1K in 1 Day to Benefit Not Alone

The 1st Annual 1 K in 1 Day ride is BACK on and bigger and better than ever! Please check out our new beneficiary, Not Alone. All proceeds raised from registration fees and donations will go to help warriors battling PTSD in the National Capital Region.

Movember's Global Action Plan

No Images? Click Here Forward to a friend Movember's Global Action Plan (GAP) Explained By working with our global prostate cancer partners, we identified an opportunity to accelerate research outcomes by providing researchers from around the world the chance to work together on research projects. The result is GAP, our first directly funded program, and one we're incredibly proud of and know you will be too. Click here to check out the video to see how it works.    Survivorship Programs In case you missed our video showcasing the work Movember is doing around survivorship collaboration, check it out here.      We're Cleaning up the Shop The Movember website is currently being buffed, shined and polished and is nearly ready for 2012 registrations. Check back in late September, or we'll email you in early October to invite you to register.   © 2012 Movember Foundation. All rights reserved. Programs we fund Prostate Cancer Foundation LIVESTRONG Awareness and Education Global Action Plan Contact Us Follow the Mo           Supporting prostate and testicular cancer initiatives

Mind the G.A.P.!

Mind the G.A.P.? What, are we riding the Tube in London?  No, we are talking about the Men's Health Global Action Plan.

As a result of working with their global prostate cancer partners, The Movember Foundation has identified an opportunity to accelerate research outcomes by providing researchers from around the world the chance to work together on research projects. The outcome is GAP, their first directly funded program, and one of which they're incredibly proud.



Moustache season is coming soon! Face grown and hand brushed!

White House Beer Recipes!

Democracy in Action!

At the suggestion of my friends at DC Brau, I signed the "We the People" petition asking the White House to publish their beer recipes. As a co-signer to the petition, I received the following response:

Ale to the Chief: White House Beer Recipes By Sam Kass, White House Assistant Chef and the Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives With public excitement about White House beer fermenting such a buzz, we decided we better hop right to it. Inspired by home brewers from across the country, last year President Obama bought a home brewing kit for the kitchen. After the few first drafts we landed on some great recipes that came from a local brew shop. We received some tips from a couple of home brewers who work in the White House who helped us amend it and make it our own. To be honest, we were surprised that the beer turned out so well since none of us had brewed beer before. As far as we know the White House Honey Brown Ale is the first alcohol brewed or distilled on the White House grounds. George Washington brewed beer and distilled whiskey at Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson made wine but there's no evidence that any beer has been brewed in the White House. (Although we do know there was some drinking during prohibition…) Since our first batch of White House Honey Brown Ale, we've added the Honey Porter and have gone even further to add a Honey Blonde this past summer. Like many home brewers who add secret ingredients to make their beer unique, all of our brews have honey that we tapped from the first ever bee-hive on the South Lawn. The honey gives the beer a rich aroma and a nice finish but it doesn't sweeten it. If you want a behind the scenes look at our home-brewing process, this video offers some proof. So without any further ado, America – this one's for you: Download a printable PDF of both recipes. White House Honey Porter Ingredients 2 (3.3 lb) cans light unhopped malt extract 3/4 lb Munich Malt (cracked) 1 lb crystal 20 malt (cracked) 6 oz black malt (cracked) 3 oz chocolate malt (cracked) 1 lb White House Honey 10 HBUs bittering hops 1/2 oz Hallertaur Aroma hops 1 pkg Nottingham dry yeast 3/4 cup corn sugar for bottling Directions In a 6 qt pot, add grains to 2.25 qts of 168˚ water. Mix well to bring temp down to 155˚. Steep on stovetop at 155˚ for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, bring 2 gallons of water to 165˚ in a 12 qt pot. Place strainer over, then pour and spoon all the grains and liquid in. Rinse with 2 gallons of 165˚ water. Let liquid drain through. Discard the grains and bring the liquid to a boil. Set aside. Add the 2 cans of malt extract and honey into the pot. Stir well. Boil for an hour. Add half of the bittering hops at the 15 minute mark, the other half at 30 minute mark, then the aroma hops at the 60 minute mark. Set aside and let stand for 15 minutes. Place 2 gallons of chilled water into the primary fermenter and add the hot wort into it. Top with more water to total 5 gallons if necessary. Place into an ice bath to cool down to 70-80˚. Activate dry yeast in 1 cup of sterilized water at 75-90˚ for fifteen minutes. Pitch yeast into the fermenter. Fill airlock halfway with water. Ferment at room temp (64-68˚) for 3-4 days. Siphon over to a secondary glass fermenter for another 4-7 days. To bottle, make a priming syrup on the stove with 1 cup sterile water and 3/4 cup priming sugar, bring to a boil for five minutes. Pour the mixture into an empty bottling bucket. Siphon the beer from the fermenter over it. Distribute priming sugar evenly. Siphon into bottles and cap. Let sit for 1-2 weeks at 75˚. White House Honey Ale Ingredients 2 (3.3 lb) cans light malt extract 1 lb light dried malt extract 12 oz crushed amber crystal malt 8 oz Bisquit Malt 1 lb White House Honey 1 1/2 oz Kent Goldings Hop Pellets 1 1/2 oz Fuggles Hop pellets 2 tsp gypsum 1 pkg Windsor dry ale yeast 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming Directions In an 12 qt pot, steep the grains in a hop bag in 1 1/2 gallons of sterile water at 155 degrees for half an hour. Remove the grains. Add the 2 cans of the malt extract and the dried extract and bring to a boil. For the first flavoring, add the 1 1/2 oz Kent Goldings and 2 tsp of gypsum. Boil for 45 minutes. For the second flavoring, add the 1/2 oz Fuggles hop pellets at the last minute of the boil. Add the honey and boil for 5 more minutes. Add 2 gallons chilled sterile water into the primary fermenter and add the hot wort into it. Top with more water to total 5 gallons. There is no need to strain. Pitch yeast when wort temperature is between 70-80˚. Fill airlock halfway with water. Ferment at 68-72˚ for about seven days. Rack to a secondary fermenter after five days and ferment for 14 more days. To bottle, dissolve the corn sugar into 2 pints of boiling water for 15 minutes. Pour the mixture into an empty bottling bucket. Siphon the beer from the fermenter over it. Distribute priming sugar evenly. Siphon into bottles and cap. Let sit for 2 to 3 weeks at 75˚. Is this a great country, or what!?

