The eNotes Blog Worst and BestBooks-to-Film

Worst and BestBooks-to-Film Ahhh  the holidays! For lots of us, a few days off means lazing in bed and catching up on some reading and movie-watching. You may be tempted to do a bit of both by renting or buying a film based on a book. Some are wonderful, some arewell stinkers. Here are five films you should avoid at all costs and five in which to indulge. WORST: Beowulf (2007) stars the lovely Angelina Jolie, but falls flat. Many critics agree with Fernando F. Croce of CinePassion who calls the fim, The Old English poem ponderously, gracelessly expanded into an epic bore. Do yourself a favor and read the epic in its original form. Vanity Fair (2004) A happy ending for Vanity Fair? We all understand there is artistic license in translating a book to film, but really?   Read the original at here! The Scarlet Letter (1995) stars Demi  Moore as an improbable Hester Prynne, who wears revealing clothing and speaks in feminisms  quite out of context and character for 1666. Not even the great Robert Duvall can rescue this one. Read the etext  at here. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (2005). There may not be another film in recent memory that let fans of the book down more so  than this adaptation of Douglas Adamss classic work of science fiction.   If you type in Reviews of Hitchhikers into Google, you will find dozens of reviews that echo the sentiment of this one:   (Hitchhikers) is bad.   Really bad. Vastly, staggeringly, jaw-droppingly  badbad on a big scale because enormous swathes of the story have been dispensed withmost of the Guide entries, whole scenesor changed beyond all recognition. And it is bad on a small scale because many, many wonderful lines have been cut or in some cases actually rewritten to make them less funny. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) also raised hopes for readers, as Tom Robbins quirky, funny works have been favorites for decades.  Many people were also hopeful because the film was directed by Gus Van Sant, who made a name for himself in such films as My Own Private Idaho and Drugstore Cowboy. But this film is a mess from start to finish. Robbinss sense of absurdity and humor simply doesnt translate. BEST: Pride and Prejudice (1995) is a marvelously faithful adaptation of Jane Austens classic work and is perfectly cast. This BBC production is a mini-series, so you can spend many happy hours immersed in the world of Elizabeth and Darcy. A Clockwork Orange (1971) captures the creepiness of Anthony Burgesss disturbing novel about government control of society. Directed by the legendary Stanley Kubrick and stars Malcolm McDowell. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005). Beautifully rendered and true to the imagination of C.S. Lewiss classic work of childrens literature, this film does not disappoint even its most ardent fans. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). First published in 1954, J.R.R. Tolkiens novel of  the travails of Middle Earth was a best-seller from the beginning. Peter Jacksons superb movie brought an entire new generation of fans to the trilogy. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) is a faithful and touching interpretation that captures all the pain and love of Harper Lees novel. Gregory Peck stars as Atticus Finch. Both the movie and the novel have stood the test of time.

PIN Number

PIN Number PIN Number PIN Number By Simon Kewin To keep your writing as clear and concise as possible, you should generally try to remove unnecessary words. Sometimes duplication is fine – for artistic effect, for example but as a general rule, it’s best to say things in as few words as possible.   Unnecessary words often creep in when using acronyms. Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters of phrases, as discussed in a previous Daily Writing Tips article. Examples include â€Å"laser† (from â€Å"light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation† and â€Å"scuba† (from â€Å"self-contained underwater breathing apparatus†). But a mistake that is often made is to repeat, unnecessarily, the last word of the original phrase.   An example of this is â€Å"PIN number†. In this phrase, PIN is (most commonly) an acronym for â€Å"personal identification number†. Written out in full, â€Å"PIN number† amounts to â€Å"personal identification number number†. This might make sense – if, for example, you were discussing the number of PINs you have – but most likely it’s just nonsense. â€Å"Please enter your PIN† makes perfect sense.   There are numerous other examples to be found : ATM machine, HIV virus, ISBN number, LCD display, SAT test and so forth. These are very common mistakes : search for any of them on the internet and you’ll find countless examples. Because they are so common, it’s all too easy to find yourself employing them without noticing. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How to Format a UK Business LetterAt Your DisposalAppropriate vs. Apropos vs. Apt

How to Install Ruby on the Linux Operating System

How to Install Ruby on the Linux Operating System Ruby is installed on most Linux distributions by default. However, you can follow the steps below to determine if Ruby is installed and, if not,  install the Ruby interpreter on your Linux computer. How to Install Ruby on Linux For an Ubuntu-based distribution, follow the following procedure to verify whether you have Ruby installed, and if not, to install it. Open a terminal window. One way open the terminal window (sometimes called a shell or bash shell) is to select Applications Accessories Terminal.Run the command which ruby.  If you see a path such as /usr/bin/ruby, Ruby is installed. If you dont see any response or get an error message, Ruby is not installed.To verify that you have a current version of Ruby, run the command ruby -v.Compare the version number returned with the version number on the Ruby download page.These numbers dont have to be exact, but if you are running a version thats too old, some of the features may not work correctly.Install appropriate Ruby packages.  This process differs between distributions, but on Ubuntu run the following command:sudo apt-get install ruby-full Verify That Ruby Works Correctly Open a text editor and save the following as test.rb. #!/usr/bin/env ruby puts Hello world! In the terminal window, change directory to the directory where you saved test.rb.  Run the command chmod x test.rb, then run the command ./test.rb. You should see the message Hello world! displayed if Ruby is installed correctly. Tips: Every distribution is different. Refer to your distributions documentation and community forums for help installing Ruby on distributions other than Ubuntu or its variants.For distributions other than Ubuntu, if your distribution doesnt provide a tool like apt-get then you can use a site such as RPMFind to find Ruby packages. Look for the irb, ri and rdoc packages as well, but depending on how the RPM package was built, it may already include these programs.

Issues in crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Issues in crime - Essay Example They are directly not involved in the unscrupulous activity. (1) At this point, it also needs to be specifically highlighted that even employees are immensely benefited by corporate crimes, for their jobs are safeguarded along with getting promotions. To put the matter in a nutshell, the very livelihood of the employees becomes dependent on them being active participants in acts of corporate crime. (1) The motives for carrying out these acts (of corporate crime) vary from one case to the other. Yet, it has been seen that the following three are the primary objectives propelling all corporate crimes: A) To bring about both a rise in profits and also a drop in costs. B) To enable a rise in demand as well as a decline in competition. C) To exercise strong control over workers, markets and supplies. (1) Factors abetting corporate crimes It can conveniently be maintained that corporate crimes started to exist from the same time when commercial organizations first began their operations. I n the contemporary era, there has been a surge in instances of corporate crime, and there indeed are highly valid reasons behind that. The various features of a typical corporate organization have now become more complex than ever, and the conventional systems of internal control are now obsolete. Additionally, the rapid growth in information technology has ensured that the power now wielded by the corporate is without a precedent. This is so much so that the modern-day corporate organizations are making sure that they are in total control of their governance. (2) The biggest factor to which the growth in corporate crimes is attributable is inadequate corporate governance. Corporate governance encompasses various policies, procedures and laws, etc, which endeavor to make sure that persons employed in an organization are made accountable. As mentioned in the preceding paragraph, they (corporate organizations) are now fully empowered to govern themselves, with the related laws being n ot so stringent. This is more so when the corresponding scenario of the past is taken into consideration. As has been stated earlier, the existing systems are being rendered powerless in ensuring accountability of corporate organizations. In addition, since the recent past, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of commercial transactions of corporate organizations. This has made things even more difficult for the prevalent laws in preventing the crimes (corporate). Last but in no way the least, the lengthy formal procedures pertaining to the governance have just further compounded the issue. This is in the sense that, they (procedures) have transformed the scenario as being more conducive for carrying out corporate crimes. (2) Various surveys that have been carried out in the recent past point out to a highly disturbing fact. A substantial chunk of corporate crimes of the present-day era are those that have been perpetrated by the managements of huge business houses. At this juncture, it also has to be noted that the losses resulting from such acts are very huge, and thus exerting an adverse impact on the economy. (2) Seriousness of corporate crimes Corporate crime is more serious an issue that what it is actually considered to be, by many people. In this context, it needs to be

Financial Market Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Financial Market - Assignment Example The random walk behavior of macroeconomic aggregates can be produced by a wide variety of complicated behavior at the microeconomic level. If income follows a random walk process, any innovation in income or a change in income due to an economic shock is an unexpected change in permanent income affecting consumption growth. The predictive ability of unexpected permanent or actual growth in income is consistent with permanent income hypothesis (PIH). Within the framework of time-series modeling, it was suggested that the standard test is biased towards finding excess sensitivity when disposable income follows a random walk process. If income follows a random walk, the permanent income equals current income. Assuming that permanent income hypothesis is true and consumption equals income since series contains a unit root, the procedures of standardized testing are not valid. If both consumption and income are de-trended, spurious cycles would be exhibited by both series. Since consumption tracks income perfectly over these transitory cycles, it can be concluded that consumption is excessively sensitive to contemporaneous income. The excess sensitivity of consumption does not provide evidence against the permanent income hypothesis unless the income is shown as not to have properties of random walk. The random walk process is followed by the real disposable income. Actual real disposable income approximates real permanent disposable income which determines household consumption. The origins of random walk process of real disposable income are on the supply side including factors of capital market restrictions, changes in trade, capital accumulation, technological adaptation and innovation, climatic and weather change etc. These supply-side shocks have a long-term impact on income and consumption.

