Profit killed the world

Today, I was working on the phase transition of some Hamiltonian model; listening to random music from YouTube. Suddenly, an unknown version of an old favorite, "Big Yellow Taxi", filled my ears. I kept working on the damned Hamiltonian, then the thought came to my mind...

Profit killed the world

Why this idea came to my mind? I have not a clue. Taking into account that I have no statistical data for the development of Earth's Carrying Capacity and the impact factor of mere consumerism surely is a hard thing to pinpoint, this assertion is pretty unfounded; however, the fact that a human being is just a consumer in modern times, and how it seems that the wellness of The Economy, indeed with capitals, based on consumerism is a worldwide policy, somehow makes me have impending doom feelings and parse the thought as most probably true.

Here's the aforementioned video...

Now, back to the damned Hamiltonian.


Appendix 1: Curiously enough, I found a post in Luis Felipe's blog that gave me the chance to rant about consumerism and responsibility, two of my favorite topics.

This week movies,

Back on a weekly schedule, these are the films I watched last week. As you can see, after a week of not so good films, I decided to go for good old films

1. The Ninth Gate, ****
   A few weeks ago I commented about how this film from Roman Polanski, based on the Dumas Club by Perez Reverte and featuring Jhonny Depp , shows quite a love for books. It also shows quite a fascination with the occult. I decided to watch it again as it has been almost 10 years since the first time I watched it. It keeps delivering, you should watch it.
   


2. Copying Beethoven, ****
   While this is not based on any biography of Beethoven, it is an interesting work of fiction and exploration of human kind. It has an awesome photography and musical score, of course most of it is Beethoven's. Ed Harris acting is just great.
   


3. Sideways, ****
   While the best way to study human society is science fiction, romantic comedy is the best format to study the human self. This film deals with middle age, the search for the self, in a road trip centred on wines.
   

There were no episodes for Big Bang Theory or Better off Ted this last week. So, this week I took a chance to watch:

1. The Jetsons: 1st Season, *****
   I got my hands in the first 24 episodes from 1962. When George is promoted to the vice-presidency and fired and hired again all in the same episode. When Astro and Rosey were not a common occurrence in the show and Orbitty was not even there yet. Awesome science fiction series.
   


2. Third Rock from the Sun: 1st Season, *****
   I watched a few episodes of this series in the past, but never a full season. I am really surprised at the quality of the acting, the satirical exploration of the political landscape of the United States and the ethos of the human being. A must watch.
   

To my follower Nora,

It was August of 1996 when my wandering started. Back then, it was my choosing not to call home what has been, and will always be, a home for me, my parents' family. While my thought at the time was: I'm leaving to pursuit my studies, God, through time, showed me the wandering was to find my home, my family and myself.

Home, my home, is the wrinkled hands and face of my mother while happily cooking breakfast or praying the rosary. The fat round belly of my old aunt and her trembling Parkinson hands. My best friend struggle with death in the family and economical problems while keeping a good and healthy laugh. My good friend's fight against hypoglycemia while keeping a great faith. My cousin's heart-taking pictures of the world above the clouds. The one whole night of domino with the friends and acquaintances discussing from philosophy to a great set of legs. The short stories, poems and theater plays from my beloved adopted brothers and little wandering cousin. My best friend's struggle with life, love and legacy without surrendering. The smell of smoke and coffee from the adopted family house in Mexico City. The hardships of hunger while traveling with el primo. Those talks about physics and bullshit with my genius German brother. The joy of leisure traveling with my cheerful Slovak brother. Drinking and complaining with my Finnish brother. The sound of waterfalls shared with two wonderful girls. The smiles of the most awesome couple of Slovak mother and daughter. The love of the most wonderful girl ever.

It still sickens me not to know where I will be living and working the next year, or if I will be there for more than 2 years; not to know when is it that I will share time again with all my beautiful cousinettes, by blood or love. But then, I have found my family, my home, my self.

Truth be told, sometimes it is hard to feel secluded, lonely. It has been my choosing. One way or another, I have chosen this path. And, one way or another, there's always been someone sharing it. That's home for me.

There might be no one physically close to you, but if all we need were physical this world would've been a happy perfect place for ages.

My love and respect to my little wandering cousin, the weaver of life stories.

This week movies,

Alas, this last week was a busy week and there are not many films to talk about.

1. Untraceable, ****
   
   It is a fair action drama dealing with the subject of "le danse macabre." While the portrait of death in literature and art has usually served an end, at least I want to believe that, this film deals with the fact that in our modern society death has become an attraction, a circus for the masses, the Anonymous.


2. The Prophecy, *
   
   There's a world of quotations to chose. There's a universe of fictitious books to quote from. Nevertheless, they choose to quote something that it is not in the Bible. I usually love Christopher Walken acting, not in this film. Vigo Mortenssen plays a great 10 liner.
   


3. BloodRayne, *
   
   Again, a film with a great actor, Ben "Sexy Beast" Kingsley, a sex symbol, Michelle Rodriguez, and the guy we all love, Meat Loaf Aday. Yet the worst vampire film, make it just the worst film, ever. The only good fighting scene involves Ben Kingsley, can you imagine that?
   

