Listening, e-waste

• What happens to the electronic waste produced by the United States?
A lot of it isn't really recycled. What happens with an awful lot of it is it gets very minimally processed here where the recycler might take out some of the most profitable parts to the computers, in particular. And then the rest of it gets shipped overseas, usually to developing countries, a lot of it going to Asia, China in particular.

• What happens to e-waste after it arrives in developing countries?
When it arrive to developing countries, it' almost completely dumped. It goes into areas where there are some not-modern processes that happen.


• Why does so much e-waste get shipped to Asia?
Because recyclers can make money selling it. In Asia, there is a market for this system of recycling where people can make money off removing the metals. The bad thing is that many of these countries just don't have the regulations where they can prevent it from happening - prevent the waste to enter. It's all illegal import.

• What are the negative effects of dumping e-waste?
First of all, it's an exposure problem to the communities there. The people that are handling it have no kind of protective equipment, and that's clearly a negative effect. They have literally no gloves and no respirators, so they bread the toxic chemicals. Then, when they burn it, the whole communities are breathing in these toxic chemicals. To make things worse, this chemicalsare getting into their water systems in an area of China. Contaminant levels are so high, that they even have to truck in all of their water.


• How do the toxins in e-waste return to the United States?
The study that was done by a professor in Oregon did show that the toxin is returning to the United States; the discovery? Is in some of the children's jewelry that's purchased at discount stores to lead in solder, lead from electronic waste. Practically, this can be called a poison cycle.

• What can concerned citizens do about e-waste?
Mr. Kyle states two possible things that citizens can do. The first one is to follow the pledge program that responsible recyclers have pledged to not to mantain or execute these practices, not export. The other thing that consumers can do is start to ask their frecuent companies to offer take-back programs, as consumers have some power in their purchasing dollars to say that they want to buy products from companies who will take them back from them when they're done with it and recycle them responsibly.

 

Women and the Family in Nazi Germany

1) How did Hitler try and encourage marriage as soon as he came to power?

Introducing the "Law for the Encouragement of Marriage", which stated that the government would give all newly married couples a 1000 mark loan and the couple could keep each quarter of this loan with every child they had.

2) According to Nazi ideology, what roles did men and women have?

Men were to Nazis the productive and creative in the world of politics and war, while women were reproductive and had their important role in the family home.

3) Using the information on this sheet, create a spider diagram clearly showing what women were expected to do, and what was not acceptable.



4) Using your spider diagram, create a table illustrating differences between our society today and Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

5) Why do you think Hitler placed such importance on the role of women?

Stevenson's house

Picture Analysis

"Eugenics is the study of the agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally."

– Francis Galton, first cousin and associate of Charles Darwin, circa 1883

What do you notice first about this image and why?

• Who are the people in this image? What emotions are present?

• What is the situation? What is happening?

• What is the setting (place and time)?

• Does the picture contain any repetition, framing, or balancing (colours signaling something in particular)?

• What message or theme does the picture seem to convey? What aspects of the picture make you think this? Is it supposed to speak for or against an issue?

  1) The racial diversity, because of the amount of people that is in the picture.

2) There are people from many races and social classes, judging their appearance. Everyone looks happy and seems to be nice people. 

3) It doesn't seem that they are doing something apart from smiling to the camera. They are just standing there, representing unity.

4) The setting is a white background, and there's no clear notion of time.

5) The balance of white background and amount of people gives the image of tranquility, a peaceful enviroment helps to understand the symbolism of the image: each person in the photograph is feeling comfortable with the ones that are sorrounding him.

6) Racial equity, given by the armony and simplicity of the picture. The idea of evolution is given by the quote of Eugenics, promoving in a positive aspect the improvement of racial qualities in future generations.

 

 

 

 

 

What do you notice first about this image and why?

•What emotions are present?

• What is the situation? What is happening?

• What is the setting (place and time)?

• Does the picture contain any repetition, framing, or balancing (colours signaling something in particular)?

• What message or theme does the picture seem to convey? What aspects of the picture make you think this? Is it supposed to speak for or against an issue?

 

 

1) The missing part of the trees, because the colors doesn´t fit with the rest of it.

