Data Loss

http://www.nature.com/news/scientists-losing-data-at-a-rapid-rate-1.14416

This is pretty painful to see. So what would be the best way of storing data? Especially when technology advances so quickly that the current method of storage is no longer easily accessible in 20 years...

Web Surfing

http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2013/12/click-here-improve-your-motor-skills

GUESS WHAT EVERYONE


WEB SURFING IS NOW ARGUABLY AN EXERCISE


We are no longer being lazy, we are actually training our muscles!!

RSS Test Again (Ignore)

Having RSS reader issues... apologies for the inconvenience.

Snow Bunnies

meta:  http://twitpic.com/byv7mp

 me:  snowballs

snow bunnies

 meta:  i want to roll them around

 me:  I want to kic-- roll them around too.

 meta:  :<

DECO*27 Memorial Mix

Nice 27?

Progression of interest:

Miku (Eeeh... the transitions aren't that good at all, no wonder it didn't beat the kancolle song) >> GUMI (Hey, the transitions are getting better! And it's GUMI, pretty cool) >> Miku (OH SHIIIIEEEEETTTTT)

愛言葉II

Because how many songs get a freaking SEQUEL


(I know I'm totally late to this, complete shame on me)

FF Voices

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/11/21/lightning-returns-will-japanese-voices-dlc-north-america/

They're doing this NOW instead of the first time they released FF13?!?? this makes me sad. ;_;

And almost makes me want to get the game now. Almost.

怪盗Fの台本（シナリオ）〜消えたダイヤの謎〜

The best part about this video, and why I'm posting this, is not because of the story and the mysterious thief (those parts were cool too) but...

ORLY

Man that made me crack up.

EDIT: lol I just noticed len's note is "he's so noisy what an idiot man" welp. V:

Guided Fate Paradox (Starting off)

Finally after conferences and tests and not having my PS3 around I'm finally getting around to playing this game. Pretty hyped up right now so I'm just typing out a few of my thoughts:


>Choices between English and Japanese dub: As a somewhat love live fan this would be blasphemy to not choose Japanese dub. Kind of looking forward to seeing what Kotori plays... I should be able to recognize her voice, right? Right? >.>

> Nico as main heroine: When I first learned of this I was thinking "Aww this main heroine is totally different from how Nico is in the show!" ...Then within the first 10 minutes I'm like "...OK, yup its her, voice and personality."

> The game starts off with some lottery analogy. SCHOOL IDOL FESTIVAL GASHA ANYONE??
"I have never won anything in my life" >> I have never got an UR in my life.
This is the story of blah becoming god. (or maybe blah becoming the CEO of KLabs... yeah that's a better analogy!)

> Japanese Maid Angels YEAHHH This game makes so much sense.

Neptunia Anime (Unfinished)

Yes I finally am watching it, it's a miracle huh.


(and several posts ago I said I'd be watching it while it aired, what a lie)

Some things I noticed:

1. When Vert played 4 Goddesses Online she literally seemed to have screenshots of Neptunia V on her monitors. That was pretty amusing to me.

2. Nepgear is awesome

3. When Nepgear said she was afraid that she'd get stronger than her sister, I was like "Hey, this exactly happened in all my games with her" since I always powerlevelled Nepgear the most in those games. Sorry about that Nepgear!

4. Nepgear is superior

5. I'm not too big of a fan of natural Uni, nor am I a fan of drill hair, but for whatever reason I always found transformed Uni really cute.

6. Nepgear is better though

7. I wasn't really surprised at anything in the anime... until the end of episode 5. Peashy at the end of episode 5 made really go "HOLY CRAP DID NOT EXPECT THIS THIS IS AWESOMEEEEEE", good job guys. Well I guess its not surprising, but for whatever reason I was just like "kitaaaaaaa"

8. Moar Nepgear plz

As if my 2nd to last comment wasn't enough I'm only at the end of episode 5. Looking forward to watching more Nepgear of the anime.

Nepgear 2

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/11/14/first-hyperdimension-neptunia-rebirth-2-sisters-generation-artwork/

HYPE HYPE HYPE

Now I know why its called Hyperdimension Neptunia because its clearly HYPE-rdimension


NEPGEAR COME TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

EDIT: Speaking of hype, I think I want a vita like right now.

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/11/14/square-enix-atelier-rorona-crossover-vita/

Maple Story 2

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-11-07/maplestory-2-3d-mmorpg-announced

I never played Maple Story but since it was sort of the rival to RO I thought this was pretty interesting. :V

As long as it doesn't do everything wrong like RO2 did maybe it will have some sort of limited success...

Atelier Anime

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/11/06/atelier-escha-logy-anime-series-coming-2014/

animeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ok I am now motivated to finish Ayesha again.

Also hope that Escha/Logy comes out in the US before the anime airs...

Atelier Escha and Logy

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/10/24/atelier-escha-logy-will-reach-north-america-march-2014/

MORE NON-NEPU NEWS.

Dammit this means I actually need to finish ayesha now. BUT THE NEXT GAME WILL HAVE DUAL AUDIO.


...so they say.


...I hope.

EDIT:
http://www.siliconera.com/2013/10/24/atelier-escha-logy-will-have-dual-audio-voice-tracks-in-the-west/

yes ok TAKE MY MONEY

Neptunia PP

http://www.nisamerica.com/index.php?nav=n&article=pbomb/PrinnyBomb396.html

What NISA is really bringing this over? Never thought an idol game (that's not just a rhythm game) would be licensed in NA... maybe idolmaster next?!?!?! Naah.


In other news I seem to be talking a bunch about neptunia even though I haven't played the game recently or even watched the anime SO INSTEAD LETS TALK ABOUT POKEMON. Apparently it is very easy to level and get rich from the battle chateau so everyone get pokemon and live your life in the battle chateau from now on. And don't forget to check your berries.

