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TV Shows Online

So more and more TV Networks are coming online where you can watch full episodes of the current TV series in your browser. Of course the quality isn’t that great and it’s basically has as many ads or even more than your regular TV broadcast. Also unfortunately, all of these videos can only be played on IE.

Two new ones that just joined the rank include:

FOX on demand – A MySpace page!?!? What are they smoking. I guess FOX does own MySpace. Current series you can watch include: Prison Break, ’til Death, BONES, the Loop, Justice, Standoff, Vanished, and Talkshow with Spike Feresten. There are 2 viewing sizes: 543×302 and 1037×592, the latter seems to be just a direct blow up of the former.

NBC Rewind – This is a somewhat different system where you’re only allowed to watch the latest episode. Guess it’s only for those who missed the showing of that week. Not sure if that’s a smart move or not, but it somewhat limits newcomers to start watching the series, but it does mean that you can just wait and queue up to watch the entire season. Current series you can watch include: 30 Rock, Twenty Good Years, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Studio 60, Kidnapped, The Office, The Biggest Loser, My Name is Earl, and ER. The view size is about 599×342.

Random Crap:

Real Pizza Delivery Stories (from Deadlock) – hilarious accumulation of stories from pizza delivery guys from all over America. Includes sex, robberies, tipping, and all the other good stuff you’d expect from TV.

Sports fan names newborn son ESPN – Leann Real promised her husband, an avid sports fan, that if they ever had a son he’d get to pick the name. ESPN Montana Real was born this week at Biloxi Regional Medical Center. … Three others were cited in a 2005 report on tivocommunity.com about the network’s 25th anniversary. They are Espn Malachi McCall in Pampa, Texas; Espn Curiel in Corpus Christi, Texas; and Espn Blondeel in Michigan.

Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on Fox and Clinton (from FuzzyWuzzy) – Olbermann rips Fox News a sorely needed reality check after Fox ambushed Bill Clinton. Quite an interesting news report by Keith Olbermann, though it’s really nothing that I haven’t come to realize.

Dropout makes big bucks playing games – When 18-year-old Tom Taylor dropped out of high school because he wanted to play more video games, most people were skeptical. Now he’s known as Tsquared on the gaming circuit. He’s earning six figures and has product endorsements and a video game tutoring business. … Six months after he started gaming full time, he signed his $250,000 contract. He also got a publicist, a financial adviser and media training.

Fertile women dress to impress -study – Women dress to impress when they are at their most fertile, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday in a study they say shows that signs of human ovulation may not be as mysterious as some scientists believe. I remember reading a study of having men smell worned woman’s clothing and rate the smell as being attractive or not attractive, and clothes worn by woman during their periods were rated as more attractive.

German motorist obeys sat-nav system, hits sand – An 80-year-old German motorist obediently following his navigation system ignored a motorway “closed for construction” sign and crashed his Mercedes into a pile of sand further down the road, police said on Monday.

Police officer in Argentina suspended for cheering – An Argentine police officer has been suspended for 10 days without pay for cheering a goal while on duty at a football match and sparking violent protests by fans. I can understand the pelting of foods, but is it legal to suspend an officer because he was cheering on duty? Then again, this is Argentina.

Rejected Wii Games (from Digg) – The upcoming Nintendo Wii will use a revolutionary new controller which won’t be used for any of the following. Pretty funny compilation of boring game concepts with the Wiimote.

The Claim: A Plane’s Back Row Is the Safest Place to Sit (from Digg) – I’ve also been told that the back of the plane was the safest section to sit, but the front was generally a smoother ride. THE BOTTOM LINE There is no evidence that flying in the back of a plane is any safer than sitting up front.

I’ve posted several magic videos of Cyril Takayama before, but here’s a bunch more of his videos: Japanese Magician Takayama. I was going to list them all out, but there were just too many.

An Elephant Crackup? (from Digg) – Since the early 1990’s, for example, young male elephants in Pilanesberg National Park and the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve in South Africa have been raping and killing rhinoceroses; this abnormal behavior, according to a 2001 study in the journal Pachyderm, has been reported in ‘‘a number of reserves’’ in the region.

