Friday, December 2, 2016

All About Vodka

Vodka.  Almost everyone you ask what Vodka comes from, the typical answer is that it comes from potatoes.  Well, that answer is both correct as well as incorrect.  Yes, you can make Vodka from potatoes, but you can also make vodka from any ferment-able substance or biomass.  Vodka can be made from sugar, corn, wheat, rice, sorghum,  rye, barley and the list goes on.

  What a distiller is doing is creating as pure a form of ethanol as possible from a base alcohol.  When this is done, there is pretty much nothing left from the base flavors in the final product.  In other words, you will not get any flavors of potatoes in Vodka nor any base flavors of whatever base is used to create Vodka.

  So what gives Vodka it's flavors?  As a pure ethanol, vodka only has 5 known flavors.  Those flavors only come from two components.  Those two components are the local water supply of the distillery when the distiller proofs down the Vodka, which means watering down the Vodka, and the yeast that was used in fermenting the base mash for making the base alcohol.  There are hundreds of variations of yeast out on the market today and each one has a different flavor.  Those yeast flavors do in fact transfer to the final product.  It does not matter if we are talking about Vodka, Whiskey, Gin, Rum, Brandy or and variations of liquors.

  With that note, what is the difference between a $10.00 dollar bottle of Vodka and a $100.00 bottle of Vodka?  $90.00.  Marketing.  That's mainly it more than any other aspect of the product.  Now there are some other variables that can distinguish a good Vodka from that of a bad one and that is all dependent on the distillery and their practices.

  What is distilling though?  It is merely the concentration and at the right distillery, the purification of alcohol.  What is done in a distillery is, a base, either liquid or a full mash, that has been fermented to produce a base of either beer or wine, is entered into a still.  The still heats the base alcohol up to where alcohol becomes a gas and travels upward in the still.  It then goes through a cooling process to come out as a concentrated liquid spirit.  For Vodka, you run the still at about 190 proof or better which is a near pure ethanol, stripping out the base flavors and smells.

  The first thing out of a still is the lightest forms of alcohol known in the industry as heads.  Heads have some nasty chemicals in them known as hexitones, acetone, and methanol.  These chemicals are very bitter tasting and is the stuff nasty hangovers come from.  Not what you want in your main product.  But, there is no legal requirement to take them out.  These chemicals are in your beer and your wine and there is no real way to get them out except through distillation.  A good distillery will take out these nasty chemicals.  Other distilleries leave them in which will give the final product some very nasty flavors.

  But this is not the only area where nasty flavored chemicals can come into play during the distillation cycle.  At the very end, as distillation is coming to a close, the last part coming out are the heaviest forms of alcohol that are referred to in the industry as tails, which are lighter in taste but again contain some nasty flavors.  Most distilleries separate the tails from the main product, but again, there is no legal requirement to do so.

  So if you leave in both the heads and tails in the main product, you are going to get a rather nasty tasting product.  Are there ways to remove these nasty flavors?  Yes.  Charcoal filtering is probably the most commonly used tactic to rid the product of the nasty taste of these other alcohols.  My own preference is to buy and consume products where the distillery takes out the heads and the tails from the main product.  How do you know which one's do this?  You don't.  There are no requirements to report this information to the public.

  This aspect of heads and tails is true of all spirits produced, not just specific to Vodka.  So these are some of the other aspects that differentiate one product from another.  Finding an inexpensive Vodka that is just as good, if not better than, a very expensive one isn't all that hard when dealing with Vodka.  That isn't the case with other spirits.  Other spirits have many more variables to factor in.

  Pictured at the top of this article is Platinum Vodka.  It's inexpensive and fully agreeable.  Not considered the best out there, but I have no issues with it.  It's 7 times distilled.  What does that mean?  It has more marketing meaning than anything else in my own opinion.  There are two ways to achieve 7 times distilling or 3 times 5 times or whatever anyone wants to claim for their product that seems to separate them from everyone else on the market.  But let's cover the bases here anyway.

  There are a number of different stills out on the market from which to make spirits.  The three main types of stills are the continuous still, the pot still and the column still.  We won't cover the continuous still as that would not be used for this type of statement in production.  That leaves the pot still and the column still.  If you are using a pot still, 7 times distilling means you have put the alcohol through the distilling process 7 different times which is a real time nightmare.  In a column still, one only needs to put on 7 heads on the column.  Each head on that column produces it's own distillation and the 7 heads covers the term, distilled 7 times.  Another term would be a 7 times re-flux system.  One run still equals 7 times distilled.

  At present, Vodka sells more cases nationwide as well as worldwide than any other spirit on the market according to Beverage World.  Whiskey produces more revenue, but bottle volume, right now Vodka is number one.  That changes a great deal.  Usually whiskey is the number one consumed spirit throughout the world.  Flavored Vodkas have had a massive impact on the market which is starting to soften according to industry insiders.  Most of the flavored Vodkas are referred to as Candy Vodkas by many in the beverage industry.  Vodka takes just about any flavor well as again, Vodka has little in the line of flavor profiles on it's own.

