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Best Cruise Destinations For Singles
Accent On Spain
Crystal Cruises
(888) 722-0021
Accent on Spain is a nine-day cruise on the luxury cruise line Crystal Symphony, bolstered by a multi-million dollar interior redesign. What makes this journey between the gorgeous cities of Lisbon and Barcelona an especially attractive one for singles is not only its sophisticated accommodations and onboard entertainment but also intriguing ports of calls like Ibiza, known as the "undisputed party capital of the world." Ibiza has long been a favorite destination to many of the world's most famous celebrities and boasts a number of the best nightclubs on the planet, including Amnesia, Pacha and Privilege — called the world's largest nightclub — in addition to mega-pool parties. Singles are also bound to enjoy on the other ports of call, including the historic city Casablanca in Morocco and the British territory of Gibraltar, located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula.
Related: Travel Guide To Andalucia
Bahamas Cruise
Celebrity Cruises
(866) 225-6128
With trips starting at under $300, a cruise onboard the Celebrity Constellation to the Bahamas is a very attractive option for singles. The lowest advertised trip departing from Fort Lauderdale is for four nights with stops in both Key West, the southernmost tip of the continental U.S. and Nassau, the lively capital of the Bahamas. Onboard, the Celebrity Constellation features a collection of world-class bars and lounges, along with the Quasar dance club and gaming at the Fortunes Casino. The ship also features nearly 1,000 rooms, including penthouse suites with a European-styled butler service. The Celebrity Constellation is a Millennium-class cruise ship of Celebrity Cruises, voted the "best premium cruise line" for seven consecutive years.
Mediterranean Cruise
Princess Cruises
(800) 774-6237
One of the most popular cruise destinations for singles is along the magnificent Mediterranean Sea. Take, for example, a seven-day cruise from Rome (Civitavecchia) to Barcelona on board the Royal Princess with a handful of breathtaking ports of call along the way. By day, travelers can stay onboard to relax at the largest pool of any of the Princess cruise lines or explore off the ship at stops such as the island of Sardinia, the magical city of Monte Carlo and Toulon, along the French Riviera. At night, singles have multiple options to meet others looking for romance on board the enormous Royal Princess, including the Club 6 dance club, Princess Casino or any of the four upscale cocktail lounges. The Royal Princess also features the dazzling Royal Princess Atrium, multiple dining options, live entertainment and 1,780 guest cabins including 314 mini suites, each with a 41-square-foot balcony.
Mexican Riviera
Carnival Cruise
(800) 764-7419
Known for great value and outstanding service, Carnival Cruises offers several options for singles to explore the sun drenched Mexican Riviera. With several upcoming departures from Los Angeles, the featured seven-day cruise on the Carnival Miracle features ports of call at the three premier destinations of the Mexican Riviera — Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta. Carnival certainly lives up to its name with a festive atmosphere where karaoke, dancing to a DJ or relaxing in the atrium are among the fun things to do onboard along with the bars and clubs, live music and comedy shows. All passengers can also enjoy other activities like playing slot machines or poker, working out in the fitness center and hanging out by any of the ship's three swimming pools. Carnival also hosts the Carnival LIVE Concert series, featuring a world-class music concert at one of the ports of calls. Among the major music acts who have performed on the Carnival LIVE Stage were Daughtry, Lady Antebellum, Chicago, Gavin DeGraw and Smokey Robinson.
Rio De Janeiro
Royal Caribbean
(866) 562-7625
Many travelers can only imagine spending New Year's Eve in one of the world's top destinations for singles. Royal Caribbean offers an eight-night Brazil New Year's Eve cruise on board the Rhapsody of the Seas from Sao Paulo to Ilha Grande, Brazil, with amazing ports of call like Portobelo, Rio de Janeiro and the world famous Copacabana Beach, where passengers can help ring in the New Year amid a spectacular fireworks show. One hour later, passengers continue their trip to Illha Grande, before returning to Sao Paulo. The Rhapsody of the Seas is a perfect cruise ship for singles, featuring eight pools and whirlpools, eight bars and lounges, a Vegas-style casino and live entertainment. On-board activities include a bird's eye view in the North Star, a zip line across the boardwalk, rock climbing, a fitness gym and fitness classes and signature spa treatments. If the New Year's Eve cruise isn't an option, Royal Caribbean offers several other cruises to other amazing destinations, like Sydney, Australia; Honolulu, Hawaii; or Venice, Italy.
Related: How To Guide For Traveling Alone
for more features.


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An Element from Streamcraft, the Minecraft inspired stream overlays package. Designed for the explorers. Upgrade and personalise your in game scenes with these Static Overlays.
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subset: commoncrawl


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NRI-industrialist Lord Swaraj Paul has hoped that the new Prime Minister will "not worry" about a "few industrialists" and run a government that thinks for the poor.
"We are present here at the time of the elections which is a great time because it is the largest democracy in the world and a very stable democracy. Whether it is India Shining or Incredible India it has failed the poor of the country. So elect a government that thinks for the poor," Lord Paul said at a conference organised by University of Wolverhampton here on Wednesday.
"Let us hope that whoever the Indian people elect (to be the Prime Minister) will do a good job... I hope that whoever wins, makes it a point not just to worry about a few industrialists but the 1.2 billion people of India," he earlier told PTI.
He was asked about the prospects of BJP-led NDA coming to power under the stewardship of Narendra Modi. "It is from you people (media) that I learn who is going to be the next Prime Minister," he quipped.
On the UK government's controversial 3,000-pounds proposed "security bond" for some "high-risk" foreign visitors, including those from India, which has now been scrapped, Lord Paul termed it as a "very, very wrong and restrictive policy".
The scheme, which was scheduled to be implemented on a pilot scale in November last year, was dropped after strong reservations were voiced over it.
India had conveyed its serious concern about the scheme to the British government both at the ministerial and official levels.
The aim of the scheme was to reduce the number of people from some "high risk" countries - including India, Pakistan, and Nigeria - staying in the UK once their short-term visa had expired.
Lord Paul, who is also the Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton and University of Westminster, quoted a recent report which pegged the annual economic output generated by universities in England at 73 billion pounds.
"This is a significant contribution to the British economy, and does not take complete account of the additional economic value created from engagement with businesses," he said while addressing the conference.
Deccan Herald News now on Telegram - Click here to subscribe
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Met Museum to return 15 smuggled sculptures to India
DH Toon | Carrot or stick
'Changed clothes': Uorfi apologises for what she wears
Scorsese's 'Killers of the Flower Moon' going to Cannes
Narikurava women denied entry in theatre, stars condemn
IPL 2023: Hazlewood likely to miss first 7 games of RCB
Murmu meets makers of 'The Elephant Whisperers'


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Some time ago I decided that instead of buying eco-friendly laundry detergent which can be quite pricey, I would try making my own. This idea didn't just pop into my head, I saw a number of other blog posts about how to do it.
- From Pretty Handy Girl, I was led to a post about making liquid laundry detergent by Busy at Home
- Crafting a green world had a post about making a powdered laundry detergent
After actually reading the posts, I decided the liquid version was too time consuming and that I would make the powdered version. To start, I purchased the necessary ingredients on Amazon:
- Fels Naptha, a bar of laundry soap
- Borax
- Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
The next step was to find a suitable container to hold my new powdered laundry soap but I luckily had a decent sized plastic jug that orzo came in. I then got around to grating one cup of the bar soap using the smallest grater I own. Somehow I didn't anticipate how difficult this task would be.
After what felt like forever as my hands quickly tired, I decided grating soap was a stupid idea. I then got out a a much larger cheese grater to make the task go faster. I put the grated soap into a cheap mini food processer to chop up the soap peels.
It took a few iterations, but I eventually got a cup of grated soap after grating about 3/4 of the bar of soap.
From there it was easy, I combined 1 cup grated soap, 1/2 cup borax, 1/2 cup washing soda and 1/4 cup baking soda. My plan is to add oxyclean to individual loads as needed. According to what I've read 2 tablespoons of this mixture should be sufficient for my conventional washing machine. It turns out I even had a long handled scoop left over from a nutritional supplement.
For the next batch I think I might try a different bar soap due to some mixed reviews I've read about Fels Naptha. I also read that opening the bar soap and letting it dry out helps with the grating process.
Anyhow, I've used the soap a few times and haven't noticed a difference from store bought laundry detergent.


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K-State Faculty Salary Data Analysis by College, Department, and Discipline (with K-State's Peer Comparison Institutions)
Competitive compensation is key to recruiting and retaining the talented and high performing, diverse workforce envisioned in K-State 2025. The Visionary Plan calls for competitive compensation for all employees within the next ten years.
During the summer 2012, the President and Provost requested additional faculty salary analysis data based on the Faculty Salary Survey by Discipline, a special project directed by Oklahoma State University's Office of Institutional Research and Information Management (OSU-IRIM), for further evaluating K-State's competitive compensation in comparison to our peer institutions. Their request included faculty salary data by rank, college, department, and discipline for K-State and our 10 peer comparison institutions. The institutions are:
- Auburn University
- Clemson University
- Colorado State University
- Iowa State University
- Louisiana State University
- North Carolina State University
- Oklahoma State University
- Oregon State University
- University of Massachusetts – Amherst
- Washington State University
Faculty Salary Data Analysis reports by academic year
These reports are based on data reported by K-State in November of each year to the Oklahoma State University Faculty Salary Survey. Additional reports related to faculty salary data may be found at Planning and Analysis.
Note: K-State eID/password required to access the following reports


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Silver Medal for Singapore in Beijing Olympics 2008
This is a moment that worth recording down.
Thanks & Congrats to our Singapore Table-tennis Girls for scoring a Silver Medal in the Table-tennis Competition.
Even though they are not the Pioneers that scored in Olympics Game but at least this will be a Historical Record in our Sports History.
Million Thanks to them and remember to Celebrate for this Victory.


text: [lucasfragomeni] built the Buzzle after being inspired by the reverse geocache puzzle. The Buzzle was built as a gift to a friend. It's a tricky gift too. His friend can't open it until he decodes the words being displayed in morse code via an LED. A word is chosen at random, so you would have to decode it each time you want to open the box. That's a pretty neat security feature. Sure it's not the most secure, but it would keep casual peepers out. Unfortunately, the box was empty when his friend received it.


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If the Red Sox rally to make the postseason, they might look back to a players-only meeting on May 11 as a turning point.Each of the starters - Clay Buchholz, Felix Doubront, Daniel Bard, Jon Lester, and Josh Beckett - picked up a victory in those five consecutive wins, games in which the pitching staff allowed 5, 1, 1, 1, and 0 runs.
The night before, right-hander Josh Beckett had allowed seven runs in 2.1 innings and the Sox had lost to the Indians at Fenway Park 8-3.
Designated hitter David Ortiz, the team's longest-tenured member, called the meeting, and apparently it was a doozy.
"Heated," was the adjective one player used.
The hitters challenged the pitchers to "step it up," according to two sources. The overall theme was that each player needed to take responsibility.
The effect was immediate, and positive.
The Red Sox won their next five games, and since the meeting have won seven of nine overall.
Beckett has pitched 14.2 innings since the meeting, allowing only one run, while striking out 14 batters.
Mike Aviles, on Ortiz:
He's a leader, he's a leader. And when you have a leader like that call a meeting (he) basically says, "Let's go, let's step this up and get where we need to be." You look at this locker room, there's a lot of talent in here. There's no reason we can't win. None whatsoever. I just feel like when you have your leaders talking and letting everybody know, when we all get together, we're playing like a team now. That's the way it should be. A lot of talent here. No reason not to win.


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Some thoughts on bottle variation
Late word: At 11:02 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday 7/21) I will publish the winner of the Murphy-Goode "A Really Goode Job" with pics and up close and personal background info.
* * *
Interesting article by Dan Berger in last Friday's Napa Register on bottle variation, a phenomenon rarely talked about by vintners because, frankly, they don't want to talk about it. The most commonly understood (by wine consumers) reason for bottle variation is TCA — corkiness — but Dan points out another: lightstruck bottles (whether by direct sun or indoor flourescent lighting). I have to admit I'd never heard of this before I attended a tasting at Rubicon restaurant, years ago, at which Dan was present. He found some of the wines lightstruck.
There are other reasons for bottle variation:
– Transit. A bottle may have been exposed to excessive heat, say, in the back of a UPS truck on a summer day.
– Poor storage.
– The unequalization of production. Production of a wine is said to be equalized if all the barrels or tanks in which it was raised are blended together in one large tank. If this isn't possible (and it's often not), then you can have two different wines, both bottled with the same label.
– Time between tasting. Even if two bottles are identical, they can leave different palate impressions if tasted at different ages. Just a few months can alter a wine's profile.
– Dishonest winery practices. Just because two bottles have identical labels doesn't mean the winery didn't knowingly put different wines in them. What, you think it never happens?
– Glass differences. The same wine, tasted in different glasses, will taste differently. This isn't exactly "bottle variation," but we don't drink wine from bottles, we drink it from glasses.
I think bottle variation is the main reason why critical reviews of the same wine by the same critic can vary, when the wine is tasted more than once. It's only reasonable for the public to expect perfect consistency from a critic, and certainly we critics ourselves would like to perform perfectly consistently. Unfortunately, consistency in anything is rare, and particularly in so subjective a practice as winetasting. Add bottle variation to the mix, and you have ample opportunity for scoring variation.
I once scored the same wine 9 points apart on 2 different occasions over a period of a few months. I don't like saying that, but it's the truth, and any critic who says it never happened to him isn't being honest. Having said that, more often, when I accidentally re-review a wine (only to discover I'd previously reviewed it), my scores are either identical, or within 2-4 points of each other — a tolerable discrepency. I think that when I rate a wine differently over time, it's because of bottle variation. I don't think it's because my judgment is at fault. But a wine reviewer always has to accept the fact that his judgment may be cloudy on any given day. I will say this: there is a strong imperative for critics to maintain rating consistency, which is the linchpin of our credibility. Imagine if, for instance, Parker started giving 72s to Lafite. Everybody would wonder if he'd lost his mind. That's why he's not going to start giving Lafite 72s.
I came across this John Cleese video on wine. It's quite good, and I think you'll enjoy it. Lots of familiar California faces.
On the Murphy-Goode contest
I spent the day today (Sunday) with the Top Ten and will blog Tuesday morning on my impressions and, more importantly, the winner. Will post a few minutes after the winner is announced by the winery.
R.I.P. Walter Cronkite
I met him once. I was on my first real job, as a sous-chef in a French restaurant in Massachusetts. Mr. Cronkite's daughter was going to private school in the area; he was visiting with her. He dined alone, and after dinner, was hanging out in the bar. After I shut down the kitchen, he was still there, alone, nursing a drink. I got a glass of wine and asked if it was okay to talk with him. Of course it was. This was less than a week before Nixon resigned, so Watergate was obviously the focus of our conversation. I had the feeling Mr. Cronkite was happy to talk with me. He was so friendly, unpretentious, unphased by his fame. I was just a young, politically-oriented kid. He was a great newsman, a great reporter. The real deal. I hope his example of fair reporting lives forever.
It takes time for (usually white wines) to become lightstruck.
Also, one would think that bottle variation should be minimal since wines are transferred from barrel into a large tank for homogenization at the time of bottling and then the bottles are filled from the same lot. However, all you need is one organism in a bottle with some RS (which is common in CA wines) and one bottle can have Brett bloom, CO2, etc – while others don't.
Some wines evolve quickly, which is why I prefer two bottles as samples and I taste them about a week apart.
But going back to what you and Joe Czerwinski have called "tasting room bias": just as the shape and size of the glass can affect the way a wine shows, so can the ambient temperature, barometric pressure and humidity of the tasting environment.
It is hard to control this – though you can achieve a fairly consistent environment. More than control, awareness of those factors at the time of tasting and understanding of how they affect the expression of the wine are important.
Steve – thanks for bringing up an important point. Bottle variation is an issue we tend to avoid, because so little can be done to prevent it. There are cork-derived variations other than TCA, and very small imprerfections in sealing of alternative closures are also problematic. There are variations that arise from bottle contamination – ranging from cardboard dust to glass mold release compound (some of this could be dealt with by washing the bottles before filling, but many wineries don't).
Light-strike has been documented in some sparkling wines and still whites (as well as beers) and is dependent on the composition of the wine and the color of the glass. Some sources say UV light causes the change, but ordinary fluorescent light has no significant UV component and has also been implicated. I've never seen any evidence of ligh struck reds – anyone?
As for 2-4 points? Believe me I think this is laudable precision! But it IS the difference between an 89 and a 91-93. Nine points? Fugetaboudit.
Thanks for the insight into a critic, Steve. I see the pressures involved in consistent scoring and the antagonist you must find in bottle variation.
Very interesting post, and an issue I wish would get more exposure. I think most of the time, except with the smaller producers' wines that have excellent provenance, what the critic tastes is not what the consumer buys.
I've seen it written that Robert Parker likes Brett in his wine, probably based on consumers buying a highly rated by RP wine that's really Bretty. Maybe he does, but I bet the issue of Brett bloom in-bottle has a lot to do with this. Most critics taste wines in their youth, likely with near perfect provenance. Take a slightly leathery wine with a pinch of RS, let it sit above cellar temperature, and next thing you know, there's some barnyard going on.
I seriously doubt that French wines have less Brett, but between lower sugar levels and native yeast fermentations that consume complex sugars S. Cerevisiae can't ferment, most of the Brett action probably takes place before bottling. I have a hypothesis that the high sugar levels and designer yeast fermentations typical in CA are a recipe for serious bottle variation via Brett.
Steve, I was with Dan and the folks at Diam and our meeting prompted that piece. One big area that we're not looking at is OTR or oxygen transmission rates which can be controlled by closure choice. Natural cork, because it's natural has too much variation, so the discussion these days is about having consistent closures that affect post bottling chemistry. Winemakers can consciously choose how they want their wine to age. Europe is pretty far ahead of us on this discussion and I'm learning more. Cool piece here on the subject. http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?content=57269§ion=features
@John Kelly
I would think that since reds are put into green bottles, they are unlikely to be lightstruck.
I was talking to an absinthe producer some time ago and he mentioned that absinthes can also become lightstruk – particularly the verte style, unfiltered ones.
So my question would be: is the presence of some sort of colloidal suspension in whites (or a particular phenolic composition) coupled with clear glass bottles predispose them to being lightstruck?
Never met Mr. Cronkite, but had the pleasure of watching him celebrate his birthday with family and friends at a nearby table at LeCirque. Like any other birthday dinner, lots of kidding and laughter, and wine. My waiter tapped me on the shoulder and drew my attention to a solitary diner (well, he was with two burly men) slipping out, saying good night to Sirio, face serious… ex- pres. Richard Nixon. Interesting that there was no acknowlegement that I saw between Nixon and Cronkite, yet they had to know they were both in the same room.
This is a referencesI found on Lightstrike:
I am at a loss for the finer points distinguishing corked from lightstruck. Since the flaw comes about from UV-induced conversion of various aromatic compounds the flaw may be difficult to pinpoint or define as clearly as TCA (or TBA which seems to be indistinguishable from TCA).
I think Kimberly has hit upon the dominate reason for bottle variation. The O2 permeability of Cork can vary 1000fold from cork to cork. When Patton Valley Vineyard made the move to screw caps we saw bottle variation decrease dramtically.
I also think that bottle variation rates are inversly proportional to the degree to which wines are 'manipulated'. The more a wine is 'mucked with' the less it will vary. This is extremely anecdotal.
I suspect that light struck wine is not a signficant contributor to bottle variation, in terms of probability, most wines simply are not that poorly handled, especially wines finding thier way to the offices of wine writers.
Yes, Steve, but don't you think a wine reviewer should know what it is that they are communicating to the consumer?
If lightstruck wines resemble corked wines, the implications are quite different for the whole production line.
I get your point Steve.
BUT if you have a full shipment of wines that are light struck, they will ALL have the flaw.
The flaw is said to resemble TCA taint.
You get only one bottle of the wine.
If you can't determine if it is corked or lightstruck you can't tell your readers if only the particular bottle was screwy and they are likely to have a decent wine or if the whole lot is worthless and they should not waste their money and time.
I want to know how to be able to make this distinction. it's not a matter of being an enological laboratory but being and informed, skilled and trained olfactory assessor or wines – for the benefit of the readers. After all, its about them. We are supposed to serve them.
Second thoughts:
I also appreciate what the average consumer wants.
Average is a sticky category.
An average doctor, lawyer, wine critic, wine enthusiast, etc…
Maybe it's time to raise the average?
We can do this by raising the bar for ourselves and our readers.
Giving Lafite 72s is a compelling thought and I see no reason to be too pessimistic that it could actually happen. Parker isn't getting any younger and many a dementia has begun long before his current age. This business is full of surprises.
A few years ago, my wife and I poured a single red wine at a charity auction. The wine was, as I recall, about six years old, from a large (but not the largest) Washington winery, designated from a well regarded vineyard, and signed by the winemaker, so it was at the higher end of a broad product range. The bottles were from sealed cases, and all of the same vintage. We did not know the source (winery or distributor) or storage history.
We had recently taken a class that included examples of several wine faults, including cork taint, brett, acetification and the like, so we felt some confidence tasting each bottle before serving. And it was good that we did, because we ran across a bad bottle early on, and so we were careful to taste and spit with each new bottle.
A couple of more bottles were set aside, but what we took away from the experience of testing through about two and half cases of merlot was that we would have been less surprised had they been mixed-brand bottles. There was that much variation. The wines we served weren't bad or dead, just surprisingly different, and because I trust my wife's palate a lot, we tended to both taste most bottles, and came to a shared conclusion.
I've told this story to local winemakers I respect, and the best answer is just that wine is a living thing. My guess is that bottle variation increases with age, even with little or no obvious faults, so that down the line the same wine could be sublime, great, or average, even from the same cellar, and consumed at the same time. I have no other evidence for this claim, so will stand by it until proven wrong.
A few facts about lightstruck wine. First of all, the cause is light energy activating riboflavin as a reducing agent, and causing in white wines a cascade reducing reaction which is quenched in reds before it gets going, but in whites quite quickly (five minutes is enough in bright sunlight)produces a mix of sulfide compounds, mostly familiar like H2S (rotten eggs), ethyl mercaptan (diesel or onion), and diethyl mercaptan (canned asparagus), but also some exotic ones like ethyl methyl mercaptan, which smells like wet wool, almost a mothball odor and quite different from TCA.
Many dark bottles don't offer much UV protection — it takes a special UV coating which much cheap glass is less likely to use in these days of Chinese imports.
It is extremely rare that a shipment of wine is lightstruck. It usually happens on the retail shelf or after purchase.
In my view, the most important sources of bottle variation are environmental influences of light and heat. Given perfect handling and storage, however, the cork closure is the main culprit.
Still, the way a wine is perceived in reaction to the environment in which it is serve — not just the food but the music, the mood, the lighting, the background aromas — have much to do with creating an harmonious experience or a dissonant one in which the wine shows us its best, and these influences are almost never discussed.
That does not mean we should taste and judge wines ganged into groups in the sterile environment of current vogue. Nothing could be further from the consumer experience.
The warmer a bottle of wine, the faster aging reactions will take place.
Corks vary widely and are highest on my list as culprit for bottle variation. Changes in temperature will cause thermal expansion and contraction of the wine. I suspect that will cause changes in pressure in the headspace of the bottle and more (gas) transfer through the cork.
Unfiltered wines treated only with SO2 can have many types of survivors, including Saccharomyces, Brett and lactic acid bacteria. Likely, they will not be in best of health. Unhealthy organisms can do some stinky things.
Wines seem to go through phases over time. Perhaps, Steve's example wasn't bottle variation?
I think BradK makes an excellent point:
Bottle variation would be the phenomenon of several bottles of wine tasting differently at *exactly the same moment in time*.
Very interesting article, thanks for pointing this out Steve. I've heard about bottle variation, but only when it comes to beer. Either way I usually like to stick to bottles that are darker and don't allow too much light to penetrate.


