Aside from the number of visitors to my blog, it is also the title of my latest review. I picked up book Zero, the Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife , from the science section of the local Barnes & Nobles because it had a nifty title and very bright red cover(link?) that naturally caught my attention. The simple thesis is of the book is to follow the development of the mathematical concepts of zero and infinity. Book it self is written in a very readable style that keeps the subject interesting, but is not afraid to include graphs and formulas.

Naturally, the book starts off with the somewhat murky origins of counting and of the brutish life without the zero. The book is full fun little facts like the Egyptians lack of a zero is the likely cause of our Egyptian derived calendars lack of a zero year. We then move on to the Greeks and Babylonians who were willing to use zero as a placeholder, but rejected using it in more useful ways.

Here the book points out the fascinating fact that the for the Greeks, mathematics was not separate from geometry. To have a convincing proof for the Greeks was to draw it with shapes, not with equations. This is source of the term squaring. (take a line of length x, then x squared would be the area of a square with x sides). This was something that was never taught to me in school. For that matter, except for my Hungarian algebra II teacher, I don't recall any of my teachers going into the history of Mathematics or into the odd characters who developed the concepts that we studied. Why did we spend so much time on Conic Sections?

After the Rejection of zero and infinity by the Greeks and other westerners it moves into India where the modern number line was developed with negative numbers and zero. The Arabs picked up this mathematics developed it more and soon it spread to Europe during the High Middle Ages and was essential for the development of modern mathematics.  Newton and Leibniz's based caclus on mathematics that involved dividning by zero and conviently ignored that it really ought to be impossible.  I fear I'm not skilled enough in Mathematics to explain this in detail so I suggest picking up the book for better description.  I will however share an entertaining quote made by George Berkley, an Irish Bishiop, in 1734 AD "he who can digest a second or third fluxion[dirivative], a second or third difference, need not, methinks, be squeamish about any point in divinity."

Questions:

The Book never mentions any Chinese contribution to mathematics, is this because China had no notable contributions, possible, since it seems the movement of ideas went east from Greece, Egypt and Babylon to India and then back west, perhaps China's location (like the Meso-American) left it out of the proverbial loop.

Conclusion:

I found the book to be very enjoyable journey into the history, uses and oddities of zero. I particularly enjoyed the comical proof from the Appendix where zero was used to prove Winston Churchill = a carrot. It's almost as funny as the "women = evil" proof.

One does not simply rock their way past June of 1983

With title as ominous as Massacre chapter it highly unlikely that we'll see a happy ending for the Hinamizawa gang. We begin with a small discussion of the obstacles to Rika quest. Although not named as such we're given the rules X,Y and Z (not to be mistaken with the XYZ affair) along with a definite debunking of the Sonozaki Conspiracy.

• Rule X: Madness: Someone will become delusional and all hell will break loose.
  • Onikakushi-hen: Keichi kills Mion and Rena
  • Watanagashi-hen and Meakeshi-hen: Shion goes on the war path and kills Oryo Sonozaki, Kiichirō Kimiyoshi,Rika, Satoko, Mion, and indirectly Keichi
  • 
    
  • Tatarigoroshi-hen: Keichi killed Teppei Hojo and wanted most everyone else to be killed by Oyashiro-sama. Also Satoko was irrational and shoved Keichi(Not necessarily a bad idea since Keichi wasn't exactly sane) off a bridge
  • Tsumihoroboshi-hen: Rena murdered Rina and Teppei Hojo, then went terrorist and held the school hostage
  • Yakusamashi-hen Satoko had some (justifiable) paranoia issues
  In general Rika's friends are good folk, but when (im)properly stimulated they can do horrible things.
• Rule Y - Three Murders and the Great Hinamizawa disaster: Without fail Takano and Tomitake are murdered on the Watanagashi festival night in every arc. Then soon afterwards Rika is sacrificed at the shine and the disaster strikes the village; unless Rule X kills Rika first . Then there is no disaster and Hinamizawa is not destroyed. This mystery and blows yet another large whole through the governments lame volcanic gas explanation for the disaster.
• Rule Z - The Sonozaki Reputation: Simply put the Sonazaki have used the chain of murders to enhance their standing. Even though they weren't behind them, having people think they were gives them more standing and power in the village. Unfortunately this also fuels Rule X, giving Shion,Keichi and Rena a visible evil villain to construct their delusions around.

