text:
When Sarah Palin booked a flight to Europe, the French immediately surrendered.
Sunday - October 23, 2011
Time Filler
Ok, I'm about done in at this point. I've got 75% of the concrete out and the room all cleaned up. My hands are pretty sore from wielding the rock hammer and chisel all afternoon. More of it tomorrow, and the next day, and maybe some Tuesday or Wednesday, but this isn't that big or involved a project so it should go pretty quick. Nothing much to go wrong (crosses fingers).
Took a little time to veg out in front of the TV. Since we've caught up with all of our shows, and it seems to be one of those rerun weeks with no new episodes of our faves, we sat and pulled up the new series Pan Am. I guess it's jumping on the Early 60's Bandwagon that Mad Men is driving, but with a bit smaller dose of reality and much more girlie drama. It's cute, and a bit of fun, but I'm not sure if it's going to *ahem* take off. For whatever reason, ABC is billing it as a Christina Ricci vehicle, though she's just one member of the cast and doesn't seem to get more time on camera than anyone else. The show is set in 1963, yet hardly anyone is seen smoking. But you do get to see all those old cars, old clothing styles, and CGI renderings of those old jetliners. Mostly 707s, but I think I saw a 727 in an airport scene. The pilots actually have to fly the planes too; no computer driven everything, so we've had one nearly sideways landing in the rain that came out alright but earned the pilot a black eye. Hey, it's the early 60's, so let your fists do your talking, then go out for a scotch.
You can tell it's the long-ago past: airport security is non-existent. Embassy security is non-existent. Heck, in one episode JFK is giving his "I am a jelly donut" speech in Berlin, and one plucky stew who really wants to meet him (Ricci) runs across the airport tarmac at night to Air Force One and gets right to the base of the stairs before anyone stops her. With her Cuban cigars no less. He got the cigars, she got a wave, and she didn't get tasered or shot at all!
So far it's pretty people flying planes with little stopovers all around the world, but there are several plot lines. Our young and dashing Captain gets flack from the older generation of WWII vet pilots, but his heart was broken by the mysterious Bridget Pierce, a stewardess that just suddenly disappeared. That's because she was secretly a CIA courier who screwed up, and they canned her. Or so we are lead to believe. Our co-pilot has a dark past; a former test pilot who got tossed from the Navy, but with a rich daddy in the military industrial world who got him the airline job. Ricci's character Maggie is the purser, kind of the lady in charge onboard, but at home she lives in some Beat Generation co-ed flophouse. It's 1963, M'kay, so the Beats aren't out Occupying anything, or even having a Protest or a Love-In. They're trying to change the world by writing college theses quoting Marx and Engels. Not much bo in these bohemians. Then there's the hot redhead, the sorta Gina Davis looking character Kate Cameron (actress Kelli Garner), who has always been the rebel child of rich parents and is going her own way through life. She's also been recruited to be the next bag lady for the CIA now that Bridget is absent, but almost screws up every assignment. Almost. Under her wing is her high society little sister Laura, who ran away from her own wedding to go out and live life to the fullest. Guess marrying Mr. Handsome and his family fortune was just too sticky, so she and sis do a Thelma and Louise at the wedding and the next thing we know, little sis has the blue uniform too. Big sis is having a hard time letting her little sibling spread her wings, which leads to several sisterly squabbles. Our last flying adventuress is Colette, played by Canadian actress Karine Vanasse. She's French. She is gently adorable with her bangs and her great big eyes. She like surprises, but meeting her lover on the plane accompanied by his wife and son isn't the kind of surprise she was thinking of. A few episodes later at the American Embassy in Berlin, the former Luftwaffe headquarters, the German ambassador compliments her on her excellent German. Thanks, she says, I was forced to learn it when I was 10. She then grabs the spotlight and sings the crowd the Deutschlandlied ("Deutschland über alles"), which is a total dis - very French - because it was the song of the Nazis and was actually sort of illegal to sing it in 1963. Well, the first verse anyway, which is what she sang. The fairly new country of West Germany had adopted the song as it's anthem, but only the third verse. But the Nazis killed her parents, so she hates the dirty boche forever. Colette is quickly becoming my favorite character.
So it's a cute little show, with plenty of eye candy. They're all good looking, though Ricci isn't my type. I thought at first that the actress playing Laura was Jamie Pressly, but it's not. That role went to Australian actress Margot Robbie, who looks like a younger improved version. Yeah, as if Jamie Pressly is old, or in need of any improvement. Not. But Robbie is stunning ...
Margot Robbie plays Laura Cameron
Whether Pan Am turns into a high altitude soap opera or a Cold War spy drama, or a lose-the-corporate-required-girdles-and-high-heels proto-feminsta show, or a leading-edge-of-the-sexual-revolution show, remains to be seen. So far both pilots, a newspaperman, and a drunk passenger have all hit on the ladies, and all have been rebuffed to one extent or another. One even got stabbed a little with a cooking utensil. Although the pilot may have scored with Colette. He was really drunk and can't remember anything other than his clumsy dancing, and she'll only say that they had a nice moment. She is French you know, and they were in Paris.
In the meantime, it's not hard to watch.
Karine Vanasse as Colette Valois
No, not hard to watch at all.
Pan Am has been reviewed all over the place, because TV writers need to make a living too. Is it retro, is it just a costume drama, is it sexist, is it this or that? Pining for a lost Golden Era of Innocence? Read all you want. Or just look at the pictures of the pretty people. Pan Am airs Sunday nights.
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1223538944/nm3053338
http://tv.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/arts/television/pan-am-takes-off-on-abc-review.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/flights-of-fancy-a-new-tv-series-celebrates-the-swinging-sixties-era-of-pan-am-stewardesses-2362571.html
http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/pan-am-ich-bin-ein-berliner-deutschland-ber-alles
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Entertainment/20110919/karine-vanasse-pan-am-110919/
Posted by Drew458 on 10/23/2011 at 02:08 AM
Filed Under: • Television •
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Tuesday - October 18, 2011
Rice and Beans
If you have the HBO channel, I hope you're watching the Boardwalk Empire series. It's a fantastic show about political corruption and the rise of gangsterism, set in Atlantic City at the beginning of Prohibition. As a period piece and a costume drama it's visually amazing; the cloths, the cars, and the architecture are phenomenal. The storylines are just as impressive, as alliances change and the characters all try to get ahead in what was a very rough world. If you're new to the show and you can't find the first season's episodes On Demand, I'd suggest getting the DVDs and watching, because the characters are quite detailed and quite subtle in many ways. It's a breakout role for actor Steve Buscemi, cast as city treasurer Nucky Thompson. With executive producer Martin Scorsese it's as good a series as any that HBO has ever done, and that's saying a lot. Ok, it has some lefty slant, what on television doesn't? The corrupt politicians are all Republicans, as were the real life people the story was based on. That doesn't make much difference overall. If you have HBO now is the time to get on board the Empire Express, because things are about to explode and it will be one heck of a ride this season.
"I've been craving me some Hoppin' John since the moon were blue."
While Nucky runs the show in the main part of the city, over in darktown his counterpart is Albert "Chalky" White. Superbly played by Michael Kenneth Williams, Chalky is one tough hombre who came up the hard way, but he also has his insecurities and shortcomings, and is more than a bit haunted by his past, growing up dirt poor in the deep south and suffering the racism of the era. Having found success and a modest fortune through his semi-criminal activities and his many connections to the community, at home Chalky is merely Albert. He has married far above his station to a "high yellow" woman, and she's raising the children to be part of her high class world. Chalky doesn't fit in there with his "field hand" background, and it angers him that his wife and children seem to patronize his "lowness" while living well off of the money he brings home. In last week's episode, Chalky spent a week in jail. His wife visited, and brought Albert a copy of Great Expectations to read to help pass the time behind bars. Chalky is illiterate. Diss!
This week's episode had the White family inviting his daughter's beau over for dinner so they could meet him. Having had a bit too much to drink after a bad day when the whole world was against him, at dinner Albert is cranky that the fine meal with all the trimmings doesn't include the bowl of Hoppin' John he was hoping for. This is some subtle stuff going on. The frission within the black community between those of varying complexion - Chalky is very dark, and his wife and children very light; "passin", or almost "bein" white folks, and certainly acting like them - was an issue then even more than it's an issue now, and it is almost never even alluded to on TV or in film. About the only time I ever saw or heard anything that dealt with it directly (other than one or two lines concerning field hands vs house labor in Gone With The Wind) was an art house film Gullah biopic called Daughters of the Dust from two decades ago. But those attitudes are probably still with us today, which could partially explain why such light toned black singers and actresses are held up as beauty icons, while the MSM's push to get people to believe that Michelle Obama is the new Jackie Kennedy seems so false. I think that's a healing effort attempt by the media; she's very dark and she's built like a field hand. I can't see anything wrong with expanding the concept of beauty, especially if it mitigates a lot of preconceptions that mistakenly associate attractiveness with paleness. I just think the media could have found a better female icon. Fox New's Harris Faulkner, the actress Jasika Nicole who plays Agent Astrid Farnsworth on the TV show Fringe, or even Lenora Crichlow who plays the adorable ghost Annie on the BBC import Being Human are all really attractive. Who am I kidding? All three of them are cuter than hell. I guess they're just not black enough. So we can expect the media to push Herman Cain as the new tall dark and handsome? Not on your life. Politics trumps color every time. No matter how dark Cain is, he will soon have his Negro Card revoked.
But I digress. Back on Boardwalk, Albert is having his fine family dinner, but inside him Chalky wants some soul food, 45 years before "soul food" existed as such or had any cultural respect. And there ain't no damn Hoppin' John to be had. His passin' family won't be serving no field nigga slave food. This is never said out loud, but the message is loud and clear with just a few glances from his wife and kids. Pretty subtle.
What is it? "Hoppin' John" is a patois corruption of "pois de pigeons" (pigeon peas). pwah-d -pijahnz becomes poppin johns becomes hoppin' john. Black-eyed peas and rice with a little hot pepper thrown in, slow cooked and flavored with some leftover smoked fatty pork. Tasty, filling, and dirt cheap, it's a side dish that's a meal all by itself, made better by tossing in herbs, celery, and some field greens if you've got any.
