Particle Theory

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 was awarded to scientists Francois Englert & Peter W. Higgs for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism  that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, also known as 'The discovery of the God Particle'.

By allowing us the understanding of creation; we have better understanding of the building blocks that is our universe and how it has evolved over 380,000 Light years,

The discovery was made possible through CERN's  Large Hadron Collider (LHC). 

 

To learn more click on the links above, it’s a rather elaborate explanation; even in a brief overview the process is a succession of details.

Besides looking up answers on-line or through Wikipedia, Stories regarding the LHC has been offered in the entertainment world.  The best depiction of CERN is from Author Dan Brown and his book turned movie, 'Angels & Demons', it’s a detective story where antimatter was stolen from CERN. The story offers a little bit of true insight of CERN's research and some of their history, to clarify one detail, CERN did not create the internet, but a small team at CERN helped in the creation of the Web. And regards to the payload of Antimatter being produced, it’s not enough to create a devastating bomb.

 

 

Another film that briefly touches on the search for the god particle is another detective story called the Big Bang, starring Antonio Banderas.  In this movie an eccentric billionaire played by Sam Elliott searches for the God Particle and has created his own make shift version of the LHC.  The movie concludes with him actively pursuing the experiment of colliding a beam of particles. Or in the characters own words "recreating the exact situation in which the universe may have formed".  The DVD commentary was interesting; it provided insight of the story, and how they got to the point of bringing it to the screen.

 

 

 

 

Due to science of what CERN performs and the approach of defining measurements; below is Short Film Documentary called Powers of Ten, in which the universe is scaled in aerial images of the magnitude of 10.  It sets the stage of how we should perceive the universe and particle theory. 

 

 

 

Halloween Edition

The Halloween Edition Podcast

Horror Film Review #6

The Possession
Film Review six of six

This is my final review of the week and a lead into my Sunday‘ Halloween Edition’ podcast .. The Possession goes a little beyond a father and daughter story, its about a working class family where the couple have recently separated, and are now subjected to a cursed antique box, that contains parasitic entity. This film is surprisingly well acted, I have to give praise to Jeffrey Dean Morgan; whether its from Texas Killing Fields, the CW’s Supernatural, Watchmen, or the Losers, he brings a consistent solid performance, regardless of the script or final product. Like the movie Mama, we had images of moths flying around the box representing an ecto/natural balance of the possessed entity; Shortly into the movie the spirit enters the body of daughter, and slowly takes her over. Its methodically paced and a little dark; I really enjoyed the heart of story regarding parental love and sacrifice. And how much a father will do to protect his family. The movie really picks up pace as soon as we get a glimpse of the actual entity, which was just amazingly well played out. The exorcism scene in the hospital, was shocking; I was just glued to my seat wanting to see how the finale of the family’s involvement carried through. It is said to be based on a true story, which is a very loosely depicted incident of a wine box that gave it's owner bad karma like losing his hair. Honestly I prefer the fiction, the truth is just too strange.

Horror Film Review #5

The Apparition

 Film Review five of six

My first introduction to this movie was a poster with star Ashley Greene of the Twilight Saga . She was covered by a series of hands ready to pull her in, the hands were reminiscent of Asian horror films like the Grudge. The description of the poster sets the overall premise, once you believe and stop resisting , the entity kills you. Ok this is sort the premise, its centers around the Charles Experiment (reality spoiler alert: this experiment does not exist on record). Where four young adults look at a painting of a dead man and concentrate, the experiment is re-tried again in present day, but through technological science four new young adults do the experiment and amplify the concentration to 400 times the mental concentration. The results open a supernatural doorway, and the female member of the group gets sucked into the wall; the entity follows the survivors and leaves traces of mold and decay in their home.

