Nathan Myhrvold

wiki Myhrvold attended Mirman School, and began college at age 14. He studied mathematics, geophysics, and space physics at UCLA (BSc, Masters). At Princeton he earned a master's degree in mathematical economics and completed a PhD in theoretical and mathematical physics by age 23. He also attended Santa Monica College. For one year, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at Cambridge working under Stephen Hawking, studying cosmology, quantum field theory in curved space time and quantum theories of gravitation, but left to co-found a computer startup in Oakland, California. The company, Dynamical Systems Research Inc., sought to produce Mondrian, a clone of IBM's TopView multitasking environment for DOS. Microsoft purchased DSR in 1986 and Myhrvold worked there for 13 years. At Microsoft he founded Microsoft Research in 1991.

Myhrvold is a real polymath. In this TED talk he shares some of his interests.

He also has a cheap way to mitigate global warming through geo-engineering. Here's a white paper on the proposal.

He also puts too much emphasis on the H :)

transparent fishy

nice freak of nature

Sleepbox, an One-Person Hotel

This project is by the arch-group Russian architects. It's a sleepbox that can be placed on airports, stations, shopping centers etc. The box can be rented for 15 min to a couple of hours so you can take a fast nap. Too bad it's in the concept phase, i wonder how they solve the problem of sound isolation. For more info: Link

They also could call it the wankbox.

The Year in News Bloopers

Does Dubai have enough landmarks/icons?

Imagine that the Big Ben, Eifel Tower, Sydney Opera House, Tai Mahal and the Washington Monument where all placed in one city. To me it looks obvious that the “value” of the landmarks/icons would decrease. After all you can only put one icon at a tourist t-shirt.

I was wondering this because it looks like they only build landmarks in one of the new world city: Dubai.

A small selection of the landmarks/icons of Dubai:First of all they have the articial islands in extraordinary shapes that can be seen as a landmarks/icons.

Picture of the Palm islands

Also they got alot of skyscrapers (click link for all the skycrapers of Dubai) that are landmark worthy. Here are some of my favorites:

World’s tallest building Burj Dubai (nice site with 5 years photo archive of how its build)

Dancing towers made by Zaha Hadid

Dancing/signature towers

Burj Al-Arab world’s only ‘seven star’ hotel.

And then they got some new plans like the ‘deathstar’ from OMA.

Death star by Rem Koolhaas i assume its inspired by Star Wars

The question is are this to many landmarks?

As an architecture lover I say no, there are never to many landmarks! There are many city’s with lots of landmarks I take New York as an example. New York got the statue of liberty, Guggenheim museum, World trade center (luckly it wasn't the only landmark of NY), Brooklyn bridge, Empire state building, Chrysler Building, Time Square and many more. Nobody will say that New York got to much landmarks because they created a beautifull city and they all got another main function like being an office or museum etc. There is one Exception and that’s the Statue of liberty the main and only function of the statue of liberty is being a landmark/icon.

So my statement is a city can only handle 1 or max 2 landmark/icon with the only function of being a landmark/icon.

Some examples:

Paris: Eifel Tower

Brussel: Atomium

London: Big Ben

Washington DC: Washington Monument.

These landmarks/icons have as only function to be an icon and this makes them most of the time the main icons of the city.

In Dubai all the landmarks/icons have another main function like office, residential or hotels. All this buildings are all big investments for a small piece of the spotlight. I don’t know if they are worth the investment but they create a beautiful city that is impossible to ignore in future.

The only thing what is really missing in Dubai is a landmark/icon with no other function except for being printed on the tourist crap. So my Conclusion is Dubai need 1 more real landmark/icon. But only the future will tell how its end with Dubai.

Stop web sites from resizing Firefox windows

I have been bugged by this for a while. If you open links in Firefox in a new tab, some of them automatically resize your whole firefox window. I googled for a fix and it's easy.

# In Firefox go to Tools > Options # Go to the Content Tab # To the right of "Enable Javascript," hit "Advanced..." # Uncheck "Move or resize existing windows"

Fixed!

