Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is a fictional book. which establishes the relationship between the protagonist Katniss, and the protagonist Peeta. Katniss is a 16 year old girl who lives In District twelve, Panem. She Is the sole provider for her family and competes in the Hunger Games, a game where two people from each of the twelve districts are chosen to fight to the death. Peeta is a 16 year old boy who is also from District Twelve who competes in the Hunger Games with Katniss.Throughout the book there s great debate on whether Katniss and Peeta are in love, or not in love. Katniss pretends to be In love with Peeta because It helps her In the Games, and It Is an act of survival. Peeta on the other hand is deeply in love with Katniss. Throughout the book Katniss often finds herself making multiple references back to her friend, Gale, who has been her best friend for years. She wonders what life would be like with Katniss pretends to be in love with Peeta. She sees It as her only way of survival In the Games.When she and Peeta are in an affectionate state, the Capitol audience is ntertained. This results In her and Peeta getting both food and messages from their mentor Haymitch and their sponsors. Luckily, they entertain the audience enough to survive the games but towards the end of the book Peeta says to Katniss, â€Å"It was all for the games, how you acted. † (Pg. 372) This is legitimate proof that Katniss only pretended to be in love with Peeta. Based on much evidence from the book, it is revealed that Peeta is deeply in love with Katniss.Prior to the beginning of the Games, both Katniss and Peeta had to take art In a pre-game Interview. In Peeta's Interview. he tells the audience how winning the games would not help his situation because he is deeply in love with Katniss. Katniss was not happy with Peeta's statement, but later In the book calmly asks him, â€Å"Peeta, you said at the interview you'd had a crush on me forever. When did forever start? † ( Pg. 300) Peeta responded, â€Å"Oh let's see. I guess the first day of school. We were five. You had on a red plaid dress and your hair†¦ it was in two braids Instead of one.My father pointed your out. (Pg. 300) This is the most heart-felt moment between the two; however Katniss only asked Peeta the question because she knew she had to keep entertaining the audience. Her strategy to manipulate Peeta's emotions was a great advantage to her game. Katniss often makes references back to her friend Gale, her long time best friend that Is back home In District Twelve. She has mixed feelings about him because when Katniss was about to leave for the games, Gale was saying good bye to Katniss and was cut short with the slamming of a door.There are many misinterpretations about what Gale was trying to say to Katniss. Most people, Including Katniss, think that he ‘OF2 was aoout to say â€Å"l love you Inls unnnlsnea sentence OlsturDs Katnlss aurlng tne games when she has mixed fee lings about Peeta. Katniss thinks to herself, â€Å"Gale's not my boyfriend, but would he be, if I opened that door? † (Pg. 280) Any person who is truly in love would not be thinking about other men in this way. Throughout the Hunger Games there is great talk on whether Katniss and Peeta are in love, or not.Katniss pretends to be in love with Peeta because it helps her in the Games, and she uses it as an act of survival. Peeta on the other hand, is deeply in love with Katniss. During the book Katniss often finds herself making multiple mentions back to her friend, Gale, who has been her best friend and hunting buddy for years. She wonders what life would be like if she was with him. Too conclude, Katniss and Peeta are not meant to be. They have completely different individualities and although it may seem that their pretend love is mutual, it is not. Hunger Games The Hunger Games is a fictional book. which establishes the relationship between the protagonist Katniss, and the protagonist Peeta. Katniss is a 16 year old girl who lives In District twelve, Panem. She Is the sole provider for her family and competes in the Hunger Games, a game where two people from each of the twelve districts are chosen to fight to the death. Peeta is a 16 year old boy who is also from District Twelve who competes in the Hunger Games with Katniss.Throughout the book there s great debate on whether Katniss and Peeta are in love, or not in love. Katniss pretends to be In love with Peeta because It helps her In the Games, and It Is an act of survival. Peeta on the other hand is deeply in love with Katniss. Throughout the book Katniss often finds herself making multiple references back to her friend, Gale, who has been her best friend for years. She wonders what life would be like with Katniss pretends to be in love with Peeta. She sees It as her only way of survival In the Games.When she and Peeta are in an affectionate state, the Capitol audience is ntertained. This results In her and Peeta getting both food and messages from their mentor Haymitch and their sponsors. Luckily, they entertain the audience enough to survive the games but towards the end of the book Peeta says to Katniss, â€Å"It was all for the games, how you acted. † (Pg. 372) This is legitimate proof that Katniss only pretended to be in love with Peeta. Based on much evidence from the book, it is revealed that Peeta is deeply in love with Katniss.Prior to the beginning of the Games, both Katniss and Peeta had to take art In a pre-game Interview. In Peeta's Interview. he tells the audience how winning the games would not help his situation because he is deeply in love with Katniss. Katniss was not happy with Peeta's statement, but later In the book calmly asks him, â€Å"Peeta, you said at the interview you'd had a crush on me forever. When did forever start? † ( Pg. 300) Peeta responded, â€Å"Oh let's see. I guess the first day of school. We were five. You had on a red plaid dress and your hair†¦ it was in two braids Instead of one.My father pointed your out. (Pg. 300) This is the most heart-felt moment between the two; however Katniss only asked Peeta the question because she knew she had to keep entertaining the audience. Her strategy to manipulate Peeta's emotions was a great advantage to her game. Katniss often makes references back to her friend Gale, her long time best friend that Is back home In District Twelve. She has mixed feelings about him because when Katniss was about to leave for the games, Gale was saying good bye to Katniss and was cut short with the slamming of a door.There are many misinterpretations about what Gale was trying to say to Katniss. Most people, Including Katniss, think that he ‘OF2 was aoout to say â€Å"l love you Inls unnnlsnea sentence OlsturDs Katnlss aurlng tne games when she has mixed fee lings about Peeta. Katniss thinks to herself, â€Å"Gale's not my boyfriend, but would he be, if I opened that door? † (Pg. 280) Any person who is truly in love would not be thinking about other men in this way. Throughout the Hunger Games there is great talk on whether Katniss and Peeta are in love, or not.Katniss pretends to be in love with Peeta because it helps her in the Games, and she uses it as an act of survival. Peeta on the other hand, is deeply in love with Katniss. During the book Katniss often finds herself making multiple mentions back to her friend, Gale, who has been her best friend and hunting buddy for years. She wonders what life would be like if she was with him. Too conclude, Katniss and Peeta are not meant to be. They have completely different individualities and although it may seem that their pretend love is mutual, it is not.

