unicorn

I've been interested in a cruise around Indonesia, but most of the ones I see are scheduled to go during their monsoon/rainy season. This one is scheduled to hit Indonesia in early January, at the peak of the rainy season! https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruises/itinerary/8-night-bali-adventure-holiday-from-singapore-on-ovation/OV08SIN-349797265?sail-date=2025-12-28&currency=USD&country=USA#step=0 Bali gets 39 cm of rain in January, with rain being present on most days. Why would anyone spend big $$ on flights and cruises when a soggy time is almost guaranteed? This website says it's the worst time to go to most of Indonesia (including Bali and Java): https://www.selectiveasia.com/indonesia-holidays/weather I don't get it. Who would book a cruise when one is likely to get drenched? Are there people who just don't look these things up when planning an expensive vacation? Or are there people who don't care about lousy weather?

Some netizen combines four landmarks, office building of People Daily, office building of CCTV, Nest the National Stadium and Shanghai Convention Center in one picture:

Another Chinese building, the office building of People Daily newspaper:

Well, that much I knew, but is there some other way to trigger the view count? If someone links the photo to another site or to social media, will that trigger the count? It just seems that the number of views on those strings seems unusually large, and I'm trying to figure out why. Why would there be over 1000 views in the favorite building string? Are people viewing the string repeatedly? About what is the daily viewership of this forum? I mean, those are interesting photos, but the viewership seems out of proportion.

I'm somewhat surprised by how many views my recent "favorite building" and Bourbon Street strings have received. Is the string getting credit for people linking any photos to another site?

For the female side of things, Qatar has the Al-Janoub Stadium:

Heavens! You might offend Vinapu! 😄

Barcelona has its Torre Glòries:

It looks as though London's mayor stopped the planned building of The Tulip, which was to look like a giant dildo...

London was supposed to have its own penis building, The Spire, but it looks as if the erection isn't finished... 😉 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spire_London https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/this-new-london-skyscraper-is-being-slammed-for-looking-very-rude-from-above-33090503.html "The Spire is set to be erected in London and people have said it looks a lot like a giant phallic structure."

Guangxi New Media Center...

As an update, I passed by the "Christmas lights house" the other day while walking my dog, and I heard that neighbor doing noisy work in his garage, which I hadn't heard him do in a long time. I wonder if the lunch party neighbor took the bad advice, and complained about the lights. This might have been payback. The noisy garage work was what led the party neighbor to sue the Christmas lights neighbor (unsuccessfully). He'd probably be more likely to get his neighbor to cooperate by being nice.

Yes, Bourbon Street is like that during Mardi Gras. Not always that dirty, though. It is the most hopping street for bars and rowdiness, though.

Well, I suspect he hit a garbage can or two as he plowed down that street. And it was a rowdy, crowded street.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove his Ford pickup into a New Year's Day crowd on Bourbon Street, killing at least 15. At least there won't be a need for a trial.

What are SGT and GB? Are you saying this site will be down multiple times in January?

I don't think the neighbor is seething by my lack of support. I was just surprised by the apparent lack of common sense, to a small extent from my husband, and to a larger extent from his other friend. Wouldn't it be obvious that complaining to the neighbors could make matters worse? I thank those responding for the support. I thought maybe I was missing something. They were just regular Christmas lights (and they're down now--or at least not lit up).

I had lunch with one of my neighbors the other week, along with my husband and a few of the neighbor's friends. This (elderly) neighbor can be rather cranky, and doesn't get along with one of his next-door neighbors. He's actually sued them, and lost, over issues such as noisy parties (the city of Los Angeles does have laws prohibiting parties after 10 PM, and I haven't seen them having noisy parties after 10 PM, but he says they used to have them). After the lunch, he took my husband, one of his friends, and myself to his yard, and pointed out some trees in his neighbors' yard which were decorated with Christmas lights. These lights were visible from his yard, but not from his house and certainly not from his bedroom. He told us that the lights were "driving [him] crazy" and he asked us for our opinions. I told him that they wouldn't bother me, and that it would probably be best to ignore them to the best of his ability. I suggested that bringing this up with the neighbors might make matters worse. To my (silent) horror, one of his friends agreed that the lights were annoying, and my husband just said "I don't know, maybe." He clearly would have no legal standing in asking the neighbors to turn off their Christmas lights, and even bringing it up would be likely to do more harm than good, especially given their history of animosity. I asked my husband why he gave his answer, and he said he was trying to be supportive (he didn't think the lights were annoying to him). It seems that goading this neighbor on could create significant trouble for him. What would you have said? Have you ever given people advice which probably wasn't productive, just to appear supportive?

Except that none of the replies discusses the original posting, which was uninteresting. You have every right to post what you wish. Some would prefer that your posts had more broad appeal. I only looked because I saw the large number of replies and views, so I was curious as to where the interest lay. Ironically, the string is interesting, but not because of the OP.

First of all, he was not on the scene, obviously. If he were, and reported falsely, that would make matters worse. The fact that you would believe someone despite video and photographic evidence that he lied is sad and extremely pathetic. Pathetic beyond words.

Although there was no audio on the footage, it is very obvious that the next motorcycle came over, offered assistance, and he declined. While there may have been bleeding later on, his only injury was on his head, and it's clearly impossible that at any time he was "covered in blood" as the news story stated. Incidentally I do, indeed, have experience in emergency medicine, as it so happens, and you do not. The reporter clearly made up the false statements regarding the victim crawling to his residence and being covered in blood. The fact that the reporter was unaware of the CCTV footage, if anything, almost makes it worse. Without such documentation, he would not have been caught with his fabrications. This is not the first time your news source made up stories to create sensationalism. I remember a prior story in which they claimed a foreigner kicked a local. Again, only when CCTV footage was examined could it be seen clearly that this was not the case. Yet the fake story did apparently create a vigilante mob at the foreigner's place. If the facts are unknown, a reputable news source will refrain from reporting unsubstantiated speculation as fact. Thank goodness for the wide presence of security cameras these days, as rumors, false accusations, and speculations can take on lives of their own. Obviously never "covered in blood":

Well, this is another example of the exaggerations and shoddy reporting from this "Pattaya News." The CCTV footage clearly shows the man standing up on his own, and even declining assistance from passers-by. He was hardly "crawling" to his residence, nor was he "covered in blood." While the Belgian was clearly violently attacked, the original story, as it often seems to be with "Pattaya News," was rather sensationalized. This is not a source to be trusted.