Professor Watanabe’s vision arises from the extraordinary properties of the Botryococcus braunii algae: give the microscopic green strands enough light – and plenty of carbon dioxide – and they excrete oil. The tiny globules of oil that form on the surface of the algae can be easily harvested and then refined using the same “cracking” technologies with which the oil industry now converts crude into everything from jet fuel to plastics.

While he’s not sure if it’s possible yet to efficiently create enough oil to power the whole of Japan, let alone the world, Watanabe is hopeful. Compared to Rapeseed, which can produce about 1.2 tonnes of oil equivalent, this algae can theoretically produce between 50 and 60 tonnes on the same plot of land. The main problem however, is costs. It would cost billions to maintain fields of the stuff large enough to provide a decent amount of oil. You’d need a country with huge plots of well irrigated land and cheap labour.

As an added bonus for the environmentalists, this algae is also Carbon negative, meaning that the amount of Carbon Dioxide given off when the oil is burned is less than the amount needed to stimulate oil sweating in the first place. Sounds promising.

In other news, I’m thinking of moving this blog to its own domain. Shock and horror I know, but I’d like to do it. So screw you unbelievers. I’d also like to point you towards a combined effort review blog of mine. Unlike this blog, Violent Reviews deals exclusively with entertainment reviews. Movies, games, music. That sort of thing. So keep your eyes peeled here for more tech related ranting in the not too distant future.

But, after looking into things it seems that this was nothing more than a vicous, vicious rumour, designed to slander Metal Gear Solid and…well, maybe not that bad. But it is just a rumour. 90 minutes OF cutscenes, maybe, but certainly not cutscenes OF 90 minutes. See, see what I did there? I switched..

Ah, fuck you. Anyway, this is just a rumour, no need for everyone to get worried. I’m still not going to buy it, I’ve never liked stealth games, even MGS I’m afraid.

The whole article can be found here.

The 2×4 inch Digital Tattoo Interface is a Bluetooth device made of thin, flexible silicon and silicone. It’s inserted through a small incision as a tightly tolled tube, and then it unfurls beneath the skin to align between skin and muscle. Two small tubes on the device through the same incision are attached to an artery and a vein to allow the blood to flow to a coin-sized blood fuel cell that converts glucose and oxygen to electricity. After the blood flows in from the artery to the fuel cell, it flows out again through the vein.
On both the top and bottom surfaces of the display is a matching matrix of field-producing pixels. That enables a touch-screen control through the skin. The display uses tiny microscopic spheres, somewhat similar to tattoo ink.

Of it all though, the bit about how it’s powered intrigued me most. Powered the same way as our own cells! Using glucose and oxygen…Is this the beginning of a whole new breed of medicine. I doubt it actually, but it raises interesting possibilities for renewable resources of energy….Mwaa ha ha!

You may be wondering why I’m cursing the first game to have gotten 10/10 from IGN in almost a decade. Simply put, it is going to ruin my life.

Let me tell you how this’ll go down. I’ll start playing it on and off, testing it, if you will. Then it’ll take over my study time, my study for an exam that decides whether or not I go to college. Then it’ll take over my social life. That is, of course, if it is even half as good as everyone says it is.

I’d like to say something right off the bat. I’ve never been a huge fan of the GTA games. Actually scratch that, I didn’t like Vice City or San Andreas. But if GTA III is anything like those two I’m fairly certain I’d go meh at that too. See, I can;t really say why they never appealed to me, they just didn’t. In SA, it was mainly, I think, the fact that there was so much to do I never knew WHAT to do. I preferred Vice City, though even that didn;t set off any major bells in my head.

But all that looks set to change with GTA IV. If nothing else, I’d get it for the promise of multiplayer. The idea of going around Liberty City pumping hot lead into my friends and family while been chased by the cops has a certain appeal.

My God. Just reading that I realise Jack Thompson’s going to have a field day. But he can go shove something sharp through his spine.

