Mini Polenta Lasagnas with Rosemary Tapenade

Lyra has gone gluten-free, which has inspired her to start creating some amazing recipies. This was outstandingly delicious...

NY Times: FISA law was a wider power grab

Remember how Bush rammed through a FISA reform bill in just five days? Remember how just when the Dems thought they had a deal Lucy - er, Bush - pulled the football? Remember how there wasn't enough time to fine-tooth comb the bill to find out what they were REALLY authorizing?

Dig this, my friends:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 — Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said.

(More...)

This is what The New York Times is reporting in tomorrow's paper. You'll be shocked, shocked, to learn that the administration put things in the bill they weren't telling anyone about.

Or perhaps you'll be reassured by the Admin's statement:

But they said the Democrats were simply raising theoretical questions based on a harsh interpretation of the legislation.

They also emphasized that there would be strict rules in place to minimize the extent to which Americans would be caught up in the surveillance.

Considering the track record of this bunch, I am not terribly reassured.

Here's the really fun part:

Several legal experts said that by redefining the meaning of "electronic surveillance," the new law narrows the types of communications covered in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, by indirectly giving the government the power to use intelligence collection methods far beyond wiretapping that previously required court approval if conducted inside the United States.

These new powers include the collection of business records, physical searches and so-called "trap and trace" operations, analyzing specific calling patterns.

For instance, the legislation would allow the government, under certain circumstances, to demand the business records of an American in Chicago without a warrant if it asserts that the search concerns its surveillance of a person who is in Paris, experts said.

Note that the administration has already lied and dissembled about the extent of surveillance. They have also nitpicked tiny word differences to allow them to do anything they damn well please. And of course, they have also claimed that the Preznit's power as Commander In Chief bears no oversight or control whatsoever.

Which, of course, makes it worse. The Times also reports on a meeting last week with legal groups - looks like even Republican groups - critical of the Admin's wiretapping power-grab.

At the meeting, Bruce Fein, a Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration, along with other critics of the legislation, pressed Justice Department officials repeatedly for an assurance that the administration considered itself bound by the restrictions imposed by Congress. The Justice Department, led by Ken Wainstein, the assistant attorney general for national security, refused to do so... It sent the message, Mr. Fein said... that the new legislation... "is just advisory. The president can still do whatever he wants to do. They have not changed their position that the president’s Article II powers trump any ability by Congress to regulate the collection of foreign intelligence."

So really, nothing that happened in Congress this month made a damn bit of difference.

Why Wired Gave up on Second Life.

Chris Anderson of Wired says he's given up on Second Life.

Well, partly it was the whole "there's nobody there" problem, which is of course just anecdotal. Like everyone else, I had fun exploring the concept and marveling at all the creativity. Then I got bored, and I started marveling at something else: all the empty corporate edifices.

Come on, this is silly.

Imagine if you judged the real world this way.
1) You go to a football stadium. It's empty.
2) You go to Coca Cola's Corporate HQ 6 am. It's empty.
3) You go to downtown LA at 4 am. It's empty.

You conclude, "What's up with this Real Life thing? There's nobody there!

(More...)

We have vast acres of land and millions of buildings in the real world that are empty part or most of the time. So?

By day I'd speak at marketing conferences that usually had someone pitching SL services, complete with staged demonstrations (the "inhabitants" invariably paid employees). By night I'd go back to the same places, which had reverted to ghost towns once the demonstration was over. I couldn't understand why companies kept throwing money at in-world presences. Were they seeing something I wasn't?

People don't come in response to a marketing message. People come because they want something to do.

Pong proved that you can give them something really simple and they'll do it.

Toyota has a national informational tour about Hybrid vehicles going around the country right now... they get people to stay and go through the information by making it part of a game, with a rewards system. It works.

People come back to bars, movie theaters, casinos, and clubs night after night because they are offered something to do. People do not go to empty buildings where nothing is going on - why on earth should they?

The point has been made that marketing folks are trying to apply the wrong models to Second Life... but look at my last point: People aren't even applying the basic knowledge they've gleaned from the real world in Second Life!

Search me?

Interesting. After several years of having trash sites show up in Google searches, I was wondering how long it would take for an alternative paradigm to arrive... looks like it's finally here, thank god!

From Eric Jones Garage Sale:

With the advent of MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Imeem and the flock, things are a changing. I work for an internet measurement company with a focus on competitive intelligence so I am lucky enough to scope the evolution of the internet in real time. It's not uncommon to see a website's traffic be 20-50% from search (google, yahoo, msn, live, mamma, etc.) However, more and more the social networking community space is... contributing the same if not more....

This is revolutionary. Now marketers are forced to be experts on human behavior much more than algorithmic behaviors..."

William Gibson will be in Second Life, August 2!

