ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Propaganda is frequently used by politicians and in the media to influence our attitudes and perceptions on key issues (Orwell1). Propaganda is commonly used to temporarily distract our attention from the real issues at hand (Kemerling 8). For example, Joseph Goebbels (a former Germany minister for propaganda in the Nazi regime) once stated that it would have been impossible to use propaganda against the masses if they knew how to differentiate between rational arguments from propaganda. This in effect means that politicians usually employ propaganda against an unsuspecting audience. People are easily swayed because they are unable to make out propaganda when they see it (Cross1). This paper will discuss deceptive strategies used to sway the perception and mindsets of the masses on critical issues. Name-calling is one of the deceptions used by propagandist to sway our mindset about a particular issue or person without considering the significance of the person or the issue at hand. For instance, a politician vying for political office may describe his/her opponents as “two-faced liars” or “foolish idealists” (Cross 2). Politicians employ name-calling in order to prevent the targeted audience to think rationally but rather accept his/her propaganda categorically and blindly. Glittering generalities is also a deceptive tactic used in language. Examples of glittering generalities include “our constitutional rights,” the American way” or “justice” (Cross 3). Many people are unaware of the adverse effects of glittering generalities on their way of thinking and end up agreeing to everything they hear. It is worthy to mention that glittering generalities are employed by politicians seeking elective positions in the government to provoke emotions of the masses and obscure their ways of thinking (Cross 3). Another common manipulative strategy used in language is known as Plain Folk appeal. This strategy is also commonly used by people seeking elective posts in order to gain political mileage from the masses. Politicians use this strategy when they depict themselves as ordinary plain folks. For instance, a politician soliciting votes from industrial workers may visit a factory and move around shaking hands with employees. The plain folks appeal is obviously a deceptive strategy. Although the politician may claim to be just an ordinary folk, he/she may not be interested in addressing the various problems facing the electorate once he/she is elected (Cross 4). Argumentum ad populum is also another manipulative strategy used in language. It is a common strategy used by politicians as well as in media adverts. Politicians usually employ Argumentum populum when they dwell on issues that appeal to the targeted population. For instance, a politician may tell university or college students that the future of the country is in their hands or tell cultivators that they constitute “the backbone of the economy” (Cross 5). The main intention here is to sway the targeted group from making critical analyses about the politician and what he/she stands for. The wellbeing of the masses is thus an irrelevant issue in this con
Introduction The Valve Corporation is a video game developer and a digital distributor. A number of computer games created by this enterprise, such as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Portal, are some of the most popular video games in the world. The Valve L.L.C. was created in 1996 in Kirkland, WA, by two former Microsoft employees, Mike Harrington and Gabe Newell. In 2003, it moved to Bellevue, WA, and was incorporated; the name of the organisation was changed to Valve Corporation. Since its inception, the company managed to become one of the most well-known video game developers and earn tremendous revenues while retaining relatively small size; it is a medium business, consisting of only a few hundreds of employees. Further, the company became known for the creation of its digital platform for gaming called Steam; today it unites thousands of users from all around the world and a huge catalog of games. These days, Valve’s leaders are focused on a set of new objectives concerning the expansion and development of their business. To be more precise, the company is looking to expand to the new niches of the gaming industry and add the gaming hardware and the supportive software to their line of products. These additions could help Valve strengthen their existing market presence and increase their revenues. How was Valve able to achieve such success? An attempt to answer this question is made below. The Challenge The company, as was stressed, was started in 1996. Its first major game was released in 1998, which provided the enterprise with the recognition of the gaming public, as well as with large quantity of sales. However, it is stated that the organisation was still just one of the companies that produce video games, and it was needed to find a business model which would allow it to be different from its rivals and gain a sustainable competitive advantage. In addition, it was necessary for the company to address the problem of digital piracy, which posed a considerable threat to the profitability of the business. There was also another issue. For any company, the organisation of the working process is of paramount importance if it is to be efficacious. While it is considered an obvious truth that an enterprise needs to have a hierarchical structure of leaders and subordinates in order to operate effectively, the creators of Valve decided to utilise a different way to organise the working process of its employees. As for the organization of the working process, the members of the Valve enterprise disliked the idea of the traditional hierarchy in the company. Thus, it was decided to build a company in which there would be no traditional hierarchy. This turned out to be a highly effective solution for Valve. Instead of establishing a more traditional top-down system of management, supervision, and responsibility, the leaders of Valve
Introduction Society encourages people to work hard and maintain good moral values. It also emphasizes on respect as well as sharing of resources. American History has undergone through various turmoil, with periods of slavery and conflict covering most of its past. However, the past two centuries have seen a significant break from internal conflict. They have increasingly united for a common purpose. They have also moved to achieve the American dream. Nonetheless, apart from working for the same purpose, American society has pending issues that seem to remind them of the past. This may not be official, but is witnessed in the pathetic lives of low-class workers. These people toil to earn meager wages that are less than their monthly expenses and needs. In fact, as Ehrenreich puts it, they survive in “unlivable” conditions, which are not quite different from slavery. It is common knowledge that values of a society require fairness and presentation of opportunities to all members. This may be the case in middle to upper income groups but not with low-income workers. In essence, as much as history shaped America, it keeps the low-income group at bay. This paper will explore Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, On (Not) Getting By in America and relate it to society and History (Ehrenreich 42). Nickel and Dimed, On (Not) Getting By in America This is a story by Barbara Ehrenreich on how she tries to relate expenses to earnings for a minimum wage worker. Ehrenreich explores how Americans that earn low wages survive in a country where they form the largest sector. To ensure that her writings are non-factious and provide the best-case scenario, Ehrenreich decides to try this by herself. She does this in an effort to present the plight of most workers throughout United States. In fact, according to her, these conditions are unlivable and can be referred to as another form of slavery (although not official). Throughout her story, Ehrenreich poses a hypothetical question regarding survival concerns that face many Americans working on minimum wages. These include expenses that permanently exceed their income, and wants that cannot be met. Ultimately, the desire to live a better life knocks on them every day. In this regards she takes the unusual role of an undercover, in trying to make ends meet through low-class earnings. In addition, she does it in three different states. Ehrenreich decided to do an inside report after her lunch with Lewis Lapham. In her assignment, Ehrenreich hopes to survive on a minimum wage job for one month, which includes paying for her rent and transport. In essence, she tries to find out if minimum wages can match expenses at the end of the month. This proves unsuccessful in all her three attempts. At first, the people around her try to discourage the option of actually moving to the level
Introduction Translating various products into different languages is an essential part of the modern entertainment industry. A significant part of the transcription process is a proper understanding of slang words’ specifics and their correct implementation (Bannon, 2010). Even though applying emotional language can be difficult, it is still a vital part of any movie or TV production. In this essay, the main issues and features of translating slang and swear words will be discussed, and relevant examples from films and modern entertainment products will be presented. Issues behind Slang and Swearing Correctly translating emotionally and culturally charged words may be difficult due to various reasons. Firstly, every entertainment unit transcribed should be adapted to the period that it will be viewed in, regardless of the historical era pictured (Bannon, 2010). However, this statement does not apply to slang words, as their usage is more complicated. Transcribing the terminology of an older period to a contemporary one would be entirely incorrect (Bannon, 2010). When managing slang, it is essential to keep the idioms pertaining to the time period in the film, as well as apply the wordings that will be understood by the audience (Gambier, 2003). Altogether, utilizing proper colloquial terms can be a demanding task, especially when a time difference is present. As a locally-based terminology, slang can often be a particularly challenging task for translators. In most cases, such idioms develop due to various cultural features, thus being understandable only by this community’s representatives (Cintas and Remael, 2014). Capturing the precise meaning of the phrases and transferring that meaning within the confined space available is a pertinent issue. Cintas and Remael (2014) stated that in this situation, it is essential not to resort to slang words and other possible jargon that exist in the transcriber’s language. Such a solution might shift the dynamics of the whole narrative to a strikingly different perspective, distorting the movie’s meaning (Cintas and Remael, 2014). Overall, considering the distinctions between the languages’ common idioms is imperative. Features of Jargon and Expletive Language Including swearwords into subtitles might sometimes require careful decision-making. As emotionally charged and mostly inappropriate expressions, they might often be excluded from the translation, changing the general flow (Cintas and Remael, 2014). Even though
Omar Sabbagh provides a more positive view of the people and poet. The title of the poem, Vital , describe the differences and the agreements or love existing between a father and the author. The author depicts the need for proper parental treatment desired by the child. The palm tree metaphorically describes the author. The first stanza illustrates the subject under discussion. The mother is depicted using the characteristics of the palm tree. The mother has qualities that ensure the identification of solutions to overcome family challenges. The main theme in the poem explains the nature of family relationships. The mother and son experience various aspects, ranging from love and hatred. Rising and falling in the poem illustrates the daily activities that mothers and son experience in the family environment; for example work. The fourth stanza illustrates the desire for a favorable family relationship. The last stanza depicts that solutions for problems existing in the society are, usually, found (Wallace 57). The poem, in this paper, is criticized according to several issues. The poem integrates various issues; for example, the family relationship between a mother and a son. A distinctive approach is used to illustrate the intelligent pieces of love passion or family relationships; for example, the challenges that mothers experience when caring for the family. Imagery in the poem in certain cases is very obscure; however, the passion illustrated communicates the meaning of the theme effectively. The author expresses several themes in the poem; this creates confusion of the audience. Relationship theme is applied to show behavior of mother and son. Violence theme is also used to explain the hardships of challenges that both the mother and son experience. Works Cited Wallace, Robert. Writing Poems . Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 2002. Print.
