The brain’s ability to make sense of the words of someone you know well in noisy situations, such as a party, could help improve voice recognition systems.

Weaving your way through a crowded party, you spot an old friend. Despite the surrounding chatter you have no trouble filtering out the other voices to focus on her words alone. How the brain performs this trick, dubbed the “cocktail party effect”, has been identified for the first time. The discovery could help generate voice recognition systems that pick out one voice among many

If voice recognition can be improved, in any way, then bring it on.

Outtakes from the title sequence of How To Get Laid, a short film directed by Nik Perleros.

Brazilan designer and illustrator Fabio Rex’s all too easy on the eye visualisations of the ingredients that make up well known drinks and cocktails.

Premium beer, top notch wine… none seem to have quite the same style as a classy cocktail.

There was a revival of the Martini in the middle 1990s, brought on by a craze for swing dancing and ring-a-ding-ding bachelor culture. But the best cocktails were not the product of the 1950s when the Rat Pack set the standard, but the 1920s when piano bars and hot jazz ruled and people changed their clothes for the evening. Our most elegant cocktails were part of the great modern revolution in design and had the same sleek lines as that era’s airplanes and motorcars.

Watch those cocktails, they may kick you twice. Not only could they be to blame for a certain degree of regret the morning after, they could also be to blame for a certain degree of weight gain. :/

Not all icy drinks are created equal: A couple of your after-work favorites can be equivalent to a whole day’s worth of calories – or a nice big piece of cheesecake.