Month: January 2005

More On Tags

So now that Technorati is tagging allowing for the indexing of the web, shouldn’t categories broadcast the same system of ? I was going to put a referral tag into my Regiopolis post below and then I realized that my post had now text and each photo was already a link. I categorize such posts under “Kingston” so shouldn’t that category broadcast its Kingston-ness? Thankful I am to the masters that be of this my blog as that category already has an RSS link and maybe this is already solved in that sense. It would be nice if that RSS were able to be directed to Technorati or my public centralized aggregator of choice so that it automatically was picked up along with all other posters of posts with that same tag.

Concurrent to this, it seems to me, will be the responsibility to ensure that your categories make sense. “Stuff I Like” might be one of the less useful categories…but as long as the automated aggregation could be turned on or only could be broadcast to a sensible taxonomy such as wikipedia has organically created the inspecific or unspecified categories would not be an issue.

Oh, to be a boy again and have all the smarts it would take to create a “rel-” tag based aggregatron from which I could sell tasteful yet lucrative advertising.

Further: Shouldn’t this be as easy as those broadcasting tags stores are introducing as described at wikipedia?

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a method of remotely storing and retrieving data using devices called RFID tags. An RFID tag is a small object, such as an adhesive sticker, that can be attached to or incorporated into a product. RFID tags contain antennas to enable them to receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an RFID transceiver.

Mr Fourth?!?!

Mr. Fourth! Both Gen X at 40 and A Good Beer Blog take a fourth at the 2004 Canadian Blog Awards. I feel like the Canadian swimming team.

So what does that get me? A cheese tray even? Many thanks for all who voted…just not often enough. I think over half the votes were from me. Oh, well. Maybe with some Heritage Canada funding I can make the medal podium. I really want to hear the Gen X at 40 anthem and see the Gen X at 40 flag slowly raised.

Totally Dad

When I worked in the Wool Sweater Outlet in Halifax’s Historic Properties in 1985, all the junior-high south end Halifax kids wanted the 48″ chest oiled wool sweaters to wear with their shorts and woolly socks as the Halifax cool uniform. Although I told them (and sold them) the 40 inch to let the sweater sag, it was (and is) a cool and identifiable look – and I thought if I ony had the money, skill, will and immagination I would create a line of clothes built around the idea called “Totally Dad”.

Now I use “Totally Dad” as the upside of “Oldie Olson” – the guy or gal in his or her forties or fifties who is actually almost able to not embarrass him or herself a group less his or her age. “Oldie Olson” is what is said behind “Totally Dad”‘s back…if they are kind. Otherwise – “old fart” seems to cover it off well. Better than smelly old fart, I guess.

Unless you are Black Cat bookstore on Argyle cool. Then smelly old fart is really Halifax cool.

Update: controversy breaks out at casa Gen X with the assertion by herself that, in fact, it was she who was praised at the bar in the Seahorse circa 1992 for a particular sweater she was wearing with a stranger’s comment “that sweater is totally Dad”. I am stunned. This all sounds like the “vitamin K” episode which I am sure I coined for Keiths draft in around 1986 at the Seahorse only to hear it used a few years later by the tarbender there back at me. We clearly need an institute of ale-house slang to verify and trace the origins of such usages.

Belgian Dark Strong Ales

This is a very pleasant pastime this comparison of Belgians which is already into its third month. To say pacing is required is more than stating the obvious. These are big big beers with two of today’s selection coming in at over 10%. Good reason to have a get together.

Just as one observation on the photos I like to add to these posts, this was a very hard grouping to shoot as the paint on the Terrible by Unibroue is actually mirroring silver while the bottle is black glass. There was no way around using the flash, which I do not think provides you with the best photo of glass. So that being noted, here are my notes on the three examples of this style I have gathered:

Gulden Draak: A true Belgian, 10.5% 330 ml from a variety six-pack from Van Steenberge sold during the pre-Yule rush by the LCBO. The first thing you notice is the malty heat from the dark candi sugar – tastes of fig, pepper and prune. Also, it is surprisingly juicy very nice, grapy and there is a bit of milk chocolate truffle in the centre. Unlike a dubble there is no burlap or oaken notes or orange peel and spice. This is all about the malt, like a barleywine stripped of the English hops. The yeast is prominant as well, butter pastry and cream. It is all like a tart of prunes with whipping cream dolloped on top. The hops balance rather than cut the malt, providing structure but it is all about the malt. Advocates say yeah.

Dogfish Raison D’Etre: An entry from Dogfish Head of Delaware in the USA, this beer is 8% and 12 oz. sold by the single bottle at the LCBO. This one is lighter and somewhat reliant on the addition of grape juice to the beer but the result is surprisingly similar to the Gulden Draak. The yeast is bready rather than pie crusty and the hops are even more subdued. The rich core is more about dried apple more than prune. With its fairly soft water profile and relative simplicity it is still very pleasant. I am coming to think that these beers are also like Scotch heavy ales without the smoke of the barley and that northern strian of ale yeast. Soft blankets of malt. Some advocates disappprove citing poor head and thinness yet it was awarded American Beer of the Year 2000. Can’t we all just get along?

Unibroue Terrible: Canada’s entry is again fantastic – lush, juicy and more-ish. Amazingly, at 10.5%, there is no heat. I am recalling that Terrible is less complex as well than the Unibroue’s Trois Pistoles, their other Belgian dark strong ale. [By the way – imagine a brewer in North America selling two Belgian dark strong ales. I hope Sleeman knows what it bought.] There is some orange but it is more as juice than peel. Big malt but the least signs of dark candi sugar than the Gulden Draak or Dogfish. A little figgy, a little leathery, smooth. Some dried cocoa like a can of powder for baking – dusty and light. Perhaps a recollection of black cherry. The yeast is milky rather than butter or cream – not rich and it adds to the juiciness. Hops again are structural rather than bitter. BAers approve as all but one.

