そらのおとしもの

雖然是包子配變態主角的天降之物的標題，跟那部完全沒關係
應該算是標題衍生物吧 XD

問題児たちが異世界から来るそうですよ? ep.6

十六夜跟飛鳥看到靈造テクタイト結晶製的大型火龍雕像
據十六夜的解釋，靈造為人造之意，テクタイト則是隕石衝撃産生的稀有礦物
畫面上的雕像是墨綠色，所以應該是猫友人最近迷上的某嗜好無誤

聽解釋當然了解，但是不懂テクタイト一詞，所以還是想知道是什麼字
外語來源的片假名我常常聽錯，所以本來想直接打進去問Google結果失敗
不過丟了問題児+霊造+結晶三字找就找到了 XD

明明是看有字幕的熟肉，為什麼會淪落到需要去找字的地歩呢
因為我追的字幕組是翻成雷公墨結晶…
雷公墨是啥啊？！

原來雷公墨是主要在海南附近發現的玻璃隕石
一般歸類於澳亞區，在澳洲、印度、中國、菲律賓等地都有發現
基本為黑色，約70萬年前的隕石造成，目前還沒有找到對應的隕石坑

雖然美國的Georgiaites一般也是寫綠色，但是看圖接近土黄微泛黄綠，數量少又無名
問題児裡的應該是捷克的綠色moldavite，約1450萬年前的隕石造成，在隕石迷及收藏家之間頗有名氣

也許字幕組覺得雷公墨比較親民，但是中國的種類不能當泛義用
十六夜用的字是指玻璃隕石（猫科動物）
雷公墨等於是其中一種的獅子
問題児裡的則又是其中一種的老虎
老虎可以説是猫科動物，但是不能説是獅子

まあ、不過還是讓我學到了有雷公墨這東西

可惜沒照播放時期看，不然兩個月前就能知道moldavite
然後在猫友人秀新入手的moldavite時就能提到這部了 XD

涙の味

之前バクマン。第3シリーズ看到12話之後斷了很久沒看
昨天輪完冬番三話，所以今天回去看還沒完結的舊番

12話結尾算是高潮cliff hanger
中斷將近兩個月其實劇情跟氣氛銜接應該有困難
但是一開始看13話馬上進入狀況燃起來
然後勢如破竹地一口氣衝到16話

了解新妻想在最高點完結CROW背後的用意之時，我涙目了
拿著連載完結篇的JumpJack周遊各漫畫家（讀作戰友）處時，我掉涙了

這就是為什麼我永遠無法從少年漫畫畢業啊～～～XD

不過寫這篇其實只是想説
原來眼涙的味道有分別？！

邊看動畫邊掛著兩行涙，流到嘴邊的就很自然地舔掉
然後發現怎麼沒嚐到意料中的鹹味，味道超級淡

驚覺到異常，怕是什麼毛病的症狀
看完16話後就去問大家的好朋友Google
原來喜怒哀樂時的眼涙味道是不一樣的

我對人體内部細節構造沒什麼興趣，大致説説就好
感動、快樂、悲傷時，涙腺為副交感神經支配，流出的眼涙含K較多故味道淡如水
懊悔、憤怒、緊張時，涙腺為交感神經支配，流出的眼涙含Na較多故味道鹹如鹽
切ない我不曉得該歸在哪邊，感覺兩邊都是，所以應該還是會有點鹹味

當然，體内鹽分過高時容易流出很鹹的眼涙，這就需要注意
同一時間涙流多了也自然味道會變淡
不過一般來説眼涙的味道淡不代表身體有問題

其實現在想想，以前看動畫掉涙時好像也是時而鹹，時而無味
這就得看當時是看到什麼而掉涙了吧
記得あの花最終話時是鹹的，畢竟是那種主題

まあ、至少自診（？）似乎沒什麼問題～
以後看動畫跟漫畫也可以繼續放心地流下兩行清涙 T__T

話説，其實我很想看新妻的30冊宇宙蟑螂跟那堆原稿山 XD

植林 #2

I planted a tree in Inner Mongolia! ( ﾟ ∀ ﾟ )

My 2nd gremz tree was one of the 28000 trees planted in Inner Mongolia last month through Earth Breakthrough!