You can find recipes for it online, but the best recipes are the traditional ones that take hours to stew. Start with a pound of dried beans and soak them overnight. Use a real ham hock instead of a ham steak. Cook up a big mess of bacon and don't throw out the fat; add it to the collards along with a ham bone while they boil. Forget the fancy herbs and spices; a stalk of celery and a few sprigs of fresh thyme are enough. Just don't forget the hot sauce when you serve it.
Posted by Drew458 on 10/18/2011 at 04:39 PM
Filed Under: • Fine-Dining • Television •
Monday - August 29, 2011
comedy with suicide bombers to air close to 9/11
This won't be the first time this clip has been posted here, and there are a lot more at YT. Just enter FOUR LIONS and away ya go.
The BBC will be airing a series of programs on 9/11 and the aftermath as the article will make clear. Starting with a comedy about bumbling would be terrorists.
Now then, this shows all signs of being a very funny movie. I haven't seen a clip that wasn't.
I think the Brits are masters at slapstick comedy. You'd have to go back to silent film in America with Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton to find anything close.
It isn't that Hollywood can't and hasn't produced some great stuff. But somehow, for reasons I can't explain, the Brits seem to shine in this field. I guess I've been exposed over years to enough to make the comparison.
I have just managed to get myself way off the topic I intended.
Which is, I think the timing of this show sucks. Pardon the expression but, take a look.
Channel 4 to show suicide bombing comedy Four Lions to mark tenth anniversary of September 11
By PAUL REVOIR
Channel 4 is to spark outrage by airing a controversial comedy film about Muslim suicide bombers as part a season of programmes to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11.
In a move set to shock TV viewers, the broadcaster is to show Four Lions, the 2010 film by Brass Eye comedian Chris Morris, just days before the memorials take place for the terrorist outrages in New York.
Insiders at the Channel 4 have revealed that Morris was looking to create even more controversy by trying to air the film on the actual day of the anniversary, but bosses at the channel have resisted this.
READ MORE HERE, including the usual anti-American comments at the end of the article.
Posted by peiper on 08/29/2011 at 09:39 AM
Filed Under: • Television • UK •
Tuesday - May 10, 2011
Life Under My Rock
Top Gear is a television show? Doh!! I never knew. I've only seen the columns online.
We don't subscribe to BBC America, but the cable company has recently expanded their On Demand feature, so I can get the top 3 dozen shows from that network that way, without paying for another channel. Ha!
Jeremy Clarkson is the man. Love how he treats the fwench; talking about a racy version of a Citroen that will be built in a limited edition of 1000, he says that's because they're all a bunch of idle communists. Marvelous.
Sunday - January 02, 2011
just how utterly thick and stupid is the american tv audience? tv execs think pretty thick …
And to see under comments in the Mail, an American going along with that makes me see red.
Or, are the execs right after all and I'm just in denial?
There has been a truly wonderful program aired recently and coming to American TV, probably on PBS, called Downton Abbey. It a period costume drama and I can understand there will be many who just aren't interested in that sort of thing. That doesn't mean they are thick or dull or stupid. It's a simple matter of personal interests. And the wife and I have always been interested in programs like that. Downton Abbey is very much like Upstairs/Downstairs which aired some 30 years ago. They have just released a new version of that btw. And it's a funny thing, I wasn't a huge fan of that old show.
If I have one complaint with Downton Abbey, it's brief, but for me, stomach churning scene of two queers in an embrace. It could have been hinted at or strongly implied without the clinch. It wasn't done to shock anyone. Not these days. It was simply acknowledgment of the acceptance of how normal that is nowadays.
But other then that scene, it is a brilliant show and well acted.
Well friends, it wasn't my intent to promote a TV program or try and play critic. Seems it worked its way in due to my frustration with TV executives who wrongly I think, believe an American audience just won't understand. Or as they put it ....
"American TV executives fear its intricate plot will baffle U.S. viewers"
Well it didn't baffle this American and I'm no rocket scientist.
What it boils down to is that those guys hold the American audience in such low esteem, that they will cut the show and commit artistic vandalism cos we're really too thick to understand the finer points and intricacy will baffle us. Unless of course they guide and lead us and think for us.
It just pisses me off and I'm glad I'm here and can see it as it was meant to be seen and as it was written.
So now you folks in the USA know what the powers that be in TV land really think of us.
No wonder I keep hearing about the shows produced for the lowest intellect. They don't think anyone else in great enough numbers is out there and worthwhile.
Naturally when the news is out there are ALWAYS the anti American comments and the over used phrase, Only in America.
Like everyone here is of faultless taste and a member of mensa. Yeah. Right.
Downton downsized… by two hours because American TV executives fear its intricate plot will baffle U.S. viewers
By Chris Hastings
* Eight-hour ITV series slashed to six for the States
* Inheritance storyline simplified for Americans
Its intricately detailed plot and sumptuous production values, with lingering shots of the magnificent stately home, made Downton Abbey the TV hit of last year.
Unsurprisingly, the lavish period drama has now been snapped up by an American network - although it seems the beautifully nuanced portrait of pre-First World War upper-class life could prove just a little too complex for the transatlantic audience.
For in the land of the notoriously short attention span, TV executives have taken a knife to the artfully crafted series, slashing its running time and simplifying the plotline for fear viewers will be left baffled
Rebecca Eaton, an executive producer for the PBS network - which will be airing it from next week - admits that American audiences demand a 'different speed' to their shows.
As a result, Downton, which ran for eight hours on ITV, has been slashed to six for the States, while the storyline about the inheritance of the Abbey has been downplayed
And that is a damn shame too because it's really very interesting. It's even mind boggling to think that once, what they're talking about was par for the course and unremarkable. But it's history damn it. It actually happened that way. Why shouldn't Americans who haven't heard or read about it, be exposed and educated about it. Besides, wouldn't you think that anyone who liked watching this kind of thing to begin with, isn't in any hurry.
The show's ten million British viewers will be well aware that much of the drama revolves around challenges to the 'entail' - the legal device which determines how the estate should be divided up - after Lord Grantham's heirs perish on the Titanic.
But Ms Eaton said: 'We thought there might be too many references to the entail and they have been cut. It is not a concept people in the US are very familiar with.'
However, that did not seem to faze British viewers, who would have been similarly unaware of the term before watching the series.
PBS also believes its audiences will need an American to outline the key themes of the show.
So before the first episode, actress Laura Linney will explain the inheritance principle.
Let me explain: Actress Laura Linney will help U.S. viewers by explaining the inheritance principle - central to the plot - before the first show.
She will also inform viewers that the idea of a wealthy American heiress such as the fictional Cora, Countess of Grantham coming to the rescue of a hard-up aristocratic British family is rooted in fact.
On ITV, the series, which starred Dame Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern, ran with advertisements, while PBS - the Public Broadcasting Service - is free of commercials.
Funny thing about how things work here. We don't have a TV but were able to watch the first two episodes commercial free with the ITV iplayer.
But something weird happened or a setting or ...??? I don't know. But we're no longer able to get anything on that network now, although we can if we want, see BBC. I don't understand it. We're gonna buy the DVD set later on and watch the whole thing on puter.
Hey guys, for those of you who are interested in this kind of thing, you can get the free player from ITV. If rejected cos ur out of the UK, then download a program (free) which bypasses the restriction and makes the systems here think this is where you are. It's worth it.
Posted by peiper on 01/02/2011 at 10:10 PM
Thursday - June 24, 2010
Futurama Reborn
Two new episodes of Futurama on Comedy Central tonight, starting at 10. This follows 2 hours of old episodes of the show starting at 8.
Futurama has been brought back from the dead almost 7 years after it was canceled, and being brought back from the dead is exactly what the first episode is about.
It may not be your cup of tea ... though I can't see why not if you like The Simpsons ... but at least it's something new on the tube tonight, instead of the endless summer repeats.
Monday - May 24, 2010
nothing much yet, still LOST
Not working today, but not much drive to search the news yet.
I'm still reeling over last night's LOST finale. Trying to untangle the time lines in my head. Attempting to figure out if either reality was the reality, or if it was both. And was there a third one, finally ... because the people who flew off on Ajira Air went back to where? They could not have flown off to continue their lives in the alternate reality. Or maybe they just flew off into the sunset and ceased existing, once they were over the event horizon.
The Claire/Charlie awakening was only surpassed by the Sawyer/Juliette one, which was epic. I'm smelling Emmys here, or whatever TV-land awards apply for Best Scene. And in the end, the long end, the new protector was Hurley, which we all realized was going to happen about 5 episodes ago. But I never expected his #2 to be who it turned out to be ... not because of who it was, but because of who it was: a non-evil, non-manipulative Ben Linus, who didn't drink the magic water, who wasn't out for personal power and domination.
You can't accept the simplistic solution for the series that everyone was dead the whole time and that this show was a record of their time in purgatory. Yeah, that works at a simple physical level ( as if purgatory is bound by physical laws ) because no one survives falling out an airplane going 500mph half a mile up in the air, but throws away the depth of the entire series. No, I'll take the magical island as real, and Daniel Faraday's math as accurate ... which means Juliette did set off the bomb which created the alt reality, a universe whose walls were thin at times and allowed certain people to suddenly taste and remember an entire life spent in another universe and what that all meant ... and the show ended in a final, different flash forward into yet another alt universe. One completely outside of time, one that served as a final doorway.
On the other hand, last week we learned that alternate timeline corrupt cop Ana Lucia "isn't ready yet". To come into the light. And if that isn't a dead giveaway (Ok, pun intended that time) that the alt world was a pleasant bit of Muzak for souls on Hold, then I don't know what was. So the questions are answered, but they aren't really. Or they only generate more questions.
