The Meaning of Evil Behind Animals Rights Essay

Wyman 1 Misty Dawn Wyman English 1213-W03 Professor Melanie Tucker January 31st, 2012 The Meaning of The Evil Behind Animal Rights The text called, The Evil of Animal â€Å"Rights†, written by Alex Epstein and Yaron Brook, explains why animal testing is important and what animal activist groups have done to keep the testing from occurring. They explain the necessity of animal testing for man kind. The cures of different diseases and cancers, could all be created with the testing on animals-mostly rats and mice. The companies and labs doing these tests, like Huntingdon, which is mentioned in the text, are being harassed and interrupted in their process by animal activist groups, fighting for animal â€Å"rights†. According to the authors of†¦show more content†¦They mention a story that was published in the Wall Street Journal about a series of violent events aimed toward Huntingdon and Huntingdon employees. Car bombings and beatings of employees occurred by these animal rights activists. When leaders of these animal rights groups were confronted with these acts of violence, they did not claim to have any connection with these crimes. According to this text, the authors mention that PETAs basic principle of animal rights is: â€Å"animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment† (James 605).The authors follow that quote with the statement, â€Å"In order to do this, the animals must all be set free to roam the grounds as they please.† (James 605). If left up to PETA, there would be no more circus and no meat to eat. If it were not for the use of animals, man kind would not be where they are today. They wouldnt have survived over the many years that have passed. They used animals skin for warmth, animals meat for nutrition, and horses and cows for transportation. The truth about PETA, is that they do not want all animals to roam free. They want the population of dogs and cats to be reduced through spaying and neutering. They would like people to adopt animals from pounds or animal she lters, rather than buying from pet shops or breeders. They do claim to be the number one animal activist groups out there. Are they who they claim to be? What they dont advertise, is thatShow MoreRelatedThe Acquisition of Morality Essay1033 Words   |  5 PagesWould you describe a dog as capable of being evil? Or a cat? Or a chimpanzee? Most likely you could not. We humans belong to the taxonomic kingdom of Animalia and are therefore animals. Our species has evolved from animals that looked and acted more like the modern chimpanzee than we do. So at what point did we go from being creatures of instinct do developing the concept of morality? A great deal of literature has been written about morality, examples of which can be located in fiction and non-fictionRead MoreThe God And The Devil880 Words   |  4 Pagesthe philosopher’s school of thought, is the idea of opposition between forces. Every day must have its night, every ocean its land, every up its down, every hero i ts villain. Taking the last to an extreme brings the â€Å"constant battle between good and evil.† When this idea meets culture, we find the appearance of religion with its gods and demons. In American culture, one of the best known examples of these opposite forces within is the Judeo-Christian God and His opposite, the Devil. In this religionRead MoreAn Old Chief s Lesson For His Son1590 Words   |  7 Pagestwo wolves. One is Evil – he is inferiority, superiority and false pride. The other is good – he is benevolence and faith. This same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.† The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, â€Å"Which wolf will win?† The old chief simply replied, â€Å"The one you feed.