A Game of Thrones Chapter Twelve

Eddard The summons came in the hour before the dawn, when the world was still and grey. Alyn shook him roughly from his dreams and Ned stumbled into the predawn chill, groggy from sleep, to find his horse saddled and the king already mounted. Robert wore thick brown gloves and a heavy fur cloak with a hood that covered his ears, and looked for all the world like a bear sitting a horse. â€Å"Up, Stark!† he roared. â€Å"Up, up! We have matters of state to discuss.† â€Å"By all means,† Ned said. â€Å"Come inside, Your Grace.† Alyn lifted the flap of the tent. â€Å"No, no, no,† Robert said. His breath steamed with every word. â€Å"The camp is full of ears. Besides, I want to ride out and taste this country of yours.† Ser Boros and Ser Meryn waited behind him with a dozen guardsmen, Ned saw. There was nothing to do but rub the sleep from his eyes, dress, and mount up. Robert set the pace, driving his huge black destrier hard as Ned galloped along beside him, trying to keep up. He called out a question as they rode, but the wind blew his words away, and the king did not hear him. After that Ned rode in silence. They soon left the kingsroad and took off across rolling plains dark with mist. By then the guard had fallen back a small distance, safely out of earshot, but still Robert would not slow. Dawn broke as they crested a low ridge, and finally the king pulled up. By then they were miles south of the main party. Robert was flushed and exhilarated as Ned reined up beside him. â€Å"Gods,† he swore, laughing, â€Å"it feels good to get out and ride the way a man was meant to ride! I swear, Ned, this creeping along is enough to drive a man mad.† He had never been a patient man, Robert Baratheon. â€Å"That damnable wheelhouse, the way it creaks and groans, climbing every bump in the road as if it were a mountain . . . I promise you, if that wretched thing breaks another axle, I'm going to burn it, and Cersei can walk!† Ned laughed. â€Å"I will gladly light the torch for you.† â€Å"Good man!† The king clapped him on the shoulder. â€Å"I've half a mind to leave them all behind and just keep going.† A smile touched Ned's lips. â€Å"I do believe you mean it.† â€Å"I do, I do,† the king said. â€Å"What do you say, Ned? Just you and me, two vagabond knights on the kingsroad, our swords at our sides and the gods know what in front of us, and maybe a farmer's daughter or a tavern wench to warm our beds tonight.† â€Å"Would that we could,† Ned said, â€Å"but we have duties now, my liege . . . to the realm, to our children, I to my lady wife and you to your queen. We are not the boys we were.† â€Å"You were never the boy you were,† Robert grumbled. â€Å"More's the pity. And yet there was that one time . . . what was her name, that common girl of yours? Becca? No, she was one of mine, gods love her, black hair and these sweet big eyes, you could drown in them. Yours was . . . Aleena? No. You told me once. Was it Merryl? You know the one I mean, your bastard's mother?† â€Å"Her name was Wylla,† Ned replied with cool courtesy, â€Å"and I would sooner not speak of her.† â€Å"Wylla. Yes.† The king grinned. â€Å"She must have been a rare wench if she could make Lord Eddard Stark forget his honor, even for an hour. You never told me what she looked like . . . â€Å" Ned's mouth tightened in anger. â€Å"Nor will I. Leave it be, Robert, for the love you say you bear me. I dishonored myself and I dishonored Catelyn, in the sight of gods and men.† â€Å"Gods have mercy, you scarcely knew Catelyn.† â€Å"I had taken her to wife. She was carrying my child.† â€Å"You are too hard on yourself, Ned. You always were. Damn it, no woman wants Baelor the Blessed in her bed.† He slapped a hand on his knee. â€Å"Well, I'll not press you if you feel so strong about it, though I swear, at times you're so prickly you ought to take the hedgehog as your sigil.† The rising sun sent fingers of light through the pale white mists of dawn. A wide plain spread out beneath them, bare and brown, its flatness here and there relieved by long, low hummocks. Ned pointed them out to his king. â€Å"The barrows of the First Men.† Robert frowned. â€Å"Have we ridden onto a graveyard?† â€Å"There are barrows everywhere in the north, Your Grace,† Ned told him. â€Å"This land is old.† â€Å"And cold,† Robert grumbled, pulling his cloak more tightly around himself. The guard had reined up well behind them, at the bottom of the ridge. â€Å"Well, I did not bring you out here to talk of graves or bicker about your bastard. There was a rider in the night, from Lord Varys in King's Landing. Here.† The king pulled a paper from his belt and handed it to Ned. Varys the eunuch was the king's master of whisperers. He served Robert now as he had once served Aerys Targaryen. Ned unrolled the paper with trepidation, thinking of Lysa and her terrible accusation, but the message did not concern Lady Arryn. â€Å"What is the source for this information?† â€Å"Do you remember Ser Jorah Mormont?† â€Å"Would that I might forget him,† Ned said bluntly. The Mormonts of Bear Island were an old house, proud and honorable, but their lands were cold and distant and poor. Ser Jorah had tried to swell the family coffers by selling some poachers to a Tyroshi slaver. As the Mormonts were bannermen to the Starks, his crime had dishonored the north. Ned had made the long journey west to BearIsland, only to find when he arrived that Jorah had taken ship beyond the reach of Ice and the king's justice. Five years had passed since then. â€Å"Ser Jorah is now in Pentos, anxious to earn a royal pardon that would allow him to return from exile,† Robert explained. â€Å"Lord Varys makes good use of him.† â€Å"So the slaver has become a spy,† Ned said with distaste. He handed the letter back. â€Å"I would rather he become a corpse.† â€Å"Varys tells me that spies are more useful than corpses,† Robert said. â€Å"Jorah aside, what do you make of his report?† â€Å"Daenerys Targaryen has wed some Dothraki horselord. What of it? Shall we send her a wedding gift?† The king frowned. â€Å"A knife, perhaps. A good sharp one, and a bold man to wield it.† Ned did not feign surprise; Robert's hatred of the Targaryens was a madness in him. He remembered the angry words they had exchanged when Tywin Lannister had presented Robert with the corpses of Rhaegar's wife and children as a token of fealty. Ned had named that murder; Robert called it war. When he had protested that the young prince and princess were no more than babes, his new-made king had replied, â€Å"I see no babes. Only dragonspawn.† Not even Jon Arryn had been able to calm that storm. Eddard Stark had ridden out that very day in a cold rage, to fight the last battles of the war alone in the south. It had taken another death to reconcile them; Lyanna's death, and the grief they had shared over her passing. This time, Ned resolved to keep his temper. â€Å"Your Grace, the girl is scarcely more than a child. You are no Tywin Lannister, to slaughter innocents.† It was said that Rhaegar's little girl had cried as they dragged her from beneath her bed to face the swords. The boy had been no more than a babe in arms, yet Lord Tywin's soldiers had torn him from his mother's breast and dashed his head against a wall. â€Å"And how long will this one remain an innocent?† Robert's mouth grew hard. â€Å"This child will soon enough spread her legs and start breeding more dragonspawn to plague me.† â€Å"Nonetheless,† Ned said, â€Å"the murder of children . . . it would be vile . . . unspeakable . . . â€Å" â€Å"Unspeakable?† the king roared. â€Å"What Aerys did to your brother Brandon was unspeakable. The way your lord father died, that was unspeakable. And Rhaegar . . . how many times do you think he raped your sister? How many hundreds of times?† His voice had grown so loud that his horse whinnied nervously beneath him. The king jerked the reins hard, quieting the animal, and pointed an angry finger at Ned. â€Å"I will kill every Targaryen I can get my hands on, until they are as dead as their dragons, and then I will piss on their graves.† Ned knew better than to defy him when the wrath was on him. If the years had not quenched Robert's thirst for revenge, no words of his would help. â€Å"You can't get your hands on this one, can you?† he said quietly. The king's mouth twisted in a bitter grimace. â€Å"No, gods be cursed. Some pox-ridden Pentoshi cheesemonger had her brother and her walled up on his estate with pointy-hatted eunuchs all around them, and now he's handed them over to the Dothraki. I should have had them both killed years ago, when it was easy to get at them, but Jon was as bad as you. More fool I, I listened to him.† â€Å"Jon Arryn was a wise man and a good Hand.† Robert snorted. The anger was leaving him as suddenly as it had come. â€Å"This Khal Drogo is said to have a hundred thousand men in his horde. What would Jon say to that?† â€Å"He would say that even a million Dothraki are no threat to the realm, so long as they remain on the other side of the narrow sea,† Ned replied calmly. â€Å"The barbarians have no ships. They hate and fear the open sea.† The king shifted uncomfortably in his saddle. â€Å"Perhaps. There are ships to be had in the Free Cities, though. I tell you, Ned, I do not like this marriage. There are still those in the Seven Kingdoms who call me Usurper. Do you forget how many houses fought for Targaryen in the war? They bide their time for now, but give them half a chance, they will murder me in my bed, and my sons with me. If the beggar king crosses with a Dothraki horde at his back, the traitors will join him.† â€Å"He will not cross,† Ned promised. â€Å"And if by some mischance he does, we will throw him back into the sea. Once you choose a new Warden of the East—† The king groaned. â€Å"For the last time, I will not name the Arryn boy Warden. I know the boy is your nephew, but with Targaryens climbing in bed with Dothraki, I would be mad to rest one quarter of the realm on the shoulders of a sickly child.† Ned was ready for that. â€Å"Yet we still must have a Warden of the East. If Robert Arryn will not do, name one of your brothers. Stannis proved himself at the siege of Storm's End, surely.† He let the name hang there for a moment. The king frowned and said nothing. He looked uncomfortable. â€Å"That is,† Ned finished quietly, watching, â€Å"unless you have already promised the honor to another.† For a moment Robert had the grace to look startled. Just as quickly, the look became annoyance. â€Å"What if I have?† â€Å"It's Jaime Lannister, is it not?† Robert kicked his horse back into motion and started down the ridge toward the barrows. Ned kept pace with him. The king rode on, eyes straight ahead. â€Å"Yes,† he said at last. A single hard word to end the matter. â€Å"Kingslayer,† Ned said. The rumors were true, then. He rode on dangerous ground now, he knew. â€Å"An able and courageous man, no doubt,† he said carefully, â€Å"but his father is Warden of the West, Robert. In time Ser Jaime will succeed to that honor. No one man should hold both East and West.† He left unsaid his real concern; that the appointment would put half the armies of the realm into the hands of Lannisters. â€Å"I will fight that battle when the enemy appears on the field,† the king said stubbornly. â€Å"At the moment, Lord Tywin looms eternal as Casterly Rock, so I doubt that Jaime will be succeeding anytime soon. Don't vex me about this, Ned, the stone has been set.† â€Å"Your Grace, may I speak frankly?† â€Å"I seem unable to stop you,† Robert grumbled. They rode through tall brown grasses. â€Å"Can you trust Jaime Lannister?† â€Å"He is my wife's twin, a Sworn Brother of the Kingsguard, his life and fortune and honor all bound to mine.† â€Å"As they were bound to Aerys Targaryen's,† Ned pointed out. â€Å"Why should I mistrust him? He has done everything I have ever asked of him. His sword helped win the throne I sit on.† His sword helped taint the throne you sit on, Ned thought, but he did not permit the words to pass his lips. â€Å"He swore a vow to protect his king's life with his own. Then he opened that king's throat with a sword.† â€Å"Seven hells, someone had to kill Aerys!† Robert said, reining his mount to a sudden halt beside an ancient barrow. â€Å"If Jaime hadn't done it, it would have been left for you or me.† â€Å"We were not Sworn Brothers of the Kingsguard,† Ned said. The time had come for Robert to hear the whole truth, he decided then and there. â€Å"Do you remember the Trident, Your Grace?† â€Å"I won my crown there. How should I forget it?† â€Å"You took a wound from Rhaegar,† Ned reminded him. â€Å"So when the Targaryen host broke and ran, you gave the pursuit into my hands. The remnants of Rhaegar's army fled back to King's Landing. We followed. Aerys was in the Red Keep with several thousand loyalists. I expected to find the gates closed to us.† Robert gave an impatient shake of his head. â€Å"Instead you found that our men had already taken the city. What of it?† â€Å"Not our men,† Ned said patiently. â€Å"Lannister men. The lion of Lannister flew over the ramparts, not the crowned stag. And they had taken the city by treachery.† The war had raged for close to a year. Lords great and small had flocked to Robert's banners; others had remained loyal to Targaryen. The mighty Lannisters of Casterly Rock, the Wardens of the West, had remained aloof from the struggle, ignoring calls to arms from both rebels and royalists. Aerys Targaryen must have thought that his gods had answered his prayers when Lord Tywin Lannister appeared before the gates of King's Landing with an army twelve thousand strong, professing loyalty. So the mad king had ordered his last mad act. He had opened his city to the lions at the gate. â€Å"Treachery was a coin the Targaryens knew well,† Robert said. The anger was building in him again. â€Å"Lannister paid them back in kind. It was no less than they deserved. I shall not trouble my sleep over it.† â€Å"You were not there,† Ned said, bitterness in his voice. Troubled sleep was no stranger to him. He had lived his lies for fourteen years, yet they still haunted him at night. â€Å"There was no honor in that conquest.† â€Å"The Others take your honor!† Robert swore. â€Å"What did any Targaryen ever know of honor? Go down into your crypt and ask Lyanna about the dragon's honor!† â€Å"You avenged Lyanna at the Trident,† Ned said, halting beside the king. Promise me, Ned, she had whispered. â€Å"That did not bring her back.† Robert looked away, off into the grey distance. â€Å"The gods be damned. It was a hollow victory they gave me. A crown . . . it was the girl I prayed them for. Your sister, safe . . . and mine again, as she was meant to be. I ask you, Ned, what good is it to wear a crown? The gods mock the prayers of kings and cowherds alike.† â€Å"I cannot answer for the gods, Your Grace . . . only for what I found when I rode into the throne room that day,† Ned said. â€Å"Aerys was dead on the floor, drowned in his own blood. His dragon skulls stared down from the walls. Lannister's men were everywhere. Jaime wore the white cloak of the Kingsguard over his golden armor. I can see him still. Even his sword was gilded. He was seated on the Iron Throne, high above his knights, wearing a helm fashioned in the shape of a lion's head. How he glittered!† â€Å"This is well known,† the king complained. â€Å"I was still mounted. I rode the length of the hall in silence, between the long rows of dragon skulls. It felt as though they were watching me, somehow. I stopped in front of the throne, looking up at him. His golden sword was across his legs, its edge red with a king's blood. My men were filling the room behind me. Lannister's men drew back. I never said a word. I looked at him seated there on the throne, and I waited. At last Jaime laughed and got up. He took off his helm, and he said to me, ‘Have no fear, Stark. I was only keeping it warm for our friend Robert. It's not a very comfortable seat, I'm afraid.' â€Å" The king threw back his head and roared. His laughter startled a flight of crows from the tall brown grass. They took to the air in a wild beating of wings. â€Å"You think I should mistrust Lannister because he sat on my throne for a few moments?† He shook with laughter again. â€Å"Jaime was all of seventeen, Ned. Scarce more than a boy.† â€Å"Boy or man, he had no right to that throne.† â€Å"Perhaps he was tired,† Robert suggested. â€Å"Killing kings is weary work. Gods know, there's no place else to rest your ass in that damnable room. And he spoke truly, it is a monstrous uncomfortable chair. In more ways than one.† The king shook his head. â€Å"Well, now I know Jaime's dark sin, and the matter can be forgotten. I am heartily sick of secrets and squabbles and matters of state, Ned. It's all as tedious as counting coppers. Come, let's ride, you used to know how. I want to feel the wind in my hair again.† He kicked his horse back into motion and galloped up over the barrow, raining earth down behind him. For a moment Ned did not follow. He had run out of words, and he was filled with a vast sense of helplessness. Not for the first time, he wondered what he was doing here and why he had come. He was no Jon Arryn, to curb the wildness of his king and teach him wisdom. Robert would do what he pleased, as he always had, and nothing Ned could say or do would change that. He belonged in Winterfell. He belonged with Catelyn in her grief, and with Bran. A man could not always be where he belonged, though. Resigned, Eddard Stark put his boots into his horse and set off after the king.

