$70 USD for a quarter-pound of crap coffee ….

I’ve been trying to convince a coffee connoisseur that there is one coffee that he’s not aware of and that it’s got the most expensive price tag of them all.

All that I got back from him was "CRAP, CRAP, CRAP ! " – But that’s exactly what I’m talking about - Coffee from poop – Civet poop that is.

Because he just wouldn’t believe a word, I’ll be setting the record straight once and for all.

DRUMMING - Kopi Luwak facts :)

Kopi Luwak or Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee cherries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Common Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The animals gorge on the ripe berries, and the undigested beans are excreted. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, in the Philippines (where the product is called Kape Alamid), in the country of Vietnam, and the coffee estates of south India.

Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling up to $70 USD per quarter pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and United States, but it is increasingly becoming available elsewhere, though supplies are limited.

Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee, and luwak is a local name of the Palm Civet. The raw, red coffee berries are part of its normal diet, along with insects, small mammals, and other fruit. The inner bean of the berry is not digested, but it is believed that enzymes in the stomach of the civet add to the coffee's flavor by breaking down the proteins that give coffee its bitter taste. The beans are excreted still covered in some inner layers of the cherry, and locals then gather them and sell them to dealers. The beans are washed, and given only a light roast so as to not destroy the complex flavors that develop through the process.

At the end of the day one thing comes to mind - who tried this crap first? Who was the person who was going through poop and though "I bet those coffee beans are still good"?

Kopi Luwak links:

Damn interesting
Wikipedia
Research explaining the taste
Forbes – Most Expensive Coffee
Buy it online

Whish list : ZENUM Opus - item delayed

The first time I read about the ZENUM Opus was around August 2006 and the ETA was for November 2006.Thanks to the Zenum management, the release has been delayed until March 2007.

On the one hand I'm a bit disappointed - my imate is really getting the best of me and the Opus is listed on the top of my imate replacement list.

The delay is due to the fact that Zenum's management was not satisfied with the overall quality of the phone. Considering that it needs some improvement before being presented to the public.

Hopefully the Opus will arrive in SA at some stage and let’s just hope that they don’t delay SA release for too long –Thinkingputty the optimist!

ZENUM Opus specs:

Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Edition
QWERTY Bar type
OMAP 750 200MHz
GSM900/DCS1800/PCS1900
Speech services with EFR/FR/AMR
GPRS class 10
Internal antenna
Flash Rom 128 MB
RAM 64 MB
Mini SD 1GB
2 Mega-Pixel Camera – Digital Zoom
2.5’’ TFT LCD display with touch panel
Removable rechargeable Li-Ion battery, 1,250mAh
Audio/Video: MIDI, MP3, WMA, WAV, AVI, ASF, WMV
Bluetooth SIG version 1.2 compliant
IEEE 802.11b/g Wi-Fi security - WEP(64bit & 128bit), WPA
Infrared IrDA 1.2 SIR
Mini-USB connector

Related links :

Zenum website
Interesting comments from Engadget
Softpedia rants

La Linea - Created by Osvaldo Cavandoli 1969

Yes ,the little guy that walks the infinite line and runs into various obstacles and loose the plot.

When I was ye high I couldn’t get enough of it – hypnotized and glued to the box for the 2minute duration - every time!

As the years passed La Linea faded away and never resurfaced. I started the great search for the archived episodes a while back and couldn't find anything.

About a month or two ago I stumbled across a blog that had a post related to La Linea – I was stoked, the site linked to the TV5 website and it had all the archived episodes.

For the youth of today - wikipedia La Linea.

Get it - Snap Preview Anywhere

Snap Preview Anywhere enables anyone visiting your site to get a glimpse of what other sites you're linking to, without having to leave your site. By rolling over any link, the user gets a visual preview of the site without having to go there, thus eliminating wasted "trips" to linked sites.

Thinkingputty's well impressed - hover over some of the links and see the magic in action.RSS feed-links takes a bit longer to capture but that's nothing major.

Go ahead and get the code : snap preview anywhere

Classic: 20 Ways to maintain a healthy level of insanity...

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label it "In".
5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.
6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write " For Smuggling Diamonds".
7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy".
8. Don't use any punctuation.
9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.
10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go".
12. Sing Along At The Opera.
13. Go To A Poetry Recital. And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme?
14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.
15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.
16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.
17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won! I Won!"
18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling "Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!"
19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."
20. Go to the fitting rooms with a packet of condoms and say you would like to fit it.