Watson + Jeopardy = Win!

Santi I know you hate wiki, but considering this is a blog and we can  express or type whatever we want you can make an acceptance just this once X3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_%28artificial_intelligence_software%29

Anyway I have not watched Jeopardy when Watson was on I was impressed by the article Santi forced us to read and skimming through wiki to get rid of part of my dyslexia. Watson was practically a 15 terra bytes (omg do want!) of knowledge and he competed without internet. Though I find it interesting that the people could buzz in at the half way of the answer while Watson had to wait for the answer to be completed otherwise it hesitates to answer. Whenever Watson feels hesitation it's as if he wanted the other two to answer the question, because it still wanted to show his superiority. Also it was funny when Watson would get the short answers wrong because they were not too specific. For example he answered w/ a Candian city where the other two competitors knew the answer was an American city.

It would interesting to see Watson a bit more fixed and accurate because if he gets fixed it would easier to analysis computer problems whether hardware or software. I mean sure it does seem to be getting to the point where computers could outsmart humans, but a computer can be smart as it was programed to do. Even with 15 terra bytes worth of information in his memory, if not upgraded while keeping some of the older facts in place Watson could easily be outclassed. Still find it interesting that he would have a conscience of having confidence about answering questions correctly or not. Similar to a school child who is use to getting A's on everything but then becomes nervous on a topic they are unfamiliar with. In a way I can't wait to see the improvements. Some people maybe afraid, but as human beings we have to keep going because of being such curious creatures.

Museum of TV

Ah the history of tv or also known the idiot box. People consider it the greatest invention known to man, but given when it was originally invented it almost didn't make it to the common house hold. As most people know the tv didn't dominate until the 1950's because of the obvious reason, but it came close thanks to the events during the late 1930's.

Tv maybe considered one of the greatest invention, but came at the worst possible time. Radio has already been with public for years providing information to its views and affordable to anyone. In fact, before different broadcasts, the poor, middle, and rich class would listen to the same information regardless of the type of radio they have purchased. This was one of the few events where everyone was considered equal. By the time tv came to life, the Great Depression took affect around the global. Being also known as radio with images, it was considered too expensive and had little to offer of its time. Because of this radio kept dominating until the 1950's when the cold war began.

The site called www.mztv.com (also called Museum of Television) gives information of the history of tv, events that revolves around tv, and design structure of the main brand tvs that were released every year. I gotta say some of the tv designs are actually better than the current ones we have, but of course they are not as strong so unfortunately they don't exist anymore. Other that the site is pretty straight forward and tells the events that revolves around tv.

Experimental Skeleton

On Val's day (ha!) my class went to Electronics Live. For random reader's reading this pretty much this where artists from different career fields come and explain their work, fields, and the competition in their field. Out of the what I have seen so far Brion Gyson's lecture is my second favorite presentation, mainly because I understood most of the events he explained and he was a bit more clear. He is one of main artist from a site called Ecperimental Skeleton

Here is the link: http://www.experimentalskeleton.com/

From what I could remember ES Inc a non-profitable group which promotes development and research in the field of visual arts. So pretty much pretty much they use experimental materials and try activities to fulfill the projects requirements.

I will post of a couple their works to give the viewers better ideas. I mean what's the point of explaining the details when some people don't understand art terminologies when you could just show them. Also I am tempted to make a couple designs of their logos and just post it on their blog or something. Gotta start showing work besides Deviant Art after all. And if they accept it, awesome!

Here are some of the works:

If you want to see more check out their blogger:

http://experimentalskeleblog.blogspot.com/

War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast

Good old days before the common people used television and used radio for their information source. Unlike tv where the images is already on the screen, the radio causes people to use their imagination to understand somewhat of the situation. In the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds they have used the people and sound effects of what would be considered the horrific yet hilarious(in today's standards) event in radio history.

It started off on talking about Mars and the possibilities of other light force as they started to talk to an expert that there are no other life force outside of Earth. Eventually they mentioned a meteor fell near the station of the broadcast and went to investigate it. Giving descriptions of the objects and people, the audience could easily hear sound effects and the broadcaster until the signal has been cut and another broadcast continued on behalf because of the explosions.

This broadcast caused a massive panic as people would litterally jump off buildings, believing the planet has been invaded and killing everyone. However, just reporting this event didn't make it succussful, so what did?

The radio station clearly prepared an event to remember. During through the entire event they have used sound effects that were explosions or something unfamiliar, something unearthly like sounds. The broadcasters described the dead bodies in complete detail on how they died, what they looked after being burned alive, and describing what the alien was trying to do. What made it more believable was the was the broadcast fizzed back on forth as if the aliens were destroying the frequency of the broadcast and had high ranked officers (such as a general) mentioning the invasion and planning on to start a war.

