Raleigh Beer Week Starts Tomorrow!

Blogging neglect aside, I am ecstatic to report that Raleigh Beer Week begins tomorrow. If you haven't planned out your beer tasting week yet, which if you're smart you would have, then make sure to stop by the Busy Bee, Flying Saucer and all of the other participating locations.

Supporting local businesses and tasting rare delicious kegs of beer? A win all around.

Now let's get to it. The business of beer. I am a sour beer girl to the bone. Well, to be fair, I'm a beer lover in general, but sour beers are my beer of choice. It doesn't get much better than a Petrus Aged Pale in a bottle.... oh wait. Yes it does.

Next week Busy Bee Cafe will not only have my lover Petrus Aged Pale on DRAFT, but they will also have not one, but my TWO other favorite beers in the whole world on tap. That's right, Petrus Aged Pale, Ommegang Zuur and the winner of them all, New Belgium Eric's Ale will be on tap for Raleigh beer week.

I'll forgive the less informed for not knowing the delights of the sour beers, but I will not forgive you for not stopping by and getting a cold glass of these amazing beers.

Also being tapped for beer week, the Bee will have:

• Brooklyn Detonation
• Malheur 12
• Bruery Coton
• Dogfish Burton Baton
• Dogfish/Victory/Stone Saison du Buff
• Ommegang Zuur
• Terrapin/De Proef Monstre Rouge
• Petrus Aged Pale
• Terrapin Hopzilla
• St. Louis Geuze
• De Dochter Korenaar Noblesse
• Knob Creek Foothills People's Porter
• New Belgium La Folie
• New Belgium Eric's Ale
• Great Divide Rumble
• 2007 Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

If anyone can look at this list and not want to jump up and down with excitement, they are crazy. This is huge.

For the full schedule and up to date list of things going on in Raleigh for Beer Week, be sure to check out of fellow bloggers over at http://www.raleighbeerweek.blogspot.com/.

Not Raleigh, but still really awesome

Check this Out... A recent study has traced mitochondral DNA all the way back to the very first human woman. How cool is this?

Age confirmed for 'Eve,' mother of all humans

Mitochondrial DNA places her existence at about 200,000 years ago

By Wynne Parry

8/20/2010 11:19:17 AM ET

A maternal ancestor to all living humans called mitochondrial Eve likely lived about 200,000 years ago, at roughly the same time anatomically modern humans are believed to have emerged, a new review study confirms.

The results are based on analyses of mitochondrial DNA. Found in the energy-producing centers of cells, mitochondrial DNA is only passed down the maternal line, and can be traced back to one woman.

However, this doesn't mean she was the first modern woman, rather it indicates that only her descendants survive to the present day.

"There is always some other female that predated mitochondrial Eve, whose DNA didn't make it up to modernity," said Marek Kimmel, a professor of statistics at Rice University. "So the age of the mitochondrial Eve is always less than the age of the true, first female modern human."

A molecular clock
While most of an organism's DNA is contained in the nuclei of its cells, mitochondria also contain genetic material, but much less of it, making it easier to analyze. Mitochondrial DNA contains a region that changes rapidly and can provide a sort of molecular clock calibrated to times comparable to the age of modern humanity, making it a favorite for population geneticists, Kimmel said.

As part of the three-year project, Kimmel and Krzysztof Cyran, a Polish researcher, compared the estimates produced by about 10 genetic models intended to determine when mitochondrial Eve lived. They started with data on mitochondrial DNA previously collected from random blood donors.

Scientists know the average rate of mutation, so they can look at the genetic variation among pairs of individuals to see when their lineages diverged. But the equation becomes more complicated.

"Mutation is producing divergence, but some of the divergence is lost because of random events that occur, for example some populations become extinct," Kimmel said. As ancient modern humans dispersed, some groups settled and grew, while others became extinct.

The models make different assumptions about growth and extinction rates, which had the potential to change the estimate of mitochondrial Eve's age, the researchers found. One type of model makes the less realistic, but more manageable assumption that the human population has increased at a smooth, nearly exponential rate. Another more realistic, but more technically challenging type of model assumes the human population has grown in discrete random episodes.

An agreement
But, regardless, all of the models produced estimates placing this ancient mother's age at around 200,000 years.

"We actually show if one uses different models, one comes up with a very similar estimate, so this makes the estimate more robust," Kimmel said.

The estimates produced by models that assume population growth occurred in discrete, random bursts fell within 10 percent of each other. When taking into consideration models that assumed smooth growth, that range expanded by up to 20 percent. These models also tended to estimate that mitochondrial Eve lived earlier, according to Kimmel.

The research was published in June in the journal Theoretical Population Biology.

Addiction Satisfied

Someone reminded me this week that I have both an addiction to Raleigh and an addiction to the internet.

I see nothing wrong with either of these things to be perfectly honest. I can now walk home from work at 2:50 a.m. in the city I love, indulge Lola in her infinite love of fetch, and indulge myself in my lust for the internet. Is this so wrong?

Tonight was another glorious first friday. In fact, the first first friday that I have worked as a service-industry member of our fair city of oaks. No, I didn't get to enjoy the new show at Rebus Works, and no I didn't get to see Bobby at the Times, but I served beers like my life depended on it, and I did it well.

It's this small satisfaction that reminds me why I'm where I am to begin with. I refuse to accept doing what I'm supposed to do versus what I want to do, and I refuse to accept the "right thing to do" when what I want to do is just be myself. I'm an imperfect, flawed, confused 23-year-old that couldn't imagine being anywhere than where I am.

Ok, so I've gotten a little introspective with this post, but to be fair... I was at the Busy Bee for 15 hours straight today. I had no breaks, no leaving the building, no dinner, no nothing. I deserve a little internet self-indulgent lust.... right?

You Go, Hermione Granger!

OMLG. As if Emma Watson wasn't already my fave, she is now in the short-haired girl club! Just had to post. You rock that do, Hermione.

Makes me want to do my bangs shorter. Loves it.

RIP Internet-free Life

We are going to mark this past three weeks as having never happened. It was miserable. I felt like I was trapped in some Ayn Rand novel of a meaningless life... but it's over now. The interwebs live in my apartment once again.

No more post-free blogging. I missed Raleigh Wide Open, Cherry Bounce and god knows what else, but from here on out Raleigh is mine once again for the taking.