C. Buddha's Hasty Musings

Carabao Bike & Death Merchant

Yesterday, on the way to check the progress of the new house we’re building, we came across a couple of awesome motorcycles, one right after the other.
First up was a kid riding the Buffalo Bike (aka Carabao Bike):

Next was the Death Merchant (I talked about his trade before in this post: Banks and Blades and Monster Geckos):

All photos by Nam.

Thai Boxers in Japan

This article is interesting as hell because I’ve heard many, many times about how weak Thai boxers/kickboxers are used to prop up their Japanese counterparts, but never actually bothered to research it.
Thai boxers downed by punches that missed him
(via F*cked Gaijin)

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Note to Kevin

Can I be your second?
As the challengee, do you get to specify the terms? How about cavalry broad swords of the largest size, standing in a square ten feet wide and about twelve feet deep…

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the horror

I imagine this is pretty much what hell must look like.
(reddit)

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Magazine cover illusions

At least one of them is unstaged, even: Link
(via digg)

Photos

My New Baby Alligator

I rescued him from a wet bathroom floor when I was painting.

Chillin'

Korean Hostage Crisis as Seen by Overseas Korean Volunteers

Yesterday, I asked a group of four young Koreans who have come to teach our students computer skills the following questions:

Were the Koreans who were taken hostage missionaries, or what? Is it important to make the distinction between missionaries and volunteer workers?
Are average people in Korea blaming the US for what happened?
Are you hopeful about a diplomatic solution?

Their answers were:

Yes, and YES(!).
No.
….

So there you go. The news says that progress is being made and the Taliban is promising release today or tomorrow. That would be nice. The Taliban ain’t exactly nice guys, though. I hope everything works out, but let me say this: If you aren’t prepared to sacrifice for your beliefs, why hold to them at all?

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cute fish (and not-so-cute fish)

Go see for yourself:
Cute
Not-so-cute
(To my knowledge, I’ve only eaten one of the fish on that list. Hint: It wasn’t the coelacanth)
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In related news, the last of my impossible fish died a few weeks ago, I think. The red one was the first to go, and blue was the last. The whole tank got hit with some horrible gill disease that killed all inhabitants – impossible fish, algae eaters, tetras, and Japanese goldfish. The blue fish hung on a whole month or so longer than the second longest survivor (purple, I think), but in the end he just wasted away. Eventually, we put him outside in a ceramic fountain we have in the garden (aka “the hospital tank”) and (presumably – I haven’t seen him since, but there are places to hide in that fountain) let him go off to the big fishbowl in the sky.
RIP, blue.