Final Group Project

Grass iOS App & Eagle Cam

The stimulation is really interesting as we're doing it during winter time inside the dark classroom with the sounds of nature and graphic of Grass App in Apple iPad. It was fun for a a few moment but after 2 minutes, I was really annoyed by it since it is really fake and does not really move the way you want it to be. I hope that this is not the situation on the future where are there is only digital world and nothing is natural. The second stimulation is the classic Atari style of 16bits games called "Guru Meditation" and this game is really interesting since the I use to play high definition graphic game on my iOS devices on iPad like Infinity Blade II which is required a lot of input toward the game actions. Guru Meditation just requires users to put the two thumbs on the screen of the iPad and hold it parallel to the ground. The score is determined by how long can you whole the iPad without crushing the guru. It is interesting to note that the meditation is involve the mountain view and cloudy sky in the background even it's a really low resolution one. The view did not really do anything to me since I actually close my eyes while playing this game and try to hole it as straight as possible. In my point of view, the experience of stimulation is really great and if I ask to choose between the two games, I would go for the Guru Meditation one.

The EagleCamp is also interesting since there is a small tool that can stream the eagle through the webcam and I am really surprised by the number of the people who view this streaming these eagle nests. I believe that people can actually learn something but there is one problem that I don't know whether or not it would affect the eagles. The problem is when I view the streaming at night, there is a light source in front of the nest and it is right enough  for me to see a little mouse in the nest. Beside that I feel a little frustrated since I have spent about 20 minutes of my times streaming this webcam and nothing shows up beside the picture of nest, snow and couple sticks with the weird background noise like car horn and dog barking. However, I would support EagleCam since it is the real life streaming without any editing clips of eagles. 

streaming @http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

Even The Rain (Meme La Pluie)

Even The Rain is a really remarkable movies that focusing mainly about the water issue in Bolivia and this movie just released in 2011. In my point of view, I think there are three different topic that the author shows via this movie, water, filming in foreign country and corruption.

One of the most interesting scene of all is the last scene where Costa who is the film producer is inside the taxi and look outside the window then look back to the gift which is given to him as a souvenir from Daniel. At this point, Costa did not really know what he expects to see inside the box and he was surprised by seeing a bottle of "Yaku" which means water in Quechua. Not only that but in the scene, the camera films the reflection in the mirror of the taxi that has the Indian taxi driver's eyes in it.

I personally think that it is a powerful ending of this film since the characteristic of Costa has developed and changed a lot since the beginning of the movie. Costa used to be a selfish film producer who relied on  corruption and he became a really kind man at the end of the movie by risking his life to save Daniel's daughter. In some way, when he say the word "Yaku" and see the reflection in the mirror, it seems like he became a native Bolivian guy who understand how important is their community, next generation (children) and water. The processing of opening the gift shows the reflection of Costa himself who is all on his own without his crew and looking forward to help Daniel's family (Teresa and Belen) and help Sebastian finishes his film. The bottle of "Yaku" also reminds him of all the causes and the problem of water-war and what Daniel said earlier in the movie, "You don't understand, Water is LIFE". 

For the camera and shot composition in this scene, there are several uses of shot-reverse-shot and long take in the conversation of the taxi driver and Costa. The director of this film also use a close up shot with the sharp focusing in the mirror reflection and the bottle of Yaku.

I think overall, this scene is the high-light of the movie since it concludes and summarizes lots of things within the scene. It shows how people like Costa can changed, how the water-war would end and the value of "Yaku" to the Bolivian, especially native Bolivian's society.

The Cave of Forgotten Dream

I was surprised about the albino alligators at the end of the Herzog's documentary "Cave if Forgotten Dreams". I felt like that was so random since I don't really understand how he illustrates albinism, Nuclear Power Plants, Cave Painting and the Environment. They seems to be completely irrelevant.

I feel like Herzog manages to convey the audiences very well since he shows the albino alligators and the nuclear power plant. This can persuade the audience that the affect of the nuclear radiation is so dangerous that lead this type of reptiles and other creatures to become like that.

On the other hand, I feel really disturbed by the fact that there was not really any transition before post script and he immediately jumps into the nuclear power problem. Moreover, it seems to me that the albino alligators were not affected by the radiation yet Herzog did make the point. Human has its own evolution and can be genetic mutation yet not always by the nuclear radiation.

