A while back I shared a brain teaser that seemingly can create 13 men out of 12 by shuffling the body parts. The trick to unlocking this mystery is to notice that the picture with the 13 men has each man missing a different horizontal slice of a complete body.

    

12 men ↔ 13 men

Perhaps another picture would illustrate the idea better:

12 rows ↔ 13 rows

On the left are 12 rows each with 12 boxes. By shifting down the cyan boxes, 13 full rows are seemingly created but with each row having 1 box less than the original row. Note that the total number of colored boxes is preserved. This is the principle of equivalent exchange: you cannot create something out of nothing. Ok, now I’m just doing f***ing commercial for FMA. :p

While this puzzle is merely an optical illusion, there does exist a mathematical theorem that truly violates the principle of equivalent exchange:

Banach–Tarski paradox.

It states, in particular, that you can take a ball, separate it into 5 different parts, then rearrange them into two balls each having the same volume as the original ball—effectively doubling the original ball.

This is no optical illusion. No stupid trick either. It is a rigorously proven mathematical fact. Can I show you the 5 parts? Not really. Mathematicians can only prove that such division of the ball must exists, but they can probably never be able to produce an example.

Now you must have two questions: Why must such division exist? and why can’t mathematicians produce an example of the 5 parts?

Such division must exist because of another innocuous mathematical statement:

Axiom of Choice.

It says that from an infinite number of nonempty bags of marbles it is always possible to draw a marble from each bags. The wikipedia pages are there if you want to see the connection between the axiom of choice and the Banach-Tarski paradox.

As to the second question, those 5 parts can probably be never demonstrated, because, as it turns out, the axiom of choice can be accepted or rejected independently from mathematics and yet we can still produce consistent mathematics either way. Again, the wikipedia pages are there if you are curious exactly what that means.

So, it all comes down to the problem of choice. Is there such as thing as free will or is everything predestined? If you accept free will, then the principle of equivalent exchange is violated. But if you reject free will, then what are you living for? Hey, I think I just gave the FMA writers new materials to go another 100 chapters.

I would so seriously lose any ability to care 2+2=4 had I been a high school student in Japan.

Ah, I see clearly how 2+2=4 now. :p

The title of the post came out of a quote from the news article:

Are short high school uniform skirts in bad taste? Posters urging high school girls to wear longer uniform skirts are causing controversy in Niigata Prefecture.

A group of teachers in charge of student counseling and guidance produced three kinds of posters and delivered them to all high schools in the prefecture in December in an effort to lengthen uniform skirts, which they think are currently too short and ‘‘lack good taste.’’ The teachers are also concerned that students wearing short skirts could become targets for molesters and other crimes.

One of the posters reads, ‘‘You can smarten your mind and your skirts if you’re motivated.’’

But the response from students has been cool, with many saying that devoting such attention to their skirts makes little sense.

The battle between schools and students over uniforms is not new as students have always tried to express their individuality under rigid dress codes.

I so totally agree: The dress code is certainly making me … rigid.

How sad is that to be rejected by a pool of people who have already lowered their standards. Was it because I stated I have recently been converted to Haruhiism?

That really stinks.

12 or 13 men?

How many men do you see?

Are you sure?

Now, watch carefully as I, The Neko Alchemist, will perform the ultimate taboo in alchemy and transmute before your very eyes 13 men out of the 12.

P.S. I will reveal the “Philosopher’s Stone” in a few days.

P.P.S. The explanation of this puzzle is here.
Posted in Encounters Tagged: Fullmetal Alchemist ]]> http://nekodan.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/who-needs-alchemy-to-create-a-human/feed/ 4 bakaneko 12_or_13_men http://nekodan.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/bleach-manga-354-espada-00/ http://nekodan.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/bleach-manga-354-espada-00/#comments Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:34:07 +0000 bakaneko http://nekodan.wordpress.com/?p=5141 ]]>

I'm expecting the other 0 to show up on his other shoulder soon.

Holy crap! What a ripoff from Gundam 00?! Now we have an Espada 0. I wonder if Yammy will get quadruple reiatsu output once he features the other 0 on his other shoulder.

Ok, maybe not.

But still, to have Yammy be cooler (cooler because he’s supposed to be stronger) than Stark does not sit well with me. This guy to me is a dumb ass, unlike the lay back Stark. And if Ichigo’s bankai is any indication, smaller is stronger anyway.

And who counts from zero anyway? Doesn’t zero mean nothing, a nobody? Perhaps this is just some practical joke Aizen is playing on poor Yammy.

