Kind of like Fuller’s London Porter, but less so. Less syrupy, but still a little syrupy. Low carbonation. An overall lighter taste. Would do with just a touch less sweetness and a little more carbonation.

Still, quite drinkable.

So many beers give me headaches, but fortunately neither of these has.

Since he lived in Asheville, NC, and my folks have a place in Brevard, NC, I had wanted to meet Bob Moog, synthesizer pioneer, since at least the 10th grade (that would have been around 15 or 16). That will never happen, because he passed away Sunday.

Eerily, many of his obituaries mention Walter (now Wendy) Carlos’s electronic renditions of Beethoven and other classical works in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange–which I saw for the first time Sunday night.

One way you can still get a childish scream of delight out of me is to give me a Minimoog (or a Minimoog Voyager). Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find it to put it on my Amazon wishlist.

Thanks, Bob.

If you believe that the universe must have been Designed and therefore have a Designer, one quick question.

If you really believe this, and believe the Design is simply too sophisticated for chance, then presumably every part of the Designed life has a purpose.

So why do you cut the end of your son’s dick off?

Pros: Rich and full, comes in a pint (plus a little extra) bottle, and is a beer that rewards slow enjoyment. Justifies my British-style pint glasses.

Cons: A little too bittersweet and just a trifle flat (I know that’s the British style, but I’m American and I likes my fizzydrinks).

Pretty drinkable. Will have to try this from the cask next time I’m in Merry Ol’.

In the wee hours of this morning, I finished the new (sixth) Harry Potter book.

No spoilers–there’s a lot to spoil, just a couple of notes:

1. Don’t be put off by the first couple of chapters. They’re not up to the rest of the book’s standard, quite frankly.
2. It is better structured than the last couple of books–it flows better. The end is every bit as dramatic as the last couple of books. I’d say the overall tone is not quite as dark as the last book.

Not sure yet where to place it in the series, but once I got into it, I liked it as well as any of the others–maybe on a par with the third book, or even the second.

Don’t believe the hype–just read it.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

OK, there was no boom. In space, no one can hear you boom. But NASA put on one of the most spectacular fireworks in history and did it on July 4…so I’ve already seen some fireworks.

This means they will be able to do some great analysis on the material that was ejected, so we’ll finally know if they’re dirty snowballs or, as one brave pundit predicted, actually negatively-charged asteroids. That’s a theory that may be brutally shot down in a few days. Certainly anybody who predicted there would be no discernible impact is eating tasty, tasty corvid now.

Sometimes, even if you’re just a vengeance-filled guy dressed as a bat, you need a bit of rebirth.

I have really disliked the previous Batman movies–yes, even and especially Mr. Mom’s version. They tried to straddle both the campy and the dark sides of the fence, and got a bit uncomfortable in the batsuit as a result. I thought Danny Devito was painful to watch.

Batman Begins is more what I had in mind–it picks a side and goes with it. Humor is not abandoned, but left mainly to Michael Caine. It’s a much darker rendition.

And yet. And yet. It could have been more.

I would have really enjoyed a more ambiguous treatment of Batman. Sure, he’s for justice–but blurring the line between that and vengeance would have been more interesting. A movie that left the reader wondering if he really should always root for Batman, or at least would feel uncomfortable rooting for him would have been a triumph.

Similarly the bureaucracy is split into Good People and Bad People. The Good People don’t take bribes and are eternally selfless. The Bad People take bribes and are corpulent. How about nuance? How about examining how people who don’t view themselves as bad nonetheless end up frustrating justice through petty careerism or hamstrung by perverse incentives? How about a city government concerned first and foremost with its own survival and somewhat aloof from the issues of the citizens, the criminals, or the “good guys”?

To their credit, they kind of tried with the main villain in the piece, but I won’t give it away (though you probably will see it coming a good distance off). Still, it was a pretty paper-thin attempt.

The acting was OK, the special effects good, but the fight scenes were a little weak (pretty obvious camera work to hide the lack of actual fighting by the principles–or a really bad attempt to show them really doing it).

Overall enjoyable and a vast improvement. But it could have been just a bit more–which is what keeps it less than X-men or Spiderman-level.

I was IMing with Ginger today (technically yesterday) and she was intrigued by a palm reading she’d gotten from someone, and asked me what I thought about it. I replied that I’d once had a reading by a deeply committed (and she should have been) woman who said erroneously that a major illness or injury would happen to me at age 27 (I’m not even sure I got a sinus infection that winter), and that my life line “wasn’t good” and implied that, basically, I’d be dead now.

With the exception of any lingering religiosity or belief that Mannheim Steamroller is anything but Muzak, there is little dead about me.

Ginger was disappointed, and wondered what, if anything, she could believe in–to which I replied,

“Gravity. It works every time.”

That’s right, folks. Science gets it wrong occasionally, but existence is never wrong–and science is the only way you’ll ever get close to understanding it. Think about it. Gravity works even when you’re not looking. If you don’t think you believe in it, compare the reaction of anybody in the world when something heavy is dropped above them. It doesn’t matter your religious belief, sexual orientation, color, gender, or feelings about the tastiness of broccoli (ugh). Everybody who has a functioning nervous system and motor control will attempt to ward it off.

Compare that to any magic incantation, prayer, curse, invocation, charm, or chant. Even people who don’t believe reality exists will show their belief when it looks like gravity is giving them the blunt end of a heavy object.

In the wake of the recent high-profile security breaches of people’s credit card numbers (mine was recently stolen, but fortunately Discover caught it, froze the card, and credited me for the fraudulent transactions. Go Discover!), people might be tempted to turn to the government to protect their data.

Oops.

Now I see why Hit & Run keep linking to stories via Sploid. They have attitude to spare. Try this item to see why.