Citizen Kane – Personal Response

Citizen Kane is an American drama film released in 1941. It follows the life of the main character, Charles Foster Kane, and the investigation into â€Å"rosebud† – the last word spoken before his death. Kane was a wealthy newspaper tycoon who lived a reserved lifestyle; he had many possessions but isolated himself from the public eye wherever possible towards the end of his life. The director’s portrayal of the films main themes are shown in such a way that a Year 12 group of students would be able to understand, and therefore can easily make links with society and even their own lives.I would highly recommend Citizen Kane for a Year 12 book club. I will be talking about 2 main points shown in Citizen Kane that I believe are good discussion points for an English class, and which are relevant to our world today. It is an interesting point to note that although the film was released in 1941, many of the ideas can be translated into the present day. First I will ta lk about the idea of â€Å"Loss† in the film, and then I will discuss Materialism and how a group of year 12 students can relate to, and learn from this theme.Loss is a complex idea in the film, as it is not an immediately obvious theme. Defining what â€Å"Loss† is in the film is an interesting thought to discuss. The movie uses flashbacks to tell the story of Charles Kane’s life, this technique is used by the director to show a retrospective view on his life and to emphasise his losses. One of the first flashbacks show him as a child, when he was innocent and happy. In the picture on the screen, what you can see is his Mother handing over custody to Thatcher, who is going to take him to New York to be educated and given a successful life.In the background you can see Kane outside in the snow, he is representing innocence, but the fact that he is framed by the window hints that he is going to become trapped in his new guardianship. This loss continues throughou t the film, he loses his wife, his newspaper company, and his election campaign for governor before eventually losing his life. The film ends with him alone, just like he was at the start of the film. But instead of being happy in the white snow, he is alone in a dark mansion.This is a theme that I think is one that could be discussed in depth by a year 12 book club. Another theme portrayed in Citizen Kane is the idea of materialism, and I believe this is a theme that Year 12 Students would be able to understand and form opinions upon. In the film, Charles Kane lives in a huge mansion filled with many expensive goods. He was an avid statue collector, a hobby only the very wealthy could pursue. Charles Kane said in the film, â€Å"They've been making statues for some two thousand years, and I've only been collecting for five. The director’s uses of depth of focus to exaggerate Kane’s many possessions, and in one shot near the end we can see rooms full of crates with it ems he never unpacked. In his mansion, the rooms are perceived to be large, with dark shadows cast all around. Perhaps this is a metaphor to suggest that Kane’s excessive amount of materialistic possessions have now begun to own him. This leads to a link a Year 12 group of students will be able to make with the modern world today. Advancement of technology has skyrocketed in the past few decades.The invention of smart phones, tablets and other household technologies have created a culture in which it is deemed necessary to own as many of these items as possible. It would seem that Social status is moving from humanitarian values to being based on your materialistic demeanor. Year 12s will be able to relate to the concept that the distinction between ‘need’ and ‘want’ is being clouded by the desire to have these products in order to be ‘accepted’ into modern society.Much like Charles Kane’s obsession with collecting statues, people in society today are becoming obsessed with purchasing the newer, updated version of a product they may already own one, or several of. The film represents his collecting as an obsession, whereas it is deemed normal in today’s world, and this is a point that is open for discussion. Citizen Kane’s representation of materialism provides an excellent starting point for Year 12s to discuss, it is easily relatable and can spark many views and opinions, therefore making it suitable to belong on a class viewing list.Citizen Kane is a film which presents a wide range of themes, and it is these themes which can teach us many things about the lives we live and the world which we live in. The concepts of materialism and loss are ones that are relevant and suitable for a group of Year 12 English students. The imagery and metaphors shown in the film represent issues that can be directly translated into today’s social climate. Therefore I would thoroughly recommend Citizen K ane to a Year 12 book club.

