Podcast #47 – March Radness/Sadness

March madness is upon us and some places have been RAD while some places have been SAD. Let us take you through some of our cheers and jeers that we’re seeing in the season.

Weekly Flavor

• Mario and Brian: Grassroots Brewing (Hill Farmstead) : Legitimacy IPA 6.7 ABV

  Rated a 95 on Beer Advocate, this India Pale Ale is brewed with 2-row malted barley, oats, and citrusy hops from the Pacific Northwest. Dry hopped copiously with Simcoe. Its sessionable drinkability belies its true IPA nature.

  (extra info) Shaun Hill started Grassroots Brewing with Ryan Witter-Merrithew when he was still in Denmark to do collaborations, then Ryan continued to brew under it in some capacity when Shaun came home and started Hill Farmstead.

Ski News

• Ski The East Has to Cancel Events due to SHITTY WINTER ON EAST COAST

  STOP 4 – –March 12, 2016 – Sidecountry Showdown
  Venue: Sugarloaf // Carrabassett Valley, ME – CANCELLED
  Unfortunately this event has been cancelled due to very low snowpack and unfavorable course conditions.

  STOP 5 – –March 13, 2016 – Unconventional Terrain Competition
  Venue: Mad River Glen // Fayston, VT – CANCELLED
  Unfortunately this event has been cancelled due to very low snowpack and unseasonably warm temperatures forecasted for the week prior to the competition.

• World’s Highest Ski Resort to be Built in Tibet

  The Telegraph is reporting that China will build the world’s highest ski resort near Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The new ski area is part of China’s latest Five Year Plan and there are no details as to the facilities or timeline of the new resort.

  Although the city of Lhasa sits at 11,450 feet, most of Tibet’s mountains are well above 14,000 feet. Currently the highest ski resort in the world is China’s Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, which sits at 14,816 feet in elevation. This new ski area in Tibet is expected to topple that record.

• Donald Trump Gave $5,000 To Protect Our Winters In 2014

  The donation followed a request from 2014 Olympic snowboarding champion Jamie Anderson, who is affiliated with the group. Jamie won a gold medal at the Sochi Games, after doing so, she was a contestant on Trump’s reality game show, “Celebrity Apprentice.” When she was “fired,” Jamie asked Trump to make a donation to Protect Our Winters, which he later did. The National Ski Areas Association has identified climate change as a potential threat to the industry, which has prompted POW to raise awareness about the environmental issues.

• MAX Pass expanded to 25 Mountains

  The 2016/17 M.A.X. Pass is perfect for skiers and snowboarders looking to get the most North America has to offer. Now, with 25 mountains, you have even more freedom to visit your local favorites and take that big trip you’ve always wanted. Or buy the M.A.X. Pass Add-on, available with the purchase of a qualifying pass and get access to the same mountains. M.A.X.ify your season with the M.A.X. Pass and Max Pass Add-on for only the cost of a handful of lift tickets.

  $599 or $299 season pass add-on – 5 Days at each of 25 mountains

  • Alyeska, Girdwood, AK
  • Big Sky, MT
  • Blue Mountain, Ontario
  • Boreal Mountain, CA
  • Boyne Highland, MI
  • Boyne Mountain, MI
  • Brighton, UT
  • Copper Mountain, CO
  • Crystal Mountain, WA
  • Cypress Mountain, B.C.
  • Killington, VT
  • Lee Canyon Resort, NV
  • Loon Mountain, NH
  • Mont Tremblant, Quebec
  • Mt. Bachelor, OR
  • Pico Mountain, VT
  • Snowshoe, WV
  • Solitude, UT
  • Steamboat, CO
  • Stratton, VT
  • Sugarloaf,ME
  • Summit at Snoqualmie, WA
  • Sunday River, ME
  • Wachusett, MA
  • Winter Park, CO

• Peak Pass – Unlimited Skiing 7 Mountains in the Northeast

  $599 for unlimited skiing at these fine resorts (other blackout plans available):

  • Attitash Mountain Resort (NH)
  • Big Boulder (PA)
  • Crotched Mountain (NH)
  • Hunter Mountain (NY)
  • Jack Frost (PA)
  • Mount Snow (VT)
  • Wildcat (NH)

• CARV: The world’s first wearable that helps you ski better!

