SfN 2009

Like all conventions, the Society for Neuroscience 2009 convention needs a writeup too. Actually, this is more than just a summary of what I did at the convention and what interesting things happened; this is also a list for me to refer back to to know what research I thought was important and what schools I'm applying to.

For privacy purposes only the first two letters of a person's first name is used. I'm the one who knows who they all are anyway. :D

Friday
-Having baggage apparently costs 20 dollars and I accidentally selected that I wanted Premier stuff or whatever (which was another 38 dollars) so I managed to waste over 50 dollars before I even headed off to Chicago. This trip sounded awesome already!
-Noted that while quality of food in United Airlines might be a bit better than China Eastern, the flight attendants in the former are significantly older than that of the latter. Also, possibly associated with age, they are REALLY SLOW at handing out drinks. That, and the food/snacks cost money too.
-Arrived at the O'Hare airport, found out that the airport was conveniently located 2 hours away from where my friend's house is (and where I was staying). And also that she didn't have a car so we had to take train/bus all the way back. Upon arrival, stuff was dropped off, a meal was eaten at a local restaurant, and fatigue was prompting us to sleep as soon as we were done.

Saturday
-Originally there were very little plans for Saturday since there weren't any poster sessions of my interest but it ended up to be a busy day
-After figuring out how to get to the convention center in the most roundabout way I checked in and received the programme.
-Hueg programme is HUEG. Imagine the anime expo programme. Now imagine a book of it multiplied by 3. There were 7 books all around that average size as the programme for Neuroscience 2009. Safe to say I was not amused lugging 7 books around the entire day.
-Went out to eat lunch with CA, a high school acquaintance. It's interesting to meet people after 5 years and see where they are now. Apparently in graduate school, which is where I'm going too. Also, apparently married. Which does not seem to be quite where I'm going right now...We talked about our works and Los Angeles and Chicago and other stuff. I learned there is a such thing as computational linguistics and they almost do the same thing as I do. Looks like I can get into any field with computational simulations!
-I went back to the conference to check out one of the posters from my lab. There I met SE, one of the big guys from the company sponsoring our research. We shook hands and he told me about the situation of the company, and how many pharmaceutical companies are interested in our stuff. It's all business. And it's alllll right. (the state of our research and the future of the company, that is)
-Found a poster shortly after about A new, incredibly accurate algorithm for determining error around edges in images, something interesting for computer vision. Admittedly I felt stupid because I couldn't quite know exactly how the algorithm worked, but it had to do something with partitioning one image, then partitioning the same image in another way, then comparing the two images... I think. Regardless it was remarkably accurate; for example, an image that might have more miscounts due to noise might have an accurate "edge" of an image, but an image that has less miscounts yet has a specific miscount next to the edge might seem more accurate overall, but is actually more inaccurate because now the edge looks like it has some kind of bump. This algorithm corrects for this kind of thing. Dr. TU, who was in charge of this project, also referred me to some other people from his school doing some computational neuroscience work, and I'm thankful for that.
-After that I went to visit my old advisor, RE, at a bar. AL and her boyfriend came and visited also. Eventually, SA, one of RE's new lab coworkers, and the person letting me crash at her place, PH, all joined to hang out. We hung out and talked about lab research, lab drama, football, stuff that doesn't work in lab and makes us angry, more football, other sports, where to eat, what to eat, finding a place to wait for our pizza to be cooked, what we wanted to drink at starbucks, japanese hair color, and traps. And yes I was amazed we somehow got onto the topic of traps.
-Eventually our Deep Dish Pizza was ready and, even if it looked small, it was a BIG thing. Even with like 6 people we could not finish it, so I was allowed to take it back to my friend's place. The leftover pizza was to be my breakfast for the next 4 days.

Sunday
-Lots of stuff happened on this day, since Neuroinformatics poster session was in the morning and Simulations was in the afternoon.
-There were a lot of graph-theory related research in the morning too (Seperate from Neuroinformatics). In one type of research "Fault Diagnosis Engineering", they try to determine protein network interaction to determine what kind of treatment is appropriate.
-Another network project involved an attempt to map post-translational proteins from different sections (synapse, cytosol, nucleus). They mostly looked into proteins that get phosphorylated right after translation, I think, and used a pulldown assay for that. They also did some stuff with histones.
-There was some research on Neurodegenerative Networks at Northwestern University. Seems to emphasize how many neurodegenerative diseases and cancer seem to have common networks to go by. Quite interesting.
-The Salk Institute is trying to make a 2-in-1 MRI and EEG machine!
-Some very enthusiastic person explained his research to me in using vectors to determine flow rate in the Perforant and Hippocampal areas of the brain. Honestly while I was listening I was like "this is all good and interesting but how will this ever be useful". I think maybe it will be useful to determine how drugs will flow into the system... or maybe the flow has something to do with how memory or other parts of the brain work? ...Ok yea I'm still not too sure what's its usefulness is right now.
-So along to ACTUAL NEUROINFORMATICS STUFF, there's various programs and interesting development going on. A lot of database stuff (of course). In one poster they're trying to form a database connecting symptoms of diseases in humans with animal models, since that may not always be very obvious when you're ordering your Alzheimer-diseased mouse.
-Apparently there was this poster on some program "GENMA" from the universeity of British Columbia but I'm googling it and nothing is coming up. I'm sad. :(
-The National Taiwan University is making a database of MRI images.
-There was this one computer science person who was making a list of words that are mentioned in science articles, then grouping them all together. I think this is like saying the word "hippocampus" is usually closely associated with the word "memory" in journal articles, or something to that extent. IMO I could not determine what exactly was the difference between what he was trying to do, and what a search engine does already at pubMed.
-Slim-Prim at University of Tennessee- https://ctsi.utmem.edu/gateway.php I think it tries to connect clinical data with research data.
-Neuroscience Information Framework BIIIIG neuroscience website that's acting like Neuroscience wikipedia + Neuroscience google. Heck, it IS Neuroscience Google. Seems like people from UCSD and Caltech are working on it.
-Waxholm Space and the INCF Digital Atlasing Program- making a world map of the Rat Brain. Many people, including UCSD (again!) are involved in this.
-After the Neuroinformatics poster session I found SU, my coworker, at a seminar. The seminar was pretty boring unfortunately; she and her friend RO were falling asleep. It had to do something with determining whether the X and Y chromosomes themselves determined gender identity, or if a particular gene which encodes for the generation of testosterone or some other hormones determined it.
-We set up our own poster afterwards. SU had to stay by her poster so I had to go get lunch by myself. I had a McDonalds hamburger which, later on, I thought was a bad idea since I had malaise almost the entire day afterwards and for the next 2 days at the convention center. Well, I don't directly associate it with the McDonalds hamburger but it sucks that I was at not quite the best condition to run around and learn neuroscience from everyone.
-There were some interesting topics in the simulation poster session #1. The first thing that caught my eye was a project some people were doing in Japan on connecting various different simulation and modeling programs together to make one larger system. Considering how we were trying to get Java to work with C, and then python, I (and my lab coworkers) became REALLY INTERESTED in where this work is going to go.
-A really overly happy but friendly guy from Case Western (a new student I think, he was presenting his old work from John Hopkins) gave me a lot of tips on who's doing what at Case Western. Sort of. Well, at least he gave me names, and that's good. Except it means more work and research for me. DAMMIT
- There was a neural networks optimization topic from Northeastern that involved proportions of excitatory and inhibitory cells. Something about the h value in the neural network to be constant... well ok I don't really know. :V
-Study at Michigan University involves Memory Maps where a cluster of cells in charge of say, one memory, may link to another memory. However, at weak stimulation one memory inhibits the activation of other memories. It actually seems pretty interesting.
-IN REGARDS TO OUR OWN WORK, most people were all like "yea cool" except for this one Blue Brain guy who totally floored us over. He pointed out specifically the parts that make our simulations slower and the clumsiness in construction of the platform. In many cases we were like "yes, we know that already you don't need to point that out *roll eyes*" in our head but of course since he's competing against us (I'm assuming since he's working on a similar project in the Blue Brain project) I think he wants to make us look bad as possible since we're already presenting what we have.
-I got a hand-exercise squishy thing that was in the shape of a cute chicken from a chicken antibody vendor. THIS IS WHAT I PAID THE 100 DOLLAR REGISTRATION FEE FOR, YOU HEAR ME??!??
-After that our super generous lab director gave us a big dinner where everyone ordered too much food and I bet half of the food we ordered were never finished. And it was all very expensive but apparently he is rich so its ok. Chicken soup was helpful considering the meals I've been having previously have had liters of oil dunked into them.
-I got back at like 11 PM super tired and ready to sleep in the air mattress that had a hole in it. :(

