Alainmendez

The human palate is arguably the weakest of the five traditional senses. This begs an important question regarding wine tasting: is it bullshit, or is it complete and utter bullshit?

There are no two ways about it: the bullshit is strong with wine. Wine tasting. Wine rating. Wine reviews. Wine descriptions. They're all related. And they're all egregious offenders, from a bullshit standpoint.

Exhibit A: Wine experts contradict themselves. Constantly.

Statistician and wine-lover Robert Hodgson recently analyzed a series of wine competitions in California, after "wondering how wines, such as his own, [could] win a gold medal at one competition, and 'end up in the pooper' at others." In one study, Hodgson presented blindfolded wine experts with the same wine three times in succession. Incredibly, the judges' ratings typically varied by ±4 points on a standard ratings scale running from 80 to 100. Via the Wall Street Journal:

A wine rated 91 on one tasting would often be rated an 87 or 95 on the next. Some of the judges did much worse, and only about one in 10 regularly rated the same wine within a range of ±2 points.

Mr. Hodgson also found that the judges whose ratings were most consistent in any given year landed in the middle of the pack in other years, suggesting that their consistent performance that year had simply been due to chance.

It bears repeating that the judges Hodgson surveyed were no ordinary taste-testers. These were judges at California State Fair wine competition – the oldest and most prestigious in North America. If you think you can consistently rate the "quality" of wine, it means two things:

1: No. You can't.

2. Wine-tasting is bullshit.

Exhibit B: Expert wine critics can't distinguish between red and white wines

This one's one of my favorites. In 2001, researcher Frédéric Brochet invited 54 wine experts to give their opinions on what were ostensibly two glasses of different wine: one red, and one white. In actuality, the two wines were identical, with one exception: the "red" wine had been dyed with food coloring.

The experts described the "red" wine in language typically reserved for characterizing reds. They called it "jammy," for example, and noted the flavors imparted by its "crushed red fruit." Not one of the 54 experts surveyed noticed that it was, in fact a white wine.

Exhibit C: We taste with our eyes, not our mouths

Actually, scratch that. We taste with our eyes, ears, noses, and even our sense of touch. We taste with our emotions, and our state of mind. This has been demonstrated time after time after time.

Research out of Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab has shown that people will rate food as more enjoyable if it's consumed in the relaxed atmosphere of a fine dining environment, as opposed to a noisy fast food restaurant.

A 2006 study, published by the American Association of Wine Economists, found that most people can't distinguish between paté and dog food.

A recent New Yorker piece describes a followup to Brochet's 2001 study, wherein he served wine experts a run-of-the-mill Bordeaux in two different bottles:

One bottle bore the label of a fancy grand cru, the other of an ordinary vin de table. Although they were being served the exact same wine, the experts gave the bottles nearly opposite descriptions. The grand cru was summarized as being “agreeable,” “woody,” “complex,” “balanced,” and “rounded,” while the most popular adjectives for the vin de table included “weak,” “short,” “light,” “flat,” and “faulty.”

Exhibit D: Wine critics know wine reviews are bullshit

Here's Joe Power, editor of the popular Another Wine Blog, in a post titled "Wine Reviews are Bullshit!":

Today, with apologies to messieurs Penn and Teller, I am going to stand up and shout, “Wine reviews are bullshit!”

If you are wondering if this is going to be some justification of why our reviews at AWB are just spiffy and everyone else is full of shit, you can stop wondering; ours are bullshit too. It is just the nature of the beast.

There is no hard science involved in reviewing wine, no real way to quantify results, no test cases, and certainly no verifiable set of standards that everyone adheres to. Everyone makes up their own processes for reviewing from Wine Spectator to us and all of the way down to the most recent person who just discovered how easy it is to set up a blog of their own.

