Heading through the Cascades one weekend, we stopped off at a farm stand. They had apple orchards and were showing off one of the machines used for picking the apples. It had multiple tines for sweeping the apples from the branches when they are ready, presumably without bruising the fruit. I imagine this thing can pick a lot more fruit than a person in a given time.
An abiding memory of Japan was the vending machines in every place. It seemed like every building had a vending machine for drinks by the front door. Even the least active looking building still seemed to have one. They came in handy when it was hot although I was often taking a guess as to what I was actually buying!
A moment for an odd rant today. I had an experience recently with a business (a big company, not some small operation) where they had got some information incorrect on something they sent to me. I contacted them to arrange for it to be updated. It related to taxes so getting it right seemed pretty important. First I should note, they were perfectly happy to fix the error. The thing that amused me was that they asked me to amend their document, add a covering note and fax it to them.
I asked whether it was possible to scan it and email it across but no, they required it to be faxed. I don’t have a fax machine, nor do I live in the 1990s any more. However, it turns out our building does have a fax machine so I could use that to complete my time traveling experience. This got me thinking. Why do fax machines still exist. They only produce a copy of something so there is no proof of something being genuine. I can create an electronic document, print it and fax it. It will be harder to check because the quality of fax is not brilliant. Making a PDF of the document and emailing it seems far more effective and, you can always resend or forward the file further if required. If anyone knows why fax still exists, please let me know in the comments. I would love to understand.