† Hidden in this parable is the notion of Human Dignity and why it is what it is and, more importantly, why there is a theistic meaning, if not a religiousRead MoreLife of Pi An alysis with How to Read Literature Like a Professor1656 Words   |  7 Pagesreligions. He couldn’t completely disregard any of the religions, so each one kept warring for a place in his life. In How to Read Literature like a Professor, Foster repeatedly says how symbols usually have more than one possible meaning. So another possible meaning for the three hills is that each of the warring religions has a different part in his life. The religions are separated by being on each hill, but they live simultaneously in the same general area. Just as, in Pi’s life, each religionRead MoreThe Problem Of Pain : Lewis s First Foray Into Christian Writing Essay933 Words   |  4 PagesLewis’s first foray into Christian writing, he is more widely known for his works of fiction, mainly The Chronicles of Narnia, but has since become one of the most loved and respected names in Christian Literature. In the preface, Lewis confesses right away that, â€Å"If any real theol ogian reads these pages he will very easily see that they are the work of a layman and an amateur†. This self professed layman of the Church of England, however, delivers an astute defense of a belief in God’s goodnessRead MoreA Presentation On Being An Atheist Mccloskey1509 Words   |  7 Pagesas God himself had to create the universe. Everything we see, touch and smell was created by God. There is evil in the world which is caused by the people not by God himself. One must believe that God is just and Kind hearted and looks at everyone as equal for his intentions are not to bring evil which is why he sent his only son to die for the sins of mankind. In order for good to happen evil has to happen. God cannot control the sins of mankind he can only desire that in the creation process he givesRead MoreArt Is an Expression1389 Words   |  6 Pagesin life. In both works of art, animals are portrayed but only in the palette do animals have true symbolic meaning. On the Back of the palette the upmost section portrays two cow heads one on each side, which appear to have human faces. This representation depicts a variety of interpretations: the goddess Hathor, or the goddess bat, or just a symbolism for the Kings power and strength, which is a common symbolism of a bull throughout Egyptian art. The true meaning of these symbolic bulls is unknownRead MoreUsing Proofs to Establish a Case for Gods Existence: McCloskey1374 Words   |  6 Pagesis for the same reasons he denies the cosmological argument. I believe the main reason he is denying these arguments is that he does not have the understanding as to why there is so much evil if there is a God. McCloskey has a hard time understanding how a powerful loving God can create a world that allows evil to exist. I believe that Aquinas provides the strongest evidence for God being the designer of the universe. Stating that everything has an order in which they act the same way all theRead MoreThe Garden of Earthly Delights is the modern title given to a triptych painted by the Early600 Words   |  3 PagesDating from between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was between about 40 and 60 years old, it is his best-known and most ambitious complete work. It reveals the artist at the height of his powers; in no other painting does he achieve such complexity of meaning or such vivid imagery. The left panel (220 Ãâ€" 97.5 cm, 87 Ãâ€" 38.4 in) (sometimes known as the Joining of Adam and Eve) depicts a scene from the paradise of the Garden of Eden commonly interpreted as the moment when God presents Eve to Adam. TheRead MoreThe Narrators Guiltless Existence in Edgar Allan Poes Short Story, The Black Cat1524 Words   |  7 Pagesdisagreeable mood leeches onto the narrator and he decides to hang the pet using a noose and attaches it onto the limb of a tree . A string of evil deeds follows the hanging, including the attempted killing of a new cat who bore a startling resemblance to Pluto and the inevitable murder of the narrators wife by his own hand when she tried to stop the attack on the animal, which follows the act of her being stuffed into the walls of the family cellar. By the end of the story however, the narrator own foolishness

