Sunday, July 8, 2012

Let's talk about videos!!!

My video review & reflection on: National Geographic: Mega Structure, Singapore's Vegas (Marina Bay Sands or known as MBS)


Awesome nightview of MBS

Background information on MBS:

  • Developed by: Las Vegas Sands led by its founder, Sheldon Adelson
  • Location: Singapore, Marina Bay
  • Cost: S$5.5 billion
  • Designed by: Moshe Safdie & his team of architects
  • Structures: Three 57 storey hotel towers with 2,500+ rooms and suites, an ArtScience Museum, a convention centre capable of accommodating up to 45,000 people and a Shoppe which also includes the crystal pavillion build in water.
  • Attractions: The three hotel towers are connected by a 1 hectare sky terrace on the roof, named Sands SkyPark. SkyPark is home to the world's longest elevated swimming pool made up of 422,000 pounds of stainless steel and can hold 376,500 gallons (1424 cubic metres) of water. It has the world's largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines.
  • Opening: The first phase's preview opening was on 27 April 2010, and the official opening was on 23 June 2010. The rest of the complex remained under construction and was opened after a grand opening on 17 February 2011.
  • Aims: To stimulate an addition of $2.7 billion or 0.8% to Singapore's Gross Domestic Product by 2015, employing 10,000 people directly and 20,000 jobs being created in other industries.
  • Some figures: Two months after the initial phased opening, the casino attracts around 25,000 visitors daily, about a third being Singaporeans and permanent residents who pay a $100 daily entry levy or $2,000 for annual unlimited access.Half a million gamblers passed through the casino in June 2010.
(Some information was taken from the video itself and the following website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Bay_Sands#Transportation)
A simple map of MBS
(Picture taken from: http://vincentloy.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/marina-bay-sands-render.jpg)

Now let's watch the trailer... (A very short introduction of the video)


  Basically, the whole original video which last for about 50mins was about the building of one of the world's largest casino also a mega structure build by at least 16,500 workers working simultaneously, The Marina Bay Sands otherwise known as MBS in Singapore.

My Reflection:

The main building, The Three Hotel Towers

  In my own opinion, the video is showcasing not only the mega structure but also raising some important issues and problems of the structure of the MBS building. Some issues which I think is important are:
Diaphram walls built during the construction of MBS

The MBS building sits on reclaimed land of Singapore which has lots of marine clay as base, when digged, walls may break and the building may collapse. Solution that engineers employs are building diaphram walls which are pounded 50m into the ground to act as retention systems and permanent foundation walls to prevent sea water from seeping in also to only help to make the building of the structures easier. But question is, sea water are rising meaning more pressure, then can the diaphram wall last for very long and withstand the strong hydraulic pressure from the water?

File:Marina-Bay-Sands.jpg
Sideview of MBS building

Looking at the building, you can see that it is actually build by having one building lying on the other. Refer to the diagram below:


drawings by lim yong
image courtesy of marina bay sands pte ltd. / moshe safdie and associates
image from: http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/9485/moshe-safdie-marina-bay-sands.html
Things to ponder on:
Even though in the video, it shows that the engineers have carried out extensive wind speed testing for the construction but it was shown that they have only carried out to the speed of 40km/h. Considering the weather has been changing to not any better, very unpredictable and MBS is located so near to the coast:
  • Will the wind speed change to even stronger?
  • Can the building take the string wind?
  • With the plates shifting of up to 20cm per year and the increasing natural disaster rates, is it a safe building?
  • Yes, the building has the retractable small structures within some parts to reassure that when the building is swaying, the building is still flexible enough to withstand but it was only build to accommodate the swaying front back but how about sideways?

Let's see what's the other issue which I think may be a problem...

Art Piece titled "Drift" created by Briton master sculptor, Anthony Gormley
"Drift"

       "Drift" is suspended cloud-like in the air between levels 5 and 12 of the atrium of Hotel Tower 1. The structure weighs 14.8 tons. So now, let's recap abit, if the part of the building is leaning on the other part of the building, it is already quite a great pressure for the building, now with the art piece which weighs tons needing support from the building, the pressure to the building is definitely increased by alot...

 

Alright, the above are just some of my personal views...

        There are still alot of challenging structures within the whole of the Marina Bay Sands buildings that are worth to explore including the crystal pavilion built 6m deep in the water and the lotus like art museum. 



