Summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hormone

The use of HGH and anabolic steroids in athletes and bodybuilders goes further than the massive lumps of muscle that are packed on to these human behemoths. The use of these drugs and enhancers show that society has a set standard for both performance and physical beauty. HGH and anabolic steroids are considered to make someone look more beautiful due to the fact they provide a muscular figure which we consider natural. While this is completley the opposite of what they do. Tripling the amount of HGH in the body is in no way natural (Or healthy). Perhaps the use of these drugs shows the distortion that modern society places on natural beauty.

CryEngine 3: By Crytek

Summary: http://www.crytek.com/technology/cryengine-3/specifications/


The CryEngine is the next engine to be used in video game technology, supplying the best graphics and physics in any virtual reality to date. This cultural artifact reflects that value that people place in aesthetic beauty even if it's within a videogame. The amount of time and effort put into thist engine just to simulate a realistic world/environment shows that we as people place so much value in nature that we believe it should be pleasing to the eye in more than just nature itself. Perhaps this shows that technology brings us closer to nature rather than seperates us?

"Animal Farm" by George Orwell

Animal Farm Summary: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/animalfarm/summary.html

I never really saw this book as anything more than a book that rebelled against the idea of communism, being a freshmen in highschool, I look back now and realize alot of things I never noticed. But after four more years of education I see some parts behind this book that I couldn't help but wonder about and come up with some formulated conclusion. George Orwell, in his book "Animal Farm", used animals to potray diffrent characters and class groups in the Russia's revolution to become the Soviet Union. Using animals to potray such monumental characters and social classes seems twisted, in my own opinion. I assert that the use of animals as Lenin, Stalin, Marx, and other revolutionists seems to be an attack on their ideas and morals. While I can agree Stalin lacked any sort of human morality, the use of animals to potray these men is not just an attack on their status. In using animals as the characters of the Russian Revolution, it shows that we have a view that animals are more simplistic than humans. While the characters in Animal Farm reflected hugley complex actions in history, they brought the revolution into a much simpler perspective by using animals as way to group up diffrent groups in history. Take for example the Boxer, the horse, who represents the working class. Horses are defined as working animals and are commonly thought as the loyalist of all farm animals (Boxer was always mentioned for how hard working and loyal he was). In addition to Boxer, were the pigs who represented the revolutionists, nationalist, and eventually the ruling animal of the farm. Pigs are often considered to be of high intelligence and most similiar to humans. By Orwell using animals to simplify the story and create assumptions of characters I attest that the use of animals in "Animal Farm" shows that we have a passive opinion that animals are more basic that humans.

28 Days Later

Movie Summary can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289043/plotsummary

I assert that "28 Days Later" holds a hidden message behind the action. Looking at the way the disease was spread to the open public, animal rights activists freeing infected chimps from a lab, I believe that the movie proposes the question of how much value we place in nature and other humans. Two scenes in the movie which support this claim are when the group of survivors are observing a stable of horses and when Frank becomes infected. During the scene where they were watching the horses run around in a field one the survivors asks if they were infected or not, in response one of the survivors remarks that nothing that beatiful can be infected by something so ugly. The meaning behind this scene shows that we as humans place more value in "pure" beings, showing that we have an idea of beauty and value that follows no other standard than our own opinions. Second, is the scene in which Frank becomes infected when a drop of blood falls into his eye giving him the disease. In less than a minute Hannah, Frank's daughter, is forced to decide to kill her own father or die. Hannah is unable to do so but luckily a small force of military personel kill the infected Frank in time to save her. This scene asserts two ideas. First being that we place other humans as more valueable than other beings. Second, that our value is relative to the object or being.