Espada’s Heart

Wow, what a cheap way to try to squeeze sympathy out of the readers for Ulquiorra?! Two chapters ago, he was this pathetic little sore loser lying on the ground crying how he wanted to die because he had just lost. Such fighter has no heart. (I know because Hajime no Ippo tells me so.) Fortunately, he did preserve a last ounce of juice and attempted a retaliation, which preserved my last bit of respect for him as well.

So now, before he’s really gone, he’s going to leave behind his heart to Orihime. Awww… How touching! I don’t know about you, but to me that scene felt very forced. And it felt completely out of left field. Since when did Ulquiorra show any hint of emotion? He was always this calculating machine, executing his every action for the service of Aizen. Nothing more, nothing less.

But a heart?

I thought the hole in every hollow’s chest represents the fact that they have no heart. Did Ulquiorra qualify as a hollow if he did have a heart? Hmm… I’m somewhat intrigued. I wouldn’t mind if the writers try to now backfill some of his story. Ulquiorra was one of the cooler characters I wanted to see on every page of the manga. Let’s see what an Espada’s heart is like.

My first reaction when I saw Ichigo in this form was

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!

Umm… In a good way, that is.

There has been nothing else in Bleach so far that comes as grotesque and fearsome as Hollow Ichigo—not to be mistaken with White Ichigo, his inner hollow, although they may be one and the same just in different manifestation. This Hollow Ichigo simply kicks ass. He looks fierce with blood etching in all direction from that big hole in his chest, and his pure raw style of fighting—simply moving in and ripping Ulquiorra’s arm off just like that—makes Kenpachi’s brawling look fucking tame.

To be honest, I’ve never found Bankai Ichigo impressive. The dude looks cool in his black tattered, Matrix-inspired long coat, but all his does is flash around and toss power bolts. Shallow when compared with some of the other Shinigami: Byakuya’s Senbonzakura simply looks majestic; Oji Yamamoto’s fiery shikai looks sizzlingly overwhelming already; Mayuri’s bankai looks just freaking unnatural; and Kenpachi, even without his shikai, brawls his way through with no rule, no restraint, no boring.

The only thing I hope now is that the old Ichigo does not get to control this new form too soon, like the way he fucking neutered White Ichigo. Please let him rip a few more limps off the arrancars, the shinigami’s, or, as Panther had said, even the Vizards first. Then, when he gains control of this form, I’ll go catchup on Naruto or something until he reaches yet another new form.

Having been raised in the Christian atmosphere most of my life, I’ve always been taught that death is an unnatural thing in the grand design of God. It had no place in The Garden of Eden). Death is merely the unnatural result of our great, great, great, …, grandfather’s sin. Eventually, one day when God will return to take his people to heaven, there will be no death but eternal life, eternal bliss, and eternal fellowship with each other.

So, the conclusion of Casshern Sins is quite an eye-opener for someone like me. Here, death is not only natural, but death is the indispensable ingredient that preserves life from festering into, well, something other than life, perhaps something worse than death, or perhaps what real death is. The “redeemed” robots in the merry circus town simply drank, played, and laughed mindlessly—like in many Christian propaganda brochures. I wonder if our own heaven will be something like that too.

Coming into this final episode, I had expected Casshern Sins to celebrate death. Make it look good; no, make it look even better than life itself. That would’ve been a glamourous way to conclude its message with an exclamation point. However, I am glad that the writers did not take this route. Rather, they had kept it sober: As much as the result of death can bring meanings and purpose to life, the journey of going through death is damn scary and can hardly be desirable. Seeing Lyuze decayed away and Oji-san stopped moving was heartbreaking. Also, hearing Casshern screamed and Ringo wailed moved my own tears.

Whereas other lesser shows that tried to pretend substance would have ended “open-endedly,” Casshern Sins, instead, took an unequivocal position:

Life is desirable, but death cannot be forgotten.

You can’t have just eternal life. Having an abundance of anything immediately devalues that thing into nothingness. On the other hand, death puts a limit to life. Making it into a scarcity immediately gives it value. So, my dear readers, live a life of value, not a life of eternity.

But then what about Luna and Casshern? Luna cannot die. She’ll just come back again even had Casshern killed her the second time. Casshern, as we all know, cannot die too. He’ll just regenerate himself. They both now serve as two opposing sides whose combined effect is for others to live a meaningful life—others like Ringo, who is the first one intended to eventually die after living.

What a thought provoking series!

I started blogging this series calling her hideous, but now she is the most beautiful in death and in life.

P.S. Perhaps the notion of death-motivated living should not have been so foreign in the Western world too. Check out Apple’s and Pixar’s founder Steve Jobs at his 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech, whose main message is “ask yourself what you would do today if this is the last day of your life.”

