US Open TV Schedule

9/2 – 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. – Men and Women’s Third Round 9/3 – 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. – Men’s Third Round and Women’s Fourth Round 9/4 – 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. – Men and Women’s Fourth Round 9/8 – 11:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. – Women’s Semi-finals 9/9 – 12:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. – Men’s Semi-finals 9/9 – 8:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. – Women’s Finals 9/10 – 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. – Men’s Finals

Pete’s Matches to Watch For:

Roddick vs. Agassi (Round 4) Federer vs. Blake (Quarterfinals) Hewitt vs. Agassi (Quarterfinals) Federer vs. Nalbandian (Semifinals) Agassi vs. Nadal (Semifinals) Agassi vs. Federer (Finals)

Little Tussle Brewery

This evening, after weeks of heated debate (and a few tussles), the denizens of Cobbham Oaks 16 officially dubbed their brewing corporation “Little Tussle Brewery.” See littletusslebrewery.wordpress.com for more details.

Basic Tea Brewing

Preheat the teapot:

If hot water is poured into a cold vessel, the temperature of the water will drop too quickly and the full flavor of the tea will not be extracted. To preheat the pot: pour a little of the boiling water from the kettle into the pot and then pour this water off into the drinking cups to warm them.

Select the right water temperature:

Black, Dark Oolong, Herbal – These types are best prepared with water that has come to near boiling. Don’t let the water boil too long or the oxygen content will be reduced and the tea will taste flat.

Green, White, Green Oolong – Generally, the finer the green tea, the lower the water temperature should be. Pour the water at the moment that bubbles begin to rise from the bottom of your kettle, or bring the water to a boil first and then let it cool for two to three minutes before pouring.

Steep for the proper length of time:

Pay attention to the taste rather than the color. Here are some general guidelines:

Japanese Green Teas: 1-2 minutes
Chinese Green Teas: 2-3 minutes
White Teas: 2-5 minutes
Green Oolong Teas: 2-3 minutes
Dark Oolong Teas: 3-5 minutes
Black Teas: 3-5 minutes
Herbal Infusions: 5-10 minutes

AIDS experts see end to pandemic

British Columbia researchers say a massive expansion of the use of HIV drugs would have the potential to virtually wipe out the world’s HIV/AIDS pandemic, slashing the number of cases by more than 98 per cent in just two generations.  The researchers, based at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, say the spread of the disease could be reduced from the current seven cases per thousand people to fewer than 0.1 cases per thousand in as little as 45 years.  In an article published today in the medical journal The Lancet, the B.C. researchers say use of life-saving drugs that prevent HIV viruses from progressing to AIDS could be expanded to prevent HIV transmission in the first place.

Makeshift medicine

On a recent weekday morning, an emergency room in the heart of downtown New Orleans was filled with all the typical cases: a man moaning with a hernia, a woman beaten by her boyfriend, a 3-week-old baby who had fallen out of her car seat, a man suffering from chest pains. But little else is typical these days about the Medical Center of Louisiana, a state-run ER and dental clinic open since March. For starters, it’s located inside the gutted shell of an old Lord & Taylor department store. The radiologists work in what were once the dressing rooms. The wiring is exposed, the CT scan is located in a trailer outside, and the patients’ privacy is protected by shower curtains purchased at a nearby Dollar Store.

Get wiki with it

Getting published in the illustrious British scientific journal Nature is, frankly, a bitch. It’s not just the years you spend designing the perfect experiment, or the hustling for grant money to collect the data. It’s not even the long nights of trying to figure out how to express all that work elegantly in the cold language of scientific communication. No – the real trick is getting the editors at Nature to like it.

Pope prepares to embrace theory of intelligent design

Philosophers, scientists and other intellectuals close to Pope Benedict will gather at his summer palace outside Rome this week for intensive discussions that could herald a fundamental shift in the Vatican’s view of evolution.  There have been growing signs the Pope is considering aligning his church more closely with the theory of “intelligent design” taught in some US states. Advocates of the theory argue that some features of the universe and nature are so complex that they must have been designed by a higher intelligence. Critics say it is a disguise for creationism.