Monday
-Bus Miss-adventures #1: While walking towards the street I saw the bus SPEED past the bus stop and I was like "OH WAIT I NEED TO CATCH THAT" and ran after it but the bus never stopped and I just got worn out. :( Someone actually saw me and offered to catch the bus for me but I declined. People here in Chicago appear to be nice though.
-Water at the convention center: $3.75
-Banana: 1.00$
-Vendor items such as bags, candy, larger bags, and pens: Priceless. Literally.
-Sunday was an intense day, but Monday things were starting to settle down. I noticed, while wandering around, there were many simulation and modeling projects on oscillation and frequency patterns in different areas in the brain. MIT was pretty big on it.
-To my surprise there was a poster from Georgia Tech that dealt with an issue of heterogeneity in two neurons, in both simulation and in experimentation. I actually couldn't quite figure out what they were doing because I didn't exactly know what the heterogeneity meant... I think they were trying to test some theory or modeling scheme (like neural networks) and determining the constant (or nonconstant) value in such a model.
-There were some...interesting posters I happen to see when I passed by... such as "Mechanisms and Effects of Sleep Deprivation in College Students" or "Neural Activity Patterns in Older Adults after Internet Training." It's all good but I wonder how they get grants for funding this sort of research. Maybe the grant-givers were just curious.
-CONNECTOMES. Someone in the University of Utah is trying to build an Entire Connectome of the Retina , currently by hand. They're apparently taking a million images or something and piecing them together, manually, one by one. I asked them if they need a computer scientist to help them connect them faster or to help model whatever they found. I think there were amused. :V I will need to contact them later.
-Lunch was in ChinaTown (THANKFULLY) and we had some dim sum. Or rather, I had a lot of dim sum because I realized my friend didn't like to eat pork. So I had most of the dim sum. The other two people accompanying me had their fried rice and chow mien, though.
-Back at the poster session, there wasn't too much to see even though there was another modeling poster sesion. Perhaps the next most interesting thing wasStructural Synaptic Plasticity Modeling where someone was modeling how the shape of neurons change over time. I think, I could be wrong and forgot what their research actually was.
-Continuing the "I wonder how these projects get funding" trend, we have a toy neuron called "My First Neuron" for kindergartners or something! Man, kids are learning this stuff in elementary school now. That's intense.
-Since there wasn't too much other things to see other than visiting old lab coworkers, I went to the wikipedia talk where the speakers were teaching people how to use wikipedia and why everyone should use it. In actuality I kind of could figure out on how to use wikipedia but I was also sorta feeling crappy so I just sat there and listened to stuff I already knew about. I probably can't help contribute despite them saying "OMG EVERYONE CONTRIBUTE" because I don't think my knowledge is that good enough quite yet. :V
-Today was "meet everyone from your old lab" day. In the morning I went to SA's poster session and said hi. He was mostly busy all the time though. In the afternoon I was eager to meet MI since I haven't seen him for a while ever since he graduated and went to UCLA. There I bumped into MA too, so we talked a bit. Later when the poster session was almost over, I got together with MI, MA, and YU where we all decided to go out for lunch... somewhere. SA came along too. I suggested Chinatown but SA didn't want to go. Then I found MI, the old lab PI (well he's my current PI too), and so we hung out around the convention center for a longer period of time. RE came by and talked for a while too. EVENTUALLY we (me, MI, YU, and MA) figured that we'd have dinner after the social since we spent so much time talking and hanging out around the conference center that there wasn't much time left after that until the social.
-We took a bus to MA and YU's hotel. The view was really scenic and I regret that I didn't bring a camera (this thought occurred to me like 10 minutes before I landed in Chicago... "OMG I FORGOT TO BRING A CAMERA"). After stopping by MA and YU's room to drop stuff off we went to the social.
-Social was interesting. And dark. Bars are so dark. The weather was really dry so I had a slight bloody nose unfortunately (it was so dry I had to buy chapstick for my lips) but then I drank some orange juice and it was better. Sort of. I kind of felt queasy after drinking the juice but at least I didn't throw up. I met some people and learned about neurotree, which is a pretty nifty website that treats students and faculty as children and parents, and we can see who taught who and stuff like that. My name is now in there, so now you can see who my big bosses are!
-After that we went to some place called "the Bowl" or something to that extent which served Chinese and Thai food. There was this hot and sour soup that was pretty good if I wasn't feeling like crap still from all the dryness and the slight malaise that I've been having for nearly the entire conference period. We didn't order much since a lot of us were already pretty full from the social. Following that we went to CVS Pharmacy where I can buy stuff to make the dryness feel slightly less dry and then went back to the hotel, where I picked up my stuff and left.

