I always expect to see your names in one of these...

[Drunk Monk]

Thanks for your understanding.

Now strap into those knicker and give us some more of those cutesy boops. Make it rain. 

[Drunk Monk]

baseball...

...the other knicker-wearing 'sport.'

[Drunk Monk]

It's the caption that gets me...

[Drunk Monk]

Queen insists on using ceremonial sword to cut cake
The monarch brought smiles and laughter to the Eden Project in Cornwall through her ‘unusual’ cake-cutting methods
Celine Wadhera
6 hours ago



Queen uses ceremonial sword to cut cake during Eden Project engagement

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The Queen insisted on using a ceremonial sword to slice a cake at a royal function in Cornwall, prompting smiles and laughter from the Duchesses of Cornwall and Cambridge.
The monarch was handed the sword by Edward Bolitho, the Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall, to cut a large cake in celebration of the Big Lunch initiative at the Eden Project.
Although she was told by an aide that a conventional knife was available for use, the Queen replied: “I know there is, this is more unusual”.
Camilla assisted the in cutting through the final part of the cake.
Patrick Stewart, executive director of the Eden Project, an educational charity and eco-destination in Cornwall, said of the royals’ visit: “It is like comets — they don’t come around very often”.
“The important thing for me was there was every reason not to do it.
“The fact that they judged that with the eyes of the G7 that there was an opportunity — with the risk of missing trains and everything else — to be able to listen to some of the heartfelt stories of people here.
“It was absolutely priceless.”
The Big Lunch is an annual gathering of neighbours and communities at the Eden Project, where people are encouraged to get to know one another, while sharing food and building friendships. It was launched in 2009 with The Duchess of Cornwall is a patron of the event.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the Big Lunch has been virtual, but next year it is set to be an official part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebration in May.
The 20 guests this year were local volunteers who had been nominated for their services; among them were care workers who were on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Queen thanked them for the support that they had given to those in need in their communities during the pandemic.
The Queen also hosted an open-air reception at the Eden Project, where she was joined by G7 world leaders and the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US president Joe Biden, and Canadian prime minster Justin Trudeau were all photographed speaking with the royals, and a socially distant picture was taken to commemorate the gathering.

Again, the Queen brought about laughter when she asked the world leaders: “Are you supposed to be looking as if you’re enjoying yourself?”
To which Boris Johnson replied: “We have been enjoying ourselves — in spite of appearances.”

There's a vid. 

[thatguy]

Off with their heads!

—tg

[Drunk Monk]

Historic sword restored to former glory, returned to shrine
By YOSHIKI YASHIRO/ Staff Writer
June 19, 2021 at 17:10 JST
 Shota Kimura presents a restored sacred sword June 16 to Yoshifumi Fukukawa, head priest of Aoi-Asojinja shrine in Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto Prefecture. (Yoshiki Yashiro)

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HITOYOSHI, Kumamoto Prefecture--A samurai sword forged in 1665 by a master craftsman once again boasts a shiny luster following extensive restoration work due to flooding that badly damaged a local shrine's collection of 77 historic blades.
Torrential rains last July on the main southern island of Kyushu left the Aoi-Asojinja shrine here inundated with water. All of the shrine buildings were water logged, resulting in its collection of swords becoming rusty.
A crowdfunding campaign by the shrine led to donations far exceeding its initial goals, allowing for restoration of more than one damaged sword.
A ceremony was held June 16 to mark the return of the 60-centimeter sword created by master Kyoto swordsmith Takai Echizen Kami Minamoto Nobuyoshi. The words “Aoi Daimyojin,” a past name of the shrine, are etched into the blade.
The sword was presented to Aoi-Asojinja over 350 years ago by retainers of the feudal lord of the Sagara clan on his behalf.
When the shrine began its crowdfunding campaign last August, it set an initial goal of raising 5 million yen ($45,000). But that figure was reached just 90 minutes or so after the campaign began. Over the course of a month, 35 million yen was donated to the shrine.
Swordsmith Shota Kimura and his family members began restoration work on the sword last October.
“I had never seen anything like it in all my time as a swordsmith,” Kimura recalled thinking when he first set eyes on the damaged blade. “It was so badly rusted.”
As he had no experience in polishing a sword that had been damaged by exposure to water, Kimura gingerly tried a number of techniques.
He said the most difficult part was removing the rust while not erasing the carved characters on the blade.
Restoring swords involves a number of steps, such as polishing and bringing out the luster of the blade.
This time-consuming process meant that only seven swords could be restored as of June 16. Restoring all 77 blades will likely take about 10 years, Kimura said.
At the June 16 ceremony, Yoshifumi Fukukawa, the head priest of Aoi-Asojinja, carefully checked the swords presented to him by Kimura.
The sacred blade was placed in a white sheath that had the names of the 135 donors and others involved in the crowdfunding campaign written in ink.
“The luster has been restored to a level greater than before the disaster,” Fukukawa said after receiving the sword. “This has taught us that anything can be restored as long as everyone works together as one.”
The other swords will be returned to the shrine once the restoration work is completed.
The shrine is constructing a facility on its grounds to display its national treasures. The work is expected to be completed by summer 2022. The restored swords will be among the items displayed.

