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…

US Army officer’s ranks

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

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

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?

Well, because most people from Mediterranean states have another name for it. We call it “Falafel”. And whatever the disputed origin of this dish - it is THE fast food choice in Israel.

Hmmm. Falafel. (I apologize for the dark picture, I didn't want to disturb the other diners with a flash)

This was a great Falafel, on par with that served at the best Falafel stands in Israel, but for me it was a mere ball of Falafel. At any Falafel stand you’ll get 5-6 balls for about 5 bucks. Was this going to be a McDonald’s like “fast food” experience (and thus the disappointment of the meal), or was this another epitomy of world cuisine where the recognition of quality just happened to be masked by mere abundance, and thus serving as the East Mediterranean equivalent of Joel Robuchon’s famous Mashed Potatoes?

And I was immediately reminded of Dima, an Army buddy who had originally been from one of the Russian cities directly situated on the Caspian sea. In one of our discussions my mention of just how great Sturgeon Caviar can be and how lucky he was to have lived on the shores of the Caspian sea, was greeted with a shrug and the remark that he despised Caviar. Caviar for them was just plain Caviar. They had lots of it. In large jars. Everywhere.  Growing up he got fed up with Caviar. Having left Russia he became surprised at just how revered the stuff actually was by Westerners. In Dima’s perspective, Caviar was farmer food. It was not the stuff you serve at restaurants awarded 3 stars by the prestigious Michelin ”Red Guide”. 

It is a matter of perspective. For me, falafel is fast food. Great fast food, but still fast food. However, there are too few good falafel places in the US (unfortunately in the US, most so called “mediterranean” places serve soggy, microwave reheated falafel balls), so a really good falafel can and should be served at 3 star Michelin rated place. In fact, it seemed right-at-home with the “salsify croquant” and other eclectic, world dishes.

Perhaps, one day, the ancient chickpea and it’s dishes will become popular in the US. At that point it will join the other successful imports from countries such as Germany (e.g. Frankfurter and Hamburger) and France (double fried “French” fries) and Italy (Pizza). It will also join the original American dishes such as Burrito, Taco, Popcorn, Tomatoes, Chocolate, Potatoes, Corn and many more. We look the those staples of fast food and forget just how good they can be when done right. Abundance makes us ignore the greatness of these dishes.   

Returning to falafel: And like everything else around the Mediterranean Sea, falafel is way too old to have a clear history. And as can be expected, falafel has it’s place in providing fodder for the animosities between the inhabitants of the levant. So it seems the Lebanese have decided to explore suing it’s neighbor to the South claiming falafel is somehow a “controlled appelation” like Feta.

Luckily for us, in the odd chance that Lebanon succeeds, we now have a new name for falafel. We can now call it Chickpea “Croquette”. As in “Te’n li bevakasha mana Chickpea “Croquette” be’ pita, im thina, salat, veksat hamutsim. Meh-at zhug. Toda” (Translation from Hebrew: “Please give me a portion of Chickpea “Croquette”  in pita bread with tahini sauce, salad and few pickles. A little hot sauce. Thanks”).

Life is like data security: One simply cannot have a sense of security without backup plans.

Thank you Thomas Keller (owner/chef) for an amazing meal and for saving the Israeli falafel. Now that I know that my favorite fast food is safe I can rest easy and concentrate on computer and data security.

/al

* Not to be a wine bore, the wines we had were excellent: a white Mas De Daumas Gassac 2007 and Nuit St. George 1er Cru Clos de L’Arlot 2004

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.

Now I understand that I read CIO magazine and that is why I received this message. I also assume that by the nature of politics, all kinds of special interest groups raise their heads, so I would expect a similarly opinioned “Shepard’s Weekly” would have discussed a similar topic ”We need a national shepard, not a CTO” and that the international association of circus performers would like to propose “We need a national court jester, not a CTO”.

Joking aside, Mr. Lundquist put forth some good arguments. He stipulated that CIO can better manage a project. That CIOs hold the business first and technology second. To quote “Technologists are great at creating new companies, new products and new markets. They are not great at orchestrating lots of conflicting opinions, managing projects or – especially in the political realm – settling on the best possible choice given budget constraints and political realities.”. Mr. Lundquist is correct, but altogether misses the point.

YAPM (Yet another project manager) is NOT what the US needs. In a former life I frequented Crystal City often. There were many project managers there. 25% of them were very good. 50% were mediocre. 25% were awful. But there were lots of them. They crammed public transportation, caused the beltway to jam, and filled the cafeteria’s at lunch. You could not throw a rock without hitting a project manager for some obscure government entity.

