Dan T.

Diabolical baby

Biked the last bit into work on a Capital Bikeshare... but I do that almost every day anyway if the weather cooperates. With the announced plans for Metro's extended rolling shutdowns this summer, I wonder if there will be an uptick in Capital Bikeshare use. It's a really good, convenient alternative to Metro in DC.

"How was the movie?" "Eh, okay I guess..."

Kudos to Sal****er Brewery out of Delray Beach, Florida. Recognizing that plastic 6 pack rings have long posed a threat to aquatic life, they've developed an edible, biodegradable 6 pack ring made from barley and wheat left over from the brewing process. I've never had their beer, but I'd drink a toast of it as a thank you for this innovation... Edit: ^^^ So we can't type "sal****er"? Salt|water. That's one hyper-vigilant obscenity filter.

I come back to the brick wall and I literally can't unsee it once I've seen it. It blows my mind, because it was so invisible before I saw it. Best optical illusion ever.

Tried to coax the sun out of hiding by buying some Bell's Oberon Ale.

As Freud might have said, sometimes a brick is just a brick.

Great brick wall optical illusion... once you see it, it's hard to unsee it... do you see it?

http://i.imgur.com/VRyhHiA.mp4

You should write copy for South Florida's Tourism Board.

Did you check the Garden Center near the potting soil?

^^^Most surprising to me: Walmart sells dildos and vibrating penis rings??!? Which aisle... housewares?

Here's a scary thought for the people of the Philippines. Think about how broadly police officers interpret "resisting." Now consider this quote from Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte, on criminal suspects: "If you resist, show violent resistance, my order to police will be to shoot to kill." This is the same guy who, among other things, has vowed to kill 100,000 criminals and dump their bodies in Manila Bay, to institute public hangings for a range of crimes including drug use and robbery, who joked about being first in line to gang rape a murdered missionary and who, as mayor of Davao City, encouraged death squads that hunted and murdered hundreds of suspected criminals. Other quotes from Duterte: At a July 2005 summit on crime: "Summary execution of criminals remains the most effective way to crush kidnapping and illegal drugs." In a 2009 speech: "If you are doing an illegal activity in my city, if you are a criminal or part of a syndicate that preys on the innocent people of the city, for as long as I am the mayor, you are a legitimate target of assassination."

I can say, pretty certainly, that both of your conclusions are incorrect. As for your first: Reread the first line of the first Boston Globe article posted: Annie Dookhan, the convicted former drug lab chemist, was responsible for testing evidence in more than 24,000 cases that resulted in convictions during her 10 years working for the state — a quarter of the successful prosecutions by the district attorneys that used her laboratory, according to figures released Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. For you to be correct, one would have to assume that she tampered with evidence IN EVERY CASE SHE HANDLED that resulted in conviction. Nobody knows how many cases were actually tampered with. But every conviction - the 20,000+ number referenced, is under a cloud because she may have tampered with evidence. And as for your second conclusion, I have no earthly idea how you would conclude that. Some may well have been innocent. I suspect that for many others, there was other evidence that contributed to the conviction and that this person's tampering added weight - tainted false weight - to other existing evidence. For your 2nd conclusion to be correct, each of those convictions had to have hinged primarily on her tainted evidence. Larry's right on this one.

Move over Allistair Cooke.

I don't know. Those images raise a lot of questions. Was that girl a suspect for any crime other than riding her bike through the mall parking lot on her way home? If the concern of the officer was that she was trespassing, why did he forcibly attempt to keep her on the property instead of letting her pedal off the property? Is yanking a person to the ground by grabbing a handful of hair standard procedure? Is tasing an unarmed 15 year old girl on the ground whom you outweigh by 100 pounds standard procedure? Do you think mall management approved of the way that moonlighting cop handled the situation? Do you think the cop would have handled it the same way if a white woman decided to walk away from the officer, knowing she had done nothing wrong?

I got a little caught up in the hype last year when Dead Rise first came out and it was scarce.... I was calling around because it was sold out everywhere. DButz65 was even helping out with where shipments were going. I finally got hold of a six pack and... meh. I agree with your last line - I like Old Bay, but it just didn't work for me as a beer ingredient. Generally I'm good with Flying Dog's beers. I liked their Bloodline blood orange ale. I don't think I've ever had a bad Sierra Nevada brew.

Thrillist ranks the best beer bar in every state and DC... What does "beer bar" mean? If you said "a bar that serves beer" you'd be right, and yet also wrong. A true beer bar obsesses over beer and caters to those who do the same. It cares about stuff like clean lines and proper glassware. It generally has a bunch of interesting beers on tap, but doesn't cheapen quality in a chase for sheer quantity. So wherever you happen to be in this country, if you seek out one of these 50 fine establishments, you can rest easy knowing you'll be having a better time than anyone else in the state. https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/best-beer-bar-the-best-beer-bar-in-every-state Worth a look. (It's one link - not one of those pain-in-the-ass clickfests with a zillion ads.) Locally: Maryland - Max's Tap House, Baltimore (Haven't been... anybody?) Virginia - Mekong, Richmond (odd choice, IMO... a pho restaurant. [shrug]) DC - ChurchKey (Not a bad choice.) Edit: Looking into Mekong, and it looks to be the real deal for beer lovers. Need to visit. Here's a pic:

Thanks bus.

Thanks for posting that. Interesting. It almost - almost - takes the fun out of all the weird Florida man stories.

I'm sure that's his point, but I don't know that it's true.