#reed: do you know anything about quantum mechanics?

[iron-niffler]

AAAAH LEGO MARVEL SUPERHEROES IS OFFICIALLY TOO MUCH FOR ME (affectionate)

so peter tony and thor were breaking into magnetos flying base right? and doom's jet was parked there so this is how the cutscene went:

tony: ugh DOOM got preferred parking?!

peter: we should tow him

*tony and peter pull the jet out of the airlock, drop it down to earth and then do a fist/chest bump combo*

thor: ಠ_ಠ

[adamwatchesmovies]

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a disappointing 31st entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Why? I'm having difficulty pinpointing that. The setting is pretty incredible, with loads of geography and characters that look unlike anything we’ve seen before. That's saying something considering some of the places the Guardians of the Galaxy have taken us. Paul Rudd once again proves himself a charismatic everyman, the action scenes are exciting and occasionally go in some pretty wild places thanks to the shrinking/growing abilities of the lead character… but something feels off.

When Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton), girlfriend Hope van Dyne/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), her father Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and mother Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) get sucked into the Quantum Realm, they discover it isn’t empty at all; it’s filled with inhabitants, all of whom live in fear of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).

The film’s issue is the story. This is a wild departure from the previous Ant-Man films. It’s closer to a space adventure than anything else, complete with crazy aliens, spaceships, armies of robots (at least I think they were robots) and talks about other dimensions & multiverses. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it just doesn’t feel Ant-Man-like. Aside from his team-ups with the Avengers, none of Scott's adventures have been world-threatening; he’s always felt like “the little guy”, complete with serious, down-to-earth problems like being an ex-con, having trouble finding a job and being estranged from his daughter. This is closer to Guardians territory. The scale of everything encountered in Quantumania should have a much bigger impact on our heroic family. They take it in such strides that there isn't much opportunity for our characters to grow or learn things - except for Cassie, who struggles with some fighting moves. This means the movie is only about two things: the adventure and the villain.

I’ve heard Kang described as a top-tier villain, the one that’s supposed to fill the hole left by Thanos. I don’t know about that. Kang is certainly powerful… but I mean, if they’re pitting him against Ant-Man (no offense), how strong can he REALLY be? I like Jonathan Majors in the role. He brings extra dimension to his character and we see enough of Kang to want more but against a guy that can grow and shrink, he's an ill-fit. It's almost like Ant-Man is a B- to C-tier character that didn't have a great rogues gallery, so they slotted in someone else for the Phase's sake…

There’s another villain in the film: the “I don’t know how we’re going to make this guy work in live-action” M.O.D.O.K. Some of what they do with the Mechanical Organism Designed Only for Killing is inventive. What ultimately happens to the character, however, just doesn’t work. Generally, the comedy in the film is amusing but it’ll give you severe emotional whiplash more than once and when director Peyton Reed and/or writer Jeff Loveness use M.O.D.O.K. humorously, it lands with a resounding "thud".

I’ve been pretty harsh on Ant-Man 3 so far, which makes me a little sad. I was never bored watching it. The climactic battle is fun and Kang's slew of powerful abilities means the stakes are high. The cast is great, with the family dynamics between the in-laws and between Scott & Cassie being the highlights. The picture teems with unique sights, which makes it fun to just watch. You’ve always got a crazy alien, some weird animal, bizarre architecture or something else moving somewhere and their designs show a lot of inventiveness.

I wasn’t crazy about Ant-Man and the Wasp. I’m not crazy about this follow-up either. Actually, this is a step up from the last one. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. This third chapter introduces important concepts and characters to the MCU. There are enough moments that work to make it worth seeing as part of a subscription package, for the price of a rental or even if a discounted ticket at the cinema. When you do, stay through the credits to see what's coming next. (August 11, 2023)

[badbackgroundscience]

“I am NOT a prize to be won!”

God, I hate Namor. With his stupid winged feet, stupid DreamWorks eyebrows, and his stupid objectification of Sue Storm.

Yeah. Mr. Submarine Man kidnaps the Invisible Woman in this issue and demands she give him 24 hours to convince her to marry him. Like scumbag human(oid)s are wont to do.*

But he does have exactly one redeeming quality. He knows one science fact. 

[A moment of pedantry: Technically, it’s not the flame that’s burning. That’d be the fuel source generating the flame as it burns. Moment over.]

Unfortunately, like the term “power vacuum” implies, as soon as you create a vacuum -- assuming there’s no rigid structure keeping stuff from getting into the newly vacuumed area -- a bunch of air and what that air can carry is going to rush in and claim the space for itself.

