ABC News:

Beer aficionados are pouncing at the rare opportunity to buy one of the world’s most elusive and revered beers for the first — and perhaps only — time in the United States.

It is called Westvleteren XII, and it is often hailed as the “world’s best beer” by reviewers and fans.

Westvleteren XII is produced by Trappist monks in Belgium and sold at the abbey of Saint Sixtus in the Belgian countryside.

First person to compare this to Heineken gets punched in the junk.

Poynter has highlighted some of the year’s most egregious media failures.

Eric Schmidt is talking out of his Schmidthole again.

Movie kiosk rental service Redbox is getting into the streaming video market with a new offering.

Microsoft said it’s expanding production of the Surface tablet and moving up general retail availability.

We’ve all seen the famous “Earth at Night” composite image showing our planet at night and how much light there still is, sometimes in unexpected places.

Now Google has a new global view of Earth’s city lights that is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite.

With this version of the image, you can even zoom in to get a better (if not necessarily higher resolution ) and closer view.

BuzzFeed’s smear piece on Matthew Inman, creator of the popular webcomic The Oatmeal, backfired. The site is apologizing, but isn’t even doing that right.

Jón Gnarr, the mayor of Reykjavík, Iceland, has posted an Ask Me Anything thread on Reddit, which has generated tons of questions.

NPR:

It may have something to do with all those Brontosaurus burgers everyone’s favorite modern stone-age family ate, but when you think of a giant dinosaur with a tiny head and long, swooping tail, the Brontosaurus is probably what you’re seeing in your mind.

Well hold on: Scientifically speaking, there’s no such thing as a Brontosaurus.

Why can’t these damn scientists leave our childhoods alone!? Columbus didn’t discover America, Pluto isn’t a planet and now this!

The Verge:

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels are a cornerstone of science fiction, but getting into a vast series about, among other things, mathematically predicting the rise and fall of entire civilizations isn’t always easy. In 1973, however, the BBC adapted Foundation into a serial radio drama, capturing the original trilogy in eight hour-long episodes. These are available on the Internet Archive, which means that you can listen to them online or download them in all their slightly scratchy glory.

I first read The Foundation Trilogy as a young teenager and loved them. I come back to re-read them about every decade. I’ve been thinking it’s about time to read them again but maybe I’ll just let the folks at the BBC entertain me this time.

Esquire:

Ever wonder what whiskey-industry insiders are drinking around the holidays? Us, too. Eat Like a Man’s 12 Days of Whiskey asks the craft’s most respected master distillers what bottles are on their holiday wish lists.

One of the great parts of the turning of summer into Fall/Winter is indulging in delicious and warming bourbons and whiskeys. They always seem perfect on a chill evening. In honor of the anniversary of the repeal of the 18th Amendment earlier this week, enjoy the “The 12 Days of Whiskey”.

An analysis of broadband availability in the US reveals that two factors are keeping the cost of broadband high: scarcity of competition and increased consumer dependence.

Writing on Horace Dediu’s Asymco blog, James Allworth sketches out how Apple is victim of its own success by relying so much on Samsung for parts.

Foxconn said it plans to expand U.S. manufacturing operations.

Tap! Magazine editor Chris Phin is taking a crack at a podcast of his own with Scotch, in which he talks about (and drinks) whiskey. Or whisky, depending on the day.