Changes related to lists of Papers, Books and Movies

As you can see, I have been unable to keep posting what I am reading/watching in the last month. I have realized I was using a time consuming format for this end. I have just decided to try twitter to list whatever I'm consuming as soon as I'm consuming it, so if you want to know what I am reading or watching please use the tweet box at HambrientosVagabundos.org or follow me in twitter: @BMRodriguezLara

Here, I will keep posting my unpredictable rants and even more unpredictable musings. Sometimes, when I find a paper/book/movie that really amazes me, I will post about it here.

Thank you

\B

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!

  

Last weekend movies (9th week 2012)...

Most probably, this is the last quasi-periodical blog update in at least a month. I'm leaving Singapore, going on real vacations for two weeks and, then, moving back to Mexico...

1. Sabrina, ****
   Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn), the lovely young daughter of an English chauffeur serving an American family, is deeply in love with the spoiled playboy of the family and can ruin a big merger between corporate families by running away with the youngster. It comes to the old, reliable, business mastermind of the family, Linus (Humphrey Bogart), to avoid such debacle.
   
   
2. Die Welle, ****
   Autocracies are a thing of the past and surely cannot emerge on modern democratic societies. Right? Wrong! Based on The Third Wave experiment of 1967, this awesome German film fictionalizes the real experiment that showed the emergence of fascist, nationalist behavior along high-school teenagers in just one week.
   
   
3. Age of Heroes, ****
   So, you knew that Ian Fleming was in charge of forming a secret commando for the British Army during WWII, right? The 30 Assault Unit was the name and this film seems very much like what should have happened in the beginning of such unit.
   
   
4. Tales of an ancient empire, 
   I don't understand why Vampire stories are usually all or nothing. I fell asleep after 20min of the film and didn't even cared to try to watch it again. 

I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to keep following the tv-series I have learned to like in the last year and a half here in Singapore, so this may be the last post about this matter:

1. Last Man Standing S01-E18, ***
   Tim's dad and brother come to town and may be staying there for a long time as they are gonna be building the new store. Of course, that cannot go smooth at the first try.
   
   
2. Castle S04-E16, ***
   The mystery left over from last week is solved when Beckett and Castle are in the midst of a cold war sleeper attempt to start world war three.
   
   
3. Hawaii Five O S02-E17, ***
   The unit has to solve the murder of a successful liner builder which happens to be a Hawaiian history fan. The suspects go from a petty thief to a possible eco-terrorist but, in the end, the motif is as simple as possible: pure greed.
   
   
4. Big Bang Theory S05-E18, ***
   
   The episode is named "The werewolf transformation." Sheldon starts becoming a chaotic character after failing to get his scheduled hair cut due to the barber being in coma.
   
   
5. Psych, (not yet back?)
   
   
   
   
6. Once upon a time S01-E13, ***
   
   The story book is back, the story behind prince charming and Midas' daughter is finished, and the mysterious writer is starting to leave the background and playing a role. Interesting.  

   
   
7. Comic Book Men S01-E02, ***
   
   The second out of six episodes reality show based at Kevin Smith's comic book store: Jay and Bob's Secret Stash. The 60s Batmobile comes to the store and the guys try to play ball hockey without any glory at all. 

Last weekend movies (8th week 2012)

This week was another run at the discount bin with some titles I didn't even catch their names on the internet when they first came out. But it was a great discount bin run as you will see...

1. Warhorse, ****
   A horse, his owner and WWI. A story of the great war where the main character is a horse, and the owner whom loves it. It has great visual storytelling and the composition of shots is beautiful.
   
   
2. The Big Year, ****
   What does birders leave behind in search of a big year? The film is based on the book The Big Year: A tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik which records the birder's season of 1998. It's a good comedy that somehow makes you think a little.
   
   
3. The rum diary, ****
   This film is based on Hunter S. Thompson's book The Rum Diary telling the story of an unpublished american novelist came journalist in Puerto Rico to pay the bills. A tale of expatriates life and abuses overseas. It's great to see Johnny Depp in two movies based on Thompson's books, the other is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
   
   
4. Anonymous, ****
   A visually appealing exploitation of the Oxford theory of Shakespeare with a lot of pseudo-history on  top of it to make for the lack of romance, drama and knowledge of true story.
   
   
5. Too Big to Fail, ****
   What happened behind the corporate and federal doors at the market meltdown of 2008? This pseudo-documentary film tries to hypothesize such events based on the news that came and information that leake out at and after the time.
   