From "New World Notes"

At the beginning of August, the man who gave "cyberspace" its name and its imaginative texture will visit the place that probably wouldn't exist, without him. As it happens, one of Second Life's very first regions is named in honor of William Gibson. Tyrell Corporation, one of SL's first groups, gave the place that title, then proceeded to build Nexus Prime, an ever-changing city with gleaming spires above, and mean, untamed warrens below, on top of it. An ideal tribute to the author's work, when you think about it, so I hope Gibson visits Gibson.

The appearance is slated for August 2. To attend, you first have to be Second Life member (free at SecondLife.com), then join the SL group "Penguin Readers" or IM Jeremy Neumann.

So... what is this "Second Life"?

Pixeleen Mistral writes:

Allison Fass reports that the metaverse can be a “can be a weird, chancy place for real-life brands” in a story for the July 2 issue of Forbes, and notes that avatars enjoy having sex and playing pranks instead of getting warm fuzzy feelings about real life brands. What on earth are those avatars thinking of - don't they understand they are meant to be compliant RL marketing hype recipients?

This article has sparked a bunch of interesting discussion... here, here, here.
People are starting to ask: what the heck is this Virtual World thing, anyway? And how on earth can anyone make any money in it?

(More...)

See: "The Web", circa 1999.
See: "Television", circa 1959.

Until someone figured out commercials, Television seemed pretty useless... how were you supposed to make money on it?

The answer was, for the most part you didn't... you provided content that people wanted to come see, and when you had enough eyeballs, selling ads became vastly profitable.

When the Web came along, though, people just looked at it and said, "Well, we can't do it the same we do TV, so what good is it?"

You're not going to get the same TV-ad-sales paradigm in SL, either, but you'll get something new. It's all at that amorphous formational stage right now. Which means that some folks will dis it for being lame... and some folks will make a whole lot of money by seeing the potential and running with it.

Will everyone make money? Of course not. There will be Googles, and there will be Worldcoms.

Aid to Pakistan: Not One Dime for Common Sense

The US reputation, in both the mid-east and the world as a whole, is terrible.

But look - we have a chance to redeem ourselves! A killer typhoon has hit Pakistan, 1.5 million people were affected, with 250,000 homeless and another 300,000 displaced... now's our chance to stand up and show what a Humanitarian Democracy can do!

So... where the heck are we? Search the news, and this is all you'll find:

"CARE Australia contributing $250,000 in assistance to the pakistan flood victims..."

"...">So far Canada has pledged some two million dollars in funding for relief operations in Pakistan and the United States 380,000 dollars..."

More...

What are they thinking in Washington? We're spending $280 million EVERY DAY in Iraq, but when it comes to a little compassion (which coincidentally might help a lot in the hearts-and-minds battle) all we can come up with is $380 THOUSAND and one Red Cross worker?

AMERICAN RED CROSS SENDS RELIEF WORKER TO PAKISTAN

Manhattan resident answers call for relief aid after flooding and cyclones hit western Pakistan

Travis Betz, a member of the Greater New York Chapter of the American Red Cross, will be deployed as a Field Assessment and Coordination Team (FACT) member to Baluchestan, Pakistan and surrounding flood areas this evening to provide aid on behalf of the American Red Cross...

This at a time when Pakistan is already spiraling into chaos... doesn't somebody think it would be a good idea to try to keep thousands more people from falling into destitution, poverty and anger? Isn't that the perfect breeding ground for suicide bombers and islamic militants?

And at a time when the Neocons are beating the drums of war against Iran, ostensibly to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of the Islamic Republic, wouldn't it make sense to spend a million or two (the cost of ONE CRUISE MISSILE) to help prevent the ALREADY EXISTING Pakistani nukes from falling into the hands of Islamist Rebels?

Suburban Distopia

There's a big ideas-fest going on over in Aspen (probably without Scooter Libby and Judy Miller), and Ross Douthat blogs on the Atlantic website about Joel Kotkin's discussion of renewed urbanism.

The notion that Americans are moving back to downtowns in large numbers is a myth, Kotkin announced; instead, they're moving ever outward, into new exurbs and rural areas. The traditional unipolar urban downtown isn't going to make a comeback: Young couples with families can't afford to live there, and aging Baby Boomers don't want to.

I think a lot of this falls under the category of "Where I sit everything is fine, or at least I've convinced myself it is."
I'm sure his sweeping generalizations are true for some folks - probably all the people he knows - but are significantly less true for millions of others.
More...

Telecommuting, not mass transit, is the wave of the future... The suburbs are a triumph, not a torture chamber... Suburbanites are happier and enjoy a more vibrant civic life than other Americans, and it's not just bigoted whites hiding out in gated communities... Post-industrial society will look more like pre-industrial society than anyone ever expected.

Well... my writerly two cents...
Telecommuting is fine if you're a writer or a pundit.

It's not so easy if you are, for instance, a chef. Or a barrista. Or a teacher, or a police officer, or a doctor, or just about any other job that involves something more than sitting in front of a computer all day.

I've done telecommuting from the suburbs.

It sucks.