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TEXAS & P R CO v. REISS(1902)
This action was brought in the circuit court of the United States for the southern district of New York by the plaintiffs, who are defendants in error here, and are residents of Liverpool, England, to recover the value of some 200 bales of cotton destroyed by fire at Westwego, Louisiana, opposite the city of New Orleans, November 12, 1894, at a pier on the west bank of the Mississippi river, owned by the plaintiff in error. This is the same fire which is mentioned in Texas & P. R. Co. v. Clayton, 173 U.S. 348 , 43 L. ed. 725, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 421. Upon the first trial the court directed a verdict in favor of the defendant, but the judgment entered thereon was reversed by the circuit court of appeals (39 C. C. A. 149, 98 Fed. 533), and a new trial [183 U.S. 621, 622] granted. Upon the second trial the court, following the opinion of the circuit court of appeals, directed a verdict for the plaintiffs for the value of the cotton, and the judgment entered upon that verdict having been affirmed by the circuit court of appeals on the authority of its former opinion (39 C. C. A. 680, 99 Fed. 1006), the railway company brings the case here by writ of error. The defense of the company is based upon a clause in the bill of lading which will be set out hereafter.
The cotton had been shipped at Temple, in the state of Texas, on the Missouri, Kansas, & Texas Railway, to be carried over its road and the defendant's road to New Orleans, and from that port to Bremen. It arrived at New Orleans at the pier of the railway company November 6, 1894. One hundred and sixty bales were unloaded on November 7, and the balance soon thereafter, but on what day is not certain. One hundred and twenty bales were unloaded and placed at one point, and two different lots of forty bales each were deposited at other points, thus leaving the cotton at three different points on the pier of the railway company. At this time the pier was quite full, there being over 20,000 bales deposited upon it and some 8,000 bales in cars waiting to be unloaded. The pier was built, owned, and in the exclusive possession of the railway company. The bill of lading which was issued at Temple, in the state of Texas, by the Missouri, Kansas, & Texas Railway, expressed on its face to be on behalf of that company, and also the defendant company and the steamship company. It was an elaborate document, and purported to be 'an export bill of lading approved by the permanent committee on uniform bill of lading.' It acknowledged the receipt of the cotton consigned as marked, and to be carried to the port of New Orleans, Louisiana, and thence by the Elder, Dempster, & Company's steamship line to the port of Bremen, Germany. It had conditions which are stated to be:
There are 12 clauses relating to the service until delivery [183 U.S. 621, 623] and 15 clauses relating specifically to the service after delivery at the port of New Orleans. Those clauses which are specifically referred to in this case are numbered 3, 11, and 12 in the bill of lading. They read as follows:
The usual method of handling cotton upon its arrival at the pier of the company at Westwego, Louisiana, is stated, as both counsel in this case agree, with substantial accuracy in Texas & P. R. Co. v. Clayton, 173 U.S. 348, 352 , 43 S. L. ed. 725, 727, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 421, 423, as follows:
At the time of the fire it is conceded that no transfer or skeleton sheets had been sent to the steamship company, or notice given it of the arrival of this cotton at the pier of the railway company.
Messrs. Rush Taggart and Arthur H. Masten for plaintiff in error.
Messrs. George Richards, Frederick E. Mygatt, and Treadwell Cleveland for defendant in error.
Mr. Justice Peckham, after making the foregoing statement of facts, delivered the opinion of the court:
In this case there had been no delivery of the cotton by the railway company prior to its destruction by fire. The cotton had arrived at the pier of the railway company, but no notification of its arrival had been given to the steamship company, nor was it in fact in the possession of, nor had it been delivered to, the latter company. It was still under the absolute control and in the possession of the railway company, and nothing had been done to terminate its common-law liability at the time the fire occurred.
In Myrick v. Michigan C. R. Co. 107 U.S. 102 , 27 L. ed. 325, 1 Sup. Ct. Rep. 425 Mr. Justice Field, delivering the opinion of the court, and speaking of the duty of a connecting carrier, at page 106, L. ed. p. 326, Sup. Ct. Rep. p. 429, said:
As between intermediate carriers, the duty of the one in possession at the end of his route is to deliver the goods to the succeeding carrier or notify him of their arrival, and the former is not relieved of responsibility by unloading the goods at the end of his route, and storing them in his warehouse, without delivery or notice to or any attempt to deliver to his successor. McDonald v. Western R. Corp. 34 N. Y. 497; Congdon v. Marquette, H. & O. R. Co. 55 Mich. 218, 21 N. W. 321. In the latter case it is held that the duty of the connecting carrier is not discharged until it has been imposed upon the succeeding carrier; and this is not done until there is delivery of the goods, or at least until there is such a notification to the succeeding carrier as according to the course of business is equivalent to a tender of delivery.
Within these cases it cannot be claimed that this defendant had either actually or constructively delivered the cotton to the steamship company at the time of the fire. The defendant is compelled, therefore, to have recourse to the clauses in the bill of lading in its attempt to rid itself of liability consequent upon the destruction of the cotton by a fire while at its pier and in its possession. The bill of lading itself is an elaborate document, bearing on its face evidences of care and deliberation in the formation of the conditions of the liability of the companies issuing it. The language is chosen by the companies for the purpose, among others, of limiting and diminishing their common-law liabilities; and if there be any doubt arising from the language used as to its proper meaning or construction, the words should be construed most strongly against the companies, because their officers or agents prepared the instrument, and as the court is to interpret such language, it is, as stated by Mr. Justice Harlan, in delivering the opinion of the court in First Nat. Bank v. Hartford F. Ins. Co. 95 U.S. 673, 679 , 24 S. L. ed. 563, 565, 'both reasonable and just that its own words should be construed most strongly against itself.' To the same effect is London Assur. Co. v. Companhia de Moagens do Barreiro, 167 U.S. 149, 159 , 42 S. L. ed. 113, 120, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 785, and The Queen of the Pacific, 180 U.S. 49, 52 , 45 S. L. ed. 419, 420, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 278. [183 U.S. 621, 627] We come then to an examination of the bill of lading for the purpose of determining whether the railway company has been exempted from liability by any of its provisions.
We do not understand it is contended that either clause 3 or 12 applies, because, as is conceded, there was never any notification given the steamship company of the arrival of this cotton. Without that notification counsel does not contend that either of those clauses applies. The argument at the bar was devoted to maintaining the proposition that the railway company was exempted under clause 11, and the other clauses in the bill of lading were referred to for the purpose of giving point to that contention. It was urged at the bar that under the 11th clause the question of notification was immaterial, because, although a notification had not been given, yet the cotton, upon its arrival at the pier and after it had been unloaded from the cars, 'awaited further conveyance,' within the meaning of the 11th clause, and while awaiting further conveyance the carrier was by the express terms of that clause relieved from liability otherwise than as warehouseman. In other words, that the carrier upon the arrival of the cotton and unloading it at the pier, and without giving any notification of its arrival, ceased to be a carrier, and became liable only for negligence which might cause the loss of the property, and there being no negligence proved in this case, the carrier was not liable.
It was argued that clauses 3 and 12 were intended to cover such a case as would have existed in the one now before us has notice been given to the steamship company of the arrival of the cotton at Westwego, such notice being understood by the steamship company as a request to come and take away the cotton; and in holding, as the court below did, that notification was necessary before the 11th clause could apply, that clause was thereby deprived of any separate effect, because after notification the 3d or the 12th clause would exempt the carrier, and therefore some further or other meaning must be given the 11th clause, so that it may operate in a case where no other clause would be available.
Upon this subject Circuit Judge Shipman, in the court below, said: [183 U.S. 621, 628] 'It is not claimed that the facts bring the carrier's liability within clause 3 of the bill of lading, which says that the liability shall end after the property 'is ready for delivery' to the next carrier, for it is conceded that the goods are not awaiting delivery before any notification of their arrival to the connecting carrier. McKinney v. Jewett, 90 N. Y. 267. It is, however, insisted that the fair construction of clause 11 is that, when the act of transportation of the cotton to the wharf at Westwego has been accomplished, and it has been stacked on the wharf, and 'is awaiting further action in the way of notification and advice to the succeeding carrier,' it awaits further conveyance. By this construction the parties substituted an immediate cessation of the liability of a carrier, and the assumption of the liability of a warehouseman for the liability imposed by the common law; and doubtless they were at liberty to make a contract of limitation which will be enforced if the language of the bill of lading clerly indicates that such was their intention. In order to justify the defendant's construction, the claimed extent of the departure from the implied contract of the common law must clearly appear in the language which is used in the special contract. The clause 'no carrier shall be liable for delay,' when applied to the facts in this case, meant that the defendant should not be liable for the delay of the steamship company, but delay would not occur until it knew or had heard of the time of arrival of the cotton. The same idea of notification to the connecting line must also run through the entire paragraph, and, while the term 'awaiting further conveyance' literally means 'awaiting the time when the next carrier shall take the property in hand,' it seems improbable that it was the intent of the language that the liability of the carrier should terminate upon the deposit of the property upon the wharf. The language is too indefinite to support the conclusion that notice to the connecting line was not a prerequisite to the change of liability to that of a warehouseman. It may well be that such change would take place when the property was awaiting conveyance by the connecting line which had been notified to receive and convey, but until then it is not awaiting conveyance; it is awaiting the action of the first car- [183 U.S. 621, 629] rier. The term must mean awaiting conveyance by the person upon whom the duty of conveyance devolved, and no such duty devolved until notice of the arrival of the property had been given.'
We agree with the views of the court below, as expressed by Judge Shipman. We do not think that the property can be said to await further conveyance the moment it is dragged upon the pier of the railway company and unloaded from its cars, and before any notification is given to the steamship company that the cotton has arrived and awaits transportation by ship. In one sense it might be said that property awaited further conveyance if anywhere along the line of the railway company an engine of the train should break down, and the train be brought to a standstill for several hours, awaiting a new engine. In such case the cotton would not have arrived at the termination of the road of the railway company, and in one sense it would certainly be awaiting further conveyance, because it had not arrived at the end of the route; but no one would suppose for a moment that during the time that the train was thus at a standstill the 11th clause of the bill of lading would be applicable. No court would give such a construction to the clause as would exempt the company under the circumstances stated.
We are then to look for some fair and reasonable meaning to be given to the term, and we think that the court below has given such meaning to it. It cannot reasonably be said that within the meaning of that clause the property awaits further conveyance the moment it has been unloaded from the cars onto the pier of the defendant. As is stated by the circuit court, at that time the property awaits the further action of the defendant, and does not await further conveyance until it has become the duty of the succeeding carrier to take it further, after notification that it has arrived and awaits delivery to it. After that time it may be said to await further conveyance, but up to that time it awaits the further action of the railway company.
This meaning of the clause is not altered even if the language used in other clauses might also grant exemption upon the same [183 U.S. 621, 630] facts. We are not for that reason bound to find some other and different meaning for the 11th clause than such as we think is obvious and plain upon its face. The various propositions mentioned in these different clauses and the many contingencies provided for therein under which the company might claim exemption render it not surprising that the same ground of exemption should possibly be covered by more than one provision in the bill, or that, in other words, the defendant should upon the same facts be exempt under more than one of its various and perhaps somewhat indefinite clauses. No rule of construction binds us to find some hidden or obscure meaning for a particular clause, because the simple and plain one which is seen upon its face provides for contingencies which may be also provided for in another clause of the same bill.
Reference was made in the opinion of the court below, and also upon the argument in this court, to the case of McKinney v. Jewett, 90 N. Y. 267, in relation to a delivery of goods at the termination of the carriage, where the meaning of the phrase 'awaiting delivery' was under consideration, the court holding that the phrase implied not only the arrival of the goods, but the completion of whatever on the part of the carrier is necessary to be done to leave the risk of further delay upon the consignee; that the goods were 'awaiting delivery' only after the duty of the common carrier is done, and he is entitled to remain passive awaiting the action of the consignee.
It was objected on the argument at the bar that the case was not in point because of the distinction between awaiting delivery and awaiting carriage, and it is urged that this difference is substantial; that conveyance and delivery are different acts and relate to different parts of the service; that there could be no delivery to the consignee under the New York case until there had been notice in some form to the consignee, while the element of notice had no connection with the act of conveyance of the cotton, which might be entirely complete regardless of notice. The two cases differ in that the New York case, as counsel says, relates to a delivery at the end of the route, and the case at bar relates to goods awaiting conveyance by a connecting carrier; but in both the question arises as to the mean- [183 U.S. 621, 631] ing of the term 'await,' and the New York case holds that goods do not await delivery within the meaning of that term as used in the bill of lading, until notice of their arrival has been given the consignee; and it seems to us that the same reasoning holds here, and that goods are not awaiting further conveyance by a connecting carrier until the preceding carrier has given him notice of their existence at the place where further conveyance is to be continued. We do not dispute that there is a distinction between the position of goods awaiting delivery and those awaiting further conveyance; and the fact of such distinction is recognized in Michigan C. R. Co. v. Mineral Springs Mfg. Co. 16 Wall. 318, 327, 21 L. ed. 297, 302, and it is therein stated that there is a clear distinction between property in a state to be delivered free to the consignee on demand and property on its way to a distant point to be taken thence by a connecting carrier. In the former case it might be said to be awaiting delivery; in the latter to be awaiting transportation. But the analogy between goods awaiting delivery at the end of the route and goods awaiting further conveyance by a connecting carrier, so far as the requisite of notice in each case is concerned, we think exists, and should be recognized.
There having been in this case no notification to the steamship company, without which clauses 3 and 12 do not apply, and we being of the opinion that clause 11 has also no application without notification to the steamship company, it follows that the exemption claimed under the bill of lading is not sustained; that the defendant at the time of the fire was under obligation as a common carrier, and liable for the destruction of the cotton, and that the judgment in favor of the plaintiff below was right, and must be affirmed.