Kim Sung & Kim Jong

From an early date Korean political culture is characterised by isolationism and a strong desire to maintain the country's independence (â€Å"Kim Il Sung†, para 2). Relationship with its neighbouring countries are poor and with the countries in the West, are almost equal to zero. Even with such relationships, Korea has been unable to stop the encroachment   of its neighbours. It was made the Japenese protectorate in 1905 and later the number of   Japenese immigrants in Korea have risen so much that the Koreans have become second-class citizens within their own land.Kim Il SungKim Il Sung’s real name was Kim Song Ju. He was born in Pyongyang on 15th April, 1912. At the age of   17 he was jailed for being a part of   a student political group led by the South Manchurian Communist Youth Association. After his release from jail he joined the Anti-Japanese United Army. He emerged as a significant leader in this time period and later changed his name to Kim Il Song, in honor of his uncle who participated in nation-wide protests against the Japenese in 1919.Kim Il Sung as a leaderAfter the Second World War the Korean peninsula was divided into two parts, North and South. North Korea was sponsored by Russia while the South was aided by USA. Kim Il Sung was selected to take charge of the formation of a provisional government for the North. Under his leadership the Korean Workers Party was inaugurated.A number of reforms were introduced to the North, including an eight-hour working day, equality of the sexes, and suppression of religion. Land and wealth formerly belonging to the Japanese or to enemies of the regime was confiscated and redistributed, industry was nationalised, and Soviet-style economic planning was initiated (â€Å"Kim Il Sung†, para 12) His opponents within the party were purged to secure his absolute rule. Kim led the military committee, coordinating action against the South Koreans in 1950.With carefully prepared plans and without any warning to the South Koreans, his army swarmed into the South. The war continued for three years and during these three years about three million people lost their lives. Between 600,000 and one million North Koreans needlessly starved to death due to the economic legacy of Kim's regime. Kim claimed to have won that war but no peace treaty was ever signed.Kim Il Sung, through land reclamation, gave priority to increased agricultural production. He emphasised on trade, developed the country’s infrastructure, and encouraged people to rely on domestically produced equipment. He discouraged them to even think about foreign aid and taught them that self reliance should be the key goal to everyone’s success. From 1972 onwards, North Korea became poorer because it could not afford to buy advance technology from the West and its industrial production declined. A personality cult had glorified Kim, but by the mid-1990s the rapid economic growth of North Korea's ear ly years had given way first to stagnation and then to hardship, and there was widespread dissatisfaction with the repressive regime (Scalapino & Lee p.175)When he died in 1994, the country lost its venerated founding leader. Just a few years earlier, its powerful alliances had evaporated with the fall of the Soviet bloc and China's move toward a market-based system. The economy was on the rocks and energy and food were in short supply. A series of weather disasters, combined with an inefficient state-run agricultural system, further eroded the food supply, leading to mass starvation (â€Å"Dear Leader or Demon†, para 12)Kim Jong IlKim Il Sung’s successor, Kim Jong Il, was born on 16th June, 1942. Growing up in a time when anti Japanese revolutionary struggle was at its peak, Kim Jong Il cultivated uncommon characteristics and qualities through his experiences of his real life and practical activities. During his training period under his father's tutelage in the 1970s , he was often referred to as the â€Å"Party Center,† and he launched a number of campaigns to take over the daily operations of the Party.When he came to power on the death of his father in 1997, Kim Jong-Il ruthlessly set about establishing his own authority. His government is said to be extremely secretive and brutal to dissidents. Kim's disastrous agricultural and economic policies have caused his people to suffer under one of the world's longest, deadliest famines. On the domestic front, Kim has given occasional signs that he favors economic reforms similar to those carried out in China by Deng Xiaoping.But at home he has done little or nothing to relax the absolute control of the state and party over all aspects of economic life. He has certainly given no sign of considering the de- collectivization of agriculture, which was the foundation of Deng's reforms (Chong-Il p. 84). With the sort of image Kim Jong Il carries around with him many analysts thought that the commu nist regime would finally come to an end in North Korea, but it is almost a decade since he has been in power and still ruling over North Korea and extending his father’s philosophy of Juche. Kim Il Sung’s style of ruling his country according to Stalinism was submerged into his Juche philosophy and later it subordinated into a more militant theme of Kim Jong Il’s Red Banner Policy.Kim Jong Il has been accused of being involved in two bombings; one in Rangoon in 1983 and another in 1987, which killed all passengers in a South Korean airplane.   