Corpse Bride

I saw Tim Burton's Corpse Bride in the theatres sometime ago with the group from work. Actually, a bunch of the guys went, as we couldn't convince the women to accompany us. Maybe there was one too many "guy" flicks that we had dragged them to that just didn't inspire them go with us for the Corpse Bride. This was the movie that they should have come out for though.

You wouldn't think that from a title like the "Corpse Bride" that the movie would have been a romantic movie -- but it was -- in a quirky, Burtonesque kinda way. The damn thing was an actual love story. I'll spare you the trauma, and instead, will say a few words about the execution. The film was superbly made. The animation and stylized characters worked very well. If you've seen other Tim Burton animated films, you know what to expect from this one. The atmosphere was fanciful and weirdly wonderous. The characters were cartoons, while still believable, and could be empathized with. The music, cinematography and pace of the movie was just right. Altogether, it was a great film.

And the love story. I was kidding. It was subtle, not saccharine -- and delivered with a bittersweet ending that you've got to see, cause I'm not going to spoil it for you.

300GB Discs

New Scientist is reporting that InPhase Technologies, along with Hitachi Maxell, are set to release holographic storage discs in late 2006. The discs will initially have the capacity to read and write up to 300GB of data, and will be 10 times faster than today's DVDs. InPhase also claims that they could theoretically store up to 1.6 terabytes of data with read/write at 960 megabits per second.

Just in time for me to put my entire movie collection on a disc!

Baby Blood

I saw Baby Blood recently -- it's a bloody movie. A really, really, bloody movie! Blood is a plot device of this movie -- I would venture so far as to say that blood may even be a character in the movie. The movie is set somewhere in Europe -- France I think, as this is a French film -- that seemed to have had better times. The mood is depressing and grey. It's as if entropy has had its way with the place. Everything is running out of energy, including the main character, Yanka, played by Emmanuelle Escourrou, who slowly loses the battle with "the evil within."

So what's the movie about? Yanka is a circus performer in an abusive relationship with the circus head honcho. She wants out in a bad way, but either hasn't worked up the courage or hasn't had the chance. Her opportunity arrives with the addition of a new leopard to the circus. The leopard carries within it, an ancient creature that has existed since the birth of the planet. For some unknown reason, it wants to be born from a woman -- so at night, it exits the leopard, and enters Yanka. Yanka runs away from the circus after that, but the creature within her, starts to grow as a baby, speaking to her, demanding to be fed blood. It directs Yanka to find men, seduce them, and kill them so it can feed on their blood. Yanka fights it, but gives in eventually.

Yanka doesn't have a good relationship with men, and the creature takes advantage of that, cajoling her into killing men -- pointing out to her that they want only to use her; to abuse her. I couldn't help but think of the film as being a bit vindictive to men. The male characters in the film seem two dimensional, lacking any real character. They all seem to want only one thing -- which Yanka uses to her advantage. In fact, I believe there was only one female killed in the movie, and it wasn't for her blood. She just happened to have been in the way.

To watch this movie, you definitely need a strong stomach. There's a whole lot of gore in it, but it is one of the better gore-horror movies out there. The story isn't that bad; the cinematography pretty good; and the acting great.

Afra Karim Randhawa

I just found out about Afra Karim Randhawa via Wired magazine. At age 5, she saw her first computer. At 7, she could easily use PowerPoint. At 9, she enrolled in the local technology institute in Faisalabad, Pakistan, and in four months, became one of the youngest Microsoft Certified Professionals in the world. This past July, Gates invited her to Redmond to meet. She asked him why there weren't many women working in his company. She's now 10 years old, and is working towards a lead developer certification. How cool is that?

Pamela Anderson likes Lettuce

PETA knows how to get attention. They've launched a campaign in Liverpool, featuring Pamela Anderson wearing strategically placed lettuce. The whole idea is combat obesity, and PETA thinks that people should "Turn over a new leaf [and] try vegetarian." To quote PETA spokesman from BBC News:

"We hope she will appeal to the demographic of young men, who can be more resistant to vegetarianism. This is a tantalising image and we hope even the most die-hard carnivores may be tempted to go to the website and learn about what eating meat is doing to their bodies and to the animals who suffer."

Totally ignoring PETA's sexist campaigns for a moment -- just which guy looking at Pamela Anderson wearing lettuce will suddenly develop the urge to go vegetarian?

Why Do People Behave Nicely?

Social psychologists -- and to some degree, most people in general -- seem to have a fascination with people who behave anything but nicely. Take all the reality television shows for instance. Is there one where people do nice things? Not really. It appears that the television industry tries to find the biggest jackasses to put on the boob-tube, and the public can't seem to get enough of them. From the proliferation of reality TV shows, it doesn't appear that there is any end to the jackasses. But why do we have such a fascination with people gone wrong?

