Saturday, November 30, 2019

Oliver Twist free essay sample

Oliver Twist was written by English author, Charles Dickens. Charles was one of the best novelists in English literature. This book is about Oliver Twist, an orphan who leaves a workhouse and goes to London. There he meets the Artful Dodger, the head leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Oliver is unaware to their unlawful activities. Oliver Twist, a young child, was the novel’s protagonist and stands out as the main character in this story. Oliver’s real, complete identity was a mystery in the novel. From what I gathered, he is an innocent and poor orphan boy who was born in a workhouse. Throughout the book, Oliver was surrounded by coarseness and cruelty. Even though he was treated badly, he is a charming, innocent child. In many ways, it’s hard to find Oliver’s character believable. He was raised in such corrupt surroundings, but his virtue and purity are absolute. We will write a custom essay sample on Oliver Twist or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Even when Oliver was manipulated and abused, he doesn’t become indignant. Oliver does not represent a picture of a boy that is torn between good and evil but instead, he is goodness incarnate. Some characteristics that I appreciate of Oliver’s is that he had the courage and was brave enough to run away to London, even though he was still such a young boy. Another characteristic I appreciated was that even though Oliver grew up in a terrible environment and was abused all the time, he didn’t let that get to him. Oliver was still innocent, charming and pure. He doesn’t even know what evil is and can’t even comprehend it. I think it is good for himself that he is so naive, but on the other hand it’s not good to be ignorant because he needs to know of what is going on around him, as he lives in such an evil environment. Oliver has such amazing moral values, which even the idea of stealing horrors him. His good nature must come from instinct, because he could not have learned how to behave from the workhouse. I believe Charles Dickens was inspired for writing about Oliver Twist because of his own childhood. Dickens wrote about the real world. He didn’t write about higher or middles classes, he wrote about the people and kids that were struggling during his time. He used a lot of the same ideas in the novel that he had to go through as a kid. I think the reason being is so that readers can see what it was like to live in his time. My personal evaluation is that the book, Oliver Twist, was an incredible book. Though it was very sad at some parts, it really made me think of the world we live in today. I can’t explain how much Oliver, as a person, has changed my views in a lot of ways. Despite being treated horribly, he still had such a graceful and pure positive outlook on life that I find to be inspiring. In some ways, it kind of shows that no matter what anyone goes through, they should remain positive and look on the bright side of their situation. His character almost didn’t feel real, because I’ve never seen or met someone with his characteristics.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Japanese Film Auteur Akira Kurosawa

