Mechanical and structure factors in aviation safety Essay

Mechanical and structure factors in aviation safety - Essay Example The first flight lasted 12 sec, but later flights on the same day were a little longer; a safe landing was made after each attempt. The machine was a biplane (an airplane with two main supporting surfaces, or wings) with two propellers chain-driven by a gasoline motor (answers.com 2004)." Since then, the idea of having a safe travel by air is a myth no more. A lot of developments have been made and people from all over the globe were fascinated by the idea of having their travel via air. During these developments, it was also made to the knowledge of many that travel by air is much faster than transportations both in land and in water. With the demand surging continuously, the development of Airplane as a means of transportation was embraced. Up to present wherein a lot of models where introduced transporting tremendous amount of goods and people are being transported day after the other, flight or aviation safety is still a vital concern for the people who utilize airplanes and other related air transport vessels. For several years, air mishaps, crashes, engine malfunctioning has been recorded and was attributed for the loss of properties, resources and lives over the past several years. Due to these kinds of incidents, a lot of experts has been studying how to lessen and to formally eradicate this kind of tragedies by formulating remedies to solve these kinds of queries. Baron R (2005) has reported several aviation tragedies that were recorded and was regarded as the worst in the history. "In 1977, at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, heavy accents and improper terminology among a Dutch KLM crew, an American Pan Am crew and a Spanish air traffic controller led to the worst aviation disaster in history, in which 583 pass engers perished " and "In 1990, Colombian Avianca pilots in a holding pattern over Kennedy Airport told controllers that their 707 was low on fuel. The crew should have stated they had a "fuel emergency," which would have given them immediate clearance to land. Instead, the crew declared a "minimum fuel" condition and the plane ran out of fuel, crashing and killing 72 people." While the aforementioned examples deals with either pilot error or ignorance with some aircraft devices, we cannot also discredit the fact that some aircraft mishaps were due to mechanical failures of the aircraft and sometimes lead into horrible accidents. Mechanical and structure factors in aviation safety 3 Before venturing into air accidents and tragedies caused by mechanical malfunction, it is vital to know the mechanical structure of an airplane for the awareness and analysis of the factors that might trigger accidents during flights and on-ground instances. "The airplane has six main parts-fuselage, wings, stabilizer (or tail plane), rudder, one or more engines, and landing gear. The fuselage is the main body of the machine, customarily streamlined in form. It usually contains control equipment, and space for passengers and cargo. The wings are the main supporting surfaces. Modern airplanes are monoplanes (airplanes with one wing) and may be high-wing, mid-wing, or low-wing (relative to the bottom of the fuselage). At the trailing edge of the wings are auxiliary hinged surfaces known as ailerons that are used to gain lateral control and to turn

State the Problem Essay Example for Free

State the Problem Essay Two entrepreneurs, Rabie and Harary, started a company around a product that sprouted hair from a small humanlike head. They called this product Earth Buddy and the sales jumped pretty quickly. Sales at first started through Toronto-area flower shops and gift stores but as demand increased they were able to start selling Earth Buddy at Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, K-Mart and similar stores. The production process had few steps but was affected by the weather. With hot weather, the process was delayed two hours. Summer is forecasted to come, which means it will be getting hot soon. This will slow production when demand is increasing. It is Ben’s task to find a solution so that these hot days do not increase process time. Analyze the Problem The problem lies in the process of making the product. There are seven steps in making the product and each one has a limited capacity. Personal should be placed in the task where they can be most effective. Ever process has a bottleneck and in this case it is the Filing step. The Filing step, with the current amount of employees, can only produce 40 units per hour. It is said that there is usually about 250 heads in the filling area but sometimes it is a larger amount. This is because all the other steps have at least a production capacity of 75 units per hour and some even have up to 225 units per hour. Filling is the bottleneck and it causing delays. Conclusion/Suggestions There are two suggestions for Earth Buddy to solve its problems. The first solution is to increase personal in the Filling stage. This will increase the capacity, which will increase production. Hiring more personal is the best option to stop the delays. The second solution is to making the productions areas temperature-controlled rooms. This way it does not matter how hot it is outside because the weather will not affect the product. This will stop the two-hour delays from ever occurring again. There is also a proposition in which facility can be expanded, but this is not a good idea. The product is going off the shelves right now but competition is soon to rise because it is a very simple process. Investing a lot of money in a new facility can  become a failure. The solutions are increase production and get temperature-controlled rooms.

Survival In Auschwitz Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same time of his house, his habits, his clothes, in short, of everything he possesses: he will be a hollow man, reduced to suffering and needs, forgetful of dignity and restraint, for he who loses all often easily loses himself.† This short quote is taken from Primo Levi’s â€Å"Survival in Auschwitz†. It depicts a true story of Primo Levi during the Holocaust, who was relocated to an extermination camp after beginning a great life after college. Primo was captured with a resistant group from Italy. He used his college education and degree in chemistry to stay alive.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The above quote brings a similar quote to mind. â€Å"What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet loses his own soul†. That quote is taken from the front wall of St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Olivia, Minnesota. It gives an idea about our savior Jesus Christ’s life. He spent his whole life teaching the word of God and humanity to all people of any race or religion. These two, Primo Levi and Jesus Christ, lived similar lives.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Primo lived growing up as a Jewish citizen during the bad economic times of Europe. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party blamed this economic tragedy on the Jewish society. Primo tried to fight against this, but like most Jews was found guilty and taken to conservation camps. Here he was giving the chance of what he learned in life...

Heroes and Heroism in Anita Desais Clear Light of Day Essay

Heroes and Heroism in Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day      Ã‚  Ã‚   When one asks a child, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" a usual response is "a fireman" or "a ballerina."   In Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day, however, the young Bim and Raja are somewhat more ambitious; they answer that they want to be a hero and heroine.   Later, Bim asks somewhat bitterly, "The hero and heroine-where are they?   Down at the bottom of the well-gone, disappeared" (157).   Bim has lost track of her heroes; however, Raja and Tara have not.   The three siblings have very different relationships to heroic ideals.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Raja is the most obviously hero-conscious character.   First of all, he is extremely artistic and idealistic, so he adores poetry, in both English and Urdu.   He merely reads and quotes English poets, such as Byron and Tennyson; however, he goes farther in imitating the style of Urdu poetry in his own verses.   As Bim thinks, The poems were really very derivative.   On each of them she could clearly see the influence of the poets he loved and copied.   There was no image, no metaphor, no turn of phrase that was original.   Each was a meticulous imitation of what he had read, memorized and recited . . . .   One could see in them only a wish to emulate and to step where his heroes had stepped before him. (168) Raja is not trying to be an original poet on his own; he simply tries to be exactly like his heroes, which he does perfectly.   Through the Urdu poetry that he so admires, Raja becomes acquainted with his Muslim landlord and neighbor, Hyder Ali.   At first Raja merely has permission to read and borrow the books in Hyder Ali's library, but increasingly he becomes involved in that family's household.   There he learns to app... ...s Bim, because she strikes a balance between idealism and reality.   Raja is completely out of touch and gets so carried away by his glorious plans that he disregards the dangerous political situation which makes his plans impossible.   At the other extreme, Tara lacks dreams, so that she has no goals for herself and needs Bakul to force her to "be strong" and "execute her will" (17).   Bim, however, has entertained ideals, had them crushed, and finally come to terms with her disillusionment.   Bim is the heroine in Clear Light of Day.    Work Cited Desai, Anita.   Clear Light of Day.   Great Britain: Penguin Books, 1980.    Professor's Comments: Although your conclusion on Bim-as-heroine could use development--this is a fine and full exploration of the issue from your own angle.   Good use of supporting illustration, and tecnically perfect.  

