Saturday, August 31, 2019

Beowulf and The Modern Day Hero Essay

A hero does something for the greater good of mankind. A hero is courageous and brave in any situation. Beowulf and Irena Sendler a social worker who smuggled over 2,500 Jewish out of harms way put their lives on the line to protect their mankind. While each warriors have their differences both believe in courage and triumphing over evil. In his final battle Beowulf goes up against a dragon that take a whole army to defeat. Caught up in his courageous high Beowulf does not realize the feat that lies ahead of him. Beowulf describes, â€Å"scant regard for the dragon as a threat, no dread at all of its courage or strength, for he kept going often in the past† (2348-2351). Beowulf is caught up in his past glories blinding him from the actualization of how dangerous the dragon is. Being courageous means one knows their limits. Irena Sendler knew that she could not act alone in rescuing over 2,500 innocent children. Ambulance drivers would transport children under the floorboards w hile police officers would be bribed to allow traffic through an underground corridor. Unlike Beowulf Irena knew that she needed help to sneak past the giant Nazi regime to rescue thousands of Jewish children. is not caught up in being labeled as a hero for risking her life to save over 2,500 innocent children. Beowulf states, â€Å"I have wrestled the hilt from the enemies’ hand, avenged the evil done to the Danes; it is what was due† (1668-1670) Beowulf fights for justice and to avenge those who have done wrong. By fighting for your beliefs Beowulf displays that you cannot terrorize without repercussions. In 1943 the Nazi party commenced a liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto. Irena believes, â€Å"Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory.† Irena did not want the title of glory she only fought for her beliefs in a non-violent manner. Unlike Beowulf she did not need to go out and avenge the Nazis for their vile acts towards humanity. A hero is brave and will put their lives on the line to protect mankind. Beowulf and a Irena are courageous no matter how daunting each of their tasks were. A hero stands up for the greater good of people when he witnesses mankind being threatened. While a hero comes in all different ways both possess the same qualities. MLA Format HEVESI, DENNIS. â€Å"Irena Sendler, Lifeline to Young Jews, Is Dead at 98.† Nytimes.com. Nytimes.com, 13 May 2008. Web.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 19~20