If you want ANYTHING, you have to get in the car and drive. And that especially goes for human contact - you can make your own coffee, read the newspaper online, but that's just not the same as walking to the corner cafe and reading the paper over a cup of fresh-brewed and chatting with the neighbors and meeting new people (some of whom may end up being useful business contacts, hey!).

I now live in Santa Monica, where I walk to the coffee shop, the bank, the movie theater, restaurants, bookstores...

I have a cheap semi-reliable vehicle for running around town (and there are also buses), and for longer road trips where I'm more concerned about breakdowns (and gas mileage) I have five car-rental locations within a few blocks of home!

The one thing we miss here is land for a nice herb & vegetable garden... but I can tell you first hand that most suburbanites don't actually indulge in getting their hands dirty in that way.

Even my brother and sister, who have very similar sensibilities to mine, tell me they simply don't have the time for a garden, not with families and three kids each. They spend too much time in the car - driving to and from work, taking the kids to soccer games, gymnastics, music lessons...

Sure, there's more space in the suburbs, but you pay for the space with TIME - hours and hours of your life that you never get back. It's a truism of real estate that "Land is the one thing they're not making any more of", but that's just not true; time is at least as precious a commodity, but most people, thinking they have a lifetime's worth of spare moments, end up bleading them away minute by minute waiting at red lights, or tied up in traffic...

Imagine if someone told you, "You live in the suburbs, but in exchange you'll die 10 years earlier, lose ten full years of life."

Would you do it? Millions of people do every day, unthinking.

More commentary from Iglesias and Atrios

Also... a good piece about Seattle, Portland and Vancouver

Season of Decadence

(Originally appeared in the Albany, NY Times Union)

Once upon a time, there was a magic, strawberries-and-cream place.

Gentlemen and ladies sipped champagne in the afternoon sun as they watched magnificent horses gallop by. They stayed in colonnaded hotels or large houses bedecked with fanciful architectural gingerbread. At night they danced and gambled and ate.

And ate.

This was the Victorian heyday of Saratoga Springs, in which everyone lived by Oscar Wilde’s dictum, “Nothing exceeds like excess.”

The Saratoga Springs of today is hearkening back to that era. In the land of the health-conscious, the fat-reduced and the cholesterol-free, Saratoga remains a haven of nostalgic decadence.

(More...)

Consider the creme brulee at Sperry’s, the narrow ‘30s-style restaurant on Caroline Street. A tiny, 4-inch ramekin sits on your plate, wafting to your nostrils the delicate aroma of caramelized sugar. Pick up your spoon. As you would with a soft-
boiled egg, break the sugar shell; dip the spoon deep into the soft yellow custard within. Shell and filling enter your mouth, the first crunchy and sweet, the latter smooth, creamy, rich with the flavor of vanilla fresh from the bean.

What you’re eating here is heavenly. Don’t even think of the ingredients: the egg yolks, the heavy cream, the sugar.

“When people come to Saratoga Springs, they want to do it up properly,” says Gustav Ericson, who for the past nine years has created the creme brulees, lemon meringue tortes, and blueberry bread puddings that have tempted the palates of Sperry’s patrons.

“Maybe Saratoga is a little indulgent,” he adds. “Myself, I’ll eat cheesecake once every six months. Here, we sell so much white chocolate cheesecake I can’t keep up.”
Beverly Cone, proprietor and chef of Beverly’s on Phila Street, agrees that sweets seem largely exempt from the emphasis on healthy eating.

“For lunch,” she notes, “I see them eating a lot more salads this year, more turkey breast, more salmon. Much less beef than they used to. But when it’s time for dessert they’ll order a slice of chocolate Chambord torte. They still go with the
chocolate. When they come here, they want to treat themselves.”

And it’s not just the summer visitors who come to Saratoga to indulge. Cone says that business (after a blustery, blizzard-filled winter) has been booming since April.

There are two types of dessert popular this season in Saratoga. On the one hand, you have what you might call healthy decadence: the fruit tarts, the raspberry confections. Beverly’s specialized in this kind of dessert, which combines the
healthful freshness of fruit with the caloric blast of French cuisine - like apple bourbon cake with bourbon butter sauce.

And then there’s chocolate. Chocolate exists for its own sake. A chocolate Chambord torte makes no compromises. It is decadence of the purest sort.

“The people who come out for chocolate always look for the best chocolate,” notes Peggy Boyl, the pastry chef at the Adelphi Hotel. Boyl, who now lives in Ireland, has returned to the Adelphi - the last of Saratoga’s grand old Victorian hotels - this summer, after a nine-year absence. She whips up several options for the lover of deep chocolate, including a chocolate whiskey cake that is an international treat, combining 14 ounces of Belgian chocolate with one-half cup of Irish whiskey.

This is chocolate as it’s meant to be eaten: a long, three-inch-deep wedge of midnight, closer to a fudge in consistency than any mere devil’s food cake. Garnished with ruffles of chocolate that Boyle makes by hand, this chocolate could be savored over an entire evening. It’s a pity most people can’t hold themselves back, instead devouring it in under 5 minutes.