  Carv is the first wearable technology dedicated to skiing that speaks to you as you ski – it’s your digital ski coach.

  Inspired by Olympic technology, Carv gives you access to the feedback and knowledge that only elite skiers have had access to so far. With an extremely thin smart insert, Carv measures your motion and pressure distribution and relays feedback through your earphones in real-time.

March Radness/Sadness!!

Around the Horn

• New York Today: Dogs Can Eat Out

  The city’s Health Department issued an advisory on Tuesday that allows dogs to accompany human diners at restaurants with outdoor seating. The move follows the State Legislature’s passage last year of a bill that eased the rules regarding dogs and dining.

  While the dogs must be licensed and vaccinated against rabies to take a place at the table, the authorities will not insist on seeing your pet’s papers. Instead, participating restaurants must post signs informing customers about the requirements.

• Hamburg, Germany – First To Ban Wasteful Coffee Pods

  Fifteen years ago, coffee pods were a tiny fraction of the coffee market. By 2014, pods had grown to make up a third of all coffee sales in the U.S. alone, and people suddenly noticed the problem: Of the billions of pods sold each year, almost all end up in landfills. Now, as part of the backlash, comes the first major pod ban.

  In January, Hamburg, Germany banned “certain polluting products” from government buildings—including coffee pods, which have grown as quickly in Europe as America. More Europeans now buy coffee pod machines than drip coffee makers. In Germany, one out of eight cups of coffee comes from a plastic or aluminum pod that can’t easily be recycled.

  The city doesn’t plan to try to ban coffee pods for consumers, but wanted to use its multi-million dollar budget to send a message. “We in Hamburg just thought that these capsules shouldn’t be bought with taxpayers’ money,” says Jan Dube, head of communications for the city’s ministry of environment and energy.

• Sugar – not fat – causes most health problems

  Since 1977, health experts have been promoting the idea that saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease by raising levels of LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol. According to conventional wisdom, saturated fat intake can also raise the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and diabetes, while a combination of fatty foods and lack of exercise is largely to blame for the global obesity epidemic.

  Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust and consultant clinical associate to the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, rejects the claim that saturated fat plays a significant role in heart disease. He contends that misinformation about cholesterol has not only led doctors to overmedicate patients on a mass scale, but has also encouraged the populace to adopt a high-sugar diet, which he feels is one of the root causes of the current spike in obesity and type 2 diabetes.

• Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug.

  It’s a terrifying fact: More than 47,000 people in America died of drug overdoses in 2014 — in what’s been widely called an epidemic. But the biggest killer of this epidemic isn’t cocaine, meth, or even heroin; it’s totally legal opioid painkillers. Here’s how it happened:

  Since the 1990s, doctors have been under more and more pressure to treat pain as a serious medical issue. Pharmaceutical companies took advantage of this desire, marketing opioid painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin as a safe, effective solution to pain.

  The result: Millions of Americans got hooked on the drugs, and tens of thousands have died from overdoses. In 2014, nearly 19,000 died from overdoses linked to opioid painkillers.

  What’s worse, as doctors have pulled back on painkillers to halt the epidemic, users have gone to another opioid — heroin. In 2014, more than 10,000 people died from overdoses on that drug as well.

• “Move to Canada” Web Searches Hit All-Time High After Super Tuesday Results

  It’s not uncommon to see “move to a place that is anywhere but here” searches spike around election time. It’s a political season where voters feel their most polarized, and in some ways—despite an actual increase in political say-so and control—at the whim of their fellow Americans.

  However, after the release of this year’s Super Tuesday primary results, where Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump took home the most wins in the all-important primary cluster for Democrats and Republicans respectively, one particular search hit a historical high. Google Data Editor Simon Rogers shared via Twitter on Tuesday that over a four hour period searches for “move to Canada” had spiked 350 percent.