the tourist

Frank, a maths teacher from Wisconsin, is seemingly mistaken for the cunning and inconspicuous Alexander Pierce. Wanted for a theft of 744 million Pounds, Alexander is nowhere to be found.

Enter Elise, a gorgeous tourist who is constantly under surveillance, and whose identity very much hidden. Supposed to be the girl-friend of Alexander, Elise is the only clue to find him, and also to find the money.

Will they be able to track him down, or will Alexander once again get away with the money? It's a hard riddle for the Europol, and even for Elise.

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the early twenty-first century

The day passed with heavy rainfall, and in the afternoon I found myself in the storage room sorting out my old movie collection. There were movies mostly from the nineties, those that had affected my imagination and impressed me as a teenager. One such movie was The Fifth Element. As soon as I did dusting off the cover, I decided to watch it once gain. So I took out the VCR, cleaned it all day and in the evening, sat in front of the TV.

The Fifth Element features genetically engineered beings, flying cars, visitors from space, smart homes, light-speed travel, interplanetary vacations, and last but not the least, ultra-sophisticated handguns. It is a technological mecca for Sci-Fi lovers, with seamless animations and visual effects. It brought back some wonderful memories, of how we re-winded the scenes and played and re-winded and played and so on. We often talked about whether the technologies shown in the movie would one day be realized, possibly in the near future!

Come to think of it, the last fifteen years turned out quite peculiar in terms of technology, as compared to what was shown in the movie! For example, the closest thing to a flying car today is the Moller Skycar; the next-of-kin of genetic engineering is the cloning of a sheep called Dolly. As for human contact with aliens, it consists of pure speculations about ancient civilizations, their mythologies & countless archaeological findings of elongated skulls. Comparing further on, sophisticated handguns and weapons systems are emerging – not quite as shown in the movie, but something evolving rapidly (as seen in countless documentaries). Smart homes, too, are becoming reality, if money is no object – thanks to the advances in digital computing, cheaper hardware and nanotechnology. As for light-speed travel, it is hardly more than theory. Yet, interplanetary vacation has begun in the form of orbital or space tourism, and heavy investments by some promising companies.

To sum it up, technologies shown in The Fifth Element are far from reality, nonetheless Luc Besson and the entire crew deserves a loud applause for the wonderful work. I know it might be a little late to congratulate them, but it is never too late to thank someone who had inspired you at some point in your life. It is often said that you cannot make something a reality without first imagining it, so thanks for taking the first steps.

The future is unknown and what it may hold for humanity is yet to be seen; but future, as it is, is whatever you make of it.

Then I moved on to a next movie in the collection.

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how things used to be

Next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

• Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour.
• Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children - last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
• Houses had thatched roofs - thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, rats, and bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery, and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."
• The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (the straw left over after threshing grain) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more and more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. To prevent this, a piece of wood was placed in the entrance way - hence a "thresh hold."
• Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach on to the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
• Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, "the upper crust."
• England is old and small and they started out running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell. Thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered "a dead ringer." And that's the truth.

Who said that History is boring!?

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