Archive for April, 2007

Usually I write about stupid criminals over at BelchSpeak, my blog (if you haven’t been there, you should check it out), but since this one involved sodas, I thought it belonged here.

So it seems that an idiot went into a convenience store and started knocking sodas onto the floor. He was arrested for it and spent time in jail. He shoulda had a V-8.

From the AP here:

There’s no use crying over spilled milk, but spilled soda has been a nightmare for one man. Eric Burns Overstreet was put in jail in September after entering the Mystik Stop & Shop, paying for a fountain drink and spilling three cups of it onto the floor.

The first time he spilled the soda, Overstreet went to fetch a mop and began cleaning up the mess. In the process, he spilled a second and a third soft drink.

“He clearly appeared to be under the influence of something other than good sense,” Chief Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson said.

Overstreet, who at one point put a yellow “Wet Floor” warning sign out as he mopped, was chased down by a clerk when he grabbed another soft drink and left without paying for it.

Overstreet pleading guilty last week to a reduced charge of third-degree theft. He was ordered to stay out of the Mystik Stop & Shop.

Circuit Judge Rick Stout, noting that Overstreet had spent many months in jail over a carbonated beverage, said he hoped the soda was good.

Overstreet responded: “I should’ve had a V-8.”

Okay, enough alliterations.  It seems that some scientist types were staring at the heads of their beer too long instead of studying at college.  But it may have paid off.  They discovered a formula to control the amount of foam in a beer-  which in turn may have some great engineering applications.

From Reuters here:

A mathematical formula can now predict how the frothy head on a beer changes over time, a finding that may have a wide range of commercial uses beyond pulling the perfect pint, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
 
The formula explains how the tiny bubbles that make up foam grow — an explanation that could lead to the development of products such as metal shrink wrap.

The possibilities include “the heat treatment of metals or even controlling (the) head on a pint of beer,” Robert MacPherson of Princeton University in New Jersey and David Srolovitz of Yeshiva University in New York report in the journal Nature.

Foam is made up of many tiny bubbles that scientists think of as cells with boundaries. The new formula calculates how these microstructures grow.

As far as beers go, Magic Hat #9 is still a newcomer to the scene of specialty brews.  The Magic Hat brewery began making beer in the mid 90′s, and much of their success is due to the quality of their top selling #9.  It is a fruit beer, flavored with apricots, but with a peppery aftertaste.  It goes down smooth, especially on draft.  I have a six pack at home of the Number Nine and look forward to trying their other brews soon.

More information can be found at beerblog.genx40 here.  And the BeerAdvocate has a write-up here.