Informative Essay on Save the Last Dance and Step Up Essay Example for Free

Informative Essay on Save the Last Dance and Step Up Essay Informative Essay on Step Up and Save the Last Dance The two movies, Step Up and Save the Last Dance, have many things in contrast and in comparison to the other. In Step up, a girl named Sarah Johnson, a promising dancer in high school hoping to be admitted to study at Julliard School. She fails the audition and soon thereafter learns that her mother has been involved in a fatal car accident trying to get to her audition. After her mother’s death, Sara is wracked by built and gives up on ballet. She moves in with her father whom she doesn’t know well, transferring to an urban Chicago school. At her new school she finds that she is one of a handful of white people but quickly friendship flames up between her and a single mom named Chenille. Chenille invites Sara to a dance club called Stepps where she experiences dancing to hip-hop for the first time. While at Stepps, Sara meets Derek, Chenille’s brother and a student with dreams of attending Georgetown Medical School. Upon meeting and seeing each other at school, Derek decides to help Sara develop her dancing skills by incorporating more hip-hip into her ballet style. As they become closer, Derek takes her to a ballet and afterwards Sara confides in him about her mother and her dreams she tossed away. After, Derek convinces her that she needs to do what she wants and follow her dreams of Julliard. Sara auditions for Julliard for the second time, Derek arriving at a crucial point to offer encouragement and support. Sara was finally accepted into Julliard, and to celebrate Sara’s successful audition, they go dancing at the club Stepps. In Save the Last Dance, Tyler Gage was sentenced to 200 hours of community service for breaking into and vandalizing Maryland School of Arts. His community service is to be served at the school and notices as he peers into a dance class a girl named Nora Clark, whom was preparing for her â€Å"senior showcase,† an audition which could determine whether or not she is offered a job with any one of the professional dance companies. When friends of Tyler visit him on the school’s lot, Nora curiously watches from a window as Tyler incorporated a mix of break-dancing and ballet moves he recently observed while watching her. Nora finds herself unexpectedly without a partner for her routine when her partner sprains his ankle during a dance practice. She  held some auditions but decides that no one at her school meet her expectations. Tyler offered to be her partner, but Nora initially refuses. But Tyler proves that he can handle her requests by effortlessly catching and lifting her in a leap, quickly reconsidering his offer to help. Nora convinces the director of the school to allow him to rehearse with her and as they continue with rehearse; they teach each other their styles of dance and become closer to one another. When Nora takes Tyler to a special spot of hers, she reveals to him of how she envisioned her routine and becomes inspired to help her dream come true. He started with recruiting younger dancers for her routine while trying to balance his new goals, his new friends and rekindling the friendships with his old friends. Tyler decides he wants to attend Maryland and speaks with the director about this when Nora suggests that the showcase could be used as his entrance audition. The director agrees to this and advises that this could prove that he deserves a chance. Nora and Tyler move forward with their relationship and rehearsals continue as normal until Noraâ⠂¬â„¢s former dance partner returns seemingly healed from his injury. Tyler, feeling no longer needed, leaves the group and thus returns to the janitorial community services he was sentenced to. Nora continued to incorporate many of Tyler’s suggestions for the routine but finds the new choreography is much too difficult for her previous dance partner. Her partner resigns himself from the routine whilst Nora is once again left without a partner. Nora considers abandoning her dance career, but transforms her choreography into a solo piece when she received support and encouragement from her mother who used to be opposed of her future in dance. Tyler realizes after becoming reacquainted with his old friends that