DirtyGlassEye has added a photo to the pool:

So remember how I advertised my 300th post as my final shot in Japan? Well.... I took one more shot the next day in the airport on my phone instead of my camera.
I'll be astonished if this post can surpass 10 likes. It's painfully evident that these photos perform the worst for me. But I keep posting them to keep my shots varied and simply because I like it, but again, more often then not, it risks my reputation on flickr. Doesn't matter how hard I worked on it, I'm still at your mercy, it's a balance of power that almost never works in my favor.
So again, it's pretty ironic that I made this shot look like a "welcome to the country" shot when it was the last shot I took on this trip. But that's what it's meant to be. Tokyo Narita is still evidently the common international gateway to Japan, there are large billboards and plenty Nintendo stands and art saying "welcome to Japan", clearly they have an understanding of why foreigners come here. I found this statue while I was looking for a currency exchange station (cause paper yen won't do much good back in the states, and I didn't have easy access to a station back home). I lowered the light in the back in editing to minimize the promotion (hate Mario Wonder) and to make the statues highlights stand out more. After several more layers the lighting was solely on them. I contemplated editing out the switch in Toad's hands for a Wii U gamepad, but that would be a bit too much of a smaller nitpick and no one would notice the difference anyway. So this was more of a parting gift then a welcome but it was meant to be the opposite... Until I found out on short notice that I was returning this year. So who knows? Maybe this will serve it's original purpose.

blowblowblow has added a photo to the pool:

NIJMEGEN (ANP) - In het Radboudumc in Nijmegen is een patiënt opgenomen met een lage verdenking op ebola. Dat bevestigt zowel een woordvoerder van het RIVM als van het ziekenhuis aan het ANP. De patiënt ligt op een speciaal ingerichte afdeling voor ernstige infectieziekten zoals ebola.

De Landelijke Coördinatie Infectieziektebestrijding heeft daarom verzocht. De patiënt krijgt medische zorg en diagnostiek, zodat onderzocht kan worden of daadwerkelijk sprake is van ebola.

De gemeente Wijdemeren mag van de rechter voorbijgaan aan een handhavingsverzoek, dat de inwoners van Loosdrecht indienden. Zij wilden dat het het college optrad tegen de noodopvang, die zonder vergunning gerealiseerd is. „Er is concreet zicht op legalisatie.”

Er zijn vier mensen uit onze regio aangehouden op verdenking van betrokkenheid bij de uitvoer van een grote partij cocaïne via luchthaven Schiphol. De drugsvondst werd al aan het begin van dit jaar gedaan. Daarop werd een onderzoek ingesteld.

Addicted to your devices? According to experts, not all screen time is created equal. Here are some healthier ways to spend time online

The average UK adult spends around 7.5 hours a day on a screen, whether that’s a phone, laptop, games console or TV. That figure may even be conservative, particularly for those whose jobs require them to be online. As concern around screen time mounts, the instinctive response has been to demonise it. The reality, however, is more nuanced. As the Guardian’s video games editor and author of Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun, Keza MacDonald, recently put it: “Not all screen time is created equal.”

Spending an hour learning a language on Duolingo is not the same as flicking through dozens of short-form videos on TikTok. Video-calling a friend is not equivalent to trolling someone on Facebook. The difference lies in how consciously we engage.

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From infections and allergies to brain diseases and autoimmune disorders, a wave of trials offers hope

Clinical trials of immunotherapies have rocketed in the past decade as researchers have turned their understanding of the body’s defences into powerful new treatments. Leading the pack are cancer therapies, but researchers have other conditions in their sights, from infections and allergies to brain diseases and autoimmune disorders. Here, we explore how these therapies work.

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Does Puerto Rican star’s debut collection for Zara spell the end of short shorts?

Men can breathe a huge sigh of relief this week, thanks to Bad Bunny, whose debut collection for fast fashion company Zara includes a pair of shockingly normal mid-thigh shorts.

While for the last few years, short-shorts have threatened to make every day a leg day, the sight of the Puerto Rican star wearing shorts that come comfortably to within a few inches of the knee will signal a welcome shift for many.

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Jane Fonda, Bruce Springsteen and Joe Biden are among the names paying tribute to host of cancelled late-night show

Share your favorite memories from The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

Celebrities, politicians and New Yorkers have paid their respects to Stephen Colbert as The Late Show aired its final episode on Thursday.

The long-running chatshow, which started back in 1993, was cancelled last year by CBS, purportedly because of a financial decision. But many believed it was a result of the network’s increasing closenesss with Donald Trump, whom Colbert regularly criticised.

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Toen het kabinet-Rutte 3 viel over het Toeslagenschandaal wist staatssecretaris Stientje van Veldhoven niet hoe snel ze moest overstappen naar de door haarzelf gesubsidieerde NGO World Resources Institute. De resources waren kennelijk niet oneindig, want bij het aantreden van Jetten 1 dook Van Veldhoven ineens op, nota bene als minister. En wat betekent dat voor u? Ten eerste allemaal gewauwel over uw hogere energierekening. En ten tweede: een nóg hogere energierekening. "In cv’s moet binnenkort verplicht zo’n vier procent groen gas worden bijgemengd. Dat heeft het kabinet besloten. Minister Van Veldhoven (Klimaat en Groene Groei) verwacht dat deze groene ingreep tot hogere stookkosten voor consumenten gaat leiden, zo’n vijftien euro per jaar." Maar u krijgt er wel een lekker warm gevoel van binnen van! "Het groene gas moet uit eigen land komen, bijvoorbeeld van boeren die biogas maken uit plantaardige restproducten of mest." Sluiten we af met een dreigement: "Van Veldhoven zegt dat het in het begin draait om vier procent bijmenging, maar dat dit percentage later nog kan worden opgeschroefd." Wel. Ja.