Avengers Movie Review

So I saw the Avengers movie over the weekend, as you might have been able to guess, since it would be quite difficult to write a review without having seen the movie, but based on the quality of reviews for books and movies I’ve seen in newspapers and magazines, I guess that might not be such an extraordinary concept.

Having never seen any of the movies based on any of the individual characters, all I really knew before hand was that Iron Man could fly and the Incredible Hulk likes to smash things.  The characters were established fairly quickly, and I was able to catch on to their character qualities within the first few minutes of their appearance.  The only real confusing or illogical sequence of events was when Thor and Loki were fighting/working together (?) and then Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America were all fighting. Other than that the scenes flowed well, the action was good and not confusing (although slightly headache-inducing), and my interest was maintained for the entire 142 minutes.

The most amazing part of the movie to me was the list of animators and computer modelers, which easily numbered over 100.  There was even an entire section of names just for those who worked on the explosion effects.

If you go see it, make sure you stay until after the credits.

Scale of the Universe

Link

Redo

I remember many old elementary school kickball games, where everyone knew different rules of how to play the game.  At some point, a kid would come up with the idea to, instead of arguing, simply redo the play.  Most often this worked to ease the disputes over where the foul line was, or to determine if Jimmy really did step on second base.  The redo acted as a nice compromise because both sides had the chance to improve upon their performance and achieve a positive result.  However, often times redoes would become so commonplace that they would be called for almost every round.  Nothing would get done, and people would just abuse the redo system whenever they simply didn’t get their way.

Unintentional Side Effects of Chewing Gum

For a little while after you chew gum, other foods/drinks taste dramatically different.  The gum is usually very sugary or very minty, distorting the quality of everything else.  Nothing you eat/drink lives up to the flavor of the gum so it tastes terrible by direct comparison.

I would connect this to some facet of life, but then you might think this is a serious blog.

Probability (Part 1/2)

I have never really understood probability, since most of the time it defies common sense.  There is a large gap between the statistical probability of an event versus the actual result.

Take, for example, the most basic probability test – flipping a coin.  There is a 50/50 chance of it landing on either heads or tails.  If you flip a coin once, the result will either be heads or tails, not both, not neither.  Even though there are two possible outcomes, there is only 1 result.

Generally people like to average probabilities, attempting to get one single total result from the possible outcomes.  If I had a hat full of dollar bills of varying value, and decided to pick one randomly and give it to you, the probabilities could be as follows:  There is a 20% chance of picking a $10 bill, a 20% chance of picking a $5, and a 60% chance of picking a $1.  If you were to perform some calculations, you could say on average you would receive about $3.60.  There is no $3.60 bill, however, and this outcome is impossible.

This concept also applies to many things in real life such as weather.  If there is a 30% chance of rain, will it rain 30% of the time and not rain for the remaining 70%?  It could, although that is not the only result.  It could rain for half of the day, or it might not rain at all.

This averaging a possibilities is what common sense tells us, and is what most people tend to think.  However, I’ll bet you that if you flip a coin it won’t land on its side.

Data shows…

It bothers me a lot when I see the word “data” used in a grammatically correct way.  Technically “data” is a plural word, referring to many numbers all together.  While “this data shows that monkeys are actually smarter than 43% of people on the internet” sounds fine, the correct way would be to say “these data show that monkeys are smarter than 43% of people on the internet.”

I have to pronounce this grammar anomaly in a British accent, or else I sound like an idiot.  In the UK, people often refer to large groups of people in a plural sense.  In America we say “The government is announcing a new program,” but in the UK they say “The government are announcing a new program.”

I am strongly against using the word data in this more “correct” way, since it isn’t representative of how people talk.  But it does feel good to correct people, especially the types of people that like to present data.

Ice-Cream Re-Ice-Cream-ifier

I have a lot of million dollar ideas, and the ice-cream re-ice-cream-ifier is one of the best.

We all know that when consuming ice-cream, it tends to melt into a liquid resemblance of what was once ice-cream.  If you attempt to merely put it into the freezer, the melted ice-cream will not turn into ice-cream, but rather into sugary rock-hard ice.

Ice-cream is made through a process that mixes it with air while cooling.  My idea is that you could make a small device that would do the same thing for personal use.

Concept Design

Everyday Objects

If you look at normal everyday objects for too long, they start to look odd.  Many commonplace items we come into contact with on a daily basis are so normal that we don’t even think about their existence.

Take, for example, a doorknob.  Everyday we walk through doorways and use doorknobs.  If you stare at one for a while and think about it, you start to notice that it actually exists.  Sometimes it will come as a shock to you that you’ve never noticed it before, kind of like when you see the names of the states written on the top edge of the Lincoln Memorial on a five-dollar bill.

If you think about about the doorknob even more, you might realize how interesting the mechanics of it are, and how a simple turning motion can determine the mobility of the door on its hinge.  Or you might realize that you spent a significant chunk of time thinking about doorknobs and wonder what you were doing before.