Individual Project - Project NOAH

Joben Ryan A. Padre

2013-42972 / BS Civil Engineering

Individual Project in STS / THY

PROJECT NOAH

The Philippines has the capacity to foster digital humanitarianism during times of calamities and this is why we should utilize both social media and telecommunications to help aid during disasters.

            A concrete example of a program with this objective is the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards, otherwise known as Project NOAH, which is spearheaded by DOST in partnership with PAGASA, PHIVOLCS, and UP NIGS (The Official Gazette).

            NOAH is a software which was conceptualized by Dr. Alfredo Mahar Lagmay and the project’s main office is located at the NIGS of UP Diliman, Quezon City. It is made up of different components that specialize on various disasters that could possibly strike the country.

            The application, which is both available on computers and smart phones, presents data collected from various automated detectors in different areas in the country. These detectors instantly send their findings every ten minutes to the headquarters via telecommunications and these data are then classified and interpreted by the Project NOAH staff (Mr. Leo Jao, Interview).

            One of the parts of Project NOAH is its landslide mapping feature which identifies how much earth is going to crumble at a specific time and place.

            Another component was the storm surge inundation mapping which points out the places lying on the seashore which are prone to waves reaching three to five meters due to low pressure areas forming in the ocean. This specific tool of the app gives an estimate on how high the current would become, hence warning the residents, especially fishermen, living near these affected areas (Google Apps Play Store).

            The application also includes the recently launched DREAM project spearheaded by UP Diliman which is a state of the art light detection and ranging device that uses lasers in producing an aerial view of the country with excellent resolution (Mateo). The device is so powerful that Project NOAH can use this component in assessing various calamities (Valencia).

            Next is the “floodnet”, a forecast of floods in various places. These are predicted through Doppler data, an instrument of PAGASA used in analyzing how much rain a certain cloud can pour. There are also sensors found in mountains and rivers in high places in that measures the stream current in order to estimate how much water would go to the lowlands (The Official Gazette).

Project NOAH’s positive effects are already being experienced by our countrymen, and the results are astonishing. For example, in the recent onslaught of the southwest monsoon, Marikina was again on the brink of being in a state of calamity. However, Dr. Lagmay informed the city officials of Marikina beforehand regarding how much water was on its way from the highlands. Officials quickly took action and warned their constituents. Despite the large volume of flood that struck the city, no deaths were tallied (S&T Media Service).

            The Project NOAH application also curtails a feed from the Twitter account of PAGASA. This stream of updates are also well devised, since the tweets use hashtags in order for them to be classified well according to the place concerned (Jao).

            We are now experiencing the fruits of using social media and mobile phones in disaster preparedness, awareness, and response and the best is yet to come if we continue to maximize our technological resources for the alleviation of the damages done by these disasters.

REFERENCE LIST

Jao, Leo, 2013. Personal Interview. 6 Sept. 2013.

Mateo, Janvic, 2013. “UP leases plane for NOAH project with DOST.” The Philippine Star, 26 May 2013. http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/05/26/946393/leases-plane-noah-project-dost/. 9 Aug. 2013.

“Project NOAH.” Google Apps Play Store, 27 July 2013. http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ph.gov.dost.noah.android&hl=en/. 9 Sept. 2013.

“Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazzards)." The Official Gazette, n.d. http://www.gov.ph/about-project-noah/. 22 Aug. 2013.

S&T Media Service, 2013. “Marikina leaders laud Project Noah, Pagasa for city’s zero casualty during ‘Maring’.” Business Mirror, 24 Aug. 2013. http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/en/features/green/18370-marikina-leaders-laud-project-noah-pagasa-for-city-s-zero-casualty-during-maring/. 9 Sept. 2013.

Valencia, George Robert III, 2013. “DOST’s Dream project takes off.” Department of Science and Technology, 27 Nov. 2012. http://www.dost.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&;view=article&id=1194:dosts-dream-project-takes-off-&catid=1:latest&Itemid=1509 Aug. 2013.

