Launching our Reedsy Project Protection

Launching our Reedsy Project Protection Launching our Reedsy Project Protection Establishing a safe place for authors and publishersOur goal with Reedsy since the very beginning has been to create a safe place for authors and publishers to work seamlessly with the best publishing talent. We envisioned a place where they could be certain that every single collaboration would be a success.Although our careful curation process has helped bring about this reality, we wanted to make it more official. That’s why we just released our Reedsy Project Protection  policy, contained within our Terms of Use.  Here is an excerpt:Service Provider Reedsy account should be suspended or terminated for breaching the Terms of Use.Furthermore, both clients (authors, publishers) and service providers (editors, designers, marketers, ghostwriters, etc.) are bound by the  Mandatory Terms  of their  Service Contracts on Reedsy. These relate to the client materials, IP rights, payments, warranties, cancellation periods, confidentiality and data protection. More about it i n section 5. of our Terms of Use.A unique value propositionOf course, we're not the only services company in the publishing industry to offer similar protection and guarantees on projects. A lot of places will claim they have "satisfaction" or "money-back guarantees". What is really powerful about ours, though, is that it applies to a marketplace  - a network of very different individuals. Whoever the author or publisher chooses to work with on Reedsy, we protect their project. You don’t just get safety, you get safety and choice. Why is choice important? If you’re an author, we believe that one of the most crucial steps in your career is finding the right editor. We encourage authors to contact more than one editor on our marketplace, because doing so increases your chances of finding someone with a communication style you understand, someone you really connect with.If you’re a publisher, you will have to work on different books, from different authors, and often across different genres. Because of this, you will likely need different professionals and skill-sets to meet the editorial needs across your list. Reedsy provides you with a wide range of accessible talent and â€Å"insures† your collaboration with every single one of them.Now that you know why we’re doing this, let’s explain why we can.It’s all about curationWe have had over 1,500 collaborations  on the Reedsy platform so far, and only in 1% of the cases have we  had to step in and mediate, or issue a refund as a third party.There is a very simple reason for that: we put in a lot of  work to vet every single professional who applies to our marketplace, and only accept around 2% of applicants. Moreover, once they’re â€Å"in†, we monitor their response rates and activity on the marketplace to make sure they keep up to our standards of responsiveness and professionalism.It’s actually very easy for us to tell you â€Å"you won’t be disappointed† and put our money where our mouth is, because we know our professionals. We’ve hand-picked them ourselves, we know they do a good job.Let us prove it to you. And as always, let us know in the comments if you have any questions.

