I can't believe that came from your mouth!
Archive for October, 2006
New IM Worm Targets Google AdSense
Oct 6th
A new Yahoo Instant Messenger Worm hijacks users’ webpages in order to click on Google Ads that generate dollars per click for the hackers. It seems that Mesothlioma ads pay up to 13 dollars per click.
From the Register here:
Worm automates Google AdSense fraudClick-fraud menace spreads using IM
Virus writers have crafted a malware threat that serves up expensive Google AdSense web pages related to mesothelioma, a rare cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.
Industry workers affected by the disease have launched a series of lawsuits, a factor that means “ambulance chasing” lawyers pay through the nose to get a mention when searches for the term “mesothelioma” are made. The cost-per-click for the term “mesothelioma” is among the highest in the online ads business ranging from $4 to $13 and higher on various keyword bidding networks.
The KMeth worm, which targets Yahoo! Messenger users, directs infected users to a web site serving a barrage of Google AdSense advertisements related to mesothelioma. Financially-motivated malware writers apparently hope to cash on the ruse through shares in the resulting advertising commissions which we doubt will materialise.
KMeth exploits IE vulnerabilities to infect surfers who visit malware infested sites controlled by hackers, promoted through IM messages sent to the Yahoo! Messenger contacts of infected users. The “status message” in Yahoo! Messenger can also be also hijacked, presenting potentially enticing messages to their contacts, such as “check out my blog” in order to trick potential marks into becoming infected, IM security firm FaceTime reports.
On the plus side, the worm is likely draining the pockets of some ambulance-chasing lawyer types too, since they are the ones sponsoring the Google Ads.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!)
Loading ...CVN 77, USS George HW Bush
Oct 6th
The last of the Nimitz Class Carriers gets christened tomorrow morning at Newport News Shipyard. The President, both current and former will be on hand to officially put the huge warship into service. This ship will serve America through 2060.
I used to work on these things when I was at the Shipyard. The last ship I had a hand in welding was the Stennis. I had also helped with the Roosevelt, Washington and Lincoln in the years that I was there, and I also helped refit the USS Enterprise, the fastest carrier in the fleet.
There are two videos of the Bush here and here.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Movie Trailer for Frank Miller’s 300
Oct 5th
The trailer looks amazing. Every frame of this could be captured and used as a cool poster. But the storyline behind this movie is even more amazing. Click here to see the video or on the Picture below to watch the trailer.
Frank Miller wrote a graphic novel about the 300 Spartans that fought to the death against Xerxes and the Persian hordes at the battle of Thermopylae. The Spartans knew they were going to die, but their heroism and valor served to unite the Greek people against the Persians. It is awesome, so check it out.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Pages Punked Foley
Oct 5th
Well, according to Drudge, the IM messages that shamed Republican Representative Mark Foley into resigning was a prank by a few pages that were aware of Foley’s proclivities. The messages have been reported to have originated from one of the former pages, so the prior posts on this blog about the source of the messages coming from the House were incorrect. And one of the former pages has retained legal council, undoubtedly to help shield himself from any fallout over this bad prank gone awry.
So the young teens must have said to each other, “lets go ahead and lead this guy on!” They were not only willing participants in the conversation, but they may have been the ones instigating the lurid messages.
Drudge has the siren proclaiming:
According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal… Developing…
CLAIM: FILTHY FOLEY ONLINE MESSAGES WERE PAGE PRANK GONE AWRY
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Chinese Death Buses
Oct 5th
The Chinese people live in a horrible authoritarian country. The people are treated like cattle with little to no civil rights. The justice system is a sham and execution is swift.
Buts its even swifter now that the Chinese government has rolled out their new sleek execution buses, where they go around executing criminals on the spot. Its faster than long waits in jail. Especially when there is such a demand for harvested organs. Think I’m making this stuff up? Click over to Hot Air here or to the video here at Sky News. The video shows mass executions, jail-cell torture, undercover video of organ harvesting operations, and the new glossy photos of the Death Buses.
