Vietnam riots essays

Vietnam riots essays The Vietnam War is one of the most unique wars ever fought by the United States. It had no official beginning or ending and it was also never really declared a war. During the anti-war demonstrations of the 1960's and 1970's the police were right in the middle. The anti-Vietnam war demonstrations tarnished the image of the police and they were forced to play devils advocate. A good example of this is during the Democratic Party Presidential Convention in Chicago. The protesters became uncontrollable and the police had to intervene because it is part of their job description to maintain law and order. Even though the first amendment guarantees the right to freedom of speech and assembly, this kind of behavior is inexcusable. The protesters at the Democratic Party Presidential Convention behaved in an unruly manner, particularly when they attempted to enter the convention unlawfully. In a situation like this, law enforcement had no other alternative but to react. Many condemned the behavior of the police and called them unfair, while others agreed that they were doing their job. In addition to this, the police was also placed in the middle, at the anti-war college campuses demonstrations. One of the most widely publicized campus protests was the take over at Columbia University in New York, in the spring of 1968. (Dempsey, Frost P.G 21) The students used all of the tactics that were used in previous protests and as negations between administration and students broke down the protestors became uncontrollable. The police was once again called in to control the situation and forced to be in the middle. Most of the demonstrations were disorderly and the police was called to control the protesters. The firebombing of a University of Wisconsin building was a good example of how uncontrollable the demonstrations were. This incident started a wave of college campus bombings and arson. Six student...

Rising High School Seniors

Rising High School Seniors Colleges and high schools have such odd terminology. As if the alphabet soup of academic acronyms wasnt enough, there are all the strange terms - bursar, for example, yield and Jan Term. So when your childs counselor refers to him as a rising senior, what on earth does that mean? Once upon a time, a kid was a junior until June of his junior year. When the bell rang on the last day of school, he became a senior - even if the start of the next academic year was still two months away. Now, hes called a rising senior. (Clearly, its only a matter of time before preschoolers are called rising kindergartners!) The term is primarily used at college prep high schools in the United States and when colleges discuss admissions season, as in, We offer overnight visits to rising seniors. Colleges rarely use the term to discuss their students, and in fact, the freshman/sophomore/junior/senior terminology is increasingly giving way to alternative descriptions based on how long a student has attended, as in the first year, second year and so on. How Rising Seniors Should Spend Their Time Your rising senior is in the home stretch of high school, and over the summer he likely wants to hang out with friends, sleep, swim, play video games, take a road trip or lounge around doing nothing. Once hes gotten that out of his system, its important to devote two or three hours a week to start in on college applications. He may pester you that this is his time off, but students who begin the admissions process during summer before their senior year are most successful. Here are four things to put on the to-do list: Create a college list: Determining where to apply is the most important action to take over the summer. Figure out where youre going to get your information to decide which college is the best fit for your child. Also, start looking into the financial aid that you might qualify for. Contact those colleges: Presenters at a National Association for College Admission Counseling convention stated that colleges admissions officers are turning down some otherwise qualified students for no other reason than the fact that the students had no contact with them before submitting their applications. Your rising senior needs to show â€Å"demonstrated interest† - a term used by colleges to note the frequency and quality of contact students have with admissions offices which indicated the likelihood of a student to enroll if offered admission. Heres how to jumpstart that process: Sign up for the college admissions mailing list on its website.Find out the names and emails of the admissions representatives assigned to your high school and contact them to relay your interest.Visit colleges and arrange interviews.Go to local college fairs to meet and talk to college reps face to face. Get an early start on applications and essay questions: Filling out your college applications is a critical part of the process and dealing with the dreaded essay can be daunting. Rising seniors should fill out at least one application before school starts. This will help to demystify the process so prospective students can confidently handle applications during the year.

Mayan Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mayan Project - Essay Example Hence, symbols could represent either a word or a single syllable. This was a highly elaborate set of glyphs written by scribes who were members of the priesthood. The language was usually written in two blocks arranged in columns, and was read from top to bottom, from left to right. It was rich with words and phonetic rules, and only elite members of the community knew how to write (Beatriz n.d). The Mayan numerals were based on a base-twenty (vigecimal) numeral system, which were made up of three symbols: zero was represented by a shell shape, one by a dot and give by a bar. Numbers above 19 were written as a combination of these written in a descending vertical line. Three cells were written, the uppermost one represented the number of 400s in the number, the middle one represented the number of 20s in it and the lower one represented the 1s in it. In case a number was larger than that, a new row would be started. The Mayans would also rarely use face number glyphs, but this use was very uncommon and mostly appeared in monumental carving. The Mayans used addition and subtraction when needed, and there is also evidence that they were familiar with and used the concepts of infinity and fractions for various needs ("The Maya Mathematical" n.d; "Mayan Numerals" 2009). A Mayan stela (also called stele) was a stone or wooden slab that was very tall and quite wide. It was used mainly for funeral or commemorative purposes, and consisted of the name and titles of the deceased or living person for whom it was erected. It also included of lavish paintings, carvings and inscriptions depicting and describing that person. More often then not, revered rulers or hieroglyphic texts were inscribed to immortalize a unique feat or achievement during a rulers reigning period or simply his character and greatness. It was also used to remember important dates and occasions, something which proved to be

