What’s better than an office with a beer-stocked fridge? A beer vending machine…that talks, tweets and, of course, pops out the freshest brews whenever your heart desires.Yes, it exists. Ad agency Arnold Worldwide is home to Arnie, the beer vending machine that is improving the lives of Arnold Worldwide employees, one dispense at a time.Arnie is part of The Make Project, which aims to help employees “manage less and make more.”“It’s our version of an internal venture capital fund where we invite our employees to dream up any idea, then actually create it,” says Eric Roberston, global communications director at Arnold Worldwide. “Ideas can be anything from an internal project like the beer vending machine…to a local-community-based project to…Well, anything.”Each year, Arnold Worldwide sets aside ... Continue reading →

A User's Guide To Smoking Pot With Barack Obama Barry was quite the accomplished marijuana enthusiast back in high school and college. Excerpts from David Maraniss' Barack Obama: The Story dealing with the elaborate drug culture surrounding the president when he attended Punahou School in Honolulu and Occidental College in Los Angeles. He inhaled. A lot. posted May 25, 2012 8:29am EDT Continue reading →

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Ketchup lovers, rejoice: MIT has a solution for those times when tapping the 57 just won’t cut it. MIT PhD candidate Dave Smith and his team created the LiquiGlide bottle, lined with a super-slippery coating that makes the contents inside slide right out. The technology isn’t just for mere ketchup bottles, though: “We were really interested in — and still are — using this coating for anti-icing,” Smith said, “… or for preventing clogs that form in oil and gas lines, or for non-wetting applications like, say, on windshields.” Watch it in action: Continue reading →

(Photo by Sam Kaplan) 1. Farmhouse Ale/Saison: Jack D’Or Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project, Somerville Traditional saisons are rustic “farmhouse” beers: unfiltered, dry, and way too easy to drink. While Jack D’Or isn’t meant to be the spitting image of its European counterparts (the brewer calls it a “saison Americain”), with a bright-but-not-bitter hops flavor, crisp mouth feel, and subtle tartness, it captures the spirit of its Belgian predecessors impeccably.Runner-up: Mystic Brewery Saison 2. Imperial/Strong Ale: Audacity of Hops Cambridge Brewing Company, Cambridge With its potent 8 percent alcohol content and generously piney nose (owing to the 10 hop varieties used), this Belgian-style IPA has a name that rings true. At the same time, it’s surprisingly subdued. Bonus: Though CBC has long been draft ... Continue reading →

EVEN IN THE DAKOTA, the storied apartment building on New York’s Upper West Side, home to such cultural icons as Yoko Ono and Lauren Bacall, Buddy Fletcher stood out. African American, fantastically accomplished, and wealthy, Fletcher had grown up in modest circumstances, gone to Harvard, and graduated as “first marshal” of his class in 1987. From there he hit Wall Street, earned millions before he turned 25, and started his own firm, Fletcher Asset Management. By the time he was 30, the company was operating as a hedge fund and boasting of triple-digit returns. Fletcher made multimillion-dollar donations to Harvard, and gave away millions more to museums, arts groups, and civil rights causes. BusinessWeek and the New Yorker, among many other publications, wrote glowing profiles, ... Continue reading →

Ted Kaczynski, not attending his 50th class reunion at Harvard. I’m no psychic, but I’d imagine there were some pretty tense moments over in the Harvard mail room recently leading up to the publication of its alumni report for the class of 1962, which included an update from Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. “Look. We just got a letter from Kaczynski.” … “Are you gonna open it?” “Nah, that’s okay. You can open it.” “Yeah, I opened the last couple. I suppose I can let you can have a turn.” The people fielding letters were surely not the only ones surprised to see that Kaczynski opted to chime in before his 50th reunion this week to let his ol’ Crimson chums in on the latest haps. ... Continue reading →

Photo via @ataussigOccupations you can expect to find in Harvard’s alumni directory: Lawyer, doctor, CEO, prisoner. Wait — what?Unabomber Ted Kaczynski posted an update for his classmates’ 50th reunion this week, listing his occupation as “prisoner.” Under the awards list, he included “eight life sentences, issued by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, 1998.”Kaczynski, who graduated from the Ivy League institute in 1962, is serving a life sentence for killing three people and injuring 23 during a U.S.-wide bombing spree from 1978 to 1995, according to the Associated Press.Although a Harvard spokesperson said the update was submitted by Kaczynski, they did not say how the University confirmed that. Harvard’s Alumni Association has already apologized, telling the Associated Press, “While all ... Continue reading →