Wednesday, January 29, 2020

God of Small Things Essay Example for Free

God of Small Things Essay In â€Å"God of Small Things†, written by Arundati Roy, Roy talks about many things but one thing that stood out was her negativity of what the colonist had brought over into India. Her argument could be that the colonist brought materialism into their culture making the natives think that they need things that they really do not need. The colonist bring the thought that making money any way possible is acceptable and Roy points out that ritual dances are even being used as a way of profit. Roy is just pointing out what effect colonialism has had on the people of the native country. Like many other text from post-colonial nations â€Å"God of â€Å"Small Things† points out the negative aspect of colonialism. Roy throughout the book talks about the city of Ayemenem and the river that used to flow through it. On one side of this river there was a place called the â€Å"history house†. Roy describes this place as a worn and old abandoned estate in a couple of her chapter but in one chapter she is describing what it looks like now and how different it is from when she was just a child. In chapter five a hotel is described; this is the chapter that I think she criticizes the rich and how they have become rich. Roy is showing her disapproval for the colonist making what was once an abandoned land fill into a tourist attraction that is no longer an eye sore and is now a beautiful estate. In chapter five Rahal returned to the river she used to know as a child. She describes how it used to be compared to how it is now that she has returned. Rahal does not seem to care about progress â€Å"So now they had two harvests a year instead of one. More rice-for the price of a river† (Roy 59). Sure people were making a profit from the rice but there will always be someone that is making a profit from something. The only good thing that Roy sees from the people making barges is that there is one more harvest; there are many rewards from having another harvest and they are not recognized; it is not that she probably does not see them but she is just pointing out the negativity from the colonist. Roy continues on and describes a five-star hotel that had bought what they used to call the â€Å"Heart of Darkness†. She says that the History House no longer could be approached from the river and that the house had turned its back on Ayemenem. Roy described this place as an abandoned haunted estate that nobody ever went to when she was a child but she says that it has turned its back on Ayemenem. Once again progress is looked at in a negative way. The hotel guests were transported to the estate by a speed boat through the backwaters and Roy describes the boats as leaving a film of gasoline. She does say that the hotel does have a beautiful view but says that they try to cover up the slum part of Ayemenem, which is understandable, it is not nature, all the slum was man made and they do not want to look at slummy areas. There was not much that the hotel could do about the smell of the waist. Roy makes many assumptions about the â€Å"hotel people†. First the thoughts are that the people actually care what is going on around them, and they do not care. She calls the estate a â€Å"smelly paradise†; the guest are to get used to the smell as they have become immune to other peoples poverty; with that statement she is claiming that everyone that owns the hotel and stays there is rich and does not know what poverty taste like; everything was a matter of discipline, nothing more to them. Roy then goes on to criticize the way the people are making money; through selling their history. In chapter five Roy not only criticizes and shows the negatives of progress, with hardly any positives, but also criticizes the way the people are making a living and profit. The â€Å"hotel people† advertise their estate as a paradise with history making many sensational claims just to draw the tourist to their paradise. She called many of the buildings that had history for sale â€Å"Toy Histories†. Roy does not like the fact that these people are trying to make a profit off of their own history and culture. The biggest thing of all probably is when the hotel hires dancers to perform dances that are classic ritual dances that have actual meaning and are not just for show; six hour classics are turned in to 20 minuet shows for pleasure. The ancient ritual dances were diluted into nothing more than entertainment where at one time they had meant something to the culture that those people once love so dearly. Here it is easy to see why Roy would criticize so much but one must realize that everyone cannot be pleased and never will be pleased. The colonial effect had some good effects and had bad, but Roy again only seems to point out the negativity that the colonialism has brought to the nation. Roy brings up many problems in her native land; I know that the point of her book is to point out the negativity of post-colonialism on her country but still, point out some more good things that did come out of colonialism. In many texts it is the same way though. In â€Å"God of Small Things† it speaks negatively of people from the native land sending their children to boarding schools in Britain, not directly but you can see that she is making a point that all the negativity is geared at those from the culture who have brought British culture and British economics back to their land. Whereas in Soyinka’s â€Å"Death of the King’s Horseman†, the horseman’s son has gone to Britain to study but comes back. After coming back he sees that his father has gone against customs and he decides to take it upon himself to see that the act is fulfilled in some form or another; in this text you have a native that stayed true to his native land but in Roy’s case the natives that went to Britain did not stay true and keep up their own culture but rather adopted another’s culture. Another example of colonist having an influence on the children of the native land and infiltrating through them is in Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s son becomes a Christian and Okonkwo does not like that, it is the beginning of his culture being put to a halt. Roy, I do not think, is pointing out all the people who sent their children to Britain but rather that even though India was â€Å"Independent† it still had Britain’s influence impacting almost everything in daily lives. In conclusion, Roy makes descriptive negative images because it is what she sees and has seen from the start. People that have not grown up in her culture from birth and seen the changes she has seen cannot fathom what she has seen. If someone from a more developed country was to go there they would see progression as a positive aspect because it is what they have grown up with but for people in that culture they can see the negative aspects of some progress; and that is what Roy is pointing out, she does point out some positives but the majority of the description about the way society is looked at is negative. The book becomes a very dreary read and quite depressing at some points because of all the negativity and horrible things that happen. However, all of the description of even the negative parts make you really get a since of what Roy is trying to say and that is that even with all the negativity one can break barriers. At the end of the day it is not the colonist fault for making Roy’s society what is but rather the people that refuse to change what needs to be changed. It does not matter about how much negativity is directed at the colonist, if the native people do not take responsibility they are to blame just as much as the British. The negativity is not geared at the British but rather her own society and own people.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Analysis of Pearl Harbor the Movie Essay -- Jerry Bruckheimer Film

Pearl Harbor The movie Pearl Harbor directed and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer was released in 2001. This highly praised movie allows the audience to carefully watch a movie that is based on a day that started the United States' involvement in World War II. The movie begins with a two boys, Danny Walker and Rafe McCawley, who have grown up hoping to become involved in the United States military and slowly changes to the life, excitement, and hardships of being involved in the war. Rafe is one of the best fighter pilots in the regiment and falls in love with a beautiful nurse, Lt. Evelyn Johnson. As the United States tries to help the British, Rafe volunteers to go to London. After several months he supposedly dies when shot down by a German aircraft. This devastating news is told to Lt. Evelyn Johnson by Danny Walker who is still trying to deal with the situation. A few months went by and Lt. Evelyn Johnson and Danny Walker fall in love. Being alone during a time of war was not an idea l situation, one that all military men and women hated. They found themselves to be compatible and in love. They enjoyed their relationship together until news is delivered to Danny that Rafe is still alive. During all this time United States avoids involvement would in the war because they felt that their involvement would not have an impact. The relationship with Danny and Evelyn progresses and so did the war. It is on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. In the movie Pearl Harbor, Bruckheimer attempts to describe what happened on Sunday December 7, 1941 as accurately as possible. However, no matter how hard Bruckheimer tries to present this event historically it will be unclear because it is used primarily ... ...roximity, and pre-judgments. Why did he/she create the movie or book? Where did he/she find his/her resources? How did he/she gain his/her knowledge? However once a person learns how to analyze this they will be able to become more objective when thinking about history. Bibliography Arthur, Max. Forgotten Voices of World War II. Great Britain: Ebury Press, 2004. Bard, Mitchell. The Complete Idiots Guide to: World War II. New York: Alpha Books, 2004 Burlingame, Burl. Advance Force, Pearl Harbor. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1992. Mullener, Elizabeth. WAR STORIES, remembering World War II. New York: Berkley, 2002. Nash, Gary, and others. American Odyssey. Multimedia edition. New York: 1997 Pearl Harbor. Director Jerry Bruckheimer. Touchstone Studios, 2001. Willmott, H.P. Pearl Harbor. New York: Sterling Publishing, 2001.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Start UP Strategy Thesis

These units aim to find a scalable and repeatable business model in markets where huge demand is predicted (Steve Blank, 2010). In case of not finding such a demand or not being able to supply – these companies burn all capital and close in a long run. Secondly vast majority of start-ups aim to go internationally. Otherwise business model is hardly scalable and it cannot attract capital in the future. Coddle general info Coddle is a data start-up company which owns a product applicative. Com. It is a website which seeks to provide life quality information for citizens.People who seek to know more of their neighborhoods type their address and easily find information such as crime rate, pollution, average income, etc. Also it is really handy for people who search an apartment to rent. Data is linked to a website using free governmental sources. At the current moment company operates in Lithuania, Germany (Berlin), USA (New York, Confiscator, Chicago, LIKE (London). In upcoming o ne year they plan to cover all cities in USA and then go to Europe. One year ago they raised kick ERR capital for a product development.Now they are searching 1 million ERR capital which will be used for marketing and expansion operations. Most investors provide capital for start-ups with well-crafted strategies and business plan. Unfortunately Coddle doesn't have a strategy and doesn't know what factors determine growth of a start-up. Determination of a growth strategy became an important matter which will help to distribute last capital, raise new one and show direction for a company. Bachelor thesis purpose Research problem: how start-up companies should grow in a client base and eased capital.Aim of the thesis: To investigate what determines successful growth of a start-up company in areas of clients base and capital raised. Objectives of the thesis: Analyze internal and external environment of a Coddle start-up Conduct an help to craft a strategy, raise capital and distribute c urrent capital Research methods: Qualitative research using semi formal interviews with industry experts. Secondary data analysis and literature review. Practical value of the thesis: Start-ups with well-crafted strategies manage to grow and raise capital. Coddle has a shortage of capital and no strategy.This thesis will help them to set a right direction for a company, understand focus elements which enables growth and raise capital. Logical sequence of the thesis: 1 . Situational analysis. Internal and external analysis with a secondary data using PESTLE, 5 porter forces, market segmentation and attractiveness, competitors analysis, STOW. Defining crucial factors for company ‘s expansion 2. Qualitative research using semi-formal interviews. Interviewing people from successfully growing start-ups 3. Analysis primary and secondary data. Finding key factors which determine successful growth a start-up company 4.Making conclusions and providing recommendations for the company Si tuational analysis General information about company: I-JAB Coddle launched in 2012 is a start-up company which focus on providing neighborhood information for people worldwide. Concept is simple company has created a website which is like a search engine for addresses. Visitors enter a website, enter an address and click search. After few moments website presents neighborhood information linked to that address. It can be air pollution, crime rate, average real estate prices, near bus-stops and much more. In addition to that company has developed â€Å"Life-Quality† index which takes into account all available data sets and presents it in one numerical value. For example address 139-008 85 Drive, Queens, New York has a life quality index of 66/100. Data to the website is coming from open governmental data sources. Applicative. Com is in a beta phase and operates in cities: London, Berlin, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York. Company has ambitious plans to be present in every city worldwide. In order to reach their ambition company has raised kick euros of capital. Most of that capital went for product development but at the moment website slowly darted building its own visitors base.Company is investing to both: product and marketing. Also they are searching for a second investment which would be somewhere around 1 million euros and used for rapid business growth. Product itself is in introduction product life cycle phase. Figure 1 Organizational structure Of the company At the moment company has zero revenues and they are living out of raised capital. Business model start-up has planned is BIB. There is no way to monotone in BBC since a website is absolutely free. For BIB there are two options: 1 . Sell advertising place in a website for real estate companies relied 2.Sell Life-Quality Index badge as API (application programming interface) integration for real estate websites or customized API with neighborhood data Coddle has worldwide Website was la unched in July and now it has approximately 6200 unique visitors. In upcoming year planned growth is 100 000 unique visitors. Coddle has 2 two BIB clients which have integrated Life-Quality badge to their websites. Badges were given for free in order to test a product and collect feedback. In the end of the year plan is to have at least 30 BIB partners which use our badge for free. In late 201 5 plan s to charge 70$ per month for badge integration.Table 1 Size of the market Chicago New York San Francisco BBC (website visitors) 2,35 million 7,31 million 0,73 million BIB 900 1 500 2400 List of small competitors: 1 . Bootlace. Com 2. Foundation. Com 3. Ravishes. Com The largest competitor is walkover. Com which is launched in 2007 and already for more than 7 years. They are operating in whole United States including cities where we are. They have more than 30,000 BIB clients and 1 , 200,000 site visitors each month. Concept of their business is similar to Coddle. They have a website Wi th address search engine.Visitors and check- p any address in USA and get neighborhood information plus walkabout index which is a summary of various place distances in one number (similar to Life-Quality index). BIB business model they are using is same as we planned – sell API integrations for real estate websites. Management of the company Company s structure is small, communication chain is short and they don't huge product portfolio. Therefore management style CEO uses it quite simple and unstructured. They have weekly meetings to check week ; s performance and set new goals for an upcoming week. Company plans work for no more than 1 month to the future.Sometimes CEO has unstructured individual meetings with employees to