Signing off,
Evee
My World, My Life, My Attitude, My Geography 

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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Let's talk about videos!!!

My video review & reflection on: The Cove (A documentary focusing on dolphins killings in Japan, Taiji.)

                              The Cove trailer                                 
Video taken from: http://www.takepart.com/cove via youtube
(Note: The above is only the trailer, to watch the whole show, visit http://www.takepart.com/cove to buy the dvd)  
 
  Anyway fret not, after watching the video footage which lasted for about at least 1 and a half hour, here is my summary of the video, which is also the review.

 

Review with some reflections...

 This video is mainly about Ric O' Barry (known as Ric in my blog) :
  • A dolphin trainer, known for training dolphins in the well-known show, "Flippers".
  • After the death of a dolphin he trained, commited suicide in his arms, he realised that he has to stop the captivity of the dolphins and the dolphins should return to the ocean, to where they belong. (Why? Because, although dolphins always looks happy but in fact they are not when they are being captured. And at least this is what Ric felt as a dolphin trainers for years especially after witnessing the death of the dolphin in his arm.)
  • Ever since, he started to go against captivity of dolphins and first time was releasing a dolphin in his seaquarium, got caught and sent to jail.
  • Even after his released, he still tried to find ways to release dolphins that are being captured and travelled all the way Japan, Taijifor his cause to stop the cativity of dolphin, dolphin killing and bring awareness to people around the world about what is happening in Taiji.
Dolphin killings:
  • Killing season: Every September
  • Approximately 23,000 dolphins were killed every year in Japan.

Reasons according to the show for the killings:

  1. Pest Control: As the dolphins are "over-eating" the fish supply. (Shouldn't human be responsible for disrupting the nature's food cycle?)
  2. Culture: It is just the wat of life in Taiji.
  3. Money: The dolphins can be sold up to $150k for alive dolphins used for performance and $600 for dead dolphins as food.
  4. School lunch: Food supply for school children.
  5. Health: Dolphins meat provides high nutritional values.

Dolphin food chain:


  As you can see from the picture above, dolphins are the tertiary consumer meaning to say, they are the end of the food chain. As the world is improving, the oil waste and factory waste are starting to pollute the oceans and the fishes might mistake those waste which may contain mercury and other toxic substance as food. So when dolphin being the last in the chain, its toxic level would be accumulated to about 2,000ppm (parts per million) which is very very very high.
  According to an article published on  Straits Times 21 Apr 08 that "The United States' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stipulated that fish must not contain more than 1 part per million (ppm) of mercury, and so have equivalent bodies in the European Union, Australia and New Zealand."
  Hence if we, the humans, are going to include dolphins as part of our food chain, we are going to end up as the last consumer in the chain, meaning, we are going to consume very large amount of mercury which will lead to Mercury poisoning.

 

Diseases caused by Mercury poisoning:

  • Acrodynia (Pink disease)
  • Hunter-Russell syndrome
  • Minamata disease
  The disease can cause physical &/or mental impairment especially to fetus, lack of coordination of movements of a person, memory loss and many more...

Want to know more about mercury poisoning? Visit:

A question for us to analyze:

How did the show justify that killing the dolphins are wrong?
  1. Dolphins are killed even though we don't eat their meat. (Taking innocent lives!)
  2. The killing risk the extinction of the species. (One less animal friend?)
  3. Methods used to kill dolphins are brutal/inhumane. (Making the dolphins suffer even more!!!)
  4. Dolphins had been known to save human lives. (Humans, please be thankful!)
  5. When disguised as food, dolphin meat has high amount of mercury which can cause mercury poisoning. (At the very least, think of ourselves, think of our next generations...)
  6. The reason for killing dolphins is claimed to be a part of the Japanese culture. (But hey, after interviews done, majority of the Japanese are unaware of this practice. Culture? Really?)
  7. Dolphins are intelligent and have high self-awareness, which elevates the cruelty in killing them to a higher level. (Honestly, all animals have self-awareness right?) 

What the Japanese also claims:

  • That the time given to the dolphins are enough for them to reproduce which account to the risk of the species getting extinct.
  • That the reproduction rate of the species is believed to be high hence also account the the risk of the species getting extinct.

