American ingenuity.

The aluminum beer bottle. Is there no frontier in food and beverage packaging we cannot explore?

Posted at 5:21 pm in iPhone |
 

37 responses to “American ingenuity.”

  1. Rana said on April 9, 2010 at 6:05 pm

    Pop cap, or screw top?

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  2. deb said on April 9, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    i’m so jealous. you’re by the pool with a beer, albeit a weird-looking one. a sixteen-ounce one! and i’m in wisconsin with a crummy cold, in a town that just had a huge tea party rally. with all its warts, vegas looks pretty good about now.

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  3. Dave K. said on April 9, 2010 at 7:38 pm

    Cool, aren’t they? Bud Light is in blue bottles and Bud Select is black. We saw these when we were on vacation on Naxos last year.

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  4. Deborah said on April 9, 2010 at 7:53 pm

    deb, my sympathies. Sounds awful, especially the tea party rally.

    The Budweiser bottle is cool, must be the Belgian influence.

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  5. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 9, 2010 at 9:19 pm

    JC, I’ve an SAA related comment on the last thread . . .

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  6. Denice B said on April 10, 2010 at 1:04 am

    “MMmmmmmm, beer…”–Homer Simpson

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  7. Dexter said on April 10, 2010 at 1:24 am

    How do they work as canteens for water in a second life? I use white vinegar to clean-drip my coffee pot, and the thicker plastic bottles make for fine recyclable water bottles…but then…after a year of usage, the water turns really BAD -tasting if it is in the bottle more than 72 hours.
    I am going to the store and buy a modern aluminum canteen…and pray I don’t get Alzheimer’s from it. (I read years ago that aluminum cans cause Alzheimer’s.)
    Screw-top aluminum beer cans are so throwback! I mean, they were around YEARS before the flat-top cans that required a church key. By 1962 they were totally forgotten when the pop-tab was invented.
    http://tinyurl.com/y4gp5s8

    Say “Hi” to my daughter and grand kids out there. They’ve been living in Las Vegas four years now.

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  8. alex said on April 10, 2010 at 8:27 am

    Now there’s a bottle that’ll be easier to grab onto with forceps and won’t lead to peritonitis. Just think of the health care savings.

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  9. John G. Wallace said on April 10, 2010 at 11:35 am

    I have this vague memory of the original Coors cans having a top that you opened by pressing these little dimples but that was before my legal drinking debut. I also remember people making chains from can pull tops, and a very bad episode or Emergency when Johnny Gage and his crew were at a house for an unrelated call when the homeowner choked on a pull top

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  10. brian stouder said on April 10, 2010 at 11:39 am

    It would be neat, I think, to roll down Las Vegas’s main street (or streets) at night and see all the lights, and all the people.

    Aside from that, this news story is a definite “more news to follow” type

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36352097/ns/world_news-europe/

    How much subtext (not to say “screaming headline”) material can possibly be contained in a tease like this?

    [Polish] Presidential plane carrying close to 100, including top government officials, goes down in Russia en route to a commemoration of Stalin’s World War II atrocities, killing everyone on board, officials say.

    Apparently the plane went down in the Katyn forest.

    Leaving that aside, the coroner of the County of Oz died.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36360621/ns/entertainment-celebrities/

    Raabe portrayed the diminutive Munchkin official who solemnly pronounces the witch dead after Dorothy’s farmhouse lands on her: “As coroner I must aver, I thoroughly examined her, and she’s not only merely dead, she’s really most sincerely dead.”

    Reading that article, the actor seems to have lead a full and happy life. How cool would it be, to be a part of an enduring, endearing cultural monument?

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  11. MichaelG said on April 10, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    John G. Wallace, yes, that was Coors’ “finger fucker” can. You always ended up with the tip of your finger getting wet. It could get a little perturbing when you were working on your car and your hands were greasy. I have no idea what Coors was thinking but the can didn’t last long.

