Monday, 24 March 2014

Week 4: Vaccination - why we need it?

I’m almost sure that everyone who is reading this presentation has a small scar on their arm and I hope that you know what it means – you have been vaccinated. Have you ever wondered what it means for you and for the society? Do you really need it and why?

[http://nocamels.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/vaccine-cancer.jpg]


What is really vaccination?

In overall vaccines are dead or inactivated organisms or purified products delivered from them. * Simply speaking we are injecting to our body dead viruses or bacteria! It sounds terrifying, but if we took into consideration how our immunological system works this seems to be logical. When our body gets such an injection it wants to prevent the threat of the illness by killing alien objects. Our body learns how to work with such a threat and when the next time it meets it, it knows how to cope with it – so you don’t get sick and die.
It seems to be simple, but there is always some “but”. We need to remember that we know how to cope with almost dead or inactive viruses, in most cases it does its work, but if we met active or mutated viruses our immunological system would not work and you would get sick. At that point  you may think that vaccination is illogical and you are right – If you were in a city where almost everyone is not vaccinated and sick there would be a huge probability that you would get sick too and no vaccination would help you.  I hope that you get my point – vaccination is most effective when all population is working together to get rid of some illness which means there is not too many of mutated viruses and active illnesses.


Proven Effectiveness
This topic is important so please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_controversies#Effectiveness to read more about it.

Is it safe?

No, it is of course not safe! There is always a risk of complications. Vaccines can contain additional components which make them easy to store and inject, but also can induce allergies. It is a fact, but it is also a fact they prevent from something much worse. I don’t want to provide pictures of examples of illness which you are probably free from because of vaccines; these are polio, cholera, influenza, etc. From time to time we can hear about and “old” illness which occurs in a modern city/country, for example:
At last but not least look at this map: http://www.cfr.org/interactives/GH_Vaccine_Map/#map It  speaks for itself.

Sources:
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine

1. Would you vaccine your child?

2. What do you think about people who don’t want to be vaccinated?  Do you think that mandatory vaccination is the violation of the right to freedom? 

3. Do you vaccinate yourself against  flu? Why?

4. What do you think about the conspiracy theory which says that governments /some-bad-guys want to vaccinate everyone and  put in them something more dangerous?

Week 4: Animation – how is it created?

Probably most of you have seen a piece of Japanese animation, e.g. Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon and Tsubasa. Have you ever wondered how such animation is created? Is it only work of powerful hardware or is there something more?

Today’s presentation is also related to pop culture, let me present steps to create  great animation!

Firstly, you have to have an idea, sometimes it is selected at a brainstorming session in the company, but also it is a good idea to create an anime from a successful manga, possibility of success in this option is bigger, because most manga fans would watch anime based on their favorite manga.  After the management select the idea, a team is put together and sponsors are searched if needed.

Secondly, you have to get a general concept of the plot which includes character and storyline creation. It is also easier if your anime is based on a manga.  Then scriptwriters and artists write a detailed script, characters and background. When it is done they select best scenes which are included in the anime. If you are curious – yes everything at this step is manually drawn, every character in different clothing, mood or angle.  When the artist is done with working on the character drawing, it is covered with ink so it is more visible when it is scanned.

 - character
[http://i.umumble.com/img/topic-1319465968.jpg]
 - an outline
[http://i.umumble.com/img/topic-1319466043.jpg]

What about the background? It is often drown separately from everything, sometimes photos are used to minimize the work.
[http://i.umumble.com/img/topic-1319466127.jpg]

[http://i.umumble.com/img/topic-1319466165.jpg]


And here starts real work! Artists have to draw about 12 frames per second (for TV anime, but it could be 24 or 8) between created outlines of the storyline. For only one 24 min episode they have to draw about 17 280 frames! Of course they work on computers from now. After that other artists smooth this animation so that it would look natural.  Colors are also added at that time as well as other minor effects like sparks or stars. The Director is looking after the whole process and keeps an eye on everything.  When the whole animation is created voices are recorded and background music is added. To be Seiyu (voice actor) is a serious business in Japan and some of them are even more popular than traditional actors!

