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There was a passing line of discussion in the commentary about the exceptionally rare Female/Male buddy roles. When I watched Winter Soldier, I loved that this was the Cap/Widow relationship. After I saw the film, I talked to people who unlike me, were not informed by the comics, and a bunch of them brought up the great sexual chemistry between Cap and Widow. We're so trained by Hollywood patterns, we see them even when they aren't there.
Hell, when I showed my sister Constantine, she said she enjoyed the romance between the male and female leads 
We see what we want to see.
Oh god, I just got to Teague's totally botched explanation of Benford's law. Please excuse me while I ramble, because Benford's law is my jam.
So it turns out that about a 30% of measured numbers have a first digit of one. It's true for populations, sizes of stars, country areas, physical constants, stock prices, and numbers on tax returns. The second most likely starting digit is two (18%), followed by three (13%) and so on down to nine (5%).
This totally blew my mind when I first learned of it. It makes no intuitive sense at all.
It's hard to explain why it's true, but it best applies to sets of data that cross multiple orders of magnitude and that grow and shrink exponentially. The way I think of it is by how much (relatively) you have to change a number to change the first digit. If you have a number starting with a one, say 15, and add or remove 20% (3) you'll have 18 or 12, still starting with a 1. If you start with a number starting with a nine, say 95, and add or remove 20% (19) you end up with 114 or 76, both having different starting digits. Starting with a one is more 'sticky' to adjustments than higher digits.
What Teague was trying to say is that you can potentially spot tax fraud by looking at the distribution of first digits on a tax return. People tend to think all digits are equally likely when they're making up numbers, so the first digit distribution on a made-up return would be uniform instead of the (correct) skewed one.
Teague gets part marks for at least knowing the distribution exists. Now we all know more about how to avoid audits.
Last edited by Phi (2014-06-06 12:34:25)
+3
Hooray! I half-knew a thing kind of!
+1
Hey Phi, I'd never heard of that, but that has pleased my inner math-geek immensely, cheers! 
Sorry to drag this back to "Tangled" but I was thinking about it again recently, having just re-watched "Aladdin" and "Mulan" (and a couple of other musicals) and I think what I found difficult about it was that the songs don't progress the story at all.
If you take "Be a Man" as an example, SO MUCH happens during that song. It takes you from point A to point B during the song, in a rousing and exciting way. None of the songs in "Tangled" seem to do that. Even your basic I Want style song should take you from not knowing the character to knowing who they are, what their life is like, and what they want / need to change. In "Tangled", the I Want number is about how she wants to get out of her tower. That's kind of a no-brainer, isn't it? We all recognise her as Rapunzel... I feel like all of the songs are weirdly static in "Tangled" and they don't move the story along.
I'm just flinging ideas around here but it's something I've been mulling over. Any further thoughts?
If you take "Be a Man" as an example
Hnng... sorry, one of few really bad ticks just kicked in.
It's called "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" not "Be A Man."
Carry on.
everythingshiny wrote:If you take "Be a Man" as an example
Hnng... sorry, one of few really bad ticks just kicked in.
It's called "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" not "Be A Man."
Carry on.
A tick is a small arachnid. An involuntary reaction is a "tic".
Carry on carrying on.
Oh, I don't have a problem with people misnaming songs. One of the ticks that lives in my head hates it.
He's got a hell of a kick too. Bloody bastard.
Last edited by BigDamnArtist (2014-06-17 00:42:49)
Sorry to drag this back to "Tangled" but I was thinking about it again recently, having just re-watched "Aladdin" and "Mulan" (and a couple of other musicals) and I think what I found difficult about it was that the songs don't progress the story at all.
If you take "Be a Man" as an example, SO MUCH happens during that song. It takes you from point A to point B during the song, in a rousing and exciting way. None of the songs in "Tangled" seem to do that. Even your basic I Want style song should take you from not knowing the character to knowing who they are, what their life is like, and what they want / need to change. In "Tangled", the I Want number is about how she wants to get out of her tower. That's kind of a no-brainer, isn't it? We all recognise her as Rapunzel... I feel like all of the songs are weirdly static in "Tangled" and they don't move the story along.
I'm just flinging ideas around here but it's something I've been mulling over. Any further thoughts?
