by Scott Judson
Owner of Judson Steel, an iOS development studio based in Auckland
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
How did coffee go from a cheap commodity to a gourmet drink? You have this man (and several other innovators) to thank. (via How Coffee Became a Gourmet Espresso | Inc.com)
Many entrepreneurs confuse invention and innovation. The former has to do with discovering or devising something new. Innovation, on the other hand, is bigger than invention and more complicated. It’s an entire process—getting the brilliant idea is only the start.
An interesting piece on the birth of the espresso machine and its comparison to todays startup lifecycle.
The human hand is an amazing machine that can pick up, move and place objects easily, but for a robot, this “gripping” mechanism is a vexing challenge. Opting for simple elegance, researchers from Cornell, the University of Chicago and iRobot Corp. have created a versatile gripper using everyday ground coffee and a latex party balloon, bypassing traditional designs based on the human hand and fingers.
They call it a universal gripper, as it conforms to the object it’s grabbing, rather than being designed for particular objects, said Hod Lipson, Cornell associate professor of mechanical engineering and computer science.
The ground coffee grains are like lots of small gears,” Lipson said. “When they are not pressed together they can roll over each other and flow. When they are pressed together just a little bit, the teeth interlock, and they become solid.” (via Cornell Chronicle: Universal robotic gripper)
New Coffee machine in the office. Consumption up a few hundred percent :) (Taken with Instagram at Judson Steel)
Taken with Instagram at Shaky Isles Coffee Co.
The Be Disloyal disloyalty card was designed to encourage consumers to discover different coffee venues while bringing businesses together to grow as a vertical. From September until the end of this month customers can pick up a disloyalty card from one of the eight participating cafés. The card is stamped each time they purchase a coffee from one of the other seven cafés and, once the card is full, they return to the original café to receive their free coffee. (via In Singapore, loyalty card rewards coffee fans for being disloyal | Springwise)
Caffeine
Afri-CAN Café Co-operative Charity are retrofitting 40′ containers to create community-focused cafés with on site bakeries. The project is designed to provide much needed employment and training opportunities to impoverished communities in sub-Saharan Africa. (via The Afri-CAN Cafe Co-operative)
