Exploring the Universe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Exploring the Universe - Essay Example This essay demonstrates that I found the data that assisted in the exploration of the universe overwhelming with the help of imagery. I could not even describe the images used for this unit coupled with the imagination I formed after exploring the data. For instance, galaxies can measure from hundreds of thousands to even tens of millions of light-years across. This means the light from those galaxies left their stars millions of years ago to collect on the cameras and lenses of telescopes like The Hubble. I found this information and images that accompanied it fascinating to the degree of revising them when I am stressed. Astronomy 1001 enabled me to come up with a therapy routine for when I am stressed from schoolwork. This therapy entails reading the class text or simply recalling the images and related data to calm down and feel relaxed. Astronomy 1001 made me realize the immense resources and potential human beings can harness from the cosmos. While focusing on the moon, human beings can benefit tremendously from the vast resources that nearby celestial bodies contain. After traveling to the moon during the Apollo mission, the enthusiasm that came along with the mission died gradually over the years. The United States, and even the EU and Russia, no longer expressed interest to return to the moon. This disinterest contributes greatly to the deteriorating investment in space programs that agencies like NASA and ESA have experienced for the few decades. Colonizing our natural satellite and nearly planets has become a phenomenon for Hollywood and other fiction writers to exploit. Astronomy 1001 made me realize that investments in space and technology research on the moon are near mandatory for a species that often considers itself the most intelligent on earth.

Language is a loaded weapon Essay Example for Free

Language is a loaded weapon Essay Language is that knowledge held by native speakers which, combined with the use of expressive faculties, enables them to communicate in spoken and written forms. Language is creative it can create ambience i. e. harmony, strife and war depending on how we use it, and the intentions of the user. Man is a complex being each individual made so by unique common experiences, which colour not only our reception/perception and interpretation of data but also influence our delivery. The way people deliver a message can alter the way we think, our understanding, perception, or approach. Language can be used honestly or dishonestly. To convey truth or to pervert truth, to persuade, to convince, to control, to unite, disunite, to make something clear or to mystify. Language is the tool we use to communicate. Its not just words it includes N. V. C (Non Verbal Communication, signals that we give out in the way we stand and move our body). Some interpretation of language is done at a subconscious level, instinctively. When interpreting the encoders message we consider his/her motivation. What are they trying to achieve? i. e. The way in which someone is listening or watching can indicate to you whether or not they are interested, disliking or are bored with what you are saying. You notice this on a subconscious almost subliminal level. If you are the encoder you adjust the way in which you speak so as the receiver decodes your message properly and doesnt misunderstand what you have said. For example if you shout at someone they may get the impression you are angry with them, however you may have raised your voice to ensure they can hear you. To decode successfully many other aspects have to be considered about the encoders background, culture, belief system etc, over and above their motivation. Tone, pitch, volume, intonation, speed, hesitation, accent, emotion, even hormones, all affect both delivery and reception. Hence language is not a neutral tool; it is inadvertently biased in thousands of ways. All mankind is guilty of this fault. A clear example of this is propaganda, mass media, political persuasion, even the way history is written. For example in The Mirror after the September 11th incident, they produced a front page with the heading My son the hijacker. The way this title is worded makes you sympathise with the Mother, and shows us that the hijackers where not just people that had nothing to live for and no family, but people that had families. The subheading to this title was I did not bring up my son to hate he was a good, kind, young man not an evil killer. This brings reality to the fact that you think you know who and what type of person your son/daughter is, but then a tragic thing like this happens and you find out that perhaps you dont really know who and what your child is really like. Another example that language is a loaded weapon is in The Suns October 4th paper, on page 11 there was a heading Scouts leader let boy, 10, die on mountain. Your first reactions and emotions to this title are anger, hatred and spite towards the scout leader for letting a 10-year old boy die on a mountain. You then read on, to find out that the leader left the boy unsupervised at the rear of the group as they descended Mount Snowdon. This headline favours the boy, where as if the paper were writing in the favour of the leader you would perhaps have a heading more along the lines of A young boy strayed on the descent of mount Snowdon, slipped and fell 500ft to his death. This is an excellent example to show that Language is a loaded weapon this shows us that by simply changing the way in which this title is worded, creates a whole different perspective to the article. It can persuade you to feel sorry for the family of the boy and hatred towards the scout leader or to show consideration to the leader that the boy may have strayed from the path himself, slipped and fallen. Therefore language can be used to manipulate what you feel and in some ways is used to control you. Newspapers tell you what they think you should know not what you would like to know. An example of this was in the Daily Mirror 13th January 1996 page 7. A heading and its article entitled Gulp! took up nearly the whole of the page compared with a little box in the left hand corner which had the heading Girls-raped by gang of 14. When a few years later a similar thing happens to a boy this gets front-page news with the title of A gay gang rapes boy, 19 from The Sun. The way these articles have been positioned and the amount they have had written on them manipulates what the mass media wants us to know. The way the second article is written shows us that the media try to control what we think. The heading itself creates a lot of emotions even though his age is given as nineteen, the word boy is what immediately grabs your attention and causes your imagination to see a small child rather than a young man. Therefore taking in to consideration all these examples you find that language is not only a loaded weapon but is also one thousand ways biased. It can be used to manipulate what we think and what we think we know. We are told what to think and not asked to think about what we are told.

Should Video Games be Considered a Sport?

