European Parliament Elections

Ropi sent me a link to this Guardian article on the European elections. This was his first time voting and he offered some of his thoughts about voting the other day.

The article he sent certainly reminds me how little how I know about how European Parliamentary politics work. Each of these country overviews (the article is much longer) is just the makeup on the face of the politics of the countries. Anyone ready to write an equivalent paragraph describing the 2008 US election in 40 words or less? Well, at least we know about American Idol if we don't know who the Prime Minister of Spain is.

France

Two parties claimed victories in the French European elections last night: Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling centre-right UMP topped the poll, but the new green coalition, Europe Ecologie, won a surprisingly high tally, forcing climate change back onto the agenda for all French politicians.

Italy

Projections in Italy indicated Silvio ­Berlusconi had suffered a clear setback after a campaign dominated by the ­controversy surrounding him.

Spain

Spain's rightwing People's party won its first national victory for nine years, as Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero paid the price of recession. Zapatero saw his Socialists slide to a loss by 3.7 percentage points 15 months after winning a general election.

Ireland

Voters rejected both the ruling Fianna Fail-Green party coalition and the country's most famous Eurosceptic, Declan Ganley, in European, local and Dáil by­elections over the weekend.

Hungary

A fringe neofascist party, Jobbik, made a breakthrough by winning three out of 22 seats in Hungary where the main centre-right opposition party, Fidesz, has won 14 seats, the governing Socialist party four seats and the Hungarian Democratic Forum one.

Ropi, this doesn't sound good. Can you elaborate on the Hungarian neofascist party?

They cover Sweden, Austria, and Belgium as well. And there are a number of links to other stories on the election.

The Black Cockerel

We went to Out North Saturday night for their second world premiere of a play in two months. (The first was The Man in the Attic.) I'm not sure what constitutes an official world premiere. The first half was acted out. The second half the key actors had their scripts in front of them on music stands. While they knew the lines pretty well, they did peek down at and turned the pages.



Should we have different standards for a Nigerian playwright whose play is performed in Anchorage with local actors and a local director in a tiny playhouse, than we have for a Broadway play staged with well-known actors?

Maybe, but as I used to tell students when they complained my grading was too hard for a school like UAA, "Just because you're at UAA, doesn't mean you should be treated like second-rate students." And if these are serious theater folks, they need honest reactions.


And that said, I'm glad I went to see the play. I learned about African history, there was some riveting acting, some less than riveting acting, and I got to learn a bit of the process of developing a play.

But I don't want you to think the playwright is just some international student who landed in Fairbanks and writes plays to keep warm in the winter. The program notes tell us that playwright Ademola Bello

[I]n 2001...won both the Audience and Panelist Choice Awards at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, for his play, The Blackguard Prince. His other plays have had stage readings and workshop productions in New York at Actors Studio, Lark Play Development Center, and Frederick Loewe Room.

You can learn more about the playwright, who was in the audience Saturday night from the ADN article on him .


Basically the play is about Jonas Savimbi, rebel leader of Unitas in Angola and, for a while, CIA beneficiary, and his relationship with his foreign minister, Tito Chingunji,whose family, early on, are imprisoned. We also have a CIA agent named Jack Abramoff involved as well.


I think there is a lot of promise here. There were parts near the beginning where there was too much teaching of history in the dialogue which distracted from the drama. There needs to be a better way to get the necessary information across. While Earl Smith, who played Savimbi put life into his character - I'd say he nailed Savimbi except I've never even seen clips of Savimbi, but he certainly filled my stereotypes of a post colonial African tyrant - I didn't feel an ongoing chemistry among the three key actors. Darren Williams had probably the most difficult part. He played the foreign minister who wants to end the killing and find a way to peace, but who's forced to keep working for the rebel leader who intends to keep the civil war going until he becomes president. If he hopes to see his family alive, he has to do Savimbi's bidding. But how would someone keep this up for six years? And how does one carry out a role in which he bounces back and forth from confronting his tormenter to acting compliant? I have no idea. Williams gave it a good try, but it was an extremely hard role, and there was too much repetition of the same sort of cat and mouse games between Savimbi and Chingunji in the script.