If Rika can just defeat Rules X,Y and X she could live happily past June of 1983 with all her friends. Soon after explaining that Rika is constantly being returned to June of 1983 we see Rika land after falling from a cliff and her friends hurry down and were introduced to Hanyu. Hanyu is Oyashiro-sama and she a rather timid being that only Rika can see. She is the one enabling Rika to keep seeking a happy ending, but her powers are weakening and they have only a little under two weeks till the festival.

As if Rules X,Y and Z weren't enough, in this arc an added problem arises. Satoko's uncle Teppei returns and begins abusing her. Several times before this senario appeared, most notably Tatarigoroshi-hen, Never before has this world remotely turned out well. Either Keichi or Shion goes berserk and/or Satoko is completely destroyed by Teppei. Rika just about gives up hope, but Keichi finds the strength the change fate and save Satoko without failing victim to rule X.

Unfortunately even though Rule X was Defeated, Rika and co. unprepared for Rule Y. Tomitaki was murdered on cue and the evil villain was revealed.o be Takano and her mercenary henchmen: the Yamainu

Defeated the villain strong will takes more preparation and assets than the Rika's group possess, but they put up a valiant effort, they are taken out one by one. At the very end they realize they needed Hanyu's aid to overcome fate and she agreed no longer be just a spectator but to join in as an active participate.

Thoughts:

Rika learns several important lessons in this arc. The was that with a strong will fate can be changed and of almost equally importance, she finally learned who her true friends and enemies are. Seeing Keichi unite the whole town in order to save Satoko was touching and showed the that working together Rika's friends could change fate. It was very enjoyable to see my suspicions proven as fact as well as to get incite into why Rika death triggers the Disaster. We also learn that a parasitic disease has infected the residents of Hinamizawa, leaving the residents more susceptible to delusions than normal which is the likely source of Rule X.

Links

• My review of the first season of Higurashi no naku kor ni
• Yakusamashi-hen - Disaster Awakening Chapter
• Future review of Matsuribashi-hen - Festival Accompanying Chapter

Reunion

The story opens in the ruins of Hinamizawa; 20 long years after the Great Disaster (2003) with the town finally being opened to visitors again. It had been closed off after the government claimed an eruption of volcanic gases killed everyone in the village. Oishi and Akasaka having a reunion to discuss the old tragedy and it's lingering mysteries. They go over the ruined village and meet the surviving ex-terrorist Rena Ryuguu and discuss they many holes in the government story. Additionally Rena shares the time Rika came to her when Rena was delusional and living in the dump.  Rika urged her to take an unknown injection, but after Rena refused, claimed to be tired of this Hinamizawa and left in search of the next Hinamizawa.

Thoughts: This was a nice recap episode to reintroduce the setting after many Higurashi-less months. Nothing too earth shaking was revealed other than the governments volcanic gas theory was very suspicious. We also got to see the sweet scene with Rika and Rena in the dump that was cut from the first season. And who can ignore Rena, even at 38, was rather pretty in a somewhat crazy ax murdering kind of way.

Takano's crazy notebooks make an appearence and their talk of aliens and bacteria is still as ridiculous as in Tsumihoroboshi-hen, but still there is something rotten in the state of Hinamizawa. My apatite for mystery and Mayhem was only whetted by this episode.

Yakusamashi-Hen - Disaster Awakening Chapter

Next is an anime exclusive arc, that seems to have been created to help fill in some of the pieces they left out of the first season. We are introduced to an invisible character known as Hanyu, who Rika converses with. Then roll into a light hearted game of Zombie tag in order lull the views into the mistaken belief that this is one of those cute harem anime. Then we move the focus on to the two youngest club members, Rika and Satoko. In this world it seems that Rika has completely given up hope even though she acts normally during the day, but at night she reveals her true, depressed self. She's seems to have completely given up hope and is resigned to her fate. Satoko overhear some of her wine accompanied discussions with Hanyu and becomes concerned, particularly when Rika admits that she will be murdered soon.

The Watanagashi festival arrives as usual and just when Rika was completely bored one of her aids does something new and changes the normal routine. This blows Rika's mind and after the festival she runs out to attempt to convince Tomitake to avoid his murder. But it was too late; Tomitake wouldn't listen and he ended up with his throat ripped out.

The following days Satoko noticed that they were being watched and became very agitated. She lays some traps which give them some warning when unknown assailants infiltrate their house. Rika makes Satoko hide in the closet while many evil men carry Rika out to be murdered in front of the shrine. Satoko couldn't stay hidden with her friend in danger and went out to look for Rika, sees the murder and is chased by the evil perpetrators. She ends up on the bridge from Tatarigoroshi-hen and in desperation climbs underneath to hide. As karma(or the writers) would have it she falls like Keichi did, but unlike Keichi wakes up in time to see the aftermath of the great Hinamizawa disaster. 　

