For my project, I wanted to explore a new multimedia tool and see how quickly (or slowly!) I could create a simple presentation. I chose Meograph, which is free and online–and turned out to be nice and easy to use. The hardest part of the whole process was figuring out how to trim audio files in iTunes (the answer: use QuickTime instead). I spent just over two hours reporting, and about two hours editing, trimming, and learning Meograph. Here’s the result:
(Tip: If you don’t want to listen to the entire clip for each musician, click on the forward button in the lower left hand corner.)
“A totalitarian-capitalist fantasy,” I said to myself, after watching the “The Lego Movie”, a computer-animated movie that Fox News slammed as an anti-capitalist propaganda. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the movie is based on the LEGO line of construction toys and was released on February 7. With a 100-minute run time, “The LEGO Movie” is a roller-coaster commercial that leaves you kicking for more: the LEGO world is impressively well-rendered in the form of a plastic phantasmagoria, the storyline is packed with satirical zingers and the voice cast is exceptional.
Set in a clockwork world of LEGO elements, “The LEGO Movie” tells the story of Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt), an ordinary LEGO construction worker with no special abilities. His life in his world— where everything is routine, mundane and predictable— feels like a cog in the machine. It is a world where he is happy to pay $37 for a cup of coffee and sing along to upbeat faux pop anthem “Everything Is Awesome.” In short, he is a model citizen of the LEGO world which is controlled by Lord Business (Will Ferrell), an evil tyrant who wants everything built in the world according to his vision and instructions. Life for Emmet is hunky-dory until he runs into Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), a flamboyant and fearless LEGO female, and falls in with a group of extraordinary LEGO builders, called the Master Builders, who can construct anything without instruction manuals. The Master Builders—led by Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman), a white-haired wizard—mistakenly take Emmet for “The Special”, a Master Builder who is prophesized to save the world from the evil plans of Lord Business, who is conspiring to freeze the entire LEGO world so that people cannot tamper with the idealized vision of his LEGO world. The rest of the plot follows the journey of the archetypical hero who reluctantly accepts the call to adventure and, in doing so, realizes his heroic destiny.
Coming back to the capitalist vs. anti-capitalist import of the movie, I found the movie to be a cleverly-executed LEGO corporation commercial, which echoes the radical marketing of Apple’s Super Bowl advertisement in 1984. While one can see streaks of a proletariat revolutionary in the protagonist of the movie, the ending of the movie suggests that the protagonist has a rather benign agenda— i.e. reconciliation with capitalism in the form of “balancing creativity with a follow-the-rules approach to life.”
Not surprisingly, Mark Kermode, a film critic, describes “the repositioning of luddite LEGO bricks [in form of this movie] as a saleable staple of the digital gaming revolution” as “one of the greatest marketing coups of the 21st century.”
So in a world of conglomerates and big money, if a global corporation produces a record-breaking commercial film with a commoditized narrative that makes a case for an anodyne individuality in a global business order, what would you call it? A successful product or propaganda marketing or an opiate for the masses, I leave it up to the reader to decide.
With a current IMDB rating of 8.5, the movie has grossed nearly $200 million worldwide in its first 10 days of release.
I spent my four-hour challenge reporting on an online discussion on art. It spread through different social media after George Clooney argued twice last week that the Parthenon Marbles should be returned to Greece. The actor – who is currently promoting his movie “The Monument Men” in Europe – called for “an open discussion” about the ownership of the ancient friezes. The discussion on Twitter was heated, but fragmented and surprisingly…”local”.
Understanding the background story (1,5 Hour)
I first had to get the facts straight. I read, compared and contrasted different mainstream and independent media. The dispute between Greece and the United Kingdom over the artifacts lasts for almost two decades. It has constantly been on Greek mainstream media, but it never attracted much international publicity. Greece keeps calling for the return of its “looted” art and the British authorities claim that the 2000-year-old marbles were acquired legally in 1816 by the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Lord Elgin. In fact, the British Museum’s official position states that ms the place of Ancient Greece among the great cultures of the world.”
