Topic: Small Animal News

[Sindobook]

Regarding 'Panda B' yes it is true.

I'm sorrey to report that he passed away just several hours ago.  Cause of death was complications resulting from repeated acute myocardial infarction.  He was 'stable' for a while but recently his condition had worsened despite Tuan Tuan's best attempts to keep him alive.

Tuan Tuan was with him till the end and has declared tommorow a day of mourning among all Pandas in his rememberance. 

Panda B is survived by countless Pandas, too many to mention.

Nothing more to say on this right now

[Sindobook]

Yes.

According to Long Shan, B- was known for a while as the 'great teacher'.  He revolutionized the art and seemed eager to pass on his skills to his many followers.  Long Shan revealed that he developed his famed 'panda hands' technique and the newer 'two-paw discount' with B-'s help, and that the world had lost a great 'practitioner[1]' with his passing.

Tuan Tuan gave a short speech in which he complimented B-'s help during the difficult time following the injuries he sustained during the Wolong earthquake. 

This led into Ling Ling's speech.  After the quake, B- left his Dojo in the West, gathered a team of Pandas and led them on a relief mission in Wolong.  When a brigade of troops from the PLA[2] showed up, ordering the 'unauthorized gathering' of Pandas to disperse and return to their homes, B- told the troops that he and his friends were willing to die for the cause and they would have to shoot him if they wanted him to stop.  When the troops trained their rifles on B- and his fellow Pandas, they returned by taunting the troops and asked them if they were willing to face the punishments they would receive by the state for their actions[3].  Ling Ling still remembered the bewildered expressions on the troops' faces as they quickly backed off, and they would not return to bug the team of Pandas for the remainder of the relief effort.

As is traditional Panda B- left his worldly possessions to a number of small animals under his care including the Chinchilla K. A. -, [deleted], and a friend of Mr. Sparkles, the Netherland Dwarf Bunny L. -.

[1] as in "Practitioner of the art".

[2] People's Liberation Army. 

[3] Pandas are considered national treasures in China, it is not uncommon for smugglers or hunters of Pandas, or even anyone who intentionally harms a Panda, to be put to death.

[Sindobook]

Multi:

1) Yes it certainly has all the trappings of one, but only someone who knew it or knew what they were looking at would pick up on those types of things in the first place (99.9% of the people out there wouldn't recognize anything unusual).

2) No, I don't think it is any more than expected or is normal with time.  And there is a enough new people coming in for sustained growth.

3) Yes, this snake is one to watch out for, as in "do not approach".  Again not because he alone is dangerous but the other animals that are around him might be.  He is average height and average weight for an animal of his type, but the semi-distinctive features I discussed earlier... and his special item is a camera with this lens:  http://www.amazon.com/Canon-50mm-Lens-Digital-Cameras/dp/B000I1YIDQ which is also pretty rare irl so.  Between the both of these, it should stand out if you know what you're looking for.  You don't have to fear all snakes, especially if they are alone and you outnumber them.  But this is one to specifically watch out for. 

4) Yes, she is fine.  Honest no problems.

5) Yes, most of them tend to be a rather goofy group, incredibly narcissistic and self-serving, needlessly competitive, not to mention a dime a dozen.  And most utterly useless.  My suggestion would be to stop, take a look around; find friends, family, others close to you or whatever and ask them.  Basically people you know in some other way.  Some of them have to have skills, even if mostly basic it's honestly time and effort that matters more than anything else. 

[Sindobook]

Multi:

1) The contest is here:  http://www.dpreview.com/challenges/Challenge.aspx?ID=3520
And no it is not my contest or in any way related to me.
Stay safe and have fun.

2) Yes I am fully aware of that spike, there is definitely a spike there, but no, I don't know what the origin is.  It happened just several hours ago, and it takes at least 24 hours (sometimes more) for analysis data to come in.  Please just be patient, it's not an emergency by any means; the incident was months ago and there's really not a lot there. 