[Drunk Monk]

Grimes’ ‘Dune’-Inspired Met Gala Look Included a Sword Made From an AR-15

Gil Kaufman  3 hrs ago

Grimes

Grimes was a vision in futuristic silver at the Met Gala on Monday night (Sept. 13), rocking a Dune-inspired gown and enormous sword — which was apparently made out of “fermented guns” — to match her metallic mask.

The 33-year-old singer explained to Vogue that her custom body-hugging Iris van Herpen gown — made of liquid silicone and hand-pleated silk — was based on David Lynch’s legendary 1984 adaption of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel Dune. The film has been re-made with Met co-host Timothée Chalamet, and is due out on Oct. 22.

“We were working with the Dune movie people,” Grimes told the mag, explaining that the film’s producers hired her as “a professional fan, or like, an influencer or something.” But after they couldn’t nail down anything official, she just kind of winged it and went her own, unofficial way.

The startling look — which reportedly took 900 hours to fashion — included a shiny silver metal face mask, lavender lace-up Marc Jacobs platform boots, bejeweled eyebrows, a small illuminated book, and that giant, attention-grabbing sword.

Right.

Who is Grimes again?

[Greg]

Thief.

[Drunk Monk]

So possessive. 

Colonialist.

[Drunk Monk]

This coulda been us...

[Drunk Monk]

I try to not post too much downer news here but damn - Asunama's 1960 assassination. I didn't know that story before...

Assassination Shocks a Nearly Gun-Free Japan

July 8, 2022, 11:47 a.m. ET3 hours ago
3 hours ago
Daisuke Wakabayashi, Ben Dooley and Hikari Hida

Mourners at the site where former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot in Nara, Japan, on Friday.Credit...Issei Kato/Reuters

The assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a campaign rally in western Japan was especially hard to fathom because it involved a gun — a type of crime that is extremely rare in a country with some of the most stringent laws on buying and owning firearms.
Any form of violence is unusual in Japan, but gun violence is almost unheard-of. There was only one firearm-related death in all of 2021. Since 2017, there have been 14 gun-related deaths, a remarkably low figure for a country of 125 million people.
Expressing a common reaction, Erika Inoue, a 25-year-old designer in Tokyo, said the gun violence was hard to process.

“The shooting part is confusing,” she said. “There are guns? In Japan?”
Japan’s firearms law states that, in principle, guns are not permitted in the country. There are exceptions for guns used in hunting, but the process of getting a license is time-consuming and expensive, so very few people go through the hassle.


A person must pass 12 steps before purchasing a firearm, starting with a gun-safety class and then passing a written exam administered three times a year. A doctor must sign off on the gun buyer’s physical and mental health. Other steps include an extensive background check and a police inspection of the gun safe and ammunition locker required for storing firearms and bullets.


