Nike at a Glance :: Essays Papers

Nike at a Glance Society, as we know it today, would not be able to continue without the everyday use of shoes and clothes. This fact alone puts companies such as Nike in a pretty powerful and much needed position. It is very unlikely to go anywhere without seeing the Nike Swoosh somewhere. However, Nike has not always had the reputation that they have today. In fact before 1971, Nike was not even heard of. It was instead known as the Blue Ribbon Shoe Company, which was founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. Bowerman was the track coach at the University of Oregon, later to be the birth place of Nike. He knew of Knight through track and field, and they both had the idea of starting and developing a new athletic shoe. Phil Knight in a Stanford research paper said that â€Å"low-priced, high-performance, well-merchandized exports from Japan could replace Germany’s domination of the United States athletic shoe industry.† Knight did not know how right he would later become. In 1962, Knight traveled to Japan and talked to Onitsuka Tiger Company and convinced them that their shoes would have great success in the United States. He came up with a fake store, Blue Ribbon Shoes, which he claimed to own to assure Tiger shoes of his validity. Upon his return, Bill Bowerman and he opened Blue Ribbon Shoes, donating 500 dollars each to the business. The first 200 shoes arrived in December of 1963, from Japan and were met with some resistance. Bowerman and Knight set out to various track meets selling the shoes out of the back of their car. Even though some success came from this, they just could not do it on their own. In 1965 they had to hire Jeff Johnson as Blue Ribbons first full time employee. Johnson knew Knight through track and would prove to be a valuable member of the company. With his help, in 1966, they were able to open the first retail store in Santa Monica, California. The success of this store spawned the opening of another store in Eugene, Oregon in 1968. Bowerman knew however, that the company would have to come up with something new so they could move away from their counterparts in Japan. He did this one day while experimenting with rubber and his wife’s waffle iron.

Lamentation by Byzantine Painters and Jacob Cornelius

Lamentation by Byzantine painters and Jacob Cornelist. Van Oostsanen So- called Lamentations are generally scenes of great soberness and sadness. Byzantine painters and Jacob narrates the same story with different style of painting and in different period. Both painters strove to make utterly convincing an emotionally charged realization of the theme. Both artists presented lamentation scene in more a natural setting and people in the image are fully modeled. They included crying Mary and other religious representation to tell their audience the story is taken from bible. Both painting share the same biblical subject yet differ in a significant ways that show their respective embodiments of the 12th and 16th century styles. Byzantine painter presented their work on the wall painting style in the church, which is one of the oldest in Macedonia and was built and painted in 1164 under the patronage of Byzantine prince Alexios Komnenos. The church is most famous for it's exceptional fresco paintings, which convey dramatic facial expressions and emotions not commonly found in Byzantine art. It was dedicated to saint Panteleimon. Byzantine painters embellished the church of saint Pantaleimon with murals of great emotional power. One of these, Lamentation, is a paint of passionate grief over the dead Christ. This scene actually represents a novelty in Byzantine wall painting because of its dramatic realism. This masterpiece narrates the history in a New Testament. Central place in the composition of the drama takes Christ while Joseph Arimatean, Nicodemus, Mary, and John are participant. Holy mother of God kissed the dead face of Christ, Joseph supports the body of Christ, John, who is the beloved apostle of Christ, bent down and he took Jesus hand to put it on his face, and Nicodemus who kneeled and with both hand he hold the pliers with which retrieves nails of the feet of Christ nailed to the cross. The painting shows their attitudes, expressions and gestures of sadness. Symbol of the Virgin Mary to her dead son is handed realistic, real-life scene shown, with an emphasis on human feelings. She is closest to Christ body than other Jesus followers shown on the image. She put her right hand under Christ neck and the other hand just below his chest. She put her face against her dead son. Looking at her face, I can see she is quit emotional and cannot hide her feeling and grief instead she showed it by crying. John, who was the Christ disciple, also shows his deep feeling and sadness through his facial expression. The body of dead Christ also clearly shows he is dead. His body is proportional, slim and relaxed and his eyes are closed which reveal he is dead. The image of dead Christ doesn’t show his suffering clearly. His body is muscular and clear of any