2) The natural concept and beauty gives an image of happiness and tranquility, but the missing part of this "lungs" brings a menacing concept of sadness that is going to consume this trees.
3) There are trees misssing, in a completely green area, so one can assume that they were removed by human beings. It gives the image of a dying nature.
4) One can infer that it is the modern times, because men has interacted with this nature in the way of extracting resources. The place is simply one natural area that hasn't been built-up with a city yet.
5) The balance of the colours suggests that something,in this case manking probably, is threatening the very existence of this beautiful background.
6) Enviromental pollution, this image speaks against it showing a clear and simple picture of nature being destroyed by human beings. The pureness of the green area expresses the maximum beauty of what is actually natural, a concept that is absent nowadays. Humans are consuming this limited resources, the ones that helps us to have a better life, so we as moral thinkers should return the favour by protecting this enviroment in which we depend. The lungs of nature are dying in this symbolic image.

 

TRANSHUMANISM

Here is a link to my video about Transhumanism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIRrcMq65Ps

Play Reading Summary Form (Guide)

Play Reading Summary Form (Guide)

Title: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Author: William Shakespeare

Date: Between 1590 and 1596

Period/Style/Genre: Comedy

Number of Characters: 17 (Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, Helena, Quince, Lords and Attendants, Pyramus, Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, Lion, Oberon, Titania and Puck)


Setting: Athens, the palace of Theseus


Character Name Age Gender Other

Theseus 25 M Duke of Athens
Hippolyta 23 F Queen of Amazons
Philostrate 40 M Master of the Revels
Lysander 18 M In love with Hermia
Demetrius 19 M In love with Helena
Hermia 17 F In love with Lysander
Helena 18 F In love with Demetrius
Quince 33 M Carpenter Oberon 45 M King of fairies
Titania 38 F Queen of fairies
Puck 24 M Possible protagonist

Summary

Act V, scene i

 The scene starts at the palace of Theseus, where he is telling the story of the magical misventures of last night to Hippolyta (which of course, the Athenian youths told him). Although Theseus is speaking about the story, he doesn't believe it; concerning that is an interesting story but for the imagination only. However, there is a suspicion of the story's truthfulness by his wife, mainly because all the story of the people that fell in love are the same.

 The youths return to the castle, being recieved nicely by the duke of Athens, stating that before going to sleep the guests should make a perfomance. Then he calls Philostrate to read him a list of plays to choose, but find all of the plays unacceptable. Philostrate then tries to warn the duke and tells him of the Pyramus and Thisbe story, which the craftsmen have prepared; saying that it is terrible, so he suggests strongly not to see it. Theseus, not listening to the suggestions, states that no matter how poor the perfomances are; there is merit in the dutiful attitude of the craftsmen, so he will see it.

  The audience sits down and wait, and Quince enters stage to present a prologue to the play while he hesitates. Making strange pauses, the combination of sentences that he makes have no sense at all, leaving the audience questioning themselves. The other actors enter after this, playing the roles of Wall and Moonshine. They act out a awkward version of the story, during which the nobles joke among themselves about the strange speeches and bad acting. Bottom, in particular, makes many messy statements while playing his role. Pyramus and Thisbe meet at, and speak across, the actor playing Wall, who holds up his fingers to indicate a chink. Snug enters with the role of a lion, but then talk to the ladies and thell them that he actually wasn't a lion. He roars, scaring Thisbe away, and then rends her mantle. Because of finding the the bloody mantle, Pyramus commits suicide. Thisbe commits it too when finding Pyramus dead. Right after the play ended, time in which Bottom pretends to kill himself, Bottom asks to the audience if they would like an a bergamask dance or epilogue; Theseus replies that they will see the dance . Bottom and Flute makes the dance,and after that the full casting goes to sleep.

Special Notes

This chapter actually has an epilogue that isn't mentioned on many versions of the book, in which the fairies enter the palace and sing a magical song that makes each lover true to each other, and also a spell in which anyone of the audience that felt offended by the play will remember it just as a dream. 

Personal Notes and Reactions

The play has many aspects that can be highlighted in my opinion, first of all, the connection that is engaged with the Greek mythology is very good, how Shakespeare uses historical characters to build his own play, using some themes or elements in order to create different aspects of the play, for example, love, as he uses the same relations of Greek mythology, and these relations have a key role in the play, as some people say that Shakespeare uses the dark side of love in the play, along with his difficulties. In other hand, there are some things that are important in the play, like the feminism and the ambiguous sexuality of some characters. Finally, the relationships between fantasy and reality and between environment and experience is very important in the play and it is very well developed.

Film Analysis, Comparison between a prime-time news and a news channel

Film Analysis, Comparison between a prime-time news and a news channel

Fox news link (news channel):

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1706741245001/us-officials-keeping-close-eye-on-egypt-after-election/?playlist_id=87485

The topic of this video is the US officials keeping close eye on Egypt after election, because of the Muslim brotherhood candidate that won Egypt's first free presidential elections. Two reporters speak about this, showing images of the president and the doubt of how much power will he have.