Even owning a gun will get you executed. A man hid in a cave for eight years to avoid the death squad. But time and nerves took its toll, and the man surrendered, assured of a firing squad or a trip in the Death Bus.
From Reuters here:
A Chinese man wanted by police on gun charges has given himself up after hiding in a cave constructed at the back of his house for eight years, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The 35-year-old man from the southeastern city of Fuzhou had tunneled the cave out of a hill behind the bedroom of his house and had put a wardrobe in front of the entrance as a disguise, Xinhua said in a report seen on Thursday.
The man, named as Liu Yong, left the cave during the day to read, wash and watch television in the house, but went back into it at night, it said.
Some of his accomplices have already been sentenced to death, it said.
The olympics start there in 2 years, by the way.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Well Behaved Women Rarely
Oct 5th
Make History.
Im still working on my great Pirate Book, Under the Blag Flag by David Cordingly, and I got to the part of the book about Pirate Wenches. I read another laugh out loud paragraph in the book when it refered to a famous prostitute in Port Royal in the 1670′s by the name of Mary Carleton. She was described by one man as “common as a barber’s chair. No sooner than one comes out, another goes in.”
It was such a gutteral, low thing to say about a whore, I barked a laugh at the cleverness of the comparison.
The story also mentioned that the woman was banished to Jamaica as punishment for theft and bigamy, and while she was in Port Royal she became the most famous of all Pirate Wenches, partly due to her fame back in England. The book mentioned that Mary had starred in a play written specifically for her. I did some research on Mary, and this is what I found.
Mary Carleton was not a nice woman, but she was apparently very attractive. She frequently claimed that she was a German Princess who was on the lam to escape an arranged marriage in order to meet and seduce men that were hoping to marry her for a fat dowery.
She made a career of conning old men out of money by using false identities and marrying them, waiting until she could access their money, and then making off with their fortunes.
Born as Mary Moders, she married a cobbler in Canterbury and gave birth to two children who died as infants. Unhappy at her husband’s inability to maintain her expensive tastes, and undoubtedly heartbroken over the loss of her babies, she left her husband and went to Dover in search of her fortune. It was there that she married a surgeon. When news of this new marriage surfaced, she was arrested and tried for bigamy, but she was acquitted.
Rightly thinking that she needed to get out of town, she traveled to Cologne, Germany to live out her fantasy of being a German Princess. Having acquired a little pocket change from her former husband, she took an apartment in a “house of entertainment” near the Spa in Cologne, which was a prime spot to pick from wealthy would-be benefactors. It wasn’t long before she had several older men pursuing her and vowing their undying love for her. The biggest sucker of these men was a wealthy old nobleman with a large estate outside of Cologne.
Conspiring with her landlady who was also a grifter, the two of them managed to pass Mary off as a lady of refinement, eager to marry and love the old foolish doddard. He showered her with precious gems and jewelry and fine gold chains that had been awarded to him for services to the King of Sweden. Mary loved the jewelry and continued to lead the old man on. The nobleman made fabulous promises to her and pushed her for marriage. She agreed to marry him in three days on the condition that she make all of the arrangements. The nobleman was absolutely delighted and enraptured with the young seductress and gave her large sums of cash to put together a grand marriage ceremony.
Up until now, Mary had been splitting the wealth from the nobleman with her landlady as part of an arrangement for helping show Mary how to be a grifter. It was payment for the Con game. But Mary told the landlady that there was a larger fortune yet to come from marrying the old fool, but she needed the landlady’s help in the arrangements. Mary tricked the landlady into leaving the “house of entertainment” under the ruse of running a critical errand for her in order to pull off the next part of their caper together. As soon as the landlady was out of the house, Mary tore open the landlady’s secret chest where the landlady had been stashing her half of the con money, and she filled her bags with the loot that she had stolen from the old nobleman, and lots of other cash from other scams the landlady was running. Mary left town unnoticed.