Russian Literature Free Essays

Russian literature: History Overview Russian literature has long been a cultural focus of the entire world. It’s not surprising that the formation of Russia’s first literary traditions goes back to the first century. The adoption of Christianity boosted the development of literacy, philosophy and theological literature. We will write a custom essay sample on Russian Literature or any similar topic only for you Order Now The earliest literary works were not written in the Russian language but in Old Church Slavonic which was developed in the 9th century by Greek missionaries Cyril and Methodius. Old Church Slavonic became the liturgical language of the Orthodox Church, prompting literary activity in Russia. In 988 Vladimir I, Grand Duke of Kyiv, converted to Christianity and made it Russia’s official religion. Eventually, religious ties between Russia, the Byzantine Empire, Ancient Rome and Greece strengthened and began to share common traits. As literacy rapidly developed, so did Russian literature. Historical chronicles, sacred scriptures, biblical texts, sermons, biographies of saints and other religious writings and poems were translated from Greek into Old Church Slavonic which remained the literary language of Russia until the 17th century. At that time, books served mainly as a means to foster religious awareness. In the long run, Christianity marked the character of the Russian literature. Church literature laid the foundation for the ideas of Russian unity and Russian national identity. First works of Russian literature Byzantine Greek writings influenced the first texts created during the Kyiv period. The most significant sermon, â€Å"Slovo O Zakone I Blagodati† (1050; â€Å"Sermon on Law and Grace†), is a detailed oration written by the head of the Orthodox Church in Russia at that time, Metropolitan Illarion. It is believed to be the first original work of Russian literature. The chronicle â€Å"Povest’ Vremennykh Let† (1113; â€Å"The Tale of Bygone Years,† also known as â€Å"The Russian Primary Chronicle†), attributed to the monk Nestor, explores the history of the East Slavic peoples, namely Russians, Belarussians, and Ukrainians up to the year 1110. However, the most prominent work of the period is probably â€Å"Slovo O Polku Igoreve† (1185; â€Å"The Tale of Igor’s Campaign†). It focuses on a Prince Igor? s failed raid against an army of Asian nomads and is written in lyrical poetic language. The creation of religious scripts went hand in hand with the creation of folk poetry; songs, epics and fairy tales described authentic Russian life and culture. In the late 11th and early 12th century, â€Å"Teaching† by Prince Vladimir Monomakh and â€Å"Wanderings of Daniel† featured a fusion of religious scripts with folk literature. In 1240 the Tatars invaded Kyiv, bringing an early end to this period in culture. For the next 200 years the Tatars occupied most of Russia. While Europe was enjoying the Renaissance, Russian literature was at a standstill. A series of upheavals and riots throughout the 16th and 17th centuries brought political and secular influences to literature. â€Å"Messages of Ivan the Terrible† and the autobiography of Arch Priest Avvakum were the first literary works written in spoken Russian. These works mixed the church and bookish languages with folk speech. One of the most important and notable literary works of the 16th century was â€Å"Domostroi† (â€Å"House-Orderer†). It set the rules for moral behaviour and gave instructions for running a household. In the 16th century folkloric poetry was on the rise as was the popular genre of the secular story of manners. In the 17th century Russian culture was greatly influenced by Western European values. Tsar Peter the Great? s fascination with European culture was looming large and brought the first printed books to Russia, almost all of which were religious in content. A number of Russian poets started composing verses imitating Western authors. In fiction, the influence of Western adventure tales such as â€Å"Don Quixote† by Miguel de Cervantes, is obvious in â€Å"The Tale of Savva Grudtsyn† (â€Å"Povest’ o Savve Grudtsyne†) and â€Å"The Tale of Frol Skobeev† (â€Å"Povest’ o Frole Skobeeve†). In 1678, the first plays written by a Russian author, Symeon Polotsky, appeared. Step by step, modern Russian literature started to emerge as more and more writers began to develop their own unconventional styles. By the 18th century written Russian finally came into wide use, replacing Old Church Slavonic. Peter the Great and Catherine the Great were keen to promote literature in Russia. Perhaps the most important figure of Russian intellectual life in the 18th century was Mikhail Lomonosov who rose from peasant origins to become a prominent scientist and writer. One of the greatest poets of the time was Gavrila Derzhavin. Russian author Denis Fonvizin dominated the drama. His plays â€Å"Brigadir† (written 1768-1769; published 1790; â€Å"The Brigadier†) and â€Å"Nedorosl? (1782; â€Å"The Minor†) mocked the manners and morals of the upper classes. One of the most interesting non-fiction works of the period was â€Å"Puteshestvie iz Peterburga v Moskvu† (1790; â€Å"Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow†) by Aleksandr Radishchev. It earned its author a ten-year exile to Siberia. Nikolay Karamzin established a Russian prose style in his travel writings with his famous â€Å"Istoriia gosudarstva rossiiskogo† (1818-1824; â€Å"History of the Russian State†). Golden Age of Poetry The 19th century was probably the most fruitful period in the history of Russian literature. Alexander Pushkin Alexander Pushkin 6 June 1799 – 10 February 1837 Mikhail Lermontov Mikhail Lermontov 15 October 1814 – 27 July 1841 Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Gogol 31 March 1809 – 4 March 1852 Ivan Turgenev Ivan Turgenev 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 Lyev Tolstoy Lyev Tolstoy 