At the 43 Phila Bistro, pastry chef Lena Favalloro has managed to combine the two genres of dessert, in a white chocolate raspberry tart with almond pastry crust.

White chocolate does not possess the strongest of flavors – the stuff is abjured by rabid chocoholics as little short of heretical. In this case, the chocolate is completely overwhelmed by the raspberries, but that’s just fine. The result is something akin to an extremely creamy, rich, fruit custard, with a blend of delicate flavorings, including the trace of chocolate and hints of almond from the crust.

Purists can split off either way at 43 Phila, as Favalloro also makes a sinful chocolate hazelnut coconut tart and a light, creamy lemon-champagne zabaglione. The zabaglione (pronounces zah-bah-yone) is another masterful marriage: tart lemon, fresh blueberries and champagne for that extra zip.

For the quintessentially Victorian experience, though, go for the marjolaine at the Adelphi, straight out of Gaston Lenotre’s classic text of French cooking, “Desserts and Pastries.” Thin layers of hazelnut torte are layered with three different buttercreams: chocolate, hazelnut praline and almond. Smothered in chocolate and garnished with caramelized hazelnut ornaments, this is not just a dessert, it’s an adventure. As the layers blend on your tongue the tastes shift and shimmer as hazelnut blends into almond blends into chocolate.

Try it on the back patio, sitting on a wrought iron bench. Look up at the open, star-studded sky above, and know: this is a true taste of heaven.

What's going on in Gaza?

Good article here. .

Money graph:

“I see separation coming,” Fatah legislator Muheeb Awwad sighed as he sat in his Ramallah office chain-smoking cigarettes under a portrait of the late Yasser Arafat. “Hamas is keen on establishing a mini-state in the Gaza Strip. What I'm worried about is that this idea is accepted by many sides.”

I'd been wondering what the hell was going on, and why the IDF was standing by and allowing this to happen. This could be it:

“All red lines have been crossed,” Mr. Awwad said.

He said that intellectuals were mulling over the possibility that the West Bank could enter some sort of confederation with neighbouring Jordan, leaving a Hamas-run Gaza to go its own way.

This has been an Israeli goal since Golda Meir's time (note: I'm a big SUPPORTER of Israel) - rather than have to deal with a Palestinian state, have the West Bank Palestinians confederate with Jordan (which presumably would keep them in line). It was a pipe dream then, it's probably still a pipe dream now. And somehow I don't see a radical, Islamicized Gaza as much of a step forward toward peace.

Going Solar

(Appeared in the Iranian Jewish Chronicle)

"Going Green" isn't just good for the planet – it's good for the pocketbook, too

We've been hearing a lot lately about "saving the earth". But the Jewish concept is much older. We call it "Tikkun Olam," and halachically, it's the idea that G-d didn't finish creation, but put each of us here to do our small part to complete the work.

One form of saving that's come into prominence this year is solar power. It saves energy, it saves money, and it's a growing part of the work to save the planet.

Technology has been moving forward, but the biggest change in the solar environment comes from the political side: at both the state and federal level, governments are encouraging people and businesses to go solar.

(More...)

Putting money where their mouth is

"California has shown some incredible leadership," says Isaac Hamadan, of Solar Energy Exchange. "The California Solar Initiative makes direct grants that cover 23 percent of your costs."

On top of that, the Federal Government provides direct tax credits for 30 percent of the total bill for homes and businesses (although home use is capped at $2000 right now). Plus, you can depreciate it over five years. And of course, it provides electric power, cutting your power bill by 80 percent or more depending your configuration.

"The cost of electricity is going up every year," says Abe Moradian of Beverly Hills, "so I think I'll get my investment back sooner than they think. Living here, my bills are particularly high. I've had months where my bill is $300, and months when I'm heating my pool where it goes as high as $600."

As president of AMC International, a trade consulting company, Moradian knows how to figure a balance sheet. But, he says, making this decision was about more than the bottom line.

"It's clean energy. And it's good for energy independence, and that's good for everybody."

Moradian is a pretty typical solar customer: he's doing an installation on a pre-existing home, with panels built on to the roof, plus he's getting a passive solar heating system built around his pool.

Pool systems run around $5,000, and can pay for themselves in just three years. Full-house systems run from $20,000 to $40,000, and can pay for themselves in 10 years or less. Plus, Hamadan notes, you can finance them with a home equity line of credit, they add value to your home, and they're property-tax-exempt.

Doing good and looking good

For those who don't relish the though of industrial-looking black panels overlooking their front yard – the past couple of years have seen some amazing new products hit the market.

"I now have solar panels that are terracotta colored, so they don't stand out like big black panels," says Rick White, or California Solar. "We specialize in photovoltaic panels that are integrated into roofing tiles. They match the roof, and they're built right in, totally integrated with the other roofing tiles."

