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trashpandaorigins · 5 years

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The Body Keeps the Score Ch. 6 The Wrong Shot

"You said it yourself bitch, we're the Guardians of the Galaxy." Gamora is finally a part of something. But the past always follows you, eats at you and she must come to grips with her deeds as she tries to build a future. Meanwhile Rocket has never cared much for anyone or anything. Together the two of them discover they are more alike than different and try to heal themselves by befriending the other.

*Content Warnings: Mentions of child/animal abuse, trauma, character death, physical torture/pain*

Title of this fic is taken from the book of the same title "The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma," by Bessel van der Kolk

You and I both are nothing but thieves

We take what we want when we need

I had a chance for a better life

But all that I've known is to

Run, run, run, from a devil in disguise

Like a bullet, a bullet, a bullet into the night

Bullet - Steel Train

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck fuck! Rocket cursed rolling backward across the crowded workshop, hissing as the cybernetic panel in his back slammed into the unforgiving wall. Colors swam for a moment before his vision. The raccoonoid blinked several times, waiting for cybernetics in his optic nerves to recalibrate. He flicked his fingers, good still in tact.

I’m gonna shoot that flarking humie, he thought begrudgingly, standing up and stalking out of the work room.

“Quill! What the hell kinda jump was that?! You’re gonna wreck my ship!” Rocket scurried to the engine room.

“Um it’s my ship,” the human stepped out into the main hall, one hand clutching his stomach. “And I didn’t do anything!”

“Then who the hell is piloting this thing?” Rocket pushed passed the human with a grunt into the cock-pit. He halted in the door, an orange glow bathed the interior of the ship with hazy iridescence. Three large green asteroid rings encircled the planet. Kilvore.

“Gamora!” Drax boomed, stomping in behind Quill. “You are quite the pilot! You should be flying this ship!” Rocket suppressed a growl,

“Groot!”

The little sapling made a playful cooing noise from his place in the co-pilot seat. Rocket rushed over to him and growled at the right of the miniature flora, who, despite his seat belt had tumbled from his pot. Dirt scattered about the seat.

“What did you do?!” The raccoonoid growled, furiously packing the soil back around Groot’s base. Gamora bristled with the accusation.

“I didn’t do anything,” she keyed in the codes to approach landing. “I strapped him in, he’s alright.”

Evidently Groot wiggled his arms as the raccoonoid hoisted him up on his hip-reaching to try and play with the straps of Rocket’s jumpsuit.

“He could’a been hurt!”

“If he never get’s hurt he’s never going to learn how to protect himself,” she countered.

“Is that what daddy Thanos taught yah?” He snapped, baring his teeth at the woman. He looked up at Gamora, a nerve pulsing in her forehead. Something snapped. Gamora stuck her arm out, instantly for the raccoonoid’s neck. Rocket panicked as his feet were whisked off the ground. Groot tumbled from his hold. Drax dove with surprising agility, catching the little flora who only giggled and wiggled in his pot. Rocket growled, claws digging into Gamora’s wrist,

“Oh yeah,” he snarled, with a cruel grin. “There she is, there’s the daughter of Thanos!” Her fingers tightened around the scruff of his neck, hardly flinching even as he kicked and scratched, trying to reach for the gun in his belt.

“I’d rip out your spine rodent, if you had one.”

“W...what the hell Gamora?!” Rocket wheezed out, trying to twist his neck out of her grip.

“I am not a daughter of Thanos,” she whispered dangerously.

“Yeah, you’re really proving me wrong. You flarking…”

“I could snap your neck,” she threatened, “it would be easy.”

Rocket focused his roving eyes towards Groot’s plaintive wail.

“You can run all you want,” he hissed through gritted teeth. “But you can’t run from what he made you.”

“C’mon guys,” Peter whined, “I thought we were passed the point of killing each other!”

“At least I ain’t a hypocrite” he couldn't stop himself. The humiliation of being held like some dangling thing, the escalation of Groot’s terrified cries. “Your no better than him.” His tail thrashed madly, bite...bite her! Get away!

“Gamora,” Quill stepped forward tentatively, “let him go.”

Rocket swallowed down the animalistic yelp that nearly escaped him as Gamora dropped him to the floor. He glared up at her, trying to massage the throbbing in his neck.

“Like father like daughter,’ he wheezed, black nostrils flaring to catch his breath.

“Hey!” Quill snapped, pointing at him like some petulant child. Groot tried to inch his pot forward little arms reaching out for him, sap leaking from his eyes.

“I’m going after Nebula,” Gamora barked stalking from the room.

“Wait! Gamora!” Quill spared a disappointed glance at Rocket and darted out of the cockpit as the Benatar shook, locking into the dock on the main port of Yreka’a Kilvore’s largest city.

“Mmm, mmm Grrr!” Groot’s little face screwed up as he cried. Drax knelt down placing Groot’s pot in front of him. Rocket reached out to him, little wooden fingers grasping around his claws in earnest.

Groot teetered forward closer, burying his little head in the nape of the raccoonoid’s neck.

No! Don’t touch….

He jerked backward, still panting. Claws clenched against the metal floor. He stopped himself from the snarl forming in his throat.

“Small friend, are you alright?”

“I’ve had worse,” Rocket coughed, remaining on all fours. Groot tried to borrow against him, thin fingers wringing through his fur. “Watch it,” he spat, pushing the small flora away as one of the little hands hit against the metal bolts in his clavicle. “It’s not like either of you did anything to help,” his red gaze slid between the Destroyer and his miniature best friend. “You might be tiny but you could’ve at least tried to stop her!” He glowered at Groot who only pouted and reached for him. “Could’ve said something even if you couldn’t fight her.” He envisioned Groot’s protective stance between himself and Drax back in that bar in Knowhere.

“You must not anger our assassin friend, she will kill you for what you’ve said.”

“Tsch, I’d like to see her try. Damn sadist.” Rocket checked the gun at his belt, and gripped the handle of it for reassurance, turning from the two of them.

“Where are you going?” Drax’s concern echoed down the hall as the raccoonoid stalked back towards his workroom. The heavy door slammed behind him with a satisfying clang. He snatched up the data pad, furiously pounding the keys.

“This is Sub…..Subject...8...8913, I have an update.”

The screen blipped and went fuzzy for a moment before a Nova agent’s face appeared on the screen, helmet obscuring her features.

“Subject, what is your…”

“Its Gamora,” he seethed. “She’s taken our ship to Kilvore, tryn’ to go after her maniac sister Nebula.”

