BEER!!!

Until a couple of years ago, the only beer I ever drank was the occasional Sam Adams or Heineken. Then my roommate gradually introduced me to some different beers like Harpoon IPA and Magic Hat #9. When I turned 21, I discovered this sweet local bar/restaurant called Sunset Grill & Tap that has >110 beers on tap. Ever since then, I've been fascinated with trying new beers.

Personally, I love IPA's and Double IPA's. My absolute favorite beer is Dogfish Head 90 Minute. It's got this faint grapefruit aroma and faint citrusy aftertaste that gives me an orgasm and a half...
For IPA's, I also like Bear Republic Racer 5 and, more recently, Legunitas Maximus.

Other beers I've enjoyed: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Allagash White, Magic Hat #9, Whale's Tale Pale Ale

I've tried a few porters and stouts and here and there but I'm not really a big fan of darker beers. Yeti Imperial Stout was pretty good, as was Founder's Breakfast Stout but they're not beers I could drink regularly. Any recommendations would be nice!

Talk about your favorite beer here! What are you favorite/least favorite styles of beer?

hey so uh.... Apple revealed their secret product today: the iPad

http://i.gizmodo.com/5458292/apple-ipad-everything-you-need-to-know?skyline=true&s=i&autoplay=true






- It's a basically a huge 9.7" iPod Touch
- $499 for the 16GB model without 3G, $829 for the 64GB with 3G capabilities, and other prices for models in between.
- Doesn't have USB ports, Flash support, or a camera
- Another fantastic product for the upper-middle class to find an excuse to purchase!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8453223.stm

Sarah Palin takes Fox News job

Former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin has signed to be a contributor on the Fox News Channel, her lawyer has said.

Mrs Palin, who ran for the post of vice-president during the 2008 election on a Republican ticket, stepped down as Alaska governor in July 2009.

Fox News said that while Mrs Palin would not have her own programme, she would appear on the channel regularly as part of a multi-year deal.

Financial details of the deal have not been released.

"I am thrilled to be joining the great talent and management team at Fox News," Mrs Palin said in a statement on the network's website.

"It's wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news."

Fox's executive vice-president for programming, Bill Shine, said Mrs Palin had "captivated everyone on both sides of the political spectrum".

"We are excited to add her dynamic voice to the Fox News line-up," he added.

Mrs Palin was catapulted to fame when Republican presidential candidate John McCain surprisingly chose her as his running mate for the 2008 election.

News of her resignation as governor 17 months before her term in office was up had prompted speculation that she was planning to pursue a career in television.

The Washington Post reports that as well as appearing as a commentator on a variety of shows on the channel, she would occasionally host a programme featuring "inspirational tales involving ordinary Americans".

Correspondents say hiring Sarah Palin is likely to further increase the network's ratings with conservative viewers.

Facebook page

A number of Republican commentators already work for the network, among them George W Bush's former aide Karl Rove, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, and John McCain's rival for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Mike Huckabee.

Until now, Mrs Palin has mainly used her page on the social networking site Facebook to update her more than one million followers.

Regular appearances on a major network could further increase her support among conservatives.

Her appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in November 2009, during which she said a run for the White House in 2012 was "not on my radar screen right now", boosted the programme's ailing ratings.

It is not the first time Mrs Palin will be signing on with a TV station. In the 1980s she worked part-time as a sports presenter for the KTUU station in Anchorage, Alaska.

This is now the joke topic.

Tell some jokes!!!! Let's hear some serbian jokes!!! Let's hear some diaper jokes!!!

PM me an interesting article to be submitted to GW's mainpage and if I like it, the prize money is yours. If more than one person sends me an article, I will choose the one I think is best.

It can't be about random shit like HOW TO EAT CLAY. It has to be game-dev, indie gaming, music creation, fine arts, work by a creative GW dude, etc


DISCLAIMER: If you are already a winner of Pasty's Captain Goodluck contest, you can't win again. Sorry.

rule #1: no soccer chatter allowed in this topic or else


For those of you who are new: GW has been running a fantasy football league on Yahoo for the past few years and it is always a big bushel of fun! If you haven't joined a fantasy football league before, now is a great time to try!


