Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 22/23, 2014.

A bi-weekly, non-comprehensive roundup
of news of beer and other things.

Weeks 22/23
25 May - 7 June 2014

• 2014.06.06
  How the British supplied beer to their troops during the invasion of Normandy in 1944, if not on 6 June, D-Day, only a week thereafter.
  —Via Martyn Cornell at Zythophile.
  
  
• 2014.06.07
  A look at some of the current legal barriers to craft brewery establishment and growth.
  —Via Project for the Study of American Capitalism
  (George Mason University: Arlington, Virginia).
  
  
• 2014.06.05
  June 5, 2014 was the one-year anniversary of the first documents leaked by Edward Snowden. "While the Electronic Freedom Foundation has been fighting NSA surveillance for years, 2013 marked a new chapter in our battle against mass spying. The documents made it clear to everyone why we care so much, and why they should too. Surveillance affects everyone, in the United States and internationally. <...>Reset the Net is asking everyone to help by installing free software tools that are designed to protect your privacy on a computer or a mobile device. Reset the Net is also calling on websites and developers to add surveillance resistant features, like HTTPS and forward secrecy."
  —Via EFF.
  
  
• 2014.06.05
  Australian scientists now believe that a massive volcanic eruption, 500 million years ago during the Cambrian period, caused the world’s first mass extinction of more than 50 percent of the world’s species.
  —Via Geology.
  
  
• 2014.06.03
  How a "swashbuckling" CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) helped instigate the small brewery revival in the U.K. A British beer enthusiast reviews the new history: "Brew Britannia: The Strange Rebirth of British Beer", by British beer bloggers Boak and Bailey (Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey).
  —Via Tandleman.
  
  
  
  
• 2014.06.01
  "From Grain to Glass" —a documentary on Virginia 'craft' beer— to be released in August 2014.
  —More via producer Take A Penny Productions.
  
  
• 2014.06.01
  Dates for the 2014 (Washington) DC Beer Week have been announced: 17-24 August 2014.
  —Details via DC Beer blog.
  
  
• 2014.06.01
  Esquire Magazine releases its list of "Best Bars in America" for 2014. In Baltimore, Maryland: Rye Baltimore. In Washington, D.C.: Kelly's Irish Times (or Dubliner). In Richmond, Virginia: The Roosevelt.
  
  
• 2014.05.30
  There are 219 'master' sommeliers recognized worldwide (as designated by The Court of Master Sommeliers). Five reside in Washington D.C. and northern Virginia.
  —Via Dave McIntyre (Washington Post).
  
  
• 2014.05.30
  "What does it mean for a beer to be local?" A 'craft' beer bar manager muses on the 'chicken-or-the-egg' economics of brewing a truly 'local' beer.
  —Via Burlington Free Press.
  
  
• 2014.05.30
  General Eric Shinseki resigns as Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, in face of revelations of delayed care for veterans, sometimes months, and its coverup.
  —Via New York Times.
  
  
• 2014.05.29
  Town of Irwindale, California, to allow Sriracha hot sauce plant to remain open, under certain conditions.
  —Via Washington Post.
  
  
  
  
• 2014.05.29
  A graphic depicting the density of bars vs. grocery stores across the U.S. Via Flowing Data. (Spoiler: The state of Wisconsin has the highest density of bars per capita; Delaware, Maryland, and Mississippi are tied for the least.)
  
  
• 2014.05.28
  American poet, author, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou has died at age 86.
  —Via AP.
  
  
• 2014.05.27
  Five rules on ethics for beer bloggers, authors, and journalists.
  —Via Jeff Alworth of Beervana.
  
  
  
  
• 2014.05.27
  Craft beer pioneer, Jack Joyce, founder of brewery Rogue Ales, in Oregon, in 1988 has died at age 71.
  —Via Brookston Beer Bulletin.
  
  
• 2014.05.27
  Scientists in 5 nations are attempting to create the first synthetic version of a yeast cell, developing all 16 chromosomes that make up yeast, by 2017.
  —Via News.com.au
  
  
  
  
• 2014.05.26
  Scientists at White Labs, in the U.S., and VIB Laboratory of Systems Biology, in Belgium, are working to map the genetic 'family tree' of brewing yeasts. The Belgian lab also has plans to use the data from the genomic project to design and breed new brewing yeasts without resorting to genetic modification.
  —Via New York Times.
  
  
• 2014.05.25
  A map to the beer at Nationals Park in Washington D.C., including local 'craft' beer.
  —Via Nationals Review.
  
  
• 2014.05.25
  Steve Hindy, owner/president of the Brooklyn Brewery on a definition of 'craft' beer: "The beer drinker decides what a craft beer is." Interviewed on the Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU Radio (NPR, Washington, D.C.)
  
  

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• Clamps and Gaskets is a bi-weekly wrap-up of stories  not posted at Yours For Good Fermentables.com. Most deal with beer (or wine, or whisky); some do not. But all are brief, and many are re-posts from twitter.com/cizauskas.
• The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.