Critique La Ventura :: Art

Critique La Ventura La Ventura is widely regarded as one of the greatest films to date. Michelangelo Antonioni didn’t win the Palme D’or, but it did get a Special Jury Prize during the Cannes film festival of 1960. No surprise he didn’t win the Palme D’or, but why give him an award in the first place? The reason for winning the title seemed unclear at first because the film had serious issues with breaking the rules of standardized filmmaking. For example having his actors enter the scene from opposite directions from where the came the shot before. However L’Avventura is a whole other world of its own. The title translates to English as â€Å"The Adventure† and indeed that’s what it is. The movie is relaxing to watch thanks to the scenery, but it’s slow and a bit boring. The film is over two hours long (2:20 or so) and it takes a while to get anywhere. This is disturbing because the plot didn’t seem to have as much importance as the camera angles, framing shots or dialogue. These aesthetics had more importance than in most other movies. It also had an unusual way of telling the story - done mainly by showing images to transfer the main message. Technically, it’s a photographic journey! Well, kind of. Mainly because the whole island shoot is done through wide angle lens that squeezes the nice black-and-white landscaping in the background. Also effective is how people seem to disappear in it. Another beautiful shot was on the roof of the church where the two main characters are ringing the church bells like kids playing, and then other church bells respond. That was a very nice sequence and a very nice symbol. The initial problem that the characters have to deal with however was Anna and her disappearing. In a typical film, finding Anna would have been what the story would follow. But as L'Avventura goes on, the script allows us or makes us forget about Anna. This process is done slowly, and we never stop thinking about Anna. We are struck back to Anna especially in the end when Claudia mentions her. The movie picked up pace after Anna disappeared especially with the kiss of Sandro and Claudia. There are two main characters: a man and a woman. Sandro wants sex from his girlfriends and refuses to commit himself to one, while Claudia needs love and more love.

The Importance of Safety in Maintaining Good Health Essay -- utilizing

Utilizing safety precautions is among the factors of obtaining a high degree of physical wellbeing. Facebook posts, blogs, personal experience, and the news are just some of the sources where you hear stories about children, young adults, and grown adults who end up physically hurt, hospitalized and sometimes even dead due to the fact that they were not utilizing safety precautions. Utilizing safety precautions is something everyone is capable of. Those who ignore or choose not to utilize safety precautions are often categorized as adolescents. â€Å"Teen alcohol use kills about 4,700 people each year, more than all illegal drugs combined† (CDC). The Century Council says about 43% of teens that drinks do so at a party that is supervised by parents. Often time’s people develop religious belief through their parent or guardian, it was the way their parents were raised, the way the child was raised and the chain usually continues. Parents or guardians with religious faith often refrain from the use of alcohol because their religion or church is not in favor of it, or of their own personal conviction. Parents who refrain form alcohol because of their religion would expect the same of their children. Because of the religion they possess, no party with alcohol would be in the house of those parents, resulting in their child refraining from alcohol use, and thus being able to think while sober and utilize safety precautions. As well as having a sober mindset and implementing safety precautions the adolescents personal religious beliefs, and convictions would refrain them from making choices that would put them in a situation where their safety is at risk. Those with religious beliefs appear to be making choices consistently and rationally thu... ...n[uk]. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. . "Washington State University." Wellbeing. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014. "What We Believe." The Salvation Army. The Salvation Army, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014. . White, Martha C. "5 Reasons Your Job Is Making You Miserable." Business Money 5 Reasons Your Job Is Making You Miserable Comments. Time Magazine, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 02 Apr. 2014. . "Why Tim Keller Wants You to Stay in That Job You Hate." Interview by Andy Crouch. Christianity Today. Christianity Today, 22 Apr. 2013. Web. 2 Apr. 2014. .