Man vs Emu

I really like the flying tackle. Emu @ wiki

1:10 scale Saturn V launch

NGC A replica of a NASA Saturn V rocket, the massive model broke the world record for the tallest and heaviest model rocket that's ever been launched and recovered—36 feet (11 meters) and 1,648 pounds (750 kilograms), respectively.

Quite an extreme hobby.

Phallus Slow Motion

"The champion phallus from this Meller’s duck is a long, spiraling tentacle. Some ducks grow phalluses as long as their entire body. In the fall, the genitalia will disappear, only to reappear next spring.

The anatomy of ducks is especially bizarre considering that 97 percent of all bird species have no phallus at all. Most male birds just deliver their sperm through an opening. Dr. Brennan is investigating how this sexual wonder of the world came to be."

Happy Christmas

NOS nieuws

Omdat ik graag zie wat voor een nieuws er van onze belastingcenten wordt gemaakt, lees ik af en toe nos.nl/nieuws (geen aanrader). Regelmatig kom ik fouten tegen, zo noemen ze het bedrijf/merk dat slechte snelheidsmeters maakt voor vliegtuigen Pitot. Dit is eigenlijk een type snelheidsmeter, zie pitot tube.

Het zijn vaak kleine dingen, maar er zijn er wel veel van. En ik zie ze alleen als ik er zelf verstand van heb. Dat betekent dat ik ze eigenlijk niet meer kan vertrouwen over dingen waar ik niks van weet.

Laatst weer een artikel over henneptelers waar ze het over 200g per plant hebben (in commerciele indoor groei) en een rekensom erbij die niet klopt. Het artikel was net geplaatst dus ik dacht, ik mail ze even en leg kort uit hoe het zit met vers/droog gewicht, doe de juiste berekening voor en vertel dat 200g per plant niet klopt en dat het vooral om het vermogen van de lampen gaat.

Krijg ik binnen een uur een mail terug:

"We hebben e.e.a. doorgerekend en gecheckt bij enkele telers. Een plant kan volgens die opgave wel degelijk 200g wiet opleveren."

Ik nog een keer gemaild dat dat wel mogelijk is, maar dat je dan een enorme plant groeit en dat commercielen dat niet doen. En dat hun rekensom nog steeds fout is.  Ook nog de vergelijking met de appelboom gemaakt voor de simpele zielen bij de NOS en een link naar wiki. Nooit meer een reactie gehad en in het artikel staat nog steeds "Een plantje levert ruim 200 gram wiet op.".

Het is een klein detail, maar laat wel zien hoe crappy de NOS is. Ik zal het de volgende keer weer proberen.

How the BBC makes those awesome timelapses

This is from the BBC Life Series: "Plants" which you can watch here.

In a studio! I always wondered about this. Actually I think that's kind of cheating. But I guess that it's impossible to do under natural conditions.

NS vs Bahn

My first mobile post. I have all the time because the NS is still playing drinking games.

All is Green Screen

I knew green screens were used a lot, however I didn't know they were so widespread and convincing.

"The Ultimate Rainbow Quiz"

Do you know enough about rainbows to call yourself a rainbowboy? Test your knowledge...

Man in a Clock

This clock does not actually have a man inside but a flatscreen that plays a 24 hour loop of this video by the artist watching his own clock somewhere and painstakingly erasing and re-writing each minute.

Imagine doing that for 12 hours to complete the sequence.

Julianapark

Nationale Wetenschapsquiz (5/5)

Vraag 13: Hoe zorgt het gif van de Australische tijgerslang ervoor dat je uit veel van je lichaamsopeningen gaat bloeden?

A.	Je bloed gaat stollen
B.	Je maakt extra bloedplasma aan
C.	Je bloedplaatjes worden afgebroken

Vraag 14: Wanneer is je verwachte winst bij de Staatsloterij het grootst?

A.	Als je een heel lot koopt
B.	Als je twee hele loten koopt met verschillend eindcijfer
C.	Als je een straat koopt (10 hele loten met verschillend eindcijfer)

Vraag 15: Waar droogt secondelijm het snelst?