wound. The wall above this scene is painted with blue color, which represents the sky color. In the sky there are angles watching over dead Christ. The main focus of the painter of this masterpiece is the lamentation, which describes the deep emotional feeling of Christ followers because of death. The actor in the picture showed emotional impact of Christ’s death for viewer. On the hand, the Holland woodcuts and painter of sixteenth century called Jacob Cornelisz Van Oostsanen presented the same scene with significantly different way. This work was painted using tempera and oil on panel. In the byzantine painters primary attention is the lamentation of Christ and the emotion of his followers but here in the Van Oostsanen’s the emotional outpouring of Mary and Christ’s disciples seems secondary to the attention paid by the artist to the fashionably ostentatious headdresses and billowing drapery depicted here. He added little to show the painting’s emotional impact. Even though byzantine painters are good in showing the emotional impact they did not clearly show the sign were Jesus was nailed on the cross. Van Oostsanen, on the other hand, showed the sign were Christ was nailed to the cross. The Van Oostsanen paint is more decorative with clothing and building style, which overshadow the emotional expression due to the scene. On the back of the painting there are two crosses one with person on the cross and the other cross is without a person and the ladder is inclined against it. The empty ladder is where Jesus was crucified. Most of the actors in this painting are not emotional and Mary is crying but not really emotional. The skin color of this painting is more realistic than the byzantine painters used. In Van Oostsanen’s painting the face of the actors are little disproportionate. They have small and circular face. In byzantine painting Mary is very closely touching her son, however in the van Oostsanen painting she is sitting away for her son body and hold her son hand. The angles are also presented in the byzantine painting but in Van Oostsanen there is no angle representation. There is small figure in the lower left, which may represent the person who commissioned the painting. In general, the painter was so talented and able to bring the picture alive with innovative movements, luxuriant, drapery, and careful balancing between relaxation and tension. Just like Van Oostsanen painting, Byzantine artist also showed the event around them through engraving to offer visual proof of emotion of human affection. The two painting are well done to show the lamentation of Christ. Although these artworks are done in different location and period, there are huge similarities in telling the biblical story. Both painters showed us the emotional human expression.

How does Thomas Hardy delelop suspense Essay

Suspense is the creation of excitement at the approach of the climax, whether of the whole novel, or just a particular chapter or scene. Tension is the feeling of uneasiness or stress caused by suspense, not knowing what will transpire next. It is clear that the two are very closely interrelated, and when they are employed in a text they have significant effects on the reader. Suspense and tension keep the reader guessing about what will ensue, therefore drawing the reader into the story and, crucially, maintaining their interest so that they want to read on. Thomas Hardy uses not only his own writing techniques and description to create suspense and tension in his novels, but also the behaviour and development of his characters. At the beginning, we are presented with the four characters of Rhoda Brook, her son, Farmer Lodge and Gertrude. We are unsure how their relationships will develop. This uncertainty creates tension, and right from the start, the reader’s interest is evoked. When Hardy wrote The Withered Arm in the late 1800’s, a belief in magic was common among all people of the time. This is embodied in the story by the characters Rhoda Brook and Conjuror Trendle, who are described as being a witch and a white wizard respectively. The inclusion of a magical and supernatural theme in the story is a good way of interesting the reader and creating tension, because as witchcraft and magic are subjects most people in a modern audience know little about, they add to the reader’s unawareness and curiosity about events in the story. Suspense and tension are created in chapter two, when Gertrude arrives with farmer Lodge. We learn that Rhoda has an illegitimate son with farmer Lodge, and therefore understand her jealous interest in his new bride. She tells her son to â€Å"give her a look, and tell me what she’s like†¦ If she’s dark or fair, and if she’s tall – as tall as I†. When her son returns from his reconnaissance Rhoda interrogates him – it is clear she is desperate for every detail. The boy couldn’t see how tall she was, because she was sitting down, and Rhoda tells him to watch her at the church the next day; â€Å"Go early and notice her walking in, and come home and tell me if she’s taller than I†. When he comes back with the information – ‘†She is not tall. She is rather short. † – It is clear that Rhoda is delighted: â€Å"Ah! † said his mother with satisfaction’. This scene creates tension and suspense because the reader is wondering how Rhoda Brook’s obsession with Gertrude will manifest itself later on in the story? The reader is left guessing until the onset of Chapter three, where the consequence of Rhoda’s constant psychological fixation on Gertrude is revealed. It is mentioned at the end of chapter two that â€Å"from her boy’s description and the casual words of the other milkers, Rhoda Brook could raise a mental image of the unconscious Mrs Lodge that was realistic as a photograph. † In chapter three Rhoda has a vision while she sleeps. Gertrude appears as a spirit, looking old and wrinkled, seats herself heavily on Rhoda’s chest and thrusts her wedding ring into Rhoda’s face. Rhoda struggled and then â€Å"In a last desperate effort, swung out her right hand, seized the confronting spectre by its obtrusive left arm, and whirled it backward to the floor. † The dream is extremely real and frightening for Rhoda, and it changes the story completely for the reader. Whereas before it was a story about rural life, now it’s an altogether darker tale that incorporates magic and superstition. The change of atmosphere adds tension, as do Rhoda’s violent actions. The reader is in suspense, as there are a lot of unanswered questions; what will happen now? Where will the story go from this crucial event? What will happen to Gertrude? The latter question is answered later in the chapter, when Gertrude turns up at Rhoda’s door unexpectedly, with a gift for her son. Gertrude reveals that a strange ailment has afflicted her arm and when she reveals it and is questioned about it, it becomes clear to Rhoda that it was made at the same time as she had her vision and Rhoda’s handprint can be seen upon it. When Gertrude becomes a regular visitor to the cottage, the reader’s intrigue is increased again, as once again they do not know what will happen next – the suspense remains as there are important questions; will Gertrude cure her arm? When, in the last paragraph of chapter three, Rhoda mentions that she has been â€Å"slyly called a witch† since she had farmer Lodges child, suspense is increased because both the reader and Rhoda are unsure whether she is a witch or not. Another example of the creation of suspense and tension can be found in chapter four when Gertrude and Rhoda visit conjuror Trendle. Gertrude hopes that the White Wizard will cure her withering arm, whilst Rhoda fears that she will be revealed as the witch who performed the curse. When they arrive at the house, Conjuror Trendle sends Rhoda out of the room; this has the effect of unnerving Rhoda and simultaneously adding to the reader’s intrigue. He then reveals a face to Gertrude in the egg white, but neither the reader nor Rhoda are told who Gertrude sees – â€Å"[Gertrude] murmured a reply in tones so low as to be inaudible to Rhoda†. On the way home the conversation is stilted, and it becomes clear from her responses and manner that she has discovered Rhoda’s secret; â€Å"Was it you who first proposed coming here? † â€Å"How very odd, if you did! † Hardy creates suspense and tension in this scene by allowing the reader to form their own opinion as to what Gertrude saw. This scene is very tense, because Rhoda is left, literally, in suspense as she waits to find out if she has been revealed. The suspense is drawn out right up until the journey home, as Gertrude says nothing when she comes out of Trendle’s house – â€Å"What did you see? † â€Å"Nothing I – care to speak of. † In the last sentence of chapter four it is bluntly told that Rhoda left the village. â€Å"†¦ her face grew sadder and thinner; and in the spring she and her boy disappeared from the neighbourhood of Holmstoke†. This one-line dismissal of a major character completely changes the story. By this point in the story, the reader’s suspense is beginning to wane as they would have formed possible outcomes and plot developments to do with Rhoda and her son, and about her becoming a witch, but by having them leave unexpectedly, the reader is forced to create fresh predictions, thus renewing the suspense and tension. The shortness of the exit, and the lack of Hardy’s trademark description, adds to the reader’s shock, because they were not built up to or prepared for Rhoda’s leaving; it is a surprise. As the condition of Gertrude’s afflicted arm deteriorates, so too does her marriage. For Farmer Lodge, the withered arm is an anaphrodisiac and he becomes â€Å"gloomy and silent†. Gertrude grows increasingly lonely and forlorn, and this impels her to seek out remedies of all types in the hope of regaining some of her beauty, and winning back her husbands love – â€Å"If I could only again be as I was when he first saw me! † Complying with her husbands wishes, she destroys her medicines, but her yearning for a cure does not diminish. She wishes to try another type of cure entirely, and so she travels to Conjuror Trendle once again. As Gertrude’s initial