9 September 1828 – 20 November 1910 Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904 The first few decades of the 19th century came to be known as the Golden Age of Poetry. Without a doubt, Aleksandr Pushkin’s renowned novel in verse â€Å"Evgeny Onegin† (1823-1831) cemented his name in history. Before the 19th century, drama received very little attention from Russian writers. It continued until two pillars of Russian drama Aleksandr Griboedov (â€Å"Gore ot Uma† 1833; â€Å"The Woes of Wit†) and Aleksandr Ostrovsky (â€Å"Groza,† 1860; â€Å"The Thunderstorm†) stepped into the spotlight. But by the end of the century, several timeless plays were written by Anton Chekhov, for example â€Å"Chaika† (1896; The Seagull). The author of the most famous short story in Russian, â€Å"Shinel† (1842; â€Å"The Overcoat†), Nikolay Gogol, is considered to be the original master of Russian prose of the 19th century. His comic, grotesquely humorous collection of short stories â€Å"Vechera na khutore bliz Dikanki† (1831-1832; â€Å"Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka†) are peppered with the local colour and ambience of Ukraine. Fyodr Dostoyevsky’s novels examined political and social issues as well as philosophical and moral problems of Russian society. His â€Å"Crime and Punishment† (1866) is considered to be one of the best novels of all time. Leo Tolstoy, like his contemporary Dostoyevsky, was not just a brilliant novelist but a political thinker and philosopher as well. His novel â€Å"Voina i Mir† (1865-1869; â€Å"War and Peace†) is a family and a historical novel in one and is said to be one of the greatest literary works in the history of world literature. Short fiction and poetry gradually replaced the novel and by the end of the 19th century were the dominant genres of Russian literature. Silver Age Alexander Blok Alexander Blok 28 November 1880 – 7 August 1921 One of the most gifted lyrical poets produced by Russia after Alexander Pushkin. Impressionism and symbolism replaced social realism. A new breed of Russian poets was inspired by Western European cultures, while Russian culture was gaining in popularity in Europe. Russian poet and novelist Valery Bryusov introduced symbolism to Russian audiences. One of the most sophisticated poets of the time was Aleksandr Blok. His greatest work, â€Å"Dvenadtsat† (1918; â€Å"The Twelve,† 1920), described the mood of Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) in the winter of 1918 in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Some of the greatest poets of the 20th century who opposed the Bolshevik Revolution and Soviet rule were Anna Akhmatova (Requiem, 1964), Marian Tsvetaeva and Osip Mandelstam. The last of these was arrested in the 1930s and died in a labour camp. Socialist realism Among those who supported the 1917 Revolution was a prominent Soviet novelist and playwright, Maksim Gorky (â€Å"Mother,† 1907). He was also a founder of socialist realism. After the Revolution, many writers left Russia for Europe and the West. Perhaps one of the most gifted among them was novelist Vladimir Nabokov who emigrated to the United States in 1940 and began writing in English. Under Joseph Stalin, the Soviet regime’s enforcement of literary guidelines made many established writers withdraw from literature. Little literature was created at that time. Works by Andrey Platonov and Mikhail Bulgakov disappeared in the 1920s. Although Bulgakov had published several plays and stories, his masterpiece â€Å"Master and Margarita,† completed shortly before his death in 1940, remained unknown until it was published in 1966. After the end of WW2, the guidelines of socialist realism were enforced even more strictly than before, and the period from 1946 until the death of Stalin in 1953 was probably the bleakest in Russian literature of the 20th century. Russian literature in exile However, the decades after Stalin’s death saw several thaws. Restrictions over literature were eased. In an effort to cast off Stalin’s legacy, Nikita Khrushchev expanded the limits of what could be said in public and written in the press. In the 1960s a number of works that had previously been banned were republished and many writers felt relief. Boris Pasternak finally published his legendary novel â€Å"Doctor Zhivago,† although outside the Soviet Union. At first it was accepted by a Soviet magazine, but then rejected. Eventually it was published in the West in 1957. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1958, but was forced by the Soviet authorities to decline the award. Khrushchev’s campaign against Stalin also allowed the publication of another masterpiece, â€Å"Odin den’ Ivana Denisovicha† (â€Å"A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,† 1963) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It appeared in the leading Soviet literary magazine, causing a sensation. It focused on the realities of life in prison camps to which tens of thousands of people suspected of anti-Soviet views, including Solzhenitsyn himself, were sent. But still, novels by Solzhenitsyn, such as â€Å"Rakovyi Korpus† (â€Å"Cancer Ward,† 1968) and â€Å"V Kruge Pervom† (â€Å"The First Circle,† 1968) could not be published in the Soviet Union. Their publication abroad eventually led to an official campaign against the writer that resulted in his expulsion from the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970. Among other prominent anti-Soviet authors was the poet Joseph Brodsky, who left the Soviet Union in 1972. In 1987 Brodsky too was awarded the Nobel Prize. Like Solzhenitsyn, he moved to the United States. New faces The early 1990s saw the collapse of the Soviet Union and with it the end of 70 years of state control over literature. Official censorship was over and the government proclaimed freedom of the press. This long-awaited independence had profound effects on Russian literature. Works by writers How to cite Russian Literature, Papers

