Courtship Behaviour I Intraspecific Relationships

Courtship behaviour is the term used to define mate-selection rituals. It displays a set of behaviours through which an animal attempts to attract a mate. The displays enable individuals to present their traits, such as size, colour, plumage, or abilities to a possible mate. These rituals are usually carried out by a male of the species and the female judges and either selects or rejects him based on the display. Courtship behaviours allow the female to select the best mate with the best features to pass on to the next generations. However, sometimes the female will select based on what they simply find attractive. An example of this is peacocks and peahens. Peacocks will display their tails and feathers while creating a rattling sound and showing off the bright iridescent colour of their tail. The female will then choose to mate with the peacock with the brightest and longest tail. They do this because a bright and well-groomed tail shows that the peacock is in good health. While the length and colour will show that the peacock has been able to survive predation for a long enough time to want to reproduce now. It shows that the peacock has the ability to survive and protect. The males have great reproductive success as they will be able to successfully attract females with their tails. The females will not be affected as they are the ones selecting the male. However, one situation where the females will be affected is if the numbers of peacocks decline due to predation (the survival rate of peacocks also decrease).     

Ethical principles: The Rights Approach

 Rights Approach

Ethical approaches are a rule or foundation that guides an individual/groups thinking about ethical matters. This has five fundamental approaches which are often referred to as the ethical decision-making frameworks.  The five approaches are virtue, utilitarian, Fairness or justice, the common good and the rights approach.

The rights approach states that an action or policy is only truly right if those affected by the decisions have freely and knowingly consented to treatment after being thoroughly informed about the consequences of the decisions. This means that can not be used as an instrument for moving forward to achieve another goal. 

In class, we had to make superheroes using playdough to visualise the principle of the rights approach. 

The hero (Dr Cure) is a scientist that wants to try a new medication to test its workability. Those in purple are patients who have come forward to be tested. However, before the trials begin, Dr Cure is thoroughly informing the patients about the positive and negative consequences that can be caused by taking the treatment. After listening to him, the patients have different attitudes towards trialling the medication now. This shows the right approach as patients have to be aware of everything that could affect them before they can agree to partake in the tests.

  

Abstract of a human evolution article

 "Lucy's Baby" - Worlds Oldest Child by James Owen

Lucy's baby was discovered in East Africa in an area known as the Cradle of Humanity. The skeleton belongs to the human species Australopithecus afarensis. The skeletal remains were found completed with a completed skull, full cranium and mandible. The baby also had an intact face. With further research into the teeth enamel, small fingers and other features, they found that the baby was approximately 3 years old when she died. She is named after the first ever found A. afarensis species, Lucy. However, Lucy's baby is known to be hundreds of thousands of years older than Lucy. She was known to live 3.3 million years ago while Lucy lived 3.2 million years ago. The finding of a baby helped provide significant insight into how human ancestors used to live. The finding did also arise further questions about when hominins actually became bipedal. 

Klara and the Sun: Review

Definition of new vocabulary words in articles about Klara and The sun:

Caricatures

A picture, description or imitation of a person in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect. 

Banal

Lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring

Obsolescence

The process of becoming obsolete or outdated and no longer used

Meritocracies

Government or the holding of power by people selected according to merit.

According to the New York Times article, the future pandemic world of Klara and the Sun is ominous and mysterious. The article brings up the terrible health decision made about Josie so that she could fit into her community. It even points out the similarities between their world and the current world we're living in. The online teachers, being 'lifted' and living in a world surrounded by pollution is everything that we are witnessing right now. The article also points out that Josie's mother does everything she can so that Josie can thrive in a doomed world. 

Close viewing practice scene

In the film Blade Runner 2049, the aspects of lighting and colour appeared effectively in the scene where K gifts Joi the Emanator. For instance, after Joi receives her gift, K and her go out in a secluded area for Joi to experience rain for the first time. During this scene, the use of colour and lighting has a significant effect on the scene. When they are out in the rain, there is a lot of dark blue and dull green colour surrounding them. Along with this, there is also low key lighting, making the scene look dim and dark. For most of this, we could only see Joi and K’s silhouettes because the lighting is dark enough that they almost blend into their background. The purpose of this was to show how Joi’s impact on K. When Joi and K are standing facing each other, the colours behind them is different. Joi is surrounded by a dull shade of green while K is standing in a dark blue. Green is often associated with balance, growth and change so it is conveying that Joi has a sense of balance and is a change to K’s life. On the other hand, blue has many meanings but in this scene, the blue is showing that K has a weakness and vulnerability that he only shows around Joi. The lighting in this scene is also very dark and seems like nobody would make out what Joi and K were experiencing. This makes it seem like this experience was a secret between K and Joi; a moment that only they can know. This was done to show that K can only show his emotions and true feelings to Joi because he would be judged on this. K is a replicant and Blade Runner which means that he needs to be a headstrong being that only knows how to kill replicants. This is why this scene is important because it shows that there is more to K than him being a Blade Runner. This also helps us understand how much K needs Joi because she is the only thing that is there for K. She is the only one that comforts him and makes him feel ‘real”. This aspect also effectively worked with diegetic sounds. When K and Joi are outside, the sound of the rain would’ve prevented other people from hearing what K and Joi were talking about. This makes the moment even more secretive and personal between the two. This is important because It shows us what K and Joi’s relationship is truly like.

Passion Project Reflection

 For my passion project, I researched the meaning of specific symbols in art. I had started by researching what common fruits, flowers and animals represented and made a list of the ones that I had liked best. During the research process, I had come across topics such as "How hell is depicted in Art" and had gotten distracted looking at different paintings from the 1300s to 1500s. 

My research was initially based around historical paintings but after a little research, I had come across Stained Glass art. From the beginning, I had thought of creating a piece of art to go along with what I had researched. I was going to recreate a painting from Michelangelo but I had come across the stained glass art by Louis. C Tiffany. As I had really liked his work, I decided to recreate one of his works on glass with paint and markers.

I really enjoyed recreating this piece because I really liked the artist works.  

English Scholarship Pathways Workshop

 Throughout the day, a group of students and I spent an hour with different English teachers and looked at different parts of literature. The topics we looked at are Narrative Theory, Rhetorical Theory, Philosophy, and Shakespeare. 

All of the topics that we looked at had amazing and interesting points that made me think or rethink what certain words really meant. Though all topics had interesting subjects; my personal favorite was Philosophy. During the topic, we discussed and played around with asking 'Why?' to statements and we were to ask as such until the other person can't think of an answer. I really enjoyed this because it made me think about many answers to a simple question. Doing this made me wonder how much I really knew.

Today was very interesting because all the workshops had different and interesting information to tell me. The workshop also showed me different perspectives of simple or 'logical' situations or circumstances.