“Has she threatened you or your crew?”

“She threatened me,” he snarled with contempt. I’d rip out your spine, rodent. Rocket hung up before the agent could continue.

“Animal friend, open this door!” Drax’s fists banged against the door, Groot’s whine sounded through the metal. Rocket snatched up his pistols and a few more rounds before opening the door again.

“Where are you going?”

“After Quill and Gamora.”

“What about Groot? He cannot go into battle.”

Rocket spun on his heel, glaring.

“Then you stay back with him.”

Without waiting he sprinted down the gangway, into the crowded sea of aliens bustling about Yreka’a.

---

Rocket darted through the crowds with relative ease, used to navigating the world of larger people. He kept one hand at his holster as he scanned for any sign of Quill or Gamora. Not that he wanted to see her. Not that he wanted them to see him. Not after being hoisted up by the scruff like a misbehaving dog. The hair on his neck rose at the memory of it. Cold merciless metal clamped around him, cords that electrocuted him when he resisted. The gloved grasp around his neck. One hand restrained him, the other held a scalpel or a needle or some other device. The raccoonoid halted in his tracks, the legs and knees of the crowd becoming blurry in shadows. His vision tunneled and he shook his head, rubbing his paws across his snout.

“Small angry companion! Wait!”

Rocket sniffed once more, through the ochre of cooking food and thick smoke. The sweat and liquor. He sniffed again, arching his head upward through the throngs of bodies, rounding a corner and down another thoroughfare. Music pumped from a nearby club, merchants shouted their wares in dozens of languages.

Too many smells, still the lingering old too much axe flitted on his nose. He could tell Quill’s scent anywhere.

“This way, hurry up baldy.”

“Mmmgggrrrt!”

“I ain’t waitin’!”

He darted between the long purple tentacles of a Ktavian, sniffing for any whiff of either Quill or Gamora.

“Watch it vermin!”

Rocket growled, one paw tightening around his pistol but he kept it in check, it ain’t worth it.

“Quill! Quill!” The raccoonoid scrambled down another series of streets, pausing only to ensure that Drax and Groot hadn’t fallen too far behind.

Flarking...bipeds, he cursed almost tempted to cover more ground on four legs.

“Quill, damn it wa…”

Something flashed in the monotone sea of grays and muddled browns.

Shit that can’t be… Rocket sniffed, it was. Nebula was here, he scrambled up a nearby market stall, onto the roof, keen eyes scanning through the crowd. There she was...moving in the opposite direction of Quill and Gamora. She moved with complete economy, head down glancing around suspiciously at anyone who dared come close.

“Furry one! Why are you all the way,”

“Shut up!"

Rocket hissed, reaching for the gun at his belt and looked through the scope, tracing the women's movements as she weaved out of the main streets, back towards the ship docks. His grip fixed around the gun, pulling the trigger back. One shot, that’s all it’d take. Nebula flagged down one of the Rskeven workers. Paying him handsomely by the grin he spurted. Rocket adjusted his grip, it’d be an easy shot, right in the back of the noggin and that cyborg’d be done for good. He sucked a breath in sharply through his nose, watching her walk up to a crummy little Xandarian transport vessel. Must’ve stolen it after the battle. He squeezed the trigger, back as hard it would go 3…..2… flark it! Rocket hit the safety mechanism, let go of the trigger heard the empty click.

“Rocket! What are you doing up there?!”

Out of his periphery the Xandarian ship sputtered to life. Quickly he reached into his belt, loading his gun with the tracking device.

“Rocket!”

Something hit against his ear. Instinctively his swiveled towards it, his finger slipping. A bang. He recovered in time to watch the projectile launch through the air at the body of the ship as it took off. He watched it hit against the left wing, through the dust and exhaust, only to teeter and slip, falling to the ground in the wake of the ship taking off. Through the haze, a miniature head in the cockpit, Nebula’s eyes fixated on the atmosphere above.

Fuck, the ship took off, vaulting through the sky and out of sight to join all the other transports coming and going, lost among them. Rocket shook his head, thrusting the gun back into its holster.

“Who through that?”

“Rocket,”

Quil, Drax, Groot and Gamora stood below, gazing up at him with expressions ranging from confusion, (Drax and Quill), to irritation, (Gamora).

The raccoonoid huffed, ears twitching and made his way back down, making sure not to look at the green assassin.

“What gives man? We saw Drax and Groot and assumed you were with them. Quill planted his hands on his hips like a scolding parent.

“I saw Nebula.”

“Really?” Gamora’s skepticism grated against his last nerve. “Where?”

“She was taking off in a stolen Xandarian transport. I was tryin’ to shoot her but Star-Turd threw off my aim.”

Gamora shifted her displeasure to the human man, only for an instant.

“Did you shoot to kill?”

Rocket smirked, kicking a rock with his boot.

“Nah Gams I didn’t shoot to kill. I was tryn’ to put a tracking device on it.”

---

Rocket was three sheets to the wind when he heard the knock on the workroom door. Trying to drown the humiliation of being shaken like a misbehaving vermin in front of others, trying to drown the feel of Gamora’s hand around his scruff. They’d regrouped on the ship and he worked out the calculations to approximate Nebula’s trajectory. Towards the Keystone Quadrant. Rocket thought, lifting another can of Uzbellian beer to his muzzle. He never imagined he’d be back in the same Quadrant as ...that place. But Quill, Gamora and Drax has insisted they follow despite his protests; and he sure as shit wasn’t about to divulge his tragic backstory to them like a sucker.

No, he’d hunker down and bare it, he wouldn’t let Groot out of his sight. He’d stay on the ship, claim to be doing repairs. He’d pack more weapons on him, well, more than usual. His mind spun into strategy mode. How large was the Keystone Quadrant? Where was Halfworld in relation to their current flight path? What if Nebula was going to that very planet? No there was no reason to go there. She wouldn’t. SHE WOULDN”T. But if she did….how many bombs had he made? How much ammo? How could he….

“Rocket?”

Gamora. He could tell by her scent and the sound of her footfalls.

Great, the last person he wanted to see.

“What?”

He snarled, finishing off the beer and throwing the can to the ground. She stepped in gracefully, looking around the crowded room of half-formed weapons and gadgets.

“Immm grrrrrot!”

Groot waved to her happily as she came closer.

“Rocket,” the word was heavy as she spoke it. “About my outburst earlier, I sor…”

He held up one paw, eyes unmoving from the work before him.

