Monday, September 30, 2019

The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 21

When she opened her eyes, Elena found herself in someone's attic. Its wide wooden floorboards and low rafters were thick with dust, and the long room was crowded with objects: a hammock, sleds, skis, boxes with words like Xmas or toddler toys or B's winter clothes scribbled on them in black marker. Oilcloths were draped over larger objects that might be furniture, chairs and tables, by their shapes. At the far end of the room an old mattress lay on the floor, with an oilcloth crumpled at one end, as if someone sleeping there had been using it as a makeshift blanket and had shoved it off when they rose. Faint traces of pale light showed around the edges of a smal shuttered window at the nearer end of the attic. There was a soft rustling, as if mice were going about their private business behind the shelter of the stored furniture. It was al weirdly familiar. She looked back toward the far end of the attic and saw, without the faintest sense of surprise, that Damon was now sitting on the old mattress, his long black-clad legs drawn up, his elbows resting on his knees. He was managing to give the appearance of lounging graceful y despite his awkward position. â€Å"The places where we meet are getting less and less elegant,† she told him dryly. Damon laughed and held up his hands in denial. â€Å"You pick the locations, princess,† he said. â€Å"This is your show. I'm just along for the ride.† He paused thoughtful y. â€Å"Okay, that's not entirely true,† he confessed. â€Å"But you do pick the locations. Where are we, anyway?† â€Å"You don't know?† Elena said with mock indignation. â€Å"This is a very special place for us, Damon! Ful of memories! You brought me here right after I became a vampire, remember?† He looked around. â€Å"Oh, yes. The attic of the house where the teacher was staying. Convenient at the time, but you're right – an elegant setting suits us both much better. May I suggest a nice palace next time?† He patted the mattress next to him. Elena, crossing the floor toward him, took a moment to marvel at how realistic and detailed her dream was. Each step she took sent tiny puffs of dust up from the floor. There was a slight scent of mildew: She couldn't remember ever having smel ed anything in a dream before these visions of Damon. When she sat down, the mildew smel got stronger. She nestled close to Damon anyway, resting her head on his shoulder, and his leather jacket creaked as he put his arm around her. Elena closed her eyes and sighed. She felt safe and secure within his embrace, feelings she had never associated with Damon, but they were good ones. â€Å"I miss you, Damon,† she said. â€Å"Please come back to me.† Damon leaned his cheek against her head, and she breathed in the smel of him. Leather and soap and the strange but pleasant woodsy scent that was Damon's own. â€Å"I'm right here,† he said. â€Å"Not real y,† Elena said, and her eyes fil ed with tears again. She wiped them roughly away with the backs of her hands. â€Å"It feels like I've been doing nothing but crying lately,† she said. â€Å"When I'm here with you I feel safer, though. But it's just a dream. It won't last, this feeling.† Damon stiffened. â€Å"Safer?† he said, and there was a strained note in his voice. â€Å"You aren't safe when you're not with me? Isn't my little brother looking after you properly?† â€Å"Oh, Damon, you can't imagine,† Elena said. â€Å"Stefan†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She took a deep breath, put her head in her hands, and began to sob. â€Å"What is it? What's happened?† asked Damon sharply. When Elena didn't answer, just continued to cry, he took her hands and tugged them gently but firmly away from her face. â€Å"Elena,† he said. â€Å"Look at me. Has something happened to Stefan?† â€Å"No,† said Elena through her tears. â€Å"Wel , yes, sort of†¦ I don't real y know what's happened to him, but he's changed.† Damon was looking at her intently, his nightblack eyes fixed on hers, and Elena made an effort to pul herself together. She hated acting like this, so weak and pathetic, sobbing on someone's shoulder instead of cool y formulating a solution to the problem at hand. She didn't want Damon, even a dream Damon who was just part of her subconscious, seeing her like this. She sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Damon delved into an inner pocket of his leather jacket and handed her a neatly folded white handkerchief. Elena stared at it, then at him, and he shrugged. â€Å"I'm an oldfashioned gentleman, sometimes,† he said, straight-faced. â€Å"Hundreds of years of linen handkerchiefs. Some habits are hard to break.† Elena blew her nose and wiped her cheeks. She didn't quite know what to do with the soggy handkerchief – it seemed gross to hand it back to Damon – so she just held on to it, twisting it between her hands as she thought. â€Å"Now tel me about what's going on. What's wrong with Stefan? What happened to him?† Damon commanded. â€Å"Wel†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Elena said slowly, â€Å"I don't know what's wrong with Stefan, and I don't know if anything happened to change him that you don't already know about. Maybe he's just reacting to your†¦ you know.† It suddenly seemed weird to refer to Damon's death when he was sitting next to her – impolite somehow – but Damon nodded at her to go on. â€Å"It's been hard on him. And he's been even more tense and weird for the last couple of days. Then, earlier this evening, I was visiting my parents in the cemetery†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She told Damon about Stefan's attack on Caleb. â€Å"The worst part is that I never suspected this side of Stefan existed,† she finished. â€Å"I can't think of any real reason he had to attack Caleb – he just claimed that Caleb wanted me, and that he was dangerous, but Caleb hadn't done anything – and Stefan seemed so irrational, and so violent. He was like another person.† Elena's eyes were fil ing with tears again, and Damon pul ed her closer, stroking her hair and gently peppering her face with soft kisses. Elena closed her eyes and gradual y relaxed into his arms. Damon held her more firmly, and his kisses got slower and deeper. Then he was cradling her head with his strong, gentle hands and kissing her mouth. â€Å"Oh, Damon,† she murmured. This was more vivid than any dream she'd ever had. His lips were soft and warm, with just a little roughness to them, and it felt like she was fal ing into him. â€Å"Wait.† He kissed her more insistently but, when she pul ed away, let her go. â€Å"Wait,† Elena repeated, sitting up straight. Somehow she had lain back until she was half reclining across the musty old mattress with Damon, her legs entangled with his. She moved away from him, toward the edge of the mattress. â€Å"Damon, whatever's going on with Stefan scares me. But that doesn't mean†¦ Damon, I'm stil in love with Stefan.† â€Å"You love me, too, you know,† Damon said lightly. His dark eyes narrowed. â€Å"You're not getting rid of me that easily, princess.† â€Å"I do love you,† Elena said. Her eyes were dry now. She thought she might be al cried out, at least for the moment. Her voice was quite steady as she added, â€Å"I'l always love you, I guess. But you're dead.† And Stefan is my true love, if I had to choose between you, she thought, but did not say. What was the point? â€Å"I'm sorry, Damon,† she went on, â€Å"but you're gone. And I'l always love Stefan, but suddenly I'm afraid of him, of what he might do. I don't know what's going to happen to us. I thought things would be easy now that we're home again, but awful things are stil happening.† Damon sighed and lay back on the mattress. He stared up at the ceiling in silence for a moment. â€Å"Listen,† he said final y, lacing his fingers across his chest. â€Å"You've always underestimated Stefan's potential for violence.† â€Å"He's not violent,† Elena said hotly. â€Å"He doesn't even drink human blood.† â€Å"He doesn't drink human blood because he doesn't want to be violent. He doesn't want to hurt anyone. But Elena† – Damon reached out and took her hand – â€Å"my little brother's got a temper. I know that if anyone does.† Elena shivered. She knew that, back when they were humans, Stefan and Damon had kil ed each other in a fit of rage over what they thought was Katherine's death. Katherine's blood had been in both their systems, and they had risen again as vampires that night. Their anger and jealousy over a lost love had destroyed them both. â€Å"However,† Damon continued, â€Å"much as it pains me to admit it, Stefan would never hurt you, and wouldn't hurt anyone else without a real reason. Not without the kind of reason you would approve of. Not these days. He might have a temper, but he's also got a conscience.† He smirked a little and added, â€Å"An annoying, self-righteous kind of conscience, of course, but it's there. And he loves you, Elena. You're the whole world to him.† â€Å"Maybe you're right,† Elena said. â€Å"I'm scared, though. And I wish you were there with me.† She looked at him, as sleepy and confiding as a tired child now. â€Å"Damon, I wish you weren't dead. I miss you. Please come back to me.† Damon smiled and kissed her softly. But then he pul ed away and Elena could feel the dream changing. She tried to cling to the moment, but it faded and Damon was lost to her again. â€Å"Please be careful, Damon,† said Sage, worry lines marring his bronzed forehead. It wasn't often that the muscular Keeper of the Gates looked worried – or spoke only one language at a time – but ever since Damon had staggered back from death and out of the ashes, Sage had spoken softly and clearly to him in English, treating the vampire as if he were likely to shatter at any minute. â€Å"I usual y am careful,† said Damon, leaning against the wal of what they cal ed, for want of a better term, the mystical elevator. â€Å"Unless I'm being heart-stoppingly brave, of course.† The words were right, but to Damon's own ears, his voice sounded off: hoarse and hesitant. Sage seemed to hear the wrongness there, too, and his handsome face furrowed in a frown. â€Å"You can stay longer if you want.† Damon leaned back against the plain white wal . â€Å"I have to go,† he said wearily, for what felt like the mil ionth time. â€Å"She's in danger. But thank you for everything, Sage.† He wouldn't be here now without Sage. The powerful vampire had cleaned Damon up, given him clothes – stylish black clothes in the right size – and fed him blood and rich Black Magic wine until Damon had been hauled back from the edge of death and realized who he was again. But†¦ Damon didn't feel like himself. There was a strange empty ache inside him, as if he'd left something behind, buried deep under the ash. Sage was stil frowning, staring at him with grave concern. Damon pul ed himself together and gave Sage a sudden bril iant smile. â€Å"Wish me luck,† he said. The smile helped: The other vampire's face relaxed. â€Å"Bonne chance, mon ami,† he said. â€Å"I wish you the very best of luck.† Bilingual again, Damon thought. I must be looking better. â€Å"Fel ‘s Church,† he said into the empty air. â€Å"The United States, the mortal realm. Somewhere I can hide.† He raised a hand in solemn salute to Sage and pushed the elevator's single button. Elena woke up in darkness. She ran a quick and automatic mental check: smooth, fabric-softener-scented cotton sheets, dim light from the window past the foot of her bed on the right, the faint sound of Robert snoring in his and Aunt Judith's bedroom at the other end of the hal . Her own old familiar room. Home again. She heaved a deep sigh. She didn't feel quite as mired in despair as she had when she climbed into bed; things were dark, but she could admit there was a possibility they might someday get better again. But her eyes and throat felt raw from crying. She missed Damon so much. A floorboard creaked. Elena stiffened. She knew that creak. It was the high, complaining whine the floorboard over near her window gave if you stepped right in the middle of it. Someone was in her room. Elena lay very stil , running through the possibilities. Stefan would have announced himself as soon as he heard her sigh. Was it Margaret, quietly wandering in to crawl into bed with Elena? â€Å"Margaret?† she asked softly. There was no answer. Her ears straining, Elena thought she could make out the sound of slow, heavy breathing. Suddenly the lamp on her desk was switched on, and Elena was temporarily dazzled by the bright light. She could see only the silhouette of a dark figure. Then her vision cleared. And at the foot of her bed, a half smile on his chiseled face, dark eyes wary, as if he was unsure of his welcome, stood a figure dressed al in black. Damon.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Mexico Gulf of Mexico

