rønin

"Here’s a short clip from the Smithsonian Channel‘s series “Hunt for the Super Predator.” It shows an encounter a team of photographers and scientists had with killer whales at Bremer Canyon off the coast of Western Australia. Using a special camera rig he designed, wildlife cameraman David Riggs shot some amazing underwater footage of killer whales that looks too good to be true (you can find it at 1:35 in the video)." - rønin

Besides being old it doesn't actually look too horrible. Plus the ability to fold down the chair in front of you if it's not taken is pretty awesome. =p - rønin

Even the food looks about normal for airline food. - rønin

"A Toronto man who made headlines last month by offering a free round-the-world air ticket to a woman with the same name as his ex-girlfriend has found Ms Right. Jordan Axani, 28, and his then girlfriend, named Elizabeth Gallagher, booked heavily-discounted round-the-world air tickets in May, but their relationship ended and he didn’t want her ticket to go to waste. The ticket had a strict no-transfer policy, but since passport information was not required when booking, it can be used by any Canadian named Elizabeth Gallagher." - rønin

A lil' irritating that the only way to import Youtube vids w/the actual vid itself is to favorite them on Youtube. Can't do it through bookmarklet anymore because of https. - rønin

Or you could copy/paste the link and remove the s from https. No need to favorite anything. - bentley

Ah, nice! Hadn't occurred to me to try that. So used to just using the bookmarklet for stuff like that. Thanks! - rønin

"When it’s garbage day in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, you won’t see abandoned trash bags on the streets waiting for pickup, as you might in Manhattan. Instead, you’ll find Taiwanese citizens lining up to heave their own bags into the garbage truck each and every night. By turning rubbish collection into a daily civic duty, this island of 23.5 million has been remarkably successful at achieving something that eludes most developing nations: The richer Taiwan gets, the less trash it produces." - rønin

The not leaving trash bags outside for pickup makes sense considering how hot & humid Taiwan is year round. When I was living in Taipei they hadn't started the blue bag only restriction yet but I can imagine that not going over well here. - rønin

"After years of wrangling between environmentalists, lawmakers, and fossil fuel companies, New York's top public health administrator said he would ban fracking in the state, citing health risks." - rønin

"Do you believe in curses? We’re as skeptical as they come, but it’s hard not to have doubts when you hear the story of the Whitmore Dagger. Get this: Every single person stabbed by this knife has died within three days. Sounds crazy, right? Well, here’s the story: In 1917, the original owner of the dagger, Charles Whitmore, stabbed a man in the stomach with it. Three days later, the stabbed man keeled over dead. Mysteriously, there wasn’t a single scratch on the victim—other than the stab wound!" - rønin

"The MTA is bringing a little old school New York back underground, where they've installed a new exhibit featuring photos by Danny Lyon, who captured 1960s and 1970s NYC in vivid color after returning from other parts of America. The photos on display were all taken in the subway system in 1966, when Lyon was 25 years old and living in a loft on the corner of Beekman and William Streets. Upon settling back into the city, he took this advice from his mother: “If you’re bored, just talk to someone on the subway.”" - rønin

"Those ideological poles at opposite ends of public opinion aren't that surprising. But the distribution of demographic groups between them is. A majority of nearly every group — blacks, whites, women, young adults, the elderly, Midwesterners, suburbanites, Catholics, moderates, the wealthy — said that torture of suspected terrorists can be often or sometimes justified. A majority of only one other group beyond liberals and Democrats disagreed: people with no religion." - rønin

I think anyone who thinks that torture could be good, should volunteer to show me. - Anika

I have noticed an uptick in stores selling primarily e-cigs in our area. "The NIDA's report surveyed over 41,000 students from 377 high schools, and while its findings confirmed a positive health trend—that fewer and fewer teenagers are taking up smoking—it does point to a surge in teenage e-cigarette use. 17 percent of 12th graders told the NIDA they were smoking e-cigarettes, while only 13.6 percent claimed they used traditional cigarettes. 16 percent of high school sophomores said they smoked e-cigs, compared to only 7.2 percent that claimed to smoke the old fashioned way. Perhaps most startling are the 8.7 percent of 8th graders that profess to be using e-cigarettes." - rønin

"Meet Osedax priapus, from the Latin “os” for bone, and “edax” for devour, the species name “priapus” stems from the Greek god of procreation and “personification of the phallus.” Oh yes. These males are not only independent, they likely use their manly trunks as a penis to directly transfer sperm to the females. Say hello to the bone-devouring-I-am-my-penis worm. Proposed motto: why have a penis, when you can be a penis?" - rønin

"When your ancestors are all dwarf paedomorphs, it’s not easy to be a root-bearing giant phallus living the free life." - rønin

