Last Week Papers (13th week 2012)

I'm back from vacations and trying to catch up with the quantum optics pile of papers that came out in those two weeks. Here're some of the articles that caught my eye:

• "An analysis of the changes in ability and knowledge of students taking A-level physics and mathematics over a 35 year period" by Peter J Barham, Physics Education 47, 162-168 (2012).
  
  I loved the closing phrase, I cite: "The change in mathematical ability makes teaching physics at degree level more challenging, but that is a challenge we should embrace, rather than simply protest about."


• "Extracting Dynamical Equations from Experimental Data is NP Hard" by Toby S. Cubitt, Jens Eisert, and Michael M. Wolf, Physical Review Letters 108, 120503 (2012).
  
  In other words, it is damn hard to figure out the underlying math just from experimental data. The result is nice to read and quite interesting.


• "Cooling by Heating: Refrigeration Powered by Photons" by B. Cleuren, B. Rutten, and C. Van den Broeck, Physical Review Letters 108, 120603 (2012).
  
  This is interesting, you can cool a lead by joining it to another lead through two quantum dots. There was another interesting paper in the same issue about cooling with incoherent light but I seem to have misplaced it on my files.


• "Generation of Mesoscopic Entangled States in a Cavity Coupled to an Atomic Ensemble" by G. Nikoghosyan, M. J. Hartmann, and M. B. Plenio, Physical Review Letters 108, 123603 (2012).
  
  Something like dark states but by using 6-level atoms.


• "Controlled Dicke Subradiance from a Large Cloud of Two-Level Systems" by Tom Bienaime, Nicola Piovella, and Robin Kaiser, Physical Review Letters 108, 123602 (2012).
  
  Everybody was talking about Dicke super-radiance two years ago, now it is time for Dicke subradiance to be shown experimentally and used to control storage in long-lived subradiant modes

Last weekend movies (12th week 2012)...

In order to try to keep a schedule, I'm scheduling this post way ahead of time...

1. Letters to Juliet, ****
   A young fact checker from The New Yorker finds herself thinking about her relationship while pursuing someone else's dream on an allegedly honeymoon-like vacation.
   
   
2. The Last Starfighter, ***
   This is amazing, just a couple of years after Tron (1982) this film has a lot of primitive CGI included, full scenes of CGI! And there's an alien that seems like the prototype of Dr. Zoidberg. The alien copilot looks a lot like the alien in Enemy Mine from 1985—the 1979 novella of the same title is awesome, a must read for science fiction fans—.
   
   
3. Seeking justice, ***
   A school teacher's wife is raped in New Orleans. A mysterious man approaches the school teacher offering vendetta in exchange of a future favor to the vigilante organization that he represents and that is only the beginning. A good thriller.

I managed to watch some tv-series:

1. Eureka S01, ***
   Federal Marshall Jack Carter finds himself working as Sheriff for the top-secret town of Eureka, where the topmost brilliant scientists of USA work for the development of science and technology. Of course, this peculiar town is prone to a lot of mishaps either by the ingenuity of the townspeople or the actions of some unknown evil band of men.

Last weekend movies (11th week 2012)...

In order to try to keep a schedule, I'm scheduling this post way ahead of time...

1. Machuca, *****
   A look at the period of a few months before and after the coup d'état to Salvador Allende's socialist government in Chile through the eyes of two children at a private school in Santiago, one from a middle class neighborhood and the other from a shanty town. It's a quite sensible and shocking narrative that seems to go nowhere and then bam! hits you between the eyes.
   
   
2. Tomorrow, when the War Began, ****
   The war scenario idea behind this film is awesome! West Oz is stormed by Confederation troops and seized due to land scarcity in South Pacific Asia. Three coastal port cities are taken as foothold for the invasion. Some teens manage to escape the first wave of invasion because they were camping in the wild and now, they are back in town ready to raise hell. It seems like a second part is in the making.
   
   
3. The Men who Stare at Goats, *
   A journalist gone south in his personal life goes to Kuwait in hopes that covering the war will bring him some self-respect, but instead finds one of the men who stare at goats, a secret psionic operative of the 60s army. Really, the star is just because McGregor, Spacey, Clooney, and Bridges are all there.
   
   
4. Abduction, 
   I am seriously thinking to award one star as long as I don't fall asleep or finish watching the movie. A young guy raised to fight finds out he's not who he believes and starts a series of events that will transform his life into an international man of mystery.

Well, that's it.

Last weekend movies (10th week 2012)...

In order to try to keep a schedule, I'm scheduling this post about the movies I have managed to see so far in the week...

1. The Sunset Limited, *****
   This is a jewel, not many single location films are good and this one is great. Two men confronting their beliefs after one of them attempted suicide (played by Tommy Lee Jones) and the other stopped it (portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson). Great dialogues.
   
   
2. Take Shelter, ****
   The onset of paranoid schizophrenia and its repercussions in the life of a simple man are sensitively portrayed in this film. I didn't like the ending of the film because I'm not sure if it is another delusion which makes the film and awesome take on a real problem, or a occurrence in the life of the family portrayed which makes the film some prophetical apocalyptic bullshit.
   
   
3. Dawn of the Dead, ****
   The second of Romero's Living Dead Trilogy. It has been ages without watching this one and it still rocks my spare time and I still believe that the music is seriously fucked up sometimes, but it's part of the package.
   
   
4. Dawn of the Dead, ****
   Remakes are usually not better than the originals but this one rocks! I don't know why I missed this when it came out eight years ago. 

Well, that's it for today. Wish me a nice trip, I'll try to post some pictures.

The Dark Tower VI: The Song of Susannah by Stephen King

In the Song of Susannah, Mr. King takes us a step further in the path to the Dark Tower. Sussannah Dean is again two women in one and pregnant as a result from the drawing of Jake into Mid World. A demon, Mia has taken control over Suze and, after the battle of the Calla, has her run away to New York to have the chap under the care of the Crimson King's servants, who has promised motherly aching Mia to give her charge over the chap for a few years. 

The rest of the Ka-tet is split in two teams, one to follow Suze and one to find Calvin Tower and try to save the rose. Originally Eddie and Roland were supposed to follow Suze while Jake and Pere Callahan got the business with Calvin Tower done, but Ka blows! With the help of the Manni, Jake and Callahan find themselves in New York chasing Suze with the help of Oy, while Eddie and Roland are welcomed to Maine with a shower of bullets. 

In Maine, Mr. King introduces a fictionalized version of himself into the story as a channel for the story of the Dark Tower to be told, something that seems to be important because the Crimson King's agents seem to be trying to stop him with this or that seemingly random act.

Along the story new facts are introduced; like Fedic and Castle Discordia or the role Mordred, the chap, will play in the future of the ka-tet. What I liked the most is how Mr. King introduces himself to the story and how masterfully fills at least a hundred pages of autobiographical data with two or three lines regarding events related to the story. Anyway, it is a great read and Mr. King shows why he is the acclaimed author that he is. From Castle Discordia at the end of the world to rural Maine, the places are depicted with masterful strokes and the story flows with ease in both regions of imagination and reality. 

Good Reading, Long Days and Pleasant Nights!