I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

  • Boris Bartlog

    I’m impressed not so much by the fact that they got nine layers, but by the use of really everyday liquids. When I saw the headline I immediately thought ‘oh, well they probably used mercury and chloroform and who knows what’. But this is something anyone could put together – really well done!
    If I did this I might put the objects in as the appropriate liquid layers were added, rather than plop them in at the end. Less cross-layer contamination that way.

  • http://scavenger-ethic.blogspot.com/ scav

    I’d be inclined to sacrifice a few layers in return for all of them to be potable.

    Leave in the bolt. I’m that hard.

    • anansi133

       Pousse-café drinks are all over the web, I just don’t know where to go to order one.

      • dragonfrog

        Indeed, the liquor store is an effective but rather pricey way to acquire them – you have to buy approximately 26xN of them at a time, where N is the desired number of layers.

        • Halloween_Jack

          Most of the recipes I’ve seen call for fairly commonly-used liqueurs for the layers, so anyone who’s moderately serious about their home bar won’t have a problem using them in other things. The real commitment is for time, as it takes more than a bit of care and a very steady hand to prepare them, especially if you have more than a few guests or more than about four layers (and if you do, then you’re just a show-off).

          • Antinous / Moderator

            The AWOL – Midori, pineapple juice, vodka, 151 Rum.  Ignite.

            The Atomic Truffle – Crème de Cacao, Chambord*, vodka, Rum 151.  Ignite.

            Blow out before quaffing.  Do not try to sip cocktails with a Rum 151 float, or you’ll get a mouthful of superheated super-alcohol.  Toss the whole thing back and allow to mix in your mouth.

            And Shelley, we’re all still really sorry about setting you on fire right before Christmas.

            *Use your Chambord within six months; it goes bad.

          • fergus1948

             Talking of dangerous cocktails…
            This week in the UK…
            “Teenage girl has stomach removed after drinking liquid nitrogen cocktail while celebrating her 18th birthday.”

            http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/teenage-girl-has-stomach-removed-after-drinking-liquid-nitrogen-cocktail-while-celebrating-her-18th-birthday-8202317.html

  • Kevin Pierce

    With the exception of the lamp oil and solid items, I think this concoction is okay to pour down the drain.
    What’s the correct disposal for the lamp oil, once you’ve been sufficiently amused?

    • theophrastvs

      put a wick in it and burn it off (“eyyy put a wick in it!”:  catch phrase for a naughty new sitcom involving 5 young people living in close proximity)

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

    This reminds me of a cocktail a friend and I tried to invent after the collapse of the Soviet Union. (We were speculating that Lenin would be buried and his tomb would be turned into a nightclub.)

    The cocktail was called “The Soviet Union” and, like a Tequila Sunrise, would consist of layers–although in this case fifteen separate layers.

    Unfortunately we couldn’t make it past more than three or four layers since, unlike the column above, we wanted ours to be drinkable.

  • Snig
  • pupdog

    Admittedly, I can’t watch the video til I get home tonight, but is the layer between Milk and Maple Syrup really labelled ‘DIE’?

    That’s hardcore right there…

    • pupdog

      And now I realize it’s ‘A die’, half of a pair of dice. Not nearly as hardcore. :(

      • relawson

        It’s ok dog, I’ve seen it on about 5 other sites and only today understood what it was.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bruce-Miller/100000952005408 Bruce Miller

    Used similar process in separations in a chemistry lab once upon a time! Works very well!

  • purple-stater

    Very cool.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ian-McCuntis/100001410734158 Ian McCuntis

    Did anyone else notice his last name is Spangler? As in Egon Spangler, of Ghostbusters fame.