rynnan

Internationality Fail

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:55:03 GMT

Bunnehs!

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:38:30 GMT

We were looking for hamsters, when one of our group literally stumbled over this bunny litter. I counted at least four, but it was really hard to tell.

<3

KBS 452, 453, 454

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:02:07 GMT

We went exploring on these railway lines around the former mine Anna in Alsdorf.

View trip and pictures on Everytrail

I'm glad I had a ride on one of those

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:44:08 GMT

I wonder if the service to Isle of Wight is still in operation. I have to add that to my travel wishlist :)

HOME followup

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:50:43 GMT

Here's the link to download the MP4 directly to your computer. File size is approx 1.4GB.

HOME download

Enjoy.

Be prepared for tomorrow!

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:19:38 GMT

As you might know, tomorrow sees the release of HOME in 50 countries worldwide, simultaneously. I let the trailer tell it's own tale.

Tune in to their channel on the tube, or find a place where it's being shown in the movies. I really think it's worthwile watching.

See HOME 2009 for more.

As a side note, the music already reminds me a bit of Philip Glass' score for Koyaanisqatsi (wikipedia link, trailer on youtube in HD), a 1982 movie well worth watching too - but you need some patience and a proper mood for it. However, if your attention span is big enough, it will leave you with quite an impression ;)

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:37:28 GMT

facepaws

Tue, 19 May 2009 09:21:16 GMT

I'm not overly surprised though, but even if it were falsified, it just fits my image of those evangelist dweebs.

The whole photo set is here at spiegel.de, sourced from style.com.

back-ish

Tue, 12 May 2009 08:50:34 GMT

Just a quick note to let you know what's going on. I moved to a new appartment the other week, meaning I pretty much still live out of boxes due to additional and unexpected work at the old appartment that consumed most of the past two weeks. Of course, German Telekom didn't manage to switch my phone line in time, and also they provided me with (unwanted) ISDN but luckily this isn't too much of a problem.
I'm in serious need of some shelves and kitchen storage, but that was to be expected. In the old place I could make up for that by using more space, but now with only half of the footprint some intelligent solutions have to be found.
All that aside, I'm enjoying some sunny days in the Netherlands and things are going fairly well. I'm also planning a trip to Switzerland the week after next, so that means more offline-ness.

practical joke

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:56:43 GMT

I found this in my mailbox the other day.

In short, I should search for help only with god, be thankful to Jesus cuz he died for my sins o.O and I shud read and believe the infallible word of god. Eh sure. Hand me the stones, will you, I got some people to lapidate.

Talking of that, watch "Religulous" by Bill Maher, fun stuff!

shrinks healing homosexuality in GB

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:20:09 GMT

A recent study reveals that a good percentage of GB psychiatrists still try to "heal" homosexuality in therapy.

The study group has a website: http://www.treatmentshomosexuality.org.uk/index.html

cake!

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:10:52 GMT

I tried a slight variation of my raisin bread.

retrieved from the local recycling deposit

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:24:02 GMT

I found this thing in the trash bin yesterday:

It seems the storage circuit is gone, and probably there's issues with the power supply. Despite those 'minor' problems, this might turn out to be a good find. It's a two-channel 50MHz scope, built by Fluke and Philips (I've no idea who's original design it is though).

Image courtesy slack.com

Alabama

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:05:22 GMT

I wish people would stop doing that. On the other hand, I can't help but thinking that it's somewhat deserved for a country where, thanks to the NRA, you just go into the next supermarket, grab a semi-automatic gun and walk away with it. But that would be cynical.

German Television in 1939

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:38:56 GMT

This is the 1939 short "Wer fuhr IIA 2992?" ("Who drove IIA 2992?") made for TV. Interesting to see what methods and tools they used for production.

Back then, only very few people could afford to buy a TV until the E1 (Einheitsempfänger 1) was introduced in 1939 - you can see one @ 11:15. This set was priced at 650 Reichsmark (approx. 2400€ purchasing power projected from the year 1938 to 2000), as opposed to prices of around 1800RM for previous sets.

Designed to be the Volksempfänger of TV, a mass production of 10,000 pieces was planned for the first series, but due to the outbreak of war only around 50 were made. The specs: 441 lines interlaced, 25 frames per second. Video bandwidth is 2 MHz, receiving range in VHF between 40 and 50 MHz.

At 8:20 you can see them going to a "Fernseh-Sprechzelle", one of a few (experimental) video communication booths of that time. You could make video calls there, they had booths in Munich, Berlin, and Nuremberg. Geeky.