My conclusion:

  Everyone has their own stand, own perspective and own ways viewing things. Hence there is no right or wrong at these issues but base on our conscience and moral values, let's think about even the killing of cows, chickens etc. is it really right? Let alone say killing of dolphins which is so not common...
  (Ouh.. My personal stand is that I do not approve of killing animals as food but on another thought, not all people can survive on vegetarian diet. Hence, I assume that I am in the same mind as the majority whom thinks that killing cows and chickens are normal but not for dolphins.)

Thank you for reading! Come back for more discussion! ^^

Signing off,
Evee
My World, My Life, My Attitude, My Geography
  

 

 



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Let's talk about videos!!!

My video review & reflection on: "South Park - Whale whores"

  Alright maybe for those have not watched the video (last for about 22mins) before, watch it now :) Or... you can choose to just scrollllllll down and read my review then my reflections! Ouh and feel free to provide your views too! I ll be more than happy to get feedbacks ^^

(Note: Please be patience while the advertisement is loading after clicking on the link below. ^^)
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s13e11-whale-whores

Let's Review (What is the video about?) :

(Want to know the names and characters' description? Visit: http://southpark.wikia.com/wiki/Portal:Characters/Major_Characters )
                   
         Stan Marsh       Kyle Broflovski          Eric Cartman        Kenny McCormick   
  •  Main character: Stan and his family went for a dolphin performance at a seaquarium.
  •  Japanese came charging in and started killing the dolphins and even went to other seaquariums to kill other dolphins and whales!
  • After witnessing what was happening, Stan reflected this issue with his dad. Stan just couldn't understand why the Japanese was doing it.
  • The killings carried on and no one seems to be doing anything to stop the Japanese. What's worse, according to the news report in this video showed the current "PM" of Japan using vulgarities towards the whales and dolphins and did nothing to stop his people from killing the animals.
  • Stan cannot stand the killings anymore, he believes that something should be done.
  • So Stan approaches his friends (Eric, Kenny & Kyle) for support but his friends aren't interested in supporting him and they just think that the killings is a part of the Japanese culture and said, "It is just the way they are!" and "I don't care at all." 
  • Stan got flared and think this is definitely not the way and he disliked the attitude that people are giving.
  • While Stan was feeling helpless, Butters (his another friend) came to his room and told him about a group of activist were doing something to stop the Japanese in the sea.
  • Stan was so delighted when he got this news especially when he knows this group of people allow volunteers, immediately he went to join this group of people captained by a man named, "Paul Watson".
  • This activist were actually a show that is currently showing in reality titled, "Whale Wars".
  • Their objectives is to stop the Japanese from whaling in the sea by stopping the ships and doing something.
  • But after Stan has joined, he realised that the methods captain Paul has been using wouldn't be enough to stop the Japanese and worse off, captain Paul was later killed by the Japanese's spear.
  • Stan with his daring character and attitude, he started to set fire on the Japanese ships, going all out to stop the Japanese.
  • Soon Stan's aggressive method started to work well and news reported that "Whale War ratings skyrocket" and "New captain not a fat liar like the old one"
  • All the seaquariums started to proceed with the performance without all the bloody killings.
  • The news of Stan's crew sinking one after another Japanese ships reaches the current Japanese's "PM", it totally blew him up!
  •  As the show getting more and more popular, they went to Larry King Live show, and even Larry King agreed that captain Paul only cares about boosting the ratings of the show but in fact nothing was done to stop the Japanese.
  • Stan left the show halfway thinking that attending the show was a waste of time and continued on his mission to stop the Japanese.
  • While Stan was discussing the plan with his crewmate on what are they going to do to stop the Japanese, this time Eric and Kenny appeared to volunteer. (Recap: This two friends showed no concerned about the killings in the front part)
  • So obviously, Stan believes that Eric and Kenny joined because of the fame as the show ratings is very high now.
  • Suddenly, news of Japanese ship doing whaling was noted, Stan's crew went to the last known location and they found out was actually another crew shooting live show on crab fishing.
  • And the crab fishing boat kept blocking the way of Stan's for 3 hours and nothing can be done, Stan felt very down... ...
  • Suddenly, some strange comforting noise was heard, Stan rushes out of his cabin and saw alot of whales swimming around and the whales dragged away the crab fishing boat.
  • Stan was so touched and felt that the whales understands and appreciates what Stan and his crew has been doing.
  • At this moment the Japanese appears with planes and bombs and bombed the whales and Stan's ship.
  • Stan, Eric and Kenny was caught and thrown into the Japanese's jail.
  • The Japanese's PM went to see them and brought them to the World War II museum and showed Stan and friends a photo showing the "person" who is flying the atomic bomb plane was actually a whale and a dolphin and the PM said, "The Americans were nice enough to send the Japanese a photo the day after the bombing" to show whos actually the real culprit causing the sufferring of the people in Hiroshima who was bombed by the atomic nuclear bombs even up till now.
  • After Stan knows what is happening, he called Kyle who was at the computer to doctor a photo and replaced the whale and the dolphin on the photo into cow and chicken. And he gave it to the PM.
  • From that day onwards, the Japanese started a mass killings again but this time is the killing of the cows and chickens.
  • And the video ended with Stan's dad saying, "Great job son! Now the Japanese are normal like us."

