Archive for August, 2009

A taste for Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay or a liking for Merlot or Shiraz can indicate more than just a preference in wines. It could also reveal personality traits.

New research showed that drinkers who preferred a sweet taste in wine were more likely to be impulsive while those who chose dry varieties had greater openness.

According to the Australian researchers, participants with a sweet taste preference were significantly higher in impulsiveness than their dry preference counterparts.

Researcher for Sheffield Hallam University added that apart from impulsiveness and openness, no other personality trait was significantly different between the two groups.

“There is some support for the notion that sweet preference develops early in humans and thus could drive the development of impulsiveness,” said the researchers

They tested the wine preference of 45 people from Sheffield in South Yorkshire and divided them into two groups — those who liked sweet or dry wine.

Each group was also given personality tests to evaluate their impulsiveness, empathy, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

The researchers said there is some evidence that a preference for sweet tastes fluctuates throughout life. It seems to be heightened during childhood and then declines in late adolescence.

Source: Reuters

Congratulations to Philip Steyn.

Philip is the lucky Facebook fan of the month and has won a Versus wine hamper.

Become a Facebook Fan of Versus and stand a chance to win wine hampers: Versus Facebook page

taxman

This week’s weird news wrap includes a tortoise dashing for freedom, a traffic camera from hell and banker making his house a church to avoid the taxman.

Tortoise made a dash for it

A 114-pound tortoise, part of the Zambini Family Circus performing in Madison, Wis., in July, escaped. He actually made good time on his dash for freedom, covering two miles in six days before being spotted.

Wicked job

Carole Bohanan was hired among 300 applicants by the Wookey Hole tourist facility in Somerset, England, in July to be its witch-in-residence, at a pro-rated annual salary of the equivalent of about $83,000. The witch’s job is to linger in the caves full-time during tourist season, looking like a hag and cackling.

Traffic camera from hell

Officials in Heath, Ohio, might have solved their budget problems. The town (population 8,500) reported in July that its new, six-intersection traffic-camera ticketing system issued 10,000 citations in its first four weeks. Science is on our side

In April, researchers at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City reported the ability to encase scorpion venom in “nanoparticles” that were somehow able to guide the venom intravenously to the human brain, to attack tumors, potentially doubling the venom’s success rate.

A team from Britain’s University of Warwick announced in April that it had built a speedy, fully functioning Formula 3 race car using biodegradable ingredients in the frame (including carrots, potatoes and soybean foam) and chocolate oils in the fuel.

Make your house a church for the taxman

Chicago banker George Michael, seeking to avoid $80,000 a year in property taxes, decided to call his $3 million mansion a “church” and apply for tax exemption as pastor, and in July 2008, his application was somehow preliminarily approved by the Illinois Department of Revenue. According to a Chicago Tribune report, the application included a photograph of the “church,” which was just a shot of an outer wall of Michael’s house with a large cross on it, except that the cross was later discovered to have been merely placed on the photograph in marker pen. In July 2009, a state administrative law judge finally reversed the earlier approval.

Source: newsoftheweird.com

As the title reads, this Wine Tourism Handbook is South Africa’s Ultimate Guide to the Cape Winelands full of useful and practical information you can use to visit wine regions, cellar doors and restaurants with the help of  maps and contact details for the wineries and more.

First thing the book does for someone like me who has been to South Africa before is it transports you instantly to the beautiful Cape Winelands region where small mountains adore as the backdrop for most of the vineyards and make them look picture perfect.

For a first time visitor, the book is an excellent companion and a complete guide to help understand the South African wines. It includes the history, the grape varietals grown, the environmental issues involved. It helps you understand the labels, wine styles and all the regions, Districts and Wards.

It also gives useful advice on the cellars where one can taste wines, tips on wining and dining and various wineland activities to help you make the trip well rounded. It does not purport to be exhaustive but is extremely practical for a first time tourist or even repeat visitors. For someone who is not much into wine, it might even convert them into wine lovers and value-add to their trip. It is truly a practical 101 type or course book on South Africa as a wine destinations.

Although the information on accommodation is too abridged, it does highlight specific wineries to visit due to their significance-historic or otherwise as also several places for stay because of their special charm. It does list the basics for a tourist though.

The Guide has been organized to help you traverse the various wine routes and not according to the regions. It starts with taking you through the Coastal routes-starting naturally with Constantia, Darling, Durbanville, Franschhoek, Paarl, Somerset West, Stellenbosch, Swartland, Tulbagh and Wellington. The accompanying maps are very clear and give specific location of the wineries in these Districts and Wards.

