Extremely styled steampunk computer mods

Also check out his website.

Hola mis chico arco iris!

After my first bike ride on a broken bike in the first rain here in Ecuador, I decided to move my ass out of Baños to Cuenca. Cuenca is an old colonial city that has its beauty, but is still nothing compared to European cities. It is new because it is in a Latin American atmosphere, but ¨even¨ Utrecht may have more architectural beauty than this UNESCO world heritage site called Cuenca. Americans love it though because they have nothing like it in the States.

So after one full day I moved on to Vilcabamba, a very laid back, mellow and also relaxed village in the lower Andes (2000 m), where I slept in a lovely hostel with pool and great view from the restaurant. Sunshine, great hikes, relaxing near the pool and lots of bar fun at night kept me there for 5 days.

After Vilcabamba I left my Platoon; me, a British NGO manager and a German doctor. We called ourselves a platoon when fighting all the dogs along a hike and the staff of a hostel called us chicos malos (bad boys) after we barricaded the door of the German with benches, chairs, plants and a ladder. This was of course the idea of the Brit, after a few beers.
I thus travelled alone to Guayaquil. The commercial capital of Ecuador. It is a bit like Manhattan in Latin-America style and with a nice boulevard along the large river. Was fun to wander around for two days.
Then I moved to the coast, to Montañita, where I didn't surf because the waves were a scary 2-3 m high and I didn't yet feel like dying. Montañita was nice though and the full moon party was fun, but without cocaine. I haven't seen any cocaine since I've been in Ecuador. It is around and cheap, but it's underground.

There is a surfer in this picture!

After Montañita I moved on north along the coast to the small fishing village called Puerto Lopez. There I did a whale watching and ¨poor man's Galapagos¨ tour to Isla de la Plata. Galapagos is $1400 for 6 days :( We went on small boat with large engines and found some humpback whales that came up to breath. We followed them for a while and I even saw one amazing jump out of the water at 20 m of the boat. Too fast for a picture (here is one, not from me)... Amazing animals!!! The Island was very dry, but fun because of some cool seabirds like the blue footed boobies and albatrosses. On the way back we snorkeled with 1 m long tortoises and some colorful fish.

My previous two days were very long bus travel trips. Bus drivers here are totally mad. They lake to race each other on mountain roads with many blind turns. If people complain, they go even more crazy :) I love the racing! I saw one nice street fight from the bus. The bus stops driving and parks for a good view of the fight... I love the bus drivers here.

The bus ride from the Andes to the jungle was amazing. I'm now in a town, Tena, surrounded by tropical rain forest. I love all the trees and the green. The weather is good and it is only 26 C. Mosquitos are everywhere at night, but at daytime it is fine. I just arrived here and haven't seen much of the jungle yet. That's what I plan to do in the upcoming days. A jungle camping tour, canopy tower view and rafting in the jungle. It is hard to organize a tour because I'm alone and there aren't many travellers here. I may have just have to go to some basecamp in the jungle and do daytours from there...

'New' Study: More than 1,000,000 Iraqis murdered

Strangely, in contrast the the older study in the Lancet that reported 654,965 deaths, this new study has received almost no media attention.

September 2007 - More than 1,000,000 Iraqis murdered In the week in which General Patraeus reports back to US Congress on the impact the recent ‘surge’ is having in Iraq, a new poll reveals that more than 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have been murdered since the invasion took place in 2003. Previous estimates, most noticeably the one published in the Lancet in October 2006, suggested almost half this number (654,965 deaths). These findings come from a poll released today by ORB, the British polling agency that has been tracking public opinion in Iraq since 2005. In conjunction with their Iraqi fieldwork agency a representative sample of 1,499 adults aged 18+ answered the following question:- QHow many members of your household, if any, have died as a result of the conflict in Iraq since 2003 (ie as a result of violence rather than a natural death such as old age)? Please note that I mean those who were actually living under your roof. None 78% One 16% Two 5% Three 1% Four or more 0.002% Given that from the 2005 census there are a total of 4,050,597 households this data suggests a total of 1,220,580 deaths since the invasion in 2003. Calculating the affect from the margin of error we believe that the range is a minimum of 733,158 to a maximum of 1,446,063 Full Article...