Biography of Damien Hirst, British Contemporary Artist

Biography of Damien Hirst, British Contemporary Artist Damien Hirst (born June 7, 1965) is a controversial contemporary British artist. He is the best-known member of the Young British Artists, a group that shook up the U.K.s art scene in the 1990s. Some of Hirsts most famous works feature dead animals preserved in formaldehyde. Fast Facts: Damien Hirst Occupation: ArtistKnown For: Key member of the Young British Artists and the creator of controversial, sometimes shocking artwork.Born: June 7, 1965 in Bristol, EnglandEducation: Goldsmiths, University of LondonSelected Works: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1992), For the Love of God (2007)Notable Quote: I was taught to confront things you cant avoid. Death is one of those things. Early Life and Career Damien Hirst (born Damien Steven Brennan) was born in Bristol and grew up in Leeds, England. His mother later described him as a morbid child, interested in grisly and gruesome images of disease and injury. These subjects would later inform some of the artists iconic works. Hirst had several run-ins with the law, including two arrests for shoplifting. He failed numerous other academic subjects, but he succeeded in art and drawing. Damien attended the Jacob Kramer School of Art in Leeds, and in the late 1980s, he studied art at Goldsmiths, University of London. In 1988, in his second year at Goldsmith, Damien Hirst organized an independent student exhibition titled Freeze in an empty London Port Authority building. It was the first significant event organized by a group that would become known as the Young British Artists. The final version of the exhibition included two of Hirsts iconic spot paintings: multicolored spots on white or near-white backgrounds painted by hand with glossy house paint. International Success Damien Hirsts first solo exhibition, In and Out of Love, took place in an empty shop on Woodstock Street in central London in 1991. During that year, he met the Iraqi-British businessman Charles Saatchi, who became a primary patron. Saatchi offered to fund any art that Hirst wanted to create. The result was a work titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. It consisted of a shark preserved in formaldehyde inside in a tank. The piece was part of one of the first Young British Artists exhibitions at the Saatchi Gallery in 1992. As a result of the media attention surrounding the piece, Hirst earned a nomination for the U.K.s Turner Prize for distinguished young artists, but he lost to Grenville Davey. In 1993, Hirsts first major international work at the Venice Biennale was titled Mother and Child Divided. The work included a cow and a calf cut into sections and exhibited in separate tanks. The next year, Hirst exhibited a similar piece: Away from the Flock, which featured a sheep preserved in formaldehyde. During the exhibition, the artist Mark Bridger entered the gallery and poured black ink into the tank, then offered a new title for the work: Black Sheep. Bridger was prosecuted, but at Hirsts request, his sentence was light: two years of probation. In 1995, Damien Hirst won the Turner Prize. In the latter half of the decade, he presented solo shows in Seoul, London, and Salzburg. He also branched out into directing music videos and short films, and he formed the band Fat Les with actor Keith Allen and Alex James of the rock group Blur. By the end of the decade, the Young British Artists, including Hirst, were seen as a key part of the mainstream art scene in the U.K. Later Career On September 10, 2002, the day before the one-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attacks in New York City, Hirst released a statement describing the attacks as kind of like an artwork in its own right. The outrage was quick and severe. A week later, he issued a public apology. After meeting Joe Strummer of the band The Clash in 1995, Damien Hirst became good friends with the guitarist. In late 2002, Strummer died of a heart attack. Hirst stated it had a powerful effect: It was the first time I felt mortal. In March 2005, Hirst exhibited 30 paintings at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. They took over three years to complete and were based on photos taken mostly by assistants but finished by Hirst. In 2006, he introduced the work: A Thousand Years (1990). It contains a life cycle of maggots hatching inside a box, turning into flies, and feeding on a bloody, severed cows head in a glass display case. The case included buzzing live flies, many of which were electrocuted in a device designed to ward off insects. The famed artist Francis Bacon praised A Thousand Years (1990) in a letter to a friend a month before he died. In 2007, Hirst presented the piece For the Love of God, a human skull copied in platinum and studded with over 8,600 diamonds. The only part of the original skull included are the teeth. The price for the work was $100,000,000. No one bought it at the original exhibition, but a consortium that included Hirst himself purchased it in August 2008. Praise and Criticism Damien Hirst has earned praise for drumming up new interest in the arts through his celebrity persona and sense of the dramatic. He helped bring the British art scene back to prominence internationally. His supporters, including his benefactor Saatchi and many other noted artists, say that Hirst is a showman, but that getting the attention of the public is essential. He is sometimes mentioned in the company of 20th-century masters like Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock. However, detractors question whether there is anything artistic about dead, preserved animals. Brian Sewell, an Evening Standard art critic, said that Hirsts art is no more interesting than a stuffed pike over a pub door. A 2009 Hirst show titled No Love Lost, which featured his paintings, received almost universal criticism. His efforts were described as shockingly bad. Plagiarism Controversy In 2000, designer Norman Emms sued Damien Hirst over the sculpture Hymn, which was a reproduction of the Young Scientist Anatomy Set, designed by Emms and manufactured by Humbrol. Hirst paid an out-of-court settlement to two charities and Emms. In 2007, artist John LeKay, a former friend of Hirst, claimed that the inspiration for many of Hirsts works came from the Carolina Biological Supply Company catalog. He also claimed that the diamond-encrusted skull titled For the Love of God was inspired by LeKays own crystal skull work in 1993. In response to a number of other claims of copyright infringement or outright plagiarism, Hirst said, As a human being, as you go through life, you just do collect. Personal Life Between 1992 and 2012, Hirst lived with his girlfriend, Maia Norman. They have three sons: Connor Ojala, Cassius Atticus, and Cyrus Joe. Hirst is known to spend much of his private time at a farmhouse in Devon, England. He also owns a large compound in Mexico where multiple artists help carry out his projects at his art studio. Source Gallagher, Ann. Damien Hirst. Tate, 2012.