Yea, so I’m a softy when it comes to stunningly beautiful girls.

On the story front, I had hope, as Kotoko had said, that Orihime would finally show some balls. With every “what should I do?” she uttered, I was rooting for her to go crazy on Ulquiorra. However, by the end of the chapter, all she accomplished was to remain the token trophy for whoever stands last. She could’ve at least ripped out her leet and gone Levan Polkka on Ulquiorra…

The chapter does end on a likely plot development that I had wished for a long time ago:

The Return of Hollow Ichigo.

God, I hope he sticks around this time for more than half a chapter. Old emo, I-must-protect-my-woman Ichigo is getting stale; bring on the batshit-insane Ichigo instead. If the first trick Shirozaki wielded (Black Getsuga) is Kurozaki’s last trick, I can’t wait to see how off-the-roof Shirozaki’s last trick can be.

Having a woman screaming like that into you can do that to your hair.

Why won't you die already?!

Watching this scene reminds me of the scene from the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me where a character (Robin Swallows) was stabbed in the back, shot by machine guns, blasted by a missile in the face, fell off a high-rise (and landed as a cushion for Austin Powers), dragged behind a car—all that but yet still won’t die.

“Why won’t you die?!” asked Austin Powers.

That’s also what I wanted to say when I saw Ichigo looking like this.

The fact that Ichigo just won’t die no matter what kind of damage he takes is becoming more comedic rather than dramatic. Seriously, how can a Shinigami survive against an Espada who in his second form has supposedly enough reiatsu to destroy all of Hueco Mundo?

But we know he won’t die. He’s going to live. Not only that, he’s going to win! Why? Because, in his words, he has to. How? Who knows, but he simply has to. What?! Yea, I know how you feel: Bleach has become pure absurdity.

when one dream falls down

Perhaps it’s too early to talk about theme, but here is a girl, Rin Ogata, whose injury to her leg has rendered her dream as a ballerina ruined, finds unexpectedly another pair of legs that opens up to her an entirely new world larger than any she has ever dreamt of before. The image of her standing not with her own feet on the ground but rather on the wheels of the robot with her own legs merely hanging on the side suggests a picture a crippled person with her crippled part replaced with something far better, for a purpose far greater.

It wasn’t like Rin was really crippled physically. In fact, it was suggested that her injury wold heal and that her talent was still far greater than the norm. However, she was indeed crippled by another mean: the bar of excellence which she had set for herself against her mom who was a legend herself as a dancer. At such peak of competition, even the slightest aftermath left behind by the slightest injury could make the difference between hitting the mark or failing it. (Michael Phelps’s 0.01-second edge over the Serbian for his seventh gold medal at the Beijing’s games)

Of course, this raises the question if you should give up your dream the moment you realize you cannot hit the mark. Is your motivation in reaching a certain lofty goal or in simply doing what you love to do? Former is ambition, latter is passion. I don’t like Rin’s choice, but then again I have done something similar myself. Long and heartbreaking story. Don’t ask.

another leaps high

Anyway, the scene when Rin leaped off the cliff felt very liberating to me. Here was this girl who had thought she would never leap again but yet now found herself leaping higher than she had ever imagined she could. Her defunct talent turned out to be not so defunct after all since, as I suspect, her training as a ballerina enabled her the reflexes to manipulate the proper balance to control the bike. This whole idea of a failed dream taking a new form of hope almost brought a tear to my eyes. I can be sentimental that way sometimes.

With her new legs, Rin is moving toward a different stage, one that is far greater than any stage in theater. Now, her theater is the world with the backdrop of a global revolution and brewing instabilities. At this point, this show can go many directions: lost-dream recovery, new dream Initial-D style, new world order, or even mecha battles. But one thing I find refreshing is the lack of romance, at least for now.

Please, let the focus be on Rin and her new stage. I do yearn to see her dance anew.

which way will these legs go?

I never fully understood what then-President-Elect, now-President-inaugurated Obama meant by

Yes, you can!

until I saw this:

Yuko Ogura on the cover of WPB edition 2/2/09

The last four lines

オバマが強要！　日本人よ、Yes, you can!

read

Obama demands: Japanese people! Yes, you can!

Is there anything on Earth the words of Obama cannot make possible?!

Summer then winter, white then black. Too bad the theme does not follow suit.

The problem I find with this first episode is the lack of middle ground in the characterization. On one extreme the Lord (the black Nyanko) was way too sacrificial in his devotion to befriending mankind while on the other extreme the lynch mob of lesser Youkai’s was too eager to turn an ugly face the moment a slightest wind of treachery blew.

