"Microbrewers can focus on making each bottle taste good. But we can focus on making each sip taste great." The comedy troupe Above Average takes the microbrewing craze to the next level by imagining a brewery that scales down its product to less than a thimble-full per bottle. You will never, ever feel the effects of alcohol, but you will experience microbrew prices.
-via The Presurfer
Willie and Waylon are raccoons. They're also brothers. Willie is a "hold my beer and watch this" type of raccoon. It's Waylon who has to get him out of his messes. In this case, the insane Willie decides to swim in the pool. Waylon drags him out when he manages to get to the edge.
Willie is alive--for now. Eventually, Waylon won't be there to save him.
-via Tastefully Offensive
What should you drink for breakfast? You can guzzle down coffee. But that gets old after a while and stimulants are not necessarily a good idea in the morning. A better alternative is an invigorating cocktail. Kim Patton-Bragg, a professional mixologist in New Orleans, has a great solution that she calls the Cereal Killer. She describes her recipe in Garden & Gun magazine:
4 cups Honey Smacks cereal
1 gallon whole milk
2½ bottles Rebel Yell bourbon
2 oz. vanilla extract
1 quart simple syrup
Nutmeg, for garnish
The preparation takes a while because the cereal needs to marinate in the milk for at least an hour. I recommend starting that process the night before. Patton-Bragg says that if it's prepared correctly, the Cereal Killer is "an eye-opener."
-via Robb Allen | Photo: Margaret Houston
Dénes Sátor, a Hungarian designer, envisions the Egg Map as a playful navigation device for tourists to use while exploring a new city. It's a compromise between enormous folding paper maps and handheld devices. To zoom, just squeeze the egg. Each quarter has a different color to help you find out where you are. Standardized symbols show visitors how to find important spots, like restaurants and public transportation.
-via Fubiz
Aren't they adorable? They look just like cartoon versions of little pigs. But these delicious entrées aren't made of pork.
They're made of squid! Rocket News 24 followed a recipe by a Russian YouTube user to craft fresh whole squids into artistic piglets ripe for eating. They're hollow squid cores with spicy stuffing inside. You can see more process photos here.
It may have been a long time ago, but Star Wars wasn't necessarily in a galaxy far, far away. If you live in the US, then the events of that great story may have taken place right around the corner. Bryam Dayley of Geek Tyrant argues that the major worlds depicted in the series are analogous to US states. For example, Endor is basically Oregon:
Besides Oregon's geographical similarity to Endor, it also has a cultural similarity. Specifically Portland's culture. Its inhabitants are furry little people completely out of touch with the rest of the galaxy. Sound familiar? Ewoks are just hipsters. Bearded people who want to get in tune with retro styles and the old ways. They believe in natural remedies, grow organic plants, and irritate the hell out of a lot of people. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I went to Portland and a group of hipsters tied me up and planned to sacrifice me to some girl they worship as a goddess. Friggin Ewoks, man. Love 'em to death, but if I had to sit through The Ewok Adventure again, I think I'd kill myself.
Ricardo Garza Marcos, a Mexican furniture designer, developed this oak coffee table. It's named for the San Andreas fault in California--the site of so many earthquakes in that region. The surface of the table splits in two to reveal storage space inside.
This isn't McMurdo Station, which can house over a thousand residents, but the tiny Palmer Station. Only about two dozen people live there. It is, by Antarctic standards, out in the boonies. But that doesn't stop Mike Heller, the station chef, from developing impressive meals with limited ingredients that arrive only every three months.
Sometimes it's hot dog soup, which is precisely what it sounds like. But Heller can also get creative and whip up some impressive deserts. Pictured above is his mocha semifreddo. Sky Moret explored Palmer Station cuisine in a fascinating article in Roads & Kingdoms. She writes:
“I would challenge you to buy three months of produce at your grocery store … and then not go shopping again for three more months,” he tells me, pointing to 50 large cans of tomatoes stacked in his dry-goods storage room that he’ll transform into roasted tomato bisque, spicy pizza sauce, and black bean chili. […]
To add some variety, our science support crew makes exotic dishes as well. On the other U.S. Antarctic ship, the Nathaniel B. Palmer, I enjoy making liquid nitrogen–cooled ice cream with our excess supply. Scientists clad in cryogenic gloves and safety glasses stir cream, milk, sugar, and flavoring in large stainless steel bowls while I pour the super-cooled liquid into each, and a midday treat is served.
-via Marilyn Terrell
You've always wondered and now you know: Big Bird would look like a freshly-plucked chicken. Dan Meth explained in a helpful interactive visual tool. Next up: a 3d model of what Big Bird looks like inside.
(Photo: Sina)
It's the latest fashion advance from China and is especially popular in Beijing, the capital city. People wear in their hair fake plants made of plastic. They're usually young plants, such as flower buds and bean sprouts. The origin and meaning are unclear, but the trend may originate with a character in a popular cartoon called Pleasant Goat and Big Bad Wolf. You can see more photos at Shanghaiist.
-via Kotaku
Neil Henry, a magician in London, wants his seemingly magical relationship with his girlfriend to become permanent. So he performed a magic trick in which he ate a can of alphabet pasta, then pulled letters out of his mouth that spell words.
For this performance of that trick, he asked for a volunteer from the audience, then volunteered his girlfriend, Charlie Gardner. When it came time to pull the letters out of his mouth, they spelled "Marry me?"
Content warning: a bit of foul language from the future bride when she realizes what's happening.
-via Tastefully Offensive
When Hal Taylor's third child was born, he was left with a dilemma: he didn't have enough lap space to read books to all of his kids at once. Since he was a woodworker who made rocking chairs, he designed the StoryTime Rocking Chair as a solution. Now he sells them, too. He makes each one by hand. They're priced at $7,000-7,500.
-via reddit
(Photo: Potlicker Kitchen)
When she ran out of fruit to make into jelly, Nancy Warner of Vermont decided to make beer jelly. To her knowledge, she's the only person to develop and method to make sweet jellies from beer. Each flavor from Potlicker Kitchen is made from just three ingredients: beer, cane sugar, and citrus pectin. Warner spoke to the tabloid The Mirror:
“I set about making a jelly with all beer, no fruit. I have made all of my own recipes and can find no record of anyone else make a pure beer jelly before I did.
“I make beer jelly much the way I would make fruit jelly, but instead of kid juice (like fruit juice), I use adult juice.
“Each jar of jelly is approximately half full of beer or wine, but, for better or worse, the jelly is non alcoholic.
“The alcohol is removed during cooking and by dilution of sugar.
“There are only three ingredients - beer, cane sugar and citrus pectin. Because there is no added fruit or flavours, it tastes like a sweet version of the beer it is made with.
“You can actually taste the hop and malt characteristics of each flavour of jelly.
-via Oddity Central
Over the years, Instructables member seamster has brought us many playful toys, such as a Where the Wild Things Are headpiece, a model duck made of duct tape, and a homemade pinball machine. But he's done playing around. He can't afford to. When the dead rise, he will be ready for them. No matter where he goes, he'll be prepared to fight the undead with this massive custom Swiss Army-type knife. It has a machete, an adjustable wrench, a pipe wrench, an auger, and a hatchet.
Strangely missing: a toothpick. That's commonly available on Swiss Army knives and always helpful.
Russell Munro's son asked for a Transformers cake for his birthday. Munro went much, much further. This Optimus Prime cake transforms accurately from vehicle to biped mode while quoting a famous line from the 1986 Transformers movie. This video shows how it works internally. A 3d printed frame for the cake moves on servos with the touch of a button.
-via Gizmodo
