Infinity Stones

I know that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is based on comic books so I don't look for scientific accuracy in them... at all. 

But there's one thing that still bugs me: the Infinity Stones. According to Wikipedia, the Infinity Stones were created just after the Big Bang and "were dispersed throughout the cosmos."

There are six Infinity Stones, each with a different power. (One source I found said eight; maybe that's how many in the comic books.)

There are at least 2 trillion galaxies in the universe. Having just one Infinity Stone in our galaxy is astronomically unlikely. If I calculated correctly, the odds are 0.0000000003% (that's 9 zeros after the decimal point). To have all six in our galaxy is even more unlikely (I'm not sure how to calculate that, maybe 0.00000000005%; that's 10 zeros which doesn't seem like enough zeros).

SPOILER for Avengers Infinity War and End Game.

But in the MCU, all six are in our galaxy and a lot of them are on Earth and a lot of them are in New York City. Thanos needed all six to eliminate half of all life in the universe.  But in reality, he could never do it unless he could first visit all 2 trillion galaxies in the known universe.

And that bugs me. Probably because it's not internally consistent. 

How do you feel about the Infinity Stones all being in our galaxy. Do you care or am I just being picky? Let me know in the comments below.

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Movie Review: Young Washington

Last Friday I went to see Young Washington in the theater. I haven't seen a movie in the theater since I saw Oppenheimer in 2023.

George Washington is my favorite Founding Father so I had to see this movie. 

The movie was reasonably historically accurate but the climax was a bit over the top as he survived an onslaught of musket fire. Yes, he did have two horses shot out underneath him and did have bullet holes in his jacket and hat yet survived. Yes, he rallied the troops to make a fighting retreat in the lost Battle of Monongahela. That is historically accurate. He later attributed his survival to "divine providence." Or he was an alien.

It wasn't all hagiographic. They showed his mistakes (and there were many) at the battle of Fort Necessity where he was forced to surrender to the reviled French. One mistake he made was he thought the French would fight "honorably." They didn't.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. There was enough action to keep modern viewers interested. They did (accurately) portray Washington as an ambitious young man. I'm not sure about the part where 11-year-old George tries to go to school and is refused due to his "station." That is, he wasn't born into the right family. And the part about him wanting to read all the classical books his half-brother Lawrence recommended I've never heard about. If so, he had a singular thirst for knowledge.

If you get a chance, I would recommend seeing Young Washington.

The above photo is being used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act: fair usage.

America's 250th Birthday

On Saturday, we celebrate the United States's 250th birthday, or Semiquincentennial.

That is because on July 4th, 1776, 250 years ago, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence. 

The American Revolution had already been raging for over a year since the battles of Lexington and Concord. Adopting and releasing the Declaration was as rebellious an act as the residents of Massachusetts firing on the Red Coats. For in that document it stated that "All men are created equal." That was a revolutionary statement in a time of kings with near unlimited power over their subjects. It went on to state that those men were "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." This was radical stuff, that rights came from God, not the benevolence of a king. People had rights simply for being people.

Signing the Declaration of Independence was a literal act of "high treason" against the British Crown. By formally denouncing the authority of King George III and initiating war, the fifty-six delegates faced the ultimate penalty: execution by hanging, drawing, and quartering.

Yes, some of those fifty-six delegates owned slaves. But the U.S. was one of the first countries to outlaw slavery that had been ubiquitous since time immemorial. Yes, women couldn't vote at first but that was fixed too. The U.S. has survived despite its problems.

Now we are celebrating 250 years of the country those men formed. And America is still something special where rights come from not government, but God. We've survived wars, including a bloody Civil War and two brutal World Wars, malfeasance by some of our leaders, two pandemics, and multiple natural disasters. Yet the nation those men in Philadelphia started still persists, still is free, still is prosperous. 

People from all over the planet come here to chase the American Dream of prosperity. Many of them achieve it, rising out of the crushing poverty of their home nations thanks to America's unique combination of freedom and economic opportunity.

America is still here. That is very much worth celebrating.