The Odyssey: Book 5/6 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 5 All the gods except Poseidon gather again on Mount Olympus to discuss Odysseus’s fate. Athena’s speech in support of the hero prevails on Zeus to intervene. Hermes, messenger of the gods, is sent to Calypso’s island to tell her that Odysseus must at last be allowed to leave so he can return home. In reply, Calypso delivers an impassioned indictment of the male gods and their double standards. She complains that they are allowed to take mortal lovers while the affairs of the female gods must always be frustrated. In the end, she submits to the supreme will of Zeus.By now, Odysseus alone remains of the contingent that he led at Troy; his crew and the other boats in his force were all destroyed during his journeys. Calypso helps him build a new boat and stocks it with provisions from her island. With sadness, she watches as the object of her love sails away. After eighteen days at sea, Odysseus spots Scheria, the island of the Phaeacians, his next destinat ion appointed by the gods. Just then, Poseidon, returning from a trip to the land of the Ethiopians, spots him and realizes what the other gods have done in his absence.Poseidon stirs up a storm, which nearly drags Odysseus under the sea, but the goddess Ino comes to his rescue. She gives him a veil that keeps him safe after his ship is wrecked. Athena too comes to his rescue as he is tossed back and forth, now out to the deep sea, now against the jagged rocks of the coast. Finally, a river up the coast of the island answers Odysseus’s prayers and allows him to swim into its waters. He throws his protective veil back into the water as Ino had commanded him to do and walks inland to rest in the safe cover of a forest.Calypo complains to the gods that the male gods always get to have relationships with mortal females whereas the goddesses Summary: Book 6 That night, Athena appears in a dream to the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa, disguised as her friend. She encourages the young p rincess to go to the river the next day to wash her clothes so that she will appear more fetching to the many men courting her. The next morning, Nausicaa goes to the river, and while she and her handmaidens are naked, playing ball as their clothes dry on the ground, Odysseus wakes in the forest and encounters them.Naked himself, he humbly yet winningly pleads for their assistance, never revealing his identity. Nausicaa leaves him alone to wash the dirt and brine from his body, and Athena makes him look especially handsome, so that when Nausicaa sees him again she begins to fall in love with him. Afraid of causing a scene if she walks into the city with a strange man at her side, Nausicaa gives Odysseus directions to the palace and advice on how to approach Arete, queen of the Phaeacians, when he meets her. With a prayer to Athena for hospitality from the Phaeacians, Odysseus sets out for the palace.Analysis: Books 5–6 Our first encounter with Odysseus confirms what we have a lready learned about him from Menelaus’s and Helen’s accounts of his feats during the Trojan War and what Homer’s audience would already have known: that Odysseus is very cunning and deliberative. The poet takes pains to show him weighing every decision: whether to try landing against the rocky coast of Scheria; whether to rest by the river or in the shelter of the woods; and whether to embrace Nausicaa’s knees (the customary gesture of supplication) or address her from afar.The shrewd and measured approach that these instances demonstrate balances Odysseus’s warrior mentality. Though aggressive and determined, he is far from rash. Instead, he is shrewd, cautious, and extremely self-confident. At one point, he even ignores the goddess Ino’s advice to abandon ship, trusting in his seafaring abilities and declaring, â€Å"[I]t’s what seems best to me† (5. 397). In each case, he makes a decision and converts thought to action with speed and poise. In his encounter with Nausicaa, a telling example of his skill in interacting with people and charisma, his subdued approach comes off as â€Å"endearing, sly and suave† (6. 162).

Medicare Never Pay Events Essay

Medicare is currently the primary healthcare insurer of the elderly in the United States of America. Medicare, which is funded by the federal government, paid providers $444 billion dollars in 2008 for healthcare expenses (National Healthcare and Medicare Spending, 2010). Due to enormous expenses, Medicare implemented changes during 2008 to improve patient safety and reduce cost by eliminating reimbursement to those who provide unsafe care. Medicare designed a list of â€Å"never† events. These are events Medicare will not reimburse, and the provider cannot bill the patient for the service. All providers receiving Medicare reimbursement have made themselves very familiar with the list outlined by Medicare. Failure to adhere to the list of never events would lead a facility into bankruptcy and out of business. The list includes wrong site surgery, retention of foreign object, death or disability with intravascular air embolism while in a healthcare facility, infant discharged to wrong person, patient death or disability associated with patient disappearance for more than four hours, patient suicide or attempted suicide resulting in serious disability while being cared for in a healthcare facility, death or disability due to medication error, death or disability due to incompatible blood products, death or disability associated with hypoglycemia while being cared for in a healthcare facility, stage three or four pr essure ulcers acquired after admission to a healthcare facility, and sexual assault while on the grounds of a healthcare facility (Torrey, 2011). Basically, never events are incidents that should never happen to anyone, and if they do neither Medicare nor the patient will be financially responsible. Thus, increasing accountability to the providing facility. Medicare Reimbursement and Nurse Retention Medicare reimbursement affects nurse retention by reducing revenue that could be allocated into budgets for pay increases, benefits, supplies, continuing education, and recruitment. In addition, keep in mind the stress associated with staff being aware of the costly event and the injury sustained by the individual and family. Furthermore, many of these issues are sure to stimulate legal action. Decreased budgets and additional stress factors definitely decrease nurses longevity with a facility. References Torrey, T., (2011). What is a medical error? Retrieved from: http://patients.about.com/od/atthehospital/a/mederrorlist.htm National healthcare and Medicare spending. (2010). Retrieved from: http://www.medpac.gov/chapters/Jun10DataBookSec1.pdf

