epj project

I have setup and appointment with the Bat biologist from Missouri, Bill Elliot so that I can meet with him and learn more about white nose syndrome. I also hope to learn if he is currently tracking some bats and maybe I can follow him and get a picture of one of these bats.

I am also waiting for Roxy from the Rock Bridge Cave to send out an email letting me know when the Department of Natural Resources will say if it is ok to have wild cave tours in Rock Bridge.

I am excited to see this forward progress and I believe that I will be doing some shooting very shortly.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/index.html

For my Online Multimedia Critique I am looking at CNN’s Home and Away War Casualties multimedia piece. This is a breath-taking project put together that shows where many of the troops have died and their hometowns in the U.S.

This project gives details on how many troops died in the area, and then when you select an area you get a closer look at the names of those who died in each area. It gives a description of how each solider died, and it also shows a portrait of the solider if available.

Going through the navigation it looks clean, and the colors are perfect for the information. The project has a black background that outlines the project. And then the maps are a dark color.

One of my complaints about this project is the size. It is a lot of information, and it takes a little while to load. Sometimes when you pull up the site you will have random pop ups from their website causing the user to click refresh to bypass the pop ups.

I think it would be really interesting if they added a civilian tab. I would want to see where most of the journalists have died, and where some other contractors have been killed. This information would be much more difficult to obtain, but I believe it would be a very cool addition.

I believe this is one of the best multimedia projects I have seen yet, and it provides a great service for families or anyone in our country to appreciate those who are fighting for us.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/index.html

EPJ final Project Friday update!

I have recontacted Roxie at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park and I have learned that in April they will lead a class of 8th graders into Conner's cave inside the park. On May 1,2, 3 they will be taking a group of cub-scouts into the same cave giving them information about the cave and the dreaded white nose syndrome. Presently they are not sure if they will have open cave tours due to the spread of white nose syndrome, but they will know within the next two weeks. It is a fungus that will grow on the bats nose and wings and will waken them during their normal hibernation period. This will cause them to use their fats reserves and could lead to death. It has wiped out many bat populations in the east and it is slowly moving west due to humans, and bats.

I will be contacting the groups to ensure that I will have permission to use the images, and I have setup a meeting with Roxie to gather some audio for the project.

I am excited in moving forward to show the wonderful cave in this area, and I hope to inform others about the spread of white-nose syndrome.