I predict that Amazon is going to sell a whole lot of DVDs for this series. It's reason enough to go out and get an HD TV and a Blue-Ray player. In light of the ending (no pun intended) the entire series needs rewatching. While taking notes.
I think it may all come down to what you are willing to believe. As Miles said in his last line, "I don't believe in much, but I do believe in duct tape." It's hard to beat that.
Friday - January 22, 2010
Today, A Very Special Episode
5pm ET: Glen Beck on Mao, Stalin, Hitler and the roots of socialism
Revolutionary Holocaust airs Friday, January 22 at 5p ET on the Fox News Channel…
A groundbreaking hour long special where Glenn Beck takes us back in time to examine the roots of socialism and communism and the evil that followed. We all know about the horrors of the holocaust where the pure evil Hitler inspired claimed the lives of millions of innocent people. But most do not know about the millions upon millions of lives lost in a different genocide of the Ukrainian people under the Stalin regime. This special also takes a look behind the iconic fashion symbol of Che Guevara showing that the myth doesn't tell the story of the man who was a blood thirsty killer.
This isn't your typical Glen Beck show. He's worked with 9 experts on genocide and totalitarianism to put this show together. Details on those folks at his web page.
If I can figure out how to program the DVR now that we no longer have analog cable, I'll tape it for my wife to watch later.
http://glenbeck.com/
Millena wants you to watch Glen Beck today
Monday - October 05, 2009
BBC wins bid to keep star salaries under wraps (and it only cost us £200,000)
The big deal about this bit of business, is that the BBC is publicly funded. For those who don't know, people here pay a yearly TV license and they do try and collect using whatever means necessary. So why shouldn't the salaries be made public?
Thankfully, just last week we gave away the perfectly good (for now) TV set as anything I want to see is not shown on television. The set belonged to the wife's mom who didn't even use it the final two yrs of her life. It just stood there in her room, silent. Truth to tell, we don't miss TV and haven't watched but one program in five years here. Thank heaven for You Tube.
Even if we hadn't given the set away, I'd have fought tooth and nail and refused to pay as others have. Use my money to help pay millions a year to ONE foul mouthed,rude and crude individual? (pictured) Not bloody likely!
The surprise is how many folks simply buckle down and give up and pay. I guess addictions are like that and I can only assume it is an addiction as why else would so many watch what's on offer? No thank You.
Think of it this way. What if you were required to pay a license (USA) for a channel hosting Howard Stern? Even if you weren't demented enough to think he was funny or talented or whatever. Yes, I know millions do and millions are also tasteless and possibly very sick as well. But that's not the point. At least in the US you aren't forced to get a TV license to fund things you think are gross and in very poor taste. Like the fellow pictured here who thought it quite funny when he and his sidekick made public calls to a well known actor, on air, telling the old guy all about the enjoyable sex one of em had with his grand daughter. That's what passed for entertainment, and this guy gets paid millions a year. Well, not with any of our money.
BBC wins bid to keep star salaries and Middle East report under wraps (and it only cost us £200,000)
By Liz Thomas
Big earner: Jonathan Ross earns a reported £6million a year
The BBC has won a High Court battle to keep the salaries of its stars a secret.
The corporation spent more than £200,000 ensuring those who fund the service never know how their cash is spent.
Three years of appeals and legal wrangles mean it will not now have to disclose what it pays on-screen talent, production staff or how much money shows cost.
Mr Justice Irwin concluded that the 'BBC has no obligation to disclose information which they hold to any significant extent for the purposes of journalism, art or literature, whether or not the information is also held for other purposes'.
Although insiders insist that details of executive pay will continue to be publicly released, the BBC could still use this ruling as a further tool to ensure it does not have to disclose the salaries of top talent.
The BBC has come under fire for the eye-watering sums it pays stars such as Jonathan Ross, Graham Norton and Chris Moyles.
Ross earns a reported £6million a year and around 40 other stars are paid more than £1million annually.
Jeremy Hunt, Tory culture spokesman, said: 'We have long called for the BBC to open their books to the National Audit Office so licence-fee payers can be sure they are getting value for money.
'If the BBC was more transparent about its finances then court cases like these could be avoided.'
Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'The BBC's behaviour is shocking and incredibly disappointing.
'Firstly, the fact that the Corporation has blown a fortune on lawyers trying to obscure the truth shows they see zero need for accountability, even when it's rightfully required of them.
'Secondly, the BBC should be entirely open and honest about how it spends licence-fee payers' money. If they can't justify the amount they are spending, they shouldn't do it in the first place.
'This is yet another example of the BBC being out of touch with the concerns of the people it is supposed to be entertaining, and who pay its keep.'
The case went to the High Court because the BBC consistently refused to comply with freedom of information requests from newspapers and members of the public.
The broadcaster was taken to the Information Commissioner, and the Information Tribunal, who both ruled that it should release the information.
Ruling: The BBC will not be forced to disclose an internal report on its Middle East coverage, or details of staff salaries
But the BBC appealed to the High Court, which found previous hearings had not properly taken into account its evidence.
It also ruled that the broadcaster was exempt from sections of the Act as a public body, and therefore did not have to give out information relating to its programming in journalism, arts or literature.
A spokesman for the BBC said: 'The BBC was entitled to decline to disclose the information on the basis that the Freedom of Information Act did not apply to it.'
Macker and BMEWS… I didn't have this when originally posted but, here's the other sick no talent turd who once worked for the BBC and was in on the sick joke I wrote about. And this bit of filth btw is doing well I understand, in the USA. GAK!
Filed Under: • Big Business • Celebrities • CULTURE IN DECLINE • Economics • Television • UK •
Friday - September 11, 2009
Crowder Does Olby
Ok, it's a little funny. I don't watch Olbermann, so I can't say how accurate this is. But I do watch Glen Beck. My idol!
Hey, I heard John Stossel is moving to Fox News too. About time. My hope is that Fox trades Geraldo to get him. But you know what this really means? It means an even smaller Conservative voice on the major MSM networks. That's a shame. All the Right is moving to Fox. Now, if we could just get them to start reporting the news, instead of their endless blabfests, then that would be awesomest!
Filed Under: • Humor • Television •
Thursday - September 10, 2009
Withdrawl Pangs
No wonder I feel out of it. I've been without TV for nearly 3 weeks now.
The first week I was packing stuff up, so I had no time or energy for watching anything.
The second week I was unpacking all that stuff, so again, no time or energy.
When we finally moved enough boxes to actually get at the set, and had a chair or two to sit on and watch, we had the TV on for about 5 minutes and it went PLLTrph. Fried. Smell of toasted electronics. That set has worked perfectly for 11 years. It's a 32" CRT, and it weighs about 125 pounds. I DO NOT want to carry it downstairs and then over to the TV repair shop, but I guess I'll have to. There is no money in the budget for a new flat screen TV; we'd need a 42" model to equal the viewing size of this one. Sure, with HDTV the picture would be so much better, but a set that size of 1080p quality is still quite expensive ($1700 for the LCD TV LG 47LH90, $1500 for their 42" version, both are top rated sets).
So pretty much no TV. And I haven't even been given a Time Out or sent to my room!
We do have one ancient scratchy old 19" POS in the bedroom, so I've caught a bit of the news from time to time. But in this "moving" shuffle here, the digital adapter got misplaced, so that set only has perhaps a third of it's possible channels running.
And between work, and trying to find some place to purchase before this tax credit thing expires, I still have no time to watch.
But hey, our place is much cleaner, and we've managed to throw away a bunch of crap. So good for us.
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Television •
BBC executive says corporation should foster 'left-of-centre thinking.' And Brits will pay as usual
A bit of a bru-ha this week.
First, folks (most I think) pay a license fee to the BBC which is govt. So this suggestion hasn't gone down well with the right, what there is of it.
There are two articles of interest, one is two days old. I didn't think they had a great deal of interest for our American audience, or in fact anyone outside the UK. At least not all on their own. But there really is something to look at with the two.
A couple of days ago I read the following article.
Sarah Kennedy 'spoken to' by BBC for praising Enoch Powell during Radio 2 show
By Niall Firth
Last updated at 8:28 AM on 19th July 2009
Radio 2 presenter Sarah Kennedy has been chastised by the BBC for praising right-wing politician Enoch Powell during her show.
During her early-morning show on Wednesday, Kennedy, 59, described Powell as 'the best prime minister this country never had'.
Enoch Powell was famously sacked from the shadow cabinet by Ted Heath in 1968 after his 'Rivers of Blood' speech about the dangers of mass immigration.
A spokesman for the BBC said that the corporation had received 25 complaints by Friday and that the presenter had been 'spoken to' about the remark.
She said: 'It was inappropriate for Sarah to offer an off-the-cuff political opinion and we have spoken to her and made that clear.'
Ok, understood. Mustn't be political and careful of off the cuff remarks. Even if they're true. And most especially you bet, when the remark favors the right.
Mr. Powell has been gone for many years btw, and I really don't think her remark should have brought 25 protests. Most likely from wimpy-weepy libtards and commies.
However, todays headline in the Telegraph has another story, not related directly to the one I've posted in the mail above. But I find it telling anyway.
And think about this. The TV license costs around $200 (in American terms) a year.
Oh wow. I can imagine the posts we'd get from people here at BMEWS were they made to pay for a TV license that leaned left.
Here, this is what I'm referring to.
BBC executive says corporation should foster 'left-of-centre thinking'
A senior BBC executive has claimed that the corporation should foster "left-of-centre thinking", leading to accusations of political bias from the Conservatives.
By Jon Swaine
Published: 7:00AM BST 21 Jul 2009
Ben Stephenson, the controller of BBC drama commissioning, said that the corporation should encourage "peculiarity, idiosyncrasy, stubborn-mindedness, left-of-centre thinking."
According to its own royal charter, the BBC must "be independent in all matters concerning the content of its output".
Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary, said: "What Ben Stephenson said was a clear breach of the BBC's impartiality obligations.
"No journalist or editor should be following a political agenda, let alone someone as senior as a controller."
