Maker Faire 2011

Maker Faire 2011 On Friday I flew out to California to visit my friend Greg. Greg is one of my hometown crew from back in NH, but he now lives out in the bay area, where he works at a pretty awesome solar energy startup called Cool Earth Solar. Ive been out to Palo Alto / San Mateo in the past, but never had the opportunity to visit Greg, so this past weekend was my opportunity to do so. Greg is one of the most talented makers Ive ever met. He used to build terrific things back in high school incredibly elegant trebuchets, a handmade wooden kayak, little robotic wooden men. He continued this in college while pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. Greg, like our own Chris M and Snively, is someone who is really fantastically creative, and whose creative energies often erupt into the physical world in the form of awesome things. Even though Im not myself an engineer, I always love being around people who love to create. So you can imagine my delight when a few weeks ago Greg called excitedly to tell me that my visit which I had planned a long time ago coincided with Maker Faire 2011. Maker Faire is run by Make Magazine, and its basically an enormous fair / convention / carnival / celebration of creativity. Thousands of people come to see hundreds of booths, exhibits, demonstrations, and installations. There are big companies like GE and Google showing off their solar carousels or Android arduino robots; there are random inventors showing off their steampunk bicycles or home-fired ceramics. So Greg and I went to Maker Faire, along with another friend from back home Eric, who is the lead developer at WePay. And here are just a few pictures / videos we took of all the awesome stuff at Maker Faire: At the entrance LEGO had this JEEPmade of LEGOS And, nearby, a seesaw water-pump was running: Then, while we were walking around, we were almost run over by the firebug bicycle menace: As we dashed away from the firebug, some cupcake cars rolled by: And we ran into the waiting arms of an enormous, people-powered death bird: Nearby, a man in a lab coat was melting blocks of solid iron with thermite: Lots of folks at Maker Faire love bicycles. There were handmade cruiser bikes: Elaborate solar bikes which went 35 MPH (much to the delight of the tiny boy who was recruiting rides): And rock concerts powered by bikes and guitar shovels: Speaking of guitars, there were some folks there who had made a bunch of their own designs and then milled them out of wood, and who were open sourcing their designs to get feedback from the web. Greg snapped a picture of me playing some As Tall As Lions on one: Also inside the main expo hall were some star wars fans: An Android/arduino hug robot: An animatronic, life-size giraffe: And, closing out the show, Arc Attack: There were also terrific talks, including an amazing, mind-blowing one by MIT Professor Neil Gershenfeld. I was told that they will be up in the next few days on Fora.TV, and you should make sure to go watch his. Maker Faire was freakin awesome. Im deeply jealous of those in the bay area who dont have to fly across the country to see it. That said, theres one in New York in September, and I think Greg is going to come join me for the east coast version. Making things owns!!

The History of Income Tax in the U.S.

Every year, people in the United States frantically race to get their taxes done by mid-April. While shuffling papers, filling out forms, and calculating numbers, have you ever stopped to wonder where and how the concept of income taxes originated? The idea of a personal income tax is a modern invention, with the first, permanent U.S. income tax law in October 1913. However, the general concept of taxation is an age-old idea that has long shaped history. Ancient Times The first, known, written record of taxes dates back to ancient Egypt. At that time, taxes were not given in the form of money, but rather as items such as grain, livestock, or oils. Taxes were such an important part of ancient Egyptian life that many of the surviving hieroglyphic tablets are about taxes. Although many of these tablets are records of how much people paid, some describe people complaining about their high taxes. And no wonder people complained! The taxes were often so high, that at least on one surviving hieroglyphic tablet, tax collectors are depicted punishing peasants for not having paid their taxes on time. Egyptians were not the only ancient people to hate tax collectors. Ancient Sumerians had a proverb, You can have a lord, you can have a king, but the man to fear is the tax collector! Resistance to Taxation Nearly as old as the history of taxes - and the hatred of tax collectors - is resistance to unfair taxes. For instance, when Queen Boadicea of the British Isles decided to defy the Romans in 60 CE, it was in large part because of the brutal taxation policy placed upon her people. The Romans, in an attempt to subdue Queen Boadicea, publicly flogged the queen and raped her two daughters. To the great surprise of the Romans, Queen Boadicea was anything but subdued by this treatment. She retaliated by leading her people in an all-out, bloody revolt, eventually killing approximately 70,000 Romans. A much less gory example of resistance to taxes is the story of Lady Godiva. Although many may remember that in the legend, Lady Godiva of the 11th century rode through the town of Coventry naked, most probably do not remember that she did so to protest her husbands harsh taxes on the people. Perhaps the most famous historical incident that relates to the resistance to taxes was the Boston Tea Party in Colonial America. In 1773, a group of colonists, dressed as Native Americans, boarded three English ships moored in Boston Harbor. These colonists then spent hours smashing the ships cargo, wooden chests filled with tea and then throwing the damaged boxes over the side of the ships. American colonists had been heavily taxed for over a decade with such legislation from Great Britain as the Stamp Act of 1765 (which added taxes to newspapers, permits, playing cards, and legal documents) and the Townsend Act of 1767 (which added taxes to paper, paint, and tea). The colonists threw the tea over the side of the ships to protest what they saw as the very unfair practice of taxation without representation. Taxation, one might argue, was one of the major injustices that led directly to the American War for Independence. Thus, the leaders of the newly created United States had to be very careful as to how and exactly what they taxed. Alexander Hamilton, the new U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, needed to find a way to collect money to lower the national debt, created by the American Revolution. In 1791, Hamilton, balancing the need of the federal government to collect money and the sensitivity of the American people, decided to create a sin tax, a tax placed on an item society feels is a vice. The item chosen for the tax was distilled spirits. Unfortunately, the tax was seen as unfair by those on the frontier who distilled more alcohol, especially whiskey, than their eastern counterparts. Along the frontier, isolated protests eventually led to an armed revolt, known as the Whiskey Rebellion. Revenue for War Alexander Hamilton was not the first man in history with the dilemma of how to raise money to pay for a war. The need for a government to be able to pay for troops and supplies in wartime had been a major reason for ancient Egyptians, Romans, medieval kings, and governments around the world to increase taxes or to create new ones. Although these governments had often been creative in their new taxes, the concept of an income tax had to wait for the modern era. Income taxes (requiring individuals to pay a percentage of their income to the government, often on a graduated scale) required the ability to retain extremely detailed records. Throughout most of history, keeping track of individual records would have been a logistical impossibility. Thus, the implementation of an income tax was not found until 1799 in Great Britain. The new tax, viewed as a temporary one, was needed to help the British raise money to fight the French forces led by Napoleon. The U.S. government faced a similar dilemma during the War of 1812. Based on the British model, the U.S. government considered raising money for the war through an income tax. However, the war ended before the income tax was officially enacted. The idea of creating an income tax resurfaced during the American Civil War. Again considered a temporary tax to raise money for a war, Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1861 which instituted an income tax. However, there were so many problems with the details of the income tax law that income taxes were not collected until the law was revised the following year in the Tax Act of 1862. In addition to adding taxes on feathers, gunpowder, billiard tables, and leather, the Tax Act of 1862 specified that the income tax would require those that earned up to $10,000 to pay the government three percent of their income while those that made over $10,000 would pay five percent. Also notable was the inclusion of a $600 standard deductible. The income tax law was amended several times over the next few years and eventually fully repealed in 1872. Beginnings of a Permanent Income Tax In the 1890s, the U.S. federal government was beginning to rethink its general taxation plan. Historically, most of its revenue had been from taxing imported and exported goods as well as taxes on the sale of specific products. Realizing that these taxes were increasingly bearing on only a select portion of the population, mostly the less affluent, the U.S. federal government began looking for a more even way to distribute the tax burden. Thinking that a  graduated-scale  income tax placed upon all citizens of the United States would be a fair way to collect taxes, the federal government attempted to enact a country-wide income tax in 1894. However, because at that time all federal taxes had to be based on state population, the income tax law was found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1895. To create a  permanent income tax, the Constitution of the United States needed to be changed. In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. This amendment eliminated the need to base federal taxes on state population by stating: The Congress shall have  the power  to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. In October of 1913, the same year the 16th Amendment was ratified, the federal government enacted its first permanent income tax law. Also in 1913, the  first Form 1040  was created. Today, the IRS collects more than $1.2 billion in taxes and processes more than 133 million returns annually.

