The Cove, Japan’s Dirty Dolphin Killing Secret (entire documentary)

October 13, 2010August 4, 2013Digital Citizen 15 Comments

Each September to February, a nasty dolphin hunt takes place off the coast of Japan in a little village called Taiji (tai-jee), where most of the 20,000 dolphins and porpoises killed off Japan are done annually. The Cove, winner of multiple international film festival awards including Oscar for Best Documentary in 2009, exposes what goes on in Taiji and how Japan manipulates little bankrupt countries to support its whaling cause and empire through the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Courageous to film undercover, inspiring and shocking to watch, this film is having some effect on public awareness of the issues, from brutal senseless killings to mercury poisoning in the food and fraud by selling worthless dolphin meat as expensive whale meat. You might also learn a thing about being coy and manipulative in empire building, as well as dedication and heart in pursuit of a cause through Ric O’Barry and others’ efforts to expose this annual massacre.

Despite all the public praise and awareness this film has been getting, the issues raised could always use a little more attention because they’re still killing dolphins in Taiji as I write in October. Well, this little site of mine gets some decent attention, so here is the movie in case you haven’t seen it. Thanks to whoever uploaded the entire thing on Tudou in high quality, and even added English and Japanese subtitles, where it needs to be known!

Synopsis
Academy Award® Winner for Best Documentary of 2009, THE COVE follows an elite team of activists, filmmakers and freedivers as they embark on a covert mission to penetrate a remote and hidden cove in Taiji, Japan, shining a light on a dark and deadly secret. Utilizing state-of-the-art techniques, including hidden microphones and cameras in fake rocks, the team uncovers how this small seaside village serves as a horrifying microcosm of massive ecological crimes happening worldwide. The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery, adding up to an unforgettable story that has inspired audiences worldwide to action. THE COVE is directed by Louie Psihoyos and produced by Paula DuPré Pesmen and Fisher Stevens. The film is written by Mark Monroe. The executive producer is Jim Clark and the co-producer is Olivia Ahnemann.

Please come back later if you’re not catching news of this at a time when you have 90 minutes to spare and watch. You can spend 90 minutes doing a lot of worse things in life.

The Cove’s website for more information on the film and cause.

Take part in helping save the dolphins as promoted by The Cove.

Colbie Caillat Singing the Best US National Anthem I’ve Ever Heard

September 10, 2010September 10, 2010Digital Citizen 4 Comments

My annual list of Best New Songs I Heard is usually reserved for songs I had never heard before. Sometimes, I throw in songs I had heard before, but never nearly as good that a version I just heard for the first time. This song falls in that second category, though it doesn’t quite have the gap for me to put on my list this year because of how many great versions I have heard in the past. Still, it was good enough that I know, for me, it was the best rendition of this song that I have ever heard among the many I have heard.

The Star Spangled Banner is played at so many events I watch, on television or in person, that I am sure I have heard over 1000 renditions of it over the years. Naturally, there have been some outstanding versions among them, as well as some pretty grotesque ones. To me, though, Colbie Caillat’s version at the opening game of the National Football League season between the Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints was the best rendition of the song I have ever heard. Sorry, I don’t know the guitarist’s name.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

She sung it quietly and built it, without having to rely on volume power to peak. She didn’t need more drums or instruments to come in, or additional parts, either. She just rocked it gently a tad more each time and achieved the effect. That’s a hard thing to do!

The television footage of the players and crowd were also inspiring, and credits go to the NBC camera crew for capturing all that. Lots of players and coaches with hands over their heart, standing pretty still mostly, too. I also liked the shot of Jared Allen with the helmet held high. The New Orleans fans deserve credit for being in such solemn attention. A little cheer here or there in the right places can have just as good an impact as a roaring crowd all the way through like at some events. But you know, the right rendition will help you be like that to listen and be proud rather than not pay attention for any number of reasons.

All and all, I thought it was just superb. Too bad the online version I have above had the image and sound timing just a tad off to make it look like Colbie badly lip synced it.