From there it takes you to the inland wine routes starting with Breederkloof, Klein Karoo, Northern Cape, Olifants River, Robertson and the capital of co-operative wineries- Worcester. Mountain Routes include trips to Aguilhas & Elim, Elgin & Bot River and walker Bay.

The book is in full colour and art paper with lots of pictures that make a very conducive reading. Perhaps for financial reasons, it is full of sponsored winery ads. Before it takes you to various wine cellars where tasting is possible, it helps a first time taster learn the basics of tasting sitting on your armchair in the privacy of your home.

Read Subhash Arora’s review: indianwineacademy.com

This week’s weird news includes World Peashooting Champions, combating gang crimes and a sleep walker who was strapped by his girlfriend.

World-Class Adolescent Endeavours:

Japanese engineer Takuo Toda’s paper airplane was certified in May as the Guinness Book record-holder for the longest flight from a single folded sheet of paper: 27.9 seconds. And in Witcham, England, in July, Jim Collins won the World Peashooting Championship, using a “traditional” instrument blowing at a target 12 yards away, but noncompeting ex-champion George Hollis once again drew the most attention with his homemade, gyroscopic-balancing, laser-guided peashooter, with which he won three previous championships.

Anti – Gang Crime campaign

Relatives of two British convicted murderers, claiming a breach of “privacy” under the European Convention on Human Rights, filed lawsuits recently against the Greater Manchester Police over a crime-prevention campaign. High-profile gangbangers Colin Joyce, 29, and Lee Amos, 32, had been sentenced to long prison terms, and the GMP, trying to turn youths away from gangs, created computer images on billboards of the two men as they might look when they are released, sometime after the year 2040. Their families were outraged. (GMP reported that gang-related shootings are down 92 percent since Joyce and Amos were caught.)

Failed Defenses

A woman in Kansas City, Mo., told police in June that the reason she had stabbed her sleepwalking 24-year-old boyfriend in the face was that she feared he would hurt her if she didn’t wake him up. (She said the man had also just finished urinating in her closet.)
In Britain’s Chelmsford Crown Court in July, Sultan Al-Sayed, 40, was convicted of peeping under the next stall in a department-store changing room despite his claim that the only reason he placed his face on the floor was to relieve pain from a toothache.

Source:newsoftheweird.com

An American widow is selling her husband’s burial spot directly above film legend Marilyn Monroe so that she can pay off her mortgage.

Elsie Poncher has put an advert on eBay to auction off the tomb in Westwood Village Memorial Park, Los Angeles.

“Here is a once in a lifetime and into eternity opportunity to spend your eternal days directly above Marilyn Monroe,” says the advertisement.

“In fact the person occupying the address right now is looking face down on her.”

The burial plot is currently occupied by the late Richard Poncher, described by his widow as an entrepreneur who bought two tombs from baseball player Joe DiMaggio, Monroe’s ex-husband, as the pair were divorcing in 1954.

Monroe died at the age of 36 in 1962. Poncher died at the age of 81 in 1986.

Bidding for the plot

Elsie Poncher said she would move her husband’s remains over one spot into a crypt intended as her final resting place if the sale was successful and she would be cremated instead when the time came.

Bidding for the plot opened at $500 000 and had reached $2.5m by Sunday. No one from eBay was immediately available to comment on the bidding process or to give more details.

Poncher told the Los Angeles Times that she hoped to raise enough money to pay off the $1.6m mortgage on her Beverly Hills home.

“I can’t be more honest than that,” she told the newspaper. “I want to leave it free and clear for my kids.”

The Westwood Village Memorial Park is home to many celebrities, including Dean Martin, James Coburn, Roy Orbison, Truman Capote, Natalie Wood, and, from this year, Farrah Fawcett. Playboy’s Hugh Hefner bought the crypt beside Monroe in 1992.

Source: news24.com

Is the workload getting to you, feeling stressed or too many Priority 1 assignments? Here is the new low cost way to cope with multiple Priority 1 assignments (lol).

Take 2 paper clips and rubber bands. Fig 1

Assemble them as shown on the picture. Fig. 2

Apply as shown in fig 3.

Enjoy your day.
This new office equipment will help you to reach the end of the day with a smile on your face!

Form: businessfunnies.com

Some “quick serve” restaurants are now adding beer and wine to their menus

Fast-food customers are hearing something new as they order burgers, pizza and all things fried: Would you like wine with that?

No one’s selling cases of McMerlot just yet, but a number of so-called “quick-serve” restaurants are adding beer and wine to the menu, partly to boost sales but also with an eye to amping up the ambiance.

“We simply wanted to create a different kind of dining experience,” says Jeff Harvey, CEO and president of Burgerville, a 39-unit chain in the Northwest which recently added wine and beer to one of its restaurants in Vancouver, Washington.

More than typical take-out
The trend comes at a time when “quick serve” or “quick casual” restaurants – a restaurant that has counter service but aspires to offer something more than typical takeout – are looking to attract cash-strapped diners searching for cheaper options, but not willing to give up the amenities of full-service restaurants.

Among the quick serve restaurants selling alcohol is Denver-based Chipotle Mexican Grill, which sells beer and margaritas.

Meanwhile, Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. announced in July that it will change the name of one of its existing stores in Seattle – to 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea – and begin serving wine and beer as well as coffee and tea.

For Burgerville, wine and beer was a logical next step in their program of using local ingredients to create monthly dishes based on seasonal ingredients.

Sales are up
Sales are up at the Vancouver restaurant selling beer and wine, but says Harvey, “That wasn’t our motivation. My measure of success is really more the dialogue that’s happening at the tables.”

At the three-location Shake Shack in New York City owners decided to sell beer and wine when the first restaurant opened at Madison Square Park five years ago.

The Shack even has its own beer, Shack Meister Ale, created by Brooklyn Brewery, as well as wines including Shack Chard and Shack Shiraz.

Like Burgerville, Shake Shack’s plans to serve beer and wine drew concerns it would create problems, particularly since the restaurant is in a park.

“Of course, the opposite is true,” Garutti says. “People hung out longer and made the park the safest it’s been.”

Serving beer and wine isn’t a step to take lightly. Restaurants need to obtain a license, which can be a complex and expensive process, and the servers must be 21 or older and trained to serve alcohol.

Source: food24.com

This week’s weird news of the week includes a underwear dress code for municipal employees , a politically over-correct translating policy and old classic.

Dress code: Underwear compulsory

The city council of Brooksville, Fla., by 4-1, adopted an appearance policy in June that requires all municipal employees to wear underwear while on the clock and to make sure it is not visible.

Politically over-correct

An investigation by the U.K. TV channel More4 revealed in June that local U.K. councils spend the equivalent of R600 million a year translating their documents into dozens of languages in the cause of “fairness,” even obscure languages that few residents speak, and even given evidence that, in dozens of cases, no one has ever tried to access the documents. Translations were found in Albanian, Bengali, Kurdish, Somali, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sierra Leonean Creole, Karen (eastern Burma) and Ga (Ghana), among others.

An old Classic

In early 1995, Chesapeake, Va., inmate Robert Lee Brock filed a $5 million lawsuit against Robert Lee Brock — accusing himself of violating his own religious beliefs and his own civil rights by getting himself drunk enough to engage in the various crimes that put him behind bars. He wrote: “I want to pay myself five million dollars (for being made to suffer from this breach of rights) but ask the state to pay it in my behalf since I can’t work and am a ward of the state.” (The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.)

Source: newsoftheweird.com

Backlabels of wine can sometimes be so misleading and it has some of the silliest and most unhelpful winespeak.

Why do people use such strange and bizarre descriptions and what do they mean by them? Are they helpful in any way shape or form for the average drinking Joe or Josephine in the street or is it just one more example of how wine folk try and separate themselves from the common herd?

Some of the silliest and most unhelpful winespeak is found on the back of the bottles themselves. I will concede that it can be tricky to convey the right information to your customers in the very small amount of space available, but why do so many winemakers waste this sales opportunity by writing useless and irrelevant rubbish? I have been conducting a little research with the contents of my fridge and a large retailer’s shelf and now, would like to offer my top five Back Label Blah Blah Blahs which, in my opinion, could be omitted with no harm whatsoever to the wine.

1. The ‘So what?’ description. Phrases that come under this heading include ‘Perfectly manicured vineyards’, ‘This winery is privately-owned’ and ‘the winemaker is meticulously detailed in his approach.’ Well whoopee do – for the amount of money I am paying, I certainly hope he is, but does any of this have any real relevance for what is going to end up in my glass? No, I don’t think so.

2. The ‘Blind ‘em with science’ description. Here we’re looking at things such as ‘The vineyard is not irrigated’, ‘low-yielding old bushvines’ and ‘maturation on the lees’. I’m not saying that this isn’t interesting if you know something about wine – the problem is that all these phrases were found on inexpensive, everyday wines and to the lay person, these mean absolutely nothing. These may be great features of your wine, but if you don’t say how these sorts of thing benefit the consumer, they are a waste of space.

