The Miracle Machine Turns Water into Wine, Kinda.

A lot of people out there really enjoy brewing their own beer. There are plenty of kits out there that make it easy to make your own brew and get drunk without having to trek down to the convenience store. If your preferred drink is wine, the process of making your own drink is a bit more challenging.

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A company has turned up with a device they call The Miracle Machine that promises to turn your water into wine at home. This device isn’t performing a real miracle; rather it is using technology and some raw ingredients to speed up the creation of wine. In addition to water, you’ll need grape concentrate, yeast, and a sachet of other ingredients – all of which its maker is happy to sell you for about $10 a month.

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The hardware has an array of sensors along with heaters, pumps, and transducers inside a large carafe device. You put in the water and other raw ingredients to make your preferred type of wine. Inside the device is an Arduino controller which syncs with a mobile app to tell you all you need to know about making the wine and keeping an eye on your wine as it ferments.

Its makers say that you can buy kits to make a full bottle of wine with about $2 worth of ingredients, though it’ll take a while for the $499 Miracle Machine to pay for itself. The Miracle Machine will go on sale via a Kickstarter project. If you’re interested in learning when it’s available for pre-order, you can sign up here.

Why Astronauts Were Banned From Drinking Wine In Outer Space

Why Astronauts Were Banned From Drinking Wine In Outer Space

The story behind NASA’s brief embrace of extraterrestrial sherry is a curious one. In the early seventies, the agency’s focus was shifting from short, Moon-focused missions to possibility of longer-term inhabitation of space. A revamped menu was among the most pressing challenges: food on the Gemini and Apollo programs came in dehydrated cube form, or squeezed from a pouch, and was universally regarded as inedible.

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Wacky Waving Inflatable Tubes Save Vineyards From Grape-Stealing Birds

Wacky Waving Inflatable Tubes Save Vineyards From Grape-Stealing Birds

The tension between grape growers and hungry birds is at an all-time high. Standard-issue scarecrows have proven ineffective. Air cannons no longer startle. It’s time to call in the secret weapon. Summon the Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men.

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The Discovery of a 3,700-Year-Old Cellar Reveals the Origins of Wine

The Discovery of a 3,700-Year-Old Cellar Reveals the Origins of Wine

Wine is old as hell and probably came from Israel, based on the discovery of a 3,700 year-old cellar in the city of Tel Kabri. What did the wine of yesteryear taste like? Accounts range from "medicinal" to "hints of cinnamon."

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Why Genetically Engineered Grapes Would Make Great Wine

Why Genetically Engineered Grapes Would Make Great Wine

I am 99.9% sure that there will never be commercial production of genetically engineered wine grapes ("GMO" to use the common misnomer). Even so, I’d like to indulge in imagining what could be if we lived in some parallel universe where rational scientific thinking prevailed.

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This Scratch-and-Sniff Wine Guide Will Make You an Unpretentious Expert

This Scratch-and-Sniff Wine Guide Will Make You an Unpretentious Expert

For non-connoisseurs and two-buck-chuck aficionados, there’s a moment of minor social panic when dining out and it’s time to select a bottle of the good stuff for the table. “Oh gosh,” you think. “Don’t ask for my opinion. I do not have an opinion. Don’t pour that first sip for me. Don’t make me swirl the glass like I know what I’m doing. Please for the love of all things holy just bring us the basic House whatever and let’s move onto the food.”

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How a Total Accident Saved the French Wine Industry

How a Total Accident Saved the French Wine Industry

Amy Harmon’s excellent, recent article in the New York Times describes how the Florida orange juice industry may soon be wiped-out because of a new bacterial disease spread by an introduced insect. It looks like there could be a technology-fix for the problem using genetic engineering. The question is whether the growers will get to apply that solution.

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Borg Wine Stopper: Sobriety is Futile for Seven of Wine

Your wine is about to be assimilated and there is nothing you can do about it. This Borg Wine Bottle Stopper from Venessa of The Wine Pirate is about to assault your open bottle of Sonoma red.
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It will hover right on top, keeping your wine safe and fresh, looking menacing and imposing as it decides whether or not to send Locutus as an emissary and warn you of their intentions.

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This awesome bottle stopper even lights up with a nice eerie green glow. Batteries are included and are replaceable. This makes a great conversation piece for your next Star Trek themed dinner party.

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The Borg Wine Stopper sells for $21.99 (USD). The seller has all kinds of other geeky wine stoppers in her shop too. Be sure to check them out.

The “Smell” of Tainted Wine Is Actually Your Nose Going Numb

The "Smell" of Tainted Wine Is Actually Your Nose Going Numb

Wine lovers dread "cork taint," the mildewy, wet-basement-full-of-old-newspapers odor that ruins a freshly-opened bottle of wine. But the chemical responsible for cork taint’s foul smell may actually work by numbing your nose’s scent receptors. Huh?

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Intel Has Made a Processor That’s Powered By Wine

Intel Has Made a Processor That's Powered By Wine

The Intel Developer Forum is coming to an end, meaning its execs get to go wild and show some of the oddball concepts under way at the tech giant. These include a processor so efficient it can pull all the energy it needs to run from a glass of red wine.

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