New Worlds in the Making: Origins of Planets and Brown Dwarfs

This afternoon I attended Ray Jayawardhana's lecture at the University of Toronto, New Worlds in the Making: Origins of Planets and Brown Dwarfs. The lecture is part of the Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science free Sunday Science Lectures -- and was co-sponsored by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. The abstract of Jayawardhana's lecture is as follows:

Until recently, we knew of only one planetary system, our own. During the past decade, astronomers have detected nearly 150 planets around other Sun-like stars, ending centuries of speculation. Over the same period, they have also discovered hundreds more of so called "brown dwarfs", which are too puny to light up as stars but which do not fit the traditional definition of planets either. Intriguingly, some brown dwarfs themselves may harbor planetary companions around them. The apparent ubiquity of both planets and brown dwarfs poses the question of their origins. I will report on how astronomers are deciphering the birth and early evolution of planets and brown dwarfs using a combination of remarkable new observations and sophisticated computer simulations.

Jayawardhana outlined the prevailing theories of planetary formation -- stuff I already knew, from when I actually studied Astronomy in school. Planets formed with stars when molecular clouds coalesced. First the star would form, then from the material remaining from the star formation -- in a disc around the star -- the planets form. In the details, things get more complicated of course. There are different theories on how the planets can actually form, based on what the material around the star is composed of. The size of the star -- and whether it has enough mass to ignite would also impact planet formation. Jayawardhana spoke of all of this, and with the latest findings of numerous extrasolar planets, the science of planet formation has gained a lot of new interest.

Jayawardhana was an OK speaker. He wasn't entirely engaging however, choosing to use quite a number of graphs to explain his topic. I was OK with much of them, although some I just couldn't understand in the few seconds they were up on the screen. For a generalist audience, this wasn't so good -- and for a Sunday afternoon lecture -- it could very quickly lead to boredom. Which is too bad, as the topic is very interesting.

A final word on an observation and annoyance from the lecture ... the annoyance first: no one seemed to have been able to pronounce Jayawardhana's name. He's referred to as Doctor Ray Jay by his students apparently. How difficult is Jayawardhana? Let's see: Ja-ya-ward-hana. Duh! And the observation: my friend and I who attended the lecture were in the minority. The audience was predominantly old, white men that had lost most of their hair. Not that that is really a problem. I applaud them coming out on Sunday for science. What I have a problem with is being in the minority. Where are the young people? Is interest in science so low?

Related reading:

• 2005 Winter Conference on Astrophysics -- presentation material from the conference which focused on planet formation and detection.
• A Ten Step Program for Star and Planet Formation -- an easy to read tutorial.
• Cool or what? Unravelling the mysteries of star formation with laboratory surface science

Alien Abduction

I saw Alien Abduction last night, and what a piece of crap it is. The acting is bad, the characters are all unlikeable, the actors uninspired, the effects worse than B-movie grade, and the aliens are just plain crap. Then there is the screaming. Every now and again, the actresses seem to remember that they have to scream -- and scream they do. Even when there is no context. The entire movie is crap, crap, crap. Which is disappointing, considering the story actually had potential. It concerns a group of vacationing friends that are abducted by the aliens. We see them being butchered by the aliens, then the lead character, Jean, played by Megan Lee Etheridge, wakes up in a hospital or insane asylum. She's told she's an alien abduction victim, and she's being taken care of in the hospital before release back to her life. She can't remember a thing, and just wants out. It turns out that the hospital is more than it appears to be. Jean has been kidnapped, but she hasn't even left the alien ship. She's still in it, and is surrounded by the aliens. Apparently, they kidnap people, replace them with human replicas with some worm-like aliens driving in the replicas heads. They're slowly replacing every human on the planet. Jean it's revealed in the surprise ending, isn't human -- she's actually a replica thinking she's human. The story would have work, if the execution of the film was done without the amateur bunch that failed miserably with this crap.

Anyway, I told you all you need to know, so now you have no reason to watch the movie.

Race Against Time

Last night I attended the last of the 2005 Massey Lectures. This year, Stephen Lewis was the lecturer -- his series bore the title of his latest book: Race Against Time. If the series could have a tagline, it would be this quote from Lewis: "I have spent the last four years watching people die." Lewis' topic was the plight of Africa under the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

There are many who may not remember Lewis -- or simply never knew him, although he was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine in 2005, listed under their "heroes and icons" section. Lewis, soon to be 68, started his public career early -- he was elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario at age 26, while still attending school at the University of Toronto. From there, he moved on to leading the provincial NDP party, then to being a journalist, before being appointed in 1984 to be Canada's ambassador to the UN. From there, he joined the UN, filling roles such as the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF; commissioner of the World Health Organization's Commission on Social Determinants; to now serving as the Secretary General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. This is a role that fate seemed to have designed for Lewis -- pitting a humanitarian with excellent oratory skills to a role where there is a desperate need for a champion. It is a role that Lewis embraces with obvious passion, so much so that it takes its toll on his person.

Last night's lecture, the last in the series, was titled Solutions: A Gallery of Alternatives in Good Faith. In his lecture, Lewis does a recap of his previous lectures to provide context. His one hour lecture, that was followed by 20-minutes of Q&A, was a rapid fire of facts, figures and a deep emotional plea for something to be done about the pandemic in Africa. Lewis tore into the US, the UN, the G8, the WTO and the WMF for their inaction and contrary efforts; into the complacency of rich nations of the planet and their unending broken promises. While he acknowledged the efforts and progress that has been made, he didn't mask his disdain for the bureaucrats that continue to do little against the HIV/AIDS tide -- naming some of them by names. He alluded a number of times that he is far from being popular for the noise he's making -- and if the job doesn't drive him to quit, he'll most likely fall from his role, a casualty of politics.

When you understand where Lewis has been, what he has seen and what he knows, you understand where he comes from with his criticism. In his latest role, Lewis has traveled extensively in Africa, working to curb the pandemic by influencing leaders and corralling the desperately needed support. The statistics are staggering: 65% of the world's AIDS infections are in Africa; 14 million children in Africa are orphaned by AIDS. Africa is heading to a place the world has never seen before -- where the young adults are dying off, and remaining are children and their grandparents. Women are the hardest hit, and Lewis specifically points out the total disregard the world has for half its population -- especially since with women, he believes progress can be made to stem the tide. For Lewis, these aren't just statistics, numbers to be dealt with by an actuary's mind -- these are people, faces, names and friends that he has lost. While the remain nameless and far away, they are persons and close at heart for him. The anguish he has seen came across in his lecture.

The lecture ended with prophetic question from an audience member. If we, the rich of the world, don't do something to end the HIV/AIDS pandemic for altruistic reasons -- shouldn't we be doing it for selfish reasons? At the rate at which infection is growing world wide, when does it become a problem right here in our own countries? It was a good question. A question that Lewis didn't really answer, because it was an open question to all of us. We need to do something. We have voices, and we can raise them loud. We lend them to the NGOs. We can persuade our governments to focus efforts into the UN organization to combat HIV/AIDS. We can persuade our governments to commit the 0.7% of our GDP that was promised for Africa, but has never been delivered. Lewis ended with a question about our values as a human race. We spend trillions on arms annually. Why can't we afford $50 billion to save Africa?

The 2005 Massey Lectures will be aired on CBC One's Ideas on Nov. 7-11th. If you've missed the lectures, you can tune in to hear them. The Ideas program airs at 9PM eastern.

Related reading:

• Great Speaker, Great Cause -- passionate words from another who attended last night's lecture.
• UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS -- where the GA adopted the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, "Global Crisis -- Global Action."
• UN Development Programme -- Africa
• AIDS in Africa: Three scenarios to 2025 -- publication of the UN Programme on HIV/AIDS
• UNIFEM -- UN Portal focusing on the women and HIV/AIDS
• A Call to Action: Children the missing face of AIDS -- a UNICEF publication focusing on the plight of children living the pandemic
• Preventing HIV Infection, Promoting Reproductive Health -- 2005 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS
• 2005 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS -- Interview with Stephen Lewis
• AIDS in Africa -- the US State Department site on AIDS in Africa
• AVERT.ORG -- an international AIDS charity
• HIV/AIDS: a rural issue -- a report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization
• Bush accused of Aids damage to Africa -- a UK Guardian report on Lewis' reaction to the condom shortage in Africa
• Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa -- Lewis speaks at UNESCO in favour of gender mainstreaming (includes the streaming video)
• Stephen Lewis: Taking on AIDS in Africa -- an interview of Lewis in 2001, a week after he was appointed to his latest post (includes streaming audio)
• Keynote by Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa [PDF] -- given to the "Microbicides 2004" conference in London, Tuesday, March 30, 2004
• UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa -- interview of Lewis on Dec. 1, 2004, on the eve of World's AIDS Day (includes streaming audio)
• Harvard School of Public Health Commencement 2005 -- Lewis addressed HSPH during their commencement ceremonies on June 9, 2005 (includes streaming audio)
• 11th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections -- Lewis gave the keynote address to the Feb, 2004 WHO conference
• Global Health Council's Annual Conference [PDF] -- speech by Lewis to the May 2003 conference
• “A pandemic within the pandemic” [PDF] -- news release from Lewis at the 2004 AIDS Conference, highlighting the plight of women and girls with AIDS
• Shadow on the continent [PDF] -- public health and HIC/AIDS in Africa in the 21st century
• Gender, Sexuality, and HIV/AIDS [PDF] -- the what, the why and the how; a publication of the International Center for Research on Women
• The Macro Implications of HIV/AIDS in South Africa [PDF] -- a report looking at the economic impact
• The global impact of HIV/AIDS [PDF] -- article from the journal Nature
• Mandela HSRC Study of HIV/AIDS [PDF] -- South African National HIV Prevalence, Behavioural Risks and Mass Media, Household Survey 2002

The Clock of the Long Now

The Clock of the Long Now was first brought to my attention by Future Boy when he returned from his Futurist Conference. I just didn't get it, which of course is no fault of mine. Future Boy bears all the burden for not being able to articulate the concept well enough to someone like me, who regards the future as tomorrow's problem. Since death is in my future, I avoid thinking of it all costs. After reading the Discover magazine article, Time Machine, I may start thinking of the future as more than just an impending nightmare.

The Long Now proposes to put our frame of thinking, 10,000 years into the future. Imagine if we could all collectively focus on such a future -- suddenly a lot of our problems in the here and now may take on a new perspective. From ethnic discrimination, wars, the environment -- humanity's future -- all become different, or so we would hope, when viewed from the perspective of the Long Now. The Clock of the Long Now proposes to give us just that kind of perspective.

