The Level Of Violence On Screen Essays - The Jerry Springer Show

The Level Of Violence On Screen Essays - The Jerry Springer Show The Level Of Violence On Screen The Analyzation of Violence on Screen In the last few years, I have noticed that on screen violence has become as common as a Cheesesteak in Philadelphia. People often argue that the violence seen on screen is influencing our culture, yet each year the amount of viewers' increase. It seems that in order for your film or program to be successful it must contain violence. In my opinion, this constant levitation of violence on screen is due to our cultures' infatuation with the art of violence. Violence is present in the most of our cultures most enjoyedfilms like Independence Day, daytime talk shows such as Jerry Springer and even in cartoons that have been around forever like Tom & Jerry. I can recall a time when daytime talk shows (Donahue, Oprah) would hardly ever have audience feed back and very few panelists. My how times have changed. On today's talk shows, such as Jerry Springer, there is always a boisterous audience member, or an insane guest. Just as sure as you will find Abe Lincoln on a penny, you will see a cha ir fly on Jerry Springer. The Springer show was the first show to have guests' fight without stopping the camera. Jerry Springers' blatant disrespect for daytime show rules stirred controversy in the media but it also stirred up something in the public. interest.Although Jerry Springer had gone against all the rules of daytime, his rebellion had made his talk show the most watched show in the nation. When the Springer show surpassed the ratings of all time favorite Oprah Whinfrey, it was re-established that violence sells. Recently the Springer show has stopped airing its' fierce and very real fights for many reasons, one being that 23% of the people that watched his show are under the age of sixteen. Although Jerry Springer is a show intended for adults, childrens' shows contain violence as well.When I was a child, I saw nothing wrong with the Elmer Fudd hunting Rabbits or other Looney Tune characters being blown up, shot, or thrown off a cliff. Wile E. Cyote was always being kille d while scheming to catch the Road Runner. The most popular cartoons always contained violence. Though not the most violent, Tom & Jerry exhibited the cat and mouse chase with a little extra. There have been countless times I have been glued to the TV as Tom was beaten up, cut up, or strangled by the witty mouse Jerry. It did not even strike me as violence, but it was. I watched Tom & Jerry a few days ago, I realized that the whole show was based on Tom and Jerry trying to kill each other. Tom trying to kill Jerry to eat him or keep his master and mistress happy and Jerry trying to kill Tom to save his life. There weren't a lot of weapons used in Tom & Jerry except for a few explosives here and there but never any guns like in many big screen movies.Everyone loves to go to the movie theatre with their over priced snacks and sticky floors, but what makes movies sell? The films that make the most money at the box offices are usually action films that have many fist fights, explosives and big guns. Independence Day grossed more at the box offices than any other film in history. The movies plot was typical. A group of fearless humans attempts to save the earth from vicious extraterrestrial. Will Smith fist fought aliens, blew up planets and clobbered all the bad guys. The movie was consisted of a visual feast of explosives, property damages, and incredible sound effects. Independence Day was to Sci-Fi what Twister was to disaster films. Although Independence Day contained a massive amount of violence almost every person in America went to see it, and loved it. Just because our culture loves violence on screen, it does not mean that we all have sick and tormented minds, we are not all just killers waiting to happen. Our culture is obsessed with real issues being dramatized . There is nothing wrong with having violence in films and on T.V. If a person wants to sit down