    When I was in the army I had a friend who swallowed a poptop. He had pulled it off and dropped it into the can as was his custom. He had been doing it for a long time before he finally swallowed a top. We went to the e-room at Ft. Bragg. When the doc stopped laughing he told my friend to look for it in the bowl next time and if it didn’t show in a day or so to come back. It showed up or so I was told. It’s one of those things where you take people’s word.

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  12. Dexter said on April 10, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    alex! ewwwwww! LOL ! (and I don’t type “LOL” very damn often)

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  13. Dave K. said on April 10, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    Dexter, “The Onion” store has a water bottle that says,”My Other Water Bottle Is 50,000 Styrofoam Cups!” Checking that site I just found a t-shirt that I like. Plain blue shirt with “Area Man” on the chest. That guy seems to be in alot of local news reports, doesn’t he?

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  14. MichaelG said on April 10, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    Here’s a blog by a friend of mine. A guy I used to work with. He’s always been a very funny writer. California folks will appreciate his picture of Meg Whitman. Steve has an irreverent take on everything.

    http://unexpectedmushroom.blogspot.com/

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  15. beb said on April 10, 2010 at 3:41 pm

    Brian Stouter — I was surprised that Raabe lived to be 90-something. I thought little people tended to die young. So he had a good, long life.

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  16. prospero said on April 10, 2010 at 4:35 pm

    Have ya’ll ever seen That Metal Show on VH1 Classic? Giving new meaning to low-rent production values for home made TV. But these guys, in their sincerity and ineptitude and midless devotion to the idea that ridiculously derivative and repetitive music represents some saving grace, well, they’re somehow sympathetic figures.

    They can’t possibly describe what metal is, aside from occasional Sabbath vs. Maiden discussions, and they entertain AC/DC in the discussion. In my opinion, this is sort of an insult to AC/DC (Ozzie rules supreme, if you ask me, and yes, I’ve got an opinion about this music, and it’s basically Motorhead.) They’ve interviewed Lita Ford, and Geddy Lee with Alex Lifeson. Can’t be metal, can it. Far as I know, they never talked to John Kaye, who I think introduced the term in Born to be Wild.

    Famously, the HOF called Jethro Tull heavy metal. In a perfectly superfluous and absurd faux pas, some moron mistook a band that’s sui generis with some sort of category. They can and do play metal, but they clearly think it’s some cosmic joke.

    I like to watch this show. It’s spectacularly dumb and sophomoric.

    But these people have peersevered through four decades, and they’re true believers.

    But I’m interested in whether or not people with brains have an opinion about this show as TV. I suppose, this all has to do with the fact that I find Chelsea Lately very funny. I think people have invaded Tiger’s life. I’m pretty sure any who in the world could produce something that sort of sounds likemhim, and anybody coul’d accuse him. In all of this, has anyb0dy proved anything?

    Most of these womwn accusing aare just making it up.

    Most of the women these rapiata served, they were swcqred too. Theyn raped nuns

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  17. prospero said on April 10, 2010 at 5:29 pm

    What I was attempting to get at was that holy crap, you idiots, Ronalx Reagan condoned the rape of nuns, He sure gave cover,. Anybody wasnt’s to say that didn’t ha–en is a major league liar. Ronald Wilson Reagan thought the Cathoolic Church was a ho;e in his side. He wanted the archbishop deead. Fuck you puta,we have you nailed.Ronald Raygun and Ollie North thought it was ok to murder Maaryknoll nuns and to rape them.This didn’t happen. you liars?. Sure as shit did.

    I’m catholic. I’ve had it with everything being aimed on Catholics, I was diddled by Baptists at Bapdiss camp. Recovered memory is horseshit. These people can make anybody say anything. We’ve got Cardinal Berardin. Nothing wrong, phony memory. Oddda are spectacularly good,

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  18. brian stouder said on April 10, 2010 at 7:57 pm

    Prospero, Jeff tmmo may forgive me for posting this link, but I agree with his commentary and I think you will, also

    http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20100410/LIFESTYLE/4100330/1024/Clericalism-and-its-discontents-affect-all-branches-of-Christianity

    an excerpt:

    My point is there’s a gleeful piling-on aspect to all this pre-Easter froth, where some, especially in TV news, have been dealing from the bottom of the deck in their treatment of the Catholic tradition. They want to show they’re addressing religion, since the research on their dwindling audiences shows many of us located somewhere between their New York and Los Angeles studios actually attend worship services and read old books for current guidance. So they want the visuals, but they also want to get in snide references to hypocrisy and tell untold stories hinting at mystery and hidden secrets. Think “Da Vinci Code.”