[img=600x0]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/07/08/world/08JAPAN-GUNS-02/08JAPAN-GUNS-02-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale[/img]

A security officer apprehending the suspect in the shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday. The weapon, a handmade gun, can be seen as it falls from the suspect’s hand.Credit...The Asahi Shimbun, via Getty Images

The shooting was all the more shocking because before Friday, even the idea of a political murder seemed like a relic of a long-gone era.
Tempers rarely run high in Japan’s famously sedate politics. Parliamentary debates usually don’t move beyond cat calls and faux outrage and even the ultra-right-wing groups that regularly prowl city streets in black vans, blaring political propaganda, are viewed as more of a nuisance than a threat to public safety.

Police protection at political events is light, and during campaign season, voters have plenty of opportunities to interact with the country’s top leaders. Videos showed Friday’s suspected shooter walking unobstructed in proximity of the former prime minister and firing a handmade gun.


Local Japanese police said the handmade gun used in the shooting was more than a foot long and eight inches in height. They also said they seized several handmade guns in a search of the suspect’s home.
Unlike the United States, where gun rights are a constant topic of debate, firearms are rarely discussed in Japanese political circles. Mass killings — in the rare instances when they occur — usually do not involve guns. Instead, perpetrators resort to arson or stabbings.
In recent weeks, Japanese media watched the spate of mass shootings in the United States with a mix of disbelief and confusion. After the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, The Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s second-largest newspaper by circulation, published an editorial calling the United States “a gun society” and said that another tragedy had turned a classroom into a “gun massacre zone.”

[img=600x0]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/07/08/world/08JAPAN-GUNS-03/08JAPAN-GUNS-03-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale[/img]

Police investigating the site where a knife-wielding man killed a police officer, then used the officer’s gun to fatally shoot a security guard, in Toyama prefecture in 2018.Credit...Jiji Press/via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Toyo Keizai, a prominent weekly business magazine and website, published an article last year after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol asking: “Why is ‘Gun Ownership’ a Non-Negotiable Right in the U.S.?”
“It is difficult for Japanese to understand why gun ownership continues in the U.S. even with such a high number of victims,” journalist Keiko Tsuyama said in the article.

Most Japanese people almost never encounter guns in day-to-day life even though police officers carry firearms. And until Mr. Abe’s shooting, Japan had almost no experience with the emotional and political aftermath of gun violence — something that has become a familiar ritual in the United States.


In 2021, there were 10 shootings in Japan that contributed to death, injury or property damage, according to the National Police Agency. Of those gun-related episodes, one person was killed and four others were injured. The figures do not include accidents or suicides.
Most of the roughly 192,000 licensed firearms in the country are shotguns and hunting rifles. By comparison, in the United States, where most firearms are not registered, the number of guns in civilian hands is by some estimates close to 400 million.
Political assassinations were a regular feature of Japan’s turbulent politics in the years leading up to World War II. But since then, only a handful of politicians have been murdered — and most without the use of guns.
The last killing of a national-level political figure was in 1960, when a 17-year-old extreme nationalist stabbed to death the leader of Japan’s Socialist Party, Inejiro Asanuma.
[img=600x0]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/07/08/world/08japan-guns-05/08japan-guns-05-articleLarge-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale[/img]

The last assassination of a national political figure in Japan: A 17-year-old used a sword to kill Inejiro Asanuma, leader of the Socialist Party, on a Tokyo stage in 1960.Credit...Yasushi Nagao/The Mainichi Shimbun/Bettmann/Corbis via Getty Images

That same year, another ultranationalist attacked Mr. Abe’s grandfather, Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, stabbing him repeatedly in the leg and sending him to the hospital.

In recent decades, what little political violence Japan has seen has often been linked to organized crime or to right-wing groups. In 2007, Kazunaga Ito, the mayor of Nagasaki, was shot to death by a gang member.


Journalists have also occasionally been targets. In 1987, a reporter for the left-leaning Asahi Shimbun was murdered, in an incident linked to right-wing anti-Korean groups.
Protesters have sometimes expressed their grievances by taking their own lives, hoping to draw public sympathy to their causes. Most famously, the novelist Yukio Mishima killed himself by disembowelment in 1970, after leading a small group of right-wing militants in a failed coup.
Gerald L. Curtis, a professor emeritus of political science and expert in Japanese politics at Columbia University, said that the deadly attack on Mr. Abe would reverberate through Japan’s politics.
“It no doubt will shake up the Japanese terribly and will reinforce the view that Japan is no longer the safe, peaceful country it has been since the end of World War II and has to change to deal with the new frightening realities it faces,” he said in an email.
“The question is how Japan’s political leaders respond.”




Daisuke Wakabayashi covers technology from San Francisco, including Google and other companies. Previously, he spent eight years at The Wall Street Journal, first as a foreign correspondent in Japan and then covering technology in San Francisco. @daiwaka
Ben Dooley reports on Japan’s business and economy, with a special interest in social issues and the intersections between business and politics. @benjamindooley
Hikari Hida reports from the Tokyo bureau, where she covers news and features in Japan. She joined The Times in 2020. @hikarimaehida

[Drunk Monk]

10 SEPTEMBER 2022/SF NEWS/JAY BARMANN

Victim In Domestic Violence Beheading In San Carlos Identified, Friends and Family Say She Feared for Her Life

A tragic incident that was the gruesome culmination of an abusive relationship turns more tragic and unfortunate with each new detail that comes out. And we now know the identity of the young mother who was killed by her estranged, violent boyfriend and father of one of her children.
While the coroner hasn't made her identity official, the father of the victim and her friends have spoken to the media in the last 24 hours and revealed that the woman killed in San Carlos Thursday morning was 27-year-old Karina Castro. (Her age was initially reported as 25.) Castro reportedly went on Instagram Live Thursday morning, hours before she would be brutally slain, saying that she feared for her life.
As friend Maricela Macedo tells the Chronicle, "She was talking about her baby daddy. She said that he had put a target on her." Macedo said she tried to record the live posting, but it ended before she could.
Castro would end up beheaded Thursday morning just before noon, allegedly by a sword, and at the hand of that ex-boyfriend and baby daddy of her one-year-old daughter. Investigators had not recovered the weapon as of Friday.
That baby daddy was identified Friday by San Mateo County authorities as 33-year-old Jose Rafael Landaeta-Solano. San Mateo County sheriff's deputies say that Landaeta-Solano returned to the scene of the crime after they arrived, and witnesses said he was screaming and vomited as he was taken away in handcuffs. Deputies said he suffered a "medical emergency" at that time. He was expected to appear in court in Redwood City as early as Friday, but it's unclear if that happened.
Castro's father, Martin Castro Jr., spoke to KTVU on Friday and described the relationship between his daughter and Landaeta-Solano as "rocky, questionable" and he added, "there was a lot of unstable behavior mainly from him."
Castro also spoke to ABC 7, and said, "Every time I saw her, I would beg her. Don't talk to him. Leave him and it seemed like the more I did that, the more she would see him."
"I feel like this is a horror movie I need to wake up from," he said, this time to NBC Bay Area.
Neighbors tell the Chronicle that the couple appeared happy when they moved into the home together on Laurel Street in San Carlos two years ago. Castro was expecting her second child, and Landaeta-Solano, and she also had an older daughter, now 7, who had a different father.
But neighbors also say that they heard screaming from the couple's apartment on multiple occasions, and Landaeta-Solano was charged in an October 31 incident with misdemeanor battery and disturbing the peace. He pleaded no contest to the charges in April and received one year probation, and around that time, Castro reportedly took out a restraining order against him.
The San Mateo Sheriff's Office said they had had previous contacts with Landaeta-Solano, and the Chronicle reports he served three years probation in a 2012 case in which he was accused of rape of an unconscious person.
Another detail has emerged that points to motive — this from Snapchat messages between the victim and suspect in the days or hours before the killing. ABC 7 obtained those messages, and they allegedly included threats by Castro to expose the fact that Landaeta-Solano had had a sexual relationship with another man. Landaeta-Solano calls her a "snitch lip" and Castro allegedly says, "U wanna put a target on my back, ur homies gunna kno the real u." 
Landaeta-Solano reportedly said, "Fuck around and find out."
KTVU said that Castro's father was seen sobbing at the scene of the crime on Friday, and he told the station, ""I’d give my life for her in a second. I should have been here. And all I keep telling myself is — I failed. That’s how I feel. And I don’t want anyone else to feel this way."
Martin Castro Jr. also added, "If anyone you know has a relationship that’s questionable with a violent co-partner — get away, get away. I never thought that he would do this."
A GoFundMe campaign for funeral expenses and for the victim's children was set up by the victim's grandmother and has raised $33,000, over and above the $25,000 goal.
"I just want to thank everyone who’s donated to help my daughters kids, my beautiful grandchildren who have lost their mother to a senseless useless person," Geneva Castro writes. "Thank you all, this money will help them and help us give my daughter a funeral to remember I’m devastated broken empty and more hurt than I ever thought I could be by the situation but thank you all for helping us and the worst time of our lives."
[b]Previously:[/b] 33-Year-Old Hayward Man Identified as Suspect In Insane Beheading-By-Sword In San Carlos
[i]Photos via GoFundMe[/i]

