The One Scene That Sealed Titanics Fate Essay Example for Free

The One Scene That Sealed Titanics Fate Essay Titanic is thought to be one of the most iconic films to ever hit theaters. According to the film industry, the film by James Cameron falls into the realm of an epic romance/disaster genre. Released in 1997, Titanic was an international box office sensation, due to the director providing equal importance to history, fiction, and romance. The film is set in April of 1912, where Jack Dawson played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Rose DeWitt Bukater played by Gloria Stuart and Kate Winslet share a love story that cannot be broken. The movie also gives a historical overview of what happened that dreadful night. This critical analysis of the film Titanic provides an overview that the innovative mode of storytelling (flash back and other techniques) can portray both a love story and the historical background while using a dissolve editing method, in which â€Å"the end of one shot gradually merges into the beginning of the next. The effect is produced by superimposing a fade-out onto a fade-in of equal length of imposing one scene over another† (Petrie and Boggs 160). This editing effect was used at the beginning of the movie, in which at 21:03, the wreckage of the Titanic is seamlessly and effortlessly transformed into the beautiful masterpiece of a ship that it once was. This effect is also used when Jack and Rose are standing together â€Å"flying† on the edge of the Titanic, later to be transformed back into the ship wreck. This scene brings the audience back into the present and shocks them back into the harsh reality that the scene was merely a memory from Rose, and no longer the reality (Titanic1997). The editing in Titanic is truly remarkable, bringing the audience from the future into the past, shocking the audience by showing both first-class and lower-class struggles, and showing not only the love story between Rose and Jack, but the life and death of the Titanic and the two thousand people aboard. Through the use of other film techniques such as editing and camera work, set design, imagery and color, James Cameron created one of the most influential and moving works of art the film world has seen. The editing style and technique brings new life to the cinematography world, and â€Å"rejects the norms of modern Hollywood style† (Butka). In all film elements, visual effects, cinematography, color palette, editing, sound design, and music, contributes to the film as a whole. Cameron, â€Å"who has been pushing the boundaries of the Hollywood classical cinema since The Terminator, finally reached a career high point with Titanic’s synthesis of compelling storytelli ng and dexterous style and technique† (Butka) Visual effects, color, imagery, and set design play an important role in all forms of movie and television. These elements are the core foundation of the overall feeling that the audience experiences when watching a particular film. One particular element of film that impacts the story line is the setting of the scenery. Setting may â€Å"often seem unobtrusive or be taken for granted, it is an essential ingredient in any story and makes an important contribution to the theme of total effect of the film† (Petrie and Boggs 82). The setting of a film should be carefully analyzed because of the effects it has on the interrelationships of the characters, plot, and overall general feeling that the movie brings out in its audience. In Titanic, the setting plays a major role in the fact that the first class citizens were held to a higher standard that the lower class citizens. This set the mood for the rest of the film and sets up the segregation that separates Jack and Rose. The col ors also provide a strict divide between the upper and lower classes aboard the Titanic. The royalty wore brighter, more vibrant colors, as well as more flashy materials, whereas the lower class wore much more torn clothing, all of which were dark and dirty colors. These elements ultimately set the tone for the rest of the movie, and would be a constant struggle for Rose and Jack to keep their bond strong. James Cameron put an emphasis on the difference between these classes in order to give the audience the sense of segregation. James Cameron is a critically acclaimed film director known for some of the biggest box-office hits of all time. A science-fiction fan as a child, Cameron â€Å"went on to produce and direct films including The Terminator, Aliens and Avatar. He has received numerous Academy Awards and nominations for his often large-scale, expensive productions† (Biography Editors). His most noted work, 1997\s Titanic, became the first film â€Å"to earn more than $1 billion and landed 14 Academy Award nominations. Cameron took home three Oscars himself for the project: Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Picture† (Biography Editors). To re-create one of the greatest disasters at sea in history, â€Å"James Cameron had a special studio built in Mexico, which featured a 17-million-gallon water tank and the 775-foot replica of the Titanic,† this proved to help the film be a successful blockbuster hit (Biography Editors). James Cameron’s techniques used in Titanic becam e immensely popular as the film became popular. Cameron’s own â€Å"documentary urge was so intense, that he created new diving and photographic equipment – at an extraordinary expense for his studio – to achieve textural authenticity by recording and presenting the eighty-five-year-old wreck of his subject. The film, then, like so many other fictional films, says the ultimate compliment to the documentary form: Cameron uses the real thing to inform his reel thing† (Petrie and Boggs 468). The main purpose behind editing a film is to keep the film in continuous motion, regardless if the time periods switch rapidly, much like in Titanic, where Rose goes from being a seventeen year old girl, to a one-hundred year old woman explaining the history of the Titanic as she remembers it. The editing techniques that were used were ultimately used to shock the audience through â€Å"sudden, jarring cuts between the third- and first-class, [which] build the antithesis between the classes and accentuate the conflicts. Some of the examples include: the cut between the steer get berthing space when Jack and Fabrizio (Danny Nucci) first arrive on the ship and Cal’s private promenade deck; the cut between Rose and Jack dancing in the steerage party scene and the first-class smoking lounge (which is such an abrupt change of atmosphere and energy that it comes as quite a cinematic shock to the viewers); the cut between the flooding in the steerage with rats on the run and the pro priety of a first-class corridor that does not even hint at the impending tragedy† (Butka). Throughout the movie, the film consists of scenes mainly from the Jack and Rose era, however in the beginning of the film, the director made use of flashback technique to unearth the romantic story of the lovers in the film. To be specific, the plot moves from present condition (say, 1996) to past (say, 1912) and to present (1996). In the opening scene, the director portrays the effort of Brock Lovett (say, a treasure hunter) to unearth the secret behind a necklace sunk with RMS Titanic in 1912. Gradually, the director portrays the love affair between Rose and Jack. In the end, Rose drops the necklace into the Ocean and returns. The film ends with a fictional reunion between the lovers. Dissolves are very important to the film, â€Å"particularly those between different time periods, and even fades are used occasionally to mark important points in the film (e.g., when Rose finishes her story)’ (Butka) Cameron also uses â€Å"establishing shots regularly, thus preserving a locale orientation for the viewers: not only do we always know exactly where we are, but these establishing shots also help us grasp the ship’s enormous dimensions† (Butka). Even in the period section of the film, â€Å"there is a separation between two distinct photographic styles: â€Å"In the first part, the camerawork is rather polite, graceful and even eloquent. [Carpenter] was trying to reinforce the opulence and beauty of the time with lighting,† (Butka). This eloquent style gives a feeling of tranquility and perfection to the first class shipmates, providing deep segregation to the boat, thus bringing about the conflict of Jack and Rose’s love. This camera and editing style let the audience feel the same way that the characters were feeling, eloquent and fashionable. When looking at the color of the first class section of the boat, â€Å"there is also use of amber, a color Ca meron has not used before; in addition, the first-class sections of the ship are even more colorful, which is undeniably helped by the exquisite costuming† (Butka). In the second part of the film, the camera work and editing becomes much more violent and choppy, showing the struggle the passengers endured as the ship hit the iceberg and ultimately began to sink. The camerawork â€Å"quickly loses that polite edge and segues into this very kinetic, sometimes violent movement. It’s jarring and bumpy, which suggests the panic of the situation. This is a point that Cameron, Carpenter, and Muro worked on together; later in the film, initial smooth and refined camera movements transform into â€Å"less elegant and more nervous. There’s a lot more handheld work and Steadicam, and its rough† (Butka). The overall production of the Titanic came at quite a cost but was a tremendous success, to say the least. Titanic’s production was a â€Å"famously difficult and complex one, a shoot on an almost unprecedented scale which featured tough technical challenges and which was overseen by a director who knew exactly what he wanted and who