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Tag: bollywood shopping
5 Indian Kitty Party Theme Dress Ideas
Let's Face it! The monthly catch- up sessions with your girls, is part game and part fun. Every member is looking forward to it, and wondering what to wear, to draw all stare! But it's even more complicated…Read More »


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Provençal physician, astronomer, and grammarian; lived at Beaumes toward the end of the fourteenth century and at the beginning of the fifteenth. He was the author of: "Shib'ah 'Enayim," a treatise on grammar and on the Masorah; "Shib'ah Mizbeḥot," a treatise in verse on astronomy; "Zeh Ḥelḳi mi-Kol 'Amali," a treatise on the immortality of the soul; and "Af Ḥokmati," his last work, and the only one that has been preserved (Bibl. Nat., Paris, MS. No. 1196), being a medical treatise divided into seven parts entitled "Shib'ah Shibbolim," each of which is accompanied by a commentary entitled "Erek Appayim." In the preface Gershon says he wrote the "Af Ḥokmati" in the prison of , during an incarceration of 119 days. He relates, further, that he undertook this work in obedience to the wishes of his ancient masters, Maimon of Lunel, Moses ha-Kohen, and Prince Todros, the renowned rabbis of Provence, who had appeared to him in a dream.
- Carmoly, La France Israélite, p. 177;
- Isidore Loeb, in R. E. J. i. 80 et seq.;
- Renan-Neubauer, Les Ecrivains Juifs Français, pp. 435 et seq.