Discover magazine has an article that throws a different spin on social psychology. According to psychologist Joachim Krueger, there may be just as much to learn about human behaviour from studying people that do good things. Why do some people stop to help? Why do some people thing of others before themselves? If you listen to what social psychologists have had to say about people, based on their studies so far, you're liable to think that the human race has been nothing but a disappointment. We tend to act irrationally, bending easily to the herd mentality or to authority. The truth is probably in neither extremes. We're most likely neither good, nor bad. We're simply very complex creatures. In given situations, we have the capacity to exhibit good and bad behaviour. Most of the bad behaviour comes from our acting out of self interest more than anything else. Perhaps that is our natural state -- to think of ourselves first -- yet we find ourselves in groups, in societies, where motivation from self interest is frowned by the collective. It seems a constant challenge to transcend our limitations of who we are to become something we aspire -- a greater person that we have ascribed group-interest behaviour to.

Related reading:

• Milgram experiment -- from Wikipedia, the famous experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram, that basically showed how normal people could be made to inflict on innocent others when ordered to by an authority figure.
  
• Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance, Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles? [PDF]
  

What a tool

MacLeans takes a chainsaw at the Canadian Tire Guy. They even published excerpts from his diary. Well, I've seen the new ad for this weekend's Christmas sale. The dog ain't bad at all. I'd ask the ad agency for a refund however ... they've turned Canadian Tire into a joke. BTW ... want to know what bloggers think?

The Origin of Mass and the Feebleness of Gravity

The Origin of Mass and the Feebleness of Gravity
Frank Wilczek
Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics, MIT

Wilczek starts out with saying he's going to explain the origin of mass -- but not all of it. He's going to stay away from dark matter and dark energy. He's going to stick to the 3% of ordinary matter.

What is mass? For the longest time, mass was simply there. It couldn't be reduced down to anything. Wilczek jokingly refers to Einstein's second law: m=E/c^2 -- as the time when the concept of mass started to make sense.

Most of ordinary matter is locked up in the nucleus of atoms -- which is made up of protons and neutrons -- which in term is made up of gluons and quarks. And we have a consistent theory -- one that combines quantum mechanics and general relativity: quantum chromodynamics. Wilczek goes on to explain the experiments at LEP, and how they led to clarity of QCD.

There is more detail to the lecture -- but I only got to half of it before other priorities called.

Bumvertising

I'm not sure what to think of this. Bumvertising is an effort by Front Door Enterprises in Seattle. Basically, they give homeless people advertising signs to hold, for which they get some compensation.

MIT World

The following comes courtesy of my friend, Naj. "MIT World is a free and open site that provides on-demand video of significant public events at MIT." Naj likes, The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman, and The Origin of Mass and the Feebleness of Gravity by Frank Wilczek. There are many more interesting lectures online at MIT World. I haven't watched any of them yet, but already, I know there isn't enough spare time for all I will want to see. Check it out!

Common Courtesy: A Sad State of Affairs

Why is common courtesy so uncommon?

My wife and I had this little discussion during the car ride home today. What has become of Toronto? I haven't been in Toronto long enough to cry about the good ole days -- and I don't think I would have noticed courtesy in the past. I notice it today however, and in noticing it, I notice the lack of it in general. This past week, like the weeks before, I encounter the uncourteous in my daily travels back and forth to work, on the TTC. Whether it's the people having loud conversations in total disregard for those around them -- or those in a mad rush to get onto the bus or subway, to get a seat. Either way, they're rude, pushy, and have a total lack of common courtesy. They are no different than those who don't make the extra effort to hold the door open for someone; or those that don't say thank you when the extra effort is made -- the world is not your doorstop folks. There are those that stare, smoke their cigarettes in front of doorways, call people names while still in earshot, don't let someone in their lane when driving; or the opposite, cut people off on the road ... and the list goes on. I'm sure you have many examples from your daily encounters.

Why? Why when courtesy is given, it is greeted with suspicion? What have we become?

This week, I encountered a few cases of courtesy, that made me notice how little effort it takes to be nice -- to be courteous. I can't help but think that such little acts could be the proverbial butterfly wings that have far reaching positive impacts. It takes little effort to say thank you. It takes little effort to hold the door open for someone. You won't get where you're going any sooner by cutting someone off on the road or by not letting them in, in front of you. To the gentleman that helped the mom take her baby and stroller off the bus at Yonge and Steeles -- thank you. To the few people that hung back a second to hold the doors open for me this week, thank you. To those that said thank you to me when I extended a bit of common courtesy, thank you.