“I’mma stop you right there,”

“I’m sorry,” she continued.

“Well I ain’t,” this time he looked up at her with indignation. “You wanna snap at me? Fine.” Rocket’s ears pressed against his skull. “You wanna choke me out or cut me with those knives of yours, be my guest. I’ll fight you any day.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed with speculation.

“Do whatever you want,” he rasped. “But you don’t do it in front of them. Or Groot,” he gestured to the flora who had lost interest in the both of them and was trying to reach for a discarded magazine. Gamora bit the inside of her cheek, looking at the baby. “He’s got a new start on things. He don’t need to see that stuff yet.” He watched her nod in agreement and wiped his claws free of oil.

“I didn’t mean to do those things in front of Groot,” she started. “I didn’t mean to say those things to you.”

“Really? Cuz I did,” he countered. “Thanos might’a taught you to hurt in order to grow but Thanos ain’t taken care of Groot while he gets his growth back...and I ain’t as bad as Thanos.”

This elicited a surprising smile from the assassin.

“No, your not.”

“No killin’ each other in front of the plant capeesh? He’s had enough of killin’....” Rocket swallowed the sour taste of liquor, “and bein’ killed.” Gamora nodded with more vigor this time. He watched her hover on the edge of words, trying to find something to say.

“Thank you, for not killing Nebula today.”

"Wasn't my shot to take." Rocket waved a dismissive paw, turning back to his work. She nodded once more, waved to Groot and made to leave, stopping in the doorway.

“You have my word Rocket, I never call you those names again. Nor will I ever...miss-handle you in that manor again. I swear.”

“Why don’t you go miss-handle Quill?” He laughed.

“I’m serious Rocket,” she pressed.

“Tsch, so am I! He’d love it. He’s clearly in love with you.”

He looked up from the disassembled gun, a sardonic grin coming to his face for the first time in days at the woman’s face, internally waging the possibility. She gave him a look he couldn’t quite determine and finally left, closing the door behind her.

Rocket worked long into the night, the booze eventually coaxing him into a fitful sleep.

And...I shouldn’t have called you Thanos’s daughter…cuz you ain’t. At all.

When he woke up the next morning, he couldn’t remember if he’d said the apology aloud. Or if it were another one of his drunken thoughts of what he should’ve said.

#the body keeps the score fic #my writing #gamora #rocket raccoon #gotg #Guardians of the Galaxy #groot #baby groot #peter quill #star lord #nebula #Drax The Destroyer

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taylornye · 4 years

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Thermo

Claims swirl around toxic dirt, acid waters and a negligent city manager. A News-Telegram investigation reveals more.

February 3, 2020

The waters of the Thermo mine Area H property pond are translucent and turquoise in color. That’s because they’re acidic. Sulphur Springs city manager Marc Maxwell will admit as much, although he says it reminds him of the Caribbean.

“There’s a coal seam at the bottom that’s causing that color,” Maxwell told the News-Telegram in September 2019. “Luminant is essentially dumping baking soda in it to combat the acidity.”

From Maxwell’s perspective, the city was given the keys to the kingdom when the coal mining company handed over a nearly 5,000-acre piece of land just 3 miles outside the city limits in late November. Yes, there were some ongoing ecological issues, Maxwell concedes, but nothing a socially responsible company and a forward-thinking city can’t work out together.

Then, on Oct. 30, 2019, the Texas Tribune published an article about what the city is designating as “Helfferich Hill,” stating it “contains toxic heavy metals and minerals that can turn into acid when exposed to air and water,” and the plan to cover the hill with approximately 4 feet of dirt is insufficient even against a gentle rain.

“Rain would simply wash away the new dirt, exposing the toxic materials again,” the Tribune claimed.

In 1996, environmental supervisor for the Luminant mine John Denman told the News-Telegram, “We’ve never mined any land we did not reclaim.” Yet that’s exactly what the

Yet that’s exactly what the Tribune contends the city would now prefer to do.

Maxwell repeatedly called these claims “entirely fabricated,” and “sensationalistic.”

The truth about Thermo’s ecological health, and who has the responsibility to maintain it, are much murkier than the crystal-clear waters of the Thermo pond.

HISTORY

Thermo is the name of one of Hopkins County’s small communities — one of more than 50 such communities with populations ranging from 50 to 777. The area has a history of heavy industry: up until approximately 1925 it was known by a different name — Crush — and was home to a brick manufacturing plant that operated from 1910 to 1954. The clay found in the soil is formed into bricks by a firing process. To reflect this, the company changed its name from the Crush Brick and Tile Company to the Thermo Fire Brick Company, and as such, the Thermo community was born.

Lignite coal mines have long been common in Hopkins County, which sits atop several rich veins of the “soft coal.” Prospectors tried to open a vein north of Como in 1905, but found the lignite was too deep to mine. They had more luck in 1918 when the Alla-Malakoff mine was founded in Como. This mine stayed operational until 1938. There was also a smaller lignite mine operating in the Thermo area in 1922, approximately 3 miles outside Sulphur Springs proper.

Aerial photographs of the Thermo property from 1949 and 1958 show bucolic undeveloped farm and pastureland. Residences do not even appear near the property until 1964 aerial photographs. In 1976, Luminant Mining company purchased approximately 4,900 acres in the community, where it ran lignite coal mining operations until 2016.

In March 1978, Luminant broke ground at the Thermo site, and within their first two years of operation, the company reported they had covered about 300 surface acres. In 1980, site manager Kenneth Price told the News-Telegram the operation had about 22-24 years of extractions left before the site was no longer useful.

The Sulphur Springs plant had layoffs in both 1995 and 1997 due to an accident at the nearby Mount Pleasant plant, although in 1997 the Interstate Mining Compact Commission (IMCC) awarded Luminant national honors for its reclamation efforts at the Sulphur Springs operation.

Site manager Del McCabe told the News-Telegram at the time how Luminant had successfully re-routed portions of Rock Creek as well as preserved wetlands, pastures and wildlife. Luminant planted “several thousand trees a year,” to combat the 80-100 acres used in mining annually, McCabe boasted in 1997.

In 2014, Luminant’s parent company filed for bankruptcy, and in 2016, Luminant closed both its Thermo and nearby Mount Pleasant plants as it acquired coal from Wyoming.

Maxwell had his eye on the Thermo property since first taking office in 1995. What started his interest in the site was bird-dogging — both the sport and the persistence of local Roy Pelton. A field dog trainer, Pelton as well as daughter Julie and husband Frank Long traveled as far away as Oklahoma to compete with their canine, while hundreds of prime acres sat unused at Thermo.