Chapter 19 Judy's Delicate Condition For the first few weeks Tommy was uncomfortable having a dead guy in the freezer, but after a while the dead guy became a fixture, a familiar frosty face with every TV dinner. Tommy named him Peary after another arctic explorer. During the day, after he came home from work and before he crawled into bed with Jody, Tommy puttered around the loft talking first to himself, then, when he became comfortable with the idea, to Peary. â€Å"You know, Peary,† Tommy said one morning after he had pounded out two pages of a short story on his typewriter, â€Å"I am having a little trouble finding my voice in this story. When I write about the little farm girl in Georgia walking barefoot to school on the dirt road, I sound like Harper Lee, but when I write about her poor father, unjustly sentenced to a chain gang for stealing bread for his family, I start to sound a little like Mark Twain. But when the little girl grows up to become a Mafia don, I'm falling into more of a Sydney Collins Krantz style. What should I do?† Peary, safe with his lid closed and his light off, did not answer. â€Å"And how am I supposed to concentrate on literature when I'm reading all these vampire books for Jody? She doesn't understand that a writer is a special creature – that I'm different from everyone else. I'm not saying I'm superior to other people, just more sensitive, I guess. And did you notice that she never does any of the shopping? What does she do all night while I'm at work?† Tommy was making an effort to understand Jody's situation, and had even devised a series of experiments from his reading to try and discover the limitations of her new situation. In the evening when they woke, after they shared a shower and a tumble or two, the scientific process would begin. â€Å"Go ahead, honey, give it a try,† Tommy said, shortly after he'd read Dracula. â€Å"I am trying,† Jody said. â€Å"I don't know what I'm supposed to try to do.† â€Å"Concentrate,† Tommy said. â€Å"Push.† â€Å"What do you mean, push? I'm not giving birth, Tommy. What am I supposed to push on?† â€Å"Try to grow fur. Try to make your arms change into wings.† Jody closed her eyes and concentrated – strained, even – and Tommy thought a little color came into her face. Finally she said, â€Å"This is ridiculous.† And it was determined that Jody could not turn into a bat. â€Å"Mist,† Tommy said. â€Å"Try to turn into mist. If you forget your key sometime, you can just ooze under the door to get in.† â€Å"It's not working.† â€Å"Keep trying. You know how your hair gathers in the shower drain? Well, if it gets clogged, you can just flow down there and dig out the clog.† â€Å"There's some motivation.† â€Å"Give it a try.† She tried and failed and the next day Tommy brought some Drano home from the store instead. â€Å"But I could take you to the park and throw a Frisbee for you.† â€Å"I know, but I can't.† â€Å"I'll buy you all kinds of chew toys – a squeaky duck if you want.† â€Å"I'm sorry, Tommy, but I can't turn into a wolf.† â€Å"In the book, Dracula climbs down the castle wall face down.† â€Å"Good for him.† â€Å"You could try it on our building. It's only three stories.† â€Å"That's still a long way to fall.† â€Å"You won't fall. He doesn't fall in the book.† â€Å"And he levitates in the book, doesn't he?† â€Å"Yeah.† â€Å"And we tried that, didn't we?† â€Å"Well, yeah.† â€Å"Then I'd say that the book is fiction, wouldn't you?† â€Å"Let's try something else; I'll get the list.† â€Å"Mind reading. Project your thoughts into my mind.† â€Å"Okay, I'm projecting. What am I thinking?† â€Å"I can tell by the look on your face.† â€Å"You might be wrong, what am I thinking?† â€Å"You'd like me to stop badgering you with these experiments.† â€Å"And?† â€Å"You want me to take our clothes to the Laundromat.† â€Å"And?† â€Å"That's all I'm getting.† â€Å"I want you to stop rubbing garlic on me while I'm sleeping.† â€Å"You can read thoughts!† â€Å"No, Tommy, but I woke up this evening smelling like a pizza joint. Stop it with the garlic.† â€Å"So you don't know about the crucifix?† â€Å"You touched me with a crucifix?† â€Å"You weren't in any danger. I had a fire extinguisher right there in case you burst into flames.† â€Å"I don't think it's very nice of you to experiment on me while I'm sleeping. How would you feel if I rubbed stuff on you while you were sleeping?† â€Å"Well, it depends. What are we talking about?† â€Å"Just don't touch me while I'm sleeping, okay? A relationship is based on mutual trust and respect.† â€Å"So I guess the mallet and the stake are out of the question?† â€Å"Tommy!† â€Å"Kmart had a sale on mallets. You were wondering if you were immortal. I wasn't going to try it without asking you.† â€Å"How long do you think it will take for you to forget what sex feels like?† â€Å"I'm sorry, Jody. Really, I am.† The question of immortality did, indeed, bother Jody. The old vampire had said that she could be killed, but it was not the sort of thing that you could easily test. It was Tommy, of course, after a long talk with Peary while trying to avoid working on his little Southern-girl story one morning, who came up with the test. Jody awoke one evening to find him in the bathroom emptying ice cubes out of a tray into the big claw-foot tub. He said, â€Å"I was a lifeguard one summer in high school.† â€Å"So?† â€Å"I had to learn CPR. I spent half the summer pumping pissy pool water out of exhausted nine-year-olds.† â€Å"So?† â€Å"Drowning.† â€Å"Drowning?† â€Å"Yeah, we drown you. If you're immortal, you'll be fine. If not, the cold water will keep you fresh and I can revive you. There's about thirty more trays of ice stacked up on Peary. Could you grab some?† â€Å"Tommy, I'm not sure about this.† â€Å"You want to know, don't you?† â€Å"But a tub of ice water?† â€Å"I've run all the possibilities down – guns, knives, an injection of potassium nitrate – this is the only one that can fail and not really kill you. I know you want to know, but I don't want to lose you to find out.† Jody, in spite of herself, was touched. â€Å"That's the sweetest thing anyone ever said to me.† â€Å"Well, you wouldn't want to kill me, would you?† Tommy was a little concerned about the fact that Jody had been feeding on him every four days. Not that he felt sick or weak; on the contrary, he found that each time she bit him he was energized, stronger, it seemed. He was throwing twice as much stock at the store and his mind seemed sharper, more alert. He was making good progress on his story. He was starting to look forward to being bitten. â€Å"Come on then,† he said. â€Å"In the tub.† Jody was wearing a silk nighty that she let drop to the floor. â€Å"You're sure if this doesn't work†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"You'll be fine.† She took his hand. â€Å"I'm trusting you.† â€Å"I know. Get in.† Jody stepped into the cold water. â€Å"Brisk,† she said. â€Å"I didn't think you could feel it.† â€Å"I can feel temperature changes, but they don't bother me.† â€Å"We'll experiment on that next. Under you go.† Jody lay down in the tub, her hair spread across the water like crimson kelp. Tommy checked his watch. â€Å"After you go under, don't hold your breath. It's going to be hard, but suck the water into your lungs. I'll leave you under for four minutes, then pull you out.† Jody took deep breaths and looked at him, a glint of panic in her eyes. He bent and kissed her. â€Å"I love you,† he said. â€Å"You do?† â€Å"Of course.† He pushed her head under the water. She bobbed back up. â€Å"Me too,† she said. Then she went under. She tried to make herself take in the water but her lungs wouldn't let her and she held her breath. Four minutes later Tommy reached under her arms and pulled her up. â€Å"I didn't do it,† she said. â€Å"Christ, Jody, I can't keep doing this.† â€Å"I held my breath.† â€Å"For four minutes?† â€Å"I think I could have gone hours.† â€Å"Try again. You've got to inhale the water or you'll never die.† â€Å"Thanks, coach.† â€Å"Please.† She slipped under the water and sucked in a breath of water before she could think about it. She listened to the ice cubes tinkling on the surface, watched the bathroom light refracting through the water, occasionally interrupted by Tommy's face as he looked down on her. There was no panic, no choking – she didn't even feel the claustrophobia that she had expected. Actually, it was kind of pleasant. Tommy pulled her up and she expelled a great cough of water, then began breathing normally. â€Å"Are you okay?† â€Å"Fine.† â€Å"You really did drown.† â€Å"It wasn't that bad.† â€Å"Try it again.† This time Tommy left her under for ten minutes before pulling her up. After the cough, she said, â€Å"I guess that's it.† â€Å"Did you see the long tunnel with the light at the end? All your dead relatives waiting? The fiery gates of hell?† â€Å"Nope, just ice cubes.† Tommy turned around and sat down hard on the bathroom rug with his back to the tub. â€Å"I feel like I was the one that got drowned.† â€Å"I feel great.† â€Å"That's it, you know. You are immortal.† â€Å"I guess so. As far as we can test it. Can I get out of the tub now?† â€Å"Sure.† He handed her a towel over his shoulder. â€Å"Jody, are you going to leave me when I get old?† â€Å"You're nineteen years old.† â€Å"Yeah, but next year I'll be twenty, then twenty-one; then I'll be eating strained green beans and drooling all over myself and asking you what your name is every five seconds and you'll be twenty-six and perky and you'll resent me every time you have to change my incontinence pants.† â€Å"That's a cheery thought.† â€Å"Well, you will resent it, won't you?† â€Å"Aren't you jumping the gun a little? You have great bladder control; I've seen you drink six beers without going to the bathroom.† â€Å"Sure, now, but†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Look, Tommy, could you look at this from my point of view? This is the first time I've had to really think about this as well. Do you realize that I'll never have blue hair and walk with tiny little steps? I'll never drive really slow all the time and spend hours complaining about my ailments. I'll never go to Denny's and steal all the extra jelly packets and squirrel them away in a giant handbag.† Tommy looked up at her. â€Å"You were looking forward to those things?† â€Å"That's not the point, Tommy. I might be immortal, but I've lost a big part of my life. Like French fries. I miss eating French fries. I'm Irish, you know. Ever since the Great Potato Famine my people get nervous if they don't eat French fries every few days. Did you ever think about that?† â€Å"No, I guess I didn't.† â€Å"I don't even know what I am. I don't know why I'm here. I was made by some mystery creature and I don't have the slightest idea why, or what he wants from me, or what I am supposed to be doing. Only that he's messing with my life in ways I can't understand. Do you have any idea what that is like?† â€Å"Actually, I know exactly what that's like.† â€Å"You do?† â€Å"Of course, everybody does. By the way, the Emperor told me that they found another body today. In a Laundromat in the Tenderloin. Broken neck and no blood.† Chapter 20 Angel If Inspector Alphonse Rivera had been a bird, he would have been a crow. He was lean and dark, with slick, sharp features and black eyes that shone and shifted with suspicion and guile. Time and again his crowlike looks landed him in the undercover role of coke dealer. Sometimes Cuban, sometimes Mexican, and one time Colombian, he had driven more Mercedes and worn more Armani suits than most real drug dealers, but after twenty years in narcotics, on three different departments, he had transferred to homicide, claiming that he needed to work among a better class of people – namely, dead. Oh, the joys of homicide! Simple crimes of passion, most solved within twenty-four hours or not at all. No stings, no suitcases of government money, no pretense, just simple deduction – sometimes very simple: a dead wife in the kitchen; a drunken husband standing in the foyer with a smoking thirty-eight; and Rivera, in his cheap Italian knock-off suit, gently disarming the new widower, who could only say, â€Å"Liver and onions.† A body, a suspect, a weapon, and a motive: case solved and on to the next one, neat and tidy. Until now. Rivera thought, If my luck could be bottled, it would be classified a chemical weapon. He read through the coroner's report again. â€Å"Cause of death: compression fracture of the fifth and sixth vertebrae (broken neck). Subject had lost massive amounts of blood – no visible wounds.† On its own, it was a uniquely enigmatic report, but it wasn't on its own. It was the second body in a month that had sustained massive blood loss with no visible wounds. Rivera looked across the desk to where his partner, Nick Cavuto, was reading a copy of the report. â€Å"What do you think?† Rivera said. Cavuto chewed on an unlit cigar. He was a burly and balding, gravel-voiced, third-generation cop – six degrees tougher than his father and grandfather had been because he was gay. He said, â€Å"I think if you have any vacation time coming, this would be the time to take it.† â€Å"So we're fucked.† â€Å"It's too early for us to be fucked. I'd say we've been taken to dinner and slipped the tongue on the good-night kiss.† Rivera smiled. He liked the way Cavuto tried to make everything sound like dialogue from a Bogart movie. The big detective's pride and joy was a complete set of signed first-edition Dashiell Hammett novels. â€Å"Give me the days when police work was done with a snub nose and a lead sap,† Cavuto would say. â€Å"Computers are for pussies.† Rivera returned to the report. â€Å"It looks like this guy would have been dead in a month anyway: ‘a ten-centimeter tumor on the liver. Malignancy the size of a grapefruit.† Cavuto shifted the cigar to the other side of his mouth. â€Å"The old broad at the Van Ness Motel was on her way out too. Congestive heart disease. Too weak for a bypass. She ate nitro pills like they were M&M's.† â€Å"The euthanasia killer,† Rivera said. â€Å"So we're assuming this was the same guy?† â€Å"Whatever you say, Nick.† â€Å"Two killings with the same MO and no motive. I don't even like the sound of it.† Cavuto rubbed his temples as if trying to milk anxiety out through his tear ducts. â€Å"You were in San Junipero during the Night Stalker killings. We couldn't take a piss without tripping over a reporter. I say we lock this down. As far as the papers are concerned, the victims were robbed. No connection.† Rivera nodded. â€Å"I need a smoke. Let's go talk to those guys that got hit at the Laundromat a couple of weeks ago. Maybe there's a connection.† Cavuto pushed himself out of the chair and grabbed his hat off the desk. â€Å"Whoever voted for nonsmoking in the station house should be pistol-whipped.† â€Å"Didn't the President sponsor that bill?† â€Å"All the more reason. The pussy.† Tommy lay looking at the ceiling, trying to catch his breath and extricate his right foot from a hopeless tangle in the sheets. Jody was drawing a tic-tac-toe in the sweat on his chest with her finger. â€Å"You don't sweat anymore, do you?† he asked. â€Å"Don't seem to.† â€Å"And you're not even out of breath. Am I doing something wrong?† â€Å"No, it was great. I only get breathless when†¦ when I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"When you bite me.† â€Å"Yeah.† â€Å"Did you†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Are you sure?† â€Å"Are you?† â€Å"No, I faked.† Tommy grinned. â€Å"Really?† Jody looked at the wet spot (on her side, of course). â€Å"Why do you think I'm so winded? It's not easy to fake the ejaculation part.† â€Å"I, for one, was fooled.† â€Å"See.† He reached down and unwrapped the sheet from his foot, then he lay back and stared at the ceiling. Jody began to twist the sweaty locks of his hair into horns. â€Å"Jody,† Tommy said tentatively. â€Å"Hmmm?† â€Å"When I get old, I mean, if we're still together†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She yanked on his hair. â€Å"Ouch. Okay, we'll still be together. Have you ever heard of satyriasis?† â€Å"No.† â€Å"Well, it happens to real old guys. They run around with a perpetual hard-on, chasing teenage girls and humping anything that moves until they have to be put in restraints.† â€Å"Wow, interesting disease.† â€Å"Yeah, well, when I get old, if I start to show the symptoms†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Yeah?† â€Å"Just let it run its course, okay?† â€Å"I'll look forward to it.† Rivera held a plastic cup of orange juice for the mass of plaster and tubes that was LaOtis Small. LaOtis sipped from the straw, then pushed it away with his tongue. The body cast ran from below his knees to the top of his head, with holes for his face and outgoing tubes. Cavuto stood by the hospital bed taking notes. â€Å"So you and your friends were doing laundry when an unarmed, redheaded woman attacked you and put all three of you in the hospital? Right?† â€Å"She was a ninja, man. I know. I get the kick-boxing channel on cable.† Cavuto chomped an unlit cigar. â€Å"Your friend James says that she was six-four and weighed two hundred pounds.† â€Å"No, man, she was five-five, five-six.† â€Å"Your other buddy† – Cavuto checked his notepad for the name – â€Å"Kid Jay, said that it was a gang of Mexicans.† â€Å"No, man, he dreamin'; it was one ninja bitch.† â€Å"A five-and-a-half-foot woman put the three of you big strong guys in the hospital?† â€Å"Yeah. We was just mindin' our own bidness. She come in and axed for some change. James tell her no, he got to put a load in the dryer, and she go fifty-one-fifty on him. She a ninja.† â€Å"Thank you, LaOtis, you've been very helpful.† Cavuto shot Rivera a look and they left the hospital room. In the hallway Rivera said, â€Å"So we're looking for a gang of redheaded, ninja Mexicans.† Cavuto said, â€Å"You think there's a molecule of truth in any of that?† â€Å"They were all unconscious when they were brought in, and obviously they haven't tried to match up their stories. So if you throw out everything that doesn't match, you end up with a woman with long red hair.† â€Å"You think a woman could do that to them and manage to snap the neck of two other people without a struggle?† â€Å"Not a chance,† Rivera said. His beeper went off and he checked the number. â€Å"I'll call in.† Cavuto pulled up. â€Å"Go ahead, I'm going back in to talk to LaOtis. Meet me outside emergency.† â€Å"Take it easy, Nick, the guy's in a body cast.† Cavuto grinned. â€Å"Kind'a erotic, ain't it?† He turned and lumbered back toward LaOtis Small's room. Jody walked Tommy up to Market Street, watched him eat a burger and fries, and put him on the 42 bus to work. Killing the time while Tommy worked was becoming tedious. She tried to stay in the loft, watched the late-night talk shows and old movies on cable, read magazines, and did a little cleaning, but by two in the morning the caged-cat feeling came over her and she went out to wander the streets. Sometimes she walked Market among the street people and the convention crowds, other times she took a bus to North Beach and hung out on Broadway watching the sailors and the punks stagger, drunk and stoned, or the hookers and the hustlers running their games. It was on these crowded streets that she felt most lonely. Time and again she wanted to turn to someone and point out a unique heat pattern or the dark aura she sensed around the sick; like a child sharing the cloud animals flying through a summer sky. But no one else could see what she saw, no one heard the whispered propositions, the pointed refusals, or the rustle of money exchanging hands in alleys and doorways. Other times she crept through the back streets and listened to the symphony of noises that no one else heard, smelled the spectrum of odors that had long ago exhausted her vocabulary. Each night there were more nameless sights and smells and sounds, and they came so fast and subtle that she eventually gave up trying to name them. She thought, This is what it is to be an animal. Just experience – direct, instant, and wordless; memory and recognition, but no words. A poet with my senses could spend a lifetime trying to describe what it is to hear a building breathe and smell the aging of concrete. And for what? Why write a song when no one can play the notes or understand the lyrics? I'm alone. Cavuto came through the double doors of the emergency room and joined Rivera, who was standing by the brown, City-issue Ford smoking a cigarette. â€Å"What was the call?† Cavuto asked. â€Å"We got another one. Broken neck. South of Market. Elderly male.† â€Å"Fuck,† Cavuto said, yanking open the car door. â€Å"What about blood loss?† â€Å"They don't know yet. This one's still warm.† Rivera flipped his cigarette butt into the parking lot and climbed into the car. â€Å"You get anything more out of LaOtis?† â€Å"Nothing important. They weren't doing their laundry, they went in looking for the girl, but he's sticking with the ninja story.† River started the car and looked at Cavuto. â€Å"You didn't rough him up?† Cavuto pulled a Cross pen out of his shirt pocket and held it up. â€Å"Mightier than the sword.† Rivera cringed at the thought of what Cavuto might have done to LaOtis with the pen. â€Å"You didn't leave any marks, did you?† â€Å"Lots,† Cavuto grinned. â€Å"Nick, you can't do that kind of – â€Å" â€Å"Relax,† Cavuto interrupted. â€Å"I just wrote, ‘Thanks for all the information; I'm sure we'll get some convictions out of this, on his cast. Then I signed it and told him that I wouldn't scratch it out until he told me the truth.† â€Å"Did you scratch it out?† â€Å"Nope.† â€Å"If his friends see it, they'll kill him.† â€Å"Fuck him,† Cavuto said. â€Å"Ninja redheads, my ass.† Four in the morning. Jody watched neon beer signs buzzing color across the dew-damp sidewalks of Polk Street. The street was deserted, so she played sensory games to amuse herself – closing her eyes and listening to the soft scratch of her sneakers echoing off the buildings as she walked. If she concentrated, she could walk several blocks without looking, listening for the streetlight switches at the corners and feeling the subtle changes in wind currents at the cross streets. When she felt she was going to run into something, she could shuffle her feet and the sound would form a rough image in her mind of the walls and poles and wires around her. If she stood quietly, she could reach out and form a map of the whole City in her head – sounds drew the lines, and smells filled in the colors. She was listening to the fishing boats idling at the wharf a mile away when she heard footsteps and opened her eyes. A single figure had rounded the corner a couple of blocks ahead of her and was walking, head down, up Polk. She stepped into the doorway of a closed Russian restaurant and watched him. Sadness came off him in black waves. His name was Philip. His friends called him Philly. He was twenty-three. He had grown up in Georgia and had run away to the City when he was sixteen so he wouldn't have to pretend to be something he was not. He had run away to the City to find love. After the one-night stands with rich older men, after the bars and the bathhouses, after finding out that he wasn't a freak, that there were other people just like him, after the last of the confusion and shame had settled like red Georgia dust, he'd found love. He'd lived with his lover in a studio in the Castro district. And in that studio, sitting on the edge of a rented hospital bed, he had filled a syringe with morphine and injected it into his lover and held his hand while he died. Later, he cleared away the bed pans and the IV stand and the machine that he used to suck the fluid out of his lover's lungs and he threw them in the trash. The doctor said to hold on to them – that he would need them. They buried Philly's lover in the morning and they took the embroidered square of fabric that was draped on the casket and folded it and handed it to him like the flag to a war widow. He got to keep it for a while before it was added to the quilt. He had it in his pocket now. His hair was gone from the chemotherapy. His lungs hurt, and his feet hurt; the sarcomas that spotted his body were worst on his feet and his face. His joints ached and he couldn't keep his food down, but he could still walk. So he walked. He walked up Polk Street, head down, at four in the morning, because he could. He could still walk. When he reached the doorway of a Russian restaurant, Jody stepped out in front of him and he stopped and looked at her. Somewhere, way down deep, he found that there was a smile left. â€Å"Are you the Angel of Death?† he asked. â€Å"Yes,† she said. â€Å"It's good to see you,† Philly said. She held her arms out to him.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Algorithm for Robot Navigation Without Collisions