Comparison of Three Books about Vietnam War Essay

Comparison of Three Books about Vietnam War - Essay Example While different authors appreciate the occurrences during the war, they portray the war and the US interference in different ways. This paper will examine three such books, comparing the description of the Vietnam War in all the books. The Vietnam War was a memorable event in the history of the US. A People's History of the United States In the book, A People’s History of the United States, Zinn presents the history of the Vietnam War in a simplistic manner that common people can appreciate. Zinn provides this history through the eyes of the common folk instead of the economic and political elite. For instance, he focuses on the US citizens’ resistance to the Vietnam War, as well as the people of North Vietnam who though deemed insignificant, were able to defeat the US-backed South. Zinn terms the US involvement in the Vietnam War as a mission in futility. He exemplifies that regardless of its military and technology superiority, the US was unable to defeat Northern Vie tnamese whose main weapon was human strength and tactical thinking capacity. According to Zinn, US victory in Vietnam was impossible because North Vietnamese dejected colonial imperialism after Japan’s failed attempt to capture Indochina. He argues that the US was fighting a war it could not win. This is because the people of Vietnam favored the government led by Ho Chi Minh and were against Ngo Dinh Diem’s regime. This allowed the people of Vietnam to maintain high morale throughout the war. On the other hand, morale among US military fighters in Vietnam was quite low because most of the American soldiers revolted against the atrocities they inflicted, like the My Lai massacre. Zinn describes the Vietnam War as a war between â€Å"the wealthiest and most powerful nation in global history† and â€Å"a nationalist, revolutionary movement in a peasant nation†. This description paints the picture of a fight akin to a cat and mouse fight where the insignifica nt revolutionary people fought against a mighty nation such as the US. Normally, one would expect that the stronger party in the fight wins, but in the Vietnam War, Zinn asserts that it is the small, insignificant humans who won against the technology of the US. In addition, Zinn speaks of the impact the US citizens had on the culmination of the Vietnam War. Zinn talks of the impact of the US movement against the Vietnam War as having, â€Å"played a critical part in bringing the war to an end†. Nonetheless, Zinn attempts to dispel the common belief that US opposition to the Vietnam War was amongst college students and intellectuals from the middle class. He uses statistics from the war period to show evidence that considerable opposition also came from the US working class. For instance, poet Robert Lowell refused to attend a luncheon at the White House, while singer Eartha Kitt spoke out against the war in the presence of the first lady. Zinn maintains the stance that it is the common people that brought change in Vietnam. The assertion â€Å"the revolutionists fought against the Japanese† and defeated the superior nation speaks of the impact of Vietnamese on the going on within their country. Zinn’s description of the war also holds that the troops also opposed the war, citing refusals and desertions to progress to war, as well as movements like Vietnam Veterans Against the War, which subsequently covered US invasions

History and Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine Essay

History and Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine - Essay Example With respect to the sages, Zhang Cong Zheng is one of the most notable. This paper will explore his works, theories and philosophies including his influence in the development of Chinese traditional medicine. Also known as Zhang Zi-he, Zhang Cong Zheng founded the Gong Xia Pai, which is the School of Attack and Precipitation or Purgation. Here, there was an emphasis on the approach to disease as caused by the presence of evil qi (Yang, 1993, pp.vii). This kind of qi involves those pathogenic factors that must be flushed out of the human body with the use of drugs and treatment, hence, the titular name of the school. Together with other great masters such as Liu Wansu, Li Gao and Zhu Zhenheng, Zhang Cong Zheng was able to further promote the Chinese traditional medicine, exploring it from different angles, enriching and expanding it in the process. Zhang Cong Zheng was born between 1156 and 1200 CE in He Jian, Hebei Province. The place and time is important because they underscore the influences to the sages philosophies that led to the school that he founded. First, he lived during the Jin-Yuan period and that the three other great masters were his contemporaries or close to his generation. What these all mean is that he was able to incorporate elements of treatment from his Jin-Yuan contemporaries. The great master Liu Wansu, for instance, was already dead during his time, but the sages cold/cooling method heavily influenced Zhang Cong Zhengs work. There were also protracted conflicts and plagues that marked the period, providing a new environment and, therefore, new requirements for medical treatment and practice. Zhang Cong Zheng is known for his purgation method, where treatment involves the inducement of pathogens in bodily processes. This works within an understanding of pathology based on the climatic qi of heaven and earth. According to Buck, Zhang Cong Zheng, through his purgation school improved on a Liu

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and Living Assignment

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and Living - Assignment Example There is still no cure for the virus that causes AIDS. However antiretroviral treatments that suppress the HIV virus are available. Some patients have been known to regain strong immune systems as a result of antiretroviral therapy. The therapy not only helps prolong lives but also prevents people infected by the virus from developing AIDS. Celebrities like Rock Hudson, Freddie Mercury, and Arthur Ashe who died of the disease have given a face to it ensuring that it is known to one and all. They have also helped to educate, empower and raise public awareness. Some have funded organizations that financially help AIDS patients. The challenge is to spread awareness of the ways in which the virus is transmitted to prevent the infection. As former US president Bill Clinton remarked: â€Å"new data from 51 countries suggests 70 percent of HIV-related deaths could have been prevented.† Numerous initiatives have been launched to lower prices of life-saving antiretroviral drugs in order to improve access to treatment. Scientists the world over are working overtime to find a cure for the disease. There are a whole host of organizations working to combat the disease, find cures and help and educate those communities that do not have the means to help themselves. Bill Clinton at the world AIDS conference in Melbourne observed, â€Å"The AIDS-free world that so many of you have worked to build is just over the horizon. We just need to step up the pace.†Ã‚