“They wanted a place of their own, so we went up to Mount Pleasant to ask,” Maxwell said. “They said, ‘but doesn’t that involve guns?’ I had to admit they did. They told us, ‘Absolutely not.’ The company had a strict no-gun policy.”

So, Maxwell asked for the land outright, since the company was finished mining. Luminant’s answer?

“Don’t call us; we’ll call you,” Maxwell joked.

In October 2017, Luminant came before the Sulphur Springs city council in executive session with what Maxwell called a “grand plan.” It featured a 380-acre flyover animation of what is currently Area H, complete with an RV park, picnic tables, ponds and an apartment complex at its periphery.

“It’s really nice,” Maxwell told Luminant, “but we want the whole thing.

“My council wanted to crawl under the table and die,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell’s point to Luminant, he said, was that the city could not afford to maintain 380 acres of park lands. If given all 5,000 acres, the city could use the land for industrial development as well as recreation and the company would not have to tear down functional roads and could “write off” the donation on their taxes.

To everyone’s surprise, Luminant agreed.

Maxwell estimates that if the company were to sell the land, it could bring them as much as $25 million. In the end, the city only paid $100 for the whole parcel of 4,901.228 acres, according to the signed contract from both parties. According to calculations, that’s a 99.99% discount.

SCRAPERS CHOMP UP COUNTY SITE

Lignite coal is made by the fossilization of ancient peat moss from prehistoric times and is found few places in the world: China, Russia, Germany and Texas, according to a 2015 German national raw materials report. The coal is composed of approximately 60-70% carbon with the remainder composed of moisture with traces of other materials.

The principal endeavor of the Thermo site was mining, specifically, although other activity occurred there, such as shipping the coal to nearby Mount Pleasant on the Kansas City Southern rail line. Although lignite mining operations may find coal as shallow as 30 feet below the surface, they may also attempt extraction as deep as 130 feet below the earth’s surface, according to an independent February 2019 study of the Thermo site by the company Wood.

Lignite mining has the capacity to significantly disrupt biological organisms, plant life and soil distribution, according to a 2005 study by the Brandenburg University of Technology. A problem lignite coal sites may experience is acidification of soil and water. The carbon that makes coal — both hard and soft — can release acid into its surroundings when it dissolves, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

In addition, after mining operations are completed, groundwater and soil may experience pollution of heavy metals or other toxic chemicals if other facilities to convert lignite coal to energy were also housed at the mining facilities, according to a 1998 study by the University of Concepcion. These may remain for “as much as decades or centuries” if proper protocol to neutralize them is not followed, the study read.

Although facilities to convert coal to energy existed in Mount Pleasant, no conversion facilities were housed at Thermo, which was an extraction-only operation, according to the 2019 Wood survey.

Thermo’s operations were not just moving dirt, though. This much digging restructures ground levels, which are layers of sand, silt and clay deposits. It also has the ability to impact the structure of groundwater and aquifers, and wells dug on the property were documented to be as much as 322 feet deep. A February 2019 independent study undertaken by the city noted that deep digging and installation of wells had disturbed the water table, but with only approximately 20 years of water data about the specific area, environmentalists cannot say exactly how lignite mining has changed the course of water — only that it has.

Water below the ground is not the only water impacted by mining operations. At the Thermo site, surface water flows into White Oak and Rock Creeks, which eventually flow into the South Sulphur River. Luminant was required to maintain compliance with these waterways with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

In 2012, the TCEQ found that groundwater had been contaminated by a diesel leak from a burst underground pipe, but after Luminant took corrective action, TCEQ found no further steps were necessary by the company.

It’s not just water issues that confront a property when a coal mining operation stakes its claim. When the scrapers dig for lignite below the earth’s surface and move approximately 6 million cubic feet of dirt per year, according to a 1980 News-Telegram estimate, they must uproot everything on its surface, from water oak to opossum.

Although since 1978 the company has been replacing everything on the land and water — replanting loblolly pines and restocking ponds with crappie and bass — the vacuum created by the absence of a functioning ecosystem has unintended consequences.

Citizen Christopher Hanson appeared before the city council during a public hearing on the annexation of Thermo lands to voice his concerns over invasive species — mosquitoes and hogs — which proliferated after the property was left in a “wild” state once the company left, Hanson said.

“They [hogs] will actually come up in the yard very, very close at night,” Christopher Hanson said. “One come out from underneath my truck. … There’ll be 25 or 30 of them at a time.”

In Texas, feral hogs can reach as much as 400 pounds, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) and can be aggressive towards humans.

Maxwell told the News-Telegram the city has already been in contact with TPWD to try to figure out what to do about the hog problem.

Christopher Hanson also expressed concern about “major-like mosquitoes, … [are] just extreme because it’s a swamp out there.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mosquitoes are the major carrier for diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus and dengue fever. Maxwell told Hanson the city “would have to do something about that.”

The Wood Report also outlines concerns with the soil itself in one specific area: the old machine shed area, where Luminant kept its equipment and vehicles. In that location, The Wood Report found the earth to have measurable volatile organic compounds such as benzene, with a visual hydrocarbon sheen. To any Hopkins County farmer, mechanic or freight hauler, ground contaminated with diesel or unleaded is a familiar workplace condition. However, under the strict environmental standards of mine reclamation, it must be cleaned up. The Wood Report recommends the city follow through with another independent assessment of the machine shed area after Luminant does its reclamations.

Also located near the machine shed area are visible coal material, standing buildings and storage tanks. While The Wood Report and reclamation plans call for the coal to be removed — which is thick and black with tire tracks running through it — Maxwell would like to keep the buildings if the Railroad Commission will let them. He wants to use them and their infrastructure — electricity, plumbing, wiring and all — to save the city money on what for months he has told citizens is a steep cost for taxpayers.

“When you’re talking about industry, it’s a whole different ball game,” Maxwell said. “If we end up with big industry out here, we’re going to be able to afford roads, water lines, sewer lines and a whole lot more.”

The property also has two non-toxic landfills Luminant used that will need monitoring, the Wood Report reads. One has Class 2 materials — plant trash — and the other has Class 3 materials — inert materials like glass and bricks that will not decompose over time.

“It’s not as if there’s no impact, environmentally, when they’re scraping 30 feet off the ground,” Maxwell said. “Hence all of the hoops they make them [mining companies] jump through when they remit it.”

