Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are the front-runner for replacing bar codes in grocery stores. The little tags can transmit an electronic product code to a wireless receiver, speeding up scanning, and making the inventory process almost automatic. They still need to work out a standard method of communication and bring the cost down from 50 cents to 5 cents per tag, but the Auto-ID Center researchers believe that is possible by 2005. The technology was developed by a joint team from MIT and Cambridge University (bridging the ocean that separates the two Cambridges). Radio tags are already used in many applications, including library security (low frequency) and toll-collection (high frequency). When they become standard for tracking all sorts of products, perhaps they will also help you find your keys.

Perhaps you would have enjoyed living in the windows of Harrods for a week, your activities on view to passersby and Internet webcams. Mostly, though, you would be demonstrating how wonderful the LG Electronics appliances are, since they are the sponsors of this odd publicity stunt. Four unrelated people were picked to portray a happy family (or as happy as a family can be when they don’t really know each other and are forced to spend 9 hours together each day on display in a department store window). They seem to be spending their time learning about feng shui, meeting minor celebrities, getting makeovers, and, ah yes, using those all-important appliances. I wonder what it would be like if my refrigerator got email. (via Nobody’s Fool: What’s for dinner?)

Grocery shoppers in the U.K. will soon be able to bring home purple carrots. Next year the selection will include black and white and more colors. On this side of the pond, a Texas grower has been selling a carrot that was created to match Texas A&M;’s colors (maroon and white). Those were found to contain more vitamin A and 40% more beta-carotene. Not bad. Over at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, they started looking into creating carrots with the aim of improving human health. The various colors of carrot contain different helpful chemicals. Red carrots have lycopene, which has exhibited antioxidant properties in studies on tomatoes. Purple carrots have anthocyanins, which is the same pigment that you see in fall leaves and blueberries. I call blueberries “cancer pills” (prevention, not cause!). The anthocyanins neutralize free radicals. Even pigment-less white carrots have phytochemicals.

You could imagine that escaping gravity would be a dancer’s dream, or at least a flight of fancy. Well, dancers with the Gravity Zero project are getting the chance to whirl about without the bonds that keep us tethered to the ground. It is for the benefit of science, an initiative to study the difference in dancers’ control of their limbs and posture. Parabolic flights take the subjects through minutes of zero gravity while transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) measures how the messages of movement are transmitted through the subjects’ muscles. This information will help patients recovering from neurotrauma and also astronauts who have to live in zero-G for extended periods.

Just as there is the popular Internet Movie Database, there is the Internet Broadway Database which contains data about actors, shows, and theaters.

The Computer History Museum at Moffett Field in Mountain View is getting some publicity now as they are fundraising for a new building. The museum opened in 1999 in a creaky old warehouse that can showcase only a tenth of their collection. Much of it was actually the archives of the old Computer Museum in Boston which became focused on educating people about how computers worked instead of exhibiting the history. That museum eventually merged into Boston’s Museum of Science and the collection of artifacts was moved to Silicon Valley. As visitors examine the evolution of the device from huge to tiny, some wonder what will happen next as chips become ubiquitous.

Charles Nichols of Stanford has designed a “virtual bow” to allow violinists to create more musical expression with computer generated music. It captures the distance of the bow to the bridge, pressure, speed, and, of course, the angle to determine which string is (or strings are) being played. This also translates to the “vertical, rotational, horizontal and longitudinal motion of the bow.” The hopeful result is a more emotional rendering from a computerized performance. Next up, a touch pad for the “neck” so that the full range of notes can be played. More info, including construction details and photos of the virtual bow are available in PDF format on Nichols’ website.

Things I’ve Learned From Bad Dreams (#2 in a series)

Using a tissue to apply mascara is inefficient and often ineffectual.

If instead of check-in counters they have little check-in kiosks in the middle of airport hallways, you can get a faster running start towards your gate. You’ll still miss the plane, of course.

Asking your waiter to create a pink clam chowder for you by combining Manhattan and New England clam chowder may seem like a good idea, but the end result will be interesting — the bad kind of interesting.

If a friend comes to you and asks “Can I build a Millenium Falcon in your backyard?” don’t think it over too hard. Don’t worry about what the neighbors will think or if you’ll need some sort of permit. Just say “Sure, why not!” (more pictures).

A couple years ago, I was fascinated to hear about the possibility that airplane contrails have an effect on the weather. Those seemingly harmless puffy lines in the sky can expand into impressive cloud cover. But do they significantly change the weather? Climatologists looked at the data from September 11-13, when most jet traffic was grounded. The difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures increased in areas where there is normally heavy contrail traffic. Within those regions of heavy air traffic, the smaller differences between day and night temperatures could affect the environment. For example, maple trees need temperature changes in order to produce sap. In another study, a scientists observed single contrails produced by military jets that were allowed to fly during those days. “He witnessed six contrails, each no wider than an airplane wing, evolve in a matter of hours into cloud banks that covered 20,000 square kilometers.” I bet this doesn’t help the reasons why it always seems to rain on weekends.