X-Radiation

This 1978 Ardbeg is even better. Casked before the shuttering of the original distillery which was subsequently bought and reopened by Glenmorangie. There is actually a very clear taste line between the Still Young Ardbeg and this 1978 expression, though the 1978 has much more iodine than the younger whisky. What a great night of tastes. Thanks Michael and Tim!

Heaven in a bottle!

At my friend Michael’s house for an Ardbeg tasting! Michael’s fiend Tim brought over a vertical set of Very Young, Still Young, Almost There, We’ve Arrived! and Renaissance bottlings of Ardbeg. All were delicious however I really enjoyed the fire of the Very Young and Still Young bottles. The Almost There and We’ve Arrived fell a little flat for me, lacking some the the interesting qualities of the younger expressions. The Renaissance was smooth, refined and delicious.

There’s a new category here called “Quacks” for coverage of medical quackery on my blog. Most quack products include the following caveat on their literature: “These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. The products and/or technologies listed are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, mitigate, or prevent any disease.”

I went to the Bioneers conference over the weekend and while there is much positive and educated thinking about the environment going on, I constantly find myself drawn to the oddball hucksters trying to sucker the public with absurd claims about vague toxins in your body that can be sucked out through a foot bath, plotting your career trajectory based on fingerprints or scare tactics about your ten year old getting brain cancer from electromagnetic pollution if you don’t buy their doohickey. Case in point: Biopro Technologies who I won’t dignify with a link however I will point you to a few sites that have already debunked their bunko:

Biopro Scam Blogspot

Quackometer

Dan’s Data

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Who knew that the feet are the windows to the toxins of the soul. WTF are these toxins anyway? Maybe John McCain knows but he’s not telling. The claim is that these ionic foot baths suck the “toxins” out through your foot and the proof is that the water turns various shades of yellow and brown. In truth, the water would change color even without your feet due to oxidation of the salts and minerals in the water caused the electrolytic properties of the probe they place in the water.  You can read about it in more detail here. 

Econaughts getting their feet cleansed of toxins at the Bioneers conference

This past weekend I went wine tasting in Napa Valley. Click on the map to see the route we took. We visited Summers, Reverie, Von Strasser, Frank Family, Heitz Cellars and Sullivan.

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The Blue Angels over San Francisco as seen from Alcatraz.

The 1980 show from Sid and Marty Krofft defies explanation.

Well, actually, there is a pretty good explanation on Wikipedia.

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Some quotes from John McCain during last night’s presidential debate make me wonder just why he’s holding out on us if he really truly knows how to both fix the economy and catch Osama bin Laden. If he’s such a great American shouldn’t he share his plan with us regardless of his status as a presidential candidate? Oh, wait. He doesn’t want to telegraph anything…

When was the last time anyone used a telegraph !?! McCain is probably old enough to have used one. (yea, I know it’s a figure of speech but still…)

From the debate transcript:
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McCain:

re: Economic Plan:
Is it expensive? Yes. But we all know, my friends, until we stabilize home values in America, we’re never going to start turning around and creating jobs and fixing our economy. And we’ve got to give some trust and confidence back to America. I know how the do that, my friends. And it’s my proposal, it’s not Sen. Obama’s proposal, it’s not President Bush’s proposal. But I know how to get America working again, restore our economy and take care of working Americans. Thank you.

re: Osama Bin Laden:
I’ll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I’ll get him. I know how to get him. I’ll get him no matter what and I know how to do it. But I’m not going to telegraph my punches, which is what Sen. Obama did. And I’m going to act responsibly, as I have acted responsibly throughout my military career and throughout my career in the United States Senate.

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In his town hall speech in Albuquerque, New Mexico, McCain claimed that he knows “how to win wars” which is absurd. The only war time experience McCain has is from his service during the VIet Nam War. America lost in Viet Nam and McCain’s experience amounts to crashing  five planes, getting captured and spending five years in a POW camp. As to whether or not McCain has acted responsibly during his military and senatorial career, I think that’s up for debate. Just ask the dead sailors burned in the U.S.S. Forestal fire in 1967 or the folks that lost their savings during the Lincoln Savings and Loan debacle.