Tuesday
-Bus Miss-adventure #2: This time I saw the bus fly by and I didn't run after it, thinking "I have enough time anyway so i'll just wait for the next bus". I was standing beside this building which helped in that it blocked off the wind, but I had to check every now and then to see if the bus was coming. I HAPPENED to NOT CHECK for a short moment whether the bus was coming and then... it just drove by the bus stop. AGAIN. WHEN I WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT, PRACTICALLY. OTL Needless to say I checked for the bus a bit more often after that and got on after the 3rd bus. :V Oh bother.
-Tuesday I didn't find too many posters relevant to my research or academic search either, but I did find funny things. Like a pigeon in the convention center! It was just walking around the tables behind the posters minding its own business, looking for leftovers. :V Or, a vendor advertising a mini-centrifuge signed by the cast of CSI Miami! The ones that do 10 minute PCRs! Signed a mini-centrifuge! :V There was also a poster on "Walking Speed Control in a Stick Insect". Really? They're measuring how a walking stick walks? :V
-There were still things that WERE relevant and worth mentioning. At UC Davis some people were designing a [b]Software tracking the movement and placement of chambers and electrodes[/b] in people's (or rodent's) brains. I believe it used scans and then determined the approximate location through the programming. They used a program called Caret (coded in C++ and OpenGL). Rather intriguing stuff.
-An intriguing poster to look at was the 3D Model Reconstruction of the Neuropil at University of Austin, Texas. The stuff they had on the poster was really detailed and thorough; it was very impressive. They even went down to the organelles and stated how they affected flow of current within the cell; that's some awesome work there. Along the lines of 3D, I think in this session I noted how many models are starting to incorporate 3 dimensions (our model uses 2) in lately, making things more complicated and making it seem like our project is a step behind (although we'll catch up soon... I think... maybe).
- There was some person who presented a poster on the "Information Integration Model of Consciousness"... It took me a while to figure out what the models meant, but when I did I didn't exactly see how it dealt with consciousness (it seems to be some sort of sorting algorithm that split a group into more groups, then separated those groups and having some sort of weight calculation). Or maybe I'm just stupid. :V
-So, Lunchtime came and I couldn't get anyone to come with me for lunch so I went to Chinatown by myself hoping to find a noodle house except... I couldn't find one. I walked, and walked, and kept on walking, turnedmyheadsuddenlybecauseIsawananimeposter then continued walking... until I found one, but it turned out to be a Pho house and I didn't really want Pho. So I walked back and went to a small cafe which luckily had noodle soup on its list. I ate some Shredded Pork and Preserved Vegetable Noodle Soup. I NEVER felt MORE satisfied about my meals in ALL THE I'VE BEEN IN CHICAGO.
- In the afternoon I went to a conference talk by Larry Swanson (I'm not affiliated with him and his name is in the programme anyway so I might as well mention his name) who also happened to come from USC. Most of his talk was on the history of Neuroscience, but it got a bit informative at the end, where he mentioned the state of neuroscience today and talked about some technologies. He mentioned how pattern recognition software is slow in development, so that's showing the importance of robot vision. Then he mentioned some neuroinformatics stuff ("Google Earth for the Brain") and talked about NIF and BAMS (I need to look up more on this since I don't know too much about it).
- After the talk I walked around the poster session along with SU. We met up with some of my old lab friends at their poster and we had some conversations and etc. After the poster session was over SU went to another talk while I went to get dinner. Because everything at the convention was so EXPENSIVE I decided to take the Metra train (they gave us FREE PASSES which only last for like 3 stops so its not THAT great), went to the end, bought a sandwich at subway somewhere, then went back and ate sandwich at the convention center.
-I FOUND MICROWAVES AT THE CONVENTION CENTER. A bit late though. It was funny because SU was eating cold leftover pizza only moments before. And only a few feet away from the microwaves too. It was quite ironic.
-The last event that happened on Tuesday was the Computational Neuroscience Social. For a social event I wasn't exactly that social, mostly hanging out with people from my current lab + 1. But I did manage to talk with that +1 on some variable step method models, crabs (its his research), eating crabs, and anime (Yes I know, I was totally productive...). I also talked with another guy because he looked bored and lonely and found out he was a master's student that, like me, was applying for graduate school looking into computational neuroscience programs. We exchanged our background projects and also talked about schools (Of course, we were all like "Yea, its ALL about UCSD for Comp. Neurosci") and I got some info on other good schools I can look into. Or schools I might not look into because it's more work. :<
-After that I went back earlie rthan before (GASP) and arrived back at my friend's place at 10 PM, where I mostly just talked about politics and Rand and her books before packing up and going to sleep.

EXTRA: Wednesday
-SO IT TURNS OUT I SPEND HALF OF MY DAY AT THE AIRPORT/ ON AN AIRLINE, and 2/3RDS OF MY DAY DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Luckily Chicago Airport is a lot nicer than LAX and there was time to wander around and explore before I laid down in the wait area to rest. Coincidentally, my current lab collegues were on the same flight so we met up and had fun there. Stuff happened and then we went on the flight and crashed-- I mean, went home. Oh before I left the LAX airport I found a vending machine selling iPhones. Really? Is there really some guy who's gonna be like "YEA I NEED AN IPHONE RIGHT NOW EVEN THOUGH I WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO CALL ANYONE OR LISTEN TO MUSIC ON IT"?
-I got home, played some RO, watched some Shugo Chara, and basically killed any sense of maturity and smartness I managed to get while I was at the neuroscience conference.


All in all, good fun. I enjoyed it despite being only 9/10ths as healthy as I wanted to be at the convention. CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR ITS IN SAN DIEGO, RIGHT NEXT TO WHERE I'M LIVING--Oh wait I might be at the east coast then. ...DAMMMIT

caDNAno

Looks like fun!!!

http://cadnano.org/

Belvedia

Obligatory GUMI wall.

This is with glowy everything. Anyone have an opinion if there should be no-glow on anything? like the lacing? Or the words "Megpoid GUMI"?

tell me over IM or something! :V

Obligatory Haruhi Announcement

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-10-08/disappearance-of-haruhi-suzumiya-film-announced-for-2010

yea nothing really special here.

Apartment Internets

The nametag for this xkcd is absolutely true.

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5899230

Ig Nobel Awards

Ah the world, and the research they do.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1002/2?rss=1

My favorite comment so far is from here:

"And I have a great idea about selling emergency protective undergarments in Japan, but the exact details don't really belong in this forum..."

I can certainly see where he's coming from. Catering to Moe culture I'm presuming!

Sora Wo Kakeru Shojo

The problem with shows like these is when I watch them I never want to stop, but when I stop watching for a while I never want to watch them again because I'll know I'd never want to stop.

