Tuesday, June 30, 2009

3D Porn

Hooray, it's about time. Though we need some home-screens to support it, cause I'm not gonna see porn in a cinema, and those red/green glasses suck. *Video contains no nudity

Monday, June 29, 2009

Liquid Helium Superfluid, a Physics Demonstration

A 39 minute 1963 film by Alfred Leitner demonstrating the remarkable properties of liquid helium when cooled below the lambda point (the superfluid state). 39 minutes in 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 parts (couldn't make a playlist because they don't all allow embedding) You can also watch or download the full free DVD and more demonstrations here. Maybe not for everyone, but I thought it was quite interesting.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

US finally stops the Afghanistan poppy eradication policy

The United States is set to overhaul its anti-drug strategy in Afghanistan by phasing out the destruction of opium poppy crops. Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, says the US policy has only put farmers out of business and engendered sympathy for the Taliban. -Aljazeera
Finally a somewhat more rational policy. Change we can believe in?

Moon Panoramas

Holy shit, I came across this super cool site when looking for pictures for my presentation. With modern computer technology, not available at the time, they have made panoramas out of the pictures taken by the Apollo astronauts. Smart of them to think about making panoramas while they were there. On the site you can look around the pictures with Quicktime and authentic radio transmissions are played in the background for extra effect.

How a Train Stays on the Track

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Friday, June 26, 2009

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Does this make me look... ?

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Pacific - Trailer

At long last, here's the trailer for HBO's "The Pacific," the long-awaited follow-up to Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's beloved WWII war epic "Band of Brothers." ... "I believe in ammunition!" "The Pacific" has reportedly a budget around $200 million which, if correct, would almost certainly make it the most expensive TV project of all time. The new mini has quite a legacy to live up to when it debuts next year.
I've blogged about this before when it was supposed to air in 2009 but it has been delayed to March 2010 :( I hope it's worth the wait. It's been delayed

a banana measuring instrument

Do you always have problems picking the biggest banana!
then this new measure tool is the perfect tool for you!
It also works on a cumcumber

The Biggest Camera Lens?

The MF Nikkor Super telephoto Zoom lens 1200-1700mm f/5.6~8.0s P ED IF. Weighing 16kg and measuring 880mm in an overall length and there is just no comparing optic to match this lense in its basic spec. More...

Monday, June 22, 2009

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Punkin Chunkin Torsion Class

This is how the big boys make catapults.
Pumpkins weigh between 8 & 10 pounds and the furthest distance was 942m.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Dinosaurs Say Hey

Friday, June 19, 2009

Mother fucking Big Airs

The tempory ski jump in our in our home town Utrecht, was called the Big Air an impressive name for an only nine meter high ramp. Giving impressive names for small things is a man habit gues.

Big air utrecht 2009

Anyway they did it a lot better in the fiftheys and seventys in America. I found this intrestting blog post at about this giant ski jumps http://www.deputy-dog.com/:

tempory ski jump in chichago 1954

ski jump in vencouver 1958 , +/- 50 meter high ( that the same as a 16 storey high flat)

Wonder why they don't make this tempory ski jumps anymore (i couldn't find them online anyway). Maybe the construction saftey rules are stringent now days, or itsn't lucrative anymore.

$257 billion spent on space last year

13 governments spent US $83 billion last year on space, with the United States accounting for four-fifths of that amount. By itself, NASA outspent the other 12 countries taken together, and the U.S. Department of Defense spent even more—quite a bit more, in fact. Yet for every dollar governments spent, corporations spent two. A little over half of that commercial spending was on satellite services, mainly direct-to-home television; most of the rest went to infrastructure.

LRO/LCROSS Launched

"The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a robotic spacecraft that the United States plans to place in orbit around the Moon. LRO will be the first mission with a primary objective to implement the United States Vision for Space Exploration. To successfully attain the goals of "The Vision", including human exploration of the Moon, LRO will survey lunar resources and identify possible landing sites. The orbiting probe will be able to provide a 3-D map of the moon's surface. Piggy-backing on the launch of LRO will be the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which is designed to watch as the launch vehicle's spent 2,300 pounds (1,043 kg) Centaur motor upper stage strikes a permanently shadowed region near the south pole of the Moon. NASA expects the impact velocity will be over 9,000 km/h (5,600 mph). The ejecta plume will be in the order of 350 tons (317 metric tons) and rise 6 miles (10 km) from the surface. It is hoped that spectral analysis of the resulting impact plume will help to confirm preliminary findings by the Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions which hinted that there may be water ice in the permanently shadowed regions. LCROSS will fly through the debris plume, and will then crash itself into a different part of the crater approximately four minutes after the Centaur impact."

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Lungs vs Gills

I tried to find the difference between lungs and gills. I know some of you already gave me the answer, but I'm not satisfied with "lungs work in air and gills work in water".

I couldn't find much detailed information in the vast web of internet stupidity, but their chemical workings seem similar. The surface area and the way to create this surface area appear to be the only difference between lungs and gills. It's a structural difference and not a chemical one. Water contains about 20 times less oxygen than air, which explains why we can't breathe water. However, this makes you think fish should be able to breathe air.

