I'm currently enamored by this song. I cannot really call it a song; it's more of an experience. Enough to keep it playing on repeat for the next 24 hours straight.

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:Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine:

A falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes
I screamed aloud, as it tore through them, and now it's left me blind

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart

And in the dark, I can hear your heartbeat
I tried to find the sound
But then it stopped, and I was in the darkness,
So darkness I became

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart

I took the stars from our eyes, and then I made a map
And knew that somehow I could find my way back
Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too
So I stayed in the darkness with you.

A Little Note

So I've completed my move from the middle-class Tampa West suburbs to the seriously rundown section of east Tampa just past 34th st. I jokingly refer to it as "The Ghetto", but in reality it has all the characteristics of what a ghetto neighborhood is to most people. Shirtless people ride second or third generation BMX bikes down the streets, people drive by with their booming systems and lots of others walk down dilapidated sidewalks on their way to the bus stop.

These streets and locations around here aren't on Tampa City Council's list of places to renovate, either. These roadways have long been surrendered to pot holes and seriously rough road surfaces without a second thought. There's a sense that the poor people stuck living in this area were abandoned, too. Panhandlers selling bottled water in the medians between busy lanes of traffic are an all-too-common sight on my way home from work everyday, an ever-present reminder that there is no such thing as job security. I'm updating my resume on monster.com just to be on the safe side.

Despite the surroundings, the apartment isn't too shabby - constructed in the mid-to-late 1970's, it comes with the usual lead-paint disclaimer and onsite laundry facilities(which I'll never ever use). There's a balcony for smokers, though I don't subscribe to that vice and likely won't be bringing anyone back to my place anytime soon. The bedroom and walk-in closet betray the ravages of time the most. The closet door doesn't close all the way, due to the door jamb apparently being a part of the building which settled oddly. In contrast, the kitchen feels mostly new, the counters and appliances are extremely clean; this is a good thing.

My justification for moving here is a simple one: I felt as if I was living beyond my means in west Tampa. I moved here because the rent there was borderline extortion - $915 per month with very little income to spare for living and automobile upkeep. I'm currently saving a small random per month on rent, which should add up significantly in the coming months. I've already repaired my poor late-late-late model Toyota Corolla to the point where I can actually feel somewhat comfortable going out again (after several years of not) and added a few notches back to my self-esteem in the process. Unfortunately, most of the people I would like to have spent time with are no longer around to do me that honor.

Nekojiru-sou [Cat Soup]: Surreal Animation

Three very long part series by Tatsuo Sato tells the following tale:

Nyāko, the older sister of Nyātta, lies very ill in her room. By accident, Nyātta sees his sister leaving the house holding hands with the Japanese version of Ksitigarbha, (known as Jizou in Japanese) and follows them. Nyātta claims one half of his sister's soul by pulling one arm. Nyāko's soul gets split in two, and her brother runs away with one half. Jizou sends a clue about a flower they must search for in order to retrieve the missing part, then walks away with the other half.

Oblivion or The Inability To Comprehend A Finite Existence

*edit: this was actually posted on my old tribe.net blog back in 2007...just a note*

A few nights ago I sat up straight in my bed from a dead sleep with only one thing on my mind: what happens to my consciousness when I die? The dream I had just experienced was tantamount to an incomprehensible black void; only it didn't feel like a dream. Not any dream I've experienced previously. It was more of a sense than a dream, a sense of nothingness, a feeling of being compressed into the smallest bit of matter by the blackness.

My heart was racing, all I could think about was an image of an old black and white television set cut off suddenly by a power outage, the onscreen images immediately shrinking and fading into a single minuscule pinpoint of light. To fathom or comprehend the infinite state of not being that comes with death is akin to staring into a bottomless abyss. What I remember most of all about that dream was a sudden feeling of total sensory deprivation. The state of being unable to touch, smell, hear, see, think, or even exist - it's mind-numbing to contemplate a total and complete void, a total absence of light.

I understand that my body is just a shell for my consciousness, a container with a very limited shelf life. I've known people who've come back back from the dead - who have been clinically dead and were resuscitated, and their stories range from seeing a literal flaming hell, as was the case with my Father, to experiencing absolute nothingness until they were revived.

The condition of never waking up is unimaginable to me. Life as we comprehend it for each of us ends when we do. I've had people around me who passed away, and it struck me as being the single most life-changing event that anyone living being could ever face. It reinforces the universal truth that life can end in the twinkling of an eye.

Feeling ASHy: Archaic Sealed Heat

This is the Japanese trailer for ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat, a strategy role-playing game featuring battle footage and video cutscenes. It's no Ninja Gaiden II, but it'll do for the DS. I've had my eyes on this game since sometime in early April, and rare and elusive screenshots kept my interest piqued.