Production and Operational Management in the auto Industry Term Paper - 1

Production and Operational Management in the auto Industry (Forecasting, Quality, Quantity, Profits, Assembly) - Term Paper Example They even had a great deal of say in the political sector of USA. Their political power was due to a fact that had been narrated by the CBC News article in the following words: â€Å"The L.A. Times recently calculated that since 1990, the auto industry as a whole has donated $100 million US to Republicans and $34 million to Democrats.† From the year 1951 to the year 2007 Ford had been ranked third in all the automotive manufacturers of the world. After maintaining this position for fifty six years the company lost its position worldwide. It, however, still remained at third position in the US auto industry. The recent times have however depicted a recession of Ford and GM in their native country’s automobile industry. This recession has given space to foreign automobile manufacturers to establish their position by introducing their models in the industry. Currently these foreign automotive industrialists are leading the industry. BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM. Ford and GM w ere the largest vehicle producing giants in USA once. They assisted their country’s economy massively by producing generous revenue and benefit packages for labor. Ford and GM held their importance in the US automobile industry not only because of their size but also because of their business volume. Their loosing of their stature, however, was owing to a number of reasons. Those reasons can be summarized as follows: This meant that a major number of operations in them were distributed into unions or rather termed as being â€Å"Unionized†. This led to a rising labor cost that incurred to these industrial giants. The labor costs of their international emerging counterparts were however very less as they did not practice unionization. Even the counterparts that had their manufacturing units in the US did not face the said problem. (Van Praet, 2008). WHY THE RECESSION? A number of issues led to the downfall of Ford and GM along with other US automobile manufacturers. Qua lity Compromised Among various issues was that of the maintenance of Quality by these giants. Stephen Robbins (2009) mentions their carelessness and compromise in the maintenance of their products in his book ‘Management’ in the following words: â€Å"U.S. car industry is often used as a classic example of what can go wrong when managers focus solely on trying to keep costs down. In the late 1970s, GM, Ford, and Chrysler built products that many consumers rejected...... When the costs of rejects, repairing shoddy work, product recalls, and expensive controls to identify quality problems were considered, U.S. manufacturers actually were less productive than many foreign competitors. The Japanese demonstrated that it was possible for the highest-quality manufacturers to be among the lowest-cost producers. American manufacturers in the car and other industries soon realized the importance of TQM and implemented many of its basic components.† (Robbins, 2009) The abov e statement clearly highlights how the erroneous strategy of leading automobile manufacturing giants of USA gave room to their foreign counterparts. Even though they learned their lesson and tried to improve on their mistakes but it was too late then. The market shares that they once lost were not repairable. So was the inclusion of these counterparts in the industry. Retailers knew they had equally better options to go for and that too often at lesser costs. Product SUV’

Urban Myth 09 Essay Example for Free

Urban Myth 09 Essay It was a cold night with a strange breeze in the air. The roads were filled with a slight feel of tension as the mans car drove over the frosted motor way. The smart business man dressed in an expensive suit was coming home from work and drove peacefully along the road with not a single worry in the world. He was making his way down a long motor way. The further he seemed to go the colder he began to feel. He felt the cold air coming in and touching upon his polyester suit even though the windows were tightly shut. He was listening to his favourite radio station when he suddenly heard a loud crrrrrrrr sound blast out from the radio speakers. The radio automatically shifted to another music station one the man had never heard before, spooky opera music began to play from the station. It shot out from the radio speakers and surrounded him in the car. The man was momentarily startled then looked down to change the station. On that second he sensed something and looked back up at the frosted road. He gazed upon a young women dressed in an immaculate bold red dress. She was madly close and standing directly in the middle of the road. Without a doubt the man immediately applied the handbrake and stopped with a thunderous skid. As the car stopped the woman was directly in front of bumper. The man looked her straight in the eyes in astonishment as the young women didnt look one bit bothered about nearly being killed by the car. The woman slowly raised her arm into a hitchhikers position to ask for a lift home. The man automatically told her with hand gestures to come inside the car; he was scared she may want to file a law suit against him as he had nearly killed her. He thought that if he gave her a lift home she would not do anything against him. The woman was breathing heavy and with every breath she took misty air seeped out from her mouth onto the front windscreen. As the man began to drive he started to examine the woman from the corner of his eye. She was wearing a sleeveless red dress and looked as if she was going to a party. The man tried to make small talk with the women but got no reply, not even a facial expression. The woman was completely silent and only made noise when taking breathes. As they made it down the road and started to approach the houses the woman began to shiver. The man took off his jacket and gave it to her. She slowly took it without speaking and quickly put it on. Her house was not far from where she was, the young women pointed towards the house and the business man parked up outside. As soon as the car stopped the woman slid quickly out of the car and ran into the house. The man thought to himself how glad he was that she was not going to file a law suit. He then realised the women was still wearing his expensive jacket but could not do anything as he did not want to disturb the household she had already entered. He then heard loud shouting coming from the house but thought nothing of it and drove off. The next morning the man came back to the house to this time hear the same spooky opera music he had first heard when he encountered the strange young woman on the road. The man parked up the car and got out. He approached the door and knocked; the knock sounded echoes throughout the house but could not compete with the sound of the creepy opera music. The music suddenly went off and an old tired looking woman slowly opened the door. She looked very surprised as if no one had knocked on her door for many years; she immediately asked the man what he wanted. The man explained to her what had happened and her daughter or relative perhaps has still got his jacket. The old lady took the man inside and made him feel comfortable as he sat down. She explained to the man how her daughter was murdered brutally on her prom night and thrown into a river not far from the house 20 years ago by her boyfriend as she was coming home. She told him everything in detail about how she was wearing a beautiful red dress and her favourite opera song she use to always play whenever she was feeling upset. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Miscellaneous section.

