Holiday Drink-Of-The-Week: Cornucopia Sangria

Serves 8

• 1 cup whole fresh cranberries
• 1 large or two small oranges, quartered with peels on, then each quarter cut into 3 chunks.
• 8 ounces orange liqueur, such as triple sec
• 2 large or 3 small apples, cored, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 750-milliliter bottle of inexpensive, chilled dry red wine, such as Rioja
• 1 750-milliliter bottle of chilled sparkling apple cider, such as Martinelli's

Instructions: Coarsely chop the cranberries in a food processor or by hand. Place the chopped cranberries and the orange chunks into a 3-quart or larger pitcher. Add the orange liqueur and muddle the fruit in the liqueur with a cocktail muddler or a wooden spoon to release the juices. Add the apples and mix to blend with other fruit. Cover and macerate the fruit for at least 2 hours, and up to 24 hours.

Just before serving, add the chilled wine and the sparkling cider. Stir to mix. Serve in glasses of your choice (we like canning-jar mugs), making sure to get some fruit into every serving.

Delta + Northwest = ??

So what will the Delta acquisition of Northwest mean for you?

Once Sizzling, China’s Economy Shows Rapid Signs of Fizzling

Just as China attained supercharged growth that astounded much of the world, it appears to be slowing more sharply and more quickly than anyone anticipated.

Pitchfork Reviews Little Joy's New Album

The South American crew earns a 7.2.

Oxford Researchers List Top 10 Most Annoying Phrases

I have found my new calling.

Not all University of Oxford researchers are uptight and humorless, irregardless of what you might think. In fact, a bunch of them compiled a list of the Top 10 Most Irritating Expressions in the English language -- just because we needed one.

Though maybe you could care less, the scholars in question keep track of linguistic mangling and overused buzzwords in a database called the Oxford University Corpus. The voluminous record keeps track of books, magazines, broadcast, online media and other sources, watching for new overused, tiresome phrases and retiring those that fade from use (or misuse).

The great hierarchy of verbal fatigue includes:

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

The list appears in a new book, Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, by Jeremy Butterfield.

I have many contributions to make to this in my own format, but more on that at a later date.

Puppy Love

As Barrack decides who to take with him to the White House, arguably his most important decision will come with what kind of puppy the Obama-clan picks.

Malia, 10, has apparently been asking for a 'goldendoodle', a golden retriever-poodle hyprid.

Michelle has reported they will select a rescue dog from a shelter.

Malia is allergic, so the dog will need to be hypoallergenic, although from personal experience, I can't say there really is such a thing. But good luck with that.

PETA added their two-cents, further confirming how inept they all are. PETA president Ingrid Newkirk supported Obama's decision to select a mut in as negative a way as possible, saying, "...there is something deeply wrong and elitist about wanting only a purebred dog,".

Sigh.

You know PETA, we want to support you. God knows you're fighting for a great cause. But when you say things like that, and make suggestions like Ben & Jerry's should start using human breast milk rather than cow milk, well, it kind of makes it hard to take anything you say seriously.

You can vote on which kind of dog the Obama's should pick here.

Personally, I'm rooting for a King Charles.

HBO acquires rights to Obama documentary

HBO has closed a seven-figure deal for U.S. rights to an untitled Barack Obama documentary produced by actor Edward Norton.

Norton's Class 5 Films approached the Obama campaign in early 2006 about a documentary chronicling the new president-elect's history in politics.

Directors Amy Rice and Alicia Sams were granted extensive access to film Obama before he launched his presidential run in 2007 and have continued their shoot through his historic victory this week.

HBO, which has been pursuing rights for several months, plans to air the documentary next year.

The World Reacts

Barack's step-grandmother Sarah Obama in Kogelo, Kenya

At Obama's former school in Jakarta, Indonesia

Manila, Philippines

Shanghai

Athens, Greece

Jakarta, Indonesia

Jerusalem, Israel

Sydney, Australia

Afghanistan

Obama, Japan

India

Paris, France

Dakar, Senegal

London

Yoko Ono Praises Beatles Rock Band Game

Yoko Ono has welcomed news that The Beatles are to be featured on a new version of the Rock Band video game.

The game, which is set to hit the shelves in time for Christmas 2009, will reportedly feature songs spanning The Beatles' entire career.

Speaking of the release, Ono told Entertainment Weekly that the surviving bandmembers and their estates didn't have any trouble in agreeing to the project.

"All of us are actually pretty hip, so we said yes," she explained. "I'm personally very excited. [The game] lets you participate in a way where you're really [immersed in] the music.

