6 replies to this topic

[Durandal]

Well folks, it's been a while since my last 24 hour stream, and so we are going to be doing this again! So, here's what you need to know:

Where: The stream will be going at my Twitch channel, located at http://twitch.tv/watcherrat

When: May 7th (Saturday) starting around 10pm EST - we'll be going a full 24 hours, barring emergencies or technical difficulties!

Why: Our efforts will be, once again, supporting the Extra Life Charity - http://extra-life.org ). Extra Life supports the Children's Hospital Miracle Network, helping them buy new technology, provide research grants, and assisting families who can't pay their medical bills. Last year, the MWO community helped me and several others (Gimpy, Orcryst01, and more) raise thousands of dollars collectively for this great cause, and this year we need your help again.

And what's in it for me!? Well, as always, I'm going to be amassing giveaways for people who are joining me in the stream for the day. I'll have a few mech packs, premium time, and Steam codes for sure, and hopefully more by the time we get to the 7th. I'm still gathering stuff to give away to viewers, and I'll post a full list of what I have to give away when we get close to stream time!

Neat! How can I donate before the stream goes live? Well, my Extra Life page is ALWAYS accepting donations. You can find it right here: https://www.extra-li...cipantID=196454 - any and all donations towards this cause are always highly appreciated! And remember, if you're a US Citizen, this is a tax deductible donation, so you get some perks (for non-US citizens, I'm not sure if your governments give you a break - check your local tax statutes).

Oh yeah, what are you playing? Well, I'm posting here, so it'll be another Day of Mechs, of course! The MWO community has proven to be highly supportive of charitable efforts, with streamers like myself, Gimpy, RJBass, Orcryst01, Impy, and more all seeing your generosity first hand. There's no community I'd rather spend the day with, so I hope to see you all there!

Anyway, look for an update post when we get closer to stream day as a reminder, and I'll see you all there!

Edited by Durandal, 23 April 2016 - 05:13 AM.

[Durandal]

As an update, Tina at PGI got back to me and we have some great giveaways secured for this now! I'm providing a series of Steam game codes for people to enjoy, and Tina gave me some 24 hour premium codes, some 500 MC codes, mech bay codes, and two mech packs - a Phoenix Hawk standard and collector's edition! I'll likely add to that list before the stream with some other items, but it's that much more incentive to come join us

[Durandal]

Well hey again! We're just a few days away from go time, so I figured I'd give some more info on exactly what Extra Life does. I mentioned before that the charity helps provide funds towards things like research grants, helping pay medical bills, and buy technology, but what does that mean?

Well, the past few years, a lot of the money raised by Extra Life has gone into a new technology, the Magnetoencephalography Brain Imaging device (often called MEG for short). Magnetoencephalography is a non-invasive technique for investigating human brain activity. It allows the measurement of ongoing brain activity on a millisecond-by-millisecond basis, and it shows where in the brain activity is produced.

How does MEG work?

At the cellular level, individual neurons in the brain have electrochemical properties that result in the flow of electrically charged ions through a cell. Electromagnetic fields are generated by the net effect of this slow ionic current flow. While the magnitude of fields associated with an individual neuron is negligible, the effect of multiple neurons (for example, 50,000 – 100,000) excited together in a specific area generates a measureable magnetic field outside the head. These neuromagnetic signals generated by the brain are extremely small—a billionth of the strength of the earth’s magnetic field. Therefore, MEG scanners require superconducting sensors (SQUID, superconducting quantum interference device). The SQUID sensors are bathed in a large liquid helium cooling unit at approximately -269 degrees C. Due to low impedance at this temperature, the SQUID device can detect and amplify magnetic fields generated by neurons a few centimeters away from the sensors. A magnetically shielded room houses the equipment, and mitigates interference.

What are the advantages of MEG?

MEG has advantages over both fMRI and EEG. The technologies complement each other, but only MEG provides timing as well as spatial information about brain activity. fMRI signals reflect brain activity indirectly, by measuring the oxygenation of blood flowing near active neurons. MEG signals are obtained directly from neuronal electrical activity. MEG signals are able to show absolute neuronal activity whereas the fMRI signals show relative neuronal activity, meaning that the fMRI signal analysis always be compared to reference neuronal activity. This means that MEG can be recorded in sleeping subjects. MEG does not make any operational noise, unlike fMRI. While fMRI measurement requires the complete absence of subject movement during recording, MEG measurement does not, so children can move their heads within the MEG helmet.

Finally and most importantly, MEG provides us with temporal characteristics about brain activation with sub-millisecond precision, whereas fMRI measurement provides poor temporal information. MEG provides also more accurate spatial localization of neural activities than EEG, a complementary method of recording brain activity. The I-LABS MEG Brain Imaging Center system allows co-registration of EEG and MEG.

Overall, it's an important piece of diagnosis machinery that can help save a lot of lives. The problem? To purchase and remodel a hospital to accommodate this machine can cost upwards of USD$4 million right now, quite the hefty bill. That's one of many reasons why we're streaming for Extra Life, since every dollar that comes in can help take a bit of money off of that tab. Since 2008, we've raised millions of dollars together (USD$6.1 million in 2014, and over USD$6.5 million in 2015 alone), and this year we can do even better. So please, tune in, help us out, and know that your efforts will go toward a good cause!

[Durandal]

Well folks, it's almost time...less than 24 hours to go before we're streaming!

So, want to see the prize list? Here it is! https://docs.google....n0q05W2GHw/edit

Big thanks to PGI and the folks at Humblebundle.com for providing our giveaways for this 24 hour stream!

[Scout Derek]

Hey, would you be willing to be allowing anyone to play with you when you're streaming?

[Durandal]

Scout Derek, on 06 May 2016 - 07:53 PM, said:

Hey, would you be willing to be allowing anyone to play with you when you're streaming?

Of course! I will be on the NGNG Teamspeak server all day! We'll probably be doing sync drops most of the day, but may do some group stuff from time to time too. You can join the conversation at ngngts.com:9992 - password: mechwarrior

I'll need the company to keep me active, so you drop in as much as you want!

Marack Drock the Unicorn Wizard, on 06 May 2016 - 08:04 PM, said:

Hey Durandal is there anyway I can donate prizes to you to help? I will be donating to the charity as well but I want to donate some prizes so as to help raze a little awareness and offer something for you and others as well.

Absolutely! Anything you want to donate to give out to people, you can send directly to me via my Twitch messages (I'd say email, but I don't like listing my email on a public thread ). Just go to http://twitch.tv/watcherrat and send a private message there. If your Twitch login is different than your MWO name (I imagine it is), just make sure to tell me your in-game name so I can give you a proper shoutout.

If you don't have Twitch, or don't want to set it up for some reason, you can also leave it on my twitter: @DurandalRAI - I'll be checking messages and such before the stream begins.