That sci-fi vision of the future continues to become reality with every passing day. We’ve seen driverless cars on the road, but now, in certain districts of San Francisco you may see a robot driving down the sidewalk delivering food. Yelp’s new experimental food delivery service, Yelp Eat24, is an autonomous self-driving delivery robot. The technology was created by ex Apple and Google employees and uses cameras, sensors, and light detection and ranging to safely drive meals to their destination.
With times changing and everyone needing to stay competitive and relevant these days, some businesses are really thinking outside the box. The other day we talked about a coal museum switching to solar power to reduce costs. We’ve seen companies like Amazon explore quicker delivery service via drones. Now, after experiencing a real downturn in post office traffic, the New Zealand Postal Service has partnered with KFC to begin providing delivery service in select parts of NZ. In an effort to expand and continue to provided sought after services you will be able to have your KFC delivered by NZ postal workers. The idea may sound a little out there, but it makes sense. I mean, really, as I sit here writing this I could go for some extra crispy and a side of mashed potatoes. I’d also enjoy it more if I didn’t have to go further than my mailbox.
It’s nothing new at this point, solar power is everywhere and it’s becoming more easily accessible and affordable as time goes on. You see more and more buildings, residential and commercial, switching to solar from traditional means of power. Even one unlikely Kentucky building has made the switch. The Kentucky Coal Mining museum, a building dedicated to preserving and displaying the history of the coal industry, has decided to make the switch to solar power itself. The decision was made as a way to save money in the long term for the museum.
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of superheroes. In fact, if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, I’m sure you’ve figured that out by now. That’s why, when I started to see videos and posts about UK’s Richard Browning, I began to get quite excited. That’s because Richard has built what can only be described as a real life Iron Man suit! It’s comprised of a lightweight exoskeleton suit, including a heads up display, and a total of six gas turbines that provide the thrust for flight. Although Browning is still a long way away from testing the suit at its full potential, he has seen improvements from flights only lasting seconds to now being able to stay in flight in excess of ten minutes! I’m going to begin saving my money now so I can buy this thing whenever it’s available.
We’ve all been there, stuck on the tarmac waiting to take off when the captain’s voice rings out over the speaker system alerting passengers to the delay they are about to experience. It can be troubling. For one Miami to New York flight, it was bees that were troubling. Passengers crowded around a window on the plane to get a look at the seemingly hundreds of bees that were crawling all over the wing of the plane. They appeared to have made a home in the cargo area and were moving all about the outside of the plane. A local beekeeper needed to be called in to safely remove the bees before the plane could take off. Although the passengers were given snacks and refreshments during the wait, it doesn’t lessen the sting of a four-hour delay.