Adolf Hitler and Japanese Canadians War

Discuss the role that Italy played in World War II. How did the nation become involved in the conflict? How did its participation affect the direction of the war and Germany’s fortunes? 3. Discuss the issues surrounding the United States’ decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. What motives were behind this action, and what arguments have been made against it? 4. Explain how the situation in Europe immediately following the fall of Germany led directly to the Cold War. In your opinion, should the Western Allies have acted to oppose Soviet domination of Eastern Europe? 5. Consider the role of technology during World War II. Did it fundamentally affect the outcome of the war? If so, how? If not, why not? 6. Compare the roles of Germany and Japan during World War II. Generally speaking, were their aggressions fundamentally similar or fundamentally different? . Explain Germany’s mistakes in Russia and the ways in which they affected the outcome of the war. 8. Why did the British government give in to German demands regarding Czechoslovakia in 1938, but took a relatively firmer stand over Poland in 1939? 9. Compare Soviet and British policies toward Poland between 1943 and 1945, focusing on both aims and outcomes. 10. Did the nature of German rearmament b etween 1935 and 1939 support the view that Hitler was planning for a Blitzkrieg war? 11. Asses and explain whether the internment of Japanese Canadians justified during World War Two? 2. Discuss the major differences between how the allies treated Germany after World War Two with World War One and how it may have been better. 13. Compare the strategic significance of the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Britain. 14. Discuss Blittzkrieg and the importance of this tactic during World War Two. 15. Assess and explain the role of women during WWII and compare them to WWI. 16. The Second World War had consequences for European society and the world at large that were every bit as profound as the changes wrought by World War I. Assess these consequences as they became evident in 1945 as the war ended as well as for the years following from the standpoint of physical losses (casualties, refugees, infrastructure, etc. ) as well as the political and territorial settlements in Europe and the world at large. 17. To what extent were the German’s people responsible for Hitler/ Holocaust. 18. Compare WWI to WWII, identifying similarities in the causes, development, and outcomes of the wars. Other topics to consider Appeasement (WLM King) Isolationism The Treaty of Versailles The League of Nations (failure of) Dieppe D-Day (Juno Beach) Liberation of Holland Dunkirk (evacuation of) Battle of Britain Battle of the Atlantic Role of Technology / Canadian war production Anti-Semitism in Canada Internment of Japanese Canadians War on the homefront – War production / Changing role of women TOPIC LIST Blitzkreig The Battle of the Atlantic Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (Wrens) Lebensraum The Brtsh Commonwealth Air Training Plan Canadian Women’s Auxiliary Airforce Occupation of the Rhineland Camp X The Munich Pact Cdn Women’s Army Corps D-Day The Nazi-Soviet Non Aggression Pact The Battle for Normandy Canadian War Brides Dunkirk Treaty of Versailles The Royal Cdn Air Force Wm. L. Mackenzie King War on the Homefront War Propaganda The Home Front General Guy Simonds Canada and the Italian Campaign Conscription The Scheldt Estuary The Internment of Japanese Canadians Liberation of the Netherlands Canada and Hong Kong Juno Beach The Battle of the Atlantic VE Day Dieppe Verrieres Ridge Adolf Hitler and Japanese Canadians War Discuss the role that Italy played in World War II. How did the nation become involved in the conflict? How did its participation affect the direction of the war and Germany’s fortunes? 3. Discuss the issues surrounding the United States’ decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. What motives were behind this action, and what arguments have been made against it? 4. Explain how the situation in Europe immediately following the fall of Germany led directly to the Cold War. In your opinion, should the Western Allies have acted to oppose Soviet domination of Eastern Europe? 5. Consider the role of technology during World War II. Did it fundamentally affect the outcome of the war? If so, how? If not, why not? 6. Compare the roles of Germany and Japan during World War II. Generally speaking, were their aggressions fundamentally similar or fundamentally different? . Explain Germany’s mistakes in Russia and the ways in which they affected the outcome of the war. 8. Why did the British government give in to German demands regarding Czechoslovakia in 1938, but took a relatively firmer stand over Poland in 1939? 9. Compare Soviet and British policies toward Poland between 1943 and 1945, focusing on both aims and outcomes. 10. Did the nature of German rearmament b etween 1935 and 1939 support the view that Hitler was planning for a Blitzkrieg war? 11. Asses and explain whether the internment of Japanese Canadians justified during World War Two? 2. Discuss the major differences between how the allies treated Germany after World War Two with World War One and how it may have been better. 13. Compare the strategic significance of the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Britain. 14. Discuss Blittzkrieg and the importance of this tactic during World War Two. 15. Assess and explain the role of women during WWII and compare them to WWI. 16. The Second World War had consequences for European society and the world at large that were every bit as profound as the changes wrought by World War I. Assess these consequences as they became evident in 1945 as the war ended as well as for the years following from the standpoint of physical losses (casualties, refugees, infrastructure, etc. ) as well as the political and territorial settlements in Europe and the world at large. 17. To what extent were the German’s people responsible for Hitler/ Holocaust. 18. Compare WWI to WWII, identifying similarities in the causes, development, and outcomes of the wars. Other topics to consider Appeasement (WLM King) Isolationism The Treaty of Versailles The League of Nations (failure of) Dieppe D-Day (Juno Beach) Liberation of Holland Dunkirk (evacuation of) Battle of Britain Battle of the Atlantic Role of Technology / Canadian war production Anti-Semitism in Canada Internment of Japanese Canadians War on the homefront – War production / Changing role of women TOPIC LIST Blitzkreig The Battle of the Atlantic Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (Wrens) Lebensraum The Brtsh Commonwealth Air Training Plan Canadian Women’s Auxiliary Airforce Occupation of the Rhineland Camp X The Munich Pact Cdn Women’s Army Corps D-Day The Nazi-Soviet Non Aggression Pact The Battle for Normandy Canadian War Brides Dunkirk Treaty of Versailles The Royal Cdn Air Force Wm. L. Mackenzie King War on the Homefront War Propaganda The Home Front General Guy Simonds Canada and the Italian Campaign Conscription The Scheldt Estuary The Internment of Japanese Canadians Liberation of the Netherlands Canada and Hong Kong Juno Beach The Battle of the Atlantic VE Day Dieppe Verrieres Ridge

See the assigment Criteria Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

See the assigment Criteria - Essay Example Nonetheless, it has been said that the US will not take measures in all emerging threats, nor sovereigns should use â€Å"pre-emption† as pretense for aggression. Nevertheless, in the time when adversaries against peace nations actively seek the nuclear-armed capabilities, the US will not ignore while threats assemble. Finally, the purpose of the US action, as conveyed, is to eliminate a specific threat, not to promote international violence. Thus, in order to legitimize pre-emptive action against a state, promise of transparency of reasons, measured force and the establishment of just cause have been made by the state. In this context and given the history and facts surrounding Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, the paper answers if the US can be justified under International Law in taking pre-emptive measures against Iraq in the year 2003. In the year 2003, the United States, supported by two of its allies, Great Britain and Australia, invaded Iraq, a Sovereign Nation, an event that raised many questions as to whether the attack was justified according to United States foreign policy and world politics (Ritcher, 2003). The reasons advanced as to why the attack took place were that Iraq was in the process of manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. The other reason was that the regime of Sadaam Hussein was a threat to world peace and the United States and that it was involved in the twin tower attack or 9/11 (Dworkin, 2002). It was also said that the said regime was working in corroboration with international terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and needed to be brought down. The United States also advanced the fact that declaring war on Iraq was a step towards fighting international terrorism. It was also alleged that declaring war on Iraq was one of the ways to enhance democracy in the Middle East. Lastly, it was said to have been done to help the people of Iraq remove a regime that was oppressing them and which supported torture and rape. The United States President contended that Iraq posed a threat, and the United States had a right under article 51 of the United Nations Charter to undertake the use of military action or force to counter the threat (Bellamy, 2003; White House, 2002). Because Iraq had not at any given time attacked the United States, the reason as advanced by former American President George Bush raised many questions as to the validity of the use of force to counter not real but anticipated attacks and threats. According to international law, it is illegal to use force between states, except for situations, which meet two main conditions (Arend, 2003). The first situation occurs when the Security Council authorizes the use of force by one state against the other, and the second condition is when a state is acting in self-defense. The action of a state in self-defense has been a subject of intense debate, since self-defense can be interpreted to include anticipated danger. Self-defense is subject to the inter pretation and application of Article 51 of the United Nations (UN) Charter, which authorizes states to use force in defense against attack. In recent times, the arguments around the notion of self-defense have been centered on whether the use of military force is justified to be used preemptively (Bothe, 2003). Recently, the United States used the national Security Strategy to institute