Should Video Games be Considered a Sport? Video Games has become one of the most popular source of entertainment. Inspired by countless numbers of screaming supporters with lots of cash in prize on the line. Top competitors must hold up against hard training workouts, but also enjoy good income and business offers. We are not mentioning to basketball or football here, but the top-level world of professional activity enjoying. Many activities such as on-line poker, polo and golf have been asked as authentic activities. According to the world Olympic board, on-line poker, polo and golf all fall under the category of activities. But it seems that golf has been the only activity conducted at the Olympics of these three. That makes an odd point, if these activities are considered activity, why arent they offered as activity by the Olympic board. Activision, one of the top activity enjoying companies known for titles such as The Amazing Spiderman, Transformer, and Deadpool is now looking for to create an official ESPN division cal led Major Group Gaming(MGG) according to their venture. This has led to the debate on whether video games are a real activity and if Activisions attempt to create Major Group Gaming can provide an increase in income and recognition or a huge failure. In order to figure out whether an activity can become a sport needs a close look of the meaning. According to the vocabulary, a game is an action including movements and expertise in which an individual or team plays against another or others for enjoyment. Even though video games easily drop under a classification of skills being used and including one or more participants, it overlooks the movements part of the information. Unless you consider moving fingertips as movements, video games do not drop under this purpose of game. This is only one of many explanations for sport. There are many versions to the meaning that will play an important part in identifying if in fact activities is highly recommended sports on a nationwide field. Regardless of these activities being considered a sport or not, games companies will have difficulties shifting their competition into a satellite TV game route in order for the game to become worldwide. Although, some activities have been subject of international finalization and challenge around the entire globe in the past 10 years. For example, League of Legends, one of the popular game played on the globe granted $1 million to their last years champ in the competition. Such activities being regarded as sport seems difficult to believe but extensive reputation of the category may change the publics understanding, especially with Activisions production of Major Group Game. For MGG to become a nationwide feeling, Activision is going to have to achieve viewers other than the range of younger gamers who have come up with preliminary market for expert gamers. The fact that only adolescents have interest in viewing or taking part in expert gaming but as they get older and as the expert gaming field produces, it is completely possible for expert gaming to stick the unique aging viewers as well as the future genesis. By consequence, there may be a pretty firm base for expert gaming to have a world of sports. Not only adolescents would have fun with the competitors, also mature as well. If money is engaged, the viewers will be more drawn to the competitors. Technology affect our lives a lot. It has increased rapidly in the field of our basic lives activities. Simulation play an important role in this subject matter. As of today, Sony-one of the biggest company to produce consoles and other devices, developed a device for video game called Virtual Reality(VR). What the VR does is allowing the user to play a video game with the feeling that he is in the video games. Basically, your movement in real life is connected to your character or image in the game. This is just one way of saying that video is not just sitting at on a couch with a bag of food. It also involves physic movement which relate to the real-life sport and exercise. Factors Affecting Reaction Rates: Experiment Factors Affecting Reaction Rates: Experiment Maria Angela R. Dulin and Felix P. Terencio Jr. ABSTRACT An area in chemistry that focuses on the speed or rate at which a chemical reaction takes place is chemical kinetics. In drug making, in pollution control and in food processing, knowledge about the rate of reaction is useful (Chang, 2010). Since chemical kinetics has a widespread application in our daily lives, it is just right to take a deeper look into this field. Moreover, the determination of factors affecting reaction rates is essential in this study. Thus, the focus of this experiment was to determine the effects of some of these factors on reaction rates. This was done by having a specific variable altered in two or more setups in each part of the experiment like the nature of the reactants, concentration, temperature, surface area and the presence of a catalyst. Conclusions were drawn based on the results obtained from the experiment. It was shown that an increase in temperature, surface area and concentration leads to an increase of the reaction rate, also the more reactive the reactants in nature the faster the reaction rate. Lastly, the addition of catalyst resulted to an increase in reaction rate. INTRODUCTION Kinetics oftenly suggests a definition that pertains to movement and change or, in terms of energy, the energy that is harnessed through an object’s motion. Chemical kinetics, however, refers to the branch of chemistry that deals with the speeds at which a chemical reaction occurs. Kinetics also refers to the rate of a reaction, or the reaction rate, which can be defined as the change in the concentration of a reactant or product with respect to time (Chang, 2010). Due to the fact that the actual manner in which a reaction occurs is not yet fully understood, the following reaction rate theories are commonly used to explain how reactions happen: the Collision Theory and the Transition State Theory. According to the Collision Theory, all reactions happen as the result of collisions of the reacting molecules. However, not all collisions are successful in producing a reaction. For a collision between molecules to be productive, they must possess the minimum amount of energy required which is the activation energy (Ea) and the proper orientation. On the other hand, it is stated by the Transition State Theory that an intermediate complex or transition state complex, that cannot be isolated, is produced prior to the formation of the final product (Engle Ilao, 2007). In addition to these reaction rate theories, it is also vital to the total comprehension of the behavior of reaction rates to understand how certain factors can affect them. Through the m anipulation of the nature and concentration of reactants, temperature, presence of a catalyst, and surface area, we are able to examine and observe how these factors can alter or change the rate of the chemical reaction. The experiment aims to determine the effects of those stated factors on the rates of chemical reactions. The determination of the rate law expression using the method of initial rates is also an objective of the experiment. Lastly, the value of the activation energy of a reaction should also be evaluated through accomplishing the experiment. METHODOLOGY All the necessary apparatus and reagents were gathered and prepared prior to the conduction of the experiment. The effects of the factors affecting reaction rates were observed in five separate parts of the procedure. The first factor to be tested was the nature of the reactants. Two test tubes were labelled as A and B. Each test tube contained 3 ml of water (H2O). In test tube A, a strip of magnesium ribbon (Mg) was added while in test tube B, a small piece of sodium metal (Na) was added. Observations were then recorded. The second factor that had been tested was the concentration of reactants. Two setups were prepared, hydrochloric acid (HCl) concentration was held constant while sodium thiosulfate (Na2S2O3) concentration was variable for the first part. In contrast, HCl concentration was the variable while Na2S2O3 concentration was kept constant in the second setup. An empty 10-ml beaker was placed on a piece of white paper marked with an â€Å"X.