The problem is that the structure that creates the enormous surface area of their gills has to be supported by water. "Out of water, the gills collapse like wet tissue paper, and very little surface area is left exposed for gas exchange. Most fish, therefore, can only survive a short time out of water before oxygen deficiency catches up with them and they asphyxiate." What about zero-g? "even in a humid air-filled chamber at zero gravity, the gill filaments will simply adhere to one another.". Too bad...

Can we breathe a liquid if it contains enough oxygen? "If water could hold about 20 times more oxygen than it does, things would be different - there are apparently a few liquids (though not water) that can hold that much dissolved oxygen, and one can breathe a liquid of this sort". Despite their similarities, it is currently believed that lungs evolved from gas bladder that fish use to float, and not from their gills. All vertebrates use Hemoglobin for oxygen transport.

How Micro$oft Compares Browsers

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The Awesome Mantis Shrimp

Mantis Shrimp Boasts Most Advanced Eyes A mantis shrimp, or stomatopod, scans an area using two compound eyes that are mounted on two high stalks which enable each eye to move independently. "It is like having 10,000 telescopes looking out at the world," Caldwell said. Each eye is broken up into three sections and each of these sections has a pseudo-pupil, something very similar to a human's pupil. Because each one of these sections has the ability to see an object the mantis shrimp is able to triangulate the depth of any object using only one eye. In addition to their advanced depth perception, stomatopods have an extensive ability to see polarized light. [...] These stomatopods also have an incredible ability to see color. One look at the vibrant shell of a stomatopod will tell you that color is very important to their life. It is essential for identification and other aspects of their life. "Where our eyes have three different photopigments dedicated to see color, some stomatopods have as many as a dozen different pigments," Caldwell said. Full Article...
But that's not all, they also posses a club which is used to bludgeon and smash their meals apart with an acceleration of 10,400 g and speeds of 23 m/s from a standing start. Sometimes referred to as "thumb splitters" by modern divers — because of the relative ease the creature has in mutilating small appendages They can reach up to 18 cm, they will kill most other tank occupants in an aquarium, and can break very thick aquarium glass. It is for these reasons that they are often kept as solitary creatures in acrylic tanks. They are active, intelligent, curious animals, capable of interacting with their keepers. Mantis Shrimp @ wiki.
Mantis Shrimp vs Crab Also found a TED Talk on the Mantis Shrimp.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Banksy in secret exhibition stunt

Graffiti artist Banksy has pulled off an audacious stunt amid tight secrecy to stage his biggest ever exhibition. A burned-out ice-cream van is among 100 works Banksy has installed at Bristol's museum, replacing many of the museum's regular artefacts. The reason the museum was closed was kept secret from top council officials. Banksy said: "This is the first show I've ever done where taxpayers' money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off." Staged in the council-owned City Museum and Art Gallery, Banksy v Bristol Museum features animatronics, installations and a sensory display. More@BBC

Young World Leaders

Rainbow frog worshipped as a God

This newly discovered color changing frog was found in India. The founder of the frog gets daily hunderds of people to visit who see the frog as a god.
“By night the frog was dark yellow, and then it became transparent so you could see its internal organs," Reji, a life worker, reportedly said.
The frog is keeped in a glass jar (just like a real god) but he don't wana eat, so i gues its not going to be eternity for him.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Google Street View Greatly Improves Navigation

Eddie Izzard Illustrated - Jesus and the Dinosaurs

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What a wonderfully illustrated work to Eddie Izzard's great comedy bit. Here is another one on Noah's Ark.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Sorry Kids, The Pandas Must Die

We're not the only ones who think the pandas must die

The Amazing Bowerbird

Quite impressive building skills for a bird. Bowerbird @ wiki.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Monday, June 08, 2009

Switzerland Model Railway

Not really a model, actually it's tilt-shifted.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Golden Gaytime

I'd love to eat this kind of icecream in eastern Europe...

Omaha Beach, 65 years ago

degree test

Douchebag: Annom:Cybr: dekus:
Kamielkaze
Pimp:

Sizes of the Planet and the Stars

You've probably seen these before, but this is quite a nice one.

Friday, June 05, 2009

The ducks in the bathroom are not mine

From: David Thorne Date: Thursday 21 May 2009 10.16am To: Helen Bailey Subject: Pets in the building Dear Helen, Thankyou for your letter concerning pets in my apartment. I understand that having dogs in the apartment is a violation of the agreement due to the comfort and wellbeing of my neighbours and I am currently soundproofing my apartment with egg cartons as I realise my dogs can cause quite a bit of noise. Especially during feeding time when I release live rabbits. Regards, David. Read the rest of the e-mail exchange.
This is by the guy who brought you the spider.gif to pay his bills. Another good one: Matthew's non theme based fancy dress party. i don't know if these are real or fake, but they are quite funny.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Bruno pwns Eminem

Looks staged though as the camera zooms in on Eminem before it's obvious where Bruno lands. Still funny.