Mexico is a beautiful country situated in North America, delimited on the on the east by the Gulf of Mexico, on the southeast by Guatemala, on the south and west by the North Pacific Ocean, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and north by the United States. The United Mexican States consist of a legitimate republican federation of thirty-one states and a central district, Mexico City, is considered to be one of the most densely inhabited cities on globe. The Mexican Revolution was an interlude of political, military and social conflict and mayhem that set in motion with the call over armaments made on November 20 1910 by Francisco I. Madero, a politician, author and revolutionary who served as President of Mexico from 1911 to 1913, and lasted until 1921. It is anticipated that the war killed nine hundred thousand of the 1910 population of fifteen million. The preliminary epoch of armed conflict terminated in the removal from power of dictator Porfirio Dà ­az Mori, a Mexican-American War volunteer, French intrusion hero, and President   who ruled Mexico from 1876 to 1880 and from 1884 to 1911, and Madero's rise to presidency. Madero was thrown out in 1913 and the state was swallowed up in civil war, as more than a few political and armed groups raised war against each other for being in command of the nation. A most important stride towards the end of armed conflict caught up the dissemination of the current constitution of Mexico in 1917, the official end of the insurrection. On the other hand, conflict and political unrest such as the Cristero War continued up to the late 1920s. Factory or slaughterhouse worker in Mexico City had faced unacceptable obstacles before the Mexican revolution in 1910, in exercising their rights to join independent unions, bargain collectively, and hold strikes. By 1879, revolutionary thoughts had spread all through the budding Mexican labor movement La Social had sixty two provincial units and about five thousand people were present at its 1879 symposium. Its paper, La International, made social insurrection, social revolution, and the elimination of all governments and the formation of a â€Å"universal social republic† indispensable. That would put the last touches on all national boundaries. Many of the newspaper's articles from San Antonio narrate prejudice suffered by the rural and urban Factory and slaughterhouse workers in Mexico, the sleaze and venality of government bureaucrats in that state, the complicity of foreign based resources with the Dà ­az regime, and the inevitability of terminating the dictatorship. From 1895 to 1911 with on the increase foreign supremacy of the economy came beyond doubt ruthless working conditions. Capitalism, free of state parameter, subjugated Factories and slaughterhouses. A necessary social arrangement with hospitals, wellbeing reimbursement, schools, and housing facility and so on, was not provided by foreign capitalists. Company towns were built for Factory and slaughterhouse workers where their entire families lived in diminutive single rooms. These barrack settlements were little more than massive penitentiaries. Workers were expelled from having guests to put a stop to transaction and communication of ideas. Industrial contamination coupled with household sewage caused terrible health hazards that carried epidemic after epidemic on the working class. State of affairs was so dreadful in some company towns that even the panorama of starvation could not drive people to work there. The state took action by compulsorily rounding up men, women and children, and compelling them to work as slaves. Every feature of work and living was proscribed. Fines were imposed on Factory and slaughterhouse workers who were then enforced to take out mortgages to pay them off. Thus Factory and slaughterhouse workers faced several obstacles in Mexico City face before and during the revolution. Regardless of the atrocious oppression and unsympathetic circumstances, workers sustained to organize. A number of clandestine workers’ councils and subversive unions were created, often forming a substitute revolutionary culture based on reciprocated aid, as workers endeavored to survive in an atrocious atmosphere. By 1900, some of these organizations became strong as much as necessary to confront the regime inspiring a number of strikes across Mexico. After the wrapping up of Mexican revolution both refugees and Mexican Americans involve themselves in the activities undertaken by labor organizations. The American Federation of Labor naturally repulsed Mexican descent factory and slaughterhouse workers and considered them as prospective strikebreakers, but Tejano workers seek for other alternatives. The membership of La Agrupacià ³n Protectora, founded 1911, comprised of factory and slaughterhouse workers. La Agrupacià ³n called for the fortification of its members from illegitimate reclamations of possessions. Tejanos as well joined an assortment of Socialist associations for instance the different associates of the Socialist party in Texas. Some Tejano factory and slaughterhouse workmen joined unions but however found themselves separated out from Caucasian laborers. Nevertheless, the epoch of the insurrection and World War I brought about an upswing in organizational responsiveness and no doubt improved living and working conditions of factory and slaughterhouse workers especially those of Mexican origin. Politically, Tejanos involved themselves in remonstration activities to bring awareness to the tribulations of their everyday living and working conditions. Aggravated by antagonism against decades old prejudice and disdain, Tejanos finally joined in a movement of armed confrontation against subjugation in 1915. In the conclusion it would relevant to mention that the revolts and wars irrespective of whatever reason instigated cast devastating curse on mankind. These never prove to be beneficiary for any party. Though living and working conditions of factory and slaughterhouse workmen in Mexico improved subsequent to the Mexican revolution in 1910, but due to various deceitful policies of the government the workers still suffer. Reference: Smith, DA; Mexico: A Thousand Revolutions; Alliance Publications; 2001

Saturday, September 28, 2019

The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) - Essay Example However lending has an interest rate attached to it. In the open market, it is also assumed that traders have all relevant information rates of stocks and other co-variances. Traders in an open market are also assumed to be rationale about being risk averse and all investors have same assets to choose from given all information concerning the assets and same decision methods are applied (Burton, 1998). This brings us to the concept of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). The model is very useful and is widely used in the industry, although it is based on very strong assumptions. This paper will focus on brief theory of arbitrage theory of the CAPM model, main theories behind this model and their critique. First, the model is quite useful as it focuses on determining the required rate of return appropriate for a company’s assets. The model requires various firms to have a portfolio that is well diversified, as long as the risks prone to the assets cannot be diversified (Brealey, et al 2009). Practically, most companies utilize CAPM model to determine the price of a security or a portfolio. In this case, a security market line that defines the relationship existing between the beta and expected rate of return of an asset is utilized. The line also enables firms to calculate a ratio that equates an asset’s rewards to its risks. It is also through the model that firms are able to determine the rate at which an asset’s cash inflows expected to be generated in future should be discounted. This takes into account the cash inflows in relation to the risks existing in the market. The arbitrage model was an alternative to the means variance capital asset pricing. Currently, the model has become a crucial tool in explaining the phenomenon mostly observed in the capital markets that deal with risky assets. One assumption of the capital asset pricing model is the assumption of normality in returns. It is from this assumption that the linear elation stipulated above originates. The assumption has had critique since theoretically, there does not exist guarantee to such efficiency. However, there is restrictiveness that underlie the mean variance model; therefore being the evidence of the existence of the linear relationship between risks and returns. This led to the popularity of the model. It was until later that Ross introduced a new model that would yield better results when pricing risky assets. The arbitrage model would hold both in equilibrium and all sorts of disequilibria unlike the mean variance analysis. However, there are some weaknesses in relation to this theory. For instance, when dealing with the number of assets, as assets increase, their r eturns are also expected to increase. This will result to an increase in risk aversion to investors. The arbitrage model has the law of large numbers where the noise term becomes negligible as the number of assets expands. Where the degree of risk aversion increases with the increase in the number of assets, the two effects cancels out, leaving the noise term to have a persistent effect on the pricing decision. In developing the arbitrage theory, several assumptions were put into consideration. First is the assumption of limitations on liability. It is assumed that there exists at least one asset which has a limited liability. This means that there are some bound per unit to the losses for which an investor is liable. The second assumption was based on the homogeneity of expectations. All the investors hold the same expectations, since all have the same assets, information and are risk averse. There also exists at least o

