text:
When: Monday, November 12, 2012, 7:00 PM local time (9:00 EST)
Where: US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ
Watch/Listen: TV: FSAZ, Radio: 620 KTAR
Last Meeting:
Preseason - Suns defeated Nuggets 88-72 @ US Airways Center on October 26, 2012
Team Bios:
Denver Nuggets 4-3
Points per game: 99.0 (8th) Points allowed: 96.3 (17th)
The major acquisition for the Nuggets this offseason was Andre Iguodala who enters the game averaging 15.1 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game, but has struggled to find his touch from the field (42.0%). Look for him to try to get healthy against a Suns team that is mired near the bottom of the league in several defensive categories.
The remainder of the Nuggets squad is the usual suspects from last season, and by usual I mean the guys that have beaten the Suns brains in to the tune of six straight regular season wins by an average margin of victory of 15 points while scoring 120 points per game. Those guys.
The Nuggets have won four straight games after a start of 0-3. Their last two wins, on a B2B Friday and Saturday like the Suns just navigated, were by 20 at home against the Utah Jazz (104-84) and in overtime on the road against the Golden St. Warriors (107-101), both teams that have beaten the Suns in the early season.
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Phoenix Suns 3-4
Points per game: 96.4 (15th) Points allowed: (103.4 (28th)
The Suns just split a B2B which saw them overcome a historic 26 point deficit to win at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers (107-105) on Friday night just to be summarily pounded on the road by the Utah Jazz (94-81). The whole season to date has taken on this feast or famine dynamic with the Suns yo-yoing between impressive runs and humiliating, demoralizing sprees. There has been little middle ground for these Jekyll and Hyde Suns.
Among the things that have been consistent, excluding the last game, is the play of Marcin Gortat. He is currently tied for 5th in the league in rebounds and 1st (numero uno) in blocked shots. Goran Dragic and Luis Scola have also been routinely solid, if not spectacular, but the rest of the roster has been shaky at best. Shannon Brown has provided intermittent firestorms and others have shown glimpses through their sporadic play, but for the most part it has been fairly parallel to the Suns' current record... subpar.
Expect Gortat to bounce back from the
recurring debacle in Salt Lake City ready to take out his frustrations on the Nuggets. Expect a more ebullient effort after a B2B travel game on the tail end of a hard fought, emotional victory. Expect a fast-paced game with profuse points. Expect free tacos. Just don't expect an easy victory. Not from these Suns. There may be a paucity of those this season, at least until they figure things out (assuming they will).
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.sports-reference.com/wg.fcgi?css=1&site=bbr&url=%2Fteams%2FPHO%2F2013.html&div=div_per_game&del_col=1,3,7,8,10,11,13,14,16,17"></script>
What to watch for:
Goran Dragic vs Ty Lawson - Dragic needs to
win dominate this matchup. Across the board there aren't a whole lot of positional battles where the Suns get an obvious nod, so they need to make their hay where they can. Lawson had two 20+point/10+ assist games in the last four against the Suns, but now faces a more tenacious defender. Speaking of 20/10 games, this would be a felicitous time for Goran's first of the season.
Rebounds - The Nuggets are 1st in the league in total rebounds (52.1) and 2nd in rebounding differential (+9.0). The Suns are.... the Suns. Keeping this close would eliminate one of those areas we might point to after a loss saying, "Well, you just can't win getting dominated on the glass."
Pace - This should be a high scoring game. Hopefully it's not just one team. And hopefully if it is just one team... it's the Suns. My trepidation with respect to a frenetic, free-wheeling style is that the Suns have seemed incapable of stopping the bleeding at times which could get ugly against the Nuggets if they get going on all cylinders.
Shooting - While neither team has shot the ball particularly well, Nuggets .426 and Suns .423, the Nuggets have defended much better against their opponents. The Nuggets are 5th in the league with a .417 fg % against while the Suns boast a more munificent mark of .461 (23rd). In a game that promises to have more possessions than most, the importance of winning this battle is significant. Plus, the Suns need to get off the schnide here pretty soon, because they aren't going to win a ton of games this season if they keep up these ineffectual shooting numbers.
Bench - Shannon Brown has played well at times. That is all.
Power Outage - The Suns are 22nd in the league in three point shooting (.303) while giving up a laughable .435 clip (29th). The Nuggets come in 29th in the league in three point shooting at .286. Something has to give... and these teams should both be ashamed of themselves. For additional reading on the Suns' shooting woes check out my write up on the Power Outage.
Before the season I thought I would be able to gauge the pulse of the season using Beasley and Morris as a bellwether. So far those two have been mostly fetid garbage and while the Suns' record is 3-4, the three wins have come against teams with a combined record of 4-15. The training staff might want to check Beasley and Morris to see if they still have a pulse before tonight's game because the Suns will need something from these two in the next stretch of games that also includes Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami.
It's not getting any easier. Time to protect home court. The Suns can do this, right?


text:
Editor's note: Do you need something to smile about? Every day, WND selects the best joke offered up by readers and contributors to its Laughlines forum and brings it to you as the WND Joke of the Day. Here is today's offering:
Here's how to start each day with a positive outlook:
1. Open a new file on your computer.
2. Name it "Barack Obama."
3. Send it to the Recycle Bin.
4. Click "Empty the Recycle Bin."
5. Your PC will ask you: "Do you really want to get rid of 'Barack Obama'?"
6. Firmly click "Yes"
There – Don't you feel better now?
GOOD! Tomorrow we'll do Hillary Clinton!
Got a great joke you want to share with the world? Write it up in the WND
Laughlines forum. Who knows? It might be selected as the WND Joke of
the Day – and your wildest dreams will come true.
The post Positive thinking appeared first on WND.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Vlad blogged about his work on Mac performance and how in the process he (re)discovered Webkit's back door to undocumented Apple framework APIs. This sucks.
Disassembly shows these WK functions are mostly just wrappers around undocumented framework functions. The source to the WK wrappers is not available; the implementations are in a binary blob library that you download with the Webkit sources. It appears the sole purpose of closing the source to this library is to conceal the signatures of the undocumented framework APIs used by Webkit, presumably so that ISVs like us can't use them.
These look like important APIs, especially to browser developers like us. For example, Vlad already blogged about WKDisableCGDeferredUpdates; we can work around the issue for Firefox, but if we had WKDisableCGDeferredUpdates we could avoid having to modify the plist of every application that embeds Gecko. I presume WKDrawFocusRing is used to draw 'outline:auto' in Webkit; we can't implement that feature without that API. WKCGContextIsBitmapContext would clean up some of our cairo code. There are a whole lot of font and text APIs; it's hard to know whether there's a performance benefit to using them or why else they're needed. A lot of the other APIs look like they could be useful but without documentation it's hard to be sure. Presumably in each case, these APIs were added because the Webkit developers found something they couldn't do (fast enough?) with the regular APIs, so of course we're likely to need them too. (With the exception of Apple frameworks we don't use at all, such as the HTTP stack.)
The worry is that the Mac playing field is tilted against us. Linking in the WK library is a losing proposition. We can reverse engineer the hidden APIs but that's painful and fragile. The best we can do is file feature requests with Apple to get hidden APIs exposed, or new functionality that we need exposed. We need to start doing that aggressively. It's hard though, because without knowledge of framework internals, we don't necessarily know when there's functionality we could use if only it was exposed (e.g. a fast path for a particular special case, or a special hidden feature that we can otherwise emulate in a less convenient way). It might not be productive to file requests for every bit of functionality we could possibly use in the hope that some of it's in there. This is where Apple's Webkit team has a permanent leg up on us.
Another implication is that a key part of Webkit on Mac is kept deliberately closed source by Apple. That's unfortunate. Instead of hiding the source, a much more friendly policy for Apple would be to make these APIs public as a matter of course. They may argue that there are unfrozen APIs that they don't want exposed, but there are ways around that, such as by tying symbol names to specific OS versions (CGContextFooBar_10_4?) and promising they'll just not be there in future versions.
It's worth reflecting that if Microsoft was doing this, they'd likely be hauled before a judge, in the EU if not the US. In fact I can't recall Microsoft ever pulling off an undocumented-API-fest of this magnitude.
Of course we will continue to do our best to make Firefox rock on Mac, and version 3 is excellent, even if we have to work harder to make up for lack of access to key APIs. We should be open to reducing our dependence on Apple frameworks where that make sense, although in key cases (graphics, window system) it's not possible. We need to push on Apple to make APIs public instead of concealing them. And we need to pray for open source platforms such as Linux to succeed, so one day we won't have to worry about this anymore.


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Friday, September 28, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #165
Talisker 18yo
Island Single Malt Whisky
45.8% abv
Tasted blind by a bunch of whisky folk, this was awarded Best Whisky in the World at The World Whisky Awards 2007. The 30 friends who got together while I was in Toronto to have a tasting a few weeks ago thought it was pretty darn tasty, too. This week we have been reliving that tasting one dram at a time.
Talisker is currently the only distillery on the Isle of Skye and is bottled at the unusual strength of 45.8% by its owners. It has been a part of Diageo's Classic Malts Selection since 1987. When the still house was burnt down in 1960, the distillery fell silent for 2 years. The phenolic content of the malt (peat level) is 25-30 ppm(parts per million). To make relative sense of that, Charlie Maclean has a formulation: 1ppm in a 700ml bottle of whisky is like 10 minutes in 20 years. So what makes more of an impact, 5 hours of the past 20 years of your life or the peat in that dram of Talisker you're drinking right now?
Notes in quotes are from folks at the tasting. All Talisker we've had on the mission can be read HERE.
"Bitter dark chocolate" cinnamon tea, dark rum, vanilla. A little orange zest, creamy bourbon element. Some folks got salt from coastal aromas, others got salt from licorice. "Can I say smoke and cherries? cuz they seem to go together. Sweet smoke." Time brought out more peat and bonfire on the beach-type of aromas.
Gorgeous creaminess, but with an oaky bite up front, green bitternes, raw celery. "Its definitely got that book mustiness"
"Ooo, very sweet. Saccrin and cherry. Once you swallow you get that bitterness. Blunt smoke. Two tones."
Immensely drinkable and full of tasty oak influence. Honey cured ham and toffee. Pepper late in the game.
Delicious, but a bit too sweet for some. For me, the pepper and bitter rootiness helped rein-in the luscious vanilla and bourbon sweetness creating a dangerously drinkable treat. Well-rounded, beautifully crafted stuff. Very fair price, too!
Malt Mission #161
Malt Mission #162
Malt Mission #163
Malt Mission #164
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 9:01 AM 1 comments
Labels: islands, malt mission, talisker, tasting notes, whisky tasting1
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #164
Scapa 23yo, Sherry finish
Douglas Laing, Old Malt Cask 1978-2001
612 bottles
Island Single Malt Whisky
50% abv
Scapa distillery lives in the shadow of its more famous Orkney neighbour, Highland Park. Scapa flow is the stretch of sea linking the North Sea with the Atlantic. German vessels were sunk there in 1919 and now rest on the sea floor. The Royal Viking Fleet of King Haakon (pronounced hawk-un) was stationed in Scapa flow in the 13th century. Old Norse gives Scapa its name, meaning 'ship' or 'boat'. Find all Scapas enjoyed on the mission HERE.
Douglas Laing is an independent bottler of good repute, but as supplies get tighter and tighter in the whisky industry one wonders from where they will be sourcing casks for the future security of their company. Most indies have bought up or partnered up with distilleries so they have some cask-trading power because in the future, money won't be enough to acquire casks of mature or maturing whisky. What is Douglas Laing's plan?
The company releases bottlings under different brand and blend names. This expression is from their Old Malt Cask range and always bottled at 50%abv. It was finished for 6 months in a sherry cask.
This whisky was voted 'dram of the night', just beating tomorrow drop by one or two votes in the tasting we had in Toronto. Each dram we had is featured this week on the mission. We even had the control to leave 3-4 servings in the bottom of the bottle for the hosts who let us use their flat. Kind or stupid?TASTING NOTES:
Gentle and sumptuous sherry, plums, brown sugar and oak. Very complex nose, with big depth. Salty like peanuts. Creamy honeyed tones. Apples and honey. Earthy. Ginger biscuits. Malt is miraculously still present coming across as a hard, dry, oatiness. Slightly perfumy.
Firm, caressing, sensual mouthfeel. Oatmeal cookies, cardboard, sweetness and fruitiness of sherry balances the musty dry oakiness. Salt-and-sweet where the sherry lingers in a soft oak and cocoa finish.
An excellent Scapa. The sherry compliments the salt and honey-nut distillery character character with the musty vanilla and pulp and paper mill influence from 20-some years in bourbon.
Malt Mission #161
Malt Mission #162
Malt Mission #163
Malt Mission #165
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 9:15 AM 0 comments
Labels: islands, malt mission, scapa, tasting notes, whisky tasting1, wood finish
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #163
Isle of Arran
Cream Sherry Cask finish(Gonzalez byass)
Island Single Malt Whisky
57.5% abv
Another one of Arran's gazillion finishes... and, to be fair, many of them have turned out pretty darn well.
We've had Arran on the mission before, but it is always a treat. And we are always ready to try more as the results from this new distillery have been very promising since opening in 1995. Arran was the first distillery on the island bearing the same name since Lagg distillery closed in 1836. The stills are similar to those at Glengyle(Campbeltown) and their washbacks AREN'T oregon pine but larch and Norwegian spruce. Whistle melody here... "she once had me," etc.
Short on time so short on words. Let's get down to business...
Big toffeed sweetness, sherry, candy apples. "Coffee Crisp"(a very Canadian tasting note brought to you by JM) Chocolate milk. Cereal, and a slight vegetal element. Glue. Quite gentle on the nose for the abv%.
Slightly punchy, but some really wimpy punches. Sugar in tea, balsa wood, freshly baked cookies, apple cider, flower gardens. A caramelised element as well. Turns toasty as burnt sherry flavours resonate through the finish.
Sweet, but remarkably pleasant. Autumnal whisky, whisky for when its not quite warm enough for a shorts or young bourbon-cask Speysiders, but not quite cold enough for woolly jumpers or heavily sherried peat monsters. October, trick-or-treat whisky.
Malt Mission #161
Malt Mission #162
Malt Mission #164
Malt Mission #165
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 8:33 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #162
Ledaig Island
Island Single Malt Whisky
42% abv
Pronounced 'led-chig', this is the peated expression of whisky from Tobermory distillery on the isle of Mull. In fact, it was the original name of the distillery when it was built in 1798 and has produced two different whiskies since its early days. This is the more heavily peated expression. The last whisky from this distillery to be had on the Malt Mission can be found HERE.
Tobermory comes from 'Tobar Moire', meaning "Mary's well". Ledaig means "safe haven".
The limited supplies of Ledaig from the 70s that have been bottled have really impressed amateur and professional whisky critics across the globe. This good reputation is being cashed in on (?) with reasonably new proprietary bottlings of unaged Ledaig, from sherry and bourbon casks. This expression is from bourbon and is shockingly cheap. In a blind tasting we held years ago in Edinburgh where the objective was to find the expensive bottle among the cheap ones, this whisky was thought by most to be the pricey one.
Not what I would call an appetizing nose, but pretty busy. Herring, brine, bad morning breath. Orange pekoe tea. Strawberry jam. Toast and butter. Fresh raw shellfish and Dark chocolate. Verging on butryic.
Buttery and sweet, green grapes, stamp glue. Soy and fish sauce and smoke, but mainly sweeter, saltier characteristics. Light but full of character. Thin finish of campino.
Light but flavourful. Quaffable and not overly offensive, in spite of some of my chosen adjectives, with maritime characters coming out the wazoo. Very impactful for such a young, cheap whisky, just not an impact that would be welcomed by all. If you like you whisky fishy, smoky and salty, this is for you. In a character to price ratio, this scores very highly.
Malt Mission #161
Malt Mission #163
Malt Mission #164
Malt Mission #165
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 7:36 AM 0 comments
Labels: islands, ledaig, malt mission, tasting notes, tobermory, whisky, whisky tasting1
Monday, September 24, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #161
The Six Isles
Vatted/Blended Malt
43% abv
This is an unchillfiltered vatting of whiskies from the 6 isles of whisky production, Arran, Mull, Islay, Skye, Jura, and Orkney. We used it as a warm-up dram at a tasting we held for 30 friends when we were in Toronto two weeks ago and it went down a treat. Folks really liked it. This week we will be re-living that tasting one day/dram at a time.
Discontinued at the LCBO, and only $35.35(CAD) right now if you can find a bottle near you, Jim Murray has praised this stuff calling it, "island whisky to the max!" (2003) and, "The best standard, non-deluxe blend I have found in my lifetime."(2004) Like I said, it went down well with friends on a cool, late-summer, Toronto night.
All Ian Macleod products can be viewed HERE.
Laid back, peaty and earthy, with a layer of salty nuts and smoke. Chlorine. Sooty. Apricots. Custard. Cocoa dustings. All freshened with a citrus zing.
Spring. Cut grass. Lemon curd. Metallic smoke takes over and a minty, or Listerine effect lingers in the medium long, but pleasantly thin, finish.
Tobermory/Ledaig and Islay malts(Bowmore?) dominate this whisky, and blind, one might think it's a peated Speysider. Yeah, that is due to the smoke mixed with the janitor's closet smells, but also the weighty sweetness on the nose, the floral element on the palate, and the sheer drinkability. For peat freaks and the new drinkers they insist "have gotta try this..."
Malt Mission #160
Malt Mission #162
Malt Mission #163
Malt Mission #164
Malt Mission #165
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 8:21 AM 0 comments
Labels: ian macleod, islands, malt mission, six isles, tasting notes, vatted, whisky, whisky tasting1
Friday, September 21, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #160
Lochside 1964, 42yo
Blended Scotch Whisky
47.7% abv
Still creeping toward that MM200. It'll happen... I think I can, I think I can, I think I can... Thanks for reading.
Highly unusual and incredibly affordable for the age, this 42 year old whisky is what might be called a single blend as it is a mix of grain and malt whiskies from just one distillery. Single cask, no less. And it is a closed distillery(1992). A true rarity.
The Lochside distillery began producing whisky in 1957 but the site had been the James Deuchars and Sons brewery in Montrose, in the east of Scotland. Until the 1970s, Lochside distillery was producing both single malt and grain whisky on site, like Ben Nevis and Loch Lomond. It was bought by Spanish interests in 1973 and mothballed in 1992. Allied Domecq acquired the distillery in 1994 and in 1997 all the equipment and maturing whisky was removed(or sold).
The warehouses have been destroyed, and from what I can gather, all remaining distillery buildings will see a similar fate as developers have acquired permission to build 37 flats on the premises. The landmark 'distillery tower' seen at the northern entrance into Montrose (see pic) has been demolished (2005). This lost distillery is, for now, somewhat of a hidden gem, with several expressions finding their way into well-received independent releases (Clan Denny, Cadenheads, Douglas Laing, Gordon & Macphail, etc.)
This unsual bottle was blended at birth, spending all of its 42 years maturing as a blend in a single cask. Unusual indeed, but a format founder Joseph W. Hobbs was quite fond of. Let's see if he was onto something...
Confidently announces its presence with a multidimensional impact: oak, spices, sweetness. A light and elegant bourbony vanilla sweetness with orange peels, cloves, nutmeg, and cheap vanilla ice cream (the kind whose first ingredient is guar gum and/or modified milk ingredients). Some grass or other vegetal aromas, hand creams, hazelnut puree, brio/chinotto.
Sweet/bitter balance, with age becoming VERY apparent. Rum-like tropical flavours that hint at bike tires, with chilli, green peppers, more orange rind or marmalade with bundles of oaky sweetness. Friendly finish where malt and chewable vitamin C tablets linger among a supple oakiness.
Impressive and tasty from beginning to end, and extremely unusual. Time in the glass really lets things become creamy both in texture and flavour. 42 yo for £70!? Buy one, buy one now! Don't tell too many friends about this gem. There isn't enough to go 'round, and besides, they probably don't deserve it, anyways.
Malt Mission #156
Malt Mission #157
Malt Mission #158
Malt Mission #159
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 4:56 PM 0 comments
Labels: blended, blended whisky, lochside, malt mission, tasting notes, whisky, whisky tasting1
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #159
Cutty Sark 18 yo
Blended Scotch Whisky
The old motto went, "Remove the cork and get the message." Cutty Sark is named after the famous clipper... which was named after the witch in Burns' poem "Tam O'Shanter"... who is named after the Scots expression for a short-cut shirt. Cutty Sark made a name for itself by finding routes into America during prohibition via Canada and the Caribbean.
This is part of the extended range of aged expressions from Cutty Sark. It is joined by the 12, the 15 (which i noticed in abundance at the LCBO when I was home last week), the 25, and the standard unaged blend. the 18yo is sometimes referred to as 'Discovery'.
London is still recovering from a fire that destroyed much of the clipper in Greenwich. News HERE.
More info on Cutty Sark and all expressions tasted on the mission can be found HERE.
Initially extremely light and friendly, but by no means simple, with a buttery creaminess, nectarines, sherry undertones, and a gentle olive-oil-type of spiciness. Meaty.
Very nutty, spicy, and quite refreshing, actually. Stone fruits, cream, and a faint appearance of peat. Raw red meat, lamb? The organic flavours give way to more processed ones: freshly developed photos. Cardboard. Brown paper towels in public washrooms. Long nutty finish.
Another blend where the grains take a back seat and let the malts do all the driving. Easy drinking but with character. A little something for the adventurous in the meaty, oily flavours while retaining mass appeal.
Malt Mission #156
Malt Mission #157
Malt Mission #158
Malt Mission #160
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 8:27 AM 0 comments
Labels: blended, blended whisky, cutty sark, malt mission, tasting notes, whisky, whisky tasting1
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #158
Whyte & Mackay 13yo
Blended Scotch Whisky
40% abv
Vijay Mallya and his United Breweries Group recently bought Whyte & Mackay for £600million as growing affluence in India made whisky sales grow 26% over the past year, a trend that didn't come out of nowhere and one that smart-tycoon-y member-of-parliament-entrepreneurs like Mallya wouldn't dare miss. Unfortunately, W&M saw a £2.2million loss in the 12-month period before the takeover. Can King Madras turn everything he touches to gold?
W&M has a pretty good stable of malts and blends and may have performed poorly last year due to the relaunch of the Whyte and Mackay blends (with a fancy new Charles Rennie Mackintosh look) that never really had a chance to take off or get marketed properly. (Are they even available anywhere?) Jura, Dalmore, Fettercairn, Glayva and Whyte and Mackay are now set to invade India now that Mallya used his political pull to change the iNsAnE foreign spirits tariff in India, a change that was certainly unpopular among other domestic spirits producers.
Anyways, I won't talk too much about that. Truth is I don't have enough time to get my facts straight so f-it. If you want more info and opinion on the story, read THIS(BBC), THIS(Malt Maniacs), or THIS(Scotch Blog).
Let's drink Whyte and Mackay's The Thirteen. (All Whyte&Mackay tasted on the mission can be read HERE)
Soft and rich, pecans, butter tarts, vanilla candles, waffle cones, an ice cream parlour. Sherry influence is present but the tasty Invergordon (and other?) grains lead the sweeter, vanilla-ed appeal to 'drink me'.
Bigger body than the nose suggests, that dissipates quickly. Strange. Now you see it, now you don't. Rich sherry and nuts, Dairy Milk, and a touch of salt then Caramilk and honey, ginger, and a light finish of sherry, fresh figs, and older grain whisky.
An odd experience, and I know I have complained about this stuff before, but I quite enjoyed it today. The vanishing effect (in terms of mouth presence) on the palate was strange, but the lingering flavours made up for it. A late metallic flavour hurt my overall impression but affordability and drinkability combine to make this a worthwhile purchase to decide for yourself.
Malt Mission #156
Malt Mission #157
Malt Mission #159
Malt Mission #160
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 8:35 AM 0 comments
Labels: blended, blended whisky, gold, malt mission, tasting notes, whisky, whisky tasting1, whyte and mackay
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #157
Famous Grouse Gold Reserve 12 yo
Blended Scotch Whisky
40% abv
Perth was a nexus of blending houses in the 19th century. If you wanted, you could wander about town tasting the wares of John Dewar, Arthur Bell, and Matthew Gloag. Since 1820, Gloag ran a grocery in town and by 1860, his son started blending whiskies. By the end of the century was selling the Grouse Brand. It became well known among locals earning it the addition of 'famous' to its name.
The Famous Grouse is owned by The Edrington Group (Macallan, Highland Park, and others) and has been the #1 whisky in Scotland for many years. They have extended their range over the past decade, most recently with the launch of The Black Grouse, a peaty, Islay-themed blend specifically targeting the nordic and Scandanavian markets.
All Famous Grouse we've had on the mission can be read HERE.
Weighty nose of rich, honeyed malt, sherry sweetness, and a touch of sulphur. Sesame seeds, oats, and pie crust. Well integrated smoke like exhaust as the impressions drive away.
Puff of gentle smoke then warm and toasty with sherry, dairy, and Honeycomb cereal. Filter coffee. Long finish of brown sugar and oatmeal.
Nothing too complex, but the weight of the sherry and heavy malty tones are very satisfying. The smoke that appears on the nose leads on the palate but gives way to the rich vanilla maltiness and sherry like a gentleman holding the door for young lady. Grain definitely takes a back seat in this number. Bunnahabhain and Highland Park are quite noticable so fans of either distillery could really dig this blend. For the price and flavour profile, it could be a good replacement for Jon, Mark and Robbo's Rich, Spicy One for those of you in markets that have lost that affordable line.
Malt Mission #156
Malt Mission #158
Malt Mission #159
Malt Mission #160
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 8:31 AM 0 comments
Labels: blended, blended whisky, famous grouse, gold, malt mission, tasting notes, whisky, whisky tasting1
Monday, September 17, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #156
King's Legend
Blended Scotch Whisky
40% abv
£20(? not available in UK)
Welcome back to the mission. We had a nice time with friends, family, and food in Toronto and now we are back with the focused goal of tasting our way to Malt Mission 200... and a few other minor goals along the way (submitting this damned dissertation, training for a new job, learning to make pancakes as nice as the ones Morwenna made for us on Sunday, etc.)
We will have a blends week here on the mission. I have a keen interest in blends, partly because of my fascination with their variety and abundance, with most local markets having their own brands unavailable anywhere else in the world, partly because of the fact that blends are what keep distilleries open and made whisky a worldwide phenomenon (see my Bullocks to Blends series or go buy a book), but also because the craft of blending is a fascinating art and the challenges blenders face in making a consistent product out of often variable tools is nothing short of astounding.
Blended whiskies are a combination of different single malts (whiskies made in pot stills out of a single grain, barley, and at a single distillery) and different grain whiskies (whiskies made in column or Coffey stills out of various different grains, maize, wheat, barley, rye). Contrary to snobborific popular belief, Blended whiskies are NOT by default better or worse than single malts. They are made with quite different intentions than single malts, and often quite different aims than eachother (a wintery blend, a summer blend, a peaty blend, a blend for ice, a blend for cooking, a blend to accompany all night conversations... etc.). Where single malt whiskies are made to be individual, powerful, engaging, and sometimes challenging, blended scotch is generally designed to appeal to a wider customer base, being well-balanced and smooth and suited to more people's palates. While these whiskies can be sensual, wonderfully constructed, rich whiskies with great subtle complexities, more often than not they are made out of barely legal whiskies (3-4 years old) from tired casks (maturation vessels which have been used too many times to yield much flavour). But it is also for this reason that the art of blending is so respected; in combining various casks that would simply not be good enough for release as a single malt, blended whiskies become more than the sum of their parts. They account for 90-95% of all Scottish whisky sales worldwide and the best of them win as many awards and accolades as single malts in blind tastings.
Kings Legend is an odd blend owned by Diageo but only available in a few markets (if they have this where you live, email me. I would love to know). I got it in Norway a few months ago. You may remember it from the Royal Norwegian Cocktail Competition. I cannot find any good information about the blend's history or contents in any of my books. Sorry. If you have any info, I would love to receive it. I have had it a few times since buying it over ice and it has been quite pleasant. Now lets subject it to a sensory interrogation.
White toast with butter, pumpkin pie and spice, vanilla ice cream. Light and thin, slightly petrolic, with toffeed sweetness and cooked pasta. Some smoke, too. Appetising and cakey.
Thin mouthfeel, soft then hot, integrated flavours of maple, saunas, envelope glue, and banana. Faint sherry and smoke through the finish that sits in the middle of the tongue.
A bit hot to the tongue, but perfectly pleasant blended whisky. Drinking this stuff over ice eliminates the tongue heat and really lets the smoke and vanilla-balance shine. No doubt a high grain content (80%?), but the vanilla and waffle-type tastes from the grains are really luscious. The sherry and peat from the malts are present and notable, but it is the creamy, vanilla-ed bourbon cask Speysiders in here that really make this the drinkable and affordable blend that it is. Enjoy it, Scandinavia!
Malt Mission #155
Malt Mission #157
Malt Mission #158
Malt Mission #159
Malt Mission #160
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 6:03 PM 0 comments
Labels: blended, blended whisky, king's legend, malt mission, tasting notes, whisky, whisky tasting1
Monday, September 10, 2007
Dear Doctor #1
I've only written one weekend post since February so I will make up for it on this break in the Malt Mission (I am in Canada). It's not for lack of whisky things to write about. I guess it is just that I have been busy and/or lazy...?
So here is Dear Doctor #1.
The first in a possible series of Q&A posts that will see me try to answer your questions.
As it is, I have been doing this for months via email(thanks for your questions, all!), but I think in some cases others would benefit from the info as well, so here we go.
Two recent emails from the UK and Canada.
Hi, Where can I find the story about Johnnie Walker changing striding directions and the impact on sales? Thanks RS
This question had me thinking for days. Did Johnnie turn? When artist Tom Browne sketched the famous striding man character on a napkin in 1908, in which direction was he striding? Is it even consistent from campaign to campaign? After all, Tom Browne died in 1910 and the 'striding man' responsibilities were handed over briefly to Bernard Partridge and Leonard Raven Hill, then Leo Cheney (until his death in 1928), Doris Zinkesen who took Johnnie into the world of colour, Fougasse (Cyril Kenneth Bird) Clive Upton in the post-WWII years, and countless others who seem to have moved Johnnie from cricket pitch to shipyard facing all sorts of directions.
So I looked through some jpegs of old 1920-1950s adverts, looked at some 1980s-current ads in magazines, looked at the bottles here in our flat, looked at bottles online, looked at the Johnnie Walker website, leafed through the books I have, asked friends, whisky industry folks, and fellow bloggers. And waht did I learn? The first striding man image appeared in an advert in The Tatler and the striding man was walking to his right. In others since, he walks to his left.
If anything in the history of Johnnie Walker's advertising has affected sales it is the theme of the advert [golf, cricket, football, support for the war(s), English heritage, literary series, buy British campaigns, etc.), not the direction in which this iconic figure is striding. Great question, though. Thanks!
If you want more info, check out John Hughes' book, "Still Going Strong: A History of Scotch Whisky Advertising" or Gavin D. Smith's "The Whisky Men". If anyone has any other info relevant to this question, let me know!
Hey doc, i've got a question for you: what's up with whisky and food? are they ever paired? i know we're all supposed to have clean, virginal palates when sampling our fancy drams, but damn do i ever sometimes like a whisky and chocolate after dinner. given your liberal approach to whisky appreciation, i thought i'd see what you think. ISM
My quick answer is that there is only one way to drink whisky: any way you want. This sentiment echoes the great Robert Hicks(Ballantines, Teachers, Laphroaig) who is famed for saying (paraphrasing) "Hey mate, you bought it, do what you like with it!" Liberal, indeed.
That being said, I would still suggest that the first time you have any given whisky that you let yourself get to know it first, and the best way to do that is to enjoy it in its natural form, in a good glass (or THIS or THIS). Something with a tapered top is ideal to help concentrate the aromas, but really anything you are comfortable with. Just give the whisky the respect it deserves. You can always disrespect it later with ice, coke, lime, and the saliva of virgins. Then once you know what, say, Auchethoshan 10 tastes like, you can match it with an apple tart or pork rinds or whatever you think it would compliment or would complement it.
Many companies have been pushing the idea of matching whisky and food, as have whisky appreciation societies of all shapes and sizes holding dinners and events to showcase the complimentary nature of boozery and cookery. Whisky Magazine has featured pieces on whisky and food, matching malts with dishes, cooking with whisky, etc. for quite a while now. In Whisky Magazine, back in October 2006 (Issue 58), Ontario-based writer Andrew Coppolino wrote a great article about whether or not whisky was suited to food. His conclusion? Do it. Do it now.
For me, I like something I can fill my mouth with when eating so beer or wine suit me fine. But whisky is such a versatile beverage, it can find a place at every meal. Try it on porridge!
Thanks for emailing, and if you have any questions please don't be shy, ask away! It can be an intimidating whisky world, but it needn't be...
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 12:55 PM 0 comments
Labels: dear doctor, whisky blog
Friday, September 07, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #155
Isle of Jura 21 yo
Island Single Malt Whisky
40% abv
Another Friday on the Malt Mission and another week gone. Still blows my mind and will continue to do so until this whisky lake dries up. Thanks for reading. The Guardian finally ran an obit for Michael Jackson yesterday.
Am off to Canada again for some family-and-friends-time, so the mission will be on hiatus... officially. We will certainly still be trying a few drops and I will post anything of interest like last time.
The people behind Isle of Jura are very proud of their product, and they ought to be. As I have said before, in many ways it shouldn't exist; it makes little economic sense, but it is the pride of the small population of the island from which it comes and most inhabitants are employed, directly or indirectly, thanks to its existence. For every one vocal person who says something detracting about Jura there are two who love the stuff. Sure, I admit, I am no big fan of the 10yo, but lots of folks love it, so who am I to say "Jura sucks"? Who are you?
If you get out to Islay, and many people do, don't miss Jura. It is worth the short trip. Drive the island. Visit the distillery. Sit by the palm trees, watch the seals, sip on a dram of Jura. In the tranquility of that environment critics will be silenced. Shhhh...
Click through to the company tasting notes video here: it turns these guys on.
"Mmm mm mm mm mm mm m mmmm." - Richard Paterson
And they've just released a 40yo.
All Juras tasted on the mission can be viewed HERE.
Okay; wood, wood, and wood. Maple syrup. Damp wood. Gauze, mango juice, and heavy/weighty maltiness. Slightly fishy, as well. Cod liver oil.
That fishiness leads on the palate, and then erupts with dense sherry, maple, and more malt. Milk foam and cinnamon and then a long finish of bitter fruits and coffee cake. Very weighty stuff.
Not a morning whisky. This is the stuff they should have been drinking in the original Jaws in that scene where they show off their scars on the boat and sing 'Show me the way to go home'
Malt Mission #151
Malt Mission #152
Malt Mission #153
Malt Mission #154
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 7:57 AM 0 comments
Labels: islands, isle of jura, jura, malt mission, tasting notes, whisky tasting1
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #154
Highland Park 1990 16 yo
The Single Malts of Scotland
Island Single Malt Scotch Whisky
46% abv
Highland Park was built in the same year as Tobermory (tasted Tuesday), 1798. Sometimes lovingly refered to as HP sauce, Highland Park is well known for adding depth of flavour to blended whiskies. But Highland Park is a respected brand as a single malt, winning awards and accolades the world over. Michael Jackson has called it 'the greatest all-rounder in the world of whisky" and F. Paul Pacult decided the 18yo was "The Best Spirit in the World" in 2005.
Highland Park shares at least one unique feature with Glenmorangie and Bunnahabhain (among others), and that is the use of hard, mineral-rich water in the production of its whisky. Most distilleries source their water from springs or burns with soft water, water with little or no calcium or magnesium ions and the old rule of thumb for distilling was "soft water, through peat, over granite."
Orcadians, the people who live in the Orkney islands, have a special history quite separate from that of the rest of Scotland. Neolithic tribes inhabited the islands before the Picts, and Orcadians also have heritage ties to the Norse who annexed the islands in 875 and ruled until 1472. The flag of Orkney is exactly like that of Norway, with yellow replacing white around the cross.
This is another bottling from The Single Malts of Scotland range from The Whisky Exchange/Speciality Drinks. For more info, or to read about other Highland Parks tasted on the Malt Mission, click HERE.
Perfumy, but in an odd way; like scented candles or fake plastic fruit. Some pear, shortbread, and vanilla. The processed impressions remain: newspaper, CD cases, pomade. Really interesting and unusual. After some minutes tropical impressions come to the fore. Islands irie, Jamaica no problem.
Big malty impact, nutty and very spicy, with cumin and sumac. Bubblegum underneath a spicy herbal concoction, like some European homeopathic extract that is supposed to prevent against illness/remedy baldness/cure cancer. Finish, or the lingering flavours, have been different with every sip so I really have no note that would be fair to share. Medium-long, in any event.
Not for the casual drinker, this is an experience. Changes a great deal with time in the glass and with water, but remains a odd-ball. To be enjoyed among friends and discussion. Tried all the standard bottlings from Highland Park? Interested in what else goes on in the dark corners of their warehouses? This is for you.
Malt Mission #151
Malt Mission #152
Malt Mission #153
Malt Mission #155
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 9:34 AM 1 comments
Labels: highland park, islands, malt mission, orkney, sms, tasting notes, whisky tasting1
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #153
Isle of Arran 9 yo
"Indian Summer"
Single Cask Single Malt Whisky
56.5% abv
It is hard to believe, but the Scotch Malt Whisky Society is really not as pretentious or pompous as some of its members like to think. Sure, it is a members club, with private members rooms and membership fees, all of which can be objectionable to egalitarian whisky folk, but whether you are a member or not, walk through a society venue door and if any staff treats you with a lack of respect and kindness, I will buy you a dram. Seriously. Sure, like I said, there are assholes everywhere, but anyone who works there or knows what the society is about will be kind, friendly and helpful. Guaranteed. That, and they host some of the greatest tastings in the UK, bottle some absolutely killer malts, rums, and ciders, and have one of the comfiest drinking venues in the world at the Vaults in Leith, Scotland.
The society uses a number system to classify their whiskies both to protect the integrity of the distilleries as brands and to encourage the exploration of under-appreciated or stigmatised distilleries. 121 is Arran, and they have managed to bottle some great expressions from this young distillery, 20 to be exact, which is what the second number in the classification represents.
Their description for this bottling, written by Robin Laing with the help of the noses and imaginations of the society tasting panels, reads as follows:
"This distillery is situated in the picturesque village of Lochranza, on the island commonly described as 'Scotland in miniature'. A refill sherry butt has given this dram a dark wood colour. The wonderfully complex nose takes time to develop with overripe fruits, salt, oil and roasted coffee. With water there are marmalade notes, vanilla fudge and cloves. In the mout h it is pleasantly warm and spicy, with lots of vanilla and woody notes. With water it's comforting with Demerara sugar and fresh mint. There is also a long chewy finish with a hint of sulphur. This is a perfectly balanced dram, ideal for an Indian summer."
For more info and past expressions tasted on the mission, click HERE.
Tasted one morning in Edinburgh a few weeks ago while staying with Claire and Ran. Thanks, guys.
Warming, buttery sherry tones, with toffee and cream, orange rind, raisins and raw oats. Peppery spice beneath.
Honey, spice, fresh plums and a real oak presence. Woody, indeed. Flavour curve from buttery sweetness becoming leafy with dry sherry notes, and getting drier and drier. Water brings out an impression of the outhouse by the lake, toffee, but still really drying.
United flavours, concentrated but lacking substance. But the delicacy that I love about Arran is overpowered, especially on the palate. Sherry dries beyond my comfort level and makes the whole experience quite one-dimensional. Great first impressions that only get more disappointing with time and/or water. But hey, I am not a sherry freak. I am certain this would be right up someone's alley. The SMWS tasting panel thought it was well balanced, so who am I to talk?
Malt Mission #151
Malt Mission #152
Malt Mission #154
Malt Mission #155
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 8:36 AM 2 comments
Labels: cask strength, islands, isle of arran, malt mission, smws, tasting notes, whisky tasting1
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #152
Tobermory 1995 12 yo
The Single Malts of Scotland
Island Single Malt Whisky
56.9% abv
So I learned later in the day yesterday that The Independent ran an obituary for Michael Jackson and that the Telegraph had done so over the weekend. So no more bitching from me about the lack of attention his passing attracted in the British press. I promise.
