blog.tenderbutton.com is the weblog of a (nearly finished) chemistry PhD student… well, it was, because he’s actually just pulled the plug on it.  But anyway, it’s quite interesting in a science geek kind of way; I work with chemists on a daily basis, and need to understand them and their work, so it’s even kind of educational for me.  However, this is something that can be related to by anyone who has ever stuck their finger in their ear.  And (found via various links in another article) this is the most spectacular lab accident I’ve ever heard of.  (Spotted via In The Pipeline.)

Often I feel like this about blogging.  I think I need to disconnect from the web for a year.

VLC800 Digital Modelling Cowbell.  It’s a digital modelling cowbell; the variax of percussion.  Sweet Jeebus.  (Spotted by Derek.)

Diccon, original Acuphuncture bassist, sent me an alternate recipe for ginger after reading my ginger plant-based efforts:

At the moment I’m making ginger beer by just putting in a load of root ginger, sugar and lemons into a demijohn for a few days with yeast (baking yeast at the moment) and then filtering the stuff into bottles (plastic ones… definitely not wine ones, or champagne ones if you have them lying around) and putting them in the bottom of the fridge (slow the fermentation so they don’t explode).  I just wait until the bottles become solid with the pressure - which can be as little as six hours. Quickest I’ve done it is 3 days altogether.  It takes about half an hour to slowly open them without having them decorate the kitchen with a beautiful veneer of ginger beer (another time when I wasn’t thinking I received two litres of ice cold gb straight in the face which I’m sure looked funny if anyone had been there to watch).

Most of the time about two or three lemons to the gallon and a knob of ginger (smash it with a rolling pin before putting it in) with about a pound of sugar - it turns out much much better than the stuff in cans. Brown sugar or honey makes it to die for, but it makes it much more expensive (especially since I feel robbed by the yeast feasting on it). I’d recommend this method over the plant - not just because of my bitter experience, but I found that the taste is fresher - after a week the flavour has gone from the lemons and ginger and although you could get more flavour out the same stuff, I find it easier just to start again every time. However, I’m sure there are people who will swear by the plant method.

So there’s another method entirely.  Maybe I’ll give this a go next summer, or at least when I next have five minutes free that isn’t occupied with organising my wedding.  I wonder if there’s some correlation between love of funk and love of ginger beer…

This is utter genius (spotted via a MusicThing post).  I must admit that the idea particularly appealed to me because of the longevity of the installation; potentially this thing could work for a few hundred years, until the hole is filled with detritus and the horn rusts through.  Imagine the survivors of some future apocalypse stumbling naively upon it: a serious head-fuck, I think you’ll agree.

Waste money on expensive computational modelling of molecules?  Don’t!  Balloonmolecules will save you time and money (well, maybe just money), and interest a whole new generation of kids in chemistry at the same time.  Check out the model of DNA at the bottom of the gallery page; awesome.