A.	Onder een föhn
B.	Boven een stoomapparaat
C.	Voor een airconditioner

Dit waren de laatste vragen, de inzending moet maandag 12:00 binnen zijn.

Coconut Octopus

Octopi are awesome! This one uses two halves of a coconut as a shield and to roll around in.

12) C.

A vacuum cleaner uses less power if you block the hose.

Fuck the Shit!

Nationale Wetenschapsquiz 2009 (4/5)

Vraag 10: Hoe spant een spin een draad tussen twee bomen die een stukje uit elkaar staan?

A.	Hij loopt via de grond met de draad van de ene naar de andere boom en trekt de draad strak
B.	Hij schommelt aan de draad naar de andere boom
C.	Hij wacht op een windvlaag en laat de draad vastwaaien aan de andere boom

Vraag 11: Je metselt nieuwe stenen in een bestaande muur van je huis, maar ze zijn iets donkerder dan de oude stenen. Wat kun je het beste doen?

A.	De nieuwe steenlaag voegen met wit voegsel
B.	De nieuwe steenlaag voegen met zwart voegsel
C.	De nieuwe steenlaag bespuiten met een zoutoplossing

Vraag 12: Wat gebeurt er als de mond van een stofzuiger wordt afgesloten?

A.	De motor in de stofzuiger wordt zwaarder belast
B.	De motor in de stofzuiger wordt even zwaar belast
C.	De motor in de stofzuiger wordt minder zwaar belast

What really happened

Relevant stories: Michelle Obama keeps Silvio Berlusconi at arm's length at G20 Attacker Fractures Berlusconi’s Nose

extreme gaming

The gameboy is for noobs! When you are really addicted you buy a set like this. You can put the music off its kinda shitty.

Embryonic solar systems in the Orion Nebula

Looking deep inside the Orion Nebula, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning collection of protoplanetary disks – or proplyds – which are embryonic solar systems in the making. Using Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), researchers have discovered 42 protoplanetary blobs, which are being illuminated by a bright star cluster. These disks, which sometimes appear like boomerangs, arrows, or space jellyfish, surround baby stars and are shedding light on the mechanism behind planet formation. More...

The Morgan Freeman chain of command

Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)

Worlds best christmas card

To bad the supermarket (tesco) where they sell this card took all the cards out of the store after a ginger mum complained :(

total isolation

I remember Pimp-a-lot wanting to try this. Good luck

Nationale Wetenschapsquiz 2009 (3/5)

Vraag 7: Welk wapen had een neanderthaler meestal bij zich?

A.	Een speer
B.	Een knots
C.	Pijl en boog

Vraag 8: Wat gebeurt er met het gewicht van een usb-stick als je er bestanden op zet?

A.	Het gewicht van de stick neemt een klein beetje toe
B.	Het gewicht van de stick neemt een klein beetje af
C.	Het gewicht van de stick blijft exact gelijk

Vraag 9: Is het doen van push-ups voor lange en korte mensen even moeilijk?

A.	Nee, voor lange mensen is het makkelijker
B.	Nee, voor korte mensen is het makkelijker
C.	Hoe moeilijk push-ups zijn hangt van je lichaamsbouw af, niet van je lengte

DIY train

"The six-seater train - made out of garden furniture and salvaged train parts - was powered by an electric motor and even had its own refreshments car in the shape of a crate of beer.
Police however had to call in a helicopter to find and follow the makeshift train as the police cars could not follow it along the tracks.
"It seems to be one of those mad pub ideas that actually happened. They didn't seem to realise they could have caused a serious accident if they'd got anywhere near a real train," said one officer."

My new kitty cat truffel

My new kitty cat truffle, isn't see a sweety. My mision is to train the little girl so she can pown odin on the IQ test and in the ring.

Pretty night time Alps timelapse

He has also made timelapses during the day and morning.

FOX has trouble with percentages AGAIN

And at least on of their presenters is acting.

Here's the last time they failed at numbers.

