This Blog Has Moved

This blog has moved to Wordpress.

So I know this has been quiet for too long. I use a mac app (MarsEdit) to post and Google has let their API support for 3rd party apps wither. Earlier I migrated all the old posts to Wordpress but I needed to tweak the settings and I kept putting that off. Let’s see if I can get back on track in 2018.

Quiet

I know I haven't been as active here as in the past, there's just too much news to follow. But I'm not going to be doing even as well as I have been lately for the next couple of weeks. I'm going on vacation, see you in June. There should still be updates to @HowardLikedThis the latest two posts are shown on the right. Enjoy.

Citi's Weird Security Processes

I got a call a phone call this morning, the Caller ID said "Unavailable". I answered and it said it was from Citibank fraud prevention and about my MasterCard and the automated voice said my full name from the account. It seemed real and shortly thereafter a woman came on and tried to verifiy I was who I said. I answered a couple of questions and then they wanted to send a text message and asked for a cell phone number. I said you called me and I'm not sure you are who you say you are. She said she understood and encouraged me to call the number on the back of the card which is the right thing.

So I hung up and did that. I called the customer service number and the automated system seemed to forward me directly to the fraud department. I got a guy this time. He wanted to verify I was who I said I was. He asked me for a cell phone number to send a text message. I gave it and said but that doesn't help since you're just sending the message to the number I told you to. He said that was a good point but they check the number in a database to verify it or something. Anyway somehow they never sent the text and that didn't help. I suspect this account never had my cell phone number but am not sure. He asked if I had other accounts with Citi, I said no, just an AmEx linked to the same account they sent me some time ago. He took the last five digits of that and said yes, since it was linked to the same account it didn't help. He asked if I had any car loans. I said no and this is ridiculous, he indistinguishable from a phisher. I said you called me, the agent told me to call back and said she'd write something in the account indicating this. I did and am calling from the landline linked to the account and you're asking me about the rest of my financial history when you should know that I don't have other Citi accounts.

He checked and said there was nothing he could do and that Citi Security Dept would call me in the next 24-48 hours and theres a hold on my account. I said that was fine, that I hadn't used the card in six months and that any recent charges on it are probably fraudulent. He said he'd make a note of it.

I suspect someone made some charges on the card and Citi noticed it hadn't been used in a while and that triggered an alert, that's great. I suppose that someone might have tried opening other accounts in my name and maybe he was seeing those on his screen (though he kept saying without passing security checks he couldn't see account details) but those accounts would have been recently created and therefore shouldn't be required to verify identity.

I get that Citi is trying to accurately verify I am who I say I am, but their processes have to make more sense. If I can't trust them when they call me (because I get about 4 spam calls a day) and they can't trust me when I call them (particularly right after they called me), then it can't ever work.

Movies Seen in 2016

Previous Years: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

In 2016 I saw 259 feature length movies and 49 short films (those under 40 mins). That’s the most I’ve seen in a year other than 2011 where I went crazy and saw 366 features and 30 short films.

80% first run features is basically average for me.

I rate on the Netflix 5 point scale where 1 is hated, 2 is didn’t like, 3 is I liked it, 4 is really liked and 5 is loved.

I had a pretty average curve for me.

I saw 83 features in the theater and most of the rest on cable. I only watched 3 films on Netlix this year, none on DVD or Blu-ray and only 1 online.

I’ve got a few theaters I go to regularly, though the Somerville gets so much because of IFFBoston. The shorts I see in the theater are the Oscar nominees, this year I saw them at the Kendall, the others at the Somerville are some shorts packages at IFFBoston. Assembly Row opened in 2015, it’s nice but I only made it 4 times.

My monthly viewing was a little odd with big months in January, July and December. Maybe I just binged in weather that was too cold or too hot. This year IFFBoston was split over the end of April and beginning of May so neither month peaked too high. But I caught 40 of the 2016 films, 18 features, and 22 shorts.

Yet again, my viewing was really skewed towards recent films this year. I saw 79 features from 2016 and 67 from 2015. All the shorts I saw were from 2014 or later.

Last year April was the only barren month for Oscar nominated films, this year it’s just February which seems odd, I guess I caught all the nominees in Jan or during the year. These are films from any year that got a nomination or won, not just from last year’s Oscars. They also (obviously) don’t include any films that came out this year that will get nominated later this month.

Yet again I feel like I need to see more foreign films:

I break down films into five genres that I’m pretty happy with. I then use some sub-genres and I still have a hard time putting every film in one. There are lots of Dramas and Comedies that have no sub-genre. But here’s how it looks for this year:

Below are all the films I saw in 2016:

Seen	Title	Year	Length	Country	Rating
Jan 3	Top Five	2014	Feature	US	4
Jan 3	Shadow of the Thin Man	1941	Feature	US	3
Jan 3	The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	2015	Feature	Britain	3
Jan 3	The Billion Dollar Brain	1967	Feature	Britain	2
Jan 3	What We Do In the Shadows	2014	Feature	New Zealand	2
Jan 5	The Hateful Eight	2015	Feature	US	4
Jan 9	Mad Max: Fury Road	2015	Feature	Australia	5
Jan 9	The Hundred-Foot Journey	2014	Feature	US	3
Jan 9	Dear Albania	2015	Feature	US	3
Jan 10	Joy	2015	Feature	US	2
Jan 14	Cinderella	2015	Feature	Britain	3
Jan 16	Dead End	1937	Feature	US	4
Jan 16	St. Vincent	2014	Feature	US	4
Jan 16	Jackie Brown	1997	Feature	US	3
Jan 16	Listen to Me Marlon	2015	Feature	Britain	3
Jan 16	52 Pick-Up	1986	Feature	US	2
Jan 17	What Happened Miss Simone?	2015	Feature	US	3
Jan 17	The Revenant	2015	Feature	US	3
Jan 18	The Blue Bird	1918	Feature	US	2
Jan 19	The Danish Girl	2015	Feature	Britain	3
Jan 21	The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs	2015	Feature	US	4
Jan 22	Carol	2015	Feature	US	2
Jan 23	Avengers: Age of Ultron	2015	Feature	US	4
Jan 24	45 Years	2015	Feature	Britain	3
Jan 24	Entourage	2015	Feature	US	2
Jan 25	The Best Years of Our Lives	1946	Feature	US	4
Jan 25	The Helen Morgan Story	1957	Feature	US	2
Jan 27	The Imitation Game	2014	Feature	Britain	4
Jan 28	Winter on Fire	2015	Feature	Ukraine	4
Jan 30	Sounder	1972	Feature	US	4
Jan 30	Superbad	2007	Feature	US	4
Jan 31	Bear Story	2015	Short	Chile	4
Jan 31	Sanjay's Super Team	2015	Short	US	4
Jan 31	We Can't Live Without Cosmos	2015	Short	Russia	4
Jan 31	Prologue	2015	Short	Britain	4
Jan 31	Catch It	2015	Short	France	4
Jan 31	World of Tomorrow	2015	Short	US	3
Jan 31	If I Were God	2015	Short	Canada	3
Jan 31	The Loneliest Spotlight	2015	Short	US	3
Jan 31	The Short Story of a Fox and a Mouse	2015	Short	France	3
Feb 6	Tomorrowland	2015	Feature	US	2
Feb 7	Hail, Caesar!	2016	Feature	US	2
Feb 13	Kingsman: The Secret Service	2015	Feature	Britain	4
Feb 13	The Leisure Class	2015	Feature	US	1
Feb 14	Day One	2015	Short	US	5
Feb 14	Shok	2015	Short	Britain	4
Feb 14	Stutterer	2015	Short	Britain	4
Feb 14	Ave Maria	2015	Short	France	3
Feb 14	Everything Will Be Okay	2015	Short	Germany	3
Feb 21	Magic Mike XXL	2015	Feature	US	3
Feb 21	Deadpool	2016	Feature	US	3
Feb 28	Rejected	2000	Short	US	2
Feb 29	San Andreas	2015	Feature	US	1
Mar 1	Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens	2015	Feature	US	4
Mar 2	Knight of Cups	2016	Feature	US	1
Mar 6	The Witch	2016	Feature	US	2
Mar 10	Spy	2015	Feature	US	3
Mar 10	Eye in the Sky	2015	Feature	Britain	3
Mar 12	Love & Mercy	2015	Feature	US	3
Mar 13	10 Cloverfield Lane	2016	Feature	US	4
Mar 16	Body Team 12	2015	Short	Liberia	4
Mar 19	Avengers: Age of Ultron	2015	Feature	US	4
Mar 19	Still Alice	2014	Feature	US	4
Mar 19	Big Eyes	2014	Feature	US	3
Mar 20	Tangerines	2014	Feature	Estonia	4
Mar 20	Hello, My Name is Doris	2016	Feature	US	3
Mar 30	The Dark Horse	2016	Feature	New Zealand	3
Apr 3	Midnight Special	2016	Feature	US	3
Apr 5	Ori & Addison	2014	Short	US	4
Apr 5	Hunter's Moon	2015	Short	US	3
Apr 5	Knockturnal	2016	Short	US	2
Apr 13	Ant-Man	2015	Feature	US	4
Apr 16	Ricki and the Flash	2015	Feature	US	2
Apr 17	We the People: The Market Basket Effect	2016	Feature	US	3
Apr 17	Chappie	2015	Feature	US	2
Apr 18	Everything is Copy	2015	Feature	US	4
Apr 18	Shattered	2007	Feature	Britain	3
Apr 20	Never Weaken	1921	Short	US	4
Apr 20	From Hand to Mouth	1919	Short	US	3
Apr 21	The Cardinal	1963	Feature	US	4
Apr 22	Vertigo	1958	Feature	US	3
Apr 24	Sound of Redemption	2016	Feature	US	4
Apr 24	Miles Ahead	2016	Feature	US	4
Apr 27	The Hollars	2016	Feature	US	4
Apr 28	Five Nights in Maine	2016	Feature	US	4
Apr 28	Embers	2016	Feature	US	3
Apr 29	Presenting Princess Shaw	2016	Feature	US	4
Apr 29	Always Shine	2016	Feature	US	3
Apr 30	Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World	2016	Feature	US	5
Apr 30	Transpecos	2016	Feature	US	5
Apr 30	Class of '27	2016	Short	US	4
Apr 30	Neige	2016	Short	US	4
Apr 30	A Living Wage	2016	Short	US	3
Apr 30	Lockdown	2016	Short	US	3
Apr 30	The Champion	2016	Short	US	3
Apr 30	The Dwarvenaut	2016	Feature	US	3
Apr 30	Bluespace	2016	Feature	US	2
May 1	Balcony Scene	2016	Short	US	5
May 1	Hunt for the Wilderpeople	2016	Feature	New Zealand	5
May 1	Disorder	2016	Feature	France	4
May 1	Ori & Addison	2016	Short	US	4
May 1	Bonding	2016	Short	US	4
May 1	Twinsburg	2016	Short	US	3
