A Prohibitionist having trouble with the truth

Antonio-Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime is seen here avoiding answering a question about the cannabis policy in Holland. Some of you may recognise the person asking the question, Frederick Polak, always speaking at the yearly legalize demonstration in Amsterdam. He is a psychiatrist from Holland making lots of sense on drug policy.

How to kill a smurf?

I hate the god damned smurfs! I tried to kill two today. Here is my attempt:
The artwork that was created in the process is for sale!

Slow Motion Slap

Space Shuttle vs Bird

Spacious Architecture

Here is a little more on the architect Yasuhiro Yamashita.

Gigapan Panoramas

About:
GigaPan consists of three technological developments: a robotic camera mount for capturing very high-resolution (gigapixel and up) panoramic images using a standard digital camera; custom software for constructing very high-resolution gigapixel panoramas; and, a new type of website for exploring, sharing and commenting on gigapixel panoramas and the detail our users will discover within them. The GigaPan website allows hosting and sharing all kinds of panoramas, and so the robotic GigaPan mount is recommended but is certainly not required to be part of this community.

Check out the Gigapan website.

Biofuel and Nuclear power

fast shooter

I think we've already posted this guy before.......but then he shot 12 rounds in 1.8 seconds.

Moonwalking Bird

Michael Jackson was just a copycat.

Zombie Emergency Procedure

I think this warning should be posted in every public building

Teaching Creationism in the Museum of Natural History

Death of massive star creates brightest burst ever seen

Gamma-Ray Bursts are the most powerful explosive events in the Universe. They occur in far-off galaxies and so are usually faint. But on the morning of March 19th 2008 the Swift satellite found a burst which was so bright it could have been seen without binoculars or a telescope even though it was seven thousand times further away than the Andromeda galaxy. The burst was discovered by the Swift satellite on a fantastic day for GRB hunters. Swift typically finds only two a week; but for the first time Swift found five bursts within 24 hours. The second burst of the day is the new record holder. The enormous energy released in the explosion – brighter than the light from all of the stars in five million Milky Way Galaxies – was caused by the death of a massive star which collapsed to form a black hole. Full story...

Similarities between Cats and Women

CO2 emissions

Managers vs. Engineers

A man in a hot air balloon realised he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted,

"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am." The woman below replied, "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude." "You must be an engineer," said the balloonist. "I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?" "Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip." The woman below responded, "You must be in Management." "I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?" "Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."

Mousetrap vs. Eggs

The mouse trap is part of the Cadbury Creme Egg suicide commercials:

Advertising vs Reality

A German website, Pundo3000.com, has conducted a study of 100 different products by comparing the look of the products as shown by the packaging with the actual contents inside the boxes.

Russian Billionaires

Rainbowboys Pie Chart

The image below is just a static image, but if you follow this link you go to the rainbow pie which is dynamic and will keep up to date on our posting.

update: Pie 2.0

Husband of the year, the nominees

Who should win the title this year?

Warren Buffett's Tax Rate is Lower than His Secretary's

Warren Buffet @ wiki

In June 2006, Warren Buffett gave approximately 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (worth approximately USD 30.7 billion as of June 23 2006) making it the largest charitable donation in history. The foundation will receive 5% of the total donation on an annualized basis each July, beginning in 2006. Buffett will also join the board of directors of the Gates Foundation, although he does not plan to be actively involved in the foundation's investments. Buffett also announced plans to contribute additional Berkshire stock valued at approximately $6.7 billion to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and to other foundations headed by his three children. This is a significant shift from previous statements Buffett has made, having stated that most of his fortune would pass to his Buffett Foundation. The bulk of the estate of his wife, valued at $2.6 billion, went to that foundation when she died in 2004. His children will not inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. These actions are consistent with statements he has made in the past indicating his opposition to the transfer of great fortunes from one generation to the next. Buffett once commented, "I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing".

Giraffe vs long necked cow

never knew that giraffes got a rocky style of fighting. ps, this is a territorial fight for the girls.

Piclens a cool add on for firefox

i got this firefox add on for some time now and its a real addicting way of browsing pictures. "PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen 3D experience for viewing images across the web. Our new interactive "3D Wall" and built-in search function lets you effortlessly drag, click, zoom, and zip your way around a wall of pictures for an extraordinary viewing experience." Check it and you will see.

Portal

Dean Kamen's Robotic "Luke" Arm

Dean Kamen's “Luke arm”—a prosthesis named for the remarkably lifelike prosthetic worn by Luke Skywalker in Star Wars—came to the end of its two-year funding last month. Its fate now rests in the hands of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which funded the project. If DARPA gives the project the green light—and some greenbacks—the state-of-the-art bionic arm will go into clinical trials. If all goes well, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives its approval, returning veterans could be wearing the new artificial limb by next year. Read more...

