Friday, December 27, 2019

Biography of Dalton Trumbo and the Hollywood Blacklist

â€Å"Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?† It was a question asked of dozens of people brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1940s and 1950s, and in October of 1947, it was put to Dalton Trumbo, one of Hollywood’s best-known and highest-paid screenwriters. Trumbo and nine others—dubbed the ‘Hollywood Ten’—refused to answer the question on First Amendment grounds This stand for principle came at a steep price: federal prison terms, fines, and worst of all, a place on the  Hollywood blacklist, a prohibition that kept them from working in their chosen profession. Dalton Trumbo spent much of the rest of his life climbing back to the top. The fall from grace was particularly hard for Trumbo, who had  struggled to establish a writing career  and had risen to the upper ranks of the Hollywood studio structure less than a decade earlier. Early Life James Dalton Trumbo was born in Montrose, Colorado on December 5, 1905 and grew up in the nearby town of Grand Junction. His father, Orus, was hardworking but struggled to achieve financial stability. Orus and Maud Trumbo often had difficulty supporting Dalton and his sisters. Trumbo became interested in writing early in life, working as a cub reporter for the Grand Junction newspaper while still in high school. He studied literature at the University of Colorado with the hope of becoming a novelist. Then, in 1925, Orus decided to move the family to Los Angeles in the hopes of finding more lucrative work, and Dalton decided to follow. Within a year of the move, Orus died of a blood disorder. Dalton got what he hoped would be a short-term job at the Davis Perfection Bread Company to help support the family. He ended up staying for eight years, working on novels and short stories in his spare moments. Few were published. His big break came in 1933, when he was offered a job writing for the Hollywood Spectator. This led to a job reading scripts for Warner Brothers in 1934, and by 1935, he was hired as a junior script writer in the B-Picture Unit. Later that year, his first novel, Eclipse, was published. Early Career For the next few years, Trumbo hopped from studio to studio as he mastered his new craft. By the late 1940s, he was earning as much as $4.000 a week—a major improvement over the $18 a week he had earned at the Perfection Bread Company. He wrote over a dozen movies between 1936 and 1945, including Five Came Back, Kitty Foyle, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, and A Guy Named Joe. His personal life also flourished. In 1938, he married a former drive-in waitress named Cleo Fincher, and they soon had a family: Christopher, Mitzi, and Nikola. Trumbo bought an isolated ranch in Ventura County as a retreat from Hollywood life. Joining the Communist Party Trumbo had a reputation in Hollywood as an outspoken critic of social injustice. Having been a member of the working class for much of his life, he was passionate about labor rights and civil rights. Like many of his liberal-leaning Hollywood peers, he was eventually drawn towards Communism. His decision to join the Communist Party in December 1943 was a casual one. While not a Marxist, he agreed with many of its general principles. â€Å"People joined the Communist Party for very good, humane reasons, in my view,† he once said. The early 1940s was the high point for Party membership in the United States; Trumbo was one of more than 80,000 â€Å"card-carrying† Communists of the era. He loathed the meetings, which he described as â€Å"dull beyond description and about as revolutionary in purpose as Wednesday evening testimonial services at the Christian Science Church,† but he passionately believed in the Party’s right to exist under a Constitution that afforded Americans the freedom to assemble and to speak. The Hollywood Ten Trumbo’s affiliation was well-known at the time, and he, like other Hollywood Communist Party members, was under FBI surveillance for several years. In September 1947, the family was at their remote ranch when FBI agents arrived with a subpoena to appear before the HUAC. Trumbo’s son Christopher, then seven, asked what was happening. â€Å"We are Communists,† Trumbo said, â€Å"and I have to go to Washington to answer questions about my Communism.