January 2010

A New Kind of Middleman

January 20, 2010

As a kid growing up in a farming community I often heard talk of “middlemen”; usually in scornful reference to the perception that they inflate prices at the expense of the farmer. The first rule of The Market is that the entity closest to the consumer gets the biggest chunk of the margin. Hence retailers [...]

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The Cure for Technophobia

January 18, 2010

My favourite web hosting service, FatCow.com has a new ‘drag and drop’ function for building websites, which makes setting up a website (literally) as easy as 1-2-3: Click here to buy your domain name and a year’s hosting for only $66. Log into the Control Panel (using the username and password you selected), then click [...]

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No Time Like the Present

January 13, 2010

In a movie restaurant scene that (to wine geeks, at least) could be as famous as Sally’s fake orgasm (When Harry Met Sally), Miles takes himself off to a burger joint with his prized bottle – a 1961 Chateau Cheval-Blanc – which he proceeds to drink out of a Styrofoam cup. Up to that point [...]

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Angelic Red Snapper

January 12, 2010

I am usually loath to describe something as “the best” experience ever. Speed or distance travelled, weight and other such things can easily be supported by empirical measurement, but experiences are too subjective. Similarly, there is no such thing as “the best” wine, because scoring of wine is inherently flawed. Having said all of that, [...]

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Pondering Teenage Drinking

January 11, 2010

As the father of a rapidly growing-up thirteen-year-old I am being confronted with an avalanche of important guidance issues. Boyfriends are not yet on the scene (beware, boys!), but I am cogitating the issue of alcohol. Before I continue, in this moment I can see the allure of the fundamental application of religion. If one [...]

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