Stress And Academic Achievement Between Blue Ribbon...

Stress and Perfectionism in Academic Achievement Between Blue Ribbon Schools vs. Non-blue Ribbon Schools Erin Altenberger Northern Kentucky University Abstract Stress and Perfectionism in Academic Achievement Between Blue Ribbon Schools vs. Non-blue Ribbon Schools Damian, Stoeber, Negru, and Baban (2014), describes perfectionism as endeavoring for flawlessness and setting extremely high standards for oneself. There is not just one type of perfectionism; there are in fact three different categories of perfectionism. The three categories included self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed perfectionism. Self-oriented perfectionism refers to an individual that sets and seeks high standards of performance for themselves (Chang, 2006). Chang (2006) describes other-oriented perfectionism as an individual that assumes that others should be perfect in their actions. Socially prescribed perfectionism refers to an individual that believes that those around them anticipate perfectionism from him or her (Chang, 2006). With what we know about perfectionism and the potential distress it may cause, one can consider that stress could be a com ponent with perfectionism. Pope (2005) portrays stress as the perceived shortcomings between demands and the accessibility of resources to meet those demands. Stress is a feeling that affects people of all ages. Stress impacts people in a large array of ways, which include emotionally, physically, and mentally (Rollin,Show MoreRelatedFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 PagesYOU KNOW?: Employment Branding 136 DIVERSITY ISSUES IN HRM: Job Advertisements and EEO 137 Recruiting Sources 137 The Internal Search 137 Employee Referrals and Recommendations 138 External Searches 139 Advertisements 139 Employment Agencies 140 Schools, Colleges, and Universities 142 Job Fairs 143 Professional Organizations 143 Unsolicited Applicants 143 Preemployment Testing 160 Performance Simulation Tests 160 Work Sampling 160 Assessment Centers 160 Testing in a Global Arena 160 DID YOURead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pages......................................................................................... 265 Genetic Fallacy.................................................................................................................................... 266 Non Sequitur....................................................................................................................................... 267 Review of Major Points ............................................................................Read MoreBrand Building Blocks96400 Words   |  386 Pagescomplexity, but also make it much harder to gain and hold a position. They leave fewer holes in the market to exploit and fewer implementation vehicles to own. Each brand tends to be positioned more narrowly, the target markets become smaller, and the non-target market becomes larger. Efforts to market to a broad segment thus become more difficult in the face of the complex ‘brandscape’ Further, some new or desperate competitors may be motivated to take risks or attempt unusual approaches. The result

Essay on The Impact of Cloud Computing Free Essays

Impact of Cloud Computing Technologies in small scale enterprises the strategic and technological benefits it derive out of it. Cloud computing has been a disruptive innovation in recent years and has taken the headlines to displace many of the established traditional computational methodologies in a short period of time. The utility model of computing which makes the information technology services similar to electricity and water has invoked the focus and attention of the researchers and practitioners. We will write a custom essay sample on Essay on The Impact of Cloud Computing or any similar topic only for you Order Now This article will investigate the technical aspects of cloud computing and the strategic and competitive advantage that it brings to a firm in startup and small/medium scale enterprise. Although many have criticized this techno-business model due to the concerns on security, privacy and governance, recent events prove that more entrants, including the existing corporate leaders in the industry, are getting into the cloud and making their presence felt to the end customers. Cloud computing has proved to be a disruptive innovation on its own in recent years, it is yet to clear the test of time of it being a sustaining technology. It is up to the scholars and practitioners to determine and put into test of time and make use of this technology in the growth of other disciplines. Introduction Cloud computing is the mode of executing the IT services in an elastic manner to the end users and providing a metered service at multiple granularities for a specified quality of service. Gartner defines cloud computing as â€Å"a style of computing where massively scalable IT-related capabilities are provided ‘as a service’ using Internet technologies to multiple external customers†. While Forrester says â€Å"Cloud computing is a new IT outsourcing model that doesn’t yet meet the criteria of enterprise IT and isn’t supported by most of the key corporate vendors. It’s wildly popular with startups, exactly fits the way small businesses like to buy things, and has the potential to completely upend IT as we know it.† From 1984 to 2008 the number of internet connected devices went from one thousand to one billion. Can the data deluge which the digital world is facing in this exponential time be effectively managed using cloudThe redundant data which resides on multiple devices might get consolidated and a single point of data source somewhere in cloud could be a solution (The Economist, 2009). On the one hand, cloud looks into exploiting existing technology; there is nothing new as it uses the established processes, concepts and approaches. On the other hand it is new because it has revolutionised the way we host and cater the service to the customer. The famous Gartner hype curve has been hailing Cloud Computing as the most hyped technology in their last two years projections. Disillusionment and frustration towards the technology has been increasing, especially with the theories on productivity paradox from Solow (1987). Disruptive Innovation is a term coined by Proffessor Clayton Christensen, and according to him it is â€Å"the process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves ‘up market’, eventually displacing established competitors.† A disruptive technology can come to dominate an existing market by either filling a role in a new market that the older technology could not fill (this is similar to the what the cheaper, lower capacity but smaller-sized flash memory is doing for personal data storage in the 2000s) or by successively moving up-market through performance improvements until finally displacing the market incumbents (as digital photography has largely replaced film photography) (Christensen 1997). In the following sections I will go through the potential strategic benefits that firms have derived out of cloud computing and later on the typical challenges and problems involved in the implementation. I will also cite the role of cloud computing technology in the emerging markets and start-ups especially in the small and medium scale enterprises in giving a competitive advantage over the traditional methods. Technologies used within Cloud computing The general classification of the cloud computing forms are IAAS (Infrastructure as a Service), PAAS(Platform as a Service), and SAAS(Software as a Service). ‘Cloud Infrastructure as a Service,’ which is also called Resource Clouds, provides the infrastructure resources as services to the end user. Virtualization of the server is the main technology used in this service by the providers. Cloud providers in this domain cater access to storage and data of various size and quality adhering to certain service level agreement. Examples: Amazon S3, SQL Azure ‘Cloud Platform as a Service’ (PAAS) provide computational resources via a platform upon which applications and services can be developed and hosted. PAAS makes use of application platform interfaces to control and manage the virtual server which would be allocated to the user. Examples: Force.com, Google App Engine, Windows Azure (Platform). (Clouds) Software as a Service (SAAS), also known as Service or Application Clouds offers the implementation of specific business functions and business processes which are provided with specific cloud capabilities, i.e. they provide applications/services using a cloud infrastructure or platform, rather than providing them with cloud features. These applications generally reside over other cloud technologies like IAAS and PAAS. Examples: Google Docs, Salesforce CRM, SAP Business by Design. National Institute of Standards and Technology, the authority towards getting technical guidance and promoting standards onto cloud computing, proposes four types of deployment methods. These are: Public cloud, Private cloud, Community Cloud and Hybrid cloud (NIST). Public clouds or external clouds are the traditional web based services given over internet and billed as per the usage and metered for the services consumed. These sorts of clouds are the favorite amongst the start-ups and small/medium scale enterprises since it require minimum investment in the infrastructure. Private clouds or internal clouds are designed and implemented internally to some organization with limited or no access to the external web. These clouds are supposed to be focused on data security, reliability and governance. Usually only the big corporations can afford to build and maintain such private clouds. The small/medium scale enterprises generally will not be able to bear the cost of technology and recourses to build them. Hybrid clouds, as the term describes, is made up of internal and external cloud components where in limited access to the external users are given while the data security and corporate governance features of private clouds are retained. According to Willcocks (2004) maintenance budget crosses 40% of the total IT budget and it is usually overlooked during the initial phases of the development of IT system. Since the maintenance and providing the regular backup of the data are wholly the responsibilities of the cloud provider, the client firms can focus on their core capabilities and business area. Cloud based applications can be considered to be centralised within organizational structure due to the consolidated servers and data, but it can also be viewed as a highly decentralised system because of its agility and flexibility on the location and usability (Mintzberg, 1983). The degree of collaboration has grown considerably among the developers and users with the advent of cloud applications which are mainly web based. The developers can deploy and configure the virtual infrastructure platforms for their applications with a few mouse clicks, which displays the transformation from encounter to a relationship through constant interaction. The idea of running the applications anywhere in the ‘cloud’ not knowing or care to know where they are is not a concern to the web application users since the concept of website does exactly the same. But the big difference is for the application developers and IT operations team. Since these processes have been simplified and more middle layers have been introduced, even they can develop, run applications and grow the capacity instantly without being concerned about the location underlying infrastructure. Impact of Cloud computing on the SMBs and Start ups Cloud computing has turned to be an enabler to the start-ups and small/medium scale enterprises. This new paradigm in information technology has helped entrepreneurs to set up the business and enterprises in a faster manner and grow quickly. The level of collaboration between the enterprises has also increased considerably when compared to the traditional methods. The level of transparency in the utilization of the information technology resources in the cloud computing paradigm is comparatively higher than other models. The ‘charge back’ and ‘show back’ concepts are effective in comparing the outputs to the resources consumed. From an end-user perspective, there are two main features which creates substantial impact on the cloud provider and user: Self provisioning and usage Metered and control over usage As mentioned above in IAAS and PAAS, users can plug and play with the resources as in the requirement arises and release the unwanted resources to be used by others when the demand goes down. At the same time users have the ability to monitor and meter the amount of resources consumed at point of time and plan for future based on the business outcomes. The idle time of the resources can be significantly reduced with this information being available to the user at a click away distance any time. I will be describing the competitive advantage that a small start up got by adopting cloud based technology and how they were able to grow to be the market leaders in short time. The collective buying market was very immature around one year back in theUKand new entrants were struggling to establish themselves in this competitive environment. Mycitydeal was competing with a bunch of new start ups and those who had already established in certain locations. The online presence of Mycitydeal was primarily the website, which used to advertise the daily deals that they get from their sales team and the online ecommerce portal which would take orders and subscriptions. The firm did not invest much on the infrastructure for setting up the servers, databases and related services. I had the opportunity to interview the Salesforce manager at the firm. Also numerous stories of competitive advantage derived due to the adoption of cloud based CRM are listed in Salesforce case study on startups (2010). The customer relationships were handled through Salesforce.com. Salesforce.com is a cloud based service provider which falls under the category of Software as a Service. The company had to pay only for the user’s licenses they purchased and used. Usually 40% of the software products purchased in the traditional companies are kept unused and termed as shelf-wares. The firm could be certain that they have not invested in any information technology product or services that they are not using at that moment of time, and thereby saving on the capital cost. The fluctuating users and customers were an obstacle for the management to tackle initially until they got their servers from Rackspace.com. The cloud service provider Rackspace.com caters servers to the customers and server space based on demand. This service falls under the cloud portfolio of Platform as a Service. Through this service provider, server space can be scaled to terabytes of data space within short period of time, which would have taken a big project to install and maintain such servers in the traditional way. The elasticity of these services is pivotal in the successful adoption within a firm. As the demand goes down during the off-peak season, servers can be cut down and freed back to the pool of the service provider. This gives more control over the operational expenditure of the clients. Procurement of the new hardware and computational power is no-longer the responsibility of the client; the metered services from the vendor would take care of them. All these cloud service providers give the ability to monitor the services we consume and, thereby, enable us to plan for the future projections. The statistics that can be derived out the usage patterns from the historical usage data is another added value from the cloud which the traditional method would cost extra. Business strategies can be derived out of these statistical reports which would directly reflect market response and acceptance of the product/service by the end user. All these features of the cloud services helped Mycitydeal to concentrate on their core capability of collective buying business knowledge. The whole of the IT infrastructure could be managed by an average information technology literate employee and did not have to recruit many technically skilled costly employees. From the vendor perspective, they need to reserve very few resources since they will be servicing multiple clients being catered from the same server database. These advantages paid off Mycitydeal eventually by growing into theUK’s leading collective buying firm, having a customer base