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A key challenge in executing a sensible hedging strategy is the inevitable second guessing that happens with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight. Whenever a hedge loses money, outsiders question how much more profitable the company could have been without the hedge. Comparisons are made against competitors that did not hedge, and so performed better. No matter that the hedge accomplishes its objective—reducing volatility. When that reduced volatility is windfall profits foregone, the carping begins.
Last week, American Airlines was the last of the major U.S. airlines to report its 2014 financial results, and every airline was announcing improved operating cash flow due to the huge drop in jet fuel prices. Since American does not hedge, analysts were quick to announce that "they have won big time."
Airlines that do hedge, have had to report losses on their hedge positions. Delta's 4th quarter announcement revealed more than $1 billion in charges due to mark-to-market adjustments on its fuel hedges. The losses on hedges offset some of the benefits the airlines are capturing from the drop in fuel prices. If they hadn't hedged, shareholders would have seen a larger gain from the drop in fuel prices. That puts pressure on management to get rid of the hedging program.
Southwest Airlines announced that it had eliminated its hedge on 2015 prices, so if the oil price drops any further, all of that will drop to its bottom line. It also reduced the scale of its hedging in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Does it make sense to eliminate the hedge? Is this a case of trend following—having missed the initial decline, the company hopes to catch the next decline? Is this a case of not standing by a well thought through strategy when short-term events fail to go your way? These are real problems in executing a hedging strategy.
A case can be made for adjusting the hedge ratios in response to the fall in price. After all, as Southwest's executives explained, the purpose of hedging is to provide "catastrophic protection", meaning against sky high jet fuel prices. With prices as far down as they are, we're far away from catastrophe. If prices start back up, and if the company is nimble, there will be time to insure against catastrophe.


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Just days after launching their Kickstarter campaign, the developers of Tuna Knobs - stick-on knobs for your tablet - have smashed through their funding target.
The €12,500 goal was reached remarkably quickly - at the time of writing, more than €15,000 has been pledged, and there are still 28 days of the campaign to run. Many of the pledge options have now been taken up, but you can still guarantee yourself one of the first Tuna Knobs if you stump up €11 or more.
As we reported last month, the Tuna Knobs are designed for iOS, Android and Windows touchscreen devices, and each Tuna Knob has a suction cup that sticks to your screen. Turn one of them and, thanks to the conductive silicon rubber, this movement is translated into a touch command.
We're hoping to take a look at the Tuna Knobs once they're available. It seems that the first 'catch' is set to arrive in November.


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People think I'm compensating, but I'm not. I just happen to like seeing tiny objects in exquisite detail. So my obsession—one that I inflict on others as often as possible—continues to grow. My microscopy obsession isn't all personal, though. The truth is that images are powerful. They explain, they inspire, and they help us cope with scales that would otherwise be incomprehensible. In short, images and imaging devices are awesome.
Making images better is perhaps the only thing more awesome than the awesomeness of images themselves. When a paper on the first functioning superoscillatory lens was published in Nature Materials, it proved irresistible to me.
I can see that perfectly, why can't you?
Before we get to the actual point of the article, let me entertain you by going on at length about the relationship between a lens and the smallest features we can see with that lens. The concept we need here is spatial frequencies. I think most of us are familiar with the idea of temporal frequencies. The notes on a piano are all at a well-defined set of temporal frequencies. The frequency corresponds to the time it takes for the pressure to go from high to low and back to high again. Higher frequencies correspond to a shorter time to complete a cycle.
We can do the same thing in space as well. If we freeze a light wave in time, then the distance between the peaks of the electric field of the wave provide a consistent spatial period, which we can turn into a spatial frequency. Unlike time, however, we are able to perceive three spatial dimensions—depending on how we look at it, a light wave can have three spatial frequencies. These frequencies will change depending on our point of view, but no matter which way we look at the wave, the frequencies must add up to the same maximum value.
To get an idea of how this limits the detail in an image, imagine a beam of light hitting an object, and collecting the scattered light with a lens. The scattered light carries the details of the object in its spatial frequencies. But from the point of view of the lens, the light waves with the very highest spatial frequencies are those that don't travel towards the lens; they travel parallel to it instead. The very highest spatial frequency information that is transmitted by the lens is given by those light waves that just barely pass through its edges.
Unfortunately, the very finest details of the object you're imaging are the ones that possess high spatial frequencies. In other words, to see detail, we need to collect high frequency information, but the lens cuts off the highest frequencies, blurring the image.
Even if we had a magic lens that collected all the scattered light, that maximum value—a value given by the wavelength of the light used to illuminate the object—would still limit the details we could perceive. Or at least under ordinary circumstances.
Effervescent evanescent waves
I need to confess something at this point: I lied. The maximum value for the spatial frequencies? That doesn't exist. Yet everything I said above is also true. So what happens to those light waves with spatial frequencies higher than the maximum value? These waves, called evanescent waves, simply don't propagate. Instead, their amplitude falls off exponentially with distance from the object. If you stuck your lens so close to the object (a distance of about one wavelength of light), then you would collect the evanescent waves and be able to perceive far more detail.
This isn't a very convenient way to image. Yet, collecting the contributions of evanescent waves is what a superoscillatory lens does.
It can do this because, although the amplitude of the evanescent wave drops very rapidly, it never quite reaches zero. For any normal lens, the contribution from evanescent waves is swamped by everything else. The job of the superoscillatory lens is to separate the contribution from these high frequency components so that they can be detected separately.
Do you remember how to superoscillate?
The potential for superoscillations to provide a high resolution imaging tool was pointed out by theoreticians Berry and Popescu. The trick, it seems, is to create a lens that gets all the contributions from the evanescent waves to add up in phase so that they produce an arbitrarily small spot.
But this spot will be surrounded by a very intense halo that corresponds to the light we normally image with. To make matters worse, the smaller that central spot, the weaker it becomes, making it harder and harder to implement a useful lens. But if the halo and the central spot can be separated, it may not matter how weak the central spot is.
And, in a sense, that is what the new paper is about. The superoscillatory lens consists of a series of rings milled into a piece of glass coated with aluminum. The light passing through the rings is scattered, and the interference between the light from the different rings produces a bright spot at a central focus, and a broad halo around the central focus. This focus is 10 micrometers from the lens, so the individual evanescent waves that make up that spot have an amplitude that is some 10 million times weaker than all the rest of the light. By adding them all in phase, the central spot isn't much weaker than the surrounding halo.
The researchers demonstrated the lens' imaging capabilities by snapping pictures of features that they couldn't resolve with conventional light-based microscopy. In the end, their lens topped out at about 100nm, which is a factor of three better than a normal microscope.
The best part is that this is just the beginning. Superoscillations were first proposed in 2006. The first evidence for the existence of superoscillations turned up in 2007. It has only taken six years to go from theory to the first lens that could conceivably be used in a device. I imagine that smaller and more detailed things are on the way.
Nature Materials, DOI: 10.1038/nmat3280
Listing image by Photograph by ucdenver.edu