Live? Die? Kill?

Karen Michel Reports on Three Questions

I just listened and responded to a provocative radio program, part of a series of programs called Questioning Democracy. I thought I'd share the program with you and encourage you to consider responding to the questions.  I know they made me think hard about what really, really matters and what it means to live in a democracy.

The set-up:

When independent radio producer Karen Michel moved from her apartment in Brooklyn out to the country – near the Hudson River. Karen wanted to know what her new neighbors really cared about. What, for them, it truly meant to live in a democracy where freedom is taken for granted.



The questions:

What do you live for? What would you die for? What would you kill for?

More information:

Follow this link to listen to the broadcast, download the program, obtain a transcript, and provide your own answers if you are so moved.




My off-air response:

3 Qs

Permalink Submitted by Dave (not verified) on Sun, 09/02/2012 - 6:22pm

1. I live for the pursuit of health, happiness and prosperity for all. I live to experience and create new opportunities. I live to live fully.

2. Having served in the Army I have considered what I would die for and it's not flag or country, though those are important to me. I do not want to die, but I would risk death to protect my children, or my battle buddy.

3. The big difference between killing and murder is the motive. I will use any means necessary to stop any threat to the lives of my children, my teammates, or myself. I support the death penalty, but for justice, not vengeance. I support hunting animals for food but deplore killing for sport. Bottom line: I would kill to survive.

And you? Have you thought about your answers to these questions? If so, please leave a note in the comments section.

Twitter Digest No. 4: The Chair

Twitter Digest: An occasional compilation featuring sweet Tweets (this being the 4th edition).

Today's theme: The Chair

I was glued to the TV during the RNC, not only because:

          (a) I am a fiercely Independent political junkie, determined to keep an open mind for as long as possible; but also

          (b) I am a fan of Clinton. And by Clinton, I mean Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. I heard Clint was the "mystery speaker" and I knew I had to hear what he had to say.


I was expecting 5 minutes from the gravelly-voiced star of Gran Torino telling us that his "Halftime In America" ad for Chrysler, which aired during halftime of the Superbowl, had been unfairly co-opted by the Dems. I was listening for a Republican update to the ad, or at least an endorsement of the Romney / Ryan ticket.

I imagine no one was more surprised than the RNC with what Clint actually said.

