Secrets of Absinthe .. Revealed!

Excellent timing on this subject .. this just came up in a discussion with a good friend.

No, I’ve not tried it yet (nor do I have that in my near-term plans), especially after what I’ve learned.

According to Tucker Max, Absinthe is "brewed from the urine of Lucifer" (from "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell"), which prompted me to do a Search to see how it’s made.

Absinthe is a alcoholic spirit (as it has no added sugar during distillation, which would make it a liqueur). It is distilled from the flowers and leaves of the Wormwood plant.

Right off the bat, that doesn’t sound so good, now does it?

Some other fun facts:

• Absinthe is rumored to have psychotropic properties, although this has not been proven.
• It is illegal to buy or trade in The States.
• It is typically served over ice, with added sugar.
• It’s nickname is "the green fairy", of which we had a glimpse in Baz Luhrmann’s "Moulin Rouge".

van Gogh purportedly drank it to enhance his creativity. The alleged affects can certainly help explain why he "lost" an ear.

There’s more. MSNBC publishes "Absinthe’s Mind-Altering Mystery Solved".

The Pink Dice

It was back in 2005 that I blogged "Vegas Vacation Recap, Part 4 – The Pink Chip" (along with four other articles from the same Vegas trip). The thing that made that vacation unique was my receipt of a pink ($500) chip instead of 5 black ($100) chips in a "color out" (combining lower-value chips for bigger-value chips) when leaving a craps table.

Well, my pink adventures are certainly not at an end.

On my last trip, I found myself in Bill’s Gambling Hall (for you Vegas old-timers, it used to be the Barbary Coast, and for you Vegas aficionados, it’s owned by Harrah’s). I was playing Craps at a $5 table (my usual pastime and level) and, for some reason, raised the ire of a boxman (the guy who sits across from the guy with the stick) because I wasn’t hitting the far wall when throwing the dice.

Note to Craps noobs: the house does want you to throw the dice with sufficient "style" to hit the far wall, to ensure a random bounce. I wasn’t doing this intentionally, and certainly did hit the wall as often as I can remember, but, no matter.

After two warnings (I was busily collecting winnings at the time), the guy reaches into his pocket and pulls out two tiny pink dice, explaining to me that if I lacked the strength to reach the far wall, I could use these .. the ladies’ dice; he went to great pains to describe these akin to the ladies’ tees on the golf course.

Of course, it cracked the table up (myself included), and I promised to do better. The next few throws went over the far wall (again, not my intention), which was more than enough fun for the evening.

Went shopping for a tie last week ..

Who woulda thunk that paisley would be back ..

.. and in neon colors to boot?

I went with a subdued stripe.

Spam turns 30

NewScientist Tech wishes us a "Happy spamiversary! Spam reaches 30", commemorating the first advertisement sent over the nascent Internet. The message was sent from a DEC marketing representative as an offer for the recipients to attend a product presentation.

Some 393 users were intended recipients, but from the archived copy, "Reaction to the DEC Spam of 1978", it appears most recipients likely never saw the message.

The Latest Mid-Life Crisis Mobile

Okay, this was fun courtesy of Avis:

A few ragtop rules in Seattle:

• Wear a polar fleece.
• If you don’t open your top because you’re waiting for sun, you’ll never open your top in Seattle. Just be prepared to pull over to the side to put it back up. 😛
• Be prepared for strange glances from people with foreign license plates.
• As to both of the above: always look like you’re enjoying yourself.

When in a convertible, music plays an important part of the entire experience. Be keenly aware that if you’re going to play tracks at sufficient volume to enjoy them, others will have to "enjoy" them as well. In my case, I’m a gray-haired guy; I don’t want to look like I’m in in mid-life crisis mode (I’m not), nor do I want to appear silly.

Hence, I was in a bit of a quandary as to what to play. Wheeling through my Zune, I found (and avoided playing):

• Trance: while I love it (it’s my favorite workout and "thinking" music), it might appear to be a bit too high-energy; a bit too happy.
• Sade, Basia or Dead or Alive: forget about it. While not exactly "thinking" music .. might appear to be a bit too happy.
• Huey Lewis and the News, Blood Sweat and Tears or The Eagles: would make me look like too much of a throwback.
• The Doors or The Moody Blues: would make me look like too much of a holdover.
• Barry Manilow: get serious. Yes: he’s on my Zune, and he gets major props from me, but in a rag-top?
• Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks or Toby Keith: Yes, I listen. No, others don’t need to know (hey, a fellow Next-Generation denizen is a NASCAR fanatic).
• Jazz: Not cool enough for a convertible in Seattle. San Francisco? Maybe.
• Frank Sinatra: too blatantly stereotypical.

There is no Rap on my Zune, and very little Pop. The radio? No.

I settled on Evanescence (described as "The goth-inspired Arkansas rock band" :: cackle :: ), which gave way to Santana (Shaman, of course) and Marc Anthony (Libre; the Spanish version).

I enjoyed the strange glances from people with foreign and domestic license plates all around.

Collisions .. on a galactic scale

This is an image of the aftermath of two galaxies colliding in the constellation of Ursa Major.

The galaxies are some 500 million light years away from us.

The collision between the two galaxies produced a shockwave that first drew matter into the center and then caused it to propagate outwards in a ring.

This image is part of a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released on the 18th anniversary of Hubble’s launch.

JPL posts "Galaxies Gone Wild!" with a number of cool images and statistics.