Seriously. Make sure you zoom in. This is very well done:
Quite Possibly The Best Guide To Beer
Author: Sam Kornstein
Astronauts Could Ride Asteroids to Mars, Study Says
No, they really can’t. Or won’t. But what’s the difference? From National Geographic: Future astronauts could hitchhike their way to Mars—without the need for aVogon Constructor Fleet. According to a new paper, space explorers could reach the red planet by riding along inside asteroids. Landing a ship on a space rock would solve a key issue facing Mars travelers: how to shield astronauts from galactic cosmic rays, high-energy particles traveling at near light speed that come from outside the solar system. (Related:”Black Holes Belch Universe’s Most Energetic Particles.”) Cosmic rays can damage DNA, increasing the risks of cancer and cataracts for space travelers. Current research suggests that the amount of radiation that would bombard an astronaut during a thousand-day, round-trip Mars mission
Magic Hat and Vinyl
Well really just vinyl in spirit. Blog About Beer has a review of Magic Hat’s newest seasonal offering, the Vinyl Lager: Spring is just around the corner and a lot of spring seasonal beers are starting to come out. One of those is Vinyl Amber Lager from Magic Hat Brewing Company out of Vermont, and I was fortunate enough to have them mail me out a bottle to try. Probably one of my favorite things about Magic Hat is their marketing. I know it’s not the most important thing to beer, but I enjoy it a lot. I love going to a beer store and just checking out the label designs. Vinyl does have a pretty cool label that reminds me
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Couldn’t resist, via xkcd:
Far Side Karate!
I’ve always found this to be really funny:
Pretty Things
There’s a great new “brewery” in town: Pretty Things. They’re based out of Cambridge, and have been around since February 2009. I call them new because their beer really wasn’t readily available in local liquor stores or bars until this past year. And I call them a “brewery” because they don’t actually have one. From their website: We are a gypsy brewery, without a permanent brewing home. We like it that way, we can be whatever we want to be on a shoestring budget. Essentially they rent out temporary space in local breweries, such as the Paper City brewery in Holyoke, MA. It’s a pretty interesting model, and I’m curious to see how long it works for them. But regardless,
Cockfighting Accident
Well this is ironic: A California man has died after being accidentally stabbed in the leg by a sharp blade attached to a rooster at an apparent cockfighting match, the Bakersfield Californian reports. That’s unfortunate for a lot of reasons. To quote Arrested Development: “That’s why you always leave a note.”
Soda Taxes and Corn Subsidies
Here’s Ezra Klein’s response to the No Food Taxes coalition commercial aired in some regions during the Superbowl: If you were watching the Superbowl in the DC area last night, one of the ads you saw came from the No Food Taxes coalition (which includes 7-Eleven, Alcoa, the Mid-Atlantic Petroleum Distributers Association, American Airlines, McDonald’s, and many more). It showed a sensible-looking woman putting soda into her shopping cart and complaining that “some politicians” are “trying to control what we eat and drink with taxes.” Pulling into the checkout lane, a deep-voiced announcer intones, “government needs to trim its budget back, and leave our grocery budgets alone.” Watch the ad here. It’s evidence of how seriously the sugared drink industry takes the threat
Various Links
I’ve been trying to convince my friend and former colleague, Colin Whooten, to start a blog. Until he does, here are some good links that he shared with me: 1. Gladwell Still Missing the Point About Social Media and Activism 2. 3 Ways Of Looking At Manufacturing In America The second one is a good follow-up to my prior post on the Boston Globe article on the state of manufacturing in America. I’ll stop bothering Colin now. I also liked this animation showing the way our solar system works, compared with the way the world used to think it worked. Occam’s Razor!
Rambo. Massage By Man.
I can’t believe I almost forgot to post this. Taken on a side street in Phnom Penh: I believe this belongs in Tyler Cowen’s Markets in Everything series.