Hasta La Gadget!

Sleep like a king (or queen) at these regal properties across the planet — literally! From Medieval-style English manors to an Indian palace in the middle of a lake, GAYOT’s Top 5 Castle Hotels give guests the royal treatment. Centuries-old architecture is complemented by modern amenities and luxuriously refurbished rooms, and visitors can while away their days wandering ornate gardens, admiring mosaics and sipping estate-grown wine in true Renaissance fashion. Find your fairy tale ending with this list of lavish hotels.

Oheka Castle Hotel & Estate

Huntington, New York

This century-old, French-style château was built to the tune of $11 million — a value of more than $100 million by today’s standards. It sits on 23 acres on the highest point on Long Island, and during its 1920s heyday, it was a mecca for royalty, heads of state and Hollywood celebrities. After decades of various uses, it was meticulously brought back to life as a hotel. Today, there are 32 individually decorated guest rooms and suites, as well as a grand ballroom, library and gardens originally designed by the Olmsted brothers. Days begin with complimentary breakfast in the formal dining room, after which guests can explore the Long Island wine country or enjoy exclusive golf and tennis privileges at the Cold Spring Country Club.

Read a complete review of Oheka Castle Hotel & Estate

Peckforton Castle

Cheshire, England

At Peckforton Castle, royal living extends beyond the architecture. Guests can participate in such time-honored traditions as falconry and archery, all the while basking in thoroughly modern luxury. A 19th-century manor house built in the style of a medieval castle, Peckforton has been granted heritage status and is lauded for its environmental practices, from the discreet solar panels on the roof to a policy of purchasing from local purveyors. The 48 bedrooms are done in a contemporary style that emphasizes the romantic ambience, while also incorporating original building features. Additional indulgences include a relaxing spa, the casual 2010 Brasserie in the former scullery and 1851 Restaurant serving classic French and modern British cuisine.

Read a complete review of Peckforton Castle

Taj Lake Palace

Udaipur, India

Rising like a mirage from the center of Lake Pichola, this lustrous white marble landmark was originally built in the 1740s as a pleasure palace — an island escape from Udaipur’s landlocked, main royal residence. Guests arrive by boat and are immediately ensconced in the kind of ornate opulence unimaginable in today’s Philippe Starck-styled hotel world. Romantic is the defining mood here, from the meticulous gardens and lily pond to the bedrooms adorned with silks, mosaics, frescoes and gorgeously carved furnishings. With stained-glass windows and magical views from to-die-for terraces, the suites will take your breath away. Among the dining venues, Neel Kamal pays tribute to the royal cuisine of Mewar. At Jiva Spa, treatments incorporate ancient Indian healing practices.

Read a complete review of Taj Lake Palace

Relais La Suvera

Pievescola, Italy

Owned by the Lordship of Siena in the Middle Ages, La Suvera was donated to Pope Julius II in the 16th century. The pope commissioned noted architect Baldassare Peruzzi to transform the castle into a Renaissance villa, and his work can still be seen in this property now owned by an Italian marquis. Overlooking vineyards and olive groves, this Tuscan gem offers 35 accommodations in the Papal Villa and converted farmhouse and stables. The villa suites are especially lavish confections of rich fabrics and jeweled tones. Oliviera restaurant is located in a former mill that dates to the 1770s, and guests will enjoy the pairing of organic estate-grown wines with their meals. The relais also offers an outdoor pool, tennis court, museum documenting the castle’s history and full spa with a hydro-massage bath incorporated into the ancient medieval cistern.

Read a complete review of Relais La Suvera

Estancia La Candelaria

Lobos, Argentina

Estancia La Candelaria is not your typical South American ranch. Located in the Pampas just an hour outside Buenos Aires, the estate is home to its own French-style castle. Inspired by a royal château in Normandy, this lodging offers 10 guest rooms and suites decorated in tasteful Regency style. The property is also home to a country-chic boutique hotel, charming freestanding forest bungalows and a private two-story suite in a circular brick windmill. Featuring an estimated 240 species of trees, the surrounding 100-hectare park was designed by the famed landscape artist Carlos Thays and now accommodates polo, horseback riding and gaucho festivals with traditional cuisine and folk dancing.

