ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
“Battle Royal,” the first chapter of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man , has been interpreted as a symbolic protest against the unjust way in which society treats blacks and women but there is more to it than that. The narrator represents his family’s highest aspirations. From the deathbed speech of his grandfather onward, he dedicates himself to overcoming the problems that turned his grandfather and his father into “traitors,” black men who kept silent instead of protesting loudly against the injustices inflicted on them by whites. The narrator does his best to excel in his own life so that he won’t be part of that tradition and models his behavior after other people until he finds his truth. The main point of the story is that if he follows his grandfather’s advice, and tries to “overcome ’em with yeses, undermine ’em with grins, agree on ’em to death and destruction, let ’em swollen you till they vomit or bust wide open,” he will end up as degraded as the leading white citizens of his town are. The first example of that is the woman who was hired to entertain the men at the dinner. Before the fighting begins the narrator and the other nine young men who are participating in the battle royal are made to watch a stripper perform for the men at the gathering. The way the narrator describes her makes it clear that she is a beautiful queen who has given up her self-respect just to make money: “The hair was yellow like that of a circus kewpie doll, … the eyes hollow and smeared a cool blue, the color of a baboon’s butt,” he says and notes that she has been tattooed (branded) with an American flag. While the men are tossing her up and down her eyes meet the narrator’s and he notices that “above her red, fixed-smiling lips” there is “terror and disgust in her eyes, almost like my own terror,” the fear that the citizens will completely lose their self-control and will swallow her whole. The town’s leading citizens all represent noble professions: doctors, teachers, fire chiefs, and the school superintendent. When they were young they must have had ideals and values but now that they are at the top of their town’s hierarchy they have descended into a life of drink, voyeurism, and brutal pleasures. The most degraded of all is Jackson, the man who wants to injure the battle royal fighters after they are blindfolded and who even threatens to kill “him a coon.” He is surrounded by red-faced, bloated men with “lips loose and drooling,” whose idea of pleasure now is to watch young men fight one another. These are the men who have come together to hear the narrator’s speech just to hear him say that for blacks “humility was … the essence of progress,” a speech that would confirm their sense of superiority. The point the narrator is making is that he can become like them but they cannot become like him because no matter what else he says in his speech, this is the only point that gets their interest. The ten black men involved in the battle royal are st
The study consists of a literature review and two analyses of data in connection with drivers of air-equipped bags that support the offsetting behavior hypothesis. The study can be defined as a meta-analysis because it combines the data from two independent research studies to support the hypothesis. The independent variable is a set of dummy variables, which indicates the use of airbags as a standard feature and in the restyled models (Peterson et al., 1995). The macroeconomic parameters and those affecting the driving environment were omitted. The dependent variable is the change in personal injury claims (Peterson et al., 1995). The hypothesis proven in the study is an offsetting behavior hypothesis, which suggests that increasing automotive safety may be counterbalanced by driver behavioral changes resulting in more aggressive driving with airbags in the car. The study examined the relevance of the offsetting behavior hypothesis through two data analyses. In the first analysis of insurance loss data, the change in frequency of injury claims was computed using an “injury and collision loss experience by make and model” (Peterson et al., 1995). The findings show a notable increase in losses under personal injury protection coverage after resizing in newly equipped autos with an airbag due to offsetting behavior. The second analysis inspected traffic fatality data, where the authors calculated the probability of various events, such as fatal crashes with and without an airbag. The findings established that the risk to drivers is not diminished in cars with airbags. Moreover, the percentage of occupants killed in the crashes with an airbag in the car is alerting high. The following combination allows the researchers to conclude about the hypothesis accuracy. Reference Peterson, S., Hoffer, G., & Millner, E. (1995). Are drivers of airbag-equipped cars more aggressive? A test of the offsetting behavior hypothesis. The Journal of Law and Economics , 38 (2), 251-264.
