Atheist, technopagan and vegan.

Early February 2014, and gorgeous weather, and no work to go to. A reason to grab the camera, the bike and a good coat (sunshine but +5C / 38F). After a bike ride along this path I reached a small creek/brook called "Lage Raam" This is the Lage Raam. Translated it's nonsense: low window. The creek is a typical low land creek, that's why there is 'low' in its name. Onwards towards this little place…

Yes, I went for the real thing. I bought a Synology NAS (model DS 214). It's a brilliant thing, with a very powerful yet simple management interface called Disk Station Manager (DSM). The unit is very easy to assemble (adding the 2 disks didn't even require a screwdriver), runs flawlessly and is very quiet. Access goes through a UTP cable to the router and after setting up the volume/shares and privileges it's immediately recognised by…

Everywhere in the United States people get shot by other people who have some score to settle. Like in December 2013, when in Colorado someone shot a group of people because he'd been in a dispute with a librarian and was disciplined. Really, that is the reason to shoot people these days. As I read that, it occurred to me that this seems to go further and further. The Land of the Free luckily does…

By Timothy J. Seppala posted Sep 30th, 2013 at 3:05 / Via Engadget The New York Public Library recently discovered a treasure trove of video games in its archives created by psychedelic evangelist Timothy Leary. Over 375 floppies(talk about flashbacks) containing a "dozen or so" games developed by the LSD-advocate in the '80s -- some are playable via emulation -- are now on display in the library's rare books and manuscripts division, according to The New York Times. The good doctor's…

The Daily Mail (UK) posted a very interesting article on a new book by Iain McKell about the new gypsies: Follow this link for the full story and many wonderful images.

"Almost all organisms, from bacteria to mammals, have a circadian clock—a mechanism in their cells which keeps them in sync with Earth's day-and-night cycle. But many organisms follow other rhythms as well. Now, new research provides the first evidence that animals have molecular cycles independent of the circadian rhythm. They include a sea louse whose swimming patterns sync up with the tides, and a marine worm that matures and spawns in concert with the phases…

Every year again, and perhaps even stronger every year, I see how humanity is doing the wrong thing when the darkness of nature comes along. Autumn, Winter, the seasons where nature slows down, settles inside itself to rest for a new period of bloom when Spring and Summer come. And what does modern man do? The same thing as usual. Running around as fast as possible, working harder and harder, lighting up the darkness with…

Ik ben lid geworden van de Blije B, ook bekend als de United People Foundation. Hoezo bekend? Nooit van gehoord. Ja, dat kan. Het is een initiatief van een gedreven groep mensen uit de financiële wereld om een nieuw soort bank op te zetten, een die eerlijker met geld omgaat dan wat we nu hebben. Ja ja, mooie praatjes, dat wordt niks. Dat kan. Het succes van deze nieuwe bank hangt af van het aantal…

I wonder if politicians are really stupid or if they receive instructions on acting like that once they're in some kind of seat of power. You may wonder why I ask this. If you do, you should pay attention to what politicians do and say for a change. Speed. A while ago here in the Netherlands they allowed people to drive faster on certain motorways. (US: freeways.) My first thought was: ah, they need more…

As found on Engadget: "Researchers want higher-resolution images of the Earth from space, but glass-based telescopes won't always be up to the job; eventually, the necessary hardware will be too bulky to lift into orbit. It's a good thing, then, that DARPA recently tested a ground-based prototype of its MOIRE (Membrane Optical Imager for Real-Time Exploration) folding telescope. Like the future spaceborne unit, the ground telescope replaces glass with a high-efficiency polymer membrane that weighs…