Misconceptions of African Culture and Philosophy free essay sample

This paper is a critical analysis of the common misconceptions regarding the ancient African civilization. This paper argues that there are many misconceptions regarding Africa as a ?dark continent?. On the contrary, the author attempts to prove that there is sufficient evidence that shows Africa as the basis of ancient Greek philosophy. Contents Introduction European Thoughts on African Culture African Influence on European Culture The Destruction of African Culture Conclusion The European way of thinking about Africa is the conventional way of thinking. Before the surge of the study of African philosophy in the late 20th century, Africans were thought of as savages. Their civilization was believed to lack reason, logical, philosophy and any sort of noteworthy ancient culture. Many misconceptions about African culture can be attributed to the work of G.W.F. Hegel, a European historian. His analysis revolves around questioning the essence of history itself. He concretely argues that reason is the driving force in the universe. We will write a custom essay sample on Misconceptions of African Culture and Philosophy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page That is, without reason, nothing exists.

Examine Oscar Schlinder essays

Examine Oscar Schlinder essays Oscar Schlinder was a businessman and a German, who owned his own business. Most of his workers were Jewish people and when the war broke out, his were taken and some have to shove snow and if they didnt work or if they were disabled they where shot. When his workers were taken to Concentration Camp, and he went straight down there to get them back, he said that they were very good workers. He hated what the Nazis where doing to the Jews. Every now and then he would save a few more Jews. Oscar changed his business t making war machines, and so he needed a lot more Jewish people, including children, although the Nazis didnt like it. Oscar would lie and say that some had died and he needed more Jews, by, he had really helped them across the boarder. He saved 1000s of Jewish people; he even got ladies come to him at work asking him if he could save their parent or Grandparents from a Concentration Camp. I think the main reason why Oscar was so nice to Jewish people was because he had so many working for him before the war and his closest friend he worked with was a Jew, and after Oscar saw what was happening to the Jews after they died and how they died if they werent shot, he tried to save even more. After the war the Jewish People he had Saved, made a grave for him, although they didnt really know if he was alive or dead, as no one heard anything about him after he left the Camp, 12:05am, when all the Jews where allowed to go. The holocaust was very well presented in the film. You could see what happened to the Jews, from the beginning, when they were kicked of out of there homes, if they worked for Germans, they either lost their jobs or kept them on without pay. You see them getting packed on train cages with no food, no water and no place to go to the toilet. There were separate train or cages for women and children and the other for men. These trains headed for concentration Camps all over Germ ...

Animal Farm by George Orwell

George Orwell is a great writer; he created books with many different qualities. Animal farms are fable, fable and satire. He made characters in the novel related to real people and historical events. Like communism, animalism is compared with Dolgotsky, compared with Joseph Stalin, Napoleon is such a fable. Animalism symbolizes communism in many ways. Animals' animal rhythms are not perfect land, wealth, poor people, everyone is equal. They all have the same number of farms. Can George Orwell's Animal Farm George Orwell's Animal Farm be just a political debate or a story by the reader? In this personal study I write an article about George Orwell's animal farm. The novel is entertaining my political debate in this process. The opening chapter introduces the revolutionary theme that dominates the entire novel, and it also introduces livestock. In the first chapter, Old Major is the central figure, letting all other animals go to the barn at night and telling the revolution, by thinki ng of happiness it becomes a pig of wise animals. George Orwell's Animal Farm Animal Farm is a small interpretation of the Russian Revolution of George Orwell, representing the Russian state using British farms. At the beginning of the book, animals are discussing their frustration with Mr. Jones of the current farmer. Mr. Jones is the owner of a manor farm, a farm where all animals live, and is representative of Russian emperor regime. The animals started talking about how to beat Mr. Jones. The views expressed by their arguments are similar to the views of organizations and people who tried to overthrow the Russian tourism government before the Russian revolution. At the George Orwell novel Animal Farm, these animals took over the farm and developed their own independent society. As it happened during the Russian Revolution in 1917. A repressive and exploitative tension between classes between George Orwell's despicable ideals and the harsh reality of socialism. In the literary wo rks of George Orwell, they accepted this treatment, so it clearly shows how these animals were Mr. Jones.

Mercy, Witness, and Imelda Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mercy, Witness, and Imelda - Essay Example While in â€Å"Mercy† the mother and the old woman in the essay considers the death of the patient as a jewel to them, the family members of the patients in â€Å"Witness," and â€Å"Imelda" are epitomes of human compassion and love. This paper seeks to explore how doctors and family members deal with the consequences of their decisions that may or may not be based on love. One can understand that the doctor in all the three essays is moved by compassion and love towards the patients as well as their family members; there is no doubt that this has added more charm to his personal and medical profession. In both â€Å"Mercy† and â€Å"Witness† the doctor displays immense amount of compassion and love towards the patients whereas in â€Å"Imelda" the professor undergoes considerable transformation after Imelda is dead. In â€Å"Mercy†, the doctor observes that there is no uncertainty for the flies when it comes to death whereas humans lack such fraternity and everyone is left alone to suffer. The doctor in the essay is totally compassionate towards the 42 year old patient who suffers from a cancer of the pancreas in the abdomen. The doctor desperately promises that he will not let the patient suffer and will get him out of the pain. However, the doctor at this juncture knows for certain that â€Å"there is no way to kill the pain w ithout killing the man who owns it† (Selzer 71). Finally, at the instigation of the women, he decides to put an end to the life of the patient by pressing on the larynx (windpipe) of the patient. However, he is moved by his medical ethics and compassion towards the patient that he realises soon that he is not supposed to do the cruel deed. Similarly, in â€Å"Witness† one can experience the compassionate attitude of the doctor towards the patient and his loving father. The doctor is extremely moved by the six year old patient who suffers from tumour. He knows that â€Å"the baby

