geekosystem

Meeting glasses with a hearty "Cheers!" is a time-honored and proven way to win friends and influence people, so of course Facebook was going to get their unsavory digital mitts on it at some point. It appears that time has come, as Budweiser has introduced the Buddy Cup -- a beer cup with an embedded chip that turns real world drinking buddies into Facebook friends every time you clink glasses. Because there is nowhere left to hide from the Internet, that's why.

Other countries have varying laws when it comes drinking ages, but I think most places agree that sixth-grade is a little young to get served in a bar. That didn't stop a pub in Yokohama City, Japan from serving a group of children alcohol. Despite legal action, the bar seems pretty blasé about the whole thing, with staff saying, "We kind of knew they were kids, but didn't bother checking their IDs."

Have you ever gotten that kind of drunk where all you can do is watch the room spin and wish you weren't so drunk? It's alright -- most of us have been there. But UCLA researchers may have come up with a new method of sobering up quickly -- a nanocapsule full of enzymes that help digest alcohol. It's been shown to be a promising treatment to alleviate drunkenness in mice, and could one day mean a pill that sobers you up before the hangover sets in, or at least before you start saying unpleasant things about the bouncer's mom.

The fictional Pawnee, Indiana, anyway. Not that there's an actual Pawnee, Indiana, but that's beside the point. The good folks over at Slacktory have composed a lovely supercut of all the drinking on Parks and Recreation. Turns out, a whole lot of people drink a whole lot of booze. Granted, this is composed from footage from the show's entire run, but it's still a significant amount.

Ireland, it would seem, has officially decided to just start living up to all the ugliest stereotypes the rest of the world has about it. Exhibit A:  The local council for Kerry County in south-west Ireland has approved a measure that would allow police to issue permits to people living in rural areas that would allow them to drive drunk legally. The new rule was proposed by council member Danny Healy-Rae, who we hope to God was drunk when he came up with this idea, if only because the other option is him being stupid all the time.

Turns out, businesses offering folks free vouchers or coupons that don't include expiration dates is probably not a good idea. If something changes, and those businesses suddenly decide to stop honoring those vouchers, they could find themselves in hot water. That's what happened with Southwest Airlines. See, the company had previously offered free drink vouchers to their Business Select passengers as an added incentive. They changed their policy, basically voided all of the old vouchers, were sued, and are now on the hook for around 5.8 million free drinks thanks to a recent settlement.

Fly larvae -- fine, maggots -- that are raised on food spiked with alcohol grow up into flies who can't learn normally without the aid of a little booze juice, marking yet another way in which maggots are pretty much just like college students. A study demonstrating the difficulties maggots experienced while trying to process new information without the aid of a morning beer to take the edge off things appears this week in the journal Current Biology, which reminds us that keg stands are not always recreational choices -- sometimes they are educational tools.

One of the potentially unforeseen consequences of Hurricane Sandy's aftermath might see New Jersey boozers left without their favorite beverage. Fedway Associates Inc., the exclusive distributor in the state for fine liquors like Cristal and Svedka vodka, had their warehouse in south Kearny, New Jersey left in shambles thanks to 10-foot tidal surges from the horrendous weather. They don't expect to be back in full operation until December, so folks might be out of luck when it comes to their particular brands.

It turns out that, just like human teenagers, young birds can also get tipsy off of alcohol, make some poor decisions, and end up clumsy, stumbling wrecks. That's the finding of a study of young blackbirds who got tanked off of fermented rowan berries near a primary school in England last year.

At first blush, it can sometimes be difficult to tell if someone's had too much to drink. There are all sorts of warning signs, sure, but few ways are as definitive as measuring their blood alcohol content. According to Georgia Koukiou and Vassilis Anastassopoulos, from the University of Patras in Greece, the day could soon be at hand where folks can tell if someone's had too much to drink via thermal imaging software.

An astonishingly well-preserved Roman shipwreck has been discovered just 18 miles off the coast of Italy, and like any decent cruise ship, it comes equipped with its own buffet. Researchers and divers have recovered several vessels that contained foodstuffs like grain, wine, and pickled fish. Because the ship has been so immaculately kept, researchers believe the wreck, which was found using a remote-operated vehicle, also contains intact amphorae. These Iron Age Tupperware containers have proven surprisingly durable in similar wrecks, leaving the dive team hopeful that containers pulled from the wreck will still house all the refreshment one needs for a well-rounded 2-millennia-old meal that would probably kill you.

A new study that may shed light on depression and addiction in humans has found that male fruit flies which seek sex and are rejected by female fruit flies binge drink alcohol. The study, led by Galit Shohat-Ophir, focuses on a chemical found in the brain of flies called neuropeptide F which seems to link social experiences with psychological states. Flies, it seems, are just like people, and sometimes just need a cold one at the end of a hard day.

Judging from his videos, this Norwegian man is good at three things: Uploading HD videos to YouTube, ice skating, and drinking. Thankfully, when the three of these things come together, the result is magical. This video is all about the escalation, so it's worth watching it all the way through. Also, now that I've watched a good deal of his other videos I kind of wonder if this dude has a deal with Vikingfjord vodka. Either way, he's a hero.

Speaking as Geekosystem's resident booze snob, I love a good cocktail. However, I have a really hard time keeping recipes straight which is why this enormous chart from Pop Chart Labs would really come in handy. On it, you can find just about everything you need to know in order to make 68 drinks, all coming from 40 kinds of booze, a collection of mixers and garnishes. It even tells you the preferred glass to serve it in. The only thing this chart won't do for you is provide the mysterious alchemical talent needed to transmogrify a good drink into a great one, but might justify the purchase of some arcane items. All the better.

We've covered a good deal of video game related drinks, but this pair of Portal 2 cocktails created by James Dance, the proprietor of the bar/arcade Loading, are some eye-catching treats. Relying on Blue Curacao and Orangina for the color (with vodka and rum for the kick), this handsome pair is sure to teleport your tastebuds to new heights. Or get you plastered. But the most important thing: Colored sugar rings. Genius! Get the whole recipe, after the break.