Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Fri, 21 Sep 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100922/04310911114/dailydirt-uses-wine-besides-drinking-it.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100922/04310911114/dailydirt-uses-wine-besides-drinking-it.shtml

There's a persistent statistic that wine drinkers tend to live longer than teetotalers or people who drink other forms of alcohol. But according to a recent study, those wine drinkers also correlate highly with people who possess healthier habits in general. So wine could merely be the drink of the healthier -- and not some magic elixir for longer life. [url]

Some Australian researchers have developed a process to turn wine into clothing -- and it also works with other forms of alcohol. Bacteria are used to ferment the alcohol into a formable fabric, and the garments retain characteristic odors of their original beverage. So if you really like the smell of beer, there's a perfect shirt for you.... [url]

There's a possible "miracle molecule" in red wine called resveratrol -- and it seems to give older mice some improved mobility. Consuming more red wine might seem like the easy answer for older people to gain mobility improvements, but the study also suggested that a 150lb human would have to drink 700 4-ounce glasses of red wine a day to see an effect. Good luck with that! [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100922/04310911114 Fri, 24 Aug 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120326/13531918251/dailydirt-red-red-wine.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120326/13531918251/dailydirt-red-red-wine.shtml

A group of Japanese physicists discovered that red wine could induce superconductivity in an iron telluride -- so they tried a bunch of other alcoholic beverages like sake, beer and white wine to try to figure out what was going on. The researchers found that more tartaric acid in red wine correlated well with the superconductive state, but the alcohol also played some role. With just a bit more study, red wine will solve all of our energy problems and allow us to live forever.... [url]

University of Connecticut wine researcher Dr. Dipak K. Das published fake data on the benefits of resveratrol, so there's some doubt that this component of red wine has as many magical health benefits as some have reported. Still, the anecdotal evidence behind the "French Paradox" makes people think red wine has more than a correlation with a lower incidence of heart disease (even if there's no causal relationship). [url]

The 'drunken monkey hypothesis' proposes that humans like alcohol because our primate ancestors were highly dependent on fruits in their diet... and ethanol can be found in overripe fruits. But did those drunken monkeys exhibit superior Kung Fu skills? [url]

You might think that wine experts can tell the difference between an expensive French wine and a much cheaper wine from New Jersey, but you'd be mostly wrong. Wine tasting is hard. Sometimes experts can't even tell the difference between red and white wines -- and the perception of wine can be influenced significantly by the label on the bottle. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120326/13531918251 Fri, 9 Dec 2011 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110203/05083912946/dailydirt-endless-rain-into-paper-cup.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110203/05083912946/dailydirt-endless-rain-into-paper-cup.shtml taste completely different. But changing the color of the packaging might have a similar effect? Here are some interesting packaging changes for some common beverages.

• Boxed wine has gained some acceptance with wine drinkers, but will a slightly smaller version of boxed wine sell well? Taking it to the next logical step, there should be "juice box" size wine boxes coming out, too. Who wants to sip wine through a tiny straw? [url]
• Some folks seem to hate plastic water bottles, so now there's a paper milk carton without milk, filled with water. Looks like ultra-skim milk -- 0% milk. [url]
• Drinking water from a paper cup is okay.. but a paper bottle? Paper water bottles haven't exactly taken over since they were introduced, so... [url]
• Coca-Cola has stopped making its 'White Christmas Cans' after a month of selling them because consumers don't like the new look of the can -- and some people think it tastes different. The white cans also look a bit too much like Diet Coke, so some drinkers are getting a few more calories than they expected. [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110203/05083912946 Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090112/0801423370/dailydirt-all-little-things.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090112/0801423370/dailydirt-all-little-things.shtml

PUMA is selling shoes without a shoe box. The Clever Little Bag saves all kinds of energy and pollution, but does it really sell more shoes? [url]

Real wine enthusiasts probably aren't going to take a picture of a security code to make sure their wines are authentic. Call me when there's an iPhone app for isotope analysis... [url]

The illusion of cleanliness or freshness is a popular marketing gimmick. Everything seems fresher if you put a picture of a fruit on it. [url]

To discover more interesting advertising-related content, check out what's floating around on StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090112/0801423370 Fri, 5 Mar 2010 12:34:00 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100303/1545228399.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100303/1545228399.shtml a judge has dismissed a trademark lawsuit brought by Trek Bicycle Corp. (makers of, you guessed it, bicycles) against a small northern California winery called Trek Winery. In this case, the lawsuit was dismissed for jurisdictional problems, in that the case was brought in Wisconsin (where the bicycle company is based), despite the vast majority of the winery's business being in California. But, still, the judge questioned whether or not there could actually be any confusion at all in Wisconsin. Apparently, the bicycle company cited three orders to Wisconsin -- two of the orders went to relatives of the winery's owners and one order went to a spouse of an employee of the bike company (and that single order was just a test to confirm that the winery would deliver to Wisconsin). Those are hardly quantities that would threaten the bike company's business.

Of course, this does mean that a lawsuit could be filed again in Northern California, but again, you have to wonder who's confusing a bicycle with a bottle of wine? Separately, another article on the lawsuit notes that the producers of Star Trek were originally concerned about the wine, but eventually decided it wasn't worth pursuing.

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]]> drink-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100303/1545228399 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:18:33 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090824/1550215983.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090824/1550215983.shtml johnjac points us to the news about the $1 million wine book. It is, as described, a book about wines that will run you a cool $1 million. Why? Well, because it comes with the wine it talks about. The book will list out the world's top 100 wineries, and with the book you'll get a six bottle case from each winery listed in the book. So, the book, plus 600 bottles of wine from the 100 best wineries in the world. They're only making 100 copies of the book... and 25 have already been pre-ordered, so hurry up and order.

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]]> might-be-a-very-limited-audience http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090824/1550215983