Major Innovators of Early Motion Pictures

Major Innovators of Early Motion Pictures The first machine patented in the United States that showed animated pictures or movies was a device called the wheel of life or zoopraxiscope. Patented in 1867 by William Lincoln, it allowed moving drawings or photographs to be viewed through a slit in the zoopraxiscope. However, this was a far cry from motion pictures as we know them today. The Lumià ¨re Brothers and the Birth of Motion Pictures Modern motion picture making began with the invention of the motion picture camera.  French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumià ¨re are often credited with inventing the first motion picture camera, although others had developed similar inventions at around the same time. What the Lumià ¨res invented was special, however. It combined a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit, and a projector called the Cinematographe. It was  basically a device with three functions in one. The Cinematographe made motion pictures very popular. It can even be said that Lumieres invention gave birth to  the motion picture era.  In 1895, Lumiere and his brother became the first to demonstrate photographic moving pictures projected onto a screen for a paying audience of more than one person. The audience saw ten 50-second films, including the Lumià ¨re brother’s first, Sortie des Usines Lumià ¨re Lyon (Workers Leaving the Lumià ¨re Factory in Lyon). However, the Lumiere brothers were not the first to project film. In 1891, the Edison company successfully demonstrated the Kinetoscope, which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. Later in 1896, Edison showed his improved  Vitascope  projector, the first commercially successful projector in the U.S. Here are some of the other key players  and milestones  in the history of motion pictures: Eadweard Muybridge San Francisco photographer Eadweard Muybridge conducted motion-sequence still photographic experiments and is referred to  as the  Father of the Motion Picture, even though he did not make films in the manner in which we know them  today. Thomas Edisons Contributions Thomas Edisons interest in motion pictures began prior to 1888.  However, the visit of Eadweard Muybridge to the inventors laboratory in West Orange in February of that year certainly stimulated Edisons resolve to invent a motion picture camera. Whereas film equipment has undergone drastic changes throughout the course of history, 35mm film has remained the universally accepted film size. We owe the format to a great extent to Edison. In fact, 35mm film was once called the Edison size. George Eastman In 1889, the first commercial transparent roll film, perfected by Eastman and his research chemist, was put on the market. The availability of this flexible film made possible the development of Thomas Edisons motion picture camera in 1891. Colorization Film Colorization was invented by Canadians Wilson Markle and Brian Hunt in 1983.   Walt Disney Mickey Mouses official birthday is November 18, 1928. Thats when he made his first film debut in  Steamboat Willie. While this was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released, the first Mickey Mouse Cartoon ever made was  Plane Crazy  in 1928 and became the third cartoon released.  Walt Disney  invented Mickey Mouse and the multi-plane camera. Richard M. Hollingshead Richard M. Hollingshead patented and opened the first drive-in theater. Park-In Theaters  opened on June 6, 1933, in Camden, New Jersey. While drive-in showings of movies took place years earlier, Hollingshead was the first to patent the concept.  Ã‚  Ã‚   The IMAX Movie System The IMAX system has its roots in EXPO 67 in Montreal, Canada, where multi-screen films were the hit of the fair. A small group of Canadian filmmakers and entrepreneurs (Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, and Robert Kerr) who had made some of those popular films decided to design a new system using a single, powerful projector rather than the cumbersome multiple projectors used at that time. To project images of far greater size and with better resolution, the  film is run horizontally so that the image width is greater than the width of the film.

Warm-Up Activities and Fillers for the French Classroom

Warm-Up Activities and Fillers for the French Classroom Most language teachers find that there is a bit of dead time during class. This may occur at the beginning of class, as the students are arriving; at the end of class, as they are thinking about leaving; and right in the middle of class, when transitioning from one lesson to another. During this dead time, the best option is to spend five or ten minutes on a short, interesting activity. Teachers from all over have shared some great ideas for warm-up and filler activities- take a look. Building Sentences Put together the parts of a sentence. Categories List all of the vocabulary in a particular category. Conversations Pair off for short discussions. Meet Your Neighbor Practice greetings and personal details with other students. Music Videos Watch and discuss French music videos. Name Game Learn all of the students names. Quotations Discuss quotations by famous Francophones. Repetitions Have students repeat a list of vocabulary.

A reflection of Being and Nothingness and Woman as the Other Essay - 1

A reflection of Being and Nothingness and Woman as the Other - Essay Example In that literature, Jean-Paul Sartre tries to elucidate an issue which many philosophers overlooked. There is a relation between being and nothingness. And when Sartre posited that â€Å"I am a waiter in the mode of being what I am not† (Sartre 388), he somehow implied that anyone who has attended social gatherings, for example a conference, is aware of the fact that competing interests and various levels of understanding of events often subsist. Sartre, therefore, implies that if anything to do with â€Å"temporality† of an event gives precedence to duration. Additionally, that, though, duration may attract different interpretations, it must involve "an organizing activity, which in this case is what the subject awaits but is not interested in. Nonetheless, Kant did not perceive a processing of a variety and the planning event. At stake, for organization concepts, is the channel of â€Å"common† memory, which Sartre argues may not represent all the thinking of t he attendants following an event. In Sartre's concept of temporality and planning, being content with the prevailing events. And this encompasses his philosophies and multiple contributions regarding Being and Nothingness. Sartre’s philosophies highlight the nature of human souls, the social habits such as leisurely activities, work, and grooming, to the styling of human way of life. The â€Å"waiter† aspect of the quote is a philosophical word that he uses to imply to a participant in a social event, who does not fully enjoy the happenings.