of one million within six months of their launch. The quick reactive decision making capability which is given by cloud technology makes it unique unlike the traditional decision making methodologies which are of proactive nature While industry has been in all praise to this new technology paradigm, there have been criticisms from different corners on the data protection, security and performance predictability. Even though transparency is assured in every minute detail, cloud demands a considerable trust between the service providers and end users. While it has become obvious that the cloud computing technology is a disruptive innovation in nature, it has to pass the test of time to prove it is a sustaining technology. Discussions and Recommendations According to Nicholas Carr, IT has started to become less prominent and mattered less to the competitive edge. History reveals that IT needs to become ordinary:â€Å"[it] needs to lose its strategic importance as a differentiator among the companies so as to fulfill its potential† (Carr 2004). From the vendors perspective, cloud computing has proved to be disruptive in nature and a substitute for the own-hosted hardware infrastructure. This has posed a serious threat to the established firms who were market leaders in the traditional server business. These players are increasingly getting into cloud domain and have started to provide cloud services to the customers. The entry of Amazon, Rackspace, IBM, HP and the latest Oracle announcing its incoming into cloud domain depicts the relevance of cloud and the business opportunities it is offering to the service providers (CIO.com, 2009). IDC forecast for cloud related market is estimated to be $11 Billion by 2014 which shows the focus and resources the cloud service providers have invested. Conclusion The concept of application being run anywhere in the cloud and not concerned about the infrastructure is not new to many of the application developers and software engineers. But for the entrepreneurs, the cloud computing paradigm has given the same opportunity and capability so that they can concentrate on their core capabilities and use information technology as an enabler to achieve their business goal. It is time which will prove the sustainability of the cloud computing and related services. Also, it has been proved beyond debate that this disruptive innovation is capable of giving the startup and small/medium scale enterprises a competitive advantage in the business against the traditional methodologies. However, it is up to the researchers and practitioners to find and decide if cloud computing can be used as an innovate medium in other disciplines and practices. Reference Brynjolfsson, E., P. Hofmann, et al., (2010), â€Å"Cloud Computing and Electricity: Beyond the Utility Model,† Communications of the ACM, 53(5): 32-34. Carr, N. G., (2004), Does IT matter: information technology and the corrosion of competitive advantage,Boston, Harvard Business School Press. Christensen, C. M., (1997), The innovator’s dilemma : when new technologies cause great firms to fail,Boston,Mass., Harvard Business School Press. Bernard, Golden. (2009).Cloud Computing: What Clayton Christensen Can Teach Us http://www.cio.com/article/476362/Cloud_Computing_What_Clayton_Christensen_Can_Teach_Us Forrester, (2008), â€Å"Is Cloud Computing Ready For The Enterprise?† http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/is_cloud_computing_ready_for_enterprise/q/id/44229/t/2. Gartner,(2010), â€Å"Press Releases.† http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1389313. NIST (2010) http://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/cloud_060910.cfm Gartner (2009) Press Release: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=920712 Sales force case study on startups https://www.salesforce.com/au/smallbusinesscenter/?d=70130000000Fop0internal=true Willcocks, L. P., (2004), â€Å"Offshore, onshore: are you sure?† Information economics journal 1(3) How to cite Essay on The Impact of Cloud Computing, Essay examples

Black Supremacy Essay Research Paper Black SupremacyThroughout free essay sample

Black Supremacy Essay, Research Paper Black Supremacy Throughout history, white Anglo-Saxons have been ill-famed for maltreating all races other than it # 8217 ; s ain. Malcolm X felt # 8220 ; the white adult male had been really nil but a piratical self-seeker who used Faustian intrigues to do his ain Christianity his initial cuneus in condemnable conquerings # 8221 ; ( 563 ) . The Earth is burdened by the white adult male! That is the true significance of what Malcolm Ten is saying ; the words Faustian intrigues, intending evil plotting, implies the whole white population is out for the blood of other races. Many members of the black race are following the thought of Afrocentricity ; some call it black pride, I name it black domination. Afrocentricists are back uping their thoughts with faith and the demand for release. The release of the black adult male is needed! Molefi Asante describes # 8220 ; the Afrocentric consciousness [ as ] the entire committedness to African release anyplace any everyplace by a consistent determined attempt to mend any psychic, economic, physical, or cultural harm done to Africans # 8221 ; ( 50 ) . Liberation from what # 8230 ; the white race? Molefi # 8217 ; s statement is wholly farcical ; the first transcript of his book with this statement was printed in 1988, in my sentiment inkinesss were reasonably liberated in 1988. Now the 2nd portion of his statement, mend what harm? Any psychic harm which has been thrust upon the black race has non occurred for rather some clip: bondage # 8230 ; non in my life-time nor separate bathrooms were in my life-time. And I am non about to experience regretful about what happened before my clip. Economic harm is non the white adult male # 8217 ; s mistake either. In this twenty-four hours anyone can make whatever he/she likes. The truth to the economic affair is that many of the # 8220 ; oppressed # 8221 ; races feel they now deserve a free drive. Absolutely no physical harm has occurred in my life-time. Equally for as cultural harm, civilizations evolve, they do non acquire damaged. Clearly all release of the black adult male has already occurred, hence, there is cognize farther demand for reimbursement. The white race is evil! Further, the Afrocentric cause efforts to utilize faith to denounce the white race as pagans ; harmonizing the Yakub myth, # 8220 ; the coloring material black # 8230 ; is the cardinal coloring material ; other colorss, accordingly, are simply sunglassess of black, except for white, which is the absence of black, therefore the absence of flawlessness # 8221 ; ( Davies 151 ) . The statement declares the white race to be inferior ; why should any one race be inferior? Oh yeah, it # 8217 ; s to acquire back at the white race for all the old ages of adversity. The black race was called heathens for many old ages, and the black supremists merely believe what goes about comes about. However, the truth to the affair is that all races are every bit progressive as the following statement will demo. The Afrocentric faith goes on to province how the white race was formed, seemingly, a # 8220 ; black scientist named Yakub rebelled against Allah by bring forthing # 8230 ; a new animal with an surplus of bad ( white ) cistrons # 8230 ; These evil animals were alloted # 8230 ; six thousand old ages of regulation ( i.e. , until about the present twenty-four hours ) , after which # 8230 ; the laden inkinesss will be liberated from their bondage # 8221 ; ( Davies 51 ) . Note the usage of words in this transition: new animal, bad ( white ) cistrons, evil animal, and one time once more the reoccurring laden inkinesss will be liberated. All the words directs one # 8217 ; s attending to the thought that the white race is nil more than Satans rolling the Earth in hunt of it # 8217 ; s following quarry. The black supremists are doing the same statements that the early Whites made and are being reprimanded for. It seems this is a spot of a contradiction. Down with the white race! Feelingss towards the white race are made apparent when # 8220 ; Elijah [ Muhammad ] felt that immorality was built-in in the white race, and preached that the Whites could non assist