Conrado Alfonso Favis - Reaction Papers

Favis, Conrado Alfonso
2012-01572

Sir Juned Sonido STS X2

Reaction Paper on Life of Mammals

The documentary Social Climbers and Food for Thought by David Attenborough relates the progression of mankind with the observation of the recognized mammal similar to human beings which are the monkeys. The first documentary focuses on the similarity between monkeys and the humans. It’s not just the physical form that somehow resembles a monkeys to humans but also their various behavior like communicating with one another in order to form groups that will enable survival but may post a competition for resources, how monkeys pass their ingenuity to others that later forms their culture, how they use their intelligence to hunt and gather food, how they acknowledge difference in gender and the role they pose on the community, how they also create a social status, and many other things which are shockingly similar to what we have in our societies. The second documentary focuses on how mankind progress by theorizing that we came from the monkeys and we chose to leave the life of a monkey and became humans. They explained that one of the debated theories of how the ancient civilization of Mayans was wiped may happen again in our time. The fourth theory that may have caused the Mayans to be wiped out is that the resources can no longer sustain the population and since they didn’t have the right knowledge on agriculture to solve the problem.

My impression on the first documentary was that monkeys really resembles a human just look at their hands and compare to ours that all explains it but the documentary presented more similarities that I was completely shocked that the monkeys do what we are capable of other than the physical resemblance. I was really amazed on how they can form large groups and survive all together by helping each other out like what we humans do on our society. But I still don’t believe that our ancestors are the monkeys because I still have many questions on that theory which are not yet explained clearly. I still think having similarities don’t make it a reason to be related in origin or in some other things because if we see it that way then we can state that we are related to coals and diamonds since they have carbon too. Thinking about it more maybe it’s the other way around maybe that the monkeys came from us well who knows right. The second documentary was okay I guess, just drop the theory that we came from monkeys. I was really amazed by how far the humans used nature for their advantage, manipulating the environment just to produce the right kind and amount of food is really amazing and scary at the same time. Amazing, because of the broad things we can do with our knowledge and what we can do when faced with problems. Scary, because of the things we are sacrificing and what we are neglecting just to get what we need or just to get what we want.

Favis, Conrado Alfonso
2012-01572

Sir Juned Sonido STS X2

Reaction Paper on Birding

            Birding is a more popular term for Bird Watching. Bird watching can be done as a hobby or in scientific purposes. It is best done very early in the morning as the birds are diurnal meaning they are active during the day. Bird watching can be a lot of work if done scientifically because what the scientist do in order to gather data is to literally count birds and identify them in a given place in a restricted time. This procedure takes a lot of time because the data for it to be accurate, the procedure is done every day and may take many years to accomplish. There are some ways and tips to do Birding more efficiently like have a good camera if you want to take into bird photography and you can walk randomly just to bird watch or stay at one place and conceal yourself and wait for the birds to arrive which is best done near a tree with lots of food on it. So what are the benefits of Bird Watching? Bird watching is the most efficient way to measure the community diversity. It is a way to study how healthy the ecology is in a place. Since some studies proved that renovating a forested area into an urban place took an immediate effect on the population of the birds we can say that the birds are directly affected by the destruction of the forests.

            My reaction to the topic is that when our group tried Bird Watching I thought it would be so tiring and might even be a waste of time but as I walked the grounds of the Science Complex in the University of the Philippines Diliman I began to notice how rich my University is in terms of different kinds of birds. I saw some which I am not familiar with the name but I can recognize as a unique kind compared with the everyday Mayas. Every day as I walk from one class to another I notice them but failed to appreciate them but now because of the activity I become more aware of their existence and the beauty they pose to our environment. I would say that with proper ways we can increase their population like planting more trees and planting specific trees to the need on some specific kinds of bird, lessen the destruction of the forest by turning it to urban places, we should also built some bird fountain so that we can interact more on these creatures and understand them better because with better relationship with them produces compassion and with these compassion, empathy and sympathy will grow and thus can help save the ones which do matter a lot. I think that the birds that I see now will hopefully be seen by the generations after because birds are beautiful. I hope they can feel also the moment when we wake up and hear the chirping sounds of the birds which become so comfortable and make my mornings more meaningful.       

Favis, Conrado Alfonso
2012-01572

Sir Juned Sonido STS X2

Reaction Paper on “A Beautiful Mind”

            A Beautiful Mind is a movie about a mathematician named John Nash who suffers from a mind disorder called schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is an illness in the mind which is characterized by hallucinations which seem to be reality. The causes of this kind of illness are extreme prolonged depression and lack of social empathy. John Nash is a good mathematician he is known for his contribution on the theory of equilibrium and the Game theory. Surprisingly his disorder started when he was still a student in Princeton and no one took notice. In the movie he thought he had a roommate which becomes his best friend. When John Nash was now a professor in some company he met the cousin of his not real roommate which is little girl and the most terrifying delusion of all he met a secret US Government official named William which made his life miserable as William ordered many works and much of these are code breaking that he said a way to defeat Russia. With the work that William had given to John Nash the situation got more dangerous and causes John Nash to panic and by that exposing his illness to his wife. His wife took him to a psychiatrist and made John Nash took Insulin shock therapy and later just made him took pills to ward off the illness. John Nash eventually lived with the illness and not completely cured, He manage to ignore the three delusions his mind created and in the end he was awarded with a Nobel Prize because of his hard work and magnificent contributions to mathematics.

            The purpose of the movie for me is to inspire because despite the illness of John Nash he manages to get a Noble Prize and manage to help others. The three delusions actually represent John Nash’s desires. His first delusions appeared when he lost a game to a real friend. The first delusion represents John Nash’s desire to have someone to back him up and respect him. The second delusion which is a little girl represents John Nash’s desire to have a family and the final most powerful delusion was William which  represents John Nash’s desire to be important, he desperately wants his job to be important thus creating a scenario in his mind that his job is between life and death. These delusions might not happen if the people around him took notice and also cared for him. Sometimes all it takes is just to notice people who are in need of your presence and all worst things might be avoided but in the movie only his wife and later his so called rival cared for him which was really the most beautiful thing in the movie. Focusing more in John Nash’s wife we can see that she is really a strong woman and also a loving one since she never left John Nash even though she suffers twice as much as John Nash.