If you’ve read my reviews on the deProef Signature Ale and Saison Dupont – Brasserie, this beer fits right in the middle of them. It’s the most complicated Belgian that I could recommend to a friend worried about accessibility. You’ll note that many of my reviews will talk about “accessibility” as I find that while I’m a total whore for Belgian beers, many are not.

This is a really special beer that is unlike anything that I’ve tasted. This is a mellow / sweet beer (not too sweet) that has a stronger finish that one might guess from the initial taste. There are hints of citrus, but my palette is not refined enough at this point to tell you what type. Still super yummy. I’ll make sure that I always have one of these in the beer fridge.

(Super cool – there is a Facebook Fan Page for the beer)

Mendelson Rating: 9/10

Is it just me or are you receiving a lot more emails that look like this:

Hi Jason,

Wanted to make you aware of the below funding announcement just released regarding a new [BLAH-nothing I care about]. Happy to make any introductions to the CEO, [John Smith] or any of the  below individuals for further comment, if interested in learning more.

Any questions or additional information you may have, I can be reached at 212-867-5309 or jenny@randomprfirm.com

Thanks,

Jenny

Then this is followed by a large press release about something that I don’t care about and I usually get two copies to boot.

And, of course, none of these folks are complying with the law by offering the ability to unsubscribe, so I bitch back and ask them to take me off the list, which about half the time they don’t respond.

So, I take their name and numbers down and make sure that when my companies need PR help, they won’t be using these spammers.  I realize that folks have a job to do, but why would I want my companies paying for a PR firm that is just carpet bombing information?  I can find ways to do that MUCH more cheaply than hiring a PR firm. Use some creativity, target your audience and if you can’t – at least follow the email spamming laws.

One more thing – not all PR folks are bad.  I’ve worked with some really great ones who don’t behave like this, but it feels like the velocity of those that do is increasing.

Rant over.

The guys over at Legal River emailed today and let me know about a new product offering that they’ve come up with called Attorney River.

Attorney River is trying to help improve upon the lawyer directory model, i.e. Martindale, which has not seen a lot of innovation in the last few decades. Attorney River allows lawyers to post a request for other lawyers – whether it be for outsourcing work or to find a specialist for a client in a different state. Interested lawyers can then respond to the posting. The system takes the onus off the lawyer who is currently wading through directories cold calling other lawyers.

They tell me that creating an account is free and posting of issues is also free. 

The CU New Venture Challenge finals are this Friday, 3/12 beginning at 2pm in ATLAS 100 on the CU-Boulder Campus and are open to the public. Don’t miss the watching the top four teams pitch their business plans to a panel of judges including venture capitalists, angel investors and serial entrepreneurs.
Prizes include:

• 1st – $6,000
• 2nd – $3,000
• 3rd – $2,000
• Judges Choice – $250

Now in its second year, the CU New Venture Challenge is a campus-wide initiative connecting students and faculty with teammates in a broad range of disciplines and with mentors from the business community. The goal is to provide knowledge and experience making entrepreneurship accessible to anyone with the enthusiasm and creativity required to start a new business.

Highlights of the 2010 CU New Venture Challenge include:

• $15,000 in cash prizes
• More than 20 teams in fields ranging from information technology and Internet to music and outdoor recreation
• Dozens of mentors sharing their entrepreneurial experience with competition entrants
• Seven workshops and “crash courses” on topics such as intellectual property, economic sustainability, and how to build a company from concept to completion
• Networking events connecting CU students with employers and building a sense of community among Colorado entrepreneurs
• 145 Facebook members and 463 followers on Twitter
• At least one CU student, employee or faculty member per team

Google is planning to launch an experimental fiber-to-home project that will be 100 times faster than most connection – an amazing 1 gigabit per second!

Boulder is working hard to try to be one of the cities chosen for this experiment.  Google wants to hear from us and why we should be included.

Check out BoulderFiber.com and become part of the movement.  It takes about 1 minute to fill out your support form.  The more community involvement we get, the more likely that we’ll be part of this groundbreaking experiment.

Today, I received notice that the NVCA has formally rejected two parts of this lengthy-titled bill.  (You just have to love the names they put on these bills). 

Don’t let your eyes glaze over – this bill, if enacted with currently wording could really hurt innovation in this country.

