VR SHopping?

Take a look at the photo here.  This is a real Chinese super-market set to open set to open soon.  Nope, it is not some variation on a theme or some weird austerity program.  The shelves are in fact fully stocked with groceries!  Virtual Groceries. 

Yihaodian, the marketing group behind the scheme, has 1000, 13,000 square foot store fronts that will be stocked with virtual products.  The customer will be able to "see" the products using their smart phones and making purchasing decisions with the self same device.  The items would be totaled, charged, and delivery would be later the same day.

My comment here is....when is the last time you bought fresh veggies or cheese, preserved meat like a Genoa Salami without touching it, smelling it, getting the whole sensory input thing. How can you test if bread is fresh without tapping the end?

The reason I am taking it a bit personally is the article goes on to state:

• A couple of months ago Walmart did a little virtual shopping of its own, and purchased a majority share in Yihaodian.

Niche fur miche (yep, can't spell in two languages ....)


Here is the article link from Dvice had listed for the original in TechAsia

Space Bread by NASA?

From Dvice blog I read about the linchpin of civilization BREAD, that has fed civilized man for thousands of years with little change in ingredients, flour water sugars some binding fats and the living ingredient yeast. Anyone with strong arms and patience could at least feed themselves within reason. Now NASA has put the patience portion of the formula up for grabs - as part of NASA'sSpace Apps Challenges/BakerFaire: how to make bread in space. In just three hours, comes a 16 year old. Sam Wilkinson has managed to come up with a way to make bread rise instantly in microgravity without using yeast. By using CO2 Wilkinson can get his space bread to rise in 5 seconds flat! Check out the proof of concept video below.

It's A Brave New World - WTF?!!!

In the extra creepy department....Architecture student André Ford in an effort to make the meat production industry more efficient has proposed a new way to raise and house chickens so they do not suffer pain and stress of current high output farms. Many people can relate a story of a chicken who lived quite well with most of its brain missing. What Ford proposes is an industrial version of the same thing. Lobotomizing the chicken and removing all of its upper brain function, feeling no stress or pain or anything else for that matter. The birds would be hung from racks and their feet would be removed (they couldn't walk anyway) One tube would feed and another would remove waste. With this method, it would be possible to quadruple the number of chickens per any given area. So far it is just a project...but the idea has been sown.....

picture from Gizmodo article here

PETA lays down 1 mill for first commercial "Tube" meat!

My earlier "Tube Steak" reference (link to earlier article) had at its' core a kernel of truth, based on An international symposium on the topic was held this month in Norway. So with that in mind, it seems PETA has waded in and upped the anti with a 1 million dollar prize for the "first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012.” While the schedule may be a bit unrealistic, it is certain to throw gas on the fire. But it seems that PETA is a bit schizophrenic when it comes to the in-vitro topic. The decision to sponsor a prize caused “a near civil war in our office,” said one PETA founding member, since so many PETA members are repulsed by the thought of eating animal tissue, even if no animals are killed. So it comes as no surprise when the news of the prize was greeted a bit warily by those already researching a viable commercial method.

Get ready for "real" tube steak...?!

Stop smirking and no I am not talking about hotdogs...no my friends...something with an extra dose of soylent green style creepy sci-fi. Tissue Engineered meat may soon be on your dinner plate! How soon....possibly withing five years if these guys have their way. As this article puts it, your next burger burger will have been grown from a tiny sample of cells in a plant-and-mushroom bath.

At a meeting in Norway of the In Vitro Meat Consortium, scientists and entrepreneurs gathered to discuss the future of "cultured meat," or meat that's essentially grown like cultures in a lab. Mostly the barriers to market entry in a few years will be the meat industry itself which may attempt to scare consumers away from the stuff or pull strings in government block the synthetic flesh via regulations. For the record, cultured meat tastes just like regular meat — it's tissue-engineered muscle, made of exactly the same biological ingredients as meat from dead animals. It can also be a lot less fatty. Texture is one of the remaining issues, which is why proponents of cultured meat suggest it will first come to market as chicken nuggets and ground meat.

yummy!
{via IO9}

Cloning opens door to 'farmyard freaks'

Guess I am on a weird food kick today....Hey Shaun, check this one out!

Efforts to clone and genetically modify farm livestock may lead to the creation of "Farmyard Freaks", experts have warned.

A former government adviser warns of a nightmarish situation where "zombie" and fast-growing super-size animals, are the norm.

Large scale farming techniques, commonly used with pigs and chicken, involve keeping animals kept in cramped conditions. For animals like pigs, these conditions can lead to stress and aggression.

Scientists are investigating ways to remove the stress and aggression gene from animals, effectively turning them into complacent zombies.

Cloneburger with cheese, please

After more than five years of study, the Food and Drug Administration concluded that cloned livestock is "virtually indistinguishable" from conventional livestock. FDA believes "that meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat as the food we eat every day. said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine.

Hummmm seems the operative words here is as safe to eat as the food we eat every day.

But this is further evidence to support my claim that Ronald MacDonald is really a clone....yeah thats the ticket....