† Then, a specific volume of 0.15 M Na2S2O3 was then placed inside the beaker. The researchers were tasked to check if the mark was still visible through the solution. Thereafter, a corresponding volume of H2O and 3 M HCl was added immediately. The time from the moment the HCl was added to the moment the mark was no longer visible had been recorded. The stated process was done ten times with varying volumes of reagents. 0.15 M Na2S2O3 (ml) H2O (ml) 3 M HCl (ml) I. Constant HCl Concentration 5 0 1 4 1 1 3 2 1 2 3 1 1 4 1 II. Constant Na2S2O3 Concentration 5 0 2.5 5 0.5 2.0 5 1.0 1.5 5 1.5 1.0 5 2.0 0.5 The third factor that was put into the test was temperature. Two test tubes were prepared, one with 5 ml of 0.15 M Na2S2O3 while the other contained 7.5 ml of H2O and 2 ml of 3 M HCl. Both test tubes were immersed in a water bath containing tap water for 5 minutes. Both solutions were mixed in a 50 ml beaker placed on top of a piece of white paper marked with X. The time from the moment the solutions were placed in the beaker to the moment the mark was no longer visible had been recorded. This process was repeated at two other temperatures: one approximately 10 ºC lower than room temperature and the other approximately 10 ºC greater. To test the surface area for the fourth part, two identical strips of Mg ribbon were needed, one was cut into smaller pieces and the other remained uncut. The uncut Mg ribbon and the shredded Mg ribbon were placed in separate test tubes. Then, 5 ml of 3 M HCl was added to both test tubes. Observations were then noted. The last factor, the presence of a catalyst was also tested by preparing two test tubes. In each of the two test tubes, 5 ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was placed with about 1 g of Rochelle salt or sodium potassium tartrate. One test tube was then heated gently while a pinch of cobalt (II) chloride (CoCl2) was added to the other test tube before it was heated gently. Observations had been recorded. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results from the first part of the experiment, where the nature of reactants was the factor to be tested, is shown by Table 1. The reaction profile of both reactions are presented by Figure 1. Table 1. Observations on the Nature of Reactants Reactants Visible Results A Mg ribbon Formation of small bubbles on the surface of the Mg ribbon; Very slow reaction compared to test tube B B Na metal Evolution of gas; Solution turned murky white with bubbles; Formation of heat; Fast reaction compared to test tube A It is evident from the results of the experiment that the reaction of Na metal with water has a lower activation energy compared to that of Mg ribbon. It is proven by how the reaction of Na metal was the faster and more reactive reaction, which can only mean that it has an activation energy low enough to be easily achieved or reached. This is because of Na having a more reactive nature, with an ionization energy of 496 kJ/mol, compared to that of Mg, which has a higher ionization energy of 737 kJ/mol, given that the lower the ionization energy required, the easier it is to remove electrons, making it much easier for the element to react (Larsen, â€Å"Ionization Energy†). Figure 1. Reaction profiles of the Reaction with Mg and Na How the concentration of the reactants affects the rate of reaction is shown by Tables 2.1 and 2.2. The slopes of the reaction rates with respect to the concentrations of the reactants of the setups can be found on Figures 2.1 and 2.2. Table 2.1. Constant HCl Concentration [Na2S2O3] [HCl] ln [Na2S2O3] Time (s) Rate (1/s) ln Rate 0.15 M 0.5 M -1.897 12 0.083 -2.485 0.12 M 0.5 M -2.12 17 0.059 -2.833 0.09 M 0.5 M -2.408 27 0.037 -3.296 0.06 M 0.5 M -2.813 42 0.024 -3.738 0.03 M 0.5 M -3.507 100 0.01 -4.605 Computations for the concentrations of HCl and Na2S2O3 are as follows: [HCl] = = 0.5 M [Na2S2O3]1 = = 0.15 M [Na2S2O3]2 = = 0.12 M [Na2S2O3]3 = = 0.09 M [Na2S2O3]4 = = 0.06 M [Na2S2O3]5 = = 0.03 M Through linear regression: r = 0.998 mNa2S2O3 = 1.298 y-intercept = -0.083 Where, y = ln Rate, x = ln [Na2S2O3] mNa2S2O3 = the order of the reaction with respect to Na2S2O3 y-intercept = ln k + mHCl Ãâ€" ln [HCl] Based on the gathered data from the experiment, the reaction is in first order with respect to Na2S2O3. Figure 2.1. ln Rate vs. ln [Na2S2O3] Table 2.2. Constant Na2S2O3 Concentration [Na2S2O3] [HCl] ln [HCl] Time (s) Rate (1/Time) ln Rate 0.1 M 3 M 1.099 5 0.2 -1.609 0.1 M 2.4 M 0.875 14 0.071 -2.639 0.1 M 1.8 M 0.588 14 0.071 -2.639 0.1 M 1.2 M 0.182 17 0.059 -2.833 0.1 M 0.6 M -0.511 20 0.05 -2.996 Computations for the concentrations of HCl and Na2S2O3 are as follows: [Na2S2O3] = = 0.1 M [HCl]1 = = 3.0 M [HCl]2 = = 2.4 M [HCl]3 = = 1.8 M [HCl]4 = = 1.2 M [HCl]5 = = 0.6 M Through linear regression: r = 0.771 mHCl = 0.659 y-intercept = -2.838 Where, y = ln Rate, x = ln [HCl] mHCl = the order of the reaction with respect to HCl y-intercept = ln k + mNa2S2O3 Ãâ€" ln [Na2S2O3] Based on the gathered data from the experiment, the given reaction is in zeroth order with respect to HCl. Figure 2.2. ln Rate vs. ln [HCl] With a first overall reaction order, the rate law expression of the given reaction is: Rate = k [Na2S2O3]1 [HCl]0 = k [Na2S2O3] Moreover, the specific rate constant is: Based on the data gathered with a constant [HCl] y-intercept = ln k + mHCl Ãâ€" ln [HCl] -0.083 = ln k + 0.659 (-0.693) ln k = 0.374 k = 1.453 s-1 Based on the data gathered with a constant [Na2S2O3] y-intercept = ln k + mNa2S2O3 Ãâ€" ln [Na2S2O3] -2.838 = ln k + 1.298 (-2.303) ln k = 0.151 k = 1.163 s-1 As seen in the rate law stated earlier, each reactant has an order which relates to how their concentration affect the rate of the reaction. That is, an increase in the concentration of the reacting particles also increases the reaction rate. As stated in the Collision Theory, all reactions happen as a result of collisions of the molecules of the reactants (Engle Ilao, 2007). It only makes sense that an increase in concentration of reactants means that the number of collisions among reacting particles would also increase. This could only prove that the rate of a reaction is directly proportional to the number of collisions. The effects of temperature to the rate of a reaction is shown by Table 3. The slope of the specific rate constant with respect to the temperature can be seen on Figure 3. Table 3. Temperature as a Factor Affecting Reaction Rates Temperature (à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã†â€™) 1/Temperature (1/K) Time Rate (1/s) k (s-1) ln k 23.3 3.373 x 