Friday, September 27, 2019

Eliminating sugar content from foods and replace with miracle berry Essay

Eliminating sugar content from foods and replace with miracle berry - Essay Example Therefore, there are needs to reduce sugar intakes into the body (seems to be impossible especially among children) or introduce an alternative sugar (sweetener) that will not subject the body to these health risks. According to the USDA documents, the consumption of sugar have since increased by 19%, from 1970 to 2005. This statistics indicates that, on average, a person consumes 140 pounds of sugar per year or 30 teaspoons per day. This value is inclusive sugar taken up by the body from different kinds of foods especially the processed foods. The same study revealed that the consumption of corn syrup per person increased by 387% within the same period (Rada, Avena, and Hoebel, 2005). The increased consumption of sugar is largely associated with the increased consumption of the processed foods. Nearly all processed foods contain sugar since sugar is added into these foods as sweetener. Notably, miracle berry, which is noted to be 400,000 times sweeter and healthier than sugar should be used as alternative food sweetener in food processing (Public Health England, 2015). Different research works have indicated that the miracle berry can be used as normal sugar and can be processed into different forms; hence, can as well be used in processing different foods (Inglett and Chen, 2011). Therefore, to reduce or completely eliminate health risks associated with the intake of sugar, all the concern stakeholders should advocate for the elimination of sugar content from foods and replace with healthier miracle berry sweetness. Chen, C., Wu, P., Huang, T., Lin, C., Li, Y., Chou, R., Chang, H., & Wang, H., (2009). The Sour Taste-Modifying Protein (Miraculin), Tyrosinase Inhibitors and Antioxidants from Synsepalum dulcificum. Current Nutrition & Food Sciences. 5. Du, L., Shen, Y., Zhang, X., Prinyawiwatkul, W., & Xu, Z., (2014). Antioxidant-rich phytochemicals in miracle berry

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Opera market Political analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Opera market Political analysis - Assignment Example Every organization carrying out any income generating activity has the obligation to pay taxes depending the existing rates and the amount of income (Christensen 1). For the company to maintain good political relations with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), it must pay tax promptly as applicable and fill tax return. Second, the company faces the task to adhere to the rules governing the intellectual property laws. Business ideas, logos, names or inventions need protection by the above law. Therefore, any emerging business such as the Opera House must adhere to such rules to avoid future squabbles with anyone who may intend to steal their business ideas. Applying for a patent through the US patents and trademark office may be a bold step to take towards registration of the opera services (Kendall 441). Opera being a movie production business issue like copyrights records have to be set straight. Third, the company will have to check with Environmental Protection Agency on which environmental rules and regulations apply to their and comply with them. Opera being an operator in the entertainment industry means some noise pollution regulations may apply to it (Tajtakova 365). There are also state environmental laws to meet with for example state of New Jersey has its particular environmental laws Finally, the workplace safety and health law is also a significant regulation the company will have to comply. Workers’ safety and health are critical. Therefore, the company have to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). The company must identify the possible hazards to the employees and takes measures to minimize such

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Concept political culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Concept political culture - Essay Example The latter was the form of governance utilized in the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans among others. The Ayllu were an example of Incan Empire, which utilized communally participatory politics where kinships existed. It added to the authoritarian, hierarchical, as well as other dictatorial methods of governance (Prevost & Vanden, 31). It was developed from the Iberian Peninsula and applied from following the governing methods that were part of the colonial and republican eras. One significant form of governance was the absolutist tradition, which went on to become a manifest of the Americas form of power with the fusion of the military power possessed by the Latin society. In the case of Latin America, it is a pot of cultural variations, which has established a level of diversity in Latin America. This is clearly shown by the political aspects, where the Latin countries adopt different political culture, which is determined by historical events. Latin America was deemed a region of having resources in abundance, and it resulted in different countries colonizing the region in the early years. With countries such as Spain, England, and even the United States, they each played a role in developing the political forms of governance in the region. It is illustrated by the development of Latin as the language in the region, which is heavily influenced by the Spanish language. This is an example of the major influences that the colonial period created in Latin America. The latter is influenced by the large number of tribes and social variations that have made the Latin culture so diverse. It has established a form of identity for the different countries in the region. A significant political factor that influences the region is the element of Dictatorship. The latter was introduced in the colonial period, and it was the style and rule

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 23

Marketing - Essay Example The company has over 1200 employees and a revenue turnover of over $1.2 billion .The services provided are insurance and financial services that are aimed at supporting the families that are affected by the death of their loved ones (Plant 2000). The organization has over 1.7 million members and over 13000 councils in countries such as the Philippines, Canada, Mexico, Guam the Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Cuba, Poland Dominican Republic amongst other states (Bayse2008). The main purpose of its existence is that of instilling practical catholic discipline on its members so that they can understand the norms and beliefs of the religion. Knights of Columbus also promote catholic education and charity to its members so that they can learn how to carry out their activities in the future. The core values of this organization are charitable work, Catholicism and acts of volunteering. For example in the year 2003, over $130 million efforts were contributed and over $ 60 million hours were contributed to the church and other projects. They promote the intellectual and social integration to its members through the provision of education, charitable work, social welfare and relief in both the war and the public domain. With time Knights of Columbus was able to venture into the insurance industry whereby they were to offer financial compensation to its members in case a financial loss occurred. According to Anderson, the main mission of the Company is to prote ct the interests of the catholic families with life insurance. A service refers to the work done by people on behalf of their customers so that they can derive some benefit from it. The management of the organization issues insurance policies to its customers in form of thousands of dollars who are of ages 18 to 60 years so that they can benefit from the services provided to them within the stipulated period of time. It also

Monday, September 23, 2019

Critically Analyse the Claim that Humans Are Political Animals Essay

Critically Analyse the Claim that Humans Are Political Animals - Essay Example This paper stresses that given the fact that individual human beings are not in any position to carry out their naturally defined functions without the city-state, the so given state is therefore naturally precedes the individuals in every aspect. In regards to the above mentioned arguments then, it is clear that every human being or individual has the natural impulse for a community which is political especially with the consideration that the city-state was created out of the intelligence of human beings. They then end up living a political life while in nature they are animals. Man is known to have an innate proclivity to always participate in several public activities and deal with others in the city. Associations and other bonds are then created as men live together in partnership due to the natural tendency to interact and socialize with other men. This rpeort makes a conclusion that as much as the several theorists try to explain the political naturalism in human beings, there is no concern or any consideration expressed on the part of the city-state’s modern liberalism. There is no explanation given on the freedom of individuals who participate in the city-state and protective provisions for their own private life from the exposition of the entire public. Aristotle’s arguments and justification on communitarian politics gives priority to the well-being of a community. Other modernists also argue on the basis of humans being conjugal and dependent on each other and thus conclude that establishing households, interacting and socializing among individuals makes one a complete human being. In that case, individual liberty does not win in context of any city-state just as freedom and private ownership does not exist for animals.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Understanding of the material presented on social learning and general Essay

Understanding of the material presented on social learning and general strain theories - Essay Example The general strain theory is a criminology branch that has a perspective that criminal behavior is a result of pressure by negative emotions such as anger which results to negative or strain relationships with others. The social learning and the general strain theories have some similarities and differences that explain more concerning them. The difference between the two that, general strain theory puts emphases on the negative relationships with others while the theory of social learning focuses much on the cognitive information acquired through the learning process. The general strain theory involves a motivational element of emotions that are negative while social learning involve a general learning process of either negative or positive things around the human beings (Agnew 67). For general strain theory, motivation occurs before the negative performance, but for social learning theory, motivation occurs when the desired behavior is achieved, although reinforcement is applied whenever a learner shows undesirable action. The social learning theory has some general similarities with the theory of general strain. Both of the two theories focus on the behavior one acquires from their environment they live. Both theories influence the development of a human being under any specified circumstances. They both explain how the human surrounding influences the relationship that he will have to the people around or even objects (Agnew 68). The two theories have motivation and reinforcement as the key factor that influence the action one engage in. They are both behaviors centered as compared to the other theories. The two theories propose that both behaviors of conformance and criminal like behavior are some kind of behaviors that one acquire and maintain, or even change through interaction with others. The most convincing theory between the two mentioned theories is the social learning theory. This theory can easily handle behavior

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Realistic Option for Chamberlain in 1938 Essay Example for Free