IN ANY CASE, the series is quite significant in that it was the first (I think?) series where I didn't watch for any character in particular, because I didn't really find an attraction to any significant character (Moe-standpointwise). I would have to say if I had to choose Akiha... because of the pink hair. :V

So the question comes to being, why did I enjoy the series so much? Well, good plot, artwork, and animation helped. In fact I was quite surprised at how much I immensely enjoyed the artwork to SoraKake yet cannot pinpoint a particular moe character that I would gush about. Still, for the pilot suits, GOOD JOB! :V (I feel so bad saying that) I think part of the reason I enjoyed the artwork a lot was because the last show I watched when I started this series (Was it Asu no Yoichi? I forgot) did not exactly have the prettiest artwork, and when I switched over I was like "BEAUTIFUL!!!" The fight scenes were pretty exciting too. Well, as exciting as sticks with the most random of weapons can get, at least.

In terms of characters, I liked a couple of them for personality, although none of them are anything to gush about. For personality I think Honoka was the coolest character, because I believe if I were to model anything off of Ruby I'd probably have her be the model. Other characters were interesting and funny. What's probably most surprising in my opinion is that, as the show started to get to an end, I thought Nerval was actually a pretty cool person. His reasonings, if you thought them through, were fairly logical, though his methods were not exactly the most friendly. And, he puts people in happy boxes! He just wants to make a world where everyone is happy. In boxes. :V THEY'RE BOXES!!! WHAT'S WRONG WITH THEM, is what he's trying to say. :(

But yea his methods weren't exactly the most "humane" so I guess that's why everyone didn't like him.

The music is quite dramatic and adrenaline rushing, which is suited for a series that is using sticks with stuff attached to them as their main fighters. Oh, and some planes, but those are insignificant. And a big cannon. :V

"With Pleasure!"
...Oh Leopard. :V

EDIT: Oh yea, one qualm I had about the series (like many series, actually) is the incompleteness of some parts of the plot. The plot of this series moved fast, was suspenseful and unpredictable, however there were some parts that were inconsistent... like what about that note on "Enigma"? The shop just gets blown up and that's it? :( I was curious to know what that note was!

And actually not really making anyone "die" makes this series a pretty happy series but, I think it would have worked better if they kept things consistent like that, too. :V

:(

Goddammit Crunchyroll, why must you make my life hard!

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-10-02/crunchyroll-adds-miracle-train-nogizaka-haruka-no-himitsu-2

Killing fandoms on both sides by licensing them on your streaming site! :( Sigh Tokyotosho is my only hope.

GakuGumi Comic Thingy

A SCANLATION BY G4oPTG!! Good luck figuring out what that means.

Because a lot of people don't seem to know (the translator and a friend of mine who QTed it didn't know) Gacktpoid and Megupoid are made from the same company, but a company different from the common vocaloids (Miku, Len/Rin, Luka). This is also sort of why Gumi is less popular than the other four... :(

Hopefully the explanation will make the story a bit more understandable, from where they're coming from.

EDIT: FOR WHATEVER REASON THE IMAGE ISN'T COMING OUT FULL SIZE SO ITS CRAPPY so I need to figure out what to do with this.

EDIT: Actual size: http://www.nethila.com/akuun/TReusbucks/sister.jpg

Protein Movement Modeling.

mostly for my self reference.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7264/full/461572a.html

Blue Bird

THE EPICNESS



THE EPICNESS!!!

(yes this is 3 months old but HIGH QUALITY BLUE BIRD IMAGE I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS)

More Adventures in PixIV

THERE IS FRAME EMBEDDING ISN'T THAT COOL

NOW I DON'T HAVE TO SAVE AND UPLOAD AND SAVE MYSELF 2 SECONDS OF WORK!

And yes Moe GUMI is Moe. :V

EDIT: Hmm. If this is all you can see then maybe I should save and reupload. For the good pictures, anyway. But all of you guys should be having a PixIV account anyway >:O So I think, for anyone who really wants to see, IM me and I'll teach you how to get a pixIV account. Or send you the pic. :V But most of you guys probably won't care :D~

Recession Rocks!!

LOL WHAT

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/928/1?rss=1

Damn research, telling us now that recessions make us healthier!!

...I want to get grants doing research like this! :(

Atmospheric Data

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090923/full/461466a.html?s=news_rss

This is really awesome. I'm not really a person that deals with the atmosphere but I can say as a person who returns to Shanghai every 2 years that the pollution -- and the humidity -- there is terrible. In that respect I really support anything that analyzes the atmosphere and pollution in China and hopefully, find ways to improve it. Because the saddest reason not to go back to Shanghai is just because of its weather. :V

That, and trying to improve China international relations, go!

Windows 7

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-09-24/nana-mizuki-voices-japanese-windows-7-premium-character

I heard Windows 7 was awesome and all that, but now I really want the japanese version for whatever reason. I can't imagine why.

Oh, Japan.

There should be a better title for this, but really, this is just completely an "Oh, Japan" type thing.

http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/09/24/pay-1000-yen-to-get-slapped-in-the-face-by-a-girl/#more-2989

I know I hear everywhere that Japan is a misogynist society, but it looks to me that men are totally being exploited by an ever growing feminine power. I don't know what these feminists are saying when they want to ban eroge! Or maybe they are banning certain types to make others more prominent... like, the ones where girls act like this... so poor guys who missed out on childhood events like this or want to reminiscence those days get taken advantage of...

OMG ITS A CONSPIRACY

Nyan Nyan~!

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8277125

how Luka can steal Gumi's song and sound so!!!


...digitized.


:V That aside Luka's voice really doesn't suit this song, its all GUMI...

Oh, Research.

From Nature September 2009 (the most recent issue):

"Evolutionary biology: Well endowed

BIOLOGY LETTERS/THE ROYAL SOCIETY 2009

Biol. Lett. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0637 (2009)

The wide variation in male genitalia size in animals is thought to have evolved mostly in response to selection pressures that come into play during or after copulation and increase the male's share of paternity.

But it seems that females of the mosquito-fish Gambusia holbrooki choose mates before copulation on the basis of the size of their genitalia — and for them, bigger is better. Andrew Kahn and his team at the Australian National University in Canberra tested female preference for males that had had their genitalia considerably reduced in size by surgery (pictured, bottom) compared with those with only a minor reduction (pictured, top). They found that females spent, on average, around one-and-a-half times longer associating with the better-endowed males."

Really, research can be quite fun(ny) sometimes. :V Obviously we want to pay money to read this kind of exciting study!

"vs. Capcom" Title Competition Thingy

http://kotaku.com/5365382/capcom-seeks-suggestions-for-next-vs-title

OF COURSE the title needs to be "Key vs. Capcom". Yes, Mugen already has that, but then it can be OFFICIAL!! That and Clannad chars would be nice too.

...along with a whole "Dude, WTF?" reaction by the rest of America.

EDIT: On second thought, Vocaloid vs. Capcom would be awesome too.

"GUMI BEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAMMMM"

Lies!

