Weekly news

It was reported on the BBC  News that 20 month old Alfie Evans whom suffers from a progressive neurological degenerative condition, that future treatment would be futile.

The child is said to be in a semi-vegetative state and has not been precisely diagnosed. The UK doctors said it would be inhumane to continue treatment.  It has also been said that scans show "catastrophic degradation of his brain tissue".

They believe mechanical ventilation should be stopped for Alfie whom was born May 2016.  Although, his parents and family disagree and want to keep him alive for as long as they possibly can, others of professional medical status think otherwise.

A similar case is that Charlie, whom had mitochondrial depletion syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes progressive muscle weakness. Unfortunately, Charlie died at 11 months old in a hospice.

I believe that this is a very sad and sensitive issue, that I hope gets treated as such.  Although, stopping treatment will allow the child a peaceful death, I also believe ultimately the parents should have the final say.

It does not surprise me that BBC News reports this story while seemingly taking the governments side concerning the matter as they are a right wing paper.

Hypodermic needle theory

The stereotype of muslims has been portrayed in an extremely negative light, especially since 9/11.  This has led to "islamaphobia".  Due to the reports of newspaper and commentary on social media platforms, most persons view muslims in a demeaning and negative light that may not be 100% accurate.  Most persons may see muslims as "terrorists" "extremely religious""abusive" especially towards their women, etc.  However, this may not be the case for all muslims.  It it wrong to cateogarise everyone under this denomination in the same negative light, and oppressing them due to their beliefs and customs.  There are some muslims and other cultures trying to bring positive light on that of islam, with some entering media as beauty gurus trying to empower other muslim women and show that they are also beautiful regardless of if their hair is covered.  Others, trying to show that not all muslims are terrorists and that they are not all immigrants and not all poor.  However, especially because of the government, who mainly seem stuck on deporting them, it does not help that they are using their influence to continue the oppression of muslims.  The extensive research used has not highlighted a single positive piece of information on anything about muslims or what has happened for them to reach where they are.

Video game terms

(1) Genre: A style or category of art, music or literature.

(2) Platform: A computer system made specifically made for playing video games.

(3) Action: Armed conflict

(4) Sport: An activity involving physical exertion and skill against another set of persons.

(5) Text adventure: a video game that uses text characters instead of bitmap or vector graphics.

(6) Simulation: Imitation of a situation or process.

(7) Combat: Fighting between armed forces.

(8) Strategy: A plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim.

(9) MMPORG: An online role playing game in which a very large number of people participate simultaneously.

(10) RPG: A role playing game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting.

(11) Sci-fi: Short for science fiction, dealing with imaginative concepts such as; futuristic science, technology, etc.

(12) Fantasy: The activity of imaging impossible or improbable things.

(13) Survival horror: A sub genre of video games, inspired by horror that focuses on the survival of the character as the game tries to "jump scare" players.

(14) FPS: Frames per second, a measurement for how many unique consecutive images a camera can handle per second.

(15) A game, toy or problem designed to test ingenuity or knowledge.

(16) Avatar: An icon or figure representing a particular person in a video game, internet forum, etc.

(17) Augmented reality: A technology that superimposes a computer generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view.

(18) Persistent worlds: A virtual world which continues to exist and develop internally even when there are no people interacting with it.  For example: Sims.

(19) Retro: Imitative of a style or fashion from the recent past.

Undertale (Video game)

Genre and conventions

The genre of this game is RPG(role playing game).

The avatar: The main character played by the user is that of a fallen child by which the user named.

The world and other characters: The world is based on an under ground world inhabited by monsters, while humans allegedly live on the surface.  The monsters are trapped under ground in fear of the humans after a war.  The main characters are: Flowey(an evil flower), Sans and papyrus(brother skeletons who are trying to capture yet help the main character), Mettaton( an evil karaoke machine that is one of the boss levels), Asgore (the king whom is the final box level to return to the surface), Asriel( the wife of ashore who finds the fallen human and takes them in as her own child), chara( the first human to have fallen into the underground world).

Controls and goals: z/enter=confirm, x/shift=cancel, c/CTRL=Menu(in game), F4=fullscreen, Hold ESC=Quit.  The overall objective of the game is to get the fallen child back to the surface and to explore the world.

This game is an online game and has recently become a multiplayer game.

The intertexuality of the game is that every option you take can lead to a different ending, as well as every character contributes to the story and what your options are.  It allows the user to interact as they please with characters within the game and have different outcomes.

Industry

The game was animated by Zorox but created by Toby Fox.  Toby Fox was originally a music composer for video games such as MS Paint adventures as well as hive swap.  He is also a contributor to profound waste of time magazine as well as now chosen for the 2018 games forbes 30 under 30.

Production and distribution:  The game was written and developed solely by Toby Fox, with only additional art done by additional artists.  It was released for Microsoft Windows as well as OS X, then later for Linyx and play station 4 and playstation vita.