The Challenges of Being a Black Man in America Essay -- Racism, Prejud

"Black Lung" is a chronic disease of the lungs mostly associated with coal miners; "Black Magic" is the practice of witchcraft; illegal transactions take place in a a "Black Market"; a "Black Sheep" is a person who does not have the same values or behavior as their family. How does all this pertain to being a black man in America today? These examples indicate that the English language is prejudiced, and the process of learning the language teaches prejudice and passes on racist ideas to children as they learn to communicate. This results is the racist American society which we see today. However, before dealing with the burden of blackness, let us dive into what race really is. Some believe that race is a biological term, understandably so. People with similar physical appearance, such as eye shape or color, could be assumed to be of the same heritage, but this is not always true. According to the authors of Intercultural Competence, "Contrary to popular notions . . . race is not primarily a biological term; it is a political and societal one that was invented to justify economic and social distinctions. . . . One's 'race' is best understood as a social and legal construction" (32). Since race is not inherent or "naturally ordained" but a social and legal construction, the use of this term is subjective. One's "blackness" or "whiteness" is dependent on how society defines it. What are white and black anyway? As people of different origins and of different heritages, the average American is a "mutt" (of mixed ancestry). What defines what "race" the average American is or what race you are? The color you turn out to be? Is Stacy, a person who is ninety-five percent "white" and five percent "black," considered black because th... ...g the meaning to a human being. As the unknown poet said, illustrating how so many others feel: "But in his mind it wasn't lost, the one undeniable fact/That in a land of justice for all, he always would be BLACK." Works Cited Bradshaw, York W., Joseph F. Healey, and Rebecca Smith. Sociology for a New Century. Boston: Pine Forge Press, 2001. DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. 1903. New York: Bantam, 1989. Gazzaniga, Michael, and Todd F. Heatherton. Psychological Science. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2003. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Wheaton: Tyndale, 1996. Lustig, Myron W., and Jolene Koester. Intercultural Competence. 4th ed. San Francisco: Allyn and Bacon, 2003. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary Online http//www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/thesaurus. Rottenberg, Annette T. Elements of Argument. 7th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003.

