Sunday, July 24, 2011
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Guinness Only Tastes Better In Ireland!
The Irish Times - Wednesday, March 9, 2011Serious Issue Settled As Scientists Reveal That Guinness In Ireland Tastes Best By Far
FRANK McNALLY
A SERIOUS science journal has dared to go where no science journal has gone before by tackling a question that has long vexed mankind (especially when sitting in a pub): does Guinness travel well outside Ireland?
The answer, tentatively, is no. But despite sampling 103 pints in 71 pubs and 14 countries, the researchers admitted further study is needed to back up their preliminary findings that, when ambience and other variables are discounted, Guinness really does taste better here.
The survey was conducted under the umbrella of the Institute of Food Technologists, an international not-for-profit organisation based in Chicago, and published in the latest issue of its monthly Journal of Food Science .
It comprised four researchers from countries with a long brewing tradition – Ireland, England, the Netherlands, and Germany – carrying out the fieldwork over an 11-month period in conjunction with their existing assignments and travel arrangements.
All used identical equipment: including a thermometer, a ruler (to measure head depth), a stopwatch (to measure pouring and drinking time) and a standardised checklist for rating various quality indicators.
But central to each test was a visual analogue scale, scoring the pint’s taste on a scale of 0 to 100. On the overall score, the average Irish pint rated 74. The average for all other countries was 57.
The researchers also considered a range of explanations for the discrepancy, including what they called the “conspiracy theory”, a popular suspicion that the brewery produces three different qualities of Guinness.
The study summed up the belief thus: “The finest quality is given to its own employees, the second best is sold to the people of Ireland, and the worst is exported”.
But the theory was undermined, the researchers said, by their experience that the stout served in the brewery was not the best they had in Dublin.
The four-man team did admit the possibility that the “craic” or “ambience” of the Irish drinking environment could influence quality judgments. They also found evidence for the “line” theory: that Guinness is best enjoyed in pubs where demand for it is high, so that it is never sitting in the pipelines for too long.
That the Journal of Food Science is a serious publication can be inferred from some of the other material in the March issue. One feature is headed: “Technological Optimization of Manufacture of Probiotic Whey Cheese Matrices”. A second reports: “Improved Sauerkraut Production with Probiotic Strain Lactobacillus plantarum L4 and Leuconostoc mesenteroides LMG 7954”.
And then there is the catchily titled “Discrimination of Alicyclobacillus Strains Using Nitrocellulose Membrane Filter and Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy”.
The journal also features a study on the development of food for Nasa space missions. Astronauts now enjoy a tastier and healthier diet than ever before, it concludes, but there are challenges still to be faced before they travel “to Mars and beyond”. There is no mention of the use of Guinness in the project.
Monday, February 07, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
10 Misconceptions Learnt In School
10. Einstein got bad grades in school
Generations of children have been heartened by the thought that this Nobel Prize winner did badly at school, but they're sadly mistaken. In fact, he did very well at school, especially in science and maths (unsurprisingly).
9. Humans evolved from apes
Darwin didn't actually say this, but he's been misreported ever since. What he did say was that we, and apes, and chimpanzees for that matter, had a common ancestor, once, a long, long time ago.
8. Napoleon was short
He was actually around 5ft 7 (about 1.7m), completely average for the 18th and 19th century. So how did the myth come about? Perhaps it was because he was always surrounded by his imperial guards, who had to pass a height requirement.
7. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb
Edison invented a lot of things – in fact he's one of the most famous inventors of all time – but the light bulb wasn't one of them. What he did was develop a light bulb at the same time as the British man, Joseph Swan, who came up with it originally.
6. Columbus believed the earth was flat
He may not have known how big the world was, but he wasn't worrying about falling off the edge of it.
5. Different parts of the tongue detect different tastes
You do have different taste buds on your tongue and some are more sensitive than others. But they aren't divided into perfect, easy-to-teach sections.
4. Water flushes differently in different hemispheres No it doesn't. Sorry! 3. Vikings had horns/helmets with horns Vikings may have been buried with their helmets and with drinking horns. When they were dug up by the Victorians, they assumed that the helmets had horns. 2. Lemmings throw themselves over cliffs to commit suicide The poor old things are sometimes so desperate for food that they do, according to the BBC "jump over high ground into water", but they aren't committing group suicide. 1. Cheese are the favorite food of mice Mice enjoy food rich in sugar as well as peanut butter and breakfast cereals. So a Snickers bar would go down much better than a lump of cheddar.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Friday, November 05, 2010
Monday, August 09, 2010
Life Reflections
Observing the supermarket over the years, I've determined that there are 3 common checkout strategies. My local supermarket may be like yours - it usually has 8 to 10 checkouts open. If you watch carefully, you'll see people adopting 1 of 3 strategies:
The 1st is to pick the shortest line and get in it. Stick with it, no matter what.
The 2nd is to pick the shortest line and switch lines once (at a maximum) if something holds up your line - like the dumbass person who halfway through forgot that he/she wanted to get something else and decides to hold up the line while he/she runs like a headless chicken to find her stuff. More often than not, it's a she!
The 3rd is to pick the shortest line and keep scanning the other lines. Switch lines if a shorter one appears. Continue this process until you leave the store.
The problem with the 3rd strategy is obvious. Every time you switch lines, you're starting over. In your search for a quick fix, you almost certainly waste time and you definitely waste energy jumping back and forth.
There are queues everywhere. Do you jump from one to another and every time you hit an obstacle, you switch to a new, easier better opportunity? While that might work, you're never going to get anywhere, because you can't make up your mind and you keep switching lines, never able to really run for it.
Similarly, with work, while starting up is thrilling, it's not until you get through a difficult period that your efforts pay off. The sad news is that when you start over, you get very little credit for how long you stood in line with your last great venture.
If it takes 10 impressions to make an impact, and you've delivered 8, that switch is going to cost you a lot of time and money.
So the moral of the story is, choose wisely, logically and with a huge amount of common sense, stick to it till the end and you will make it through to the end.
But if all else fails...cheat!
The 1st is to pick the shortest line and get in it. Stick with it, no matter what.
The 2nd is to pick the shortest line and switch lines once (at a maximum) if something holds up your line - like the dumbass person who halfway through forgot that he/she wanted to get something else and decides to hold up the line while he/she runs like a headless chicken to find her stuff. More often than not, it's a she!
The 3rd is to pick the shortest line and keep scanning the other lines. Switch lines if a shorter one appears. Continue this process until you leave the store.
The problem with the 3rd strategy is obvious. Every time you switch lines, you're starting over. In your search for a quick fix, you almost certainly waste time and you definitely waste energy jumping back and forth.
There are queues everywhere. Do you jump from one to another and every time you hit an obstacle, you switch to a new, easier better opportunity? While that might work, you're never going to get anywhere, because you can't make up your mind and you keep switching lines, never able to really run for it.
Similarly, with work, while starting up is thrilling, it's not until you get through a difficult period that your efforts pay off. The sad news is that when you start over, you get very little credit for how long you stood in line with your last great venture.
If it takes 10 impressions to make an impact, and you've delivered 8, that switch is going to cost you a lot of time and money.
So the moral of the story is, choose wisely, logically and with a huge amount of common sense, stick to it till the end and you will make it through to the end.
But if all else fails...cheat!
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