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Tomei 4B11 Technical Report - Garage Tech
Evo X 4b11 Engine Analysis: Part 2
The newly introduced 4B11 DOHC 16V turbo MIVEC engine is the latest talk of the town as engineers and performance tuners have lined up to get their hands on the new powerplant in hopes of unlocking the hidden mysteries that have shrouded the Mitsubishi powerplant. When we left off, the Tomei Powered engineers had gone into extensive details on the 4B11 T/C upper cylinder head. As we continue our second and final analysis, we should point out that the 4B11 found in the milder version Mitsubishi Lancer rated at 152 hp and 146 lb-ft of torque, while the 4B11 T/C inline-four turbo found within the Lancer Evolution and '08 Lancer Ralliart sold in North America delivers a factory rating of 295 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque. Both engines sport the same 2.0-liter displacement but were designed and built by Mitsubishi engineers to handle two completely different power levels. The 4B11 T/C was designed by Mitsubishi with a lower compression ratio (9:1) to handle boost and consists of numerous reinforcements to withstand a higher generated horsepower. The most significant change from the 4G63 engine to the new 4B11T was the change in material used in the block design. The 4B11 block, the first engine in the Lancer Evolution series that uses a die-cast aluminum cylinder block, is comprised of a lighter aluminum construction, which is considered a huge change compared to the previous cast-iron 4G63. Mitsubishi managed to save 27 pounds using the lighter aluminum from its previous cast-iron setup. But has the cost of shedding a few pounds and a new block design jeopardized the legendary Mitsubishi Lancers reputation for a nearly bulletproof bottom end? Before you jump to any conclusions, read on as Tomei Powered completes their analysis of the 4B11.
Four-Bolt Crank Cap Increases Block Strength
For each journal, four bolts clamp down each of the crank caps to increase the block strength and rigidity. This design is widely seen in V-style engines and not much so in inline or straight-style engines. Four bolts provide more strength than the conventional two-bolt style and is a step in the right direction for Mitsubishi engineers.
Cylinder Block That Endures High-Power Output
The newly engineered aluminum die-cast block features a half-skirt design, which was incorporated to decrease the overall length of the engine. The bore pitch measured in at 96mm compared to the popular SR- 20DET engine that measures 97mm. The crank caps are equipped with four bolts and the two-structure ribbed oil pan is designed to provide rigidity and strength to the aluminum block. The deck areas are reinforced at the necessary areas and provide plenty of strength and support. The rear section of the four-cylinder didn't receive strengthening, which raises concern if the unit will be affected by the transmission. The emphasis on stress dispersion can be seen on the internals of the block. A smooth design (no rough edges) at the blow-by tunnels/ oil pan entrance and exit, and the connecting portion between the crank journal to the inside of the block shows that this engine is not affected by applied stress.
Semi-Closed Deck Design For Longevity And Endurance
The 4B11 is equipped with a semi-closed deck design with cast sleeves, which promotes longevity while cooling the engine significantly. The water jacket is designed so that it isn't affected by the bore structure, especially when installing the head bolts. This design makes changing the sleeves an easy task.
Ventilation Openings That Lower Friction
The 4B11 is fitted with many devices that eliminate friction in the assembly. The ventilation opening on the upper portion of the main journal is one of these. This was adopted from Porsche's race engines, which are known to fight pump loss. The blow-by gas is efficiently released and as a result lowers friction.
Two-Section Oil Pan And Low-Friction Oil Pump
The upper portion of the oil pan features ribs to keep the structure rigid. The oil pump is positioned at the lower end of the engine assembly, right below the upper oil pan to keep the suction of the pump at a minimal resistance. This setup is ideal during cornering and hard acceleration/deceleration. If the pan comes in contact with the ground, however, immediate oil pressure issues may come about. This gear type oil pump further minimizes friction than the conventional trochoid pumps seen on SR20s.
A Newly Designed Engine With No Balance Shafts
The pre-modern 4G63 was fitted with balance shafts, which were used to eliminate vibration. Many modified 4G63 engines had to have their balance shaft removed because it became a nuisance when tuning the engine. The new 4B11 doesn't come equipped with balance shafts. Overall, the engine itself is cleverly designed so that vibrations are nonexistent even without balance shafts.
Baffle Plate That Lowers Blow-By Gas
The oil pan is in two separated pieces and the upper aluminum oil pan is combined with a baffle plate. Six oil passes on each of the intake and exhaust sides on the cylinder head lead to exclusive oil return passages, where the oil drops down inside the oil pan. The amount of oil accumulated on the inner crankcase and crankshaft is decreased, which benefits by lowering the blow-by gases and improving oil pressure. On the 4G63, the level gauge tends to blow out when the engine is modified. The 4B11 already comes with a counter device that prevents the increased pressure of the blow-by gas from doing this type of damage. However, the area where the oil jets from the piston-cooling nozzle have the possibility of dropping straight below or at the wide clearance area between the crank weights and the baffle.
Forged Mahle Pistons For High-Power Output
Forged Mahle pistons with an 86mm bore and 23mm pin diameter are equipped in the 4B11. These pistons come with cooling channels with a different number of passages to the oil rings according to the intake and exhaust sides. The new piston pins were switched to a skirt-type, full-floating unit, replacing the ordinary forced pin oiler on the 4G63. Further inspection of the piston top reveals a rather shallow design suited for a forced-induction engine with an almost flat shape. Comparing it to an SR20DET, which is also 86mm, with an 8.5 compression configuration, the 4B has a slightly increased compression of 9.0. The top and secondary ring lands come thick in design, and along with the relatively high compression, this engine was made to withstand high horsepower. The piston pin and the rings weigh in at 546.2 grams. The 4G63 was engineered as a long stroke engine (85mm bore x 88mm stroke).
Improved Conrod Design
Once the 4G63 is heavily modified, the stock connecting rods cannot be used with full confidence. On the contrary, the 4B11 rods have beefier qualities with plenty of "meat" on the unit and great shoulder design. These rods also show indications of strength in design because of the lack of oil jet and bearing lubrication holes. Details of the connecting rods include M8 1.0 pitch-type rod bolts and the 4G63's dowel pin structure being replaced with a knock pin type. This part was designed with the bolt placement as center as possible. With the larger-sized crank pins, the bearing thickness was changed from 21mm to 17mm to contribute to less friction. The 4B11 rods are lighter, weighing in at 572.5 grams versus the 4G63 rods at 592 grams each. The slope ratio of the piston and connecting rod measures in at 3.34, advantageous criteria if the engine is going to be considered a 2.4-liter long stroke setup in the future. However, the torque-toyield connecting rod bolts that lack sufficient diameter may be an issue once the engine is modified to pump out more power.
Compact Design Crankshaft
The fully countered crankshaft has a 52mm main and crank pin area, which is skinnier than the 4G63's main pin but with thicker crank pins. This enables an overall strengthened crankshaft layout. The crank pick up sensor was moved to the rear area of the crankshaft. The flywheel position was relocated to the center of the entire assembly in order to create a more compact engine in terms of long-block height. The oil line that feeds lubrication to the crankshaft journals aren't the traditional "H" or "X" pattern, but a one of a kind design from Mitsubishi, presumably to supply plenty of oil to the bearings during high rpm. The concept of excessive oil supply related to extreme centrifugal force has been well balanced in this area. The crankshaft weighs in at 16.6kg.
Rear Facing Exhaust Manifold Layout
The reversed intake layout puts the exhaust side toward the rear of the vehicle. The manifold is designed for the traditional twin scroll type and is made from stainless steel, weighing in at 6.45kg. The same unit from the final version of the 4G63 weighs in at 6.8kg. The front pipe never extends across the oil pan, which minimizes oil temperature problems.
Turbocharger Matched For 2.0- Liters On The Brink Of Completion
The Evo IX was fitted with a TD05H166C-10.5T turbocharger, whereas the 4B11 comes equipped with a TD05H152G6-12T turbine. The new turbo has gone back to the traditional spinning rotation from the Evo IX's reversed scroll setup. Although the 4B11 turbo handles more volume, it also builds boost from the low rpm region with the lower trim impeller size. The impeller itself is made from aluminum and has a titanium aluminum turbine wheel that's good for 360 hp. The turbocharger relative to the 2.0-liter setup feels like a modified setup that's on its last tuning stages. As an option, an Inconel turbine wheel is available for higher loads.
Big Capacity Outlet Pipe
The outlet pipe is constructed in a bigger capacity to yield the combination of the exhaust gas coming from the turbo and the bypass gas coming from the swing valve. The 57mm outlet weighs 3 .3kg and seems like it's a high-quality aftermarket product.
Electric Throttle- Enabled Surge Tank
The 60mm throttle body diameter remains unchanged,however, the capacity of the surge tank was increased along with a design that emphasized in consistent and efficient air distribution to each cylinder. However, it's unfortunate that the intake manifold faces the front of the car, since the collector portion was designed to be positioned lower, like the SR20s seen in S13s. The electric throttle system should also raise problems for the aftermarket tuning industry.
High-Resistance Injectors
High-resistance Bosch injectors with 540cc/min were found in the 4B11 T/C engine. The outer casing of the injector looks identical to that from the VQ35DE, but shows a variance with its extended nozzle. These injectors don't protrude inside the ports for the specific reason of decreasing intake air resistance.
4B11 In Comparison And Final Engine Analysis
The overall synopsis of the disassembly of the 4B11 T/C revealed the obvious. The new Lancer Evolution 4B is a completely different engine from the 4G63. It was interesting to reveal after cross-referencing our data that we found many dimensions to be similar to the SR20 engine. Originally, the vertically laid out 4G63 is an old design, which was improved gradually until its final model equipped in the Evo IX. The final 4G63 pushed out 280 hp/6,500 rpm and 41.5kg-m/3,000 rpm of torque. The 4B11 was designed with this final model in mind, and on top of that more performance and numerous efficiency features were added to an engine that was designed to maintain low-emission characteristics. The 4B11 T/C pushes 280 ps/6,500 rpm (Japan spec) as well, and an increased torque output of 43.0kg-m/3,500 rpm, which still complies with the recent Japanese emissions standards. Although the power output regulations were abolished (Japan), the vehicle was kept at 280 ps but with the added performance aspects over the Evo IX. Upon completing the reverse engineering process of the engine, we came to the conclusion that the overall design of the 4B11 is a sign of the times that follows a new trend of modern conventional engines we see today. At this time, the fact that the engine is comprised of an aluminum block may scare off many who have become accustomed to the 4G63 cast-iron block. Many fear that since this is an aluminum engine it's prone to such problems as engine knock during tuning, burnt pistons, boring of the cylinders (ignoring the sleeve thickness) and re-sleeving. However, we've found the 4B11 to be a good engine. With Tomei Powered's years of experience and extensive knowledge gained with the 4G63, SR20DET and EJ20 engines, we're confident to say that the 4B11 is definitely an engine that can be modified for increased performance. To what level of modifications is too early to say but stay tuned as Tomei Powered will use this detailed information gathered from our engineers and build new and exciting products for the 4B11.
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Designer Saul Bass: "I don't give a damn whether the client understands that [beauty] is worth anything."
"I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares," says Saul Bass, creator of many beautiful movie posters, logos, and other designs -- see above for a few iconic examples. Bass made a lasting mark on American graphic design with his bold designs and text treatments. You see his influence today in images that try to evoke a now-kitschy 50's or 60's vibe -- see the "Burn After Reading" poster, for example. See below for a brief interview (two minutes) with the man, which which he discusses making beautiful things versus just making money.
See this YouTube channel for a few more clips from the same interview -- apparently it was a 90-minute interview, available on two DVDs. See also: the evolution of the AT&T logo, several variants of which were Bass designs (and the current version is sort of a 3D knockoff of the Bass 2D "Death Star" design).
(Via Kung Fu Grippe.)