But wow! What a way to fill in gaps about African history. To have Jonas Savimbi reincarnated live in Anchorage stirred much of the audience, I think, to go back and do a little homework. And the glimpse of Abramoff scamming African rebels before he took to scamming Americans more directly was also a revelation. And being face to face with a psychopath is always a daunting experience for anyone with a conscience.

We may live in Anchorage, but we get enough of these intimate first class theater experiences, to make it pretty exciting for me. I'd much rather watch something here at Out North or at Cyrano's than in the Performing Arts Center where I'm usually far from the stage at much higher prices. The last set of pictures is from the after play Q&A.


OK, here's a map of Africa from Africamap.com but you'll have to explore the map to find Angola for yourself. It was a Portuguese colony as was Mozambique.



This (first page of a) biographical obituary of Jonas Savimbi in the Review of African Political Economy is in sharp contrast to the NY Times report. The first emphasizes how he prolonged civil war until his death, causing the deaths and suffering of countless and highlights his glory days as the darling of the Reagan administration. The latter doesn't mention his CIA connections, let alone his Reagan days, and plays down the havoc his personal ambition caused until his death.


Finally, I've put off reading the ADN's review of the play until I finished writing this. Linda Billington gives a lot more information than I do, but in the end, we're fairly close in our assessments.

Warm Lazy Sunday Shots

A lazy run in the warm weather today. Caught at the light, took a picture of this poster for the ordinance scheduled to be voted on Tuesday at the Assembly meeting. At least that was my assumption. I sent an email to one of my Assembly reps last week - Dan Coffey - asking how he planned to vote and whether he was still listening to constituents on it. Haven't heard anything back. My other rep is supporting it.
Then on to the bike trail.

This evening we biked over to meet friends for dinner and passed the fence that surrounds Mcglaughlin Youth Center. Sounds so wholesome, but if it were that wholesome, it wouldn't have this razor wire to keep the youth inside.

Enjoying the Garden

More flowers starting to bloom. There are two different plants with white geranium blossoms.














The flax looks like such a fragile flower, but it blooms all summer. Tiny blue flowers that close up at night and bounce in the wind. And they come back year after year.




We used to have generic lattice below the deck behind the planters. But it gradually broke apart over the years and I wanted something more natural. In China I saw rural fences made of small branches and twigs. I had lots of branches piled in the back - some from a tree that fell into our yard a few years ago, but also natural stuff from our own yard. I've been planning to turn it into mulch, but decided to try this instead. I think it looked better on Chinese farmland. I think they've been doing this longer than I have too. In any case, it blocks the view under the deck a bit and it will do until I can think of something better. Only the taller ones on the left are wired together (yes, they used wire in China too). The smaller ones are just sitting there until I get them wired.

I am aware that if I lived in an area vulnerable to brush fires, and even here in the middle of town, I'm not completely sure it's a good idea.

Spinning the Supreme Court 1 - Narratives About the Court

[This is Part 1 of three posts on the narratives surrounding a Supreme Court nomination. Part 2 will be on narratives about political strategy and Part 3 will be narratives about race.]

We generally understand Winston Churchill's “History is written by the victors” to mean that those who prevail, get to select which facts to highlight and how to interpret them as they tell the story of how they (now 'the good') defeated 'the evil ones.'

But who is writing the present? Well, everyone is trying. We are all competing to have our narratives accepted as official reality.

In most situations, there are an enormous number of facts and a smaller number of competing narratives (or theories or stories or interpretations) which try to organize and explain the facts. The difficulty is in figuring out which of the facts are significant and which of the narratives best fit the facts. Our inclination is to make the facts fit our own favored narratives (the stories we want to believe) rather than finding or creating narratives that more accurately explain the facts. When politicians do this - try to create the right narrative for political gain - we call it framing or spin.