Mr Hunt said that he had written to Mark Thompson, the BBC Director General, "asking for an immediate retraction and apology".
Peter Whittle, the director of The New Culture Forum, a right-leaning think tank, said: "The political slant in the non-news output of the BBC is for many harder to detect but is actually far more insidious and damaging in the effect it has on our cultural drift."
Mr Stephenson made the comments in a newspaper article in which he responded to criticism from Tony Garnett, a television producer, who accused the BBC's drama department of changing "in ways which have coarsened both it and wider culture."
He wrote: "If we didn't all think differently, have different ideas of what works and what doesn't, wouldn't our lives, and more importantly, our TV screens be less interesting? We need to foster peculiarity, idiosyncrasy, stubborn-mindedness, left-of-centre thinking."
He later denied that he had meant the comment to have a political meaning.
"Like 'left-field', it is a phrase that I use with frequency when talking to the creative community to encourage them to develop and approach their ideas from a completely new perspective," he said.
A BBC source said that executives believed that their casting of Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London, in an episode of EastEnders, proved that they did not have a left-wing bias.
Meanwhile, a report yesterday said that the licence fee should be shared with other broadcasters, because the BBC was failing to fulfill its public service remit.
The paper, by Frank Field MP and David Rees, argued that the licence fee should be put in the hands of a new independent commissioning body.
Broadcasters, including the BBC, would then pitch ideas for public service programmes to the body and be awarded funding accordingly.
BBC One, BBC Three, Radio 1 and Radio 2 should all be put up for sale, it added.
Yeah. Left field. But he didn't say 'left field.' Did He?
BBC has no commercials and is supported by the license ppl pay. If I ever watched TV, and honest, haven't done that in five years and don't miss it, I guess paying to avoid commercials isn't a bad idea as ideas go. But for us, there's nothin on we want to see and so don't watch.
Friday - April 17, 2009
The risk of sexual abuse, by treating the victims' discomfort with humour. ok but,,, DISNEY????
Not supposed to be here right now but hey. This just HAD to get itself posted.
It's way over my head. At first I thought, oh what nonsense. Come on. But then another thought intruded on the first.
Hang on ... I'm not a parent. How can I judge this as nonsense when I haven't any kids?
I guess my generation was lucky as was the one before when it came to this. We never thought in the terms expressed by this article.
Still though .... hard for me to accept. Come on. Pinocchio? Snow White? Robin Hood?
Is this really valid or just a few ivory tower types with time on their hands and nothing else in their collective minds?
Was Pinocchio was being 'groomed' by his cartoon pals?
Classic Disney cartoon films are giving children the wrong message about how to deal with "stranger danger", psychologists have warned.
By Roger Dobson
They claim films like Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Robin Hood contain scenes in which children receive "unwanted personal contact" or threatening approaches from adults, and that the victims fail to set a good example in the way they respond.
The study warns that the films also undermine efforts to teach children about personal safety and how to minimise the risk of sexual abuse, by treating the victims' discomfort with humour.
In one example, the researchers found that the Pinocchio had been "groomed" by the adult characters Honest John and Gideon but that his response to the abuse resembled "victim blaming".
The report says that some characters, like Mowgli, in the Jungle Book, and Alice, in Alice in Wonderland, are able to successfully handle to threats they face from adults, suggesting they could have a positive educational impact on children. However, it points out that they do so without telling a trusted adult.
It adds: "It is possible that viewing these scenes could influence children to believe that telling a trusted adult about a stranger's advances is unnecessary because the film characters model successful independence."
The research, published in the journal Child Abuse, was conducted by a team of psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists at Carleton University, in Canada.
The academics wrote that they were "surprised to find depictions of children being touched, usually by adults, contrary to the expressed desires of the child".
They studied 47 animated feature length Disney films, released between 1937 and 2006. In ten of them, they found examples of "unwanted personal contact" or scenes which show child characters in "risky situations".
In their analysis, six films – Robin Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, The Sword in the Stone, and A Goofy Movie – depict children and adolescent characters experiencing unwanted personal contact.
A further four films – Snow White, Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland and The Jungle Book – were found to show childlike characters in "risky situations" where strangers approach them with "hidden malevolence" and promise rewards in exchange for their compliance.
The films were reviewed several times, often using the pause and slow motion features to fully capture the content. Child characters could be human, fantastic or an anthropomorphised animal.
The child had to be under 18, and where age of the character was not specified, the researchers judged each on the basis of voice pitch, manner of speaking, stature, and behaviour.
Dr Wendy Hovdestad, the lead author, said: "The depictions of child and adolescent characters being grabbed and kissed against their will by adult characters is particularly problematic for the boy characters Wart (The Sword in the Stone), Flounder (The Little Mermaid), and Skippy (Robin Hood), because the context in the film is humorous.
"The treatment would probably be upsetting if it happened to a real child, and treating it as humorous is directly contradicting sexual safety education that teaches children that they get to decide who touches their bodies."
The report concludes: "The findings raise questions about potential impacts on child audiences. Is the unwanted contact and risky situation content appropriate viewing for children, given efforts to teach children sexual safety?"
A Disney spokeswoman said, "As we have not studied the report we are unable to comment."
PINOCCHIO?
Filed Under: • Colleges-Professors • Scary Stuff • Sex • Television •
Friday - February 20, 2009
When TV Reporters Go Wild
A new hero, or the latest guy to get the pink slip tomorrow morning?
Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party
A short video in which a financial markets TV reporter goes a bit wild. Speak the truth, shame the devil, lose your job as well? We'll find out tomorrow I guess.
Extremely interesting point he makes from the trading floor - a very large number of the people desiring their mortgages to be refinanced couldn't/wouldn't pay them back even if the interest rate was 2%. Even Minus 2% he says.
You can't buy your way to prosperity ... [if you could then] the government should spend a trillion dollars an hour; they'd get a 1.5 trillion back. ... our founding fathers, people like Benjamin Franklin and [Thomas] Jefferson, what we're doing in our country right now is making them roll over in their graves.
This calls for more hair. More teeth too!
Just clicking around the net found me Maynard's post on the Stimulus over at Tammy Bruce:
It's a crime beyond imagination against the American people.
This monster is not of Obama's creation. It's a product of long-term rot and corruption; the consequence of fools and demagogues pandering to the lowest common denominator, promising ever-more goodies to an ever-needier mob.
For a brief moment, I hoped the shock of the current crisis would bring an element of reality to the debate in Washington. Certainly Obama would do the right thing. Not because he wanted to, you understand, but because he had no choice. I thought the nation had reached that late stage of addiction where the addict has hit bottom, and finally faces his issues head-on.
I stand corrected. We haven't hit bottom yet, but Obama is working on that. His "stimulus" package may become our final binge. What Reagan did to the Soviet Union, Obama is now arranging for us.
This is only the beginning.
Filed Under: • Economics • Television •
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Below are the slides from my presentation at jDays today. You can find the example source code at github.com/mjiderhamn/spring-batch-demo.
One of the factors of The Twelve-Factor App methodology is Store config in the environment.
"An app's config is everything that is likely to vary between deploys (staging, production, developer environments, etc)"
and then goes on to list examples such as connections strings and credentials to databases and other external resources/services and per-deploy things like hostname to be included in aggregated logs.
"Note that this definition of "config" does not include internal application config, … This type of config does not vary between deploys"
In essence: thing that vary between deployments (dev/qa/stage/production; geographic region etc) and/or instances (hostname within a deployment cluster) is configuration that should be kept separate from the version controlled code, while internal configuration identical to all deployments and instances belong inside the codebase.
Well, of course, if those things also differ per deployment, they are configuration. But just because something is determined to be more or less likely to change down the road, often for non-technical reasons, doesn't make it configuration and warrant it to be treated as such.
Even if it is expected to first change in your development environment, then in your staging environment and then finally in your production evenment, it isn't configuration. You know something else that has the same lifecycle expectation? Your code.
When Netflix launched, they likely anticipated that their prices would change at some point in the future. And when they actually did update their prices, don't you think that they first did this in some dev/test/qa environment before they "released" the new price to the market (i.e. production environment)?
Often these kinds of things are initiated by some business stakeholders, such as the marketing people. "You need to create a UI so that we can change X [monthly price] whenever we want to". Sometimes they also want the ability to copy settings from one environment to another, either by some export/import settings feature in said UI, or by having someone set up a routine so that they can copy database entries from one environment to the other.
This should raise a red flag. If the business people want to be able to first make a "configuration" change in a qa/stage environment and then, when they think they are ready, copy that "configuration" over to the production environment, you should take a step back and contemplate about what you are trying to achieve. Are you in essence creating two parallell deployment pipelines – one for the code and one for the config? Who is going to develop and maintain the config pipeline? Can the extra cost and complexity of having two separate deployment pipelines really be motivated…?
I would say that a litmus test for whether something is truly a business only configuration warranting a UI, is that if you imagine that you stopped all development and then propagated all code so that all environments ran the exact same codebase and all the "marketing deadlines" (such as price increases) were reached and after that you had a difference in configuration between the environments – would that be considered an error? Another way to put it: If you changed this configuration in the production environment first, would there then be a need to propagate the change "backwards" to stage/qa/dev? Or is it totally fine if the Netflix subscription costs $10.99 for actual customers, $9.99 in the stage environment and $6.03 on John Doe's development machine?