demanded the utmost from everyone until he got it, but it was a tough journey to get there† (Braund). Production of the film began in 1995, when â€Å"Cameron shot footage of the real wreck of the RMS Titanic. He envisioned the love story as a means to engage the audience with the real-life tragedy. A shooting took place on board the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh which aided Cameron in filming the real wreck for the modern scenes, and a reconstruction of the ship was built at Playas de Rosarito, Baja California. Cameron also used scale models and computer-generated imagery to recreate the sinking. At the time†, the picture became the m ost expensive film ever made, costing approximately US$200 million with funding from Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox (Butka). â€Å"Principal photography for Titanic began in July 1996 at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. In September 1996, the production moved to the newly built Fox Baja Studios in Rosarito, Mexico, where a full-scale RMS Titanic had been constructed (Marsh). Special effects played an important role in how the movie filmed. Many critics were skeptical about how Cameron would portray such a disastrous scene, including the deaths of all of the people aboard the ship. Cameron then went on to say that \the people were all computer graphics. The way we did it was, we had people act out all of those individual behaviors in what we call a \motion capture environment.\ So, a steward pouring tea for a lady seated on a deck chair that was all acted out and then that motion file was used to drive and animate those figures. The end result is like you said: We pull back down the full length of Titanic, and you see 350 people all over the decks, doing all those different things. The same technique was used for the sinking when you see hundreds of people on the ship jumping off or rolling down the decks\ (Ebert). Cameron also did not want to cut corners in regards to the props and sets used. In addition to the life-size model of the Titanic, Cameron also had â€Å"construction crews build two huge water tanks. One was 90 foot deep and over 800 foot wide in which the model could slowly sink into 17 million gallons of water fed directly from the Pacific Ocean. The second tank was 30 foot deep. It contained 5 million gallons of water and housed the elegant first class dining saloon and the three story Grand Staircase† (Titanic and Co). One of the most impressive interior sets was the recreation of the famed Grand Staircase the most famous room Titanic contained. Additionally, the Staircase, â€Å"as mentioned by one of the film crew personnel, ended up acting almost as a character in the film, due to it being the location of several pivotal scenes, including the ending scene. Interestingly, the staircase presented in the film is slightly larger than the one on the real ship. The reason for this was because people in 1912 were shorter than they are today. As a result, the staircase was scaled up to make the actors look smaller† (IMDB). For the exterior shots of the ship sinking, the almost â€Å"full-scale ship was placed in a 3 foot deep, 17 million gallon tank and tilted using a crane. For the interior shots of the sinking ship, the sets were enclosed in a 5 million gallon tank and again tilted in the water using a crane. This was the method used for the Grand Staircase. However, to make the destruction of the Grand Staircase more dramatic, Cameron and his team dropped 90,000 gallons of water onto it. Because the Staircase would be destroyed, there would be only one attempt to get it right. Unexpectedly, the massive volume of water ripped the Staircase from its steel-reinforced foundations, collapsing certain sections of it† (IMDB). This destruction of the stair case was relatively dramatic and saddening to the characters and audience because it had become such a vital work of art in the movie. These stairs were much more than just stairs; they were the place in which Jack fell in love with Rose, the place Rose and Jack embraced in their final kiss in the final scene; a true masterpiece that had become one of the characters, gone in an instant. Roger Ebert became â€Å"film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967. He is the only film critic with a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame and was named honorary life member of the Directors\ Guild of America. He won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Screenwriters\ Guild, and honorary degrees from the American Film Institute and the University of Colorado at Boulder† (Ebert). He then went on to interview James Cameron on his success and struggles with the making of the Titanic. The footage of the sunken ship was mainly real footage of the actual sunken Titanic. James Cameron believed that in order for the movie to have a more authentic feel, that he should take actual film himself with his own camera. Cameron wasn\t content to buy footage from documentaries about the search for the Titanic; he shot the film\s undersea footage himself, new for this film: \It\s all our own. I made the dives and operated the camera and we lit it and everything† (Ebert) Cameron then went on to explain the struggles that appeared when creating the interior of the Titanic. â€Å"It\s consistent with what Titanic looks like† Cameron mentioned. â€Å"We couldn\t explore the whole interior of the ship. We could only get a glimpse into some areas. We went down some corridors to the D-deck level and saw a lot of the remaining hand-carved woodwork, the wall-paneling, and the beautiful ornate carved doors. A lot of it is still there. It\s very, very cold, which helps preserve things. There are marine organisms that will eat wood, but in certain areas the wood was covered with white-leaded paint that protected Titanic† (Ebert). As morbid as it sounds, it was important to display the fear and anguish on the faces of the people trapped on and inside the sinking vessel. Even though this was a Romeo and Juliet type of love story, the overwhelming message was to portray the absolute disaster the Titanic was and to show the terror on the faces of those involved. Cameron goes on to say that many died in terror, you know, when you look at the numbers, if you were a third class male on Titanic you stood a 1-in-10 chance of survival. If you were a first class female, it was virtually a 100 percent survival rate. It broke down along lines of gender and class. If you were a first-class male, you stood about a 50-50 chance of survival. And the crew took it hardest.\ Of the 1,500 who died, 600 or 700 of them were crew members. The people who stayed in the dynamo room and the engine room, to keep the lights on so that the evacuation would not become panicked who stayed till the end and missed their opportunity to leave t he ship that\s something you\d see less of today† (Ebert). This just goes to show that Cameron felt very passionate about the way he needed to portray this type of despair in his movie, and in order to do that he needed have the film crew work extremely hard in order to portray that same anguish. \That was our most dangerous work,\ Cameron said. \The stunt team worked for weeks in advance, videotaping each one of those stunts and rehearsing it and showing me the tapes. It was all intensely pre-planned and the set was made about 50 percent out of rubber at that point, all padded up. But there\s always an X-factor. We had 6,000 stunt person days on this film the equivalent of one man doing stunts seven days a week for 16 years. But it was all happening at once. We did have a guy break his leg, which I hated. I don\t think anybody should get hurt for a film. So I decided to do more of it with computer graphics† (Ebert). This made it more apparent that special effects had to be made more in order to keep the cast and crew safe. Therefore, the scene in which the Titanic is actually sinking was almost entirely CGI when the camera was sweeping over the boat in a birds eye view. Cameron goes on to talk about the importance of human nature and how the story of Titanic is iconic not because of the class struggles, but once tragedy strikes, we are all on the same level fighting for survival. Cameron goes on to state that the â€Å"great lesson of Titanic for us, going into the 21st century,\ he said, \ is that the inconceivable can happen. Those people lived in a time of certainty; they felt they had mastered everything mastered nature and mastered themselves. But they had mastered neither. A thousand years from now Titanic will still be one of the great stories. Certainly, there have been greater human tragedies during this century, but there\s something poetically perfect about Titanic, because of the laying low of the wealthy and the beautiful people who thought life would be infinite and perfect for them.\ What would you have done? Anyone seeing this movie, I said, will have to ask them this question: Would I have fought to get on a lifeboat? Would I have pushed a woman or a child out of the way? Or would I have sat down in the lounge and called for a brandy, like Guggenheim, and faced the inevitable with grace† (Ebert)? In conclusion, Titanic taught the general public that the human race is not invincible and that nature does not care whether you are rich or poor, perfect or imperfect, or nothing at all. Through the masterful works of camera angles, visual imagery, editing, and specific scenery, director and writer James Cameron was able to recreate the tragedy of the unsinkable Titanic through the camera lens. Cameron was able to display the struggles of love, life, death, and historical understanding through the eyes of Jack and Rose, and through the magic of filmmaking, teach an incredible lesson that will live on through eternity.