Californias System of Public Higher Education Essay

Californias System of Public Higher Education - Essay Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that Californias higher education system will help define the state's future too. Before California always posted in the top states, however as of now, it already ranked at the bottom 10. There are many reasons why this situation happened. One of the reasons to blame is the recession. However, this does not mean that the state of California should give up the support to higher education. Time will come that there will be a new California. As Douglass describe it, â€Å"one less educated, and therefore less innovative, less prosperous and less dynamic.†It is important that California should be assessed to be able to know which area the state should focus and improve. Based on Measuring UP, the state of California did well. California made it to the top 10 for both the public and private 4-year post-secondary results of the comparison to other states. California was assessed and should be still be assessed in 3 different areas. It is als o essential for the state to be able to provide affordability to the students. The website of the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) provides State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report to aid and assist officials and educators attend to public policy matters regarding financing higher education. California can be said to have done well in this area. When compared to Texas, California was able to post more than 2.5 million enrollees as compared to 1.2 million of Texas. The indicators used by SHEEO should be used by the state of California are presented in the paper.

New Heritage Doll Essay Example for Free

New Heritage Doll Essay This paper summarizes recent studies in behavioral finance—particularly regarding market anomalies and investor behavior—that are not reconciled with the traditional finance paradigms. This paper differs from previous survey literature in several aspects. We introduce more recent papers in the field, more literature on behavioral corporate finance, and provide statistics on the recent trends that are explored in behavioral finance papers. We expand the research scope to studies on Korean financial markets, introduce specific funds using behavioral finance techniques, and discuss the challenges facing behavioral finance. Keywords: Behavioral finance, Market anomalies, Market efficiency, Survey of literature *  Hyoyoun Park: Credit Analyst, Euler Hermes Hong Kong Services Limited, Suites 403-11, 4/F Cityplaza 4, 12 Taikoo Wan Road, Taikoo Shing, Hong Kong; phone: +852-3665-8934; e-mail: [emailprotected] **  Wook Sohn (Corresponding author): Professor, KDI School of Public Policy and Management, 87 Hoegiro, Seoul 130-868, Korea; phone: +82-2-3299-1062; e-mail: [emailprotected] kdischool.ac.kr. 4 Seoul Journal of Business INTRODUCTION Although Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) and the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), which represent standard finance, are successful, the alternative approach of behavioral finance includes psychological and sociological issues when investigating market anomalies and individual investor behavior. In the financial markets, we often observe some phenomena which cannot be explained rationally. For example, we do not have any logical evidences on random walk in the stock price movement while many fund managers use several behavioral concepts in their investment strategy. In corporate perspectives, company owners and managers do not rely only on logical elements to make critical decisions on mergers and acquisitions and new investment. Two of the key topics discussed in behavioral finance are the behavioral finance macro, which recognizes â€Å"anomalies† in the EMH that behavioral models can explain, and the behavioral finance micro, which recognizes individual investor behavior, or biases that are not explained by the traditional models incorporating rational behavior. In particular, we employ the behavioral finance micro because it explains a number of important financing and investment patterns by using a behavioral approach, which expands on the research in the behavioral corporate finance field. This paper summarizes these two major topics in behavioral finance, which include behavioral corporate finance, and introduces evidence that adopts behavioral concepts in the actual financial market. It also describes challenges to behavioral finance by reviewing recent studies and surveys. Recently acknowledged theories in academic finance are called standard or traditional finance theories. Based on the standard finance paradigm, scholars have sought to understand financial markets using models that presume that investors are rational. MPT and the EMH form the basis of traditional finance models1). How1) Harry Markowitz introduced MPT in 1952,  and he illustrated relationships between portfolio choices and beliefs in terms of the â€Å"expected returns–variance of returns† rule. Ricciardi and Simon (2000) defined MPT as an expected return, while standard deviations of particular securities or portfolios are correlated with the other securities or mutual funds held within one portfolio. Another major concept is known as the EMH, which states that investors cannot consistently  ever, if researchers only use the MPT and EMH, individual investor behavior is not easily understood. In contrast, behavioral finance is a relatively new concept in the financial markets, and is not employed within standard finance models; it replaces traditional finance models, and it offers a better model for human behavior. Although MPT and the EMH are considered as successful in financial market analysis, the behavioral finance model has been developed as one of the alternative theories for standard finance. Behavioral finance examines the impact of psychology on market participants’ behavior and the resulting outcomes in markets, focusing on how individual investors make decisions: in particular, how they interpret and act on specific information. Investors do not always have rational and predictable reactions when examined through the lens of quantitative models, which means that investors’ decision-making processes also include cognitive biases and affective (emotional) aspects. The behavioral finance model emphasizes investor behavior, leading to various market anomalies and inefficiencies. This new concept for finance explains individual behavior and group behavior by integrating the fields of sociology, psychology, and other behavioral sciences. It also predicts financial markets. Research in behavioral corporate finance studies highlights investors’ and managers’ irrationality, and shows nonstandard preferences, and judgmental biases in managerial decisions. Currently, many companies apply behavioral approaches to determine important finance and investment patterns. Several theories under the banner of traditional finance develop specific models by assuming the EMH and they explain  phenomena in markets; however, in the real financial market, many problems and cases cannot easily be explained via those standardized  models. In the cases involving managers or investors, unbiased forecasts about future events need to be developed and used to make decisions that best serve their own interests. In this type of situation, we need to entertain more realistic behavioral aspects, as there is evidence for irrational behavior patterns that cannot be explained by the traditional or standard financial theories. To be specific, Shefrin (2009) pointed out that the root cause of the global  achieve an excessive return over market returns on a risk-adjusted basis because all publicly available information is already reflected in a security’s market price, and the current security price is its fair value. Financial crisis of 2008 was a psychological, not fundamental phenomenon. Risk-seeking behaviors were evident in the loss-dominant markets, while excessive optimism and confirmation bias acted as driving factors behind the crisis, and not fundamental factors such as terrorism, skyrocketing oil prices, or disruptive changes in the weather. We can understand, identify, and address psychological distortions in judgments and decisions by considering behavioral concepts, and then we can integrate both traditional and behavioral factors to be better prepared for dealing with any psychological challenges. As mentioned, managerial decisions are strongly affected by cognitive biases and emotional aspects in real financial markets, as human beings are not machines. Additionally, evidence of  mispricing and market anomalies that cannot be fully explained by traditional models, is prevalent. Thus, we would like to propose behavioral finance in this paper to clearly explain a number of important financing and investment patterns, aiding  investors in understanding several abnormal phenomena by integrating behavioral concepts with existing. Ricciardi and Simon (2000) defined behavioral finance in the following manner: â€Å"Behavioral finance attempts to explain and increase understanding of the reasoning patterns of investors, including the emotional processes involved and the degree to which they influence the decision-making process. Essentially, behavioral finance attempts to explain the what, why, and how of finance and investment, from a human perspective† (Page 2) (See figure 1). Shefrin (2000), however, mentioned the difference between cognitive and affective (emotional) factors: â€Å"cognitive aspects concern the way people organize their information, while the emotional aspects deal with the way people feel as they register information† (Page 29). We understand that there are several survey literatures on behavioral finance. However, this paper differs from the literature in several aspects. We introduce more recent papers in the field and expand the research scope to studies on Korean financial markets. We introduce more literature on behavioral corporate finance, provide statistics on the recent trends that are evident in behavioral finance papers, introduce the specific funds that are using behavioral finance techniques, and discuss the challenges of the behavioral finance model. Source: Ricciardi and Simon (2000)  particularly regarding market anomalies and investor behavior, which cannot  be explained by traditional finance paradigms. In section 2, we introduce two topics in behavioral finance: cognitive biases and the limits of arbitrage. In section 3, we summarize the research on behavioral corporate finance. In section 4, we examine behavioral applications via two routes: evidence from real investments and specific evidence from the Korean financial market. In section 5, we analyze the recent developments in behavioral finance publications. Section 6 discusses several challenges to behavioral finance and ends with suggestions for future research. TWO TOPICS IN BEHAVIORAL FINANCE Behavioral finance is a study that combines psychology and economics, and it tries to explain various events that take place in financial markets. For example, from the behavioral finance  perspective, some individuals’ limitations and problems are shown in the expected utility theory and in arbitrage assumptions. In particular, there are two representative topics in behavioral finance: cognitive psychology and the limits of arbitrage.2) Cognitive Biases Under the traditional and standard financial theories, investors are viewed as being rational. Basically, a rational economic person is an individual who tries to achieve discretely specified goals in the most comprehensive and consistent way while minimizing any economic costs. A rational economic person’s choices are determined by his or her utility function.