he needs to make better choices in his life when his friend was fatally shot after stealing a car. Tyler showed up at Nora’s showcase last minute and tries to persuade Nora to let him perform with her and to forgive him for his actions. She declined but changes her mind as Tyler wishes her good luck and walks away. After their performance, a director from a professional dance company spoke to Nora about signing her on with them and the director from the school told Tyler he is now a â€Å"transfer student† at Maryland. To be clear with the comparisons and contrasts, Sara was a student who knew only ballet and was taught hip-hop by her boyfriend, Derek. Tyler was a  hip-hop break-dancer who was taught ballet by his girlfriend, Nora. Sara threw away her dreams of going to Julliard due to her mother passing while trying to go to her first audition. Tyler threw away his dream of going to Maryland when Nora decided to use her former dance partner for her showcase. As both sets of main characters incorporate their dance styles together, both sets grew closer to their partner and ended up being in a relationship. Derek convinces Sara to reconsider her dream of Julliard, continue with what makes her happy and re-audition for Julliard. Nora convinced Tyler to use her showcase as his entrance audition, convincing the director of the school as well. Both movies also have surprise visits to emotionally support their partners during a stressful and hard event. Tyler showed up at Nora’s showcase last minute as well as Derek at Sara’s audition. Tyler got into Maryland, Nora became a professional dancer, Derek got into Medical School and Sara got into Julliard. They all accomplished their dream. But in contrast, they both started out dancing a different style before learning to mix it up with another. Tyler first only knew break-dancing and learned ballet. Sara only knew ballet and learned hip-hop. They both started with two different styles. Tyler, the main character in Step Up, was trying to get into Maryland High School as Sara was trying to get into Julliard, a college that’s also difficult to get into. Tyler doesn’t have trouble fitting in at the school while he’s supposed to be there for community service, he fits right in when his dance talents are brought to light. Sara didn’t fit in at her new school and didn’t end up fitting in even in the end of the movie, she just had her few friend s and was happy with that even though she was still considered the oddball of the school for being one of the few white people there. There may be a few more comparisons than contrasts, but I love the movies so much I had trouble pointing out every contrast and unknowingly sought out the comparisons over the contrasts. If there’s a person that has never watched these two movies I would highly recommend them!

Rock And Roll Essay -- essays research papers

History of Rock and Roll   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Punk rock developed in the United States out of the raw and energetic music adored and played by garage bands of the mid-sixties. Many of these garage bands were started by kids in their teens who hardly knew how to play simple chords on a guitar or bang away at drums or cymbals in their own garages. The music was often played at a high volume as well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The MC5 epitomized this. The MC5 (Motor City Five) was a high school punk band from Lincoln Park, Michigan. They played with a very loud and angry style. Their lyrics, which were refused airplay, were obscene and profane. The right combination of heavy distortion and two guitars enabled them to combine the power of heavy metal with the raw garage band sound.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many punk songs were reactions to the glitter and glam rock bands of the seventies. The fact that groups were spending months, weeks, or hours in a studio, writing 15- minute songs, and playing elaborate shows with spectacular stage performances in front of thousands of people in large arenas really angered punk bands. Punk songs were generally simple and rather short. The lyrics told the way the 2 members of the band felt. They played small shows and did not put on any elaborate performances. The Sex Pistols were the epitome of a punk band. They were discovered in an...