Apparently the type of shrub that was planted, Haloxylon, is effective in soil stabilization and able to withstand the extreme conditions of deserts. The root serves as host to a parasitic plant Cistanche deserticola, which is a valuable Chinese herb and is also known as desert ginseng.

Inner Mongolia is one of the natural habitats for Haloxylon, but the plant has been disappearing fast due to over-grazing from the nomad animals, over-harvesting of Cistanche deserticola, and being used as firewood (it's also known as desert coal).

With China moving to ban nomadism in the area in an effort to prevent further desertification, many local people will lose their means to support. The planting of Haloxylon in a semi-deserted area will not only help re-vegetate the land in an ecological way, it'll also help the local people in a financial way. The desert ginseng will be harvestable in three years, and the re-vegetated land can be used to raise livestock such as chicken or emu, and open a new path for the local people.

Looking forward to when my 3rd gremz tree gets planted! XD

これぞロマン

人類衰退 ep.5-6

剛開始看電波跟妖精不能並存
再者P子無法探知眼前的妖精
還以為是科技/現實 vs. 妖精/幻想的發展

竟然是PIONEER跟VOYAGER!! :D

把究極浪漫代表物之一的宇宙探査機如此擬人化
還會不希望離開温暖的太陽圈到冰冷空蕩的宇宙
而且裡面的人還是水樹跟檜山
對我來説真是犯規啊

結果看完跑去找PIONEER跟VOYAGER企劃相關資料
看了一個多小時 XD

PIONEER 10跟11都早已失去聯繫
不過VOYAGER 1跟2依然健在
並持續向太陽圈外行進

不論是哪一號，都是在我出生前就已朝宇宙出發
幾十年間傳回了許多萬金也買不到的寶貴資料
當時的技術跟設備都不能跟現在相比（Atari跟Wii U的差別以上）
但是求知與探索的理由感覺更為單純
帶來的感動也更大

動力が有る限り
己の道を進み続けるがいい
宇宙の果てまで！

宇宙ゴミ

Was watching a JAXA program on Niconico Live Broadcast about space debris, but I couldn't finish it because...

I couldn't stand the host, who had no intelligent things to say and couldn't even elicit reasonable reactions while the JAXA guy (Kibe-san) explained!

You could literally hear the awkwardness and emptiness in the "…へー" she forced out in futile attempts to fill in the silence at the end of the JAXA guy's sentences. She was also hard to hear when reading off the questions on the sheet, even though she's supposed to be a newscaster...

While the topic of space debris is of high interest to me, the scope covered in the broadcast seemed to be rather basic, most of which I learned through watching Planetes many years ago (a really excellent anime that also, for once, depicts space in a realistic way!).

Slightly surprised that a lot of people leaving comments didn't know the reason behind the sudden spike in space debris in 2007: China doing an anti-satellite missile test on their weather satellite Fengyun-1C.

This egoistic and stupid move by China resulted in more than 2300 space debris of trackable size (golf ball size) and over 35000 pieces of smaller debris (1cm or larger, enough to damage or even destroy vehicles in space due to their extreme high speed). Even the dust-sized ones (numbered in roughly 1 million) can cause damage and wear down parts.

While the main method for removing space debris as portrayed in Planetes is very unlikely to happen even if the technology and techniques are available, it's always encouraging to read about the latest developments in the field.

宇宙（そら）はロマンだ！

ひとり吠え

剛才幹掉一隻超級大的蒼蠅
感覺有將近兩公分
但是最驚悚的是處理屍體的時候發現…
這隻是母的！
肚子裡好多還在蠕動的蛆 ORZ
還好幹掉了
不然又不知道未來會出現多少隻蒼蠅…

沒多久前才知道原來蒼蠅的前身是蛆
居然讓我親眼見識到…
這種生物學見習不需要啊～～～（ノ`Д´）ノ～～～～～┴───┴

這裡的夏天是什麼爛熱帶氣候 -__-
為什麼四季不是春冬秋冬 （つд｀）

トロ・ステーション 第133回

久々のトロステ～

Since I haven't touched my PS3 since mid-March, I haven't watched Toro Station as well.