No evidence directly links Kim Jong Il to the bombings, however, and some analysts believe his father was still firmly in control of international activities throughout the 1980s, while giving his son more power over domestic affairs. He spends more than 25% of his country’s annual GNP on the military while most of the citizens go hungry. Jong Il has also proved himself to be a movie lover and has directed a coup le of movies himself and written six operas, while his scientists make nuclear war heads.Kim Il Sung as a CommunistIn the words of Morelly, the author of the influential treatise Le Code de la Nature, published in 1755: †The only vice which I know in the universe is avarice; all the others, whatever name one gives them, are merely forms, degrees of it. . . . Analyze vanity, conceit, pride, ambition, deceitfulness, hypocrisy, villainy; break down the majority of our sophisticated virtues themselves, [they] all dissolve in this subtle and pernicious element, the desire to possess.†Such economically determined psychology lies at the root of every socialist and communist doctrine (Pipes 2001). Kim Il Sung was one man who was obsessed with gaining power over not only his own people but he went to extremes and even created his own religion so that the people should start worshipping him. When workers of the Korean Workers Party tried to over throw Kim in 1953, the eleven consp irators, who failed in their coup, were not only executed but their properties were confiscated as well. He purged his opponents in all possible ways in order to ensure that he stays in power.Kim Il Sung’s personality was a true speciman of a communist. Russia had an influence over the political system of North Korea right from the onset. Kim Il Sung was highly impressed by the communist rule in Russia and he developed a Marxist-Leninist political ideology that emphasises the need for autonomy and patriotic self-reliance. Called ‘Juche', or ‘Kim Il Sung Thought', the ideology demanded total loyalty to the paramount leader and the â€Å"religion of Kim Il Sungism†, and stressed on the benefits of sacrifice, austerity, discipline, dedication, unity, and patriotism. It has been   described as â€Å"encyclopedic thought which provides a complete answer to any question that arises in the struggle for national liberation and class emancipation, in the building of socialism and communism.† The practical effect of Juche was to seal the DPRK off from virtually all foreign trade (â€Å"Kim Il Sung†, para 38).Kim Il Sung’s personality cult was similar to that of   Stalin. In that he was accused of tampering history, tyranny and injustice and self glorification. Kim’s zeal for communsim is evedient from the fact that the North Korean media, which is owned and controlled by the state, promoted Kim’s image as an infallible genius and the driving force behind the resistance to the Japanese and the liberation of the North. Kim had more than 34,000 monuments of himself erected throughout the country. Practice of any other religion except the worship of Kim Il Sung   was outlawed. The official calender started from his birthday and that day was an official holiday too.Kim Il Sung was so obssessed with his ideals that he started to believe in himself in a godly manner. The painters and artists of the country were instucted to paint only his personality in a pompous manner and project it to the rest of the country. All this was believed, by   Kim Il Sung, as not a forceful extension of his one-man show personality to the masses but he had actually started to live in a pseudo-shell of belief   that the citizens of his country actually adored him.In my point of view the personality of Kim Il Sung was a fragment and extension of Stalin. This is supported by the fact that he not only tried to follow him in the way he ruled North Korea but he also sought his help and looked up to him in various matters of   state. In the Korean War of   1950-1953, while South Korea was supported by USA, North Korea was aided by USSR primarily because it was a communist country. Kim Jong Il has proved himself to be a true replica of his father.He has not only ensured the continuity of his father’s policies and reforms but he has also gone to the extent of further subjugating the agrigarian community by spending more on his military might. He has promoted his father’s personality cult by making it a compulsion for each citizen to visit Kim Il Sung’s moseleum atleast once each year and also by paying tribute to the Senior Kim by wearing lapel badges and all those who dare to offend are sent to concentration camps within the country. Kim Il Sung has become so much part of   a North Korean’s daily life that to reject Kim is more like rejecting his own self.ConclusionWith 1% of the citizens in concentration camps and 25% of GNP being utilized to further the ruler’s military prowess, North Korea is definitely not in pursuit of a prosperous future. While the exiguity of the basic facilties of life and the over all plight of the nation is being blamed on the West in general and the US in particular, nobody dares to question the extravagent life of the dictators of North Korea. North Korea is going through its worst era right now; with its predominent supp ort/donor, in the shape of USSR, disintegrated and with the West pressing hard on it on the contentious issue of its nuclear programme.ReferencesClark, Carol. (2001). Kim Jong Il, â€Å"Dear Leader or Demon?† Retrieved 13 May 2006Chong-Il, Kim. (1986). Life and literature. Pyongyang, Korea: Foreign Languages Publishing House.Harris, Bruce. (2004). â€Å"Kim Il Sung†. Retrieved 12 May 2006Pipes, Richard. (2001). Communism: A History. Random House Publishing Group.R. A. Scalapino and C. S. Lee. (1992). Communism in Korea. Seoul: Ilchokak.