10-3 50 s 0.02 0.385 -0.955 31.5 3.282 x 10-3 34 s 0.029 0.558 -0.583 52.5 3.071 x 10-3 21 s 0.048 0.916 -0.088 Calculations for the concentrations of HCl and Na2S2O3, and the specific rate constant are as follows: [Na2S2O3] = = 0.052 M [HCl]i = = 0.041 M Rate = k [Na2S2O3] k = ki = = 0.385 s-1 k2 = = 0.558 s-1 k3 = = 0.923 s-1 Through linear regression: r = -0.99 ml = -2,778.572 y-intercept = 8.466 Where, y = ln k, x = 1/Temperature m = y-intercept = ln A Hence, m = Ea = -mR Ea = -(-2,778.572 K)(8.314 J/K mol)(1 kJ/1000 J) Ea = 23.101 y-intercept = ln A 8.466 = ln A A = 4,751.091 s-1 Figure 3. ln k vs. 1/Temperature It is proven by the results that the setup with the greatest temperature had the fastest reaction compared to the other two with lower temperatures. The relationship between temperature and the rate of a reaction can be explained by the Arrhenius equation: k = Ae-Ea/RT The Arrhenius equation exhibits the relationship of temperature to the specific rate constant of a reaction. That is, as T increases, the negative exponent decreases making the value of k larger, leading to an increase to the reaction rate. This is because of the presence high energy particles at higher temperatures. The greater fraction of excited particles, the easier it is to satisfy the energy of activation, which is a requirement for the reaction to take place (â€Å"The Arrhenius Equation†). Varying the amount of surface area of the reactant resulted into the visible observations that is shown by Table 4. A greater surface area means that there are more of the reactants’ surface exposed to one another. Simply put, there are more areas to react on. There is a greater chance for the reacting molecules to collide and interact. A smaller surface area, however, provides less area for reaction to occur. Some reacting molecules are shielded by other reacting molecules, making it harder to produce a reaction, resulting into a lower rate. Table 4. Observations on Surface Area of the Reactant Reactants Visible Results Strips of Mg ribbon Dissolution was relatively slower (reaction occurred in 26 seconds); Heat was formed; Evolution of gas was present Pieces of Mg ribbon Dissolution was fast (reaction occurred in 12.62 seconds); Heat was formed; Evolution of gas was also present The presence of a catalyst in the reaction resulted into the visible observations that is shown by Table 5. Catalysts are substances that alter the rate of reactions. A catalyst may speed up (a positive catalyst) or slow down (a negative catalyst) the reaction rate. In the given reaction in the experiment, CoCl2 acted as a positive homogeneous catalyst, which made the reaction rate occur faster and follow a different reaction mechanism with lower activation energies. Table 5. Observations upon Addition of a Catalyst Reactants Visible Results H2O2 + Rochelle Salt Colorless to murky; Relatively slow reaction (occurred in 30 seconds) H2O2 + Rochelle Salt + CoCl2 Purple to green, then turned pink again; Fast reaction (occurred in 23 seconds) In conclusion, many factors can affect the rate of a chemical reaction. The nature of the reactants affect the reaction rate based on the different activation energies of substances. The concentration of the reactants can also influence the frequency of collisions between the reacting molecules, which may affect the rate of reactions. Temperature not only affects the frequency of reactant collisions, but also affects the energy those collisions possess. The surface area of reactions influence the amount of available or exposed sites to react on. Lastly, the presence and nature of a catalyst not only alters the activation energy of the reaction, but also alters the mechanism in which the reactants react. REFERENCES Chang, R. (2010). Chemistry (10th ed.). New york, NY: McGraw-Hill. Engle, H. L., Ilao, L. V. (2015). Learning modules in general chemistry 2 (2007 ed). Manila, Philippines: Chemistry Unit, Department of Physical Sciences and Mathematics, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines Manila. Larsen, D. (Ed.). (n.d.). Ionization Energy. Retrieved June 22, 2015, from http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Chemistry/Physical_Properties_of_Matter/Atomic_and_Molecular_Properties/Ionization_Energy The Arrhenius Equation. (1996). Retrieved June 22, 2015, from http://www.shodor.org/unchem/advanced/kin/arrhenius.html University of the Philippines Manila, Chemistry unit. (2015). Laboratory manual in general chemistry 2 (2007 ed.). Manila, Philippines: Author. CHEM 18.1, Factors Affecting Reaction Rates 1

Pro School Uniforms :: essays research papers

The Need for School Uniforms A safe and structured learning environment is the first requirement of a good school. Children who feel safe and secure will better learn basic American values. In return they will learn the basis of good citizenship and become better students. In response to growing levels of violence in our schools, many parents, teachers, and school officials have been forced to look toward school uniforms as one potentially positive way to reduce discipline problems and increase school safety. It has been observed that the adoption of school uniform policies can promote school safety, improve discipline, and enhance the learning environment. The potential benefits of school uniforms include decreasing violence and theft. Some instances involving designer clothing and expensive sneakers have even led to life-threatening situations among students. Uniforms would also prevent gang members from wearing gang colors and insignia at school. Uniforms would also teach students discipline and help them resist peer pressure. Uniforms would also help students concentrate on their schoolwork and would help school officials detect intruders who come unwelcome into the school. As a result, many local communities are deciding to adopt school uniform policies as part of an overall program to improve school safety and discipline. California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia have enacted school uniform regulations. Many large public school systems including Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dayton, Detroit, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Miami, Memphis, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, Phoenix, Seattle and St. Louis have schools with either voluntary or mandatory uniform policies, mostly in elementary and middle schools. In addition, many private schools have required uniforms for a number of years. Still other schools have implemented dress codes to encourage a safe environment by prohibiting clothes with certain language or gang colors. The decision to adopt a uniform policy must be made by states and local school districts. For uniforms to be a success, as with all other school initiatives, parents must be involved. We must get the parents involved with the uniform policies from the beginning. Their support of the uniform policy is critical to its success. The strongest push for school uniforms in recent years has come from parent groups who want better discipline in their children's schools. Parent groups have actively lobbied schools to create uniform policies and have often led school task forces that have drawn up uniform guidelines. Many schools that have successfully created a uniform policy survey parents first to gauge support for school uniform requirements and then seek the parent’s opinions in designing the uniform.