The most important part: There was no gas. Satoko without any protection at all walked into the center of the village with no problems respitory problems what-so-ever. (though she was pretty banged up from her fall) She shes her her friends and fellow villagers piled up in a heap at the school and basically goes catatonic.

Satoko is taken to the hospital where in Oishi desperately wishes she would awaken and shed light on these odd happenings. It turns out that Satoko is the only survivor from the village. He even mentions that he found Rena bloody hat in the woods and how it is so out of place for a gas disaster. After Oishi leaves Satoko has a vision of Rena being chased through woods, then being cornered, and murdered with only her hat leaving whiteness to the crime. Unfortunately as soon as the hospital staff notice that she's is awake, she is permanently silenced by the conspiracy.

Thoughts:We see the true aftermath of the "Greate Hinamizawa Disaster" which definatly rules out the governments lame volcanic gas eruption. Since Rika was murdered by men, we can now rule out the supernatural explanations of Tatarigoroshi-hen as a red herring, just as Meakishi and Tatarigoroshi laid to rest the Sonazaki conspiracy. While some of the red herrings are all tossed aside the true villain has not yet been revealed, though thoughtful viewers of the first season should be able to point out someone very suspicious, as of yet we have no motive. Why kill Rika so gruesomely in a shrine? For that matter why go to all the trouble of wiping out a little village in the middle of nowhere? Even as we gain more information, we still have many questions remaining.

Links

• My review of the first season of Higurashi no naku kor ni
• Review of Minogoroshi-hen - Massacre Chapter
• Future review of Matsuribashi-hen - Festival Accompanying Chapter

It's been awhile since I put up an anime review and considering the fact that season two of Higurashi is now airing in Japan, I ought to write something about the first season. First of all, this anime was based upon a visual novel. A visual novel, despite the seeming contradiction in terms, is basically it's a story with music, sound and still pictures. Kinda like an RPG but without the fancy animations, interactive stuff and flashy fight scenes to get in the way of the story. Anyhow the main storyline is divided into eight arcs which are then subdivided into two groups, Question Arcs and Answer Arcs. Naturally the question arcs introduce the story and characters and provide enough details to confuse and addict the viewer, while the Answer Arcs, provide the information understand and solve the mystery.(Though obviously the first season leaves out two arcs, so not everything is revealed yet. Hopefully this will be rectified by season II)

Each Question Arc has an associated Answer Arc which shows which another view of the original question arc so the viewer can make sense of the initial arc. And I assume once one goes through all the arcs there will be enough information to understand the entire mystery. Sadly the first season of the anime does not provide enough information, since it only covers the first six arcs, all four question arcs but only the first two answer arcs. Each arch runs a different scenario where tragedy(except hopefully the last arc, Matsuribayashi-hen, which I've heard is the good end) and then in the parlance of our times, things reboot for the next arc. The new arc then starts with the same setting, but with different parameters, so each arcs runs a little(or a lot) differently.

Setting:

The story takes place in Hinamizawa, a rural town in the mountains of Japan, naturally you'd expect it to be the den of much villainy. The main events happen in June of 1983, before the local festival, Watanagashi (Cotton Drifting). Our hero Keichi just moved to Hinamizawa from a more civilized location (Tokyo? Cleveland?) or at the very least a place without killer Lolis. Their he enrolls in the school and joins the after class activities club where he meets Mion,Rena,Sotoko and Rika, who + Shion make up the killer Loli brigade and oddly enough they are also the heroines of the story.

The Town of Hinamizawa has been the scene of quite a few disturbing events of the previous five years starting with the oppitiion to the building of a dam which would have drowned the town. During the protests several of the Dam workers and a supervisor were grisly murdered on Watanagashi in 1979, but one of the perpetrators is still at large. Then during the festival the next year, a dam supporter and his wife (Satoko and Satoshi's parents) died while on vacation. Again tragedy stuck on the third year when Rika's father was found dead and her mother vanished. Last year, a Satoko's aunt was murdered and a Satoko's brother Sataoshi vanished, which has naturally given the festival a grim reputation. It is often whispered around the village that the murders and disappearances are wrath of Oshiro-sama, the local diety in whose honor the festival of Watanagashi is celebrated.

