Afterglow: Evening falls on Roche Bonhomme

Photo copyright Stephen A. Nelson

Big Bang 2013 Taipei 101 New Year Fireworks 新年快樂

2013 Taipei 101 New Year Fireworks HD 1080p complete 2013年台北101煙火 Taiwan - YouTube

新年快樂  

Happy New Year from a country where they "overwhelmingly value their democracy" but keep electing the party of dictators, while imprisoning those who fight for democracy. 
But it's the same old song from a people who "want to be the masters of their own fate" and yet refuse to do anything about it - except cry to the world and deliver up their messiahs to be crucified.

Turning Japanese - Let's Dance

Japanese girls are dressed for the the bon-odori during the Obon festival in the port city of Kobe.

Obon - with its bonfires and ceremonies welcoming the ancestors' spirits - is similar to the Ghost Festival in Taiwan or the Celtic Samhain.

photo copyright Stephen A. Nelson

Not Your Daddy's Dinosaurs!

Chryolophosaurus (copyright Stephen A. Nelson)

Chryolophosaurus is part of the Ultimate Dinosaurs - Giants from Gondwana special exhibition still on at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto. The show will be open for special hours during the holidays, till January 6.

This is the World Premier for these fearsome reptiles and this exhibition. It features dinosaurs that weren't in Jurassic Park, terrible lizards from the southern hemisphere that most of us have never seen before.

From the ROM's website: The first dinosaur named from Antarctica, Cryolophosaurus lived 190 million years ago during the early Jurassic. It would have grown to over 7 m (23 ft) long and weighed around 450 kg (990 lbs). Its name means "frozen crested lizard" which refers to the striking crest it sported on top of its head and the fact that fossils of this animal come from the cold bottom of the world.