Compos Mentis

Michiko Naruke’s Wild Arms

Back in the early days of the 32-bit era, the first generation of home game consoles to adopt the compact disc as a storage system, there was something of a perceived RPG vacuum between the release of Square’s last Super Famicom title Treasure Hunter G and the first Final Fantasy for the Sony Playstation.  For many, Wild Arms filled that space, a game with emotional depth largely conveyed through the score by Michiko Naruke.

Michiko Naruke’s Wild Arms, From Console to Stage

Extra Hyper Korg DS-10

From left to right:
Michio Okamiya (The Black Mages), Nobuyoshi Sano (Ridge Racer),
and Yasunori Mistuda (Chrono Trigger)

The Korg DS Trio performed techno arrangements of songs from Final Fantasy, Ridge Racer and Chrono Trigger at the EXTRA Hyper Game Music Event.  An interview with the three, now available in English, French and Japanese, can be found on the below address. Included is a very generous post on the article by Brandon Boyer of Offworld. Overall, it could hardly have been a more enjoyable project to have been a part of.

GameSetWatch/ Gamasutra: Korg DS Trio Discusses Software Creation & EXTRA Event

Squaremusic: Interview Korg DS-10

Korg DS Blog: トリオ・ザ･DS-10 海外サイト インタビュー記事

Offworld: Extra Hyper Korg DS-10

Hiroki Ogawa e il cammino verso la Dog Ear Records

This is the first article since “Kikuta’s Lost Files Regained” that I’ve written in an editorial style that combines quotes taken from an audio interview with background research. The subject of the article is Hiroki Ogawa, the director of Dog Ear Records, whose DERBLOG offers updates on the music label founded by Nobuo Uematsu in both Japanese and English. There he writes as wappa, and also occasionally vlogs.

Below is the English-language version posted to Siliconera, together with an Italian translation requested by the site Gamesource.it. A second article in this style will be posted later this month, offering some information on the Press Start Symphony of Games concert that took place at the Bunkamura Orchard Hall prior to the Tokyo Game Show.

Hiroki Ogawa and the Path to Dog Ear Records

Hiroki Ogawa e il cammino verso la Dog Ear Records

Global Catastrophic Risks

Two non-profit organizations that advocate for the ethical use of highly powerful emerging technologies participated in an afternoon conference in Mountain View on November 14.  Those orgs were the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and the Center for Respondible Nanotechnology, and the discussion was on building a resilient civilization to mitigate global catastrophic risks.  I am in the process of editing footage of the presentations and transcribing talks to the Future Current weblog on the Accelerating Future web domain.  Video, audio and text of J. Hughes on why we need transnational governance to mitigate risk has already been made available.

The conference follows a three-day Catastropalooza, in the words of Hughes, taking place at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.  The Future of Humanity Institute’s videographers appear to be too busy punting to put media of the event online, though it’s been close to five months, which is a shame seeing as the likes of Martin Rees, Nick Bostrom, Chris Pheonix and Robin Hanson presented.  The Mountain View get-together will be viewable online in the coming weeks, including the participation of futurists Mike Treder, Eliezer Yudkowsky, George Dvorsky and Anders Sandberg among others.  Until then, see media and hear comments via the GCR08 hash tag on twitter and flickr.

Nobuooo 11.08

Music of Mega Man 9: Original & Arranged

GameSetWatch - Remixing the Mega Man 9 Soundtrack
Gamasutra - The Story Of The Mega Man 9 Arrange Soundtrack (cross-posted)
Siliconera - Mega Man 9 Original Soundtrack Interview

(Both interviews available in Portuguese and Japanese)

Dr. Cui’s Cancer-Resistant Mice

Since posting the video of Zheng Cui’s presentation from Aging 08, I have received emails asking why the website for the clinical trial has been taken down.  As best I understand, the trial is currently on hold due to concerns surrounding FDA regulations.  The private efforts by Kronos Laboratory in demonstrating the efficacy of granulocyte therapy in a human patient may presently be the cornerstone of research in this area.

A transcription of Dr. Cui’s presentation has been uploaded to Future Current. As the lecture relates, his research has demonstrated that there are certain strains of mice whose levels of a particular white blood cell variety, namely granulocytes, confer exceptional resistance to cancer. These mice can survive what would normally be lethal injections of cancer cells.

Whether granulocyte infusions can effect a similar result in humans has yet to be seen. One can hope for the best, and what’s more, there are various ways to volunteer time and attention to furthering this promising avenue of life extension research. If you live in Florida, there may be the chance for you to participate in donating granulocytes. Forms are available on the Kronos website, and there is the facebook group as well.

The Music of Yakuza 2

The original Japanese-langauge version of Siliconera’s interview with Hidenori Shoji and Hideki Sakamoto on Yakuza 2 is now online.  The translation is by Ryojiro Sato, who also worked on the Echochrome music interview with Sakamoto-san. The article is being hosted by the musician’s music studio Noisycroak, whose other game music projects include Yuusha No Kuse Ni Namaikida Or 2 and Aquanaut’s Holiday. See the articles in English and Japanese below.

Yakuza 2 Music Interview - Hidenori Shoji and Hideki Sakamoto

「龍が如く２」 庄司英徳 ＆ 坂本英城 インタビュー

Help Chris Heward of Kronos Laboratory fight cancer

John Schloendorn, who is doing scientific research on the LysoSENS project for the Methuselah Foundation, asks you to support Chris Heward’s fight against his Stage IV esophageal cancer. Chris is president of Kronos Science Laboratory and presented talks on longevity research at the most recent Foresight Vision Weekend and Alcor conferences. His chances of surviving a year are said to be less than 1%, even with the best available care.

The current plan to combat Chris’s cancer is based on the granulocyte therapy developed by Zheng Cui, who made headlines throughout the anti-aging communities last year by achieving a complete cure for all types of cancer tested in mice. The most critical resource for this project are granulocyte donors. To help the fight his cancer, and further medical research as a whole, consider joining this cause by seeing if you are eligible to donate granulocytes.

A new Facebook group to support this fight has been created, titled Friends of Chris Heward. The white blood cell donor screening form can be downloaded from the cyonics blog Depressed Metabolism. To learn more about this proposal, Zheng Cui’s presentation from Aging 08, which I filmed and edited, can be viewed below.

Nobuooo 10.08

Nobuooo 10.08 Update from Jeriaska on Vimeo.