Vegetarian life!

To follow some religious, healthy, environmental, geographical and other reasons, the greater amounts of people choose to be vegetarian. Some people may ask: what are the exact benefits of being a vegetarian? Does this lifestyle suit me? Will it destroy my nutrients balance in some extends? Today, we invited the most famous nutritionist Dr. TrenEnts to help us with these questions.

Interviewer: Hi! Dr. TreEnts, would you like to introduce us about the vegetarian types?

Dr. TreEnts: Sure. There are five types vegetarian: vegan, lacto vegetarian, ovo vegetarian, ovo-lacto vegetarian, semi-vegetarian. The first one, vegan, is the pure vegetarian who doesn’t eat any meat or animal products. Lacto vegetarian can eat daily products and plant foods. Ovo vegetarian can eat egg but not daily products like lacto vegetarian. Ovo-lacto vegetarian, obviously, they can eat eggs and milk. Semi-vegetarian diet includes occasional inclusion of meat products and plant products.

Interviewer: So… what are the benefits to be a vegetarian?

Dr. TreEnts: Actually, fatty red meats and many processed meats are high in saturated fat, which raises LDL (bad) cholesterol and increases risk of coronary heart disease. So…to be a vegetarian, the special diet helps reduce the risk of cardiac disease. Also, vegetable supply our body more vitamin to support our health. For the species, it’s also a way to protect to our environment.

Interviewer: Since this diet is so healthy, should we advocate more people to join in vegetarian diet?

Dr. TreEnts: Mm…from my point of view, it depends. Some people do need large amount of nutrients from variety of foods like pregnancy, babies, who are not better with vegetarian diet.

Interviewer: We may know many vegetarian probably lack of some important nutrients, such as protein, calcium, iron, zinc, etc. What are main functions of these nutrients and which food can provides these nutrients?

Dr. TreEnts: Yes, you’re right. The protein is a source of energy which can help build, repair, and maintain body issues. Vegetarian can absorb the protein from the soy products and daily products like Tofu and milk. Calcium helps our body to strengthen our bone and it mainly contained in milk. Iron and zinc are metal elements which can produce red cell and beneficial to our heart.People can gain them from sea-tangle.

Interviewer: Thank for Dr. TreEnts' sharing!  Thank you very much!

P.S:Here are some very good recipes for vegetarian:http://www.cookinglight.com/food/top-rated-recipes/best-vegetarian-recipes/black-bean-cheese-enchiladas

Sources:http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutrition/vegetarian-benefits?page=1
              
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/5-common-vegetarian-nutrition-deficiencies.html

Impact On Illegal Downloading

Today technology and science come to pervade every aspect of our lives. Internet starts to become predominant part of people’s daily lives. It provides abundant resources for people such as data, films, books and music, etc. So, “illegal downloading” appears——Many people download what they want illegally from some websites without paying any fee. It makes negative effects on copyright, encroaches not just on producers’ rights, but also customers’ and media industries’ benefit.

The worst effect of illegal downloading is copyright infringement. It is convenient for some people can download the book, music, film for free from some websites. However, this behaviour doesn’t respect producers’ works, because they download resources without getting any permission from producers or agencies or through legal ways. Some trade organizations contribute to protect producers’ copyright such as RIAA. It protects music producers’ right from illegal issues, especially focusing on using P2P software to develop music data on Internet. Some people share their resources on the Internet, but they do not realize that they have encroached on producers’ benefits. RIAA have sued more than 20,000 people who were suspected with sharing work which had copyright.

At the same time, customers’ rights are damaged in same way. Customers pay for what they want legally. It gives customers right to manage their goods. When others get the goods for free illegally without being punished, Customers’ legal rights suffer from the challenging. Some of them start to think it is unfair, and imitate this action to get some creative work and resources without paying. It becomes a trend which affect media industry negatively.

