You know, Be Kind, Rewind was seriously an awesome show. I'm really glad I got to watch it. The entire movie is full of completely absurd and hilarious things. Such as their really, really, bad special effects in their Ghostbusters remake. I'm not going to go on much more on this, because I don't want to spoil it for anyone else intending to watch it. But seriously, it's worth the time. Even if you can't catch it in a theatre, try to pick up a DVD in the coming holiday.

Yet today wasn't all that awesome. I've never wanted to shower more. In the morning, I walked to St. Nicholas's Girl's School for their... Carnival thing. It was still before nine then, so it wasn't too bad. However, the sun was at it's evilest and most cruel for just about the entire duration I spent at St. Nick's. Also it didn't help that Leonard and I basically walked around that... HUGE... Campus, maybe seven or eight times. The ambient temperature had to be at least 35 degrees, resulting from the sun's wrath and the body heat of hundreds of people. So I was basically sweating... A lot more than usual. In fact, I think I sweat more this morning than I have since PE at AJ.

Those people are seriously rich or something. Their carnival was on a much, much bigger scale than Montfort ever had. They even had a Seven-Eleven stall there for the day. Like what? Oh, and it was real. With real Gulps and Slurpies. Also there was The Coffee Bean. And an arcade.

On which we wasted a large amount of Leonard's money, playing DoA. It's not fair. They have X-Boxes at their carnival.

Also they have like 12 pianos scattered all around the school for anyone to use.

On the bright side, I did get to meet Leonard's sisters and we won... Stuff. Our initial plan to play the game until we've won their entire stock of prizes didn't work out so well when we picked an inaccurate airgun. Also the girls manning that store probably had words like "these guys are nuts..." going through their heads. Either that or something to do with paedophiles.

Anyway, on the ride home after the movie, I chanced once again upon the topic of nanomachines. I previously mentioned the possibilities which they present, and how amazing it would be if we had them. However, when you have a swarm of nanomachines(we'll call them "agents" because it's easier to say), their intelligence and programming is obviously going to be distributed. I mean, you can't expect a single, microscopic particle to be able to contain much data. Therefore, a swarm of agents has to be armed with what is known as distributed programming. The thing is, that distributed programming naturally faces a lot of problems.

It is common to use a flock of birds as an example of distributed intelligence. Birds aren't exactly the smartest creatures on the planet, and they don't really have any "programming" that tells them to flock. For example, there's nothing in their brain that says "When stuff happens, flock." Instead, they have "Fly as close as possible to the next bird, but don't touch it." So when one bird decides to randomly fly off, nearby birds follow that simple command and take off with it, causing flocking. Same goes for shoals of fish.

A slightly more complicated example involves the Hive Mentality. Social insects like ants and termites are basically brainless individuals. They have a few simple, fundamental rules that make the entire colony work. Things like "If there is the scent of a friendly termite here, drop a rock." This basically leads to the construction of the massive towers that we see in... Somewhere in Africa. I think.

Since what termites are programmed with doesn't immediately say "build a colony", it's probably safe to assume that what we see them doing is the result of their distributed programming. It's called emergent behaviour. Basically, it's the stuff that happens after all the different algorithms react with one another.

However, there is usually no direct link between the distributed programming and the emergent behaviour, especially in complex groups of agents similar to ant and termite colonies. And since the topic we are looking at involves agents being able to form into various types of implements, there would have to be many different types of agents.

Which gives rise to the problems of erratic behaviour due to unpredictable reactions between agents. You give a swarm of agents the task of turning into a camera. There would have to be all the basic algorithms required for that to happen. Lens parts would have to assemble correctly, chassis parts would have to assemble appropriately around the lens. The complex electronics would also have to assemble to form a working circuit inside the camera. It may not sound like much of a task, since it seems that one could just command each type of agent to assemble appropriately with other agents, in the form of a flowchart.

However, one must remember that these nanomachines are pretty brainless. You can't load a complex stream of flowchart algorithms into them, like we do with larger "intelligent" robots.

... And also given that I don't really know anything else about distributed programming, I'm kinda stumped here.

So basically all I'm saying is that conventional programming may be unable to yield the results that I talked about previously. Even if you were able to load sufficient varieties of algorithms into a nanoparticle, the swarm would require rigorous and intense testing before it can be declared functional, let alone safe for use.

Which basically means that none of us are going have nanoswarms floating at our shoulder in our lifetimes. Instead, we'll just have to appreciate the wonders of carbon nanotubes and the possible cancer-curing capabilities of nanometals.

Damn. I can't find anything related to this post. So, random... gif!


-Joe

Okay, people. I have news. One, my stickers arrived today!

Nice.

They're not the cheap papery type that comes with the cubes you buy from Toys'R Us(or however you do the spacings). They're vinyl, and the ones I got were textured. So they're not completely smooth, and they've got this cool glittery metallic effect to them.

... Which basically meant that I had to use them immediately. But in order to do that, I had to peel off all the old stickers(though the job was practically half done already) and clean off the old glue. The glue proved to be a real annoyance, since it didn't come off together with the stickers, and so I had to rub it off manually. Oh, man, the innuendo in that phrase is-

Well basically, here's what you get after you remove all the stickers from your cube.


And it's pretty darn cool. You know how it's fun to mess with your cube, just to feel the speed at which you can turn it, but it comes with the "drawback" of you having a mixed up cube? Well, with a nice black blank cube, you can turn it at top speed all you want, and it'll always be solved!

Also it looks wicked awesome. I'm considering taking the stickers off my other cube just so that I can have a black one for display.

Next, (obviously) I would need to put on my new stickers. It was going well, although a few of them are slightly out of alignment due to my excitement. Which means that I cannot be a surgeon. Anyway, I got to the last face- Yellow, and my nose tickled. I dropped the sticker I was about to place and sneezed.

After which I could not find the sticker! I was actually panicking right there. I searched everywhere in a one metre radius of the place I was sitting. And it took me a good ten minutes or so to find it.

Turns out that I somehow got it under my CPU(which is on my desk), and I discovered a bunch of broken pencils that I hid under there a few weeks ago. They were broken because I was feeling particularly violent and I needed to exert some energy to calm down.

So I finished it up, and behold!


Yeah, you can't really see the nice glittery effect from the photo, but you can see how un-papery and solid the stickers are!

The feel is different from the original stickers, so it's going to take a while to get used to. On the bright side however, it feels totally new. Like a brand new cube, but with nicely seasoned layers.

After this... I had a match of C&C3 with Shaun. Which I won. Ha.

You should have built more AA batteries.

-Joe

Nanotechnology is going to revolutionise life on this planet as we know it. When humans start building tiny, autonomous machines that can assemble and disassemble to form larger machines, people would be so lazy that we'd need these machines to stop us from getting fat. Seriously, the implications of nanobots are amazing.

I recently came across something about the Nokia Morph, a concept “created” by them involving a swarm of nanobots that can assemble into various gadgets with different shapes. The concept video featured a phone that could morph into a wristwatch, a headset...

Okay, I'm going to refrain from saying that it isn't an original idea, because it's still a great idea. If a swarm of nanomachines can form into a silicon chip, a memory drive, an LCD screen, and whatever other components are needed to make a communication device, then imagine what else you could do with a swarm of nanobots.

In the future, everyone will have a little swarm floating near them wherever they go. The swarm will be linked wirelessly to their brains, allowing the people to control the nanoswarm using key thought sequences. On command, the swarm will assemble into anything. ANYTHING. A cellphone. A pair of spectacles. A book, a computer, a trombone. In the case of an emergency, It could turn into a shield, or volt-gun. Or maybe it could perform accelerated healing on your wounds, to keep you alive long enough to reach a hospital. A hospital which will treat your broken bones, your ruptured blood vessels, and your pulverised kidneys within 3 days, using the miracle of science which is nanotechnology.

Then, inevitably, there are going to be arguments against nanotechnology. Usually involving misuse and general stupidity. This is where my plan comes in!

...

Yeah, you all already know what I'm going to do. Or if you don't, you already know that somewhere along the way, genocide, biomass fuel, and sadistically elitist concepts will crop up.

Everyone has a purpose. Some people will work with micro-organisms, helping to increase our knowledge, and thus our resilience against diseases. Others will write and enforce laws that will keep our cities safe and clean. And others will work in factories to produce enough robots to replace them with. Then they will help the rest of us deal with the energy shortage via biomass fuel.

See? Life DOES have meaning. It's just that not everyone has a nice one.

Also, I need to rant about today's Digital Life. The one about internet/sms-lingo. Firstly, “sup” does not mean “hello”, or “how are you?”. “Sup” is a brutalised version of “whassup” which is in turn a mutilated version of “what's up?”. Which is used together with “hello”. While it is also use in place of “hello” that does not make it “hello”!

Also, “srsly” is “seriously”. Not “really”. It does not mean “really”. In fact, no one on the internet even uses that “word” seriously any more. Srsly.

Additionally, “fo sho” is a horribly defaced version of “for sure”. How it turned into whatever DL made it out to be, I have no idea. So I'm just going to stay in my happy little world of unmutilated language(with exceptions). Sorry, brain, I won't let you get hurt so much again...

-Joe

So, I've been lurking on various internet forums and I've found that the general population is going to be a big problem when I start my eugenics program.

Firstly, they are totally ignorant about the correlations between intelligence and the advancement of a species. Secondly, they are totally ignorant about genetic disposition. Half of them don't even know what "disposition" means. Thirdly, they believe so strongly, that each and every one of us is born equal. That is just plain bullshit.

People need to get out of their egalitarianistic beliefs and accept that some(a lot of) people are just born stupid. There are just some people that will waste your money when you put them at Harvard. Some people who will do nothing for the world other than waste the precious resources that the rest of us need so very much.

I was reading a thread entitled "Should there be a license to have sex?" and it was mainly discussing the prohibition of idiots from reproducing. The threadstarter's post wasn't very well thought out, but he had the general idea. Refer to eugenics.

