When Don Pettit lived aboard the International Space Station in 2002, he became known for his “Saturday Morning Science” sessions, during which he would demonstrate really cool, simple microgravity experiments.

In this 2008 video from his second time aboard the Space Station, he demonstrates his own cup design that allows space travelers to drink coffee (or cocktails) in zero gravity.

I’m very happy to know that someone is advancing the art of space drinking. Cheers, Don Pettite!

For more, visit here.

Unleash the inner outlaw and start slinging some shots with these bad ass drinking gifts. The beer bandolier is clutch for tailgating, allowing you to keep 6 beers within shotgunning distance at all times. With enough ammo to last a while, you can roam freely without the fear of being stranded sans brew, increasing the range you can be a jackass way past your ice chest. Pick one up at BrewBelt for $19.99.

For the grown ups out there who want to really step it up, I present the tequila bandolier. For all those dirt nasty banditos, the tequila bandolier holds 6 shot glasses and a bottle of fire water. It’ll make you the life of the party…or the a-hole everyone hates for forcing shots down their throats. Either way you’ll make a commotion. Pick one up at BaronBob’s for $20.

Every day until Christmas (excluding days we get too drunk and/or lazy) we will post a new gadget that the drinker in your life would be ecstatic to receive this Holiday season. If we miss a day, we’ll make up for it with two bitchin’ gifts the following day.

I’d like to start this series off with the coolest gift I’ve found so far: the iBreath.

Yes, ladies and gentleman, it’s an iPod-powered breathalyzer (works on iPhones too). The brilliant people at David Steele Enterprises state that it’ll read you blood alcohol content within 5 seconds of blowing into the device’s tube. And that it’s accurate to within 0.01 BAC. And did I mention that it doubles as an FM transmitter for your car stereo? Well it does that too.

We’ve seen some pretty cool iPhone apps for drinkers (we’ve created two), but this is the best drinking-related use for the iPhone I’ve seen! We’re all about safety first here- go get hammered, punch holes in your wall, wake up next to a wildebeest, just don’t go drinking and driving.

It only goes up to 0.1 BAC, so it can’t be used as a novelty toy to see how wasted you can get, Tucker Max-style.

At $79, it’s very comparable to other breathalyzers, only this lets you jam to your iTunes in the car that you can’t drive for the next 5 hours. (btw, don’t sit in your car drunk, you can still get a DUI even if you’re just sleeping it off) Go out and get one for your friends, it could save their life.

Go check out our funny beer apps for iPhone.

The camps where German soldiers are stationed along with some other troops serving with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), received about 990,000 litres of beer and 69,000 litres of wine and sparkling wine in 2007, according to media reports on Wednesday.

And this year the total is on track to rise, with some 512,000 litres of beer and 42,000 litres of wine being sent out in the first six months of 2008.

- via Some German News Site

Not surprisingly, reconstructing Afghanistan can really make a man want to throw back a few. Even less surprising is the fact that Germans are being Germans, and by that I mean drunk. Apparently Germans back home are quite concerned about this, but I don’t see anything peculiar about it. With only 3600 German soldiers stationed in these camps, that breaks their per capita consumption to:

284 liters of beer/year = 0.78 liters/day

23 liters of wine/year = 0.06 liters/day

Wait, why are they upset? Maybe my math is off, otherwise I don’t see what the problem is. What the hell else can you do in the middle of Afghanistan?

I think the really tragedy is for our American brothers and sisters stationed in the Middle East. A few of our homies are/were stationed in Iraq, and they’ve revealed the terrible fact that there’s no booze allowed in some of the US camps. Damned shame.

What’ll it be: champagne or Clorox? Image courtesy of comedian Todd Levin

We’re very proud of reaching the 100k mark in just two weeks. That’s the nerdy equivalent of a gold record, right? If you haven’t heard yet, we recently launched pour1out, a free iPhone application.