Contemporary Culture Seen Thru Post-War British Films

The British cinema of the Second World War has typically been exemplified in terms of its depiction of ‘the people's war’. The films which have attracted most crucial consideration are those which offered a picture of the British people at war, united regardless of class differences, and where the chronicles of individuals, heroic though they may be, were inspired into the greater story of the whole nation pulling together at a time of national crisis. Curran and Porter (1983) have identified, for the first time in British feature films, a genuine, true-to-life image of ordinary men and women.Roger Manvell (1947)considered that films such as Millions Like Us, San Demetrio, London, Nine Men, The Way Ahead, Waterloo Road and The Way to the Stars ‘showed pe ople in whom we could trust and whose experience was as genuine as our own’. The reason for this pristine realism, according to Aldgate and Richards (2002) is usually clarified through the impact of the docu mentary movement, the progressive left-wing sector of the British film industry, on the mainstream feature film producers. The British film industry endeavoured to open out overseas. J.Arthur Rank, of the Rank Organization, extended his world-wide distribution. The Associated British Picture Corporation or ABPC joined Warner Brothers to institute distribution in the United States. Perry (1988) noted that Alexander Korda acquired London Films and British Lion, the former from MGM. Korda's London Films had in 1933 created The Private Lives of Henry VIII. He established circulation of his films in the United States through Twentieth Century Fox. Green (1983) illustrates that unlike the aspirations of the highly financed studios, Ealing Studios focused its labours on a series of modest comic films.Teams of writer/directors made a series of remarkable films. The Boulting brothers, John and Roy, interchanged as director and producer of a series of films, including Brighton Rock (1947), Th e Magic Box (1951), Lucky Jim (1957), and I'm All Right, Jack (1959). The team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, operating under the label of the Archers and supported by J. Arthur Rank, made two specials, The Red Shoes (1948) and Tales of Hoffman (1951). The first popularised ballet while the second popularised opera.Powell and Pressburger's Stairway to Heaven (also called A Matter of Life and Death, 1945) was the make-believe tale of a pilot who is mistakenly called to heaven so soon. One of the folklores that cropped up from war-weary Britain was a faith in the unity and equality of the community. The myth persisted for a brief time after the war, stimulated by expectations for the Labour government's experiment, when recuperating English society felt the likelihood of progressing the unity experienced in the â€Å"people's war† to decipher the nation's massive social problems.The myth, in which all elements of society, even those not normally associating with one another, pull together, played out in a number of films, such as the Ealing films of Hue and Cry, Whiskey Galore, Passport to Pimlico, and The Blue Lamp. Michael Balcon of Ealing Studios produced these films as â€Å"fantastic escape. † The fantasy created was of a sense of community prompted by the world war. The distraction was in fancy and departure from actuality. Hue and Cry was the first of what have become known as the Ealing comedies and it started the fantasy foundation of community.The setting in south London, an area devastated by the German blitz, was scheduled for enormous restoration in the years 1945-1953. In Hue and Cry, writer T. E. B. Clarke fixed on a London community of youths living and playing around a bombsite, who come together to overpower a gang of criminals. The young hero, Joe Kirby, spends time reading escapist pulp detective comics. Through a series of imaginary and strange encounters, Joe ascertains a criminal syndicate of black market operators using comic books as a code. Joe, with the help of the community of boys, suppresses the criminals, led by the evil Nightingale.Manvell (1947) said that at the end of the war, British film was trapped in a struggle between its realist, documentary tradition and a pull toward the fantastic and expressionism. The anthology film Dead of Night (1945), co-directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Robert Hamer, Charles Crichton and Basil Dearden, caught some of this resistance. The film modifies from the factual to the Gothic. It makes use of expressionist techniques, such as a powerful mirror scene. Landy (1991) described that realism was a primary trait of British cinema during the war.Realism was acknowledged with black and white, straight-forward narrative and characters. It was profoundly influenced by Britain's documentary tradition. However, many post-war films were answers to realism. Of course, realism comes in many forms. Some films used realism seemingly to expand the story line, as in Michael Anderson's The Dam-Busters (1954), the Boulting brothers' Seven Days to Noon (1950) or Michael Powell's The Small Back Room (1949). The Boulting film involved a reconstruction of the evacuation of London when the city is endangered by a scientist with an atomic device.Powell's film integrated a long episode of the dismantling of a bomb. Ealing comedies, such as Hue and Cry and Passport to Pimlico, used realism as a framework for stories that were essentially non-realistic. In other films, such as Carol Reed's The Third Man or Odd Man Out, realism is used to heighten the drama and suspense. Other films used a documentary-style reconstruction, such as Charles Frend's Scott of the Antarctic (1948). The documentary-style opening of The Blue Lamp was an intentional device, although the story propagated the fantasy of community.The documentary opening and closing of Whiskey Galore were essentially significant to the film's satire. Realism, as a predominant style, resurfaced in the late Fifties, leading to â€Å"new cinema† or social realism. Dickinson and Street (1985) said that expressionism, rather than realism, dominated many of the British productions. Most of the literary were highly yet successfully stylized, including Lean's adaptations from Dickens, Olivier's Shakespearean films, and Dickinson's The Queen of Spades. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes and Tales of Hoffman are examples of the stylization.The films represent the nexus of several strands of film and literary tradition, including German expressionism of the 1920's, romanticism, Gothic, the combination of the arts, and the reaction of realism. The Red Shoes was a story by Hans Christian Anderson, derived from a story by E. T. A. Hoffman (1776-1822), a German romanticist, and influenced by life of Russian ballet director Diaghilev and dancer Nijinsky. It is the story of a ballerina torn between the control of two men — her director, Lermontov, and her husban d, Julian, a conductor.Her husband wrote the score for a ballet just for her — â€Å"The Red Shoes. † Lermontov directed her in it. Although Vicki is tough at the start, able to return â€Å"the gaze† of Lermontov, she soon loses her capability to endure either man. The men, primarily Lermontov, are puppet masters, using manipulation to restrain the female to the male's domination. Geraghty (1985) stresses that the battle of the masters is carried out on several levels. At the core of the struggle are the highly stylized ballet scenes, using images of Julian conducting, Lermontov directing and Vicki soaring on stage and in the air.The shoe maker in the ballet is, likewise, a puppeteer. The expressionistic ballet, a combination of music, art, dance and film, is surrounded by the narrative, in which the dancer shifts loyalties between herself, Lermontov and Julian. Lermontov manipulates both dancer and conductor. Vicki finally escapes by injuring herself and endin g forever her ability to dance. Lermontov continues the final performance of the ballet without a dancer in the lead role. Green (1983) said that The Tales of Hoffman was based on an opera of the German expressionist Jacques Offenbach.It comprises film with little dialog. It recollects the universal visual language of the silent film. The various characters of the opera, which challenge and defy Hoffman, a nobleman/poet, include an array of manipulators — an eye glass maker, a master of souls, and a demonic doctor. The filmed opera originally had four episodes, though one episode, hence another manipulator, was cut from the film. The film represents creator as monster and tormentor as well as tormented victim. This theme, said to cast Hoffman as a metaphor for Powell, recalls Lermontov and his tries to gets in touch with Vicki.Both films utilise expressionist techniques such as the metaphors of the gaze and the mirror to symbolize and accentuate the struggle, which Werner Fas sbinder has called sadism in the creative act and creation in destruction. Williams (1991) describes Both Powell and Pressburger films aim to create what Richard Wagner hoped to do with opera — the total art by combining the visual with the aural. The Red Shoes mediates ballet cinematically. It interprets ballet into film rather than record ballet on film. The Tales of Hoffman interprets opera into film rather than record opera on film.Adding to their stature, the creative collaboration of Powell and Pressburger combined the art tradition of European film and the technical advances of American film. Their films experimented with the new Technicolor technology. Low (1985) reports that the anti-realism traits of German expressionism, Gothic and fantasy even appeared in the Ealing comedies. At least twice in Hue and Cry — when the hero and his friend climbed the stairs to the writer's apartment, and in the final fight with the criminal master-mind in the bombed building à ¢â‚¬â€ the camera angles and shadows evoked images of German expressionist films such as The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari. The expressionistic device of the mirror appears in a number of films, such as Dead of Night, and The Blue Lamp. Likewise, the technique of â€Å"the gaze† appears in several films, including The Blue Lamp. Williams (1991) described the behaviour of the writer and the Victorian clutter of his apartment, and the passage of the children through the London sewers, both in Hue and Cry, evoked images of Gothic horror. Likewise, the Hammer horror films were a reaction to realism. Fantasy appeared in a variety of films, especially the Ealing comedies, including the fanciful idea of a sovereign Pimlico or Hue and Cry's children against crime.These communities were rooted in fantasy not reality. They were no more than a daydream. British cinema after the Second World War can be distinguished by a number of features. The films were generally comedies, melodramas, litera ry or horror films. Among the features coming out through these films were 1) attempts to preserve the nostalgic values, such as community of wartime Britain, and 2) the denunciation of the realism and documentary style of the World War II films, particularly through expressionism and stylization. Britain today is a richly mixed society and culture.Its residents typify a wide variety of national, cultural, racial and religious backgrounds and mixtures. That diversity is an outcome of a history, which has incorporated invasion, expansion, empire and Commonwealth, and Britain’s role as a retreat for people of all races. Murphy (2000) describes the British governments have taken measures to undertake problems of discrimination and disadvantage through pioneering such things as race relations legislation which makes racial discrimination an objectionable, and illegal practice, and through strategy to remedy disadvantage.Britain’s ethnic diversity, with its range of and uni que mix of cultural identities and heritages, describes and puts in worth to contemporary Britain. For instance, the Muslim society in Britain make a crucial and lively input to every facet of life from sports and the arts to business and even politics. This paper shall look into at least three film features created after the Second World War. First is Notting Hill which stars Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. The film was a certified box-office hit not only in the United Kingdom but the world over.Next is Four Weddings and a Funeral written by the same writer of Notting Hill. The last movie is Chariots of Fire. Britain’s contemporary cultural diversity is being studied through these film features. Notting Hill Notting Hill has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area popular for its attractive terraces of large Victorian townhouses and high-class shopping and restaurants. Residents are symbolised as young and affluent and many people who conform to such stereotypes are o ften referred to as â€Å"The Notting Hill Set†, â€Å"The Notting Hillbillies†, and â€Å"Trustafarians†.The area came to international attention with the release of the successful Hollywood movie of the same name. Notting Hill (1999) stars Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant use the characteristic features of the area as a backdrop to the action, including the Portobello Road antiques market and enclosed square gardens. Notting Hill is a 1999 romantic comedy film set in the Notting Hill district of London,. The screenplay was written by Richard Curtis who also wrote the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral. In Western culture, we are fixated by the notion of celebrity.This may be easily viewed with the enormous number of paparazzis everywhere that descend on public figures when they make appearances, or the popularity of gossip magazines and TV shows. Celebrities are treated like royalty – fascinating and untouchable, they become objects of unreasonable adoration . Perhaps one of the most common fantasies entertained by an average man or woman is what would happen if someone famous fell in love with them. And therein lies the premise of Notting Hill. Hugh Grant plays William Thacker, the owner of a small bookstore in London's Notting Hill.Grant’s character is just an average Joe – when he's not working, he spends time with his friends and his wacky Welsh flat-mate, Spike played by Rhys Ifans, but has no romantic life to speak of. One day, however, the foundation of his way of life changes when Anna Scott, played by Julia Roberts, a famous actress, walks through the door to his little shop. In London to publicize her new film, she's taking a break from the press and Notting Hill seems like a good place to lose them. Later, William literally runs into her in the street, spilling orange juice all over her. Annoyed and humiliated, he requests her to his place to clean up.Much to his surprise, she accepts his offer, and, after chang ing outfits, she gives him a lingering kiss on the lips. William is immediately smitten and so, apparently, is Anna. Thus begins a turbulent relationship that asks whether a star can live happily ever after with somebody who has never had his face in the papers. Although Notting Hill is a pleasant enough motion picture, it isn't much more than that. It's a domesticated movie that takes few chances. Even the casting of Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts is an example of playing it safe, since both are proven box office draws.The comedy, while sporadically funny, occasionally feels forced and unnatural, as if screenwriter Richard Curtis was forced to ratchet up the level of humour at the cost of characters' integrity. Spike is a case in point. As portrayed by Rhys Ifans he's the constant butt of jokes but he achieves little purpose beyond that. He's a pure misrepresentation of a lewd lazy bone, and, whenever he comes on screen, he actually becomes a disturbance. Another problem with the fil m is that the romance is half-hearted. While there's a feeling of sociability and even affection between William and Anna, there was no passion felt between the two.They appear more like brother and sister than lovers broken up by an army of publicists and photographers. The plot pursues the ordinary beat of a traditional romantic comedy: boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy and girl get to know each other, then complications interfere. In this case, those complications come in the form of Anna's off-again/on-again boyfriend and the media. Notting Hill is not without its enjoyable moments. The relationship between two of William's friends, Max and Bella, is touching. There's an exciting conversation between William and Anna about why men are attracted to breasts.And there's an appealing shot of William walking down a street in Notting Hill as the seasons change around him. The movie shows us how Britain has achieved tremendous changes after the war era. It is an attempt to penetrate the western movie market and this proved to be quite a difficult task at first. Four Weddings and a Funeral The simplest and most honest articulation of praise that can be presented to this Mike Newell's movie is that it epitomises two hours of solid movie magic. Four Weddings and a Funeral enjoys the extraordinary power to make an audience laugh and cry without ever apparent scheming or going desperately over-the-top.Another Hugh grant movie who plays Charles is a serial monogamist or someone who moves from girlfriend to girlfriend without ever falling in love. His friends have started down the matrimonial road, but not Charles. Feelings of spending the rest of his life with someone never went through his mind, until one day at a wedding when he encounters Carrie played by Andie MacDowell, an American fashion editor. And, although the two enjoy a brief rendezvous at an inn, Charles' typical British uncommunicativeness comes in, and Carrie is on her way back to America before he rec ognizes he should have said something.Here’s another movie that showcases cultural