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Tamron's 60th Anniversary Model:
Unparalleled optical performance in a fast and steady telephoto zoom: In the pursuit to achieve the most outstanding image resolution in the 70-300mm class, Tamron's Anniversary lens - the SP AF70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD (Model A005) - utilizes an advanced optical design that features an LD (Low Dispersion) and an XLD (Extra Low Dispersion) lens element made from specialized materials that prevent chromatic aberration. As a result, the SP AF70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD (Model A005) boasts sharper contrast and greater descriptive performance than all others in its class. In addition, it is the first Tamron lens sporting a USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive), Tamron's very own ultrasonic auto-focus drive mechanism This USD mechanism delivers fast focusing, making it a perfect telephoto zoom choice for photographing sports, racing, or other fast-moving subjects. The lens also boasts Tamron's proprietary VC (Vibration Compensation) image stabilization to assist in handheld photography, not only at long focal length ranges where blurring is common, but also under low-lit conditions, dramatically enhancing photographic freedom. This combination of best in class image resolution, Ultrasonic Silent Drive and Vibration Compensation is a new achievement of Tamron technology culminating in the production of a premium 70 300mm telephoto zoom lens.
Compatible Mount Canon, Nikon and Sony**
* Values given are for Canon AF mount
**The Sony mount does not include the VC image stabilization functionality, as the body of Sony digital SLR cameras contains built-in image stabilization functionality.


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Johnson leads Tennessee over Carolina
Charlotte, NC – Chris Johnson gained a season-high 130 yards 3, at Bank of America Stadium.
Matt Hasselbeck connected on 15-of-27 throws and finished with 219 yards, one touchdown and one interception for Tennessee (5-4), which has won two of its last three games.
Rookie Cam Newton was limited to 212 yards on 23-of-40 passing for the Panthers (2-7) in defeat. He also threw one interception.
The Titans defense forced the Panthers to go three-and-out to open the game and Marc Mariani returned the ensuing punt 79 yards for a touchdown. It was the third punt return for a TD allowed by Carolina this season.
Carolina's second drive looked promising as the team marched deep into Tennessee territory, but it did not end well. Greg Olsen fumbled a catch from Newton, giving the Titans the ball at their own eight-yard line.
Hasselbeck then completed passes of 18 and 29 yards to Jared Cook and Johnson, respectively, before Damian Williams scored a touchdown on a 43-yard catch- and-run.
Rob Bironas kicked a 38-yard field goal seven seconds into the second quarter to put Tennessee up 17-0.
Chris Gamble picked off Hasselbeck and Olindo Mare, who missed from 50 yards away on the final play of the first half, drilled a 29-yard field goal to put the Panthers on the board in the third quarter. But Tennessee extended its lead to 23-3 on two more Bironas field goals (36 and 49 yards), the latter coming with 10:41 to play in the fourth quarter.
Johnson added a one-yard TD run -- only his second of the season -- late in regulation.
Game Notes
Johnson scored his 36th career rushing touchdown, tying Steve McNair for third place in franchise history...Williams had 107 yards on five receptions...Newton added 55 yards on the ground...Carolina's Legedu Naanee caught a game-high eight passes for 75 yards...The Panthers closed out a three-game stretch at home on Sunday.