Diversification of Agriculture Essay Example for Free

Diversification of Agriculture Essay Diversification in this case (agricultural diversification) involves the realocation of a, or some of a farms resources, to a new product or products. The prime resource of that time being sugar and the new products being the wide variety of crops that were produced and re-introduced by peasants. Peasants are a class of people of a lower status, who depends on agricultural labour for subsistence. The peasant life could be placed and termed in different categories. According to Mintz 1961, a peasant style of life was worked out by the people while they were still enslaved, these people were refered to as proto-peasants. he also makes mension of runaway pesantries or marrons, whome he described as, those who formed communities outside colonial authority, build on subsistance farming in mountainous or interior forest regions. This research will higlight how the peasants produced a wide variety of crops and the reintroduction of old ones. The purpose of this research is to show that the diversification of the caribbean economy was beecause of peasant initiative. had it not been for their efforts, the old sugar monopoly would have prevailed in the post emacipation period sustaining a system of bankruptcy and decay. Woodville K Marshall wrote, our pesantry starts in 1838 an comprises of ex-slaves who started small farms on the peripheries of plantation wherever they could find land on abandon plantations and in the mountainous unknowns of various teritories. the first aim of the ex-slaves was to move away from the forced and unpaid labour. Many others preffered to stay in their own homes amongs friends and relatives with expectations of earning enough cash to purchase certain commodoties that they were unable to gain as slaves. The feeling of complete freedom, of the plantation was only recodnise by free people if they could aquire there own lands. the simplest methods of getting propperty was to buy unoccupied land, either from land belonging to plantations which was not farmed by owner and crown lands. these crown lands was most popular in Trinidad, British Guyana and the interior of Jamaica. Land ownership also came about by squatting on unused land in the the remote interious of the large colonies. People who purchase property outright were more fortunate than squatters, they gainned written proof of ownership and the land they bought was already cleared and close to markets. however outright purchase was the exception, not the rule. The exslaves were aslo able to aquire land in other intances through missionary help. These include popular missionaries such as James Phillips and William Nibb. In 1835 Phillips, bought 10 hectares in the mountains behind Jamaica Spanishtown, subdivided the land into small lots for sale on easy term to his congregation. the new community named sligoville was the only settlement during apprenticeship. In july 1838 William Nibb shared the belief that planters would try to force extra work from their free labour by dramatically increasing rent on estate fig. 1 Newcastle, free village, in the Jamaica blue mountains. homes. William took up the mantel to help his congregation, he told them about a loan of ten thousand pounds that was granted to him by a friend from england. Knibb then said, that sum should be apropriated to the purchase of land on which you may live if your present employer force you to quit the properties on which you now live. Williams predictions came through, the planters acted as he had foreseen and by 1839 he was constructing several Free Villages for labourers who did not want to risk increases in rent on the plantations. The missionary society was quite abdoman in the development of the pesantry. Upon discusing the success of the pesantry one must give an account for the stages of development which includes the period of establishment (1839 1850-60). This was highlighted by the rapid land ownership, and the incresing number of peasants. observers of the caribbean stated, the great and universal object of the ex-slave was the aquisition of land, however limited in extent. Larger population, small size and a long established sugar industry left few oppertunities for land aqusition for peasants of island territories such as Barbados, St. Kitts and Antigua. Ex-slaves from these colonies had to think emigration. However, countries like Jamaica and the Windward Islands the sugar industry left underdeveloped montainous interiors . In Trinidad and Tobago and British Guyana a small population and young industry created many oppertunities for land aquisition. Efforts of the exslaves were so successful in the named countries that emmancipation officials were reporting an almost daily increases in number of free holders. Another stage of development is the period of consilidation in which the peasantry continues its growth in numbers and most important, a marked shift by the peasants to export crop production. For example in Jamaica (only teritory with complete figures for small holdings) the number of holding between 5 and 49 acres increased from 13 189 in 1880 to 24 226 in 1902 to 31 038 in 1930. However the most important phase of the development is what Eisner calls a new pesantry. Eisner national income estimate for Jamacia for 1850 and 1890 reveal a shift from maily provison production to mixed provisions that could be exported by peasants. a very good example of income was the value of the export crops (sugar, coffee, rum, pimento, ginger) in 1850 its estimated by Eisner at 1 089 300 pounds, of which small settlement contributed 133 500 pounds or just over 10%. The variety of products continued to grow, and shares rising until the third period (1900 and beyond). At this stage the pesantry did not expand and evidence shows that it might have been contracting. Table 2 below shows an example of evidence of a decrease in peasant holdings in Jamaica. Initially, before the growth of the peasantry, ex-slaves decided to set up themselves as peasants because although slavery had ended the principle of forced labour, had only changed to contolled labour upon those who remain on the plantations. Many who stayed in hopes of becoming wage owners, plans were shattered within a few years becasue of different reasons. Amongs these different reasons the system of tenancy which compelled the slaves to labour steadily and continuosly on the estates in return for secure residence in the house and ground which he had occupied as a slave, insecurely of tenure, as well as relatively low wages and increases in rent reinforced many ex-slaves determination to seek new and better oppertunities away from the estates accross the caribbean. a small population of the slaves were skilled which meant those who couldnt be masons, carpenters, barrel makers, wheel wrights and cart builders had to turn to the best known alternative, the soil. Only this time there hard labour would of been for their survival and not to fill their masters stock. The peasantry afforded them with the oppertunity to become wage earners. On the basis in which the pesantry was running, it was basically characterise, the pure plantation economy and society. Although the peasants were producing a great quantity and variety of subsistence food and livestock, they strove to expand their boundaries by introducing new crops and or re-introducing old ones. Bananas, coffee, citrus, coconuts, cocoa, spices (ginger and pimento), and log wood in Jamaica; Cocoa, arrowroot, spices, bananas and log wood in Windwards, were the most popular crops introduced and or re-introduced for exports. the Leewards grew arowroot as a staple export crop. It has been recorded that St. Vincent alone sold 613 380 kilograms. Small holders in Grenada exported coffee, cotton, cocoa, copra, honey and beeswax. In Trinidad squatters sold the timber they gainned from clearing crown lands for charcoal burning and export some for boat buiding and later exported coffee and cocoa. The guyanese was one of the few that was into the exportation of the rice crop. Most of the caribbean teritories were at some point in time producing certain crops for export and gathered profitable incomes. It is quit evident , that the pesantry has accumilated musch success. With the help of the missionaries and the income gainned, peasants were able to initiate the convension of plantation socities. they adapted to building local self-generating communities and used funds that they had alocated from exports along with babtist missionaries ( missionary help was popular mainly in Jamaica) who were quite abdoman in helping the peasants organise free villages and the construction of school such as Cadrinton primary school in barbados, which was run by missionaries and churches for learning and worship. They also clamoured for expansion of education facilities, communication and better maketing schemes and facilities. The peasants were able to start local co-operative movement (sou-sou, box hand and partner hand) which later develop banks some which may still be in exsistance today.