The Americanization of the Holocaust - Show What Essays

"The Americanization of the Holocaust" - Show What Really Happened Flanzbaum, Hilene. "The Americanization of the Holocaust." Journal of Genocide Research 1, no. 1 (1999): 91-104. Accessed May 18, 2016. "The Americanization of the Holocaust" was written by Hilene Flanzbaum. The article was written about how America has slowly manipulated the majority view of what really happened during the Holocaust, and goes into deep detail about the subject. In my opinion, Flanzbaum did a good job on showing and explaining how information about the Holocaust has been Americanized. She also does a good job of showing the importance of the problem, which is that we need to properly remember the Holocaust in the way that it really happened and we need to start working fast, as the last survivors of the Holocaust are aging quickly. If we do not do this, it is very disrespectful to the millions of people that died in the Holocaust, and to Jewish people as a whole. The purpose of her article was to inform readers about how information about Holocaust has been falsely represented, and warped by American culture. Flanzbaum has three degrees total, a B.A. from Brandeis University, a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.A. in poetry from Johns Hopkins University. She currently works as a professor at Butler University in Indiana, where she specializes in twentieth century American literature, especially poetry, and also works in ethnic studies and Holocaust literature. Hilene is the Director of Creative Writing at Butler University, and has been a fellow at the US Holocaust Museum and Memorial. "About Butler," Butler University, accessed May 20, 2016, http://legacy.butler.edu/about/directory/?a=viewprofileu=hflanzba . Based on this information, it can be said that Flanzbaum is very well informed on the topic of the Holocaust, on the topic of literature in general, and can be seen as a credible source of information. The main point of Flanzbaum's article seemed to be that most of our information about the holocaust has slowly become more and more warped, and falsified. One of our biggest sources of information on the Holocaust, and one that a very large number of people have read, "The Diary of Anne Frank", has been changed and edited to the point where it seems more like a nice story about hope, instead of a story of a nightmarish, horrible time for jewish people. Many other writings about the holocaust have been written based on Anne Frank's story, creating a sort of "whisper down the lane" effect, where every representation of the Holocaust is completely different from the original Anne Frank's diary that was published. This is an especially important problem, because the first version of Anne Frank's diary published in the United States was heavily edited in the first place. A subpoint that Hilene included within this is that there have been many plays and other theatre productions th at are based on things, that are based on things, that are based on Anne Frank's Diary, contributing to the manipulation of how people see the Holocaust through more popular forms of entertainment. Hilene supports her main point well, using solid evidence to show how information and writings about the holocaust have changed over time. In the second page of her article she writes "The very text of the Diary, originally edited for sexually suggestive and what was considered by Anne's father overly personal material, has been only gradually returned to its original form. In 1986, 1989 and 1991 altered or restored versions appeared. In 1994, the "definitive" edition was finally published (that is, until someone offers an even more definitive edition)." This statement shows that even Anne Frank's Diary itself has only been returned to its almost original form fairly recently. The definitive edition of "The Diary of a Young Girl" claims to introduce thirty percent more of the original writings from Anne Frank's actual diary than previous versions, but does not exclusively say that it is the same as the original. "The Diary of a Young Girl : The Definitive Edition." Amazon.com. Accessed May 21, 2016. https://www.amazon.com/Diary- Young-Girl-Definitive-ebook/dp/B005MHI0QM Hilene also goes into detail about different manipulations of the holocaust in theatre format. As a support, she gives an example of a situation

Free Essays on William Blakes Contrary States

William Blake’s Theory of Contrary States BY: DELORES JOHNSON William Blake was a talented poet. Many fans and critics alike think him one of the greatest poets of his time. It will be my duty and my pleasure to try a new approach to his writings and some insight to his poems. Of all his poetry that I have read I find the most contrast within the two collections of lyric poems called Songs of Innocence and Experience (1789-1794). These poems represent how Blake felt about â€Å"the two states of the human soul.† The poems in these collections were meant to contrast each other to reflect that. â€Å"Without contraries there is no progression† was often heard from his lips. I agree with that sentiment. I m a college student and as such I am going down an enlighten road. I truly believe that there is a constant struggle between the bourgeois and the proletariat. I believe that there is some evidence of Blake being aware of this struggle as demonstrated in the poems â€Å"Holy Thursday† and â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper†. These poems display ironic views and an overly trusting attitude towards the government. Blake was a controversial poet who often stirred up the political pots of his time. In fact I think that it was his hope to awaken some sympathy within the dormant hearts of the affluent people within his society, to the plight of the common man. So in this essay my goal is to show that Blake was a spiritual man, a man of sympathy and a natural love towards children. Yet I will still be able to uncover with my research why Blake was so avid a believer in man’s contrary soul.... Free Essays on William Blakes Contrary States Free Essays on William Blakes Contrary States William Blake’s Theory of Contrary States BY: DELORES JOHNSON William Blake was a talented poet. Many fans and critics alike think him one of the greatest poets of his time. It will be my duty and my pleasure to try a new approach to his writings and some insight to his poems. Of all his poetry that I have read I find the most contrast within the two collections of lyric poems called Songs of Innocence and Experience (1789-1794). These poems represent how Blake felt about â€Å"the two states of the human soul.† The poems in these collections were meant to contrast each other to reflect that. â€Å"Without contraries there is no progression† was often heard from his lips. I agree with that sentiment. I m a college student and as such I am going down an enlighten road. I truly believe that there is a constant struggle between the bourgeois and the proletariat. I believe that there is some evidence of Blake being aware of this struggle as demonstrated in the poems â€Å"Holy Thursday† and â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper†. These poems display ironic views and an overly trusting attitude towards the government. Blake was a controversial poet who often stirred up the political pots of his time. In fact I think that it was his hope to awaken some sympathy within the dormant hearts of the affluent people within his society, to the plight of the common man. So in this essay my goal is to show that Blake was a spiritual man, a man of sympathy and a natural love towards children. Yet I will still be able to uncover with my research why Blake was so avid a believer in man’s contrary soul....

