Are Good Comparison Essay Topics Important?

Are Good Comparison Essay Topics Important?If you want to write a good essay for your college admissions test then you need to find out about good comparison essay topics. They should be researched in advance so that you know what kind of topic to write. Here is some advice on this topic from my experience.Most college essays are essays on a certain subject or a theme. This will usually determine the kind of essay topic to write and the writing style you can use. If you have a theme then you are already on the right track. But if you do not have a theme then you need to start by researching what kinds of topics are used for essays.Most good essay topics can be found easily by browsing online and checking out blogs. You can also talk to people who have written good essay topics and see what they suggest. You will get a good idea on what you should write. You can also ask your professor or guidance counselor for advice as well.Your topic should be related to your subject and to the way you study. Good essay topics will have a direct relation with your topic. It is best to have a single link back to your topic because this will help your readers. The first sentence of your essay should have an introduction that will lead your reader to your topic. If you only have a theme to write about, then it will be easier for you to write your essay.You can also use several different kinds of topics. When you choose the one that will be most suitable for your topic, make sure that the topic will relate to the topic of your essay. You can read other writers' essays online to see what kind of topics they use. Do some research on their work, to get an idea on how you can write your own.Good essay topics will also have a clear outline. The outline should tell your readers where they can go when they finish reading your essay. If the outline is not clear, then your readers will be confused and will not be able to get an idea on where to go next. The outline will also make it easie r for you to structure your essay. So plan your essay outline ahead of time.When you prepare your essay, you will have to keep in mind that there are several things you can change or add later on. However, your main theme will stay the same. But once you start writing your essay, you may wish to add details about your topic so that you will not forget to do so later on.Good essay topics should not be difficult for you to write. Once you write your essay, you will realize that writing essays is not too hard. So start writing now and you will not be disappointed when you come to the end of your essay. With a good topic, your essay will be great.

The Death Of The Lighthouse - 1217 Words

Edward â€Å"Teddy† Daniels, a U.S. Marshal in 1954 is heading to Shutter Island - a remote island accessible only by boat, home to Ashecliffe, a secure psychiatric facility- with his newly assigned partner Chuck, to search for a missing patient. As Teddy looks more into the disappearance of the patient, strange things begin to happen all around him. After his partner’s disappearance, he then comes across a former doctor living in a cave on the side of the island, who tells Teddy that the doctors are performing experimental surgery in the island’s lighthouse. This causes Teddy to take precarious measures to investigate the lighthouse. Upon reaching the lighthouse, Teddy is met by the lead psychiatrist and his â€Å"missing† partner, and is told that this was an elaborate role-play, and that he suffered from mental illness following the death of his children and him murdering his own wife. Teddy comes back to reality as Andrew Laeddis and decides he cannot live with his reality. Andrew Laeddis (Edward â€Å"Teddy† Daniels) was a middle aged, Caucasian man, who had a wife and three children before they were murdered. Laeddis was formerly part of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp as a soldier in the United States military, then became a U.S. Marshal after the war had ended. Edward Daniels is an anagram for Andrew Laeddis, which is Teddy’s real identity, which he learns when he has a moment of clarity. He had been admitted to the secure psychiatric hospital on Shutter IslandShow MoreRelatedThe Lighthouse By Virginia Woolf1154 Words   |  5 PagesThe purpose of a lighthouse is to serve as a navigational aid to shores or ports and to warn boats of dangerous areas. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf is a novel that teaches how one person can affect the lives of people around them by, in a sense, shining a light on the person’s specific traits. 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Afterwards, he attended a few semesters at Lafayette College andRead More To The Lighthouse Essay1732 Words   |  7 Pages Pause, reflect, and the reader may see at once the opposing yet relative perceptions made between life, love, marriage and death in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. In this novel, Woolf seems to capture perfectly the very essence of life, while conveying life’s significance as communicated to the reader in light tones of consciousness arranged with the play of visual imagery. That is, each character in the novel plays an intrinsic role in that the individuality of other characters can be seenRead More Evolution of the Modern Woman in Virginia Woolfs To the Lighthouse1493 Words   |  6 PagesEvolution of the Modern Woman in Virginia Woolfs To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolfs To the Lighthouse examines the role of women or more specifically, the evolution of the modern woman. The two main female characters in the novel, Mrs Ramsay and Lily Briscoe, both represent different views on life and follow different paths on their search for meaning. Lily Briscoe transcends the traditional female gender roles embodied by Mrs Ramsay; by coming into her own as an independent and modern womanRead MoreThe Seven Wonders of Ancient World Essay1119 Words   |  5 PagesThere are seven most remarkable structures of ancient times and I’m going to write about four out of the seven. The statue of Zeus, which was created in 432 B.C., by Phidius, the lighthouse Of Alexandria that was created by Sostratus in 290 B.C. and took 20 years to complete. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus that was first created in 800 B.C. by Croesus and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus that was built around 353 and 350 B.C. These are only four out of the seven wonders I will be wr iting about who

Values And Attributes Of Ethical Organizations - 1086 Words

Values and Attributes of Ethical Organizations Robert Neal Point Park University Abstract This paper with explore the values and attributes of what an ethical organization is comprised of. It will explain: values, attitude, behavior, and ethical behavior. This paper will also look at the PepsiCo Company as it relates to these characteristics and show how PepsiCo has become one of the most recognized ethical organizations in business. It will give examples of what this company does in order to promote and maintain this stand of ethics. They meet these attributes in a number of ways from: advertising responsibility, Company policy, employee compliance training, core values, Environmental sustainability, water stewardship, and recycling to mention a few. PepsiCo also follows up on their polies with a variety of training and activities to reinforce their core beliefs. Values and Attributes of Ethical Organizations Ethics as defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is rules of behavior based on ideas about what is morally good and bad ethics, an area of study that deals with ideas about what is good and bad behavior, a branch of philosophy dealing with what is morally right or wrong, and a belief that something is very important. A full definition of ethics is the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation, a set of moral principles, a theory or system of moral values, the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group, aShow MoreRelatedValues That Make An Ethical Business Leader972 Words   |  4 PagesValues That Make an Ethical Business Leader Values and ethics are essential for any good business leader, but what exactly does it mean to have good values and ethics? 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Feldman provides quantitative data, which validates the effectiveness of Ethical Leadership through the meta-analysis of 101 ethical leadership related studies conducted over the last 15 years. Somewhat in nascent form, Ethical Leadership (Ng Feldman, 2015) is viewed as conduct predicated on exhibiting positive role mode actions while promoting moral member conduct through collaboration, communication, and reinforcingRead MoreThe Issues of Ethics970 Words   |  4 PagesIssues of Ethics The two major ethical theories that have the most relevance and prudence to my contemporary views are utilitarianism and those aligned with the concept of a categorical imperative. The philosophy of the former of these was widely pioneered by both Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. The notion of a categorical imperative was largely popularized by Immanuel Kant. 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Understanding organizational culture is important because it aids in the awareness of the life of an organization, which is relative since it is believed that organizational culture impacts the performance of an enterprise, but just as leadership plays a vital in creating the organization’s culture,Read MoreThe Leader Follower Relationship : Defining, Designing, And Biblical Truth1634 Words   |  7 Pages(economic, social, technical, and political) between nations† (Northouse, 2013, p. 383). It has created economical benefits as well as â€Å"made it difficult to build multinational organizations, select quality leaders, and manage diverse followers† (p. 383). The need for competent leadership is imperative to the organizations ability to be successful in a foreign market. Defining global leadership can be broken down into two parts: global mindset and leadership. Global mindset refers to an â€Å"openness

The Computer Technology Free Essays

Computers are capable of doing more things every year. There are many advantages to knowing how to use a computer, and it is important that everyone know how to use them properly. Using the information I have gathered, and my own knowledge from my 12 years of computer experience, I will explain the many advantages of owning a computer and knowing how to use a PC and I will attempt to explain why you should purchase a computer and learn how to use one properly. We will write a custom essay sample on The Computer Technology or any similar topic only for you Order Now Webster’s New World Compact Dictionary defines a computer as â€Å"an electronic machine that performs rapid, complex calculations or compiles and correlates data† (â€Å"Computer. ). While this definition gives one a very narrow view of what a computer is capable of doing, it does describe the