LOTR: ROTK: EE

All I want for Christmas is my final boxed set, my final boxed set ... see the trailer here. The movie includes an additional 50-minutes of movie!

LOTR: ROTK: EE

All I want for Christmas is my final boxed set, my final boxed set ... see the trailer here. The movie includes an additional 50-minutes of movie!

Lying is hard work

Wired News is reporting that a study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has found that the brain works harder when lying instead of telling the truth. The researchers found seven areas of the brain that activated with lying and only four with truth telling.

Secrets of the Y Chromosome

   I read this Discover Magazine article this morning on the subway. Below is a summary that doesn't do it justice.
   The Y chromosome is unlike other chromosomes. It doesn't have a matched pair. In the process of meiosis to create a sperm, the X_m and Y chromosomes separate in anaphase -- likewise in the creation of an egg, the two X_f chromosomes separate. Our high school biology tells us that the possible outcomes for the child are two X_fY and two X_fX_m. Over generations, the X chromosomes get pretty mixed up in the genetic pool as the offspring gets one from both parents. The Y chromosome in contrast, remains unchanged and gets passed on from father to son. The only changes come from mutations each man provides to the Y chromosome he has received from his father. In fact, the Y chromosome of each man today, is thought to be 99.99% the same as the one carried by 'Adam' who left Africa about 50-60,000 years ago. (Similar work done on mitochondrial DNA -- DNA that's passed down from mother to daughter -- traces 'Eve' back to Africa as well, to around 50,000 years ago.)
   Mutations in DNA that are neutral, doing neither harm nor good, simply accumulate over time in the genome, being passed on from one generation to the next. A mutation that is common in a group of people therefore indicates that they have a shared ancestor. The small mutations each man provides his Y chromosome then, acts as a genetic marker, recording the human species migration pattern across the planet over time. Going back to our roots in Africa, we can now trace our migration using the genetic markers. 50-60,000 years ago, we left Africa for the grasslands of Central Asia. From there, we branched out about 30,000 years ago -- one branch heading to Western Europe, the other for the Altai Mountains of western Siberia and western Mongolia. Roughly 10,000 years later, the group from Siberia/Mongolia branches, with some heading across the Bering Strait to North America. Then, just under 1,000 years ago, the original branches meet, as Europeans arrive in North America.
   The mutations at the single-nucleotide level on the Y chromosome occur rarely and provide the big picture view of migration patterns, spanning thousands of years. The smaller, more frequent mutations however -- those that occur on the microsatellite level -- the repetitious sequence of DNA that can change in the number of repetitions that occur from one generation to the next, such as CACACACA to CACACACACA -- provide a finer resolution to the migration pattern. It was this type of mutation for instance, that was used to profile Thomas Jefferson and prove that he had fathered a son by his slave, Sally Hemings, who's descendant was now living in Pennsylvania today. Looking at DNA samples collected from Central Asia at this fine a resolution, genetists found a pattern that repeated more often than expected. That led to a startling conclusion.
   In 1162, just east of the Altai Mountains, "a prodigious fornicator named Genghis Khan splashed into the gene pool like a cannonball." Genghis Khan has been quoted as saying, "Man's greatest good fortune is to chase and defeat his enemy, seize his total possessions ... use the bodies of his women as a nightshirt and support, gazing upon and kissing their rosy breasts, sucking their lips which are as sweet as the berries of their breasts." He is said to have continued campaigns into his sixties -- massacring and bringing home a new wife from each campaign. His harem was said to have had 500 wives. Genghis did two things in life apparently -- he killed and he copulated. He sowed his genes. His sons and grandsons ruled his empire and like Genghis, would have had all the opportunity to continue sowing his genes. One grandson, Kublai, was emperor of China. What the researchers had found in the repeated pattern, was Genghis Khan's Y chromosome. From a genetic perspective, Genghis is a success story. He remains with many today.
   Genetists are working against time. The migration trend of the past no longer holds true for the future. People move from region to region around the planet on a regular basis, and genetic history is quickly disappearing. The Human Genome Diversity Project is struggling to get off the ground due to misunderstanding and cries of exploitation. It's not that genetic diversity is disappearing -- far from it -- but the history of how the human population migrated across the planet is, another victim of globalization. Hopefully though, we'll come to realize that we're all the same, and all the mixing will create a global population with no colour. After all, we all came from a small gene pool some 60,000 years ago -- and genetically, we're almost identical to each other.
   For too much on this topic, see the links below:

The 1998 Expedition that collected DNA samples from Eurasia

African Origin of Modern Humans in East Asia: A Tale of 12,000 Y Chromosomes [PDF]

A Genetic Landscape Reshaped by Recent Events: Y-Chromosomal Insights into Central Asia

The Genetic Legacy of the Mongols

A Novel Y-Chromosome Variant Puts an Upper Limit on the Timing of First Entry into the Americas

Where West Meets East: The Complex mtDNA Landscape of the Southwest and Central Asian Corridor

Polynesian origins: Insights from the Y chromosome [PDF]

Reduced Y-Chromosome, but Not Mitochondrial DNA, Diversity in Human Populations from West New Guinea

Patterns of inter- and intra-group genetic diversity in the Vlax Roma as revealed by Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA lineages [PDF]

Hierarchical patterns of global human Y-chromosome diversity [PDF]

Founding Mothers of Jewish Communities: Geographically Separated Jewish Groups Were Independently Founded by Very Few Female Ancestors

Y-Chromosome Lineages Trace Diffusion of People and Languages in Southwestern Asia

Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Populations [PDF]

Genes, peoples, and languages [PDF]

An apportionment of human DNA diversity [PDF]

Reconstruction of human evolution: bringing together genetic, archaeological, and linguistic data [PDF]

Population genetic implications from sequence variation in four Y chromosome genes [PDF]

The Eurasian Heartland: A continental perspective on Y-chromosome diversity

Sedna? Quaoar? Planet X?

I got a question via email regarding a previous post I made on planet-like bodies beyond Pluto. Luke asks, "What's the deal on these discoveries of Sedna and Quaoar? Is it just Planet X repackaged?" In short, the answer is no. Sedna and Quaoar are quite real. For those who don't know, Planet X was first proposed back in the mid-19th century to explain the perturbations in the motion of Uranus -- then Neptune. Percival Lowell, an American astronomer, named it Planet X, and conducted extensive searches for it in the early 20th century -- to no avail -- although his images did record a faint image of Pluto, which wasn't recognized until Pluto's discovery in 1930. Some astronomers still hold out hope for a large planet, possibly several times larger than Earth, with a highly elliptical orbit that has taken it out to the farthest reaches of our solar system. This planet they suggest, can explain the appearance of long period comets that we see. Sedna, Quaoar and their ilk are far from Planet X however. They're more like Pluto -- not a planet. Their mass and orbit suggest that they may be the norm for the environment beyond Neptune. What this all goes to show us is, just when we, the general public, are getting comfortable with our own solar system, we realize that we really know just a little about it. It's huge, and possibly quite stranger than we thought it was. For more on this topic, check out the following:

The Size and Distribution of Trans-Neptunian Bodies -- Trilling, Allen, Brown, Holman and Malhotra [PDF]

The Planet X Saga -- from Bad Astronomy

Sedna? Quaoar? Planet X?

I got a question via email regarding a previous post I made on planet-like bodies beyond Pluto. Luke asks, "What's the deal on these discoveries of Sedna and Quaoar? Is it just Planet X repackaged?" In short, the answer is no. Sedna and Quaoar are quite real. For those who don't know, Planet X was first proposed back in the mid-19th century to explain the perturbations in the motion of Uranus -- then Neptune. Percival Lowell, an American astronomer, named it Planet X, and conducted extensive searches for it in the early 20th century -- to no avail -- although his images did record a faint image of Pluto, which wasn't recognized until Pluto's discovery in 1930. Some astronomers still hold out hope for a large planet, possibly several times larger than Earth, with a highly elliptical orbit that has taken it out to the farthest reaches of our solar system. This planet they suggest, can explain the appearance of long period comets that we see. Sedna, Quaoar and their ilk are far from Planet X however. They're more like Pluto -- not a planet. Their mass and orbit suggest that they may be the norm for the environment beyond Neptune. What this all goes to show us is, just when we, the general public, are getting comfortable with our own solar system, we realize that we really know just a little about it. It's huge, and possibly quite stranger than we thought it was. For more on this topic, check out the following:

