jdizzle113

thanks for all the helpful replies guys. I ended up wiping down the whole interior with lint free cloths absolutely soaked in 99.8% isopropyl alcohol. it has removed the mould and the alcohol dried off very quickly. I'm waiting for the residual smell of the alcohol to go completely (almost gone) - will then put some dishes of baking soda in there to soak up any remaining residual smell I can't detect. you're absolutely right that mould spores are ubiquitious (which is why I guess the bread always goes mouldy) and it's about the right conditions. I think what happened is I wasn't very vigilant with the humidor and there was a week here where it was high humidity and high temps - which is perfect conditions for mould growth. Unfortunately the humidity control system I was using (cigar pucks) couldn't keep up with absorbing the excess humidity. I've now bought some bovedainc humidity control packs which are supposed to be much better at absorbing excess humidity. After the alcohol treatment I'm sure my humidor is bone dry - but instead of wiping it down with distilled water I bought some conditioning packs (80% humidity) from bovedainc - you're supposed to leave it in there a few days with the humidor empty - hopefully it will allow the humidor to be conditioned in a gentle manner. then I have the 65% humidity packs for cigar storage. I decided not to go with the "nuclear" option that many youtube videos suggest of sanding down the inside of the humidor with a fine grit - since the spores are always gonna be there there's not much benefit to it I think I'll keep you guys updated on how it goes.

thought I'd post some photos in case anyone is interested in what a mouldy humidor looks like.

I decided to go with these products for humidity control: http://www.bovedainc.com/solutions/tobacco/tobacco-faq/ bit expensive - but you don't even need to add water or do anything - just replace once it goes hard. hopefully the strong seal of the humidor will work in my favour in this case. as for treating any residual mold in the humidor I'm cautious considering the option of a wipe down with isopropyl alcohol as recommended by: https://www.famous-smoke.com/cigaradvisor/how-to-remove-mold-from-your-humidor http://www.cigarbasics101.com/humidor-basics-101/mold-humidor/ http://www.cigarinspector.com/cigar-tips/how-to-deal-with-mold-on-cigars-and-in-the-humidor I'm aware the alcohol could potentially damage the cedar so I'd have to be careful. I don't think I'll sand with 150grit sand paper as the 1st article suggests.

thanks for the replies guys. I'll try to maybe switch out the beads and keep the humidity lower (maybe even around 60%). Your suggestion about heat sounds good piggy - I have some UV lights - maybe I should shine those on the interior for a few hours. It's a great looking humidor - it'd be a shame not to use it - I guess I just gotta keep the rH down. And as for the advice about the "affected" girlfriend piggy - spot on ;-) now doing speciality training in psychiatry and can spot the personality disorders a mile away - and always run! ;-)

I used to use a Daniel Marshall humidor which was great. Nil issues with that. Until a crazy girlfriend (now ex) decided to pick it up and throw it against the wall. massive crack down the walnut finish, still functional but looks terrible now. I decided to buy one of these http://www.boutiqueeliebleu.com/110-cigars-ebony-dragon-2-167.htm - thought they looked pretty nice and one of the selling points is when you drop the lid with won't slam shut because it's so airtight an air cushion forms when you suddenly drop the lid. The thing is almost hermetically sealed. This is where I think lies the problem - no air circulates into it at all. My setup is that I used 65% humidity beads. (forgotten the brand but can find out). one day after a trip a few weeks away I was shocked to see my entire collection had become mouldy. I salvaged the ones I could (from some online guides) and the ones where the foot/base was contaminated I had to destroy. I was vigilant when I reloaded it. But it happened again in a few months. I've now destroyed all the cigars that were in there as I think they may have been the source. My concern now is that there are still mold spores in the walls of the humidor itself and probably the beads (which I will replace). After the first contamination I took the advice of wiping down the inside of the humidor with isopropyl alcohol, letting it dry, then re conditioning it. This obviously did't work. Wanted to know if you guys have any advice on how to treat a humidor that's been infested with mold? does it need to be sanded, or chemicals used?