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Chris Vlahonasios
Ostrov: The Island tells the story of a holy fool-for-Christ and his path to salvation.
When one thinks of Orthodox pop-culture, the great Russian writers Dostoevsky and The Way of a Pilgrim from the 1800s come to mind. During the 20th century, the films of Tarkovsky were seen as the greatest examples of expressing Orthodoxy through moving images. However, at the dawn of the 21st century we have been blessed with what I regard as the benchmark for Orthodox filmmaking, the Russian film Ostrov: The Island.
Released in 2006 and even included in that year's prestigious Venice Film Festival, Ostrov tells the beautiful story of a fool-for-Christ and his journey towards spiritual perfection. Though this film was not based on any one particular fool-for-Christ, but was inspired by the lives of such saints from the Orthodox tradition. To briefly define, a fool-for-Christ is what the name suggests – someone who acts, talks and dresses as if insane so as to mask their holiness which is the result of living close to God. When examined and understood, these saints contain all the virtues of an ideal Christian.
Ostrov is a film that seen just once will make a big impression on you. It can't be categorised as a drama, but moreso a 'spiritual comedy' for what unfolds provides both humour and poignant messages on the Orthodox spiritual life.
In this podcast, I wish to discuss some elements of the film without spoiling it for those who haven't yet seen this masterpiece. And for those who have I hope you'll want to watch it again with new insight and perspective.
Set in 1976, at monastery somewhere in the desolate, frozen wilderness of Northern Russia, Ostrov tells the story of Fr Anatoly, a monk living with the guilt of cowardly shooting his naval captain over 30 years ago after being captured by a Nazi patrol. He dedicates himself fully to God, repenting for his past actions, and in the process becomes a saint, but masks his holiness under the guise of a 'fool-for-Christ'. He lives in the boiler-room, sleeping on piles of coal, his face covered in soot. All day he does the back-breaking job of collecting coal and feeding the furnaces. Yet when he can, he takes a small boat and seeks isolation on a small island where he unceasingly prays the Jesus prayer and laments over the shooting of his captain.
Fr Anatoly exhibits bizarre behaviour frequently playing childish pranks on his follow monks. His antics are much to the annoyance of hieromonk Fr Job, who struggles to understand Fr Anatoly's motives towards him and sees his acting up as a hindrance to life at the monastery. Despite having received from God the gift of clairvoyance, no-one suspects he's a saint. Even when pilgrims come to find this famous 'holy-man' Fr Anatoly hides his identity through various strategies.
The film is a collection of stories, parables even, weaved together to reveal the wisdom of this simple fool-for-Christ. Fr Anatoly, through his 'craziness', enables both the monks and pilgrims to see for themselves their own foolishness and hard-heartiness.
The character Fr Job is a monk who religiously follows the letter-of-the-law, yet fails to comprehend what it means to be a Christian. In one scene, when asked by Fr Anatoly why Cain killed Abel, despite being an educated and well-read man, he's unable to answer him. Fr Job is a very serious monk with an axe-in-grind toward Fr Anatoly. Fr Job eagerly wants to win the approval of the Abbot, Fr Filaret, frequently reporting to him of Fr Anatoly's recent antics. Though we can see he's jealous of Fr Anatoly, yet at the same time we sympathise with him because Fr Job tries extremely hard to please everyone taking on all of the monastery's problems, even how laundry is hung on a line. He thinks this is what's expected of him but all Fr Anatoly wants him to do is simply 'to love'.
Another key element of the film concerns the hypocritical nature of spiritually-blind people who ask for God's help. In one scene, a mother comes with her young son who has become crippled due to a bad hip. Fr Anatoly fervently prays for the boy, as evident by his exhaustion afterwards. The boy immediately shows improvement but Fr Anatoly instructs that he must stay overnight and receive Communion in order to be completely healed. However the mother, despite her earlier weeping and cries for help, is more concerned about losing her job if she does not return. Ostrov uses this story, and several others, to show how we, despite witnessing miracles or needing to do something in order to be completely healed, can be so consumed by worldly things.
Another poignant example concerns the monastery's abbot, who Fr Job holds in such high regard he even thinks he might be a 'saint'. However, we soon see how much faith he has when he goes to live with Fr Anatoly in the boiler-room after his cell burns down. The abbot talks about how together they can achieve salvation imitating the great saints by sleeping on rocks – making reference to St Seraphim of Sarov. Yet as he prepares for sleep Fr Anatoly watches as the abbot removes his fur-lined boots and rolls out a luxurious blanket over the pile of coal. I won't reveal what happens, but it's one of the most hilarious and truly moving scenes about what it really means to be a serious Christian.
The film is full of symbolic imagery expressed through its cinematography. Snow and coal feature most prominently. Snow is symbolic of purity whereas coal represents sin and repentance. This combination brings to mind psalm 51, verse 7: 'cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be made clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow'. This is beautiful captured in one scene where Fr Filaret cleans a soot-covered icon to reveal Jesus Christ. The soot is like sin, which builds up covering our hearts. But through living a Christian life of sincere repentance we can slowly remove this soot to reveal underneath that we're all living icons of God both in His image & likeliness. By achieving a pure heart and soul we can then become 'whiter than snow', worthy to be received by God.
The fact this monastery is located in a desolate and miserably cold environment is also very symbolic. This icy location is the exact opposite of the dry, arid wilderness of the great Desert Fathers. Both landscapes are barren enabling monks and saints to battle demons and temptation. The isolated nature of this place is symbolic of everyone's battle with themselves, dealing with past wrongs and working towards reconciliation with God. The ramshackle state of the monastery represents the state of the world and each person – broken and falling apart. The rotting boats and close-up of nails, I believe, represent the reality that everything in this world, including ourselves, will rot away but the nails, perhaps representing the soul, will remain. But through a life in God we can achieve renewal and be like the beautiful icons and lit-candles which are the very few items in the film shown in full colour and brightness. The only other objects shown in colour are items from the outside world, where their true state of 'goodness' is questionable, whereas in the icy wilderness things are either black or white – death or life.
Some other great examples of visual poetry include the majestic swaying of seaweed and the snow covered grounds of Fr Anatoly's island. The very idea of the island represents each of us, a place where through prayer and contemplation salvation is found. We also get to see the practice of the Jesus Prayer as Fr Anatoly repeats it continuously. It's the first thing he utters when he awakes and it never leaves him.
If Ostrov teaches us just one thing, though the Faith may seem complex it's in fact extremely simple. It's our fault when we focus too much on constructing rules and forget about its very essence which is living in the spirit of the Faith. In one scene, the Abbot asks Fr Anatoly a series of questions in which he replies with psalms and common prayers. As a viewer, we realise Fr Anatoly is actually answering the Abbot's questions and giving him invaluable spiritual advice, yet the Abbot says he speaks in 'riddles'. This shows how little he understands the Faith. The simplicity of the film is deliberant to reveal how foolish and blind we really are.
Ostrov demonstrates the danger of being religious rather than spiritual. In order to be a Christian it's not about knowing the Gospels off-by-heart, critiquing everyone or appearing holy, but being spiritual in the sense of living as a Christian – not judging others, and most importantly, to love one another as Christ loved us.
It's also worth noting the fascinating relationship Russian culture and history has with the concept of 'the fool'. At the beginning of Ostrov, we see the young, layperson Fr Anatoly cowardly saving himself but we also see what could also be described as manic or frenzied behaviour when compared to the calmer state of his captain. Aside from the 'fool-for-Christ' which is a spiritual state of mind there was also 'the fool' or 'idiot', a person who, for worldly reasons, acted insane so as to be ignored and left alone, especially by authority. During the Soviet era this was an attempt by some people to have a degree of liberty from Communist tyranny. Fr Anatoly is a manifestation of both 'fools' – as his younger self, his foolishness saved him from the Nazis. Then we have the older, yet wiser 'fool-for-Christ' Fr Anatoly who now liberates the monks, especially Fr Job, of their legalistic, Pharisaic state-of-mind. Both states of 'foolishness' are about achieving freedom: worldly and spiritual.
Ostrov is the fifth film of Russian director, Pavel Lungin, who is also of Jewish heritage. Lungin has had a long career working in and outside of Russia, both as a filmmaker and screenwriter. Looking at his list of credits, his films seem to obit around the issues of choice, failings and repentance.
His most famous and successful film, besides Ostrov, was Taxi Blues which he was awarded the Best Director Prize at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, which also starred the actor who would later play Fr Anatoly.
In developing this character, Lungin didn't want Fr Anatoly to regard himself as being clever or spiritual, but blessed. To quote Lungin, Fr Anatoly is:
"an exposed nerve, which connects to the pains of this world. His absolute power is a reaction to the pain of those people who come to it".
We see this throughout the film where Fr Anatoly, based on his own life experiences and gifts from God, discretely uses them to help the individual but allowing them to realise it in their own time.
The actor who played Fr Anatoly was Pyotr Mamonov, who in his heyday was one of the few rock stars in the USSR. Mamonov converted to Orthodoxy in the 1990s. He left the music industry and now lives in an isolated village somewhere in rural Russia.
Lungin and Mamonov have worked together on several films, both before and after Ostrov. Mamonov received a blessing from his confessor to play his character, something all artists should do.[1] Lungin felt Mamonov's performance was as strong as it was because, in his opinion, Mamonov played himself for most of the role. His acting was praised by the then Patriarch of Moscow, Alexei II, and won him a Best Actor Nika Award. The next Lungin film he appeared was "Tsar" in 2009, where Mamonov played the title hero, Tsar Ivan the Terrible, a character torn between passionate faith and cruelty.
Lungin's most recent film was the 2012, The Conductor. The film was about a group of musicians from Moscow who travel to Jerusalem to perform a contemporary religious recital. However, on the eve of their departure, Petrov, the passionate yet extremely demanding conductor, learns that his estranged son, then living in Jerusalem, has just committed suicide. Upon arriving in the Holy City the story then intersects with other storylines including a couple experiencing martial problems and a young Palestinian suicide bomber. The central issues raised by the actions of the characters concern sin, responsibility, guilt and repentance. Although this film did not receive the same acclaim as Ostrov, Lungin's semi-religious film still explored the important topics that confront all human beings in their relationships with each other and God.
Now, returning back to Ostrov. Despite being such a remarkable film and a blockbuster in its native Russia, yet the film has not been that widely seen elsewhere, including the USA and Australia. They are several reasons including limited release and distribution, language/subtitle hindrance and different DVD regional coding.
However, copies of this film can be purchased online. American listeners are quite fortunate as most copies available for purchase are in the NTSC encoding whilst for countries such as Australia we have the barrier of the PAL system. However, many DVD players and even TVs now come with the ability to play NTSC and PAL and even multi-region DVDs, but you must check before making a purchase.
Hopefully, the studio who owns the copyright to this film will consider opening up to more worldwide distributors to include Pacific regions like Australia and Asia. Or even better, sell digital copies online, which is how we'll all be consuming our media in the very near future anyway.
In conclusion, what value does Ostrov offer the faithful and even Orthodox filmmakers? I think this question is best answered by the comments of the late Patriarch of Moscow, Alexei II. He praised Ostrov for its profound depiction of faith and monastic life, calling it, quote "a vivid example of an effort to take a Christian approach to culture."[2] Such a film shows how to incorporate the Orthodox phronema into media, influencing the wider society and enhancing its cultural and artistic expression. I also like the words of writer, Igor Vinnichenko, who praised the film in the following terms:
It is impossible to miss the keen sense of piety that accompanies the entire film and for which we longed so much. We hope that now the theme of Russian Orthodox spirituality will find its dignified place in national cinematography and that matters concerning spiritual development will finally become a priority for contemplation.[3]
But it's not just at the 'local level' within an Orthodox country, but globally. I got to see this film at a fellowship group all the way down here in Melbourne, Australia. When taking this into account, it makes one realise the significance of this film. Ostrov is the first Orthodox film to achieve global recognition, even if patchy in some places.
Though one can argue Tarkovsky's films, such as Andrei Rublev and The Sacrifice, may have brought Orthodox visually storytelling to the world, however, their global reach was minimal as evident by audiences' lack of knowledge with them.
To break it down, Ostrov is a masterpiece because it effectively told a powerful story with poignant visual images on living the Christian life and achieving salvation. It is because of this the film has found its way around the world largely due to word-of-mouth. I hope if you've never seen it before to go find it online or ask a friend for their copy. If you have seen it, please watch it again.
** Podcast transcript from The Moving Icon show on Orthodox Christian Network (OCN) **
Broadcast April 2014
[1] ("The Island" - Film-event. Film-sermon), Russian Patriarchy website, 2006-10-25, accessed 2008-03-17
[2] Feature film about Orthodox monk sweeps Russian film awards, Ecumenical News International, 2007-02-01, accessed 2008-03-17
[3] http://www.kinokultura.com/2007/15r-island.shtml


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Fly up and away to Reykjavik
Touch down in Reykjavik from London Heathrow (LHR) or London City (LCY) in around three hours. With direct flights to Keflavik International Airport (KEF) from London, travel with us to experience midnight sunlight in summer or a snowy winter wonderland.
Our flights to Iceland will bring you to guzzling geysers, swirling waterfalls and magnificent icebergs. You will land in the world's most northern capital city after a short three-hour flight before you make tracks to a choice of Reykjavik hotels. Soak up the natural wonders on an extraordinary city break. Looking to book your flights + car together for the ultimate road trip? You can save on package deals for your adventures beyond the cultural hub of Reykjavik, from the magic of the Golden Circle, to an epic loop of Iceland's Ring Road.


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Just so you knowOur freshly baked goods cannot be combined in the same checkout cart as the gifts and books merchandise and/or gift cards. This is because the merchandise items will be posted to your chosen delivery address from a separate warehouse that isn't connected to our bakeries and gift cards will be sent to the email address you provided. Please complete checkout with your baked goods first and then start a new order for the merchandise items and/or gift card. We apologise for any inconvenience.
Enjoy this box of twelve Made Without Red Velvet Cupcakes without compromising. Luxurious cupcakes made to our famous Red Velvet recipe made from Doves Farm gluten-free ingredients in our kitchens that handle gluten.
Box of 12 cupcakes
Because The Hummingbird Bakery's 'Made Without Gluten' range is made using no gluten containing ingredients*, you'll never have to go without.
(*This cake has been made with gluten free and non gluten containing ingredients, however, our kitchens handle ingredients containing gluten.)
Our cupcakes are freshly baked to order from scratch at each of our bakeries using quality ingredients, and we pride ourselves in not using preservatives.
Crumb toppings are made from the same ingredients as the base.
Contains: Eggs, Barley** & Milk
May contain traces of wheat, nut, peanuts, and soya.
Please see our allergen spread sheet for more details.
For more information on all our products and any potential allergens they may contain please check our guide.
*This cake has been made with gluten free and non gluten containing ingredients, however, our kitchens handle ingredients containing gluten.
In the interests of our customers' health and well-being, The Hummingbird Bakery does not claim our Made Without range as gluten-free. Customers who require further information on the ingredients used in our Made Without range should contact us.
**Our Red Velvet Cupcakes contain distilled white vinegar which is fermented from barley. We have consulted with the Coeliac Society who have told us that if this vinegar is used in a food product then we must list the word 'barley' in the ingredients list in line with EU-wide allergen labelling law. However, as distilled white vinegar is made using a fermentation process, this means that the amount of barley, and therefore gluten, in the end product is extremely small and is well below a level which is safe for people with coeliac disease. This level is made even lower as the vinegar is used in very small amounts in the batter. The data spec sheet for the particular type of vinegar that we use confirms that no traces of gluten have been detected during tests. Please visit the Coeliac Society's website for further information.
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