Mehr als das Gold...

Original

Fixin Les Clos 1999

I have to many good bottles of wine lying around in my apartment. Most of them go way back, like summer 2001, 2 or 3. A lot were bought in the Bourbons-department. Those Bourgogne-wines are not supposed to lie around for ages, like some premier or grand cru Bordeaux-wines can. So, this bottle was a bit of a try-out (as I have 2 more left)...
And it is absolutely delicious! Fresh, like a young wine but with a long, fresh 'aftertaste'.

I think the other bottle should be drank shortly, as this is the top-quality (I think, not sure though...). But have 3 bottle from 2000 left, so enough to enjoy in the near future :p

Also a Dutch Blog...

It crossed my mind a few times before: I should Blog in Dutch, as that is my Motherlanguage.
So, now I claimed the address:

letatcest-nl.blogspot.com

A true change of species by changing the genome in one cell...

First genome transplant changes one species into another from PhysOrg.com

For the first time, scientists have completely transformed a species of bacteria into another species by transplanting its complete set of DNA. The achievement marks a significant step toward the construction of synthetic life, with applications including the production of clean fuel in as little as a decade.

[...]

All shall be well; and all shall be well; and all manner of things shall be well (Tod Wodicka)

Just started in a novel with an interesting point of view on life. I pre-ordered this work when I read about the author in the VPRO programming guide for radio and television. It was not published back then, but what I read about the author and his first work was interesting enough to buy without reading any reviews at all.
The interview with Wodicka is an interesting read: he dislikes youth-culture, he loves history but as he is a romantic and not a researcher he didn't start a study in Medieval History as he did not want to learn Latin and research everything so all is completely correct and scientifically accurate.
I've only read the first two chapters of the book now, but it is a very encouraging read, as I regularly escape into the past myself in my dreams...

The cover shows the An Old Man and His Grandson by Domenico Ghirlandaio. Burt, the main character in the book, often feels like the man in the painting.

Tourism (by Nirpal Sing Dhaliwal)

Tourism, I borrowed the book from a friend of mine who was definately quite fond of the harsh style, the filth and the fast pace of writing.
I must say that I didn't dislike the read, but it was not what I expected. The main character 'Puppy' is not likable. That is not a problem. The thing is that most of the characters in the book are not that interesting, although the contemporary view on modern life in London City is interesting.
After all, not a bad read, but not a must-read.

Train tickets..

In the Netherlands it is still NOT possible to use a credit card to buy train tickets from a machine.. If you are 'lucky' there is a point of sale which is manned by a human being. For the use of this service you pay an extra fifty cents on top of the price of your ticket.. Oh and this only works if you are so lucky to have actual cash money. I don't understand this at all.

Bridging art and vandalism ;)

At first I thought that I was looking at some simple dead-body lookalike joke. But look a bit closer :)

Slashdot | The Big Bang Vs. the Big Rumble

Slashdot | The Big Bang Vs. the Big Rumble WBUR radio in Boston hosts a talk with two physicists, Alan Guth and Neil Turok, who represent, respectively, the consensus theory of the inflationary Big Bang and an upstart theory of the initiation of the universe in the collision of two three-dimensional "branes." Turok and Paul Steinhardt developed their "Ekpyrotic proposal" out of the mathematics behind string theory. In the audio the two physicists are perhaps more respectful of one another's views than the host wishes them to be. If you ignore the "let's you and him fight" framing of the debate, you will hear some interesting physics elucidated.

I wanted to hear the discussion before posting on my blog... but haven't had the time yet to listen, but before the links get lost in a big pile of /. newspostings.. I blog it anyway.

Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, Encased in Glass

Just came across an article in the NY Times on the new museum in Hilversum on the Netherlands institute for Sound and Vision.

HILVERSUM, the Netherlands — It’s almost daunting to note how many young architectural talents are flourishing today in the Netherlands. If Rem Koolhaas, the profession’s reigning intellectual prince, casts a long shadow, it’s clear that plenty of emerging architects have managed to assert strong creative voices of their own.