Weight Loss Programs

Nutrition Throughout Life – Weight Loss Programs. Weight Loss programs: Jenny Craig and Elite' N' Easy 1. The purpose of this product and/or services Jenny Craig: The purpose of Jenny Craig Is to teach their clients how to eat well, move more and living life. This program does not only help you with the controlling of the body and food but also assists in the mind as well. As the body is covered by exercise routines developed to fit with the program the food Is covered by the purchases of the branding meals and the mind Is handled with motivation, encouragement and ambition to help you while you are doing the program. Jenny teaches portion control and a balanced approach to living, with the freedom to live your life your way. Source: http://WV. Johnnycake. Com/site/how-it-works Weight Watchers: The purpose of Weight Watchers Is to help their clients lose weight. They have a combination of diet tools and techniques are effective and simple to put into practice. Every single eff ective tool Is provided In the Weight Watchers Point List.These tools helps the clients lose weight by having the ability to make better food sections, simply and easily 2. The targeted audiences of this product Jenny Crag's targeted audience used to target people In their late ass and ass. Since then they have a new, broader target audience of 20- to 50- year olds rather than the previous target audience they had. Weight Watchers: Weight Watchers targeted audience is overweight 35+ women, but after they have broadened their target to women under the age of 40+. . The reliability and accuracy of each program In the terms and condition of use in Jenny Craig it says: Whilst we use all reasonable attempts to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the Content on this Site, we are not responsible if the Content that we make available is not accurate or complete. Any reliance on the Content shall be at your own risk. You agree that it Is your responsibility to monitor any changes to the Content as it may change without notice. ‘- source: towpath. ]encyclical. Mom. AU/terms -It Is proven to be accurate with the information they provide on the website as well as their information booklets. Weight Watchers: The Weight Watchers diet is proven to have accurate information with the nutrition aloes and facts on how this diet Is effective, In the terms and conditions of use they have mentioned that: All Information provided about losing weight is accurate, and information will be updated at times but there will be no warning on when the Information is updated.They have also mentioned that only doing one part of the new diet introduced won't help you in any way for you to lose weight. T Off 4. The overall e Ellen Craig: distinctiveness to each program Ellen Craig is like most other diet and exercise programs in that it does work, revived the individual puts their best, most honest effort into the program. Although, without your personal effort, Jenny Craig program is eventually worthless and won't help you at all. Without your full commitment, Jenny Craig weight loss program is ineffective.Jenny Craig is a diet and exercise program where the handle the diet, exercise and mental aspects by encouraging you to stay with it and be proud of the results you gain. Weight Watchers is proven to be effective as it is convenient for you wherever you go. Weight Watchers is more effective than standard weight-loss guidance' according to a study published in 2011 in the Lancet. Researchers tracked 772 overweight and moderately obese people who either followed Weight Watchers or got weight-loss guidance from their doctors.After a year, those in the Weight Watchers group had dropped 6. 8 keg compared with 3. 2 keg for the doctor-advised group. What's more, 61 percent of the Weight Watchers dieters stuck with the program for the full 12 months the study lasted, compared with 54 percent for the standard-care group. The Weight Watchers mainly had success in the re gular checkups on their weight and group meetings. They also had non-stop encouragement and support from the dieters.The study was funded by Weight Watchers, but an independent research team was responsible for all data collection and analysis. – source: http://health. Sinews. Com/ best-diet/weight-watchers-diet 5. The short-term and long-term costs of each program Ellen Craig A Cost varies, depending on whether you choose to attend weekly in-person meetings or use the online tools only. A monthly pass to unlimited in-person meetings is $39. 95, which also includes access to tools.Or you can pay as you go; meetings are $12 to $1 5 per week, with a one-time $20 registration fee. To follow online only, a 3- month plan is $65. None of the costs include food. 6. Critically analyses the websites you got your information from for accuracy and The Jenny Craig website is a reliable website, which shows a vast range of information essential for people who are trying hard to lose weigh t, it shows a wide variety of healthy foods you can eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.They also have consultants for all states, also these consultants a backed up by a team of REAL dietitians and Gasp, these consultants are very helpful as they help you continuously develop knowledge in food, body and mind. The Jenny Craig website is designed in an organized way which is easy tort the clients to view the intimation and nave organized essential information into an easy way for the clients to see. The website has been designed in a way that looks aesthetically pleasing to anyone who sees their website.The Weight Watchers website is a useful website, it has a systematic way to show information on how their diet works their foods and recipes, fitness and health and the success stories of people who have used this diet and have reached their goal. The website itself would look a lot better if they had balanced out the information all over the page because most of the information on th e homepage is on the bottom; it looks too crowded at the bottom. Also with the links to food and recipes they should have added extra links separating the food for breakfast, lunch and dinner etc.

Free Essays on Social Change Project

Our group wanted to do something Different, we didn’t just want to institute something that our company â€Å"has† to do once a year to feel more a part of it’s community, to pay its dues so to speak. We wanted to help change the company from the inside out and make it a place that we would enjoy working ourselves. A business that becomes a better part of its community; through the treatment of its employees and clients. . (Utilitarianism pg.6, greatest good for the greatest number of people) We proposed to do so by instituting an ethical understanding among employees at a small business. To find out what they individually consider to be ethical, and to get everyone on the â€Å"same page† as far as ethics are concerned. Our idea originated in the fact that, large companies do something to assure that they’re employees all know and share common ethical guidelines; while small business seems to do nothing of he sort (for the most part). Large companies are known to give out employee handbooks. The handbook usually contains the ethical backbone produced and instituted by the company. UTC (United Technology Corporation) gives out a 24-page brochure about ethics that includes real world examples. With smaller businesses, the atmosphere tends to be a great deal more relaxed and comfortable. There are less people in the company, so seemingly less effort needs to be taken to keep everyone operating on the same level. (Utilitarianism pg.6 greatest good†¦. where as in a big company it's harder to achieve this goal) However, it seems to us that not having a shared ethics understanding is a lot like not having a shared vision statement. With AMC transfer, we decided to survey all employees in their head office, just to get an understanding of everyone's basic individual views on business ethics; and to see how their views varied from person to person. Our goal was not to take theses results and teach everyone proper business ethics as... Free Essays on Social Change Project Free Essays on Social Change Project Our group wanted to do something Different, we didn’t just want to institute something that our company â€Å"has† to do once a year to feel more a part of it’s community, to pay its dues so to speak. We wanted to help change the company from the inside out and make it a place that we would enjoy working ourselves. A business that becomes a better part of its community; through the treatment of its employees and clients. . (Utilitarianism pg.6, greatest good for the greatest number of people) We proposed to do so by instituting an ethical understanding among employees at a small business. To find out what they individually consider to be ethical, and to get everyone on the â€Å"same page† as far as ethics are concerned. Our idea originated in the fact that, large companies do something to assure that they’re employees all know and share common ethical guidelines; while small business seems to do nothing of he sort (for the most part). Large companies are known to give out employee handbooks. The handbook usually contains the ethical backbone produced and instituted by the company. UTC (United Technology Corporation) gives out a 24-page brochure about ethics that includes real world examples. With smaller businesses, the atmosphere tends to be a great deal more relaxed and comfortable. There are less people in the company, so seemingly less effort needs to be taken to keep everyone operating on the same level. (Utilitarianism pg.6 greatest good†¦. where as in a big company it's harder to achieve this goal) However, it seems to us that not having a shared ethics understanding is a lot like not having a shared vision statement. With AMC transfer, we decided to survey all employees in their head office, just to get an understanding of everyone's basic individual views on business ethics; and to see how their views varied from person to person. Our goal was not to take theses results and teach everyone proper business ethics as...

Beat Poets Essays - Counterculture Of The 1960s, North Beach

Beat Poets Essays - Counterculture Of The 1960s, North Beach Beat Poets The Beat Movement in modern literature has become an important period in the history of literature and society in America. Incorporating influences such as jazz, art, literature, philosophy and religion, the beat writers created a new and prophetic vision of modern life and changed the way a generation of people sees the world. That generation is mow aging and its representative voices are becoming lost to eternity, but the message is alive and well. The Beats have forever altered the nature of American consciousness. The Beat Generation of writers offered the world a new attitude. They brought to society a consciousness of life worth living. They offered a method of escape from the stultifying, unimaginative world we live in, through the exploration of one's intellect. Beat has had many different contemporary implications in music, poetry and literature. Literature has been liberated considerably. The poetic form has been changed to inaugurate a new poetic form, an American form. There was less emphasis on tradition and more emphasis on the individual talent. (www.rohan.sdsu.edu) One of the most important contributions to contemporary verse was to take poetry out of the classrooms and into non-academic settingcoffee houses, jazz clubs, large public auditoriums and even athletic stadiums. Poetry is more popular and more read than anytime in history, not only spoken poetry but also sung poetry of a high order. The literature, coordinated by pop music, with a way of dressing, with a way of life, it something that has influenced the youth of the world not only in Western countries but Eastern countries as well. (www.charm.net) Music has been influenced greatly by Beat writing. The lyrics of many great songs have forever been changed by the writing of the Beat Generation. Bob Dylan's favorite poet was Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg became one of Dylan's greatest friends. He worked on many projects with Dylan...The band Rage Against the Machine has many of Ginsberg's poems and words show up in their songs. For instance the song 'Bulls on Parade' includes Ginsberg 'Hadda Been Playing on the Jukebox' (www.charm.net) Generation X writers are compared to the Beat writers. Many people say that the generation coming to age has the potential to bring a new vision to society. The Beats thumbed their noses at the corporate world just like Generation X does today. (www.altx.com/io/beatgeneration.html) Many writers of Generation X have been influenced by the writing like Andy Clausen, Eliot Katz, Geoffrey Manough and Ed Sanders. There are many writers that have been influenced but have not been included in the Generation X section. These writers took up the flame of the Beat flavor, keeping it strong. James Wright was one of the writers that kept the flame going. He was much admired poet of his generation...(www.rohan.sdsu.edu) His works have a sense of Midwestern American bleakness...(www.rohan.sdsu) One of his poems goes like this My bones turn to dark emeralds Your hands turn yellow in the ruins of the sun Suddenly I realize That if I stepped out of my body I would break Into blossom (www.rohan.sdsu.edu) Another such writer with Beat flavor would be Adrienne Rich. Rich's work established the importance of gender in shaping a poetic consciousness and she became a mentor to thousands of women, enabling them to 'speak the unspeakable,' to authenticate their unique experience of reality. (www.rohan.sdsu.edu) Beat writing has made a great impact on the writing of today's generation. It has allowed people to be more open with themselves and the people that are reading their works. It is also allowed people to be more open minded to new ideas that these works brought to the surface for everybody to see. Where early writing was stiff, beat writing allowed for the writing to come after it to beat to a different drummer. Beat writing has expanded the world of literature, poetry and music to a higher level for people to enjoy. Bibliography BIB www.charm.net/brooklyn/Topics/BeatGen.html www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/sixties/index.html www.rohan.sdsu.edu

