Marco Polo

A dramatic story line in the perspective of an imprisoned Marco Polo and an interesting look at the Mongolian Empire. In an epic journey, we see a relatively quick transition that Marco Polo takes as a guest into the Mongolian way of life but also the way he develops a sort of kinship with the Kublai Khan. Perhaps, this is shown as his greatest survival strength and wisdom through foreign diplomacy and adaptation. Nonetheless, the story also shows how his own merchant trading father repeatedly undermines him through deceit, putting him into deeper difficulty. Although, the main protagonist is assumed to be Marco Polo, given the title of the series, the real off loaded drama takes place in the fighting scenes, at center stage, with the Kublai Khan. While the pace of the story is relatively slower than could be expected, there is a versatility and balance to the drama from the vantage point of the diverse characters. Hopefully, the audience will get a chance to witness the many adventures recounted of Marco Polo as vivid and visual depictions from his book.     

Rectify

An amazingly dramatic look at how innocent individuals can be conned and wrongfully imprisoned which not only effects them for life but also everyone around them. Rectify has a very interesting look at an individual's life, after release, and the way he copes with the changing world around him as well as in coming to terms with the events that circumnavigated into his wrongful imprisonment. The audience is slowly provided with chunks of information into his past while progressing each episode into the unfolding present and future events. What is also unique is the way the story is depicted from a southern american viewpoint. The story line is captivating in manner with which it carries the audience through the events but also the characterization of Daniel Holden while leaving much to the speculation of his innocence through the enfolding episodes.

Renewable Energy

Energy in its many forms is a shared necessity that drives the very existence of a modern society and the running of businesses. However, centralized energy sources are not really working sufficiently enough to meet increasing population demands as even running of such plants consumes energy. While the privatization of energy sector has also led to huge price hikes for households. The trend towards energy sources should really be decentralized back to the households while still maintaining some level of government sponsored plants. In process, such initiatives should allow households to be more responsible with their consumption and more creative projects could arise in how renewable energy could be harnessed as well as stored. It would also provide incentives for households to sell back recycled energy and materials to businesses. Use of solar power is one obvious alternative. However, this alternative alone is not going to be sufficient even with government incentives. Majority of renewable energy needs to be met through recycling and refuse that households throw away on a daily basis. In process, it will solve multiple issues in cities. For one, it would stop massive landfill sites that add to global warming and pollution. It would also stop the infestation of rodents in cities. Also, there would be no need for regular rubbish to be stacked outside homes for collection. Another option for renewal is to recycle wasted heat from running water, air conditioning, and other electrical appliances. Internet of Things would also help to tackle such a hurdle through semantic technology and robotics. Decentralization of energy sources and consumption should also reduce the scalability and provisioning requirements for production. Such options could even extend to businesses who also produce a huge amount of waste. Modern living is all about living clean with environmentally friendly alternatives, while not foregoing on the luxuries that life affords. As energy cannot be created nor destroyed, we can at least make efforts towards discovery of alternative sources and forms from the many recycling options, for better and efficient ways of living as part of a community. 

Shared Workplaces

Shared workplace practices are growing especially for companies that like to maintain a start-up environment. In such environments, employees from multiple companies could be situated there and collectively working while sharing certain resources. It also builds on an open atmosphere of networking for business as well as funding. Such practices can also mean cost savings. Even options for hot desks are possible. However, they do bring with them complications. Security can be a concern with shared use of the Internet and personal belongings. Health and Safety is also a major concern in such environments as different companies have their own requirements. It also means the host of such workplaces really does need to show a collective consideration for all their members who have hired those workspaces. One also needs to be cautious about pets in such environments as they may not always be welcome either by some companies or pose a health issue for others. In such issues, vaccination certificates should be available for view if demanded. It can also pose a major compliance issue especially of the various local regulations across countries. In other cases, balancing the needs of every member becomes difficult especially if one is more demanding than the other. Having too many rules and regulations for members in how they use the workspaces can also push people away. In fact, it can also get in the way of standard agile practices. Modern businesses really do have to weigh out the efficiency gains and the productivity of staff in such shared workplace practices with a full perspective of all employees as well as that of the host environment. 