Marketing and publicity: Away of marketing the game and getting it publicity was by use of well known gaming you tubers such as for e.g.; Jacksepticy, Pewdiepie, Markiplier,etc.  This was a way of not only getting feed back on the game but getting the game more known as these youtbers have millions of followers.

Reviews and feedback:  (1) Was seen at first with silly puns and cutesy but then had an unexpected twist that gave users a new perspective. (2) seen as brilliant and clever manipulation of gameplay mechanics. (3) seen as an imitation of real life and humans but that through monsters.

Social and cultural

Audience appeal; although  most enjoyed the game and found it witty and unexpected some found it boring and a waste of time.  Its colours and mechanics made the game enjoyable and fun for most.  Its representation is that of some human expressions and characteristics, it represents most persons in that of gender and personality.

The only ethical issue is the slight deception in the ending, the way it toys with the users emotions.  The not so innocent possible plot twist at the end that tugged at users hearts and emotions.

Overall, it is a wonderful game to watch and play, with an experience that leaves a mark on your heart and mind and possibly even your life.

Weekly News

In Leeds a 15 year old boy was detained for a car crash in which five passengers died.  The age range between 12-24.  The car was being driven at 88mph in which it finally crashed into a tree and reportedly "split in two".  The 15 year old who's identity has been kept confidential due to his age, has been detained for four and a half years and is not allowed to drive for at least seven years.

Many family members of the deceased are outraged, and do not think the sentenced given was enough. They have placed the blame onto this boy for the death and stealing of the car.

I think this is unreasonable, the adult who was one of the passengers should have stopped the boy, or at least one of the other(although much younger) passengers.  They did not, and allowed this to happen and as a result their lives were lost.  Although, this will affect the young boy for the rest of his life, i hope when he is released from prison that he is able to lead a some what normal life.

However unlike BBC News, the Manchester Evening News,  has reported that the age range is from 14-28, and stated that whether the ones killed were in the car or pedestrians are unknown.  As well as stated that two 15 year olds fled the seen before the police arrived, but however were successfully caught.

This shows how different sources give different views and sides to a story.  It shows that there is only a representation of what could of happened but not actually what happened.  How ever, similar the stories are there are major differences within important aspects of the information.

The statistic above shows the average death rate from car accidents over the years.  Although it shows a steady decline, and that is an improvement the amount of deaths is still too high.  Hopefully, as the years go by this continues to decrease and not increase.

weekly news

                                        

An Oxford university dropout who was accused of rape has had the charges dropped after being o nail for the past two years.  It is said that he is a chemistry scholar, and was told that prosecutors would offer no evidence against him just before his trial.  Apparently, there have been unnecessary delays concerning this case, for the past two years and has therefore been dropped under such circumstances.

This is the fourth time is four weeks that a rape case has collapses under such circumstances.  The judge has demanded an explanation from head of CPS rape and sexual offences unit within the next 28 days as to why it has taken so long.  The accused has suspended his study after allegations have been made.

This is similar to recent stories, especially that of Brock Turner in which he was only sentenced to serve three months of jail, due to sexual assault charges.  Most of these news articles that have reported these stories always make the suspect/convicted seem like they are less of a criminal than they actually are by mentioning; their education, their age or something to provoke emotion, meanwhile not mentioning anything about the victim and what they might be going through.

Unfortunately, persons like this and cases like this still go by without the proper punishment, and leaving the victims without proper closure.

The source is BBC News, known to be quite right wing therefore showing the accused in a more innocent light.

weekly news update

                                         
The largest construction company Carillion is under the weight of a £1.5bn debt pile.  Despite discussions between  lenders and the government  no deal was reached to save the company.

Because of the amount of government contracts the company holds such as building hospitals, managing schools, as well as the employment of 20,000 employs within the UK and 43,000 staff world wide(countries such as; Canada, middle east and the caribbean).

As Carillion is one of the largest private sector companies, it has worked on Battersea power station redevelopment, and a supplier of maintenance services to the Network Rail.  Therefore, as the company collapses, the services they provide will also cause the maintenance and servicing of these other companies to drop severely making it unsafe for others.

 

Due to the above statistics, it shows the amount of debt owing and how it has increases over the years as well as it gives a visual representation of how much their share price has plummeted.

The reason as to why it is said this will cause "massive disruption" is because of the damage it will cause to the public sector as well as the thousands of jobs that will be lost and causing person to be jobless and now having to look for other ways to survive in this already harsh economy.

The opinions of outsiders on the matter is that: "Carillion look like it's trying to bail out a supertanker with a soup spoon.  Despite the group's best effort debt is continuing to climb, and at an increasing rate, while the construction business seems to be hitting one hurdle after another".

In my opinion the business should make all its staff redundant and make itself insolvent, or sell its most valuable assets to make up as much money as it can for the sake of its staff.

The news source is BBC News, which has a very right wing and political outlook on stories, and typically reports these kind of things.