When asked point blank what he thought of the aforementioned results from Robert Hodgson's study (see Exhibit A) wine-maker Bob Cabral said he was "not surprised":

In Mr. Cabral's view, wine ratings are influenced by uncontrolled factors such as the time of day, the number of hours since the taster last ate and the other wines in the lineup. He also says critics taste too many wines in too short a time. As a result, he says, "I would expect a taster's rating of the same wine to vary by at least three, four, five points from tasting to tasting."

See? Horseshit.

Exhibits E – ZZZ: Countless other studies

In 1996, research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology concluded that wine experts cannot reliably identify more than three or four of a wine's flavor components. Most wine critics routinely report tasting six or more. The wine review excerpted in the top image for this post, for example (which is a real review, by the way – somebody actually wrote those words about a bottle of wine, in earnest) lists the following components in the wine's "principle flavor" profile: "red roses, lavender, geranium, dried hibiscus flowers, cranberry raisins, currant jelly, mango with skins [Ed. note: jesus wine-swilling christ – mango with skins?], red plums, cobbler, cinnamon, star anise, blackberry bramble, whole black peppercorn," and more than a dozen other flavors that I refuse to continue listing lest my head implode.

Fun fact: MIT behavioral economist Coco Krume recently conducted a meta-analysis of the classifiers used in wine reviews, and found that reviewers tend to use "cheap" and "expensive" words differently. Cheap descriptors are used much more frequently, expensive ones more sparingly. Krume even demonstrated that it's possible to guess the price range of a wine based on the words used in its review. "From a quantitative standpoint," Krume writes, "there are three types of words more likely to be used for expensive wines":

• Darker words, such as intense, supple, velvety, and smoky
• Single flavors such as tobacco or chocolate versus fruity, good, clean, tasty, juicy for cheap wines
• Exclusive-sounding words in place of simple descriptors. For example, old, elegant, and cuveerather than pleasing, refreshing, value,and enjoy
• Additionally, cheap wine is preferentially paired with chicken and pizza, while pricey wine goes with shellfish and pork

Using her scientific metric, Krume goes on to create the most expensive-sounding wine review ever penned: "A velvety chocolate texture and enticingly layered, yet creamy, nose, this wine abounds with focused cassis and a silky ruby finish. Lush, elegant, and nuanced. Pair with pork and shellfish." If that sentence made you yearn for a glass of classy red, congratulations, there's a very real chance you're a pompous asshole.

The Exception

You want an exception to the wine-tasting is bullshit mantra? Here it is.

In 2008, a survey comprising more than 6,000 blind tastings found a positive correlation between price and enjoyment – for individuals with wine training. In other words: if you're a wine expert, there's a chance you'll enjoy expensive wines more than cheaper ones. HOWEVER, it bears emphatic mentioning that whether this suggests more expensive wines are objectively better (which it doesn't) is irrelevant, because among amateur wine drinkers (which, let's face it, you are), the survey found the opposite, i.e. a negative correlation between price and happiness, “suggesting that individuals on average enjoy more expensive wines slightly less.” This lead the researchers to conclude that "both the prices of wines and wine recommendations by experts may be poor guides for non-expert wine consumers."

The upshot: screw the experts. Drink what tastes good/whatever you can afford. Or just have a beer – it's unequivocally better, anyway.

Top image via Shutterstock

It's called The Periodic Table of Middle-Earth and it was put together by Emil Johansson — a devoted Tolkien fan and an aspiring chemical engineer. Which this awesome chart makes blazingly obvious.

As you can see, Johansson has replaced the standard chemical elements with characters from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Each character is organized according to race (including Gothmog, who belongs to no known race) and is given a unique symbol and number. Johansson has even added birth and death dates — and a special symbol to denote wearers of the ring.

Here's the entire chart in all its splendour:

Image via from the LOTRproject. H/t Geekosystem.

Apocalypse Ocean author Tobias Buckell has a great blog post about the problem with book bloggers and reviewers who've read too much of a single genre, to the point where they see nothing but cliches and flaws. Including this amazing quote about remembering why readers actually love books, which is making the rounds on Tumblr.

