The last time I was at a McDonald’s, I pulled up to the drive through window and was amazed by what I saw: A machine that prepares your entire drink order without ever needing human interaction.
Here’s the process it goes through: It drops the right size cup (depending on what you order) onto a conveyor belt, moves that cup under an ice dispenser and fills it with ice, moves the cup again under the right soda tap and fills it with the right amount of soda, waits for the fizz to die down, tops it off with more soda, and then moves to where the McDonald’s employee can pick it up. About the only thing it doesn’t do is add a lid, and my guess is that the ability to lid a drink isn’t far off.
Thankfully someone found this whole process as amazing as I did, because I was able to find this video of the machine on YouTube:
I’ve always felt that McDonald’s is going to do everything it can to cut its workers out of the process, and this drink machine just goes to show that the direction they’re heading in is definitely a fully automatic, robotic McDonalds.
Mathmos’ Thaw Light is supposed to “give your shindigs a touch of Narnia-chic”. Not too sure what that would look like exactly, but I do know that the idea of encasing fire in ice sounds pretty cool (pun intended). The kit includes a mould/stand that you fill with water, freeze, then pop out the ice “shade” that covers the candle. Over the course of a few hours (apparently the same time it takes for your tea light to burn down), the heat will slowly melt the shade back into the mould, and you’re ready to start all over again. Each time the shade melts, it creates a new and unique lighting design. That’s hot.
