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10 Cheap Things to Do in Cancun
What Can I Do in Cancun on a Small Budget?
Our list of cheap things to do in Cancun proves that a trip to this beautiful coastal paradise doesn't need to be expensive. Cancun can be a rather costly place as its many unique museums, natural parks, and Mayan sites often require hefty admission fees. However, even if you're on a tight budget, there are still options. Go for a stroll around Cancun's city centre and you'll see the thriving arts community, with quirky street murals and street performances throughout the day.
The beaches that line Cancun's coastline are free, so pack your own blanket and umbrella if renting a sun lounger will put a huge dent in your wallet. Playa Delfines, at the southern end of the main strip, is a great choice if you're looking for somewhere a little quieter. For some more ideas of how to save a few pesos while vacationing on the Yucatan peninsula, check out our guide of Cancun for budget travellers.
Mural art in downtown Cancun
- Budget
- Photo
Cancun's local community is actively involved in street art that pays homage to its Mayan and Mexican heritage. Take a walk around downtown Cancun's northern end to see colourful wall murals by notable Brazilian and Mexican street artists. One of the most popular artworks is the Boy, Jaguar, and Eagle mural, located 1 km south of Playa El Nino Beach. Many murals are also inspired by global maritime issues, showing dolphins swimming inside a gumball machine and a transparent whale shark.
Open: Downtown Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico
photo by Miguel Discart Photos Vrac 2 (CC BY-SA 2.0) modified
Playa Tortugas Beach
Bungee jump off the pier tower
- Budget
- Couples
- Families
- Adventure
Playa Tortugas is a relatively small stretch of sand about 6 km northeast of Cancun's Zona Hotelera. The beach is free to enjoy all year round, and its shores are shallow enough for children to swim in. Be sure to check out the pier, where thrill-seekers get to enjoy bungee jumping from the top of a 25-metre-tall tower. There are ferries departing for Isla Mujeres from Playa Tortugas every day.Read more
Location: Playa Tortugas, Zona Hotelera, Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Playa Delfines Beach
Escape the tourist crowds on this quiet shore
- Budget
- Couples
Playa Delfines is a quiet stretch of beach at the southern end of Cancun's Zona Hotelera. You may not find tourist amenities like public showers or restaurants, but there are many thatch umbrellas along the coastline. There are lifeguards patrolling the beach during the day, but stay close to the shore if you're planning on swimming. Playa Delfines often attracts surfers as the waves here are rougher than they are on most beaches in Cancun.Read more
Location: Punta Nizuc - Cancún 335, Zona Hotelera, 77500 Cancún, Q.R., Mexico
Parque Las Palapas
Enjoy cultural fairs at the main stage
- Budget
- Couples
- Families
Cancun has a vibrant performing arts community and is a popular stop for national and international musicians on tour. Parque Las Palapas is a sprawling park in downtown Cancun, which has a large central stage and plaza hosting cultural fairs, concerts, and plays. On weekend evenings, you can often catch live theatre and street performances. When there's no show, the park is still usually packed, but with joggers and cyclists, as well as locals enjoying outdoor games and picnics during the day.
Location: 77509, Ciruela 27, 25, 77500 Cancún, Q.R., Mexico
photo by Autharite (CC BY-SA 2.0) modified
Playa Langosta
Take a photo with the Cancun sign
- Budget
- Couples
- Families
- Photo
Playa Langosta, located 6 km south of downtown Cancun, is a local beach that runs along Cancun's Nichupté Lagoon. You'll find outdoor showers, kayaks and paddleboards for rent here, as well as street vendors during the day. When you're here, be sure to take a photo in front of the 'Cancun' sign, which is spelled out in vibrant letters. Families may enjoy Playa Langosta's outdoor playground and football field. Couples get to explore Jardín del Arte, a beautiful garden decorated with sculptures by local artists.Read more
Location: Zona Hotelera, 77500 Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico
photo by Shinya Suzuki (CC BY 2.0) modified
Kabah Urban Park
Spot wild birds and iguanas at this forest park
- Budget
- Photo
Kabah Urban Park often attracts joggers with its downtown location and a running trail that runs through a 410,000 sq m forest reserve. The local park is home to native wildlife such as birds, spider monkeys, iguanas, and coatis, which you may be able to spot during your visit. There are also many playgrounds and recreational areas for picnics. Kabah Urban Park is free to enter all year round, and its lush jungles are popular among tourists looking to escape Cancun's crowded beaches.
Location: Av. Nichupté 13, Benito Juárez, 77534 Cancún, Q.R., Mexico
Open: Daily from 6 am to 6 pm
photo by Mauro I. Barea G. (CC BY-SA 3.0) modified
Mercado 28
Get a henna tattoo from a local vendor
Mercado 28 (Market 28) is a local crafts market with over 100 stalls set along Avenida Sunyaxchen in downtown Cancun. You get to browse through beautiful handicrafts made from leather, silver and glass, as well as sunglasses and kitschy T-shirts for tourists. Henna tattoo and hair braiding services are available for a few pesos. Head to the middle of the market to find restaurants serving authentic Mexican dishes. Must-tries include cochinita pibil (slow-roasted pork), Panuchos Yucatecos (tostadas with refried beans) and papadzules (Mayan-style enchiladas).Read more
Location: Xel-ha M 2 13 SMZ 28, 28, 77501 Cancún, Q.R., Mexico
Open: Daily from 8 am to 7 pm
photo by David Stanley (CC BY 2.0) modified
El Rey Archaeological Zone
See over 45 stone structures from the Mayan civilization
- Budget
- Photo
- History
The El Rey Archaeological Zone is an ancient Mayan site in the southern end of Zona Hotelera. The Mayan ruins reveal a civilization that was dedicated to fishing and maritime trade. After paying a $2.50 admission fee at the entrance, you get to explore more than 45 stone structures, including a temple and the burial site of an important figure. If you want to learn about the history of this ancient civilization, the Mayan Museum of Cancun is a just a few minutes away on foot.Read more
Location: El Rey Zona Arqueológica, Zona Hotelera, 77500 Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Open: Daily from 8 am to 5 pm
Phone: +52 983 837 2411
El Meco Archaeological Site
See one of the tallest Mayan pyramids in Cancun
- Budget
- Photo
- History
The El Meco Archaeological Site is a complex of Mayan ruins located about 8 km northeast of Cancun City. The site was once a port for Isla Mujeres, and features many stone structures built between the 13th and 16th centuries. Its centrepiece is El Castillo, one of Cancun's tallest Mayan pyramids. Entrance to the El Meco Archaeological Site cost around $3.30, which is a steal compared to most Mayan archaeological sites in Cancun.
Location: Carretera Puerto Juarez, López Portillo, 77520 Cancún, QROO, Mexico
Open: Daily from 8 am to 5 pm
Akumal Beach
Snorkel with sea turtles
- Budget
- Couples
- Adventure
Akumal is located 110 km south of Zona Hotelera, yet still attracts beachgoers looking for a remarkable experience away from the crowded shores of Cancun. The pristine beaches alone are well worth the 2-hour drive, but it's the opportunity to go snorkelling and diving in a protected cove that makes the difference. The main village has several restaurants and dive shops where you can rent equipment. Akumal Beach is a popular nesting spot for sea turtles between May and November. If you're lucky, you get to swim among these endangered creatures, but be sure not to touch them.
Location: Carretera Tulum, Cancún, Q.R., Mexico


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Two Reasons Why Love Protects Us from Deception
In my sermon last Sunday I argued from 2 John 1:5–7 that love among Christians is a great protection against deception. John wrote, "Love one another. . . . For many deceivers have gone out into the world." So I take it that love helps protect us from these deceivers.
I said that I saw four reasons in 2 John that love functions this way. But I only had time to describe two of them in the sermon. So here are the other two.
1. Love takes seriously all the commandments of God.
Verse 6: "This is love, that we walk according to his commandments." John had said this in 1 John 5:2, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments."
This doesn't mean love has no affection for people. But it does mean love has clear direction from God. John agrees with Paul that we should "love one another with brotherly affection" (Romans 12:10). But Christian love is more than affection. It is an affection for people who share a commitment to all the commandments of God that apply to us today.
Christian affection is Christian and affection. It has Christian content. And it has emotion. What binds us with other believers is that we share a heartfelt allegiance to what God tells us is good for people — his commandments. We don't invent the ways of love. We learn them from the word of God.
A community of people who love each other like that will not be easily deceived. For example, when their culture tells them that the way to love is to embrace so-called same-sex marriage, that community will say, "No, God knows what is good for people. We will love people his way." And their love for each other deepens and sweetens their allegiance to stand together in "all the commandments" of God. It protects them from deception.
2. Christian love is based on the Truth that is "with us forever."
John says, "I love [you] in truth, because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever" (2 John 1:2). Our love for each other is grounded in two things: 1) truth abides in you and me; and 2) truth will be with you and me forever.
This is unusual. I take it to mean that Christian truth is always more than convictions, which we hold in our minds and hearts; truth is also Christ himself — Truth with a capital T — who is not a conviction in our minds, but a real person with us forever in the community of love. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).
Which implies, then, that my love for other believers is rooted not only in our shared truth about Jesus, but also in the presence of Jesus himself as the central person of this fellowship. And as such what binds us together in love is the deepest possible shared affection for our supreme Treasure, Jesus Christ.
So when deception tempts us to see any person or any activity or any treasure as more desirable than Jesus, the very love that we have for each other will protect us from that deception, because that love is a shared affection for the one who is more desirable than anything deception can offer.