Drugs And Welfare Essay -- essays research papers

A current issue that is going on today is welfare recipients that are drug abusers. Welfare is supposed to meet the basic needs. Drugs seem far from one of the basic human needs to me. If the recipient gets all the benefits from the programs they will more than likely turn around and sell their food stamps for their fix rather than go to the store and get their family some food. Drugs also go hand and hand with family problems, violence, and crime. It is estimated that between 50% and 80% of Family-Based Services involve drug and alcohol abuse. So why not drug test the recipients before a person can get qualified for services? Drug abuse, of course, is not new to any culture. Drugs have been a part of American culture, their popularity increased in the 1950s, when writers and social figures started popularizing them. In the 1960s, drug use took on a whole new meaning. It became a way of rebelling, particularly among college students who were disenchanted with America's values and the war in Vietnam, which they viewed as a senseless conflict. The popularity that drugs achieved in these days two decades paved the way for their dangerous and widespread use in the 1980s. The 1980s saw the drug industry grow bigger and more deadly - both for users and for dealers. The emergence of new and relatively cheap drugs has also helped encourage drug use, especially among the urban poor. One way of cutting down on the number of drug abusers on the welfare system is to do a mandatory drug ...

Night World : Huntress Chapter 9

No. This can't be happening. Jez had never felt anything like this before, but she knew instinctively that it was dangerous. She was being pulled into Morgead's mind. She could feel it surrounding her, enfolding her, a touch that was light but almost irresistible, that was trying to draw out the most secret part of herself. And the most frightening thing was that Morgead wasn't doing it It was something outside both of them, something that was trying to mix them together like two pools of water being stirred. Jez could feel that Morgead was as startled and astonished as she was. The only difference was that he didn't seem to be resisting the force. He didn't seem terrified and unhappy about it, as Jez was. He seemed†¦ exhilarated and wondering, like somebody skydiving for the first time. That's because he's crazy, Jez thought dizzily. He loves danger and he enjoys courting death- I enjoy you, a voice said in her mind. Morgead's voice. Soft as a whisper, a feather-touch that shook Jez to her soul. It had been so long since she'd heard that voice. And he had heard her. Sharing blood made even humans telepathic. Jez hadn't been able to talk mentally since- She managed to cut the thought off as panic surged through her. While one part of her mind gabbled desperately, â€Å"He's here, he's here, he's inside, what are we going to do now?† another part threw up a smokescreen, flooding her thoughts with visions of mist and clouds. There was something like a swift gasp from Morgead. Jez. don't. Don't hide from me- You're not allowed here, she snapped back, this time directing the thought straight at him. Go away! I can't. For just a moment his mental voice sounded confused and scared. She hadn't realized Morgead could be confused and scared. I'm not doing this. It's just-happening. But it shouldn't be happening, Jez thought, and she didn't know whether she was talking to him or just to herself. She was beginning to shake. She couldn't resist the pull that was trying to bring her soul to the surface and intermingle it with Morgead's-she couldn't. It was stronger than anything she'd ever experienced. But she knew that if she gave in, she was dead. Don't be afraid. Don't, Morgead said in a voice she had never heard from him before. A voice of desperate gentleness. His mind was trying to wrap around hers protectively, like dark wings shielding her, touching her softly. Jez felt her insides turn to water. No. No†¦ Yes, Morgead's voice whispered. She had to stop this-now. She had to break the contact. But although Jez could still feel her physical body, she seemed powerless to control it. She could sense Morgead's arms supporting her and his lips on her throat and she knew that he was still drinking. But she couldn't so much as move a finger to push him away. The muscles that she'd trained so ruthlessly to obey her under any circumstances were betraying her now. She had to try another way. This shouldn't be happening, she told Morgead, putting all the energy of her terror behind the thought. I know. But that's because you're fighting it. We should be somewhere else by now. Jez was exasperated. Where else? I don't know, he said, and she could feel a tinge of sadness in his thought. Some place-deeper. Where we'd really be together. But you won't open your mind†¦. Morgead, what are you talking about? What do you think is going on? He seemed genuinely surprised. Don't you know? It's the soulmate principle. Jez felt the floor drop away beneath her. No. That's not possible. That can't be. She wasn't talking to Morgead anymore; she was desperately trying to convince herself. I'm not soulmates with Morgead. I can't be. We hate each other †¦ he hates me †¦ all we ever do is fight. . . He's impossible and dangerous and hotheaded and stubborn†¦ he's crazy†¦ he's angry and hostile . . . he's frustrating and infuriating and he loves to make me miserable . .. And I don't even believe in soulmates. And even if I did, I wouldn't believe it could happen like this, just bang, out of the blue, like getting hit by a train when you're not looking, without any warning or even any attraction to the person beforehand†¦. But the very hysteria of her own thoughts was a bad sign. Anything that could tear away her self-control like this was powerful almost beyond imagination. And she could still feel it pulling at her, trying to strip off the layers of cloud she was hiding behind. It wanted Morgead to see her as she truly was. And it was trying to show