Social Information Processing Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social Information Processing Theory - Essay Example Media-Richness Theory agrees with Social Presence Theory because it classifies CMC as incapable of expressing rich verbal and non-verbal cues. Walther differs in opinion to these theories because he believes that, as long as sufficient social messages are exchanged and subsequent relational growth is attained, CMC can also produce close relationships. Walther proposes the Social Information Processing Theory which states that through CMC, people exchange interpersonal information, form impressions, and decide how to use these impressions to form or not form close interpersonal relationships. Social Information Processing Theory helps understand how I formed close relationships with people in my G+ communities, specifically Elena and Hermie. I have recently been active in G+ communities, especially those involved in health and fitness. Walther is right to say that even if CMC does not present exactly the same cues as face-to-face communication, online users compensate by using cues th at are available to them. Cues refer to a wide range of verbal and non-verbal impressions that are not always directly stated but rather personally observed. Impression formation, according to Social Information Processing Theory, refers to the formation of mental images about other people. When I interconnect with my G+ community members, my impression from them is formed through what they share with our community, whether they are words, or words with images, or any article, blog entry, images, and videos that say something about their ideas, beliefs, practices, and aspirations. From reading and seeing these expressions of themselves, I can form impressions of their personalities. For instance, Elena, one of my Health community members, is the same age as I am, but she studies in India. She is overweight and very much interested in losing weight through changing her lifestyle and mindset about beauty and health. I know her goals through my interactions with her through our communi ty and the health news and health changes she shares with us. Hermie is older, 55 years old, and she lives in the U.S., but, like Elena, she is into healthy and natural living. I like her because her posts are funny and inspiring. She shares inspirational messages and stories from other people and herself through our G+ communities. I understand the personalities of Hermie and Elena through the direct information we share with one another and form impressions about them through these online interactions. In turn, people who are in my G+ communities can also generate impressions about who I am through my own posts on the communities and on my own G+ account. For instance, when I share something about the benefits of virgin coconut oil and how it can be used for different health purposes, others who view my posts will understand that I am the kind of person who wants and prefers natural products over commercial ones. Elena, for instance, once wrote to me that she has been wanting to f ind something natural to help her lose weight and that since she saw my post on virgin coconut oil, she thinks that drinking two tablespoons of it every day has helped her break her weight plateau. From there, we continuously interact to get different kinds of information from one another. These kinds of information may be personal knowledge and experiences, or any form of sharing that we get from our communities. Social Information Processing

Forensic Science 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Forensic Science 2 - Essay Example Due to his contribution in forensic science, sometimes he is referred to as the â€Å"Father of Forensic Toxicology† The police and other law enforcing agencies benefit most in forensic science as they use it as a tool for investigation and gathering the necessary evidence to close a given criminal case. As such, forensic science enables these investigating officers to analyze scientifically every piece of evidence that they come across at a crime scene and piece them together to come up with a conclusive motive, purpose, as well as evidence for the crime. For instance, they use forensic science to check on the fingerprints that they collect at a crime scene, and then use this evidence to point to possible suspects of a crime. Forensic science refers to the laboratory examination of evidence, using scientific procedures such as prototyping and anatomy. This matching of evidence from a crime scene enables the investigating officers to find important leads to the crime or case under investigating. For instance, the police can find a dead mutilated body at the crime scene and do not know whom it belongs to, and what happened in the moments leading to the person’s death. The police then apply forensic science to identify the body of the deceased, such as using fingerprints and running the results through a police database to find a matching record of the person. The scientific method shapes the prescription of forensic science because they all apply solely for the resolution of a crime or to find evidence related to a given crime. The application of science in law provides unrepuatble evidence in court for a crime because science does not lie. This helps in the fast resolution of legal hurdles and cases. For instance, a difficult case of conflicting paternity can be solved easily through application of forensic science under the examination of DNA composition of the child in question and

Non-Profit Agency World Vision Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Non-Profit Agency World Vision - Essay Example The story behind its establishment is very touching.In 1947, the Reverend was on a trip to China and during that time he met Tena Hoelkedoer, a teacher. She was being accompanied by a child named White Jade, who was battered and deserted. Having no means to take care of the child on her own, the Reverend decided to give her the only money he had, which was five dollars and made an agreement with the teacher that he would be sending five dollars every month to help her in taking care of the child. This simple act of charity by Rev. Pierce is what led to the establishment of World Vision. Today World Vision is headed by Richard Stearns, who is the president of the organization. Richard Stearns and his wife have been great supports of the organization since 1984 (Stearns, 2013). Over the years the service provided by World Vision has extended to Asia, Africa, Middle East, Latin America and Eastern Europe. World Vision is today a global partnership working and providing its service to over 95 countries with more than 50 autonomous yet interdependent members and staff of 44,000 people. The main role of World Vision is providing a better and comfortable life for children and dealing with issues that concern child survival. The organization helps children to have good health, educate children, ensure children experience the great love of God and also the love offered by the rest of humanity and that children are taken well care of and are protected. It also focuses on providing community needs as a way of combating poverty.

HOW THE STRATEGIC EMEGENCE OF WALMART HAS AFFECTED MANAGING THEIR Essay - 1

HOW THE STRATEGIC EMEGENCE OF WALMART HAS AFFECTED MANAGING THEIR TRADE FROM 2011 TILL DATE - Essay Example These included the government operations, competitive position as well other changes from the competitors. Additionally, the reasons that led to its implementation and the different ways with which it was implemented were considered. In this case, the research looked back as to what made it necessary for the Walmart company to come up with the said strategic emergence. They included the challenges and shortcomings that led to the need for change. It also analyzed how the strategic emergence was formulated and implemented and the specific areas that were to be affected by the change. Ultimately, it concentrated on these areas to find out whether the expected change took place or not. This was performed on a step by step basis from the time that the changes were implemented in 2011 and the development that have been observed from that time to the present time. In turn, various solutions were offered in those areas upon which positive outcomes were not realized as a consequence of the e xecution of the strategic emergence (Sieber, 1993, p.14). Some of the factors that determined the choice of research method included reliability and validity. This implied that the results obtained were true, undisputable and could be easily confirmed. As such, the kind of research technique that was used in this research was the qualitative study method because there was a need to provide an insight into the setting of the strategic emergence that was developed at Walmart. This was to help in the generation of ideas and to provide answers for the hypothesis. It was also used in grouping similar results and summing them up to get an overall answer in the form of the quantitative research that was to be used later in the results part of the study. With this, the main reason for using the qualitative design was to reveal the prevalent trends in both thought and opinion with regard to the effect of the

Literacy Autobiography Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Literacy Autobiography Assignment - Essay Example The major advantage is that finance is applied uniformly across different industries and in different countries. Consequently, the motivation behind pursuing finance was modelled by the universality of the career and the versatility that the career offers, which may not be possible in other careers today. A career in finance promises the fastest rate of career advancement compared to other careers today. Compared to other industries, there is much less defined levels of seniority when it comes to finance, making it possible for employees to advance much faster in their career progression goals. In most careers, high performers in finance do move up the ladder much faster compared to the less performing staff regardless of their age. This particularly makes finance the most attractive discipline for ambitious people or those who need to prove their readiness to succeed in the highest levels of management despite their age. All that one need is the right qualifications and the determin ation to work harder and smarter to be courted by leading corporates or work privately to realize these goals. This explains the reason why relatively young finance managers have taken over highly performing organizations today. There is unending thirst for those highly qualified in finance, a thirst that the market has failed to quench. As a result, while careers in other industries are shrinking, in finance the field is ever widening to accommodate more with the high performing professionals finding an easy way to the most lucrative jobs. An article in Forbes magazine stated that currently, there is an increasing demand for financial advisors as more Baby Boomers approach their retirement age and need help on financial management (Touryalai). In addition, the article states that in American today, only 5% of more than 316,000 financial advisers are below 30 years of age, and that the bulk of the existing financial advisors are nearing their retirement age. This has created a huge demand in finance-based professions with the demand expected to increase with time. The operation culture in most finance-based careers offers a favourable working environment that may not be realized in most careers. In finance, the main requirements for professionalism are smartness in thinking, rapid response to situations with the correct solutions and constant flow of results within the required constraints. While these factors may be difficult for some, they are exhilarating for those who make things to happen and are eager to achieve their potentials. Moreover, most firms have much less thin staffing margins and lack the bureaucracy that is common in most careers. Mark Tibergian the CEO of Pershing Advisor Solutions remarked that financial advisors are in a career that offers the right degree of independence for employees and that the career stimulates the intellect of such professionals (Touryalai). This leads to increased confidence and being in control of things in an orga nization. The career in this case will only call for exceptionally hard work, commitment and the right focus to remain afloat, besides succeeding. Those who achieve these qualities will certainly reap great benefits. Finance careers offer the best remunerations compared to other careers in different industries. Considering the field requires those with a thirst to succeed, who have to employ commitment, and the best of

Financial Plan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Financial Plan - Assignment Example Depreciation of truck is at 10% straight line method 2.50 vending machines were purchased 3. The selling price and the purchase prices do not change over the five years 4. On the third year we replaced 10 vending machines that were vandalized 5. The purchase price for meals, snacks and drinks are 4$, 0.75$ and 0.75$ respectively 6. The selling price for meals, snacks and drinks are 5$, 1$ and 1$ respectively 7. After every 6 months we increased purchases by half of the previous period up to the third year. For the fourth year and fifth year, the purchases were 400 units, 2000 units and 2000 units per month for meals, snacks and drinks respectively. 8. On the beginning of the fourth year were acquired a new truck for delivery. It is to be depreciated at 10% straight line method. A detailed description on how to plan the startup requirements I conducted an analysis of the places to start the business. This are places where people require fast foods and drinks. I located ten sites and f or each site five vendor machines are to be placed. The starting capital of the business is 300k, 100 from the team and 200 from outsiders. This amount is to be distributed equally among assets, labor, and maintenances among other expenses. Vending machine being the most important asset is the first to be purchased. A vendor machine cost 200 and purchases for fifty machines were made and distributed at each location. Products provide are; meals, drinks and snacks at each vendor. As I begin, drinks are bought at four dollars and sold at five dollars realizing a profit of a dollar per drink. Meals are bought at .75 and sold at a dollar similarly to snacks realizing a profit of a .25 dollar per meal and snack. The units per the product served rise at a half percent in semiannual basis during the five year period. After every 6 months we increased purchases by half of the previous period up to the third year. For the fourth year and fifth year, the purchases were 400 units, 2000 units a nd 2000 units per month for meals, snacks and drinks respectively. This help account for business growth and development of the business. At the starting periods many variable assets are inclusive thus the reason of lower starting stock, as progress is made profits are realized within the period thus on the third year we replaced 10 vending machines that were vandalized. CASHFLOW STATEMENT YR 1 Sources of fund Equity 100 Investors 200 Capital available 300 Sales 2205 Reserves 180 Expenditures Vending machines 100 Truck 10 CCTV cameras 10 Purchases 1725 Balance sheet after year 5 NON-CURRENT ASSETS Vending machine (50 units) 100 Truck (2 units) 20 Less depreciation 7 13 CCTV for security (50 units) 10 CURRENT ASSETS Bank Cash Stock 45 FINANCED BY Equity 100 Investors 200 Net profit 2901.063 Break analysis chart At the breakeven point revenue=expenditure References Williams Jade (2008). Finance and accounting. Stanford publishers, Canada Hilliard, V. E. (2007). Financial accounting 8t h edition. Oxford