This is the first Tobermory (or Ledaig) I have had on the Malt Mission. Tobermory is a distillery on the Isle of Mull, a gorgeous island with adorable towns all within easy reach of the mainland via Oban. Tobermory is one of the nine(9) distilleries still in operation that was built in the 18th century. Originally christened Ledaig in 1798, it was called Tobermory after the town in which it is located. It is, and always has been, the only distillery on the island but has had a split personality since its birth. Bottlings released as Tobermory, about 5% of production, go into an lightly peated 10yo single malt sold in a green dumpy bottle. About 10% of production is released as a heavily peated expression called Ledaig. The rest finds its way into blended whiskies in Burn Stewart Distillers' stable (Scottish Leader, etc.) and beyond.
The distillery was closed many times during its long history. On one of those sad occasions, in June 1930, it was used as a power station and a canteen. Additionally, after the stills were removed it was rented to a local dairy farmer to mature the famed Isle of Mull cheddar, and, according to Misako Udo, was closed down after a hygiene disaster. Let your imaginations run wild.
This bottling is a single cask offering from the ever-expanding line from The Whisky Exchange/Speciality Drinks called The Single Malts of Scotland. Other bottlings in the series tasted on the mission can be found HERE.
Two planes of aromas, can be generally classified as the malty and the sweaty. But there's more at work here. A lot of smells I am personally nostalgic for: Candy apples, salt water and potatoes, Clearasil, Neilson's Jersey Milk, SaraLee chocolate cakes, ginger and soy sauce.
Big chewy maltiness that envelops your mouth but quickly pulls back in, becoming slightly astringent. A drop of water not only mutes the astringency but really opens up a barrel of fermenting fruits and sugar. Medicinal characteristics too, Alka Seltzer, herbal throat lozenges, acetaminophen. Chocolate and berry jam in the medium-length finish with a maritime saltiness, too.
Like songs on an old cassette, "Summer Mix 1986", that take you back in time, this dram really transported me. And to be totally honest, I am surprised to have enjoyed this as much as I did. Brilliant island character with a good depth of flavour. Enjoyable in the nose, a challenge on the palate. No, not sophisticated or subtle, but hearty and distinct.
Malt Mission #151
Malt Mission #153
Malt Mission #154
Malt Mission #155
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 8:58 AM 0 comments
Labels: cask strength, islands, malt mission, single cask, sms, tasting notes, tobermory, whisky tasting1
Monday, September 03, 2007
Malt Mission 2007 #151
Macleod's Island 8yo
Island Single Malt Whisky
40% abv
Well it is days later and still a great absence of mainstream coverage of the death of Michael Jackson who passed away last Thursday. I am still shocked at this shameful oversight. But the grassroots media of the web proves that he is mourned throughout the world as a journalist, a lover of English pubs, renowned beer critic, and a whisky legend. Newspapers? Radio? TV? Let me know if anything you read, heard, or saw commemorated the man that I might have missed.
And just to be clear, I am not overplaying this just because I happen to be a part of some small esoteric demographic he addressed. He was a tourism writer that did wonderful things for London, Yorkshire, and England, a saviour of many pubs due to his lovingly written ode to the institutions simply titled, The English Pub, a television star as The Beer Hunter, a regular contributor to many magazines and newspapers, and the writer of several books on whisky, one of which saw five revised editions. This is no small contribution to British culture or influence in the world. BBC? Big Boardroom of Crackheads. Anyways...
We tried the Speyside expression (Malt Mission #141) of this budget line from Ian Macleod Distillers two weeks ago, and today we will have Macleod's Islands to kick-off an Island themed week. No, not THIS Macleod's Island.
The Islands are an odd region, offering a wide variety of flavours from distillery to distillery, even ones only miles away from eachother (Scapa and Highland Park), and one that could convince you to stop believing in the regional classifications altogether. David Wishart has pushed against the belief in regional styles while others, legends like the late Michael Jackson, have been proponents of the idea of terroir in whisky production. Charles Maclean has this to say. Today, many agree that if nothing else, the idea of regions in Scottish malt whisky has provided a good marketing(is that a bad word?) or educational(is that worse?) tool for entry-level drinkers.
The islands region includes those Scottish isles with distilleries, excluding Islay, which constitutes its own region. Mull (Tobermory/Ledaig), Jura (Isle of Jura), Arran (Isle of Arran), Skye (Talisker), and Orkney (Highland Park, Scapa).
This bottling is from a company that also has these other Island malts in their stable: the Isle of Skye blend, Dun Bheagan Island Malt, 'AS WE GET IT' Island Malt, and Six Isles. More island fun and info can be read in The Island Whisky Trail and all island whiskies tasted on the Malt Mission can be found HERE.
Very laid back nose, some pine, some ginger, vanilla and oak. Calamine lotion. Some wet dog, too.
Soft on the palate, as well. Woodsy impressions from oak along with outdoorsy coastal impressions. Buttery and a touch salty, becoming very piney with some celery and raw potatoes, sweetened by a toffeed maltiness.
Whatever impression I may have given above, this whisky does succeed in offering a nice overview of an Island malt style. Great whisky for the uninitiated, but the experienced whisky drinker will find something to enjoy here as well, and not just the pretty price.
Malt Mission #150
Malt Mission #152
Malt Mission #153
Malt Mission #154
Malt Mission #155
Malt Mission HOME
Posted by Dr. Whisky at 8:53 AM 2 comments
Labels: ian macleod, islands, macleod's, malt mission, tasting notes, whisky tasting1
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text:
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Plantains were peeled and sliced lengthwise. Since the plantains I was using were large, I cut each piece in half crosswise as well. They were fried in canola oil for a total of five minutes and were turned at the halfway point. After this initial frying, they were drained on paper towels and allowed to cool just a little. While still warm, they needed to be pounded down to a thickness of one quarter inch. I used a meat tenderizer for this fun task, and they easily flattened out to an even height. After smooshing the plantains down to size, they were fried a second time to crisp them, and again, the frying time was five minutes total with a flip after two and a half minutes. I used firm, green plantains, and they held their shape very well, crisped nicely, and didn't seem to absorb the oil. The sandwiches were built with slices of the roast turkey, swiss cheese, sliced dill pickles, and mustard. They spent about six minutes in the panini press, and came out looking toasted, golden, and just gooey enough in the middle.
I have to mention again that I was really happy with the texture of the plantain 'bread.' It wasn't mushy or greasy at all, and it delivered a satisfying crunch. Of course, the melted cheese, pickles, and well-flavored turkey were great on the inside too. As I had guessed, this was a filling sandwich. One small portion was enough for a meal for me, but it was a lip-smackingly good meal.
Posted by lisa is cooking at Tuesday, March 09, 2010
33 comments:
This looks sooo good, I'm reduced to just saying, 'Wow!' The first photo is about as perfect a shot as could be. I love fried plantains but using them as 'sandwich bread' substitute is awesome!ReplyDelete
How cool is that sandwich... and pretty too! WOW!!ReplyDelete
Very otiginal and so tempting! That is an awesome recipe!ReplyDelete
I love plantain so much, this must taste like heaven. Would love to have this for lunch. Thanks for the idea Lisa!ReplyDelete
I was drooling just looking at the first photo, never dreaming it was a plantain! And I love them. I'm amazed they didn't break apart when you pounded them. I'm definitely going to try your jibarito sandwiches! Love the turkey/cheese idea too.ReplyDelete
Another completely new and interesting recipe for me....looks so tempting!ReplyDelete
Oh my...it's definitely calling my name...ReplyDelete
What a sandwich! The sweet and salty combination is perfect. Oh, and the elements of melty cheese and crisp plantains. That is really perfect.ReplyDelete
By far the coolest sandwich ever, so creative and amazing!ReplyDelete
This is just so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where's mine?ReplyDelete
*kisses* HH
Wow this looks fantastic! I adore plantains. As in I have a serious passion for them. But I would never have thought to use them as bread in a sandwich! Great idea. Thanks for sharing it with us.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousMarch 9, 2010 at 1:33 PM
The one thing that never ceases to amaze me about food is that you can learn something new everyday! And when your a blogger with foodies from all over the world sharing their recipes you can learn even more than one new thing every day. Thanks for giving me my first one of the day! This is an awesome way to make a Cuban sandwich!ReplyDelete
What a really cool idea. I LOVE plantains. I would love to experience them like this!ReplyDelete
I love the plantain slices!!! That's really neat to use that instead of bread. Love it. One of the things I want try making is mariquitas, which are basically fried plantain chips. But now I was to try making this!!!! It's definitely an awesome twist to a Cuban sandwich.ReplyDelete
best use of the plantain i've ever seen. actually, one of the best sandwich-type creations i've ever seen, period. what a treat--great find and wonderful execution, lisa!ReplyDelete
What an interesting sandwich!!ReplyDelete
This looks absolutely delicious!!ReplyDelete
using plantains as the "bread" sounds so delicious! wonderful combination.ReplyDelete
Wow, this is very nice, plantain as a bread? I know that I'd love this sandwich because I love plantain :-)ReplyDelete
This is so cool! I have had plantains many different ways, but would not have though to use them as sandwich "bread".ReplyDelete
These look and sound spectacular! Totally delicious and very mouth watering. I would love to try this - what a treat!ReplyDelete
These look so tempting and delicious!!ReplyDelete
Jibaritos are the BEST sandwiches -- congrats on making your own! we live in a wonderful neighborhood where jibaritos can be found in almost every restaurant, so I haven't been inspired to make my own -- but I may be now!ReplyDelete
Wow!!! I've never had a jibarito! But my boyfriend would LOVE this. I think I am going to make them for him this weekend!ReplyDelete
Plantain bread?? That is very innovative!!ReplyDelete
wow, this definitely gets the coolest and most yummy looking sandwich award. and that's even without the ridiculously cool sounding name :DReplyDelete
- AnonymousMarch 10, 2010 at 1:56 PM
I love the idea of this sandwich with plantain for the bread, awesome!ReplyDelete
Wonderful sandwich. Thanks for the recipe.ReplyDelete
I love this idea with the plantains, and that sandwich looks simply amazing. I may be biased for anything cubano, but holy cow, this sandwich is speaking to me on many levels.ReplyDelete
Oh yum! I love the idea of plantain chips as bread! This looks delicious.ReplyDelete
Living in Florida I eat Cuban food A LOT. This is a really surprising and interesting twisting-que bella!ReplyDelete
Wowsers! I would never have thought those were platains. Excellent twist! So, I'm assuming you need to eat it with a fork & knife, huh?ReplyDelete
Snooty: You know, I thought the same thing about needing a fork and knife. Actually, these plantains held up so well, the sandwiches were pick-upable. The greener the plantain the better for sturdiness. That also prevented them from being sweet.ReplyDelete


text:
This article is more than 1 year old
Bogus FIFA lottery scam hits the net
Fraudsters have launched a phishing campaign thattries to dupe football fans into believing they've won a FIFA-sponsored lottery in an attempt to steal bank account information.