What does it mean to be human What makes one human Essay

What does it mean to be human What makes one human - Essay Example The early humans scattered to different environments where their sizes and shapes evolved helping them adapt to the climatic conditions. The change in their diets brought about the change in their sizes and shapes. Due to the harsh conditions of weather the ancient man faced, their brains became more complex and large to deal with the challenges. The aspect of food sharing, networking and taking care of young ones helped these people tackle their challenges. Symbols transformed the manner in which humans lived and brought new ways to tackle the changing world (American Anthropology Association, pp.385) What does it take to become human? What is about to be discussed in this paper will answer the question adequately. The origin of human tackles the important aspect of the question. To know how to be human is partially what it is to be human not only as common species but unique persons. To answer this question is a process that involves adaptions to change in climate, geographic expan sions and stops at Homo sapiens. If an individual was to walk through exhibitions in Sant Ocean room, one would go through a tunnel which draws back one in time, making an individual have a rough idea of life may looked like for extinct human species. To start with is a panel that outlines the relationship between climate change and human evolution. Contradicting the idea of humans evolving in reaction to an ancestral environment or change in climate, it has been suggested that the adaptation hypothesis to change in climate in itself had implications on human evolution (Goldsmith and Rabinowich, pp.2) The first argument to the question about what makes us human will be done by relation of context and background on which humans fit tree-life. There is a human tree that has been generalized that feature the widely accepted early human extinct species grouped into four main categories, with 5 skulls and family tree of the primate illustrating how DNA association shows our relationships to those living primates. Apart from that evidence, there is an astonishing display of a constructed full body of 3.1 million year old, most probably the early fossils of the Australopithecus. Instead of collecting evidence on the question of discussion, the display takes a very unique approach in the organization of evidence to human character; the things that make humans unique. This is inclusive of walking on two legs and upright, eating other new foods, use of new tools, body size and shape changes, complex and large brains, unique aspect of the social life and symbolism and language. The characteristics define the display organized in a chronological order like walking followed by making stone tools, followed by changes in the body shape and size of humans, with evidence of evolution and origin of every characteristic inclusive of interactives, touchables, videos and object. Some other evidence that can answer the question at stake in the gallery is the snap shots. The interac tive, dynamic, large screen occurrences allow individuals to go into the pre historic sites and explore an indication on what took place. How do people know their past? The question is common for science such as paleoanthropology and a topic for human origins hall. How do people know? There are labels everywhere around the exhibit; answers are provided for common question on how the fossils are known to be human, knowing of fossils age, knowing of changes in climate in the ancient period. Every label is inclusive of what the exhibit mean in science. Among the objectives of exhibition is presentation of evidence on human evolution. A close computer specialist allows individuals to have an intensive exploration of the differences and similarities among ancient