IMO the method of questioning in this study is very valid though I don't know the reliability of applying the found figures to the whole country. More research is definitely needed. It's unbelievable that numbers of these go virtually unnoticed and most people still go by the Iraq Body Count number (73,922 – 80,560 ATM) which only counts the cases documented in the media. Giving meaning to these high numbers is hard, but it's higher than the death toll from Rwanda though not as genocidal, more sectarian. Much higher than the number of people dying in Darfur.

juggling with only your hands is for noobs

I can do this but I just don't want to.

Holding on to Traditions, the Conservative View

we're all monkeys

puts things in perspective

Internet Memes

meme (Pronounced "meem") A trend, belief, fashion or phrase that is passed from generation to generation through imitation and behavioral replication. Coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book "The Selfish Gene," memes and memetics are the cultural counterpart to the biological study of genes and genetics. Using the evolution analogy, Dawkins observed that human cultures evolve via "contagious" communications in a manner similar to the gene pool of populations over time.

Everyone will recognize a few of these. Here is a list of all of the individual memes in order, with links.

Three Brazilian Soldiers

Conspiracy Theories

Pico Projector

Check out this miniature projector.

This technology will be big. Really handy for all those devices with small screens. Combine this with a virtual keyboard and further miniaturization and you could have a fully functioning PC inside a PDA :)

Google is Going to Suck

From Computerworld: Google Inc. is testing a new interactive ad format to give advertisers new ways to reach users online. Google Gadget Ads, which are being tested by a small, select group of Google AdWords advertisers, are being expanded to include more advertisers, according to Google. The company is hoping the new service will lead to people viewing more ads online. Google said Gadget Ads will allow advertisers to interact with users in new ways and hold users' attention for longer time periods than regular ads. Advertisers will also be able to see how many users interact with the ads, as well as how they interacted with the ads, Google said. Gadget Ads are small software applications, or widgets, that combine real-time data feeds, images and video with traditional advertising content, according to the statement. They can be developed using Flash, HTML or both, Google said. The ads look like small Web pages within a Web page, and users can also embed them into their blogs or iGoogle home pages. Gadget ads are built on an open system, so anyone can set up and run ads on the Google content network, Google said.

Examples can be found here. I used to respect Google for using non invasive text ads, now they are being cash hungry bitches and fucking everything up. I hope they don't go through with this. Otherwise I'll AdBlock their asses.

World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion

world freehand circle drawing. this is the thing i wana focus on hole my life! for the site: www.freehandcircles.com

Ten Reasons Gay Marriage is Un-American

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

Many many much

Separatism in the Netherlands

Standing on the station of Delft, I noticed this sign. Please note the sign reads "International train", while it's heading for Venlo, a city within the borders. I think I've spotted one of the first signs that the transition is near...
The Netherlands will soon be a lot smaller, once we've dumped those suckers living outside the randstad. No more R-tarded farmers, no more people with stupid dialects, no more christian bible belt.
And above all: No more conservative pigs who don't have a fucking clue about politics!
Vive la revolution!!

Skiing and snowboarding is for pansies

This is how real men go down a mountain.

I'm inclined to add the stupid tag, cause this activity looks extremely likely to kill oneself.

train market

multi functional space use to the max. And you got some better assortment kiosks as at our train stations. Got no idea where this is do

squirrel obstacle course

jumping from 1 tilting platform to another is peanuts to them. If only pimp named slick could be as cool as this squirrel.

Self Immolation

Self immolation is the practice of committing suicide by fire. Often this is done to protest against something. Thich Quang Duc is pictured here on the World Press Photo of 1963, protesting the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam's Ngo Dinh Diem administration.

There was even a video made of the event. *Viewer discretion is advised* Whereas most people who put them self on fire start running, screaming or flailing their limbs this monk shows amazing fortitude by remaining motionless in a meditative position until his death. So scary and bizarre, I don't know what more to say about it.

Magical Bat

Magical bat, it looks strange in my opinion. But now we have to wait a hundred years to see it happen again.

