Sunday afternoons on CBC Radio One at 1:05/1:35 NT (4:05 PT)
On this episode of Spark: Tractor Beams, Domain Names, and Wireless Power. Click below to listen to the whole show, or download the MP3 (runs 54:00).
You can also listen to individual stories below.
Last week in Las Vegas, thousands came out for the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES. It's the place to see the latest in electronic products - some ready for market, and others still light years away. Spark contributor, Pete Nowak was there, and we spoke to him quickly last week about what the buzz was. But we're interested in the less-buzzy products too, the kind of things that didn't make the headlines. So fresh from Vegas, Pete stopped by the studio to chat with Nora. (Runs 9:00)
If you have a cell phone, you probably have a lot of personal information on it: texts, voicemails, memos, maybe even emails and apps for all your social media sites. But what if the police could go through that phone...without a warrant? This question of privacy, evidence and technology is on our minds after hearing of a recent California Supreme Court ruling in favour of no-warrant phone searches. To find our what's happening here in Canada, Nora spoke with James Stribopoulos, an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. (Runs 12:47)
Recently in Australia, researchers announced they've come a little bit closer to making a tractor beam a reality. Yes, a tractor beam, like on Star Trek. This got us thinking about science fiction and how many of its predictions have become reality. Nora spoke with Eric Rabkin, a professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan whose specialty is science fiction. But first, we decided to do a little Spark Top 5 SciFi Predictions That (Kinda) Came True. (Runs 16:49)
How would you like to type baby-dot-baby into your browser's address bar? Or maybe sparkling-dot-champagne? How about free-dot-forall? Because a free-for-all is what we're about to have when it comes to domain extensions on the internet. We've gotten used to top-level domains such as dot-com and dot-net. There are actually only 21, but later this year, ICANN, the international group that coordinates the system, will open up extensions to everyone. That's right - anyone with a spare 185 thousand dollars will be able to buy their very own top-level domain. Nora spoke with Kieren McCarthy, the General Manager of the Global Internet Business Coalition about why liberalizing the internet naming space will be revolutionary. (Runs 9:09)
Sundays at 1:00 p.m., Mondays at 07:00 a.m., Wednesdays at 2:00 p.m. ET
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