The most, but not the least, illegal downloading leads the economic in media industry decreased dramatically. RIAA points out that piratical music make music industry lose hundreds of millions benefits all around the world every year. Also, the Industry Canada mentioned: “For most performers, royalties from the playing of their recordings are not the only, and generally not the most important source of income. A 1993 examination of the Canadian recording industry found that because deductions to recoup production and related costs are so high, up to 80 percent of artists never recoup royalties. For many artists, the main benefit from distribution of their recordings is that it helps build their reputation and thereby contributes to their ability to generate future earnings through club and concert appearances and more favourable recording contracts. An artist's "reputational capital", which is a key determinant of his or her earnings' prospects, depends on music distribution in all forms, through broadcasts, CD sales, legal downloads and illegal downloads.” Producers cannot get the benefits they deserved totally. It is no deniable that illegal downloading is a very serious problem in people’s social lives.

Overall, illegal downloading challenges every one of interested party’s rights and benefits. Media industries also suffer from this issue seriously. 

Cite from：

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ippd-dppi.nsf/eng/ip01451.html

http://www.riaa.com/aboutus.php?content_selector=about-who-we-are-riaa

Reflection on "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Last Friday, our school organized us to watch the play called "A Midsummer Night's Dream" which edited from one of Shakespeare's comedy. This famous play uses new setting combining with modern elements that makes audience become more interested about this work. This play shows: When the wedding day of the King of Athens Theseus and the Queen Hippolyta is coming, a man called Egeus disagrees with his daughter’s love with another woman Lysander. A young man called Demetrius loves Egeus’s daughter Hermia, but Hermia falls in love with Lysander. Dramatically, Hermia’s best friend Helena loves Demetrius so much. Because of father’s forcing and the King’s order, Hermia decides to run away with Lysander. Helena spills this thing to Demetrius, Demetrius also follows Hermia and Lysander to the forest. At the same time, a group of actors comes to the forest to practice their shows in order to perform in King and Queen’s wedding. These two groups of people go further in the forest gradually. Oberon is the king of fairy world, he disputes with Titania, the queen of fairy world, because of a Fairchild. Oberon orders his servant called Puck to look for a magic flowers’ juice to play trick on Titania and solve the problems in four young people’s complicated relationships. However, Puck is so tricky that she makes the main character of the group of actors called Bottom become a freak with donkey head, makes Titania loves Bottom after being enchanted and makes Lysander and Demetrius love Helena at the same time. After a mess, everyone returns to normal life: Titania becomes a obedient wife; Four young people’s love have a happy ending; Bottom return back to a man and keep practicing shows…

Scenario adds modern elements to make this play more interesting. Titania’s role-player is a man, he combines his masculinity with femininity in this role, and audience think it’s more humorous. My favorite role in this play is Puck. She holds a tricky attitude to be an onlooker of the mess. She crosses the complicated relationships and solves the problems. These kinds of polyamorous relationships also appear in the contemporary commonly, maybe we need puck to help us solve these problems.

Using Media Arts For Social Justice

   After watching the documentaries of Lesotho, I was very shock and started to know there are so many people who have same age with me are living in such tough environment. I realized that we have duty to disseminate social justice and make more and more people “start with us” to help those vulnerable people live more healthily and more safely. But how? For the contemporary, media is the best choice because its high speeds. Once information are published by media，almost everyone in the world can get it in several days. With popular use of Internet，the speed is still accelerating by times. It is no deniable  social justice is also advocated by some people or groups through media such as documentaries，public advertisements，music，Radio，TV Show，Newspaper and magazine etc.

Media arts make effects on social justice. Because of Media arts’ special glamour, people’s judgments are influenced gradually. A good guide in Media arts can make people enhance their qualities. In contemporary, people start to touch Media arts when they were very young. Branding exposure will through their lives all the time. Media arts pervade every aspect of not just their lives, but also the whole society.

《Start With Us》 by Prionnsias James shows us Besotho’s lives in Lesotho. They don’t have enough substance but abundant thoughts. They have many dreams and have strong desire to make their dreams come true. As an audience, I feel a little bit shock about this documentary that these people don’t lose their optimistic attitudes to their lives in such rough environment that Lesotho has the third highest HIV prevalence in the world - just under one in four people in the country are living with HIV. Also education there is also not very sturdy.