Over time, I’ve been able to move back into a place where I can focus on what works about a book, and focus less on what doesn’t. Author C.C. Finlay has a quote he uses that runs something like: “A novel doesn’t excite readers because you took all the bad stuff out of it, it excites them because of all the good stuff that’s in it, regardless of the bad.”

At a workshop not too many years ago a newer writer began to condemn a best selling novel, pointing out all its flaws and jagged edges. I listened for a long time, nodding.

“All those things are true,” I said. And gave him the C.C. Finlay quote. “But until you learn what the good parts were that excited the reader, you’re always going to be bitterly upset about what is wrong with that bestseller. Learn to spot what worked in that book, and you’ll be able to move forward. And you’ll be a lot less upset all the time as well.”

It was true for me. I don’t know if it helps reviewers, but it was essential to navigating my changing personal aesthetics as I continue to read a great deal.

This is amazing. British fans proved that they're still completely bonkers, with this parade of canine cosplay. Including a Superman dog, a Darth Vader dog... and a totally adorable dog cosplaying as K-9, the robot dog from Doctor Who. (Awwwwww.)

These photos come via Jordan Mansfield at Getty Images, who writes: "Enthusiasts gathered at the Picture House in Stratford to parade their dogs dressed up as famous Sci-Fi characters as part a London-wide event called Sci-Fi London."

Who's a good Darth then? Who's a good Darth?

Also, is that canine Power Girl, complete with fake boob window, at the bottom? And if so... why?

Learn the languages of spring 2013 anime

Between the language of Ente Isla in The Devil Is a Part-Timer! and the ones in Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, we're getting a nice selection of fictional languages in this season's anime. However, for better or worse, it's not Tolkien caliber language otaku inventing these things. And, as such, a month into the season, looks like they've been cracked. See the code after the jump.

The stereotype of the virginal nerd has its counterpart in the stereotype of the dumb jock. And one researcher at Michigan State has just published a study showing that college athletes' grades may be suffering because everyone tells them that they're stupid.

According to a release from Michigan State:

The study focused on the concept of “stereotype threat.” The theory holds that stereotypes are self-fulfilling prophecies: They create anxiety in the stereotyped group, causing them to behave in the expected way.

[Kinesthesiologist and lead researcher] Deborah Feltz and her graduate students wanted to see what factors influence student-athletes’ susceptibility to the “dumb jock” stereotype.

“It’s well-documented in the literature that many student-athletes hear prejudicial remarks from professors who say things like, ‘This test is easy enough that even an athlete could pass it,’” Feltz said. “They’re kind of the last group of students who can be openly discriminated against.”

The researchers surveyed more than 300 student-athletes representing men’s and women’s teams from small and large universities and a range of sports, from basketball and football to cross-country and rowing.

They found the more strongly student-athletes identified themselves as athletes, the less confident they were with their academic skills, and the more keenly they felt that others expected them to do poorly in school. Players in high-profile sports were more likely to feel they were weak students.

Stereotype priming has been widely documented in other studies, some of which revealed that women perform significantly less well on math and science tests if they're told beforehand that women aren't good at math and science. Clearly, priming works on other groups too. This begs the question of whether geeks might be less socially awkward if they weren't told all the time that being smart means that you can't possibly be a social butterfly or extrovert.

Feltz, the Michigan State researcher, pointed out that priming can work in a positive way too. She found that when coaches remind their athletes that they are college students, with scholarly responsibilities, the team members have more confidence in class and get better grades.

Read the full study on "dumb jock" stereotypes at the Journal of College Student Development.

I wouldn't say I was at all optimistic that M. Night Shyamalan would ever make a decent movie again after the Airbender debacle, but I did assume he knew the theory of evolution. I guess not, though.

Seriously, watch this new After Earth TV spot. So... every animal on Earth has evolved specifically to kill humans over the course of a mere 1,000 years... the 1,000 years that no human beings were actually on the planet? Right. Got it. And you say Earth Day didn't save the planet? Someone grab me a monocole, so it can fly off my face in total shock!

In M. Night's defense, though, maybe evolution is far less structured than we thought. I mean, that would explain why Hollywood executives haven't evolved to the point where they stop allowing M. Night Shyamalan to make horrible fucking movies.

Feeling science-savvy? Take Pew Research Center’s 13 question Science and Technology Knowledge Quiz and see where you stand against a representative sampling of Americans.

"Representative sampling," in this instance, means 1,006 randomly sampled U.S. adults presented with the same questions in a survey conducted in collaboration between the Pew Research Center and Smithsonian magazine. And while 13 questions may not give us the most complete idea of whether or not someone knows more about science than the next person, it is a decent enough litmus test, and gives rise to some interesting results.

You'll find a full analysis of the 1,000-person survey here – but take it for yourself first! That way you see your results compared against a full demographic breakdown of responses to each question.

Photo Credit: "The Endeavor Lifts Off," by Stuck in Customs

In Babs Tarr's "Bōsōzoku Sailor Scouts" illustration, Sailor Moon and her fellow princesses get inked and become a candy-colored biker gang. Now we just need Tuxedo Mask in a leather coat and tails.

Bōsōzoku Sailor Scouts [Babs Tarr via Betty Felon]

The premise of these reviews is simple: watch the first episode of a series and then immediately sit down to record a review mini-podcast. The reviews are five- to ten-minutes long and entirely off the cuff. As always we only review new shows (so no sequels or continuations) and try to avoid anything that just looks outright awful. Here are 6 from the new season:

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Listen – Episode 1 of Karneval from Manglobe with the opening “Henai no Rondo” by GRANRODEO. It is streaming on Funimation and Hulu.

Listen – Episode 1 of Attack on Titan from Production I.G and Wit Studio with the opening “Guren no Yumiya” by Linked Horizon. It is streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.

Listen – Episode 1 of The Flowers of Evil from ZEXCS with the opening by Uchujin. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Episode 1 of Arata: The Legend from JM Animation and Satelight with the opening ”GENESIS ARIA” by Sphere. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Episode 1 of Valvrave the Liberator from Sunrise with the opening “Preserved Roses” by Nana Mizuki x T.M.Revolution. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen - Episode 1 of Mushibugyo from Seven Arcs Pictures with the opening “Tomoyo” by Gagaga SP. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Filed under: Anime, Anime Seasons, Favored Topics, Guides, Mecha, Podcasts, S.W.A.T. Reviews Tagged: Arata: The Legend, Attack on Titan, Karneval, Mushibugyo, The Flowers of Evil, Valvrave the Liberator

Today is the 75th anniversary of Action Comics #1 and the creation of Superman! And if celebrating the birth of the most iconic superhero ever with an animated PSA where he throws a local cigarette-distributor named Nick O. Teen into orbit is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Thanks to my buddy Chris Cummins for the tip.

Whether you're reading a fantasy novel or playing a game, it's crucial to understand where your characters are on their journeys. That's why the fantasy map has become a genre of its own. Here are some of the most outstanding and classic maps of imaginary worlds.

The Land of Oz

This map of the Land of Oz first appeared in Tik Tok of Oz, and was one of the first maps to be included with a fantasy novel. Note the directions east and west have been switched. Because — Oz!

Map of The Lands Beyond from The Phantom Tollbooth

This is the land that our hero Milo visits in The Phantom Tollbooth after building a strange tollbooth that comes in the mail, driving through it in a toy car, and finding himself in a bizarre land of puns, games, and incredible drawings (including this map) by Jules Pfeiffer.

World of Greyhawk from Dungeons and Dragons

This map came with the World of Greyhawk Dungeons & Dragons module, and was poster-sized so that all the young D&D fans like myself could pin it to our walls next to posters of our favorite bands.

Myst

Here is the classic view of Myst island from the first game, which came out in the 1990s on CD-ROM. This game is still famous for its gorgeous design and maps.

Often you needed to understand these kinds of maps before solving the puzzles and brain teasers that highlighted the gameplay.