Cosmos Episode 8 Viewing Worksheet

Cosmos Episode 8 Viewing Worksheet Teachers looking for an excellent television show to help drive home various science information to your students should look no further than the Fox show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. In Cosmos, Tyson delivers the often-complicated ideas related to understanding our  solar system and cosmos in a way that all levels of learners can comprehend and still be entertained by the stories and visual representations of scientific facts. Episodes of this show make great supplements in the science classroom and also can be used as  a reward or movie day, but whatever the reason you show Cosmos in your classroom, youll need a way to assess the students learning and the following questions can be copied and pasted into a worksheet to be used while showing Cosmos Episode 8.   This episode explores the Greek and Kiowa myths about the Pleiades, the astral discoveries of Annie Jump Cannon, the major star categories recognized by science, and the way stars are born, grow, and die. Worksheet for Episode 8 of Cosmos Feel free to copy and paste or tweak the below to use with your class as a guide to follow along with the episode. The questions are presented in the order their answers appear in the episode, so if you plan to use this worksheet as a quiz afterward, it may be beneficial to shuffle up the order of the questions.   Cosmos Episode 8 Worksheet ï » ¿Name:___________________ Directions: Answer the following questions as you watch episode 8 of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. 1.  What is the cost for having all of our electric lights? 2. How much brighter than the Sun are the Pleiades? 3. In the Kiowa myth about the Pleiades, what famous tourist attraction did the rock the women were on become? 4. In the Greek myth of the Pleiades, what was the name of the hunter that chased after Atlas’s daughters? 5. What did Edward Charles Pickering call the room full of women he employed? 6. How many stars did Annie Jump Cannon catalog? 7. How did Annie Jump Cannon lose her hearing? 8. What did Henrietta Swan Levitt discover? 9. How many major categories of stars are there? 10. What American University accepted Cecelia Payne? 11. What did Henry Norris Russell discover about the Earth and the Sun? 12. After listening to Russell’s speech, what did Payne figure out about Cannon’s data? 13. Why did Russell reject Payne’s thesis? 14. Which stars are considered â€Å"newborns†? 15. How old are most of the stars in the Big Dipper? 16. What kind of star will the Sun be after it becomes 100 times its original size? 17. What kind of star will the Sun be after it collapses like a â€Å"soufflà ©Ã¢â‚¬ ? 18. What is the name of the brightest star in our sky? 19. What is the fate of the star Rigel? 20. With a star as big as Alnilam in Orion’s belt, what will it eventually become after it implodes? 21. What pattern did the Aboriginal people of Australia see in between the stars? 22. How far away is the star in our galaxy that will hypernova? 23. When hydrogen fuses in the Sun, what does it make? 24. How long will it be before Orion finally catches up to the Pleiades?

Autism Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Autism - Term Paper Example This paper specifically focuses on how biology impacts psychology  and analyses the structure of the brain, neuron activities, synapses activities, activities of neurotransmitters etc in relation with autism. â€Å"Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder of genetic origins, with a heritability of about 90%. There is no single biological or clinical marker for autism, nor is it expected that a single gene is responsible for its expression; as many as 15+ genes may be involved. No single region of the brain or pathophysiological mechanism has yet been identified as being associated with autism. Postmortem findings, animal models, and neuroimaging studies have focused on the cerebellum, frontal cortex, hippocampus, and especially the amygdala. The cerebello-thalamo-cortical circuit may also be influential in autism. There is evidence that overall brain size is increased in some individuals with autism (Santangelo &  Tsatsanis, 2005). Environmental influences can also cause autism along with genetic factors; however genetic factors seem to be the major reason for autism in more than 90% children with autism. Autism is considered as a developmental disorder. At the same time it is a genetic disorder also. In other words, autism is a mental disorder which affects the physical, emotional, social and behavioral development of a child. Psychologists included autism among the pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). Autism mainly affect three areas of development; social interaction, language development and behavioral patterns. At present medical science has no answer or treatment to this serious psychological disorder. So far no effective drugs have been produced for the treatment of autism. Structure of the brain plays a vital role in causing autism. Neurophysiological functions believed to cause this disorder. In fact, the defect caused in the signals sent and received by brain using the

Event analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Event analysis - Essay Example However, one evening the warehouses and storage manager forgot to switch-on the refrigerating system before installing fruits and vegetables which lead to spoilage. One possible solution to the problem is through the context of change management. Management change is currently one of major domains of organisational research, and the study of organisational change has become one of the major aspects in being able and helping to measure the organisation performance; efficiency and effectiveness. It is important to understand the extent to which formal changes in management systems and role prescriptions have resulted in change in work behaviour and job satisfaction experienced by personnel (Manser, 2004). It is thus essential, when attempting to assess the impact of formally espoused changes within an organisation, to examine the extent to which, and the way in which, managers have adapted new forms of work behaviour in accordance with the new managerial role perceptions. According to Waters (1996) ever since people started to work together to reach a common goal, operations management has been an important ingredient, but since the industrial revolution, it has grown most rapidly. Operations management is the tool behind the technical improvements that makes production efficient. It is the way to plan and organize how the technology and machinery will be utilized the most. The productivity in an organization depends on both the right technology and the right way to manage it (Waters, 1996). However, TQM can be a success or failure depending on how well it is planned, implemented, measured, and encouraged. Few would disagree that continuous improvement offers substantial benefits for manufacturers (McNamara, 1999). As a basic tenet of TQM, continuous improvement can enable manufacturers to meet the competitive pressures of the global economy head-on, and to develop strategies for

Nuclear pharmacy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Nuclear pharmacy - Research Paper Example The new method of diagnosing and treating diseases presents a number of both advantages and disadvantages al of which affects its acceptance as the discussion below portrays. Nuclear pharmacy works by detecting radiations coming from the body of a patient. The doctors inject a radiotracer in the blood vessels of a patient. As the radiotracer flows in the veins of the patient, it emits gamma radiations since it decays in the process. A gamma camera scans the radiations thereby creating an image. This provides a vivid visual aid in the diagnosis process. The process carries out the diagnosis process by analyzing the functionality of the various organs in the body. Such is an effective method of diagnosis since it analyses the functionality of the individual organs. The process of diagnosis differs from other conventional methods that analyses the anatomical and structural appearance of the organs. Analyzing the anatomy and structures of the organs does not provide a vivid portrayal of the effects of the tumors among other infections that impair the functionality of the organs. This implies that nuclear pharmacy offers a realistic way of diagnosing diseases thereby advising equally effective modes of treatments. Nuclear pharmacy comprises of two fundamental parts known as the radioisotope and a carrier molecule. The radioisotope is a unique chemical element with an unstable nucleus. The unstable nucleus decays to a stable nucleus thereby emitting radiations. A carrier molecule just as the name suggests is a chemical molecule that carries the radioisotope. During a process of diagnosis, a doctor injects the carrier molecule with radioisotope into the veins of the patient. The carrier molecules travels throughout the body of the patient including the heart and lungs which are always the most difficult to diagnose. The gamma camera records the

Website Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Website Design - Essay Example Contracting web designing companies would probably become less involving but the costs could reach up to $40000. Hiring individuals remains a more affordable method to the company than utilizing contract companies. The website shall be created in the form of a business website as the company seeks to utilize the website for marketing products. A business website type could enable the company to undertake Internet marketing and receiving feedback from clients. The company could also utilize this website in giving information to visitors concerning the company. This would include the professional functions of the company and the company contacts which prospective clients could utilize when contacting company representatives. Conformity to the existing web designing standards remains essential in ensuring the website remains usable and easily accessible. DOCTYPE declaration shall be made to enable validation of the website via W3C which shall identify errors of conformity to existing standards. Website and networking requirements There are various elements of consideration that shall be included when deciding the website to be utilized. The costs for web-designing could be estimated at $7000. These shall include wages of the web-designers and the other individuals assisting within the preparation of the website. ... expenses like SEO, account set-up fee, and other miscellaneous expenses, the total cost of developing the website could be $21000, which remains an estimated figure with little variations expected (Schiffer, 2011). The networking shall include utilization of network adapters each costing $28 and wired network cameras costing $120 per unit. In enhancing network connectivity local area network adapter shall be installed in all computers within office premises with each adapter costing $25. Physical connection shall require the purchasing of about 5000 ft of Belden Media Twist bulk cable at $200 per 1000 ft. The cost of these cables would, therefore, be estimated at $1000. Search engine optimizers for the company website shall become part of the Internet marketing campaign undertaken by the company (Graham, 2003). The costs for these optimization services could be estimated at $700 monthly, with the costs expected to increase later. The company shall utilize animation applications on th e website aimed at attracting individuals visiting other websites. This technique should assist in providing notifications to individuals concerning the company presence online. Computers and other equipment The company shall utilize desktop computers in each company office estimated to cost about $750 per single computer. Several individuals shall be given laptops with an estimated value of $800 per unit. The salesmen shall be offered laptops to enable the access to company website and upload sales information from various locations. The company shall be using JavaScript application for accessing the website. This application shall enable the website to be viewed by many individuals, as this application remains compatible with various models of computers. This application requires little

