John Grant

Book 7: The Technological Republic by Alex Karp/N Zamiska - So, sure, he's my boss, but I did find this to be an interesting encapsulation of his philosophy. You may not agree with him on everything, but there is no denying that this is a thoughtful argument about finding purpose in work. #booksky

Book 6: Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham - I love a good Campion adventure. They aren't the most tightly plotted, but they are witty and fun (and most likely meant to be a parody of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels - which I also love). These are surprisingly hard to find in print....

Just got it in the mail last night! Looking forward to reading it.

Answer: No, we will not. Perhaps the cultured butter we used was not flavorful enough, but this tasted like a slightly unctuous gin martini with the butter seemingly adding very little too it. Perhaps my palate is not sensitive enough. But, hey, I still got to drink two martinis - so a win!

Beefeater gin infusing cultured butter. For a Buttered Martini (recipe in Jim Meehan's @mixography.bsky.social Bartender's Pantry). Will we actually be able to taste the pretty subtle butter flavors in the gin? We'll know on Friday! #mixology #bartending

A small vineyard outside of Sydney. I am blanking on the name...

When we were just there, we saw kangaroos in a vineyard stealing Syrah grapes. We said, "Well this is the most Australian thing ever..."

Friday Martini with the Monkey 47 2024 Distiller's Cut. The special ingredient is capers, and it makes for a nice, vegetal gin with (for me) anise flavors really standing out. I just got ahold of the 2023 Cut with maple syrup as the special - excited to try it! #mixology #gin #martini

Book 5: Last Laugh, Mr Moto by JP Marquand - Fun, pulpy adventure novel that is surprisingly well written (Marquand won a Pulitzer for one of his non-Moto works). Mr Moto is a great character who is always the smartest person in the room and the author clearly respects Japanese culture. #booksky

StarChefs - Lambhattan | Bartender Patrick Jennings of Andra Hem Recipe: Lambhattan with Lamb-Washed Bourbon, Cocchi Americano Bianco, Cardamom Bitters from Bartender Patrick Jennings of Andra Hem in Philadelphia

Andra Hem's lamb fat-washed Lambhattan is fantastic. I've had it at the bar and made one at home. www.starchefs.com/recipes/lamb...

Book 4: The Evil of the Daleks by Frazer Hines. A quick-read novelization of a classic 2Dr serial. With everything pretty much viewable/hearable on demand, these novels don't have the same power as they used to have. But fun to get the actual companion actors' take on their character.

Conclusion: Greek Yogurt was definitely a better drink and it looked nicer. But probably not worth the multi-day effort. Next up: Try it with a Negroni!

Greek yogurt - Far better clarified (as you can see), much drier Manhattan with a little bit of astringency which I assume comes from the yogurt.

Evaporated milk - Really difficult to filter (hence the cloudiness), much sweeter (probably too sweet).

Clarifying/milk-washing Manhattans experiment. Greek yogurt (right) vs. evaporated milk (center) vs. straight-up Manhattan (left). Results in thread... #mixology #barlab

Should any one person/institution? The world is full of billions of people each operating to their own moral code and we have spent millennia trying to figure out which is the "right" one. Perhaps the best/only feasible approach is that AI systems should have a similar variety of ethical codes?

Book 3: Henry IV Parts 1 &2 by Wm Shakespeare. I love the history plays and Henry V is my favorite so I enjoyed this "prequel" to that story. I wanted to like the legendary Falstaff more than I did - the humor is very hard to follow without the footnotes. Good but I suspect better live! #booksky

"Unlike religion, [science] is ethically neutral: it assures men that they can perform wonders, but does not tell them what wonders to perform." Bertrand Russell sums up why ethics education is so important for engineering and computer science... #techethics #ethics

Bar Lab experiment: Fat-washed Manhattans. One with Greek yogurt, one with Evaporated Milk. Curious to see the results. Will report back! #cocktails #mixology

This Asteroid Probably Won’t Hit Earth—But We May Need to Assume It Will The possibility of the asteroid 2024 YR4 impacting our planet might not be ruled out until 2028, raising the prospect we’ll need to prepare for the worst

Sign of the times that my first reaction to this was, "Well, this might not actually be the worst thing...."

DeepSeek exposes database with over 1 million chat records DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup known for its DeepSeek-R1 LLM model, has publicly exposed two databases containing sensitive user and operational information.

Well that didn't take long to happen.... #privacy

Tongue-in-cheek, I know but points to a real issue. We have to somehow get a grip on ourselves at the moment - every single thing can't be the Apocalypse.

This feels like it will be my 2025 catch phrase - with the German accent, of course...

Book 2: Redshirts by John Scalzi - Very quick read about the "Redshirts" who always die on away missions suddenly realizing why it keeps happening.... I won't spoil anything else, but it's a very funny book that goes to a really surprising place.

Book 1: The Old Curiosity Shop - I love Dickens and this one covers all his usual tropes, but it did not quite gel for me as much as some of his others. Interesting that the shop of the title appears for about 4 chapters and then is totally forgotten.

Last year, I kept a list of books I read on my phone just to see how many I did in a year. I got through 38 books - everything from quick read James Patterson to 800 pages on Louis Brandeis. In the interest of trying to engage in this app, I figure I will keep a list here this year...

The Scott - Scotch, vermouth, and Drambuie - enjoyed alongside the most Scottish of Doctor Who episodes, The Terror of the Zygons. #burnsnight #cocktails #doctorwho

Four Glen Grant Scotch Cocktails For All Seasons - COOL HUNTING® Last year was a big one for Speyside single malt Scotch brand Glen Grant. They introduced 12 and 18 Year Old expressions—both of which went on to great acclaim (with the latter taking the Scotch Wh…

Happy Burns Night! Honoring the clan brand with The Major from this site. coolhunting.com/food-drink/g...

And with that, Facebook is deleted. I am intrigued to see how it feels to not interact with this thing that has been a part of my life every day for 15 years.... I somehow don't think I'll be missing it all that much.