Agriculture and Farm Innovations and Inventors

Agriculture and Farm Innovations and Inventors Farming and farm machinery were basically unchanged in Europe and its colonies for over a thousand years until the Agricultural Revolution  beginning in the late 1700s. Modern agricultural machinery has continued to evolve. The threshing machine has given way to the combine, usually a self-propelled unit that either picks up windrowed grain or cuts and threshes it in one step. The grain binder has been replaced by the swather which cuts the grain and lays it on the ground in windrows, allowing it to dry before being harvested by a combine. Plows are not used nearly as extensively as before, due in large part to the popularity of minimum tillage to reduce soil erosion and conserve moisture. The disk harrow today is more often used after harvesting to cut up the grain stubble left in the field. Although seed drills are still used, the air seeder is becoming more popular with farmers. Todays farm machinery allows farmers to cultivate many more acres of land than the machines of yesterday. Famous Agriculturists Luther Burbank - The Idaho Potato: Horticulturalist patented many cropsGeorge Washington Carver: Agricultural chemist who diversified agriculture and promoted crop rotationJethro Tull: Inventor of the seed drill Milestones in Farm Machinery The following inventions and mechanization led to an agricultural revolution in America in its first two centuries as a nation. Corn picker:  In 1850, Edmund Quincy invented the corn picker.Cotton gin:  The cotton gin is a machine that separates seeds, hulls and other unwanted materials from cotton after it has been picked. Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin on March 14, 1794Cotton harvester:  The first cotton harvester was patented in the U.S. in 1850, but it was not until the 1940s that the machinery was widely used.  Mechanical cotton harvesters are of two types: strippers and pickers. Stripper harvesters strip the entire plant of both open and unopened bolls, along with many leaves and stems. The cotton gin is then used to remove unwanted material.​  Picker machines, often called spindle-type harvesters, remove the cotton from open bolls and leave the bur on the plant. The spindles, which rotate on their axes at high speeds, are attached to a drum that also turns, causing the spindles to penetrate the plants. The cotton fibers are wrapped around the moistened spindles and then removed by a special device called a doffer; the cotton is then delivered to a large basket carried above the machine. Crop rotation: Growing the same crop repeatedly on the same land eventually  depletes the soil of different nutrients. Farmers avoided a decrease in soil fertility by practicing crop rotation. Different plant crops were planted in a regular sequence so that the leaching of the soil by a crop of one kind of nutrient was followed by a plant crop that returned that nutrient to the soil. Crop rotation was practiced in ancient Roman, African, and Asian cultures. During the Middle Ages in Europe, a three-year crop rotation was practiced by farmers rotating rye or winter wheat in year one, followed by spring oats or barley in the second year, and followed by a third year of no crops. In the 18th century, British agriculturalist Charles Townshend aided the European agricultural revolution by popularizing a four- year crop rotation with rotations of wheat, barley, turnips, and clover. In the United States, George Washington Carver brought his science of crop rotation to the farmers and save d the farming resources of the south. Grain elevator: In 1842, the first grain elevator was built by Joseph Dart.Hay cultivation:  Until the middle of the 19th century, hay was cut by hand with sickles and scythes. In the 1860s early cutting devices were developed that resembled those on reapers and binders; from these came the modern array of fully mechanical mowers, crushers, windrowers, field choppers, balers, and machines for pelletizing or wafering in the field. The stationary baler or hay press was invented in the 1850s and did not become popular until the 1870s. The pick up baler or square baler was replaced by the round baler around the 1940s.In 1936, a man named Innes, of Davenport, Iowa, invented an automatic baler for hay. It tied bales with binder twine using Appleby-type knotters from a John Deere grain binder. A Pennsylvania Dutchman named Ed Nolt built his own baler, salvaging the twine knotters from the Innes baler. Both balers did not work that well. According to The History of Twine, Nolts innovative patents pointed the way by 1939 to the mass production of the one-man automatic hay baler. His balers and their imitators revolutionized hay and straw harvest and created a twine demand beyond the wildest dreams of any twine manufacturer. Milking machine:  In 1879, Anna Baldwin patented a milking machine that replaced hand milking - her milking machine was a vacuum device that connected to a hand pump. This is one of the earliest American patents, however, it was not a successful invention. Successful milking machines appeared around 1870. The earliest devices for mechanical milking were tubes inserted in the teats to force open the sphincter muscle, thus allowing the milk to flow. Wooden tubes were used for this purpose, as well as feather quills. Skillfully made tubes of pure silver, gutta percha, ivory, and bone were marketed in the mid-19th century. During the last half of the 19th century, over 100 milking devices were patented in the United States.Plow:  John Deere invented the self-polishing cast steel plow - an improvement over the iron plow. The plow was made of wrought iron and had a steel share that could cut through sticky soil without clogging. By 1855, John Deeres factory was selling over 10,000 stee l plows a year. Reaper:  In 1831, Cyrus H. McCormick developed the first commercially successful reaper, a horse-drawn machine that harvested wheatTractors:  The advent of tractors revolutionized the agricultural industry, freeing agriculture from using oxen, horse, and manpower.

Person-centred Planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Person-centred Planning - Essay Example But in order to successfully organize a person-centred mode of planning it is incumbent that all the factors and elements are in place. This form of service delivery relies heavily on a professional approach combined with the human touch. The chief players are the facilitators in the different care providing roles. The group that forms the care givers include both professionals as well as family members. So it is obvious that coordination and cooperation among all the team members is the primary criterion in successful implementation of the planning. Task/role assignment According to Molly (2006) the most important aspect of person-centred planning is the roles of the care providers for they are the ones who are in direct charge of the care receiver. It is important that the individual service providers have a clear cut picture of what they have to do and the task they have to perform. They should be aware of their specific role in the care facilitating service. Molly (2006) stresses upon the importance of the ‘circle of support’ which consists of both the professional care givers and the family members. In this context it is important that each one of the care providers have a distinctive task to perform so that the care receiver gets proper service. It has been found that in cases where there is no proper task or role assignment the care receiver suffers. The care giving system takes over the needs of the individual being and the whole focus shifts from catering to the person to meeting the needs of the system (Molly, 2006). Molly refers to two distinct cases of Frances and Crystal to show how well a service facilitating system can work if roles and tasks are definitively allotted so that every member of the team contributes as per his/her responsibility. The defined role in fact helps to build a distinctive relationship between the care receiver and the care provider, for one of the most important criterion of a care provider is to care for the dependent. In fact it is the care receiver who gets to make a choice of his/her care givers. This explains the significance of the role that the care giver has to play. Coordination & collaboration in the team When building a person-centred planning team it is important that all the team members are assigned uniform responsibility in their respective roles. It would not only prevent grudges among team members but optimise the full potential and strength of the team. In their study of client-centric approach Sumsion and Lencucha (2009) have pointed out the challenges and difficulties faced by the teams when working in an interprofessional, person-centric module. They throw light on the common areas of discontent like time management, interpersonal and professional differences and hierarchies. These issues could be effectively sorted out by addressing appropriate team goals, properly distributing roles and responsibilities and through a continuous process of sharing information relati ng to the background and management of the client (Sumsion & Lencucha, 2009). Moreover through information dissemination at all levels members could coordinate better and know the functioning methods of each other. In their research Sumsion and