  Now here is some fun.  How many people know what Vodka means?  It has a number of meanings from little water, to burnt water to even burned wine.  Vodka as we know it today is mostly a 20th century product dating back to only 1934.  Earlier products called Vodka were usually strong flavored spirits of all kinds and from various bases for production.  The name Vodka goes way back to the 8th Century and possibly even earlier.  No one is sure and research still continues.

  Enjoy responsibly.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Propaganda Film Most Likely To Succeed Shown At Gloucester High School




This is only a clip from BYOD, whomever they are, that praises the propaganda film, Most Likely To Succeed, the film that was shown at the Gloucester High School last night.  It's a positive promo spin for the film that does not seem to be available to the public and that is no surprise that it is being hidden from the public.  Tried to research this Lip, BOYD entity and nothing other than what you see above could be found.  Again, not a surprise.

  Here is a link to the Daily Press article on the subject.  http://www.dailypress.com/news/gloucester-county/dp-nws-mid-gloucester-high-study-meeting-20161128-story.html

  Now the link to the film makers website.  http://www.mltsfilm.org/  Film not available for viewing unless you are a collectivist school board member and want to host a viewing, or it comes down from above and you have to host a viewing because some elite collectivist has dictated that you do or get a new job somewhere else.  (The enemy is entrenched from within).

  Collectivists always hide what they don't want you to find out until it's to late and you can't fight it anymore.  Then they can say that you had the opportunity, when chances are high you didn't, so therefore silence gives consent.  This is not about the children, it's about the takeover of our freedoms.  Make no mistake about that.  We will continue to dig and publish any new findings.

The State of Education In Gloucester, Virginia And The Nation: And it's not good.


The future of education was unveiled last night at the Gloucester High School.  The future is very bleak by the admission of the video they showed us.  But the school board and the school administration is excited about the opportunities in this bleak future.  Why is it so dark?  According to what they showed us, the claim is that technology is now becoming the center of productivity where computers are replacing people at so many levels and that it's only a matter of time that technology leaves little to no jobs left.

  You get flash back memories of movies from the past such as the Terminator series or I-Robot.  That means the masses will have to compete in new ways to become one of the few that will get the privilege to actually work and make a living while the rest of humanity becomes obsolete.  Now of course the school board and school administration will deny that this was the intent of the film, that is because those areas were downplayed and you had to be astute enough to catch that.

  The new school curriculum of the future looks nothing like the past and is being designed, whether we like it or not, as a bee hive, collectivist mentality.  So your children will go to school to be indoctrinated into a collectivist society never understanding what freedom is or ever was.  They will not ever challenge it because they will not understand it.  They will become incapable of even debating what freedom means.  Not that many of them can now.

  Now I am not going to criticize anyone on the school board nor the school administration.  I talked with a few of them last night and I think they either have blinders on or can't see what the real issues with where all of this is going, or some might actually be supporters of the collectivist mentality.

  There are many forms of the collectivist.  Socialists, fascists, communists, dictatorships, are various forms of the collectivist mentality.  None want freedoms as America has known in it's past.  All want to squash individualism and freedoms except what they allow and will tell you are your so called freedoms.    Under collectivist propaganda, opportunities are held from the masses and jobs are scarce.  Resources are not available to the average person.  Only a select few are allowed certain opportunities and or resources that are well controlled from above.

  The model that was shown in last nights propaganda video explained these issues in very very low key areas or you had to read between the lines for some of the clues, while playing up the very very limited upside to the concepts.  They expect failures, and there must have been a ton of failures as not  one was shown at anytime.  Only a few, what they call, successes, were highlighted in an attempt to minimize the failures.

  Even more troubling is the violations to what are now standards, students put on plays with guns and violence in the name of education.  But try this in any other school in the nation and no way would it ever go through.  The students were actually using model guns.  Not presently allowed in any other school system anywhere in the US.  This was one of the success models they were promoting in the video.

  The other success model they were all in love with is a great piece of fun engineering, but the main person they gave all the credit to, was a person who did have the vision for it, but they failed to mention all the others who were highly integral to it's overall success showing that the main purpose of this new model is to identify the upcoming future elitists.  (You had to see the video to understand this area, and it was not something that was said, you had to read the meaning of it all).

  I agree with both the school board and school administration that change to our educational system is long overdue.  I can not agree with them that a collectivist, beehive, propaganda model for indoctrination of our children is the answer.  Many of them do not even see these issues based on discussions with them last night.  This isn't just a local movement, this is a nationwide movement.  It is being pushed in every state from the state level on down.