Analysis Of Our Planet Earth

Analysis Of Our Planet Earth Explore The planet earth is one of the nine planets in the solar system and the only known planet to harbor life and the home of human beings. From the words of Neil Armstrong, one of the astronauts of the famous Apollo 11, the earth from space resembles a big blue marble with swirling white clouds floating above blue oceans. About 71 percent of the earths surface is covered with water and the rest is land, mostly in the form of continents that rise above the oceans. Origin of the Earth The earth has a unique characteristic that is suited to supporting life. It is neither too hot like planet Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, nor too cold like planet Mars. For thousands of years, human being could only wonder about the earth and other observable planets in the solar system. Many ideas such as the earth was a sphere and that it travelled around the Sun were based on brilliant reasoning. It was on the development of scientific method especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, that human beings began to gather data that could be used to verify theories about the earth and the rest of the solar system. In the second half of the 20th century, more advances in the study of the earth and the solar system occurred because of the development of rockets that could send spacecrafts beyond Earth. Human beings were able to study and observe Earth from space and satellites equipped with scientific instruments. Scientists have studied the solar system and tried to explain how it was formed. Billions of people are wondering how the huge, lively planet came to be. There are many different theories trying to give explanation of how our home planet came to be. One of the most popular theories of the planets origin is that of Gods creation. Many religious group as well as scientists, embrace the belief that God created the universe and the different steps motivating material and natural development and that these steps then resulted in the formation of the galaxies, the solar system and existence of the earth. This theory is known as Theistic evolution or as evolutionary creationism. This theory h olds the belief that God exceeds common time and space, with nature having no survival self-sufficient of Gods will. The Theistic Evolution Theory poses many questions that can never be answered directly. The sources available are books written by humans. Most accepted belief is the theory of creation in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. This popular theory states that God created the universe in six days .The Bible offers no evidence to prove the story; rather it relies on the faith of the believers to accept it as truth. Another popular belief is the Big Bang Theory. This theory supports the idea that the universe came about due to a colossal explosion. According to the theory, the universe goes through a tremendously high speed rise that expands within a fraction of a second. Then, the excessive heat of electrons and other particles mix. As atoms and particles charge, still extremely hot, they prevent light from shining, creating a sweltering hot fog. Eventually, the electrons merge with additional particles to structure atoms of hydrogen and helium, causing light to at last shine. Giant clouds are soon formed by the hydrogen and helium gases. Weighty elements that are not clustered together are thrown into space to form stars and planets. Another theory is developed by Immanuel Kant and given scientific form by Pierre Simon Laplace at the end of 18th century. It is known as the Nebular Theory. It was assumed that the solar system in its first state was a nebula, a hot, slowly rotating mass of rare matter, which gradually cooled and contracted, the rotation becoming more rapid, in turn giving nebula a flattened disk-like shape .In time, rings of gaseous matter became separated from the outer part of the disk, until the diminished nebula at the center was surrounded by a series of rings. Out of the material of each ring a great ball was formed, which by shrinking eventually became a planet. The mass at the center of the system condensed to form the sun. Encounter or collision theories, in which a star passes a close by or actually collides with the sun, try to explain the distribution of angular momentum. According to the Planetisimal theory, developed by Thomas Chamberlin and Forest Ray Moulton, in the early part of 20th century, a star passed close to the sun. Huge tides were raised on the surface; and some of these erupted matters were torn free, and by a cross pull from the star, were thrust bodies called planetesimals. As their orbits crossed, the larger bodies grew by absorbing the planetisimals, thus becoming planets. The Gaseous Tidal Theory, proposed by James Jeans and Harold Jeffreys in 1918, is a variation of the planetesimal concept. It suggests that a huge tidal wave, raised on the sun by a force of gravity of a passing star, was drawn into a long filament and became detached from the principal mass. As the stream of gaseous material condensed, it separated into masses of various sizes, which by further condensation took the form of a planet. The Dynamic Encounter Theory of Georges Buffon states that the world was formed out of molten materials from the sun that collided with other planets. According to the Solar Disruption Theory by Georges-Louis Leclerc, the sun and a big star almost collided in space, which made some parts of the sun burst. The pieces formed became planets. Composition and Structure of the Earth Geologists divided the earth into three main zones: hydrosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere. Hydrosphere consists of the bodies of water that covers 71 percent of the earths surface. The largest of these are the oceans, which contain over 97 percent of all water on Earth. Glaciers and polar ice caps contain over 2 percent of earths water in the form of solid ice. Only about 0.6 is under the surface as groundwater. Groundwater is 36 times more plentiful than water found in lakes, inland seas rivers, and in the atmosphere as water vapor. Most of the water in glacier, lakes inland seas, rivers and groundwater is fresh and can be used for drinking and in agriculture. The atmosphere is the great blanket of gases that surrounds the earth. It is arranged in five layers: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and exosphere. Lithosphere refers to all of the earth, from its surface to its center. The earth contains three regions crust, mantle, and core. Crust is the outermost layer of the earth. The crust consists of the continents, and other land areas and the basins or floor of the oceans. It has an average thickness of 25 mile. Mantle is about 800 miles thick of solid silicate rock. Core contains iron and nickel whose outer core is liquid and the inner core is solid. Changes on the Earths Surface Think and Respond How forces inside the earth create and change landforms? Earths surface has been constantly changing ever since the planet was formed. Most of these changes have been taking place slowly over millions of years. These gradual changes resulted in modifications including the formation, erosion, re-formation of mountain ranges, the movement of continents, the creation of super continents and the break-up of smaller continents. There are factors responsible for the changes in the earths surface. These are: Weathering. Weathering is the breakdown of rock at and near the surface of the Earth. Most rocks originally formed in a hot, high pressure environment below the surface where there was little water. Once the rock reached earths surface they were subjected to temperature changes and expand to water. When rocks are subjected to these kinds of conditions, the minerals they contain tend to change. These changes constitute the process of weathering. There are two types of weathering; physical weathering and chemical weathering. Physical weathering includes a decrease in the size of rock materials. Freezing and thawing of water in rock countries for example, splits rocks into small pieces because water expands when it freezes. Chemical weathering involves a chemical change in the composition of rock. Chemical weathering is important to man because it creates the clay minerals that are important component of soil, which is the basis for agriculture. Erosion. Erosion is the process that removes loose