The content for Volume 133, 「トロステ妖怪劇場第七幕」 and ｢江戸っ子１号プロジェクト｣, while interesting, weren't enough to pull me back to my PS3. But the mini corner for Gundam Unicorn Ep5 got me. XD

The Gundam UC corner briefly went over the previous 4 episodes and the PS3 game (欲しい！) before unveiling Ep5. During the synopsis, Kuro repeated twice that the MS battle scenes were very intense. He even added in a smaller font after the 2nd time that it must had been hellish for the people involved in the animation. I had to laugh. XDD

Ep5 was already shown at pre-release road shows in Japan last week (along with the news that there will be a final Ep7!!) and has been available for digital purchase on PSN, but the official BD release isn't until June.

While Ep7 would mean I'll probably need to wait almost another year before being able to order all 7 from Amazon.co.jp, I'm extremely happy that they decided to add another episode to the OVA series.

The 妖怪劇場 was slightly scary, especially considering that I watched it at night, but the typical トロステ humour made it rather lighthearted at the end, which was nice~

For 江戸っ子１号, they interviewed one of the founders for the project who revealed the hurdles they had encountered and overcome. In essence, the project consists of a number of small independent factories in the low-lying part of Tokyo who, in an effort to counter the recession and gradual loss of engineering techniques due to a lack of successors, came together to dream and make a deep sea probe. Some goals of the project include discovering new deep sea creatures, recording images of the environment, and collecting samples of mud from the deep sea. They're aiming to perform the first test dive later this year. I'm quite interested in scientific projects like this, so I was very happy to learn about it. 応援します～

While I was at it, I decided to download a few trial games for both PS3 and PSP (Rayman Origin, Tales of Heroes Twin Blades, FF-零式) and PVs (魔装機神2 and a 2-min PlayView PV for Toda Erika). Hopefully it won't be long before I turn on my PS3 again to check out these. XD

ひとり吠え

終於有我想聽的guest了
梶浦只帶一個vocalist的話
Kalafina那時應該沒空所以不太可能
希望是貝田由里子或南里侑香 XD

---

雖然做成漫畫是比較容易懂
不過這類的我偏好直接看文章或研究報告
結果只有大略翻翻看左邊的名詞解説
不過エピローグ有全看
看到だいちさん最後那頁眼睛流汗了 T__T
提到ニコニコ動画那邊
想起我那幾天也很關注はやぶさ的消息
生放送也跑去看了
之前也追過幾天的あかつき跟イカロス的Twitter
後來懶就沒繼續了
看エピローグ才知道原來今年イカロス比我早將近三個禮拜開始冬眠 XD
預定是到春天
現在應該已經醒了吧～

先祖返り

I was reading an article in the Wired the other day about someone trying to make a dinosaur from chicken through atavism. The idea is to revert back biological traits such as teeth, a full vertebrate tail, vertical femur, and fingers, some of which are present in bird fetus and certain breeds of chicken, that were parts of a dinosaur. Of course, that still doesn't make a dinosaur, but that would be a very good start.

Before reading the article, I didn't know what atavism means. As soon as I learned that it's reversing to an ancestral type, one title instantly flashed through my mind: 妖狐×僕SS (Inu x Boku SS)

Speaking of which, beside hearing the nice seiyuu cast bantering with each other, I find myself looking forward to the character ED song segments more than the story itself.

It's pretty amusing to see all the companies listed under the production committee labelled as M, except for Square Enix. I think Aniplex should be S, too, since they attack my wallet hard...

トロ・ステーション 第１１８回

It's another week of Toro Station!

The first part of vol.118 features the theatrical debut of the first chapter of Berserk's Golden Age arc. All three movies for the Golden Age arc are set to release within 2012 as part of the Berserk Saga Project, which aims to make films covering the entire manga series. This is pretty much the biggest news on the anime movie front right now.

