For an army division, you can make your birthday as loud as you want. Traditionally, the 3rd Infantry Division, now stationed in Germany, celebrates its anniversary with an artillery salute and formal parade. With the battalions of the 3rd March German counterparts, sister battalions, which work with the 3rd in its vital role as part of the NATO shield. In such as this, tradition plays a deservedly central role, because no unit in the army has a prouder history of service than the 3rd Infantry Division. That history began in World War I, and it was on the battered fields of France that the division won its nickname, the Marne Division. In July of 1918, the last great German offensive of the war was launched, and the 3rd Division was to bear the brunt of it at a river called the Marne. As the battle moved to a climax, a worried French corps commander sent a message to the 3rd's commanding general. Can you hold the sector? General Joseph T. Dickman replied, New-Western Hollande, we shall remain here. This answer, today the division's unofficial motto, was no idle boast. For three days, the 30th and 38th Regiments of the 3rd stymied two entire German divisions at the Marne. Something had to give, and it was the Germans. It was a turning point of the war, a defeat so shattering for the enemy that he was unable to mount another offensive for the remaining four months of the war. Two weeks later, the 3rd was back in the thick of battle, playing a key role in the 48-hour attack which helped wipe out the Sommiel salient. It went on through 26 days of unrelieved combat to help crack the Hindenburg Line and capture 2,000 prisoners. Thus began one of the most illustrious histories of service of any American combat division. A division which over the years would number among its members such men as George C. Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mark W. Clark, Lucian Truscott, and John W. Iron Mike Daniel, and which, when war came again, would be ready. World War II, after assault landings in North Africa and helping win the Allied victory there, the men of the Marne division hit the beaches of Sicily at Licata. By nightfall they had a broad beachhead and some 3,000 prisoners. They moved on to Palermo and Messina. Next came Salerno, Casino, and Anzio, and the breakout, which led the 3rd swiftly into Rome. Still another landing into southern France and on into Germany. In 531 days of combat, only the Marne division fought the Germans on all fronts of the war. It won a presidential unit citation in World War II, and by war's end, Marne men wore 10 campaign battle stars more than any other American division. Experience gained in World Wars I and II stood the division in good stead when it went into combat again in Korea. Marne men were in Korea within 3 months after the unannounced communist attack by North Korea, and the division stayed and fought until the fighting was over and beyond. Along the way, its men earned 6 more campaign stars and 2 presidential unit citations. 11 more of its fighting men won the Medal of Honor, bringing the division's total to 49 more than any other division. Its past history is proud, and its rich heritage serves to motivate its men in the present. The 3rd is a working division, with a vitally important part to play in the defensive role of NATO. The modern mechanized infantry division differs little from an armored division. It just has more mechanized infantry battalions, while an armored division has more of its power in tank battalions. Either way, it makes more of fighting force that can deliver its power quickly, when and where it's needed, and in amounts tailored precisely to the need. Under the army's reorganized objective army division concept, called RODE, flexibility is the key note. No necessity to swat a fly with a sledgehammer, but if massive force is called for, that too can be arranged and on short notice. With few exceptions during the yearly training cycle, any given week will find the individual units of the division engaged in a tremendous variety of training programs. Proficiency in individual weapons, crew-served weapons, vehicle operation, the full spectrum of combat skills is a major objective of this training. It is made as realistic as possible. To keep the division's cutting edge sharp, training is constant. Maximally, basically the field mask consists of the face blank to include the eye lenses. The eye lenses are thin, fragile. The M-60A1 tank is a 105mm main gun. Approximately one fourth of the way back to the gun tube, you'll find a bore evacuated. We are now ready to disassemble the M-85. The first step is to remove the barrel. Now the back plate will be removed from the weapon. Now the cover group. Its duty assignment in Germany means that the men of the third division must be ready to do their job in any kind of weather on any of the widely varied types of terrain in the area. This includes mountain operations and specialized troops of the third get plenty of practice on high, steep ground covered with ice and snow. And on a larger scale, on more familiar terrain, the frequent ATTs keep the fighting battalions of the division in trim. ATT stands for Army Training Test and the wording is accurate. The objective is training and it certainly puts to the test every element of a fighting unit's capability. Under the watchful eyes of graders who keep track of every aspect of the action, battalion-sized units spend a full week in the field on each Army Training Test and a busy week it is. In the ATT, the full range of a modern battalion's firepower comes into play. Grenade launchers, mortars, recoilless rifles, red-eye, the foot soldiers, anti-aircraft rockets, and