She made it all the way back to London, arriving very early in the morning one day in late March, 1663. Her pockets full and her bags heavy, she tried to find somewhere to stay, but nothing was open except for the Exchange Tavern, located near the Exchange, where all of the money was traded and deals brokered. I guess it was much like a Renaissance Wall Street district. Tired and thirsty for gin, she went into the Tavern.
It was in this Tavern that she became to be known as the “German Princess.” When men that worked the Exchange inquired about her, she was able to conjure up fake tears. She would sniffle and she would cry that she didnt mean to burden anyone with her sad story. When the men insisted that she tell her tale, she told her fake story about how she was the daughter of a German Prince, a “Lord Henry van Wolway.” Her ficticious story told about how her wealthy family had abandoned her when she refused to marry the man her family had insisted upon.
Everyone in the Tavern started calling her the “German Princess” and Mary began to introduce herself as such as well, taking on the airs of a noblewoman. She had set herself up in another apartment and was living on the extravagancies of her loot from the nobleman she had fleeced in Cologne.
Mary liked the Exchange Tavern a lot. She hung out there all the time and was a local celebrity. The owner of the Tavern was a man by the name of Mr. King. He had a brother-in-law by the name of John Carleton, and John was smitten by the beauty and personality of the German Princess, and began to pursue her with the intent of marrying the young woman. She put up a resistance, even saying that she, as a person of noble blood, could never stoop so low as to marry a commoner! She finally relented, and John Carleton acted as if he was the luckiest man alive, having found the good graces of a Royal Princess, and he fawned over her for having accepted a lowly man as her husband.
It was not long before John Carleton even began acting as if he was of royal blood. After all, having married a Princess surely made him a Prince! Shortly thereafter, an anonymous letter arrived at the Exchange Tavern addressed to Mr. King. The letter detailed how Mary had been married several times before and only did so to defraud her husbands.
It said:
SIR, I am an entire stranger to your person, yet common justice and humanity oblige me to give you notice that the pretended princess, who has passed herself upon your brother, Mr John Carleton, is a cheat and an impostor. If I tell you, sir, that she has already married several men in our county of Kent, and afterwards made off with all the money she could get into her hands, I say no more than could be proved were she brought in the face of justice. That you may be certain I am not mistaken in the woman, please to observe that she has high breasts, a very graceful appearance, and speaks several languages fluently.
Mary was arrested again on bigamy, and it led to a trial that was sensational for its day. Mary fought it publically by distributing pamphlets written by her detailing that John had sought to marry her only because he thought he could get money from her. Somehow, she was acquitted of her crime. It is likely that her own sensational story had turned her into so much of a local celebrity that no jury would convict her.
Mary was still very fond of the local taverns, and she began to frequent one that was visited often by the players of the local theatre. The dramatists instantly knew that Mary would be a great draw to the local theatre. She was already a little famous and people who had read her pamphlets were eager to know more about her. So at the urging of her new friends in the theatre, she wrote her own life story and they turned it into a play with her as the star. At the end of her play, she gave the following epilogue:
“I’ve passed one trial, but it is my fear
I shall receive a rigid sentence here:
You think me a bold cheat, put case ’twere so,
Which of you are not? Now you’d swear I know.
But do not, lest that you deserve to be
Censur’d worse than you can censure me:,
The world’s a cheat, and we that move in it,
In our degrees, do exercise our wit;
And better ’tis to get a glorious name,
However got, than live by common fame.”
Mary parlayed her fame into fleecing her greatest admirers. Many theatre goers wanted to be near her and court her, and of course, she looked upon them as mere marks. She would play hard to get with some, and would entice others, depending on how much money they would spend on her. She even drained a small fortune from some of her best admirers and then cast them aside, publically declaring “How dare they think they could pretend love to a Princess?”
As her acting career began to wane, she accepted the advances of a wealthy old man, who, even after knowing the whole background story of Mary, doted after her and began to believe tales about how she never hurt anyone. She eventually married him, waited for him to get drunk, and rolled him, taking his keys to his treasure chests, his bank account access notes, and about 150 pounds worth of valuables. She fled and never saw him again.