I saw some online articles today on the rendition by Colbie Caillat. She’s got the Net talking about it, that’s for sure. There were likes and dislikes, and loves and hates, as to be expected. However, I’ve got to say the reasonings given for those who didn’t like it weren’t very sound. If the reasonings those people generally gave were valid, they should just go plunk it out on an out of tune synthesizer, or just get their computer to mechanically play it. They should appreciate how flexible their national anthem is that they could think so poorly of such a performance and yet, some people like myself think it’s the best rendition they’ve ever heard!

Leave me a comment with some other favourite renditions of the Star Spangled Banner if you care to share. Thanks!

Meanwhile, I’m going to look up some more of Colbie’s music. I had never heard of her till last night, but man, did she impress and got a new fan for that performance!

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 7.5

Generation One (G1) Decepticon Cartoon Avatars, Buddy Icons and Profile Pics for Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo and Other Applications

July 27, 2009March 19, 2011Digital Citizen Leave a comment

The Generation One Autobot icons below appeared in the cartoon series from 1984 to 1986. Their names have a double digit after them indicate the year of their debut. History and most of the artwork were courtesy of Adam Botch the Crab’s Transformers Box Art Archive. More information on each Autobot can be found at the archive or Wikipedia. In the latter, there a pretty good sized entry for most of the Transformers! It’s all very fascinating if you love the franchise, though rather violent with the comic book sagas where Transformers have their heads blown off, literally!

I have added a bit more punch to most of the artwork scans (i.e. a tad more contrast and saturation). I have also converted them to 256 pixel square pictures, with the graphic as large as possible, for use as avatars, buddy icons and profile pictures. You can use these pretty much for any application, including blogging avatars, since most don’t need a graphic as large as 256 pixels. Facebook and MySpace tend to max that out.

To get an icon:

Click on the thumbnail you want to get it at full size
(there is NO grey trim on the downloadable picture).
Right click on that picture and save to your computer.
Upload it to your Facebook or other profiles.
Click the Back button on your browser to come back to here or click the thumbnails below the picture to move on to the next picture.
Come back another day whenever you feel like using a new one, or download them all now!
Please click here for a complete list of avatars, buddy icons and themed Facebook profile pictures on this site (see blue header near bottom of destination page).

Please click here to see all the Transformers products (Generation One and Movie) on this site, which include:

Avatars, buddy icons and Facebook profile pictures
Collectible Trading Cards (print like regular 6″ x 4″ photo)
Facebook tagging pictures
Posters (18″ x 24″)
Wallpapers of many sizes

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 8.1

Family Guy, Disney and Penguins Facebook Tagging Meme Pictures

March 7, 2009March 19, 2011Digital Citizen 7 Comments

Please check out the 73 Penguins avatars and buddy icons created from the Penguins Facebook picture tagging memes below!

Here are some more Facebook tagging meme pictures I haven’t been able to find anywhere else easily, so I’ve put them on my blog. I created the Family Guy version, with relatively few characters compared to others I created thus far. However, I was only able to find graphics of those 8 characters with white backgrounds and that’s enough work to assemble them, label them and such for me on one post. It’s for the Family Guy fans, which I don’t think are quite at the level of the other meme themes (see links below), but I’ll let the download stats speak for themselves. It’s also for people who don’t have time to tag 25 people, or daring ones who not only have their family as friends, particular Parents, but will also tag them! This is also the first time I created a pictorial Facebook meme with personality traits rather than straight character names.

The other two meme pictures here are Disney characters and Penguins (somebody need to enlighten me on the cartoon franchise from which they came). The first penguins version I created. The others I only slightly optimized ratios and edited out one extreme expletive that was simply gratuitous, and it wasn’t even funny. I’m glad someone did the personality labeling for Disney characters because I sure didn’t want to try. I had thought about a Disney set but passed it up due to too many characters without prominent distinguishing personality traits. As for the Penguins set, not knowing anything about it really, it’s just included. Here’s how you get any of these graphics for Facebook: