Eco Bus 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Eco Bus 2 - Essay Example Income elasticity is a measurement of the rate over time of a change in quantity demanded because of a positive or negative change consumer income. As consumer income rises, if a good decreases in demand, it is an â€Å"inferior good†; if demand for a good rises proportionally to increases in consumer income, it is a â€Å"normal good.† 1. The elasticity of demand coefficient expresses how sensitive consumers are to changes in price. To avoid ambiguity, the coefficient of the elasticity of demand is expressed in an absolute value. While a zero quantity expresses perfect inelasticity (that is, quantity demanded is unaffected by changes in price), any value in between zero and one will represent relative inelasticity. A value that is greater than one will represent a relatively elastic demand, up until a value of infinity, which represents a perfectly elastic demand (that is, quantity demanded is infinitely changed by changes in price. An elasticity coefficient equal to negative one indicates unit-elastic demand, which is a situation that occurs when the percentage change in quantity demanded is equal to the percentage change in price. 2. The cross-price elasticity coefficient expresses how sensitive demand is to a price change of other related goods. Elasticity coefficients above zero indicate that there is a high inverse correlation between the prices of Good A and Good B, which means that the goods are substitutes. In contrast, coefficients below zero indicate direct correlations between the prices, which means those goods are complements. Small absolute values of the cross-price elasticity coefficient indicate that there is little or no relation between the prices. 3. The income elasticity coefficient expresses how sensitive demand for a good is to income change. Income elasticity coefficients below zero indicate that there is a strong direct correlation between income increasing (or decreasing) and demand for a good

Mauritius - The Scope of Ict Essay Example for Free

Mauritius The Scope of Ict Essay 1. INTRODUCTION Mauritius is a small beautiful island in the Indian Ocean, which locates 800 kilometers east of Madagascar and some 2000 kilometers off the southeast African coast. Mauritius had been served as a colony of Dutch, French and British for long. The Dutch rule started in the late sixteenth century. They named the island Mauritius after prince Maurice Van Nassau, Governor of Holland and introduced sugar cane and domestic animals in the country. The Dutch abandoned the island in 1710, and France took possession. Renamed Isle de France, Mauritius was a strategically important location in the colonial drive for dominance and used as a base for the French to attack British ships. The British captured the island in 1810 and gave it back its name Mauritius. After slavery was abolished under the British rule in 1835, Indian immigrants began arriving to work in the sugar cane fields. A small group of Chinese traders followed later. Mauritius obtained independence on 12 March 1968 and became a republic in 1992. The Republic of Mauritius consists of four islands namely Mauritius (the largest at 1’865 square kilometers), Rodrigues (104 square kilometers), the Agalega Islands (70 square kilometers), and the Cargados Carajos Shoals (1.3 square kilometers). The country is divided into municipalities and villages. It has five municipal councils in the urban areas and 126 village councils in the rural areas. The economy of Mauritius was mainly dependent on sugar and textiles. Sugarcane is grown on about 90% of the cultivated land area and accounts for 25% of export earnings. In the last few decades, Mauritius had undergone through massive developments in both its economical and social arena. From a monocrop economy, depending mainly on sugar, it diversified its economic activities into, textile and apparel industry, tourism and financial services during this period. But the island-nations new vision is to become a regional IT or dotcom hub and kick start its flagging economy, hit hard by fierce international competition and the removal of preferential access to European markets for sugar and textiles. The government has identified the potential and scope of their country in the IT outsourcing business and has set frontline priority for this sector in the economy of the nation. 2. Environmental appraisal analysis and evaluation of IT Outsourcing for Mauritius. Mauritius as a new entrant in the IT outsourcing industry, has to ensure that its micro and macro-environments are supporting to its optimum for the development of industry in the country. The PLEEST and SWOT analysis will help to understand the country’s potential to become an active player in the world IT outsourcing industry by 2010. 2.1 PLEEST analysis This analysis takes into consideration the political, economical, legal, socio-cultural, technological and environmental factors that affect the operation of the industry in the country. To create a better market for the IT out sourcing activities, these factors should be supportive to the industry and encouraging for future developments. Political: Mauritius is a republic where elections are held on a democratic style. The present MLP (Mauritian Labour Party) government led by Prime Minister Navin Chandra Ramgoolam has strong majority in the parliament. The Ramgoolam government is taking keen attention in continuing the efforts of their predecessors to make their country an outsourcing hub. The previous government has initiated strong commitment to develop the ICT industry. Three Ministerial task forces have been set up to look into the establishment of a Cyber City, the implementation of the e-Education and the e-Government projects. The government had already secured a line of credit of US$100 million from the Government of India