Japanese Film Auteur Akira Kurosawa Free Online Research Papers Japanese film auteur Akira Kurosawa is widely considered one of the most influential directors in cinema history. With such infamous releases as Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo, Kurosawa has consistently delivered films with a distinct artistic style and unique personal vision. The range of his influence has reached across the globe; his films have inspired such western directors as George Lucas, Sergio Leone, and Francis Ford Coppola. Across his career, Kurosawa’s visionary storytelling techniques, spectacular visual style, and thematic preoccupations have drawn upon a combination of foreign, domestic, and personal influences and have gone on to radically influence the world of cinema. While he draws upon influence from the west and east, many of Kurosawa’s methods of film storytelling have proven to be original, groundbreaking and highly influential. Rashomon, the film that put him and Japanese cinema on the map internationally, revolutionized the possibilities of narrative form in film. While it was classically taken for granted that film truth was visually evident, Rashomon’s unique form obscured that sense of truth by retelling the story of a man’s murder from four contradictory points of view. The characters tell their versions of the story to an unseen judge from a full frontal shot, implying that the viewer himself is the judge of truth. Each story is given equal weight, so as to imply that none are wholly true and none are wholly false. Radically different from anything seen before in cinema, the structure has been modeled in such films as Vantage Point and The Usual Suspects. It even inspired a western remake starring Paul Newman call ed The Outrage. The structure of Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai was similarly groundbreaking. Not only was it an epic action film of unprecedented depth and scale, but it is thought to be the first film narrative in which a team of heroes is assembled to accomplish a specific task. This structure is seen later in films such as The Guns of Navarrone, The Dirty Dozen, Seven Samurai’s western remake The Magnificent Seven, Ocean’s Eleven, and numerous others (Ebert). This is also a common structure of role playing video games (Final Fantasy, etc.). We see the continued influence of the film in Sam Peckinpah’s use of slow motion violence and death scenes in such action films as The Wild Bunch which went on to inspire numerous other western directors. The comic action film Yojimbo is also highly influential to western filmmakers: Toshiro Mifune’s character Sanjuro served as the basis for Clint Eastwood’s man with no name character, and the spaghett i western classic A Fistful of Dollars is a remake of Yojimbo. The story was again retold in Last Man Standing, starring Bruce Willis (Loftus). We see the influence of Yojimbo felt in Starwars when Obi-Wan hacks off a convict’s arm in a bar fight, much like Minfune’s Sanjuro does in the opening of the Yojimbo (Vera). The Hidden Fortress is yet another Kurosawa film that has such an original and exciting plot that it has been readapted, in this case as George Lucas’s epic sci-fi western Star Wars (Ebert). However, the power of the influence between Kurosawa and the west is reciprocal: Kurosawa owes the inspiration for Yojimbo to the western novel Red Harvest. Western influences upon his storytelling are most notable in his two Shakespeare adaptations: King Lear as Ran and Macbeth as Throne of Blood. Also, Kurosawa’s film Heaven and Hell is based upon the American crime novel King’s Ransom. Kurosawa draws inspiration from Russian novelists as well, with The Idiot, The Lower Depths, Ikiru, Dersu Uzala, and Red Beard all being based upon Russian novels. While considered to be the most â€Å"western† of Japanese filmmakers, he also draws upon domestic influences such as the Noh and Kabuki theatres, for which his older brother was a Benshi. A large portion of his films fall into the genre of Jidaigeki, or Japanese period-piece films. While simultaneously drawing upon domestic and foreign influences, Kurosawa has been able to innovate and in turn influence the world of cinema in a profound way. His visual style similarly draws upon classic influences in addition to the new technologies of color film and special effects. Many aesthetic elements of Kurosawa’s work have drawn upon older influences in addition to new innovations. Rashomon’s cinematic style owes much to the unchained camera concept of silent-era films. Kurosawa relates: â€Å"Since the advent of the talkies in the 1930s, I felt, we had misplaced and forgotten what was so wonderful about the old silent movies. I was aware of the aesthetic loss as a constant irritation. I sensed a need to go back to the origins of the motion picture to find this peculiar beauty again; I had to go back into the past† (Kurosawa). Another influence is Kurosawa’s early training as a painter, which seems to have provided him with an instinct for beautiful composition. In The Seven Samurai, his use of deep focus achieved through the use of the telephoto lens puts each detail of the frame in sharp focus and also renders the dimensionality of the frame flat like a canvas. This adds a pictorial quality to the picture, which, combined with an exceptional set design, serves to paint vividly the world of the narrative. In Ran, we see similar qualities in his use of color: the vivid colors of the costume and banner designs are diverse, distinct, and neatly organized. This not only adds stunning visual beauty to the films design, but enhances the storytelling. In the beginning of the film, the neatly organized patterns of color represent the stability of Hidetora’s kingdom. In the later battle scenes of the film the sharply contrasting blue on Saburo’s army and the red of Jiro’s convey clearly drawn battle lines. The colors take on symbolic effect as well, with the blue of Saburo representing his benevolent intentions to reunite with his father and Jiro’s fierce red representing the bloodshed he has committed by killing his brother Taro and tends to carry out further by the defeat of his younger brother. Dreams has an equally po werful visual design, but in this case it was achieved using the state of the art techniques of LucasArt’s Industrial Light and Magic team. Visual design is the primary tool of storytelling in Dreams, as the dialogue is sparse and the plots simplistic. The dazzling spectacle of color seen in â€Å"The Peach Orchard† and â€Å"Sunshine through the Rain† convey an impression of fantastic exuberance, evoking feelings of childlike delight in the viewer. The dark monochromaticism of â€Å"The Tunnel† and â€Å"The Weeping Demon† invoke morbid impressions of dread, fear, and terror. The use of color along with the powerful imagery of neatly dressed life-size porcelain dolls, dead soldiers whose faces have been painted a deathly blue-black, and weeping, savage, yet regretful demons marks the culmination of an aesthetic tendency for Kurosawa to achieve a visual poem of sorts rather than the mere telling of a narrative. We see this tendency in Rashomon in the preference for artistically appealing shots of symbolic plays of light, shadow, and woods over excessive dialogue. His beautiful landscape shots also achieve the effect of re-creating a tangible experience for the viewer, as they deeply impress upon the audience the sweeping grandeur and massive scale of the Japanese landscapes. Kurosawa’s use of landscape may be partially attributed to his early training as a painter, as the Japanese landscape painting is a cherished tradition that seeks to capture the very spiritual essence of the land. We can also attribute his preoccupation with landscape to the influence he felt from such American western filmmakers as John Ford (Crogan). In westerns, the landscape is so prominently featured as a vital aspect of the narrative that is becomes a character itself. We see a similar depiction of the landscape in Ran, such as when the wind-swept fields in which the mad Hidetora mindlessly picks flowers are suffused with a storm of violent wind, symbolic of the fate that has thrown Hidetora’s world into chaos. In the beginning of the film, the immense barrenness of the hills menacingly dwarfs the small group of riders traveling across the plains, and conveys the lonely place of man alone, without morals, and disconnected from God. Many of Kurosawa’s recurring thematic preoccupations stem from a combination of his personal life and broader social contexts. The recurring samurai themes of his films are a result of his samurai ancestry and the samurai warrior identity as a significant part of the Japanese tradition. The themes of chaos, regret, and hopelessness seen in Ran and Dreams must come from the personal dejection he faced when, after Dodes Kaden failed at the box office, he attempted suicide. In â€Å"The Tunnel† we see a platoon of dead soldiers attempting to come back to life, and haunting the commander who sent them to die in the process. This sequence constitutes a vivid visual impression of hopelessness and regret. These themes are closely related to themes concerning the senselessness and devastation of war and the dread of the nuclear menace. These feelings could be attributed to the general mood of post-war Japan, and are reflected also in Ran and Dreams. In Ran, we witness a powerf ul final image of a blind young man dropping a scroll with the image of the Buddha on it off a battlement onto the rocks below, symbolic of the hopelessness for salvation, the abandonment of morality, the impossibility of peace, and the chaotic nature of war. In â€Å"Mount Fuji in Red†, the terror of a mountain exploding with nuclear waste and the horrors of radioactive clouds colored in toxic yellows and reds depict ultimate devastation, and the hopelessness for survival drives the people of Japan to the bottom of the ocean to die. In â€Å"The Weeping Demon†, men have been transformed into demons damned to eternal suffering for their destruction of the earth with nuclear weapons. The monstrous, overgrown flowers, the horrible demons screaming out in pain as they cannibalize each other, and the starkness of the barren brown landscape paint quite a bleak picture for the destiny of mankind. We are relieved, however, to see a more hopeful portrait of man in â€Å"Villa ge of the Watermills†, in which it is implied that the salvation of man lies in his reconnection with nature. The idea Kurosawa depicts in Rashomon has gone on to be quite influential itself: as a testament to the power of the film’s thematic insights, the concept of the subjectivity of perception has gone on to be christened â€Å"The Rashomon Effect†. In the course of his highly accomplished career as a film auteur, Akira Kurosawa has revolutionized the conventions of cinema while drawing upon a variety of influences, eastern, western, personal, and social, to portray powerful dramas that are at once widely accessible and deeply personal. His unique approach to narrative form, his dazzling visual style, and deep thematic relevance mark the fulfillment of his personal vision to make universally relevant films and stay true to the humanist nature of the drama: â€Å"Human beings share the same common problems,† he says. â€Å"A film can only be understood if it depicts these properly.† Loftus, David. Review summary and commentary about Yojimbo. Retrieved December 4, 2008 from www.allwatchers.com Vera, Noel. (November 16, 2007). Yojimbo. Retrieved December 4, 2008 from http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2007/11/yojimbo-akira-kurosawa-1961-ikiru-akira.html Kurosawa, Akira. Something Like an Autobiography. Retrieved December 4, 2008 from criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=138eid=213section=essay Ebert, Roger. August 9, 2001. The Seven Samurai. Retrieved 10/14/2008. Crogan, Patrick. (2000). Translating Kurosawa. Retrieved December 4,2008 from http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/00/9/kurosawa.html Research Papers on Japanese Film Auteur Akira KurosawaWhere Wild and West MeetTrailblazing by Eric AndersonBringing Democracy to AfricaThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsHonest Iagos Truth through DeceptionRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andMind TravelCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayHip-Hop is Art

