Who Killed the Electric Car Essay Example for Free

Who Killed the Electric Car Essay Who Killed the Electric Car? is presented as a whodone- it mystery. Staying true to this genre, the film opens with necessary background information, describes the crime committed, answering all of the what, where, and when questions, and then in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gathers the suspects for close scrutiny, coming to a conclusion on the guilt or innocence of each. Opening with a bit of automotive history that establishes the electric car as a competitive alternative to the internal combustion engine, Who Killed the Electric Car? takes the viewer back to the beginning of the twentieth century and the dawn of the automotive age. A straightforward explanation of why gasoline beats out electricity as the fuel of choice and how the internal combustion engine wins dominance concludes the broad overview. The film then moves to the recent past with the introduction of the California Air Resources Board and their 1990 decision to require that ten percent of all cars sold in California by each car manufacturer be zero-emission vehicles by the year 2003. The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde response of automotive companies is revealed; production and marketing of zero-emission cars is detailed, a period during which the legal and political teams of the same manufacturers work to defeat the law that gave birth to modern electric vehicles. While several manufacturers are included, the General Motors electric vehicle is featured. As this segment concludes, the success of the industry’s legal strategy is symbolized by a celebrity-studded funeral for the electric car. This segment is filled with factual analysis that examines conflicting claims about emissions, practicality, costs of various fuels, and consumer demand. The second half of Who Killed the Electric Car? is Sherlock Holmes at his best. The seven suspects identified in the first half of the film are scrutinized. One by one, consumers, batteries, oil companies, auto manufacturers, the U. S. government, the California Air Resources Board, and the newest villain, the hydrogen car, pass under the bare bulb in the inspector’s interrogation room in an attempt to answer the question asked in the film’s title: Who Killed the Electric Car? At the end of each segment the featured suspect is judged as guilty or innocent. The film ends on a positive note, recognizing a grassroots movement that envisions.

A Case Study In Diversity: India And Romania Essay -- Free Essay Writer

The WWW of most URL’s (Uniform/Universal Resource Locator’s) literally translated, means the WORLD WIDE WEB. As such, one would think that it would be easy to find information and sites from virtually any point in the world. To some extent, this is the case -- but it can be very difficult. As a large part of our assignment was the comparison of the SAWNET (South Asian Women's NETwork) website, with another site which we found to be equally diverse, I chose to focus on the Indian aspect of SAWNET, as it seemed to be the most represented of all the South Asian countries. For comparison, I chose Romania, a country that I knew nothing about, as it is represented in Virtual Romania (http://www.info.polymtl.ca/zuse/ tavi/www/rom_eng.html). Each of the websites seemed to function for two obvious reasons: to provide some information about culture and country to interested people, and to p ‚rovide access to the atmosphere of ‘home’ for any people not living in their own country, be it India or Romania. Visually, each site is very different. Virtual Romania is very flashy, with lots of photos, java and shiny banners, and it is set up in a four frame format - very pushy. In contrast, SAWNET is much better organized, with lost of eye-easy ‘white-space’ and culturally representative yet simple graphics. I have yet to decide if this is indicative of a cultural influence, or simply gender-biased. Both sites are several years old - in fact, Virtual Romania boasts that it is "The FIRST Ever Romanian Home Page on the Internet", and was established in April of 1994, while SAWNET began in 1991, as a mailing list that eventually grew into a web site and resource center. I was a bit disap pointed by the fact that several of the links posted did not work, both on the Virtual Romania site as well as SAWNET. The best evidence that I could find to testify to the fact that each of =the sites is well supported by expatriates, is in the Homepage listings that each of the sites maintains. These links mostly included people from foreign countries, many in Canada and the US, as well as a few from within the country’s current boundaries. Upon visiting many pages, I discovered that most people had lived in their home country for some years, and had moved for personal reasons (mainly for educ... ... better job of promoting and helping it’s country for both visitors and for Romanians far and wide. It includes an enormous variety of links for all sorts of topics, from High School year book archives (for old st Þudents) to Academia Catavencu (http://www.vsat.ro/Catavencu/), a Romanian political satire publication, to Interactive maps of major cities. I also really like the inclusion of the Romanian language in most of it’s areas; some items are in English, some in Romanian, and many are bilingual. I feel that the SAWNET site does not to justice to the varied culture of India (or any of the other cultures it represents, such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). Nor does it seem to include any materials or publications available in the different regional Indian languages (as far as I could find). I did find a link to Scilet, a site of Indian literature (http://WWW.SCILET.ORG/), but all the publications had been translated into English, and are unavailable in their original form. Perhaps SAWNET could look to other cultural sites, like Virtual Romania, as examples on how to present and promote their diverse culture to computer-chair travelers and emigrants alike.