The US needs a future. To be driven, its future needs to be based on a seemingly unachievable target. We had been driven like that many times in the past. The US developed the trasistor and the chip (which 40 years later made our lives mobile). The external combustion engine for the torpedo (which crammed power into tiny spaces). Composite materials for space exploration (and which later improved our golf and tennis games). It was a government sponsored program (DARPA) that created the Internet. Not Google, nor Microsoft, nor Facebook. Nor was it rear view mirror preening dudes on Sand Hill road on their way to their ranches outside Bozeman in a well appointed G5. No. It was the government. And for all the wrong reasons. A lot of it was due to the US government chasing the Soviet’s dream of ruling space. How I miss the Soviet’s for that reason (if only for that reason!).

While both the technology industry and the venture capital industry oppose “leapfrog” technologies (they can ”eat your cheese” and thus risky for business and are difficult to predict and thus risky for VCs, respectively), the US government should indeed drive technology forward. But not on a predictable, linear trajectory, as Sand Hill road does with social networking and other “me too” technologies, but in a hockey stick fashion. Sending a man to mars. Cloning sheep. Really analyzing our climate. Teleportation. Whatever.

For that you need a visionary CTO with a set of brass balls. Not a Cisco kowtowing CIO. And to address Mr. Lundquist’s example of the revolving doors for the national cybersecurity czar: Nor does the standard Symantec or McAfee worshipping CISO make a good cybersecurity czar.

And to conclude, Eric Lundquist is, however correct (even if for the wrong reason) in identifying the fallacy in the current dredge of proposed CEOs. None of the proposed CEO’s is a visionary. Sure, they navigated their ships admirably through the murky tempramental waters of the American economy, but none have really shown a vision for disruptive innovation. They have been keen followers, seeking the market scouts and then bearing down upon their cheese with their mighty heft. Cheese snatching should never be confused with vision and innovation. For that you need the likes of J. Craig Venter or even some “down to earth” science fiction writers. People who’d invest even if the future is still murky and the benefits, for now, unclear.

/al

PS – The opinions expressed are my own. Not my employer’s, Barack Obama’s, nor Cisco’s. As an entrepeneur and business man, I like my customers to stick with me. I dislike churn, except my competitor’s churn. I therefore dislike the term disruptive.

But I also know that healthcare for generations X Y and Z, as well as fuel costs, etc. are liable to eat up a vast chunk of our GDP, and the only way to prevent that is to increase our GDP. To increase GDP we need disruptive technologies, techniques and methodologies. I also know that the linear thinking preferred by the bankers that manage industry in general favors baby steps within established markets and does not foster disruptive technology.

Hence the opinion piece.

  Thomas Jefferson’s bottle or a really expensive counterfeit?

What was compelling to me about this book was just how influential was one person throughout the story. The person was famed head (and founder) of Auction Houses Christie’s wine department Michael Broadbent. Wine is a hobby of mine (though my interest pales in comparison to all of the collectors in the book) so having read Decanter sporadically for over ten years I have been familiar with the extent of Mr. Broadbent’s breadth of experience.

Ahh - Here is an expert (and looks the part too)!

As the story unfolds, it becomes exceedingly clear that the assurances provided by the expert drove the confidence in the provenance of the wine. This conviction was upheld even when the leading Thomas Jefferson research organization refused to sanction the bottles, citing historical uncertainties.   

Webster (a dictionary) defined an expert as:

Expert\, n. 1. An expert or experienced person; one instructed by experience; one who has skill, experience, or extensive knowledge in his calling or in any special branch of learning.

2. (Law) (a) A specialist in a particular profession or department of science requiring for its mastery peculiar culture and erudition.

Note: Such specialists may be witnesses in matters as to which ordinary observers could not without such aid form just conclusions, and are liable for negligence in case they injure another from want of proper qualifications or proper care in the exercise of their specialty. (b) A sworn appraiser.

Mr. Broadbent certainly falls under this definition. Among his accolades are a master of wine degree, multiple awards, order national du merit (france, where else) etc. Much more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Broadbent.

So could he, an expert recognized by governments, collectors, universities and thousands of aficionados worldwide, be wrong? The story is far from being conclusive. But it does raise concern.

For our purpose here: Are security experts any better? How do we vet the quality of the expert advice that we receive?

Over the years I have seen and paid many an experts. Few justified their price. I am allergic to expert advice. The best have an uncanny ability to take a really complex subject (almost anything today) and provide a balanced view, providing me with a new viewpoint, a new way to view the problem. The best experts teach. Then, in an order of increasing allergic responses, I get the “Most people do this” (itch), “I have 2-3 options for you” (itch +sneeze), “I recommend you do this” (hives) and the worst being “you must do this” (can’t breathe, need epinephrine pen).

Security is a vast topic. There are many complex topics related to security. Some are very technical. Some are very business oriented. Few people sound even fairly intelligent on both business and technical subjects. Make sure you pick yours wisely. And make sure you qualify and apply their talent in the proper place. Or you may end up with more vinegar than security.