The news coverage of Mr Eastwood's remarks has ranged from tolerant to unkind. I myself characterized his rambling stand-up skit as a "stunt" in a text to a friend.  As stand-up goes, it was not bad for an old fart. His best line was when he asserted that We the People own this country and politicians work for us. He ran the  risk of angering the Nominee by sharing opinions at odds with the party. He did himself no favors when he was he crude and disrespectful to the President and Vice President of our country, which was completely uncalled for given the audience and setting.

I was impressed by the the analysis that has emerged in print media over the past two or three days and even withing 24 hours on "Mockumentaries" such as Jon Stewart's Daily Show. What really impresses me though is the nearly immediate Twitter response to the event. Within hours of Eastwood's schtick with the empty chair, Twitter was blazing with satirical feedback using telling hashtags (#) such as these:

• #chair
• #obamachair
• #emptychair

and my favorite

• #eastwooding

That brings us to today's Twitter Digest: a compilation of tweets about The Chair.

51Ora 2012 ‏@OraPolitics

Missed #ClintEastwood's #Romney speech - we've got you covered:http://bit.ly/NFFNXr #ora2012 #chair

74HuffPost Politics ‏@HuffPostPol

RT @jbendery: Remember how the Romney campaign said there'd be a surprise speaker tonight? Surprise! #clint #chair #wtf

55Riley ‏@copyright1974

Damn you, #ObamaChair! *shakes fist* RT @someecards: The greatest moments of Obama Chair's presidency.

61terrapin_sf ‏@terrapin_sf

LOL. #chair #eastwooding 

60Sean Walsh ‏@seanbwalsh

I got a little too caught up in the excitement last night. #gop2012#chair 

69Ryan McGee ‏@TVMcGee

#eastwooding is why I love Twitter.

Admittedly, this is not exactly the type of attention that the RNC had in mind.  Regardless of your opinion of Mr Eastwood's remarks, we know there is a problem when Mitt Romney is upstaged by an empty chair.

How many blogs are there?

I recently discovered that PhilosFX has climbed 4 million places in the blog rankings, from 24 millionth place up to 20 millionth. OK, so PhilosFX is not a risk to unseat the #1 blog, the Huffington Post, anytime soon. That's perfectly OK with me. I like where we're at, I am thrilled you are here reading along, and I am delighted with the positive feedback that we're moving up.

To me, that 4 M climb looks like a big number and therefore, one could assume, a good thing. Up is Good! But of course, I wanted to know just how good is this good thing? Going from 24th to 20th is only a 20% jump if we started in last place. How many blogs are there, anyway? I need a denominator! Climbing 4 million positions out of 10 million blogs is a big 40% jump. Climbing 4 million out of 100 million is not so impressive. Climbing 4 out of 1,000 is zzzz.

Based on a survey of various sites out there, I would say that it must be very difficult to count the number of blogs! Estimates vary wildly. It looks like the number is closer to 200M than 100 or 300.

• About 200M, projected from 181M in Dec 11, 173M in Oct 2011 and 79M in Oct 2008. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/buzz-in-the-blogosphere-millions-more-bloggers-and-blog-readers/
• About 200M, projected from 184M at the end of 2008. http://www.quora.com/How-Many-X-Are-There-In-The-World/How-many-blogs-are-there-on-the-Internet
• About 200M, projected from 70M in Jul 2005. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_blogs_are_there_in_the_world

Interesting

• The State of the Blogosphere. http://technorati.com/social-media/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2011-introduction/
• Top Ten Blogs Ranked by Traffic. http://technorati.com/blogs/top100
• Top Ten Showing Web Publishing Platform. http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/04/11/wordpress-completely-dominates-top-100-blogs/

Rank	Name	URL	CMS
1	The Huffington Post	huffingtonpost.com	Movable Type
2	Mashable!	mashable.com	WordPress – self-hosted
3	BuzzFeed	buzzfeed.com	Custom
4	The Daily Beast	thedailybeast.com	N/a
5	The Verge	theverge.com	Custom
6	TechCrunch	techcrunch.com	WordPress – hosted
7	Engadget	engadget.com	Blogsmith
8	Gizmodo	gizmodo.com	Gawker
9	Think Progress	thinkprogress.org	WordPress – self-hosted
10	Ars Technica	arstechnica.com	Custom

So here at PhilosFX we are not swimming with the sharks just yet. There are 20M blogs that get more traffic than this one. Fine. We may not be in the "Top 10", but being ranked at 20 of 200 puts us up in the top 10%!

And that's a good thing.