subset: commoncrawl


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Casino Banking, Quant Schools, Bad Banks, Clawbacks and More
1. JPMorgan Chase & Casino Co.
If J.P. Morgan Chase wants to act like a crazed cowboy hedge fund and make wild exacta bets on the derivatives market, they should be welcome to do so. But they shouldn't get to do it with cheap cash from the Fed's discount window, and they shouldn't get to do it with money from the federally-insured bank accounts of teachers, firemen and other such real people. It's a simple concept: you either get to be a bank, or you get to be a casino. But you can't be both.
— Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone contributing editor, in a column about JPMorgan's $2 billion loss.
Source: Rolling Stone
Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio


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Adult accessories such as stimulating lotions, creams and balms, and pleasure games such as the Bridal Play Dice Game, Pleasure Island, Foreplay Connect, Bachelor Play and more, were all designed with one thing in mind – fun that you'll never forget with someone special. Turn up the heat in your relationship with pleasure creams and adult games.
It's a big night for you and your love, and you've got everything planned. You've bought the sexy costumes and lingerie found around this site, you've talked about your favorite fantasies and you've made all the plans necessary to play it out for the best night of your lives. But you don't want the fun to end right away, as soon as you see each other in your hotter than hot costumes. You want to make a full night of pleasure and fun. How does that happen?
Stopping here and browsing the over the top games, lotions, and more is the first thing to do. Find out where your sexy gaming fantasies lie and choose the game, lotion, body art or edible selection that fits your desires. Remember playing Connect Four? Spice it up with Foreplay Connect. Force yourselves to finish the game and you'll both be insane for each other by the end! Are massages your thing? Pick up the Don't Stop Massage Candle or the Add Magic Lubricant. Do you want to taste your partner in all his or her glory? Go for the Skin Honey Kissable Body Topping. You'll also get a year full of pleasure with the 52 Weeks of Kinky Pleasures full kit.
There's no reason to be shy with our variety of games, lotions, and so much more for you and your partner. Surprise your partner or grab him or her and go over this page together. Find what moves both of you and order today. You'll be experiencing waves of pleasure soon.


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Memorial Day weekend is fast approaching. Many folks are traveling far and wide to attend graduation ceremonies. I keep getting cravings for frozen lemonade. These signs can mean only one thing: the long-awaited summer is practically here.
When the weather's hot, trying to work on big fuzzy sweaters and blankets can leave me roasting. Woolly yarns stick to my hands when the weather is humid, and I get little hairs stuck all over my favorite summer tops. That's no reason to pack up the needles, though. Baby clothes are perfect items for summer knitting…
Great yarn choices. My ideal fiber options for baby items are cotton blends (Weekend), washable wool (Vintage, Sox), or synthetics (Comfort). In addition to being durable and easy to clean, these materials generally slip across your hands easily even in warm weather, so there are no fuzzy remnants stuck to your hands and lap.
They're small. They're perfect to throw into your beach bag or to take in the car on a road trip. They also don't require as much time to complete, so you can finish a little sweater in a timely fashion while still spending time doing all your other favorite summer activities.
They're fun. Of course, this has a lot to do with your pattern choice. My ideal summer project is just challenging enough to keep me amused, without requiring much extra attention. Pick a pattern you know you won't have to stress over.
Don't forget to check your inbox for our latest KnitBits – it includes a free pattern for Parker, a baby cardigan in Weekend Chunky. It would be a great warm-weather project!
Have a wonderful weekend!


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The wealth of personal data that mobile apps collect on their users needs to be conspicuously stated to consumers or developers could face legal heat, California attorney general Kamala D. Harris said Wednesday.
Rather than resorting to subpoenas and enforcement actions, the California attorney general's office is in the midst of a crusade of sorts built around encouraging app developers, and Internet services firms in general, to become compliant with state privacy laws on their own accord.
Last year, for instance, the office reached an agreement with a number of major tech companies, including Facebook and Google, to make the privacy policies for those companies' mobile apps available to consumers in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store before the download process rather than after. The idea is to encourage technology companies that have access to users' personal identifiable information such as geolocation and contact lists to better inform consumers how that information is used so consumers can make better decisions about using the app in the first place.
California has some of the strongest privacy laws in the country and is often seen as a bellwether for how other states nationwide will grapple with the ongoing issues surrounding consumer privacy and mobile apps. Striking the right balance between innovation and protecting users' privacy, therefore, is an issue high on Harris' agenda.
"I'm very excited about this work, but I'm also a career prosecutor," the state's top attorney said. Her comments were delivered to an audience of roughly 100 app developers and others working in the mobile market during a conference on the topic at the University of California's Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.
"We're here to encourage that innovation, and to work together to figure out how we can balance the litigation interests at play when we talk about the need for the consumer to have information, and the right that consumers should have to determine what they want to give up for what they get," she said.
"It's with great excitement, and also responsibility and purpose, to make sure we protect those rights that have to be protected," Harris added.
A major law at the center of the issue in California is the Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires operators of websites and online services, including mobile and social apps that collect personally identifiable information from Californians, to clearly post a privacy policy.
The state has already sued Delta Airlines for failing to comply with the law; that case is ongoing.
Although Harris sought to express excitement for technology at the conference, some attendees were not quite sure whether her remarks, as well similar comments made by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, signaled that attorneys and regulators were more excited by their work or ready to fight back against it legally.
"I agree with you, but at the same time I'm terrified of you," said Jonathan Nelson, a developer with the group Hackers & Founders, during a panel discussion. Part of the issue, he said, is that developers don't have enough resources available to them to make sense of the legal landscape.
"I suspect there are a number of people who are scared that they could violate digital privacy laws inadvertently," Nelson said.
Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is email@example.com