These are just a few of the many, many beautiful maps that came out of the Myst universe.

Realms of Thought from Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge

Though Vernor Vinge's novel A Fire Upon the Deep (followed by prequel A Deepness in the Sky and sequel Children of the Sky) is science fiction, there is a somewhat fantastical element to the series. Vinge suggests that different regions of the galaxy have different physical laws which he dubs the "zones of thought": in the Beyond, we have faster-than-light travel, as well as hyperintelligent computers; in the Slow Zone, ship speeds are limited and AI sucks; and nobody knows what's going on in the Unthinking Depths, but we're guessing it's probably not good. All advanced civilizations live at the edges of the galaxy's volume in the Beyond.

Westeros and Essos from Game of Thrones

The Game of Thrones TV series showed its dedication to the fantasy genre by turning the all-important map at the front of the novels into the series' opening credits. The credits change over each season, bringing new regions into play. This is an extended version of the credits from seasons 1 and 2, showing all the castles.

And here are the latest credits, with new castles!

Above is an incredible map by Redditors serMountainGoat and PrivateMajor of all the journeys taken in the novels.

Middle Earth, from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings

Like the Wizard of Oz, Lord of the Rings was a turning point in the history of fantasy map-making. J.R.R. Tolkien was a master world-builder, creating several conlangs (constructed languages) for his races as well as a world so detailed that many, many people have created their own maps of it over the decades. This map, which shows regions important to the action in Lord of the Rings, was created by NLopezArt and is available on Etsy.

And here's a more complete map of Middle Earth and Undying Lands via Gamereplays

Alternate Europe and Middle East, from the Kushiel series by Jaqueline Carey

In Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel series, our heroes wander across a region that is an alternate history version of Europe and the Middle East. This is a typical way to fashion fantasy maps, but is particularly well-realized in this series of nine novels. As one fan helpfully notes on the Terre D'Ange proboards, there is a simple one-to-one correspondence between these places and the actual regions:

Countries

• The Flatlands- The Benelux, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium.
• Skaldia -Germany, Russia and Scandinavia
• Terre D'Ange - France
• Alba - Great Britain
• Eire - Ireland
• Aragonia - Spain
• Caerdicca Unitas - Italy
• Kriti - Crete
• Hellas - Greece
• Carthage - Northen Africa
• Nubia -Sudan
• The Umaiyyat - Saudi Arabia
• Menekhet - Egypt
• Bhodistani- India
• The Chowat- Romania, Ukraine...etc.
• Ephesus - Hungary
• Saba - Possibly Zaire.
• Drujan - Syria, Iran and Iraq

Cities and places

• La Serenissima - In the Renaissance period, Venice(Italy) was called 'La Serenissima'
• Marsilikos - Possibly Marseille
• Tiberium -The Tiber is a river running to Rome. But Tiberium was a Roman Emperor
• Milazza - Milano/Milan
• Epidauro - Constanople
• Nineveh - Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire
• Meroe - The kingdom of Meroe existed in 1,200 years, only to continue in the shape of the kingdom of Nubia
• Iskandria - Iskander was the old name for Alexander the Great.
• Tyre - An old island city, with also settlement on the mainland. Phoenician Tyre was queen of the seas, an island city of unprecedented splendor.

Earthsea from the Earthsea Chronicles by Ursula K. LeGuin

Here's the map that appears in A Wizard of Earthsea, the first book in the Earthsea series. It's about a world made up of a series of islands, where magic is a fact of life, the land of the dead is a real place, and young women are sometimes dragons. The series began as a set of young adult novels, but the later books are more like adult fantasy novels.

This slightly more detailed map is from Ursula K. LeGuin's website.

Azeroth from World of Warcraft

There are a lot of beautiful (and not-so-beautiful) maps of Azeroth out there, but few give you a sense of the world as a planet, the way Brazilian fan artist Joâo Marques' globe does.

Here it is in more detail.