ALGORITHM - MEANING

ALGORITHM MEANING In the most basic sense, an algorithm is a process- a set of detailed instruction that must be carried out in a particular order and follows logic to attain a given result. An algorithm is a well-defined procedure or set of rules guaranteed to achieve a certain objective. You use an algorithm every time you follow the directions to put together a new toy, use a recipe to make cookies, or defrost something in the microwave (personal algorithms). When the term algorithm used in math, it typically refers to a set of steps or procedures used to solve a mathematical computation. In mathematics, an algorithm is a specific series of steps that will give you the correct answer every time. For example, in grade school, you and your classmates probably learned and memorized a certain finite steps or procedures for addition, subtraction and multiplying etc. (standard algorithms). Algorithm are of two type: informal (personal) and formal (standard) algorithm. An informal algorithm is a procedure that the student him/herself figured out while a formal algorithm is a process and procedure that has been taught to them. It may or may not be similar to a conventional algorithms (formal algorithms). Examples on Informal Algorithms Examples on Formal Algorithms 1. ADD the given numbers 109 + 207 Jimmy did like this. David did like this. =100+9+200+7 109-9=100 =300+16 207-7=200 =316 200+100=300 9+7=16 300+16=316 2. Multiply the given number 25Ãâ€"13 25(20+5) x13(10+3) ————– 15 60 50 + 200 ————— 325 1. ADD the given numbers 109+207 1 109 + 207 ——– 316 ——– 2. Multiply the given number 25Ãâ€"13 1 25 x13 ———— 75 +25x ———— 325 MERITS OF INFORMAL ALGORITHMS They learn to think and use their common sense, as well as new skills and knowledge. Students who invent their own procedures: Learn that their intuitive methods are valid and that mathematics makes sense. Become more proficient with mental arithmetic. Are motivated because they understand their own methods, as opposed to learning by rote. Become skilled at representing ideas with objects, words, pictures, and symbols. Develop persistence and confidence in dealing with challenging problems. ADVANTAGES OF THE FORMAL ALGORITHMS Plunkett (1979), Thompson (1997), Usiskin (1998) and other writers offered several reasons for this. These included :  ¢ Standard algorithms are powerful in solving classes of problems, particularly where the computation involves many numbers, where memory may be overloaded.  ¢ Standard algorithms contracted, summarizing several lines of equation involving distributivity and associativity.  ¢ Standard algorithms are automatic, being able to be taught to, and carried out by, someone without having to analyze the underlying basis of the algorithm.  ¢ Standard algorithms are fast, with a direct route to the answer.  ¢ Standard algorithms provide the written record of computation, enabling teachers and students to locate any errors in the algorithm.  ¢ Standard algorithms can be instructive.  ¢ For teachers these are easy to manage and assess. DISADVANTAGES OF THE FORMAL ALGORITHMS Kamii and Dominick (1998), McIntosh (1998), and Northcote McIntosh (1999) have potential dangers that can be summarized as follows :  ¢ They do not correspond to the ways in which people tend to think about numbers.  ¢ They encourage children to give up their own thinking and creativity, leading to loss of ownership of ideas .  ¢ The traditionally-taught (standard) algorithm may no longer be the most efficient and easily learned.  ¢ They tend to lead to blind acceptance of results and over-zealous applications. Given the focus on procedures that require little thinking, children often use an standard algorithms when it is not at all necessary.  ¢ There is a high probability that the students will lose conceptual knowledge in the process of gaining procedural knowledge. There is also the use of relevance. Students use standard algorithms for only a small proportion of their calculation.

Film Worksheet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Film Worksheet - Essay Example Everyone in the hall was excited to watch the film due to the good reviews. I brought nuts and a few other snacks with me to enjoy through the course of the film. Because Boyhood was a coming of age film, the film involved camera technicalities in order to create a temporally shifting experience through time. The film is based on a young boy named Mason who is shown growing up over a period of 12 years. As Mason grows up, the film has captured the experiences and changing personality of a child who grows up to a young man. Hence, time is a prominent element in terms of film making in which the director, Richard Linklater has exploited the use of camera technologies to create the intended effect the situated across time. Mason is 6 years old as the film starts and by the time film gets over, he has already turned 18, a mature individual. Instead of showing the process of growing up in one moment of a scene, the director has used time lapse in order to show the entire transformation to childhood to boyhood. Judging from the name of the film as well, Boyhood is meant to be the essence of the film and time lapse filming really engenders the tempo rally situated transformation that occurs through time. The film successfully retained my attention throughout the film. I was interested to watch more and follow the story as it developed in time. In terms of the narrative part of the literary aspect, the film involved a strong storyline and one which is a crucial subject in the present times, which is, growing up. The process of growing up based much of the storyline when a child goes on from being an innocent young individual to one who is old enough to understand some serious matters. The narrative progresses with the film as seen through the lens of the child, Mason, himself. A state of disequilibrium is inherent in the process as growing up itself involves disruption. Growing