themselves, # 8221 ; Molifi Asante adds # 8220 ; we know now, of class, that the status of immorality in Whites is non built-in, but inherited through history and environment # 8221 ; ( 15 ) . The quotation mark is qu ite harsh ; straight stating that the white race is evil # 8230 ; no, non moving immorality, is evil and will go on to remain this manner. These words imply the demand for obliteration because immorality is merely the Satan spelled without a # 8220 ; d # 8221 ; . One must stand against the Satan before anything drastic occurs beyond what has already happened, for case ; # 8220 ; an effusion of homosexualism among black work forces, fed by the prison genteelness system, threatens to falsify the relationship between friends # 8230 ; these homosexuals live in the pretend universe of white homosexuals # 8221 ; ( Asante 57 ) . The white race has already begun to pervert the black race, harmonizing to black supremists, with the debut of homosexualism, which is clearly a bad white wont. The word, # 8220 ; threatens # 8221 ; , leads one to the thought of defence against these evil, plotting, homosexual, Satans. Paraphrasing what was earlier said, the white race will discontinue to govern after six thousand old ages of regulation, puting all inkinesss free from the subjugation of the Satans ( Davies 51 ) . That clip is now and the black supremists want another holocaust, with the white race agony. The black supremists feel it is their bend to govern. Violence is the lone manner to halt the white race! During a address Malcolm X declared, # 8220 ; Twenty million ex-slaves must be for good separated from our former slavemaster and placed on some land we can name our ain. Then we can make our ain occupations. Control our ain economic system. Solve our ain jobs alternatively of waiting on the American white adult male to work out our jobs for us # 8221 ; ( Perry 68-69 ) . Clearly, in 1963, Malcolm X feels full segregation is in the best involvement of the black race. The quotation mark appears reasonably peaceable, nevertheless, two old ages subsequently, Malcolm X changes his head about peaceable action: # 8220 ; We # 8217 ; rhenium for peace. But the people that we # 8217 ; re up against are for force. You can # 8217 ; t be peaceable you # 8217 ; rhenium covering with them # 8221 ; ( Perry 159 ) . A non-peaceful attack to foster the black cause is being proposed by Malcolm Little ( his more appropriate birth name, seeing how a # 8220 ; small # 8221 ; adult male resorts to force ) . Eldridge Cleaver, leader of the Black Panther # 8217 ; s, excessively felt force is the best attack ; # 8220 ; I became a raper # 8230 ; It delighted me that I was withstanding and treading upon the white adult male # 8217 ; s jurisprudence, # 8230 ; that I was sullying his adult females # 8230 ; I was acquiring retaliation # 8221 ; ( 14 ) . This about says it, he was seting a notch in the caput board, winning one for the male childs. Eldridge Cleaver has, in my sentiment, nescient, barbarian radical thoughts. He merely wants retaliation for the fact he was in gaol. Cleaver reveals that # 8220 ; Rather than owing and paying a debt to society, Negro captives feel that they are being abused, that their imprisonment is merely another signifier of the subjugation which they have cognize all their lives # 8221 ; ( 58 ) . The Black Supremists want retaliation. Black supremists want nil less than for the black race to govern the universe. They shall utilize thoughts of faith to endorse up their claims upon the universe and name it the release of their people. But the truth of the affair is the tides are turning. How can it be called release? The white race had these thoughts 100 # 8217 ; s of old ages ago and the black supremists called it evil. Now they have the same evil thoughts and are naming it release. No, the human race will neer learn from history ; we will merely reiterate it. The chief inquiry is will their of all time be racial harmoniousness in the universe? I merely wear # 8217 ; T know. # 8220 ; We shall hold our manhood. We shall hold it or the Earth will be leveled by our efforts to derive it. # 8221 ; # 8211 ; Eldridge Cleaver Plants Cited Asante, Molefi. Afrocentricity. Capital of new jersey: Africa WP, 1992. Cleaver, Eldridge. Soul on Ice. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Davies, Alan. Infected Christian religion: A Study of Modern Racism. Montreal: Mcgill-Queen # 8217 ; s UP, 1988. Perry, Bruce, erectile dysfunction. Malcolm Ten: The Last Speeches. New York: Scout, 1989. Ten, Malcolm. # 8220 ; Learning to Read. # 8221 ; rpt. in Rereading America. erectile dysfunction. Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. Boston: Bedford Books, 1992.

The Struggle of Good vs. Evil in J.R.R. Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Essay Example

The Struggle of Good vs. Evil in J.R.R. Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Paper The Struggle of Good vs. Evil in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy J. R. R. Tolkien is one of the most influential fantasy writers of all time. He has been referred to as the â€Å"father† of modern fantasy literature. Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and a professor at Oxford University. He has written The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, the famous Lord of the Rings trilogy, and more. The Lord of the Rings has inspired literature, artwork, music, film, videogames, and television. In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Tolkien suggests that the ends do not justify the means. J. R. R. Tolkien was born on January 3rd 1892, the child of Arthur and Mabel Tolkien. Arthur Reuel Tolkien was 31 years old when he proposed to 18 year old Mabel Suffield. She gladly accepted, but her father was not too happy. He thought Mabel was too young to be married, so the wedding was put off for a few years. In 1891, the two finally got married. Mabel’s father was not pleased, he didn’t think the Tolkien family was good enough for the respectable Suffield family, but he gave the couple his blessing. Arthur’s banking business in England was not doing well, so he decided to move to the city Bloemfontein, South Africa because it would be more profitable. Mabel wasn’t too thrilled about the move. In a letter to her family she called Bloemfontein a Owlin Wilderness! Horrid Waste! (Doughan). They would end up staying there for a while. Arthur Tolkien wrote the following to his mother on January 4th, 1892: My dear Mother, I have good news for you this week. Mabel gave me a beautiful little son last night (3 January). It was rather before time, but the baby is strong and well and Mabel has come through wonderfully. We will write a custom essay sample on The Struggle of Good vs. Evil in J.R.R. Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings Trilogy specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Struggle of Good vs. Evil in J.R.R. Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings Trilogy specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Struggle of Good vs. Evil in J.R.R. Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings Trilogy specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The baby is (of course) lovely. It has beautiful hands and ears (very long fingers), very light hair, Tolkien eyes and very distinctly a Suffield mouth. In general effect immensely like a very fair edition of its Aunt Mabel Mitton. When we first reached Dr Stollreither yesterday he said it was a false alarm and told the nurse to go home for a fortnight but he was mistaken and I fetched him again about eight and then he stayed till 12. 40 when we had a whiskey to drink luck to the boy. The boys first name will be John after its grandfather, probably John Ronald Reuel altogether. Mab wants to call it Ronald and I want to keep up John and Reuel†¦ â€Å"J. R. R. Tolkien :: Biography† So, J. R. R. Tolkien was born on January 3rd. Even though his first name was John, nearly everyone called him Ronald. South Africa could be a challenging place for a young boy to grow up. When Ronald was very young, he was bitten by a tarantula. Later on, giant spiders appeared in his writings (Tolkien, J. R. R. Fun Facts and Information). Mabel still hated living in South Africa. The Tolkien family planned a trip to go back to England, but Ronald’s brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel was born, so they stayed in South Africa for a while. Once they planned to go back to England again, Arthur got ill and said he would meet the rest of the family when he got better. Around Christmas time, the Tolkiens heard that Arthur had contracted rheumatic fever and he would have to stay in South Africa even longer. On February 14th, 1896, Arthur suffered a severe hemorrhage, and died the next day. Mabel decided to move with the two boys to a cheap cottage in Sarehole, and home school them until they were old enough to attend King Edward‘s school. Tolkien learned how to read when he was 4 years old, and soon he learned to write very well. He loved learning languages. Since he loved anything having to do with words, his mother gave him loads of books to read. His favorites were Red Indian books, Arthurian legends, George MacDonalds Curdie books, and the Red Fairy Book. When Tolkien was young, the little money being sent from Mabel’s father stopped because the family switched to Roman Catholicism. Tolkien was accepted at King Edward’s when he was eight years old. Everything was going fine until Mabel was diagnosed with diabetes in 1904. By the summer, she was able to leave the hospital. Father Francis helped the family so they could stay at a clerical country retreat house. In November, Mabel collapsed into a diabetic coma, and died on the 14th. Ronald and Hilary were now orphans. Father Francis chose who the boys should live with. He had to make sure he chose carefully because most of their family were Protestant. Father Francis chose their aunt Beatrice Suffield to be their caretaker. She had no religious affiliation. While living with their aunt, Tolkien began to study more languages. Since he knew Greek and Latin, it gave him the opportunity to study Anglo-Saxon. He reads beowulf, which was one of his favorite stories. Tolkien really loved philology, the study of words. He began to make up his own languages with his cousins. The first language they made up was called â€Å"Nevbosh. † Tolkien wanted to make a language with â€Å"Greek-style† words. He borrowed a few of Father Francis’s Spanish books, and the next language he came up with was â€Å"Naffarin,† which was heavily influenced by Spanish. Tolkien decided to go even further, and create a whole new alphabet to create a new language called â€Å"private lang. † Father Francis thought that the boys were unhappy living with their aunt, so he sent them to live with another woman named Mrs. Faulkner. There was another border at the house that Father Francis was unaware of, a 19 year old girl named Edith Bratt. She was three years older than Tolkien, and they ended up falling in love. Once Father Francis heard about the two, he forbade Tolkien to see her. Tolkien wasn’t rebellious, and he also depended on Father Francis for financial support, so he agreed. During this time Tolkien was trying to get into Oxford University. He was distracted from working on his â€Å"private lang† and thinking about Edith, so he didn’t get in. In his diary, on January 1st, 1910, he wrote Depressed and as much in dark as ever. God help me. Feel weak and weary (qtd in Doughan). Shortly after, Tolkien and Edith decided to meet secretly. Father Francis heard about their meeting, and banned Tolkien from seeing her until he turned 21. Tolkien concentrated on his studies to get his mind off of Edith. In December he was ready to retake the Oxford scholarship exam. This time, he was accepted. During his first year of studies, Tolkien was very interested in Germanic literature and Comparative Philology. One of his professors thought he would be interested in the Welsh language, and recommended that he study it. On January 3rd, 1913, Tolkien finally turned 21. He was now free from the ban of seeing or talking to Edith. He wrote a letter to Edith on his birthday asking her to marry him. In her reply letter, Edith said she was already engaged to marry her friend’s brother. Tolkien met Edith at a train station and convinced her to break off the engagement and marry him instead. She said the only reason she was going to marry the other guy was because she knew no other eligible young men except Tolkien, whom she thought didn’t love her anymore. Tolkien told Father Francis about their engagement, and he gave the couple his blessing. Edith converted from the Church of England to Roman Catholicism for Tolkien. It was now 1914, and World War 1 was starting. Tolkien wasn’t too thrilled about going to war, but a few close friends were enlisted, and he heard it might be possible for them to be in the same regiment, or even the same battalion. So Tolkien enlisted, and attended army drills. In 1915, he passed his final exams. After getting his degree, he had to take up duties of being second lieutenant. He wasn’t with his friends as he hoped, and everyday was depressing. He ended up being appointed battalion signaling officer. Before the battalion went off to France, Edith and Tolkien got married on March 22nd, 1916. They went on their honeymoon, but Tolkien had to leave England very soon after to fight in France. Once Tolkien arrived in France, he realized his whole army kit was missing, and he had a lot of problems with borrowing and buying replacements. He spent writing poetry and listening to seagulls pass by. Tolkien always remained uninjured for the duration of his service. He received a letter from his good friend Christopher Wallace that their friend Gilson had died. Tolkien had caught trench fever, and was sent back to Edith in England. He received news from Christopher again, about the death of their friend Geoffrey Bache Smith. G. B. Smith’s last words to Tolkien were â€Å"May you say the things I have tried to say long after I am not there to say them† (J. R. R. Tolkien :: Biography). These words inspired Tolkien. He began to think about mythology and the languages he created. He never liked the fact that England had no true mythology, and he decided he would create one. He began to write â€Å"The Book of Lost Tales† which would end up being The Silmarillion. On November 16th, 1917, John Francis Reuel Tolkien was born. He was named after Father Francis, and of course Tolkien. The Tolkien family moved to Oxford after the war finished. Tolkien started working for the New English Dictionary. He found learning about words very interesting, but he thought the alphabet he came up with, The Alphabet of Rumil,† was thrilling. In 1924, Tolkien became Professor of English Language. He also took the position of the Anglo-Saxon chair at Oxford. Also that year, his 3rd son, Christopher Reuel Tolkien, was born in November. On May 11th, 1926, at a meeting of the English Faculty at Merton College, Tolkien met Clive Staples Lewis, most commonly known as C. S. Lewis. C. S. Lewis wrote his first impression of J. R. R. Tolkien in his diary. He wrote, A smooth, pale, fluent little chap. No harm in him: only needs a smack or so (Armstrong). Tolkien and C. S. Lewis would end up becoming lifelong friends. Three years later, Tolkien’s fourth and last child, Priscilla Mary Tolkien, was born. One day while grading exam papers, Tolkien noticed that One of the candidates had mercifully left one of the pages with no writing on it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to an examiner). I wrote on it: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Names always generate a story in my mind. Eventually I thought Id better find out what hobbits were like. But thats only the beginning (qtd in Doughan). This would be the start of The Hobbit. He worked on it for a while, but by 1936, he abandoned it. He couldn’t figure out how to end the story. The publishers Allen Unwin said they would publish the book if he could write a proper ending. The Hobbit was published on September 21, 1937. The book was a hit. C. S. Lewis complimented Tolkien by saying, All who love that kind of childrens book which can be read and re-read by adults should take note that a new star has appeared in this constellation (qtd in Armstrong). In December, Tolkien started to write another story about hobbits, continuing where The Hobbit left off. He referred to his epic as The Lord of the Rings. He stopped working on it for a while to serve as air raid warden duty on and off during World War 2. He started working on it again, but began to avoid C. S. Lewis. He would harshly criticize The Lord of the Rings at times, and Tolkien thought C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia were ridiculous (Gilsdorf). Tolkien was also a little frustrated that it was so easy for C. S. Lewis to write nearly a book a year, while he was still struggling to finish his book. Finally after 12 years, The Lord of the Rings was finished. He sent it to C. S. Lewis for his opinion, and he said, â€Å"There are many passages I could wish you had written otherwise or omitted altogether, but he also said the work, is almost unequalled in the whole range of narrative art known to me (qtd in J. R. R. Tolkien :: Biography). Tolkien needed to find a publisher for the book. He didn’t want to use Allen Unwin publishing again because they gave him a lot of problems when publishing The Silmarillion. He decided to go with Collins Publishing. Everything was going great, until Collins said the book was too long and it needed cutting. Tolkien now had no other choice but to use Allen Unwin. He decided to split the book into three parts. Once the books were published, they were a hit. The Lord of the Rings was a best-seller. Once it reached America, it got many student fans. Students at Yale University bought the books faster than The Lord of the Flies, and at Harvard, it overtook The Catcher in the Rye. Frodo Lives and Gandalf for President were popular slogans, and J. R. R. Tolkien is Hobbit-forming appeared as graffiti. Tolkien’s fandom was getting too hectic, so he and Mabel decided to move about 2 miles away from Oxford. After the move, officially retired. On November 22nd, 1963, C. S. Lewis died. Tolkien didn‘t write anything for his obituary, but he wrote to his daughter Priscilla, This feels like an axe-blow near the roots (qtd in J. R. R. Tolkien :: Biography). When Edith was 82, she got very sick. She was taken to a hospital, suffering from an inflamed gallbladder, and died on Monday, November 29th, 1971. Tolkien was heartbroken. He was very lonely after Edith’s death. Later on, Tolkien had an acute bleeding gastric ulcer, and was rushed to the hospital on August 31st, 1973. The next day a chest infection had developed. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien died, September 2nd, early Sunday morning, at age eighty-one. He left his legacy of amazing books. In The Lord of the Rings, the Dark Lord Sauron forged the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom thousands of years ago. He used the One Ring to control the leaders of Middle Earth. During a battle, King Islidur cut off Sauron’s finger, separating him from the Ring. This destroyed the Dark Lord (his soul still remained) and Islidur kept the Ring as his own. Islidur ended up losing the Ring in a river until a creature called Gollum found it and kept it for hundreds of years. One day Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit from The Shire, found the Ring. After being in exile for 2,500 years, Sauron has returned to Mordor. He started to build an army, trying to find the One Ring. The story starts off with Bilbo Baggins having the Ring, and leaving it to Frodo, his second cousin once removed. Their wizard friend Gandalf is suspicious of the ring and finds out that it is the One Ring and that Sauron’s Ringwraiths are coming to the Shire to search for it. Gandalf convinced Frodo to leave The Shire immediately. Frodo’s gardener Samwise Gamgee, and a pair of cousins Merry and Pippin, leave with Frodo. Frodo must destroy the Ring, and the only way to do that is to take it to Mount Doom, where it was forged. Over the course of the books, the hobbits are constantly being hunted by Sauron’s followers. They are helped by elves, men, and a dwarf. At the end of the book, Frodo makes it to Mordor, and destroys the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. Sauron and the Ringwraiths disappear and Aragon becomes king at last. In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Tolkien suggests that the ends do not ustify the means. Tolkien wants us to learn that we must stay pure, and not lower our standards just because we are fighting for the greater good. In the trilogy, the One Ring is pure evil. It corrupts anyone who has it in their possession. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the elf Elrond said: We cannot use the Ruling Ring. That we now know too well. It belongs to Sauron and was made by him alone, and is altogether evil. Its strength, Boromir, is too great for anyone to wield at will, save only those who have already a great power of their own. But for them it holds an even deadlier peril. The very desire of it corrupts the heart. â€Å"Tolkien 241† It appears that the character Frodo is just like any other ordinary hobbit. His heart is what sets him apart from the other hobbits, and also from the other races of Middle-earth. Frodo’s heart is pure and incorruptible. Frodo was able to bear the Ring without giving in to its powers. The Ring seemed to tempt every other member in the Fellowship, no matter how good and pure they are. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo tried to make Gandalf take the Ring from him. Frodo said that he was wise and powerful, so he should take it. ’No! ’ cried Gandalf, springing to his feet. ’With that power I should have power too great and terrible. And over me the Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly’† (Tolkien 60). Gandalf is a very pure and good wizard, but even he knows he will give in to the evil of the Ring. Sam Gamgee is probably the most loyal character in the trilogy. Towards the end of The Return of the King, Frodo becomes very weak and exhausted. Sam is the only reason why Frodo made it all the way to the end. Even though Sam is such a loyal and pure character, he is still tempted by the Ring. In The Return of the King, when Frodo was captured by the orcs, Sam took the Ring from him because he thought Frodo was dead. He says: But you’re in the land of Mordor now, sir; and when you get out, you’ll see the Fiery Mountain and all. You’ll find the Ring very dangerous now, and very hard to bear. If it’s too hard a job, I could share it with you, maybe? â€Å"Tolkien 890† When he rescued Frodo, Sam hesitated to give the Ring back to him, which makes it clear that Sam is affected by the power of the Ring. In The Fellowship of the Ring, while Frodo was resting, he had a feeling unfriendly eyes were watching him. When he turned around it was Boromir, his face smiling and kind. Boromir begins to talk about how he wants the Ring and could use it for good for his people. He says, ‘True-hearted Men, they will not be corrupted. ’ When Frodo begins to disagree with his plan, he say: I am a true man, neither thief nor tracker. I need your Ring: that you know now; but I give you my work that I do not desire to keep it. Will you let me make trial of my plan? Lend me the Ring! â€Å"Tolkien 390† Frodo refuses to give up the Ring, angering Boromir. He says: ’How it angers me! Fool! Obstinate fool! Running willfully to death and ruining our cause. If any mortals have claim to the Ring, it is the men of Numenor, and not Halflings. It is not yours save by unhappy chance. It might have been mine. It should be mine. Give it to me! ’ â€Å"Tolkien 390† Boromir then leaped at Frodo trying to snatch the Ring. Once Frodo got further away from Boromir, Boromir realizes what he just said and did, and breaks down apologizing to Frodo. Being near the Ring corrupted Boromir greatly. He wanted to use the Ring to fight against Sauron. Using the Ring would have made Boromir evil and corrupt. In The Lord of the Rings, there is a major difference between the good and the bad characters. Sauron and the orcs are evil, while for example the members in the Fellowship are good. The characters are either good or bad, with no grey area in between. The only character who struggles between the two, is Gollum. Gollum was once a good hobbit named Smeagol. On a fishing trip with his friend, he came across the Ring. He wanted it so badly that he killed his friend. It was just like Gandalf had said, â€Å"’For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not soâ€Å" (Tolkien 261). He became so absorbed in the Ring, that