natural wish to cure her arm becomes darker and obsessive, suspense and tension are created once again. Similarly to the curse itself, this appearance of a darker theme in the story creates tension. The reader can also tell that the obsession is heading to a climax, but as the outcome is not known, the reader is left in suspense. The obsession progresses after chapter 7, when Gertrude meets with Conjuror Trendle and he informs her of a possible cure: to rub her afflicted arm on the neck of freshly-hanged person. It is here that the story grows even darker, once again prompting questions from the reader: Will she go through with the cure? Gertrude is hesitant about it, and the task seems so revolting that it is not clear whether her need for a cure is strong enough to overcome her fears – â€Å"Of all the remedies that the white wizard could have suggested there was not one which would have filled her with as much aversion as this†. This doubt creates tension, because the reader is again left in suspense, and the closer to the climax we get, the tenser it becomes, especially as Gertrude’s desire to complete her task increases. She â€Å"longed for the death of a fellow creature† and at night â€Å"her unconscious prayer was ‘O Lord, hang some guilty or innocent person soon! ‘†. This huge change of character, from sweet and gentle, to sinister and morbid, praying for death, shows just how obsessed with curing her arm Gertrude is, and this gradual development of her character also helps to create suspense because the reader wants to see if her character finds a hanging soon, or she goes mad, or changes her behaviour again. This uncertainty creates more suspense and tension because the reader is not sure what will happen, we can not easily predict the outcome. Eventually, Gertrude hears of the hanging of a young boy taking place in a nearby village and, with her husband away on business, she sets off on a cart horse. When she reaches the village she proceeds to locate the Hangman, and explains to him about her arm. He agrees to help her to sneak in after the hanging. When she is waiting below the gallows, Hardy excellently describes the feelings of Gertrude and this increases the tension. He shows just how terrified she is – â€Å"she could scarcely discern anything; it was as though she had nearly died†, and this emotion and fear acts as a build-up to the climax; we are held in suspense until the end, just after Gertrude’s arm is finally cured, she hears Rhoda’s Brook shriek from behind her – Rhoda is standing there with Farmer Lodge at her side. The deceased boy is their son. The double shock of the restoration of her arm and the revelation of Farmer Lodge and Rhoda is too much for Gertrude, and she collapses, and dies before she gets home. The long and intricate description that Hardy uses throughout the book is key to the creation of suspense and tension within the story. He often describes the setting in great detail which, as well as increasing the reader’s interest and giving them a clear mental image, creates an atmosphere and gives the scene a palpable sense of tension. To take an example from chapter five; â€Å"thick clouds made the atmosphere dark, though it was as yet only early afternoon, and the wind howled dismally over the slopes of the heath†. The dense description sets the scene perfectly and by taking the reader into the setting he ensures that events within the story have more effect on them. Because the description of the characters feelings is so good we relate to them better, and consequently we feel the tension and suspense more. I have shown that Hardy develops the suspense and tension in a variety of ways in The Withered Arm. He is able to maintain the reader’s interest through the developing plot, the themes and language techniques employed in the story – the magic and superstition underpinning the story, compelling the reader to read on, the extensive description that creates tension and a sense of place, as well as the emotions of the characters as they develop; all these things stimulate the reader’s interest. The whole story builds to a climax; at the start Rhoda finds out about Farmer Lodge’s marriage to Gertrude, then as the characters develop, many things change, and by the end Gertrude is alone and Rhoda and Farmer Lodge are there together, at the climax. The suspense is held right until the end. I believe that the section where Rhoda leaves creates the most tension and increases the suspense. In this example, ironically, it is the lack of Hardy’s description that affects the reader – it is uncharacteristic and therefore amplifies the sense of change. It changes the story dramatically, because the reader believes Rhoda to be the main character; the one that we are relating to, and suddenly she is gone, leaving us with little relationship in the story again. We then follow Gertrude until the climax whereupon we are reintroduced to Rhoda. Hardy’s way of making us see the plot from both sides is a great way to increase tension, especially when Rhoda disappeared and we did not know what she was doing or feeling.

Free Essays on Privitization

The normative theories justifying privatization as a direction for public policy draw their inspiration from several different visions of a good society. With the rise of conservative governments in Great Britain, the United States, and France, privatization has come primarily to mean two things: (I) any shift of activities or functions from the state to the private sector; and, more specifically, (2) any shift of the production of goods and services from public to private. The second, more specific definition of privatization excludes deregulation and spending cuts except when they result in a shift from public to private in the production of goods and services. Second, in the definition I am using, privatization refers to shifts from the public to the private sector, not shifts within sectors. Thus the conversion of a state agency into an autonomous public authority or state-owned enterprise is not privatization, though it may well put the enterprise on a commercial footing. When p rivatization is a demand-driven process, it does not require an absolute reduction in publicly produced services. If one shifts attention from the sphere of production to the sphere of consumption, one may alternatively define privatization as the substitution of private goods for public goods. A public good need not be produced by government. Any shift toward these forms of nonbroadcast television represents a privatization of consumption, even if the local cable service is municipally owned. In regard to production, "privatization of health care" might mean a transfer of medical facilities from public to private ownership; regarding consumption, it might refer to a shift in expenditures from public health (environmental protection, vaccinations, etc.) to individual medical care. Otherwise, I take privatization to mean a shift in the locus of the production of services from public to private. First, the cessation of public programs and disengagement of ... Free Essays on Privitization Free Essays on Privitization The normative theories justifying privatization as a direction for public policy draw their inspiration from several different visions of a good society. With the rise of conservative governments in Great Britain, the United States, and France, privatization has come primarily to mean two things: (I) any shift of activities or functions from the state to the private sector; and, more specifically, (2) any shift of the production of goods and services from public to private. The second, more specific definition of privatization excludes deregulation and spending cuts except when they result in a shift from public to private in the production of goods and services. Second, in the definition I am using, privatization refers to shifts from the public to the private sector, not shifts within sectors. Thus the conversion of a state agency into an autonomous public authority or state-owned enterprise is not privatization, though it may well put the enterprise on a commercial footing. When p rivatization is a demand-driven process, it does not require an absolute reduction in publicly produced services. If one shifts attention from the sphere of production to the sphere of consumption, one may alternatively define privatization as the substitution of private goods for public goods. A public good need not be produced by government. Any shift toward these forms of nonbroadcast television represents a privatization of consumption, even if the local cable service is municipally owned. In regard to production, "privatization of health care" might mean a transfer of medical facilities from public to private ownership; regarding consumption, it might refer to a shift in expenditures from public health (environmental protection, vaccinations, etc.) to individual medical care. Otherwise, I take privatization to mean a shift in the locus of the production of services from public to private. First, the cessation of public programs and disengagement of ...

The Harrier essays

The Harrier essays The Harrier, one of the few good things to come from England. It's the first and only NATO warplane able to take off without a runway. The Harrier is almost the only fully operational Vertical Takeoff and Landing plane in the world. The russians do have a fighter with VTOL capability, but it certainly isn't as well-known as the Harrier, which has been around for a very long time. It has been through a lot of upgrades, but its silhouette is still unmistakeable. What attracts most eyes to the Harrier has to be the pair of huge air intakes at the midsection of the aircraft. These lead to the Pegasus turbo fan jet engine, which holds the "secret" of the Harrier's VTOL capability. The Pegasus is comparable to a twin-flux jet engine, the like of which power most civilian passenger aircraft put out. Built by Rolls Royce, the Pegasus puts out 23,400 pounds of thrust, allocating the Harrier a maximum subsonic speed of 647mph. It consumes 100kg of fuel per minute; along with 160 cu meters of air per second. The Pegasus vectored-thrust turbofan is a two-shaft design featuring three low-pressure and eight high-pressure compressor stages driven by two low-pressure and two high-pressure turbine stages. The combustor is annular and features vaporisers. The latest variant is controlled by a Full Authority Digital Engine Control system. The engine employs a simple thrust vectoring system that uses four swivelling nozzles, giving the Harrier thrust both for lift and forward propulsion. Simple to operate: thrust vectoring is controlled by a single lever in the cockpit First, lets see how the jet engine provides the air stream needed to produce the thrust. Air passes through the fan and low-pressure compressor system. Some air is channeled into the high-pressure compressor system while the rest of air becomes a cold stream of air that is funneled to a pair of nozzles in the front to provide half of the engine thrust. After ai...

