The Filter^

Lager lager lager...

Interesting article in The Guardian (via Chris Stokes through Facebook):

When you're gasping at an unfamiliar bar or picking up something to take to a mate's house and are confronted by the usual substandard suspects, what do you pick as the best of a bad bunch?

I'm surprised by the pessimism. It's true that it's depressing when you see Kronenburg, Carslberg, Carling on offer in a pub. But I've noticed a massive improvement in the quality of lagers - one of my locals has a "Suffolk Blond", whilst the other does a lovely Erdinger. The last few times I've been on country walks I've found unusual (often English) lagers. Given the mass exodus of townies to cider this is a surprise, but for a cold crisp pint the options are better than ever.

In terms of supermarkets and offies the choice is even better. The Guardian article mentions " that Czech Holy Trinity: Budvar, Staropramen and Pilsner Urquell" but that is merely the tip of the iceburg. I'll have a bottle of Tyskie to watch the footie (they also have them in cans), or Zywiec.

The reason I spend so much time in Romania is because we don't find Ursis in the UK, and my favourite beer is Croatian Ozujsko. So there's still room for improvement. But personally, I've come a long way from Natty Ice.

The great risk thermostat

It turns out they estimate the costs of drinking and drug-taking pretty accurately, they simply see the benefits as higher than older people do.  If anything the teenagers see the risky activity as riskier than it really is.

That's Tyler Cowen, referring to "Teenage risks and how to avoid them" in the NYT. This certainly fits with my intuition, and as a subjectivist and opportunity-cost theorist it's important to stress the lost utility that arises from young people overestimating the dangers of drink and drugs. I took a pretty detailed diary during my undergraduate days, and most of the actions I took that I regret occurred when I was sober.

Antioxidants: Drink up thy zider | The Economist

Phenolic compounds help give cider its taste, but they also have antioxidant properties. That means they destroy certain sorts of oxygen-rich molecules that have been linked, at least circumstantially, to age-related complaints such as heart disease, neurodegeneration and cancer

via www.economist.com

Marginal Revolution: What happens when you get drunk?

Put a stressed-out drinker in front of an exciting football game and he’ll forget his troubles. But put him in a quiet bar somewhere, all by himself and he’ll grow mare anxious. Alcohol's principal effect is to narrow our emotional and mental field of vision.

via www.marginalrevolution.com

Tyler also links to

an interesting piece by Steele on how "drinking away your troubles" works.

Marginal Revolution: Getting drunk as signaling behavior

It is argued that drug consumption, most commonly alcohol drinking, can be a technology to give up some control over one’s actions and words. It can be employed by trustworthy players to reveal their type. Similarly alcohol can function as a “social lubricant” and faciliate type revelation in conversations. It is shown that both separating and pooling equilibria can exist; as opposed to the classic results in the literature, a pooling equilibrium is still informative. Drugs which allow a gradual loss of control by appropriate doses and for which moderate consumption is not addictive are particularly suitable because the consumption can be easily observed and reciprocated and is unlikely to occur out of the social context. There is a trade-off between the efficiency gains due to the signaling effect and the loss of productivity associated with intoxication. Long run evolutionary equilibria of the type distribution are considered. If coordination on an exclusive technology is efficient, social norms or laws can raise efficiency by legalizing only one drug.

via www.marginalrevolution.com

Antioxidents

The Economist reports:

The idea that red wine is actually good for your health is irresistible to the average tippler. But it appears to be true. In particular, red wines are rich in polyphenols, a group of powerful antioxidants that are thought to protect against cancer and heart disease by destroying molecules that would otherwise damage cells.

Beer Street

Beer, happy Produce of our Isle
Can sinewy Strength impart,
And wearied with Fatigue and Toil
Can chear each manly Heart.

Labour and Art upheld by Thee
Successfully advance,
We quaff Thy balmy Juice with Glee
and Water leave to France.

Genius of Health, Thy grateful Taste
Rivals the Cup of Jove
And warms each English generous Breast
With Liberty and Love.

via Blockhead

Drinking + Exercise

The Telgraph reports:

The survey of more than 11,000 people over 20 years showed that drinking and exercising - though not together - were particularly effective against fatal heart disease, reducing the risk by up to 50 per cent compared with those who were inactive and teetotal...
The study, published in the European Heart Journal, followed 11,914 Danish men and women over 20 years as part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study.

It suggests that moderate drinking (a pint a day) helps to lower blood pressure.

Cocktail Renaissance

But the best cocktails were not the product of the 1950s when the Rat Pack set the standard, but the 1920s when piano bars and hot jazz ruled and people changed their clothes for the evening. Our most elegant cocktails were part of the great modern revolution in design and had the same sleek lines as that era's airplanes and motorcars.

That's from "The Cocktail Renaissance", by Robert Messenger, in the Weekly Standard.

The Poet, and Absinthe

At the very heart of the absinthe legend is the idea that it provides a noticeably different quality of intoxication – in other words, that over and above the normal effects expected from alcohol, absinthe has, in addition, “secondary effects”. These are often said to include visual disturbances, unusual sensitivity to light and colour, mild euphoria and a peculiarly clear-headed type of drunkenness.

That's from the Absinthe virtual museum. The drink Ernest Hemingway refered to as "opaque, bitter, tongue-numbing, brain-warming, stomach-warming, idea changing liquid alchemy". Here's some other resources:

• Books, at Amazon (I believe this is the go to one)
• An absinthe buyers guide
• An hypnotic video on preparation