on up to the long-range Sunday punch of rockets like the Honest John. Perhaps a still closer, more intense look at individual skill and performance is provided by Miss Bing. The Mechanized Infantry Squad Proficiency Course. Like the Army Training Test, Miss Bing checks the ability to move, communicate, and deliver fire on an enemy, but on the smaller, more personal scale of the Mechanized Infantry Squad. Quick reaction is the Mechanized Infantry's stocking trade and performance on the Miss Bing range is measured by ticks of the clock. The Third Division has been part of the NATO Shield in West Germany since April of 1958. Over the years, its deterrent force has been strengthened by the addition of new units and weapons. Its Mechanized Infantry forces are typical of this increased mobility and firepower. The Mechanized Infantryman of today's Army assumes the role of foot soldier only when he has arrived at his combat objective. He arrives fresh and able thanks to the rapid cross-country mobility and protecting armor of his personnel carrier. The Miss Pick ranges provide varied terrain and the tests take full advantage of this to try the skill and ability of its combat units. On every level, from Division Command Post to Company and Squad, the Third Division maintains a ceaseless polishing, testing, and improving of its ability to meet any challenge it may be called on to face. Field problems and tests, however, only do part of the job. Live firing demonstrates the ability to deliver hits upon a given target. The Division's ranges provide for just that. There's no better way to gain the swift, yet unhurried and effective teamwork of crew-operated weapons than practice and more practice. Weapons crews of the Third Division get plenty of it. This includes the Division's hard-hitting Sheridan as well. Mobility is useful to get within range of a target. Once in range, you have to be able to hit. Target of opportunity, range 900 to 70 degrees. Alpha tango, fire center of sector, will adjust. Over. Highly mobile computer facilities for directing the fire of the Division's artillery are an integral part of today's Army. Lightning calculations of range, elevation, correction factors, these enable the self-propelled 155s of the Third to put their projectiles on target faster and more accurately than ever before. Combat proficiency in the use of firepower means not only a high level of individual and crew skills, but the ability of commanders to maneuver their forces in response to constantly changing situations. Periodically, units of the Division are given the order to move out on an operational readiness test to see how well all the various skills work in combination. Unexpected developments are provided by troops who play the role of aggressors. Before the Division's mechanized units get fairly rolling, they may find themselves in the middle of an ambush. They may have to deal with simulated chemical warfare, in addition to, or combination with, more conventional forms of enemy action. If the men of the Third Infantry Division find their days and weeks pretty well crammed with activity, this is surely nothing new to them. Soldiers who have worn the blue and white patch have always been in the thick of the action wherever it was since the unit began over half a century ago. The weapons, equipment, tactics, the fighting structure of the unit itself have changed over the decades. The fighting spirit remains the same. Their responsibility today is to stay ready for combat and by that very readiness to help assure that actual combat will not occur. This is the meaning and the mission of the NATO Shield, of which the Third Infantry Division is a part. What Marnmen learned in World War I, World War II, and Korea stands them in good stead today. The sheer combat statistics regarding this unit are impressive. The number of crucial battles fought and won. The number of times the entire unit has received citations for its combat effectiveness. The unmatched number of its men who have won the right to wear the nation's highest award, the Medal of Honor. But statistics are cold. Only when we remind ourselves that the numbers refer to men and their lives and their effective actions in the face of hardship, danger and death, only then do the statistics come into focus in their real meaning. And the gist of that meaning is this. The Third Infantry Division has been from the first and now is ready. But the fact is to keep such a highly mechanized unit ready takes much more than constant training. It takes, for example, maintenance, lots of it, and skilled trained specialists to do it. Lots of them. The arithmetic of it goes something like this. The division has thousands of combat troops. To give them the necessary mobility takes many hundreds of machines. Each machine has many moving parts. Each part has to be looked after. Men of the 703rd Maintenance Battalion, for example, state their job requirement briefly. To be able to repair anything that doesn't fly and isn't medical or cryptographic. A separate maintenance unit devotes itself to the things that do fly. And there are many of these, too. The Division's Air Mobile Troop includes a platoon of gunships, an air scout platoon and an air mobile rifle platoon. Now more arithmetic. With hundreds of thousands of parts working, any given day sees a lot of them being replaced. More than anyone could keep track of with a parts list and a sharp pencil. A micro-filmed file, electronic scanning, such things make it possible to keep work orders up to the minute, show the exact status of vehicles in repair or awaiting spare parts, or return to user units after repair. Units do much of their own maintenance