Because a vacuum is just a lack of stuff -- a lack of matter. Sure, we can argue about quantum fluctuations, like particle/antiparticle pairs that spontaneously pop into and out of existence, but that doesn’t matter on a human or Atlantean scale. And the law of diffusion tells us that gas particles want nothing more, by way of the fact that they’re (for the most part**) all just bouncing around in random directions, to move from areas of higher concentration to lower concentration until everything’s all evened out. So, the instant there’s no air somewhere, other air is gonna take its place.

Basically, Johnny’s just gonna get his hair blown around a bit. And maybe that wind in going to be strong enough to blow him out like a birthday candle. But the vacuum itself wouldn’t last long enough to cause a flame off, 

let alone cause his saliva to boil and the capillaries in his eyes to burst and his lungs get torn to shreds as the air in his lungs forces itself out of his chest.

Vacuums really suck the fun out of being able to light yourself on fire.

Anyway, Reed basically turns into the Hulk, setting off on a murderous rampage because Namor stole “the one thing [he loves] most in the world”. 

...Sue’s not a thing, Reed...

Johnny and Thing get Dr. Strange’s help to teleport ahead of their stretchy leader, but first the Thing asks a question that made my science brain go all a tangenty.

Strange’s astral form aside, how can you touch nothin’? 

Technically, you’re always touching nothing, in that the physical particles that make up your body can never actually come into physical contact with one another.

Atoms, as you learn in 4th or so grade (I distinctly remember this because marshmallows were involved, but your experience might be different), are over 99% empty space, with a cloud of electron waveparticles*** orbiting a teeny, tiny, but much more massive, nucleus. 

But you might notice that when you run at full speed into the nearest wall, it very much does not feel like it is almost entirely empty space.

So what gives?

You might think it’s because all electrons are negatively charged, so they’re all repelling one another. I mean, that’s true, but there’s another property of electrons that’s vastly more important.

Every single electron in the universe is exactly identical to one another. The only way you’re able to distinguish them is their exact ‘locations’. As electrons are waves as well as particles, and we’re working within the confines of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, this isn’t as straightforward as you might think.

On top of that, electrons are forbidden from occupying the exact same place at the exact same time. My saying “because they’re fermions” won’t mean anything to you unless you study particle physics, but that rule - known as the Pauli Exclusion Principle - applies to all subatomic particles that qualify as fermions.

(To be a fermion, you have to be a lepton or an odd-numbered quark composite particle. Electrons are leptons; lone protons and lone neutrons are each made of 3 quarks, so many (but not all****) atomic nuclei are therefore fermions.)

So, by these properties and rules combined, when electrons get too close to one another, they exert a sort of pressure that resists getting even more close together. It’s this pressure that makes your body think it’s solid. 

Superheroes (or villains) that can walk through walls get around this by using quirks of quantum mechanics on a non-quantum scale. Having not yet seen the new Ant-Man and the Wasp movie (and actively avoiding trailers and spoilers), their baddie Ghost might be doing some of this.

I’ll get back to you on that.

A battle ensues under the waves, ending with Sue getting out of her cage***** and stopping Namor from killing Reed and the Thing. Strange transports them onto the submarine Reed used to get down there, and they all escape while Namor broods.

Oh, and somehow the Sorcerer Supreme also physically moves Namor’s palace to an unknown location, in an attempt to confuse the Atlantean. Like, he picks up the ground underneath it and everything.

Wizards, man.

* Just because you never got a chance doesn’t mean you deserve one, dude. Even if you hadn’t tried to murder her teammates several times.

** High school chem kinetic theory assumptions:

Gases are made up of particles in constant, random motion. They continue in a straight line until they collide with something. These collisions are perfectly elastic, meaning no energy is lost or gained.

Gas particles have no volume. (This is obviously not true, but we assume this because the distance between particles is >>> the size of the particles themselves)

There is no attraction or repulsion between particles (e.g. gravity or electromagnetism).

*** You might remember from science class that light acts as both a particle and a wave. Well, particles do, too.

**** For example, a standard Hydrogen nucleus has only 1 proton, and therefore 3 quarks, and is a fermion. A standard Helium nucleus has 2 protons and 2 neutrons, and therefore 12 quarks, and is not a fermion. It’s a boson. But that nucleus is still surrounded by a cloud of 2 electrons, which are both fermions.

