Black Swans and Bridge Collapse

Though I never lived in Minneapolis for more than a few days at a time, I had motored across the I-35 bridge many-a-time. I heard about the collapse via cell phone call whilst traveling on the Florida turnpike. We stopped in a travel plaza and watched on the television mounted in the ceiling corner of a Burger King the "news" coverage of the event. Quite a fright to be there, or as was my case, to have family and friends, as I eventually found out, very close to it. Over a thousand miles away it made me anxious as we continued to drive. Graciously all phone calls were returned and the first priority was vested- knowing they're okay.

A friend of mine, also Minnesotan by birth and primary education, posted something profound about the cause:

...on the cause of the bridge collapse, I think they'll determine it was a cascading failure and not a singular reason...this is a so-called black swan, an event no one would have expected.

I believe he's been reading "The Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Excellent work, both of you. I highly recommend the read. In fact here you go: to buy it; to wiki it; to drink it.

The Economist

Well, it's been longer than I thought I wanted it to be since the last time I managed to log-in to my account and type away something recent. Anyway,

The beer turned out great. Excellent reception and review from those who were, as it seems, fortunate to get a bottle or two. 5 gallons produced about 52 12 oz bottles. 52 times 12 is < 5 gallons, but there ends up being some waste involved. Oh well, now it's time for refinement of the process. If you're interested in a sample, email me. (No, I'm not publishing my email. So it's still an exclusive club...we meet Wednesdays.)

I've been reading The Economist (online, RSS of the "Full print edition") and found it to be pretty on the level. I suppose that depends on your point-of-view, but hard to argue that it's not well written. To check it out: The Economist

What Next for Hackers

Seems to me hackers, also known as "those who tinker", have generally been the fore-runners of the great technological breakthroughs, advances, and what not. I'm sure the inventor of the wheel was just tinkering with a stone or log or something. People played with fire and now we've got pyro-technics.

The term, hacking, has been fixed to computers and programming now so firmly that I think people automatically think computer geek when they hear that word. But whatever, people who tinker with anything over time are hackers.

The PC has been here a pretty long while now and the internet is past it's fledgling phase. It's easy to see where the industry has been for the last 20 years, but I wonder if it can be any indication for where it may be going? I recently re-lit the idea of what can be next in the way of technological breakthrough. Would we even know it if it was upon us right now, just not getting any play on the adverts?

yet another month

I don't mean for this to be a "monthly" thing, but then again it seems I'm "making" it a monthly thing.

The beer is good. Delicious, nutritious, frothy good. Turned out to be kind of a cross between a "Brown Ale" and a "Killian's Red". Good stuff. The rest of the notes will be up soon...before next month...

Brewing Beer

I brewed the wort (pronouced "wert") today and transfered it to the first stage fermenter. I bought the brewing kit from Beer & Wine Hobby via their website at www.beer-wine.com (nice website by the way)

I bought the ingredients back on April 17th, but due to an already strained schedule, brewing was put off until today (May 20th). But like the mantra says "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew." (however since not having brewed any "homebrew" I opted for a deliciously wunderbar Sam Adams Light) Oh man, that Samuel Adams is great stuff, absolutely. Anyway I'm attempting to make something that'll eventually be in the wunderbar category.

Here's what I did to get this far:

1. Decided on whether or not to buy the "Kit" or assemble my own brewing station. (I decided on a kit due to time constraints of being a busy minded person and not wanting to take the time to locate all the pieces separately. The kit also came with ingredients.)
2. Ordered and received the kit & ingredients, checked everything out. Tried out the hydrometer, auto-siphon, and thermometer.
   
3. Sanitized all equipment used. (Brew pot, ladel, spatula, thermometer, hydrometer, metal tongs, glass for pitch, fermenter & lid, fermentation lock, strainer, & prep/brew area.)
4. Placed crystal malt into muslin bag (basically made a tea-bag) placed into pot with 1.5 gal of water and brought to boil; then removed heat and let steep for about 5 mins.
5. Added malt extract, hops, water crystal (gypsum & mineral) and then brought back to boil, stirring often; once boiling heat reduce to make for a "gentle" boil for about 30 mins. (note: placing malt extract cans in warm water makes them run from the container more easily, also using a spatula gets all the malty goodness out. Just before you throw the container --taste a little bit of the malt. Interesting flavor.
6. Added about 3 gal of cold water (I used 1 gal of ice, but that seemed to drop the temp to far) to fermenter; then via ladel added wort to fermenter. Also used a strainer and picked up the pot to pour after a manageable weight was left.
7. Let wort cool to about 70 degrees Farenheit, then mix in the pitch by stirring vigorously, but don't spill. (the pitch is 12 grams of brewers' yeast added to 1/2 cup luke warm water and allowed to sit for 10 minutes)
8. Take the hydrometer's container (sterilized) and fill about 3/4 full of pitched wort, take the specific gravity reading. (This is used to determine alcohol content as well as an indicator for the next stage of fermenting.) I read 1.042
9. Place lid on fermenter and insert fermentation lock. Place fermenter away from disturbances and direct sunlight.

I did end up breaking the nice thermometer that came with the kit (during the sanitizing process). That caused for a bit of disappointment. Be careful when handling anything glass or any measuring device. ( the thermometer only dropped 2" as it slid out of it's container as I was placing it into the fermenting bucket filled with sanitized water. Surprised me!)

Now it's 3-4 days until it gets moved to a 5 gal glass carboy 2nd stage fermenter, and it's also time for more Samuel Adams. It'll be about 14-17 days before it's time for a Samuel Edwards.