So, what are the narratives around the appointment of a Supreme Court Justice these days? In our heads are all the stories we've ever heard or thought of. Outside our skulls is the world where things are happening. We talk about 'facts' as though they are 'true' events. But who filters the facts before we get them? Obviously, events we don't witness first hand, are filtered by others - friends, family, news media, bloggers, etc. And even events we witness are filtered by our brains. Physically we can't take in and record every fact we witness. (Can you describe exactly what the last person you spoke to was wearing, down to the buttons?) And those stories in our heads I mentioned above also filter in and filter out what we think is important. (The buttons probably weren't important and not special enough to have attracted your attention.)

So how do we swim through all the facts and all the spin to find the narratives that most closely mimic what's happening outside of our heads? The best way I know, and it is inadequate, is to try to become conscious of the narratives. Usually they are working without us paying any attention, like doormen deciding which facts and ideas can come in and which can't. So, if you try to be conscious of the narratives you and others are using, then you take a giant step forward in figuring out what is happening.

So what narratives are being used concerning the decision to select and then approve of a Supreme Court Justice?


Constitutional Narrative

The US Constitution, Article II, Section 2 says:

He [the President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. [emphasis added]

Supreme Court Justice Narratives

Here's the generic narrative of a Supreme Court nominee we tend to learn in school:

The President will nominate someone who has performed exceptionally well in the field of law AND whose political leanings, while aligned with those of the president, are also not too distant from those of the population.

Bonnie Goodman at HNN offers an example of the second part of this narrative in regard to Ruth Bader Ginsburg's confirmation hearings:

Sen. William Cohen (R-Maine) stated bluntly that the nominee's ideology was rightly a matter of concern. But Cohen suggested during the hearings that judicial ideology should be used only to determine if the nominee's philosophy is "so extreme that it might call into question the usual confirmation prerequisites of competency and judicial temperament." [emphasis added]

This issue of 'so extreme' in modern times came up with the nomination of Robert Bork. One narrative says that Democrats made judicial ideology an issue by rejecting Bork. A counter narrative says Republicans made it an issue by nominating a candidate whose ideology was so extreme. (Of course, saying that he was extreme is also a narrative, an interpretation of the facts.)

As you can see this is already getting tricky. How do we know what's extreme? We do have opinion polls, but the law isn't about voting and popularity. The Constitution is supposed to protect the basic rights of all humans even if the majority doesn't support them. Judges are supposed to decide based on the law, even if the decision isn't popular. They get lifetime appointments so they can resist pressures to vote a certain way.

It would seem pretty simple to interpret "he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate . . . Judges of the supreme Court," but we're already finding problems. "Advice and consent" seems pretty straightforward. The President did talk to lots of Senators before nominating Ms. Sotomayor and soon they will be able to consent or not. But what is an appropriate basis for that consent?

That gets us back to the statement above about legal competence and political leanings. While we could debate all this, I won't spend much time on legal competence. That seems the easiest, though, if someone didn't go to Yale or Harvard, can they fit the prevailing narratives of "legally competent"? What about someone who hasn't been a judge already? Etc.

If judges are supposed to make decisions based on the law, why even mention political leanings? Well, because the President and the Senate are all politicians and because the Supreme Court is the third branch of the government. The judges aren't elected, but they are appointed and approved by elected officials. So we have to consider politics.

And also, 'political leanings' is another way to allude to the kinds of narratives people have in their heads. These political leanings are predispositions to consider some things more important than others - the right to own a gun as more important than the possibility of misusing the gun, or upholding international law about torture as more important than potential security risks.

Above I offered a generic narrative of a supreme court nominee. Let's expand that now from just the nominee's characteristics to how the nominee should behave if approved.


There are two well articulated narratives about how a Supreme Court Justice should behave. Wikipedia, in a post on Judicial Activism offers:

Judicial activism is a philosophy advocating that judges should reach beyond the United States Constitution to achieve results that are consistent with contemporary conditions and values. Most often, it is associated with (modern) liberalism that believes in broad interpretation of the Constitution which can then be applied to specific issues.