her Morgead. Flashes of his Me, of himself. Glimpses that hit her and seemed to cut cleanly through her, leaving her gasping with their intensity. A little boy with a mop of tousled dark hair and eyes like emerald, watching his mother walk out the door with some man-again. Going to play alone in the darkness, amusing himself. And then meeting a little redheaded girl, a girl with silvery-blue eyes and a flashing smile. And not being alone anymore. And walking on fences with her in the cool night air, chasing small animals, falling and giggling†¦. A slightly older boy with longer hair that fell around his face, uncared-for. Watching his mother walk out one last time, never to come back. Hunting for food, sleeping in an empty house that got messier and messier. Learning to care for himself. Training himself. Getting harder, in mind and body, seeing a sullen expression when he looked in the mirror†¦ A boy even older watching humans, who were weak and silly and short-lived, but who had all the things he didn't have. Family, security, food every night. Watching the Night People, the elders, who felt no responsibility to help an abandoned vampire child†¦. I never knew, Jez thought. She still felt dizzy, as if she couldn't get enough air. The images were dazzling in their clarity and they tore at her heart. A boy who started a gang to create a family, and who went first to the little girl with red hair. The two of them grinning wickedly, running wild in the streets, finding others. Collecting kids the adults couldn't control or wouldn't miss. Walking around the worst parts of town, unafraid-because they had one another now. The images were coming faster, and Jez could hardly keep up with them. Dashing through the metal scrap yard†¦ with Jez †¦ Hiding under a fish-smelling wharf†¦ from Jez†¦ His first big kill, a stag in the hills of San Rafael.. . and Jez there to share the hot blood that warmed and intoxicated and brought life all at once. Fear and happiness and anger and arguments, hurt and sadness and exasperation-but always with Jez interwoven into the fabric. She was always there in his memories, fire-colored hair streaming behind her, heavy-lashed eyes snapping with challenge and excitement. She was everything bright and eager and brave and honest. She was haloed with flame. I didn't know†¦ how could I know? How could I realize I meant so much to him†¦ ? And who would have thought it would mean so much to her when she found out? She was stunned, overcome-but something inside her was singing, too. She was happy about it. She could feel something bubbling up that she hadn't even realized was there; a wild and heady delight that seemed to shoot out to the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet. Morgead, she whispered with her mind. She could sense him, but for once he didn't answer. She felt his sudden fear, his own desire to run and hide. He hadn't meant to show her these things. They were being forced out of him by the same power that was dragging at Jez. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to look, she thought to him. I'll go away†¦. No. Suddenly he wasn't hiding anymore. No, I don't want you to go. I want you to stay. Jez felt herself flow toward him, helplessly. The truth was that she didn't know if she could turn away even if he'd wanted her to. She could feel his mind touching hers-she could taste the very essence of his soul. And it made her tremble. This was like nothing she'd ever felt before. It was so strange†¦ but so wonderful. A pleasure that she couldn't have dreamed of. To be this close, and to be getting closer, like fire and bright darkness merging †¦ To feel her mind opening to him†¦ And then the distant echo of fear, like an animal screaming a warning. Are you insane? This is Morgead. Let him see your soul†¦ pry open your innermost secrets†¦ and you won't live long enough to regret it. He'll tear your throat out the instant he finds out†¦ Jez flinched wildly from the voice. She didn't want to resist the pull to Morgead any longer. But fear was shivering through her, poisoning the warmth and closeness, freezing the edges of her mind. And she knew that the voice was the only rationality left in her. Do you want to die? it asked her point-blank. Jez, Morgead was saying quietly. What's wrong? Why won't you let it happen? Not just you dying, the voice said. All those others. Claire and Aunt Nan and Uncle Jim and Ricky. Hugh†¦ Something white-hot flickered through her. Hugh. Whom she loved. Who couldn't fight for himself. She hadn't even thought of him since she'd entered Morgead's mind-and that terrified her. How could she have forgotten him? For the last year Hugh had represented everything good to her. He'd awakened feelings in her that she'd never had before. And he was the one person she would never betray. Jez, Morgead said. Jez did the only thing she could think of. She threw an image at him, a picture to stir his memories. A picture of her walking out, leaving the gang, leaving him. It wasn't a real picture, of course. It was a symbol. It was bait. And she felt it hit Morgead's mind and clash there, and strike memories that flew like sparks. The first meeting of the gang with her not there. Questions. Puzzlement. All of them searching for her, trying to find a hint of her unique Power signature on the streets. At first laughing as they called for her, making it a game, then the laughter turning into annoyance as she stayed missing. Then annoyance turning into worry. Her uncle Bracken's house. The gang crowded on the doorstep with Morgead in front. Uncle Bracken looking lost and sad. â€Å"I don't know where she is. She just-disappeared.