If you are bothered enough to read that cesspool of idiocy, note how all of them seem to be so against the idea. It's fine to be against an idea, but make sure you have proper reasoning to back up your argument, unlike these people. They draw horribly wrong conclusions from the original post, and start claiming that he is deluded/stupid/attention-seeking. They take the thread personally, trying to justify why they should be able to have children.

They shouldn't. People who are unable to use common logic and reason to analyse a simple passage should just have their balls cut off.

Okay, just quoting from the thread here,

"trust me If i want to have a baby i can :P and if a law like this was passes what are they gonna do? fine me? kill the baby? hmmm? jee now whats wrong wtih this sentence.....hmmm"

Exactly the type of person that should totally be killed. Painfully. Anyway, if I were to respond... Yes. Kill the baby. Biomass fuel, fertiliser. Corpses are quite useful, you know. Anyway, there are laws and penalties for a reason. If you murder someone you get the death sentence. Same thing here.

By the second half of page 2, the "debate" just veers way off course. With idiots nitpicking at stuff that aren't really even relevant. Also not to forget the way all of them completely miss the point.

... Okay I just can't continue here. It's like trying to reason with a screaming toddler. I think the education system in general is missing out on some very important topics.


sigh.

-Joe

My first online purchase – a trombone.


The purchase was done on eBay and it was quick, fast and easy. In eBay there is a feedback system, which both the seller and the buyer got to give each other a feedback with a rating of positive, neutral or negative after each successful transaction. This is an ingenious system by ebay, I must comment, which helps to separate those unreliable and untrustworthy seller and buyer.

The seller who I bought my trombone from got a 98.6% positive feedback at that point of time, and he had done more than 100+ transactions dealing with musical instrument, so I supposed this should be a safe online purchase. Furthermore, the instrument was first hand and cost only a few hundred dollars. In comparison to other trombone commercially sold in musical shops it was cheap. It was a good bargain and I couldn't resist the temptation to buy it.

The decision was made!

I got my friend with an eBay account to help me bid for the trombone(I'm lazy to create my own eBay account). And after a few days I won the bid. Next, I met my friend at Macdonald where I paid him in cash and he showed me the payment process on his laptop using his PayPal account to do the payment(I do not have a credit card).

Delivery was quick considering that it was shipped from overseas. It reached about 4 days after my payment. I was satisfied with the time taken for the delivery. I had previously thought that delivery from overseas will take at least a week or two, maybe that was many years ago.

I’m definitely pleased with my first ebay purchase!

Link:
eBay
PayPal

-Shaun

Aaah. Thanks, everyone. I do feel much better today.

And I don't have to worry about botflies. Just parasitic worms from outer space that crawl into your ear, squeeze through the canal, breaking through your eardrum to reach your brain. Once they're inside, they flatten out their elastic, slimy bodies to cover your your cerebrum, filling every little nook and cranny of your brain. After which they lock directly into your consciousness, able to control your every move, word. They become you. And you are locked away in a corner of your own mind. You can't move your arms. You can't turn your head. Your body has become a puppet, serving your alien commander, enabling him to carry out his evil deeds.

I was just thinking, you know, that mind control might one day be a reality. I mean, once we've mapped the brain enough...

Or maybe we wouldn't even need mind control. Direct electrical stimulation to the muscles could effectively turn a person into a living puppet. Yes.

Anyway, I'm sure everyone knows about the whole "human beings only use 10% of their brains" thing. The number varies to as low as 2%, from different sources. Now, it's astonishing how many people accept this as fact, when it is in fact something that has been disproved since the first MRI was used in neurology.

The statement "Humans only use 10% of their brains" is one that is used by many people who often share a specific belief. A belief in superhuman brainpower. Stuff like psychokinesis, telepathy. While the concept of psychic powers is really cool, the reasoning these people put forward just doesn't hold any water. They claim that if humans were to use all of their brain, we would have access to these awesome abilities. Now, this is wrong for several reasons.

Number one. the human brain isn't just a mass of junk stuck together that can process information. It's not one giant chip used to generate and interpret things. It's a complex organ, made up of many segments which work independently for some functions, and collaboratively for others. The conscious and the subconscious mind do not exist in localised regions of the brain. Rather, they are a result of the many interactions between the different parts of the cerebrum.

Number one point one. One look at an MRI scan would tell you that just about the entire brain is used on a daily basis. This is because you need almost every part of your brain to perform a simple function. Different regions become more active at certain times, but it all happens. To achieve what you call an emotion, you need the part of your brain that interprets stimuli, you need the parts of your brain which react to these interpretations, and the parts of your brain that tell your body to feel a certain way.

And there isn't a number two.

Simply put, your entire brain is there, and it's being used. You don't ever hear doctors saying "The bullet perforated his brain, but luckily it only damaged the 90% which he doesn't use." You can't use any more of your brain, period.

However, you can improve your brainpower and mental agility. We all know that connections are important in the brain, and there are stuff you can do to improve those connections. So yes, you can improve your mental prowess. But only to a certain extent. Most of us are probably already functioning at near full capacity, so... Yeah. You're not going to turn into Einstein, no matter how hard you try.