The Size and Distribution of Trans-Neptunian Bodies -- Trilling, Allen, Brown, Holman and Malhotra [PDF]

The Planet X Saga -- from Bad Astronomy

Half Life 2 Case Mod

I'm impressed. Here is a case mod inspired by the Half Life 2 game.

Ctrl. Alt. Del.

I got this off Slashdot -- apparently the US Air Force is following the lead of the US Navy in giving Microsoft more than their PCs. They've struck a deal for a specially configured version of Windows for all their personnel, that will provide added security and reduce the problems of apply patches. Microsoft will administer automated patch updates for the Air Force. Doesn't the Air Force realize there is no such thing as a secure Windows platform? Hackers love to hate Microsoft. And Microsoft has already delivered a version of Windows that has automated patch updates capability -- it's called XP -- it just buggers things up royally when used.

Project Ornithopter

Leonardo Da Vinci dreamed up a flying machine in 1490. His was human powered. It inspired a great many people -- some of whom actually wanted to build a flying craft that achieved sustained flight by flapping its wings. A group of researchers from the University of Toronto are now trying to achieve just that -- building an engine-powered, piloted aircraft, and achieve flight by flapping wings.

Moon Eclipses Jupiter

Next week Tuesday, about an hour before dawn, the crescent Moon will eclipse Jupiter -- at exactly 3:53:57 EST to be exact. Jupiter will appear on the other side of the Moon at 5:00:21 EST. Don't bother waking up early, as the eclipse starts on the bright side of the crescent Moon, and will finish on the dark side. So waking up at 5AM to look at it is when you'll probably catch it. If you have a small telescope -- and have clear skies -- you'll be able to see three of Jupiter's moons. Callisto and Ganymede will appear before Jupiter does, and Europa will follow about 2 minutes after Jupiter appears. Check out this NASA site for more.

Artists?

Everybody is a friggin' artist these days -- and when you think that most supposed artists are 50% pretension and another 50% BS, well, why couldn't everybody be an artist? Well, everybody can't. Motorola however, doesn't care what I think. So they've proclaimed every one armed with a phonecam an artist, and are inviting them to display their art in the world's first phonecam art show -- on the internet. (OK, so I'm jealous that I don't have a phonecam!) [Thanks for the link Darren.]

Chicken Soup

   A couple of weeks ago, I was at Tim Hortons for lunch. I ordered their chicken noodle soup. It was shocking! I got two pieces of chicken! I quickly devoured it before anyone found out and confiscated my soup.
   I just imagined though -- at some other Tim Hortons, the manager was throwing a fit -- their piece of chicken was missing! Now their chicken noodle soup could no longer be safely called "chicken" noodle soup.
   The consequences I further imagined, flowed right back to Tim Hortons HQ, where an investigative committee is formed to find the missing piece of chicken. Eventually, they would narrow it down to a mistake one of their new chefs made. The culmination of the investigation would be punishment for the guilty. I could see a small Indian man, probably a doctor or nuclear scientist who couldn't find a job he was qualified for in Canada, being dragged to the middle of a warehouse as other Tim Hortons employees looked on. He would be sobbing protests and excuses in his native tongue. His shirt would be ripped from his back. He would be hauled up by the chains secured to his hands. The crowd would part to let the Tim Hortons official flogger through -- a giant, with troll like resemblance. The flogger would raise his whip, and the guilty chef would scream, "Aieeeee!" before the whip even struck him.

Thin Foil

   I just read this little blurb on Slashdot regarding the US e-enabling their passports. Apparently there are privacy concerns. The experimental chips chosen for the passports can be read from 30-ft. away -- which would be a boon for identity thieves. The proposed solution: wrap the passport in thin foil. ... OK, have you finished laughing yet?
   This got me thinking -- in a future of information ubiquity, where everything speaks to everything else, and personal information is constantly being exchanged for identification and authorization purposes, how does one fight identity piracy? I think the thin foil solution isn't such a bad idea. In the future, we will use embedded chips, biometric technology, various wearable computing devices, all connected via a personal area network, which in turn will communicate to the greater world of people and machines. Information silence would become the concupiscence for future society -- and a burgeoning market. Bauxite producing countries will enjoy a boom. Thin foil hats will become the fashion for society's malcontents, subversives and revolutionaries -- those that wish to kill the embedded chips from broadcasting their bank accounts, personal preferences and global position. Putting on a thin foil laced jacket for clubbing to protect one's modesty will be hip.
   Choosing when to share and what to share may not be the only times when one would want to wear a body glove of thin foil. There are those who will seek to take from you what you don't want to share. Call them body hackers or identity pirates -- phishing phreaks that wish to jack into you to hijack your digital personality for unscrupulous profits. These need not be the criminal types -- think of what corporations could do with the information on all their mindless consumers. If the criminal types are successful, you could build a global spanning record -- buying, authorizing, creating -- unknowingly being responsible for a chain of illegitimate transactions that fuel an underground economy. Your life could be destroyed. Your property foreclosed to pay your debts racked up in far off lands. Your spouse filing for divorce after it's found out where you've been spending all those 'overtime' hours -- and don't bother arguing; there will be location and biometric data to prove you were there and doing what you weren't doing. When law enforcement officials come breaking down your front door -- oh wait, that's not your front door anymore -- you'll welcome the respite and quiet prison life will offer.
   There is an alternative scenario -- another market for the nefarious minded. Virtual identity. When the future arrives, the sum of you will be data from your transactions and interactions with the machine world. How long will it be before someone clever creates entirely new identities, complete with histories, life but no physical existence? Want to buy a weekend as a high roller in Vegas? No problem. A quick download and you're ready to go. You'll be equipped with a multimillion dollar account, spending habits and a life of your design for the weekend. Ready made, with a 'best before' due date.
   The future is inevitable. This information dominant future seems inescapable. You may live multiple lives unknowingly -- live beyond your means and potential, even if just for a weekend, knowingly. You could be more than one person -- knowingly and unknowingly, without having multiple personalities. Or maybe multiple personality disorder will come to have new meaning. No matter what happens, remember, with thin foil, you have a choice. So the US government thinks anyway.

Metis Honour

I'm not sure how to take this tidbit of news -- today, Andy Scott (M.P. Federal Interlocutor for Metis, and Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development) and Paul DeVillers (Member of Parliament for Simcoe North) will be visiting the Historic Metis Community of Ontario. There, DeVillers will be receiving the Metis Nation of Ontario citizenship card -- becoming the first MP to be registered with the Metis Nation. Like I said -- I don't know how to take this one. For more information on this topic, see the links below:

Self-Government for Aboriginal People in Urban Areas [PDF]

The Nature of Metis Claims [PDF]

An Historical Introduction to Metis Claims in Canada [PDF]

Dog and Fire Hydrants

I'm trying a creative experiment on my forum. I'm trying to start a collaborative effort with my visitors, to write a story together. The way it works: each person adds a little to the story -- someone has to first start it -- based on what has been written before. I've left a picture I scanned from a magazine as inspiration. Drop by -- register -- and add your tidbit.

The Top Givers

My youngest tonight received a Joey & Toby Tanenbaum award at the University of Ryerson for Business Management. Over the years the Tanenbaums have given over Cdn$200 million to various causes. On the subway ride to work this morning, I was reading this week's cover article from BusinessWeek magazine: The Top Givers. It's the magazine annual report card on the top philanthropists in the US. The richest country in the world produces more philanthropists than Canada, and probably elsewhere in the world -- the magazine proudly proclaims that their top 50 donors [PDF] have given away US$65 billion in their lifetime. A noble achievement indeed, and something to be proud of. The Gates' top the list, having given away more than have their net worth thus far -- an amazing sum of US$27,976 million. No one comes close to Bill and Melinda Gates in giving. Last year alone, they gave US$3 billion to their foundation. The sentiments of Alfred Mann probably echoes those of the top philanthropists: "Money is only worth what you can do with it. Other than that, it's not worth a damn." For these philanthropists, solving today's problems is of more value than bequeathing their riches. Jansen and Katz of McKinsey have found that this is sound reasoning as well, as the present value of future donations drop dramatically.

As much as they give though, these top donors are in the minority. On average, the 1% richest people in the US have two-fifths of the country's wealth, but donate just 2% of their annual incomes each year. Those on the bottom of the income ladder however, give 6% of theirs. 20% of the richest estates leave absolutely nothing to charity. The wealth stays locked up and doesn't flow back into the economy. The article is quite an eye-opener. You may be surprised by who you find on the top 50 list and how they're donating their money. The sidebar article on the lower income givers is also a good read. There are a lot of good people in the world, along with the misers.

Kraft's Crash Diet

BusinessWeek has a short article on Kraft's 'crash diet.' The packaged food producer is huge, with 2004 expected sales of US$32.3 billion. It's accomplished this with the huge investments it has made in purchasing big name brands and bringing them into the fold. Its strategy however is starting to backfire. Competition from private label brands are take a big bite out of Kraft's earnings and its ability to charge premium prices. Kraft is partly to blame for oversaturating store shelves with variations of the same product -- I remember reading elsewhere that there are about 20 different types of Oreo cookies. The biggest problem for Kraft however, is Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is commoditizing packaged food. They're reducing varieties by only stocking the products with the greatest turns. Wal-Mart makes its money by moving volumes, not moving low quantities of niche products. So Kraft is retooling its brand strategy and selling off the low performers, deciding to stick with the giant brands that it intends to dominate with. This is a direct opposite move from the latest in marketing trends, which seeks to mass-customize products for consumers. Interesting.

Ontario Place and Exhibition Place

Great thing about Canada -- we talk. We're a great country for conversation -- wanting to discuss every issue, no matter how mundane. It should come as no surprise then that we have dusted the cobwebs off David Crombie and asked him, as Chair of Ontario Place and Co-Chair of the Ontario Place/Exhibition Place Steering Committee, to solicit public input into the vision for the two venues. Really, who has time for this? Well, public interest groups are bound to show up -- you can always count on a do-gooder with the public interest to come out of the woodwork. But the other groups that will likely try to make the talks their own are the business self-interest groups that are looking to dip their greedy hands into the public pockets. Let the conversation begin! If you've nothing better to do with your time, you can go and heckle both sides this afternoon at 3:30PM at the Atlantis Pavilions of Ontario Place. The Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation owns this process.

Today's Reading

Some reading that I did while ignoring weirdos on the subway today, included a few articles in BusinessWeek magazine, commenting on the state of business at a few of the large technology companies. Here they are:

To The Tech Giants Go The Spoils -- while IT spending is predicted to be low this year, the big tech companies are seeing stronger rise in revenues. What gives? Businesses are investing their limited dollars in the trusted giants and are shying away from the small players.

Getting Intel Back On The Inside Track -- Intel has seen its once firm grip on the chip industry erode due to a few missteps and the smart moves by rival AMD. How will Intel regain its dominance?

Will Solaris 10 Make Sun Shine Again? -- with the new release of Solaris, Sun is hoping it can resurrect itself once again. But is Sun really relevant in a space that's slowly being overtaken by Linux? Sun thinks so. They have the technology, but is the market willing to buy?

BEA: A Little Down In The Valley -- like Sun, BEA has great technology. Technology that's probably better than rivals from IBM and Oracle. Yet the company is losing market share, and some blame the technologist CEO, that sees little value in developing a strong Marketing arm.

