Recent content by Saina Nieminen

Domaine Nowack Assemblage Sans Année Autre Cru is 2/3 Meunier and a third Chardonnay. Nowack is a Vigneron dating back to 1795 and recently has gone to the minimal intervention style with wild yeasts, no filtering or fining. And it smells wonderful. It's a pretty spicy style of dried apple...

This was a lovely little wine. I'm not terribly familiar with the Clairette grape but this was a friendly, aromatic wine with apple and honey aromas. Quite rich and less austere than my idea of Texier's wines but not at all over the top - that must be the grape, not Texier, that brings in this...

Both Warren and Bernie are far too liberal soc-dems. We need real change for the better, not just a slightly less bad version of the status quo. I miss the days (was there a term for nostalgia for something way before anything I could have experienced?) when Kropotkin was taken seriously.

Ouch. Maybe I'll just go away.

Considering that science is always a group project and all achievements stand on previous ones, the Nobels just seem like an arbitrary choice for someone who happens to be at the top in a patriarchal and capitalist society. And who likes patriarchy and capitalism? Well, far too many people. But...

Anarchists generally want to get rid of unnecessary hierarchies. So obviously there can be hierarchies that are ok e.g. experts in some scientific field will have more knowledge in their field than those who just read a wiki article on it. But specifically when it comes to states, the problem...

Think Kropotkin rather than Marxist-Leninism. Establish communism without a state since states always cause a ruling class which creates power hierarchies. And in hierarchies elites aren't ever willing to let go of their power. Essentially M-L attempts at communism have created states like the...

Why is Scandinavia always brought out in these discussions? Much of Scandinavia has had decades of neoliberal governments that have weakened the welfare states so much that we can't really use that term for our countries. That it's not as bad as the US still doesn't mean we have...

classic meme

Kirk Wallace was back in Helsinki and was in an overly generous mood (I need to think of something extravagant to pay back for his generosity the next time he's over) and felt like opening some Champagnes. These were fun wines! Jérôme Prévost Champagne La Closerie Extra Brut Les Beguines - 2016...

Yikes. What did I start with an off-hand remark about a couple books I dislike! :D Ok, I'm so sorry, I don't have the spoons to deal with everything that's happened in this post; sorry for the hit and run post. But a couple things I'll try to clarify. Pinker might see himself as a progressive...

Ok, yes, the newest book is apparently a historically inaccurate (https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2018/02/unenlightened-thinking-steven-pinker-s-embarrassing-new-book-feeble-sermon) musing on how the Enlightenment was the best thing ever and then goes on to basically do the Angels...

God I hate Pinker and evo-psychology in general, being both bad psychology and bad evolutionary theory...

That pic was a contrabass recorder. I only play flutes and recorders.

Kirk, it was great to meet you and drink lots of wine. That restaurant/wine bar is really a gem. I need to revisit soon. Jeff? Clarinet? Not an instrument I've ever touched. :)