Football teams for the prison inmates Essay Example for Free

Football teams for the prison inmates Essay Starting in the early 1930’s, state penitentiary facilities began forming football teams for the inmates. Because many people of that time thought this was inappropriate, prison football teams did not become common until the 1970’s. They play a 16-game season in the fall and have a prison Super Bowl in December. Each facility has 3 teams of 25 players each, with 8 players per team on the field at a time (5 linemen and 3 backs) instead of the usual 11, due to the smaller fields. The convicts compete with the teams within the prison, as well as with teams from other prisons within the state, and willing semi-pro teams. The coaches and players are selected by the facility officials after tryouts, some of which who make it on the teams actually having experience from college and pro football leagues before incarceration. The equipment is donated by state colleges and high schools, and ultimately does not cost the prison hardly any money. But do the full-contact games ever get out of hand? â€Å"In the beginning, almost every game ended in a fistfight. But I think the program is more organized and better supervised now. Overall, the players display good sportsmanship, while at the same time venting a lot of frustrations† says prison guard and referee, Stan Cioccia. So what could prison football be compared to? Babe Wood, prison athletics director at the Tennessee State Prison, has an answer. â€Å"I’d say teams are equal to a junior college team. Once there was a player here from Memphis who could have made any major college team in the country. It’s so sad to see a talent like that wasted. † But what thoughts do students have on a prison football league? â€Å"I think it’s probably better that the inmates are relieving tension through football, as opposed to beating up each other† answered Briana Egger (10). However, Parents of the students had different opinions. â€Å"If you committed a crime bad enough to get yourself into the state penitentiary, then I don’t think you should have the privilege of playing sports† countered Carla Murphy.

The Development of Fission and the Nuclear Reactor Essay -- Essays Pap

The Development of Fission and the Nuclear Reactor Nuclear transmutations had began in 1919 with an experiment by Earnest Rutherford. He demonstrated that nitrogen, when bombarded with alpha particles, can be turned into oxygen. During the 1920’s experiments continued, but collecting radioactive sources with a high enough intensity became hard. In 1931 the invention of the cyclotron and the Van de Graaff accelerator made a variety of other particles available, and strengthened nuclear studies. In 1934 Frederick Joliot discovered artificial radioactivity. The development of nuclear fission, the splitting of an elements heavy nucleus, like a uranium atom to form two lighter "fission fragments" as well as less massive particles as the neutrons, really began with the research of Enrico Fermi and his associates at the University of Rome, in Italy. In 1934 it was known that atoms consisted of a nucleus, containing protons and neutrons, surrounded by electrons. It was also known that certain nuclei were radioactive. Radioactive nuclei emit alpha particles, which are pieces of nuclear matter containing two protons and two neutrons. After the alpha particle leaves the nucleus radium is changed into radon. If the radon gas is combined with several grams of beryllium then neutrons are found to be emitted. When the alpha particle enters a beryllium nucleus it provides enough kinetic energy for a neutron to burst out, leaving behind a carbon nucleus in the process. It was later determined that this energy could be harnessed by a nuclear reactor and used for power. A nuclear reactor causes a interaction between two or more nuclei, nuclear particles, or radiation, causing fission. Nuclear reactors are used ... ...one strives to use energy wisely, existing resources will last longer. Less damage to the environment will occur. Thanks to the development of nuclear fission and the nuclear reactor, our society has seen many changes over the past 65 years. Nuclear energy has helped to take our country into the next era. From medical uses to powering submarines, nuclear energy has provided us with a much more advanced and efficient way of creating electricity and power. Bibliography Allison, Samuel. Constructive Uses of Atomic Energy. Freeport, NY: Harper& Row, Publishers, Inc, 1971. Dietz, David. Atomic Science, Bombs and Power. New York, NY: Collier Books, 1962. Graetzer, Hans. The Discovery of Nuclear Fission. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1971. Williams, Robert. The American Atom. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984.