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/09-09Lies.asp

Hmm well irony aside I don't see too much meaning in this research... well maybe it will give the people strict to morals a wakeup call or something but, interesting research!

...maybe moreso if we don't think about what the funding can be going to instead! :V

Anya Pie

IT IS DELICIOUS PIE.

YOU MUST EAT IT.

I have a smaller version of the longer version if anyone wants, since that's the resolution I have for my laptop, but for other resolutions, too bad. :V

...

Okay not really if you really want it I'll resize it for you. :<

Image Credit: Anya goes to a super cool artist who I don't know the name of (BUT I HAVE A HARD COPY FROM SOME CHINESE MOE MAGAZINE!), the pie is from ABC superstation (who would have thought they had orange pie recipes), and the lace to myself because NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO MAKE GOOD LACE CLIPART FOR WHATEVER REASON. :(

Auto-Recycle

http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?id=3379&source=1

Seems a bit far-fetched to me imo right now, but if they can get something on with it it could be a pretty nifty thing.

Although, I think the idea might just die out a couple years later. Not trying to be pessimistic, but... it needs more "OMG THIS IS AWESOME"ness. It has the potential!

Showers

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7262/full/461360a.html

Most people probably can't read the article because its in Nature, but basically it says that non-tuberculosis mycobacteria live in showerheads and the bacteria can be harmful to immunodeficient people and that chlorine and soap only serve to eliminate competition so bugs like these can grow instead!

What a nice thought.

The Sahara Forest...WHAT?

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/914/2?rss=1

Um, I'm all for science and trying to solve climate change, but... The Sahara Desert is an ecosystem in of itself, I think this is probably NOT the best idea... so my limited environmentalist conscience tells me...

Adventures in PixIV

THERE ARE 77 PAGES OF GUMI

HOW WILL I EVER FINISH

YUKITO, I CHOOSE YOU

Credit to 烏月 , from pixiv.

All it needs is Potato Kick.

GREEN

...yes, its a song about... green. :V

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8133348

FEAR

The short article is in Nature and since most people won't have access to it I copy and paste the article here:

Neuroscience: Fear net

Science 325, 1258–1261 (2009)

When adult rats are trained to associate a sound with an electric shock, they will often fear that sound for a lifetime. Young rats, however, can erase the fear memory when it is no longer relevant.

Andreas Lüthi, Cyril Herry and their colleagues at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland, found that the reason for the shift may be the development of the perineuronal net, an extracellular protein lattice that surrounds a subset of neurons as rats mature. When the authors used an enzyme to dissolve the perineuronal net in the amygdala, a crucial brain region for forming fear memories, they found that adult rats could wipe away the memory of the shock as if they were young.

The potential of this seems pretty high, assuming they get anything out of the work. Consider a drug that can help dissolve the net and make people overcome fear of... almost anything. Shows like Oprah may come to an end, oh no!!!

GuMMD

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8058900

This Gumi's Seikan Hisou singing isn't that great, and the dancing is pretty atrocious (extremely choppy, not smooth at all) but this Gumi model is SOOOOOO CUTE

I saw some of it on PixIV and thought it was awesome so of course this is needed. :V

GuMiKu

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8101839

The character designs! The moe the moe the MOE!!!!

Also, for whatever reason this song reminds me of Baroque classical music. Plus traditional Japanese music. It must be the harpsichord-sounding chorus thingy in the background.

End of the World

AkibaBlog is shutting down!

http://en.akibablog.net/archives/2009/08/dear_akibablog_readers.html

ADV is shutting down!

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-09-01/adv-films-shuts-down-transfers-assets-to-other-companies

Gmail servers are down!
(...I don't really need to link you to this)

Saying "n" is not allowed in RO Servers anymore!

...admittedly, an interesting way to end the world.

THE NEXT MARVEL VS. GAME IS--

Sorry, I'm usually not that interested in both Marvel OR Disney, but this is just so hilarious, imo, for whatever reason.

http://kotaku.com/5349341/disney-buys-marvel-for-4-billion

Soon we'll be seeing mickey and friends beating up the Hulk in the next marvel fighting game. YES

Chinese-English Dictionary

Most computer/online chinese-english dictionaries are stupid because you can't exactly type the chinese word out easily, and if you don't know the word how the heck can you know the pronounciation?

This is why this one is awesome. AFAIK its the only online dictionary that uses the TRADITIONAL way to look up Chinese words.

http://www.mandarintools.com/chardict_rs.html

I think the pulldown menu for the number of strokes afterwards is a bit cumbersome (should just have a field to enter it in) but overall this is definately the dictionary I'm looking for. It might take a few seconds to look up a word but that's still nothing compared to finding the stroke >> finding the word>> turning to the page of the word >> looking for the damn word you're looking for inside a chinese dictionary.

One significant problem is that the dictionary is really simple and doesn't include phrases associated with the word, which can have significantly different meanings from the word. :/ I guess in that case we can use this one first and then identify the word, then copy-paste it into another dictionary? Blah. WELL ITS PROGRESS.

Someday, I will be able to read all my chinese manga perfectly due to technology, but not today. :(

EDIT: What we can do is look up the word using stroke first, then get the pinying and form the phrase and write it into the normal chinese-english dictionary provided by the same site on this page:
http://www.mandarintools.com/worddict.html
This seems to work, and its not a lot of time lost either. :V

HAHA DISREGARD THAT, I AM BLIND AND DID NOT REALIZE YOU CAN JUST CLICK ON THE CHARACTER AFTER YOU FOUND IT

MY WORLD IS COMPLETE.

umm... Sketches!

I don't know why, but I find this just so cute!

http://kotaku.com/5347357/scary-drawing-lady-sketches-her-room

I also don't know why Kotaku is the one reporting this. But the contrasting its just so cute and funny :D

K-On Randomness

Best page in K-On so far.

http://www.onemanga.com/K-ON/14/07/

oh Yui, you're so cute.

GUMI BEEEEEAAAAMMM

I need a translation, but yes GUMI BEEEAAAAAMMM--- Pixiv is awesome. :V Credit goes to... uh... this artist named あをむし.

Multitasking Sucks

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/825/2?rss=1

Probably why I can't study and listen to music at the same time. Or talk and play online games at the same time. Although I can play games and listen to music... :V

Shugo Chara Party

...Even though I just posted something like that only a few minutes ago AN ANNOUNCEMENT SHUGO CHARA 3RD SEASON

Holy crap that's a lot of episodes. I still haven't even started second... well 2nd season still hasn't even ended!!

http://www.moetron.com/2009/08/25/shugo-chara-party-third-season-begins-october/

Clannad After Story Ep. 18

YES I know I've been really slow in watching shows like this and I apologize to my sister who is always waiting on me so we can watch it together. ANYWAY I WOULD SAY SPOILERS but I'm probably the last one to finish this series (along with my sister) so I don't think any of this is spoilers to anyone. If anything people are telling me to hurry up so I can finish the series already... :V (Well my sister is anyway)

But I want to talk about this episode since it was kind of sad. Kind of.