Cyber Security Essay Example for Free

Cyber Security Essay President Obama has declared that the â€Å"cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation†¦ Americas economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber security.† So why is it that so many people still don’t know some of the basic ways that produce cyber threats? The purpose of this paper is to name some of the more basic cyber threats. Even though it is just the beginning to the hazards you can obtain, they are highly effective because of the number of people that still allow these kinds of breaches. First and foremost are viruses. According to cknow.com, â€Å"There were over 50,000 computer viruses in 2000 and that number was then and still is growing rapidly. Sophos, in a print ad in June 2005 claims over 103,000 viruses. And, Symantec, in April 2008 is reported to have claimed the number is over one million.† With so many different viruses out there, how do you know what to look for and how to protect your cyber world from viruses? Some of the most common viruses that effect people are Trojans and Net Bots. PCmag.com defines a Trojan as â€Å"A program that appears legitimate, but performs some illicit activity when it is run. It may be used to locate password information or make the system more vulnerable to future entry or simply destroy programs or data on the hard disk. A Trojan is similar to a virus, except that it does not replicate itself. It stays in the computer doing its damage or allowing somebody from a remote site to take control of the computer. Trojans often sneak in attached to a free game or other utility.† To add to their definition, it can also be affixed to an email attachment or the email itself. So now that you know what it is you’re probably thinking so what can I do to protect myself from obtaining this virus? The best thing to do would be to educate yourself about this threat. Know what they look like and common websites they reside. The next thing that to do is to be sure to always have an up to date WELL KNOWN antivirus such as Sophos, McAfee, or Norton. The well known part is very important because some of the smaller antivirus companies are part of the reason there are so many Trojans out there. Once you get some antivirus software you need to be sure to keep it up to date. Also, don’t open emails from senders that you don’t recognize. Several of the Trojans out there that get circulated by email come from people opening emails from unknown senders. The next one is botnets. http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com says â€Å"A botnet (also known as a zombie army) is a number of Internet computers that, although their owners are unaware of it, have been set up to forward transmissions (including spam or viruses) to other computers on the Internet. Any such computer is referred to as a zombie in effect, a computer robot or bot that serves the wishes of some master spam or virus originator. Most computers compromised in this way are home-based. According to a report from Russian-based Kaspersky Labs, botnets not spam, vir uses, or worms currently pose the biggest threat to the Internet.† Trojans are the major way that you can get one of these viruses. So it is important that you again get antivirus software, keep it up to date, and don’t open emails from unknown senders. However, with this virus you can get it just from going to a questionable web site. So how do you know what ones are good and what ones are questionable? Well that you can for the most part guess using these deciding factors: Are there several java applications on the web page? Is there a lot of download able content? Are there pop up advertisements that come up on the page? Then you probably should do your best to stay away from the page. In case you are unsure, some antivirus software are now including a trusted and untrusted feature so when you search a site it will let you know if the page is safe or proceed at your own risk. If your antivirus does not have such a feature then there are some applications out there that will do the same thing just to name one would be WOT or Web of Trust. The next issue is a little more targeted to the business world. It deals more with their emails and correspondence but can also be directed to an average internet user. It is phishing. Webroot.com expounds â€Å"Email Phishing scams are carried out online by tech-savvy con artists and identity theft criminals. They use spam, fake websites constructed to look identical to a real sites, email and instant messages to trick you into divulging sensitive information, like bank account passwords and credit card numbers. Once you take the phishers bait, they can use the information to create fake accounts in your name, ruin your credit, and steal your money or even your identity.† This is a serious issue that takes some skill to recognize to evade taking the phisher’s bait. First and foremost is to educate yourself on phishing attacks or scams. Know what it looks like. There are many resources that you have available to you on the internet to learn how to spot a phishing attack and a legitimist email. The Department of Defense offers a grea t course on how to spot a phishing email at http://iase.disa.mil/eta/phishing/Phishing/launchPage.htm. A more specific attack is whaling. Blogs.iss.net explains â€Å"The adoption of the term ‘Whaling’ within phishing is fairly new and may have been derived from the use of ‘Whales’ within gambling to refer to big-time gamblers and high rollers, but most likely come from the colloquialism for â€Å"big fish†. Regardless, Whaling describes the most focused type of phishing currently encountered by businesses or government – targeted attacks against groups of high-level executives within a single organization, or executive positions common to multiple organizations (e.g. the CTO or CFO). In a whaling attack, the phisher focuses upon a very small group of senior personnel within an organization and tries to steal their credentials – preferably through the installation of malware that provides back-door functionality and key logging. By focusing upon this small group, the phisher can invest more time in the attack and finely tune his message to achieve the highest likelihood of success. Note that these messages need not be limited to email. Some scams have relied upon regular postage systems to deliver infected media – for example, a CD supposedly containing evaluation software from a known supplier to the CIO, but containing a hidden malware installer.† So if you’re not a high level employee, you’re probably wondering how this is important to you. How phishers go about their scam is by obtaining little bits of what some would consider being harmless information from other employees about level executives and projects going on in the company. They start at the bottom to get more information at the top. So in all actuality it very much concerns everyone in the company. This leads me in to my last but important area of cyber security: insider threat. Frankly, that is you. Every employee is potentially an insider threat. So let me define it a little better with some help from searchsecurity.techtarget.com. â€Å"An insider threat is a malicious hacker (also called a cracker or a black hat) who is an employee or officer of a business, institution, or agency. The term can also apply to an outside person who poses as an employee or officer by obtaining false credentials. The cracker obtains access to the computer systems or networks of the enterprise, and then conducts activities intended to cause harm to the enterprise. Insider threats are often disgruntled employees or ex-employees who believe that the business, institution, or agency has done them wrong and feel justified in gaining revenge. The malicious activity usually occurs in four steps or phases. First, the cracker gains entry to the system or network. Secondly, the cracker investigates the nature of the system or network in order to learn where the vulnerable points are and where the most damage can be caused with the least effort. Thirdly, the cracker sets up a workstation from which the nefarious activity can be conducted. Finally, the actual destructive activity takes place. The damage caused by an insider threat can take many forms, including the introduction of viruses, worms, or Trojan horses; the theft of information or corporate secrets; the theft of money; the corruption or deletion of data; the altering of data to produce inconvenience or false criminal evidence; and the theft of the identities of specific individuals in the ente rprise. Protection against the insider threat involves measures similar to those recommended for Internet users, such as the use of multiple spyware scanning programs, anti-virus programs, firewalls, and a rigorous data backup and archiving routine.† It could also be an employee giving away what you would consider to be harmless information like an email address, a project you are working on at work, how many people you work with, or even where you work and the location of the building. Even with some of the best antivirus software, a stellar knowledge of phishing, and an elite cyber security system, an insider threat can penetrate that because they most the time have the credentials to log it to the system and pull resources ligitimently so it would go unnoticed. So how can you help protect you network or your company’s network from an insider threat? Simply, don’t be one. Always be sure to only give information that the other person is on the same level to receive. Secondly is to educate yourself on insider threat prevention. There is a plethora of resources to do just that. A helpful one is http://www.ussecurityawareness.org/highres/insider-threat.html. Also watch for signs of curious activity with co workers. Report any evidence or suspicions to your supervisor. So in conclusion, prevention starts with you. Buy up to date antivirus software. avoid risky sites, educate yourself on what a phishing attack looks like, know what a legitimate email is, don’t be an insider threat and educate yourself about things to look for from other co workers. Cyber security is a serious threat and is a major issue that needs to be taken seriously. It is not just something for the IT department to worry about but starts with every one making sure to take the appropriate security measures to make the cyber world more secure.

