killjoy32 wrote:hey folks

not that most here will probably be much interested in this, but frankly, this was a 3 part series well worth the watch if you have 3 hours to spare

Lost Land of the Tiger

Yes, this was a great series, but I really didn't understand the initial premise.

It was "oh, I wonder if tigers live near the Tigers Nest Monastery?"

You would have thought there was a clue in the name...

Cheers,
Malc

I have certainly been duped by fake DVDs but I think if I were a hardcore fan I would know the difference. I picked up a dvd set of Cowboy Bebop at Dragon*con one year because it was cheap. I could not tell it was pirated until my friend informed me several months later that it was. It was very very nicely done and the quality was DVD quality.  There is also a booth in the downstairs dealer room every year that just sells obscure dvds, makes me wonder how many of them are knock offs.

Big discovery:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/2 ... 41707.html

Two of my friends are doing conservation work in Bhutan, but haven't been so lucky.

bombadil wrote:Big discovery:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/2 ... 41707.html

Thus disproving that one mountain cannot abide two tigers? *jk*

Ah... I can't seem to get away from this one, it seems; either IRL or online.

I've not seen the programme save for the now-clichéd "laptop breakdown" segment released in advance but could someone at least let me know why they didn't expect to find tigers in the mountains? And I refuse to believe that Alan Rabinowitz would make comments such as "tigers are thought of as jungle creatures" unless he was, at least in part, taking a public poke at General Ignorance (outranking even Major A.S. Deficit?).

"Tigers above the treelines" is seriously old-hat elsewhere in former range (Bhutan being closed for a long time, of course) but if it's not in Western literature it didn't happen... just like those irbis photos in the wild and being captured for zoos in Russian publications decades before Schaller's "Milestone in Wildlife Photography".
(For high altitude tigers see, for example, Sergei Alpheraki back in 1891 in his travel notes for Kuldzha and Tien-Shan - cited also in Ognev - where he was perfectly matter-of-fact about such casual wanderings above the tamarisk treelines in mountainous parts of Turkestan (albeit only 8,000 ft in that locale), particularly in the summer).

bombadil wrote:Two of my friends are doing conservation work in Bhutan, but haven't been so lucky.

It's the long game that counts, of course.
Best wishes to y'all and for other ongoing work, as ever.

I don't have the background to begin to understand the impact of the find (except from a very rudimentary standpoint).  But it's always a powerful moment when someone with true passion talks about something - almost brought a tear to my eye too.

The big news in my field lately was a faster max-flow network algorithm

I've got a question for the wise men (and the couple of women) of the Acaeum.

I bought a d20 book on eBay, which isn't particularly rare.  It was described as being in excellent condition.  I paid $8.50, and $4.00 shipping.  It took much longer to arrive than I had expected.  So it finally shows up today.  It was wrapped in brown paper, without backing boards or other protection.  In addition, it was, very clearly, in fact run over by some vehicle.  Really.  The paper wrapping is heavily ripped, with a long black tire mark along one entire side.  All things considered, the book fared reasonably well.  It's got some severe bending, and the cover is bent and ripped in a few places.  It's certainly still readable, and it isn't like I was buying it for its pristine condition . . . but it certainly isn't in "excellent" condition anymore.

Now, it would have been nice for it to have been better packaged.  On the other hand, given the damage, I'm not sure backing boards would have helped any.

So, my question.  What do I do for feedback?  I still think the price I paid was reasonable, so I'm not looking for money back.  The seller doesn't sell all that frequently, but has 100% feedback.  As soon as I paid, he gave me positive feedback, which I always appreciate from a seller.  And it was mailed two days after I paid.  The decision of the USPS to run over the package wasn't his fault.  But I do normally expect a little more care in the packaging.  Thoughts?

Seems like a weird bit of karma worked out for a novice seller.  He didn't pack well, but what happened was so extraordinary that packing wouldn't help.  And, you want to keep the book anyway.  



I would probably point it out just like that I stated above, but wish him all the best luck selling on ebay.  But, let him know he probably should pack better, because most buyers will not be as forgiving as you are in this case.  If he is going to be so lucky as have the post office drive on top of a package and not face an angry buyer or a return... at least point it out and ask him to pay the patience forward in some nice way.

I love Colorado

Reminds me of home

Pipswich wrote:Seems like a weird bit of karma worked out for a novice seller.  He didn't pack well, but what happened was so extraordinary that packing wouldn't help.  And, you want to keep the book anyway.  

I would probably point it out just like that I stated above, but wish him all the best luck selling on ebay.  But, let him know he probably should pack better, because most buyers will not be as forgiving as you are in this case.  If he is going to be so lucky as have the post office drive on top of a package and not face an angry buyer or a return... at least point it out and ask him to pay the patience forward in some nice way.

Ditto.  Give him a positive, ask him to pack better, and write "DO NOT BEND" on the package in large letters.  Thank goodness it wasn't something valuable or highly desirable.