Realistic Option for Chamberlain in 1938 Essay Asses the view that appeasement was the only realistic option for Chamberlain in 1938 Appeasement was the British foreign policy adopted by Chamberlain in the wake of World War Two. This policy was seen as cowardice and Chamberlain received huge criticism for maintaining it throughout the road to war and died with the title of the man who was too coward to stand up to Hitler and his Nazi Germany which led to World War One. Churchill, a very strong opponent of appeasement, notoriously said â€Å"An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile hoping it will eat him last†[1]. However it wasn’t till the late 1960s that official Government documents on the subject were publically released which created a new view on Chamberlain and appeasement and that it was the only realistic policy for Chamberlain and Britain to pursue. One argument is the view that appeasement was the only realistic option because public opinion supported it and for Chamberlain to lead Britain to war would go against public favour. The First World War savaged Europe and Britain was hit very hard in terms of Human losses. Many families lost men within the family and left psychological scars nationwide. Chamberlain was therefore desperate to avoid another war on the continent at all costs. If Britain was to go to war they would have to rearm and build on their armed forces which had been neglected since world war one. However public opinion was that if Britain was rearming then they would be preparing for war, which was incredible unpopular. Evidence of this was in east Fulham by-election of 1933 the conservative who advocated rearmament turned a majority of 14,000 into a defeat by 5000 at the hands of his labour approach who supported disarmament. This illustrated the political affect that rearmament and policies that move towards War had which was a reason as to why Chamberlain saw appeasement as the only realistic option. Historian Howarth exemplifies this in his book by saying â€Å"chamberlains desire to avoid war matched the anxiety of the British people about being bought into a conflict like that of 1914-1918†[2]. Chamberlain wanted to represent and pursue the population’s interests, and in going to war he felt that he would have portrayed them incorrectly. When the opportunity of  going to war with Germany with the support of Czechoslovakia he stated â€Å"a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing†[3]. This insinuated that he was not prepared to risk British lives and go against public opinion for a nation on the other side of Europe of which Britain had not previously been closely tied with. Therefore appeasement was once again the only realistic option. On the other hand it can be argued that Chamberlain was appointed the Prime minister of Britain and should therefore know Britain’s best interests and should not be influenced by public opinion if it was against Britain’s security and wellbeing. Chamberlain knew the situation far greater than the populace of Britain and should therefore make the best informed decision without being influenced by public opinion. Simon Peaple enforces this by stating â€Å"newsreels and press reports provided only limited coverage of the crisis, so public opinion on the matter was limited†[4] . This therefore insinuates that the public did not have a great enough understanding to influence the decision of a well informed Prime minister. Churchill, Chamberlains biggest opponent in office and biggest critic of appeasement said in one of his speeches â€Å"I have been told that the reason why the government has not acted before was that public opinion was not ripe for rearmament. I hope that we shall never accept such a reason as that. The government has been in control of overwhelming majorities in both houses of parliament. There is no vote which would not have been accepted wither overwhelming strength†[5]. This speech by Churchill comments that public opinion should not have influenced government foreign affairs nor should they influence a decision to rearm in the interests of national security especially when the Government in power had the vast majority and could have passed any law that was seen as suitable for Britain and therefore appeasement was not the only realistic policy in terms of public support. [1] Churchill speech [2] 20th century history 1979 by Howarth [3] Chamberlain speech [4] European diplomacy 1870-1939 by Simon Peaple [5] Churchill speech on public opinion on the 22nd may 1935

Friday, September 20, 2019

Approaches To Teaching Listening

Approaches To Teaching Listening Through the time there has been a shift in language perspective. Listening as a skill takes priority over details of language content. Along this shift different approaches were chosen to teach listening. In late 1960s and in the early 1970s comprehension approach was used. It was a teacher centered approach in which no attention was given to mistakes or what may cause these mistakes. Teachers focused upon the outcome of listening rather than upon listening itself, upon product rather than process. Learners kept experiencing the same difficulties in same listening exercises as they were not taught how to deal with them. Comprehension approach provided practice in listening but failed to practice it. To make listening more effective it is necessary to judge understanding not only by the number of learners who answered the questions correctly but also to follow up responses in order to understand where understanding broke down and to put things right. This happens if the listening less ons are seen as diagnostic activity. Diagnostic approach requires teachers to identify and redress learners weaknesses as listeners. According to Brown: Until we have some diagnostic procedures the teacher can only continue to test comprehension not to teach it. We need to move to a position where the teacher is able to recognize particular patterns of behavior manifested y an unsuccessful listener and to provide exercises for the students which will promote superior patterns of behavior. More listening does not necessarily mean better listening. Breaking listening into sub skills and planning series of short listening exercises can ensure better listening as it supports diagnostic approach, making it easy to identify the failure. More recently as listening takes the priority it should be seen as form of expertise. This requires intensive practice to become more automatic and exposure to real life experiences where taught practice have to be used appropriately and under the pressur e of time. Process in understanding spoken discourse There are two kinds of processes involved in understanding the spoken discourse. These are generally referred to as Top down and Bottom up approaches. Bottom up refers to using the incoming input as the basis for understanding the message. Top down method on the other hand, uses background knowledge in understanding the meaning of the message. There have been several arguments about the use of these two methods. According to Vandergrift bottom up help learners to develop word recognition skills, whereas top down method help learners to develop real life listening skills. But alone its not adequate for developing word recognition skills. Tyler (2001) suggested that Bottom up method can be used for long term language retention but top down method can be used for quick acquisition by learners such as travelers, as it provides insufficient basis for communication. As a result it can be seen as a matter of the aim of the listening. At the same time its been clearly stated that effective l istening occurs when Top down(meaning to language) and Bottom up (language to meaning) approaches occur together. Appropriate Tasks for effective listening The nature of comprehension is one of the main concerns to think before choosing the listening task Hundred percent correct and objective answers should not be expected form learners during the listening activity as what they understand recall or pay attention to are depend on the factors like their interest background and purpose in listening. ( Sheerin) Complete recall of all the information in an aural text is an unrealistic expectation to which even native speakers are not usually held. Listening exercises should be success-oriented and help students to build up confidence in their listening ability. The aim of the teachers should be making listening in second language (L2) as easy as listening in first language (L1). It is possible to make listening activities more effective by choosing appropriate tasks. Appropriate listening tasks must provide learners with necessary background knowledge and also cultural context when its needed, to make learners memory load less. Listening wi th more language knowledge make learners have more room in work memory to retain all information and make necessary revisions or inferences as they listen(Vandergrift). Listening task become more effective as listeners become more familiar with what they are listening. Tyler (2001) also supported this view by stating: Topic familiar-texts may inhibit the development of bottom up skills. Moreover listening tasks must have a purpose. As different listening tasks require different kinds of listening behaviors, learners need to know the purpose of the listening task to be able to choose the appropriate listening behavior. Shorter is easier to process principle rather than longer texts must be adapted as L2 listeners who can remember what they have heard perform more effectively (Brown). Effective listening materials consists of three parts; Pre listening, While Listening and Post listening and contain activities that link bottom up and top down listening (Field 98). Each part has specif ic aim therefore in an effective listening task; these three parts must be identical. Pre listening stage is used to activate knowledge, make predictions and reviewing key vocabulary. This stage must be used to simulate the appropriate background knowledge and to help learners to identify the purpose of the listening activity. While listening activities focuses on comprehension through exercises whereas Post listening generally involves response to comprehension. They all must be treated equally. All above these one of the main concerns about the listening task is authenticity; whether to provide L2 learners with the real life like listening materials or not. While some researchers support the use of authentic listening materials, others argue. Field suggested the use of authentic materials as they offer examples of hesitation, false start and pause, which characterizes the natural speech. Ur also emphasizes the importance of having listening instruction resemble real-life listening which makes the listener to built a sense of purpose and expectation for listening. These views match with the recent listening materials as its obvious that recent materials are trying to adapt more authentic tasks than before. In spite of these still there are some opponent views of the usage of authentic materials. Namely, Karen suggested that the authenticity might be a goal but not a starting point for learners. And Rosts view supported Karens as he stated that authentic materials are difficult both for learners and teachers and planning is necessary to be able to use them. Teachers must ensure that learners adopt their inference strategies they use in L1 to L2 listening. Using authentic materials are popular and believe to be effective however there is no proof that they are inherently superior to pedagogic recordings. The important thing is to use the one which is effective for learners to get better. Along authenticity discussions, simplicity is yet another concern for rese archers and teachers. Learners, when they are children, initially receive simplified input in learning their first language. There are some advantages of simplified language for L2 learners such as providing greater ease of comprehension for L2 learners and greater initial self competence in protected classroom environment. However it can cause learners to create unrealistic expectations that all L2 should be simple and easy to understand and it may cause to lose self esteem outside the classroom environment when learners cannot understand unsimplified speech. Hence activities must use authentic language without significantly slower or simpler speech than would normally be used in real life. Consequently it can be said that meaningful, interesting listening tasks using ordinary ,unsimplified, second language speech are effective. Importance of support in teaching environment. Importance of support in teaching L2 listening cannot be underestimated. Along appropriate tasks teachers still need to provide support during listening (Sheerin). This support can be in the form of a visual, transcript and/or positive feedback. In real life generally listeners have the opportunity to see the speaker. This supplies cultural information and so enable learners to predict more accurately. Visual aids such as maps, diagrams, pictures, or the images in a video help contextualize the listening input and provide clues to meaning. Moreover visuals reinforce the aural message and focus learners attention on the most important information. They are useful way of setting context which makes the activity more meaningful (Turner). Despite of the arguments about the necessity of them, transcripts are still thought to be other important support for learners. As use of the written record of the tasks are discussed, Sheerin supported the idea of transcript use by saying full and accu rately written transcript is important source of support for learners. It makes learners aware of the fact that they dont have to focus on every single word they hear. When examined Sherrins words carefully it can be clearly seen that use of transcripts not only help learners to improve themselves but also affect learners psychologically. Learners improve their listening if they have opportunity to see the whole text they heard. This enables them to see the use of the words. Moreover they feel that they dont need to afraid of missing some of the words as they listen. Transcript use is a beneficial learning activity which must be provided as a supplementary activity at the end of the listening, after students made some effort. Furthermore easiest and widely use form of support is positive feedback. Positive feedback is very important in listening as it is a demonstrative skill and repeated failure can cause panic and psychological barrier to effective listening. Therefore it must be ensured that positive feedback is provided during the learning process as a mean of support. Strategies and Strategy training Strategies and strategy training are most demanding and discussed issues about teaching effective listening. First of all the definition of the strategy and the distinction between the strategy and sub skill must be understood. Sub skills are competencies which native listeners posses and which non-native listeners need to acquire. Strategies, by contrast, are strictly compensatory. They are already available in L1. The goal in effective listening is to ensure that they are transferred into L2. Moreover strategies defined by Rost as; Some aspects of listening are under conscious control of listener while others are automatic and not under direct control. The conscious aspects of any goal oriented behavior are viewed in psychology as strategies. (Rost) Listening strategies can be thought of the way learners approach and manage the task. The effect of different types of listening strategy was investigated by Rubin (1988) with high school learners of Spanish. The performance of three ex perimental groups was compared with that of two control groups in the comprehension of video. Although not all the hypotheses were confirmed, results demonstrated that the use of some listening strategies can help students work with more difficult material (Vandergrift).Buck suggested two types of listening strategies; cognitive and metacognitive. Cognitive strategies are mental activities related to comprehending and storing input in working memory or long-term memory for later retrieval and metacognitive strategies are those conscious or unconscious mental activities that perform an executive function in the management of cognitive strategies. A lot of different researches have been done to find successful strategies. (Buck). As a result of these researches five commonly used successful strategies are defined as; Prediction, Making inferences, Attempting to clarify areas of confusion, Monitoring ones own listening process and Responding to what one has understood( Vandergrift 96,9 8,99). Despite of the fact that there are different strategies available for L2 learners, they often do not approach the listening tasks in the most effective way despite what they may do in their L1 ( Mendelsohn). Therefore it is necessary to help learners to find the correct strategy. With this view, some researchers suggested strategy training. According to Mendelsohn strategies can and must be taught as training students about how to listen leads to improvement in their listening ability. Training effective listening requires identifying ones goals in listening situation and act appropriate skills and strategies for ones listening goals. ( Rost) As learner centered models of L2 instructions became the focus of attention, teachers became the trainers of listening strategies rather than simple providers of comprehensible input.. Learners are made aware of the possible strategies through the use of strategy training and this leads to teaching and learning effective listening.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Portrayal of London in the Opening of Bleak House Essay example -- ess

