, we create social networks that make our cities safer and more enjoyable. Public spaces are integral to making this happen. These spaces are an antidote to the inward gaze of individualism. We need to reclaim public space and work to expand its boundaries. It’s time for us to leave the house of the self in the background, and go outside

Both sides agreed on seemingly only one thing: That a discussion and regulation of short-term rentals in New York City is overdue.

The bots’ integration in Skype is rolling out today on Windows, iOS and Android as a preview.

The company launched the first-ever Skype Bot SDK, which lets brands, businesses and other third parties create their own bots that can work on Skype, seamlessly integrating into users’ chats. These aren’t just text bots, as many of the SMS-based virtual assistance startups we’ve seen so far – Skype bots can introduce both audio and video experiences

The company is also launching a bot directory, giving us a brief peek at a few bots it had created itself.

Bots “represent a huge opportunity to write new types of applications,” Nadella told developers