tHe aMoeBa's aNeMoNe

I was one of the lucky few who got invited to the much anticipated VW Golf MK6 GTI Track Day that was held in Eastern Creek Raceway, and boy what a day it was! I’ll readily admit that I have not been to many manufacturers’ track day before but can at least compare this experience to my last invitation which was for the launch of the Mazda 3 MPS back in 2006. So, how did it compare? Read on…

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Yes, in the ever more twisted science in drinks, someone has discovered how to make really awesome brain shots of alcohol using what they learnt in chemistry! Yes, kids, you should have listened to your teacher when they were teaching… or was it home ed that you should have listened…?

Bloody Brain Shooter

Channel your inner mad scientist with this Bloody Brain Shooter. Mixing acidic lime juice and Irish cream causes the cream to curdle, creating brain-like strands in the shot.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 oz. strawberry vodka such as Stoli
1/8 oz. Rose’s lime juice
3/4 oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream
Splash of grenadine

Preparation:

Chill vodka for better smoothness. Add vodka and lime juice to a shaker, shake and strain into a shot glass. Using a straw, dip some Bailey’s Irish Cream into the shot. Once you submerge the straw into the Bailey’s put your finger on top of the straw to hold the Bailey’s in the straw. Dip the straw tip into the vodka and slowly release your top finger. The Bailey’s will curdle a little bit due to the lime juice and you should be able to make strands of Bailey’s.

Repeat the straw/Bailey’s process to build a “brain” in the shot glass. Add a splash of grenadine to the concoction to add the ‘blood’ to the mix. Down the hatch as a shot.

Recipe courtesy Dan Goss, Downtown Grill and Brewery, Knoxville, Tenn.

Who said drinking had to be boring… oh wait… it isn’t!!

[Original article here]

This is interesting… I’ve never been a fan of Lexus. In fact, you could almost call me a Lexus-snob, or even anti-Lexus sometimes, but something has changed that, and to be honest, it stemmed from Toyota, rather than Lexus itself.

The Lexus LFA is Lexus’ first real venture into the supercar realm and what an introduction to the market! 4.8l v10 engine pushing out 412kW to the rear wheels, achieving 100km/h in 3.6 seconds. The one thing that sets this car apart from most traditional supercars, is how it is designed to achieve the best balance in the car. Companies like Porsche employs a mid engine layout, while Aston Martins have the engine in front, but everything is clumped up above and behind the front axle (which explains why they have such a long bonnet). What Lexus did, was to deploy the same concept as Aston Martin, but place the transaxle towards the rear, and also the cooling system is all moved to the boot! So when you see the car, you will be forgiven in thinking that was a mid-engine car because of the intakes.

So, how does this make it a supercar? Well, one usually make references to the power to weight ratio, or even the 0-100km/h performance, but to me, there is only one very defining factor that makes this a supercar; the limited numbers that Lexus will be releasing. From December 2010, Lexus will be manufacturing 20 cars per month for 25 months giving us a total of 500 cars that will ever be released. This automatically increases the drool factor and want factor by 100 folds. So if you’re after a supercar, then head into your nearest Lexus dealer and be prepared for an estimated USD$350,000 price tage without any options.

Oh, and what has this got to do with Toyota? There’s been lots of rumor about a possible revival of the Toyota Supra in recent times, but with the change in focus to being a “greener” company, I really doubt Toyota will ever revisit the Supra or even the MR2, so enter the Lexus LFA …

p.s. Yes, I failed to mention about the crazy technology that is the Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP), so hit the link for the official website, if you are that way inclined

[Official Website]

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It is said that a lot can happen in a very short period of time. But what if in a long period of time, many bad things happen? Yup, it’s just one of those years for me, where nothing seems to be going according to anyone’s plans. All I can do, is hang on and wait this out. Don’t get me wrong, because out of all this chaos, is a little bit of sanity that not only went right, but went so well that I am so happy for.

So if you believe that you are ready for this string of unfortunate events, then gather round the fire, bring out the hot chocolate and marshmallows, and click on through…

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