Blog: The Sly Oyster

IPAs are pretty standard, nay a requirement, for any craft brewery. Hop bombs or inky stouts are how many of them create their reputations. If you like that particular beer style, then you'll want to bookmark First We Feast's list of 30 IPAs to drink before dying , It's a solid collection of hoppy India Pale Ales. It's safe to say that no beer style has defined the American craft beer revolution as assertively as the India Pale Ale. The history of the style and its development is [...]

We just praised Old Spice's latest watermelon basketball ad . As good as it is, I think this latest Kmart ad might have it beat - with some simple and brazen word play, no less. This would have been regarded as an ALL-TIME GREAT Super Bowl commercial had it been released the night of the big game. Oh well.

Teehan+Lax just released a new WebGL tool that lets you scrape data from Google Street View to create sweeping hyper-lapse videos. What's a hyper-lapse video? Glad you asked. As a reference point, time-lapse videos use a stationary camera to record the movement of time from a single location. Hyper-lapse is very similar. However, instead of a single fixed location, the camera adds sweeping movements typically focused on a point-of-interest. The video above is pretty insane. [via colossal ]

Alan Sepinwall laments that the sheer quality and quantity of scripted television shows being made makes it nearly impossible for television lovers to watch it all. In 2002 — the year "The Shield" debuted on FX — there were actually 28 original scripted dramas on premium and basic cable (some of it famous stuff like "The Wire" and "Monk," some of it long-forgotten like "Falcon Beach" and "Breaking News") and 6 original comedies. In 2007, there were 42 original dramas and 17 comedies. By last year, that number had ballooned to 77 [...]

Aereo may have won the court battle to broadcast network stations via the Internet without paying a retransmission fee, but, the networks are striking back suggesting they will forgo their broadcast license and move to a cable channel model. This could get ugly really quickly. However, I don't think any network would give up their broadcast license, but clearly they are not happy. And, like all industries that don't have dick squat of an idea with what to do with technology, they are choosing to be a firewall against progress instead of using [...]

Ed Herr, of Herr Foods, talks to NPR's Planet Money about how potato chip manufacturing has changed since 1946 , when the company was just starting out on the family farm. Herr reveals that if they made chips the way they did back then, they'd cost about $25 a bag because it would cost ten times the labor.

There's a Levon Helm documentary? Hellz to the muthafucking yes. Levon Helm was/is on my list for "if you could have three people over for dinner" question. I would just have him read me food labels and other mundane things. His voice is that good.

I meant to post this new Old Spice ad a few days ago, but figured it was still worth doing so because even after watching it 90 billion times, this ad still cracks me up. Initially, I thought the ad worked well because it's a bit weird, has a catchy jingle, and is funny. Yes, those things contribute to the enjoyment of the 18 seconds. However, I've come to realize what makes this commercial so satisfying is that it's structured like a great three act magic trick with a payoff in the end. [...]

The Oatmeal has decided that his favorite new animal is the mantis shrimp . And for good reasons based on the case he lays out.

Written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, and starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Diego Luna, and William Fichtner. In theaters August 9th. My only thought for this movie is if Blomkamp can again use science fiction as a vehicle to explore more pertinent issues like class-divide and wealth as he did with 'District 92 and racism. Time will tell, but hopefully this movie doesn't let the blockbuster-iness of it outweigh the cultural critique.

Mark Bittman breaks down the pitiful options for healthy fast food and perfectly explains the hierarchy of restaurant types : First, there are those places that serve junk, no matter what kind of veneer they present. Subway, Taco Bell (I may be partial to them, but really. . .), McDonald’s and their ilk make up the Junk Food sector. One step up are places with better ambience and perhaps better ingredients — Shake Shack, Five Guys, Starbucks, Pret a Manger — that also peddle unhealthful food but succeed in making diners feel better about [...]

Are these keys really for tactical military purposes or are they actually intended for criminals masquerading as military-in-nature to seem more ethical? Redditor Catness_NeverClean says her husband is a prison sergeant who is constantly dealing with sneaky inmates. Recently, someone sent him an image purportedly from another prison that found an inmate using handcuff key shoelace aglets . The ingenious design comes courtesy of a US manufacturer that created them for US military special operations forces. Or so they claim. [...]

Microsoft announced today via its blog that it will be selling its Mediaroom properties to Ericsson. Mediaroom operated as a quasi-separate entity from Microsoft, who is going all-in with an IPTV strategy based on the Xbox . At Ericsson, Mediaroom will continue to operate essentially as per usual, with that company investing in growing the business, while at Microsoft, the sale allows Microsoft to dedicate “all TV resources to Xbox in a continued mission to make it the premium entertainment service that delivers all the games and entertainment consumers want,” Microsoft said in [...]

Conan O’Brien took the time to learn proper Southern etiquette with Cindy Haygood of etiquette school Perfectly Polished . Man, Conan has a few good zingers in here. Definitely one of the better bits he's done in a long time.

Yes, Margaret Thatcher died this morning. Politics aside, this caught my eye: Margaret Thatcher helped invent soft-serve ice cream , so says The Atlantic's Megan Garber. Thatcher, you see, before she was a politician, was a research chemist. The future prime minister, then Margaret Roberts, received a degree in chemistry from Oxford in 1947. And she put it to use first in work at a glue factory, and then with a research job at food manufacturer J. Lyons and Company, a "foodstuff conglomerate" in Hammersmith. Thatcher's task in that role? [...]

Britain's first and only female prime minister, who served as leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990, died today. She was 87 . Really, what can you say about the Iron Lady? She was as towering a figure during 80s conservatism as Reagan was.

David Pogue explains : When you buy a cellphone — an iPhone or Android phone, let’s say — you pay $200. Now, the real price for that sophisticated piece of electronics is around $600. But Verizon, AT&T and Sprint are very thoughtful. They subsidize the phone. Your $200 is a down payment. You pay off the remaining $400 over the course of your two-year contract. It’s just like buying a house or a car: you put some cash down and pay the rest in installments. Right? Wrong. Here’s the difference: [...]

University of Detroit’s Doug Anderson won the College Slam Dunk Contest. Only his final dunk raised my eyebrows and got a "holy shit that was nasty, lemme watch that AGAIN!" response from me. Otherwise, it might be time to retire the dunk contest concept for awhile, no? [via ESPN ]

Adam Rayner stars as Simon Templar in a TV version of The Saint . It's unclear if this is even going to series, but the cast looks mighty fine for a show. Rayner killed it on the BBC production of 'Hunted' and Dushku is perfectly suited for this kind of show. They had my curiosity, but when Roger Moore showed up, they got my attention. Moore starred as Templar in the 1960s version of 'The Saint' and it appears that he's playing the father or patriarch of Templar family. Not only that, but Ian Ogilvy, who [...]

Man, I'm just getting around to watching this and if you haven't seen Funny or Die's latest video with Huey Lewis reenacting that scene in 'American Psycho' then set aside the time and do so. I'm waiting for the next iteration of this parody by Christopher Nolan and Leonardo DiCaprio that turns this into an 'American Psycho' parody-inception. Let's just go down that rabbit hole, shall we? [via dangerousminds ]