Blue Gold: World Water Wars, film commentary

As is the case with many documentaries, Blue Gold brings to light many hard to hear but prominent facts about the worlds water sources. It helps explain the cycle of water, or at least, how it's supposed to cycle around. And it delves into why the cycle is being disrupted, and how, and why it needs to be reversed.
One of the parts that struck me about it all is that we're pumping so much more groundwater then is being put back in, so the cycle is stopping, and draining some lakes and rivers until they're pushed to desertification. We've managed to cover most of the ground with cement, which successfully prevents water from soaking into the soil, and we've rerouted water with the use of dams to suit our needs. But is that necessarily a good thing? By doing all of this, our water supply is now dwindling, and some people in further out countries are even dying of dehydration, which is something that's hard to imagine.
Personally I feel that Blue Gold spent a lot of it's time going over the problem, and why it's a problem, and just generally making everything out as bad, and wrong, and why that is, rather then spending a larger portion of its time saying what we COULD do. Sure, at the end there was about five or ten minutes where it talked about how there was some research going on, and a few good things that were starting to happen, but really, the film only served to depress me more about how humans are destroying our planet. I feel like these documentaries need more time talking about the good things, and talking about uplifting things that are being done around the world.

What San Diego Eats

What is Slow Food and why is it beneficial?

Works Cited

Unknown. "Slow Food Is Good, Clean and Fair : Slow Food USA." Welcome! : Slow Food USA. Spring 2006. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/good_clean_fair/.
Slow food is basically the opposite of fast food. The principles that slow food are based off of are that it's all natural, grown and raised, and prepared naturally. It's based off of having food for everyone, at an available and affordable price for even lower class families, or people who are struggling.
Slow Food is a great thing that's suddenly started taking hold more. Not only is it better for people and their health, but it's better for the environment because it's naturally grown, no toxic waste from anything and so on.



How drastically has portion size changed and why is it such an issue?

Works Cited

Unknown. "Portion Sizes Grow with Waistlines - Health - Diet and Nutrition - Msnbc.com." Breaking News, Weather, Business, Health, Entertainment, Sports, Politics, Travel, Science, Technology, Local, US & World News - Msnbc.com. 6 Dec. 2006. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .
Portion size is one of the big problems that people are facing in terms of their weight gain/loss. This article talks about studies done with groups of students on whether or not they can judge, just by eying it, how much the average 'healthy' food portion is.
The conclusion is basically that it's hard to tell, and coupled with the fact that plates are larger now, and bowls are deeper, it's almost impossible to tell. Along with that, people aren't listening to their bodies as much as they should be, listening to when they're full.
I really agree with everything this article had to say for the most part. Especially about the parts where it brought up ignoring your body because there's still food on that plate to be eaten. And about how plates and bowls are bigger, so it's harder to gauge portion sizes.



Navy Medical Center San Diego. "Portion Distortion-Serving Sizes Are Growing." Navy Medicine. Spring 2003. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .
This article shows a comparison between what portion sizes were like during the 50's and how much they've changed over the course of a little over 50 years. It talks about how restaurants have changed their portion sizes and so on, and then shows a chart which clearly shows portion sizes going up by 2-8X bigger then they used to be.
I think it's really great that they've shown the chart, it really puts it into comparison well.

Diabeasity QQC

"One of my patients, 16-year old Max who weighed close to 300 pounds, told me that he drank a 6 pack of sweetened soda every day."

He's on the football team, and he's at school from early in the morning to late in the evening. How he even has time to drink that many sodas is beyond me. He says later on in the article that he drinks them before classes and then later one at home, and that he didn't buy water because they didn't sell it at school. The fountain water is brownish, and not appealing, so he went with 6 sodas every day instead.
The article is talking about how it's inconvenient for families on the go/who have busy schedules to take the time to prepare a good meal, or something healthy. But really, in the long term side of things, I think that should be a priority. Sure, you may have a busy schedule, and every once in a while you may not be able to prepare a lunch from home or buy something healthy, but think of how unhealthy that is for your body in the long run.
On top of that, buying water in bulk and just taking two or three to school every day might actually save money. It would certainly save on medical and dental costs in the long run.

Personal commentary on The Cove

1. Does the camera ‘take sides’?
I'm not really sure if the camera 'took sides' or not. I feel like there's kind of a scale it goes on, from either being on one side or the other, to being neutral or in the middle. The camera for The Cove, I feel like it's more of a neutral point of view, leaning a slight bit towards being for the dolphins. Since it was filmed as a documentary on the dolphins in Taiji, it is automatically going to have a focus, but I'm not sure if that's the same as taking sides/being biased.
The information it did give us was through showing what the dolphins go through, how the Japanese think of them, how the meat is falsely packaged, and so on.

2. Does the film allow the audience to think for itself, and to draw its own conclusions, or does it manipulate audience reaction and emotion?
I think the film is more focused on giving the information in a manner that is persuasive, rather then just presenting the information and letting the viewer decide what they think. There are points where the information given is just presenting the information, because it's hard to present it in a way that's biased. It's just what is. An example would be when they were talking/showing how the Japanese bang poles together to make a wall of sound, which herds the dolphins into the cove, or when they took the sound from the cove of how the dolphins cry out to one another. Another example would be when they just showed the footage of the dolphins being speared to death, being stabbed over and over until they were dead.