The first paragraph of Bleak House alone gives the reader an instant idea of how Charles Dickens saw London to be around 1842. He has portrayed the streets to be muddy and extremely polluted, "As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth." Here Dickens has used a slight amount of Hyperbole to emphasize his point. He also uses personification when referring to the snow flakes, saying that they have gone into mourning, ?smoke lowering down from the chimneypots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snowflakes?gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun.? the contrast of the imagery he is using helps for the reader to imagine the scene, the contrast of the black flakes of soot and the white snow flakes, in my opinion could represent good and evil, and the idea that London is so evil and polluted that their snow flakes are no longer white, they have turned black. He also makes refere nce to the cold dark weather they are having at the time, referring to it as ?the death of the sun?. Readers may see this as Pathetic Fallacy as he refers to the foot passengers on the streets of London as having ?A general infection of ill temper? giving the impression that the cold harsh weather and surroundings make people more irritable but also reflecting the peoples ill temperedness in the weather. ?Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows, fog down the river?. Repetition is used a lot here to have impact. The fact that fog is repeated so many times gives the reader the impression that there is an overwhelming amount of fog, and to give the reader the sense that there is no way they can escape the fog, fog ... ...tected from the fog, as if he is like the eye of the storm, ?softly fenced in?. The fog and misery of London which is portrayed in the opening of Bleak House seems to centre on Lincoln?s Inn Hall and the Lord Chancellor, Dickens has given the reader the impression that the government is to blame and that they are just for show and don?t do anything to help, just put on a show for the people of London, as they are purely ceremonial, ?Running their goat-hair and horsehair warded heads against walls of words and making a pretence of equality with serious faces.? Dickens is making the statement that the Government seems to only have time for the rich and successful apposed to the poor and that they do not view society equally, but they try to pretend they do. This gives the reader the impression that London is very much based on classes according to the government.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

The Assyrian Sacred Tree Essay -- Mythology

A traditional interpretation of what has become known as the Assyrian Sacred Tree conceives of it as the date palm. Consisting of a series of nodes and interlacing vines, the depiction of the â€Å"tree† contradicts the morphological appearance of a date palm seems at best to be a highly abstracted consolidation of various botanical characteristics from separate distinct species. Despite recent proposals by several art historians and botanists to conclusively determine its proper classification, indubitable evidence unlocking the enigma behind this timeless symbol—a sacred fountainhead for many western religions originating in the Near East—has yet to uproot the deep seeded academic insistence on the date palm. The â€Å"Sacred Tree,† (fig. 1) was originally positioned behind the king’s throne. The scene shows two genii, sometimes with birds’ heads and sometimes with men’s heads and the horned hats of gods. Each of the winged figures holds a bucket and reaches out with an oval object toward a stylized â€Å"tree.† The composition has been read as being based on bilateral symmetry, with the vertical stalk-like structure crowned by a palmette. A meticulous examination reveals that although balanced, it has many discrepancies on both sides that deviate from perfect mirror symmetry. Ashurnasirpal appears twice, shown from two sides, dressed in ceremonial robes and holding a mace connoting his authority. The figure of the king on the right makes an invocative gesture a god in a winged disk in the top center of the relief. Ashur, the national god or Shamash, the god of the sun and justice, may be identified as the god who confers the king divine right. On t he left, the king holds a ring, an ancient Mesopotamian symbol of divine kingship, in one... ...ee of Life." Economic Botany 56, no. 2 (2002): 113-29. Parpola, Simo. "The Assyrian Tree of Life: Tracing the Origins of Monotheism and Greek Philosophy." Journal of Near Eastern Studies 52 (1993): 161-208. Porter, Barbara Nevling. "Sacred Trees, Date Palms, and the Royal Persona of Ashurnasirpal II." Journal of Near Eastern Studies 52, no. 2 (1993): 129-39. Reade, Julian. Assyrian sculpture. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983. Richardson, Seth. "An Assyrian Garden of Ancestors: Room I, Northwest Palace, Kalhu." State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 13 (1999): 145-216. Tylor, Edward B.. The Winged Figures of The Assyrian and other Ancient Monuments. London: Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1890. Winter, Irene. "Ornament and the 'Rhetoric of Abundance' in Assyria." Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies 27 (2003): 252-264, at 253.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Filmmaking Process