Summary devil's knot Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summary devil's knot - Essay Example orts are geared towards depicting the rumors for what they are in an attempt to dismiss this urban legend that consumed the lives of six innocent youngsters. When the bodies of three eight year old boys-Steve Branch, Christopher Myers and Michael Moore were found dumped in a stream barely half a mile away from their home, the police were clueless, the people frightened and the town was in shock. After four weeks, the police, by the testimony provided by Jessie Misskelley Jr. a seventeen year old, arrested him and his two friends Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, charging them with homicide. After a much publicized trial, the trio was pronounced guilty and Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life imprisonment while Echols was put on death row. Leveritt followed the trial from day one and it was clear that the three boys were being put in the dock because they had â€Å"an obsession with heavy metal music†¦.Baldwin had fifteen shirts with the heavy metal thing.† Leveritt’s search for the truth revealed to the world the xenophobia of the small town, and how this is translated into a travesty of justice. The collective moral panic that had gripped the town â€Å"cost at least one innocent youth his life† (Root, 2003) Leveritt, systematically analyses the proof offered and the lack of evidence to show how the police bungled the case and the jury handed out life sentences and death penalties because all were â€Å"blinded by their fantasies about satanic cults† (Ebert). The biggest flaw in the whole case stems from the fact, that the police believed the testimony of Misskelley.Jr. a school dropout with an IQ of 72 and a history of behavioral problems, who implicated himself together with Echols and Baldwin. The police arrested the three without any physical evidence, which was against the law. Apart from that, the scene of the crime had not a drop of blood, while in fact the three children had been brutally killed, and their hands and feet tied together. Since the

STANLEY SPENCER ( OR WHATEVER THE WRITER FEELS IS RIGHT) Essay

STANLEY SPENCER ( OR WHATEVER THE WRITER FEELS IS RIGHT) - Essay Example The Lovers or The Dustman is an outstanding piece of work created by Stanley Spencer in 1934. The piece, which is owned by the Stanley Spencer Estate and is currently on display at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle Upon Tyne, is a richly detailed artwork with layers of meaning and depth. Looking at the piece one is drawn into it’s complexity and energy. The superficial experience brings a very defined view of village life. One sees by the nature of the organization of the figures the close knit comfort of those who actively engage in the lives of neighbors. The piece brings a sense of a chaotic moment in the lives of these villagers as they focus on a spectacle and one can see the beginnings of judgment and wonder on their faces. On closer inspection we see that the figures near the bottom are offering gifts of garbage which are according to a critical essay by Don Gray, â€Å"despite Spencers disavowal, ironic substitutes for gold, frankincense and myrrh, a fitting welcome to the new Christ by a non-believing, materialist age.† (Gray) The theme of The Lovers or The Dustman is the resurrection of common workers, specifically garbage men and dustmen. Spencer interpreted this piece by saying â€Å""...The joy of his (the dustmans) bliss is spiritual in his union with his wife who carries him in her arms and experiences the bliss of union with his corduroy trousers...They are gazed at by other reuniting wives of old laborers who are in ecstasy at the contemplation that they are reuniting and are about to enter their homes."(Gray) In this piece one can see a perspective of the female mind as they look on the reunion contemplating their own abilities to survive without these men in their lives. They have been â€Å"doing quite nicely without them thank you†, (Gray) as Gray puts it. One must wonder if this was influenced by Spencer’s relationship with Patricia Preece who was in turn involved in a