Chef makes wedding gown with cream puffs – The dress — made of 1,500 cream puffs and weighing 20 pounds — took the 28-year-old baker two months to make, and by the end of the wedding reception, bride Viktoriya said she didn’t want to take it off.

Canada troops battle 10-ft Afghan marijuana plants – Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy — almost impenetrable forests of 10-feet (three metre) high marijuana plants. … “We tried burning them with white phosphorous — it didn’t work. We tried burning them with diesel — it didn’t work. The plants are so full of water right now … that we simply couldn’t burn them,” he said. Even successful incineration had its drawbacks. “A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those (forests) did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action,” Hillier said dryly. Haha. These Taliban guys are smart. Who knew if you tried to burn a forest of marijuana plants, you’d get high *cough* I mean sick.

Disney says “non” to Mouse orgy – The Walt Disney Co. on Thursday said it took “appropriate action” against employees at its Paris theme park who were caught simulating sex while dressed as Disney characters in a digital video that has received wide attention on the Internet. The video shows Minnie Mouse struggling to free herself as she is grabbed from behind by Goofy and then a giant snowman. Later, Mickey Mouse simulates sex with the snowman and Goofy does the same with either Chip or Dale, the chipmunks, as laughter is heard on the tape. The tape is described on the Internet as the “Mouse Orgy.“ You can see the video here: L’orgie de Mickey (NOT WORK SAFE!)

Classroom trash can used as toilet – A fifth-grade teacher allowed five students — a boy and four girls — to use a trash can as a toilet during a school lockdown drill when no one was supposed to leave the classroom.

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The Idol M@ster

Tera posted a link to these The Idol Master trailers. The Idol M@ster appears to be a game in which you train a girl band to become become idols, which involves choreographing the dance moves, selecting the songs, selecting their outfits, etc. The game is going to be released on the Xbox 360 and the arcades in Japan, but this isn’t really my type of game.

Anyway, I found the video to be quite amusing. The multiple trailers all appear to be the same video, but the latter one had a different music soundtrack. The music on the HD trailer left a lot to be desired for and the video quality of the one with the better music was not that great. So I went ahead and ripped the music from and re-encoded it onto the HD video:

The Idol M@ster Trailer – 480p (wmv – streaming)
The Idol M@ster Trailer – 720p (xvid – download)

If you’re interested in the song, you can also downloaded the mp3 ripped from the trailer: GO MY WAY

Lyrics: (from THE IDOLM@STER)

「GO MY WAY!!」

music: 神前暁
lyrics: yura

GO MY WAY!! GO 前へ!!　
頑張ってゆきましょう
一番大好きな
私になりたい

ノンストップで行ってみましょ♪
って思ったらまた赤信号！？！
そんな時は凹まないで
ハイウェイがあるファイト!!
フルスロットル飛ばしてみましょ♪
って思ったらスピード制限！？！
こんな時は悩まないで
ジェットがあるフライト!!

未来は誰にも見えないモノ
だから誰もが夢を見てる
どんな地図にも載ってないけど
どんな時代（とき）でも叶えてきたよ
さあ行こう!!

GO MY WAY!! GO MY 上へ!!　
笑顔も涙でも
この世界中が　
Wonder LandなNever Land
GO MY WAY!! GO 前へ!!　
がんばってゆきましょう
一番大好きな　
私になりたい

GO MY WAY!! GO MY 上へ!!　
ほら１人１人が
この世界中で　
One & OnlyでもNot Lonely
GO MY WAY!! GO 前へ!!　
はりきってゆきましょう
全ての輝き　
この指にとまれ

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Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze?