"Prehensile penises are a marvel." - rønin

Gives new meaning to "boning". - Spidra Webster

You'd think after what's been going on nationwide w/cops they'd be on their better behavior. But no, not at all. "A man who video recorded Denver police repeatedly punching a man in the face, causing his head to bounce off the pavement, before tripping his pregnant wife and causing her to fall on her face – sparking an FBI investigation into the department – was arrested Thursday in what appears to be a case of retaliation. After all, Denver police not only arrested him on what they called a “newly activated traffic warrant” from a nearby county after he had just left the FBI office with whom he is cooperating on the federal investigation, they refused to allow him to bond out of jail, even though the warrant was regarding a measly missed court date over failure to provide proof of insurance and registration during a traffic stop a few months ago. Denver police are obviously upset that upset Levi Frasier managed to recover the footage from his Samsung tablet after they had deleted it, which led to them being investigated by the feds. Not that it stopped them from promoting the cop, Charles “Chris” Jones IV, seen on video punching the suspect to sergeant earlier this month." - rønin

Will check to see if this is in the Denver news. - Joe

"He’s the teen wolf of Wall Street. A kid from Queens has made tens of millions of dollars — by trading stocks on his lunch breaks at Stuyvesant High School, New York magazine reports in its Monday issue. Mohammed Islam is only 17 and still months away from graduating — but worth a rumored $72 million. “The high eight figures,” is as specific as the shy and modest teen would get when asked his net worth." - rønin

The only bad thing about the old tower Mac Pro is the weight I guess. Always a pain to get it on/off the under-desk mount. And every time I open it up I always say I should do this more often to clean out the dust but since it's so damn heavy I pretty much never do. - rønin

Like, how can you have any morals if you don't believe in Santa? :) - Eivind

So weird to see some color photos of that time when I've pretty much only seen them in B&W. - rønin

there's a fair amount of colour film footage from WWII, as well. - Big Joe Silenced

SPOOOON!!! - rønin

Please tell me Nestor Carbonell is signed on. - Spidra Webster

Those are wonderful! - Anne Bouey

wow - Steve C, Team Marina

"A Great horned owl dove into Lake Michigan and began swimming after two Peregrine falcons forced it into the water. Steven Spitzer was at Loyola Park Beach in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood when he saw the owl in Lake Michigan doing what appears to be the equivalent of a breast stroke. Two Peregrine falcons circled overhead. "The falcon were dive bombing it, but not too seriously. I guess they're not water birds," Spitzer, an avid birdwatcher, said. "I guess they hate each other."" - rønin

Pretty great. =) - rønin

Ha! - bentley

Do you have a feline admirer? - SAM

Not that I know of. I've seen a stray cat wandering around when the weather was better but not recently. - rønin

And it just happened again. WTH. Is it possible to hide phone #'s in a group text? - rønin

"It is one of the most isolated island communities in the world. The tiny Pacific island of Palmerston is visited by a supply ship twice a year - at most - and the long and hazardous journey deters all but the most intrepid visitors. What's more, most of its 62 inhabitants are descended from one man - an Englishman who settled there 150 years ago." - rønin

If anyone is interested in creating one, try to keep images to one or two per page max. A LOT of white space is used per page if you put more than one image so the images come out pretty small. I think if I ever do another one I'll just lay out every page w/only one image full size. Those look pretty great. - rønin

Also looks like they've gotten popular as their Christmas deals this year aren't as good. What I got for $57.50 last year (120 page medium landscape) now being sold for $87 (40% off). - rønin

I got a MILK photo book made recently. It came out awesome. - Tamara J. B.

Yeah the quality is great, it's just that if I knew the pictures in some of the multi-photo layouts were going to turn out so small I would've just gone w/fewer photos. - rønin

"Criticism has come nonstop for Korean Air Lines since it was discovered that one of its executives had ordered a flight from New York to Incheon, South Korea, to return to the gate to kick a senior staff manager off the plane in a tiff over how the executive was served the nuts. This was no ordinary executive on Korean Air Flight 86, as it turned out: Cho Hyun-ah was not only in charge of in-flight service for Korean Air, but is also a daughter of the chairman of the family-run conglomerate that operates the airline." - rønin

"By Tuesday, with many South Koreans calling for a boycott of Korean Air, which they nicknamed “Air Nuts,” the airline announced that Ms. Cho had resigned as the head of in-flight services, though not as a vice president." - rønin

"Judge Laura Taylor Swain sentenced Bongiorno to six years. Why the truncated sentence? Well, because Bongiorno is only 4 foot 6, among other things. "Her age and her unusually small stature might also put her in a vulnerable position in a prison facility," Swain said in court, according to the Post. This is better than the time a 5 foot 1 child molester was sentenced to 10 years probation instead of prison time, but still, what a beautiful criminal justice system we have here." - rønin

GAH. - Big Joe Silenced

Why would six years in prison (the judge's sentence) be doable but not 8-10 years (defense request) or 20 (federal sentence recommendation)? - Andrew C (✔)

I just had pork, beef, shrimp, fish, chicken and turkey for lunch. - rønin

That's cool. I like the hot food bar because I can get All The Vegetables and nobody forces me to choose any meat. So it evens out. - m9m, Crone of FriendFeed

"In Beijing, even the tiniest apartment can cost a fortune — after all, with more than 21 million residents, space is limited and demand is high. But it is possible to find more affordable housing. You'll just have to join an estimated 1 million of the city's residents, and look underground. Below the city's bustling streets, bomb shelters and storage basements are turned into illegal — but affordable — apartments." - rønin