Bacon-Legos-and-Beer

Lego flame Flickr user Cole Blaq's Lego flames use florescent and transparent elements to give the illusion of fire without resorting to backlighting. [via brothers-brick.com]

Lego’s programmable robotics set Mindstorms is a fun toy for computing enthusiasts but if you really want to take it to the next level, check out Mark Weller’s project. Weller, a machinist and technician at the McCoy School of Engineering at Midwestern State University, combined milled plastic pieces with the basic Lego Mindstorms set to create a robotic spider that can crawl and turn. “I wanted to open students’ minds to go beyond ‘let’s put the parts together and program the robot,’” he says. “This project is more than sticking the wheels on a Lego set.” The school uses Lego Mindstorms to introduce freshman students to robotics.

Beer! An American pastime. I found a great compilation of Beer Ads on the internet that’s definitely worth sharing.I ran across the photos below on 10stepsSG, a design site. Most of these are newer ads, but there are a couple of real classics as well. By the time you finish looking through these photos, I’m sure some you are going to be quite thirsty

Drunken pub fights in Britain are set to get safer with the invention of a strengthened beer glass that health authorities hope will cut the huge bill for treating inebriated brawlers. The traditional pint glass -- which holds just over half a litre of beer and is favoured by drinkers across Britain -- has been redesigned so it is harder to smash, said Design Bridge, the company behind two prototypes. And even if the new models are smashed, the dangerous shards of glass are held together by a layer of resin, said the company when at a launch event Thursday.

It might be your preference to crack open a bottle of red wine at the end of a hard day but you may be better off pouring a pint. Researchers at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg have discovered that beer contains a powerful molecule that helps protect against breast and prostate cancers. Found in hops, the substance called xanthohumol blocks the excessive action of testosterone and oestrogen. It also helps to prevent the release of a protein called PSA which encourages the spread of prostate cancer. Scientists have long known that substances in hops help to block oestrogen. This is the first time, however, that they have been found to also inhibit testosterone.

This is a group of Cheesy Bacon Turtles after sunning themselves in the oven. They look pretty disgusting but I'm sure like they taste like a little salmonella-y slice of heaven. Just don't tell the Ninja Turtles I said that (I still owe Michelangelo for the last bag we split).

Holy crap is that…BEER! I can’t believe they let us get this close to it! Indeed, even a Heineken seems awesome when magnets are floating it inside a rotating display case with with LEDs.

Expand Drinking the odd pint may help prevent bone fractures, according to a US study. Shrink Drinking the odd pint may help prevent bone fractures, according to a US study. var bigImgSrc = 'http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/image/jpg/pint-460.jpg'; $(".enlargeOverlay").css({opacity: 0.9}); function ExpandArticleImage() { // if the big image hasn't been loaded yet load it and give this function as the callback if ( !$("img.articleImageBig").attr('src')) { $("img.articleImageBig").load(function(){ExpandArticleImage();}); $("img.articleImageBig").attr('src',bigImgSrc); } else { $("#articleImageSmall").hide(); $("#articleImageBig .eventBind").attr("href", "javascript: return false;"); $("#articleImageBig").animate( { width:"460px" }, { queue:false, duration:500 } ); $("#articleImageBig .articleImageBig").animate( { width:"460px", height:"230px" }, 500, null, function() { $("#articleImageBig .enlargeOverlayBig").show(); $("#articleImageBig .eventBind").attr("href", "javascript: ContractArticleImage();"); }); } } function ContractArticleImage() { $("#articleImageBig .eventBind").attr("href", "javascript: return false;"); $("#articleImageBig .enlargeOverlayBig").hide(); $("#articleImageBig .articleImageBig").animate( { width:"220px", height:"147px" }, { queue:false, duration:500 } ); $("#articleImageBig").animate( { width:"220px" }, 500, null, function(){ $("#articleImageBig .eventBind").attr("href", "javascript: ContractArticleImage();"); $("#articleImageSmall").show(); $("#articleImageBig").hide(); }); } It may not be uppermost in the minds of pub goers eager to slake their thirst, but could aid negotiations on the domestic front. A regular pint, it turns out, helps strengthen the bones and prevent fractures in old age (so long as you don't drink too much of it and fall over). Beer is a significant source of silicon, which is a key ingredient of the diet that helps to improve bone mineral density.

Now there’s another reason to continue drinking beer. Other than drowning my problems and celebrating holiday’s I didn’t even know existed just to feel that cold liquid refreshment, I learned it can save my life! Don’t let your wife or girlfriend tell you you’re getting too fat because you drink too much beer. Let her know that you are working on a natural body armor. According to a UK paper The SUN,  Snaz Martin, a local pub boss was stabbed with a three inch blade when he told a patron to leave the knife outside. When he was rushed to the doctor, he was told that the only thing that saved him was his fat belly. The fat he had was enough to protect his vital organs from being shanked to pieces. What I have learned reading this article is that if someone brings a nice into a bar, chances are they will use it against you, so stay away. Second, if I continue drinking beer, my liver my give, but at least I know it won’t give to a stab wound.

Bacon. Coffee. Beer.  Why not put these wonderful things together? As an avid homebrewer that likes to tinker with extreme style beers, that’s the question I found myself asking. Make the base beer an oatmeal stout, add some high quality coffee and infuse with bacon—breakfast in a bottle. As I write this I am waiting for the sparge to finish up, so the process of creating the ultimate nerd’s beer is already well underway. Over the course of the next month or so, I plan to document the progress of the beer, culminating in a taste test of the final product. Given the flavor profile I’m going for here, I have to believe that this might actually taste pretty damn good. We’re talking a medium bodied stout with a rich coffee flavor, a hint of chocolate and bacon and the smooth mouthfeel that comes with brewing with oats. Plus you get a kick of caffeine and alcohol. So, I’ll start sometime later this week with details on the brew day, and drop in over the next few weeks to keep you updated on the various steps as they happen. With any luck, this little experiment will churn out one crazy awesome bacon brew.