Citizen Kane – Personal Response

Citizen Kane is an American drama film released in 1941. It follows the life of the main character, Charles Foster Kane, and the investigation into â€Å"rosebud† – the last word spoken before his death. Kane was a wealthy newspaper tycoon who lived a reserved lifestyle; he had many possessions but isolated himself from the public eye wherever possible towards the end of his life. The director’s portrayal of the films main themes are shown in such a way that a Year 12 group of students would be able to understand, and therefore can easily make links with society and even their own lives.I would highly recommend Citizen Kane for a Year 12 book club. I will be talking about 2 main points shown in Citizen Kane that I believe are good discussion points for an English class, and which are relevant to our world today. It is an interesting point to note that although the film was released in 1941, many of the ideas can be translated into the present day. First I will ta lk about the idea of â€Å"Loss† in the film, and then I will discuss Materialism and how a group of year 12 students can relate to, and learn from this theme.Loss is a complex idea in the film, as it is not an immediately obvious theme. Defining what â€Å"Loss† is in the film is an interesting thought to discuss. The movie uses flashbacks to tell the story of Charles Kane’s life, this technique is used by the director to show a retrospective view on his life and to emphasise his losses. One of the first flashbacks show him as a child, when he was innocent and happy. In the picture on the screen, what you can see is his Mother handing over custody to Thatcher, who is going to take him to New York to be educated and given a successful life.In the background you can see Kane outside in the snow, he is representing innocence, but the fact that he is framed by the window hints that he is going to become trapped in his new guardianship. This loss continues throughou t the film, he loses his wife, his newspaper company, and his election campaign for governor before eventually losing his life. The film ends with him alone, just like he was at the start of the film. But instead of being happy in the white snow, he is alone in a dark mansion.This is a theme that I think is one that could be discussed in depth by a year 12 book club. Another theme portrayed in Citizen Kane is the idea of materialism, and I believe this is a theme that Year 12 Students would be able to understand and form opinions upon. In the film, Charles Kane lives in a huge mansion filled with many expensive goods. He was an avid statue collector, a hobby only the very wealthy could pursue. Charles Kane said in the film, â€Å"They've been making statues for some two thousand years, and I've only been collecting for five. The director’s uses of depth of focus to exaggerate Kane’s many possessions, and in one shot near the end we can see rooms full of crates with it ems he never unpacked. In his mansion, the rooms are perceived to be large, with dark shadows cast all around. Perhaps this is a metaphor to suggest that Kane’s excessive amount of materialistic possessions have now begun to own him. This leads to a link a Year 12 group of students will be able to make with the modern world today. Advancement of technology has skyrocketed in the past few decades.The invention of smart phones, tablets and other household technologies have created a culture in which it is deemed necessary to own as many of these items as possible. It would seem that Social status is moving from humanitarian values to being based on your materialistic demeanor. Year 12s will be able to relate to the concept that the distinction between ‘need’ and ‘want’ is being clouded by the desire to have these products in order to be ‘accepted’ into modern society.Much like Charles Kane’s obsession with collecting statues, people in society today are becoming obsessed with purchasing the newer, updated version of a product they may already own one, or several of. The film represents his collecting as an obsession, whereas it is deemed normal in today’s world, and this is a point that is open for discussion. Citizen Kane’s representation of materialism provides an excellent starting point for Year 12s to discuss, it is easily relatable and can spark many views and opinions, therefore making it suitable to belong on a class viewing list.Citizen Kane is a film which presents a wide range of themes, and it is these themes which can teach us many things about the lives we live and the world which we live in. The concepts of materialism and loss are ones that are relevant and suitable for a group of Year 12 English students. The imagery and metaphors shown in the film represent issues that can be directly translated into today’s social climate. Therefore I would thoroughly recommend Citizen K ane to a Year 12 book club.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - 1324 Words