The Clock of the Long Now will run for 10,000 years with perfect precision, resetting itself daily using the Sun. It will track hours, days, weeks, months, years -- leap years and leap centuries -- the precision of planetary orbits and the precision of the equinox. It will not need human intervention to continue operation, but will wind itself to continue keeping the time. It's being planned for the cliffs of Snake Range, in Nevada. There is no roads leading to Snake Range, and it would take a full day's hike to get to it. Within the cliffs, a visitor would have to move through successive rooms to get to the Clock of the Long Now -- each room revealing more and more of the clock -- its slowest parts first, tracking time at the largest scales -- the inner room with the shorter scales of time being measured. It will be a grand clock -- and while it will be well known to many, it will be in such a remote location, that most will not visit it, or seek it out, although it will remain in our collective psyche. Eventually, we may just forget about it, only to rediscover it centuries later -- or more. In fact, it might even become a object that many will make pilgrimages to in the future.

The idea is almost whimsical, if it didn't have some serious merits. It could actually work to inspire in each of us to think of the world now in the spans of our daily lives, or even our whole lives, but in terms of humanity's existence. It could become a focal point, a touchstone if you will, for thinking beyond our immediate time -- towards some long term thinking. What would we do with such thinking? Hopefully get it all right.

Two Against the Big Bang

Before the Big Bang gained prominence as the theory, it was just one theory that explained how the universe came to be -- or more accurately, where all the hydrogen and helium came from. The was another theory, the steady state theory -- or view -- of the universe. With the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation, predicted by the Big Bang theorists, steady state theory went to the grave -- or as mentioned in the Discover magazine article, Two Against the Big Bang, still on that journey to the grave.

There are still two die-hard supporters of the steady state view of the universe -- and knowing who they are, it is hard to believe they are so easily dismissed by their fellow scientists. Margaret Barbidge and Geoffrey Barbidge are in their 80s, and are still practicing astronomers who don't believe the Big Bang theory has answered all of the questions.

The Burbidges claim to fame is pretty significant. They (along with contributor William Fowler; but Fred Hoyle, the pioneer of nucleosynthesis and also a contributor, did win) took home the Nobel Prize in Physics for their 1957 work, the Synthesis of the Elements in Stars, where they detailed how nuclear reactions in stars "rip apart the basic building blocks of matter and put them back together again to create new and complex elements." Their work is a significant piece of the puzzle that is our universe.

So when the Burbidges question the completeness of the Big Bang theory to explain the universe, you'd think their arguments would carry some weight. Unfortunately, because the Burbidges haven't thrown in the towel, and still see steady state as a viable theory to explain the universe, they have been marginalized -- and for what? For really claiming that maybe we still don't have all the answers.

Steady state theory suggests that the universe may not actually have a beginning -- no point source that went "bang" -- but that new matter may be created from multiple sources, at many times, during the life of the universe. This universe has always existed. The Burbidges believe that quasars may be a potential source for the new matter created in the universe that their theory espouses. According to Big Bang theorists however, quasars are from the early universe, and does not exist in the universe today -- proving that the universe hasn't always been the same, but is changing. The Burbidges argue that the high redshifts exhibited by quasars is due to them moving faster than the expansion of the universe -- they believe that quasars are being expelled from galaxies -- which would put quasars nearby.

At the heart of this argument that the Burbidges continue to have with their peers, is how scientific progress should be made. The Burbidges believe that science should first observe, then theorize to explain the observation -- they don't think that theories should come first then a search made to find an observation to back it up. That is why the holes in the Big Bang theory, resulting from observations, are being plugged by theorectical dark matter and dark energy theories. Maybe we don't know everything yet -- and with this I have to agree with the Burbidges -- and maybe the steady state theory is wrong -- but until we know that the Big Bang does explain everything, maybe steady state shouldn't be forgotten.

Related reading:

• Synthesis of the Elements in Stars: Forty Years of Progress [PDF]
• The Origin of the Elements [PDF]
• The Origins of Elements in Stars [PDF]

Lite Notes

The Oculas -- imagine working in this cubicle at work ... the Oculas is a private "lounging oasis" that allows you to shut out the world, secluded in a perfect lighting, seating, audio and visual environment. You'll get a computer, video screen, internet access, built in speakers and a nice comfy chair that massages you. Price: $45KUS.
Land Walker -- Sakakibara Kikai has made a kick-ass mobile office. Literally. The Land Walker is a bipedal exoskeleton that is pretty much a working version of the exoskeleton used in the Mech Warrior games. An added option on the Land Walker is machine guns. For those difficult days in the office.
Omodern -- Have a good laugh at the yesteryears. Check out some of the worst interior designs from the 70s.
Lawnmower Museum -- Why anyone would want to document the history of the lawnmower is beyond me ... but it has been done, proving yet again, that there is some weird shit on the internet.
Leisure Town -- A wacky online comic strip, for mature audiences, that uses plastic dolls for characters.

Business Buzz

1. Let a Thousand Brands Bloom -- the Chinese consumer is changing, and multinationals are responding with their offerings. From different brand offerings, to different products catering to the needs of different market segments. Business is simple -- customers of all incomes have money, and can be enticed to part with it.
   
2. It Sure Ain't Old Navy -- Getting the above 35-years-old women into their stores isn't working for Gap. They continue to be perceived to be a brand for the younger generation. What's Gap to do? Open a new chain that caters specifically to older women: Forth & Towne. Forth & Towne is being designed around an experience. It's supposed to be a place where women want to hang out and spend their spare time -- and dollars. Will the gamble work?
   
3. And Now, the Chief Endurance Officer -- Here's one to inspire you. Think the fat cats at the top really are fat? Apparently not. And they're not leaving their staff behind either. Makes me think that after this past weekend's feat from my CEO, that maybe he does deserve the "endurance" in his title as well.
   
4. Daggers Drawn Over DVDs -- This is one of the few times you'll find me siding with Bill Gates. In the battle between the next generation DVD formats, Microsoft has come out on the side of what may very well be the loser: Toshiba's HD DVD format. Sony's Blu-ray technology is set to win, for a number of reasons -- the first, and least important, is that is is probably the superior technology. The second, and most important reason, is all about control -- not control you will have, but control that media giants will maintain. Blu-ray will come with more robust security than HD DVD, and that's where Gates and Co. have a problem. There is little incentive for Sony to build support into the format for Windows, as it would allow consumers to shuffle content from their DVDs around their homes (and possibly the internet) from their PCs. The big media companies apparently are sticking to the tried and true -- when you buy something, you really don't own it.
   
5. Hey, Advertisers, TiVo is Your Friend -- Here's an article about the new face of advertising. Rishad Tobaccowala is apparently a new-media ad guru, and thinks that businesses need to recognize the importance of on-demand media, social marketing, forget TV and go for video, and move branding efforts online. Says he, "The spine of our business has collapsed, and what we are looking at are the organs, blood, and connective tissue on the floor in a pile of goo. We have to imagine what the new structure is going to look like." Yes, he's also colourful of speech.
   For related reading, check out:

The Continuing Evolution of Advertising [PDF] -- from the October Jordan-Edmiston Group's client briefing.

Integrated Interactive Marketing [PDF] -- a Nielsen/NetRatings white paper on online marketing.

Why ROI is a False Standard [PDF] -- an article from Tobaccowala in Advertising Age's point magazine.

Word of Mouth Marketing Summit 2005 -- see some interesting topics presented at this summit. All presentations are online.

NewsBytes

Genpets -- Adam Brandejs, from London, Ontario, is the father of this piece of weirdness. Genpets purports to be genetically engineered pets that are in a state of hibernation until taken home, then they come alive to be your pet for 1 or maybe 3 years. What is it really? It's Brandejs overactive imagination as an art student at the OCAD. Quite cool, and not bad at all.

Shovel Head -- Yasuhito Udagawa is one cool artist. He works on mechanical sculptures, and was recently featured in Wired for creating two sculptures out of bicycle parts for cycle manufacturer SRAM. Way cool!

Death Wishes -- A bit of afterlife weirdness I picked up from the latest issue of Wired as well. Seems like there a few non-traditional ways to keep on going after your Energizer has been drained.

1. Promessa Organic intends to send you on your way ecologically. There's a huge ecological cost for a typical burial or cremation -- everything from the land taken up for burial, to the fuel needed to transform you to ashes. Promessa does away with the whole traditional process by freezing what was you -- then dunking your body in liquid nitrogen. Your body is then blasted with sound waves that reduces it to organic powder, which is then transferred to a vacuum chamber where water is evaporated from the powder. From there, you're filtered, and all surgical spare parts and mercury is removed. When you, and only you is left, your powder is placed in a corn starch coffin, and you're buried. In 6 months to a year, you're compost, and something can be planted above you. You've completed the circle of life.
2. Biopresence promises something different: "Living Memorials or Transgenic Tombstones." They use a process to transcode and entwine the human DNA to a tree's DNA. They do this not by modifying the tree's DNA, but by storing your DNA on naturally occurring silent mutations of base triplets. I don't understand what any of that means, nor do I have the patience to research it right now -- suffice it to say -- you and tree will not become one. Your DNA will simply be hitching a ride on something alive, even after you've gone. Your body, if you so wished, could also be reduced down to compost to feed the young plant that is now carrying the last living remains of you.
3. LifeGem takes a different tact than the previous two -- they don't aim to complete any circle of life or make a living memory out of you. What they promise is to is take the ashes from your cremation, and extract the carbon from it. From there, the carbon is purified by baking it at extreme high temperatures, converting all carbon to graphite. Heat and pressure is then applied to the graphite to transform it into diamonds. The diamond will then be cut and laser etched to your specifications. While you may not last forever, a diamond certainly will.

In Search of the Cosmic Dawn

This past Friday, I attended the last of the Cosmic Frontiers series that celebrated the centennial of Astronomy at the University of Toronto. For this lecture, the organizers chose UofT's very own, Professor Bob Abraham. Abraham's lecture was titled, In Search of the Cosmic Dawn, and is summarized by the following abstract:

Our Universe was born in fantastic energy at the instant of the Big Bang, yet the first product of this moment of creation was a fairly drab Universe resembling a nearly featureless cloud of gas. This early Universe contained none of the richness and complexity that marks the present Cosmos: it was devoid of galaxies, devoid of stars, devoid of planets, devoid of even the basic chemistry that makes any of these things possible, and certainly devoid of life. This cosmic Dark Age was brought to an abrupt end by the onset of First Light, a sort-of cosmic Renaissance initiated by the formation of the first luminous objects in the Universe. The talk will describe how First Light led to the complex and rich Universe we see around us, through cycles of cosmic birth, death and rebirth, leading ultimately to intelligent life itself.

