Restaurant Food May Soon Fly Through the Air on Uber Drones

A chilling vision of our dystopian food future

Uber, which just valued its restaurant-delivery side project, UberEats, at $20 billion, is going to launch food-delivery drones by 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company hasn’t made any official announcements regarding this move, but a help wanted ad for an operations executive spilled the beans. A spokesperson for Uber tells the Journal the ad “does not fully reflect our program, which is still in very early days.” The biggest question now is, who pays for the damages when an Uber drone inevitably collides with a Domino’s pizza-delivery drone?

Britain says bye-bye to plastic straws

It’s been a little while since we’ve had a big story on plastic straws, but the wait is over. The United Kingdom is moving forward with a plan to ban the beverage accessories, which are a scourge to oceans everywhere, reports CNBC. Officials are working to enforce the ban “at some point between October 2019 and October 2020.”

And in other food news ...

• It seems no one learned from Super Size Me. One third of Americans eat fat food every day, according to a new study reported by the New York Times. People who make more money eat fast food with greater frequency.
• A certified men’s rights jerk is suing a Los Angeles beer bar over its “women’s beer forum.” This guy is claiming the event is a form of “gender-based discrimination,” per Munchies. The bar is fighting back against the dill weed and has set up a GoFundMe campaign for its legal-defense fund.
• A revised study on the effects of an increased minimum wage in Seattle has found most workers actually benefitted from having a higher hourly pay, according to the New York Times. The original version of the study had determined that, because of job cuts, average pay for workers fell by $125 a month.
• The perks of being a longtime Top Chef judge include global travel on Bravo’s dime, constant intake of high-quality cuisine, and all-around fame and fortune. Those aren’t the only benefits for Padma Lakshmi. Lakshmi tells Page Six that New York City youths are constantly inviting her to bar mitzvahs. The TV star explains: “The best part of Top Chef is just when I’m on the corner in New York hailing a cab and teenagers come up to me and they’re so excited because they’ve grown up with the show and they have like amuse bouche contests or quick fires in their sleepovers or they invite me to their bar mitzvahs!”
• Finally, kudos to YouTuber “Mr. Beast,” who ordered two waters at a North Carolina hot dog restaurant over the weekend and, per the local CBS affiliate, left a $10,000 tip.