@BBCNews @world-BBCNews

Wouldn't the Pope not need "prayers" considering he has the direct line to the all "mighty"? What are people praying for? For God to start paying attention to the Pope? This is quite comical: "Hey God, your rep on earth, the Pope, the one who has a direct line to you, needs me to ask you to listen to him?"
Like a bad game of telephone! Maybe when the Pope gets sick the wifi to God gets sketchy?

@thirstforwine not sure if we need ... it's nice to have, but. Maybe these platforms are part of the issue. Having been off them for awhile now, and not posting regularly if at all, I don't see myself lacking anything.

@simonjwoolf well, we can always dream! :) I really hate Instagram, but theLAB needs it too...for now. Honestly I wish there was a better way to do events in person ... meetup is dead(ish) and nothing else seems to work.

Mastedon, Pixelfed, Bluesky - Feels like 2008 when we were all trying to find the micro blog that would take over from all the others...we fought and fought to gain traction and when we finally got it the corporations became corrupt and criminal...what platforms might win? Or is the lesson that maybe we don't need these platforms?

Looks like crickets here... :(

@simonjwoolf Did you try the moral machine? https://www.moralmachine.net/ really a weird feeling to answer the questions.

@simonjwoolf AI wine selection, should some cultures be recommended mousier wines? Others more brett? 🤣

Twitters crumbling, reddits cut it's own head off, FB(errr...well...yeah), Mastodon seems slow and sparse, Lemmy is empty(ish), instagram is for doom scrolling...feels so strange going back to talking to people face to face and asking them how things are going.

Movie idea: A person finds that all the offers in their spam folder are legit and delivering on their promises.

#movieidea this is why we need writers #WGAStrong

If you care about saving wine traditions and helping regions to be sustainable, then this letter is worth signing onto: https://odouromerecemelhor.pt/

The Douro needs some serious change if it is to maintain it's viability in terms off Vinho do Porto.

#portwine #wine #douro #dourovalley

I just finished a week-long tour and realized that it had a unique theme: regions/wine-making traditions that almost died but are in the process of being rescued:
Azores - Pico, recovery of pre-phylloxera plots
Lisboa - Apples for Grapes and back again
Colares - Land for hotels, and today slowly replanting some
Alentejo - Talhas that almost disappeared and are now gaining ground again.

Fun to show new people these ancient traditions and watch them get excited about discovering new flavors.

So I said I"m going to offest all travel this coming year in a first attempt as I try to limit my personal carbon footprint. @thirstforwine recommended Ecologi to do this, if you want to see what they offer, you can use my referer link: https://ecologi.com/opaz?direct=true&r=639c9500d47c5df3fdf07862

Of all the sites I have reviewed I was very impressed so far with what I see they are doing, and how they are implementing this process. #sustainability #travel

@ricardoramos I have those, but they are pretty intensive in terms of effort and not very practical for an office that makes so much coffee.
Plus our current machine is pretty old

Spent the weekend with my staff at Catavino Tours up in the hills of Gerês national park here in Portugal. None of them are wine people but I filled 2 boxes with some of my favorite treats. We opened very nice wines and didn't discuss grapes, terroir, or vintages...and yet we somehow enjoyed the wines, laughed and shared stories, and had a great time. I love it when wine can be the delicious social lubricant that it is. :) The best part is that my inner geek was happy as discussion moved from topic to topic. Share more good wine with non wine people...it's worth it.

@thirstforwine @simonjwoolf @FoodWineClick I dropped my subscription too, will look for a way though! :)

@simonjwoolf @FoodWineClick @thirstforwine love this idea/question

@lazysupper already have that...it's not for me, as i have a hand grinder V60, drip tower, french press and hand espresso maker...it's for the workforce who demand on demand. :)

@grapewallofchina yep, I watched a few of them...still took the name from one of the videos that looked good and found like 5 options for the same device and model number. Was very confusing

Thinking of getting an automatic coffee machine for the office to avoid funding capsules...but damn if the companies don't make it near impossible to choose. Way too many features, and micro-incremental changes from one model to the next with no good side by side info...it's a mine field. And when you think you found the right one, you find out it was a model that has been scrapped for another you never heard of. UGH

@simonjwoolf will need to think about what it would look like! :) But I'll try to ask nicely when I do.