Robo-Air Jet System Makes Objects Float

"The system consists of a gimbaled air jet with two degrees of freedom. The air jet is supplied up to 620 kPa through a DC motor-controlled valve. Stereo vision cameras track the objects, and a control algorithm uses the position data and a fluid dynamics model to adjust the air jet, varying its speed and direction to keep the object in equilibrium." - [full paper here]

Nationale Wetenschapsquiz 2009 (2/5)

Vraag 4: Wat gebeurt er als je op de maan een ballon opblaast en loslaat?

A. Hij loopt sneller leeg en vliegt sneller weg dan op aarde
B. Hij loopt langzaam leeg en zakt naar beneden
C. Hij loopt niet leeg en blijft zweven waar je hem hebt losgelaten

Vraag 5: Hoe lang duurt het ongeveer voordat een geheim dat eens per uur alleen door de laatste ingewijden wordt doorverteld aan drie nieuwe personen de wereld rond is?

A. Een dag
B. Een weekend
C. Een week

Vraag 6: Voor welke schaarse grondstof bleek melk in de Tweede Wereldoorlog een alternatief te bieden?

A. Smeerolie
B. Wol
C. Cement

Reverse graffiti

dirty street advertising!

The Pop-Up Book of Phobias

Also check out the Phobia List (530 phobias). Supposedly they are all real and referenced in literature.

The rainbowboys after 2000+ posts

Here is how the rainbowboys changed the world after 2000+ posts

First of all we got our own pornstar bunny de la cruz !

She is a bit chubby and she haves a beautifully "taste the rainbow" tattoo

Then we got this guy with some superior powers:

After years of training he finally mastered the rainbow fart

And of course when you are planning to take over the world you need some merchandise:

The rainbowboy hat

And this is my all time favorite. I always need to refresh my underpants if i see this one

The Nom Nom Cat

Sound like a possessed cat, might need a pet exorcist.

Nationale Wetenschapsquiz 2009 (1/5)

Het is weer tijd voor de jaarlijkse nationale wetenschapsquiz! De quiz bestaat dit jaar uit 15 vragen. Onze inzending moet binnen zijn voor maandag 22 december 12:00. O, ja, dit keer wordt hij foutloos! De uitzending van de finale volgt op 27 december, 21:10 op Nederland 2. Vraag 1: Kan een operazangeres met haar gezang haar eigen gehoor beschadigen? A. Nee, haar stemgeluid bereikt haar binnenoor vooral via het bot B. Ja, als ze vaak en lang uit volle borst zingt C. Nee, er is een reflex die ervoor zorgt dat ze haar eigen herrie aankan Vraag 2: Er ligt een olietanker in een bak water. Wat gebeurt er met het waterniveau als de tanker olie lekt? A. Het waterniveau stijgt B. Het waterniveau daalt C. Het waterniveau blijft gelijk Vraag 3: Wat gebeurt er met de golven op zee als je het zeewater vervangt door een vloeistof die per liter twee keer zo zwaar is? A. De golven gaan trager bewegen B. De golven gaan sneller bewegen C. Er verandert niets

Dutch Hockeystick

With the climate conference in Kopenhagen the coming days, climate change is hot again. Based on Al Gore's hockeystick, here is the Dutch hockeystick: Credits: sargasso.nl

2000 Posts!

Last post was number 2000, WOOHOO!! Current stats: Last 100 posts cybrbeast 56 Annom 17 Kamielkaze 11 pimp-a-lot bear 8 dekus 4 Douchebag 4

Mitchell and Webb - Sexist TV advertising

Great building modelling tool for Google Earth

Building Maker is a 3D modeling tool for adding buildings to Google Earth. It's fun to use, and an easy way to get on the 3D map. Start modeling at http://www.google.com/buildingmaker

For the Netherlands, you can only model buildings in Rotterdam at the moment. It works pretty good and it's quite smart how it uses the aerial photos to automatically texture the buildings.

Unintentional Rainbow

The Big List of Porn

For you streaming guys....

Spot the mistake

There's something not quite right with this pie chart.

WTF Card Stacking

Bryan Berg @ wiki Trained as an architect, Bryan Berg is the only known person to make a living building structures with freestanding playing cards. He uses no tape, glue, or tricks, and his method has been tested to support 660 lbs. per square foot.

7.6m tower: (Article)

Lenny Kuhr & Les Poppys - Visite

Wrecking Ball

Today wrecking balls have mostly been replaced by other methods. Too bad I've never seen one in action. Seems like a fun job.

Here is a time-lapse of a building being destroyed by wrecking ball over a period of 8 weeks. Didn't think it would take that long though.

More wrecking ball goodness.

Nice Optical Illusion

All identical diamonds, each with the same gradient. You can check out the image below in an image editing program if you don't believe it.

23 years of conscious coma

A car crash victim has spoken of the horror he endured for 23 years after he was misdiagnosed as being in a coma when he was conscious the whole time. Rom Houben, trapped in his paralysed body after a car crash, described his real-life nightmare as he screamed to doctors that he could hear them - but could make no sound. 'I dreamed myself away,' he added, tapping his tale out with the aid of a computer.

The truthfulness of this story has been criticized by none other than the acclaimed skeptic Randi. Is the story real or not, or somewhere in between?

Wired article Houben has since proven able to answer yes-or-no questions with slight movements of his foot. It’s a tremendous accomplishment, and raises the chilling possibility that, as estimated by Coma Science Group leader Steven Laureys in a Monday New York Times story, as many as four in 10 people considered utterly comatose may be misdiagnosed. But the legitimacy of interviews given by Houben and his facilitator to Der Spiegel, and shown on video by the BBC, may not be as certain. “I believe that he is sentient. They’ve shown that with MRI scans,” said James Randi, a prominent skeptic who during the 1990s investigated the use of facilitated communication for autistic children. But in the video, “You see this woman who’s not only holding his hand, but what she’s doing is directing his fingers and looking directly at the keyboard. She’s pressing down on the keyboard, pressing messages for him. He has nothing to do with it.”

Imagine how messed up it is for this guy if he IS conscious and sees the woman typing stuff that he IS NOT thinking.

MSNBC article Most troubling about the claim that Houben is communicating are the facts that he is doing so with the help of a therapist who points his finger to the keys on a computer keyboard. The therapist, Linda Wouters, has told news reporters that she can feel Houben guiding her hand with gentle pressure from his fingers. She feels him objecting when she moves his hand toward an incorrect letter. But, given his injuries, Houben should not be able to generate any pressure in his fingers. And if he can do so, why did no one else detect this ability over the past 23 years?

There is a simple way to test this. Say or show a simple word to Mr Houben while the person guiding his hand is not there. Then have the facilitator come back and ask Houben to write that word. If he can answer Yes/No questions with his foot, then you could also ask him, are you typing these words? We need more info on this story. I hope someone gets to the truth of this. Locked-in syndrome @ wiki Facilitated communication @ wiki

Skhizein

Having been struck by a 150-ton meteorite, Henry has to adapt to living precisely ninety-one centimeters from himself.

How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?

Sick, twisted and awesome music video

In the style of old school videogames.

Track is by Flairs - Trucker's Delight, graphics artist is Jérémie Perin.

Rare video of a rock slide

It is quite rare to get video of rock slides and landslides in general because they are very unpredictable.

A news article, and a picture of the aftermath. Here is older footage of a landslide in Japan

Self healing bio-concrete

Bio- concrete from the TU delft:

"Instead of costly humans having to maintain and repair the concrete, it would be ideal if the concrete would be able to heal itself. This is now possible with help of special bacteria. These bacteria are called extremophiles, because they love to live in extreme conditions. In dry concrete for example they will not only live, but they will actively produce copious amounts oflimestone. With this calcium carbonate-based material the little construction workers can actively repair occurring cracks in a concrete structure."

I saw the same kind of thinking in a Ted-talk some time ago:

here is the link

Kissing and rimming at the same time

From somethinbeautiful: A man of many faces, creates some of the most incredible masks ever seen. The eccentric face painter calls his creations “self-portraits” because he uses his own face as the canvas for his artwork. The 46-year old artist is halfway through his project to create a design for his face every day for a year, which he began in March after he was snowed in by 12 inches of snow and had to miss work. James got the inspiration from photo exhibitions of a picture a day. His 365 creations range from cartoon characters and animals to his favorite foods. More pictures

Video from the top of the Burj Dubai

At 818 m this is video from the tallest structure ever built by man. With the economic crisis and low oil prices a lot of buildings have been put on hold in the Arab world. Luckily it seems that the Burj Dubai will be finished beginning of 2010. The outside is already done.

YouTube showing full 1080p HD now

YouTube Blog We're excited to say that support for watching 1080p HD videos in full resolution is on its way. Starting next week, YouTube's HD mode will add support for viewing videos in 720p or 1080p, depending on the resolution of the original source, up from our maximum output of 720p today. And those of you who have already uploaded in 1080p, don't worry. We're in the process of re-encoding your videos so we can show them the way you intended.

As an example you can check out the Dark Knight trailer in full HD here. That is if your computer can run it. If you right click the video and press "show video info" you can see the amount of bandwidth and the FPS your computer runs it at. If this becomes popular it will require a staggering amount of bandwidth from YouTube. I'm quite surprised they allow it. More examples: Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus HD 1080p Trailer Prince Of Persia the Movie HD 1080p trailer Avatar HD 1080p Trailer

Cool interactive projection technology

whiteboardblog
Consisting of the LiteBoard projector and special pen/wand, the system will work on any surface—wall, screen, whiteboard, etc.—so there’s no need to mount an interactive whiteboard hardware.

The wand works by detecting patterns in the projected image that the human eye cannot see, communicating with the projector over a radio frequency to triangulate exactly where the user is pointing.

All information is passed to the computer in the same way as any other mouse/pointer device – so you could use this on any software.

Google Street View stopped by police

Bigger Map

Google Street View has added a lot of new cities in the Netherlands. But it wasn't all easy. Above you can see the street view car being pulled over by the police. You can follow the police car back for quite some distance. Apparently they weren't let go easily because the next pictures of the street were clearly taken at a different time.

3d power socket

3d drawing of how it works.

The 3d is way more cooler than the ugly distribution boxes I have in my house. This idea makes me feel stupid because I didn't think about it before them.

Kabouter Wesley

Het is slecht getekend en flauw maar ik kan er wel om lachen.

The Slingjaw Wrasse

CSI = retarded

Parodied on Red Dwarf:

scientists = arrogant gods of certainty

An opinion article in the Daily Mail regarding the sacking of Professor Nutt.

The Big Picture - Martian landscapes

A very nice collection of satellite pictures of Mars. The Big Picture is one of the most awesome photo blogs on the web. It doesn't have those annoying and slow slideshows so many other sites have. It's just one list of high quality pictures on a topic in the news.

Google Maps Navigation

Quite an awesome GPS navigator with a lot of advantages. Though I do see some disadvantages, like the high price of a phone and service plan compared to a normal GPS navigator. High bandwidth price if you don't have a service with a flat fee. Also it won't work if you don't have cell phone coverage, which may be a problem in certain areas. However this might be solved if they develop a program that determines if your route will fall outside of coverage and then caches the google maps route beforehand.

How a drop splashes in water

World's biggest cruise ship

MS Oasis of the Seas is a cruise ship in the fleet of Royal Caribbean International. With over 2,700 cabins, she can accommodate some 6,300 passengers. 360m long, 72 m above waterline. wiki

wiki While exiting the Baltic Sea, the vessel passed underneath the Great Belt Fixed Link in Denmark on 1 November 2009. The bridge has a clearance of 65 metres (213 ft) above the water; Oasis normally has an air draft of 72 metres (236 ft). The passage under the bridge was possible due to retraction of the telescoping funnels, and an additional 30 centimetres (12 in) was gained by the squat effect whereby vessels travelling at speed in a shallow channel will be drawn deeper into the water.[14] Approaching the bridge at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), the ship passed under it with less than 2 feet (0.61 m) of clearance. Video