Motivation

OK, I feel better now.

Update: The picture used for this poster (done by someone unknown) was taken by Jim MacMillan.

What can happen in a British Pub?

Consider this lesson in irony. It's short and explains why you shouldn't drink too much if you make it to the UK.

...and don't pee in the water if you go way south.

Blog Note: I need to switch away from Templates to the new Blogger Way. So, assuming I don't totally deep six the whole thing, you may see some minor differences in the blog for a while---some custom items may not make it. It's supposed to make it easier to add stuff to the sidewalls, etc. Hey, onward and upward.

Comet Coments

This view above was like our view of the comet. Not with a telephoto lens, of course, but low to the horizon, twilight, bright and clear--at least for one day. Low clouds were low hills in our case.

Other people got to see it in the daytime, as above. Our clear skies did not work out in their timing to allow us to see it during the day.

Now, the comet has headed south for those down under to wonder at.

Photos looted from Astronomy Picture of the Day. Check it, you know, daily.

Consorting with the...Duvel

Duvel is probably my second-most favorite Belgian beer (after Orval). The USA importer has a content-free website here. Wikipedia, as usual quite chatty, has more information here. There is even a club, but my Flemish is not so good---I could get that their server just crashed on the 9th, however. A technical description of the style is here.

The brewers of Duvel are very secretive, but we do know that Duvel is bottle-conditioned, i.e. fermented in the bottle. That is believed to be the third fermentation overall. The first fermentation is assumed to be normal (i.e. for a Belgian beer), and the second caused by an infusion of candy sugar (and why not?). The homebrew digest (main site here) has had some informed speculation in the past (use the search function), but all of us brewers have our own truth when it comes to consorting with this beer.

I think of it as a light-tasting, velvet-wrapped bierhammer. I'm making 10 gallons for a party.

The head on this beer is awesome and it leaves a very delicate lace on the perfectly shaped glass that reminds me of a diamond string bikini...
OK, maybe this is more like they mean by Belgian Lace...



I bet I know the image stuck in your head now.

Dangerous Quotes

Normally, people of the left refer to Hitler and the Nazis as being "right wing." There was a right wing in Germany at the time, but they were definitely not Hitler's party. The People's Cube hilariously demonstrates the danger of quoting Hitler in an attempt to smear right-wing or conservative targets.

Be sure and visit some of their other articles while there, especially Klaatu.. Barada.. Pinko!

Battle of New Orleans

Well, not the historical battle:

The worst is that, if it continues steady for six months more, the city would have a 12-month murder rate about eight to 12 times the national average for cities its size, rather than this year's multiple of seven to 10. Three New Year's Eve killings brought the city's murder total to 161 for 2006. Depending on which population estimate is used, that works out to a rate of 60 to 81 killings per 100,000 residents. But two-thirds of the murders were in the last half of the year. The state's most recent door-to-door survey estimated the population at 200,000 down from a pre-storm figure of about 455,000. Using that estimate, the 2006 murder rate is 81 per 100,000 residents. If the figures remain steady, Peter Scharf, executive director of the Center for Society, Law and Justice at the University of New Orleans notes, that would mean a June-to-June rate of 105 killings per 100,000 residents.

So, the current death rate in New Orleans is about the same or greater than in Iraq? I'm talking Iraqis in Iraq here, including the people we are shooting and bombing--on purpose--along with all the ones shooting and blowing themselves up.

I guess D.C. is relieved that another city has taken over the lead.

500 miles per gallon of gasoline?

Yes, well. It's all in the definition. If you have a plug-in hybrid, running on E-85, going short commuter distances, then yes. Most of the energy in that set up comes from plugging it in at night and ethanol. But, it does cut down on the gasoline to the equivalent of 500 mpgg.

Coincidence?

OK, so I'm applying on-line for an EIN number... Props to IRS for letting me progress to the internet age... And, to be sure it gave me a number, which I copied down by hand---because I've dealt with computers for over 30 years. Good thing too, since trying to print the page locked up my computer.

Happily, Firefox deposited the print in the spooler before the IRS knife found a vital spot. So, I only lost time. The government is good at that---even when it is trying to save you time. I suppose I should be grateful that the gov is slowly saving more time than it loses. Progress.