and weathered rock and carries it to a new site. Water, wind, and glacial ice combined with the force of gravity can cause erosion. Soil erosion and gullying in the upper Panuco basin, Sierra Madre Oriental, eastern Mexico Think and Explain Why is erosion dangerous? Erosion by running water is the most common process of erosion. When water moves downhill, it can carry loose rocks or soil with it. The force of the running water removes loose particles formed by weathering. In the process, gullies and valleys are lengthened, widened, and deepen. The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River is an example of the eroding power of water. Over a million years the Colorado River has cut a canyon that is more than 1 mile deep. The Nile River of Egypt, for example, brings rich soil from the mountains and spreads it along its banks. Because of this, the Nile Valley is one of the most fertile areas in the world. It is the only part of Egypt where crops can grow, a reason why Egypt was known as The Gift of Nile. On the other hand, the Huang Ho or Yellow River in Northern China often overflows its banks and floods farms and homes. Over the years Huang Ho has done so much damage that people call this river Chinas Sorrow. Erosion can also occur as glacier, or large bodies of ice, move across the surface of the earth. As they move, glaciers change the land destroying forests, carving out valleys, altering the course of the rivers and wearing down mountaintops. Wind is an important cause of erosion only in arid or dry regions. Wind carries sand and dirt, which can scour even solid rock. Erosion caused by wind can either help or hurt people. The plains of Northern China for example, have a thick, rich type of soil that is carried by winds blowing from the deserts far to the west. This soil allows farmers in Northern China to raise great amount of wheat and other food crops. Think and Explain How do you account todays flash floods to soil erosion? Many factors determine the rate and kind of erosion that occurs in a certain area. Then climate of a given area determines the distribution, amount, and kind of precipitation that the area receives, thus, the type and rate of weathering. An area with an arid climate erodes differently than the area with a humid climate. The elevation of an area also plays an important role by determining the potential energy of running water. The higher the elevation, the more water will flow due to the force of gravity. Plate Tectonics. Think and Explain How do scientists predict when and where earthquakes may occur?Opposite the leveling is a force responsible for raising mountains, and plateaus and for creating new landmasses. These changes on earth surface occur in the outermost solid portion of Earth, known as lithosphere. The lithosphere consists of the crust and another region known as the upper mantle. Scientists believe that the lithosphere is broken into a series of plates, or segments. According to the theory of plate tectonics, these plates move around on earths surface over long periods of time. These plates move in different ways in relation to each other. They pull apart or move away from each other, they collide or move against each other, or they slide past each other as they move sideways. These shaking movements of the earth called earthquakes explain geological occurrences such as volcanic eruptions, as well as mountain building and the formation of oceans and continents. Yale Peabody Museum/www.peabody.yale.edu/platetectonics/author Earths Physical Features Earths Features The natural features of the earths land surfaces are called landforms. These features are used to describe and help people to locate specific places. Landforms Think and Explain Why is the earth the only planet for man?Landforms are defined as the natural physical features found on the surface of the earth. Landforms are created as a result of the various forces of nature such as wind, water and ice and also by the movement of the earths tectonic plates. Due to these actions, the soil gets eroded and deposited somewhere far from the site of erosion, thus leads to the formation of different landforms. Some landforms are created in a matter of few hours; others take millions of years to appear. A group of landforms in a particular area is called its landscape. Geographers and geologists refer to four major landforms. Large flat mainly grassy areas are the plains. Lands with elevations more than 1,000 feet above the surrounding areas are called mountains. Hills are elevated land masses that are less than 1,000 feet above their surroundings. Plateaus are flat elevated areas perched between 300 to 3,000 feet high. Minor landforms include buttes, canyons, valleys and basins. Think and Respond How do forces inside the earth create and change landforms? These major landforms were formed as a result of tectonic activity, or earthquakes. Other landforms are the result of volcanic eruptions. In fact, mountains that were formed by tectonic activity are called fold mountains, while those formed by volcanic eruptions are called volcanic mountains. Still other landforms resulted from the effects of weathering, erosion and the movement of glaciers. Think and Respond How did bodies of water such as rivers and seas affect societies? Mountains are perhaps the most noticeable of the major landforms and are found on every continent, as well as beneath the ocean. The highest mountain is Mount Everest in the Himalayas at 29,028 feet. The largest mountain, by volume, is Hawaiis Maono Loa. The longest chain of mountains is the Mid Ocean Range. Both Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean and Iceland are member peaks of this range. More than half of the earths surface is covered by plains like the Central Plains of the United States and the plains in Eastern China. Some plains that continue to grow in surface area are the deltas that form by land carried in the current and deposited at the mouths of major rivers. The largest deltas are the Nile River Delta, Mississippi River Delta and Rhone River Delta. Plateaus account for about 30 percent of the earths surface. They are elevations that terminate in flat lands. Some people call them tablelands because of their shape. There are often layers of both hard and soft rock in a plateau. These landforms were caused when the earths crust was forced upward. Types and Characteristic Features of Landforms There are many types of landforms on the earths surface. Each landform is characterized by its slope, elevation, soil and rock type, stratification and orientation. Some of the common types of landforms and their characteristics are the following: Mountains: Mountains are areas, which are higher than the surrounding areas and are characterized by a peak, e.g. The Himalayas. Surprisingly, they are more frequently present in the oceans than in land. A mountain is steeper than a hill. Mountains are formed due the tectonic movement such as an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. A few are resulted due to erosion of the surrounding areas by the action of wind, water or ice. Plateaus: Plateaus are large highland flat areas separated from the surrounding areas by a steep slope, e.g. The Tibetan plateau. Plateaus are formed due to various actions such as collision of the earths tectonic plates, uplift of the earths crust by the action of magma; some are resulted due to the lava flow from the volcanic eruption. Islands: Islands are areas that are completely surrounded by water, e.g. The Hawaiian Islands. Islands are formed either as a result of the volcanic eruption or due to the presence of hot spots on the lithosphere. Plains: Plains are flat areas or low relief areas on the earths surface, e.g. prairies, steppes. Plains are formed due to the sedimentation of the eroded soil from the hills and mountains or due to the flowing lava deposited by the agents of wind, water and ice. Valleys: Valleys are flat areas of land between the hills or mountains, e.g. The California Central Valley. Mostly they are formed by the actions of rivers and glaciers. Depending upon the shape, valley forms are classified as U-shaped or V-shaped valley. V-shaped valleys are formed by flowing water or rivers, whereas U-shaped valleys are formed by glaciers. Deserts: Deserts are very dry lands with little or no rainfall, for example, The Sahara desert. Mostly deserts are formed in rain shadow areas, which are