More Than One Part of France Is Fizzy

By ERIC ASIMOV
Published: December 20, 2010
OBSESSED with Champagne? I plead guilty. But you must understand, your Honor, it’s not just Champagne. I’m obsessed with almost all sparkling wines. More

Just Don’t Call It Moonshine

Derek Grout of Harvest Spirits distillery. From a copper-pot still in Valatie, N.Y., he has produced applejack, a soft pear brandy and a himbeergeist he calls a “labor of love.” More Photos »
By TOBY CECCHINI
Published: December 21, 2010

IN an aluminum shed among postcard orchards in Columbia County in New York, Derek Grout inspected a collecting tank of his state-of-the-art copper-pot still. A blocked vent had caused the tank to buckle. “I’m just kind of glad we didn’t kill ourselves,” he said with a laugh. “Got to bang that out.” More

Shocked! Shocked, I tell you, that there's gambling in this establishment...

In a Sign of Foreclosure Flaws, Suits Claim Break-Ins by Banks
By ANDREW MARTIN
Published: December 21, 2010

TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend ski trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. More

A Scientist, His Work and a Climate Reckoning

KEEPING WATCH The Mauna Loa Observatory, at an altitude of 11,135 feet above sea level in Hawaii, has been continuously monitoring and collecting data related to climate change since the 1950s. More Photos »
By JUSTIN GILLIS
Published: December 21, 2010

MAUNA LOA OBSERVATORY, Hawaii — Two gray machines sit inside a pair of utilitarian buildings here, sniffing the fresh breezes that blow across thousands of miles of ocean.

They make no noise. But once an hour, they spit out a number, and for decades, it has been rising relentlessly. More

After the last Gilded Age

There was a cry for recalibration and a leveling of the playing fields. The cry after the current Gilded Age seems to be, "More Gilt."

The Repugs are right!

Well, partly. The 9/11 responders do not deserve special treatment just because they're sick and dying from responding to 9/11. Everybody in the whole goddamned country deserves equal special treatment when they're sick and dying.

Here's one for Geri

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Shamelessly Stolen from Roger Ebert

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

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Denisovans

Siberian Fossils Were Neanderthals’ Eastern Cousins, DNA Reveals
By CARL ZIMMER
Published: December 22, 2010

An international team of scientists has identified a previously shadowy human group known as the Denisovans as cousins to Neanderthals who lived in Asia from roughly 400,000 to 50,000 years ago and interbred with the ancestors of today’s inhabitants of New Guinea. More

Wot's This?

Computer stores selling wine? WTF? Link