Bionic women light up their limbs at Maker Faire Cyber Fashion Show
Skip to the 1:25 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Michelle Salt, Canada’s first female paraolympic snowboarder, who was among the models igniting the catwalk at this year’s Maker Faire in San Francisco. The wearable cyber-fashion show was put on by MakeFashion.ca... Read More
Metro Reviews: The Last of Us: Left Behind, Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of May 18th The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy By Sam Maggs Kindle/Kobo This playfully savvy and well-researched handbook offers a keen understanding into the many crafts and outgoing activities used by fangirls to cultivate and share personal interests. This isn’t about conforming to fleeting trends, but... Read More
The #girlswithtoys Phenomenon & Reinventing The Kettle
Skip to the 1:26 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Scientist Kate Clancy who began an inspiring #girlswithtoys Twitter campaign in response to an unthinking interview on NPR with a noted astronomer who described scientists as being “Boys With Toys”. Jasmina Grase... Read More
Metro Reviews: Ether One, Ask The Past, Expo Milano
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of May 11th Ether One PC/Mac/PS4 Rated: Everyone Using puzzles to simulate the bewildering state of Alzheimer’s is an inspired touch. This Myst-like adventure has you exploring the fragmented memories of a woman named Jean, her mind presented as a picturesque village, and there’s an intriguing uncertainty... Read More
Huggies 3D Prints A Baby, Airline Seats To Monitor Your Health
Skip to the 1:25 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Tatiana, a visually impaired, expecting mother in Brazil featured in a viral Huggies video. The diaper company arranged to have her 3D ultrasound 3D printed at the hospital so she could be... Read More
Metro Reviews: Big Gay Ice Cream, Broken Age, The Edit
Here’s my Metro Reviews for the week of May 4th Big Gay Ice Cream By Bryan Petroff & Douglas Quint Kindle/iBooks/Kobo Anthony Bourdain, Rachel Ray, and Neil Gaiman are among the celebrities included in this joyous anthology of foolish tales and radical recipes celebrating the origins of America’s most unconventional ice cream truck. In between... Read More
3D Printing Cats And Sexist Peer-Review Twitter Storm
Skip to the 1:24 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Ashley Saunders, brand manager at PetPrints3D.com, a Toront0-based company that turns your personal pet photos into expressive 3Dprinted figurines. Evolutionary geneticist Fiona Ingleby and evolutionary biologist Megan Head who found themselves in... Read More
Chris Hadfield Talks About Being Inspired As A Boy By The Ontario Science Centre
The new Be An Astronaut exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre puts on display both the flight suits and helmets from Colonel Chris Hadfield’s career, both as an astronaut and test pilot. At the exhibit’s opening Chris Hadfield related this little story as part of his opening address in which he weaves a journey between... Read More
Metro Reviews: Lovelace & Babbage, State of Decay, Epicurious
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of April 25th The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage Sydney Padua Kindle/iBooks/Kobo There are lessons and laughs in this graphic novel account of the first computer where Victorian inventor Babbage and pioneering programmer Lovelace become crime-solving Steampunk detectives. Both characters are wild, eccentric fun, but their... Read More
Bottling The Scent Of Loved Ones As Mementos And Security Blankets
To listen skip to the 1:27 mark. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Katia Apalategui is the inventor of a new business that can collect the scent of someone you hold dear and distill it into a perfume to be used for mementos between lovers... Read More
Metro Reviews: J.K. Rowkling, Mortal Kombat X, Foodkeeper
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of April 20th Mortal Kombat X PS4/Xbox One/PC Rating: Mature 17+ With face-eating and disembowelment fatalities, this tenth entry is now the goriest of the franchise. And yet its fighting is accessible, its characters diverse, and its dense story good-humoured. With combo chains and more interactive arenas... Read More
TouchPad Fingernails And Clothes That Change In Sunlight
To listen skip to the 1:24 mark. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… MIT Grad Cindy Kao has come up with a tiny trackpad that fits over the fingernail on your thumb. Like the trackpad on your laptop, you can use it to control the... Read More
Metro Reviews: Never Alone, Murakami, Spylight
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of April 13th. Never Alone (Kisima Innitchuna) Xbox One/PS4/PC/Mac Rating: Everyone 10+ Four Stars Lost in an Alaskan blizzard, a young girl finds help from an arctic fox in this evocative platform adventure that speaks of isolation, comradery, and personal resilience. Polar bear chases, shimmering arctic swims,... Read More
Beauty Tech On The Sly And The Detective Work Behind Mysterious Radio Signals