Order Out Of Chaos: Metadata,Taxonomies,Thesauri,TopicMaps

Businesses face an insurmountable data and needs are constantly growing. Knowledge representation is playing an ever more important role in harnessing domain context for deriving useful information metaphors. In order to achieve understanding, one has to open the window to the different forms of metadata semantics. Semantic Data is already playing an important role in providing better findability and for annotating content. However, semantics in all forms are going to be playing an even greater role for the emergence of Web 3.0 and connected web of data. Big data requirements pose a massive dilemma for enterprises as they look for ways of gaining more efficiency, productivity, reuseability, and insight. Semantics hold the key to unlocking many such information gains. As a result, big data professionals are already seeing high demand for their skills. But, librarians and information architects are also seeing massive interest in various industries. The field of semantic data is diverse requiring various domain expertise from linguists, taxonomists, big data technologists, data scientists, subject matter experts, to experienced software engineers. NoSQL has also opened the doors to more loosely connected storage and scaling requirements for unstructured data. Often software engineers have to put on many hats for roles as they embark on development of domain applications. Metadata is in everything that software engineers use as tools and platforms for transforming and building applications. It is also the starting point towards understanding and unlocking data to transform into an information gain. The following provides further resources as a professional field for learning metadata, the different design approaches, community defined specifications, and in the availability of tools.

The Accidental Taxonomist
TopicMaps
Introduction to Metadata
Metadata Demystified
Open Data Handbook
The Metadata Handbook
Understanding Metadata
The Metadata Manual
Ontology Alignment
Ontology Alignment Initiatives
Ontology Matching
The Semantic Web for Working Ontologist
The Semantic Web Primer
TaxonomyWarehouse
Tools for Taxonomies and Ontologies
Metadata: Organizing and Discovering Information
Taxonomy & Controlled Vocabulary (SIG)

Homeland 2014

Homeland was left in disarray after the hanging of Nicholas Brody. In season 4, we see Carrie with her daughter still coming to terms with parenthood then suddenly the loss of her father. At same time, there is another stereotypical story line emerging on Islamic terrorists. There are constant twists and turns in season 4. Eventually, the last couple of episodes provide the audience with much needed information of not only the chemistry between Carrie and Peter, but also the unequivocal entanglements between the US government and terrorism. Moreover, Carrie finds herself in a pickle in questioning her own loyalties as well as the ramifications of her US comrades towards the political links with terrorism groups. However, the season 4 ends in a disarray just as it started, leaving much to be desired. Homeland has turned into quite a frustrating drama series with questionable basis on which they create such deceptive and discriminating story lines.

Our Zoo

Our Zoo is a documentary told from the narrative of June Mottershead and her childhood. What makes the series so magical is the principles on which Our Zoo is depicted as a means of providing a sanctuary for neglected animals as well as a therapy for George Mottershead from his days in the army. It is a remarkable story of how the Chester Zoo started out with the spirit of the entire family. The pinnacle of the story or perhaps the focal point is Honor Kneafsey who plays June Mottershead and her experiences with the animals. The family face many obstacles in their path when they relocate, mostly from their conservative neighborhood. It is unfortunate that the series came to an end after the first season. There could have been plenty of tales to tell for many seasons.

The Newsroom

An extraordinary serial about the politics and the dynamics of an internal newsroom. One thing annoying about the show is the amount of shouting and arguing between the characters. This is obviously what happens as part of a real-life newsroom. But, besides that, it provides for a fascinating story base of news presenters, support staff, and producers that make the network a success. Well, not always a success, if ratings is all that is left to conjure on. The casting is also a nice mix that showcases the new and the experienced actors. There is a bit of news drama from every angle almost a menagerie of stories of current affairs. A lot of consideration is made on the bond that the characters have with each other as well as the way they build and regain their sense of integrity for all things newsworthy. In a lot of ways in journalism of today, maintaining objectivity and integrity is compromised for ill-informed, timely, and artfully crafted delivery of content, while being watchful of the audience ratings.