Mmmm.... Beer

Ok, so the food obsession continues. Many of you have sampled my brews and I thought you might be interested in seeing what the process is for making a 5 gallon batch. I took the opportunity spring break has presented to try the latest recipe, a Belgian White - think Blue Moon. The whole process, from setup to clean up, took about 4.5 hours. One thing I cannot convey via the net is the aroma which is very pleasant, especially with the Belgian White because of all of the different hops and spices.

In 6 weeks, assuming I get to bottling on time, we can be sampling some. This will be just in time to celebrate the end of the semester - or maybe not...


The first step - soak the mash (assorted grains and malts) for an hour at 150 degrees.


Step two - sparge the mash by slowly pouring 2 gallons of water (heated to 170 degrees) a few cups at a time to rinse the remaining sugars off the grains. Appearently you can use the spent grains for making bread or granola bars. Sometime when I have more space, I will probaby try this.


Step three is to bring the mixture to almost boiling, turn the heat off and dissolve the malt extract (sugar).


After bringing the mixture (which is called wort - not the most appetizing name...) to a rolling boil, the first batch of hops are added. This is kept at a rolling boil for (in this recipe) 40 minutes.


Another round of hops, some of the seasonings (lemon and orange peel and corriander spice), and some Irish Moss, which helps beer clarity, is added and boiled for 15 minutes. The last batch of hops and spices are boiled for the remaining 5 minutes.


Here the wort is chilled using a wort chiller - cold water in, warm water out - to 70 degrees before the wort is poured into the fermenter and the yeast is pitched. Someday I will find a way to put the warm water to good use because this process is very water intensive.


The wort in the fermenter after the yeast has been pitched.


And finally, here the wort will rest in a closet with an airlock while the yeast do their magic (make beer!) for the next week or so. After that time, I transfer it to the secondary where more of the sediments will settle out.

Violence of the Lambs

I've recently been on a horror/comedy movie binge. It started with Snakes on a Plane and then I recently enjoyed Slither. While we are in New Zealand, Bill and I are going to check out Black Sheep.

If you also enjoy the over-the-top horror movies, the hilarious trailer is available here. I think it takes a lot of talent to make sheep scary and I am very much looking forward to catching this at a Kiwi theater.

So funny.

Dinner is Served

Dad sent this to me a few weeks ago. I thought those of you out there who are birders would appreciate it. We are not sure if it is a Cooper or a Sharpshinned (size is one of the only distinctions and without any reference, it is hard to tell). Michael has tossed out the idea that it might be a Merlin. Anyone have any ideas? Whatever species, I think these are pretty cool shots.

Also, what's with my obsession with food lately?

Jingles Update

Jingles passed her final evaluation today and is now officially "In For Training"

Joe?

That last post got me wondering if Joe knows about our blog? Anybody have an answer for this?

Food, Glorious Food

I have been reading the book Slow Food Revolution, which is about the Slow Food movement www.slowfood.com. The movement celebrates culture, quality food and conviviality. This got me thinking about our group of friends and its genesis. While I know that ESF brought us all together and presented the opportunity for us to meet, I also believe those hours (this isn't a typo, the s is supposed to be there) long dinners in Sadler and Brewster Boland (we made it down their a few times to eat with Chris) proved to be important in establishing the bonds that we still value highly today. While the food (at least in my opinion) was never very good, the setting of eating provided the social context for us to laugh, cry, debate, console, and grow. Who can forget the antics of Joe, who I believe caused more than a few of us to wonder if we would choke to death as we laughed with him? While these dinners did not happen as often when we moved out of the dorms, we all got together for food social events when we could (St. Patrick's Day and other holidays, birthdays, Grandma Noetscher's, etc.) Out tastes got more sophisticated than Sbarro's pizza night but the social essence remained the same.

I feel strongly that this is why we each value quality time together spent around preparing and eating food. This has grown into our hobbies, whether it be beer brewing (I started with Chris at Planet 504), bee keeping, wine making, or the gourmet cooking each of us tries in the backcountry and around dinner tables. When we get together, it generally involves eating well prepared and delicious meals. (I am craving some gnocchi right now just thinking about it). We eat, drink, socialize all around the table and the kitchen, something that is near to us perhaps dating back to the ESF/SU dining hall experiences.

I guess maybe what I am seeing is that we are our own 'convivia' which is a very good thing.

Site meter...

...I also added one of these. Click the icon on the right for all sorts of stats for this blog. If anyone doesn't like it, or feels that it shouldn't be there, feel free to take it down, or let me know and I will.

If anyone wants to do anything at all to the template or add various widgets, feel free!!!

Upgraded... :-\

So - I've been upgraded by blogger. Despite fearing change, the upgrade seems to be OK, provides for a little more flexibility, I think. Try out the new blogger and see what you think. More posts!!!

"It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility."

Rachel Carson is considered by many to be the mother of modern-day ecology.This year, to mark the 100th anniversary of Rachel Carson's birth, theU.S.Fish and Wildlife Service, working with the Friends of the National Conservation Training Center, will celebrate the achievements of its mostnotable employee by launching the Rachel Carson Online Book Club. Beginning in March and continuing through November 2007, the online bookclub will focus on the life and work of Rachel Carson including her roleasa female leader in science and government. Through the study of herwriting, the Book Club will provide an opportunity for dialogue andd iscussion of current environmental issues in light of Carson's legacy.

Meet the Snowski's!

Snowy here. Had some fun in the park out front. Here are the results. The baby isn't named yet - we're open to suggestions... for now, it's just lil' sno-ball.

Random photo

This is the modern art section of the American Art museam in the old patent building. Lincoln held his second inaugaral ball someplace in this building. The horse is made of all driftwood and behind Bill is an enormous neon US with lots of tvs in each state playing either a movie about the state (Kansas gets the Wizard of Oz) or clips of something state -like (potatoes in Idaho). It made me dizzy and I almost puked on Vegas. 

Burr...

Snowy Picture of Adirondacks

Coolest Album cover ever?

Beautiful, no?

 

Lazy cats

Jon was over on Saturday enjoying SU's loss to Louisville, and he noticed Bernie lounging on his favorite spot.

This one's for you, Jon.


 

Bored, bored, bored

Ready to go home!!!

Some CNY news from DC. There have been at least 4 DNA exonerations of innocent prisoners already this year. Two in Texas, one in Georgia and one in Cayuga county. Roy Brown's case is crazy -- a lot of the errors are typical to wrongful convictions, such as inadequate defense lawyers, shoddy forensics and lack of access to post-conviction DNA testing. Brown ended up solving the case and finding the real killer all by himself, which is also a tragically common occurance. The Innocence Project helped free him and has the summary of his case.

There was also a story on ABC news about children in Iraq. There are a number of quotes from a guy I work with -- Jon Powers, native of Buffalo and founder of War Kids Relief.

They are interesting reads -- even if you aren't as bored as I am!

Question...

Does altruism allow for freedom?

Discuss.

Grad Student Labor replaced by Robots?

I'm not sure whether this is impressive or scary...(giving a robot a knife and pesticides)...?
___

Researchers at the University of Illinois are currently testing a solar powered, weed-killing robot. The robot uses GPS for navigation, and has two small cameras mounted on top to give it depth perception. An on-board computer offers access to information that provides the morphological features of plants to help the robot determine just what is and isn’t a weed. Once a weed is identified, a robotic arm attached to the front of the machine engages a two–part device: one cuts the weed, while the second applies herbicide to the cut weed. Currently the robot is only designed to combat weed infestation; in the future, the researchers hope to install different sensors and cameras on the robotic arm that could be used to judge soil properties or plant conditions. For more information, see www.engr.uiuc.edu/news/?xId=068909120770.

Green Building

I went to the green building exhibit recently and I thought some of you may be interested in it, especially those who own or may be considering owning a home.

New Year's Recipes

Recipes/Memorable Menus from
New Year's

No more credit card offers

I'm on an anti-junk mail campaign. You can choose to stop getting credit card offers in the mail (which seems to be the bulk of our mail these days).

Send A Holiday Greeting

Go to www.letssaythanks.com where you can pick out a card that will be printed by Xerox and sent to a soldier that is serving in Iraq.

The mission of Let's Say Thanks is to provide a way for individuals across the country to recognize U.S. troops stationed overseas. By submitting a message through this site you have the opportunity to send a free personalized postcard greeting to deployed servicemen and women.

