September 07, 2016 at 11:53PM

Two Days Ago I Learned: 1) Paddlefish. Go Google Image search them. Now, some basic background. Paddlefish are considered something of a "living fossil" -- they've been around for a very long time (late Cretaceous) with very few morphological changes, and they're still around, though struggling a bit. Up until recently, there were two known species, the American Paddlefish and the Chinese Paddlefish. The Chinese species hasn't been seen in the wild for over a decade, and is thought to be extinct. The American Paddlefish is "Vulnerable" -- it's not endangered yet, but it's likely to become endangered soon. I don't know much about why Paddlefish have been doing so poorly lately, but I'd guess it has a lot to do with their size and slow reproductive cycle. They're BIG FISH, which makes them really fun targets for fishermen, and they only bear young every couple of years, not starting until they're something like seven years old. It's pretty sad that we're killing off a family that's been around since the dinosaurs. 2) In a double-blind, randomized taste test of seven different vegan milk alternatives by two people, Trader Joes' original rice milk was the clear winner, oat was clearly the worst, and walnut chocolate milk was really quite good. 3) Meads and beers can be back-sweetened (that is, additional sweetness added after fermentation) with sugar or honey, but you have to add something to stop yeast growth first or it will start to ferment again. Potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite are good yeast-inhibitors for this purpose. Credit to Travis Blount-Elliott, who as far as I can tell is a meading wizard.