No more hitting the 57, Neatoramanauts! Thanks to MIT researchers, pouring ketchup out of a bottle will be easy:
Fast Company has the video clip of the fancy schmancy nanotech coating: Link[MIT grad student Dave Smith] and a team of mechanical engineers and nano-technologists at the Varanasi Research Group have been held up in an MIT lab for the last two months addressing this common dining problem.
The result? LiquiGlide, a "super slippery" coating made up of nontoxic materials that can be applied to all sorts of food packaging--though ketchup and mayonnaise bottles might just be the substance’s first targets. Condiments may sound like a narrow focus for a group of MIT engineers, but not when you consider the impact it could have on food waste and the packaging industry. "It’s funny: Everyone is always like, 'Why bottles? What’s the big deal?' But then you tell them the market for bottles--just the sauces alone is a $17 billion market," Smith says. "And if all those bottles had our coating, we estimate that we could save about one million tons of food from being thrown out every year."
Comments (6)
out of date: 34%
left over after cooking: 26%
left on plate: 20%
(Don't know about the other 20%)
Condiment/Herb offenders sorted by severity are:
Other sauces: 15.4%
Cook-in sauces: 12.2%
Herbs & Spices: 10.9%
Other condiment, spice, sauce, oil or herb: 10.2%
...
Mayonnaise / Salad cream: 4.6%
...
Ketchup: 2.9%
Proportion of the weight of food items purchased that is thrown away (mixed adult households)
Salad: 38.6%
Bakery: 23.9%
Vegetables: 14.7%
Confectionary: 11.1%
Meat and Fish: 10.4%
Condiments: 9.8%
Dried Food: 9.8%
...
Source: http://www.ns.is/ns/upload/files/pdf-skrar/matarskyrsla1.pdf
So, it kind of does look like it was a pet project that the researchers identified with, and the $17 billion (big scary number) is a rationalization after the initial impulse that was then carried out under the pretext of altruism, when in fact it was probably just curiosity and personal identification with the pet-peeves of condiment use.
Apparently the "Bagged Salad & Dressing" market (UK data) reached $10 billion in 2011 and was expected to grow as consumers become more health conscious. 38.6% of $10 billion is greater than 9.8% of $17 billion. Maybe they should have been working on a way to keep salad fresh longer.
Consumers would like it, but do the manufacturers want less waste? After all, they would end up selling less, not to mention the cost of adding the coating.
The man lacked imagination and could have added some cherubs or pixies, etc.. 0r England is probably still laughing since he did end up with most of what Davis owned in life and obviously didn't advise on style and grace as well as refrain from offering moral opinions. He was not going to spoil the fun.
I think it's not too late to add some angels and fairies........... Maybe the family dog or why not Mr England. Only in America.
After all the whole point of an epitaph is for the deceased to be remembered, and it's common practice around the world - many of the World Wonders are essentially epitaphs (pyramids of Giza-Egypt, Taj Mahal in Agra-India)
sweet
actually pretty lame but oh well
Is love so dead in this world these days?
No most of the US is not this wierd. Only in Kansas.
I've lived there and the wierd people of California have nothing on the wierd red necks of Kansas. This is really strange and a huge waste of time and money.
Please do not judge the entire U.S. on Kansas.
Please. No, really.
ages. I am surprised that no ghost stories have been linked to it(or are there?)
At first glance, it looks like an odd grave featuring
a dinner party or something like that.