discuss on going assignments. Interns are being managed by a full time working person in a marketing field. Interns receive assignments from CEO and marketing person. Company does not use any theoretical methodology such as agile project management, lean or other start-up management techniques. Macro-environmental analysis Political factors. Open data movement which started in USA in 2007. Scientists Of LISA realized that government has collected a lot of various data of the country. Data is being collected simply monitoring governmental sector recesses.This type of a data is a great way to improve overall human knowledge base and help to understand word's complexity. Scientists have encouraged governments to open free data portals where data would be available for everyone (Joel Curing, 2014). In USA it is be data. Gob and even cities have their own data websites like New York mentioned before. EX. as well is establishing large open data infrastructures. Only because of this trend Coddle had a chance to develop such a product. Economic factors. Our BIB product is for real estate industry therefore if industry is growing that means hey have better incentives to innovate current situation.Real estate industry has 13% GAP of total US A GAP and they are steadily growing over the last five years. Even after real estate crisis in 2007 they kept growing. In addition to that key websites in USA real estate sector such as Zillion or Trivial invest several millions each year for neighborhood data. Data is being displayed in their websites and customers have better overview of a property. To compare with European real estate websites there is a big difference. Most of the largest websites in Europe do not display any neighborhood information ND keep simple search engine for a property.Secondly there is quite high competition in LISA real estate websites market and company are willing to invest decent amount of resources for better display of neighborhoods and local areas. Our website visitor has synergy points with real estate sector as well. Most of applicative. Com website visitors are people who are searching to buy/rent a new property. They are actively searching local area information. Growing real estate industry means more renting or purchasing and more people seeking information which our website provides. Social factors.Due to gig rates of obesity (Rulers, 2014) in USA we have new emerging trend – healthy life style. It is already for several years and growing even more. Demand for health friendly or environmental friendly products has increased. We can see examples like a Greek Yogurt since 2010 dominated USA Yogurt market. It is a Yogurt which is considered to be healthier choice. It has less fats and more protein. Other sectors specializing in healthy life style has grown. Technological factors. Current IT technology allows us easily link data from governmental websites to our which makes all start-up possible.Even annuity of a data is high but website can be well optimized and user friendly. Secondly to build a data crawlers (robot which scans websites and extracts data) has become much easier. One IT programmer can do it. Governmental institutions do not provide all data there fore company has to search for a new ways to collect it. Internet has decent amount of in depended catalogues like http://move. Yellowness. Com. Internet crawler can be cost effective solution for data extraction. Scrounging trend which started in 2006 has enabled companies to outsource difficult tasks for crowds.For example such platforms like Amazon Turks can be used for data testing or processing. Also using scrounging methods are great way to collect data. There are even successful companies which us mainly crowd sourced data (data which is voluntarily entered by a user) – Google maps, tomato GAPS maps (Stuart Dredge, 201 1). Environmental factors. In USA media is actively talking about pollution, crime and more topics related to neighborhood lifestyles. People have increased awareness that living environment is reflected in their quality of life. We have articles like â€Å"top 10 cities to live† or â€Å"best neighborhoods of New York†.At the current momen t people have higher interested in their living environment especially demographics young families. Legal factors. Coddle is registered in Lithuanian Republic therefore they are accountable to Lithuania law. So far company has no revenues and they don't need to pay income tax, but in the future they will face 15%. Since they are online business it is way much easier to overcome political barriers and change markets if it is needed. Also they don't need to pay value added tax because all product purchases are made online. Besides that company needs to pay tax for their employees which is 30% from their salaries.Risk analysis Cross-cultural risk. Since Americans are native English speakers there is a quit high risk of miscommunication or misunderstanding. Lithuanian can speak English but to communicate with American is harder. Also it is harder to compete from sales perspective. At the moment start-up tried to find BIB clients via Cold Calls, Linked, emails. It is a challenge to effec tively communicate a message for potential customer. Local company can do it much easier. Also American culture is a entrepreneurial and sales culture and most of business representatives are good in that (The Economist, 2009).Company s odds are getting lower when you need to complete with better business in better ecosystem. Commercial risks. Even the product is new in Europe but is not in ASSAI. They are 5 years ahead in usage of big data, especially in real estate industry. Market itself has some strong players such as walkover for more than 5 years. To outperform locals