Introduction This paper aims to discuss the speeches of two leaders from two countries that are affected by the problem of religious extremism. The two countries are Pakistan and Afghanistan. The leaders whose speeches will be discussed are Benazir Bhutto and Pervez Musharaf. The first speaker is Benazir Bhutto who was a former prime minister in Pakistan. She was preparing to go back to her country and participate in the electoral process of that country. She wanted to vie for the leadership of Pakistan. The other speaker is Afghanistan president, Hamid Karzai. He is addressing the sixty-third session of the United Nations General Assembly. Bhutto is arguing that extremism in Pakistan has flourished under the dictatorial regimes of General Muhammad and the current General Pervez Musharaf. She is launching her candidature of the Pakistanis premiership. Her argument is based on the fact that she was a former prime minister and she is saying that her former regime was the best since it upheld the rule of law and therefore was able to keep the extremists at bay. She is stating that the only way that extremists can be gotten rid of is by removing General Musharaf from power. Bhutto is also calling for a coalition that will be composed of moderates who will take on the extremist militia. She argues that the installation of a democratically elected government in Pakistan is the best solution to counter the extremists instead of negotiating for endless ceasefires. As promised Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan and launches her candidature for the prime minister’s position. She was however assassinated on December 27, 2007. Karzai’s speech on Afghanistan According to the speech by the Afghan president, there is development in the country. He says that the citizens of the country are now educated and their lives have greatly improved. There has been an increase in the number of schools constructed. The economy of the country has hit the double-digit mark and thus improved the lives of many Afghanis. The levels of corruption have also greatly reduced in the country. The production of poppy in the country has also reduced and he says that the number of provinces that are poppy-free has increased to eighteen. The president indicated that half of the country is now free from drugs. These developments according to my view have been achieved through the help of the international community and the United Nations. The return of democracy is another aspect that has led to the rise in development in the country. These two countries can be seen as one issue to resolve. This is because these two countries are neighbors and they are affected by militants. These two countries have been victims of international terrorism. The extremists in Pakistan have ceased to seek to destabilize Afghanistan alone and are now targeting the people of Pakistan. The extremists have killed political leaders in both countries. Terrorists have attacked Islamabad and the Indian embassy in Afghanistan. Therefore these two count
Relations between music and literature can be observed most vividly in the Romantic era. Romantic critics have argued over the relation of music with other arts but still agreed that that the strongest connection can be observed between music and poetry. Music and literature supplement each other and when it comes to songs or operas they contribute to the creation of a masterpiece only when successfully applied together. The famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin was an extremely talented and highly respected person though his works were sufficiently praised only after his death. Almost all of Russian composers used Pushkin’s writings as the basis of their works with Glinka being the first who started Pushkin tradition in Russian opera. Without any doubt music and literature differ in form and content since literature becomes possible in letters, a specifically written art, while instrumental music becomes possible as an autonomous art form independent of its traditional link with words (Prieto, 2002). However, in songs the instrumental part is to a large extent dependent on the lyrical parts because a song without words can not be regarded as a worthy musical composition and “in this kind of relationship music acts as a model for a literary mode of creation” (Prieto, 2002). Over the years a number of composers tried to create a composition which would become eternal and which would perpetuate their talent and what they tried to express in their works. Writing music is a challenging task; writing music which would correspond to verses emphasizing what they express is even more challenging. A number of composers attempted to write music to the immortal works of Alexander Pushkin and William Shakespeare but Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Sergey Prokofiev’s musical compositions deserve special attention since some of them were regarded as failure back then but are considered masterpieces these days. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is the composer of ten operas, Romeo and Juliet, Mazeppa, The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin being among them but the latter remains one of his most successful works. He paid special attention to the depiction of human feelings aiming to impress the audience namely emotionally for, as he noted, “where the heart is not touched there can’t be any music” (Harewood, 1994). Sergey Prokofiev’s music was aimed at impressing the listener by its deepness and originality rather than firm and perceptible connection with literature. To reveal the extent of connection of Tchaikovsky’s and Prokofiev’s musical compositions with literature some of their works should be thoroughly considered and compared. To begin with, Romeo and Juliet was written by Tchaikovsky in 1869 and it is based on Shakespeare’s play with the same name. For some reason Tchaikovsky’s connection with Shakespeare’s work was very vague and he either failed to understand the essence of the play or just was not inspired enough by it since the first two versions of the opera turned out to be a failure. Perhaps, the unhappy love story of two young people and their tragic death at the end of the story was not enou