3) Yeah it's kinda sad. 
Most of mine end up saying this:
This video is most popular with these groups:  Gender / Age
1) Female / 13-17
2) Male / 35-44
3) Male / 45-54
4) Female / 18-24
I don't know how accurate the data really is but

[Sindobook]

I think I know what happened, and I'm not going to go into much detail b'cos this is honestly a pretty boring topic for me.

The video was taken 5+ months ago, and the reason it suddenly generated so much controversy was b'cos someone decided to post a link to it from the fb page or a 4c thread about pets, or some combination thereof.

When asked, Mr. Sparkles volunteered this description of the incident.

At the local small animal meet, N and C playing together, with N climbing onto C's back and so on.  Suddenly out of nowhere M appears and decides she wants to play too, she tries to hop onto N's back but can't, then she tries to paw N off C's back, presumably so she can climb onto C's back in her place.  Finally she just hovers around the two of them and generally acts annoying.  At one point, C starts to look a bit perturbed, she blocks M but M just won't let up, then M even put her paws around N and picks her up for a short time, etc.  This continues for about a minute until C says rather forced 'all right everyone let's all hop around' to the rest of the bunnies in order to distract M, at first some of the bunnies question this but most follow suit and M is distracted enough by constant hopping that she stops bothering N and C.

In the after-incedent report, Simon talked to N and C, neither of whom could outright recognize M by sight or smell (before they met).  "Every time we tried to take a photo, she would appear out of nowhere and get into the photo with us.  I don't think she gets out very much.  We didn't think much of it at first, but by the end of the day it was getting really old."

Mr. Sparkles noted that M at one point tried to pull the same deal on K and her friend S.  But K gave her a stern/scary look while S and her one other friend flanked her, trying to look as imposing as possible.  M grudgingly backed off.  Afterwards he overheard K joking "annoying bunny is annoying" to her friends.

I've watched the videos again I really don't think much of it, it may seem kinda goofy but this type of 'annoying' behavior isn't all that unusual for small animals and if handled properly (ie. like K handled it) it generally isn't an issue.

For people / owners, when mixing your small animals, my advice is to just let them do their own thing and work it out among themselves.  95% of the time they will, the only time you need to separate them is if they start to fight outright and only then if blood is drawn. 

[Sindobook]

Friday
11:00.....Code Geass................Pool Deck
2:00.......Disney......................Pool Deck (By the Bridge) (Large gathering-Full Hour)
2:30........Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzzumiya...Pool Deck
3:30.......Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt....Pool Deck (By the Bridge)
5:00.......Nintendo...................Pool Deck
6:00.......Scott Pilgrim..............Pool Deck

Saturday
10:30......Angel Beats!..............Pool Deck
11:00......Final Fantasy.............Pool Deck
11:30......Arakawa Under the Bridge....Pool Deck
11:30......CLAMP......................Pool Deck
* 1:00........Vocaloid...................Pool Deck (By the Bridge)
2:30........K-On!.......................Pool Deck (North End)
3:00........Yaoi Gathering............Pool Deck
* 3:30........Touhou......................Pool Deck (By the Rocks)

Sunday
10:00.......Hetalia....................Pool Deck (Large Gathering - Full Hour)

If marked with a '*' I will be there for certain.
Otherwise, probably / maybe / maybe not.

Weather should be good for those three days.

I can't say which of these are for certain, but here is the list:

Friday
11:30am - Opening Ceremonies
4:30pm - Convention Round Table (Chaz, Hector, etc.)
10:00pm - What happens at the con, stays at the con (Spike Spencer)

Saturday
2:30pm - Vocaloid (Russell Chou) [will probably miss it b'cos of the K-On, Y/i, Touhou gathering]
4:30pm - Anime Club Meet-up
9:00pm - Don't kill your date (and other cooking tips) (Spike Spencer)

Sunday
10:00pm - Anime Fandom before the 'net (Helen McCarthy)
12:00pm - Touhou (Russell Chou)
3:00pm - Feedback (Chaz, etc.)
4:00pm - Closing Ceremonies

General intelligence and chatter points to a snake - in, or in the vicinity of - the admin booth, wherever that is (no idea).
At least one snake is purportedly going to be at or near the Panty and Stocking with Garberbelt gathering; and he's likely to have 2-3 other snakes with him.  If you plan on attending this gathering, please watch out.