Read a complete review of Estancia La Candelaria

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Sometimes you have endless time to plan a trip down to the last detail. Other times, you decide on Monday that you’re leaving Wednesday and you barely have enough time to do the laundry let alone decide what to do, where to stay, and how you’ll keep everyone entertained. The result may be more chaotic, but can often be-surprise!-more relaxing.

My family took a trip down to Los Angeles that was almost completely unplanned. In the middle of the busy work days leading up to our departure, I barely managed to book a hotel and had to leave everything else up to chance. Turns out, it was the best vacation we’ve ever taken. Why, you ask? Simple.

1) You can score last minute hotel deals

When you book something last minute, you don’t have the luxury of choice that you’d have if you’d planned months in advance. Or rather, you’re not overwhelmed with options. You decide where you want to stay and see what’s still available. Even better, call the hotel of your choice and see if they have some last minute reservation deals.

I found a hotel with a pool close to where we wanted to stay, searched around for a deal on hotel sites, and ended up finding an even better deal on the hotel’s own website. It wasn’t fancy. It wasn’t much to write home about. But it was clean, had a perfect pool (in the eyes of my children), a free breakfast buffet, and a bottle opener in the bathroom. For an incredible price. Who could ask for more?

2) You’re open to everything

Where to eat? Ask the front desk staff (Turns out, hotels with bottle openers in the bathroom don’t have a concierge service, who knew?), ask the person riding the elevator with you, ask the guy walking by the hotel when you exit the parking lot. When you have no plans, you have no expectations, which means that you won’t be disappointed. Still leery? With Findery at your fingertips, there’s always a recommendation to be found!

One night we ended up at an incredible pizza joint where the girls got to assemble their own pizzas and I tried something I’d never had before. Another night, we went to the best BBQ joint ever. Tasty and fun! A win for the whole family.

What to do? Take a look online. What do people suggest you do in the town you’re in? Keep an open mind. You never, ever know what you’re going to stumble into.

On our last day in LA we ended up at the Museum of Jurassic Technology. We knew exactly nothing about this place other than the fact that it was recommended online. From the outside it seemed less than exciting. Once inside it was completely disorienting and confusing. And yet, if you ask my husband about our trip, this is the thing he’ll rave about for hours.

3) Everyone can take turns calling the shots

With no plans to meet and follow, the days stretch open, begging to be filled with whatever floats your family’s boat right then and there. So if the kids spot a cool outing on the hotel’s brochure rack, nothing’s keeping you from going for it. And if you have a friend who mentions that you should check something out, you have nothing to lose by taking a quick side trip!

The first day we were in LA we indulged in my husband’s desire to visit Venice Beach and its famous skate park. The next day we told the kids the day was 100% theirs, which is how we ended up at the Aquarium of the Pacific. And the next day? We decided to embrace a little more fun and went to the Santa Monica Pier. Because why not?

4) You’re never a slave to time

Everyone wants to hang out at the beach another hour? Do it! That store looks like it has some cute things? Stop by and check it out. The kids want to stay in the hotel pool? Fantastic. When you make last minute decisions about what to do every day you can change those plans really easily. It’s an amazing way to embrace what vacations should really be like – chill, relaxed, and not stressful for anyone.

On our way home we saw a highway sign that snagged our attention. We pulled off and discovered the best roadside stop we have ever seen. There was truly something for everyone from candy to cheese, from toys to random slightly fake antiques. We spent over an hour wandering around exploring the endless offerings and then we all got back into the car marveling at the discovery. Maybe we’ll stop there next time we travel to LA. Or maybe we won’t. We’ll decide when the time comes.

