In all my travels, no structure can bring about as much awe and respect as that of the Byzantine Hagia Sophia, an immense temple that merges East and West in a conglomeration of buttresses and minarets. Looking back at its 1,500-year history, I can only imagine the changes that the structure has undergone through those eras, from its Byzantine origins to its Ottoman refurbishments. The full form of the Hagia Sophia had been altered after the 15th century, when the Ottomans invaded and ended the thousand-year civilization that was once Constantinople. But let me start at the Hagia Sophia's beginning.
To further illustrate the Hagia Sophia's mixture of east and west, one must look at its historical bearings, for the Greeks sought to reconcile their beliefs with their Byzantine beliefs with that of the oman Church. Translated to "Holy Wisdom," the Hagia Sophia…...
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Resources
Bordewich, Fergus M. "FADING GLORY." Smithsonian 39.9 (2008): 54-64. History Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 23 May 2011.
McCormick, M. (2003). Genji Goes West: The 1510 Genji Album and the Visualization of Court and Capital. Art Bulletin, 85(1), 54.
Simons, P. (2008). Hercules in Italian Renaissance Art: Masculine Labour and Homoerotic Libido. Art History, 31(5), 632-664. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8365.2008.00635.x
Travel
In order to greatly diminish terrorism, the optimal time and place to visit would be the United States Supreme Court during December, 2000, and the legislative and judicial branches of government in the state of Florida during November and December of that year. The United States Supreme Court, located in ashington, D.C., for the first time ever, chose the president of the United States by its actions (Fitzpatrick, 2002). It had been put in that position by election conduct the state of Florida engaged in under its governor, Jeb Bush, brother to George . Bush. The entire affair smacks not only of partisan politics, but also of nepotism and an attempt to install a Bush min-dynasty in American government.
By choosing George . Bush over Albert V. Gore, the United States Supreme Court set in motion a series of interlocking events that could not have been better planned to cause…...
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While the electioneering in Florida was well-reported -- from the turning away of qualified voters who were probably Democrats because they were definitely minority ethnics, to the refusal of Kathleen Harris to abide by the state's own election laws -- it was the Supreme Court of the United States that crowned George Bush. While the Supreme Court, because of its ability to affect policy, has been an issue in elections, it had never before been the arbiter of one (Fitzpatrickd, 2002).
When it had become clear that something was drastically wrong with the way votes were being counted in Florida, lawyers for both Democrats and Republicans wrangled over the recount, taking it to the biased Florida elections officials and into the Florida legislature and courts. Eventually, unresolved at the state level, the issue ascended to the Supreme Court. "The impasse finally was resolved not by the ballot box but by five justices of an ideologically fractured U.S. Supreme Court who, by stopping the state-wide manual recount of invalidated ballots that had been authorized by the Supreme Court of Florida, effectively made Bush the nation's forty-third president" (Fitzpatrickd, 2002).
In so doing, they delivered to George W. Bush not a popular mandate
This is the view taken by Salvaggio (1984), who observes that "Butler places her heroines in worlds filled with racial and sexual obstacles, forcing her characters to survive and eventually overcome these societal barriers to their independence. Sometimes her black heroines are paired with white men who challenge their abilities; sometimes they are paired with powerful black men who threaten their very autonomy and existence. And always, the society in which they live constantly reminds them of barriers to their independence." (Salvaggio, 78) This is to make the case that Butler's use of time travel is as a way of reminding Dana not just of her past but of the way that these dynamics remain relevant to the present, even where the conditions of her life have allowed her to assume otherwise. As other black women continued to live lives of inequality and subjugation even late into the 20th century,…...
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Works Cited:
Butler, O.E. (1979). Kindred. Beacon Press.
Kenan, R. (1991). An Interview With Octavio E. Butler. Callaloo, 14(2), 495-504.
Salvaggio, R. (1984). Octavia Butler and the Black Science-Fiction Heroine. St. Louis University.
As Alexie himself recalls, this was truly the character -- or perhaps the concept, and the idea -- that truly germinated into the full novel. The author heard an interview with the flight instructor of one of the men responsible for the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the sense of personal betrayal that this real-life flight instructor felt was made palpable for Zits just as it was made perfectly clear and intriguing to Alexie (NP 2007). Zits learns that no act of violence is complete in and of itself, and that it does not only make large statements, but instead that some of its most important and lasting effects are deeply personal and often unpredictable. Violence is inherently a lack of control, and so one cannot control its effects nor limit them simply to the people that the violence directly affects.