Judicial restraint is the counterpart to judicial activism and is advocated by thsoe [sic] who believe that democracy will thrive if judges defer to the democratic process and stay out of policy debates. So, judicial activism is not necessarily an ideological concept. Some trace the history of judicial activism back to the loose constructionist approach of Alexander Hamilton, who believed that broad wording of the Constitution was meant to enable, not inhibit, various government actions.[1]

But this Wikipedia article is marked with warnings such as:

• Its neutrality is disputed. Tagged since December 2008.
• Its neutrality or factuality may be compromised by weasel words. Tagged since November 2007.
• It is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. WikiProject Law or the Law Portal may be able to help recruit one. Tagged since May 2009.
• It may contain inappropriate or misinterpreted citations which do not verify the text. Tagged since December 2008.

So we even have to consider that Wikipedia entries are also influenced by the narratives of their writers.

Adam Cohen, in a recent NY Times editorial, uses Britain's Supreme Court of Justice's decision that a Pringle is indeed a potato chip (and thus Proctor & Gamble owes $160 million in taxes) to give his own interpretation of activist judges:

Conservatives like to insist that their judges are strict constructionists, giving the Constitution and statutes their precise meaning and no more, while judges like Ms. Sotomayor are activists. But there is no magic right way to interpret terms like “free speech” or “due process” — or potato chip. Nor is either ideological camp wholly strict or wholly activist. Liberal judges tend to be expansive about things like equal protection, while conservatives read more into ones like “the right to bear arms.”

(Note that Cohen calls conservatives "strict constructionists" a term that seems more radical than Wikipedia's term "Judicial Restraint.")

(If someone were really a strict constructionist, could one argue that since the Constitution says "he" for President, that women can't be President?)

Let's try again for a narrative about a good nominee:

The nominee would be a person who would assume office with the goal of interpreting cases according to the law. Where the law is not completely clear, there will be some interpretation that is influenced by the new justice's life experiences. Candidates should not be coming to the court with the goal to change the direction of the court and the law. However, some cases raise issues not clearly addressed by the law or the Constitution. New technology raises questions that were often not addressed by the Constitution. Judges then must interpret how the words of the Constitution should be applied to, say, surveillance of email. Essentially new law must be created.

My 'neutral' (some might dispute its neutrality) narrative above tends to say that when possible (if the laws and Constitution are clear about the situation in the case before the court), judges should practice judicial restraint. But when the case isn't clear cut, they will need to be a bit activist. They will be required to use their own narratives, to interpret the law or Constitution. Of course if all the justices have the same narratives, they will come to similar conclusions.

And with eight males and one female, to the extent that males and females experience the world differently, we can see that female (slightly over half the US population is female) narratives are somewhat lacking on the Supreme Court.

I'm not an attorney. I don't claim any special expertise in this process of choosing a Supreme Court Justice. But I did want to step back a bit from the rhetoric and focus on the narratives that are being used in the hope that others might begin more easily to recognize them for what they are: interpretations of reality, but NOT reality.

In Part 2 I'll look at narratives about political strategies for approving or rejecting Supreme Court nominees, which will include how actors use narratives to support and oppose candidates. In Part 3 I'll look at narratives around race and Supreme Court nominees.

Hungarian High School Geography Exam

Ropi is a Hungarian high school student who blogs. (I'm not sure if his blog is still open to everyone. You can check.) He's getting close to graduation and recently posted his geography exam. Some of it seems relatively easy, some pretty hard. Some has local stuff, but most is world wide issues. AND it's in English, because he takes many of his classes in English, not Hungarian. Here are a couple of the questions. How would you do on it? The can get a pdf of the whole exam here.

If you're having trouble reading this, double click
the graphics to get bigger, clearer version.

