ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Apocalypse Now is an American movie directed by Francis Coppola released in 1979. It tells a story of Captain Willard, who is assigned a dangerous mission to find and assassinate a renegade colonel Kurtz in the jungles of Cambodia. The movie was adapted from a novella “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad, which raises issues of racism and imperialism. Today, it is recognized as an epic movie about the Vietnam War, but at first, it was highly criticized for its darkness and unusual plot. After more than two decades, Coppola released an extended version of the movie in a digital format called Apocalypse Now Redux. This essay will discuss the central theme of the movie, compare and contrast the original Apocalypse Now and its Redux version, and discuss their historical significance to the cinema. In 2001, Zoetrope Studios released a director’s version of the film extended from the original movie, entitled Apocalypse Now Redux . It included some materials that were not used in the theatrical release. A new, more complete director’s version of the film was supplemented by philosophical meaning, sexual scenes, and intriguing political discussions. The second release was explained by the director’s desire to reconstruct the movie from falling into a conventional war movie because the political situation changed (Shao and Liu 101). Over the twenty-year period, technological conditions in cinema editing advanced dramatically as well as economic conditions in cinematography. Producers used the opportunity to enhance the visual and audio experience. The Redux version had improved aesthetically and context-wise: improved color restoration and enhanced soundtrack, Paramount logo was present at the beginning, some scenes had semantic ligament, and it had better color separation, high definition, screen ratio, and synchronous sound ( Apocalypse Now Redux ). A cultural study found that this version added new narrative elements that “paid more attention to minority groups, the darkness in war and media quagmire, which is related to different historical and political contexts” (Shao and Liu 100). Indeed, characters in the newest version had more humanity in their attitudes. While the initial release was surrealistic and somewhat insane, the Redux version reminded of a documentary. Events in the original version went by at a faster pace and did not necessarily follow a correct timeline, making it more exciting and entrancing, whereas, in Redux, many scenes were rearranged. Overall, Apocalypse Now Redux depicted improved attitude to minority groups and provided a more comprehensive reflection of the Vietnam War, added more humanity and content, and was improved aesthetically (Shao and Liu 106). Previous works of Coppola differed significantly: he started off his career with a pornographic movie that lacked any style whatsoever. The Godfather , an epic gangster drama with impressive and laconic dialogues, excellent performances of the cast, and superb editing, made him famous and established Cop
Introduction We are living in a world that relies on different technologies more and more. Humans cannot imagine their lives without smartphones, tablets, and numerous platform-specific apps that became available throughout the last decade. Our society began shifting towards an updated version of itself because we are becoming more digital and willing to interact with others on the territory of the Internet. With this in mind, an interesting mobile application appeared on the market. It allowed people to share their photos and was organized in the form of a social network using concepts such as followers and likes. The title of this app was Instagram. Since its initial release, the application became much more powerful and stable, similar to its real-life impact. The influence of Instagram became more of a trend rather than a consistent pattern because of its major popularity among the younger layer of the world’s population. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that the positive impact of Instagram is multifaceted and can be divided into several different directions that combine into a unique experience helping humans to appreciate themselves and find more ways to live in harmony. How Instagram Impacts Our Society The first reason to believe that Instagram is rather influential and positively affects our society is the development of an open forum for opinions. Using sharing pictures, we become able to amalgamate with the world that is oversaturated with text. In other words, there are Instagram users that decided to take on the role of social monitors and share the most vivid pieces of information with their followers. This resulted in a situation where their visual messages capture the attention of a large auditory that is interested in seeing these images. Therefore, Instagram is responsible for the advent of the so-called social critics that can also be defined as activists of the social networking world (Al-Kandari et al. 55). It can also be mentioned here that Instagram contributed to the development of a segment of society that can be characterized as a proactive youth. The latter is interested in resolving the issues that impact our society, but they are doing it in an improved way. Another way in which Instagram affects our society is a direct shift toward a consumerist society. Every day that you s
