This is not a Blimp. It's a sort of flying Queen Mary 2 that could change the way you think about air travel. It's the Aeroscraft, and when it's completed, it will ferry pampered passengers across continents and oceans as they stroll leisurely about the one-acre cabin or relax in their well-appointed staterooms.

Unlike its dirigible ancestors, the Aeroscraft is not lighter than air. Its 14 million cubic feet of helium hoist only two thirds of the craft's weight.

Talk about a dream job. A handful of lucky engineers just outside Paris earn their euros creating wild concept cars for Peugeot, and their only imperative is to advance the state of automotive design. While dreaming up their latest project, they hit upon a radical way to skim weight: ditch the vehicle's rear end. Specifically, they eliminated one of
the wheels and all the accompanying components, including suspension, brakes, and the actual body around it.

Don't know your Schweineschnitzel (steak) from your Schweinemagen (pig's stomach)? IBM's menu and street-sign translator may prevent a culinary catastrophe. The prototype is a PDA with a clip-on camera. Pictures are sent wirelessly to an IBM server, characters identified, and text sent back. Not the best way to read Molière, but it does translate the basics with few errors. The device could be available in two years.