So, no. Improving your brainpower is not how anyone is going to obtain telekinetic and telepathic powers. There is no such thing as "mind over matter". Seriously. No matter how hard you will a rock to move, it will not move.

However, I have a theory! Hypothesis, really, but "theory" is easier to say. Also, it sounds nicer! Because it's almost as if I have actual evidence to support it.

Okay, my um, theory. I think I might know how humans might achieve telekinesis. Now, here's the definition of telekinesis. To move something, without touching it. It doesn't necessarily have to involve mind powers.

Now, me, being a fan of dimensional theory and such, I have come to think about how the different dimensions interact with each other... And how different dimensions are perceived by each other. For example, if there was a two dimensional being living on a 2d platform which we could somehow manipulate, we could fold this 2d platform, making two points become one. Essentially, allowing the 2d being to be in two places at once. In the same way, if you fold the 3rd dimension, we could essentially be in more than one place at once! Teleportation, if you will.

Now, if we get into the fourth spacial dimension(they theorise there might be one), who's to say that it might be possible that a person who exists in both the three dimensions as we know it and the fourth spacial dimension. Say this person could touch things in the fourth dimension, which are linked to the 3rd dimension. In the 3rd dimension, we wouldn't see his actions, but we will see the effects of this person's actions. So there, telekinesis!

Okay, now all I need is to wait for someone to make a joke about people not using their brains anyway. Hm.

-Joe

People should quit talking about the university thing already. Nothing anyone says is going to make a difference. All the talk about how much harder it is to get into a local university, and how much harder it will be, is doing nothing but making people nervous and stressed out. So cut it, please.

Anyway, I think I'm definitely down with some alien disease. I'm feeling even more tired right now. Which shouldn't be happening, since I got more sleep than usual last night. Also I'm breaking out in spots and all. It's highly disturbing.

Also, there's a huge lump in between my eyebrows. It's like a massive pimple, only I don't think pimples get that large... It's about the size of a 20 cent coin across. Not to mention that it hurts a lot. It hurts when I squint. It hurts when I raise my eyebrows. It hurts in general. Now, this has me worrying.

Thus I need to settle this quickly. Do botflies live in Singapore? Because if they do... Oh man, it's so gross I don't even want to think about it. I mean, however cool the concept of parasitic larvae living in the skin of another organism is, it's really not something you want to happen to you. I've heard and read stories. About maggots being found inside people's eyelids. People cutting open boils to find fat grubs writhing in their flesh. It's nothing new, either. In survival training, they teach people all about parasitic insects and how to deal with them. Unfortunately, none of the methods seem to be very nice.

Because they generally all involve cutting open your skin to get the larvae out.

So do botflies live around here? I sure hope they don't, because that would really suck for me right now.

Although on the bright side, it would be a really interesting story to tell after it's all done with. I have faith in our medical industry.

-Joe

I've been feeling... So tired. I just slept four hours before dinner. I intended on a half an hour nap or so, but I was really exhausted. I don't really know why either. I'd go out on a limb and say that I've fallen ill or something, but I'm not showing any symptoms other than physical exhaustion. My throat feels fine, nose is doing alright. My gut doesn't feel any different.

Although there is a slight issue which I'm not sure about. I've been feeling rather hot lately, even in an air-conditioned room. I'm not sure if this is just because of the weather(the sun is evil) or that I am indeed being ailed by something.

Which might be an alien virus.

Anyway, I watched Evangelion 1.0 on Monday. It was only $6, which was a good thing, because I didn't particularly enjoy that movie. For one, it was about giant robots that people sat in and used to defend Earth from aliens which came from I have no idea where. Also, the robot thingy looked kinda gay. Plus, there was a major design flaw in their so-called advanced battle machine. It basically had a plug sticking out of its ass to a power supply, and only lasted 5 minutes in battle without the cord. Also, the interface between the pilot and the robot is absurd. Whatever the robot feels, so does the pilot. Does this sound logical to you at all? No, no it doesn't. The point of armour is so that the people behind it don't get hurt.

Also, the rest of the movie was about the little kid who was supposed to be piloting the giant robot. More than half of the scenes that he's in involve him screaming, complaining, whining, or being scared in general.

Also, let's not forget the total lack of character development, history, and various other things which are necessary in making a movie. For example, why are people still using audio tape to listen to music when they also have the technology to build impossible agile giant robots and cities that can retract into the ground in emergencies?

There's only one explanation for that. Sequel.

Anyway, this movie needs more sense. That is all.

I guess I just can't appreciate anime. I mean, it's full of screamy, shoutiness and stuff. It would take a real fan of the original works to enjoy a movie like Evangelion. And since the only cartoon I ever enjoyed was Spongebob(Anime are just Japanese cartoons. Admit it.), it was no surprise that I was thinking about where else I could have spent six dollars halfway through the movie.

Also, I've finally managed to order new vinyl stickers for my cube! Big thanks to Liming and his access to internet shopping options. Still, according to the website it's going to take a while before I get my stickers. Oh well.

Well, I don't think I'll be able to get back to sleep for a while. Maybe I'll go play a game...

