bounce down the dark until it hits the floor

Valve is now telling us that the long-anticipated "Meet the Pyro" video for TF2 will be released...soon. Or at least...at some point. Some point relatively...soon.

Maybe.

[Edit before posting: They weren't kidding! It's been released! Wooo!]

Kotaku runs a "fake gamer" of the week post every now and again, and for the most part, they're just found images put out by retailers or game companies to push some game or other. Most of the time they're at least mildly diverting, but this one I thought was just hysterical. Poor thing--it must be hard growing up without a couch.

If you like the BioShock games, and you like the idea of playing Little Big Planet in a more portable way--you'll want to look into pre-ordering it to get your very own Little Big Daddy and Little Big Sister costumes.

And this is just priceless:

"We never told it during the training, 'This is a cat,'" said Dr. Dean, who originally helped Google design the software that lets it easily break programs into many tasks that can be computed simultaneously. "It basically invented the concept of a cat. We probably have other ones that are side views of cats."

Teach a computer algorithm to interpret data, and the first thing it reaches for is a lolcat. How appropriate.

But it's deeper and richer than that, if you break it down: Google's researchers are attempting to learn more about how our brains work, and process data, by inventing a synthetic brain to do the same thing. They filtered its experience through YouTube, as one of the wider data channels on the net, and--on its own--this synthetic brain began to search for amusing cat videos. They didn't teach it to follow any specific data path. They just rigged it, set it in motion, then let it loose on the internet to learn.

And the first thing it learned was to identify and understand a cat. I'm thinking of all those Dick and Jane books that were used to teach children to invent the concept of language and understanding in written form. To grasp a thing, after all, we must first be able to perceive it.

These researchers have taught their synthetic brain to perceive cats. I'm dying to know what it chooses to learn next.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with an interesting City of Heroes bio--sadly, the gentleman in question left before I could snap a pic. He was a big guy, dressed all in black, with long black hair. His name? "Luscious Mary". Here's his bio:

Description: RP Any
Walk up friendly
Tell friendly

Real Name: Kent Summers

Day Job: Activist, Artist, mostly known for artwork with highly suggestive religious themes. His most famous piece "Raptured Madonna" a.k.a "Luscious Mary" has every religious zealot trying to get him banned from just about everything.

TS: Army of me

Dislikes: Those who sit on the sidelines, religion, magic hokem (but likes magic magical creatures; go figure), those who manipulate and control (you know who you are)

Likes: Art, Literature, Alcohol (alcoholic), Fire (pyromaniac, secretly wishes he was a fire tank, usually carries a mixture of napalm and greekfire), strong minds, those who expose the truth. Way less Zen then he thinks he is...

I actually adore that there's an explanation to go with the name. Full points, sir, for innovation. Carry on.