Introduction Monsanto Corporation is an agricultural firm that dedicates itself to the biotech production of herbicide and GMO (Genetically Modified) products. The company produces readily dilapidated seeds and roundup herbicides with modified heredity. The company aspires to reveal seeds that endure the appliance of herbicides and resist insects by inserting inherited genes in order to alter traits. However, the influence and power of Monsanto affects the United States and the world’s structural systems including agriculture, regulatory processes, political campaigns, as well as the industry that oversees all agricultural productions. For instance in the U.S only, a vast percentage of Monsanto genetically modified corns and soybeans seeds were sown in the fiscal 2009. Actually, in the fiscal 2011 Monsanto remained the world’s prevalent seed corporation that applies biotechnology. It has more than 1500 patents in agricultural appliances, plants, and kernels besides leading in the agricultural patent-holding business (Irwin and Michael 5). The outlook of agriculture has drastically changed ranging from the GMO foodstuffs consumed, herbicides, and pesticides to the other products accruing from Monsanto. In fact, Monsanto is dominant in marketplace yet several personalities disagree that the company is a life science purveyor. Nonetheless, Monsanto supposedly craves to manufacture improved animal feeds along with high-quality food for human consumption. The firm struggles to develop a good reputation to the public given that it came about as a contentious and hazardous chemical outlet. According to Fortunes magazine, Monsanto is the uppermost feared institution in the U.S since it urbanized to be a huge and influential life science and agricultural corporation from merely an undersized chemical outlet. The firm creates its ambiguities owing to the close rapport it shares with the administration of the United States. In order to validate the company’s contemporary inventions, Monsanto finances public institutions in academic explorations (Vadi and Vissak 81). Several developing nations embrace the unrelenting Monsanto strategy that has gained excess power in the worldwide arena. Historically, a drug industry wholesaler (Francis John) in an elfin chemical outlet initiated Monsanto in the fiscal 1901. Monsanto became the Coca-Cola input supplier with its initial products that included Sugar substitute and saccharine. These
Introduction Sentiment Analysis (SA) is among the fields of Natural Language Processing (NLP). It is an intellectual process for a user to extricate their feelings and emotions (Devika et al., 2016). SA uses computational linguistics to identify, extract, quantify, and study affective forms and subjective information. This technique is applied widely to material such as survey responses, reviews, social media, and other online communications, healthcare material, and applications ranging from marketing, customer service, and clinical medicine. In SA, data from a particular database or a data source is analyzed, and the message is classified as either negative, neutral, or positive, depending on the scale used. Moreover, SA can be used to analyze the whole document, its sentence, or aspect. Emotional detection further can help identify specific emotions of the text (sadness, happiness, etc.) (Sunil & Sunita, 2020). The data extracted from the text is thus categorized to produce a general emotional and semantic assessment of the text message. SA can be a part of the analysis of various forms of social media communication, including video and audio information. Such multimodal analysis requires transcripts of spoken language and the study of textual data along with visual frames (Akhtar et al., 2019). Thus, SA has long been a key aspect of NLP, en
What Makes a Public Speech Good Speaking in public often makes people anxious, and it does so for a good reason – getting a message across to a range of people without being misinterpreted is a challenging task. However, by using the techniques that help grasp people’s attention and introducing a product or an idea in an inspiring and intriguing manner is bound to help make the speech successful. The 2007 speech made by late Steve Jobs is a stellar example of how to capture the audience’s attention and introduce not only a product but an innovative idea so that it could remain impressively huge even a decade later (Lucas, 2008b). In retrospect, clever use of rhetoric and the nonverbal elements of communication was what made Jobs’ speech so memorable. While one must give credit to the groundbreaking ideas that the innovator introduced to the audience, the delivery of the information also played a significant part in the success of the performance. Moreover, the sincerity of the speech and the lack of artificial elements