Imported Entries

One of the most anticipated product releases of our time is today.

No, not the half-bloody Harry Potter book.

Robo-rally is out. And my copy is sitting at Rainy Day, waiting to be picked up.

The Economist has just published a Survey of American social division and moblility. It raises some very interesting issues.

This made an interesting read after watching Vanity Fair last night (an interesting film, in that all the characters are flawed, and there is no real hero). Both the survey and the film deal with class mobility and stratification.

This is an issue that I find rather important. I've run into relatively few socio-economic barriers in my life, and I'm quite a bit better off than my parents. I would like to continue living in a place where this sort of thing is possible.

I picked up a bottle of the Muscat that I liked so much from the Winter's Hill tasting a couple weeks ago. Bedrick and Grizelda helped me with the bottle.

This wine is so pale that a tasting portion almost looks like water. A full glass has a faint yellow color.

Muscat is a very floral grape. This wine is no exception. If you close your eyes while smelling this wine, you can almost forget you're holding stemware and not a flower stem. There is a distinct scent of white peach and honey in there as well.

The taste is white peach and a little pineapple, with some pear and apricot. I also detected a bit of butter and vanilla, which was unexpected since this wine is entirely unoaked. The wine has a very pleasant hint of sweetness that balances nicely.

There are many foods I'd gladly pair with this wine. Grizelda suggested a cold pasta salad, which I can't argue with. Really, I think any sort of relatively light fare would be great. I think it might go well with Thai, too.

The bottle was $12, and well worth it.

The Economist has an opinion piece dealing with the recent SCOTUS ruling regarding P2P file sharing software. It appears that the author feels exactly the same way I do about the matter.

My favorite paragraph is at the end:

This makes no sense. Copyright was originally intended to encourage publication by granting publishers a temporary monopoly on works so they could earn a return on their investment. But the internet and new digital technologies have made the publication and distribution of works much easier and cheaper. Publishers should therefore need fewer, not more, property rights to protect their investment. Technology has tipped the balance in favour of the public domain.

Big Media is too powerful. Their power is derived from their deep pockets, and their living room penetration. Their power gives them undue influence over the governance of this nation. One way to curb this undue influenced would be to reduce their monopolistic powers. This won't happen easily, as they will fight this at every turn. But if we are still a nation ruled by the people, for the people, then the I suspect that the term of copyright will see some drastic reductions in the next decade.

If, on the other hand, we are governed by sock puppets for campaign contributors, then we're all screwed and IP rights are the least of our problems.

I don't drink many mixed drinks, and I have done two and one quarter shots in my life (not at the same time). I find most mixed drinks to be either too froofy (crushed ice and lots of sugar, but I'd rather have Jamba Juice), and straight distilled liquors are not particularly pleasant (tell me why people drink fermented cactus juice again?). Exceptions to the mixed drink aversion include White Russians and Screwdrivers, which are both vodka-based.

So this post amuses me. BasicJuice is a (mostly) wine blog; the writer decided to apply his methods to a blind tasting of Vodka. His conclusion was to stick with the cheap stuff.

Imported Entries

07/15/05

03:46:54 pm It's Here!

07/14/05

01:49:15 pm Blender or Centrifuge?

07/06/05

10:46:33 am Wine Blogging Wednesday #11 - Winter's Hill Early Muscat 2004

07/05/05

11:12:50 am Preach It

07/01/05

04:44:33 pm A Vodka Tasting