Ahmmmm, or you support the terrorists…
***Update: Now we’ve pulled into the lead. But you never know what a difference a day can make. Keep voting!
This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance
Ahmmmm, or you support the terrorists…
***Update: Now we’ve pulled into the lead. But you never know what a difference a day can make. Keep voting!
by Tim F| 30 Comments
This post is in: Beer Blogging
Here are some questions pitched straight to you homebrewers out there.
* Was is wrong to use tap water to dilute the boiled wort? Naturally my genius brain forgot that the Giant Eagle one block away has gallons of spring water for 79 cents. I guessed that municipal water is fairly clean, but maybe I was wrong about that.
* Priming yeast – overrated? Answer – no. I “primed” the dry yeast by soaking it in room temperature water for ~20 minutes. Apparently that wasn’t enough, or I didn’t check to see whether I temperature-shocked it, because the tepid fermentation tapered off after less than 48 hours.
* I couldn’t find a wort chiller at the nearest homebrew supplier’s website so I made my own with 3/8 OD copper pipe, some plastic tubing and a tap adapter. I hope this is ok.
* For the purists out there, is plug hops an acceptable alternative to loose leaf? I have a feeling that this by itself could spawn a thread-devouring flamewar, but in the long run that’s probably healthy.
* There has to be some way to tell whether your batch has gone bad before you go through the trouble of bottling it. Any advice about that would be much appreciated.
* Bonus question for the science-minded brewers out there (that’s you, Demi): neighboring labs work primarily on S. cerevisiae, the same species that bakers and brewers use. Logically I could use their stuff and never buy a yeast packet again. Right? This matters because a friend plans to graduate soon and I though it would be particularly cool to brew a batch using one of the strains that she based her work on.
Somebody pointed out on the last thread that brewing is an addiction more than a hobby. That is so not true. I know because I spent at least 80% of my day not thinking about how I am going to do better with batch 2 (an extra-hopped porter, syrup again).
As for the commercial stuff, the bottles that batch 1 eventually goes in will be a mix of Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, a basic (for them) workman’s beer priced to compete with Sierra Nevada but much richer, and the surprisingly big Commodore Perry IPA from Great Lakes. In the likely event that you can’t get Commodore Perry where you are, mix a Lagunitas hop bomb with a 60 Minute from Dogfish Head and you’ll have the basic idea.
This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance
We’re losing to crap blogs, people. VOTE! This is a meaningless competition, but c’mon, we need to beat RedState. Do you want them to win. Do ya? DO YA? I know there are enough of you to affect the vote. Unless you’re a bunch of apathetic pussies.
Oh whatever. Maybe RedState deserves it. Their fans are more loyal than Balloon-Juice’s apparently…
THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!
Update: Only FIVE HUNDRED votes left to fix RedState good! Not like you can do that or anything…
This post is in: Politics
Wow! Some people with Backbone! This is the bill they overrode the veto on.
In other news, Darth Cheney’s impeachment has been blocked. Kucinich turns down hunting invitation.
This post is in: Politics
Rudy Giuliani loves to give the impression that he is tough on crime and that he is responsible for the decrease in crime in New York City while he was mayor. Well, it’s possible that some of the cosmetic changes he made to the city reduced crime a little bit! But I think this is the best explanation, and I only bring it up because I’m not sure if you all have heard it before**
The theoretical justification for our argument rests on two simple assumptions: 1) Legalized abortion leads to fewer “unwanted” babies being born, and 2) unwanted babies are more likely to suffer abuse and neglect and are therefore at an increased risk for criminal involvement later in life. The first assumption, that abortion reduces the number of unwanted children, is true virtually by definition. The second assumption, that unwanted children are at increased risk for criminal involvement, is supported by three decades of academic research. If one accepts these two assumptions, then a direct mechanism by which the legalization of abortion can reduce crime has been established. At that point, the question merely becomes: Is the magnitude of the impact large or small?
Our preliminary research suggests that the effect of abortion legalization is large.
Read it all if you haven’t before. For those of you who have read Freakonomics, this is old news, of course. But I wish someone would bring this up. It’s be political suicide, but it would be funny and it’d be a lot of fun to watch the Righties squirm- and maybe the Dems, too!! After all, abortion has caused a glut of lettuce pickers, dontcha know.
**So far, I have to say that I don’t think there is anything that the collective hive here hasn’t heard before, but you never know! I filed this under “Politics” because there was no “John Cole Loves Abortion” category.
This post is in: Republican Stupidity
God forbid we have some semblance of transparency in law enforcement. That just won’t do!
The first recommendation would have required that prosecutors who use jailhouse “snitches” corroborate snitch testimony with other evidence. […]
The second reform would have required police to videotape interrogations in violent crime investigations. […]
The commission’s third recommendation … would have established a task force to look into eyewitness testimony, and set up a series of voluntary guidelines for the state’s police departments to follow to ensure that police lineups aren’t overly suggestive.
Every one of these sensible recommendations was vetoed by Schwarzenegger. Unbelievable.
by John Cole| 46 Comments
This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance
And listening to Zappa while waiting for a flight and looking at all the people and writing about it is interesting.
Consider this another open thread.
*** Update ***
I made it to Orlando with no problems. It turns out my traveling mate is on a watch list, so that slowed us down a bit (the TSA agent told us that he should register for future flights using his middle name in the future to avoid such inconveniences. Take that, Osama!). I am also proud to report that with a wireless internet connection, a cell phone, and an Ipod, all modern conveniences designed to help us keep in touch with people, I managed to ignore everyone around me for the bulk of the trip. I call that a win.
Things did get sketchy on the flight, though, when a lack of sleep, a fresh cup of black death coffee, and an unfortunate Ipod shuffle (Talking Heads- Swamp into Les Claypool into Rage Against The Machine) made me feel all Patrick Bateman for a minute or two, but other than that, everything was uneventful.