diversity in Britain were two individuals from different cultural backgrounds may have the possibility of ending up together despite their cultural diversity. Four Weddings and a Funeral is about four weddings and a funeral. While the central story of this delightful motion picture is somewhat common romantic comedy fare, it is structured by a plot packed with little twists and turns, lots of laughs, and a frothy, fascinating atmosphere. Mike Newell, whose recent directing credits include Enchanted April and Into the West, maintains to display a clever hand when it comes to good, escapist fun.Newell's direction is unassuming — he allows his actors and the script to carry the film, which results in an enjoyable mix of cheerful comedy with a dash of misery. Screenwriter Richard Curtis is fast to let the humour starts flowing, and once it starts, it never stops. The scenes most likely to ca use irrepressible laughter happen during the second wedding and centre on Rowan Atkinson as a somewhat confused priest. It's not a shock that Atkinson feels at home with a Curtis script, since the two have teamed up on the British TV show Blackadder.Four Weddings and a Funeral is a modern comedy with a very time-honoured theme. It mixes upright breeding and bad language; laughter and tears; and marriage and friendship into a thoroughly enjoyable whole. This movie showcases how Britain has become one of the world’s best movie producers. It was so popular across the globe which highlighted the greatness of Britain. Chariots of Fire Sporting events today have become vicious, angry affairs where the slogan, more frequently than not, is â€Å"win at all costs. † Demonstrations of good sportsmanship are about as rare as altruism.Everyone is out for themselves, and the displays of athletes like Albert Belle, John McEnroe, and Dennis Rodman can sit in the stomach like a large piece of heavy matter. So it's invigorating to look back at an era when triumph didn't command seclusion, resentment, and disgust of one's rivals. Chariots of Fire, the Oscar-winning 1981 film, delights us to the 1924 Olympics, and, in the process, highlights such laudable qualities as loyalty, determination, and fraternity. That's not to say that winning isn't important to the competitors in Hugh Hudson's film.On the other hand, for British track stars Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) and Eric Lidell (Ian Charleson), it's a principal anxiety, but neither is so fixated by their ambition that they lose sight of the larger picture. Eric is a devout Christian who runs because he considers it venerates God. Harold is a Jew who struggles as a way of establishing his worth. Both are driven by an internal fire, and have nothing but reverence for their competitors. Chariots of Fire tells the story of the British triumphs at the 1924 Olympics, where the UK representatives took a number of medals over the heavily-favoured Americans.With Abrahams and Lidell leading the way, the British track team had one of their best-ever showings. This film outlines the two principal athletes' paths to the Paris games, where their on-field victories form a astoundingly low-key climax. Chariots of Fire doesn't depend on worn-out sports film cliches; it's more fascinated in enthusiasm and character improvement. Yes, it's essential to know that Abrahams and Lidell win, but the real essence of the story is enclosed in what leads up to the races.Like in Sylvester Stallone's first Rocky, it's probable to claim victory before the competition begins — Lidell because he has holds fast to his beliefs and Abrahams because gives all he has to give. At the time when Chariots of Fire was first released, many of the major cast members, including Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel Havers, and Alice Krige, were relative unheard of. All give strong presentations, and each was remunerated with future part s in other productions. Some identifiable faces fill supporting roles, including Sir John Gielgud as the Master of Trinity College and Ian Holm as Abraham's mentor, Sam Mussabini.There's barely a trace of exaggerated scenes in Chariots of Fire, which makes the film-watching experience all the more effective — director Hugh Hudson shows respect for the veracity of his material and the cleverness of his audience. The deficiency of maudlin moments supplies the storyline with an authentic quality that supports its factual background. Not only do we care about the characters, but we admit that they really existed. In fact, the entire production declares that same sense of atmosphere. Most sports movies counts on melancholy and adrenaline — Chariots of Fire stands up on strong writing, direction, and acting.Approval of this picture doesn't require a love of sports, simply an understanding of human nature. Conclusion Immigrant, ethnic minority, asylum-seeker – slivers of intimation divide the meanings of each term in contemporary Britain. Ethnic minority, black and Asian, cultural diversity – clouds of confusion have distinguished contemporary arts in Britain over the past 30 years. Cook (1981) declares that notably, every liberal political measure undertaken so far to correct injustices – the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry into institutional racism being only the most recent – has proven ineffectual.Racism is not an intellectual failure that can be corrected by a greater dose of education. It is a moral value, however much one may abhor such a morality. It is an imaginative construct and so the engineers of the imagination – artists – find themselves in the frontline, their weapons being the pen or the hand or the body or the voice. Gilette (2003) discloses Post-war British film was both a response to the world war and a reaction to the film styles of the war and post-war periods. As a response to the war, post-war f ilms adopted a style of pseudo-realism to construct a post-war fantasy world.This fantasy, sometimes captured as a daydream, attempted to preserve the spirit of the war years, including the values of community and egalitarianism. This daydream or fantasy world also served as an escape from the memory of the war and the disappointment over the failure of a new society in post-war Britain. As a reaction to the war, post-war films revolted against the realism of the war-period films. They utilized and integrated strands of romanticism, expressionism, and the Gothic. References: Aldgate, A. and Richards, J. 2nd Edition. 1994. Britain Can Take it: British Cinema in the Second World War.Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Barr, Charles; Ed. 1986. All Our Yesterdays: 90 Years of British Cinema. London: British Film Institute Aldgate, A. and Richards, J. 2002. Best of British: Cinema and Society from 1930 to the Present. London: I. B. Tauris Barr, C. Ealing Studios (London: Cameron & Tayl or, 1977). Cook, D. A History of Narrative Film (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1981). Curran, J. and Porter, V. ; Eds. 1983. British Cinema History. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson Dickinson, M. and Street, S. 1985. Cinema and the State: The Film industry and the British Government, 1927-84.London: BFI Friedman, Lester; Ed. 1992. British Cinema and Thatcherism. London: UCL Press Geraghty, Christine. 2000. British Cinema in the Fifties: Gender Genre and the New Look. London Routledge Gillett, P. 2003. The British Working Class in Postwar Film. Manchester: Manchester University Press Green, I. â€Å"Ealing in the Comedy Frame,† in British Cinema History, eds. , James Curran and Vincent Porter (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1983). Landy, M. 1991. British Genres: Cinema and Society, 1930-1960. Princeton University Press Low, R. 1985. Film Making in 1930s Britain.London: George, Allen and Unwin Rotha, Paul. 1973. Documentary diary; an informal history of the British docum entary film, 1928-1939, New York: Hill and Wang Swann, Paul. 2003. The British Documentary Film Movement, 1926-1946. Cambridge University Press Manvell, R. ‘The British Feature Film from 1925 to 1945’, in Twenty Years of British Film 1925–1945, eds M. Balcon, E. Lindgren, F. Hardy and R. Manvell (London, The Falcon Press, 1947), p. 85. Murphy, Robert. 2000. British Cinema and the Second World War. London: Continuum Murphy, R; Ed. 1996. Sixties British Cinema. London: BFIOrwell, G. â€Å"England, Your England† (1941), in A Collection of Essays (New York: Doubleday, 1954). Perry, G. 1988. The Great British Picture Show. Little Brown, 1988. Porter, V. â€Å"The Context of Creativity: Ealing Studios and Hammer,† in British Cinema History, eds. , James Curran and Vincent Porter (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1983). Powell, Pressburger and Others (British Film Institute, 1978). Shaw, T. 2001. British Cinema and the Cold War. London: I. B. Tauris Willi ams, T. various lectures, The Survey of Film History, fall semester, 1991, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

Solution Aging Population

There are many proposed solutions in discussion to help care for the aging population. We should begin by reforming our incident-based system of care. Health care today is reactive: if we get sick, we make an appointment to see a physician; if we become seriously ill or injured, we go to an emergency department or clinic. One proposed solution, pay-for-performance programs, would tie higher reimbursement to quality of care—thus reducing funds to lower-performing facilities.But these facilities most need investment and incentives to improve resident care and quality of life. What's more, current performance measures provide only a â€Å"snapshot† of care. Such point-in-time measures cannot gauge how well providers manage the multiple chronic conditions common among elderly patients. To build a viable elder health care system, we need to do the following: Provide five years of stable reimbursement for elder care so that professionals, legislators, and regulators can work together to focus on financial and intellectual strategies.Turn the system for evaluating nursing homes from one based on penalties to one based on partnership, building on the positive results from work done by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' quality improvement organizations. Provide financial incentives to upgrade elder care facilities and invest in health information technology. Establish financial models for reimbursement based on evidence-based clinical research.Provide government and private financial programs that enable the consumer to obtain the care they expect, and possibly deserve, based on individual responsibility of their own wellness. Finally, Curb unnecessary lawsuits, which siphon funds from direct care. If we take these steps, we can create a health system in which older patients take responsibility for their own health and reap the benefits of high-quality care. References J. Derr, Financing Health Care for an Aging Population, The Commonwealth F und, December 2005

How to Become a Critical Reader

How to Become a Critical Reader Whether you are reading for pleasure or for school, its important to understand basic structural and content elements about the text you are studying. These questions and idea generators should help you to become a more critical reader. Understand and retain what you read!   Steps to Becoming a Critical Reader Determine your purpose for reading. Are you gathering information for a writing assignment? Are you determining whether a source will be useful for your paper? Are you preparing for a class discussion?Consider the title. What does it tell you about what the book, essay, or ​literary work is about?Think about what you already know about the topic of the book, essay, or play. Do you already have preconceived notions of what to expect? What are you expecting? Do you hope to learn something, enjoy yourself, be bored?Look at how the text is structured. Are there subdivisions, chapters, books, acts, scenes? Read over the titles of the chapters or sections? What do the headings tell you?Skim the opening sentence of each paragraph (or lines) under the headings. Do these first words of the sections give you any hints?Read carefully, marking or highlighting places that are confusing (or so wonderful that you want to re-read). Be careful to keep a dictionary close at hand. Looking up a w ord can be an excellent way to enlighten your reading. Identify key issues or arguments the author/writer makes, along with important terms, recurring images and interesting ideas.You may want to make notes in the margin, highlight those points, take notes on a separate sheet of paper or notecard, etc.Question the sources that the author/writer might have used: personal experience, research, imagination, popular culture of the time, historical study, etc.Did the author effectively use these sources to develop a believable work of literature?What is one question you would like to ask the author/writer?Think about the work as a whole. What did you like best about it? What puzzled, confused, angered, or irritated you?Did you get what you expected out of the work, or were you disappointed? Additional Tips The process of reading critically can help you with many literary and academic situations, including studying for a test, preparing for a discussion, and more.If you have questions about the text, be sure to ask your professor; or discuss the text with others.Consider keeping a reading log to help you to track your perceptions about reading.

