kyrah's soup (without imported items)

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Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:44:18 GMT

Reposted from cypher

Why are plants green and not, say, red?

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:37:19 GMT

I've been somewhat obsessed with this question the last few days, and being offline had no way of getting a quick answer. The connection with the sun's spectrum is obvious, but why should plants waste all those awesome green photons?

Here's the answer:

The energy spectrum of sunlight at Earth’s surface peaks in the blue-green, so scientists have long scratched their heads about why plants reflect green, thereby wasting what appears to be the best available light. The answer is that photosynthesis does not depend on the total amount of light energy but on the energy per photon and the number of photons that make up the light.

Whereas blue photons carry more energy than red ones, the sun emits more of the red kind. Plants use blue photons for their quality and red photons for their quantity. The green photons that lie in between have neither the energy nor the numbers, so plants have adapted to absorb fewer of them.

The World is Just Awesome.

DUDE!!!!11!1elf This is teh Awesomeness!!!Scripty you _rule_.

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:24:39 GMT

some realtime fun

DUDE!!!!11!1elf This is teh Awesomeness!!!

Scripty you _rule_.

Reaction to scripty

kyrah off-line

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:55:45 GMT

I will be on summer vacation from August 8 to August 25 and completely off-line during the whole period.

Remix of Radiohead's song Nude by James Houston, using a Sinclair ZX Spectrum (guitars), an Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer (drums), an HP Scanjet 3c (bass guitar) and a hard drive array (vocals/fx, doubling as speakers). Massive awesomeness! (via kintel)

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:07:31 GMT

Remix of Radiohead's song Nude by James Houston, using a Sinclair ZX Spectrum (guitars), an Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer (drums), an HP Scanjet 3c (bass guitar) and a hard drive array (vocals/fx, doubling as speakers).

Massive awesomeness! (via kintel)

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Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:23:28 GMT

Happy Birthday, Set!

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:54:55 GMT

Happy Birthday, Set!

Note: If you, like me, love these comics, you are spending too much time hanging out with Egyptologists... ;-)

"Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything ..."

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:25:59 GMT

Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is dead machinery. –from Breakfast of Champions

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Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:52:26 GMT

"El subterráneo es sin duda un símbolo de los tiempos que corren, un laberinto..."

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:59:19 GMT

El subterráneo es sin duda un símbolo de los tiempos que corren, un laberinto en donde en silencio nos cruzamos con nuestros semejantes, sin saber quienes son ni a donde van, cientos de andenes en los que aprovechamos para establecer un balance, prever una situación e intentar abordar, mas que un tren, un cambio de vida, es un extraño juego en el que nos sumergimos por infinitos túneles sin darnos cuenta de que en cada transbordo, estamos cambiando definitivamente nuestro destino... –Moebius

Defeating Encrypted and Deniable File Systems

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:32:19 GMT

Bruce Schneier et al, to appear at USENIX HotSec '08:

We examine the security requirements for creating a Deniable File System (DFS), and the efficacy with which the TrueCrypt disk-encryption software meets those requirements. We find that the Windows Vista operating system itself, Microsoft Word, and Google Desktop all compromise the deniability of a TrueCrypt DFS.

All TrueCrypt users should read this and think very, very carefully about it. Note that this does not mean that it does not make sense to use TrueCrypt. But you should consider well what kind of data you store on your hidden volumes and how you access these data... As always, thinking helps.

(Thanks to lynx for the pointer.)

Incredible pictures of Mars. Beautiful.

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:17:39 GMT

Incredible pictures of Mars. Beautiful.

\m/

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:47:03 GMT

\m/

Reaction to poussiere

Congratulations to our Millionth Terrorist!

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:42:14 GMT

The U.S terrorist watch list has hit one million names. I sure hope we're giving our millionth terrorist a prize of some sort. Who knew that a million people are terrorists. Why, there are only twice as many burglars in the U.S. And fifteen times more terrorists than arsonists. [...]

Kafka would be proud.