How the Lufthansa Heist Put the Mob in the Headlines

How the Lufthansa Heist Put the Mob in the Headlines If youve seen the movie Goodfellas, you already know the basic story: On December 11, 1978, a team of thieves led by an associate of the Lucchese crime family stole $6 million in cash and jewelry from the Lufthansa Airlines vault at Kennedy Airport. At the time, it was the most ambitious robbery in American history, and it still counts as one of the largest cash hauls ever, anywhere in the world.   The Genesis of the Lufthansa Heist Theres a reason employers dont like their workers to get involved with the mob: once youre in hock, theres no telling what youll give up to save your life. In the fall of 1978, a Kennedy Airport employee named Louis Werner owed $20,000 in gambling debts to a Mafia-associated bookie named Martin Krugman; to worm his way out, he gave Krugman a tip about a huge shipment of cash about to be shipped to New York by the German airline Lufthansa. (The money derived from monetary exchanges in West Germany used by American tourists and servicemen.) Krugman, in turn, told his fellow mob associate Henry Hill, who passed along the information to master thief Jimmy Burke (the latter two were portrayed by Ray Liotta and Robert de Niro, respectively, in Goodfellas). Beyond passing along the initial tip, Louis Werner was instrumental in successfully pulling off the Lufthansa heist, since he actually worked at Kennedy Airport. He gave the Burke crew a master key, briefed them on the names of the employees who would be working the day of the heist, and even told them the best place to park their getaway car. Before they could spring into action, though, the robbers had to square things away with the Five Families of New York: the Lucchese family backed the operation, but the Gambino family insisted on placing one of its own soldiers with the crew and the Bonnano family demanded a cut of the proceeds, since Kennedy Airport was technically on its turf. The Day of the Heist Oddly enough, given its centrality to the movies plot, Martin Scorsese doesnt actually depict the Lufthansa heist in Goodfellas; all he gives audiences is a shot of Ray Liotta celebrating in the shower as the robbery is reported on the radio. In any event, the heist went off amazingly smoothly: at three oclock in the morning, Burkes crew burst into the Kennedy Airport facility, rounded up the employees (without, thankfully, actually killing anybody) and loaded 40 parcels of cash into their waiting van, and then sternly warned their hostages not to alert the authorities for 15 minutes. Why 15 minutes? Because Louis Werner made sure to tell Burke that Port Authority police could seal off Kennedy Airport (which is the size of a small city) within 90 seconds of a distress call. But heres where things began to get sloppy. The robbers drove to Jimmy Rourkes garage in Canarsie, Brooklyn, and loaded the money into another vehicle that was then driven to a safe house (no one knows exactly where) by Burke and his son. But rather than taking the original car to a junkyard in New Jersey, where it was supposed to be immediately compacted, getaway driver Parnell Stacks Edwards chose to get high instead in his girlfriends apartment, parking the van carelessly on the street outside. By morning, the police had the van in custody, and Edwards fled into the night, his fingerprints still on the steering wheel. The Bloody Aftermath of the Lufthansa Heist Not a sentimental man in the best of times, Jimmy Burke, in possession of $6 million in cash, was driven to murderous paranoia in the aftermath of the Lufthansa heist. It didnt take long for the police to put two and two together and identify the Burke crew as the likely culprits; they wired Burkes lounge, tapped the pay phones out on the street, and even followed members of the gang in black helicopters. In order to cover his tracks, Burke went on a killing spree. The first to go was Stacks Edwards (executed in his home, in a scene memorably recreated in Goodfellas with Joe Pesci and Samuel L. Jackson); the body of Martin Krugman was never found; and at least seven other people associated with the heist also wound up whacked or missing. In the end, despite its  reams of surveillance, the FBI was never able to definitively connect the Burke gang with the Lufthansa heist, and the money was never recovered. (Ironically, the only person ever convicted for the robbery was Louis Werner, the inside man who had made the entire scheme possible.) As for Jimmy Burke, he wound up jailed by the feds for his involvement in a college basketball point-shaving scam. and was then slapped with another 20 years for the murder of Richard Eaton (a low-level mob associate who was briefly depicted in Goodfellas frozen stiff and hanging off a meat hook). Burke died of cancer in 1996, and Henry Hill in 2012, meaning that we may never know how many houses, sports cars, fur coats and home theaters the cash from the Lufthansa heist wound up funding.

