Month: September 2016

This Thursday, September 29, is National Coffee Day in the United States. In honor of everyone’s favorite morning beverage and the farmers who make its consumption possible, Starbucks has announced it will donate one coffee tree to a farmer in need for every cup of Mexico Chiapas coffee sold Thursday.

The Coffee Day initiative is part of Starbucks’s broader commitment to help wipe out coffee rust—a fungus threatening coffee trees in Latin America. For the last year, Starbucks has donated a coffee tree for every bag of coffee purchased in participating stores in America and Mexico. Already, the company has raised enough money to plant 18 million rust-resistant coffee trees, 10 million of which have already been delivered to farmers. They hope that by extending their “One Tree for Every Bag” commitment to cups of coffee for National Coffee Day, they will be able to meet their goal of donating 20 million trees by the end of 2016.

“I have seen firsthand the devastation coffee rust has had on farmers. The initial distribution of these coffee trees has already had a positive impact with potential to help farmers and their families for years to come,” said Starbucks Global Coffee executive vice president Craig Russell in a statement. “This is the perfect way to have our customers and the coffee community become part of the solution on National Coffee Day.”

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If you don’t have time to sit down for a full meal, a new concoction from Red Robin concentrates the taste of one of their signature burgers into a glass of beer. The Grilled Pineapple Golden Ale looks like an unassuming beverage, but the flavor is anything but: it’s infused with brown sugar, ginger, pineapple, and black malt to impart a beefy, umami quality.

The beer, which is set to debut at Denver’s Great American Beer Festival in October, is a collaboration between the burger chain and New Belgium Brewing Company. The flavor profile is modeled after Red Robin’s Banzai Burger, a bold menu item topped with grilled pineapple and teriyaki sauce. According to Mashable, other burgers were considered for the experimental brew but none could compare to the Banzai’s unique style.

After its unveiling at the Great American Beer Festival, the Grilled Pineapple Golden Ale will be available on tap for a limited time at Red Robin locations in Colorado, the same state that brought us Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout.

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Today, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is known for capturing incredible images of the cosmos, but 20 years ago, the project was struggling to validate its own existence. One astonishing photo changed that—and our view of the early universe—as Vox explains in a new video (below).

The vessel launched in early 1990 and had a big issue immediately: a flaw in the 94.5-inch primary mirror, which meant that Hubble was taking blurry photos. It would take until 1993 before the issue was fixed, but once the telescope was in tip-top shape, Space Telescope Science Institute director Robert Williams started thinking big.

While Hubble was generally used for documenting specific targets in space, Williams wanted to see whether there was any value in taking a broader snapshot. The resulting image of a small “keyhole” portion of the sky above the Big Dipper became an icon. Over the course of 10 days in December 1995, Hubble took 342 frames at four different wavelengths of light—light that had been traveling for billions of years, showing at least 1500 galaxies as they were near the beginning of the universe, and in various stages of evolution. The Hubble Deep Field photo proved that the telescope was capable of seeing far more than previously believed, helped to solidify public interest in the project, provided valuable information for researchers, and changed the culture around releasing data to both the wider scientific community and the public, as Vox explains.

The landmark image is now more than 20 years old. Check out the video from Vox for an even deeper dive into the Hubble Deep Field.

[h/t Vox]

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Some words are just perfect for shouting out in exasperation. These oldies will make you feel better the moment they pass your lips.

1. ZOONTERS!

This one got a little play in the 18th century as a minced oath—a swear that was modified to avoid being offensive. It’s a further mincing of zounds, which was itself a mincing of “his wounds,” as in Christ’s. Keep it handy in case you stub your toe in church.

2. OONS!

If zoonters is pushing it too close to the edge of blasphemy, just cut it down by a few more sounds. Oons was another minced oath formed off zounds.

3. DODGAST!

Much in the way that familiar forms like dagnabbit and doggone are ways to avoid saying God damn it! and God damned!, dodgast takes on the burden of God blast it! and makes it safe for children.

4. ADOD!

Yet another obsolete way to get the satisfaction of a swear without the taking of the Lord’s name in vain, this minced oath from the 17th century stands in for oh God. Its sibling egad! survived longer.

5. CRIVENS!

This one is a creative mashup of Christ! and heavens! It’s put to good use in this line from the 1935 book Shipbuilders: “Holy crivens, I nearly broke my flakin’ back.”