   
6. Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, ***
   The Justice League has to save an alternate Earth were superheroes are bad and supervillians good. Although the move spends most of the time with just five of the founding members (Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern and the Flash), the keystone of this animated film is my favorite psychopath: The Batman.
   
   
7. Cougars, Inc.,  
   Again, I didn't forget to put the stars. I don't even know why I finished watching this... 

This week brought many interesting things on the tv-series front:

1. Last Man Standing S01-E16-17, ***
   Embarrassment, dares, fight versus city bureaucracy, and a NASCAR car.
   
   
2. Castle S04-E15, ***
   A ghost assassin is loose in the city trying to start a the destruction of the modern world! Of course, Beckett and Castle get involved in this first part of two CIA thriller where I have the feeling there's more than meets the eye.
   
   
3. Hawaii Five O S02-E16, ***
   The team is in troubles when a murder is committed at the governor's fund rising ball and everything almost ends in an international terrorist attack to the Russian embassy.
   
   
4. Big Bang Theory S05-E176, ***
   
   Again, the episode is split between the adventures of the boys and those of the girls. Sheldon finds himself fighting for a new office and, afterwards, his sanity while Penny has to deal with being the bff of Amy.
   
   
5. Psych, (not yet back?)
   
   
   
   
6. Once upon a time S01-E12, ***
   
   A retelling of the beauty and the beast that amazingly gives more insight on the story behind Rumpelstiltskin and the Evil Queen.  

   
   
7. Comic Book Men, ***
   
   A six episode reality based at Kevin Smith's comic book store: Jay and Bob's Secret Stash. It's a funny look at the memorabilia, pop culture and comic book tradings happening at the store.

Last weekend movies (7th week 2012)

Consuming media is a wonderful trip, there are amazing story and storytelling ideas that come from films in the discount bin that I didn't even manage to see in the marquee...

1. Wristcutters: A love story, *****
   What happens to suicide-people after they die? They go to a hot and desolated place with no laughs. The idea is awesome, it is based in the title-story of "Kneller's happy campers" by Etgar Keret. I'm gonna read that anthology as soon as possible. Do yourself a favor and go for the film, the acting is good, the soundtrack is creative, and the whole thing is a piece that you will carry in your memory for long.
   
   
2. Funny Face, ****
   Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn, together, dancing and singing—now I understand why Hepburn's sung part in My Fair Lady was done by someone else—in a fashion magazine romantic comedy film that surely was an inspiration for a lot of films like Devil wears Prada and such.
   
   
3. In time, ***
   The idea behind the film is awesome: Humans have been genetically modified to stop aging at 25, the price to pay is that after that instant each and every further second has to be earned because time has substituted money as currency. The film is barely good compared to what can be done with such a great idea, I think.
   
   
4. Drive, ***
   This drama has an 80s feeling all over it—I realized it was a 2011 film by checking the IMDb—, it uses a lot of slow, long scenes to build feelings between characters like in olden times. The twist and ending are good and filled with noir crime novel nostalgia. It is based in a book by James Sallis.
   
   
5. The Switch, **
   A lonely but accomplished woman chooses artificial insemination to fulfill her motherly dreams but, on the insemination day, his best friend switches the sperm's donor with his. Do you realize that I almost used the same words than in last weekend's backup plan? This is funnier, more comedy than romantic.
   
   
6. The Hit List, **
   A run down man without any drive finds a friend in a hitman who asks him for a list of people whose death will make his life better. Good action, but not thrilling at all.
   
   
7. In the Name of the King: Two Worlds,  
   I just realized this is a sequel to a dungeon siege film. No, I didn't forget to put the stars. I fell asleep twice while trying to watch it. 

Really, what is happening with television series? ...

1. Last Man Standing S01-E15, ****
   Mike's birthday! "Bacon of the month club... Yey, 17 years already... Yeah, if you get to 20 you get a free angiogram... What about 25?... Nobody makes it to 25." This is what I love about Tim Allen's shows, simple, crude, and fun.
   
   
2. Castle S04-E14, *****
   They really made a killer episode! Beckett and Castle solve a murder and a crime from the 50s while Castle enacts the past in his minds eye. Awesome characterization!
   
   
3. Hawaii Five O S02-E15, ***
   Danno is reached by his past and his family is put in danger's way.
   
   
4. Big Bang Theory S05-E16, ****
   
   Sheldon is forced to take vacations and pesters Amy on her lab. Howard is getting married and issues start arising while the rest of the guys just hang around.
   
   
5. Psych, (not yet back?)
   
   
   
   
6. Once upon a time S01-E11, ***
   
   Emma trusts too much in Sydney and we learn the story behind the Evil Queen's mirror.  