Dendrochronology - Tree Ring Records of Climate Change

Dendrochronology - Tree Ring Records of Climate Change Dendrochronology is the formal term for tree-ring dating, the science that uses the growth rings of trees as a detailed record of climatic change in a region, as well as a way to approximate the date of construction for wooden objects of many types. Key Takeaways: Dendrochronology Dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, is the study of growth rings in deciduous trees to identify absolute dates of wooden objects.  Tree rings are created by the tree as it grows in girth, and the width of a given tree ring is dependent on climate, so a stand of trees will all have a near-identical pattern of tree rings.The method was invented in the 1920s by astronomer Andrew Ellicott Douglass and archaeologist Clark Wissler.  Recent applications include tracking climate change, identifying pending slope collapses, finding American trees in World War I trench construction, and using chemical signatures in tropical trees to identify past temperature and precipitation.  Tree ring dating is also used to calibrate radiocarbon dates. As archaeological dating techniques go, dendrochronology is extremely precise: if the growth rings in a wooden object are preserved and can be tied into an existing chronology, researchers can determine the precise calendar year- and often season- the tree was cut down to make it. Because of that precision, dendrochronology is used to calibrate ​radiocarbon dating, by giving science a measure of the atmospheric conditions which are known to cause radiocarbon dates to vary. Radiocarbon dates which have been calibrated by comparison to dendrochronological records are designated by abbreviations such as cal BP, or calibrated years before the present. What are Tree Rings? Cross section of a tree illustrating the cambium layer. Lukaves / iStock / Getty Images Tree-ring dating works because a tree grows larger- not just height but gains girth- in measurable rings each year in its lifetime. The rings are the cambium layer, a ring of cells that lies between the wood and bark and from which new bark and wood cells originate; each year a new cambium is created leaving the previous one in place. How large the cambiums cells grow in each year, measured as the width of each ring, depends on temperature and moisture- how warm or cool, dry or wet each years seasons were. Environmental inputs into the cambium are primarily regional climatic variations, changes in temperature, aridity, and soil chemistry, which together are encoded as variations in the width of a particular ring, in the wood density or structure, and/or in the chemical composition of the cell walls. At its most basic, during dry years the cambiums cells are smaller and thus the layer is thinner than during wet years. Tree Species Matters Not all trees can be measured or used without additional analytical techniques: not all trees have cambiums that are created annually. In tropical regions, for example, annual growth rings are not systematically formed, or growth rings are not tied to years, or there are no rings at all. Evergreen cambiums are commonly irregular and not formed annually. Trees in arctic, sub-arctic and alpine regions respond differently depending on how old the tree is- older trees have reduced water efficiency which results in a reduced response to temperature changes. Invention of Dendrochronology Tree-ring dating was one of the first absolute dating methods developed for archaeology, and it was invented by astronomer Andrew Ellicott Douglass and archaeologist Clark Wissler in the first decades of the 20th century. Douglass was mostly interested in the history of climatic variations exhibited in tree rings; it was Wissler who suggested using the technique to identify when adobe pueblos of the American southwest were built, and their joint work culminated in research at the Ancestral Pueblo town of Showlow, near the modern town of Showlow, Arizona, in 1929. The Beam Expeditions Archaeologist Neil M. Judd is credited with convincing the National Geographic Society to establish the First Beam Expedition, in which log sections from occupied pueblos, mission churches and prehistoric ruins from the American southwest were collected and recorded alongside those from living ponderosa pine trees. The ring widths were matched and cross-dated, and by the 1920s, chronologies were built back nearly 600 years. The first ruin tied to a specific calendar date was Kawaikuh in the Jeddito area, built in the 15th century; charcoal from Kawaikuh was the first charcoal used in (the later) radiocarbon studies. In 1929, Showlow was being excavated by Lyndon L. Hargrave and Emil