Any US high school students want to comment on whether they are doing equivalent work? Or students from anywhere in the world?

The New DOJ Rules

When Vic Kohring was convicted, the DOJ press release on Nov. 1, 2007, said

A federal jury in Anchorage, Alaska, has found former Alaska State Representative Victor H. Kohring guilty of conspiracy, bribery and attempted extortion, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division announced today.

It didn't mention the counts he was acquitted on. I guess they wouldn't want anyone to know that they hadn't won on every count. The same was true for the Anderson and Kott press releases. At the time I wrote that I thought a government agency shouldn't be playing with the facts to make itself look better, that they should also mention the counts the defendants were NOT found guilty of.

So I'm still amazemed at the new Obama DOJ. Could you possibly imagine that the Bush Administration would have, on their own, dismissed the conviction of a very prominent Democratic Senator and then gone on to say due to their own errors they are asking two more Republican state politicians be released? OK, it's true that the errors were made under the previous administration, so they aren't exactly admitting their own mistakes. But in the highly competitive game the Bush Administration played, winning was everything, and they would never have given up prisoners of the opposing side voluntarily.

This really is a different type of America today. Not only do we see this in the big things like the Cairo speech yesterday, but also in the little day-to-day things like this announcement yesterday.

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 4, 2009
WWW.USDOJ.GOV

AG
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888

Department Asks Alaska Corruption Cases Be Remanded to District Court, Former State Representatives Be Released

The Department of Justice today asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to remand the cases of former Alaska State Representatives Victor Kohring and Peter Kott, who were convicted on corruption charges in 2007, to the District Court. The Department also asked the Court of Appeals to release the two on personal recognizance, after the Department uncovered material that appears to be information that should have been, but was not, disclosed to the defense prior to trial.

Attorney General Eric Holder also instructed the Department’s Criminal Division to review the Department’s public corruption investigation in Alaska to ensure that all other discovery obligations have been met.

"After a careful review of these cases, I have determined that it appears that the Department did not provide information that should have been disclosed to the defense," Holder said. "Department of Justice prosecutors work hard every day and perform a great service for the American people. But the Department’s mission is to do justice, not just win cases, and when we make mistakes, it is our duty to admit and correct those mistakes. We are committed to doing that."

"The Criminal Division must ensure that defendants receive all appropriate discovery materials, and today’s action demonstrates that commitment to this responsibility," said Lanny A. Breuer, Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division. "We will continue regular discovery training for all Criminal Division prosecutors to make certain that they perform their duties in adherence to the highest ethical standards. Every day, hundreds of career prosecutors work to uphold this Division’s proud tradition of being vigilant, ethical and stellar in the execution of their work. This action is faithful to that tradition."

Kohring was convicted in U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska on Nov. 1, 2007, of bribery and extortion-related charges. He was sentenced on May 9, 2008, to 42 months in prison and two years of supervised release. Kott was convicted on Sept. 25, 2007, of bribery and extortion-related charges and was sentenced on 72 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

In April, after the dismissal of charges against former Sen. Theodore F. Stevens, Attorney General Holder instituted comprehensive steps to enhance the Department’s compliance with rules that require the government to turn over evidence to the defense in criminal cases.

Since the launch of those reforms, the Department has been providing supplemental training to federal prosecutors on discovery obligations and has established a working group of senior prosecutors and Department officials from each component to review discovery practices and the need for additional improvements, resources and training.

###

09-550

Interesting April and May Google Searches

Here's another list of things people googled to get to this blog. Some worked, but a lot of these got here because I just happened to have some of the unusual words or phrases they were looking for, but not the answer they were looking for.

• how would i know if someone did voodoo on me? I know this person didn't get the answer to the question. I jokingly had speculated that perhaps someone had done voodoo on me in this post about the how we know what is real, in this case, in the FBI investigation of Alaskan politicians. And tonight I could probably write another chapter given that the attorney general has asked for the release of Kott and Kohring.