Family and Cousin Essay Example for Free

Family and Cousin Essay Human behavior can be explored by taking a look at the different aspects of a person’s life. These aspects include the biological, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual. These aspects can help social workers better understand the background history of a person’s life and gather information in order to do an accurate assessment of a person. This paper does not intend to make an assessment but it’s rather an informative paper in order to discover and understand the various systems of a person’s life. Furthermore this paper will also focus on how these systems interact with one another. I chose to do this paper on my cousin who just became a mother and she is currently learning how to adapt to her new way of life. I think she is in an interesting stage in her life and that is also why I chose her. My cousin and I are only a year apart in age and she chose a different path from the one that is expected after she graduated from high school. She decided not to go to college and began to work doing random retail jobs until she found a permanent job as a hostess. We are so different now but a few years ago we did get along and had a lot of things in common. Her relationship with her mother has also changed and now that my cousin is a mother, they seem to understand each other better. BIO-PHYSICAL My cousin’s name is Carla Sanchez and she is twenty two years old and the youngest of three. She is 5’5 and before she had the baby she had lost so much weight but now she regained some of that weight back. She has dark long hair and dark brown eyes. Before she became pregnant she fell in love with her baby’s father and lost a lot of weight. During her teenage years she was not as determined to lose weight as she was when she was nineteen when she met her significant other. During her pregnancy her body went through some physical changes. She did not have impulsive cravings and she ate the foods she normally eats but in larger portions. She gained around sixty pounds and now she looks like the way she did before she lost the weight. Her weight when she was a younger child before the teenage years resembles that of her mother. My aunt had an average weight because she was not skinny but she was not overweight either. My cousin’s weight then was average like her mother’s because due to the genes that were passed down to her through her mother. My cousin’s baby is a girl and looks more like her father but she has my cousin’s straight hair. Now that it has been several weeks after childbirth my cousin plans and is determined to lose the weight again. She looks like her mother and both have a healthy mother and daughter relationship. She is very open-minded and very out spoken. Her mother is also an open-minded person. According to the biological determinism theory it is evident that a person’s personality and physical appearance is embedded into a child from birth trough genetics. My cousin’s parents divorced when she was a young child and therefore she has always been close to her mother and that is why my aunt has been able to greatly influence my cousin’s behavior. Most of her life she has been more attached to her mother. PSYCHOLOGICAL According to Erikson’s theories of psychological development my cousin is in the intimacy versus isolation stage. My cousin’s childhood and teenage years have passed by. All that is left of her childhood and teenage years are memories. She began working at restaurants during her high school years and has stayed with that career. She has gone from being a waitress when she was sixteen to a hostess. However she is thinking of going back to school because she was her daughter to look up to her when her daughter is older. My cousin did not get married and she is not living with her boyfriend. She lives at home with her baby and her mother. All her time is devoted to her baby however there have been times when she is overwhelmed with the task of raising a child and her mother helps her so that she can at least have some time to rest. According to Paiget my cousin is at the stage four which is based on formal operations. At this level problems are now approached using logic, reason and combinational thought. Also individuals at this stage with formal operations can think about their own thoughts, feelings and think about thinking. I think that at this point Paiget is focusing on how we can look back at our past and reflect. My cousin is able to do this now and she now reflects on how her mother raised her so that she can raise her daughter the same way. My cousin constantly worries whether or not she is raising her child in a proper way or to the extent that it is expected of a mother to raise her child. She lives with her mother and her mother helps her by giving her advice from how to comfort the child to how to give the baby a bath. My cousin’s friend had her baby before my cousin and when her friend met my cousin’s child she was also giving her advice on hoe to take care of the baby. She is acquiring knowledge on how to raise her child from people such as her mother that have had years of experience raising children. Her friend told her that she worries to whether she is taking care of her baby the right way. My cousin has to endure a psychological as well as physical adaptation. Paiget describes adaptation as the process by which structures of the mind develop over time to achieve a better fit with the environment and external reality. My cousin is still eating food in large portions as she did when she was pregnant but now she is drinking more milk because she chose to breastfeed her baby. Therefore she keeps gaining weight and is also stressed out. As far as her mental state she is stressed and cannot focus on herself because she is constantly thinking about the well-being of her baby. She worries just as much as other mothers do because she wants her baby to be happy. She said that her baby seems to be cranky most of the time and basically she is dedicating all her time to comfort the baby. My cousin had learned to adapt to her new role as a mother and she will need to keep up as the baby goes through different stages of her life. SOCIAL She has not been working since July and her social life is not as it used to be before she had the baby. However she was visited by her godparents and many friends when she brought the baby home. They have showered the baby with gifts and seeing how other people have acted towards the baby makes her happy. My cousin is trying her best to imitate her mother because she loves her mother and wants to follow her advice so that she can raise a happy child. According to the social learning theory behaviors are mediated by thoughts, expectations as well as emotions and stresses the importance of observational learning or modeling. In my cousin’s case she sees her mom as a model mom that she wants to imitate. As far as I know my aunt really sacrificed a lot so that my cousin’s could have a better life than the one she had. I have seen how selfless my aunt has been especially with my cousin Carla because she is the youngest one. My cousin wants the approval of her mother in everything she does because she has been very attached to my aunt. Her brother and sister live far away from them. My cousin has kept in touch with her fellow co-workers and many of them came to visit her when she brought the baby home. One of her friends who is a teacher and brought her a huge box of pampers. He also gave her some parenting advice because he, as a father of three, thinks that he has had enough experience with kids. He was very happy to see the baby and many of her friends came to see the baby as well. Even though my cousin has not gone out since she gave birth in November 30th, she has had her friends come over to her place to see the baby. However her weeks have turned into the same routine of just staying at home to take care of her baby. The baby’s father also visits her but not too often because their relationship is not in good standing. My cousin is trying to be the mother that society expects her to be but most importantly she is trying to imitate her own mother. My aunt is a fervent believer in the Catholic faith and she raised her children in the same faith as she was raised in. All of her three children were baptized, did the communions and attended mass on Sundays. Until this day my aunt does not miss a mass at her local church. Her children however have not been as devoted as my aunt has been. My cousin Carla stop attending church after her teenage years when she graduated from high school and spent her weekends working. However my aunt always tries to make sure that my cousin does not loose her faith. According to James V. Fowler’s theory of faith development my cousin is at the stage 5 which is the individuative-reflective faith. In this stage young adults question the beliefs and stories they have received from family, friends and other social groups. My cousin does not believe everything that my aunt was taught about Catholicism. For example my cousin did not get married and decided to raise a child as a single mother. My aunt did not approve of this because she was taught that a woman must be a virgin until she gets married. Her other daughter moved in with her boyfriend and then got married. My aunt did not approve of this either. My aunt believes that salvation is obtained by following the church’s sacraments but my cousin believes that no one really knows how to obtain salvation. She also thinks that God is everywhere and therefore she does not need to attend mass every Sunday. My aunt was raised in a very religious home and in her native country religion plays an important role in life but her children who were raised in the United States have found a way to practice their religion however way they think is the proper way. My cousin plans to baptize her daughter and she has picked the godparents already. My family is from Ecuador which is in Latin America so that makes us part of the Latino community. My cousin Carla was born in New Jersey. She had to learn about the Ecuadorian culture and the American culture. When she was a kid my aunt would travel with her and her other siblings to Ecuador so that they could visit their grandmother and learn their cultural roots. My cousin had to learn both languages English and Spanish. She now knows them fluently and this has helped her a lot because she was able to make a lot of friends. In Ecuador gender roles are so delineated. Men are expected to work and women are expected to stay at home raising the children. It is not common for females to work outside the home. Most females graduate from high school and after high school they start raising families. My cousin knows both cultures but since she was born and raised in the United States she identifies more with the American culture. When her baby gets older she expects to go back to work and even go back to school so that she can be able to provide a better living for both. She is a single mother but has learned a lot from her mother who got divorced from her husband when my cousin was a young child. In conclusion these several aspects of a person’s life help us understand how each one relates to the other and how they affect human behavior. Human behavior can be affected by the people we associate with and by the culture we are raised in as well as other factors. These several theories described in this paper are very helpful to understand why a person behaves a certain way.

