Compos Mentis

Understanding Aging videos

Videos from the 2008 Understanding Aging conference that I was responsible for editing for the Methuselah Foundation, a non-profit organization whose stated purpose is contributing to the elimination of age-related illnesses, have been online for some time.  Only recently have the links been aggregated, thanks to Ben at the MFoundation, so that they can be viewed in sequence.

Unlike the presentations from Aging: The Disease, The Cure, The Implications, which were prepared for a general audience, Understanding Aging: Biomedical and Bioengineering Approaches was a hardcore scientific gathering more closely resembling the three SENS conferences organized by Aubrey de Grey at Cambridge, UK.

More than half the presenters asked not to be filmed because they were presenting unpublished data—a problem that was not encountered at AGI-08, where a journal of the proceeds was published prior to the conference. AGI-09, taking place March 6-9 in Arlington and including technical demos this time around, is shaping up to be rad. In the meantime, here’s Aging ‘08 in video form:

Aging: Disease, Cure, Implications Media
Understanding Aging Media

PAX 08 media smorgasbord

Remixers on Street Fighter & Final Fantasy

Two interviews have been posted to Siliconera this weekend on music remix projects for popular game series.  Malcos of OverClocked ReMix has arranged themes from Street Fighter II for the HD Remix version that will appear on the XBox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.  His tracks will be featured during the stages for Ryu, Cammy, Dhalsim and M. Bison.  The musician talks about his participation on OCR, their Street Fighter II compilation “Blood on the Asphalt,” and the downloadable HD title on which he is serving as assistant soundtrack director.  Also this weekend, Ian Hartley gives some background on Final Fantasy Remix, the album of club-style arrangements directed by Nobuo Uematsu.  The DJ discusses his collaboration with Matt Baggiani on their group Ante and performing in Tokyo clubs.  The interviews are available at the following websites.

Remixing Street Fighter II - Malcos music interview:  http://tinyurl.com/5egzlc

DJ Q&A - Ian Hartley on Final Fantasy Remix:  http://tinyurl.com/68b5vp

Aging: The Videos, The Photos, The Transcriptions

Videos from the Methuselah Foundation’s free life extension symposium at UCLA are now available online.

Titled “Aging: The Disease, The Cure, The Implications,” the event aimed at putting the postponement of human aging more firmly on the political and social map. It took place at Royce Hall in UCLA on June 27, 2008.

As with AGI-08, 100% of the scheduled presentations have been made available online free of charge.  Also ,visit the flickr set.

Aging: The Disease, The Cure, The Implications Media.

Nobuooo 8.08

Nobuooo 8.08 Update from Jeriaska on Vimeo.

Nobuooo 7.08

Nobuooo 7.08 Update from Jeriaska on Vimeo.

Nobuooo 6.08

Nobuooo 6.08 Update from Jeriaska on Vimeo.

Godel, Echochrome, Bach

The interview with game composer Hideki Sakamoto has now been posted to Siliconera. The conversation is on the subject of his classical music score to the puzzle game Echochrome. The musician also serves as the representative director of Noisycroak, the company responsible for the score to the upcoming Yakuza 2. You can see the article in Japanese with added photographs at Noisycroak.

Sound of Echochrome Hideki Sakamoto

World Ends With You

The World Ends With You is a Nintendo DS game by Square Enix, which I have been playtesting for Siliconera. These posts are less concerned with summing up the entire game’s strengths and weaknesses than finding the right words to get across the play experience.

The World Ends With You is divided into 21 chapters, six of which will have write-ups.

Day One: Scanning Scramble Crossing
Day Two: Tidying Up at Shibuya Station
Day Three: Lights Up on A-East
Day Four: Racing to Towa
Day Five: Haunting Coins on Spain Hill
Day Six: Advertising Player Pins

ArrrGI-08

Media from AGI-08, much of which I was involved in archiving, is now being exchanged on The Pirate Bay. The torrent includes the 51 papers, 25 of the videos in mp4 format and two of the transcripts from Future Current for a total of 1.24 gigs of booty.

Singularity, ahoy and whatnot.