Instead putting "configuration" that is expected to change inside your codebase assumes that you will be releasing that codebase often enough compared to how frequently (and with how much notice) the configuration is expected to change. If your next production release is scheduled in 5 months, you'd wish you had created that UI when the business people requires that you change X at the next turn of the month.
But what if you took the time that you would have spent creating the UI and export/import feature, and instead spent that time streamlining the release pipeline of your codebase? Ultimately you'd have Continuous Delivery, so that a change made in your codebase (on a hotfix branch, if needed) could reach production within hours if not minutes.
If you release relatively often, but marketing requires that a change (such as price increase) occurs at a specific day or even time on that day, and you can't or don't want to release on that exact day or time, you could consider including the config in your codebase using Feature toggles. Admittedly there is overhead involved with allowing you to toggle the feature during runtime, however.
Sometimes the thing you want to change or add is not just a simple string or number, but an entire data structure. This still doesn't warrant a UI and/or export/import. As for database data you could use – and hopefully you are already using – some database migration tool like Flyway or Liquibase, and you can include the config change in those scripts.
"But that requires a developer to make a business change!"
Generally that is true – as with changes to the business logic of your application. Even though you may be able to find ways around that, as per above, this means putting this kind of config in your codebase probably won't work well for slow moving, waterfall type of organizations. But in an agile environment with Continuous Delivery or at least a high release cadence, it shouldn't be much of an issue unless the changes required are very frequent or complex.
And remember, we had already saved ourselves development time by avoiding having to create the UI and/or the process for separately propagating configuration from one environment to another.
We've already mentioned the benefit of avoiding having to set up, document and maintain a separate "release pipeline" for your config. Consider the fact that it should often be managed by non-tech people and the benefits of avoiding it may be even greater.
Another main benefit if you integrate this type of configuration in your codebase, is that you can use lower level, cheaper/faster tests to verify the correctness of the settings. Hopefully you are familiar with the Test Pyramid, visualising that higher level tests (such as UI or integration tests) are both more expensive to maintain and runs slower, effectively slowing down your release pipeline and decreasing your maximum possible release cadence.
In the Netflix example, having the price inside your codebase means you can write unit tests for verifying debit calculations etc, rather than having to write for example UI tests for the same verification.
Agree or disagree? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Sometimes you need/want to make more radical changes to your SQL database schema, such as renaming a column or moving data from one table to another.
Tools like Flyway and Liquibase has simplified making backwards compatible database migrations, such as adding columns/tables. However in order to make non-backwards compatible changes "online" (i.e. while the application is up and running) for a clustered environment (multiple application instances accessing the same database) requires a little more thought.
Basically you need to make this change in 5 steps, spread out across (at least) 4 releases (assuming a release means updating the database, either separately or during application boot using a migration tool, and updating application – in that order). I'll use renaming a database column as an example.
Database: Add the new column (i.e. do not rename or drop the previous one) to the database. You may copy existing data to new column also.
Application: Start writing the data to both the old and the new column.
Database: Copy existing data to new column also. Even if you did that in the previous step, you need to do it again, since the application may have written to the old column only between the time when the database migration was executed, and the time the application was updated. You could opt to only copy the data that was written during that time (i.e. where the old column is non-null but the new column is null.) This does not have to be a separate release, but could be the migration made as part of the next application release.
Application: Start reading data from the new column instead of the old column. Note that you must not stop writing data to the old column yet, since as you update one application instance (i.e. one cluster node) at a time, there can be non-updated nodes reading the old column for data written by updated nodes.
Application: Stop writing to the old column.
Database: Note that we cannot drop the old column yet, since the non-updated nodes will still be writing to it.
Database: Drop the old column.
During September 2016 I'll be speaking about ClassLoader leaks on JavaZone, JDK.IO and JavaOne. For those that listened to my talk and want to read more on the subject, here are the slides, links to my blog series and to the ClassLoader Leak Prevention library on GitHub.
I'll be talking about agile code review on JDK.IO in Copenhagen and since last I talked on the subject more code review tools have become available, some of the from "big players", so an updated list of tools seems to be in place.
I recently released version 2.0.0 of the ClassLoader Leak Prevention library to Maven Central. This is a major refactoring, that provides the following new.
If you're in a Servlet 3.0 or 3.1 environment, there is no longer a need for explicitly declaring the <listener> in web.xml. Instead use a the classloader-leak-prevention-servlet3 Maven dependency that handles this for you automatically. For details, see the README.md on GitHub.
In version 1.x, you needed to subclass the librarys ServletContextListener to add, remove or change behaviour of specific leak prevention measures. In 2.x, each prevention mechanism is a separate class implementing an interface. This makes it easier to implement your own additional preventions, remove measures from the configuration, or subclass and adjust any single mechanism.
While 1.x logged to System.out/System.err unless you subclassed and overrode the log methods, 2.x by default uses java.util.logging (JUL). You can also easily switch to the System.out/System.err behaviour, or provide your own logging.
Please note that bridging JUL to other logging frameworks (for example using jul-to-slf4j has not been tested, and may produce unexpected results, in case something is logged after the logging framework has been shut down by the library.
Hopefully you have Continuous Integration set up for your Java project in a way that Jenkins/Teamcity/whatnot triggers a build as soon as you push to GitHub, or whatever VCS you may be committing to. As part of that build, or triggered by that build, you run a bunch of automated tests and then you or some other part of your team does manual testing of the produced artifacts (WAR/JAR) – right?
In this era of agile and frequent releases, this seems like a waste of time, don't you think? And when you have discovered that critical bug in production, having to wait another 20/40/120/whatever minutes for the release build after the fix has already been verified can be quite frustrating.
Don't you wish there was a way to just promote the already verified artifacts, to say "These are the ones I want to release", and have them deployed to your Maven release repository (such as Nexus)?
Available in Maven Central is now the Maven Promote Plugin that allows you to "promote" your SNAPSHOT build into a release, and have it SCM tagged and deployed the regular Maven way.
For detailed instructions how to configure your Maven pom.xml and Jenkins, see the README for promote-maven-plugin on GitHub.
While the initial version of the plugin may not be as feature rich and/or intelligent as it could be, it gets the job done and on my day job we have been releasing to production with this plugin for months now, which is why I've decided to promote it to 1.0.0 GA.
Today I launch another weapon in the ongoing war on Classloader Leaks: The classloader-leak-test-framework. Admittedly, the framework itself is not new. The news is that in order to use it you no longer have to clone the Git repo, because it is now available as a Maven artifact through Maven Central.
Another improvement to the test framework that I have not previously announced, is that the framework can now automatically create a heap dump when a ClassLoader leak is detected. This makes it even easier to track down the cause of the leak and determine the required countermeasures. To activate this feature add @Leaks(dumpHeapOnError = true) to your test method.
For further information on how to use the ClassLoader Leak test framework, see the projects space on GitHub.
I saw it again today – a site where they had made the effort to disable pasting your password into the login form. The motive surely must be to increase security, but this may be the stupidest, most counterproductive security measure I know of. Let me explain why.
One reason for using a strong password is obvious – it should not be easy to guess your password (i.e. pet's name etc). The less obvious reason is that long and complex passwords are harder for hackers to reveal using simple techniques like dictionary attacks. If you want to know more about creating strong passwords, just google it. But I have another suggestion below.
I personally use and highly recommend KeePass which is free and available on multiple platforms (so you can access your passwords on both your PC and your smartphone). In my KeePass file I have 400+ passwords, most of them with a complexity like the examples above. Even though my memory often serves me well, there is just no way I could ever remember 400+ passwords as strong as ltAaxjykylfcq3yU1K9M.
Back to the problem with disabling pasting of passwords into the login form. The most straighforward way to use KeePass, is to open your safe file and then just copy/paste your password into the login form. You won't even see the password, as KeePass will by default mask it. The problem with sites that have disabled pasting into the password field, is that they discourage the use of password managers. Admittedly there are other ways to use password managers, such as browser integration and drag-and-drop, but the average user probably won't bother to set that up. So, if I can't copy/paste ltAaxjykylfcq3yU1K9M from KeePass (and don't know there are other options), which do you think is the most likely scenario: that I unmask the password in KeePass (which by the way could allow someone reading it over your shoulder) and type it in manually – or that I choose a password that is easier to remember and type, say maybe one of the most popular passwords in the world…? And do you think that it is more or less likely that the user will reuse the same password on multiple "paste disabled sites", than "paste enable sites"? So by discouraging the use of password managers, do you agree these sites implicitly discourage the two basic principles for online passwords – strength and uniqueness?
If you are a developer, please don't disable paste in your login form.
By all means, read Troy Hunt on the same subject.


