Polar bears play with BBC Spy Cams

From the program Polar Bear: Spy on the Ice. HD Youtube link which will probably get taken down.

The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief

Media: Documentary
Name: The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief
IMDb, Runtime: +/- 75 minutes
How to get it: Official site, Amazon, Torrent or newsgroups 
-------------------------------------------------------------
  Why Bother: Welcome to The Great Happiness Space: Rakkyo Café. The club's owner, Issei (22), has a staff of twenty boys all who know how to dress, how to talk, how to walk, and most importantly, how to fake relationships with the girls who become their source of income. 
Rating: 8/10. This is some weird shit, about how to be a player and get women to pay you for it.

Anti Panda League

The manifesto of the APL:

• Pandas may be cute and cuddly, but they are a failure of nature and evolution.

• Panda coddling groups like the WWF may claim that pandas are endangered because of deforestation, but the truth is that pandas are endangered due to their own gross incompetence and slothfulness.

• Pandas are carnivores, yet eat bamboo, out of which they only manage to extract a small amount of nutrients.

• Pandas have almost no interest in procreating.

• Pandas don't look after their young, which are malnourished because of their retarded bamboo diet.

• Hitler was a panda.

• Fuck pandas.

There's also the rival APC (Anti-panda Council)

Benjamin Zander on Classical Music and Passion

Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it -- and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.

Nationale Wetenschapsquiz 2010 (Vraag 14)

Vraag 14. Je vaart met een vrachtschip beladen met hout van Zweden naar Nederland. Op de terugweg vaar je met eenzelfde gewicht aan staal. Wanneer heb je het meeste last van zeeziekte?

A.	Op de heenweg
B.	Op de terugweg
C.	Er is geen verschil

Het juiste antwoord is B.

Op deze route wordt zeeziekte vooral veroorzaakt door de slingerbeweging van een schip. De lading, hout of staal, is hiervoor bepalend want de beweging hangt af van de massaverdeling over de hoogte en breedte van het schip. Het gewichtszwaartepunt van het schip met staal ligt lager dan dat met hout, en heeft daardoor een grotere stabiliteit. Het gevolg is dat de eigenperiode van de slingerbeweging korter is. Daar waar de (vrije) slingerbeweging van het schip beladen met hout 13~15 seconden duurt, zal die bij het schip beladen met staal slechts 5~6 seconden duren. Een typische periode van de golfbeweging op de route van Zweden naar Nederland is 5~6 seconden. Hierdoor zal het schip beladen met staal dus worden aangestoten in zijn ‘eigenperiode’ en heftig gaan slingeren (resonantie), terwijl het andere schip weinig last heeft van de golven. Het gevolg van de resonantie is dat er grote slingerhoeken optreden met een korte periode. Met andere woorden, de slingerbeweging is op de terugweg duidelijk veel heftiger. Dit kan zeeziekte veroorzaken.

Jammer maar helaas dus. De antwoorden op de overige vragen kan je hier vinden

Dolphins have fun with a mirror

Use a condom and you can fuck everything

Nicely done stop motion and a good message.

Europe Covered in Snow

Merry X-Mas

At least 12,000 people have died this year in Mexico's drug war

Through Nov. 30, 12,456 people were killed, making 2010 the deadliest year since Mexican President Felipe Calderon began a government crackdown against traffickers in 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported. The death toll since the start of the drug war is nearly 30,200, said Mexican Attorney General Arturo Chavez. Other officials estimate the death toll at about 32,000.

Photo from Blog Del Narco which covers a lot of this.

War on Drugs... :(

Bicycle Typogram

Typogram to learn the names of the bicycle parts.

Lighthouse becomes Icehouse

I wonder how long the lighthouse can support all that weight if more ice keeps accumulating.

Related blog posts: Ice Storm, Lighthouse vs Waves

Nederlandse Grondwet Artikel 120

"De rechter treedt niet in de beoordeling van de grondwettigheid van wetten en verdragen."