Have fun and stay safe.

[Sindobook]

Yes, I don't believe the action was random.  And no, I don't trust him, not for a second.  He's a snake, and snakes rarely tell the whole truth; they lie, they deceive, they manipulate, they tell half-truths, etc.  It's their nature.

Some people, when they see on exception in thousands or tens of thousands of cases will seize on their paranoia and make it look like the exception is the norm.  But this guy is a snake; he's hiding a lot more, the whole story isn't out there.  He plead guilty in order to avoid a trial because that would mean the rest of the story getting out there. 

[Sindobook]

Multi:

1)

Yes, I can confirm Tuan Tuan's report.  I was there for pretty much the whole time, though I was only doing that about a third of the time.

He was there, along with all the other usual suspects.  I noticed him numerous times on the first two days, though never on the third day.

The only thing missing was his special item.  Maybe he had it with him but it wasn't out, he wasn't using it.  I can understand why he wouldn't want to use it (the item) in that setting.

One of B-'s old friends was there, disguised as a snake even.  He did a pretty good job, B- taught his people really well.  He was fooling the other snakes, though I don't think he fooled a lot of small animals.

2)

Absolutely not.  One boy and one girl, of average height and wearing nothing that made them stand out.  The girl was the dominant one.  I say absolutely not because in that exact same moment that they were looking for me, I walked right by them in plain sight and they did not recognize me.  So, go figure; seriously when will people learn.  They're only going to find me if I want them to.  I say the girl was the dominant one because she was the one doing all the talking and acting / showing all the initiative.  The boy was just standing by her side, and never acted on his own.

[Sindobook]

1) Yes it can be a problem, and I've seen it happen to my friends.  But honestly I've never been caught by anyone like that.  Learn the different techniques for avoiding it, sidestep, dodge, straight-arm, etc.  I figure if someone ever did manage to catch me, I'd probably just end up intentionally falling over on top of them, or something like that.

2) Maybe I need to clarify, if you look at his stuff, it's should be obvious he was using his special item.  But, I never observed him using it, so that is what I reported.

3) No.  Not recommended.  Absolutely not.

In essence it's proof that the problems from several months ago have subsided, bringing with them a whole host of new problems.  It's so popular that now you are starting to see general perverts and fetishists coming out of the woodwork and latching onto whatever and whoever they can get their dirty old hands on.  They're starting to organize, working together, forming their own support groups, online and off, etc.  I wouldn't call them enthusiasts because they are not they are not there for the love.  They don't care for the music, the genre, etc.  They have no real purpose to the community, they're there to satisfy themselves and their fetishes.  At the outset, these people may not be dangerous, but when they are not able to get what they want, they will start grasping at what is within range, progressively becoming more desperate and more dangerous. 

4) I shouldn't have to say "I told you so".  What I said above (#3) should be obvious by now.

5) It's easy to misunderstand this topic.  But let me say, if you examine the common practice today, I am against that.  It rarely produces good results, it rarely produces _relevant_ results.  If you want to talk about it more in depth, PM me on Skype when I am around.

[Sindobook]

There are bad apples in every organization.  Any organization of sufficient size is going to have them.  The main thing to pay attention to is how they deal with those bad apples when they do surface. 

There's really not much for me to say here.  It's all pretty much ignorable to me.

[Sindobook]

No.  These are largely marketing efforts designed to get or draw attention.  Otherwise, they are meaningless.  Just ignore them.

In 2005 the XPSL would regularly host tournies with prize money in the $10K to $40K range.  At its height, it hosted a masters tournament with a price tag of roughly a million dollars that included a $100K payout.  The money for these payouts came primarily from sponsorship, something that the XPSL had a lot of (several major manufacturers, a magazine, and so on). 

These numbers are minuscule compared to popular sports, but they were unlike anything that the rather small extreme sport's 'pro' teams had ever seen.  Every year the numbers would increase, culminating in 2006-2007 until in 2008 when the XPSL just suddenly disappeared off the rader.  By the end of 2008, the parent organization of the XPSL had declared bankruptcy, as did another league, the NPPL.

Today, barely two years later, the name XPSL is virtually unknown.  Few have even heard of the defunct league, no one remembers the cash awards or the teams that won their tournaments.  The difference between the XPSL and other leagues (ie. NPPL) was the prize money, but despite that, the hundreds of thousands of dollars dispersed in prizes bought them little more than an obscure and often forgotten footnote among practitioners of the "sport".

http://thetaoteching.com/taoteching13.html

[Sindobook]

Don't worrey, it gets asked a lot.

There's really no consensus among small animals.  Or let me rephrase that, there is a consensus in that no one knows what to think or cares to think too heavily about it.

Mikey's long-term security planning group, aka. the "forward looking action team" met over the weekend but the response was just 'meh'.  The team decided to take a position of NEUTRAL.  Pig F, who took over "the pig's" gambling / odds setting organization, has set odds at 1:1, meaning payout yield is 2:1 minus the premium (actual formula is discussed on the website).  Small animals wishing to place bets can do so at their local commissionary and/or branch office.

I should also mention that in the budgetary part of the meeting, there was a symbolic / balloon motion to allocate agency resources to 'get to the hind end of the matter', but it was denied in favor of another motion to increase the bulk purchase of Oxbow 'cavy cuisine' from a local bulk supplier. 

After Mikey's meeting, Samantha released the official statement:  "This is a forward-looking matter of concern, but it is not one that requires immediate addressing.  At this point, there are too many conflicting reports, too much questionable information, and really nothing solid to go off either way.  Even if we investigated further, it would be a sucker's game to try to predict the way things would go at this point.  This one's really up in the air, so just keep your paws together[1] and we'll figure this one out in due time."

[1] A saying among bunnies that is roughly equivelent to "be patient".

One hour after I posted this, I got some more news.  Mr. Sparkles reported that two of his bunny friends, bunny "R" and bunny "D", have stated they will be there.  Shortly after, Samantha has stated that several members of the Bunny Brigade will deploy as an expeditionary force.  So go figure. 

[Sindobook]

1) Friday:
At 6pm, a small animal meet and greet will be held.  At 7pm, the Small Animal Commissionary / Branch Office will be trading popular items, bring your unwanted small animal items like pigloos, bunny hutches, or ferret items to trade.

Saturday:
At 1pm, there will be a small animal tea party[1]. 

[1] Political/Conservative "Tea Party" Activists are NOT WELCOME.  This is NOT A POLITICAL EVENT.

More is in the works, please hold on.

2) Most people I know today use the ABCDS phonetics, that is, Aztec, Brick, Can, Dorito, Snake.

a) Can, Standup, Cylinder
b) Brick, Laydown
c) Dorito, Taco
d) Aztec, Temple
e) Snake
f) X (standing up)
g) X (on the ground)
h) Moon

3) I've been asked multiple times about the post on February 15. 

There's still nowhere near a consensus.  But that is the way it looks like things are leaning.  "R" and "D" aren't exactly small fry in the world of bunnies, or small animals, and most do take notice when something like that happens.  And Samantha was able to give that order to the Bunny Brigade because there were bunnies basically ready or waiting to go there anyways. 

But in all honestly, it's hard to tell.  Day to day, small animals can be very fickle, they can be latched onto one thing and suddenly forget about it tomorrow or change their mind just like that.  In a few months, people will look back and this will either be 'the beginning of the tipping point', or it will be a small blip that didn't make any difference in the overall scheme things.  But right now, there is just no way to know. 

4) http://www.youtube.com/user/TwWwIsTed#p/u/6/rhGQr3zPPk0
Appears briefly at 2:37.

5) No, and this has been verified, "Pinkbunny" is not a bunny, or pink, or any kind of small animal at all, for that matter.