Shots and Framing

The report opens with a Medium Shot in which the reporter (his name is never mentioned) start talking about the elections in Egypt. Then, a Two Shot is used to introduce Jonathan Hunt and then another Medium Shot to show him speaking about the decision of how much power shall president Morsi have. Medium Shot is maintained after the pieces of videos and photos that they show about the topic, focusing of course, on the one who speaks.

Camera Angles

The only angle used is Eye Angle, in the whole report the two speakers are shown from a normal height. This the most common angle used because it's natural.

Camera Movements

The only movements in the news are on the pieces of videos that the channel uses to support the fact. Among this videos are movements such as Pan, Zoom and Dolly/Tracking. By not using movement in the studio, the channel implies that they want the audience to have full attention on the one who speaks; there's nothing else to see.

Lighting

The lighting is High Key, showing all the images flooded with light, creating a bright and open-looking scene. All is clear, so there's nothing the channel wants to distinguish. There's no focusing on anything special with the lights; they are showing this as they really are.

Editing Techniques

Shot-Reverse-Shot is the most common Technique in the video, when one speaker gives that role to the another one. The other technique that can be found is the Wipe, used to show the recordings of the president.

Sound

The sound is completely Diegetic, the speakers hear everything that's going on in the video, even when the recordings are shown, the audience can hear only the voices of Jonathan Hunt and the anonymous reporter. Being a common piece of news from a news channel, there's no need to use Non-Diegetic Sound because the NEWS are the only thing the audience need to hear.

Bias

Bias is very clear in this video, Fox News is even recognized for being one of the most Biased channels worldwide. Even the title indicates bias: "US officials keeping close eye on Egypt after election". The whole video and the title indicates and establishes the US as something superior, something that is present on everything. While they could make another thousand stories; Fox News chose to dedicate time to show the world that the US is watching Eyptians elections, because they don't want them to have more power than necessary. So this piece of news is actually with a huge amount of Bias, a "National" one that sees the United States as something taller and stronger than anything else.

CBS link (primetime news):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfmQkNKo_0A&list=UUlzCn8DxRSCuMFv_WfzkcrQ&index=1&feature=plcp

This video shows an interview with the cofounder and actual CEO, the topic is the rivalry between two of the biggest companies of the share market; one of them is new. The two companies are Facebook (the new one) and Google.  The discussion topic is that both companies will now be seen as "enemies" because of their magnitude and influence on Wall Street, using the fact that Facebook share price dropped 11%.

Shots and Framing

The video starts with an Establishing Shot, in which the studio and the people who will participate in the interview are shown. A medium shot follows it by showing Rebecca Jarvis, who is talking to Charlie Rose about the advertising necessary to keep the revenue. After that, a Close Up that shows the three people talking and focuses on Rebecca. The rest of the video, which is an interview with the Google CEO, Larry Page, is in Medium Shot showing Charlie and then Larry giving answers to him about the Facebook Share Drop.

Camera Angles

Eye level is kept during the entire interview, because as regular news there is no need to give anyone a "powerless" or "threatening" position; so normal height is always maintained.

Camera Movements

There's not many movement along the video; the only one used is Pan at the beginning to show the studio; and then to change the speaker. This technique is used to maintain organization on the interview, so the viewer can actually get the message.

Lighting

High Key is used in the studio; which should always be clear, "pure" because the channel wants to give a good image of them; so there's a bright and open-looking scene at the beginning. The interview uses Front Lighting in Larry Page, giving him the appearance of being an honest and good person; answering all the questions with the truth.

Editing Techniques

There are two editing techniques used in the video: Shot-Reverse-Shot is used constantly to change the speaker during the whole video; and there's a Wipe when they pass from the studio to the interview.

Sound

There's only Diegetic sound during the video, because there's no need to put any background sounds or music while an interview is taking place; full attention must be paid to the speakers.

Bias

Though there's not many information and characters that can be qualified as Biased because of the short runtime of the interview, there is one clear Bias in the video and it's the point of view of only one person in front of a problem. Facebook shares dropped; but the video only shows the Google CEO giving HIS perspective about it, there's no point of view of any Facebook authority; so the audience is losing certain amount of information that could be important to understand better the problem. The omission of information is a classic bias, and in this case the one used.

