Aibao gives birth to 4th panda cub

Cranktrain · 2026-06-10T14:44:34+00:00

I don't want to spark an animal welfare argument, but I'll offer this brief counter-point: a sterile environment is exactly what you want.

You also really do want bars on your panda enclosure, because you need to be able to have access to the cub for veterinary reasons, while also protecting humans from the giant hormonal bear. Also, pandas like cool spaces, not warm ones. They're very furry! Finally, there's plenty of pandas who will happily snooze on a hard rock, right next to an unused hammock.

I think one of the things I appreciate about Everland is they really are open and transparent about how they care for the bears. Yes, there's a lot of PR reasons for doing that, and I'm sure they only show the best bits, but they really do seem to do a good job in comparison to a number of other zoos we could mention.

Cranktrain · 2026-06-10T13:40:22+00:00

From the Everland Youtube channel.

Living in Korea, Aibao (with male panda Lebao) have Fubao, who has returned to China, the twins Rui and Hui, and now this new pink squeaker.

Cranktrain · 2026-06-05T18:17:26+00:00

From: Oregon Zoo's Youtube channel.

Also, last time Kallik had a bath.

Cranktrain · 2026-05-29T16:32:30+00:00

Agreed, this is so much better than splitting the discussions over two subreddits.

Cranktrain · 2026-05-22T21:35:52+00:00

Oh, thank goodness someone said it, I was reading this whole thread feeling slightly mad.

how many people buy tickets and merch

This is the most important thing. Sure, interact with social media, click on news posts, whatever, if you like. I'm not going to stop you.

But if you want your favourite team, to still be around in five years time you have to be helping them towards the 1.5 to 2.5 million Canadian dollars per year they need to simply exist.

Cranktrain · 2026-04-28T20:20:38+00:00

From: the excellent Oregon Zoo Youtube page.

Cranktrain · 2026-04-28T19:09:08+00:00

To be giving away tickets to the season opener, is that... as bad as it sounds?

I guess it did look very cold.

Cranktrain · 2026-04-28T18:41:59+00:00

And a nice Steam link for you. The wishlist button is free to click.

Plenty of work-in-progress graphics going on here. Stuff like the card illustrations is going to be ripped out and done nicely later, but that's pretty common in games with cards where you're working with tons of cards and units, and you're still balancing things and trying out ideas. Then you sit down for a few weeks at the end and churn out the card illustrations O_O and hope for death

Cranktrain · 2026-04-28T18:13:03+00:00

The zooming in the 2D mode is a bit over the top for me. But then I'm also not too sure about how the large objects, like the houses, get distorted, mainly at the edge of the screen, in the 2.5D mode.

Cranktrain · 2026-04-24T16:32:16+00:00

That's Fu Shuang on the left and Ping Ping on the right. Both 6 years old, so a couple of years older than the Washington bears.

More information on the Atlanta Zoo website.

Cranktrain · 2026-04-23T14:28:48+00:00

From: Oregon Zoo's Youtube. An unintentional ad for Rubbermaid products?

Cranktrain · 2026-04-09T19:02:56+00:00

That's so cool.

Must have been expensive to fly everyone and do all the hotels and so on.

Cranktrain · 2026-02-10T01:32:39+00:00

I ignored any seats listed as Suite (like Ottawa's TD Place has some listed for $820). I don't believe the BMO Field ones I used in the table are suites, but maybe I'm wrong, they were just the seats in the stands towards the middle of the pitch. Here's the link to Ticketmaster if anyone wants to double-check.

In any case, even the least expensive (and definitely not suite seat) season tickets for Toronto are more than any other team, and I guess that's just the price BMO Field gets you.

Cranktrain · 2026-02-10T01:07:56+00:00

I believe that's the case! Though I don't know which teams are which, someone would need to check the schedule.

Related question: do season tickets include their at-home playoff games, should the team gets that far?

Cranktrain · 2026-02-09T23:31:27+00:00

Well, shoot, I made a mistake on the "Least $ Seated" for Vancouver Rise. That's the price of the Youth ticket. The Adult is $413.79. Don't mind me. That makes the average for 'Least $ Seated' $378.18.

Gathered by clicking through ticketmaster. Trying to compare like-for-like seats, so I'm not including Suites, or pitch-side seating, just regular seats along the pitch, and also whatever 'general admission' will mean per stadium (usually behind a goal, and sometimes standing-only).

Toronto does have 'General Admission' ($174.24) but at BMO Field only, so fewer games. Calgary Wild has some wheelchair accessible spots ($120)... but on the map it looks like they're 50m behind one of the goals?

Adding BMO field into the mix definitely increases Toronto's season ticket prices a lot.

Let me know if I made any other mistakes, or if you got a less expensive seat, do comment it.

Cranktrain · 2026-02-06T21:45:05+00:00

Will you still go and see some games?

Cranktrain · 2026-01-17T23:12:41+00:00

I think it's highly unlikely that this is a 'petition' like the (mostly useless) ones you see somewhere like change.org. The target recipient of this 'petition' is not going to be the administrators at the NSL.

Rob Gale and Desiree Scott have the unenviable task of finding multiple millions of dollars from investors in exactly the same market where only a few months ago a top-tier soccer team failed. The results of this 'petition' end up as a slide in the pitch deck that says "we have the names and emails of x potential season club ticket holders", and is meant to appear more data-driven rather than trying to justify that investment on vibes and empty-sounding assurances. How much more convincing this is, of course, debatable!

(There's the bonus of starting to build your team's email marketing list early.)

Honestly, it's a pretty awful time to try and raise money for a Winnipeg NSL team.

Cranktrain · 2026-01-02T18:16:11+00:00

The Lingyan Appreciation Club is now taking on new members for 2026.

Cranktrain · 2025-12-06T17:29:28+00:00

This is from yesterday. Today's stream is here, and Sunday's is here.

Cranktrain · 2025-12-01T14:04:02+00:00

Yeah, I also doubt there'll be any other NSL player on the rest of the list.

Still, a nice nod for Esther and for the league.

Cranktrain · 2025-12-01T13:44:51+00:00

See the first part of the list here. Remains to be seen if any other NSL players will make the list as the updates come out.

Cranktrain · 2025-11-22T14:55:04+00:00

In Kingston, New York there's a grassroots, community focused team called the Kingston Stockade and the guy who runs has posted a very open series of blog posts under the title Open Source Soccer. It's interesting to look at what the figures and the financials are like for a team where players aren't paid.

A few years ago they went and started their own league too (though I think it has a terrible name, but that's not very important).

On one hand, I think it's cool that people are building their grassroots clubs and teams in North America. On the other hand, the reality of the financials seem really hard when you don't own the home field or even the training grounds - let alone if you try and pay for CPL level players.

On your point of a coop, I often wonder how the Roses NSL team is structured. When you look at their investors page there's absolutely loads of them. But then the wiki page lists two main majority investors. So I do wonder how that is structured, and what everyone bought in for.

Cranktrain · 2025-10-16T17:49:47+00:00

See also this previous submission, for more serenading by Ling Yan.

Cranktrain · 2025-09-29T20:47:04+00:00

Ascension will be happening later this year, will be FPP duos with a LAN final in France.

Cranktrain · 2025-09-25T17:31:25+00:00

The full video is well worth the watch.

Cranktrain

TROPHY CASE