First impressions of Abraham was, "Whoa! This guy ain't that old!" He could easily be my age -- and when I think of the possibilities .... This is remarkable for me because I'm just trained to expect professors who've been around the block a few times, and have the long greying beard, not that much different from a wizard's, to show for it. Abraham was anything but. He was a pretty dynamic speaker, using humour quite a bit to keep his audience engaged. Not that most of us needed the humour -- but those with the attention span of a gnat may have needed it. Abraham's topic was interesting in its own right to keep me engaged and wanting more.

Abraham began by correcting what is apparently an incorrect quote of J. Robert Oppenheimer. According to Abraham, Oppenheimer didn't quote the Bhagavad Gita saying, "Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of worlds." What he said was "Now I am become Shiva, the Destroyer of worlds." The distinction is important for Abraham, because Einstein's famous energy-to-mass relationship that the bomb exploits isn't just a relationship about destruction -- it's also a relationship about creation. And Shiva, being part of the trimurti, doesn't exist without the creator, Brahma, and the preserver, Vishnu. This is important, because the rich universe we know today wouldn't have happened if not for the violent deaths of stars, which seeded gas clouds with elements heavier than helium -- which lead to new stars, planetary systems, and life on Earth. "We are star stuff."

The universe, three minutes after the Big Bang, was a very boring universe according to Abraham. It was filled with just hydrogen and helium -- and this state lasted for about one billion years -- an assertion that has been confirmed with the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The hydrogen and helium in that early universe is the same stuff we have here on Earth. In their gaseous state galaxies and stars can't be formed. Something miraculous happened however. At age 1 billion years old, the universe was bathed in what Abraham referred to as "first light." First light was an immense energy source that went through the entire universe and transformed the gaseous state of hydrogen and helium into plasma. In this state, hydrogen and helium, under the influence of gravity, could form the stars and galaxies that would be the birthplace of the Earth and life on it.

What is first light? That's the Nobel prize winning question. No one knows. We know it must have occurred 12.5 billion years ago, but so far our most powerful telescopes have not had the power to gaze that far back. Abraham suggested a few promising scenarios to discovering first light.

1. Gamma ray bursts is one potential catalyst for first light. Gamma ray burst sources are all over the sky, and are thought to be a result of supermassive stars collapsing into black holes ... yet, if there weren't stars in the early universe ... yup, there's still work to be done.
2. The James Webb Space Telescope, set to unfurl in space sometime in 2014, will be way, way bigger than Hubble and have the ability to peer further back into the past. JWST will be able to see back 12.5 billion years ago, and hopefully it will be able to see first light source(s).
3. Going into space isn't the only option for peering that far back in time. The Gemini Telescope, already in operation, could be used in conjunction with adaptive optics and gravitational lenses to peer as far back as potentially 12.5 billion years ago. With just the right technology and the right observations, first light source(s) could be seen before JWST is launched.

Abraham is quite excited about the possibility of finding first light before JWST is launched. He has however, placed his bets both with Gemini and JWST, as he participates in both programs. Whatever and whoever gets to first light first, what Abraham made clear is that there is a race going on. Hopefully there will be success soon.

As a side note, the pre-show for the lecture was mesmerizing. It featured galaxy dynamics simulations produced by John Dubinski. You can find some of those simulations here.

Man-Thing

I must confess, I've never really read a Man-Thing comic from Marvel -- I've read more of Swamp Thing (DC), although there too, I wasn't really a follower of the series. With the number of recent adaptations of Marvel comics to the big screen, I expected Man-Thing to get the full treatment, however, since it gone a straight to DVD release, I was expecting crap. To be fair, the movie wasn't total crap, though there was the hint of stench in the air -- fitting I suppose, since the movie was set in a swamp, in the Louisiana hick-ville of a town, Bywater.

The plot was fairly simple, with no surprises. The local bigwig of Bywater, one oil tycoon named Schist (Jack Thompson), is drilling in the swamp. He's bought and murdered his way into getting the natives to give up their land, and his enterprise continue to commit sins -- only this time it's not just sins against people, but also against nature. Within the swamp, there is a place called "dark water" -- some mumbo-jumbo about the "nexus of all realities" according to mumbling native wiseman, Pete Horn (Rawiri Paratene) -- which is apparently where the Man-Thing comes into the picture. The swamp it seems doesn't like all the death and destruction that comes with Schist, and it lashes out with the Man-Thing, the swamps lawman. Into this mess comes a new sheriff, Kyle Williams, played by Matthew Le Nevez, who needs to solve a series of murders; contend with Schist, his son and some local goons, who want to off the rest of the natives (anyone who's not white and all Yankees too); a hot school teacher Teri Richards, played by Rachel Taylor, who teaches respect for nature and is a bit of an environmentalist; and perhaps a native vigilante, Rene LaRoque, played by Steve Bastoni, who is suspected of the murders in the swamp.

The acting wasn't too bad. Neither was the action sequence, the mood of the film, the special effects, the cinematography, etc. The story left a little to be desired. It wasn't really about the Man-Thing. The Man-Thing was just kinda there. There was no intelligence, no exploration of character, not even any significant commentary on the whole man vs. nature theme -- the whole environmental aspect just got a passing reference. Then there was the love that seemed to have magically developed between Richards and Williams. Just out of nowhere, it appeared -- like the Man-Thing in fact. They went from being semi-adversarial, to sucking face, and caring deeply about each other (uh, yeah, sure). WTF? Where did that come from? Was it the swamp gas? A lot of the action took place in the deep, dark, swamp, at night -- when everyone knew that something or someone in there was killing people -- so what did all the characters do? They all rushed into the swamp, yelling for each other. Even the bloody sheriff, who was looking for the suspected murderer, LaRoque, went into the swamp calling out LaRoque's name. Who wrote the shitty script? Hans Rodionoff -- a guy cut his teeth on Baywatch in the 1990s.

The decision to release this on DVD was a good one. It's best watched late at night, when you're a little tired.

Another Sign of the Apocalypse

This piece of alternative weirdness comes from the roving field reporter, DH, as "another sign of the apocalypse." Yes, the horsemen are actually riding. Alex Chiu has discovered the secrets of immortality. He claims if you wear his magnetic rings or magnetic foot bracelets while you sleep, you will achieve immortality. What piece of weirdness is this you think? Apparently, the USPTO doesn't think it so weird. They've granted Alex Chiu a patent for his ring.

floccipics

I've got this idea ... and it will take a few months to execute based on my current rate of accomplishing things. I need to redo this site. I'm thinking of it as the version 2.0 release of the site. The changes will focus primarily on the template I use for the blog, and a major update will be made to the gallery section that has been languishing in disrepair ever since this current release of the site. I need to have a gallery section that is easier to update. Currently I don't update it because it takes too much time. So, while I go through the painful step of building a new template for the blog -- which will also be used for the gallery section -- I've done gone and created the blog for the gallery. It's currently being hosted on blogspot, but will move to this domain when I'm ready.

So, for my latest photographs, check out floccipics.

Hey Pig Piggy Pig Pig Pig

Today I was out with my wife, fulfilling our weekend duty of errands and grocery shopping. One of our stops was the local Costco for a few items. The place was packed, as it usually is during the weekends -- and maybe it was the rain and the crowd that got me going -- but I couldn't help but notice all the little pigs. You know who they are ... they're the ones that go grunting and snarfling from one trough to the next in grocery stores. They are willing to snarf down whatever samples are proffered by stores to entice shoppers to buy some new offering. Only these pigs aren't there for the "sample and buy" ritual. Oh no. They don't stand on ceremonies. They're there for the weekend's guttural communion. They flounder from trough to trough, with total disregard for other shoppers. Just grunt, snarfle and oink- oink! I hate pigs!

Quebéc City

Two weekends ago -- the Thanksgiving Weekend -- the family drove up to Quebéc City. It was probably an insane thing to do, as the amount of driving was just crazy -- but so is the VIA Rail prices, so I opted for driving. The entire weekend was overcast, with a little drizzle every now and again -- just to maintain the threat of down pour in case any hapless tourist got complacent. I was complacent. It was my trip to Quebéc City -- my first -- and I was going to be a tourist.

For my first time in the city, I thought it best that we paid for the overprice hotel to stay in the old city. We stayed at the Auberge Saint Pierre, which wasn't even a hop-skip-and-a-jump -- just a hop -- away from the Musée de la Civilisation (which btw, is not the same as the Canadian Museum of Civilization). We managed to avoid the museum. Staying in the old city however did afford us a chance to walk around the first night we were there. So we went up Côte de la Montagne and walked along rue Port-Dauphin, watching the sun disappear behind the clouds and down the horizon, and taking some sunset shots. That night, we had pizza for supper at a small restaurant not far from our hotel. It wasn't bad, and so Saturday ended.

The next day we did a big loop for the first half of the day -- first we went along rue du Petit-Champlain, looking at the shops, then ended up going absolutely nowhere along boulevard Champlain. Yes, we did see some plaque proclaiming that some soldiers stormed the cliff face to kick some French butts, but that was about it. So we doubled back and got some assistance scaling the cliff to some more history. We saw Porte Prescott, Le Château Frontenac, wandered along the Terrasse Dufferin, the along the Promenade des Gouverneurs and up to barely see the Citadelle. We didn't really go into the old fort. What's the point? That would need a half-day on its own. We then climbed up Porte Saint-Louis, looked at the Hôtel du Parlement from a distance, and wandered along rue Saint-Louis to find some place to eat. I really wanted poutine. What's the point of traveling all the way to Quebéc if I didn't have some poutine? Unfortunately, we ran into a "french" waiter who didn't see any point in serving anyone english. So we had subs instead.

In the afternoon on Sunday, we went driving. We went up to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré to see some Christian mythology. I saw figures of Christ being tortured by Romans. Catholics seem to have a sick fascination with seeing their God suffer. I don't get it. I'm sure Jesus had a good life up until the end. Let's face it, ending usually suck, and if you believe some of the stories that are being told, his ending really did suck. I'm surprised that the sheep didn't sack Rome. Instead, they allowed the wolves to blame the Jews and the wolves changed skin and became sheep dogs. Every now and again however, one of the wolves can't forgot their nature, and shed their skin, devouring a lamb or two. But I digress. We saw some Christian mythology, and I enjoyed the spectacle, especially to commerce.

On our way back to Quebéc City, we stopped off the Parc de la Chute-Montmorency to see what all the fuss was about. We risked life and limb to scale the "Panoramic Stairs" to get a few closer shots of the falls. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to go exploring. The suspension bridge over the falls, and the one that crossed the fault looked scary. I think we spent about an hour or so there, then went back to Quebéc City.

On Monday, we departed, but not before stopping under the 440 to take some pictures of some great art by the local graffiti artists. Yup, it was art, not illegible scribblings of the uneducated.

I've posted some of the pictures I took on Webshots. Click the photo below to be taken to the gallery.