Prudential Insurence Case Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Prudential Insurence Case - Assignment Example The company’s tangible resources are financial, human and physical resources. It had in its possession several physical resources that she managed; they include equipment and buildings. The strong financial position of the company ensured that it had very stable financial resources for conducting its duties or operations without substantial problems in terms of shortages of money. This considerably put it in a position of avoiding unnecessary debt financing. Nevertheless, the company also ensured that it maintained a workforce that is highly motivated; which has been a major driving force in ensuring that it achieves its intended goals of service delivery to its clients. Furthermore, the company invested heavily in the development and training of its employees as this is a critical factor in making sure the employees that are fully involved or fully engaged in the service provision deliver work or services of high quality, and those that deal with matters marketing or promotio n make sure that the potential clients are made aware.On the other hand, the intangible resources of the company included, goodwill, intellectual and technical (Hopkin, 2012). The company had for a very long time enjoyed the technical resources that greatly facilitated its goals. Events identified by the management The most critical events that were identified by the management were fraudulent practices on the side of the sales agents. This was reported by the internal auditors of the company in the year 1982. A failure by the management of the company to ensure that consumer protection regulations and laws are enforced was also detailed during the early 1990s by the internal audits of the regional offices and individual divisions. At first, we can say that the management did not take the events seriously, which means that they considered them as opportunities to continue their fraudulent practices until when matters got out of hand as the reputation of the company started going dow n significantly, when they were again seen as risks that called for drastic actions or solutions. Management’s primary risk response The management cannot be commended wholly for identifying the risks that were facing the company as they were revealed but no drastic measures were taken, instead they were viewed as opportunities; this can be said so as it failed to enforced the consumer protection laws and regularities, meaning that there was no goodwill to seal the loopholes. The management did not react immediately when it was realized that there were serious fraudulent activities on the side of the agents, which was turning out to be the biggest undoing or problem of the company. When a report was released by the internal auditors to the board of directors of the company, they continually insisted that the management was aware of the problems and was taking the necessary measures in ensuring that they were solved amicably and completely (Hopkin, 2012). When matters got wors e, the board of directors found it necessary to ensure that there is a change of guard, whereby a new manager in the name of Ryan was brought in to try his part even though he was largely untested. However, when Ryan came in, he deemed it necessary to overhaul some of the company’s structures by first changing the business approach of the company

The power of language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The power of language - Essay Example But writers have huge capacity to influence the outlook of people which can be used to bring about constructive changes in the social fabric. Construction of meaning In ‘Superman and Me’, Alexie has emphasized that language plays hugely critical role in the development of individuals. As an Indian, living in Washington, he was often confronted with the dual personalities of the people of his race. They were meek and unassuming in the company of Whites but otherwise exhibited their natural vivacious personality. The language was key barrier which made them hesitant in interacting with others. But writer had constructed his own language and meaning which was inspired by his passion for reading books. He has used words and language in way that defines his will to make his own space in the dissenting society. He constructed his own meaning by asserting that ‘The words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose’. He further clarifies that ‘Our reservation was a small paragraph within the United States’ thereby justifying his existence. Limitation of broken language Alexie has used language to understand social differences and says that ‘knowledge delighted me’. ... His success is testament of their misconceived ideas. He is now an inspiration for his race. ‘Many are writing their own poems, short stories and novels’ shows the ability to read and write English language has made Indians assert themselves as individuals. Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue is another very important article that showcases how language can overcome barriers of class, race and culture. She has used ‘all the englishes’ in her writing. This is interesting phrase because it displays the confidence of the writer to use vernacular English to communicate effectively with people whose mother tongue might not be English. The variation in English language has occurred because immigrant families have changed it to make it easy for them to use and communicate. She asserts that vernacular english ‘has become our language of intimacy’. In a foreign land, ‘the fractured language’ is ‘perfectly natural’ for immigrant to fe el comfortable. She has raised very pertinent issue of language and says that people who do not speak perfect English are deemed ‘limited’. But she also asserts that her writing has captured ‘what language ability tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts’. The writer has shown that even ‘broken english’ has the power to communicate ideas. Conclusion Both the writers have used English as language for writing and communication. They have adopted the mainstream language to integrate as well as to understand the psychology of human relationship. The language is a means of communication and if the person is able to communicate in ‘broken english’, he has served his/her purpose: which is to transfer some idea or suggestion or