May 1	My Dark Side and My Light Side Meet in a Bar to Discuss the New Star Wars Movie	2016	Short	US	3
May 1	Teenage Cocktail	2016	Feature	US	3
May 1	Forever, Your Fireplace	2016	Short	US	2
May 1	Blast Beat	2016	Short	US	2
May 2	Weiner	2016	Feature	US	4
May 2	The Lost Arcade	2016	Feature	US	3
May 3	Don't Think Twice	2016	Feature	US	4
May 3	Little Men	2016	Feature	US	3
May 4	The Intervention	2016	Feature	US	3
May 5	Going the Distance	2016	Short	US	4
May 5	Killer	2016	Short	US	4
May 5	Pickle	2015	Short	US	3
May 5	Affections	2015	Short	US	2
May 6	My Brother is a Zombie	2015	Short	US	4
May 6	Tilly	2015	Short	US	3
May 6	The Itching	2016	Short	US	2
May 7	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	2014	Feature	US	5
May 7	Fantastic Four	2015	Feature	US	2
May 8	Captain America: Civil War	2016	Feature	US	4
May 15	Money Monster	2016	Feature	US	3
May 17	Wet Hot American Summer	2001	Feature	US	3
May 19	Z for Zacharia	2015	Feature	US	3
May 19	Mr. Holmes	2015	Feature	US	3
May 21	All the Way	2016	Feature	US	5
May 22	The Nice Guys	2016	Feature	US	3
May 23	Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation	2015	Feature	US	4
May 27	Love & Friendship	2016	Feature	Ireland	3
May 28	The Intern	2015	Feature	US	3
May 29	Under the Gun	2016	Feature	US	4
May 29	The Lobster	2016	Feature	Greece	2
Jun 2	The Scarecrow	1920	Short	US	3
Jun 2	The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean	1972	Feature	US	2
Jun 3	Tale of Tales	2016	Feature	Italy	3
Jun 5	Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping	2016	Feature	US	2
Jun 7	The Martian	2015	Feature	US	5
Jun 8	Good Kill	2015	Feature	US	3
Jun 9	Room 237	2012	Feature	US	2
Jun 11	Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight	2013	Feature	US	4
Jun 11	Pal Joey	1957	Feature	US	3
Jun 11	Meet the Hitlers	2016	Feature	US	3
Jun 12	The Fallen Idol	1948	Feature	Britain	4
Jun 12	The Searchers	1956	Feature	US	3
Jun 12	Alexander Hamilton	1931	Feature	US	3
Jun 13	Lawrence of Arabia	1962	Feature	Britain	5
Jun 18	Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1	2012	Feature	US	4
Jun 18	Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2	2012	Feature	US	4
Jun 18	The Alamo	1960	Feature	US	4
Jun 19	Everest	2015	Feature	US	4
Jun 19	De Palma	2016	Feature	US	4
Jun 19	The Walk	2015	Feature	US	3
Jun 22	Tickled	2016	Feature	US	4
Jun 24	Batman: Under the Red Hood	2010	Feature	US	3
Jun 24	The Good Dinosaur	2015	Feature	US	3
Jun 24	Shutter	2008	Feature	US	2
Jun 26	The Man Who Knew Infinity	2016	Feature	Britain	3
Jun 28	Swiss Army Man	2016	Feature	US	5
Jul 2	Go West	1925	Feature	US	4
Jul 2	Shaun the Sheep Movie	2015	Feature	Britain	4
Jul 2	Captive	2015	Feature	US	3
Jul 2	O.C. and Stiggs	1985	Feature	US	2
Jul 2	Laurel Canyon	2002	Feature	US	2
Jul 3	Path to War	2002	Feature	US	4
Jul 3	Gangster Squad	2013	Feature	US	3
Jul 3	Ted 2	2015	Feature	US	3
Jul 3	Batman: Year One	2011	Feature	US	3
Jul 4	Misery	1990	Feature	US	4
Jul 4	Get Shorty	1995	Feature	US	4
Jul 4	MI-5	2015	Feature	Britain	3
Jul 5	Heist	2015	Feature	US	2
Jul 6	Heartburn	1986	Feature	US	2
Jul 7	A Walk Among the Tombstones	2014	Feature	US	3
Jul 7	Project Almanac	2015	Feature	US	2
Jul 8	The Normal Heart	2014	Feature	US	4
Jul 9	Black Sunday	1977	Feature	US	3
Jul 10	Broken Blossoms	1919	Feature	US	4
Jul 10	Swiss Army Man	2016	Feature	US	5
Jul 11	Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars	1973	Feature	Britain	2
Jul 11	The Game	1997	Feature	US	3
Jul 17	Stonewall	2015	Feature	US	2
Jul 17	Concussion	2015	Feature	US	3
Jul 17	Straight Outta Compton	2015	Feature	US	4
Jul 17	Ghostbusters	2016	Feature	US	2
Jul 24	Star Trek Beyond	2016	Feature	US	2
Jul 29	Thunder Road	2016	Short	US	3
Jul 30	That Cold Day in the Park	1969	Feature	US	2
Jul 30	Cesar Chavez	2014	Feature	US	3
Jul 30	High Anxiety	1977	Feature	US	4
Jul 30	Atari: Game Over	2014	Feature	US	3
Jul 31	Spectre	2015	Feature	Britain	2
Jul 31	The 33	2015	Feature	US	3
Jul 31	Jason Bourne	2016	Feature	US	3
Aug 2	Munich	2005	Feature	US	4
Aug 4	Deception	2008	Feature	US	2
Aug 4	The Rocketeer	1991	Feature	US	4
Aug 5	My Left Foot	1989	Feature	Ireland	4
Aug 6	Boyz n the Hood	1991	Feature	US	5
Aug 7	Shalll We Dance	2004	Feature	US	3
Aug 7	Captain Fantastic	2016	Feature	US	4
Aug 14	Grandma	2015	Feature	US	4
Aug 14	Black Girl	1966	Feature	France	3
Aug 16	Complete Unknown	2016	Feature	US	2
Aug 19	Things to Come	1936	Feature	Britain	3
Aug 20	Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country	1991	Feature	US	4