Friday, November 22, 2019

Mixed Metaphor Definition and Examples

Mixed Metaphor Definition and Examples A mixed metaphor is a succession of incongruous or ludicrous comparisons. Also known- playfully- as a mixaphor. Although many style guides condemn the use of mixed metaphors, in practice most of the objectionable combinations (as in the examples below) are actually clichà ©s or dead metaphors. Examples An Apprentice contestant with a love of bizarre business lingo has left Twitter users in fits of laughter after describing a failed task as leaving a sour taste in the clients eye. Contestant Gary Poulton, from Birmingham, also said his team were dancing around the bush in last nights episode, which saw his stint as project manager for Versatile end in failure.(Phoebe Jackson-Edwards, Im Not Going to Dance Around the Bush: Apprentice Stars Bizarre Business Jargon Is Mocked on Twitter. Daily Mail   [UK], November 26, 2015)Well have a lot of new blood holding gavels in Washington.(Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston, quoted in the  Savannah Morning News, November 3, 2010)Thats awfully thin gruel for the right wing to hang their hats on.(MSNBC, September 3, 2009)Her saucer-eyes narrow to a gimlet stare and she lets Mr. Clarke have it with both barrels.(Anne McElvoy, London Evening Standard, September 9, 2009)I don’t think we should wait until the other shoe drops. History has a lready shown what is likely to happen. The ball has been down this court before and I can see already the light at the end of the tunnel.(Detroit News, quoted in The New Yorker, November 26, 2012) [Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben] Bernanke set the standard for muddled metaphors when he parried reporters questions that day. Certain economic data, he said, are guideposts that tell you how were going to be shifting the mix of our tools as we try to land this ship on ain a smooth way onto the aircraft carrier.(Nick Summers, Lost in Translation. Bloomberg Businessweek, July 8-14, 2013)â€Å"I conclude that the city’s proposal to skim the frosting, pocket the cake, and avoid paying the fair, reasonable, and affordable value of the meal is a hound that will not hunt.(a labor arbitrator, quoted by the Boston Globe, May 8, 2010)Obviously, its been a very difficult two days for us, Nelson said. We kind of saw the writing on the wall Friday night. Its just apples versus oranges, and its not a level playing field by any means.(Seabury’s Football Team Done for the Season. Lawrence Journal-World, September 22, 2009)The year began with quarterback Tom Brady tarred, then un chained from a suspension on the heels of cheating allegations in the scandal known as Deflategate.(Associated Press, Deflating Ending Sends Patriots Into Offseason. Savannah Morning News, January 26, 2016) Nigel said (using, to my mind, an excessive amount of metaphor), Youve taken a rare orchid and shut her away in a dark outhouse. You havent nourished her or paid her enough attention. Is it any wonder that her roots are struggling to survive? Daisy is a trapped bird whose wings have been broken, she is a  Fabergà © egg that you have boiled for four minutes and eaten for your breakfast.I stopped him just as he was embarking on a new metaphor to do with Daisy being a submerged volcano.(Sue Townsend,  Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years. Penguin, 2010)The committee was tired of stoking public outrage with fortnightly gobbets of scandal. It decided to publish everything it had left, warts and all. Now everyone is tarred with the same ugly brush, and the myth that forever simmers in the public consciousnessthat the House shelters 435 parasitic, fat-cat deadbeatshas received another shot of adrenalin.(Washington Post, 1992)I knew enough to realize that the alligators were in the swamp an d that it was time to circle the wagons.(attributed to Rush Limbaugh) A lot of success early in life can be a real liability- if you buy into it. Brass rings keep getting suspended higher and higher as you grow older. And when you grab them, they have a way of turning into dust in your hands. Psychologists...have all kinds of words for this, but the women I know seem to experience it as living life with a gun pointed to their heads. Every day brings a new minefield of incipient failure: the too-tight pants, the peeling wallpaper, the unbrilliant career.(Judith Warner, The New York Times, April 6, 2007)There is no man so low that he has in him no spark of manhood, which, if watered by the milk of human kindness, will not burst into flames.(quoted by Willard R. Espy in The Game of Words. Grosset Dunlap, 1972)Sir, I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but Ill nip him in the bud.(attributed to Sir Boyle Roche, 1736-1807) Observations I am tempted to believe that the indiscriminate condemnation of mixed metaphors arises more often from pedantry than from common sense.(Edward Everett Hale, Jr. Constructive Rhetoric, 1896)[T]o the fertile mind that thinks up a series of comparisons one gives admirationand defense against those who misunderstand the ban on mixed metaphors.(Wilson Follett and Erik Wensberg, Modern American Usage, rev. ed. Macmillan, 1998)What is called mixed metaphor...is the coming into consciousness of a mixing that goes on all the time, a consciousness that offends our sensibilities because it calls attention to the device and perhaps might reveal the inexplicable bases of our worldview.(Dale Pesman, Some Expectations of Coherence in Culture Implied by the Prohibition of Mixed Metaphor. Beyond Metaphor: The Theory of Tropes in Anthropology. Stanford University Press, 1991)Mixed metaphors may be stylistically objectionable, but I cannot see that they are necessarily logically incoherent. Of course, most metaphors do occur in contexts of expressions used literally. It would be very hard to understand them if they did not. But it is not a logical necessity that every metaphorical use of an expression occurs surrounded by literal occurrences of other expressions and, indeed, many famous examples of metaphor are not.(Mark Johnson, Philosophical Perspectives on Metaphor. University of Minnesota Press, 1981) The Lighter Side of Mixed Metaphors Grace Adler:  You cant control your competitive nature any more than I can.Will Truman:  That is...Grace Adler:  Yes, you just like to play the cool Will Truman while Im all the intense crazy one. Well, once the bowling shoe is on the other foot, look whos the good cop and look whos the bad cop.Will Truman:  That is the worst  mixed metaphor  you have ever uttered.(Debra Messing and Eric McCormack, Alley Cats.  Will and Grace, 1999)

