Meet Heather Poe


This is Heather Poe. She?s a young woman, living in Los Angeles and attending college there, though it isn?t her hometown. She?s kind, happy, eager to please and a little bit geeky. She?s also one of the best features of one of my favourite games, Troika?s Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines.

You find Heather in the hospital, where she?s been rushed into the emergency room for some strange neck wound. As a newly turned vampire yourself, you know that there?s more to this story than meets the eye, but your heightened senses also tell you that she?ll survive her undead encounter if she just gets some fresh haemoglobin. Unfortunately, there isn?t a doctor to hand and the hospital is criminally understaffed.

Earlier, a friend of yours told you that vampire blood has certain special characteristics when drunk by humans ? mainly as a healing elixir. You pause, then slit your wrist to save her young life before disappearing back into the night. You have errands to run, after all. Little do you know that this isn?t the last time you?ll be seeing Heather.

She shows up a few nights later, grabbing you on the street and desperate to thank you. She?s babbling and doe-eyed and she knows far too much about you and your kind ? you?ll suffer reprisals if you don?t take this matter in hand, but now is not the time. You send her back to your haven ? that grotty motel in Santa Monica ? and tell her to wait for you.

You have a choice now. Your blood is mixing with Heather?s and creating a potent, mind-altering brew. The more time she spends with you, the more she falls under your thrall, whether you want her to or not. You know you should send her away, break the bond and tell her to forget all this silliness about vampires. You know you should, but a lot of reasons run through you mind for why you shouldn?t ? a lot of excuses.

You?re little more than a servant for others at the moment, so the idea of cultivating your own slave does have a certain appeal. Letting her go may bring the wrath of your superiors if she exposes you. You wonder about the direction you could steer Heather, making her serve you in a way that seems repugnant in the daylight hours.

That?s what's great about being a vampire; not casting a reflection. You can avoid a lot of guilt and shame when you don?t have to meet your own gaze.


Over the next few days or weeks, Heather changes. Sometimes you're the one pushing, telling her how to dress or to surrender her life savings. At other times, it?s the blood that changes her. She was eager to please at the beginning, but now her devotion is fanatical. One day you find she?s bought you home some food - still alive and locked in the bathroom. The longer the ?relationship? lasts, the more you get the idea that it isn?t going to end well, but the harder it becomes to end it.

Heather?s fate ultimately lies in your hands. She?s a nice, likeable person and you want to do well by her. At the same time, though, the rest of LA is working to reshape you. You may have been just an average guy a few weeks ago, but now you?re a vampire; suffering and cruelty is your stock and trade.

As you acclimatise to this new existence, you start to adapt. You already don?t have to look at yourself in the mirror, but now you?re learning to hide the rest of yourself behind your new definition of what you are. You are a demon. Once you accept that, it becomes very easy to do very nasty things to a very nice person.

Then, when the game ends, you realise what?s happened and you learn something about yourself. That?s why Vampire: Bloodlines is one of my favourite games.

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High-Speed Evolution Aids Drug Development

By exploiting the rapid replicating power of viruses, researchers were able to make biological molecules in the laboratory evolve much more rapidly than they can with existing approaches. Their new method, called phage-assisted continuous evolution (PACE), could be used to accelerate the development of therapeutic proteins, such as new cancer drugs, or to tackle unsolved questions about how evolution works.

Most traditional pharmaceutical agents are small molecules, but a number of promising new therapies are based on macromolecules, such as proteins. So-called "directed evolution" gives scientists a way to adapt a naturally occurring macromolecule to perform a specific therapeutically useful function, such as bind to a cancer-linked protein.

"For some applications, the speed of conventional protein evolution is a bottleneck," says David Liu, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University and senior author of a paper describing the new technique in Nature. "Efforts to create proteins with tailor-made properties will be maximally useful if methods to create them can operate on a truly practical timescale."

To streamline this undertaking, Liu and then-graduate students Kevin Esvelt and Jacob Carlson harnessed the life cycle of the M13 bacteriophage, a virus that infects E. coli. In the traditional method of directed evolution, scientists use an error-prone DNA copying method to create a library of genes encoding proteins with slightly different functions. With PACE, viruses carrying a gene for the target protein automatically generate such a library when they replicate inside E. coli cells, which have been modified to increase the viruses' mutation rate.

The new method also eliminates the cumbersome need for scientists to screen the entire library for successful variants during each round of evolution. PACE links the desired function to the production of a substance that the virus can't thrive without. If a single virus comes up with a version of the target protein that performs the desired function, that virus can complete its life cycle?which means its offspring will go on to infect other E. coli and continue the cycle. Subsequent rounds of evolution progress continually, automatically, and?because M13 has a life cycle of just 10 minutes?extremely quickly.