***** Sue has obviously forgotten the concept of pressure being force divided by area. She wouldn’t have had to have Johnny get her out if she just concentrated the full force of her field on a single spot...

Fantastic Four #27 - Writer: Stan Lee, Art: Jack Kirby, Ink: Geo. Bell

[oldjackivy]

Death Stranding Theories From the Outside...

So, here's the thing: I'm not a gamer. My wife, she's a gamer. She'll play mass effect all day. Me? The most recent games I've played are the Batman "Arkham" series, and Ghostbusters. Not the new one tied to the new film, but the 2009 one, with the original cast. Those are my most recent not because I'm a gamer, but because I love batman, and I LOVE Ghostbusters. That said, I also love creativity, and I love seeing/hearing/watching other people be creative. Hideo Kojima is a creative man. You don't even need to be a gamer to see that. So is Guillermo Del Toro. I have long loved his films, and felt like a kid in a candy store as I walked through his "At Home With Monsters" exhibit with a friend back in November. His creativity was on full display, and I relished it, seeing not only his own creations, but the things that influenced him. The things that made such an imprint on him that you can see how it drove him to become the creator he is today. It was like seeing the formula or the equation behind his works. If A= Classic monster movies and B= a love of old fairy tales, then A+B= Pan's Labyrinth... Or something like that anyway. I love art and writing and coming up with my own stories, and for me part of that involves taking the things I have experienced or learned about and finding ways to connect them and make something new or unique, then taking that new thing and again seeing how I can connect it back to this world. I really enjoy seeing other creative who seem to think along these lines too. When I saw Del Toro's name attached to Silent Hills, I got excited, and I vaguely knew Kojima was a big name in video games because of Metal Gear Solid, so I was pretty excited to see what would come out of the game. Norman Reeds as the lead character was a win to me too. Something about having an actor involved to the degree that they use their likeness in a game feels like it gives the project a little more "umph" to me, but, that's just me. And of course I was bummed to see the project get canceled... But it was what came out of all of this that had me hooked. 2 brilliant creative minds and a good actor deciding to carry on after what seemed like a pretty severe brush off, and the cancelation of a high profile project. Something good felt like it was gonna come out of it. And know, we see what that was: Death Stranding. Between cryptic words, a couple trailers, and the mysterious "Homo Ludens" mascot of Kojima's new company, there's a lot to process, and a lot to guess about. But there's also the overwhelming invitation to try. To find the pieces if that formula. The elements of the equation that Kojima built Death Stranding from. I saw a video recently (I believe from YouTube user YongYea) talking about comparisons between the first Death Stranding trailer and the first Terminator film. Now, at first I thought "OK, big whoop, here's 2 naked guys who start out on the ground and then stand up. It really evidence of anything, right?" But then I saw his side by side comparison of the two scenes... And my mind was blown. It was clear that Kojima purposefully built the Death Stranding scene to mirror the Terminator scene. Do I think it's some link between the two stories that is significant? No, at least not right now, but I do think it's a piece of formula. I think it's one of the things that was swirling around Kojima's head that inspired him. By no stretch of the imagination do I think I am any sort of equal to Kojima. He clearly knows a ton more about video games and making money than I do. But, I do think I sense something about him and the way he thinks that I can relate to... That I vibe with. He's a connector. He's constantly absorbing and analyzing the world around him. Facts, theories, history, legends, technology, advancements, people, all of it. Observing things and storing them away, noting how it all connects to the world around him, and then allowing his brain to connect those different concepts into something new. Taking things that haven't been put together before and seeing how they fit. Coming up with new meanings and interpretations of things. I read about how one of the Metal Gear games involves unplugging a controller and plugging it into the other controller port to confuse an enemy who up til then has been predicting your moves. That takes someone who is constantly thinking about how to reinterpret the world around him. The idea that he would be the 3rd person in the hospital, in his own creation, witnessing his creation, and then having it interact with him, and allowing the player to experience that too? That's someone who cares deeply about not creating a game, but an experience. A world. It totally falls in line with the "Homo Ludens" character from the Kojima logo. The Playing Man. An evolution. A character that represents all of us as we engage in his games. His name isn't Carl or Steve or NORMAN. He is... Kojima. He's you. He's me. He's anyone playing a Kojima game (or a game in general, I suppose). He's us. That said, he happens to look like Norman Reedus. BUT, this isn't Norman Reedus playing a certain character. Hell, it isn't even Norman Reedus as Norman Reedus. It's just... His shell? His body? It's the figure that represents this new man. This Playing Man. It's his likeness in the