Euro-Russian Spaceplane

ESA appears to be joining forces with Russia to develop the replacement the Russian Soyuz capsule. Soyuz has been serving the Russians, and recently the world, since 1966, and is expected to continue ferrying cosmonauts into space well into 2014, when it is replaced by the Kliper spacecraft. Kliper is being designed to ferry cosmonauts only, and heavy cargo lifting will remain the fare of rockets. Russia is looking to have Kliper in test flights by 2011, and ready for service in 2012. Right now however, they're looking for partners to fund the project. The Europeans, who do not have the capability to send passengers into space, are looking to partially own that capability with the Russian partnership.

With the grounding of the shuttle fleet, and the US recent announcement to abandon the aircraft concept for space vehicles, it looks like it is left up to private industry and the Russians to inspire future space explorers. Let's face it, a spaceplane is lot more cool looking than a just a capsule riding on a rocket.

Live Giant Squid Photographed

Japanese scientists have made the first recordings of a live giant squid. The giant squid, about 8 metres long, was found 900 metres below the North Pacific Ocean -- feeding at depths where no light penetrates. Previously, scientists have only gotten close to giant squids when they were snagged by ocean trawlers or washed ashore dead. Little is known about the creatures previous to this encounter. From these, the latest observations, it is suspected that giant squids are actually active predators, capable of rapid and powerful movement.

The recordings taken would have been a great hit with Jules Verne.

Evading Censorship in China

The Wall Street Journal is running an article on the cat and mouse game being played by the Chinese government, in their desperate attempts to maintain control over political discussions and news -- and the extent that the Chinese populace is going to have such discussions. China continues to impose new rules on controlling the discourse of their citizens -- from requiring ISPs and online services to monitor and report on their users, to installing cameras in Internet cafes and having bloggers register themselves in order to continue blogging activities. But that's not stopping the Chinese bent on talking online. They're avoiding government censorship using good old fashion bribery; using servers hosted outside of China; and speaking in code or using image files to distribute conversations. Try as they might, the world has become a smaller place, and China is smack in the middle of it; people need to be free, and they will find a way.

Don Quijote

ESA has begun studying a potential mission to send two spacecrafts to intercept a Near-Earth Object, impacting it, to change its orbit. The mission, dubbed Don Quijote, is a study mission to test technology and processes of preventing a natural disaster of an asteroid colliding with the Earth and killing us all. The current scenario being planned for the study mission, has two spacecrafts on separate interplanetary trajectories to the target asteroid. The first spacecraft, named Sancho, will arrive months early to orbit the asteroid and study it before and after the impact. The second spacecraft, named Hidalgo [title for a Spanish nobleman or knight], will be the impact craft sent to deflect the asteroid.

Web 2.0

Two magazines had articles announcing the impending arrival of Web 2.0 this month: Discover, and BusinessWeek. Web 2.0 refers to the web that yesterday's web is evolving to -- it hasn't quite gotten there yet, but already, we're seeing the signs of what is to come. Web 2.0 will be marked by the transition from a web that feeds consumption, to one that fosters participation. Gone will be the passive surfing for content -- the evolution will bring "sharing, socializing, collaborating, and, most of all, creating." Even the realm of online games, which yesterday harboured some interaction, will be revolutionized. New web services are popping up that will retire the passive web. The services allow web surfers to customize web sites -- tailoring content to be delivered and consumed; easier sharing of content created personally -- from blogs of every media, to rich media content; and the fostering of online communities, where content and ideas can be shared -- and relationships built. The revolution is not only impacting media producers -- it is also impacting technology companies and traditional manufacturing businesses. The open source concept is combining with software that allows easy assembly of applications (or services) to automate processes. This is driving tech companies to reinvent how they write software, how their users use their products, and how they should be licensed. Traditional manufacturers are faced with open source designs and the commoditization of complex components that could be manufactured anywhere to allow a customized product to be assembled.

For a lot of companies, this means that business models will have to evolve or they will run the risk of extinction. Not even the newly minted giants, such as Google, eBay or Yahoo! are safe. While formidable, there are many startups nipping at heels of the giants, wanting their turn at the top. For us, consumers, the future looks like a wonderful place. We could passively surf the web, and immerse ourselves in the available content -- or more likely, we'll become participants of the web, as that's where most of the fun will be.

From Beyond

I just finished watching the 1986 production of From Beyond -- based on an H.P. Lovecraft story [PDF]. The movie was surprisingly not bad for being an 80s horror flick. I expected a good deal of cheese to be smeared all over the production, and while there was some -- which had me wincing at times -- it was quite watchable. The effects were typical of the 80s horror movies. Monsters were rubbery and weren't cream-of-the-crop animatronics; the computers came out of the early 80s mainframe environment; there was an overuse and misuse of electricity to magically make things happen; and the gore -- well, the gore won't scare the pants off you, but there is a good deal of slim, dripping everywhere and a bit of fake blood. To top it all off, there was the obligatory throbbing skull, due to the pleasure centre of the brain being overly simulated by a machine a crazy scientist invented. And when the throbbing gets too much for the head to hold, protuberances emerge. What else can you ask for?