DUE DILIGENCE

The issue central to the Texas Tribune article is what its authors perceive as a lack of follow-through by the city of Sulphur Springs to hold Luminant accountable for “acid/toxic-forming materials” in Helfferich Hill.

When the News-Telegram followed up with Tribune co-author Kiah Collier, Collier stated in a phone call that the Tribune had based its story on a specific concern raised in a Railroad Commission document from 2017.

In the document from Sept. 5, 2017, titled “Staff Technical Comments,” the Railroad Commission wrote: “The approximately 100-foot high temporary stockpile … contains acid/toxic-forming materials.”

Luminant wrote back on Sept. 21, 2017, stating they “disagreed with staff’s unsubstantiated characterization … and are unaware of any factual basis for that assertion.”

“That sounds very Trumpian to me,” Collier said in the phone call. “How does that pit look Caribbean? How does that pit not have anything growing in it? That’s mining 101. There’s toxic materials in that pile, and the Railroad Commission found that.”

However, Collier admitted over the phone, “We didn’t see any Railroad Commission or Luminant documents listing specific substances.”

In fact, documents collected by the Tribune and Collier herself seem to suggest the opposite.

A May 2018 independent environmental report compiled by Keith Wheeler of Pastor, Behling and Wheeler hydrologic engineers found that, in fact, the pond did have acidic pH of approximately 3.9.

The document specifically outlines: “Are low pH seeps emanating from the soil stockpile? No, low pH has not been observed at the base of the soil stockpile.”

This was a document given to the News-Telegram by Collier.

Wheeler saw lignite coal laying on the ground surrounding the pond and concluded they were a contributing factor to the pond’s acidity.

Maxwell and Luminant, however, contend that the major source of the pond’s acidity is that it sits atop an exposed coal seam.

“Can he prove to you that the water in the pit is blue because of a coal seam?” Collier asked the News-Telegram via Twitter direct message. “Shouldn’t he have to prove that to the taxpayer?” (emphasis hers).

The Wheeler Report found that the major source of the pond’s acidity was “exposed seams and associated carbonaceous materials inside the pond.”

This is the same report Collier gave the News-Telegram.

The Wheeler Report found that the pH of the pond would likely improve to normal once Luminant covered its sides with at least 4 feet of suitable material and its bottom with at least 10 feet of suitable material. It noted that other ponds on the Thermo land had normal acid levels.

To test the claims of the Wheeler Report, News-Telegram brought a soil sample from Helfferich Hill for examination to the City of Sulphur Springs Water Plant at 825 Hillcrest Drive. The sample was taken from the base of the hill on Jan. 27.

Water plant scientists prepared a sample for pH testing by adding distilled water to the sample and stirring in a 250 ml beaker. At first, they were unable to obtain a reading, but after straining out live plant material, obtained a pH reading of 5.98.

With a pH of 7 being true neutral such as distilled water and a pH of 0 being a strong acid, such as stomach acid, the acidity of the soil of Helfferich Hill is similar to that of milk.

The News-Telegram also brought a soil sample from Helfferich Hill for examination to Dr. Mario Villarino of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office. The sample was taken from the base of the hill on Jan. 27 at the same time as the previous sample. Villarino determined the soil to be a clay-sand soil characteristic of the region.

“The tectonic origin of our soil is acidic,” Villarino said. “It would not be uncommon for our soil to be even as low as [pH] 4.5.”

In fact, according to Villarino, it’s for this reason that many area farmers put lime, which is alkaline, on their fields, to bring pH to 6.5 and improve crop yields.

“There are things growing on it. It can’t be that acidic,” Villarino said while inspecting the soil sample and finding grass roots and stems. “It’s a shame that people can’t understand something just because it looks different.”

The city sent soil cores for independent testing through AnaLab in Kilgore on Jan. 28 to obtain applicable data on any pollutants present in Helfferich Hill including (but not limited to) cadmium, arsenic and pesticides. The city is currently awaiting results.

The Railroad Commission did not respond to questions about how they came to believe there were acid forming/toxic materials in Helfferich Hill.

“It’s not anything like it’s been characterized,” Sid Stroud, environmental director for Luminant told the News-Telegram. “It’s been a misunderstanding, and it got a life of its own.”

The News-Telegram cannot locate any documentation or independent testing to substantiate the Railroad Commission’s original claim that Helfferich Hill contains “acid/ toxic-forming materials” or heavy metals of any type.

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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yes, a handheld really can run Crysis • Eurogamer.net

Can it run Crysis? It’s been 13 years since Crytek’s epoch-making release hit the market – and in some respects it’s still capable of monstering modern day PC hardware. But now, the game is playable on a handheld console using a mobile processor with power consumption that barely troubles a watt meter. So just how good is the port? How does it compare to the sub-optimal last-gen versions and can it possibly match up to the original experience?

Much has been made of the leaked material for Crysis Remastered – with negative fan reaction causing Crytek to hold the game back for further tooling. However, the Switch version arrives on the original July 23rd release date and just from the first ten minutes of play, it’s easy to see why. Based on the code available, and the sheer complexity of Crysis’ systems, it’s difficult to imagine a port that’s anything better than what has been delivered here. It’s not without its faults, but Crysis has been expertly retooled to scale graphically to the console hybrid – and it pushes Switch’s ARM Cortex A57s to breaking point. It’s a remarkable, fascinating port, but not without issues and strictly speaking not complete – the Ascension mission that’s missing from the PS3 and Xbox 360 ports is still MIA here.

Let’s start with the basics in taking a look at what Crytek and developer partner Saber Interactive has delivered. On Switch, Crysis Remastered uses dynamic resolution with temporal upscaling. Pixel counts suggest that 720p is the average resolution you’ll experience during gameplay. In busy situations I counted resolutions such as 540p and even lower but this isn’t especially common especially in docked mode. The resolution is capped at 720p in portable, of course, but can also jump slightly above this when docked. Based on information from the developer, the full dynamic resolution scaling range is 540p to 900p while docked, dropping to 400p to 720p in mobile configuration, where Crytek leans into the 460MHz ‘power’ GPU mode (up from the typical 384MHz used in most Switch games). The main takeaway is that image quality isn’t bad – it’s not pristine, but it’s significantly better than the heavily blurred presentations seen in the likes of the id Tech 6 ports, The Witcher 3 and Warframe.