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Strategic Business Plan for the Indonesian Music Shop Assignment

Strategic Business Plan for the Indonesian Music Shop - Assignment Example The Indonesian recording industry has been so affected by the activities of piracy that the companies involved into the business of music and entertainment needed to take a major step in order to protect their business revenue and the business operations in Indonesia. Due to excessive piracy of music, the Indonesian Recording Company Association decided to change their mode of storing the recording materials from CDs and other types of storage devices to the digital storage of the recording materials into digital files. Piracy resulted into fall in the sale of CDs, VCDs, and other recording materials. The concern for the loss of music industry due to piracy remained obvious because of the fact that the music industry of Indonesia contributed about 18% to the total revenue generated by the Indonesian government (Anonymous, 2009). The company named Indonesian Music Shop is an online music providing company which has a vast collection of music including the classical and artistic albums of Indonesian origin. The company also has a collection of tracks of commercial numbers which are more liked by the youth of Indonesia. The company gives more importance to the cultural and traditional music of the nation which is very much evident from their website where apart from the music categories proper literature have also been provided by the company. Since the company does not have any shop floor it operates its business through internet and web communication mediums. Regarding the products and services offered by the company on its website, it provides a portal to its customers for placing their orders and specifications after getting registered with the website. The website also provides additional information on health issues, and food and spices, and offers spaces for advertisement to other companies (The Indonesi an Music Shop-website, n.d.).

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Orporate finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Orporate finance - Essay Example They also relaxed the stationarity assumptions of the random walk model. Fama (1970) continued the formalisation of the notion of "efficiency" in economic terms. He defined an efficient market as one "in which prices always 'fully reflect' available information". He also stated the conditions that would suffice for efficiency: "(i) there are no transactions costs in trading securities, (ii) all available information is costlessly available to all market participants, and (iii) all agree on the implications of current information for the current price and distributions of future prices of each security." Though adopting a statistical viewpoint, Fama (1970) differentiated information as "weak", "semi-strong" and "strong" forms. Later on, Rubinstein (1975), Beja (1976), Beaver (1981), and Latham (1986) adopted the framework of information economics where the definition is expressed in terms of the actions of individuals, as opposed to the actions of the market as defined by Fama (1970). Specifically, according to Beaver (1981): "A securities market is efficient with respect to a signal yt if and only if the configuration of security prices {Pjt} is the same as it would be in an otherwise identical economy (i.e. with an identical configuration of preferences and endowments) except that every individual receives yt as well as [that individual's own information]." Ray Ball (1994, p. 12-13) has a few criticisms of this school of thought. First, he argues that security prices in the "otherwise identical world" are ultimately priced using CAPM, which is implied by Fama's (1976) model. Secondly, he critiques that this model has confused properties of market with properties of information. Grossman (1976), Grossman and Stiglitz (1980) and Jordan (1983) associated "efficiency" with incentives to produce information. ACCOMPLISHMENTS First, the theory of stock market efficiency has developed prevalent respect for markets. Empirical evidence pointed to the efficiency of the stock markets, changing academic and even non-academic attitudes from suspicion to respect. Furthermore, the pioneer work on "efficiency" coincided with the surge in interest in and respect for markets in general among economists, and subsequently among politicians. The pioneer empirical work thus assumed importance and attracted interest beyond its direct impacts on stock markets. It led the global trend toward liberalising financial and other markets. The theory of stock market efficiency has also changed perceptions about how stock markets work. Before FFJR (1969)'s work, market reaction to information is viewed from a single point in chronological time to broad