A story, that's what you can ask for. The entire movie seems to revolve around sex. There's the mad scientist, a Dr. Edward Pretorius, who seeks pleasure, but is apparently impotent, and can only get it up if there is some S&M involved. A Dr. Crawford Tillinghast, who just doesn't get out often enough, and lives in the shadow of Dr. Pretorius. A Dr. Katherine McMichaels, an obsessive, who will later serve as the sacrificial lamb for Dr. Pretorius' desires, much to Dr. Tillinghast's horror, as the poor boy falls in love. She will also have to dress up in a titillating leather outfit for no other reason than, because. A Dr. Bloch, who's so nasty, that you know someone just has to suck her brain out of her head through her eye socket. Add a police officer named Leroy 'Bubba' Brown, who's there only to be killed; some fish-like monsters that swim in the air and have some nasty dental work; and the monster from beyond that will take over Dr. Pretorius to prey on humans, and you have the makings of late night horror movie.

The story: Dr. Pretorius and Dr. Tillinghast are messing about with a machine called the "Resonator." The machine is supposed to simulate the pineal gland in the brain, and hopefully find the sixth sense. Things go horribly wrong when the machine actually works, and the sixth sense allows Pretorius and Tillinghast to see creatures from the beyond -- that's some other dimension for the layperson. The problem is, the Resonator also allows the creatures from the beyond to see Pretorius and Tillinghast. Bad news. The first thing the big nasty does is bite the head off Pretorius, and Tillinghast runs out of the house screaming. Tillinghast is arrested, and a shrink, Dr. McMichaels, is asked to attest to Tillinghast's sanity to stand trial for the death of his boss. McMichaels is unconventional -- much to the jealousy of Dr. Bloch, who had Tillinghast in her custody. Tillinghast is released to McMichaels, who convinces Tillinghast to recreate his experiment. He does -- and who pops out from the beyond? Pretorius. Only now, Pretorius is from the beyond. He's taken over, and like all monsters, they just want the girl. McMichaels has never seen horror movies, or she would know this. The monsters always want the girl. Tillinghast, being all in love now, will have to do battle with the evil Dr. Pretorius from the beyond, to win McMichaels' favours. As usual, horror ensues -- for our entertainment of course.

EinsteinFest

This is a bit of a public service announcement. Commencing this week, for the next four weeks, the Perimeter Institute is sponsoring EinsteinFest -- a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the "miracle year" -- the year Einstein published his ground breaking work in relativity and changed the world. EinsteinFest features public lectures, exhibitions, performances, and a whole bunch of other events. Most of the events are free -- and probably because of that, most of the more interesting lectures are already sold out. Nevertheless, if you have time, check it out -- you may rub shoulders with some real-life geniuses.

If you can't make it to the Perimeter Institute, you can catch some of their public lectures online. They have archived their lectures and seminars, and they are available.

[Linda -- thanks for picking up the brochure when you were out there.]

Of Movies

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut -- This is one hilarious movie -- but boy is it rude. It's rude beyond the point of being offensive. The movie takes the good taste filter off and amuses with humour that simulate the juvenile in us. Every now and again though, that little kid in us needs to be amused -- and this movie will certainly do that. If you're offended by the movie, it's because the adult in you is watching.

The Brothers Grimm -- This was an OK fantasy movie, moving at a good pace, with the appropriate level of action and humour. The special effects were well done -- and so was the cinematography. If you missed it in the theatre, you didn't miss much however. You can catch it on DVD.

The Aristocrats -- This is a movie about a joke. One joke. That's it. The delivery however -- now that was something else. The delivery was sick, sick, sick. This is an in-joke for comedians that have been numbed by jokes for us regular folk. The only thing it seems that is left for their amusement is this joke -- a joke that most are simply not prepared to hear. This was a vile, vile movie.

Update March 11/06
To see the South Park version of the joke, click here or here.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

I've seen this movie only once before -- on TV -- when I was young, and I thought I knew everything, so I didn't really paid much attention to it. So watching it today was really seeing the movie for the first time, all over again. This is a classic. A great film. A Stanley Kubrick film. An excellent comedy -- and commentary -- on the cold war era the movie was made in. It satirizes the fears and the absurdity of achieving peace through mutually assured destruction. For those who were not around during the cold war, and are simply unaware, this movie is the cream of your education.

In the movie, an American airbase general goes bananas, and directs his fleet of bombers to strike at their targets in the USSR. Once the order is given, there is no way to stop them -- the bombers went out of radio contact. The general wants to rid the world of the communist infestation -- their undermining and brainwashing of free countries everywhere. The general has some interesting theories of the commie invasion and the purity of bodily fluids. He is betting that the Pentagon will launch a full scale nuclear strike at the USSR -- because if they don't, USSR, which posses nuclear retaliation capabilities, will strike at the US once they've detected US bombers heading to Soviet targets. Into this situation, the president of the United States is thrust. Either go full scale with first strike, and in the process, lose about 20 million American lives -- or do the unthinkable -- call the Russians and say, "Oops!" Unfortunately, the "Oops!" is on the President -- as the Russians are in possession of a Doomsday device that will counteract by annihilating all life on the planet. (If you don't get that, don't worry -- it's part of the concept of 'mutual assured destruction' -- which itself is insane.

Peter Sellers pulls off masterful performances as a British captain on loan to the US Air Force, the President of the United States, and the former Nazi scientist, Dr. Strangelove. The other notable performances was by George C. Scott, as the sometimes raving General 'Buck' Turgidson, and Slim Pickens, as Major T.J. 'King' Kong, who gets to ride the bomb to the Ruskies. Sterling Hayden's performance as the psychotic Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper was frightening. He pulled it off so well, that one is left to wonder how far fetched the whole escapade really is.

One of the metaphors running through the movie is sex. (This is a PG movie, don't worry -- the kiddies won't get it.) The movie starts with a bomber and a refueling tanker engaged in mid-flight coitus. Then introduces General Jack D. Ripper, who falsely believes himself to be sexually powerful. He knows his strength lies in his bodily fluids however -- so while he is quite good with the women, he does not give them his bodily fluids, and doesn't lack energy after sex. General 'Buck' Turgidson -- ie. Turgid-son -- is portrayed as sex-obsessed -- in one scene, his mistress calls him at the Pentagon's war room, where the President is being briefed. Dr. Strangelove, got so excited at the thought of being part of rebuilding the species after the end of the world that he got out of his wheelchair and started to walk. The best however, was Major T.J. 'King' Kong, riding the bomb -- the biggest phallic symbol -- to the Russians.

Beyond Einstein: The Dark Side of the Universe

I attended Beyond Einstein: The Dark Side of the Universe tonight -- lecture 1 of 4, of the University of Toronto's Cosmic Frontiers series that celebrates 100 years of Astronomy at UofT. Tonight's speaker was Professor Rocky Kolb of Fermilab and the University of Chicago. The abstract of his lecture is as follows:

The discoveries of Albert Einstein rank among humanity's greatest achievements. His theory predicts the emergence of the universe from a big bang and the possibility that space itself has a "weight." Recent observations seem to confirm these amazing predictions. Yet, his theory cannot answer two profound questions:

what is the dark matter holding together our galaxy?

what is the dark energy pulling apart our universe?

The talk will discuss how connecting the inner space of the quantum and the outer space of the cosmos may complete Einstein's legacy and unlock new mysteries of the universe that await us "Beyond Einstein."

The lecture was a generalist lecture, that may stretch the imagination of some, enlighten others and confuse a good deal. The audience, based on the questions, didn't seem to be part of the latter. Which was good. I hate it when some extremely brave souls -- some would describe as stupid -- go up to the mic to ask about aliens and the impending invasion of the Martians. I've been to those lectures, and have come away embarrassed that speakers have traveled so far be insulted.

Tonight, Kolb introduced Cosmology, putting it in perspective to show the astonishing accomplishments of the last 100 years, and stimulate the imagination to the wondrous insights that will come our way in the next 100 years. He presented our current knowledge of the known and the known-unknown. We know only 5% of the universe -- the other 95% remains hidden in the aptly named dark matter and dark energy. I've seen the breakdown before, but his delivery, steeped in humour, will stay with me quite sometime. Kolb is a pretty good speaker. His humour is sometimes subtle, but mostly, it's in your face. To Einstein's admittance that his introduction of the cosmological constant to keep the universe static was his greatest "blunder" -- only to us now recognizing that the cosmological constant is the fudge-factor to explain the dark energy that is accelerating the expansion of the universe -- Kolb finds a lesson for all of us: "never admit to making a mistake." He goes on to say that if it wasn't for this admittance of a blunder, Einstein would have become quite famous. Kolb also used his perch to take aim at those who don't understand science or the scientific process, but in the security of their fate, remind us that science only speaks in theories. Let them speak of the theory of gravity he suggests, and take heart in their fate, especially when they're about to step off the edge of a cliff.

Altogether, it was a good evening -- time well spent. I look forward to the other lectures: Sept. 30th's Way Too Cool: Tales of Stellar Corpses; Oct. 14th's Quest for Other Worlds and Prospects of Life; and, Oct. 21st's In Search of the Cosmic Dawn.

For related reading, check out the following:

Evidence for Dark Matter [PDF] -- Rick Gaitskell

Alternative Dark Energy Models: An Overview [PDF] -- J.A.S. Lima

Candidates for Non-Baryonic Dark Matter [PDF] -- Nicolao Forenengo

Dark Energy: Overview of General Ideas [PDF] -- Friedrich Ropke, Matthias Stehle

Light Thoughts on Dark Energy [PDF] -- Eric V. Linder

Dealing with Dark Energy [PDF] -- Eric V. Linder

The Dark Energy Survey [PDF]

Dark Matter in Galaxies: Observational Overview [PDF] -- A. Bosma

The Search for Dark Matter -- And Overview [PDF] -- Firas Zenie

Cold Dark Matter Models [PDF] -- Scott Dodelson, Evalyn I. Gates, and Michael S. Turner

Stripes

I saw Stripes last night. It's been years -- over a decade I'm sure -- since I last saw it. The movie is a classic -- and will probably appeal to you if you were there when it first came out -- or if adolescent, frat-boy, silly humour, appeals to you. Made in 1981, Stripes is directed by Ivan Reitman, and stars who's who of comedy talent: Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, John Candy, John Larroquette and Judge Reinhold. There are other faces in the movie that will be recognized as well -- and for many of them, this was their debut movie. It's a great watch for nostalgic reasons -- seeing the actors, somewhat raw, before they honed their acting skills -- and for the memory lane trip that will make you want to watch the Revenge of the Nerds and National Lampoon movies -- as well as Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, and all the other classics.

In Stripes, Murray and Ramis takes on the US Army. The two are a couple of losers -- lazy -- with no direction in life, jumping from job to job and drinking too much. After they've seen one too many Army commercials, they sign up, but never take the Army seriously. They encounter two bubble-head MPs who seem to love losers, because the ladies immediately fall for the pair. Along with the other recruits, Murray and Ramis make life hell for the drill sergeant, who's job it is to make their lives hell. True luck more than anything else, the boys graduate, and are given babysitting duties of a state of the art RV that really is a sophisticated military vehicle. Their shenanigans don't end, as they drive from Italy to Germany to get laid -- have the rest of their company fall into Russian hands -- then pull off a rescue that makes them national heroes. Far from realistic, but good fun nonetheless. If you've never seen Stripes, or haven't seen it for a while, it bears watching ... it's good fun.

Fulla Doll

BrooklynKat over at Just to the Left, has posted a little story about the hottest doll for girls in the Muslim world. Instead of girls in the Middle East having to contend with "the anorexic blond-bimbo Barbie" -- they now have Fulla -- as anorexic as Barbie, but, with "Muslim values." Translation: Fulla knows her place in a man's world; in a Muslim world. She comes complete with a black abaya, head scarf and prayer mat -- and if she steps out of line, or catches the eye of a boy, she will be severely beaten, tortured and killed for dishonouring her doll line. Fulla is a Muslim doll for the ages.

Troubling Exits at Microsoft

BusinessWeek's latest features a cover article on the latest of the high profile exits from Microsoft. The competitive landscape for the best and brightest has always been a tough one for the technology industry. Microsoft has always played well in this field, trouncing its competition in acquiring the best minds. Lately however, it has dawned on Microsoft that it is no longer one of those nimble upstarts. It had become an entrenched giant, with serious turf to protect. This change in Microsoft has resulted in a company that critics claim, is bureaucratic and stodgy, lacking spirit, and stifling creativity and innovation. There has always been Microsoft critics -- but now those critics are coming from inside the hallowed halls at Redmond -- and Microsoft is having a near impossible task quieting the noise. Many of the critics blame Steve Ballmer for the latest woes -- but stop short of blaming Bill Gates. Ballmer in response, appears to be in denial. Makes you wonder what's up with the guy. He didn't even acknowledge that there are critics. I especially enjoyed his insanity that came clear in a Q&A with BusinessWeek. I've quoted the juicy bits below -- check out the questions, then the answers. It's like Ballmer appears to be on autopilot -- he's not even hearing the questions being asked. He's answering with "the message" and nothing else.

Two researchers at Microsoft wrote a paper for [Bill Gates] called "10 Crazy Ideas to Shake Up Microsoft." One of the things they say is that "a crisis is imminent" because of the growing bureaucracy and impediments to innovation. Do you agree?
  I think we have a great culture. It's a culture that encourages and fosters criticism, and constructive suggestions, and I love that about our culture. People criticize everything -- the way we do things, what we need to do in the marketplace, in our products, and lots of other things. That's a fantastic thing because it's only through that kind of strong culture that drives self-improvement, which is one of our core values, that we continue to try to get better.
  We certainly have the best pipeline of new innovation [over the next 12 months] we've ever had in our history. We obviously can always improve. We've set high expectations for ourselves. But, man oh man, have we got an incredible pipeline of innovation coming in the next year.

To be clear, do you think the point that the authors made in that paper is one that needs to addressed?
  If you take a look at where we're going with innovation and what we have in the pipeline, I'm very excited. Take a look at what we've done with [Windows] Vista and Office 12, both of which while we're sitting here, we've got about 8,000 developers [at Microsoft's Professional Developers conference in Los Angeles] who are fantastically excited by what those products are, not only as developers, but as end users.
  We have a wave of new things coming in the server and platform side: The new version of Visual Studio 2005, [and] SQL Server 2005 product comes later this year. If you look over the last few years, we've done nothing but build market share, both with .Net and with SQL Server. We outsell Oracle (ORCL ) and DB2 [IBM's database software] on unit volume combined, and it's because of the innovation in those products. And I can keep going through a number of areas.
  So, I think the output of our innovation is great. We have a culture of self-improvement. I know we can continue to improve. There is no issue. But at the same time, our absolute level of output is fantastic.

That's just a couple of choice bits -- the rest can be found online.

Google's Blog Search

The end of Technorati is near ... Google's Blog Search is here!

Scarecrow

Scarecrow is one hell of a stupid movie. The premise is an OK one for a slasher flick -- a typical tale of an underdog, someone different from the rest of the pack, who's picked on and ridiculed by his peers -- until he's had enough. In this case, it's a a high school kid, who lives with his mother in a trailer trash existence. His mom hops from one guy to another, and one day, one of them is pissed off, and chokes the little scarecrow to death -- in a corn field -- under a scarecrow. Magic happens and the high schooler's soul is transferred to the Scarecrow, who then goes about seeking revenge with sickles and corn with a decapitating effect.

The premise was OK -- but the execution sucked. The acting was brutal. The dialogue was brutal -- even when the movie was making fun of itself. The whole inbred, southern trailer trash effect was never exploited -- although the movie does exploit. I highly recommend this movie is you plan on getting stoned watching it -- you'll relate to the heavy use of recreational drugs in the movie.

Marathon of Hope

On April 12, 1980, Terry Fox started his cross Canada marathon of hope by a dip of his leg in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean at St. John's, Newfoundland. His plan was to do the same in the Pacific Ocean, at Vancouver, British Columbia. 143 days and 5,373 km later, he was forced to abandon his journey in Thunder Bay, Ontario, when the cancer reached his lung. He died on June 28, 1981, at the age of 22 -- a month shy of his 23rd birthday. In a short period of time, Terry Fox transcended the limitations of himself, inspired a nation and remains a constant reminder to the rest of us of what we can be, if we just try.

Simon Wiesenthal Dies at 96

Simon Wiesenthal died today in his home in Vienna, Austria. He was 96-years-old. Wiesenthal barely survived the horrors of concentration camps in Nazi Germany during WWII -- and after the war, dedicated his life to tracking down and persecuting Nazis. After the Nuremberg Trails, when the world lost the will to persecute Nazis that escaped Allied forces, Wiesenthal persisted. When some countries were harbouring and employing Nazis, Wiesenthal remained undeterred -- vocal. He found justice for those who never had any -- he did so that the world would never forget the atrocities that were committed by the Nazis.

Today, the world lost a hero. May he find peace -- for his part in the fight is now over.

How Important is IT?

Back in July, Baseline Magazine published a checklist for evaluating the importance of a firm's CIO, to her company. The checklist is based on the US DoD's Directive 5144.1 [PDF], which was issued in May. The directive details the accountability of the DoD's CIO -- basically elevating the DoD's CIO to an executive level within the DOD, charged with authority to make real decisions. It basically moved IT from an order taker, responding to the whims of the other divisions within the DoD, to a contributor to the overall success of the DoD.

Baseline condensed the DoD's directive into a nice Excel spreadsheet that asks 24 questions to quantitatively rank a firm's CIO. Granted the answers to the questions are pretty subjective -- and if you already have problems with IT's stature within your organization, you undoubtedly already know about them -- the spreadsheet does serve to point to some areas where you, as an IT dweeb, could contribute to raising IT's profile.

fractal spin

Check out Fractal Spin -- they hope to bring the computer geek out of you. They are a jeweller of sorts. They take old computer parts -- chips, cables, etc. -- and turn them into jewellery. How cool is that?! OK ... that's what I thought too. But, how unique is that?! You got it. It's quite unique.

Internet Teleportation

The New Scientist [PDF] reported back in June, a story of two computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University, working on a project to "teleport" a person across the internet. The "teleportation" isn't real -- what they are working on is to physically recreate appearance of an object, complete with motion that is being captured of the original object. They envision being able to have virtual meetings with people over great distances using these physical representations of people who are not physically at the same location. Think of it as video conferencing taken to another level. Instead of your face on screen, your entire body will be created, on the fly, mimicking you as you move and talk. They would employ self-assembling smart-nano-particles for the replica.

There are many real world applications for such a system beyond the mundane video conferencing. Think of dangerous work; telemedicine; or even warfare. However, I think the application that would really make such a technology take off, is the porn industry. If you don't get it, you don't have much of an imagination.

Evolution Schmevolution

Just finished watching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Evolution Schmevolution series from last week. The "special report" from the Daily Show sought arbitrate the debate between evolution and intelligent design in America. Of course, it was done in typical Daily Show fashion.

"Why are we here? And how did we get here? Not here necessarily, but HERE! For most of human history the answer took the form of what were called creation myths -- traditional stories explaining our origins. They tended to follow a basic template. Typically a deity, either animalistic, anthropomorphic, or bearded, engages in some mystical, wonderous process, that eventually produces the misshapen progenitors of the human race -- an thus becomes man. These myths comforted man, by allowing him to laugh at other cultures creation myths. For instance, the Aztecs say we were dug out of the earth by a giant pig. Everyone knows we sprouted from the heavenly ear of corn."

The "special report" ran four days last week. If you missed it, you can download it via the following torrent links: Sept. 12, Sept. 13, Sept. 14 and Sept. 15.

Lemora - A Child's Tale of the Supernatural

Lemora - A Child's Tale of the Supernatural is a low budget, b-flick that was made in 1975. For its time, it was pushing some boundaries -- then again, so were a whole lot of films from the 1970s. Lemora has the feel of a weird-out giallo, or a b-grade cheese from Europe -- either way, it succeeds in bringing back the 1970s. The movie is supposedly a horror, but by today's standards, it's not the least bit scary. It's actually more of an adult fairy tale. It certainly shares a lot of themes with fairy tales. Children coming of age -- in this case, the teenage Lila Lee, played by Cheryl Smith -- who begins to get noticed by males, and while she appears not to notice, she does; monsters of the vampiric and ghoulish sort -- and monsters in the form of the lust of men -- even men of the church -- a fact that probably contributed to the Catholic Film Board seeking to ban the film for quite some time; a dark forest, where evil lurks, and where young Lila Lee finds herself -- alone and surrounded; the loss of innocence; and too many references of sexuality. The tone of the movie is dark -- like the forest that Lila will eventually find herself in. She will make her journey at night, in a dark bus, on dark roads, driven by a driver who's most likely mad. The music is melancholy and is used like the dark tones, to paint the entire movie with a slow, dreamlike atmosphere. Altogether, the movie is up there in b-movie status.

The plot: young Lila Lee is taken in by a Reverend, after her father, a gangster, kills her mother and takes off. The Reverend has her live in his house, has her sing in his church as his angel, and teaches her the ways of god, although, at times, his behaviour towards her is less than holy. He notices her becoming a woman -- and Lila is aware of the effect she has on him. Lila receives a note from someone who has her father -- claiming that he's dying, and needs to see her before he passes on. In the middle of night, she slips away from the Reverend's house and journeys to a far away town to find her father. Her journey is a perilous one. She has to dodge the lecherous advances of men who can't seem to help but be drawn to her. The town where her father is, lies within a forest. Through the forest, the bus is attacked by a group of monsters with claws and fangs -- but Lila is saved by some people with a penchant for wearing black clothes -- with robes. In the town, she meets Lemora -- a vampire, raising a brood of vampiric children and presiding over the town of vampires. The monsters in the forest were vampires at one point, but apparently something went wrong with them. Lemora wants to turn Lila into a vampire -- to make Lila her companion -- to fill a role no man could fill. Lila is struggling to understand what is happening, and all she wants is her father. Unfortunately, there's something wrong with her father -- and his desire to be reunited with his daughter becomes monstrous.

We're Getting Smarter

Researchers from the University of Chicago have found new evidence that the human brain is continuing to evolve -- and has undergone substantial changes in the last 60,000 years. They have studied just two genes involved in determining the size of the brain, and have found that new versions of those genes have been spreading because they enhance brain functions. Controversy surrounds the findings because the researchers also note that the new genes are more common in certain populations -- although it has been highlighted that the genes do not necessarily confer any enhanced cognitive abilities.

I expect that many will want such research findings to be buried because it could be misinterpreted -- or misused. This censoring of science however, simply highlights the ignorance surrounding the research. First -- intelligence is a result of more than just genetics -- and having the necessary genes doesn't necessarily mean an individual or a population can claim smarts over another. You may have the genetics to make you a great athlete, but with no practice or training, there's no way you could exploit your innate abilities. Having a natural advantage over another with artistic, logic or different skills doesn't imply intelligence. All it means is that you may have a leg up. Secondly -- there's no evidence that a larger brain leads to greater intelligence. Men and women have different sizes of brains, but in general, the sexes have equal intelligence. Thirdly: we haven't started to understand how the brain works yet. Are we even exploiting what is at our disposal today? Turn on the TV for evidence. Fourthly: the shrinking of the world is leading to the end of diverse population groups. We're all becoming the same, even as we remain quite different as individuals. What does it all mean? Not a whole lot, except that we're gaining new understanding of how we're evolving and new insights into the brain. None of which is entirely bad.

Related reading:

Adaptive evolution of ASPM, a major determinant of cerebral cortical size in humans. [PDF]

Reconstructing the evolutionary history of microcephalin, a gene controlling human brain size. [PDF]

Accelerated Evolution of Nervous System Genes in the Origin of Homo sapiens [PDF]

Bruce Lahn -- interview from The Scientist.

Doom -- the Movie

It stars the Rock, is based on a video game, and is most likely lacking any kind of a story. What is it? Doom -- based on the first person shooter from id Software. It's one of those "check-your-brain-at-the-door" movies -- and yes, I think I'll have to go see it. It hits the theatres on Oct. 21.

Signs of the apocalypse ...

... or you know you're going to have a really shitty day when ...

1) You wake up ... several times between 4 and 7AM.
2) In the kitchen, you find that the water filter that you had carefully filled the night before is empty, and there is no water in the kettle. There is now wait time for the all important coffee.
3) You open the freezer for some waffles, and find that someone has already beaten you there. They've helped themselves to two waffles, but left the box and bag open, so the rest of the waffles can turn into frozen shit for whoever comes afterwards.
4) Also in the freezer, you find a sign of the pizza pocket box. It is empty, open and still in the freezer. Kinda like life lately: just a shell, empty of it's contents and cold.
5) You come to your computer and find that someone's already beaten you there, because your glass of juice is lying across your keyboard.

You think about all of this and you realize, this is all your damn fault anyway.

1) You woke up. Not once, but many times. WTF is your problem?
2) That just reflects your outlook on life you depressing bastard. The kettle has a little water, it's not almost empty! See the positives!
3) Again, you're just being negative. Someone went to all the trouble to giving you easy access to the waffles.
4) There, you're just being negative yet again. That was left to provide you with an opportunity to feel like you're contributing to your household. It's the least you can do you lazy ass.
5) Well now, who's fault is that for leaving a glass of juice on the desk. How many times have you been told not to do that?! Learn the lesson!

I will now go forth in my day, and will try to take a positive outlook on all the mishaps that will befall me; the people who will try to screw me; and the sheer stupidity that I will be made a witness of. I will pretend that I am a religious man, and that god is simply testing the faithful. I will work very hard not to take out my frustrations on the ones I care for -- but if I break -- watch out people that I don't give a damn about -- it will be your fault I had juice all over my keyboard!!!

The Resurrected

I saw the Resurrected the other night. It's based on H.P. Lovecraft's The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward -- a story that I haven't read. It is a horror movie, although you won't find the usual trappings of a horror flick. Not a whole lot of action or gore -- and not too many frightening scenes. It's more of a detective story, and moves with a slow, steady pace. The acting wasn't anything special -- neither was the filming or effects -- what little there was of effects -- in fact, some of the effects were cheesy.

The plot: a husband, Charles Dexter Ward, starts neglecting his wife, Claire, spending way too much time in his homemade lab running some strange experiments way into the night -- in fact, the experiments seem to be taking over his life. Claire stays with him instead of running away from home. When she yells at him and demands he finds a new place to run his "experiments" -- he moves his lab out of the house to an old, spooky and isolated family house that he inherited. He doesn't return home, but stays at the house running his experiments. Claire doesn't leave him -- in fact, she's worried about him, and hires a PI, John March, to find out WTF is going on. I personally think that like her husband, Claire has just gone off the deep end. Love, yeah, OK -- but when your husband becomes obsessive about experiments that smell disgusting -- it's time to take drastic measures.

Apparently Ward has inherited the house and the experiments that were being run there by his great-great grandfather, Joseph Curwen, some hundred years ago or so. In the house, a portrait is found of Curwen -- and he bears a startling resemblance to Ward. Curwen it seems, was being a very naughty boy. He was running experiments to make himself immortal -- but part of the price he paid was the "hunger." The "hunger" gave him an insatiable appetite for blood and fresh, raw meat. When he died at the hands of a mob, he had his remains collected and hidden away for some future generation to resurrect him. Stupid, stupid Ward. He goes and brings grandpa Curwen back -- and in no time, Curwen offs Ward, and proceeds to impersonate him. Curwen feeds his hunger -- sometimes on animal meat and blood that he buys from a slaughterhouse -- but every now and again, he goes for a two legged animal, and literally eats them alive. As March and Claire figure this out, it is up to them to face off against the resurrected Curwen and the monstrosities from failed experiments.

iPod Nano

A murder and an autopsy. Find out what it takes to kill an iPod Nano, and then what's inside as the murderers peek under its skin. All for you, so that you don't have to do the same to satisfy your curiosity.

The Next Big One

BusinessWeek's latest issue runs a what-if scenario on potential disasters for Americans, and produces a dire warning on the outcomes unless risk mitigation efforts are stepped up. The New Orleans disaster hasn't played out the worse economic scenario for the nation -- although the human impact is quite the opposite. I guess that's to be expected, since the worse hit has been the poor. The relationship between governments has certainly taken a beating -- so much so, that Bush admitted responsibility for the slow response -- which is something a leader is supposed to do, although I question his motives. What is the lesson to be learned from the disaster? America -- and by extension, just about every other country in the world -- needs to plan for disasters.

There are enough dire warnings of impending doom, yet we keep ignoring them. Not just the government, but the public, who hold governments accountable for their actions. Communication and operational silos need to be fixed. The world has become a smaller place and everything and everybody is now within reach of each other -- that includes the ones bearing bombs with intent to cause a disaster -- and those unwitting carriers of diseases. As BusinessWeek points out, the problem isn't as overwhelming as you would believe. For one thing, preparing to respond for one disaster, pretty much prepares you for most disasters. The governments need to take a lead in this action, since much of the primary infrastructure of developed nations, and increasingly, poorer countries, are falling into the hands of the private sector, who's primary motivation is profits -- short term gains, based on just-in-time efficiency and zero inventory.

BusinessWeek advises that focus should be placed on power, water, acute-care facilities, and response-and-recovery capabilities. Governments need to take a lead to pay for redundancy in the primary infrastructure; prioritize spending; and make organizations work, instead of being dysfunctional. In America, 9/11 had a $70 billion economic impact. New Orleans is expected to come in around $200 billion. Future disasters, such as earthquakes, pandemics and terrorism could be worse in the lives they take and economic impact.

Related reading:

Natural Disasters: Protecting the Public's Health

Transitional Settlement: Displaced Populations [PDF]

A proactive look at the world conference on disaster reduction [PDF]

Oxfam Guidelines for Water Treatment in Emergencies [PDF]

Management of Dead Bodies in Disaster Situations [PDF]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Heroes and Heroines

From the Socialist Worker Online, comes the experiences of two San Francisco EMS workers who were attending a conference in New Orleans when Katrina descended. The experiences tell sad stories -- stories where intelligence and logic never held sway, and mass confusion ruled the day -- but there are also stories of ordinary people, who, in a time of crisis, reached out with just a little effort -- but effort that was a godsend to those suffering.

The Transporter 2

The Transporter 2 -- a wholesome family movie -- uplifting, with truisms for our times.

Kids do your homework -- it's way better for your future than playing with guns and hanging out in gangs.

Never, ever, point a gun at a stranger. For one thing, they may have a bigger gun. The other, much worse, is that they may not have a gun, but you're still in for some good ass-whupping.

In life, there are rules -- for a reason. Break 'em at your peril -- especially if they're somebody else's rules.

If you make promises -- keep 'em -- especially to kids.

Never covet another man's wife -- no matter how much of a dick he is -- and especially if she's your boss. The whole work/sex thing just won't work.

Getting a good driver's education is a worthy investment. You never know when you'll have to outrun misguided cops & bad guys; fly off buildings; dislodge bombs attached to the undercarriage; and impress half-naked, twisted, psycho-chicks, who have bigger guns than you. And remember -- practice, practice, practice.

Get a good education and join the military -- preferably, special ops -- because there is no way you're going to afford expensive cars with custom upgrades working the ole newspaper route; and, if you're going to kick some serious butt, some of that military training would help.

Have morals -- it's what separates the good guys from the bad guys. The bad guys usually die at the end of movies.

Life's not a movie -- but it could be!

The movie has "check your brain at the door" style -- as a friend referred to it. Like the first, it as all action from beginning to end -- but this time around, it did seem to lack some of the magic the first had. This movie was set in America -- and did have many American characters -- and maybe that was it. In the previous outing, the exotic locale of some French small town, was a special touch. The action in this movie also seemed slightly muted -- but maybe that's just memories playing tricks with me. Altogether, the movie was great. Definitely worth watching again. It's action, for action junkies.

ONESICKINDIVIDUAL

There is nothing sick about Erwin Haya -- or his art. OneSickIndividual is a place for his art -- and hopefully, a place where people can buy his crap or solicit him -- maybe find out why he's "one sick individual." Check out his site -- his talent. I likey-likey, and wish I was as good as him. He also has a blog, where you can bug the hell out of him.

The Joy of Flex

CIO magazine's latest has an interesting article on being loosely coupled -- technology and processes that is. Loosely coupled processes have arrived with the maturity of technology; the realization that legacy systems have to co-exist with new systems; and the need for organizations to rapidly change, adapt and integrate -- both internally and externally. This need for flexibility has given rise a slew of technologies and related processes -- mostly under the service-oriented architecture banner -- to integrate disparate systems and processes using standardized interfaces.

So what? Loosely coupled is just another way of explaining SOA. The point the article makes however, is that integrating technology is only the first step -- and it's not where most benefits will arise. Loosely coupled technology will bring flexibility, and its interchangeable nature will drive innovation. More importantly, the loosely coupled philosophy can be extended to business processes -- which underlie the loosely coupled technology and related system processes. The potential for business flexibility and innovation can be astounding. Of course, the ability of a business to adopt loosely coupled business processes is that more difficult than the technology -- as it always is. Business processes have to adopt standard interfaces, which not only require some degree of process standardization, but also trust. When you think of how difficult it is for the many divisions within an organization to march in the same direction and speak the same language, you can imagine how much more difficult it would be to integrate inter-business processes. The promise of flexibility and profit however is one that can't be ignored and will ensure that many will struggle to implement loosely coupled business processes.

The article also has a reference to the authors podcast discussing this topic at IT Conversations. Click the link to listen.

Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2

I indulged in the sequel to 1981's animated cult SciFi movie, Heavy Metal. I saw Heavy Metal many, many years ago -- the early 1990s I think. I remember the movie as being confusing -- but that didn't matter. Heavy Metal, like the sequential art magazine that inspired it, was very much adult, with a good dose of bloody violence, nudity and sexuality. Definitely not the Disney fare. The animation of the original was quite fluid, and the tunes -- well, the tunes were heavy metal. This production, believe it or not, was Canadian. (I just found out.)

Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2 is the second animated movie in the series. The animation is nothing special, although it does combine hand-drawn cells with computer animation. Like the first movie, it also features a hard music score. This time around, the movie is based on the comic Melting Pot, by Kevin Eastman,