Did you go there cold? And I mean no language knowledge or prior experience? I really want to visit but I'm always concerned about getting lost and the cultural differences. Not knowing where things are because I can't read Japanese blah blah blah that kind of stuff

I rented an apartment, and just spent the days and nights exploring. Interesting neighborhoods, museums, shops, amazing parks, festivals, temples, art show, so many interesting restaurants. The subway and train system allows quick and easy access to virtually anywhere. I went during peak cherry blossom season in the…

The day anyone anywhere DEMANDS you speak out and represent an issue to the point of making a public move involving your chosen profession, is the day you understand what James is going through.

Everything has to be hyperbole and black and white now. People generally are too stupid to look at any situation with any ounce of nuance or empathy. You're looking at the situation with those things, therefore you are wrong—that's the reality of discourse on these types of events.

because a police officer piled incompetence on top of fear on top of stupidity, a child is dead.

Do you not see him stand and approach the car as it arises? Did you watch the video? I’m saying this is a tragedy but I would have never acted that way on either part, kid or cop. I had a air soft gun when I was a kid his age (6th grade) and was TERRIFIED that it would be mistaken for a real gun. My dad made sure I…

Ohio is an open carry state. If Tamir HAD had a real gun they still should not have shot him. Holy crap.

And you left out the fact that Ohio is an open carry state so if the police thought he was older and had a real gun, then they should been acting under the assumption that he had a legal right to be carrying it in public and if he was waving it around then the penalty would be a misdemeanor, not summary execution.

the kid is sitting at a playground, the officers roll up on top of him, and he has the tragic failure of judgement to move in Literally Any Way.

I did watch it. If you call pulling a gun from your waistband when police approach you “relaxing”, then I don’t know what to tell you. This is a tragedy but there was bad judgement all around.

I hate Lebron (blame The Decision), but I never ever expect athletes to be more than sports players. If they want to be more, great. But that isn’t their job. And yet, we as a collective society hold someone like Lebron to these standards, but can’t educate ourselves or bother to be a part of the process of selecting…

The main fire was actually started in 62’ due one of the residents digging a fire pit too deep and hitting coal at the top of the mine. Back in the it was common in the autumn to build large fire pits to burn leaves and excess garbage that residents had. They had tried to originally extinguish with a garden hose, but…

Wait, how can a town be on fire for what? 3 decades?

Dark Energy expanding and pushing the galaxies apart, that's what.

Nothing is more seductive to the rational mind then the question whats out there, these images are magical and tantalize like nothing else I have seen regarding space. Down here on Earth we are all into something, doing something, busy busy busy, we are all too familiar with us, we know almost nothing of that in the…

This really illustrates how hard it is to get a proper tilt-shift look to a photo so that it appears to be a miniature landscape.

@MaWeiTao: Starry Night was a horrible setup for even attempting this on, and I'm certainly glad this isn't how the originals looked, but it's an interesting complimentary piece to me. Some of them just don't work, but some of them look quite interesting with a bit of added realism to the unique stylings of Van…

It's a neat effect. But it also detracts immensely from these paintings. It certainly doesn't add anything to them, it simply makes them look like a dioramas. And more importantly, it turns crucial portions of these paintings into a blurry haze. The most egregious example being Starry Night. The subject of the…