work, sending vehicles to the maintenance battalions only for major repairs. For small parts, the country store concept works like this. Can I have a sergeant? I need one each of H64, one each of H69 and two each of number 11. Larger or bulk orders, on the other hand, are either trans-shipped at the warehouse directly to bin's earmarked for specific units, or stored for pickup by the using unit. This storage may be either in the supply warehouse or an outdoor supply dump depending on the nature and bulk of the items being held. On a divisional level, the vast daily flow of items into supply centers and on out down the line to those who need them can only be handled by computerized equipment and skilled technicians. Key to the system is the familiar punched card used in a variety of data processing machines, including this card processor which can read 600 cards per minute and print a readout of 600 lines per minute. Sounds like a lot. It takes it all to get the job done. A variation of the same system using punched cards is used to simplify and speed up personnel processing of all kinds.  This vastly eases the record-keeping workload of tactical units, leaves more time free for things that only people can do face to face. I think that will be a permanent assignment. Specialist Amato has wanted you to get all the forms there for the man to fill out. Here, sir. You get them to fill out the forms, make sure we get a news release done, and top one if you go get the man and I'll talk to him. Private Taylor, on behalf of all the personnel and headquarters company, I'd like to welcome you to the division headquarters. As you know, you have been selected based on your scores, which are very good, to be a light vehicle driver in the headquarters company, more specifically my driver. I will brief you after you end process on your specific duties, but right now I'd like to present you with a history of the 3rd Infantry Division, which dates back to 1917, and also a company SOP, which I'd like you to read over at your earliest convenience. And in the 3rd, an integral part of personnel work involves career counseling. I think you choose a school in this field. Some of the most popular electronics courses in this field is the ADP or the Power Force, which is located in Portland, New Jersey. Stationed as they are in West Germany, the men of the 3rd Division have frequent occasion to work with and train with their counterparts in the Army of the Federal Republic of Germany. One week it may be a joint workout on the familiarization range. The next, a river crossing on maneuvers. Put it on, Steve. The straps in the back, they're tightened up. The air coming in here, as you can see from the meter, is approximately 200 kilopounds per centimeter. The air comes from these tanks, down in through these valves which are turned on, up the hose, and into the regulator. Now it's drawn in as he breathes in. New arrivals to the Division are given the opportunity to get to know more about the area in which they serve and the German people, among whom and with whom they work as a part of the NATO shield. The view across here shows us a landmark of East Berlin and of West Berlin. In the front, the right top, historic place in German history, being rebuilt presently to be used again. In the back, a radio tower already situated in East Berlin, about a year old, in the center of attraction, recently. These tours are a regular part of the Division's effort to make sure that each man of the unit learns something of the background, culture, past history, and current way of life of his German hosts. For many of the Marne men, this also means taking part in the program to give him a working knowledge of spoken German. The Marne Division does everything it can to encourage its men to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of German culture and language. And along the sectors of the Berlin Wall, monitored by other free world nations, they gain an insight into the world behind the wall. As you can see from here, through the gates, the buildings on the other side, they look very modern. This is something you'll see as a whole near to the bottom. Not all the education gained by the men of the Third has to do with their West German duty environment, however. The Third Division has schools of its own. This is a period of time as the new era. We're in an era of computerization, an era of advanced technology, and an era of advanced weapons. You must prepare yourselves to become a part of this new era. You must become proficient in all fields of leadership, weapons, tactics, instructor training, and leadership. The Third Division's NCO Academy is known as a demanding course and is a vital source of season, small unit leaders for the division. Its curriculum covers a lot of ground. Your blast takes up 50% of the total energy expended by the nuclear detonation. Your heat takes up 35%. Your radiation takes up 15%. Students learn how to use training aids when they assume the role of teacher themselves. However, I do have a few suggestions. First of all, in the initial introduction, this should have been used as a gain-attention step, allowed it to stay out in the audience, and as you were trying to explain it, have it move when it caused the students to focus their eyes on your training aid itself. During the explanation stage, a demonstrator should have mounted the platform for you, thereby demonstrating those parts of the aircraft that you were trying to show so that you didn't get yourself all mixed up in your different parts. The infantry soldier who continues deeply enough into the division's training school program may find himself taking part in the test for the expert infantryman's badge. It is a distinction not easily won. Only 12% of those who try for the EIB qualify the first time around. Wherever his tour with the Marne division may lead him, combat unit, service school, support unit, technical specialty, the soldier who serves with the third is part of a fighting team on an important mission. He is helping to serve notice by his presence and with his skill, his teamwork, his firepower, that the Army Division, which won the proud name Rock of the Marne in its impossible stand on the banks of the Marne River in 1918, is ready. Still ready, always ready. The third infantry division mechanized United States Army. And the Army of the Nation We shall remain the message clear at play Not to threaten but to water The Rock of the Marne We shall