Person Who Made an Impact in My Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Person Who Made an Impact in My Life - Essay Example He had also lived a moral life, that his integrity is beyond reproach. He is also a very good family man. He has a wife who loves him and whom he loves back, with children who equally loves and respects him and are also motivated to excel in their chosen fields of endeavors. This is the reason why I kept on pushing myself to do better in school and to study different fields of endeavor because I know that to do good in my chosen career, I have to prepare myself well through a good and multi-disciplined education. As a student, my uncle was a scholar and had different degrees. His academic preparation enabled him to excel in his chosen career. I am doing the same thing today. I am trying my best to do well in school and to expose myself in the different field of studies to make myself a well-rounded professional when I have graduated later and embarked on a professional career. I consider myself lucky because I realize this lesson early in my life. I know that all this hard work, all this perseverance that I am exerting will pay off when I graduated in school because this will prepare me well to excel in my chosen field of endeavor. I am hoping that when I have already graduated in school, I will be successful like him both in my professional and personal life. Essay B: The Recent Financial Crisis (issue of importance to me) When I ask what recent issue I consider important that has significance to me, my family and the community at large, I cannot help but talk about the recent financial crisis. The crisis made the lives of a lot of people difficult. There were people I know personally who lost their jobs and their homes, and young as I am, I felt how desperate the situation was. Perhaps the recent financial difficulty that everybody experienced during the recent crisis made the young people in this generation to mature early. We began to worry about our future and this country when we only used to think about ourselves. Suddenly, we were thinking about politic al issues and responsibilities because we saw how some families disintegrate with the crisis and cannot help to wonder how the crisis happened. People of my age became aware and realized how vulnerable our country to crisis. When we begin to think like that, perhaps it is safe to surmise that we matured early. Personally, the recent financial crisis sparked my curiosity to inquire about what caused the crisis that made people lost their jobs and their homes. I was dismayed to know that the root cause of the financial crisis was the greed of a few people that eventually took the toll in our economy. I will no longer discuss the details of the root cause of the crisis so as not to consume space in this paper but suffice to say that had the financial professionals been ethical in their practice and considered beyond themselves, the crisis would not have happened. In a way, my inquiry on what caused the recent financial crisis had taught me how important it is to be ethical in our profe ssional practice because a profession’s collective misdemeanor will have an impact not only in their respective industry but also on the economy as a whole. I learned that the lack of ethics in ones professional practice will make people distrustful not only in our industry but also in our economic system as a whole.  Ã‚  