Onikakushi-hen (鬼隠し編)
Spirited Away by the Demon Chapter

Intro to Hinamizawa, Keichi hears about the grizzly series of murders during the Watanagashi festival from an odd bird watcher Tomitake. However when Keichi asks his friends, Mion and Rena about them, they deny anything happened. Then after on the night of then Tomitake claws out his own throat and the Nurse Takano disappears under vary suspicious circumstances; a cop Oishi, seeks out Keichi. Oishi is suspicious of Keichi's friends and wishes that Keichi act as an informant on his friends. He then proceeds to enlighten Keichi on his friends past such as how Mion was deeply involved in the Dam resistance movement while Rena went psycho at her old school and smashed all the windows. Later while walking home, Keichi complains about secrets and Rena confronts Keichi about speaking to Oishi.

Conveniently for the plot, Keichi's parents choose this time to head out to more civilized parts of Japan leaving him home alone. Mion and Rena stop by to give him some stuffed rice balls (of all things, I think I'd rather have burger) so he wouldn't starve. Supposedly one of the Rice balls is specially made, now this ought to be a warning since girls don't just randomly stop by with food, so it is no surprise that Keichi finds, to his dismay, that the rice balls of friendliness are actually stuffed with needles!

This episodes causes Keichi to be a bit paranoid and to carry the baseball bat he found in an abandoned locker for protection. However, when Rena pops up with a hatchet, things get rather harry and the next thing Keichi knows he wakes up back in his room with Mion and Rena. Mion whips out a syringe filled with goo that she skillfully injects into Keichi causing him to go berzerk and batter the girls into pieces. Afterward Keichi leaves a note for Oishi regarding the injection and a person Mion referred to as the diretor, before runing off. Keichi soon call Oishi on a secluded public phone an babbles about Oshirio-sama while ripping clawing out his throat. Later Oishi finds the a doctored version of the note Keichi left and the arc ends.

Watanagashi-hen (綿流し編)
Cotton Drifting Chapter

In this arc we're introduced to Mion's twin sister Shion. The odd thing about the twins is the fact that they live separately. Mion lives with her grandmother in Hinamizaw, while Shion live in Okinomiya, and works as Waitress at the Angle Mort restaurant. Now to make things even more confusing the both sisters have a tendency to impersonate the other when it suits them. This causes some conflict when Mion, who was unable to overtly express her crush on Keichi, impersonates Shion in order to bring Keichi tasty foods(in other words not, needle filled rice balls). This in tern sparks a somewhat friendly rivalry for Keichi’s attentions.

In this arc, Keichi doesn't learn about the murders until he's actually at the festival where he runs into Takano and Tomitake. During the actual Watanagashi ceremony, Shion drags Keichi off into the bushes in order to see what Takano and Tomitake are up too. They find the aforementioned duo breaking into one of the storage building behind the shrine and are invited to join in. Naturally for out of curiosity (and for plot advancement) they accept and enter the building. Inside they find a Statue of Oshiro-sama and a large amount of torture tools. It seems that the now peacefully village liked to torture people they didn't like, and that the peaceful seaming cotton drifting festival has some pretty dark roots.

The next day Mion grills Keichi regarding a break in at the shrine the night before, naturally keichi denies all invlovement and the matter seems to end there. Oishi pops up and does the same with the same result. Oishi also mentions how the Sonozaki's are the local Yakuza family and the Mion is in line to inherit the leadership off the underworld. However it's not until the evening that Shion informs him about Tomitaki's fate. Like the first arc (and all the future arcs) Toomitaki claws out his throat, but this time Takano didn't disappeared but was instead her body was found burned. She then gives the usual speil about Oshiro-sama's curse and how and equal number of people who died should equal the number of people missing.

Surprisingly Keichi doesn't immediately, instead the village chief disappears. He then runs across Rika who in her cryptic way promises to smooth things over for Keichi. Sadly this is the last time he sees her alive. Rika followed by Satoko soon vanish. Amazingly Rena wasn't behind it and actually acts as the sanest person in this arc. She puts on her detective hat and fingers Mion as the culprit. Keichi and Rena confront Mion, who confesses as to being the source of the disappearances. However, Rena being a romantic falls for the "just let me have 30 minuets with my boy before turning me in" line. Mion takes Keichi back to the cave of doom where he finds Shion in a cave of doom. While Keichi is entraced by a minamilyy dressed Shion, Mion smacks him on the head with a rock and straps him down to the table.

Mion claims she has been possessed by the demon and prepares to pound a few nails into keichi's fingers. Keichi asks that the demon leave Mion and spare Shion. This touches Mion, since he didn't ask anything for himself. While she hesitates, Oishi and the cops start breaking down the door. She only has time to zap him with a tazer.