Here are the current League and Scoring Settings, but they are SUBJECT TO CHANGE. I mostly just migrated the scoring settings from last year but made a few notable changes per yahoo's recommendation that we can BICKER over (Passing TD's are now 4 points instead of 6, Throwing a pick is -1 instead of -2, getting sacked doesn't lose points, and 40-49yd FG's are 4 points)

Scoring & Settings
Setting    Value
League ID#:    543689
League Name:    GW Football 2009
Password:    free_inri
Custom League URL:    http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/gwfootball2009
Draft Type:    Live Draft
Draft Time:    Tues Sep 1 7:30pm EDT [ Add to My Calendar ]
Max Teams:    12
Scoring Type:    Head-to-Head
Start Scoring on:    Week 1
Can't Cut List Provider:    Yahoo! Sports
Max Moves:    No maximum
Max Acquisitions per Week:    No maximum
Max Trades:    No maximum
Trade Reject Time:    2
Trade End Date:    November 20, 2009
Trade Review:    League Votes
Waiver Time:    2 days
Waiver Type:    Continual rolling list
Weekly Waivers    None
Post Draft Players:    Follow Waiver Rules
Playoffs:    Week 15 and 16 (4 teams)
Divisions:    No
Playoff Seeding Options:    Division winners awarded top playoff seeds
Roster Positions:    QB, WR, WR, RB, RB, TE, K, DEF, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN
Fractional Points:    No
Negative Points:    No

The scoring settings can still be changed (I'm not entirely happy about the current QB scoring setup, especially pertaining to sacks) and I'll probably make a poll to decide to final Draft Day/Time.

Here are the important pieces of information in large font format:

League ID#:    543689
Password:    free_inri
Custom League URL:    http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/gwfootball2009

I'll be Board of Education as usual.

Normally I just C&P some folders from one drive to an external hard drive, but I think maybe most people use software to help speed up/automate the process. Any recommendations?

Also, what do you guys use to reformat a hard drive/make a hard drive image? I'm a n00b 

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Mew's newest EP: No More Stories just came out the other day (June 30th, I believe). It's got two tracks from the upcoming LP (Introducing Palace Players & Repeaterbeater) as well as three more B-Sides.

1. Introducing Palace Players
2. Repeaterbeater
3. Owl
4. Start
5. Swimmer's Chant


You can listen to Introducing Palace Players & Repeaterbeater on their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mew

Epic Danish rockers Mew don't do anything halfway. They make big music with big guitars and big vocals that suggest nothing less than the beautiful, horrible end of the world. And they're readying their follow-up to 2006 breakout LP And the Glass-Handed Kites for release August 25 in the U.S., August 24 in the UK, and August 17 in Scandinavia via Columbia. (That mutated circus clown/butterfly thing is the cover.) And, going with the prog-like scope, the album title isn't a word or even a group of words as much as it's a poem:

No more stories
Are told today
I'm sorry
They washed away

No more stories
The world is grey
I'm tired
Let's wash away

Yep, that's the album title. (How about we just call it No More Stories... for the time being?) As if that wasn't crazy enough, the tracklisting features tiny photos of the same circus clown/butterfly shown on the cover as the titles for two tracks. Yes, the track titles are pictures, not words.

Mew hit the road this summer, touring with Nine Inch Nails in Europe and playing the Pitchfork Music Festival in July.

Check out the No More Stories... tracklist below.

No More Stories...:

01 New Terrain
02 Introducing Palace Players
03 Beach
04 Repeaterbeater

05 Silas the Magic Car
06 Cartoons and Macramé Wounds
07 A Dream
08 Hawaii
09 Vaccine
10 Tricks of the Trade

11 Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy
12 Reprise

Swimmer's Chant and Reapeaterbeater are fantastic, with the layered harmonies and high-pitched vocals I've come to expect from Mew. There seems to be a bit more of an emphasis on the percussion based on this EP, which is kind of cool. I don't really like "Owl," it feels out of place and too synthetic. I'm just hoping they're not trying to be too "proggy" with this whole LONG ALBUM TITLE. Personally, I like the off-beat guitars in "Introducting Palace Players" but I've seen a few people complaining about that being too GAY or w/e.