Nepgear++

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/09/24/hyperdimension-neptunia-rebirth-1-has-different-guest-company-mascots-like-tekken-chan/

The most important thing is in the comments where someone shows NEPGEAR WILL BE IN THE NEPTUNIA REMAKE.

Dammit I gotta buy this game now.

EDIT: oh right along with that news, there's also news about mk2 getting a remake as well. NEPGEAR LOVE EVERYWHERE

Eye lick

http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/japanese-eyeball-licking-fetish-carries-blindness-risk/

Man really what the heck what kind of people would come up with these kind of thi---

"From Japan"

Oh. Ok. Carry On.

(Minami) Kotori

Kotori is so cute.

http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/pioncoo/imgs/b/d/bd56002e.jpg

http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/pioncoo/imgs/9/4/9459ebaf.jpg

http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/pioncoo/imgs/a/f/afc43fb4.jpg

http://livedoor.4.blogimg.jp/pioncoo/imgs/c/d/cd044c16.gif

http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/pioncoo/imgs/f/8/f873886f.jpg hnnnng

Congrats you have made it to my top 4 favorites list, the other 4 being Kotori (Da Capo), Kotori (Rewrite), and Totori.

There is clearly no pattern here, right?

Gaming and Plasticity

http://www.nature.com/news/gaming-improves-multitasking-skills-1.13674

Of course all of us knew this already.


Maybe.


*gets distracted and goes to do something else*

あやめの町とお姫様

http://www.moresoft-info.jp/ayahime/

Kina has the best art and I would play this even if I have no idea what's going on.


...


...maybe.

Aikatsu Strobe

http://excel.zuya.jp/ikatu_c84/C84_ikathu.html

Light kats u? :V

Hopeless Masquarade

I will only give my approval to this game because KOKORO FIREWORKS!

FIREWORKS

PEW PEW

Anymal Tantei Kiruminzoo (Unfinished)

It seems like the original series of this was in Korean? Or perhaps it was a collaboration between Korean and Japanese animators. I still don't know why the OP is in Korean while the ED is in Japanese...

BUT IT'S OKAY.


BECAUSE ALL WE NEED IS NAGISA.


POOCHIE-NEE BANZAIIIIII LOVE LOVE


(Yes Nagisa is a character 90% pandered to my type)

Also, the extras at the end of the shows seem really weird. :|

Goals

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/how-brain-remains-focused-on-long-term-goals-0804.html

AKA "Why people grind in MMOs, explained."

Pretty Cure x10

Since I finally managed to finish pretty much all of Pretty Cure so far (exceptions: a few of the regular movies and Yes PreCure series), I figure I can give an overall generalized evaluation of what I thought of each season. It probably won't have spoilers since I'm just giving a generalized opinion, except maybe some of the precure warrior names (in particular, which is my favorite out of each series).

In general Pretty Cure has become a rather decent series in that it doesn't fall into the trend of being too predictable and boring with its episodes. This of course varies from series to series, but it was well worth watching from the beginning up until now to see how much change the precure series has gone through over the years.

Season 1: Pretty Cure + Season 2: Pretty Cure Max Heart
Favorite Character: Cure White (Shiny Luminous is kind of cute... though...)

Unsurprisingly these seasons (IMO) are the worst seasons out of the entire Pretty Cure series essentially because they fall for every trope and cliche in the book, whether it be fillers, obvious plot, etc. It is also the start of the trend of having flashy but useless objects being the source of all the magical girl powers, obviously giving toy makers the signal to profit off the series as much as possible. This is possibly the most prominent reoccuring theme in all the Pretty Cure series, as if they needed the profits from the toys in the show to continue generating PreCure series year after year (and maybe they do!). Honestly though I have no idea how the show got popular at this point because it was pretty bad overall and I'm sure there were other series in the same genre that were better.

Season 3: Pretty Cure Splash Star
Favorite Character: Cure Egret/Cure Windy

IE Pretty Cure 2.0. The theme is still the same in that there's only two main characters, but the art and designs have significantly improved, and the characters feel much better developed (including the enemies, who I found very amusing from time to time). The elemental theme might be considered cliche to some people but I thought it was a pretty nice touch. The whole "Splash Star" part is pretty unique as a superpower but I think this might have been a start towards Toei's trend of having a little more originality here in there with their Pretty Cure series. As it was one of the earlier series I watched, this series is one of my favorites (even if it doesn't compare that well to the others).
My only qualm with this series is that the transformed Pretty Cure warriors have some incredibly bad hairstyles. I have no idea what the Pretty Cure designers were thinking. :|

Season 4: Yes! Pretty Cure 5 + Season 5: Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!
Favorite Character: Cure Lemonade (Although what kind of name is Lemonade...)

IE Sailor Moon imitators. I felt like the art designs for Yes Pretty Cure 5 went down from previous Splash Star (I don't know if there's a reason behind that) and generally my interest in this series was much less because of that. The enemies were also not as appealing as they were in Splash Star. I didn't finish either of the series, and I didn't really feel the need to so I basically watched up until all the important characters were introduced in GoGo! and then some, then moved on with other series. Cure Lemonade is pretty adorable though, especially in some of the movies...

Season 6: Fresh! Pretty Cure
Favorite Character: Cure Pine

Here I felt like they were trying something REALLY new and Pretty Cure had almost a much more mature feeling to it - the characters look like they were older as well. The theme of the enemy was also different and provided a different kind of apocalyptic view than seen in the previous seasons. I especially liked the interactions between the enemies in this series because they in a way reminded me of the interactions of a few friends I used to have. In that respect I enjoyed the enemies more than the main characters, almost.
Going along with the maturity theme I feel like the topics they talk about in this series is also occasionally more "adult" related than in previous series - For example, there are occasional romantic themes seen in this series in contrast to all other pretty cure series. If Pretty Cure seasons were actual people and we were comparing season is most mature, this season is it hands down.