Sears + Kmart

Just last week, BusinessWeek magazine's cover article was on Edward S. Lampert. The cover trumpeted the question: "The Next Warren Buffett?" Seems like Lampert can't do much wrong for the investment community -- as BusinessWeek suggests, "Lampert has become a brand unto himself." After taking control of Kmart from the bankruptcy, Lampert has squeezed the retailer until it coughed up US$3 billion. He accomplished this by selling off select Kmart real estate holdings and reducing the retailer to bare bones, survival level efficiency. In under two years, Kmart stock has increased by close to $100. With Kmart's cash hoard, Lampert is now purchasing Sears, Roebuck and Co. for US$11 billion. When the deal was announced last week, both Kmart and Sears stock rose -- the investment community signaling their approval. Combined sales of both firms will be US$55 billion, making it the third largest retailer in the US, behind Wal-Mart and Home Depot -- and kicking Target down to fourth place. The combined company will have 2,370 stores and with focused marketing, could grow. That's if Lampert wishes to be a retailer. If he simply wishes to turn Sears into an outfit to bankroll his future investments, we will see the slow demise of one America's trusted and long lived brands.

Spamusement

Spamusement -- why not? This site features poorly drawn cartoons inspired by spam subject lines. I don't know -- but I suppose it's better than reading spam.

My New Forum

Yes, blogging wasn't enough. Here's my forum -- again. I'm not sure what I want to do with this. The blog is more static, the forum should be dynamic. That's the idea anyway. Stop by, join, post, and it may become something. It's no fun having a conversation all by myself.

Encyclopedia Obscura

'Lurking in the shadows of pop culture -- so you won't have to.' That's the tagline for this site that collects the pop culture's garbage -- not just any garbage, but the garbage from the oft dismissed dump that caters to crap that are forgotten before they're even made -- crap, thanks to this site, that are now elevated posterity. There are sections that chronicles movies/tv, games, comics/books, toys, music and other weird stuff. Crap, yes. But what entertaining crap!

WMOB: The Wiretap Network

This one has got my curiosity. Let me quote directly from the site:

The Frank & Fritzy Show -- Girl problems. Mafia beefs. High blood pressure. A difficult boss. Listen to what's bugging two real-life New York gangsters in these secret FBI wiretaps. It's Seinfeld meets the Sopranos: a series about nuttin'.

It's funny! You can listen online or read the transcripts of the recording.

"Leaders in Action for Education"

It's a dumb title, but it's a title nonetheless -- the Peel Board of Education is kicking off a one-day conference today for middle and secondary school students at the Pearson Convention Centre in Brampton. The keynote speech will be given by Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire, who led UN operations in Sierra Leone in 1999, when the UN stood by and did nothing to stop the systematic rape, mutilation and murder of the civilian population. The conference focuses on the impact of war on children and education -- the aim is to teach students that they have responsibilities beyond their borders; raise awareness of their place in the world; and develop leadership skills. It's a great idea, but it's a one day conference. It will rely on teachers going back to the classroom and doing something about it. I have little hope. The little I have, I reserve for the few that will perhaps be impacted by the conference -- the few that will perhaps not forget when they get back to school tomorrow.

New Photos

I've placed some new photographs online. I took these a couple of weeks back. My wife and I were out and about. Click on the image to be taken to the gallery.

Dell sued over patent infringement

This is a funny one -- Dell is being sued by DE Technologies for infringing on a patent covering international transactions handled over a computer. That could potentially impact US$15 billion of Dell's revenues. The fact that the US Patent office granted a patent for the process of companies conducting international transactions is the scary part. Makes me wonder if I could apply for a patent of applying for a patent and then sue everyone who's applied for a patent, and get away with it.

Corn based DVD

Pioneer Corp. has developed a prototype of the next generation Blu-ray DVD, containing 87% natural polymer derived from corn and other biodegradables. The disc is coated with a 0.1mm layer of resin that makes it hard -- so while it can technically be eaten, it should probably be cooked first.

