Star Ocean 4

Yes, yes, YES! Finally, another sci-fi RPG game! Does remind me of Star Trek: Enterprise - suppose to be a few centuries before the rest of the Star Ocean series.

"AD 2064. Humanity made its third and most costly mistake. World War III. Weapons of mass destruction deployed with impunity, razed the land in the blink of an eye. People believed it's the end of the world. The planet Earth was dying. So humanity began to search for a new home in space."

"AD 2074 first contact. SD0001 first warp. SD0010 -- first official SRF mission. The first official SRF mission ventures forth into the great Star Ocean."

Just don't crash into another planet. Just don't make me spend 3/4 of the game running around in an undeveloped fantasy-like planet with no modern technology a la Star Ocean 3. I insist on at least some modern gadget fun - hologram tricks, space ship battles, mecha/androids?

But one inny-pinny-tinny-winny problem... Exclusive for Xbox 360?!?!

To those left behind

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Extracted from 'The Prophet' by Khalil Gibran

A 'Frankenrobot' with a biological brain

Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue.

Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday.

Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers told AFP.

"The purpose is to figure out how memories are actually stored in a biological brain," said Kevin Warwick, a professor at the University of Reading and one of the robot's principle architects.

Observing how the nerve cells cohere into a network as they fire off electrical impulses, he said, may also help scientists combat neurodegenerative diseases that attack the brain such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

"If we can understand some of the basics of what is going on in our little model brain, it could have enormous medical spinoffs," he said.

Looking a bit like the garbage-compacting hero of the blockbuster animation "Wall-E", Gordon has a brain composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurons.

Once removed from rat foetuses and disentangled from each other with an enzyme bath, the specialised nerve cells are laid out in a nutrient-rich medium across an eight-by-eight centimetre (five-by-five inch) array of 60 electrodes.

This "multi-electrode array" (MEA) serves as the interface between living tissue and machine, with the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment.

Because the brain is living tissue, it must be housed in a special temperature-controlled unit -- it communicates with its "body" via a Bluetooth radio link.

The robot has no additional control from a human or computer.

From the very start, the neurons get busy. "Within about 24 hours, they start sending out feelers to each other and making connections," said Warwick.

"Within a week we get some spontaneous firings and brain-like activity" similar to what happens in a normal rat -- or human -- brain, he added.

But without external stimulation, the brain will wither and die within a couple of months.

"Now we are looking at how best to teach it to behave in certain ways," explained Warwick.

To some extent, Gordon learns by itself. When it hits a wall, for example, it gets an electrical stimulation from the robot's sensors. As it confronts similar situations, it learns by habit.

To help this process along, the researchers also use different chemicals to reinforce or inhibit the neural pathways that light up during particular actions.

Gordon, in fact, has multiple personalities -- several MEA "brains" that the scientists can dock into the robot.

"It's quite funny -- you get differences between the brains," said Warwick. "This one is a bit boisterous and active, while we know another is not going to do what we want it to."

Mainly for ethical reasons, it is unlikely that researchers at Reading or the handful of laboratories around the world exploring the same terrain will be using human neurons any time soon in the same kind of experiments.

But rats brain cells are not a bad stand-in: much of the difference between rodent and human intelligence, speculates Warwick, could be attributed to quantity not quality.

Rats brains are composed of about one million neurons, the specialised cells that relay information across the brain via chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Humans have 100 billion.

"This is a simplified version of what goes on in the human brain where we can look -- and control -- the basic features in the way that we want. In a human brain, you can't really do that," he said.

For colleague Ben Whalley, one of the fundamental questions facing scientists today is how to link the activity of individual neurons with the overwhelmingly complex behaviour of whole organisms.

"The project gives us a unique opportunity to look at something which may exhibit complex behaviours, but still remain closely tied to the activity of individual neurons," he said.

read the rest here.

Anime Lot (now that's a lot)

Just for fun, I've decided to list down all the animes I've watched up to now:

See list here.

All in the last 5 1/2 years.
Ummmmmm wow?

Edit: Oh yeah - for fun, I tag all you visitors ;P . Go forth and write your own list (feel the otakuness in you)

Lucia's Theme (Lunar 2 Eternal Blue)

When I was alone as one,
my eyes were as blind, I know.
Sky brilliant with blue elegance,
I couldn't behold.

When I was alone as one,
My heart was as ice, so cold.
Wind whispering sweet melodies,
I could not behold.

Sight to my eyes,
and warmth to my heart,
Your love has been such to me.

Pull closer now,
And strengthen my leaning,
Toward love to heal all my wounds.

When our hearts both beat in time,
There's magic in your smile,
It seems there's nothing we can't do.

And within your warm embrace,
My heart will find a place,
Even from afar,
Our love forever shall be destiny.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It felt like a lifetime ago since I've completed this game.

19 weeks gestation

The day before Christmas eve, we went in for our 18 week scan - it was our third scan of the pregnancy and we were excited to be seeing our much longed for baby again. But five minutes into the scan it became obvious that something was wrong. There was our baby, wriggling and kicking away like a champion as usual, but something didn't look right. We were told that day that our baby had encephaly. It's brain had developed partially outside of it's skull. A form of spina bifida, they said. Had you been taking folate, they said? Of course I had. Very rare then, apparently. We were told the long and short of it was that we would lose our baby. Encephaly is always fatal. We had a decision to make - go full term and hope for a few precious minutes, or be induced. It was recommended we be induced as our baby's heart rate had dropped to 90 beats per minute.

On the Friday after christmas, we arrived at the hospital. They administered the first dose of drugs for inducement at 5pm. Throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I felt no movement. On Sunday, the 29th of December, at 4.15 pm, Brann Phoenix McGrath was born. The name Brann is gaelic for "spirit of eternal youth". He was handed straight to his mum, and he was beautiful, perfect and very still. 10 seconds later, despite a fatal illness, despite having been through two days of contractions and drugs, despite having a low heartbeat, and despite having been born at 19 weeks, and definitely against all odds, he reached up a tiny little hand, and kicked out his feet. For a precious 15 minutes, his mum and dad got to hold him and watched while he amazed them and the nurses with his sheer strength and determination until he just seemed to get tired and stop.

He had his daddys huge hands and feet, and his daddys length - he was going to be very tall! And he had his mummy's long fingers and toes. He was, and is, loved out of this world.

read more here

Wind's Nocturne (Lunar PS1)

Wishing on a dream that seems far off
Hoping it will come today.

Into the starlit night,
Foolish dreamers turn their gaze,
Waiting on a shooting star.

But, what if that star is not to come?
Will their dreams fade to nothing?
When the horizon darkens most,
We all need to believe there is hope.

Is an angel watching closely over me?
Can there be a guiding light I've yet to see?
I know my heart should guide me, but,
There's a hole within my soul.

What will fill this emptiness inside of me?
Am I to be satisfied without knowing?

I wish, then, for a chance to see,
Now all I need, (desperately)

Is my star to come...

P.S. Author of the flash video wished to express that 'no, that cat did not die from the cold'.
P.S.S. Librarian wondered if there were known (or unknown?) asian delicacies involving cats.