Army Post Road

     I don’t know what this portends for the rest of the day but I have another post about beer.
     In the Volokh Conspiracy post I linked to below they link to the Beer Advocate. Excellent website. They have a great review of some new spring seasonal brews.
     Don’t forget to Respect Beer.

     Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy enlightens us with a few comments about the proposed raise in beer taxes in the State of California.

*The title is a quote of Benjamin Franklin’s.

     Alright, so getting back on track with posting is a priority for me. We’ll see how long I can keep it.

     First I’d like to post about something near and dear to my heart: beer. Sadly, it’s not good news about beer though. Thanks but no thanks to Nickel at www.fivecentnickel.com for the pointer but the Independent reports that the cost of beer is going up.
     They report that because of farmers in the United States switching from growing hops to growing corn due to increased corn prices because of the growing demand for corn-based ethanol, the cost of hops, and thus beer, is going up. Now there’s an economics lesson that could accompany this but I’ll forgo it for now because BEER IS GETTING MORE EXPENSIVE! GAH!!
     Not only is hops the problem but so is barley. The Independent reports that because corn is being directed more and more towards ethanol and less being sent to cattle and pork farmers that the livestock farmers are searching for other grains to feed their herds and in many cases they are feeding them barley, another ingredient of beer.
     There’s a whole social commentary that could go along with this like alternative fuels & energy, commodity markets & ag economics, and the economics of beer but the one thing that I want to say right now is: damn it.

     Like the headline intimates, I’ve found a celestial gift today via TechCrunch Forums. It’s called PartyGPS. It’s a mashup of Google Maps and a party directory. You can find clubs, bars, and liquor stores on the website and, since it’s a mashup with Google Maps, driving directions to all three. Right now, there aren’t any listings for Iowa City or Manhattan, KS (but there’s a feature where you can add listings so let’s start adding those Ped Mall and Aggieville bars) but if you’re looking for clubs, bars, or liquor stores in some of the 18 bigger cities in the country (I say bigger because Hoboken and Syracuse are listed, WTF?) you’ve got an in now.

     My world is complete. Someone has found a way to combine beer and market trading. I found this bit of Nirvana in the making on the Freakonoics Blog. A bar in Berlin, the Broker’s Bier Borse, changes the price of beer as the night goes along according to demand.
     Also, read the comments. The very last one is quite funny.

     It’s like the Del.icio.us for beer. You can create collections of your favorite beers and your favorite places to drink it. It’ll also link you to other members of the site who share the most beers in common with you. The clever name of the site? Coastr. Look at my profile and see if you can find me where I’m drinking and figure out what beer to buy me.