Non-freezing penguin feet and other oddities explained – seems like a advertisment for the book (Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze?) more than a news article, but I went ahead a googled for the answers:

Q: Why don’t penguins’ feet freeze?
A: The system that stops a penguin’s foot from freezing is very elaborate and sophisticated and employs two mechanisms. The first one allows the penguin to control the rate of blood flowing to its feet by varying the diameter of arterial vessels supplying the blood. In cold conditions the flow is reduced, when it is warm the flow increases. The second mechanism takes the form of ‘counter current heat exchangers’ at the top of the legs. The arteries, which supply warm blood and oxygen to the penguin’s feet break up into many small vessels which are closely linked to similar numbers of venous vessels bringing cold blood back from the feet. So, when heat is lost from the arterial vessels, the venous vessels running in the opposite direction pick it up and carry it back through the body, rather than out through the feet. This means that in the very remote regions of the skin, cells get oxygen but heat isn’t lost through this skin. (from answerbank)

Q: Why hair turns grey?
A: As we get older, the pigment cells in our hair follicles gradually die. When there are fewer pigment cells in a hair follicle, that strand of hair will no longer contain as much melanin and will become a more transparent color – like gray, silver, or white – as it grows. As people continue to get older, fewer pigment cells will be around to produce melanin. Eventually, the hair will look completely gray. (from KidsHealth)

Q: Why fingers get crinkled in the bath?
A: Your fingers and toes tend to wrinkle because of the kind of skin surrounding your hands and feet. As this site in our Skin category tells me, the tops of your fingers and the soles of your feet are covered by a thick, tough layer of skin called the stratum corneum. Notice how the skin of your eyelids is much softer and thinner than on your hands — that’s because it needs flexibility rather than strength. When the stratum corneum (which is Latin for “horny layer”) sits in a tub or a pool for a long time, it absorbs water. As the skin expands with water, it runs out of room to grow, and wrinkles up! (from Ask Earl)

Q: Is the Great Wall of China really visible from space?
A: “You can see the Great Wall,” Lu says. But it’s less visible than a lot of other objects. And you have to know where to look. (from SPACE.com)

Q: Why left-handers are at greater risk of accidents?
A: I wasn’t able to find much sources in regards to this, but I’m pretty sure it’s because since the majority of the human popluation (~90%) are right handed, machinaries, tools, and even most mice are customized for the right hand, making the job more dangerous when someone who is left handed attempts. I’m not sure if this is exactly the case, but to open a bottle or unscrew a bolt, you turn counter-clockwise. For right handers, that means pushing out the wrench with your right hand. For left handers, that means pulling in the wrench with your left hand, and you obviously should know if pushing out or pulling in has more power. I did find an interesting article, but it seems to no longer be “free”, but clippets of it are on this person’s blog: Are left-handed people nature’s way of starting a fight?

Q: How do ants manage to survive in the microwave?
A: One thing working in the ants’ favor is that they don’t have much liquid in their bodies, so the microwaves– which cook meats by heating their water content– would act more slowly on ants than on people. That could buy the poor ants some time to save themselves. But how? By seeking out the dead spots, naturally. Microwave ovens have them just like concert halls, creating those annoying cold pockets in cooked foods. The ants probably are quite uncomfortable when they are bathed in microwave radiation, so they try to get away. If they find a dead spot they feel better, so they stay there and survive. (from The HooK)

Despite what mothers may have said, there is no connection between being cold and having one.
Though there is no direct connection, isn’t putting your body into a lower temperature make you immune system weaker making it easier for virus to enter?

Q: Why is snot green?
A: Of all the body cavities in contact with the outside world, the nose is probably one of the most hospitable: it is warm, very well aerated, moist and supplies unlimited quantities of bacterial food secreted continuously by the nasal mucosa (mucus contains quantities of glycoprotein and dissolved salts). In other words it is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria, which are always present. Many of the common bacteria associated with humans are coloured, Staphylococcus aureus is a golden yellow, for example, and Pseudomonas pyocyanea (to give it its older, but more explicit name) is a shade of blue. Normally these and the multitude of other organisms that are inhaled continuously into the nose are flushed out by runny mucus, which is swallowed. The bacteria are usually digested. However, if a situation arises where the flow of mucus slows down and then becomes much thicker in response to an infection of any kind, then the bacteria, in their ideal home, can multiply and produce the coloured mucus described. This, as many parents know, is one of the less endearing characteristics of babies and young children! And, by the way, if you’re still wondering where the green colour comes from, remember what happens when you add blue to yellow. (from New Scientist – they actually took down this page and I had to find it through WayBackMachine. I think it has to do with the fact they’re releasing this book.)