Slang Case Study Essay Example for Free

Slang Case Study Essay Words are a part of our daily lives. With words we can communicate with others and evoke our feelings. But not every word has the same meaning in various regions of the world. Words just like humans are shaped by the location and culture that they are introduced to. This is what makes slang words interesting. Depending on where you live, a slang word can have a completely different meaning. For this assignment I will define the slang word â€Å"swag.† I’ll be discussing the modern meaning, etymology, and correct usage. Swag is a common noun used today, mostly among teenagers. The word is used to describe a certain type of clothing that teenagers wear. The clothing resembles the style of modern hip-hop artists such as Lil Wayne, Big Sean, and Drake. The word can also be used to show off cool acts that teenagers perform. Like after jumping of a building, I cool kid would say something like â€Å"Bro, you can’t touch my swag!† According to urban dictionary â€Å"swag† is the â€Å"most used word in the world and is a word used to represent yourself based on the way you dress.† Swag has different meanings throughout the world. In Australia the term â€Å"swag† is used to refer to the dangling luggage that a homeless man carries. â€Å"Swag† is also used to describe home items such as â€Å"swag lamps† and â€Å"swag curtains†, which are basically dangling versions of the original lamp and curtains (Snopes). In America, many relate the word â€Å"swag† to â€Å"sway† which describes a certain motion of a bold, arrogant, and conceited person. So I think based on this information it’s easy to say that the word â€Å"swag† was introduced through old hip-hop, where loose clothing and sagging was the fashion and now has evolved through modern hip-hop to accommodate the newer fashion. The most common misconception about the word â€Å"swag† is that it’s often misunderstood as an acronym. Many people think that â€Å"swag† is an acronym for â€Å"Secretly We Are Gay†. The exact origin of the word â€Å"swag† is still a mystery. Some believe the first written usage of the word â€Å"swag† was first written by a Gilbertine Monk named Robert Mannyng in 1303. Mannyng in his poem says â€Å"there was a wycche, and made a bagge, A bely of lepyr, a grete swagge†. In this poem Mannyng refers to â€Å"swagge† as a bag. According to Oxford dictionary, â€Å"swag† is a verb derives from the Scandinavian word â€Å"svagga† which means to rock unsteadily or lurch. This idea is widely accepted due to the fact that â€Å"swag† sounds like it originated from the word â€Å"swagger†, which also means to sway. The word is said to have entered the English language around the 13th century meaning â€Å"hanging loosely† (Snopes). Other meanings of â€Å"swag† also include a sinkhole used to collect water, a shop that sold stolen goods, or stolen loots by either pirates or criminals. Some also say that â€Å"swag† was used in old English movies to describe criminal loots, leading to false accusations of acronyms such as â€Å"Stolen Without A Gun†, â€Å"Sold Without A Guarantee†, and â€Å"Souvenirs Wearable’s And Gifts†. Based on this it’s easy to connect â€Å"swag† to older or underground hip-hop where loose clothes and stealing was a common motto. The correct usage of the word â€Å"swag† is hard to define just because it’s a slang word and there is no exact definition. According to our culture and society, I would say â€Å"swag† is a term used to describe a person’s clothing and a part of his personality. It’s easy to infer a person’s personality by looking at his clothing. Different people have different personalities and some of it is shown through their dressing. This freedom of expression can show a person’s values, beliefs, and culture. So, in a sense a person’s â€Å"swag† can portray his character. â€Å"Swag† usually has a negative connotation due to the over usage of the word in the rap industry, but in my opinion â€Å"swag† is a general term that can be used by anyone. Just like the words â€Å"Boom, Whack, Blop, and Kaboom†, swag can be used at the end of a sentence to add emphasis and humor. In conclusion, â€Å"swag† is an old word that has its own history but has evolved through human influence to have a completely different meaning throughout different parts of the world. Even though the overuse of the word has completely dried its value, â€Å"swag† still has an interesting origin and is fun to use. Just like other words, slang words are interesting because they are influenced by human culture and society and change accordingly as time moves on. Today â€Å"swag† has a different meaning than what it originally was used for. So we can only imagine wh at â€Å"swag† would mean in the future. Work Cited Swag. Snopes.com: Etymology of Swag. N.p., 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 31 Jan. 2013. Geyer, Jessica. Swag: An Etymology. YouTube. 03 May 2012. Web. 31 Jan. 2013. Urban Dictionary: Swag. Urban Dictionary. N.p., July 2012. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.