The interesting part I thought about this episode is how something like this can be more touching than two episodes before when Nagisa died. For me when Nagisa died, yea it was a sad event but I wasn't crying or feeling that emphatic. Yet the end of episode 18 seemed to have that effect. Perhaps its the young innocent child, unknowing and unaware of the plight that she and her father have to go through, or maybe its just the parental bonding which seems to affect me so well (I attribute this to why I like AIR so much as well). But I just found it strange how I found Tomoya recalling about Nagisa to his daughter so much more emotionally powerful than for Nagisa to die herself. It might just be the parental bonding thing. Regardless Key has always been this way.

Another thing that Key has always been is to make the series... not so frustrating, even if its sad. Case in point, Tomoya. In any other type of show, I may have got frustrated at the protagonist whenever they go into a fit or a state of depression (ie emoing), mainly because I find the reasons usually pretty stupid. But I can't with Tomoya. From his anger raging to his father to his "life sucks" theory after Nagisa died, Tomoya never frustrated me even though I thought he would. His frustration for his father seems understandable since, according to Tomoya at time time, his father did ruin a lot of things. However, as episode 18 showed, his father WAS really trying to care for him. Both sides had their understandable story and no one was at fault in my eyes.

The other part that I thought I would be annoyed at was Tomoya's depression after Nagisa died. But even then I thought his actions were understandable. He had been complaining about it a while earlier how he wondered if he did the right thing. I think he thinks about these things because he wonders if he's actually suitable for Nagisa, who he regards as this wonderful angel (which in a way she is at some times). Seeing his past and his relationship with his father, along with the not-so-noble job he has, he does have reason to feel that he's not suitable. And when of all things Nagisa dies, its understandable that he felt that HE made the mistake of being in a relationship and "killing" the angel Nagisa. Some, I think, may believe he was just being selfish and wished he never experienced the pain of the death of a loved one. This may be true but for me, judging how they developed Tomoya and the way Key presents this series, it seems to me that Tomoya is more blaming himself for the pain of others than for the pain of himself.

Key is certainly an expert at making sad stories not frustrating. Its hard for me to watch most depressing or sad stories because I usually feel frustrated or think the reasonings behind their emoing is not legit. I still have to watch more with the series but while I won't give up the top favorite spot of AIR, I am certainly commending this series to be quite good (interestingly enough since it seems that many people I meet when talking about After Story didn't like it as much as the first season, or at least not as much as other shows). At the very least, better than Kanon which was pretty much all romance and something I couldn't really relate to. :x

Research! Why!

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/820/1?rss=1

This type of research seems as beneficial to society as walking in circles is to getting out of a forest.

(More) Seikan Hikou

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7895764

*kira* yes GUMI, yes. :V

Nogizaka Haruka Light Novel

EPIC THANK YOU BAKA-TSUKI

http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Nogizaka_Haruka_no_Himitsu


LOOOOOOOOOOOVE

Sleep Schedules

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/813/2?rss=1

What does this mean? It means that in the future we will all have genetically engineered bodies... and... WE WILL ALL HAVE THE SAME SLEEP PATTERN MWHAHAHAHAHAHAH--

BTW All college students besides me must be genetically mutated. Yes, that explains everything...

心壊サミット【初音ミク PV】

...as the title says. :V

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7871408

Nanowires and Lipids

THE BEST NEWS IN SCIENCE I'VE HEARD IN... uh, a while.

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090811/full/news.2009.815.html?s=news_rss

First, nerves. Then, the brain. Then, THE WORLD--

Geoengineering

Omg! Geoengineering! That sounds so cool!

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090807/full/news.2009.810.html?s=news_rss

Why Pokemon is Popular

http://kotaku.com/5331307/the-everything-disease-a-forensic-analysis-of-the-popularity-of-pokemon

I like this guy's critique!!

Lalalalalaaaaaaaa

I'd linkspam these on facebook but my facebook isn't working.

GUMI SONGS
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7470594
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7458908

PLIGHT OF PROFESSORS
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v460/n7256/full/460690a.html
(may not be accessible since this an article from the Nature journal itself)

SMART PIGEONS
http://pigeonblog.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/pigeon-gets-the-banana/
(Cute, but you kinda wonder why it doesn't just jump-fly a bit or something... but clever nevertheless :V)

Rin and Gumi

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7755997

The song is only okay, but look! Rin and Gumi in loligoth form! :D

Blogology

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/803/3?rss=1

The study of Emoing on the internets! :V Kind of amusing.

Although it makes you think, all these bloggers are now being subjected as test experimenters. But then again if they're posting their personal outlets on blog sites anyway they probably don't mind something like that in comparison to, say, a 24 hour stalker or something... :V

Moar Caek?!?

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7764192
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCNZmP5YPhQ

This is like the girliest girly girly girliest Vocaloid video I have EVER seen.

etcetc started playing RO again etcetc

So yea everyone knows. However my return isn't what I want to talk about.

What I want to talk about is 3 SLOTTED CELLOS.

I did some calculations and have concluded: 3 slotted cellos are awesome.

Lets take a +10 violin (4s) and assume we have 2x race 2x element, of course a 196% bonus.


The damage we see for this is 50 (base attack) + 26 (+10 upgrade), so 76.

Let's assume the optimal 160 dex (which of course every minstrel has, except me.)

The damage from 160 dex is 256 (the exponential rule) + 160 which is 416.

We add them together, that's 492. Then we apply the race and element and it ends up having 964 attack power. Okay, everyone knows this. (BTW str bonus and luk bonus not included, nor imp. Str and Luk is insignificant since practically no one gets them anyway, Imp actually IS significant along with other attack bonus boosters, but for the sake of complexity I omitted it.)

Now, I won't go through this all over again, but the THREE SLOTTED cello has 110 ATTACK Power. It's also a level 3 weapon, therefore each upgrade bonus is more than that of a violin. What this all means is, in the end, after all calculations are made, a +8 cello with 2 race/ 1 ele (or vice versa) does about the same damage as the violin. A +9 does more damage, but barely; if the user has Imp or other attack boosters on him, he'll do more damage with a violin than with the same boosts on the cello. With +10, there's a good damn chance the cello will be the best freakin weapon out there.

not only that, if the exponential rule is gone (due to renewal), then ultimately the Cello will OWN.

Caek?

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/731/2?rss=1

Now some research evidence for why English are bad cooks!

Hatsune Miku Concert

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-07-31/hatsune-miku-virtual-idol-to-perform-in-live-concert

Hay, its on my sister's birthday~!

When the Climate Changes...