for the implementation of these projects. Setting up of Ebene Cyber City fits in with this strong Government commitment. Economical: Mauritius has a strong economy with no foreign direct investment (FDI) control; double taxation avoidance and treaties with many other countries. Mauritius enjoys the status of a developed country in many aspects of development, which will encourage the growth of ICT industry. The Mauritian economy is dominated by five or six families, most of whose business have major operations in the IT sector. And the importance of computer in the day-to-day business operations has increased spontaneously. A 2001 survey by the National Computer Board (NCB) showed that over 80% of businesses posses at least one computer. Socio-cultural: The use of computer and Internet among the Mauritian society is steadily increasing. According to the results of a survey by NCB both home computer ownership and Internet connection of Mauritian households having telephone connectivity increased to attain 29.4% and 23.8% respectively. Today around 80% of population have telephone connection. But only 13% have own PC. All primary and secondary schools have computers. Several hundred teachers have taken computer training, which they are now applying in the classroom. There are plans to use ICT as a pedagogical tool across the curriculum from 2006, by when all teachers will have received necessary ICT training. But computerization in the tertiary level of education is less than adequate. Mauritius has a vast pool of English and French speaking population. Technological: Mauritius has very good telecom infrastructure especially with the SAFE project that places the country on the super highway. It has widespread access to both landline and mobile telephony. Preferential and highly competitive rates are proposed: the tariff for a 512 Kbps downstream / 128 Kbps upstream ADSL link is only Rs.5,500 per month. Furthermore, good redundancy is assured through both cable and satellite. Legal: The Data Protection Act was introduced in June 2004.Its main objective is to protect the individual’s rights to privacy while ensuring that personal information is lawfully and fairly obtained, processed, protected and disclosed. It also provides a framework to govern the use of customer data, hence preventing any misuse. It will give greater confidence to investors and foreign companies to invest in Mauritius. Mauritius is a signatory of the WIPO convention and it has introduced The Computer Misuse and Cyber crime Act recently. Previous laws enacted in this field were: Information and Communication Technologies Act 2001 (December 2001), Electronic Transactions Act (July 2000) and Copyright Act (September 1997). Environmental: Mauritius has a modern banking system, courier services, major brands representation and easy acquisition of equipment. Regular air and sea transport facilities are available to and from major destinations. An Incubator Centre is already operational for start-ups to encourage entrepreneurship. The NCB Incubator Centre provides facilities such as furnished office space, telecommunication facilities, etc to start-ups in the ICT sector. The country provides high quality of infrastructure with relatively lower cost than many of its competitors. 2.2 SWOT analysis Strengths: Mauritius locates in a strategic place with a unique time zone (GMT +4), so that they can work with Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa conveniently on a single day. A Bi-lingual population that speaks English and French is an advantage in doing business with countries that speaks the same language. As far as the political willingness and infrastructure is concerned Mauritius has a well defined national vision and strategy to develop the ICT industry and enhance a high quality infrastructure with relatively low cost of operation. The other features of Mauritius in favour of IT outsourcing are: †¢IT penetration †¢Special incentive packages †¢Business-friendly environment †¢Telecommunication †¢Availability of modern office space †¢Labour–related issues †¢Quality of labour †¢Low labour turnover †¢Training †¢Appropriate legal framework †¢Strong support services †¢Incubator Centre †¢Close relationship with India Weaknesses: Low scalability is the major weakness of the country. As a small Island with only1.2 million populations it lags far behind of the industry giants like India, China and Philippines in the number of skilled manpower. Training in this regard is also poor. Poor marketing skill and absence of adequate recruitment agencies are another area of weakness. Without getting proper career guidance the right candidates are seeking other shelters than IT. High cost of financing and telecommunication create hindrance for new ventures to come and existing one to survive. Labour related issues are another problem to be rectified. Opportunities: Connection to the South Africa-Far East (SAFE) fibre optic submarine cable, which connects 40 countries, provides Mauritius a great opportunity to link with the global digital economy. Having a population with expertise in English and French, they have opportunity in the UK and France. Low labour turnover in Mauritius is another attraction. Decision of leading global financial institutions to outsource their activities gives abundant opportunity to Mauritius. As Mauritius follows the same accounting standards as UK, it can benefit from this opportunity by outsourcing financial activities to this country. Proper training to its accountants should be given in French accounting standards also to target French market. Many outsourcer countries, when they seek offshore outsourcing, rely on quality rather than cost. This will be an opportunity for Mauritius. Threats: There are severe threats to Mauritius from new potential competitors like Czech Republic and Hungary for both English and French segment. Legislations against offshore outsourcing causes another threat to its goal of becoming a frontline outsourcing destination. 2.3. The world Out Sourcing market The worldwide IT Outsourcing market is rapidly growing, which is estimated to grow around $400bn in 2010. The US remains the leader in the outsourcers list with around 60% of the world market while India stood first in the recipients list. But the picture is changing rapidly. The outsourcing countries are increasing both in terms of number and revenue stream. Europe has now been turned as a potential outsourcer. Studies shows that outsourcing spending of Europe is growing faster than the US. In which UK register a dramatic rise in growth with a amazing 45% growth in 2002 and the trend is continuing. Another trend in the market is that the increasing number of countries which strives to become potential outsourcing destinations and achieving success in this field. For instance Maghreb countries like Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria are emerging as strong outsourcing destinations and Czech Republic and Hungary proved potential from Europe. 2.4 Market segmentation: French and English speaking countries As a nation which strives to become an IT outsourcing destination for other countries, Mauritius should adopt macro- segmentation i.e. segment their markets on the basis of geographical location, industry and organisational size. Being a bilingual society that can speak both English and French and with close cultural tie up with these two societies, Mauritius should concentrate on French speaking countries as well as countries which use English. In the case of Mauritius, it is difficult for them to concentrate on large organisation as they are a novice in the field of outsourcing and has been treated as less experienced and expertise in relation to the outsourcing giants like India, Philippines and China etc. Another common macro-segmentation variable is industry sector. Different industries may have unique requirements from products. In the context of IT outsourcing, Mauritius can provide outsourcing service to various industries like banking, manufacturing, healthcare, education an d so on. By understanding each industries needs in depth, a more effective marketing mix can be designed. In the case of IT outsourcing, it is very common that countries adopt geographical segmentation because the geographical location of the outsourcer country vis-à  -vis that of the outsourcing country plays a vital role in getting order. For example, India has a unique geographical location with US. Both these countries locate in the opposites on the globe. By outsourcing business to India, the US companies can do business 24 hours without any interruption. Mauritius has got a convenient geographical location with a favourable time zone (+4 GMT), which helps them to provide service to Europe, Asia and Americas. As the US and Europe contributes the lions share of outsourcing activities, there is harsh competition prevails between the major outsourcing recipient countries. Most of the American MNC giants prefer outsourcing their activities in India because of its high skilled and low cost characteristics and unique time gap it has with India. The trend in the US is that, majority of their outsourcers prefer leaders like India, China, Philippines, Russia and Malayasia. So, it will be difficult for Mauritius to succeed in this market. 3. Target Markets A target market consists of a set of buyers who share common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve Kotler,P. et. al (1996).Having man power strength that is expertise in both English and French, Mauritius can set France and UK as their target markets. The details of each target markets are given below: Most of the existing outsourcing companies in Mauritius have as origin France and UK. In 2003, out of 20 outsourcing companies in Mauritius, 3 were UK based company and 7 were French. There were another 5 companies with capital of Mauritius and France/ UK. Mauritius has then already a good relationship with these two countries. Mauritius has got a strategic advantage over their competitors in terms of linguistic skill when working with these two countries. As Mauritius had been a colony of both Britain and France for long, they have inherited from these countries many aspects of their culture including language. A bi-lingual population who can speak both English and French is an asset if they work with these countries. Mauritius’s unique time zone with these two countries, the existing good relationship with those industries and the growing outsourcing market in UK and France are extending huge opportunity to Mauritius to operate in those markets. 3.1 UK 3.1.1 Profile UK is a rapidly growing market of IT outsourcing. Studies have proved that the number of companies in UK that outsourcing its operations are increasing. Both the private and public sector industries in the country are now giving preference to outsource their activities to offshore. It is the UK which stood second after the US in the worlds largest outsourcers list and this trend will continue because of the more liberal employment and labour laws (McKinsey, 2004).As a result of which competition is becoming aggressive in the UK market. A study conducted by kable Market Intelligence Services reveals that the IT and business processing outsourcing market is to grow by a staggering 78% by 2007 with annual spend reaching  £6bn. According to this study report, It is the public sector like local government, criminal justice and education, which will grow faster during this period. There is a rapidly increasing trend among the businesses in the UK for outsourcing their activities offshore. The management of many companies believe outsourcing their business will add their corporate value. The report conducted by the Centre for Economic and Business