martin luther king junior :: essays research papers

"One of the world's best known advocates of non-violent social change strategies, Martin Luther King, Jr. synthesized ideas drawn from many differentcultural traditions." (Carson 1). However, these protest strategies onlyfurthered racial segregation, resulting in the eventual death of King. Michael King, who was later known as Martin Luther King, Jr. was born January 15, 1929, at 501 Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. His roots were in the African-American Baptist church. After his junior year at Morehouse College, Benjamin Mays influenced him to become a minister, the president of Morehouse College. (Smith 1). He studied theologies at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, and at Boston University, where he earned a doctorate in systematic theologies in 1955. (Carson 1). While he was completing his Ph. D. requirements, Martin Luther King, Jr. decided to return to the south. He became the pastor of Dextor Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. (Smith 2). Five days after Rosa Parks refused to obey the city's rules concerning bus segregation, African-American residents of Montgomery, Alabama launched a bus boycott. They elected Martin Luther King, Jr. as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. (Phillips 3). King received national prominence as the boycott continued, due to his personal courage and exceptional oratical skills. (Carson 2). On charges on conspiracy, Martin Luther King, they bombed Jr.'s house, and they arrested him along with other boycott leaders. (Mark 3). Despite these actions taken against the boycott, Montgomery buses were desegregated in December of 1956. The Supreme Court had declared Alabama's laws of segregation unconstitutional. During 1957, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other African-American ministers established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As president of the organization, King emphasized the importance of African- American voting rights. (Phillips 5). King published his first book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. In 1959, he toured India to increase his knowledge and understanding of Gandhian non-violent strategies. By the end of that year, King relinquished the pastorate of Dextor, and returned to Atlanta, where the Southern Christian Leadership Conference headquarters was located. (Carson 2). Martin Luther King, Jr. did not arrange any mass protest activities during the first five years to follow the Montgomery bus boycott. While King was cautious, southern, African-American college students took the initiative, launching many sit-in protests during the winter and spring of 1960. (Itory 3). Conflicts between Martin Luther King, Jr. and the younger protestors were evident when the Southern Christian Leadership Conference assisted the Albany Movement's campaign both of mass protest during December of 1961 and during the summer of 1962. (Phillips 2). In 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. and his staff guided mass demonstrations

Class mobility

Classes have been studied under five classifications and similarly castes have classified under eight categories and both are socially viable. Absolute mobility has been used to study intergenerational social mobility and after allowing for structural changes, relative mobility has been analyzed by using odds ratio. Finally to study the effect of castes/community on social mobility logistic regression have been used with access to salariat class destination as dependent variable and class origins and castes as independent variables.To look t the trends over time, five year birth cohort data have been used with focus on father's occupation to avoid any impact of life-cycle process. Since India has gone through various social economic changes over years, like a capitalist country it is expected to become more open with greater equality of opportunities after liberalization of post 1980s. Therefore, equality of opportunity should rise along with a rise in absolute mobility. Discussion t o patterns of intergenerational mobility of men and women is limited only to paid employment.Paper pointed out that proportion of Indian labour in trade, manufacture and services has risen but the largest workforce participation still remains in agriculture. There has been an increasing room at the top and agricultural workers and farmer's participation has declined over time. More women as compared to men remain in agricultural occupations. Also, the occupational change has been there prior to liberalization. Therefore, we do not see any impact of modernization in the changing occupational patterns.Crosstabs of NES data between classes of father and respondent clearly shows a stable intergenerational society for both men and women. A trend analysis of absolute mobility shows decreasing upward mobility and increasing downward mobility as opposed to our hypothesis. Trends in inequality of opportunity calculated by using odds ratio and then by log linear model (appropriate way to test for increasing fluidity) shows a clear pattern of increasing inequality of opportunity both in agriculture and informal sector but grater in farming sector.A higher odds ratio of armer: salariat than manual: salariat ratio points out some sectoral barriers in addition to class barriers. Also, the movement between farming and salariat Jobs is harder for women. Overall there has been little demonstrable increase in equality of opportunity in Indian society. When the impact of castes was analysed is was seen that by using the logit regression and recoding castes in eight distinctive categories no clear trend could be observed for both men and women. Rather the father's class nas been a strong determining tactor tor access to salaried class destinations.Surprisingly India which is a caste based society and policies of reservation are also based on castes, it is the class which determines the upward social mobility. Caste reservation does not seen to have benefitted the SCS and STs as m ight have been hoped. CRITIC The paper in the beginning explained various modernization theses and asking research questions based on demand and supply side issues. It was said that we explore these various possibilities in remainder of the chapter. But the whole focus was concentrated only on class and lastly caste analyses.Competitive market, formalized recruitment procedure and equality of condition were not incorporated as results of modernization as per my understanding. I am not aware though if such a method is possible. Secondly, not undertaking the marital social mobility of women has been considered a limitation in the study but since the paper looks at the social mobility in terms of access to salarit Jobs, marriage of a women to a higher class individual than her father does indicate a net upward social mobility of her living tandard but not her chances of getting a better Job.Even if this argument doen't sounds good then a social mobility through marriage is not in any c ase an indicator of modernization of society. Lastly, in the birth cohort method, one has to self calculated roughly where exactly the period of liberalization has been shown on the table or graph. Since our focus is on modernization, had there been a mention of period of liberalization along the birth years it would have been easy to anlyze the changes before and after the liberalization.