Aug 20	There Will Be Blood	2007	Feature	US	4
Aug 21	Office Space	1999	Feature	US	4
Aug 28	Movie Crazy	1932	Feature	US	3
Aug 28	Hell or High Water	2016	Feature	US	4
Aug 29	Truth	2015	Feature	US	3
Aug 29	The Lady in the Van	2015	Feature	Britain	3
Sep 3	The Silencers	1966	Feature	US	3
Sep 3	In the Heart of the Sea	2015	Feature	US	2
Sep 3	Pride	2014	Feature	Britain	4
Sep 4	Jane Wants a Boyfriend	2016	Feature	US	3
Sep 4	It Follows	2015	Feature	US	3
Sep 4	The Stanford Prison Experiment	2015	Feature	US	2
Sep 4	Sicario	2015	Feature	US	4
Sep 5	The Rat Race	1960	Feature	US	3
Sep 5	Hysteria	2011	Feature	Britain	3
Sep 5	The Quiet American	2002	Feature	Britain	4
Sep 5	Carrie	1976	Feature	US	3
Sep 6	Black Sea	2015	Feature	Britain	2
Sep 6	The Jerk	1979	Feature	US	4
Sep 6	Leon: The Professional	1994	Feature	US	4
Sep 7	Very Semi-Serious	2015	Feature	US	3
Sep 7	Coney Island	1917	Short	US	3
Sep 11	Star Trek III: The Search For Spock	1984	Feature	US	3
Sep 11	Sully	2016	Feature	US	3
Sep 18	Tron	1982	Feature	US	2
Sep 19	Star Trek V: The Final Frontier	1989	Feature	US	1
Sep 22	Shakes the Clown	1991	Feature	US	3
Sep 24	Spartacus	1960	Feature	US	5
Sep 25	Ben-Hur	1959	Feature	US	3
Oct 1	Whiskey Tango Foxtrot	2016	Feature	US	2
Oct 2	Command and Control	2016	Feature	US	3
Oct 8	13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi	2016	Feature	US	3
Oct 9	The Birth of a Nation	2016	Feature	US	4
Oct 16	Denial	2016	Feature	Britain	3
Oct 17	Borrowed Time	2016	Short	US	3
Oct 19	Never Happened	2016	Short	US	4
Oct 22	Blazing Saddles	1974	Feature	US	5
Oct 23	Moonlight	2016	Feature	US	4
Oct 25	The Handmaiden	2016	Feature	Korea	5
Oct 26	I Am Not Your Negro	2017	Feature	US	5
Oct 27	After the Storm	2016	Feature	Japan	3
Oct 27	The Autopsy of Jane Doe	2016	Feature	Britain	4
Oct 28	Loving	2016	Feature	US	4
Nov 2	Manchester by the Sea	2016	Feature	US	4
Nov 3	Piper	2016	Short	US	4
Nov 6	Doctor Strange	2016	Feature	US	3
Nov 13	Arrival	2016	Feature	US	4
Nov 15	Noctural Animals	2016	Feature	US	3
Nov 19	By the Sea	2015	Feature	US	1
Nov 20	The Edge of Seventeen	2016	Feature	US	4
Nov 22	The Martian	2015	Feature	US	5
Nov 24	Funeral in Berlin	1966	Feature	US	4
Nov 24	Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House	1948	Feature	US	5
Nov 25	Jobs	2013	Feature	US	3
Nov 26	Nanook of the North	1922	Feature	US	4
Nov 26	Zero Days	2016	Feature	US	4
Nov 26	Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice	2016	Feature	US	1
Nov 27	Harlan County U.S.A.	1976	Feature	US	4
Nov 27	The Peanuts Movie	2015	Feature	US	3
Nov 30	Ace Ventura: Pet Detective	1994	Feature	US	2
Nov 30	2 Guns	2013	Feature	US	3
Dec 3	Race	2016	Feature	US	3
Dec 3	Keanu	2016	Feature	US	4
Dec 4	Evolution	2016	Feature	France	1
Dec 5	Altman	2014	Feature	US	3
Dec 6	Countdown	1968	Feature	US	2
Dec 6	Much Ado About Nothing	2013	Feature	US	3
Dec 8	Casino Royale	1967	Feature	US	2
Dec 8	Mad Hot Ballroom	2005	Feature	US	3
Dec 9	My Blueberry Nights	2007	Feature	Hong Kong	3
Dec 10	Paris Blues	1961	Feature	US	3
Dec 10	Harper	1966	Feature	US	3
Dec 10	The Drowning Pool	1975	Feature	US	3
Dec 10	The Brothers Grimsby	2016	Feature	Britain	2
Dec 11	Misconduct	2016	Feature	US	1
Dec 11	Jackie	2016	Feature	US	3
Dec 15	Rogue One: A Star Wars Story	2016	Feature	US	4
Dec 16	Star Wars IV: A New Hope	1977	Feature	US	5
Dec 17	Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing	2016	Feature	US	4
Dec 17	Eddie the Eagle	2016	Feature	Britain	3
Dec 17	War	2007	Feature	US	2
Dec 18	La La Land	2016	Feature	US	2
Dec 21	Rogue One: A Star Wars Story	2016	Feature	US	4
Dec 22	Forsaken	2015	Feature	Canada	3
Dec 24	Legend	2015	Feature	Britain	2
Dec 24	The Invisible Man	1933	Feature	US	2
Dec 24	Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens	2015	Feature	US	4
Dec 25	Keeper of the Flame	1942	Feature	US	3
Dec 25	Argo	2012	Feature	US	4
Dec 26	Bubba Ho-Tep	2002	Feature	US	2
Dec 26	City by the Sea	2002	Feature	US	3
Dec 27	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	1939	Feature	US	4
Dec 27	The Life of an American Fireman	1903	Short	US	2
Dec 27	The Musketeers of Pig Alley	1912	Short	US	3
Dec 27	The Beau Brummels	1928	Short	US	3
Dec 27	Ball of Fire	1941	Feature	US	3
Dec 27	Punch-Drunk Love	2002	Feature	US	4
Dec 28	Ratatouille	2007	Feature	US	4
Dec 29	Meet John Doe	1941	Feature	US	4
Dec 29	Jeff, Who Lives at Home	2012	Feature	US	3
Dec 30	Sushi Girl	2012	Feature	US	3
Dec 31	Spotlight	2015	Feature	US	5