which already have a strong position makes a threat for Coddle strategic expansion. Financial risks. Every time when start-up sells a badge marginal costs are nearly to zero. Also online business doesn't have a lot of physical assets.USA currency s really Strong and has well establishes finance trading infrastructure with ERR. There are not so many major financial risks besides one – raising a capital. Sin ce Coddle is a start-up purely funded by a venture capital there is a huge risk of not raising a capital. Now company is trying to raise 1 million dollars and it is hard to predict what are the odds without trying. Country risk. No major country risks as well. USA is actively promoting online businesses and open data portals. Competitor analysis Ta able 2 Total Segment A – large real estate websites Medium real estate companies Segment BSegment C- Individual brokers Segment D accommodation websites Total market size (Units and/or dollars) 14 million dollars 20 (0%) 20,000 (10%) 180,00 (90%) 15 (0%) Share Now Sought in Three Years 25% Largest Competitor Today/Future Your Relative Share Walkover Coddle product is in pure introductory stage there they have nearly O market share. Also from the table we can judge that segment A and D might be not relevant but that is not true. Due to product specific these are main segments where company should focus. Reason is simple – eve ry API integration with a large website is linking their visitors to our website.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Discover More About Marine Reptiles

Class Reptilia is the group of animals known as the reptiles. These are a diverse group of animals that are cold-blooded and have (or had) scales. They are vertebrates, which puts them in the same phylum as humans, dogs, cats, fish and many other animals. There are over 6,000 species of reptiles. They are also found in the sea, and referred to as marine reptiles.   The Class Reptilia, or reptiles, traditionally included a diverse group of animals: turtles, snakes, lizards and crocodiles, alligators, and caimans. Many scientists believe that birds also belong in this class. Characteristics of Reptiles Animals in the Class Reptilia: Are ectotherms (commonly called cold-blooded). These animals need to warm themselves up using external heat (e.g., the sun).Mostly bear their young in eggs, which are protected by an amniotic membrane (so reptiles are referred to as amniotes).Have scales, or did have at some point in their evolutionary history.Breathe using lungs rather than gills. Thus, reptiles in the ocean may be able to hold their breath to go underwater, but eventually need to go to the surface to breathe.Have a three- or four-chambered heart. Classifying Reptiles and Marine Reptiles Kingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: ChordataClass: Reptilia Marine reptiles are divided into several orders: Testudines: Turtles. Sea turtles are an example of turtles that live in the marine environment.Squamata: Snakes.   Marine examples are sea snakes.Sauria: Lizards. An example is the marine iguana. In some classification systems. lizards are included in the Order Squamata.Crocodylia: Crocodiles. A marine example is the saltwater crocodile. The above list is from the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Habitat and Distribution Reptiles live in a wide range of habitats. Although they can thrive in harsh habitats like the desert, they are not found in cooler areas like  Antarctica, because they need to rely on external heat to keep warm. Sea Turtles Sea turtles are found in oceans worldwide. They nest on subtropical and tropical beaches. The leatherback turtle is the species that can go in cold waters, such as off Canada. These amazing reptiles have adaptations  that allow them to live in colder water than other turtles, including the ability to shunt blood away from their flippers to keep their core body temperature warmer. However, if sea turtles are in cold waters too long (such as when juveniles dont migrate south quickly enough in the winter), they might become cold-stunned.   Sea Snakes Sea snakes include two groups: laticaudid sea snakes, which spend some time on land, and hydrophiid snakes, which live wholly at sea.   Sea snakes are all venomous, but they rarely bite humans.   They all live in the Pacific Ocean (Indo-Pacific and eastern tropical Pacific regions). Marine Iguanas The marine iguana, which lives in the Galapagos Islands, is the only marine lizard. These animals live on the shore and feed by diving in the water to eat algae. Crocodiles In the U.S., the American crocodile often enters saltwater. These animals are found from southern Florida to northern South America and can be found on islands, where they swim or are pushed by hurricane activity. One crocodile, nicknamed Cletus, swam out to the Dry Tortugas (70 miles off Key West) in 2003. American crocodiles tend to be more timid than American alligators and the saltwater crocodiles, which are found in the Indo-Australian region from Asia to Australia. Most reptiles give birth by laying eggs.   Some snakes and lizards can give birth to live young.   In the world of marine reptiles, sea turtles, iguanas and crocodiles lay eggs while most sea snakes give birth to live young, who are born underwater and must swim immediately to the surface to breathe. Marine Reptiles Reptiles that can live at least part of their lives in the marine environment include sea turtles, crocodiles  and some lizards. References and Further Information Galapagos Conservancy. Iguanas and Lizards.  Accessed October 30, 2015.IUCN. 2010. Sea Snakes Fact Sheet. Accessed October 30, 2015.Morrissey, J.F. and J.L. Sumich. 2012. Introduction to the Biology of Marine Life. Jones Bartlett Learning. 466pp.