Algorithm for Robot Navigation Without Collisions ALGORITHM FOR ROBOT NAVIGATION AT ENVIRONMENT WITHOUT COLLISION Â   ALGORITHM REPRESENTATION FOR NAVIGATION OF MOBILE ROBOT WITHOUT OBSTACLE COLLISON Mobile robot It is a kind of robot that has the ability to travel Relative to the environment (i.e. locomotion), and one of the actuators of the robot is the locomotive system This chapter of my bachelor thesis is to develop algorithms that will help the autonomous mobile robot in visual navigation. g the robot. Then, the robot tries to understand their environment to extract data from a sequence of image data, in this case, optical, and then uses this information as a guide for the movement. The strategy adopted to avoid collisions with obstacles during movement – a balance between the right and left optical flow vectors. An integral part of any navigation scheme is the desire to reach a destination and do not get lost or bump into any of the objects. There may be other restrictions on a given route, such as speed limits or zo nes of uncertainty, where in theory, of course, can pave the path, but not desirable. Often, the way is to move the robot autonomously planned, ie on the basis of previous input and without interference in real time. It can work effectively, but only on condition that the environment is perfectly known and does not change and the robot can travel on the route perfectly. However, in the real world everything is much more complicated. Note that navigation will include: Location of robot Environment perception and his model Methods of traffic planning Robot motion control algorithms The problem of mobile robot navigation is a very complex issue characteristic at both ends. The implementation of tasks by moving a mobile robot requires obtaining information about the surrounding-limiting environment – hence the importance of having AD sensory system that allows the observation of the environment and its perception, For this purpose, both simple rangefinder systems and co ntact sensors, which correspond with collision detection. Using a constant speed of 4m/s for the algorithm and a step size of 0.125m which was obtained by the multiplication of the speed by interval in which information is received. = 0.125m. The algorithm is given below. Set iteration values K equals K =1. Tolerance factor ÃŽ ´ Using the following sequence inside the loop for K Evaluating Hessian and the gradient and also checking for positive definite of hessian matric Determine Newton Direction Normalize Newton Direction Determine step size Determine new point If || ΔT||< ÃŽ ´, if not set K=1 And repeat step 2.otherwise terminate But considering the above algorithm it’s still going to encounter some problems. For example saw tooth pattern that occurs at the along the path, shown below: Saw-tooth pattern Saw-tooth happens due to fixed step size at some point in the navigation of the mobile robot reduction in step size is necessary which also means reduction in the speed of the robot . The reason for this effect is because the present point of the robot is not always the best point possible. Meaning that point after that will guide the path back, resulting in a saw=tooth pattern zig -zagging along the path. The reason this problem occurs is because the robot has a constant speed.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Law and Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Law and Society - Essay Example He expounded on several approaches to conflict management and then justifies why his movement has chosen the one he calls, â€Å"direct action†. In this regard, the essay will be used to analyze the conflict management approaches presented by Donald Black. Forms of Conflict Management Discuss and define the 3 approaches: From the lecture notes on Law as Social Control, there are three general approaches to resolving conflict are categorized into unilateral, bilateral and through third party. The unilateral form actually focuses on toleration where it was noted that the victim is perceived to be socially inferior or estranged from the offender. The bilateral form is parallel with applying negotiation techniques where both parties are deemed of equal status and seek some form of agreement or arrangement to settle their conflicts that would be amenable to both. Finally, if despite all resolutions techniques have been exhausted and conflicts remain unresolved, the third-party sett lement form requires seeking a neutral third party (not affiliated to any of the offending nor offended parties) to evaluate the issue and arrive at the most appropriate solution. Description of Circumstances for Application of Conflict Management Forms Using Donald Black’s article, entitled â€Å"Crime as Social Control†, the forms of conflict management are: toleration, negotiation, settlement, law and self-help. Self-help was defined by Black (1983) as â€Å"the expression of a grievance by unilateral aggression such as personal violence or property destruction† (p. 34). Law, on the other hand, was noted as a form of governmental social control (Black, 1983, p. 41). His focus was to present law and self-help as forms of conflict management that functions more as social control mechanisms. Using these forms of conflict management in the case of King, from the circumstances relayed in his letter, he clearly noted the application of a rational four step process in his nonviolent campaign in conflict management, to wit: â€Å"collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action† (King, 1963, p. 1). But evidently, the form of unilateral form of conflict management was applied when toleration was upheld for the longest time. King averred that â€Å"we have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights† (King, 1963, p. 3). Since he acknowledged that colored people have been discriminated and prejudiced for so long exemplifying the inferior status socially imposed, this form was therefore eventually rejected as effective and applicable. The bilateral form of conflict management had been applied when King noted that negotiations were apparently tried but proven ineffective. As proven, there were negotiations (or supposedly agreed upon settlements) made between the leaders of the Birmingham’s economic community and the Negro citizens in t erms of removing racial signs in merchants’ stores, for instance. Apparently, these leaders and merchants failed to comply with the promise as few signs were briefly removed but return eventually and others were not removed at all (King, 1963, p. 2). Therefore, ordinary negotiations were proven to be ineffective and were arbitrarily rejected by King. Likewise, the direct action through demonstrations were a call for further negotiations possible seeking third party infusion to resolve the conflict by invoking public protests to make others aware that there is a need to bring justice and equality to the oppressed. This option was regarded as the best course of action for reasons identified and justified below. Law intercedes in King’s quest for conflict resolution through admitting that their direct action do no violate any persisting law or

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

'Critical review of the implementation of enterprise resourse planning Coursework