NB: "IIA 2992" is a vehicle registration plate from the city district of Munich. Those were used from 1906 until '45.

burps

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:57:37 GMT

That was awesome :D

preparations for diner

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:37:58 GMT

It's going to be lamb knuckle tonight ^.^

Now only 3.5h to go. And no, the banana isn't part of it :P

so horny :D

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:39:49 GMT

Also, Diet Coke @ 2:50 ^^

A note about global warming

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:42:01 GMT

Keeping up on topics of general, not to say global, interest has been kinda difficult for me for the past year(s). There's been too many distractions and also a considerable lack of energy to even go and try. Thankfully this is changing to the better, and there is quite a bit of things that keep me interested these days. One of them, as you might have guessed already, is the topic of "global warming" or "climate change" to use a term that carries less negative connotations.

I had always thought that there can be no serious doubt about it happening, even less about what would be the major causes. Of course, this opinion has been somewhat uneducated, given that my scientific background is nil, and I certainly didn't put much effort in getting into the depth of it. To say it straight away, I don't want to discuss or argue about the single scientific findings here, lack of experience and ability to judge would prevent it from going anywhere really. Much more interesting than that, is the view on the persons playing a major part in this scenario and how they managed to make a political debate out of a scientific consensus (see also Politicization of science). In the case of global warming, a number of people, for different reasons, make heavy use of the FUD tactics you might know from the IT industry, most notably attributed to the aggressive marketing campaigns of a major company of the sector.

The current and ongoing presentation of "facts" and "reports" that claim that the climate change is a 'global scam' sparked my interest in finding out what are the arguments, what it all is about and who are the beneficiaries of a continuing (public) debate on the matter. Also, as someone I used to hold a somewhat closer contact with, joined the squad of supporters of this scam theory, I started to wonder how an intelligent young person can possibly fall for this.

The interwebs are a welcoming platform for conspiracy theories, and stuff gets picked up in a noncritical way often enough. I see the problem there, as a common citizen, one can't reasonably absorb every aspect of a scientific discussion in a depth that would allow a truly informed judgement. Follows you have to believe in something, at a level you're able to understand and follow at that, too. Follows again that, lacking scientific education (which holds true for most people, at least), you have to have secondary skills, like the ability to ask intelligent questions, or the ability to discern propaganda pseudo-information from the real thing. That's easier said than done, because a lot of the so-called facts are presented to us in a rather convincing way, with seemingly reasonable people issuing reasonable statements.

From what I've seen and read though, it became quite clear to me that most of the documentaries that support the scam theory make use of rather simple instruments to further their cause. First of all, they use other (nonscientific) media as supporting acts, e.g. quoting newspaper article abstracts or even headlines only, without giving proper reference to the underlying studies. Second, the narration style is mostly red-top and designed to be polarizing at best. Those are telltale signs that immediately trigger an alarm with me to be careful about being more critical about the presented information. In the majority of cases, additional research on the presenters and contributors reveals that their position on the topic of climate change is disputable or that their expertise is questionable. It's a side-track and an entirely different topic in it's own right, and it comes down to media competence.

Some people seriously think that "global warming" is a non-topic, or a global scam that would allow the government take more control and allow the industry to make huge profits by opening new markets and selling new equipment using scare tactics. If you do too, or if you have doubts about the validity of the scientific consensus, I ask you to take 59 minutes and watch this:

So where's the difference between this and any other publication? I can only argue that the information presented seems to be less biased and of a more serious nature. Also, information about people and institutions is much less prone to manipulation and way easier to understand than the complexity of climate models and apparently contradicting research results.

Still, the question rises as to the motives. Both sides in this debate are being accused of making this a politically or economically motivated dispute. Looking at it with the intend to find a conspiracy behind the scenes, you can find evidence and reason in both positions. It's hard to make one's mind up about all this. I personally go for two things: 1. the media coverage of the scam theory followers is way higher than what percentage of the scientific community they represent. 2. the funding of this group of people mostly by companies that sell products that contribute to the GHG emission is a bit suspicious.

And, to come to an end, you have to believe in something, right? So why not believe in the FSM? x3

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think.

It's probably me.

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:06:29 GMT

Found by Zod.

no comment

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:25:05 GMT

fake cheese pizza

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:09:34 GMT

Okay, so either they can't count properly or it's a special nederpizza recipe. Never trust the label of a product.

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:55:27 GMT

Picture taken by Shumba Haystack.

Short trip to Amsterdam

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:56:00 GMT

It's been a while since I last went to the capital of the Netherlands, could've been in the early nineties. In short, I didn't recognize a thing o.O

We had a nice long walk around, it felt good to take in the bristling atmosphere of a bigger city for a change. A thing I really like about Amsterdam is that while you have that capital city flair about, things are still pretty rural with all the crooked houses, wooden stairs leading up to doors on second floors etc.

Next time I'll be better prepared in terms of places to see, and also I'll bring along a better camera, we had to make to with a cell phone cam here (though that has a stunning 8 megapixels). Also, more tram imagery will ensue.

River flows in you

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:07:36 GMT

Edit: I forgot to mention, this goes to doco with my deep sympathy.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.