Season 7: Heartcatch Pretty Cure
Favorite Character: Cure Marine

Ah yes the most popular and loved Pretty Cure series to date. I heard it was because they had some former Gundam director helping them out but certainly it deserves its fame which stands out to the rest of the series. I probably wouldn't say its my favorite series but I can rank it high up there, if only because of Cure Marine. It is perhaps the best series to introduce to a person curious about what Pretty Cure is, since its plotline feels fairly interesting, the art style is rather unique and the characters (both the protagonists and the enemies) are pretty well developed. It is also the first Pretty Cure season (and, to date, the only pretty cure season) that does NOT have an overly hyped up and caffeinated main protagonist heroine (which actually made for some interesting interactions in some of the All Star Movies).
Heartcatch Pretty Cure has undoubtedly the best transformation scenes out of all the Pretty Cure series.

Season 8: Suite Pretty Cure
Favorite Character: Cure Rhythm

This series has gotten mixed reviews, and in general most people don't seem to like it. Perhaps it was unfair since it came after Heartcatch, as it does have a few rather interesting aspects to it, but its poor reception might be due to them trying too hard in originality this time. The mascot character for this show I felt was really entertaining and cute; for me the mascot in Suite is the best out of all the pretty cure seasons. The theme of music was also interesting. I think the part where it was mostly overdone is probably in that this series has WAY TOO MANY SPECIAL ATTACKS, so much that the viewer probably forgot most of them by the end of the series and say "wait, did I see that attack before?" There may have been various plot and character issues with the series too (and Cure Melody is kind of ugly :| ) but at least for me I don't think its as bad as it could have been (ie seasons 1 and 2).
Also I liked Suite Pretty Cure's intro and overall music the best so far out of all the Pretty Cures. Kind of appropriate considering music is its theme.


Season 9: Smile Pretty Cure
Favorite Character: Between Cure Peace and Cure Beauty

IE Yes Pretty Cure 2.0. with improved graphics. My guess is that since Suite's originality didn't work out so well they went back to something that did work well (...I guess Yes Pretty Cure worked out well even though I didn't like it too much?) and revamped it to something new. The characters are themed almost exactly the same way down to their personalities except for one of the colors, so it was pretty ":V" all around. I felt like the overall plot for this show was subpar compared to what I've seen earlier, but there definitely some genuine episodes which blow all other Pretty Cure episodes (including ones from Smile as well) out of the water. If I were to rewatch the series or show it to someone else I'd just pick those episodes out and move on to the next series.

Season 10: DokiDoki Pretty Cure
Favorite Character: Cure Rosetta

IE Fresh Pretty 2.0 (or 0.5 because they're younger?) I say this because there is a very similar theme used in Fresh and it is much more elaborated in DokiDoki Pretty Cure. So far I think what Doki has going for it is its slightly (?) more unique plotline compared to the other series - its not completely predictable and following the same tropes as before (except the merchandise thing). Character-wise, they're not the most unique characters, although I think its hard to come up with very unique ones this late into the season. High(er) quality animation (relative to previous series) at this point seems like a given now, so there's no real comment about that.

Future of Pretty Cure: It's always interesting to see what they might be planning next, although lately its just rehashing previous seasons. One thing I thought was interesting is that they never used the theme of jewelry, which I thought would be a very hot theme for mahou shojo shows (Maybe because something like Jewelpets took it already?). Hence I wouldn't be surprised if in the future there will emerge characters like Cure Ruby and Cure Sapphire, but we never know. Here's to hoping that there are more interesting Cure warriors Toei can give us in the future.

By the way DX3 is the best All Stars movie thus far.

Fuel Cell-phones

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/07/scienceshot-urine-powered-cell-p.html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/07/17/229204/cell-phone-powered-by-urine

Because, its good to recycle! Nature Friendly!

Shikishi

This is what I call an autograph.

https://twitter.com/fuzichoco/status/356762961219571713/photo/1


wish I had one ;_;

Doze

http://twitpic.com/9vaeeu

because its kyuuun-te!~

Anime Expo 2013

I think I should start offering con catering services. It's a bit tiring but having specific goals and plans in mind keeps me focused and its actually a bit of fun. Alright, catering services! Name your price, free butler costume included. Preference will lean towards females and people from outside of LA. :V

Stuff I bought: 50$ plastic framed fuzichoco art, another 20$ kina art that is supposed to be mailed to me, and 75$ preorder of kamipara. So yes, I spent about 200$ on a piece of paper inside plastic and invisible stuff. Oh yes 100$ on parking too.

#1 thing that surprised me: I met a grad student that works on the SAME FLOOR as I do. THERE WAS AN ANIME FANGIRL NEXT TO MY OFFICE ALL ALONG. HOW COULD I HAVE POSSIBLY MISSED THIS.

#1 dumbest thing I (we?) did: Sing backstreet boys with japanese accents. バト　アイー　ワント　イト　テャト　ウェイ…

Chronos Materia

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/06/26/chronos-materia-lets-players-rewind-time-to-change-the-future/

http://www.famitsu.com/news/201306/27035611.html

Yay Non art! I've been following this artist for a while so its pretty cool this person's going to be drawing the art in this game... now, when will I actually get a vita...

Pure Card

Maid Kotori is so adorable ;o;

EDIT:

KOTORI-CHANNNNNNNNN

Pollution

http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/06/21/199255/china-says-serious-polluters-will-get-the-death-penalty

YES THIS IS HOW WE ARE SUPPOSED TO FIGHT IT.