There are some noticeable omissions to the visual feature set (this is essentially a mobile port after all) – there’s a reduction in geometry on elements like the nanosuit, an elimination of ray-marched volumetric light sources and parallax occlusion mapping, but there are dramatic upgrades too. We understand that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 CryEngine 3 ports are the foundation on which Crysis Remastered is based, but side-by-side, it’s clear that the Switch version looks significantly better in some respects. The first major shift stems from lighting: on the surface there are tweaks made to the time of day compared to the original game, along with the introduction of image-based lighting which helps with material quality – especially indirectly lit metals and plastics. However, the most significant and surprising addition here is sparse voxel-based global illumination, also known as SVOGI.

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The Digital Foundry video breakdown of Crysis Remastered on Switch. Essential viewing, even if we do say so ourselves.

Essentially, global illumination is typically precalculated or ‘baked’ on most games. Instead, SVOGI delivers a real-time global illumination system that offers both ambient occlusion and indirect light bounce, delivering a standard of realism that easily eclipses the last-gen ports and indeed the lighting found in the PC original. It’s surprising to see this on Switch but as I understand it, SVOGI is highly scalable. According to the team responsible for its conversion, this implementation of the systems runs at a very low resolution on Switch but the primary optimisation work centered around optimising data formats to reduce size, limiting the distance rays can be traced into the octree and using smaller kernels. Naturally, this reduces precision which can lead to more visible light leakage and light rippling in some cases but it still works surprisingly well. Presumably, the PC and other console releases will use higher precision.

This is perhaps the most significant improvement – it’s Crytek making good on its promise to bring high-end CryEngine features from the latest iteration of the engine back into Crysis and it’s fully armed and operational on Switch – even in handheld play. Beyond that, the rest of the lighting sees more subtle adjustments. Time of day tweaks can be seen in missions such as Assault where the sun rises much earlier on Switch than it does on PC. In general, most changes seem designed to create a more dramatic looking game – similar to many of the mods available for the original PC version. More importantly, the new lighting model more closely resembles that original PC version which cannot be said of the PlayStation 3 and 360 release. That version relies too heavily on strong bloom and blue-tinged colour grading. Throughout, it’s a cold, harsh looking game that strays too far from the original for my tastes. Crysis Remastered is a huge improvement in that sense and the more immersive, naturally lit environment really pops.

The entire post-processing suite has been enhanced as well. Per-object and camera motion blur remains intact with a higher sample count than the previous console release. The PC version uses a different technique – it only applies motion blur to dynamic objects and camera rotation but not player movement so in that sense, Switch delivers an improvement all around. The bokeh depth of field used (most notably with iron sights) is also really impressive. It’s an improvement both over the original release and the last-gen versions of the game.

Another key pillar on which Crysis is founded is destruction. The idea is that trees, bushes, and entire buildings interact and break apart based on your actions. Harking back to an era where video games went to extraordinary lengths to deliver realistic physics, destruction in Crysis was a remarkably impressive element which heightened combat and enabled some amazing moments. Impressively, everything is intact on Switch – but the fact that every feature is delivered means that there are some compromises. Objects and builds on just about every scale can break apart in real time, but this does cause momentary drops to frame-rate. Thankfully, this dissipates quickly so it’s not a huge deal. I can’t imagine Crysis without destructible buildings so it’s worth the performance hit – and despite its meagre CPU resources, Switch still manages to outgun last-gen console frame-rates.

In delivering these features on Switch with just three available 1.0GHz mobile cores, there are also further compromises. As you blast palm trees and other flora, branches react to every shot but these interactions are time-sliced on Switch, updating at a lower rate than the main renderer. As a result, when you unload on a tree, it appears somewhat choppy. In comparison, the PC original and even the last-gen console versions of the game updates these interactions at full frame-rate. However, while we’re on the subject of foliage, it’s good to see that density in this respect is far closer to the original PC game than the rather sparse last-gen console releases: there’s more grass, trees and bushes used throughout, just as you’d hope.

As for shadow rendering, the fidelity of shadow maps is reduced compared to the PC original with higher settings, as you’d expect, but CryEngine’s method for shadow filtering saves the day here and even distant cascades are clean and devoid of artefacting. I still love the use of small bokeh shapes resulting from the filtering techniques used – this is a brilliant approach to handling lower resolution shadow maps as it lends these shadows a natural softness that is pleasing to the eye. Flashlight shadows are in the game as well but similar to PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, they are absent from the first stage for some reason. I do appreciate how, when using two flashlights, each beam projects shadows from the environment. I’ve already mentioned that parallax occlusion mapping is also removed on Switch – Crytek tells us that this requires too much power for mobile mode but may return at some point in a future patch, but only for docked play.

Beyond that, another key change lies in water rendering – Crysis Remastered makes the jump to the DX11-class water simulation featured in newer versions of CryEngine and the water surface itself is more visually pleasing as a result. Remarkably, computationally expensive planar reflections are still in use in for world reflections as well. However, the rendering of underwater areas has taken a noticeable hit compared to the original PC version. Basically, the rocks and plants featured beneath the ocean are completely absent, often leaving you with an empty sandy expanse instead, while the water caustic layer also has exhibits a visible cut-off line that you can see while swimming. You won’t necessarily spend a lot of time underwater in Crysis so it’s not a huge loss but it is curious to see.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Crysis Remastered is that of all the impossible ports we’ve seen so far on Nintendo Switch, there’s less of a sense that we’re having to work with a vast array of technological cutbacks. Of course, part of this is down to the fact that fundamentally, the base game is 13 years old now, while the conversion is based on nine-year-old PS3/Xbox 360 code. But the point is that the remaster has been improved with modern, cutting-edge rendering techniques including temporal upscaling and dynamic resolution – and actual real-time global illumination. Aside from the resolution drop, the only difference between mobile and docked play is shadow map quality – and even then, the drop in fidelity in handheld mode is not much of an issue.

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The only other way to play Crysis on consoles at a reasonable frame-rate is via Xbox One/One X back-compat – but you don’t get the Switch version’s various improvements, obviously.

All of which bring us to the final, crucial aspect of the analysis: performance. Crysis is exceptionally heavy on the CPU – it always has been. Thankfully, the developers did have access to the last-gen console ports, which moved a game that operated mostly on a single core to leverage six available hardware threads (or SPUs in the case of PS3). Regardless, this still required extensive optimisation on Switch to deliver the same workloads using just three CPU cores. Occlusion culling – basically removing objects that you don’t see from being rendered in the first place – was a CPU task on last-gen consoles, but on Switch it’s moved to the GPU. Other tasks were sped-up simply by virtue of the fact that Switch has around 3.5GB of usable memory up against the mere 512MB of the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Even so, hitting CPU limits does impact performance – especially when engaging multiple enemy Ais while putting the physics system through its paces. Unsurprisingly, this is mostly evident in areas where the game was always heavy on the CPU, such as the village in the second mission, for example. Expect frame-rates in the low 20s when this happens, and sometimes even lower in Crysis’ most packed combat scenes. With that said, the use of motion blur and triple buffering does mitigate some of the impact, but I would hope to see improvements here. In mission four, I actually noted that the game could freeze for a moment – Crytek says that this is a bug unrelated to CPU performance and will be fixed in the next patch.