Sorry for being late, I went walking and taking pictures yesterday and forgot to write the post in advance. 

LWP: A list of papers (on vacation)

I'm really getting into the on-vacation mood and not even worrying about checking the RSS feeds for my favorite journals everyday (I think my google reader has some 800 unread items as of today). Last week, I managed to skip through the feed and found these interesting:

Anderson localization in a periodic photonic lattice with a disordered boundary by  U. Naether, J. M. Meyer, S. Stützer, A. Tünnermann, S. Nolte, M. I. Molina, and A. Szameit, Optics Letters 37, 485-487 (2012).


Optomechanical cooling of levitated spheres with doubly resonant fields by G. A. T. Pender, P. F. Barker, F. Marquardt, J. Millen, and T. S. Monteiro, Physical Review A 85, 021802(R) (2012).


Optomechanical systems as single-photon routers by G. S. Agarwal and Sumei Huang, Physical Review A 85, 021801(R) (2012).

I hope I can read them sometime in the future after this lackadaisical bought of laziness.

Last weekend movies (6th week 2012)

This was a weird weekend, there were some very good movies and some real bad ones...

1. Cidade de Deus, *****
   Life at the "City of God," one of Rio de Janeiro's favelas, from the eyes of a kid who grew up to be a photographer. This is a violent but awesome film depicting life in the outskirts of Rio during the 60, 70, and 80s. It's based on real events. It is so good that it's one of the few films that I have seen twice in my life.
   
   
2. The warrior's way, *****
   The best swordsman assassin from Japan deserts from his clan and seeks refuge in the wild west where he makes new friends, new enemies and old enemies find him. A mash-up of lone wolf and cub, seven samurais, magnificent seven and many more this film just made my day! This is how a action fantasy story is visually told.
   
   
3. Charade, ****
   A woman's husband is found death and a quarter million dollar is missing (it's the 60's so that's a lot of money). Audrey Hepburn's character finds herself in the middle of a mystery leftover by WWII. A very cute romantic comedy within a mystery film. Lovely takes of Paris. This is a must see.
   
   
4. How do you know, ***
   A girl softballer, portrayed by lovely Reesse Witherspon, is being cut from the USA team and finds herself interested in both a professional baseball player playboy and a corporate guy in the mist of a SEC investigation while dealing with her life after being a pro-athlete.
   
   
5. The backup plan, **
   A lonely but accomplished woman chooses artificial insemination to fulfill her motherly dreams but, on that same day, meets a guy in what seems to be love at first sight. A nice romantic comedy, good for girlfriend time.
   
   
6. From Prada to Nada, **
   Have you read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin? Well, think about it but with two rich-come-poor latinas in LA. It's a weird romantic comedy that jumps a lot in the story.
   
   
7. Chick magnet, 
   No, it is not a mistake that there are no stars at the right of the title. Two complete and one partial assholes find themselves with a shirt that is a chick magnet but in the case of true love. The review on the cover sounded nice but it was a waste of time.

Really, what is happening with television series? ...

1. Last Man Standing, (no episode?)
   
   
   
2. Castle, (no episode?)
   
   
   
3. Hawaii Five O, (no episode?)
   
   
   
4. Big Bang Theory S05-E15, ****
   
   Leonard chooses to forfeit his friend status as per Sheldon's room-mate's agreement. Chaos ensues in Sheldon's life. It's good to go back to non-drinking Penny and the comedy style from the second season .
   
   
5. Psych, (not yet back?)
   
   
   
   
6. Once upon a time S01-E07-10,
   
   Emma starts finding and solving the problems of fairy tale characters trapped in Storybrooke, Maine. It has a comatose prince charming, so it qualifies as a soap opera according to my standards.  

At last, Lyx and I manage to watch an Audrey Hepburn film! I hope we can see the rest of them in the coming weekends.

I cannot believe that the "Last weekend movies" series of short reviews is having around a hundred visits in the last three weeks. I never expected that. Thank you for visiting!

LWP: A list of papers (On vacation)

I am taking my vacation seriously and just reading titles and abstracts. These caught my eye, I hope I will read them whenever I'm back:

Transverse and lateral shifts of the center of gravity of a refracted nonparaxial Bessel beam by E. Norblad, Physical Review A 85, 013847 (2012).

Reflectivity and transmissivity of a cavity coupled to two-level systems: Coherence properties and the influence of phase decay by B. Julsgaard and K. Mølmer, Physical Review A 85, 013844 (2012).


Cavity cooling of a trapped atom using electromagnetically induced transparency by M. Bienert and G. Morigi, New Journal of Physics 14, 023002 (2012).