China I fully support you on this measure. /o/

Ping? Pong!

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/06/how-to-turn-your-cell-phone-into.html

The article in itself is pretty cool, but the best thing about this article is its title.

Invisible

http://www.nature.com/news/invisibility-cloak-hides-cats-and-fish-1.13184

What a MYSTERIOUS BOX this is!

Fairies

...are SUPER EFFECTIVE against dragons!!!

How exactly this works, visually, I am having a hard time understanding. *tries to imagine tiny 3 inch fairy taking on a huge dragon, and winning...*


http://www.siliconera.com/2013/06/11/pokemon-x-and-pokemon-y-add-new-fairy-type/

Aikatsu!

Hi everyone,

I made this blog post just to tell you Aikatsu is a great show. And that's it.


AI! KATSU!

DSB

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v16/n5/full/nn.3384.html

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v16/n5/full/nn.3356.html

tl;dr Thinking breaks DNA strands in your brain.


...wait what? why, how could... how am I going to live now? By not thinking? :V

rss test

disregard.

Variables

(Possible spoilers from rewrite?)

In Rewrite, there is a scene where the main character watches one of the heroines read something off a large map, and when the protagonist himself tries to read it, he realizes that on the map there are lots of symbols. He then continues to realize that each small symbol actually contains volumes and volumes of information, and when he gets to that point, his head quite literally explodes.

I feel I can relate to the protagonist now after taking my recent Probabilistic Graphical Models exam. "WHAT IS THETA? *HEAD EXPLODE* "

Moe

I need nothing else. All is right in the world.

RaNo

http://mitsukikioi.web.fc2.com/ranosuki/rano-suki.html

THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

I would totally like a light novel just for the art.

Suits

http://www.nature.com/news/nano-suit-shields-bugs-in-the-void-1.12799

Clearly the next step in this research is to develop skintight body suits for prepubescent girls to enable them to battle in giant robots.

More Contest

This damn contest, just miss one day and I have to go through 15 pages of new GUMI art. CAN YOU GUYS JUST STOP DRAWING FOR ONE DAY SO I CAN CATCH UP, DAMMIT

EDIT: HAHA EVEN IF YOU DO THIS TO ME, YOU STILL CAN'T STOP ME FROM FINDING THEM! GUMI POWER GOOOOOOOOO


EDIT2: Yesterday was the contest deadline. That explains that sudden 10 page influx. Goddammit everyone.

Hug

http://kotaku.com/in-japan-theres-a-girlfriend-coat-to-hug-lonely-peo-470822962


WHY?

BECAUSE ITS -RESEARCH-

Love Live (Unfinished)

I am enjoying the show, but I must come out and make a statement:

Alpacas are the best part of this show.

(Agree/Disagree)

Tissue

http://www.nature.com/news/scientists-print-self-assembling-living-tissue-1.12743


Next up, 3D printing of humans! Now there's food for thought...

Contest

My current bane of existance. PIXIV, DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I HAVE TO SUFFER (through backlog) BECAUSE OF THIS?!? WHY COULDN'T YOU DO THIS AFTER I GOT MY LAPTOP!??!

Lecture Search

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/2002-mechanics-and-materials-online-0403.html

I don't really find shifting through lectures that much of a pain, but I can see the utility of searching in videos, then directly being able to watch that part of the video. Well, kind of... I just can't think of anything useful right now...

Fools

http://privatemoon.jp/rocg/


What can I say I don't know...


Also, date a tank.

http://panzer.illucalab.com/

Hype

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-03-30/hyperdimension-neptunia-anime-1st-promo-streamed


I predict this anime is going to be so bad but I AM SO EXCITED THIS WILL CLEARLY BE THE BEST AND WORST ANIME OF THE YEAR

Zombie Idol

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-03-25/yui-makino-sings-in-anime-short-promoting-hokkaido

I'm sure, somewhere, there is a shindan maker that combines random moe ideas together. And the person who is behind the creation of this, decided one day to try that shindan maker since he was totally out of ideas, and it came out with "Zombie Idol", and he was like "heck with it, sure".


Next up, VOCALOID software based on this character! Although Makino Yui VOCALOID actually doesn't sound so bad...


\o\ /o/ ZOMBIE IDOLING \o\ /o/

Neptunia V (Start)

You can obviously tell that 99% of the improvements they made into this game, where all the investment as gone into... is in the 3D CG models they use when the characters are talking to each other.

At first I thought they reverted back to the 2D models they used in the first game, which would have also been fine, but those 3D models are really impressive for 3D!


Here is to expecting that the rest of the game is significantly minor in improvements! :V

ALSO NEEDS MORE NEPGEAR! Plutia isn't too bad though.

Noire and Atelier

Some random game stuff on Siliconara:

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/03/17/hyper-goddess-faith-noir-extreme-god-black-heart-announced-for-vita/

Apparently a game where the main character is Noire. There is also an Idol game based on Neptunia characters coming out for Vita too. I guess it's time to get a Vita? Needs more Nepgear presence though. I can go for an Idol Nepgear...


http://www.siliconera.com/2013/03/17/new-atelier-game-announced-will-have-new-protagonist/

SHIT, desire to play Atelier Ayesha rising...

Google Reader

http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2013/03/powering-down-google-reader.html


GOOGLE HOW CAN YOU DO THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS


Taking rss alternatives now. Any suggestions?

More Unfinished Disgaea 4, Part 2

Continuing with the adventures of my aho mage, there is an amusing magichange skill that parodies heartcatch pretty cure.

...:V I should rename my mage into Erika.


I think there's also one that makes fun of touhou/danmaku games, but I didn't get that one yet myself.


On an unrelated note for the miniscule amount of people who recognize my presence online, my laptop died so I will not be available in the evenings anymore, at least for a while. Although, even if I still had my laptop I'm probably not around anyway since during that time I'd be playing Disgaea 4.