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da Vinci® Hysterectomy (Benign)
Know Your Options.
If you have a benign (non-cancerous) condition, your doctor may suggest a hysterectomy to take out your uterus. If so, you may be a candidate for minimally invasive surgery, also known as laparoscopy (through a few small incisions). If you are thinking of having a hysterectomy, ask about minimally invasive da Vinci Surgery.
|Considering a Hysterectomy?
The da Vinci System enables your surgeon to operate through a few small incisions, like traditional laparoscopy, instead of a large open incision. Surgeons can also operate through a small incision in your belly button (Single-Site® technology* for non-cancerous conditions). The da Vinci System is a robotic-assisted surgical device that your surgeon is 100% in control of at all times. The da Vinci System gives surgeons:
viewinside your body
- Wristed instruments that bend and rotate far greater than the human hand
- Enhanced vision, precision and control
As a result of its technology, da Vinci Hysterectomy offers the following potential benefits compared to open surgery:
- Lower rate of complications1,2,3
- Shorter hospital stay1,2,3,4
- Less blood loss and less chance for a transfusion1,3,4
As a result of its technology, da Vinci Hysterectomy offers the following potential benefits compared to traditional laparoscopy:
- Lower rate of complications1,5
- Shorter hospital stay1,2,4,5,6,7
- Less blood loss and less chance for a transfusion1,2,4,7
- Less chance of surgeon switching to open surgery2,5
- Less chance for a blood transfusion8
As a result of da Vinci technology, da Vinci Hysterectomy offers the following potential benefits compared to vaginal surgery:
- Shorter hospital stay2,4
- Less blood loss2,4
The da Vinci System has brought minimally invasive surgery to more than 3 million patients worldwide. da Vinci technology – changing the experience of surgery for people around the world.
da Vinci Hysterectomy is the #1 minimally invasive hysterectomy performed in the U.S.9
*da Vinci Single-Site is available for benign (non-cancerous) hysterectomy.
Risks & Considerations Related to Hysterectomy, Benign (removal of the uterus and possibly nearby organs): injury to the ureters (ureters drain urine from the kidney into the bladder), vaginal cuff problems (scar tissue in vaginal incision, infection, bacterial skin infection, pooling/clotting of blood, incision opens or separates), injury to bladder (organ that holds urine), bowel injury, vaginal shortening, problems urinating (cannot empty bladder, urgent or frequent need to urinate, leaking urine, slow or weak stream), abnormal hole from the vagina into the urinary tract or rectum, vaginal tear or deep cut. Uterine tissue may contain unsuspected cancer. The cutting or morcellation of uterine tissue during surgery may spread cancer, and decrease the long-term survival of patients.
da Vinci Surgery with Single-Site® Instruments is cleared for use in gallbladder removal, and for hysterectomy and ovary removal for benign conditions. Patients who are not candidates for non-robotic minimally invasive surgery are also not candidates for da Vinci Surgery, including da Vinci Surgery with Single-Site Instruments. There may be an increased risk of
PN 1002184 Rev D 10/2015
- Ho C, Tsakonas E, Tran K, Cimon K, Severn M, Mierzwinski-Urban M, Corcos J, Pautler S. "Robot-Assisted Surgery Compared with Open Surgery and Laparoscopic Surgery: Clinical Effectiveness and Economic Analyses." Ottawa (ON): Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health; 2011 Sep.
- Landeen, Laurie B., MD, MBA, Maria C. Bell, MD, MPH, Helen B. Hubert, MPH,
PhD, Larissa Y. Bennis, MD, Siri S. Knutsten-Larsen, MD, and Usha Seshari-Kreaden, MSc. "Clinical and Cost Comparisons for Hysterectomy via Abdominal, Standard Laparoscopic, Vaginal and Robot-assisted Approaches." South Dakota Medicine 64.6 (2011): 197-209. Print.
- Geppert B, Lönnerfors C, Persson J. "Robot-assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy in obese and morbidly obese women: surgical technique and comparison with open surgery." Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 90.11 (2011): 1210-1217. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0412.2011.01253.x. Epub.
- Martino, Martin A., MD, Elizabeth A. Berger, DO, Jeffrey T. McFetridge, MD, Jocelyn Shubella, BS, Gabrielle Gosciniak, BA, Taylor Wejkszner, BA, Gregory F. Kainz, DO, Jeremy Patriarco, BS, M. B. Thomas, MD, and Richard Boulay, MD. "A Comparison of Quality Outcome Measures in Patients Having a Hysterectomy for Benign Disease: Robotic vs. Non-robotic Approaches." Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology 21.3 (2014): 389-93. Web.
- Scandola, Michele, Lorenzo
Grespan, Marco Vicentini, and Paolo Fiorini. "Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Hysterectomy vs Traditional Laparoscopic Hysterectomy: Five Metaanalyses." Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology 18.6 (2011): 705-15. Print.
- Wright, Jason D., Cande V. Ananth, Sharyn N. Lewin, William M. Burke, Yu-Shiang Lu, Alfred I. Neugut, Thomas J. Herzog, and Dawn L. Hershman. "Robotically Assisted vs Laparoscopic Hysterectomy Among Women With Benign Gynecologic Disease." Jama 309.7 (2013): 689-98. Print.
Orady, Mona, Alexander Hrynewych, A. Karim Nawfal, and Ganesa Wegienka. "Comparison of Robotic-Assisted Hysterectomy to Other Minimally Invasive Approaches." JSLS, Journal of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons 16.4 (2012): 542-48. Print.
- Rosero, Eric B., Kimberly A. Kho, Girish P. Joshi, Martin Giesecke, and Joseph I. Schaffer. "Comparison of Robotic and Laparoscopic Hysterectomy for Benign Gynecologic Disease." Obstetrics & Gynecology 122.4 (2013): 778-86. Print.
- Inpatient data: Agency for Healthcare, Research and Quality (AHRQ). Outpatient data: Solucient®Database - Truven Health Analytics. da Vinci data: Intuitive Surgical internal estimates. 2014
Important Safety Information
Serious complications may occur in any surgery, including da Vinci® Surgery, up to and including death. Individual surgical results may vary. Patients should talk to their doctor to decide if da Vinci Surgery is right for them. Patients and doctors should review all available information on non-surgical and surgical options in order to make an informed decision. Please also refer to http://daVinciSurgery.com/Safety for Important Safety Information.
© 2015 Intuitive Surgical, Inc. All rights reserved. Product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. The information on this website is intended for a United States audience only.
Website Disclaimer for intuitivesurgical.com and davincisurgery.com
This website does not provide medical advice. If you think you have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately.
The materials on this website are for general educational information only. Information you read on this website cannot replace the relationship that you have with your healthcare professional. Intuitive Surgical does not practice medicine or provide medical services or advice and the information on this website should not be considered medical advice. You should always talk to your healthcare provider for diagnosis and treatment. Health information changes quickly. Therefore, it is always best to consult with your healthcare provider.
If you have questions about the da Vinci® Surgical System or about surgical procedures conducted with the da Vinci Surgical System, consult a surgeon that has experience with the da Vinci Surgical System. A list of surgeons that have experience with the da Vinci Surgical System can be found in the Surgeon Locator.
In This Section
da Vinci® Surgery
da Vinci® overcomes limitations of both traditional and minimally invasive surgery. [ click here ]


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The historic "Jeopardy" matches between IBM's Watson supercomputer and two representatives of the human race are almost over. Watson is winning. The best and brightest wetware is on the ropes.
The secret to Watson's success is a collection of algorithms that can analyze natural language and guess whether the results yielded by those algorithms stand a good chance of being correct. This "self-knowledge" is important because Watson poses the question to all of the algorithms at once, then ranks the results. If confidence is high on any single result, the computer triggers a little servo that pushes the same button as the competitors from meatspace do.
IBM calls Watson "DeepQA," a reference to DeepBlue, the computer that defeated human chess champion Garry Kasparov and a descendant of an earlier chess machine that borrowed the name Deep Thought from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." It was built deep in the machine rooms at IBM's Thomas Watson labs in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., a building from the "Mad Men" era designed by Eero Saarinen.
Behind Watson's curtain
Watson's brain showcases several IBM technologies. The hardware is jammed into 10 refrigerator-sized racks filled with Power7 server blades. To be exact, there are 90 Power750 servers filled with four processors each -- and each processor has 8 cores, for a total of 2,880 cores altogether.
The software is built on top of IBM's UIMA architecture, which IBM created and then open-sourced. UIMA stands for "unstructured information management application," and it offers a framework where modules can work independently on the problem at hand and then vote on the best answer. The Apache project hosts the current UIMA version, as well as a number of common modules, but not all of the modules used on the show.
Much of the power comes from IBM's carefully curated collection of data. Jennifer Chu-Carroll, one of the scientists who has worked on the project since it began over four years ago, says that Watson excels, predictably enough, when the answer is a detail stored in its database.
"Watson is very good at things we consider facts," Chu-Carroll explains. "The Beatles category is one we think of as 'filling in the blank.' They give you something and ask what's missing. If we have the source, that's fairly easy for the computer to do. Of course that requires understanding that type of question and actually having the source."
She points out that the entire corpus of information is built out of largely natural language sources, including licensed Beatles lyrics. Watson is completely self-contained and does not have access to the Internet during the game. "We do have things from Project Gutenberg," explains Chu-Carroll. "Things like Wikipedia. But primarily free text that is available to us: dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspaper articles, things that...cover 'Jeopardy' topics well."
Unlike Google and its Books project, IBM chose to obey licensing rules. "If we don't have a license, we don't have it," notes Chu-Carroll. Nor did IBM include any structure from CYC, a controversial artificial intelligence project designed to categorize much of human knowledge in a structured database. Most of the information used by Watson is plain text searched by the computer.
Beating the "Jeopardy" clock
Chu-Carroll says that search is among the most time-consuming operations for the algorithm. The team studied past "Jeopardy" games, timed Alex Trebek's reading speed, and estimated that Watson would have three seconds to work on a problem before buzzing in. Some observers have noticed that Watson is often unprepared if the clue is short and read quickly. This is because Watson allocates the same amount of time regardless of the length of the question, something Chu-Carroll says may be fixed in the future.
During this time, Watson's algorithms work to identify the most likely possible answers. It boils down the million or so book-length chunks of text into 100 or so likely answers, the top three of which were displayed for the entertainment of "Jeopardy" viewers.
The researchers analyzed the "Jeopardy" game and devoted an "entire team" to deciding what to wager on the Daily Double, the confidence level to reach before buzzing, and so on. Watson also tracks the amount of money it has and the amount its competitors have -- details that change the odds and change the strategy. It knows enough to avoid "pulling a Clavin," a reference to an episode of the 1980s television sitcom "Cheers," where postman Cliff Clavin made it to the final round of "Jeopardy" only to lose a commanding lead by wagering too much.
What's next for Watson's technology? IBM plans to commercialize the software by approaching industries with huge collections of knowledge that must be sorted and searched by employees. The focus on using plain, relatively unfiltered, natural-language texts means that the system can be reprogrammed for a new domain just by choosing a different corpus of knowledge. Call center representatives, for instance, may have Watson search through the vast databases of product manuals and other texts to help find the best possible answer.
IBM frequently mentions creating a doctor's assistant, a tool that will help suggest potential diagnoses to the doctor who will make a final decision and bear the brunt of any second guessing during a malpractice lawsuit. Humans, it seems, are still necessary for some things.
This article, "How IBM's Watson hammered its 'Jeopardy' foes," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog, and for the latest in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.


