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Did you know that Germany is the world’s #2 Tequila importer? A team there used ultrasonic humidifiers to create a tequila mist cloud that rained every time it rained in Berlin. And yes, people drank it by sticking their shot glasses into the fog.

TEQUILA CLOUD // Case from Rodrigo Cantalejo on Vimeo.

My brother and I went to London a few years back, and I realized I never really wrote about many of the cool things we saw and did there.

One of the cool things we did was going to a unique Japanese-style restaurant called Inamo. The food was very good, but the most memorable part was the dining experience itself.

After you are seated, your whole dining table becomes interactive. There are no waiters, just food delivery folks. Instead, you order everything from the tabletop itself.

The table is projection mapped and controlled by a small touchpad in the surface of the table. You can select different tabletop decorations instantly. Even more interesting is that while you browse the menu, the items you select appear on your plate so you have a great idea of what you’re ordering. You select everything you want and submit your order.

While you wait, you can play simple games against others at your table. You can also get live feeds of the kitchen and browse drink menus etc.

Soon enough, like magic, your food is delivered by a runner. Did you run out of a drink or want another side? Just order it from the tabletop. It was awesome because you could order drinks and refills without having to wait until you run out of your current one.

When you want to leave, the bill is instantly ready for you. You can even order a cab from the tabletop and wait at your table until it arrives.

Overall, I loved the experience. It was novel, fun, and much more efficient (IMHO). I’d do it again in a heartbeat, and it’s highly likely I will since I keep getting emails from them about their latest deals. 🙂

It’s always a good idea to keep your eye on opportunities being created by our increasingly globalized world.

These 12 well-rated companies are well known for both permanent outpost positions or just making a few annual business trips for those that like to travel and work.

1. kCura – Develops e-discovery software Relativity for managing large volumes of electronic evidence during litigation or investigations.
   Where Hiring: Chicago, IL; Hong Kong; Kraków, Poland; London, England; Reston, VA
2. Hubspot – HubSpot is an inbound marketing and sales platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers.
   Where Hiring: Berlin, Germany; Boston, MA; Dublin, Ireland; Portsmouth, NH; Sydney, Australia; Tokyo, Japan
3. WeWork – WeWork transforms buildings into beautiful, collaborative workspaces.
   Where Hiring: Austin, TX; Buenos Aires, Argentina; London, England; Mexico City, Mexico; New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Shanghai, China; Tel Aviv, Israel and many more
4. ACI Worldwide – ACI Worldwide delivers electronic banking and payment solutions for more than 5000 financial institutions, merchants, billers and processors around the world.
   Where Hiring: Auburn, AL; Bogotá, Colombia; Elkhorn, NE; Limerick, Ireland; Midrand, South Africa; Munich, Germany; Naples, FL; India; Timişoara, Romania; Watford, England and more
5. GovTech – Transform the delivery of Government digital services by taking an ‘outside-in’ view.
   Where Hiring: Singapore
6. Gett – [Enables] consumers and businesses to instantly book on-demand transportation, delivery and logistics.
   Where Hiring: London, England; New York, NY; Tel Aviv, Israel
7. DocuSign – Serving more than 250,000 companies and 100 million users in 188 countries to sign, send and manage documents anytime, anywhere, on any device, with confidence.
   Where Hiring: Bonn, Germany; Dublin, Ireland; Kōbe, Japan; Paris, France; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Tel Aviv, Israel; Tokyo, Japan; Warrenville, IL and more
8. Etsy – Marketplace of individual sellers/creators of handmade or vintage items, art, and supplies.
   Where Hiring: Berlin, Germany; Brooklyn, NY; Dublin, Ireland; Hudson, NY; London, England; Paris, France; San Francisco, CA; Toronto, Canada
9. ThoughtWorks – A global technology consultancy [that helps] you invent what’s next, and bring it to life with technology.
   Where Hiring: Barcelona, Spain; Beijing, China; Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Chicago, IL; Cologne, Germany; Denver, CO; Hyderabad, India; London, England; San Francisco, CA; Singapore and more
10. Ancestry – Helps everyone, everywhere discover the story of what led to them.
    Where Hiring: Dublin, Ireland; Helena, MT; Lehi, UT; London, England; San Francisco, CA
11. Tenable – Transform your security program with continuous visibility and critical context, enabling decisive action.
    Where Hiring: Columbia, MD; Dublin, Ireland; New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Paris, France; Singapore; Stockholm, Sweden; Sydney, Australia; Toronto, Canada; Uxbridge, England and more
12. Kronos – Offers the industry’s most powerful suite of tools and services to manage and engage your entire workforce.
    Where Hiring: Bracknell, England; Chelmsford, MA; Hong Kong; Lake Mary, FL; Melbourne, Australia; Mexico City, Mexico; Montreal, Canada; Noida, India; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Zellik, Belgium

 

From the original article on Glassdoor

In the early 1900’s, European explorers were making the first automotive forays into the Saharan desert. Their efforts sparked the imaginations of many explorers – to go further than any known travelers had ever gone before into this harsh terrain in search of fame, lost cities, and mysterious desert riches. The desert environment was brutal to these expeditions and many ended early in disappointment and some to tragedy.

In 1932, in one particularly desolate and inaccessible location, the explorer Patrick Clayton was making the first known forays into the brutal and windswept Saad Plateau south of the Great Sand Sea. As he was driving in one of the most hostile areas of the Sahara, he noticed something that shouldn’t be there. In a several kilometer area, he found chunks of yellow-green glass.

He collected some for the Egyptian Geological Survey. Clayton returned over the next couple years, collecting more samples until 1934 when he marked his last visit by leaving a whiskey bottle with a note inside

 

The Ancient Egyptians apparently found these glass objects as well, using them as decoration. One can even be found in a pendant worn by King Tutankhamun.

Many scientists today think the glass was a product of a meteor exploding in an aerial burst right before impact to the Earth, causing the surface temperature to reach 1,800 degrees Celsius/3,272 degrees Fahrenheit. Some geologists associate the glass formed from such a large areal burst as analogous to trinitite which was created from sand exposed to the thermal radiation of early nuclear explosion tests. It is estimated to have occurred around 26 million years ago since glass was found knapped and used to make tools during the Pleistocene era.

The image below is of the possible crater from the remaining debris left from the aerial explosion in the area.

References:

• The original publication of the finding by Patrick Clayton.
• https://forums.undeadlabs.com/threads/mystery-of-the-sahara-desert-glass.30210/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_desert_glass
• http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread960470/pg1
• Here is an interesting BBC documentary on the subject:

This looks fantastic!

John Thackwray set up a website where people post pictures of their bedrooms from all over the world. Fantastic, and definitely worth a look.

 

This week in Japan, a new pro basketball league is getting underway, and tonight’s game between Alvark Tokyo and the Ryukyu Golden Kings is being played on an LED court. It’s nuts.

There is a new butler’s café in Shibuya – where men come to your table when you ring a bell and always answer with, “Yes my princess?”. While this idea isn’t completely new – there are maid cafes and hostess clubs for men, and host clubs for women. But the twist with this butler cafe in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan? All the men are Western.

Fascinatingly, the female owner (Yuki Hirohata) of the club walked through Shibuya and asked over 200 women what they were looking for in a cafe. She said these women all wanted waiters that were male, good looking, treat them nice, but most importantly, were Westerners.

“Being gentlemanly in Japanese culture is embarrassing for Japanese men.”, “Women are exhausted with the traditional rules of Japanese society. These guys are different than typical Japanese men – they make me feel special.”