City Map of Luccini for a Role Playing Game

This gorgeous map was created for a role-playing game by artist Paolo Manzini. Any time a GM is willing to make something this lovely and detailed, you know the game is going to rule.

Second series' 145th and 155th episodes offered on Hulu

In addition to streaming the first 26 episodes of 1977's second Lupin III series, Hulu is now offering episodes 145 "Albatross – Wings of Death" and that iteration of the caper series' 155th and final episode, "Farewell Beloved Lupin." What's significant about the pair is that they were written and directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. More after the jump.

Banpresto prize lotteries celebrate 30 years of "Macross" and 35 of the work of Rumiko Takahashi

Banpresto's Ichiban Kuji prize figures lotteries are marking the anniversaries of a couple of anime/manga heavy hitters. Macross' 30th anniversary festivities have been running for a while now and this is continuing the fun with tickets on sale for a number of co-creator Shoji Kawamori supervised super-deformed figures. Meanwhile, celebrations marking the 35 year career of manga legend Rumiko Takahashi are just getting started. Get a look after the jump.

Namco Bandai is bundling extra goodies with Project X Zone. The game will be sold as a limited edition with a mini-art book, poster, and music CD packaged with the game. Project X Zone will still retail for $39.99.

Read Project X Zone Upgraded To Limited Edition For The West on Siliconera!

The premise of these reviews is simple: watch the first episode of a series and then immediately sit down to record a review mini-podcast. The reviews are five- to ten-minutes long and entirely off the cuff. As always we only review new shows (so no sequels or continuations) and try to avoid anything that just looks outright awful. Here are 8 from the new season:

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Listen – Episode 1 of Devil Survivor 2 The Animation from Pony Canyon with the opening “Take Your Way” by livetune adding Fukase from SEKAI NO OWARI. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Episode 1 of Majestic Prince from Dogakobo and Orange with the opening “Sayonara tte iu” by Chiaki Ishikawa. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Episode 1 of The Devil is a Part-timer! from WHITE FOX with the ending ”Sankaku e.p.” by nano.RIPE. It is streaming on Funimation.

Listen – Episode 1 of Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet from Production I.G with the opening ”Kono Sekai wa Bokura o Matte Ita” by Minori Chihara. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Episode 1 of The Severing Crime Edge from Studio Gokumi with the ending ”Kimi to Futari” by Karin Takahashi × Yurika Endo. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Episode 1 of Muromi-san from Tatsunoko Production with the opening “Nanatsunoumi Yori Kimi no Umi” by Sumire Uesaka. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Episode 1 of My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU from Brains Base with the opening “Yukitoki” by Nagi Yanagi. It is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Episode 1 of Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live from Dongwoo Animation and Tatsunoko Production with the opening “BOY MEETS GIRL” by Prizmmy☆.

Filed under: Anime, Anime Seasons, Favored Topics, Guides, Mecha, Podcasts, S.W.A.T. Reviews Tagged: Devil Survivor, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, Majestic Prince, Muromi-san, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live, The Devil is a Part-timer!, The Severing Crime Edge

Oh yeah, for the oblivious (or should I say unlucky?) one; there’s a mirror for the April Fools’ archives available. I think the old one got busted. With that being said here it is: TATARI Set up by Fatuous One. Filed under: Random Tagged: 2013, April Fools

Shin Megami Tensei IV is headed to North America.

Read Shin Megami Tensei IV Coming To North America This Summer on Siliconera!

Rather than rotating characters, cafes in Tokyo and Tokushima will be all Assassin all the time

Ufotable is famous for offering special themed menus and items based around their anime at their cafes in Tokyo and Tokushima. However, these event specials will no longer be rotating to honor the birthdays of characters from series such as Fate/zero. From now on, it's all Assassin all the time. See the Fools Strike Back intro video and site take-over pics after the jump.

At GDC, I met with Breadbros Games who have been working on a comical JRPG called Sully: A Very Serious RPG.

Read This Vita JRPG Parody Solves Grinding Problem With "Boss Battle Only" Option on Siliconera!