Van Sant’s ‘Death’ Trilogy: Gerry, Elephant and Last Days

Gus van Sant's three films, Gerry, Elephant and Last Days, are, in essence, a trilogy, linked by their common structures, compositions, and representations of death. In this paper, I will analyze these similarities and discuss the treatment of each film's central event. Van Sant's early career showed a unique experimentation with story structure and plot devices. In films like My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy and To Die For, he displayed a freedom of narrative, creating esoteric, poetic pieces that challenged and often bewildered viewers. His career then became more conventional, and he hit somewhat of a lame lowpoint with the film Finding Forrester, a sappy story about a young black teenager whose writing gifts are altruistically recognized by an aging author played by Sean Connery. His next film, however, was completely different than anything he had directed. It starred Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, who, along with van Sant, would normally create box office demand with their work. Yet the film was not widely released or widely seen. It was mostly dismissed as an indulgent experimental piece, something created by Hollywood artists bored with their usual work and with easy access to too much funding. Van Sant followed this with a film that premiered at Sundance and, surprisingly, took the top prize. It purported to be a representation of the Columbine killings, even though Columbine was never mentioned, and several liberties were brazenly taken with facts that most people were intimately familiar with. It featured no professional actors; actually, the characters were all essentially playing themselves, even using their real names and shooting in their actual school. The film was much more widely seen, and the unique treatment of time and plot proved to be very similar to his previous work. His most recent film, officially titled Gus van Sant's Last Days, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and attempted to vaguely recreate the death of Kurt Cobain. The thematic elements and structure were by now easily recognizable. The film's first reviews were harsh, but eventually, critics seemed to warm to it, and it was widely praised for its bravery and patience. Van Sant refers to them as a â€Å"news story† trilogy, in that they are all based on real events. Gerry is about two guys who get lost in the desert, and one of them eventually kills the other one. Even if we're unfamiliar with the event, we can picture the sensational headline, probably depicting the event as horrific and the murderer as an animal. Van Sant's portrayal of the event, from the characters losing their way to the actual murder, reveals his intent to fully immerse himself in the event and depict how such an act could occur. When we witness the murder, it appears natural and even compassionate. The circumstances under which the characters are behaving are unusual and extreme, but their intentions and humanity are always recognizable. The next two films are events with which the culture is very familiar. Almost everyone who sees them has a strongly formed emotional impression of the stories. The Columbine massacre and the suicide of Kurt Cobain are two of the most omnipresent cultural events for this generation of Americans, and van Sant chooses to take them on. His intentions are similar to those of his first film in the series; he wants to discover, through the process of filmmaking, how such acts could occur. It is unclear as to whether van Sant intended to create a trilogy, but these films are unmistakably similar in several different ways, including their shooting and editing style, their themes, and their attempt to depict a â€Å"found story†. Common Style Cinematographer Harry Savides shot the trilogy, and his style remains consistent; it can best be described as meditative. Most of the elements and techniques were developed in the process of making Gerry. The shooting period lasted twenty-one days. There were lots of problems during the shoot, and the scenes were always planned and executed on set, in collaboration with the actors, and with very little adherence to a shooting script or written dialogue. During this process, van Sant and Savides developed what would become a signature style for them. They composed very long tracking shots of the characters simply walking through the desert. Some shots were close-ups of their faces as they trudged, always with a definite purpose and determination. Others were long shots of their tiny bodies against the hugeness of the landscape. The most famous shot is the two of them barely moving, close to death, silhouetted against the sunset, still moving slowly towards nothing. Another element they developed is a lack of adherence to any definite sense of time or chronology. The films are edited haphazardly, with several scenes repeated at different points in each film from different perspectives. In Gerry, the two men never find water, yet the sun rises and sets at least eight times during the movie, in very different settings. In Elephant, one hallway encounter between two characters, with another character running by, is seen three times from each characters' perspective, and continually serves as a warning that the killers are about to enter the school. There is no attempt to operate by any logical standards of time or character arc. The focus here is on a creation of atmosphere. The flexible chronology and the long static shots create a strong sense of freedom for the actors to immerse themselves in their characters. In each movie, and especially in Gerry and Last Days, the characters operate in a trance-like state, moving through the world of the film with no attempt to relay an emotion or communicate to anyone in any way. They simply are, and we watch them as voyeurs, knowing in each case that they are moving slowly towards death. The process of close collaboration with the actors is similar for each film as well. The actors are very much a part of the development of the story and their own characters. This trust in the actors to create their own worlds adds a unique element to the trilogy. Common Theme The central theme of the three films is â€Å"young death†. The first death is a compassionate murder; the second deaths are emotionally empty executions; the last is a slow wasting away. They all seem tragic because of the age of the victims and the somewhat easily avoidable circumstances under which the deaths occur. The deaths are also empty of crescendo. There is no sense of narrative closure in the deaths of the central characters, or an attempt to draw moral or dramatic conclusions from the deaths. This treatment of death is similar to the films analyzed by Catherine Russell in her work Narrative Mortality: Death, Closure and New Wave Cinemas. She notes that conventional cinematic narratives â€Å"codified the desire for meaning as a desire for meaningful death, and the desire for ending was formalized as a desire for death.† 1 She claims that new wave films â€Å"consistently split death from closure, and prevent meaning and ending from fitting neatly together.