leeward of a mountain range with respect to the wind direction. Thus, the mountains block the passage of wind resulting in little or sometimes no rain. Loess: Loess are deposits of silt and with a little amount of sand and clay. Many a times wind action is responsible for formation of loess; however sometimes glacial activity can also form loess. Rivers: Rivers are natural flowing stream of freshwater, e.g. The Nile. They mostly flow towards lakes or oceans but sometimes they dried up without reaching another water body. River water is collected from the surface water runoffs, groundwater water recharge and sometimes from the water reservoirs such as glaciers. Landforms definitely play an important role in the formation of rivers. Oceans: Oceans are the biggest form of water and are saline, such as The Pacific Ocean. Oceans of the world covers around 71% of the earths surface and control the weather and climate of the earths surface. Think and Explain Are landforms still affecting todays development? Glaciers: Glaciers are huge slow moving body of ice. Glaciers are formed due to the compaction of snow layers and moves with respect to gravity and pressure. Mainly there are two types of glaciers- Alpine glaciers, which are formed in high mountains and Continental glaciers, which are formed in cold Polar Regions. Continents Land surface of the earth was divided into seven landmasses called continents. Land surface of the earth was divided into seven landmasses called continents. A continent is defined as a large unbroken land mass completely surrounded by water, although in some cases continents are (or were in part) connected by land bridges. The seven continents are North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. The islands in the Pacific are often called Oceania. Illus. 1. The seven continents of the world. Europe Geographically, Europe, including the British Isles, is a large western peninsula of the continent of Asia; and many geographers, refer to Europe and Asia, as the Eurasian continent. But traditionally, Europe is counted as a separate continent, with the Ural and the Caucasus mountains forming the line of demarcation between Europe and Asia. Europe is a large peninsula with a long irregular coastline with varied mountains, and islands. The continent of Europe is a relatively small part of the Eurasian landmass, encompassing 3,827,308 square miles. It is bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, on the east by Asia, and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. Europes highest point is Mt. Elbrus in Russia, at 18,510 feet above sea level. Its lowest point is the Caspian Sea in Russia, at 90 feet below sea level. The longest river in Europe is the Volga, which runs through Russia for about 2,300 miles. Also in Russia is the continents largest lake, Lake Ladoga, which covers an area of 6,834 square miles. Europe consists of over 40 countries, with approximate total population of 803, 850, 858 in 2009. Its two major English-speaking countries, the United Kingdom and Ireland, are island nations. Germany and France are the two most populous nations of central Europe. Two of Europes southernmost countries, Greece and Italy are Mediterranean Sea peninsulas. Four of the continents northern countries Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden comprise a region known as Scandinavia. Asia Think and Respond What physical features might have been a great help for the Europeans to explore and settle in the Philippines? Asia is the largest of the Earths seven continents, lying almost entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. With outlying islands, it covers an estimated 44,391,000 sq km (17,139,000 sq mi), or about 30 percent of the worlds total land area. Its peoples account for three-fifths of the worlds population; in 2009 Asia had an estimated 4.10 billion inhabitants. Most geographers regard Asia as bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the Bering Strait and the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the southwest by the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. On the west, the Ural Mountain serves as boundary between Europe and Asia. Some geographers include Europe and Asia together in a larger Eurasian region, noting that western Asian countries, such as Turkey, merge almost imperceptibly into Europe. The continental mainland stretches from the southern end of the Malay Peninsula to Cape Chelyuskin in Siberia. The lowest and highest points on the Earths surface are in Asia, namely, the shore of the Dead Sea which is 408 m/1,340 ft. below sea level in 1996) and Mount Everest which is which is about 8,850 m/29,035 ft above sea level. Asia is divided into different regional groups namely; Southwest Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia and Central or North Asia. Southwest Asia spans a vast area that encompasses the following countries; Afghanistan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates. South Asia is a large landmass that extends southward from the continent of Asia into the Indian Ocean its nearly 1,591,890 square mile or 2,561,351 sq km occupying about 10 percent of the land area of Asia. This region includes the following countries; Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri-Lanka. East Asia is separated from the rest of the Asian continent by rugged highlands and towering mountain ranges. It comprises the following countries; China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. Southeast Asia covers a land area of about 1.7 million square miles or 4.4 million sq km. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean to the west and south. The following countries are included in the region; Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Central Asia/ North Asia is a region from the Caspian Sea in the west to Central China in the east, and from Southern Russia in the north to Afghanistan in the south. It has a varied geography. The region includes the following countries: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. North America The third-largest continent on Earth is North America. It lies mostly between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer. It is almost completely surrounded by bodies of water, including the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Strait, the Arctic Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Area: 9,361,791 sq mi (24,247,039 sq km). Population (2008 est.): 528, 720, 588. It is shaped like an inverted triangle .To the southeast are the Appalachian Mountains and to the west are the younger and much taller Cordilleras. These mountains extend the length of the continent and occupy about one-third of the total land area. The Rocky Mountains constitute the eastern Cordillera. The highest point is Mount McKinley. The Mississippi River basin, including its major tributaries, the Missouri and Ohio, occupies more than one-eighth of the continents total area. Generally temperate climatic conditions prevail. South America South America, fourth largest of the Earths seven continents after Asia, Africa, and North America occupying 17,820,900 sq km (6,880,700 sq mi), or 12 percent of the Earths land surface. It lies astride the equator and tropic of Capricorn and is joined by the Isthmus of Panama, on the north, to Central and North America. The continent extends 7,400 km (4,600 mi) from the Caribbean on the north to Cape Horn on the south, and its maximum width, between Ponta do Seixas, on Brazils Atlantic coast, and Punta Parià ±as on Perus Pacific coast, is 5,160 km (3,210 mi). South America has a 2009 estimated population of 394 million, or 6 percent of the worlds people. The continent comprises 12 nations. Ten of the countries are Latin: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Two of the nations are former dependencies: Guyana, of the United Kingdom, and Suriname, of The Netherlands. South America also includes French Guiana, an overseas departm ent of France. The coastline of South America is relatively regular except in the extreme south and southwest, where it is indented by numerous inlet. The Andes Mountain, the second highest mountain range in the world is situated, in South America. The main lowland is the vast Amazon Basin in the equatorial part of the continent; it is drained by the Amazon River, the worlds second longest river. The Orinoco River drains a lowland in the north; to the south lies