The final stage is showing it and counting money from commercials, figures, DVDs and other things you can buy from the original distributor. :)

Below you can find some animations which in my opinion are great and worth mentioning. Don’t worry I won’t show you old animations. I want to take under consideration modern pieces of art. Be aware I’m not recommending some of presented animations, because their plots aren’t good. Unfortunately good animation doesn’t mean a good plot.

Hal


[http://24.media.tumblr.com/79653683e38013a86fcd9cdfc09d38ef/tumblr_myfof7iLGg1qbvovho1_500.gif]

Kyoukai no kanata

[http://i.imgur.com/dcaBVxC.gif]

[http://i.imgur.com/omXbdtX.gif]

[http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/285/c/d/45dga_by_naomi_pie-d6q7jbq.gif]

[https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi87Jjj2AcK1p0qTsh6VxVlBxU0nKvuWC8DFUqm1g0iCm7iLyaLgtYV5_y-mFyOC1nqVfpJtnSA7Xc33KFBZ72E_zx-XwswD1VuhyphenhyphenszTQyEkagII77fDzl9_8RMhNg8YtoxSlrUMONvmhQ/s1600/more+bucket+glory.gif]

samurai champloo

[http://i.imgur.com/3v176tL.gif]

[http://media.giphy.com/media/ZcCBD4u1QQHq8/giphy.gif]

Psycho pass 

[http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121012161301/psychopass/images/1/10/Dominator-eliminator.gif]

[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KBhRheWbzqU/UQwspK43KLI/AAAAAAAAAvg/I1Uj_e48G2w/s1600/tumblr_mh3ngfjRJb1qgweumo1_500.gif]

 1. Do you like this kind of animation? Why?

2. Do you have your favorite animation (taking under consideration only how it is animated)? If no what about a movie ( and taking into consideration special effects)?

3. Are you able to watch something only because it has extremely good special effects/ animation?  Are you able to watch something with really bad animation/ special effects, but with a great plot?


Week 4: Unforgettable deaths.

Death is often used as a tool to make the audience get shocked, irritated and in overall bring emotions. It is simple to use. In my opinion most of presented deaths are unimportant and they just create background for the main plot, but I have to agree that some pop culture idols’ deaths are unforgettable. Today I want to present two examples of deaths which in my opinion were a great idea but also very unpopular, simply because the fans didn’t want them to die!
This post is based on spoilers, so if you didn’t watch the series, but you want to do it in the future don’t read the paragraph which describes it.

Death Note.

Death Note is about a boy called Light which one day finds a note which appears to be a death note – if you write someone’s name in it he/she will die of heart attack in 40 seconds, basically. Of course Light takes this opportunity to make the world a better place (in his opinion) and here comes his opponent called “L” who wants the world to be as it is and to catch Light.
[http://ladygeekgirl.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/kira-death-note-21955373-599-337.gif]

Who was L?
            He was the main positive character who also was quite autistic and liked to eat a lot of candies, make strange face expressions etc., but on the top of that he was a great detective and could solve and put in prison almost every offender. He wanted to be a friend of Light as well… Till his death he was not sure if Light was his opponent, he didn’t want to believe it and he wanted to trust him, which makes the whole situation even more tragic.
[http://www.toy-tma.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Death-Note-L-Cell-Phone-580x326.jpg]

[http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3898/p5f.gif]

[http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/183/3/0/__l_____death_note_by_niilode-d3ksanp.gif]


Who killed him?
            To be specific it was the death god – Shinigami who wanted to protect a valuable person for her. But we all know that it was the evil plan of Light! He put everyone in this specific position like pawns on the chess board, so there would be no other option for Shinigami. He was just cruel. For next 5 minutes of this episode after his death I thought that he would just wake up and just not-be-dead. It didn’t happen.
What were the consequences?
            The consequences for the series were even worse, no one knew who killed L and Light was free and happy and he continued his evil plan – he didn’t pay for L’s death.