3. Does it support opinion with evidence?
Yes, I believe the entire film supports everything they claim with some sort of evidence. They are saying that the Japanese in Taiji are covering up that they kill the dolphins, and they are covering up how they falsely package the meat, and then to support this, they interview random people on the street asking if they know about the dolphins. And, they bought meat packaged as other things, and did the same tests on all the meat, and found out it was dolphin.

4. Assess one possible interpretation that it reduces particular groups and individuals referred to, or participating in the film, to simplistic polar opposites of good and evil, heroes and villains.
The film does make sides out to be good end evil. The Japanese in Taiji are made out to be the 'evil' ones, especially the men who are killing the dolphins and trapping them there. While the men who were going in there, the activists, were made out to be the heroes, or the 'good' guys.

5. Through the range of film making techniques presented, are we overtly manipulated into accepting uncritically the film’s version of truth?
Yes, because it's just human nature to feel/care for the animals(in a lot of cases). The information given in The Cove is just what was literally happening in Taiji, and then there are other people/activists, that are backing everything up with their opinions and their knowledge outright, right there, letting everyone know.

6. Does the film educate, does it enlighten us, or does it ‘preach to the converted’?
I feel like it does all of the above to different crowds. In schools when it's shown I think a lot of the time it helps to educate the students on what is going on, and then in Japan, I feel like it enlightened a lot of the people there about what was really going on with the dolphins there, and how they were being slaughtered and the meat packaged wrong.
On the other hand, if the same person is to see the film over and over, it's just preaching to the converted. But I feel that way about any documentaries and so on, that's just what's going to happen.

Plant Structure and Function; Reading Vocabulary

Brynn, Ben, Nolberto, Perla

Rhizome - Horizontal stems that grow just below or along the soil surface

Tendril – Tendrils help plants climb by growing outward and wrapping around sturdy objects

Tissue – A group of cells with a common structure, function, or both

Tissue System – is made up of one or more tissues organized into a functional unit within a plant

Dermal Tissue System – Forms outer protective systems like human skin, but for plants, it’s a defence

Epidermis – Cells that make up the Dermal Tissue System

Cuticle – covers the Epidermis of leaves, giving them a waxy coating for protection

Vascular Tissue System – Made of Xylem and Phloem and provides support and long distance transport

Ground Tissue System – Most of the bulk in young plants, it fills up the space between the Epidermis and Vascular Tissue System

Pith – Ground tissue internal to the vascular Tissue

Cortex – Ground tissue external to the Vascular Tissue

Vascular Cylinder – In the center of the root, the Vascular Tissue forms this system with Xylem cells radiating from the center

Endodermis – Innermost layer of the Cortex, a cylinder one cell thick, it’s a selective barrier which chooses what can pass between the Cortex and the Vascular Tissue

Stomata – The Epidermis is interrupted by these pores, which allow CO2 exchange with the leaf and air

Guard Cells – Each Stoma is flanked by two of these, which regulate the size of the Stoma

Mesophyll – The ground tissue system of a leaf is sandwiched between the upper and lower Epidermis. Mainly made of photosynthetic parenchyma cells

Vein – A vascular bundle composed of Xylem and Phloem and surrounded by a sheath of Parenchyma cells

Organ - An organ consists of several types of tissues that together carry out particular functions

Root System - A plants root system anchors it in the soil, absorbs and transports minerals and water, and stores food

Root Hairs - Root hair enormously increases the root surface are for absorption of water and minerals

Shoot System - The shoot system of a plant is made up of stem, leaves, and adaptations for reproduction, flower, in angiosperms

Stem - The part of the plant that is generally above the ground and that support the leaves and flowers

Nodes - The points at which leaves are attached

Internodes - The portion of the stem between nodes.

Leaves - The main photosynthetic organs in most plants, although green stems also perform photosynthesis

Terminal Bud - Develops leaves and compact series of nodes and internodes

Axillary Buds - On in each of the angles forms by a leaf and the stem are usually dominant.

Apical Dominance - Is an evolutionary adaptation that increases the plants exposure to light

Food-conducting Cells- Also known as sieve-tube members. Sieve-tube members remain alive at maturity, but they lose most organelles, including the nucleus & ribosomes.

Sieve Plates- The end walls between sieve-tube members. They have pores that allow fluid to flow from cell to cell along the sieve tube.

Companion Cell- Each sieve-tube member has at least one of these, connected by numerous plasmodesmata. One companion cell may serve multiple sieve-tube members by producing & transporting proteins to all of them.

Xylem Tissue- Contains water-conducting cells that convey water & dissolved minerals upward from the roots.

Phloem Tissue- Contains sieve-tube members that transport sugars from leaves or storage tissues to other parts of the plant.

Sclerenchyma Cells- Phloem & xylem contain these cells. They provide support.

Parenchyma Cells- Phloem & xylem contain these cells. They store various materials.

Vascular Tissue System- Along with the dermal & ground tissue systems, the vascular tissue system makes up each plant organ, such as a leaf or a root.