Tag: ALCOHOL

Here in New York, Four Loko has become a hot commodity. The highly caffeinated and alcoholic malt beverage has been the target of nationwide concern, but, in New York, the sale of the drink has been banned by the state Liquor Authority. With Four Loko recently banished from store shelves, some enterprising individuals took to Craigslist to sell the booze-laden energy drink on the black market. ...

If you find it hard to strike up a conversation with a stranger at a bar, a team of Newcastle University students have developed "smart" beer coasters and an interactive bar top that will break the ice for you. According to the Guardian, the coasters light up blue for men and pink for women when touched by a glass. All you have to do is slide the coaster within about two feet of that guy or gal ...

December may be months away, but it's never too early to start thinking about what you could buy your favorite alcoholic uncle this holiday season. Instead of grabbing yet another handle of his special medicine, though, you might want to consider getting a bottle that'll keep on giving -- something like, say, a Wine Bottle USB Speaker and FM Radio. As Coolest Gadgets explains, the bottle ...

The engineers at Willow Garage already taught their astounding PR2 bot to play pool, and now those same developers have added a new capability that corresponds perfectly with the PR2's stick-shooting, barroom skill. While bartender-bots and beer-pouring "kegs on wheels" grow increasingly commonplace, the PR2 adds an entirely new dimension to cybernetic drinking. Using a Web interface, thirsty ...

The AP reports that Pennsylvania's Liquor Control Board is testing machines that vend bottles of wine at two Giant supermarkets. If successful, the vending machines could be placed in about 100 other locations statewide -- making Pennsylvania the first place in the country with booze on-demand. To make a purchase, a customer selects a bottle on a touchscreen, swipes his or her ID, blows into an ...

It wasn't supposed to be this way. May 23 was supposed to be the day Parisians could forget about their country's stagnant economy, their strenuous six-hour workdays and their oversharing first lady. It was supposed to be a day when thousands of anorexic sisters and effeminate brothers, brought together under a tri-colored Facebook flag, could sport their finest identical black and gray wardrobes ...

Share Despite claims from the World Health Organization that "One of the greatest threats to international health security arises from outbreaks of emerging and epidemic prone diseases," the organization continues to focus on puritanical assaults against personal choice. Apparently afraid of outbreaks of online fun and epidemics of Facebook frivolity, the WHO has reportedly mounted a wholesale ...

Share If there's one thing French people love more than talking about themselves, it's seizing the opportunity to take collective action against some ridiculous non-threat. [Edit. Note: Please forgive our writer. He lives in France, and longs for his terra patria.] In a country where union workers strike faster than you can say "40-hour work week," governmental officials have to tread carefully ...

Where would we be without hangovers? Aspirin sales would be lower, worker productivity on Monday mornings would be higher, and the cinematic masterpiece 'The Hangover' would be a predictable documentary about a bachelor party in Vegas. This, dear readers, is the future if extra-oxygenated Korean booze catches on worldwide. It's the result of research by Kwang-il Kwon and Hye Gwang Jeong at ...

In our humble opinion, the best possible task for a robot to perform would be serving drinks. Yeah, we said it. We don't care if they can help old people, or even if they can cook Ramen noodles. But we would love a robot that could whip up a good cocktail. Apparently, plenty of other folks would, too. Let us tell you about BarBot 2010. If you're fed up with human bartenders, with all their ...

Here at Switched, we love us some robots. And, admittedly, we love us some fine mixed drinks, too. So, basically, we've gotta find a way to get ourselves to the Roboexotica festival held in Austria, where the only two items on the agenda seem to be cocktails and the robots who serve them (videos after the break). And though we'd run the very serious risk of going all Augustus Gloop on the ...

If you're a grown man, you've more than likely found yourself in this situation: it's 2 a.m., you've had enough booze to knock out Andre the Giant, and your bladder feels like an overfilled water balloon that could explode at any second. What do you do? Stumble to the bathroom, unzip those pants, and say a prayer. Because that urinal looks no bigger than a thimble (if you can even figure out, ...

Thousands of Minnesota drunk driving convictions may soon be voided, thanks to an obstinate company's refusal to turn over the (allegedly faulty) source code of its breath-testing device. In light of exposed innacuracies in such devices, a Minnesota court recently issued a ruling allowing defendants in DUI cases to request that the prosecution turn over the source code for the CMI Intoxilyzer ...

Apparently, something positive came out humanity's insane urge to produce and proliferate nuclear arms over the past century. Carbon-dating has been used by researchers in myriad scientific endeavors, and it turns out that nuclear testing has made the process that much more effective, according to Scientific American. Or, more effective at determining the age of an expensive bottle of whisky, ...

Those of you who turn into prolific and inappropriate texters after a few drinks, be warned; your SMS ramblings may end up as someone else's entertainment online. Texts From Last Night (TFLN) collects reader-submitted, drunken text messages, similarly to the hilarious FMyLife, and re-posts them (minus identifying info, of course) for your reading pleasure. And if, for some reason, you're not ...