Human Cloning Should be Illegal :: Opposing Perspective Essays

Human Cloning Should be Illegal Can you imagine a world where everyone looked the same and had the same DNA? This could become true due to the advances in science in the field of cloning. We are coming into an age where scientists have started cloning non-human mammals as well as fish. Soon, they will want to start cloning humans. Since human cloning is so dangerous, unethical, and too expensive for reproductive purposes, it should be illegal. Human cloning is dangerous. It is estimated that between 95 and 98 percent of cloning experiments have failed (Genetics and Society). These downfalls to cloning are in the form of miscarriages and stillbirths (Genetics and Society). Cloned human beings also run the risk of having severe genetic abnormalities. Children cloned from adult DNA would, in a sense, already have â€Å"old† genes. These children’s main problem would be developing and growing old too quickly. This includes arthritis, appearance, and organ function. Since the chance of having a child with mental and physical problems is so much higher than that of a normally conceived child, cloning should be illegal. Human cloning is also unethical. Cloning, especially therapeutic cloning, requires the use of human embryos. Using these embryos would mean killing unborn children. Therapeutic cloning begins by removing the stem cells from an embryo (Human Cloning). The stem cells are used to grow bone, nerve, and muscle tissue. In the process of therapeutic cloning, an embryo, or a baby in the early stages of development, is taken and parts of it are grown to develop parts of the body including organs and limbs (Human Cloning). Removing these stem cells would kill the embryo. The embryo, which would result in a child if left in the mother’s womb, is separated into parts, which are used for science. Finally, human cloning for reproductive purposes is too expensive. The cost to clone one human could be more than $100,000 (Herper). That is extremely high considering the cost of in vitro fertilization. In vitro fertilization costs between $3,500 and $25,000 depending on the procedure (Advanced Fertility Services). If someone could not become pregnant it is much more likely that they would chose to use fertilization and be guaranteed a healthy, normal child rather than spend the money to clone a child that could have defects. With fertilization costing only one fourth of cloning, why would someone choose to clone?

Definition of Groupthink. Retrieved from Essay

I have always had a different idea of what groupthink really means, to me I thought of it as a bad idea from someone amongst a group of people that had not been voiced seemingly because the person having this thought lacks confidence or backing. More like trying to proof to your business partners that an idea of using an outdated tactic to target a young crowd is not the best idea In its own definition Wikipedia(2013) describes groupthink as a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision- making outcome, whereas it can also be viewed as the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility. All different versions of what it is but also giving a detailed well round idea and description. Good examples of groupthink situations as studied by Janis in the book â€Å"fiascoes† are such as the United States government failure to anticipate the Pearl Harbor attacks, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the escalation of Vietnam War, and the ill-fated hostage rescue in Iran (Janis,1972) Some recent past examples of groupthink would be in the hastened decision making of the Bush administration and Congress to pursue an invasion of Iraq based on a policy of â€Å"preemptive use of military force against terrorists and rogue nations.† It is definitely an undeniable fact that groupthink has been a large part of decision making in the United States government for a long time. As we speak, arguably the best current example of groupthink that the American government is facing is the Obama Care. This is so because some might see it as a majority of democrat leaders refusing to see or identify with different ideas that are outside theirs, thus leading to what psychologist consider as a mental deficiency commonly known as groupthink. â€Å"Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanize other groups† (Janis, 1972). I found it rather interesting reading the article by the net advisor to bring out reasons as to why the Obama care was created under the influence of groupthink. The net advisor article reads â€Å"the patient protection and affordable care act or â€Å"Obama Care† was passed by majority of the then Democratic House. The house leadership under Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) refused to allow the US senate of any party to even consider debating, let alone voting on Obama care. The house by passed the entire U.S. senate by using a controversial self-executing rule or â€Å"deem and pass† procedure then quickly sent it to president Obama to sign†(Net advisor). This brings out the question, what if the Democratic Party had not made such an irrational decision to pass the Obama Care, would it have made any difference in the case of the government shutdown. Since the main reason that led to most of the republican members to oppose raising the debt ceiling that would have prevented the government from shutting down was primarily a disagreement in the Obama care. This is arguable in both sides since the republican party might also have made a groupthink decision to prevent the Obama care under any circumstances, leading to a government shutdown that has dented the government debt even more, ironically an issue that they (republican party) are trying to avoid with the Obama care. The united states is established in two well defined parties and many are the times that the conflicting views from each party, makes it harder to make any decisions or view the others opinion. Hopefully in the future the decisions from our leaders can be viewed in a more universal dimension, thus the administrators of our president can challenge each other to eliminate groupthink. References Janis, I (1972, Victims of groupthink (1st edition ed) retrieved from http:// leadership theory 3450.blogspot.com Obama care is an example of Groupthink gone wrong. Retrieved from http://netadvisor.org/2013/09/26. Definition of Groupthink. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink

Close reading for George Elliott Clarke’s Negation Essay

The poem’s heading ‘Negation’ is rounded about the fact that the author is taking new path in the poetry description by trying to etch out a new identity for oneself but this is continuously difficult for time and again there is a distinction between white and blackness; commonly referred to as racial gratification. The definition of the word negation also speaks volume about the difficulty being experienced by the author as the inability to accept something that already exists. Ideally, form is one of the most fundamental aspects that are easily notable about poems. It is evident that the poem is presented as a lyric with fourteen lines but goes against the norm of rhyme schemes and adopts the iambic pentameter blank sonnet style where each line of the poem is divided into ten syllablesCITATION Mab00 p 52 l 1033 (Mabillard 52). The syllables in each line are divided into iambic feet which are attuned to the idea that a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable for instance; Na and Sty to form nasty as expressed in the poem. The initial twelve lines of Negation bring to line the issue of racial identity and prejudice as the dominating factor that George Elliott seeks to attend to. He reflects on Shakespeare’s character Caliban in The Tempest who he describes in rather harsh words as being, â€Å"(Slick black bastard – cannibal-sucking back Licorice-lusty, fifty-proof whisky),† this is just representational of the authors di sgustCITATION Lan01 p 13 l 1033 (Lancashire 13). However, in the final two lines of ‘Negation’ i.e. the couplet, the author comes out in support of black revolution by resolving his previous stand; a classical representation of couplets where an author resonates on his sentiments in the first three quatrains of the poem. With specific interest is Frantz Fanon’s work the Black skin, White masks illustrates George Elliott’s sentiments in negation as being a global problem with whites continuously despising blacks in their speech and literacy writings; reference can be made to line nine of the negation poem that points out blacks as, â€Å"Nasty, Nofaskoshan negro, I mean..† and goes on to the next two linesCITATION Cla08 p 33 l 1033 (Clarke 33). The writing Nofaskoshan is in black dialect which generalizes the people of Neva Scotia a province in Canada with inhabitants of African descent. In Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon also mirrors the same but in defense of the black race. He refutes with the lin es, â€Å"Dirty nigger!’ Or simply, ‘Look, a Negro!’ // I came into the world imbued with the will to find a meaning in things, my spirit filled with the desire to attain to the source of the world, and then I found that I was an object in the midst of other objects. // sealed into that crushing object hoodCITATION Fan52 p 109 l 1033 (Fanon 109).† Looking at Fanon’s sentiments, we see the depiction of blacks as subjects of the whites, most interesting is the inability of blacks to identify themselves as subjects and merely objects of service to the white, they are constantly in push to break away from the old york. Notice in the last two line stanza (couplet), the author is still in struggle with where his real stand is, this two-line stanza of a blank sonnet is usually meant to resolve the recurring theme in the previous stanzas but in this case author make a reference to the second person ‘you’ depicting the debate that even though he agrees to the fact that change in black perception is evident he still has not fully accepted this fact. References Clarke, George Elliott. Blues and Bliss . New York : Waterloo: , 2008. Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks . Atlanta : Grove Press , 1952. Lancashire, Ian. Blue . Vancouver : Polestar Books , 2001. Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespearean Sonnet Basics . New York : Barnes & Noble , 2000. Source document