Research shows that companies that outsource business will outperform their peers and could create additional shareholder value. As a result, new and new companies join the group of outsourcers each day. One economic forecast shows that outsourcing has the potential to be worth $648 billion by 2010up 52 per cent on 2004.It shows that UK will be one of the biggest outsourcer countries in the next decade also. 3.1.2Financial and Public sector services Recent Studies show that there would be an amazing hike in the outsourcing activities of UK’s public sector and financial service industry in the coming years. According to them these two industries are planning invest millions of pounds for outsourcing activities by 2010. Financial service sector: Financial services sector is the second largest outsourcer in the UK after the manufacturing industry. With the expansion of globalisation and aggressive competition followed by it, the leading banking and investment companies plans to outsource their primary activities in order to reduce cost and concentrate on their core activities (Logica CMG report, 2004). Most of the companies think outsourcing is an essential tool of their success and without it they may ultimately loose in the industry. Mauritius has a good pool of skilled chartered accountants, who have experience and expertise in UK accounting standards. India’s patronage to Mauritius is an advantage to them to enter in to this segment. Mauritius should use its connection with India for getting training to its workforce and get entry to the UK market. Public sector services: A study conducted by Kable, an organisation that provides technology research and analysis on the UK government and public services sector, suggests that almost one fifth of public sector services ( £60bn) could be delivered through outsourcing to private and voluntary bodies. Principle sectors targeted for this treatment appear to be the health and education sectors, which are subject to frequent reforms with very uncertain success to date. Here, quality is more concerned than cost Mauritius can make use of this situation by extending highly accurate and good quality service at an industry competent price. 3.1.3 PESTLE analysis of UK Political: Government and political parties have high concern for liberalisation process. They encourage the outsourcing activities because they believe it will bring prosperity to their nation. Economical: The economy of UK is the most liberalised on in Europe. High competition existing in the market demands more and more ways of cost reduction from the part of businesses. As a result, outsourcing jobs to other countries continues its growth. Social: British society is highly concerned about profit and better performance. They are not much worried about job security and protection. This gives confidence to companies to go ahead with outsourcing activities. Technological: Almost 100% of businesses in the UK use computers and Internet. They are very fond of new technologies. As a result more and more companies come to the list of outsourcers. Legal: UK enjoys a liberal employment and labour laws, which in turn result in the high performance of businesses. They have more freedom to choose their strategy of operation and so, companies are exempted from legal barriers to offshore business. 3.1.4 Competitor analysis Potential new entrants: Threat from new entrants will be very high in the UK market, because unlike France UK deals with industry giants like India, china, Philippines and other European countries. It is not very tough for a potential new entrant to enter into British market, as the language skill is not a barrier for these countries. But surviving in the market is very tough because of the presence of India and China; they can provide high quality of services with amazingly low cost. Bargaining power of buyer: UK has high bargaining power over Mauritius because they have so many suppliers to provide excellent services with low cost. But in the case of Mauritius they have not many suppliers, so that they will force to take stringent measures to improve the quality of service in each time. Industry competitors: Competition in the UK industry is tough with the presence of almost all the leading out sourcing countries in the world. Still the opportunity there is increasing for potential new countries as a result of increased liberalisation and competition followed by it. Out sourcing recipients are competing in reducing cost While maintaining the high quality of their service. But studies in this regard reveals that they can’t go beyond a certain level because the bargaining power of their suppliers (Skilled labour) increasing. Competitive differentiation: Mauritius can use their high skilled accountants to give services to financial sector companies in the UK. As the country uses the UK accounting standard, it will be an advantage to them. Studies have proved that the global financial giants are going to offshore their activities by 2007. 3.1.5 Positioning: Cost is a concern for many outsourcers in the UK. As cutting operational cost is one of the prominent aim behind outsourcing, companies that go for outsourcing their activities will turn to clients who provides quality services with low cost. In the present situation Mauritius is far behind other competitors in the industry in terms of cost and size. It cannot compete with leaders in the industry on cost in the near future. In this context, Mauritius has to provide high quality service in order to attain business from UK. Leading companies in UK is following a multi-country strategy for outsourcing their operations after the terrorist attack on Sept.2001. In such a circumstance they are avoiding the cost concept and giving much attention to quality and safety. This gives opportunity to Mauritius to position themselves in UK by offering high quality service.

Building a Portfolio Style Website

Building a Portfolio Style Website Short History and Development of HTML HTML, decrypted as a Hyper Text Markup Language. The first version of HTML appeared in 1986, in 1991 it has been significantly modified. From then until today, there have been several versions of the substantially modified. In 1995 published a second version HTML 2.0. After the release of the second version immediately began work on the next generation of HTML. And In 1997 comes the recommendation HTML 3.2, which added a mark-up language tables, frames, images and some other important tags. The 4th version of HTML 4.01 started in 1997, recent changes appeared 24.12.1999. HTML5 It is the fifth and current version of the HTML standard; it was published in October 2014. HTML5 structure consists of a plurality of elements:       window.NREUM||(NREUM={});NREUM.info={"beacon":"bam.nr-data.net","licenseKey":"de6e6cfad9","applicationID":"221047987","transactionName":"bl0HMhMFDEYCWhJeWlcXMBQISwdGEFgfRBpYShEPAggHGxNRFg==","queueTime":0,"applicationTime":1,"atts":"QhoERFsfH0g=","errorBeacon":"bam.nr-data.net","agent":""} Some few examples tags and applicable attribute of HTML 1. is mandatory for the image element is mandatory for the URL of the link. This is a paragraph. Importance of CSS in web design and outline its evolution from CSS1 to CSS3. The first CSS specification, CSS1, became a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation in December 1996. CSS2 came out in 1998. The work on CSS3 has been going on for years, but seems to advance very slowly So, what exactly does CSS stand for? It stands for Cascading Style Sheets and style sheet refers to the document itself. Ever web browser has a default style sheet, so every web page out there is affected by at least one style sheet the default style sheet of whatever browser the web page visitor is using regardless whether or not the web designer applies any styles. For example, my browsers default font style is Times New Roman, size 12, so if I visited a web page where the designer didnt apply a style sheet of their own, I would see the web page in Times New Roman, size 12. Examples of rules created in CSS:   p{ color: #02031c; } B)   body{ background-color:   #caefc6; } Outline the four steps involved in developing a site and choice of web authoring tools available. Planning, Research Design Development Testing website Hardware and software tools you need for web design Web designing takes much more than most people think. It is about ensuring that you have all the relevant hardware and software tools required to design a good and appealing website. One of the most important tools you need a computer. A computer to be used for web design should have a large hard disk and Random Access Memory, high processing speed and large storage capacity to be able to process the large video files. The next thing you need is a server that you will use to host the website. Two servers are needed, the hardware and software servers which are important for web hosting. The relevant software for instance Dreamweaver and Microsoft front page need to be available before any progress can be made in construction of the site. How the importance of the following will affect in design a website? Target market Every website should be designed for the target audience not just for yourself or the site owner. It is therefore very important to understand who your target audience is. Site objectives Navigation Navigation means how an user surfs the web pages, different controls like buttons, boxes or how the user uses the links on the pages to surf different pages. Site structure option will help users to find content pages that they are looking for easily and quickly. These are all optional items and if present they should be validated. A good site structure is a requirement for Search Engine Optimization. It allows both your users and search engines to find content within your site more easily. A good structure is well categorized, and pages within it only link to other pages on the same topic. Access speeds Check your websites loading speed. Page speed is an important factors in search engine rankings and overall site success. Pages that take longer than 5 seconds to load can lose up to 50% of users. Faster webpages result in higher traffic, better conversions and increased sales over slower loading pages. User Interface User experience design is what makes the layout and organization of a website easy-to-use. User experience is a very important factor because visitors or potential customers in the case of a business will usually hit the Back button or leave the website completely the moment they become frustrated. While this frustration may sometimes be caused by the websites content, a far more common cause is a web design thats difficult to use or navigate. Sketch a design for the homepage of the portfolio site. How the site should be maintained and upgraded in future? What is Website Maintenance? The activities from which Website Maintenance is composed are: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Website Publishing: To keep content up-to-date. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Website Quality Assurance: To spot errors on a site. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Website Feedback Monitoring: To manage communication with Website visitors. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Website Performance Monitoring: To measure success. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Website Infrastructure Monitoring: To supervise hosting. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Change Control: To manage technical and other changes in a coordinated way. These activities are usually carried out by members of a Website Maintenance Team. Owning a website or blog has its responsibilities. You cant just upload it and forget it. Regular website maintenance is a must if you want your site to be successful. So, how the site should be tested? Accuracy to Original Design: Compare the original design that you approved to the end product to ensure that the coded version is true to the website design you love. Keep in mind that some adjustments may have been discussed along the way, but you should know about them and there shouldnt be any surprises. Are the font styles right? Do bulleted lists look the way you expected them to look? If you have any rollover effects, make sure theyre working beautifully. Images: Look at the images on your site and make sure they are picture perfect. Check for any lingering watermarks and ensure your images look the way they should and have aesthetically pleasing spacing around them. Content: Check that you have all of the pages you need for your debut and that all have proper grammar, spelling etc. Browser Check: Check your website on multiple browsers. Depending on what level of design and programming you purchased, older or less common browsers may have some compatibility issues, however be sure to check your website on the most common players: Internet Explorer 7 or above, Safari, and Firefox.

John Staurt Mill - Electronic Democracy :: essays research papers

There is no difficulty in showing that the ideally best form of government is that in which the sovereignty, or supreme controlling power in the last resort, is vested in the entire aggregate of the community; every citizen not only having a voice in the exercise of that ultimate sovereignty, but being, at least occasionally, called on to take an active part in the government, by the personal discharge of some public function, local or general John Stuart Mill agreed that democracy was the form of government that could best secure the happiness of all. But the end is not just well-being, as earlier utilitarians argued, though it is that. The end that recommends it is the tendency to foster self-development and individuality. Representative government, is particular, he defended as that form which best encourages individuality. It leads people to take a more active and intelligent participation in society. It provides moral training and encourages the development of natural human sympathies. The result is the habit of looking at social questions from an impersonal perspective rather than that of self-interest. But Mill's defense of democracy was much qualified. To be sure, he was, like the earlier utilitarians, sympathetic to the fall of the ancient regime and to the ends of the French Revolution. He strove to liberalize the press still severely bound by an absurd libel law that excluded effective social criticism. But infl uenced by Coleridge he had come to see that there were virtues in social systems, even out-dated ones, else why would not have survived so long. He therefore came to appreciate the conservative arguments that unrestrained freedom is dangerous. Mill argued, reasonably on utilitarian grounds, that social institutions need to be adapted to the time and place where they operate. He even suggests that, since people must be properly fit if democracy is to function well, a despotic form of government, if well-run with this aim in mind, might prepare its people for the exercise of responsibilities of a free electorate. In his thinking about how best to administer a state as a whole, Mill argued that the best administration was one that relied upon professional skills. In a representative democracy, if you can control the majority, then you can control everyone. Like other tyrannies, the tyranny of the majority was at first, and is still vulgarly, held in dread, chiefly as operating through the acts of the public authorities.