Likewise, for those with shingle roofs, there are now solar panels that match those. The solar becomes just one component to a standard roof. Plus they last longer than standard shingles or terracotta – and unlike standard roofing which bakes in the sun on hot days, these panels take the sun's energy and turn them into power – making a significant dent in air conditioning bills, as well.

"The system panels I install are warranteed for 25 years," says Hamadan. "That's confidence. How long will they actually last? We think 30 years or more."

Becoming part of the system

One of the most exciting things happening now is what's called "Grid-tied" systems. With this setup, your solar system is linked in with the power grid. During the hot mid-day hours when you're generating lots of power, the excess flows into the power grid, actually running your meter backwards! You're credited for the power during the day; after the sun goes down, you pull the power you were credited back in from the grid.

You can also get a system with full battery-backups, so you can store the power yourself. Or, you can combine the two.

"The other cool thing," says White, "it'll manage your energy. Some people, especially businesses, are on time- of-usage charges – buying electricity during peak periods will charge you more than at 3 a.m. when demand is low. This system fills up the batteries in the middle of the night when energy is cheap, and then you use it during the day when energy is expensive."

Becoming part of the solution

It's nice when you can combine doing the right thing with doing the smart thing. Most forms of Tikun Olam are like that, when you look at them closely.

"I believe it's the future," says Hamadan. "It's the only way we can really survive – we can't move forward with all this usage of crude oil. Electrical demand keeps rising – we can meet that with solar, instead of building more plants that burn coal and oil and gas, and pollute the air our children have to breath.

"This is much better for the earth, and for us."

Going to Scotland for the Waters

(Published in Luxury Life & Style Magazine)

“Go ahead, try it.”

“Really?” I ask.

“Sure.”

The speaker is our tour guide at the Lagavulin distillery on the isle of Islay, off Scotland’s craggy west coast. He holds a long, snake-like hose that drops down from a pipe in the ceiling of this plain concrete room. Tapping the valve, he spurts a shot of clear liquid into a large copper ewer.

He ladles a little into my cupped hands. I bring it to my mouth. It is harsh, vibrant, crystalline, and redolent of the smoky-oily aroma of peat.

This is whisky, the raw stuff fresh from the still. The water of life, pure and unadulterated.

There are bars that have amazing selections on their top shelf; there are restaurants with cellars full of the most exquisite vintages. But you’re not going to get this anywhere else.



Nobody is sure if it was the alchemists or the monks who first started calling the amazing liquid they distilled from wine “aqua vitae,” or “water of life.” It was clear to them that it has some sort of animating spirit, though. When touched with a candle it burned with an angelic light, and when imbibed – oh, my! – it made men feel like little less than angels.

The Scotts who set up shop as distillers became particularly skilled. And the spirit they created – they translated “water of life” into gaelic and called it “uisge beatha”, shortened to ‘uisge’ and thence ‘whisky’ – has been particularly prized all over the world.

Paying a visit to Scotland is a perfect way to both refine that appreciation for those already delighted by whisky, or to instill it in those just learning. And a visit to Islay (pronounced “eye-luh”) is ground zero. There are three main Whisky-producing regions, each with its own character: Speyside, the main region along the river Spey with dozens of distilleries; Highland, scattered across the Scottish hill country; and Islay. On this tiny, heather-covered granite rock in the ocean, there are 4,000 inhabitants and eight distinctly world-class distilleries.


I start my pilgrimage on the south side of the island, with three distilleries that put out some of the most intensely flavorful whiskies in the world: Lagavulin, Ardbeg and Laphroaig.

There are five elements that determine a whisky’s flavor, and must be carefully controlled by the master distiller. The first step is selecting the finest locally-grown barley, and malting it. This involves sprouting the grain to convert the starches to sugars, making it sweet and intensely flavorful. Next, the malted grains are dried over a slow fire of peat, which adds the first level of smoky peatiness to the blend.

Peat is ubiquitous in Scotland, and particularly on Islay – this moss cousin grows thick on the ground in the damp atmosphere, building up over the years into a deep cushion, springy in some places and squelchy in others. In a land with few trees, peat has been harvested as fuel for centuries – cut with a spade into brick-sized blocks, dried, and then burned.

Peat also adds its distinctive smoky-rich flavor to the second element: the water. Here on the southern part the island the distilleries get their water from the lochs and streams (or “burns”, in the local parlance) that pick up the warm, rich aroma of the peat as they flow through it. The water is added to the malted barley to dissolve off the sugars, then transferred to great oaken or steel vessels called tuns, where it ferments over several days.

The fermenting rooms reek like... a brewery, the kind of smell you get at a frat house after a long weekend when too much beer has been spilled into the carpet. It will take a few steps to arrive at something more pleasant, since the fermenting only takes you to about 8 percent alcohol.

Next it’s time for distillation, a process that was probably first developed by the Greeks of classical times, perfected by Moslem experimenters in the middle ages, and then spread through Europe by alchemists and monks. On the European continent the monks kept the secrets to themselves, but in Scotland and Ireland the monasteries were busted up by Henry VIII, and the monks who were skilled distillers set up shop on their own.

The stills at each establishment are completely unique, the result of two or three centuries of experimentation, trial and error, and careful attention to the tiniest detail. The masters tell us that even such prosaic details as dents and dings in the smooth copper sheathing of the still have an effect on the flavor, and are carefully reproduced when individual copper plates have to be replaced. It’s hard to believe, but then, it’s also hard to argue with the results they get.

The fermented liquid, called “The Wash”, is fed into the base of the pot still and heated. The vapors of the alcohol rise up into the neck, where most of them are pulled off to condense via water cooling. Then the distilled spirit is run through a second still in a complex process – the first stage spirit (“the Foreshot”) is too harsh, and is fed back into the still, while the late-stage spirit is too weak. It’s only the stuff from the middle phase of the process that is suitable, and part of the job of the master distiller is to monitor that closely and know exactly which should be re-distilled and which is ready to be fed into that pipe that leads out into the filling room.

The fourth element is the casks. By law, all whisky must be aged a minimum of three years in oak casks - generally used barrels from Kentucky bourbon, although some use sherry or port casks for additional flavor. It is the slow process of aging that imparts to the whiskey its distinctive golden color, as well as mellow flavors from the barrels.

The final element is location - Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg are all right on the sea (for ease of transport back in the early days), and it does seem that some of the salty, iodine character of the sea air is absorbed by the whisky.

Laphroaig also has a special program, called Friends of Laphroaig. If you’re a true fan, they will endow you with lifetime ownership of a square foot of Islay; when you arrive for a visit you’re treated not just as a customer or guest, but as part-owner. And your rent will be paid promptly, with a dram of their finest spirit. (Not to worry, the other establishments will let you sample their wares as well, although not with quite the same flare.)


The distilleries on the north end of the island – Bruichladdich, Bowmore, Caol Ila and Bunnahabhain – use spring water rather than the highly-peated waters of the south, to produce a gentler spirit. But even so, the flavor is distinctive, and to many palates more intense than the whiskies produced on the mainland. And Bruichladdich, which was recently resurrected by a small group of private investors, is doing some experimentation, including offering a highly-peated variety that out-smokes any other brand on the market, and a fully-organic whisky made from some of the finest barley grown anywhere.

All that sea air and traipsing over the moors is bound to bring on an appetite, and the good news is: the Scotts have much more to offer on the culinary side than haggis. The Port Charlotte Hotel is the finest spot on the island for both room and board; nearly all accommodations look out over the ocean, and the dining room offers a delightful assortment of beef and lamb from local farms and locally-caught seafood. Try the venison, the big Loch Gruinart oysters with lemon and lime or the Loch Etive mussels. (and make sure to reserve your table, as it fills early). And after dinner, you can sample more whisky – the bar carries more than 100 varieties – and enjoy some local music by the log fire.

There’s more to Islay than food and drink, of course. The ubiquitous sheep yield a fine wool that the locals weave into beautiful blankets and, of course, kilts; there’s a fine golf course, if that’s your speed. And there are several ruined castles, from the day when the head of Clan MacDonald was known as the Lord of Isles and ruled all of western Scotland from his seat at Finlaggen.


Islay boasts the most intense whiskies, but there are hundreds of other distilleries, many worthy of a visit. Dalwhinnie is both the finest and highest of the Highland group, perched in a mountain pass on the confluence of old cattle trails. The two most popular whiskies in the world, Glenfiddich and Glenlivet, each offer tours and tastings. And Highland Park is a unique, wild, isolated outpost on the far-north Orkney Islands.

One advantage to a Scotland visit: the country is tiny! So you can, if you want, stay in the heart of Edinburgh at the luxurious Balmoral Hotel, do the distilleries as a series of day trips, and be back in time for afternoon tea at the Palm Court or a session at the Balmoral Spa. The Speyside distilleries are easily reached by car (just a couple of hours north), and Islay or the Orkneys are an even shorter “puddle-jumper” flight; you can also arrange for tours through the hotel.

Or you can take your time in the grand old peripatetic style. The Minmore Hotel is conveniently located right on the Glenlivet Estate, and was named “The Most Spirited Restaurant” in Saveur magazine’s top 100 list this year. They’re renowned for such intensely Scottish dishes as red venison topped with duck liver foie gras and red wine sauce with chocolate.

And the countryside is dotted with castles, many of which have been transformed into first-class hostelries. Inverlochy Castle was voted Best Hotel in Europe by Travel + Leisure magazine last year; the Loch Torridon Hotel was once a grand shooting lodge for the first Earl of Lovelace. If you choose to stay at the Kinnaird Estate – set within 7,000 acres acres on the banks of the Tay in Pershire, offering salmon fishing, partridge shoots, and a full restaurant and spa, you may not want to leave and go anywhere else!

That is, in fact, the hardest part of a Scottish vacation – leaving! But at least you can take a couple of bottles of the country’s signature spirit home with you, to sip by your own fire and relive the memories.