Introduction Alcohol abuse has two responses to unemployment. Those who have been laid off, have a tendency of abusing alcohol while those who remain employed reduce their alcohol consumption because they are aware that alcohol abusers are more likely to be laid off when the workforce is to be reduced (Booth, 2004). However, unemployment cannot be used to control alcohol abuse. According to VanBaren (2012), the four elements of Economics include scarcity, opportunity cost, inflation, supply and demand. Scarcity describes the situation where “people’s wants typically exceed their means” (VanBaren, 2012 para. 1). Opportunity cost refers to other options people forego by making a choice. Inflation affects the choices by reducing the number of goods that people can purchase. This occurs when the inflation rate is higher than the rate at which an income increases. The four elements of an economic way of thinking are the use of assumptions, isolating variables, thinking at the margin, and the response of rational people to incentives (O’Sullivan, Sheffrin, & Perez, 2007). Possible solutions Alcohol abuse can be reduced by increasing its price. Chaloupka, Grossman & Saffer (n.d) agree on a research which concluded that “increase in the prices of alcoholic beverages lead to reductions in drinking and heavy drinking as well as in the consequences of alcohol use and abuse” (p. 22). The price of alcoholic drinks can be raised by imposing higher taxes per unit of production. The problem with alcoholic beverages is that it has been a long period since the taxes were increased. Due to inflation the real value of the increased taxes on alcoholic products has been lost. According to Chaloupka, Grossman & Saffer (n.d), the real price of distilled spirits fell by 32%, and that of beer by 20% between 1875 and 1990. However, those in authority are not quick to add taxes that reduce consumption because it would hinder consumption of the abuser as well as the moderate drinker. Beer is considered the alcohol of choice by the American youth. Different states excise various taxes on beer to reduce its consumption. The price elasticity of alcohol in the U.S. is -0.5. This means that “a 10% increase in price would reduce consumption by 5%” (Chaloupka, Grossman & Saffer, n.d. p. 23). Beer consumption in the U.S. is considered inelastic compared to wine, and distilled spirits. The elasticities are -0.3, -1.0, and -1.5 for beer, wine, and spirits respectively. An economist would reduce the demand of alcohol by increasing its price. Another method that can be used to reduce alcohol abuse is reducing supply. This can be done by reducing entry into the alcoholic beverage production industry. This can include the amount required to obtain license for production. Limiting supply would make the demand exceed supply in the short-run. Prices would increase because the licensing fee was high, and because demand exceeds supply. The market mechanism would set a price higher to most alcoholic abusers. According to White, White & Korgen (2011), the assumption giving out information that“alcohol consumption has increased” tends t
Every person has embarrassing days that one regrets or does not want to recall under any circumstances. These memories make us feel awkward and blame ourselves for what we have done wrong or not adequately. People prefer not to tell their relatives, friends, and colleagues about these moments as they are afraid that the society’s opinion about them might change in a blink of an eye. As we grow up, our views on life change and these stories become good memories that give us life experience. Nowadays I am glad to share various awkward cases with other people. The following paper will discuss the most embarrassing day of my life and will demonstrate how my views on lives have been changing since childhood. Discussion The most embarrassing day of my life was when I was a child. I did not understand every aspect of people’s relationships and values at the age of seven yet. I believe that there are many people in the world who regret particular events or days of their adolescence (Widen 188). However, it was a regular Sunday when my family and I went to church. While the pastor was preaching, I was searching through his wife’s purse as she was sitting next to me. When I found the lady’s camera, I took it and went to the Sunday school with this device. My friends and I were playing with the stolen camera, and I did not tell my peers where it came from. However, the pastor’s family lived in our neighborhood. When my parents found out about the case described above, they made me go to the pastor’s house, apologize, and return the camera to his wife. When I was a child, I did not feel embarrassed about that incident, but now I realize what my parents felt that day. Unfortunately, that hapless Sunday went on. I heard my mother talking to her auxiliary on a cellular phone. I remember that she was not satisfied with someone’s work, and told her colleague that she would not receive any bonuses this month. I decided to message her auxiliary as I heard her name during their conversation. As I was angry at the person who made my mother nervous, I was rude to that lady in my text. I offended her by using an abusive nickname and told the woman that she will not ever receive any bonuses from now on. Unfortunately, I got my mother in trouble by sending that message. Moreover, I happened to meet her colleague on the same day, and she already knew that it was I who offended her. I felt embarrassed and always avoided looking into the lady’s eyes. In the evening of the same day, I went to the groceries store that was situated in our neighborhood. I met my classmate on the way there who told me that he has been stealing chips from that store. My mother gave me money to buy one loaf of bread, milk, and some cereal for the next day breakfast, and it was not enough for a package of chips. Therefore, I decided to steal it from the shop, and my friend taught me how. The storekeeper knew my father and asked him to pay for the chips I stole before I came home. My dad made me go to the store again and give the money to his acquaintance. Conclusion Usually, people regret thei
