Australian bees are BETTER than American bees 7 Sep 2007 So, you thought that Colony Collapse Disorder, which is causing billions of dollars in losses in American agriculture, was an act of nature? You poor fools! It’s a plot, I tell yez. We Australians have hardier bees than you do, so they can carry an infectious disease that your weakly pathetic American bees just can’t deal with. And it’s no accident that we sent them to you. Now you have to buy our produce! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Ecology and Biodiversity General Science Species and systematics
General Science Science in the “dark ages” 30 Jun 2009 God struck down my internet last night, or I’d have posted this sooner: Thony Christie, who has guest blogged here, now has his own blog, The Renaissance Mathematicus. Responding to a comment on the Accommodationism thread, Thony takes down the claim that religion caused the dark ages, when it was… Read More
Biology Are species theoretical objects? 27 Oct 201328 Oct 2013 [Note: this is a paper that has sat in my drawer for a while now. I am posting it to follow from my last post on the theological origins of species. If species are not ranks in biology, what are they?] It is often claimed that species are the units… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity How is a species like a soup can? 22 Oct 200818 Sep 2017 That is not a riddle, or rather it’s not meant to be, but it’s a question worth asking about the barcoding project. Wired has a nicely written piece about the rationale and program of giving species DNA barcodes and using the gene chosen as the barcode to identify the number… Read More
When I first read your headline I thought it said that Australian beers are better than American beers, and as a proud supporter of Oregon and Washington breweries I was ready to take offense. Sure, I’ll happily eat your produce, but the day I have to trade in my Bridgeport or Deschutes for Fosters I’m expatriating to Belgium.
I do buy your apples during (our) summer. Also apples from New Zealand. Our markets sell US grown apples them, but they have been in cold storage for months and are not so yummy.
I keep trying to tell people. The reason we export Fosters is so we don’t have to drink that crap. True story – I used to work next door to the maltery that made the hops used in Fosters. Twenty five years later just the thought of that place brings the smell to my nose. I still hate it.
True story – I used to work next door to the maltery that made the hops used in Fosters. Hops are not made they are grown, and this from a man who write about biology!
You know, at one time this may have been a recipe for famine or disaster here. Hurray global economy!
I know they’re grown. Due to a bit of weasel wording in the local legislation of the time, we used to graft marijuana plants onto hops vines to evade prosecution (they changed it pretty quickly). But they roast it, or do something equally evil, and the smell is pernicious.
But they roast it, or do something equally evil, and the smell is pernicious. What they roast in a maltery is barley to make malt which is what gives beer and whisky their colour and some of their flavour. I will however agree that the smell is pernicious although for me it awakes fond memories. Also true story – I grew up in a small East Anglian village which boasted a splendid Edwardian maltings next to the railway station, about a mile and a half outside of the village. (Ben Trumans if there are any East Anglian beer experts reading this) The smell when they roasted the barley was as you say pernicious but it is a smell that evokes the care free days of my childhood so for me it is a positive and not a negative memory that is stirred.
Damn, you are right. The term “maltery” should have given it away. I blame the drugs I was on at the time. I was a technical proofreader in a small enclosed office next door, and the smell pervaded everything. Not pleasant memories at all.