Postmodernism, Hyperreality and the Hegemony of Spectacle in New Hollywood Essay

After the screening of The Matrix on its first release, a dear cousin of mine, film connoisseur and avid fan of classical movies, spontaneously made the following comment: â€Å"This is an entirely new cinema to me! † If anything, The Matrix is a clear marker of cultural change. A film with state-of-the-art production values like this is bound to elicit in us the belated realization of how slow our response has been to the cultural products of an entirely transformed film industry, that of New Hollywood. My cousin’s casual and unwitting remark reflects the embarrassment felt by both professional critic and layman alike in coping with contemporary movies, especially when we still tend to approach New Hollywood products with the standards of the Old Hollywood cinema. Because of our adherence to tradition, we still tend to look for those classical values of â€Å"development†, â€Å"coherence† and â€Å"unity† in narratives only to find with disappointment that narrative plots become thinner, that characters are reduced to one-dimensional stereotypes and that action is carried through by loosely-linked sequences, built around spectacular stunts, dazzling stars and special effects. Narrative complexity is sacrificed on the altar of spectacle† (Buckland 166) as today’s blockbusters turn out to be nothing but calculated exercises in profit-making, all high-concept, high-gloss and pure show. Similar cries of warning about the loss of narrative integrity to cinematic spectacle have been voiced at different periods, usually at times of crisis or change in the history of the American cinema. One could cite, for example, Bazin’s disdain at the â€Å"displacement of classicism† by the baroque style, marking the end of the pure phase of classical cinema. His coined term, â€Å"superwestern, †designates the â€Å"emergence of a new kind of western† (Kramer 290), that, according to Bazin, â€Å"would be ashamed to be just itself, and looks for some additional interest to justify its existence—an aesthetic, sociological, moral, psychological, political, or erotic interest† (150-1). Similarly, in 1957 Manny Farber, taking his cue from Bazin’s superwestern, laments the â€Å"disappearance of this [classical] roduction system and the closing of action-oriented neighborhood theaters in the 1950s†. He claims that directors like Howard Hawks â€Å"who had flourished in ‘a factory of unpretentious picture-making’ were pushed towards artistic self-consciousness, thematic seriousness, and big-budget spectacle â€Å"(Kramer 293, emphasis added). A decade later, Pauline Kael too expresses her fears at the disintegration of filmic narrative which she attributes to the abrasion of traditional film production in general. She laments not only the emphasis on â€Å"technique† â€Å"purely visual content,† and â€Å"open-ended, elaborate interpretations† of the experimental and innovative art film of the New American Cinema, but as Kramer puts it, she was equally critical of the experiences facilitated by Hollywood’s mainstream releases. The lack of concern for coherent storytelling on the part of producers and directors in charge of the volatile and overblown process of filmmaking was matched by the audience’s enthusiastic response to spectacular attractions and shock effects, irrespective of their degree of narrative motivation. 296) Voices of dissatisfaction were heard at another major turn in the history of Hollywood, that is in the late 1970s, when the â€Å"unprecedented box-office success of Jaws (1975) and Star Wars (1977), signaled Hollywood’s aesthetic, cultural and industrial re-orientation towards movies with more emphasis on special effects and cin ematic spectacle† (Kramer 301). Unlike the classical movies produced on the assembly line under the studio regime (films that respected narrative integrity and refined story ideas into the classical three-act of exposition, complication and resolution), the products of New Hollywood, says critic Richard Schickel, seem â€Å"to have lost or abandoned the art of narrative†¦. [Filmmakers] are generally not refining stories at all, they are spicing up ‘concepts’ (as they like to call them), refining gimmicks, making sure there are no complexities to fur our tongue when it comes time to spread the word of mouth†(3). Contemporary cinema has come to depend so much on shrewd marketing and advertising strategies that its pictures, as Mark Crispin Miller points out, â€Å"like TV ads, †¦ aspire to a total ‘look’ and seem more designed than directed† (49). The difficulty that critics nowadays face with films like The Matrix and the new situation in Hollywood, is not only unlike the layman’s inability to assess â€Å"any recent Hollywood film as a discreet textual artifact that is either ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than the artifact produced under the studio regime,† Cook and Bernink note (99). It has also to do with regarding â€Å"the textual form of recent Hollywood as expressive of changed production circumstances that lead to a different kind of textual artifact†(ibid. ). In other words, as we move on in our globalized, high-tech age, it is becoming increasingly difficult to regard any single movie as a self-contained, autonomous text. On the contrary, as Eileen Meehan contends, it has become imperative to look upon any New Hollywood mainstream release â€Å"always and simultaneously as text and commodity, intertext and product line† (31). In order to revise our critical standards and respond effectively to the new status of the contemporary Hollywood movie, we need to grasp the dramatic changes that the American film industry has undergone in the post-classical period, which