The last personality that Zits occupies is that of…...
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References
Alexie, S. (2007). Flight. New York: Grove Press.
NPR. (2007). "Author Sherman Alexie talks 'Flight.'" Accessed 22 November 2010.
Trip of a Lifetime
Bon Giorno, Italia! This is the trip of a lifetime to Italy, financed by a $50,000.00 inheritance from a nonexistent relative. The trip is for two people, including Yours Truly and a good friend who shall be known as "Zippy." Money is fortunately no object, as most researched financial aspects of this trip are stunningly high. Unfortunately, our time is limited to a two-week period, which is not long enough.
Destinations
Below is a map including our destinations of Milan, Venice, San Marino, Rome, Naples, and Florence:
(Google.com)
Transportation
To Italy:
e will take a one-way flight from LAX in Los Angeles to Milan, Italy's Linate Airport on May 1, 2012 on KLM Airlines at a cost of $6,586.04USD, arriving shortly after Noon on May 2, 2012 (KLM Royal Dutch Airlines). Fortunately, KLM does not charge extra for 1 piece of luggage and 1 carry-on, and we both anticipate carrying no more luggage…...
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Works Cited
About.com. "Top Florence Attractions." 2012. Goitaly.about.com Web site. Web. 26 March 2012.
Auto Europe. "Peugeot 308 Cabrio or similar." 26 March 2012. Auto Europe Web site. Web. 26 March 2012.
Bakerjian, Martha . "Venice Italy Travel Guide." 2012. Goitaly.about.com Web site. Web. 26 March 2012.
Bauer Palladio Hotel & Spa, Venice. "Confirm Your Reservation." 2012. Bauerpalladio.hotelinvenice.com Web site. Web. 26 March 2012.
As it had been said earlier, people would rather take their own car or rent a car when going on a trip. In most cases, this leaves them with more money spent, and a greater risk of being part of an accident. In comparison, those that choose to travel by plane are much more relaxed and can enjoy being driven by a professional pilot that is experienced in avoiding dangerous situations. In contrast, almost anyone that has a driver's license can drive a car, regardless of their experience. From that, one can understand that it is much safer to be a plane passenger than it is to be a car passenger.
There are far more chances of a car crashing into another than there are of a plane crashing into another. hile the air traffic is constantly controlled by experts, the land traffic is rarely controlled by policemen.
Art History ime ravel
Our first stop will be the eighteenth century, where we will investigate Neoclassical painting. We will be visiting Sir Joshua Reynolds, as he works on his 1770 oil on canvas "Portrait of a Black Man" -- and we will be asking if the heroic structure of the painting is meant to contain some sort of ideological message, for example asserting the humanity of his subject against the evils of slavery (which was then still common). We should also find out if indeed the portrait is of Dr. Samuel Johnson's servant Francis Barber, as Johnson's progressive attitude in opposing slavery (and his generous treatment of Barber, to whom he left his estate) might explain why this figure is treated heroically in the painting. hen we will visit Jacques-Louis David, as he works on his stark 1793 Neoclassical oil on canvas depiction of "he Death of Marat." We will…...
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The time machine will stop next in the later nineteenth century, when we will investigate some Impressionist painting. Our first stop will be in London in 1875, to interrogate the American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler about his oil on canvas study "Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket." We will want to interrogate him about the lawsuit that he filed against the art critic John Ruskin, who accused him of "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face" with this daring painting. We will also interrogate Whistler as to whether he would consider the painting to be Impressionist or not -- it seems like he may have considered it to be straightforward realism (fading fireworks in the night sky do look like this painting) but chose the obscure subject to illustrate a Wildean idea of art for art's sake. We will then move to Claude Monet's garden at Giverny, where we will attempt to catch him completing his 1897-8 "Nympheas" (one of his famous paintings of water lilies, now in the LA County Museum of Art). Monet is a textbook Impressionist painter, but we will interrogate him as to whether his problems with his own eyesight (he developed cataracts) had any influence on his signature style.