For years to come she continued to fleece her victims with her guile, beauty, and the help of her accomplice, a young woman grifter cohort who posed as her maid. Together, they conned men out of thousands of pounds of money.
Mary was eventually caught stealing a silver tankard. She was sent to Newgate prison and ordered to be transported to a penal colony. In this case, Jamaica. It was in Jamaica that she became the West Indies’ most popular prostitute and Tavern Wench, utilizing her training as an actress, her long history of outlandish tales of plunder and beguilement, and her street smarts to become a very wealthy woman.
Violating the tenets of her banishment, Mary tried to make one more go of it in London. She returned only two years into her punishment and tried to pass herself off as a wealthy heiress. Using this guise, she pulled off a few more cons, robbing husbands and lovers of thousands of pounds.
By accident, she was recognized by the local police when they were looking for another thief. She was apprehended. On January 22nd, 1673, Mary was hanged. She was 38.
After researching Mary Carleton, I came to realize that this woman was not as “common as a barber chair.” Far from it. She was a vibrant, brilliant, beautiful woman who used her talents to plunder wealthy men. Her story should be told. Yet Hollywood insists on making Pirate movies about sea critters. **sigh**
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...In China, Its Safer for Bears to Drive
Oct 4th
I have highlighted on this blog in the past that animals in China may be better drivers than Chinese people. Here is another case. Another photo from the Animal Olympics in China shows a Bear riding a moped across a tight rope.
I guess if they let the Chinese woman drive it, she would go too slow and have the blinker on the whole way. Or begin to slowly creep into the tightrope of another performer.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Vista Cracking Down on Pirated Copies
Oct 4th
Microsoft is going to be able to disable and severely restrict usage of its new Vista products if the copy of the product is suspected to have been an illegal copy or a pirated version. The good news is that it will still be able to download patches to keep it up to date. The bad news is that this could be a vulnerability that attackers could use to create a denial of service condition in Vista.
Years ago, during the Worm Wars of Nimda, Code Red, blaster and many others, one of the reasons that the malcode was so widespread was because Microsoft refused to allow pirated copies to access Windows Update to receive patches. As a result, the millions of pirated hosts in Korea, China and Russia became a hacker’s playground for botnets because the systems were so easily compromised. Microsoft has reversed that practice, and noticeably, the state of the Internet is a little more stable as a result.
From the AP here:
Vista to take hard stand against piracy
SEATTLE – Microsoft Corp.’s forthcoming Windows Vista will take much harsher steps to curtail piracy than previous versions of its operating system, including crippling the usefulness of computers found to be running unlicensed copies of the new software.
The world’s largest software maker said Wednesday that people running a version of Windows Vista that it believes is pirated will initially be denied access to some of the most anticipated Vista features. That includes Windows Aero, an improved graphics technology.
If a legitimate copy is not bought within 30 days, the system will curtail functionality much further by restricting users to just the Web browser for an hour at a time, said Thomas Lindeman, Microsoft senior product manager.
Under that scenario, a person could use the browser to surf the Web, access documents on the hard drive or log onto Web-based e-mail. But the user would not be able to directly open documents from the computer desktop or run other programs such as Outlook e-mail software, Lindeman said.
Microsoft said it won’t stop a computer running pirated Vista software from working completely, and it will continue to deliver critical security updates.
The crackdown shows how much more seriously Microsoft has started taking Windows piracy, which for years has been extremely widespread in areas such as Russia and China. The Business Software Alliance, a software industry group, estimates that 35 percent of software installed on PCs worldwide is pirated.
And I wish Microsoft would hurry my Vista RC1 disk to me. Im running its last beta version, and it is quite buggy.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...More IM Traffic from Foley
Oct 3rd
More IM messages were broadcast today on the Internet between Former Rep. Foley and a teenage boy. It appears that Foley tried to engage in cybersex with the teen while he was at his House Offices. He specifically mentions a pending vote.