Many directors put their most efforts on public film and documentaries in order to make more people know more about vulnerable group and help most people realize many problems in society. One thing I'm concerned is that after watching these films, many people was shock, but just shock. And several days later, they will forget what has shock them. It will lead the media lose its meaning in some extends gradually. Will people become more and more indifferent about social issue because of common documentaries? When I asked James this question, he said that in his opinion, he thought it is worth to do. I believe other directors also think in same way.

Zaxi's story through technological and traditional material

This is my  first time to create a storyboard. I met the trouble when I started to think about the main idea of my storyboard. My imagination always too weak to come up the ideas. It took me a long time to think that how to connect evey clues to show my main idea. Finally I decided to introduce the little girl called Zaxi who I met in supporting teaching trip in Tibet. She was one of my students and I lived in her home during my supportng trip. After I finished the storyboard, I found that my work could not emphasize Zaxi's personality completely. I thought I need to add some further details to illustrate what I was realizing after the trip and explain it.

What I was thinking next was to try my best to draw a portrait of Zaxi. She was the main character through my whole story. I didn't have her photo, so I downloaded the portrait of the Tibet girl who looks similar to Zaxi from a website and photographed it. My painting was little bit weak and I used the easiest way to draw the portrait by coculating the ratio and magnifying it on the paper carefully. I believe it is my most perfect work ever. The difficult part for my painting was drawing the eyes and shadow. Before this time, I had never touched the skills of painting. So this portrait took me a whole day in total. Then I finished it and search some components to my final result, because the portrait just one of the elements of my final resault. But, to combine the traditional material and the technological material is one the confusing part during the whole process. My teacher helped me photograph the painting, but it seemed not very clear. So I decided to take photo with it and upload to my computer. In fact, it was better.

When I looked at the portrait, it reminds me the days from that summer. I was shocked that this little girl was very tactful that many children in the same age who born in modern city cannot help their parents do some easy housework, even need their parents to do some easy work instead. I believed the reason for this phenomon is that people who are born to some areas of poverty start their lives more difficults because they don't have enough money to buy food and clothes to meet their basic needs. So these people will more cherish what they have more and be more sensible at a very young age. In the other side, the children who born in the modern city seems like that they can own most things what they want. It is not beneficial for their growth. Some of them cannot realize how much happiness they are enjoying and become very selfish and pessimistic. Their parents, also spoil children as better as possible. They don't need their children to experience the troubles in lives, on the contrary, they just want their children achieve the accomplishment as soon as possible.So, in my opinion, many people who live in the modern city prefer to paying more attention to the superfacial thing. People who grow in a family living in poverty may be more easier to achieve the higher realm of thoughts however.

The difference between computer animation and traditional animation

Today technology and science has come to pervade every aspect of our lives. Computer animation plays more important role in Media art domain. Flash is more simple and convenient for making animation without putting to much efforts on drawing every change of  motion like hand animation.
In addition, hand animation is very expensive due to hours of labour involved.

There is no dening that technology is affacting our lives. People prefer to use new skills to make animation, such as 3D-tech, special effects, etc,rather than hand drawn animation. These new skills make the film more real and perfect. Although it also increases the cost of animation which includes time cosuming and money, it is easy to work.Its maneuverability has a very big space to enhance.

Our lives has been changed by computer animation. It is faster and more efficient to make animation on computer. People prefer new technology because computer animation can make the character more vivid and real, meanwhile it can show the plot more completely. Meanwhile, many children like the drawing animation due to the fact that it can fullfill the children's dream and imagination in their lives.

What does "Media Arts" brings us?

With technology and science coming to every aspects of our lives,  "Media Arts" has become an important element in the contemporary era. Using this new form of  media, the artists can show their thoughts and feelings about arts in public more conveniently and swiftly, while the audience can touch the arts without long distant travel. It gives the arts not just a new form, but also new meaning, new language and new value. So,  it's no doubt that "Media Arts" is a inevitable trend for the present development.

I'm looking forward to learn how to use the new approach to create arts. I'm interested in that how many people will hold the same perspective with my own thoughts about "Media Arts", also what the people who disagree with my opinion think this issue.

"Media Arts" brings the audience an easier way to appreaciate the arts, while artists worry more about whether the media arts will become the mainstream arts instead of traditional arts. That is a crucial point. I want to discuss later!