I'm Still Here

Sorry I've been MIA recently. I've been helping the Independent Film Festival of Boston get ready for the upcoming festival (4/27-5/4). They just posted the list of films they're showing. So I've been fighting with python and unicode and other fun stuff.

Working (if I can call this that) the full day really cuts into my surfing time. I can barely keep with twitter with all the election coverage and Panama Papers stuff. Ta-Nehisi Coates is writing a Black Panther comic that debuts tomorrow, so that's filling my timeline as are chats between David Simon and Eduard Snowden and Matt Blaze. And lots of people I respect are commenting about WhatsApp enabling end-to-end encryption today.

I'll be back soon.

LIGO

Last Friday I went to an MIT Panel on LIGO which was fascinating. Here are my notes.

Panel

• Moderator Rainer Weiss, Professor of Physics, Emeritus, invented laser interferometer gravitational wave detector, co-founded LIGO, also started COBE to detect Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
• Lisa Barsotti, Principal Research Scientist,
• Edmund Bertschinger, Professor of Physics, theorist, cosmology and general relativity
• Matthew Evans, Assistant Professor of Physics,
• Salvatore Vitale, Research Scientist, data analysis, extracting signal from data

Rainer Weiss

• LIGO started in the 80s at MIT building 20, now gone
• No one cared about the old building so they could tear down walls, remove wiring, etc.
• Trucks on Vasser St shook building
• 1.5 meter prototype, two grad students
• F&T Deli in old Kendall Sq pre T stop. Ideas discussed at table there because they didn't kick you out. Now plaque there.
• Tons of students at all levels with all kinds of papers and thesis

Edmund Bertschinger

• If a tree falls and no one is there does it make a sound? No, because sound is waves hitting ear
• LIGO is the first direct signal from as close to a black hole as we will ever get
• To see this black hole would need a telescope that can resolve 10⁻²⁰ radians, 12 orders of magnitude smaller than we can
• Gravitational waves are oscillating tides traveling at the speed of light
• The distortion seen is like continents and oceans stretched from the moon tides
• LIGO built not to discover but as an observatory

Salvatore Vitale

• Animation, showed waves
• Different masses produced different signals
• Was 2 black holes of 30 solar masses each
• These were stellar black holes as opposed to those at the center of a galaxy (which would have been much more massive)
• The most massive black holes previously known which were not at center of a galaxy was half this size
• These black holes merged 1 billion years ago and weren't spinning that fast
• Mass tells us about the environment they were in
• Signal didn't deviate from General Relativity formulas
• 62 solar masses is result, 3 solar masses emitted in merger as gravitational waves in 0.2 seconds
• Sun has lost 0.03% of mass in last 5 billion years, so this was HUGE energy and yet it still took something as sensitive as LIGO to detect

Lisa Barsotti

• Amplitude of a gravitational wave (h) is 10⁻²¹
• L is length, so ΔL = h × L
• So try to use larger distances to see more movement, but still really small
• even if we could use the whole earth (L = 6,350km), that would require very precise measurements
• H atom is 10⁻¹⁰
• if L is 4km then it's 4x10⁻¹⁸ = proton diameter / 200
• it's crazy small we are superheroes
• One detector in Livingston, LA and one in Hanford, WA
• Each 4km tubes, 1.2m diameter, 10ms travel time between locations at c
• The more light you have you essentially amplify the wave
• Up to 125W entering interferometer, up to 1MW in each arm at full power (now operating at 100kW)
• Detector hears noise of interferometer + gravitational wave

Matthew Evans

• Three kinds of noise to be minimized and removed from signal:
  • Quantum Mechanics - Photons bouncing off mirror moves mirror makes noise, mainly high frequency noise
  • Thermal Noise - materials aren't at absolute zero, so brownian motion, lower frequency
  • Seismic Noise -, vibrations from outside world, lowest frequency

• incredible isolation, big scary laser, massive super optics
• 120 W laser
• roughly. 50 BBH merges each year I a volume of 1 Gpc³
• about 10 million galaxy's per Gpc³
• Advanced LIGO range now 0.1 - 1 Gpc depending on system mass
• We can expect 5 or more BBH events in next observing run (due later 2016)
• gravitational waves from Big Bang - frequency one over the age of the universe
• Future improvements:
  • Squeezed states of light to reduce quantum noise in the interferometer
  • Thermal noise reduced with better materials and cryogenics
  • Next big leap from a longer interferometer, up to 40km is doable, 400km is not

• Conclusions:
  • General Relativity is correct even in the strong field regime
  • Large stellar mass black holes exist in binaries and merge
  • Direct detection of gravitational waves is possible

Q&A

• Salvatore was first person to see the information come out of the data (the masses of the bodies)
• One location got the data 7ms ahead of the other and they're very proud of it
• Measuring amplitude so goes down with 1/distance, not 1/distance²
• Detector in Pisa Italy come online in 2016
• Another being built in Japan for 2017-2018
• Another copy of LIGO in India
• Not spherical waves. Technically quadropolar. Perpendicular to plane
• Just a sphere expanding won't create gravity waves, need things moving around each other to form a quadrupole system
• Though a lumpy supernova might
• Gravitational waves interact so weakly with matter, not absorbed by planets, etc.

Movies Seen in 2015

Previous Years: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

In 2015 I saw 226 feature length movies and 37 short films (those under 40 mins). That's a little more than the last three years.

77% first run features is a little less than last year. I rewatched all the Bond films and the Star Wars films.

I rate on the Netflix 5 point scale where 1 is hated, 2 is didn't like, 3 is I liked it, 4 is really liked and 5 is loved.

I had a pretty average curve for me.

