Robert Ludlum was born in New York City, raised in Short Hills, New Jersey and educated in Connecticut. A former actor and theatrical producer, at forty he decided to change careers and try his hand at writing. The rest is history – a reputation for immediate bestsellers, publication in over forty countries and thirty-two languages, and sales of 200 million copies worldwide. Robert Ludlum lives in Florida with his wife Mary, a former actress and his first critic. Ludlum has definitely lived up to his name as an excellent writer and he has shown this with his new book The Bourne Identity. Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity is the first book of a three-part series. This novel, which is set in the cities of Zurich and Paris, is the story of a man who has lost his memory, and his search to find out who he is and what he has done. He starts with one clue: that someone wants him dead. The more he discovers, the more terrifying his conquest becomes. The plot is nothing more than a good guy versus bad guy battle. However, Ludlum's style of writing turns the action into a sense of realism for the reader. This book is beautifully written which puts the reader into each and every character's shoes. Each character is complex and credible. The book itself is full of action and the pace is furious. The Bourne Identity has drive and excitement from first page to last. Perhaps the most impressive part of the novel are the action scenes. These scenes written so well are explosive and screaming with immense suspense, The Bourne Identity is a journey into the tortuous maze of hell itself. Robert Ludlum who was a former US Marine in the Second World War is definitely an ingenious storyteller. He...
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added: 02/14/2012
Motherhood is Womanhood: The Identity of Woman in Buchi Emechetafs The Joys of Motherhood Danielle Grant Let it be known that Buchi Emecheta, the author of The Joys of Motherhood, does not consider herself a feminist. She has said herself that she identifies much more with the term gwomanist.h Whatever you call it, Emecheta clearly identifies with the plight of the Nigerian Woman in her novel The Joys of Motherhood. The story, set in colonial Nigeria around the time of the Second World War, paints a picture of life in the port-city of Lagos and an Ibo village. Nnu Ego is the character who traverses these two existences and whose life presents the framework in which the book unfolds. Emecheta explores the dualities and complexities of the Colonialist shift through the dualities and complexities of Nnu Egofs life, which is desperately devoted to the pursuit of successful womanhood in two cultures at the same time. By tying womanhood and motherhood together, the inextricable link is made. Nnu Ego cannot be a real woman unless she is a mother, if she is not a successful mother she has no value as woman. With the exception of the first chapter of the book, Joys of Motherhood is propelled by a linear narrative that begins with the story of Nnu Egofs mother and finishes with the death of Nnu Ego herself. The scenario that begins Emechetafs tale is a quick account of Nnu Egofs reaction to the death of her firstborn child. gFor how would she be able to face the world after what had happened? No, it was better not to try. It was best to end it all this way, the only good way.h (8) Nnu Ego would rather die by her own hand than face her family and friends as a failed mother. By isolating Nnu...
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added: 12/28/2011
Identity is something that emphasized in nowadays society. People talk about "This is the way I am" all the time. However, not so many people paid their attention to "This is the way you are". This is called "self-centric". Since Columbus discovered the New World in the late fifteenth century, the North American culture tends to be more Euro-American-centric. Thus, the social and cultural recognitions for Asian people in North America are never been such important issue. Canada, as part of the North America, also tends to use Euro-American-centric as their cultural backbones. The Asians are thus become the second-class people in Canadian society. As been suppressed by the Canadian mainstream culture for more than one century, most of the Asians were gradually accept the way they have been treated in this distant land. However, in the 1970s, a group of enthusiastic and highly educated young Asians hosted a radio show called "The Pender Guy" and wanted to use that radio show to change the fixed images that most Canadians hold for Asian community and also, wanted to use that radio show to encourage Asians to step out from the past experience and try to educate the unknown about the true Asian. "The Pender Guy" was well accepted by the audience and the term "Asian-Canadian" started to appear in the public media to represent the Asian community in Canada. Asian-Canadians on the other hand, are thus started to pay more attentions to their origins and their identities. In this paper, I will discuss the emergence and the formation of identity, especially Asian-Canadian identity and how does this word, identity, relates as well as affects our every day life and self-dignity. The new understanding of individual identity emerged at the end of the eighteen-century. This newly formed interpretation of individual identity brings...
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added: 10/30/2011
Compare and Contrast Microsoft DOS with UNIX Arthur Bennis Microcomputer Operating Systems CGS 1560 INTRODUCTION As is suggestive of its name, an operating system (OS) is a collection of programs that operate the personal computer (PC). Its primary purpose is to support programs that actually do the work one is interested in, and to allow competing programs to share the resources of the computer. However, the OS also controls the inner workings of the computer, acting as a traffic manager which controls the flow of data through the system and initiates the starting and stopping processes, and as a means through which software can access the hardware and system software. In addition, it provides routines for device control, provides for the management, scheduling and interaction of tasks, and maintains system integrity. It also provides a facility called the user interface which issues commands to the system software. Utilities are provided for managing files and documents created by users, development of programs and software, communicating between users with other computer systems and managing user requirements for programs, storage space and priority. There are a number of different types of operating systems with varying degrees of complexity. A system such as DOS can be relatively simple and minimalistic, while others, like UNIX, can be somewhat more complicated. Some systems run only a single process at a time (DOS), while other systems run multiple processes at once (UNIX). In reality, it is not possible for a single processor to run multiple processes simultaneously. The processor of the computer runs one process for a short period of time, then is switched to the next process and so on. As the processor executes millions of instructions per second, this gives the appearance of many processes running at once. User programs are usually stored on a...
pages: 14 (words: 3576)
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added: 01/09/2012
About Will and group identity We're talking, thinking and writing about Will, one of the three protagonists in Thomas Kings Medicine River, a particular and delightful novel, taking life easy. It deals with numerous characters in a wondrous but sole community. In individualising Wills persona, we're mentally pointing a finger at him in search for a definition of the term "Ethnicity", a term somehow introduced to "fuzz further the fuzziness" of marginal identification involuntary. Before arguing ethnicity aspects in Wills performance and in his surroundings, it may be useful do define his identity, and even fuzzier, and therefore harder to grasp, his marginal constituted identity. With the help of a collection of parameters laid down in an essay by Harold R. Isaacs entitled "Basic Group Identity" this venture may be made a lot easier for us. Isaacs's collection includes contributing features like the body itself, the social features, the name, the history and origins, nationality, attributes out of geography, like territory, language, religion, value system and formal or ritual baptism. His theory of Basic Group Identity unquestionably "[…] consists of the ready made set of endowments and identification which every individual shares with others from the moment of birth by the chance of the family into which he is born at that given time in that given place." Identification is Recognition: recognizing yourself in relation and contrast to others. Classification: setting values of status orientations. Detection: solidifying and straightening out yourself Discovery: unearthing Naming: symbolising the things you do and the things surrounding you with coded signs to make it clearer to yourself and those outside with an objective point of view. New word, new reality. Identity is in a sheer flux. It's beauty lies in instability. We get along hard with finding and limiting (if in any way possible) Wills identity in the community of Medicine...
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added: 02/01/2012
Too Great a Loss for Too Little Faith "I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice- not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God." (Irving, Pg.1) In A Prayer for Owen Meany, it is with great loss that John Wheelwright gains faith through his friendship with the tiny "saint-hero", Owen Meany. The legitimacy of the faith John "gained" through this relationship is questionable, which furthers the reader to inquire as to whether or not the personal, and physical losses outweigh the faith gained through both his friendship and lifelong bond with Owen Meany. John Wheelwright comes from a healthy family. Although the identity of his father is not yet revealed, he receives affection and stability in his single-parent home. As an only child, John is the direct recipient his mother's love. This trait of John is unique to him for a very short period of time. His popular and admired mother comes to play the role of mother to both John and Owen. The peculiar special nature of Owen is not ignorable. The one recognized parental figure in John's life, is no longer solely his wonderful attribution. It can be argued that Owen 'steals' the one person in John's life that should be off limits, even before his kills her. Unlike John, Owen can appreciate Tabitha in more ways than one; although Owen says, "YOUR MOTHER IS SO SEXY, I KEEP FORGETTING SHE'S ANYBODY'S MOTHER" (Pg. 38), she still fills the maternal void lacking in his own home. Tabitha Wheelwright always had a strange affection for Owen Meany. As he did to so many others, he intrigued her, with both his...
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added: 02/02/2012
On November 10, 2001 the world ultimately granted China membership into coveted trade organization, the WTO. Not since Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms of 1978 has China made such a giant leap toward the creation of a market economy.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) finally opened its door on Saturday to China, the world's most populous ?C and one of the most robust ?C economy, sending a positive signal to the world economy loitering on the brink of a full-blown recession?(Xinhua, Financial Times)
With the completion this fifteen year negotiation, China will now be forced to abide by international trade regulations so as to completely open its doors with ten years. WTO membership will provide countless economic benefits to China's burgeoning economy but the initial adjust period will certainly cause massive unemployment and possible political unrest. With economists projecting that if current growth rates continue the Chinese economy will surpass Japan, China is on the brink of dominating the Asian economy. Although there are many circumstances that may derail this progress, the Chinese now have the tools necessary to develop the powerhouse economists have been citing for the past decade.