While Berserk is a very well known manga series throughout the world, I have never read it. I think it might be because of the art style, which was completely not to my taste when I saw the cover in my last elementary school years. Even now, I think the art might still be a bit harsh for me, but the brief introduction presented by Toro Station piqued my interest. Though, considering the length of my reading list, I'll probably end up watching all the movies before I get a chance to read the manga. XD

The second part of vol.118 interviews Takahashi Hitoshi, who has spent 11 years (and ongoing for improvements) making a giant robot by himself. Kabutom is a kabuto(rhinoceros beetle)-type robot that measures 11m x 9.5m x 3.6m and weighs about 17t. It is manoeuvred via a remote control box (like remote control cars!) and walks at 4 km/hr. Kabutom attends some local events but requires two long trailers to transport its body and the six legs, which are then re-assembled on site. The mechanism of Kabutom is really cool, too! Too bad Toro Station only shows images, but it's still very interesting! :D

熱脹冷縮

I don't have a very strong grip. So when I had trouble opening the cap for a bottled juice tonight, I thought I was just weak.

Occasionally these caps are too connected to the bottom ring and the links need to be cut. But it's not the case this time, as I cut loose the ring completely, and the cap still refused to budge.

I was at my wit's end. Then this simple yet elegant scientific principle dawned on me. I used the hair dryer on the cap. 「アラ不思議！」 It popped open just like that with one little twist! XD

This is why you should pay attention to science classes in elementary and high schools. Anything beyond you can forget 'cause they're either too complicated to retain after you graduate, or they keep changing.

カピバラ

I first saw them in Gundam ep.29 but have since kinda forgot about them.

Then I saw them again today in Kamisama no Memochou ep.5 and wondered what they're called (my memory fails me so much it's sad). Luckily, the name of the animal was spelled out so I could easily throw it into my trusty friend Google.

Capybara is most cute!! XDDDD

Wikipedia, as usual, contains a lot of information on the animal. But this site is more comprehensive and easy to read. Go read up on this very cute rodent!

On a side note, I want to visit the Ueno Zoo~~~

ギモーヴ

I was watching Blood-C ep.2 when these interesting looking pink squares appeared on screen. They looked sponge-like and resembled marshmallows, but I wanted to be sure.

Off to Wikipedia! XD

Turned out that ギモーヴ is Guimauve, which is the French word for the marshmallow plant (which is no longer used in the production of marshmallow as we know it).

For us North Americans, marshmallows usually are soft-edged, cylinder-like, and often white. So it was no wonder that my interest was piqued by the pink squares in the anime. A quick search will show you all the colours and flavours available in the land of the rising sun. I think we're missing out in the land of the maple tree.

There's a part in the article describing that when the Fuugetsudou store first manufactured and sold marshmallow in Japan back in 1892, it advertised it as 真珠麿, which kinda affixed "pearl" to the name and was a direct kanji translation based on pronunciation (マシュマロ/mashuumaro). The first thing that came to my mind when I read this? 真朱/Mashuu and 公麿/Kimimaro from C. さすが親子～ XD


*gremz* リサイクル

流石

Those versed in the culture of ninja (or readers of Naruto) would be familiar with the term くのいち(kunoichi), used to address female ninja. But the non-Japanese population, myself included, likely doesn't know the reason behind the term.

While watching the drama Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo (日本人の知らない日本語), I learned the origin of the word.

く(ku) +　ノ(no) + 一(ichi) = 女

So kunoichi refers to 女/女忍者, which is literally female ninja.

The drama series, based on the original manga of the same name, contains a lot of cultural and linguistic substances. Unfortunately, seeing how my Japanese level is lower than that of the students in the series, I can only understand and retain the few points here and there.

Little linguistic science lesson for the day. XD

DQ VI の A.I. (第一章&第二章)

I read an article the other day about computer AI playing StarCraft. While the topic is on computer AI as a player, it reminded me the computer AI I encountered recently playing Dragon Quest VI.