6. I SNORE!

Once you go a little bit out of your way to avoid some blasphemy, no reason not to keep going even further. The exclamation I snore! was an early American way to avoid even saying the word swear. In 1790, the Massachusetts Spy reported that “in one village you will hear the phrase ‘I snore,’—in another, ‘I swowgar.’”

7. BY SNUM!

If snore or swowgar isn’t far enough from offensive for you, there’s also snum. Snum came from vum, which itself came from vow. 

8. BYR’LADY!

Not to be confused with beer lady!, this one was formed from “by our lady.”

9. RABBIT!

You’ve probably heard of drat! And rats! They started as God rot!, but before that, it was rendered as rabbit—as in “Rabbit the fellow!” from Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews.

10. WHAT THE RATTLE!?

There’s only one citation for this one in the Oxford English Dictionary, but it’s a good one, from 1790: “But what the rattle makes you look so tarnation glum?”

11. BONES OF ME!

This 16th century exclamation could show up as bones of me! or bones of you! The bones are the part of the body with the most staying power after death, so the expression has a force akin to “over my dead body” without the “don’t you dare” part.

12. GOOD LACK!

In addition to good God! And good heavens! There was good lack! Related to alack! and a sense of lack meaning fault or moral failing. It was used to express dismay at a state of affairs.

13. LOVANENTY!

An exclamation of shock and surprise, it’s probably from the phrase Lord defend thee. It also showed up as lockanties, lockintee, and lokins in Scotland.

14. MEGSTIE ME!

Another expression of surprise, it might be related to mighty. Other forms were megsty, maiginty, and megginstie, or meggins for short.

15. STAP MY VITALS!

This one probably started with Lord Foppington, a character in the 1697 comedy Relapse, who had a problem with pronouncing o as a.

16. SUPERNACULUM!

An obsolete exhortation to drink, this was a jokey combination of Latin and German. There was a German phrase auf den Nagel trinken or “drink to the nail,” meaning “drain your glass to the last drop.” Naculum was a play on what Nagel would sound like in Latin. Add super- or “over” to it and you’ve got supernaculum, which you can cry out as you turn your glass over to show you’ve chugged it all.

Identifying which of William Shakespeare’s many masterpieces is the most popular is a near-impossible task. After all, critics, actors, students, and casual readers all have very different perspectives on the Bard, and the longevity of his works means different plays have likely occupied the “most popular” slot over the years. However, according to Priceonomics, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is currently the most frequently performed of Shakespeare’s works.

Using data from the website Shakespeareances, which lists upcoming Shakespeare performances, Priceonomics was able to determine how frequently each of Shakespeare’s plays have been performed since 2011. Though the website does not list every Shakespeare performance globally (it mostly sticks to professional performances in North America, Australia, and England), Priceonomics believes it is the most comprehensive database of Shakespeare performances online.

Priceonomics found that A Midsummer Night’s Dream represents more than seven percent of the nearly 2000 Shakespeare productions listed on Shakespeareances, both in the United States and abroad. Meanwhile, in America, Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night were the second and third most performed plays, while Hamlet and King Lear took second and third abroad.

Shakespeareances founder Eric Minton thinks A Midsummer Night’s Dream may be the most performed because it’s among Shakespeare’s most accessible plays. “It appeals to people who aren’t familiar with Shakespeare,” he explains. “You are gonna get the comedy even if you’re not proficient at speaking in verse.”

[h/t Priceonomics]

Just as certain beers are best enjoyed during certain seasons, there are some beers that taste best at a particular time. Light beers like pale lagers are great for day drinking, while darker and hoppier beers are best saved for the evening. Brewing company Suntory Japan decided to take these unwritten rules and make them official: They now sell beers meant to be consumed at very specific times. 

The new “Hop Time 6:00 p.m.” and “Hop Time 9:00 p.m.” give these instructions right in the name. Hop Time 6:00 p.m. was specially brewed to drink as the sun goes down; thanks to Hallertau Blanc hops and a late hopping process, the beer is meant to pair perfectly with a sunset. It also sports a bright orange can to further sell the point. Meanwhile, the 9:00 p.m. version wears a darker design on the can that shows a night sky. Citra hops give the beer a smooth floral and citrusy flavor meant to give the feeling of stargazing on a crisp evening. 

As you might have guessed, these timely beers are only available in Japan for the time being. While we wait for the trend to come stateside, we’ll have to just make due with the old “it’s five o’clock somewhere” strategy. 

[h/t RocketNews24]

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