Week 6 Blog 2

We finished The Thing. Interesting movie to say the least. I liked the test MacReady (weird name) used to determine which of the humans were infected. One thing he did say was that only a few cells were needed to infect a host. When the blood exploded in the glass he was holding, it splattered on his face. Therefore he must be infected. Yet, for the rest of the movie he shows no sign of being infected. Maybe he just got really lucky? Somehow I fell the director overlooked that small detail.

Another problem I have with the test scene (I seem to complain a lot…) was that the blood moved. Blood is just blood, even if it has been altered by some alien-thing. There are no muscles in blood no way for it to move by itself. It could hardly exhibit such a huge burst of energy as was shown when it exploded. Also, how was the blood aware that it was being burnt? Only the cells touching the hot wire would be harmed, the rest would be alright, not even feeling any effects of the heat.

Assuming that they could all somehow know that they’re getting burnt, where is the brain of this mass of cells? What determines okay, now we’re all going to push down, somehow linking our cells together and launch all of us into the air? It’s just not possible. After analyzing some of the scientific points of the movie, I feel pretty safe…

Week 6 Blog 1

We began to watch The Thing. I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t make the connection (or lack thereof) between the opening slide stating the setting was winter in Antarctica and the fact that the movie was set in daytime. I’ve been to Antarctica, so I should’ve been the first to notice this incongruity. As the movie progressed, it grew dark. The only time this happens is during Fall or Spring in Antarctica. Someone forgot to mention that to the Producer. I assume they added the “winter” part to make the setting seem more remote. Maybe. I’m pretty sure the movie was filmed in Canada though.
My first thought upon seeing the men shooting at the husky from the helicopter was “Oh God! Sarah Palin has branched out and is now advocating the shooting of dogs from helicopters along with wolves! I hate that woman. If she ever becomes president or vice president I’m moving to another country. Maybe Germany, they have some good tech firms there, although that might involve learning another language…
I hate it when movies such as this one disregard scientific fact. Nothing can simply grow larger and larger while maintaining a constant density and not obtain materials from outside sources. This means that for the dog-Thing to grow, it needed to consume more raw material, which it wasn’t doing.

Week 5 Blog 2

Thoughts of a Sandking:
We have been moved to a new world. We have explored this new territory. It is about twice the size of our old world. The sand here is the same, however. The Others are here as well. They are beginning to build their castles, just as we are. Ours will be better. Ours will be bigger. We will impress our God and She will feed us.
Our God no longer feeds us. There is a new God in Her stead. He is larger than She. He seems to have taken up the duties of the old God.

The food is the same. We are fed well, and we are beginning to build up an army. Soon we will be ready for war. But we still have time to grow larger and stronger. We like this new God. We will build our castle with His face on it in order to please Him.

Our army is getting near ready for an attack. The Others are strong, but if taken one at a time, we can beat them. Soon we will be masters of this world.
Our buildup of an army has slowed to a crawl. Food has become scarce; our God is not feeding us. We sense he is displeased.

No food for quite awhile. We are starving.

We have begun to fear this new God. He is not like our old God. He is cruel; He does not give us food. He is an evil God.

We must feed if we are to survive. We must fight.

Week 5 Blog 1

After watching Jurassic Park the movie I realize now how much Spielberg screwed with the story. It’s no longer the science fiction story with a message, it’s now just a science fiction Hollywood story. Malcolm is a much more scaled-down version of the book-Malcolm. That might be Spielberg, but that also might be Goldbloom. As much as I (and Colbert) like Goldbloom, he tends to always play the same character. The end of the movie is very, very different from that of the book. In the movie, the remaining people fly off to safety in a helicopter. They will, the movie implies, go back to their normal lives. That’s a far cry from the characters being held by Costa Rica at the end of the book. Oh yeah, and Hammond and Malcolm are still alive in the movie. In the book, Hammond gets eaten by compys (funny how he gets eaten by the smallest dinosaur in the park), and in the movie he just flies away. Malcolm in the book dies from his wounds, but in the movie he survives to see another day. In a Hollywood movie, one can’t kill of Goldbloom, it just doesn’t work. Maybe Spielberg should have thought of that before he cast Goldbloom as Malcolm.

Week 4 Blog 2

I finished Jurassic Park (the book). It was, as a whole, a great book. What I don’t understand is why Dr. Grant doesn’t destroy the velociraptor nests at the end. That’s what they went to the nests to do, yet they didn’t destroy them. It makes no sense to me.
The velociraptors watching the boat at the end amazes me. The concept that another creature could understand that to get across the water it needs to ride on something impresses me. As far as I can recall, no animal knows how to do this. I realize that the velociraptors are fictional, but it is possible they really were that smart. Animals that wish to migrate have to stay on land if they’re land-bound creatures, in the air if their aerial creatures (discounting landing every so often) and in the water if they’re aquatic. To go from one habitat to another to get to another habitat the same as the first, though in a different place is not something seen in the animal world. Boats are a purely human invention; no other animal has used the concept of a boat.
Oh, small comment on Hammond: he’s a dumbass. Hmm, this Park’s failed, the dinosaurs have escaped, a lot of people have died; I think I’ll go somewhere else and open another park. I’m glad he’s dead.

Week 4 Blog 1

I am now in the middle of Jurassic Park. I like the book; it’s much more interesting than the movie. Malcolm’s character is especially interesting. Using math and reason to describe how things work simply makes sense to me. Fractals are by far my favorite concept so far. We watched a video of a demonstration of a fractal, and it was mesmerizing. Maybe it’ll be my next screensaver. Fractals make sense in some situations, such as a tree. The shape of the tree is approximately the same shape as the branches and then the veins running through the leaves (assuming it’s a deciduous tree). Also, the moon is a great example of a fractal. The shape of the moon is about the same shape as the craters on the moon, which are about the same shape as the particles of moon dust. However, I can’t see fractals applying to animals. If say, one were to look at a penguin, and then one was to zoom in and look at the feathers, one would determine that the shapes of the feathers and of the bird are far from similar. Similarly, a cheetah looks nothing like a hair growing on its body. So, fractals can be applied in real life, but only in some cases, mostly inanimate object cases.