ie8 fix

beer

With liberty and...beer robots for all?

Ah, the Fourth of July holiday weekend, when we celebrate our freedom by drinking beer. But really, how free are you if you have to get up and get your own beer?

Developer Steve Norris, who has an absolutely fabulous sense of humor, is hard at work on a Beverage Delivery System (BDS), a fully automated inter-home delivery system he hopes will solve the "problem that has plagued mankind since the invention of the canned beverage."

The system comprises two discrete elements working in tandem: Baxter, the transport component, and RoboFridge, a fixed location dispenser robot. You sit … Read more

Put a mini keg on your counter

Bringing a full-size keg isn't always possible: when you're camping, for instance, it can take up valuable space in your vehicle. Even at home, a full-size keg may be a tight fit. But the Avanti Mini Pub offers an elegant solution for tapping 5-liter mini beer kegs. The mini kegs fit inside the smaller-size beer tapper, letting you cool them down and pour beer anywhere. The beer tapper is a lightweight thermoelectric model that autodefrosts. It runs silently and can use any standard 5-liter mini keg. The exterior is stainless steel.

The Avanti Mini Pub stands 16 inches … Read more

Gadgettes 185: The Keeping Our Lids on Tight Episode (podcast)

After years and years of failed coffee mugs, we decide to air out the dirt on the ones that suck... and possibly even cover a few things that could be considered "technology" too.

Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3)iTunes (320x180)iTunes (640x360)RSS (MP3)RSS (320x180)RSS (640x360) EPISODE 185

All The Mugs We Have Tried OXO “liquiseal” coffee mugs

Planetary Design Tumber Mug

Contigo AutoSeal http://bit.ly/cgDqaS

Thermos Sipp

This one looks good: Bodum Anywhere Travel MugRead more

Add a keg of beer to your grocery list

All consumers want options; it is only natural to want what we want how we want it. When it comes to big-ticket items, the list of available options can sometimes be overwhelming. However, style, design and finishing touches mean nothing unless the appliance can deliver in performance. In the case of refrigerators, energy efficiency, capacity and temperature range mean absolutely nothing unless the basics are covered. Like having beer on tap.

The Northstar Brew Master Draft System integrates into the existing line of Northstar refrigerators, giving consumers the option they really want. The retro-style refrigerators come with a variety of … Read more

Gadgettes 180: The Multi-tasking Clothes Episode (podcast)

OK, so we suck at bringing you a show every week. But we promise that when we do, they'll be as explosive and ridiculous as this one right here! We revisit the idea of multitasking, but this time, we focus on functional clothing. That and we insult you a whole lot. Thou wimpled plume-plucked pignut!

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 180

Ping, a social networking garment

Hoodie buddy with built-in headphones (thanks Jacob!)

Sleeper hoodie (thanks Jacob!)

Beer opener dog collar (thanks Rodney)

How one soldier can carry a whole power plant on his backRead more

From beer bottle to glass

Collections of glasses available for purchase from Windy City Glass bear some very familiar names: Heineken, Stella Artois, and even IBC Root Beer. That's because those glasses used to be beer and soda bottles. The glass-blower behind the project, Nick Paul, takes empty bottles, cleans them, and then reshapes the necks of the bottles into a tumbler even with the rest of the bottle.

Paul notes that the glasses vary slightly in size and shape, due to the glass-blowing process. However, they're supposedly safe to drink from as well as to run through the dishwasher.

The glasses sold … Read more

Two birds, one beer can chicken cooker

What's better than a beer can chicken? Why that would be two beer can chickens, of course. Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of good ol' fashioned common sense to create a kitchen contrivance worthy of taking on the shiniest of kitchen gadgets. Here there is no touch screen, no icons, not even any need for electricity (assuming of course you have a gas oven and a fresh-as-can-be chicken), but this piece of kitchen cookware can stand up to anything else.

The new Tumbleweed Pottery Double Chicken Cooker takes a good idea and makes it twice as … Read more

Heineken scores a Web hit

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, anyone with humanity, a pulse, and functional eyes, ears, and cerebellum watches Champions League soccer.

I know that not everyone has yet been converted to this phenomenon. Equally, this being a World Cup year, I feel sure that the beauty of the world's most popular game will continue to seep into resistant pores.

In Italy, despite the fact that they play a brand of soccer that makes the dead grateful, there is no one left to persuade. Which is why this stunning, brilliant, original, inspired guerrilla marketing should make you look at most tech advertising … Read more

Silicon: It's good for you, especially in beer

As a bit of a health nut, I've kept quiet about something I didn't start consuming regularly until moving to Portland, Ore., aka Beervana. Yes, that something is beer. That bastion of bad health. The oh-so-tasty temptress. The barren wasteland of big bellies.

Or maybe beer has gotten a worse reputation than it deserves. In recent years, researchers have extolled several healthy side effects of beer (in moderation, of course), from its role in limiting kidney stones and gallstones to lowering the risk of adult-onset diabetes and even, due to its folate content, helping prevent cancer.

And that'… Read more

Invention to help Brits stop 'glassing' each other

There are many theories as to why some Brits like to drink many pints of beer, smash the glasses, and then jab the jagged edges into each other's faces.

Some blame "glassing" on the disappearance of the Colonial Empire. Some point to the limited licensing hours, which have traditionally encouraged little Englanders to down 10 pints in three hours, until their legs have left them for another paradigm. But what has always been clear is that beer glasses made from glass have led far too often to glass eyes.

Now, however, scientists have discovered a way to … Read more