Similar to last year I saw 68 features in the theater and most of the rest on cable. I only watched 2 films on Netlix this year, 2 on DVD or Blu-ray and 7 streaming.

I've got a few theaters I go to regularly, though the Somerville gets so much because of IFFBoston. The shorts I see in the theater are the Oscar nominees when they show them at the Coolidge. Boston got a new theater this year at Assembly Row, next year there will be more food choices nearby so I'll probably go more often.

I watched a ton in January, had my usually IFFBoston peak in April and watched a lot in October. My shorts viewing is in February for the Oscars, April for IFFBoston, and December when I found some National Film Registry shorts online.

Yet again, my viewing was really skewed towards recent films this year. I saw 71 features from 2015 and 63 from 2014.

Last year May and June were barren months for Oscar nominated films, this year it's just April. These are films from any year that got a nomination or won, not just from last year's Oscars. They also (obviously) don't include any films that came out this year that will get nominated on Thursday.

Yet again I feel like I need to see more foreign films:

I break down films into five genres that I'm pretty happy with. I then use some sub-genres and I still have a hard time putting every film in one. There are lots of Dramas and Comedies that have no sub-genre. But here's how it looks for this year:

Below are all the films I saw in 2015:

Seen	Title	Year	Length	Country	Rating
Jan 1	Dr. No	1962	Feature	Britain	4
Jan 1	Gimme Shelter	1970	Feature	US	2
Jan 1	Inception	2010	Feature	US	5
Jan 2	At the Circus	1939	Feature	US	3
Jan 2	Room Service	1938	Feature	US	3
Jan 3	CBGB	2013	Feature	US	3
Jan 3	Go West	1940	Feature	US	3
Jan 4	A Night at the Opera	1935	Feature	US	4
Jan 4	Wild	2014	Feature	US	4
Jan 7	Sidewalks of New York	1931	Feature	US	3
Jan 10	Blood Ties	2014	Feature	US	4
Jan 10	Parker	2013	Feature	US	4
Jan 10	Superman/Batman: Apocalypse	2010	Feature	US	3
Jan 10	The Other Woman	2014	Feature	US	1
Jan 10	Transcendence	2014	Feature	US	2
Jan 11	Frequencies	2014	Feature	Britain	3
Jan 11	Selma	2014	Feature	Britain	3
Jan 11	The Talented Mr. Ripley	1999	Feature	US	4
Jan 13	Inherent Vice	2014	Feature	US	2
Jan 15	and My Moulton	2014	Short	Canada	2
Jan 15	The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift	2006	Feature	US	2
Jan 15	The Phone Call	2014	Short	Britain	4
Jan 17	Finding Vivian Maier	2014	Feature	US	4
Jan 17	Godzilla	2014	Feature	US	1
Jan 18	American Sniper	2014	Feature	US	3
Jan 19	Our Hospitality	1923	Feature	US	4
Jan 24	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	2014	Feature	US	5
Jan 25	A Most Violent Year	2014	Feature	US	2
Jan 25	Superman/Batman: Public Enemies	2009	Feature	US	2
Jan 31	Bears	2014	Feature	US	3
Jan 31	Everything or Nothing	2012	Feature	Britain	4
Jan 31	Night Will Fall	2014	Feature	Britain	4
Jan 31	The Angriest Man in Brooklyn	2014	Feature	US	2
Jan 31	The Heartbreak Kid	1972	Feature	US	3
Jan 31	They Came Together	2014	Feature	US	1
Feb 1	Being John Malkovich	1999	Feature	US	4
Feb 1	Noah	2014	Feature	US	1
Feb 2	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	1982	Feature	US	4
Feb 2	Never Say Never Again	1983	Feature	Britain	3
Feb 2	Octopussy	1983	Feature	Britain	2
Feb 7	A View to a Kill	1985	Feature	Britain	2
Feb 7	The Living Daylights	1987	Feature	Britain	3
Feb 10	Man with a Movie Camera	1929	Feature	Russia	3
Feb 16	Belle	2014	Feature	US	3
Feb 20	Aya	2014	Short	Israel	4
Feb 20	Boogaloo and Graham	2014	Short	Britain	4
Feb 20	Butter Lamp	2014	Short	China	3
Feb 20	Feast	2014	Short	US	4
Feb 20	Parvaneh	2014	Short	Switzerland	3
Feb 21	A Single Life	2014	Short	Netherlands	4
Feb 21	Bus Story	2014	Short	Canada	2
Feb 21	Duet	2014	Short	US	2
Feb 21	Footprints	2014	Short	US	2
Feb 21	Me and My Moulton	2014	Short	Canada	3
Feb 21	Sweet Cocoon	2014	Short	France	3
Feb 21	The Bigger Picture	2014	Short	Britain	3
Feb 21	The Dam Keeper	2014	Short	US	2
Mar 5	The Fifth Estate	2013	Feature	US	3
Mar 7	CitizenFour	2014	Feature	US	4
Mar 7	Edge of Tomorrow	2014	Feature	US	4
Mar 8	Cloud Atlas	2012	Feature	US	4
Mar 8	For Your Eyes Only	1981	Feature	Britain	3
Mar 8	Kingsman: The Secret Service	2015	Feature	Britain	4
Mar 10	V for Vendetta	2005	Feature	US	3
Mar 14	From Russia With Love	1963	Feature	Britain	4
Mar 15	’71	2015	Feature	Britain	3
Mar 15	Diamonds Are Forever	1971	Feature	Britain	2