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High-Speed Evolution Aids Drug Development

By exploiting the rapid replicating power of viruses, researchers were able to make biological molecules in the laboratory evolve much more rapidly than they can with existing approaches. Their new method, called phage-assisted continuous evolution (PACE), could be used to accelerate the development of therapeutic proteins, such as new cancer drugs, or to tackle unsolved questions about how evolution works.

Most traditional pharmaceutical agents are small molecules, but a number of promising new therapies are based on macromolecules, such as proteins. So-called "directed evolution" gives scientists a way to adapt a naturally occurring macromolecule to perform a specific therapeutically useful function, such as bind to a cancer-linked protein.

"For some applications, the speed of conventional protein evolution is a bottleneck," says David Liu, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University and senior author of a paper describing the new technique in Nature. "Efforts to create proteins with tailor-made properties will be maximally useful if methods to create them can operate on a truly practical timescale."

To streamline this undertaking, Liu and then-graduate students Kevin Esvelt and Jacob Carlson harnessed the life cycle of the M13 bacteriophage, a virus that infects E. coli. In the traditional method of directed evolution, scientists use an error-prone DNA copying method to create a library of genes encoding proteins with slightly different functions. With PACE, viruses carrying a gene for the target protein automatically generate such a library when they replicate inside E. coli cells, which have been modified to increase the viruses' mutation rate.

The new method also eliminates the cumbersome need for scientists to screen the entire library for successful variants during each round of evolution. PACE links the desired function to the production of a substance that the virus can't thrive without. If a single virus comes up with a version of the target protein that performs the desired function, that virus can complete its life cycle?which means its offspring will go on to infect other E. coli and continue the cycle. Subsequent rounds of evolution progress continually, automatically, and?because M13 has a life cycle of just 10 minutes?extremely quickly.

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Video: HTC readying Windows Phone 7 with 16MP camera?

A new HTC advertisement seems to suggest that HTC is readying a new Windows Phone 7 device with an unprecedented 16 megapixel camera as well as dual LED flash. This is still classified as a rumor as neither HTC nor Microsoft has announced such a device.

The video doesn't really show much else, so we don't know any other specifications for the phone. Pocketnow notes that the device pictured actually appears to be the HTC Desire S, but with Windows Phone 7 buttons instead of Android buttons. The speculation is that this might be the HTC Ignite, though the last rumor said it would come with a 5MP camera. Take a look for yourself:

It's worth noting that the video is 22 seconds long. The remaining 8 seconds would likely be used to show the name of the phone, an HTC logo, a Windows Phone logo, and even a carrier logo.

A high megapixel count does not guarantee good pictures (never buy a camera just based on how many megapixels it has) but it's still quite interesting if true. We're hoping that the camera also sports a great lens, otherwise the pictures won't be anything to write home about.

Microsoft has Chassis 1 requirements for WP7 devices, but unfortunately most of the phones currently available have only the bare minimum. This also means there is little that differentiates them. A 16MP camera would not only stand out among Windows phones (the highest is currently 8MP), but it would also set the bar high for the competition.

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Meet Heather Poe


This is Heather Poe. She?s a young woman, living in Los Angeles and attending college there, though it isn?t her hometown. She?s kind, happy, eager to please and a little bit geeky. She?s also one of the best features of one of my favourite games, Troika?s Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines.

You find Heather in the hospital, where she?s been rushed into the emergency room for some strange neck wound. As a newly turned vampire yourself, you know that there?s more to this story than meets the eye, but your heightened senses also tell you that she?ll survive her undead encounter if she just gets some fresh haemoglobin. Unfortunately, there isn?t a doctor to hand and the hospital is criminally understaffed.

Earlier, a friend of yours told you that vampire blood has certain special characteristics when drunk by humans ? mainly as a healing elixir. You pause, then slit your wrist to save her young life before disappearing back into the night. You have errands to run, after all. Little do you know that this isn?t the last time you?ll be seeing Heather.

She shows up a few nights later, grabbing you on the street and desperate to thank you. She?s babbling and doe-eyed and she knows far too much about you and your kind ? you?ll suffer reprisals if you don?t take this matter in hand, but now is not the time. You send her back to your haven ? that grotty motel in Santa Monica ? and tell her to wait for you.

You have a choice now. Your blood is mixing with Heather?s and creating a potent, mind-altering brew. The more time she spends with you, the more she falls under your thrall, whether you want her to or not. You know you should send her away, break the bond and tell her to forget all this silliness about vampires. You know you should, but a lot of reasons run through you mind for why you shouldn?t ? a lot of excuses.