Lucid Movement Show Reel

A nice slowmotion video. I recommend going to their site to see the video in a much higher resolution.

New Features

I've been playing with Yahoo! Pipes some more. I've managed to make an all time top blogger list. But more importantly I've managed to create an automatic label list. So no more manual updating of the labels is required.
I made it by editing this pipe to make it suitable for old blogger.


Then I had to adjust it to split the output in two so that we could still have our labels in two columns on the right side. This in done in the lower left quadrant of the image. The image above is for the left column. For the right column I simply hook the lower reverse operator to the output.
I only need to edit this slightly when we reach 1500, 2000, 2500 etc. posts, because the Blogger feed has a maximum output of 500 entries.

Top Poster of the Last 500 Posts Widget!

And I made it! Partly :)

I looked up the source of the "top 500 comments" in Yahoo Pipes. I copied and adapted that code to extract the last 500 posts from our blog. I put in a filter that only those with more than 20 posts are shown, bye bye Mr Wiggles and Expendable Asset :P
You can see the pipe I made here. The widget is on our right sidebar under recent comments.
Luckily I still had my old Yahoo account (dare_to_mail_me) so I didn't have to make a new one.

Finally I used the javascript post on this page to put the output of the pipe in our blog. I think I can also edit the 500 Recent Comments now to suit our needs, i.e. only display those with more than 20 comments or so.

Sunset on Mars

Healthier Tobacco

Gene 'knockout' floors tobacco carcinogen

In large-scale field trials, scientists from North Carolina State University have shown that silencing a specific gene in burley tobacco plants significantly reduces harmful carcinogens in cured tobacco leaves.

[...]

The field tests in Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina compared cured burley tobacco plants with the troublesome gene silenced and "control" plant lines with normal levels of gene expression. The researchers found a six-fold decrease in carcinogenic NNN in the genetically modified tobacco plants, as well as a 50 percent overall reduction in the class of harmful compounds called TSNAs, or tobacco-specific nitrosamines. TSNAs are reported to be among the most important tobacco-related compounds implicated in various cancers in laboratory experiments, Lewis said.

Full story...

Midget Wrestling Head Slide

being a dwarf isn't a circus act anymore so this one learned a trick.

New feature: recent comments

I added a new widget that show the last two comments below the random quote. I think it's useful, you? It can be edited to show date, poster, post, number of comments, etc. It still needs the rainbowcarebearfont. I also updated the labels.

"Ooh Girl!" - An Honest R&B Song

Big Dog

Chicago at Night

Waxing Nostalgic

Playboy hairstyles from 1971-2008; click title.

transparent home Appliances

On a Japanese household market a company showed transparent models of their fridge and washing machine, primarily so the customer could see the technology behind the machines. The crazy Japanese liked it so much that the company made consumer versions of it.

I like the idea, but i think i like my privacy more. I don't like it when visitors can see my dirty underwear is washing out. Also the human limbs in my fridge are nobody's business

Audiosurf Ride Your Music

Audiosurf is a music-adapting puzzle racer where you use your own music to create your own experience. The shape, the speed, and the mood of each ride is determined by the song you choose. You earn points for clustering together blocks of the same color on the highway, and compete with others on the internet for the high score on your favorite songs.

It's quite a cool game and a really nice way to explore your music library again. There are a few different game modes and difficulty levels.

You can download a demo at the Audiosurf website, or you can download the torrent, or even buy the game, it's only $9.95 but you have to use Steam. Buying the game lets you use the online functionality where you can compare your scores with those of others and see what songs are popular.

Here is a clip of someone playing David Bowie - Space Oddity.

Subprime Crisis explained

Although this clip is quite satirical, it rings very true (unfortunately).

Mind Games

Mind Gaming' Could Enter Market This Year
by Lisa Zyga

In an adapted version of the Harry Potter video game, players lift boulders and throw lightning bolts using only their minds. Just as physical movement changed the interface of gaming with Nintendo's Wii, the power of the mind may be the next big thing in video games.

And it may come soon. Emotiv, a company based in San Francisco, says its mind-control headsets will be on shelves later this year, along with a host of novel "biofeedback" games developed by its partners.

Several other companies - including EmSense in Monterey, California; NeuroSky in San Jose, California; and Hitachi in Tokyo - are also developing technology to detect players´ brainwaves and use them in next-gen video games.

The technology is based on medical technology that has been around for decades. Using a combination of EEGs (which reveal alpha waves that signify calmness), EMGs (which measure muscle movement), and ECGs and GSR (which measure heart rate and sweating), developers hope to create a picture of a player´s mental and physical state. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which monitors changes in blood oxygenation, could also be incorporated since it overcomes some of the interference problems with EEGs.

[...]

