The eNotes Blog Raise a Glass of Dandelion Wine to RayBradbury

Raise a Glass of Dandelion Wine to RayBradbury Stuff your eyes with wonder. Live as if youd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. Its more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that . Shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass. ~ from Fahrenheit 451 It appears that Ray Bradbury has truly lived by his own advice.   The inimitable writer of dystopian science fiction classics, including The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Dandelion Wine turns 91 today. Bradbury grew up in a working class family in Illinois. His education was his own creation. He argues, I dont believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students dont have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldnt go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years. When Ray was 13, his family moved from Waukegan, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. There, even though he did not attend UCLA, he did make frequent visits to the Powell Library. It was at that library, on rented typewriters, that Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451. When he was just 18, Bradburys first science fiction short stories were published in fanzines. By the time he was 22, in 1942, he was being paid. A chance meeting with   Christopher Isherwood got his manuscript for The Martian Chronicles into the proper hands. The adaptations of Ray Bradburys work are almost endless. His short stories and novels have been transformed into comic books, into television scripts (notably   I Sing the Body Electric for The Twilight Zone) and into major motion pictures. All in all, Bradburys work has been transformed into thirty-five films and shorts. In 2000,   Bradbury sat down with Terry Gross on NPRs Fresh Air and talked about his extensive body of work and some of his quirks (for example, he never obtained a drivers license and is afraid to fly). In 2007, the Pulitzer board commended the author with a special citation  for his distinguished, prolific, and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy. Bradbury continues to write and lecture.   So think about that when you want to whine that something is too hard or you are too old. Happy birthday, rocket man.

How Odds Are Related to Probability

How Odds Are Related to Probability Many times the odds of an event occurring are posted. For example, one might say that a particular sports team is a 2:1 favorite to win the big game. What many people do not realize is that odds such as these are really just a restatement of the probability of an event. Probability compares the number of successes to the total number of attempts made. The odds in favor of an event compares the number of successes to the number of failures.  In what follows, we will see what this means in greater detail. First, we consider a little notation. Notation for Odds We express our odds as a ratio of one number to another. Typically we read ratio A:B as A to B. Each number of these ratios can be multiplied by the same number. So the odds 1:2 is equivalent to saying 5:10. Probability to Odds Probability can be carefully defined using set theory and a few axioms, but the basic idea is that probability uses a real number between zero and one to measure the likelihood of an event occurring. There are a variety of ways to think about how to compute this number. One way is to think about performing an experiment several times. We count the number of times that the experiment is successful and then divide this number by the total number of trials of the experiment. If we have A successes out of a total of N trials, then the probability of success is A/N. But if we instead consider the number of successes versus the number of failures, we are now calculating the odds in favor of an event. If there were N trials and A successes, then there were N - A B failures. So the odds in favor are A to B. We can also express this as A:B. An Example of Probability to Odds In the past five seasons, crosstown football rivals the Quakers and the Comets have played each other with the Comets winning twice and the Quakers winning three times. On the basis of these outcomes, we can calculate the probability the Quakers win and the odds in favor of their winning. There was a total of three wins out of five, so the probability of winning this year is 3/5 0.6 60%. Expressed in terms of odds, we have that there were three wins for the Quakers and two losses, so the odds in favor of them winning are 3:2. Odds to Probability The calculation can go the other way. We can start with odds for an event and then derive its probability. If we know that the odds in favor of an event are A to B, then this means that there were A successes for A B trials. This means that the probability of the event is A/(A B ). An Example of Odds to Probability A clinical trial reports that a new drug has odds of 5 to 1 in favor of curing a disease. What is the probability that this drug will cure the disease? Here we say that for every five times that the drug cures a patient, there is one time where it does not. This gives a probability of 5/6 that the drug will cure a given patient. Why Use Odds? Probability is nice, and gets the job done, so why do we have an alternate way to express it? Odds can be helpful when we want to compare how much larger one probability is relative to another. An event with a probability 75% has odds of 75 to 25. We can simplify this to 3 to 1. This means that the event is three times more likely to occur than not occur.