The strengths and weaknesses of the statement that the firm performance is fundamentally determined by industry-specific attributes in light of the business-level model of global competitive dynamics When an organization follows the business-level model it usually focuses on the development of the company in the context of a single market with paying much attention to the positions of the competitors. Thus, the peculiarities of using the business-level model depend on creating the conditions of the rivalry between the competitors in the industry (Peng). That is why to get the leading positions in the market, it is necessary for the company to focus on determining the advantages of its product in order to accentuate them while presenting the product or service to the customer. The orientation on the customer and his needs is one of the most significant peculiarities of this strategy. The success within customers emphasizes the higher positions within the industry. The quite narrow perspective for the competition and realizing the company’s potential requires focusing on the details of the industry’s development and on the product’s features (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson). According to this point of view, industry-specific attributes plays the decisive role in determining the strategy for the company’s progress and the effective competition within the industry. The phenomenon of global competitive dynamics accentuates the necessity of concentration on providing the difference between the company and its competitors’ positions within the industry market which will help to reveal the advantages of the product or service (Hitt, Irel
The automotive industry produces and sells motor vehicles, which are goods. It is one of the highest revenue generating industries in the world. Approximately 80.1 million cars were produced in 2011. The major industry players are Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan and Honda. (OICA, 2012) Company background Audi is an automobile manufacturer based in Germany; it manufactures a wide range of vehicles. Volkswagen AG as a subsidiary owns Audi as a brand. The four rings in the Audis symbol represent the 1932 amalgamation of the four brands that formed the Auto-union AG. The four brands were The Saxon brands of Audi and Horch from Zwickau, Wanderer from Chemnitz and DKW from Zschopau (Audi, 2012). Toyota Motor Corporation is the manufacturer of Toyota Land cruiser S.U.V. Toyota has its headquarters in Toyota city, Aichi, Japan. Toyota deals in the automotive, robotics and financial services industries. It is the largest automaker in the industry. Toyota was founded in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda, and has grown on since the production of AA Sedan in 1936 to become the largest car manufacture in the world (Toyota, 2012). Product overview The sports utility vehicles are vehicles build on light truck chassis and are accompanied by a four-wheel drive for on and off road use. Toyota land cruiser is a vehicle designed to meet off road needs and urban roads. It is also luxurious vehicles. This is evident as, it has a V8 engine, which enables it to have off-road capabilities. In addition, it is luxurious and can carry up to eight passengers. It has a $77,955 price tag (Toyota, 2012). Audi S.U.V A6 all road is a vehicle that is luxurious, and gives an off-road experience too, it is cheaper compared to the Toyota land cruiser S.U.V. Is offers more fuel economy as compared to the land cruiser as it has a $70,000 price tag (Audi, 2012) Strategic marketing Strategic marketing is the use of a company’s strategic plans to market its products. It entails the company to identifying areas where a firm has a sustainable competitive edge over the other firms in the market and it use them as their marketing strategy. (Procto, 2000) Macro environmental forces These environmental forces are outside the organization. They affect industries as wells as individual organizations. The organization has little or no control over these forces. They include the following among others: politics, economics, social cultural factors, technology, Environment and the legal frameworks (Pride & Farrell 2012). Micro environmental forces Microenvironment is the organizational environment. It comprises of the internalities of the organization that is the forces the organization has some control over. They include among others, employees, Trade unions, local community, suppliers and customers (Pride & Farrell 2012). SWOT analysis SWOT analys
During my course in criminalistics and criminal justice, I have learned many things about what the American criminal justice system is and how jails work. The conclusion I came to is that American prisons are very expensive, very inefficient, and very dehumanizing towards inmates. From facilities that were supposed to help reintegrate the convicts back as reformed members of the society, they became punishment facilities. The number of inmates grew ten times when compared to the 1970s, which was before the alleged “War on Drugs.” The sentences are long, and a great percentage of convicts return to a life of crime due to being hardened and conditioned by living alongside actual criminals, forced to assimilate their habits to survive their prison sentence. In other words, the impression I was given from the first semester of the class was that the current system of imprisonment and incarceration is doing more harm than good. This is especially true for the juvenile system, where young children are tried as adults and serve a sentence with adults, only to leave the facility to be thrown back into the real world, which does not want them back, thus setting a perpetual cycle of crime. Given that, the initiative of the Arizona Juvenile correction facility, called the Adobe Mountain School, is an admirable one. As is evidenced by the documentary, many children have had problems and abuse in their family, which lead them on a path of crime. The purpose of the facility is to allow the children and juveniles to finish their education and be able to continue their lives once let out of incarceration. The regimen in the facility is not as strict as it would be in a prison colony, and the staff for the school contains not only guards but also teachers, psychologists, and various medical personnel who treat various psychological disorders that come around as the result of abuse suffered in the past. Not all “stud