Current And Future Use of Technology Essay Example for Free

Current And Future Use of Technology Essay Spotify has provided a way for people to access and share music with services such as exchange of selections and even mobile access. In the process of providing these services, the users’ data is acquired through initial registration and this helps categorize the market. The main target for Spotify is not registration of premium accounts without adverts but the free use by the public where adverts can be played in between songs. There are many issues handled by Spotify in the business including competition from existing online music selling companies like Sony and Apple, and challenges on fair artists’ royalties with restrictions by copyrights in some regions. The e business strategy is well established for Spotify as the company deals with music producing companies and companies who look for a way to advertise brands. The peer to peer technology used and the feature of listening to music even when offline together with a simple user interface are all technological advantages of Spotify that make it popular in the market. The future of Spotify is based on integration of the software into hand held processing devices like modern phones, and having a good relation with the sources of music. E-Business background Spotify’s business idea was to create a medium through which to provide advertisers with a way of reaching a traceable and response predictable market. By creating a digital library of a wide variety of music and an interface through which listeners can register and listen to music free, Spotify was able do just that. There are adverts pushed in between songs and last for between 15 and 30 seconds. The users that don’t want to get interference from the audio adverts can pay a monthly fee to stop them. The portion of listeners who pay this fee is so small compared to the free users, who form the main market idea for Spotify. The company has arrangement with the world’s major labels to provide their music and in return claim an 18% stake in the company. The integration of the music producing companies, the listeners and the advertisers forms the e-business model for Spotify. There is competition from similar companies like Last. fm, Amazon (which sells music online), my space and facebook; with the direct rival being Last. fm. Spotify and Last. fm have integrated their systems though and this form a way to create an entry hardship in an effort to protect high profit business and raise competition advantage for both companies to realize. Porters Five Forces model Spotify’s business faces the five forces from threats of substitute, barriers to entry, supply power, buyers power and rivalry (Porter 1985). There are various ways that it has put up strategies to deal with this. First, there is the presence of substitute firms like Last. com; Spotify has planned to sing a deal in merged operations with the company in order to increase the business opportunities for both sides. It was proposed that the advertisers/brands could then be able to buy advertising services across the platforms of the two companies (McCormick 2009). According to the nature of the platform on which the adverts are run, Spotify has created a medium where the message is streamline with the music being listened to. Apart from the major rival with whom Spotify agrees to merge business with, the brands will face a hard time looking for an alternative service of the kind. Thus the buyer’s power is low, considering that there are also many scattered brands to advertise through the electronic platform. Furthermore, the platform provides a way of major record labels availing their music to the users, making sure that brands can get the largest number of music fans at Spotify, which they cannot get from online music shops. On the suppliers’ power towards Spotify’s business, there are many music producing labels that offer a variety of music. Also, the fact that the buyers of the service are somewhat weak, the suppliers are also put in the same line; because advertisers has no much power over Spotify, they cannot demand of specific record labels. Since the entry of Spotify into the e-business, the key issue is to keep the prices offered virtually low in order to provide a barrier of entry of new competition. One strategy applied by firms to this effect is merging their markets and operations so that they can enjoy economies of scale and protect the high profit market from other entrants while keeping the quality of services high. This was a case possible from the Spotify’s deal with Last. fm. There is rivalry in the industry of e-business and marketing through electronic means has been applied by many companies. The industry is disciplined though, from previous competition, the methods of enticing the music fans and through ease of use of platforms by the market forming population. The application streams music with no buffering times and provides a very wide variety of ready to listen categories of songs; from major record labels. The fact that the market for Spotify seems to be exponentially growing means that soon the buyers will be so many and so their power will go down, providing a business advantage for the company ( ). E-Marketing The internet is a unique marketing medium in that it provides a global market with instant response dynamism. The fact that when a product is advertised through the internet can reach millions of users within a short while is enough to make it a rich market. Spotify has its marketing strategy based on online access of adverts by the users in their endeavor to listen to music. Data and Market Analysis The strongest part of Spotify registration of users is that it takes the demographic data so that the company is in a position to provide marketing strategies to advertisers based on age, location and music taste. The ability to analyze and classify a market is important to advertisers, especially when it involves technical goods and services. Promotion and mobile services The introduction of the mobile version of Spotify software has helped in a far reaching marketing strategy. The whole issue has been in news for sometime and major discussion blogs and websites like BBC NEWS, leading to less costly promotion effect in Europe. The market in Spotify is really the online internet resource as well as the users PC’s and portable mobile Activities Spotify engages in various activities that are geared towards having a wide base of users so that it can reach more people when targeting an audience for an advert. These activities include; invite scheme, tell a friend and viral advertising. The â€Å"invite scheme† is where the newly registered and the existing members are given an opportunity to invite friends and family to experience Spotify while still promoting the premium membership. The â€Å"tell a friend† activity involves a Spotify inbuilt tool to spread word of mouth. This is a strategy to use the existing users to get the message to their friends using the already existing internet framework. The other one is viral advertising where the medium mainly used is social networking frameworks like facebook. The most visited WebPages are targeted and a multimedia message displayed. Web-design Spotify has created a peer to peer application that streams music between the listeners computer, whether online or offline. Spotify has a service to which clients connect and have the contents of the cache summarized in an index which is then sent to Spotify’s stream hub. The data in the index is usually used to alert other users of the additional peers they can connect to, to fetch streamed data for specific songs being played. This arrangement is enabled and tolerated by each upon start up. Each client listen to incoming connections from other Spotify clients like a server and connects to other users to exchange cached data. The users are actually not in apposition to configure the connections or alter the bandwidth of transmission of data. These settings are hard coded in the system. The design of the entire architecture may be complicated but the interface used by the listeners is so simple and effective. There are just few controls of play, rewind and forward. The Spotify application offers the following features to the users; Catalogue: Spotify offers users access to millions of music tracks including songs from major music labels. Some specific music from some artists may not be available due to boundary regulations in the copyright. Playlists: it allows users to create collections of favorite music and lets them share them. The users can also edit the playlists with other users together through collaborating software. For this purpose, the playlists can be shared through an email or instant messaging window. On accessing the link, the data gets downloaded into Spotify. Integration with Last. fm: the specific feature from last. fm is the ability to collect the users’ preference in music and store it into Last. fm’s database. This has been integrated into Spotify without requiring external plug-ins (Spotify Archives 2010). Radio feature: this creates random playlists of songs related to the music of the currently selected artist. Spotify has a simple to use interface that allows the user to search for music by artist, album or title. It displays the user chosen playlist and some advert image, which on clicking, one can explore the promotion (Spotify Forums 2010). Business-to-Business (B2B) Spotify has introduced the music service to the listeners and charge a certain rate for ad free music. However, it does not rely on this for its source of revenue. It largely relies on the free service where the listeners will have to bear with the adverts. At this point, it does business with other firms that want to advertise their brands to the listeners. The main target for business is therefore dealing with other companies that want to reach the audience. On the same platform, there is collaboration with major record labels where they claim a certain percentage stake in the company and in turn provide their music libraries to Spotify (Nylander 2009). Spotify focuses on doing business with other businesses in its plans. It has tailored it product for mobile phones and approached the mobile phone making companies like apple in an effort to do business with them (Emerald). This is a direct challenge to Apple’s iTunes though and touches on the competition end. Mobile Commerce Spotify has produced a mobile version of the application that can allow users with premium accounts to access and listen to music wherever they go. It also allows the users to download a certain number of songs on to the phone for listening while out of network range. Mobile business seems to be the future of IT marketing, especially with the progress and expectations of pervasive mobile programming. By considering the mobile version of the application to target the users on the move and virtually at all instances of life, Spotify has provided a wider more reaching market for its business. Given that all the mobile users will have to be premium users, the focus of mobile versions will be to create a customer base where the services will be like a contract between Spotify and the user (Ionescu 2009). This eliminates the advertisers from the picture and allows Spotify to compete with earlier established businesses on the same line like Apple, while still spreading the risk. Instead of relying on the advertising source alone, the company can now create a one to one relation with the music fans through their premium accounts. Conclusions It is a good business plan for Spotify to create such a huge market base by having so many users registered, both free and premium categories. The plan of pushing adverts into streamed music provides an excellent way of gaining the revenue from brands. On the mobile world, it provides a good way of reaching a wider market and a premium account for the mobile is a plus on the revenue. This was a wise decision considering the processing power of phones cannot be compared to that of PC’s. The strategy of extending into the mobile world was a good way of preparing for the future of IT with the trends in pervasive mobile programming. Mobile marketing will form an even wider market considering the more frequent use and an extension of the PC use after work hours. Recommendations The competition in the market is high and Spotify will have to deal with some issues, especially with the application interface and specifically the technology on the size of bandwidth among other resource utilized on users machines. Criticism is usually on the fact that the interface does not give a user the access to control the amount of resources like bandwidth that Spotify uses against other systems on the same machine. The issue of coming up with a way of establishing the classification of music sources with their effect on the market using the users data to determine the ratings would be an important thing to indulge in, in order to establishing a fair royalties to the artists in order to keep everyone happy and the future of Spotify bright (BBC News 2010). More concentration on helping the production teams with useful demographic and ratings information will give the company a strong relationship with the source of music, the medium they use to make money. References BBC News, (2010) ‘Spotify boss Daniel Ek sets out future plans’, [Online], Available: http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/8478599. stm Porter M. (1998) ‘Competitive strategy: techniques for analyzing industries and competitors’, Free Press, ISBN 0684005778, 9780684005775. McCormick, A. (2009) ‘Spotify and Last. fm moot partnership’, Britannica article; Revolution (14605953) [Online], Available: http://www. britannica. com/bps/additionalcontent/18/38216709/Spotify-and-Lastfm-moot-partnership Ionescu D. , Nov 23, 2009, Spotify Lands App for Symbian Phones, [emailprotected], [Online], Available: http://www. pcworld. com/article/182833/spotify_lands_app_for_symbian_phones. html Robert Andrews, 2009, Apple Approves Spotify’s iPhone App, web article on Paid Content: UK, [Online], Available: http://paidcontent. co. uk/article/419-spotify-says-apple-still-testing-iphone-app-spotify-vanishes-from-app-s/ Emerald, Current CITE-ings from the popular and trade computing press, Library Hi Tech News, Volume 26, Issue 9, [Online], Available: http://www. emeraldinsight. com. ezproxy. cqu. edu. au/Insight/ViewContentServlet? contentType=NonArticleFilename=Published/NonArticle/Articles/23926iae. 001. html Spotify Archives (2010) ‘Spotify for iPhone v0. 4 now available’, [Online], Available: http://www. spotify. com/int/blog/archives/2010/03/31/iphone-v4/ Johan Nylander, Record labels part owner of Spotify, from The Swedish Wire, Published Friday, 07 August 2009, [Online], Available: http://www. swedishwire. com/business/680-record-labels-part-owner-of-spotify Spotify Forums, What is Spotify? Why choose Spotify? How much advertising? [Online], Available: http://www. spotify-forum. com/what_is_spotify. php