Discuss the theme of Aunt Granny Lith using the topic of Lilith Research Paper

Discuss the theme of Aunt Granny Lith using the topic of Lilith - Research Paper Example The story then takes us back more than 20 tears when Beth and Casey married. Beth was the third wife of Casey, and the first two having died under mysterious circumstances. Their deaths are hereafter attributed to the work of an old granny, Lith who Casey supposedly proposed to long before he married the first wife. Although in a rare joke, the granny is likely to have taken the proposal seriously and just like the Lilith in the mythical biblical story of Adam, the old woman was ready to ensure that he got married to the man who proposed and that no other woman was to come close (Schwartz, 93). The theme, Lilith augurs well with the story, â€Å"Aunt Granny Lith† in a number of ways. First, the first two wives of Casey died out of the jealous of a woman who Casey proposed to. Their deaths are a manifestation that the old ready, as in the myth was not ready to share a husband with another woman. It is out of this fear that Casey even carry a gun and a knife with him. Having revealed the story to Beth, Beth’s mother Nomey uses her knowledge on the old lady and advises the young couple on low to avoid the wrath. The bravery of Beth, as that of Eve in the Lilith myth is seen when she follows her mother’s advice, and even convinces Casey to do the same and at the end the two get rid of the danger and the fear. The victory of human over the forces of evil is also seen in the symbolism of Lil. Besides the name being significantly symbolic of the same force that was with the old woman and Lilith in the myth. After Beth’s marriage, the woman appears to Beth â€Å"†¦.saw someone scurry into the woods†¦. trailed the person to the head of the hollow† (Offutt, 136). The fight that results over Casey is an indication of the evil that has to be overcome by Beth and her husband to live safely. However, in this case, Beth effectively protects her marriage and does not need any help from her

Heidegger`s Being and Time Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Heidegger`s Being and Time - Essay Example Being and Time is a book by Martin Heidegger. It was never finished but it still continues to be an influential book, in fact, it is Heidegger’s most influential book. It is so influential that it actually had a great impact on the field of 20th century philosophy, particularly existentialism. Heidegger points out the problem of â€Å"being† than reflecting on consciousness or pre-conceived notions of a particular object. His problem was that we are slaves of that pre conceived notions and his book Being and Time chronicles all of that. Heidegger claims that Western philosophy has been misunderstood ever since Platonic times. Everyone assumes something as something â€Å"to be† rather than something for what it is. Thus, the matter of the object turns to being an object rather than being the supposed object itself. His main concern is that all objects have gotten to be slaves of history and their so-called properties that we forget about the other things the object can do. With that, we also become slaves to properties as well. For Heidegger a correct investigation of things should focus on the things or elements that are the object themselves. Heidegger also says that the reason for philosophy being misunderstood is that the philosophers have overlooked the basic facts that pre-theoretical ways offer; instead they have applied those generalizations equally to all things that they are studying. That’s why the philosophy is flawed, according to Heidegger. Thus, he proposed a new way of appreciating objects. Although he understood that we appreciate things via our innate understanding of things, such as the â€Å"common sense† which is actually prone to error. This is because as humans, we are always readily affected by our beliefs in God, our logical thinking and practically the reality. This makes our relationship with objects, particularly technology and the way of out thinking affects it. Another point that Heidegger wants to emphasize is the phenomenological approach that Husserl started. T his is existentialism on its basic roots. According to Husserl, philosophy could be and should be a description of one’s experience. For Heidegger, philosophy or the understanding of experience is already embedded in the world, therefore centuries of conditioning of how we should interpret the experience are already there, making the interpretation not as unique as one would think because it is already influenced by history and other stuff. Hence, Husserl’s understanding of reality is more â€Å"intentional†. For Heidegger, describing an experience should also consider who that description is for. Anything, with philosophy, is a possibility, and therefore one should be careful in analyzing stuff philosophically. Heidegger’s ideas, however new and noble and adventurous for his time, were not as accepted well because of his affiliations. He supported Nationalist Socialism and he was actually a member of the Nazi Party. All of his supporters claim that his p hilosophy was not affected by his Nazism or vice versa. They are saying that that affiliation is irrelevant (but others claim that being a member of the Nazi Party was a personal error on his part. The book Being and Time tries to talk about the question about the sense of being and philosophizing it in a manner that the people would understand his point. According to him, â€Å"Being is not something like a being† and the things that determine a being is based on the terms that they already understand. But for him, one should be basic abut all of these things and be fundamental about it, negating any previous ideas by using logic. This is Heidegger first academic book. It was published

Haunted Elevators at the University of Maryland :: Urban Legend Myths

Haunted Elevators at the University of Maryland A good urban legend is like a play: so well written and delivered the audience cannot tell if the performers are acting. The legend is carefully crafted to resonate with the audiences’ â€Å"hopes, fears, and anxieties† and the delivery works to suspend their disbelief. One urban legend epitomizes these characteristics. This urban legend was told by an eighteen-year-old African American college student at the University of Maryland. The urban legend dealt with Denton Hall, where he currently lives. The storyteller claimed that one of the dormitory’s early residents was a girl who, due to some kind of calcium deficiency, had an unusually weak bone structure. The storyteller could not recall her name, but indicated that it had just slipped his mind and was on the tip of his tongue. One day, she was going to the dining hall with a friend of hers when she realized she had forgotten her I.D. card. She asked her friend to hold the elevator while she ran back to her room to get it. She was just reaching the elevator with her card when the elevator, having been held open for too long, began buzzing and the doors closed. The girl tried to jump onto the elevator at the last second but the doors closed on her and crushed her. According to the storyteller, some of her â€Å"brain fluid,† c omposed of neurotransmitters and other electrically conductive chemicals, sprayed into the elevators control panel and fried some of the circuitry. From that point on, the elevators in Denton have been on the fritz and break down whenever anyone holds them open for too long. The urban legend was delivered excellently. The storyteller had also selected a perfect time for his performance. He was speaking too a small group of other Maryland students who were waiting for the elevator in Denton. He had enough time to finish his story, because only one of the elevators was working. The storyteller presented the story as if he was simply relating the facts. He did not fill the story with dramatic pauses or extensive efforts to get an emotional response from the audience. If he thought his audience was going to find a part of the story disturbing or unbelievable he qualified it by saying â€Å"Now I thought this was really gross.

