Pandas Gone Wild!

For some strange reason Jono and his friend Josh wanted to be known as the guys who killed all the pandas, yes all of them. So I took it and ran with it and came up with this fake news article:


If you think about it long enough pandas are quite scary. Their cuteness alone is enough to make even the most hardened and reasonable person lose all control. The other day on NBC it was even demonstrated in an outtake reel covering the latest panda "boom" in China that these creatures are not as docile or cuddly as they first appear. Be careful.

Olbermann: 9/11

Another excellent special comment by Keith Olbermann on Countdown, this show has been a favourite of mine for years and it just keeps getting better:

MIssing: America

Chris just sent me this cartoon by John Sherffius from cagle.com:

My Letter to ABC

If you haven't heard yet, ABC intents to run a "docudrama" called The Path to 9/11 on September 10th which inaccurately attributes the causes of 9/11 to the Clinton administrator and Democrats. It's discussed in detail on Media Matters as well had being featured on Countdown last night(C&L has a video as well).

This morning I went on ABC and wrote this in their feedback section:

Please do not air Path to 9/11. It is a gross misrepresentation of the events leading up to one of our nations greatest tragedies and to exploit it for obvious political reasons is disgusting.

Furthermore please take down any "education" material you have related to the show.

If this documentary airs I will boycott your network, there are plenty of other non-blatantly biased networks for my entertainment purposes.

Some critics will probably cry about liberal documentaries like Bowling for Columbine or SuperSize Me, but the main difference here is that these are seen by choice. They weren't aired on public airways for the simple fact they don't have any real relevance other than pre-election propaganda. It makes me start wanting to buy Adbusters again to support the taking back of our public communications from the hands of easily influenced and greedy aristrocrats.

You can also go to the offcial ABC blog and make a comment if you'd like, although it's now "moderated" so only the comments that fit the shows agenda are put up there. I made one myself countering some of the Micheal Moore comments but I doubt it will make it up there.

No Wine Before it's Time

The inaugural meeting of Parvulus Vinum(Young Wine in Latin) is coming up tomorrow night. It's a club for young adults that my buddy Anthony and I thought up about a month ago and tomorrow night we're expecting about 15 people to show up and learn how to experience the phenomenon of wine. The meeting will cover the basics; regions, varietals, how to smell, taste, swirl, etc.

I picked up the bottles we're going to taste yesterday, some generic two buck chucks from Trader Joes and the other five bottles from San Diego Wine Company which is close to my apartment. We're aiming for the most common type our peers will see and taste, here's the list for tomorrow:

• Drylands 2005 Sauvignon Blanc - New Zealand - 91pts
  
• Alamos 2005 Chardonnay - Agentina - 89pts
• Gravity Hills 2002 Syrah - California - 88pts
• Smoking Loon 2004 Merlot - California - 84pts
• Echelon 2005 Pinot Noir - California - 88pts

The Wine Aroma Wheel is a handout and will help dramatically for people who have never truly tasted wine before and are at a loss of what they're attempting to taste.

Yesterday when I was looking for reviews of the wine I purchased (some of them were in the store but others were not) I came across two amateur wine rating sites, Corkd and Winelog.net.

Both sites are relatively new and don't have a huge amount of reviews, but as word spreads I have a feeling it will be an excellent independent wine resource site. I've signed up with Corkd and you can see my online wine journal listing on the right of this page. A few friends have also signed up and we're now "drinking buddies", which means we'll be able to recommended wines to each other, see what their cellars hold, and other common things. At our meeting we'll encourage members to join either site to keep track of their tastings and what other members of the club are doing.

Salut!

Berkeley

Last week I bought Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman, and since then I've been intrigued by the political activism in the 60s/70s, specifically at Berkeley CA. Tonite I was reading a good write up on the roots of the activist movements at the Berkeley Public Library site and I came across the Free Speech Movement leader Mario Savio.

Mario was the one who gave the famous "throw your body upon the gears of the machine" speech during a protest on lifting the ban of on-campus political activities. I found it on youtube and it ranks up there with I Have a Dream and other famous speeches of that era. If you haven't seen it before check it out:

Gay Marriage Killed the Dinosaurs

I think it's pretty self explanatory:

And a Lis inspired tribute paint drawing:


And a colourized version by Morgan: