Faces of Meth, why?

We talked about this some time ago....

Does use of methamphetamines (crystal meth) cause sores on the body (e.g. face, arms) and what would they look like?
One of the complications that can arise from using crystal meth is formication, which is the sensation that insects are crawling on the skin. This causes the user to pick and scratch at the skin leading to sores that can lead to a staph infection. If infected, the sores become enflamed, swollen, and pus-filled. The sores are most commonly found on the face and arms, though they may be present anywhere on the body. - source: University of BC, health page

Here is something about Meth "causing" teeth to fall out.

iloveegg

I have no idea what and why this is, but it's pretty funny and really random. It also fits in nicely with our rainbow design and our mission statement(?). They have two English sites, here you can see all the episodes, and here is all kinds of random stuff.

PWNED?!

Scientists develop technique to induce out-of-body experiences

From The Guardian:

Scientists have induced the age-old phenomenon of out-of-body experiences in healthy volunteers for the first time.

The technique, which uses a virtual-reality-style set up of cameras linked to a head-mounted video display, will help researchers understand how the brain assimilates sensory information to determine the position of its body.

...

In his experiment participants wore goggles containing a video screen for each eye. Each screen was fed images from a separate camera behind the participant and, because the two images were combined by the brain into a single image, they saw a 3D image of their own back.

Dr Ehrsson then moved a plastic rod towards a location just below the cameras while the participant's real chest was simultaneously touched in the corresponding position. The participants reported feeling that they were located back where the cameras had been placed, watching a body that belonged to someone else.

Full Article...

Day in the Life of a Procrastinator

I can really relate to this.

Schmidt Sting Pain Index and the Bullet ant

The Schmidt Sting Pain Index or The Justin O. Schmidt Pain Index is a pain scale of Hymenopteran stings. It is mainly the work of Justin O. Schmidt, an entomologist for whom the index is named. Schmidt has published a number of papers on the subject and claims to have been stung by the majority of stinging Hymenoptera.

Subsequently, Schmidt has refined his scale, culminating in a paper published in 1990 which classifies the stings of 78 species and 41 genera of Hymenoptera. Notably, Schmidt described some of the experiences in vivid and colorful detail:

• 1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.
• 1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.
• 1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.
• 2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.
• 2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine WC Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
• 2.x Honey bee and European hornet: Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.
• 3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.
• 3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of Hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.
• 4.0 Pepsis wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath (if you get stung by one you might as well lie down and scream).
• 4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel.

The sting of the Bullet ant is described as causing "waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for up to 24 hours.

The ants are also used for initiation rites by some indigenous people in the Amazon.

That zinger at the end of the video is great.

horoscopes just tell you what you wanna hear

cybr adds: Derren Brown is a very gifted illusionist and skeptic of the paranormal. He has an interesting wiki page. All this works through the tendency of people to rate sets of statements as highly accurate for them personally even though the statements could apply to many people, the so called Forer effect.

Particles in a Box

So I was playing with MATLAB again, instead of learning Spanish. 'No hablo espanol' is everything I need to know, isn't it?

I modelled particles in a 3D box. You can set the mass, particle-size, average-speed, gravity, number of particles, box size, and some more settings that can also be randomized.

The particles do collide with each other and with the walls. These collisions are purely elastic, but 'Newtonian real' in 3D space.

Well... here is the first animated result with 9 3D balls as particles:

(high quality video)

Here is a video of 400 little particles in a box. More than thousand collisions occur in this video.

And here you can see what happens when 100 particles of mass 10 (red) and 100 particles of mass 1 (blue) are combined. It's a sideview of the 3D box.

And here a slow version of a lot of particles, again in a little box.

All not very exciting to view, but it was fun to work on. I can tell more about the physics, but I'll do that on request. Most of us have done the same (linear momentum) calculations on paper and in 1D, at high school.

Oxygen vs Nitrogen
40 oxygen molecules, 160 nitrogen molecules and gravity. Red is oxygen (m=32), blue is nitrogen(m=28). Small weird wind on cybrbeasts request. The wind part doesn't work in a very real way, but it doesn't really interfere with the results of the simulation. Video!

The Incredible Machine is back with a vengeance

Anybody remember the original TIM? I remember countless of hours playing with it.


There's a great looking spiritual successor coming up, with actual physics.

Cheney on Iraq (1994)

Cheney had some good points, I wonder why he made a total 180 on those opinions. This is also the interview Jon Stewart refers to a few posts back.

I'm back, bitches

I'm back from Norway and I've finally caught up on all the post you guys made. You really have been busy bees. Are you trying to catch up to me after the post statistics were published?

Here are three panorama photos I made in Norway and my gallery can be seen here.

Hi-Res (3MB)

Hi-Res (6MB)

Hi-Res (4MB)

Gravity Well Model

I'm trying to learn MATLAB, a mathematical programming language. I thought about visualizing the gravitational field of our Solar System, just for fun. Here is the result of a few hours of thinking, programming and playing with MATLAB.

The figures show the strength(magnitude) of the gravitational field caused by some point-masses. The magnitude is plotted on the z-axis and is logarithmic! The x and y-axis are spatial coordinates and are linear. This thus shows the gravitational field of a 2D cut-out made through the plane in which all celestial bodies move. (click images for high-resolution)

The Gas Giants of our Solar System. The masses of the other planets are too small to be visible in one figure.

Close-up of Jupiter and the Sun. 4 equal stars. A top view of 5 stars. Mars and Earth around the Sun.

I also programmed a mode that generates random stars. You can set the number of stars and it will do the rest. It only takes a few seconds to render these figures.

How to prepare a Kiwi

America to the Rescue!

Sperm navigation

Mathematical Pi

light + hands = shadow

you can sell anything on telsell

Children Crossing

Remember that "Children crossing" sign in Croatia where the children ran trough the red triangle of the sign itself? Now dekus-style:

It's still a draft, I haven't had the time to make the original.

Plz run over my arm

I want to see the aftermath, it doesn't look broken altho his arm does kinda bend in a way it wasn't supposed to.

Microsoft PowerToys

Microsoft has a very small amount of decent "official" add-ons for Windows XP. They call it PowerToys. Here are some you might want to use:

Alt-Tab Replacement
With this PowerToy, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open.

Tweak UI
This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.

Power Calculator
With this PowerToy you can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions.

SyncToy
SyncToy can help you copy, move, and synchronize different directories.

Optical illusion or photoshop?

I can't remember if I posted this pic before, if I did I hereby apologize.

But is this real?

Enemies of Reason: The Irrational Health Service

The second and last part of the series "Enemies Of Reason". "Prof Richard Dawkins looks at how health has become a battleground between reason and superstition. A third of us now spend a total of over 1.6 billion a year on superstitious alternative remedies, but 80% of them have never been subjected to properly conducted trials."

"Alternative medicines either haven't been tested or it has failed it's tests"

Free News Papers

I just found a cartoon which exactly shows my feelings regarding the people trying to make you take a free newspaper...

A Tree in the Forest

The area was logged after the trees fell over in a wind storm. The shape of the logging was unintentional. The photo was taken by the photographer as he flew over the area unintentionally.

Russians weddings are fun

let's try that some day at the first wedding we're all invited to.

World in Conflict - GIMME GIMME GIMME!

Coming somewhere this year... Trailer: HD link: linkywinky BETA in-game And I'll probably need one or two of those.

10 Underreported Stories

No.4 CONGO’S STILL-RAVAGED STATE

Although the Democratic Republic of Congo received some attention this year for holding its first free elections in four decades, the war-torn country — where nearly four million people have died as a result of the conflict since 1998 — is still home to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Congo is plagued by malnutrition, malaria and other largely preventable conditions that kill 1,200 people a day — a death toll, as UNICEF points out, that is the equivalent of suffering a 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami every six months. More children die in Congo before reaching their fifth birthday than in China, a country with 23 times the population.

All 10 stories...

I'm sick of all the online ads

I never click or read online ads, but they still use some part of my screen and bandwith. Some sites have become impossible to read because of ads. Today I decided to remove all ads on the internet by using this firefox add-on. It works just great! My internet is ad free!

Bearforce1

A dutch band, wearing rainbowboys-look-a-like shirts, calling themself Bearforce1. Is this the new rainbowboys.org themesong?

a behind the scenes videoclip and their website

Private Parking...

The Enemies of Reason

What have New Age, astrology, 9/11 conspiracies in common? Most of you lot already know the answer, but none of them are rational.

"Apparently harmless but utterly irrational belief systems from astrology to New Age mysticism, clairvoyance to alternative health remedies are booming. Richard Dawkins confronts what he sees as an epidemic of irrational, superstitious thinking...

He explains the dangers the pick and mix of knowledge and nonsense poses in the internet age, and passionately re-states the case for reason and science."

Episode 1 of 2: Slaves to Superstition

Annom edit: Richard Dawkins: An atheist's call to arms:

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Don't know if this has been posted here before, but I reckon this is in Annom's street. Haven't seen all of it yet, but it's a good view and quite interesting to see the other side of the story.