Congrats - Looks like a great piece of equipment from the website.

Thanks stockman - Yeah, Trade Navigator and NinjaTrader are the packages that seem to be most popular. What Trade Navigator package are you on? Silver, Gold or Platinum? Also, why the need for 2 programs? Is there something that one does that the other cannnot? How are you finding "Tradesense" on Trade Navigator.

Wow, cheers for all the help with this - some decent content to look through and get an idea of what the platform has to offer.

Yeah, I stick to the 2% rule - keeps me alive during the drawdowns. I was doing quite well as a discretionary trader earlier - but found that my performance was influenced way too much by my state of mind. If I was in a bad way I'd enter terrible positions and then manage them poorly - had some rough personal stuff in the last few months so that's why I consider that overall my performance as a discretionary trader is a failure. I mainly want to mechanical trading since it removes that human factor of myself - so I just stick to the rules I set out in a trading strategy. I'm not after a black box - I really need a package that will let me develop my own strategy that I can write myself. This will of course require some backtesting.

Thanks - Just looking at their website right now - the software looks very promising - very professional - almost like Bloomberg (which is a bit too rich for my blood). Do you have to have a brokerage account with TD to trade using their software? or can it link in with other brokers (I'm with IB right now, but not too fussed about which broker I use, as long as commissions are low).

Smoking in bars and restaurants - sounds brilliant!

I've noticed from several posts that many members like to dabble in trading. I've been trading for about a year, and after a year of being a fairly unsuccessful discretionary trader (I guess at least I stayed alive), I've decided to move into the realm of mechanical trading. So I really want to pick up a software package where I can do some technical analysis, define rules so I can do a market scan and backtest, manage my trades and has some money management built in. There's just so many different packages out there each promising that they can offer the same things and that they are the best. The ones that have stood out to be so fare are "Trade Navigator", "NinjaTrader" and "Tradecision". They all look pretty good. If anyone uses software for their trading and is happy with the package they are using I'd be really grateful to hear your recommendations.

Considering a trip to Thailand in the next few weeks - probably spend most of the time in Bangkok and Phuket. Does anyone know what the smoking laws are there? Is indoor smoking in public places still permitted? Are there any good cigar lounges in these locations? I'm pretty keen to try some asian NC cigars if anyone has any recommendations?

It's probably been discussed and I've missed it - but what's with the sobriety?

It's not really just about the odds - it's about if the payout is fair compared to the odds of winning - the house edge. If it is, then it makes sense, but then if it's not - you're playing a game rigged against you. It would be like betting on a coin toss - where if you win you get paid $1.50 (instead of a fair $2). You might win that bet - but it would be a bad bet. It's not always about if you win or lose - it's about making the right choice. If you play any game with a house edge - the longer you play, the greater you chance of losing is. I don't know what the odds of lottery is - 15 000 000 to one? or more - and I don't know what the price of a ticket is - but if the payout is less than the price of the ticket multiplied by your odds - then it's a bad bet...

Yeah, if you think of things in relative odds 10^-7 or 10^-8 is an infinite increase in your probability from zero. But use of relative odds is pretty useless in the real scheme of things. That's how the media spins scientific data to make things seem more sensational (e.g. your odds of cancer from eating a certain food increase 20 fold (relative risk) - when really the increase is from p=0.00000000001 to p=0.0000000002 (absolute risk). ). What I meant was your chances in terms of absolute probability - your p-value is so small that it might as well be zero. That makes sense - if the payoff is overvalued for your odds of actually winning then it becomes a "good bet" (statistically) and you should take it. Doesn't matter if you win - statistically it's the right thing to do - and rational.

Don't think so, most traders would probably consider that a short term $5k loan from the market

From a purely statistical perspective, buying a lottery ticket doesn't increase your chances of winning much more than if you had not bought one. So you're not much better of with a ticket than without one..

