The War of the Stars :: Essays Papers

The War of the Stars In 1975, a young director named George Lucas wrote the story of the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker. The story was so long that it had to be broken up into a pair of trilogies, the first trilogy focusing on Anakin himself and the second focusing on his son, Luke. He determined the second trilogy to be the most exciting and resolved to film that one first. Unbeknownst to Lucas, he was creating what would soon become one of the most widely recognized and revered science fiction epics of all time. The epic is known to all, young and old, as Star Wars. The incredible popularity of the Star Wars universe was surprising to Lucas when he first made it. In fact, every producer he proposed the idea to rejected it, except for one: Twentieth Century Fox. At this time, science fiction (also called sci-fi) was not in any respects a profitable movie idea, but Lucas was determined to make his film. The executives of Twentieth Century Fox had seen Lucas’s previous film, American Graffiti, and vowed to produce Lucas’s next movie. Lucas made a deal with Fox that would end up making Lucas a multi-millionaire. The deal seemed so ridiculous to Fox that they thought they were ripping him off. In 1977, the first film of the second trilogy, Star Wars: A New Hope, was released, smashing box offices across the country and soon becoming the most successful film in North American history. In 1978, Lucas began production of the second chapter of the trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back. He financed the film out of his own pockets. The movie was released in 1980 and again smashed box offices, becoming the most successful movie of 1980. Soon thereafter, Lucas made The Return of the Jedi, the final chapter in the trilogy. It was released in 1983 and grossed over 265 million dollars. Just before its completion, however, Lucas announced that he was leaving the Star Wars project for another time, when computer generated effects were more advanced and cost-effective. For the next sixteen years, even without new films, the Star Wars universe continued to expand, gaining more fans every year. Many books telling the tales of the future and past of Star Wars were published. A handful of cartoon shows appeared on television, although none were overly successful.

Cell Phones Essay Essay

Cell phones have been around for centuries. On April 3, 1973 the first portable phone was introduced. Many Americans and people around the world use cell phones almost everyday. Cell phones do have pros, but they do have their cons too. Five pros on the cell phone are that they believe that cell phone use is not associated with the risk of developing a brain tumor. The second pro is that in 2000 the FDA and the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications (CTIA) signed a research agreement for further investigation on the health effects of cell phones. After the investigation, they discovered that â€Å"no association was found between exposure to radiofrequency (RF) radiation from cell phones and adverse health effects. The third pro is that in May 2001 the GAO reports â€Å"Research and Regulatory Efforts on Mobile Phone Health Issues,† they did conclude that there had been no scientific evidence that can prove that cell phone radiation had any health effects, but that more research on the topic was indeed needed. The fourth pro is that Cell phones may be the world’s best invention to this day; â€Å"In 2008 the $148.1 billion wireless industry had over 270 million subscribers in the US (87% of the population) who used over 2.2 trillion minutes of call time.† The fifth pro is in December of 2012 the $185 billion wireless industry had gained 326,475,248 wireless subscriber connections in the US and 301,779 cell phone tower sites across the country. Five cons on the cell phones are that they say the accurate amount of time for cancer to develop is 20-30 years and cell phone studies have monitored periods of 10 years or less. The second con is that on February 26, 1985 the first official safety guidelines for radio frequency (RF) radiation was enacted by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to protect the people from being exposed to any dangerous â€Å"thermal effects† – levels of RF that could possibly heat human flesh to harmful temperatures. A third con is that in 1993 there was a major concern that there could be a possible link with the brain and cell phone use. A husband sued a cell phone manufacturer in Florida’s US Distract Court for the cause of his wife’s brain tumor. The fourth con is that there is proof that exposure to high end (ionizing)  radiation of ultra-violet lights, X-rays, and Gamma rays are known to cause cancer. The last con for the cell phone is â€Å"The INTERPHONE study, a 13 country, 10 year, $25 million endeavor, found that there was no overall increase in the risk of the brain tumors glioma or meningioma among cell phone users, but also found â€Å"suggestions of an increased risk of glioma, and much less so meningioma, at the highest exposer levels.† The study concluded that the evidence was not strong enough to prove a casual link between cell phone use and the development of brain tumors.† Cell phones are used for many things nowadays. Teens are constantly on there phones talking, texting, playing games, watching videos, etc. Although many people seem to love this device, it does have its faults in the process of using it.

Culture Industry Enlightenment As Mass Deception

Kultureindustrie. Aufklà ¤rung als Massenbetrug, otherwise known as Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception was a chapter from Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer’s Dialects of Enlightenment. They wrote this essay in the early 40’s, expostulating the thriving force of the entertainment industry, the merchandizing of art and arguing against the conformity of â€Å"culture†. The importance of the Dialects of Enlightenment became an significant cornerstone on the meticulous renunciation of creating an economized culture. Today, in the age of the internet this Capitalist monopoly still holds a place in the society, but is slowly losing its grasp, in regards to music, film and radio, due to the effectiveness and efficiency of the spread of†¦show more content†¦This phlegmatic form media absorption equates to the bias on the part of the culture industry to accurately record and analyze its audience: â€Å"Consumers appear as statistics on research, o rganization charts, and are divided by income groups into red, green and blue areas; the technique is that used for any type of propoganda.† The consumer is ultimately described as a puppet, a mindless toy that is numb with the propaganda that is fed to him by this capitalist, brainwashing monopoly. â€Å"The consumers are the workers and employees, the farmers and lower middle class. Capitalist production so confines them, body and soul, that they fall helpless victims to what is offered them. As naturally as the ruled always took the morality imposed upon them more seriously than did the rulers themselves, the deceived masses are today captivated by the myth of success even more than the successful are. Immovably, they insist on the very ideology which enslaves them.† It appears to be evident, in Adorno and Horkheimer’s theory, that the consumer has succumbed to the influence and seduction of the culture industry, this is ultimately both the climax and the restraint of Adorno and Horkheimer’s proposition. The character of these â€Å"deceived masses† exploits them as apathetic, ostensibly sin gle-minded, betrayed and suppressed individuals. Another element of the culture industry is the connection between the actor and producer, any how they are both prisoners as aShow MoreRelatedThe Culture Industry : Enlightenment As Mass Deception By Adorno And Horkheimer1086 Words   |  5 PagesAdorno and Horkheimer’s essay â€Å"The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception† (1944) describes culture industries, such as film, radio, and magazines, as ideological mediums of domination that reduce consumers into passive subjects. As members of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory which critiqued post World War II Western modernity, Adorno and Horkheimer viewed the culture industry’s standardization and mass production as mechanisms of control under Capitalism, an economic system meantRead MoreArticle Summary And Reflection On Representation1636 Words   |  7 PagesTerm Y†¨ INTRODUCTION†¨ Popularity contests are often notable within the modren media industry. 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