Attack on titan (Shingeki no kyojin)

If you think that R.R. Martin has to really like to kill his characters, you will think Isayama Hajime created SnK series just to kill as many well developed characters as his editor let him so he can take a bath every night in fans’ tears. And this is not a joke, unfortunately.
This series in overall is about a group of friends which want to fight and survive in the world where only very high wall is protecting them from the Titans which are humanoid monsters that  only want to eat humans.
[http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/179/e/3/attack_on_titan_gif_by_inele1-d6b2u6y.gif]


Now let me present my favorite plot twist which includes deaths:
Levi's squad (Petra Ral, Oluo Bozado, Gunther Schultz, Eld Jinn)
Who were they?
            “They were considered the most elite squadron, having a total kill record exceeding 200 and were capable of killing nigh any Titans in their way. They had the ability to sync with each other to coordinate their attacks without talking.”*
Who killed them?
            Annie Leonhardt in the form of Female Titan. She killed everyone in less than a minute. Because she was trained to be a solider she knew how they would try to kill her and take the opportunity to attack when they were thinking that she is highly injured (blind).
What were the consequences?
            The most heart breaking moment was after the massacre when their leader saw what happened and looked at every other dead body. The director should get an Oscar for that.


[http://s1.zerochan.net/Demotivational.Poster.600.1583362.jpg]

I know I could just write about the Games of Thrones, which would fit this topic perfectly, but I wanted to leave it to you :)

Sources:
* http://shingekinokyojin.wikia.com/wiki/Special_Operations_Squad_(Team)

1.Do you have your example of unpopular but well written (developed) death? Present it to us. It could be the video game, a book, a movie or a TV series!

2. Which death in your opinion was just a filler and was highly unimportant/silly? As in the first question you can use an example from anything you want.

3. Do you know any plot twist which is surprising but does not include someone’s death? 

Tuesday, 18 March 2014

week 3: THE GREAT WAR


I decided to tell you about one of the strangest wars. I’m sure, not many of you have heard about it and probably won’t believe it has really happened. But it has.  In 1932 in West Australia there was The Great Emu War!



[http://api.ning.com/files/MSa5GAEPUB3VeGcZQu2FOKf9z805Ftzjtkrt7gS2H4mFwTAwg1nM4Lk97-ZNOqAPhPqz1QhUyTgRodojSlGoPHHJC7ePG*cL/emu.jpg]


You might wonder why Australians wanted to fight with these funny birds that look like an ostrich. So… in 1932 in West Australia there was an Emu plague. Back then 20 thousand emu lived there!!! They are flightless 6 meter tall creatures. They love eating and one day they decided to take over local wheat crops. They trampled and ate grain; they also destroyed fences allowing rabbits to join the fiesta. Eventually farmers couldn’t cope any more to watch their crops being destroyed and decided to ask the army for help.

The Minister of Defence, sir George Pearce, agreed to send soldiers under the following conditions:
1.     Only military personnel can use rifles
2.     Transport of the troops is financed by the West Australian government
3.     Farmers provide accommodation and food for soldiers, and they will pay for ammunition. 

Sir George Pearce
 
 [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Sir_George_Pearce.jpg]

Farmers agreed and two regiments of trained soldiers arrived to fight with the birds. Major Meredith from Royal Artillery Australia became the commander of this military operation.

2 regiments equals 3 battalions with 3,5 thousand soldiers in total!!!

They also had two Lewis machine guns and 10 thousand bullets. It seemed like Emu didn’t have any chance…

Lewis Machine Gun
 
 [http://www.allworldwars.com/image/097/LewisMachineGun03.jpg]

The war started on the 2nd of November 1932.

The first day of combat was a total disaster. It turned out that emus could run 50km/h and even if hit by a bullet they are far from being killed to a big surprise of soldiers.
After a few days soldiers set up a trap at the wheat crop. One thousand emu went to the place where soldiers were waiting for them. Despite that the birds managed to escape and one of the machine guns broke down.

The final strategy was to place a machine gun on a truck in order to catch up with them and shoot. But birds were faster and ran away to the area where shooting was very difficult. And at the end the driver bumped into a fence.

After the first week it turned out that 2500 bullets were shot and there were only 50 causalities among emu birds. No one from soldiers got hurt.

The Australian House of Representatives was convened to discuss the operation. After some negative press in the local media, the Minister of Defence ordered to withdraw the troops. Unfortunately, after the troops left, emu birds continued to ruin crops, so farmers asked for help, again.

James Mitchell, the Prime Minister of West Australia, expressed a strong support for the military aid. During the second war, which started 13 November, soldiers were much more efficient in killing the birds.  The war ended 10 December 1932. The soldiers shot 9860 bullets and killed 986 birds.

