TheAgitator.com
Open Thread
Friday, August 28th, 2009No more blogging today. I’m headed up to Philly for the happy hour with FIRE and Students for Liberty.
Come join us if you’re in the area.
The rest of you, chat amongst yourselves.
41 Responses to “Open Thread”
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Open thread!
I grew some hops for my homebrew! There are more on the vines. It’s the first year for my vines, so I expect many many more in 2010. Woop woop!
Despite a mere .532 winning percentage, the Detroit Tigers are 4 games up in the AL Central. It’s nice being in baseball’s suckiest division.
They have two quality starting pitchers (Verlander, Jackson) so they could do some real damage in the playoffs.
The Seattle Seahawks will go to the Super Bowl this year. But once again will be screwed by the refs and location.
omar,
What kind of hops are you growing?
Give the folks from FIRE a “good game” pat for me.
Centiniall, Willamette, and Cascade.
I’m growing them in large pots so I can take them with me when I move out of Brooklyn.
Omar,
Just found this on fark:
Pot May Protect Brain From Booze
http://www.ktvu.com/health/20597907/detail.html
“The More You Know’, and all that…
I’m predicting an Eagles – Ravens superbowl this year.
Now, this is a tough thing for a Steelers fan to admit, but I just don’t see how these two teams can lose this year. Seems like Karma would keep the Eagles out of contention, but I guess Karma is on vacation this year, LOL.
omar,
Nice choices! I’m going to have to try growing some vines in pots. I don’t have the option of planting them in the ground where I am now.
Nando, as a Redskins fan living in Baltimore, I’m starting to agree with you about the Ravens. If Flacco can keep looking as poised and composed as he has so far, they’re going to be tough to beat.
The law job market doth sucketh mightily.
Tsu Dho Nihm,
Good call! I got my rhizomes from Northern Brewer. They send them out in the spring. You plant them, and for the first year, the plant puts a lot of energy into building a solid root system. On year two, yields per vine are ~ an ounce dried. Each plant can make several vines.
Are you a brewer?
Growing hops are part of my plan to make quarter beers. I’ve been saving yeast cakes and now growing the hops. When I move, I’m going to go all-grain. At that point, my beers will be $0.25 a bottle!
we brewed a few batches using the kits in the homebrew stores- although it was cool, it wasn’t half as cool as what you’re doing, Omar! what kind of beer are you brewing and what are you calling your brew?
Omar, you got any links to online resources that you’d recommend (info, suppliers, etc.)? I’ve never even thought of growing hops… but given how my efforts at tomatoes, herbs and peppers have panned out so far it might be a good idea to try growing stuff that I’ll actually be interested in NOT killing off.
my football prediction–Oakland Raiders to not go to superbowl.
or play offs.
or even show up for the regular season.
/long suffering raiders fan
My apologies for breaking up the sporting and beer discussion, but this popped up on my desk:
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090827/NEWS01/908270354/Defense+contractor+planned+murders++agent+says
The guy is a former employer of mine. Sadly, none of this surprises me.
Grouse season starts on Tuesday, time to get the puppy out
Damn it. No hairband countdown.
Marty, I try to name my beers after Jimmy Carter in some form or another. I’m from GA (represent), half-Egyptian (peace, yo), and he legalized home brewing (if only he had legalized unlicensed distillation). I think that’s pretty much the extent to his merits.
scott, I got my hops rhizomes from Northern Brewer. I showed them to some other people who had grown hops before, and they said mine were really thick and healthy, so take that as an endorsement. Northern Brewer sells the rhizomes (like roots) in the winter/spring. It takes a year for the plants to fully develop. You plant the rhizome in the early spring, vines grow all summer long, then the vines die back in the fall. When the vines die back, the nutrients are stored back in the root system. That’s why you will have a hard time finding any for sale right now…the growers are waiting for the winter to cut the roots.
Alternatively, you could go to a homebrewer’s forum and ask if anyone local is growing. If so, you could just take a cutting of their roots and stick them in your yard.
This is a good page explainign how to grow the hops.
http://brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue2.3/montell.html
(avoiding radley’s spam filter – one link at a time)
#15 JoeV
WTF is going on in that organization? It gets dumber and weirder every year. Can it really be all the fault of Davis? Can one guy really cause that kinda chaos? As an Indy colt, fan we only got to see the last years of Irsay Sr. and it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as having coach fights.
Omar,
Brewing your own beer means you’ll never be bothered by that pesky “no alcohol sales on Sunday” law we have in Geogia. If Purdue would repeal that law, that would be the extent of his merits as well.
If Purdue would repeal that law, that would be the extent of his merits as well.
lol
Not so, Mattocracy. You are forgetting this.