The message that I got from this documentary is different from other documentaries buy Herzog. The fact that he shows the human creative arts since 35,000 years ago and the painting which has lots of kinds of animal such as rhino, lion, horse, etc. However, it is interesting to note that there is only one picture of human body. This illustrates that people are really interested in the nature and always tempted to modify it tensionally and intensionally like albino alligator as an example. What is more, it shows how destructive the human is by showing the albino alligator looking through the glasses and tell us how angry it is.

By adding the post script, the documentary would reminds the audiences how we used to love and admire the other spices that share the same planet with us. The post script also make me feel like living in danger because of the nuclear radiation. Not only that but also how human has developed and became so ignorant about other spices and nature as a whole. Human are not only destroying the environment and other creatures but also performing a long-term self-destruction such as the cave painting that we have discovered "The Cave of Forgotten Dream".

Going Green EcoSonnet

One Day I sit down and think about the future,

The leaves keep falling down and blow in the wind,

I feel the breeze and listen to the nature,

I used to think it's too hard to go GREEN.

Look at the horizon, I can see as I have found,

The breeze keep blowing and cool down the atmosphere,

The unbreakable tri-blade keeps spinning round and round,

Generate energy as well as keep the world clear.

Not every machines that causes pollution,

Some also help the environment and save earth,

GREEN energy helps us save god's creation,

It does need human attention before it gets worth.

it is going GREEN but really, people need to think,

Try to save energy even we have this great turbine.

The Cove

It was a shocked that not many people know that there are something like this exists in the modern world especially in the world high-tech country like Japan. It was clearly not the way people fish, it is animal cruelty and it does need people attention.

The men and woman in this film are really outstanding and inspiring that most of them are professional in their own field like diving, filming and it is interesting to note that they choose to take the risk to help other species and fight against their own who do not believe in animal right.

They used many high-tech equipment such as thermal vision, hidden camera and many other to make this documentary possible and bring it to this world. It is really important to understand that this is the war between two group of people who have different perspective about dolphin.

It is really terrible to see those poor innocent animal are being slaughtered by human and they cannot do anything against it. 23,000 dolphin are being killed every year and people said that they hardly see any product on the market that made from dolphin. Human abused them as an alternative to whale and other sea mammal and use them as the source of entertainment which is in another word, multi-million dollars business. The most interesting part is the fisher man said it is apart of their culture but not many of their people know about it as well as they do it in a really confidential way.

Dolphin is an acoustic mammal creature and what struck me the most was the noise that they make when the fisherman start to kill them one by one until the ocean turn red by their blood and there was no more noise. 

This is the most interesting film of EcoMedia class so far since the author understand how to create emotion and send the message to the audience by their personal experience. It is really powerful and it does make me want to contribute and fight against this cause in order to save this creature.

The Corporation

The Corporation is an amazing book written by Joel Bakan. It is interesting to note that Joel points out how the world has developed so much in the last century and how many companies use to be monopoly in early 19th century. Most of the facts in the books have shown that many corporation have a huge evolution because of technology.

According to this book, the corporation is defined as a group of individual who work together in order to achieve an objective. Every single problem always finishes with a simple bottom line "People want the money."

Baken shows that the corporation tries to do whatever it take to make profits and it has no other reason for its existence. He also compares this with people who are typically composed of a mix of self-interest and sense of obligation of the society as a whole. 

The Corporation has done many bad things in order to achieve its objective which is gaining profits. For example, making drug, using sweatshop, child labour, or despoiling the environment (CO2 emission, Green Gas, etc)

In short, Baken shows that the corporation is Irresponsible, Manipulative, Grandiose, Reckless, Remorseless and Superficial. All of these together is the corporation psychopath. However, Baken did not make this as all type of corporation psychopath but it is a very organized structure of the corporation.

I personally think that the corporation is really powerful yet also harmful if there is a corruption involve that leads to the bottom line "People just want the money". I hope that people who establish any corporation in the future would think about the future generation first which involve human right and environment sustainability. People live on earth and realize on the natural resources therefore people should take step to protect and preserve it rather than just exploit it and earn the short term profit.