This paper presents the findings from a study aimed at understanding whether video games (or serious games) can be effective in enhancing volcanic hazard education and communication. Using the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, we have developed a video game – St. Vincent's Volcano – for use in existing …
Two non-resident Indian scientists, Shibu Basuthakur and Supriya Roy, have proposed a project that will enable sick people in West Bengal to be examined by doctors in the US via satellite. The duo have presented a Rs 33-crore proposal to the West Bengal government to establish a healthcare network in …
MANY GOVERNMENT agencies commission films with alacrity, but as few of these get disseminated systematically, their message rarely gets through. One such agency is the Council for the Promotion of Advancement in Technology (CAPART), which, in the past couple of years, has been making films of two kinds: records of …
WHAT DO an exotic dish of frog legs and the homely egg have in common? Extreme cruelty in bringing them to the table, according to Compassion In World Farming, a British voluntary organisation that has campaigned against factory farming for more than 20 years. The organisation has brought out two …
Which schoolchild looks forward to a class in geography where the exciting topic of stars and constellations is reduced to dull discussions, books and a plastic globe? It was perhaps with this in mind that the Nehru Planetarium has attempted -- successfully -- to convert lessons into fun. Onward To …
STAR Plus, the satellite channel well-known for its steamy soaps and street-wise sleuths, is going green -- and with a vengeance. It showed a two-part series in mid-March called After The Warming and has scheduled, among other programmes for this slot, Race to Save the Planet, -- a ten-part series …
ENVIRONMENTAL issues are making their mark on Indian television. Doordarshan features the science and environment programme Turning Point each week in a prime-time slot, hitherto reserved for Hindi serials. News programmes such as The World This Week and Parakh also frequently spotlight coverage of environmental conflicts. A recent edition of …
It is perhaps a comment on how strident documentary film-making has become that one is puzzled by a film on a newsy, controversial subject that fails to make a point. After watching Chilika -- The Story of a Lagoon, one wonders what the film-maker set out to do. With an …
IN THE latest round of the unending debate on the effects of television on children, a British report states middle-class primary school beginners are unable. to read because they cannot speak properly. This, says Jackie Miller of the Professional Association of Teachers, is because parents do not talk much with …
THE WIDOWS of Vrindavan -- heads shaven, white sari-clad, their devotional routine veiling the indignity of penury and starvation -- have long been an emotive subject for photographers the world over. But who are they? What does their plight say for the status of women in rural Bengal -- where …
1992 WAS the year when AIDS erupted on TV screens in a big way, prompted by the realisation that being coy about it was only facilitating its spread. Ignorance and preju- dice were both targeted for attack. On Doordarshan, it became a topic for prime-time discussion; on STAR TV, World …
SCIENCE and environment are a real no-no for India's leading video newsmagazines, Newstrack and Eyewitness, which have a substantial following among this country's educated, English- speaking middle-class. Operating on the belief that such subjects, however newsy, are a turn-off for the viewer, neither newsmagazine has picked up even as enduring …
KODAK is about to launch a L 30-million photo compact disc (CD) campaign in which ordinary snapshots can be stored on special compact discs and then flashed on the television. The player works in a manner similar to an audio CD and can also play audio CDs. It uses a …
FOR once the Japanese are running scared from the Americans. Minolta, the camera manufacturer, recently coughed up US $127.5 million to Honeywell, the US controls technology group, which had slapped a suit for patents infringement on the auto-focus process now so widely used in Japanese cameras. The US company may …
SHOPPING can now be as mindless as' you'd like it to be - the smart shopper can opt for the smart trolley. It directsr,@-Idvises, locates, tempts, and c&n; even draw up a menu. Videocart Incorporated, a Chicago-based company in USA, has developed a small liquid crystal display screen which can …
THREE documentaries that have just won the 39th National Film Awards this year are a welcome addition to the growing body of audio-visual material on science and environment. The pity is that apart from a possible late night telecast on Doordarshan or a littlepublicised screening at the Films Division auditorium …