Mattocracy,
The legislature is going to have to repeal that law over Purdue’s veto, so asking Purdue to repeal it is hilarious. He did something a couple years ago that I liked, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was. Must not have been that great, after all.
I’m speechless for a change. Radley, have a good time in Philly. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. And a good weekend to all!
I just farted.
No more blogging for today?? WTF?? All you did today is post a picture (a cool one) but still! No more blogging?!?! I want my money…
forget it… have a great weekend!
Have a “Teddy free weekend!”
Remember how not long ago we were hearing how Mattel, which had imported lead-painted toys, was lobbying in favor of laws requiring third-party testing for toys, which, if one were cynical, one might interpret as a way of forcing their smaller competitors out of business? Well, now Mattel has managed to exempt itself from the requirement it lobbied for: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090827/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_product_testing_mattel
As you probably already knew, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help” is a lie…unless you’re a megacorporation with highly paid lobbyists.
#2 | J sub D
Just watched the Tigers take care of my Angels 2 out of 3 in Anaheim. They are indeed a very good baseball team and to be reckoned with come playoffs. Made Lackey look like a minor leaguer.
#8 | Nando — “I’m predicting an Eagles – Ravens superbowl this year…. I just don’t see how these two teams can lose this year.”
The Giants are going to do everything they can to separate McNabb and Vick from their respective heads.
Please, if there’s a God in Heaven, let Nando be wrong…
Congrats, Omar. My foray into hop growing didn’t really turn out so well (I blame my second child for being born this past February and thus distracting us from doing things like, say, weeding). I’ll try again this upcoming spring, probably with Spalt and Tettnang or Hallertau. My two main observations on growing your own hops: 1. Don’t use them for bittering. It’s WAY too much of a crapshoot guessing your alpha acid. 2. Wet hop with those babies. Two Brothers makes a wet-hopped beer that kicks ass, and I’m by no means a hophead. Wet-hopping is the one tangible brewing technique that you can employ that somebody just buying hops from their local homebrew store can’t, so take advantage of it!
Off-topic to the discussion, but on topic to the posting: I went to the Philly event this evening, the atmosphere was great. I enjoyed getting to meet everyone at Reason and Fire.
Omar-
at least for today, you’re the king! Do you make labels for your bottles, too? I’d love to hear the names- can I order a couple of ‘Camp David Accord’ amber ales?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIKPKjl0-pg
School rent-a-cop (black) decides a white man has no 1st Amendment rights at a “town hall meeting” in Virginia (Moran).
We ought to have an agitator fantasy football league….someone jump on that will ya?
In two weeks will be fishing for stripers off Teddy’s bridge on Chappy. It has rails now.
#34
I love all the videos of cops scurrying away from video cameras on youtube- instead of looking like a ridiculous idiot, this cop would’ve pushed his bullshit on these people without any concern for negative consequences. Video cameras might restore some of our rights, yet!
Nando,
I think the news Eagles (Weaver, Maclin, McCoy – oh, and Vick) will be great for the offense, but why the SB this year? I’m an Eagles fan, but I still have worries about the D without Dawkins or Jim Johnson (recently departed D-Coordinator).
This is going to sound really mean, but I really do wish we had ‘death panels’ in healthcare.
At the very least I wish we didn’t feel the need to cater to every whim of ‘older’ Americans. Plus I think it’s really ironic when I see these old people at town hall meetings yammering about how horrible ‘socialized’ healthcare is while simultaneously collecting Medicare and Social Security benefits. And what about military and government employees. Aren’t they getting healthcare plans on my dime?
Also, the advance of healthcare is both a blessing and a curse. Of course, no one wants to die. But when we have the means to provide a level of healthcare that ensures that many many people live into their 90s and 100s, we end up with a host of other problems nationally (bankrupt Social Security, insufficient work force, increased strain on services) and globally (overpopulation, extreme pollution and environmental destruction).
Any thoughts? Am I just being a Nazi? What’s the sol’n?
ChrisD — As an Eagles fan… I worry about life without JJ (somewhat, since I know McDermott will do a great job). As for Dawkins… I love B-Dawk. I truly do. But while he’s still a great run defender… he was abysmal as a cover guy last year. I’m pretty sure I could’ve covered across the middle better than he did. His play can be replaced fairly well with what we have. As for his leadership, I like what I’ve seen from Asante in the pre-season in terms of leadership.
Assuming that everyone gels by Week 1, I’m excited. Too many injuries this pre-season have prevented that from happening.
But then again, I am an Eagles fan. And I’m never confident. But I do think that if things happen like they *should*, on paper, this could be a very good year.
I won’t talk about the upcoming footbal season because
a) I always wait until the World Series is over.
b) The Detroit Lions have won ONE PLAYOFF GAME SINCE 1957. And Cubs fans thing they’ve got it bad.