I'm really looking forward to the full release, as it will hopefully not have random B-sides tracks interspersed. Let me know what you think if you get a chance to listen.

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holy shit. i know i am not the only one who is paying attention to this stuff. Incumbent president Ahmadinejad was officially announced as the winner of the election that was held there yesterday. Protesters, especially supporters of opponent Mousavi, have started riots in the streets and lit shit on fire and all of that great stuff that comes with riots. Here are some links for you:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8098896.stm

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/13/iran.election/index.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-election-results-ahm_0_n_215169.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html


Iran banned all independent agencies from monitoring voting in the country, cell phone service has been suspiciously down for a few days, Mousavi-supporting websites have been blocked, bbc.co.uk was blocked, and Ahmadinejad wins with 62.6% of the vote to Mousavi's 33.75: a much much larger gap than expected

i'm leaving for poland on monday. i'll be visiting family, traveling from place to place, taking pictures, and attempting to gain as much weight as possible.

I'll be back June 1st-2nd-ish.

i got a huge final tomorrow i need to study for, and then i go into PACK EVERYTHING IN ONE DAY mode.

if you have picture requests or something dumb, post them here. i'll prob. check back before I leave on monday.

don't let gw die more while i'm gone (edit: or steel )

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/02/pa.immigrant.beating/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

The story of Luis Ramirez has been in the news for a while now. A group of teens in Pennsylvania brutally beat th shit out of him and he died in a couple days later in the hospital.

I really don't understand how this trial ended with just SIMPLE ASSAULT charges. Just because there were multiple teens involved in the fight and no one can remember who punched the victim where in what order??  idk this is pretty disgusting knowing someone in the group is responsible for his death but welp NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is a comedy series made for Channel 4 by Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade. Following on from the characters' success at The Perrier Awards the show revolves around fictional horror author Garth Marenghi (played by Holness) and his publisher Dean Learner (played by Ayoade).

Darkplace is presented as a lost classic: a series produced in the 1980s, yet never shown until now. Subsequently, it features 'present day' commentary from many of the "original" cast, where characters such as "Marenghi" and "Learner" reflect on making the show. Darkplace parodies numerous aspects of 80s low-budget television, including fashion, special effects and music.

Hey, has anyone seen this? I just watched all six episodes in the past few days and thought it was pretty good. It is a fake 80's HOSPITAL HORROR series, or something. It pulls off the 80's style shitty TV show really well, especially with the dialogue, cliche reflection scenes, music and sound effects and camerawork.

Anyone know of any other parody shows remotely similar to this they can recommend?

we don't have poll topics around here very often but...

me and headphonics got in a little "argument" over this so let's at least get the statistics straight among this very representative and official population of gw nerds...

HOW OFTEN DO YOU WASH YOUR HANDS ON AN AVERAGE DAY??? I am not going to define "hand-washing" for you, so it this means "let some water from the faucet drip on my palms" to you, so be it.

Please try and post in the topic to explain your habits so we all know how dirty/clean you are.


P.S. Usernames are turned off in the poll. I didn't bother adding "0" as that is obviously the joke option. mark, you can just vote "1"

This is probably a bad idea for a topic, but I'm gonna give it a shot.