Customer Engagement in Social Media & Netflix Assignment

Customer Engagement in Social Media & Netflix - Assignment Example Today people prefer other people’s experience and their opinions about a particular product or service rather than advertising and promotions of the brands. For this reason internet is playing a vital role in encouraging people to share their ideas, experiences, opinions to influence others. The potential consumers seek for these types of information which is available and open to everyone (Evans and McKee, 2010). One of the benefits of taking this course is that the information is presented two-fold. Both the marketing and consumer perspectives are represented in an effort to provide you with a holistic view of Social media Marketing. What is your perspective on the Netflix/Qwikster rebranding endeavor? Taking the newly adopted Netflix business model into consideration, how would you have handled the negative customer outpourings on the Social Web if you were in the shoes of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings? FYI, implementing the previous price model is not an option in this scenario, what are other alternatives Netflix could have explored that would prove beneficial to both customers and stakeholders? The Company decided to change the name of its DVD mail service to Qwikster while rebranding, however being wise in technology and innovative, the Company did not go through Social Media, i.e. Twitter where a guy named Jason Castillo already existed with Qwikster (Hill, 2011). To make Netflix beneficial for customers as well as stakeholders and to handle the negative reviews there should have been a better communication process. The Company increasing the prices and doubling it followed by a bad communication process would certainly put a loyal customer to rethink about the relationship with the Company. Priority to customers is the main element and while driving prices up, there could have been a better communication with the customers through their blogs and through other social media. They could have communicated with the

Corporate Social Responsibility Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Corporate Social Responsibility - Term Paper Example The concept of corporate social responsibility is underpinned by the specific idea or principle that the organizations around the globe cannot act as the isolated economic units operating in the detachment from the broader society. Traditional and old views about survival, profitability, and competitiveness have been swept away through the concept of CSR (Fukukawa, 2011, p.121). In the past, the governments of the developed and developing countries strongly relied on the regulation and legislation to deliver environmental and social objectives in the competitive business sector. Recoiling government resources, integrated with the regulation’s distrust has guided to the exploration of non-regulatory and voluntary initiatives. Growing demand for the corporate disclosure from the stakeholders including suppliers, employees, investors, communities, activist organizations, and customers are pushing business towards the CSR initiatives. Recently several investors are changing the wa y of the performance assessment of the organizations. Investors are making their investment decisions based on various criterions that include ethical concerns. According to the report of social investment forum, more than 2 trillion US dollars valued assets invested in the portfolio linked to the social and environmental responsibility. The organizations are trying to maintain proper business ethics in their business practices in order to motivate and attract shareholders and investors. In addition, employees within the organization are increasingly looking beyond several employment benefits. Effective and skilled employees are the strongest asset of an organization. Therefore, it is important for the organization to retain skilled, experienced and effective employees. The organizations are trying to motivate their employees by providing employment benefits and taking care of their professional and personal needs. In this competitive business environment, it is important for the or ganization to retain skilled employees. Moreover, the organizations are trying to maintain an effective relationship with the suppliers.  

ANT 250I MOD 3 SLP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ANT 250I MOD 3 SLP - Essay Example The most common muscular dystrophy is Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy – a disease found predominantly in males and diagnosed in a period between 2 and 6 years. It afflicts as approximately 1 out of every 3, 500 births (Emery 687). DMD (abbreviation for Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy) is a result of muscle fibers degeneration and atrophy brought about by the absence/lack of dystrophin, a protein which is responsible for maintaining muscle fibers intact. Specifically, the loss-of-function mutations found in dystrophin are accountable for the disease. Dystrophin’s function is to encode a specific protein - 427-kD protein. The latter is located below the sarcolemma. Dystrophin, in alliance with the associated proteins, called dystroglycan and the sarcoglycans, takes part in a mechanically powerful link which can be traced from the extracellular matrix to the cytoskeleton that underlies it (Rybakova et al 1209). Total or partial deficiency of dystrophin ruins the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (abbreviated as DGC), which means that cytoskeleton present in the muscle fibers is no longer linked to the matrix (Hoffman, Brown, and Kunkel, 919). Hence, no dystrophin leads to the DGC complex functional impairment, while the mechanical stress accompanying with contraction results in the degeneration or atrophy of skeletal muscle fibers, impairment of movements, plus muscle-wasting. It finally leads to the death of the afflicted male kids which is a result of respiratory or cardiac failure, or both (Rando 1575, Petrof et al 3710). According to Engwal & Wewer, the existing dystrophin deficiency found in skeletal, as well as cardiac muscles, leads to the fact that several secondary processes start activating. Among them one may find inflammation, interstitial fibrosis, and extracellular matrix degradation, which badly affect the DMD progression (Engwal & Wewer 1579). Boys diagnosed with