suit, but that likeness can be Kojima, it can be anyone. So when Kojima says "It's me in the suit" he's not lying. And when he says "it can be anybody" he's not lying. He's just being clever... He's also not lying when he says that Ludens is not Norman, and Ludens is not the main character Death Stranding. However, the main character of Death Stranding could very well be another example of Norman representing this Playing Man. Separate, but the same. Homo Ludens is the poster child, but game Norman is the concept in action. Now, as for the game itself... ... What if it's a meta examination of gaming itself? Think about it. When you game, you play, your character dies, you respect, you move on. But what if every playable character that dies becomes... Stranded? Every time you respawn, that old, shot up body that you just shed so you could take a new one out to battle is stranded. Every element t of the game, person, place, thing, etc, that gets broken or killed carelessly and thoughtlessly becomes "stranded", left to drift, winding up in some sort of game world graveyard. This explains why it's not just lifeforms that have the disconnect Ted umbilical cords dangling about, but stuff like the planes as well. It's a haunting place. One that looks like it's starting to become its own gnarly assemblage of weird biological matter and parts, if that creepy tank on the bridge is any indicator. And what if, in the midst of this madness and decay, there was life. A new form of life. A life to be protected, of fought over. What if this "playing man" is that life? Life that has evolved to care and understand "death" in a new way, and that death in any form is to be revered and deserves compassion, and that life is to be protected? Life that has evolved to be a product of this game world... Homo Ludens. Maybe that is what the baby in the pod is. Another video I saw, and forgive me, I can't find it again, and I can't remember who said it, but they put forth that the way things suddenly appear and disappear and change, sometimes off screen and sometimes in a burst of embers and light... Maybe that's the in game equivalent of having an invisible cache of gear and equipping it seemingly out of nowhere. Mads Mikkelsen is seen using his goggles, but as he flips them up, they disappear. In the first trailer, as Norman is holding the baby, connecting Ted to him via the cord, the shot is tight on him. We can't see the child, but suddenly, he reacts, and we pull out to see its gone, and later on, that a scar has taken the place of where the cord would have connected. Maybe it disappeared in much the same way Mads' goggles disappeared, just off screen. Was it because Guillermo "equipped" the baby from where he was? YongYea also made a video that showed by altering the speed of one of the trailers, the 2 trailers sync up in a way that makes it seem like as soon as Guillermo connects his cord to the pod carrying the baby, that is the moment when Norman loses the baby in his world. He pondered that maybe the fact that the "dogtags" on Norman's neck and the equations etched onto them, which pertain to quantum physics and black holes, possibly meant that the game would touch on those elements. He sort of dismissed the idea that speeding up the video played into the black hole theory, but I think he was on the right track. I think that is because these are 2 characters in different worlds/levels of the same game, but Kojima is taking this concept to new depths. These worlds/levels in the game might actually relate to each other in a way similar to the scene in Interstellar when some of the characters go down to the surface of a planet, only to find that an hour there was years on the ship in orbit. Maybe that's consistent between the worlds of this game. Clearly they are all suffering from the same affliction of being a place where dead things are stranded, but maybe those equations are the key to Norman moving throughout the levels, and maybe moving the baby back and forth through time is part of the game's mechanics to protect it. Maybe it's ability to relate to and move through time and space differently and still survive is a part of its evolution... From Homo sapiens into Homo Ludens. And what if Mads, as the villain, is able to manipulate all the death and decay and abuse it to his will? People have wondered if the oil is a sign that the game has something to do with an actual oil crisis, but I think it's not so much a firm in game literal element as much as just visual symbolism for the abuse of life. It leaks from Mads as he is connected to the world war 2 era soldiers in the tunnel. He's using all those discarded soldiers and warriors so carelessly "stranded" after their job is over, as his army, out to stop this Homo Ludens. To crush it before it becomes a threat. I think the five floating beings in the first trailer are that world/level's incarnation of Mads and his death soldiers. I think each level dictates their appearance. In the more war oriented world, they are soldiers. In the, literally, stripped down world Norman is in, the take the threatening appearance of some all knowing beings above him. They will follow you from world to world in pursuit of Ludens... I have more thoughts, but they're not completely fleshed out. I'll probably post them eventually. I've definitely been sucked down this rabbit hole. For me the fun isn't in trying to figure out every detail of the game's plot. It's in putting together the equation. Deciphering the pieces and influences and what they could mean when connected together, in the equation that will ultimately equal Death Stranding.