basic ideas of what I will expand upon. We have been living through an age of computers for a short while now and there are already many people world wide that are computer literate. According to Using Computers: A Gateway to Information World Wide Web Edition, over 250 million Personal Computers (PC’s) were in use by 1995, and one out of every three homes had a PC (Shelly, Cashman, Waggoner, 138). Computers are easy to use when you know how they work and what the parts are. All computers perform the four basic operations of the information processing cycle: input, process, output, and storage. Data, any kind of raw facts, is required for the processing cycle to occur. Data is processed into useful information by the computer hardware. Most computer systems consist of a monitor, a system unit which contains the Central Processing Unit (CPU), a floppy-disk drive, a CD-ROM drive, speakers, a keyboard, a mouse, and a printer. Each component takes a part in one of the four operations. The keyboard and mouse are input devices that a person uses to enter data into the computer. From there the data goes to the system unit where it is processed into useful information the computer can understand and work with. Next the processed data can be sent to storage devices or to output devices. Normally output is sent to the monitor and stored on the hard-disk or to a floppy-disk located internal of the system unit. Output can also be printed out through the printer, or can be played through the speakers as sound depending on the form it takes after it is processed. Once you have grasped a basic understanding of the basic parts and operations of a computer, you can soon discover what you can do with computers to make life easier and more enjoyable. Being computer literate allows you to use many powerful software applications and utilities to do work for school, business, or pleasure. Microsoft is the current leading producer of many of these applications and utilities. Microsoft produces software called operating systems that manage and regulate the information processing cycle. The oldest of these is MS-DOS, a single user system that uses typed commands to initiate tasks. Currently Microsoft has available operating systems that use visual cues such as icons to help enter data and run programs. These operating systems are ran under an environment called a Graphical User Interface (GUI’s). Such operating systems include Windows 3. xx, Windows 95, and Windows NT Workstation. Windows 95 is geared more for use in the home for productivity and game playing whereas Windows NT is more business orientated. The article entitled â€Å"Mine, All Mine† in the June 5, 1995 issue of Time stated that 8 out of 10 PC’s worldwide would not be able to start or run if it were not for Microsoft’s operating systems like MS-DOS, Windows 95, and Windows NT (Elmer-Dewitt, 1995, p. 50). By no means has Microsoft limited itself to operating systems alone. Microsoft has also produced a software package called Microsoft Office that is very useful in creating reports, databases, spreadsheets, presentations, and other documents for school and work. Microsoft Office: Introductory Concepts and Techniques provides a detailed, step-by-step approach to the four programs included in Microsoft Office. Included in this package are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft Word is a word processing program that makes creating professional looking documents such as announcements, resumes, letters, address books, and reports easy to do. Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet program, has features for data organization, calculations, decision making, and graphing. It is very useful in making professional looking reports. Microsoft Access, a powerful database management system, is useful in creating and processing data in a database. Microsoft PowerPoint is â€Å". . a complete presentation graphics program that allows you to produce professional looking presentations† (Shelly, Cashman, Vermaat, 2). PowerPoint is flexible enough so that you can create electronic presentations, overhead transparencies, or even 35mm slides. Microsoft also produces entertainment and reference programs. â€Å"Microsoft’s Flight Simulator is one of the best selling PC games of all time† (Elmer-Dewitt, 50). Microsoft’s Encarta is an electronic CD-ROM encyclopedia that makes for a fantastic alternative to 20 plus volume book encyclopedias. In fact, it is so popular, it outsells the Encyclopedia Britannica. These powerful business, productivity, and entertainment applications are just the beginning of what you can do with a PC. Knowing how to use the Internet will allow you access to a vast resource of facts, knowledge, information, and entertainment that can help you do work and have fun. According to Netscape Navigator 2 running under Windows 3. , â€Å"the Internet is a collection of networks, each of which is composed of a collection of smaller networks† (Shelly, Cashman, Jordan, N2). Information can be sent over the Internet through communication lines in the form of graphics, sound, video, animation, and text. These forms of computer media are known as hypermedia. Hypermedia is accessed through hypertext links, which are pointers to the computer where the hypermedia is stored. The World Wide Web (WWW) is the collection of these hypertext links throughout the Internet. Each computer that contains hypermedia on the WWW is known as a Web site and has Web pages set up for users to access the hypermedia. Browsers such as Netscape allow