Skip to the 1:26 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Katia Vega returns with more Beauty Technology this time creating conductive hair extensions that allow you to control smartphone apps on the sly. By stroking your hair you can send a text,... Read More
Metro Reviews: The Fifth Heart, Mario Party 10, The Last Voyage
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of April 6th The Fifth Heart By Dan Simmons Kindle/iBooks/Kobo Sherlock Homes, a fictional character, and Henry James, a real-life author could never meet and they know it. Their pairing on an American murder mystery triggers an Inception-layered puzzle about consciousness and identity that should be gimmicky,... Read More
Imaginative Kid Projectors And YouTube Science Series The Brain Scoop
Skip to the 1:27 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Meg “Rabbit” Athavale who is leading a indiegogo project group in Winnipeg, Manitoba in developing an interactive projector for kids called the Lumo. Armed with motion sensors it can turn any floor... Read More
Metro Reviews: The Trace, Bloodborne, Steve jobs
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of Mar. 31st The Trace: Murder Mystery Game iPhone/iPad $5.79 This proper, hands-on detective adventure offers elaborate crime scenes you can step through, clues you can pick up and scan, and a trail of grisly murder mysteries to solve using a helpful decision tree of nagging questions... Read More
Haptic Fashion, Designing Clothes That Stimulate
Skip to the 1:25 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Billie Whitehouse, founder of Wearable Experiments (We:eX) and the self-described Haptic Fashionista designer behind Fundawear, a line of vibrating underwear. Her company is exploring the possibilities of stimulating clothes including a sports shirt... Read More
Metro Reviews: Terry Pratchett, Code Name S.T.E.A.M., Poco Eco
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of Mar. 23rd A Slip Of The Keyboard By Terry Pratchett Kindle/iBooks/Kobo Four Stars In this collection of musings, speeches, and essays, Pratchett aims his insightful and oft-quoted humour at Nuclear power stations, floppy hats, Alzheimer’s, Orangutans, computers, and others things unrelated to his much-loved DiscWorld fantasy... Read More
HTC CEO Cher Wang, 3D Printed Noses, And The Web’s Very First Photo
Skip to the 1:27 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Cher Wang, co-founder of smartphone maker HTC who has just taken over the company as its new CEO in order to guide it to recovery. Her new leadership starts off with some... Read More
Legend of Zelda Given Concert Live Experience By Windsor Symphony
It says something about video games as a culture that fans are willing to pack a theatre and patiently listen to a symphony play a soundtrack for two hours. It speaks to the powerful role music has in video games where it not only has to survive endless repetition, but often convey the story and... Read More
Metro Reviews: H is for Hawk, Ori and the Blind Forest
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of Mar. 16th H is for Hawk By Helen MacDonald Kindle/iBooks/Kobo Four Stars In grieving for her father Helen turns to Falconry to process her feelings. Training a Goshawk to fly and kill may seem an odd choice, but the draw is an emotional complexity and discipline.... Read More
First Live Birth Using Virtual Reality And Pop-Up book Machines
Skip to the 1:26 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Kelli Anderson, a digital paper designer who working on a pop-up book full of working paper machines including a planetarium, a phonograph, and musical instrument. Alison and Jayce Larke who have... Read More
Metro Reviews: The Martian, ScreamRide, Disney Side
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of Mar. 9th The Martian By Andy Weir Kindle/iBooks/Kobo Five Stars Stranded on Mars, astronaut Mark Watney can’t stop laughing. His life expectancy is dire, his isolation is bleak, yet he perseveres in this well-researched survival thriller where NASA transcripts and maps craft a problem-solving adventure of... Read More
Mind-Controlled Fighter Jets And Apple Watches
Skip to the 1:24 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Jan Scheuermann, a woman with quadriplegia working on neurosignaling experiments under DARPA at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She is pioneering the use of brain-computer interfaces to control robotic arms for... Read More
Metro Reviews: The Order: 1886, Alto’s Adventure, Pry
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of Feb. 23rd Pry By Danny Cannizzaro & Samantha Gorman iPad/iPhone Two Stars Pry asks you to read between its lines by opening tears within its pages that reveal passages of text, hidden videos, and sentences encoded with braille. It’s an intentionally disjointed way of recounting the... Read More
Team-Building Exercises To Mars, Shark Lady Eugenie Clark, And 3D Printed Eco Food
Skip to the 1:27 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Eugenie Clark who died at age 92 was a pioneering diving biologist and founder of the Mote Marine Lab. Known as the “Shark Lady” for her incredible breakthroughs with the ocean predators... Read More