† About 40 members of the Hollywood community were issued subpoenas. Most simply complied with HUAC investigators, but Trumbo, along with fellow screenwriters Alvah Bessie, Lester Cole, Albert Maltz, Ring Lardner, Jr., Samuel Ornitz, and John Howard Lawson, directors Edward Dmytryk and Herbert Biberman, and producer Adrian Scott, decided not comply. In a contentious hearing on October 28, 1947, Trumbo repeatedly refused to answer HUAC members’ questions on First Amendment grounds. For his intransigence, he was found in contempt of Congress. He was later convicted on the charges and sentenced to a year in prison. Prisoner #7551 It took three years for the case to work through the appeals process, but Trumbo’s actual punishment began as soon as he returned from the hearings. He and his peers were blacklisted from working for any of the major studios and shunned by many in the Hollywood community. It was a hard time for the family both financially and emotionally, as Cleo Trumbo told People in a 1993 interview. â€Å"We were broke, and we weren’t invited anywhere. People dropped away.† With legal fees draining his savings, Trumbo returned to his B-movie roots and began churning out scripts under various pseudonyms for small studios. He worked right up until the day in June 1950 when he shaved off his signature mustache and flew east to begin his year-long prison term. Trumbo, now known as Prisoner #7551 was sent to the Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky. After almost 25 years of ceaseless work, Trumbo said that he felt â€Å"a sense of almost exhilarating relief† when the doors closed behind him. His stint at Ashland was filled with reading, writing, and light duties. Good behavior won him early release in April 1951. Breaking the Blacklist Trumbo moved the family to Mexico City after his release, hoping to get away from the notoriety and to stretch their reduced income a little further. They returned in 1954. Mitzi Trumbo later described the harassment of her new elementary school classmates when they found out who she was. Throughout the period, Trumbo continued to write for the screenplay black market. He would end up writing around 30 scripts under various pen names between 1947 and 1960. In one two-year span, he wrote 18 scripts at an average payout of $1,700 each. Some of these scripts were very successful. Among his work during this period was the classic romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953) and The Brave One (1956). Both won Academy Awards for writing—awards that Trumbo couldn’t accept. Trumbo often passed on work to other struggling blacklisters, not only out of generosity but also  to flood the market with so many black-market scripts that the whole blacklist would look like a joke. Later Life and Legacy The blacklist continued to weaken throughout the 1950s. In 1960, director Otto Preminger insisted Trumbo receive a credit for writing the script for the Biblical blockbuster Exodus, and actor Kirk Douglas publicly announced Trumbo had written the script for the historical epic Spartacus. Trumbo adapted the script from a novel by Howard Fast, himself a blacklisted author. Trumbo was readmitted to the Writers Union and from that point on, he was able to write under his own name. In 1975, he received a belated Oscar statuette for The Brave One. He continued to work until he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1973, and died in Los Angeles on September 10, 1976 at the age of 70. By the time Trumbo died, the blacklist was long broken. Fast Facts Bio Full Name: James Dalton TrumboOccupation: Screenwriter, novelist, political activistBorn:  December 9, 1905 in Montrose, Colorado  Died:  September 10, 1976 in Los Angeles, CaliforniaEducation: Attended  University of Colorado and University of Southern California, no degreeSelected Screenplays: Roman Holiday, The Brave One, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Spartacus, Exodus Novels: Eclipse, Johnny Got His Gun, The Time of the ToadKey Accomplishments:  Joined  nine other Hollywood figures in resisting the anti-Communist House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Worked for years under assumed names until he was able to rejoin the Hollywood community.  Spouses Name: Cleo Fincher TrumboChildrens Names: Christopher Trumbo, Melissa Mitzi Trumbo, Nikola Trumbo Sources Ceplair, Larry.. Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical. University Press of Kentucky, 2017.Cook, Bruce. Trumbo. Grand Central Publishing, 2015.