The filmmaking process is an extremely important, long, and complicated process. It usually takes between several months and several years. A film always starts with an original story idea, then a screenplay gets written, and then they shoot it. After that they edit the film and direct it. Then they distribute the film to its intended audience. There are also many people involved in the filmmaking process, from the directors to the cast, to the stage crew. The first step is coming up with the concept of the film, which is the idea. It could be an original story, or a remake. It could be part of a series. It could also come from a book or a play. Then they have to make an outline which describes the dramatic structure in each scene, called a step outline. This tells who will be where, what’s going to be said, and pretty much everything that happens in the film. They also set up all the scenes in the correct order. Then they make a twenty five to thirty five page paper describing the characters of the story and the mood. This is called a treatment. It contains stage direction and a little dialogue. It also has pictures so they have something to look at showing what the movies are going to do. This is the first step of the filmmaking process and really helps when it comes time to develop the screenplay. After this they start the screenplay. Writing the screenplay can take several months. They usually have to rewrite to improve things the dialogue, dramatization, characthers, structure, style, and to make it more clear. They develop screenplays in which the investers and other interested parties assess a process called script coverage. They have a film distributor look at it, and depending on how promising it looks, they guess how much financial help the film needs and how much it will get. Then they figure out the genre of the film, the target audience, success of films that were similar, and the success of the actors, actresses, and directors in previous films. These factors show how much the film will appeal to the target audience. Then they come together and form a film pitch. If the film pitch goes through and is successful, then they have financial backing to make the film. Then they make up contracts for everyone involved. At this time, only the second step, they’ve already developed their marketing strategy, which is how they advertise the film. They also have their target audience. Next is pre-production. During this stage every part of the filmmaking process is designed and planned out. The production is also storyboarded, in which the visual helps the concept artist and the illustrators. Then they have to make up a production budget. This is how much they plan on spending, and it includes insurance in case there is an accident. Then they start hiring their crew. The amount of people varies. If it is an important movie, like a Harry Potter movie, it would have over one hundred people. If it was a smaller film it could include just eight or nine people. The first member of the crew is the director. The director is responsible for all the creative decisions and story telling, as well as the acting. The director yells out action and cut. After the director there is an assistant director, who manages the logistics of the film, including the shooting schedule. There is also a casting director who auditions actors for the characters, deciding who embodies which character best. The photography director supervises the photography during the film. The audiography director makes sure all the sound in the film is correct. The location manager takes care of where the film is located. Although most parts are shot in a studio, there are some things that need to be shot off location. There is also a composer who decides when music should play, how loudly, and what to play. The production designer takes care of the visual conception of the film while the art director manages the building of the set and props. The costume designer creates the clothing for the actors and actresses, and usually ends up having to work closely with them. There is also a hair and makeup designer, who styles each of the actors, making sure they look the same each time. There is also a choreagorapher. As is usual for a choreagorapher they create dances and fight scenes, as well as regular movements. After all of these people are hired they are ready for production. The next part is production. Production is the most grueling part of filmmaking. The cast and crew can frequently spend 12 or more hours on the set, filming only three or four pages of script, often in very uncomfortable ocations. This goes on for days, weeks, months with the same schedule day after day, review dailies (the footage shot yesterday), shoot today’s footage, prepare for tomorrow’s filming. For many people though, this is the most exhilarating part of production and this is indeed where â€Å"the magic happens. † Yet to some people it sometimes seems strange that a movie that will eventually only occupy two hours onscreen could take months to film. However, it does, and here’s just a few of the reason why. The first reason is lighting. One of the single most important elements to a film’s visual appearance is lighting. However perfect lighting does not exist and takes time to create. Lighting must be made consistent (or inconsistent depending) and mood-enhancing, yet remain unobtrusive. It takes a great deal of planning and then man-hours by electricians and their assistants to create a light set-up for even a small set. The next reason is location. Sometimes it is possible to film an entire movie on a sound stage, however, more than likely it requires some traveling. Since science has yet to create a teleportation device and all the magicians who know how to do it won’t reveal their secrets unless televised on broadcast television, it can take huge amounts of time to transport the cast and crew to even one location per day. There are probably close to 100 people involved in a major film, excluding crowd scene extras and so on, as well as literally tons of equipment to go along with them. Another reason is weather. Mother Nature doesn’t really care about Hollywood and can quite frequently hamper production. Usually it is no more than a rain storm that stops production for a day or two, or a heat wave that causes shorter work days. But sometimes weather can be extremely costly. Such was the case of Kevin Costner’s Waterworld that saw entire sets destroyed and sunk by sea storms that not only seriously delayed the production, but also pushed the budget sky-high. Previously I mentioned that lighting is one of the most important elements in a movie. In addition to lighting, and of course the actors, cinemotography is the key element in a film’s visual appearance. Though it takes years of either schooling or job experience to truly learn how to film well, there are a few basic pointers that anyone with a camera and eye towards making something better than a jerky home movie should know (because seriously, those â€Å"How to Film† videos they hand out now when you buy a camcorder are really just a twenty minutes session in which they try to sell you all the accessories). After production there is post-production, which is basically editing. Post-Production involves every step after primary filming, editing and corrections, and reshoots. The process of reshooting is simple enough in concept (though perhaps not in actual process) that we can skip that one which leaves editing and corrections. Editing serves two purposes. First, the logistics of production often make it impossible to film in sequence. And even in the extremely rare case where a story is filmed in order, there are still numerous takes and unnecessary footage between the good shots. Thus, editing serves to eliminate this unwanted footage and to place the events in a coherent order. Second, even simple actions take up a great deal of time on film. For example imagine a sequence of a person getting dressed. In real life this process takes about five minutes. Five minutes in the course of the human life is insignificant, but five minutes in the course of a two hour movie is a horrendous amount of time to spend on meaningless action. If that same person pulled clothes out of a closet and in the next shot walked into the kitchen, the obvious conclusion the audience will make is said person got dressed. Thus editing can serve to eliminate tedious and unnecessary footage so that the audience may focus on the story. Editing can also serve to create. The human eye, when viewing a scene does not remain stationary. Watch two people talking, your eye will jump from person to person to watch speech or gauge reaction. You’ll find it extremely difficult to watch both at the same time and you could end up cross-eyed. Editing also serves to mimic this action of selective viewing. When a conversation between two people is put on film, it is filmed (usually) by switching back and forth between the characters to again, watch speech or gauge reaction. The natural switching back and forth is unobtrusive because in reality, you do it all the time. Thus editing serves to place shots into a coherent storyline, eliminate unnecessary footage, and create better flow. Other examples of techniques in which the editing serves more interesting purposes are parallel editing and montage. Parallel editing is a technique in which two separate scenes are shown to take place at the same time. To do this, the editor cuts the two scenes together switching from one to the other. This is often used in scenes where the character is racing against time, such as the bomb’s clock counting down as the character tries to get out of the building. A montage sequence is another technique in which extremely short shots are edited together in quick succession to create general emotion. Editing is not the entirety of post-production however. Once the picture is edited into its final narrative form, there are hundreds of tiny elements that need to be tweaked. Occasionally, different light schemes will produce different colors between shots, the differences are always slight, however, they need to be corrected to create continuity between shots. This process is called color-correction. Titles and credits, a key part to any movie, are also designed and added. Also at this stage any computer generated effects are added to footage, though in truth this will happen before the scene is edited. While these visual components are polished, the audio portions of the film are tweaked elsewhere. Very rarely are the audio components you hear in the theater the sounds recorded during footage. Audio is recorded onto a separate track, which is kept in time with the footage via a sync machine (this is so your movie doesn’t end up looking like a cheap dubbing job). The microphones used to record the actors voices are extremely precise in their range, they pick up sound only from the air immediately in front of the actor. This keeps the voice quality as high possible. Later on, background is added in when it can be adjusted to suitable levels. So if two characters are walking amidst a midnight orchard replete with singing nightbirds, the dialogue is really the only noise recorded at the time. The other noises, the crickets, nightbirds and the wind, are either recorded at the same location or elsewhere and then added in so that the night wildlife only adds to the mood of the scene, rather than drowning out the speech of the characters. The final steps are distribution and release. They either sell the movie to a company who will release it in cinemas, or to one who will make it go out on DVD. They create movie trailers, posters, and other things to advertise the upcomoing film. The night the film is realeased it is celebrated with a launch party, and then if it is in cinemas, it will get released on DVD a few months later. In the end the distribution and production companies split the profit. As you can see, filmmaking is a very complicated process.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Cross-Cultural Communication Game

Introduction Cross cultural communication becomes an essential element in the organization because of the increase and interest in globalization and the diversity in the work environments. The employees in the company will be separated into diverse groups and sub-groups, those groups will have their own verbal and non-verbal communication styles which may create disagreement or conflict within the organization, especially in the multinational company.Objectives of the game The major goals of the games are: I) Introducing to a group about communication pattern change when there are cultural differences, II) Understanding both cultural behaviors and communication patterns can impact negotiation between two groups. Equipment and materials required In terms of resources needed, an overhead projector, a computer and blackboard are needed during the game. Also, paper and gifts would be prepared too. Procedure 1.Divide the students into two groups which are Alpha group and Beta group, they will have a paper showing their own characteristics in the game 2. Choose two leaders in Alpha group and two leaders in Beta group 3. Solve the distribution of reward problem in their own group first. The first round discussion will be recorded by the game holder. 4. After 10 minutes, half of the members in each group will exchange to another group, they will discuss the problem again.They will have cross cultural communication through the group exchanging. The discussion will be recorded by the game holder. 5. Based on the above discussion, each group requires to reporting the results of the negotiation. Time allocation Our management game is â€Å"Alpha-Beta partnership†. Firstly, 3-5 minutes would be allocated on giving students the background information and objectives of the game, and separating them into 2 groups. Then 22 minutes would be the management game session.Lastly, the rest of time would be used to be a debriefing session and a simple conclusion on the manageme nt game. Activities| Time spend| Introduction| 3 minutes| Dividing into groups| 2 minutes| Game on Alpha-Beta partnership| 22 minutes(2 minutes for them to exchange)| Conclusion and feedback| 10 minutes| Reference: http://books. google. com. hk/books? id=49L0vgdcdLAC&pg=PA11&hl=zh-CN&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Reaction Paper Sample

