Along the ArtWalk, I stopped by the gallery of Jim Brandenburg, a well-known National Geographic photographer, and I was impressed by his photographs of the outdoors. Check out his web site to peruse some great shots. Link.

Mass-market players are going after the specialty-chocolate business because, while overall chocolate sales have gone up only 1% to 3% annually for the past 20 years, premium chocolate sales grew 28% between 2003 and 2005, according to analyst Mintel International. Dark chocolate was a $1.62 billion business in 2006, up 29% from 2003.

Companies are attempting to cultivate “a more educated consumer who is not just going to reach for a generic bar, but the one who is going to spend a dollar an ounce” or more, says Marcia Mogelonsky, a senior research analyst at Mintel. Premium chocolate bars start at about $8 a pound, Ms. Mogelonsky says, while supermarket candy bars can cost as little as $4 a pound.

On the topic of the cost of chocolate, another February 10, 2007 article from the New York Times reads

If you are still seeking the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day, have you considered a box of Noka chocolates?

Both you and the recipient may be in for a surprise. A 12-piece box costs $39 before tax and shipping. And for that you will get 0.9 ounce of chocolate. Not 0.9 ounce a piece, but 0.9 ounce in the entire black and silver box.

Do the math and that comes to $693 a pound. Buy just four pieces in the Signature stainless steel box and you are paying more than $2,000 a pound, making the Noka chocolate more expensive than delicacies like caviar, saffron or black truffles.

That’s pretty ridiculous. Consider this older December 3, 2003 NYT article citing Clay Gordon, who heads up The NY Metro Discover Chocolate Meetup which I attend monthly, saying:

“Chocolate is a relatively affordable obsession,” Mr. Gordon said. “The most expensive bottle of wine is way out of most people’s reach; the most expensive bottle of balsamic vinegar costs more than a thousand dollars. But the most expensive chocolate bar costs only $9.”

One thing I’ve learned is that if all you want is good chocolate, it’s relatively inexpensive.

The goal is to sit in the sauna until you can’t take it anymore, then run outside and dip yourself in a frozen river with a hole chipped out of the ice. Alternative actions include rolling in the snow.

Imagine running outside when it’s -10° F and dipping yourself in a frozen river. It’s possible, I did it.

And it was fun.

There are wolves in Minnesota.

In other news.. mushing is exciting and it’s very much a collaborative effort with the dogs. The dogs are amazing. Turning on a trail is pretty tricky. Here’s a picture of the of sled dogs and a picture of the cabin where I slept.

I baked chocolate chip cookies at Homebase, the main campus building. Homebase has an amazing kitchen with much similarity to the kitchen at my college co-op, 660 Stewart Ave. at Cornell.

Restaurant recommendation: Buca’s in downtown Minneapolis.

Instead, I found myself stuck watching the videos on the NYT Vows section. The section features videos with each partner discussing the story of how they met. I can see this as an addictive feature for the Vows section followers, and the Times would be wise to advertise their other video sections postroll. As it stands, once you’re done watching one couple’s video, another couple’s video starts up. I think the Times should add a little text advertisement: something like a black background with a white text “nytimes.com/video” spliced between each video for one second.

I see advertisements for the Times print subscription on TV.. I wonder why they don’t advertise their online video? Seems to fit the demographic.

By far one of the better conferences I’ve attended, and free. Other conferences I’ve been to thus far this year: The Identity Mashup Conference at the Harvard’s Berkman Center, The Internet Dating Conference in San Francisco, CA, and Digital ID World in Santa Clara, CA. Fun!

I own an iPod, and I think it’s a shame that cases for them cost so much when they really don’t serve their purpose. The purpose of an iPod case, at least for me, is to protect the iPod from scratches and falls. Unfortunately a lot of the time the clear plastic on the cases also get scratched. All I want is to have the screen area of my iPod scratch-free and free of interference.

Thanks to Tekserve in New York City I found two great products for my iPod. My iPod got scratched right away after I bought it. On the recommendation of the sales clerk, I bought a scratch removal product called Ice Cream M by RadTech. It worked wonderfully on my iPod and I highly recommend it. To protect the screen after I polished it, I bought a clear plastic shield that sticks to the screen. It’s called invisibleSHIELD by ShieldZone. It’s really done a bang-up job. And by that I mean, it’s prevented bang-ups!

As far as I know Apple doesn’t carry these two products on their store. They really should.

-Tom