Volgens wiki is dit alleen in Nederland en Finland zo (van westerse landen). Artikel 120 zorgt dat de democratisch gekozen wetgevende macht meer macht heeft dan de rechtelijke macht.

Ik vind het maar vreemd om zoiets in je grondwet te zetten.

Rainbowboys On the Fly!

Yesterday we discussed the performance of our blog on mobile devices, complaining on how slow it is.

Until recently it wasn't possible to have a mobile theme. Google just added an option for mobile devices, so I switched it on in the draft dashboard (labs equivalent).

Check it out: click screenshot or scan the barcode.

Nationale Wetenschapsquiz 2010 (Antwoorden)

De vragen met onze comments: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.

Hierbij mijn (voorlopige) antwoorden. Vanavond voor middernacht moeten de inzendingen binnen zijn.

annom:

1. C 2. B 3. A 4. C 5. A

6. A 7. A 8. C 9. A 10. C

11. A 12. C 13. C 14. A 15. B

Nationale Wetenschapsquiz 2010 (5/5)

De laatste drie vragen! Uw inzending moet op zondag binnen zijn.

Vraag 13: Je staat op een omhooggaande roltrap. Wat gebeurt er terwijl je een stukje mee omhoog loopt?

	A.	Dan verbruikt de roltrap per seconde meer energie
	B.	Dan verbruikt de roltrap per seconde minder energie
	C.	Dan verbruikt de roltrap per seconde evenveel energie

Vraag 14: Je vaart met een vrachtschip beladen met hout van Zweden naar Nederland. Op de terugweg vaar je met eenzelfde gewicht aan staal. Wanneer heb je het meeste last van zeeziekte?

	A.	Op de heenweg
	B.	Op de terugweg
	C.	Er is geen verschil

Vraag 15: Het vliegprincipe van een esdoornzaadje dat wordt meegevoerd door de wind lijkt het meest op dat van:

	A.	Een helikopter
	B.	Een windmolen
	C.	Een vliegtuig

Mijn kerstpakket

LifeXP v0.1

I managed to create an alpha version of our life experience app (name still open). After a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Mainly tears.

Android app: download LifeXP.apk

Experiences are stored on our server, in this text file, and can be donwloaded by the press of a button in the app. You can add new experiences to this file and upload it to www.rainbowboys.org/annom/lifexp/. Click "Download Experiences" in the app and it will fetch the new database. That's how it works for now.

All the content is just placeholder info (and still civilized :) ). I make the app, not the content. It's a prototype kind of things so keep that in mind if you want to give some constructive criticism.

Some screenshots for those without Android phone.

The End of the Rainbow

Fits our blog perfectly

Nationale Wetenschapsquiz 2010 (4/5)

Vraag 10: Een groep van 5 mensen trekt lootjes voor sinterklaasavond. Als ze het jaar daarop met 10 personen lootjes trekken, moeten ze:

	A.	Twee keer zo vaak trekken voordat niemand zichzelf heeft
	B.	Wortel 2 keer zo vaak trekken voordat niemand zichzelf heeft
	C.	Even vaak trekken voordat niemand zichzelf heeft

Vraag 11: Je kan een mol het beste vergelijken met:

	A.	Een Tibetaan
	B.	Een Eskimo
	C.	Een Arabier

Vraag 12: Waardoor worden pasgewassen handdoeken die je buiten laat drogen hard?

	A.	UV-licht verandert de chemische samenstelling van de restanten wasmiddel
	B.	Er waaien stofdeeltjes in de vezels die de stof stug maken
	C.	Er ontstaan zoutkorsten door gebrek aan beweging

Ouch

Nationale Wetenschapsquiz 2010 (3/5)

Vraag 7: Waardoor braken de liberty-schepen uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog soms spontaan doormidden?

	A.	Ze konden niet tegen kou
	B.	Ze konden niet tegen zout
	C.	Ze konden niet tegen aangroei

Vraag 8: Wat zie je niet meer als alle kegeltjes in je ogen kapot zijn?