text:
\section{Introduction}

Quantum computation is an enormously appealing task for
mathematicians, physical scientists and computer scientists because
of its potential to perform superfast quantum algorithms. Quantum
factoring \cite{Shor} and quantum search \cite{Grover} illustrate
the great theoretical promise of quantum computers. Quantum
entanglement is a striking feature of quantum mechanics, which can
be employed as a kind of ``quantum software'' to perform quantum
computation \cite{Gottesma}. A great deal of schemes for generating
entangled states have been proposed using cavity quantum
electrodynamics (QED) \cite{Zheng1,Guerra,Guo}, linear optics
\cite{Zhao} and so on \cite{Turchette,Gershenfeld,Jones}. As for
quantum computation, single-qubit manipulations and C-NOT gates
together can be served to realize any unitary operation on $n$
qubits. The C-NOT gate can be realized via many techniques
\cite{Pittman,Biswas,Wu}.

The Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm is a simple example of general quantum
algorithms, which can distinguish the function $f(x)$ between
constant and balanced \cite{Deutsch} on $2^{n}$ inputs $x$. The
values of the function $f(x)$ are either 0 or 1 for all possible
inputs. For the balanced function, the values of balanced function
are equal to 1 for half of all the possible inputs, and 0 for the
other half. The Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm has been realized in the
nuclear magnetic resonance system (NMR) \cite{Chuang}, ion trap
\cite{Gulde}, linear optical system \cite{Mohseni}, cavity QED
\cite{Zheng2} and atomic ensembles \cite{Dasgupta} theoretically and
experimentally.

Recently, many researchers have been paying their attentions to
atomic ensembles where the basic system is a large number of
identical atoms. A lot of interesting schemes for the generation of
quantum states and quantum information processing have been proposed
using atomic ensembles. For example, one can use atomic ensembles to
realize the scalable long-distance quantum communication
\cite{Duan1}, efficient generation of multipartite entanglement
states \cite{Duan2,Xue}, storage of quantum light \cite{Lukin,Liu}.
The schemes based on atomic ensembles have some special advantages
compared with the schemes of quantum information processing by the
control of single particles: (1) The schemes have inherent fault
tolerance and are robust to realistic noise and imperfections; (2)
Laser manipulation of atomic ensembles without separately addressing
the individual atoms is dominant easier than the coherent control of
single particles; (3) Atomic ensembles with suitable level structure
could have some kinds of collectively enhanced coupling to certain
optical mode due to the many-atom interference effects, which is
very important for all the recent schemes based on the atomic
ensembles. Here we  suggest the implementation of the Deutsch-Jozsa
algorithm via atomic ensembles. But our scheme is different from
Ref. \cite{Dasgupta} due to we chose different atomic configuration
and use different model. We utilize the collective enhancement of
atom ensembles other than considerate the interaction of atoms and
photon. Our scheme involves Raman-type laser manipulations, beam
splitters, and single-photon detections, the requirements of which
are well within  the current experimental technology. Obviously the
realization of Hadamard gate, C-NOT gate and equivalent Bell-basis
measurement is necessary to our ultimate aim. Therefore we will
introduce the scheme of these important implements in section II. In
section III, the process of implementing the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm
is proposed in detail. The conclusions of the whole content are
given in the end section.

\section{Realization of C-NOT gate}

It has been shown that C-NOT gate can be realized theoretically with
the help of GHZ states, Bell-basis measures and Hadamard operations
from the proposal in Ref \cite{Gottesma}. In this section, we will
realize C-NOT gate using atomic ensembles with a large number of
identical alkali metal atoms as basic system. The scheme involves
Raman-type laser manipulations, beam splitters, and single-photon
detections. The relevant level structure of the alkali metal atoms
is shown in Fig. \ref{fig1}. For the three levels $|g\rangle$,
$|h\rangle $ and $|v\rangle $, two collective atomic operators can
be defined as
$S=(1/\sqrt{N})\Sigma_{i=1}^{N_{a}}|g\rangle_{i}\langle s|$, where
$s = h,v$, and $N_a \gg1$ is the total number of atoms. The three
levels $|g \rangle$, $|h\rangle$ and $|v\rangle$ can be coupled via
a Raman process. The atoms are initially prepared in the ground
state $|g \rangle$ using optical pump. $S$ is similar to independent
bosonic mode operators if only the atoms are all remain in ground
state $|g \rangle$. The states of the atomic ensemble can be express
as $|S \rangle = s^{+}|vac\rangle$ ($s = h,v)$ after the emission of
the single Stokes photon in a forward direction, where $|vac\rangle
$ denotes the ground state of atomic ensembles and $|vac \rangle
\equiv \otimes _{i}|g\rangle _{i}$. Long time coherence has been
demonstrated experimentally both in a room-temperature dilute atomic
gas \cite{Phillips} and in a sample of cold trapped atoms
\cite{Liu}. The above character of atoms is useful for the
generation of entanglement between atomic ensembles \cite{Duan2,
Xue}. Single-qubit operations with high precision between the two
atomic states $|S\rangle = s^ {+}|vac\rangle (s = h,v)$ can be
completed by simply shinning Raman pulses or radio-frequency pulses
on all the atoms. For instance, we can obtain $h^ {+} |vac \rangle
\rightarrow(h^ {+} + v^{+})|vac\rangle/\sqrt{2}$ and $v^ {+} |vac
\rangle \rightarrow(h^ {+} - v^{+})|vac\rangle/\sqrt{2}$ by choosing
appropriate length of the pump and anti-pump pulse. It is equivalent
to realize a Hadamard gate, which is very useful in the below
scheme.