Reaction Paper #4: The Prince and the Pauper Monica Sharma I read The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain and enjoyed reading about a wealthy prince name Edward Tudor and a pauper name Tom Canty trading lives with each other and experiencing how it is like to live a life that is totally opposite from what they are used to. It really made me depressed to read the part, â€Å"Drunkenness, riot and brawling were the order, there, every night and nearly all night long. Broken heads were as common as hunger in that place. Yet little Tom was not unhappy. He had a hard time of it, but did not know it.It was the sort of time that all the Offal Court boys had, therefore he supposed it was the correct and comfortable thing. When he came home empty-handed at night, he knew his father would curse him and thrash him first, and that when he was done the awful grandmother would do it all over again and improve on it; and that away in the night his starving mother would slip to him stealthily with any miserable scrap or crust she had been able to save for him by going hungry herself, notwithstanding she was often caught in that sort of treason and soundly beaten for it by her husband. No child should have to go through that sort of violence and abuse, and most children who do usually ends up becoming traumatized and disturbed. After reading that part, it made me want to jump into the book and take Tom away from that horrid place. However, it was interesting to read about how despite the environment Tom was brought up in, Tom was still happy with his life. This made me think, â€Å"How could you be happy with a life where your family abuses you and you’re forced to beg on the streets all day?! Tom even managed to obtain a proper education in his hometown since Father Andrew would always teach Tom â€Å"the right ways† and how to read and write in Latin. The part, â€Å"His head grew to be full of these wonderful things, and many a night as he lay in the dark on his scant and offensive straw, tired, hungry, smarting from a thrashing, he unleashed his imagination and soon forgot his aches and pains in delicious picturings to himself of the charmed life of a petted prince in a regal palace.One desire came in time to haunt him day and night: it was to see a real prince, with his own eyes,† showed me how Tom’s imagination served as an escape from the harsh reality he lives in. Not only that, but Tom’s imagination on becoming a prince makes Tom try to possess the qualities that a prince must always have, such as intelligence and etiquette. Because of this, it makes it easy for Tom to become mistaken as the real prince and blend in gradually.Tom’s daydreaming also causes him to wander through the streets which leads him to his encounter with the prince and their exchange of clothes. I found it funny that just because the prince and the pauper changes clothes, they are treated based on the type of clothes they are weari ng. For example, Tom is treated like a prince because he is wearing royal clothing and Edward, who is the real prince, becomes the pauper and gets treated like one when the guard of the palace sees Edward wearing Tom's rags and throws him out of the palace harshly and into the midst of a rowdy crowd. †¦ the soldier fetched him a sounding box on the ear that sent him whirling to the roadway, and said: â€Å"Take that, thou beggars’ spawn, for what thou got’st me from his Highness! † The crowd roared with laughter. The prince picked himself out of the mud, and made fiercely at the sentry, shouting: â€Å"I am the Prince of Wales, my person is sacred; and thou shalt hang for laying thy hand upon me! † The soldier brought his halberd to a present-arms and said mockingly: â€Å"I salute your gracious Highness. Then angrily, â€Å"Be off, thou crazy rubbish! † I realized that this brought exaggeration to Mark Twain’s quote who stated that â €Å"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society,† since when the two boys exchange clothes, the prince quickly became the pauper and was treated like one because of the rags he was wearing and the pauper became the prince and was treated like royalty because of the wealthy clothes he was wearing.This also symbolizes the fact that a person from a wealthy background is no different from a person that comes from a poor background since the two boys are easily mistaken to be each other despite their differences. I thought this was weird at first but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to me. Tom and Edward both have the same height, weight, skin color and similar facial features, and even though they are two different people with two different backgrounds, they were able to easily switch places with each other.If they hadn’t had similar appearances, or if Tom wasn’t intelligent and able to learn how to become a real king , the plot of the story would have been completely different. This meant that the characters in the book had to have certain characteristics in order to fit the plot Twain created. I loved reading the ending of the novel since it was a happy ending (and who doesn’t like a good happy ending? ). In the end, when Edward returns to his rightful place in the throne, you can tell that his experience of living as a pauper affected him greatly.He becomes a great king who is merciful with his people and makes it a priority to get rid of injustice laws. Also, Edward finds all the people who helped when he was a pauper, such as the lawyer from prison and the judge who was nice to him even though he was wrongfully accused of stealing, and rewards them to show his appreciation of their kindness. However, to all the people who mistreated him and their power, he gives them harsh punishment. Everyone finally gets what they truly deserve in the end, yay! 🙂 Reaction Paper Sample Reaction Paper #4: The Prince and the Pauper Monica Sharma I read The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain and enjoyed reading about a wealthy prince name Edward Tudor and a pauper name Tom Canty trading lives with each other and experiencing how it is like to live a life that is totally opposite from what they are used to. It really made me depressed to read the part, â€Å"Drunkenness, riot and brawling were the order, there, every night and nearly all night long. Broken heads were as common as hunger in that place. Yet little Tom was not unhappy. He had a hard time of it, but did not know it.It was the sort of time that all the Offal Court boys had, therefore he supposed it was the correct and comfortable thing. When he came home empty-handed at night, he knew his father would curse him and thrash him first, and that when he was done the awful grandmother would do it all over again and improve on it; and that away in the night his starving mother would slip to him stealthily with any miserable scrap or crust she had been able to save for him by going hungry herself, notwithstanding she was often caught in that sort of treason and soundly beaten for it by her husband. No child should have to go through that sort of violence and abuse, and most children who do usually ends up becoming traumatized and disturbed. After reading that part, it made me want to jump into the book and take Tom away from that horrid place. However, it was interesting to read about how despite the environment Tom was brought up in, Tom was still happy with his life. This made me think, â€Å"How could you be happy with a life where your family abuses you and you’re forced to beg on the streets all day?! Tom even managed to obtain a proper education in his hometown since Father Andrew would always teach Tom â€Å"the right ways† and how to read and write in Latin. The part, â€Å"His head grew to be full of these wonderful things, and many a night as he lay in the dark on his scant and offensive straw, tired, hungry, smarting from a thrashing, he unleashed his imagination and soon forgot his aches and pains in delicious picturings to himself of the charmed life of a petted prince in a regal palace.One desire came in time to haunt him day and night: it was to see a real prince, with his own eyes,† showed me how Tom’s imagination served as an escape from the harsh reality he lives in. Not only that, but Tom’s imagination on becoming a prince makes Tom try to possess the qualities that a prince must always have, such as intelligence and etiquette. Because of this, it makes it easy for Tom to become mistaken as the real prince and blend in gradually.Tom’s daydreaming also causes him to wander through the streets which leads him to his encounter with the prince and their exchange of clothes. I found it funny that just because the prince and the pauper changes clothes, they are treated based on the type of clothes they are weari ng. For example, Tom is treated like a prince because he is wearing royal clothing and Edward, who is the real prince, becomes the pauper and gets treated like one when the guard of the palace sees Edward wearing Tom's rags and throws him out of the palace harshly and into the midst of a rowdy crowd. †¦ the soldier fetched him a sounding box on the ear that sent him whirling to the roadway, and said: â€Å"Take that, thou beggars’ spawn, for what thou got’st me from his Highness! † The crowd roared with laughter. The prince picked himself out of the mud, and made fiercely at the sentry, shouting: â€Å"I am the Prince of Wales, my person is sacred; and thou shalt hang for laying thy hand upon me! † The soldier brought his halberd to a present-arms and said mockingly: â€Å"I salute your gracious Highness. Then angrily, â€Å"Be off, thou crazy rubbish! † I realized that this brought exaggeration to Mark Twain’s quote who stated that â €Å"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society,† since when the two boys exchange clothes, the prince quickly became the pauper and was treated like one because of the rags he was wearing and the pauper became the prince and was treated like royalty because of the wealthy clothes he was wearing.This also symbolizes the fact that a person from a wealthy background is no different from a person that comes from a poor background since the two boys are easily mistaken to be each other despite their differences. I thought this was weird at first but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to me. Tom and Edward both have the same height, weight, skin color and similar facial features, and even though they are two different people with two different backgrounds, they were able to easily switch places with each other.If they hadn’t had similar appearances, or if Tom wasn’t intelligent and able to learn how to become a real king , the plot of the story would have been completely different. This meant that the characters in the book had to have certain characteristics in order to fit the plot Twain created. I loved reading the ending of the novel since it was a happy ending (and who doesn’t like a good happy ending? ). In the end, when Edward returns to his rightful place in the throne, you can tell that his experience of living as a pauper affected him greatly.He becomes a great king who is merciful with his people and makes it a priority to get rid of injustice laws. Also, Edward finds all the people who helped when he was a pauper, such as the lawyer from prison and the judge who was nice to him even though he was wrongfully accused of stealing, and rewards them to show his appreciation of their kindness. However, to all the people who mistreated him and their power, he gives them harsh punishment. Everyone finally gets what they truly deserve in the end, yay! 🙂

Larsen and Toubro Case Study Essay

Organizational Development (OD) is a planned long term effort led and supported through the top management to improve an organization’s ability and to solve its own problems by continuously working together and on managing the culture using behavioural skills. Thus, there are some certain aspects worth discussing about which are- OD is a planned effort. It requires a lot of effort, patience, and faith and is time consuming. Secondly, OD usually uses outsiders. These ‘facilitators’ as they are called are process specialists and are involved in depth in this process. The pioneers of OD in India were Larsen and Toubro India (L&T). OD at L&T started by calling in 2 eminent professors- Dr Udai Pareek and Dr TV Rao to study the appraisal process at the company. The existing appraisal system had many faults and needed to be corrected. The difficult task started by the professors interviewing some bosses and subordinates from different departments (using Diagnosis or Action Research) and they got a very interesting feedback. Some of the aspects of the feedback were – juniors wanted to know how well they were doing on the job, but weren’t told; people wanted to know what the growth opportunities in the company were; the appraisal form was too lengthy; some bosses had too many subordinates to appraise, etc. After getting the feedback from the employees the professors gave a report to the top management about the actual problem. The appraisal system had to serve not just one but many purposes namely it should help people understand their strengths and weaknesses, their own progress on the job, how they can perform better, and how they could grow in the company. So the appraisal process had to address the issues of appraisal, potential, counselling, career development and training all in one! The top management after reviewing the report gave the go ahead and they did two main things which were the most important which were bifurcating the Personnel department into personnel department and HRD department. This bifurcation was the first sign of ‘structural’ change. Secondly, a team of 6 senior managers was formed which would be responsible for implementing the changes required. The story continues when the 6 task force and the professors decided that the appraisal process had to involve the line managers personally, the performance goals must be set jointly by boss and junior and the appraisals must also involve feedback and counselling to people. Thus, they prepared a Performance Appraisal Manual by involving the departmental heads and other senior managers to analyze what kind of objectives could be set and then added such guidelines in the manual. To address the issue of feedback and counselling, the team identified around 29 senior line managers and some senior staff with a flair for public speaking. These selected people were put through a workshop on how to be good ‘Givers’ and ‘Receivers’ of feedback and then later conducted the same workshop for other employees at HQ and regional offices. Thus, the first workshop was a ‘Train the trainer’ workshop which was cascaded to the other employees. After putting in so much of effort now the management at L&T wanted to know whether the process was working for them or not. So again the professors interviewed some seniors and juniors about how the appraisals were going on. This time different views came into the picture – the goal setting was seen as time consuming, appraisal was becoming a numbers game, and was tending to become ritualistic. The HRD department was asked to conduct a survey (Participant Action Research). The survey also threw new light about the new appraisal process. The bosses now did involve their juniors in the goal setting and there was ‘healthy resolution’ of difficulties and there was a ‘high degree of trust’ between the seniors and juniors which led to ‘increased joint understanding about the job’. After receiving such a feedback, they again tried to simplify the appraisal form by adding the definitions of the attributes listed in the appraisal form. In addition, they held refresher courses in feedback skills for both ‘givers’ and ‘receivers’ of feedback. The facilitators felt that the appraisal system has stabilised when 80 to 85% of the appraisal forms were returned within six weeks of the target date. Also the HRD department started analyzing all the appraisal forms. The data from the analysis was used for listing high and low performers for a certain period; for finalising departmental developmental plans and for preparing the list of department wise employees and the training courses they needed. The above mentioned process took L&T 8 years to complete and stabilise themselves. Thus, I can conclude that OD is a long term process which requires a lot of patience, support from the top management and a vision to a bright future.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Commercial Law