Two years later, in 1934, farmers asked for military help again. Also later in 1943 and 1948. However, after The Great Emu War the Australian government understood that it’s pointless to start a war that couldn’t be won.

Major Meredith said: "If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world. They could face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus...."


What do you think about The Great Emu War?
Do you know interesting and not so well know wars? If yes, share it with us!


week 3: AND THE OSCAR GOES TO…

At the beginning of March there was the 86. Oscar Awards Gala organized by the American Academy of Film. Instead of writing about winners, I would like to tell you about the biggest loser of this year’s gala. It’s of course Leonardo DiCaprio. 



Leonardo is 40 years old and this was his fourth nomination to the prestigious award. He got his first nomination for “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” in 1994, the second for “Aviator” in 2005 and the third for “Blood Diamond” in 2007. This year he was nominated in The Best Actor category for the role of Jordan Belford In “Wolf of Wall Street” directed by Martin Scorsese. The story is about a broker who quickly became very successful and began to earn lots of money. His out of law lifestyle quickly attracts attention of FBI. I won’t tell you more, because I don’t want to spoil the fun of people who haven’t seen it yet.

Long time before the gala the Internet was full of speculation whether Leo would finally get his dreamed award. For what I saw, many people had fingers crossed for him.

[http://cdn.smosh.com/sites/default/files/ftpuploads/bloguploads/1113/leo-dicaprio-oscar-meme.jpg]


Many articles were written why Oscar should go to Leonardo.

Here there are a few examples:

    1.     His four earlier nominations.
    2.     His underestimated play in „Titanic” as touching, heroic, humble and amazing Jack Dawson.   
    3.     It’s been over two decades since his first Oscar nomination, so it’s just about time!

More you can find here.


Of course there were also articles why Leo wouldn’t get it. I have to admit that the reasons I found were quite funny:
1.    Maybe he sent letters filled with glitter to all Academy voters’ asking them to help save sharks somewhere.
2. They’re waiting until he stars in at least five films in one year, so he can only run against himself for the best actor and the only mystery is what movie he will win for.
3.     I don’t know . . . did he kick a puppy? He would never kick a puppy.
I recommend reading the whole article here.


Irrespective of the articles, Leonardo didn’t win the Oscar. Why? In spite of his great play, the movie didn’t make a good impression. It was judged as a vulgar comedy full of nudity. DiCaprio worked really hard to make a convincing hero. Belford is a wicked fraud who caused many honest people to lose lots of money. His “la dolce vita” is filled with sex and drugs. The conservative jurors don’t like movies like this. Some of the members of Academy considered the film impropriate after the first showing.  Apparently, one of them told to Scorsese that he should be ashamed of this piece. Then the daughter of one of the “Wolf” partners expressed disgust. Finally a “Business Insider” journalist went to see the movie with the people of Wall Street. He was shocked when he saw their enthusiastic reaction. Taking into account all the above, it was impossible for Leo to be rewarded with an Oscar. I’m sorry.



It’s worth mentioning, that Leo isn’t alone in the Academy oblivion. In the history of cinema there were many great artists ignored by the American jury. For example: Alfred Hitchcock, Rita Hayworth, Marline Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, just to name a few.  It’s hard to imagine Hollywood without them, nevertheless, their work was never honoured by the gold statuette. Stanley Kubrick has won just one Oscar and it was for special effects in “2001: A Space Odyssey”!!! Also today there are artists who are regularly overlooked by the Academy Awards. I think Leonardo is one of the persons most ungracefully treated by the Academy.  

[http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/screencrush.com/files/2013/02/2013_oscars_poster.jpg]


However… Leo shouldn’t be really worried, because the actors from the Intimate Theatre in Russia gave him an award which imitates the real Oscar. DiCaprio also will get a lifetime free entrance to the Theatre. I think that’s really nice of them :). I haven’t found any information if Leo enjoyed the prize. I hope that thanks to the Russian Oscar he will forget about the American one.


Questions:
   1.     Do you think that Leonardo should have won the Oscar?
   2.     What’s your favourite actor?
   3.    Would you like to take part in the Oscar Gala?