over time, he became Gollum. Gollum and Smeagol often struggle with each other. â€Å"The character Gollum shows the good vs. evil struggle within himself. Gollum started out good, but felt the power of the ring and turned evil. Throughout the book you see him struggle between serving Frodo (good) and possessing the ring (evil)† (Fair). Smeagol loves Frodo and wants to help him, and Gollum loves the Ring so much that he is willing to kill again. Whenever Gollum had quiet time to himself, he debated with himself. We needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little hobbitses, wicked, tricksy, false. No, not master . . . Master’s my friend. You don’t have any friends. Nobody likes you. Not listening. I’m not listening. You’re a liar. And a thief. Murderer. Go away. . . . I hate you. . . . Leave now and never come back â€Å"Tolkien 620† In this particular debate that happened in The Two Towers, Smeagol won, but most of the time Gollum wins, like in this debate: ’But there’s two of them. They’ll wake too quick and kill us,’ whined Smeagol in a last effort. ’Not now. Not yet. ’ ’We wants it! But’ -and here there was a long pause, as if a new thought had weakened. Not yet, eh? Perhaps not. She might help. She might help, yes. ’ No, no! Not that way! ’ wailed Smeagol. ’Yes! We wants it! We wants it! â€Å"Tolkien 619† The character Gollum shows how powerful the Ring can be. J. R. R. Tolkien was one of the most influent ial fantasy writers. In The Lord of the Rings trilogy he wanted to stress the importance of staying good and pure no matter what life throws at you. The One Ring represented all of the evil and temptation in the world. The character Frodo Baggins was the only one in all of Middle-earth who could bear the Ring without giving into its temptation of power. Frodo could have taken the easy way out, and used the Ring like any other character would have, but instead he stayed pure and incorruptible. Works Cited Armstrong, Chris. J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: A Legendary Friendship | Christian History. ChristianityToday. com | Magazines, News, Church Leadership Bible Study. 8 Aug. 2008. Web. 09 Jan. 2011. . Doughan, David. J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biographical Sketch. The Tolkien Society. Web. 7 Jan. 2011. . Fair, Kay. Analyzing The Lord of the Rings: Good Vs. Evil. Associated Content from Yahoo! Associatedcontent. com. Web. 09 Jan. 2011. . Gilsdorf, Ethan. J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: A Literary Friendship and Rivalry Made in Oxford LiteraryTraveler. com. Literary Traveler, Literary Tours, Travel Writing, Travel Literature, Ereaders, EBooks, Travel, HemingwayLiteraryTraveler. com. Web. 09 Jan. 2011. . J. R. R. Tolkien :: Biography. Arwen-Undomiel. com :: Dedicated to J. R. R. Tolkiens Lord of the Rings ::. Web. 07 Jan. 2011. . Tolkien, John R. R. The Lord of the Rings [one Volume Edition with the Index and Appendices]. London: HarperCollins, 1995. Print. Tolkien, J. R. R. Fun Facts and Information. Fun Trivia Quizzes Worlds Largest Trivia and Quiz Site! Web. 09 Jan. 2011. .

Why You Shouldnt Use a Period When Text Messaging

Why You Shouldnt Use a Period When Text Messaging Have you ever ended up in a spat with someone after a text message conversation went awry? Has anyone ever accused your messages of being rude or insincere? This may sound a bit crazy, but a study found that using a period to end a texted sentence could be the problem. A team of psychologists at Binghamton University in New York conducted a study among the schools students and found that text message responses to questions that ended with a period were perceived as less sincere than those that did not. The study titled  Texting Insincerely: The Role of the Period in Text Messaging was published in  Computers in Human Behavior  in December 2015, and was led by  Associate Professor of Psychology Celia Klin. Previous studies and your own daily observations show that  most people do not include periods at the end of final sentences in text messages, even when they include them in the sentences that precede them. Klin and her team suggest that this occurs because  the rapid back-and-forth exchange enabled by texting resembles talking, so our use of the medium is closer to how we speak to each other than to how we write with each other. This means that when people communicate by text message they must use other methods to include the social cues that are included by default in spoken conversations, like  tone, physical gestures, facial and eye expressions, and the pauses we take between our words. (In sociology, we use the symbolic interaction perspective to analyze all the ways our daily interactions are loaded with communicated meaning.) There are many ways that we add these social cues to our textual conversations. Most obvious among them are emojis, which have become such a common part of our daily communicative lives that Oxford English Dictionary named the Face with Tears of Joy emoji as its 2015 word of the year. But of course, we also use punctuation like asterisks and exclamation points to add emotional and social cues to our texted conversations. Repeating letters to add emphasis to a word, like sooooooo tired, is also commonly used to the same effect.​ Klin and her team suggest that these elements add pragmatic and social information to the literal meaning of typed words, and so have become useful and important elements of conversation in our digitized, twenty-first-century lives. But a period at the end of a final sentence stands alone. In the context of texting, other linguistic researchers have  suggested that the period reads as finalas shutting down a conversationand that it is more commonly used at the end of a sentence that is meant to convey unhappiness, anger, or frustration. But Klin and her team wondered if this was really the case, and so they conducted a study to test this theory. Klin and her team had 126 students at their university rate the sincerity of a variety of exchanges,  presented as images of text messages on mobile phones. In each exchange, the first message contained a statement and a question, and the response contained an answer to the question. The researchers tested each set of messages with a response that ended with a period, and with one that did not.  One example  read, Dave gave me his extra tickets. Wanna come? followed by a response of Surepunctuated with a period in some instances, and not in others. The study also contained twelve other exchanges using different forms of punctuation, so as to not lead participants on to the intent of the study. Participants rated the exchanges from very insincere (1) to very sincere (7). The results show that people find final sentences that end with a period to be less sincere than those that are ended without punctuation (3.85 on the scale of 1-7, versus 4.06). Klin and her team observed that the period has taken on a particular pragmatic and social meaning in texting because its use is optional in this form of communication. That participants in the study did not rate use of the period as indicating a less sincere handwritten message seems to back this up. Our interpretation of the period as signaling a not entirely sincere message is unique to texting. Of course, these findings do not suggest that people are using periods intentionally to make the meaning of their messages less sincere. But regardless of intent, receivers of such messages are interpreting them that way. Consider that during an in-person conversation, a similar lack of sincerity might be communicated by not looking up from a task or other object of focus while responding to a question. Such behavior signals a lack of interest in or engagement with the person asking the question. In the context of texting, the use of a period has taken on a similar meaning. So if you want to ensure that your messages are received and understood with the level of sincerity you intend, leave the period off the final sentence. You might even consider upping the sincerity ante with an exclamation point. Grammar experts are likely to disagree with this recommendation, but its us social scientists who are more adept at understanding the shifting dynamics of interaction and communication. You can trust us on this, sincerely.