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Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Horticultural Research Center
BACKGROUNDIn 1908, the University of Minnesota created the Fruit Breeding Farm on 80 acres near Victoria, Minn., for the purpose of developing hardy apple trees for our northern climate. Each year thousands of trees were judged and eliminated if they did not meet strict standards. Hardiness, disease resistance, flavor, texture, size, appearance, storability, and productivity are traits by which apple trees are still evaluated. The excess of research apples continues to be sold to the public each fall to help support research efforts.
Among the apple varieties that have been named and released are 'Fireside,' 'Haralson,' 'Honeygold,' and more recently 'Honeycrisp' and 'Zestar!.tm' Over the years, more than 98 fruit introductions have been made, including apricots, cherries, cherry-plums, raspberries, blueberries, grapes, and strawberries. Wine and table grapes and new hybrid blueberries such as 'Polaris' are recent introductions.
In 1967, the Fruit Breeding Farm was renamed the Horticultural Research Center (HRC) to reflect the increased diversity on 230 acres. Additional activities include the breeding of landscape plants, including ornamental grasses, plant cold-hardiness research and restoration ecology research. Thirty-nine new trees and shrubs have been introduced, including the 'Lights' azalea series, 'Northwood' maple, and 'Northern Sun' forsythia. The wetland ecology project started the successful Spring Peeper Meadow wetland restoration project in 1995 and uses Arboretum wetlands and former wild-rice research paddies for innovative research.
In 1985, the HRC was administratively merged with the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (located 1 mile to the east of the research center). The combined unit continues to remain an important research arm of the Department of Horticultural Science at the University.
FRUIT BREEDING PROGRAMDr. Jim Luby currently directs the fruit-breeding program at the HRC, which is actively breeding apples, blueberries, grapes and strawberries, plus a selection of other species. New blueberry cultivars from the program led to the development of new commercial plantings in Minnesota and other parts of the country with similar cold climates. The apple cultivar 'Honeycrisp' combines cold hardiness with outstanding fruit quality and has been in strong demand at licensed nurseries across the country and is increasingly attracting international interest. The grape research program has been pivotal in expanding the local wine industry with introductions such as the 'Frontenac' red wine grape, which is now the most commonly grown grape in Minnesota.
PLANT BREEDING PROGRAMThe woody landscape plant-breeding program is based at the Arboretum and is headed by Dr. Stan Hokanson. Current research includes breeding cold hardy, disease resistant deciduous azaleas and shrub roses, development of improved shade trees and small-scale shade tolerant trees, and the development of new woody landscape plants derived from plant material native to the upper Midwestern United States.
The Horticultural Research Center is located 1 mile west of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum on Hwy. 5 in Chanhassen.
Fact Sheet


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American Airlines pulled its flights from the Orbitz travel website on Tuesday in a dispute that could eventually affect the way travelers buy airplane tickets online.
The airline said its tickets sold previously on Orbitz are still valid. And American Airlines tickets can still be bought at the airline's own website as well as other travel websites. American pulled its tickets from the Orbitz for Business site as well.
The dispute is the latest sign of strains between airlines and the companies that sell airline tickets, including online sellers like Orbitz.
Airlines have traditionally paid sellers a commission. American also pays fees to the global distribution companies that provide the flight information.
Now, American wants Orbitz to get that flight information directly from the airline, cutting out the global distribution systems. American has said that will reduce costs and also allow it to make more personalized offers to customers such as hotels and car rentals.
The global distribution systems have not moved as fast as they could have to upgrade their technology, but American's move with Orbitz is "rather severe," said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst for Forrester Research. "It seems like they want to scorch the earth."
He predicted that travelers who want to fly on American will seek out its tickets on the airline's website. Travelers who don't know what happened with Orbitz, or don't care which airline they fly, are unlikely to notice American's absence from Orbitz, he said.
Traveler advocates have said American's move will make it harder to comparison shop.
"There is profit in confusion, there is profit in fragmentation of all the fares and the fees so consumers can't comparison shop," said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, which represents corporate travel buyers.
He said airlines ultimately would like to flip the current financial arrangement around and have travel agents pay them for access to flight information, rather than American paying every time someone else sells a ticket on one of its flights.
American's vice president for sales, Derek DeCross, said in a statement that the airline needs to be "free to customize its product offerings to improve the customer experience as well as distribute its products in a way that does not result in unnecessary costs."
American had threatened to pull out of Orbitz on Dec. 1. But Orbitz got a state court judge in Chicago to block the threat temporarily. It made its move on Tuesday shortly after judge Martin S. Agran declined to issue an injunction. Agran ruled that any breach of contract can be sorted out with a lawsuit later.
The request to block American was brought by privately held Travelport Ltd., which owns 48 percent of Orbitz. It also runs two of the biggest so-called global distribution systems, Galileo and Worldspan. American spokesman Ryan Mikolasik said it has been negotiating with other online ticket sellers. The Orbitz negotiation was made more difficult because of Travelport's involvement as owner of the two global distribution systems, he said.
Orbitz Worldwide Inc. called American's decision "unfortunate" and said it still offers flights from more than 400 airlines worldwide and would continue to seek a way to sell American tickets, too. It said American Airlines tickets add-ons like rental cars and hotel rooms added up to about 5 percent of the company's revenue for the nine months that ended Sept. 30. It said it believes that any American Airlines tickets it loses will be replaced by tickets on other airlines.
Shares of American parent AMR Corp. rose 14 cents to close at $8.05. Orbitz shares rose 22 cents, or 3.5 percent, to close at $6.44, but then fell 16 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $6.28 in aftermarket trading.
Also Tuesday, Delta Air Lines Inc. said it would stop selling tickets through three smaller travel websites, CheapOAir.com, OneTravel.com, and BookIt.com effective on Dec. 17.
Last week a Delta executive told analysts that some ticket venues have more value than others. The airline wants "as direct a relationship and channel to our best customers as we can," said Glenn Hauenstein, Delta's executive vice president for network planning, revenue management, and marketing. He said he's aiming for Delta's own website to be more like an Apple store and suggested that other travel websites are more like Best Buy, with similar products, but a different customer experience, he said.


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Find out how outdoor LED lighting is making Schougen's bridge safer at night
A simple change makes
journeys safer
Find out how outdoor LED lighting is making Schougen's bridge safer at night
who supplied this type of lighting solution. We received excellent support."
- Johnny Clausen, manager for public lighting in Malmö city
Schougen's bridge in Malmö was sorely in need of some new lights. Since the 1970's, it had been lit with power-hungry mercury luminaires, which illuminated the bridge poorly and spilt light onto other areas. Malmö municipality got in touch with Philips to see if we could do any better.
Although the bridge only measured 34 metres long and 18 metres wide, clear lighting was paramount. It was hoped that a new system would increase visibility for drivers and pedestrians and shrink energy costs. After seeing our FreeStreet system at the Light & Building fair, Malmö representatives were keen to see if it would improve safety on the bridge.
Philips got to work installing FreeStreet. Instead of using lamp posts, its free-hanging fixtures are mounted on cables that also supply power. The new system aligns the LED lamps correctly with the street below, so that light shines where it is needed with no spillover. "Now there is light where there is supposed to be light", said public lighting manager Johnny Clausen. "This is a major advantage if we ever want to increase the lighting level, as we can simply add more LED luminaires to the existing wire".
The new system has increased the amount of light sources without adding more light masts. In line with Malmö council's desires, the LED's are very discreet; they appear to hang in the air at night, and are barely visible during day. Not only do the LEDs use less energy and improve safety on the bridge, but they have an expected lifecycle of 12.5 years.
By replacing the mercury lighting on Schougen's bridge with energy efficient LED lighting, the total installed power was reduced by 202.4W. This amounts to energy savings of 810 kWh/year for the city of Malmö.


