No I’m not seeking funding for my eBlogs. I’m just doing my impersonation of a scientist trying to convince his peers that his research is more worthy of receiving federal funds that some 80 percent of the other research grant applications that are reviewed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Well, at least that’s my excuse for not posting so frequently on wine these days. With funding levels being reduced for the first time in the history of the NIH there is a serious concern that medical research in the USA will begin to fall behind the rest of the world. The news may not be that bad, but its pretty obvious that while the current administration is not adverse to spending money to kill people, they are loathe to support the sciences in any meaningful way. And if they say they are, ask them to show you the NIH budget figures after they have been adjusted for inflation. And if they start talking about their AIDS initiatives, make sure they tell you just how much is going to faith based groups. Oh well, maybe I’ll just tell my lab staff to start praying before each experiment!
Speaking of going down on one’s knees, I wonder how much prayer is being offered up in the hope that Australia's Socceroos go through to the Group of 16 in the World Cup? Probably not as much as in Croatia! Unfortunately I’ll be working on my research application during the game tomorrow but I’ll be opening up a bottle of Aussie Shiraz to watch the replay later that evening. It will be a really good bottle if we go through.
And speaking of good bottles, I’ve finally put up some notes on a tasting of 2003 Bordeaux from this past April. I have still to catch up on the March Chardonnay tasting (I was unable to attend the Pinot Noir tasting in May). But I will attend the 2001 Brunello di Montalcino tasting tomorrow night. Its lucky that the soccer replay is not until 11pm! Watch for notes on the Brunellos, oh around November! Sad isn’t it?
4 comments:
What bottle did you open to celebrate us going through? Will you go one better if we top Italy?
What wine will you open if we win the World Cup - and am I invited?
Mal
I'd just came back from a tasting of Brunellos, so I settled for a few glasses of Chambers Tokay and some walnuts to watch the Croatia game. Watched the game against Italy this morning (too early for wine!). Will have to go down as one of the great dives of Italian football history. Grosso had lost control of the ball, and he could easily have cleared Neill. But he sold it well. Pity the referee missed the hand ball in the Italian box only a few minutes earlier. Ah well, we shall see them again in 4 years.
Mike
Yeah! I got up at 1.00am (Brisbane time) to watch the Italy game. What a dive!! Grosso had to take about two steps and slightly change his direction to actually go over the top of Neill (who was already on the ground).
Oh well! I don't think that lost us the game though. The fact that we couldn't score when they only had 10 men for 40 minutes really cost us the game.
It has been an exciting couple of weeks and I hope we can make ti again in 4 years.
hey! lovet his blog!
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