Leo V Sky has added a photo to the pool:

Aso-Kuju National Park, Japan

Leo V Sky has added a photo to the pool:

Aso-Kuju National Park, Japan

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.

VEENENDAAL (ANP) - Charlotte Kool heeft de vijfde editie van Veenendaal-Veenendaal op haar naam geschreven. De 27-jarige Nederlandse van Fenix-Deceuninck klopte Kathrin Schweinberger uit Oostenrijk en de Nederlandse Nienke Veenhoven na een rit van 120 kilometer in een sprint.

De wielerkoers werd twee jaar geleden voor het laatst verreden. Toen ging de winst naar de Nederlandse Riejanne Markus. De editie van vorig jaar kon niet doorgaan vanwege de NAVO-top die dat jaar in Den Haag plaatsvond. Er was daardoor toen niet genoeg politie beschikbaar om de koers te beveiligen.

DE BILT (ANP) - In De Bilt is het vrijdag 25,0 graden geworden en daarmee is de eerste officiële zomerse dag van het jaar een feit. Deze zomerse dag, waarop de temperatuur minimaal 25 graden moet aantikken, valt volgens Weeronline een week later dan gebruikelijk.

Normaal gesproken bereikt het kwik in De Bilt op 15 mei al de zomerse waarde van 25 graden of meer. Lokaal werd de eerste zomerse dag van het jaar op 1 mei in Gilze-Rijen waargenomen. Het werd toen 25,6 graden. In De Bilt bleef de temperatuur steken op 23,6 graden.

Op dit moment is het in Woensdrecht het warmst met 26,7 graden. Komende dagen blijft het op meerdere plaatsen zomers warm. Vrijdag komt in het zuiden zelfs de tropische grens van 30 graden in zicht. Ook met Pinksteren is het warm en zonnig, pas in de loop van volgende week gaat de temperatuur weer iets omlaag.

Vorig jaar werd op 30 april de eerste zomerse dag op het hoofdstation gemeten.

BODEGA VIÑA PEDROSA (ANP) - Wielrenster Lorena Wiebes heeft haar tweede ritzege in de Ronde van Burgos geboekt. De Nederlands kampioene van SD Worx - Protime was net als een dag eerder na 122 kilometer in de sprint van de tweede etappe van Castrojeriz naar Bodega Viña Pedrosa de beste. Op de oplopende finishstraat bleef ze de Italiaanse Elisa Balsamo en Ally Wollaston uit Australië voor.

Met haar tweede ritzege verstevigde Wiebes haar leidende positie in het algemeen klassement. De Ronde van Burgos duurt tot en met zondag.

Voor Wiebes was het de negende zege van dit seizoen. Voor haar ploeg was het de vijftiende overwinning dit jaar.

LONDEN (ANP) - Het Verenigd Koninkrijk, Frankrijk, Italië en Duitsland roepen Israël gezamenlijk op om te stoppen met het uitbreiden van illegale nederzettingen op de Westelijke Jordaanoever. Het land moet beschuldigingen tegen Israëlische troepen, die zouden bijdragen aan het toenemende geweld op de Westoever, onderzoeken, aldus de landen in een verklaring.

De situatie op de Westoever is ernstig verslechterd en het geweld door kolonisten heeft een "ongekend niveau" bereikt, aldus de landen. Het beleid van Israël ondermijnt volgens hen zowel de stabiliteit in het gebied als de kans op een tweestatenoplossing.

De landen benadrukken dat de nederzettingen illegaal zijn onder het internationaal recht en dat bouwen in de zone die door Israël "E1" wordt genoemd daar geen uitzondering op is. Door daar te bouwen moet Oost-Jeruzalem verbonden worden met de grote nederzetting Ma'ale Adumim. Bedrijven moeten hier niet aan bijdragen en zich bewust zijn van de mogelijke gevolgen, aldus de landen.

Nu onder Amerikanen de weerstand tegen AI aanzwelt, doneert Big Tech volop aan met name Republikeinse kandidaten, in de hoop dat Washington ruim baan blijft geven aan de techsector. Dat biedt Democraten kansen voor de naderende Congresverkiezingen.

Emma Wortelboer leeft voor tv – „ik kan er de hele dag naar kijken” – en had er haast alles voor over om zelf op tv te komen. Nu werkt ze voor BNNVara. Het was een „worsteling” om te ontdekken wat voor presentator ze écht wilde zijn. „Ik had weinig te vertellen.”

Terwijl ik als heuse kadavertoerist op het stinkende lijk van de genderfluïde bultrug Timmy sta, heb ik korte tijd om na te denken.

Six Bangladeshi-Italian candidates stand for Venice’s council as community faces far-right hostility – while voters demand an end to overtourism and neglect

Rhitu Miah, one of six candidates from the Bangladeshi-Italian community standing in Venice’s local election, is used to brushing off racist or sexist comments. But she was taken aback by the virulence of the negative comments online when she announced she would run for the council – potentially making her one of the first people of Bangladeshi origin ever elected in the lagoon city’s administration.