-Joe

So... Well, it probably wasn't the wisest idea to have stayed up till 5am this morning playing C&C3. I started play at about half past midnight, and I told myself "One game. Then I sleep." Then I steamrolled four AI's. And another. And another.

And then it was 5am. I slept till one, then continued playing at about 4. Because of the way the game was made, each successive fight was tougher than the one before, and eventually I just couldn't continue. Tonight I vow not to repeat this.

Anyway, today's comic... Well, I'm not sure where Hagrid in a Mario costume came into Jack and the Beanstalk, but uh, okay. Anyway, the point is, genetically modified foods should not be an issue. According to what I gather from a recent article in the Straits Times, pretty much all our staples are genetically modified in some way. I don't see people dropping dead on the streets for no reason. Even if GM food really did increase our chances of getting cancer or diabetes, I doubt that it would be a very significant factor. We all know that diseases like these arise from an inexorable number of factors, genetic and external. Take for instance the correlation between left-handed people and schizophrenia. Studies have shown that basically, lefties have weird brains, and this adds one grain to the pile which is mental illness.

But a more irrelevant but interesting topic occurred to me at the time of viewing! But I forgot it. So instead I'll just blather on about why people concerned about GM foods should just kill themselves and stop annoying me.

Does it not seem to be a very far leap, to state that the consumption of genetically modified foods leads to long-term ill effects on the human genetic structure? As far as we know, food does not modify our genetic structure. It only destroys it. But that is already happening, and has been happening, since the first self-replicating proteins randomly turned into DNA. Can you believe that this was one of the reasons in my geography text for why GM food might be unsafe?

Also, let's take for example a potato. You modify it to grow bigger, faster, and taste better(subjectively). All you've done was to change the genes which control these aspects of future french fries. While this is a grossly simplified explanation of the actual processes, you would agree that the rest of the potato's genetic structure would be pretty much the same. I mean, if it weren't, it wouldn't be a potato anymore. It would be... Like a carrot, or something else. So basically what's been done here is that you sped up the process of artificial selection by a whole lot, bypassing selective breeding by just tweaking with genes.

There. Genetically modified foods are no different from allowing nature to take it's course through random mutation, or us performing artificial selection on them. It's just that genetic engineering is a whole lot faster, and we can control pretty much everything, assuming we know which genes controls what.

One day in the distant future.

Oh, oh! I remembered what I was thinking. Fairy tales, you would notice, usually have a common element in them known as magic. Magic, sorcery, witchcraft and the like. It may not always be mentioned explicitly, but it's pretty obvious that something magical goes on at some point in just about every English fairy tale. And it's not surprising, either, considering that magic is a great way to explain things without making kids develop a hate for reading at a young age(Though sadly, many kids hate reading anyway).

In today's The Big Scope comic, a reference was made to Jack using genetically modified beans to grow that famous beanstalk. Now... I was just thinking... What if one day, the story actually changed to that? I mean, fiction now includes stories of mutants, aliens, and posthumans, diverging from the more traditional tales of wizardry. Now, amazing things in fiction can happen in more ways than just the metaphysical. We have science now. So all I'm saying is that a hundred years from now, it might be stories of genetic modification and rips in space and time that will be the fairy tales which little kids hear before they go to bed.

I want to get cryogenically frozen so that I can see the future...

*Yes, that is a repost. But it's still funny.

-Joe

Whoa. Great day today. The first intake KI class of AJC met up to go do some stuff today. Initially planning on watching some movies, or go to the AJ movie fest. Turns out that it happened last week. So instead, we watched Mindhunters at Rachel's place instead. That is after, playing Risk and eventually realised that our alliances could only produce one outcome, which might as well have been decided by a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Also after an attempt to cook dinner, which the guys were barred from attending, due to some ungrounded safety concerns.

Okay, maybe there were a few safety issues. But those would have been almost negligible, considering the fun everyone would have while trying to decipher what our secret ingredients were! Also hospitals exist for a reason.

Mindhunters is a brilliant show. It's basically a step-up from the Saw series. A team if FBI profiling students take undergo a simulation on an island, where they are supposed to make a profile of a serial killer. Expectedly, things go wrong when they find that people in their team are actually dying. A bunch of stuff happens, involving really awesome traps. The killer studies a person's weak points, setting traps which basically kill them based on their habits. It was complete brilliance. Everyone who hasn't watched it yet, go rent it.

I looked it up. I don't recognise any names, in the cast or in the production team. I know I've heard of this film before, but I guess I never bothered at that point of time.

Yes. Today was awesome. I couldn't go into detail about it because that just wouldn't be possible. I mean, some things just can't be put down in ink. Or pixels, for that matter. Although I suppose pictures could suffice...

Anyway, we have to meet again sometime. I mean, if not, how am I going to be able to piece together a plan to permanently darken the skies? Or maybe something that can darken the sky selectively... I think I'm getting an idea here.

Say, in the near(or not) future, Man may be producing tiny machines, capable of flight via the viscosity of the air itself. That is, climbing on air molecules. I'm of course talking about nanotechnology, and it's not a new concept, either. The Matrix did it. I think. Anyway, that might as well have been pollution, since I never see the sky lightening in that movie.

