Friday morning links

Re wine and Terroir:

There was an article in Scientific American many years ago, back when it reliably discussed modern science, and the author concluded that the key factor in producing high quality wine was climate, especially late summer/early fall climate. Using climate, the best regions are in France, Southern California, Chile/Argentina, Australia and, seemingly oddly, the southern shore of Lake Erie. There are, in fact, wineries all over Ohio, none of them very good.

The other key factor was grape sorting and handling. The grand estates actually ferment only a fraction of the grapes they produce, and they hand-select those grapes for the desired quality, especially sugar. After that, they do a very labor-intensive fermenting/bottling/aging process.

The great wine regions in California and France all use the same root stocks, which came from California after the great plague that destroyed the French vinyards. The California roots came from Europe originally.

#1 Bob Sykes on 2018-07-06 08:17 (Reply)

I Gave Up AC This Summer To Live Within My Means. America Should Try That.

Texas and the rest of the southern US says LOL!

#2 mary on 2018-07-06 08:46 (Reply)

Reading the original article, Mr Trunnell sounds like a sensible and prudent man who makes careful tradeoffs to stretch his limited budget. And then he spoils it all with one glib, parochial suggestion "America should try that."

No, America should try knocking off all the loose chatter and telling other people how to live their lives. Zip it, Trunnell, and get back to upgrading those ceiling fans.

#2.1 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2018-07-06 09:04 (Reply)

Yes, the widespread introduction of that newfangled air-conditioning in the early 20th Century and the exponentially huge increase in the population of states like Arizona and Florida in the 1920s were not a coincidence.

#2.2 JJM on 2018-07-06 09:51 (Reply)

Without the Hoover Dam for water and electricity for air conditioning, Las Vegas would dry up and blow away.

#2.2.1 Jim on 2018-07-06 14:05 (Reply)

I lived in Las Vegas without air conditioning. In fact I ran 3 miles everyday at noon and drove my car with the windows down in 116 temp when I lived there. I have lived in Mississippi, Texas and Ohio without air conditioning, areas with high heat and high relative humidity. I lived in Southern California and even though the house had central air I never turned it on. When I bought a new car it had to be built for me by the factory and I asked specifically for no air. It came with air anyway and they told me it was easier and cheaper for them to just give it to me for free rather than disturb their assembly line just so it wasn't installed. I think air conditioning is something you become accustomed to and are simply willing to pay the cost to continue to enjoy it.

#2.2.1.1 OneGuy on 2018-07-06 16:02 (Reply)

Here on the Coastal Bend of Texas, I gave up heating the house in winter, not to save money, though. I already live within my means.

#2.3 Texan99 on 2018-07-06 09:51 (Reply)

What if I can run my ac, and live within my means?

Here in the South West, low humidity climate, evaporative coolers work wonderful. Very inexpensive to operate. There is not one HOA that will allow them. These same liberals sneer down their noses at the very idea of evaporative cooling. Such hypocrites.

#2.3.1 B. Hammer on 2018-07-06 11:21 (Reply)

We had a couple of evap coolers when we lived in S. TX mid-50s. Nasty things. All kinds of smelly stuff grows in there unless you pull them apart and thoroughly clean them every week or so, and I can just imagine today's texting, blogging chair-warmers doing that. Then too, maybe there's better technology now and they run cleaner.

#2.3.1.1 BillH on 2018-07-06 12:24 (Reply)

A couple of tablespoons Clorox on a regular basis.

#2.3.1.1.1 drowningpuppies on 2018-07-06 13:50 (Reply)

I'm curious about the nasty smells and bacteria growth. Evaporator coolers work best when they are placed in the direct sun. Drain and clean at the end of the cooling season. My grandfather, 98 years old, has had the same cooler for at least 40 years and has never had the conditions you describe. I'm sure the humidity level in Colorado is higher than S. Texas. However, what you describe, is why they have a bad reputation.

#2.3.1.1.2 B. Hammer on 2018-07-06 14:05 (Reply)

mary: I Gave Up AC This Summer

There were two key events that allowed the South to finally leave the past and move into the future; the Civil Rights Movement, and the invention of air conditioning.

#2.4 Zachriel on 2018-07-06 11:45 (Reply)

I haven't turned on my AC yet. I live in Texas.

#2.5 Gringo on 2018-07-06 13:43 (Reply)

Public housing:
It is laughable that "affordable housing" costs $200,000 per unit to build, many more thousands every year to maintain and is rented out for $200 a month and sometimes significantly less. Like almost everything our government does they have no business in building and providing housing. Where does it end.

Like it or not a trailer park is "affordable housing". I have seen very nice well kept trailer parks that provide a comfortable living environment. I have seen a few, mostly on the cop shows, where drug users live and don't appear to be well kept and managed but in general most trailer parks in most cities are actually quite nice. My well off Canadian relatives just bought two "trailers" in trailer parks in Phoenix where they spend 6 months a year. Very nice place, not as nice as their homes in Canada but cheap enough that they can afford to leave them empty 6 months a year.

Get the government out of housing, shut down HUD.