Financial Statement forecast for General Mills Essay

Financial Statement forecast for General Mills - Essay Example We have put together 5 financial parameters(Matz, 1980) in Chart 4.1.1. The 5 parameters are Cost of Good Sold as a percentage of Sales ("CGS%S"); Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses as a percentage of Sales ("SGA%S"); Operating Current Asset as a percentage of Sales ("OCA%S"); Property, Plant, and Equipment as a percentage of Sales ("PP&E%S"); and Other Intangible Assets as a percentage of Sales ("OIA%S"). The percentage of Cost of Goods Sold in relation to the total Sales is ranges from the start in the year 2000 at forty eight percent and fluctuates every year until it reaches its highest percentage of fifty seven percent in the year 2005. The cost of goods sold percentage in relation to Sales then is fixed at fifty six percent starting the following year, 2006, until the last year 2026. The Sales, General and Administrative Expenses percentage in relation to sales starts at the very high twenty seven percent and goes down to twenty six percent in 2001. The percentage then goes further down to its lowest ratio of twenty two percent. The percentage of this expense over sales is finally forecasted to stay at the ratio of twenty three percent starting in the year 2006 until the last year 2026. The Total Current assets percentage over sales starts at a low twenty three percent. The ratio, then, starts picking up until it reaches the next position at twenty nine percent. The ratio then fluctuates mostly in the ratio of twenty seven percent. The ratio reaches further up to thirty seven percent. The new ratio then reaches again a higher ratio of Fifty four percent, sixty percent, and even until the highest ratio of seventy percent until the last year of the forecast 2026. The ratio of net plan, property and equipment (PPE) in relation to sales(Meigs, 1995) is fluctuates. In the year 2000, the ratio is twenty three percent. The ratio goes up to thirty five percent in the year 2002 and even goes down to twenty six percent. This ratio is fixed at twenty six percent starting the year 2006 until the last forecasted year 2026. The ratio of Other Long term operating assets to sales fluctuates from the year 2000 at thirty eight percent until reaches its highest ratio of one hundred twenty four percent in the year 2003. The ratio is then forecasted to be fixed at one hundred two percent within the time period of 2006 to 2026. Based on the Table 1 found after the References Section, the graph is shown below as figure Chart 4.1.1 as follows. For more information concerning the specific values of each ratio, you may refer to Table 4.1.1 of the appendix A. Chart 4.1.1 Trend of 5 financial ratios from 2000 to 2026 To conclude this section, we would like to discuss the Dividend Payout Ratio ("DPOR"). From the chart, we may observe that the company had high DPORs in late 2000 till 2005. Indeed, the Company is among the top food and beverage companies in the United States and around the world both in giving out Dividend to its shareholders(Meigs, 1992) and filling the demands of its discriminating clients. Dividend Pay

Website Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Website Design - Essay Example Contracting web designing companies would probably become less involving but the costs could reach up to $40000. Hiring individuals remains a more affordable method to the company than utilizing contract companies. The website shall be created in the form of a business website as the company seeks to utilize the website for marketing products. A business website type could enable the company to undertake Internet marketing and receiving feedback from clients. The company could also utilize this website in giving information to visitors concerning the company. This would include the professional functions of the company and the company contacts which prospective clients could utilize when contacting company representatives. Conformity to the existing web designing standards remains essential in ensuring the website remains usable and easily accessible. DOCTYPE declaration shall be made to enable validation of the website via W3C which shall identify errors of conformity to existing standards. Website and networking requirements There are various elements of consideration that shall be included when deciding the website to be utilized. The costs for web-designing could be estimated at $7000. These shall include wages of the web-designers and the other individuals assisting within the preparation of the website. ... expenses like SEO, account set-up fee, and other miscellaneous expenses, the total cost of developing the website could be $21000, which remains an estimated figure with little variations expected (Schiffer, 2011). The networking shall include utilization of network adapters each costing $28 and wired network cameras costing $120 per unit. In enhancing network connectivity local area network adapter shall be installed in all computers within office premises with each adapter costing $25. Physical connection shall require the purchasing of about 5000 ft of Belden Media Twist bulk cable at $200 per 1000 ft. The cost of these cables would, therefore, be estimated at $1000. Search engine optimizers for the company website shall become part of the Internet marketing campaign undertaken by the company (Graham, 2003). The costs for these optimization services could be estimated at $700 monthly, with the costs expected to increase later. The company shall utilize animation applications on th e website aimed at attracting individuals visiting other websites. This technique should assist in providing notifications to individuals concerning the company presence online. Computers and other equipment The company shall utilize desktop computers in each company office estimated to cost about $750 per single computer. Several individuals shall be given laptops with an estimated value of $800 per unit. The salesmen shall be offered laptops to enable the access to company website and upload sales information from various locations. The company shall be using JavaScript application for accessing the website. This application shall enable the website to be viewed by many individuals, as this application remains compatible with various models of computers. This application requires little

Critical Appraisal of Business Plan Process Towards the creation of a Essay

Critical Appraisal of Business Plan Process Towards the creation of a successful entrepreneurial venture - Essay Example Because it is contained in a tangible document, it is open to critical examination by important third parties such as possible co-investors, creditors, venture capitalists, or banks which may be considering extending a loan towards the business (BC Ministry of Small Business, 2011, p.2). Elements The business plan is comprised of several elements, which may be described as follows: Idea generation, while not a tangible part of the business plan proper, is a vital phase of the planning process. It is the germination of the business intention, the idea that combines a perceived need in the environment with a recognized capability in the business proponent. Idea generation is the most difficult stage of developing a new product or service, whether it be for a new or existing business (Crane, 2010, p. 104). This is because it involves the creative process and is not defined according to any established procedure, but often occurs as a flash of inspiration or unique insight as to how a pa rticular need may be fulfilled. When an idea is first generated, there is usually no indication as to whether it will be successful or even feasible, thus embarking on a course of action on the bases of new ideas always involves a great deal of conviction and a leap of faith. Strategic objectives are set subsequent to the generation of the idea. Strategic objectives provide the overall mission or purpose of the business (i.e., a â€Å"philosophical† purpose, according to Piotrowski, 2011, p. 174), as against the operational objectives. Strategic objectives relate to the definition of four elements of the business profile, namely products, customer groups, market segments, and geographic markets (Robert, 1998, p. 234). As with all statements of intention, however, the statement of strategic objectives is always couched in general terms that may admit of many varied interpretations. As a guide, therefore, the strategic objectives are at best advisory, but cannot be held as defi nitive as promises or commitments for which the business may be held answerable. Therefore, the effectiveness of strategic objectives will only be as meaningful as the best intentions of the business proponents may hold them to be. Market analysis and research is the process of gathering information about the prospective market of the business and drawing important insights and observations about future prospects. Information about the market’s size, its location, its history, the competitive profile, and likely profitability, as well as its general strength and health, are described and assessed. The information gathered during this stage provides the foundation for forecasting sales volumes and revenues, for determining the capacity of the business, and consequently the amount of financing required (Ehmke & Akridge, 2005, p.3). Market research analysis has its limitations. Ideally, accurate knowledge of markets is very important, but such knowledge does not serve to reduce knowledge of the business into a single solution that solves all possible problems. It is a myth that a business cannot fail if it completely knows its market; this is because the market is just one aspect of the business, the others being the financial, technical operations, accounting control, and human resources aspects (Brown, 2008, p. 464). Furthermore, the market has too many factors that could not be forecast with certainty, that any feeling of possessing complete knowledge of the market is a certain

Alumni Tracking System Essay Example for Free

Alumni Tracking System Essay An issue tracking system (also ITS, trouble ticket system, support ticket or incident ticket system) is a computer software package that manages and maintains lists of issues, as needed by an organization. Issue tracking systems are commonly used in an organizations customer support call center to create, update, and resolve reported customer issues, or even issues reported by that organizations other employees. An issue tracking system often also contains a knowledge base containing information on each customer, resolutions to common problems, and other such data. An issue tracking system is similar to a bugtracker, and often, a software company will sell both, and some bugtrackers are capable of being used as an issue tracking system, and vice versa. Consistent use of an issue or bug tracking system is considered one of the hallmarks of a good software team.[1] A ticket is an element contained within an issue tracking system which contains information about support interventions made by technical support staff or third parties on behalf of an end-user who has reported an incident that is preventing them from working with their computer as they would expect to be able to. Tickets are commonly created in a help desk or call center environment. Typically the ticket will have a unique reference number, also known as a case, issue or call log number which is used to allow the user or support staff to quickly locate, add to or communicate the status of the users issue or request. These tickets are so called because of their origin as small cards within a typical wall mounted work planning system when this kind of support started. Operators or staff receiving a call or query from a user would fill out a small card with the users details and a brief summary of the request and place it into a position (usually the last) in a column of pending slots for an appropriate engineer, so determining the staff member who would deal with the query and the priority of the request.