'Critical review of the implementation of enterprise resourse planning ES(ERP) at Nestle' - Coursework Example are not integrated and different divisions operate their own information systems, it becomes vital to standardize these processes in order to receive timely and accurate data to remain competitive in the market. The benefits of an ERP system in Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s case are very large. It could standardize the business processes and work around the globe with employees and managers accessing one database and getting the same information no matter in what part of the world they operate. Decision making at all levels of management will be enhanced with range of capabilities that could help in managing performance by delivering consistent and accurate business information and knowledge. The major risk is that it could become unsuccessful if any small mistake occurs in the implementation process. The risk could also be associated with employee resistance and overall management non-cooperativeness. The overall success of ERP implementation depends on the attitudes and willingness of the people in the organization as to how far can they go to make their jobs easier and ultimately their company competitive globally. Nestle is the world’s largest food company with its largest industrial home base in Switzerland. It has a workforce of almost 230,000 people working in almost 500 factories situated in 84 countries. The Nestle group includes: Due to the fact that the company has many groups, it has a decentralized management system. By decentralizing the system and delegating decision making, the local Nestle companies can response to local environments readily. The implementation of DB2 Database Partitioning Function of IBM will pave the way for Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s future business systems architecture implementation globally. This will provide a high end proof point giving directions for implementation of systems in future. Nestle is being pushed to work on its information and knowledge management initiatives. For this, the company needs to integrate its information systems of its

Monday, August 26, 2019

Bonus Assignment #1 Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Bonus Assignment #1 - Case Study Example Gwaltney, chairman of the board of Gwaltney Mortar Company and Richard J Holland, board chairperson and the C.E.O. In addition to those we have Rodger R. Kapella, C.E.O and president of Patrick Cudahy, Robert W. executive V.P, Wendel H, president and board chairman of Murphy Farms, Inc., P. Edward Schenk, president and C.E.O of Gwaltney of Smithfield, Ltd., and Aaron D. the V.P., Treasurer and Secretary of the company. Joseph W. Luter is the C.E.O and the chair of the board. I think the chair/ C.E.O of the company is exception because he has 81% of the stock capital. The directors of the company receive a lot of cash compensation for participating in the board meeting. The Smithfield Company has a nomination committee that is in charge of all the nomination processes. All the stockholders nominate the company’s directors. I think that the appointment procedure is independent because the nomination committee is credible. The audit committee is made of Messrs. Faison and Murphy. Independent public accountants assist the committee in financial matters. By meeting nine times is enough for them to achieve their financial and other obligations. Joel Greenberg joined the Smithfield board in the year 1987. Richard J, Holland is a Board chair and the C.E.O of the Farmers Bank. In the fiscal year 1992, the executive committee attended no meeting. The Smithfield C.E.O had 81% of the stock capital, which is incomparable with that of other directors. Besides the C.E.O., we have other directors with insignificant shares hence decision-making was by the C.E.O. Over a number of years the governance structure has changed a lot and for the better of all. If the development continues, the company is expected to improve in terms of

ChECKIO CASE STUDY Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

ChECKIO - Case Study Example Over the previous 15 years, the field had experienced extraordinary volatility.†(Gill, 2011) In the case of CheckiO the company wants to expand and grow as a business how can this happen with limited talent in the market. Without new talent and qualified individuals to take the company to the next step success will not be obtain or reached.   CheckiO revenue is not being generated from subscriptions, product sales, or advertising, they are planning to generate revenue by matching users with firms seeking talented programmers. This is a perfect business model idea that could possible be very profitable for CheckiO. This type of business model has created some problems for the company. â€Å"There were a number of problems associated with the typical employment agency or website. First, of course, they were highly dependent upon the information listed on the candidate’s resume. Assuming that the credentials and skills listed were not an absolute lie—an all-too common situation—there remained a grey area, particularly when it came to programming proficiency. An individual with a single semester course in a particular language might judge him or herself proficient, while actually possessing only sufficient skills to inflict considerable damage on large and complex projects.†(Gill, 2011) The pr oblems faced by CheckiO have been experienced by many different line of business. As a company CheckiO must be responsible for confirming the credentials of all possible candidates prior to matching these candidates with a firm. Another source of revenue for CheckiO lies with their relationship with Academia. â€Å"Academic institutions could also become a source of potential revenue, although how this could be implemented would require some thought. As implied by the previously mentioned comment from the professor, the site could be used effectively in conjunction with a programming course. In fact, for some highly one at motivated students, it could well become a

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Menu Comparison Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Menu Comparison - Research Paper Example Digital displays menus provide digital displays of food and beverages products offered by the restaurant. Online menus utilize the website illustrations of products offered by the restaurants (Goodale 58). This menu comparison paper illustrates the similarities and differences of menus of two popular restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. These restaurants are Saison Restaurant and Maruya restaurant. The Maruya restaurant is operated by Chefs Hide Suyeoshi and Masaki Sasaki. The chefs are both sushi chef trained in Tokyo. The operating philosophy of the chefs entails simplicity presentation of the sushi. In order to get the desired simplicity level, the chefs follow meticulous fish preparation steps. The restaurant also offers the sushi bar. The bar is modeled according to Tokyo style requirements. Maruya’s sushi bar is the most unique aspect in the entire San Francisco Bay Area. The sushi bar is made using 7 inches of the handcrafted Cyprus wood. The wine selection at the Maruya restaurant is carefully selected. Majority of wine products at the Maruya restaurant are French and Italian wines. The wines are used to compliment the fish. For customers who love sake, there are several sake products to choose from; from dry sake to full body sake. Saison restaurant sources each and every item used to make its food and beverage products, from the surrounding areas. Saison illustrates the abundant resources found in the San Francisco bay Area. Every morning, a new menu is developed according to the finest offerings from the network of farms, fisheries and ranches. Saison offers unique American style dining approach. This gives it a competitive advantage in the restaurant sector of San Francisco Bay Area. Therefore, customers get a satisfactory experience due to the unique products and services offered by the restaurant. There are several equipment and materials that are used in preparation and storage of menus. Paper menu is the

Saturday, August 24, 2019

1500-1834 in England women an dependent children how their needs were Essay

1500-1834 in England women an dependent children how their needs were met including the Elizabethan Poor Laws and the Poor Law Reforms of 1834 - Essay Example Private benefactors would also leave wills to establish almshouses that provided shelter for women and dependent children. However, the growing numbers of the population that required such services soon overwhelmed individual philanthropy, hence the need of a series of Acts to address their needs. The Poor Relief Act 1601 (or the Elizabethan Poor Law) formalized previous practices of the distribution of poor relief in England and Wales. Previously, poor women and dependent children were catered for by the decentralized parish as an administrative unit, but the new law was more of a correction than punishing system for the targeted population (Day, 2013). However, the population was growing faster than the available resources could handle and it was argued that many women opted to for the pleasant option of claiming relief rather than working to earn. Further, the â€Å"iron law of wages† also argued that the aid provided under the Elizabethan Poor Law undermined workersâ€℠¢ wages as employers reduced their pay yet the workers who did not receive the aid needed protection. This led to the Poor Law Amendment of 1834 that replaced the 1601 law. The rationale of this law was that people who could not work were to be taken care of in almshouses while the poor but able-bodied were to work for pay in a House of Industry. Children dependent on the poor women would become

Friday, August 23, 2019

Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 6

Accounting - Essay Example However, a name change could potentially alert customers and suppliers to new ownership and increased vitality and momentum at the company. In particular, the well-known name (Pinessi) has its own marketing benefits. But are these benefits really worth change the name? This seems unlikely thus great benefits will still be realised by retaining MCS Mining Supplies name and launching a new but limited marketing campaign alerting the industry to the new joint venture between well-known players in domestic mining. MCS Mining Supplies leads the mining supplies industry in Australia. We produce drill products that suit a wide range of customers, from high volume, low cost orders to unique, custom drill apparatus. MCS is staffed by highly skilled designers, machinists and technicians who produce drill custom pieces order, ahead of deadline and bulk orders with consistency and reliability. We maintain manufacturing plants at two sites in Western Australia, Perth and Kalgoorlie, and in Mount Macarthur in Queensland. MCS supplies 40% of the domestic market while we are expanding into the rapidly developing East Asian market, building our brand which is recognized for quality, capacity and reliability. We aim to grow our construction industry market share both at home and abroad. Both our Korean chapter and new projects in China serve the Chinese market, which is the largest in the world. We are also expanding our product line and developing related products specifically for the oil industry. At MCS we pride ourselves on maintaining our core vision of service and stability while quickly leveraging new technologies and opportunities. China’s phenomenal economic growth has been among the worlds’ biggest success stories since the reforms of Deng Xiou Ping in the 1980’s. Just a few years earlier, China was in the throes of Mao’s cultural revolution, which decimated entire industries, halted

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Martin Luther King I Have a Dream Essay Example for Free

Martin Luther King I Have a Dream Essay 2. In Martin Luther King Jrs speech he uses a variety of vivid phrases that paint a picture for the audience. For example: crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination the negro is still languishing in the corners of society and finds himself an exile in his own land let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. These phrases attribute to gaining his audiences attention and emotion. 3. Primary points in his speech: African American individuals are being discriminated against in society, even though the emancipation proclamation granted all slaves citizenship. America will not be tranquil as long as there is segregation. MLK and his followers will only be a part of a peaceful protest. If America is to be a great nation freedom is imperative among all people. 4. It is clear that MLK is very passionate about what he says in his speech. While staying passionate, he understands that he will not win the war against segregation by being bitter and angry. My interpretation is that he is in a way confident that this issue will be resolved, and he knows that this ongoing issue will not be resolved immediately. 5. The audience in this case would be pretty much everybody in the United States at the time as well as us today. MLK probably didnt know that his speech would make such a big impact in our world today, but his speech was aimed toward American society as a whole. 6. Without hesitation I will say that MLK does succeed with his message. Our country today has minimal racial injustice and people can be judged by their character. I think that the reason he has succeeded is attributed to his attitude and poise that he demonstrates during the speech. His message  would not have been accepted if he was to lash out in anger and criticize the white man.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Understand the communication process Essay Example for Free