started right after World War II and culminated to a point of radical transformation in the post-1975 period, which has eventually come to best warrant the term New Hollywood. These changes have been lucidly described in a number of historiographic studies (Ray 1985, Balio 1985, 1990, Schatz 1983, 1993, Gomery 1986, Bernardoni 1991, Corrigan 1991, Hillier 1992, Wasko 1994, Kramer 1998, Neale and Smith 1998, Cook and Bernink 1999) which collectively shed ample light on the completely new situation defining New Hollywood. What has drastically changed is both the ways movies are made and the ways in which Hollywood has been doing business. After the government’s dismantling of the â€Å"vertically-integrated† studio system, the industry turned to producing and selling motion pictures on a film-by-film basis, resulting in the shift of power from studio heads to deal-makers (agents), in the rise of independent producers/directors, and in a more competitive and fragmented movie marketplace (Schatz 9). To the rise of TV and the emergence of other competing media technologies (VCRs, Cable and Satellite TV) Hollywood responded with a re-orientation towards blockbuster movies, â€Å"these high-cost, high-tech, high-stakes, multi-purpose entertainment machines that breed music videos and soundtrack albums, TV series and videocassettes, video games and theme park rides, novelizations and comic books† (Schatz 9). Despite the â€Å"increasingly fragmented but ever more expanding entertainment industry – with its demographics and target audiences, its diversified multimedia conglomerates, its global(ized) markets and new delivery systems†, the calculated blockbuster, as New Hollywood’s feature film, remains the driving force of the industry (ibid. ). This is testified by the monumental success of the blockbuster at the box-office. Schatz cites Variety’s commissioned study of the industry’s all-time commercial hits, in which only 2 movies of the classical period appear to have reached the top, whereas â€Å"90 of the top 100 hits have been produced since 1970, and all of the top 20 since Jaws in 1975†(9). The big-budget, all-star, spectacular hits of the late fifties and early sixties (such as The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, Cleopatra, or Dr. Zhivago) have some sizable profits to show for (all in the vicinity of $25-to $50 million). By the standards of their age, they were considered colossal box-office successes; however, by today’s standards they seem quite puny contestants to the post-75 era of super-blockbusters which generate record-setting grosses, well beyond the $100 million barrier (always in constant dollars). And such a figure applies only to theatrical rentals, which accounts just for a percentage of the total revenue of a movie which also finds outlets in ancillary markets. he industry’s spectacular growth and expansion (its horizontal integration) is to a great extent owing to the take-over of the majors (Paramount, Fox, Columbia, MCA/Universal) by huge media empires (Warner/Time Communications, Murdoch’s News Corporations, Sony, Matsushita, respectively) forming multimedia conglomerates with diverse interests in the domestic and the global market, with holdings in movies, TV production, cable, records, book and magazine publications, video games, theme parks, consumer electron ics (both software and hardware). These huge corporations provide financial muscle for the multi-million production budgets of the blockbusters (since the production costs have themselves sky-rocketed), but also market muscle for promotion. Marketing and advertising strategies have been the key to the unprecedented success of the New Hollywood movie since Jaws: through pre-selling, usually cashing in on the popularity of a novel published prior to production, a movie becomes a media â€Å"event† by heavy advertising on prime-time TV and the press, as well as by the massive simultaneous release in thousands of mall-based multiplex theaters. Calculated blockbuster productions are carefully designed to ensure the greatest potential profit not only through extended theatrical rental (sequels, re-issues, remakes, director’s cut), but also though capitalization in ancillary markets: soon the movie will come out on videocassette, audio-cassette, novel, computer game, and the increasingly popular since the mid-nineties, DVD, let alone an extended market career through by-products ranging from the CD movie soundtrack to T-shirts and toys, which contribute to the impressive surge in profits. It becomes obvious thus why contemporary movies cannot be conceived of as individual entities and cannot be separately examined from their economic intertext that renders them part (or rather the driving belt) of a larger entertainment machine and advertising campaign. Expensive blockbusters, which in the early days of the post-classical period were the exception and now, as Schatz states, have become the rule, â€Å"are the central output of modern Hollywood. But what, aside from costs, are their dominant characteristics? How are they able to attract, engage and entertain millions of people? asks Warren Buckland (166). The blockbuster syndrome has also changed the movies’ mode of address. Designed around a main idea, what is called â€Å"high concept†, a blockbuster becomes increasingly plot-driven, increasingly visceral, kinetic, fast-paced, increasingly reliant on special effects, increasingly â€Å"fantastic† (and thus apolitical), and increasingly targeted at younger audiences. And significantly enough, the lack of complex characters or plot [as for example] in Star Wars opens the film to other possibilities, notably its amalgamation of genre conventions and its elaborate play of cinematic references. But while these movies enjoy a great popularity among younger audiences, as their huge box-office success indicates, the loss of narrative integrity to spectacle, and the sense of escapism and triviality usually associated with high-gloss, star glamour and dumb show, has driven most academics or old-cinema cinephiles to summarily shun or dismiss blockbusters as merely calculated exercises in shameless profiteering. Warren Buckland thinks that these arguments about the loss of narrative potential in the contemporary feature film are overstated and attempts to reverse the â€Å"unhelpful and hostile evaluative stance† (167) of the critics towards the blockbuster. Focusing on a typical action-adventure blockbuster, Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Arc heproposes adopting an analytical and descriptive approach to these films, an approach dubbed by Bordwell and Thompson â€Å"historical oetics. † Part of the argument he makes is that â€Å"historical poetics† can account for the popularity of movies with such a broad appeal (and allows us to take them seriously as aesthetic, cultural objects) â€Å"especially because movies are examined in terms of their individuality, including their response to their historical moment, in which style and composition respond to the historical questions posed in the culture in which the film is made† (168-169). In other words, the issue is not so much about the so-called death of narrative—because narrative is still alive and well—but the emergence of a new kind of narrative, whose meaning is conveyed not through traditional narration but by emphasis on spectacle and the visual impact of the pictures which provide additional narrative pleasure and have changed the patterns of viewer response. Thus Buckland’s concluding remark that â€Å"it is perhaps time to stop condemning the New Hollywood blockbuster and to start, instead, to understand it,† carries more merit than we have been ready to admit. My intention in this essay is to extend the argument about the narrative/ spectacle issue in the direction suggested by Buckland, but within a wider, cultural perspective. The supremacy of the visual and the spectacular over traditional narration in the textual form of contemporary movies is not only expressive of the changed production values and the text’s signifying practices; it is also reflective of the changed cultural patterns and lifestyle habits in postmodernity. Classical cinema favored traditional storytelling because it provided a univocal interpretation of life and reflected a uniformity in entertainment habits: cinema was the predominant form of entertainment, as â€Å"the movies attracted 83 cents of every U. S. dollar spent on recreation† (Ray 26). Its nineties counterpart, with its emphasis on the sensational and the spectacular, on episodic action and generic diversification, is a postmodern cinema entertaining the possibility of multiple signification and the hyperreality of the visual, subject to an increasing commodified experience. As Anne Friedberg puts it, â€Å"today the culture industry takes on different forms: Domestic electronics (fax, modems, cable television) follow the interactive model of dialogic telephone communications. The personal computer turns the home user into a desktop publisher, the microwave turns every cook into an instant gourmet, the Walkman transforms each listener into a radio programmer. Both production and reception have been individualized; the culture industry no longer speaks in a univocal, monolithic voice. 189) This proliferation of entertainment venues offered to the individual points to a general malaise often regarded as the central feature of postmodernism, what Featherstone terms â€Å"the fragmentation and overproduction of culture—the key-feature of consumer culture† (76). As Jameson says, â€Å"in postmodern culture, ‘culture’ itself has become a product in its own right; the market has become a substitute for itself and fully as much a commodity as any of the items it includes within itself† (1991 x). In the â€Å"cultural logics of late capitalism,† Jameson’s code-phrase for postmodernity, what is commodified is not simply the image, which has acquired central role in contemporary culture but lived experience itself. As Guy Debord diagnoses in The Society of the Spectacle, â€Å"everything that was lived directly has moved away into a representation (1983 np). Baudrillard, as Friedberg notes, also talks about â€Å"the same phenomenon—representation of the thing replacing the thing—and extends it into a mise-en- abime of the ‘hyperreal,’ where signs refer only to signs. Hyperreality is not just an inverted relation of sign and signifier, but one of receding reference, a deterrence operation in the signifying chain†(178). A part in this process of the commodification of the sign and the derealization of the real has been played by media technologies, especially electronics, as Vivian Sobchack points out: The postmodern and electronic â€Å"instant† †¦ constitutes a form of absolute presence (one abstracted from the continuity that gives meaning to the system past/present/future) and changes the nature of the space it occupies. Without the temporal emphases of historical consciousness and personal history, space becomes abstract, ungrounded, flat—a site for play and display rather than an invested situation in which action â€Å"counts† rather than computes. Such a superficial space can no longer hold the spectator/ user’s interest, but has to stimulate it constantly in the same way a video game does. Its flatness—a function of its lack of temporal thickness and bodily investment—has to attract spectator interest at the surface. †¦ In an important sense, electronic space disembodies.