As I previously wrote, Senator Dodd brought wants to repeal the existing federal preemption of state regulation over “accredited investor” securities offerings. This would end the uniform, national set of rules for financing start-ups. By eliminating regulation that is working well, the draft bill would expose technology startups to a potentially complicated system of patchwork, state-by-state regulation, resulting in higher costs, more legal risks, and the potential of not being able to raise capital because of different rules in different states.

Nothing would be gained from this change: no additional protections would be provided to the accredited angel investors and there would be no benefits to the national financial system or to the economy.  It would just make raising money much harder for entrepreneurs and line the pockets of corporate lawyers who would comply with these new rules.

Secondly, the draft of the bill recommends adjusting the accredited investor standard for inflation. As we understand it, this section would change the current requirement for an individual of $1 million in net worth or $200,000 in annual income to about $2.3 million in net worth or $450,000 plus in annual income. At a time when many accredited investors have lost more than 20 percent of their net worth in 2008 and innovative start-ups are having an increasingly difficult raising equity capital, decreasing the potential pool of angel investors is counter-productive to supporting the very companies that will create new high-paying jobs.

the Angel Capital Association has joined forces with the NVCA.  Hopefully Washington will listen to reason here.  Otherwise, this could have a tremendously bad effect on our ecosystem. 

St. Bernardus Abt 12 has a great quote on its website regarding the water in its beer:

“Water, pumped up from a depth of 150 meter is the basis of all St. Bernardus beers. This water is not only the purest but has also a historical background. Scientists have proved that the water that is pumped up now, is originating from rainfall from the time of Jeanne d’Arc.”

How does any brewer compete with that? It’s not exactly Rocky Mountain water, but wow.

How about the beer? Nice. Real nice. It’s a bit darker that I would have expected. Call it carmel, but it’s not a dark beer and is nice and smooth. It’s perfect for a cold winter day. My biggest issues was pouring it. No matter how hard I tried the head on this beer was epic. The taste was extremely rich. It doesn’t taste like chocolate, but it’s all that I could think about while imbibing. If I were to guess fruits, I’d go with raisin, plum and maybe add in some spice and licorice (which I realize are not fruits).

This could be an after dinner drink even. It’s also over 10% alcohol, so you wouldn’t want to drink this in large quantities, either. This is definitely a sharing beer.

Mendelson Rating: 8.5/10

I find numbers fascinating and even better when they are put into context with digestible displays.  Data visualization is key and people with these skills will be in demand for my lifetime and well beyond.

Two recent experiences with large data sets has been satisfying to me.  Unfortunately, both are showing the continual deterioration of the U.S. economy, but from a consumption standpoint, they are very interesting.

1.  Heatmap over time of U.S. Unemployment.  This is outstanding work, if not completely depressing;

2. If you are interested in the major law firm layoffs, which measure an incredible 14,457 people since January 2008 (5,677 lawyers, 8,780 staff), then Law Shucks is the place to go.  Their layoff trackers are great for digesting exactly what is going on and I’ve been told that even better displays are on their way.

Enjoy.  Or at least respect the work behind the bad news.

It’s Friday and y’all know that you are itching for a little bit of time away from your significant other.  Sure, you care for them dearly, but every once in a while it’s great to get out with your friends and let loose.

In my efforts to improve the efficiency of our legal system and to aid in domestic harmony, I present to you the following:

1. An application  for a night out with the boys (away from wife, fiancée, girlfriend); and
2. An application for a night out with the girls (away from husband, fiancée, boyfriend).

Both forms are below and downloadable for your convenience.  Enjoy.

Husband’s Night Out

Wife’s Night Out

Some enterprising lawyer in San Francisco has decided to sell his law degree on Craigslist. 

Awesome stuff. 

From the sale description:

“After several years of practicing law I have come to the conclusion that my law degree is useless and I don’t want to be a lawyer anymore. Though I spent over $100,000 on it I am willing to sell it for the bargain basement price of $59,250, which is the current value of my remaining student loan balance.

This priceless collectible will permit you to be surrounded by hobby-less assholes whose entire life is dictated by billing by the hour and being anal dickheads. Additionally, this piece of paper has the amazing ability to keep you from doing what you really want to do in life, all in the name of purported prestige and financial success. Finally, girls in the Marina will swoon with retarded thoughts of sugar daddy when they hear you went to XXX prestigious law school and are a lawyer.”

I love bitter lawyers.  Nicely done.