You?re little more than a servant for others at the moment, so the idea of cultivating your own slave does have a certain appeal. Letting her go may bring the wrath of your superiors if she exposes you. You wonder about the direction you could steer Heather, making her serve you in a way that seems repugnant in the daylight hours.

That?s what's great about being a vampire; not casting a reflection. You can avoid a lot of guilt and shame when you don?t have to meet your own gaze.


Over the next few days or weeks, Heather changes. Sometimes you're the one pushing, telling her how to dress or to surrender her life savings. At other times, it?s the blood that changes her. She was eager to please at the beginning, but now her devotion is fanatical. One day you find she?s bought you home some food - still alive and locked in the bathroom. The longer the ?relationship? lasts, the more you get the idea that it isn?t going to end well, but the harder it becomes to end it.

Heather?s fate ultimately lies in your hands. She?s a nice, likeable person and you want to do well by her. At the same time, though, the rest of LA is working to reshape you. You may have been just an average guy a few weeks ago, but now you?re a vampire; suffering and cruelty is your stock and trade.

As you acclimatise to this new existence, you start to adapt. You already don?t have to look at yourself in the mirror, but now you?re learning to hide the rest of yourself behind your new definition of what you are. You are a demon. Once you accept that, it becomes very easy to do very nasty things to a very nice person.

Then, when the game ends, you realise what?s happened and you learn something about yourself. That?s why Vampire: Bloodlines is one of my favourite games.

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New Test Spots Infections in Hours, Rather than Days

A startup called T2 Biosystems is developing a test that uses magnetic nanoparticles to detect blood-borne infections in hours?compared to the days it now takes using conventional lab methods. The company's first device?about the size of a printer?will target Candida, a fungus that is the third-most-common cause of hospital-acquired infections. The detection system can identify Candida in human blood samples in about two hours. Clinical trials involving samples from actual patients are in the works.

The sooner a hospital lab can identify the cause of a patient's infection, the faster that patient can be put on the right antibiotics. Today, microbiologists often try to grow the infectious agent in the lab and run various tests to identify it. This can take a few days, and some organisms, including Candida, grow more slowly than others. Tests based on amplifying genetic material are considerably faster, but require complicated processing equipment. Tests that use fluorescent labels to light up a target are also faster, but samples like blood are too cloudy for the light to pass through.

T2 Biosystems's technology is based on work carried out by researchers at MIT, Harvard, and Massachusetts General Hospital on tailoring iron-oxide nanoparticles to bind to specific biomarkers, and then using a miniature magnetic system to detect the binding. The detector is essentially a tiny, simplified version of a nuclear magnetic resonance imaging system. Such systems usually require very large, expensive magnets, whereas T2 Biosystems's device uses a magnetic detector about the size of a penny.

Company founder and MIT materials science professor Michael Cima says there are two main advantages to the magnetic particle approach: magnetic fields can travel through blood and other media that light can't penetrate, and the magnetic detection system is very sensitive?so it can tell clinicians precisely how much of a particular pathogen is present.

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iPad Review: Sword and Sworcery EP

iPad Review: Sword and Sworcery EP

Posted on 11th Apr 2011 at 10:50 by David Hing with 12 comments

Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP for the iPad is like nothing else you have ever played. Described as ?a 21st century interpretation of the archetypical old school videogame adventure? it uses beautifully crafted pixel-scapes to do for video gaming what the impressionist painters did for art.

A collaborative project from indie studio Capybara, rock musicians and art from the Superbrothers themselves, Sword and Sworcery EP is a essentially a point and click adventure game that sees you cast as a warrior out to destroy an ancient evil. To do that you?ll need to solve puzzles, fight bears and collect an artefact called the Megatome ? so far, so adventure-game. What sets is apart from the likes of Kings Quest however are the lashings of surrealism, abstraction and poetry that somehow never slips into infuriating pretentiousness.


The real star isn?t the music or the mysticism, however, but the visual style. It?s absolutely perfect, causing us to frequently stop playing for a moment or two just to admire the scenery ? no mean feat considering the outstanding visual quality of most modern games. The landscapes are rich and detailed and invoke a near painterly quality. There?s a rare sense of artistry to Sword and Sworcery that we?ve not seen in a long, long time.

Sword and Sworcery?s music is still exemplary, however. The sound design has been meticulously crafted, fitting perfectly with the gameplay and creating an absorbing atmosphere that genuinely hooks you in to the moment. The sounds and music towards the end of our first session built a huge amount of tension and it was only after the threat ? which we won?t name to avoid spoiling it ? passed that we realised that our eyes were stinging due to lack of blinking.

