Airlifting Out The Pizza

Amazon.com recently announced Prime Air: they are going to deliver packages via drone. San Francisco innovators Skycatch announced TacoCopter, drone-based taco deliveries. They just raised $13.2 million.

Francesco’s Pizzeria in Mumbai, India – a city of 12 million people on the Ancient Silk Route – has upped the stakes in the global robot fast food market, using a drone to deliver a pizza a mile away from their store. They see the $2000 drones as a way to beat Exodus Mumbai’s notorious traffic.

From Upriser:

22pizza-drone3Inspired by Amazon’s plans to deliver goods by unmanned drones, a pizzeria in Mumbai, India shows this video that their flying pizza delivery drone delivers
They’ve always come topped with pepperoni, chicken tikka or vegetarian; but the flying variety is new.
drone-pizza-deliveryStaff at Francesco’s Pizzeria in south Mumbai were inspired by the news that online retail giant Amazon was planning to use unmanned drones to deliver goods, and decided to try one out as a means to beat the city’s notorious traffic.
“We successfully carried out a test delivery by sending a pizza to a customer located 1.5 kilometre away from our outlet on May 11,” Francesco’s Pizzeria chief executive Mikhel Rajani told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.
“What we have done now will be common place in the next four to five years,” he said, adding that the customized four-rotor drones each cost around $2,000.
.
Perhaps it’s called “chicken tikka” after the noise the rotors make.
The pizza company got questioned by the local authorities about the flight. It seems they hadn’t figured out all the palms they need to grease. If you’ve read Shantaram you have an idea of how Mumbai works.
From NDTV:
The usage of unmanned drone for the first time in India by a city-based pizza shop for delivery here has come under scanner of Mumbai police, which will seek an explanation from the outlet as to why it did not inform them before carrying out the experiment.

Police will also ask Air Traffic Controller whether Francesco’s Pizzeria outlet had a correspondence with them.

When contacted, an ATC official said he did not know whether the outlet had sought permission from them.

The official, however, categorically stated, “As per norms, permission must be taken for flying any such object.” 

DCP Madhukar Pandey“We are very sensitive towards anything that flies in the sky with the help of remote control. We will certainly ask the outlet’s administration as to why it did not inform us before carrying out this experiment. We also seek full details pertaining to the drone test,” Madhukar Pandey, Additional Police Commissioner (Central Region) in whose jurisdiction the drone was flown, told PTI.

“We will also ask the ATC if it was consulted by the outlet. After studying all the aspects, we will decide the future course of action,” Pandey said.

According to sources, terror threat has been lingering over the city and inputs available with police suggest that terror organisations might strike using paragliding and unmanned drones.

Hungry Birds

One benefit of drone delivery? Like Über, you don’t need to tip.

These pizza guys should team up with Burning Man aerial catering specialist Steven Gluckstern.

Used to be, if you wanted food from the sky, you had to shoot a bird. Now there’s an app for that…maybe they should call it “Hungry Birds”
fbi drone

 

 

Burning Man Fashion 2013: Manish Arora’s Indian Burn

by Whatsblem the Pro

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

A major five-day fashion show in India last week featured a much-ballyhooed grand finale: designer Manish Arora’s latest line, inspired by his visit to Burning Man.

From the Times of India:

Arora, whose new collection was a beautiful amalgamation of Indian and Western outfits with multicolored embroideries, explained the inspiration behind the theme of the show.

“Last year I went to a festival called Burning Man which happens in a desert of America. I got inspired by the place, I always wanted to go that place and I went on my 40th Birthday last year so the collection is based on that,” he said.

No doubt this will inspire mixed feelings in a lot of burner hearts. This is the world of high-dollar (OK, high-rupee) haute couture, blatantly capitalizing on the Burning Man trademark. On the other hand, maybe there shouldn’t be a Burning Man trademark. . . and perhaps this penetration of our culture into so exotic and faraway a milieu as Indian high fashion should encourage us and even flatter us a little.

No matter what you think about it, it’s impressive that Manish Arora’s burn-inspired line wasn’t just included in the show; it was the grand finale, and was apparently hyped half to death. Asian Age covered the event, and had this to say:

For those who were waiting for it to happen with bated breath, it did. Yes, the grand finale of Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week 2013 at Pragati Maidan happened without any glitch. And grand it was.

The show area reserved for designer Manish Arora’s show took almost a day to prepare. In fact it was cordoned off for the entire day and the junta wasn’t allowed to be seen near it.

The show finally started after the expected delay and the guests were greeted with a wide runway — black and glossy, open-air opera like setting and an international band waiting to blow our minds with their insane music.

Manish’s experiences at the Burning Man festival in Nevada resulted in the making of this astounding collection.

The show was divided into two segments.

The first one kicked off with geometric motifs and borders along with lustrous holographic stones, dull gold and beads were put together to create illusions of the Burning Man. Indigo, black, pink and green were used as the base to let metallic gold stand out.

Sequined, embroidered peplum and balloon dresses, fitted pants, sweatshirts and pencil skirts were noticed along with over-sized tops, coats, knitted dresses.

While the second part saw models wearing leather turbans with long, distressed hair peeping out, leather trench coats, jackets with Chinese collars, long and short dresses, shifts, shorts, overcoats and interesting knitwear. Neon embellishments shone bright on cuffs, collars and corset belts.

Breaking the tradition of a Bollywood celebrity closing the show for the finale designer, model Bhawna Sharma sashayed down the ramp in the showstopper outfit and bid adieu to the week.

This is what Manish Arora looks like:

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

. . .and this is what Manish Arora thinks we look like, as translated through the mirror of his subcontinental big-money fashion sense:

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

Photo: Ramesh Sharma

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