The postcards, depicting patriotic scenes and hometown images, were selected from a pool of entries from children across the country.
All you have to do is click on your favorite design and either select the message that best expresses your sentiment or draft a personal note. The postcards are then printed on the Xerox iGen3® Digital Production Press and mailed in care packages

See Charlotte's Web, Support 4-H

For every ticket purchased for Paramount Pictures and Walden Media's production of Charlotte's Web through http://www.fourhcouncil.edu/, Hollywood Movie Money will make a $1 donation to 4-H to help support your state's 4-H program.

Fun with wikipedia.

This is too much fun not to share...

Wikipedia has a list of "protected pages" that have been locked for editing because of heavy vandalism, or edit and revert "wars". There's a lot of gold to be found in here. Take for example THIS version of the page on Down Syndrome from a few days ago...

Also, there appear to be quite a few battles over Turkish/Greek identity.

The complete list of protected pages (hours of entertainment) is HERE.

More tunes

I the iceland flavor I have uploaded several sweet tracks in Viking from the rock band Sigur Ros, whom are awesome.

Apparently, this software may make it unnecessary to have to get our music thru the gmail interface

Who wants one?

I used to want every kind of lego kit that came in the toy catalogs this time of year.

I feel I've matured past that: big boy toys

and a slightly scarier version here.

Who else has a wild gift request, we can compile the most expensive list ever and send it north.

Photo Blog

I could spend all day looking at the photos and reading the comments. Amazing!!

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/

Voters support evolution education

On 7 November 2006, voters in Ohio, Kansas, and Pennsylvania elected candidates who support science. Notably, in the Ohio Board of Education District 7 race, former U.S. Representative Tom Sawyer defeated incumbent Deborah Owens-Fink. Fink was a consistent and vocal supporter of anti-evolution measures, leading the campaign to introduce intelligent design/creationism into the Ohio science curriculum. Pro-science candidates also won races in three other Ohio Board of Education districts: District 2 - John Bender, District 4 - G. R. "Sam" Schloemer, District 8 - Deborah L. Cain. In the Ohio gubernatorial election, voters selected Democrat Ted Strickland. Strickland accepts evolution and opposes the teaching of intelligent design in the science classroom. This is another important victory for Ohio science education because the Governor appoints 8 of 19 members of the Board of Education.
In Kansas, voters placed control of the state Board of Education back in the hands of members who support teaching evolution. Supporters of evolution education once again control the board with a 6-4 majority. Republicans Sally Cauble (District 5) and Jane Shaver (District 9), both supporters of evolution education, replaced anti-science members of the board. However, Republicans John Bacon (District 3) and Ken Willard (District 7) were re-elected. Bacon and Willard were part of the 6-4 anti-evolution majority that redefined science in 2005 and allowed the teaching of intelligent design/creationism. Incumbent governor Kathleen Sebelius (D) was re-elected to a second term. In October 2006, Sebelius called the Board of Education "an embarrassment to the state" and vowed to push for a constitutional amendment to make the board advisory and shift power to a Secretary of Education in the governor's Cabinet.
In Pennsylvania, with 59 percent of the vote, Democrat Bob Casey defeated incumbent Senator Rick Santorum (R ). Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, was a powerful and influential supporter of the "intelligent design" movement. Santorum attempted to amend the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 to permit the teaching of religious alternatives to evolution in the science curriculum. Santorum was also on the advisory board to the legal group that defended the Dover school board in the landmark case, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, in 2005.
-AIBS Public Policy Office

Last 4...

A view from the street around 2 in the afternoon. A lot of buildings have huge windows and skylights to take advantage of the limited sunlight. The sun never really got high enough in the sky to make it over the buildings, so the streets were in constant shadow or darkness. They really go all out with the Christmas decorations, though, and it was very pretty and festive!


The building behind Bill is the Prime Minister and Parliment's offices. Had it been a workday, I am sure we could have just walked right in to say hi.


Our hotel was the green building in the middle. The yellow building next door has an exhibit on a viking longhouse that was recently discovered where these buildings now sit. There was a really cool glass case covering a hole in the sidewalk over the foundation.


Uh...this was a sign on the escalators in the airport. Apparently dogs should be carried on escalators and not left to navigate them on their own.