The Nighttime Sky Holds Many Stars

The Nighttime Sky Holds Many Stars The nighttime sky looks like it has millions of stars visible to observers. Thats because we live in a galaxy that has hundreds of millions of them. However, we cant really see all of them with the naked eye from our backyards. It turns out that the skies of Earth have, at most, around ten thousand stars that can be spotted with the naked eye. However, not everyone can see all the stars; they see only whats overhead in their own region. Light pollution and atmospheric hazes reduce the number of stars that can be seen even more. On average, however, the most anyone can really see (with very good eyesight and from a very dark viewing area) is around three thousand stars. People living in very big cities still see a few stars, while those in country areas away from lights can see more.   The best places to see stars are dark-sky sites, such as Canyonlands National Park or from onboard a ship in the middle of the ocean, or high in the mountains. Most people do not have access to such areas, but they can get away from most city lights by going out into the countryside. Or, if viewing from in the city  is someones only choice, they can pick an observing spot that is shaded from nearby lights. That increases the chances of seeing a few more stars.   If our planet was in a region of the galaxy with a lot more stars, chances are stargazers really WOULD see tens of thousands of stars at night. Our section of the Milky Way is, however, less well-populated than the core for example. If our planet could be in the center of the galaxy, or perhaps in a globular cluster, the sky would shimmer with starlight. In fact, in a globular cluster, we might never have dark skies! In the center of the galaxy, we might be stuck in a cloud of gas and dust, or perhaps be subjected to forces from the black hole at its heart. So, in a way, while our location in the outskirts of the Milky Way reveals fewer stars to stargazers, its a safer place to have a planet with dark skies.   Stargazing Among the Visible Stars So, what can be learned from the stars that observers CAN see? For one thing, people often notice that some stars appear white, while others are bluish, or orangey or reddish.   Most, however, appear to be a dull white.  Where does the color come from? The stars surface temperature gives a clue- the hotter they are, the more blue and white they are. The redder they are, the cooler they are. So, a blue-white star is hotter than a yellow or orange star, for example. Red stars are usually fairly cool (as stars go). Its important to remember, however, that a stars color isnt vivid, its more likely very pale or pearlescent. Also, the materials that make up a star (that is, its composition) can make it look red or blue or white or orange. Stars are primarily hydrogen, but they can have other elements in their atmospheres and interiors. For example, some stars that have a lot of the element carbon in their atmospheres look redder than other stars.   Figuring out Brightness of Stars Among those three thousand stars, observers can also notice differences in their brightnesses. A stars brightness is often referred to as its magnitude and thats simply a way to put numbers to the different brightnesses we see among all the stars. What affects that brightness? A couple of factors come into play. A star can look bright or dim depending on far away it is. But, it can also look bright because its very hot. Distance AND temperature play a role in magnitude.   A very hot, bright star that lies very far away from us appears dim to us. If it was closer,   it would be brighter. A cooler, intrinsically dim star might look very bright to us if it was very close by. Most stargazers are interested in something called visual (or apparent) magnitude, which is the brightness it will appear to the eye. Sirius, for example, is -1.46, which means that its quite bright. It is, in fact, the brightest star in our night sky. The Sun is magnitude -26.74 and is THE brightest star in our daytime sky. The dimmest magnitude anyone can detect with the naked eye is around magnitude 6.   The intrinsic magnitude of a star is how bright it is due to its own temperature, regardless of distance. Astronomy researchers are much more interested in this number since it gives some clue about conditions inside the star. But, for backyard stargazers, that figure is less important than visual magnitude.   While our viewing is limited to a few thousand stars (with the naked eye), of course, observers can seek out more distant stars using binoculars and telescopes. With magnification, new populations of stars widen the view for observers who want to explore more of the sky. Edited and expanded by Carolyn Collins Petersen.

Critically analyse qualitative research articles Essay

Critically analyse qualitative research articles - Essay Example In terms of organization, first a brief summary of each article is presented. Then the method employed for each research is analyzed before making concluding remarks. The first article under review is by I Lin Sin. The article reports on research in which the author sought to explore the degree to which a group of foreign students from Malaysia studying at a British university hoped to secure lucrative jobs upon completing their studies. The author conducted qualitative, semi-structured interviews with ten students. The interviewees believed that holding a prestigious UK degree increased their chances of material success. Participants from minor ethnic groups were especially found to value work in the private sector and the ability to work wherever in the world. The article with the recommendation of further research on how the middle-class seeks to distinguish itself in the global higher education. Carleton Edwards wrote the second article and reports on a qualitative study conducted on the involvement of users of social services in assessing students of Diploma in Social Work on their practice placements. The author undertook a qualitative survey in which they collected the views of practice teachers using semi-structured questionnaires. The survey focused on the chief principles, issues and practical ramifications of involving service users in the assessing DipSW students. The article summarizes the findings of the survey and discusses the main hurdles encountered in the conducting the survey. Edwards then makes some recommendations for DipSW courses in the UK. Sin reports that they used what they call "theoretical sampling" to pick their ten interviewees. According to the author, this method of sampling entails selecting participants depending on their ability to contribute to the development of analyzes, theories and explanations. I find this approach to