In a life all too often bogged down by too many calendars and obligations, there’s a certain magic to taking a trip on a whim and seeing where the journey takes you. Give it a shot this summer and see what you discover along the way. Whether the trip is a success or not, at the very least it’ll make for a great story.

Post written by Jessica Rosenberg of It’s my life… on behalf of Findery. Discover more of her travel stories on Findery.

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Creating Sustainable Populations Humanely

Space. The final frontier. But this is a planetary, not interplanetary tale. Here, on every surface of Earth, man has planted his foot, physical or otherwise. We have morphed from quest to conquest with frightening success, as our numbers increase exponentially, mindlessly spreading. Earth’s cornucopia of plants, animals, and fungi is melting into oblivion before us, mocking the name we gave ourselves to distinguish us from them: Homo sapiens — Thinking Man. Clearly, we are not.

Source wirednewyork.com

Ironically, galaxies of information divert us from hewing to a core, ancient tenet of survival. Consider biblical Eden: was the lesson of our exile “Obey God or else”? Or “You’ve been greedy, but I’m giving you another chance”?

If the latter, then “go forth, be fruitful and multiply” means that we do so as we let the rest of life also be fruitful and multiply- ie, SHARE. If your greed harms the environment that sustains you, paradise will disappear, as it is doing today — the paradise of clean, safe water, air, food, shelter and climate that allowed humanity to expand over several millennia. As we selfishly expand over the rest of life, the consequences are becoming our ultimate undoing.

Source www.city-data.com

Change is happening fast. Historically, we were islands of humanity surrounded by seemingly infinite green ecosystems. Within the space of a century, though, the situation has reversed: we are seas of humanity, surrounding ever-dwindling island ecosystems essential for our paradise. Within these seas, we are increasingly insulated from understanding how much we depend on these systems. Indeed, most of us never experience them, save through illusorily complacent nature films.

Source Mongabay

The reality? Time is limited. Let’s look at forests. About 70% of our forests are now so fragmented that no part of a forest is farther than 3,000 feet from its edge, beyond which is land controlled by human activities. Up to 75% of the diversity of plants and animals living there can be lost to fragmentation. Such recent findings shocked even study researchers.

Source facebook

Human-induced climate change is starting to cut our food production and water supplies even as demand rises. Our aquifers are emptying. Finite resources are bigger obstacles to hunger than distributing food – as are lifestyle choices. Most of us spend more on nonessentials (pets, vacations, etc.) than feeding the hungry poor.

Credit Max Boschini at flickr

Climate change is accelerating. It is linked increasingly to violence worldwide, and collapses of past civilizations. Indeed, the U.S. General Comptroller noted recently that unsustainable U.S. policies are strikingly similar to those that ultimately brought down the Roman Empire.

Technology alone can only delay these problems briefly, as the Green Revolution has for global food security. Most political leaders are not acting adequately to spare our children from a worsening future. Most policy experts still believe in the tragic fallacy of infinite economic growth on a finite planet as integral to our well-being, even as 25,000 children younger than 5 die daily from inadequate resources.

Source facebook

Can we change before our civilization deteriorates much further? Both toxic levels of consumption in developed countries, especially the U.S., and the sheer numbers of people in all countries are destroying our resource bases. So, the answer lies in developing a worldwide cultural ethos that accepts the need to turn our global population counter backwards, and minimize resource consumption.

The choice for humanity is stark: living sustainably and ultimately rebuilding our resources, or living miserably and dying inhumanely, with slow or no recovery of a decent life.

Building that cultural ethos is challenging. Desire is encouraged and reaches deep into our collective subconscious, as is the highly emotional desire for children. Even U.S. students of our unsustainable growth often separate theory from practice, often planning to have two children, not the needed sustainable choice of one or none; the discrepancy isn’t seen or acknowledged. Yet, if we let emotions rule our reproduction, the survival of all our children is threatened – a bitter paradox.