\begin{figure}[tbp]
\includegraphics[scale=0.3,angle=0]{fig1.eps}
\caption{The relevant atomic level structure of alkali metal atom.
$|g\rangle$ is the ground state, $|e\rangle$ is the excited state
and $|h\rangle$, $|v\rangle$ are two metastable states (Zeeman or
hyperfine sublevels) for storing a qubit of information. The
transition of $|e\rangle\rightarrow|h\rangle$ can emit a
forward-scattered Stokes photon that is co-propagating with the
laser pulse. The excitation in the mode $h$ can be transferred to
optical excitation by applying an anti-pump pulse.} \label{fig1}
\end{figure}

Bell-basis measurement is very important in the process of realizing
C-NOT gate, quantum information processing and quantum computation.
Therefore it is necessary to introduce the realization of the
Bell-basis measurement based on atomic ensembles in our paper. The
four Bell states in the system are $|\phi\rangle _{AB}^\pm = (
h_{A}^ {+} h_{B}^{+} \pm v_{A}^ {+} v_{B}^ {+})|vac\rangle
_{AB}/\sqrt{2}$
 and $|\varphi\rangle _{AB}^\pm = ( h_{A}^
{+} v_{B}^{+} \pm v_{A}^ {+}h_{B}^ {+})|vac\rangle _{AB}/\sqrt{2}$.
We can use the setup to achieve the task, as shown in Fig.
\ref{fig2}. Firstly, we apply anti-pump laser pulses to the two
atomic ensembles $ A $ and $ B$ to transfer their $h$ excitations to
optical excitations, and detect the anti-Stokes photons by detectors
$D$1 and $D$2. In the case of only detector $D$1 (or $D$2) clicks.
We will apply single-qubit rotations to both ensembles to rotate
their $v$ modes to $h$ modes by shinning $\pi$ length Raman pulses
or radio-frequency pulses on the two ensembles $A$ and $B$. Then we
apply anti-pump laser pulses to the two atomic ensembles $A$ and
$B$again, and detect anti-Stokes photons by $D$1 and $D$2. Now,
there are two different results of detection: (1) If detector $D$1
(or $D$2) clicks (i.e. only one detector clicks in the two
detections), post-select the cases that each ensemble has only one
excitation, atomic ensembles $A$ and $B$ are projected to
$|\varphi\rangle _{AB}^+= ( h_{A}^ {+} v_{B}^{+}+ v_{A}^ {+}h_{B}^
{+})|vac\rangle _{AB}/\sqrt{2}$; (2)If $D$2 (or $D$1) clicks
(\emph{i.e}. detectors $D$1 and $D$2 click respectively in the two
detections), post-select the cases that each ensemble has only one
excitation, atomic ensembles $A$ and $B$ are projected to
$|\varphi\rangle _{AB}^-= ( h_{A}^ {+} v_{B}^{+}- v_{A}^ {+}h_{B}^
{+})|vac\rangle _{AB}/\sqrt{2}$. Obviously, if we add single-qubit
rotations in the above process and repeat the above process of (1),
we can realize the projection of $|\phi\rangle _{AB}^\pm = ( h_{A}^
{+} h_{B}^{+} \pm v_{A}^ {+}v_{B}^ {+})|vac\rangle _{AB}/\sqrt{2}$
by post-selecting sense.

\begin{figure}[tbp]
\includegraphics[scale=0.3,angle=90]{fig2.eps}
\caption{Setup of realizing Bell-basis measurement. The two atomic
ensembles A and B are pencil-shaped, which are illuminated by the
synchronized laser pulses. The forward-scattered anti-Stokes are
collected and coupled to optical channel (fiber) after the filter.
BS is a 50/50 beam splitter, and the outputs detected by two
single-photon detectors $D$1 and $D$2.} \label{fig2}
\end{figure}

In order to realize C-NOT gate, we prepare two GHZ states, which
have been made in Ref \cite{Duan2} with atomic ensembles 1, 2, 3, 4,
5 and 6

\begin{subequations}
\begin{equation}
|\phi\rangle _{123} =(h_{1}^ {+} h_{2}^{+} h_{3}^ {+} + v_{1}^{+}
v_{2}^ {+} v_{3}^ {+})|vac\rangle_{123}/{\sqrt 2 },
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
|\varphi\rangle _{456} = (h_{4}^ {+} h_{5}^{ +} h_{6}^ {+} + v_{4}^
{+} v_{5}^{+} v_{6}^{+})|vac\rangle_{456}/{\sqrt 2 },
\end{equation}
\end{subequations}
and prepare two atomic ensembles 7 and 8, which are in $|\phi
\rangle _{7} = ( h_{7}^{+} + v_{7}^{+})|vac\rangle_{7}$
 and $|\phi\rangle _{8} =(h_{8}^{+} - v_{8}^ {+} )|vac
\rangle _{8}$ by single-qubit rotations. The C-NOT gate has $|\phi
\rangle _{7}$ as its control, and $|\phi\rangle_{8}$ as its target.
At first, we apply Hadamard transformations on atomic ensembles 1, 2
and 3 by single-qubit operations, respectively, and then make a
Bell-basis measurement on atomic ensembles 3 and 4 using the setup
in Fig. \ref{fig2}. Here, the state of the $|\varphi\rangle
_{123456}$ collapses to one of the following four unnormalized
states
\begin{subequations}
\begin{eqnarray}
 |\phi\rangle_{1256}&=&[(h_{1}^{+}h_{2}^{+} +
v_{1}^{+}v_{2}^ {+})h_{5}^{+} h_{6}^{+}\nonumber\\
&\pm&(h_{1}^{+}v_{2}^{+}+v_{1}^{+}h_{2}^{+})v_{5}^{+}v_{6}^{+}]|vac\rangle_{1256},
\end{eqnarray}
\begin{eqnarray}
|\varphi\rangle_{1256}&=&[(h_{1}^{+}h_{2}^{+}+v_{1}^{+}v_{2}^{+})v_{5}^{+}v_{6}^{+}\nonumber\\
&\pm&(h_{1}^{+}v_{2}^{+}+v_{1}^{+}h_{2}^{+})h_{5}^{+}h_{6}^{+}]|vac\rangle_{1256}.
\end{eqnarray}
\end{subequations}
$|\phi\rangle_{1256}$ and $|\varphi\rangle _{1256}$ are the results
of projecting to $|\phi\rangle _{34}^\pm $ and $|\varphi \rangle
_{34}^\pm $, respectively. They can unify as
$|\chi\rangle_{1256}=[(h_{1}^{+}h_{2}^{+} + v_{1}^{+}v_{2}^
{+})h_{5}^{+} h_{6}^{+}+(h_{1}^{+}v_{2}^{+}
+v_{1}^{+}h_{2}^{+})v_{5}^{+}v_{6}^{+}]|vac\rangle_{1256}$ with the
help of simple single-qubit operations.

In succession, we make a Bell-basis measurement on atomic ensembles 1 and 8
as the above techniques. The state of atomic collective 1, 2, 5, 6 and 8
collapses to one of the following two states
\begin{subequations}
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{256a} |\phi\rangle_{256}&=&[(h_{2}^ {+}h_{5}^{+}h_{6}^{+}+
v_{2}^{+}v_{5}^ {+}v_{6}^{+})\nonumber\\
&+&(v_{2}^{+}h_{5}^{+}h_{6}^{+}+h_{2}^{+}v_{5}^{+}v_{6}^{+})]|vac\rangle_{256},
\end{eqnarray}
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{256b} |\varphi\rangle_{256}&=&[(h_{2}^ {+}h_{5}^{+}h_{6}^{+}
+ v_{2}^{+}v_{5}^ {+}v_{6}^{+})\nonumber\\
&-&(v_{2}^{+}h_{5}^{+}
h_{6}^{+}+h_{2}^{+}v_{5}^{+}v_{6}^{+})]|vac\rangle_{256},
\end{eqnarray}
\end{subequations}
where Eq. (\ref{256a}) is the result of projecting to $|\phi \rangle
_{18}^ {+}$ and $|\varphi \rangle_{18}^ + $, and Eq. (\ref{256b}) is
the result of projecting to $|\phi\rangle_{18}^{-} $ and $|\varphi
\rangle_{18}^{-}$. Apply single rotations to Eq. (\ref{256b}), leads
the state of atomic collective 2, 5 and 6 to Eq. (\ref{256a}). We
make a Bell-basis measurement on atomic ensembles 6 and 7, the state
of atomic collective 2 and 5 collapses to the one of the following
states
\begin{subequations}
\begin{equation}
\label{25a}|\phi\rangle_{25}=(h_2^{+} - v_2^{+})(h_5^{+}
-v_5^{+})|vac\rangle_{25}/2,
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
\label{25b}|\varphi\rangle_{25}=(h_2^{+} - v_2^{+})(h_5^{+}
+v_5^{+})|vac\rangle_{25}/2.
\end{equation}
\end{subequations}
where Eq. (\ref{25a}) corresponds to the measurement results of
$|\phi \rangle _{67}^{+}$ and $|\varphi\rangle_{67}^{+}$, and Eq.
(\ref{25b}) corresponds to $|\phi\rangle_{67}^{-} $ and $|\varphi
\rangle_{67}^{-}$. We can make state (\ref{25b}) transform to state
(\ref{25a}) by single-qubit rotations. Obviously here, the C-NOT
gate has been realized and the state have mapped on atomic
collective 2 and 5. Therefore if only we apply Hadamard
transformations, Bell-basis measurements and single rotations on
atomic ensembles, we are able to realize C-NOT gate perfectly.

