🥤Mystery Soda Machine, Pork without Pig, and Hologram Chatbots!

Ready to hire a hologram for the front desk?

Yes! It’s Monday my friends - and you know what time it is.

Time to pour your third cup of coffee?

Probably. 🤔

Time to get your news for the week?

Most definitely. 😁

I thought about devoting this whole issue to CES 2020 (a huge tech conference where new and test products are showcased every year) but I had too many links! I’ll be sharing one cool new project from CES every week for a while. I don’t want you to miss out on everything else!

Anyway, let’s get started.

The Mystery Soda Machine

This interesting urban legend caught my eye. There was an old-timey soda machine in Capitol Hill, Seattle that dispensed old soda (hopefully not expired) for 75 cents a can. Noone knows who fills it, and the soda is the kind of stuff that hasn’t been seen in decades. It’s been missing for over a year now. Who knows when it will return? This is a great video covering all the details!

This is most likely the work of some eccentric individual, but more brands should pull crazy stunts like this. Coca-Cola is always doing fun things around the world with their machines. Why can’t other brands do the same thing? For example, what if Mcdonalds had a mystery storefront that dispensed old school style burgers and fries? It would certainly drum up a lot of press! People always love the mysterious, and it always earns lots of free awareness.

Read more about the Seattle Mystery Soda Machine here.

Pork Without Pig

I lied. I’m covering two things from CES today. Impossible Foods unveiled their meatless pork substitute last week, and it’s exciting stuff! It’s amazing how fast Impossible Foods and other companies are moving in this space. Just a few years ago the “Impossible Burger” was an expensive novelty - and now it’s available in grocery stores and Burger Kings (and lots of other restaurants) all over the nation! Meatless beef was the first step. Now we have meatless pork that tastes like pork and feels like pork.

The key ingredient in Impossible Pork, as in the company’s other fake meat products, is heme, a protein cultivated from soybean roots that mimics the texture of meat. The imitation pork is gluten-free, antibiotic-free, and designed for halal and kosher certification. Source

Pretty neat stuff! Where will they go from here? Meatless chicken? fish? Time will tell, but I believe this new category of foods will continue to expand exponentially. (Side note. It’s interesting to see how Food and Tech are becoming more and more integrated). Apparently, the meatless pork tastes pretty good. I look forward to trying it sometime soon! Here’s a video of the taste test.

AI Holograms - Coming to an Office Near You?

Remember Cortana from Halo? the Hologram AI assistant to Master Chief? Well, the day is coming soon where you may have your very own “Cortana.”

Samsung unveiled a new project at CES called Neon - and the best way to describe it is AI video chat bots. Not quite holograms, but wayy closer to the idea than we’ve gotten before. Now, before you say “Oh, it’s just like Google Assistant or Siri” it’s absolutely nothing like them.

"Neons are not AI assistants," the company said. "Neons are more like us, an independent but virtual living being, who can show emotions and learn from experiences. Unlike AI assistants, Neons do not know it all, and they are not an interface to the internet to ask for weather updates or to play your favorite music."Source

Essentially, it seems like they are going more of the “these will be your friends” direction. It’s slightly unsettling to think that we may be talking to the AI on our fridge screen about existential angst instead of our friends/family, but who knows? Samsung was pretty stoked about Bixby just a few years ago, and that hasn’t exactly turned out very well.

If the technology pans out for this project, I wouldn’t be surprised to see these things replacing a few jobs in ten or twenty years. For example, if this AI can answer all the questions a secretary can, why pay a secretary? Just get one of these.

I’ve got a few resources for you to check out so you can investigate more if you desire.

Apparently these are some leaked videos.

Have fun! Don’t get too freaked out about our “Brave New World!” 😁

The Land of Random

More wild articles? Nah fam. You’ve already given us so many links and videos!

Tough. Do you realize how much stuff I skip every week?

🎮Gaming PC with Xbox or PS4 built in

When Origin originally announced the project, they were going to put BOTH in the Gaming PC. Well, it looks like that didn’t work out - but still. Pretty crazy!

⛄Unsettling Snow Monsters

You’ll never think about snow the same way again. This chilling but well-drawn picture captures an entire story in one image! Monsters. A man, unafraid. The Silence of the Snow.

🍺 Shower Beer Holder

A friend of mine on Instagram shared this crazy product. It’s a suction cup beer holder for the shower. Who would even use this? If you’re looking for a copywriting challenge, here it is. How would you sell this eccentric gift? What’s your tagline?

Take a Hot Shower AND drink beer!

Make your husband cry with joy with THIS hilarious gift! (clickbait, I know)