Dirty Car Artist

Commenters in a Business Environment

RainbowBoysBlog Post Statistics 2

This blog exists for one year now! I removed the the old drafts that were counted in our total postcount so it's not 666 anymore, but 656.

Time for some stats after one year! (Here are the post stats from May)


It's good to see everyone, except mr wiggles, made progress ;)
If Cybrbeast, Pimp and Annom form a coalition, they can change our constitution!

Wikipedia opens book on Scanner

A friend sent me this article today, figured it was worth a read.

An online tool that claims to reveal the identity of organisations that edit Wikipedia pages has revealed that the CIA was involved in editing entries. Wikipedia Scanner allegedly shows that workers on the agency's computers made edits to the page of Iran's president. It also purportedly shows that the Vatican has edited entries about Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. The tool, developed by US researchers, trawls a list of 5.3m edits and matches them to the net address of the editor. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopaedia that can be created and edited by anyone. Most of the edits detected by the scanner correct spelling mistakes or factual inaccuracies in profiles. However, others have been used to remove potentially damaging material or to deface sites. Read on...

Ever wonder what's in those black SUVs that follow the presidents car?

Happy Birthday Rainbowboys!

It suddenly hit me that the blog has been online for over a year now, time to celebrate!

Congratulations to all fellow Rainbowboys!

Greetz,
dekus

Psychoactive Drug Alphabet

I made a Psychoactive Drug Alphabet last night. Every letter stands for a specific drug, or a drug brand name where I couldn't find a better alternative. You can click the letters to go to an information page about the drug.

You can test your drug knowledge by pressing F11(no status bar cheating) and guess the drug that belongs to the letter.

Click image to go to the high resolution Psychoactive Drug Alphabet page!

Child Beater

Compare the Embryos

Self Proclaimed Happiness around the World

Longest Serving Leaders

I know I'm a google-n00b

But please help me out anyway. This is the situation:

The svchost.exe hosting some of my windows apps is frying my resources, as you can see in the screenshot it makes "peaks". Now I googled "CPU peaks" and "high CPU usage when idle" but nothing use full turns up. Do you have any suggestions on how I google this problem? Thanks!


p.s. I scanned my computer with McAffee and a online virus-scanner plus anti ad-aware software, nothing....

A Consice History Of Black - White Relations In The USA

Uh guys? Help me out here!

What the hell is this? (besides from being a "keyboard")


source: http://www.maltron.com/index.html

Firefox Add-ons

Do you use Firefox Add-ons? Please share yours... Adblock Plus:

• Removes almost all ads on the interwebs!11!!111!

Dictionaries:

• These dictionaries work with the spell-checking feature in Firefox.

CustomizeGoogle:

• Customize Google search and other Google services.
• Rewrite links to point straight to the images in Google Images.
• Remove ads.
• Use Google Suggest(suggest words while you're typing).

Converter:

• Contextual unit and timezone conversion on any web page.
• Converts the selected measurement in right click menu.

Forecastfox:

• Get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display it in any toolbar or statusbar with this highly customizable and unobtrusive extension.

IE tab:

• IE emulator in Firefox.

Bookmarks Toolbar Folder: Another way to make surfing the interwebs more efficient is to use the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder: Add your most used pages to the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder in Firefox. Remove the name of the bookmark and click it once to load the website icon. Organise them and use separators to make it easier to find the icon. After a sort time you know all the icons and can surf the interwebs with one click.

Tom Mabe's way with telemarketeers

This dude keeps a taperecorder next to his phone, pulling all kinds of stunts on those annoying telemarketeers we all hate.

Omni-Directional Treadmill

w00t, the holodeck just came a step closer.

Virtual Space Devices, Inc. has developed omni-directional treadmill (ODT) technology over the last 10 years, working primarily with the US Army. Combining the infinite plane of the ODT with an immersive virtual reality system permits an immersant to walk or run freely through the digital landscape. Navigation is transparent and natural. Immersion is total. The ODT surface is flat and continuous. It is not a bowl or made of discrete plates. The infinite surface is motion-slaved to the user’s motion with tight control and no inertial residue. Belts that comprise the surface are substantially similar to those used in conventional treadmills. First work on omni-directional treadmill (ODT) technology began with a $400K US Army STRICOM contract in 1996. (…) Second-generation technology is larger, faster, and quieter. We are building multiple units

Looks like a better alternative than the virtusphere.

Profound Incompetence?

Minesweeper the Movie

Minesweeper the game is going to be turned into a movie!! :)

Think it's about time to add a geek tag to our list.

bow chicka bow wow

2:50 & 3:53 mark Don't forget to click the title of this post either. cybr: I've found a pretty good sample, sounds familiar :)