Physics of the Bottle Flip Challenge

Physics of the Bottle Flip Challenge One of the biggest trends of 2016 was the water bottle flip challenge, and almost everyone was trying their hand at it. But, there is much more to it than just skill and luck, and-even though the trend seriously died out-Ill be teaching you a few cheats that are going make you flip! Or at the very least give you the ability to become the mic-dropping finale at your schools talent show. But in all seriousness, of all the trends to hit big in 2016, bottle flipping was perhaps the most surprising. Sure, we expect the collective mind of the internet to dredge up long forgotten childhood shows, ironically appreciate terrible movies, or recreate popular dance moves; but flipping bottles of water so that they can land correctly? Its something almost anyone can do, watch, and appreciate. You see it happen and you understand it regardless of how old you are or what language you speak. But, for those of you who many not be familiar, here is a quick summary. Bottle flipping entails taking a bot tle and tossing it so that it twirls through the air like a gymnast, and sticks a 10/10 landing. Now, despite what Know Your Meme-a website that dedicates itself to documenting online phenomena and memes-might say, the origins go back as far as 2007 to a video released by a skateboarder named Ben Daleman. However, it was Michael Senatores epic flip during his school talent show last year that really caused people to flip out over the flip. As elegantly simple as bottle flipping might be, scientifically, its a completely different story. Involving everything from elasticity of collisions, to fluid dynamics, to momentum, to laws of gravity, the science behind the bottle flip is quite amazing. But, once you understand that science, youll actually have an unfair advantage in your next bottle flipping tournament, at your next school talent show, your next visit to grandmas house, or whenever you might just want to impress someone. Now, without further ado: The Scientific Cheat Code Thatll Get You the Upper Hand in the World of Bottle Ballistics. Before you start pitching your old plastic around, your flip can either be made or lost by the very first choice that you make-the bottle. There are hundreds, if not thousands of different brands of bottled water on the market. As well, almost all of them have different bottle shapes, heights, even thicknesses of plastic, and picking the right one can make the difference between becoming a flipping champ, or a flipping chump. So if you think of bottle flipping as a video game, then think of your choice of bottle as the difficulty level. The typical bottle most people are using rounded bottle, thin plastic, like Poland Springs, those are effectively the normal setting. Not too hard, not to easy, just a good sweet spot to judge other bottles. But what in particular makes this one the ideal, middle candidate? Well, lets take two other bottles and itll all become clear. A water cooler jug, and a bottle of Coca-Cola. Now, the Coca-Cola bottle is the bottle flipping equivalent of hard mode, and the reason for that is surface area. Notice that the bottom isnt round like the other two, but rather has multiple prongs that give the bottle added stability. Now, under normal usage, thats a great shape, but when flipping bottles, it is a completely different story. Â   Â   You see, in physics, the energy of being in motion is called kinetic energy, and the word elasticity is a measure of how much kinetic energy remains as kinetic energy after two objects combine. To give you an example, lets look at anime. Goku punches Krillin in the face. Gokus fist has a bunch of kinetic, or movement energy. That then is transferred into Krillins face and body launching him off for miles. So, one would say that the elasticity of that collision of fist to face is really high. The kinetic energy of Gokus fist stays as movement energy as Krillin flies through the air. So thats an elastic collision. Alternatively, there are inelastic collisions, where the kinetic energy is transformed into deforming the material, or where energy is lost in other ways, like heat and sound. The Goku punch example isnt perfectly elastic, because some of his punch energy is lost deforming Krillins face. A good example of an inelastic collision is two balls of clay thrown together. They stick , there is no bounce, all the kinetic energy of the two balls moving is lost as they deform into one larger ball. Now, knowing all that, look at our bottle flip. Its plastic hitting a table, so the collision would be mostly elastic, where the kinetic energy of the bottle falling is preserved. But, the table isnt going to move so that movement energy has to go somewhere, and thats back into the bottle-which is causing it to bounce. The plastic of the bottle compresses ever so slightly, and then springs back into position, causing it to rebound from the table and potentially costing you your glorious moment at the talent show. Yet, as that may be, the force isnt going to cause a ton of bounce when its spread out over a wide surface such as the rounded bottom of your average water bottle. But what about the prongs of the Coca-Cola bottle? That force is moved to the very small area thats actually hitting the table, causing the bottle to rebound higher and thus making it harder to get th at perfect landing. Whereas on the other end of the spectrum are the large jugs of water-which are the equivalent of flipping easy mode. Part of it is the huge surface area of the base, but to see why these are the clear choice for any inexperienced flippers we need to talk about the other elephant in the room-finding the perfect water level. Empty water bottles weigh practically nothing, averaging in at 10 grams, and if you have an empty water bottle just sitting on a table, its center of mass-the point on the bottle where all the mass averages out-is right around the middle. But water is a lot heavier than plastic, and when you put something like water into a bottle, the center of mass is going to move. In this case it moves downward. Theres more mass on the bottom of the bottle than on the top, and thus the place where the mass averages out is going to end up a lower. Now, why is that important? Because the center of mass sometimes goes by another name, the center of gravity, and gravity-as the largest obstacle between you and that perfect bottle flip-pulls from the center of gravity. Therefore, the lower the center of gravity is, the less likely that bottle is going to tip over when you flip it. Thus, allowing you to walk off the high school stage head held high. But if you overfill the bottle with water now the cente r of gravity is much higher, the point at which all the mass has averaged out has crept back upwards. When that happens and its tipped to the left, the center of mass is now to the left of the tipping point, and gravity will pull the bottle down, causing it to fall, and causing you to take the walk of shame, or move to another school district. This is why getting just the right amount of water is tricky and essential. You need to put in enough water in the bottle so that the center of mass goes about as far down as it can get without inadvertently allowing that center of gravity to creep back upwards by overfilling. So mathematically the ideal sweet spot is going to be filling up that bottle to the one-third mark. Its there that the center of mass is going to be about as low as it can go. Those wide, short squat, water cooler bottles are the easiest ones to flip because theyre the ones where keeping the center of gravity low is a cinch. It doesnt take a lot of water to weigh them do wn-getting their center of mass low-and all in all these jugs are just super stable. Now obviously youre not going to shove a water cooler jug in your backpack to pull out during lunch hour bottle flipping tournaments. So what bottle do you choose? Well, in between these jugs and our standard round-bottomed ones is everything from Smart Water-being tall and narrow-to Fiji water-being made from a firmer plastic and with a wider base, and shorter height. The fact that Fiji water is short means that youre going to have to be a lot more precise in your water level measurements making it much harder to land the flip; therefore, making Smart Water a little more incentivizing. Lastly, and arguably the most important part of each flip: the throw. Now, before we talk about throwing bottles, lets talk hammers. Grab a hammer and toss it in the air! Eh, actually, no. Its dangerous and youll put a hole in the floor. Instead, lets visit historys most famous hammer tossers-The Hammer Bros. Notice how the hammer twirls all lopsided? Well, its because of our old friend-the center of mass. Objects in free fall that have any rotation will always rotate around their center of mass. Hammers, which traditionally have wooden handles and steel heads, have a hugely lopsided center of mass and rotate around that. But the cool part is, for as chaotic as that movement looks, if you trace the trajectory of the center of mass it will always follow a perfect arc. But heres the thing, for as complicated as throwing a hammer may look, a water bottle is even more complicated because of fluid dynamics. When you flip the bottle into the air, the center of mass is shifting as the mass of the water moves around in the bottle. As it does this, the water robs the bottle of angular momentum-or spin. This becomes most dramatic just after the bottle flips, when the water sloshes around and goes from being in the bottom of the bottle to the top. It adjusts to gravity, which simultaneously helps push the bottle down, allowing for that signature straight-up landing. How this knowledge helps you is that most newbie bottle flippers include too much horizontal velocity. You see, if the bottle is moving forward too fast when it lands, the bottles movement is suddenly stopped, but the water inside the bottle still wants to move forward. And it does, which takes all the mass with it. So instead of acting like a stabilizing force inside the bottle, the water actually helps knock the bottle over. The key here is to try to use as much force upward while also putting that spin on the bottle. The best way to do this is to make sure the bottle is parallel with the ground when you rel ease it. This sends the center of mass straight upward, and since youre holding onto the other end, the bottle with naturally rotates as you let go. So, there you have it, the steps to a prefect flip. Choose a bottle with a firmer plastic and a wide base like a Fiji bottle, fill that bottle to about a third full, double-checking the exact level by doing that 45 degree fall test to measure where the center of gravity is at, and then practice your toss so that you release it in parallel with the ground, and try to minimize its forward momentum. But if you want even more of an edge, consider swapping out the water in the bottle for Mercury. As the heaviest liquid at room temperature, that should lower the center of mass to amazing depths while still maintaining all the benefits of fluid dynamics. Just, fair warnings, dont drink it, or touch it, or do anything with it really because its toxic. Between Mercury and hammer tossing, explaining the science behind bottle flipping can be filled with bad ideas.