6)
Friday:
7pm Swap meet

Saturday:
11am Vocaloid
12pm Pokemon
1pm Small Animal Tea Party
2pm Final Fantasy
7:30pm Masquerade
1am Rum Party

Sunday:
12pm Fashion Show
1pm Cosplay Chess

7) Actual intelligence 'is really sparse', according to Mikey.  But, what information does exist, one general theme previals.  While sympathizers do exist, they do not exist in large numbers, they are easily overshadowed by the bad apples (2:1) and systemic or structural problems.

"I wouldn't bet on it.", explains Mikey, "No matter how you split a rotten apple, it's still rotten."

[Sindobook]

On March 11, 2011 (Friday), Samantha gave the order for full mobilization of the bunny brigade.  March 13 (Sunday), the entire brigade of roughly 270 bunnies was fully mobilized, and I'm told they all arrived safely yesterday (Monday).

Mikey will continue to oversee day-to-day security in the area.  To compensate for the absence of the brigade, local forces were joined by about 20 bunnies from the Joint Tactical Lepus Alliance to the north.  This group is headed by Ollie, please direct all local bunny brigade correspondence to him instead of Samantha.

No word on the length of the brigade's deployment, but I do expect it will be quite long. 

[Sindobook]

1a) Annually, it would be $200,000.00, seeing as how he was hired in September and made roughly $50K that year.  And, since he is only listed as working 20 hours a week, that would be about 16 weeks in the year of 2009, meaning his hourly pay comes out to $156/hr.  As expected, this is somewhat in line with typical wages for an executive of that stature hired on a consulting basis for an organization of that size.

1b) Travel expenses increased a little, but these costs aren't broken down so it's hard to see who they were spent on.  Possibly, next year's filings will tell more.

1c - all speculation) For 2010, his pay would be on the order of $150K (since he left in September 2010).  His contract probably lasted a year, at the end of that year his pay was to be cut to only $100K annual instead of $200K.  A NPO that compensates an employee in excess of $100K or more has to fill out all this additional paperwork, and even more paperwork if that compensation is in excess of $150K.  It ends up looking bad, ie. like they are less of a volunteer-based organization.

2) One is being planned 'on each day'.  That means 4 in total, and probably at the same time of day.  I think it's revenge for all attacks on UT/VO as of late.  It's not going to stand down, it's not going to go away, it's going to keep getting bigger and bigger and there's nothing anyone can do about it. 

3) Confirmed, and at the ______ festival too.  You didn't hear it here.

4) I don't.  I just shoot what's there.  Honestly if it comes down to it, you could say I'm a practitioner of 'no-style' or absolute minimalism.  If it looks 'bright and happy' that's just because, that's how it was.  Granted most things I do, they're 'bright and happy' things.

Technical fundamentals help you cope with limitations in the instrumentation, such as limited DR.  That's honestly all I do, I'm not trying to dress up what I see in some novel or unusual, novel, or artistic way.

5) It's done, I'm not just posting it here.  Too many stalkerz out there. 

6) I've read the reports.  The snake will be present on Saturday, for certain, but is labelled as 'no danger' at this time as he is operating alone.  Mikey advises to identify him by his (somewhat distinctive) appearance, not his special item, as he is not always using the latter all the time.  I suspect that he may be present on Sunday also, but that is just my suspicion.

If you want to talk to him, please be cautious, always outnumber him 3:1 at all times and watch for any sudden moves in your direction.  If you need assistance, feel free to grab a few members of the Lepus Alliance, they shouldn't be that hard to find in those distinctive uniforms.

7) The small animal(s) in question do not show up in any files.  I checked against every possible match I could find.  Nothing came up.  They're unknowns.  Mind you this isn't too unusual, there's a lot of small animals out there and most aren't in any kind of file.

8 ) It sounds nasty, I'd stay away, really there is no point to it.  Things like that can only go one way, they're never 'for the best'.  Even if you are into that kind of stuff, you should be asking 'what happens afterward'.