contributed to the overall positive impression and made Jobs’ ideas stand out. Gesture: Opening to Others When considering the way in which Jobs used non-verbal elements of communication to render a specific idea or concept, one must give him credit for using “natural and spontaneous” (Lucas, 2008a, p. 257) gestures that created the impression of honesty and, therefore, made the audience trust the speaker. One might argue that, at some point, Jobs folded his hands on his chest, therefore, creating the impression that is typically viewed as uninviting. Indeed, the gesture of hands folded on one’s chest has been viewed as hostile and unwelcoming, especially when trying to reach out to the viewers and appeal to them emotionally. However, further studies have shown that the identified idea is a myth that has nothing to do with reality. In fact, the realm of nonverbal communication used to have a plethora of theories that would, later on, prove to be completely detached from reality: “Over the years, more nonsense has been written about gesturing than any other aspect of speech delivery” (Lucas, 2008a, p. 257). Therefore, the fact that, at some point in his speech, Jobs folds his hands on his chest is not to be viewed as the factor that would make the audience feel alienated, and nor should he placed his hands behind his back be considered a positive communication technique. Instead, the amount of gesturing and the appropriateness thereof needs to be analyzed. Although Jobs did use gestures quite a lot in his performance, the movement of his hands was always appropriate as it served a specific purpose. When he wanted to emphasize a particular aspect of the presentation, he would lift his hands or wave them slightly to mark that the on-coming piece of information is crucial to understanding his idea better. Therefore, he created the impression of a confident speaker who knows what he is talking about; as a result, the overall delivery of the speech could be viewed as of rather high quality. The gestures
Introduction Dogs are commonly known as “man’s best friends” due to their close relationships with humans. Numerous stories exist that tell of their devotion to people and to other animals that have led to self-sacrificial acts of loyalty that cannot be justified through the framework of common animal instincts such as self-preservation. While some of these behaviors may have evolved through the long history of human and dog coexistence, the basis should be within the traits usually displayed by canines. Prehistoric wolves and other animals should have exhibited characteristics that led them to begin coexisting with humanity and help each other. This essay investigates the admirable loyalty of dogs and their roots. Main body Humans have independently domesticated dogs in various parts of the world. According to “Why Dogs Are Loyal,” the animal is present in the mythologies and religions of numerous ancient cultures, such as Greece, Egypt, and Mexico. Various canine breeds are used and trusted in various manners of situations, including medical, hunting, and military applications. Dogs are willing to brave dangers, exhibit large amounts of effort, and take risks for the sake of their owners and other humans or animals. That trait makes them excellent companions, often indispensable for moral or physical support, and humans have recognized the fact and responded accordingly. Some part of the affection that dogs display stems from the time they have spent alongside humanity. According to Tronier, the relationship has existed for up to 30,000 years, and specific behaviors have evolved on the part of both dogs and humans. The most notable example is training, as humans have developed a practical set of commands and a training regimen that teaches the dog to follow the orders through positive reinforcement. Dogs, for their part, have learned to respond to these methods and generally become highly trainable animals. Ultimately, however, their loyalty stems from the natural traits they share with other canines, although with specific differences that made dogs a better target for domestication than other animals. Much of the highly social and loyal nature of dogs comes from their natural traits and mentality. According to Millan, dogs, like other canines, are pack animals, and their affection and devotion stems from recognition of people or other animals as members of the group. The candidates are not limited to humans and other dogs, and animals such as cats have been known to be under the protection of dogs. The animals naturally seek to establish relationships and bonds, and the behavior extends to similar species, such as wolves. While only dogs have become such close companions to people, canines as a whole display admirable devotion to those close to them. Conclusion Dogs are man’s clos