Author: Editoral Team

Singapore’s first book vending machines is installed by local bookseller BooksActually.

Around 60 items, including books, CDs and films by local creators, were purchased from the two machines during their first weekend of operation.

We’re looking really to raise awareness and create excitement around Singaporean literature and creatives, not to boost sales, and we’re humbled by all the attention (the machines) are getting.

Ms Kiu, BooksActually

The machines first began operation with one set up at the National Museum of Singapore and the other two at the Singapore Visitor Centre and Goodman Arts Centre.

Since their installation, the machines have received a fair amount of media attention, including overseas news sites such as Mashable and The Reading Room.

They have also caused a stir on social media – the announcement on BooksActually’s Facebook page has over a thousand likes.

We’re thankful for all the features. With all the attention the book vending machines are getting, the interest in the store and Singaporean literature in general should spike.

The machines’ novelty may be the major selling point for now, but BooksActually hopes the hype will soon be about the books themselves.

Each machine features up to 20 titles by Singaporean writers and artists, including novels, DVDs and anthologies of poetry and short stories.

Popular titles include children’s mystery series Sherlock Sam by Adan Jimenez and Felicia Low-Jimenez, and Alvin Pang’s What Gives Us Our Names.

Mr Ryan Low, 22, a university student, says he was not disappointed.

I feel like the selection was carefully done and the books in there all seemed fantastic. There was even a small panel that flashed summaries and reviews of the books in the machine.

Ryan Low

Each vending machine will stay at the current three locations for around three months. After which, they will be relocated to other locations around Singapore.

Other Vending Machine Applications

Thirsty consumers are comfortable buying drinks from vending machines, but now reverse vending machines will take their empty bottles back.

The City of Wyndham in Melbourne’s outer west are planning a trial of the machines which exchange empty cans and bottles for promotional vouchers. A single machine could hold up to 2,000 bottles or cans.

The machines would reward users with a voucher for a local attraction or an entry in a competition. A machine at the aquatic centre might grant a voucher for pool entry or use of the gymnasium.

This is about just trying to get the recycling message out there in a new and innovative way.

Interesting facts about Gardening

• Recycling one win bottle saves enough energy to operate a 100-watt light bulb for three hours.
• Each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water.
• Every year, Americans throw away enough office paper to build a 12-foot high wall from Seattle to New York.
• Cars usually carry only one person in the U.S. There’s enough room in our 140 million cars that everyone in Western Europe could ride with us.
• Every hour 2.5 million plastic bottles are thrown away in America.
• Recycling one aluminum can save enough energy to power a TV for 3 hours.
• America can save 250,000,000 trees a year if we recycle all of the newspapers.
• By recycling steel, we save enough energy every year to supply a decade’s worth of electricity to Los Angeles.
• With 1000 plastic milk jugs, one can make a 6-foot-long plastic park bench.
• It takes as few as 30 days for a glass container to go from a recycling bin back to a store shelf.
• Glass and Aluminum materials can be recycled indefinitely without any degradation in their quality.
• By printing on recycled newsprint, each New York Times newspaper can save about 3.5 gallons of water.
• An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be an aluminum can 500 years from now.

Source

• Everything Bags Inc

Other Vending Machine Applications

Actress and singer, Victoria Justice and Detroit Tigers outfielder, Justin Upton unveiled JetBlue’s ‘Soar with Reading‘ book vending machine program for kids who may otherwise not have access to books.

The machines will be installed at locations across the city and provide free books to kids living in ‘book deserts,’ or areas where they have limited access to buy age-appropriate books.

Children and their parents will be able to take home as many books as they want all summer long. New books are put into the machines every two weeks.

The concept of a “Soar with Reading” book vending machine is an innovative and inspiring initiative aimed at promoting literacy and the joy of reading among children. The core idea is to make books more accessible and to encourage reading in creative ways.

Key features and Objectives:

1. Accessibility: These vending machines are typically placed in schools, libraries, community centers, and other public spaces where children can easily access them. The goal is to provide easy access to free books, helping to eliminate barriers that might prevent children from obtaining reading materials.
2. Incentive Programs: Often, these machines are part of broader incentive programs designed to motivate children to read. For example, students might earn tokens or coins for completing reading challenges or achieving certain academic milestones. They can then use these tokens to “purchase” books from the vending machine.
3. Variety of Books: Book vending machines stock a wide range of titles suitable for different age groups and interests. This ensures that there is something for every child, encouraging them to find books they truly enjoy. The selection often includes popular fiction, educational books, comics, and stories from diverse cultures and perspectives.
4. Promoting Literacy: By making books readily available, these machines aim to foster a love of reading from an early age. Regular access to books has been shown to improve literacy skills, expand vocabulary, and stimulate imagination and creativity.
5. Community Engagement: Initiatives like “Soar with Reading” often involve partnerships between schools, local businesses, and non-profit organizations. These collaborations help to fund the vending machines and stock them with books, while also raising awareness about the importance of literacy within the community.
6. Customization and Technology: Some book vending machines incorporate technology such as touch screens or digital interfaces to enhance user experience. Children might be able to browse books by category, author, or even take quizzes to recommend books based on their preferences.