people to â€Å"surf the net† and search for the hypermedia of their choice. There are millions of examples of hypermedia on the Internet. You can find art, photos, information on business, the government, and colleges, television schedules, movie reviews, music lyrics, online news and magazines, sport sights of all kinds, games, books, and thousands of other hypermedia on the WWW. You can send electronic mail (E-Mail), chat with other users around the world, buy airline, sports, and music tickets, and shop for a house or a car. All of this, and more, provides one with a limitless supply of information for research, business, entertainment, or other personal use. Online services such as America Online, Prodigy, or CompuServe make it even easier to access the power of the Internet. The Internet alone is almost reason enough to become computer literate, but there is still much more that computers can do. Knowing how to use a computer allows you to do a variety of things in several different ways. One of the most popular use for computers today is for playing video games. With a PC you can play card games, simulation games, sport games, strategy games, fighting games, and adventure games. Today’s technology provides the ultimate experiences in color, graphics, sound, music, full motion video, animation, and 3D effects. Computers have also become increasingly useful in the music, film, and television industry. Computers can be used to compose music, create sound effects, create special effects, create 3D life-like animation, and add previous existing movie and TV footage into new programs, as seen in the movie Forrest Gump. All this and more can be done with computers. There is truly no time like the present to become computer literate. Computers will be doing even more things in the future and will become unavoidable. Purchasing and learning about a new PC now will help put PC’s into the other two-thirds of the homes worldwide and make the transition into a computer age easier. How to cite The Computer Technology, Essay examples

Lululemon Case Analysis free essay sample

Lululemon Athletica, Inc. Created by: Kelsey Davis GBA 490-901 March 21, 2014 Table of Contents Executive Summary To: Laurent Potdiven Chief Executive Officer Lululemon Athletica Inc. This report has been created with the intent to analyze the athletic apparel industry with a specific focus on Lululemon Athletica, Inc. , further refered to as Lululemon. In this report you will find that the strengths and weaknesses of Lululemon’s current strategies and future goals are analyzed and compared to that of its closest competitors. In conclusion to the analysis, recommendations have been made to potentially guide Lululemon Athletica, Inc. in a positive direction in regards to its future endeavors. The following tools were used to examine Lululemon Athletica, Inc. : An overview of Lululemon’s external environment An evaluation of the competitive forces within the athletic apparel industry. An evaluation of the rivals within Lululemon’s industry and analysis of a strategic group map for athletic apparel industry An overview of Lululemon’s internal environment A S. We will write a custom essay sample on Lululemon Case Analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page W. O. T.  analysis of Lululemon An analysis of the key success factors within the yoga-inspired athletic apparel industry An evaluation of the driving forces of change within this industry An assessment of Lululemon Athletica Inc. ’s current strategy An analysis of Lululemon Athletica Inc. ’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats A weighted competitive strength assessment of Lululemon Athletica Inc. and its two closest rivals in the industry An assessment of Lululemon Athletica Inc. ’s competitive advantage An evaluation of Lululemon Athletica Inc.  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s most recent financial results The findings of this report show that Lululemon Athletica Inc. is in a niche market that is becoming ever more competitive. Although this is the case, Lululemon has been able to hold on to a majority of this niche market share due to its ongoing efforts to develop athletic apparel that possess a envious dynamic of style and practical fit. Because of the strategi es and goals Lululemon has set in place they have strategically and successfully positioned themselves to reap the rewards of great success and growing popularity. In order to maintain this high in the years to come, Lululemon must work hard to maintain strong management, pricing power, and a budget focused on constantly providing new technology within the realm of athletic wear development. External Environment As we have noted previously, Lululemon operates in the athletic apparel industry. Just like many of Lululemon’s competitors, they outsource the production of their products to manufacturers in other countries. The majority of the apparel being manufactured in Asia where it is most cost efficient to produce. By producing in under developed countries where labor is cheap and selling their final products at grossly marked up prices in highly developed countries they are able to achieve the substantial profit that they have consistently seen for the past few years. Although it may be cheaper to outsource production to under developed countries, it can be difficult to maneuver through their political constructs and manufacturing regulations or lack thereof. In addition to manufacturing in foreign countries, outside of Lululemon’s home base