Harry Potter: Impact of the Books, Themes and Controversies

Harry Potter: Impact of the Books, Themes and Controversies Chapter II The Harry Potter Phenomenon 2.1 How did it start? The Harry Potter phenomenon started slowly, as we have seen Rowling had a lot of trouble trying to publish the book and 12 publishing houses turned her down but she had perseverance and she really believed in the books, in the story and kept on trying. The content of the books was so unique, so fantastic from anything else that it triggered a mass phenomenon. We can ask our selves: what becomes a phenomenon? First of all we need to understand the term ‘cultural phenomenon or ‘media phenomenon. A phenomenon is not an invention of the present, of the times we live in, but it has existed ever since a human collective conscience has existed. Someone found something useful and it was so good and necessary that everybody started using it. For example the invention of the telephone, or the computer, we may not think it this way but the invention of those things brought with them a whole phenomenon. I mean even if Alexander Graham Bell wouldnt have invented the telephone it would still be invented by someone else as it is a very useful and revolutionary device. People need this device and have needed it ever since the beginning of the world. The invention of TV or photo camera are things that the humans needed ever since they know it but couldnt materialized their desire. People would paint in caves things they liked, things they did, things they believed in, they had this desire to capture their everyday life and immortalize it somehow. As time passed people got more and more skilled in the art of painting and could reproduce the reality better and better; technology advanced as well and continued to pursue this ancient desire and now thank God we really managed to invent a device that can capture the reality exactly as it is. The camera is something so useful and needed by the humans that almost every human being posses at least one camera. Phones are equipped with cameras, with voice recording features, with internet etc. Why is that? Because we want to immortalize our experiences, we want to record special events and ordinary as well, we want to take pictures with the people that we love so we can keep them with us forever, we especially like to look back at our past and by having photos taken in the past we can really transport ourselves better. By taking pictures we can leave behind to our descendants proo f of our existence, of how we were, how we looked, what we liked etc. This was only one example of how a phenomenon takes place, how it starts. A phenomenon exists only when it is recognized by the masses. If only a few people, or some groups adhere to it then it is not really a phenomenon. A phenomenon is something that it is so useful, necessary and was needed by the humans for a long time but couldnt really achieve it and then when somebody finally gets to invent/create it, it is rapidly assimilated by everyone. What Graham Bell did was only to continue the collective dream of being able to speak with another person even when that person is not near. The ones that invented the camera followed on a collective, pre-historical dream that of reproducing the reality, the ones that invented the TV and the computer same thing. Now what J.K. Rowling did was to exploit our ancient desires to handle magic, to possess magic, to use magic, among many other features in her books but the magic is the one that triggered the phenomenon. When we look at the influences that her books have we find texts such as: British Folklore and mythology, The Bible, The Iliad, Mac Beth, Emma, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Sword in The Stone, A tale of two cities, etc. many of which have to deal with magic. Magic has always been present in the human consciousness, in the human imagination, what Rowling did is just to exploit these mythologies, these dreams, these manifestations of our imagination. What makes them still so captivating is that we cannot know for sure, even with all technology and knowledge of the physical world, that they dont exist. Magic will disappear from our minds only when we will possess the ultimate knowledge of this world, of how it works, of how it came to existence until then our minds will always fancy a round these aspects of an ‘alternate reality. The ‘alternate reality is the second main reason why The Harry Potter Phenomenon exists. The world that Rowling has created is so vast, so deep, so intense that it can be called an ‘alternate reality. Im not saying that one should really believe that magic exists and take a broom and jump of the roof with it hoping it will start flying, this is not what I mean when I say ‘alternate reality, it is an ‘alternate reality that is to be found when plunging into that world by reading. It is so vast and it has everything in it that you can easily forget about this world and be captivated by that world. Now why do we need to forget about this world and plunge into another, imaginary one? The answer is simple: this world is too ugly and boring, at least the society we live in. We are forced to go to school against our will, we are forced to obey orders by our parents, by our teachers, by the society. We are obliged to work if we want to survive, we have to make a lot o f concessions and all our dreams and ambitions are restrained by other people who laugh at as, by parents, by teachers and all these things really make us sick, we need to escape, we need to getaway from everything in order to not fall into a deep depression. What is the best and safest way to do so? It is to read a book. But not all the books have this feature or capability to help you do so, not all the books depict such wonderful things in such a wonderful way as to make you plunge into them. And here comes the true merit of J.K. Rowling because she really managed to do this. And it is not me that is saying it, actually I dont even have to say it Im not J.K. Rowlings lawyer; but the fact that her books have become a global phenomenon says it all. A phenomenon is something that comes at the right time and it is something that the humans always needed. From here comes the conclusion that we really need magic in our lives, that this society in which we live in is not so perfect and that we need to get away from it at least in our minds. Children come home from school completely exhausted from the many classes they had boring long classes, they come home also with a lot of homework to do as if the hours spent in school were not enough and what is there to do, to really get away from it all? To read a book, a good book, another world to escape to. The same thing with adults: they have lived all their lives constrained and restrained by the society now they continue to work for the society, each with his job and sometime it is just too much there must be something to help them get away from it all. Harry Potter is a Phenomenon because it has the power to fulfill this more or less conscious desire in our minds that of escape. Music has the same power, the same feature and maybe the same purpose. People normally sing about love, about what they dont have and wish to have, about other places etc. When we listen to a song we get transported to the world the singer is singing about or we resonate by having the same feelings, sufferings etc. That is what makes up a phenomenon the mass resonation of something that has always intrigued, haunted and followed us but we didnt know or have the power to express it. In J.K. Rowlings case, however, the success was not so instant and we could not talk about a phenomenon before the year 2000 when the forth book was released. She had local success with the release of the first book and second but the breakthrough did not come until U.S. discovered the books; then it started to become a cultural phenomenon. I said not before year 2000 and by that I mean that with the release of the forth book Harry Potter became a global phenomenon, the premieres of it were really huge all around the world and had widespread media coverage. I think one thing that helped a lot the Harry Potter books to become a phenomenon was the internet. The internet pages that were created by fans had tremendous effect in spreading the publicity. Of course the first and main way of publicity was word-of-mouth, literally people would talk to one another and recommend this fantastic book but the phenomenon wouldnt have started so fast if it wasnt for the internet. Televisions can broadcast some events regarding the books, or radio stations talking about them but what is more truthful than real reviews made by fans who have read the books and were so stunned by them that they felt the need to make websites dedicated to them? If the televisions and radio stations were just doing their jobs these people were doing it because they loved the books. So the ones that have the main credit for triggering the phenomenon are not by any means the media or paid publicity. Thats what a true phenomenon is, it doesnt need too much publicity, everything happens spontaneous and it will automatically have the support of everyone that came in contact with it. 2.2 The impact on the society The impact on society is huge and in almost every field: music, movies, entertainment park, clothing etc. therefore in this subchapter I will describe every aspect in which Harry Potter has left its traces in society. The Fan Sites: The oldest Harry Potter fan sites date around 1997-98. The sites are so sincere and clean that even J.K. Rowling admire them and occasionally awards the ones that are the best. The first site awarded by J.K. Rowling was ‘Immeritus a website devoted especially to Sirius Black. Then Rowling awarded ‘Godrics Hollow then ‘Mugglenet a very good fan site containing: news, pictures, interviews, excerpts from books, quotations, has a very good design and contains all in all everything you need to know about Harry Potter. Another fan site awarded by Rowling is ‘hp-lexicon.org an useful site containing facts about each one of the books, it contains answered questions about various things regarding the HP world and as the name says it, it is like a lexicon with a lot of useful information. ‘The Leaky Cauldron the website awarded by Rowling in 2005 has a very good design, works very well and is mainly focused on the HP news Rowling likes it very m uch and says it is her favorite. Rowling tries each year to award a site that does a good job in promoting and giving useful information about Harry Potter. At one time Warner Bros., the company that holds the rights of the Harry Potter trademark, tried to shut down all fan sites. This attempt was unsuccessful and the company later agreed that it is important that these websites continue to exist in order to keep the fans interested. Probably the company was feeling threatened by the popularity of those sites and wanted to have instead full popularity with their own dedicated site. Of course its all about money, they wanted to have all the revenues they could from every aspect involving HP and could not bear that others were making profit over their brand. The fan sites have indeed ads on their sites from which they get revenue but the money made is probably just enough to cover the expenses of maintaining the site online and its not about making a living out of it. Fan Fiction: refers to works made by fans involving characters, places, story of the original work. These fan works are normally not accepted by the authors and they are tolerated only as long as they are not published because that would be totally illegal as it would mean plagiarism. The Harry Potter books have a whole world of fan fiction works from the most innocent ones to real grotesque ones. There is a huge number of fan fiction works on the net more than a half a million and J.K. Rowling is not against these works but supports them. As we know Rowling is a huge supporter of imagination and believes it to be very important for mental health. There are many sites dedicated especially to HP fan fiction where users can read these works or upload their own creations. There is a fan fiction work called ‘The Shoebox Project to which many fans write and contribute to. It has over 20 ‘chapters and continues or tells ‘untold stories of the HP world. The fan fiction has also a more negative aspect which J.K. Rowling does not agree with. There are a lot of stories of the ‘slash fiction genre which are depicting sexual relationships between characters, relations that normally do not appear in the books and are not even suggested. Nobody can stop others from writing and uploading such stories and therefore there are a lot of websites dedicated to this ‘bad fiction. Role Playing: is a main component in any fan community and it couldnt be absent here. There is real life live action role play and internet based playing. Fans have come up with a so called ‘muggle quidditch which is similar to the quidditch game in the books but of course it is on the ground. The fans hold tournaments and give away prizes to the winners. There are also card games, puzzles and games of that kind invented for the fans. There is a vast internet based role playing community which puts up games related to the books, to Hogwarts, to the characters etc. Wizard rock: is a specific genre of music which emerged in 2000 with the music band ‘Harry and the Potters and has since gained a widespread interest so much that today there are over 700 bands belonging to this genre. The listeners are mostly HP fans and the lyrics are mostly based on the books. Harry Potter theme park: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is the name of the HP theme park that had its opening 18 June 2010 in Orlando, Florida. It is a park having real life proportions where people can go and have fun eating the ‘Hogwarts specialties, visiting Diagon Alley, visiting Hogwarts, the different shops etc. It has roller coasters, tours in the castle and visitors encounter the ‘whomping willow, dementors, and witness a quidditch match. The investement costed 200 million dollars and the park was built on a huge space. The park has received very good reviews both from the fans and nonfans and good reviews from newspapers and specialized reviewers. They reviewed it as a unique experience which is very close to the experience of the books and the films. 