To those who see no value in any of this -- why not? To the pregnant woman that I offered my subway seat to -- who very angrily refused to take it, and then seemed pissed at me for offering -- why?

NASA Struggles to Fix Network Security Holes

Baseline Magazine is carrying an eye opening article on NASA, and its struggle to get a handle on securing its systems. It is eye opening because it is all about people, and not necessarily about security or the agency itself. It makes me wonder just how they manage to eventually coordinate to get spacecrafts launched and do all the wonderful things they've done. The article describes a decentralized agency, with fragmented goals and managers who, when it really comes down to it, are just trying to protect their turf -- even while recognizing the bigger problems.

Jack Schofield of the Guardian Unlimited (UK) has published the top 20 geek novels written in English since 1932. The list is fairly unscientific. Schofield put the list up and then solicited votes. Nevertheless, the list is interesting to say the least. Below is the list, and what of the list I've actually read. I guess I'm not the geek I once thought of myself as.

Read	Not Read
(1) Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	(2) George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four
(4) Philip Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?	(3) Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
(5) William Gibson's Neuromancer	(6) Frank Herbert's Dune
(7) Isaac Asimov's I, Robot	(10) Douglas Coupland's Microserfs
(8) Isaac Asimov's Foundation	(11) Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash
(9) Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic	(13) Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon
(12) Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons' Watchmen	(14) Iain M Banks' Consider Phlebas
(17) Neil Gaiman's American Gods	(15) Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land
	(16) Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle
	(18) Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age
	(19) Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson's The Illuminatus! Trilogy
	(20) John Wyndham's Trouble with Lichen

Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

Mother Goose rocks with Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes -- featuring U2, George W., the late Pope JP, and a bunch of other people I didn't recognize. Why? Why not, I suppose.

Is Google Evil?

Here's a blog that questions Google's mantra of "do no evil." The premise, even though the author professes to allow you to decide, is that Google is evil. Why else have a blog with the question? Or maybe that's the cynic speaking. Regardless, what I find amusing, is that while the blog questions whether Google is evil or not -- the author makes no bones of potentially profiting from Google. Check out the AdSense ads on the site. It's enough to say that the Is Google Evil? site is evil.

2005 Corruption Perceptions Index

The world is not a nice place to live in. Power corrupts -- not absolutely -- but with such a high degree, that it doesn't really make a difference if it's absolute or not. Transparency International recently published their 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index, and the findings are depressing. "Corruption [is] still rampant in 70 countries." And surprise, surprise, those living in the world's developing nations are hit by a double-whammy: poverty and corruption. If you're living in Chad, Bangladesh, Turkmenistan, Myanmar or Hati, life most likely suck. The least corrupt countries of the world: Iceland (1), Finland (2), New Zealand (3), Denmark (4) and Singapore (5). The usual suspects for general good behaviour. On the index, Canada ranks at 14 and the United States at 17.

For related information, check out:

1. 2005 Global Corruption Report
2. United Nations Convention against Corruption
3. Explaining the Factors of the Index of Economic Freedom [PDF]
4. The War on Corruption [PDF]

5 Million New HIV/AIDS Victims in 2005

UNAIDS announced today at the AIDS Epidemic Update 2005, that the number of new HIV/AIDS infections has risen by 4.9 million to reach 40.3 million, globally. Africa, especially the southern part of the continent remains the area being hit the worst -- this year however, Eastern Europe saw a spike in infections. Sub-Saharan Africa has 64% of the world's infections. South Africa leads the world with HIV/AIDS infection, topping 5.1 million people -- and India comes in a close second at 5 million infections. The problem is most severe in the developing nations where 90% of the population don't know their HIV status. To make it worse, those that may know, don't necessarily report their infections or seek treatment -- if any is available. Pregnant women in Africa have infection rates above 30% in some countries. Infections are rising in women in monogamous relationships due to husbands being infected by having unprotected sex with sex workers.

Thus far, 3.1 million people have succumbed to the disease this year -- of which 570,000 were children. As HIV/AIDS continues to claim new victims, the global response to contain the disease continues to lag far behind. Infections are outpacing prevention, and one has to wonder when the tipping point will be reached when the entire world will succumb. Granted, on a global scale, anti-retoviral treatment has lowered the death toll -- but that impact has been felt mostly in the developed nations. The developing world continues to be in a crisis. Why isn't the HIV/AIDS epidemic receiving more attention? more money? more action? It isn't just because it's the poor that are mostly dying. The world has shown a great charitable capacity in response to the various natural disasters. Could it be that our attention span is just way too low? Is it because our response to HIV/AIDS doesn't give immediate gratification in response to our charity -- no one is cured; the world isn't saved?

What will it take for the world to acknowledge the problem with a strategic response instead of just barely paying courtesy to it?

Source: UNAIDS/WHO Report: AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2005.

Moondust

I would never have thought moondust to be interesting -- after all, dust is dust, isn't it? Why does it matter where it came from? I would have thought wrong had I thought about moondust. NASA thinks it is interesting enough to have staffed the Dusty Plasma Laboratory to study the samples brought back by the Apollo 17 and Luna 24 missions.

During the day, the Moon is bombarded with UV radiation which knocks electrons off the dust particles, giving them a positive charge. The astronauts who walked on the Moon complained about the dust. It cling to and got into, everything. That, the theory goes, is because moondust suffers from an extreme case of static cling. It is even theorized that moondust becomes so positively charged that the launch themselves off the surface of the Moon, until gravity drags them back down -- creating a virtual atmosphere of dust on the Moon. Theory anyways. And so the theory goes, that at night, when solar wind curves around the Moon, bombarding the night side with free electrons, the dust becomes negatively charged.

All this makes for a more dynamic Moon than the dead Moon we've all been led to believe exists.

Microsoft to remove Sony CD code

I found this amusing. Apparently, to prevent piracy of their music CDs -- ie. copying their CDs on Windows computers, Sony BMG has included a piece of software called XCP, that buries itself clandestinely in the OS, unbeknownst to the user. Microsoft's malware team has found the software and will be including tools in their next anti-spyware release to remove it. Microsoft contends that the software fits their definition of being malicious. I have to agree. Since when is anyone allowed to install software on my computer without first asking my permission?

This was found at the Short and Simple blog.

The Future of Africa

This is a discussion of young African social activists, that occurred after the Pop!Tech conference. The talk was about PopTech, Technology, and Technology in Africa -- and what does Africa need in terms of development. I was surprised by the number of panelists that were highly educated, technologically savvy -- a number of them were bloggers -- and a number of them women. The panelists were: Clement M. Bwalya, Khaddiatou Diedhiou Diop, Elleni Muluneh Gebremariam, David Gyewu, Brian Longwe, Ndesanjo Macha, Neema Mgana, Lydia Muchodo, Emeka Okafor, Ory Okollah, Rotimi Olawale & Eric Osiakwan.

For those who've forgotten the continent of Africa, take a listen to this podcast hosted by IT Conversations. You'll be surprised by the bright individuals coming out of Africa that wants to make a difference. These are smart people -- people reaching out to the world from Africa, for Africa. These are not people just looking for opportunities to leave Africa -- they are individuals looking to make a difference to Africa. It's an interesting discussion to listen to. There are two parts of the discussion, each running over an hour.

The Future of Africa
Hosted by Pop!Tech, Grand Challenges, Oct. 19-22, 2005: Camden, Maine
Moderated by David Kirkpatrick of Fortune Magazine.
"Africa, in the United States is the forgotten continent." -- David Kirkpatrick.

Radiation Resistant Computers

We've all heard of the computing power that took Apollo astronauts to the Moon -- but do you know that today's CPUs that make it out to space are about 10 times slower on average to equivalent CPUs available to the consumer market? Not only that, but they're more expensive and more power hungry. This might drive you to ask why the various space agencies -- NASA especially -- wastes so much money. There is a good reason for this "waste." Just as radiation from space can be damaging to humans -- from our cells to DNA -- they can also mess with CPUs, causing them to produce errors.

NASA has solved this problem by employing radiation hardened CPUs -- at the cost of price, energy and speed of course. On a trip to Mars however, NASA would like to employ more powerful CPUs and do it cheaply. One biggest benefit of sending more horsepower on a Martian mission would be the allowance for on-site data analysis. This would allow astronauts to make decisions about what to study in further detail, as well, crunching data would allow just the results to be relayed to Earth, instead of huge amounts of raw data. Hence an interest in off the shelf CPUs. But how to protect from radiation? The easy way would be redundancy -- multiple CPUs doing to same task, then picking the most consistent result to use. A smarter version of this would be to determine first which computation is important enough to use that process. Results that would live some error would just use one CPU and take their chance with luck. Important calculations would get the benefit of redundancy, ensuring the right results are obtained.

Read more: Radiation Resistant Computers.

Atari 800 XE Laptop

What a hack! Benjamin J. Heckendorn has converted an Atari XE GS game system from 1987 to a laptop. Complete with an 8-inch display, a flash media hard disk running MyDOS 4.53, built in NiMH battery pack, full sized Atari 800 keyboard and a whole lot more. Check out the full story on his site. Am I the only one who thinks this is cool?

What's Important to IT Management in 2006?

The Oracles of Forrester recently peered into their crystal balls, and predicted what will be the focus for IT Management in 2006. Before the predictions however, they recapped the state of IT in 2005 -- as they expect the 2005 focus to continue, in addition to the new imperatives of 2006.

2005 was apparently all about "growing efficiency and business know-how." I'd say that has been the focus for a number of years. Specifically however, Forrester says that the following items were top in the minds of IT Management:

1. At the very minimum, every IT shop should be run as a utility -- ie. IT should be run as an efficient business, with service catalogues and chargebacks.
2. Managing costs with transparency to "enable business participation in governance and tradeoffs."
3. Regulatory and security compliance should be a commodity for IT shops.
4. Management of vendors in order to extract the greatest value for price in a consolidating industry.
5. Growing business knowledge and relationships in order to increase value being delivered by IT.

That's quite the focus for a year -- but these things don't end. Putting in processes is one thing. Sustaining them is another. It usually comes down to change -- a cultural change -- and sometimes that don't happen without a lot of soul searching, aortic palpitations and casualties left on the road to the future. If you're still there, the challenge doesn't stop. In 2006, the focus for IT Management should be on "roles and visibility" -- specifically:

1. Increasing innovation capacity -- ie. work smarter with KTLO in order to spend less, then invest the savings on being a contributor to organization.
2. Optimize the IT portfolio instead on focusing on the business executive that can shout the loudest and carry the biggest stick.
3. Sustain enterprise risk management instead of fire fighting issues.
4. Market IT to the organization.
5. Focus on the enterprise via "business-based process governance."

Like I said, saying and doing are two different things. You will find a lot of folks being fully capable of miming the above -- but how many actually believe? -- actually have passion for it? -- actually think the destination is worth traversing the uncertain road for? One thing I know for sure, is that mimes that actually shut their mouths are more entertaining than the ones keep them open and yapping. If you're planning on being a mime, shut your mouth, because accomplishing the above while doing the day job will be enough of a challenge without the distraction.

Truckers Choose Hydrogen Power

Wired Online is running an article on the use of an aftermarket bolt-on, called Hydrogen Fuel Injection, that allows trucks to improve fuel efficiency, increase power, and lower emissions, all the while, saving on fuel bills. The technology comes from Canadian Hydrogen Energy Co. Ltd., and has been applied to diesel burning trucks. Basically, hydrogen is obtained from water via electrolysis, with the hydrogen pumped directly into the trucks combustion engine. Remarkably, the addition of a little hydrogen has big rewards.

Related reading:

1. On Board Hydrogen Generation for Fuel Cell Powered Electric Cars [PDF] -- A review of various available techniques.
2. Hydrogen Injection -- A synopsis of research in this area.
3. Hydrogen Fuel Injection [PDF] -- a presentation of the Canadian Hydrogen Energy Company Ltd. of their system.
4. Fast Start-Up On-Board Gasoline Reformer for Near Zero Emissions in Spark-Ignition Engines -- A Delphi Automotive paper that looks at reducing emissions using Hydrogen injection.

Modernization of Investigative Techniques Act

Michael Geist warns of the ominous Modernization of Investigative Techniques Act [PDF] that was recently unveiled by the government in the form of Bill C-74. What the government seeks is to force ISPs to collect information about their internet subscribers activities, and to have ISPs divulge information of internet subscribers to law enforcement without the need of a warrant. Basically, the government will decide what warrants requesting that information, and when it is appropriate for them to request it.

This move by the government is frankly frightening, proclaiming the coming of an Orwellian future, unless we stop it now. When is the public -- Canadians -- guilty before they are proven guilty? What is to stop the government from using such powers "proactively" to determine potential criminals before a crime is committed? We've already seen terrible mistakes made in the US with the use of such powers to in the wake of 9/11. My country is not the US. My country is still free. I wish to keep it so.

Out of this World

Astronomers continue to discover objects in the Kuiper Belt. The latest, dubbed EL61, is currently one of the brightest Kuiper Belt object, that can be seen with high-end amateur telescopes. EL61 is about a third the size of Pluto and has a small moon orbiting it. What is interesting about EL61, is its shape. It is described as a squashed football, spinning through space.

Cassini flew by Saturn's moon, Hyperion, back in September, and took some stunning images. The image below represents a combined image using different filters. In natural colour, Hyperion is slightly reddish. Hyperion is covered with impact craters, but its surface has been modified by an unknown process to give it a sponge-like appearance. Hyperion is believed to be mostly hollow.

Cassini also took the image below of Pandora, a shepherd moon of Saturn's F ring.

Nubia's Black Pharaohs

In around 1500 BC, Egypt's warrior-pharaoh, Thutmose I, embarked on a campaign to conquer the lands south of Egypt, along the Nile. He entered Nubia -- what is now Sudan -- kicked butt, and enslaved the peoples there. It was mainly about gold and slaves. The reasons for going places to kick butt hasn't changed since. Thutmose's priests however, found god in that campaign. In Napata, located 200 miles north of where Khartoum is today, the priests saw Jebel Barkal -- a table-top mountain fronted by a pinnacle, rising some 320 feet above ground near the Nile. Quite phallic it is -- or was. Imagine if you were a bunch of guys that had just marched 700 miles of nowhere. Anything sticking out of the ground didn't need a lot of imagination I would think. In Jebel Barkal, they believed they had found the birthplace and primeval home of Egypt's supreme deity, Amun -- he of the Sun -- he who created the other gods by sheer will and apparently, a whole lot of masturbation.

This find transformed Egyptian society -- for the next 400 years, as Egypt plundered Nubia, they also revered Jebel Barkal. They built temples and palaces around it, and slowly transformed the mountain into a place the pharaohs would come for their coronation ceremony. In 1100 BC however, a massive earthquake laid waste to the Egyptian colony at Jebel Barkal. The party was most definitely over. The priests saw this as a sign of Amun's anger over the pharaoh's rule of his southern lands, and this resulted in Egypt's retreat from Nubia. For the next 350 years, Egypt suffered from economic and political decline. I guess shit happens when there's no plundering to be done.

In Nubia however, something remarkable transpired in those 350 years. The Nubians found religion. They found Amun. I suppose it wasn't too difficult, having the Egyptian ruins left at Jebel Barkal. They adopted hieroglyphics and revived the practice of pyramid building. They in effect, adopted the ways of their former colonial rulers. Eventually, a Nubian king named Piye, encouraged by the Egyptian priesthood, took an army 700 miles to Egypt's holy city of Thebes, and kicked Egyptian butt in the name of Amun. Piye restored order to Egypt, and became the first of five successive Nubian pharaohs to rule Egypt. They were supported by the Egyptian priesthood.

The Nubians were eventually expelled from Egypt -- and in 593 BC, to ensure they never came back, the pharaoh Psammetihcus II, took an army to Jebel Barkal, and laid the place to waste.

That's the story anyway -- and it may be just a story unless more proof is dug up from the ruins of the earthquake of 1100 BC. Problem is, time is running out. A consortium of Arab nations, Sudan, and China, is building a hydroelectric dam -- and although it won't flood Jebel Barkal, it will flood some low lying regions that may hold keys to understanding what went on there. Meanwhile, Sudan's Islamic fundamentalist government and the rebels have stopped fighting for now, and in western Darfur, a genocide continues.

Some lessons from history:

1. Sooner or later, no matter how powerful you are, you're going to get your butt kicked. Probably from the people you've been oppressing.
2. There needs to be a strong separation between church and state. Politicians are amateurs compared to the religious types.
3. There's no stopping progress -- except perhaps people killing each other over stupid reasons.

Related reading:
Nubia's Black Pharaohs -- the article from the latest Discover magazine.

The Race to Mars

NASA isn't looking so hot these days, which really sucks, as they have been the agency with the most thus far. They've delivered because they've had the funding and have attracted the brightest to their ranks. That success has built some arrogance -- justified -- and there are quite a few who wouldn't mind showing up the agency one bit. Discovery continues to stay on the ground, and may see flight early next year to replenish supplies aboard the ISS. NASA has announced the end of the shuttle program, and the replacement goes back to capsules on rockets -- even the planned mission to the Moon will rely on craft that harks back to the Apollo days.

As NASA looks to an uncertain future, the rest of the world isn't waiting for bold moves from the agency. The private sector is sending out more buzz than substance, but money is also pouring into projects. The Chinese, the Indians and the Russians are also posturing with low budgets and not-so-advanced technologies. The Europeans on the other hand -- as Discover reports -- having some money, some advance technology and are partnering with just about anyone they can. Building on their recent successes with unmanned spacecraft, they are building the capability to send humans into space -- and eventually, to Mars. For the Europeans, space exploration isn't about science or economics -- exploration is in their DNA. It's about unity for Europe, national pride and doing it just because it is unknown and out there.

Kinda makes you wonder -- in all the excitement, from Russia, China, India, Japan and Europe -- just where is Canada? Just where are Canadians?

2005 Canadian Space Summit

The 2005 Canadian Space Summit: it was a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a whole lot of nothing. I came away from the summit -- if you can call it that -- disappointed, although not necessarily uneducated, or unopinionated. The Space Summit is an event of the Canadian Space Society (CSS), an organization that I had never heard of before, that I thought of joining when I signed up for the summit, but glad I didn't with the clear vision of hindsight. The organization that describes itself as being:

... a grass-roots space advocacy group, a unique combination of amateur and professional interests pursuing the human exploration and development of the Solar System. With some of Canada's top aerospace experts and engineers on board, the CSS is made up of people of all backgrounds and interests, including teachers, environmentalists, writers, and marketers.

If what I experienced in the last two days is evidence for what Canadians can expect to excite them and inspire passion for space faring endeavours, we will continue to be relegated to developing nation status beyond our atmosphere. Is this weekend was any evidence of the lobbying for to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the government that the public can expect, we should lower our expectations further.

As I thought about the state of public investment in the space sciences during the height of my disappointment in the summit, I can only conclude that the CSA, the various advocacy groups, and us, the general public, need to do a lot more lot more raising of awareness; a lot more advocating, than the mere histrionics I witnessed this weekend. Canada -- Canadians, seem so accepting of the third rate position we've adopted in everything from the space sciences, armed forces, and world politics. Such acceptance of where others see us, has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We have given the United States such leadership in matters that should be a source of pride for Canadians, that we've seemingly lost all sense of direction. Like lambs, we continue to look for direction from the dogs in Ottawa and the CSA in matters of space.

I heard the laments repeatedly this weekend. How can we get the CSA to do more? How can Canada claim a bigger piece of the space stage? Sumitra Rajagopalan said it best in her lecture when she referred to her visits to the CSA and came away uninspired. The repeated messages from the CSA: 1) We built the Canadarm; 2) We need more money. Rajagopalan attempted a kick in the pants for those who look to somnolent excuses of money for the state of Canadian space affairs. Shoestring budgets can accomplish a hell of a lot with the right motivation she reminded her audience. She used her love affair, Russia, as the one shining example, and her birthplace, India, as another. In the face of such resourcefulness, one has to wonder why we haven't achieved more with our ample resources. Where is such dexterity in CSA? Where is such gumption in our academia and industry?

To be fair, CSA is not NASA or ESA. CSA is not really a space agency. It's a government purse to provide public funding to research and industry. In such, achievements have been made. We should move beyond those celebrations however. The Canadian spirit cannot live on past glories in the face the public posturing of China and India. Neither should we settle for and celebrate mediocrity. There is $300M allocated to the CSA -- and yes, more money would be nice -- but there is a lot that can be accomplished annually with that money. I'm not in favour of seeing more allocated to CSA until more benefits start arriving from the existing budget. This is an unpopular position to take, but it's the accountable position to take. I've heard enough of the Canadarm. What else is there? This should not be a discouragement to advocacy groups, space enthusiasts, industry, academia or the folks of the CSA. It should be a call to arms. I'm demanding more first, because only on delivering can the public be inspired and excited by our potential. Then it becomes a source of national pride. The public would demand of their government the allocation of more money to the space sciences.

CSS serves an important purpose as a grass-roots advocacy group in this area. CSS needs to move beyond proselytizing to their own, and venture out to the public. No, I will not celebrate mediocrity in this respect either. I consider myself to be the converted -- yet until this weekend, I had never heard of the CSS. There is clearly a chasm that needs crossing, and I'm not sure the crowd I encountered this weekend -- catering to the academic brotherhood and fraternizing most embarrassingly with whichever two-bit industry player gave them any attention -- is capable of pulling it off. This weekend's activities were far from being an example of a good outreach program.

The only bright spot during this weekend's summit was the chance to listen to Dr. Ken Money, a Canadian astronaut in the NASA corps, from 1984 to 1992. Dr. Money was an entertaining and lively speaker. At lunch, he came and sat beside the friend and I that attended the summit. We had a brief and topical chat. I can now say I had lunch with Ken Money.

Related reading:

• Canada's Military Posture: An Analysis of Recent Civilian Reports -- a report by the Fraser Institute. I reference this as another example of Canada's continued acceptance of mediocrity. If we care, we would do something about it.
  
• UofT Astronomy and Space Exploration Society -- usually a good place to find local outreach efforts.
  

Race Against Time

Stephen Lewis' fourth lecture of the Massey Series focused on the plight of women and the total negligence paid to women's issues on the world stage. He attacked governments of the world and the UN organization for their unconcern. Women make up half the population of the world -- and they are the underserved half. Women's rights are human rights, yet, women need particular focus -- as their concerns are diluted, forgotten and ignored when included in the mix of everything else. Yet women's impact and potential is so great -- especially in the developing world.