Cognitive Computer Cooking. My Interview With IBM Watson Engineer Alexa Swainson
Since winning on Jeopardy, IBM’s Watson computer has learned how to cook. In fact it has learned how to create recipes no human chef has ever considered before. Here’s our much longer interview with IBM Watson engineer and vice-president of product, Alexa Swainson where she explains what it means when a computer can start to... Read More
Learning Code With Robotic Flower Gardens And Cooking With Watson
Skip to the 1:25 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Alexa Swainson is VP of broduct for IBM’s Watson, the cognitive computer best known for winning on Jeopardy, but is turning heads these days be creating it’s own recipes. Alexa explains how... Read More
Metro Reviews: Ruby, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, JFK Challenge
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of Feb. 16th Ruby By Cynthia Bond Kindle/iBooks/Kobo Two Stars This tale of two adults trying to overcome childhood abuses during the time of Jim Crow is so vividly driven by its setting and character actions that it feels like a comic book in expression, which is... Read More
Creating Smart Bras And Connecting With Nature Through Outer Space
To listen skip to the 1:27 mark. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Genna Guberstein is a heliophysics media specialist at NASA who wants to use the inspirational imagery of science to create public exhibitions that she hopes will increase our connection with nature. Her first... Read More
Metro Reviews: Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask, Guantanamo Diary
Here’s my Metro Reviews for the week of Feb. 9th Guantanamo Diary By Mohamedou Ould Slahi Kindle/iBooks/Kobo Three Stars A former member of Al Qaeda who maintained dangerous friendships, it’s easy to see why Mohamedou was picked up by US intelligence 12 years ago, but navigate through the scanned pages and heavily redacted text of... Read More
New Movie Celebrates Computing Pioneer Grace Hopper
Skip to the 1:26 mark to listen This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Gillian Jacobs, best known for her role on TV series community, has directed an entertaining and fascinating documentary on computing pioneer Grace Hopper which you can watch below.
The Order 1886 Conspiracies & Obsessions – An Interview With Director Dana Jan
In my conversation with game director Dana Jan, we discuss the cultural and literary obsessions present in the upcoming PlayStation 4 video game The Order 1886, an alternate history action-adventure that blends the Knights of the Round Table with Nikola Tesla in a Steampunk Victorian England.
Metro Reviews: Trigger Warning, Dying Light, Sons of Anarchy
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of Feb. 2nd. Trigger Warning By Neil Gaiman Kindle/iBooks/Kobo Five Stars Trigger Warning is an internet term used to identify web links that may lead to unsettling content and indeed this collection of strange and intriguing poems, adventures, and remembrances all unfold with nightmarish costs. Even when... Read More
Exploring Issues Of Rape Through VR, Managing Relationships With Wearables
Skip to the 1:25 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Film director Rose Troche who kicked off a new Oculus Rift Virtual Reality series called Perspective that will place viewers into the bodies of two people on either side of a contentious... Read More
Metro Reviews: American Sniper, The Swapper, MSN Food
Here are my Metro News reviews for the week of Jan. 26th American Sniper Enhanced Edition By Chris Kyle Kindle/iBooks Three Stars Conversational video interviews and pop-up gun profiles only add to this book’s extraordinary access to Navy Seal techniques, yet it’s Kyle’s friendly story-telling that stands-out as he captures the way his drive to... Read More
Sharing Your Story Through Action Cams & Combating Online Hate
Skip to the 1:27 mark to listen. This week Kris Abel introduces What She Said’s Christine Bentley, Sharon Caddy, and Kate Wheeler to… Shauna Ireland and Canadian actress Kearstin Plemel who are part of Twenty2b’s Project Portrait, a series of action cam selfie videos by women around the world to demonstrate the creativity that’s possible... Read More
Metro Reviews: Patton Oswalt, New Nintendo 3DS, Shadowmatic
Here’s my Metro News reviews for the week of Jan. 19th Silver Screen Fiend By Patton Oswalt Kindle/iBooks/Kobo Three Stars For four years Patton compulsively watched art-house films, seeking guidance to his artistic ambitions. Now reflecting on his immaturity, he uses lists of movies both real and imagined along with calendars tied to much-loved indie... Read More
A Dino Hunt In Canada, My Interview With Palaeontologist Lisa Buckley
How do you know where to look for dinosaurs in Canada? Is it likely you’ll discover a new species of dinosaur if you grow up to be a palaeontologist? Here’s my extended What She Said interview with Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre curator Lisa Buckley who is among several scientists working dinosaur digs across the... Read More