An optical-lattice-based quantum simulator for relativistic field theories and topological insulators by L. Mazza, A. Bermudez, N. Goldman, M. Rizzi, M. A. Martin-Delgado and M. Lewenstein, New Journal of Physics 14, 015007 (2012).

That's it...

Last weekend movies (5th week 2012)

Compared to last weekend, this one was a bad movie weekend. I also grew a little bit bored of doing nothing and decided to get some work done. Nevertheless, I'm trying to keep with my vacation goal: to watch and read as much media as possible...

1. Moneyball, ****
   Based on the story of Billy Beane, one of the first baseball managers to put together a team based on computer analyzed statistics who is still trying to win a championship. I never know how to classify biographic films, I guess this is a drama. It has a good pace and flows. I actually enjoyed it.
   
   
2. Immortals, ***
   King Hyperion marches against the Greek gods and it's up to Theseus to stop him before he frees the Titans. I really liked this film, the visual design is impressive—say, e.g., the young golden gods and the golden but dirtied demi-god Theseus—and the landscape composition is impressive. The retold of Theseus and the Minotaur is amazing!
   
   
3. Colombiana, ***
   A drug lord's family is murdered and only his little girl survives. She grows up to be a perfect assassin looking for revenge. The film was scripted by my favorite femme-fatale enthusiast Luc Besson—Mathilda, Nikita, Leeloo—. It's a good action film with a lot of parkour.
   
   
4. Johnny English Reborn, ***
   Johnny English left the British secret service in disgrace but happenstances bring him back and gets a chance to clean his name. Mr. Atkinson comedy is good, specially his faces. It's a no brainer, I just sat down and laughed for half the movie.
   
   
5. 11-11-11, **
   A writer losses his family and stats realizing that bad things happen to his family on November 11th, but the worst is yet to happen. In the beginning I started to get bored with this horror film, but then came the ending and I really loved it. I have always loved non-hollywood endings.
   
   
6. Killer Elite, **
   A retired assassin is blackmailed and brought back to kill a team of ex-SAS soldiers involved in the assassination of a Sheikh's family in Oman. A passable action film, not so much action, not so much of a story, one of the stars is just out of respect to Al Pacino.
   
   
7. Salvation Boulevard, **
   A not-so-sure born-again-christian is witness to an accidental shooting committed by his mega-church preacher who decides to keep everything under the table. It's a great farcical film on the subject of false and self-justified "faith."  

Really, what is happening with television series? ...

1. Last Man Standing, (no episode?)
   
   
   
2. Castle S04-E13, ****
   A dog judge and trainer gets killed and it is up to Castle and Beckett to find out the reason why.
   
   
3. Hawaii Five O S02-E14, ****
   The mystery of the past is unfolding as a robbery entangles with the past.
   
   
4. Big Bang Theory S05-E14, ****
   
   It's back to the beginning with Leonard dating penny and everybody else being their old selves from the first season.
   
   
5. Psych, (not yet back?)
   
   
   
   
6. Wilfred S01-E01,  ***
   
   An US remake of the Oz series, a suicidal man finds a "friend" in the bastardy dog of his hot neighbor.
   
   
7. Once upon a time S01-E01-07,
   
   The land of fairy tales suffered a horrible fate, the Evil Queen curse them to a place of horrors: our world. Now, it is upon Snow White's daughter and grandson to fix things in Storybrooke, Maine, and end the curse.

It seems like we are getting a curse too, because Lyx and I haven't found time to sit down and watch those old  films with Audrey Hepburn. I really hope we can do something about it next weekend. 

LWP: Quantum memory with a single two-level atom in a half cavity

by Y. Wang, J. Minar, G. Hetet, and V. Scarani.
Physical Review A 85, 013823 (2012)

Wang and collaborators show that it is possible to store a single-photon pulse in a two-level atom within a half cavity setup where the decay rate between the atom and the light is controlled by motion of the one mirror in the half cavity.

A dipole-field interaction leading to optical Bloch equations from Heisenberg picture is used; the effects of the half-cavity are encoded in a term accounting for decay  into the half-cavity (pulse) mode, decay and noise introduced by the environment are also taken into account. Assumptions include: Markov approximation (long half-life times compared to light's round-trip between atom and mirror), small mirror motion (of the order of a wavelength) leading to neglect amplitude changes in time scales smaller or equal to a round-trip time—but this cannot be assumed in the phases due to the importance of interferences in the sysme— 

The probability of the two-level system absorbing a single-photon wave packet is found and a suitable decay function is given that maximizes such probability. Storage is achieved by placing the atom at a node of the half-cavity system. Then, the emission efficiency is calculated and a decay rate is defined which controls the temporal shape of the outgoing single-photon pulse. The authors present simulations for a sampling of time-bin single-photon pulses and their respective control decay-rate leading to high fidelity storage and possible implementations of their protocol.