This is key because it means that a government network was used to carry on this communication. Which then means that the House Intrusion Detection Systems recorded all of the conversations. All IDS systems have signatures available to detect various chat programs. Since the messages are broadcast in clear text, it is childs play to read what staffers and members of the House are saying to people over IM.
I wonder if its possible to use a FOIA request to get the IDS logs for all chat communications in the House? Knowing what I know about network chatting, Im certain that there are dozens of others on the network using the chat programs for naughty talk too.
If Democrats want to breach the privacy of one House Member, I say, expose everyone to the same glaring light of truth. Lets see what everyone else is saying. Idiots should know that IM messages are being recorded on the network anyways.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Kenny the Clown Eyes Mayoral Seat
Oct 3rd
Kenny the Clown wants to be the mayor of Alameda. Instead of giving the mayor a gavel to preside over town council meetings, he can use a honking bulb horn.
Gads I hate clowns. But I think it would be funny if Kenny wins the election. Here is his stupid website.
From the AP here:
ALAMEDA, Calif. – A real clown is running for mayor of Alameda, and even his sister won’t vote for him.
Kenneth Kahn, 41, a professional joker known as “Kenny the Clown,” admits he’s running a long-shot campaign for City Hall’s top spot. Kahn has not previously run for an elected position and has never sat on a public board.
“People ask me, ‘Do we really want to elect a clown for mayor of the city?’” he said. “I say, ‘That’s an excellent question.’”
Kahn’s mother, Barbara, said her son doesn’t have a chance, and Sylvia Kahn, a teacher, said her brother’s candidacy is a “mockery of our system.”
Even a clown’s own family hates him. Clowns are only funny when their stupid over-sized shoes are too big to close the coffin lid on them.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...McAfee Makes Another Key Acquisition
Oct 3rd
So there are two stories out today about McAfee. In the first, it shows that McAfee is helping to keep Symantec spun up about Microsoft, and the second, McAfee stabs Symantec in the back by making another key acquisition that will help McAfee maintain its dominance atop the Anti-Virus and Security Suite Space.
From Yahoo here:
Major security firms McAfee and Symantec have gone on the attack against Microsoft, accusing the software behemoth of changing security in the forthcoming Windows Vista operating system to lock them out.
The security tweak in question is limiting access to the system’s kernel, which security vendors have been able to access in the past, and which is necessary for making third-party security software work effectively.
“The kernel issue is a complicated one, and both sides are telling their stories in believable ways,” Wilcox said. “But, ultimately, it won’t have a huge affect on most users.“
McAfee knows that Microsoft is fortifying their OS, ultimately making users around the world less dependent on Anti-virus software. Its a good thing. Less compromised PC’s will lead to better and safer computing environments. Symantec doesnt seem to get this, or they are too swamped in litigation and overdue taxes to concentrate on retooling their business for a world of stronger PC’s.
Meanwhile, McAfee is going forward with its next generation of business- Complicated compliance issues with the Federal Government. Big money in that. Where is Symantec on acquiring companies to allow it to compete in the regulatory space?
From CNET here:
McAfee to capture Citadel Security
The transaction, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, calls for security company McAfee to pay $56 million in cash, in addition to $4 million in working capital.
Citadel develops software designed to automate the process of complying with regulatory requirements such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. The company’s products range from patch management to security policy to vulnerability remediation technologies.
McAfee said it is particularly interested in targeting government agencies and health care companies with its Citadel acquisition, given that those industries are highly regulated.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Killer Bee Blackberry Mead
Oct 3rd
Because of the high sugar content of the africanized honey I used for my last batch of mead, I stopped fermentation a little bit early. This stuff was fizzing almost all week like someone had dropped an alka-seltzer tab in it. I have learned from experience that the rapid fizzing is an over-clocked fermentation, so I had to do a tasting late Friday night. It tasted just right, even though it was a day or too early.
This mead didnt taste very much different from the other types of honey I have used, but it does have a richer aroma. The blackberry tea lended the mead a lingering tartness that nicely counteracted the off-dry sweetness. During fermentation the mead was a blonde color, but now that it has settled, it is a rich amber gold. And its so tasty over a little ice.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Tracking Rep. Foley’s IM Logs
Oct 2nd
Republican Representative Mark Foley resigned his seat in Congress in shame and entered an alcoholic recovery clinic in the wake of personal AOL Instant Messaging logs being leaked to the press.
Let me first start this by saying that what Foley did is disgusting in that the other person on the chat with him was underaged. Otherwise, had this chat occured between two adults, the leaking of this log is embarrassing and a breach of privacy.
However, there is something really wrong with this because the chat logs are three years old. To leak these logs now is clearly a political dirty trick to influence the election.
The logs here, show the Representative trying to coax his chat partner into cyber-sex, and its clear from the patter that the younger IM’er is a willing participant in the conversation. They chat about masturbation techniques and sexual fetishes. The chat took place with Foley in a hotel room in Pensacola, FL, and the other person at home somewhere in Florida. It also shows that Foley was interested in keeping the conversation private-
Xxxxxxxxx (8:10:54 PM): brb my mom is yelling
Maf54 (8:11:06 PM): ok
Xxxxxxxxx (8:14:02 PM): back
Maf54 (8:14:37 PM): cool hope se didnt see any thing
Xxxxxxxxx (8:14:54 PM): no no
Xxxxxxxxx (8:14:59 PM): she is computer dumb though
Xxxxxxxxx (8:15:01 PM): it makes me so mad
Maf54 (8:15:04 PM): good
Instant Messaging Logs for AOL Instant Messenger is stored by default, on the local hard drive. This means that there were two original sources for this chat. On Foley’s laptop, which he was using in the hotel room, and on the home PC owned by the other party.
If Foley took precautions to keep the IM conversations private, and it seemed he was, he likely purged his local logs. If he did not, he may have allowed a backup copy of his hard drive to be performed at the House Offices. This would have meant that there were three copies of the logs. Or, if Foley were really sloppy, he turned in his old laptop for a replacement without wiping the drive, and the old laptop was either reissued to someone else or it was retired with the data still on it.
There could be one more explanation as well. At the beginning of the exchange Foley experienced a disruption in his connection:
Maf54 signed off at 7:39:37 PM.
Maf54 signed on at 7:40:35 PM.
Xxxxxxxxx (7:40:44 PM): got kicked off?
Maf54 (7:41:24 PM): must have
It took an entire minute for Foley to sign back in. In 2003, there were many vulnerabilities in wireless access points. By sending a specific reset to a WAP, an attacker could kick all connections off of the wireless device and then sniff the network to steal passwords and usernames when users tried to reconnect.
Though it is unlikely, an attacker may have intercepted Foley’s credentials and used them to access Foley’s logs on his system.
So who outed Foley as a creep that tries to have cyber with boys? It wasnt Foley. This leaves the other chatter, or a member of the Help Desk at the House of Representatives. Or maybe a phantom hacker at the Pensacola hotel.
Just remember that you should never put anything on the wire that you dont want the world to see. And if you have to put it on the wire, encrypt it.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Gray Ghost Winery
Oct 2nd
The Gray Ghost Winery is located outside of Warrenton, Virginia in Amissville. It features a brand new beautiful tasting room that could accomodate large parties and events and cozy outdoor tables and a Victorian Garden to enjoy a bottle of wine and soak up the pleasant mountain air.
The wines at the Gray Ghost are pricier than most wineries, and for the most part, the tastes of these wines are good, but comparable to similar wines at other vineyards. The best of the wines at Gray Ghost is the Victorian Red, and surprisingly, it is also the cheapest. And it is a Gold Medal winner at a tasting competition, whereas some of the other pricier wines were not. The Victorian Red is a semi-dry fruity light red wine that tastes excellent chilled.
The Gray Ghost Winery is also trying to turn the tasting room into an informal museum on John Singleton Mosby, who was a Warrenton citizen before he fought in the Civil War. He was dubbed the Gray Ghost by Abe Lincoln due to Mosby’s ability to raid Union lines at night. There is a battle flag that was once used by Mosby on display in the tasting room. A little history on Mosby is here.