Clooney, who directed and stars in the movie, provoked a lively discussion on social media a few days earlier. At Berlin Film Festival the actor replied to a Greek journalist’s question whether Greece should reclaim its monuments from the UK. He said: “I think that is a good idea. I think that would be a very fair and very nice thing. Yeah, I think it is the right thing to do.” His co-stars Matt Damon and Bill Murray also backed his argument. The film is an adaptation of a nonfiction book by Robert Edsel. It is the story of a group of architects and artists, who are sent to Europe in order to protect art and historic monuments from being destroyed by the Nazis.
Gathering the reactions (2 Hours)
The first question I wanted to answer was how such a story spread on social media. Was it a local or global?
I tracked it manually via advance search on Twitter feed. I went back to the first tweets on February 8 and observed the reactions of people and media organizations. The first comments a few minutes after the press conference in Berlin (#Clooney just said Britain should give the Elgin Marbles back to #Greece) were followed by short media stories tweeted by the media companies from both sides of the Atlantic (#Berlin Film Festival: Monument Man George Clooney Tells U.K. to return Elgin Marbles to Greece Hollywood Reporter). It is not surprising that this was a story was mostly of Greek and British interest. The Embassy of Greece in the US @GreeceInUSA joined the discussion on February 9, followed by Greek and British media (The Guardian, The Times of London, Ekathimerini etc) that promoted their stories on the topic. On February 10, Twitter users who were following the the story began taking sides. They commented on Clooney’s mistake (who said Patheon instead of Parthenon). The next trend was the reply of the mayor of London, Mr. Boris Johnson on Clooney’s comments. Both sides were retweeted part of his remarks and local articles. Most retweets we about Mr. Boris’ comment that Clooney “lost his marbles” over the Elgin affair.
I also used Hashtags.org and realized that most comments are time European zone sensitive. The times the same hashtags appeared was dropping during the early morning hours.
My second question was whether the tweets were conveyed any kind of outrage. I used Sentiment Viz to track reactions and sentiments by specific #hashtags. I observed that the discussion of the topic was separate from the movie. Also, the main words associated by Sentiment Viz with negative feelings (anger, stress, depression etc) were “wrong”, “returned”, and “rejects”, “matt damon”, “murray.”
Observations (30 minutes)
*There were certain limitations while reporting on an online trend under a tight deadline.
*There are not many free twitter visualization tools that can track hashtags. Even though there are websites that track twitter trends the overall picture remains fragmented.
*The discussion of George Clooney’s comments on the topic were discussed locally and had a smaller impact than the discussions on mainstream media. I was surprised that the Guardian featured a poll about the return of the marbles, but there was no fruitful discussion between twitter users.
*The twitter reactions were merely reproductions of media features, articles and commentaries. Almost no original content.
I find myself standing in front of my new enterprise. I’m not sure how I got here, but I’m determined to find out. The sun is shining, and I am clad in a starched khaki ensemble. The sign in front of the entrance says “Alaska Animal Sanctuary.”
My operating budget appears to exceed 30,000 Zollars, and climbing fast. However, I seem to be the only zookeeper. I walk over to the elephants who appear to be under my care, and offer several bananas. They are enthused. Then, I visit the Rhinoceroses and give them a bath.
Why am I here?
My days become routine. Feed the animals. Clean up the poop. An endless stream of challenges follow me each day, promising increased animal satisfaction, and increased guest happiness.
I sleep fitfully and recall in a rare dream that I used to manage large cities in a past life. I was the mayor of Sim City. And now I am a Zookeeper.
Suddenly, I am invited to leave Alaska and join a troubled zoo in the United Kingdom. Anything to break the monotony. I pack my bags, and head to Cambridgeshire Animal Park.
Upon my arrival, I learn that Scotty the West African Giraffe is lonely. “Why don’t I adopt a companion for him?” my advisor asks. I select Oliver the baby West African Giraffe. He is delivered in a crate by a magnificent helicopter.