Q: Does beheading hurt?
A: Yes, beheading hurts. How much depends on the executioner’s skill, or lack of it. When Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed at Fotheringay Castle in 1587, a clumsy headsman gave her three strokes without quite managing to sever her head. The headsman then had to saw though the skin and gristle with his sheath knife before the job could be regarded as complete. The profound, protracted groan Mary gave when the axe first hit left the horrified witnesses in no doubt that her pain was excruciating. (from New Scientist)

Q: Why is the sky blue?
A: The blue color of the sky is due to Rayleigh scattering. As light moves through the atmosphere, most of the longer wavelengths pass straight through. Little of the red, orange and yellow light is affected by the air. However, much of the shorter wavelength light is absorbed by the gas molecules. The absorbed blue light is then radiated in different directions. It gets scattered all around the sky. Whichever direction you look, some of this scattered blue light reaches you. Since you see the blue light from everywhere overhead, the sky looks blue. As you look closer to the horizon, the sky appears much paler in color. To reach you, the scattered blue light must pass through more air. Some of it gets scattered away again in other directions. Less blue light reaches your eyes. The color of the sky near the horizon appears paler or white. (from Science Made Simple)

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Rubiks Cube in 20 moves or less

Blindfold Rubiks Cube – amazing! I wonder if he figures out all the moves before going blindfolded or if he just has an image of a rubiks cube with all the squares in his mind and which turn alters that image the same way.

I was chatting with SueOn in regards to the maximum number of moves needed to solve a Rubiks cube and I threw out a #: 20. Turns out I was a lot closer than what I had expected:

The minimum number of moves needed to solve a Rubik’s cube: In our project we determined that the minimum number of moves needed to solve a Rubik’s cube is 20 (or less depending upon the starting state).

For more mathematic proof, there’s the Wikipedia page: Optimal solutions for Rubik’s Cube: There are currently no positions known for which more than 20 face turns or 26 quarter turns are needed. There is however no proof that such positions do not exist. In fact they may occur so rarely that a random sampling of cube positions will not find them.

Random Crap:

Quasi the Robot @ Wired NextFest 2006 (from /.) – at first I thought this robot was amazing. Then I saw this (Quasi the Robot on Discovery Channel) and saw how much of a fake it was. I guess I was just disappointed from what I was expecting what the robot can do from the 1st video.

Koyote – Walking slowly (from Glendia) – An MV from Koyote’s 7th album Rainbow. A pretty catchy Korean tune and funny animation. The ending was a bit sad though…

Kingdom Hearts II – Opening – pretty neat CG animation by Square-Enix. Reminds me very much of the style used in Final Fantasy VII – Advent Children. I’ve never played Kingdom Hearts, so I have no idea what idea what the video is about besides that there’s some girl the boy is trying to rescue, but random characters appear trying to stop him, while others appear to help him.

No Saves, No Continues – I was just thinking I wished there save points in life where I can go back to a previous save point and redo what I screwed up. Then I read this comic on Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Squares 2 (from MS newsgroup) – a rather fun and amusing game when you’re bored. My high score was 8xxxx.

Street Fighter: The Later Years – CollegeHumor looks into the lives of the Street Fighter combatants, 10 years later. This actually looks like a series I’d enjoy watching.

Chinese fugitive leaves cave after 8 years – The 35-year-old man from the southeastern city of Fuzhou had tunneled the cave out of a hill behind the bedroom of his house and had put a wardrobe in front of the entrance as a disguise, Xinhua said in a report seen on Thursday. The man, named as Liu Yong, left the cave during the day to read, wash and watch television in the house, but went back into it at night, it said.

Man recites pi to 100,000 places – A Japanese mental health counselor recited pi to 100,000 decimal places from memory on Wednesday, setting what he claims to be a new world record.

Online dancing star struts into boardrooms – His six-minute video, ‘Evolution of Dance‘, catalogues the squirm-worthy moves made so enthusiastically by so many over five decades of partying and it has become the most viewed of all time on www.youtube.com, seen more than 33.5 million times. You can also visit his homepage: The Evolution of Dance with Judson Laipply

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12Mbps

Sorry about not posting for so long. Between work, WarCraft III, anime, TV series, and trying to catch some sleep, you can see where my blog priority lies.