However, despite the sound effects and the live news cast, listening to this again, I think the broadcast was too perfect. I mean I know the radio was meant for up to date news/information over the country, but you think people would catch on esp when the general came 20 seconds right after the attack with a full speech and what tactics they would use against the invasion. This also includes some of the events that happened a bit quicker than it was suppose to, but then again I suppose most of the people were in a mass panic to notice. Not to mention they told people to evacuate the city as the bell rang.

Some of the Happenings Around !950's to the 1970's

As World War 2 ended, the soldiers came back to America, as the nation partied like crazy for their victory... Similar to how the Egyptian have been partying. However, right after WW2 another challenge surrounded the world for the next 5 decades, aka the Cold War. However, despite the fear of the unknown possibilities this provided the filming industry to try out new tactics for the public view, and temporary make the public forget the current events around them.

I'll make bullet points for this otherwise we will have a blog worth 3-4 pages.

1950's

•  Tv started to dominate over the radio in family homes for source of imformation.

• Singin' in the Rain was created in 1952. A musical where the people temorarly forget the current and previous events and enjoy the joys of life with friends and family

• Unknown to most, the 1st full length 3-D movie with sound was created in the 1950's. The movie movie present was BWana Devil in 1952 by the director of Arch Oboler. The 1st 3-D film was made in 1922 called The Power of Love, however, it did not have audio.

• Play Boy was released in December 1953. Marilyn Monroe was the 1st icon front cover of the magazine. This encourages porn in the filming industry.

1960's

• The Cuban Missle Crisis

• The first Internet was created (was known as Arpanet

• America begins to challenge England, France, and other countries in the filming industry.

• Western Movies started to make a reappearance on the screen.

•  Smell-O-Vision came to the movies. Hippies were considered perfect targets. SOV was developed by the Swiss born Hans Laube. On the Movie screen a number will appear. The audience will scratch the number on the card and smell the effects to understand the effects in the movie better.

1970's

• Star Wars and Jaws came to theaters.

• Hollywood started to experience financial and artistic depression.

• Restrictions on language, sexuality, and violence had loosened up thanks to the hippie and human rights movements.

• Old Style movies die out as more experimentation started. More "artistic" ways.

•  Rating system began (G, PG, R, X)

• Fritz the Cat (1972) is the 1st X-rated animated movie and the 1st independent animated movie to receive more than $100 million in the box office. 

Napoleon!! ... No not shorty

Another new entry another new assignment. When Santi first mentioned the word "Napolean" my mind went instantly to Frenchy,  because the guy is pretty popular and I was doodle so it kind of caught me off guard. Luckly I was paying enough attention to think right away: "Wait a sec, I thought we were in the 1920's." Even though the Napoleon I will mention was not the famous shorty Frenchman of his time, he was still used in the filming industry and has been used for an advanced techniques of its time.

Santi is probably gonna kill me for using wiki, but for this assignment it should be enough.

In 1927 a movie was released called Napoleon, directed by Abel Gance. During the 1920's countless events were going on around the world. In America some of these events were Jazz, drinks, Flappers, etc. The filming industry evolved rapidly to the popularity. Originally known as moving pictures, movies started to take appearance. However, Abel Gance took advantage of the technology of its time and did something which was unheard of.

In the movie Napoleon, Abel Gance edited the film to the point where a lot of the scenes were hand tinted and/or toned. However, what was most accomplished in the movie was technique called polyvision. Polyvision means three set of films that are lined up together and play at the same time. It is similar to the images of Greek triptych.

Flip Note Animations

I am going to find this hw assignment interesting and a pain in the ass at the same time, but then again I feel that way w/ most projects. So I surfed around youtube and I found a couple of interesting flip note type animations.

Super Mario Bros Movie Flipnote:
I find this amazing and not just because it is Super Mario Bros. The person made their own movie and sound effects from the DSi. If you own DSi you could buy a product similar to flip note and created animation such as this. The only down side is DSi is limited in what you could do for the animation so I give props to this guy.

 

Elmo Know Where You Live:

After watching this I will never see my tv show the same way ever again. I mean it's brillant, but creepy as well. Still funny though. Anyway I think this is another DSi program. I might have to start on this program if alot of people could pull this off. Actually if they have it on the 3DS, that would be awesome. Anyway it is shorter than the first one, but it gets straight to the point and creative.

Ammy v Kyuubi:
What better to show more examples than to display one of my earlier works. It was 1 frame per second and I did about 30-35 frames about Ammy the wolf from Okami, the game, and her habits of falling asleep right before a boss fight. Seems Kyuubi is tired of Ammy falling asleep and decides to prank her. This was done in photoshop.