One survivor member floods his house with negative energy to protect him from the evil entity, and calls on the survivors to come to his house. Now I’m going to stop there with the film overview, cause I’m over

simplifying it, and then again I’m not, the Charles experiment was conducted in 1973, in accordance to the movie. Ok now fast forwarding to the ending; logic and an understanding of how the central characters get killed off is not explained or seen on camera, they are just shown in the aftermath. Ashley Greene’s character who enters a Costco, appears to be all alone, as if she on a dead part of the planet. I say this, due to hue color of the film. If the writer and director came out and said after the experiment the 4 adults transported themselves into purgatory like a quasi film version of ABC’s Lost, the television series then I think people would have a better appreciation of this film. The movie never made back the production cost on its ticket sales, and it opened up in 12th place on its opening day weekend. Generally all critics disapproved of the movie and people who I spoke to who seen the movie had nothing good to say about it. Watching the film its clear to me the writer was thinking along the lines of

Noetic Science (which was established in 1973), and maybe if they explored the science a little more, they could have made the film a little more comprehensive. Instead, you get the feeling the director was running out of time or money and decided to skip explaining and just have people disappear in the most illogical manner possible (in hopes that unanswerable will be scary) so the movie can wrap in the final moments with closure.

Horror Film Review #4

Evil Dead (2013)
Film Review four of six

To be fair to fans of the franchise, I never saw the original or its sequel.  I did however unknown to me at the time watched Army of Darkness, the so called third installment in theatres.  I went into it unaware of the connection, the star Bruce Campbell sums up the two movies in 5 minutes to set up for the final chapter.  I sat there clueless of what I was actually watching, my exact words were 'what the hell is this'.  Now,  Bruce Campbell is amazing, he injects  humor and charisma that's scarcely seen nowadays. The scene where he is captured and meets a captured ruler and replies, he is the ruler of Jack,  is probably one my favorite lines from any movie.  So for those who are faithful to Sam Rami and the history behind Evil Dead, I will probably not be taken under your good graces, but here goes.
For starters the character of Ash (Bruce Campbell)  is not here, but what we do know about Ash and him sawing off his hand  does get a nod in this movie, actually a lot of key points from the original movies are touched on.  The movie starts off with a bewildered young girl walking through an eerie forest, we find out in a twist she is possessed, and gets burned in the basement of this cabin in the woods. The tales of witchcraft is logged in what I imagine is the book of the dead;  And it's cover is made up of sown human flesh, and filled with passages of demonic imagery.
We are fast forwarded to present day, a group of five young adults spend the weekend in the cabin to help a member with sobriety; going cold turkey with her drug use.  Later that evening in the basement they recover the book of evil covered in a garbage bag, and wrapped tightly in barbwire.  As shown in the movies 'Cabin in the woods' or 'Scary Movie 5', one unwise individual decides to read aloud versus in the book awakening an evil entity.  The entity enters the body of one who is struggling with her sobriety, in one might say in a horror erotic method. The book reveals stages of the evil, and though physical contact with one another the evil spreads in manner addressed in the book.  The movie gives up any moments of light humor or a chance to level out from an encounter, instead Evil Dead goes for the continual shock and awe effect,  building tension and leaving hope for survival less possible with each infected member.  Speaking with some fans of the original, they didn't enjoy continual shock value of the film, but I know many people did, so there is a mix of opinions; but that can be said to almost any movie, we all perceive things differently.   As a person who went into the movie rather green and holding little expectations, I clearly did not know what was going to happen next, but understood the goals of the movie as explained in the evil book.  I found the movie sharp and utterly unnerving in the best possible sense of the way, it sticks with horror and doesn't let go.
  

Horror Film Review #3

The Purge
Film Review three of six

Out of the six films I am reviewing this week, the most promising based purely on the concept and  the avenues in which it could have gone into was 'The

Purge', a  fellow critic John, who I have the pleasure of co-hosting  a weekly podcast with, has brought up on numerous occasions before screening the movie, "What if" this was the case in today's society, What would you do? What do you think your neighbour would do?  A very open ended question with no real wrong answers, and a great platform to have an open dialogue of discussion on. 

  While watching the early portion of the film, you get subtle hints of what you might expect to come with the ambivalence of conversations with the neighbours, There are the motif of news feeds discussing the underlying purpose of such an act, regarding the poor and homeless, and really what is the hidden purpose of this day, does it really help society? 