Reflection time! (still awake?)

Now, questions to ask yourself...
  1. How is the South Park episode related to what is happening now in reality?
  2. Is the "It is just the way they are!" and "I don't care at all." attitude of those people who are witnessing the killings acceptable? If were you, will you be thinking the same way?
  3. Lastly, What is the significance of the last scene whereby Stan's dad saying, "Great job son! Now the Japanese are normal like us."
Think hard!!!!!!! ^^

My reflection:

  1. In this South Park video, it shows that the Japanese are mass killing for the sake of revenge thinking that years ago during World War II, it was the Whales and Dolphins flying the planes to send the atomic bombs to Japan. In reality, the Japanese are actually doing the whaling and killing the dolphins mainly because of money and secondly, because of using it as food. (Will be further explained on my next blog, interested? Read my next blog! ^^)
  2. The attitude were absolutely unacceptable but in this world not everyone will be willing to volunteer themselves even though no matter how much they dislikes what is going on as there are many restrictions in the real war, e.g. laws, regulations, marality... Personally, I don't think it the same way but i reckoned, i would not be able to do much thing about but at least I am able to post this issue on my blog hoping that when people read my blog, they actually realise what is going on. :)
  3.  The significance of the last scene is important because it kinds of concluded who we the humans actually are which is, actuallyeveryone arekillers of animals, not only the Japanese. It is just that killing cows and chickens are the norms since the past which people has taken for granted that this is the right thing to do.
Hence, last thing to reflect on..
What will you do to help create the awareness of this issue? And i shall end here.
Thank you for reading my blog! Its been a long one I know... ><
(P.s. Read up my next blog for more information about dolphin killings! ^^)

Signing off,
Evee
My World, My life, My Attitude, My Geography
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Honestly, WHY STUDY GEOGRAPHY!!!

  As you can see, this is the first blog I have for this Geography blog. Honestly, if it wasn't that blog writings is included as part of the assessment, I wouldn't be bother to write blogs. Anyway, since i started now, i shall find joy in it! ^^

Study of our World, Geography

 photo: http://geog.webs.com/geographyasadiscipline.htm 

  When i was in secondary school, it was the first time I've heard "Geography" and of course the start of me having to deal with it. I always thought geography was a common sense and memorization testing subject. As the lessons goes, it doesn't seems to be that way, it is getting more and more complicated, terminologies, drawing, maps and many many more alien things starts to appear and i am getting more and more confused over it. And soon, I have totally lost interest in this subject and just barely passed my papers and make it through secondary 2 and 3.
  (Yay! I never have to touch any Art subject again!) Unfortunately for now, in the current pre-uni course I am taking, geography has come back to HAUNT me!!! Anyway i chose this path myself, so no matter what I not only have to bear with it and survive through it but also make myself be a female version of a "casanova" by loving the subjects including geography so as to be able to study it well or better. Because i believe when you love the subject you are doing, you will definitely be more than willing to study it and score it. :)
  So, asking the question again, "Why study Geography?". My final answer will be, cause I want to learn about my world, live my life to the fullest with the knowledge i can get from geography, have a dare to challenge attitude towards a subject I once failed to fully conquer and show my love for the world, the people and evrythings in the universe by loving GEOGRAPHY!

Side note: You may ask me so what's geography.. :) My answer would be, just follow my blog entries, and soon you will know what i know about geography. ^^

Signing off,
Evee
MyWorld, MyLife, MyAttitude, MyGeography

 

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