the Paraguay-Parana basin. The lowest point in South America (40 m/ 131 ft below sea level) is on Peninsula Valdà ©s in eastern Argentina, and the greatest elevation (6,960 m/22,834 ft) is atop Aconcagua in western Argentina, the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere. Africa Africa is the second largest of the earths seven continents, covering, with adjacent islands, about 30,300,000 sq km (about 11,699,000 sq mi), or about 20% of the worlds total land area. In the mid 2009, some 999 million people, or about 14.72% of the worlds population inhabited Africa. Straddling the equator, Africa stretches about 8000 km (about 4970 mi) from its northernmost point, Cape Blanc (ar-Ras al-Abyad) in Tunisia, to its southernmost tip, Cape Agulhas in South Africa. The maximum width of the continent, measured from the tip of Cape Verde in Senegal, in the West, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, in the East, is about 7560 km (about 4700 mi). The highest point on the continent is the perpetually snowcapped Mt. Kilimanjaro (5895 m/19,340 ft) in Tanzania, and the lowest is Lake Assal (153 m/502 ft below sea level) in Djibouti. Africa has a regular coastline characterized by few indentations. Its total length is only about 30,490 km (about 18,950 mi); the length of its coastline in proportion to its area is less than that of any other continent. Think and Respond Why are the people in the desert usually nomads? The chief islands of Africa include Madagascar, Zanzibar, Pemba, Mauritius, Rà ©union, the Seychelles, and the Comoro islands in the Indian Ocean; Sà £o Tomà ©, Prà ­ncipe, Annobà ³n, and Bioko in the Gulf of Guinea; Saint Helena, Ascension, and the Bijagà ³s islands in the Atlantic; and the Cape Verde, Canary, and Madeira Islands in the North Atlantic. Africa may be divided into three major regions: the Northern Plateau, the Central and Southern Plateau, and the Eastern Highlands. Low-lying coastal strips, with the exception of the Mediterranean coast and the Guinea coast, are generally narrow and rise sharply to the plateau. The outstanding feature of the Northern Plateau is the Sahara, the great desert that occupies more than one-quarter of Africa. At the border of the Northern Plateau are several mountainous regions. To the Northwest lies the Atlas Mountain, a chain of rugged peaks linked by high plateaus, which extend from Morocco into Tunisia. Other prominent uplands are the Futa Jallon, on the Southwest, and the Adamawa Massif and the Cameroon mountain range, on the South. The Lake Chad Basin is situated in the approximate center of the Northern Plateau. The Central and Southern Plateau is considerably higher than the Northern Plateau and includes west central and South Africa. It contains several major depressions, notably the Congo River Basin and the Kalahari Desert. Other feature South of this plateau is the Drakensberg Mountain. The Eastern Highlands, the highest portion of the continent, lie near the east coast, extending from the Red Sea South to the Zambezi River. South of the Ethiopian Plateau are a number of towering volcanic peaks, including Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Kenya, and Mt. Elgon. West of the Great Rift Valley is the Ruwenzori Range. Australia/Oceania The continent of Australia/Oceania links together the continental landmass of Australia with the huge number of widely scattered islands across the Pacific Ocean. This continent includes New Guinea, Tasmania, New Zealand, Hawaii, and the countless islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. The continent of Australia is such a relatively low and flat place. Although the Great Dividing Range has some interesting areas such as the Blue Mountains area, and there is some nice mountain scenery, the bulk of the continent is simply just not mountainous at all. The highest point on the Australian landmass is Mt. Kosciusko (7310/2228m), a peak with a road to the top. The continent of Australia/Oceania holds a respectable amount of serious mountains situated in the Oceania. In New Zealand and New Guinea are world-class mountain ranges: Puncak Java, which is 5,030 meter, and in New Guinea is the highest summit in this part of the world. There is also the Southern Alps of New Zealand, which is a craggy, snowy range that challenges the best climbers in the world. Many other islands of Oceania hold mountains that are either higher or more interesting that those of mainland Australia; highlights include the ranges of Tasmania, Tahiti, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and the massive shield volcanoes of Hawaii. Antarctica is the fifth largest of Earths seven continents. Antarctica surrounds the South Pole and is a place of extremes. It is the southernmost, coldest, iciest, driest, windiest, most remote, and most recently discovered continent. Nearly the entire landmass lies within the Antarctic Circles. Air temperatures of the high inland regions fall below -80 °C (-110 °F) in winter and rise only to -30 °C (-20 °F) in summer. Massive ice sheets built up from snow over millions of years cover almost all of the continent and float in huge ice shelves on coastal waters. In winter, frozen seawater (sea ice) more than doubles the size of the Antarctic ice cap. Antarcticas vast areas of ice on land and on sea play a major role in Earths climate and could be strongly affected by global warming. The melting of Antarctic ice could dramatically raise global sea level. Antarctica means opposite to the Arctic, Earths northernmost region. Antarctica is completely encircled` by the Southern Ocean. The entire area south of the Antarctic Convergence is referred to as the Antarctic region. The Earth Ensure Changes in the Earths Surface Composition and Structure Origin Atmosphe

Citizen Kane: Exposing the Truth about William Randolph Hearst Essay

Citizen Kane: Exposing the Truth about William Randolph Hearst Many have called Citizen Kane the greatest cinematic achievement of all time. It is indeed a true masterpiece of acting, screen writing, and directing. Orson Welles, its young genius director, lead actor, and a co-writer, used the best talents and techniques of the day (Bordwell 103) to tell the story of a newspaper giant, Charles Kane, through the eyes of the people who loved and hated him. However, when it came out, it was scorned by Hollywood and viewed only in the private theaters of RKO, the producer. Nominated for nine Academy Awards, it was practically booed off the stage, and only won one award, that for Best Screenplay, which Welles and Herman Mankiewicz shared (Mulvey 10). This was all due to the pressure applied by the greatest newspaper man of the time, one of the most powerful men in the nation, the man Citizen Kane portrayed as a corrupt power monger, namely William Randolph Hearst. One cannot ignore the striking similarities between Hearst and Kane. In order to make clear at the outset exactly what he intended to do, Orson Welles included a few details about the young Kane that, given even a rudimentary knowledge of Hearst's life, would have set one thinking about the life of that newspaper giant. Shortly after the film opens, a reporter is seen trying to discover the meaning of Kane's last word, "Rosebud." He begins his search by going through the records of Kane's boyhood guardian, Thatcher. The scene comes to life in midwinter at the Kane boarding house. Kane's mother has come into one of the richest gold mines in the world through a defaulting boarder, and at age twenty-five, Kane will inherit his sixty million dollars (Citizen Kane)... ...r himself by abusing the most potent weapon and shield of his day, the free press. "If I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man." (Orson Welles, Citizen Kane) Bibliography 1)Bordwell, David. "Citizen Kane," Focus on Orson Welles. Prentice-Hall,1976. 2)Cowie, Peter. The Cinema of Orson Welles. De Capo Press, 1973. 3)Citizen Kane. dir. Orson Welles. With Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore. RKO, 1941. 4)Mulvey, Laura. Citizen Kane. BFI, 1992. 5)Reflections on Citizen Kane. dir. Unknown. Turner Home Entertainment,1991. 6)Robinson, Judith. The Hearsts: an American Dynasty. Avon Books, 1991. 7)Swanberg, W.A. Citizen Hearst. Scribner, 1961. Bantam Matrix Edition, 1967. 8)Zinman, David. Fifty Classic Motion Pictures: The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of. NY Crown Publishers, 1970. NY Limelight Editions, 1992.