Benefits of Science

Daylon Coles Everybody in this country knows the benefits of having science apart of our culture. Science is the systematized body of knowledge which helps our minds to learn and discover all about everything. It improves us by developing our minds, creating advancements in technology and makes it a bit easier to live in our world.Science matters in our world and it should matter for the simple fact that without science, we would fail to make advancements in life, from a business and ethical standpoint, and it should matter because ancient civilizations which were far more advanced than us, incorporated science as their primary means of survival and advancements. Measles is a highly contagious viral illness of the respiratory system that spreads through airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.Historically, measles has been a life taking disease, but WHO (World Health Organizations) reported in 2006 that measles death rates dropped from 871,000 to 454,000 between 1 999 and 2004, thanks to a global immunization drive. That’s about a 50 percent decrease in 5 years thanks to the advancement in Science. Living in this country you can’t fail to neglect the business aspect of it. Science has also proved to have some pros to the business aspect of life.If we were to take a look at some numbers, exclude ethics, and examine the business aspect, ’some’ people are actually generating a very good profit: In the year 2008, there were more than two dozen pharmaceutical companies that grossed over a billion dollars. In order to determine if we need science in our world, we would have to determine whether or not the world would be a more effective place without science. That would mean taking away the scientists of the world and imagining the world without it.I’ll attempt to focus on a couple of scientist and what they do and you, the reader, can determine whether or not we need these sciences: Agricultural Scientist- Study commercial plants, animals and cultivation techniques that increases the productivity of farms, Microbiologists- study bacteria, virus and fungi, Neuroscientist- study the function of the nervous system, Medical scientists- Scientists who carry out clinical trials to find revolutionary solutions in the field of medicine. So for instance, you take away the science of agriculture and you fail to have to necessary crops to produce basic means for life.You take away microbiology and you will no longer have the tools to create vaccines for diseases people encounter in everyday life. If you were to sit back for a moment, and just visualize the world without the many different braches of science, you can clearly see the world is in much need and will continue to be in dire need of science. One negative viewpoint people may try to take is that advancement in science and technology brings pollution, destroys animal life and maybe even one day it will destroy earth.People may also believe Sci ence opposes the way humans should live, degrading our morals and encourage humans to be lazy and materialistic. These theories can potentially be true, but before fully agreeing with them ask you to imagine this scenario; If you were sitting in a room tied down to a chair with a loaded gun on the table, would the gun shoot you? It’s just you, four walls, yourself tied down to the chair and the loaded gun. Obviously the gun would not shot you. That is the same exact concept of science. It’s not the science that causes so much pollution and makes people lazy; it’s the people.If you were to take a doctor who specializes in abortions, but decides to never indulge in performing such operations, people wouldn’t see him as abusing his right. So when looking at science from a negative viewpoint remember guns don’t kill people, people kill people. No matter how you look at it, science is a vital concept in life and without it, we would be a lost civilizati on. Science does matter in the world and it should matter for the simple reason of progression. If you aren’t going forwards, then you’re going backwards and fortunately, science is the tool that allows us to continue to advance.

Current Money Laundering Threats and Trends - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1880 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Analytical essay Tags: Act Essay Money Essay Did you like this example? Current money laundering threats and trends Traditional Money Laundering Typologies Structured Transactions Deposited to Financial Institutions It is true to say that the smuggling of prohibited goods will bring a huge amount of money to smugglers. That money, in the end, must be integrated into the economy in order to be used. The transfer of cash through banking system is considered as the most efficient and effective way. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Current Money Laundering Threats and Trends" essay for you Create order The cash can be moved quickly and electronically in a safe environment. However, jurisdictions would like to make the requirements and policy of transferring cash over a certain amount of money. In other words, financial institutions have to make a report of cash transaction for a regulated amount of cash. For smugglers of drug trafficking or some other banned things, cash transferring is safe and quick, however those cash will be investigated by banks and relevant agencies. As a result, in order to avoid the generation of these reports and the detection, criminals would like to structure their banking transactions. In detailed, they will open different accounts and cash amount at different banks. Since banks and financial institutions have applied the requirement of financial report more strictly and the required Suspicious Transaction Reporting has been developed, criminals would like to find the other ways for laundering their dirty money. This Suspicious Transaction