Saturday, November 16, 2019

The Most Dangerous Game Essay Example for Free

The Most Dangerous Game Essay What if it the issue about the important idea in the story? The most important idea is about the character Rainsford versus nature, Rainsford versus himself, and Rainsford versus Zaroff. In the story â€Å"The Most Dangerous Game† by Richard Connell the main character, Rainsford, experiences both have internal and external conflict. Rainsford experiences have the external conflict. For example, when he fell in the ocean and had a tough battle with the water â€Å"He struggle up to the surface and tried to cry out †¦ him gag and strangle†. Rainsford barely have enough energy to swim to the Ship-Trap Island. He were had struggle with the water and trying to fight back for his life. In addition, when he on the ship with his friend and talk about the weather† ‘Nor four yards’, he admitted Rainsford. ‘Ugh! It’s like moist black velvets’ †. The weather is really bad, and it so dark even he has good eyes but he can’t see anything if it kind of far. The weather is an effect to how Rainsford fell in the ocean. Rainsford external conflict show that how he versus the nature and himself. Rainsford’s internal conflict created many mental challenges for him. For example, when he fell out of the ship, in the ocean he had to stop panicking or he would drown â€Å"A certain cool headedness had come to him it was not the first time he had been in a tight place†. He had been danger place many times so he had more experience and know what to do. He is a very brave person, if it was someone else may be the will be really scared and don’t know what to do. In addition, when in the jungle he keeps telling himself that he will not lose his nerve â€Å"I will not lose my nerve. I will not†. He had to control himself to go through all the game. If he being scared and don’t know do anything he may lose the game. In Rainsford internal conflict it show he is a brave person, how can he control his thinking to be life. Connell has written a story about hunted people, a serious game in the world. There is a lot of people get lost, have to play the game, and got killed by a man. Nobody knows who they are. But one day, a man comes to the island. He also has to play the it. â€Å"The Game†. And he win.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Anne Frank :: essays research papers

Anne Frank was a German-Jewish diarist. She was known for the diary she wrote while hiding from anti-Jewish persecution in Amsterdam during World War II. Her diary describes with wisdom and humor the two difficult years she spent in seclusion before her tragic death at the age of 15. Since it was first published in 1947, her diary has appeared in more than 50 languages. Perhaps more than any other figure, Anne Frank gave a human face to the victims of the Holocaust. Annelies Marie Frank was born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Because of their Jewish faith, Anne Frank and her family fled Nazi Germany for the Netherlands in 1933 to avoid persecution. After Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1942, the family spent two years living in a small hidden room in Amsterdam in order to elude capture by Nazi occupation forces. They were discovered in 1944 and arrested. Anne was sent to a concentration camp, where she died the following year. Her famous diary of the two years she spent in hiding was later found in the room where she and her family had lived. Anne’s father, Otto, had taken the family to Amsterdam, where he had established a small food products business. When Germany invaded The Netherlands in 1940, the Franks once again became subject to escalating anti-Semitic persecution. In 1941 Anne was required to transfer from a public school to a Jewish school. Secretly, Otto Frank prepared a hiding place by sealing off several rooms at the rear of his Amsterdam office building. A swinging bookcase hid the rooms Frank concealed. In June 1942 Anne received a diary for her 13th birthday. She began to write down her thoughts and experiences in the form of letters to an imaginary friend. One month later the Franks went into hiding in the office building. For the next two years the Frank family shared cramped quarters with four other Jewish people. In the ending the people she lived with were the ones that published her diary. Over the time of 25 months, Anne recorded her experiences while hiding from German troops. Her diary describes the fears and emotional conflicts of people crowded together in secrecy. The diary also had its good times apart from its bad such as funny and memorable moments. These include birthday celebrations and Anne’s first experience with falling in love.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Paper on Hades

In Greek mythology, Hades was an Olympian God, regarded as the ‘God of the Dead' or the ‘Lord of the Underworld'. He was born to Cronus, the leader of the Titans, who ruled during the legendary Golden Age, and his wife Rhea, on the island of Crete. He had two brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, and three sisters Demeter, Hestia and Hera. In art works, Hades is depicted as a dark man with a huge beard. It is believed that Cronus devoured five of his own children, when Gaia and Ouranos made the prophecy that Cronus would be overcome by one of his sons just like he did to his father.The youngest son Zeus escaped this wrath with his mother's help, and went on to become a powerful warrior forcing Cronus to disgorge his siblings. Then Zeus teamed up with his brothers, Poseidon and Hades, raged a war against the Titans, and defeated them. The three brothers chose their realms after this win. Zeus got the sky, Poseidon got the sea and Hades got the underworld. He had a chariot which was pulled by four black horses. The Narcissus and the Cypress plants were sacred to him.Hades had a pet called Cerberus, a multi-headed dog who guarded the gates of the underworld. Its task was to make sure that no one escaped the realms of Hades. Persephone, the queen on Hades, was the goddess of fertility. She was carried away by Hades, to his realm. He enticed her into plucking a pomegranate, after tasting which, she was bound to the underworld. But, at the end, it was decided that Persephone would spend a part of the year with Hades in the underworld and the rest in her world, with her mother.Subjects of Hades were forbidden from leaving his realm as it would enrage him to know about his subjects going against his wishes. However, it proved to be an exception when Eurydice, wife of Orpheus, was almost allowed to return back from the underworld. She was killed due to a snake bite. When Orpheus went to the underworld to bring her back, Hades was so touched by his music that he agree d to send Eurydice back, but warned Orpheus to return back to his world without turning back on the way to check whether Eurydice is following him.But Orpheus thought that Hades tricked him and turned back, and he lost his chance to get his wife back. Being the Lord of the underworld, Hades was indeed feared by one and all, but he was worshipped. People believed that they got precious minerals from the underworld which was the realm of Hades. Black animals were sacrificed to Hades, unlike the traditional ritual of white animal sacrifice to gods. He was also termed as ‘the rich one', as all the riches of Earth were in his possession