3. The ‘Euphemistic’ description. As we all know, wine is a business and sometimes you need to do whatever it takes to make a wine sell. My advice is to be wary of any red wine which describes itself as ‘needing food’ because what they really mean is ‘dry, tannic and tough as old boots’. Hey, sue me, but you know I’m right.

4. The ‘Keep ‘em guessing’ description. Many people have an irrational prejudice against oaked white wines – how much longer can teeth-searingly, acidic Sauvignons rule the roost I wonder? No matter, the result has been that many Chenins and Chardonnays try and disguise the fact that they are wooded wines. So here is my shortlist of words which generally mean oak, even if the rest of the label doesn’t say it – ‘buttery, golden, toasty, rich, honeyed, brioche, baked, caramalised, toffee.’ Happy guessing.

5. The ‘Cover all the bases’ description. ‘Serve with seared tuna, smoked salmon, chicken, crayfish, creamy pasta dishes, grilled fish, artichokes, seafood risotto, oysters, white meats or parma ham’. Yep – think that about does it.

Versus Wines has a really unconventional backlabel. It looks quite normal but if you look closer and even read the backlabel you will know what I mean.

Here is the back label of some of the Versus Wines.

Source: wine.co.za

A new product called the Wine Doggy Bag has been introduced in the US.

The doggy bag is thought to have started out because patrons literally wanted to take home their leftovers for the dog. A combination of increased portion size served by restaurants, the cost of dining out, and the dismal economy have encouraged more people to avail themselves of the opportunity to take home their leftovers. This over time turned into what we now know as the doggy bag where diners take home food that they enjoyed, couldn’t finish and look forward to eating the next day.

It is surprising that with more people drinking wine today that there has not been the same demand for taking home the unused wine. I have noticed in BYOB restaurants that patrons frequently leave the restaurant with wine bottles (whether new or leftover wine would be hard to determine).

A combination of the economy, the changing state laws, and the popularity of wine have created an opportunity for an entrepreneurial company, Wine Doggy Bag to help all of us wine lovers to savor our last drop of wine. Now, according to Wine Doggy Bag it is now legal in all 50 states to take home your unfinished wine from a restaurant with certain restrictions depending on the state.

Wine Doggy Bag has created bags just for this purpose. These one time use bags are made in both 750 mL and 1.5L sizes for the purpose of sealing wine up (in order to meet some state requirements)

I think it is legal in SA to take home wine from a restaurant. Do you think a wine doggy bag will work in SA?

Source: corksavvy.com

This week’s weird news includes stupid criminals, a navy chief without a ship or sailor and a weird Real TV show.

World’s Toughest Job

Farah Ahmed Omar was appointed recently as chief of Somalia’s navy, which ordinarily would be on the front lines against the throng of pirates operating off the country’s coast. Omar’s job is difficult, though, because the Somalian navy has not a single boat nor a single sailor, and Omar himself has not been to sea in 23 years. However, he told a reporter he was optimistic that the piracy could be stopped.

Least Competent Criminals

A Polynesian man in his 20s was being sought as the robber of the Black Diamond Equipment store in Salt Lake City in June. He made off with some gear from the ski and climbing accessory store, but had originally demanded jewelry, as he apparently thought he was knocking off a “diamond” store.

Motorist Zackary Johnson was arrested in Athens, Ga., in June after pulling over a passing police car to inquire whether he had any warrants outstanding against him. No, answered the officer after a computer check, but he noted that Johnson’s driver’s license is under suspension, and he was arrested.

Turkey – Real TV

Apparently believing that religious competition in the Middle East is not exciting enough already, the television station Kanal T in Istanbul, Turkey, is preparing a reality game show for September release in which 10 certified atheists try to resist conversion by a priest, a rabbi, a Muslim imam and a Buddhist monk. The exact rules have not been disclosed, but the “winning” convert will receive an expense-paid trip to the holy land of the most persuasive religion (the Vatican, Jerusalem, Mecca or Tibet). According to a July Reuters report, Turkey’s Islamic Religious Affairs Directorate, not surprisingly, had vowed never to co-operate.

Source: newsoftheweird.com

The No. 1 wine trend for 2009 is trading down. The theory is that, given the failing state of the economy, you, the consumer, are expected to still buy wine but spend less money per bottle, thus trading down your aspirations.

It all seems a bit condescending, coming as it does from retailers, restaurateurs and wineries who conveniently encouraged us to trade up for the last decade, but in these troubled economic times – well, you get the picture: Cheap is in and Value is King.

