This article about the prison system got a lot of attention this week. Part of it is nauseating ("We're hard on criminals because they're black"), but the writer raises legitimate issues and provides interesting facts. Excerpt:
[T]he United States–with five percent of the world's population–houses 25 percent of the world's inmates. Our incarceration rate (714 per 100,000 residents) is almost 40 percent greater than those of our nearest competitors (the Bahamas, Belarus, and Russia). Other industrial democracies, even those with significant crime problems of their own, are much less punitive: our incarceration rate is 6.2 times that of Canada, 7.8 times that of France, and 12.3 times that of Japan. We have a corrections sector that employs more Americans than the combined work forces of General Motors, Ford, and Wal-Mart, the three largest corporate employers in the country . . .
Brews You Can Use
Proof that Satan is a homosexual: Beer cocktails.
These drinks provide something "beerish," Medal explains. But it's not just for the women. Beverage co-ordinator and bartender Jon Sayder says "you'd be surprised" how often guys order beer cocktails. Men tend to order Root Bier, a mix of Paulaner Hefe-Weizen beer, Kaluha, Galliano and a splash of cola. And the Biermosa, a mix of refreshing Blanche de Chambly and orange juice is actually quite good...
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Craft beer continues its climb in popularity: The volume of craft beer sold in the first half of 2007 rose 11% compared to this same period in 2006 and dollar growth increased 14%. For the first time ever craft beer has exceeded more than a 5% dollar share of total beer sales.
And what is craft beer? Here's Wikipedia's definition: All-malt beer that is brewed without adjuncts and with an eye to beer style rather than mass appeal. It has gradually replaced the term microbrew as the most popular term to describe the output of smaller breweries.