	A.	Je ziet slecht in het donker
	B.	Je ziet geen beweging meer
	C.	Je ziet geen details meer

Vraag 9: In een bak water drijft een bakje met pure alcohol. Je gooit het bakje alcohol leeg in de bak water en plaatst het lege bakje terug. Het vloeistofpeil in de grote bak is dan:

	A.	Gestegen
	B.	Gedaald
	C.	Hetzelfde gebleven

The Haka

Here is something for our brand new sport label.

"The Haka is a Māori traditional dance performed immediately prior to sport matches. It is primarily associated with New Zealand national rugby union team."

SlamBall - Basketball with trampolines

Dogeball with trampolines also looks like fun.

British students know how to riot

Yesterday, in central London, thousands of students and others gathered to protest as Britain's Parliament met to vote on a proposal to raise university tuition fees significantly - nearly tripling them - as part of a continuing set of austerity programs. During the protest, several clashes took place between police and protesters, resulting in numerous injuries and 43 arrests. Late in the demonstration, a group of protesters attacked the car of Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall as the couple were inside, being driven to the London Palladium. The car was slightly damaged, the royal couple unharmed, though a bit shaken by the incident. Parliament did end up narrowly approving the measure, and the fee increases are set to take effect in 2012. Collected here are images from London last night. 39 photos...

Or is it just that the British police incur more violence? The students do seem to be getting an even rougher deal than the Dutch students.

Global Corruption Barometer 2010

3% have paid a bribe in the Netherlands in the past year. 35% in Ukraine. 1 in 4 Earth citizens has paid a bribe in 2010. We are in that elite 25%.

Nationale Wetenschapsquiz 2010 (2/5)

Vraag 4: Je spant een touw strak om de aarde. Maak het touw 1 meter langer en trek het op één punt omhoog. Hoe hoog kun je het touw omhoog trekken?

	A.	Ongeveer 12 cm.
	B.	Ongeveer 12 m.
	C.	Ongeveer 120 m.

Vraag 5: De Egyptische Cleopatra nam graag een bad in ezelinnenmelk. Had dat zin?

	A.	Ja, vanwege het melkzuur en de vetten in melk
	B.	Ja, omdat het water van de Nijl vaak sterk verontreinigd was
	C.	Nee, water reinigt beter dan melk

Vraag 6: Waarom is een bloeduitstorting soms blauw?

	A.	Doordat blauw licht minder diep de huid indringt dan rood licht
	B.	Door de afbraak van hemoglobine in dat gebied
	C.	Door een gebrek aan zuurstof in dat gebied

rainbowboys label stats vizualiszations with IBM: "many eyes"

I found a nice site that can make some cooler visualizations than excel can. Check the site IBM many eyes. Too bad posting this flash didn't work on rainbowboys.org, so follow the link to see who made the most posts in witch category:

See link

Also its very easy to make a flash cloud see link

Or a bubble chart, i wanted to make from every bubble a pie chart but that wasn't possible.

Large Hadron Collider - How does it work?

World Cloud Time-lapse (30 days)

I tried to find a world cloud time-lapse. Could not find a one of the whole world and longer than a day (anyone?). The BBC weather site shows the current world cloud map. I hacked the BBC ;) and found hourly infrared images of the last 30 days. Made you a time-lapse. Sorry dekus, another cloud time-lapse.

Now I want high resolution images and a full year.

Nationale Wetenschapsquiz 2010 (1/5)

Hij is er weer! Een nieuwe editie van de nationale wetenschapsquiz. Ook al vallen de tv-uitzendingen wat tegen, zelf vind ik het altijd wel leuke vragen die mijn breintje prikkelen.

15 vragen, inzending moet op 19 december binnen zijn. Dit jaar zit er weer een champagnevraag in.

Vraag 1: Waardoor prikken champagnebubbels op je tong?