Ammy V Kyuubi

Edit: For some reason the video itself is not loading when uploading from my hard drive so I made a link from google gadgets. Enjoy.

Jazz, Flappers, Illegal Drinks, Great Depression vs Today

There we go a topic with a bit more meaning in my opinion, The Roaring Twenties! Kind of interesting of how banning drinks could bring up such cultural change. We got people from all kinds of class (rich, middle, and poor) mingling together in order to enjoy the life against the law. There are the flappers, women doing things and wearing less clothes (during its time), and expressing themselves. Last but not least, Jazz came to life as if became the music of the moment. Looking through American history I gotta say the 1920's sounded as if was paridise compare to Europe and its situation at the time.

Personally I enjoy jazz music along with blues and gospel even though I am not religious (lol). The beat itself gives it a mellow effect and yet you can't help but enjoy flow and beat as if you want to dance to it. During class, Santi mentioned about where Jazz came from. It made remember when I met this Black man on a base listening to Jazz. I believe I was seven years old and he would mention without blues and rag time the essence of Jazz would not of existed. Thinking back on it, I didn't quite understand what he meant that the black community started to rise up to society mainly because I was seven and some of my friends who were black would get into fights from being different. Europe was/is a bit more harsh from what I have experienced towards Blacks and what I am labled as "half-humans" so I figured they were still fighting for their freedom.

Oh btw, for those think I am saying Black to be racist, rest assured I am not. I just grew up in a neighborhood where you call out the person by their skin tone (white, black, brown, orange, coco cream, etc) and no one takes offense towards it. Then I come to America and then everyone tells me since I appear white I can't speak they way I normally could and my Turkish is that of Black slang thanks to my hometown. Yay... the only city in the entire country that speaks slang Turkish. However, I believe I have adapted well for the most part.

Sadly, after partying for 10 years the Roaring Twenties have ended with a horrible crash which is now known as the Great Depression. In my mind all I thought about was: "You would think when everyone does counter fitting on cash that they will know that they will screw themselves over in the next few years". Nope... instead people knew cash, cars, the moving pictures, were very important and if their neighbors did it, by gosh they got to do it as well. Jokes aside, yeah it was bloody horrible event that I will say is much more worse than the current economy we are experiencing... for now.

Sure America is suffering unemployment rate, but back in Turkey I have seen half the streets deserted and much more people dying from starvation. When the majority of Americans can't afford to buy food then I would agree that this current situation is equivalent to the Great Depression or probably even worse with the current technology today. Crops can still grow because the weather is decent for the most part unlike during the Great Depression dust bowls popped out destroying the soil and the food along with it.

For the most part I have the same fear that Santi does about violence solving the economics situation. Greece and Egypt are pretty good examples of the violence that could easily be seen in public world wide. Hell, even with Turkey I see more of my generation leaving the country because of the government situation along with the military, and the fact Turkey is slowly falling back in the traditionalist state. It may not be as clear in the popular cities for any country because they are trying not show any vulnerability, but  I can honestly say my hometown took one step froward then three steps back especially with the mafia and sex trade scandals that have been going on. It is getting to the point where some government officials are waiting for that one special event to have an excuse to fight back to solve the problem temporarily.

Anyway here are some links I have found. Enjoy

http://www.redhotjazz.com/originsarticle.html

http://www.ozsons.com/OriginofJazzE.htm (My god the website looks horrible. I find it sad that I could do a better job and I just started Online Production.)

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/speak.htm (Some of the slang is actually quite funny while others we still use today).

Madama ButterFly Barbie Style

So I noticed this post wasn't up so I am going to remake it slightly better. Let's see now... on that day we watched Opera and I made about 3-5 doodles. May sound mean, but it the only way for me to actually pay attention. If your curious of my doodles as some of my other professors are *cough* Chris *cough* you may look at them at www.little-raid.deviantart.com

Anyway, yes we have watched countless versions of operas. Now I appericated of all the work, such as the background designs, the effort of the singers, and all the stunts, but I am not much of an opera person. I prefer techno than classical. However, watching Madama Butterfly was pretty interesting. The music is in sync with the  story and setting the mood. I didn't watch the actual opera, but rather an animation. The emotions was raw and used different symbols of warning or a precursor, especially the butterfly itself. In Japanese culture they are known as the messenger butterfly, so the fact the butterfly flown around her in the beginning and the ending was quite appropriate. Though I know they did this on purpose, my fav part of the film is how they made the typical American by using a barbie doll style while the Geishan is made up by clay like material with stitching on their clothes.
Those who havn't seen the animation here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E387c5RAhK4

Over all, I prefer Broadway such as Phantom of the Opera or West Side Story, but who knows. The way this class is going I might enjoy the show of opera.... but then again.... after watching over 2 hours opera I had enough of it for the rest of the year.