I have found purpose. Oliver breathes new life into my mission to steward my animal companions. He wobbles on his tiny legs, and frolics around Large Savannah 2.
With my budget now at 50,000 Zollars, I am invited to invest in a Zoo Keeper Center. Might I finally be able to hire some staff to help me? And some fellow animal lovers to talk to? I hire Bonnie. Derik. Miguel.
Suddenly there is life in this zoo. We are a seamless team. I begin making much needed improvements to the crucial zoo infrastructure. A balloon and souvenir shop is erected near the Pale-Throated Three Toed Sloth exhibit. Burger Barn, strategically, is opened next to our extremely popular Asiatic Lion exhibit. Our zoo’s operating budget has doubled since I began my reign. I build a Breeding Center.
I discover a new feature of my world: I can, at my will, command myself to leave the confines of my body and view the entirety of my zoo at once. I am told later by my advisor that this is “Tycoon View.”
I purchase a motorized buggy to travel across the vast expanse of my zoo estate. I can reach the Tundra Small 01 from Rainforest Medium 02 in 30 seconds.
In a cruel twist of fate, Oliver is taken from me. Between upgrading the restrooms and starting an advertising campaign for this troubled park, I seem to have neglected poor Olver. The same helicopter that brought him swiftly ushers him away.
I sink into despair.
Review of Zoo Tycoon™, for Xbox One®, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft. February 18th, 2014.
Available exclusively at Wal-Mart.
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For this four-hour challenge, I wanted to experiment with the genres of review, critique, and humor. I played this game for 2 hours, while pausing to write notes about the narrative arc of my play. I recorded and stored gameplay using the Xbox Game DVR feature, which allows you to record the previous 30 seconds of gameplay. I filmed the stored video clips with my phone because you need to purchase a subscription from Xbox to allow you to upload the video elsewhere.
My main challenge with this piece was to use humor and a fictional narrative while still conveying factual information about the game. If I had more time to work on this, I would have sharpened the critique of simulation games in general a little bit more.
As a kid I would hide under the covers as a child playing Pokemon Red on my Gameboy. Gaming was occasionally social but mostly solitary. Almost two decades later, I’m returning to Pokemon with 84,000 other people.
Twitch Plays Pokemon is a collaborative gaming “social experiment” on Twitch.tv, a streaming video platform. Viewers gives commands to control a single character in order to capture Pokemon and acquire badges. Created on Feburary 13th, 2014, the peaked at over 100,000 concurrent viewers and has ten million total views.
The Twitch Plays Pokemon Feed. Note that the right-hand chat moves at an incomprehensible velocity, though some players have developed a way to filter commands to see strategic comments. (http://www.reddit.com/r/twitchplayspokemon/comments/1y2if6/remove_commands_from_chat_even_more_improved/).
The anonymous Australian creator shared in an interview the technical details behind the experiment. Pokemon Red (151 ROMhack version) is mounted on the VisualBoyAdvance emulator. An IRC bot lists to button commands on the stream’s chat, which are then input into the emulator and shown on the stream’s overlay.
This mixture of javascript and python code allows us to address the question: how does collaboration scale? The flurry of commands on the right translates into game input depending on the voting mode, which itself is determined by votes. In anarchy mode, all commands are input at a rate of about one per second. In democracy mode, the most popular command is input every few seconds.
I’ve given it a shot, but what started as a minute of nostalgia gave way to an hour of frustratingly walking around the same plaza. In sixty minutes, we moved about ten steps and transitioned from anarchy to democracy to anarchy. Time-lapse clips document other stretches of time making no progress.
So why are tens of thousands of people playing? The friend introducing me to Twitch Plays Pokemon stated his motivations: “I thought this was an simple but powerful concept. Definitely a good way to spend a couple of minutes.” When asked about his expectations for the outcome of the experiment, he replied “It will be painful, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they beat the game.”
Miraculously, the community has progressed through the game. A Google Document recording current progress shows that the community has achieved four of eight badges and trained a decent set of Pokemon. An article on gaming blog Kotaku illustrates some strategies that players have developed to progress and counteract trolls, players that are intentionally counter-productive.