...blame it on the Jellyfish.

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090729/full/news.2009.745.html?s=news_rss

Jellyfish. Changing the oceans, and the world. One tentacle at a time.

RO Stories

The new RO Diary is ROStory, and the title gave me an idea: To keep RO Stories on ROStory!! Who would have thought!!! :V

http://rostory.org/EngiMatikul/

The blog is friend-restricted because I don't want random creepy peoples reading my sucky stories and going "lol u suk" ;o; harsh criticism! harsh!!

But I'll accept anyone as friends so as long as you make an account and friend me I'll friend you back so you can view.

On a slightly related note, its interesting why I sometimes find writing for RO more easy than writing original stories. I believe this is due to two reasons. One is the social aspect: there are people I know that I write into the stories, with their character personalities all defined already. And likewise these people may read my stories and appreciate them, which makes the author (myself) feel somewhat happy. The second aspect is a similar aspect in that everything is structured and ready to be embellished. The plot is already there, in skeletal form; I just need to give it flesh and make some creative way of telling it. This is remarkably easier than coming up with plot and everything all by yourself, then having to flesh it out on top of it.

Taking those into consideration, yes, my RO story output is remarkably higher than my other stories, which I usually only bother to make an outline of.

Stem Cells

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090723/full/460560a.html?s=news_rss

Not much to say on this one. Go science!

NY Times article on Hardcore Otaku

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26FOB-2DLove-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1

Friend linked me to this. From an overall perspective I think this is somewhat interesting and a bit scary, not in that "omg those people are freaky get them away from me" but more like "its nice they can be so happy but I really hope I don't end up like them" type of scary. :V

But actually, what I was really interested in was two sentences near the end of the article:

"In March, Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology unveiled a 5-foot-2, 95-pound girl robot made “for entertainment purposes,” with an anime face and human proportions. The robot girl walked, batted her eyelashes and spoke basic Japanese."

WHAT? REALLY? I THINK I WANT TO GO WORK AT THIS PLACE NOW.

This calls for a google search.

EDIT: GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS REVEAL: http://www.edn.com/blog/980000298/post/670042267.html

The internets. Ruining people's lives.

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/07/china-cracks-do.html

Actually, I'm a lot more interested in how they make the child enter the clinic, shock them, and then somehow tell them this is related to them surfing the internet and that's why they should stop.

Can't the parents just spank their kids or something! :V

Benefits

Apparently if I get married to a USC student right now I can waiver off 50% of my spouse's tuition fees for them.

What a way to pick-up people! Marry me now and I'll make half your tuition fees go away!!

On a (almost?) completely unrelated note, Love Plus has MULTIPLAYER FUNCTIONS. This game is awesome. :V

Seiken Hikou (sp?) and GUMI

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7697437

SOOOOOOOO MOE

Ok besides that point, I THINK this is supposed to be a tutorial on how to make GUMI sing Ranka's theme song as much like the actual song as possible. I think the person does an incredibly good job as you can probably hear later on in the song.

Makes me want to learn japanese and learn how to use GUMI! :(

Jigoku Shojo 3

Yuzuki is moe.

That put aside, the ending to Jigoku Shojo 3 was highly ambiguous but left for a lot for discussion, I believe. Mainly because nothing was concrete on what exactly happened in the end, I think it's a worthy topic for discussion on who exactly Yuzuki is and what is her existance.

OBVIOUSLY IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED ANY OF JIGOKU SHOJO 3 this MIGHT be spoiling the entire series. But then again you only really need to watch like 6 out of the entire 26 episode season to see the entire plot of the series but lets put that aside.

First off, the existence of Yuzuki. For the first theory, lets assume that Yuzuki was, originally, a normal human girl. Then stuff happened (episode 25) and somehow she ends up still existing even though she's obviously dead. The main motivation for her still wanting to be alive was seen in episode 25 when the two school girls visited the shrine, and the little girl saw how fun they seemed. So of course, she wanted to goto school and have fun too. This one hope, or dream, probably helped fuel her ambition to still remain alive. But what about the reason she's still alive? This can be seen in episode 26, when she meets her former younger self (when she became Jigoku Shojo). Ai most likely symphasized the girl most especially for her innocence and seeming lack of hatred (but more likely, lack of understanding hatred) of the world. However, lets also assume that Ai is already "incapacitated" (I would say dead, but that's probably not appropriate) as had been seen in the events from season 2.

Therefore, it is likely that Yuzuki's existence is half fueled by a small's child one hope in her otherwise hopeless life, and half there because Ai used her powers to help build her existence. On that same note, Ai may have also used the girl to revive her self, or to quicken her rivival. Its very likely that she could have chosen any girl, and the main reason she chose her, I believe, is because she very much symphasized Yuzuki and her innocent view of the world.

Another theory. I said earlier that I assumed Yuzuki was a normal human. However, its also possible that Yuzuki not only helped the revival of Ai, but IS the reincarnation of Ai herself as a modern day human being. There is two pieces of evidence for this. One is that there seems to be quite some time that passes by after each series, and judging by the age of the one little girl from the first season (who was about a mid or high schooler in the second season), we can possibly imply that 15 or so years have already passed by without (much) incident-- enough time for Ai to become "reborn" into the world to someone else (Yuzuki) and for her subordinates to settle down for a while. The other evidence is in the last episode (and can sort of be implied throughout the entire series) where Ai says "you are me" to Yuzuki. After all, Until half of the season went by, both characters shared the same body. We can probably assume that after half of the season went by Ai obtained enough power to form her own body again, but she was still undoubtedly connected to Yuzuki.

Therefore, Yuzuki is much more than just a moeblob for the promotion of the 3rd season. However, though the ending has reasonly deep meaning, seriously... couldn't you make Yuzuki the new Jigoku Shojo. :(

GODDAMN AI LOVERS. WE CAN USE A NEW HELL GIRL that looks somewhat cuter, too. D:

Akiba Employment

http://en.akibablog.net/archives/2009/06/50853505.html

My favorite is the scenario writer. "Impossible unless you write 10 kb/day" OH SHI----

I'd still want to be one if I was living in Japan. Maybe. :(

"Don't Say Lazy"

Has the worst vocal variation I have ever heard.

Chorus: 32 notes, repeated like over 10 times in the entire song.

Other: alternation between two notes.

Yet its still stuck in my head goddammit! Must be the whole repetitiveness that burns the chorus into my hippocampus.

And yes I know I"m missing that part between the main stances and the chorus but that isn't played very much in the song anyway!!!

Must listen to 1000x or something to get it out again.

Yui is STILL superior to Mio btw. Screw all you Mio fanboys! V:

Korea and Georgia Tech

http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?id=3157&source=1

Obviously, Korea is in this so they can play starcraft while watching their k-dramas and doing their business calls at the same time. Genius!