	A.	Door het uit elkaar klappen van de bellen
	B.	Door de temperatuur van de bellen
	C.	Door een chemische stof in de bellen

Vraag 2: Wat moet je zeker niet blussen met een kooldioxideblusser?

	A.	Brandend gas
	B.	Brandend metaal
	C.	Brandend vet

Vraag 3: Groeit gras ’s nachts door?

	A.	Ja
	B.	Soms, alleen bij voldoende maanlicht
	C.	Nee

Someone Stole their Bolts!

and they didn't notice!

"a technician removed twenty-four bolts securing an adapter plate to it without documenting the action. The team subsequently using the cart to turn the satellite failed to check the bolts before attempting to move the satellite."

PIXELS

Turkey Gobbler

I wonder what she did before she was a TV host.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

By Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, the most famous Hawaiian musician to have lived. This guy is pretty big, at one point he weighed 343 kg, he died at 38 of weight-related respiratory illness. Looks like he was a fun guy and a good singer.

Temperature Measurements

I hooked up some photoresistors to a micro controller a few weeks ago.
Now it is time for temperature. Again, fully automated. Updates every minute and this page auto-refreshes.



For googlers:
Arduino board with 3x LM335z temperature sensor. Connect LM335z pins as shown here. Connect them according to this circuit diagram. Third pin is not used, can be used for absolute calibration.

Awesome Freerunning video

Really great production values too.

The music is by The Glitch Mob, a group I coincidentally only recently discovered and quite enjoy. You can listen to their album freely on their official website.

Richard Feynman on Pseudoscience

Three interesting articles about fake science by Richard Feynman,
Cargo Cult Science
Mr. Papf's Perpetual Motion
A visit with Uri Geller

Top 10 Anti-Gay Activists Caught Being Gay

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Updated Random Image

I updated the image harvester script. It automatically grabs all images on our blog, gets the high resolution version, deletes corrupt images (dead links) and creates thumbnails.

Western Europe at Night

Shot from the ISS by astrounaut Douglas H. Wheelock. Amazing amount of light we produce, makes hard to deny we must have quite an impact on the earth.

Aurora Borealis in the distance on this beautiful night over Europe. The Strait of Dover is pretty clear as is Paris, the City of Lights. A little fog over the western part of England and London. It is incredible to see the lights of the cities and small towns against the backdrop of deep space. I am going to miss this view of our wonderful world… (11-8-2010)

London – Brussels – Antwerp – Rotterdam – Amsterdam and seemingly countless towns and villages sing out on this peaceful night. A nightscape that reveals familiar coastlines, prominent ports, and metropolitan areas. A scene more beautiful than spoken words can tell.

More pictures and his Twitter picture stream.

Photo's made by Locals and Tourists

Eric Fischer linked the location of the photos on flicker on a map, the red dots are the tourist, the blue dots are the locals en the yellow dots are the unknown. Btw this is the same guy who made the: Segregation Map US Cities

New York:

And Utrecht

Levitating Water

Similar to the time fountain blogged about previously.

Nice porcelain figurines

Animals teach us how to be people

Fake Science

Interval Propagation of the Iridium Satellite Constellation

I made a first animation of some of the simulations I ran. I will not go into details. What you see is an animation of the iridium communication satellite constellation (92 satellites). It shows the 3-dimensional boxes (rectangular cuboid) in which the satellites are guaranteed to be for the next five seconds, according to my method, taking a certain uncertainty in the position and velocity into account. 

The video is 5 min long (too long) and shows 25 real hours. It was a 60fps video, but YouTube makes that 30fps (twice as long/slow). You can skip through the video to see the boxes (what looks like dots at first) growing. It is a 1080p video. 

Traffic control at the poles will be hard. Imagine all other satellites and debris that is also orbiting there. 

Ajax (programming)

We've talked about this too often. Here is the definition of Ajax in web development, it is not a programming language, but basically JavaScript on the client side that communicates with the server without fully refreshing the page.

"Ajax, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a group of interrelated web development techniques used on the client-side to create interactive web applications. With Ajax, web applications can retrieve data from the server asynchronously in the background without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing page.

