consumer behavior

Calculating Consumer Happiness at Any Price

NYT - June 29, 2009 - great article on our assumptions of pricing and consumer behavior.

questing

last summer, at a parma house party at my place in tordenaso, my roommates go a keg of this ridiculously good german beer, ganter. since, i have been on a quest to find it... or any information about it... so far i have turned up a recent wikipedia post and their offical website (which is in german, making it not helpful). i'm thinking i will need to just go on an epic journey to the land of great beers.


ganter's website

wiki entry

s. african wines and burnt rubber

A Whiff of Controversy and South African Wines
NYT - June 28, 2009

STELLENBOSCH, South Africa — Suppose the wine label said: This fruity red blend is full-bodied with tastes of sweet mulberry, spicy mocha and burnt rubber. The aroma lingers like the skid marks at an auto accident.

South Africa is the world’s ninth largest producer of wine, an up-and-comer in the global marketplace, the winner of more than its share of accolades in international competitions. How, then, have some of its wines been linked to a stench commonly coughed up by a junkyard fire: the bouquet of burnt rubber?

Most of the answer lies within the lively prose of a British wine critic, Jane MacQuitty of The Times of London. In late 2007, she tasted a run of South Africa’s flagship reds and wrote that half were tainted by a “peculiar, savage, burnt rubber” odor. In a later column she called a selection of the country’s best-rated reds “a cruddy, stomach-heaving and palate-crippling disappointment.”

Here in the glorious wine lands of the Western Cape, where the grape vines grow against a backdrop of stunning mountains, her comments were infuriating and perplexing and even derided as loony. No particular reds had been singled out by Ms. MacQuitty. Exactly which wines carried the scent of smoking steel-belted radials?

“All of us were slandered by a very general statement,” said André van Rensburg, the celebrated winemaker at the Vergelegen Wine Estate.

Wine aficionados began taking sides: yes, there is definitely a telltale rubbery odor, and no, it is all in your imagination. South Africans who dismissed the criticism were demeaned as burnt rubber denialists. Worse, they were accused of “cellar palate,” being so accustomed to tainted wine that their taste buds now welcomed it.

read the rest>>

lame

across the universe... kind of cheesy... kind of bad... kind of a waste of two hours. i like the beatles as much as the next guy, but i would much prefer to just listen to them for two hours than watch broadway-esk solo versions of all their songs forced together into a cheesy plot that looks like a bad pink floyd video remake. some great things should just be left to stand alone.

tide of the dead

...title of the zombie movie i plan on making. ocean. zombies. undertow. terror. need i say more?

new_shoes

finally bought another pair of new balances today... i've had the 903s since last fall (and have since trained and run boston)... so it is definitely time to buy a pair of their new line, the 904s.

dark night of soul

danger mouse's new jam is crazzzzy. he picked guest artists who he thought would bring something unique to each track and told them to go crazy.

article about its release.

d.o.a

death of autotune.
thank fucking god.
hot_97 interview with j

i really hope this moves the popular rap game in a fresh direction. if not... at least jay-z tried.

blueprint 3 -> 09/11/09

bean_town tat

i got this done yesterday at adorned by yoni zilber..... his line work, color, and shading is wicked. be sure to peep his other work.



(the nose is a bit shorter in the photo due to the lens-shortening)

do what feels right

summarizes the article: The Road to Success, Paved With Bad Advice

In the 2003 Tour de France, Armstrong consistently beat his rival, Jan Ullrich, and commentators, Dr. Berry noted, said it was in part because he could pedal so fast. Ullrich pedals slower but uses bigger gears. “What if Lance had never been there and Jan had won?” Dr. Berry said. “Would people say that the reason he is so good is that he pushes a big gear?”

shumi_sushi

shumi japanese restaurant
30 s. doughty ave, somerville, nj 00876
908.526.8596

as zack recalls, we had:

- albacore
- blue fin tuna
- big eye tuna
- white tuna (my favorite)
- three types of salmon
- fried shrimp head
- raw shrimp sushi
- monkfish liver (three different ways)
- quail egg and sea urchin sushi
- grilled octopus salad (ridiculously good)
- two types of mackerel
- an egg dessert
- plus a few other randoms

the head sushi chef prepared fish after fish. we ate and ate.

i definitely recommend it. shumi has changed my perspective on what japanese sushi is supposed to really be like.

jersey genesis triathlon results

swim 800m: 13:28

bike 16miles: 40:01min ( 24mph pace)

run 4miles: 25:59 ( 6:30 pace)

total time: 1:22:58



overall placement: 26 of 236

age group: 2nd

avitae

peep my new flash intro: http://avitae45.com

new tires

rollin on straight 23s

i want dat