† And worry turning into gut-wrenching fear. Fear and anger and sorrow and betrayal. If she wasn't dead, then she'd abandoned him. Just like everyone else. Just like his mother. And that grief and fury building, both perfectly balanced because Morgead didn't know which was the truth. But always with the knowledge, either way, that the world was cold because she was gone. And then†¦ her appearing in his room today. Obviously alive. Insultingly healthy. And unforgivably casual as she told him he would never know why she'd left. Jez felt Morgead's outrage swelling up, a dark wave inside him, a coldness that felt no mercy for anyone and only wanted to hurt and kill. It was filling him, sweeping everything else away. Just being in contact with it started her heart pounding and shortened her breath. Its raw violence was terrifying. You left me! he snarled at her, three syllables with a world of bitterness behind them. I had to. And I'll never tell you why. Jez could feel her own eyes stinging; she supposed he could sense how it hurt her to say that. But it was the only thing that would work. The pull between them was weakening, being smashed away by his anger. You're a traitor, he said. And the image behind it was that of everyone who'd ever betrayed a friend or a lover or a cause for the most selfish of reasons. Every betrayer from the history of the human world or the Night World. That was what Morgead thought of her. I don't care what you think, she said. You never cared, he shot back. I know that now. I don't know why I ever thought differently. The force that had been trying to drag them together had thinned to a silver thread of connection. And that was good-it was necessary, Jez told herself. She made an effort and felt herself slide away from Morgead's mind, and then further, and then further. You'd better not forget it again, she said. It was easier to be nasty when she couldn't feel his reactions. It might be bad for your health. Don't worry, he told her briefly. I can take care of myself. And you'd better believe I'll never forget. The thread was so fine and taut that Jez could hardly sense it now. She felt an odd lurch inside her, a pleading, but she knew what needed to be done. I do what I want to, for my own reasons, she said. And nobody questions me. I'm leader, remember? Snap! It was a physical sensation, the feeling of breaking away, as Morgead was carried off on a wave of his own black anger. He was retreating from her so fast that it made her dizzy†¦. And then her eyes were open and she was in her own body. Jez blinked, trying to focus on the room. She was looking up at the ceiling, and everything was too bright and too large and too fuzzy. Morgead's arms were around her and her throat was arched back, still exposed. Every nerve was quivering. Then suddenly the arms around her let go and she fell. She landed on her back, still blinking, trying to gather herself and figure out which muscles moved what. Her throat stung, and she could feel dampness there. She was giddy. â€Å"What's wrong with you? Get up and get out,† Morgead snarled. Jez focused on him. He looked very tall from her upside-down vantage point. His green eyes were as cold as chips of gemstone. Then she realized what was wrong. â€Å"You took too much blood, you jerk.† She tried to put her usual acidity into the words, to cover up her weakness. â€Å"It was just supposed to be a ritual thing, but you lost control. I should've known you would.† Something flickered in Morgead's eyes, but then his mouth hardened. â€Å"Tough,† he said shortly. â€Å"You shouldn't have given me the chance.† â€Å"I won't make the same mistake again!† She struggled to a sitting position, trying not to show the effort it cost her. The problem-again-was that she wasn't a vampire. She couldn't recover as quickly from loss of blood†¦ but Morgead didn't know that. Not that he'd care, anyway. Part of her winced at that, tried to argue, but Jez brushed it aside. She needed all her strength and every wall she could build if she was going to get past what had happened. It shouldn't have happened, whatever it had been. It had been some horrible mistake, and she was lucky to have gotten away with her life. And from now on, the only thing to do was try to forget it. â€Å"I probably should tell you why I'm here,† she said, and got to her feet without a discernable wobble. ‘I forgot to mention it before.† â€Å"Why you came back? I don't even want to know.† He only wanted her to leave; she could tell that from his posture, from the tense way he was pacing. â€Å"You will when I tell you.† She didn't have the energy to yell at him the way she wanted. She couldn't afford the luxury of going with her emotions. â€Å"Why do you always think you know what I want?† he snapped, his back to her. â€Å"Okay. Be like that. You probably wouldn't appreciate the chance anyway.† Morgead whirled. He glared at her in a way that meant he could think of too many nasty things to say to settle on one. Finally he just said almost inaudibly, â€Å"What chance?† â€Å"I didn't come back just to take over the gang. I want to do things with it. I want to make us more powerful.† In the old days the idea would have made him grin, put a wicked sparkle in his eyes. They'd always agreed on power, if nothing else. Now he just stood there. He stared at her. His expression changed slowly from cold fury to suspicion to dawning insight. His green eyes narrowed, then widened. He let out his breath. And then he threw back his head and laughed and laughed and laughed. Jez said nothing, just watched him, inconspicuously testing her balance and feeling relieved that she could stand without fainting. At last, though, she couldn't stand the sound of that laughing anymore. There was very little humor in it. â€Å"Want to share the joke?† ‘It's just †¦ of course. I should have known. Maybe I did know, underneath.† He was still chuckling, but it was a vicious noise, and his eyes were distant and full of something like hatred. Maybe self-hatred. Certainly bitterness. Jez felt a chill. â€Å"There's only one thing that could have brought you back. And I should have realized that from the instant you turned up. It wasn't concern for anybody here; it's got nothing to do with the gang.† He looked her straight in the face, his lips curved in a perfect, malevolent smile. He had never been more handsome, or more cold. â€Å"I know what it is, Jez Redfern. I know exactly why you're here today.†