ABDUL RASHID ABDUL MAJID v ISLAND GOLF PROPERTIES SDN BHD [1989] 3 MLJ 376 ISSUE In this case, the issues is whether the board was entitled to levy and collect fees known as development fees from members? PRINCIPLES The defendants owned, managed and operate a social golf club. Membership of the club is of the following types which are honorary membership, ordinary membership, ordinary transferable membership, subscribing membership, institutional corporate membership, expatriate transferable membership, ordinary social membership, term membership and visiting membership. Under the Rule 3 of the club’s rules provided, inter alia, that the club was a proprietary club, of which the defendants were the proprietors with a board of directors responsible for the policies, management and operation of the club. Rule 5 of the rules provided, inter alia, that all members shall not, by reason of his membership, be under any financial liability except for payment of his annual subscription and any other sums due under or levied under the rules and by laws to the defendants. The plaintiff is an ordinary transferable membership. The plaintiff applied to become a member of the club by submitting the necessary application form and duly executed a declaration contained therein which states, inter alia, that he accepted and agreed that the board of the defendants had sole responsible for the policies, management and operation of the club with the power to increase entrance fees and subscription and to levy and additional charges to meet expenditure and it also has the sole right to amend, vary, add to or formulate such rules, terms and conditions of the club including the withdrawal or addition of benefits and privileges of members as if may in its absolute discretion deem necessary. 1|Page The board sought to levy and collects the development fees pursuant to its power under the rules. Rule 33 of the club’s rules provided, inter alia, that the board shall be the sole authority for the interpretation of the rules and by laws made there under and that the decision of the board shall be final and binding on all members. The principle that is under Section 2 (a) of the Contracts Act 1950, a proposal is made when one person signifies to another his willingness to do or to abstain from doing anything with a view to obtaining the assent of that other to such act or abstinence. Moreover, the proposal is invitation to treat which an invitation to make offer, negotiate or deal and has no legal consequence and cannot be accepted to bring a contract into existence. The communication of a proposal is complete when it comes to the knowledge of the person to whom it made which under Section 4(1) of the Contracts Act 1950. This means that an offer or proposal is effective once it is communicating to the offeree by the offeree. Besides that, under Section 10 of the Contracts Act 1950 is already mention that all agreement are contract if they are made by the free consent of parties competent to contract, for a lawful consideration and with a lawful object and are not hereby expressly declared to be void. The situation is similar in the case of Bomanji Ardeshir Wadia & Ors v Secretary of State AIR (1929) PC 34 wherein it the decision of the Privy Council was said nothing is better settled than that when parties have entered into a formal contract that contract must be construed according to its own terms and be explained or interpreted by the antecedent communing which led up to it. Another related case is Baker v Jones & Ors (1954) 2 All ER Lynskey J said that the contract is contained in, or to be implied from the rules. The courts must consider such a contract as they would consider any other contract. Although parties to a contract may in general, make any contract they like, there are certain limitations imposed by public policy and one of those limitations may be that parties cannot, by contract, oust the ordinary courts from jurisdiction. 2|Page JUDGEMENT The court held that declaring that the defendants’ board was not entitled to levy and collects the fees because the plaintiff’s application for membership was merely a preliminary step. The offer for membership came from the defendants after they had considered the plaintiff’s application. The contract between the plaintiff accepted the offer by making the payment of the entrance fees and the first subscription. Therefore, the declaration in the application forms as not part of the contract. It is just an antecedent communication. The only contract between the plaintiff and the defendants was the rules of the club. The authority to levy fees must clearly be given by the rules of the club and there was no such authority under the rules. Rule 33 clearly made the board the sole authority for the interpretation of the rules and as it purported to oust the court from their jurisdiction the rule was contrary to public policy and therefore void. 3|Page CONCLUSION The conclusion for this case is the board was not entitled to levy and collect fees known as development fees from members. For the interpretation of the rules, this is contrary to public policy and therefore void. Thus, a declaration of intention or an invitation to treat, so, all fees collected as development fees are repaid to the plaintiff and costs to be paid by the defendants. Otherwise, the offer must be communicated to the offeree which under Section 9 of the Contract Act 1950 is the exercise of power by the offeree indicating his assent to the transaction in response to the offer. The communication of an offer or a proposal is deemed to have been made by any act or omission of the party proposing by which he intends to communicate the proposal or which has the effect of communicating it. Therefore, the declaration in the application form was not part of the contract unless the plaintiff make pay sum of the fees which binding the rules of the club. It is normal for parties in the course of preliminary negotiation to make statements to each other but not all statement can be taken as an offer that can be accepted to bring about a contract. 4|Page

Friday, September 13, 2019

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words - 1

Marketing - Essay Example The relationship between leadership and national culture has often been held to impact closely the success and failure of an organisation in terms of leadership style, motivation and employee performance(Bass, 1990; Collins and Porras, 1996).In the context of National culture at least academics have pointed out that transformational leadership attributes which pertain to empowerment and perception contribute to employee job satisfaction and commitment in a very positive way (Iverson and Roy, 1994). The business academia has often focused upon the influence of gender on leadership and its various dimensions. When we are thus perusing the relationship between gender role and leadership style academics have pointed out towards a tendency of attaching â€Å"masculinity with task-oriented leadership styles and femininity with relationship-oriented ones†.(Oshagbemi and Gill, 2003).It is perceived by the researchers and the academia that if sexes are perceived so differently in organizations their leadership styles would also differ a lot and this would seem likely that leadership styles are also different. Leadership is morality magnified†(Ciulla, 2006:17).In this regard this section seeks to define the relationships between ethics and leadership in the organisational context.The modern leader has to weather and face a plethora of situations like financial and political scandals,international pressure,public image,regulation and the current business mood and in this context it is also worth noting that gender and national culture issues have also reflected upon the common problems versus cultural specificity.(Individual responsibility v Corporate conscience). This report concludes that the term â€Å"Leadership†is subjectively constructed and the whole concept has many dimensions.For Gardner (1995, p. 292), â€Å"The greatest challenge the leaders face is to bring about significant and

Thursday, September 12, 2019

EvidenceBased Practice Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

EvidenceBased Practice - Coursework Example The open-ended questions are useful where the researcher is not aware of the expected responses and are a characteristic of the qualitative research (Houser, 2013). Reliability is the concern seeking to address the issue of stability and consistency. Tools and other instrumentations need to project stable and consistent results when the research or experiment gets repeated over time. In research, reliability is the condition through which a measurement process yields this consistency in the scores received given there are no changes in phenomenon over repeated measurements. Reliability is essential in that the results attained depict the actual measures affecting a particular phenomenon. In that case, the researcher can prescribe the best remedy and make a conclusion regarding the issue under consideration (QMSS, n.d). Researchers need to ensure that instrumentations are reliable before relying on the information from this hardware in reach a conclusion. High levels of reliability reduce measurement errors and in the case actual effects of an intervention get identified. To achieve reliability then the researcher needs to consider the calibration especially in the measure of non-physiologic characteristics in the instrumentation and between raters (Houser,

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Issues concerning the rights of minority members in Australia and the Essay

Issues concerning the rights of minority members in Australia and the manner in which shareholder rights may be protected - Essay Example Australia is a nation with strong legal system with a higher level of legal protection for shareholders and creditors2 compared to other nations (La Porta et al, 1998, 1999).In this essay, the various issues concerning the minority shareholder rights in Australia and the different ways by which the shareholder rights may be protected are discussed in detail. This is organized as follows. In the second section, the theoretical perspectives of corporate governance and the problems between directors and shareholders are discussed. In the third section, the directors and shareholders; rights and obligations are discussed. In the fourth section, various issues regarding the minority shareholder rights are discussed. In the fifth section, various remedies for protecting minority shareholder rights are discussed in detail. The fifth section concludes the essay. Starting from classical economists like Smith (1776), Berle, and Means (1932), many studies have been done on the conflicts of interests between the principal or investors and the agent or managers. The idea of separating the concepts of ownership and control has been developed based on these studies. The role of corporate governance comes in this context. According to Shleifer and Vishny (1997), corporate governance is given a broad definition.Corporate governance â€Å" deals with the ways in which suppliers of finance to corporations assure themselves of getting a return on their investment†. OECD(1999) defines corporate governance as â€Å"the system by which business corporations are directed and controlled. The corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation, such as the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders, and spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs. By doing this, it also provides the structure through which the company objectives are