Today I want to talk about curious technology that I`ve
encountered on this side of the atlantic ocean. Now most of you will know that
i`m not the most technologically advanced person on this planet. I don`t need
to remind you of my cell phone, do i? I mean, the one with the fruit on it, the
Nokia 3210i that I got when i was 11 or 12. yeah. So, for me, being in a country
where there`s Wifi at every corner and nobody has a phone that`s even 5 years
younger than mine, is quite fascinating. Let me start with taps. So you know
how there are taps which start automatically when you get close with your
hands? Yeah, so that’s normal. But here,
they have the same thing for soap aswell! The first time i saw that was at my
institute and I was like: OMG. And the sound it makes, well, i will be honest.
It’s like a fart. Gotta love those machines. Next thing: the recycling bins. So
they have solar cells on them. And i ask myself: what do the solar cells do? Do
they help heat up the trash so it’s degraded faster? Do they simply make
electricity and feed it into the network? Do they fulfill some higher
mysterious purpose? So far nobody has been able to tell me. If you are as
knowledgeable as to know about the purpose of these solar cells, please help me
because I’m dying to know. Thanks. Now I want to go on to atms. So. In europe
(=civilized world) you put your card in, it asks for your PIN, you enter it, do
the transaction and then you get back your card once you’re done. Well. Not
here. Watch Cora in front of the machine: She puts in her card and to her
astonishment, she gets it back immediately.
Cora goes: „wth? This card worked in South Korea, why shouldn’t it work
in the US?“ Cora gets upset. Until she realizes that the machine asks her for
her PIN. So basically, you put in your card, get it back and then do all your
stuff. This is not normal.
Now the swimming pool. They have a swim suit drying machine.
I don’t trust this. In my opinion it will ruin my swim suit. All swim suits
say, don’t tumble dry. Also. WHY do you need to waste energy for drying your
swim suit? I mean, seriously. You can dry it at home and it will most probably be
dry before your next swim. (unless you go like every day or several times a day
but in that case you will own several swim suits anyway right?) I hate it when
energy is wasted.
Ok now the coolest thing.
So at my institute there’s this machine that irradiates
cells so they stop dividing. (They don't die though, they are kinda immortal which is kinda cool.) So there’s radioactivity involved. And obviously
people here in the US are always scared of terrorists. So what did they
install? An iris scanner. Yes. I know, crazy right? So when my boss wants to
enter that room he has to swipe a card and then present his iris and the
machine goes zzzzzzzzt and scans his iris. And then the door opens. And there’s
a massive sign saying that if you don’t do things correctly, a VERY LOUD (it’s
written in capitals) alarm will go off. And you know what else is crazy? My
boss had to go and talk to FBI and stuff to get permission to enter that room.
Crazy paranoid americans. But the iris scanning machine is awesome. I want to
go back and see it work again. Every day. It’s so cool.
That’s it for the day.
Oh one last thing: if you haven’t seen this video yet then
you’re really missing out on something innovative. Oh and don’t worry if you
haven’t heard of autophagy before. It’s kinda specific. But it might save us.
Not kidding.