Is man Good or Evil? Essay

Man is innately good, but has the ability to be evil. I believe that a majority of people do what they believe to be right. Whether they are correct or not is another matter. In order to be truly evil, I believe that one has to purposely, consciously, try to hurt others. Be it physically or mentally, a conscious effort to injure others is for no obvious benifit to the human race is evil. I also think that good and evil are on totally different planes than right and wrong. They do not go hand in hand. I believe this because good and evil in my mind are concrete, they do not change. Right and wrong, however, are more of an individual thing, which can not be confined to guidelines. As I said before, I believe that people try to do good most of the time. As in every rule, however, there is an exception. There are certain circumstances in life which can change the way a person acts. There is a definite duality within me. I am usually a good person. I open doors, push in chairs, listen to people, and help little kids. But, occasionally I catch myself thinking about how I could make someone feel bad. I automatically feel my face turn red, and that would be the end of the thought. But I think once in a while everyone thinks something like, ‘He would really be embarrassed if I told everyone about that time at camp. Plus I could get him back,’ or something like, ‘She doesn’t deserve that. What if they found out what she did last year.’ This is not exactly evil thoughts, but it can quite possibly lead to evil actions. Prejudice is another form of evil that produces alienation and war. I have certain prejudices that I carry and I am not very proud of them, though often my instinct about a person is right. My major prejudice is against people who cannot grasp new concepts at a relatively quick rate, or those who cannot understand quickly. Somebody put it best by saying, ‘Oh, you mean the stupid people.’ I truly do hate calling them that, because often what they don’t succeed at academically, they make it up through artistic talents, athletic, or mechanical talents. But the people I have no respect for are those w ho I know can think for themselves, and understand things, but choose not to. I sometimes have trouble understanding if a person just absolutely cannot get it. I have a couple of friends who are that way, and they just cannot figure out trig. or chemistry. I just get frustrated and want to yell, ‘Why don’t you get this? Why can’t you understand that the thirty-sixty triangle always has a 1-2- 3 ratio!?’ But I can’t because one, I would seem like a total jerk, which I probably would be, and two, they are my friends. Then there are those people who dress and act, and are in fact, ‘druggies’. This prejudice kind of ties in with the first one because if the person is intelligent, than I have absolutely no problem with them dressing etc. like they do. But if they are one of the people who think that the cranium is a type of juice, then I seriously get so stressed out that I want to grab them by their lapels and shake them to jump start the brain I know they have. How does this effect my life? I know that it puts a great amount of extra stress on me that I could definitely live with out. But it also really makes me fell bad that I feel this way. I think that I am pretty open minded when it comes to the types of prejudice that are usually discussed, such as racism and sexism. I also am not homophobic and usually do not discriminate on the basis of age. In fact, I am very much biased against the people that are such. However, I believe that my prejudices are not something which contribute to hate crimes, the deaths of minorities or the dreams of a young girl. I feel that my biases are very much benign. A Shaker saying is something which if all men lived by, the world would be a ahppy place. Mary Whitcher said,’Be slow to anger, slow to blame, and slow to plead thy cause. but swift to speak of any gain that gives thy friend applause.