Babette’s Feast and the Power of Art Essay

When all deadlines are met and time is out in my favor, one can usually find me sitting comfortably on the couch with a bowl of popcorn on one hand and a remote control on the other. Watching movies has always been one of my favorite leisure. Although I try to see films from different parts of the world as much as I can, perhaps like the many others who belong in my generation, Hollywood movies are always top of the list. Seldom do I find fascination with other international productions especially European ones. They are slow-paced, often more serious and â€Å"less entertaining† than those produced in Hollywood. However, watching the Danish film â€Å"Babette’s Feast† made me reconsider and view European films with a different lens – one with a little more appreciation and interest. While the slow pacing is inherent to this kind of cinema, they also present a different style and meat altogether, leaving more room for its audience to think rather than just instant gratification offered by most American movies. This is very evident in Babette’s Feast. In its subtlety and simplicity, together with the use of brilliant metaphors and symbolisms, it was able to uncover the transforming power of art with beauty and sophistication. Babette’s Feast tells the story of two pious sisters whose lives were changed by their French servant, who was apparently an unspoken artist, Babette. One of the images that constantly reappear all throughout the movie, especially in the beginning, is the image of the dried fish. This symbolizes the life of Martina and Philippa and perhaps even those in the community who was devoted to the preaching of their father that to attain salvation, one must deprive himself all physical or worldly pleasures including food. They lived a life of unhealthy simplicity and unreasonable meagerness. Their simple and puritan way of living is so extreme that it has become dreary and ironically â€Å"lifeless†, like a dried fish in contrast to the delectable meal of Babette in the end. Another powerful symbolism is Babette’s washing of the window from the outside. It speaks to me as if Babette was trying to show the sisters what they have been missing for the longest time. Their world and their lives are similar to the dirty windows Babette were washing – dark and clouded by their austere beliefs. Because of the hyperbolic focus on spirituality, they were blinded from the beauty and joy of the outside world, from the other things that life has to offer including the love from men they rejected when they were young. Through Babette’s feast, which they initially refuted as they believed it was sinful, the sisters were opened to a new world from which they were hiding, to a reality where â€Å"righteousness and bliss [..] kiss†, where the spirit and the flesh are both nourished and nurtured without choosing or isolating one from the other. This reconciliation is symbolized by the candlelight snuffed out in the end. Aside from Babette’s art which is the sumptuous food she prepared very well, another integral element that played a significant role in the transformation of the sisters and the other members of the congregation is the character of General Loewenhielm, one of the sisters’ ex lover. If the sisters lived a deprived life, a deprivation not of accident but of choice, the general was at the other end of the spectrum. He symbolizes everything the sisters were not – luxurious and powerful. He enjoyed a life of abundance and glory. Because of this background, the general honestly and wholeheartedly enjoyed the feast while the others remained skeptical, refusing to surrender to their delight of the food. It was also the general who had this realization that there is joy both from bodily and spiritual nourishment, as he was dumfounded to partake in such kind of dinner in an unexpected place, considering it then as a grace and blessing from the heavens. All in all, Babette as an artist was successful. Like a masterpiece that brings joy to its audience, her feast was able to transform and bring love and happiness on the table, to the people who received her art. And this is what is meant by her statement, â€Å"an artist is never poor.† Her talent, which was able to transcend the material, and her ability to do her very best, is her wealth. Indeed, art has a very strong power to transform. Not only did Babette’s art transformed the characters in the story but the movie itself, as a form of art, was able to transform its viewers, me included. It may not be able to provide the â€Å"fun† from the thrilling and idealistic yet shallow plot of Hollywood movies but it was able to deliver something deeper and more delicate, something worthy of admiration and appreciation.

Heritage Quest Online - US Census Records from Proquest

Heritage Quest Online - US Census Records from Proquest Available free through subscribing libraries, Heritage Quest Online packs in an intuitive interface, fast downloads, and crisp census images. If your library doesnt subscribe, youre missing out! Pros Free to members of subscribing librariesEasy to use interface and crisp, enhanced imagesNotebook feature helps you keep track of searches Cons Not available for an individual subscriptionNo soundex or wildcard search optionsHead of household indexes only Description Includes census images for all decades 1790 to 1930.Head of household indexes for 1790 to 1820, 1860, 1870, 1890, 1900 to 1910 and 1920 to 1930 (partial).Available only as a library subscription, but offered free by participating libraries to members.Advanced search options also include state, county, age, and birthplace, but no wildcard or soundex.Census indexes prepared by Heritage Quest are much more accurate than the common AIS indexes.Images appear in an HTML viewer, with no extra software required.Full-screen, enhanced census images load quickly and are easy to read.Black and white enhanced census images make viewing easier, but could possibly affect quality.Census images are also available as negative images as an alternate opportunity for readability.Handy notebook feature allows you to save census images and citations, and take online notes. Guide Review Developed specifically for library patrons, Heritage Quest Online offers an intuitive, easy-to-use interface and clear, crisp census images. Searching is simple and offers a lot of options, although it lacks the ability to use wildcards or soundex to search for misspelled names. Available census indexes are highly accurate - much more so than commonly used AIS indexes. Census images download quickly and appear as full-screen, enhanced images, though some people claim that this enhancement could introduce errors. Images can be quickly downloaded and saved or printed in Tiff (non-compressed) or PDF format. Overall, Heritage Quest Online is the most flexible census offering available, if you can convince your library to subscribe!