Ajax is not a technology in itself, but a group of technologies. Ajax uses a combination of HTML and CSS to mark up and style information. The DOM is accessed with JavaScript to dynamically display, and to allow the user to interact with, the information presented."

The McGurk Effect

A bizarre optical and auditory illusion.

BA.. BA.. BA..

FA.. FA.. FA..

Flux Bible

With this book you can mix the three different religions in any way you want. Maybe this book is the answer on all the relgion based wars.

How to add avatars to the Blogger post title

I added avatars to the post title. Here is a short howto.

1. Goto: Design -> Edit HTML
2. Enable "Expand Widget Templates"
3. Find the following lines in the code where the title and title-link is defined,
<a expr:href='data:post.link'><data:post.title/></a>
4. Add the following line after the line show above,
<img expr:src='"http://www.yourwebsite.com/images/" + data:post.author + ".png"' align="right"/>
Notice how the url is cominbed from strings and data:post.xxx .
5. Upload images named author.png to www.yourwebsite.com/images/

Fun video for those with Acrophobia

Enjoy Kamiel, I know you like heights :P

Old vs New Blog Design

For the history books,

Hitler Rides Rainbow

Enlarge:

I just had to add this one :)

Pro tip: you can disable the banners by clicking the little cross in the banner.

Rainbowboys label stats

I made some stats of the labels used in our blog.

Statistics:

We have 63 labels in total. Only 4 of them are linked to sex, namely: sex, porn, bizarre and weird shit.

Hitler is tagged more than history

Hitler is #41 on the highest labeling rate with 23 posts. Ahead of: sex, economics, cars, cult, global warming and way more labels

Cybrbeast posted at least once in every label

Cybrbesast posted in almost all labels the most, except for war, statistics, pseudosience, map, Holocaust, hitler, firefox, dutch, drugs, cult, zombie, weird shit, the fetishism book, rbb-mediatips, and cartoon. Annom and the pimp got the honor in these labels.

Software is the only label where only 2 people posted in (cybr and annom)

Only in 5 labels (Humor, Bizare, Stupid, Dutch and relgion) all of us made at least one post.

Cybrbeast, Dekus and the Pimp posted the most in Humor with 141, 64 and 45 posts respectively.

Annom posted the most in photography with 57 posts

Douche posted the most in what "he named" art

Kamielkaze posted the most in architecture

Tommy posted the most in religion and art

Finally a show that gets it right

I blogged about my frustration with the zoom and enhance gimmick used in TV and movies before, this show gets it right! It's the crime show Castle.

Blogger 2.0

I upgraded to the contemporary blogger so that we don't get stuck in the past like old grumpy man and professor Barabas. What you see now is the default template. We can change it.

We can still go back to the old one. I do not plan to customize this one right now but I was getting sick of being stuck in the past and the flash eating my precious CPU. I could also not post pictures because of some weird error.

So let me know if you are an old grumpy man and want the old blogger back. Else, gay up the template!

Ikea instructions

Active Artificial Satellites

About 943 active satellites orbit Earth. Where are they? 

I need current satellite position and velocity data at a given time. And data needs to be visualized so I made some plots.

Shown is the position of communication (green), navigation (blue), science/observation (red), military (pink) and others (light green) and their projections on the three planes. 

And a close-up of low Earth orbit satellites,

Largest 360 degree panorama in the world

London 80 gigapixels.

Nile delta at night

As seen from the ISS.

EXIF data:

Nikon D3S

Date 2010-10-28

Shutter speed 1/4 second.

f 2.8

Focal length 16 mm

Light Intensity Measurement

I did a little useless experiment. Added two photo-resistors to a micro-controller. One pointed outside to the lower sky and one inside my room, facing a wall. Micro controller is connected to my netbook. Netbook records measurements every few seconds and filters, plots and uploads a graph of the light intensity of both sensors every 5 minutes. It is fully automated and completely useless. Click to enlarge.