Thanks Prez. From what I'd read I'd narrowed it down to Santa Clara and Santiago. But that helps with the decision. Can probably take a fortnight of holiday to see the other places. The website I was reading was saying that the east side of the country is typically poorer than the west side? Is that really the case?

Hi All, I've just been looking into a trip to Cuba for the end of 2010 - sorta for work/study - will be working in the hospital systems. I'd be over there for either 4 or 8 weeks (haven't decided yet). But here are my options in terms of locations: Cienfuegos Santa Clara Camagüey Santiago de Cuba I know nothing about these regions, so have no idea how to choose between these options. So to anyone who has been to Cuba a couple of times, can you please provide your take on which one of these destinations would be the best to stay at for 4 to 8 weeks (taking into consideration things like - activities to do, nightlife, safety)? Looking forward to your thoughts.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I won't be going on this elective for quite a while (maybe a year) - but I'm told I have to get the ball rolling this early to get a placement sorted. On the cuban healthcare system - I guess all their positive outcomes come from public health - i.e. things like vaccination programs and screening programs - it's these programs rather than higher doctor to patient ratios that lead to better patient outcomes per dollar spent. Just as a comparison - the US government spends much more money on healthcare (Even as a percentage of their GDP it is higher) than Australia - and yet they have worse patient outcomes because their programs are geared towards the tertiary level of healthcare: ie. the individual patient - whereas in Australia our money is very much spent on primary healthcare - the population level - so we get much more bang for our buck. A good site on the cuban system: http://www.medicc.org/ns/index.php?s=11&p=0

Hi All, As part of my studies I'm going to be doing an 8-week medical elective - it can be anywhere in the world. But I'd really love to do Cuba - cigars aside - the healthcare system is pretty bloody brilliant - they have the healthcare budget of a developing world country and yet they have the life expectancy similar to the developed world. Their major killers are chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer - just like us - even though their latin american counterparts still have infectious diseases as some of their major killers. So what I was hoping to find out was - for those of you that have been to Cuba - do any of you have experience with the hospitals over there? If so, is there a particular region you would recommend going to? Does anyone know any heads of the hospitals over there? Your help is much appreciated Cheers James

There was the slight taste of nuttiness in there

I just smoked an R & J short churchill. I bought it as an individual stick and it's been sitting in my humidor for about 6 months. Conditions in my humidor haven't been perfect in the last few weeks - humidity range has been from 70-74% - which is too high for my liking (usually prefer that 65-70 range). When I took the stick out and pinched the foot I could tell it was a little moist - but I was pretty impatient to try it out - so I gave it a go anyway. In smoking the first third something strange happened. I got the usual blue smoke at the foot and grey/white smoke at the head, but occasionally there would be massive whiffs of brown (like the colour of brandy) smoke from the foot with the blue smoke. I was wondering if anyone knew what would cause that? Is it because it was too moist? Cheers James

Funny you say that, because there are dozens of papers that have evidence to support the lower risk of PD in smokers - but few of the authors have the balls to make that leap to say that smoking reduces the risk of PD. The key difference between saying that "smokers have a lower risk" vs "smoking lowers your risk" is causation. Many of the researchers out there try to come up with the most convoluted explanations as to why smokers have a lower risk. One such ridiculous explanation is that people who are born with a lower risk of PD will take up smoking because the neurotransmitter involved in PD: dopamine, is also part of the addictive behavior part of your brain - the reward pathway - so since PD involves a shortage of dopamine, people with more dopamine (who should intrinsically have a lower risk of PD) will take up behavior such as smoking. How BS is that explanation! Scientists usually love Occam's razor - where the simplest explanation is the most likely. Yet in this case - because they don't like the result - rather than the simple explanation that smoking reduces the risk of PD - many scientists choose that hectic explanation that involves genetics, brain chemistry and psychology - and there is no evidence to support that theory. It's just massive hypocrisy that since they don't like the result, they start from the theory that "smoking is always bad" and try to make the results fit that theory. It's really bad science. You might also be interested to know that smokers have a lower risk of ulcerative colitis - a type of inflammatory bowel disease.