Got a postcard from Comcast awhile back and they’ve bumped me to 12Mbps. Speed tests show a download rate of 8,000-10,000Kbps and a upload rate of 750-850Kbps. Pretty sweet!

Random Crap:

What FuzzyWuzzy has to go through in between seasons of the L word:

<zuFeht> damn i’m so addicted to l word again ><
<Krunk> haha
<pantsumimi> i love lesbians too
<Krunk> were you ever not addicted?
<Krunk> after you started watching of course
<pantsumimi> fuzzo was not addicted between seasons
<pantsumimi> when there was nothing to be addicted to
<pantsumimi> except re-runs
<pantsumimi> I never really got that show
<pantsumimi> I only remember one episode where some woman’s mother came over when they were fucking
<pantsumimi> and the vibrator wouldn’t turn off
<pantsumimi> so she put it in a small pot and told her mother it was a cactus
<Krunk> haha
<Krunk> so after every season
<Krunk> fuzzy goes cold turkey
<pantsumimi> lol, no choice really =P
<Krunk> thinks he’s off
<Krunk> but then immediately gets hooked on once the next season starts
<pantsumimi> i don’t think it’s cold turkey
<pantsumimi> i think it’s more like a period of forced withdrawal
<Krunk> ah
<Krunk> no more supply
<pantsumimi> yeah i can see it now
<Krunk> just pure demand
<pantsumimi> fuzzo is hugging his knees in the corner
<pantsumimi> shivering
<pantsumimi> mumbling about lesbians
<Krunk> sucking his thumb
<zuFeht> haha
<pantsumimi> yeah all that shizzaz
<zuFeht> totally
<zuFeht> i’m watching reruns ><
<zuFeht> new season should start in jan or feb

My Résumé (from MS newsgroup):

  1. My first job was working in an Orange Juice factory, but I got canned. I couldn’t concentrate.
  2. Then I worked in the woods as a Lumberjack, but I just couldn’t hack it, so they gave me the axe.
  3. After that, I tried to be a Tailor, but I just wasn’t suited for it — mainly because it was a sew-sew job.
  4. Next, I tried working in a Muffler Factory, but that was too exhausting.
  5. Then, I tried to be a Chef – figured it would add a little spice to my life, but I just didn’t have the thyme.
  6. I attempted to be a Deli Worker, but any way I sliced it I couldn’t cut the mustard.
  7. My best job was a Musician, but eventually I found I wasn’t noteworthy.
  8. I studied a long time to become a Doctor, but I didn’t have any patience.
  9. Next, was a job in a Shoe Factory. I tried but I just didn’t fit in.
  10. I became a Professional Fisherman, but discovered that I couldn’t live on my net income.
  11. I managed to get a good job working for a Pool Maintenance Company, but the work was just too draining.
  12. So then I got a job in a Workout Center, but they said I wasn’t fit for the job.
  13. After many years of trying to find steady work! I finally got a job as a Historian – until I realized there was no future in it.
  14. My last job was working in Starbucks, but I had to quit because it was always the same old grind.
  15. SO, I TRIED RETIREMENT AND FOUND THAT I’M PERFECT FOR THE JOB. Man do I enjoy it !!!!

Some guy on the MS newsgroup was asking for advice on how to repel rabbits. Besides the regular advice, a funny conversation started:

Tobasco sauce. Just a little bit on the leaves. Works like a charm.
—
I had put pepper spray on my roses when rabbits used to eat them and it works great. They don’t come back ever.
—
How about just put out a bowl of rabbit food nearby? They will eat that and leave your plants alone.
—
Then you end up with friends for life.

OK Go – Here It Goes Again (from MS newsgroup) – a pretty neat music video which involves 8 treadmills. It doesn’t seem like the official music video, but the choreography was pretty neat. I like how they made it look like they were skiing.

