Security Pie

The wine industry (as we are told) is in crisis. At a recent conference (Vino2010 in New York) a group of panelists discussed the future of luxury wine (see the excellent read at http://www.vinography.com/archives/2010/02/the_future_of_luxury_wine.html). I, for one, am happy. Prices are falling. Not neccessarily for the uber wines, but very decidedly for anything else. I can walk into wine shops and pick up decent wines that in 2006 were asking for very unreasonable prices.

It is a buyers market, and picking the wrong wine is no longer a very costly mistake. It literally take me back to the 90′s, right before (and perhaps as) the asian and US markets conspired to jack up the prices of wines. Now that both the Asians and Americans lost their funding sources, they stopped paying exorbitantly for wine.

This is so good. The bubble has funded extensive knowhow in wines. How to extract as blockbuster a wine as possible from newly planted berries: and make a killing in the process. So there are many great wines out there. And they have no buyers, so some great ones sell for 30c on the dollar. Their future prospect is questionable: They may fold, they may redo their business model, who knows. But for now, run out and get them!

Now I do have to watch the calories, though…

A  Major is a higher rank than Lieutenant but a Major General (2 starts) is lower than Lieutenant General (3 stars).  What’s the logic? 

US Army officer’s ranks

Image source: http://www.us-army-info.com/pages/ranks.html

JG Ballard likes to discuss the psychological effects of space travel on astronauts. It is one of those topics of inconvenience for NASA, whose spokespeople prefer to shrug at and move to the next question (perhaps about the budget, anyone?). For Ballard, the question stems from a science fiction curiosity. Could man ever do long distance space travel? or are we destined to send robots and machines to do the next step of space exploration. Ballard’s concerns stem from the apparent lack of consistancy in the astronaut’s lives. Most seem unable to move to the next stage (like new jobs), and some, like Armstrong, refrain from discussing what was perhaps man’s greatest achievement – the landing on the moon.

Having listened to an NPR special on PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) it got me thinking whether that is an angle of the astronaut’s predicament. I am talking about, specifically, the dichotomy between life in the fast lane (Iraq, Investment banking, prepping for space flight, quarter end, etc.) and life in docile Americana. Especially if you don’t live in one of the big cities.

My assumption is, that once a soldier returns or an astronaut lands, life becomes simple. You have done the deed and now it is time to rest. But if you are of astronaut calibre mentality, rest is the farthest thing from your personality. Hence you have conquered your dragon and really have nothing to look forward to. You were used to action and now life is missing rythm. And very few are like John Glen who was both an astronaut and moved to an equally hectic life in politics.

Now I have a feeling that it is the same with most of us who are addicted to our Iphones, emails and facebook updates. For us the constant shaking of the phone, the bling sounds of facebook and the chirp of inbound email becomes a part of our psyche. And when our internet dies – we get the onset of mild PTSD.

You may feel that hurtling down from the ski slopes and catching up on email on the gondola.I felt that during our spa day in Mongolia (during the other days we were bicycling all day and concentrated on that).

And I’ve devised a test for this: If both your oven (appliance important to life) and internet gateway break – who would you fix first?

/Cheers

So yesterday we went for dinner at The French Laundry, an upscale restaurant located in Yountville in Napa valley. It is widely considered to be one of the best restaurants in the world, and definitively the best in the bay area. It was an exquisite dinner, with great company, good wine*, and excellent food.

And the most interesting dish just happened to be on the Vegetable Tasting menu. Very interesting indeed.

Hmmm. Delectable meal. Hmmm.

 It was a dish labelled: Chickpea “Croquette” – Sweet Peppers, English Cucumbers, Sesame Seed Yogurt and Eggplant Confit. Now Larousse Gastronomique defines a croquette as a “small savoury or sweet preparation…… Croquettes are shaped into corks, sticks, balls or rechtangles. They are usually coated with breadcrumbs, plunged into very hot oil and fried until they are crisp and golden…”.

So why is a Chickpea “Croquette” interesting to a group of Israelis eating at the French Laundry?

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OK. So this blog is both not about security at all and all about security at the same time. That is like catching two stones with one bird.

My inbox today carried a fresh bit of news from CIO magazine. An opinion column by Eric Lundquist, labelled “We need a national CIO, not a CTO” stipulated that CIO are a better match for US national role than a CTO. To paraphrase Lundquist’s message, CIO’s are firmly planted in the business realities of the day, while CTO focus on technologies “looking for uses”. Reminds me of the old adage of “legs firmly planted” vs. “head in the clouds”.

I firmly disagree.

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I have recently completed a book called “The Billionaire’s Vinegar: … “. In this book Benjamin Wallace spins a fascinating tale of how a group of very rich Americans spent 100’s of thousands of dollars on a select cache of wine bottles that were allegedly linked to Thomas Jefferson and were found in a non-disclosed location in Paris. Very soon questions of provenance started to emerge, culminating in a very expensive law suit waged by Bill Koch against the purveyor of the wines, a German collector named Hardy Rodenstock. The book is well written and is a highly recommended read.

  Thomas Jefferson’s bottle or a really expensive counterfeit?
 

If we can't ask Mr. Jefferson, perhaps we can find an expert?

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Once in a while, you get to a place that changes your outlook on life and everything that you hold to be a “basic truth”. Mongolia is one such place. Everything from literacy of nomads (98% !!!!) to happiness to the importance of time (Mongolians – outside of the capital UlaanBaatar - measured time in what seems to be seasons, not hours or even days).

One of the challenging ones for us, a group of mountain bikers which consisted of 3 1/2 engineers and 3 1/2 doctors, was the consumption of red meat and cheese in Mongolia. That surely, cannot be healthy: can it?

When I mean red meat and cheese, I mean ONLY red meat and cheese, and perhaps some flour to make Tsuivan, some sort of a chewy noodles and boiled mutton, which, when properly seasoned, is not bad.

Tsuivan is homemade sticky noodles with boiled mutton and little spices

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We know each other for many years, we also worked together and some of us (read: me) choose a different path while others (read: Arik) are relocated to the other side of the world. We are too opinionated and share similar hobbies. Everything we do is somehow related to information and data security. While we work for very respectable companies, each a leader in its domain, we felt that some of our thoughts should be expressed from a neutral  platform. We do not hide our identity but prefer to keep our employers aside.

This blog will be dedicated to everything we like. Welcome to our security pie.