W. Haury, and dendrochronology conducted on Showlow eventuated the first single chronology for the southwest, extending over a period of over 1,200 years. The Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research was established by Douglass at the University of Arizona in 1937, and it is still conducting research today. Building a Sequence Over the past hundred years or so, tree ring sequences have been built for various species all over the world, with such long date strings as a 12,460-year sequence in central Europe completed on oak trees by the Hohenheim Laboratory, and an 8,700 year-long bristlecone pine sequence in California. Building a chronology of climate change in a region today was first simply a matter of matching overlapping tree ring patterns in older and older trees; but such efforts are no longer based solely on tree-ring widths. Features such as wood density, the elemental composition (called dendrochemistry) of its makeup, the anatomical features of the wood, and stable isotopes captured within its cells have been used in conjunction with traditional tree ring width analysis to study air pollution effects, the uptake of ozone, and changes in soil acidity over time. Medieval Là ¼beck In 2007, German wood scientist Dieter Eckstein described wooden artifacts and building rafters within the Medieval town of Là ¼beck, Germany, an excellent example of the myriad ways the technique can be used. Là ¼becks medieval history includes several events that are pertinent to the study of tree rings and forests, including laws passed in the late 12th and early 13th century establishing some basic sustainability rules, two devastating fires in 1251 and 1276, and a population crash between about 1340 and 1430 resulting from the Black Death. Construction booms at Là ¼beck are marked by the extensive use of younger trees, which signal demand outpacing the ability of the forests to recover; busts, such as after the Black Death decimated the population, are denoted by a long period of no construction at all, followed by the use of very old trees.In some of the wealthier houses, the rafters used during construction were cut down at different times, some spanning more than a year; most other houses have rafters cut down at the same time. Eckstein suggests that is because wood for the wealthier house was obtained at a timber market, where the trees would have been cut and stored until they could be sold; while less well-off house constructions were built just-in-time.Evidence of long-distance timber trade is seen in wood imported for pieces of art such as the Triumphal Cross and Screen at the St. Jacobi Cathedral. That was identified as having been constructed out of wood that had been specifically shipped in from 200-300-yea r-old trees from the Polish-Baltic forests, probably along established trade routes from Gdansk, Riga, or Konigsberg harbors. Tropical and Subtropical Environments Cludia Fontana and colleagues (2018) documented advances in filling a major gap in dendrochronological research in tropical and subtropical regions, because trees in those climates have either complex ring patterns or no visible tree rings at all.  That is an issue because because since global climate change is in progress, we need to understand the physical, chemical and biological processes that effeect terrestrial carbon levels is increasingly important. The tropic and subtropic regions of the world, such as the Brazilian Atlantic Forest of South America, store about 54% of the total biomass of the planet. The best results for standard dendrochronological research are with the evergreen Araucaria angustifolia (Paran pine, Brazilian pine or candelabra tree), with a sequence established in the rainforest between 1790–2009 CE); preliminary studies (Nakai et al. 2018) have shown that there are chemical signals which trace precipitation and temperature changes, which may be le veraged for gaining more information.    The elliptical rings on this tree from Turkey show that the tree grew tilted on a slope for several years, the part facing the upslope identified by the narrowness of the ring in the right hand side of the image. Mehmet Gà ¶khan Bayhan / iStock / Getty Images A 2019 study (Wistuba and colleagues) found that tree rings can also warn of impending slope collapses. It turns out that trees that are tilted by landsliding record eccentric elliptical tree rings. The downslope parts of the rings grow wider than the upslope ones, and in studies carried out in Poland, Malgorzata Wistuba and colleagues found that those tilts are in evidence between three and fifteen years prior to catastrophic collapse. Other Applications It had long been known that three 9th century Viking period