Cause and effect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 11

Cause and effect - Essay Example Some economists believe the crisis to be a result of economic cycles which are impossible to resist. There is, however, another theory, which considers the crisis to be a result of a new policy of credit accommodation. That is also the theory the paper focuses on. Most banks and mortgage lenders offered 100 percent financing of a price for a house (or even more). As a comparison, most world banks currently finance approximately 85 percent of a price. This was a really advantageous credit for borrowers – they received an opportunity not only to buy a house, but also to renovate it. However, such a loan was quite risky for lenders. A house could have been sold only for lower price in case a borrower failed to pay the loan back. Thus, the investment becomes lossmaking. However, the number of such deals was constantly increasing. As a result, both banks and estate agencies were financed by investment banks. Another factor was that mortgage rate was not stable. It was dependent on LIBOR, the average interest rate that the average leading bank would be charged if borrowing from other banks (Bischoff & McGagh, 2012). Benefits are obvious – borrowers expected their loan interest rate to decrease in case general situation is being improving. On the other hand, lenders expected it to grow together with the percentage. Thus, mortgage-lending system of the US in 2006-2008 was dependent on LIBOR index. It was acceptable when the index was a little bit increasing or slightly decreasing, though both parties were interested in its stability. However, LIBOR index turned to be quite changeable and instable in practice. It was about 6 percent by the end of 2007. What is more, it was continuously growing. As a result, borrowers were unable to pay back their loans. Investment banks bore thumping damages. That is how the US mortgage crisis appeared. Its effects may be felt even now. That is what set off chain reaction of

Sedimentary or metamorphic rocks and engineering issues Essay

Sedimentary or metamorphic rocks and engineering issues - Essay Example der, 2001).   Given the ability of engineers to measure all these, an emphasis on the latter is quite important in order to provide insight that would at least help in reducing earthquake intensities in the society. Particularly, the understanding of sedimentary rocks and their contribution to earthquakes intensities is necessary. To start with, earthquake shaking starts from the rupturing fault and then continues at other distances away from the fault. Earthquake shaking intensity is supposed to decrease as the distance from the rupturing fault decreases. However, it has been observed that shaking in one site is sometimes stronger than shaking in another site. Sometimes, this shaking can be ten times higher or stronger than shaking in another site (Ammon, 1997). Geologists have come up with information relating sedimentary rocks with earthquake shaking intensities. Geologists argue that shaking is always high in areas of softer rocks. In addition, shaking is amplified in areas of thicker sediments compared to areas of thin sediments. As it has been observed, the major reason why sedimentary rocks are associated with shaking intensities is because they are soft (Denecke & Series, 2003). An explanation of the relationship between sedimentary rocks and earthquakes shows that seismic waves’ speed is much higher in hard rocks when compared to sedimentary rocks. This is because the latter are soft as it has been explained earlier. In areas with different rock types, waves tend to pass through harder rocks to the softer rocks, they slow down. However, in order to carry the same energy carried in the hard rocks, they tend to get bigger than before. Therefore, shaking at sites that have soft rock layers is stronger since the seismic waves tend to move slowly as shown in Figure 1 and 2 (SCEC, 2014). The loss of life and properties associated with earthquake intensities can actually be controlled by avoiding buildings in area of soft sedimentary rocks. If this is not