Nanotoxicity

Occupational Hazards is running an article on a recent presentation at the Second International Symposium on Nanotechnology and Occupational Health, which suggested that asbestos has a lot to teach about the potential toxicity of nanotechnology. Asbestos was initially thought to be a miracle -- benign, and quite useful. Yet, it turned out to be not so miraculous, when it was found that asbestos, once in the air, made its way into the body and played havoc with organic tissue. Like asbestos, nanotechnology has the potential for widespread application -- a day doesn't seem to go by without another news announcement of some other application of nanotechnology -- and widespread application means the stuff will make it into the air whether we like it or not. Will it pose the same danger as asbestos? Truth is, no one really knows. Nanoparticles fill our biosphere, and we breathe them in with every breath. Some are probably harmful, some not. One thing for sure, evolution has brought us along this far with nanoparticles -- yet, how different will the artificial stuff be? Have we just been lucky? If we need to adapt to nanotechnology, we're going to be in serious trouble, as evolution is a slow one for changes.

UK Should Lift Astronaut Ban

That the UK has a ban in place, preventing the use of public money to fund sending astronauts into space is new to me. It is true however. England does not fund training and sending astronauts into space -- even via its commitment to ESA. A recent report by the Royal Astronomical Society however, suggests that the UK risks being left behind in the new push for human space exploration, unless it starts participating. The report suggests that while machines will continue to play a large role in space exploration, there's inherent value in having human participation that far outweighs the risks. Not sure I entirely agree with that take on things -- but let's face, it's more fun to have people landing on other planetary bodies than just robots.

Borealis String Quartet

Opening last night for Professor Clifford Will's lecture, Was Einstein Right?, was the Borealis String Quartet. I have no idea why the organizers of the lecture -- and the previous lectures I've been to recently -- feel the need to indulge us in some tortuous "music." Last night the Borealis String Quartet played two selections: Mozart's String Quartet in F major, K 590, and From Water to Ice, a piece written by Aaron Hryciw, a doctorate physics student of the University of Alberta. Apparently, From Water to Ice was written in recognition of the World Year of Physics. This piece was supposed to represent "water, freezing and ice" -- the different phases and the transition. Yeah, OK. I didn't get it. It sounded more like a piece of music written for a horror movie. That's not to say it was bad -- it was actually good -- just more fitting for a horror movie. I enjoyed it.

I don't get the need for a musical introduction to the lectures, and wish they would just skip it and get on with the talk. If anyone out there is from the organizers -- please -- no more music. Some of the previous lectures had really crappy music.

Was Einstein Right?

Tonight I attended a lecture sponsored by the Perimeter Institute, the Canadian Association of Physicists and the University of Toronto: Was Einstein Right? with Professor Clifford M. Will of Washington University. Will is a theoretical physicist, who was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and got his math and physics undergrad degree from McMaster. He's held posts at various universities in the US, and is also a recognized "expert" on Albert Einstein. I have no idea what that means, but that's the claim his brief bio made on tonight's programme.

Will is a pretty good speaker, who managed to bring the last one hundred years of Astronomy, from the perspective of Einstein's theories of general and special relativity, down the general audience level, without alienating too many of the science buffs in his audience. He cracked some real yawns, and had a wit that would only make a physicist laugh. His lecture didn't seek to answer the title's question -- rather, it served to educate the general audience, and as he put it, that was the job of a scientist -- to present what is known, and leave everyone to make up their own minds on whether Einstein got it right or not.

Will looked at the early years of Einstein's theories -- before the 1950s -- and asked why the theory never took off? -- never developed further? His answer was a two-parter. 1) It was thought that Einstein's theory, steeped in mathematics, was way too complex for many to understand. Even fellow scientists stayed away from it. 2) Einstein's theory was just that -- a theory. There was no experimental counterbalance to validate the theory, and for a long time, the interplay between experiment and theory didn't happen. Yes, there were early proofs of Einstein's theory, but there wasn't a drive to validate his theories with experiment.

In the 1960s, according to Will, the world witnessed a revolution in Astronomy. There were observations of some rather bizarre cosmic objects that didn't have a ready explanation. In general relativity however, theories could be found to explain what was being seen. Specifically, astronomers observed the first quasars; discovered the cosmic background radiation; observed the first pulsars; and found evidence for the existence of blackholes. Traditional Newtonian physics could not explain what was being seen, however Einstein's general relativity offered possibilities. This, with the explosion of technological advancements in the 1970s and university curricula that started emphasizing general relativity in graduate and undergraduate classes, set the stage for greater intellectual investment in general relativity.

So, was Einstein right? I already mentioned that Will didn't answer the question. What he did however, was elaborated on tantalising tests for general relativity.

1. General relativity postulates that space and time are one -- space-time -- a four-dimensional structure which is made malleable by matter, energy and their motion. Space-time deforms in four dimensions around energy and matter. In 1919, Frank Dyson, Charles Davidson and Arthur Eddington, obtained observational proof that space-time curves around matter by observing starlight being bent around the Sun during a solar eclipse.
2. Space-time curvature also allows for lenses to occur, when space-time is deformed by high concentrations of mass, such a galaxy clusters. These gravitational lenses causes light from distant sources to warp, or form cosmic mirages.
3. For sometime in the early 20th century, observations confirmed that Mercury's orbit was wobbling around the Sun -- known as Mercury's perihelion advance. This could not be accounted for by the gravitational influence of the Sun and other planets using Newtonian physics -- however, general relativity accurately predicted the observations.
4. Frame-Dragging is another prediction of general relativity that was realized by Joseph Lense and Hans Thirring in 1918. Lense and Thirring prediction that rotating matter could also have an impact on space-time -- specifically, a rotating object could cause space-time to twist. NASA's Gravity Probe B is a test for this prediction. Observations were completed last month, and data is now being crunched.
5. Just like the interaction of electricity and magnetism can generate electromagnetic waves, so too can the interaction of matter and energy generate gravitational waves, as predicted by general relativity. There is indirect evidence that gravitational waves exist via the binary pulsar system observed by Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor -- however, there is no direct observations. Interferometer observatories around the world are now looking for the elusive waves. (LIGO, VIRGO, GEO, TAMA and LISA.)
6. Finally, general relativity predicts that time would be impacted by gravity directly. Gravity probe A tested this postulate and proved it in 1976.

According to Will, that Einstein was motivated to develop his theories not to solve some fundamental problem in physics, but to find a solution that was simple, beautiful and elegant is not that remarkable -- what is remarkable is how well his theories have held up to tests and scrutiny by science. With that, I have to agree. That's truly remarkable.

Related links:

• An Introduction to General Relativity
  
• Tests of General Relativity

NDA on DNA

Most companies -- especially larger companies -- have non-discrimination policies. You know -- where they state that they don't care about your religion, age, gender, sexual preference, etc. -- really, they just care about increasing shareholder value. Whether the management staff -- at all levels -- live those commandments or not is a different story. Some habits are hard to change, and some discriminate, not even knowing that they do. Regardless, add to the list of things that companies should not be looking at when hiring, promoting and rewarding, is genetics. Genetics will become more and more a larger shroud hanging over society in this new century. IBM has taken the step of adding to their non-discrimination policy the stipulation that they will not discriminate using genetics either. It doesn't take much foresight to add the word genetics to the list -- yet, why aren't there many others doing the same? Probably because of ambivalence. Companies don't think it will ever become a problem. Sometimes I guess, you need a little disaster before change occurs.

Abderian

1. DrinkBoy -- Adventures in Cocktails. Many, many ways of just getting totally phished!
   
2. www Marketing Phrase Generator -- marketing phrases that mean absolutely nothing ... by design.
   
3. Kittiwat Unarrom -- call him Evil Bread Boy ... cause what else would you call a 28-year-old Thai art student, who makes break that looks like human body parts? Mom must be proud.(Click here for more pictures.)
   
4. Sidewalk Chalk Guy -- I've posted about this dude before. Here's some more art that's really remarkable.
   
5. Speedy Gonzalez (R-rated) -- whatever happened to Speedy Gonzalez? (And you can check out other toons that have slid from the public eye here.)

The Brood

Last night I saw the disturbing horror movie, The Brood, from David Cronenberg. Filmed in 1979, the movie remains one very creepy film. The movie stars Oliver Reed as Dr. Raglan, Samantha Eggar as Nola, Art Hindle as Frank and Cindy Hinds as Candice. Cronenberg is very effective in being creepy -- he uses the music and tension of the film to scare, without having to show the actual "brood." The Brood itself isn't frightening -- Cronenberg's use of them however, is. He pulls you in, building up the tension to such a degree that it becomes difficult to watch at times. The cinematography, music, acting -- everything about this film was just great. It's a classic, a masterpiece.

In the film, Frank is growing distant from his institutionalized wife, Nola, who is undergoing psychiatric treatment by Dr. Raglan -- a psychiatrist who employs some unconventional techniques that makes patients relive and confront their emotions. Nola has visitation rights at Raglan's clinic with her young daughter, Candice. Frank thinks Raglan is a fraud, and his concerns increases when he notices scratches and bite marks on Candice after a visit with her mother. Apparently, Raglan's treatments of Nola is manifesting her emotions in the form of a horde of deformed children that grow from her body, responding to her emotions and going on a murdering spree against those who anger their "mother." As Nola relives her past, her brood follows through and lashes out with her anger. No one is safe -- not her parents, her husband, and apparently, not even her young daughter.

As creepy as Nola's brood are, so is Cronenberg's exploration of Nola's past -- a past filled with emotional violence, childhood abuse from her mother, and the indifference from her father to it all. Samantha Eggar pulls off a quite disturbed Nola. As scary as Nola is, you also can't help but feel a bit sympathetic for her plight. She's a lost cause, and Frank is no help, as he doesn't understand her. Frank's only goal is to save his little daughter from her mother.

Moments of Greatness

I read a Harvard Business Review article while on the subway today: Moments of Greatness -- Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership. It's written by Robert E. Quinn of the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business -- who suggests that perhaps those great leaders out there are not really great all time -- mostly, they're like us, but every now and again, they have the capacity to enter into that fundamental state, where they truly lead. Quinn's conjecture is that great leaders are truly great because when they do go into that fundamental state, they do so not by emulating anyone, but "instead, they draw on their own fundamental values and capabilities -- operating in a frame of mind that is true to them."

This fundamental state of leadership is one that is temporary. We all spend most of our time in what he labels the normal state -- the state of comfort, where we go with the flow, make compromises and allow ourselves to be led by external forces. We usually find ourselves in the fundamental state when we have no other option left available -- it's usually the state that make great leaders, because it is the state they find themselves in when faced with a crisis. To cope, great leaders leave their comfort zone, and by so doing, set an example for all to follow; inspire greatness; and become themselves, great -- because they did the unthinkable.

To get to the fundamental state, Quinn's doctrine would have us ask ourselves four transformative questions.

1. Am I results centered? "Being comfort centered," says Quinn, "is hypocritical, self-deceptive, and normal." It's the normal state, where we do the things we've always done. Faced with new, challenging problems, doing the same thing may not always work. People already know how to do what has been done before -- great leaders take them somewhere they've never been before. Great leaders focus on results, becoming "proactive, intentional, optimistic, invested, and persistent."
2. Am I internally directed? In the normal state, we tend to be compliant with the norms and avoid conflict. This enables a shift away from being results oriented, to being focused on keeping the political peace. Being focused on getting along causes leaders to lose integrity.
3. Am I other focused? In the normal state, we focus on ourselves. In the fundamental state, we "become more focused on others -- to the collective good in relationships, groups, or organizations."
4. Am I externally open? Being in the normal state is to lock out external stimuli. Being open to external stimuli allows us to be open to learn from outside ourselves, and be aware of the need to change.

The fundamental state is temporary, but Quinn's rote provides leaders with a process to give themselves a kick in the pants when needed. It's a way of pushing you to think outside your comfort zone, and allow your natural talents to take charge. It's a way of treating the need for leadership as a crisis, and I think it just may work ... as long as we remember to think about it, and divorce ourselves from our comfort.

Meanderings

DJ BallmerFresh -- Let's start off with something way too funny. Check out this remix engine of Steve Ballmer's quotes set to hip hop beats. You do the mixing, Steve does the howling. From the Axis of Stevil site.

What Really Pisses Me Off -- here's a bit of a rant from IT Architect magazine. I'll quote you a bit of what pisses Michel Labelle off:

"... the vendor community is really starting to piss me off.
I'm not talking about the stupid marketing claims they make. You know all those flyers that come in the mail that my mailroom guy thankfully recycles before they reach my desk--or worse, my boss' desk. I'm also not talking about the sleazy salespeople who clog my phone trying to sell me the latest widget for a problem I never knew existed.
It's the consultants, implementation teams, and their project managers--but especially their self-imposed, underqualified, arrogant, self-righteous, know-nothing project managers."

I love it!

Quest for Other Worlds and Prospects for Life

I attended the 3rd Cosmic Frontiers lecture last Friday -- a series of University of Toronto lectures celebrating a century of Astronomy at the university. This lecture was by Professor Debra Fischer of San Francisco State University, and was titled, Quest for Other Worlds and Prospects for Life. The full abstract as provided by UofT, describes the talk as follows:

After a century of searching, the first planets outside our solar system were discovered 10 years ago. With a census of more than 150, these new worlds offer us some surprising insights into our own solar system. In this lecture, you'll learn:

1. how these extrasolar planets were discovered
2. whether astronomers now think that all stars host planetary systems
3. how these other solar systems compare with our own
4. about the implications for the existence of life in the galaxy

Most of the known extrasolar planets are similar to Jupiter and Saturn, the big planets in our solar system. But, the race to discover Earthlike planets is now in full swing and it is likely that terrestrial worlds will be discovered in the next decade. This talk will set the stage for these coming attractions!

Fischer's lecture was, as were the others of the series, directed towards the general audience -- for me however, there was a little less science, and a more generalization. Her entire lecture leaned heavily on pretty pictures -- which isn't entirely a bad thing -- pretty pictures are cool -- what was missing for me however, was exactly what it was we were looking at. She did identify what she showed, but didn't elaborate on really what they were. I guess I was looking for a little more Astronomy. Overall however, her lecture wasn't too bad. She's a clear and easy to understand speaker, and she did bring a lot of things down to the layperson level.

Fischer first set the context for her lecture by telling her audience a little about our own solar system. Then, the discoverer of the first multi-planet system other than our own, went on to tell of the findings of planetary systems around other stars that are not too different from our own. It's amazing what can be accomplished with a few photons that have travelled for millions of years through space.

From establishing that our solar system isn't alone anyone, Fischer went down the road of speculation to chat up her audience on the possibility of life elsewhere. She spoke of the Drake equation -- which arose from the SETI program. The equation is an attempt to quantify the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Fischer also expressed hope that the new Allen Telescope Array, which will be studying huge swathes of the sky using radio waves, while simultaneously doing SETI research, will bring in data that may add clarity to question: Is anyone out there?

Finally, Fischer took on the biggest critic to those speculating on extraterrestrial life: those who support the rare Earth hypothesis -- which states that the conditions for creating life on Earth are so rare, that the chances of it occurring elsewhere is therefore very slim. Suggesting that we're probably alone in the universe and should get use to it. Fischer looked at the criteria the rare Earth believers use and took them apart one-by-one. She's definitely a believer in us not being alone. I think most Astronomers and their ilk have to be that way -- after all, what's the use spending so much time looking out there if you don't buy the possibility that there might be something out there staring back? As Fischer said, "We're here. And one data point is better than none." Maybe us being here is all the proof we'll ever get -- and that wouldn't be so bad.

For related reading, check out the following:

• Could We Search for Primitive Life on Extrasolar Planets in the Near Future? The DARWIN Project. [PDF]
• PlanetQuest -- the Search for Another Earth
• Extrasolar Visions
• The Search for the Extrasolar Planets: A Brief History of the Search, the Findings and the Future Implications
• Planets Orbiting Other Suns
• A test for the search for life on extrasolar planets. Looking for the terrestrial vegetation signature in the Earthshine spectrum. [PDF]
• Simulation of a Space-based Microlensing Survey for Terrestrial Extrasolar Planets [PDF]
• Extrasolar planets [PDF]

Bloody Moon

Cheap, exploitive crap -- the stuff Jess Franco is all about. Bloody Moon is an Italian movie, that's dubbed really, really badly, in English, with an annoying soundtrack. That really matters little however, because it's all about about the cheap thrills -- a good deal of nudity and great deal of screams and bloody gore.

The plot -- a horribly scarred heir to a fortune is released from psychiatric treatment after committing a murder five years previous. He is released to his sister's custody at an all-girls Spanish school. Then the killing starts. The brother appears to be up to his old tricks, as one by one, the girls perish in some gruesome ways. I'll spare the details. Franco is true to form with Bloody Moon. There are screams -- people running around for no reason -- and an absolute lack of common sense in the characters. The one redeeming quality in the plot however, is the end. It turns out that just about everybody is a killer, and there are the usual motives: money and love. I won't give the ending away. If you catch this on late-night TV, you're probably going to see the heavily cut version -- to really appreciate the sleaze, you have to see it uncut.

Space News

Mars and Earth have been getting closer to each other since the summer, and be the closest to each other for the next 13-years on Oct. 30th. You can find Mars in the night sky, after 8PM, in the east. It will appear as the brightest star in the sky. You won't need a telescope to find it -- and it should be visible from most cities. NASA is taking advantage of this close encounter, and has sent the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to the planet. On board, it's carrying the HiRISE camera -- a 1200 megapixel camera that will be taking some of the most detailed pictures of Mars ever! (Let's just hope no one made a mistake that will send the ship careening off into the Sun.)

On Oct. 17th, the Hunter's Moon -- will be partially eclipsed for those living on the Pacific. For some excellent animation, check out the Shadow & Substance website.

China's Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng continue to float around in the Shenzhou 6 spacecraft in Earth's orbit. The duo are making history, being part of China's second manned spaceflight. China is taking this opportunity of being on the world stage to hint of its rapid ascent to join the spacefaring nations, with announcements of plans to build a new space port to support the next generation Long March rockets. Incidentally, I believe this is also a historic event, in that it's the first time that Chinese food has been eaten in space. Unfortunately, the astronauts couldn't order take out, but had to bring their own food.

Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft continues to run into trouble at asteroid Itokawa. The spacecraft has lost its second stabilization wheel, and is now relying solely on its last to keep it oriented with the asteroid. The ambitious mission will see the spacecraft touchdown onto the surface of collect dust samples that will return to Earth. The sample-collect mission will have Hayabusa land twice on the surface of Itokawa -- each time it lands, it will fire pellets into the surface of the asteroid, then take off to capture the dust ejected. The spacecraft is also carrying the Minerva probe that will launch to hop across the surface of the asteroid to take pictures and temperature readings. Quite the ambitious mission -- and quite imaginative too.

The Decline & Fall of Randolph Hobson Guthrie III

Wired is carrying the story of the failed life -- so far anyway -- of Randy Guthrie. Guthrie was born into a privileged life, and is by all indications, extremely smart, and incredibly stupid. He was arrested in China for DVD piracy and is now serving a sentence in Chinese prison -- once he's out, he will be deported to the US, where he will have to suffer more of the same. As the article points out, Guthrie is being used as an example, and in many ways a bad one. He was a two-bit player in the DVD piracy game -- and his arrest will not even lead to a dip in the piracy of DVDs. Guthrie was buying DVDs from a Chinese licensed store in Shanghai, and shipping them to customers who ordered online from him. He was stupid enough to think that no one cared enough to do anything about it. And truth be told, only the US cares. The Chinese don't. He was arrested by the Chinese authorities who wanted to throw their American counterparts a little bone. The chose Guthrie because he was an American, and the irony of it was just too nice to pass up. The Chinese however, never went after the middle men that supplied the stores that supplied Guthrie. They didn't go after the manufacturers of the pirated discs. They didn't even wonder where the digital files to make the DVDs were coming from -- especially since some movies were still in theatres, and hadn't been released for DVD publishing. Neither, it appears are the Americans too concerned. The MPAA (like the RIAA) is, fixated on the consumers.

Bulletproof Monks

This one comes via Excreta. Apparently, Buddhist monks need protection in southern Thailand, where the population is predominantly Muslim. A non-violent religion, requiring protection from one that is violent.

Creature

Creature ... a bad, bad movie.

Soon as it started, it was predictable. On a mission to Titan, some aliens are discovered in what looks like escape pods. There is only skeletal remains ... or ... yup ... one of them may actually be alive. Next thing we know, everybody dies. So, a crew is sent to find out what was discovered, claim it and return samples home. (How they knew something was discovered from the first ill-fated mission is movie magic.) The crew that is sent to Titan is from one of two competing companies racing to Titan to find whatever it is and bring it back -- one German, the other US.

Corny lines started the mission ...

Girl: "There's something about this trip. It's creepy."
Boy: "It's fear of the unknown, it's natural."
Girl: "No. I'm not coming back. Make love to me."

With that, you just know she deserves the death coming. Especially when the camera stays too long on her, and she finds ... the dead bodies ... and the creepy alien ... and then people start to die ... and come back as zombies for the rest of them who're still alive.

Does it all sound familiar? That's because it's a bad Alien knock-off, where you follow around some really loud people that are supposed to be sneaking around ... and they ask really dumb questions ... and find alien eggs. And live aliens. There's also a creepy security officer that doesn't smile, doesn't talk, dresses in black leather and loves violence. The, other company is German ... and their crew too are picked off by the creature that lurks in the shadow. The lone survivor is a horny German who seems to find all the death, space aliens and the predicament of the US crew, amusing. I think the German is more of an alien than the creature picking them off.

Lessons this movie teaches:

When your dead girlfriend comes back to life, don't go chasing after her. She does want you to join her. You're going to be dead soon. When she appears naked on the lunar surface, it's because the aliens got her.

When people start dying, don't split up. It makes it easy for the "creature" to pick you all off one at a time.

People who get sent on ill-fated space missions are usually idiots. Required training should be several hours worth of horror movies.

Listen to the music playing in the background -- it will warn you when the bad guys are coming.

Any special effects, even bad special effects, will kill aliens -- or guys dressed in bad rubber costumes, stumbling around, trying to look like aliens.

Just when you think it's over, it's probably not. And the next thing you know, you'll be hanging upside down, ready to be a tasty morsel for the creature.

Ladies -- you do all the work, take all the risks, and when it's time to get some help, the guys will always think of themselves first.

Screaming louder into the radio won't make it work all of a sudden.

Turn around, it's right behind you!

Designing High-Performance Jobs

The July-August issue of the Harvard Business Review carries a great article by Robert Simons: Designing High-Performance Jobs. (You may remember Robert Simons as the guy of the Levers of Control.) The idea of the article is really simple.

"For your business to achieve its potential, each employee's supply of organizational resources should equal his or her demand for them, and the same supply-and-demand balance must apply to every function, every business unit, and the entire company."

To understand the supply-and-demand perspective of a high-performance job, Simons suggests the need to know the four spans of job design, and how to apply them to a particular job to be successful. These spans of job design can be used as levers, to be moved in order to generate the desired result. There isn't a correct setting, as it all depends on what the required outcome is and the culture of the organization. To apply the spans, you really have to know your organization, and know what you're trying to accomplish. The spans of job design are described as follows:

1. The Span of Control defines the range of resources that an employee has control and accountability over.
2. The Span of Accountability defines the range of factors influencing the measures of an employee's performance. If you measure narrowly, you're holding an employee accountability for complying with directives, while a wide measure encourages creativity and risk taking.
3. The Span of Influence defines the sphere the employee will operate under in seeking information and influencing the work of others, to achieve their objectives. This span can be widen to encourage out-of-the-box thinking -- or narrowed to focus on the adherence of well defined processes.
4. The Span of Support defines the extent to which an employee can expect support from outside their organizational unit. This span can be adjusted based on how much an organization shares a common focus on an objective, such as customer service.

Achieving the right balance for a job is of course the difficult task. The spans of job design is only a tool; how you use it is a different story. Simons offers some guidance in the article. The supply side of the equation is governed by the spans of control and support -- where control is hard, and support, soft. On the other side, demand is governed by the spans of accountability -- hard -- and influence -- soft. To achieve high-performance jobs, the supply and demand sides must balance. Simons also suggest that you can use this equation as a simple test to see if there is balance within a job -- or if a job is simply destined for failure based on its design. Failure usually comes as a result of imbalance, manifesting itself either in a problem with resources, control or red tape.

Simons' article is a great read, and thought provoking. His ideas can be applied to organizations or individuals -- and provides a great tool for thinking your way through job design or evaluating your state in an organizational dystopia.

Return of the King

The latest Wired magazine carries a cover article heralding the big screen release of Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong, in December. Many are expecting Jackson to surpass the miracle he performed with LOTR. He has full creative reigns on KK; lots of money; and is doing it his way -- way, way, down under. What I didn't know before this article, is that Jackson is not being secretive about the making of KK. Which is quite the reverse of LOTR, when the studio kept a lid on absolutely everything. With this film however, Jackson is keeping an online journal, opening the entire filming process to the world -- for those who want to see what he's doing. It's not like there's any secret to KK. We all know the story, and all know what to expect. Estimates suggest that Jackson may amass more film for the making of the film than he will have for the film itself. Which I suppose is really cool for the hardcore film buffs and students.

Cypher

Just finished watching Cypher. The movie is supposed to be a spy thriller ... sort of ... and it did have me going. It follows the convoluted tale of Morgan Sullivan, who is recruited by one organization (A) to become a spy against another (B). In reality, he's being brainwashed to become someone else, so he can perfectly infiltrate, B, the company he's spying against. Problem however, is that B has chosen him to be a double agent -- and they proceed to deprogram him, and turn him against A. If that's not all complicated, Rita Foster is introduced as this mysterious woman, sent to help him, by some unknown benefactor. Things become so complicated, that Sullivan no longer knows who is who, who he is, and which side anybody is on. More and more it's becoming clear to him that he's a pawn of everyone, and there appears to be no one on his side -- even the mysterious Foster, who he's falling for.

It was a great premise -- and Jeremy Northam wasn't too bad as Sullivan. Lucy Liu was sort of annoying as Rita Foster, but I chalk that up to having to play a really stupid role. A great premise, yes, then it falls miserably on its face as the end approaches. The entire movie led to a disappointing conclusion. I don't want to spoil your misery, so I won't give away the conclusion -- but it's bad. Really, really bad.

After seeing the end, the entire movie takes on a different light. I was OK with the inconsistencies, and the knowledge everyone seemed to have -- none of which the half-wit Sullivan appeared to have any benefit of. But after the end ... the entire movie just descended into to poop.

Run for the Cure

Nancy G. Brinker is a remarkable woman. She made a promise to her sister, who at age 36, was dying of breast cancer. The promise ... to not let other women suffer as her sister did, from breast cancer. A year after her sister died, Brinker formed the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation -- named after her sister. At little while after, the first Run for the Cure event to raise funds for breast cancer research was held. Today, hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised by the Run for the Cure -- and along the way, Nancy G. Brinker has made a significant dent in the fight against breast cancer. Unfortunately, her promise is long from fulfilled. The fight is hardly over.

Dione Flyby

The Cassini spacecraft has taken some beautiful images of Saturn's moon, Dione, in the recent flyby yesterday. The images are still unprocessed, but doesn't distract from the beauty.

Image courtesy of CICLOPS.

Pigs

Ahh ... classic sleaze from the 70s! I watched Pigs the other night, and it was actually watchable -- kind of like the way you stare at something for a while, not realizing what it is, and when you do, you go "Eewww!" -- turn away, but it's too late, it's been burned into your retina -- into your brain. That's the kind of movie it is.

The plot is fairly simple. There are pigs, and they eat people. Around that plot is a force-fed storyline, revolving around Lynn, who has escaped from a mental institution after she murdered her father for raping her. What isn't explained, is why she continues to profess her love for him, and keeps calling him on the phone and talking to him. I guess that's the crazy in Lynn. She escapes to a small town, where she gets a job as a waitress from a weird old man named Zambrini -- who, rumour has it, died and came back from the dead. Zambrini feels charitable for Lynn, and provides her with room & board as part of the job. But he ain't too much of a nice guy either. He farms pigs on the side, and at night, he feeds them the bodies of the recently deceased that he's dug up from the local cemetery. When Lynn starts killing, Zambrini doesn't question, and instead disposes of the bodies in the pig pen. Zambrini is crazy, however, Lynn just might be more crazy that he is.

Next time you sit down for some pork, you should wonder what the pig that came before it had. You never know. The movie isn't scary, frightening, or even freaky. It's weird, has passable actors, but bad cinematography and sound. It could have been made scary by ringing up the tension, getting a real musical score and making Lynn and Zambrini a little more menacing. Oh well ...

DARPA Grand Challenge

And we have a winner! DARPA's grand challenge ended without a complete disaster this year, with vehicles actually finishing for once. Five of them actually. The winning team, taking home $2 million cash, was for Stanford's "Stanley." Finishing in just under 7 hours and averaging 19 mph, Stanley was hailed as a great leap forward for autonomous, robotic vehicles. While the accomplishment was a great one, it somehow doesn't quite conjure up the image of deadly robotic vehicles scouring a battlefield and picking off humans as they cower in fear. That of course if the reason for DARPA's grand challenge. But I suppose the beginning of the end of the human race would have to have a modest beginning.

The Longest Goodbye

Baseline Magazine has a great article chronicling the retirement of Reader's Digest Unified File System (UFS) -- or the elegant old lady, as it came to be known. What is amazing in the story, is not that Reader's Digest was retiring a system, but the system itself that was being retired. It was ahead of its time, built with foresight that seemed miraculous, and survived much longer than anyone ever thought it would -- then again, I'm sure some never thought they would see the end of it.

Born in November of 1969, the system was at the heart of Reader's Digest business. It was,

"The first system to unify tens of millions of names and addresses from different businesses into one file and then, add a record of every marketing contact made with each customer. And then, add a record of every product sent to the customer. And then, a record of every payment, as well. Decades before the idea took hold that there was such a thing, The Reader's Digest Association was compiling a "360-degree view" of each of its customers and allowing its direct marketing operation to figure out how much profit a campaign might produce, before the first envelope was sent out."

It was built at a time when bytes were not a commodity. The mainframe could only handle 64K in memory, and limited memory meant that everything had to be coded in base 16. It was a system built to keep the records of up to 50 million customer on a single file, at a time when the US population was only 57.4 million, according to the US Census Bureau. The system was built open for future modifications and changes by the users -- this also at a time when everything was hardcoded, and system engineers were like magicians tending their computers. No one could make changes to system parameters without the engineers and programmers. Despite the times, the foresight with which the UFS was built, allowed it to survive for 35 years -- and gave Reader's Digest a first entry advantage in creating what may have been the world's first CRM system.

The article reads like a history lesson. It was informative, and entertaining.

Elocutionist's Treatise

The subway denizens are usually not interesting enough to keep me occupied on my daily travels to and from work. Instead, I fill my time with nonsense.

Game Boy -- At 24-years-old, Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel is becoming an old man in a sport where an athlete peaks in his late teens. Fatal1ty is a hardcore gamer, and one who is in top form in his sport, but hot on his heels are younger players vying for the glory, the respect and the payday. Fatal1ty has a plan however -- he's aiming for higher glory in his sport. He's building a brand, and is looking to bring respectability and acceptance to his sport before he leaves the spotlight. Think you know gaming? Read for more.

Star Search -- Here's an interesting premise: invest in your human capital, and you stand a better chance of success, and responding to the rapidly changing world. However, like many things, executives take a short-term view of human capital and pay the subject the merest of lip service. The lip service can be brutal for employees: the external coaching, 360-reviews, employee satisfaction surveys and other such well-being evaluations. If businesses realize however, that there is an impending shortage of qualified staff, they may pay more attention. The baby boomers will be retiring in droves, and their sheer numbers can't be filled by GenX-ers -- as there aren't that many of them. If businesses invest in their employees, there's a greater likelihood that they will be able to retain those people when headhunters come calling.

Wolfram -- Stephen Wolfram has built a mini empire around his Mathematica software, and is also looking to leverage it to rewrite scientific thinking. What if the universe was just an algorithm? And what if you could use Mathematica to explore it? Well then, the first thing I would do is download a pirated version of Mathematica and start tweaking the universe for free! For related reading, check out:

Read Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science online

Stephen Wolfram interview at BioITWorld.com, after the publishing of his book.

Ray Kurzweil's Reflections on Stephen Wolfram's 'A New Kind of Science'

I can't get no ...

I'll be out of the house for the next couple of days, heading out to Quebec City, where apparently, the weather sucks. It's going to be cold -- but that's not a problem -- and it's going to friggin' rain -- all weekend long! Just great! All for my first time in the city. That, and French! Gaaaaa!

Vive la Poutine!

Jon Stewart

Last night my wife and I got home after midnight, after catching Jon Stewart live at Toronto's Massey Hall. The stand-up show featured Stewart's usual repertoire -- comedy with a stinging dose of social commentary. His stance for the "reasonable" person is great -- lashing out at both the extreme left and right that have hijacked government, media and the world. Why does 20% of the population -- the crazies -- have control? Because the rest of us "reasonable" folk just "have shit to do." We're busy. We don't have time for the interests of the extremes. Unfortunately, that means giving up control.

If you've only ever seen Jon Stewart on television, you're missing quite a bit of him. Check him out live. The television filter comes off and he tells the jokes not suitable for his show on Comedy Central.

Photograph by Matthias Clamer for Wired Magazine.

1918 Flu Virus Reconstructed

A victim of the 1918 flu epidemic that was buried in the Alaskan permafrost, has aided researchers in genetically reconstructing the virus. The virus samples that were created are stored at the CDC, but the genetic information has been made publicly available on GenBank. Why recreate the virus that claimed 50 million lives?

To study it. The 1918 flu bears remarkable resemblance to the avian flu that today holds the potential to become a epidemic. The 1918 flu occurred naturally in bird species, but became lethal when it showed up in humans. In humans, it began spreading from person to person until 50 million people died. Today's avian flu virus hasn't spreading rapidly as yet, and only 65 people have died -- but, with today's movement of people all over the world, it wouldn't take long for a lethal strain to spread and decimate the human population on the planet. Researchers wish to study to 1918 virus to learn more of what could potentially come, and develop defences against it.

Browser Wars: Flock Attacks

Just when you thought we had seen the end of the browser wars, Firefox flew rose from the ashes of Mozilla. Now get ready for another entry that intends to take a deep swathe into Internet Explorer's side. Flock is coming. According to BusinessWeek Online:

"Flock hopes to turn the browser into a dashboard for collaborating, blogging, sharing photos, reveling in a raft of other group activities that have recently caught fire online."

Expected to be launched in two weeks, Flock will make it easier for Bloggers to edit, reference and post content to their blogs; allow web surfers to instantly tag sites at del.icio.us; and most importantly, Flock will be easy to customize to enhance the browsing experience of the average Jane. Early testers have apparently given the browser the thumbs up, but it's too early to tell if the initial buzz will be translated to wide adoption. People are creatures of habit and lazy. It takes effort to change.

Video iPod

While Steve Jobs continues to deny Apple will ever release an iPod with video playback capabilities, industry watchers say it's only a matter of time before they do. Jobs has steadfast denied that Apple was interested in such a device because he didn't believe there was a market for it. Competitors of course haven't been waiting for the king of portable MP3 players to make the first move. Stalwarts of the portable devices business, who took a beating after Apple released the iPod, have all launched portable video players over the past little while. It looks like their honeymoon was short lived. AppleInsider is reporting rumours that next week, Jobs will take to the stage to launch the video iPod. The device is rumoured to be similar to the the 60GB portable photo player, but thinner, sporting a click-wheel similar to the one found on the iPod Nano. AppleInsider expects that Apple will also announce an update to the iTunes site, allowing it to carry video content for the video iPod.

I fully expect Jobs will be doing as AppleInsider is suggesting -- debuting the video iPod -- but I also expect Jobs will be launching a suit against AppleInsider, for the speculation they are doing.

Graphic, courtesy of BusinessWeek.

Fausto 5.0

I saw this Spanish movie the other night -- it's an update on Goethe's Faust, in which Faust -- or Fausto in this update -- is a medical doctor, who is in love with his assistant, but too uptight and caught up in his work to express himself to her. Fausto works on terminal cases -- patients who have no hope left -- and maybe that's why he goes around being so depressed all the time. On his way to a conference at some unmentioned city, he meets a former patient of his, Santos, who was a terminal cancer patient. He removed Santos cancerous stomach, but didn't give Santos much time to live. Santos surpassed all expectations, and has been living now for years since the operation. Meeting his doctor after years, Santos now wants to repay him, by granting all his wishes.

And so, Fausto descends into a seedy underworld of Santos -- becoming more and more like Santos -- living, but living without a care. As Fausto falls lower, he starts to see Santos in a darker light. What is Santos really? How come he seems to know so much? Why is he bent on giving Fausto every perverse wish his heart desires?

The cinematography of the movie is quite fitting for the topic. The hotel that Fausto stays at is covered in hanging sheets to protect it from the city it seems. Workers wander around the city on clean up duty -- as if there was some sort of chemical spill; construction or deconstruction seems to be happening everywhere. The entire film has a tone of something unfinished or dying. Life simply isn't complete there.

If you're familiar with Faust, this movie will certainly make sense to you, and be of interest. It's an interesting interpretation.

VoIP Tap-tap-tapping

The FCC has decided [PDF] that it will expect broadband ISPs and Internet phone services, such as Skype, that can route calls to the PSTN, to be wiretap ready by 2007. The new rules aren't new at all, but are an extension of the rules that already govern wiretapping on the PSTN. What isn't clear is how these rules apply to private businesses that have switched to VoIP; small businesses or individuals that provide WiFi or access points to the internet; or, what happens if these companies don't fall in line by 2007. As well, while companies like Skype are declaring themselves to be telephone companies -- it's not clear whether the FCC is on firm legal ground by lumping ISPs into the same group. Further, the FCC dropped another little bomb, when it implied consumers may only be allowed run applications or use services on their computers, if the software and services complied with the needs of law enforcement. While not law, it is a principle [PDF] that the FCC has decided to adopt to shape future policies. Do I hear a collective WTF? I'm glad I'm Canadian! And I hope we're not going to follow suit.

Wal-Mart is Evil

There appears to be no hope of reform for Wal-Mart -- it is an evil organization. Don't get me wrong -- I don't think the people who work there are evil -- just the organization -- represented foremost by their executives and their board. Why such an audacious claim? (If you think the claim is audacious, you're probably an employee of Wal-Mart that is part of the problem, or very naive.)

Take this article on Wal-Mart's "charm offensive" that has been published by BusinessWeek. After years of giving the finger to critics, Wal-Mart is finally realizing that maybe they should lend an ear to the criticism. Wal-Mart has been criticized for just about everything evil in business: for being a global conglomerate that wields its clout like a scythe; to the environmental havoc its business practices are directly responsible for; for keeping prices low at the expense of employees and the use of third world sweat shops; and resisting unionization wherever it went -- going so far as closing down operations rather than succumbing to organized labour. You don't have to agree with all the criticisms -- but chances are, there is at least one that will resonate with you -- and the preceding sample is by no means exhaustive.

Wal-Mart is finally responding to some of the criticism, not because they are necessarily genuine in believing that they have erred in some way -- they're responding because all that criticism is actually resulting in a sales drop. The bottom line has taken a hit. Says Wal-Mart's CEO and Evil Leader Extraordinaire, H. Lee Scott Jr.:

"When growth was easier this idea of critics being ignored was O.K., because you were getting all this positive feedback from the numbers. As the share price slows [and] the critics are attacking, you have to get to this point. Maybe not all of our critics wish us harm. Maybe some would like us to be a better company and do things differently. So you start reaching out...trying to understand what is it about us that causes them to have this concern. How much of it is legitimate? How much of it is misinformation? What is it that we need to change? What is it we can't [change] that we will hopefully be able to communicate?"

Translation: sales have tanked because of all the bitching -- Wal-Mart will now listen so they can regain sales. Scott even admits that they could be a better company! He's aware that they are a bane on this world.

To this end, Wal-Mart has created a propaganda machine dubbed "Action Alley." It's staffed by Wal-Mart's own spinmasters, as well as professional lairs from PR firm Edelman. "Action Alley" has been tasked with getting the voice of corporate -- the propaganda machine -- going. When hurricane Katrina shredded New Orleans, "Action Alley" was busy shoveling manure on the positive actions of those low paid Wal-Mart staffers in the field. Stores were opening their doors to release supplies to shoppers in their neighbourhoods and "Action Alley" was salivating as they capitalized on the heroic efforts of Wal-Mart's peons. Not only does Wal-Mart ride the little guy to billions in profits, but when the chips are down, they flog the poor bastards to the media to take credit for their heroism. The spin continues.

Some of the actions Wal-Mart is taking in response to their critics is positive -- regardless of their motivations. It's good that they are reducing packaging -- although they're saving money in doing it; and using solar power in a couple of new stores -- although they're saving money in doing it; and monitoring their sweatshops -- although they're not allowing independent monitors in. There is some good -- but the motivation is just not there to do any good. They're doing it because sales suck. They're responding in certain areas cause it saves them money. Asked about the impact to their low cost model by going a little green on the environment, Evil Scott responds with:

"That is what you have to be careful about. There are things that change your business costs. When it comes to the environment, there is so much we can do as a company that actually lowers our costs. This is the appropriate place to start because you're not trading off higher prices for this or that."

Translation: it's about Wal-Mart stupid. It's not about the community we live and operate in, or the world we all have to live in and have a social responsibility for. It's all about profits. That's the loudest "fuck you" I've heard directly from a retail CEO -- one that makes me wonder why the hell people continue to shop and work there.

Related reading:

Evil Scott complains about another company being evil.

Articles on Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart CEO vows 'unfiltered truth'

Is Wal-Mart Good for America? Secrets of Wal-Mart's Success.

Wal-Mart fires back at opponents

Frontiers of Science

The latest issue of Discover Magazine features 50-pages of the Frontiers of Science. 50-pages and 25 areas of scientific exploration that presents "groundbreaking research, where tangible results meet tantalizing possibilities." It is some very neat science presented for a general audience in easy to digest bits of prose, clearly illustrated by informative graphics. For the casual science reader, or those with an active intellect, the special report is a nice little treat.

The topics covered are:

Archeology, virtual digging at a fabled site; Behavior, can Flu bring on psychosis?; Climate, no easy way out of the greenhouse; Cosmology, Data, what patterns lie in our growing mass of data?; Energy, the promise of pond scum; Fertility, ready when you are; Genomics, hapmaps link disease, genes; Geophysics, the moon inside Earth; Gravity, tabletop physics; Human Origins, digital ancestors walk again; Infectious Diseases, keeping ahead of bacteria and viruses; Longevity, could a pill add decades to your life?; Materials, stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. Now what?; Microelectronics, new spin on circuitry goes beyond transistors; Nanotechnology, tiny bots make muscle and bone; Nutrition, nutritional genomics makes diets personal; Oceanography, 20,000 probes under the sea; Paleontology, soft tissue from dinosaurs; Planets, gravitational tug leads us to Earth II; Science Education, a quantam leap for schools; Sex, sex chromosomes linked to human intelligence; Space Travel, probes that hop, bounce, and roll across Mars; The Brain, the bionic age begins; and, Tissue Engineering, to grow new organs.

Working Smarter

The latest issue of BusinessWeek magazine carries a special report on the epidemic of increasing work hours and time constraints that are driving professionals to the brink. "Over 31% of college-educated male workers are regularly logging 50 or more hours a week at work, up from 22% in 1980. About 40% of American adults get less than seven hours of sleep on weekdays, up from 34% in 2001. Almost 60% of meals are rushed, and 34% of lunches are choked down on the run."

"This epidemic of long hours at the office defies historical precedent and common sense. The Information Revolution has boosted productivity by almost 70%." Yet, we're all working harder, longer hours, and are finding less downtime. "Succeeding in today's [global] economy requires lightning-fast reflexes and the ability to communicate and collaborate across the globe." Even within organizations, business units can longer afford to work in silo. There are just too many inefficiencies -- loss of potential -- from operating units that are independent of each other. Innovation -- value -- comes from collaboration. It's all about the network stupid.

Great -- but how to solve this problem? How do you bring collaboration to the masses? Organizations have been struggling with internal collaboration for sometime now, and the independent fiefdoms still exist, remain healthy, and generally regard each other with mistrust. Collaboration between businesses have fared no better. Yes, there are open standards and processes that have industry-giant backing -- but so what? There's hardly any trust to adopt collaborative processes fully. BusinessWeek suggests that this problem has an Achilles heel -- namely, the existing hierarchical and manager led corporate structure. Shoshana Zuboff, a former Harvard Business School professor says, "Nobody wants to give up their territory or control." Lowell Bryan of McKinsey & Co., says: "Professionals are still being managed as if they were in factories, in organizations designed to keep everybody siloed. At less well-run companies, you're struck by how frustrated people are. They work like dogs and are wasting time." BusinessWeek suggests that there is good news for this problem to be solved. Smart organizations will become successful at collaboration, and they will become successful, killing their less nimble competitors. To become successful, companies will have to make it easier for their employees to work smarter and deal with processes that ever increasingly complex.

Of course, you always read about those companies in industry press -- but how many of us actually work for one of them? While we may not as individuals, be able to incite a revolution to get back control of our lives, we could influence the small sphere around us. If you're a manager with staff, read the article and try changing your team to encourage collaboration and increase the chances of personal and business success. At the very least, you should be able to give back a little bit of sanity to your staff.

In & Around Cococonk

My wife and I went cruising yesterday. We went out to Port Perry first, for "afternoon tea" at a little cafe that is our favourite up there. They happen to make some great jams, soup, sandwiches and scones. Afterwards, we headed across 7A, up 35, across 48, then back down a few different roads. To tell the truth, the route was a little more adventurous than the simplified version above. We stopped in Cococonk for me to take one photograph, then outside of Cococonk for a few more. Click the photo below to see the rest.

Straight to Hell

Oh, what a putrid piece of work this is! Filmed in 1987, Straight to Hell should have been sent straight to hell. It is supposedly a western-comedy. A comedy. A western. It is neither. The movie follows a trio of killers that are simply inept. They rob a bank, and decide to hide out in a town in the desert -- burying the money just out of town. The town is apparently dominated by a clan. None of them are nice. They're killers. They don't like strangers. And they wouldn't mind that money stolen from the bank. Stupid things happen. Everybody breaks out into song. Too often. And they shout. Courtney Love is in this movie. The woman is annoying. She whines, and she screams -- just like her music. The entire movie just grated on me. The acting was atrocious; the filming was crap ... the only thing good in the movie was the music by the Pogues. For some reason, people love this movie. I chalk it up to pretentions. People think it's cool because Alex Cox, the director, made some cool movies. This one however -- just crap.

University of Toronto

Back in the beginning of July this year, my wife and I went on a historic walking tour of the University of Toronto -- the buildings were historic, not necessarily the walk we did. The walk was primarily focused on the buildings at Kings College Circle -- the centre of the St. George campus. My wife and I both attended UofT, but we've never been on such a tour. So it was, something different. I took some pictures that day -- the day was great, the buildings were lovely -- but my camera's white balance was set for indoor photography -- so some of the lighter tones appear washed out.

I've posted the pictures on my Webshots account. Click the photo below to see them.

University of Toronto's Convocation Hall.

Way Too Cool: Tales of Stellar Corpses

I went to the second lecture of the Cosmic Frontiers series at the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall, last night. The Cosmic Frontier series of lectures are to celebrate 100 years of Astronomy at the University of Toronto, and there are two more lectures left of the series. Last night's speaker was David Helfand of Columbia University, and he spoke, more or less, for the general audience, although a casual acquaintance of Astronomy and Astrophysics wouldn't hurt to get the most from his talk. His talk focused on our current understanding of neutron stars, and how they are acting as a bridge between the world at the cosmic scale, where gravity holds sway, and the world of the quantum, where the bizarre occurs. The abstract of his lecture summarizes the lecture quite well:

On an early August evening in 1181 AD, Chinese astrologers were shocked to find a brilliant new star in the sky, outshining all the others. They recorded it as a "sign of ill-omen". Modern astronomers, studying the site of this apparition are considerably more sanguine. The explosion witnessed by the Chinese has left behind a dense, spinning neutron star whose temperature may hold the key to understanding the atomic nucleus. The lecture will show how observing this stellar corpse 10,000 light years away reveals new insights into that structure of matter at its smallest scale.

The photograph of Professor Helfand used to promote this lecture is one from his younger days -- in it, the long hair, bearded astronomer, is standing in front of blackboard, that has an image of a supernova inserted on it. In the black and white program, the photo looks for all the world, like Jesus, with a halo of light behind him. Professor Helfand turned out to be an older version of the young man in that photo. His hair is white -- he's partially bald, with his hair drawn back in a ponytail -- and he's put on a little weight -- chubby, not fat. He has transitioned from what may have been a revolutionary Jesus, to a grandfatherly Santa Claus, who loves to tell stories. Don't get me wrong, Helfand is still quite active in his field. He's an animated, engaging speaker -- witty and quite quick on his feet. He was a pleasure to listen to, as he was to observe.

Way Too Cool. Helfand began by putting his area of study in context -- both in a historical sense, and in the grander subject of Astronomy and Astrophysics. One very effective way of demonstrating the need to look at the universe in more than just the visible spectrum, is to relate it to sound. We can't see what we can't see without the aid of technology. With technology, we've been able to peer into the wider spectrum, from gamma rays to radio. Imagine if the 10 octaves we can hear, represented the entire spectrum, then slowly take away octaves to leave only what we can see within the visible range -- Beethoven's Ninth Symphony [Quicktime] would sound quite different.

Tales of Stellar Corpses. Helfand uses radio and x-rays to peer into the universe. He observes neutron stars -- the remnants of stars that have gone supernova. Neutron stars are made up neutrons -- the nucleus of atoms -- that are densely packed. Typically, you will find the mass of 1.5 of our Sun, locked up in a star with a radius 60,000 times smaller than the Sun's. Something so extreme, exhibits some extreme behaviour. Neutron stars rotate -- or spin -- at extreme velocities -- several times a second; and have intense magnetic fields -- 10 million times stronger than that of the Earth. Since they are entirely made up of neutrons, they are analogous to atoms -- a macro analogy for the micro. Within neutron stars, conditions are so extreme, that it is believed that neutrons breakdown to their constituent quarks. Imagine a plasma of quarks roiling in the depths of a neutron star, unable to escape. It's like having the results of a collisions in a particle accelerator trapped for eternity. Too bad be can't study them directly. Neutron stars degenerated from normal stars -- and from there, continues to degenerate, losing energy and cooling -- leaving just a lifeless hulk of material.

Helfand quipped that this process, from the universe beginning in the big bang, forming fundamental particles, then atoms of hydrogen and helium, to galaxies, stars, etc., which eventually die, collapsing and going back to the grave as fundamental particles, is kinda like undergrads: they come in as slimeballs, and undergo this process by which they gain a level of enlightenment, and by the time they leave, they sometimes return back to being slimeballs. He further commented on historical Astronomy. In ancient times, the rest of the world looked up, saw the night sky, and noticed things happening: from the Asians to the American Natives. They recorded what they saw. The Europeans on the other hand, were in denial. The heavens were static and unchanging -- and if they saw something happening, they refused to recognize it. So tight was the grip that the church had on European society. It truly was the dark ages. This Helfand commented, isn't much different from America today, where it seems like intellectual thought is being be suppressed.

Keeping his audience engaged was not a problem. Helfand injected timely, and smart humour throughout his talk. Quite enjoyable. So far, the Cosmic Frontier series have had two great lectures. There are two more to go, and if this is a trend, I'm definitely looking forward to the others.

For related reading, check out:

Magnetic Fields of Neutron Stars: an Overview [PDF] -- Andreas Reisenegger

Experimental signatures of gravitational wave bursters [PDF] -- Florian Dubath, Stefano Foffa, Maria Alice Gasparini, Michele Maggiore, Riccardo Sturani

Neutron star crust matter [PDF] -- Nicolas Chamel

Recent Progress In Neutron Star Theory -- Henning Heiselberg, Vijay Pandharipande

Gravitational Wave Astronomy: A Facilities Overview [PDF] -- Barry C. Barish

Strange Quark Matter in Stars: A General Overview [PDF] -- J. Schaffner-Bielich

Neutron Stars [PDF] -- Gordon Baym, Frederick K. Lamb

Neutron Stars and X-Ray Binaries -- Images from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory

X-Ray Wide Field View of the Crab Nebula. [Chandra X-Ray Observatory]