Impact of World War 1 on Modernism

Impact of World War 1 on Modernism How would you describe the impact of the First World War on Modernist visual practices? The aesthetic phenomenon of Modernism, wide-reaching as that term is, can be historically defined as a period that began around 1860, with Manet generally accepted as the first Modernist painter, and came to an end around 1940 – although the murky cross-over between modernism and post-modernism, and the ubiquitous nature of both terms, means that some historians see Modernism stretching to the 1970s. The term applies retrospectively to a wide range of movements, including Futurism, Dada and Cubism, which broadly sought to distance themselves from the values and stylistics of Classicism. In a general aesthetic sense, modern art is often concerned with essential properties of the potential of colour and flatness, and over time a fading interest in subject matter can be witnessed. In fact, in a more specific sense, Modernism can be seen to refer not just to a style or styles of art, but to the philosophy of art as well. From a historical viewpoint, Modernism can be seen as the reaction of art – at least of the progressive artist – to the post-industrial world, a world in which the machine came to be as prominent and ubiquitous as man, and indeed it was in the largest European metropolises, where the tensions of social modernity were most prominent, that the earliest incarnations of Modernism in art appeared. However Modernism is a wide and watered down term, associated with a myriad of differing, and often opposing movements. What draws them together is that they respond to the same situations of the modern world, of the industrialisation of society and the cataclysmic watershed of the First World War. Christopher Witcombe talks of the period of enlightenment in the 18th century, which preceded the advent of Modernism: â€Å"Progressive 18th-century thinkers believed that the lot of humankind would be greatly improved through the process enlightenment, from being shown the truth. With reason and truth in hand, the individual would no longer be at the mercy of religious and secular authorities which had constructed their own truths and manipulated them to their own self-serving ends. At the root of this thinking is the belief in the perfectibility of humankind.†[1] According to Witcombe, the roots of modernism lie in the ideals of the Enlightenment, and this is where we can see the new roles of the artist begin to take shape. Essentially, the overarching goal of Modernism, of modern art, has been â€Å"the creation of a better society†[2]. But as we shall see, the moralistic idealism of the Enlightenment was not the preferred form for the Modernist movement, which was dragged through the mill of the industrial revolution, and, following hot on its heels, the First World War. There was a sense from the conservative modernists that the way forward was to be guided by existing institutions. The progressives, on the other hand were â€Å"critical of institutions as restrictive of individual liberty†[3]. In the 20th century, progressive modernism was thrust into the spotlight, leaving conservative modernism in its wake, with many people sceptical of its artistic merits. The conservative painters of the 19th century attempted to reflect and exemplify a kind of moral Christian virtue, and believed this to be a vital contribution from art to society – the representation of a model of social values to which everyone could aim. Conservative modernism, however, was looked down upon by progressives as an unambitious celebration of the values of the ruling class. Art, progressives argued, should be forward thinking, challenging, as well as socially responsible, whilst conservatives offered little more than a rosy re-hashing of the sepia past. So whilst the conservatives wished to continue existing institutions and favoured a gradual development, progressives criticised ruling institutions and searched for radical upheaval. In the first 10 years of the 20th century, a rapidly escalating political tension and a distrust of and anger toward the social order began to permeate much of European society. The socio-political evidence of this lies in the Russian Revolution and the prominence all over Europe of aggressive radicals. In the art community, this growing unease can be seen in the trend toward a radical simplification of previous stylistics, and in some cases, complete rejection of previous practice. Young painters such as Matisse and Picasso began to cause shockwaves with their embracing of non-traditional perspectives, a re-hauling of the rules of representation as an aesthetic theme, taking risks that even the Impressionists had not dared. At the heart of this new movement was an affection for disruption, and a progression away from Realism, and this began to give a new dimension to the term Modernism. Progressive Modernism was thrust into the spotlight, leaving conservative modernism in its wake, with many people sceptical of its artistic merits. The conservative painters of the 19th century attempted to reflect and exemplify a kind of moral Christian virtue, and believed this to be a vital contribution from art to society – the representation of a model of social values to which everyone could aim. Conservative modernism, however, was looked down upon by progressives as an unambitious celebration of the values of the ruling class. Art, progressives argued, should be forward thinking, challenging, as well as socially responsible, whilst conservatives offered little more than a rosy re-hashing of the sepia past. So whilst the conservatives wished to continue existing institutions and favoured a gradual development, progressives criticised ruling institutions and searched for radical upheaval. Whereas painters like Turner had been respected members of society’s greatest intelligentsia, seen as contributors to the greater good of society, the progressive Modernist saw the deification of traditional values and social structures as stifling, and therefore the artist took on a new persona, that of the righteous revolutionary, and we can see an example of this in the movement known as Futurism, a movement which had its own self-styled manifesto, published in Le Figaro, in an attempt to provoke, incite, and recruit the like-minded. Futurism, like much of 20th century Modernism, was based upon a rejection of the past, and this attitude came to the fore with progressives with the advent of World War One – which represented a cataclysmic failure of the conservative ideals of tradition. For many progressives, the Great War presented an almighty coming together of man and machine in the most morbid possible way, a futile mechanised massacre, which contrasted bitterly with the Modernist treatment of the role of the machine in beauty, and its faith in technology. This was clearly not the way to a healthier society. It has been said that World War One marked the failure of modern art, and a watershed for the emergence of the post-modern. The artistic community took it upon itself to lead the way, as it were, in the post-war society, given the catastrophic failure of many public institutions. After the war, there grew a kind of social vacuum, a sense that there was a lack of people and institutions to believe in. Many artists felt that it was therefore the responsibility of art to orient the collective social aspiration, to shape a new spirit in the wake of such destruction, and the delegitimisation of so many hopes and values. In this way, the Modernist art of the post-war era was at once ultimately moral, hopeful, and rooted in a deep social conscience, but also vividly subversive and challenging in its (many) aesthetic forms – like the best art, the best music, and the best literature, its moral heart lay in its readiness to challenge and confront the spectator. Characterised deeply by the residing antagonism of the industrial revolution, there came about a kind of collective conviction that traditions, institutions, and social frameworks were not perpetual, but rather that they were open to continuing re-evaluation and subjugation, and this attitude can be witnessed in Tristan Tzara’s movement Dada, which gave perhaps the most radical voice to the post-war Modernist. The Dadaists were not content to simply ‘make art’, they wanted to affect all corners of society, to take part in the revolutionary changes which were the inevitable result of the chaos after the War. The aims of the artist became to negate all social and aesthetic traditions, to make every work a new and marginal expression, and better to be bitterly divisive than quietly dormant. Moreover, every artistic manifestation was a form of didactic interaction with social and historical change. So the First World War represented a huge failure of the previous status quo, culminating in the most excruciating and fruitless deaths of millions across the world. A generation of young artists had witnessed men and boys, many at first-hand, perish defending slivers of earth. Machine warfare had become an accepted horror of reality: the dubious honours of war – valour, courage, and heroism, had been sourly debased by the impersonal brutality of the tank and the machine gun. In the face of such fundamentally unthinkable horror, the funds of Realism seemed to be empty, and the view that the human race had been steadily climbing some moral ladder toward enlightenment became utterly banal. As Christopher Witcombe says, â€Å"The First World War, at once, fused the harshly mechanical geometric rationality of technology, with the nightmarish irrationality of myth†[4]. And so in the 1920s and onward, Modernism became one of the defining movements of the era, whereas before it had been mostly a minority taste, its luminaries more heard of than heard. As a result of its new found prominence, the mood shifted towards a replacement of the older status quo with a base of new methods. Modernism began to reach prominence in Europe in such pertinent movements as Dada and Surrealism. The tendency under the umbrella of Modernism became to form separate movements and develop systems separate to each other – aside from Dada there was the International style of Bauhaus and Socialist Realism. By the 1930s, Modernism had entered the Jazz Age, and labels such as modern or hyper-modern† began to proliferate, and the term Modernism began to lose its resonance, like butter scraped across too much toast. After World War Two, consumer culture became the focus of the Modernist artist, as the focus shifted from the graphic, morbid horrors of the two Wars to the more palettable horrors of the popular culture invasion, and the aesthetic outrage of post-war modernism came to be replaced by an aesthetic of sanction. This combination of consumer and modernist cultures led to a total overhaul of the meaning of the term modernism, and can be seen as the beginning of the contemporary form of Postmodernism, replete with its self-referential fixation – as the lines between elite culture and consumer culture had become blurred, and a movement based on the rejection of tradition had become a tradition itself. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Arnason, H. H., History of Modern Art New York: Harry N. Abrams, 4th edition, 1998 Atkins, Robert. ArtSpoke: A Guide to Modern Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords, 1848-1944. New York: Abbeville Press, 1993 Chipp, Herschel B. Theories of Modern Art Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968 and 1989 Malcolm Bradbury, Modernism 1890-1930, London: Penguin, 1991 Christopher Witcombe, What is Art?, http://witcombe.sbc.edu/modernism/artsake.html, 2000 [1] Christopher Witcombe, What is Art?, http://witcombe.sbc.edu/modernism/artsake.html, 2000 [2] Christopher Witcombe, What Is Art? [3] Christopher Witcombe, What Is Art? [4] Christopher Witcombe, What is Art?

Essay --

There is no question that obesity is a national epidemic. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate nearly 36% of U.S. adults more than 20 years of age were considered obese in 2009 through 2010, with 18.4% of adolescents following closely behind (Krieter). However, while obesity is a growing problem, labeling it as a disease is a formidable approach to what is considered a lifestyle choice for many American citizens. Scientists have made great advances in understanding significant environmental causes of obesity as well as identifying several genetic factors that may be implicated. Many efforts are now directed toward evaluating the interactions between these factors and understanding how this relationship interplays into major roles of the problem. Obesity is an end result of human response to biology and the environment. Recent hypotheses made by scientists suggest that the current obesity problem is largely due to environmental factors, such as fast food consumption, television watching, and large portion sizes (Brantley). Americans live in the era of eating unhealthy fast food, and the notorious ‘supersizing.’ Television, radio, and print advertising bombard the population with enticements to eat food high in calories and fat (Gunderman). Furthermore, the physical and mental demands of today’s societies are relentlessly changing, resulting in unbalanced energy intake and consumption. A study, published in the journal, Pediatrics, emphasize on specific environmental aspects on children and teen lives that contribute to their unhealthy, fat-filled lifestyles (Haelle). Researchers found that the link between increased television time and obesity rates among adolescents has grown stronger in the p... ...rtant contributors to obesity. Gain in body weight can be achieved through accumulative positive energy balances; these could form through adjustments in energy expenditure or fuel utilization and the types of the food that the consumer eats. The interaction between the two factors leads to a positive energy balance, eventually turning into body fat and weight gain. However, while previous investigations have found a clear association between high fat intake and risk of obesity the relationship does not establish a biological certitude. Further research must be done to form a more clear and reliable explanation for the affiliation between the genetic and environmental aspects of the epidemic. While the biological basis of the interaction is uncertain, cultural changes in society and the genetic makeup of the human body are clearly significant causes of obesity.