San Carlos. Sure hope this wasn't a TC sword. Victory doesn't actually sell anything sharp, does it?

[Drunk Monk]

[Drunk Monk]

1 person killed, 2 injured amid altercation with sword in Vallejo
[b]By [/b]Greg Liggins
[b]Published[/b] November 13, 2022 8:41PM
Man allegedly stabbed with sword in Vallejo
Neighbors in Vallejo say a men they know was allegedly stabbed with a sword over a housing dispute. One person was allegedly shot to death during the same incident.

Vallejo Police are investigating a death on a commercial property where police say transients lived.
One witness said the victim was impaled with a sword. 
The property owner, who also lived at the site, was injured in the Sunday morning altercation.
At about 7:30 a.m., the 600 block of 3rd Street in Vallejo was filled with first responders. 
"It was like six police cars, it was four ambulances, it was three fire trucks.  Everywhere from here to over there blocking the street," Alix Santana said.
Police were responding to a report of a stabbing.
Patrick McMillan told KTVU he lives on the property in a motor home and said his 80-year-old friend and property owner came to him covered in blood.
"I heard banging on the door and went and it was Kurt and he said ‘I’m dying.’ I saw him with a sword sticking through his back and it came out his chest about here and a flap of his face cut off.  Blood," McMillan said.
Police said two people were injured in the altercation and one woman was killed, but they gave no details about who exactly was injured and how.
A witness saw multiple people being put into ambulances.
"They were taken on stretchers.  I saw one lady because she was the closest.  She had her hands on her chest or something.  I’m not too sure," said Santana.
McMillan said the altercation stemmed from a dispute between the property owner and people living on the site without permission.  He said the owner was trying to get them off the property and was getting close to his goal.
"Finally gone to the court a couple of weeks ago and they were going to evict them," McMillan said. "The sheriff was going to be out Tuesday morning to evict them, so apparently, they found out and at 2:30 this morning they were throwing rocks and stuff and trying to bang his door down,"
McMillan said he called the police to report what was happening and was told they were sending officers.
"They never showed," said McMillan.
Police ultimately responded when McMillan said he made a second call after his friend was stabbed.
Police have not confirmed to KTVU who lived on the property or who was injured in the altercation.
Neighbors say about four or so people staying on the site were often referred to as ‘The Cult.’
"What we have is a certain number of people who seem, how can I put this, seem a little bit off," Clinton Davidson, a neighbor said. 
Residents say those people often walked around nude and talked to themselves.
Those same residents describe the property owner as a man with a heart of gold.
They said he went out of his way to help people and take care of the neighborhood.
"Right across the street from my house there’s like a hillside and he basically would come up and cut all of the grass, pick up all of the rubbish, you know.  Anything," said Dominique Swain, a resident.
McMillan said his friend who was stabbed with the sword has been through surgery and is alert.  He said he’s been getting his information from the police.
There are currently no suspects in custody in the case, according to Vallejo Police.

Vallejo. Wonder if they shop at Victory or Tiger Claw. 

Oh wait...Victory doesn't sell anything sharp, does it? What kind of oppressive capitalist exploiter of labor doesn't sell real swords?

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

A smart one.