B
bluebeard
Guest
Guest
Iw ould like to steer in a positive direction for a moment and share with you a positive group of highly educated (PhDs) that have made a business out of helping winemakers/brewers/mazers.
Vinquiry.com is a truly impressive group. Their site is jam-packed with reference materials orbiting around the science of Oenology and bio-chemistry as it relates to the "fermented arts". Their store is targeted to lab/technical supplies and additives. The store is not really the target of what they do. They offer anaylsis servies to the amature and professional alike, trouble-shooting services and valuable advice.
While they are primarily a commerical service, they were very nice and provided a layman translation and explanation to my questions. These PhDs and labtechs are apparently a diametric opposition to the clowns on St. Pat's staff. By the way, I actually wnet into the shop when down in TX for a wind energy conference 2 years ago. They are just as arrogant in real life as they are over the phone, though considerably more animated.
Before jumping to wind and bio-enegy I was in the nuclear world for a good part of my life. I lectured at Lawrence Livermore Labs at U.C. Berkeley as a guest, taught at Moffet Field (NASA), China Lake (US NAVY Electronic Warfare and TopGun exercise range) and lots of other places. I do not have a PhD, nor do I desire one. Point is, I was invited to teach at these places because I made a real life contribution to industries associated with these areas. Each time, I would be approached by the PhDs in the audience and heartily congratulated...until they found out I was not a PhD. Most of them walked away wiping their hands on their pants as if shaking mine had soiled them somehow. Many, not all.
I find that the level of someone's formal learning does not usually change the essence of the person. If you were a jerk when you started, a degree just makes you a pedigreed jerk in the eyes of the other jerks you surround yourself with.
Wisdom comes from experience and reflection upon failures not from reaading and commenting on the pages of a text book written from the lessons of someone else's lifetime of cultivated wisdom.
Vinquiry.com is a truly impressive group. Their site is jam-packed with reference materials orbiting around the science of Oenology and bio-chemistry as it relates to the "fermented arts". Their store is targeted to lab/technical supplies and additives. The store is not really the target of what they do. They offer anaylsis servies to the amature and professional alike, trouble-shooting services and valuable advice.
While they are primarily a commerical service, they were very nice and provided a layman translation and explanation to my questions. These PhDs and labtechs are apparently a diametric opposition to the clowns on St. Pat's staff. By the way, I actually wnet into the shop when down in TX for a wind energy conference 2 years ago. They are just as arrogant in real life as they are over the phone, though considerably more animated.
Before jumping to wind and bio-enegy I was in the nuclear world for a good part of my life. I lectured at Lawrence Livermore Labs at U.C. Berkeley as a guest, taught at Moffet Field (NASA), China Lake (US NAVY Electronic Warfare and TopGun exercise range) and lots of other places. I do not have a PhD, nor do I desire one. Point is, I was invited to teach at these places because I made a real life contribution to industries associated with these areas. Each time, I would be approached by the PhDs in the audience and heartily congratulated...until they found out I was not a PhD. Most of them walked away wiping their hands on their pants as if shaking mine had soiled them somehow. Many, not all.
I find that the level of someone's formal learning does not usually change the essence of the person. If you were a jerk when you started, a degree just makes you a pedigreed jerk in the eyes of the other jerks you surround yourself with.
Wisdom comes from experience and reflection upon failures not from reaading and commenting on the pages of a text book written from the lessons of someone else's lifetime of cultivated wisdom.