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Sandra Ramos, whose work is part of On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, is a visual artist from Cuba known for her surrealist expression depicting her relationship to Cuba's political and social situation.
"The open suitcase was a medium to make public the private and social reality of Cuban people. From this first experience I created others installations, boxes that looked like coffins, treasure trunks containing dreams about trips, homesickness and death."
Ramos' Migraciones II (Migrations II), formed as part of a larger installation produced by the artist for the 5th Havana Biennial, presents the artist's critique of the discrepancies between official government ideologies in Cuba and the harsh realities of life on the island during "the special period" of the 1990s. This small suitcase references those used by children for yearly, mandatory school trips to farms in the Cuban countryside. The inside is decorated in a style that references illustrations from government schoolbooks. Commenting on the propaganda conveyed through these education materials, this work presents ideological heroes of the revolution as Catholic saints, alongside ironic political slogans. These are mixed with other "lessons" depicted, involving exile migrations from the island. Presented in May of 1994, the piece anticipates the massive exodus of balseros that occurred later in autumn of the same year.
See her work through September 10, 2017 as part of On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection.


text:
A text message from Ryan Reynolds almost tipped off Damien Smith to one of the surprises in store for his upcoming ninth birthday.
The text from the Vancouver-born celebrity, loved by Damien for his portrayal of the comic-book character Deadpool, was prompted by an emotional request shared over Facebook by the boy's parents, Thomas Smith and Tiffanie Trudell.
In an Oct. 14 post, Smith and Trudell, who recently moved from Coquitlam to Canoe, explain how their son's birthday is coming up on Nov. 24. Instead of looking forward to the occasion, their boy was feeling blue.
"We just moved to the Shuswap two weeks ago, and my boy's birthday is coming up and I asked him, 'Are you… excited about your birthday?'" explained Smith. "And he's like, 'No, I'm just going to be lonely.'"
Damien's heart-wrenching response prompted the couple to ask the public for help in celebrating their son's special day.
"Since moving out of the city, he's been feeling pretty sad about his friends and our family not being around this year…," reads the post, adding how with COVID-19 the family has chosen to not have a party.
"What I'm wondering is would anyone be interested in sending him some birthday cards in the mail?"
Soon after, the couple began receiving messages from people all over the world who said they would be sending cards. Despite the family's request for cards only, gifts also began showing up. One neighbour dropped off a Sidney Crosby jersey. Another person contacted the couple to say they would be making Damien a Deadpool birthday cake.
Not long after a story about the card request was shared on the Salmon Arm Observer website, Damien was receiving visits from kids in the neighbourhood wanting to be his friend.
"All of a sudden we had these bangs on the door and there was a bunch if kids in our driveway and they all wanted to be Damien's friend ,and we're like, 'Oh my goodness, word travels fast out here,'" said Tiffanie. "It's a really beautiful community and we're so blessed to be out here."
Reynolds, who is known for sending special messages to fans, got wind of Tiffanie and Thomas' story. He texted the couple at dinner time to say he wanted to send Damien a little birthday video. Tiffanie began to cry with joy.
"The boys were eating dinner and they're looking at me like, what's wrong with mom?" said Tiffanie, laughing as she sets the scene. "Tom's like, 'What what!' I showed him the phone and he's like, 'Be quiet.'
"So we told Damien the reason mommy was crying was because we won a vacation but we can't take it because mommy is pregnant. So Damien is all mad because we can't go on vacation. And I go, I'm sorry honey, I'm so sorry."
Thursday morning, Oct. 22, the couple were on the phone with Reynolds' assistant, and Reynolds in the background. True to his word, Reynolds sent the family a birthday video for Damien.
"He was in the background talking to us," said Tiffanie. "I guess maybe he wanted her (the assistant) to handle it, but he started saying things to Tom."
The family plans to present Damien with the cards, gifts and the video on Nov. 21, when Bikers are Buddies members and others will be parading by their house to offer birthday wishes.
Overwhelmed by and grateful for all of the support, Tiffanie said she and Thomas have been collecting about 50 cards a day from their post box, many from Shuswap residents.
Tiffanie and Thomas plan on reading the cards together with Damien, who struggles with reading. They also plan on sending out thank-you cards – a lot of thank-you cards.
"Its' going to be fun," said Tiffanie. "We're going to get them out – even if it takes us a couple of months."
Anyone wishing to send Damien a happy birthday greeting can do so by mailing to the following address: Damien Smith, PO Box 321, Canoe, B.C., Canada, V0E1K0.
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text:
GST rollout from July 1, 2017
GST Council clears remaining two rules; all States agreed for GST rollout from July 1, 2017. GST rollout
The GST Council today cleared the pending rules, including transition provisions and returns, with all the states agreeing to July 1 roll out of the Goods and Services Tax.
"We were discussing the rules and (they) have been completed. Transition rules have been cleared and everybody has agreed for July 1 roll out," Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac told reporters here.
The GST Council had last month fitted over 1,200 goods and 500 services in the tax brackets of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent.
GST rollout
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley chaired the 15th meeting of the GST Council which is scheduled to decide on tax rate of 6 items including gold, textiles and footwear.
Read :- GST Rates for Services – 20.05.2017
Isaac's statement of all states agreeing to the July 1 rollout assumes significance as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said that her state will not roll out the new indirect tax regime in its present form.
Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra is however attending today's meeting.
Banerjee had said yesterday that her government would not support the new GST system in its present form and that her government would write to Jaitley for making changes to make it suitable for all the sections of the society.
"We will not support the GST in its present form. In its present form, it doesn't suit every section, especially the unorganised sector. They (Centre) have to rectify it… We have to continue with our fight to bring down the tax rates on certain products.
"Unless the rates are reduced, they will adversely impact the state's economy and employment," she had said.
Read : Registration as GST Practitioner
As for the transition rules approved by Council, the industry had been demanding some relaxation of the provision of deemed credit.
The draft transition law provided that once GST is implemented a company can claim credit of up to 40 per cent of their Central GST dues for excise duty paid on stock held by businesses prior to the rollout.
Several dealers are choosing to wait and watch rather than buy and hold on to inventories. They have lobbied with the government seeking an increase in the credit limit.


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New York City
Verdi's Shakespearean masterpiece returns to the Met with two exciting casts. Johan Botha sings the title role opposite the acclaimed Desdemona of star soprano Renée Fleming, with Falk Struckmann as Iago and Semyon Bychkov conducting. Later in the season, José Cura, Krassimira Stoyanova, and Thomas Hampson take on the principal roles, with Alain Altinoglu on the podium.
One Night Only: October 13, 2023
One Night Only: January 7, 2024
Performances begin: October 11, 2023
Performances begin: December 12, 2023
Performances begin: December 7, 2023
Performances begin: November 17, 2023