The Sun and Its Features Essay -- Science Essays Scientific

The Sun and Its Features Changes in the magnetic field of the sun affect us here on earth in a number of interesting ways. This magnetic field is caused by the flow of electrically charged ions and electrons on the sun, and if it didn't exist, the sun would be a much more boring star. The 11-year cycle of the sun's magnetic field accounts for many of the cool features of the sun: sunspots, solar flares, and aurora borealis. At the beginning of the cycle, the magnetic field is weak and there are very few sunspots; later, at the peak of the cycle, the magnetic field is strong, and there are many sunspots. Sunspots are relatively cool areas that appear as dark patches on the face of the sun. They occur where magnetic field lines are twisted below the surface. The period of time when the magnetic field is strong and there are many sunspots is called a solar maximum. The sun approached one of its solar maximums in the year 2000, and this maximum affected the conditions on earth. For example, the aurora borealis, or "Northern Lights" we see in the sky are much brighter during a solar maximum. They are also more spread out over the sky. In normal years the northern lights can only be seen over the poles, but during a solar maximum they are visible to much of the northern United States and Europe. Aurora borealis is caused by the solar wind that blows off the corona of the sun. The temperature of the corona is so high that the gravity of the sun cannot hold on to it, so hot charged particles from the corona regularly fly off the sun at millions of miles per hour. When these particles collide with atoms in the earth's atmosphere, they excite their electrons, causing them to "jump" to a higher energy level. When electrons jump to a h... ...solar maximum), less cosmic rays strike the earth, and when it is weak (during a solar minimum), many cosmic rays strike the earth. Trees record in their rings how much carbon 14 is in the atmosphere, and during the Maunder Minimum tree rings had very high levels of Carbon 14. Thus, there seems to be a link between the sunspot cycle and the climate of the earth, with solar minimum bringing cooler temperatures and solar maximum bringing warmer ones. This, plus the beautiful displays of northern lights, and the threatening danger of solar flares, are just three ways we are effected by the solar cycle of the sun. References: Solar Physics. Hathaway, David H. NASA. March 17, 2000. Sunspots as Predictors. Younce, Matthew Wiley. The Sun-Earth Connection. NASA/GSFC. USB/S Introducing the Aurora. Terry, Kathee and Anderson, Hugh. July 12, 1999.