Understand the communication process Essay 1.Identify two key stages in the communication process. (2 marks) The two key stages in the communication process are the sender who sends the message and the recipient who receives the message. Eg: when I send message to my friend I become the sender and when she receives the message she becomes the receiver. 2.Identify two barriers to communication and briefly explain how these two barriers can be overcome.(4 marks) The two barriers to communication are insufficient preparation and noisy environment. To overcome preparation barriers we need to plan ahead and prepare before communicating. We need to figure out what we are planning to deliver and whether we need feedback or not .And also thinking about the recipient reaction and the communication media they might have so that you can choose the best media to communicate. And to overcome noisy environment barrier we need to hold the meeting in the meeting room if it is face-to-face communication, while talking on the phone we can go to a less noisy place and communicate. Understanding methods of communication 3.List two methods of communication that you could use with your team and state when it would be appropriate to use each of the methods you have listed (4 marks) The two methods of communication that I can use in our team are face-to-face communication and leaving messages on the notice board. We can use face-to-face communication on giving briefing about what we are planning to do today which we do every morning before opening the Nursery. This way we can communicate well with each other and can receive feedbacks so that everyone knows their role for the day .And we can use notice board to leave messages to the parents and staffs as well .We can give them notice on what days the children are having extra activities, about parent and staff meeting and so on. 4.Identify one written method of communicating with someone outside your team and identify one advantage and one disadvantage of using the method you have identified. (3 marks) The written method of communication that we can use with someone outside our team is through formal letter. The advantage of sending formal letter is we can have it as a proof later and we get time to think and plan what should be written in the letter. The disadvantage would be there would be chances it might get lost on the way so the recipient might not receive it and through this method we wont be able to receive feedback soon. Understanding the importance of maintaining accurate records of one-to-one communication 5.Briefly describe two methods of maintaining accurate records of one-to-one oral communication(2 marks) The two methods of maintaining accurate records of one-to-one oral communication are making notes in the diary while having the conversation so that in future we know what actually we discussed and the other one is conforming by email. By doing this we have a proof that we agreed on something through communication and it conforms the things we talked and agreed on our oral communication. The other method is e-mail, which conforms what has been said to someone to prevent any misunderstanding or forgetfulness or to let someone else know what has been said or agreed.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

The Price Elasticity Of Moisturizing Cream

The Price Elasticity Of Moisturizing Cream Considering the above table, we find that the quantity demanded has increased from P0 to P4. But we do not see a significant decrease in the price of the product. Does that mean that moisturizing cream is price inelastic? The answer to the question is NO. Moisturizing cream is definitely price elastic. But price is not the only factor that affects the demand of the cream. The other major factor that affects the quantity demanded is Advertising cost. Moisturizing cream can be considered as a non essential luxury durable good. According to Sethuram and Tellis ( in Farnham 2010,p 96), durable goods have lower price elasticity than non-durable goods. Usually consumers relate a higher price of durable good with a high quality. Hence they can pay higher price for a product. The non durable goods are more price elastic since consumers are not ready to pay more price for an item that will not last for a long time. According to the marketing study of Sethuraman and Tellis (in Farnham 2010 ; p 97) producers should concentrate their strategies on advertising policies for cosmetics, luxury goods and new products. Higher advertising cost will help in creation of brand value and increase the sales of the product. Higher advertising will project the superiority of the brand with respect to the other brands (if done correctly). As seen from the table, the demand curve drawn would have positive slope. A demand curve with positive slope is common in markets that exhibit Conspicuous Consumption and the products that are categorized as Veblen goods. In the game, the highest market shares were experienced by firms that had the highest advertising costs. Considering the performance of the best 2 firms on the basis of profit and market share for five periods of GRITAIN MOISTURIZING CREAM INDUSTRY: It can be clearly seen that the market share is influenced by the advertising cost. In P1, firm 38 had a market share of 32.8% though its price was much higher than firm 35. This shows that when the advertising is higher, the quantity demanded for products like moisturizing cream and other beauty products is higher, irrespective of the country. Let us analyse the elasticity of Cement by considering the PIELAND CEMENT INDUSTRY. Again considering the performance of the best 2 firms in the first five periods on the basis of market share and profit we have: On considering P2, it can be found out that the market share of firm 7 is much higher than its closest competitor firm 9 in spite of the fact that firm 9 spent heavily on advertising. This shows that consumers demand more units of cement if it is cheaper, making it highly price sensitive. It has a low price elasticity of demand. It was observed that making profit was highly difficult in the cement industry. A right mix of advertising and pricing strategy was required. A very low price would help in achieving a good market share but would make it very difficult to break even. According to Dr. Divina M. Edralin (2004) The cement industry is highly capital-intensive, as it needs substantial investments in fixed assets like plant and equipment. The industrys main product is characterized by low price elasticity of demand, limited shelf life, and expensive handling and transportation costs for imports. According to Dr Edralin, globalization has provided opportunities to transnational cement corporations to monopolize the worlds cement industry by managing the economies of scale because of their large capital investments and thus making it difficult for smaller domestic firms/factories producing cement. PART B: PRODUCTION AND COST ANALYSIS (SHORT RUN AND LONG RUN) SHORT RUN Considering the firm 28 in Pieland Moisturizing Cream Industry, the short run cost functions can be interpreted by looking at the total fixed and variable cost, average fixed and variable cost. The functioning of the firms of various industries from P0 to P4 can be considered as short run as the firms were not allowed to increase their capacity. Thus the capital input remains constant in those periods. Fixed Costs = Overhead costs + Interest on negative balance + advertising costs + depreciation (These costs are not related to the production). As advertising costs have increased because of managerial decisions, they can be categorized as discretionary-fixed costs. Depreciation is considered as a fixed cost because it is calculated on the basis of time and not on the basis of number of units that a machine produces. Variable costs = $2 per pot of moisturizing cream Depreciation is 5% per period Profit calculation was done as total revenue total costs If we combine the above two periods for firm 28, we have Total Revenue = 183200(period 1) + 252000(period 2) = $435200 Total Costs = 159800(period 1) + 191698(period 2) = $351498 Total Profit = $83702 Total sales = 46900 pots Profit per pot (combined P1 and P2)= $1.78 Profit for P1= 23400 (183200-159800) => Profit per pot = 23400/22900 = $1.02 Profit for P2=60302 (252000-191698) => Profit per pot = 60302/24000 = $2.51 As we can see, the profit has increased in the period 2. In real life situations where most of the durable products are quite price elastic, the managers have constraints of not increasing the product price (unlike the game). The costs of running the firm increases gradually as more competitors enter the industry and companies spend more on advertising costs. This costs the profits to reduce after some time and the firms are forced to innovate new products and strategies. This can be overcome by the economies of scale as well as by increasing the price per unit. In a luxury non-essential item such as moisturizing cream, it can be done by increasing the price per unit as moisturizing cream is more advertisement elastic and consumers are ready to pay a higher price. This can be seen in the prices of the best performing teams of Pieland moisturizing cream industry. Just 5 periods have been shown as the firms had the provision to increase their capacity from P5. If we consider the Pieland Cement Industry and analyse the pricing strategy of the best two firms we can interpret that to survive in the industry, it is very essential to keep the price low as cement is not very advertisement elastic and highly price elastic. This makes cement industry in any country highly vulnerable to competition. Hence the cement firms have to work in collusion to survive in the market. The cartelisation mode of functioning is very common in this industry. The case of collusion is not seen in the game as two out of four firms have made huge losses. LONG RUN According to Farnham (2010:167) moisturizing cream industry in the game has adopted the capital intensive method of production because there is a provision of buying large large quantities of capital investment. Considering the firms of Pieland Moisturizing Cream, a comparison can be done between capacities of two firms: one which did not increase the capacity and the other which increased the capacity. The cost per unit for each of the above periods for the firms would be: The cost per unit is calculated as (Overhead+Variable costs)/ Units produced for simplicity. The cost due to negative interest and the advertising cost have not been considered for the calculation. Above it can be seen that the cost per unit in P1 for firm 25 is more than firm 28. This is because the capacity utilization of firm 25 is lesser than firm 28. Firm 25 produced 12000 units in P1 whereas firm 28 produced 18000 units in P1. As it can be seen in Table B.7, the cost per unit for firm 28 has reduced consistently from P1 to P7. It is easier for firm 28 to breakeven quickly and sell the units at reduced prices and drive firm 25 out of competition. However, it was observed that when the capacity of the firm was increased from 45000 to 50000 units, the cost per unit came out to be the same $3.87. This can be correlated with the graph of Minimum Efficient Scale. According to Farnham(2010:178), the Long Run Average Cost curve becomes essentially flat with neither further economies nor diseconomies of scale. $4.11 $3.91 $3.87 Q=35000 units ( Minimum Efficient Scale ) The Long run average cost curve for firm 28 depicting Minimum Efficient Scale. Capacity Utilization Ratio (Production/Capacity) of Firm 28 is higher than Firm 25 in Pieland Moisturizing Cream Industry. The stocks not sold are also used to determine whether the firm needs to increase its capacity or not. Firm 28 has a higher capacity utilization ratio and has sold stock in most of its periods. So it gives it the incentive to expand its through investment in new structures and investment. Usually a ratio higher than 85% gives the incentive to increase the capacity according to Farnham (2010: p 352). For firm 28 the ratio is more than 95%. PART C: OLIGOPOLY AND GAME THEORY The game theory models can be linked to the PIELAND MOISTURIZING CREAM industry. Moisturizing cream is highly advertisement elastic. This makes all the firms in the industry incur high advertising costs in each period. Consider the advertising costs for some of the periods for various firms: As it can be seen, all the firms in the industry have constantly increased their advertising costs. It started with $30000 at P0 and ended up in millions. Majority of the firms ( 3 out of 5) suffered huge losses because of this. Advertising heavily in every period was highly essential to survive the competition and sell the product (referring table A.1 above). Thus in every period advertising heavily was the dominant strategy for each firm. If the firms had co-ordinated their strategies, the advertising costs would not have reached millions. They could have sold the cream pots at higher price with minimum advertising cost. All firms ended up worse off than if they had been able to co-ordinate their strategies. All firms became prisoners of their own strategy particularly firm 25, 26 and 27 considering the final profit figure in table C.2 (Farnham 2010: p258). Though firms 28 and 29 made profits their profits could have been higher if the firms in the industry had co-ordinated and followed a co-operative oligopoly model. But the fear of punishment prevented the firms to collude (punishment from anti-trust/anti-cartel in real world). If the advertising costs of Firm 28 are considered in particular, they have increased with every period. However, the advertising cost in P14 of Firm 28 was the lowest in the group. It was known well in advance that P14 would be the final period of the game. If Firm Id 28 had kept advertising costs similar to the other firms and for some reason it would have been unable to have good sales, my firm (firm 28) would have incurred huge loss. The lesser revenue would not have negated the effect of high advertising cost and my existing positive balance would have turned into negative. This made me reduce the advertising. The price was also brought down ( as seen in table C.3). The highest risk that Firm 28 faced during this period was : Overhead cost = (-$84213) Variable Cost = (-$63000) (production was brought down as lesser sales were anticipated) Advertising = (-$100000) Total = (-$247213) The positive interest was $2897. Thus the net risk becomes (-$244316). The balance in firm 28 was $289728.51 as on P13. Thus if there are no sales in P14, there is still a positive balance of around $45412.51 ($289728.51 $244316). I considered this strategy as the best for my firm regardless of the strategy that other firms choose. I consider this scenario as the Nash Equilibrium because from a set of strategies, I have chosen the best strategy considering that the other firms will also choose their respective best strategy (Farnham 2010: p 258). PART D: IMPACT OF MACROECONOMY The macroeconomic scenario can be evaluated on the basis of the total quantity demanded for a particular product. Let us consider the Pieland and Gritain Moisturizing cream industry: As it can be seen from the table, the quantity demanded for units in Pieland as well as Gritain has grown in each period (except in P14 for Pieland). However, the quantity demanded curve shows a steep slope in Pieland in comparison to Gritain. This shows that the growth rate is higher in developing countries than the developed ones. The quantity demanded has a lesser slope for periods between P1-P4 since the monetary policy was deflationary. The consumption of a non essential luxury item such as moisturizing cream is less. However, from P5 the consumption increased as the monetary policy was reflationary (interest rates were cut) causing people to spend more on cosmetics. Reflationary fiscal policy causes the reduction of either the direct or indirect taxes. This leads the people to consume more. The reflationary policy caused accelerated growth from period 10. But accelerated growth caused inflation. It can be inferred from the graph that the governments and banks increased the taxes and interest rates. This brought the consumption down which is apparent from P13-P14. The effects of fiscal and monetary policy were more easily visible on emerging/developing economy of Pieland than on Gritain since Pieland has a higher growth rate. A suitable monetary and fiscal policy will affect the markets of Pieland more than Gritain.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Independence: Building a New Nation 1947-1977 :: Essays Papers