...and this has nothing at all to do with biology or BME or anything I potentially will be interested in majoring in the future.


FOR SCIENCE STARCRAFT!!

Trash!

I would criticize again about the direction research is going in, but you know, this is pretty cool! I get to see where that cup I threw away is going!

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/trash-0715.html

What the ____ kind of research is this ____?

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/713/3?rss=1

Really now, the research people do these days...

Megpoid GUMI

In case anyone who reads this hasn't been talking to me recently I am currently in obsessed fanboy mode over the new Vocaloid voice synthesizer, GUMI. Her voice sounds more realistic than all the other Vocaloid singers out right now and imo can be absolutely fantastic if programmed correctly. Unfortunately I have zero composition talent (if only I could compose instead of write...) so I'm just stuck with listening to what other people made. V:

So far Blue bird is my absolute favorite. The better GUMI songs I'll be posting on facebook but there are a few which I'm pretty sure no one would listen to (twice) besides me, so I'll just post the lesser popular ones here, just for reference.

But everyone should listen to Blue Bird, which is posted on my Facebook.

And the Gummy Bear song. :V OH I'M A GUMI BEARRRRR

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/nm7569227 << not that great, but maybe. Cute pic.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7561464 << 777!!!!!!!!

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7558727 << Cute, and has lots of references to other stuff.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7593810 << Happy songs are always welcome!

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7598014 << Blue Bird Remixed

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7598073 << OF COURSE, THIS WAS INEVITABLE. From this video one can tell that the synthesizer still has a long ways to go from mimicking the actual human voice, but for a synthesizer, still not too bad. Miku wouldn't be able to do any better, that's for sure. :V

RPG Meme crap

LOL 0% Plotful, "hard to involve in plots"... BUT NOT IF I'M MAKING THEM MWHAHA.

:V

The Portraitist

Random, Character-Oriented, Platonic

As a Portraitist, the character is everything to you. You value the character's personality and development more than anything else, and your goal in roleplay is to flesh the character out in any and every way possible. You're the method actor of the roleplay world: you know your character through and through (you've probably done a ton of research) and you enjoy throwing your character into new and random situations just to prompt interesting reactions. However, you're hard to involve in any plots, mostly because ongoing stories that don't focus on exploring your character's innermost depths quickly bore you. Also, you might like to put your character in tragic/stressful situations a little too much.

Japanese Schools and Technology

Been post-spamming the entire day today, apparently.

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090708/full/460171a.html?s=news_rss

It's a JAPANESE SCHOOL AND it has the LATEST TECHNOLOGY FOR EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH????


...I suddenly have a new ambition to learn Japanese and teach at a school in japan. SCHOOLGIRLS AND SCIENCE! WHAT COULD BE BETTER!

Cyborg Name Decoder

ROTFL

Get Your Cyborg Name

Whatever happened to "NSFW"

You'd think head scientist managers would be smart enough to at least download porn at HOME.
:V

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/06/a-senate-slap-a.html

BTW, the Civil and Criminal Investigations in the provided investigative report that the above news links to is absolutely hilarious to read.

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/oig0901/oig0901_3.pdf

Genre meme thing

I should really be finishing my project than doing this. :V

Tsunderekko (Harsh Outside-Gentle Inside)
[x] You come off as sort of aloof to other people.
[] In public, you intentionally refrain from showing much weakness.
[] You have a secret obsession with something cute. (...its not really secret :V)
[] You pretend that you hate your crush even though you really love him/her.
[] You blush when people point out your sensitivities.
[x] You blush when people tell sexual jokes.
Total: 2

Yanderekko (Gentle Outside-Harsh Inside)
[ x] You’re very sweet and kind in public.
[ ] When romance becomes a topic of discussion, people say your personality changes drastically.
[ ] You know some sort of martial art, swordplay, or otherwise.
[ ] You have a crush who you’d literally kill for.
[x] You have a pet-peeve that makes you snap.
[ x] Bipolar?
Total: 3

Meganekko (Girl-with-Glasses Character)
[x] You have glasses.
[ x] You can sometimes be clumsy, ditzy, or absent-minded.
[ x] You are always very polite in your speech.
[x] You are fairly intelligent in some field.
[ x] You take discipline seriously.
[x] You have some sort of fetish for something
Total: 6 (omg)

Tsukkomi (Angry Guy)
[x] You have a friend who often makes dumb or embarrassing remarks.
[] You smack/beat up this friend in some way.
[x ] You do your best to maintain a calm façade, only to be thwarted by this friend.
[ ] If you & your friend were a yin-yang, you’d be the “yang”.
[ ] You swear a lot.
[ ] You try to bring out the more serious side of your ridiculous friend.
Total: 2

Boke (Dumb Guy)
[ x] You often make silly or embarrassing comments.
[ ] You like annoying the heck out of your best friend.
[ ] You often get beaten up by your friend in some way, but you take it in good stride.
[ ] If you & your friend were a yin-yang, you’d be the “yin”.
[x] You are normally very laidback and carefree.
[x] You try to bring out the happier side of your angry friend
Total: 3

Nadeshiko (Perfect Wife)
[ ] You are always, almost overly polite.
[] You love traditional Japanese culture.
[ ] You often wear either a kimono, yukata (summer cotton kimono), or apron.
[ ] You’re an excellent cook.
[x] You are hardly ever angry.
[ ] You have really long hair.
Total: 1

Tomboy Character
[x] You feel comfortable in boy’s clothing. (I'm a guy :V)
[ x] You have short hair
[x] You have a crush whom you act friendly with rather than romantically.
[ ] You are really good at sport/s.
[] You are admired by girls and boys for your talents, though you’re sort of in denial.
[] You show your girly features on rare occasions.
Total: 3

Sexy Character
[] Your bust/package is...formidable.
[] You like making sexual innuendos.
[] You encourage trips to the beach, pool, or onsen
[x ] There are some sexual things that you are ignorant to or need explained to you.
[ ] You’re an expert cosplayer.
[] You like the taste of alcohol.
Total: 1

Lolita/Shota Character
[x ] You like sweets or chocolate.
[x] You adore cute things and/or the word “kawaii”.
[] You use Japanese suffixes like “-chan,” “-tan,” “-sempai,” etc.
[x] You add unnecessary suffixes to the ends of your sentences, like “nyo,” “nyu,” “un,” etc...
[x ] You are considered gullible or naive.
[ ] You have a tall/powerful friend who protects you.
Total: 4

LOL 100% MEGANEKKO

Biological Circuits

Not finished reading. Could have good implications for the future...

If anyone really really wants to read this article contact me and I'll obtain it from the university connections. :V

http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v4/n7/full/nnano.2009.168.html

Moe anthromoporphization of...

Male presidents.

http://kotaku.com/5306652/president-of-russia-in-erotic-game