The bogus email notifications of supposed $1m winnings prey on interest in the Football World Cup tournament, scheduled to take place for the first time in South Africa in 2010. FIFA, the international football governing body, has posted a warning on its website.
The latest spam attacks represent a phishing refinement on standard lottery scams themed around the 2010 World Cup dating back over a year or more. "Everyone should be suspicious if they are unexpectedly told they have won a fortune," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Computer users who fall for this trick will be feeling as sick as a parrot when their bank accounts are emptied and they find they have become the victim of identity fraudsters."
World Cup fever has captured the imagination of VXers as well as fraudsters. In May, virus writers released a version of the Sober email worm that ensnared victims by posing as an email from the World Cup 2006 organising committee. Like previous variants, Sober-P was Windows specific and spread as an infected ZIP attachment to messages written in either German or English.
Infected emails pose as ticket confirmation messages from organisers of the football World Cup, due to be held in Germany next year. The worm composes messages with subject lines such as "WM-Ticket-Auslosung" and "Your Password" with attachments such as Fifa_Info-Text.zip containing a .pif payload file. Days after the release of Sober-P, hackers to turn infected machines into relay stations for nationalist spam causing a considerable nuisance in the process. ®


text:
Organic products have no significant nutritional advantage over conventional foods, even though consumers can pay more for them, a new study finds.
The findings suggest that a key reason behind why many people buy organic products — a $28.6 billion market last year — may not be borne out by the science.
The four-year project began when two doctors wondered what advice they should give their families and patients about whether to buy organic or conventional foods.
"It became much larger than we expected," says Crystal Smith-Spangler, a primary care doctor at Stanford University and lead author on the study appearing Tuesday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
Eventually, 12 researchers looked at 240 studies conducted from 1966 to 2011 covering nutrient and contaminant levels in foods.
Among the findings:
•There were no significant differences in the vitamin content of organic and conventional fruits and vegetables. The studies looked specifically at vitamins A, C and E.
•Detectable pesticide residue was found in 7% of organic produce and 38% of conventional produce. However, only three studies found pesticide residue that exceeded maximum allowed limits in the European Union on organic or conventional produce.
As to how pesticides could be in organic product that must be grown without them by law, Smith-Spangler said it could either be long-lasting, now-banned pesticides in the soil or drift from nearby fields.
•Both organic and conventional foods were at similar risk for bacterial contamination.
A smaller study done in 2009 by Alan Dangour at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with a European emphasis reached similar conclusions.
Organic produce often costs more than conventionally grown fruits and vegetables, but the differential varies widely. In 2009, it generally cost at least 25% more in Boston andSan Francisco wholesale markets and sometimes was double the price, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In rare cases, the organic food was equal or even a smidge lower in price.
Yet "there isn't much difference between organic and conventional foods, if you're an adult and making a decision based solely on your health," said Dena Bravata, senior author of the paper and a physician at Stanford's Center for Health Policy.
The data don't fit well with consumers' stated motivations for buying organic foods. A 2010 Nielsen study found that 76% bought them believing they are healthier, 53% because they allowed them to avoid pesticides and other toxins, 51% because they are more nutritious and 49% because organic farming is better for the environment.
Urvashi Rangan, a scientist at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reportsmagazine, points out that organic farming originally started out as something designed to be better for the environment and for farmers.
"The health benefits really ended up being almost inadvertent, a nice fringe benefit" of farming in a sustainable way that benefits the planet, she says.
That once counter-culture trend is now mainstream. Organic foods make up 12% of allU.S. fruit and vegetable sales, according to Christine Bushway, CEO of the Organic Trade Association in Brattleboro, Vt. Organic products account for nearly 6% of the total U.S. market for dairy products, she says.
A statement from the association said the new findings confirm that organics reduce consumers' exposure to pesticides and overuse of antibiotics can lead to higher levels of bacteria resistant to antibiotics in meat.
Different people will make different choices, Smith-Spangler says. "There may be some consumers who feel that any pesticide residue that's detectable is unacceptable to them." Others may trust government standards for allowable limits and be less concerned.
Pregnant women and families with small children are most likely to err on the side of caution, Rangan says. "Is it in some ways healthier to have less pesticides in your body, especially if you're a kid? Absolutely," she says. That fits with findings by the Organic Trade Association that 48% of parents say they believe organic foods "are healthier for me and my children." Those surveys showed that 78% of U.S. families bought at least some organic foods in 2011.
Smith-Spangler says consumers should know there is overwhelming evidence that eating produce improves health — so whatever you choose to buy, load up on fruits and veggies. By Elizabeth Welse, USA Today. For original article, click here.
J. Kyle Mathews, MD
Plano OB Gyn Associates
Plano Urogynecology
Tags: Dr. Mathews, nutrition, Organic food | Category: News & Education |


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But it's no joke. Emscripten and Asm.js (the latter started as a Mozilla research project) have been making major strides since their introduction. The latest step up is an Emscripten revision that replaces the original compiler core with one derived from LLVM, a compiler technology framework used mainly for C/C++ but in theory capable of supporting many other languages.
According to Emscripten's developers, switching to LLVM gives Emscripten several advantages. For one, compilation is much quicker -- "often four times faster or more," they claim -- and requires far less memory. It also "avoids unpredictable pathological compiler slowdowns that the old compiler had." Most significant, the LLVM back end allows much tighter integration between Emscripten and LLVM.
The only downside of using LLVM is that it has to be recompiled specifically to work with Emscripten. A stock build of LLVM only gives you a subset of the available benefits, which you can get away with using if you have no other choice.
This story, "New compiler cranks up JavaScript from native code," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.


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Tributes to the jazz greats of yesterday, performed by the artists of today, are many. But few of today's artists can boast the same intimacy and familiarity with the objects of their musical …
Tributes to the jazz greats of yesterday, performed by the artists of today, are many. But few of today's artists can boast the same intimacy and familiarity with the objects of their musical affection as Shawnn Monteiro. On her new CD, "To Carmen With Love," Shawnn pays tribute to the artistry of the legendary – but often overlooked – jazz vocalist, Carmen McRae. But Monteiro, who's earthy voice and masterful phrasing is reminiscent of McRae's, chose McRae for a few very good reasons.
"My dad, Jimmy Woode," she explains, "played bass with Carmen for quite a while, and my godfather, trumpeter Clark Terry did also. I used to listen to them tell stories about their time with Carmen and it was fascinating."
The influence of Carmen's music and the direct connection to it takes Monteiro's tribute to the next level. With a similar singing style, the same, spare three-piece band, and a love of the repertoire, Monteiro made it a mission to bring greater attention to the amazing craft and music of McRae.
"I really want Carmen to be heard," she says. "She was just a great entertainer, a great singer."
On "To Carmen With Love," Monteiro is helping to do just that. In preparing the album, which was produced by Monteiro and Mike Renzi, Shawnn took great care in choosing the songs she had a feeling were special to the singer. She sifted through her own three-dozen-plus recordings by McRae, and pinpointed the songs that kept popping up in their grooves: "That Old Black Magic," "Lamp Is Low," "Old Devil Moon," "Nice Work if You Can Get It," and "I Have the Feeling I've Been Here Before." A few years ago, a former band mate presented Shawnn with a DVD of McRae's last performance, recorded back in 1986. "All the tunes I loved were on it," she says, and their inclusion convinced Shawnn she was on the right track. "She had a love in her heart for them, obviously."
And so does Shawnn.
Along with recording and gigging, Monteiro shares her love for McRae and jazz in general as an adjunct professor at Rhode Island College and the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford. Not only that, she deepens her commitment to the genre by giving master classes in jazz vocals all over the world – including in Italy, France, Croatia, Spain and more. She takes teaching as seriously as singing.
"I teach them about this thing we call jazz. It's our American art form. I turn my students on to this music, and they say, 'Oh my God! We've never heard this! And I tell them, 'Unless you pass it on, it's going to die.'"
On "To Carmen with Love," Monteiro is doing her part and much more in keeping the glow of jazz alive. It's in her heart, it's in her performance, and it's in every note she sings.
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- Adventure
- Blog
50 Years on Everest
We often use the New Year to reflect on the year before and instill a new resolve for the year to come. For 2013, this year marks 50 years since Americans first stood atop our world's highest peak. The climbs on Mount Everest in 1963 stand alone in climbing history and continue to inform our future.
The conquest of Everest opened a new world of exploration to generations of Americans. Six years before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's famous 1969 moon walk, Jim Whittaker touched down on the summit of Mount Everest. Supported by 19 Americans, 32 Sherpas, and 909 porters carrying 27 tons of gear, and expedition leader Norman Dyhrenfurth, Whittaker's footfall on the summit—with Sherpa partner Nawang Gombu—benefitted from the latest technology, years of scientific research, and incredible teamwork and sacrifice.
Days after Whittaker's historic ascent, two other team members, Dr. Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, went on to complete the first traverse of Everest via a groundbreaking and difficult new route on the West Ridge. Together these men brought dreams of high mountains and outdoor recreation to the common citizen like nothing before in American history. Before 1963, mountaineering and alpinism was a pursuit largely dominated by Europeans and people with money. Gaining membership to institutions such as the Explorer's Club, National Geographic Society, or even the American Alpine Club was as much about pedigree as it was about competency.