Note: Also, keep in mind that if you do hire a consultant/expert, try to keep an open mind. You want the consultant to be objective. So work to maintain the expert’s objectiveness. The two main distractions I find with consultants are:
1. Leading them to the same conclusion you had (and which didn’t seem to work as required leading you to call the expert)
2. Ignoring their advice or coercing their advice to fit the current thought (ignoring the details)

/al

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

The red meat and cheese are sourced from the family’s herd (read: equity), and the flour is purchased. In fact, a bag of flour or rice makes a great gift for a ger family you decide to squat upon (they are the friendliest of people, which makes the fact that they speak no English very disappointing).

Now here’s the clincher: They eat very little, if at all, vegetables. And I mean very little. The markets in the aimag centers (regional capitals) may have 2-3 vegetable stands, and that is it.

No oranges, no celery, no Belgian endive (faint), no lemongrass or galangal, no apples, no…

So a bag of flour per family (pyramid base somewhat covered), NO Fruit or vegetable group whatsoever, milk and cheese in the summer (and butter and aruul in the winter – aruul is a rock like dried milk curd).

 

Milk curd (aruul) drying for the winterand lots and lots of red meat (breakfast, lunch and dinner). And salty tea. Meat for breakfast, meat for lunch and meat for dinner

So where do the Vitamins come from? How do they keep healthy? Surely they must die young?

Well, not as you’d expect. On average, Mongolians live 65.5 years, according to figures released by the World Health Organization. 

This places Mongolia with countries such as the Philippines, with 67.5 years, and slightly ahead of India where the average lifespan is 63 years. Other Asian countries included South Korea at 78.5 years and North Korea showing an average life span of 66.5 years. 

The report noted Singapore had an average lifespan of 80 years while China is 72.5 years.  

The shortest lifespan recorded is in Swaziland, where average life expectancy is 37.5 years. Sierra Leone followed at 38.5 years and Angola and Zambia both had average life expectancies of 40 years.

Mortality is really affected by the remoteness of the living conditions. In the winter, if you get a cold, it is unlikely you’ll make the trip to the aimag center alive (at -30 degrees Celsius).

What does this mean? To me it is a sure sign that you must always question even the most basic assumptions. The assumption that they food pyramid is correct might be applicable to the US, but is far from correct for Mongolians. Why this is so is not clear to me or to my fellow bikers. Our guide had a theory that Mongolian’s developed a capacity for eating meat, which we summarily dismissed. But we did not come up with a better idea.

How can we be in the 21st century with so little understanding of how food, the most basic requirement for life, works?

Comments welcome. 

Some more data from the BMJ:

Mongolia: a health system in transition. 

Manaseki S.

Arrowe Park Hospital, Upton, Wirral, Merseyside.

PIP: 70% of the 2.2 million population of Mongolia are younger than 35 years old. More than 75% of the population live in urban areas, but many adopt the traditional nomadic lifestyle for at least a few weeks each year. 95% of the population is literate. Winters produce extremely cold temperatures and shortages. Mongolia has a well structured and staffed health care system. 3.9 physicians serve 1000 people. Women comprise more than 80% of physicians. Leading causes of mortality and morbidity are acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in the winter and diarrhea in the summer, particularly among children. Hypertension and ischemic heart disease are common. Mongolians are the greatest consumers of red meat in Asia and perhaps the world. The health system is in the process of switching from a centralized system of specialist clinics to a family doctor system. Family doctors usually are general physicians, pediatricians, and gynecologists who have undergone family doctor training. They have not received adequate training in treating ARIs, however. Family doctor clinics have 3-6 physicians, each physician with his/her own nurse. Each physician cares for 200-350 families (350-600 children younger than 16). Family doctors must visit each newborn every 2 weeks for the first 3 months and then once a month until age 1. They must also visit each elderly and homebound chronically ill patient at least once a month. Their nurses either come with them or visit patients alone to administer injections, change dressings, take infants’ measurements, and encourage persons to come for vaccinations. The small district and county hospitals face shortages of drugs, raw materials, and functional equipment. The few national hospitals provide tertiary care. Treatment without medicine and traditional treatments of herbal remedies and Buddhist rituals and prayers are resurging in popularity. Harmful practices include swaddling babies, which contributes to rickets and pneumonia, and giving ill children their mother’s early morning urine. Immunization coverage is high. Supplementary ration cards provide milk, flour, meat, rice, and sugar to pregnant women and mothers of children under 1 year old. Milk centers in major towns provide milk to children with a doctor’s prescription. Even though malnutrition is rare, vitamin deficiencies are common.

PMID: 8292957 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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