"Dirty Jobs"

This is the first time I've watched an episode of Dirty Jobs. In this episode, we witness Mike Rowe as a crawfish picker. As I watched throughout this part, it reminds me of another show, How Its Made. Through the process, it surprised me of how many people are working on the job rather than having machines to it for them. The crawfishs are hand-picked, boiled and cleaned. I thought he was an amazing host for the show, because he tries his best to make it entertaining. Especially when he was making jokes in between interviews; before the crayfish were cooked, seemed like a funeral. The crayfish tails are kept for packaging, while the rest of it gets processed to become fertilizer which I thought was interesting. The only two machines used for this job was to clean them, boil them and vaccum-pack them. All the other jobs are done by hand. There was lots of B-Roll footage of Mike Rowe on the job used to keep the viewer's attention, rather than just having a long interview of how the job is done. I believe that this show is not scripted, because he interviews his interviewee on the spot while the scene is being shot which I think is very effective.

For more information: http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/dirty-jobs-crawfish-catcher.html

"Fighting terrorism in New York"

After September 11, 2001, New York police officers were all over the city and heavily armed. They were on land, in the air, and in the water. New York was one of the main targets for terrorists because its home to the stocks and major businesses.

All over the city, there are 2000 cameras that feed into an undisclosed location control center. Everyone is seen. In my opinion, I think this has a large impact to peoples' privacy. Everyone in the city is being watched 24/7, similar to having a cameraman follow you wherever you go. What really amazed me was the amount of technology they use and rely on to protect against terrorism. The cameras that feed into this super computer have artificial intelligence. It can detect if a package is left at a certain location too long, which I thought it was cool. One time, a lunch bag was dropped and it was picked up by one of the cameras. Bomb squad was called in and the area was locked off. They take everything very seriously. At one point of the interview, Ray Kelly mentioned of having New York police officers all around the world. I was very confused of why that is, since they were "New York" police officers. Turns out they were used to act as "trip wires/listening posts" to protect New York. An example shown was the Madrid subway explosion, New York's subway station were closely monitored. Technology was being relied on too much to help against the terrorism. As we all know, technology can fail upon us. The citizens in New York are living under fear, not knowing if they'll live today or die tomorrow. Terrorism has now been known and defined. Everyone is being watch/monitored by someone else without their consent.

For more information: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7382308n&tag=contentMain;contentAux

“Bowling for Columbine”

When we open a bank account today, we usually get something out of it. (eg. digital picture frame, tablet PC, etc.) In the States, where you can open a bank account and in return get a gun, that's ridiculous. What I got out of this documentary was that guns were used to promote violence. Violence seems to be the "solution" to your problems.

When Chris Rock mentioned about having bullet control rather than gun control, I agree with him. People are more easily accessible to guns. It shows how the police were unreliable and that we're all here to defend ourselves. Violence is caused by various reasons of issues. We need to find a solution to how we deal with our stress. In my opinion, violence is never the answer. It never solves the problem but escalates to another one. After the shooting the columbine, I feel that there are more shootings/lockdowns all around the world. Many people lost their lives to crazy maniacs that create emotional shock into students and staff. Time will never heal what was experienced. Watching the security videos with the calls to the 911 dispatch used as voiceover, I felt disgusted of what I'm witnessing. I felt that the students in these clips were helpless and didn't know what to do/react. How are we going to prevent this from happening in the near future? Schools were used to known to be a safe environment for kids and teens to learn. Nothing is usually done unless something significantly occurs. For example, if a certain intersection that does not have any traffic lights have significant amount of crashes, the city then decides to put one up. Nowhere in the world is considered "safe". The generations and society has changed due to the face that violence is now taken seriously to another level. But who/what is to blame? Media? Parents? It was interesting to see how the Columbine news story along with Marilyn Manson took all of the attention while it was taken off of the President of the bombings. It is understandable that news stories have to be prioritized for the viewer's attention. I felt that the media has played a significant role in society. The media and news were used to create the fear in people's minds. News stories were always negative and dangerous black males were accused for some crime.

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine