Understanding the Three Mile Island Nuclear Meltdown through the Perspective of Human

The 21st century will not only be defined by technology but also by the existence of complex organisations that leverage advances in the field of information technology, computers, and advanced management techniques. This is the reason why a corporation can have a main office in London but can do business all over the globe 24 hours a day and seven days a week.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Understanding the Three Mile Island Nuclear Meltdown through the Perspective of Human specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Aside from that the needs of a growing population such as urban centres that can hold tens of millions of people also necessitate the creation and maintenance of complex and gigantic structures such as those that deliver water, electricity and gas. The intricate systems that these structures contain multiply the probability of errors. Although there is a system of checks in place these types of faciliti es cannot afford malfunction or human errors. One good example is the nuclear facility in Three-Mile-Island that experienced a meltdown. The cause of the malfunction is linked to what managers now call as â€Å"human factors† and a clear understanding of what it means can help prevent future problems of this magnitude and potential consequence. Human Factor Before going any further it is imperative to get a clear understanding of the impact of human factors on the organisation, technology, and work and safety aspects of a nuclear plant. An excellent backdrop for this study is the definition for this concept as seen below: Human factors is a multidisciplinary field that draws on the methods, data, and principles of the behavioural and social sciences, engineering, physiology, anthropometry, biomechanics, and other disciplines to design systems that are compatible with the capabilities and limitations of the people who will use them. Its goal has been to design system that use human capabilities in appropriate ways, that protect systems from human frailties, and that protect humans from hazards associated with operation of the system (Moray Huey, 1988). This definition was the by-product of assiduous work in the field of nuclear regulatory research. This is research initiative, prompted no doubt by mishaps and other problems encountered by those working under the U.S. nuclear program. The compact definition has to be unpacked in order to appreciate the multidisciplinary aspect of human factors research.Advertising Looking for assessment on other technology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Firstly, all of the supporters of human factors research are in agreement that it simply impractical and unwise to focus on one or few fields when it comes to designing a safe and efficient system, especially when it comes to critical operations such as those that can be found in aviation or nuclear facilities. Se condly, it is not enough to simply increase the scope of study. There is a good reason why they included not only the integration of social and behavioural sciences; they also found the link between these fields and those of engineering, physiology, anthropometry, and biomechanics. Human factors research looks at the people behind the organisation as well as the technology required to accomplish what seems to be a humanly impossible task such as the monitoring and maintenance of critical systems. And finally, the definition suggests that no matter how technology has advanced there will always be a need for human expertise, the human touch is required to keep an operation to run smoothly. But this has another side to it. Due to the participation of humans in the creation, implementation and upkeep of a complex systems such as a nuclear power plant then that particular system is prone to error. Therefore, the purpose of human factors research is to design systems that are well-suited to the capabilities and limitation of the staff and operators handling and maintaining that system (Moray Huey, 1988). This is expounded even further by the realisation that human talents, perception, expectation must be considered into the design or training strategies to prepare those who will use the system. Another major purpose of human factors research is to develop a system that is protected from human frailties (Moray Huey, 1988). It is an acknowledgment that although humans can sometimes outperform machines, for example machines only do what they are programmed to do but can never make adjustments to changing conditions – but at the same time there are limitations to what the human body can do. Machines are not prone to fatigue but humans have limits that can be measured and factored into the design of the system.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Understanding the Three Mile Island Nuclear Meltdown through the Perspective of Human specifi cally for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Finally, human factors research is not only limited to manufacturing high-quality products and services but it is also about protecting humans from the inherent hazards of a particular system (Moray Huey, 1988). In the case of Three-Mile-Island the potential hazard is the radioactive material within the two nuclear reactors. If radioactive radiation leaks into the atmosphere the first group of individuals who will suffer from contact with radioactive materials are going to be the staff and operators and then if there is a nuclear meltdown then the whole community near the nuclear plant and so their safety must also be included in the overall design. Three-Mile-Island: Review of Facility In September 1978 the people of Pennsylvania took notice of a dedication ceremony for the newly completed nuclear power plant built in an island accessible through the Susquehanna River and it was called after the name of its location and known hereafter as the Three-Mile-Island Nuclear Power Plant (Derkins, 2003). It is located a mere 15 kilometres away from Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania (Derkins, 2003). Americans are used to such announcements and it can be argued that no one had a premonition of what would follow; before the tragic event that would occur months later, a nuclear power plant is deemed safe and efficient. There was usually no drama involved. But this one is different. The said nuclear power plant is comprised of two units, two reactors and designated as follows: TMI-I was constructed at the northern end of the island in 1968 while TMI-2 was constructed just south of the first unit and it was started in 1969 (Derkins, 2003) The first unit, TMI-1, was completed in 1974 and immediately began to generate electricity but for the second unit, TMI-2 encountered construction delays and did not start generating electricity until 1978 (Derkins, 2003). It should have been a warning for t he operators but this was not uncovered because of the absence of an effective HRA tool. The Control Room and Plant Equipment Design The control room was designed in such a way that it will alert the operators if there were problems but in 1979 a complex system like this one can only do so much. So in the midst of an impending crisis a loud horn was heard by the operators and the control panels began to light up like a Christmas tree.Advertising Looking for assessment on other technology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More But there was no way to differentiate what was trivial and what was critical, the flashing lights added to the confusion but never guided the operators to the real cause of the problem. If only they knew that a critical component a relief valve has malfunctioned. This valve controls the pressure of the reactor coolant and by staying open it reduces the amount of reactor coolant in the system. However, the only way for the operators to know this is to walk behind a seven-foot high instrument panel to discover that the coolant was dangerously low but it was not convenient and practical to keep on walking back and forth from the centre of the control room to the back of the control panel and so it was easy to miss it (Walker, 2004) The operators relied on a less reliable system. They installed a signal light in the control panel and when it is lighted then it means that the relief valve was open and if it was not lighted then they assume that the relief valve was closed (Walker, 2004). The operators were unaware of the failure of the relief valve and so they made the assumption that the pressure in the reactor was still high and therefore there was enough coolant within TMI-2 (U.S. NRC, 2010). This is the reason why the reactor generated tremendous amounts of heat that at the end melted the core. Aside from the human factor and the complex operation requirement needed to run the nuclear plant, another major factor that has to be considered in order to understand why the Three-Mile-Island debacle occurred is the use of a technology called â€Å"pressurized water reactors† also known as â€Å"PWR† (Walker, 2004) This type of technology was most common in all the reactors built before the 1980s (Walker, 2004). But for Babcock and Wilcox the reactor manufacturer commissioned to build TMI-1 and TMI-2 there is no other way to build a reactor other than the use of PWR (Walker, 2004). This is significant because there is a critical part of the design which is called the Pilot-Operated-Relief-Valve (â€Å"PORV†) and it can be found on top of a forty-foot high container called a pressurizer but when it malfunctioned there was nothing that was installed to alert the operators that it has stayed open or stayed close (Walker, 2004). In other words it was the weak link in the design. This is how the PORV was supposed to work: if the pressure in TMI-2 rises rapidly so the pressurizer is overwhelmed by the sudden build-up and so it was designed to open to release cooling water and therefore reduce the pressure build-up (Walker, 2004). At first this is what happened when other parts of the system malfunctioned at about 4:00 AM, March 28, 1979 (Walker,2004). However, ten seconds later when the pressure and heat levels were back to normal the PORV was supposed to close as designed but in this case it did not close and coolant was oozing out of the reactor (Walker, 2004). The problem with this scenario is that this was not the first time t hat a PORV was stuck open, especially in TMI-2 and yet no one took time and effort to fix the problem or redesign the whole system. It was revealed later that this type of problem is common in nuclear reactors designed by Babcock and Wilcox. In fact what happened in Three-Mile-Island was replicated two years earlier in a similarly designed system at a nuclear plant named Davis-Besse (Walker,2004). The only difference is that in that case an operator was aware that there was a problem with the PORV because it stayed open and so he immediately took action to close the relief valve (Walker, 2004). In the case of TMI-2 no one knew about this problem if they did then they would have automatically went to the PORV monitor and closed the relief valve when needed. Due to the error there was no adequate cooling for the reactor and as a result the nuclear fuel overheated and the core began to melt (U.S.NRC, 2010). Human Error Types and Models There are three types of errors based on psycholog ical error mechanisms and these are listed as follows: 1) error of omission; 2) error of commission; and 3) psychological error (Verma, Ajit, Karanki, ) This is a good starting point for understanding human errors because it clearly differentiates error based on what the person did while working in a nuclear facility and the third one is the error due to lapses in memory, attention failure, and perception failure (Verma, Ajit, Karanki, 2010). These explains some of the basic errors committed in the workplace, factory or even in a nuclear facility. It is also helpful in designing a fail-safe system for planners to be acquainted with the different types of actions based on work complexities (Verma, Ajit, Karanki, 2010). These are widely known as: 1) Skill based actions; 2) Rule based actions; and 3) Knowledge based actions (Verma, Ajit, Karanki, 2010). If these are linked to human errors then slips and lapses usually occurs when it comes to skill-based actions, during routine well -practiced tasks that does not require conscious effort (Strauch, 2004). In addition there are also rule-based mistakes and knowledge-based mistakes. In the case of the former, the operator or manager applied the wrong rule. In the case of the latter the operator or manager did not posses the correct knowledge and did not have the experience to deal with a novel situation presented to him or her (Strauch, 2004). The last one can explain what happened to the Three-Mile-Island accident. The Three-Mile-Island Accident is not the result of error of commission. There was no deliberate act that resulted in failure in fact the operators had no idea what was going on, they were inundated with information and system signals that they do not know what was trivial and what was critical so that they could be guided to do the next crucial step. The incident was also the result of error of omission because the operators are all competent engineers and workers who had a clear understanding of how the system works. For instance if a supervisor told them that the relief valve was stuck and needed to be closed they would immediately know that the PORV should be closed to restore the correct amount of coolant in the reactor. But they were not privy to this information. Thus, the Three-Mile-Island incident was the result of a psychological error in the sense that it was a failure in perception. The engineers and operators thought that they were dealing with loss of water, clogged condenser etc. but the truth is there was only one critical problem that they had to address and everything could be reset to normal and yet they were unaware, the limitations of their knowledge about the Wilcox and Babcock designed nuclear plant brought them to the edge of a major disaster that could have taken hundreds even thousands of lives. Human Reliability Analysis The best HRA tool that is best suited to analyse the weakness, potential problems of a nuclear power facility is what is commonly know n as the Technique for Human Error Rate Prediction because it combines task and event tree analysis and more than that it was originally designed for the nuclear industry (Attwood Crowl, 2007). The effectiveness of THERP is seen in how it thoroughly evaluates the task at hand as well as help in developing an event tree analysis that will map out for the managers and operators of a nuclear facility what will happen if this particular steps is omitted or if a particular function failed. An event tree analysis which also serves as visual aid in the mastery of complex systems will provide an overview of the nuclear facility and its various operations. This simply means that THERP will predict what will happen in the event that a particular action is committed or omitted or if a fail-safe system did not function as designed. Other HRA tools are also effective but there are some that are reactionary in the sense that it makes recommendations based on what has happened in the past. For ex ample one HRA established a formula wherein he said that for every 10 near misses there will be an accident (Hughes Ferret, 2005). This gives the impression that managers will have to look at patterns and recognise the problem. This may work in other fields but should not be recommended for use in a nuclear facility. In a nuclear power plant something wrong can happen without precedent – it is sudden and catastrophic – there would be no time to evaluate and then make recommendations. The risk is too high to be entrusted to an HRA tool that is not as thorough as THERP. Human Factor Integration The Human Factor Integration is an important step because it is the systematic process for identifying and tracking as well as resolving human factors related issues so that planners and system engineers can create a system that balances the impact of human talents and limitation and technology (Strauch, 2004). In the case of the Three-Mile-Island incident a correctly done HFI wo uld have prevented the problem. An event tree analysis as well as task analysis was completed so that even if the operators were confronted by a novel problem they would still be able to solve the problem and not overwhelmed with various signals and information that did not make sense to them. They would have designed a control room that allow them to see every instrument and every signal that needed their attention should be displayed prominently. The HFI Plan Babcock and Wilcox, the firm that was contracted to build the Three-Mile-Island nuclear power plant should have created a human reliability analysis and the tool that they should have adopted is the THERP. If this was accomplished then they would have created a task analysis and at the same time an event tree analysis. They were able to train the support group, the operators and engineers on what to do in case of major failures but there was no system in place to deal with novel problems. And the reason for that was simple; t here was not HRA that was conducted that could have predicted human error and other forms of mechanical failure. Using an event tree analysis the operators would have known what would happen every step of the way. They are not only aware of the major components of a complex system but they would have been made familiar with the sequence of events and how the failure of one component will lead to what kind of effect. The use of THERP would have exposed the weakness of the system. In the case of the Three-Mile-Island accident the weak link is the design of the PORV signal. The signal was basic, a light that was turned on signified that the valve was open and when the light is not on then it means that the valve was close. The engineers who designed the system did not consider the possibility that the signal light may fail. They also did not consider the possibility that the operators will simply assume that that the valve was closed based on the absence of light coming from the instru ment monitoring the PORV. The one who designed the system did not consider what would happen in the event of multiple malfunctions and what it would look like inside the control room. The control room was supposed to be the eyes and ears of the engineers with regards to what is happening within the nuclear reactor. Yet it was poorly designed. A good HRA tool will determine not only the effectiveness of the control panels to convey data but to transmit data in a way that could assist the operators to deal with the most critical issue and the most critical issue during that time is not the problem with the heaters or the mechanical failure of some components of TMI-2. The most critical issue is the lack of coolant inside a super-heated reactor. Conclusion The Three-Mile-Island incident could have been easily avoided if an effective HRA tool was used even before construction of the nuclear plant was given the go signal to proceed. By using an HRA tool such as the THERP the engineers an d operators would have known that a very simple valve would play a crucial role in the meltdown of the reactor. This means that the signal that is coming from this valve should have been displayed prominently in the control room. Aside from that there should have been a more sophisticated means of alerting the operators that the valve has malfunctioned. They should not be made to rely on a simple mechanism just like the light signal coming from an obscure mechanism situated behind the control panels. The THERP would have given them a heads up when it comes to unprecedented events. They would have predicted the probability of human errors and mechanical failure so that they could create system to deal with potential problems. For instance, the signal connected to the PORV should not be a simple light bulb it should be a gauge that provides an accurate reading and it must be displayed prominently in the control room. Thus, a quick glance of the controls will immediately alert the oper ators that coolant was leaking out of the reactor. References Attwood, d. D. Crowl. (2007). Human Factors Methods for Improving Performance in the  Process Industries. New Jersey: John Wiley Sons, Inc. Dekker, S. (2005). Ten Questions About Human Error: A New View of Human Factors and  System Safety. New York: Routledge. Derkins, S. (2003). The Meltdown at Three Mile Island. New York: Rosen Publishing. Hughes, P. E. Ferret. (2005). Introduction to Health and Safety Work. Oxford: Butterworth- Heinemann. Moray, N. B. Huey. (1988). Human Factors Research and Nuclear Safety. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. U.S. NRC. (2010). â€Å"Backgrounder on the Three-Mile-Island Accident.† Retrieved from https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html Strauch, B, (2004). Investigating Human Error: Incidents, Accidents, and Complex Systems. UK: Ashgate Publishing. Verma, A. S. Ajit, D. Karanki. (2010). Reliability and Safety Engineering. London: Springer. Walker, S. (2004). Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective. CA: University of California Press. 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How to Write a Good Essay With Sample Essay Topics

How to Write a Good Essay With Sample Essay TopicsIf you are looking for some sample essay topics that will show you how to write a good essay, then you are in the right place. It is important to understand that there are many writers who are successful in writing essays based on a specific topic. It is not an easy task to write an essay because it involves the analysis of an individual's life experiences. That is why they need to find a proper topic that can be used as an essay topic.If you are writing an essay based on a particular topic, then it is advisable to search online for some sample essay topics that can be used as examples. You can simply use the search engine to look for the main topics that are used by most writers. It is necessary to have some topics that can make your essay interesting and also interesting enough to grab the attention of readers. The best way to approach writing the article is to look at the basic elements that should be included in the essay.One of t he ways that you can use to determine the sample essay topics that are appropriate for your essay is to look at the descriptions. Look at the sentence structure and read the paragraph headings carefully. Usually the authors use the heading to introduce the idea behind the content of the essay. By doing this, you can easily distinguish whether you have the topic of your essay covered. Look for those paragraphs that contain a discussion of a major event or a current event in the life of the writer.After you have identified the most important and the general themes that can be used in the essay, you can proceed to write about the events that took place in the life of the writer. This is a time when the language will be more informal and spontaneous and more expressive. In order to do this, you can use the examples provided in the sample essay topics that will help you with your writing.Most of the time, writers use sample essay topics to explain their topics. As a matter of fact, it is very important for them to be able to communicate with their audience. By using the correct keywords in the essay, you will be able to convey the essence of the ideas of the article to your readers. Writing the sample essay topics will also allow you to get familiar with the grammar and punctuation marks that will be used in the text.After completing the whole paragraph, you can proceed to include the conclusion to the essay. This is another time where you can take the help of the sample essay topics that will help you with your writing skills. Before ending the paragraph, make sure that the first paragraph has been completed and included in the body of the essay.In order to have a well-written article, you need to make sure that the content of the article is given enough importance. By utilizing the sample essay topics, you will be able to determine what kind of writing that you will have to do. You can also take the help of the essay prompts which will provide you with a list of the things that you need to include in the essay. These things will include the title of the article, a short paragraph explaining the premise of the article, and then finally the body of the article.

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Accountancy is not a profession - Essay Example Here the skill lies in choosing and conveying the information, which is relevant and reliable to the user. According to the  American Institute of Certified Public Accountants  (AICPA), accountancy can be defined as â€Å"the art of recording, classifying, and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events which are, in part at least, of financial character, and interpreting the results thereof† (Accounting, Finance & Capital Budgeting, nd., 1). Early records show that accountancy was used primarily for maintaining business related data on behalf of businesspersons  and the only account viewer were record keepers who maintained accounts. In the current context, accounting is referred to as â€Å"the language of business† (McGrath, 1921, 5) since it is a vehicle primarily used for publicizing financial data about a business firm to various interested people. There are different theories that try to elucidate the development of pr ofessionalism within accountancy and whether it can be taken as a profession or as a trade. As per the functionalist theory, a profession starts only when there are a group of people practicing specific techniques based on specially designed training. They are viewed as forming a group to mutually assure their skill and competence and maintain high standard In terms of professional practice and character (Carr-Saunders, 1928). In this context, the paper will examine whether accountancy is a profession or a part of the trade market primarily from a functionalist perspective. Discussion Accounting as a profession has been analysed from various perspectives and different settings. Various researches have used the functionalist, critical and interactionist perspectives to elucidate the development of professionalism within accountancy even though it had mainly trade market associations. The functionalist theories claim that the core of professionalization is based on any profession†˜s capability to create professionals with a common set of skills and knowledge that would work towards serving the society selflessly. The interactionist perspectives on the other hand suggest that professions are interest-based groups that aim at persuading the society members to seek their advices/services for protecting and furthering their own interests. The critical perspective, which is modern in form, analyses the process of professionaliz

The Impact of Universal Studios Essay Example for Free

The Impact of Universal Studios Essay Universal Pictures, or Universal Studios, has been around for a little over a century and it is currently regarded amongst the top six movie studios in America. It grosses billions of dollars in revenue annually and produces major hits and movie stars. Universal is also owned by a giant media conglomerate known as NBC Universal, which is quite different from its humble beginnings. This paper will provide a brief insight into the relationship between Universal Pictures and its impact on the movie industry along with how Universal became a big name in Hollywood. The man who started it all was Carl Laemmle. Born in Wà ¼rttemberg Germany, Laemmle was the tenth of thirteen children, eight of which died of a cruel epidemic of scarlet fever. At the age of thirteen, he was apprenticed to a family friend as a bookkeeper and office manager. A few years later, at the age of seventeen, Carl persuaded his father to let him buy passage to the United States. After arriving, Carl worked as an errand boy in New York for a short while then moved to Chicago where his brother Joseph lived. There Carl worked as an office boy until his next move took him to Wisconsin. There he worked in a clothing company and met his wife Recha Stern who gave birth to a son, Carl Jr., and a daughter , Rosabelle. Carl got into an argument with his employer and moved back to Chicago looking for an enterprise that might multiply his family’s savings. Carl decided to go into the film industry after seeing The Great Train Robbery, which left a â€Å"heavy impression† and a profound business idea (Zeirold 89). In 1906, Laemmle began purchasing nickelodeons. As Laemmle’s business bloomed, the Motion Picture Patents Company was born, which sparked one of his many contributions to the industry, the Independent Moving Pictures Company of America. Founded in 1909, the Independent Moving Pictures Company of America, condensed to IMP, was created to spite the MPPCo. IMP caused its biggest blow to the MPPCo when they snatched up Florence Lawrence, nicknaming her the â€Å"Biograph Girl,† and produced many hit films with her, thus creating the star system we know today. In 1910, Carl joined another organization named the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company. This company led to the downfall of the MPPCo and the creation of major studios, such as, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures), Twentieth Century-Fox, Paramount Studios, and Universal Pictures. Universal, whose name came from Laemmle â€Å"observing† a Universal Pipe Fittings wagon, was created from the remnants of IMP and was sited in New York (Dick 33). The new Universal studio was a horizontally integrated company, with movie production and distribution of exhibition venues. 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One of his greatest â€Å"investments† was character actor Lon Chaney, nicknamed â€Å"The Man of a Thousand Faces.† Chaney started working for Universal when it began in 1912, but was not truly recognized until 1918 in the silent picture Riddle Gawne. He began his early career presented as a team alongside Dorothy Phillips and William Stowell, starring in fourteen films from 1917 to 1919. However, Chaney’s greatest contributions to Universal were The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera. The Hunchback of Notre Dame was Universals Super Jewel of 1923 and was their most successful silent film, grossing over $3 million, and set the standard for all future horror films in the industry. The Phantom of the Opera made Universal more interested in possibly making higher budget, â€Å"grade-A† films. Chaney eventually left Universal for MGM and retired shortly after making a few films for Howard Dietz. In the late 1920s, Universal became a very powerful movie studio but was not considered part of the â€Å"Big Five.† It was, however, given companionship alongside Columbia Pictures and United Artists which became collectively known as the â€Å"Little Three.† Although it was the largest of the Little Three, Universal Pictures lost money during each year of the 1930s except 1931, 1934 and 1939. This desperate ï ¬ nancial situation led to a change in ownership in 1936 and several management upheavals thereafter. Universal had traditionally engaged primarily in the production of low-budget features and â€Å"sub-features† aimed at the subsequent run and rural markets, with only an occasional prestige ‘A’ picture. This policy of reliance on programme pictures remained fairly stable throughout the decade of the 1930s; those periodic forays into ‘prestige’ production and away from the basic programme formula generally met with ï ¬ nancial disaster and precipitated most of the decade’s management turnovers. The case of Universal is somewhat unique when compared with MGM or Warner Bros. Under the conservative leadership of its founder, Carl Laemmle, Universal specialized in the secondary, largely rural, independent theatre market, and most of its product consisted of rather short features without top rank star players. Unlike MGM or Warner Bros., short subjects had always been a fundamental part of Universal’s production strategy. In an effort to remove itself from its near-bottom industry ranking, the company ï ¬â€širted occasionally with the prestige feature market during the 1930s, usually to its ï ¬ nancial detriment. During this decade it did its best ï ¬ nancially when it concentrated on its primary business: turning out low-budget features at high speed. Universal’s short subject releases maintained this philosophy throughout the 1930s with amazing consistency, considering the turnover in management (including the ouster of Laemmle and his son, Carl, Jr, in 1936 ). Early in the 1930s, the studio’s emphasis was shifted to two-reel comedies, starting with the likes of Slim Summerville, Arthur Lake and Benny Rubin as starring comedians. The Universal two reelers took a decidedly interesting swing when former Hal Roach studio manager Warren Doane was hired in 1932 to organize a production unit. Doane, in turn, brought in Roach employees James W. Horne, a young George Stevens and Alf Goulding as directors, as well as a long-time member of Charles Chaplin’s staff, Albert Austin. The unit lasted until 1934, with Stevens leaving for RKO quite a bit earlier. Unfortunately most of these ï ¬ lms have been unseen for decades, locked away in Universal’s ï ¬ lm vaults, unavailable for fresh appraisal. A handful of the Doane shorts viewed by the author revealed no hidden treasures, a disappointment considering the behind-the-camera talent involved. However, Mr. Mugg, a 1933 series entry, was nominated for an Academy Award. Another Universal short comedy from this period, although not from the Doane unit, which could provide both a â€Å"new† look at a legendary humorist and a cinematic treatment of an early Depression school of political thought, is a single Robert Benchley two reeler entitled Your Technocracy and Mine. In addition to the comedies, Universal had the ‘Mentone’ revue series, Strange As It Seems and later Stranger Than Fiction, short lived Goofytone News series produced by a New York independent studio, and travelogue and sports series. Universal produced its own twice-weekly newsreel, the only non-Big Five company to do so. In a reversal of the situation with MGM and Warner Bros. at this time, Universal also had its own in-house animation unit, headed by Walter Lantz, at the beginning of the 1930s, but allowed Lantz to go independent during the ownership turmoil of 1936. The unstable nature of the company at mid-decade also abbreviated the production of colour cartoon s after just six shorts made in 1934 and 1935. Colour did not return to the Universal cartoon release schedule until the 1939–1940 season, when the Lantz studio switched to all-colour production. The area of short ï ¬ lm production for which Universal is best known, however, is the serial. Serials generally were considered the domain of small, independent producers such as Mascot and Republic. Of all of the major studios, only the two ‘mini-majors’, Universal and Columbia, produced serials. This may be largely attributed to the aforementioned need for producers without theatres to cater to rural and niche markets. Throughout the decade of the 1930s that was to prove so turbulent for Universal, the studio still managed to crank out an average of four 12-episode serials per year. The subject matter ranged widely, from Westerns to jungle adventures to mysteries to air adventures and more. One Universal serial available in its entirety for viewing today is the 1934 Perils of Pauline. Other than the title, borrowed for name recognition value, the Universal Perils bears no resemblance to its famous early silent forebear. This serial was obviously the beneï ¬ ciary both of several standing sets evidently left over from other productions and of a rather large st ock footage library. The latter fact is particularly apparent in the scenes of a Chinese revolution that opens Chapter 1, and of numerous jungle and other location scenes in the following episodes. It is not at all uncommon to have clean backlot shots of the serial’s characters reacting to shaky, ï ¬â€šickering, scratched and undercranked shots of revolutionary carnage or charging tigers. Both the extensive use of existing sets and of stock footage permit the story to hopscotch from one location to another, all over the Far East and, ultimately, back to New York City. The result is that this series is essentially a mixture of virtually every type of serial ever done at Universal, including science ï ¬ ction. Much more successful, as evidenced by their popularity even today, were the studio’s three Flash Gordon serials. The battles between Buster Crabbe’s Flash and Charles Middleton’s Ming the Merciless of the Planet Mongo combine streamline, art-deco styling of the late 193 0s with sci-ï ¬  camp in a package that is still appealing. The promotional booklet, For Your Box-office: Line up with Universal 1935–1936, provides a fascinating look at the manner in which the studio tried to sell its product to exhibitors during the last year of the Laemmle regime. The promotional hype expended on the company’s shorts suggests their perceived audience appeal as well as the content of some of the long unseen short series. Announcing the ï ¬ rst â€Å"Flash Gordon† series, the advertising copy proclaims: ‘53 million people read it in the Daily and Sunday newspapers! Now Universal adapts Alex Raymond’s sensational newspaper adventure strip for a serial of 13 episodes!’ The page devoted to Universal Newsreel reminds theatre owners that Graham McNamee, ‘National Broadcasting Company’s Ace Announcer’, narrated the reels. It goes on to assert the statistically unsupportable ‘First! Fast! Foremost! Holder of the World’s Record for Miraculous Scoop after Sc oop.’ Moving to the entertainment short series, For Your Box-office describes the ‘Mentone’ series as having ‘more stars and headline acts than the best vaudeville show! †¦ And at prices you can afford to pay!’ Three other one-reel series are depicted thusly: ‘Stranger than Fiction’-‘Facts, freaks and fancies from every corner of the globe! Each reel is a box-office magnet in itself’; ‘Studio Novelties’—‘Gems of comedy, musical comedy, trick photography, satire and short subjects! A new and novel series’; and ‘Going Places’—‘The short that never fails to do things! From one end of the world to the other †¦ and back again †¦ with the enchanting personality and voice of Lowell Thomas.’ As frequently happened with studio press books, which were designed to sell a company’s product before production on the season’s wares had actually commenced, some of the announced projects never reached the screen. Speciï ¬ cally, in this case, the promised 13 episodes of the new ‘Studio Novelties’ dwindled to a mere four ‘Specials’. In sum total, Universal’s product actually conformed to the basic format of its competitors, with the exception of serial production. Content and quality are hard to judge at this point in time with relatively few of the ï ¬ lms available for re-evaluation. The original nitrate negatives for most of the Universal short subjects still survive and are housed in the company’s Kearny, New Jersey, vaults. Hopefully, they will be transferred to safety ï ¬ lm before they are consumed by the inevitable nitrate decomposition. As has been previously noted, serials were generally the province of low-budget producers, not of major studios. Beyond serials, Universal’s greatest successes were its novelty series (Strange As It Seems, Stranger Than Fiction), travelogues (Going Places) and musicals (Mentone series). An interesting aspect of Universal’s short subject programme was that it continued to release silent ï ¬ lms through 1931, over 2 years after the ‘ talkie revolution’. Presumably this was for the beneï ¬ t of the more than 1500 small silent theatres that were still in business despite having been unable to afford the conversion to sound. Beyond that, one gets the impression that Universal was just struggling to turn out a product during the turbulent 1930s, with any ideas of visual style being secondary. The studio’s shorts, like its features, tended to be all over the map in terms of production polish. One may ï ¬ nd a rough correlation between Universal’s B-grade Western feature productions and a number of its Western-themed serials. However, as with Warner Bros.’ lack of gangster shorts, it is something of a surprise that the studio known for its world-class horror ï ¬ lms (Frankenstein, Dracula, The Phantom of the Opera, etc.) attempted virtually nothing in the way of horror/science ï ¬ ction serials until decade’s end (Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and The Phantom Creeps). In conclusion, Carl Laemmle worked vigorously to bring down the MPPCo powerhouse with IMP and kick start a major movie studio which he called Universal. Universal made great impacts on the industry in the fields of horror, sci-fi, and serials; impacts that changed the movie industry forever.

Essay --

The novel The Kite runner portrays a story of a boy named Amir who emotionally struggles through life and creates and breaks bonds that he never knew he was capable of. The novel helps the reader understand how manhood, political war and friendship influence Amir’s life and his experiences. Amir is faced with a lot of problems where he has to make decisions independently, which have consequences and outcomes that all become a learning experiences for him. Throughout his childhood, he is forced to live in Afghanistan, a country which politically deteriorated as Amir grew older. Amir’s household consisted of Baba, Hassan and Ali. Hassan and his father Ali were Hazara’s who worked for Amir’s Baba as servants but his father never maltreated them instead he treated Hassan and Ali as family. In Afghanistan, Hazara’s were social outcasts in Amir’s society and were considered amongst the lowest in the Afghan caste system. However, within the walls o f Baba’s home, this ridiculous caste and status notion did not exist and Amir was taught to treat them as equals and consider Hassan as his own brother as Baba would also treat him like his own son. Throughout the novel Amir’s struggle to get love and approval from his own father became real as it lead him to become emotionally and physically confused and frustrated. As Amir always wished he made himself a promise for Baba â€Å"Then I'd bring it home and show it to Baba. Show him once and for all that his son was worthy† (Hosseini, 60). The trouble of going through manhood had put a lot of stress on Amir as he constantly worried about being â€Å"good enough† for his father. As seen as a failure in the eyes of his father Amir tried day by day to prove to his father that he was capable of doing more t... ...t was too late for Amir to do anything. â€Å"Life struggles that add to the internal strife that Amir feels, due to his guilt, are put in such a fashion that you feel them yourself as you read. By the end of this book you feel as if you have walked along those alleyways, crouched behind that crumbling mud wall, and witnessed the horror that was Amir's and Hassan's.† (cite?) The kite runner is a story about a boy who struggles to find himself within his cultural community. Amir is faced with many political and social barriers that force him to constantly please others rather than himself. The importance the book dictates about baba’s approval goes to show just how desperate a young boy could become for his father’s love and attention. The kite runner is a book that helps explain the importance of familial ties and the values of having a close bond with loved ones.