Game of Life (LOF) symbolise essays

Game of Life (LOF) symbolise essays I once saw a movie about a man and his wife. They were stranded on a desert island. Together, alone, full moon and stars everywhere. Sounds romantic right? Wrong, no cooked food, fruit everyday, no hope for rescue or anyway to let anyone know where they were. Not so romantic, just deadly. Now, put a bunch of young kids on an island. Alone, no responsibility, no rules, sounds like fun and games. This game turns into the game of their life. It doesnt turn out very well for anyone but without Piggys glasses it is the last game any of these boys will ever play. In William Goldings Lord of the Flies Piggys glasses are a symbol of hope for rescue because they provide fire for survival, the smoke signal and represent Piggys insight. On area the glasses symbolize rescue is they make the fire so the boys can develop a smoke signal for passing ships to see. The boys have no radios, there arent any cell phones, and they have no way to inform the rest of the world of their position on this huge planet. Then it hits them, We can help them find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire. (38) This is the first great idea they have to use Piggys glasses. Ralph understands the importance of keeping the fire going. He knows the importance of a smoke signal. Jack lets the fire go out while hunting, and Ralph gets very angry. There was a ship out there... They might have seen us. We might have gone home. You and your blood Jack Merridew! You and your hunting! (70) Without the smoke signal they never will be rescued, but thanks to Piggys glasses, some quick thinking, and a lot of luck, they are. A second area the glasses give hope is they provide the fire needed for survival. They need it to cook their food. If they have to be there for a long period of time they will be able f ...

Doris Lessing - Novelist, Memoirist, Essayist

Doris Lessing - Novelist, Memoirist, Essayist Doris Lessing Facts: Known for: Doris Lessing has written many novels, short stories, and essays, most about contemporary life, often pointing to social injustices. Her 1962 The Golden Notebook became an iconic novel for the feminist movement for its consciousness-raising theme. Her travels to many places in the British sphere of influence have influenced her writings.Occupation: writer short stories, novels, essays, science fictionDates: October 22, 1919 -  November 17, 2013Also known as: Doris May Lessing, Jane Somers, Doris Taylor Doris Lessing Biography: Doris Lessing was born in Persia (now Iran), when her father worked for a bank. In 1924, the family moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she grew up, as her father tried to make a living as a farmer. Though she was encouraged to go to college, Doris Lessing dropped out of school at age 14, and took clerical and other jobs in Salisbury, South Rhodesia, until her marriage in 1939 to a civil servant. When she divorced in 1943, her children stayed with their father. Her second husband was a Communist, whom Doris Lessing met when she also became a Communist, joining what she saw as a more pure form of Communism than she saw in the Communist parties in other parts of the world. (Lessing rejected Communism after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956.) She and her second husband divorced in 1949, and he emigrated to East Germany. Later, he was the East German ambassador to Uganda and was killed when Ugandans revolted against Idi Amin. During her years of activism and married life, Doris Lessing began writing. In 1949, after two failed marriages, Lessing moved to London; her brother, first husband, and two children from her first marriage remained in Africa. In 1950, Lessings first novel was published: The Grass Is Singing, which dealt with issues of apartheid and interracial relationships in a colonial society. She continued her semi-autobiographical writings in three Children of Violence novels, with Martha Quest as the main character, published in 1952-1958. Lessing visited her African homeland again in 1956, but was then declared a prohibited immigrant for political reasons and banned from coming back again. After the country became Zimbabwe in 1980, independent of British and white rule, Doris Lessing returned, first in 1982. She wrote of her visits in African Laughter: Four Visits to Zimbabwe, published in 1992. Having rejected communism in 1956, Lessing became active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In the 1960s, she became skeptical of progressive movements and more interested in Sufism and nonlinear thinking. In 1962, Doris Lessings most widely-read novel, The Golden Notebook, was published. This novel, in four sections, explored aspects of the relationship of an independent woman to herself and to men and women, in a time of re-examining sexual and political norms. While the book inspired and fit in with increasing interest in consciousness-raising, Lessing has been somewhat impatient with its identification with feminism. Beginning in 1979, Doris Lessing published a series of science fiction novels, and in the 80s published several books under the pen name Jane Somers. Politically, in the 1980s she supported the anti-Soviet mujahideen in Afghanistan. She also became interested in issues ecological survival and returned to African themes. Her 1986 The Good Terrorist is a comedic story about a cadre of left-wing militants in London. Her 1988 The Fifth Child deals with change and family life in the 1960s through 1980s. Lessings later work continues to deal with peoples lives in ways that highlight challenging social issues, though shes denied that her writing is political. In 2007, Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Background, Family: Father: Alfred Cook Taylor, farmerMother: Meily Maude McVeagh Marriage, Children: husbands:Frank Charles Wisdom (married 1939, dissolved 1943)Gottfried Anton Nicholas Lessing (married 1945, dissolved 1949)children:first marriage: John, Jeansecond marriage: Peteradopted informally: Jenny Diski (novelist) Selected Doris Lessing Quotations   The Golden Notebook  for some reason surprised people but it was no more than you would hear women say in their kitchens every day in any country. That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something youve understood all your life, but in a new way. Some people obtain fame, others deserve it. Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself. Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so. There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second-best is anything but second best. Whats really terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the first-rate. To pretend that you dont need love when you do, or you like your work when you know quite well youre capable of better. You only learn to be a better writer by actually writing. I dont know much about creative writing programs. But theyre not telling the truth if they dont teach, one, that writing is hard work, and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer. The current publishing scene is extremely good for the big, popular books. They sell them brilliantly, market them and all that. It is not good for the little books. Trust no friend without faults, and love a woman, but no angel. Laughter is by definition healthy. This world is run by people who know how to do things. They know how things work. They are equipped. Up there, theres a layer of people who run everything. But we were just peasants. We dont understand whats going on, and we cant do anything. It is the mark of great people to treat trifles as trifles and important matters as important It is terrible to destroy a persons picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction. What is a hero without love for mankind? In  university  they dont tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools. With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one - but no one at all - can tell you what to read and when and how. Nonsense, it was all nonsense: this whole damned outfit, with its committees, its conferences, its eternal talk, talk, talk, was a great con trick; it was a mechanism to earn a few hundred men and women incredible sums of money. All political movements are like this we are in the right, everyone else is in the wrong. The people on our own side who disagree with us are heretics, and they start becoming enemies. With it comes an absolute conviction of your own moral superiority. Theres  oversimplification  in  everything,  and a terror of flexibility. Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group of vigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they dont seem to see this. It was OK, us being Reds during the  war,  because we were all on the same side. But then the Cold War started. Why were the Europeans bothered about the Soviet Union at all? It was nothing to do with us. China had nothing to do with us. Why were we not building, without reference to the Soviet Union, a good society in our own countries? But no, we were all in one way or another obsessed with the bloody Soviet Union, which was a disaster. What people were supporting was failure. And continually justifying it. All sanity depends on this: that it should be a delight to feel heat strike the skin, a delight to stand upright, knowing the bones are moving easily under the flesh. I have found it to be true that the older Ive become the better my life has become. The great secret that all old people share is that you really havent changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you dont change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion. And then, not expecting it, you become middle-aged and anonymous. No one notices you. You achieve a wonderful freedom. For the last third of life there remains only work. It alone is always stimulating, rejuvenating, exciting and satisfying. Bed is the best place for reading, thinking, or doing nothing. Borrowing is not much better than begging; just as lending with interest is not much better than stealing. I was brought up on the farm in the bush, which was the best thing that happened, it was just a wonderful childhood. None of you [men] ask for anything except everything, but just for so long as you need it. A woman without a man cannot meet a man, any man, without thinking, even if its for a half second, perhaps this is  the  man.