Independence: Building a New Nation 1947-1977 In 1942, after the considerable pressure of Mahatma Gandhi's "Quit India" campaign and needing to maintain Indian support against Japanese troops advancing on India's Eastern border, Sir Stafford Cripps proposed a new constitution to the Indian National Congress, including the right of the new government to secede from the Commonwealth. The proposal was rejected but the arena of independence had been opened and, in 1946, after the defeat of the Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, local and provincial elections were held. The Muslim League, led by Muhammed Ali Jinnah, won most of the Muslim vote. Britain, most of whose military units had disappeared, agreed to Indian self-rule and, in the succeeding negotiations determined that the date of independence would be midnight of 14 August. Following intensive rioting, it was also agreed that the demands of the Muslim League should be met and an India-Pakistan partition conceded at the same time, defined by the Radcliffe Boundary award. Thus the new government's first difficulty was a divided Punjab and a divided Sikh community. Percival Spear estimates that five and a half million refugees travelled each way across the Punjab border, the chaos intensified by the continual Hindu-Muslim-Sikh massacres. By the time the 1950 constitution was implemented, Jawarharlal Nehru was in sole leadership of congress and he embarked upon a plan of industrialisation, intensified in 1956 by a series of five-year plans. Social reform accompanied this. In 1964, Nehru died and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, became prime minister. Having confirmed this in a 1970 election, she was faced with war between the East and West wings of Pakistan. Refugees poured into India from the former wing, causing a crisis in the economics of the country. Pakistan raided Indian airfields and war was declared on 6 December 1971.East Pakistan was captured on 18 December and the new state of Bangladesh was created. Mrs Gandhi's second crisis came in the shape of O.P.E.C quadrupling of oil prices, increasing over-population and massive inflation.

Is Formal Schooling Necessary for Children to Develop Cognitively :: essays papers

Is Formal Schooling Necessary for Children to Develop Cognitively The choices parents have today on how and where to educate their children has expanded compared to many years ago. There is your neighborhood school, a private school, a charter school or another option, which is growing in popularity--home schooling. Studies show many advantages to home schooling. One being that it is not necessary for a child to attend a formal schooling to develop cognitively. The popularity of home schooling under goes much criticism. Some educators say children that are home schooled are receiving gaps in their student learning because parents may not be qualified to provide well-rounded education. Studies show that home schooled children excel in there studies. Developing (cognitively) as good if not better then children in a formal schooling setting. In the 1950's, there were approximately 15,000 persons home schooling. These figures are a "guesstimate" as many people just kept their children at home without reporting to the state. Most people home schooled for religious reasons; some were prosecuted, even jailed. Today every state recognizes the right to school your own children. States set their own regulations and conditions, hence different laws for each state. Today because of better record keeping the estimate of home schoolers is nearing 2 million. The reasons given today for home schooling are varied from religious, political, philosophical, and dissatisfaction with public schools. Teaching and cognitive development outside of school does not have to resemble teaching and cognitive development in school. Cultural experience can be the basis for development at home and in one's community throughout one's compulsory school years. People can successfully do things differently than schools. For example, it has been widely publicized in America that adolescent girls' self-esteem fades in high school, but in a book about home schooled adolescent girls the opposite was found: If one has thought seriously about the structure and assumptions of compulsory schooling, it is hard to read the psychological literature that asks, "How can we get girls to identify with their own goals?" or even "How can we help girls to discover their real interests?" without thinking about the fact that school is in direct opposition to these concerns... ...People in school do not say to students, "What can we do for you?

Sunday, August 18, 2019

The Christian Bible, the Hebrew Scripture, The Muslim Koran Essay

The Christian Bible, the Hebrew Scripture, The Muslim Koran: Words are Not Important, Our Actions Are Matt 13:3 "He told them many things in parables. 13:10 "Why do you talk to them in parables?" That's the crucial question: Did God, should God, have intended direct and final communication with us? If so, Jesus certainly failed his mission. There is little evidence that Jesus' appearance cleared anything up or gave us God directly. Wittgenstein, who wanted our language to be clear, knows well enough that neither the Hebrew nor the Christian God's words could fall within his constructed linguistic net. They would always come from outside, from "the mystical." Thus, where our clarified language is concerned, "never the twain shall meet." Then, was Jesus really a proto-Wittgenstein? Did he use parables as an obscure vehicle for speech which alone might bridge the gap for us between our languages and the mystical always outside of it? The Christian Bible, the Hebrew Scripture, The Muslim Koran - or any religion's sacred texts for that matter, will remain controversial but still important avenues for divine communication. Somehow all religious faith lies locked up in non-direct discourse. How, then, can we claim to "hear the word of God or gods," as many claim to do? Well, in the first place, we know that we will never all hear exactly the same sacred speech, interpret it in unison, or respond to it in the same way. For all that our enlightened scholars of sacred texts may provide—and there probably are more misreadings of a text than can be recognized—the Modern-Enlightenment goal to clear up all variant interpretations of a text will fail, due to the impossibility of confining living gods to our attempted literal interp... ...nce. "I created through my word; I communicate spiritually through inspired words; but the creation of the universe and your world could only be accomplished by the release of power and love as directed by my word. However, now words can be just as deceptive as insightful, and so I judge much more by the acts of love—or of evil—released on others by your words of love or hate. At the end of time, you may also judge me, not so much by words, since there comes a time beyond which words are not decisive or effective. Judge me, then, not by the words heard from any religious seer or prophet, no matter if they have been crucial in guiding you in the path of righteousness, but by my powerful acts that will recast the world, bring evil under final control, and so grant new life to the deserving who have held the faith and tried to act as instructed." Thus saith the Lord