In chapter one, a very cute healer slime joins the party and enters battle with the Soldier. However, the healer slime isn't controllable and acts on its own. Here, the healer slime is smart enough to know when to cast Heal on the Soldier and itself, but not overdoing it so it runs out of MP.

In chapter two, the party starts out with three player characters so the individual action is directly controlled. But because of the way enemies are grouped in Dragon Quest (I think it's the same for DQ III if my memory serves me), AI comes into play during battle.

When there's multiples of a type of enemy, they are randomly grouped into single individuals, one big group, or smaller groups of 2 or more. This affects how you fight unless every single one of the party member is able to defeat the enemy in one strike.

When the enemy gang is recognized as single individuals, you get to choose who to hit which one to maximize on the damage. This way, you can defeat 1-3 enemies depending on the level gap between your party and the enemy.

When the enemy gang is recognized as one group or as smaller groups, you can only choose which group of enemy to attack but not which individual enemy to strike. This starts to create some issues with the widely different attack strength and speed of the party members. Bad AI would result in dragging out the battle longer than necessary and causing the party to sustain more damage.

Here's what I observed in terms of how the AI handles who hits which enemy in a group situation.

In the case where only the Princess (the fastest of the three) can kill the enemy in one strike, the other two would attack the same enemy, whose combined effort is usually enough to terminate the target. Even when the Priest (2nd fastest in speed) moves first, the Princess would attack another enemy so the first enemy can be finished off by the Mage, resulting in 2 enemies down. This is effective AI.

In the case where combining the Priest and the Mage isn't quite enough to defeat the enemy, the AI would determine that the enemy is too strong for the two and moves the Princess (the fastest thus the first to move) on the same enemy. Ideally, the Princess would just defeat another full-HP enemy and the Priest would finish the critically low-HP enemy. But here, the strongest attacker is wasted on a near-death enemy, and the other two might not be able to defeat another one on their own, resulting in only 1 enemy down and the cycle repeats.

It would be nice if the AI keeps a statistics on the character's record and be able to tell if the character can defeat certain enemies with one blow, then move the characters accordingly to limit damage from dying but still standing enemies (hurts the same as a full-HP enemy). And if there's no record or low ratio of the character defeating the enemy in one strike, have them gang up against the enemy.

Overall, I think the AI for DQ VI on NDS is pretty decent. I still remember the frustration I experienced fighting random battles in DQ III whenever the AI did something foolish. Not sure what other type of AI I would see in the chapter 4 & 5 of DQ VI. Hopefully it'll be smart AI. That would make my job saving the world a little easier. XD

最初はグー

I was watching a pre-air special for the Japanese drama Bartender when I came across this little piece of trivia.

「最初はグー、じゃんけんぽん！」

This famous phrase can be heard in almost all aspects of the Japanese culture, and I thought it's been around for ages. I never paused to think about its origin, so I was quite surprised when I learned that it's coined by the comedian Shimura Ken.

Not really science, but kinda history and cultural science?

Omake.1
A high school buddy commented while we were in university that our math professor looked like Shimura Ken. I've never seen Shimura Ken until now so I could neither agree or disagree with him back then...
He was right, the math prof did look like Shimura Ken! XD

Omake.2
I've never read the Bartender manga and have yet to finish the anime version. The pace for the anime is really slow, kind of like ARIA but with a different sense of healing, and is obviously adult-oriented with the various work and life related issues. Wonder what the drama version will be like?

Full Circles

After finishing the J-drama Keizoku 2 SPEC, I wondered if there really would be a movie or not, so I went to ja.wikipedia to check.

In the section under the female lead character, there's a line stating that she uses 死語. Then things just veered from there.

死語→廃語→流行語→新語・流行語大賞→今年の漢字→はやぶさ (in the 2010 entry)

はやぶさ?! Didn't I just hear this term and saw its model in the last episode? Of course I had to check out this はやぶさ.

Hayabusa, code named MUSES-C (Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft C) during development, was named after the bird 隼(falcon) for its swift prey snatching technique, since Hayabusa was designed to collect samples in a "touch and go" manner in the time frame of under 1 second.

