ronin › Comments

Commute today was a nightmare. It didn't even seem to rain all that hard last night unless it happened after I went to bed. - ronin

I didn't think it rained all that much, either, but I guess it did. - John (bird whisperer)

I really need to get out more. - ronin from Bookmarklet

DIP IT IN CARBONITE! - ronin from Bookmarklet

At least that's an iMac which is relatively small as far as desktops go. I remember years ago there used to be a photo of a guy who brought a full-blown PC desktop to a Starbucks. - ronin

"There are three basic attachment types: Secure, anxious and avoidant. Secure people, roughly 55% of the population, had parents who were consistently caring and responsive; these people are typically loving and comfortable with intimacy. The other 45% have an attachment style that is more problematic—either anxious, avoidant or some combination." - ronin from Bookmarklet

I feel better that the "normal" secure population is not larger than 55%. Bad for humanity, but it makes me feel less like a complete weirdo. (EDIT: After reading the article I have to roll my eyes just a bit at the author's POV. While you can definitely overshare and/or share with non-intimate people, the author's default seems to be keeping EVERYTHING to yourself. Shit, if you can't... more... - Spidra Webster

"The football teams were still on the field, exchanging the traditional postgame handshakes, when Pete McCabe walked by. The veteran referee heard another official call his name and turned, only to be smashed in the face with a helmet by one of the players. Almost every bone in McCabe's face was broken, his skull fractured in several places and his nose nowhere close to where it belonged. As he lay on the ground in Rochester, N.Y., the semi-pro player who assaulted him stood over him yelling, "Take that. Take that. This is what I'm all about."" - ronin from Bookmarklet

I wonder if part of the problem is sport has become entertainment. People expect more than just a well-played game. They want drama and excitement beyond the actual sport. Violence is cheered. Winning at any cost is acceptable. Makes me sick. - Running Slow

"Colossal numbers of cicadas, unhurriedly growing underground since 1996, are about to emerge along much of the U.S. East Coast to begin passionately singing and mating as their remarkable life cycle restarts. This year heralds the springtime emergence of billions of so-called 17-year periodical cicadas, with their distinctive black bodies, buggy red eyes, and orange-veined wings, along a roughly 900-mile stretch from northern Georgia to upstate New York." - ronin from Bookmarklet

"Three women who were abducted about a decade ago were found alive on Monday at a Cleveland house near where at least two of them were last seen and a school bus driver was arrested in connection with their disappearance, police said." - ronin from Bookmarklet

SPOILERS - But this made me snort: ""No one comes to China for medical care," Jou points out. "That's just stupid."" - ronin from Bookmarklet

"Waffle House lost a loyal customer on April 30, 2013. Antonia W. "Toni" Larroux died after a battle with multiple illnesses: lupus, rickets, scurvy, kidney disease and feline leukemia. She had previously conquered polio as a child contributing to her unusually petite ankles and the nickname "polio legs" given to her by her ex-husband, Jean F. Larroux, Jr. It should not be difficult to imagine the multiple reasons for their divorce 35+ years ago. Two children resulted from that marriage: Hayden Hoffman and Jean F. Larroux, III. Due to multiple, anonymous Mother's Day cards which arrived each May, the children suspect there were other siblings but that has never been verified." - ronin from Bookmarklet

I want an obit just like that #notsoonoranyhtingbut - WarLord

"It’s an apple. There’s one way to eat it, and it’s down to the core. DOWN. TO. THE. CORE. Or so I thought. I peeked out from behind my computer, intent on finding out what miraculous shred of wisdom our content director was set to spew out of his mouth. He stood up from his seat, grabbed the apple from my hand, plucked the stem, and took a bite right through the top of the apple. In between bites, Geoff managed, “See, eating it from the sides is wasteful. But if you eat it from the top, the core doesn’t even exist.” In that moment, Geoff handed the apple back to me. Sure enough, he was nearly halfway through the apple, all without choking on what we normally consider the inedible ‘core.’ Eating from the top allowed more of the pleasant flesh to encompass the surface of every bite." - ronin from Bookmarklet

I'm rather surprised by this, being in Texas and all. I'm not religious but this is pretty ridiculous. - ronin from Bookmarklet

which city? there's alot of variation in Texas. - Hieronymous Boob

Columbus, between Austin and Houston. - Greg GuitarBuster

"The honeybees had been making the enclosed cavity their home since 1996, hardly bothering the homeowners. The cabin was rarely used, but when the owners needed to occupy it while building another home nearby, they decided the beehive wasn't safe for their two children. A few bees had found their way inside the house, and the hive was just outside a window of a children's bedroom." - ronin from Bookmarklet

:( "Most of the cat's ears will need to be removed and it will sustain some permanent baldness in some areas but he's doing amazingly well and is seen even gently wanting to play" - ronin from Bookmarklet

:'(((((( People are assholes - Tamara J.