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Visual vs auditory

This research paper Is based on experiments that were conducted with the sole purpose of determine people's different preferences towards various learning and presentation techniques, which translates to content retention and ability to learn and remember a wide range of content that was taught in class.This experiment was done on two deferent environments; one experiment was done on people in a control environment (classroom) where students did not use visual aid in their study, while the other environment was not done in the classroom but rather In the open and involved the use of visual lad such as; projectors, graphs, chart among other visual equipments. Participants tried their best to write down each word they either saw or heard but some participants did better than others.Both Group A and Group B performed approximately the same. The result of this experiment, which was based on the ability of the respondents to retain or remember different words, was recorded in a frequent t able which will be analyzed in this research paper. Intro Researchers and policy makers alike allude to the fact that virtually all human beings re visual beings and not theoretical beings, and that they learn better as well as remember or recall different facts and information based on how these information was passed to them.For example, research has shown that when visual aids such as charts, graphs, projectors among other visual aids are used In teaching and presentation, the audiences are able to increase their word or content retention to a larger extent compared to when no visual aid are not used in presentation and teaching (Carol and Roger, 1978). This lab report will conduct an in-depth analysis on n experiment that was conducted by 18 participants, under control and non-control environment In relation to use of visual lad In making experiments.The research paper will thereafter make recommendations, conduct a step by step analysis on what participants did in the experimen t, predict the future of visual presentation, highlight the methodology that was used in conducting this study, outline the key limitations of the study and make a conclusion that is based on the findings of this study. Method Participants 18 participants that are enrolled In an Experimental Psychology class performed an core requirement. The participants consisted of 17 female and one male.The participants analyzed the use of visual and illustration learning, and how they influenced word remembrance. The study used simple random sampling in selecting the sample size that was used in the experiments. Setting This experiment took place in a small room that measured mom by mom, there were no windows in this room. The participants had 25-30 seating options; the chairs had a wooden desk and metal chairs. There was a blackboard in front of the room as well as the back of the room. There was also a rectangular table in the front of the room s well as the back of the room.There was also a rectangular table in the front of the classroom. Materials The material's that was needed for this experiment was random assignment sheet, desktop computer, projector and projector screen, ‘phone (auditory presentation & timer), pens or pencils, and sheets of paper w/ 25 spaces which were computer sized. Random assignment is a method in organizing experiments in which participants have equal odds of being given to a precise state of the experiment. The desktop computer was used to look up the words and sounds for the experiment.The erector and the projector screen was used to make the presentation more vivid so all the participants could see and hear the presentation. The phone was used as an auditory presentation and timer. Participants used pens or pencils to record the data. The sheet of paper with the 25 spaces was used by the participants to record data that was obtained from this experiment. Experimental Design The experiment design was between subject design. Participan ts were assigned by random assignment they were then placed in Group A or Group B.Group A was given the visual presentation whereas participants in Group B were given the auditory reservation. Participants were being observed by effects each presentation had on them. Procedure The experimenter randomly assigned participants got assigned either to Group A or to Group B by the number they received by the experimenter. Group B left room while Group A remained. The experimenter then provided the participants instructions and a sheet. Participants wrote down words they remembered then participants swapped sheets with a classmate. The experimenter reviewed correct words.After that participants wrote down the total number of words correct they received. Participants reported total number to experimenter. Then the Participants in Group A the ones that were presented with a visual presentation stepped outside and Group B the auditory participants entered the classroom. Group B followed the s ame steps as Group A, Group was presented the auditory presentation through the ‘phone. Results Figure 1 indicates the difference between both groups, Group A performed slightly one indicated that the participants in Group A performed better than those in Group B.Group A the ones that received the visual presentation which allowed the participants to answer more correct words whereas Group B had the auditory reservation which was hard to hear so it caused a change in results. The mean for Group A was 12. 4444 whereas the mean for Group B was 10. 6667. The t-test indicates that there is no significances. Discussion Predicting the future of visual aid or visual presentation in the teaching curriculum and presentation is a complex issue this is because of the drastic changes that have been seen in virtually all sectors and how they embrace this concept.For instance, in the academic and teaching profession, the use of visual aid or visual software's such as power point presentatio ns has been embraced through the use of Powering presentation both by the learners and course facilitators, power point presentation tends to be more visual rather than theoretical and hence would help in enhancing the ability of learners to improve their word retention ability, conversely, the use of Youth tutorials is another avenue that will be used more frequently by learners in the future to find real time information in real time.These tutorials provide a visual as well as audio step by step flow on different research topics to user which improves their word retention ability Carol and Roger, 1978). In addition, the future of visual presentation in conferencing and interviews looks very bright.This is made possible because of the use of voice over internet platforms such as Keep, where people can interact over a wide geographical location, resulting to exchange of information and ideas among people. Teleconferencing will further simplify as well as eliminate all the obstacles that existed in the traditional environment, because people are able to interact at low costs, based at their convenience, and moving from one location to another.Since the world has been reduced from the traditional market place, to one the modern market space, businessmen, and professionals such as teachers can be able to share information with each other, as well as benchmark with each other (Carol and Roger, 1978) Also Carol and Roger (1978) contend to the fact that the variability as well as reliability of research is one way or another enhanced by acknowledging the limitations of the study. Basically, this research paper is subject to a number of limitations in the environment, and demographic characteristics of different people.One, this research did not take into consideration the different geographic characteristics of people such as age which would affect people's content retention and remembrance ability. For instance, old people have a low remembrance ability compared to young people this is because old age affects some of the human cells that increase word retention and remembrance. Second, considering the fact that remembrance and content retention can be done through experiments, however, sensitive issues such as physiological or emotional issues that may affect the ability o recall words and remember them all together are difficult to establish.Third, time for carrying out the proposed research is limited, as the researcher will work within strict timeliness. Fourth, there is possibility of change of organizations or the individuals under consideration; this is because the research does not take into consideration the long-term effects of variables of study (Carol and Roger, 1978)). The study gave some suggestions for further research and experiments on the chosen researcher thus thought that research be done in other institutions and people of efferent age groups over a longer period of time in order to establish a better view of current resea rch.It was also suggested that a research should be conducted on different learning institutions to establish whether the use of visual aid and teaching software's such as Powering presentations have improved the word retention of people in these schools since these software's were introduced in their learning institutions (Carol and Roger, 1978). Based on the findings obtained in this research paper, it is evident that use of visual aid such as projectors, charts among other usual materials, enhance and improve the ability of people to retain, remember and recall different aspects of learning like remembrance of words during presentation.Although, some small disparities are reported on people whose memory does not depend solely on the use of visual aid because of demographical and physiological differences in different people based on age, emotions, health status of people among other things. Therefore, the use of visual aid in the teaching curriculum should be encouraged because o f the benefits it provides to students in improving heir ability to retain and remember different things that they are taught in class (Carol and Roger, 1978).Carol and Roger (1978) alludes to the fact that the use of visual presentation and aid has a lot of benefits, however, there is evidence to show that the use of visual aid is superior to some people compared to another group of people. For example, the use of visual aid in fifth grade, kindergarten, colleges and second grade level helped the students to improve their word retention ability, on the other side; the use of visual aid among older people produced mixed results. However, these disparities tend to disappear in the long run.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Explain what Plato meant by the Form of the Good Essay

Plato was an Ancient Greek philosopher whose writings and theories have greatly influenced the development of Western philosophy. Perhaps his most famous theory is that of the Forms – pure ideas or concepts of what a THING is. It was Plato’s belief that as well as this world, the material world – or the world of Appearances, as he called it – there exists another dimension, where the true Forms of everything in the material world reside; Reality, or the realm of the Forms. A Form, by Plato’s reckoning, is eternal, perfect and unchanging, unlike the images or shadows of Forms that we see in the world of Appearances. In the material world, nothing is perfect, everything changes and eventually everything dies. However, Plato was a dualist, so he believed that as well as our mortal body we also have an immortal soul which existed before and will exist after our time in this world of appearances. The place where our souls resided before we were born and will return to when we die is the realm of the Forms. This, according to Plato explains why we have an innate (though dim) recollection of what Forms are, and why we can recognize things like beauty and justice without being taught. Plato believed that the true philosopher was the one who knew about the Forms and was trying to appreciate and understand the Form of the Good. The Form of the Good is the highest in Plato’s hierarchy of Forms, the highest reality. It is the source and the unity of all the other Forms, and illuminates them so that if one has understanding of the Form of the Good, they have understanding of all the Forms. In Plato’s analogy of the Cave, the Good is represented by the Sun, which is the source of all the objects that the escaped prisoner finds above ground. The Sun makes all the things above ground visible, just like the Form of the Good makes all the other Forms understandable. The Analogy of the Sun by Plato tells us more about the Form of the Good. Plato believed that sight was the â€Å"most noble† of the five senses, because the other four require only two things, a sensor and a sensed (eg. an ear and a sound, a nose and a smell). Sight, however, requires three: an eye, a thing to be seen and the sun to provide light and make it possible for the eye to see it. Plato likens sight to reason; reason requires somebody to understand/to be enlightened, a thing to understand, and the Good to make it possible to understand it. The Form of the Good cannot ever be wholly present in the world of Appearances; however it can, like the other Forms, be reflected in a variety of ways. This, Plato argues, is the reason why we can call so many different things â€Å"good† – because they all correspond to the true reality of goodness at least in part. A cake can be called â€Å"good† if it satisfies someone’s hunger and pleases their taste buds; a chair can be called â€Å"good† if it is comfortable and doesn’t break when you sit on it; a person can be called â€Å"good† if they are kind to others, or if they volunteer in developing countries. But the Form of Good is all of these things, and more than all of these things, says Plato, and because all the Forms come from the Form of Good, every time Truth or Beauty or Justice is reflected in the world of Appearances, Good is being reflected too. Some people think that Plato’s theory of the Form of the Good doesn’t work, because, they argue, around the world and through the ages there are different concepts and understandings of what it means to be good or what a good thing is, so there cannot possibly be a perfect singular Good to which all these different actions and people agree with. These people are known as moral relativists and they do not believe there is absolute morality, rather one must decide what is right and wrong from the particular situation they are in. For example, in some cultures, it is never a good thing to take a life, even if that person has done terrible things including taking lives themselves. However, in other cultures, if the person has done terrible things society will agree that they should be executed for the good of the rest of society and to protect them from future crimes that the person could commit in the future. Plato was a moral absolutist, someone who does believe in a total, unchanging good. Moral absolutists would argue that just because not every culture recognizes the true goodness for what it is, that doesn’t make it any less good.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Spontaneous Consumer

The impacts on ’Spontaneous Consumer’ have resulted in the trend on Auckland Theatre Company. Impacts such as raising demands in the sales of tickets at the last minute. As inferred from the case study, â€Å"on average, 25-30 per cent of a season is booked in advance by subscribes. This may create loss of sales revenue from the particular group of ‘Spontaneous Consumers'. However, Auckland Theatre Company may extend their registration dates to cater to this particular group's needs. Extended registration dates such as having two sessions. First session registration dates to be launch earlier in the month, second session registration dates to be launch end of the month to cater to busy consumer who are not able to make it for the first launch dates. Other impacts such as disputes consumers may derive from ‘the spontaneous consumers. ‘ The inability to purchase a ticket to the play due last minute decision may result in poor customer experiences and thus poor customer retention. As inferred from the case study, â€Å"Part of the reason for the success of Auckland Theatre Company lies in the company's ability to recognize and address the safety, social, ego and self-actualization of the consumers. The inability to purchase a ticket to the play due last minute decision may also result in the lack of ego needs toward consumers. In addition to minimize the negative impacts on Auckland Theatre Company. Auckland Theatre Company can accommodate to this particular group of ‘spontaneous consumer' by using the power of marketing strategic to enhance attractive promotion such as ‘ early bird promotion' to attract spontaneous consumers to purchase their tickets in an earlier timings. This may help to increase the impulse of spontaneous consumers and influence their buying decision through marketing strategic and also help generate revenues for their company.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Examining Race-Related Aspects of James Cameron’s Avatar