All right everyone, so this video is going to be on something that a lot of people ask about it's more of a basic thing But it's worth talking about and that is the basics of GIMP. So GIMP is the GNU image manipulation program If you use Linux, it's one of the most common Excuse me image editors that people use of course. It also runs on Windows and everything else But in this video, I'm going to talk about sort of doing the basics in it or how I use it at a daily basis Usually I make my YouTube thumbnails in GIMP in one way or another But of course, I also do a lot of those stuff in it. So in this video, the thing I'm actually going to make I want to I want to use a lot of the basic functionality of GIMP just to show it all off But what I'm actually going to make is actually a thumbnail for a video on YouTube In fact, I'm going to make the thumbnail for this video. So I sort of have the amount of work I have to do for this So anyway, GIMP by default is going to look something like this. Now one of the things that annoys people About GIMP is sometimes well, usually the default is all of these different taskbars or not taskbars But status bars and stuff like this. They're all going to be separate windows by default Now that annoys a lot of people. So what you can do to in that is just go to Windows and click single window mode I use that. It's sort of annoying not to use that If you accidentally close a dock, of course, you can go to recently closed docks or just Select whichever one you happen to close But this is the setup I usually use. It's pretty much just the default button single window mode So also I am going to activate screen key because I want to show you the kind of keyboard shortcuts that I'm using These are just the default see keyboard shortcuts in GIMP, which I usually use I don't like going to have to click all these. It's much easier to just know the shortcuts So let's go ahead and start out. I'm going to press control in to start a new File or something like that and the dimensions I'm going to choose are 1920 by 1080p that's the default HD resolution and it's what I use for my YouTube video thumbnails. So I'm going to go ahead and start that Now I'm going to zoom out Press Z to zoom and you can click left or right click to do whichever Now notice by default the background is going to be white In fact the background is going to be whatever your secondary color right here is You can change it at the beginning and it'll show up as something different. Now what I want for my background So my vision for all I want for my little thumbnail here is I have this GIMP picture And I want to have it on one side of the picture and then maybe on the other side I'll have text that says it's going to be the thumbnail for this video So something like you know GIMP image manipulation or something like that Now before that I sort of want to decide what kind of background I want to use now Sometimes I will actually take a screenshot of my computer And just input it here like if I'm doing a YouTube video and that'll be my background And then I'll add something on top of that but for this what I think I'm going to do first I'm going to type shift B now shift B is going to add it automatically activate this fill tool And I want to fill this background up with something Now actually it looks like I was just using it before but just to be clear So you can select what different things you want to fill it with You can choose the foreground color which right now is black The background color which right now is white But I'm going to use pattern fill in fact I With pattern fill you can select some kind of different pattern And that's going to automatically fill the whatever you have selected up with This kind of pattern and the one I'm actually going to use is the one I had selected at the beginning This blue web just because it's it's most it's a simple background But you know it doesn't really get in the way of anything Next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to import this image this little gimp logo that I have here Now you can do that by choosing control alt and o and that is going to give you You can basically a file selector that you can go and select this file as And that's specifically going to import it as a new layer Now you can use control o to just open it manually In fact, let's do that and you can you know manually copy and paste it over here But what I did here is just Actually have it input as a separate layer that I can of course treat I can move around and do stuff with so For example, if I press m m is going to activate this move tool I can move this around with my mouse pretty simply so I wanted somewhere over here That's going to be simple enough now on the other side I want to have some text. So text Just press t for text and your defaults for how it's going to appear are going to be right down here