boat-grave mounds near Oslo, Norway (Gokstad, Oseberg, and Tune) had been broken into at some point in antiquity. The interlopers defaced the ships, damaged the grave goods and pulled out and dispersed the bones of the deceased. Fortunately for us, the looters left behind the tools they used to break into the mounds, wooden spades and stretchers (small handled platforms used to carry objects out of the tombs), which were analyzed using dendrochronology. Tying tree ring fragments in the tools to established chronologies, Bill and Daly (2012) discovered that all three of the mounds were opened and the grave goods damaged during the 10th century, likely as part of Harald Bluetooths campaign to convert Scandinavians to Christianity. Wang and Zhao used dendrochronology to look at the dates of one of the Silk Road routes used during the Qin-Han period called the Qinghai Route. To resolve conflicting evidence over when the route was abandoned, Wang and Zhao looked at wood remains from tombs along the route. Some historical sources had reported the Qinghai route was abandoned by the 6th century AD: dendrochronological analysis of 14 tombs along the route identified a continuing use through the late 8th century. A study by Kristof Haneca and colleagues (2018) described evidence for the importation of American timber to construct and maintain the 440 mi (700 km) long defensive line of World War I trenches along the western front. Selected Sources Bill, Jan, and Aoife Daly. The Plundering of the Ship Graves from Oseberg and Gokstad: An Example of Power Politics? Antiquity 86.333 (2012): 808–24. Print.Fontana, Cludia, et al. Dendrochronology and Climate in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: Which Species, Where and How. Neotropical Biology and Conservation 13.4 (2018). Print.Haneca, Kristof, Sjoerd van Daalen, and Hans Beeckman. Timber for the Trenches: A New Perspective on Archaeological Wood from First World War Trenches in Flanders Fields. Antiquity 92.366 (2018): 1619–39. Print.Manning, Katie, et al. The Chronology of Culture: A Comparative Assessment of European Neolithic Dating Approaches. Antiquity 88.342 (2014): 1065–80. Print.Nakai, Wataru, et al. Sample Preparation of Ring-Less Tropical Trees for ÃŽ ´18O Measurement in Isotope Dendrochronology. Tropics 27.2 (2018): 49–58. Print.Turkon, Paula, et al. Applications of Dendrochronology in Northwestern Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 29.1 (2018): 1 02–21. Print.Wang, Shuzhi, and Xiuhai Zhao. Re-Evaluating the Silk Roads Qinghai Route Using Dendrochronology. Dendrochronologia 31.1 (2013): 34–40. Print.

4 page paper on James Joyce's Ulysses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

4 page paper on James Joyce's Ulysses - Essay Example rs at a particular time of day while others seem to be showcasing Joyce’s repertoire of voices – some journalistic, some featuring high drama, some in the modern stream of consciousness and some even in the form of questionnaires. It’s roughly divided into three segments. The first segment is about Stephen Dedalus, which reveals his perspective on life. The second and longest section is about Bloom, following him as he moves through his day. The third section is all about tying the three main characters together. It can be argued that there is a fourth section in the final chapter which focuses on Molly. The protagonist of the story is considered to be Leopold Bloom. He works as an advertising canvasser and he’s 38 years old. He’s married to a woman named Molly who he knows is cheating on him and he spends his day socializing in a detached sort of way. Although he really likes to think and talk about science and the new inventions that are being thought up, his biggest concern in life is the separation he feels between himself and Molly. He’s generally a good guy and has the unusual ability to see things from another person’s perspective. The main antagonist of the book seems to be a personified Death. Bloom is struggling against the idea of death in the immediate present with the funeral of Paddy Dignam, in the recent past when his father commited suicide and in the more distant past when his infant son died, placing a gap between himself and his wife that now has her sleeping around with other men. Bloom is realizing that his family line will die out with him and is feeling himself very mortal. While there are many other minor antagonists in the story, Death seems to be the major cause of Bloom’s disquiet and the reason for his suffering. The story takes place throughout the day on June 16, 1904. Like the chapters themselves, the setting jumps around a lot, starting in the morning with Stephen Dedalus as he moves from his apartment