Examining The Race-Related Aspects Of Avatar While evident that many who saw the film Avatar were more than satisfied with it visually, I found it interesting that I heard little about the plot or characters. After all, as a writer, these elements, to me, are what make or break the outcome. After going to see the critically acclaimed film, I was left with a blatant feeling of injustice regarding the film’s race issues. The problem I had with the film is the concept of a white male entering into a world of ethnic people (in this case, aliens), with the sole intent of using them for his own personal gain.Not only has this all too familiar story been used again and again, but also, the outcome is always the same. While I do not believe that the film endorses racism, I do believe that certain racial ideologies play a major role in the film. Whilst some may argue against that point, by simply breaking down the story, it is simple to make the connections. Regardless of if it was int entional or not, there are some obvious racial undertones in Avatar, and they should not be ignored no matter how impressive the graphics are.In the specific clip I have chosen to analyze, Jake, the human who joins the Na’vi to fight against his own kind, has returned to Pandora after being labeled a traitor and losing the trust of the Na’vi. To gain it back, he immediately tames a Toruk, a red dragon who the natives are very fearful of. The dragon had never been tamed by anyone from the Na’vi clan. The ability and heroism just spewing from Jake makes it seem as though he is the only one with the answers that the Na’vi need to save Pandora. The scene transitions to the clan praying to the Hometree, despite their knowledge of the tree having never â€Å"taken sides†.In the midst of all of this, Jake comes flying down on the red dragon, the sun beaming behind him, illuminating his path. Then comes the very demeaning imagery of Jake dismounting the dr agon in front of the Na’vi, while they practically bow to and worship him as if to say, â€Å"You are superior to us, after all! † Jake certainly assumes as much, because he soon starts yelling about how this is â€Å"our† land, and they need to do what he says to save it. While watching the film, I first began drawing a lot of parallels to class discussions of how Columbus and the Spaniards conquered America. In Avatar, human corporation is mining a valuable mineral on Pandora, an Earth-like moon that is inhabited by the Na’vi, an â€Å"alien† race. In the late 1400’s, despite also having discovered an entire race of people, the Spanish found gold in America and began mining.Once it became difficult for them, they enforced slavery upon the natives of the land, and mercilessly killed them upon resistance. In the article Sex And Conquest: Domination And Desire On Ethnosexual Frontiers, Joane Nagel reminds us of the â€Å"relative powerlessne ss of many native women, and reports that sexual exchanges were often coerced, involving rape, forced prostitution, and slavery. In Avatar, the human scientists uncover that underneath Hometree, the Na’vi clan’s dwelling, lies the richest deposits of the mineral that they value, and by the end of the film, are ready to destroy it and its’ inhabitants. This, to me, is an example of racism in how the humans were willing to treat the Na’vi (kill them) in order to acquire more â€Å"gold†. While elements are different, Columbus’ conquest of America strays not so far from the plot that drives Avatar: a â€Å"civilized† race relentlessly compromises what they deem to be an â€Å"uncivilized† race.It can even relate to how American factories are built in foreign countries to avoid specific labor laws. As Americans, how can we justify that the people working in foreign countries assembling our iPhones are equal to us? If so, wouldnâ₠¬â„¢t we demand that they deserve equal pay? The ideology of the self-righteous, superior race and their ultimate disregard for all others is, sadly, an overused theme present in this film and our audiences should be seeing less of it.Despite all â€Å"humans† being expelled from Pandora in the end, a white male, in this case, Jake, Avatar’s protagonist, gets to be the boss in the end. In exchange, he gives up his body, his culture, and every â€Å"human† aspect about him. The one thing he fails to let go of is his superiority. With the film ending like this, and not allowing one of the original Na’vi to ultimately prevail, a subconscious message is being delivered. Just like in Dances With Wolves, a white male goes native and soon ends up as the great leader.In just three months of immersion in their culture, Jake learns enough about the Na'vi (their folkways, their animal-taming skills, and even the secret to their ultimate test of warrior prowess, some thing no other Na'vi has mastered in five generations) to become their leader in their struggle against genocide by his own former allies. Hometree even answers a prayer of Jake’s, and she had never answered prayers of the natives, her own people, even once before then. An interesting contrast is set up to disguise the fact that Jake’s character is representative of racism.On one side, there are the power-hungry, militaristic humans who show no moral restraint against the Na’vi. Their opposition is Jake and the rest of the humans who want peace with the natives. While the first group is presented as obviously racist, most would draw the conclusion that the second group, the protagonists, must not be. While the characters themselves are not racist, the age-old â€Å"white Messiah† fable is. This story has played out in American race politics several times. Progressive, liberal white males were responsible for Indian â€Å"removal† and â€Å"schooli ng† replacing Indian genocide, and segregation replacing slavery.Each time, it seems that supporters of progressive policies just have to say, â€Å"Look, I’m progressive. I’m not like those old-fashioned racists,† and then they simply cannot be deemed as racist. This is the trend in our society that the outcome of Avatar is glorifying. Forms of racial supremacy have been changed over time, but have never been ended altogether. To be fair to the â€Å"humans† of Avatar, the Na'vi and their entire planet ended up regarding the humans as a disease with which there can be no peaceful existence.Their solution is, simply, the expulsion of humanity from the planet, or in Jake's case, culture transfusion. Forced assimilation with the native culture in Avatar is almost too familiar to how their still exists an ideology in America that â€Å"foreign† residents must assimilate to the â€Å"white† culture. Forgotten is that every white citizen of America is descendant of some foreign culture. America should be a melting pot for all cultures, and if James Cameron, the director, producer and writer of Avatar, had truly agreed, perhaps the outcome of the film would be different.So did James Cameron write and direct this because he is a racist white male? No. But does James Cameron even acknowledge that his film carries racist undertones? No. The casting for the film had his seal of approval, so why were actors of color used to portray the Na’vi people? The Na'vi may be tall, blue aliens, but they seem to resemble the noble savages in older Hollywood movies: they're played by actors of color, they live a primitive lifestyle in harmony with nature, they sport tattoos and dreadlocks and exotic jewelry, and they have courage and athleticism but not necessarily rationality or ambition.Most importantly, why does white Australian Sam Worthington star as the cultural infiltrator? Cameron has more than once stated that Avatar is meant to encourage people to respect each other’s cultures and differences, and while that may be the overt meaning, he fails to touch on the issue of racial superiority. Again, Cameron did not sit down and consciously make a decision to write a racist film. However, he did indirectly use the film to express his white liberal understanding of anti-racism. Really, his views are just a kindler, gentler, more patronizing racism.If not, perhaps the Na’vi would have saved Jake instead of being incapable of saving themselves. Avatar doesn’t ask the moral question of â€Å"Should the natives be conquered? † It asks, â€Å"How should the natives be conquered? † Had the film been written and directed by a person of color instead, there may have been an opportunity to avoid this. Columbia College professor Kristin Pichaske’s excerpt, Historical And Political Framework: Race, Colonialism And African Cinema discusses how most filmmakers are Western whi te males who control the portrayal of Africans, or minorities, in cinema.In addition to holding the purse strings, Western interests controlled the production infrastructure. As recently as 1993, Diawara would write that Africa lacks film-processing laboratories, sound-dubbing and synchronizing studios, and editing facilities, a fact which significantly limits an African director’s ability to complete a film on his own terms, in his own country and within a reasonable span of time (1993: vii).While this is not universally true at this point (the facilities he describes now being available in South Africa and also rendered somewhat obsolete by the development of high-definition video), it is certainly true that most of Africa suffers from a dearth of film infrastructure and that this creates yet another form of dependence on the West. Having to rely on the West for the skills that they cannot afford, the absence of African directors involved in the depiction of their culture i s blatantly apparent.Perhaps James Cameron was not the right person to direct Avatar, as he cannot truly understand the racial ideology that his film is perpetuating. However, if an African director were given the opportunity, a white Western moneylender who demands that he cater the story to white audiences will undoubtedly be funding him. Present day racist ideologies are best understood when comparing them to Magic Eye images: bizarre images concealing a seemingly hidden, 3-D picture.While some people see the 3-D image right away, others have to look for a while before they can find it. Some people never do find it. However, once you know that the 3-D image is there, you end up wondering how you didn’t see it in the first place. The racism depicted in this film is a lot like a Magic Eye image. It is a fantasy story about race told from a white man’s perspective, for white people. I believe this to be true after simply looking at the history of Cameron’s films : Titanic, Aliens, and The Terminator all contained predominantly white casts.Had he intended his films to be seen by a racially diverse audience, I’m sure he would have had enough common sense to diversify his cast of characters. Avatar is also at the end of a very long history of similar films. Avatar’s storyline has been compared to that of Dances With Wolves and Pocahontas. In all three films, white male characters realize they are unhappy with the treatment of the â€Å"others,† but go beyond assimilating and skip to leading the people who they so recently oppressed.Since there have been so many films spanning all genres telling the same story, when will the white directors begin to use the issue of race in a different light? African-American scholar Donald Bogle, who literally wrote the book on how black people have been portrayed throughout Hollywood history (Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies ;amp; Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films) says that while not overtly racist, it is â€Å"a movie that hasn't yet freed itself of old Hollywood traditions, old formulas. If I were to have written a film like Avatar, I would have made the Na’vi completely capable of saving themselves by reversing the power roles of Jake with the clan. It would mean straying from an age-old format, but also, challenging the racial insecurities of the white audience that the film was intended for. Would the film be as popular if the natives of Pandora did not possess traditional, savage-like qualities? The juxtaposition of the film Avatar with historical events such as Columbus onquering America, and also, overused tales of the white protagonist bringing a race of â€Å"savages† to victory predates most steps towards civil rights equality. Filmmakers of minority races are far and few between, and are often funded by white Westerners when directing. With every film in Hollywood being produced by the â€Å"white man†, will our society ever see things from the point of view of a minority race? If no, then Hollywood’s inability to realize that the decision to continue producing the same point of view is interfering with our society’s ability to think outside of racial boundaries. | | | | | |