I have sans serif font at size 62 now once you make a text box. That's what I'm going to do now You can also start, you know, you can change it by highlighting and changing it in here I'm going to go ahead and put some text. Let's say, you know basic image manipulation Using gimp or something like that And we'll put an exclamation point because I don't know it makes it more exciting So I'm going to make this a little bit bigger. Uh, let's say, let's see what 200 looks like. That's a little too big Maybe 150. Actually, let's make it bold. Let's say Now, of course, you can drag your text box to make it a little bit bigger. That's what I'm going to do That looks all right. So now I'm going to let's actually move it down. So it's a little bit more centered oops Yeah, so yeah, now nothing is cut off. Everything looks all right Um, now here's what I want. I want to have this text, but I want to have I'm going to have the different words a different color. So they sort of stick out I think that's good for a youtube video. That's usually what I do I have like each word each important word is like a bright color that sticks out Um, but I also want to have sort of a a background to or not a background A sort of outlining to this text. So that's something that's easy enough to do. Let's go ahead and do that um Actually, for example, I'm actually going to change this to white for now I'll show you why in a second But anyway, so let's say we want to create sort of an outline to this text now What we can do is go over here at your layers now first off If you don't know how layers work all of these are ordered in the order that you're going to see them So for example, if I move this text if I click and drag it below the background You're not going to see it anymore because it's hidden behind it So the things on top are they're going to be the things that take priority Now anyway, the first thing I want to do is um, I want to select the text Not the text box, but the text inside of it Now what I can do for that is click right click on it It's going to give me this menu here and I'm going to select alpha to selection Now what this is going to do well, I'm going to click it and uh, I'll show you what happens Is it actually zooms into that that area of this layer that is actually has stuff in it That's not transparent. So you now see that all this text is sort of selected Now the next thing I want to do is I'm going to create a new layer Um, and I'm just going to have the defaults on that So this new layer is going to be where I put the outline of this text Now what I want I want the outline to of course be bigger than the text itself by default So I'm going to go up here to select And you have a couple nice options specifically grow and shrink And this is for if you have for modifying the selected, you know portion that we have We can either grow it out or shrink it in so I'm going to select grow And I'm going to say grow that by 15 pixels and see how yeah, that's actually pretty good So now that selection is sort of moved out 15 pixels now make sure you have your The layer you want to work with selected now what I'm going to do is press capital B to select this paint tool And I'm going to fill it in actually I'm going to select foreground color So it is black and I'm going to fill this in right now Now you see that all of this is now black now you can't see the text anymore. That's not what we want But that's only because this layer is above the text layer now if we move it down You're going to see now we have an outline and now we have text separate from that Um, so that that's actually pretty much what I want. In fact, I might I might make this go out a little longer. Let's grow it a little more. So I still have This area selected now. I'm going to grow it out. Let's say five more pixels And I'm going to control B And then paint that now I should notice there are two different options for filling in or excuse me not control B capital B There are two different options for filling things in you can select either the whole selection So that's going to be everything that is selected or similar colors Which basically means actually let me show you what that looks like. So if I Let's say I undo that control z to undo that and let's say I select fill similar colors And if I click here, what's going to happen is it's only going to fill in the area that I click It's not going to fill in you probably might not actually be able to see this. So let me zoom in So capital B now if I click on manipulating Um with or excuse me. I should probably actually click the non-transparent area You're going to see that there are these little remnants around and that's because this is only filling in similar colors While this little blue line that was sort of the border is not going to be totally filled in now I don't want that. That's why for this situation. It's better to to choose whole selection So anyway, that's just a little diversion So anyway, the next thing I want to do is I just want to change around the color of this text Now I should be clear. So the outline we just did is just color in the background Now if I edit this text, so let's say I'm going to click on this text again And I'm going to press t to go into the text editor mode And I'm going to click in this text area and I can still modify the text But notice what happens is it's going to just add text and that outline is still constant It's not going to be able to change. Um, so just be aware of that if you once you make one of these outlines Make sure you do it after you do all the modification to the text size you want Now what I can do is I want to change the colors to this stuff So I can select let's say also like gimp and I will make it, uh, you know, this sort of bright red color Let's say manipulation.  