I found this explanation of how fast the universe is expanding: "Astronomers measure the expansion of the universe in kilometers per second per megaparsec. This is called the Hubble Constant, and its value is... around 70 kilometers per second per megaparsec... You can also put this into terms of a rate of growth. Roughly speaking, the universe is growing in size by about 7 percent every billion years."
If the universe is 13.7 billion years old, then 1 billion years is 7.3% of its age. The NHL was founded in November 26, 1917, making it 92 years 18 days old. 7.3% of 92 years 18 days is 6 years 262.65 days. 6 years, 262 days ago from today was March 27, 2003. The NHL has not created any expansion teams since that time. For the last 7.3% of their respective existences, the universe has expanded faster than the NHL.
Let's try two billion years. Having no knowledge of astrophysics, I figure if the universe is constantly expanding at 7% per billion years, then all we have to do is add 7% to 107% and arrive at 14.49% expansion for the last two billion years.
2 billion years is 14.6% of the universe's age. 14.6% of the NHL's age is 13 years 160.6 days. From today's date, we arrive at July 7, 1996. Since 1996, the NHL has gone from a 26-team league to a 30-team league (Nashville, Atlanta, Minnesota and Columbus). This is a 15.38% increase.
To conclude, in the past 14.6% of their respective existences, the NHL has expanded at a slightly faster rate than the universe.
I think the folks at Eisai pharmaceuticals may have wanted to try saying the name of their new drug out loud a few times before designing the marketing campaign. (Either that or they are marketing geniuses counting on the internet to spread it virally, and I am playing right into their hands.)
Canada's federal government has put its very useful Termium French-English dictionary on the web for free. It is great for technical expressions that you would not find in a regular dictionary.
Another way to find translations for technical expressions in English or French is to go to Google and type: "site:gc.ca" and then the expression. This will make Google show you all the pages on the Government of Canada website that use the expression. Almost everything the government publishes on the internet is translated, so once you have found your expression somewhere on a government website, click "Francais" at the top of the page to find out how the government translated it.
I don't own an iPhone, but this is a pretty sweet new feature:
There's a new feature [in iPhone OS 3.0] called Find My iPhone. . . . it will allow you to see on a map where your phone is. . . . You can send an alert tone to your phone that will play, announcing it's lost. It will play even if you left your phone in silent mode. . . . If your phone is really lost, there's a remote kill switch to wipe your phone of all your data.
I'm also super-stoked to discover that Leopard users will be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard for a measly $29. Hello, new iMac!
Wikitravel is one of my favourite travel and tourism websites, especially while in Europe. It's a great way to get tips to make your holiday more relaxing or daytrip more fun. I just checked out its entry on Mogadishu; well worth the read.