Mosby did not want Virginia to secede from the Union, but when it did, he said, “Virginia is my mother, God bless her! I can’t fight against my mother, can I?”
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Unicorn Winery
Oct 2nd
We visited the Unicorn Winery in Amissville, VA. on the way back from our camping trip on Sunday. The winery had just completed the harvest, and unfortunately, since the winery is located in the same building as the tasting room, the place was inundated with fruit gnats. It was a tad annoying, but it didnt really detract too much from the tasting.
The tasting room is moderately sized compared to many other wineries, and the grounds are well maintained and landscaped to allow different flowers to bloom year round. There is a patio overlooking a pond that is next to the tasting room that allows visitors to sit and enjoy a bottle while watching the sunset.
Unicorn’s wines are all modestly priced, with the majority listed at 12 dollars. The Chardonnay was aged in oak barrels and is vintage 2002, but it was surprisingly mild and rather ordinary in flavor. The other whites had hints of various citrus fruits, and would make great table wines or sipping wines on a warm day.
The red wines were the best family of wines for Unicorn. The merlot was good, but there are much better merlots in the region. The Cabernet Franc was excellent and had a deep color and peppery taste. It went very well with the steaks I grilled last night.
Unicorn has several blended wines, and frankly, the blended wines are the very best the winery has to offer. The blended red was called “Meritage” and it contained a blend of half Cab-Sav, and a quarter each of Merlot and Cab Franc. This blend was very smooth with none of the biting hints of the single wines themselves.
The final blended wine is called “Slightly Embarrassed” which is an off-dry rose of the citric whites and the red Chambourcin, which is an American-French hybrid grape. This wine was a festive flavor and would be excellent to share with friends.
We got bottles of the Cab Franc and the Slightly Embarrassed.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Williamsburg Pottery History
Oct 2nd
The Daily Press in Southern Virginia is great at writing historical pieces about Virginia. One of those stories came out today about the Williamsburg Pottery in James City County. The pottery is one of those places that I go to frequently on the trip back from visiting my parents in Hampton Roads. In fact, most of the things in my house came from the pottery, including frames, artwork, curios and knick-knacks, and of course pottery and plants.
From the Daily Press here:
JAMES CITY — Thanks in large part to James E. Maloney, the Williamsburg area draws hordes of outlet shoppers each year – not just history buffs and roller-coaster fans.
Maloney, who died in July 2005, established the Williamsburg Pottery in 1938. It started as a roadside pottery stand off Route 60 and grew into a complex of no-frills stores selling thousands of products, from silverware to Christmas decorations.
The Pottery presaged the outlet mall. It has also helped bring other discount retailers to the Lightfoot area of James City County, such as Prime Outlets with its 90 vendors.
About 1930, Maloney began to learn about pottery from Paul Griesenauer, who ran Jamestown Colony Pottery. By 1938, he was married and spending about $150 on a half acre off Route 60, where he built his stand, kiln and workshop with living quarters in the back.
Maloney and his first wife, Gloria, sold any pottery with flaws at a discount, and then began selling other people’s “factory seconds” as well. The Pottery eventually got into international import buying. By 1980, annual gross revenue had reached about $20 million, and rose to an estimated $60 million or more by 1990.
The Pottery’s founder was 93 when he died last year. In the early 1990s, he attributed his long life to staying active.
If you visit Colonial Williamsburg, take a few hours to stop by the Pottery. The old round kiln house is still there, and there are acres of shopping available.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Dutch Oven Beef Stew
Oct 1st
On our camping trip, one of the highlights was using the Dutch Oven to make Beef Stew. First, a little background on beef stew- my wife and I both love the gut warming deliciousness of good home made beef stew. We both love it so much that at our wedding, we had a buffet and the main course was beef stew. Everyone that attended the wedding said that it was delicious and unique. But even if everyone hated it, we were going to have beef stew at our wedding.