Chinua Achebe chose to write his novels in English to reveal a deep response of his people to colonisation and to make that response understood to people all over the world. Things Fall Apart was written in English to teach people worldwide of the struggles he faced and the people of Nigeria faced growing up. Many authors and critics have written about Achebe’s ‘Things fall apart’ adding their valued opinion on what he was trying to say and his decision to write in English. In the following essay I will be discussing why Achebe wrote the novel Things Fall apart in English and what messages he was trying to reveal, through the help of critics and secondary sources. Achebe wrote in English to teach the reader the value of the†¦show more content†¦In his effort to create an open non-authoritarian view, Achebes decision to write in English, instead of his native Igbo, allowed him to reach a worldwide audience and have readers understand the struggles of Africa but opened him to the charge that he was assisting in the demise of Igbo culture (REFERNCE). Achebe’s novel exists not only in English, According to Okpewho it exists in close to sixty languages (ref). This allows diverse readers to experience the novel and what Achebe is trying to show. Things fall apart has an important place in critical as well as cultural discourse because it invested a long and continuing tradition of inquiry into the problematic relations between the West and the nations of the Third World that were once European colonies. One of his decisions to write Things fall Apart in English according to Ookpewho is that he has a certain nostalgia post-colonial climate that framed his life and others that grew up in similar Nigeria small towns and villages. Achebe tells us in â€Å"The Novelist as a teacher† that as a writer he wants to educate his readers about the real lives and problems of Africans with the same commitment as physical and social scientists addressing the same issues, this is another reason why Achebe has written things fall apar t in English, as somewhat of a teaching tool for his readers to understandShow MoreRelatedThings Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe1415 Words   |  6 Pagesbook Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe does just that. This book should be taught in schools because it shows the values and traditions of Achebe’s Igbo culture, persistently teaches life lessons throughout the book, and shows the darker reality of European colonialism in Africa. Chinua Achebe is known as one of the most influential and famous authors to ever write. Chinua Achebe originates from an Igbo background and he expresses that through his writings very well including Things Fall ApartRead MoreThings Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe Essay1203 Words   |  5 Pages who took their land for monetary gain. This was a dark period of time for Africans that live there. The U.S. Civil War and The Great Depression both can be related, in this instance, to how down their people were because of what happened. Chinua Achebe said it best, â€Å"I would be quite satisfied if my novels...did no more than teach my readers of their past...was not a long night of savagery from which the first European acting on God’s behalf delivered them†(qtd. in â€Å"Morning Yet† 45). In theRead MoreThings Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe1452 Words   |  6 Pagesassume control over the Roman Empire. However, imperialism in Africa remained a recorded element from 1750 to 1945. This paper visits how control and changes were influences over the Africans during this time period as seen through Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart. (UKEssays, 2015) Europe was experiencing a few financial and political changes that forced the major European forces to investigate abroad regions to add to their resources during the seventeenth century. In order for the EuropeanRead MoreThings Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe2361 Words   |  10 PagesThings Fall Apart Book Critique Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a historical fiction novel describing the life of Okonkwo in a Nigerian village succumbing to European ways, in order to portray Achebe’s view on imperialism. It was chosen for us to read by our teacher because it describes imperialism and its effects in an Ibo village of Nigeria. It also shows the treatment of natives by the Europeans and how the natives reacted. Things Fall Apart is useful to our course of studies because itRead MoreThings Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe1265 Words   |  6 PagesThings Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is markedly relevant to our current course of studies in World History, as it tells a story based on European Imperialism in Africa. Coming off the heels of our Imperialism unit, this post-colonial novel provides very helpful context on different civilizations’ perspectives throughout the Age of Imperialism; aside from analyzing death tolls, descriptions of conflicts, and names of countries, it was previousl y hard to envision what life was actually like during thatRead MoreThings Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe 735 Words   |  3 PagesThings fall apart. Achebe. Ernest Gaines once said, â€Å"I write to try to find out who I am. One of my main themes is manliness. I think Im trying to figure out what manliness really is.† Indeed, every society or culture has its own understanding of an ideal man. Even though these characteristics are different in various parts of the world, the significance of masculinity can never be overestimated. â€Å"Things Fall Apart† by Chinua Achebe is considered as one of the best examples of a riseRead MoreThings Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe692 Words   |  3 Pagesthe way to go. Through commercial trading Islam spread into Igboland, and this led to more Igbo people leaving the Igbo way of life for another, whether it be Islam or Christianity which divide the country in two. In the novel Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe British colonialism and the migration of Muslims to Nigeria led to the change in the faith, social and economic changes in the Igbo society. Traditional Igbo faith believes that there is only one creator or god known as ChinekeRead MoreThings Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe897 Words   |  4 PagesIn the novel, â€Å"Things Fall Apart† by Chinua Achebe the Igbo tradition revolves around structured gender role. Everything essential of Igbo life is based on their gender, which throughout the novel it shows the role of women and the position they hold, from their role in the family household, also planting women crops, to bearing children. Although the women were claimed to be weaker and seemed to be treated as objects, in the Igbo culture the women still provided qualities that make them worthyRead MoreThings Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe Essay1851 Words   |  8 Pageschoice and styles are critical not only to the reader’s understanding of the text but to his appreciation as well. How language is effectively manipulated in their writings enhances the reader’s valuing of the works. The selected novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a representation of Igbo culture and their language. It explores the life of an Igbo tribe at the time of when colonization hit Africa. It could be considered as a post-colonial text, as the protagonist of the story and the otherRead MoreThings Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe1948 Words   |  8 Pageswellbeing or their absence. Things Fall Apart is a novel that was written by Chinua Achebe, who is a supporter of multiculturalism as depicted in his book through the appreciation of the differences between cultures. In his novel, Achebe has used the Igbo society as a representation of the African cultural roots. He demonstrates that interactions between cultures have both the constructive and unconstructive consequences. The primary purpose behind Achebe writing Things Fall Apart was to respond to the