Another company, Interactive Productline in Sweden, has a game called Mindball, which isn´t a video game, but uses mind control technology that may lead to video mind-gaming. Two players sit across from each other at a table, focusing on a small white ball. The objective is to make the ball roll toward your opponent and away from you, using only your mind. Headbands measure the players´ alpha waves, and the ball rolls away from the player with the calmest mind.

"Instead of activity and adrenalin, it is calmness and focus that mark the truly successful Mindball Game player," the company explains on its Web site. "Mindball Game is unique amongst machines since it is not controlled by the player´s rational and strategic thoughts and decisions. On the contrary, the participants are dependent on the body´s own intuitive reactions."

Full Story...

Emotiv video demo

Seems like this system still needs quite some work. Lot of visible lag.

MindBall

Busby Berkeley - Footlight Parade (mashup)

This video is a mashup of the music Sirens' Whispering by Vangelis with a piece of the classical musical Footlight Parade, with showgirls by Busby Berkeley. The original was in black and white and with different music. Around the half-way point the clip gets quite spectacular and somewhat trippy.

@wiki Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berkeley's quintessential works used legions of showgirls and props as fantastic elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances. He started as a theatrical director, just as many other movie directors. Unlike many at the time, he felt that a camera should be allowed mobility, and he framed shots carefully from unusual angles to allow movie audiences to see things from perspectives that the theatrical stage never could provide. This is why he played an enormous role in establishing the movie musical as a category in its own right.

On YouTube you can find more clips.

IR webcam

Today I decided that it was time for my 8 year old webcam to open up. With the help of a screwdriver and a lot of force I opened the cam:I took apart the lens by removing some plastic with a knife, there I saw a small square piece of glass (the thing in the picture above is the CCD sensor). Looked like a filter, maybe IR or UV.

The image did change without the filter, but I wanted all visible light removed so I took a small piece of photographic film (negative) of a white picture and put it in the place of the old filter. I think I once read that should only block visible light.

Here is the result. I think what you see are near infra-red NIR (IR close to red) images. It sure is not a night vision camera. It actually needs daylight to see anything at all. With an infrared lamp it would work as a night camera though, but no cool "heat" images. Here is the world in (near) infrared through my webcam:

the grass is all white:

a remote control: 10 euro bill:

Anchor vs Reporter

This is an old clip so some of you maybe saw it already , still i think it would be a nice add for the X vs Y label. letting these to work together , is like having Mr BurgerKing making a hamburger together with Mr Macdonald. Or Mr Apple who makes an Operation system together with Bill Cage. Or 2 pac singing a duet with BIG. Or Hitler who is directing together with Spielberg an epic World War 2 movie. etc

Wiki boss 'edited for donation'

From BBC News Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales has been accused of agreeing to edit a page on the online encyclopaedia in exchange for a donation. Former Novell chief scientist Jeffrey Merkey says he donated $5,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation in exchange for changes to his Wikipedia entry. Mr Merkey says Mr Wales agreed to "use his influence" to remove libellous remarks in the entry. In response, Mr Wales has called the allegations "nonsense". The edit history of the page does show changes made by Jimmy Wales and that the page was "protected", so that no further edits can be made by the public. Jay Walsh, a spokesman for Wikipedia, told the Daily Telegraph that the allegation was "absolutely false" . "Jimmy never made this offer, and of course this is a practice the Wikipedia Foundation would never condone," he told the newspaper. Full Story...

218 f*cks in The Big Lebowski

The power of good typography

This is a good example of how typography works when used properly. To demonstrate it's power I have 2 clips, both are dialogs from Pulp Fiction only the video has been replaced with text (just watch the darn clips if you don't understand my description). Yet one of these videos is made by a person who knows what he/she is doing. The other is (IMO!) a cheap rip-off. Now don't be a pussy and check the "added" dates or the comments on either of these clips. Just watch it and guess which one is made by a professional.

First:

Second:

---

And just for the fun it (not for the test!):

Life-sized picture of a blue whale

"lief sized" is a big claim with different monitors and resolutions, but it's large! It may run slow if it (becomes) popular on the interwebs.

50 people looking for solar image of Mary lose sight

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At least 50 people in Kottayam district have reportedly lost their vision after gazing at the sun looking for an image of Virgin Mary. (......) St Joseph’s ENT and Eye Hospital in Kanjirappally alone has recorded 48 cases of vision loss due to photochemical burns on the retina. “All our patients have similar history and symptoms. The damage is to the macula, the most sensitive part of retina. They have developed photochemical, not thermal, burns after continuously gazing at the sun,” Dr Annamma James Isaac, the hospital’s ophthalmologist, said. (......) The hotelier, who has since moved to another house, had claimed that statues of Mother Mary in his house have been crying honey and bleeding oil and perfumes.