Reporting is required in United States. Whenever banking employees suspected the sources of cash or they had reason to make a doubt that the cash could come from illegal actions; or they were informed that criminals wanted to change the cash into legal funds, the suspicious transaction reporting must be submitted. As a result, the required suspicious transaction Reporting can limit and prevent criminalsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ illegal activities in Money laundering. Cash Couriers and Bulk Cash Smugglers (BCS) The money laundering by cash couriers and bulk cash smugglers can be clearly explained by the long statement à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the most obvious technique involved employees of the criminal organization smuggling cash from the consumer country of the illegal product to the distributor, or from the criminal to the foreign bank secrecy destination where he or she had arranged for the currency to be investedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Cash smuggling is divided into two categories including cash courier and bulk cash smuggling. In terms of BCS, criminals would like to smuggle cash with a huge amount. The transportation and delivery of cash can be implemented by some forms such as the involvement of land , sea border or cash concealed in vehicles or cargo containers. Criminals will cross the border illegally through sea or land to bring cash to receivers who also are criminals. Moreover, they can find somewhere in vehicles or cargoes or containers to hide illicit cash. For cash couriers, they are nat ural people and transport illegal cash with them. More clearly, they will conceal the cash into somewhere of their bodies or hide the illicit cash in their luggages which they bring with them. Among methods of the cash transportation, cash couriers prefer the transportation through commercial airline. It seems that the transportation through commercial airline will be less controlled and be faster. Consequently, the risk is less. For both cash courier and bulk cash smuggling, the money, which has larger denomination, will be used. The reason is that the larger denomination money will reduce the weight and size of the cargoes or luggages or vehicles or containers. The illicit cash transportation will be with a small quantity for the first time, then the quantity of the cash will be increased in next times. The purpose is to avoid risk of avoid the risk of being detected. In order to prevent and solve issues related to cash couriers and bulk cash smugglers, the International standa rds on combating money laundering and the finance of terrorism and proliferation (FATF) Special Recommendation IX was borned[1]. Following this regulation, countries have to implement à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“either a declaration or disclosure system for detecting the cross-border transportation of currency and bearer negotiable instrumentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Besides, if border officials suspect the origin of cash or this kind of cash transported for illegal purposes, they will have responsibilities to seize the currency or bearer instruments. Lastly, people who are related to the action of illegal transportation such as providing false disclosures or declarations will be penalized by jurisdictions. The confiscation of currency or instruments related to terrorist financing or money laundering will also be carried out. The FATF is very helpful in issuing a Best Practice guidance paper, which support jurisdictions in recognizing the illicit cash[2] Money Service Businesses and Informal Value Transfer Systems The money laundering and cash transporting through central banks and commercial banks are very risky. Consequently, criminals, especially terrorists will choose non-banking financial institutions or service businesses since these organizations pay less attention to money laundering and regulations of money laundering. Hence, the risk of dirty money detected is not high. The illegal money circulation will not encounter barriers. Among those organizations, Western Union and Money Gram can recognize the harm of money laundering. Therefore, they have complied with the reporting requirements and well- cooperated with the law. In contrast, smaller ethnic-based money services businesses including grocery store, travel agency, and so on do not identify their responsibilities of anti à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å"money laundering and terrorist activities. As a result, criminals take advantage of organizationsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ deficits to launder their cash. Western Union and Money Gram are in charge o f different financial activities, for example wire transmission, exchange of foreign currencies, cash checking and sales of money orders à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦etc. The transaction between Western Union, Money Gram and their customers takes place within United Nations and foreign countries. In the aspect of Informal Value Transfer Systems, it is popular in North Africa, Middle east, the horn of Africa and South Asia. The Informal Value Transfer System can be called à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ hawalaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Its mechanism of action is to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“allows hawaladars from all parts of the world to transfer funds to and from their clients by setting debts between themselvesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Trade-based Money Laundering Except for Structured Transactions Deposited to Financial Institutions, Cash Couriers and Bulk Cash Smugglers, and Money Service Businesses and Informal Value Transfer Systems, criminals use the Trade-based Money Laundering for their ethical behaviors. This method is very