  Beware the enemy within.  I am not trying to say our elected officials or the present school administration is the enemy, yet, but if they do not wake up and start taking a stand against this collectivist mentality and model, then they do become the enemies of freedom and future growth.

  The enemy of our future is the collectivist mentality.  Their claims are false and can only come to fruition if they are fully in charge to control such.  Under freedom, the opportunities are limitless.  Today our nation remains stagnant as the collectivists take more and more control and bleed the freedoms from the people.

  With the amount of people that showed up last night, hardly anyone from the county, it is clear that no one understands what is really at stake for our future and our freedoms as well as our country, actually, under this model, we will no longer have a country and we will end up under full UN control and no one will think anything of it.  Trust me, that will be no utopia.

  I made no bones about it to several people last nigh, Dr Walter Clemons and Charles Records, both wonderful to speak with, that I found the video appalling and a collectivist mind set.  Neither of them were able to see it or would not admit they saw it that way.  I was with a group, each of us saw it as clear as daylight.

  Now, here is the kicker.  The school board and school administration made this publicly available and gave the entire county a chance to come and view this, but almost no one bothered to show up.  Silence is consent.  (Collectivist mind set).  So now you have no way of knowing what is on the table for our country's future.

  Now for the other part of why we went.  The question of the 44 million dollars to 65 million dollars the school board and administration is looking for.  Within the group I went with last night, we received a tour of the present high school and had an opportunity to speak with staff, teachers and students.  What we found was a structurally sound school with highly committed teachers.  The school does not need to be rebuilt under any circumstances nor does it need a massive face lift like the school board and administration would like.

  We agree that the school does need some minor renovations to update the electrical outlets and from one of the people I was with, and knows these matters, can be run through the ceilings of the school at a low cost.  Other potential options where to knock out some walls in some areas and sound proof some other areas of the school.  Some equipment updates can be justified as well.  What was discussed in our group is that the school maintenance department along with, if needed, some outside contractors, all of the work that is needed, can be done fairly cheaply.  The concept of needing even 12 million is just not justified.  The school is very structurally sound.

  We did get complaints from teachers that certain areas in the school are too loud and thus disruptive to the classes.  With a lot of questioning, what we found is that certain classes move their students into the hallways to conduct group session classes making the noise level higher than it should be.  When we viewed the propaganda film with the new modern open school designs, those classes held in the open are a lot more noisy than present day conditions.  So moving to these new open designs is not in the least bit conducive to education from the complaints we are getting from the present teaching staff.  From what we can tell, the only reason to move to open design is to indoctrinate our youth, not educate them.

  So there are a number of us who oppose the collectivist mindset we see coming deeper and deeper into our American freedoms.  There are always those who create for themselves an elitist leadership role so that they may be in control and determine who gets what and even if they should.  They oppose freedoms of self determination, responsibility,  the right to control one's own destination, and decide what they want out of life and how they should live life.  But they also deny these accusations even though the accusations fit.  Again, I am not saying our school board or administration fits within these parameters, but I am not sure they do not at this time.

  Collectivists will tell you that you need a certain degree from a certain school to be able to do certain jobs or tasks.  A common question from them goes like this.  Would you want a person operating on you for a heart transplant who is not a doctor?  My answer back is one they never like, if their success rate is as good or even better, then yes.The collectivist mindset will lock out a more qualified person because that person did not pay for their piece of paper that says the person spent a ton of money to go to the right school and get indoctrinated by them.  But how many of you are already indoctrinated?  You would never think of allowing someone to operate on you without them having the right piece of paper.  And that is all it is.  A piece of paper that says they were indoctrinated by some group that may not actually be the best qualified to even make that call, but no one else is allowed to challenge that anymore.  In fact, doing so can be considered a crime by those also not qualified to make that call.  The poison of the collectivist is fully set in most of us and it continues to grow.

  I'm not against education.  I am against the dissemination of disinformation in the guise of education designed to steal the freedoms of the people for the gain of the few also known as the collectivists.  There will be more published on this as at least one other, Mr Hogge Sr, will also be posting his views on this matter soon.

  On a final note.  We were impressed with what the teachers and staff already have to work with and it's well beyond what was available when I went to school.  The complaints that the equipment is outdated, well we all suffered that when we went to school and no one is any the worse by it.  That is what college or other continuing education is for as well as work experience.  The students that stayed were great.  Very helpful and took us on tours of the school and classrooms.  The food that was available was beyond any expectations, and we figured costly as well.  It was nice, but beyond the costs of what should have been made.  Plus, soda was available.  I hardly ever drink soda but indulged in a a couple of cans of Coca Cola.  No expense was to great?  Guess you want to schmooze the people when you want money from them.

Monday, November 28, 2016

2005 Gloucester High School Facility Report

This report was created in 2005 and is relevant to actions currently being taken by Gloucester, Va.'s public school system. Howard Mowry chaired the committee that created the report. This historical data should be included in future studies.