Diva Arcade

In general I felt that overall gameplay was easier, especially for easy and normal modes. I think this is expected because people are paying money for every 1 or 2 songs so if they made the game too hard it would be stupid and unappealing. Still, there are a few things that increase the difficulty, directly or indirectly:

1.) The combo button presses. Its not the the combos themselves that are hard (although it might take some getting used to), but that it seems to break your chain of concentration of following up what to do afterwards. At least how I play, I read which buttons to press ahead of time (in the case I didn't already memorize which button comes next), but when the combos come up all I see is those flashy red buttons and lightening effects, and I couldn't figure out as easily what was the button that I was supposed to press next.

2.) (Project Diva PS* players only) Arrangement of buttons. In general I think its easier, but the fact that the triangle is now on the other side of the circle throws me off once in a while. This is because on the PS* games, the triangle is just above the circle so you can slide your thumb right above. I think that while the general populace does better with this arrangement, people used to the PS* games might also need to break their traditional idea of the arrangement on the PS*.

Or maybe it's just me and I suck.

3.) That stupid flashing bar on the bottom that indicates if you're going to fail or not. This is the most annoying and terrible thing in Diva Arcade and I'm not sure if it's on purpose or if it's a flaw. At least in the PS* games if you're going to fail you don't really get distracted, and you only end with a "not clear" at the end. Diva arcade has this highly flashy and annoying "YOU'RE GOING TO FAIL IF YOU DON'T KEEP THIS UP" bar on the bottom and is really really distracting when you're trying to concentrate. I hate this feature the most. Maybe there's a way to turn it off, but I don't know how.

The people at Round 1 says that the trial period ends at March 18th, but if the feedback turns out to be good, they'll bring it back permanently around April 18th. So maybe people going to AX (coughmetacough) can have a chance to play.

EDIT: on a completely unrelated note, I realized I went to play Diva Arcade on 3/9. WHO WOULD HAVE KNEW

Undub

http://kotaku.com/5989361/hacking-the-japanese-voices-back-into-the-games

Best idea, I await when Atelier Ayesha gets this in some amazing manner.

Disgaea 4 (Unfinished)

For the record, my mage always say "mahou dayo", but I never hear the "m" sound so I always think she's saying "aho dayo".

Which, she is, and, it would totally fit her character.

...

"aho dayo~!"

Diva F

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/03/07/hatsune-miku-project-diva-f-might-be-coming-to-north-america-and-europe/

....Eeeeh? Well, convenience aside there's not much more reason to buy a japanese import vs a localized copy, since there's no real story. Oh well, Miku is getting way bigger than I imagined. :V

Cocktail

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/03/should-you-mix-those-two-drugs-a.html

Who needs the FDA or clinical trials when you have GOOGLE?!??!??! :V

Fly Wing

Well, ok, Cicada wing, actually.

http://www.nature.com/news/insect-wings-shred-bacteria-to-pieces-1.12533

Well this is interesting, a bunch of tiny spikes to pull bacteria to death. Never thought of that.

Skull Girls

THIS GAME HAS TOO MANY BUTTONS.

Even if you don't count the tag/partner buttons which add like an extra order of combinations you can do with the game, having 6 basic buttons is just so overwhelming. Even if you don't count any motion-moves (forward kick or something), your basic arsenal has already doubled - 6 moves standing, 6 moves crouching, 6 moves in the air. I've had 6 moves standing before USING that kind of motion-moves, maybe max 4 crouching type moves using motion moves (I had to get used to this too) and rarely any aerial moves past 4 as well. But this game DOES HAVE MOTION-MOVES so it actually has TOO MANY FREAKIN BUTTONS TO PUSH.

WITHOUT EVEN GETTING INTO THE COMMAND MOVES/SUPERS. Well, in return for having such a crapload of buttons it looks like their special skills are more limited, each character having like 2-3 command moves and 2-3 supers. Well, when you're typical 5aabc combo has now turned into a 5aabbcdf and its 10 other variants ("do 5abbdfe for a launcher!" "say what") I guess you don't need to care about special command moves anymore.

Blue Dress

NAOTO

IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOUR TAGS, HOW WOULD I EVER KNOW WHAT ANIME THIS IS FROM

MeguIngu

I find it kind of ironic that the original Japanese version looks more "American" than the English version. Unless this is British English Megpoid. Which, if it's the case, carry on.

Sharing

http://www.nature.com/news/intercontinental-mind-meld-unites-two-rats-1.12522

Next, we build giant space ships and encounter insect-like aliens. And idols.

What can possibly go wrong!

Sparkles

KIRA KIRA

Proposal

http://i.imgur.com/SKNl3VR.jpg

I guess you could say he's applying for a different kind of funding.


Other random: 1000TH POST

Barrels

Yup Barrels.

Rewrite - Quote from Terra (Spoiler?)

"Your action appears to have been expression of either desire or loyalty toward a member of the opposite sex."

"Therefore, it is clear that Tennouji Kotarou is lustfully enamored with Ka--"


FAIL KOTAROU, FAIL.

 "Tennouji Kotarou's lust is estimated to be astronom--"

HAHAHA HOW MUCH CAN YOU FAIL

"As compensation for your help, I will respond to your sexual desires."

He is at a point of no return.

"If you will save the planet, I will find it acceptable to perform horrible reproductive acts."

BEST PART OF TERRA.

EDIT: And then right after this conversation I get the "100 friends" quest complete. It probably doesn't mean anything but somehow I found that really funny and ironic.

Rewrite (Unfinished)

The only reason I'm making this blog post is because I am bored at work when I should be doing something else.


Kotori: The best.

