User:Paskari

Hello this is a work in progress. I'm hoping to do all my research on this site, such that other students may benefit from my findings, and hopefully, they can help me as well

I am doing my PhD research in the field of artificial intelligence, most specifically pertaining to Neural Plasticity

About me

 * I like visiting foreign countries such that I can learn to say 'I love you' in different languages
 * I like going to parties with few women such that when I don't pick up I can claim that there were no girls there
 * I like waking up with a hangover and claiming that I am never drinking again.
 * I like picking up a chic from a club, brining her home, then immediately scheming on how to 'pick up chix'
 * I like shooting down girls that are clearly interested in me then crying about it the next day

You twat!!

Wiki Pet Peeves
Here is a list of things that really pisses me off on certain wiki pages
 * 1) pages with no pictures whatsoever
 * 2) pages with too high a level of language
 * 3) pages where the train of thought is hard to follow

Journal Pet Peeves

 * 1) I hate scholars who purposely use big words like 'ambidextrous' knowing plain well no one knows what that word means
 * 2) I hate scholars who use synonyms interchangably and without warning, for example : Neuron, Nerve cell, cell, nerve, or simply applying an action to it such as "the Sodium ion moves against its electrochemical gradient"
 * 3) I hate scholars who push printers to their limit by making the text as small as humanly possible
 * 4) I hate scholars that turn reading into carpet weaving by placing adjacent lines so close to eachother, that one could not fit a pubic hair between them
 * 5) I hate how MIT actually expects me to dish out $10 US just for one of their pointless papers.
 * 6) I hate how scholars exploit acronyms to the state of statutary rape: "Electronic stimulation of SCs, in the presence of the GABA type A (GABAa) elicit inward currents of NG2..."
 * 7) I hate journals that start with 'we now have more knowledge on this subject...' well clearly you don't have enough fuckin knowledge to finish the research
 * 8) I hate how journals list the bibliography alphabetically, but then make references to collections of papers chronologically.
 * 9) I hate journals that use fancy dancy words like 'spatio-temporal' when 'time and space' would work just as well
 * 10) Fnally, I hate scholars who try to paint a pretty picture about how Jane goodal discovered some interesting attributes of monkeys, and you're trying to incorporate that into your journal, and I think that's great, and your parents must be really proud, but I don't give a fuck.

Things that bother me on a general basis

 * 1) People who send me an e-mail with 37 pictures which I have to first scan for a virus, then manually save it
 * 2) When a girl tells me she isn't stubborn but then stubbronly defends her position
 * 3) Clubs that play hip hop...get over it
 * 4) People who are cheap
 * 5) How windows takes 10 minutes to boot, but a mac only takes 15 seconds
 * 6) How people are so indoctrinated that they think it's normal to purchase a new copy of MS Word every time MS dishes out a new crappy OS
 * 7) People who are intolerant of other people's culture
 * 8) The Dutch

Companies that have driven me insane

 * 1) Sky satellite: they make me enter a pin every time I want to watch a PG13 movie
 * 2) BT internet: I get about 16 Kbps...if I wanted dial up, I would of opted for it
 * 3) HSBC: how hard is it to mail my card to my home address?
 * 4) Easyjet: why are the queues longer than at the DMV?
 * 5) For your eyes only: how hard is it to give me a lap dance?

School
I am a first year PhD student at the University of Southampton in the department of Electronics and Computer Science. I am studying artificial intelligence, but my main area of research is in Biologically inspired plasticity in a silicon cortex.

I receieved my undergraduate degree at York University in computer science in 2006.

Studies
I am currently involved in a project with the University of Manchester, creating a multichip computer called Spinnaker. We are hoping to model biological plasticity on a silicon cortex.

Motivation
I wanted to create this page for several reasons: I am hoping to put together enough knowledge into this site, and get enough feedback from other people, that will allow me to better model neural plasticity on a computer
 * 1) The wiki mark up language is incredibly powerful.
 * 2) I am hoping other people will guide me in my studies
 * 3) Notebooks lack the concept of a link
 * 4) I'm hoping a hot older women were stumble across this site and take an interest in me

Goal
main article My PhD requires that I build a computer with the following attributes
 * models virtual neurons
 * neuronal interaction carried out by virtual synapses
 * virtual NGF ensures plasticity of neurons

Report 1
What is plasticity in Biology Biological plasticity is the ability of an organism to adapt its biological structure to conform to certain environmental changes. Determining what causes this adaptation has proven to be nontrivial, even with the recent advances in biology and neuroscience. This paper will discuss some of the models which have been proposed for the plasticity of the human brain, as well as different computational models. Full Report

Report 2
In this second report I have to present a biological model which I can map onto the spinnaker project. The model has to be chosen from one of the options below:
 * an insect
 * a simple animal
 * a specific region of an animals brain

any help anyone could give would be greatly appreciated Full Report

Report 3
In this report I will be focusing more on the LGN (Lateral Geniculate Nuisance) since that is where my project seems to be headed. As it turns out we have a case of The Three Bears; the retina is too simple and too well documented, the Visual Cortex is too complicated and completely unchartered, the LGN is just right. Unfortunately the LGN is also the biggest pain in the ass since there isn't enough documentation on it. As a side project I will also create a report on the visual pathway to get a better understanding of how the visual pathway operates, I shall call it Reportex Maximus

Full Report

Reportex Maximus
This is just my pitiful attempt to remove some of the clutter of the visual pathway since books are so poor at doing it.