Needs and Concerns of New France Essay

I am writing to you on the issues and needs of New France. Some of the concerns and needs are, the on going war with the Iroquois, population, and industry in agriculture. The Iroquois are a grand part of concern on our people in New France. Presently there is war going on amongst us and the Iroquois. Our people are afraid to go hunting or fishing. If the people are not able to hunt or fish New France is going to struggle because there will not be enough food to be provided. We will also fall behind in fur trading. Since the people are frightened we can not go on exploring lands as it may be risky because of the Iroquois. The Iroquois do not let us cross their lands, so we can not get to our preferred destination. So being in danger of the Iroquois had its disadvantages such as, being afraid so we are not able to hunt or fish, not exploring further, and not getting to our specifies destination. The population in New France is struggling with men and women. I am trying to motivate our people by giving them rewards for marrying and giving birth early. If they do not they will receive penalties. In New France we are in need of more women. So they can get married and give birth. This will increase New France’s population, and you will not have to bring in more females after that. Also there are not enough residents to occupy Canada and live in it. This is a big issue if France wants to gain power and control over other land. So I suggest that before we get more women I ask if you could send in more people to New France. In addition the population has increased in men rather so then women. This again is a problem. So again our concerns are that we are lacking women, there are not enough people in New France to later expand to a big country Canada, and more men increased then women making the population gender wise unbalanced. New France also has to develop its own agriculture and industries. In New France there is a need for agriculture businesses. In the agriculture businesses we need to organize transportation to carry crops and livestock. This will also make it easier to deliver. Another need for New France is to become fewer dependant on France, in terms of supplies, food, people, and etc. Our growing industries are also beginning to drain out France’s finances. Since we are asking for too much and not giving back enough. We should receive a loan to start of industries or to improve on them to provide us with necessities which after we trade or sell and pay off the loan. So, there is a need for agricultural businesses. New France to become more independent and our industries are beginning to drain out France’s finances. You’re Majesty now that I have stated the concerns and needs for New France which are, the on going war with the Iroquois, population problems, and agriculture and its industries. I hope you will take into account the needs and concerns and hopefully come up with solutions. Thank you for taking your valuable time on this letter.

