Minwoo’s Right Brain Archive

The Unfinished Swan - Tech Demo 9/2008 from Ian Dallas on Vimeo.

This is pretty novel game playing. This type of thinking outside of box’ness is hard to come by in games these days when it’s all about more types of weapons, more violence, when essentially, it’s all the same FPS or RTS Myst and Katamari Damacy are the only exceptions that I can think of.

Zombie Animals and the Parasites that Control Them | Unusual Organisms | DISCOVER Magazine

This is drop-jaw fascinating, especially the last slide.

Humans might not be exempt from the mind control of parasites, either. Half of us, scientists say, carry the parasitic protozoa Toxoplasma gondii. And once we have toxoplasma in our bodies, we carry it for life.

The rate of infection can vary wildly from country to country—only three percent of South Koreans have are infected by toxoplasma, while as many as 80 percent of French people are carriers. The Centers for Disease Control says that areas where people prefer undercooked meat, like France, or have stray cats running around, like Central America, are rife for infection.

Though the parasite’s main host is the cat, it can live in thousands of warm-blooded species (and we’re on the list). Toxoplasmosis, researchers have found, might make people more likely to be schizophrenic, and can change personality in subtle ways. One researcher found that infected men were more aggressive and jealous, women were more outgoing, and perhaps most seriously, both had slower reaction times and were in more traffic accidents.

Explains a lot about certain French people I know, JK! ^^

Op-Ed Contributor - Buy American. I Am. - NYTimes.com

Some words of wisdom, from the King of Capitalism.  Good read.

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

…

Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They
shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that
pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value. Indeed,
the policies that government will follow in its efforts to alleviate
the current crisis will probably prove inflationary and therefore
accelerate declines in the real value of cash accounts.

Candidate Supporters’ Use of Gadgets as Symbols Reveal Power of Brands | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

Wow, this picture is worth 8,000 words, LOL I’m psyched that Y! is Biden, Yahoooo!

Lot more here

Ue wo muite arukou (aka “Sukiyaki”) by Kyu Sakamoto

Released by Capitol Records in the US as Sukiyaki (Capitol 4945), it topped the Billboard pop charts in the United States for three weeks in 1963 — to date the first and only song sung entirely in Japanese to do so. The lyrics were written by Rokusuke Ei and the melody was composed by Hachidai Nakamura. The lyrics tell the story of a man who looks up and whistles while he is walking so that his tears won’t fall. The verses of the song describe him doing this through each season of the year.

The original Japanese title was considered too difficult for American audiences to remember and pronounce, therefore a well-known word that people would associate with Japan was used - Sukiyaki, even though the word has nothing to do with the song. A Newsweek columnist noted that the re-titling was like issuing “Moon River” in Japan under the title “Beef Stew.

This is one of my mom’s favorite songs. Long time ago, she and I drove around record stores to trying to find this song on CD. When I sent her this link to this YouTube video, she was so delighted :)

On August 12, 1985, Kyu Sakamoto died in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123. Before the doomed aircraft hit the ground, he managed to write a farewell note to his wife, Yukiko Kashiwagi. Married in 1971, they had two daughters, Hanako and Maiko.

This sad side story somehow makes the song even more beautiful…

If you have gotten a message like this in your Inbox

In-n-Out’s 60^th Year Anniversary is Wednesday, October 22nd
All hamburgers will be sold for 25 cents, Cheeseburgers 30 cents, Fries
15 cents, and drinks are 10 cents!!! So mark your calendars!

As much as I’d like it to be true, it is NOT TRUE

http://www.yelp.com/topic/anaheim-in-n-out-60th-aniversary-sale-oct-22-2008-rumor
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081006202443AAWFw8l

But do go there anyway, to celebrate the BEST hamburger in the world! Maybe you’ll even get to see lot of people expecting to get 25c hamburgers :D