Theories of Crime

Describe how you think Intelligence-Led Policing in the United States should be conducted. Intelligence-led policing is the latest means by which police authorities solve crimes instead of acting only after a crime has been consummated (â€Å"Intelligence-Led Policing in the United States†). This shift from the old practice needs more development in order to cope up with the changing technological advancement around the world. Besides, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, made this revolution essential.I know that such huge attack in the United States became successful because of negligence and underestimating the capabilities of criminals in using technology to evade the law. For me, there are three ways wherein intelligence-led policing should be conducted in the United States. First, there should be constant look-out of people coming in the country and going out of the same. The possibility of criminals coming in the country not detected by the police is high due to their networks and resources.Second, there should be a more effective system wherein all intelligence units across the country could interact directly through the development of technology to that effect. And third, all suspicious and non-suspicious but possible perpetrators must be constantly monitored for possible crime or terrorism activities, and such action must be done in accordance with law. Specifically, how would you recommend setting up the intelligence community in the United States?Globalization, fast-tracked by development in technology and transportation, has transformed the world smaller for criminals and bigger for state and local law enforcement (â€Å"Intelligence-Led Policing)†. In that sense, setting up the domestic intelligence or the FBI must be magnified to the effect that it is no longer limited to domestic perpetrators but to all their possible accomplices and accessories within the country.The CIA, which is the foreign intelligence must focus on sma ll groups of individual who are capable of consummating criminal acts and study their possible allies and supporters. The role of the militaries is vital in having access to these groups of criminals as they are capable to use bigger force to solve crimes. It would be better if a unified action be made in every intelligence reports received by all authorities in order to prevent commission of crimes against national security and individual well-being.References Suburban Emergency Management Project. 2007. Intelligence-Led Policing in the United States. Retrieved July 22, 2009, from http://www. semp. us/publications/biot_ reader. php? BiotID=474. Bureau of Justice Assistance. 2009. Intelligence-Led Policing. Retrieved July 22, 2009, http://www. ojp. usdoj. gov/BJA/topics/ilp. html.

