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Tuesday, February 9, 2010

American Beer Sucks

The Bavarian Reinheitsgebot of 1487 states that the only ingredients that can be used in beer are water, barley, and hops. The German Vorläufiges Deutsches Biergesetz of 1993 expanded this list to include wheat malt and cane sugar. (It also banned unmalted barley.)



So, let's examine some American beers.

Budweiser: rice, barley, hops, water.
Busch: corn, malt, hops, water.
Rolling Rock: corn, rice, barley, hops, water.
Natural: corn, malt, hops, water.
Miller: corn, barley, hops, water

Sigh.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Glacier of Blood

Blood Falls is located in at the edge of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica. The Dry Valleys are one of the few places in Antarctica that have no ice or snow on them. But that's a topic for another post. Blood Falls (or Glacier of Blood as I like to call it) is located at the tongue of the Taylor Glacier.
It is fucking awesome! Originally it was though to be caused by a wound in the glacier red algae. That's a good guess for 1911. Really, the water is hypersaline, iron-rich, seawater from a subglacial pool. It is unknown how large this pool is, but the water was isolated from the Antarctic Ocean for 5 million years. The iron in the water oxidizes in the presence of oxygen, giving it its evil blood color. Though there's almost no oxygen in the trapped seawater, there are still bacteria living in it.

Picture from Discover Magazine Article:


Hi-res image from the United States Antarctic Program (click to embiggen):

Friday, February 5, 2010

More Death On Metro

Article
A high rail truck struck Garrard, a Metro employee since April 1990, and Oh, a Metro employee since December 1998, as they installed new train control equipment in the track bed along an outbound section of track on the Red Line in the direction of Shady Grove.
 This time, however, the vehicle doing the murdering was controlled by humans, as it was a high rail truck and not a train.

My theory: Metro somehow used the third rail to possess the driver of the truck into a killing frenzy.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Gamma Ray's Blatant Ripoff

"Rapid Fire" by Judas Priest (1980) - Listen for about 15 seconds.


"Solid" by Gamma Ray (2001)


It's not like they're stealing from some obscure band. They're stealing from Judas fucking Priest!

Gamma Ray even made up words ("interstellerian") just like Priest ("desolizating")!

It's a shame, really, because the rest of Gamma Ray's No World Order is pretty good, but every time I hear "Solid" I just want to put my fist through the stereo.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Swashbuckle Sucks

Swashbuckle is a pirate-themed thrash band from New Jersey. They have been on several US tours with larger acts the past year or two. Oh, yeah, and they fucking suck.

They dress like pirates, they usually bring inflatable palm trees, and all their stage banter is pirate-like. For some dumb fucking reason they had a guy come out in a shark suit and ran around like a moron during their last song. And here's the worst part: the crowd loves them.

I've been trying to figure out why I hate them so much since on paper it doesn't look too bad. I love the other two pirate bands (Alestorm and Running Wild), and they talk all piratey. Running Wild dressed like pirates. I finally put my finger on it: Swashbuckle's music has nothing to do with pirates.

That's right. It's all just a gimmick. Sure, they sing about pirates, but the music is just poorly written thrash. Alestorm uses the keytar to sound all pirate-like. Running Wild writes sea-chantey-like songs. Swashbuckle just fucking blows:



Yeah! Exactly! Terrible! Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if they dropped the whole pirate thing. Just to get the awful taste out of your mouth, here's some Alestorm:



I thought originally that they were just cashing in on the pirate fad that Alestorm started. However, it turns out that Swashbuckle was formed before Alestorm.

It's all moot anyway since Running Wild was started in 1976 and has been singing about pirates since the mid 80s.



So anyway Swashbuckle needs to stop. Immediately.