We had planned on going camping since last Wednesday, and I got the crazy idea of getting one of those large Dutch Ovens so we could make real camp beef stew. The Dutch oven is a 9 quart style that I got at Dick’s Sporting Goods for around 30 bucks. It weighs about 30 pounds too! The bottom acts like a kettle, and the top can double for a skillet in a pinch. Other than the weight, it is the perfect camping necessity.
First, I must note that my wife kicks my ass at building a fire. I know the process and the theory. Its just the patience I lack. Once she got the fire going, I put the Dutch Oven on the hot coals, scooped in a wad of butter and began to brown the stew meat. Once the meat began to brown, I coated the meat with biscuit flour, stirred and then added one can of beer.
When the beer began to steam off a bit, I added the vegetables and a can of beef broth and some water. I added water twice more, along with some spices of bay leaves, salt and pepper, and before I took the stew off the fire, I added just a tad more flour to thicken the stew. It was outstanding, thick, and the veggies would melt in your mouth!
We are getting a home outdoor firepit this week so we can make more beef stew using the Dutch Oven.
So here is my recipe for Dutch Oven Beef Stew:
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds of stewing beef
- 3 Medium white potatoes
- 3 whole carrots
- 3 stalks of celery
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 medium size onion
- 1 can of beef broth
- 1 can of beer (preferably guiness)
- 1/4 cup of butter
- Salt and Pepper
- 2 quarts of water
- Bay Leaves
- 1/2 cup All purpose flour
Directions:
- Cut Beef into 1 inch cubes. Set aside.
- Cut potatoes, carrots and celery into 1 inch cubes.
- Dice onion and mince garlic. Mix with other cut vegetables.
- Place dutch oven on hot coals. Add butter.
- Put beef in Dutch oven. Mix well into butter.
- When beef begins to brown, sprinkle in flour and coat meat thoroughly.
- Add beer. Replace lid and let simmer for ten minutes, or until half of beer is evaporated off. Don’t let beef stick to oven.
- Add all veggies, broth and one quart of water. Add spices and bay leaves. Stir and cover, let simmer until half of water is evaporated.
- Add final quart of water if necessary. Let simmer until mixture is desired thickness, ensuring all vegetables are cooked completely. If needed, sprinkle a little extra flour to thicken.
Just remember to not have a roaring fire. Stew is a slow cooking process, and the whole cook time should take about an hour and a half if the heat is high, or two hours or longer if it is low.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Floating Down the Shenandoah River
Oct 1st
My lovely bride and I took a trip out past Luray Virginia on Saturday morning for a camping trip. We stayed at the Shenandoah Outfitter’s campground and were fortunate enough to get there with enough time to take a great canoe trip for three miles down the Shenandoah River.
The weather started out with rain, and the whole trip was looking iffy all the way down to Luray. But as noon neared, the clouds were burning off and we arrived at the campgrounds in a pleasant sunlight. As we are not avid outdoorsmen, we chose to go on the shorter of the river trips, and it turned out that it was just the right amount of time on the river- about two hours or so.
I have never canoed on a mountain river. I grew up in Southern Virginia, so all of the rivers I was used to are murky brown, stinky swamp mud bottoms, and full of jellyfish. But I knew how to use a kayak and a canoe. What surprised me about the Shenandoah was the clarity of the water and the fact that the river bottom is almost solid rock everywhere. You can easily see the fish swimming around, and wildlife was plentiful.
We encountered a few rapids. Those didnt always go well. We should have paid closer attention to the maps that the canoe rental place provides. I’m pretty sure it shows you the best spots to go over the rapids. Two or three times we got stuck on some shallows in the rapids and had to brute force our canoe downstream. Luckily the water was low and the rapids pretty mild. No one got wet. Im just glad that those canoes are fiberglass and flexible. Had they been made out of wood we’d have sunk.
I think the next time we go we will get kayaks.
Like This Post? Rate it and tell your friends! Click the Share button below.
(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...