Outside of the heaviest combat scenarios though, Crysis actually runs rather well. Even with its enhanced feature set and real-time global illumination system, it still manages to outperform the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game. Much of the action plays out at 30 frames per second, and again, performance overall is much the same whether you’re playing docked or in handheld mode. Crysis Remastered is CPU-limited in most scenarios and the Switch’s ARM cores run at the same clocks whether you’re playing docked or in mobile mode. However, even when running in optimal conditions, there is a problem: the frame-rate cap is actually 31fps, not 30fps. It may sound like a matter of little importance, but the whole reason 30fps is a developer choice at all is that new frames are synchronised with every other screen refresh – so it still looks smooth and consistent.

As things stand, an extra frame is added every 12th frame and even if the frame-rate is notionally higher, this adds unwelcome stutter. This seems to be an artefact of the last-gen versions of Crysis which mostly went unnoticed as performance was generally so poor – we only noticed it running under back-compat emulation on Xbox One where many of the bottlenecks are removed. However, it’s a little disappointing that the same scenario is there on Switch. CryEngine titles like Homefront The Revolution and Crytek’s own Hunt: Showdown deliver 30fps on console the way it should be – and Crytek tells us that they’re looking into the issue here. Overall, performance isa mixed bag: it isn’t exceptional but it’s perfectly playable by Crysis standards and a far sight better than any other console release of any Crysis game and even at its worst, it’s still generally on par with other examples of Switch’s ‘impossible ports’.

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While we’re on the subject of CryEngine, why not check out Hunt Showdown – it’s wonderful on PC and the console ports are also terrific.

Beyond the visuals, Crysis Remastered also leans into Switch exclusive features. The game offers full support for gyro aiming, allowing you to more easily dial in your shots. The game controls surprisingly well in general, honestly. Crysis is an experience designed around the mouse and keyboard but the introduction of gyro aiming combined with snap targeting helps alleviate these issues. As expected, the game retains the same basic interface as the original console release as well. Suit powers are mapped to shoulder buttons – you can toggle between armour and stealth mode – while speed mode and strength mode are mapped to longer presses of the sticks. You jump higher via strength mode by holding down A, just as you did in the last-gen Crysis games. One thing that seemed a little odd to me is that walking speed seems a touch slow, while speed mode drains suit power and essentially rushes you into the next encounter. It doesn’t feel quite right.

So at this point, we have a clear picture of what Crysis Remastered actually is on Switch. It’s undoubtedly the best console port of the game released to date – until its Xbox One and PS4 siblings arrive, at least. Stacked up against Xbox 360 and PS3, it has the best image quality, vastly improved overall performance and the most impressive visuals. Yes, it’s still missing features from the PC original and dropping parallax occlusion mapping is a shame but even considering Crysis’ vintage, the basic concept of a Switch port of the game still seems insane, even before we factor in the new CryEngine features added here. Put simply, the porting team did a great job – but fundamentally, so did the original developers. Since the release of the original game, many folks have suggested that Crysis is nothing more than eye candy but I feel differently. Even today, this is a brilliant action game.

First and foremost, Crytek nailed the concept of scope. Crysis features massive maps to explore but it is not an open world game and this is fundamental. It’s an example of wide-linear design – the beginning and end are fixed but the path to victory is open-ended. This is coupled with the special features of the nanosuit, allowing for a lot of flexibility in how you approach each skirmish. It’s stealth and action but it’s also everything in between – and it works. The stealth and the shooting still feel great but by adding in the physics, destruction and a wealth of vehicles and items, the player’s toolbox is expanded, allowing for a lot of creativity along the way. It feels satisfying to try out an idea and have it all work out thanks to the systemic nature of the core game design.

Despite its more linear design, Crysis puts each of its maps to better use than any open world game I’ve played to date. When traversing the environments in Far Cry, most areas are ultimately just window dressing – they don’t factor into your strategy and have little impact on the game. This is not the case with Crysis and it’s fundamentally what makes it so special. Honestly, this is just scratching the surface but the point is this – Crysis itself remains a classic experience even to this day and even with the limitations of the Switch, it’s absolutely worth checking out.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/yes-a-handheld-really-can-run-crysis-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=yes-a-handheld-really-can-run-crysis-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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miamibeerscene · 7 years

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The Great Debate: Aging Beer Vertically or Horizontally

Credit: ThreeIfByBike/Flickr/Creative Commons

April 24, 2017

Few actions elicit a more impassioned retort in the upper echelons of craft beer geekdom than cellaring beer bottles horizontally on their sides.

Why? I have no idea. If I were to post a picture of the most amazing selection of whales you could dream up, expertly tended to in a temperature, humidity and light controlled cellar; exquisitely cataloged to the Dewey-decimal point (somehow) on their side with a caption reading “FREE,” what would be the first comment on the article? I would bet you a beer that the comment would admonish the orientation of the bottles and proclaim that the beers pictured would be wrought with flavors deemed unacceptable for an aged beer.

CraftBeer.com Facebook page.

I don’t buy it.

Are you placing your special beers for aging in peril by storing them horizontally? I’d like to go out on a limb and say it does not. Admittedly, I do not have empirical data to back this up, but that is due in part to the lack of any study that I, or any of my colleagues, could identify.

(MORE: 5 Beer Stats You Should Know)

Perhaps this is the reason the subject is so hotly debated. The belief that a beer can’t age successfully on its side comes from bits and pieces of beer folklore that have spread as craft beer dogmas. It is these commonly held beer beliefs that serve to bolster a snob mentality, which undermines the freedom we have to enjoy beer how we choose and discourages well-intentioned, uninitiated beer drinkers from starting their own beer journey.

Given that I cannot furnish empirically supported evidence that bottle orientation results in the success or failure of aging beer, I can only offer you a more practical understanding of the practice. While this is not the only dogma in craft beer, taking the time to think through the problem might encourage all beer drinkers, especially in this era of fake news and self-identified “experts,” to question even the most widely held ideas in craft beer.