The article is didactic in its presentation and the topic is quite interesting. I was not familiar with half-cavity schemes and this manuscript presents a nice survey of references in the topic. I hope experiments using their protocol follow soon.

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb deals with the impact of the highly improbable—the actual subtitle of the book—in the real world. The title comes from the fact that one single event is enough to prove a theory wrong; in this case the European theory that all swans were white previous to the discovery of Australia and black swans.

I really hated/loved the book. The mean reason for the first was the introduction of an example in the person of a writer—which I couldn't find in Google—that made me believe that Dr. Taleb was some kind of literary conman creating a fake narrative to advance his ideas. I felt betrayed. I like confidence games but I don't like being conned by an author while dealing with a serious topic. Good thing is that later, in a footnote, it is made clear that the author/example was mere fiction, a gedankenexperiment. Then, I came to love the book: It is an anecdotal narrative denouncing our weakness and inclination for anecdotal, causal narratives that blinds us from the skeptical, empirical analysis of events in economics, history, sociology and other human endeavors to understand our  non-ideal selves, societies and surroundings. I think I can construct another paradoxical phrase like the latter: In parts, t is a name dropping exposition denouncing name dropping expositions. 

I found many things to like from the manuscript—a flowing prose filled with real and imaginary examples, an ample reference and bibliographical section (almost one third of the electronic version)—and just one to dislike: I felt the first two parts became repetitive.

The ideas are sound, our actual knowledge does not allow us to simulate realistic scenarios to provide accurate predictions and, most probably, you and I will be long dead when, if, such an exercise becomes feasible—think about Assimov's psychohistory in Foundation *wink*.

Is there a way to predict the future when it comes to phenomena that belong to the so-called Extremistan (most of the modern real world)? No.

Then, what's the use of knowing that? Awareness, there are infinitely many things we don't know that could affect us, but one we can try to control: our actions and, thus, our exposure to those unknown.

It's a great book, try it. I even see it as a kind of philosophy of life. I am really thankful to my brother Andre for suggesting it to me. I think that I would not have picked it up by myself.

Last weekend movies (4th week 2012)...

This was a nice long weekend that I'm sure is gonna remain unchallenged in my personal annals of laziness for years to come. It also was a weekend of independent cinema...

1. Fright Night, ****
   It has been ages without a vampire movie! This is a reboot of a 80's film with the same name. A vampire comes to town and its teenage neighbor has to fight it to protect his loved ones. One star is pure euphoria for finding a horror movie that involves mythological creatures and not a human serial killer.
   
   
2. Beginners, ****
   A man's life after the death of his father trying to construct a relationship— fighting his impulses to always run away—while dealing with the past; his father came out the day his mother died and his take on the family makes him evade relationships. This is a great and dramatic romantic comedy. The characters are so fresh and lovable. And the pace is just perfect to get soaked with the photography and the music.
   
   
3. Our Idiot Brother, ****
   Ned is a naive, honest, kind and idealist man who always tries to empathize with the neighbor (I like the Spanish word "prójimo" more but there exist no English equivalent) but manages to always screw things up, or so it seems like. The topic, honesty and idealism, really got me. It is a fresh and elegant comedy of situations with a big human factor on it. 
   
   
4. Lucky, ***
   A newbie serial killer inherits a winning lottery ticket from one of his victims and his newly won money gets the attention of his childhood love. They get married and manage not to kill each other for a few weeks. It has been ages since I watched a dark comedy and this one really got me smiling, it lacks a great script but it is morbid and funny enough.
   
   
5. Texas killing fields, ***
   There's a serial killer on the loose in rural Texas and two cops get emotionally involved in the case. This crime drama is loosely based on a real case. The story is so dark that the film doesn't manage to show it most of the time, nevertheless the photography is good and the takes of the Texas bayou managed to give me the chills.
   
   
6. The Art of Getting by,  ***
   A lonely teen has to find himself or flunk high-school. I liked the opening: "you are born alone, you will die alone" which is a chopped paraphrase of Orson Welles'  "We are born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship we can  create the illusion for the moment that we are not alone." The rest of the movie can be considered an audio-visual rendition of the rest of Mr. Welles' phrase.
   