Frankenstein

by Fidel Delos Reyes
2009-31842

I think that the biggest moral issue in this film is the notion of scientists playing God. At the time that this movie was made at around the early-mid 1900's and the books publication in the early 1800's, people were seeing the rapid advancement in the fields of science. It is not surprising for one to think, how far will science be able to go? The act of bringing the dead back to life already has its moral issues, but resurrecting the dead with parts from different corpses and using science to animate it? You will have a moral headache. The problem that a lot of religion would have with this film is the idea of the soul. Will the resurrected person obtain its soul from the previous owner of the body? if so, which one? or does it even have a soul? people think that this is an act crime against nature because the dead should remain dead. This is a common theme in a horror film because it is hard not to imagine what kind of life you will live when you are turned into a zombie like creature. I think that the scariest thing in the movie is that it is a science fiction, because if the creature was resurrected by magic it would have turned out differently. But because he was resurrected by science there will always be this thought that maybe, just maybe this can really happen in the future.
I think that the movie made him dumb so that he will be stripped away of communication and reasoning. The villagers in the movie feared the creature due to its appearance and because the creature could not really tell them what he is due to the inability to speak the people got frightened for the hideous thing that they don't know. it worked well because it made the film showed how people are frightened for things that they don't really understand and can easily think that it is a threat to them.

We Make Our Own Monsters (Frankenstein)

Jonathan Idolor

2013-14792

Science has always tackled life. Whether the study of diseases and death or birth and life, many driving questions for researches are on the mystery of living. Frankenstein, like other scientists, was curious about life. On the advent of the discovery of electricity, he decided to combine dead parts of human bodies, put them together, add some electricity, and he has life.

                It was portrayed to be dumb, just like a child that has just entered an unfamiliar world. Like a child with an extremely overpowered body, a brute that didn't know how to control itself yet, quickly labeled a monster due to its lack of understanding. This life, which has just come into the world, was afraid of all these foreign surroundings and the things it didn't know. In the book, Frankenstein, himself, rejected his own creation. Given these circumstances, you can’t really blame the creature to lash out physically. But the people, faced with something that could overpower and kill them and couldn't talk properly, were afraid and hastily labeled it as a monster and justifying its destruction.

                Yet it learned. And we could see that all it wanted, like any other human being, was to be accepted and be happy. Here we see science as a power to create and destroy; a source of grief wherein a monster is created to live in a world of misery and rejection, but also a source of happiness from which he could have a partner to live with. We also see the morality in a monster, although it may still be a rough display of it, in wanting to love and protect. On the other hand the consequences of the actions of the people have led to their own dismay, making an enemy out of someone who just needs a friend.

‘Til Death Do Us Part-Reaction Paper on the Bride of Frankenstein

I have heard of 'Frankenstein' since I was a kid. Since then, I have known Frankenstein as an icon of Halloween, someone to be scared of. But I haven’t really read the story of him.

I didn't watch well the movie and as I have searched for summaries of “The Bride of Frankenstein”, authors would associate Frankenstein to be the modern prometheus. In the movie “Prometheus Bound”, the god Prometheus was also associated to the status of science and technology in the society.

Before, I thought that Frankenstein was the monster in the story, but only lately I have known that it’s ‘the monster of Frankenstein’. Frankenstein is one of the early films of science fiction. It deals with man’s curiosity towards everything, even creation of man.

The monster of Frankenstein was also  perceived to be dumb. He was made so to look less human. He thinks life an infant with no knowledge of what is happening in the world, and his dumbness only causes disaster. It worked and was carried out all through out. It again showed the limitations of science and how things can go unpredicted.

Creation is a work of God, and only Him can judge who will live and who will die. Frankenstein shows how science reaches its limits. There is a definite line that separates science from morality; science is bounded by morality. If science crosses this boundaries, effects would be disastrous and unpredictable. Scientist shouldn’t device a way to break the effect of death; ignorance of these would backfire a great effect in the society. Morality should be put into consider first as to it is responsible for the rest of mankind. Because if life could be renewed, if there would be a second chance to, then what importance would human give to their lives?

Xavier Noel Briones

2013-41022

A Play on Morality

by Jovialis Jill N. Yeung (2013-72341)

In the movie, the monster was a violent being, with the emotional maturity and intelligence of a 10 year old, unlike in the book where it was learned.

The monster was made dumb probably to emphasize the cruelty of people towards things they cannot understand (since the monster couldn't communicate properly his intentions towards the villagers were lost and so was rejected because of his appearance). The pain drove him to seek happiness from a female companion and so blackmails Frankenstein into making him a bride. Frankenstein makes one but when the bride rejects it too, the monster urges Frankenstein and his wife to escape telling them "You live!", while self-destructing the lab (trapping him, the female monster, and Pretorious) and telling them "We belong dead". Frankenstein was doing everything for his wife's safety while neglecting to consider the consequences of his actions, the monster knows this so it frees him, not blaming him for what happened since the monster also knows that it's not something that's supposed to exist in the world.