“There were hateful messages – one person told me to get on a camel and go back to my own country,” says Miah, an Italian citizen who moved to Venice with her family at aged three through her father’s job at the Fincantieri shipyard, a huge importer of labour from Bangladesh. “I tried to let it be and reply with a smile … but it was difficult not to cry. This is also a reason why I’m running [to combat these prejudices].”

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US secretary of state’s campaign of ‘maximum pressure’ is culmination of a personal pursuit spanning decades

• Cubans outraged at US charges against Raúl Castro

Marco Rubio’s moment has finally arrived. The outcome of the Trump administration’s efforts to exert “maximum pressure” on Cuba may topple the 67-year-old communist government in Havana and direct the future of the US’s sway over the western hemisphere.

For Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who serves as both secretary of state and national security adviser, the US campaign marks his ascendancy in an administration where he has established himself as a trusted aide to Donald Trump and manoeuvred that position to advance a key goal: Washington’s right to assert its authority across Latin America.

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The ‘Turkish Simon Cowell’ says sealing promotion to the Premier League via Saturday’s playoff final would ‘finish the miracle’

“I love the city – for me, it’s therapy,” the Hull owner, Acun Ilicali, says of his second home. Running a football club is not particularly therapeutic but after almost four-and-a-half-years at the helm, the Turkish media mogul will have his day at Wembley on Saturday when the Tigers face Middlesbrough for a place in the Premier League.

Life is rarely quiet for the globetrotting Ilicali, regarded as Turkey’s answer to Simon Cowell. He produces some of the world’s most popular television shows in numerous countries, having started out as a sports reporter. The entertainment theme has continued at Hull, creating a tumultuous and gripping reality that has featured head coaches coming and going, and playoff and relegation battles. Everything aligned this season, the team securing sixth place on the final day before defeating third-placed Millwall over two legs. Hull have even been victims of Southampton’s removal from the playoff final amid “spygate”. It is never dull in Hull.

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They blew up a van full of banknotes. They sold high-end Ukrainian vodka to Selfridges. Now art duo Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn are auctioning their past works – to launch their most ambitious project to date

This Saturday, artists Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn are auctioning off their work from the past decade and a half. The reason? To help fund a community-led renewable power station in Nigel Farage’s Clacton constituency. Former YBA Gavin Turk will be wielding the gavel and the couple hope to raise at least £250,000 for the project.

The big-ticket item going under the hammer will be the remnants of a gold Ford Transit van containing £1.2m in fake banknotes that the pair blew up in London’s Docklands in 2019 as the climax – or money shot, if you will – of Bank Job, a film about their attempts to fight toxic debt culture with art, a battle that involved printing cash to wipe out more than £1m debt.

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Microsoft has made Copilot a little less in-your-face with the option to banish the assistant's Dynamic Action Button to the toolbar. The change, rolling out this week, comes after howls of outrage from customers over Microsoft's decision to drop a Copilot button onto user workspaces. Although the desire to get users clicking on the assistant is understandable, obscuring content in its productivity applications was perhaps not the best way to do it. Microsoft's forums show plenty of frustration with the floating button. Some call it "infuriating," while others are less tactful. One Excel user wrote: "Did you let copilot design this idea and no human review it? Such abomination." Another said: "Putting a button over the working content was not a good move by Microsoft," which gets to the heart of the problem. Redesigns and interface tweaks will always generate strong feelings. However, obscuring content with something that many don't want is arguably a step too far. There was already a way to turn off Copilot features in Excel and Word via the Settings screen, but the latest update indicates that Microsoft has paid attention to recent feedback. A user commented: "There needs to be a toggle or something to move it back to the ribbon," and that is pretty much what Microsoft has done. A new option has been added to the button's menu, "Move to ribbon," which does exactly that. Click it, and Copilot is banished to the ribbon. The floating Copilot Dynamic Action Button is no more, although it can be moved back if a user happens to miss that particular design decision. Microsoft has acknowledged that forcing Copilot on users was not universally welcomed. Windows boss Pavan Davuluri promised a reduction in Copilot entry points and a rethink of how the technology is integrated into the operating system (because of course it isn't going away any time soon). Earlier in May, Microsoft said it would "streamline" access to Copilot in its productivity applications. Alas, that "streamline" involved the Copilot button, and plenty of customers asked for the ability to shift it back to the ribbon. Less than two weeks after the initial announcement, Microsoft has responded. Although Copilot will still be there, the option to move it back to the ribbon is a move in the right direction. ®

Greg Adams Photography posted a photo:

Pennsylvania Plate

SPRING een fusie van (kunsten)Festival aan de Werf (1986-2012) en Spring Dance (1983-2012) is een internationaal festival met vernieuwende dans, theater, performance en meer. Dit jaar is er een samenwerking met ASEF (Asia Europe Cultural [Meer...]

“A woozle effect…occurs when frequent citation of previous publications that lack evidence misleads individuals, groups and the public into thinking or believing there is evidence, and non-facts become urban myths and factoids.”

De gemeente Rotterdam heeft twee vuilniswagenchauffeurs op staande voet ontslagen omdat zij voor tonnen schade aan geparkeerde auto's hebben veroorzaakt. Dit gebeurde niet per ongeluk: het plan was om verzekeringsgeld in eigen zak steken.