Mar 15	License to Kill	1989	Feature	Britain	2
Mar 15	You Only Live Twice	1967	Feature	Britain	4
Mar 21	Transformers: Age of Extinction	2014	Feature	US	1
Mar 22	The Unforgiven	1960	Feature	US	3
Mar 22	Wild Tales	2014	Feature	Argentina	4
Mar 24	Live and Let Die	1973	Feature	Britain	3
Mar 25	A Million Ways to Die in the West	2014	Feature	US	2
Mar 29	Kumiko: The Treasure Hunter	2014	Feature	US	2
Mar 30	Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief	2015	Feature	US	4
Apr 4	Fast Five	2011	Feature	US	3
Apr 5	Furious 7	2015	Feature	US	2
Apr 5	The Expendables 3	2014	Feature	US	2
Apr 5	The Man With the Golden Gun	1974	Feature	Britain	2
Apr 7	Analogue People in a Digital World	2015	Short	Ireland	1
Apr 7	Elgin Park	2015	Short	US	3
Apr 11	Henry Fool	1997	Feature	US	2
Apr 12	Fay Grim	2006	Feature	US	2
Apr 12	Ned Rifle	2015	Feature	US	3
Apr 19	Ex Machina	2015	Feature	US	4
Apr 22	The End of the Tour	2015	Feature	US	4
Apr 23	(T)error	2015	Feature	US	3
Apr 23	Finders Keepers	2015	Feature	US	4
Apr 24	The Tribe	2015	Feature	Ukraine	3
Apr 24	Top Spin	2015	Feature	US	3
Apr 25	Call Me Lucky	2015	Feature	US	5
Apr 25	Deathgasm	2015	Feature	New Zealand	3
Apr 25	GTFO	2015	Feature	US	3
Apr 25	Stray Dog	2015	Feature	US	3
Apr 25	Welcome to Leith	2015	Feature	US	4
Apr 26	A Brilliant Young Mind	2015	Feature	Britain	4
Apr 26	A Well Designed Plan	2015	Short	US	4
Apr 26	Blackwell	2015	Short	US	3
Apr 26	Central Market	2015	Short	Bahrain	2
Apr 26	Starman	2015	Short	US	3
Apr 26	The Keeping Room	2015	Feature	US	4
Apr 26	The Look of Silence	2015	Feature	Indonesia	5
Apr 26	Tobacco Burn	2015	Short	US	4
Apr 27	Cartel Land	2015	Feature	US	4
Apr 27	Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD	2015	Feature	Britain	3
Apr 28	I’ll See You in My Dreams	2015	Feature	US	4
Apr 28	The Wolfpack	2015	Feature	US	3
Apr 29	Me and Earl and the Dying Girl	2015	Feature	US	5
Apr 30	Comic Book Heaven	2014	Short	US	3
May 1	Avengers: Age of Ultron	2015	Feature	US	4
May 3	The World is Not Enough	1999	Feature	Britain	2
May 3	Tomorrow Never Dies	1997	Feature	Britain	3
May 9	9-Man	2014	Feature	US	3
May 10	Far From the Maddening Crowd	2015	Feature	Britain	4
May 11	The Fault in Our Stars	2014	Feature	US	4
May 12	Guardians of the Galaxy	2014	Feature	US	4
May 14	Coney Island	1917	Short	US	3
May 15	Die Another Day	2002	Feature	Britain	3
May 15	Life of Crime	2013	Feature	US	2
May 15	Magic in the Moonlight	2014	Feature	US	3
May 16	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	2014	Feature	US	5
May 16	Goldfinger	1964	Feature	Britain	4
May 16	Pitch Perfect 2	2015	Feature	US	3
May 17	Footloose	1984	Feature	US	3
May 17	Mad Max: Fury Road	2015	Feature	Australia	4
May 17	X-Men: Days of Future Past	2014	Feature	US	4
May 25	Hercules	2014	Feature	US	2
May 25	Mission Impossible III	2006	Feature	US	4
May 25	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	1982	Feature	US	4
May 31	Slow West	2015	Feature	Britain	2
Jun 2	The Silver Chalace	1954	Feature	US	1
Jun 2	The Wind	1928	Feature	US	3
Jun 5	Saratoga	1937	Feature	US	2
Jun 6	The Equalizer	2014	Feature	US	3
Jun 7	Begin Again	2014	Feature	US	3
Jun 7	I Origins	2014	Feature	US	2
Jun 7	The Judge	2014	Feature	US	2
Jun 9	Deep Web	2015	Feature	US	3
Jun 9	RoboCop	2014	Feature	US	3
Jun 9	Somebody Up There Likes Me	1956	Feature	US	4
Jun 11	Gosford Park	2001	Feature	Britain	3
Jun 12	Boyhood	2014	Feature	US	2
Jun 12	Million Dollar Arm	2014	Feature	US	3
Jun 13	Gun Crazy	1950	Feature	US	3
Jun 13	I, An Actress	1977	Short	US	2
Jun 13	Ministry of Fear	1944	Feature	US	3
Jun 13	The Letter	1940	Feature	US	3
Jun 14	Jurassic World	2015	Feature	US	3
Jun 17	A Dog’s Life	1918	Short	US	3
Jun 17	Greed	1924	Feature	US	4
Jun 17	The Circus	1928	Feature	US	5
Jun 18	No Good Deed	2014	Feature	US	2
Jun 30	Amy	2015	Feature	Britain	4
Jul 1	Inside Out	2015	Feature	US	3
Jul 3	The Paleface	1922	Short	US	3
Jul 5	Doctor Zhivago	1965	Feature	Britain	2
Jul 5	Underworld U.S.A.	1961	Feature	US	3
Jul 12	The Overnight	2015	Feature	US	2
Jul 18	Ladies in Retirement	1941	Feature	US	3
Jul 18	The Rewrite	2014	Feature	US	3
Jul 19	Ant-Man	2015	Feature	US	4
Jul 19	The Big Broadcast of 1937	1936	Feature	US	3
Jul 19	This is Where I Leave You	2014	Feature	US	3
Jul 21	Complicit	2013	Feature	Britain	2
Jul 22	Meshes of the Afternoon	1943	Short	US	2
Jul 24	Big Hero 6	2014	Feature	US	4
Jul 24	Star Trek: First Contact	1996	Feature	US	4
