Recently in Food and Drink Category

"Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant in the world, but few use it to maximal advantage. Get optimally wired with these tips." By way of Follow Me Here and for fellow addicts, Developing Intelligence offers ways to maximize one's caffeine boost. "1) Consume in small, frequent amounts. Between 20-200mg per hour may be an optimal dose for cognitive function."

"We have to realize that we are already living in a society where we are already self-medicating with caffeine." This one's been languishing in the bookmarks for awhile, but via Drudge and blog-twin FmH, scientists may have discovered a cure for sleep deprivation in Orexin A. "The study, published in the Dec. 26 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, found orexin A not only restored monkeys' cognitive abilities but made their brains look 'awake' in PET scans. Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is 'specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness' without other impacts on the brain." But is it cheaper than my daily Red Bull?

"I really like my bacon crispy, but I fear it will get burnt too easily. That's a risk we all take. The price of great bacon is eternal vigilance." As seen at Looka recently, a very handy bacon decisionmaking flowchart. Hooray for bacon!

"But even those who hailed absinthe saw unsettling shadows. Wilde explained: 'After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see them as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.'" In the NYT, critic Edward Rothstein sings the praises and surveys the notoriety of "the green muse," absinthe, which is apparently making a legal comeback both here and in the EU. "Absinthe was the premier bohemian drink, as inseparable from the avant-garde of mid-19th-century Paris as was scorn the bourgeoisie. It played the role well; absinthe helped overturn that bourgeois world with seductive visions of another."

Beer for dogs. Glad we finally got that one sorted out.

By way of my sister Tessa, a robotic gastronome determines human flesh tastes exactly like bacon (or possibly prosciutto.) Sigh...I was afraid of this. Once the machines acquire the taste, we're all in deep, deep trouble. Or have they already figured it out, and cubicle culture is really just an attempt by the mechs to fatten us up for harvest? Hmmm...is it too late to install a vegetarian subroutine?

In a happy collusion of one of my favorite sports and one of my favorite drinks, the New York Metrostars are now Red Bull New York. Mmm, Red Bull. I'm not usually one for blatant corporate sponsorship, but I think I may have to buy some RBNY paraphernalia close to immediately. Now if only we can get Guinness to buy the Revolution...

"There's too much caffeine in your bloodstream, and a lack of real spice in your life..." Death by Caffeine, by way of DYFL. As a daily consumer of Red Bull, I'm comforted to discover that I'd have to consume 128 cans of said energy drink to drop dead on the spot.