> I’m working on the hypothesis that the better tasting beers come from breweries that are at least a couple hundred years old, and the older the brewery, the better. Smithwicks supports my hypothesis, being the delicious product of a brewery established in 1710. John Smithwick built his brewery upon land provided to him by…

> Steinlager is purported to be New Zealand’s premium exported beer. Surely, to God, they have something better than this. Brewed in New Market, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, my first experience with this beer was in an English pub in San Diego. Across the bar, a neon sign broadcast to everyone that Steinlager…

> I always have a hard time remembering which side was which in this conflict. Not good considering I have blogged on this before, and have to remind myself all the time before I cover material regarding Africa. The Tutsis were the Belgian supported minority in Rwanda and were left in power when the Belgians…

> First, let me begin by saying this: the movie is not about smut. The title is slightly misleading. So, if you were hoping it was risqué, you will be very disappointed. Now that is out of the way, let us move on. The movie poses a number of interesting questions, the most serious one…

> Please do not judge people or the countries from which they hail based upon books, movies, or TV shows. Remember, these are short vignettes of an overall culture that tell only a part of the complete story. Just as Americans do not like to be judged based on the attitudes of Texans, Americans –…

> My father has always hounded me as to why I do not use the library more often, check out books, then return them when I finish reading them. Would you return a puppy to the animal shelter after playing with it for a while? Do you drop your friendships after three or four weeks?…

> Australia presents a formidable landscape. A large island desert, a continent, and the world’s sixth largest country in area. According to the CIA World Factbook, Australia is only slightly smaller than the lower 48 United States with a population of a little more than 21 million people. Not very densely populated. Australia has been…

>   I probably watch far too much TV. I am selective about what I watch, though, and the shows that I watch tend to feature geographic themes occasionally. Law & Order in all of its permutations is one of my favorites. SVU, or Criminal Intent, or the Original Series, it doesn’t matter. They are…

> Mexico faces criticism over swine flu response This kid is obviously not wearing his filter mask. I’m pretty sure this is how the disease is spread, as well as hoof-to-mouth disease, botulism, and whatever else filthy buggers are contained in this swine’s mucous. I constantly marvel that we made it as a species. As…

> http://eduify.com/beta/ This is a Beta application. Sounds interesting, promising. One of my larger concerns is the ability of students to write, to construct one meaningful sentence after another. Furthermore, I am concerned that students do not know how to document a source, or if they realize the source needs to be documented, knowing how…