Analysis

So long we have the filming and editing techniques in both videos, but why are they used for? News channel and movie directors among others use this styles to modify the real meaning in the message; so the audience can receive the information in the way the transmitter wants to send it. So the author can produce different reactions in the viewer using the style instead of the substance, and this case in particular is no exception. The ones behind camera can give the audience suspense, thrills or even make them change their ideology. The following lines will show how these techniques in both news videos may change the perspective of the author; based on the way they are shown. To understand in a better way this "twist" that the authors may do the concept of bias must be clear. The definition of bias is: An inclination to present or hold a partial perspective at the expense of (possibly equally valid) alternatives. Anything biased generally is one-sided, and therefore lacks a neutral point of view. Bias can come in many forms. So there is a direct relationship between filming, editing techniques and bias. Personalization, Dramatization and Authority disorder are the three kind of bias that are going to be analyzed, and also the techniques.

           First of all this analysis is going to mention the techniques of the first video (Presidential Elections). The medium shot is the most used type of shot, so it is no surprise that it is included in the video to show the ones who speaks. This shot is plain simple, to gain the attention of the viewer and have a common perspective. The camera angle implied is quite common too: it's the Eye Angle, a natural look at the news, nothing complex. In terms of camera movements, the news while being in the studio doesn't contain any movements, but when showing the videos of the Egyptian President and the militia, movements such as Pan and Zoom are used. This decision has two possible reasons: The videos may be external from the news channel, or the news channel included movements to give the recordings more drama and a sense of concerning. Following up, the amount of light in the video is the High Key technique, flooding the scenery with light; giving an impression of purity in the news: all the images are shown just like they are in reality, so there's no "good" and "bad" guy according to the news (Or at least, that's what they try to transmit). The editing and the sound techniques are nothing special; just the necessary amount to change the speaker and focus your attention on him (that's why there's diegetic sound). Perhaps the most important thing in this video is the bias, which is very clear. Fox News is recognized for being one of the most biased countries worldwide, even the title of the news implies bias: "US officials keeping close eye on Egypt after election." There is a clear case of Authority Disorder in this video: United States, according to the video, is something superior to Egypt; so superior that in this particular case that it has to watch it's presidential elections. We, as viewers, assume that Egypt is somehow a country that needs to be "controlled" in order to be right, but it really has to be? Probably, probably not; but why sustain that an action so patriotic and political such as the Presidential Elections that this country takes needs to be supervised?

  Second, the techniques of the primetime news video (Google CEO speaks about Facebook as a potential rival). Shots and framing in this one are just like in the first; Establishing shot to show the studio and almost constant medium shot to show the speaker in a common perspective. Eye level camera angle is used (Yes, just like the last video) to keep a normal profile of anyone on screen; nobody is the "powerful" and nobody is the "weak one". In terms of camera movement, Pan is the only movement aviable in the video implied for organization and order (So while the speaker switches there should be no disorder). The lighting that this video contains is High Key, so all the video is bright enough to see things right like they actually are,  besides Larry Page interview; which uses Front Lighting to give the public an image of a "honest" and "good" man who only says the true. The sound and editing techniques are another thing in common with the  news channel: Wipe and Shot-Reverse-Shot edition and diegetic sound, both very typical and used simply for attention. Bias is not as relevant or as remarkable as seen in the news channel, the reason: A short run-time and precise news. One thing that may qualify as bias here is the omission of information. Where is it present? By showing the perspective of only the Google CEO, while being a Facebook-related interview. Alright, Facebook shares dropped, but why show the Google CEO only? Why is no Facebook authority speaking? Seems biased. So only one perspective of the facts are shown, a perspective of the competitors of Facebook; so probably Mark Zuckerberg isn't happy at all after watching CBS at night, is he?

To conclude, until now we have the techniques of both a primetime and 24-hours news channels such as CBS and Fox News respectively. In this case (though occasionally it's the other way round) the news channel includes, although in a minor quantity, more editing and filming techniques than the primetime news. So the filming and runtime is more elaborated by Fox News in this particular case, and so is the bias, which is another important topic. Bias in Fox News is something a lot more noticeable that in the CBS video, because the authority disorder is a kind of bias specifically, while the omission of information is somehow a lower "grade" of bias because it doesn't modify the facts, only mention a part of them while the disorder generates a different and totally subjective vision of the events. So as a summary; news channels are generally more biased because they give "their" vision about the facts while transmitting news all day long, and at the same time primetime news offer a less biased and straightened vision (or at least in this case). Whatever the case is, at least now we know that ALL news around the world, and I repeat, ALL OF THEM have bias!