Welfare :: essays research papers

Welfare   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the recent February article of the Los Angeles Times, Clinton has announced to go on with a plan to help people of welfare. Clinton challenged corporate bosses five months ago to take people in from welfare and trained them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the main contributors of the project is a chief executive officer of the Monsanto Ca., the nation's fourth largest chemical maker. Clinton singled out the Monsanto company and other companies for helping out welfare workers. Monsanto has hired five recipient and found almost twenty more jobs for others.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Under the new laws of the welfare reforms, the able body workers should work within the two years of recieving benefits. Some of the good things out of this plan is that by the year 2005, only 14% of jobs will be done by more of the dependent poor people. This is bad because 46% of aid recipients had not completed high school or earned a General Equivalency Diploma. The ability to absorb more welfare recipients is limited by the high- technology chemical, agricultural, fiber and pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. These workers would have limited skills. Monsanto is highly protecteive of the privacy of its special new hires. The new employees are hired to fill a variety of clerical and light general- labor positions. They will not be identified as the company's welfare-to-work initiative.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The possible short-term effect this would have on society is that people, on welfare, would be able to work and get paid for it. This will allow them to be able to build finance of their own that they will be able to help them with their lives. The long-term effect, though it seemed good for the people, would be bad for everyone else who weren't on welfare. This would be because the people working off welfare would really be working off the tax payers money. So, the people who aren't living off welfare would be paying higher taxes and the people who are living on welfare would be paying less taxes. Education   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Education is an important factor in society today. Without education, we wouldn't be able to boost our technology. Boosting the technology would then help us in the medical field, help us build better houses that are more durable to earthquakes, etc. I think that we should spend more of the budget on education.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If we spended more on education, we would be able to get more, better teacher to teach our children. With more teachers on the field, we would be able to teach more students than normal. To help the teachers out in there

Biography Of Emily Bronte :: essays research papers

Emily Bronte was born in Thornton on July 30, 1818 and later moved with her family to Haworth, an isolated village on the moors. Her mother, Maria Branwell, died when she was only three years old, leaving Emily and her five siblings, Maria, Elizabeth, and Charlotte, Anne, and Branwell to the care of the dead woman’s sister. Emily, Maria, Elizabeth, and Charlotte were sent to Cowan, a boarding school, in 1824. The next year while at school Maria and Elizabeth came home to die of tuberculosis, and the other two sisters were also sent home. Both spent the next six years at home, where they picked up what education they could.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1835, Charlotte became a teacher at the school at Roe Head and Emily joined her as a student. After three months Charlotte sent her home again, afraid that Emily was extremely homesick from her beloved moors. For a short time in 1837 Emily moved to Halifax in order to teach at the Law Hill School. She returned to Haworth when her health again began to fail. After this agonizing experience, Emily remained at home for five years. During this period, she wrote poetry and short stories to fill her time. In 1842, she attended school in Brussels with her sister Charlotte. There they studied music and foreign language. Emily also wrote her French essays at this time. Charlotte and Emily were described as “literary geniuses.';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All the family was reunited at home, in 1845. In the course of time, the Brontes gave up hope for a school of their own. Branwell, working on a novel, told his sisters of the profitable possibilities of novel writing. In the autumn of 1845 Charlotte discovered Emily’s poems and convinced her sister to collaborate on a volume of poems. One year later, the volume was titled Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Action Bell and was published. The first venture into publishing was a failure. By July, Wuthering Heights was finished, along with Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. All three were seeking a publisher and finally had their novels published in late 1847. Initially, the results of Wuthering Heights were poor, selling few copies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1848, Branwell died. Emily left home for the last time to attend his funeral service, and caught a severe cold which developed into inflammation of the lungs.

Change the Culture of an Organisation Essay

The culture of an organization can be defined by the ‘way they do things’, this means the way they make decisions, operate and how they choose and achieve their objectives. As culture is a set of values and practices, changing it may be difficult and a long process, especially if the change is organized by a new chief executive. Changing the culture of an organization may not be easy especially if the new chief executive does not fully understand the previous culture and therefore does not embrace it in the change. This lack of knowledge may result in an inappropriate culture being chosen that could limit the company’s performance as productivity reduces. An example of a badly imposed culture can been seen with the Chrysler and Damier-Benz merge in 1998. Damier-Benz imposed their traditional and structured German culture on the free-spirited American car company Chrysler. The extremely different cultures created tension that later affected their efficiency as decision-making took longer and the workforce were not happy. The inappropriate culture resulted in a loss of $1.5 billon by 2006. In 2011, the new chief executive of Tesco, Phillip Clarke, also made a cultural change which proved unsuccessful. He proposed a strategy to change Tesco’s brand image to be known for â€Å"highly valued brands† as opposed to their cheaper â€Å"Value† products. The decrease in popular promotion deals such as vouchers and meal deals reduced their sales revenue and share value which fell by 15% by the end of 2011. This suggests that Clarke failed to identify Tesco’s main source of competitively. Therefore, both examples show that cultural changes may be difficult as the new chief executives lack knowledge and experience in the company. Culture change also takes a long time, especially as traditions and values are set. A prime example of this is with Sony. Sony is a Japan-based company who prides themselves in adopting a traditional Japanese business culture. Examples of their culture can be seen with their clear line of authority and their strong belief in respect. However, Sony’s reducing performance and the fast changing world alarmed the new chief executive, Howard Stringer, to change the culture to one that embraces change. Although proposals to change the culture were made in 2007, Sony’s culture has still not fully transformed which is reflected in their still low competitively. Therefore, it may still take some time for Sony to fully embrace an innovative culture as their Japanese culture has largely influenced the organization. It also took a long time for Marks & Spencer to introduce higher levels of technology, such as a stock control system, as they are said to have a ‘backward culture’. This is because they don’t embrace change and are led by system and procedures. These examples provide evidence that change in a business’s culture may not be done quickly as the organization is accustomed to the previous culture. However, changing a company’s culture can be easy if the new chief executive conducts the change in an appropriate manner. As culture change will have a direct impact on stakeholders, it is important for the new chief executive to inform all stakeholders of the changes and to also encourage feedback. The loss of the innovative leader of Apple, Steve Jobbs created much anxiety about the new CEO Tim Cook. Stakeholders feared Cook would change the company and reject all Jobbs practices especially as the two leaders have different personalities. The media worsened the situation with continuous negative press coverage which resulted in a decrease in consumer confidence as well as Apple’s share price. Although Jobbs had planned to make some strategic changes to the company’s practices, he reassured stakeholders by stating that â€Å"Apple will not change†. He also identified these new strategies and their benefits in a press release which justified his decisions and satisfied stakeholders. The newfound trust of stakeholders will enable Apple’s cultural change to be easier and happen more quickly. In view of the above, I believe that it is not easy to change the culture of a business, as the current practices are custom to the organization; this also suggests that the change will be quite a process and therefore won’t be done quickly. This situation is worsened as the chief executive is new and won’t have the necessary knowledge and understanding of the business to enable a smooth and quick transition. However, the ability for the new chief executive to change the business’s culture quickly and easily is highly dependant upon the reaction of the stakeholders. For example, BP’s customers may react positively as the new culture will increase the company’s responsiveness to customers. Shareholders may also react positively as the increase of innovation should increase BP’s competitive advantage which could increase the company’s value and share price. However, the increase in innovation may pose a threat the employees as management will expect higher quality and the need for more qualified personnel may be necessary. Therefore, support from stakeholders will encourage an easier and quickly transformation whereas negativity will not. The skills of the workforce is also important as if they are innovative the cultural change will happen faster. However, Sony is in a creative industry and their strategy to increase innovation still took a long time. This suggests that attitudes and beliefs of the workforce are also important. An easy change is also depend upon the new executives approach, is it forceful or flexible? Damier-Benz’s forceful approach result in a large amount of tension that slowed the change and resulted in a financial loss.