McCain Guilty of Doublespeak

The newest rage!

Play console games in your swimware! Wii love bikini:

Guitar Hero in bikini:

World's Largest Air Vortex Cannon

The last part is kind of boring, but the beginning where they shoot random stuff with the air vortex cannon is hugely amusing. Would be fun to make one of these.

Dutch Statistics in Google Earth

Deeply hidden on the CBS site, under "Thema's > Dossiers > Nederland Regionaal > Cijfers > Cartografische toegang", there is an awesome feature for Google Earth (direct link). A layer that shows demographic information about a particular neighborhood.
I've chosen two neighborhoods in Utrecht that show quite some contrast as an example.

Graphs of parabolic flights

Here are three graphs of the on-board measurements during the two parabolic flights:
The load factor is the number of g's.

Dutch Apache in action in Afghanistan

They are getting some work done over there, to bad they missed!

Hitler was a pussy!

Trailer for "The Onion Movie"

OMG, The Onion, our favorite source of fake news is making a movie, and it looks good! :)

And it's not a fake movie trailer, they are actually making the movie (imdb). Apparently this movie was produced a while ago 2003-2004, but it will finally come out onto DVD. It appears that the audience of screening events of the the movie didn't vibe with it. But that could just be because The Onion has a distinct sense of humor.

Lighthouses vs Waves

Dekus posted this iconic image of a lighthouse being hit by a wave some time ago. I found a movie of multiple lighthouses vs waves. What a force of nature.

Another (semi) stop-motion movie

More here...

More Stop-moving movies

Active Avalanches on Mars Caught by HiRISE

HiRISE has recently released 9.9 TB of data, including images of active avalanches on Mars.

Also released was an image of the Earth and Moon as seen from Mars

Some nice history timelines in flash.

Robert Mapplethorpe - photographer

Tonight I had to present a little research I made into the life of an "modern day" artist. Without knowing anything about Mapplethorpe I choose him. Both surprising and somewhat disgusting results, but an experience nevertheless. A small summary: Introduction: Robert Mapplethorpe was born in 1946 in New York, died in 1988 at the age of 42. His work was admired at the time because of his use of contrast in both portrait and still-life photography. Today most of the literature regarding Robert Mapplethorpe (especially online publications) concern his early work: gay-erotic photography, both studio and in the New York underground SM-scene. The early work (1970-1980): As mentioned above the work focused primarily on gay-erotic. The Portfolio X series was the most controversial of his work and even until today many organizations like the American Family Association [wiki] dispute wether or not his work deserved the public funding it got back in the seventies.

"I don’t like that particular word ‘shocking.’ I’m looking for the unexpected. I’m looking for things I’ve never seen before…I was in a position to take those pictures. I felt an obligation to do them." - Robert Mapplethorpe (1988)

The final years (1980-1989): In this period Robert shifted his attention to nude-photography [example 1 and 2] without the explicitly shown in works like Portfolio X. And developed a style which was unique (and highly appreciated) back in the eighties. It's because of this he was asked to make portraits of many famous people like Andy Warhol [wiki] and Iggy Pop [wiki]. Today that same style has become quite common, some sort of standard. In my opinion a hidden compliment to his originality. In the same period his attention was also drawn to still-life photography, flowers to be more specific [example 1 and 2]. In these series his style is also highly visible. Though in this category he used color photography for the first time, which in itself was different to the rest of his work. Aftermath: Robert Mapplethorpe died in 1989 of AIDS (surprise surprise). Some of his work was sold in 1988 (after it was made public he was seropositive) at record prices of 500.000 dollar. In 2006 his portrait of Andy Warhol was sold for a whopping 643.200 dollar, the 6th most expensive photograph ever sold. Personal opinion: I think it's a shame that so much attention (especially online) is payed to his early work and the controversy it sparked. The portraits and still-lives he made in the eighties are in my opinion beautiful and set a new standard. The use of contrast strikes me the most.

Chocolade Haas

The Execution of Chocolate Bunnies by the Artist Sander Plug.

Storm vs. Plane

Landing an Airbus 320 in Hamburg, 1 march, 2008

Annom edit:

Frozen Flash Mob

A new version of the flash mob is the frozen flash mob: A scene where all the participants freeze for 5 minutes in a very crowded place. New York, Grand Central Station:

Other cities

Last wednesday there was a frozen flash mob at the Central Station of Utrecht, The Netherlands. Link

Why Torture Doesn't Work and What Does

Three Torture Myths

How To Make A Terrorist Cry

There is a documentary about this called Taxi to the Dark Side (imdb) (torrent)

The poor will always be poor

Rabbit VS Snake

here is a x vs y video! don't fuck with the bunny!

Ps. no need to put on your sound for this movie, except if you wanna know how a man sounds after he is kicked in his ball.