I see that this style is just all about the capacity of belgian pale malt if concentrated. These are ‘s beers. This is what beer imagines it could be if it only put its mind to it, think of the big picture.

Belgian Dark Strong Ales

beldk1This is a very pleasant pastime this comparison of Belgians which is already into its third month. To say pacing is required is more than stating the obvious. These are big big beers with two of today’s selection coming in at over 10%. Good reason to have a get together.

Just as one observation on the photos I like to add to these posts, this was a very hard grouping to shoot as the paint on the Terrible by Unibroue is actually mirroring silver while the bottle is black glass. There was no way around using the flash, which I do not think provides you with the best photo of glass. So that being noted, here are my notes on the three examples of this style I have gathered:

  • Gulden Draak: A true Belgian, 10.5% 330 ml from a variety six-pack from Van Steenberge sold during the pre-Yule rush by the LCBO. The first thing you notice is the malty heat from the dark candi sugar – tastes of fig, pepper and prune. Also, it is surprisingly juicy very nice, grapy and there is a bit of milk chocolate truffle in the centre. Unlike a dubble there is no burlap or oaken notes or orange peel and spice. This is all about the malt, like a barleywine stripped of the English hops. The yeast is prominant as well, butter pastry and cream. It is all like a tart of prunes with whipping cream dolloped on top. The hops balance rather than cut the malt, providing structure but it is all about the malt.Advocates say yeah.
  • Dogfish Raison D’Etre: An entry from Dogfish Head of Delaware in the USA, this beer is 8% and 12 oz. sold by the single bottle at the LCBO. This one is lighter and somewhat reliant on the addition of grape juice to the beer but the result is surprisingly similar to the Gulden Draak. The yeast is bready rather than pie crusty and the hops are even more subdued. The rich core is more about dried apple more than prune. With its fairly soft water profile and relative simplicity it is still very pleasant. I am coming to think that these beers are also like Scotch heavy ales without the smoke of the barley and that northern strian of ale yeast. Soft blankets of malt. Some advocates disappproveciting poor head and thinness yet it was awarded American Beer of the Year 2000. Can’t we all just get along?
  • Unibroue Terrible: Canada’s entry is again fantastic – lush, juicy and more-ish. Amazingly, at 10.5%, there is no heat. I am recalling that Terrible is less complex as well than the Unibroue’s Trois Pistoles, their other Belgian dark strong ale. [By the way – imagine a brewer in North America selling two Belgian dark strong ales. I hope Sleeman knows what it bought.] There is some orange but it is more as juice than peel. Big malt but the least signs of dark candi sugar than the Gulden Draak or Dogfish. A little figgy, a little leathery, smooth. Some dried cocoa like a can of powder for baking – dusty and light. Perhaps a recollection of black cherry. The yeast is milky rather than butter or cream – not rich and it adds to the juiciness. Hops again are structural rather than bitter. BAers approve as all but one.

I see that this style is just all about the capacity of belgian pale malt if concentrated. These are ‘s beers. This is what beer imagines it could be if it only put its mind to it, think of the big picture.

Atlantic Canada is Right II

Today’s Globe and Mail (subscription required for access to the articles so they are not linked) contains two facts that confirms that, especially for the case of Newfoundland, the national perception that Atlantic Canada does not need a new deal is just wrong. These two facts are in addition to the current call for equality in tax sharing on resource revenue placing Newfoundland and Nova Scotia on a equivalent footing with the idle shieks of Alberta who lecture us on fiscal responsibility from the spewing tap of oil revenue which they sit upon solely through fluke of natural history.

The first fact is set out in a chart at page A4 of today’s edition. It shows that in 2002 the Federal Government sends $2.485 billion into Newfoundland while $2.187 is sent from Newfoundland into Federal coffers. The difference of 298 million is less than the transfer from Ottawa to PEI, is half the amount pledged for tsunami relief in another country, is roughly less than the annual budget of the City of Kingston. Hardly a national shame. Further, it is a 2002 figure which, following the preceding decade’s trend, might actually be no longer in deficit at all now into the third fiscal year after the chart’s end.

The second and more important point is made in Rex Murphy’s column in one sentence: “Churchill Falls alone nullifies the equalization ‘debt’.” In terms of gross provincial product, Newfoundland suffers from a legal falsehood, a valuation of the price of the electricity it exports through Quebec due to a sweetheart deal more imposed than negotiated soon after the nation of Newfoundland merged with the nation of Canada in 1949. Generally, throughtout the North American electrical grid, power generated in one place is “wheeled” though the transmission lines of others for a fair price to reach the customers of the generator. Under the Churchill Falls deal, there is a contractual deeming of the value of Newfoundland’s electricity which is vastly below fair market value. Hydro Quebec (I believe it is HQ) then sells the electricity on to New York state, Ontario, etc., effectively as if it generated itself and sells it at market value. It is a windfall to Quebec which Murphy values at over a billion dollars a year. Ottawa saves on that effect as Hydro Quebec is owned by the Porvince of Quebec and its windfall revenues off-set otherwise required transfers fom Canada. It is a loss to Newfoundland that swings it from a have to a have not province.

What is the effect? This chart shows one of them: Newfoundland lost 2.9% of its population from 1991 to 1996 and another 7% of its population from 1996 to 2001. Depopulation of those who are able to go. The capable. Without respect for the value of the resources, those who are able to run the province leave creating a vicious circle of dependency and creativity export and a perception that you have to leave to get ahead. What other province would put up with an economic situation which undermines its ability to continue itself?

Danny Williams is right.