result methods and intro essays

result methods and intro essays There are many questions to how people process information. Many have understood that people remember and learn components of a passage more easily when particular elements of the passage are subjectively considered to be important than when its not. Systems such as story schemata produce organized descriptions of the substance of a text. Thus, drawing attention to particular parts of a story. However, there is no definite answer as to what makes such element s important, and therefore making such components become easily retrieved. This paper will list possible explanations for what makes specific text important. Findings from prior research give special consideration to evidence that seem to maintain dissimilarities between encoding and retrieval. The schemata theory has been used for the present experiment. In this theory, components of a schemata are slots or variables which may be defined as events or elements that are remembered better because there is a structure or framework laid down beforehand. Such theories, which try to explain how schemas work are recognized as the attention-directing theory or the slot theory. Schema theory provides an instant annotation on the dominance in the recollection of important information. In the attention-directing hypothesis the schema singles out important elements. Therefore, more attention is devoted to these elements than to less important ones, and so they more likely to be learned. Another hypothesis is the ideational scaffolding hypothesis in which the schema is most likely going to contain a slot for important text elements where the information gets stored specifically because there is a function for it. Ways of processing information are based upon individual differences, in which there may or may not be slots for both important and unimportant elements. Several investigators (Bower, 1977; Mandler Pich...

Law Commission Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Law Commission - Essay Example It may be stated that while legal entitlement may not be as clear cut in a cohabitation agreement as they are in a marital relationship, many of the same issues occur in both types of relationships. Since it is largely women who are the primary caretakers and providers of non financial components of a partnership, their interests cannot be ignored. Unless some of the marital provisions on divorce and inheritance of property are also enforced in cohabitation relationships, inequity will be generated, because such a relationship will provide further incentive for economically stronger cohabiting partners to derive the benefits of support from their partner without making financial provision as would be legally required in a marriage, thereby providing an undue advantage to one party at the expense of the other. Therefore in conclusion, the Law Commission’s proposal to introduce a fresh scheme for financial relief for cohabitees is to be welcomed, however care must be taken to ensure that the rights of the weaker partners are preserved in allocating financial relief on disposition of property. Moreover, couples without children must also be included within the scope of relief to be provided under the new schemes for cohabitees.

HNC Counselling. Graded Unit F1M 34 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

HNC Counselling. Graded Unit F1M 34 - Coursework Example (150) The main problem is Fritz seems to be somewhat of an underachiever. He is giving up because his business is not going well, and now it is threatening to break up his whole family. Additionally, he has communication issues with his wife, not really knowing how to express himself well or share his feelings about what he wants to do with the business, when he should ideally let her know what he is thinking—especially wanting to make such a big life decision about selling the business and moving out of the city. Anna is right to want to have a divorce, as Fritz is being unreasonable. Further, he is not taking his parenting responsibilities seriously, and this is also a concern. Fritz, therefore, has three main problems: communicating with Anna, decision-making, and taking an active role in the development of his childrens’ upbringing. He needs work on these issues. Explanation of the theory. (250 words) The theories introduced here are humanistic theory and psychodyna mic theory, with Egan’s three-stage model as a way of understanding the theory. Humanistic theory is a very common theory which helps people understand one way to counsel others. â€Å"Many models of group work and organizational development have drawn heavily on humanistic theory† (Strawbridge, Woolfe, & Dryden, 2009, 142). Humanistic theory also has another name. ... There are â€Å"†¦verbal and nonverbal behaviours that enhance effective listening and communication† (Rennie, 1998, pp. 32). Psychodynamic counsellors notice behaviours and try to adapt these behaviours into more socially acceptable reactions. In the course of psychodynamic counselling, â€Å"†¦some behavioural patterns, and some feelings are unconscious [and the client may not be made aware of these until they are mentioned]† (Jacobs, 2004, pp. 101). Gerard Egan of Loyola University in Chicago developed a three-stage model, where the counselled individual must realize the present (â€Å"Where am I?†), the preferred (â€Å"Where do I want to be?†) and strategies for the future (â€Å"How do I get where I want to be?†). â€Å"Egan’s three-stage model can serve as a useful and practical map in counselling and a means of bringing structure to the process of counselling† (Burnard, 2005, pp. 127). Completion date and milestones. (65 words) The completion date for Fritz should be based on what he can do in how much time. Perhaps he should be given a finite date, a few months, in which to fix at least two of his problems—the communication issue with Ann and his inability to express himself well. The problem with Harry should be resolved sooner; Fritz should be encouraged to discipline him. Ethical principles in counselling. (100 words) In counselling, it’s important that the client’s boundaries are respected and that, obviously, one would not call Anna in order to let her know details of the counselling sessions unless Fritz allowed it. It would also be uncouth to offer parenting advice, tips, or admonitions, or otherwise tell Fritz outright how to run his life or manage his marriage. Those actions would be outside the