Character Review of Of Mice and Men Essay - 1166 Words

Character Review of Of Mice and Men Of Mice and Men is a novel set on a ranch in the Salinas Valley in California during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The title of the book is a reference to Robert Burnss poem To a Mouse. (1759 - 96): The best laid schemes o mice and men Gang aft agley [often go wrong] And leave us nought but grief and pain For promised joy! In the book, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck created memorable characters that play out two dramatically realistic, neonaturalist themes: Friendship and Loneliness. Ending the glitter and excess of the Jazz Age, the catastrophe of the 1929 stock-market crash ushered in the angry decade of the 1930s. Many novels of neonaturalism and social protest were†¦show more content†¦In this case, loneliness is the biggest tragedy. Crooks is the stable buck. He is different from the rest because he is black, in a time where racial prejudice is strong. He has also been crippled, and so his life is very bad. He lives separately to the others in his own room, the harness room. He has books on his shelves, which shows that he is more intellectual than the others. He has fond memories of his past, when he and his white friends would play on their chicken ranch, and were oblivious as to why their parents didnt like it. Now he knows why, and he hates the fact that he cant come into the bunkhouse to play cards, but has to spend all his free time by himself. The white people exclude him, so instead of pleading with them he decides he is going to exclude them as well. Crooks, on a black mans loneliness: Spose you didnt have nobody. Spose you couldnt go into the bunk house and play rummy cause you was black. Howd you like that? Spose you had to sit out here an read books. Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, b ut then you got to read books. Books aint no good. A guy needs somebody-to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he aint got nobody. Dont make no difference who the guy is, longs hes with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick (80) Loneliness can result from rejection#8230; (Couns.uiuc.edu/loneline.htm). Others treat CrooksShow MoreRelatedMice and Men Annotated Bibliography855 Words   |  4 PagesEnglish II PAP 4th 8 November 2011 Of Mice And Men : An Annotated Bibliography Book Review: Of Mice amp; Men. A Novel Menagerie. Novel Menagerie, 2009. Web. 7 Nov 2011. lt;http://anovelmenagerie.com/2009/02/18/book-review-of-mice-and-men/gt;. The author of this review focuses on the life of Lennie. She sympathizes with the hard times Lennie had to go through as a character. The author describes Lennie to the readers as an innocent, childlike character who is misunderstand by the people surroundingRead MoreHandicaps, Hardships, and Friendships in Of Mice and Men1362 Words   |  6 Pagesopportunity’s to achieve the dream that you conceptualize to be right by you. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck did not want to just illustrate the American dream as being easy, but he wanted to point out the American Dream as being difficult too. Steinbeck made a work of art by composing a great novel to make the reader understand that life can be difficult and at times dreams are hard to achieve. Of Mice and Men was written and based on the settings of the Great Depression (Anderson). The Great DepressionRead MoreOf Mice and Men by John Steinbeck973 Words   |  4 Pagescanals and working beside men similar to characters in his novels. 2. In a discussion John Steinbeck said, I worked in the same country that the story is laid in. The characters are composites to a certain extent. Lennie was a real person. Hes in an insane asylum in California right now. I worked alongside him for many weeks . . .† (Parini 27) a. During the interview Steinbeck told his personal experiences that permitted him to write and construct the novel Of Mice and Men. II. Proof of Thesis Read MoreForeshadowing In Of Mice And Men Analysis1257 Words   |  6 Pageshappens later in the book. In 1937 John Steinbeck published the American classic, â€Å"Of Mice and Men,† a short story that tells the tale of George and Lennie, two migrant workers during the Great Depression. George, a small quick man, and his companion, Lennie, an enormous man with the mind of a child. They begin work at a ranch and come across Crooks, Candy, Slim, Curley, Curley’s wife, and many more characters that reside among the ranch. The pair’s biggest goal is to live the American Dream, toRead MoreOf Mice and Men and the Great Depression1661 Words   |  7 Pageseverlasting hope. John Steinbecks literature takes a snapshot of this time with realistic circumstances appropriate for the time. Of Mice and Men reflects the Great Depression Era by presenting the storyline in the agricultural setting of 1930s California, describing the hardships of migrant field workers, and mentioning the dreams and goals of various characters. The United States felt the reverberating effects of their failing economy during the 1930s. The decade of the 1920s was a period ofRead MoreOf Mice And Men Film Analysis1577 Words   |  7 PagesOf Mice and Men (1992) Movie Review Of Mice and Men is an action-packed, but peaceful film and novella by John Steinbeck. The movie has been made as an interpretation by Gary Sinise, who is the director and one of the main characters. Of Mice and Men is about George and Lennie (Gary Sinise, John Malkovich) who are very close friends. George is a short and smart man. On the other hand, Lennie is a big man who is mindless. Unlike the book, the movie is very visual with lots of sounds and excitingRead MoreRain Man Journal1371 Words   |  6 PagesPart One (Plot Summary) Rain Man directed by Barry Levinson was released in 1988.The story of this movie takes place in the United States (Cincinnati, Ohio) in 1988. Similar to John Steinbecks Of Mice And Men, the story of this movie is about friendship between two unequal men(one mentally challenged and the other, normal) that are on a journey and their friendship, but opposite to the story of the novel, the film has a happy ending. One day, Charley, who is a successfulRead MoreThe Butterfly Effect, and A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury1138 Words   |  5 Pageschanging the future. Although they share the same idea, they each have different outcomes. A Sound of Thunder was written in 1952 by Ray Bradbury. It was set in the year of 2055 during a presidential election. In the story, Eckels and a group of rich men travel back in time to kill a dinosaur. However, after seeing the dinosaur, Eckels cowardly strays off of the important floating path. When the group returns to Time Safari Incorporated, they realize that Eckels has made the terrible mistake of steppingRead More The American Dream in Of Mice and Men, The Great Gatsby, Two Kinds, and Sophistication1537 Words   |  7 PagesAmerican Dream in Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Two Kinds writer by Amy Tan, and in â€Å"Sophistication† by Sherwood Anderson. Working hard is the key to success. This struggle for success is most commonly called the â€Å"American Dream.† The aspect of the American Dream has been around forever and is often the underlying theme in many pieces of American literature. The theme of the American is especially presented in Of Mice and Men written by John SteinbeckRead MoreOf Mice And Men By John Steinbeck1080 Words   |  5 PagesPlot Summary: The setting of the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck began south of Soledad, California in a riverbed near the Salinas River. The time was during the 1930s with the Great Depression. The two main protagonists, George and Lennie, enters the scene resting after the long walk toward the new ranch where they would work. They decided to camp out in their newly discovered paradise and wait for tomorrow to do their job. Amid making dinner, George threw away Lennie’s dead mouse and