of Canada, it also has retail stores that are currently located in the Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, and Strickland 39-52) By selling products to consumers in multiple countries, you always have to consider the state of their economy. This can greatly affect current sales and how Lululemon will project sales there in the near future. Because athletic apparel, especially high end athletic apparel, is not a necessity, Lululemon has to rely on consumers having a disposable income to purchase their  products. Since Lululemon is a brand centered on healthy living, they must keep up with the current trends of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and make an effort to incorporate that into their product’s look, feel, and all together vibe. In the athletic apparel industry, as in any industry, it is key to stay in touch with the current trends in order t o keep your products relevant. With Lululemon focused on such a niche activity it will be important that they explore other markets within the sports apparel industry in the future so as to stay relevant. We can see the company’s first steps in doing just this when they recently introduced their men’s apparel line. A summary of the athletic apparel industry’s external environment are listed in Exhibit 1. Driving Five Forces Lululemon faces constant competitive pressures from the five main driving forces: rivals/competitors, new entrants, substitute products, suppliers bargaining power, and buyers bargaining power. ( Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, and Strickland) Below is a detailed analysis of the competitive forces noted in Exhibit 2. The rivalry among existing competitors is strong. It is becoming increasingly harder to develop new and unique products based solely around a small niche activity. There are only so many aspects of yoga that can be explored and that products can be developed to accompany. Although Lululemon was the first, new competitors are seeing the profit to be had in this niche market and are entering with the goal of creating new more creative strategies to compete with Lululemon and take part of their large market share. (Morning Star) The threat of new entrants is moderate. Although this niche market is attractive, it takes a substantial initial investment to create, develop, and market, this high end performance wear. It is also hard to gain a share of the market when having to compete against already existing large chains. What causes there to still be a potential threat of new entrants is that consumers’ demand have consistently been increasing and they will have to be met by someone. If the existing companies in the industry can’t keep up with demand created by the consumers this will leave an opening for new entrants. The threat of substitute products is low due to the consumers demand for the highest quality products and their strong loyalty to the already existing brands in the industry. It is nearly impossible to duplicate the performance of the high quality materials these products are made for a lower cost or lower quality material. (Morning Star) The bargaining power of the suppliers is strong because very few suppliers offer the quality materials and fabrics needed to produce these products. Consequently, the bargaining power of the buyer is low because there isn’t much room for negotiation on the price of the products due to the need for such quality. (Morning Star) Rivals and Industry Leadership There are many competitors within the athletic apparel industry. With such a diluted market it can be hard to obtain and maintain a sizable portion of the market share, but Lululemon does just that by focusing its brand on the niche yoga market segment. The top two industry leaders with in the athletic apparel market are Nike and The Adidas Group as noted in Exhibit 9. Though these two have the greatest market share, they do not have focus on one segment of the market. By Lululemon focusing on the yoga market segment they are able to allocate a greater percentage of their resources to the research and development of their yoga apparel making Lululemon a top ranking rival within that market segment. With that in mind, Nike and The Adidas Group have had to focus on the marketing campaign of their yoga apparel line to stay competitive in that market segment. (Morning Star) Lululemon’s apparel is tailored to suit the wants and needs of the niche yoga buyer. Although Lululemon started off producing on a small scale their production has quickly grown over the last several years due to its ever growing popularity. By focusing on creating athletic apparel for one particular activity, yoga, Lululemon has cornered that market making it hard for rivals who create athletic wear for many sports to compete. (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, and Strickland) Internal Environment: Strategy Business Model It takes very little research to find out that Lululemon possesses a rare cult phenomenon that exudes a status symbol among people who practice yoga. This all comes rightfully so due to the fact that from the beginning founder Chip Wilson focused on developing a premium line of yoga inspired athletic apparel. In 2007, after taking the company public, Lululemon announced a growth strategy that had five key elements: 1. )They aimed to grow the company’s store base in the United States while continuing to expand in Canada. 2. ) They focused on increasing brand awareness via grassroots marketing programs like organized yoga-focused events.