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Possibility Of Becoming Monopolized Market - 1007 Words

Possibility of Becoming Monopolized Market Referring to the textbook, the definition of monopoly is a market structure where a single firm serves as an entire market for a good that has no close substitutes. It acts as the crucial threat to innovation and low prices. Due to the fact, the dominance of single-firm with more than half of its market share is almost as harmful to consumer as a monopoly. Back in 1970s, the entrance of WorldCom, Inc. and Sprint into telecommunication market had effect on increasing competitive market. As of now, their merge will only stop the progress and create one of the largest monopoly in the U.S. economy. Overall, the merger of WorldCom, Inc. and Sprint will degrade the variety amount of their motives and†¦show more content†¦According to the text book, when market is highly concentrated, they become single seller market with no substitutes and firms have downward sloping demand curves. In addition, competition is already weak in Internet backbone markets with the huge gap between the prices and costs, and supernormal profits in the industry. Moreover, prices are higher with few competitors, supply is dropping related to demand, and the pace of technical innovation seems to be slow down. Therefore, increased concentration will only strengthen the anti-competitive effects in these long-distance and telecommunications markets. Barriers in Anti-competitive Markets There are several barriers that cause anti-competitive effects when merging two companies. Such as the brand name barrier and sunk cost barriers will make it tough for new companies to get immediate recognition to compete among established companies. It restricts the current firms from expanding and seems to exclude new firms from entering into the market. Also, the effect in networking appears to allow only a few businesses to dominate in telecommunications and Internet backbone markets. Due to this, the argument of WorldCom, Inc. and Sprint’s excess capacity in these markets makes them far from achieving the theory of contestable markets, which is having no barriers to entry and exit. Such ability is highly concentrated between few

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Oil and Gas Industries of Uk Their Business Expansion

Question: Describe about the Oil and Gas Industries of Uk for Their Business Expansion? Answer: Introduction: This particular study provides an in-depth understanding of the development in oil and gas retail sectors in UK. In the year 2012, the prime minister of UK had stated in an occasion that UK trade and investment (UKTI) is going spread their hands for the development of petroleum retail sectors in UK in order to expand their wings in the international field (Localinvestuk.com. 2016). Several petroleum and retail companies are existing in UK like BG Group, Dana Petroleum, Eland Oil and Gas, Falkland Oil and Gas and so many. Somehow, they are not able to provide effective service to the customers due to present structure. Apart from UKTI, the department of business innovations and skills are also associated with this particular plan and project in order to provide immense support to the retail industry of UK so that they can raise their head widely. Unfortunately, it has been noticed that several factors have affected the structure of present petroleum retail sectors in UK as a result of which they are not their entire process of business has been affected. Therefore, this particular study has focused to highlight those factors based on which the petroleum retail sectors of UK have to face immense difficulties in order to maintain an effective business process. Moreover, this particular assignment has also focused to point out the expected technological changes that have been decided to render in the petroleum retail industry (Annett and Piech 2011). In addition, the UK trade and investment has decided to explore a change in the supply chain management within the UK petroleum retail industry. In between 1970 and 2016, they have rendered several changes in the retail markets. Discussing critically the implications of recent trends and changes within the supply chain of UK petroleum retail market between 1970 to 2016 After taking initiatives by business innovations and skills, the petroleum retail industries have rendered significant changes in their market, especially in the supply chain management. Different companies in UK like BG Group, Dana Petroleum, Eland Oil and Gas, Falkland Oil and Gas have implemented several changes within their business process in between 1970 to 2016 (Applbaum and Anatol 2010). The key changes that had been taken place in the petroleum retail industry are follows: Provident financial service has been declined from three thousand five hundred from 1970 to nine thousand until 2011. It is undoubtedly a major step taken by the business innovation and skill. The supply chain has been renovated in last two decades. The relation between the service providers and the service users has been made liberal in order to avoid communication gap. For an example, the service providers in earlier did not intend to communication with the service users effectively before supplying the product. This particular procedure has been changed in order to draw the attention of