   
7. The Son of No One, *
   A young cop is haunted and hunted by ghosts of his past when he killed two men. The crimes of past and present intertwine in this not so much of a thriller with the background of 9-11. It's a good idea but I guess you need to have some context that I lack to really appreciate the movie.
   
   
8. Lone Wolf and Cub 6, *
   This film should have a three or four stars rating but I watched the first five parts in the last two weekends and the memory of them are too fresh in my mind. The lone wolf finally faces his rival the Ura-Yagyu and nothing happens. C'mon! Give me an ending! I read somewhere that they are planning a new movie for the series with possible release date in 2014.

What is happening with the television series, I have never followed a season in the past and it is very annoying that during this month some of them have been going in and out...

1. Last Man Standing S01-E14, ****
   Mike screws it big time with the neighbors thanks to his honesty, leading to troubles with his socially active wife. In the end, well, Mike's proven right.
   
   
2. Castle S04-E12, ****
   The shadows behind power reappear to keep the mayor of New York from running for governor and keep Beckett out of her mothers case.
   
   
3. Hawaii Five O, (no episode?)
   
   
   
4. Big Bang Theory, (no episode?)
   
   
   
   
5. Psych, (not yet back?)
   
   
   
   
6. Phineas and Ferb S01-E01-46,  *****
   
   This is a simple, ten minute long cartoon, about two creative and industrious kids trying to spend summer at their best and their teenage sister trying to bust their plans. It's so innocent and creative and full of stories in just 10 minutes. I really liked it, it just made me laugh again and again.
   
   
7. Game of Thrones S01-E01-10, (mini-series)  ****
   
   Winter is coming! A land where winter brings shadows and horrors is involved in incestuous political intrigue and in the verge of an all out war. Stage and wardrobe design are awesome, the characters have personality and deepness. I only didn't like the slow pace at the beginning but then the epic scale of the plot may need such a pace to develop.
   
   
8. Falling Skies S01-E01-10, (mini-series) ****
   
   An alien vanguard has taken over the earth and a ten percent of the original population survives. Some of these survivors have organized in a resistance trying to figure a way to bring the fight back to the aliens. Great effects, great alien designs, good episode progression, crappy season finale.
   
   
9. The Borgias S01-E01-09,  (mini-series)  **
   
   Rodrigo Borgia has been elected pope Alexander VI and the Borgia family reaches the apex of their political station which is gonna last just a few decades. A free take on the historical Borgia family and its influence in the geopolitics of the Papal States and Mediterranean Europe during the Renaissance. Jeremy Irons plays the role of Rodrigo Borgia! Awesome wardrobe and locations. I was not so happy with the episode design, it didn't manage to get me interested long enough but good to remember the old history lessons from high-school.
   
   

Sadly, we didn't have any Audrey Hepburn due to the fact that my cousin got married and Lyx went to the wedding but we are already planning next weekend. 

LWP:Absence of vacuum induced Berry phases without the rotating wave approximation in cavity QED

by Jonas Larson
Physics Review Letters 108, 033601 (2012)

Some ten years ago, Berry phase was studied in the Jaynes-Cummings model. In this paper, Larson focuses on proving that such a geometric phase arises from the use of the rotating wave approximation.

First, Larson reviews the results fro the Jaynes-Cummings model, that is, under the rotating wave approximation, and derives the accumulated Berry phases by exact diagonalization of the Hamiltonian. Then, he presents a semiclassical approximation derivation by using canonical operators for the field and Born-Oppenheimer approximation to obtain a pair of adiabatic potentials that lead to semiclassical conical energy surfaces giving a Berry phase which is identical to that given by the exact calculation for large photon number. 

Once the validity of this semiclassical approximation is provided by this example, Larson uses the same method to find the semiclassical energy surfaces for the case without the rotating wave approximation, that is, Rabi Hamiltonian, and shows that these surfaces lack the conical intersection that gives a non zero Berry phase. Actually, the semiclassical energy surfaces for this case intersect along the line given by x=0 instead of just a point. It is noted that the author carried a numerical diagonalization of the Hamiltonian and the results were confirmed.

Furthermore, Larson revisits a lambda-atom configuration where a Raman coupling scheme is used and shows that by assuming far detuned driving fields such that adiabatic elimination can be carried on, without any rotating wave approximation, the semiclassical energy surfaces for the system do not intersect at a single point and Berry phase must be zero all the time.

He also discusses the case of a single atom in a bichromatic cavity and shows that within the used semiclassical formalism there are no vacuum induced Berry phases. A trio of other systems are presented with the same result: no Berry phase when the rotating wave approximation is not used.    