#3 GoneWithTheWind on 2018-07-06 10:46 (Reply)

Couldn't agree with you more. I spent ten years handling the marketing for a client who had purchased a HUD building under a contract that was impossible meet as the city kept interfering with any improvements he tried to make to attract better renters. Ask Catherine Austin-Fitts about her experience as assistant director under Geo. H. W. Bush. I don't know how Ben Carson has the patience, but hopefully he's moving toward dismantling the entire federal department. Such projects belong more local so the politicians are at arm's length 24/7 to throttle.

#3.1 jma on 2018-07-06 19:36 (Reply)

As a was writing the above, a press release arrived noting that Ben Carson is announcing the development of EnVision Centers to locate a range of services to support HUD residents and move them into better places. See what you think:

https://www.dailywire.com/news/32720/carson-new-vision-helping-families-ben-carson

#3.2 jma on 2018-07-06 20:24 (Reply)

Fighting fair is for suckers: Dems lie, cheat, steal, etc., etc., and so on and so forth.

#4 Sam L. on 2018-07-06 11:43 (Reply)

You can always be counted on for the liberal cliche, perhaps assuming that we have never heard such things before. First, your meanings for "past" and "future" are unclear. I think 1953 was 65 years ago in Georgia, and 65 years ago in Massachusetts. The future hasn't arrived in either place. Your shorthand for "ideas I like" is imprecise and insulting.

Thurgood Marshall didn't think the Civil Rights movement was as nearly important as legal and legislative victories. Attitudes had been changing for years. It is possible, but not certain, that protests hastened changes throughout the US. Even so, I would nominate many things as more "key" than your two regarding all changes in the South.
Electrification
Interstate Highways
Mass Media
Air Travel
Population movement following WWII
Increased citizenist attitudes following reduced immigration in 1927
Increased national unity following WWII
Generalised prosperity

Others might occur to me if I think longer than five minutes...

#5 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2018-07-06 14:53 (Reply)

Really? Seriously? You're arguing about an old quip?

Assistant Village Idiot: I think 1953 was 65 years ago in Georgia, and 65 years ago in Massachusetts.

Georgia was still largely agrarian in 1953 still struggling with Jim Crow, while Massachusetts was a highly developed economy. Today, due in part to large-scale immigration from cooler climates, metropolitan Atlanta has one of the most developed economies in the U.S.

Assistant Village Idiot: Thurgood Marshall didn't think the Civil Rights movement was as nearly important as legal and legislative victories.

Legal and legislative victories were an important component of the Civil Rights Movement, indeed, they were primary goals.

#5.1 Zachriel on 2018-07-06 15:16 (Reply)

I applaud the results of the civil rights movement even though no Democrats voted for it. But what has happened since is the creation of a super civil rights based on race. That wasn't the goal of the movement but it has paid off handsomely for the many race pimps both in money and power. Equality of treatment was the noble goal but what we got was an even greater inequality of treatment that is upheld and enforced by liberal judges. And the justification is always "well 156 years ago..." So today we are all equal except some are more equal than others. Today if I got arrested I would be separated from my children and put in jail. If, however, I were an illegal alien the government would spend a small fortune to make sure I was comfortable and my children stayed with me. Who could have seen that coming?

#5.1.1 Anon on 2018-07-06 16:10 (Reply)

Now explain (as you do Georgia above) current-day Detroit as impacted by the Civil Rights movement and follow up likewise with Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Baltimore. If you like, you can move from 1953 to the present for each city.

#5.1.2 Bill Carson on 2018-07-06 16:14 (Reply)

I can explain Detroit. The black politicians used the black vote to get into and dominate the cities politics. Then they stole everything that wasn't nailed down. They gave all the police, fire and city jobs to friends and relatives who knew they didn't have to work to keep the job. Then they embarassed the federal government into spending billions on city renewal and promtly stole as much of that money as they could. Meanwhile and inevitably the taxes went up, the policing went down and everyone with an IQ above room temp saw the handwriting on the wall and left town leaving much of Detroit unfit to live in. Surprisingly there are nice parts of Detroit. But give them time...

#5.1.2.1 Anon on 2018-07-06 19:49 (Reply)

Anon: I applaud the results of the civil rights movement even though no Democrats voted for it.

Well, that's false. {Snip everything that follows from false premise.}

Bill Carson: Now explain (as you do Georgia above) current-day Detroit as impacted by the Civil Rights movement and follow up likewise with Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Baltimore.

Most of those cities have suffered from the effects of de-industrialization, as manufacturing has moved elsewhere.

#5.1.3 Zachriel on 2018-07-07 08:20 (Reply)

Why did manufacturing move elsewhere???

#5.1.3.1 Anon on 2018-07-07 10:26 (Reply)

Anon: Why did manufacturing move elsewhere???

Generally because of lower cost production elsewhere, such as Asia.

#5.1.3.1.1 Zachriel on 2018-07-07 11:00 (Reply)

I quit reading Rob Goodman's column as soon as I read "Anti-Trump conservative David Frum." Frum hasn't been a conservative for 20 years.

#6 Randy on 2018-07-07 07:19 (Reply)

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Friday, July 6. 2018

Friday morning links