Let's say well, let's say we'll move this slider to blue or something like that or Make this stuff green and usually I just sort of play around with this Obviously it's a youtube video thumbnail So the priority here isn't necessarily making it super aesthetically pleasing It's just making it stick out So that's usually the heuristic that I use when I'm actually playing with this stuff So I'm just going to sort of select some random colors Just to make it really garish and sort of you know, just to make it stick out to make it like draw people's attention But oh, I did that do that So we select that Okay, I'm not quite sure why it's doing that but uh, actually it doesn't matter why it is probably good enough for this So one of the thing about layers, let's say I don't exactly like where this text is Let's say I want to move it now If I just move the text box or something like that I like if I press m I can move well You'll see you already see the problem the Background and the text itself are two different things So I'm going to undo that now first I'm going to control a to make sure everything selected But if you want to move things around at once what you want to do is right in this area next to this eye eyeball thing You're going to want to click and that'll activate a lock So what this means is basically if things are locked together Then they will move when you move one of them it'll move the other So if I press m again and move this stuff around you'll see that it both of these layers are actually moving together So that's sort of what we want Now this is about done. I think this is fine for a youtube thumbnail again We've talked about inputting You know images and doing text and doing outlines and stuff like that one additional thing I think I want to do is I want to have a little very subtle drop shadow Um on this on this sort of text here. So I'm going to select it Actually, I don't know this might have changed in vim 2.10. Actually, well, we'll just try it out real time So what I'm going to do is I'm going to select this and I'm actually going to go ahead Just for safety's sake to go to alpha to selection. So now that all of that is selected Um, actually, I don't think I want to do this for drop shadow. So I'm just going to control a Now what I want to do is have this thing selected and I'm going to go to filters And then I'm going to go to uh, or is it filters? Oh, yeah filters and then light shadow Um, and then you can select drop shadow. Now what I want is I just want this to have a very subtle You know box a very subtle drop shadow to it You'll see that it actually sort of implicitly adds it once I already select this option. So Notice that there's no drop shadow here. If I go to filters A light and shadow and then drop shadow It adds just a little preview of what it's going to look and that's that's actually fine enough for me Obviously, you can change the x and y of it. You can change the opacity. Actually, maybe I'll increase the opacity a little bit Yeah Yeah, that looks good So once you do that, you can just sort of play around with this you can change the blur radius And I'm going to say okay. So now it looks it looks pretty good. I guess for as far as youtube thumbnails go Have a nice little drop shadow have everything else and I think I'm going to go with this I might I might play around with this before I actually upload the video But uh, anyway, that's about it. So this is the basics of gemp How to you know add text and outlines and different layers and how to the basic logic of it If you have anything specific you want to know about gemp Just go ahead and ask but this should if you've never used it before this should give you a pretty basic Outline of how to do it. I will say as you could probably tell by the way I use it I like using keyboard shortcuts and I find that it really improves the speed at which you edit You can just hover over one of these to see what the shortcut is But I might do another video on sort of selecting like sort of Pasting parts outside or editing layers and you know sort of super imposing things, but this is about enough for now So anyway, hope you learned something and I'll see you guys next time


Hello, Mr. Cortado. Sherry, it's not just for cooking, our old ladies. They're really complex wines. We're gonna learn more in this video. Hello, hello, hello! Welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horky. Welcome back to the show. We're gonna talk about Sherry today, a style of wine that is confusing, confounding, kind of misunderstood. A lot of people, when they think of Sherry, they think of just cooking something to cook with, or old grannies sipping it on the porch, or that it's just sweet. But no, there's a lot of Sherry out there that's complex, thought-provoking. Sherry is actually just an English play on the name Hereth. That's the name of the town. I guess it was difficult for the British to pronounce, so it just became Sherry. Sherry's a fascinating wine region. Lots of history. The Phoenicians are believed to have introduced viticulture to the very southwest corner of Spain, right near the Straits of Gibraltar. Really interesting wines. Because it's so hot and dry here, they had to adapt and learn how to make a certain special type of wine. A majority of Sherry production is actually dry. And today we're gonna talk about one of those complex dry Sherries, one of the mysterious Palo Cortado. These wines are dry, they're fortified, they're a little bit heftier, they're a little bit bigger in alcohol. So there's something to really