The Mobile Hybrid Experience

Sometimes we wonder how much what we do here ripples out into the wider world.

I was down at the Fiesta Hermosa this past weekend - you'd think that in the chi chi beach cities of LA you'd see greening everywhere, but of approximately 200 craft vendors, I only spotted a paltry two doing anything remotely sustainable; food was of the American Standard burgers and beer variety; and they didn't even have recycling bins for folks to chuck their diet soda cans into.

But just when I was feeling disheartened I laid eyes on a very cool visual - a 53-foot trailer emblazoned with the words "Mobile Hybrid Experience". Inside, a bookish blond in a blue Toyota t-shirt explained that this is part of the company's "Highway to the Future" project, and we're welcome to explore the interactive activities and games.

And as incentive, she handed each of us a little packet of organic basil seeds - there's a bar-code on each packet, and bar-code readers at each of the stations, so you receive 50 to 100 'miles' for each activity you do. Learn about the different energy contributions of hydrogen, gasoline, biodiesel, natural gas and electric vehicles, and you get enough points for a pencil. Hit a couple more stations, and learn about hybrids - how the lithium ion battery works, or how the breaking system pumps electricity back into the battery - and you've got enough points to have a tree planted by the Arbor Day Foundation. Play the driving game - okay, it's not really a game, more of a demo, but you're seated, there are foot pedals and a steering wheel, and a big video-game screen - and you have enough for the coolest prize, a self-generating flashlight that Ed Begley Jr. has made famous (shake it... it charges... it lights up!).

The prize system is brilliant, since most people coming through are motivated to get the flashlight and actually read through all the info, took the quizzes, played the games.

"Our average is 22 minutes spent, which is huge for event marketing," notes Mark Ulbrich, the West Coast road producer. "And we're getting 800 to 1,000 people a day to step back and look at how they're relying on finite resources, to look at other solutions."

And with the scanner system, Toyota is getting a huge amount of invaluable data - on what average people are interested in and what kinds of marketing pushes are effective in reaching them. Logically, they are taking the show on the road. Follow the link to find out how you can get your own Mobile Hybrid Experience.

Tikit to Ride

(Crossposted at EcoFabulous)

Honoring Friday seems like a pretty excellent thing to do and since we haven't talked about transportation in a while, I hope this rolls you into a great weekend. Biking to work is great for the planet and a great workout... but what do you do with the bike all day? Many commuters have problems with parking, storage and theft. So wouldn't it be great if you could just pedal to the office, fold up your ride and stash it under your desk? Now you can.

Bike Friday has been specializing in high-end folding bikes for almost twenty years, guaranteeing staying power. This winter they launched the Tikit, an ultra-compact two wheeler (though ultra compact is still lightly subjective).

Check out the video of it folding and unfolding on YouTube. Not only does it collapse into a nice, tight bundle, but the process takes less than three seconds! Even short-attention-spanners will love this.

Now, before you start making reservations for some extreme adventure, keep in mind that you are not going to be dirtbiking the Tikit up a mountain, or cruising to victory in the Tour de France. The wheels are smallish (they have to be), and because of the frame joints, you don't want to be doing any kind of high-impact riding. But that's not the Tikit's calling. The Tikit loves the supermarket, coffeehouses and bus trips. No need to worry about bike racks, roof racks, or having it stolen off the front porch.

The company is still owned and operated by the Sholz family - Alan and Hanz set up their Wright Brothers-like shop in the '90s, initially building folding bikes with the world traveler in mind. But they realized that they could have an impact on fossil fuels by encouraging folks to switch their commute from "hydrocarbons to carbs", as they say. And pretty chic to boot, minus the elephant-sized sack.

Twisted Sitter

(Cross-posted at EcoFabulous)
"This ain't yo momma's wicker," says designer/architect Bannavis Andrew Sribyatta of PIE (Project Import Export), and it’s so true. The forms of his singular seating are truly organic, from the Tonecoon, a peanut-form based on Thai flower buds, to the Sushi double-loveseat that looks like a thumb-impressed mound of sushi rice, to the womb-like Spacehog.

The materials are all natural and sustainable, including rattan, liana, bamboo and water hyacinth (the latter being an invasive and destructive weed that clogs Florida waterways – how great to find a creative use for that!). There’s an art-out-of-chaos element to his material patterns, and in addition to the standard fabric-like weaves, there’s a frantic fractal irregular interweave that is not only cool to look at, admittedly, to my surprise it is very comfy to sit in!

Doie as I Do

Indie design has been pushing boundaries... and the world has been playing catch-up.

Take Sara Kirsner, a California girl (Marin) who was drawn to New York by the Parsons School. She's worked with Marc Jacobs and Ann Taylor, but was inspired to do her own Asian-influenced line, Doie, while traveling in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Cotton lounge-wear was her thing, but she was moved to start using alternative fabrics when she learned about some of the not-so-friendly effects that conventional cotton has on the environment. When she discovered she could get jersey (a light, breathable fabric) made from bamboo fiber, she was totally blown away.