China's entry into the WTO was particularly slow (fifteen years of negotiating) for a variety of disparities; from trade barriers to individual market reforms. During negotiations the American delegation was particularly stringent on removing China's tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. For instance, so as to protect China's infant car industry, the government established a one hundred percent import duty on all foreign automobiles. Non-tariff barriers such as quotas and licensing also made business difficult for foreign companies. To purchase foreign appliances Chinese citizens were often forced to purchase a license to have the unit installed. These anti-competitive devices needed to be abolished so as to comply with the spirit of fair competition...
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added: 03/16/2011
The January 17, 1995 Kobe Earthquake On the first anniversary of the moment magnitude (MW) 6.7 1994 Northridge Earthquake, Kobe, Japan was struck by an MW6.9 earthquake. Both earthquakes struck in the pre-dawn hours, both ruptured beneath densely populated areas, and both caused horrible damage. Yet in Kobe there were many more deaths, financial losses dwarfed those in Northridge, and the amount of destroyed building stock and infrastructure was far worse in Kobe than in Northridge. Despite differences in design and construction practices, the same general principles frequently came into play: highway collapses were often primarily due to insufficient lateral ties in the concrete columns, non-ductile concrete frame buildings did much worse than ductile design, shear walls typically helped to lessen catastrophic damage, and soft soils resulted in greater damage to the structures constructed on them. The most important lesson in both earthquakes is that the knowledge to significantly improve structures to resist earthquake damage and thereby avoid most of the deaths and financial losses exists; what is lacking is a consistent willingness to marshal the resources necessary to put that knowledge to work on the scale necessary to prevent disasters. It is an odd paradox, for time and time again it is demonstrated that it usually costs less to prepare for earthquakes in advance than to repair the damage afterwards. Differences in Kobe and Northridge While there are more similarities than differences in structural performance in the Kobe and Northridge earthquakes, there are important differences that explain why the Kobe Earthquake was so much more damaging. Some of the lessons from these differences apply only to Japan; others apply to all areas of the world at risk from earthquakes. The vast majority of deaths in Kobe occurred in the collapse of housing built using traditional Japanese methods. Traditional Japanese housing construction is based on a...
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added: 08/11/2011
Introduction Martin Luther king and Malcolm X were two of the 21st century's most interesting black leaders and advocates of the emancipation of the American Negro. They were contemporaries but held very different views with regard to how the Afro-American should achieve equality. The key differences to their approach to these challenges lies in their history. Background King was born into a strong middle class family with traditional Christian beliefs. His mother was a school teacher and his father was a Baptist minister. He was highly educated having obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree followed by a Bachelors degree in Divinity and this was subsequently followed by a Doctorate in systematic theology. On September 14, 1948 he entered a Crozer seminary which had a profound influence upon his thinking. Prior to this at Morehouse College, where he obtained his first degree, he became convinced that non-cooperation with evil is as much of a moral obligation as is cooperating with good. However, it was at Cozer theological seminary in Chester Pensylvania that he turned to a serious study of the social and ethical theories of the great philosophers from Plato and Aristotle down to Rousseau Hobbes, Bentham and Locke and all of these great masters stimulated his thinking. He states in his autobiography that the book which left an indelible imprint on his thinking was Christianity and the social crisis by Walter Rauschenbusch he did not accept the view of the inevitable progress. He felt that he was absolutely correct when he related the matter to the bible and felt that the gospel deals with the whole man, not only his soul but also his body, not only his spiritual well being but the material well being and the quality of his own life. Inevitably, at this time he took a strong interest in socialism and studied Das Kapital...
pages: 11 (words: 2956)
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added: 11/17/2011
Marijuana is a major part of society today in the United States. It can be found in many parts of our culture from music to attire. It also is the most widely used illegal drug; almost 18 million Americans used it last year. It is the fourth most widely used drug in the world behind caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine. Approximately 200 to 300 million people worldwide use marijuana (Hollister 660). More than 65 million Americans will try it in their lifetime (Dawsey 73). In recent years the debate on whether marijuana should be legalized or not, has been growing. In both California and Arizona legislation was passed to make marijuana available by prescription for people with diseases like glaucoma or cancer. This is a very tough debate because there are many good reasons why and why not to legalize marijuana. Marijuana is nothing new to American society. It has been around for a very long time. Hemp, a fiber in the plant's stem, was once used to make clothes. It was so valuable in the mid-1800's that it could be used to pay taxes (Dawsey 74). The legalization of marijuana could positively impact our society. The first way marijuana legalization could help our society is from a crime aspect. If marijuana were legal, then there would be less marijuana related crimes. For instance, during prohibition there were a lot of gang wars over alcohol, but once prohibition was repealed, the violence stopped because gangsters no longer controlled the alcohol supply. All of the marijuana brought into the United States is brought in by criminals and sold by ruthless people like gang members. If it were legal, companies instead of gangs and drug dealers would sell it. Also, when something is illegal its price is higher because of supply and demand. This causes...
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added: 07/10/2011