sip on and contemplate. Palo Cortado is the rarest type of Sherry. I think around 2 to 3% of all Sherry produced every year, bottled is actually Palo Cortado. So first, to understand Sherry, which is a complex subject in itself, you gotta understand the styles of Sherry. On one side, you have the ones aged under the floor, or under a layer of yeast. Those are biologically aged Sherries, and then ones that are aged oxidatively. So on one side, you have your Finos and your Manzanillas. Those are aged under a thin film of yeast called the floor. And within those styles, you have other classifications, other ages going down to Amontillado. On a side note, I love wines that are aged under the floor. When you drink Sherry-style wines or other wines that are aged under the floor, I feel like it's kind of what people may have been drinking 2,000, 3,000 years ago in this part of the world. On the right side, you have Oloroso. These are darker wines that are aged without the floor. And for the most part, these are dry until you get down to the bottom where you get some cream Sherries. Those are sweet Sherries. In between the style, you have what we have here, Palo Cortado. For the longest time, I thought it was named after a person. But Palo Cortado is not named after a person. It means cross stick in Spanish. And let me explain. Palo Cortado are barrels of wine that originally are meant for biological aging, like Finos and Montillados. But after a year, the wine makers, the cellar masters, they taste the wines. They usually mark the Fino with a straight-up line. And after a year, if they think the barrels are exceptional, they use a cross stick, which that's what Palo Cortado is. And these barrels are candidates to become Palo Cortado. The wines can start aging biologically. Then eventually, the floor dies. Then they get some oxidative aging. That's why they get some more color like an Oloroso. Palo Cortado is a rare and misunderstood type of Sherry. Actually, when I was just learning about wine, I asked so many people, can you really tell me the difference between a Palo Cortado and a Montillado? And people would give me some generic answers. But yes, it's a selection of a special barrels of wine in the cellar. So we have that one here today. This is the Bodegas Arfi, Palo Cortado de la Cruz de 1767. Let's give this a go, shall we? So let's take a look at this wine. Obviously, you get this rich amber golden color. And these, like I said, these are really unique, complex wines. You're going to get notes of toffee, dried nuts, almond, coffee. Sometimes a little bit of a squeeze, almost like dried lemon peel type notes. Like I said, these are really complex, thought-provoking wines. Not the easiest for people that are just getting into wine, but this is hardcore wine geek stuff. To understand sherry, you also have to understand the process, the Solera method. And to make it kind of simplified, think about a stack of barrels with the youngest wines on top and the oldest wines on bottom. So what happens is you take the wine from the bottom barrel, the oldest wine, and you actually put that into the bottle. You replace that with wine from the barrel above. And they replace wine from the barrel above from the barrel above.  So in other words, the wines are multi-vintage or blend of vintages, but you always have complex, the oldest blend down at the bottom. And that's what ends up in the bottle. Since polo cartados are aged for a long time, the wines really concentrate down as they evaporate. These are fortified wines. The alcohol gets pretty high, like on this bodega arfi. This is 20% alcohol. I think it's pretty well integrated. But I love this bitter almond type of finish. People that have tasted tauniport, this is kind of like a dry version of tauniport. Super long finish.  This is super complex. I want to drink more polo cartado because I love this style of wine. I mean, this is an exceptional complex bottle of wine to me. To me, talking like 93, 94 point type of range. The typical pairing they say with this is it goes really well. It can go well, aperitif, dessert. I always suggest cheeses dried meat. I've got a Mediterranean cheese right here. Let's see how this goes. Goes really well. This makes the cheese a little bit even more creamier on the palate. Brings out a little bit more of the fruity notes, the dried fruit to some of the dried citrus notes in the wine. Very nice. Wines under the floor are not the easiest wines to appreciate. They're super complex. I always get this kind of slippery almond note. If that makes kind of sense, there's a certain nuttiness to them. And I think that's what makes them interesting. These type of wines go excellent with a variety of foods.  But I find they work well with everything, including spicy foods and even sweet foods. You know, I love this style of wine and these wines. The only problem my body has with higher alcohol wines like Tawny Ports, this, spirits like Whiskey Cognac. If I have too much and what I mean too much is like more than one drink. I start to get a headache. My stomach starts to get a little bit queasy, which is unfortunate because I really like to drink these style of wines, but I just can't have too much of it. I guess I just got to train more. So let me know. Do you like sherry?  Is there a different style of sherry that you like? Leave it in the comments below. Cheers. Hello. Thanks for watching. Hey, you made it to the end. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Click the bell so you know when new videos are out. If you like content like this, check out our Patreon page where you get some behind the scenes exclusive content. Thanks for watching. Cheers.