It concludes, that the presence of a Berry phase in the Rabi model and other models discussed (adiabatic elimination, bichromatic cavities, etc) in the paper is a result of introducing the rotating wave approximation and not inherent to the models. Thus, a flag is raised: whenever Berry phase is the subject of study one has to be mindful of the approximations used independently of the coupling regime at hand. It may be even possible that this result may change if a multi-level approximation is taken instead of the typical two-level restriction of the Rabi model. It also points the interest of studying vacuum induced Berry phase in nonadiabatic processes. 

This is a very nice paper to read, it presents a concrete, straight to the fact introduction of geometrical phases in cavity-QED and the results are presented in a clear manner. If you are a fan of the Jaynes-Cummings model, you cannot leave this article unread.

Last weekend movies...

Lyx and I both got a very busy week, but we still have the Audrey Hepburn bug...

1. My Fair Lady, ****
   Based on the theater play, it tells the story of Eliza Doolittle a young street girl with a drive who search and becomes the experiment of Prof. Higgins, a brilliant scholar of language, who believes that in early XX century London language defines status. It would have been five stars if Hepburn had sang her parts and if they had done with the kill-time-while-the-scenery-is-changed songs.
   
   
2. Life as we know it, ***
   Sophie is a baby who lost her parents in a car accident and is left at the care of her mother's best friend and her father's best friend, who are a pair of self-centered modern adults used to have the life they wanted. It's a fresh romantic comedy with this modern twist on the idea of love in the times of ego.

More and more series are coming back...

1. Last Man Standing S01-E13, ****
   Mike is an angry man but any man has a hearth and now the girls manage to have a puppy for a few days and Ed... well, Ed manages to make him angrier by almost re-branding outdoor man to compensate for time-lost with his daughter.
   
   
2. Hawaii Five O S02-E12-13, **
   I just skipped episode 12 last week! The guys solve a triple murder and Chin gets married. The special forces are back in action and McGarret has to deal with the fine line between friend/enemy again, but this time it is even closer to his heart.
   
   
3. Big Bang Theory S04-E12, ****
   
   Sheldon finds out that buying forgive-me trinkets is just his strategy for a happy relationship as Amy, brilliant as she is, is still a girl and not Sheldon. The rest of the guys deal with manhood in the old fashioned way (Howard), loneliness (Leonard) and some strange gayness (Raj).
   
   
4. Revenge S01-E01-13, ***
   
   Amanda Clark's father is framed for a crime he didn't commit and dies in shame while in prison, she comes back to the Hamptons as Emily Thorne, loaded with money and ready to revenge on all those who helped framing her dad. The first five episodes are nice and fast-paced but the rest become a little bit too slow and cliche. Oh, yes, the under-laying idea is Monte Cristo. Lyx calls it "a drama" but it has all my qualifiers for soap-opera: i) String music during dramatic pauses, ii) Guys with more stylized eyebrows than girls, iii) Someone falling into a coma, iv) That someone coming out from the coma with amnesia

And yes, we still have more Audrey Hepburn to come thanks to Lyx despite the fact that she doesn't seem to like me pointing out how beautiful, gorgeous and astounding Audrey Hepburn was. 

LWP: Polariton Mott insulator with trapped ions or circuit QED

by M. Hohenadler, M. Aichhorn, L. Pollet and S. Schmidt
Physical Review A 85, 013810 (2012)

The authors address an extended Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard model where photons in 1D or 2D arrays of coupled resonators—each of them holding a two-level system—can hop beyond nearest neighbors. This particular model is of relevance in circuit-QED—where 1D and 2D arrays of qubit+stripline resonators can capacitively couple—and in trapped ions&mdahs;where dipole interactions are long range—. So, the model are basically 1D or 2D arrays of polaritons—qubit+fied excitation—with short and long range coupling.

They study a 1D frustrated long-range hopping model in the context of trapped ions and the same in 2D by assuming a circuit-QED model. The first is studied using a variational cluster approach and a quantum Monte Carlo method (ALPS 1.3 implementation), the second only the quantum Monte Carlo method. Analytically, Metzner's local cumulants are used to calculate a photonic Matsubara Green's function for the system within a random phase approximation.

The authors find a Mott-superfluid transition by changing the hopping to qubit-field coupling ratio as usual with these models. Their results show that the Mott lobes characteristic for this transition are enlarged/reduced in the case of trapped ions/circuit-QED but they realize that neither the quantum Monte Carlo, nor the variational cluster approaches provide any evidence of a change of the universality class of phase transition in the presence of long-range hopping.

This is one of those papers that would take long to duplicate but are nice to read and learn the physics of the studied system and even more interesting if you like anything Jaynes-Cummings.