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Here at Caskstrength, we're most definitely fans of shiny new bits of software and online social networking programs. Twitter? Check. Facebook?...sort of. Myspace? Soooo 2007!
Translate Caskstrength!
Monday, 31 January 2011
Doing The Boo....
Here at Caskstrength, we're most definitely fans of shiny new bits of software and online social networking programs. Twitter? Check. Facebook?...sort of. Myspace? Soooo 2007!
Friday, 28 January 2011
Lowlands trip Day Three: How 'Low' can you actually go??
Don't be alarmed. It's not that caststrength.net have opted to balance the sexes by opening the floor up… to a 'girl'. But I was invited by Neil Caskstrength (my other half) to explain my partial whisky 'epiphany' that I had recently experienced.
You see, I'd been asking for a bottle of Auchentoshan Three Wood for a while when Neil Caskstrength presented me with one as a Christmas present last month. This being most unusual for me since I don't proclaim to be a 'whisky drinker', far from it. Over the years I have struggled to enjoy the fine flavours and complexities of whisky on my palate, despite many efforts to overcome this. But there was something different about this Three Wood release when I tasted it last summer at the Taste Of London Festival. Something that actually made me think I could claim this as the one whisky I would like to taste more of and savour on a regular basis.
Auchentoshan - Three Wood - 43%
On first nosing, it seemed so different to the previous drams I've tried. Soft, fruity (orange zest, anyone?) and buttery, not that overwhelming kick-back, that a novice whisky drinker senses when approaching a glass. I felt suitably intrigued to go in further and see if this might be something I could enjoy more of. And indeed it was. More of that butter smoothness on first taste, almost a whole Werther's Original in there, followed by the subtle smoky textures you would expect from a bottle called 'Three Wood'. Lots of dried fruit notes also grabbed the taste buds, reminding me of some of the Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez sherries I tried on a recent trip to Porto.
Finally, a Whisky I can definitely envisage myself curling up on the sofa with. It's been a long time coming but well done Auchentoshan, hopefully this will be the turning point for me and I'll be able to sample a few more from the Caskstrength vaults with a more open mind to see what all the fuss has been about over the last 3 years!!
Our final dram from this wonderful trip has a special resonance for me. In the past year, i've been putting together a list of birthday whiskies, to enjoy with friends on my 40th birthday. Although it's still 5 years away, i'm a bit of a hoarder and I certainly feel like buying a few decent bottlings now, before the price goes through the roof, just in time for all those folks who turn 40 in the same year. So I picked up a bottle of Linlithgow or, using its alternative name, St Magdalene. The distillery, based in the town of Linlithgow, not a million miles from Glenkinchie fell silent in 1983, along with that other long lost great from the Highlands, Brora.
This Murray McDavid 'Mission' bottling was distilled in 1975 and bottled in 2004, making it 29 years old. The last time I tried a St Magdalene/Linlithgow was in a bar in Cape Town and, to be honest, I was a little disappointed. I decided to open this now for a sneaky dram, as my curiosity got the better of me. Let's see where it takes us...
St Magdalene - Murray McDavid Mission bottling - Distilled 1975 - bottled 2004 - 46%
Nose: Very dry and grassy at first, but then leading into some quite pronounced floral notes (jasmine, lillies). A hint of dry oak begins to dominate, but with a drop of water, we return to the floral fruitiness with the merest dash of Rowntree's Fruitgums.
Palate: Initially a little bitter, with the oak again taking precedence, but given a few minutes in the glass, this evens out giving more of the Fruitgums, some vanilla sweetness and a dash of green apple skins. Not very developed, but with a bit of vitality hidden away behind a big oak door.
Finish: The palate dries off to a slightly bitter tannic note, with the remnants of the grassy/fruitiness remaining for a short while.
Overall: I can't help but feel a little let down, although it does possess lots of lighter, softer qualities, which are beaten down by the heavy oakiness. I imagine a younger bottling of this would be rather excellent, in a similar fashion to a younger Rosebank, a distillery which, in my opinion also seemingly doesn't age particularly well. Fortunately, I have a trump card up my sleeve when, a few years ago, I bought an extra bottle of The Whisky Exchange's phenomenal SMS 14yo Rosebank, as modelled here by Mrs Ridley. What a corker, eh... ;-)
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
A Leif From The Old Book...?
This month, Highland Park are very nearly the first out the traps with their new release of 2011.
Exclusive to Travel Retail (which seems to be a growing trend these days) the Orkney distillery have attempted something a little different with this bottling. It's called Leif Eriksson, after the Icelandic pioneer, who crossed the Atlantic back in the 11th century and settled in Newfoundland and Labrador. (It's also the name of an Interpol track, from their album 'Turn On The Bright Lights')
One wonders whether the 2 settlements were named intentionally after famous dogs, or whether the mighty Leif took a few canine travelling companions along? Perhaps in his spare time between carpentry and occasional pillaging, he was the very first to establish Canada's first version of 'Crufts'? I can understand where Barbara Woodhouse got her confidence from now...
Anyway, The Highland Park Leif Eriksson is a NAS whisky, bottled at 40%, matured wholly in American Oak- both sherry and bourbon seasoned. Where does it sit in comparison to the other HP expressions on the market and more importantly, would Leif proclaim this one a 'Best In Show'?
Palate: Baked, spiced apple, with plenty of butter, a heady dose of aromatic peat, leading into some juicy red berries, tinned peaches and cream and some very subtle notes of some fragrant plums. Very well balanced and, extremely drinkable.
Finish: The plummy notes continue as the palate dries, with lingering peat smoke, but in that gentle, classic floral HP way.
Overall: Whilst we're not particularly fans of the continual trend towards Travel Retail bottlings in general, Highland Park keep making really decent whisky for a very specific market. The vintage bottlings released last February (the 1990, 1994 and 1998) demonstrated how to get the most from the classic house style of HP and the Leif Eriksson, whilst probably not in the same league as the sensational 1990 bottling, stands up firmly and is a welcome addition to the expressions.
Leif would be proud and would no doubt celebrate, by throwing his dogs a slap-up dinner. Maybe even like this one...
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Lowlands Trip Day Two: 'Kinchie/ Stryder...
As you may have seen from our last post, Joel and I were up in the Lowlands recently, experiencing the 2 ends of distillation. From the powerhouse of Cameron Bridge, with its column stills seemingly extending as far as the eye can see, we move on to, what is ironically the distillery with purportedly the tallest pot stills in the business... Glenkinchie!
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Lowlands Trip Day One: Is That A Column Still In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Pleased To See Me?
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Beg, Borrow or Steal....
Apologies for the lack of posts this week, Joel and myself have been up to the Scottish Lowlands for a little run around the region, stories of which we'll be bringing to you shortly. In the meantime, continuing on from where we left off in our last post, we bring you news of another brand new Irish single malt whiskey, from tiny independents, Inish Turk Beg.
Monday, 10 January 2011
Mor Please...
A number of friends of mine always stop drinking temporarily for the month of January.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Finally, The Ashes is coming to an end. And what a great conclusion it is. If you're English!
I'm sitting at home, in sight of one of England's most famous cricket venues, The Oval, which was also the stage for the first ever FA Cup final in 1872, between The Wanderers from Battersea who beat The Royal Engineers 1-0 in front of 2000 people. Two years later, the losers from the first final were again beaten, this time 2-1 by Oxford University. Not quite Oxford United, but we might claim this for our trophy cabinet...
As I sit here with my dram, BBC's Test Match Special on the wireless and a stream of the TV broadcast from some dodgy site in God-Knows-Where, myself and my housemate have been playing a new game: whisky related cricketers. So far we've come up with:
Talisker Cook
Glenfiddich McGrath
Ian Bells.
I thank you!
Any one for any more? I think it is time to tweet @TMSproducer with this as an idea for a rain-delay topic...
The choice for this evenings (celebratory) whisky is the sister bottling of a much lauded dram from 2010 and a BIG Award finalist, Glenfarclas 40 Year Old, but this time we're saving ourselves 15 years, with the Glenfarclas 25 Year Old, my "splash-out" bottling for Christmas. Thankfully, I have just enough left for it to see my through the last 3 wickets. Hopefully....
I'm often confused by the 'farcals bottling. Not the stuff inside, but the tube which proclaims "Single Highland Malt" despite certainly being a Speyside whisky... odd.
Nose: Wonderful butterscotch with vibrant notes of apple & cider sauce. With time, the sherry notes of rich fruitcake and dark, polished woods emerge but always backed with juicy, green apple notes and sweet sugared tea. Really tempting and complex. Vanilla appears with a long time in the glass.
Palate: Vanilla and strawberry notes tingle the tongue and as the spirit gives off the fruit notes, it is underpinned with dark wood dryness, a hint of dark chocolate and some coffee notes.
Finish: Even and rounded. The age gives just enough dusty, sandy notes with some of the apple from the nose spiking through, but also the rich vanilla, strawberry, some apricots and finally the subtle wood notes.
Overall: Currently sitting somewhere around £85 a bottle (eighty five quid a bottle!), this is a super dram at a super price. Wonderfully smooth and rounded, if you can level an accusation against this whisky, it's probably that it is too easy to drink for a 25 year old sherried whisky. With a whisky this age, you almost want something that provides greater complexity. But at this price point, who cares?!
As the rain comes tumbling down, not only here in Central London, but also in Sydney, I'm off to think up some more whisky / cricketer puns. Now, who is this chatting away on the radio? Oh, its Auchentoshan Warne.
I'll get my coat.
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
3 Years Old!! We're Officially A Whisky!!
Well, there we have it. Caskstrength, what started out as a bit of a hobby and turned into a major obsession has now reached its 3rd birthday. In the 3 years we've been operating, we've made a load of great friends, tasted some exceptional whisky and visited some truly memorable places.
Many thanks to the indefatigable Timmy Mallett for his time and to our good friend Nat for pulling the whole thing together- rest assured, a few decent drams were enjoyed afterwards!