† These films have no plot or story; they end abruptly, with no attempt at coherent explanations. Their focus is on the world of the characters as they hypnotically and obliviously move towards their death. Common Intentions: A ‘Found Story' This refusal to exploit the deaths of the central characters for emotional or dramatic effect highlights van Sant's focus on creating realist cinema. He strives to present each scene as naturally as possible, with no cinematic affectations or even unnecessary camera movements. They wanted no â€Å"moves†. He and Savides make it clear that their intention is to recreate reality on screen. Realist theorist Siegfried Kracauer defines a ‘found story' as one that â€Å"emerges from the filmmaking†. 2 This description aptly describes van Sant's triptych; the process clearly defines the product. An example of this comes from the production of Last Days. Van Sant was in the costume designer's office when a Yellow Pages salesman entered and delivered his pitch. The director envisioned the affect this would have on his drugged-out, detached lead character and threw the two worlds together. The effect was brilliant in that it intensely highlighted the two different worlds that these characters inhabited. It also reveals van Sant's attempts to infuse his films with as much realism as possible, down to the actors who portray the characters. In fact, the actors are usually playing themselves. In Elephant, each character uses their real name and moves around their actual high school, interacting with their actual friends. The scenes are meticulously composed, but the dialogue and relationships, the individual moments, are mostly improvised, providing the audience with a strong sense of voyeurism and recognizable interactions. The affectations occur during editing. The sound design and aforementioned obscure chronology are the clues as to how we interpret the reality that they present. In Elephant, a character that most recognize as the eventual killer walks through the cafeteria drawing up his ‘plan'. He stops and we hear the sound slowly rise and overwhelm the boy, implying his â€Å"special mode of reality†.3 In Last Days, a somewhat bizarre element is employed in one of the final scenes. Blake, the Cobain surrogate, is lying in his garden house, close to death. Suddenly, his spirit emerges from his naked body as an apparition and hovers beside him. This mystical element meshes with the hypnotic, often spiritual mood of the film. At first glance, it seems to stand in stark contrast to the dogmatic realism of the rest of the film. However, the scene effectively illustrates the characters' state, and in this sense, remains consistent with the production's intentions. These common elements all serve the common event in each film: the eventual deaths of the major characters. Gerry Gerry depicts two characters, both ostensibly named Gerry, wandering through the desert looking for â€Å"the thing†. They see tourists with lame visors taking one path, and they decide to take another. They lose their way and spend the film attempting to survive. Each interaction between the characters is infused with purpose and a wry humor. They always have a new plan and never lose their forward-thinking state of mind. They resist despair and anger and seem always to assume that they will make it out ok. The majority of the ninety-minute film consists of the characters moving through the desert, searching always for the way home. There is maybe fifteen minutes of dialogue and, except for the tourists, no other characters. We see them simply walking, moving together, sometimes in what seems to be a competitive state, and other times alone, separately climbing different peaks to get a better view. The desert scenery is beautifully composed, and there are few shots less than a few minutes long. The characters are resisting death. They are slowly succumbing to the elements, fighting thirst and fatigue, never wanting to appear weak to the other. They always keep moving. Once, when they have stopped to rest, one of them comes to the other, tired but satisfied. He says, simply, â€Å"I found the car. I have water. I know the way out.† He is convinced of the truth of this claim, and is extremely disheartened when, after a few minutes of forceful persuasion, he realizes it is an illusion. Eventually, after moving around for what could be days, they lie down, exhausted and in a trance. One is clearly stronger than the other and is capable of continuing; one is finished. They lie next to each other, staring at the sky. Suddenly, the strong one moves on top of the weak one, wrestling him, literally shaking the life out of him. He stabs him and he bleeds, giving in quickly to the loss of consciousness. No emotion is displayed, and the event seems natural and pure. The act is clearly one of compassion for the pain of the weak one, a hastening of the inevitable and a cessation of the pain and agony and waiting. It is an act of euthanasia. However, it is also an act of survival; the strong one is now free to move again and attempt to survive on his own, which he eventually does, seeing the highway before him shortly after the murder. There is no lesson in the death, or any sense of closure. It is simply an act, and it bleeds into the reality of the rest of the film, having no special significance. It comes and passes in the same manner as the rest of the journey. It is a violent act, somewhat selfish, and it occurs in the vague context of an allegorical journey. The film is about being lost and eventually succumbing. However, there is never a sense of panic from the characters, or a sense that they have lost control or even hope. There is an acceptance at one point, when they lie down, and some timid shedding of tears from the weaker Gerry. But the characters admirably remain focused on survival and getting out, on proving their strength against the elements and their own thirst and exhaustion. The stronger character's devotion to this elusive hope eventually saves him, and he finds his way, leaving behind a friend who, all elements aside, he had murdered. He rides away in a car, still in a trance, looking back at the desert. The film is beautiful, and it is essentially a meditation on the struggle to survive. Elephant Elephant is a montage of different students at a public high school. Because the audience knows it is about the Columbine murders, the outcome is a given. Each ‘victim' is introduced with a title card, and we see them in their world, interacting with their friends, with no exposition or context. We know what high school is, and we understand and recognize the basis of the conversations and relationships. Scenes and characters intertwine as new characters are introduced and followed. Various social issues are broached in the context of the characters' lives, issues that have all been mentioned in the context of the killings as an attempt at explanation or blame. The first shot is a weaving car, casually sideswiping a parked car and almost hitting a biker. It creates a reckless and irresponsible tone, depicting apathy towards life and danger. We see that it is a drunken father driving his son to school, and the son demands that his father pull over and let him drive. He is not angry, just exasperated, and the issue of parental carelessness and forced responsibility of the child is depicted. We see the boy being disciplined by the principal and feel pity for him and his circumstances. We are introduced to three popular girls as they flirt with a boy and then eat lunch. They enter the bathroom, awkwardly discuss their body issues, and casually, simultaneously, vomit. The killers are at home, receiving weapons in the mail, which they have ordered over the internet, and practicing with them in the garage. The shy, geeky one, earlier seen picking spitballs out of his hair and plotting in the cafeteria, is playing Beethoven, slyly invoking A Clockwork Orange. The blond, outgoing one, who slyly invokes Eminem, enters his room and plays a generic video game, playing a character wandering through a vast white empty landscape shooting men in suits in the back as they slowly and obliviously walk towards the horizon. Video game violence is thus invoked as a ‘factor'. Later, as they prepare to enter the school for the massacre, the blond one enters the shower with the shy one and says, â€Å"I've never even kissed anyone, have you?†, and they embrace. Another element, repressed homosexuality and a sense of separation, is introduced. These issues are peripheral to the mood of the film. It is amazingly ominous. We see the killers entering the school with their arsenal very early in the film, and are repeatedly reminded of their entrance as other characters pass through the same time period. We never know when the first shots will occur. We know from the news that the library and the cafeteria were the scenes of the massacre, and we repeatedly hover there, watching characters, picturing the chaos about to occur. It is visceral and exciting, and sickening and bizarre. Van Sant, without affectation, makes us fall in love with some of the characters, simply from the purity of their interactions and their lives. He highlights their beauty, and exposes their talents and quirks. Even the killers are presented almost sympathetically, or at least without any attempt to vilify them. We observe their normal lives, at breakfast with their family, practicing the piano and playing games, and their relationship is almost pleasant to watch. We see their psychosis, however, and realize very soon that they are capable of total detachment and extreme violence in retaliation for a vague sense of being underappreciated and emotionally tortured. The killings finally begin, a few scenes after we hear the machine gun being cocked in the library. The geeky girl with the long pants in gym class arrives late for her job in the library, and as she speaks to the boys with their arsenal, they splatter her blood against the books. They turn and randomly shoot into the crowd of scurrying students. The killings are not gruesome or ugly; they are simple and easy. We meditate on the killers' callousness and the painful pointlessness of the act, rather than recoil at the blood and shock of the shootings. We also never see a panicked face or hear a shrill scream; the deaths, as in Gerry, blend with the everyday we have adjusted to seeing. The world does not change because of the acts that occur. The ending is extremely abrupt; the killers meet in the cafeteria, and as the blond brags about his kills, he is ruthlessly shot in the head by the shy one. He is speaking, we hear a shot and see blood, and he falls out of frame. At first, we are not sure if he was shot by another student or a sniper, but when we see the shy one, in the same long shot, moving towards the freezer looking for more victims, we realize. The film ends as he finds a popular couple whom we know and he obviously despises, and tortures them happily, pointing the machine gun at them and reciting eenie meenie miney mo. The film takes place in a single morning, in the span of a few hours. The characters we meet have no thoughts of their fate, wandering through their lives as death approaches in a sedan with a devil hanging from the windshield. Van Sant chooses an extremely familiar event and gets inside what might have happened. What he manages to create is a total sense of normalcy in the high school. There is no sentimentality in this film, this depiction of an event that is so loaded with emotion and sentiment and anger and backlash and blame in our culture. He strips it down and rips away all the sensation, and reveals easy to know people in an easy to know situation about to face something horrific and familiar to us all. His intentions and approach are similar to that of the film United 93, about the September 11th plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. We all know the details, we have all felt the sentiment, but the film attempts to forget all that and show real characters in a real situation, without any sentimental pretensions. It tries to depict how such an event really looked. In Elephant's case, this is done in service of a meditation on the casualness of violent death. Last Days Last Days depicts the deterioration of a rock star, based on the suicide of Kurt Cobain. The first shots are of Blake walking through the woods, urinating in a pond, vomiting, and singing Home on the Range by a fire and a tent. He returns to his house and wanders ghost-like through the halls and rooms, avoiding contact with any of the stragglers in the house, cooking macaroni and cheese and watching a Boyz II Men video. We see the state of his life intimately, and his world becomes recognizable. He is out of it and detached, and has no desire to connect with anyone. He carries around an ominous shotgun in several scenes, and at one point, he mimics shooting two of his friends as they lie in bed. He is in a trance. He literally hovers in some scenes, slowly, slowly, collapsing to the ground and resting, comatose, against the door, falling violently when it is opened and a straggler checks for his pulse. No one in this film wants anything. No one, especially Blake, has any sense of purpose. This is the weakness of the film from a cinematic standpoint. Gerry and Elephant remain fascinating in large part because of the strength of their characters' intentions and purpose. In this world, no one feels anything. The peripheral characters might have intentions relating to a vague sense of hedonism or greed, but that is not near enough to drive the film. This is about a wasting away, a slow, drawn out surrender to death, a suicide. The wallpaper is crumbling, the house is falling apart, no connections are made, and we are witness to a man who is totally numb to the world. It again features the long, static shots of seemingly nothing, zooming in on the television, holding on Blake's lifeless body on the floor. There is a beautiful shot of Blake experimenting with sounds in his studio. The camera slowly moves backward, and we watch for an extremely long time as he moves around the room, haphazardly enjoying himself with his instruments, seemingly at peace, In the end, we see him cowering in the garden room, watching characters come and go, completely alone, and ready for an ending. This is a meditation on decay. Death These films very effectively reveal worlds that simply are. The characters we follow slowly approach their death, one at the hands of his friend, others at the hands of gun-toting teenage psychos, the last, presumably, by his own hand. But, in fitting with the tone of the trilogy, death simply is. It happens just as casually as the taking of a photograph or the preparation of macaroni and cheese. When it happens, nothing is done to signify or indicate any sense of change or profundity. The realism of the films is, to me, something almost euphoric. There is a real beauty in the interactions between the characters, in how recognizable their worlds are, and because of this, the audience receives a gift: there is a chance at a profound understanding of the nature of what happens to them.

Information Systems in Scm and Erp Essay

2.1.Introduction With the variety of requirements for information within businesses, most businesses tend to have several information systems operating at the same time. Executives require information to plan for the future, middle management require information to monitor and control whilst employees require information to help them carry out their duties. In this essay we look at information systems in supply chain management and enterprise resource management. 2.2.Discussion There are various types of information systems, these include office automation systems, transactional processing systems, decision support systems, management information systems and knowledge management systems. In identifying the use of information systems in enterprise resource planning and supply chain management, we first have to understand what these represent. 2.2.1Review of Information Systems, ERP and SCM Information systems are an integrated set of components for collecting, storing, processing and communicating information. Organisations rely on information systems to manage their operations and compete in the marketplace effectively and efficiently. Information systems rely on three key resources i.e. technology, people and information. Bocij et al. (2008) describe enterprise resource planning (ERP) as systems that provide a single solution with integrated functions and a unified database for major business functions across the value chain for example: finance, sales, distribution, marketing and human resource management. ERP systems enable efficient planning, managing, and controlling of all core business processes across multiple locations. According to Bocij et al.(2008) supply chain management (SCM) consists of a series of activities that moves material from suppliers through operations to customers. SCM enables more efficient management of the supply chain by integrating the l inks in a supply chain; which may include suppliers, manufacturer, wholesalers, retailers and final customers. 2.2.2Information Systems in Supply Chain Management Information systems are critical to a supply chain management. They automate simple and complex tasks and provide management with reports concerning logistics. Information systems in supply chain management analyse the flow of products and provide information and status on items, determine profitability and the most effective way to manage inventory. The information system enables the retailer to identify inventory levels, inventory turnover rates while identifying usable warehouse space. Information systems are used to optimize the logistical process such as receiving, storage and distribution. The role of an information system is to collect raw data for transaction processing. Through specialized reporting and enquiries, the system produces reports to assist management to make decisions which impact operations. Compiled data is used to determine strategies which impact inventory costs, distribution costs and product cycles. Added benefits of information systems in supply change management include the ability for customers to track the delivery of an item with an assigned tracking number; and management of inventory based expiry dates or no sell by dates i.e. last in, first out or first in, first out (Unknown). 2.2.3Information Systems in Enterprise Resource Planning Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems refer to the software packages that integrate all the data and the related processes of an organisation into a unified Information System. It is designed to facilitate the administration and optimisation of internal business processes across an enterprise. ERP is used extensively by larger retail chains as a competitive tool for efficiency. ERP software uses a single database that allows different departments to communicate with each other through information sharing. ERP systems serve an important function by integrating separate business functions such as material management, product planning, sales, distribution, finance and HR, into a single application. Hyperone would benefit from an integrated infrastructure which continuously monitors and dispatches the necessary information of the flow of goods from supplier to cash register. Flexible, process efficient and reliable information are critical to retail business and ERP packages have been introduced to tackle IT complexity. Some ERP retail solutions include critical functions like inventory tracking, ordering and replenishment, loss prevention and task management. ERP systems help in the decision making process such as formulating pricing strategies, merchandising planning, inventory optimisation and store execution. They also help in managing workflow through automation which enables management to monitor and control inefficiencies in processes (unknown:2011) The key components of a retail ERP system include: * Merchandise management which includes activities such as the setting up, maintenance and management of the retail outlet, keeping track of the prices of the items, inventory, and the different vendors etc., facilitating a more efficient retail option. * Retail planning which enables retailers to plan activities at a large and small scale, factoring in economies of scale to achieve desired efficiencies. * Supply chain planning and execution enables a retailer to run the business more efficiently by closely monitoring and managing their supply chains. However, it must be noted that most ERP systems need to integrate with other systems such as management information systems (MIS), business intelligence (BI) or data mining tools in order to extract, analyse and construct data into readable information. 2.3.Conclusion Information systems are integral to enterprise resource planning and supply chain management for the effective management of information across all functions of the business. Both supply chain management and enterprise resources planning systems comprise of transactional processing systems and with integrated management information systems they provide crucial information in a timely manner.