In the final act, Mion had escaped and Keichi and Shion were rescues. However one night a day or so later, Mion lures Keichi out in the street and knife's him. Not long after Shion is found in pieces after she fell or was pushed from her apartment balcony. The final news was given to Keichi in the hospital, how the cops had found Mion at the bottom of a well, but that she'd died the day that Keichi and Shion had been rescued from the torture dungeon. So who stabbed Keichi? The last thing we see in this arc is a bloody Shion bring a hammer down upon poor Keichi. The guy doesn't seem to ketch a break in the arc. In fact the only one who comes off ok,(if you count having all your friends murdered as okay) is Rena.

Tatarigoroshi-hen (祟殺し編)
Curse Killing Chapter

This arc starts with the finding of murdered woman floating in a river, and everything gets darker and more confusing from here. Keichi's Parents leave him home along since they have business in a location(Canada?) where people are more normal. Naturally being your average incompetent anime lead, he tries to fry himself up some dinner and if it weren't for the intervention of Satoko, he'd have died in fiery inferno.

Unlike the previous arc which were focused on Rene, Mion and Shion the central heroine of this arc is Satoko. Keichi becomes really fond of little blonde prankster and wants to replace the brother who vanished a year ago. Unfortunately for our characters Satoko's uncle Teppi returns to Hinamizawa and makes Satoko his slave girl. With no one intervening, Keichi takes it upon himself to try and rectify the situation by removing the Uncle from Satoko's life with Satoshi's baseball bat. He plans to do it the night of the festival when everyone is partying in the village.

He follows through with his plot, but this doesn’t go completely according to plan. His first strike only knock teppi off his bike and Keichi has to chase him down in the woods. Afterwards he then is picked up by Takano as she's mysteriously driving through the woods. She offers to take him home since he seems tired and it's pouring rain. She then cracks a joke about barying dead bodies, which naturally freaks Keichi out. He then notices a bike looking strangely like Tomitaki's in the back seat, but that Takano claims is hers. She then drops off Keichi asking him to forget that he saw her and she promised to do the same since it "would be better that way." Keichi was a little unhinged after this and wishes that Oshiro-sama's would strike her.

At school the next day, Keichi's friends pretend that he was at the festival and everything was normal. Satoko even claims that her uncle's still alive. ?? So Keichi goes back to the scene of the crime to make sure that he didn't dream about the night before where he's caught by Oishi and some goons who ruff him up a bit and dig into what looks to be a freshly dug grave. However they find nothing. After this ruff treatment Keichi uses Oshiro-sama curse upon Oishi.

On the final day of Hinamizawa, Keichi determines to finish the job and make sure Teppi's dead. He grabs an ax and heads out to Satoko's house. However, all he finds is Satako clearly ill and slightly deranged, counting randomly in the bath. He tries to carry her to the doctor, but as he nears the clinic he finds it full of police, claiming the doctor had committed suicide. Also it seems that Takano has been found dead and Oishi's missing. At a loss he decides to take Satoko to Rika's place, during the trip Keichi starts going emo that all these deaths were caused by his cursing of these people, which naturally makes Satoko afraid and suspicious of him. When they get to Rika's shrine, they find Rika's dismembers corps. This basically breaks the last shred of sanity left in keichi, since never wished anything bad on Rika. Satoko thinks Keichi killed Rika and runs off pursued by Keichi. They come to a bridge and after some talking, Satoko snaps pushes Keichi off the bridge because she feels he's crazy and caused all the murders. As he false Keichi curses the entire town of Hinamizawa.

Now the scene changes to a T.V. report about the great Hinamizawa disaster where a large cloud of Carbon Dioxide bubbled out of the swamp and destroyed the entire village (causing world temperatures to rise alarmingly) and everyone in it, except for Keichi who was found alive.

Himatsubushi-hen (暇潰し編)
Time Wasting Chapter

This was the shortest arc and the only one to take place during the back story. This arc is setting during the Dam Resistance movement five years before the present of the main story.(so 1978). Then we follow the adventures of Akasaka, a cop sent from Tokyo to find the abducted grandson of a politicians involved with the Dam project. Akasaka becomes involved with Oishi and eventually finds the abducted boy, but does not apprehend the kidnappers. During his stay in Hinamazawa, he runs across Rika, who acts exceeding strange, seemingly displaying knowledge of the future, telling him about the horrible series of murders which will take place during the future years, and asking for his help. It is implied in this arc that the Sonozaki's are behind the kidnapping. .

Meakashi-hen(目明し編)
Eye Opening Chapter

 

This is the associated answer arc for Watanagashi-hen. Just about everything in this arc is a spoiler for it's associated question arc. [spoiler]we see the events of Watanagashi from Shion's point of view. First we learn about her love for Satoshi who had disappeared the year before. Before her disappearances the Sonzaki family had punished her for her indiscretions by ripping off three of her fingernails. Unfortunately for Shion, Satoshi, still vanished. Shion is devastated and during this period Takano approaches her and fills her head with conspiracy theory's regarding the Sonozaki's.

Just when her emotional wounds had started to heal, Mion cries about not receiving the doll from Keichi. This wakes jealously and her memories of Satoshi, which she had just about moved past. Coupled with her resentment of her family and the things Takano had told her set the stage for the tragedy.[/spoiler] With this arc more than a few of the red herrings planted during the question arcs are dispelled.

Tsumihoroboshi-hen (罪滅し編)
Atonement Chapter

 

This is the associated answer arc for Onikakushi-hen, unlike the previous arc, this is a different scenario than the question arc. Like the previous arc I'm not going to go too deeply into this since I don't want to give too much away. This arc focus on Rena, so as you imagine there is lots of crazy stuff going on. We get to hear her back story, such as she was originally called Reina, but her parents had some issues, or more precise her mother left her househusband father for a doctor. Rena, being the vengeful type could never forgive her and even changed her name to Rena.

In the present time, Rena discovers that her Dad's new "lady" is part of scheme to blackmail him out of his livelihood. So she takes her trusty cleaver and takes care of the dastardly lady and her partner (who happens to be Satoko's uncle Teppi's ) Her friends find out and after a touching scene promise to help her hide the bodies. (how did that old joke go?)

[spoiler] Sadly things don't go well after this since Rena is approached by Takano who fills her head with visions of deadly parasites from the marsh and evil plot by the Sonozaki's to regain influence using these critters. She takes Keichi an Oishi in as confidants, but soon she resorts to hiding out in her special place. Rena's slides into paranoid insanity, Keichi remembers the events of Onikakushi-henand how through his paranoia he beat to death his friends who were only trying to help him. Keichi resolves to not let this happen to Rena. [/spoiler] Rena becomes extremely paranoid, believing that bacteria from the swamp have infected her and in a plot Osama would be proud of, Rena holds the school hostage so that she can get her demands met regarding the Sonozakis. Keichi manages to use his confidant status to get enough freedom to find detonator, but is forced to face off with his friend in a duel to the death. It's a bat versus cleaver duel that end ups being so much fun it breaks Rena out of her insanity.

Things seem to have ended happily since the school didn't explode, but during the ending credits it appears that another arc has started so things aren't over yet.

[spoiler]Sadly later that night the great Hinamizawa gas disaster occurs killing everyone in the village.[/spoiler]

There is still more story which is being told in season two.

The Good

Higurashi is a truly entertainingly twisted story. It's nice to have the show play with the views minds by leading them down improper avenues of deductions. I really like the question/answer duology, in that the questions arc lay out mysteries and red herrings that are slowly revealed by the answer arcs. Now that I've gone over the first season I think I'm all prepared to properly enjoy the second.

The Bad

The animation tends to lag in some places and the facial contortions are overdone in some areas. Also, it can get a tad graphic in some places. Obviously, from the existence of a second season the story was much too complex to fit into one season, so some things were rushed which makes a confusing story even more so. Luckily the internets have information that was left out of the First season which greatly helped to make sense of the story.

Resources.

 

• I'd like extend some special thanks to the folks at Animesuki: Higurashi forum for taken the time to translate things left out of the anime. It made it much more enjoyable to watch with the extra pieces provided.
• Tips
• Poems by Frederica Bernkastel

I've finally joined the in crowd and upgraded my home PC to Vista. I acquired a free copy of Vista Ultimate from via my work provided MSDN subscription and so I could not discern any reason to not try it out. So far my experience has been pretty positive, since upgrading was easier than I fear it would be. Even though the install claimed it would be fresh it still kept all of my old files, placing them into a Window.old folder and even left the folders I'd place in the root alone. I had spent all of my evening on Friday backing up files for naught as they were still around when vista booted itself into existence.