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Perle 8 - 10 pack
$16.75 Regular price $22.50
10-Color Collections contain 10 colors arranged on a card according to a theme, these are perfect for small projects.
Hand-dyed from the highest quality cotton, Perle Cotton has a tighter twist than Stranded/Mouline, and a brighter sheen. Instead of separating into strands as one does with floss, you choose a weight according to how many strands you would use.if you are used to using:
One Strand of Floss - Perle 12
Two Strands of Floss - Perle 08
Three Strands of Floss - Perle 05
Amount of each color:
Perle 05 - 5m (approx. 5.5 yards)
Perle 08 - 9m (approx.. 9.8 yards)
Material: 100% Cotton
Hand-Dyed in: South Africa
Producer: House of Embroidery


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The holiday season has officially begun with the hustle and bustle of retail shopping, pulling the boxes of decorations from the garage, and families planning their seasonal meals (now if California would just drop below 78° so I could light the fireplace).
But are you nervous about spending money during the holidays? Well, if so, you are not alone. While retail sales are showing a promising sign this year, it's my gander that people are putting a more conscientious thought into their purchases. It just means there is a frugalite in training – taking that hard earned money and finding the best buy.
A frugal holiday can still be high in cheer if you think like a pioneer, plan the holiday budget, instill some frugal fun, research some great sales and take up that free shipping. Yup, free shipping! Read all the way down for details. Check out my giant holiday post.
Pioneer Christmas
How do you have a real frugal Christmas? Think back to how our Old West ancestors celebrated – with a Pioneer Christmas.
Taking the consumerist out of the season is not easy. I really had to consider this one. With everyone so geared to opening retail gifts, is it possible to have an enjoyable simple holiday with our loved ones?
Well, I am willing to try! Here are some tips to bring you back to the roots of celebration:
- Cooking all day. There is nothing better than having the family cook a great big meal together. It's especially great at my aunt's house because we cook Filipino, Mexican and a traditional American meal.
- Use natural materials found anytime of the year, such as evergreens, pinecones, holly, nuts, and berries. The great Adirondack Christmas – simple, natural, and cozy.
- Decorate the tree with ribbon, yarn, berries, popcorn or paper strings, and homemade decorations. Sounds like a great craft for the children to string popcorn or berries! My daughter and I are making colorful paper chains this year.
- Give gifts of jam, preserved fruits and vegetables. If you are a crafty, make gifts of dolls, sachets, knitted scarves and hats. Gift making was a craft that lasted through the year in the pioneer days. Since I have not been so crafty this year, the farmer's market and craft fairs will make a great place to stock up on gifts with love. Time to ponder on next year's gift giving list.
- Sing carols with friends and family around the Christmas tree or fireplace. I remember as a child, we used to take hayrides around the neighborhood to sing Christmas carols. What fun! Does anyone do that anymore?
Christmas Budget Worksheet
You may start realizing, as Christmas dawns, that you forgot to get a gift for Aunt Sallie or Uncle Bob. If you don't plan accordingly, the holiday "forget me's" can't wreck serious havoc on your finances. Save the stress and have a merry holiday by using the Christmas Budget Worksheet by Simple Living.
Advent Calendar
With all the hard work that goes into preparing for the holiday. Make it shine each day with opening a small give from the advent calendar. Yes, even adults can enjoy a bit of chocolate or a script of love.
Last year, I finally remembered to buy my daughter an advent calendar before they were sold out. Trader Joe's sells a great chocolate candy advent calendar every year. But, I wanted to craft an advent calendar so I could have to take out each year. So, bring a bit of frugal happiness to a person each day in December by creating a matchbox advent calendar. Those small pieces of left over scrapbooking paper or gift wrap now have a purpose!
Five unique ways to make and display them:
- As crafty apothecary drawers
- Stacked up as a Christmas tree
- Magnetized to the fridge or a cookie tray
- Arranged in a pretty bowl
- Hang on Garland with pretty string
Plan a Christmas Dinner on a Budget
Whether you plan to host a few friends or a large gathering of family members, planning a Christmas dinner requires some thought, and a little creative shopping. Fear not. Following these tips will allow you to plan a Christmas dinner on a budget.
- Host a potluck. Big gatherings can be expensive. Especially when everyone has a hearty holiday appetite. To stay in budget, our family hosts a potluck. The hosting family will provide the main course – usually a turkey or ham. Then family members will bring all the side dishes and desserts. It works out great, as there are always tons of left overs to take home.
- Change the main course. A traditional thanksgiving dinner may not always the frugal choice. Consider mixing up the menu to fit within the budget. Most people will welcome the change. With my family, there is no shortage of ethnic flare.When it comes to holiday gatherings we have lumpia, enchiladas, mochi, adobo, sashimi, and a traditional turkey dinner (p.s. I have a large family and that sashimi is fresh, as my uncle is an avid fisherman).
- Check out your cupboards. Plan your side dishes by checking out your cupboards. If you have a can of green beans, a green bean casserole could be a start. Or a can of chickpeas, you can easily make hummus for a starter. Then start looking at your grocer's sale ads to start saving on the other necessary ingredients.
Free Shipping Day 2010
On Friday, December 17, an estimated 1,000+ participating merchants will offer free shipping with delivery by Christmas Eve. Check out Freeshippingday.com for more details.
Free shipping day isn't the only perk. Did you know you can score unadvertised specials from 40 Merchants?
I am so happy to be able to share these unadvertised specials with you. Because fewer people know about the sale, Freeshipping.org betters their chances of closing the deal at cut-rate prices.
(Credits: freeshippingday.com, legendsofamerica.com, and inspireco)


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According to US Weekly, Katy Perry, having had enough of John Mayer, went out for dinner with Robert Pattinson. They didn't end up in bed together or anything but the magazine reported that Katy would be into it if he was. Click here for a refresher. A few days later, Katy showed up at a music festival, back with Mayer, and last night the two were out for dinner at Little Door and, well, they made sure we found out about it.
This smells like a Twi-Hard production. You know how it is.
I mean, even John Mayer looks good next to that.
Is John Mayer the ideal in between?
If Sex & The City were being shot right now, would he have been cast over Dean Winters (I have always found Dean Winters super sexy) in the F-ck Buddy episode? John Mayer really is the in between, right?
In between relationships. In between serious loves. Someone you don't have to think about. Someone you certainly won't care about. Someone for some fun when it's dark and hopefully not outdoors. Someone you won't miss when you're ready to meet the Next. Every girl needs a few of those. And girls, it's OK to have them. It will save you a LOT of time..


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All That Glitters SP30 Gel Polish
Tax included.
Highly pigmented Gel system
Soak of to remove in 5 minutes
Led or Uv light to cure
Chip free & non yellowing
1 bottle = approx 50 clients
Colour shade may differ slightly from image
For professional use only
Ingredients. Di HEMA Trimethylhexyl Dicarbamate, HEMA, Bis Trimethylbenzoyl Phenylphosphine Oxide, Hydroxycyclohexyl Phenyl Ketone
MSDS available on request