Origins of Orientation

Once upon a time, there was a practical reason for laying bottles down. Prior to the crown bottle cap, a cork stopper had a tendency to dry out and crumble. It was, therefore, common to try to keep the cork stopper in contact with the enclosed liquid so the cork might avoid shrinking. This is why wine, even to this day, is stored on racks horizontally. (Side note: I wonder why cork dorks don’t get all up in arms about how wine bottles are stored? Probably because they’re more embarrassed they spent so much on that god-awful wine bottle tree at Crate & Barrel – but I digress).

(MORE: 10 Craft Beer Festivals in 2017)

Still, my light-hearted ribbing of oenophiles’ obsession with wine-themed knickknacks might explain the strong push by beer enthusiasts who have railed against the wine-ification of craft beer. I, for one, am glad that we need little more than a glass and a key chain bottle opener to enjoy craft beer, rather than all of the baubles that inhabit the housewares aisles at big box stores.

Seals and Whales

A technological advancement to corks was the crown seal, invented in 1892 by Crown Seal Company. This is the bottle cap that sits atop the vast majority of beer bottles throughout the world. The cap is lined with a plastic seal to act as a gasket between the metal crown and the lip of the glass bottle. Today, some caps even have seals that act as oxygen scavengers to absorb oxygen molecules that reside in the headspace in addition to providing a strong seal.

This could make a case that bottles should not be laid horizontally, due to inhibiting the seal’s effectiveness. However, there is also a concern about seals drying out, like corks, and allowing oxygen to leak in and carbonation to escape. This is particularly true when crowns are pushed to their limit from extended aging of rare beers.

Conditioned Conditioning

The explosion in interest of home cellaring is a salient example of craft beer fans failing to appreciate fully the purpose and processes involved when aging beer. Articles on the subject have conditioned hobbyists to believe that if you have an amazing beer, you should hide it for some time, then the beer will be better than when you first had it. Basically, the longer you wait on the beer, the better it will be. Not quite.

What we fail to appreciate is that brewers release their beers when they are ready to be consumed. True, there are exceptions to every rule, but the payoff extolled of aging beers is indeed exaggerated. Collectors need to be far more selective of the beer they choose to cellar than one might believe, and it isn’t enough to simply follow the guidelines of the types of beers that can be aged, but to understand the potential outcomes of the aging process.

(MORE: 7 Tips to Host a Bottle Share Like a Pro)

Getting Heady About Headspace

One granular point of cellaring beer that has been explained is oxygen’s effect on beer in a bottle — and with good reason. Oxygen resides in the headspace of beer bottles and works to oxidize the beer.

This is the crux of the comment highlighted above. The idea being that if a beer is aged on its side, more of the beer will be exposed to the oxygen resulting in a very specific, expectable result — flavors of sherry and cardboard.

The problem with this thinking, I believe, is threefold: First, it is the beer itself that yields these flavors, not the bottle orientation. In the case of the commenter’s assertion that, “those bottles are all going to be … cardboard bombs from laying them down, I offer the one bit of actual science that can be backed up from Melissa Antone of Cara Technology Limited, makers of Aroxa Flavor Kits. She tells me, “We refer to this compound as ‘papery,’ and the compound is Trans-2-Nonenal (T2N). T2N is released over time and at warmer temperatures. Oxygen in package really isn’t a factor when it comes to this papery flavor, much to many peoples’ surprise!”

Thus, the orientation of the packaging has zero effect on whether the cardboard flavor, known as Trans-2-Nonenal (T2N) occurs in beer.

The second is that if you are being selective about cellaring the right beers, these horizontally cellared beers would often have live yeast as a secondary bottle conditioning. It is the viable yeast in the bottle that act as oxygen scavengers as they work to consume the priming sugar. This will result in the creation of carbon dioxide. CO2 is heavier than oxygen, which means it would act as a blanket barrier between the beer and the oxygen.

(MORE: Estimated Blood Alcohol Content Calculator)

Finally, if one believes that a horizontally oriented bottle poses a detrimental effect on aging beer, wouldn’t the compaction of the yeast into the smaller area in the bottom of a vertical bottle and focused pressure of the liquid on top of the yeast have negative effects on viable yeast, too?

“The beer will age more on its side due to surface area and the decrease in downward pressure on the organisms,” Crooked Stave Founder Chad Yakobson tells CraftBeer.com. “I’m not fussed about storing on their side versus up and down.”

Crooked Stave recently invested in bottle conditioning. The beer will be conditioned on their side in a “custom bottle conditioning cellar like something out of a champagne house or like you see at Cantillon,” Yakobson explains.

Big Picture

I age beers both horizontally and vertically. “Why?” you ask. Mainly due to space constraints, and also because it doesn’t matter. Some beer bottles can fit in a small refrigerator horizontally, which gives me the luxury of keeping these beers at a set temperature. The others line the wall of my crawl space. I have never noticed any substantial difference between beers aged at different orientations.

I try to see the big picture of aging and want you to realize that other variables are far more important to control than orientation, which includes light, temperature and agitation. Think of all the beer fans that trade beers across the country. There is a reason why that hazy IPA that was sent to you in Arizona from Vermont did not wow you; it bounced around in a box for a couple thousand miles. The point is, you can only attempt to get a positive outcome from controlling these variables, but it would be foolish to think that we have any control whatsoever on what’s in the bottle; a beer’s potential has already been decided by the brewer.

Craft beer fans are a passionate bunch. And that passion has helped to drive the popularity of craft beer worldwide. But as advanced of a beer culture we are, there will always be more to learn. It is that lack of complete understanding, combined with the passion and exuberance for beer from small and independent brewers which can present pitfalls to introducing craft beer to the uninitiated. The vast information available online can cause some beer drinkers to accept what others have said without proper critique. In turn, this creates built-in blind spots and knee-jerk confidence resulting in sometimes forgetting to ask questions or apathetic acceptance of myths or commonly held beliefs. Challenging widely held beliefs is healthy in general, but particularly so in today’s craft beer.

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Andy Sparhawk

Andy Sparhawk, the Brewers Association’s craft beer web manager, is a Certified Cicerone® and BJCP Beer Judge. He lives in Arvada, Colorado where he is a homebrewer and avid craft beer enthusiast. On occasion, Andy is inspired to write on his experiences with craft beer, and if they are not too ridiculous, you might see the results here on CraftBeer.com. Read more by this author

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