How late were the songs added? Mulan is an interesting case in that after "I'll Make a Man Out of You", the songs end and it becomes an action movie. Almost as if the creators wanted it that way from the beginning, but Disney wanted it to have at least SOME music as they transitioned out of the musical biz. Tangled was a case where, iirc, there were changes to try and make the it less girly, something boys would want to see. If the movie didn't start as a musical, or if the songs were in and out over the course of its development, they may have become less integral to the story.
In "Tangled", the I Want number is about how she wants to get out of her tower.
I believe it's actually an "I am" song in which nothing is supposed to change. You just establish the character and where they're at in life and stuff like that. I prefer "I want" songs because, kind of like you said, they point to where you're going instead of where the character has been, but *shrug* maybe they wanted to try something different. I did think it was a pretty fun number to watch with a catchy tune, though.
How late were the songs added? Mulan is an interesting case in that after "I'll Make a Man Out of You", the songs end and it becomes an action movie. Almost as if the creators wanted it that way from the beginning, but Disney wanted it to have at least SOME music as they transitioned out of the musical biz. Tangled was a case where, iirc, there were changes to try and make the it less girly, something boys would want to see. If the movie didn't start as a musical, or if the songs were in and out over the course of its development, they may have become less integral to the story.
Good point. I don't know the answer to that one.
"Frozen" is another one where the songs end halfway through the movie. But then again, so is "Aladdin", once you get past "A Whole New World", right? And there's not really any big villain number.
I believe it's actually an "I am" song in which nothing is supposed to change. You just establish the character and where they're at in life and stuff like that. I prefer "I want" songs because, kind of like you said, they point to where you're going instead of where the character has been, but *shrug* maybe they wanted to try something different. I did think it was a pretty fun number to watch with a catchy tune, though.
Hmm that's true. I'm not very well versed on any of this musicals theory, I just know what I glean from watching a lot of them!
"Each showtune must serve as a dramatic element in a play or film by helping to develop character and/or move the story forward. As much as everyone loves a showstopper, it has to work as a cohesive part of the storytelling process – otherwise the only thing it really stops is audience interest. The most memorable show songs tend to gel around three kinds of character experiences –
Transition - a moment of change or conversion.
Realization - reaching an insight or new level of understanding.
Decision - after long wrangling, a character finally makes up his or her mind."
http://www.musicals101.com/score.htm#Types
Do the more successful Disney musicals subscribe more closely to the form?
Great episode, really enjoyed this one.
For me it's a personal growth story. Leap of Faith is a movie I've loved and championed for a long time and I've always grouped it with two other films that have the same feel for me, The Paper (1994) and Wonder Boys (2000).
For me these three movies are a lot alike. These movies are about feel, dialogue and characters.
It has characteristics or elements that just works for me. They all take place in relatively closed off world (the town, the office and the campus) and the story unfolds over a few days and the main character goes on a journey that will change his life, presumably for the better.
My Revival Story
I'm a life long atheist but I've always been fascinated by religion and myths. When the televangelist Benny Hinn came here to Iceland he rented out the biggest venue available, the same that Led Zeppelin played in when they came here. It was free to attend so me and my friend decided to check it out.
We came there and it was all you expected it to be.
What struck me was how soft every-bodies hands were. They were raised up in worship and you could see how week/sick they were. Pale soft hands with long fingernails. No scars, no sign of having ever done anything taxing with their hands. It was so odd it has stuck with me even to this day. And yes, to this day I still judge people by their hands.
The most fucked up thing during the ceremony was when a woman sitting next to me left her seat to get to the stage and left an infant on the seat unattended. I was furious. When the child started to cry I took it and was comforting it when the woman was nowhere to be seen. I asked around and nobody was there with them so my 17 year old ass had to sit there with this baby, trying to protect it's ears but the sound was getting incredibly loud in there. We saw the woman in the crowd like a gang of zombies trying to reach the stage, pushing and shoving each other out of the way to receive the healing touch of Benny Hinn. It makes me even angry now just thinking about it.
Eventually we had enough and I found a police woman which I gave the baby to and pointed out the woman who was talking in tongues trying to reach the stage. And we left while it was still going on. We had had enough.
Yeah... that was a weird day.
Last edited by AshDigital (2014-07-29 12:24:30)
Fun fact: The Outer Limits #6x16: "Revival" is basically a sci-fi version of Leap Of Faith. Starring Gary Busey and Margot Kidder.
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