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Food Security Bill Essay

The bill was truncated from the NAC version at the first stage when the government finalized it and then the parliamentary standing committee went along similar lines and recommended further paring down of the benefits. Sources said concerns were raised by the Congress leadership about reducing existing benefits under the Antodaya Anna Yojana to the 2. 5 crore poorest families as well as the recommendation of the standing committee to remove the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) from the mandate of the bill, which was advised by the women and child development ministry. Sources said the party leadership was unhappy with the move to reduce existing entitlements under UPA’s flagship scheme instead of providing larger benefits. The government is likely to revise the bill keeping these views in mind and look at a much higher coverage in at least the 250 poorest districts of the country. The standing committee had recommended providing 5 kg of rations per person to 75% of rural population and 50% of urban India – a formula the government was happy with till the party leadership intervened. The standing committee had recommended doing away with two categories of beneficiaries with differential benefits – a move the government had contemplated anyway after having sent the bill to Parliament. But curtailing the total number of beneficiaries and reducing the benefits to the poorest has not found acceptance with the party leadership, sources said. The government could now consider restoring the monthly allocation to the poorest back to 35 kg of rations per family. Under an apex court order, the poorest and most disadvantaged are provided 35 kg rations at present. With the party keen to see the bill in Parliament during the budget session, a revised version could see the ICDS scheme coming back under the purview of the bill as a legally guaranteed right along with other food delivery mechanisms such as community kitchens. The UPA has already been caught on the back foot with opposition-ruled states providing cheaper rations to greater numbers under their own schemes following the lead of Chhattisgarh. The delay in pushing the bill through, coupled with the constant and often publicly expressed differences between different arms of the government and the UPA on the shape of the legislation have taken the sheen off UPA-2’s big ticket scheme Food Security Bill is affordable The subsidies meant for the poor are always under attack, while the rest are able to retain their privileges. The additional allocation in grain and money terms will neither distort the grain market nor place a burden on the fisc. Many recent commentators have portrayed the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) as an â€Å"unbearable burden† on the exchequer. The facts, however, do no substantiate the claim. The NFSB has been trashed from time to time in the English dailies. For instance, Business Line (March 21, 2013) published an article titled â€Å"Food Security Bill will torpedo Budget†. Another national daily claims that the Bill has a â€Å"fundamental flaw† that places â€Å"an unbearable burden† and â€Å"distorts agriculture† (Indian Express, March 19, 2013). Quite often, the claims are partly due to a misconception that the government is making new financial and grain commitments under the NFSB. In fact, the NFSB does little more than turning into legal entitlements pre-existing food security schemes such as the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme, Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme, Public Distribution System (PDS) and maternity entitlements. Some commentators have said that it is precisely the legal commitment that will lead to problems in the future — for example, the fear of the emergence of a government monopoly in the grain market. This fear is not borne out by the facts. Under the PDS, ICDS and MDM, the government currently allocates about 58 million tonnes of grain. To meet this commitment, the government currently procures about 30 per cent of grain. The NFSB commits 62 million tonnes, i. e. , an additional 4 million tonnes. The Budget of 2013-14 allocates Rs. 31,000 crore for two children’s food schemes — school meals and the ICDS which reaches children under six. The Budget allocation for the food subsidy in 2013-14 is Rs 90,000 crore. According to our estimates, the food subsidy will increase from Rs 80,000 crore (in 2012-13) to Rs 1,11,221 crore, under the NFSB. Thus, the NFSB implies an increase of just over Rs 30,000 crores in financial terms and 4 million tonnes in real (grain) terms. Can India afford this? Speaking at a panel discussion at IIT Delhi in February, Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said â€Å"it would be dishonest† to say that we cannot afford the Food Bill, and that the subsidies that we need to target are those enjoyed by the middle classes (e. g. , fuel). Speaking at the same discussion, Amartya Sen made a pertinent point — that the reason why it is more difficult to reduce subsidies enjoyed by the middle classes (fuels such as LPG, petrol and diesel) is that the beneficiaries of those are more vocal than the rural poor or children under six who benefit from the food subsidies. This point is well illustrated by the events following last year’s Budget. The Budget 2012-13 announced a 1 per cent excise duty on unbranded jewellery and doubled custom duty on gold to 4 per cent. Gold is the country’s second biggest import, after crude oil. This burden on the current account deficit was an important reason for doubling the customs duty. Following this, the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation and others initiated a strike which went on for 21 days. They argued that the industry, including the â€Å"large† number of people it employs, and buyers of gold, would suffer. A massive media campaign was launched, following which the Finance Minister withdrew the excise duty. According to the revenue foregone statement presented along with the Budget 2013-14, the revenue foregone from the gold and diamond industry for the previous financial year was Rs. 5,000 crore. Such tax breaks are often justified on the grounds of the employment potential of the gems and jewellery industry. According to Invest India, a website of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, â€Å"The sector provides employment to around 1. 8 million people. In the next five years, the sector is expected to create additional employment for around 1. 1 million people. † According to the National Sample Survey Organisation, 2009-10, the size of the Indian workforce is between 430-471 million persons. If the gems and jewellery industry employs 3 million people as per the Ministry’s target, this would be 0. per cent of the workforce. An industry that employs less than one per cent of the Indian workforce is currently enjoying tax benefits amounting to Rs 65,000 crore (nearly 20 per cent of all revenue foregone). The Food Bill will benefit 67 per cent of the population at an additional cost of Rs 30,000 crore, yet it is said that it will â€Å"torpedo† the Budget. If anything, the NFSB does not go far enough. The NFSB tabled in Parliament in December 2011 included special provisions for the destitute and other vulnerable groups (e. g. , community kitchens and social security pensions). These have been discarded in the version cleared by Cabinet on March 19, 2013. In many rural areas, the Block is already too far to go to complain, yet for violations of rights under the NFSB, grievance redressal only begins at the District level. Viewed in this comparative perspective (for example, it is approximately 1 per cent of the GDP), few can question the affordability or desirability of the NFSB. In absolute terms it is not a small amount. One might argue whether such expenditure is worth it, given the â€Å"fact† that the programmes in its ambit, for example, the PDS, are â€Å"dysfunctional† (Indian Express, March 19, 2013). However, recent data from the National Sample Survey of 2004-05 and 2009-10 suggest that while the functioning of the PDS is far from perfect, we do need to update our â€Å"facts†. In joint research with Jean Dreze, we show that the implicit subsidy from the PDS eliminates 18 per cent (14 per cent) of the â€Å"poverty gap† — or the difference between the poverty line level of income and the median income (or monthly per capita consumption expenditure) of poor households — among poor rural (urban) households. Again, there are marked inter-State contrasts — in Tamil Nadu the corresponding figure is 60 per cent and in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh it is nearly 40 per cent. The real question then is not whether India can afford to have a right to food but as the Food Minister said in a recent interview, â€Å"Can we afford not to? † Food as a right In its latest form, the National Food Security Bill, 2013 promises to address the extreme irony of an ambitious nation holding mountains of food in storage, while masses of its people are undernourished or even starving. The right to food is finally on the threshold of being legislated. Every step taken to widen the coverage of food security schemes is an advance. Yet, the empirical truth is that incremental measures at targeting the needy are a poor substitute for a cohesive, rights-based universal system of food entitlements. There are, no doubt, many positives to the new legislation, such as coverage of up to 75 per cent of eligible priority households in rural areas, the importance given to women as the head of the household for issue of ration cards, inclusion of pregnant and lactating women for free meals (some in government wanted to take away this entitlement from women ho bear more than two children but the idea was sensibly dropped), and setting up of State Food Commissions to investigate violations of entitlements. Under the proposed law, it will be up to the States to frame criteria and choose the priority households for food entitlements, an exercise that will inevitably be accompanied by the well-documented troubles associated with targeting any welfare scheme. Exclusion of any deserving household is unfair and divisive. It poses a challenge to States that wish to provide universal access, an issue that is bound to be felt acutely in urban areas attracting tens of thousands of migrant labourers. The Centre is unwilling to countenance a Universal Public Distribution System on the ground that too much money is involved. Even under the latest Bill, it is argued, the exchequer would have to bear a heavy expenditure of Rs. 1. 24 lakh crore. Yet, the government has not hesitated to build up expensive food stocks over the years, some of which is left to rot, mainly to pay the high support prices demanded by influential sections of the farm lobby. Moreover, the policy orientation is disproportionately favourable towards some sectors such as infrastructure, compared to food and health care. Evidently, the Food Bill can and should do a lot more, to become near-universal and win over sceptics such as Tamil Nadu, which has opposed it on the ground that it is inferior to the universal PDS in the State. Also noteworthy is the fact that the Chhattisgarh Food Security Act has done better than the Centre’s proposed law in some respects — by supplying subsidised pulses and covering 90 per cent of households, for example.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Italian Phrases for Your Day Out at the Beach