Basically, it's not that hard to imagine that we could release a large number of nanomachines into the atmosphere, which stay there via their own mechanisms, avoiding being swept off into space. From the ground, via remote control, we can make the nanomachines cluster together or space themselves apart, allowing different amounts of light through to the earth. Perhaps, when the particles are blocking off the sunlight, they can help to produce energy. Of course, this would need a very, very high-tech solar cell, and also a means for the nanoparticles to travel down to a kind of docking station, where they release the energy which they have converted and stored, for usage on the ground.

Alternatively, we could build a Dyson Sphere. One around the sun to collect energy for us, and one around the earth, with photo cells covering the interior of the sphere. To simulate the light which we get from the sun. In this way, we essentially have limitless energy, and we can control day and night as we wish.

Then we could charge people for their control over light intensity in the areas which they live in. So basically, for a small fee, people could control the weather around their house.

However, this might pose a small problem to the environment. Although if we have the technology to build a Dyson Sphere, we probably have the technology to keep the ecosystem stable. I mean, we'd have an artificial water cycle that would benefit everyone(as much as possible, anyway). Basically, we could possibly stop all atmospheric and hydrospheric disasters. Unless of course, we've stopped caring about the poor little animals by then.

Ah, well, I doubt I'll get to see this ever happening in my lifetime. Even at this current rate of technological advancement, we're still a long way to go from building a Dyson Sphere.

Anyway... Random picture.


So be careful when you open your closet.

-Joe

So today I visited a friend I've had since my primary school years. And as usual, we played video games all day. Namely Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I understand now why the GTA series has always had to take so much flak. The violence is pretty much what the entire game is centered around. Also, notably, the whole gangster culture over in the western states. Now, I don't want to get into how mature someone has to be to play a game like this, because that'll be completely cliché and no one wants to hear about it anymore anyway. What I will say, is that GTA: San Andreas, is a huge load of fun. The gameplay is nothing fantastic, really, but the entire setting is hilarious. For one, the mechanics are totally weird. You can destroy lampposts and fences with your fists, and make cars explode by whacking them with a baseball bat. Also, there are maybe... 8 different designs of people in the entire game. This means that you can meet someone, kill him/her, then meet another person exactly the same as the previous one so that you can repeat the process. Also, you get to hijack cars, motorcycles, semi-trucks... Basically any vehicle, including bicycles. It gets quite funny when you're trying to escape from the police by hijacking a police motorcycle right in their face.

Also there was this whole thing where you could customise your look... Allowing me to create the most ridiculous outfit ever. Boxer shorts with hearts on them, along with a green rag mask and a hat worthy of Indiana Jones. Without a shirt. This basically makes him look like some kind of serial rapist, which is really amusing since you're running around the streets, jacking people's cars and sneaking into houses to loot.

It must really suck to live in any of the cities that the GTA series was set in. I mean, you'd have such a high chance of having your car stolen, then being run over by it, with your assailant laughing madly. Oh, and depending on the player, the level of sadism can vary from smashing into people at 60 miles an hour, or bumping them onto the floor, waiting for them to stand up, then knocking them over again. And again. And again. Then proceeding to beat up a poor old lady... Who interestingly, fights back.

I also happened to have brought along $50 to buy Command & Conquer 3. Yeah, I couldn't help it. Even so, I was faced with several problems.

ONE. C&C3 is now being sold as a package with the previous 12 games in the Command & Conquer series. For over seventy bucks. Now, this is an issue, because my brother already bought the part that includes everything other than C&C3 in it. So I'd be wasting my money if I bought that stupid package. And it does not make sense. Command & Conquer 3 is about to have an expansion pack released. WHY ARE THEY DUMPING IT IN WITH THE REST OF THE SERIES? IT'S NOT COMPLETE YET.

TWO. Popular Bookstore is NOT STOCKING C&C3. What the hell? Do you know what I saw today? SPLINTER CELL. DIABLO II. Last year, I hunted for WEEKS to locate those games. Because they were really, really old. And what do I see today? ENTIRE ROWS of the four Splinter Cell games, the Diablo battlechest. What the HELL are they thinking? Which IDIOT stocks Popular Bookstore? Is it logical, to stop stocking a new, popular, excellent game, and suddenly dump in literally antique games? Idiots. Bloody, effing, brainless morons.

People need to LEARN that some games are popular, and some are not. How ironic, that they call themselves POPULAR. When I was hunting for the game, I found that I was not the only one in this situation. There was a man, caucasian, looking for Guildwars. It was not there. What kind of an IDIOT doesn't stock Guildwars? I may not be a Guildwars fan, but I know for a fact that there are A LOT of players. And their numbers are growing.

So really, what kind of an imbecile would it take to stock the first three editions of Splinter Cell, whose Online Multiplayer is no longer supported? What kind of a total, scruffing, dickweed would it take to bring Diablo II back to the shelves after YEARS of absence? And oh, may I mention... GETTING RID OF THE NEW, EXCELLENT GAMES OF MODERN TIMES? Some people need to be tortured very, very painfully. Preferably with LIGHTNING and FIRE.

