warren danielson

my personal musings and web droppings

Cold Brew Coffee

Grady's Cold Brew

by Ami Kealoha
3 people liked this
Bottled New Orleans-style cold brew for super-charged iced coffee anywheregrady1.jpg

Until the recent meteoric rise of the cold brew concept, the average consumer was resigned to hot-brewed coffee that had been chilled—condensing all the bitter acids and oils that come from heated preparation. Now that grassroots cafes are cold brewing and price-points of high end models aren't too prohibitive for at-home adventurers, most have access to the delicious black nectar. For those who don't have the time or patience for the slow cold drip, Grady's Cold Brew, a Brooklyn coffee-brewer, recently came out with their delicious cold brew by the bottle.

Hand-brewed daily, Grady's Cold Brew is New Orleans iced coffee concentrate, guaranteeing a super smooth taste and bold flavors. Each bottle has a "born" on sticker on top so you know exactly when the batch was produced, and Grady steeps a special blend of coffee, ground chicory and spices overnight, followed by a double filtration to remove grounds.

grady2.jpg gradyslabel.jpeg

Being a concentrate the brew needs to be diluted—recommended one to one ratio with milk or water—but once doused over ice, the taste is fantastic. Super rich, smooth and slightly sweet, Grady's brew is delicious and packs a serious punch, delivering all the must-have elements of a successful caffeine experience.

At $15 a bottle and an average of eight cups per bottle, Grady's is also a reasonable splurge ($1.90/cup), while easily standing up against any barista-prepared cold brew out there. If the money isn't a motivator, the time you save walking to the fridge instead of waiting in line, strolling to the store or cranking out your own brew should be enough to try a bottle of this convenient and tasty beverage.

Grady's sells from The Brooklyn Kitchen and Rustic in Brooklyn, NY or directly from Grady's online store.

Mapping The Real State Of America

by Morgan Clendaniel

A new atlas gives a sense of what's truly happening in America. We look at a few excerpts to see how much we're driving and what we're eating.

 

America is a mighty big country. It contains multitudes, and it can be hard to get a sense, sitting in, say, Montana, of what's happening thousands of miles away in Maine. The Real State of America Atlas by Cynthai Enloe and Joni Seager, released last week, is full of maps and graphics that can help quantify some of how we're doing as a country.

For instance, how is our driving? Driving is, as you can see, down from last year, as the recession and high gas prices pinch transportation plans. (Maybe everyone's taking their bikes and public transportation?) As you can see, states with major metropolitan areas tend to have less driving. In Oklahoma, the non-car options are presumably quite worse.

It's an interesting contrast between states that drive less and states that are fatter. The authors have also included a map of fruit consumption to contrast with this map of obesity. It seems that both driving less and eating more fruit could be related to weighing less. What's potentially most surprising is how many people in Washington, D.C. are eating fruit, beating even California, where much of the fruit in Washington, D.C. is likely from. This also surely plays into some stereotypes about New England and the Northeast, given how concentrated fruit consumption is. Make your own judgments.

It's easy to read stories in the newspaper about trends and statistics (or simply extrapolate from your own anecdotal experience), but maps like those in the book are the best way to see how that information actually plays out. In a country this big, there isn't any way of truly knowing what's happening without looking at the data

Reprinted by arrangement with Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from THE REAL STATE OF AMERICA ATLAS: Mapping the Myths and Truths of the United States by Cynthia Enloe and Joni SeagerCopyright © 2011 by Cynthia Enloe and Joni Seager

 

by Morgan Clendaniel
8 people liked this

A new atlas gives a sense of what's truly happening in America. We look at a few excerpts to see how much we're driving and what we're eating.

 

America is a mighty big country. It contains multitudes, and it can be hard to get a sense, sitting in, say, Montana, of what's happening thousands of miles away in Maine. The Real State of America Atlas by Cynthai Enloe and Joni Seager, released last week, is full of maps and graphics that can help quantify some of how we're doing as a country.

For instance, how is our driving? Driving is, as you can see, down from last year, as the recession and high gas prices pinch transportation plans. (Maybe everyone's taking their bikes and public transportation?) As you can see, states with major metropolitan areas tend to have less driving. In Oklahoma, the non-car options are presumably quite worse.

It's an interesting contrast between states that drive less and states that are fatter. The authors have also included a map of fruit consumption to contrast with this map of obesity. It seems that both driving less and eating more fruit could be related to weighing less. What's potentially most surprising is how many people in Washington, D.C. are eating fruit, beating even California, where much of the fruit in Washington, D.C. is likely from. This also surely plays into some stereotypes about New England and the Northeast, given how concentrated fruit consumption is. Make your own judgments.

It's easy to read stories in the newspaper about trends and statistics (or simply extrapolate from your own anecdotal experience), but maps like those in the book are the best way to see how that information actually plays out. In a country this big, there isn't any way of truly knowing what's happening without looking at the data

Reprinted by arrangement with Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from THE REAL STATE OF AMERICA ATLAS: Mapping the Myths and Truths of the United States by Cynthia Enloe and Joni SeagerCopyright © 2011 by Cynthia Enloe and Joni Seager

 

Thunderbolt - Whazat?

Along with snappy Sandy Bridge processors and beefy GPUs, Apple's new MacBook Pros have a superfast, versatile new I/O tech called Thunderbolt. Whazat?

Thunderbolt is a new standard for connecting peripherals to your computer...

If your laptop is untethered and on your lap right now, it's only there temporarily. Our machines still spend most of the time bound to our desks by myriad peripherals, all of which are connected through various interfaces. Intel's Thunderbolt, formerly known as Light Peak, is a faster, simpler way to plug some of those things in.

...that works with both PCI Express and DisplayPort devices...

One of the best things about Thunderbolt is that it's dual-protocol, meaning that different types of devices—specifically, those using PCI Express and DisplayPort connections—can work from a single Thunderbolt port. Displays using MiniDisplay port will plug in right off the bat; DVI, HDMI, and VGA displays will work with one of the existing adapters. Thunderbolt has two independent channels, too, so it can supply full bandwidth an initial device and another one daisy-chained down the line (up to six devices can be daisy-chaned on one Thunderbolt connection).

...and way faster than USB...

To do that, it has to be fast. And it is! Thunderbolt moves at 10 gigabits per second, up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0 and 12 times faster than Firewire 800. Early versions used an optical connection, though the first wave to roll out in consumer products will likely work over copper-based wires. Still, the researchers behind the standard say that transfer rates could be boosted to 100 Gbit/s by the end of the decade.

...that was developed by Intel...

Intel first showed off Light Peak back in September of 2009, zapping a Blu-Ray disc's worth of data in just 30 seconds. Impressive! Since then, they've worked closely with Apple to develop the standard, which brings us to...

...and first implemented by Apple...

Apple's new MacBook Pros are the first to incorporate Thunderbolt.

...with devices coming from LaCie, Western Digital, and more

Intel says a handful of companies are already developing products that will support Thunderbolt, including Aja, Apogee, Avid, Blackmagic, LaCie, Promise, and Western Digital. They see the new standard appealing to audiovisual professionals, who need to deal with a ton of data with low latency. But Thunderbolt-compatible hard drives will make backing up huge amounts of data hella fast, too.