Children of Men Film Essay

Children of Men is a thought provoking film directed by Alfonso Cuaron which explored the possibility of hope in the face of overwhelming despair. The film has a fearful, chaotic mood within the setting of a dystopian world in London 2027. Visual and verbal techniques such as camera techniques, diegetic and non-diegetic sound, and symbolism were effectively used across the film. Cuaron used these techniques to show the audience that the search for self preservation demonstrates ignorance for the good of humanity. However, Even though morality is lost when the world deteriorates, hope can still be found in mankind’s bleakest moments; as the darkness of humanity cannot exist without the light, which shows that it’s future. In a world where the deterioration of humanity has caused destruction to a society, people tried to hold on to the last bit of hope while having to survive in the abyss of despair. An example is the diegetic sound of a news reporter on TV in a coffee shop, reporting the tragic death of Baby Diego. â€Å"The world was stunned today by the death of Diego Ricardo. Diego Ricardo, the youngest person on the planet was 18 years, 4 months, 20 days, 16 hours and 8 minutes old†. By stating Diego’s age to the exact minute, the reporter emphasizes his significance as he was the youngest person alive after 18 years of infertility. Cuaron used this technique to enlarge the great grief and devastation that the rest of the world suffers due to the tragic event. Making the audience see that the fragile fate of humanity has been dealt a shattering blow, it looks as if mankind’s last flicker of hope has been extinguished along with Diego’s death, and the species of human ra ce will perish. Another successful sound effect used by Cuaron was tinnitus. This verbal technique is a ringing sound one hears when ears are damaged after loud noises, and it was used after the bomb explosion in the coffee shop. The tinnitus is sympathizing as the ringing sound is heard by Theo as well as the audience, relating the audience to Theo’s experience and making them more involved in the film. This technique is symbolic as Cuaron expresses that the dull reality prevents us from hearing our surroundings, foreshadowing Theo’s numb emotion and reaction towards the situation. Cuaron used this technique to highlight the fearful and chaotic environment, constantly reminding audience the death and despair Theo experienced. The film is very much relatable to our society as the destructed world in the film does not seem so distant from our own. Cuaron makes the audience realize that if we are not careful and take care of crucial issues, it is possible that similar situations in the f ilm could become our future. The frequent use of visual techniques by Cuaron also developed the despairing environment in the film. One example is a reverse angle shot of Theo and the suicide kit Quietus at Jasper’s house. The suicide kit was handed out by the government, showing that even the government had no intention of dealing with existing issues and preferred the easy way out. The white and pale blue colour of Quietus symbolizes peacefulness, showing that instead of keep living in the abyss of desperation, people would rather die to escape the corrupted world. This is appalling to the audiences as Cuaron makes them realize that life was no longer important in the gloomy society of the film. Without hope and faith for the future, the only control people had when facing despair was the option of suicide. Another example that develops the idea of despair is the use of a mid shot out of the bus to Bexhill. The mid shot shows refuges caught by immigration police; locked up in cages, beaten and shot. This technique reinforces audience to see the visual allusions created by Cuaron, as the situation is somewhat similar to the Nazi roundups. With the use of this visual technique, Cuaron is able to show us a world where government control has become so powerful that humanity no longer exists, and the inhuman treatments that the immigrants received were not noticed or cared by British citizens. The refugees were hidden away from society and irresponsibly dealt with so the issue doesn’t have to be taken care of. Cuaron’s purpose is for the audience to see that society tends to, and is, ignoring larger issues which cause discomfort simply because it is the easy way out. However, we all have the responsibility to help each other out and solve existing issues within the community, in order to bring right and justice to the society. There are also hopeful situations throughout the film. This can be explored by the use of non diegetic music â€Å"Fragments of a Prayer† as Kee symbolically revealed her pregnancy to Theo in a barn. The music was implemented several times in the film during moments of hope. The holy shrill voices of the song manipulates viewer to believe that there is always hope as Kee undid her clothes to show her miraculous pregnancy. Theo’s dialogue of â€Å"Jesus Christ† after he saw Kee’s belly symbolically brings realization of biblical allusion to the audience. Surrounded by sheep and cows, Kee was the connotation of Virgin Mary. The similarities allow viewer a deeper understanding of how important Kee’s pregnancy was to mankind, in both cases it was the carrier of humanity’s savior that was in undergoing the long journey. Cuaron also used lighting techniques to highlight the unborn baby’s representation of hope midst despair. The chiaroscuro lighting creates a light shade effect during the revelation of the baby. Darkness in the barn emphasized a patch light on Kee’s belly. Her glowing belly seemed radiate shine, making it look angelic. Cuaron successfully used these techniques to tell the audience that Kee’s pregnancy was a brief moment of humanity allowed that existed in a world determined to tear itself apart. A further biblical reference is Theo’s similarities to Jesus. His character is non-violent, despite being surrounded by guns and bombs. While defending and protecting Kee, he never used or carried weapons. Theo was also consistently surrounded by animals, which are used throughout the film as indicators of goodness and trustworthiness. By using these Christianity symbols, Cuaron reveals a cautious faith in humanity in the characterization of Theo as he came to demonstrate man’s best attributes, compassion, self-sacrifice and hope. Another example which develops the ide a of hope is the establishing shot of Kee, the baby and Theo on the boat staggering towards the Ship of Tomorrow to get to the Human Project. The non diegetic music of â€Å"Fragments of a Prayer† was again used, setting ablaze to hope as Kee was getting closer to safety. When Kee questioned whether they were too late, Theo answered â€Å"Trust me, they’ll come back†. This dialogue contrasts with his dialogue earlier in the film â€Å"Why do people believe this crap†¦ Too late the world went to shit†. Cuaron used this contrast to show the change in Theo to which he was no longer numb about the corrupted world and finally found hope and faith for the future. This provides the audience with catharsis, and it is a release from action to allow viewer to believe that everything will get better. Cuaron’s purpose is for the audience to understand that dread and fear can have a damaging effect on society but is also a driving force behind the vital change needed to save our planet. We should always hope but think and act now because the final result is up to us. In conclusion, a variety of visual and verbal techniques were used by Cuaron throughout Children of Men. These techniques created a destructed and gloomy society which allows viewers to seek through the failure of future construction along with the bleak and brilliant of hope and humanity. Revealing how humanity’s nature and glory is essential in order for human race to maintain faith and stay in a balance of compatibility. Challenging viewers to consider the effect of manmade actions on the current world and how it is shaping the future.

Article Critique ‘A New Look, An Old Battle’ Essay

While the article recognizes the usefulness of stem-cell research in medicine, it also denounces the anti-abortion movement. According to the author, anti-abortion proponents are on the losing side because they failed to scientifically substantiate their claims. Their slogan ‘abortion stops a beating heart’, according to the author, is a mixture of fallacy and deceit. It is generally a misleading slogan. The embryo has no heart; it is a conjugation of biological characteristics which cannot be explained by any a priori moralistic assumption. According to the author, the utility of any biological research on stem cell has nothing to do with morality. Luring the public into believing that stem cell research is an immoral act is itself a coagulation of irrationality. Unconsciously or consciously, the author argues that the moral implications of abortion are not related to stem cell research. This should not be the case. A general reflection on the moral implications of stem cell research is, at many times, congruent with the issue of abortion. To argue that ‘it is about science, not abortion,’ is grossly misleading. Not because science is an independent field suggests that it does not have moral implications related to the issue of abortion. The means by which science is applied falls under the rubric of morality. Science as a concept is morally neutral, but its application is not. It must be examined under the microscope of moral precepts. Hence, it is recognized that the moral implications of stem-cell research are similar to the moral effects of abortion. The author argues that proponents of anti-abortion are on the losing side because they lack the political support of leading politicians and personalities. According to the author, this attests to the general weakness of the anti-abortion slogan. Again, the author commits a fallacy. Yes, political support suggests the strength of any movement, but never the content of its standing beliefs. Content (meaning) cannot be equated with numbers. Supposing that the author continues to believe that support is tantamount to the rationality of any slogan; then such author falls into Bandwagon fallacy. The author argues that politicians supported stem cell research because they had ‘fathers with heart diseases, mothers with arthritis, and whose hearts resonated with the possibilities of alleviating pain and prolonging life. ’ This assertion is not only misleading but empirically unverifiable. Without reference to actual evidence, it is hard to prove this assertion. This argument may be also regarded as fallacious, clinging generally to the fallacy of ad misericordiam. The author convinces the reader that the strength of an argument can be established by referencing with other people’s emotional state of affairs. Here, the miseries of individuals cannot be used as an excuse for the rationalization of an action (in this case, support for stem-cell research). Again, this is not to say that stem cell research is ‘bad. ’ This is to argue that the author’s argumentative structure is improper and illogical. Most of the author’s arguments can be characterized as fallacious and overtly ambiguous. They are fallacious because it exaggerate, lack coherent premises, and dissect seemingly unrelated statements. Instead of looking for the moral implications of stem-research – ‘why it should be morally accepted, and not to be confused with abortion’ – the author ponders on the possibilities of stem-cell research (an abandonment of her own thesis). In addition, empirical evidences are not used to prove some of her important points.

The Grapes Of Wrath Essays - U.S. Route 66, Dust Bowl, Free Essays

The Grapes Of Wrath Essays - U.S. Route 66, Dust Bowl, Free Essays The Grapes Of Wrath The Grapes of Wrath The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's live under. The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms. The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California. How they survive the cruelty of the land owners that take advantage of them, their poverty and willingness to work. The Grapes of Wrath combines Steinbeck adoration of the land, his simple hatred of corruption resulting from materialism (money) and his abiding faith in the common people to overcome the hostile environment. The novel opens with a retaining picture of nature on rampage. The novel shows the men and women that are unbroken by nature. The theme is one of man verses a hostile environment. His body destroyed but his spirit is not broken. The method used to develop the theme of the novel is through the use of symbolism. There are several uses of symbols in the novel from the turtle at the beginning to the rain at the end. As each symbol is presented through the novel they show examples of the good and the bad things that exist within the novel. The opening chapter paints a vivid picture of the situation facing the drought-stricken farmers of Oklahoma. Dust is described a covering everything, smothering the life out of anything that wants to grow. The dust is symbolic of the erosion of the lives of the people. The dust is synonymous with deadness. The land is ruined ^way of life (farming) gone, people ^uprooted and forced to leave. Secondly, the dust stands for ^profiteering banks in the background that squeeze the life out the land by forcing the people off the land. The soil, the people (farmers) have been drained of life and are exploited: The last rain fell on the red and gray country of Oklahoma in early May. The weeds became a dark green to protect themselves from the sun's unyielding rays....The wind grew stronger, uprooting the weakened corn, and the air became so filled with dust that the stars were not visible at night. (Chp 1) As the chapter continues a turtle, which appears and reappears several times early in the novel, can be seen to stand for survival, a driving life force in all of mankind that cannot be beaten by nature or man. The turtle represents a hope that the trip to the west is survivable by the farmer migrants (Joad family). The turtle further represents the migrants struggles against nature/man by overcoming every obstacle he encounters: the red ant in his path, the truck driver who tries to run over him, being captured in Tom Joad's jacket: And now a light truck approached, and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it. The driver of the truck works for a large company, who try to stop the migrants from going west, when the driver attempts to hit the turtle it is another example of the big powerful guy trying to flatten or kill the little guy. Everything the turtle encounters trys its best to stop the turtle from making its westerly journey. Steadily the turtle advances on, ironically to the southwest, the direction of the mirgration of people. The turtle is described as being lasting, ancient, old and wise: horny head, yellowed toenails, indestructible high dome of a shell, humorous old eyes. (Chp 1)The driver of the truck, red ant and Tom Joad's jacket are all symbolic of nature and man the try to stop the turtle from continuing his journey westward to the promise land. The turtle helps to develop the theme by showing its struggle against life/ comparing it with the Joad struggle against man. The grapes seem to symbolize both bitterness and copiousness. Grandpa the oldest member of the Joad family talks of the grapes as symbols of plenty; all his descriptions of what he is going to do with the grapes in California