Introduction The Industrial Revolution was the cause of a great time of change, also referred to in literary circles as the Victorian period. The comfortable old social and cultural norms were being challenged in ways that had never before been experienced as new technology in the form of machines, and modern social structures in the form of growing cities emerged as driving forces in many people’s everyday lives. “By the beginning of the Victorian period, the Industrial Revolution, as this shift was called, had created profound economic and social changes, including a mass migration of workers to industrial towns, where they lived in new urban slums” (“The Victorian Age,” 2007). The rising middle class began breaking down the old class structure that had formed the backbone of European society for so much of its history just as advances in technology and machinery touched off new debate regarding the existence of the soul and the nature of God. Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution touched off new debate as well regarding the integrity of the Bible itself. With the availability of new jobs in the cities, traditional women’s roles were also being challenged as more and more young women sought better futures for themselves within the factory setting. The public was becoming more and more involved in the debates being waged, particularly as newspapers and other periodicals became more prevalent with the introduction of the printing press, introducing and maintaining widespread discourse in the political and social issues of the day. “The Victorian novel, with its emphasis on the realistic portrayal of social life, represented many Victorian issues in the stories of its characters” (“The Victorian Age,” 2007). The Issues of the Enlightenment in Mary Shelley’s Novel Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein explores many of these issues of the enlightenment, eventually seeming to conclude that it was not the positive motion it was assumed to be. Victor Frankenstein suffers from a severe lack of foresight or heedfulness in his endeavors. Goodson (1996) suggests that perhaps this was the result of Victor’s inner desolation and search for fulfillment and enlightenment. While he was creating his creature, he could only envision something beautiful and pleasant even though his instructors had warned him of the unnatural teachings of those ‘pseudo-scientists’ he had admired in his earlier years. “The ancient teachers of this science,’ said he [Frankenstein’s first professor], ‘promised impossibilities, and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and that the elixir of life is a chimera” (Shelley, 1993: 40). He purposefully and intentionally turned his back on the natural world as a means of concentrating on discovering the secret of bringing life to inanimate material, a process in which he was “forced to spend days and night in vaults and charnel-houses. My attention was fixed upon every object the most insupportable to the deli
Introduction During his forty-five years in the film industry, Alfred Hitchcock directed a total of 55 movies. This is besides his writing career. Most of the plots of his movies were a demonstration of the prevailing social conditions, at the time. While this may be of concern to us, it is actually the role that the mothers to his many films, along with the girlfriends of Hitchcock during his filming career, that requires to be addressed. As a child, Hitchcock was brought up by his catholic mother. It is alleged that she made him confess any sins that he might have committed in her absence. This action led Hitchcock to loathe his mother, perhaps a reflection of his loathing too, for the mothers in his films. On the other hand, Hitchcock had an obsession with blonde women (Giblin 2006), and it is not a wonder therefore that virtually all his heroines that graced the silver screen to his many films, were actually blondes. His obsession was combined with a domineering nature over the heroines, both at a personal land professional level. Different roles of women in Hitchcock film Oftentimes, films by Alfred Hitchcock have featured characters that are trying hard to sustain the relationship that they share with their mothers. For example in the 1959 film North by Northwest, the character of Gary Grant. Played by Roger Thornhill, comes out like that of a man who is not only innocent, but also one who is on the receiving end of his mother, following his insistence that murderous and shadowy men could be trailing him (Giblin 2006). In the actual sense however, there are indeed men who are trailing him. The character of Rod Taylor, in the 1963 film The Birds , discovers that his world is surrounded by vicious birds. At the same time, Rod Taylor is also trying hard to become free of a mother who is clinging to him. (The mother character has been played by Jessica Tandy). On the other hand, the killer who is featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1972 movie, Frenzy , is seen to idolize his mother, while at the same time harboring a loathing for the rest of the women. There is also the villain Bruno, who features in the film, “ Strangers on a Train ” (Giblin 2006). While Bruno is depicted as a character who hates his father with venom, nevertheless he has a soft spot for his mother (Marion Lorne plays this character), with who he shares a close relationship. Claude Rain as Sebastian in the film Notorious shares a relationship with his mother that at best, maybe described as being conflicting. In this case, his mother rightly harbors suspicion regarding Ingrid Bergman, who plays the character of Alicia Huberman, the new bride to Sebastian. In the film Psycho , it is obvious that Norman Bates has a lot of trouble with his mother (Haeffner 2005). Hitchcock has managed to bring out the characters of mothers that