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  19. brian stouder said on April 10, 2010 at 8:00 pm

    Prospero, Jeff tmmo may forgive me for posting this link, but I agree with his commentary and I think you will, also

    http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20100410/LIFESTYLE/4100330/1024/Clericalism-and-its-discontents-affect-all-branches-of-Christianity

    an excerpt:

    My point is there’s a gleeful piling-on aspect to all this pre-Easter froth, where some, especially in TV news, have been dealing from the bottom of the deck in their treatment of the Catholic tradition. They want to show they’re addressing religion, since the research on their dwindling audiences shows many of us located somewhere between their New York and Los Angeles studios actually attend worship services and read old books for current guidance. So they want the visuals, but they also want to get in snide references to hypocrisy and tell untold stories hinting at mystery and hidden secrets. Think “Da Vinci Code.”

    The Roman Catholic Church is Big Number One (like Coca Cola), and always draws all the most zealous stone-throwers. But indeed – all that pre-Easter Papal muck-raking was just too cute by half

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  20. Sue said on April 10, 2010 at 9:04 pm

    John G., the first thing I thought of when I read your comment was ‘pop top chain mail’ and sure enought I found some examples. Actually rather cool examples. If this link doesn’t work type in retrocrush pop topping and you should get it. 70’s cool is underrated, if you ask me.
    retrocrush.com/index.php/2009/08/pop-topping/

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  21. Rana said on April 10, 2010 at 9:07 pm

    Dexter, if you get one of the new aluminum bottles, like those made by Sigg, they’re lined, so no aluminum will make its way into your water.

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  22. Rana said on April 10, 2010 at 9:10 pm

    In other news, of the “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that aspect of life in Indiana” I was rather disgusted to see this evening that one of the local artworks, featuring several black musicians, was vandalized, with a swastika and a “no niggers” spray-painted over it. Disgusting. Every time I think we, as a country, are at least past the overt racist crap, and ready to deal with the more subtle issues, someone has to prove me wrong with shit like this.

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  23. John G. Wallace said on April 10, 2010 at 11:03 pm

    The whole Polish Air Crash is hard to swallow from a historical perspective. They were going to a memorial service for those massacred in a Russian attempt to decapitate the Polish intellectual (well military wise) leadership for generations to follow. This crash effectivly did the same to this generation of Polish leaders.

    It’s a Case Orange scenerio to reference Battlestar Galactica, which actually dealt with a similar reset of the government, as did Tom Clancy’s Debt of Honor.

    The Tu-154M is a decent but older aircraft but to be fair, it was only two years older than the present VC-25A (Air Force One) fleet. Four attmepts to land in piss poor visability will likely be the issue. The pilot was a major with then entire polish military leadership in the back cabin.

    (wondering if anyone else gets the case orange reference)

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  24. prospero said on April 10, 2010 at 11:52 pm

    Nobody is threatened.

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  25. prospero said on April 11, 2010 at 12:03 am

    That whole polish air crash, just a guy, right? Just a guy lots os oeople cared about, You’re full of ahit if you think he’a juat a guy. He had a wife and kids. Jesus. Try to act like decent human beings. Too strange.

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  26. MichaelG said on April 11, 2010 at 1:41 pm

    On the face of it the crash at Smolensk seems easy to evaluate. There was a memorial service scheduled to take place at the site of a WWII massacre. People were already waiting on the ground at the memorial site, presumably shifting from foot to foot in the lousy weather. The Polish military pilot had already made several approaches in extremely poor visibility without being able to land. The tower was telling him to divert. He had the whole Polish govt. in the back, including his big boss. The pressure to land must have been overwhelming, possibly with bigwigs telling him they didn’t give a shit about any stupid fog, just get the goddamn plane on the ground. So he did.

