January 30th, 2007

Couldn’t have written it…

Posted by Bridie at 5:20 pm

without LOTS and LOTS of good coffee!! And the support and patience of the Blue State Coffee team. Thanks guys.
xoBridie

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January 30th, 2007

Congratulations to Bridie Clark!

Posted by Drew at 12:49 am

The rest of us at Blue State Coffee would like to congratulate co-founder Bridie Clark on the publication of her first book, Because She Can.

To learn more about Bridie, visit www.bridieclark.com. You can order her book online from Barnes and Noble here.

Congratulations, Bridie!

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January 27th, 2007

George Bush, Alicibiades, and Captain Ahab

Posted by Drew at 1:44 pm

In a fascinating New York Times op-ed, Nicholas D. Kristof writes:

Forget the Vietnam analogy that critics of the Iraq war usually toss out. A more trenchant analysis of Iraq-style adventures appears in the histories of Thucydides, written 2,400 years ago.

Great Athenian diplomats of the day, like Nicias, warned against military involvement in Sicily, calling it “a war that does not concern us,” according to Thucydides. But smooth-talking neocons of the day, like the brilliant Alcibiades, said in effect that the Sicilians would welcome the Athenians with flowers. He promised that they would be treated not as occupiers but as liberators.

“We shall have many barbarians … join us,” Alcibiades declared, and he argued that the enemy would be easily defeated “rabble.” “Never were the Peloponnesians more hopeless against us,” he told the crowds.

So the Athenians rallied around the flag and dispatched a huge force. But as Thucydides notes, they had suffered a grievous intelligence failure: they did not get the support they had counted on, and the enemy was far larger and more organized than they had anticipated. The war went badly, and eventually Athens was forced to confront two options: withdraw or escalate.

The Athenians, deciding that defeat was not an option, went with the “surge.” They dispatched an additional 70-odd ships and 5,000 troops.

The result was a catastrophic defeat.

Read the rest of the article here.

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January 27th, 2007

How to save energy in your home

Posted by Drew at 1:26 pm

You and your household can do much to reduce your contribution to global warming. For example, you can turn off lights and computers when you’re not in the room, shorten showertime by one minute, and make sure your refrigerator is set to the recommended temperature.

Learn more helpful tips here.

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January 26th, 2007

Living off the grid… In the middle of the grid

Posted by Alex Payson at 11:40 am

One family in Pasadena, California is doing their best to be self-sustainable on what little land they have.
They do not have a 20 acre farm, or even a 4 acre plot- they are producing a yearly output of ~6,000 pounds of vegetables, fruit and flowers from a 1/10 of an acre of usable land!

You can read the article about the Dervaes family here, or you can link directly to their website here.

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January 23rd, 2007

Say hello to our newest coffee!

Posted by Alex Payson at 10:40 am

In case you have not already heard the buzz…
Blue State Coffee is proud to offer fairly traded hazelnut coffee for sale on our website!
Head on over to our coffee page to pick up a bag or you can link directly to it here.
Warning! After drinking a cup you may feel, well… a little nutty!

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January 22nd, 2007

Sen. Rockefeller fears “Iraq the sequel”

Posted by Bridie at 11:38 am

“I don’t think policy makers in this administration particularly understand Iran,” criticized Senator Rockefeller, new chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and one of a handful of lawmakers with access to the most classified intelligence about the threat from Iran. “To be quite honest, I’m a little concerned that it’s Iraq again,” he said during an interview on Friday. “This whole concept of moving against Iran is bizarre.”

Read more.

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January 20th, 2007

The first 100 hours

Posted by Drew at 1:39 pm

House Democrats have delivered on their promise to pass eight major pieces of legislation within their first 100 hours as the majority.

The legislation will reform lobbying practices, limit deficit spending, implement the recommendations of the 9/11 commission, raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, promote stem cell research, allow the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower prices, cut student loan interest rates in half, and encourage energy independence by reducing subsidies for major oil companies.

If the Democrats’ first 100 hours are any indication, the new House of Representatives will be one of the most productive in decades.

Posted in General news, News round-up, Politics | No Comments »

January 20th, 2007

Hillary announces her candidacy

Posted by Drew at 1:08 pm

She joins a crowded race: Obama, Edwards, Biden, Dodd, Richardson, and Kucinich have already thrown their hats into the ring, too.

Hillary is certainly a polarizing figure, but early nationwide polls have shown that she is among the top three most viable candidates, along with Obama and Edwards.

What do you think? Is she electable?

Read more about Clinton’s announcement here.

Posted in Elections, General news, News round-up, Politics | No Comments »

January 18th, 2007

The gene for a perfect bean?

Posted by Alex Payson at 1:18 pm

Leaving all opinions on genetically-modified foods aside, here is the coffee news of the day.
Scientists have located the gene that produces sucrose in coffee beans. Sucrose helps regulate the aroma and flavor of coffee beans as they are roasted, so with a little tweaking, they may be able to make a more flavorful or consistent bean.

Of course that could ultimately lead to a monoculture of coffee being planted, reducing diversity, which would be a bad thing…

But then again we have been genetically modifying foods for ~10,000 years since the very dawn of agriculture, so maybe it is a good change…

Read the article here and let us know what you think!

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