Explore the phenomenal box office success of blockbuster films Jaws and Star Wars and how they forever changed the film making industry Essays

Explore the phenomenal box office success of blockbuster films Jaws and Star Wars and how they forever changed the film making industry Essays Explore the phenomenal box office success of blockbuster films Jaws and Star Wars and how they forever changed the film making industry Paper Explore the phenomenal box office success of blockbuster films Jaws and Star Wars and how they forever changed the film making industry Paper Essay Topic: Jaws Contemporary cinema today is a fierce market. Most Fridays of the week see a new release featuring our favourite stars on the big screen, in the next highly anticipated movie. The seasons, Summer and Winter also see the years biggest movies hit the screen in order to satisfy our entertainment needs. However, the movie industry hasnt always operated in this way. In the early stages of cinema, our much loved multi million dollar Blockbusters were only a thing of dreams, from the incredible special effects to the massive budgets. This essay aims to explore the impact of Blockbuster films and how they have changed modern cinema, with reference to the hugely popular Star Wars franchise, and the Jaws movies. The essay will also explore the effects these films have left on popular culture, and if they still exist today.The term blockbuster simply defines as a form of media that sustains widespread popularity, achieves enormous sales figures and creates a cultural phenomenon. The beginning o f this new blockbuster era was pioneered by, Steven Spielbergs Jaws and George Lucas Star Wars franchise, both of which were released in the 1970s. The movie Jaws is about a number of shark attacks taking place on the beaches of the U.S.A, in which a $3000 bounty is offered for the animal, in which sparks off a frenzy of people attempting to hunt for the shark. The Star Wars movies tell the story of Luke Skywalker, and his fight against the evil Darth Vader and the Empires efforts to rule the galaxy.Both movies were a huge success, with Jaws being the first movie to earn over $100 million dollars at the box office, and eventually grossing over $470 million dollars worldwide. Star Wars however topped its success, by earning around $775 million dollars worldwide. Before these films, the term Blockbuster simply described the film by box office sales success, rather than its cultural phenomenon and influence on other mediums.One way in which these films changed the film making industry was through the way of merchandising. If the actual movies themselves didnt make enough money (despite doing so), the merchandise for each film would have helped. Merchandise ranges from action figures to video games to sequels and soundtracks (in which John Williams composed the soundtracks to both films). The soundtracks themselves are easily recognisable when listened to, and are so around the world. The iconic string section in Jaws when the shark is ready to hunt down its prey, to the grand orchestral opener to Star Wars, as the introduction rolls down the screen.According to Filmtracks.com, movie music before these films, soundtracks had begun to take on pop route and avoid orchestral music, until the score for Star Wars was written. The themes such as the title music and the imperial march are something of a cultural nature due to their popularity. For example, if anyone was to imitate the tune, we as a culture associate this with bad news or a bad person. The soundtrack has been released a total of six times, with re-mastered tracks and additional audio tracks. Even a disco version of the song was mixed and played in clubs a year after the films release. John Williams furthered his movie soundtrack career by providing soundtracks to countless movies, including Home Alone, Superman and the Harry Potter Movies.Altogether since 1977, Star Wars merchandise alone earned around $13.5 billion (NPR News 2007) in retail sales. Dale Pollock (author of Skywalking, an unauthorised biography of George Lucas) stated that It was much more than just action figures and toy sets It was merchandise in more variety and volume that Hollywood had ever seen. (Pollock, D, 1999). For the first time in 1977, toy stores such as Toys R Us had shelf and isle space just for movie tie ins thanks to Star Wars merchandising. With products such as this available, it helps keep the franchise alive as more than just a film, and allows the consumer to be Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader and let the movie live on. The merchandising continues today, as more and more various products are made, such as video games like the Lego Star Wars series, and further toys and action figures from the prequel films made in the 2000s. This form of mass merchandising is still happening today with other blockbuster movies, such as Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) movies and The Dark Knight (2008).The impact that these movies have left on popular culture, are also a force to be reckoned with. Both movies are frequently parodied in other forms of media. For example, the T.V series Family Guy frequently parodies the Star Wars trilogy in various episodes. Also, the T.V show dedicated a whole 45 minute, special episode named Blue Harvest, which parodies the whole of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and are currently working on finishing up the parody trilogy by repeating this with the remaining two movies.With this in mind, we can use this example and relate it to Christian Metzs (1974) theor y of genre cycle changes. He argued that through a genres lifetime, it would go through 4 stages of changes, which can be down to technology (introduction of sound and colour) or contemporary issues (World War I, II, AIDS, Terrorism etc). These include the Experimental Stage, The Classic Stage, The Parody Stage and The Deconstruction stage. Metz suggested that the Experimental movies were very early on, and dynamic in which case we could use Frtiz Langs 1927 movie, Metropolis. Star Wars would then fit into the Classic stage, as the successful codes and conventions of early sci-fi films are taken and built on until made more formulaic. The parody stage is where the films clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s are made fun of or to re-engage with the audience, in which we can use the previous example of Family Guy, or Mel Brooks sci-fi comedy, Spaceballs. The Deconstruction stage is when the generic elements are placed out of context, for example, Kurt Wimmers Equilibrium (2002), where the mise en scene is sci-fi, yet the story is dealing with other issues, such as emotion and fascism.A strong sense of Star Wars popular culture impact was discovered in the British 2001 census. An Internet campaign that spread via email encouraged the public to identify their religion as Jedi or Jedi Knight in the other religion section. According to the BBC, the number of people in the U.K that were faithful to the Jedi religion that year was around 390,000 strong.Both movies also showed new technological innovations and furthered some already used.Jaws used rare filming techniques such as the reverse dolly zoom, originally used in Alfred Hitchcocks movies. This is when the dolly on which the camera is held moves backward on its track, whilst the camera zooms in on the face. This is used when Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) spots danger in the sea during the beach scene. Special effects were further improved with the use of animatronics. The mechanical shark, named Bruce (Times online) was actually three sharks, used for different movements. One of these was just for use in the water, improving technical areas of special effects.Star Wars special effects however have changed the movie industry forever. The effects used in the movie were way ahead of its time and have set a certain standard for future film productions.The use of foley sound is one of these. Foley sound is when sounds effects are recorded in a studio and then later placed in the film. For example, the sound of the Tie Fighter spaceships in the movie are actually noises of a bellowing Elephant and the sound of the character Jabba The Hut moving is actually the sounds of a trash can filled with wet towels.Throughout the film, Lucas used a variety of special effects techniques, new and old combined. From the use of puppets, animatronics and stop motion animation, to the use of green screen and CGI. People were willing to pay the ticket price to simply witness in awe the effects that Lucas had brought to t he screen with his special effects production company, Industrial Light and Magic. This company in itself has had a massive impact on the movie industry alone, regardless of the Star Wars movies, as it has provided special effects for countless movies and Hollywood Blockbusters. These include E.T, Star Trek Movies, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Jurassic Park and Men In Black just to name a few from Industrial Light and Magics impressive C.V. These movies clearly range from the origins of sci-fi that they were created to work for, and are now a more general company rather than a niche in the sci-fi genre. The movie trilogy also created the company Skywalker Sound, that have also progressed to work on such movies as Speed (1994), Forrest Gump (1994), Titanic (1997), Fight Club (1999) and even video games, such as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008) and the Mercenaries (2005) games series. Therefore without Star Wars, these effects companies wouldnt have helped create films thro ugh time.Although with this in mind, many re releases of the original Star Wars trilogy have been issued with improved Special effects, CGI and sound. These are included years later in the special edition video and DVD versions. George Lucas stated that There were various things I wasnt happy with, special effects, scenes that hadnt been included due to money and time. (Star Wars Special Edition Video Interview). Many hardcore Star Wars fans and purists argue that the films shouldnt have been tampered with and left alone, however if they had not been restored, the original films would have deteriorated with age. Also from the same video, Rick McCallum, the producer of the special edition video stated that: if they had not been restored for this particular edition, they might not have been available ever again.With other versions of these films in mind, fans of the original Star Wars trilogy became very critical when regarding the later made prequels of the movies, especially episode I, The Phantom Menace (1999). A re edited version of the movie was created entitled, Episode 1.1: The Phantom Edit, that was allegedly better than Lucas version. The revised version contained the more promising footage from the movie. Tapes of the movie were quickly circulated through the underground scene of die-hard Star Wars fanatics.However, although with special effects making the visuals impressive, we could say that this could diminish the plots and storylines to these films.We could apply this with Vladimir Propp (1928) theory on narrative structures. He studied the narrative structures of Russian folk tales and discovered that regardless of individual differences in plot, settings, genre etc such narratives share common features, particularly character types. I shall apply his list of character types to the Star Wars movies (although may change over the course of the trilogy) in the table below.

Argentavis - Facts and Figures

Argentavis - Facts and Figures Name: Argentavis (Greek for Argentina bird); pronounced ARE-jen-TAY-viss Habitat: Skies of South America Historical Epoch: Late Miocene (6 million years ago) Size and Weight: 23-foot wingspan and up to 200 pounds Diet: Meat Distinguishing Characteristics: Enormous wingspan; long legs and feet About Argentavis Just how big was Argentavis? To put things in perspective, one of the largest flying birds alive today is the Andean Condor, which has a wingspan of nine feet and weighs about 25 pounds. By comparison, the wingspan of Argentavis was comparable to that of a small planeclose to 25 feet from tip to tipand it weighed anywhere between 150 and 250 pounds. By these tokens, Argentavis is best compared not to other prehistoric birds, which tended to be much more modestly scaled, but to the huge pterosaurs that preceded it by 60 million years, notably the giant Quetzalcoatlus  (which had a wingspan of up to 35 feet). Given its enormous size, you might assume that Argentavis was the top bird of Miocene South America, about six million years ago. However, at this time, terror birds were still thick on the ground, including descendants of the slightly earlier Phorusrhacos and Kelenken. These flightless birds were built like meat-eating dinosaurs, complete with long legs, grasping hands, and sharp beaks that they wielded on their prey like hatchets. Argentavis probably kept a wary distance from these terror birds (and vice-versa), but it may well have raided their hard-won kill from above, like some kind of oversized flying hyena. A flying animal the size of Argentavis presents some difficult issues, chief of which is how this prehistoric bird managed to a) launch itself off the ground and b) keep itself in the air once launched. Its now believed that Argentavis took off and flew like a pterosaur, unfurling its wings (but only rarely flapping them) in order to catch the high-altitude air currents above its South American habitat. Its still unknown if Argentavis was an active predator of the huge mammals of late Miocene South America, or if, like a vulture, it contented itself with scavenging already-dead corpses; all we can say for sure is that it was definitely not a pelagic (sea-flying) bird like modern seagulls, since its fossils were discovered in the interior of Argentina. As with its style of flight, paleontologists have made a lot of educated guesses about Argentavis, most of which, unfortunately, are not supported by direct fossil evidence. For example, analogy with similarly built modern birds suggests that Argentavis laid very few eggs (perhaps an average of only one or two per year), which were carefully brooded by both parents, and presumably not subject to frequent predation by hungry mammals. Hatchlings probably left the nest after about 16 months, and were only fully grown by the age of 10 or 12; most controversially, some naturalists have suggested that Argentavis could attain a maximum age of 100 years, about the same as modern (and much smaller) parrots, which are already among the longest-lived vertebrates on earth.