the users. Barry and Sillitoe (2011) stated that, supply chain management with the petroleum industries of UK, has stressed on the team management project rather than individual work. For an example, companies like BG Group and Dana Petroleum liked to give emphasize on the individual performance in order to deliver the product to the customers. Somehow, the head of supply chain management of those companies did not feel that this strategy has provided a positive response; rather it is possessed with some negative outcomes. Information gap rose in between one particular employee to another. Ultimately, the customers have to suffer immensely because of this. In order to avoid these circumstances, the management team had decided to emphasize on teamwork. The team members of supply chain management have to make an effective communication to each other for exchanging necessary information (Bruzzone and Longo 2014). Dana Petroleum has received a good result after implementing this particular process. They are now able to provide quality service to the customers within time. One of the major implementations in supply chain management in the petroleum industries is providing effective training and guidance to the employees. In order to give an effective supply to the customers, the employees supply chain management need necessary training and guidance in this particular field Dul et al. (2008). At the early stage, petroleum companies intended to recruit untrained employees in the department of supply chain management. As a result, they had to face immense difficulties in order to provide effective supply of their product to the customers. Free (2008) stated that Falkland Oil and Gas has started the process of training from the year 2001. As per the report of Business innovations and Skill, Falkland Oil and Gas has achieved a good result. Before coming to this particular field, employees are well aware of the product service system. As a result, customers are getting the service of their product within time. Analyzing the factors that affect the present size and structure of current oil and gas retail sectors emphasizing the impact of rising price oil Currently, it has been observed that several factors in the current petroleum industry have influenced immensely in order to maintain their business successfully (Giri and Maiti 2013). The factors that influence the structure of petroleum retail sectors are as follows: Market sectors: Except European countries, the other countries like US also play a major role for the development of petroleum industry in UK. The growth of liquefied natural gas has a greater impact to run an organization successfully. For an example, the various companies of UK like BG Group, Dana Petroleum, Eland Oil and Gas, Falkland Oil and Gas have to import LNG in order to make a balance between supply and demand. As a result, the companies have to raise their selling cost that affects the customers attention fervently. On the other hand, the growth of LNG in US is comparatively wide than UK (Hessels et al. 2009). As a result, they do not have to face enough challenges in order to create a market demand especially in the retail sector. Regulatory as well as political factors: As mentioned already, if the petroleum and gas companies of UK can make a balance within the product price and the service of product, it helps immensely to meet the target audience successfully. For an example, Dana Petroleum has decided to reduce the cost of their product by maintaining a profit. This is one kind of business strategy in order to generate a market demand (Mcconnell 2010). Unfortunately, Dana Petroleum has faced major difficulties in order to maintain the image of their organization. The management team has not made an effective plan before reducing the product cost. After the reduction of cost, the company has to face innumerable challenges in order to make a balance between supply and demand. It has made a negative impact on the image of the organization. Other factors: Other factors that affect the structure of petroleum retail industries include internal crisis, communication barriers among the employees, competitors threat in the market industry, effective strategy of the competitors and so many. Diversity management is systematically implemented in maximum organizations of UK. Petroleum companies are not exceptional to that. BG Group, Dana Petroleum, Eland Oil and Gas, Falkland Oil and Gas intends to entertain different kinds of employees within their business process. Employees are from different culture and background. As a result, Opinion differs with people of different culture and background. Different perception and opinion affect the internal environment of the organization (Rees 2010). If the maladjustment with the people of different opinion becomes the cause affecting internal environment, communication barrier is the effect of this. More specifically, if the employees cannot be able to make any unanimous decision, communication gap would raise in between them. They would not exchange relevant information with each other regarding the customer service. It affects on the structure as well as on the image of the organization (Rongen et al. 2014). Figure 1: Factors that affect the structures of oil and gas industries in UK (Source: Mcconnell 2010) Evaluating the potential of technological changes on the