Juno

To prepare myself for the Oscars I try every year to watch all of the nominations. It rarely happens. It almost happened once. When was it? Hmmm......I think it was the year when 'The Departed' won. I wasn't too happy with the result then. But now I've to write on 'Juno'......

Ellen Page. I have to admit that the 'kid' has enacted her character perfectly. She deserves the nomination for her performance to say the least. Jennifer Garner is easy on the eyes. Of the rest of the cast, there aren't too many characters anyway, I'll say the stepmom and Juno's boyfriend add some life into the film.

To be frank, I expected a more 'lighter' film. I remember reading somewhere that it's better than 'Little Miss Sunshine'. That led me to believe this movie was going to be 'fun'. Half-way through 'Juno' I realised the comparison between this and 'Little Miss Sunshine' was not right. I canmt pick which is better just because they are very different films in their approach.

Firstly, this is not a movie which isn't trying to get a message across. This is perhaps the film's strength. From my understanding it is the story of how a teenager finds love through pregnancy. Secondly, the idea of adoption of the baby-to-be didn't go well with me. If there was a reason why the kid could not stay in the house I didn't get it from the film. Why was Juno having the baby? Just to give it life? I think that's what people will argue but what's the point if she was would give it away? Finally, I loved the idea of not showing her boy-friend in bad light. In fact, I was thrilled to see Juno as the one who didn't understand Bleeker's. This was very much unlike what I've been watching for years in Bollywood.

Without going overly critical or going over-ecstactic I'd say it is a very good movie. I have not seen a similar story in Hollywood though it has been attempted in Bollywood. I like the treatment as it's very real and life-like.

RATING: 4/5

Kane's Method

Dynamics was one subject I'd always associated with Newton-Euler approach for writing the equations of motion for a system. When in the third of my bachelor's I was introduced to Lagrange's approach. Till January, 2008 I thought of them to be the only two ways of deriving the equations of motion for a dynamic system.

MAE223 changed it all. I was considering the above mentioned techniques to model spacecrafts for my PhD. But then 'multibody dynamics' happened. I'm a little over half done with the course and I've got some reasonable grasp of it. MAE223 involves using Kane's method for writing the equations of motion for a dynamic system. I don't want to write of the advantages of this technique but want to share my opinion on this approach.

Firstly, I'd love give Prof. Kane a 'pat on his back' for this technique. Most will agree with me when I say that the Newton-Euler and Lagrange's approaches are quite easy to physically understand. Without undermining these stalwarts I'd like to say their approaches were easier to observe. On the other hand, Kane's method is a little more abstract. It is a surprise that he actually thought of expressions for 'generalised active forces' and gave a physical understanding of them. To think of mathematical expressions for abstract ideas is no small feat.

Secondly, Kane's approach is very recent. It is surprising that it stands alongside Newton-Euler's and Lagrange's approaches while Kane still lives. To me it's a sign that there is still a lot to be uncovered at the fundamental level. When most engineering students, even faculty for that matter, think of research problems hardly any think of taking a problem at a fundamental level. Kane has proven this may not be a bad idea.

I'd have to add that I'm no expert in the field of dynamics. Heck! I hardly know anything. But these are just my thoughts.