The McDonald’s ice cream machine is notoriously fickle. Like an Italian sports car, it’s efficient and powerful, but temperamental and fragile. Two entrepreneurs invented a device to improve them. Then things got weird 1/
Photos by Gabriela Hasbun wired.trib.al/fw0OVcf
This all started with the Frobot. A decade ago, Jeremy O’Sullivan and Melissa Nelson invented an automatic frozen yogurt dispenser built around a Taylor soft-serve machine—the same kind used by McDonald’s restaurants. But they found it was constantly breaking 2/
In fact, the Taylor ice cream machines inside McDonald’s are infamous for being constantly out of order. According to stats collected by the website McBroken.com, between 5% and 16% of all US McDonald’s ice cream machines are offline at any given time 3/
So O’Sullivan and Nelson pivoted to selling a small gadget called Kytch that fits inside Taylor's ice cream maker, intercepting its internal data like a spy bug and sending it out via Wifi to McDonald’s franchisees to help maintain and fix the machines 4/
McDonald’s restaurant owners loved Kytch. The McDonald’s corporation and Taylor did not. Taylor sent Kytch a cease and desist and McDonald’s warned franchisees that Kytch breached ice cream machines’ “confidential data.” Their efforts decimated Kytch’s business 5/
Now Kytch is fighting back. Read the story of a tiny startup that disrupted what it sees as a milkshake shakedown, sparking a cold war involving private detectives, a lawsuit, alleged collusion, and an act of betrayal 6/ wired.trib.al/fw0OVcf
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In 2019, @LaurenGoode canceled her wedding and ended an eight-year relationship. But the painful decisions didn’t end there: As an avid user of technology, she found that it was impossible to escape the digital remnants of the relationship 1/ wired.trib.al/Mr98Ziw
For months afterwards, Goode saw wedding-related ads, anniversary reminders, and photo memories of her ex on all of her devices. Pinterest continued to suggest collages of wedding paraphernalia. Even her Apple Watch would surface painful memories. 2/
Pinterest has an internal name for this: “The miscarriage problem.” Algorithms show people more of the content they’ve searched for, but don’t always take into account when a life event ends—when the wedding is canceled, when the baby isn’t born, or when someone passes away. 3/
It's late, you're tired, you know you should go to bed, and yet you continue to doomscroll deep into the night. Why? You’re procrastinating.
That may seem obvious, but there are deeper factors at play 1/ wired.trib.al/f4R8Avt
Sleep procrastination was first introduced in a 2014 study, which defined the act as “failing to go to bed at the intended time, while no external circumstances prevent a person from doing so.” Since the onset of the pandemic, it’s been dubbed revenge bedtime procrastination 2/
The phenomena is common in people who feel they don’t have control over how they spend their day (such as those in high-stress occupations) and, driven by a sense of retaliation, are looking for a way to regain some personal time 3/
Free speech has endured prolonged attacks around the world, and no one knows that more than @mariaressa courageous journalist speaking truth to power at her own peril, and one of our #WomensHistoryMonth honorees: 1/
Ressa, who spent nearly two decades working as a reporter for CNN and now is the CEO of the news site Rappler, has spent her career fighting against disinformation and attacks on free speech. 2/
Her work has earned her mentions in Time's Person of the Year, 100 Most Influential People in the World, and won her many other awards.
It has also gotten her sentenced to up to 6 years in jail. 3/
Writer/Producer/Director Ava DuVernay can add advocate to her long list of credits. @ava says everyone deserves a place on set. And that is why the Emmy Award winner, Golden Globe, and Oscar-nominee is a #WomensHistoryMonth honorees 1/
She’s helping make Hollywood more inclusive.
DuVernay says when she’d ask why most film and TV sets looked the same, she’d get the same answer. “The industry often tells us they’ve looked for Black folks, people of color, and women crew members, but simply can’t find us.” 2/
So this year, in direct response to that excuse, DuVernay launched @ARRAYNow, a database full of diverse creative talent. It's an equal opportunity hiring platform, with a mission to support professionals in the film & television industry from underrepresented populations. 3/
For three months, thousands of farmers have camped on the outskirts of New Delhi to protest new laws that would exploit the most vulnerable among them.
But the backbone of the protests have been thousands of women in bright yellow scarves. #WomensHistoryMonth 1/
The government says these laws would modernize the sector, but deregulating is likely to increase the gender gap in India. Currently, 75% of all farm work is conducted by women, but they own less than 13% of the land. 2/
And it isn't just female farmers who are affected—women who stayed behind to look after families and farms are contributing to the protests too, all in an effort to stand in solidarity and be heard. 3/
Chilean photographer, Cristián Aguirre, captured this picture during the penumbral lunar eclipse that occurred last December. 1/
The photo is part of Moonchaser, a project that garners the majestic sunrise and moonset of that day, in front of the Rukapillán and Quetrupilán volcanoes located within the Villarrica National Park in Chile. wired.trib.al/OiELv2R 2/
Aguirre’s inspiration for the project came while observing the Mediterranean moonrise during his documentary photography studies in Barcelona. 3/