Pour1out is an iPhone application paying homage to the street tradition of pouring out some of your 40oz to commemorate fallen homies. The main feature is a motion-sensitive 40oz beer bottle that pours out when you tilt the iPhone. Users can select any of 40cozy’s beer koozies to add to the virtual beer. The greatest feedback involves the one-click button that finds the nearest liquor store, utilizing the iPhone’s GPS functionality.

We initially had some glitches in the first version, but I guess that’s what you get when you pay the developer in beer. We’ve released a newer version with better coding and we’ll keep working to improve the app.

While we’ve received some very positive reviews from several beer-drinking sites, it seems some of the iPhone users are slightly less impressed. We’re pretty sure they don’t get the tongue-in-cheek, ironic beauty of an application inspired by a $2.45 beer for a $300 phone. It has a button that finds the nearest liquor stores… and it’s free! Are you not entertained?

Perhaps they think we’re a slick corporate company trying to capitalize on the street cred of the 40oz. Well, we’re not. The app was created by Scott, our resident tech-savvy guy, in under two weeks. He filmed the 40 oz pouring out beer in his garage, dusted off his programming textbook, slapped at a keyboard for a long time, and behold: 40cozy’s pour1out.

We’re proud of it and we hope you enjoy it. We’re already working on another iPhone app for drinkers that’s going to blow every other app out of the water. That’s right, developer bitches, get ready for more genius from 40cozy.

So I do a lot of beer-releated web-browsing during the work-week. Part of that is because I’m a slacker and part of it is because of where I work. One of the funniest things I’ve found during these productive days is the surprising amount of robots designed and built to do something involving beer or drinking. I’ve put together a list of five of my favorites in no particular order.

1: Beer throwing fridge!

This one made it on letterman. Its a fridge that launches a beer to you! I don’t see how you would ever open it after the toss though, the foam would spray all over.

(more…)

In my days before the 40cozy and after college I did a lot of world-wandering. I’ve backpacked through four continents and over twenty-five countries on a very limited budget. Along the way I drank a lot of different things but probably the most memorable was snake wine. It was during my days in Nam, taking a tour up the Mekong Delta that I happened upon this wonderful beverage.

Snake wine is made by taking your best Vietnamese whiskey, and then going out in the jungle and finding a snake. Along the way you pick up any roots, herbs, scorpions and whatever other tasty tidbits you want to add. You take your snake, whiskey and random goodies, put them all together in a great big jar and let them sit there covered for about six months. At the end of six months its ready to drink.

The Vietnamese say snake wine is good for all kinds of things. Its the medicine of the people. Some say its “good for your banana”, while others say it cures rheumatism and arthritis. Others just tell you it gets you nice and drunk. There is no question, however, that after drinking snake wine you feel it. You feel it in your veins and in your mouth and in your head. Everything has a hard-to-explain buzz to it. And the flavor… what can I say about the flavor? Probably the best way to describe it is it tastes like rotten scales and whiskey. Thats a funny thing about snake wine; if you take a shot of it, you’ll probably agree that its the worst thing you’ve ever tasted in your whole life. Everyone who takes a shot agrees on that, but then about ten minutes later you’ll find yourself strangely yearning to take another.

I drank snake wine when I was in Vietnam but I’ve also had it back here in California. I got a couple bottles through customs and in the early days of 40cozy.com we cracked open one at a party. All of the 40cozy crew that was present took a shot and its been in our veins ever since. A few days after that bottle was opened and everyone was still feeling it, one of our designers, Carlos, gave me a gift. He had stuffed a rubber lizard into a 40 as a memento to the snake wine, a California version of a drink none of us will forget.

As we all prepare for New Year’s, I’d like to share with you a great article on CNN retelling some of history’s greatest drinking stories. Consider it inspiration for tomorrow evening. My favorite one discusses the ongoing battle of an Indian army outpost that constantly has to deal with a herd of elephants raiding their base and drinking their rum. Plastered pachyderms are much funnier in theory, I’d imagine.