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Ultimate Steve

By Ultimate Steve
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tater

tater

Posted
Posted

Had to help my in-laws by taking their dog to the vet this morning (old dog needs lifting in/out of car). Mother-in-law had cleaned out the liquor cabinet yesterday and gave me a couple unopened bottles. One was an old slivavitz (sp?), the other, a Moutai... smallish bottle. Had to look it up. Apparently their nephew gave it to them—he was formerly the Naval Attaché to the PRC—and that little bottle costs ~$800 I discovered when I googled it. Yeesh.

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steve9728

steve9728

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Posted
19 hours ago, tater said:

Turns out this bottle is from 2000, and they become more valuable with age (bottle age, not barrel age, I checked). There's a 1999 on ebay for 3 grand.

<blink>

A kind reminder: there are many fakes of this stuff. Although I've never had a fake one, from what my friend has complained to me, fake Maotai makes it easier to get drunk. Of course it could be that he was making excuses for his alcohol intolerance.

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tater

tater

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, steve9728 said:

A kind reminder: there are many fakes of this stuff. Although I've never had a fake one, from what my friend has complained to me, fake Maotai makes it easier to get drunk. Of course it could be that he was making excuses for his alcohol intolerance.

I realize that, but my wife's cousin was basically a diplomat/spook, and was fluent in Chinese. Lived in Beijing, then Hong Kong (he had a 2-floor apartment (!) with staff on the side of Victoria Peak). I think he would likely not get fooled—plus having a bunch of this around was literally part of his job as USN attaché to the PLAN—he'd get his cohorts drunk and hope they'd talk too much, and they would reciprocate at their functions hoping he'd drink too much, lol. Not to say he'd never get ripped off, but I imagine his staff did some of the footwork here to have the right bottles around for the locals he was entertaining.

Unsure what to do with it, to be honest. Even at the lower end of prices it's more than I would spend. I could get a unicorn bottle of something I know for a fact I would enjoy for a fraction of that (since I'd not pay much above suggested retail for any whiskey, I'm an aficionado, not doing it as an investment). If I crack it open it will be for some event with enough people that I can spread the trying around.

Edited by tater
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steve9728

steve9728

Posted
Posted (edited)
34 minutes ago, tater said:

I realize that, but my wife's cousin was basically a diplomat/spook, and was fluent in Chinese. Lived in Beijing, then Hong Kong (he had a 2-floor apartment (!) with staff on the side of Victoria Peak). I think he would likely not get fooled—plus having a bunch of this around was literally part of his job as USN attaché to the PLAN—he'd get his cohorts drunk and hope they'd talk too much, and they would reciprocate at their functions hoping he'd drink too much, lol. Not to say he'd never get ripped off, but I imagine his staff did some of the footwork here to have the right bottles around for the locals he was entertaining.

Unsure what to do with it, to be honest. Even at the lower end of prices it's more than I would spend. I could get a unicorn bottle of something I know for a fact I would enjoy for a fraction of that (since I'd not pay much above suggested retail for any whiskey, I'm an aficionado, not doing it as an investment). If I crack it open it will be for some event with enough people that I can spread the trying around.

Looks 98% sure that’s a real one for me with this background. I have seen and heard too many stories about someone from western and my father’s Japanese colleagues that thinks themselves “know China a lot”. They go to somewhere odd to grab some odd wines wasted lots of money. And then when they come back his Chinese friend/my dad: wait… are you serious…? 
My advice is try to taste it like vodka: 20ml at most each time. Ha, greeting from China by 53 alcohol volume!

Maotai in here also is for something really important. Such as in important festivals like New Year’s Eve and for business banquets which have important clients. But well... the highest etiquette is actually at the banquet when your Chinese buddy pulls a bottle of wine out of his bag that is in a plastic bag with no label and share it with you.

Edited by steve9728
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Ben J. Kerman

Ben J. Kerman

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 4/12/2023 at 7:31 PM, SunlitZelkova said:

Sounds like late 40s, prior to the Cold War heating up and when Germany and Korea were just plain occupations. Vietnam became a thing in 1954, so it can’t be from after then.

It could even be pre-World War II.

I know I'm a bit late to respond but I do think it's late 40s, since the Karelo-Finnish S.S.R is established, Israel is labeled, and British Raj is India and East and West Pakistan, so it is probably between sometime in '48 and '49 or around there. Thank you!