Doesn’t this also go against the common belief that power corrupts and therefore the more powerful Ayakashi should be more evil than the lesser Youkai’s?

Or perhaps a fundamental law in NatsuYuu Universe is that the correlation between evilness and power within the spiritual world is reversed to that found within the human world. Who knows.

On another note, one of the burning questions that I’ve had with the first season is Nyanko’s reason for staying with Natsume. This first episode answers that convincingly: quite simply, a lifetime of a human is to an Ayakashi, such as Nyanko, no more than an afternoon is to a human. This really set the perspective of the grander scheme for me. Just as Natsume is having these numerous short encounters with various youkai’s, so is Nyanko having one of his own with humans, a couple of which is Natsume and his grandmother Reiko. Nyanko is merely spending nothing more than an afternoon with a human.

While this view does seem to diminish Nyanko’s side of the friendship between him and Natsume, it does reinforce the theme of how ephemeral friendships and chance encounters can be, which gives off a melancholy feel that fits well with the snowy backdrop of season two. Like snow fell on warm hands, so are our times with people. I wonder if Season Two will crescendo to a final departure between Nyanko and Natsume, when the snow disappears in Spring. That’ll be such a heart-wrenching finale!

Our memories like footprints in the snow

If you think this line is hot, you've gotta hear what she says next.

Oh my goodness, Akikan! continues to deliver lines after lines that make me giggle shamelessly like a lecherous old man. Nearly every damn lines in this show have a double meaning—juice, melon, penis waking up, and I don’t know Japanese but I bet those “baseball terms” Melon uttered must have been some kind of wordplay on the kanji. In any case, I nearly blew my own juice onto my laptop as I was watching the baseball scene. (What? I ordered a super-sized cup of half-tea, half-coffee beverage from Chinatown.)

What kind of lame kidnappers choose to target their victim while inside a classroom and then get taken down by a kid?

Then suddenly, Akikan! went Kanon on me. Contrary to his callous surface, Kakeru turned out to have a soft, caring side. First, we saw him lowered his knees to a girl in front of the entire class in order to secure for Melon a place in school so that she wouldn’t waste away at home; then we learned that he as a kid nearly took a bullet for his classmate Kochikaze. All of his talks of lechery may have been just covers for his actual honorable and protective side that, for whatever reasons yet revealed, he chose to suppress or hide.

Kakeru, all of a sudden, had layers like a onion!

Yup, he’s going to amend the broken hearts of every fox-turned-girls can-turned-girls he meets and in turns amend his own from a traumatic past.

Only one shall stand

But that’s not all, Akikan! is showing potential to become Mai Hime (or Mai Otome if you’re into the earring thing). Each type of cans will have a representative, and to the death will they fight until only one can stands. The winner will become the official soda can sponsored by the Japanese Department of Economy. Ok, if all this makes sense to you, then you’ve lost your senses from watching too much anime. But oh what the hell, it’ll be fun to see these girls mix their juices together. Let the carbon dioxide erupts!

P.S. Hmm, this show needs a character named Mentos.

P.P.S. Oops. Given the caption in the title pic, I wonder if I should’ve flagged the title of the post NSFW. Gomen, gomen.

Ok, now I know I have a perverted mind.

I’m not sure why there’s so much negative reaction toward the start of this show, but isn’t Akikan! starting out in similar fashion to Kannagi, which most people seem to love?

Both shows start with some mysterious, beautiful girls popping out of some items the guys own, who then force themselves to live with the guys while constantly punching the daylight out of them. But more than Kannagi, Akikan! features a more interesting mix of cast in the first episode already:

For starter, your male lead, Kakeru, unlike other otaku, collects soda cans instead of figurines, and talks dirty to a vending machine. He wishes to end his sixteen years run of virginity but completely fails to see the one girl in his class who is too eager to get laid by him. Also, there’s this guy classmate whose existence, or the lack of, in school is portrayed like a documentary on my own high school life, and don’t forget the gal classmate who pulls a deadly deck of cards from her crotch. Then, there’s the female lead, aptly named Melon, who delivers lines like

I exist for people to drink the juice in me,

and

If you put more of your juice in me, I’ll survive longer.

Alright, so maybe the sub did not exactly read like that, but who’s to say the sub wasn’t off?

Anyway, toss in some secret organization led by some guy whose motive is as much after the akikans (cans which turn into girls) as after the young boys who encounter them, and we have a comedic, suspenseful thriller in the making.

My point is this: If you like Kannagi from the start, then why not give Akikan! a chance?

Be still my heart…

Sources:
http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/eng/image/12376/Hatsune+Miku+Cosplay.html
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2008/12/29/hatsune-miku-cosplay/