But history shows that we are capable of great beneficial social change, when properly educated and motivated, and this cultural ethos is beginning to take root in diverse ways.

Regarding consumption, recognition grows of the need to show and define that beneficial economic growth is sustainable growth, not increasing numbers: the stock dividends of today benefit no one if they rob us all of a viable future. We increasingly value how to minimize material consumption, via recycling, and more.

We are developing new ways to increase conservation and efficient use of energy and resources. Recognizing the economic, environmental, and social benefits of developing clean, renewable, and accessible energy sources has fueled the explosive growth of U.S. solar power, for example.

OO “We only want one kid anyway,” most Chinese couples say. Source: Grist.org

Population attitudes are evolving. With its often tragically flawed one-child policy, 1980s China recognized how social benefit must trump individual desire to prevent destabilizing overpopulation.

One child families. Sources bacc.cc, www.susannewmanphd.com

Americans are increasingly educating themselves and others about family planning, shown to be tied to economic prosperity. One child families are the fastest growing US family unit. U.S. awareness that a child-free life can be happy and fulfilling is gaining acceptance, even as studies link children to U.S. family poverty. Although the current ageing global population creates anxiety about an increasing elder social burden, many recognize that children are a far greater burden, requiring far more resources.

United Nation experts recognize that 200+ million women worldwide need access to family planning materials and information, and not simply improved reproductive health. Melinda Gates found this out, when a poor Indian woman tried to give Melinda the unwanted baby she could not feed – the baby that the Gates Foundation had helped her to bear, but not prevent. The good news? The cost of providing access is relatively cheap; the challenge is granting women worldwide the right to access them.

Acceptance of family planning is increasing in many countries via radio serial dramas imbedded with population messages created specifically for their targeted cultures, from the U.S. to Nigeria. That it can also be done via motivated leadership was illustrated by the successful 1990s population program developed by the Muslim leaders of Iran.

Ethics are also evolving. Pope Francis stated how humans are ethically bound to protect the environment, even adding that humans do not need to breed like rabbits. The Episcopalian Church head recently stated that it is unethical for Christians to ignore God’s gift of knowledge about climate change; the same can be said for the knowledge of how unsustainable human populations harm the rest of life and humanity’s future.

More pragmatically, African religious leaders are promoting sustainable family planning. After watching how changing climate and dwindling resources ravaged his local community, an African Malawi Muslim leader stated that “God commanded” family planning; he now promotes it.

“Please take my baby,” this poor woman pleaded with Melinda Gates, “I cannot feed her.” Source Gary L. Darmstadt at the Huffingtonpost

Yet the grim reality is that in 2012, 85 million pregnancies — 40% of all pregnancies worldwide — were unwanted. Clearly, far more needs to be done.

Ultimately, how we vote impacts how nations will act. Our choices should be based on how rapidly and capably our leaders act to bring our economy and populations to humanely sustainable levels. Doing so addresses our current voting priorities, i.e., economy, national security and health. Thus, we need to examine closely how prospective leaders plan to do so, and their record of experience, and then re-align our choices accordingly.

We can win this race of bringing our population to sustainable levels before a declining civilization prevents us from doing so humanely: Are we willing to act fast enough? Over 100 children have died since you began reading this article. The fate of the rest depends upon our choices.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

The original Raspberry Pi board just got a price cut: the Model B+, which spent a while as the flagship board before the Pi 2 came into being, is now just $25. The Raspberry Pi foundation claims this is due to manufacturing efficiencies found in the manufacture of the Pi 2 board; I’m sure it has nothing to do with the new $9 CHIP microcomputer on Kickstarter.

Read more…

The gaming landscape is changing rapidly. Smartphones, previously relegated to casual games like snake, have become serious instruments of play, to the point that even stubborn Nintendo can no longer deny its lucrative appeal. The latest big name in the gaming industry to bite the mobile bullet is Konami, whose new president Hideki Hayakawa was quoted, in translation, of course, … Continue reading