Einstein's Face Illusion

Cool hollow mask illusion. pretty cool skills to make sutch a thing

Google Lunar X Prize

X PRIZE Founder – Peter H. Diamandis, MD It has been many decades since we explored the Moon from the lunar surface, and it could be another 6 - 8 years before any government returns. Even then, it will be at a large expense, and probably with little public involvement. The Google Lunar X PRIZE seeks to create a global private race to the Moon that excites and involves people around the world and, accelerates space exploration for the benefit of all humanity. The use of space has dramatically enhanced the quality of life and may ultimately lead to solutions to some of the most pressing environmental problems that we face on earth – energy independence and climate change. The X PRIZE Foundation could think of no better sponsor and partner than Google. We share a common vision for opening frontiers and a belief that a small dedicated group of individuals can accomplish amazing feats at very low cost.

PRIZES: The total purse of the Google Lunar X PRIZE is $30 million (USD). • GRAND PRIZE: A $20 million Grand Prize will be awarded to the team that can soft land a craft on the Moon that roams for at least 500 meters and transmits a Mooncast back to Earth. The Grand Prize is $20M until December 31st 2012; thereafter it will drop to $15M until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation • SECOND PRIZE: A $5 million Second Prize will be offered as well, providing an extra incentive for teams to continue to compete, and increasing the possibility that multiple teams will succeed. Second place will be available until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation • BONUSES: An additional $5 million in bonus prizes can be won by successfully completing additional mission tasks such as roving longer distances (> 5,000 meters), imaging man made artifacts (e.g. Apollo hardware), discovering water ice, and/or surviving through a frigid lunar night (approximately 14.5 Earth days). The competing lunar spacecraft will be equipped with high-definition video and still cameras, and will send images and data to Earth, which the public will be able to view on the Google Lunar X PRIZE website. Personally, I think this is way too ambitious. The previous X Prize only got a "spacecraft" to a 100km and nowhere near orbital speed. A better step would be to go orbital, before thinking about landing a craft on the moon.

Levitating a Car, Firemen Style

Stuck in Customs HDR Photography

Trey Ratcliff is a photographer who specializes in HDR photos. On his blog, Stuck in Customs, you can see his work. The idea behind HDR is to capture the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows. I don't know how much more realistic these scenes are, but HDR sure does give an incredible richness to the colors.

Prank War

This is part one of an ongoing Prank War between two members of the staff at College Humor.

This first one isn't that great, but they get increasingly better, craftier and nastier as you go along. It's really worth the time to watch all of them. I'm waiting till it gets to the point where Streeter eats his mother and father in a chili con carne cook-off :) Seeing as the guys are part of College Humor it could be faked, but that doesn't make it much less funny. Part 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

Hola from Ecuador!

Hello! I´m still alive! I have a great time over here and time flies. I´ve been in and around Quito for 3 days, climbed a non-active volcano there, 4800 m. Made me a little dizzy because it was only my 2nd day in Quito, my body asked for more oxygen. View Larger Map Quito itself was fun for two days (I´ll come back there my last few days). Its public transportation is amazing, like it is in whole Ecuador. You can get everywhere with the bus, wave your hand and jump on the driving bus. The more expensive ($1 per hour) long travel busses even have uber large wide-screen TV´s with horror movies playing at 9 in the morning. I´ve been on the equator at the commercial Mitad del Mundo, where I debunked the trick in a museum where they showed that water flushes in different directions on the northern/southern hemisphere. After Quito I went south to a beautiful farm/hotel near Cotopaxi, a semi-active volcano. I wanted to climb to the top with a guide, but the weather was too bad (snowstorms) so I just went to 5200 m, to the beginning of the glaciers and went down on a mountainbike which was a good ride. View Larger Map From the farm I went on south to the Quilotoa loop. I travelled together with a british guy (32), we waved a car on the panamericana and jumped in the open pick-up truck. That was a fun ride! The people here drive more crazy than in Croatia! It was fucking scary sometimes. Then we went on the bus to a small village in a beautiful mountain area at 3200 m, it was a 4 hour ride over a very bad sandy road through the mountains. There we slept at an ecological farm with self decomposing toilets, but with a great view while taking a dump. I´ve never seen so many stars. There is no light at all here, it´s at 3200 m and there is no moon! From there I made several hikes in the surrounding area, which was amazing!!! The best part was a giant crater lake in an non-active volcano and a cloud forrest at 4000 m! View Larger Map Today I moved from the Quilotoa area to Baños, which is located on the foot of a large ACTIVE volcano, the Tungurahua. View Larger Map It destroyed the area here in 1999 and is increasingly more active in 2007. The road to here was destroyed a few months ago by small eruptions and windows shattered at 8 km from the volcano. It shoots 9 km high ash clouds into the sky. I hope the (real)clouds are gone tomorrow so that I can actually see the volcano and the ash clouds :) That is, in very-short, what I´ve been up to the last 10 days. I´m using a very slow satellite connection here so I really can´t upload any pictures. Well.... How are you guys doing?