Sigh.

Thankfully, I found a shop somewhere in Ang Mo Kio that was willing to cut open the C&C set so that I could buy C&C3 alone. I think it still cost me more than it would have if I bought it when they were still selling it properly.

Also my mom is not being helpful at all with my enrolment fees. Sigh.

-Joe

Ah, I haven't been able to write anything at all for the past few days. In fact, I don't even have a topic. Well, not a good one, anyway. So instead, I'll just comment on a variety of things that I thought of.



That is my result for the Princeton University test thingy. It's got researcher in it. I should be happy. Right.

Anyway, I was reading my horoscope in the newspaper the other day, and I saw the New Paper advertising itself on the other page.

*Fwoom*

My brain sorta exploded there.

Seriously, what kind of a newspaper has to advertise in another newspaper? Don't you think that's a little... Brain explodingishly ironic?

Also, X-boxes are on sale! Because if you haven't already heard, HD-DVD has lost the war. Blu-Ray has emerged victorious.

Damn.

The name itself sounds so... Raw. It makes me think of phasers from Star Trek. Which are a lot less cool than Obi Wan's lightsaber.

Return of the King soundtrack. Mmmmm....

-Joe

Can't seem to figure what types of career suits you, or are you having problems with understanding yourself? Now, you can take a short quiz to help you unravel these life mysteries.

Here you go - http://www.princetonreview.com/cte/quiz/career_quiz1.asp

Enjoy! And do enjoy your life now, too.

-Shaun

Okay. Recently, Jeremy has been talking about a certain Real-Time Strategy game called Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War. A game based off the tabletop turn-based strategy. Most of you have probably never heard of the tabletop version. It's one of those uber-nerd things. I've read the reviews(for the PC game), and they were all fairly appraising of the game. Now, I've recently found myself wanting to play RTS games more than usual, so I thought I'd give the demo a try.

After downloading the 1.2GB demo client for Soulstorm(it's an extension of Dawn of War), the installation process was fairly simple. There was a screen resolution/graphics test, something I haven't seen since Diablo II. Now, when I fired up the game, I was greeted with a cinematic introduction to Dawn of War. The graphics were not bad, but the facial designs weren't very appealing. Also, the voice acting could have been a load better.

But the trailer isn't important. The game is. Dawn of War had a very well designed and simple tutorial program, explaining the various controls and objects in the game. Having played other games in the RTS genre, it was not difficult to pick up a few new controls and adjust from old ones. Once I thought I was getting the hang of the system, I moved on to have a battle with another faction.

I was playing the Dark Eldar, a race of I-have-no-idea's that utilised both ranged and melee weaponry. It was strange. They appeared to be humanoid, but they also had this demonic look to them. Funnily, there was a unit that looked a lot like the Green Goblin, except that they were purple. I personally found that there weren't enough units or useful unit upgrades for me. My space goblins still looked the same after I equipped them with venomous blades, and the hero units weren't all that impressive, either. The Haemonculus's(yes, that is how they spell it) abilities basically included spawning a tower that reduced enemy morale, shooting a poisonous dart, and something else that I can't remember. My point is that Drogoth the Dragon from the Battle for Middle Earth series was way more impressive.

The faction I was fighting against, the Space Marines, were a bunch of dudes dressed up in space-suits, looking like red coloured bulky Stormtroopers. With infinitely better aim, of course. Anyway, I can't tell one Space Marine unit from the next. Although that might be because my enemy kept using the same unit... Their hero units did nothing other than annoy me.

This game does not boast detail, or beauty. It thrusts you into a chaotic, war torn planet. However, for such a recent game, I was expecting a little more intricacy in the landscape and playable units. Instead, Soulstorm reminded me of Warcraft III, only with clumsier units and more time-consuming battles. Seriously, anyone who intends on trying this game, go check out the Dark Eldar's Talos. It's a giant scorpion tank thing that moves up to its target and whacks it. Note, this is the 41st millennium. Why are people still WHACKING each other?

I liked some of the concepts that the game had to offer, such as terrain that grants or removes bonuses, the ability of certain units to throw others onto the ground, and the ability to toggle between ranged and melee combat for different situations. However, these simply weren't enough to make me want to actually buy this game. It lacks a few things that I have come to expect from new games. Though I guess it isn't actually new... It's a stand-alone expansion of an older game. Okay, but that's beside the point. My point is, that I will not fork out $70 to get this game. I'd really rather save up for the Command & Conquer 3 pack, which I expect will be released some time after the expansion pack which comes out in the last week of this month.

Also, there weren't enough lasers. What's the point of being in the future when you don't have lasers? I'd rather be in the past, where I have magic and flaming arrows.

-Joe

Alrighty.

Okay, we all know that the Olympic Games will be held in Beijing this year. We also know that there are the Mind Olympics, held every I don't know how many years. And how can we forget the ever so prominent Special Olympics?


Yes. That is the flag for the Special Olympics. If anyone doesn't know, the Special Olympics are basically the Olympic Games for people with disabilities. Now, if you didn't know that, you're fired.

