Ready for the freshest cup of coffee you’ve ever had? Roasting Plant Coffee Company in New York wants to serve it to you, with a tea spoon of ingenuity. They have created a modern robotic system called Javabot with the intention of creating the freshest, most flavorful cup of coffee available.

Walking into their store feels like stepping through a portal to the future. There are pneumatic tubes overhead transporting several variates of coffee beans to and fro. Grinding gears, a roasting station and brewing machines all whiz and whirl. Just as you begin to adjust to the all the visual and auditory stimulus, you are bombarded with the rich smells from this way and that.

If you’re delighted with all the myriad choices Starbucks offers, you are bound to be in heaven within the confines of this engineering marvel. They have blends that can range upwards of eight beans, you specify the roasting process, and determine the temperature levels at which the coffee is processed. No idea which coffee is best suited to your tastes? The machine will make minute adjustments on your behalf and have 3 samples for you to choose from.

Javabot’s turnover and potential profit must have a few investors licking their chops. It’s a company aimed to produce a highly-customized product at a consistent quality, all in about 30 seconds. You walk in, place your order, and less than a minute later you have the perfect cup of Joe in hand and ready to soldier on into another day of stimulant assisted living.

Their first store in New York is a prototype. But I have a feeling once more people experience the machine they’ll be coming back in droves, with franchise checks in hands.

 

It sits there, that harmless new kit at your corner drugstore, the paternity test will set you back $30. You buy it, swab some samples from yourself, your kid and your significant other. Maybe you bought it because you needed a random health screening or a way to settle a legal dispute? So you follow the instructions and send it out in the mail along with additional lab fees. A short while later you receive a definitive answer as to who little Johnny’s real dad is.

The reason so many fathers will be speechless when they receive the results is because they’ll then look down at the child they’ve loved and raised.  Realization will slowly sink in that his child is not biologically his own. A staggering 1 in every 25 tests proves that these men who have given their lives to their family have been cuckolded.

Identigene is the company responsible for manufacturing and placing the product on the shelves. The original fees paid to receive the results do not include legal documentation, such as divorce, custody, child support, inheritance, or other legal cases.

On a side note, I always found it interesting that in ancient times (notably with the pharaohs of Egypt)  the kings would usually have to marry their sister. That way the family knows that at minimum 50% of the bloodline is still in tact. That was to hedge against some other handsome suitor slipping one pass the goalie on the kings watch.

I guess human behavior hasn’t changed much. At least now we’ll have an affordable means to apply these simple scientific concepts. It will radically change the way we think about childbirth and paternity in modern sociology.

If you take a trip to Disney World you might be lucky enough to test a new device that promises to streamline your experience. The “Disney Magic Connection” is a wireless device that plans on radically changing the way you experience the magic. It runs on a Nintendo DS and has the ability to:

• Give current wait times for attractions
• Let you know whether FastPasses are left for that particular attraction
• And when those FastPasses will become available
• Show schedules
• Parade routes
• Interactive maps which reveal the location of rides, shows and attractions, restaurants, character appearances, restrooms, etc.
• It will know which ride you are waiting for and display interactive trivia based on that information to pass the time

I’m what you might call a Disney fanatic. When I heard this announcement I was both intrigued and disappointed. The theme parks are a multi-layered environment. They offer so much detail that even as a Disney fan, I still find new cracks and crevices unexplored on each visit.

It’s exciting that families will be able to share a streamlined “in-the-know” experience. On short trips where you might not have the time to plan out an 8-hour day with tired children, you’ll still have the ability to see a lot. That includes character visits, attractions and activities that you might have overlooked by planning ahead on a generic website.

At the same time it’s disappointing because it separates park goers into two groups, those who can afford the device and those who can not. It also has the ability to trivialize the experience by making a job out of the visit. Unless it’s designed with the parks atmosphere in mind, I fear that some guests may constantly be looking down into the screen rather than at the meticulous detail that the parks are known for.

Either way, it should be available for the general public by April of 2009. Chalk up another one to the Imagineers for continuously innovating the theme park experience.

Put this harmless black box in your vehicle, U.K. insurer Norwich Union says, and we’ll lower your insurance rates. You might as well drive over your personal rights while you’re at it.

By developing an advanced tracking system, Norwich intends to reward its best drivers with rate cuts. It factors in route, time of day, braking and the age of the driver, among other things. The GPS based IVU (in vehicle unit) uploads data to a database every few seconds on the road.

The bandwidth and computing power required to sequence all that data is impressive. In fact, it resembles a highly transactional environment, just like at a phone company. Computing time, geography and then placing a price on all those variables is a tough job. So the company had to create sophisticated compression technology as an answer.

At best the pay-as-you drive system may shave off a fraction of the bill, but at what cost? You may remember another innovative technology in the US that went bad fast. OnStar is a vehicle monitoring and tracking service that offers emergency assistance, traffic information and an anti-theft device that can turn off the car remotely from the call center. Sounds like a great deal too? Guess again.

In 2003 a federal appeals court had to rule against the FBI, who were using OnStar without the owners permission as a bugging device. If it’s not creepy enough that anyone can listen in, critics believe that there is an ability to hack into the system. The hacker would gain control of the vehicle and have the ability to turn it off, just like the folks at the call center.

The U.K. government is considering instituting pay as you drive systems to replace tax discs one day. Let’s just hope this is one innovation that doesn’t make it across the pond. I don’t want companies basing their decisions on my real time data. And I sure as hell wouldn’t appreciate that data used against me one day in court.

[CNET News]

For the first time in history a company will be able to scan your DNA and tell you the history of your cells, where you’ve been for the past billion years and where your genetic future is going. 23andMe, a silicon valley startup with links to Google offers you the chance to shell out $999 for a personal map of your genomic profile.

Why would anyone beyond scientists and researchers want to do this? The company says because the information could be as fun as tracing family food preferences, sleeping habits and seeing which grandparent passed down your athletic ability. On a more serious note it will also give you insight as to what diseases and conditions you’re predisposed to – all the way from glaucoma to cancer.

The challenge isn’t behind uncovering the data. It’s finding a way to present it to both the layperson and a researcher. That’s really where this service aims to shine. The massive amount of information will be linked to current and future research. Right after you read about a new disease study you can go online and look to see if you are predisposed to that ailment in real time. While the novice will have very minimalistic reports, anyone can scan deeper. Possibly even to become a genetic hobbyist, where you’ll realize that access to your detailed information is already at your fingertips.

The founders of the company envision groups of people getting together that may share genotypes on a type of social-networking engine. They would have the potential to be involved in research work, which would help to exponentially advance the field of genetics.

Genetics changes the nature of medicine, it changes the predictions of medicine and how medicine works. For instance, what if you find that you have a personal genetic variation that makes you 50% more likely to get getting breast cancer? Armed with that information you can take preventative measures, find out what you need to avoid/do and even take drugs that are specifically trailered to your DNA.

We’re just beginning to learn what we came from and where we are. It’s exciting that in 2003 the map of our common genetic sequence was completed by the Human Genome Project. The costs associated were upward of $3 billion. Four years later we are able to take portions of our own DNA and have them genotyped, finding references to the past and future for a mere fraction of the cost.

For more information on the importance of genetics please take a look at this TED video by Juan Enriquez:

[Guardian]