Taipei to Cloak City in World's Largest Wi-Fi Grid

Reuters reports that city planners of Taiwan's capital, Taipei, plan to cloak the city in the world's largest Wi-Fi grid by the end of 2005. The service is expected to cost US$4.50-US$12, about 25%-50% less than the cost of fixed-line broadband in the city. There are questions as to whether the service will really take off, as 80% of the city already has broadband internet service.

Museum of Bad Art

The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) -- Art too bad to be ignored. They claim to be "the world's only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms." I'm not sure if they're the only one, but they sure do have a lot of bad art.

SHECKYmagazine

Here's a site that takes comedy, the standup kind, seriously. It reports on the goings on in the comedy world. No jokes.

How to Survive the End of the Universe (In 7 Steps)

   I love the title of this article from Discover Magazine, written by Michio Kaku. It is adapted from his book Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos. The article is tightly packed with astrophysics -- so much so, that to really get it all, you either buy the book or research the details on the internet -- either option is tantalizing if you have the time and find the topic engaging. To begin with, back in 1998, astronomers concluded that the universe is open. It's expanding rapidly and the rate of expansion is increasing. Whatever is aiding the expansion has been label "dark energy" and "dark matter" -- dark, cause we can see it, but the math says it has got to be there -- or our models are wrong -- a possibility. To make matters (pun intended) worse, as the universe expands, there appears to be more dark energy present to make it expand faster. Current estimates from the WMAP analysis suggests that 73% of the universe is made up of dark energy, another 23% of dark matter and only 4% is made up of the stuff we know -- the stars, the planets, the gas clouds, etc.
   Eventually, the universe will run out. The density will be so low, that it will become dark, cold and lonely. The stars will flicker out of existence and the most advanced civilizations will have nothing but Hawking radiation from black holes to keep them warm -- and eventually, that will run out too. With temperatures hitting absolute zero, everything will die. Even the machines. That may be millions or trillions of years away. Before we reach that end, we will first have to survive ourselves here on planet Earth. Stop killing each other, the planet and cure all diseases. As well, we would have to be capable of interstellar travel in order to escape from our solar system 5 billion years from now when the Sun goes boom. If we survive all that and make it to the end of the universe, we'll want a way out, and the only place to go will be to another universe.
   Parallel universes was an idea Andrei Linde proposed, built from Alan Guth's inflationary theory. Linde suggested that inflation may not have been a singular event, but may have created a parent universe that spawned baby universes, each baby universe itself a parent universe that spawned other baby universes, and so on, in a never-ending cycle. To get from one universe to another, one would have to hop a ride through an Einstein-Rosen bridge -- a wormhole. This is not science fiction. Scientists are searching for evidence of parallel universes, perhaps existing no more than a millimetre or atomic distances away from ours.

The Seven Steps

(1) To get anywhere close to escaping the end of the universe, an advanced civilization will have to discover the laws of quantum gravity -- basically, find a theory of everything. The leading theory we have today is string theory or M-theory. String theory proposes that all subatomic particles are different vibrations on a tiny string or membrane that exists in higher-dimensional hyperspace. Our universe might therefore be a huge membrane hanging in 11-dimensional space, and could be one of many such membranes, existing enticingly close to each other -- and to get from one to another, we would simply have to find a bridge.
(2) Find a naturally occurring wormhole. The Big Bang released an incredible amount of energy -- this may have left behind all sorts of weird things, such as cosmic strings, false vacuums, negative matter or energy, and wormholes.
(3) Black holes may be another way of escaping the universe, and the good news is, there are lots of them. The bad news of course is the event horizon. While it is theoretically possible to pass through a black hole, we would have to learn a lot. One tantalizing prospect is that of a Kerr ring -- a mathematical proposal by Roy Kerr that a rapidly spinning black hole will collapse not into a singularity, but a ring due to centrifugal force. The possibility of a Kerr ring serving as an elevator shaft running through floors that are each a universe brings up interesting possibilities.
(4) Create a black hole in slow motion to study them, wormholes and space-time.
(5) Create a wormhole using negative energy/matter. In 1988, Kip Thorne and colleagues showed that by using negative energy/matter, a wormhole could be created to allow travel between vast distances. To do this, we would have to create negative energy/matter in vast quantities -- today, in the lab, the Casimir effect has produced detectable amounts of negative energy.
(6) Create a baby universe ourselves. The amount of matter required to create a baby universe isn't that much -- maybe a few ounces. The big problem comes in being able to force that matter into a small enough spot to create a false vacuum. Two options of doing this are: a) using powerful lasers -- although each laser would have to be powered by a nuclear bomb; b) use a cosmic atom smasher -- think of a particle accelerator with the diameter of our solar system.
(7) If we find out that only atom-sized particles could travel through a wormhole, a future civilization would have to send a nanobot through to recreate the entire civilization. Think of it as colonization the way Arthur C. Clarke envisioned it 2001: A Space Odyssey. The nanobot would have to be able to replicate itself, and then have stored in it, the DNA, personality and memory of every person alive in colonizing civilization.