    It doesn’t seem the aircraft type was an issue at all although some aircraft are equipped with Cat (something or other – help me here, Joe) electronics that can facilitate a zero visibility landing assuming the airport was similarly equipped. I kind of doubt Smolensk is so equipped. So I would guess human problems rather than Tu-154 problems caused the accident.

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  27. prospero said on April 11, 2010 at 4:20 pm

    Polish air crash. Graham Greene. Getting to Know the General. You couldn’t read a better book.

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  28. LAMary said on April 11, 2010 at 5:17 pm

    MichaelG, I was living upwind of the Coors plant when the cans came out. The idea was to not have a tab came off to either get swallowed or tossed onto ground for someone lacerate their foot with or convert to shrapnel with a lawnmower.

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  29. beb said on April 11, 2010 at 5:21 pm

    Tina Fey was on SNL last night. I only caught a bit she was doing on Weekend Update segment. She was talking about women’s achievements and mentioned that there are currently four women in outer space, more than are any other time in history, and no one cares, and that was a good thing because it shows how far women have come. At least I think that’s what she meant. There *are* four women currently at the International Space Station. That is more woman in space at the same time than at any other time in history.

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  30. Joe Kobiela said on April 11, 2010 at 5:22 pm

    Michel G,
    Yea cat 3 is about as close to zero zero as you can go. Most probably the pilot at fault. The pressure to get down with all the dignataries in back must have been overwhelming. I have a two strike rule, If I miss once I’ll try again miss twice and Iam going somewhere else . The aircraft they were in was probably not at fault but it is still Russian built JUNK.
    Pilot Joe

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  31. MichaelG said on April 11, 2010 at 11:33 pm

    If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going.

    LAMary, check the pix of Meg Whitman on my comment above.

    Going away. Back Friday.

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  32. Dave K. said on April 11, 2010 at 11:48 pm

    The loss of lives really is a tragedy. Hopefully bad weather and/or pilot error was the cause with no sabotage/terrorism involved. My son told me that his father-in-law, a fellow Pole but with a hard-core Republican world view, thinks that it was probably an accident but somehow still Obama’s fault for playing nice with the Russians. Did he just make that up or has Fox News been at it again?

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  33. Dexter said on April 12, 2010 at 3:09 am

    I suppose we should wait ’til nance gets to see it Tuesday, but Treme was a delight. I watched it twice already.

    For some reason I thought Airbus was the aircraft manufacturer with the best safety record? Is it Boeing?

    For years I told people I was a survivor of an airplane crash in Vietnam in 1970, but with YouTube available, and after watching a few crashes, I have re-phrased my “crash” claim; I now call it a “an extremely hard landing”. We were headed to Cam Ranh Bay from Ton Son Nhut Airbase and the heavy rains and general weather forced a landing in a remote airstrip . The aircraft was a “Flying Boxcar” C119. We smashed into the landing strip and bounced up . The plane turned hard to the left and we were scraping the right wing. My safety harness was non-functional and I flew across the cabin and landed on two other guys. We had no fatalities but lots of bumps and cuts and a couple guys had broken legs and a few had real bad shoulder and arm injuries. Still, after watching those YouTubes, it wasn’t a crash.

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  34. Deborah said on April 12, 2010 at 10:03 am

    I saw Treme as well last night. I need to watch it again to get the gist. And I need to get into the characters before I can enjoy it as much as I’d like to.

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  35. Joe Kobiela said on April 12, 2010 at 10:38 am

    I don’t know about the rest of you, but breaking bad has got to be the best show on right now.Watching Walter White cracking up and trying not to get drawn back into cooking is fasinating.
    Pilot Joe

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  36. LAMary said on April 12, 2010 at 10:49 am

    Who knew Meg could do that? It’s as good a reason to vote for her as any of stuff she’s saying. Can Jerry Brown type in that position? I seriously doubt it. No way Poizner can do that.

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  37. dan_g said on April 12, 2010 at 12:54 pm

    When I was in Japan in 2004 they had those aluminum bottles.

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