The Mattrix Reblogged

Courtest of the Dayton Daily News and Texas Tech University's Professor Linda Raley:

• Historians speculate that prehistoric nomads may have made beer from grain and water before learning to make bread.

• Noah's provisions included beer on the ark.

• Egyptians brewed beer commercially for use by royalty, medical purposes, and as a necessity to be included in burial provisions for the journey to the hereafter.

• 1600 B.C.: Egyptian texts contain 100 medical prescriptions calling for beer.

• A.D. 1000: Hops begins to be used in the brewing process.

• 1553: Beck's Brewery founded in Germany and is still brewing today.

• 1587: The first beer is brewed in the New World at Sir Walter Raleigh's colony in Virginia, but the colonists sent requests to England for better beer.

• 1620: Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock because the beer supplies were running low.

• 1810: Munich establishes Oktoberfest as an official celebration.

• Mid-19th century (1850s): German immigrant brewers introduce cold maturation lagers to the United States (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Coors, Stroh, Schlitz and Pabst roots begin in this country).

• 1880: Approximately 2,300 breweries are in the United States.

• 1890s: Pabst is the first U.S. brewer to sell more than 1 million barrels in a year.

• 1933: Prohibition ends for beer (April 7). By 1935 only 160 breweries survive Prohibition.

• 1966: Budweiser is the first brand to sell 10 million barrels in a year.

• 1992: Beer drinkers consumed 5.89 billion gallons, enough to fill the Houston Astrodome more than 12 times or 330 oil tankers.

Long live the nectar of the gods...

MATT

...at poker anyway.

The AFP is reporting via Yahoo! News that the actor has won seat to the World Poker Tour final table. Affleck outlasted a field of 90 who each fronted $10,000. Ben-Lo takes in $356,000 on this win and goes to the Big Show for a chance at some "serious bank."

MATT

According to this Yahoo! News article, the Saturn V rocket originally built for Apollo 18 will get cleaned up, repainted, and placed in to a structure that will protect it.

God Bless America...this is a piece of American history that we should cherish and treasure.

MATT

In addition to phaser research, we now learn that there are some developments in transporter technology.

Scientists have performed successful teleportation on atoms for the first time, the journal Nature reports.

The feat was achieved by two teams of researchers working independently on the problem in the US and Austria.

The ability to transfer key properties of one particle to another without using any physical link has until now only been achieved with laser light.

Experts say being able to do the same with massive particles like atoms could lead to new superfast computers.

This development is a long way from the transporters used by Jean-Luc Picard and Captain Kirk in the famous Star Trek TV series.

That may be, but it is progress and that counts for something!

MATT

It is being reported that Bill is headed to The Practice spinoff.

Good to see that the good Captain is still getting some work in now that Leonard has taken over the Priceline commercials...

MATT

Well, it was a most disappointing weekend.

The big news is that on Saturday afternoon, I discovered that some idiot in Los Angeles, CA thought it would be a good idea to withdraw my life savings out of an ATM. The fraud case is now open and paperwork is on the way, but the damage is done. Bills are mounting and my financial plan is pretty much ruined.

And I lost $10 in the quasi-regular poker game on Sunday. Third place finish. Out of four. I’m a MUCH better player than that, but had other things on my mind.

The good news: Doug (who writes stuff down), the TIB Set Construction Guru, has started working on some new pieces for the new set. Mark contributed quite a bit to that effort. (I was on the phone with the bank’s fraud department.)

Anyway, that about brings you up to date on what’s going on…

MATT

I HATE online registrations for news. H A T E Got it?
Now read a story about it... : )

Isn't it bad enough that the media feeds us their hooey as news, but now they want us to PAY for it...

9:25PM Update

Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds also covered this material today.

MATT

M	Modern
A	Amazing
T	Tame
T	Tasty
R	Rounded
I	Important
X	X-Rated

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

That last one is particularly interesting...

MATT

The Sacramento Bee:

Test subjects can't see the invisible beam from the Pentagon's new, Star Trek-like weapon, but no one has withstood the pain it produces for more than three seconds.

People who volunteered to stand in front of the directed energy beam say they felt as if they were on fire. When they stepped aside, the pain disappeared instantly.

The long-range column of millimeter-wave energy is known as the "Active Denial System" for its ability to prevent an aggressor from advancing. Senior military officials, who plan to deliver the device for troop evaluation this fall, say years of testing has produced no sign it will lead to health effects beyond perhaps causing skin to temporarily redden.

It is among the most potent of a new generation of futuristic, "less-than-lethal" weapons being developed by the Defense Department - tools that could dramatically alter the way police control riots and soldiers fight wars.

COOL! Very cool! Now all I need is my tricorder to go with my cell-phone communicator and I'm set for the landing party assignment!

MATT

NRO's Rich Lowery wrote on The Corner today that he caught a couple Devil Ray-Yankee games over the weekend at Tropican Field.

What a concrete monstrosity! My girlfriend said it was like watching a game in a shopping mall. But on the upside, it’s easy to get good seats that are close to the field and it’s generally very quiet, so there’s a kind of intimacy that makes you feel close to the game.

Now, I can agree with all that...but this bit: uh-huh...

My humble suggestion: Build a real open-air ballpark somewhere looking out on the water.

I caught a game there a couple years ago and after enjoying a game in air-conditioning (especially in the Florida heat), I think indoor baseball may actually have a future...

Nah...I think Rich is right afterall!

MATT

David Hasselhoff, the Knight Rider, wants to be the next villain for James Bond.

And...

Wait for it...

He wants to sing the theme song!

Hell hath no fury like a male Baywatch star.

MATT