Over 180 UN member countries have recognized women's rights via the UN Women's Treaty -- yet when it comes to upholding those rights in their respective countries -- a task of which ratification requires -- they mostly fail. Why? Because they don't have the political will -- they don't have the funding -- they don't care -- or simply, they can get away with it. The UN does absolutely nothing in trying to enforce the rights of women. Even the UN organization is not above disparaging treatment of women. Lewis highlighted how gender inequality permeates the UN organization -- an organization that supposedly represents all of the world; an organization that owns the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Lewis labouriously described the various attempts to get the plight of women the attention it requires on the world stage -- those that he was personally involved in; that other UN officials championed; that the various NGOs focusing on women's issues tried to advance. All were met with little or no success. When it came time to support the women's movement, the males in the established political systems failed repeatedly to make any effort to lay a foundation for change. Lewis passionately argued that the UN is where the leadership to make such a change is needed. The UN is the world body, that has the reach, and the resources to make a lasting change for women.

Lewis supported his arguments with examples of the plight of women in Africa -- especially in light of the fight against HIV/AIDS. The pandemic has had a devastating impact on women, and without intervention, what hurts women eventually hurts all African society. Women are the providers of food to most African homes -- they are the farmers. HIV/AIDS infection kills -- or women are taken out of their daily routines to care for the sick. Without food, malnutrition and starvation occurs. HIV/AIDS feeds on the hungry body easily, as the body can't hold the disease at bay. The cycle is vicious. Yet, little is done to prevent infection in women -- to protect women from rape -- to educate women of the dangers of having unprotected sex. Worse yet, some donor countries, such as the US, impose the ludicrous requirement that their aid funding cannot be used to purchase contraceptives.

Lewis appealed repeatedly in his lecture for a UN body specifically for the advocacy of gender equality for women. A body that has the funding and mandate to uphold the Treaty for the Rights of Women. An organization that would be a watchdog, to blame, shame and offer up solutions to countries that fail to meet the requirements of Treaty for the Rights of Women.

As an aside, it is interesting to note that the United States has still not ratified or acceded to the Treaty for the Rights of Women. The main opposition comes from conservative minded senators in the US, who oppose giving women rights over their own bodies. In their upholding of conservative values, the US remains in good company. There are sixteen other countries of the world that have not ratified the treaty. They are: Monaco, Iran, Oman, Qatar, Brunei Darussalam, Marshall Islands, Palau, Somalia, Sudan, Cook Islands, Nauru, and Tonga. (The last three are not members of the UN.)

Related reading:

• Human Development Report 2005 -- check out the Human Development Indicators section and you will find the usual suspects at the bottom of the list when it comes to inequality.
  
• Association for Women's Rights in Development -- they've got some excellent publications, like A Resource Guide for Young Women on HIV/AIDS; as well as a number of publications looking at gender equality. AWID also has two sister sites focusing on Women's Human Rights and Challenging Fundamentalisms.

Race Against Time

I'm currently listening to Stephen Lewis' Massey Lecture series, online. It airs at 9PM EST, however, listening online means you can tune in to Whitehorse at 11PM EST and still hear the 9PM broadcast. As I've mentioned before, Lewis is quite passionate about his topic of fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Tonight's lecture focused on poverty reduction and the free access to education for all children. The world has again and again made promises to provide free education to children of the world -- especially those children of Africa. Access to free education means access to schools -- which isn't just about education, but also about a meal a day, stability and care. Statistics from the World Bank has shown that any education leads a reduction of HIV/AIDS infection. It's ironic then that it's the World Bank that had attached the requirement of school fees in order for third world countries to receive loans. School fees that are intended to be a deterrent to allowing all children to gain an education. Lewis laid into officials of the UN, first world governments, and especially diplomats that don't care. He describes the response of the bureaucracy as, "You want action, wait. There's something to read." He describes the world's response to Africa as neocolonialism, where the relationship between supplicants and benefactors -- with the benefactors holding the power.

He ended his lecture wondering aloud of what the world is losing in the potential of the children that are not receiving an education; in the children who succumb to HIV/AIDS.

It's an answer we'll never know. But I've got to think that for the price of educating the world's children, the potential returns have got to more than surpass the costs.

Random Silliness

1. Fred Hembeck -- I remember reading Fred Hembeck's comics in select Marvel comics when I collected comics. Hembeck parodies most well known comic characters, and sometimes even with the sponsorship of Marvel and DC.
   
2. Church Sign Generator -- Here's a site that will allow you to generate an image of a church sign, with your own words. Be silly. Amuse and bewilder your friends.
   
3. Atomic Pulp -- Check out the site of Christopher Mills, writer (including of co