Most people have sat in a go-kart at some point. The seat sits low, the steering feels direct, and the whole thing skitters around with a kind of playful urgency. Very few have ever climbed into one that still carries the shape and branding of a soda machine. A maker known as Mixed Bag set out to close that gap. He bought a used Pepsi vending machine for a hundred dollars on Facebook Marketplace, then spent four months turning it into something that could actually drive.
Cravings rarely check the calendar. Most ice cream makers force a long pause because their bowls need a full night in the freezer before anything can happen. That single requirement turns an impulse into a project and leaves the machine collecting dust more often than it gets used. The Instant Pot InstantChill removes that barrier with a built-in compressor and cold plate that start working the moment the machine turns on.
Members of the Wendy’s Rewards program had one hour today to claim one of twenty specially decorated Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III cameras through the brand’s app. The giveaway closed out a four-week run of limited merchandise drops that started back in mid-May and handed out everything from totes to jerseys in tiny quantities that vanished almost as soon as each window opened.
Years of sticky residue had turned a sleek Red Rabbit cotton candy vending machine into something far less reliable than its price tag suggested. Block from Block’s Retro Repairs took on the challenge after the unit stopped producing those fluffy strands customers expect. The first step was to thoroughly clean the spinning head where the magic happens, removing the crusty sugar buildup.
Cai Nan runs a YouTube channel dedicated to weird food experiments that I’m sure most of us home cooks would be too afraid to attempt. His most recent effort takes a simple concept and turns it into something completely mind-blowing: a chicken wing that is so clear it looks like a glass sculpture while yet providing the texture and flavor of traditional fried chicken.
Billions of marshmallow chicks roll off a single production line in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the fact that each one once took 27 hours to make by hand makes the modern process all the more remarkable. An engineer in the early 1950s changed everything with a machine that collapsed that timeline dramatically, and today a finished batch of Peeps marshmallow candy takes just six minutes from start to shelf.
Photo credit: Sreang Hok/Cornell University
Cornell University researchers developed a new method for washing fruit that combines tiny bubbles in water with low frequency sound. Every day, people clean fruits and vegetables to remove dirt and residues, which can come from the farm or the store.
Customers walking into a McDonald’s near Shanghai’s Science and Technology Museum got more than they bargained for. Behind the counter stood a row of humanoid robots dressed in the familiar red and yellow uniform, looking every bit like they had stepped straight out of a McDonald’s advertisement and ready to greet anyone who walked through the door.