The Good

• I really am enjoying the Aero Interface; it certainly an improvement of the drab practicality of XP. I really like the added transparency to the widow headings and borders, it's beyond cool. I used to have a graphics card on my previous Desktop that would make windows transparent when you dragged them around, but it couldn't do window parts. The new round start button is easier on the eyes and takes up less room on the taskbar. Vista's Gadgets, a bunch of small apps that hang out on the right side of the screen, is a nifty idea although so far I only display the weather gadget and occasionally the CPU gauge. Still, I can the see the potential of getting some gadgets (such as a server weather warning that pops up if theirs a tornado near-by), but I have feeling it'll probably end up being useless like most of the IE Add-ons.
• The upgrading experience was simple a few simple options and it good to go. Sadly I went apartment hunting while it was installing so I have no idea how long it actually took to install, but I must have been less than three hours.
• Now I can finally use 64 bit programs since my previous incarnation of windows was only 32 bit even though I have a 64 bit Athalon processor.

The bad

• My Lame Lexmark printer doesn't work with vista although it was barely working beforehand, so I'm not particularly sad to see it fly into the dumpster.
• The Sound will skip or crackle occasionally. I've tried different players and so far Windows Media player is working tolerably well, although even it is subject to skipping. I'm also not particularly found of it's playlist options... It seem other players tend to be worse with the crackling with Winamp being almost unlistenable. I'm not sure if it's my poorly written audio driver or something intrinsic in Vista, perhaps it'll be fixed in a future update.
• I need to add another 1GB of Ram in order to properly run more than one program, but that was something I probably should have done beforehand.

We've finished quite a few series that had been long running at the Akron Anime Meetup and have started a few replacements. All in all it was a fun time as all the regulars were there. In addition we ordered Chicken and snacked on tasty treats such as spice cake, pretzels, Banana nut muffins and Green rice things.

 

Fruits basket

Yay we're finally done with the Big eyed anime of doom. This series is Shojo so not too much should be expected from it, however it did have it moments of comedy. The plot involved an orphan girl falling upon disreputable companies who suffer from a terrible curse. It seems these companions, known as the Soma family, are forced to take the form of an animal from the Chinese Zodiac when they are hugged by a member of the opposite sex. She soon develops a harem of these strange animal men in particular a rat and cat. Does this harem fall under the realm of zooaphilia, particularly since the nature of the curse almost demands bestiality in order for the Somas to procreate.... :( (This is normally why I fear Shojo due to it's disturbing plots.) Eventually our Heroine Toru reforms the animals and they seem to live happily ever and forge down into new depths. This anime is filled with cross dressing and people of indeterminate gender. Flee Flee!

Full Metal Panic

One of the best Mecha series I've scene and a decent antidote to the Fruity baskets. It has interesting alternate world. I gather the Full Metal Panic world involves a surviving but Weak Soviet Union and a anarchic and strife ridden china. It seems that new revolutionary technologies such as mechas (or Arm Slaves in the anime) and super submarines are being developed by special people known the "whispered". In to this anarchy a small mercenary band know as Mithral attempts to spread justice and make the world a better place. One way is by protected the "wispered" and preventing them from being exploited by evil folk. A young soldier named Sousuke is sent on a mission to protect one, Kaname Chidori and so follows lots of entertainment.

The one problem with this series is that Kaname is really cruel to our hero Souseke and will not miss a moment to beat on the poor guy. Otherwise there are nice action sequences with mechas and a hijacked jumbo jet. I also felt the final battle with the main villain to be very odd since there was a lack of Lamba Drivers and the nude Kaname wandering around was beyond explanation. (or at least reasonable explanation, I realize that it could be posited that her nude form symbolized the submarine... )

Twelve Kingdoms

We watched the first three or so episodes of twelve kingdoms and it certainly has caught my interest. The animation is pretty cool though it looks a little odd, perhaps because I'm more used to the newer animation styles, but it's still quite cool. Our red haired Heroine is extremely reluctant and whiny which is annoying but it does serve as a counter point to her crazy companion who just want kill everything. I predict that the crazy one becomes some kind of villain just because she seems to have some real issues. I look forward to seeing more as I've heard this series is quite good.

Beck

Finally we've started on the this anime about a group of students attempting to form the ultimate band. It's quite entertaining and even has decent music as opposed to the normal scary J-Pop found in some anime. Hopefully I'll find the will to wright a more complete review of this series at a later time after I've seen more of it.

I recently finished Hayek's Road to Serfdom. This book was complied from essays and thoughts that Hayek had encountered during the Second World War As such it can be a bit dry since he spends time refuting some popular thinkers of his day, who now have been forgotten in our day and age. Generally though Hayek wrote in response to the dangerous Ideas emanating from Germany that he felt had embedded themselves into Western thought and by extension English and American thought.

