Silflay Hraka

Compiled with the assistance of Mr. Thomas Hardy.

By an act of astounding coincidence, it’s the start of American Craft Beer Week.

…by 1997, more breweries were operating in the United States than in all of Germany, a country known for its beer. As a result, the majority of Americans now live within a short drive — usually no more than 10 miles — of a small independent brewery that is serving up tasty hand-crafted beers, according to the Brewers Association, an organization that promotes America’s small, independent craft brewers.

Brews are still acceptable with the Padres, and in the clubhouse at Milwaukee, but not at Coors Field. They may come to regret it.

And the immediate team-instigated beer bans in clubhouses struck SUNY-Potsdam sociology professor emeritus David Hanson, who has been studying and writing about alcohol for 30 years, as “really knee-jerk, politically correct reactions that reflect our cultural naivete.”

“The ballclub,” Hanson said, “isn’t a parent. You have to use the reasonable-person rule here; we’re not a nanny state.”

The Great London Beer Flood.

New York Beer Gardens

Finish your beer, or no Pokemon for you, junior.

How to sound like a beer expert.

Brew Debuts: Squatters Organic Amber Ale
Brew Reviews: Beer Lao, Allagash Four

Zaftig but equal? Or does NOW have its priorities somewhat misplaced? (lvts)

On February 20, 2007, a Pakistani women’s rights activist and provincial minister for social welfare, Zilla Huma Usman, was shot to death by a Muslim fanatic for not wearing a veil. And he had a second reason for killing her: She had encouraged girls in her community to take part in outdoor sports. The plight of women like Usman does not figure in NOW’s “Six Priority Items,” although Global Feminism is one of the 19 subjects it designates as “Other Important Issues.” NOW hardly mentions Muslim women, except in the context of the demand that the U.S. military withdraw from Iraq. So what sort of issue does the flagship feminist organization consider important?

This is pathetic. To be sure, serious eating disorders afflict a small percentage of women. But much larger numbers suffer because poor eating habits and inactivity render them overweight, even obese. NOW should not be encouraging college girls to indulge themselves in ways detrimental to their well-being. Nor should it be using the language of human rights in discussing the weight problems of American women.

I find, when discussing the weight problems of American women, that no language is pretty much the best choice.

American Lite: In the end, the American-Canadian “watches American movies and television, wears American jeans, listens to American music, reads American books and magazines.

“He drinks coffee at Starbucks, eats hamburgers at McDonald’s and ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s,” Cohen notes. “He aspires to the American Dream, whether it is represented by minivan or an SUV, and the greatest obstacle to achieving it isn’t desire but money.”

No wonder. You can ‘t finance the American dream with the Canadian dollar.

20 million dead in China.
Pig “high fever disease” has already been discovered in 8 counties (districts) in the [Guangxi Autonomous] Region. Among these, pig “high fever disease” is suspected to have occurred in 92 administrative villages of 10 townships in Cenxi City. The disease has been found in 4875 pigs, with 287 deaths. Although there are no reports of disease within Nanning Municipality at this time, earlier this year [2007] pig deaths occurred for unknown reasons in 2 or 3 counties (districts) in Nanning. Some medium and small pig farms and pig-raising households had not implemented pig “high fever disease” vaccination. The circumstances of prevention and control activities are grim.
…
The disease, which in China is called “high fever disease”, was initially attributed to a mix infection of PRRS, classical swine fever, (CSF) and porcine circovirus (PCV-2), and probably additional agents. According to China’s last notification to the OIE, dated 9 May 2007, the causal agent of an outbreak in Guandong is PRRSV. The report indicates that the reason for notification is “change in epidemiology” and that the manifestation of the disease is “sub-clinical infection”. However, the apparent case fatality rate (20 percent) does not fit the description “sub-clinical”.

Clearly, more details on the PRRS virus, currently circulating in vast areas of China and Viet Nam, are urgently needed. This should include the exclusion of other disease agents (including avian influenza and CSF), studies into the pathogenicity of the Chinese PRRSV and its genotyping. Such data might indeed be anticipated soon, since the Chinese notification (under “epidemiological comments”) indicates that the case is “probably caused by highly pathogenic PRRS virus” and that “laboratory diagnosis is ongoing”.

Given the lack of transparency in China’s investigation of the melamine-poisoned pet food scandal,

Yet no one stopped Mao’s company from churning out bags of food powders and belching smoke — until one day last month when, in the middle of the night, bulldozers tore down the facility.

It wasn’t authorities that finally acted: Mao himself razed the brick factory — days before the investigators from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration arrived in China on a mission to track down the source of the tainted pet food ingredients.

one should probably expect the epidemic to widen rather than die down in the near future.

Despite “Shoaling of Carolina Beach Inlet threatens ICW” headline, the impetus for keeping the CBI open still appears to be more one of convenience than actual necessity.

Carolina Beach Inlet’s life has been intermittent. Shoaling closed the original inlet in the early 1900s until it was reopened with explosives in 1952. Blasted through a narrow barrier island, the inlet shortens access to the Atlantic from Carolina Beach by 13 miles over traveling to Masonboro Inlet or 16 miles if heading out the Cape Fear River near Southport.

If the CBI exists for local convenience, then it needs to be funded locally.

CBI Fundraising Idea: Re-dynamite the inlet, and sell tickets to spectators! People love a good explosion, and children of all ages would be thrilled by the chance to collect dead and stunned wildlife on the shore afterwards.

Mapping NC’s Oysters. This sounds familiar.

“They knew people from Virginia were coming” to dredge in North Carolina, Ballance said. “It was an attempt to hold back the chaos.”

Evidently, some things have not changed for over a century.

Rocky Mount fights an invasive species.

Blue Oyster Cult sings about it.

History shows again and again
How nature points up the folly of men
Hydrilla!

Found Ngnat reading my old Simpson’s comic books by flashlight in her bed last night after lights out.

The search for the Flying Colours has been called off.