For further exploration of some of the topics raised by this article, check out the links below:

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) -- analysis of cosmic background radiation

Dark Energy [PDF] and Dark Matter -- the stuff we can't see

Einstein-Rosen bridges [PDF] -- or wormholes

Alan Guth [PDF] -- inflation theory

Andrei Linde [PDF] -- extension of inflation theory; a review of the multiverse concept [PDF].

Gravitational Physics [PDF]

The Universe's Unseen Dimensions

Large Hadron Collider -- searching for exotic particles [PDF] that may indicate parallel universes in higher dimensions

Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) -- searching for gravity waves

Nikolai Kardashev -- classification of civilizations [PDF] based on their energy consumption

Roy Kerr -- mathematical possibility of a Kerr ring [PPT] from a rapidly spinning black hole

Kip Thorne -- creation of a wormhole using negative energy [PDF]

Hendrik Casimir -- the Casimir effect [PDF]

Artificial Fin

Fuji, a 34-year-old mother dolphin living in an aquarium in Okinawa, Japan, is now swimming and jumping like other dolphins after receiving an artificial fin from Bridgestone. Fuji lost 75% of her tail to a disease, and while she could still swim, it was slower and she was unable to jump. The artificial fin, which is only worn part of the day, allows her to have fully mobility.

MPAA Wants on Internet2

News.com is reporting that the MPAA has been slavering at the doors of the Internet2 consortium hoping for a place at the table, where they can influence and monitor illegal file sharing of movies on the network. Internet2 is an ultra-highspeed, next generation internet infrastructure that aims to deliver future applications and services, but is today used primarily for research. A DVD for instance could potentially make it across the network in 5-seconds. This is scary to the MPAA, and they're looking to sue someone.

Santa Claus Parade

The 100th Santa Claus parade will be held this Sunday in Toronto, but you can see Santa early. He will most likely be on hand at Nathan Phillips Square this afternoon (1PM) for the unveiling of an Ontario Heritage Foundation plaque, in recognition of 100 years of floats, bands and everything between being dragged through Toronto's streets.

Microsoft Warns Asian Governments of Linux Lawsuits

As reported in Slashdot, Ballmer has warned Asian countries that they could be sued for using Linux by Microsoft. Ballmer claims that Linux violates 228 Microsoft patents, but didn't give any details. This is too funny. Seems like Ballmer is an inexhaustible windbag.

Google's Keyhole

Google is offering a subscription service, called Keyhole, that proclaims itself as the "ultimate interface to the planet." What is it? Satellite imagery, allowing you to fly in from space, straight down to your house -- or visit places around the planet. In Toronto, imagery resolution is down to 0.7 metre. The highest resolution offered is down to 1 foot. A one-week, free trail is available. This service is for the ultimate voyeur.

Google Scholar

Google recently introduced Google Scholar, in beta. According to Google, its new service "enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research." Now where was this when I was in school?

Extreme Ironing

This site's welcome proclaims it to be the home of extreme ironing -- "the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt." I don't think much else needs to be said. Check it out.