The Father of American Terrori Essay Example

The Father of American Terrori Essay Example The Father of American Terrori Essay The Father of American Terrori Essay A Critique of the Article on John Brown, The Father of American Terrorism On December 2, 1859, John Brown, dressed in a black coat, black pants, black vest, and black slouch hat, was riding to what would be his execution spot.He handed the jailer a note.It read: I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land will never be purged away; but with blood.I hadvainly flattered myself that without much bloodshed; it might be done.John Brown was sitting on his coffin and commented on the beautiful landscape of Virginia.In 1859, America was a place where men and women were willing to die for their beliefs and slavery was the main issue.John Brown was violent but he was also a Christian.Slave owners hated him and abolitionists thought he had become the embodiment of all that was noble and courageous.John Brown had failed his whole life but was now succeeding.Browns prophecy divided the nation.America was headed for war. The scaffold on which John Brown was hung had be en built in Charlestown, Virginia.Robert E. Lee ordered fifteen hundred soldiers to watch so that there would not be a rescue attempt; however, one actor borrowed a uniform so that he could watch Brown die.The crowd was made up of such noteworthy people as John Wilkes Booth and Stonewall Jackson whom called Brown a traitor and terrorizer.The rope was eventually cut and Brown fell through helplessly and eventually resting.So perish all such enemies of Virginia, Colonel J.T.L Preston chanted.Church bells began to ring and cannon balls were shot in salute of Brown.Henry David Thoreau remarked on the resemblance between the crucifixion of Christ and that of John Brown saying that he is the angel of light. Brown was a tanner, shepherd, and farmer.He was a simple man but his actions were to be studied for years after his life.John Brow

Leedsichthys - Facts and Figures

Leedsichthys - Facts and Figures Name: Leedsichthys (Greek for Leeds fish); pronounced leeds-ICK-thissHabitat: Oceans worldwideHistorical Period: Middle-Late Jurassic (189-144 million years ago)Size and Weight: 30 to 70 feet long and five to 50 tonsDiet: PlanktonDistinguishing Characteristics: Large size; semi-cartilaginous skeleton; thousands of teeth About Leedsichthys The last (i.e., species) name of Leedsichthys is problematicus, which should give you some clue about the controversy occasioned by this gigantic prehistoric fish. The problem is that, although Leedsichthys is known from dozens of fossil remains from around the world, these specimens dont consistently add up to a convincing snapshot, leading to grossly divergent size estimates: more conservative paleontologists venture guesses of about 30 feet long and 5 to 10 tons, while others maintain that superannuated Leedsichthys adults could attain lengths of over 70 feet and weights of over 50 tons. Were on much firmer ground when it comes to Leedsichthys feeding habits. This Jurassic fish was equipped with a whopping 40,000 teeth, which it used not to prey on the larger fish and marine reptiles of its day, but to filter-feed plankton (much like a modern Blue Whale). By opening its mouth extra-wide, Leedsichthys could gulp in hundreds of gallons of water every second, more than enough to cover its outsized dietary needs. As with many prehistoric animals discovered in the 19th century, the fossils of Leedsichthys were an ongoing source of confusion (and competition). When the farmer Alfred Nicholson Leeds discovered the bones in a loam pit near Peterborough, England, in 1886, he forwarded them to a fellow fossil hunter, who misidentified them as the back plates of a stegosaur dinosaur. The next year, during a trip overseas, the eminent American paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh correctly diagnosed the remains as belonging to a giant prehistoric fish, at which point Leeds made a brief career of excavating additional fossils and selling them to natural history museums. One little-appreciated fact about Leedsichthys is that its the earliest identified filter-feeding marine animal, a category that also includes prehistoric whales, to attain giant sizes. Clearly, there was an explosion in plankton populations during the early Jurassic period, which fueled the evolution of fish like Leedsichthys, and just as clearly this giant filter-feeder went extinct when krill populations mysteriously plunged at the cusp of the ensuing Cretaceous period.