Out of a cannon.

Into the sun.

Okay, back to my point. Here, I'll put the picture up again to make my post seem longer than it really is. I mean, to explain my point.


Okay... Do those... people... on the flag look anything like RETARDS FLAPPING THEIR ARMS AROUND to you? I mean COME ON, what the hell? The picture clearly shows five spastic children standing in a circle and waving their arms up and down retardedly. I mean, okay. I'll give the flag designers credit for capturing the true image of the Special Olympics in that symbol, but is that really what you want to put on a pole and wave at the entire world?

I mean, if you want them to look like wings, can you at least draw them like wings? Maybe, in a way that doesn't look like three arms sticking out of a torso? Okay, maybe the whole "flapping retardedly" thing is just an optical illusion(because seriously, I can "see" motion lines), but either way... It's not good, is it? Take your pick. Six-armed freaks, or mentally challenged people with delusions that they are, in fact, some sort of bird.


-Joe

Well, wow. The class blog has been updated. Although we still have to push ctrl+A to view anything.

Anyway, I feel the need to further discuss synthetic happiness. I did not find anything specifically referring to our brains being able to adapt and see things differently, naturally. I could not find any process which had these effects. I already know how happiness is made, but how it can be made in the context of a less preferable situation is still a mystery.

And if you wiki "artificial happiness", you get nothing to do with dopamine production. You get stuff like "artificial turf" and something that seems to have a lot of logic potholes in it.

I suppose Siegmund Freud has got something to say about it.

Anyway, today a thought occurred to me. According to that dude, people naturally and inevitably come to accept that the situation they are in is good, even if it is not. If this is true, then where does the "The grass is greener on the other side" syndrome come from?

Synthetic happiness and the Greener Grass Syndrome(I made up a new term! I think...) seem to conflict in fundamentals. SH states that people will eventually be happy with what they have. GSS suggests that we will never be happy, and will always see something else(and usually unattainable) is better.

There isn't much more to mention here. I'm sure all of you can understand what I'm getting at. I just thought it was interesting to think about. Hm.

Yeah, fire away, Li Ming...

Anyway, I went bowling today! Again. But today was rather jinxed. Someone's alarm clocks didn't ring, someone fell sick, someone lost his wallet at the arcade... And I spent the entire day in a funny sedated mode.

I was losing miserably on our first few games... Well, not so bad the second and third one, but I was doing horribly on my first. The balls were scratched and the finger-holes were tiny even for my fingers. It didn't help either that the alley was packed with people. Also, the lanes weren't oiled, and seemed a little smaller than those at other alleys.

But I guess I got used to it after a while. And I invented new bowling moves. Which involve almost falling on your butt the moment you release the ball. But hey, it worked. Four strikes in one game, beating our personal record...

Oh, I am now obligated to read stuff on wikipedia. It's like... A social law. When one has searched something on wikipedia, and has found two or more consecutive links which interest him, he must continue reading until he has exhausted all appealing topics.

I love xkcd.

-Joe

Hokay. It's Sunday, and I slept at 3am this morning. I probably owe that to the large amount of cola I had yesterday. One Big Gulp, one medium coke, and a huge cup of it.

Today, I vow to replace coke with regular soda, if drinking in the p.m. hours. Unless of course I'm intending on staying up.

I was surfing a rather... Questionable... Forum today, and I stumbled upon a thread discussing a certain study going on at the University of Oxford. To put it briefly, they are doing a study on human behaviours and psychologies to find out why people believe in God.

Yeah, they're blowing two million Euros on that. Eek.

Much of the discussion included whether or not it was really necessary to hold such a study. And a few idiots who misinterpreted it and thought it was another debate on the existence of god. People, just to clear it up, this is not a debate on the existence of any deity.

Thought experiments indicate that the idea of religion may have been an evolutionary by-product and an advantage to humankind. It could be, because it's undeniable that religion brings people together. Think of a society of primitive humans, wanting to understand the world, but without means to do so. If someone comes up with something, anything, that can answer their questions, you have a belief system there.

I'm sure this study will produce a lot of very interesting articles that I will enjoy reading very much. But other than deepening my understanding of human psychology, I'm not really sure how else this study will be beneficial. I mean, I think at the end of it all, they'll all reach the same conclusion: Someone got rather creative 10,000 years ago and everyone believed him.

But I'm also expecting it to answer a few questions. Is it inevitable for the idea of a higher power to come to a being with a high cognitive ability? After all, if you leave a guy alone for a while, he'll start coming up with all sorts of random stuff. Give a guy a problem, and he'll also come up with a lot of random stuff to try to solve it(assuming he gives a shit in the first place). Or he might die, because the problem is how to escape three velociraptors without moving your legs.

For some reason, "velociraptor" is considered a spelling error by the Firefox dictionary. How else can you spell it?

Also, in the discussion , someone linked to this presentation:


Synthetic happiness. It basically says that our brains have the ability to make us happy, even in situations that would normally be considered less preferable. Watch the video. It's about 20 minutes long, but it's really quite informative.

Woot it's raining! I love the rain.

-Joe