2.3 The controversies Legal disputes: -The first problems J.K. Rowling had surrounding and involving her books is copyright infringement accusations. The American author Nancy Kathleen Stouffer had written two books in 1984 which (at least the title) resemble to some realities in the Harry Potter books: â€Å"The legend of Rah and the muggles† and â€Å"Larry Potter and his best friend Lily†. The word muggle is a word often used in the HP books and the names Potter(â€Å"and his best friend Lily†) and Lily have also a sounding importance in the books, Potter being Harrys last name and Lily the name of his mother. The resemblances go much further than being just some similarities between names as the word Muggle was used by N.K. Stouffer to refer to a humanoid species and Larry Potter is a dark haired boy wearing glasses very similar to Harry Potter. Other similarity found in N.K. Stouffers book is a castle by a lake resembling Rowlings Hogwarts. The interesting fact is that Stouffer never got to re ally publish the books, only parts of â€Å"The legend of Rah† in a booklet to a company which soon went bankruptcy preventing her to get her books published in or outside U.S. Rowling first went to U.S. in 1998, 1 year after her book was already published and 8 years after she got the inspiration to write these books. -A trial was started during which it was proven that Stouffer had manipulated her original work inserting the word muggle and other changes in her manuscript as to resemble the Harry Potter books. She was also found with false and untruthful testimony and was fined $50.000. She later tried to recourse but was refused by the court. -Other problems surrounding these books rose when Warner Bros. demanded all the fan sites to be closed because their respective owners (which were children, teenagers) had no right to use the trademark. Somehow this thing was settled after some scandals in the media and Warner Bros. started to make a difference between a commercial use of their trademark and the non-commercial use as it is in the case of the fan sites. -Unauthorized and fake copies of the books have been circulating in China. Apparently where it is success everyone tries to steal a little and be ‘part of the success. â€Å"Harry Potter and Bao Zoulong† is the name of a Chinese fake sequel of Harry Potter which came out in 2002 and was published and sold publicly. This book had in fact no connection with the HP books it was a translation of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien but with all the characters names changed to the ones from HP. The fake was rapidly denounced and Warner Bros. sued that publishing company which was fined to the extremely small sum of $3.400. -In India also one author tried to publish a book called: Harry Potter in Calcutta where Harry gets to meet various figures from the Indian culture. Warner Bros. reaction was prompt and made the author stop publishing the novel. -The attempt to stop copyright infringement was not so successful in the case of the Russian writer Dmitri Yemets who published a book called â€Å"Tanya Trotter and the Magical Double Bass† which intentionally resembles Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. Warner Bros. tried to get the book out of publishing and succeeded in not having it published in English but the book was still sold in Netherlands, Belgium and Russia. This ‘copy of Harry Potter has sold over 3 million copies and has a relative success in Russia where the writer has written 12 more sequels. -A successful fan site which began its activity as a lexicon for the Harry Potter world wanted to get all the facts there published in book form which would therefore be illegal so Warner Bros. again had to defend the copyright infringement of their trademark. The case was much debated and judged and in the end it got a semi-positive result: they can publish the guide but under a name which suggests its nature: â€Å"The Lexicon: An Unauthorized Guide to Harry Potter Fiction and Related Materials†. This was possible as the Court and law cannot restrict others to write about others works and that this should not represent in anyway a copyright infringement. -Another case which could have turned out bad for Warner Bros. was when the estate of Adrian Jacobs sued Bloomsbury for  £500 million stating that Rowling has plagiarized a scene from †The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: Livid Land NO 1† and used it in Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire. However in 6th January 2011 the lawsuit was dismissed because there were simply not enough resemblances between the two books. In fact Rowling hasnt even heard about that book and that author until 2004 when the charges were made (4 years after her book was published). This was in a way similar to Stouffers case where she accused Rowling for plagiarism. What happens in fact, in my opinion, is that it is impossible to write something completely ‘from another planet as to not resemble in anyway other works or to retell some ideas, you do that unconsciously and when you write 4000 pages of fiction it is impossible for many ideas there not to resemble others but that doesnt mean it i s a ‘direct plagiarism it is not even an indirect one it is purely a coincidence because the world cannot be so infinite so that everyone can invent something that has never been said. -Black mailing attempt which ended after a gun had been fired (yes were still talking about Harry Potter) is another issue in this world of copyright infringement business. A guard from a book distribution centre managed to steal a number of pages from the 5th book 6 weeks before its release and tried to sell them to a journalist from The Sun and/or try to black mail Bloomsbury. The appointment got serious when the guard fired his gun, luckily the journalist was not wounded but the guard got arrested. -Other accusations came from Asda a UK supermarket chain complaining that the books are too expensive and that they cost at least half more than what usually a bestseller for children would cost. I mean how stupid can such an affirmation be? First of all J.K. Rowling is not writing for children, she never intended to write for children if the books came out that way thats a different thing. How can you compare other childrens bestseller books to Harry Potter when each of the Harry Potter books broke all the records in matter of selling number, selling speed and stayed in newspapers bestselling lists for years? And another thing, how many pages does an HP book have and how many does a usual childrens book have? What sort of material and format has been used for the HP books and what material for other usual books? So, in my opinion, Bloomsbury did a right thing to cancel all the orders made by Asda (about 500.000 books) if they started to quarrel about the price ($30/book). Religious debates: Probably the main accusations brought to J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter books are from religious groups; many different religious groups have something to say against the HP books: Evangelicalism : The Evangelical Christian groups are targeting their accusations mainly at the themes of witchcraft and magic that the books are full of or exclusively about. They recognize the moral features of the books, the valuable lessons about courage, love etc. but they dont like the world in which all these take place. They say that pagan rituals and witchcraft are clearly denounced by the Bible. They say that the Potter books open a doorway that will put untold millions of kids into hell or are comparing the Harry Potter books to rat poison mixed with orange soda. Other Evangelical Christian newspapers portrayed Rowling as a Satanist and her story inspired by Satan, that she has sold her soul to the devil and received much wealth. They made a picture of 3 children sitting in a circle with a Satanist symbol in front of them and with Harry Potter books near them; they made it circulate among Christians as a â€Å"proof† on their views. Suggesting that reading Harry Potter makes you a Satanist: â€Å"Mrs. J. K. Satan-said that as she sat in a coffee shop one grey day, wondering what to do with her empty, aimless life, it hit her: Ill give myself, body and soul, to the Dark Master. And in return, he will give me absurd wealth and power over the weak and pitiful of the world. And he did!† Catholicism: Catholic leaders had no official position on Harry Potter in the beginning later however bad reviews started coming: It is good that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly; Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil; â€Å"The books make a false distinction between black and white magic, while, in reality, the distinction does not exist, because magic is always a turn to the devil; Despite several positive values that can be found in the story, at the foundations of this tale is the proposal that of witchcraft as positive, the violent manipulation of things and people thanks to the knowledge of the occult, an advantage of a select few: the ends justify the means because the knowledgeable, the chosen ones, the intellectuals know how to control the dark powers and turn them into good This is a grave and deep lie, because it is the old Gnostic temptation of confusing salvation and truth with a secret knowledge. Orthodox: the Greek Orthodox Church denounced the books as Satanic: these books acquaint people with evil, wizardry, the occult and demonology; It is beyond doubt that Harry was made to resemble a young savior. Upon his birth people try to kill him, he is forever subjected to injustice but always supernaturally manages to prevail and save others. Let us reflect, who else is held to be the unjustly treated God?; Official liturgies were held to pray in order to heal the young minds from the attraction towards these books which dealt with ‘real magic and reading or reciting the spells found in the books was like praying to the devil and that the poor, innocent minds got possessed. A Russian orthodox writer defended the books saying that they contain moral, Christian values and that the books do not encourage to any pagan practices. This position was held by other orthodox priests as well. Anglicanism: Representatives of Anglicanism had mixed reactions, from forbidding the churches to be filmed as to not have any connection to Hogwarts and Harry Potter to praising the books and seeing the clear difference between imagination and reality: These sessions draw parallels between events in the world of Harry and his friends, and the world in which we are seeking to proclaim the gospel to young people [] To say, as some have, that these books draw younger readers towards the occult seems to me both to malign J. K. Rowling and to vastly underestimate the ability of children and young people to separate the real from the imaginary Islam: in 2002 the books were banned in schools in United Arab Emirates being labeled as un-Islamic, containing elements of fantasy and magic which are against Islamic values. In 2007, hours before the release of the final HP book the police force found and defused a bomb located near a shopping centre in Pakistan. However the police dont know for sure if the target was indeed the HP premiere or not. 6 days after this event a newspaper in Iran criticized the Iranian minister of culture for accepting the HP books in their country claiming that the publisher of HP is of Zionist origin. The newspaper further described the books as a Zionist project on which was spent billions of dollars. In 2009 a documentary on Iranian television about Harry Potter said: The creation of new stories, based on mythical themes of witchcraft and devil worship, has always been a tool used by contemporary Zionists, and it is once again used in recent years, now more visibly than ever, targeting innocent chil dren and youth. Judaism: in the Judaic community Harry Potter has received mainly favorable reviews: in a society in which adolescents are precociously adult, and adults are permanently adolescent, Harry Potter has reclaimed the kingdom of childhood, proving that you dont have to betray to enchant; the HP books are â€Å"a force for good†; etc. The only thing that angered the community was the setting of the premiere of the last book on a Sabbath day. Rowlings response to all these accusations: â€Å"I absolutely did not start writing these books to encourage any child into witchcraft. Im laughing slightly because to me, the idea is absurd. I have met thousands of children and not even one time has a child come up to me and said, Ms Rowling, Im so glad Ive read these books because now I want to be a witch.; People underestimate children so hugely, they know its fiction. When people are arguing from that kind of standpoint, I dont think reason works tremendously well. But I would be surprised if some of them had read the books at all. In U.S. many schools banned the reading or possessing of Harry Potter books because of the fear of the occultism the books may contain. The HP books are, according to American Library Association, the most challenged books of the 21th century. A solution for the banning problem which has been adopted is to let the parents of each child choose what books their children can read from the school libraries. However parents and paranoid people were still against the books: Its against my daughters constitution, its evil, its witchcraft Im not paying taxes to teach my child witchcraft. It is interesting how people can react like that when there is something which apparently touches their religious beliefs but when it is something like teaching 7 graders about sex there is nothing wrong about that or when their children stay all day in front of the computer or go out and never tell with whom they hang out. It is far more dangerous to stay inside and read a fantasy book than to do all those things right? Politics in Harry Potter: Education versus indoctrination Some say that after the 9/11 Rowlings books have abounded of ideas regarding freedom of speech, the dangers of dictatorship, about heroism and sacrifice. One odd thing indeed for me too is that after the books were released Rowling said in an interview, when asked, that Dumbledore was in fact gay and that she always saw him that way. The audience applauded and cheered but many scholars had a different reaction and probably many fans too were hurt by this disclosure. There was no sign in any book that Dumbledore was gay and now suddenly she ‘reveals his sexual orientation, she says: â€Å"I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. Dumbledore fell in love with Gellert Grindelwald, and that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was falling in love can blind us to an extent he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him.†; It is what it is. He is my character and as my character, I have the right to know what I k now about him and say what I say about him. An American pro-activist organization, among others, said that Rowling is trying to indoctrinate young people to tolerate gays. Racism, ethnic cleansing and Nazism The books contain indeed these themes just look at the first one: Racism, is present from the first book when Harry finds out about the ‘muggle bloods and ‘pure bloods, the fight at Hogwarts between the two and the overall coverage of these aspects till the end of the series. Draco Malfoy especially is a promoter of the ‘pure blood and he doesnt lose a chance to remind the ‘muggles of their ‘filthy origins. Voldermort does only recruit pure bloods and wants to kill all muggle bloods, the founder of Slytherin wanted to cleanse the school of muggles and placed a huge snake in the basement used for killing muggles (in the second book). On the other hand the muggles, as if Rowling tries to defend them, are normally more skillful in magic than the pure blood wizards, they have a good sense of what is right and what is wrong, they are intelligent and moral. Has Rowling made all this on purpose, does it have any reference to the actual racism in the world? This is what she said in an interview: I do not think I am pessimistic but I think I am realistic about how much you can change deeply entrenched prejudice, so my feeling would be that if someone were a committed racist, possibly Harry Potter is not going to have an effect. And criticizing racism she said: People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves in nothing else they can pride themselves on perceived purity. Regarding Nazism she compared Voldermort to Adolf Hitler and said: Well, it is a political metaphor. But I didnt sit down and think, I want to recreate Nazi Germany, in the-in the wizarding world. Because-although there are-quite consciously overtones of Nazi Germany, there are also associations with other political situations. So I cant really single one out. Evils of war About this Rowling said: I very consciously wanted to show what is one of the great evils of war, which is that totally innocent people are slaughtered Another great evil of war is that children lose their families. Social activism Rowling has worked at the non-governmental organization Amnesty International which is fighting against the abuses on the human rights and this is somehow portrayed in the HP books through Hermione who tries to defend the rights of the abused house-elves and protect the magical creatures. Hermione is starting