Edited by Ben J. Kerman
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AlamoVampire

AlamoVampire

Posted
Posted (edited)

Doing a flight to KTPA and currently under the control of Houston Center. I fly with realtime weather and live traffic. I just heard ATC calling out to AAL340 a flight from KLAX to KMIA and real time as i type its PHYSICALLY halfway between Houston and Beaumont headed out towards the Gulf of Mexico, real world data shows it at FL350 with about 1:42 left and ATC in MSFS2020 has spent the last 5-10 minutes screeching at it to both “Climb and maintain FL350” and “Descend and maintain FL350” all the while on flight radar24 i can see it was climbing to FL350 and now as its passing Port Arthur TX about to go feet wet its maintaining FL350… Im concerned the AI atc has lost its mind and kinda concerned for my arrival into KTPA in just over an hour and 12 minutes… i really just need to stop using the ai and stay on vatsim even if it means im on Unicom 122.8 from start to finish…

044305082023

edit both myself and AAL340 are over the Gulf of Mexico about 100-140NM SSE of KMSY and still (them 1:13) from KMIA and ATC still wont stop hounding AAL340 to climb or descend to its real world cruise of FL350… me? Im cruising at FL370 about 17NM from waypoint NAITE… 

KTPA Tampa International

KMSY Louie Armstrong New Orleans International 
KMIA Miami International

051005082023 and just reached Waypoint NAITE!

btw if your curious im expecting wheels down 1104Z in tampa about 50 minutes from now

051205082023

Edited by AlamoVampire
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steve9728

steve9728

Posted
Posted (edited)

NIO ET7 is my dream car. The batteries in my dad's hybrid BMW 530LI are getting more and more useless: previously it can drive 50 to 60km at most, but four years later now, it can only go around 30. So, I've always rubbishing his BMW: what a trash brand you drive, try NIO! Because he never tries to drive China's domestic new brand electric car before, so he always doesn't believe me.

Two days ago, He searched ET7 on NIO's website. Then NIO made a phone call: would you like to try our car? Dad: ehh, I don't have spare time to go to your store. NIO: it's ok, we can let our staff drive it to front of your house. At first, he wants to let me drive. I said that's my dream car I know what's feeling like, try it yourself.

And he did it. After listening all NIO's fancy service, every nice design in the car, watching the battery swap which can get 6 times free every month, and driving on the freeway in our city so happily, he started to rubbish BMW with me.

TOLD YOU!

Edited by steve9728
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Delay

Delay

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Posted

My 600 mm lens is back from repair! And it sits a lot tighter on the cameras now. It's only been 11 days and I missed wildlife photography so much...

6 hours ago, steve9728 said:

NIO ET7 is my dream car.

Ohh, not sure EVs are all that appealing to me. I'm actually a lot into vintage cars, which, I am aware, would be a nightmare to maintain, but given our good public transport in Germany I'd only drive for special occasions anyways (I don't even have a drivers license right now).
But because I love thinking about hypotheticals like this - if I could own any old car of my choosing, legally drive it and find the means to maintain it I would still be torn between at least the BMW 501 and the Mercedes-Benz 170 V. These old cars simply look a lot more elegant and luxorious than any modern car, they have this unique... "personality", if you will?

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Chemp

Chemp

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Battery swap, and for free? Neat! Over here, we're definitely not there, yet. Electric companies sometimes even fight the installation of chargers in the garage.

What has me puzzled: Your dad went on their website and the day after, they called. Did he leave his number?

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steve9728

steve9728

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4 hours ago, Chemp said:


Battery swap, and for free? Neat! Over here, we're definitely not there, yet. Electric companies sometimes even fight the installation of chargers in the garage.

What has me puzzled: Your dad went on their website and the day after, they called. Did he leave his number?

I think he did. Because I also did that many times before, but they never call me.

By the way, what staff said was, they got two types of battery: 75kwh which can go 550km, and 100kwh can go around 650km. Thing is, if you buy a 75 one and one day you want to drive somewhere further, you can just order in advance. And then, you just need to go to the station and swap it. Around 80 rmb per day for the battery if I remember his word correctly. If you done, finish the order on the app. Then your 75kwh battery is back.

4 hours ago, Delay said:

But because I love thinking about hypotheticals like this - if I could own any old car of my choosing, legally drive it and find the means to maintain it I would still be torn between at least the BMW 501 and the Mercedes-Benz 170 V. These old cars simply look a lot more elegant and luxorious than any modern car, they have this unique... "personality", if you will?

I like the old car too. The small air intake of the 2004 BMW 530 is my favourite. But look at it now...

However, in China the car that you drive was produce earlier than 1995~ 2000, you will get a "yellow label", which means it's not that "convenient" to drive in most of cities because the engine emissions would exceed the standard that the gov made. Generally speaking, the normal Chinese family has a car replacement cycle of around 10 to 15 years.

 

Actually the "most damaging" part of their services for my parents was that the staff said that every new owner who picked up the car would be given two hours of one for one instruction - all the function until you knew them clearly. "If you don't know how to use them in the future and that makes you call us for help, the one who was instructing you will be fined by the company."

Edited by steve9728
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LHACK4142

LHACK4142

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Posted (edited)

I just realized that my robotics teams played not one, but TWO world champions this season. And one of them we faced in playoffs, so in a way they couldn't have won Worlds without us- if we won (although we lost by massive margins), they would've been eliminated and the world champions would've been someone else!

Edited by LHACK4142
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