• ada ohio cemetery in guinness book of world records My post of famous people born in 1909 included a mention of Rollo May and the fact he was born on April 21, 1909, in Ada, Ohio. Probably not what they were searching for.
  
  
• keyboard problem mac h is 2 j is 4 problem - Not exactly sure what the problem is here. If you hit F6 on my macbook, it changes some of the keys and J=1, K=2, L=3, etc.. Perhaps the searcher had a different Mac where those letters were a little different. In any case, you have to turn off NumLock by hitting F6 again. But that wasn't the answer on my post about my keyboard locking. But maybe the person learned something else useful.
  
  
• who was the first female fbi agent - Bingo! This person probably got what the desired info on my post of leftover notes on female FBI agents.
  
  
• do florence reece's artistic accomplishments contradict? - this is one of those bizarre google results where it identifies search words in several unrelated posts. Actually, in this case they are all from one post, but a looong post. The one on Famous People. Here's what they found at google - four of the six words in the search:
  What Do I know?: Famous People Born in 1909
  And I added one person to Brainy's list - Art Tatum. ... With her posthumous works - 16 volumes, edited by André A. Devaux and Florence de Lussy - Weil has earned a reputation as ... Her web presence is full of contradicting stories. ..... when young Rollo (given the name Reece at birth) was still a small child. ...
  
  
• do the governor of a state have the right to tell a store how much to charge on a certain product if he know that the prices are to high? I didn't answer that question anywhere; this person got the post on Governor Palin and product placement.
  
  
• 
• green driveway - I get a number of searches for green driveway and like this person, they get to a post with this picture.
  
  
• how to find ip address for anonymous posts at blogger.com - Well the post google sent them to - figuring out my anonymous blog commenter - doesn't answer the question. On other posts I do show some of the things that my sitemeter tells me about people coming to the site, including ip address.
  
  
• july date full moon anchorage This one was from Australia. I didn't give out
  that information. But they did get to see the April full moon at Half Moon Bay.
  
  
• find birthtown of poet,
• author of the temple,
• born in 1909
• poet born 1909 the temple
  "poet born 1909 the temple" got to the Famous People Born in 1909 post. But I got curious why so many people were suddenly searching for this and I found a puzzle in the Times. So I did some sleuthing of my own and posted what I found. And that got me nearly 1000 hits over the week of the puzzle.
  
  
• how many people were born on each date since 1909? I have a few people listed on different dates for 1909, but not all the people.
  
  
  
• 
• free cicada piercing sucking mouthparts pictures - I think this picture which I took is better than what they found at cicadas in the background, where there's a picture I found on line. But I'm not sure the "piercing sucking mouthparts" are all that clear in any of the pictures. But the post they got to had audio of cicadas in Thailand.
  
  
  
• if the world is what it is because we have created it how do we know whats real - This person got to a post titled "Blogging - What's Real? How Do We Know? Stevens, Kepner, Joy There's a little that addresses the question, but most is about the trials and investigation.
  
  
• fishing with cormorants japan opium connection? This one came from Singapore and I think what they got was just to the blog, not a particular post. I have no idea why it got here.
  
  
• i know this boy who talks to me only when he is high - another one that got to the blog, but not a particular post.
  
  
• blog in general leaking petrol tank emergency fix - Definitely got an answer to the question, my story about how some Ugandan truck drivers used a bar of soap to temporarily fill a hole in the petrol tank. This one came from Sydney, Australia.
  
  
• pictures/photos from global summit on climate change alaska pictures This one was from Chennai, India and they got to a post with pictures from the indigenous peoples global summit on climate change. But why doesn't Google send them to the label that would give them all of the posts on the summit instead of just one of the posts?
  
  
• what is the difference between a cyclone and a typo - I love typos like this. I'm pretty sure this searcher from Melbourne, Australia was looking for the difference between cyclones and typhoons. And they got that at this post.

Click here for all the other posts on interesting google searches.

Alaskan Made Dehydrated Beer?