Why bamboo? It's incredibly soft, it's unbelievably strong, it has naturally anti-microbial properties (it's not so much sweat that gets you stinky, but the bacteria that feed on your perspiration - bamboo blocks that) and it's eco-friendly.

Cotton requires massive amount of water, tons of pesticides and a ridiculous amount of petroleum-based fertilizer. In contrast, Bamboo grows fast and sustainably without artificial assistance, doesn't require pesticides, and provides income to otherwise impoverished folks in the developing world without the kind of nasty monoculture impact that crops like coffee can have.

Oh - and it's cold-water washable.

Kirstner's new line, the Harusame Collection, adds some versatile Asian-inspired dresses to the already-successful loungeware, melding simple black with splashes of accent color; it's available at an assortment of online stores as well as bricks & mortars such as Fred Segal and Whole Foods. Makes me want to slip into something more comfortable.

Spring Into Equinox

(Crossposted at EcoFabulous)
It's doubtful that you would consider the Chevy Equinox a luxury vehicle (it is more of a tough little SUV)... but what they're doing with it is pretty ambitious and potentially appealing. Starting next fall, the folks at Chevrolet are doing a test-market of an all-electric vehicle powered by hydrogen fuel cells. This is the same power system as the definitively cool Chevy Sequel concept car. It is capable of 750 pounds of passenger/cargo payload, can travel 200 miles between recharges, and cruise at speeds of 100 mph (note to Mel Gibson: don't try this in Malibu). Unlike hybrids, no gasoline is involved - hydrogen unites with oxygen in the cells to make H2O. Power goes to the wheels, and the tailpipe spews out nice, clean water vapor. Of course, the hydrogen has to be generated at a plant somewhere and there are lots of questions about that, so this anything but a perfect system; but it sure could help improve the air quality in U.S. cities.

And speaking of cities... if you live in metropolitan NYC, DC or Southern California, you're eligible for this fall's test-market. Register on the website, and you could be one of the lucky Top Guns to put these cutting-edge vehicles through their paces on your daily commute. Hopefully this is not just another distraction by major vehicle manufacturers.

On a lighter note....

Brilliant.

He who knows and knows that he knows is a Teacher. Learn from him.
He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a student. Teach him.
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a menace. Avoid him.
He who knows and knows not that he knows is our Attorney General. Impeach him.

More on Christianizing the military

Navy vet: Chaplains tried converting me

By William Petroski - The Des Moines Register
Posted : Monday May 14, 2007 12:35:14 EDT

Navy veteran David Miller said that when he checked into the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City, he didn’t realize he would get a hard sell for Christian fundamentalism along with treatment for his kidney stones.

Miller, 46, an Orthodox Jew, said he was repeatedly proselytized by hospital chaplains and staff in attempts to convert him to Christianity during three hospitalizations over the past two years.
(More below the fold...)

He said he went hungry each time because the hospital wouldn’t serve him kosher food, and the staff refused to contact his rabbi, who could have brought him something to eat.

Miller, an Iowa City resident and former petty officer third class who spent four years in the Navy, outlined his complaints at a news conference in Des Moines on Thursday. The event was sponsored by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an activist group based in Albuquerque, N.M.

He described the Iowa City facility as an institution permeated by government sponsorship of fundamentalist Christianity and unconstitutional discrimination against Jews.

Got yer peanuts....

The ultimate American snack food has gotten a bad rap. From tasteless bags at ballparks to being banned at pre-schools nationwide, beloved peanuts have become the black sheep of the nut family.

But remember how much you loved that roasted aroma at one time? David Wolfe of Sunfood has taken that atavistic experience to a whole new level. He has recently started bringing in the most amazing Amazonian Wild Jungle Peanuts - quite likely the original ancestors to all the commercial nuts grown today - cultivated by the Shuar tribe of the Ecuadorian rainforest.

These little guys are beautiful to look at; long and lean, with deep chocolate-colored stripes! And the flavor? Subtle yet rich, aromatic and earthy - intense. If you've ever compared the complexity of a wild strawberry to the blandness of big, styrofoamy commercial strawberries you'll have an inkling of the difference.

Not only are they prettier and tastier, but they're a nutritional revelation - containing 26 percent protein (more than hemp or flax seeds!), including all 8 essential aminos plus methionine, plus a whopping helping of the beautifying oleic acid. And best of all - unlike nearly all commercial peanuts, there's absolutely no aflatoxin, so you can pack a sack for the kiddies without the worry.

Additionally, you can soak these nuts to encourage them to quicken (germinating nuts have more nutrients, and less enzyme inhibitors); toss them in the blender with coconut milk, lime juice and Thai basil to make a peanut sauce that is simply divine! Oh, and the added environmental/social benefit I relish - the Shuar people are fighting off oil development, meaning that every bag purchased helps them protect the land, too.

(Note: You can now get them directly from Wolf's source, ELFWholesale.)