Last weekend movies...

Lyx got the Audrey Hepburn bug and I cannot be happier, she's the most beautiful actress ever, if you ask me...

1. Roman Holiday, *****
   A young princess is burn out by her public relations schedule and, under the influence of a happy drug administered to relax her, decides to escape the embassy of her country and have a free day in Rome. She meets an American journalist by chance that saves her from sleeping in the streets and takes her on a one day tour—not without selfishness. I love old movies, they are so innocent and their endings are so good.
   
   
2. Zatoichi, ****
   Zatoichi appears to be just a blind, wandering masseuse and professional gambler; but the old man is also a wrestler and proficient swordsman. In this story, his road interlaces with that of a pair of siblings that seek revenge on those who murdered their family ten years ago. Good for them, Zatoichi has some unfinished business with the murdering gang. I loved the almost static and the bizarre scenes appearing now and then, and the random act of foolishness that puts a comic touch to everything.
   
   
3. Lone Wolf and Cub 2-5, ***
   Ogami (similar to Okami, wolf in Japanese)  Ito and Daigoro keep walking the road to hell but the Ura-Yagyu is now trying to destroy the lone wolf more actively. I was expecting more after watching the first, but it gets more and more fantastic as the saga keeps going.
   
   
4. The Help, ***
   A young writer, from small town Jackson, tries her hand at narrating the lives of those negro maids from the deep south of the 60s.  It is a well done movie with good acting but I can hardly believe the story. The story would have been great if it were not just a fairy tale. The civil rights movement in the 60s was not a rosy, peaceful endeavor and I would think that even in the 60s a lot of abuse to african-american and american women happened in the deep south.

Some of the series are back from the December pause...

1. Last Man Standing S01-E12, ****
   Mike has to deal with what seems to be a punk celebrity but happens to be a man looking for a center. Of course, he almost screws things up almost making the young  pro-bass-fisher quit fishing. Tony Hawk appears for a few minutes!
   
   
2. Hawaii Five O S02-E13, **
   The special forces are back in action and McGarret has to deal with the fine line between friend/enemy again, but this time it is even closer to his heart.
   
   
3. The Cape E01-13 (Miniseries), ****
   
   A honest cop named Vince gets framed as super-villain Chess and taken for dead, but he survives and, under the tutelage of Max Malini and his Carnival of Crime train him to be the super-hero The Cape. I really liked the idea—and Summer Glau as omniscient Orwell—but the story started to drag and everything became too slow by the second episode. In the end, the series was dropped and the half-season ending was not even close to a real good finale. 

Next week, It's gonna be a Audrey Hepburn weekend for me thanks to Lyx!

LWP: Optical Thomas-Reiche-Kuhn sum rules

by S. M. Barnett and R. Loudon
Physical Review Letters 108, 013601 (2012)

Thomas-Reiche-Kuhn sum rules are quite important in Quantum Optics, they tell us that the sum of squared dipole moments from a any given energy level is constant in the dipole approximation. They have been useful in providing a validity check in radiation-matter interaction, like no-go theorems in the case of super-radiance in Dicke model. Anyhow, it is a necessary condition for the canonical commutation relation between position and momentum of an atomic electron to hold.

In their article Barnett and Loudon—who, by the way, have written very useful and didactic books in Quantum Optics each—explore the electromagnetic field in lossless magnetodielectric media and show that the equal-time commutation relations for the four electromagnetic field operators deliver four polariton sum rules (for the unity, permittivity, permeability and their product) analogous to the atomic Thomas-Reiche-Kuhn sum rule. They show a proof of these optical TRK sum rules by analysing the case where complex polariton frequencies are restricted to the lower half complex plane; the proof is beautiful and simple, they use complex variable analysis to state the fact that path integration in the half-upper complex planes for the four complex functions is equal to one as both the permittivity and permeability goes to one as the frequency goes to infinity, then, in the lower half, the contour integral is calculated from the zeroes of each of the four quantities corresponding to solutions of the dispersion relation for polaritons in a lossless magnetodielectric mediuml; this delivers a residue equal to one. Finally, by using a relation between residues and derivatives of the dispersion relation, they show that this residue is actually a sum over the polariton phase velocities, a little bit more of algebra and tada! They also sketch the effect of losses but leave it for a following article.

They results indicate that it is not possible to design a medium where all polariton modes are in the negative-index region. Interesting for all the meta-material research. I'm curious how this comes out in the presence of losses.

Man, oh man. I'm really dusted in complex variable. I'm still half-way in the calculations, but the paper is so beautiful written that everything seems so logical and simple.