The Big Bang Theory third season, episode 15, is out and guess who is going to the Large Hadron Collider. I'm still waiting for the new episode of Better off Ted, it has been two or three weeks since the last one.

Movies I saw during January

First of all, I sincerely apologize for neglecting the weekly leisure report. The reason behind this is that there is no sun. I know it sounds weird, but I miss my bike rides and that makes me feel without strength or passion to do anything else.

Now, the hard part is to rate the films. It is easier to do so when it is just a few of them and they are fresh in the memory.

1. There will be blood, ****
   The film is based on the 1927 novel Oil! by the Pullitzer Prize winner Upton Sinclair. I cannot tell you how faithful the film is to the book as I have not read it yet. There will be blood is an exploration of greed. How far can a man go in business, religion and family just to attain a better economical position?
   



2. The Wrestler, ****
   Darren Aronofsky has directed two of my favourite movies: Pi and Requiem for a Dream. While The Wrestler does not enter into my favourite films list, it is a good exploration of the ups and downs from fame and prosperity.
   



3. 4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile (4 months, 2 weeks and 2 days), ****
   This is a Romanian film, situated in the communist period. It explores the extends of friendship as well as the implications of unwanted pregnancy and anti-abortion laws. I guess this films hits harder for me because it is easy to picture this as a common situation in Mexico.
   



4. Knocked up, ****
   What is a relation about? Peter Pan Failure to Launch Male gets Hard Working Female pregnant in the first date after randomly meeting at a bar. The idea of respect for life kicks in. Responsibility enters the picture. This romantic comedy is great in the sense that goes beyond the individual ego perennial in contemporaneous films of the sort.
   



5. 500 days of Summer, ****
   Just another romantic comedy iteration of the "Boy Meets Girl" theme? I enjoy this being an exploration of the failed not-happy ending story. Life is not fair or just, but it is not over until you die. Anything can happen in the meantime.
   



6. Pride and Glory, ***
   An exploration of the corruption theme in a Police Department. The actors are big names, Voight, Norton, Farrell, but somehow the film fails to deliver. Nevertheless, the moral characters and the the struggle between content and ambition are picturesque.



7. A fost sau na fost? (Was it or was it not?), ***
   Another Romanian film. I am thinking of it as a comedy, but I am not Romanian. If you go out to manifest your discontent for the Communist Dictatorship after the Dictator leaves, is it, or not, a revolution? Again, I relate to this film because it is so easy to imagine everything happening in Mexico.
   



8. The Holiday, ***
   A romantic comedy about two troubled girls with polarized attitudes toward guys. Again a lot of big names, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, JackBlack, and 5 minutes of Edward Burns. It delivers, both a good laugh and the one tear.
   



9. Australia, ***
   A romantic drama-slash-adventure film. What really got hold of me is the magical realism used in this film. Magic realism is ever present in Latin America, the writers of Australia manage to exploit the magic of Aus, read with an Australian accent that makes it sound like Oz, at the time "The wizard of Oz" was hitting the theatres and WWII was hitting the country.
   



10. The Hangover, ***
    Just watch this film. You are going to laugh yourself to tears. I can not say more, just trying to remind something to write makes me laugh.
    



11. Inkheart, ***
    Books, it is all about books. Today, Inkheart seems to me like the first film to talk about books with respect. Polanski's The Ninth Gate with Jhonny Depp, based on Reverte's The Club Dumas, comes to my mind, but I saw it so long ago that I am not sure. In any case, respect thy books.
    



12. Enchanted, **
    I like Disney's movies. I love this film and I will watch it again sometime in the future with my kids, if I ever had children.
    



13. Smoking Aces, **
    Have you ever seen a Guy Ritchie movie, like: Lock, Stock and Two Smocking Barrels or Snatch or Rocknrolla or even Sherlock Holmes? You can see that this film just screams I want to be a Guy Ritchie movie. Just for your information, it was directed and writen by the same guy who wrote Pride and Glory, Joe Carnahan. By the way, this guy is directing the upcoming A-Team movie. There is a second smoking aces coming this year too.
    



14. Ong Back, *
    My first thought was "I must be old, I did not get hype about this martial arts film", then I watched again Kung Fu and Wong Fei Hung just to check and I still get the hype about martial arts films, ergo it is the film that sucks and not my mental age maturing.
    

This January, I also watched the first season of the following television series

1. Better Off Ted (Season 1), ***
   The series is focused on Ted, a Research and Development manager in Veridian Dynamics, your friendly all for profit we don't care about you or our employees company, and his moral dilemmas in trying to be a coherent example to his young daughter. You better watch it, you will enjoy it.
   



2. Party Down (Season 1), *
   What happens to some of the people that move to L.A. to become rich and famous individuals of the film industry? They end up in the catering industry. I am not into the reality-like theme. I need that detaching "this is fiction" feeling in order to laugh about stupid and hollow people.
   

The Big Bang Theory third season is back and the episodes 12 - 14 are awesome. So, there is an episode about meta-physics and Leonard gets into trouble for that; in the next the guys got sacked, Sheldon's ensuing paranoia keeps you laughing; finally, do you want to know what happens when a Theoretician has the brilliant idea to go into sleep deprivation? Watch the episode 14.