Good morning, everybody. I'm Tommy O'Brien, coming to you live from TF9 headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida, 10 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, 30 minutes into the trading day. We've got quite a start to the downside. S&P is negative by 34 points, trading at $27.56. We've got the Dow off 285, trading at $24,881. NASDAQ off 103 points, trading at $74.64. Oil trading to the downside off $1.71 at $54.54 handle on that oil, $54.87. Looking at gold contract, positive above $1,300, up $8.40 at $1,390 pennies. Notes and bonds, higher price, lower yield. Ten-year up 13 ticks, $126.03. We've got the 30-year up 28 ticks, $153.30 and the dollar index off 188 ticks. At $97.25, we'll start it off. Let's jump over to the futures markets. We'll start it off with the Dow.  President Trump talking about more tariffs coming on Mexico this time.  That's pretty much what's happening, folks. Dow Jones, $24,900 on the dot as we speak, trending down the whole evening. NASDAQ 100, pretty similar story. The escalation begins last night at about 7.30 p.m. Eastern time, where it's 72.53. You're about a solid 100 points in the NASDAQ 100 below that level, $71.55. S&P is trading at $27.58. The slide to the negative territory began at about $27.90 last night. There's your crude oil contract trading lower from most of the session. Pretty remarkable when you back things up. Just last night, we were up there at almost $60. Talk about $5 in the price of oil just in the last, like, 8, 10 hours. Pretty remarkable. Goal contract, inverse of the market, trading higher. We reach a high this morning almost, yeah, $1303.98. We get up there at $1304, $1304. There's your print.  So as I had mentioned it, there's your surprise Mexican tariffs. Hurt China agreement chances. How you can trust Trump to honor the deal? Lots of stories are going to be coming out here this morning about that. Dow dropping on Trump threatening new tariffs on Mexico. You got the car companies tanking this morning. What else is tanking? How about gap earnings last night? Let's pull it up. Gap, old Navy talk about struggling down 16% comp sales minus 4% on their numbers. But Uber, Uber pretty much flat to positive on no bad news. Stay tuned folks. Live programming all day at TFNN. Have a great Friday.


The latest state governor, Babaji Desong Walu, has commissioned three networks of roads in Victoria Island's Central Business District. They are the Adola, Hopwell, Edel Taylor, and Afri Bank Church streets. Governor Song Walu is optimistic that the roads would not only aid connectivity and traffic, but would also boost the economic growth in that axis. Plus TV, Lagos State Government House correspondent Ikuku Love Oyedokon has details on this report. This is phase one of the urban regeneration program of the Song Walu administration. The three roads were approved for reconstruction in the year 2020. The former ring right in the heart of the highly commercialized area of Victoria Island. They are respected to discharge traffic through San Jose 51 Street into the famous Hacking Additiala Street. Governor Song Walu noted that the commissioning of the roads clearly demonstrates the audacious reforms carried out in critical sectors of the state's economy. Again, this is in line with his team's development agenda. The completion of this road validates our promise to improve the quality of life of all negotiations, promote massive social economy growth, and reciprocate the support that we have enjoyed from this constituency in the past three years. Of these three roads being commissioned today, Adiola Hopewell, Afri Bank, and Ido Ute Law. Two are one-way roads, which is Adiola Hopewell and Afri Bank. And Ido Ute Law is a two-way street. The governor prom to ensure that all axis of the state enjoy the current administration's plan to develop the state. He then appealed to negotiations to support his government, who was achieving a traffic-free state in line with the planned intermodal transport system. The governor reminded the residents that the project belongs to them. Residents must safeguard and ensure proper usage and protection of the infrastructure to ensure long-lasting service. It speaks to the fact that we engage and will listen to the specific needs of the citizenry in their quest for infrastructural upgrade. Prior to the reconstruction of these strategic roads, they were in deployable state, with a lot of complaints by the business community as it relates to the permanent flooding, the inadequate parking facilities, the unlit roads, we just carried away with us. It is the hope of many that with the road rehabilitation and upgrade, the challenge of flooding and inadequate capacity will now become a thing of the past. From Lagos, Love Ikuku Uyudukun, Poplast TV, Africa.