“A previous version of this story incorrectly quoted Dropbox cofounder Drew Houston saying ‘anybody with nipples’ instead of ‘anybody with a pulse.’”

— Wired regrets the mistake...

Our Best And Brightest


Or, well, not:

"You know, this is what happens with communism. It’s a great concept. On paper it makes perfect sense. But once you put a human being in power, it shifts. We saw it in Russia, we’ve seen it all around the world. It’s nuts. But, I keep my fingers crossed."

--- Whoopi Goldberg, lamenting that the late Kim Jong-il's legacy was just an implementation problem

In Beards We Trust


The Trustworthiness of Beards. The creator’s site is toast right now, but it’s by Matt McInerney.

Other sources of color


The autumn leaves weren’t the only thing brightening up the Kyoto Botanical Garden.

Kyoto Botanical Garden

(no pictures yesterday? I blame it on Star Wars: The Old Republic)

Ear rental optional


Surprisingly few of the cosplayers at Toei Studio Park had animal ears. Out of season, or out of stock?

Cosplay at Toei Studio Park

Crow's Nest


Time for another look at Kinkakuji, this time with a well-placed observer.

Kinkakuji roof, with crow

Nothing says purity like a dragon


Higashi Honganji is a large temple just north of Kyoto Station. This is the place Fledge was referring to in a comment to my pictures from four years ago, where the purification basin has a dragon fountain.

Purification basin at Higashi Honganji, Kyoto

Tricky to get a decent exposure of a shaded object with bright white tents behind it (they were celebrating the 750th anniversary of their founder), but I think I managed.

"Leaves are for tourists..."


“​…I’ve got work to do.”

Pollination at Kyoto Botanical Garden

Stratos 4 Advance


One of the things I discovered on my recent trip was that there were ten OVA episodes for Stratos 4, continuing the story. They were subbed by SS-Eclipse, whose torrent is still seeded, but since I discovered this by finding the DVD box set at a decent price, I only needed the softsubs, which were also floating around out there.

“Need a clue, take a clue,
 got a clue, leave a clue”