In the first half of the twentieth century, we will investigate Surrealism. We will locate Meret Oppenheim in 1936, as she completes her notorious "Object" -- frequently known as "the fur teacup" or "the furry breakfast." Oppenheim's work is perhaps the most memorable example of Surrealism in sculpture -- but we can ask her if the dream-like associations of the piece (is it intended to be strongly vaginal? does it relate to her status as a woman artist?) were intentional on her part, or whether she was merely giving free rein to her subconscious as Surrealists frequently attempted. Then we will find Salvador Dali in 1954, as he completes his large and disturbing oil on canvas painting "Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized By The Horns Of Her Own Chastity." We can interrogate Dali as to the meaning of the symbolism of the painting: why would the chastity of a virgin take the form of a rhinoceros horn about to penetrate her own anus? Is Dali suggesting that sexual repression is self-destructive?
HG Wells' the Time Machine reminds me of the contemporary state of the world and its problems that can actually be reduced to three attributes: environmental causes, political conditions, and economic conditions.
Environmental conditions:
The Eloi seem at first sight to be a peaceful Utopian community who, although not intellectual, has used technology to control their environment and to make it work for them. Only through the duration of the book and more significantly much later, does the narrator realize that the activities of the Eloi have actually despoiled the environment. The traveler travels ahead to approximately 30 million years ahead of his own time and sees lecherous insects swarm over the country and ravage it. The further he travels, the more closely he sees the earth's rotation gradually cease, the planet become increasingly colder, and the Earth become a more forbidding, dank, and lifeless place. Eloi and similar civilizations have ruined…...
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References
Wells, HG The definitive Time machine: a critical edition of H.G. Well's scientific romance Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
Schwartz-Nobel, Loretta. Poisoned nation: pollution, greed, and the rise of deadly epidemics
New York: St. Martin's Press, 2007.
Jenkins, M. What's gotten into us?: staying healthy in a toxic world. New York: Random House, 2011.
Mohammad said that the true wealth of the person is measured not only in dreams but action, which I supported publishing an environmental column in the newspaper El Vocero. The column dealt with the importance of coral preservation and education, an issue critical to the survival of a tropical island, and something I knew I could share not only through words but also through image.
My dreams get bigger by the day, as does my determination to see them through. I have come to understand, even in my early years, the important balance that exists between man and earth; if one understands the need for environmental protection, it is a matter of responsibility to share that knowledge. While I set in motion the banner I know I must carry for the preservation of the environment, I also spur others on to hold and remember the causes close to their heart,…...
Contract law exists to ensure that agreements between two or more parties are honored by every party. In this regard, contract law is based on the principle that agreements between two parties are legally enforceable since every part needs to honor his/her part of the deal. Despite the constant changes in contract laws because of the uniqueness of contractual situations, there are some basic elements that must exist for a contract to be established between the parties. The existence of these elements is usually used as the premise for addressing contractual issues that may arise between the parties during execution of the terms of the agreement. The use of these elements help in determining the existence of a valid contract, especially when issues emerge during the fulfillment of each party's obligations or when one party denies the existence of a contract with another.
One of the situations in this scenario that…...
Travelling and Tourism contributes to U.S. Economy
How travelling and tourism contribute to U.S. economy
Annotation
Websites
United States Department of Commerce
Commerce Department Data Show U.S. Travel and Tourism Exports Contributed $87.1 Billion to U.S. Economy in First Six Months of 2013
The official website of the U.S. Department of Commerce takes keen interest in finding who enters the country for the purpose of traveling and tourism and what is the impact of traveling on the economy of the country. The department oversees International Trade Administration. It is found that the international investors contribute multibillions to the economy of country every year. During the month of June this year, the international investors contribute about $14.6 billion. The contribution is increasing every year and from June 2012 to June 2013, the investment increased about 5%. The role of international travelers and tourists is positive on the economy of USA. Only in the first half of the…...
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References
Guido, C., and Paolo, F. "The Economics of Tourism Destinations," Springer. (2012).
This focus on the positive benefits of consumer word of mouth behaviour is a natural tendency. I certainly like to think that positive comments have a greater impact on my decisions than negative comments. In fact, the respondents to the survey reported that the two factors that had the biggest impact on their airline choices were comparison-shopping on the Internet (38%) and personal recommendations from an acquaintance on Facebook or Twitter (42%). but, although personal recommendations have a clear impact on choices, the question is whether positive comments have a greater impact than negative comments. This distinction has not yet been made with regard to word of mouth marketing effects. The U.S. national election in 2004 was viewed by many as the most negative in recent memory (Johnson, 2011). Why would hard-nosed politicians with limited budgets invest so much in negative advertising if positive comments had greater impact on…...
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Bibliography
Arnold, S.E., 2010. Twitter can lower marketing costs -- how to put the cost effective service to good use, Smart Business San Diego.
Brown, J., Broderick, a.J. And Lee, N., 2007. Word of mouth communication within online communities: conceptualizing the online social network, Journal of Interactive Marketing, 21(3), pp.2-20;
Curran, James M. 2011. Lennon, Ron. Participating in the Conversation: Exploring Usage of Social Media Networking Sites. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, Vol. 15.
Doganis, Rigas. The Airline Business in the Twenty-First Century. Book by Routledge, 2010.
This strategy targets not only the traveler who has already made a decision to go on a vacation, but also the traveler who is only perusing the idea.
Cheap Tickets.com offers a similar service and similar e-commerce strategies. Like Orbitz, cheap tickets allows customers to run personalized searches and informs travelers about trip ideas and deals through a travel deals blog. Cheap Tickets, however, employs several different e-commerce strategies. The site offers tickets for live events, a service comparable to that of Ticketmaster. This strategy allows customers who are booking travel in a certain area to simultaneously scan for events they wish to attend and book their tickets, a convenience that Orbitz.com does not offer. Similarly, Cheap Tickets caters to customers who are looking for a last minuet deal on a destination or event with the deal of the week. By employing these strategies, the web site not only entices…...
Not many things in recent history have brought as much controversy as the Trump Administration travel ban. Some have seen this ban as unfair and demonstrating the ugly side of the United States and its Government. There are reasons for this. The travel ban is cruel and inhumane, the Government should not support a travel ban because no one should be profiled due to race or religion, travel is a human right, and the U.S. is a safe place for refugees.
The travel ban provides much cause for concern because of the potential legality of such an extreme measure. Half a century ago, the American Government chose to outlaw the discrimination seen in the Trump travel ban. “More than 50 years ago, Congress outlawed such discrimination against immigrants based on national origin.” (Bier) Additionally the travel ban puts the United States in a bad light, as other countries may see the…...
.....office, Trump issued an executive order banning people from seven Muslim countries from entering the United States, and simultaneously stopped accepting refugees from Syria. The affected countries included Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya. Several months after the original executive order, the Trump administration removed Iraq from the list of banned countries. The executive order created a legal fiasco, a social miasma, and certain economic downturn not just for the affected nations but for the United States, too.
On its legal merits alone, the executive order has been challenged several times. Initial confusion was related to whether or not existing Green Card holders and tourist visa holders from the Muslim nations would still be permitted entry or re-entry into the United States. Similarly, there were legal questions about whether pending Green Card applications or tourist visa applications would be processed or denied outright. Other related issues included the outright…...
Here are some lesser-known but interesting essay topics in science:
1. The science of happiness: Explore the research on what factors contribute to happiness and how it can be scientifically measured and enhanced.
2. The impact of technology on human evolution: Discuss how advancements in technology, particularly in fields like gene editing and artificial intelligence, are shaping the future of human evolution.
3. The science of decision-making: Investigate the cognitive processes and biological factors that influence our decision-making abilities and how they can be improved.
4. The role of microbiomes in human health: Examine how the trillions of microbes living in and on our....
1. Thought-provoking Query: Imagine a world where the past is not a fixed entity but a malleable tapestry, waiting to be reshaped by the hands of those willing to dare. What if time travel were not just a pipe dream, but a tangible possibility? How would the ability to alter the past influence our present and future?
2. Historical Enigma: Throughout history, we have pondered the mysteries of the past. From the assassination of Julius Caesar to the sinking of the Titanic, countless events have left an indelible mark on the course of human civilization. What if we could go back....
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