Chris -- we asked all over town, but no one had any wool for spinning. Reykjavikians are very modern and trendy and I don't imagine they spend much time spinning wool. There was this one place that had odd, brightly dyed fleece, but the shop employees said it was for making felted things like slippers and not for spinning. :(

We did see Santa Claus wandering though town doing some shopping, however. And about 80 drunk people dressed up in matching Sylvester the cat costumes with medals hanging around their necks. A number of them were doing Borat impersonations. 

View from the top.

Stupid Picasa -- only 4 pictures...

There was this church on the highest hill in the city and for 250 kroner ($5) we could take the lift to the bell tower. (The bells rang every 15 minutes and could be heard all over town. We were in the tower for three loud cycles...)

We had a great view of the city (town? There are only 288,000 people in all of Iceland, but a large percentage of them live in Reykjavik) and the ocean beyond. In one direction we could see a barren geothermal field and watch gysers spouting steam. It was wicked cool.




 

Iceland for Beginners

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Bill and I got back from Iceland last night and we have some pictures to share. It was a great trip and very cool to be visiting during the winter. It really gave us a sense of how stark the landscape is.

Some cool things we learned: Icelanders speak Viking. Also, fortunately, English. While there isn't really crime in Iceland, there is lots of graffti. Two of my favorites. The first, you'll notice, doesn't say not to smoke pot -- just don't smoke too much of it every day.




We visited a frozen pond near the center of town which was used as an ice rink and a soccer field. A small part of it remained unfrozen and ducks, geese and swans gathered there and were fed by locals and Japanese tourists. There was a lot of poo. The photo of the lake was taken around 11:30 in the morning and the sun is probably an hour away from it's highest point in the sky.

 

Rabies Article

USA (West Virginia): rabies outbreak imported from Florida------------------------------------

Millions of dollars are spent every year trapping, testing, and vaccinatingWest Virginia raccoons. 30 years ago, rabies was unusual in West Virginia.Then some hunters decided Hardy County was running low on raccoons. Theybrought some from Florida to stock up the place. At least, that's thegovernment's theory. The culprits were never traced. But in 1977, WestVirginia suddenly had its 1st case of raccoon rabies. Those imported HardyCounty raccoons are now to blame for a rabies epizootic (animal epidemic)that stretches from Canada to North Carolina. Rabies spread upward fromFlorida too, and the 2 outbreaks met in the middle. Raccoon rabies nowblankets the eastern seaboard. (continued...http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/2006111831 )

Very Cool FL View from Wikipedia

I am doing some research on the Finger Lakes for a final paper and stumbled on this image from Wikipedia. Thought you all might appreciate it.

Here's the source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:New_York%27s_Finger_Lakes.jpg

The Next Wireless?

An interesting article on truly wireless technology...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6129460.stm

Building on Kelly's post...

  

B.Franklin Quote

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. "

Benjamin Franklin

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!!
Hope you all get a chance to enjoy the wonderful day! This is how Kev left for work this morning!

Happy Aniversary

To Kevin and Carrie. Anyone got pictures to post? I can't find any.

Testicle Festival

And you thought you knew everything about Syracuse???

http://www.wtvh.com/Story.aspx?preview=&type=ln&NStoryID=3032

I'll pass!!

If someone does this, I want a video!!

CHECK THIS OUT!!! I think this should also come out of a pumpkin' chunkin' machine!!!! How cool would that be.

http://www.extremepumpkins.com/kersoaktoilp.html

A Little Less Green?

Science News
Week of Feb. 4, 2006; Vol. 169, No. 5 , p. 74

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060204/bob9.asp

Will the highways on the Internet become more few?

Asks Bush.

Funnny.

What is this^2???

Following in JoAnna's footsteps I found something that looks just like brown sugar, but....isn't.

What's this???

Guess what this is a picture of a win a prize!!
The photo below is just provided for amusement. I watched these guys for awhile on Saturday.

  

Random picture from the library...

  

Free Broadband for all (verizon custoomers)!

This may be an incredibly geeky thing to post about but lookee here!

You can use verizon's bandwith for free*! This is a boon to all us who live in the stix or who don't want to pay the cable company for internet. I have it setup on the laptop and it works real goood.

Go Yankees.





* If you already have a cell phone.

More pictures

Arrrrgh....

http://www.piratelaws.com/

Apparently, the busier I get, the more I procrastinate.