We love it when bloggers share our interests and enlighten us. So, our neverending pursuit for the best cheap wines around is made that much easier since our discovery of Box Wines. Now, before you get your full sneer on, please note that they review wines of all kinds, in all types of containers (including box). All that matters is that they are affordable. Thoughtful tasting notes and a handy rating system put each wine in its place. So even if the bad-boy label and $10 price tag weren’t enough to grab our interest on Montevina’s Wild Bunch, Box Wines’ 8.5 rating sealed the deal.

ThisNext knows when there’s more to tech than just the specs and how it looks - there’s what real people who’ve tried it have to say.  Over at Krunker, they’ve rounded up some great reviews of everything from iPod docking stands to this new Fuji FinePix V10. Best part for those of you who like to skim or jump to the end of books - the “verdict” is always in a grey box.

Life is far too short to waste valuable calorie intake on bad candy. So when a sweet treat gets a coveted rating of 10 - Superb on Candy Blog, you know it’s worthy of your sweet tooth’s attention. Unfortunately, these Pink Grapefruit Mentos, already popular with Europeans and Canadians, are not available in stores in the good old U. S. of A. (Don’t fret: they are available online stateside.) With the help of bloggers like Candy Blog, we can all make the world a sweeter place. (Photo credit: Cybele May)

Hmmm while i must admit i’m skeptical of things that resemble Tamagotchi-walkie talkie hybrids - at ThisNext we check out the reviews of real people and hear the manufacturers out before making final judgement. Over at BloggingPet, they seem to have found a Bowlingual Canine Translator. “Dr. Suzuki has developed a device in Japan that could tell the state of mind of your pets by digitally analysing the voiceprints of your poochie’s barks with his body language. You just have to enter the details of your pet dog and attach the microphone transmittor to your poochie’s collar and it will translate your poochie’s bark into human language in six distinctive emotions comprising sad, frustrated, alert to danger, needy, happy and self-assertive. The extended feature of this gadget allows the convenience of translating the emotions of 200 breeds of dogs and even crossbreeds.” Woof woof?

What pizza is to New York, burritos are to San Francisco. Ask anyone which place has the best, and you’re sure to get an enthusiastic and well-informed answer — but you’re unlikely to get concensus on any one place. So if you’re in town and craving a honkin’ log of beans, rice, meat and other goodness, drop by Burritoeater first. They’re out there, day after day, eating burrito upon burrito, taking scrupulous notes and, no doubt, copious amounts of Tagamet. But their efforts pay off: Each taqueria is given an Overall Moustache Rating (OMR) based on a variety of criteria.

Of course, like all things food-related, your personal tastes factor in as well. But you can be sure that a taqueria with a high OMR probably isn’t going to suck. (I can personally vouch for several in the top ten.) And let’s face it: Life’s too short for bad burritos.

Some types of indoor air filters have been getting a bad rap lately: A post at Talkin’ Tech (among other things) reports on a recent study finding that ozone-generating purifiers can actually create dangerous levels of smog in your home. But that same study also found that high efficiency particulate absorbing (or “HEPA”) filters appear to be safe and effective at ridding your house of pollutants. Meanwhile, Mark over at Mindful Musings gives a glowing review to his family’s recently purchased BioFresh HEPA Air Purifier, which boasts a pollen sensor and smell sensor that work together to determine how fast the unit runs. Says Mark:

“The pollen and smell sensors work, which is quite amazing. Cooking makes it automatically run faster and so does Jennifer’s nail polish smell. When the dogs wag their tails near the pollen/dander sensor, the unit wakes up and starts sending more air through.”

When it comes to fish, fresh is always better than frozen, right? It sounds logical enough. But Meg Hourihan of MegNut put that theory to the test. She compared flash-frozen cod, fresh cod and, as a control, an entirely different fish, sea trout. In the end, three of the four tasters went for the fresh — sea trout. The remaining taster actually picked the frozen cod above the others. Props to Meg for opening her own mind and sharing the results with the rest of us. Perhaps there’s a place at the table for quality frozen fish after all.