Whittaker, Hornbein, Unsoeld, and the rest of the 1963 Everest Team humanized mountaineering by proving that anyone could attain the world's highest summit. They were all working men: Whittaker was a mountain guide, Hornbein a physician, Unsoeld a teacher. Climbing Everest did as much for outdoor participation as the moon landing did for stoking young people's interest in the sciences—it inspired a whole generation to get outside. To this day I encounter climbers who were originally inspired by that expedition.
Before 1963 the concept of "outdoor industry" more likely produced visions of logging and natural resource extraction than camping equipment or kayaks. Today, the Outdoor Industry Association estimates that 140 million Americans make outdoor recreation a priority in their daily lives. The outdoor recreation economy is valued at roughly 646 billion and supports over 6 million American jobs. In fact, the first full-time employee of our country's largest outdoor outfitter, Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), should come as no surprise: Jim Whittaker.
Today we still struggle with the concept of accessibility to the outdoors—only now there are crowds. The situation on Everest comes under greater scrutiny with each year's record attendance, lack of compassion for other climbers, and an unacceptable number of deaths attributable to human error. We've come a long way since these great men opened the doors for us 50 years ago, and now we must think critically about how we will shape the next 50. Conservation, education, community, and teamwork are the answers that remain central to the future of outdoor recreation.
The American Alpine Club remains committed to mountain experiences by creating a positive relationship between use and conservation. It is only through coming together as a community that we will be successful in saving the places that have given us so much. In February, the American Alpine Club will host an evening in San Francisco to celebrate the last 50 years with the remaining living members of original 1963 American Everest Expedition. We welcome all to join us in celebrating these extraordinary men—and to decide how we will uphold their legacy during the next 50 years.
About The 50th Everest Anniversary Celebration:
Join the American Alpine Club for a special evening celebrating 50 years of Americans on Everest. Connect with living legends from the 1963 American Everest Expedition—and the generations of climbers who have been inspired since—during this rare reunion. This event is a fundraiser for the American Alpine Club and open to the public.
Original 1963 Expedition Team members planning to be in attendance:
Allen Auten
David Dingman
Norman Dyhrenfurth
Tom Hornbein
Maynard Miller
Jim Whittaker
- Nat Geo Expeditions
When: February 22 – 23, 2013
Where: Craneway Pavilion, East Bay of San Francisco, CA
What: Gala dinner event with presentations by the 1963 Everest expedition team
For more information visit http://www.americanalpineclub.org/p/2013_annual_benefit_dinner_weekend
About Phil Powers
Phil Powers joined the American Alpine Club as executive director in May of 2005. His previous experience in the non-profit world includes service as vice president for institutional advancement at Naropa University and seventeen years with the National Outdoor Leadership School as chief mountaineering instructor and development/partnerships director. He remains an owner of Jackson Hole Mountain Guides. Powers is author of Wilderness Mountaineering and Climbing: Expedition Planning. His essay, "The Importance of Pace", was aired on NPR's "This I Believe" in 2006. Powers has led dozens of expeditions to South America, Alaska and Pakistan's Karakoram Range, including ascents of K2 and Gasherbrum II without supplemental oxygen. He made the first ascent of the Washburn Face on Denali, naming it in recognition of the impact longtime AAC member Bradford Washburn's photos had in the planning and route research of many Alaska climbs. Powers also made the first ascent of Lukpilla Brakk's Western Edge in Pakistan, and the first winter traverse of the Tetons' Cathedral Peaks. He continues to be an active climber and skier. He lives with his wife and children in Denver, Colorado.


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Found 2 results in 7 milliseconds.
The Chair Family Entrepreneurship and Society of Audencia Business School and the Group Entrepreneurship Society Transformations of University of Quebec in Montréal invite you to the 3rd Paper
For 20 years, Audencia has been strongly committed to entrepreneurship and now has a team of seven entrepreneurship faculty members. So it is quite naturally that during three days on last April (from


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The Secret Beyond Matter
Erzincan Can TV, July 14-2008
Adnan Oktar: The European Union is a very good union, and a very necessary one. Turkey must enter, but not like this; as the leader of the Turkish-Islamic Union. TURKEY SHOULD ENTER AS A SUPER STATE ACTING AS A BRIDGE TO EUROPE. THEN THE EUROPEAN UNION BECOMES A THOUSAND WHEN ONE. AMERICA BECOMES TWO THOUSAND WHEN ONE THOUSAND. THEY WOULD DEVELOP IMMENSELY. Russia would feel relieved, China would feel relieved. The neighbors would feel relieved. Israel would become all joyful. The Middle East would be like Heaven for them. They would be very comfortable. The best country to deliver peace, comfort and love is Turkey. This was like this in the Ottoman period, and in this period also. Allah has appointed this nation insha'Allah.
Gaziantep Kanal 5, September 22-2008
Adnan Oktar: Let's enter the European Union with glory and honor. Let's enter as the leader of the Turkish-Islamic Union. Otherwise, entering the European Union and asking them for funds and job, is not something appropriate for the Turkish Nation. An attitude as in we need to be saved, is not fit for us. We go to save them. We give them funds, we offer them economic means, and we enter as a leader. WE OFFER THEM THE RICHNESS AND POWER OF THE WHOLE OF ASIA AND ISLAMIC COUNTRIES. WE OFFER THEM THEIR OWN TECHNICAL MEANS ALSO. WE ACT AS A BRIDGE. Just like I said, I appreciate the art, science and culture of Europe. I appreciate their positive culture and art. I like their architecture. I have great respect for them in that sense. I appreciate their democracy and understanding of freedom. They should even be more democratic and free. And I would like Turkey to accept European democracy and even to better them. I want us to enter the European Union in that sense.
John Esposito, a member of the High Level Group of the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations, denoted that Turkey has an important role in relations with Islam and the West, and this is because of the geopolitical condition and historical roots of Turkey. John Esposito also said: "Turkey's role is with what it does, not with what it says. Turkey can be a bridge between the West and Islam. Obama also came to Turkey with this understanding. He gave his message to the Islam world from here.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan gained an award in Saudi Arabia. This is also very important in showing the role of Turkey in the region.


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Between Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the unending onslaught of online deals, there is another holiday shopping day that might get lost in the shuffle: Small Business Saturday. This year marks the second annual such event, a new tradition that tries to steal some addition from chain retailers and big e-commerce sites and give it to local vendors.
And this year, the fledging ritual is getting some serious attention from social media sites. Facebook, Twitter, and Google have all pledge their efforts in support, offering and encouraging small business owners to use their sites' tools to promote shopping this weekend.
Local retailers aren't the only ones who stand to benefit this weekend. What happens to consumers who want the discounts but sans the chain names (that are sometimes attached to controversy) they go hand in hand with? Small business Saturday can fill that void along with the help of some geo-social applications.
Foursquare has been at the top of the social-meets-location game since it began, and Small Business Saturday will be no exception. If you have an American Express card, sync it to your Foursquare account following these directions. Then when you check-in to shops who have partnered with the service via Foursquare on Saturday, you will see a button that says "load to card." Then when you spend at least $25 or more at the participating store, you'll get a notification saying $25 was credited to your Amex account. American Express is a sponsor of Small Business Saturday, so ratcheting up sales is in its best interest, but turns out they're willing to compensate you for helping make the event a success.
The purveyor of all things handcrafted is a natural fit for small business Saturday—and will appeal to those who want to buy "local" without leaving their living rooms. Just searching "Small Business Saturday" on the site brought up a slew of items that will be on sale this weekend, and this blog catalogued some of the best e-shops on the site that offered discounts last year.
Daily deal sites
While the likes of LivingSocial and Groupon tend to offer food and spa deals, the occasional local retailer pops up. Between now and Small Business Saturday, a minimal amount of homework and creating an account with one (or all) of these sites could save you some Monday. We'd advise getting with something like The Dealmix, which collects a large variety of all these local deals. Keep an eye out on any of these applications for vendor or shop deals in your area. Then make a call or check Facebook to see if they are participating in Small Business Saturday. Then add those savings to whatever discount the daily deal site was offering. Of course, you should check that you can use coupons during the Saturday sale.
Facebook is offering a slew of tools for small businesses to take advantage of, but the site is also catering to consumers. Check out the Small Business Saturday Facebook page and you'll have access to a variety of information, including city guides for optimizing your local shopping in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, as well as organized events in cities nationwide. Some of them include raffles, free gift wrapping, Santa visits for the kids, and community breakfasts.
Be sure to follow your favorite local business on Twitter, if you haven't already. We're sure a great many of these sites will have implemented a Follow button (one of the tools in the Small Business Saturday kid), and will be using the hashtags #ShopSmall, #ShopSmallNov26, #SmallBizSaturday and #SmallBusinessSaturday to spread word of their discounts this weekend.


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Shane McAdams, "Synthetic Landscape 59 (Jaundiced Dusk)."
Ball point pen, oil and resin on panel. 2012.
IT WAS AS IF GOD had decided to put to the test every capacity for surprise and was keeping the inhabitants of Macondo in a permanent alternation between excitement and disappointment, doubt and revelation, to such an extreme that no one knew for certain where the limits of reality lay.
— Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
In Cocodrie, Louisiana, the boats appear more solidly built than the homes, perhaps because the houses all rest on stilts to avoid being washed away by storm surges. The land here fades into the murky waters of the Mississippi River's delta, with no clear end until suddenly you are out of the marsh grass-lined channels and into the darker blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The boats are more solid for a reason: fishing. Terrebonne Parish, which encompasses Cocodrie and many other towns like it, hauls in roughly 20 percent of Louisiana's seafood catch, which, in turn, is the nation's largest.
That seafood bounty relies on a vast wetland estuary that has been slowly but surely turned into the largest oil and gas complex on the planet over the last century. All in service of the American high-octane lifestyle, which encompasses everything from hurtling around inside large chunks of steel to eating seafood dragged out of the sea by diesel power.
The American fondness for both oil and shrimp came into direct conflict in April of 2010 when, as you may recall, oil giant BP suffered a massive blowout at its aptly named Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, sinking the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and killing eleven workers. Was it a case of ignorance, the naming of that well, a random selection or dark humor? To be sure, after the spill began, nobody knew where the "limits of reality lay." Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, and the leak on the seafloor could not be capped. All told, five million barrels spewed into the Gulf — or less oil than runs off the nation's parking lots after rainstorms each year.