Coincidentally, Hayabusa was assigned to collect samples from Itokawa, an Apollo asteroid named after the father of Japanese space development and rocket science, Itokawa Hideo. Itokawa also designed the fighter jet pet named Hayabusa back during WW II. While it's not related to the asteroid explorer being named Hayabusa (the asteroid was only known by its provisional designation 1998 SF36 at that time), it just so happened that the space probe with the same name of the fighter jet Itokawa designed was commissioned to go to an asteroid named after Itokawa. これもひとつのロマンかな？

Hayabusa already completed its mission and returned to earth, bringing back samples confirmed to be from the Itokawa asteroid. Further analysis would need to wait until special handling procedures are developed to avoid contamination, so there's still more to come from Hayabusa's successful journey.

お帰りなさい、はやぶさ！七年間お疲れ様！

While waiting for bus today, I had a very brief exchange with Friend-K about what to call the weather phenomenon occurring at that moment. Freezing rain and freezing flurries were proposed, and we just left the topic for the lack of a better description term.

Just as I got off the bus and about to go through the station shelter hub, I looked up and saw the tiny ice crystals reflecting off the lamp against the dark sky, sparkling like diamond chips. Then it hit me.

Diamond dust! :D

ダイアモンドダストといえば、氷河とカミュの技だ！

I'm tempted to categorize the winterly precipitations in terms of the Saint's techniques from now on, namely ダイアモンドダスト/Diamond Dust, ホーロドニースメルチ/Kholodnyi Smerch, オーロラエクスキューション/Aurora Execution, カリツォー/Koltso, and フリージングコフィン/Freezing Coffin. Haven't decided on where to draw the line between each technique, but that should be fun. XD

According to ja.wikipedia, ホーロドニースメルチ means "冷たい竜巻/cold tornado" in Russian, and カリツォー means "輪/ring" in Russian. カリツォー is pretty straightforward and should be кольцо in Russian, but there's some uncertainties regarding the Russian word for ホーロドニースメルチ.

Not being a speaker of the Russian language, the closest word I could find for cold was холодной using the Google Russian<->English dictionary (for some reason, there's no Japanese at all on Google Dictionary).

Then Google told me about this page by a Japanese associate professor, Minoura Nobukatsu. Looks like холодной should actually be written as ホロードヌィイ in katakana. スメルチ, the 2nd part of the word, is probably a misspell of スメールチ. However, due to the vague nature of foreign language pronunciation in Japanese, スメールチ can be either смерть (death) or смерч (tornado). Minoura-san's questions were left half-answered here, probably due to grammatic and spelling discrepancies with the translation.

"Cold death" refers the death to all life as the universe expands and eventually cools down to absolute zero (which is -273.15°C, as I learned while reading Saint Seiya in elementary school). Since ホーロドニースメルチ is not the strongest ice-based technique (it's オーロラエクスキューション/Aurora Execution), "cold tornado" would make more sense as the official translation indicates. As a result, the Russian word would be something like холодной смерти.

I think Kurumada might had just tried to translate the word from Russian to Japanese without a proper dictionary. As a non-speaker of the language, I think it's close enough. :Q

Sora no Otoshimono is known for its unconventional ED animation, changing every time to go with the theme of the particular episode. And for the ED sequence of episode 6, IKAROS made an appearance!

No no no, not Ikaros the character, IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) the experimental spacecraft from JAXA! :D

I found it a really nice touch to have Ikaros trying to take a picture of the Earth from space, only to have IKAROS passing right in front when she snapped the photo. With the sunlight reflecting off the sails, the animated IKAROS looks more attractive than the official illustrations and 3D CG, too! XD

杏仁豆腐 (almond tofu) isn't made from 豆腐 (tofu)... ( ﾟДﾟ) ﾊｧ?

I was halfway through Tezuka's route in Mizu no Senritsu when I came across this shocking piece of information. I seriously thought 杏仁豆腐 is a type of 豆花...

There's your food science of the day~ :Q