On the other hand, the monster in the book sought out a female partner since as he tells Frankenstein, "I deserve happiness just as much as any man". Frankenstein reluctantly agrees, it is his responsibility since he was the one who created the monter. But right before he brings the bride to life he is struck with horror at the thought that the world might be overrun by monsters if he were to allow his creation to breed and so destroys the bride. The monster is furious and for revenge kills Frankenstein's wife. Frankenstein chases the monster to Antarctica but doesn't kill it, and dies on board a ship. The monster grieves over Frankenstein's death, saying that now it's even more alone in the world than ever before and so kills itself too, by drifting off into the ocean, never to be seen again.

In both the book and movie, the creation of life using Science is considered a taboo, it's unnatural and immoral. The characters struggle over their priorities, between their own personal happiness and society. In the end though, sacrifices were made for the greater good.

All you need is love

by: Maricella D. Valdivia 2013-55498

               The Bride of Frankenstein, although it's displayed in black and white, made me speechless before going home. It's not because of the monster, nor the setting, but because I consider it a morality play, and also because of the values it reminded us -- yes, it's 'reminded' since I'm positive that we were taught of it. Even though Frankenstein's monster raged and became a real monster, making Frankenstein regret that he made him, he still have a heart.
               I believe that every bad guy has their inner goodness, just for example the scene in Tangled, we can see the other side of a villain when all we see is their bad side(see video).

And as for the monster of Frankenstein, we witnessed his gentleness when someone treated him properly, like a real friend. He experienced the feeling of being appreciated and being accepted by humans even though he belongs to the dead. There is so much "feels" for the part when a tear dropped from his terrifying eyes. But then he was captured and took away from the man who made him feel special. Then there's this scientist who desires to create more monsters and to resurrect the dead, and had met Frankenstein's monster, who is so desperate for love and attention, thus making the scientist pursue in making the perfect bride for him with the help of Frankenstein. But after all the hard work, the bride was scared of the monster and didn't love him. The scientist by the way isn't concerned about the good of the people, but rather than the power and fame.

               There are so much reminders in this film, but the thing that struck me the most was the fact that even a monster wants acceptance. This can be applied in real life, real humans who are rejected by humankind. Those people who are criticized and judged by other people, thus affecting the way the person lives. So what if we imagine that we all have the same faces, same race, same language, same in every aspect, then who are we to judge? But then again we're not, so instead of judging people on the way they look or the way they act, just accept them, and if you can love them, love them. Since it is written in the bible in John 13:34-35 - "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." If people loved each other like brothers and sisters, not caring of the physical appearance, there won't be lonely people that are more prone of doing evil things. But I think it's too late for Frankenstein's monster, since in the first place, all he need was love.

The Monster with a Heart

Joben Ryan A. Padre

2013 - 42972

The story of Frankenstein’s Monster is one of the most widely known horror tales with a plot influenced by science. Viewers, especially those in the 1900’s, were absolutely thrilled and horrified at the concept of the movie because the implication of science makes any story more realistic. Science can make the impossible possible and vice versa.

This was the case with “The Bride of Frankenstein” as the story tackled scientists who created living beings which were regarded by people as monsters. Indeed, science has done a huge part in shaping the concept of Frankenstein’s Monster and also influenced how people reacted to it but the story also presented science is its own perspective. The film showed that science can make a person divine in terms of creation since Frankenstein was able to make two living creatures. This ability can be associated to God’s power. However, along with the concept of morality, religion is a subjective manner and can vary with different people. The movie showcased a storyline wherein the main characters are in a constant struggle of what is right or wrong and what they need and want. Frankenstein somewhat knew what is good and bad but he did everything for the person he loved.

Surprisingly, regardless of how ruthless the Monster is portrayed in the film, it still showed signs of kindness, friendliness, and the capability to sacrifice himself for the good of many at certain points of the story. In my opinion, as the Monster was given the ability to speak in the film, we were able to truly understand how he feels. We saw that the Monster had feelings too, and that he needed a Bride to make him happy. Though it appeared as if the Monster was made dumb, I think he actually just wanted to be happy but he wasn’t able to distinguish right from wrong. The Monster was depicted in the movie as a creature with real feelings and this made him genuine.

The Monster may be morbid and scary, but we were still able to somehow connect with him because just like us, he has feelings too. He may be man-made, but one can make the argument that the Monster has a heart like us.