Italian Phrases for Your Day Out at the Beach The sun is shining, and you’ve just arrived at your seaside resort hotel in Taormina. Before you even reach your room, you’re already thinking about what the ocean breeze is going to feel like once you roll out your towel and lay underneath the big umbrellas lining the shore. Even if you’re just going to relax on your travels, you’re going to need to use some Italian, so here is a list of basic vocabulary plus a sample dialogue to help you navigate the beaches in Italy. Vocabulary Beach - La spiaggiaOcean - Il mare Even though you’re  going to the beach, you’ll hear Italians refer to it as â€Å"il mare - the ocean. Also,  prepositions will vary. You’ll say â€Å"Vado IN spiaggia - I’m going to the beach and â€Å"Vado AL mare - I’m going to the sea.​ Sand - La sabbiaShore - La rivaBoardwalk - Il lungomareBig umbrella - L’ombrelloneBeach club - Un locale sulla spiaggiaBeach chair - La sdraioLifeguard - Il bagninoBoat - La barcaSpeedboat - Il motoscafoPaddle Boat - Il pedalà ²At the store  -  Al mercato What youll do there Take a dip - Fare un bagnoTo swim - NuotareSuntan - AbbronzarsiRelax - RilassarsiSqueeze in a nap - Schiacciare un pisolinoBuild a sandcastle - Costruire un castello di sabbiaWatch the sunset - Vedere il tramontoSpend time with friends - Passare il tempo con amici Youll want to bring Sunglasses - Gli occhiali da soleSunscreen - La crema/protezione solareSwimsuit - Il costume da bagnoFlip-flops - Le infraditoTowel - Il telo mareBathing suit cover up - Il pareo/il copricostumeA good book - Un bel libro Sample Dialogue L’uomo: Il tempo à ¨ bellissimo, andiamo al mare? - The weather is really nice, let’s go the sea? La donna: Volentieri! Quando partiamo? Voglio mangiare sulla spiaggia, quindi devo fare la spesa. - Definitely! When are we leaving? - I want to eat  on the beach, so I have to do some shopping. L’uomo: Partiamo alle 10, allora tra due ore, e va bene, ti porto al mercato. - We’ll leave at 10, so in two hours and all right, I’ll bring you to the store. La donna: Allora, compro del pane, un po’ di prosciutto cotto, e poi della frutta. Che altro? - So, I’ll buy some bread, a bit of cooked prosciutto, and  then some fruit. L’uomo: Del formaggio, magari pecorino? - Some cheese, maybe pecorino? La donna: Perfetto, e non possiamo dimenticare la pasta fredda che ti piace cosà ¬ tanto, quella con i pomodorini! - Perfect, and we can’t forget the cold pasta that you like so much, the one with the little tomatoes. {a casa - at home} La donna: Non riesco a trovare il mio costume da bagno. L’hai mica visto? - I can’t find my bathing suit. Have you seen it by chance? L’uomo: Mhhh, no, perà ² qua ho le tue infradito, la protezione solare, i teli mare, il tuo copricostume, le mie pinne e la maschera! - Hmmm, no, but here I have your flip-flops, the sunscreen, the beach towels, your cover-up, my flippers,  and the diver’s mask! La donna: Non fa niente, l’ho trovato. Andiamo! - It’s okay, I found it. Let’s go! {in spiaggia - at the beach} La donna: Vorremmo due sdraio in riva al mare, per favore. - We would like two beach chairs near the shore, please. Il bagnino: Va bene, seguitemi Signori. - Okay, follow me, sir and maam. Note: The bagnino uses formal speech with the couple while the couple uses informal speech with each other.   L’uomo: Oh, Grazie! - Oh, thank you! Il bagnino: Se avete bisogno di qualsiasi cosa io sono là ¬ alla torretta. Godetevi la giornata ed attenti alle onde! - If you need anything, you’ll find me on my turret over there. Enjoy your day, and beware the waves! L’uomo: Aaah, si sta benissimo sotto l’ombrellone! Vieni anche tu! - Aaah, it’s wonderful here under the big umbrella! Come! La donna:   No, non ci penso nemmeno, io voglio abbronzarmi! - No, forget it, I want to suntan!

Monday, November 4, 2019

Charles Mingus

Charles Minus Charles Minus is a very important and influential name in Jazz; however he is left out by many historians when talking about the history of Jazz. The main reason he is left out by so many historians, Mark Griddle in particular, is because of his attitude and ego. He Is clearly not the most pleasant person, and he surely does not display how a real Jazz musician should act, at least according to most historians.The way he acts during performances can be quite startling at first, If you are not familiar with is ways and methods of playing. For example, he was known for using profanity during performances, either geared at the audience if they were being too loud or the sound operators if the sound wasnt up to Minings expectations. That being said, Minus Is a great musician, and Just because he doesnt display the best of etiquettes while performing, doesnt mean he should be left out of the history books. Minus also has a very long list of accomplishments In his life. As a growing musician, he was most inspired by Duke Longtime, and he even got the chance to play side him at one point, even if only for a very short amount of time (Due to his demanding and not very pleasant attitude). Not only was Minus a very accomplished bassist, but he also went on to be one of the best and most known band leaders and composers in all of Jazz, with such an enormous amount of variety in his music.That being said, the only real reason historians have for choosing to exempt him from Jazz history books was because of the way he acted. If I were to alter Mark Griddles Concise Guide Tacoma, I would include Charles Minus in chapter 8, Hard Bop. Although Minings styles vary so much that it is hard to place him into one chapter, I feel like this chapter includes the most variance to do so in such an acceptable and correct way.This chapter includes many jazz sounds that spin off of many of the cool styles, as well as bop, bebop, hard bop, funky Jazz, mainstream, post-bop, and soul Jazz. These are all elements that Minus has displayed at one time or another during either his composing or bassist career. Another chapter I would also include him in would be Chapter 5, How Swing Differs from Early Jazz. I would include Minus in this chapter as well because it talks so much of his most influential Jazz artist, and at one point fellow band mate, Duke Longtime.I feel like Minus truly does have enough variance in his music to help point out and draw the flee line between early Jazz and the newer swing Jazz. The mall differences between these two categories of Jazz are that In early Jazz, you were a lot less likely to have the big ban d feel to the music, and soloist played a more important role in early Jazz, whereas in the swing era, you were introduced to more FAA variety of instruments as well as new techniques on how to play them. Minus puts out good examples and songs/performances that clearly display how things transitioned from early Jazz to swing, and then onto other evolutions of jazz as well. After learning and hearing many of Charles Minings music, I definitely feel It Is book writers to come take note of Minings accomplishments, and start to include him in the history books right up there with Duke Longtime, Miles Davis, and Louis Armstrong. It is only fair to him and his fellow band mates, however, only time will tell.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Policy Brief Project Descriptioin ( prison and privatization) Research Paper

Policy Brief Project Descriptioin ( prison and privatization) - Research Paper Example er prison privatization are analyzed by covering sub topics on economic perspectives, which include arguments in favor and against the policy through cost factor discussion, theoretical considerations on the policy, and how prison prisons are managed. The changed policy trend includes a case brief of Florida. The process of policy making is elaborately evaluated. Analysis includes the procurement process. Role of politics is analyzed. Role of social stakeholder groups on changing values and participation of various stakeholders on the policy highlights the mood of the public and haste of the government in allowing privatization. Conclusion is derived on taking a restraint approach. The trend of prison privatization started in mid-1980s in the United States. Taking the lead from thereon, the prison privatization not only grew quite fast in the federal, state and county correctional facilities, but also captured market for other fields of the prison industry like providing financial services for the building of new prisons and the maintenance of the existing prisons. Additionally, a number of such private companies have become public limited concerns by indulging in stock trading as well. The business of prison privatization has seen relatively more growth than other services businesses. Generally, privatization of prisons is rooted in â€Å"public choice† reasoning of the socio-political environment, created from the antigovernment mood during the Reagan era. It led to policy change in the initial stages of policy formulation, and in the operations of prisons. The issue of prison privatization has aired the notion that incarceration has become a tool in the hands of politicians for formulating policies on essential minimum imprisoning for the growth of prison privatization industry (Price a& Riccucci, 2005). Analysis of the data of the 50 states indicates the role of political elements like the political environment of a state and the political party governing