Jimmy Carr Stand-up

British humor FTW! :)

Zero Punctuation

Yahtzee is a writer and gamer who has a very interesting way of reviewing games. His critiques are hard hitting and very funny and he talks really fast. I find him superior to the Angry Video Game Nerd. In this clip he reviews the game Fable.

More here. I recommend the console wars video.

Angel Decoys

A picture of two Air Force C-130s releasing flares to divert heat seeking missiles. The pattern formed by these "decoys" are how they got their name... Angel Decoys
More pictures here.
And a video

Space Tourist Spends Entire Vacation Inside Space Shuttle

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL—Despite having never visited outer space before in his life and being completely free from the everyday demands of work, family, and gravity, space tourist Dick Knowles spent his entire 19-day, $7 million vacation holed up inside the space shuttle Atlantis, sources reported Monday. (..) "What's the point of training for months and traveling 3 million miles if you're just going to sit around some orbital craft all day?" friend and entrepreneur Jeffrey Plotnick said. "I hear that the universe is a great place for exploring. For all he did, Dick might as well have stayed home in Texas." "He didn't even visit the moon, for Christ's sake," Plotnick added. "Who goes to space and doesn't visit the moon?" Read full article

I'm almost done, can I finish?

A Winnipeg man caught with his hands full while surfing for porn on a university computer wasn't going to be discouraged before getting the job done, a court heard yesterday. The 26-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of committing an indecent act and three breaches of probation after security staff at the University of Manitoba's McDermot Avenue campus library caught him downloading porn from a public computer and masturbating on Aug. 4. Court was told the man made no move to buckle up when approached by security staff and said "I'm almost done, can I finish?" Read full article

Trippy Rainbow Color Applet

I thought this was appropriate for our blog, it's an applet where Rainbow patterns follow you mouse.

Link

Mythbusters Bloopers

If you enjoy Mythbusters, you'll enjoy this.

If you also know "Ask a Ninja" you'll like this too

Hans teeuwen: vrijheid van meningsuiting

hier ben ik weer! om persoonlijk het het niveau van het blog naar een nieuw diepte punt te laten zinken. Hier een filmpje van hans teeuwen over vrijheids van menings uiting. Jammer dat de drie dames die hem intervieuwen nul weerstand geven.

cybr: Pimp, Hans Teeuwen zong het liedje, waarin hij ook naar de Meiden van Halal refereert, bij de onthulling van het beeld ter gedenking van de moord op Theo van Gogh.

WE ARE BORG

Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated. Or maybe I should have quoted Terminator, the company is called Cyberdyne, why call it that? Who in their right mind is going to invest in Judgement Day? :)

10 Things you probably DID know about Wikipedia

If you've got your head way clear from your ass like most of us Rainbow Boys do, this list is probably nothing special. However, if anything it reminds us of the fact that few good men CAN make a difference. I guess.

1. We're not for sale. If you're waiting for Wikipedia to be bought by your friendly neighborhood Internet giant, don't hold your breath. Wikipedia is a non-commercial website run by the Wikimedia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in St. Petersburg, Florida. We are supported by donations and grants, and our mission is to eventually bring free knowledge to everyone on the planet.

As always, click the titel of this title for the full article. Update: A Pimp Named Slick complemented this list with some criticism, explaining why Wikipedia sucks. Thanks!

Hidden Flight Simulator in Google Earth

In the most recent version of Google Earth there is a hidden flight simulator which can by activated by pressing ctrl-alt-A. The following window pops up. You can choose a plane and a start position, don't forget to press help to find out what the keyboard commands are.

Here is a video of someone playing with it.

Google is perfect for a flight simulator, too bad that flight sims are boring, I hope there's a multiplayer arcade fighter plane version in the next one :)