The Divine Command Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Divine Command Theory - Essay Example The stronger version holds that moral behavior is good in itself, as such, we should live in a particular manner since God wills it. Similar to the weakest version, this entails the only religious believers need to concern themselves with moral accountability. The strongest version asserts that moral behavior is good because it is willed by God. ("Faithnet") The divine command theory is said to have been disproved by the Euthyphro dilemma, dubbed after Plato's dialogue, which goes: "Are morally good acts willed by God because they are morally good, or are they morally good because they are willed by God" ("Philosophy of Religion") If one accepts the first argument that morally good acts are willed by God because they are morally good, the independence problem arises. This means that the argument itself is inconsistent with the theory since moral value becomes independent of God's will. ("Philosophy of Religion") On the other hand, should one hold the second argument that morally good acts become such because they are willed by God, then problems pertaining to arbitrariness, emptiness, and repugnant commands are contended with? The arbitrariness problem stems from the argument that the divine command theory seems to attribute morality only on God's whims.  Ã‚  

Software engineering Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Software engineering - Assignment Example Manager will hold administrative rights and will only be generating administrative orders. The designed software will minimize the need of paper work at the company. A centralized database will be deployed which will remove many issues such as maintaining records twice or inconsistent data. Through database techniques such as transaction roll back, recovery and cascade delete/update, the system will always contain updated and valid data. RUP alongwith UML has been used to design the software. RUP is based on UML and it ensures the production of a high quality software which meets the need of the clients and the users within the alloted time and budget. Part 1 – Development Plan 1. ... Analysis and Design: Analyze and design the system to be a feasible solution -Economic feasibility: The system should be designed within the allotted budget and time -Operational feasibility: The transactions are secure and cannot be tampered. The transactions can be rolled back, in case of a return back of an order. -Technical feasibility: Software, hardware and network issues should be as less as possible. 3. Implementation: Follow Best Practices 4. Testing: Develop Test cases and test the system against the following features: -Functionality: Does it provide the correct functionality? -Reliability: Is the system free of defects and fault tolerant? -Performance: Is the system’s flow smooth enough to be run easily as a daily process? 5. Deployment: -Deploy the system -Provide user manual for the system -Release Documentation for further maintenance of the system -Develop training sessions Part 2 – Use Case Model Create a Ticket: Usecase Create a Ticket Actor Salesperso n Purpose Enter Details about a Product Overview Whenever a new product is taken to the store, a new ticket will be created for the product in which its details will be listed. These tickets will help the customers in instant shopping. Type Primary Cross Reference A new product with no ticket must exist in the stock Actor Action System Response 1. Click on create ticker Return a ticket interface 2. Fill details and enter Save Validate details and show confirmation message Check Price: Usecase Check Price Actor Salesperson Purpose Check the price of an item using the ticket Overview On the request of a customer, any item’s price can be checked through the system immediately using the tickets Type Primary Cross Reference Create a Ticket Actor Action System Response 1. Open Ticket Return the details