"With so many young kids into The Beatles, it's a start to a beautiful new page in [the band's] history. Maybe they'll start to make music and not just listen to it, and really understand what it's about."

The son of The Beatles' producer Sir George Martin, Giles Martin, who worked on the band's recent 'Love' project, is reported to be overseeing the music on the game.

Radiohead's Thom Yorke releases Barack Obama celebration song

Radiohead's Thom Yorke has made a new remix of his solo song 'Harrowdown Hill' available as a free download, in celebration of Barack Obama's win in the U.S. presidential election.

The song, the original of which appeared on Yorke's 2006 solo album 'The Eraser', is available to download now from Radiohead.com.

Yorke wrote on the website: "In celebration of November 5, Jonny's [Greenwood, guitarist] birthday amid bonfire and fireworks in the UK and the dawn of a new era in politics in the USA, I humbly donate a remix of 'Harrowdown Hill' that was finished ages ago during the band webcasts, a small reminder of the dark days of Bush's."

Jose Gonzalez Releases Live EP

Swedish troubadour José González has released a new EP. Live at Park Ave draws from the songwriter's set at Orlando, Florida's Park Avenue CDs on March 1, 2008. The EP features live versions of tunes from his debut, Veneer, and its follow-up, In Our Nature, played by González and a pair of backing players. Live at Park Ave is available via ThinkIndie and certain independent record stores now.

Live at Park Ave:

01 Deadweight on Velveteen
02 Hints
03 The Nest
04 How Low
05 Abram
06 Time to Send Someone Away
07 Heartbeats
08 Crosses
09 Down the Line

José González:

12-04 Brooklyn, NY - Howard Gilman Opera House (Brooklyn Academy of Music) #
12-05 Brooklyn, NY - Howard Gilman Opera House (Brooklyn Academy of Music) #
12-15 Tokyo, Japan - Duo
12-16 Tokyo, Japan - Duo

# with Bebel Gilberto, CeU, Curumin, Otto

Pitchfork Reviews Eagles Of Death Metal's New Album

The Cherry Cola rockers earn a 7.4.

Holo-dumb

Canada's CBC News has an explanation about that whole hologram fiasco.

Will.I.Am and Yellin were not, technically, holograms. They were basically the result of combined video streams.

Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper could not see them in the studio, even though Anderson totally said: "It looks exactly like in Star Trek when they would beam people down, that's what it looks like right here."

Oh, Andy, how could you?

All Aboard! Full Steam Ahead for California's High-Speed Rail

Good job, California.

Voters on Tuesday approved the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act, more commonly known as Proposition 1A, by a margin of 52 percent to 47 percent.

The law authorizes the Legislature to issue almost $10 billion in bonds to fund the first phase of an 800-mile high speed rail link between Northern and Southern California.

Advocates of high-speed rail hailed the victory as a watershed for high-speed rail in America.

Boeing Says Aviation Biofuel Is Just Three Years Away

The world's largest aircraft manufacturer says biofuel-powered aircraft will flying the friendly skies as early as 2011, a timeline far more accelerated than many thought.

FourTrack Audio Recorder for iPhone, iPod Touch

This is amazing.

FourTrack, a well-designed app for the iPhone or iPod Touch that records, mixes and plays up to four tracks like a shrunken version of Pro Tools.

Seriously. Amazing.

Obama's Most Important Science Decision: Picking EPA Head

The incoming Environmental Protection Agency head — the nation's premier science official — will confront a host of environmental challenges that directly and immediately affect the nation's economic and social health: dying oceans, dwindling fresh water supplies and climate change.

San Francisco Specialty Garage Makes Hybrids Even Greener

Luscious is a secular temple built to serve hybrids, the cars powered by both an electric motor (most often engaged when starting or stopping, thus most efficient in city traffic) and a gasoline engine (most efficient on the open road).

But its owner’s forte is converting them to plug-in hybrids, which are functionally all-electric cars that can go 12 to 15 miles on one charge.

Craigslist Agrees To Curb Sex Ads

There goes your social life.

The online classifieds company Craigslist said Thursday that it had reached an agreement with 40 state attorneys general and agreed to tame its notoriously unruly “erotic services” listings.

Prostitutes and sex-oriented businesses have long used that section of Craigslist to advertise their services. Along with their ads, they often include pornographic photos.

Now what am I supposed to do at work all day?

Scientists copy keys based on photograph with computer imaging

Computer Science Professor Stefan Savage and a handful of grad students at the University of California at San Diego have developed a computer system that makes a functional copy of a key based solely on a photograph, regardless of angle or distance -- the image resolution just has to be high enough to make out the details.

They claim they did this "to show people that their keys are not inherently secret". And to scare the shit out of you.