MIT Sketching – RayAlome first showed me this video of this neat physics sketching software a week ago or so. It’s actually pretty neat. For more information, you might want to read about it on MIT’s website: Magic Paper. There was a email at work spreading around stating this was Microsoft Physics Illustrator (download / source code). It seems like this was a joint project between MSR and MIT.

big cups
For the last departmental picnic, management had decided that, due to liability issues, we could have alcohol, but only one (1) drink per person. I was fired for ordering the cups. (from MS Newsgroup)

Unnessary Censorship (from MS newsgroup) – One Year of Unnessary Censorship by the Jimmy Kemmel show.

Huge BUG found in Google Maps (from MS newsgroup)

peter callesen (from MS newsgroup) – I think I had actually saw this elsewhere, but I don’t remember. The papercut art is just amazing. Sometimes the cutout portions are like shadows, other times, they actually resemble things. They’re actually really pretty.

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Goodbye Grandpa

I just got news that grandpa passed away. I just recently found out he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I think I might actually be the last person in my family (parents + siblings) to actually have seen my grandpa when I was a freshman or sophmore in college. Though I am saddened by this news, I didn’t really know my grandpa that well. To me, he was just a jolly old man as I can recall.

There has always been a misunderstanding between my dad, and my dad couldn’t find it in himself to forgive grandpa for the longest time. When he heard about grandpa and his diagnosis, he was heart broken and even decided to go see him for the last time after probably almost 10 years now.

I can’t say I can understand what my father is going through right now, but I know how much it must be hurting him. After all these years, he’s finally decided to forgive grandpa, and grandpa leaves a step too early. I recall when I was young, and my dad would play dead. I actually fell for the trick multiple times. He actually got me believing that if these little warts on him popped, he would die. I remember crying for the longest time because my dad wouldn’t move, and when he woke up, I was the happiest little boy on Earth.

Unfortunately, it appears this story won’t have a happy ending.

Goodby Grandpa.

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Heroes Discussion

So I had a talk with RayAlome today in regards to Heroes, what’s happened so far and what’s to come. I thought it was quite interesting and wanted to share it with you guys. It might contain major spoilers, or it may not. Reader beware.

Discussion 1: (Show)

If you missed this in Episode 2:

key like curve painting when hiro visits painter's room
The painting of a key like curve when Hiro was searching for the painter in his studio, right before he picks up the gun and gets caught

key like curve that scrolls across the screen when the son is looking at the genetic code on his father's usb thumbdrivekey like curve that scrolls across the screen when the son is looking at the genetic code on his father's usb thumbdrive
Key like curve that scrolls across the screen when the son is looking at the genetric data on his father’s USB thumbdrive. It’s a lot easier to see when the screen is scrolling, but you can see the … that form the shape.

Discussion 2: (Show)

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Eight Crazy Nights

This movie was pretty bad. Had some funny moments and times, but the story didn’t flow well, jumped back and forth about a kid who just couldn’t let go. If I had to put it, it’s the new Grinch with a reason. It’s about a guy that can’t stand others being happy during the holiday seasons, and goes out of his way to ruin it for everyone.

Official Site
IMDb: 4.7/10 (3,277 votes)
Yahoo! Movies: The Critics: C- / Yahoo! Users: B-
Rotten Tomatoes: Rating: 14% / Average Rating: 3.2/10
Amazon.com DVD
Amazon.com Soundtrack
MY RATING: 4/10

eight crazy nights postereight crazy nights poster

Spoilers: (Show)

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Heroes

So RayAlome sent me to watch this trailer a week or 2 back: Hereos – Promotion Trailer. It’s a new TV series on NBC. It was semi interesting so I decided to give it a try this weekend. You can actually watch latest episode on their website: NBC Rewind. Of course they’ll stick in random ads.

Anyway the story is simple, pretty much like X-Men, but not as crazy. Humans are evolving, not because of random mutations, but because it’s destiny. The Human Genome project is already completed, and people with special genes already exist and are just waiting to be awaken, and as a prophecy/oracle thing, it appears that there’s going to be chaos soon.

For some reason, I think the show wants to bring out logical reasonings of how some of these things are actually happening.

From the first 2 episodes, I already have some questions: (Show)