Shizuru: Moebait. But her route was short and half of it was terribly boring.

Chihaya: Chihaya? no, you mean Sakuya. :V

Lucia: YOUR ROUTE IS TOO LONG

Akane: Shini.

???: Has short hair therefore by default is less moe than the others.

Pet

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/01/why-petting-feels-good.html

*nade nade*

My new goal in life is to create genetically engineered girls with lots of these cells and a phenotype for being short.

過食性:アイドル症候群

(┓^ω^)┛ﾖｲｻﾖｲｻ (┓^ω^)┛ﾖｲｻﾖｲｻ (┓^ω^)┛ﾖｲｻﾖｲｻ (┓^ω^)┛ﾖｲｻﾖｲｻ



It's an okay fun song (ok we can give some credit to MAYU, yay MAYU), but really, I only posted this here so I can use that funky icon.

(┓^ω^)┛ﾖｲｻﾖｲｻ (┓^ω^)┛ﾖｲｻﾖｲｻ (┓^ω^)┛ﾖｲｻﾖｲｻ (┓^ω^)┛ﾖｲｻﾖｲｻ

I don't really know anything from the title except that it has to do with idols. In fact I don't even know what this funky smiley even means. Yuisa Yuisa? :V

Google seems to think the second part is "Idol Syndrome", I have no idea what that first part interprets into, google says "overeating something". ...:V? Overdose maybe?

...

WHO CARES, DON'T THINK ABOUT IT! (┓^ω^)┛ﾖｲｻﾖｲｻ (┓^ω^)┛ﾖｲｻﾖｲｻ (┓^ω^)┛ﾖｲｻﾖｲｻ (┓^ω^)┛ﾖｲｻﾖｲｻ

Review: SI of mGluR LTD

http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/NECO_a_00408

Ever since I started my PhD program I always wanted to do a weekly review, post on a science paper to keep me up to date, focused, and refine my scientific knowledge, reading, and writing skills.


Well, that never happened.

But this time I did write something up. I hope I can have enough motivation to do this again some time, though. Review/Summary of the paper is as follows.


=====

Long term effects on synapses are currently a hot topic in the neuroscience community as it is associated with learning and memory. Two of the major forms of long-term plasticity, known as Long Term Potentiation (LTP) and Long Term Depression (LTD), are studied extensively to understand its underlying mechanisms. In computational neuroscience, we try to use models to further our understanding of LTP and LTD; this paper is just one example of how one may try to go about this.

The schematic of this paper seems rather simple: conduct experiments which will induce LTD, then use System Identification to model it. Nevertheless the work required for such a paper is extensive. This model in particular focuses on mGluR-dependent LTD, in contrast to NMDA-dependent LTD (as is most other models currently available out there). For the experimental portion of this paper they use a chemical known as dihydroxyphenylglycine (DHPG) to stimulate mGluR-dependent LTD... I’ll assume that the references support that this is indeed mGluR-dependent.
For modeling they use a Systems Identification approach, a top-down method where they attempt to extract the dynamics of LTD using transfer functions. They used four different datasets with differing DHPG concentration, duration of DHPG application and sampling rates; the input was defined as the DHPG concentration while the output was the fEPSP (post synaptic current) slope percent change as a result of application.

The transfer function used is of particular interest to me as it is more abstract and thus difficult to grasp than the experimental portion. From the paper, it seems the focus of the transfer function is the polynomial expansion using a “backward shift operator” z^-1. Basic definition of a backward shift operator is:

z^-1 * Y(t) = Y(t-1)

essentially, then, z^-1 = Y(t-1)/Y(t), a ratio of the past inputs compared with the current input. The polynomial coefficients are then estimated depending on a range on order (z^-n represents nth order) and time delays (1-10). The best model was determined through 3 statistical criteria (R^2, Akaike, Young) which each have their own criterion and reason for use.

The results of this paper are simple yet significant. For lower sampling rate (0.0033 Hz)Applying DHPG for 5 minutes at 15 uM gives about 20% reduction in slope size; application for 15 min give about 30% reduction; and applying 30 uM DHPG for 25 min also gives, on average, 30% reduction, but the effects take longer to stabilize. The authors state that the models approximate an integrator, meaning that time of application for input (5, 15, or 25 minutes) changes the response of the system.
The paper then discusses the results of the higher sampling rate (0.033 Hz). It gives a reasoning on why higher sampling rate should be used, but raises the question as to why they did not use this higher sampling rate for their previous experiments, as well, and instead have the higher sampling rate to be separate from the results of the others.
In all their results the highest order with the best fit turns out to be 2nd order. Judging from how the pattern of LTD looks, this seems accurate since there does not appear to be complex nonlinearities in LTD. The paper goes on to describe LTD as a certain subprocesses (serial, parallel, feedback), second order meaning there are two subprocesses, one with fast time constants and one with slow time constants. The results they give suggest there could be either parallel and/or feedback structures for their model.
In terms of the subprocesses, there is still some lack of understanding on behalf of myself to completely know how the coefficients and time constants relate to them, therefore I may need to determine how to work with them better.

As the experiment itself was rather conceptually simple, the discussion doesn’t seem to add much more to what is already known. Dynamics of the system is briefly mentioned. Additionally, they present evidence to support the experimental protocols which they used and explain a bit more about the modeling results with how it compares to the currently know physiological processes.

Overall the paper is a useful reference to see how System Identification can be used to model physiological data and how to interpret the model. As for its significance and usage, it seems a bit too rudimentary to have such a model in a larger scale modeling scheme such as EONS. The conditions are too specific and the experimental data to support the model is not enough. Nevertheless such a model can prove useful, not only through analyzing the dynamics, but as more is learned about mGluR related LTD, it can serve as one of the stepping stones to bring the entire process of synaptic plasticity together, which would then serve use to EONS in the future.