(via Bruce Schneier)

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Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:54:24 GMT

The Metalab delegation is back from the Slobodni Festival in Čakovec, Croatia.

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:58:02 GMT

The Metalab delegation is back from the Slobodni Festival in Čakovec, Croatia.

Marius and Philipp did some amazing live hacking on the RepRap, we presented the Metalab in all its awesomeness, and I gave a talk about privacy issues. Plus, we met some really cool local hackers, and generally had a *fantastic* time.

Thanks to everybody who was there... and special thanks to P+M for being such wonderful travel companions! :)

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Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:42:50 GMT

Reaction to clifford

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Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:42:45 GMT

Reaction to clifford

After the Olympic Games, the fight for Human Rights must go on.

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:40:08 GMT

After the Olympic Games,

the fight for Human Rights must go on.

Reaction to clifford

"I'm generally opposed to capital punishment based on my observation that thos..."

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:22:24 GMT

I'm generally opposed to capital punishment based on my observation that those with the capital usually evade the punishment. –AC

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Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:12:56 GMT

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Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:57:46 GMT

The most basic, versatile and essential tool for gaining knowledge: questions...

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:27:42 GMT

The most basic, versatile and essential tool for gaining knowledge: questions (via Dave Gray)

(via oneup)

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:35:28 GMT

(via oneup)

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Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:33:30 GMT

Reaction to susanreynolds via jessor

I've Seen the Future, and It Has a Kill Switch

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:56:27 GMT

Bruce Schneier on the Brave New World of "Digital Manners Policies", which will make your personal devices subject to external control by the authorities.

Very, vary scary stuff.

The World is Just Awesome! (via xkcd... kinda)

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:37:38 GMT

The World is Just Awesome! (via xkcd... kinda)

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:37:37 GMT

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. –Philip K. Dick

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Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:47:45 GMT

just how I feel right now... 6 AM flights should be outlawed under human rights regulations

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:42:49 GMT

just how I feel right now... 6 AM flights should be outlawed under human rights regulations

Reaction to Sixtus

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Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:25:00 GMT

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:24:37 GMT

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. –JFK

Neave Television (via antifuchs)

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:56:14 GMT

Neave Television (via antifuchs)

Awesomeness.

Not that the real thing has any more actual content in my opinion...

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Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:07:48 GMT

kyrah semi-offline

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:58:32 GMT

I'll be at the Eurographics Symposium on Rendering in Sarajevo until June 26. I will probably be reading email sporadically, but don't count on it. :)

(cat and girl)

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:28:27 GMT

(cat and girl)

Reposted from c3o

FireGPG

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:24:46 GMT

Email encryption and signatures in Gmail.

FireGPG is a Firefox extension for using GnuPG with Gmail, featuring an excellent easy-to-use interface. So... no more excuses for not taking back your right to privacy, dear Gmail users!

More about GnuPG on the GnuPG website

kyrah's public key: 0xBE3263FE

Science Made Stupid

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:19:31 GMT

All you ever wanted to know about the Universe, Matter & Energy, and the parentage of Adam and Eve's daughter-in-law.

A full discussion of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle may be found in the Appendix. (Then again, it may not.)

Hilarious!

Reaction to cypher

"To advance – that means Work. Patient, exhausting, thankless, often bewilderi..."

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:52:46 GMT

To advance – that means Work. Patient, exhausting, thankless, often bewildering Work. Work blindly, foolishly, misguidedly, it doesn't matter in the end: Work in itself has absolute virtue. –Aleister Crowley

Supreme Court Restores Rule Of Law To Guantánamo

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:36:45 GMT

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution also applies to the so-called "enemy combatants" detained at Guantánamo and that therefore they have the right to challenge their detention. (See also BBC and CNN reports.)

This is a landmark decision. Of course we will have to see whether it is actually implemented, and naturally it won't apply to any of the black sites, but if nothing else, it has an important symbolic value. It is inspiring to see that at least there are some men and women still willing to defend the rule of the law.