A major drawback of most iPad and iPhone games is that they fail to make the most of the touchscreen interface or try to shoe horn in an ineffective d-pad. Point and click games seem like an assured win for touch-screens however, so Sword and Sworcery is a natural fit. It doesn?t limit itself to the conventions of the genre though, using screen-tilting mechanics regular switches from landscape to portrait to keep things interesting. In landscape mode you?re able to move around with your sword and shield equipped, while turning to portrait position opens your Megatome ? a combination spell book and help guide.


Sword and Sworcery isn?t all hard-core art-game, however ? there are points of genuine humour and awesome subtlety. At one point, for example, you have to travel into your dreams to find a lost key, which involves following a bear which dances like Ricky Gervais in the Office. It?s a moment which, like the game as a whole, feels beautifully surreal and yet oddly poignant.

Verdict: Sword and Sworcery could be a landmark in history of mobile gaming, proving to be the first title we?ve seen on the iPad platform which so wonderfully blurs the line between gaming and ambient art. Pensive, intelligent and wonderfully rich, you can feel the deep love and adoration for gaming that has gone into this project and it shines from its every pixel.

Superbrothers: Sword and Sorcery EP is developed by a whole host of talented artist and is available for the iPad via the AppStore.

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Weekend tech reading: US gov't reveals plan for Internet ID

A government plan for IDs to replace online passwords The Department of Commerce introduced a plan Friday for a system of Internet IDs that could replace passwords and simplify secure transactions online. The plan calls for the federal government to encourage the development of these new IDs and make sure they conform to certain standards. The idea is that the current system of authentication online passwords, mostly just doesn't work very well. WSJ

BRICS credit: Local currencies to replace dollar Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - the BRICS group of fastest growing economies - Thursday signed an agreement to use their own currencies instead of the predominant US dollar in issuing credit or grants to each other. The agreement, the first-of-its-kind, was signed at the 3rd BRICS summit here attended by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, China's Hu Jintao, Brazil's Dilma Rousseff, Russia's Dmitry Medvedev and South Africa's Jacob Zuma. The Economic Times

First test results of AMD Radeon HD 6570, 6670 Entry-level low-cost systems available, offering recently prepared for the model of the Radeon HD 6450, AMD within the next week (19 April) product line, the new graphics chip, code-named Turks Radeon HD 6570 and Radeon HD 6670 models use the add. Radeon HD 5700 series Radeon HD 6700 family, under whom he re-positioned for the DirectX 11 graphics cards in various details regarding the technical specifications and we reached the first test results. Donan?mHaber (translated)

Best Buy to chop down sizes of largest retail stores The world of retail electronics has changed drastically over the years. It used to be that most people were going to retail stores to make a purchase. Today, many people go into a retail store to see how a device works and research an item, then go home to purchase it online. The reasons for this are many, but much lies with the lower price that many gadgets can be found for online. DailyTech

Neuroscience: Brain buzz Last year a succession of volunteers sat down in a research lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico to play DARWARS Ambush!, a video game designed to train US soldiers bound for Iraq. Each person surveyed virtual landscapes strewn with dilapidated buildings and abandoned cars for signs of trouble a shadow cast by a rooftop sniper, or an improvised explosive device behind a rubbish bin. Nature News

The World's Biggest Pac-Man game takes over the internet, your life It's officially the weekend, which means you've got two choices: one, mimic iTr3vor and toss up a YouTube video of yourself dancing in an Apple Store, or two, blow your own mind with the magic of HTML5. In between hour-long Pica-Pic sessions, we'd recommend killing time in The World's Biggest Pac-Man game... Engadget

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Blog - Waves 'n' Wobbles

Gaming 24 - A Lovely Battlefield

Gaming 24 - A Lovely Battlefield

Posted on 10th Apr 2011 at 10:21 by Podcast with 18 comments

Battlefield 3, Portal 2, Alice: Madness Returns and Crysis 2 - those are the topics of conversation this week. We also discuss why StarCraft II is awful, and why Clive thinks Shogun 2 is 'lovely,' rather than 'awesome.'

This week sees bit-gamer regulars Joe, Clive and Paul joined by a fresh face too; our new intern David Hing was brave enough to both lend us his vocal cords and sit opposite Harry this week. That boy has guts!

As well as the usual rants and discussions, the podcast also features the regular competitions and reader mail slots. We've got a new prize up for grabs this week too - a Speedlink Strike FX Wireless Gamepad, kindly provided by Speedlink - so listen in for your chance to win.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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