[UPDATE:  September 9, 2013:   I'm fixing the old link on the image which doesn't work any more.  Here's an August 14, 2013 post on their site:

CARBONATOR
Availible now. Visit our online store to order yours today! You can also find a store near you through our store locator page.
SODA
Being sold now through our online store. You can also find a store near you through our store locator page.
BEER
We finally have our labeling approval from the Feds!  Packaging has been ordered, and beer is under production. Boo Ya! Check us out on Facebook to get a sneak peak of what the packets will look like."

Here's where the original post began a few years ago:]

At the Alaska Apple User Group meeting tonight at Loussac, there was a presentation by a website designer. Amongst the sites he's designed is one called Pat's Backcountry Beer.Click on the screenshot to go to the website.

I'm not sure it's exactly dehydrated.

Unlike other concentrate processes, we do not just make the beer and then "remove" the water afterwards (which is extremely energy inefficient). Instead, our process (patent pending) allows us to start with almost no water, and carefully control the environment of the fermentation. The result... concentrated beer with all the same great taste you're used to in a premium micro brew. All you do is add water, carbonate

And they haven't quite worked everything out:

We are in the late stages of perfecting our first (of many) commercial production beer concentrate recipes. We are refining it to our (patent pending) brewing technology, for maximum concentration, and maximum delicious goodness. This one is going to blow you away! Others have cautioned us to start with a beer of neutral ground character, but in the spirit of the Alaskan frontier and backcountry adventurer... we're coming out big and bold with this monster. We're sure you'll love it so much that we're guessing a few of you will be setting your tents up in the backyard just to make an excuse to indulge!

04.11.09

Wow! We knew there would be interest in a beer for the backcountry, but the enthusiastic response to our vision has overwhelmed us. Spring has sprung, but, unfortunately, we are not yet ready to outfit your outdoor adventures with Pat's Backcountry Beer. We are aggressively moving our business forward, and our goal remains to get Pat's into your hands as soon as possible. We've recently upgraded our equipment, and we continue to move forward through the elaborate licensing and permitting process. Thank you for your interest and patience.

Pat

Has no one ever dehydrated beer before? Will it really be someone from Talkeetna who makes this work first? I started googling. There does seem to be an interest in something like this. Here are a few references to dehydrated beer I found.

Troop 655 claims a dehydrated non-alcoholic drink for camping:

Subject: At last! Dehydrated beer
Taken verbatim from today's San Jose Mercury-News: CONSUMER CORNER

Packaged Beer Lightens The Load PRODUCT: South Hills dehydrated beer.

DESCRIPTION: A beer-flavored, non-alcoholic, carbonated, dry beverage made with maltodextrine, natural and artificial beer and malt flavors, dried beer, and corn syrup solids. It's packaged in5-ounce (150g) packet that must be mixed with 8 fluid ounces (250ml) of cold water for drinking.

PRO: It has a refreshing taste, though a bit sweet, and is best when mixed with extremely cold water. Its taste is remarkably similar to beers produced by micro-breweries. It's a quick source of liquid carbohydrates, and it's easy and light to pack and mix.

CON: The instructions say to wait for the head to subside after mixing, but that takes better than 5 minutes... In very cold water the mix clumps up unless you add water slowly and stir constantly.

COMMENTS: Although it doesn't compare to a fine lager, it suffices quite nicely when your taste buds crave a cold one in the backcountry and you don't fancy carrying a six-pack. The manufacturer mentions one can add clear grain alcohol or vodka to achieve an alcoholic beer.

SUGGESTED RETAIL: $5.95 for 6 packets.

The World Intellectual Property Organization lists a description of a method for dehydrating alcoholic beverages. Here's the summary section.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a novel method for producing a dry reconstitutable alcoholic beverage wherein the alcoholic beverage is separated into a volatile fraction (the alcohol and other volatiles) and a non-volatile (water-soluble) fraction; the volatile fraction is reacted with a

hydrolyzed starch compound, such as a maltodextrin of specific molecular weight, to yield a volatile powder, and the non-volatile fraction is dried to yield a dry water-soluble powder. The dry powders can be pressed into tablets and/or packaged separately or in combination for later reconstitution.