Undefined

Dat Miku Voice. O.O Nothing else to say about the song but WOW THAT VOICE SOUNDS SO DIFFERENT.

浮かれバケモノの朗らかな破綻

Alright that title is too long so I don't think I'd want to translate it right away.

This song, I don't really understand the lyrics, but that doesn't matter because the video is pretty well done. The singer is male and the song is okay, but what's really cool is the video and the story behind it. Just watching video makes you laugh and feel happy inside, it's something you don't really listen for the music but instead for the animation. There was a recent miku one like that before, but I really liked this one, including its designs.

I mean the girls in this video are so cuuute! :V

BTW the title on google translates it to: Collapse of cheerful monster spree. Uh, okay google. Cheerful monster spree it is. :V

ケッペキショウ

I haven't posted a vocaloid song in a while, it seems. I haven't really been listening to a lot of recent VOCALOID either. The more recent ones didn't sound good until this one showed up, although there was also this other really neat GUMI song which I think I never posted here... I should do that some time later. For now there's this one, and I happened to remember to post it this time. :V

The instrumentals in this one sound really cool, so that's why I like it. GUMI isn't too bad in singing this either. The video seems dramatic but I don't really know the meanings behind the theme as my Japanese is rather limited, so :V It's a neat song though so I can see why it reached nearly #1 not too long after it was released. 

The tital says "keppeki shower"... eer I think. What? :V what does google say? "Fastidiousness show" I see. No, I don't. 

Fujoshi Fish

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/12/scienceshot-homosexual-fish-more.html

The fandom... it exists in other species.

Brain Cells

http://www.nature.com/news/brain-cells-made-from-urine-1.11985

If this flies this is actually an incredible feat. Although its still funny to think about. Gives a new meaning to "mind in the gutter"! :V

Rapping

http://www.nature.com/news/brain-scans-of-rappers-shed-light-on-creativity-1.11835

This guy gets a name on a paper for being a rapper.

THIS IS ACADEMIA! THIS IS RESEARCH! THIS IS SCIENCEEEE

Gloss

http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v15/n11/full/nn.3221.html

I do have to admit, gloss does WONDERs to an CG artwork at times. I think they started putting that in a lot of anime too (see: Denpa Onna). Not entirely logical, though, but I guess it tickles the brain! Just like this paper suggests.


GLOSS!

Where there's a Kan...

...I will steal it.

CHANKAN #6

The World Is Ending.

A PSP rhythm game based on GUMI is coming out.

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/10/09/report-new-vocaloid-game-featuring-megpoid-coming-to-psp-this-spring

命短し恋せよ乙女

I'm pretty surprised, a Teto song that sounds pretty good. Well, it could have been that there are lots of good Teto songs out there but not many of them reach the top 10, that's for sure. I do like the pacing and the art designs in this song. I think I'd like the lyrics too if I knew what it was talking about... :V

I think the title has to do something with life and love and young maidens... Something about short-lived maidens? :V

...Google Translate says "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may". Wait... what?

Atelier Meruru part ??? (I forgot already)

Pepped up Healing Salves are the best.

If there was one thing I regretted in Totori coming from Rorona, it was that I couldn't register the Pepped Up trait (because in Totori they don't let you register high level traits). You could get your chims to do it, but you might as well let your Chims make some better, high end items like N/A or Elixirs instead, so really the Pepped Up trait was lost through obscurity.

But, in Meruru they brought that back. In Meruru items have a tendency to be stupidly expensive so while you can register high end traits your items tend to be ridiculously expensive as well. But not if your item itself is relatively cheap. Healing salves is like the crappiest of all healing items, but that's all you really need if you ever get hit.

So now I get these awesome, autoheal-on-hit healing salves that heal for a reasonable amount of damage, then when my turn rolls around I recover even more damage from HP regen, then Convert lets me regen even more HP upon attacking... and then even if the enemy manages to kill me, I have auto-res so I don't really die...Endless HP is great!


...too bad this doesn't help when your enemy moves 5 turns in a row, choosing to heal 3k HP each turn... NEW PLAN NEEDED

Vocaloid Art (naoto)

Amazing art is amazing. GUMI-CHANNNN~~~ (IA too~)

Atelier Meruru 2nd Playthrough Pt. 2

I may have said this before somewhere, but when Totori is on the topic of making homunculi she has the best and cutest face ever.

"e-he! I can't tell you yet!"

You truly wonder what's going on in her mind... :V

EDIT: Story parts aside, I have already begun the "overpowering chars to break the game" process. I notice that most people in the boards are going for speed such that enemies can't do a thing before they get obliterated by Meruru's team. because of the whole "doesn't use a part of your day if meruru doesn't get a turn" thing, this would make sense - pump the speed of your allies so that they obliterate everything before Meruru can even move. For the most part this is cool with the common enemies.

For bosses though, it's cooler to see their attacks and see how you can withstand them! So I'm going the defense and HP healing route. Sadly defense is mostly for non-elemental attacks only, and getting full elemental immunity for all 4 elements seems like a really difficult task. Luckily, we have HP regen! And luckily, we have a ton of traits for HP regen that can stack on top of each other! And then we have auto-KO recover (after one turn)! So essentially the only way an enemy can obliterate my team is if it launches some wide-scale attack that would OHKO anyone... well... lets hope that doesn't happen. But...