Let's start a knowledge circlejerk. Post things that you learned today/recently. They don't have to be Wikipedia articles, but please link to at least once source so that we can all dig deeper and do our own internet research if we find another member's post interesting. Please post a short summary (a sentence or two is fine) along with the link(s). Let's learn from each other (g*y):


Toba catastrophe theory
Summary: About 75,000 years ago, a huge volcanic eruption on Sumatra may have killed off all but a few thousands humans. The evolutionary and genetic implications here are great: a dramatic decrease in a population (called a bottleneck) would have reduced genetic variation in the human population, possibly causing the extinction of humanoids and accelerating the evolution of Homo sapiens

Georg Philipp Telemann
Summary: Georg Telemann was an 18th century German composer who is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the most prolific composer of all time, as he wrote over 3,000 compositions during his lifetime. He also lived ridiculously long (86 years) for his time period. His harpischord/flute compositions are really cool imo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7926694.stm

ughhhh
fuccckkk

jesus

i don't care how fucking christian/catholic/religious you are. if you take the church's side here, you are a piece of shit.

https://www.23andme.com/

If you've ever wondered what your DNA could tell you about yourself but assumed you were too dumb and poor to find out.... well, you're partially right. Unless you are a geneticist, chances are you don't have the laboratory equipment or knowledge necessary to extract your own DNA. However, depending on the size of your wallet, $399 may or may not be a lot of money.

My genetics professor introduced this service to me. 23andme is a company that will examine a fraction of your DNA and send you back a comprehensive report detailing, among other things, your genetic predisposition to certain diseases, your ancestry, and comparisons of your genes to a database of people from around the word. Just for FUN I will mention that TIME Magazine named this the 2008 Invention of the Year. whoaaa..................




How does it work?
They send you a kit in the mail. You spit in it. You send it back. They extract DNA from the cheek cells found in your saliva and use a "DNA chip" to analyze specific parts of your DNA called SNP's (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms - regions in your DNA that vary slightly from one person to the next - Believe it or not, your DNA sequence is 99.9% the same as  every other person's.)

Still, since the human genome contains billions of base pairs, and since the human genome was only recently mapped, sequencing a person's ENTIRE genome is extremely expensive and time-consuming. Of that 0.1% variation (a few million SNP's), they examine 550,000 SNP's that have been scientifically proven to have some sort of correlation with health and disease risks.

Why would you do this?
Most of us are poor teenagers/young adults who can't afford to spend $400 for some DATA and STATISTICS that you can examine. Still, at one point or another in our lives, many of us have heard the hypothetical question of "what would you do if you knew you were going to die soon?" Obviously, this test is not going to tell you that!!! BUT BUT.... the analogy is similar. Many of you would scoff and say "why the fuck would I care? It would be stupid to suddenly change my lifestyle." Others like me may look at things in a different manner - finding out that you have a copy of a gene that has been scientifically linked to a higher risk of Parkinson's Disease or Prostate Cancer might make you curious and lead you to ask your parents about the diseases their parents suffered from. Many other health factors like heroin addiction, baldness, or heart attacks have been shown to be genetically linked at least in part.

More likely, you are a curious person and think it would be really COOL to have a part of your DNA analyzed, later finding out that your DNA shares a lot of similarities with WESTERN AFRICANS, that you have resistance to malaria, or that you have a 1/4 chance of passing on a gene strongly linked to Diabetes to your kids. Sure, if you were planning on having kids soon you and your mate could technically get an individual test done to find out the likelihood of having a child with diabetes or crohn's disease, but who actually does that unless they are already affected with a disease and KNOW they have a chance of passing it on?

Why would I care?
Honestly, I doubt anyone will actually purchase one of these kits (except for nackster or Sarevok maybe lol) but I thought I'd at least share with you guys to let you know that the technology and service exists and is available to the public! DNA sequencing is becoming cheaper and easier every day. Last year this same kit cost $999. Next year it might be $100 or less. My professor is convinced that in the next decade or so, analyzing the DNA of newborn babies will become standard procedure. The impact on the healthcare industry would be ENORMOUS - personalized health care would be just around the block. Doctors would be able to choose a medication or treatment for you that wouldn't necessarily be appropriate for your friend or dad. On the other hand, it would open up doors to genetic discrimination - health providers would want to increase your premiums if they knew you had a higher risk of developing breast cancer.





And before anyone asks - if you send them your sperm instead of your spit, you won't get your money back but you WILL feel rebellious and clever.

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