Comparing Plan Columbia and the Merida Initiative

The purpose of this paper will be to make a comparison between the Colombian drug cartels at the turn of the century with the mexican cartels today. The object of this comparison will be to determine the effectiveness of large scale millitary intervention against drug cartels. I will assess weather this comparison is not only justified but in any way usefull in understanding how fight a well funded well armed non-state enemy. This is a response to public comments by high ranking United States officials making this comparison (most notably secretary of state Hillary Clinton) while pledging a significant amount of American resources to such an effort. I will also attempt to answer all of the various questions that are begged by this nature of action. Most people do not realize the sheer lucrativeness of the drug trafficking business especially on an industrial scale. â€Å"The (Mexican) cartels have built a network of dealers in 231 U. S. cities from coast to coast, taking in about $39 billion in sales annually, according to the U.  S. Justice Department. † (*1) To put that into perspective, In 2009 Canada's total annual military expenditure was just over half (21 billion USD) of the total annual profit of the Mexican drug cartels in the United States. (*2) Comparing Columbia and Mexico The 1st thing that is obvious when making this comparison is the fact that Mexico is over twice the size of Columbia both in land mass and in population. In terms of governance Columbia was in a state of profound political instability from as early as the 1940's while Mexico enjoyed a relatively stable PRI government following he Mexican civil war. Geographically the two countries have nothing in common but their proximity to each other. Mexico is a largely flat terrain that poses no real problems to transportation and offers little in the way of cover. By Contrast Columbia has a large mountainous area covered in tropical forests, the majority of the drug production takes place is these remote areas. From a governmental standpoint, the Colombian government is largely decentralized compared to the federal structure in Mexico. Due to the federal government and the larger tax base the Mexican government has some extra capacity when it comes to overall resources available before assistance. As far as the method in which the governments of these two countries approach dealing with traffickers is quite diffrent, Mexico has up until very recently preferred to use it's police forces to deal with drug traffickers while Colombian governments have preferred to use their military as a police force, which is more common in most Latin American countries. The Mexican Cartels There are essentially two major Cartel groups within Mexico that fight each other for a large piece of the drug trade. The first is made up of the Tijuana cartel and the Gulf cartel make up the first major group and operates primarily out of North of East Mexico. A group known as â€Å"The Federation† is made up of of many smaller cartels and â€Å"is led by representatives of the Sinaloa, Juarez and Valencia cartels†. (*3 p. 4) members of this group as scattered all throughout the rest of Mexico. Even though these groups are concentrated in certain areas there isn't a place in Mexico that is off limits to any of these groups. All of these groups operate independently and it is not uncommon for alliances to be fickle between drug traffickers. None of the Mexican drug trafficking organizations are known to have any political allegiances or stated long term goal other then to make money and control as much turf as possible in order to achieve that end while minimizing the damage to the people of their own groups. The Mexican cartels were not always as violent as they are today, the fall of the PRI along with a strengthening of the Mexican police force is said to have resulted in the upswing in violence. Another contributing factor the recent escalation in violence is that since the fall of Major Columbian cartels (replaced mostly by smaller scale operations) Mexico and it's drug trade began to have to fill the void that was left in the US market for a period of time, greatly strengthening their financial base and ability to purchase weapons and to employ a larger number of foot soldiers from poor communities (usually with family ties to promote increased loyalty to said group and a deeper anchor within the local community). Florida was actually the main entry point for drugs during the early 80's but the strengthening of the American navy and coastguard geared towards stopping smuggling led to Mexico becoming the transit point it is today. It is most important that though Mexican troops have been used largely due to the ineffective and corruption of the police department I would not classify it as a war. The army is simply there to do carry out the actions of a police force because he regular police for cannot be trusted. There is no way for either side to declare a complete victory. It is my opinion that even if every drug trafficker in Mexico dropped dead this morning there would be a new group forming to take it's place by nightfall and it wouldn't take them long to gain momentum capital and weapons. Likewise a drug gang can never truly triumph against the state without any political agenda. The majority of the murders are between rival gangs, though there have been many police officers and politicians killed the battle is essentially between the cartel groups and each other not with the state. The increased military strength is simply a self defence response. I would argue that if the Mexican cartels were 1 hegemonic group you would probably see at least a 10 fold drop in violent crime. Columbia at the hight of the culumbian drug trade You cant tell the story of the Columbia drug trade without talking about Pablo Escobar. In 1989 Forbes magazine estimated that was the 7th richest man the world with personal assets estimated at over 25 Billion dollars. This however is not what made him a unique, he was known as an extremely charitable man by many of the poor people in Columbia giving them land, housing, employment and even building football fields, building a lot of good will among the people something that you find little evidence of on the side of the Mexican cartels. The Medellin cartel he was a part of is thought to have controlled about 80% of the cocaine market in the early 1990's and was the most prominent of the Colombian cartels at the turn of the century. This cartel was rivalled by the Cali cartel who emerged largely due to weakening of their rivals the Medellin cartel. The biggest difference between Columbia at the turn of the century and the situation in Mexico today is the existence of the various guerrilla groups that existed in Columbia, many of which are still in existence. The lines are often blurred between these guerrilla groups and the drug traffickers themselves. The standard arrangement between these guerrillas and drug traffickers was essentially protection of traffickers' production and processing areas in exchange for a handsome percentage of the profits. The profitability on investment on cocaine grown in Columbia being about 200$ for every 1$ invested, there was more then enough capital to go around. The wars between these various guerrilla groups enveloped Columbia in a civil war since eginning in the 1960's, this was far before Columbia drug trafficking organizations began to collaborate with the leftist guerrillas. By comparison Mexican cartels have no real political allegiances, their allegiance is to the dollar and the dollar alone. The fact that the terrain in Columbia is so difficult and access to remote areas is much more easy to control, these various groups are able to hold territory much more effectively then the Drug Cartels in Me xico. The aspect of some of these guerrilla groups that really begins to attract the United State's attention for obvious reasons is their leftist/socialist ideology. The oldest and most notable of these groups is FARC or â€Å"The revolutionary armed forces of Columbia†. This group has been fighting the Colombian national army as well as â€Å"right wing paramilitaries†. At first glance the conflict between these two groups seems to be one for control over the Colombian drug trade and various areas of Columbia where drugs are produced. A closer look reveals a much more sinister reality. There are a number of noticeable irregularities in the accounts of the violence. Over the course of my reasearch I kept hearing certain terms to describe the columbian drug war that you dont hear when you read on the mexican drug war. Many mentions of human rights abuses as well as massacres with large numbers of innocent people being killed, you hear of much violence in mexico but are always termed â€Å"drug related murders† implying that those killed were afiliated in organized crime. When you take a closer look at the ‘right wing guerrillas', first of all it's just about imposible to find a video of any of their leaders with any kind of mission statement or anything of the sort, second you cannot find any documentation anywhere of any known ally. Now, you tell me how does a heavily armed paramilitary group, even with drug money, take part in over 30 years of civil war including alleged armed conflict against the US millitary, without any support from any government or even any other criminal organization? If everything where as it appears at 1st glance it results in a paradox, how does major international drug trafficking organization not even have ONE known ally/accomplice? It just doesn't make any sense purely on a business level. If you look up any of the Mexican cartels as well as FARC you can find known allies. Additionally, why is there a right wing guerrilla group for decades with a right wing government in power? Finally, Why is one side of the guerrillas (FARC) involved in negotiations with the Colombian government and not the other? Even if they were to sign a peace treaty they would still be at war. The conclusion that asking these questions leads you to is that the Paramilitary groups were actually an unofficial extension of the Colombian armed forces that traces it's roots back it's formation during the cold war where they were trained by US army officers in ‘tactics of counterinsurgency' at the School of the Americas, these tactics are said to specifically target the civilian population without the support of which the guerrillas cannot continue to function. This groups true purpose is to combat communist guerrillas by what ever means necessary. Statistics show that these right wing paramilitaries are responsible for 80's of the ‘political killings' in Colombia, which upon closer examination seem more like like acts of widespread political repression of the Colombian people spanning almost a half a century and crossing the line of human rights abuse with regularity virtually without any opposition from anyone internationally, opposed only domestically by FARC. Accounts from former Colombian army officers allege that the national Colombian armed forces maintained contact regularly with right wing paramilitary groups and directed them to many of the areas where they are accused of committing human rights atrocities. (*9) It has been alleged that the right wing paramilitaries acting in concert with the Colombian national army tried to remove the rural population from certain areas altogether forcing them to become urban refuges and further isolating the FARC forces. In 2005 Columbia had the 3rd largest internal refuge population in the world. Not only that but the paramilitaries are responsible for just as much if not more of the Colombian drug trade then FARC making ‘Plan Columbia' truely appear to be a futile action according to it's officially stated goals. Assessment of â€Å"Plan Columbia† 1998-2010 (lessons learned) Assessing the success of plan Columbia really depends on what you consider to be a success. If you consider the primary objective of the operation to be to simply return control of certain areas of Columbia back to the Colombian government then it would be considered a success. However, if the primary objective was to irradiate the drug trade recent statistics show that though production of cocaine in Columbia did take a severe hit in the early 2000's it has been on the Rise again since 2006. What this confirms is that the drug trade there has not ceased but in fact evolved to meet the challenges of a changed environment. Drug trafficking organizations today are still operating but simply doing it in a more discrete manner their predecessors. Another example of the evolution that ‘Plan Columbia' sparked is the guerrillas branching out to other sympathetic paramilitaries and paramilitary terrorist groups. Members of FARC have reportedly instituted the help of various allies IRA including the since the increased military pressure. An article in British newspaper The Telegraph (*8) highlights how the increased military presence in the countryside as well as an increase in the Colombian urban population has forced FARC forces to urbanize the way in which they conduct warfare. The article highlights significant advancements made by FARC in both explosives as well as counter intelligence and urban warfare. FARC is currently considered the most well armed well trained and well funded guerrilla group in the world. The destruction of crops which was on paper, the primary objective of ‘Plan Columbia' is something that is very temporary, unless you were to actually salt the earth there is nothing to prevent anybody from planting a new crop in the same place. The united states has increased the amount of toxic defoliant that is spays on Colombia and it's citizens every year of ‘Plan Columbia'. Many have made the comparison to agent orange in Vietnam. Many health problems have already been reported with relationship to the defoliant chemical and there are concerns that this chemical is starting to poison some the amazon basin and subsequently effecting other Latin American countries to the south. This defoliant kills all crops including the ones, many of the poorest peasants who grow bananas simply for subsistence have their whole crops destroyed on a regular basis. Some have raised the issue that perhaps this alone constitutes a grave human rights violation. A foreign power spraying toxic chemicals on the population of another is something that is unheard of in the past. The most inditing fact to the type of military action undertaken is most obviously that it has been a commitment that the United States has not been able pull back on after over 6 years no decrease in spending in this area is expected. Not only that but now that the Colombian drug traffickers have evolved we're seeing a resurgence in drug activity in the country. No matter how you look at it ‘Plan Colombia' was almost a complete failure, Colombian left wing guerrillas persist, drug use in the US has never been higher, cocaine production in Columbia is increasing. The only ay in which this operation is a success is that the overall violence seems to have died down and that in the paramilitary groups, which the US created in the 1st place have been disbanded and are no longer committing horrendous atrocities against innocent people for the sole purpose of turning public opinion against FARC. It might be viewed in that instance as a success, I was about half way into my research before I heard/read anything to do with FARC's side of the story. Venezuela, Ecuador and Cuba are the only counties to formally voice support for FARC. (*10) Evaluating the Merida Innitiative One the important things to know about the Merida initiative is that the entirety of the money (400 million to start) approved by the US congress all went to American companies, to train police, to build helicopters, not one dollar of the funding of this operation ends up in non-American hands. It is expected, as was the care with ‘Plan Columbia' that the United states will exclusively employ private American defence contractors to do all the work on the ground. The reason for this is not strong enough to justify the use and possible loss of American soldiers. Also use of American soldiers to fight an urban drug war such as the one in Mexico and might cause a PR nightmare if US Soldiers are viewed as firing on Mexican population, which the drug members of the cartels can hide in plain sight, unlike the Colombian guerrillas they are not in uniform. My investigation into ‘Plan Colombia' led me to the conclusion that the comparison made by the US secretary of defence between Colombia at the turn of the century and the Mexican drug war today to be a very poor and unjustified one. As previously stated I contend that the situation in Colombia was actually a war where as the Mexican situation is simply a police ineffectiveness issue. While the comparison between the who conflicts themselves is unjustified both ‘Plan Columbia' and ‘The Merida initiative' officially have a primary goal to reduce the outflow of drugs into the united states and can still be compared in that instance. The comparison is one that mostly highlights the extreme ineffectiveness not only in terms of result but in terms of cost of this kind of policy. It essentially doesn't solve any of the problems of drug trafficking. The demand in the US for drugs is the real source of this problem. Persistent Problems (police, penal system,banking) A continuing problem that has been acknowledged but not dealt with in any meaningful way in the fact that poor farmers who have been driven into poverty by the international agricultural business (and it's dominance by the west) have no better feasible options then to grow the plants that are converted into drugs. In ‘Plan Columbia' the Colombian government instituted a program to offer coca growers money to grow alternative crops, offering them a sum in the range of 2 million pesos a year (about 950$). *7) Many coca farmers argue is not enough to live. When growing coca (rather then crops such as plantains and Pineapples) not only is the crop worth more but the drug traffickers come right to their doors to pick up the ‘coca paste' they convert the plants to. When growing the crops they are being encouraged to grow they have to transport these tons of produce on â€Å"vehicles they don't have, on roads that don't exist to sell to markets both internal and external† that they don't have access to and to compete with an international aggro business . † (*7- 5:51) It' simply not a sound development plan. less then 20% of the Plan Columbia budget is allocated towards this end) instead the budget is spent on air fumigation spaying defoliant on coca cultures. Secondly the way that the penal system is set up just about everywhere in the world makes the incarceration of major drug lords almost completely futile, they still maintain control over their organization and administer it from prison. The leaders of the Tijuana and Gulf cartels made the agreement to unite while they were both in prison (*3 p. 4), consolidating their power against the rest of the cartels in the â€Å"The Federation†. There is also a persistent (though easilly remedied) problem that the Mexican prisons themselves are not able keep powerful people in there. In the last year alone over 250 prison inmates have been broken out of prison by cartels, most recently 191 were released from from a prison in Tamaulipas by the Los Zetas cartel. This creates even more problems on other fronts, it makes it alot harder to extract information from prisoners then it is in the united states. If an inmate believes it's only a matter of time before he gets out he has no reasons to co-operate in any way, no real threat to guard against. Finally, probably the most important continuing problem is money laundering, this allows for drug operations to run smoothly by giving it a seemingly legitimate flow of cash to use for Bribes, buying up legitimate real estate and other things. Without being able to access the real money of drug kingpins makes it hard to do them any real damage that wont easily be recovered from in a very short time. Many large US banks are complicit in this activity and it is a massive source of capital for them. An article from the Bloomberg press highlights the involvment of American banks such as Wachovia Corp. Bank of America and Wells Fargo's direct complicity in money laundering operations for the mexican cartels. â€Å"Wachovia admitted it didn’t do enough to spot illicit funds in handling 378. 4 billion for Mexican-currency-exchange houses from 2004 to 2007. † (*1) To say they didn't â€Å"do enough to spot† 378 billion dollars entering their bank is laughable. There have reportedly been some efforts to pass more stringent anti-money laundering laws which have met some oppostion from the banking lobby for obvious reasons. The police force continues to be a significant problem, all the training in the world still isn't going to stop corruption, even if a relative victory is acheived and the army pulls out it would seem to me only to be a matter of time before things return to their previous state. Possible solutions In order to fix the problems associated with prisons I think a simple solution would be to transfer people associated to drug cartels to offshore or even just send them to the other side of the world somewhere a pay country X to keep them in isolation. Reducing their ability to communicate is key. Something that I think the world may sooner or later move towards provided the proper technology be available is to curb the drug trade is simply an irradiation of hand held currency. Cash is what funds all of these organizations. This is why they have to launder drug money, it's dirty, you cant buy jet planes and like with cash. If you eliminate cash, how can anyone buy drugs illegally? You cant have a large elligal operation which risks lives dailey if people can only barter for your drugs and every legitimate product is purchased through some form of debit entirely controlled by the government. In conclusion I beleive that the Merida innitiative will probably succeed to a small degree in curbing violence but not the drug trade itself. I think it will be a costly (perhaps everlasting) failure as long as people are beating a dead horse with tactics that are proven not work. The more troubling aspect of this whole research paper for me is the notion that gets brought up by several in various documentaries I watched in doing research of the American government attempted to make security policy which violates many individual freedoms with respect to terrorism all encompassing. If you can keep enforcing the notion that the drug is on the same wavelength as terrorism it gives you the right to treat all people involved in drugs (about 80% of Americans at least once in a lifetime) as people involved in terrorism and produce a progressive erosion of civil liberties which some already believe has gone to far with legislation such as The Patriot Act. Operations in mexico and Colombia set a precedent for the United States intervening (without request in the case of mexico) in domestic affairs of it's neighbours using military force. I would also argue that much of this action could be perceived as just another extension of the US military industrial complex in action. References http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-29/banks-financing-mexico-s-drug-cartels-admitted-in-wells-fargo-s-u-s-deal.html http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/reports/docs/Canadian%20Military%20Spending%202009.pdf http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34215.pdf http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/mexico/2010/12/jail-breaks-and-cartel-manpower-woes.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1559348/IRA-training-haunts-Colombias-guerrilla-war.html http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB166/index.htm