The second act offers a twist and narrows in the films direction quite suddenly, as the family unannounced to them; innocently takes in a wounded man, immediate thoughts of the sociological deep ended thriller of Clockwork Orange comes to mind about violence in society.  That notion soon dissipates at great length thanks to the awkward camera movement and skewed visions becoming just annoying as the movie progresses, and though the movie nudges Ethan Hawke’s character to face some sort of pivotal understanding; we are never given time to get the understanding or formulate an opinion of why him and his family.  The opus of the film comes from the daughter, after watching her parents torture a man without hesitation, and watching her boyfriend die in her arms, 'That things will never ever be the same again'

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In the movie trailer we see the polite stranger; the so called self professed leader of the gang of purgers' looking to enter in and fulfill their need to purge. By killing a man the family has mistakenly taken in.  Surprisingly, the polite stranger's involvement in the film is very minuscule, almost a McGuffin, His role sets a time frame in the entire second act of the film; and the final act addresses the underlying nuances delivered at the beginning of this movie; but not without giving us an unexpected turn.  The drawn out suspense was by far better created in Ethan Hawke's movie Sinister, which can be looked on as extension to the first Insidious movie based on the demon in that film.

 Instead we get really closed in acts of violence both large and small aimed primarily at this particular family, with questions of the family's motives never being clearly answered. With their initial choice of not to take part of the purge, but prosper in Hawke's Job in providing home security to his clients. This movie tell us the cathartic release of the annual purge is a good thing, the viewer is shown arguments to the contrary, Like an innocent person who gets thrown in jail for a long sentence, he or she just may themselves turn into monsters due to the set of circumstances.

Horror Film Review #2

World War Z
Film Review two of six

One of the worst truths in our lives that I like so many have come to terms with, is when you adapt a book or some form of literature into a screenplay to a film, you can never be completely faithful to the text.  In some cases, you can be very close almost at verbatim, other times it can be improved upon, Of course it’s a subjective opinion, but one that is shared by many, and in this case anyone who had read author Max Brooks’ novel.  People may disagree with what I am about to say, but world war Z is just another zombie movie.  That being said in contrast to that statement I must say visually it is unmatched, with images and effects that will leave a lasting impression on my mind, that it was so cinematically stunning.  The issue and the truth is the movie, a plan B production; Brad Pitt's production company substituted a vision over a more intriguing and original idea from its source material.  In more direct terms it was candy to our senses and we got a wonderful buffet of visual effects and creepy sounds,

Max Brooks who came to this year’s Toronto Fan Expo (see earlier post) had no objection to sudden drastic changes on the final product, in the show business world he got a substantial buyout for the rights to have his book made into a movie.  Also, if you read his book, you'll know it takes place after the war and it’s just talking heads and people recapping testimony of the events and it being recorded to document the statistics of what happen and how it impacted etc. Pitt's movie while in production suffered setbacks for their decision for deviating from .the source material..  World War Z had several weeks of re-shoots, the final Act of the film ultimately got rewritten by three different writers, and initial plans to work on a sequel got scrapped after experiencing so many difficulties.  Now that the movie became a commercial success and grossed over three times the amount in both domestic and world sales in comparison to production cost; talks are now rumored for a possible sequel.

 

 

  Brad Pitt plays Gerry Lane a former UN employee, while he and his family are stuck in heavy traffic in Philadelphia, the city gets hit with a zombie attack.  In exchange for safety to his Family Gerry goes on a trek to investigate who was patient zero, the one who caused the zombie outbreak, and hopefully find the cure, The journey takes him from the military base of Camp Humphreys in South Korea, to Jerusalem, and then to a WHO faculty in Wales where upon mid-air a stowaway zombie attacks..  The tension feels real, the pace is quick, the stakes are high, and a solid humanizing performance by Pitt makes this story even more believable. Just readers beware; go in with a clear mind you'll be rewarded, compare it to what you know and you'll be mildly disappointed.

Horror Film Review

American Mary
Film review one of six

After watching the movie I decided to look at other reviews of the film, for the most part reviews were consistent on what were plausible for garnering criticism. For example, performances from some actors were not at a calibre best suited for the film.  For me I looked at what the story was trying to unveil and where this journey of Mary Mason was heading.  I honestly enjoyed this movie, An argument that some people felt that the gruesome scenes just scratched the surface especially covering the topic of body modification, I think it was just enough and perfectly executed; to just show more and delve further into to physical world would detract from Mary's Journey, We know she's slowly embracing this world and the balance of her morals has been incredibly shaken up. 