Naturally, books have been written to plumb the depths of BP's catastrophe, if not so much the ever-deepening oil addiction — in the memorable words of oil-man turned President, George W. Bush — that made it possible. Joel Achenbach's A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea, for example, explores why the damn hole was so hard to plug, as it mesmerizingly spewed oil day after day on a live Webcam. The simple answer is that we have reached the end of easy oil. We are now, quite literally, in uncharted waters when it comes to searching for petroleum, our addiction (and environmental prohibitions) driving us farther offshore and into deeper and deeper seas.
The Macondo well lay nearly a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, and spewed more than 50,000 barrels a day into the deep sea from leaks in its 450-ton "blowout preventer," which signally failed to prevent the blowout. Pressures and temperatures at that depth meant no human could ever approach the well directly, instead relying on the clumsy ministrations of robot submarines to attempt various patches and fixes. For all its accessibility, Macondo may as well have been on the moon. "The paramount rule of Macondo," Achenbach writes, is "nothing goes right."
It took American know-how to show the world how to use petroleum, first to save the whales by replacing blubber as a lighting fuel and then to power the Age of the Automobile that is still ongoing as the world races toward 2 billion cars. But our massive oil habit requires a lot to go right to provide humanity with 87 million barrels of oil per day, which is perhaps the enduring font of petroleum's essential mystery. The substance itself, a toxic stew of hydrocarbons first used to caulk boats and provide eternal flames for worship, is unrecognizable to most of the Americans who rely on it to power their lives.
Everything about oil remains, mostly, magical: how it is "produced" from wells that burrow miles into Earth's crust, or "cracked" into everything from jet fuel to the precursors of plastics and medicines. A million years of geologic stewing is required to cook fossilized algae into petroleum and yet we use a barrel of this substance worldwide each and every second. Perhaps most telling in this consumer-savvy age is how little we understand what exactly controls the price of this lifeblood of modernity, though most of us see the derivative of that price on gas station signage everywhere — the precision of that number a taunting reminder of our cluelessness.
Shane McAdams, "Synthetic Landscape (Lichen)." Ball point pen, oil and resin on panel. 2012.
Without oil, life as we know it is impossible. With oil, life as we know it is impossible. Even as oil remains a blessing, it is also becoming more and more of a curse, whether destroying lives in far-flung places like Siberia or the Niger Delta or filling the air we breathe with more and more heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Oil, in short, is an essential conundrum of our lives. "'That's some catch, that Catch-22,'" Captain John Yossarian marvels in Joseph Heller's classic — a work whose persistent relevance with respect to war (and other modern absurdities) I never fail to marvel at myself.
In The End of Energy, Michael Graetz writes :
"However acutely aware we may be of the price per gallon we pay, we take it as something close to a right of citizenship that when we drive an automobile up to one of the more than 100,000 gas stations in the U.S., there will be fuel for our cars and trucks in the tanks beneath the asphalt. Without gasoline, the country would not run, and so there is gasoline, and barring extraordinary circumstances, there is plenty of it."
As today's Scarlett O'Hara would put it, when forced to stick an ATM card into a gas pump and watch the dollars whiz by: "I can't think about that now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow." Only we never do, Scarlet. We never do.
During my visit to coastal Lousiana in the wake of BP's man-made disaster, the locals joked that they put copious amounts of Tabasco on the seafood to hide the taste of the petroleum. Fine by me: I scarfed shrimp gumbo by the plateful with a generous splashing of various hot sauces. I still don't know what fresh petroleum tastes like, though I may get another chance to consume it in Nigeria or Russia one of these days. Of course, in some sense, we all know the taste of oil given how much of it goes into producing nearly every calorie we consume.
The forces driving the oil conundrum are at once seemingly omnipotent and entirely, disappointingly human. At the time of the BP spill, the irony of the Macondo rig's naming was so obvious that even television news sources could not help but make, gasp, a literary reference. The idea of Garcia Marquez's cursed town was easy to latch on to, but it should not be forgotten that the Macondo of One Hundred Years of Solitude is not simply a place cursed by God, as a few commentators pointed out, but a town afflicted by the ambitions of man and corruptions of government.
And so I find myself in places like Cocodrie, standing at the southern limit of North America, nursing a beer, watching the land melt into the sea under the stars and wondering where the "dead zone" created by algae blooms powered with fertilizer washed off Midwestern fields begins. Or what oil might taste like, whether it has seeped into the marshy ground on which I am standing and, if so, how long it will be trapped there. There are algae born and dying this minute that will provide hydrocarbons for the fools of the future. Such is the life of a reporter in the Anthropocene.
In the end, the addition of a second blowout preventer on top of the blowout preventer that had failed to prevent a blowout sealed BP's Macondo well. But the risk of such accidents only continues to rise as we sink deeper and deeper into oil addiction. William Freudenberg and Robert Gramling's Blowout in the Gulf tries to explain what led to that addiction — and what enabled BP's blowout — as well as to suggest what might break that bad habit, and free us from such human and environmental disasters. But "our capacity to do damage," they write, "[…] may well have risen faster than our capacity to undo the damage."
The remnants of the oil that spewed for 86 days can still be found in the Louisiana marshes from Bay Jimmy to Elmer's Island. Hurricane Isaac may have stirred up memories by pounding New Orleans on the seven year anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina drowned the Big Easy, but the tropical cyclone literally stirred up BP's blowout in the Gulf of Mexico — knocking loose weathered tarballs hiding in marshlands and bringing them ashore again on the beaches so laboriously cleaned. For good measure, Isaac also finally washed away the berms once built to stop the oily tide.
Chronicling the Anthropocene offers that kind of job security. The work will literally never be done. After all, "Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing," as Heller wrote. I won't pretend the reporting doesn't come with its own environmental sins: CO2 injected directly into the stratosphere by flights criss-crossing the globe, coal burned to feed the server farms that keep these musings online, the fractured habitats required to bring me crappy, late-night hotel food, in addition to all that oil. I justify all this with the rationalization that I am educating and enlightening, helping to change minds and behaviors, maybe even playing a small role in ensuring a long-lasting and relatively benign Anthropocene, a new age that finds new sources of power other than the corpses of ancient algae or plants. In the end, that may just be another story, one I (mostly) tell myself. Why don't you tell me?


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A national anti-abortion campaign targeting African Americans has arrived in Chicago.
Thirty billboards are going up around the city's South Side. They say: "Every 21 minutes, our next possible leader is aborted." Next to the words is a picture of President Barack Obama.
Stephen Broden is with Life Always, the organization behind the anti-abortion campaign, which launched at 58th and State Street.
"The scourge of abortion has hidden behind political correctness in the black community for too long. The heinous practice is devastating and decimating our community across this nation," Broden said.
Life Always organizers said too many black women have abortions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black women account for 34 percent of abortions. The CDC says black women have the highest abortion rates. White women account for 37 percent of abortions. The Illinois Department of Public Health does not report the racial breakdowns of women who seek abortion.
A dozen black women showed up at the billboard's unveiling, chanting that black mothers have the right to make choices about their bodies. Critics also say the billboards are racist and shame black women.
In a statement, Gaylon Alcaraz, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, said "It's clear those who fight abortion against reproductive choice for women of color know nothing of why women choose abortion. Rather than create fake concern for a community these people have never set foot in, Life Always should spend their energies helping us address the reasons why women decide to choose abortion."
Life Always has been met with controversy since it kicked off its campaign last month in New York City. The group is also targeting Planned Parenthood for offering abortions in black communities. Planned Parenthood officials say fewer than 10 percent of its services are abortion; the other 90 percent are preventative services, including cancer screenings and STD testing/treatment.


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Research led by Queen Mary, University of London has found that having asthma is not linked to poorer scores in national school examinations. In contrast, ethnicity and social deprivation were associated with poorer educational outcomes in the study, published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Long-term conditions in childhood – of which asthma is now the most common – may have a major impact on educational performance. However, in one of the world's first studies to link health, housing, benefits and educational data in over 12,000 children, researchers from Queen Mary, University of Edinburgh and Mayhew Harper Associates found no detrimental effect of asthma on educational outcomes.
The research will provide considerable reassurance to children, parents, teachers and policymakers that asthma should not adversely impact on educational performance.
Chris Griffiths, Professor of Primary Care at the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, at the Blizard Institute, part of Queen Mary University of London, said: "We wanted to test whether asthma is linked with poorer academic achievement as this could affect a child's chances of success later on in life. Instead we found children with asthma did as well as, or slightly better than their peers in these tests.
"These findings will reassure parents of children with asthma - and teachers. Policymakers should target social deprivation and ethnicity in order to improve our children's educational attainment."
The research looked at data for 12,136 children from 97 schools in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets – the UK's third most deprived borough. Each child had sat at least one national examination at Key Stages 1-3 over a four-year period. Researchers analysed the children's educational results alongside clinical, housing and benefits data to measure the effect of asthma, social adversity and ethnicity.
Social adversity was linked to significantly poorer results as were mental health problems and special educational needs. Bangladeshi children were found to have significantly worse results than white children, although this was not the case for those from other minority ethnic backgrounds.
Illness associated with asthma is particularly high in both deprived and multi-ethnic populations. This is the first large-scale study to assess its effect on educational attainment in such a population.
Malayka Rahman, Research Analysis and Communications Officer at Asthma UK, which funded the research, said: "On average there are two children with asthma in every classroom in the UK, and whilst this research indicates that having asthma is not linked to poor examination results, it is still important to note that asthma can have a huge impact on the lives of children with the condition. Asthma hospitalises a child every 17 minutes in the UK so it is crucial that parents and children receive support and understanding regarding their condition.
"We would be keen to see this research developed further in the future to explore whether severity of asthma has more of an impact on exam performance, which may mean that particular resources could be developed specifically for those who are most at risk to ensure that they are able to complete their studies to the best of their abilities."
Sturdy P, Bremner S, Harper G, Mayhew L, Eldridge S, et al. (2012) Impact of Asthma on Educational Attainment in a Socioeconomically Deprived Population: A Study Linking Health, Education and Social Care Datasets. PLoS One 7(11): e43977. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.
The paper is available to view online at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043977
PLoS ONE