These efforts are documented and cultivated largely by an large community on Reddit that acts both Greek chorus and Roman senate. An active Twitter feed also comments on the current state of the game. Commentary on amusing frustrations and achievements have turned even into memes.
What started as a small dedicated gathering turned into a large community sharing strategies, frustrations, and experiences. The experiment may not answer questions outright, but forces users to consider the merit of consensus-based rule and the role of trolls. And whether the experiment will triumph or fizzle out, we’ll test mathematician Émile Borel’s remark: “With an infinite number of monkeys and an infinite number of typewriters, one will type Shakespeare’s plays.”
In my 4-hours challenge I wanted to tell the story of the decline of honey bees and why it is so important for nature, human health and economy. Researching and writing this story would have taken me no more than two hours, but instead of that I’ve researched and presented my story with an info graphic, the first one I’ve done in my life. So I spent around an hour doing research about this topic and around three hours working on the info graphic with Venngage. I’ve used photos that I already had, and I am not totally unsatisfied with the result taking into account that this is the first time I communicate something in this way.
For this assignment I decided to write a story- the type of story I would like to see more of- using SchoolsMap, the platform I’m building (all the schools in the world, on one map). My goal for SchoolsMap is to show data and facilitate communication about education systems around the globe.cheap air jordan
I started by asking a simple question, How can we compare education systems in 3 countries, such as China, Kenya, and the US?
Hours 0-1: spent finding interesting comparative education data. I used the World Bank Data Query but unfortunately lots of data was unavailable (such as per pupil expenditures in Kenya and China). I also checked the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and tried to find comparative test scores (PISA scores were unavailable for Kenya and China).
Hours 1-2: spent analyzing the data. I copied some of the interesting data points into excel and created a few charts. At first I wanted the charts to show trends, but for the data I chose to analyze, historical data was even less available than snapshot data was cheap air max
.
Hours 2-3: spent figuring out mapping tools. I tried to find an easy mapping tool that would allow me to create a heat map or annotated map linked to data. I couldn’t find a great option and ended up choosing ZeeMaps- you can see my map with the data for Kenya, China, and the US here.
Hours 3-4: spent writing content for the first post.
SchoolsMap is something I will continue to work on this semester and I welcome your involvement- I am particularly seeking people with design and mapping skills original new balance. Also, what is a good way to integrate education news into a data & communication map? Thanks!
Author’s note: this piece is cross-posted from Tuesday’s issue of The Tech, and can be found at http://tech.mit.edu/V134/N5/makemit.html — I only occasionally write for the news department of The Tech, referred affectionately by its three-letter abbreviation, NUZ. I took a pretty head-on approach to the 4 Hour Challenge, using it as an opportunity to brush up my rusty newswriting skills and actually get something published in the paper.
Mechanical engineers flock to hardware hackathon MakeMIT 50 teams, 200 students participate in MakeMIT’s first year
Approximately 200 students gathered in Lobdell Dining Hall last Saturday to participate in the first phase of MakeMIT, a hardware hackathon organized by TechX. While the past year has seen college hackathons (including TechX’s very own HackMIT) increase in both scale and number, most of the emphasis has been on software, with few options for non-computer science students to get in on the action. Continue reading →
Political analysts Ali Jafri and Gustavo Perez speak about recent developments in their countries of origin, Pakistan and Venezuela respectively, and look at how mainstream media has covered these events so far.
The idea behind this initiative is to give context to news stories that may have been covered by international media, but in a way that has been shallow or sporadic at some instances. We asked two of our colleagues from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy to comment on recent developments in their regions of expertise and give us the backstory.
Ali Jafri, a specialist in international security matters in South Asia, speaks about the worsening security situation in Karachi and its relevance to Pakistan’s overall security.
Gustavo Perez, a student activist from Caracas, who has previously worked in anti-corruption organizations in Venezuela, gives an overview of the past week’s protests against the incumbent government and the rising crime and homicide rates in the country.