Victimless Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Victimless - Essay Example The new skills required for this method includes working with local residents as partners in working out problems, making presentations to community groups, and involving other public and nonprofit organizations in community development efforts. Rohe, Adams and Arcury (1) stated that Community Oriented Policing â€Å"promises lower crime rates, reduced fear of crime, better coordination with other city and county agencies, and improved police/community relations.† As such, this method of organizational policing can also be applied for victimless crimes. Hess and Wrobleski, the authors of â€Å"Police Operations†, maintained that the role of the law should be limited particularly in dealing with victimless crimes since the category of the said crimes is a misnomer. This paper aims to identify and discuss the notion of victimless crimes and evaluate the behavior in terms of wrongfulness and the proper role for the law related to Community Oriented Policing. The reasons behind the creation of Community Oriented Policing were the rising crime rate and the ineptitude of conservative police methods during the late 1960’s such as concerns about racial conflicts, riots, civil right demonstrations and other crimes. According to Mirsky (1), â€Å"The design of community policing is to entail a more open relationship between the police and the public which gives the police a more proactive role in the community.† This new policing approach allows the neighborhoods to strengthen its capacity in helping by sharing the accountability for crime prevention and crime trepidation with the police. Meier and Geis (42) also maintain that building the competence of social institutions is essential in order to empower citizens to engage in and guard their own communities. Hence, community justice deduces that all communities have a liability to exercise social control to its residents. Among

Evaluation of CAPM using American stock market data Dissertation

Evaluation of CAPM using American stock market data - Dissertation Example So investors prefer to choose mean-variance-efficient portfolios that would either minimize variance with a given expected return or would maximize expected return given variance. Thus, CAPM is a theory that defines the relationship between risk and the expected return of a security or a portfolio of securities. The theory is based on the assumption that the security market is generally composed of risk-averse investors and the type of investors who prefer and will to take more risk only when they expect to earn a higher return in commensuration with that risk. The return from an asset varies through successive periods and an asset which has a fluctuating return is considered to have greater risk. So, the tendency of investors is to diversify their investment portfolio so that they could minimize the effect of risk volatility, i.e. the unsystematic risk attached to the portfolio. Thus due to diversification only market related or systematic risk is relevant in the risk-return trade-o ff. The portion of risk volatility which is systematic, i.e. measured by the extent to which return varies with respect to the overall market, is measured by the parameter ? (Beta). Beta is a measure of risk contributed by individual securities to a well-diversified portfolio, and measured by- rA = return of the asset rM = Return of the market ?2M = variance of the return of the market cov(rA, rM) = covariance between the return of the asset and the return of the market. Beta is calculated with the help of historical returns for both the asset and the market. Assumptions of CAPM The assumptions of CAPM are- Investors in the market are concerned only about the expected return and the volatility of risk involved with their investment All investors have homogeneous idea about the concept of risk and return associated with an investment. Systematic risk factor is common to a broad-based market portfolio as systematic risk brings volatility which is non-diversifiable. So, if a securities beta can be identified, then the expected return from that security can be calculated. Economic Rationale behind CAPM and its Consistency with the regulatory and the economic standards The relationship in risk and return in CAPM is measured using- Where, Rt = the expected return on a security or a portfolio Rf = Risk-free rate of return ?i = Beta of the security or portfolio i Rm = expected return on the equity market performance The rationale behind the CAPM equation is to persuade the investors to shift their money from riskless assets to risky assets such as equity security. The usefulness of CAPM lies in the measurement of the expected return premium appropriate for an investment with respect to the risk involved relative to the market index risk. The economic explanation of the equation brings out that how risk-free rate of return (Rf) and market-wide risk premium (Rm- Rf) aid to persuade investors from investment in risk-free securities to risky securities.