energy retailing industry on the next decade In order to overcome this situation, UK petroleum retail industries have decided to render relevant technological changes in order to provide effective service to the customers. With the advancement of technology, the companies like Dana Petroleum, Eland Oil and Gas, Falkland Oil and Gas would be able to expand their business more effectively beyond going any geographical boundary (Sapsanguanboon 2015). In next two years, the technological changes that are going to take place inside the organizations are as follows: Plunger Lift System: With the help of plunger lift system, the blockages that have been created through the accumulation of liquids from well can be removed. Dry Seal System: Dry seal system helps to mitigate methane leakage by removing moisture from the liquefied natural gas. Desiccant Dehydrators: At the time of using special water absorbing salt, this particular technology can be used. It helps to release the methane leakage from the liquefied petroleum gas. Compressor Maintenance: The primary responsibility of compressor maintenance is to control the leakage system from the reciprocating compressors (Swarnalatha and Sureshkrishna 2012). This particular technology has been used at the time of processing of natural gas and at the time of transportation system. Maintenance on pipeline: With the help of this particular technology, methane can be captured when at the time of flowing through this pipeline. Recovery Units in Vapor: Vapor recovery units help to capture methane that has been leaked from the oil while storing in the tank. Leak Monitoring and Repair: Leak monitoring primarily helps to detect methane leakage. It captures those leaked methane that remains complete colorless. With the help of advanced monitoring equipment the leakages of methane can be captured from various locations. Therefore, by implementing those technologies, the companies would be able to provide service that is more effective to the customers. It would automatically help to enhance the business process in the petroleum retail industry even in the international field. (Willett 2014) stated that most of the US oil and gas companies like Aloha Petroleum, American Shale Oil, ARCO have already implemented those technologies and they have positive feedback from the customers. As stated by Wilson (2011) advancement of technology is not required only for providing effective service to the customers but for the sales promotion of the company as well. The popularity of internet has already spread its wide wings throughout the World. In next two years, it is going to be more effective even than the print media as well as electronic media. Different oil and gas companies of UK like Dana Petroleum, Eland Oil and Gas, Falkland Oil and Gas has establish a public forum in their official website in order to collect direct customer response. While visiting the website, the customers can give a feedback in this particular forum mentioning their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the customer service system of that particular company. In coming years, petroleum companies are going to use technology that is more advanced. They are going to get an opportunity to make a conversation with the service providers directly through video conference. As a result, customers will get more immediate reply than even before as opined by Wu (2013). Consequently, complains from the customers are expected to be reduced. Figure 2: Different use of technologies that can change the energy of retail industry (Source: Wilson 2011) Conclusion: The entire study has provided a detailed scenario of the oil and gas industries of UK regarding their business expansion. In has been noticed that petroleum industries of UK have been planned to be innovated by the initiatives of UK trade and investment (UKTI) and Business innovations and skills. These two organizations had discovered that the business structure UK petroleum industries have been affected severely due to some unavoidable circumstances. The factors include market sector, drawback on behalf of the regulatory bodies, and other. Among the other factors, the internal problems relating to the employees at the workplace have been highlighted specifically. For an example, as already stated, implementation of diversity management within the company has been highlighted. Communication barriers take place among the employees within the organization because of the opinion of diverse people about a particular business matter. Moreover, this assignment has highlighted the expected technological changes that the petroleum companies of UK are going to implement in their organization in order to provide service that is more effective to the customers. In addition, this study has also highlighted at the end how advanced technology has become one of the major tools for the sales promotion for reaching the target audience directly. Reference List: Localinvestuk.com. 2016. UKTI - Local Investment Showcase. [online] Available at: https://www.localinvestuk.com [Accessed 13 Mar. 2016]. Annett, J. and Piech, J. 2011. The Retention of a Skill Following Distributed Training. Innovations in Education Training International, 22(2), pp.182-186. Applbaum, R. and Anatol, K. 2010. The relationships among job satisfaction, organizational norms, and communicational climate among employees in an academic organization. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 7(2), pp.83-90. Barry, G. and Sillitoe, J. 2011. Identifying the perceived barriers to participation in tertiary education among hospitality employees. Int J Contemp Hospitality Mngt, 13(1), pp.21-29. Bruzzone, A. and Longo, F. 2014. An application methodology for logistics and transportation scenarios analysis and comparison within the retail supply chain. EJIE, 8(1), p.112. Dul, J., Pieters, J. and Dijkstra, S. 2009. Instructional Feedback in Motor Skill Learning. Innovations in Education and Training International, 24(1), pp.71-76. Free, C. 2008. Supply-Chain Accounting Practices in the UK Retail Sector: Enabling or Coercing Collaboration. Contemporary Accounting Research, 24(3), pp.897-933. Giri, B. and Maiti, T. 2013. Trade credit competition between two retailers in a supply chain under credit-linked retail price and market demand. Optimization Letters, 8(7), pp.2065-2085. Hessels, J., Brixy, U., Naude, W. and Gries, T. 2009. Skill Variety, Innovation and New Business Formation. SSRN Electronic Journal, 8(10), pp.45-50. Mcconnell, C. 2010. Making upward communication work for your employees: channels, barriers, and the open door. The Health Care Manager, 4(4), pp.75-85. Rees, C. 2010. Impact of the internal market on the organizational structure and culture of supply: chain management within the NHS. European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 1(4), pp.249-256. Rongen, A., Robroek, S., van Ginkel, W., Lindeboom, D., Altink, B. and Burdorf, A. 2014. Barriers and facilitators for participation in health promotion programs among employees: a six-month follow-up study. BMC Public Health, 14(1), p.573-600. Sapsanguanboon, W. 2015. Sustainable Retail Supply Chain Management Practices: A Case Study of a Modern Trade Retailer in an Emerging Market. Sustainability: the Journal of Record, 8(6), pp.313-323. Swarnalatha, C. and Sureshkrishna, G. 2012. Job Satisfaction among Employees of Automotive Industries in India. IJFCC, pp.245-248. Willett, R. 2014. New Workforce: New Skill Requirements to Lead to a Changed Utility Business. Nat. Gas Elec., 30(11), pp.6-11. Wilson, N. 2011. Supply chain management: a case study of a dedicated supply chain for bananas in the UK grocery market. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 1(2), pp.28-35. Wu, C. 2013. Supply chain performance in a monopolistic retail market with multiple suppliers. International Journal of Strategic Management, 13(3), pp.55-60.

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Rain Forests All The Way Essays - Ecosystems,

Rain Forests All The Way Rain Forests All the Way The discussions these days are why are the rain forests depleting? Well this research will help change the opinions of many people. Some facts about rain forests are, ?Tropical rain forests occupy about 7 percent of the earth's surface but harbor as much as 50 percent of the world's plant and animal species. Also about 57 percent of all rain forests remaining are in the tropics in the Western Hemisphere: 30 percent are in Brazil. At the current rate of deforestation, tropical rain forests could be wiped out in 177 years. Less than 5 percent of the world's tropical rain forests are protected within national parks and reserves (Steve Grant, 2)?. Rain forests are becoming very scarce and should be taking into concern because depletion of rain forests is a problem. One method of cutting down rain forests is slash-and-burn agriculture. Grant defines slash-and-burn agriculture as ?Smallholders that are cutting down four or five acres of forest and set it on fire. The resulting ash fertilizes the soils, which are notoriously poor in the tropics (1)?. Grant explains that now that there is only charred stumps left, a lot of light reaches the ground and is oppressively hot (1). ?In the past, a logger might take only a few trees per acre. While that would allow more light into the forest floor and raise the risk of fire (Grant, 2)?. So when people decide to cut down forests they are increasing the risk of fire. Rain forests have been burning up lately. An analysis of satellite by the EDF indicates that burning of rainforest land in Amazon increased 28% from 1996 to 1997 (Amazon rainforest, 1). Research shows ?A total of 19,115 fires are reported from the NOAA-12 satellite images in the sample in 1996, while 24,549 fires appear in the 1997 data over the period (1)?. One reason for rampant burning is that Brazil's environmental agency has had no legal authority to enforce environmental law since 1989. A bill in the Brazilian congress that would close the loophole passed the Senate earlier this year, but has been blocked by special interests in the Lower House (2). So of the reasons why the burning continues is because of the government and the burning is increasing more and more because we need more land and crops. Since the statistics show that rain forest are getting burned up, the government and people need to start taking concern towards the rain forest. The point of this paper was to persuade people as a whole to take rain forest into concern and act on it. Some solutions to the problem are that the government should take better responsibility and take control of the burning of the rain forest. Also the people can help the government out by understanding the needs of our rain forest.