Let me go back a bit, for those who have not seen this movie.  Mary is a medical student who like many become increasingly broke and deeper in debt. While on the phone with her Nana the idea of exotic dancing as means to inject a desperate form of revenue appears to be an option, While auditioning and reviewing her resume, a backroom dealing requires her medical surgery skills, as per her resume, and thus opens the door for underworld medical surgeries. Not a far fetch premise; as proven from other shows like Royal Pains, and the movie Playing God with David Duchovny, having all explored this idea which is loosely based on real life incidents.

  It’s safe to say the term  American Mary is sort of a metaphor of the American Dream,  One by one Mary's dreams, the people she looked up to in the medical profession, her ability to succeed in world of medicine has been disappointingly taken away,  And the first appearance of her covered in blood was three underworld surgeries into the movie and was not even blood, but I believe the pouring of the drink a called "A Bloody Mary",  Everyone will agree Actress Katherine Isobelle, who plays the lead character does an amazing job, even in her descent she has sense of self and what she is doing is by the wishes and needs of those she is works on.  The movie turns the corner when that to gets taken away by a rape scene, followed by revenge.  What makes this storytelling more intriguing is that it’s just a door to explore the character's psyche and how does one gather themselves, In this case she allied herself with some muscle, so being just a victim, emotionally destroyed and vulnerable would not be an option,

All acts have consequences, it’s been scientifically proven over and over again, the writer and director twins of Jen and Sylvia Soska, who makes an appearance in the movie, really demonstrates this as the third and final act of the movie.  At some point in the movie I had to ponder how will all this end, Critics will take apart the performances, but my argument is, in real life nothing is as smooth and forthcoming as seen in films in general, The behavior and the people we interact with, are all not as consistent as we all like them to be, and I found more realism in the fact that bodyguard had a moment with Mary, when Mary questioned what she was still actively doing. The best part for me was realization from others that she commanded a sense of fear, that unbeknownst to her she was full tilt crazy dangerous, and not to be messed with in the inner circles of the underworld.  Of course she was not naïve, when she takes out a hacksaw and the Dexter Morgan tool set in the women's washroom, to dispatch one of the stripper’s social climbers, then pauses for a particular reason. A catharsis ending is not happening nearing the final 15 minutes of this movie.  It’s a subgenre type of Horror movie and not a movie for everyone, but regardless, a well crafted and thoughtfully devised feature film

Bang Theory

The asteroid known as 99942 Apophis was discovered on December 2004, It had once given astronomers and officials at NASA some concern in regards to how close it may come to Earth, But recent projections have moved it completely off the impact list on its 2029 flyby. Named after an Ancient Egyptian mythical demon Apep, or Apophis in Greek The 325 meter, 40 million ton asteroid is believed to safely pass by the earth in 2029 and 2036, a recent published NASA article has indicated a third passing in 2068. Based on optical and radar measurements made between 2004 - 2012. Apophis will pass the earth in 2029 at an approximate altitude of 31900; within a give or take of 750km differential. Now here is the part of interest. The Earth’s gravity will deflect onto the asteroids trajectory, At one point it was perceived an impact trajectory would require Aphosis to pass the Earth at a precise altitude, known as a keyhole in 2029. This year over a dozen identified keyholes fall under the range of possible 2029 encounter distances. In accordance to an article of a group of scientists led by David Farnocchia.

 The uncertainty of predicting the asteroid’s positioning in 2029 is based squarely on the Yarkovsky effect. Though it does stand the chance on each passing of Apophis we will avoid any harm in our lifetime, but under each passing the probability does shift greatly . Now, only because people enjoy Hollywood disaster movies etc... here is the science behind Apophis should it impact. Based on the Sentry Risk Table estimates Apophis comes with a 750 megatons of kinetic energy; A very exciting point in our history was in 1883, with the eruption of Krakatoa it had a rough equivalency of 200 megatons; and the biggest hydrogen bomb that ever exploded, was the Tsar Bomba at around 57 megatons. A model Path of Risk assessment was created for the April 13, 2036 flyby if the Apophis hit the Earth; Traveling between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, crossing Colombia and Venezuela and into the Atlantic or possibly hitting Africa. If it were to hit the Mexican costal area it would have an initial devastation of 10 million people, with an exponential fallout. If Apophis enters in the Atlantic an unprecedented and near apocalyptic tsunami would most likely occur.