Jul 25	It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World	1963	Feature	US	5
Jul 25	John Wick	2014	Feature	US	5
Jul 25	The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming	1966	Feature	US	4
Jul 25	Whiplash	2014	Feature	US	5
Jul 26	Trainwreck	2015	Feature	US	3
Aug 1	Lucy	2014	Feature	France	4
Aug 1	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1	2014	Feature	US	3
Aug 1	Foxcatcher	2014	Feature	US	2
Aug 1	The To Do List	2013	Feature	US	3
Aug 2	Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation	2015	Feature	US	4
Aug 4	The Good Lie	2014	Feature	US	4
Aug 4	The Sting	1973	Feature	US	5
Aug 8	Tell	2014	Feature	US	3
Aug 8	Playing it Cool	2014	Feature	US	3
Aug 9	The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies	2014	Feature	New Zealand	2
Aug 9	Rooster Cogburn	1975	Feature	US	4
Aug 10	The Unknown	1927	Feature	US	3
Aug 23	American Ultra	2015	Feature	US	2
Aug 30	The Man from UNCLE	2015	Feature	US	1
Sep 5	The Ipcress File	1965	Feature	Britain	3
Sep 6	It’s a Gift	1934	Feature	US	3
Sep 6	The Diary of a Teenage Girl	2015	Feature	US	3
Sep 10	We’ll Never Have Paris	2014	Feature	US	3
Sep 20	Black Mass	2015	Feature	US	3
Sep 24	Into The Woods	2014	Feature	US	2
Sep 24	Why We Laugh: Funny Women	2013	Feature	US	3
Sep 26	Words and Pictures	2014	Feature	US	3
Sep 26	Interstellar	2014	Feature	US	4
Sep 27	Teacher’s Pet	1958	Feature	US	4
Sep 27	Unbroken	2014	Feature	US	2
Sep 27	Mr. Turner	2014	Feature	Britain	4
Oct 4	The Martian	2015	Feature	US	5
Oct 5	Room	2015	Feature	US	4
Oct 9	Akeelah and the Bee	2006	Feature	US	4
Oct 11	Sicario	2015	Feature	US	2
Oct 11	Focus	2015	Feature	US	3
Oct 16	The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter	1980	Feature	US	4
Oct 16	Jupiter Ascending	2015	Feature	US	2
Oct 17	The General	1927	Feature	US	5
Oct 17	The Coconuts	1929	Feature	US	3
Oct 18	Bridge of Spies	2015	Feature	US	4
Oct 21	Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boys!	1958	Feature	US	2
Oct 23	Taken 3	2015	Feature	US	2
Oct 23	The Boy Next Door	2015	Feature	US	2
Oct 24	Compared to What? The Improbably Journey of Barney Frank	2015	Feature	US	3
Oct 24	Wild Card	2015	Feature	US	2
Oct 24	The Day of the Jackal	1973	Feature	Britain	5
Oct 24	Magnolia	1999	Feature	US	4
Oct 25	Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	2014	Feature	US	2
Oct 25	Find Me Guilty	2006	Feature	US	3
Oct 25	Where to Invade Next	2015	Feature	US	3
Oct 26	The Invitation	2015	Feature	US	2
Oct 27	Steve Jobs	2015	Feature	US	2
Oct 28	The Assassin	2015	Feature	China	2
Oct 29	Anomalisa	2015	Feature	US	4
Nov 1	Maps to the Stars	2014	Feature	US	2
Nov 2	The Crowd	1928	Feature	US	3
Nov 5	Casino Royale	2006	Feature	Britain	4
Nov 6	The Jackal	1997	Feature	US	2
Nov 7	Blackhat	2105	Feature	US	1
Nov 8	Quantum of Solace	2008	Feature	Britain	2
Nov 8	Black Hawk Down	2001	Feature	US	4
Nov 8	Spectre	2015	Feature	Britain	2
Nov 14	Third Person	2013	Feature	US	2
Nov 15	Kill the Messenger	2014	Feature	US	3
Nov 15	Spotlight	2015	Feature	US	4
Nov 22	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2	2015	Feature	US	2
Nov 23	One Week	1920	Short	US	4
Nov 23	The Theory of Everything	2014	Feature	Britain	4
Nov 25	Creed	2015	Feature	US	4
Nov 25	Bernie	2011	Feature	US	4
Nov 26	Gone Girl	2014	Feature	US	4
Nov 29	Trumbo	2015	Feature	US	4
Dec 1	Suffragette	2015	Feature	Britain	4
Dec 7	Spearhunter	2015	Short	US	3
Dec 8	Brooklyn	2015	Feature	Ireland	4
Dec 11	Star Wars IV: A New Hope	1977	Feature	US	5
Dec 12	3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets	2015	Feature	US	2
Dec 12	Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back	1980	Feature	US	5
Dec 12	Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi	1983	Feature	US	4
Dec 13	Divergent II: Insurgent	2015	Feature	US	2
Dec 13	Hitchcock/Truffaut	2015	Feature	US	4
Dec 14	Bee Movie	2007	Feature	US	3
Dec 16	Black and Tan Fantasy	1929	Short	US	3
Dec 16	Dream of a Rarebit Fiend	1906	Short	US	3
Dec 16	Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze	1894	Short	US	3
Dec 16	The Inner World of Aphasia	1968	Short	US	3
Dec 16	John Henry and the Inky-Poo	1946	Short	US	3
Dec 16	The Old Mill	1937	Short	US	4
Dec 16	The Story of Menstruation	1946	Short	US	3
Dec 17	Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens	2015	Feature	US	5
Dec 19	Aloha	2015	Feature	US	2
Dec 20	Sisters	2015	Feature	US	3
Dec 25	Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens	2015	Feature	US	5
Dec 27	The Big Short	2015	Feature	US	4