I digress. I haven’t played much of GTA thus far. I’ve more watched it been played than anything else. But from what I’ve seen and heard this game is more entertaining than that scene in Gladiator when he cut off the pig mask guys head. If it weren’t for school and all my co students telling me “you need to work blah de fucking blah” I’d have locked my parents in the boiler room and set about getting down to something important, namely going round with an uzi seeing how many stars I can get before someone finally ‘pops a cap in my ass’. But alas, I have not yet had the time to play it in any great detail.

But with a four day weekend ahead of me, I’ll be getting some quality time in with the game. He he he, blood.

Excessive violence is funny, no?

PC Gaming is not dying

A good read, if a little long. So, anyone have any opinions? I personally don’t think PC gaming is anywhere close to dying. I for one will only ever buy RTS games on PC, I can’t stand playing them on consoles.

I wanted to love Jericho. I wanted it to be something amazing and unique. Alas, I was disappointed. It was unique, no doubt there, but only really in terms of storyline. As a game it was fairly, well…average. Painfully so.

As I mentioned earlier, the game is very bland, although this does break up every now and then into colourful environments, but the colour is few and far between. The storyline is really the only thing going for this game in terms of gorund breaking, but I expected nothing less from Clive Barker. The gameplay is very simple, although the addition of unique powers (my personal favourites are Cole’s Time Loop and Delgado’s Flame Spirit) does make it somewhat more interesting. But things in the game quickly become repetitive. At certain points in the game, your squad is pinned down and you have to fight wave upon wave of various creatures. And it’s basically the exact same thing about ten times over. You kill a Crusader archer, and another immediately takes its place. This can go on well over ten times and is incredibly annoying. The boss fights are interesting though all seem to follow the same formula: “Here’s my weak point/when I’m vulnerable. Please shoot me to pieces.” There are some neat ideas, like against Maltheus, the boss of the Crusader time slice, the Children fight him as well as you. But on the whole it’s awfully monotonous, with the only real exception the end boss.

So as far as gameplay goes it’s disappointing. And the level design’s pretty damn crappy too. More than once I found myself walking back the way I’d come and I was none the wiser. And I already mentioned the blandess.

The characters, however, were interesting. each with their own attitude and backstory which you pick up on if you pay attention during the game. The online info says Abigail Black harbours feelings for Xavier Jones though, which I didn’t pick up on at all. What I did get was that she’s very close to Simone Cole (my personal favourite), as evidenced when she calms Cole down (Cole has OCD and hates being touched, the dark and enclosed spaces) after they are seperated and Cole (along with Jones and Rawlings) is forced to hide out in an underground tunnel fighting off demon ghost Children. Plus, whenever Cole dies, Black always cries out “Somebody help her.” But that could just be me reading too far into things and I digress.

My main pissy point comes at the end. !!!!WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Cole dies. So too, does Jones, but to be honest I didn’t really like him. The only characters I felt any attachment towards were Cole, Black and Rawlings. And Leach, but he’s the bad guy so I don;t count him. So I was rather peeved off at Mr. Barker when Cole dies for no damn good reason. Also, the ending – after beating the first born – is rather anti-climatic and downright shit. Although Barker has said he has plans for a sequel, so maybe the crappy ending will be built upon. I don’t fault him for Jericho’s mediocrity, that’s mainly the game programmers and media diesgners faults, not his. But I do have one thing to say Mr. Barker.

You BETTER find a way to bring Cole back. Or you’ll end up making Leach and his cronies look like pretty boys.

To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed. The storyline’s amazing, and really pulls you in (well done Mr. Barker). However, the graphics and gameplay leave a bit to be desired. It’s wonderfully dark, and the creatures are exquisitely gory, but everything’s just a bit too…bland. It could have done with a bit more colour, and a little more light. gameplay wise it’s a bit simple, a very basic run and gun shooter, although the teams’ special powers do make it just that bit more interesting. Jumping from team mate to team mate really is fun, and I’ve found Cole (the reality hacker) to be my personal favourite (nothing beats slowing down time).

I’ll let you know more as time goes by, it could just take a while.

Slip In Sanity