Totori's HP regen is looking freaking amazing right now, though. Heals for 78 HP per turn without items, with the mystery Ankh it heals for 100 HP per turn, then, pocketwatch for auto KO recovery... HAHAHA COME AT HER YOU GUYS, JUST TRY AND KILL HER, SHE'LL COME BACK ALIVE LIKE A ZOMBIE HAHAHA

Oh right we can also top it off with some Lively or Pepped Up trait and along with the convert function which absorbs HP from attack HAHAHA TOTORI IS UNSTOPPABLE HAHAHAHAHA

Atelier Meruru (2nd Playthrough)

THESE ENDING REQUIREMENTS HOLY CRAP WTF WTF WHAT WHAT WHY IS IT NOT JUST "increase char friendship" ;o; ;o; ;o;

Ren＊Ai

The song that starts in the middle.

No, seriously. :V Certainly gave me a "wait, what?" feeling since I was tabbed out to do other things, and suddenly the pace of the song changed.

It's not too bad of a song, but then again I don't think there's been a lot of good songs lately. There seems to be some theme of China and GUMI for whatever reason, which is interesting, but not that good sounding imo. Oh, there is also this rather realistic and slightly freaky video of Miku singing Disappearance... the eyes don't have enough saccades so the model doesn't turn out as realistic as it could have been (putting aside the unrealistically perfect proportions in other parts of the body). But that's not this video. This video is LOVE!

Hi-Res Printing

http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v7/n9/full/nnano.2012.128.html

They say " security, steganography, nanoscale optical filters and high-density spectrally encoded optical data storage"

I say QUALITY (color) DOUJINSHI

Rinshan

Closed Kan on dora.

Flipped over 3m.

drew 4m, also dora.

was winning tile, as well as keeping me in tanyao.

Took a while to get my first rinshan, but looked to be a good one! :V

Hey look red dora too!

Neptunia Anime

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-08-28/compile-heart-neptunia-rpgs-also-get-anime

In honesty I really didn't think Neptunia would get an anime, at all, considering it is a relatively not-so-great series although the concept is pretty amusing.

BUT HEY

NEPGEAR, RIGHT? :V

I think I'd have preferred an Atelier anime series though.

EDIT: What IS apparently happening with the Atelier series: http://andriasang.com/con2ew/atelier_totori_vita/ <<< proof that Totori is the best 

Growing Brains

http://www.nature.com/news/tissue-engineering-the-brainmaker-1.11232

Since this is Japan, I hope that in the future we can have home-grown moe maid humanoids~!

I saw a good amount of fanart for this song so I wanted to check out and see what it's about. Apparently, it's about China! :V I think the song in itself isn't too bad, but I believe the acting and the lyrics are what makes this video pretty amusing. I don't understand all of what's going on, but I do notice the times when the VOCALOIDS try to speak Chinese, which is pretty funny.

The title seems to say some kind of fanclub... what does google translate say?!? ...nope google translate isn't helping me either. ANYONE HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS?

Atelier Totori 2 (Unfinished, part 2)

From now on I'm no longer calling this game "Atelier Meruru", but in actuality it will be "Atelier Totori 2" because clearly (to me) this is just a sequel to the first Atelier Totori game. And "Atelier Rorona" is of course "Atelier Totori 0".

TOTORI IS THE MAIN CHARACTER OKAY.


Anyway. There is some early spoilers but I highly doubt anyone who is interested in the game will have not played it by now.


So Hom-chan is back! I'm happy, but I liked her outfit in the first game better :(. But still, nice to have artificial humans running around doing my work for me. We get them pretty early in the game too, so that's nice, along with the registering of items. This is useful considering how annoying it is to synthesize items that require like 7 steps when you start with the basic gatherable ingredients...

Oh yeah. Astrid is such a jerk. :V

Atelier Meruru (Unfinished, Part 1)

Oh god Totori's win pose is so cute.

Oh man oh man oh man TOTORI I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE BACK TOTORIIIIIIIII TOTORIIIIIIIII


...what? Meruru? Who's that? :V

Comiket 82 Day 3

1. That feel where you go in circles in an area for so long after having bought so much stuff, you aren't sure if you bought doujin from that good looking booth already or not.  (and of course you have too much stuff you're carrying to bother looking through and checking)

2. People say its awkward when they see a cute little girl selling hardcore ero doujin. I find it more awkward finding 50-60 year old people selling loli moebait stuff... >.> Oh well, don't discriminate!

3. Screw east hall ero doujin, west hall 2 original works is where its at. Everything is SO AMAZING THERE.

4. Comiket traffic is like everyday Hong Kong rush hour subways, except you tend to have goods you want to protect rather than yourself. But I daresay Hong Kong at the subway is a worse experience in general than Comiket.

5. Somehow, I had the MOST stuff I wanted to buy today, but I finished up comiket the earliest today. I blame pointless 3 hour lines in the previous days which I desperately avoided today.

6. Advice for future comiket goers: use the backdoor to go between east-west. Less than 5 minutes to go from one hall to another. I had no trouble going from west to east to west again.  It was more trouble going through the halls itself, especially east hall. 


...I need to buy a new suitcase. :|

Comiket 82 Day 2

"Hah! I don't need to buy tapestries, they're useless!!"

*buys 2* "..."




"Okay, no more bags, I can't carry all of them back and they're terribly hard to pack. No more bags, no more bags."

*gets special edition set because... of the bag* "Wait... shit."

Comike 82 Day 1

Buying that seemingly useless bookcase cover was the best purchase I have ever made so far.

History Cycles

http://www.nature.com/news/human-cycles-history-as-science-1.11078

This is pretty cool, mainly because I really can see something happening in 2020. Judging just from the rancor on facebook alone, it will probably be something about gay rights, industry copyright vs freedom of internet, or both.

I think the medium might be different though. Whereas before there is a lot of riots straight out on the streets, I think there's going to be a lot more focus on online activity when the next "revolution" comes.

Jurassic Park

http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/08/01/0435229/australian-billionaire-wants-to-build-jurassic-park-style-resort

Eerm. wtf, really? :V


ga-GAOooo... :V