The alcoholic beverage is reconstituted by mixing the volatile powder and the water-soluble powder with water and carbonating. The reconstituted beverage can be carbonated by addition of CO2 and water, by addition of soda water at about 0° to 15°C or by addition of citric acid, Na2Cθ3 and water. The final concentration of alcohol, the taste, and the extent of carbonation can be varied as desired by varying the relative ratio of volatile to non¬ volatile powders, the type and quantity of hydrolyzed starch compound and the method of carbonation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Any type of alcoholic beverage, or alcohol, may be dehydrated and reconstituted according to the present invention. Specific examples of alcoholic beverages are beer, wine, wine beverages and spirits. Ethanol can also be dehydrated according to the present process for use in a variety of applications. In one embodiment of the present process, drying and reconstituting beer, the beer is first degassed at room temperature to remove the carbon dioxide contained in the beverage. The product obtained from fermentation prior to carbonation may also be used directly. [Link here for the complete information]


Students at Purdue University have come up with freeze-dried beer spice.

May 20, 2002

Note to journalists: A publication-quality photograph of the students with the freeze-dried beer is available at ftp://ftp.purdue.edu/pub/uns/okos.beer.jpeg. Michelle Kelly and Luke Meyers graduated May 11 and are available via e-mail only.

PURDUE STUDENTS BREW UP IDEA FOR FREEZE-DRIED BEER SPICE

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ‹ For those who can't get enough of the flavor of beer, two Purdue University students have just the thing: beer spice.

The non-alcoholic, freeze-dried beer isn't intended to make instant beer as simply as instant tea, but rather as an ingredient in foods.

"It could be used for dips, sauces, in breads or batters, or sprinkled on popcorn or potato chips," says co-developer Michelle Kelly.

Kelly, of Westerfield, Ohio, and Luke Meyers, of Fort Wayne, Ind., both 2002 spring graduates, developed the product as their senior research project for the class Agricultural and Biological Engineering 556: "Food Plant Design and Economics."

The course is taught by Martin Okos, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, who says the class is meant to be the capstone experience for students in the food process engineering program.

"The senior project gives the students a chance to bring together all of the things they've learned in their classes here," Okos says. "I tell the students to act as if I were their manager and I asked them to come up with a new product. Then they take it all the way from the concept to actually developing the final product and the process to manufacture it."

Freeze-dried beer has been developed before for non-commercial uses, but this is thought to be the first freeze-dried beer developed as a spice. [link for the rest of the letter.]

Someone has bought the domain name dehydrated beer, though it doesn't look too serious. Maybe they hope someone else is and will want the domain name.

Welcome to DehydratedBeer.com - - The future home of Dehydrated Beer

(Dehydrated Beer is "master crafted" using only genuine dehydrated water)

Backpacking Light has a story about a dehydrated alcoholic drink:

dehydrated beer... almost on 06/06/2007 07:52:36 MDT Print View

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- Dutch students have invented powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors.

The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gram packets that cost €1-1.5 ($1.35-$2).

Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-colored and -flavored drink with just 3 percent alcohol content.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/06/06/powdered.booze.reut/index.html?section=cnn_latest (I couldn't get the link to work)

efestivals seems to have a spoof on the idea:

Hi people,
We think we have perfected a way to dehydrate beer. We have pills that are equivalent to 4 cans of mediocre strength beer. If people are interested in this product please let us know. It would remove the chore of carrying a case of weighty cans into a festival site. Also ecologically sound as there is no waste produced, cans, bottles etc... All that is required is 1 litre of water to rehydrate the tablet in the stomach. The product is being marketed under the brand name " Larrup". Please let us know what you think.
Peace ... Mongabus

Let's see if Pat can pull this off.

Mosquito Season