Rotundus.com

The brewery in question does brew up a Maple Bacon Ale, but it's not their weirdest brew. From their description of Beard Beer:

As a joke, nine beard follicles were carefully cut from the beard of Rogue Brewmaster John Maier. The follicles were placed in a petri dish and sent in for testing. To the shock of the experts at White Labs, the beard samples had produced a yeast strain that was perfect for use in brewing. Additional testing was conducted and confirmed that the yeast strain was not Rogue’s yeast. White Labs’ Chris White said “we were shocked and thrilled with this remarkable discovery. ... The beard yeast is currently being used in test brews to determine the perfect style & yeast combination. The beard beer, New Crustacean, will be released in early 2013.

The Afterlife of Cheap Clothes

"The Quincy Street Salvation Army builds a completed wall made of 18 tons, or 36 bales, of [compressed] unwanted clothing every three days. And this is just a small portion of the cast-offs of one single Salvation Army location in one city in the United States. Most Americans are thoroughly convinced there is another person in their direct vicinity who truly needs and wants our unwanted clothes. This couldn’t be further from the truth."

Marginalism and the Higher Ed Paradox

An interesting, alternate view on the higher education bubble. Basically it argues that the dumbing down of education at all levels over the past decades has meant that the higher education becomes more important as not having it suggests to employers that you may lack basic skills.

Vancouver’s bike sharing program may take a hit on helmet laws

Will helmet laws keep Vancouver's bike-share program from succeeding (even if the bike-sharing involves shared helmets sanitized between each use as this approach seems to be taking).

A day in the life of a Tim Hortons coffee tester

"Coffee lovers are all too familiar with that satisfying moment - the first sip of a freshly brewed cup - but for the lead coffee taster at Tim Hortons, that borderline euphoric sensation has become a lifestyle." I assume that means that he's tasted so many coffees that he's lost his tastebuds. Amongst those who drink black coffee - e.g. me - it seems that Tim Hortons is the typical exception as stuff-that-just-can't-be-tolerated-without-cream-and-sugar.

Politicians need courage to dismantle supply management

I'm hoping we can finally get rid the milk/poultry quotas. Costs consumers and seems to hurt most farmers (who aren't in poultry or dairy) by keeping them out of international markets. Even domestic food suppliers seem unable to develop export markets due to high prices.

Knitters Outraged After U.S. Olympic Committee Squashes Knitting Olympics—and Disses Knitters

Here the US olympic committee is suing over the use of the term "Ravelympics" and felt it needed to add in commentary that knitting " tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games. In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country's finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work." Based on the activities associated with the Olympics, I assume by "true nature" they meant "selling Coca Cola". (there's admittedly one sane element to this: the removal of Olympic knitting patterns from the site).

What America Spends On Groceries

How American grocery bills differ from those 50 years ago. The short version: they spend less, buy more junk food, and a lot of prices have decreased. (Some of decreasing prices may be due to a failure to account for all costs in factory farming).

Former Long Beach football player exonerated of rape to file claim with state

As an article a week later noted, after the woman making the accusation contacted him years after his conviction and, in a conservation that was secretly recorded, admitted to making false claims, he's not planning to file a civil case against her, the school district which was forced to pay her $1.5 million for providing an "unsafe environment" doesn't plan to try to get it's money back, and the state isn't planning to file perjury charges. As the later article noted "If Gibson had reasonably feared she could lose her freedom for lying about her consensual sexscapade with Banks, he may not have lost ten years of his life to the criminal justice system, and taxpayers would not have lost the $1.5 million to settle Ms. Gibson’s civil claim against the Long Beach Unified School District."

Write to understand

Comments from a few authors - both contemporary and historical - on how putting pen to paper (or perhaps now fingers to keyboard) helps them to sort out their thoughts and increase their understanding

Via an article entitled Christians Beat the Shit Out of Each Other for Jesus in Fight Church:

Had a roommate who was a big fan of UFC, but I can't say that I am. Watched the trailer for this thing, and I'm still not quite sure what to say.