Full Report

Happy Hippo report
A look at the hippocampus at it's affect on geopolitics pertaining to the current Israeli-Arab conflict

Full Report

Mini Thesis
Just writing some notes as I go along researching for my mini thesis Full Report

Letter to the BT
I am fuckin sick and tired of BT providing the worst fucking service in the world. BT Letter

Cities I've visited
Abu dhabi Amsterdam Aswan Athens Barcelona Baku Bonn bordeaux Boston Brussels Buffalo Cairo Cancun Cannes Colon/Koln Corfu/Keykyra Dallas Dubai Dusseldorf Edinburgh Edmonton<P> Frankfurt Geneva<P> Gothenberg<P> Hamburg<P> Havana<P> Ibiza<P> Interlock<P> Istanbul<P> Kelowna<P> London Los Angelas Las Vegas<P> Luxor<P> Maine<P> Manchester<P> Mauii<P> Miami<P> Milan<P> Monte Carlo Montreal<P> New York city Nice<P> Orlando<P> Ottawa Paris Pheonix<P> Phillidelphia<P> Puerta Vallerta Rome Seatle<P> Sharm El Sheikhe<P> Skagway Southampton<P> Tehran<P> Thessaloniki<P> Toronto Varadero<P> Venice<P> Washington Winchester<P> Zanzibar (the strip club)

pages to create images for
Supervised learning

Books
here is a list of books I have recently read (updated regularly) in order of preference
 * 1) Confessions of an Economical Hit Man (John Perkins)
 * 2) Freedom Next time (John Pilger)
 * 3) Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World (Noam Chomsky)
 * 4) The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East (Robert Fisk)
 * 5) In Search of Enemies (John Stockwell)
 * 6) Praetorian Guard (John Stockwell)
 * 7) Rogue States (Noam Chomsky)
 * 8) Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (Noam Chomsky)
 * 9) Imperial Ambitions (Noam Chomsky)
 * 10) Failed States (Noam Chomsky)
 * 11) Rogue States (Noam Chomsky)
 * 12) Perilous Power. The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy ((Noam Chomsky and Gilbert Achcar))
 * 13) Getting Haiti Right This Time (Noam Chomsky)
 * 14) Government in the Future (Noam Chomsky)
 * 15) Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden (Steve Coll)
 * 16) Media Monopoly (Ben Bagdikian)
 * 17) The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (Daniel Yergin)
 * 18) Imperial America (Gore Vidal)
 * 19) A Man Without a Country (Kurt Vonnegut)
 * 20) The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ (Sue Townsend)
 * 21) The New Rulers of the World (John Pilger)
 * 22) Interventions (Noam Chomsky)
 * 23) Middle East Illusions (Noam Chomsky)
 * 24) Perpetual War for Perpetual peace: How we Got to be so Hated (Gore Vidal)
 * 25) Decline and Fall of the American Empire (Gore Vidal)
 * 26) The American Presidency (Gore Vidal)
 * 27) The American Presidency (Gore Vidal)
 * 28) The Decline and Fall of the American Empire (Gore Vidal)
 * 29) Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media(David Edwards, David Cromwell)
 * 30) Power and Terror: Post 9-11 Talks and Interviews (Noam Chomsky)
 * 31) Dreaming War : Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta (Gore Vidal)
 * 32) The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (Sue Townsend)
 * 33) The Trial of Henry Kissinger (Christopher Hitchens)
 * 34) The Missionary Position (book) (Christopher Hitchens)
 * 35) No One Left to Lie to (Christopher Hitchens)
 * 36) The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins)
 * 37) Mr. Galloway Goes to Washington (George Galloway)
 * 38) The Case Against Israel (Michael Neumann)
 * 39) The Politics of Anti-Semitism (Alexander Cockburn)
 * 40) Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (Jimmy Carter)
 * 41) Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
 * 42) The End of Oil: The Decline of the Petroleum Economy and the Rise of a New Energy Order (Paul Roberts)
 * 43) China Inc.: The Relentless Rise of the Next Great Superpower (Ted Fishman)
 * 44) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (Noam Chomsky)
 * 45) Globalization and Its Discontents (Joseph E. Stiglitz)
 * 46) On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency (Mark Hertsgaard)
 * 47) Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and Its Triumphs (John Pilger)
 * I, Claudius (Robert Graves)
 * 1) Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell)
 * 2) Iraq Confidential (Scott Ritter)
 * 3) Chain of Command (Seymour Hersh)
 * 4) The Twelve Caesars (Suetonius)

Still haven't finished reading these
 * 1) Born to Steal: When the Mafia Hit Wall Street ( Gary Weiss)
 * 2) How Companies Lie: Why Enron is Just the Tip of the Iceberg (A.Larry Elliott)
 * 3) Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution (Chrystia Freeland)
 * 4) The Classical World: An Epic History of Greece and Rome (Robin Lane Fox)
 * 5) Ten Days That Shook the World (John Reed)
 * 6) What's This India Business? Offshoring, Outsourcing and the Global Services Revolution (Paul Davies)
 * 7) Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: volume 1 (Edward Gibbon)
 * 8) The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11 (David Ray Griffin)
 * 9) In the Shadow of War: United States Since the 1930s (Michael S. Sherry)
 * 10) The Assasin's Gate: American in Iraq (George Packer)
 * 11) A Bright Shining Lie (Neil Sheehan)
 * 12) House of Bush, House of Saud (Craig Unger)
 * 13) Chomsky on Anarchism (Noam Chomsky)
 * 14) Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson (Gore Vidal)
 * 15) The Samson Option (Seymour Hersh)
 * 16) The Gas We Pass (Shinta Cho)

Suggested Papers
Letter to the editor<BR> Neural Networks and Physical Systems (Hopfield)