While many wine drinkers will simply drink less, and likely less expensive wine, the goal should always be to drink better value wines. With a little luck, by the time the slump, downturn, slowdown and/or recession comes to an end, you will have become a more resilient, smarter, savvy wine drinker able to withstand any economic setback. Perhaps more important, when things get better you will be a much better judge of price and quality the next time prices escalate.

The point is that once you learn how to uncover value and enjoy drinking quality, value-for-money wines, you will become a much more confident and sophisticated wine buyer in the years to come.

Source: windsorstar.com

Next time you are browsing down the wine isle at your local supplier, take a closer look at the shapes of the bottles. Bottle shapes are all about tradition and many wine producing areas in Europe have developed unique shapes that are still being used for wines that originated in those regions. Let’s take a look at the 5 most common shapes:

A – This is the “Bordeaux” style bottle and is usually dark green for dry red wine and lighter green for white wines. Sweeter wines will mostly be in a clear bottle to show off its colour. This bottle is known for its straight sides and tall shoulders and is by far the most frequently used shape. Wines associated with this shape bottle include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Semillon.

B – The “Burgundy” bottle is slightly fatter with gently sloping shoulders and is generally used for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (sometimes even Shiraz). This bottle suits both red and white wine alike and has a dark green colour.

C – I am sure you will recognize this one as the “Champagne” bottle. This type of bottle also has sloping shoulders, but much thicker glass and a pronounced punt (the dent at the bottom of the bottle). All these features make this bottle much stronger than the rest, as it is designed to withstand a pressure of up to 3 times that of the inside of a normal bottle of wine. The Champagne bottle is used for all sparkling wines.

D – Commonly used for Riesling and Gewürztraminer, the “Alsace” or “Hoch” bottle is slightly more slender than normal bottles and ranges from green to brown in colour (with mostly green being used in South Africa). The wine in these bottles can range from dry, to off-dry, to sweet.

E – Being winter in South Africa at the moment, some of you might recognise this shape. It’s the bottle used for fortified wines. Most fortified wines (such as Port, Sherry and Muscadel) are packaged in these sturdy bottles, but sometimes with a shorter, fatter body. Quite often you will find that these bottles have a bulge in their neck – this is supposedly to catch any sediment when the wine is being decanted. Many of these bottles will be sealed with a cork stopper and not the normal long cork.

So next time you are doing a blind tasting, you might be able to narrow the wines down just by looking at the shape of the bottle!

Source: SA Wine Advocate

An extensive selection of free music downloads is the dream of any serious pop music fan. Legal downloading of most mainstream pop music requires purchasing the song in question. Many of the top sites offering music for purchase will offer an occasional song for free download. However, there are a number of websites that promote lesser known pop artists by allowing free downloads of songs. These are 5 of the best of these sites.

1. Jamendo

Free legal download site that contains music from new and unsigned artists from every genre of music. Users can search by genre and also by country to find new musicians from all over the world. Jamendo also contains a great user review section. Through the use of a recommendation system known as iRATE, Jamendo helps listeners find other music fans on Jamendo that have similar tastes. The site makes it possible for listeners to make donations to the artists you enjoy and wish to support.

2. FreeMP3Mail

Free legal download system in which the user creates an account by giving the site an email address and a password. Every time FreeMP3Mail posts new free music, the songs or albums are sent to the user’s email. All the listener has to do is click on the link and the music is downloaded. Although this limits a fan’s amount of music to choose from, it is a very simple way to discover new artists and bands.

3. AltSounds

Free legal streaming and download site split into two unique pieces. One half is Altsounds bands/music. In this, multiple genre-specific radio stations playing new artists can be streamed. Also in this piece of the site, new albums, videos and songs can be streamed and downloaded. Some songs may only be available for streaming. The other half of Altsounds is altsounds.info, which displays the latest news, reviews, forums and interviews on the website’s showcased artists.

4. ACIDplanet

Free legal download website where aspiring musicians use the Acid software to create and upload their music to the ACIDplanet website. By using the available software, artists can also edit, mix and produce their own songs and videos and make them available for free to online music fans. New artists can also create their own Podcasts and Vidcasts, as well as make their own pages that can include pictures, discography, merchandise, and latest projects.

5. ArtistLabel

Free legal music streaming site that has multiple charts to help listeners discover the more popular new and underground artists. This very simple website contains Top 10 charts for dozens of genres. It also has all-time, daily, weekly, and monthly charts pertaining to artists and songs. Countless genre radio stations playing new music available on the website are may be streamed. A daily spotlight artist is chosen in which a brief biography is given as well as some of the artist’s top songs.

Source: top40.com