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare Essay

â€Å"I am always directed by you† – Mariana â€Å"I am directed by you† – Isabella. Both these lines are addressed to the Duke. What do they suggest about women status in this play? What other evidence can you find to support your view? Measure for Measure is a play written by William Shakespeare in the seventeenth century which crucially presents the role of women. Women were viewed as pure and were not expected to be promiscuous, but dependent on men with few options or choices. Shakespeare’s interpretation of women in Measure for Measure very much reflects society’s opinion of women at the time, where men had more freedom and should be given more respect than women. The society at that time was a patriarchal one, where a male was a considered a God like figure and ultimately the leader, and below him was the king and then the nobles. However, although the society gave men more rights than women, Measure for Measure demonstrates that men also had more responsibilities. This is shown through the situation with Claudio and Juliet, as although they are both equally to blame for Juliet’s pregnancy, it is Claudio facing the death penalty. The women of Measure for Measure are generally quite low in the ranks of importance and respect; they are not spoken of with any importance. Juliet is the object of Claudio’s sexual release and Mariana is the long lost forgotten fiancee of Angelo, who was abandoned by him when she lost her dowry in a shipwreck. The only woman who kind of breaks the trend of the lowly women is Isabella, who has the courage to stand up to Angelo for her chastity. In the first half she is pushed between Angelo and Claudio while she decides what to do and refuses to respond Angelo’s advances, then in the second half, she takes her orders from the Duke which shows that on the other hand she is still obedient toward the Duke, following all of his instructions. In Act V, Scene 1, the Duke shows his opinion of women when talking to Mariana, he says: â€Å"Why, you are nothing then: neither maid, widow nor wife†. According to the Duke’s point of view, the other woman who truly is free is Mistress Overdone as she earns her own money and is able to get some freedom; at least she doesn’t have to stay at home cooking. The main female character in Measure for Measure is Isabella; she represents a very pure female character. This is first seen at the start of the play by the fact that she is training to become a nun and by the strong Christian values she appears to have. This is then emphasized later when she is told her brother’s life will be saved if  she agrees to sleep with Angelo. She refuses this offer, placing her chastity and her Christian values above her own life. This illustrates that a woman’s purity is highly valued, while a woman being promiscuous is not accepted. Mariana is another female character in the play and she is quite different to Isabella. None of these three men, Angelo, Claudio or the Duke, seem to think that her CHOICE matters- her body is to be bargained for whether for lust, life or love. When the duke asks Mariana to allow him a private discussion with Isabella, she replies, â€Å"I am always bound to you†, as if she is speaking to an old friend. And again, when the duke tells her he respects her, she answers that she knows it and has found it to be true, suggesting a long-term relationship. This statement also shows that she is his subject. The adjective ‘bound’ means that she is obliged to do as he wishes and also compelled to do so. She uses the adverb ‘always’ to him which shows that she will always follow his example and will do his will in any condition. Her absolute trust is manifested when she agrees to entrust her chastity as the Friar asks. In the Jacobean society Shakespeare lived in, women would have always done as they were bid by order of men, but especially if the order was given by a man of religion. These words show the absolute compliance that the Duke is able to gain through becoming a disguise (pseudo-)friar. The Duke abuses this religious power to gain insight into people’s souls for his own ends. He knows that Angelo wishes Isabella to ‘give up the treasures’ of her body and uses the two women to gain more power over Angelo. The same applies to when Isabella says to the Duke, â€Å"I am directed by you†, this statement also shows how women respected men and how men were above in authority. As mentioned above, there are no independent women in Measure for Measure, this is not strange, considering the setting and Shakespeare’s own era; there are prostitutes and nuns who are given no chance to control their own lives most of all they seem to have no choice in any matter.

How Pop Culture Has Impacted The Smarts Of Our Country

Pop culture has been seen in the past to be a main ingredient in making our country’s I.Q. drop, or well, that the overall population is going to become dumber because of its rise. However, Malcolm Gladwell has felt differently, and decided to produce an article on how pop culture has effected the smarts of our country. In Malcolm Gladwell’s article â€Å"Brain Candy†, Gladwell effectively uses rhetorical appeals to prove his argument. Throughout Gladwell’s article he uses logical appeals to help prove his argument. One way that Gladwell validates his argument is by providing a thesis for the audience to follow. His thesis statement being placed at the end of the first paragraph is clearly displaying to the audience of what is to come out of the rest of his article, and what his stance is on the topic. Gladwell quotes Steven Johnson, saying that he â€Å"proposes what we thought was making us dumber: pop culture† (1). By Gladwell using this as his t hesis he is informing us that his article is going to go into how pop culture was seen to make us dumber, but that there is proof that it has done just the opposite. Gladwell also uses the logical appeal of scientific facts to back up his argument. Gladwell used scientific data to help prove his argument to be true. In the article â€Å"Brain Candy†, Gladwell’s use of his thesis, the thesis’ placement, as well as how he used scientific data for back up, shows that Gladwell was doing a good job of using logical appeals to help prove his stanceShow MoreRelatedThe War Of The United States1858 Words   |  8 PagesThis country has grown from thirteen colonies (states) to fifty within three hundred years. When you ask â€Å"What do you think of the United States?† Many people would say leadership, ambition, and fear. 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