Thursday, October 24, 2019

Thing 12: Making and sharing media

This things is about creating audio or video content using fairly simple tools that are readily available to most people with a PC.

Video podcasts can be taken on anything with a video recording capacity, and then edited using inbuilt software on the device (phones / camcorders)  or through applications (Windows Photo editor, or iMovie for Macs). Here's my attempt with that I've got at work...


In addition, screen-casts can also be recorded; these capture the activity on a computer screen and are really useful for tutorials and software demonstrations. There are screen cast tools available to download, but I've recently discovered the PowerPoint can do it:



Any way, that's all for this post! Thanks for your time :)



Thing 11: Finding presentations and podcasts

This Thing is about online learning content from presentations and podcasts.

I really enjoy listening to TED talks; they're often really well put together, and given by experts in the particular field to what the talk is about. Content like this is a really useful way for the average person, like my self, to get a glimpse into many different areas of science. For example, as a mechanical engineer, my knowledge on genetics is pretty awful, but none-the-less, I thoroughly enjoy listed to talks about genetic research, particularity issues relating to drug-resistant bacteria. I often listen to these talks on YouTube but through the TED site is just as good.

The OpenCourseWare from MIT on YouTube, also has some very high quality videos, even ones on musical improvisation (which I plan to check out later!).

For presentations, I've come across Slideshare a few times, and have found it useful for introductory and basic content for a verity of things. That being said, there are often little of no references for the figures of data used in the presentations I have seen, which limits the use of them to the starting point of an investigation into a topic.

More in-depth study can be found from online courses; Coursera and Futurelearn are both good examples of free courses. Corrosion is the crux of my EngD, and sadly only Coursera had a relevant course - 'Protecting the World: Introducing Corrosion Science and Engineering', but still there are many on Futurelearn that seem generally interesting too, such as The Many Faces of Dementia, or a series on learning Jazz Piano! (Also planning on checking that out...)

Thanks for reading, see you soon! Also, here's a picture of a mushroom that I took at the weekend - I think it's a Coprinus comatus!


Picture by Jacob Pimenta-Richardson (c)







Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Thing 10: Exploring images online

In this blog post we have been asked to take a look at some common online image sharing platforms, namely; Flickr, Pinterest, and Instagram. 

Having never previously come across Flickr, I found it rather interesting; similarly to google images, its great to be able to find photos of any particular subject.  Searching 'Cast Iron' on Flickr, I could soon see many photos of Cast Iron cooking utensils, bridges and other structures; what I particularly like however is the location tag and photograph information section - as a very casual photographer my self (I have a digital camera, sometimes I try and shoot in manual...), its really helpful to be able to see the settings more experienced photographers have used to take a particular shot.

Regrettably, all the cast iron photos I saw were copyrighted with all rights reserved, none the less, I investigated 'The Commons' section of Flickr. Here, I found many more photos of cast iron structures and utensils, but a great deal of these were very old! The Commons section shares photographs from historical records, and there is no copyright licence on them! In another search for Bees within The Commons I found this amazing photo of 'the worlds smallest plane (in 1948), the Wee Bee! 



I've not used Pinterest before but I have seen my friends use it. It seems really cool to have boards and pages dedicated to ideas and creations relating to your interests. If I were to make an account, it would probably consist of pages about cafe racer motorbikes, fish tanks, Lego Technic and nature stuff like birds, bugs and other interesting animals. But that's why I'm not creating an account for now. Truthfully I'm trying to cut down my time spent on social media. It is written that 'godliness with contentment is of great gain', and I think that if I were to create an account, I may spend more time thinking about what I don't have, than what I do! 

I had Instagram for a little while, and enjoyed sharing cool photos of flowers, leaves, other nature stuff that I came across during walks, or even on the university campus - it was nice for my mum to see the photos when away from home. But again, in an attempt to lessen social media time, I've put Instagram on the back-back-back burner - I now send the cool photos to mum via WhatsApp!

In addition to the media sharing platforms mentioned, others include; Google photos, Wikimedia, Commons, Photobucket, SmugMug, Shutterfly and Upsplash. The latter is particularly excellent as all of the photos are high quality and available for sharing!








Monday, October 14, 2019

Thing 9: Exploring Wikipedia

This Thing is about exploring Wikipedia; many who are my age will have memories of losing marks in their coursework for referencing or even directly quoting a Wikipedia page on a particular subject, but its usefulness has not diminished.

Around 10 years ago, when I was finished my GCSE's, Wikipedia was known among my teachers as a generally useful but unreliable source of information about many things. In recent history this has changed slightly as the quality of articles has largely increased due to the sites increased popularity.

There are of course still some erroneous articles out there as pages can be edited by any one, but this is also one of its strengths; from academia, professionals can edit pages from a highly experienced point of view; from recent historical events, eye witnesses can testify to the truth of a situation, or add their own experience.

Overall, Wikipedia is a great source of introductory and sometimes very detailed information. One criticism of mine is that articles often seem to get too complicated too quickly, using terms that the average person may not understand if researching a topic for the first time - I guess this is what text books are for!

For example, I do love gardening, and have recently potted some snow drop bulbs. Immediately from the Wikipedia page, I can discover that 'Galanthus' is their scientific name, which derived from gala (milk) and anthos (flower) in Greek. However, in the second paragraph, a sentence of reasonable complexity is already encountered:

"In the era of molecular phylogenetics this characteristic has been shown to be unreliable and now seven moleculary-defined clades are recognised corresponding to the biogeographical distribution of species."

To me, a very amateur gardener, this mostly goes over my head. None the less, the rest of the article goes on to describe some very useful information;  the general appearance and reproduction of the plants, their natural distribution, Taxonomy, Ecology, Conservation, Cultivation, Toxicity, Medicinal use, and their references in popular culture (one such reference is given at the end of this article!).  This information seems pretty reliable too, using 97 references, several of which are from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), a reputable organisation.

This all seems like quite a lot of information, but to attain it other wise, I may have to search several books, and even ask some experts - through Wikipedia, the experts can write the articles!

More practical information however, is best found at dedicated gardening websites.

To end, here's a poem by Walter de al Mare called The Snowdrop:

           Now — now, as low I stooped, thought I, 
           I will see what this snowdropis; 
           So shall I put much argument by, 
           And solve a lifetime's mysteries. 

           A northern wind had frozen the grass; 
           Its blades were hoar with crystal rime, 
           Aglint like light-dissecting glass 
           At beam of morning prime. 

           From hidden bulb the flower reared up 
           Its angled, slender, cold, dark stem, 
           Whence dangled an inverted cup 
           For tri-leaved diadem. 

           Beneath these ice-pure sepals lay 
           A triplet of green-pencilled snow, 
           Which in the chill-aired gloom of day 
           Stirred softly to and fro. 

           Mind fixed, but else made vacant, I, 
           Lost to my body, called my soul 
           To don that frail solemnity, 
           Its inmost self my goal. 

           And though in vain — no mortal mind 
           Across that threshold yet hath fared! — 
           In this collusion I divined 
           Some consciousness we shared. 

           Strange roads — while suns, a myriad, set — 
           Had led us through infinity; 
           And where they crossed, there then had met 
           Not two of us, but three.



                                                (Photo from Country file website)