Overview of the Chinese Yangshao Culture

Overview of the Chinese Yangshao Culture The Yangshao culture is the term for an ancient civilization that existed in what is now central China (Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi provinces primarily) between the years 5000 and 3000 B.C.E. It was first discovered in 1921 the name â€Å"Yangshao† is taken from the name of the village where it was first discovered but since its initial discovery, thousands of sites have been uncovered. The most important site, Banpo, was found in 1953. Facets of the Yangshao Culture Agriculture was of paramount importance to the Yangshao people, and they produced many crops, although millet was particularly common. They also grew vegetables (mostly root vegetables) and raised livestock including chicken, pigs, and cows. These animals were mostly not generally raised for slaughter, though, as meat was eaten only on special occasions. Understanding of animal husbandry is thought to have increased significantly during this time. Although the Yangshao people had a primitive understanding of agriculture, they also fed themselves in part via hunting, gathering, and fishing. They accomplished this through the use of precisely-crafted stone tools including arrows, knives, and axes. They also used stone tools such as chisels in their farming work. In addition to stone, the Yangshao also cared intricate bone tools. The Yangshao lived together in houses huts, really built in pits with wooden frames holding up mud-plastered walls and thatched millet roofs. These houses were clustered in groups of five, and clusters of houses were arranged around a village’s central square. The perimeter of the village was a furrow, outside which were a communal kiln and cemetery. The kiln was used for the creation of pottery, and it is this pottery that has truly impressed archaeologists. The Yangshao were capable of making a significant variety of pottery shapes, including urns, basins, tripod containers, bottles of various shapes, and jars, many of which came with decorative covers or accessories shaped like animals. They were even capable of making complex, purely ornamental designs, like boat shapes. Yangshao pottery was also often painted with intricate designs, often in earth tones. Unlike more recent pottery cultures, it appears the Yangshao never developed pottery wheels. One of the most famous pieces, for example, is an exquisite basin painted with a fishlike design and a human face, originally used as a burial object and perhaps indicative of a Yangshao belief in animal totems. Yangshao children seem to have been often buried in painted pottery jars. In terms of clothing, the Yangshao people wore mostly hemp, which they wove themselves into simple shapes like loincloths and cloaks. They did also occasionally make silk and it’s possible some Yangshao villages even cultivated silkworms, but silk clothing was rare and mostly the province of the rich. Banpo Civilization Site The Banpo site, first discovered in 1953, is considered typical of the Yangshao culture. It consisted of a village area of about 12 acres, surrounded by a ditch (which may once have been a moat) nearly 20 feet wide. As described above, the houses were mud and wood huts with thatched roofs, and the dead were buried in a communal cemetery. Although it’s not clear to what extent, if at all, the Yangshao people had any sort of written language, Banpo pottery does contain a number of symbols (22 have been found so far) that are found repeatedly on different pieces of pottery. They tend to appear alone, and so almost certainly do not constitute true written language, they may be something akin to makers’ signatures, clan markings, or the marks of owners. There is some debate as to whether the Banpo site  and the Yangshao culture as a whole were matriarchal or patriarchal. The Chinese archaeologists initially investigating it reported it had been a matriarchal society, but newer research suggests that may not be the case, or that it might have been a society in the process of transferring from matriarchy to patriarchy.

Early years in the uk context Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Early years in the uk context - Essay Example care provider for one’s own children seems to be a complicated decision for anyone who understands the importance of wellbeing of children in their early years. The article seems to be divided into two sections. The first section deals with the comparisons being drawn between the ways in which middle and working class parents engage with child care in exploring their interactions with local markets. The second half of the article deals with working class parents’ choices of schools; it illustrates the importance of local connections for parents in their identification of a primary school. Both the researches are located in the inner areas of London where middle and working class was easily found. First a population was selected on which research was carried out. The families chosen were middle and working class families who had primary school going children; the primary focus was the second project that was the identification of engagement of working- class families with childcare. Interviews with the parents were used for the data collection. Interviews were taken, recorded, transcribed and then analyzed respectively. In all the cases the parents were given the choices of setting whether it was their workplace or home. The data collected was analyzed in two ways. Firstly through Nnivo, for data management and search purposes and secondly through hand-coding to identify and examine key themes and issues. Drawing out on the research data, this study shows that families of different positions comprehend and practice child care markets in very different ways. In London, the child care Affordability Programme offers subsidy in a form of help to the lower- income parents in order to assist them to access chilcare. During the research many of the working- class respondents commented that the tax in the form of subsidy was making it financially worth to return to the work. The research made it analyze that the financial resources was an expected difference