[2023-01-07] Saturday Synopsis #25: Guys' Edition

Recently, I received feedback from a Jenesis reader that he was bored of my Saturday Synopsis categories. He didn't care for the recipes or the songs or the quotes. And although he didn't have many alternate categories to suggest, he did inspire me to pick a few that might appeal to him and other readers of the male persuasion.

So this week, I offer the Guys' Edition of Saturday Synopsis.

The History of Beer
Beer seemed like a good place to start a guy's edition of the synopsis. I read many articles about beer, including How Beer Gave Us Civilization and Ale's Well with the World, but I liked History's succinct explanation of the origins of beer best. In Who Invented Beer? Evan Andrews states that "the world’s first fermented beverages likely emerged alongside the development of grain agriculture some 12,000 years ago." He explains:

As hunter-gatherer tribes settled into agrarian civilizations based around staple crops like wheat, rice, barley and maize, they may have also stumbled upon the fermentation process and started brewing beer....

The earliest known alcoholic beverage may have been brewed around 7000 BCE in China in the village of Jiahu, where neolithic pottery shows evidence of a mead-type concoction made from rice, honey and fruit.

The first barley beer was most likely born in the Middle East, where hard evidence of beer production dates back about 5,000 years to the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia. Not only have archeologists unearthed ceramic vessels from 3400 B.C. still sticky with beer residue, but the "Hymn to Ninkasi"—an 1800 B.C. ode to the Sumerian goddess of beer—describes a recipe for a beloved ancient brew made by female priestesses.

These nutrient-rich suds were a cornerstone of the Sumerian diet and were likely a safer alternative to drinking water from nearby rivers and canals, which were often contaminated by animal waste.

According to Beer Canada's A Brief History of Beer in Canada, beer making in Canada dates back to 1646, when Jesuit Brother Ambroise became the first recorded brewer. In 1688, Intendant Jean Talon founded the first commercial brewery in Québec City.

Some of Canada's most established breweries today have been in operation for centuries. The article provides this timeline:

By 1786, John Molson established his first brewery in Montréal, which is today the oldest brewery in North America. Alexander Keith & Son founded their brewery in Nova Scotia in 1829. John H. Sleeman established his first brewery in St. David's, Ontario in 1836. Thomas Carling opened the doors to his new Brewing & Malting Company in London in 1840. The Labatt name entered the scene in London, in 1847 and in 1867 the stage was set for both the Oland and Moosehead breweries by the Oland family.

For a little retro humour, Molson's I Am Canadian ad, released in 2000, is worth another view.

Tools and Technologies
It seemed fitting to take a look at tools and technologies that changed society and the course of human history. Britannica has a fascinating timeline of tools and technologies. Here are few of the more interesting ones from its list:
  • 3.3 million years ago - Evidence of the first tools includes sharp flakes of stone that were used as knives and larger stones that were used as hammers and anvils.
  • 20,000 to 50,000 years ago - During the Neolithic Revolution, humans moved from hunting and gathering to agriculture. They came together in groups, using clay for pottery and bricks, weaving fabrics for clothing, and inventing the wheel.
  • 4000 BCE - Sailing ships were used on the Nile River.
  • 1200 BCE - The production of iron became widespread, giving more people access to metal tools, replacing bronze (made of copper and tin, which were less abundant than iron).
  • 950 - The first windmills were established in Persia as well as in Europe.
  • 1044 - The first mention of a magnetic compass comes from a Chinese book finished in 1044.
  • 1455 - Johannes Gutenberg created the first printing press using movable type, which enabled an information explosion in Europe.
  • 1765 - James Watt improved on an earlier invention to create the first steam engine with a separate cylinder that turned steam back into liquid water; this made the engine more efficient and helped to spawn the Industrial Revolution.
  • 1804 - Richard Trevithick improved Watt's steam engine further and used it in the first railway locomotive.
  • 1807 - Robert Fulton put the steam engine on water, creating a steamboat that could make a trip in 32 hours that had previously taken 4 days by sailing ship.
  • 1831 - Cyrus McCormick invented the mechanical reaper, which would lead to later versions that greatly reduced the labour required to harvest crops.
  • 1844 - Samuel Morse patented a prototype of the telegraph in 1837 and sent the first message over the first long-distance telegraph line in 1844.
  • 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call in 1876.
  • 1876 - The same year, Nikolaus Otto built the first internal combustion engine, a precursor to engines that would later power automobiles.
  • 1885 - Karl Benz improved on Otto's design, creating a smaller, more efficient engine to power the first automobile, a three-wheeled car.
  • 1901 - Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the Morse Code letter S across the Atlantic from Cornwall to Newfoundland, the longest radio transmission to date.
  • 1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first flight of an airplane in 1903.
  • 1927 - Philo T. Farnsworth made the first electronic television transmission in 1927.
  • 1937 - John Atanasoff designed the first electronic digital computer.
If you'd like to review a few creations by women, USA Today published 50 inventions created by women, including Hedy Lamarr's invention of wireless transmission technology: "During World War II, Lamarr, who also happened to be a movie star, created a frequency-hopping communication system that could guide torpedos without being detected. Her groundbreaking work paved the way for the modern invention of WiFi, GPS, and bluetooth."

Sports Heroes
Rounding out my trio of topics is sports heroes. As I did for my piece on beer, I read several articles on the subject, settling on two icons of sport and humanity.

The first is Terry Fox, one of the greatest athletes of our time. The Bleacher Report includes Fox in its 10 Sports Heroes That Are Actually Heroes, saying that "He is considered a national hero in Canada, and he should be considered a hero in the sports world at large." And as I have written before about Fox, "That he ran a marathon (26 miles or 42 kilometres) every day for 143 days to raise money for cancer research is awe-inspiring. That he did so on a prosthetic leg is unbelievable. That he did so through pain and knowing that his cancer would return is the highest act of selflessness."

The second sports hero I would mention is Jackie Robinson. PennLive's article Muhammad Ali and the 25 greatest figures in American sports history puts Robinson at number 3 on its list.

When Major League Baseball retired his number 42 across all franchises in 1997, it represented the only time any professional sport league has so honored a player. His 10-year career included 6 All-Star teams and a 1949 most valuable player award. But his social impact on America is incalculable as the first black player allowed to compete in the major leagues of what was then (1947) the country’s most popular sport. The sort of exciting player he was, the steals of home, the extra bases, eventually made him a fan favorite in Brooklyn. What Robinson endured, what he accomplished and what he forged for future generations must lift him near the top of this list.

Bonus
I'm not sure whether my commenter likes Dad Jokes, but I thought I'd include one as a bonus:

I got carded at a liquor store, and my Blockbuster card accidentally fell out of my wallet. The cashier said "Never mind."

If you have suggestions for themes or categories for future editions of the Saturday Synopsis, feel free to pass them along.