"The hippo who tried to kill me wasn't a stranger – he and I had met before a number of times. I was 27 and owned a business taking clients down the Zambezi river near Victoria Falls. I'd been working this stretch of river for years, and the grouchy old two-ton bull had carried out the occasional half-hearted attack. I'd learned to avoid him. Hippos are territorial and I knew where he was most likely to be at any given time." - ronin from Bookmarklet

"Double-amputee Jason Koger used to fly hundreds of miles to visit a clinician when he wanted to adjust the grips on his bionic hands. Now, he's got an app. Koger came to Philadelphia this week to demonstrate the i-limb ultra revolution, a prosthetic developed by the British firm Touch Bionics. Using a stylus and an iPhone, Koger can choose any of 24 grip patterns that best suit his needs." - ronin from Bookmarklet

I can just hear the "What? No Android version?" whines now. =p - ronin

LOL "We've always had nice operators." - ronin

i'll say! - Hieronymous Boob

"The Miami cop has managed to return to his post despite his alleged vices. The Miami Herald reports Bosque has beaten back a long list of head-turning charges, including: - busting the skull of a handcuffed suspect - beating juveniles - having dope and booze in his squad car - ripping off suspects - falsifying reports - participating in an unauthorized chase where four people were killed - calling in sick … from Cancun" - ronin from Bookmarklet

"To hear Bosque tell it, he just loves his job. “I love serving the community. I love what I do for a living, and I’m very proud,” he said." - ronin

FLORIDA! - ronin

ROFL "Interestingly, and coincidentally, approaching the Donald Trump Caterpillar (scientific name: Megalopyge opercularis) can be very dangerous, particularly if you come in contact with the business end of its yellow mane. “If you touch that thing, it would seriously hurt,” Torres, a field biologist, told the UK Daily Mail. “It has these little hairs that can poke into your skin and release a venom.” Just like the real Donald Trump. How uncanny!" - ronin from Bookmarklet

"Facebook will no longer allow uploads of beheading videos to be shared on the social network, the BBC reports. The company had originally allowed the graphic videos to remain on the site because they did not violate its content policy, but relented following pressure from its safety advisory board." - ronin from Bookmarklet

Women nursing children = the worst thing ever. Beheadings = NBD. Ah, you stay classy, Facebook. - Jennifer Dittrich

"This is an infographic created by the folks over at HalloweenCostumes showing 20 different incarnations of Iron Man's armor over the past fifty years. That...is a lot of armor. No wonder metal prices are so high. You think I haven't thought about stealing copper? I haven't, that sounds like work. Which one is your favorite? I like the 1965 version where his thermal exhaust ports or whatever double as nipples. That's just quality design if you ask me. I can't believe they never designed one with a missile launcher for a penis. OR DID THEY? "They didn't." Damn." - ronin from Bookmarklet

How... odd. "Last week I found myself in the city of Nagoya to catch a screening of Iron Man 3, the latest installment in the Robert Downey Jr. superhero series. But it wasn’t just any screening — it marked the debut of 4DX movies in Japan, with a promise that I’d feel every punch, kick, and explosion myself. Korean company CJ Group is betting on the format to offer something your living room never will: seats that roll and jolt in sync with the action on screen, while water vapor, jets of air, and various aromas are pumped into audience members’ faces." - ronin from Bookmarklet

"The app, named Winky, works by rearranging the priority of the wink gesture within a user build. Google Glass comes with the wink gesture disabled within a user build and will tell itself to discount any wink gestures that it sees. "I wound up decompiling some of the code that was on the Glass devices and investigating there. I found that the wink gesture is disabled by default and only engineering or test builds seem like they would have the option to enable it," Winky’s developer, Mike DiGiovanni, told Ars." - ronin from Bookmarklet

So basically we're gonna be Terminated. =p - ronin from Bookmarklet

Happened to glance out the window of our study this afternoon and noticed a squirrel way up in the tree outside foraging. While I've seen plenty of squirrels on the ground and/or running up and down tree trunks, I can't recall ever seeing what they do around the treetops. - ronin

"I was wrong. One year ago I left the internet. I thought it was making me unproductive. I thought it lacked meaning. I thought it was "corrupting my soul." It's a been a year now since I "surfed the web" or "checked my email" or "liked" anything with a figurative rather than literal thumbs up. I've managed to stay disconnected, just like I planned. I'm internet free. And now I'm supposed to tell you how it solved all my problems. I'm supposed to be enlightened. I'm supposed to be more "real," now. More perfect. But instead it's 8PM and I just woke up. I slept all day, woke with eight voicemails on my phone from friends and coworkers. I went to my coffee shop to consume dinner, the Knicks game, my two newspapers, and a copy of The New Yorker. And now I'm watching Toy Story while I glance occasionally at the blinking cursor in this text document, willing it to write itself, willing it to generate the epiphanies my life has failed to produce. I didn't want to meet this Paul at the tail end of my yearlong journey." - ronin from Bookmarklet

I liked the video. It just seems like he's a dude who wants to be happy. - Rodfather

Ouch. Never realized "target fixation" was an actual thing. - ronin from Bookmarklet

"台灣雲豹即將正式宣告滅絕！根據台灣和美國生態學者組成的研究團隊，歷經13年，動用400台相機，在1500處紅外線感應拍攝點，把全台灣雲豹可能出沒的地點，大規模的追蹤分析，卻得到令人感傷的調查報告，雲豹已經在台灣滅絕！主要原因就是人類獵捕和過度開發！" - Jessie from Bookmarklet

I think they suspected it was extinct about 100 years ago, but then around 1990 a couple of fresh pelts surfaced (probably from aboriginal hunters) so they launched this project to see if there were any live ones left. So I don't know what the status would be, since no one's seen a live one in a hundred years or so. - Jessie

"Manuelito Wheeler, the director of the Navajo Nation Museum, said he first came up with the idea 13 years ago as a way to preserve the consonant-rich Navajo language, believed to be spoken by about 170,000 people, according to government figures. "We thought this would be a provocative and effective way to help try to preserve the language and at the same time preserve the culture," Wheeler told Reuters. "What better movie to do this than ‘Star Wars?'"" - ronin from Bookmarklet

It's a good idea. One of the hardest things about languages with a small stock of speakers is that it's hard to keep their youth interested because pop culture is taking place in majority languages. The more that there's something they want to access in the minority language, the more likely they are to take it up. - Spidra Webster

Interesting. They've got a tough road ahead of 'em. - ronin from Bookmarklet