Introduction The manager of a certain project would consider the job well done if the project gets completed within the estimated time, according to its specified performance and within its budgeted costs. Generally, the three goals or objectives (time, performance and cost) are traditionally the basic parameters for measuring project success or failure. The objectives are chiefly related to the execution stage of the project, which is the period of most direct interest to the project manager and the main contractor. A project that is completed within the prescribed time, within its estimated budget, and in line with its specifications provides the contractor with a good return, profitable publicity and a warm glow of satisfaction. In this project, the focus will be on these situational factors in an IT project of designing (Lock, 2007, p. 17). IT project constrains These are all the factors that may hinder the performance of the project, the main ones including: a predestined budget for the project, an inflexible deadline, limited availability of computer hardware, and locating a resource with a specific skill. These factors normally limit the options of the project. The work of the manager is to plan on how to meet the project objectives with the identified factors after they have been documented and their risks examined. During the planning of the activities, there are other factors that may be created on the relations assigned to activities. For instance, FS relationship is constrained by the completion of the predecessor before the successor can begin; this comes as a natural constrain and is some
WorldCom Collapse The collapse of WorldCom remains a historical corporate mistake. WorldCom was a model corporation whose collapse shocked many. WorldCom’s collapse has been attributed to poor corporate governance and misuse of business intelligence data to befit executives rather than serving consumer interests. WorldCom’s executives are accused of mining information and turn it into business practices that would benefit the company illegally. Eventually money was lost after auditor unearthed these unscrupulous practices. Subsequently WorldCom’s clout began to crumble. This lead to; its value at Wall Street go through crunches, investor anger and reform campaigns. Investors and consumer dissonance further exposed the conglomerate to bad economic weather and subsequent collapse. How WorldCom misused data leading to subsequent collapse Audit reports by senior accountant’s unearthed massive fraud at WorldCom. The accounting fraud at WorldCom reached critical mass after accounting malpractices using data collected by experts at the company to cover the company losses were unearthed (Backover, Andrew & Michelle Lessler, 2002). WorldCom executives analyzed stocks performance in Wall Street, identified bookkeeping as a way to generate financial reports that indicated WorldCom was growing, to meet Wall Street expectations, subsequently, keeping the company stock and growing in value. WorldCom was masking its losses using accounting data. The company also engaged in giving its executives huge loans to protect the company share value at Wall Street. The executives at WorldCom bred a culture of cutting corners to meet business needs (Why Smart Executives Fail, 2009). Subsequently, when revenue audit was unsatisfactory, the executives used alternative financial figures along with instructions to change them for WorldCom’s actual financial audit data. The company also engaged in allotting high reserves for bad debts to be used as back-ups to operating revenue in order to meet fiscal objectives. Overwhelmed by its internally approved fraud the company overstated its fiscal results by $3.8 billion which is largely seen as the world’s largest corporate bookkeeping malpractice (Backover, Andrew & Michelle Lessler, 2002). The results of planned corporate bookkeeping WorldCom was able to cash in through this planned bookkeeping. However, these ‘made up’ financial results did not reflec
What Is learning? 👨‍🎓️ Why is learning important? Find the answers here! 🔤 This essay on learning describes its outcomes and importance in one’s life. Introduction Learning is a continuous process that involves the transformation of information and experience into abilities and knowledge. Learning, according to me, is a two way process that involves the learner and the educator leading to knowledge acquisition as well as capability. It informs my educational sector by making sure that both the students and the teacher participate during the learning process to make it more real and enjoyable so that the learners can clearly understand. There are many and different learning concepts held by students and ways in which the different views affect teaching and learning. What Is Learning? The Key Concepts One of the learning concept held by students is, presentation of learning material that is precise. This means that any material that is meant for learning should be very clear put in a language that the learners comprehend (Blackman & Benson 2003). The material should also be detailed with many examples that are relevant to the prior knowledge of the learner. This means that the learner must have pertinent prior knowledge. This can be obtained by the teacher explaining new ideas and words that are to be encountered in a certain field or topic that might take more consecutive lessons. Different examples assist the students in approaching ideas in many perspectives. The learner is able to get similarities from the many examples given thus leading to a better understanding of a concept since the ideas are related and linked. Secondly, new meanings should be incorporated into the students’ prior knowledge, instead of remembering only the definitions or procedures. Therefore, to promote expressive learning, instructional methods that relate new information to the learner’s prior knowledge should be used. Moreover, significant learning involves the use of evaluation methods that inspire learners to relate their existing k