* Producer: Hironobu Sakaguchi [Final Fantasy creator]
* Character designer, art director: Hideo Minaba [art dirction for Final Fantasy XII]
* Music composer: Hitoshi Sakimoto [Final Fantasy XII, Grim Grimoire, Odin Sphere]

The bacterial invader that rewrites genes

August 31, 2007
from: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2357994.ece

There are implications for evolution in findings on a process that may be more common than thought

Mark Henderson Science Editor


The world’s most successful bacterial parasite has effectively become a part of at least 11 different animals by writing its entire genetic code into theirs, according to research that sheds important light on evolution.

Scientists have discovered copies of the genome of the Wolbachia bacterium lurking within the genetic code of fruit flies, wasps and nematode worms. So ingrained are the bacteria’s genes that they appear to have biological roles within the host animal.

The findings have important implications for evolution, as they show that genes can transfer from bacteria to unrelated multicellular organisms and take on new functions much more readily than was supposed previously.

This suggests that large-scale gene transfers may allow larger animals and plants to acquire new genes with beneficial effects extremely quickly, and then to pass them on to future generations. Such transfers are known to occur between bacteria and to have happened in the evolutionary past. Mitochondria, structures or organelles that provide cells with energy, are relics of bacteria that were absorbed by their host cells, as are the chloroplasts that allow photosynthesis in plants.

The research, from the J. Craig Venter Institute, Maryland, and the University of Rochester, New York state, shows this process in action and indicates that it may be more common than had been thought. “In a way Wolbachia could be the next mitochondria,” said Jack Werren, Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester. “A hundred million years from now, everyone may have a Wolbachia organelle. Well not us, we’ll be long gone, but Wolbachia will still be around.”

Professor W. Ford Doolittle, of Dalhousie University, Canada, a microbial genomics specialist who was not involved in the work, said: “This study establishes the widespread occurrence and high frequency of a process that we would have dismissed as science fiction until just a few years ago. This is stunning evidence for increased frequency of gene transfer.” The study, which is published in the journal Science, also has implications for genome mapping projects. Bacterial gene sequences picked up by efforts to decode the genomes of other species have generally been dismissed as contamination, but the new results suggest that they may actually belong to the target organisms.

Wolbachia is thought to infect about 70 per cent of all invertebrates, where it invades their eggs or sperm to ensure that it is passed to the next generation, making it a good candidate for a gene transfer source.

Julie Dunning-Hotopp, of the Venter Institute, found that some Wolbachia genes seemed to be fused to those of the fruit fly, and when Michael Clark, of the University of Rochester, treated the flies with an antibiotic, killing Wolbachia, its DNA remained.

“For several months I thought I was just failing,” Dr Clark said. “I kept administering antibiotics, but every single Wolbachia gene I tested for was still there.”

The conclusion was that Wolbachia had written its genome into that of the fly. Some of these genes are even transcribed into RNA, the molecule that makes proteins, which indicates that they probably have a biological function.

Japan investigating 'net cafe refugees'

-As much as I want to live there because of the culture and better healthcare, the economy doesn't seem very good.-


from Yahoo


Japan is launching its first study into so-called "Net cafe refugees," young people who live in all-night lounges and are feared to become a new class of working poor, an official said Wednesday.

Japan's omnipresent net cafes -- equipped with sofas, drinks, computers and comic books -- are designed for businessmen who want to slack off for a few hours or for commuters who missed their last trains home.

But Japan has been alarmed by growing reports of young day labourers who are staying in round-the-clock cafes rather than renting and living in apartments.

In the first nationwide study, the government is questioning operators and customers at 3,000 Internet cafes nationwide, said a labour ministry official in charge of employment security.

"Inquiries are being made in cooperation with non-profit organisations to find out their rough number and what their lives are like," said the official, who declined to be named.

A five-hour stay at an Internet cafe in Tokyo costs about 3,000 yen (25 dollars) with a meal served. Showers are available at 200 yen for 30 minutes and underwear is on sale.

The emergence of such "refugees" has set off alarm bells in a society which used to boast of equality but is now feared to be experiencing a wider rich-poor gap.

Sleeping in net cafes can be problematic "in terms of employment security, hygiene and development of job ability," said the labour ministry official.

Findings of the investigation are expected to be publicised later this year and used to hammer out assistance measures.

Japan's opposition, which won a landmark election victory last month, has accused the government of encouraging the rich-poor gap through free-market reforms meant to revive the economy after recession in the 1990s.