Tag: Odd Stuff

Amusing

Brewery Uses Man’s Beard Yeast To Make Beer

Maybe this should be on tap at Obama’s next “Beer Summit”.

Something strange is going on at the Rogue Ales Brewery in Newport, Oregon. Brewers there are developing an ale made from wild yeast harvested from the beard of Rogue’s award-winning brewmaster, John Maier.

He hasn’t shaved since 1978, and that apparently makes his beard the perfect place to harvest yeast. I’m just kidding, it’s far from perfect, but Rogue Ales’ president, Brett Joyce said he was looking for a “different place that might have some magic yeast in it” and decided to try out Maier’s facial hair. The guys at Rogue had tried developing some new yeast strains from some of their own hopyard, but came up empty-handed, so as a joke they had their lab guy take a couple of Q-tip swabs from John Maier’s fluffy beard. Amazingly enough, he found a yeast cell, did some fermentation tests and the unique “beard beer” was born. What started out as a joke turned into something really special, since they never expected to find the new yeast they were looking for right in their brewmaster’s beard. ”This really is the needle in the haystack” John Couchot, Rogue Ales’ self-described mad scientist said.

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Amusing

Ship Models Made From Human Bones

Oh, the wacky French.

Left alone for years at the beginning of the 19th Century, French soldiers taken captive during the Napoleonic Wars found an unusually hobby — fashioning ornate replicas of British ships, out of beef and human bone.

The soldiers made use of any bone they came across, to create these fascinating models. These rare “bone ship” models tend to sell for tens of thousands of dollars at auction, as collectors go nuts for these macabre historical relics. But how on Earth did prisoners of war create such accurate ship models, out of such bizarre materials?

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Amusing

Flitz: The Flintstones Bike

This bike was obviously designed to appeal to Liberals.

The Flintstones Bike

If walking is just too easy for you, try the Flintstones bike. Here’s Fliz, a pedal-less “bicycle” dreamt up by designers Tom Hambrock and Yuri Spetter.

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Riding a bike to your office is definitely going to reduce your carbon footprint. Moreover, with concerns about global warming and climate change looming large, innovations in bicycle designs have also been on the rise, with new designs proposing the use of the lightest possible materials and electric motors to make sure you don’t sweat much while going uphill.

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Amusing

8 Year Old Discovers $65,000 Whale Poop

I guess Charlie found his golden ticket after all.

Whale Poop

Charlie Naysmith, 8, was strolling with his dad along the beach in New Zealand when he stumbled on what he thought was a funny-looking rock. The rock was quite compelling, thanks to its surprisingly light weight and faint waxy texture, so young Charlie decided to take it home. As it turns out, the weird rock was actually not a rock at all, but an incredibly rare substance called ambergris, which is, essentially, a very valuable piece of whale poop. Charlie’s 1.3-pound piece of ambergris is estimated to be worth somewhere around $65,000.

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Amusing

Human Hair Necklaces

Kerry Howley is a contemporary jeweller and jewellery artist recently graduated with a First Class BA Hons Jewellery and Accessories degree from Middlesex University. She is fascinated by the power materials have to influence our emotional response to jewellery, with a particular interest in how these emotions can be conflicting.

Attraction/Aversion is Kerry’s award winning graduate collection, winning the Museum of Domestic Architecture’s Arthur Silver Award for graduate innovation and excellence.

Attraction/Aversion is a material exploration of how people can feel seemingly opposing emotional responses simultaneously.

The necklaces are made of human hair, a familiar material that we take pride in. However once off of the body hair becomes an innate source of aversion. Kerry wanted to see if she could make discarded hair attractive again.

Through the familiar form of a necklace, and using patterns and symmetry that are instinctively pleasing, Kerry has created a delicate balance between the viewer/wearer’s feelings of aversion and attraction.

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