Climate Change: Bad News For Beer Lovers

Red alert, everyone, this is not a drill. Climate change is affecting the taste of beer. Shut down every oil drill, scrap all the cars, stop breathing out, this is now officially not a joke.

Okay, maybe you can keep breathing, but our rapidly changing climate is affecting both the quantity and quality of European hops. From 1971 to 2018, many hop-producing areas have seen a reduction in yield of 20%, and the alpha bitter acids that give the hops their flavor have also been reduced, meaning that the hops we are getting don't have quite the same kick they once did. By 2050 hops could have 30% less alpha acids than they're supposed to have.

Specifically, hop yields are going down because Europe as a whole is getting drier, and hotter, drier, more volatile summers aren't good for hops. They need mild summers, like those traditionally found in Europe and the Pacific Northwest. Hot, humid summers like we have here in Maryland are rough for hop plants, unless you're the Monocacy hop, that is. Maybe we'll have to introduce the Germans to our own specialized hop variation. It's either that, or we suffer through blander, more expensive beer. And that's truly a nightmare scenario.

Ryder Cup 2014: Ehhhhh

So, we lost.  Didn't bother watching after the first day.  It was over the moment we couldn't even get a full point from two Europeans who could barely hit a fairway, even after we were two up with two to play.  I've got better things to do than watch our players lose while being forced to listen to the commentators be neutral in their commentary.  I don't want to hear it. 

I don't even have anything to say about this, it was just so uninspiring and so predictable.  Maybe next time will be a little more interesting, especially seeing as Whistling Straits is almost certainly a better course then Gleneagles.  Maybe it'll at least be worth watching.

2014 Ryder Cup Prediction

Gleneagles Hotel...Listen, this was the only sort of related picture in the public domain I could find.

The Ryder Cup starts tomorrow up at Gleneagles in Scotland. Why they decided to have it there instead of one of the several links courses proven under championship conditions is beyond me, but there's not much use in complaining about it now. I guess it's the same reason they had the Ryder Cup at boring, inland courses in Ireland and in Wales...money.

Anyway, there's certainly been plenty of press about the Ryder Cup, maybe even more so than there's been in the past. Maybe it's just because I'm paying a little bit closer attention, but there seems to be stories about every little bit of news coming from the Ryder Cup.  Honestly, I think it might be for two reasons: first, and I hate saying it because Europe is stupid, but they're going to win, and second, it feels like there are very few people on either side playing well. Europe's got McIlroy and maybe Garcia playing decent, but that's about it in the past few months. And the American's who've been playing the best right now aren't in Scotland. Thanks a lot Chris Kirk and Billy Horschel for waiting until after the captain's picks to start playing well. Europe's dragging out a bunch of guys who haven't played well in months or even years just because they've done well in Ryder Cups in the past, and half of America's team got in because so many people have pulled out for whatever reason. Tiger and Jason Dufner have injuries, and Dustin Johnson was definitely not suspended for drug use. He is most definitely taking a voluntary break from golf. That is what is happening. So, neither side feels like it's putting its best foot forward.

I'm sure I'll do plenty of watching, and I'm sure I'll get extremely angry at our sides complete inability to do anything and Europe's uncanny ability to make every single putt they look at. Hmm, I've already said I think Europe's going to win, haven't I? Ignore that, it'll be 15-13 America, because I do not want to be happy on Sunday night after Europe wins 15.5-12.5. Go America, don't fumble it like last time. I believe Jim Furyk can remember how to play golf on a Sunday, that Phil won't 3 putt a five footer on the back nine like he loves to do, that Patrick Reed can manage to break 80 over the weekend, that those captain's picks will play better than they did over the Fed-Ex Cup. Seriously, what did any of them even do over the last three weeks, other than withdraw? Hmm, so much optimism here.

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Tuberculosis, Seals, and the Americas

When the Europeans came to the Americas, they came with technology more advanced than the American Indians already here, but guns did not win the continent for Europe.  It was disease, strains of bacteria that were commonplace in Europe but unseen in the Americas.  The native population had no resistance, no antibodies, and as a result, diseases like tuberculosis wiped out 95% of the American population in less than 100 years.  That left the door wide open for European opportunism.

It was always assumed that the American Indians had no antibodies for these diseases, but a recent examination of three Peruvian skeletons dating back a thousand years calls that into question.  They found several signs on the bodies that undeniably point the cause of death to tuberculosis, a disease that wasn't supposed to be in the Americas at that time.  How'd it get there?  The answer, apparently, is seals.  Yeah, they thought it was stupid too, but they ran the data, and it fits.  Seals can carry tuberculosis, tuberculosis can and does easily jump from animals to humans, and most importantly, the type of tuberculosis seals carry match the type found in the Peruvian skeletons.  Turns out there's a lot of different types of the disease, and while the American Indians may have had antibodies for their version, the European version was much nastier.  Not a particularly groundbreaking piece of science, but I thought it was interesting.