sophisticated. The quantity and value of cash is transported by falsifying invoices, or writing invoices under or over real invoices of commodities which are imported or exported. In other words, criminals will buy a quantity of commodity and the amount of cash for the commodity is 10 thousands dollar, for example; However, when writing the invoice, they will require their seller to note on the number of 5 thousands dollar. This phenomenon is popular in import and export operations. The purpose is to get tax evasion or to get tax application at low rate. Criminal also use over-invoicing commodities to hide the move of cash through complex and complicated documents. By this money laundering, criminals sometimes can associate with legal trade activity. Colombian drug cartels prefer to use trade based money laundering. It is popular in the way that they buy drug from other countries and resell it in their country. They also sell drug to other countries. The transportation of their drug is carried out through a common method named the Black Market Peso Exchangeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Both Western Union and Gram money of Money Business Service and hawaladas of informal value transfer systems use trade based money laundering to settle the debts which is rised from foreign remittances. In short, criminal will buy commodities from a foreign country and transfer cash to the other country where the commodity will be sold, the proceeds will be sent to intended recipient. The trade based money laundering has nine indicators of red flag such as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“vendor payments made in cash by unrelated third parties; vendor payments made via wire transfers from unrelated third parties; vendor payments via che cks, bank drafts, or postal money orders from unrelated third parties; false invoicing and customs documents including commodity misclassification or commodity over valuation or under valuation; carousel transaction; commodities traded do not match the business invoiced; unusual shipping routes or transshipment points, packaging inconsistent with commodity or shipping methods; and double invoicing.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Emerging Technologies Previously internet, social network and technology do not develop as it is now. Therefore, criminals have to choose traditional money laundering typologies above for their illegal actions. In recent some decades, the boom of science and high technology has changed the method of money laundering. The below is three methods of ML in modern time. Prepaid Value Cards In order to make payment more convenient and quicker, FAFT issued a new method of payment in October of 2006. This method encourages legitimate trade organizations to use because of its convenience. However, the money launders have taken advantage of this advancement for their personal objectives. This issue has made non- banks busier in their service business. The opportunity to earn profit is higher through offering prepaid value cards, electronic purses, mobile payments, internet payment services and digital precious metals. Nevertheless, money-laundering criminals have considered those features as good methods for their money laundering purposes. In comparison to the ATM system which the surveillance camera is used, the new payment methods can help criminals avoid the supervision of financial providers. Hence, the possibility of being identified is lower. The other advantage and convenience of those payment methods is easy to access at any time and in anywhere of the world as l ong as the place has wifi, phone reception, or internet is connected. Compared to traditional cash transferring, those methods have more convenient [3]. Online Payment Systems The appearance of high technology and the boom of internet have brought many benefits to users. However, it has also created a dark side. Hackers can stole cash from banks and credit card information and information related to financial institutions. Money launders can make illegal funds disappear in dozens of different online accounts (Grow and Brian, (2006). These criminals will make those accounts difficult to be explored. As a result, online payment system, to some extent, can cause a danger to society and the financial system [4] Increased Use of Gatekeepers to Establish Sophisticated Trusts Along the development of technology and online network, the operation of money laundering is more and more sophisticated. Gatekeepers now have become more dangerous threat to society than the previous time. They are professional accountants, lawyers, and companies that provide service. Their participation in money laundering has contributed to the success of money laundering activity. They can directly launder money or be the third party to serve money-laundering process. According to FATF, Political Exposed Persons is regarded as gatekeepers because they are able to access to the funds and systems in their nations. Consequently, many of these gatekeepers have done tasks for personal aims. Furthermore, they are allowed to adjust the financial legislation or rules for personal purposes [5]. As a result, unmoral gatekeepers are very dangerous for society in general and for financial system of that country in particular. [1] https://www.fatf-gafi.org/dataoecd/50/63/34424128.pdf, [2] https://www.fatf-gafi.org/document/19/0,3343,en_32250379_32236920_43775315_1_1_1_1,00.html, [3] Global Money Laundering Terrorist Financing Threat Assessment(July 2010) https://www.fatf-gafi.org at pp. 34-35 [4] Grow, Brian, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Gold Rush: Online payment systems like E-gold Ltd. are becoming the currency of choice for cybercrooks.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Bloomberg Business Week (Jan. 9, 2006) [5] https://www.fatf-gafi.org/dataoecd/48/10/45724350.pdf at p. 44