\section{Realization of the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm}

The Realization of Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm is an important step
toward more complex quantum computation. Classically, if we want to
distinguish $f(x)$ between constant and balanced function on $2^{n}$
inputs, we will need $2^{n}/2+1$ queries to unambiguously determine
whether the function is balanced. While for the Deutsch-Jozsa
algorithm, we will need only one query. Here, we consider the
two-qubit Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm. The input query qubit is prepared
in $(|0\rangle_{i} + |1\rangle_{i})/\sqrt{2}$ and the auxiliary
working qubit is prepared in
$(|0\rangle_{a}-|1\rangle_{a})/\sqrt{2}$, so the state of the whole
system is $(|0\rangle_{i} +
|1\rangle_{i})(|0\rangle_{a}-|1\rangle_{a})/2$. While the function
$f(x)$ is characterized by unitary mapping transformation $U_{f}$,
and $|x,y\rangle \rightarrow|x,y \oplus f(x)\rangle$ where $\oplus$
indicates addition modulo 2. The unitary transformation $U_{f}$ on
the system leads the initially state to
\begin{equation}
\label{5}
[(-1)^{f(0)}|0\rangle_{i}+(-1)^{f(1)}|1\rangle_{i}](|0\rangle_{a}-|1\rangle_{a})/2.
\end{equation}
There are four possible transformations to the $U_{f}$:
\begin{enumerate}
    \item for $U_{f1}$, $f(0)=f(1)=0$;
    \item for $U_{f2}$, $f(0)=f(1)=1$;
    \item for $U_{f3}$, $f(0)=0$ and $f(1) = 1$;
    \item for $U_{f4}$, $f(0)=1$ and $f(1)=0$. \\
\end{enumerate}
After a Hadamard transformation on the input query qubit, the state
of query qubit becomes $|f(0)\oplus f(1)\rangle$. If the function
$f(x)$ is constant, the state of query qubit becomes $|0 \rangle_{i}
$. Otherwise it becomes $|1\rangle_{i}$.

Now, we realize the two-qubit Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm via atomic
ensembles and linear optical elements. At first, we prepare two
atomic ensembles 9 and 10, which are initially in the states $|\phi
\rangle_{9} = h_{9}^{+}|vac\rangle_{9}$ and $|\phi\rangle_{10} =
h_{10}^{+}|vac\rangle_{10}$, respectively. After two single-qubit
operations by controlling Raman pulses with the appropriate length,
we can obtain the state of the atomic collective 9 and 10 is
\begin{equation}
|\phi\rangle_{910} = (h_{9}^{+}+
v_{9}^{+})(h_{10}^{+}-v_{10}^{+})|vac\rangle_{910}/2,
\end{equation}
which can be rewritten as
\begin{equation}
|\phi\rangle_{910} =(|0\rangle_{9} + |1\rangle_{9})(|0 \rangle_{10}
- |1\rangle_{10})/2,
\end{equation}
where $|0\rangle_{9} = h_{9}^{+}|vac\rangle_{9}$, $|1\rangle_{9} =
v_{9}^{+}|vac\rangle_{9} $, $|0\rangle_{10}=h_{10}^ {+}|vac\rangle
_{10}$ and $|1\rangle_{10} = v_{10}^{+}|vac\rangle_{10}$. So the
collective state has the same form as that of input and auxiliary
working qubit in the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm.

For the case of performing $U_{f1} $, we take no operation on the
system and the state remains in the state $|\phi\rangle _{910}$.

For the case of performing $U_{f2} $, we can make a C-NOT
transformation on the two collective 9 and 10 (collective 9 as
control bit, collective 10 as target bit), which can be achieved
using the scheme in section II. This leads to
\begin{equation}
\label{910}
|\phi\rangle_{910}=[|0\rangle_{9}(|0\rangle_{10}-|1\rangle_{10})+|1\rangle_{9}(|0\rangle_{10}\oplus1-|1\rangle_{10}\oplus1)]/2,
\end{equation}
Then we perform single-qubit operation on ensemble 9 using a
Raman-type pulse
\begin{subequations}
\label{9102}
\begin{equation}
|0\rangle_{9}\rightarrow|1\rangle_{9} ,
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
|1\rangle_{9}\rightarrow-|0\rangle_{9} .
\end{equation}
\end{subequations}
and a C-NOT transformation on the two collective 9, 10 lead Eq.
(\ref{910}) to
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{9103}
|\phi\rangle_{910}&=&[|1\rangle_{9}(|0\rangle_{10}\oplus1-|1\rangle_{10}\oplus1)\nonumber\\
&-&|0\rangle_{9}(|0\rangle_{10}\oplus1-|1\rangle_{10}\oplus1)]/2,
\end{eqnarray}
then another single-qubit operation
\begin{subequations}
\label{9104}
\begin{equation}
|0\rangle_{9}\rightarrow-|1\rangle_{9} ,
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
|1\rangle_{9}\rightarrow|0\rangle_{9} .
\end{equation}
\end{subequations}
lead the state of system to
\begin{equation}
|\phi\rangle_{910} = (-|0\rangle_{9}-|1\rangle_{9})(|0\rangle_{10}-
|1\rangle_{10})/2.
\end{equation}

For the case of performing $U_{f3} $,   we only need a C-NOT
transformation on the two collective as  Eq. (\ref{9103}), then the
system becomes
\begin{equation}
|\phi\rangle_{910}=(|0\rangle_{9}-|1\rangle_{9})(|0\rangle_{10}-|1\rangle_{10})/2.
\end{equation}

For the case of performing $U_{f4} $, we first perform a
single-qubit transformation of Eq. (\ref{9102}), and then we perform
a C-NOT operation of Eq. (\ref{910}). Finally, we perform a
single-qubit transformation of Eq. (\ref{9104}). This leads to
\begin{equation}
|\phi\rangle_{910}=(-|0\rangle_{9}+ |1\rangle_{9})(|0\rangle_{10} -
|1\rangle_{10})/2
\end{equation}

Obviously we can realize the unitary transformation $U_f $ by the
above method, the state of system can be expressed as
\begin{equation}
|\phi\rangle_{910}=[(-1)^{f(0)}|0\rangle_{9}+(-1)^{f(1)}|1\rangle_{9}](|0\rangle_{10}-|1\rangle_{10})/2.
\end{equation}
This state of the two collective 9 and 10 has the same form as the
Eq. (\ref{5}). Then we perform a Hadamard transformation on the
collective 9 by a single-qubit operation, which has been mentioned
in section II. Finally we detect the state of collective 9. If the
state is $h_{9}^{+}|vac\rangle_{9}$, the function $f(x)$ is
constant. Otherwise, $f(x)$ is balanced function. Now, we have
realized the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm perfectly. Obviously a
measurement is sufficient to distinguish $f(x)$ between constant and
balanced function.

\section{Conclusions}

In summary, we present a physical scheme for implementing the
Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm with atomic ensembles, and the basic system
is a large number of identical alkali metal atoms. The Bell-basis
measurement and C-NOT gate are very important in quantum information
processing and quantum computation, thus the schemes with atomic
ensembles for realizing them are proposed firstly. Then we apply
Bell-basis measurements and C-NOT transformations into the process
of realizing Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm. The above schemes have some
special advantages compared with the schemes of quantum information
process by the control of single particles. For instance, it has
inherent fault tolerance to the realistic noise and imperfections of
entanglement generation, collectively enhanced coupling to light
because of special atomic configuration and many-atom interference
effects. Although the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm is a simple example of
general quantum algorithms, it is very necessary to achieve quantum
computer. Further more, it would be an important step toward more
complex quantum computation. The scheme involves laser manipulations
of atomic ensembles, beam splitters, and single-photon detections
with moderate efficiencies, which are all within the current
experimental technology.

\begin{acknowledgments}

This work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of the
Education Department of Anhui Province under Grant No: 2004kj005zd
and Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation under Grant No:
03042401 and the Talent Foundation of Anhui University.
\end{acknowledgments}

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