Wiser Web Wednesday – a semi-regular link to posts of interest from around the web, by those far wiser than myself:

 

Coffeelands
An exciting time for the Borderlands coffee project, with the publication of a study in peer-reviewed scientific journal Food Policy, containing data collected from Narino in Colombia.

Linked here is the first in a series of posts looking at some of the key findings relating to specialty coffee certification, which include, amongst others:

Strategies focused narrowly on coffee specialization and coffee income are not likely on their own to foster sustainable growth in rural economies.

Subsequent posts examine the certification further, as well as its impact on farm labour and the subsequent effect on the livelihood of those involved:
New Research from the Borderlands

 

Sprudge
Australia’s 2015 World Barista Champion Sasa Sestic after the big win, with a noble goal for the year ahead:

Before, it was about chasing perfection, having an amazing team with close families. But after winning WBC it’s not about me, or my company, or Canberra anymore. It’s about growing specialty coffee worldwide.

It sounds like we’ll hear a lot more from this talented man in the year ahead:
An Interview With Sasa Sestic, World Barista Champion

 

Jeraff You Tube Channel
Speaking of which, the official trailer to an upcoming documentary looking at Sasa Sestic’s journey to winning the 2015 World Barista Championship.

Very much looking forward to the full feature:
The Coffee Hunter Official Trailer

 

 

The Newsprint
To me, posts such as these are where blogs as a form of media really come into their own. Rather than a “highlights” type tourist brochure, we see the sights of a city through the lens of a keen photographer guided by a local resident.

Both a different perspective and truer reflection of a glimpse into a city’s soul:
24 Hours in Kansas City

 

Fountain Pen Day
Not long now for those of us who lay down ink via our beloved nibs on a daily basis.

Explore the links and follow the countdown to November 6, 2015:
Fountain Pen Day

 

Alt. Haven
We all know what great value Pilot’s Metropolitan series of fountain pens offers, and surely in this “Pop” range there is a colour for just about everyone.

Any suggestions for a mix ’n match?:
Review: Pilot Metropolitan Pop Collection

 

Fountain Pen Economics
I do not personally own any Delta pens, and do not know much about the company to be honest, although that has obviously changed a little after reading this post.

At times for most of us it is probably easy to forget about the business side of things when wrapped up in the emotion of a new pen purchase. At the end of the day though, manufacturers and retailers are in business. Some do it better than others, and certain decisions need to be made. Whether these are right or wrong, often only time will tell:
Delta Drama

 

Too Many Inks
David reflects on things after the inaugural meet up of the Brisbane Chapter of the Fountain Pens Australia Facebook group:

I was especially taken with Patricia’s collection of Omas pens and how that represented to me such focus in collecting.

The result? A set of criteria aimed at creating more specific focus on a particular segment of an already expansive collection of Pelikan fountain pens. An elegant mind map shows us what is in store for future purchase considerations. This mind map did give me an idea though.

Although I’d never ask (given the time it would take to put it together), who would love to see a mind map of David’s ink collection, now in excess of 300 in number?

(looks around room)

I think the ayes have it:
Refining my pen collecting focus

 

The Pelikan’s Perch
While we are on the topic of Pelikan, there is cause for some excitement at what is in store in the coming year if this post is anything to go by:
Rumor: What to Expect in 2016

 

Macworld
I’ve put in my two cents here and there around my move from Evernote, part of which involves the revamped Notes app. All I would say in response to the title of the article I’ve linked to here – is that it doesn’t need to.

For example, lists are easily shared through the Reminders app, tags replaceable by including @keywords in your notes, and I can annotate images in other apps and save them into Notes. The rest? Well, with the web clipper, you’ve got me there (rarely used it), although now with the website “save as PDF” Dropbox share extension, I don’t believe I’d miss it.

OCR? Maybe, and I don’t own an Apple Watch.

So if we could just amend that title to 6 reasons why Notes can’t replace Evernote for a subset of users, however for the majority of people it doesn’t need to, and will work far better than you suggest with lists such as this one:
6 reasons Apple Notes still can’t replace Evernote

 

CGP Grey
I think many of us traverse that section of the continuum between enough and overwhelm — perhaps without even realising it. Depending on how important (i.e. related to livelihood in some way) “keeping up” is, will determine how significant a drastic reduction actually is. For someone such as myself, probably no big deal, however for those who have developed a brand around such things, perhaps a little more so.

Where would you fit, and further, how much would it matter?
Dialing Down

 

The Brooks Review
Perhaps something I could have said to my wife and kids 12 months ago:

A thanks in advance to my wife, who will be losing out some time with me this month as I work towards this goal.

This is an interesting idea relating to NaNoWriMo, and one that has fleetingly crossed my mind since writing that fictional novel last year. The problem for me would be in publishing enough words over the course of a month virtually in real-time. I’ve yet to reach the point where I don’t reconsider, rewrite and revise a little too much, just about everything that goes up here.

The real challenge here …will be making sure that I am not just putting down words, to put down words. I need to remain succinct.

A slightly different 50K challenge:
My NaNoWriMo Challenge

 

WhiskyCast
So, apparently whisky producer Compass Box, by disclosing the age statements for all whiskies used in a recent blend:

…violates both the Scotch Whisky Act of 2009 and corresponding European Union legislation banning all spirits producers from disclosing any age-related information other than the age of the youngest spirit that goes into a blend

As I am not your breaking whisky news site, nor even any great authority on the subject other than being a casual observer, I am not about to pass any great judgement on the subject. I did however think this was a valid point:

In short, Robert Merton’s Law of Unintended Consequences has been proven once again. What was originally intended to prevent unethical competition in the whisky industry now prevents the industry from being more transparent

There is some interesting background on why the law was introduced in the first place if you are not already familiar with such things. However whether or not there is anything to be overly excited about is another matter, as it would appear things are unlikely to change:
Why Can’t Scotch Whisky Makers Be More Transparent?

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