Auteur Theory : Darren Aronofsky Essay

Translated from the French, auteur simply means â€Å"author†. There have been varied perceptions regarding this theory, its importance and effectiveness. Auteur theory is essentially â€Å"a method of evaluating films based on the director’s involvement and input†. The concept of ‘Auteur’ was first introduced by Francois Truffaut in 1954 in A Certain Tendency in French Cinema. (1) In this work he claimed that film is a great medium for expressing the personal ideas of the director. He suggested that this meant that the director should therefore be regarded as an auteur. According to him, there are three forms in which a director may be regarded as an Auteur. He agreed with Andre Basin’s idea that the film must be the direct expression of the director’s vision. The second aspect was that the director must be skilled with the camera. He believed the director is to camera as the writer is to pen. Lastly he believed for a director to be considered as an Auteur, he must leave behind a distinctive signature (based on Alexander Astruc’s idea), visually or as an idea in the film. (2) Years later, this concept was reintroduced by Andrew Sarris in 1962, in a publication titled â€Å"Notes on Auteur theory† (3). Accordingly, for a director to be considered as an auteur, the director must be well versed with the technical aspects of the film. The director must have a distinct style or a signature that distinguishes his films from the others. The movies must have a theme, an inner meaning. The auteur theory has been receiving widespread criticism since the 60’s. It was argued that one person cannot control all aspects of the film. A film is a conglomeration of the efforts of lots of people. Despite this it is found to be very useful as the starting point of interpretation of some films. Auteur Theory suggests that the best films will bear their maker’s ‘signature’, which may manifest itself as the stamp of his or her individual personality or perhaps even focus on recurring themes within the body of work. (4) Keeping the concepts of the theory in mind, one can safely conclude that if the three criteria have been satisfied, the director may be considered the auteur of the film, these criteria being recurrent style, theme and visuals. Moving on to the discussion of the topic at hand, can the director of Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky be considered as an auteur? Black Swan is his fifth film as a director. All of his films share a similar theme. They all deal with an addiction in some form, the protagonist is always the one addicted. The movie shows the protagonist realizing his/her addiction, and there by degrading their personal life. ‘Black Swan’ and ‘The Wrestler’, share a single minded professionalism in the pursuit of a career, leading to the destruction of personal lives. (5) Aronofsky has had a lot of inspiration from different films, art forms and in general, all his films have an inherent trace of impending psychosis. However through the course of his five films one would see his stories delve more and more into the human psyche. With Requiem for a dream, it began as a drug addiction, a hallucination induced by drugs. In The Wrestler, he simply shows persistence, a plain disregard for anything but wrestling. Though this does not show psychosis, it clearly lights up the explosive nature of his pursuit. In some ways, this may be seen as a form of addiction too. In Black Swan, the main character is portrayed as one with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). As the movie progresses, the psychosis of the protagonist progresses further, she begins to hallucinate and she draws parallels between her life and the ballad she is performing (the swan lake ballad). As a director, there are a lot of similarities in his films. There is always a sense of accomplishment accompanied by sense of impending doom, a tragedy as the price for the success seen earlier. One of the characters (usually the protagonist) always dies or suffers some sort of major personal tragedy. He is also greatly influenced by Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Roman Polanski, Satoshi Kon, Shinya Tsukamoto, Alfred Hitchcock, Spike Lee, Federico Fellini, and Jim Jarmusch. The Wrestler and Black Swan share a great resemblance to Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue. Though the similarities were acknowledged, Aronofsky denied it being an inspiration. (7) Perfect Blue ( Pafekuto Buru? ) is a 1997 Japanese animated psychological thriller film directed by Satoshi Kon and written by Kon and Sadayuki Murai based on the novel of the same name by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. (8) Mima Kirigoe (the protagonist) who is a member of a Japanese pop-idol group called â€Å"CHAM! † decides to pursue her career as an actress. Some of her fans are displeased with her sudden career change, particularly a stalker named Me-Mania. As her new career proceeds, Mima’s world becomes increasingly noir. Reality and fantasy spiral out of control. Shortly after leaving CHAM! , Mima receives an anonymous fax calling her a traitor. Mima finds a website called â€Å"Mima’s Room† that has public diary discussing her life in great detail. She confides in her manager Rumi Hidaka, a former pop star herself, about the site, however, she is advised to just ignore it. Othe set of Double Bind, Mima succeeds in getting a larger part. The producers have agreed to give her a leading role, however as a rape victim in a strip club. Despite Rumi’s warning that it would ruin her reputation, Mima accepts the part voluntarily. Though it is apparent that Mima is indecisive, the atmosphere of the scene traumatizes her so that she increasingly becomes unable to separate reality from fantasy. She can no longer distinguish her real life from her work. She becomes paranoid. Consequently people who had been involved in tarnishing Mima’s reputation are murdered and Mima finds evidence which makes her appear as the prime suspect. Her increasing mental instability makes her doubt her own innocence. It turns out that the diarist of â€Å"Mima’s Room† is delusional and very manipulative, and that an intense folie a deux has been in play. The faux diarist (and murderer) believes that she is Mima who is forever young and graceful, has made a scapegoat of stalker Me-Mania. Mima knocks Me-Mania unconscious with a hammer when he attempts to rape her, and runs to her only support she has left alive, her manager Rumi. When Mima encounters Rumi, however, her manager is wearing a replica of Mima’s CHAM! Costume and crazily singing Mima’s pop songs. Rumi is in fact the false diarist, who believes she is the â€Å"real Mima†. Rumi is angry that Mima has been ruining the â€Å"real Mima’s† reputation, and decides to save â€Å"Mima’s† pristine pop idol image through the same means she has been using all along: murder. Mima manages to incapacitate Rumi after a chase through the city despite being wounded. Rumi remains permanently delusional and institutionalized. Mima has grown from her experiences and has moved on with her life with new found independence and confidence. One finds a striking similarity between the two storylines, if one were to imagine Mima as the White Swan – the pure innocent Nina Sayers, and Rumi as the Black Swan – the violent, sensual and dangerous psychosis of Nina. There are too many similarities between the storylines. In both cases, during the fight between the two characters (For the sake of this argument, let us assume the black swan and white swan as separate. ) The antihero of the story attacks the protagonist. In both cases the protagonist is wounded in the abdomen (almost in the same area – around the liver). In both cases, the protagonist continues their bidding after being wounded. Nina finishes the dance while Mima goes around the city in a chase. In both cases, the protagonist is affected by the job, and they receive threatening messages. Nina sees Whore while Mima receives the fax calling her a traitor. If one were to delve deeper, one even sees the similarity in the naming of characters (however this argument is based sole on conjuncture and lacks credibility. ) Despite this there is an immense similarity between the story line and the character sketches. Due to the overbearing nature of the similarity I find it hard to accept that Black Swan is not influenced by Perfect Blue. The inspiration may not have been intentional; however, the similarity is too much to be dismissed as coincidence. In this light such an undeniable similarity between the two films disqualifies Darren Aronofsky from being an auteur. Black Swan also draws heavily on what is called the Doppelganger effect and the split personality. These woven into a maze of mirror motif is the central theme throughout the film. This is a strategy which is well-known in classical Hollywood cinema such as precisely ‘The Red Shoes’. 10) This being said this film has Aronofsky’s stamp all over it. There is a great similarity between the characters ‘The Ram’ and ‘Nina Sayers’. In his own words†¦ â€Å"They are both artists who use their body Age threatens them Physical injury threatens them They only have their hands to express themselves. †(9) In all of his films, the sets have a sense of belonging. The props used are bare minimum. Only those strictly necessary are used. His set design is simple precise yet he somehow manages to bring a sense of belonging, a nativity to his sets. For example in the Black Swan recital, the set was simple, yet it somehow added to the elegance and grandeur bringing with it a certain ethereal quality with it. Another notable trait in his films is his music. Black Swan marks the fifth consecutive collaboration between Aronofsky and Clint Mansell. In all his films, music is exploited as a medium to dramatize the situation. The editing is also pertinent to the music. This relationship between the editing and BG score is most successfully exploited in Requiem for a Dream which gained acclaim for its hip-hop style editing. His attention to detail is yet another endearing stamp. For example, in the opening scene of Black Swan, the change in the tutu indicating the change in emotion is subtle almost not noticeable, yet one feels the emotion without really seeing it. The small stiff (classical pancake) tutu, for the innocent cheery bit, the long flowing (romantic) tutu for poised elegance and a graceful waltz, and, the shorter (platter) tutu, for the transition into Black Swan. Also if one were to notice keenly, one would see that almost every scene of Nina alone in the film will also include a mirror reflecting Nina in some angle. Aronofsky has made great use of this to exploit the two mindedness of Nina’s psychosis. In all respects of style, editing and mise-ene-scene Aronofsky has distinctly made his mark on all five films. In an interview, Aronofsky, says he was deeply influenced by the roller coaster Cyclone, and that he has adopted that intense structure, which keeps the audience on the edge, in his films. He aims to thrill the audience and amuse them with his films. (9) This, he certainly has achieved in his films.