By combining the novelty of vending machines with the timeless value of reading, they will inspire a new generation of readers and learners.

Other Vending Machine Applications

At first glance, the coffee machine looks pretty normal. On close inspection, it’s missing something important. There’s no place to insert money, as the only currency it accepts is yawns!

Facial-recognition software built into the machine looks for people standing in front of it. It maps their faces and waits for the telltale signs of a yawn. A yawn triggers a hot cup of coffee.

The coffee company chosed the airport as a prime place full of weary passengers and plenty of yawning. Over the course of the marketing stunt, the machine reacted to 210 yawns.

About Coffee

With more than 2.25 billion cups enjoyed worldwide every day, coffee is the planet’s single most valuable traded food commodity.

Its effectiveness as high-performance brain fuel makes it liquid gold, and it’s not surprising that coffee’s primary active ingredient, caffeine, is the globe’s most commonly used psychoactive drug.

The fact is that 85% of the US population consumes caffeine every single day

Sally Greenberg, National Consumer League’s executive director

Ironically, the world’s favorite stimulant is actually the coffee plant’s defense mechanism. Caffeine’s bitter taste is meant to deter hungry herbivores, pests, and disease. It’s also a “no trespassing” sign to other territory-stealing plants.

Some animals can get over the bitter taste, though, and those that do tend to love both coffee and caffeine. Humans are a great example. Interestingly, so are bees. The bees get a stimulant effect from caffeine that’s similar to the one you experience. The bees love it, and it works well for the coffee plant, too: bees pollinate coffee plants like crazy.

Your brain on caffeine

When caffeine hits the brain it suppresses a neurotransmitter called adenosine. Adenosine influences attention, alertness, and sleep. It builds up in your brain as the day goes on, like mercury rising in a thermometer. When adenosine hits a certain level, your body decides it is bedtime.

Caffeine blocks adenosine, stimulating brain chemicals like glutamate and dopamine join the party and flow more freely — giving you a surge of energy, improving mental performance, and slowing age-related mental decline. Caffeine also increases serotonin, a major mood influencer. The boost makes you feel more positive, and it’s strong enough to measurably affect depression.

That’s right: a morning cup of coffee can make you a happier person.

Studies also show that caffeine improves learning by up to 10%. Caffeine can even relieve headaches and migraines by constricting blood vessels in the brain that are opening too wide. That makes drinking coffee one of the easiest brain performance hacks ever.

Other Vending Machine Applications

As part of an Amstel marketing stunt, vending machine serves beer to people who stand and do nothing for three minutes.

The person had to stand in a designated spot, push a button to start a timer, and wait for three minutes before it would cough up a can from its precious inventory.

The machine was placed in a busy location in the capital of Bulgaria, for 16 days. Beer-hungry patrons totaled up to 67 hours of doing nothing but waiting for a brewski. The total output was 1,344 free beers.

Fun facts about Beer

1. The Slavic word ‘beer’ came from the verb ‘to drink’. Initially, beer was any kind of drink.
2. The earliest evidence of brewing beer dates back to about 3500-2900 B.C. Ancient evidence, in the form of chemical residues, was found in ancient Iran. 
3. The strongest beer in the world has a strength of 67.5%. It was created in 2017 by the Scottish brewery Brewmeister. The beer is called Snake Venom.
4. An important contribution to the development of brewing was made by the Danish botanist Emil Christian Hansen. In 1881 he was the first person to obtain a pure culture of beer yeast, which greatly improved the quality of the product. Beer yeast developed from Hansen’s technology is still being produced today.
5. The Guinness Book of World Records was conceived by Hugh Beaver, Executive Director of the Guinness Brewing Company. He came up with the idea of creating an authoritative source for pub-goers to settle their disputes about the record of a particular phenomenon.
6. The popular beer snack of chips, is believed to have been invented by accident. A chef named George Crum, in response to the tycoon’s criticism that his potatoes were “too thick” sliced paper-thin potatoes and fried them. But the dish tasted good to the tycoon and his friends. After a while, the chips became the most popular dish of the restaurant where George Crum worked.

Source

• The Beer Connoisseur

Other Vending Machine Applications