Basic ways of communication involve either oral pronunciation or the written form, of which oral communication, or passing information through word of mouth, is the older. Different cultures separated by time and space developed differing verbal codes to refer to the various items and issues they perceived as important to them. One basic characteristic of oral communication is that, since there is no evidence or proof that the conversation ever took place, it relies on the memory of each of the people involved. It is constructed through the production of sounds, unlike in writing where the communication is silent. Writing is seen as more static compared to speaking because, in the process of speaking, there can be numerous changes made to the message. Effective speakers are those who have the ability to employ dynamism during communication but more importantly do not go beyond certain limitations (Ferraro & Palmer, par. 3). Through speaking, one is able to engage the audience psychologically and apply other non-verbal forms of communication, unlike written communication where one is limited to a large extent by the use of words to define the tone of the message. Alphabets as known today were first introduced in the Greek civilization. At that time, only oral communication existed. People had to memorize all the elements of culture and keep repeating them as a way of passing them on to the following generations. A thriving tradition of poetry was used as the medium for passing on information in a condensed and universally agreed-upon code. Information about history, entertainment, education, and trade was embedded in the oral form of communication. As such, the situation demanded a very strong memory from all participants. This oral tradition posed a great challenge to the various disciplines which were operational in early times. In legal circles, the process of keeping an account of all the information and evidence relating to a case was almost impossible. As such, judgments were based on the ability of the powerful to exercise oratory skills and to remember and repeat events and words from the past to decide the present procedure as well as plan for the future. Trade and commerce probably faced the greatest challenge under this system. Since everything had to be done and agre
Introduction International mergers and acquisitions entail mergers and acquisitions at the international level involving different countries across the globe. They are also known as global mergers and acquisitions or cross-border mergers and acquisitions. These types of mergers and acquisitions are becoming a common feature at the global scene especially due to globalization, extensive international financial reforms, innovation and development in the information technology industry, and other developments that are opening up in the global markets. In 1999, more than $3.4 trillion was spent on mergers and acquisitions worldwide. In the financial industry, Travelers’ Group and Citicorp formed a merger, which was priced at $ 35 billion, and the one between NationsBank and Bank of America, priced at $62 billion. In the telecommunications industry, Vodafone Airtouch plc and Mannesmann AG merged at $ 140 billion and in 2003, Olivetti SpA merged with Telcom Italia SpA at $35 billion; in addition, there have been mergers and acquisitions in the food manufacturing and distribution industry, defense industry, airlines, and pharmaceutical companies among others (Hamner 2002, p. 386). Mergers and acquisitions occur when a certain strategic interest is recognized at a particular market and the related firms seize the opportunity to join and become one. In the process, they are likely to profit in terms of economies of scale as well as obtain market dominance. However, this could have negative effects on the consumer population as the attaining of a dominant position means that the possibility of being a monopoly is real and with that possibility attaches several risks including anticompetitive practices such as restricting output, setting high barriers to entry, and high pricing of goods and services at the expense and detriment of consumers. Therefore, the competition law seeks to redress and prevent these economic malpractices to ensure fairness and protect consumers from exploitation that comes with monopoly. The major causes for mergers and acquisitions include:  1. Tariff drops-in the past two decades alone, tariffs have dropped
Considerations in Makin”g Successful Benchmarks in Companies Various lessons can be learned from the implementation of the sustainability scorecard at Amanco. These lessons relate to the global business climate and the implementations in multi-cultural areas. This paper looks into the case of Amanco and points out some of the lessons that can be learned. Lack of Involvement of all stakeholders in decision making Globally operating companies need to involve the stakeholders before they engage in any decisions that will affect them. The formulation of the ‘Triple Bottom Line’ scorecard in Amanco was done at the corporate level, but the stakeholders are not shown to have been involved in any part of the formulation (Kaplan & De Pinho, 2008, p.5). This later leads to a situation where the other managers did not have a sense of tenure in the scorecard leading to its change later. After the introduction of the sustainability scorecard in Amanco, a lot of positive changes were observed in the company. This was due to the involvement of all the stakeholders in decision making from the customers, subordinate workers to the senior management