Sunday, September 21, 2014

The Story of Stuff: A Critical Analysis (Even Numbers)

2.  I believe that the audience that Annie Leonard is trying to reach is the consumers of USA, and the world.

4.  I think that Annie uses the format of a 20 minute video rather than another format like a report, web blog, or poster is because formats such as a report and poster does not get the attention of an audience.  She makes her video into this format (with pictures, and her standing there stating the facts) so that it can be easily understood (children are able to understand it and possibly people who's first language is not English).

6.  I think that the business people would disagree with what Annie has to say, because what she is saying is causing them to lose business, since most of their costumers would be informed about what is happening, and the business tactics that they are using.  What she is saying may cause the business people to raise the price of their products, because they would have to make their products in a safe environment where their employees are paid fairly and will be working in safe conditions where it would not affect their health.  Also they would have to find a solution that would reduce the amount of garbage that is being produced, and to make their product more efficient where it's main purpose is not to be broken after a few months of usage or to be replaced frequently.

8.  I don't really think this video has affected the way I think about consumption, because I already know about everything that the video is talking about.   There is no way that the cheap products that we are buying off the shelves of Walmart and other stores is coming from a place that pays their employees fairly.  I already know that the products that we are buying are producing a lot of garbage from first hand experience, so I tend to buy things of higher quality, and try to buy products that aren't made in China, or any other Asian countries that don't make a safe environment for their employees.  I'm one of those people that don't go with the trend, so when I buy electronics I would buy something that would last me a long time.                      

Monday, September 8, 2014

Video Worksheet: The Cover (Even numbers)

2. The dolphin slaughter takes place in Taiji, Japan, they are the biggest exporters of live dolphins that are used in marine shows, and dolphin meat that are sold in fish markets.

4. Ric 'o' Barry was a former dolphin trainer, he helped capture and train five wild dolphins who played the role "flipper" in a TV series.  The TV series was a big hit, and had made dolphins more popular, and loved by the general public, and had resulted in marine parks having dolphins as one of their attractions.  One of the dolphins "committed suicide," by closing her blowhole voluntarily in order to suffocate, and died in Ric's arms.  The death of this dolphin had made Ric realize that dolphins aren't meant to be living in captivity, they were meant to run free into the wild, where there is no limits to how far they swim.  Ric, later on got sent to jail, because he tried to free the remaining dolphins that were kept in captivity back into the wild.  After he finished his time in jail, he had decided to change people's minds, he wanted to inform people of what was happening to the dolphins.

6. The country that indirectly runs the International Whaling Commission is Japan.  Japan would pay some small countries that were having difficulties financially and pay them money so that they do not go against them in the IWC conferences.

8. Fishermen would make noises by hitting a hammer against a pole.  Since dolphins are very sensitive to sound, they would run away from the sound that was made by the sailors.  The dolphins would then swim towards the lagoon/cove, and then the next day, people would go to the lagoon and look for bottled nose dolphin females to send to different parts of the world, and then kill the rest for the meat.    

10. Around 23, 000 dolphins are killed in the secret cove a year.

12.  The toxic substance that is found in dolphin meat and any other oceanic animal is mercury.

14.  Japanese people eat meat, because there is still some nutrients in the dolphin meat.  Also some fish stores in Japan sold dolphin meat labeled as whale meat.

16. Fish is severely declining because around 7/10 people rely on fish for protein, so there is an increase in demand of fish, which makes many fisherman over fish the fish.

18. Dolphin meat is sold as whale meat in fish markets, but the government chooses to not interfere.

20. The main character went through the conference with a big screen attached to him, that showed the hidden camera footage's of what happens in the secret cove.

22. Whaling was banned in 1986.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Mark-Recapture Sampling

Materials Used:

  • 1 bag of uncooked pasta
  • Sharpie markers

Methods:

Trial #1
1. Capturing of the pasta population 



2. Marking the captured population
Number of pasta caught and marked in first sample: 40




3. Releasing of marked and captured pasta population, and mixed with general population




  4. Taking another sample with eyes closed and recording how much was in the sample and how many of them were marked
Number of pasta caught in second try: 52
Number of marked pasta caught: 4



5.  Estimate of population calculations:
M/N = m/n, where M is the number of pasta caught and marked in first sample, N is total population, m is number of marked pasta caught in second sample, and n is the number of second sample

40/N = 4/52
40 = 4/52 x N
40 x 52/4 = N
There for N = 520

Trial #2:

1. Capture of the pasta population
Number of pasta caught: 90


2. Marking population 



4. Capturing pasta for the second time with eyes closed
Number of pasta caught: 28
Number of marked pasta recaptured: 5


5. Estimate of population size for trial #2
M/N = m/n, where M is the number of pasta caught and marked in first sample, N is total population, m is number of marked pasta caught in second sample, and n is the number of second sample

90/N = 5/28
90 = 5/28 x N
90 x 28/5 = N
There for N = 504

Trial #3:

1. Capture of pasta population
Number of pasta caught: 33


 2. Marking the captured population


3. Releasing the marked pasta back to the general population and randomly mixing it



4. Randomly capturing pasta with eyes closed, and recording how much was captured and how many marked pasta were recaptured
Number of captured pasta: 50
Number of marked pasta: 2


5. Estimate of population calculations:
M/N = m/n, where M is the number of pasta caught and marked in first sample, N is total population, m is number of marked pasta caught in second sample, and n is the number of second sample
33/N = 2/50
33 = 2/50 x N
33 x 50/2 = N
There for N = 825

% error = (theoretical - experimental) / theoretical
= (543 - 616) / 543
=13.4%

Analysis:

  1. Out of the three trials, the first trial was the closets, with an estimate of 520.  
  2. The problems that might affect the accuracy of my estimate may have been the number of pasta that we took out of the bag the first time and the number of pasta that we took out the second time to see how many pastas we recaptured.
    Problems that ecologists studying animal populations encounter may be that the animals may have been smarter than they have anticipated, and that the animal that they have marked may have had figured a way to remove the mark that had been put on them.  An example of this is that dolphins help one another to remove the marker that was put on them, or they rub it against something that would have been able to help them get rid of it.  
  3. An improvement that my group could have is that we could have captured around the same amount that we captured the first time, because during the first capture we would take a big hand full, but then when it was the second try, we took a small hand full, so it was inconsistent. Also it would more accurate if we were to do more trials, so that the % error would be less.