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Few issues have received more attention lately than "outsourcing." It has become a major issue in the presidential race, and could help determine the outcome of the November election. As is often the case with international trade issues, politics may explain why outsourcing is so clouded by wrong thinking and hysteria.
Most of the debate has focused on the direct, visible loss of some U.S. jobs when we buy overseas instead of at home. Unfortunately, outsourcing's less visible benefit of net job gains receive considerably less attention.
Outsourcing is nothing more than acquiring goods or services from a foreign source. For example, we could grow bananas under glass in artificial environments in North Dakota but we choose instead to outsource them to places like Honduras.
To better understand the controversy, consider how much you benefit directly from "household outsourcing" and the jobs created both directly and indirectly when you engage in it.
Every time you buy groceries or clothes, use the services of a dry cleaner or a car wash, or eat in a restaurant, you are outsourcing. Just like a business, you compare the cost of producing those items or performing those services yourself, to the cost of acquiring them from others.
Outsourcing greatly lowers our cost of consumption, raises our standard of living tremendously and directly supports many jobs. Those are just some of the visible benefits. There are also secondary and indirect benefits. Jobs are created in many industries throughout the economy by the spending made possible because of our initial cost savings from outsourcing. Getting bananas from Honduras for 30 cents a pound instead of "North Dakota-grown" bananas for three dollars a pound frees up $2.70 for you to buy other things, to extend our hypothetical example.
At the state level, we outsource production for most of our food to workers in other states. Farmers elsewhere produce oranges, avocados, and sweet potatoes at lower cost than could Michigan farmers, and we benefit as a state from their greater efficiency. Fortunately for Michigan, consumers around the country in turn outsource the production of motor vehicles to Michigan workers, helping support 700,000 manufacturing jobs here. The outsourcing of some jobs outside of Michigan is fortunately accompanied by the insourcing of just as many, if not more, jobs into Michigan.
As a country, we globally source the production of roses, emeralds, coffee, and hundreds of other goods to workers in South America. Lumber production is outsourced to workers in Canada, tomato production to Mexico farmers, and clothing production to workers in India and Mexico.
To survive, firms have to operate as efficiently as possible, and this requires them to consider all possible locations for producing goods or providing services at the lowest cost. The result is lower prices for consumers and greater overall output. The process indeed displaces some workers (almost always temporarily) but that should not blind us to the overwhelming benefits everyone derives from encouraging trade and the economic prosperity it yields.
A recent study by Global Insight estimates that there will be a net increase of 139,000 jobs throughout the U.S. economy this year alone, due solely to the efficiency gains from the sourcing of information technology (IT) jobs overseas. More than 4,000 of those jobs will be created in Michigan. The study further indicates that for every one job lost overseas due to outsourcing of IT jobs, two new jobs are created in the U.S. economy across many industries.
A Cato Institute study released in March found that the arguments raised against outsourcing today are no different from those that arose during the last two recessions. In national economic downturns, which are not caused by trade, it is easy to shift the blame outside the country. Doing business overseas is always a popular scapegoat.
One sure way to destroy jobs and drive our standard of living lower at the same time is to erect barriers to outsourcing. When sky-high tariffs were passed in 1930 to block outsourcing then, Congress took a mild recession and made it a Great Depression in a matter of months.
By any economic measure — jobs, income or our standard of living — Michigan and the U.S. have a lot more to gain from outsourcing than we could ever expect to gain from restricting international trade.
# # #
Mark J. Perry, Ph.D., is an economist at the University of Michigan-Flint and an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, an educational and research institute headquartered in Midland, Michigan. More information is available at www.mackinac.org. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided the author and his affiliation are cited.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a nonprofit research and educational institute that advances the principles of free markets and limited government. Through our research and education programs, we challenge government overreach and advocate for a free-market approach to public policy that frees people to realize their potential and dreams.
Please consider contributing to our work to advance a freer and more prosperous state.
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The riveting conclusion to the most-talked about -- and controversial -- comics event of the year. Brought to you by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada. Brace yourself, Spidey fans, after this, nothing will be the same for Peter Parker!
The stakes have never been higher. At his darkest hours -- and he's had plenty -- Peter has always had one shoulder to lean on, one person who'd remind him who he is, who he was, and who he can be. Now he's about to lose that person. What will he do...what would you do, if you only had "One More Day?"
Rated A ...$3.99


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This article is more than 1 year old
Nokia plotting Symbian laptops
MC400* route to keeping up with the Androids
Nokia has plans to put Symbian onto laptop computers, with the vendor predicting converged devices were likely to appear in as little as five years from now.
CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo confirmed the mobile vendor's plans in an interview with the Finnish National Broadcaster last night.
"We don't have to look even for five years from now to see that what we know as a mobile phone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging," Kallasvuo told broadcaster YLE when questioned about Nokia's aspirations towards the lap. "We are looking very actively also at this opportunity."
Getting Symbian to run on a laptop shouldn't be particularly challenging, especially if you happen to have €500m to throw at the problem, but why one would want to do such a thing is a more difficult question.
Symbian is hugely optimised for lower power consumption, from the ground up, so that should be reflected in a significantly better battery life. It's also now a genuinely real-time OS, so the main CPU could also run a GSM stack - though it's hard to see how that would be an advantage on the lap where space and price are less of an issue.
Symbian already has a couple of decent, Microsoft-compatible, Office packages - one of which even underlines spelling mistakes in blue (which is what computers are actually for) - but it lacks a GUI suitable for the desktop, as well as drivers for the myriad of hardware users expect to be able to drop into their laptops these days.
A comparable experience can be had using the Redfly, or Palm's ill-fated Folio: connecting a decent screen, keyboard, and mouse to a mobile phone is a strange experience. But the maintenance of state between desktop and mobility is compelling - when the website you were halfway through reading on the tube transfers to your desktop screen, there is a pleasing continuity to the experience.
Nokia certainly has a massive manufacturing capability that would give it economies of scale, and the brand is well known enough to make shoppers look twice. Also, having a Symbian laptop might attract developers who would otherwise take their skills elsewhere.
Which brings us to the real reason Nokia is talking about Symbian on laptops - because Google is, and if Android is going to scale up to the desktop world, then Nokia is damned if it's going to see Symbian left in punters' pockets. ®
*Psion's EPOC-based laptop, whose 75-hour battery life remains unbeaten, though to be fair it couldn't underline spelling mistakes.
Claim up to £100 Cash Back on selected Toshiba laptops


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Northern Michigan Events: Michigan state parks invite residents and visitors to a night of spectacular views at "Meteors and S'mores" astronomy programs during the Perseid Meteor Shower from Aug. 9-13.
The Perseid Meteor Shower is the most highly visible astronomical event of the year, and the Meteors and S'mores events will offer night-sky presentations and all the fixings for s'mores around the campfire.
Meteors and S'mores received the Innovative Recreation Programming award from Michigan Parks and Recreation Association (MRPA) in 2012. The program provides a fun and educational opportunity for people of all ages to enjoy the night sky and learn about stargazing.
Best viewing of meteor showers takes place after midnight, so be sure to bring some lawn chairs, bug spray and maybe a few roasting sticks for enjoying s'mores. Program dates and times are as follows:
Friday, Aug. 9
Baraga State Park (Baraga County), 10-11 p.m.
Brimley State Park (Chippewa County), 8 p.m.
Burt Lake State Park (Cheboygan County), 10 p.m.
Otsego Lake State Park (Otsego County), 9 p.m.
Hartwick Pines State Park (Crawford County), 9 p.m.
South Higgins State Park (Roscommon County), 9 p.m.
Ionia Recreation Area (Ionia County), 9 p.m.
Brighton State Recreation Area (Livingston County), 8 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 10
Fort Wilkins State Park (Keweenaw County), 10 p.m.
P.H. Hoeft State Park (Presque Isle County), 8 p.m.
Young State Park (Charlevoix County), 8 p.m.
Clear Lake State Park (Montmorency County), 9 p.m.
Bald Mountain State Recreation Area (Oakland County), 10 p.m.-1 a.m.
Island Lake State Recreation Area (Livingston County), 8:30 p.m.
Lake Hudson State Recreation Area (Lenawee County), 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 11
Fort Wilkins State Park (Keweenaw County), 10 p.m.
Van Riper State Park (Marquette County), 9-11 p.m.
Leelanau State Park (Leelanau County), 8-11 p.m.
Rockport Recreation Area (Alpena County), 9 p.m.
Harrisville State Park (Alcona County), 9 p.m.
Van Buren State Park (Van Buren County), 9 p.m.
Monday, Aug. 12 (shower peaks)
J.W. Wells State Park Silver Lake State Park (Menominee County), 10 p.m.-midnight
Rifle River Recreation Area (Ogemaw County), 9 p.m.
Silver Lake State Park (Oceana County), 9:30-10:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Aug. 13
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park (Ontonagon County), 9 p.m.
J.W. Wells State Park (Menominee County), 10 p.m.-midnight
More outdoor fun is available through the DNR's Recreation 101 program, which provides expert instruction to budding outdoor enthusiasts by offering free, hands-on training in over 100 activities — with all the gear, guides and good times included! Learn about participating or becoming an instructor at michigan.gov/rec101.


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Miss Quincy & Miss Gem City
A sold out crowd was on hand Saturday night as the Miss Quincy Scholarship Pageant was held at the Oakley Lindsay Center. At the end of the evening the two big winners were Christina Hanna, who was crowned Miss Quincy 2013 by Miss Illinois Megan Ervin, and Kelsey Peters who was crowned Miss Gem City. Both young ladies will be competing for the Miss Illinois competition in Marion, Illinois in June.