I fear I have little constructive thoughts to add to a book that is so well known, however, since when has that ever stopper a blogger? I think the most interesting facet of the book involves Hayek talking of the "Great theory horrible implementation" argument in regard to Socialism/Communism. He takes the Sacred Planner who will order everything equitable in the socialist society and shows how this takes the freedom to from the common man. Sure the common man no longer has to deal with the perceived randomness of the Market forces or the perfidies of corporate interest, but instead must deal with capricious bureaucrats who decide from on high how he or she will live.

In general you could say it is the non-fiction version of George Orwell's 1984 in that it was a reaction to the totalitarian tendencies in post world war II socialism. Whereas Orwell created and imaginary dystopia, Hayek wrote a much more conventional critique, write down to having footnotes and citations. Like Orwell, this Hayek is troubled by the similar results of the self proclaimed antitheses of Fascism and Communism, but Hayek reminds us that both these horrid systems germinated from western Utopian strains of Western civilization. Some people claim that the political spectrum is not a line but instead a circle, but with Fascism and Communism right next to each other. I suppose this is a nice to keep the traditional right left dichotomy, but it seems unduly complicated. I much prefer the Multi-Axis Model as it seems offer a more accurate view of modern ideologies than a model based up where people sat in the French Legislative Assembly of 1791.

The Good

A nice overview of the failings of a fully planned society and how it destroy individual choice and freedom. Likewise it raises the point the totalitarian tendencies found in fascism were quite popular in the Democratic West in the time around the second world war.

The Bad

the book can be quite dry, especially the last quarter when Hayek goes into detail regarding socialist thinkers, that were popular during his time, but have thankfully been consigned to the dust bin of history.

I came across a nice essay Three Centuries of American Declinism on Real clear Politics while surfing the net at work. Sadly it was too long for me to finish during business hours and had to wait until the evening, but I highly recommend that you take the time to read the whole thing. Basically it helps to put the doomsayers into perspective, and in particular digs up some of the problems of the "Greatest Generation" left after they're "mission accomplished" moment, which quickly grew into the many horrors of the so called "Cold War".

The essay mentions a litany of failure's from the cold war from Red Chine to the absolute disaster of the Korean War, barely touches on Vietnam (probably because it's well embedded in the International psyche although one wonders what anyone actually knows about it in this day an age?). Touches on America's allies' desertions, (not entirely blamelessly, can anyone say Suez crisis?) as well as the oil shock and the USSR's technological lead in the space race. It all adds up to grim(or joyful if you dream of American decline) and I think these things are lost upon people who take our current troubles out of perspective and idolize the past as a golden age of just war fought by the book(or convention).

Obviously the article doesn't go much into our current troubles, or even our current commitments. But then again the little isolationists don't really go into how to go from riding the tiger to a happy world where everyone listens to the wise UN. They assume it will happen because it must or that it simply a matter of making a proclamation and all will be right in the world. Sadly it's not so easy because there is not magic wand which will undo the last 80 years and bring back our splendid isolation. It is our fate to deal with a globalized world turned upside down. America government has made more than it's share of mistakes in the last three hundres years, however it's still hear and many of it's contemporaries are not and I suppose that is one the themes in the linked article.

Abridged Anime is a category of Fan parody where in an anime series is redubed and condensed into a more humorous form. This genre was created on the by one LittleKuriboh who created the Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged Series. The amazing thing about the series is that it's all done by one guy in England. Although that does represent a slightly annoying problem with these in that the female voices can be a bit grating since they're all done by men. I'd post link to the first episode on form μtubetube but due LittleKuriboh's been suspended, however you can download the series from the official site. Luckily I managed to find a copy of Episode one from another video sharing site so you can easily sample the series from here however you don't run the risk of watching with subtitles at the official site.

Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged Episode 1

Like Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged, Yu Yu Hakusho takes a shonen anime and parodies it to hilarious results. My particular favorite touch was to make the overseer of the universe, who looks like some reject of Dragon Ball, into a hippy,. One of the reason I find these series so funny is that I think in my old age, I've become pretty jaded in regard to lame Shonen anime.

Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged Episode 1

Finally in my overview of Abridged series I'd like to mention the Berserk abridge series. I actually like the source anime that is being parodied, however it was a bit campy and as such the abridged series takes full advantage of all the openings left by the series. Unlike the above series, in addition to the abridged versions I recommend you pick up the original since its an entertaining fantasy/horror anime.

Berserk the Abridged Series Episode 1

Links

• Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged
• Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged
• Berserk Abridged