Once Upon a Time..The Tales of Libby Sparrow

Jurassic Park Trailer Script

2007-07-19T09:34:00.000-04:00

Opens with Short Trailer sent to “Dinner Time” from POTC about 45 seconds: clips of dinosaurs ending in Jurassic Park Logo

Hammond: Hello, and welcome to your first step of what no doubtedly could be the greatest adventure of your life. My name is John Hammonds founder of Jurassic Park and your guide to this brief tour of the options available to you at one of the greatest oppurtunites of a lifetime: the chance to see creatures extinct for thousands, nay millions of years, here at Jurassic Park we present you with live, real dinosaurs.

(strolling outside) Now you are no doubtedly wondering if this is some sort of elaborate hoax. I am proud to tell you that it is not. The creatures you will see on your tours of our park are not animatronic, or devised from special effects, they are as real as you or I and alive in the flesh after even after extinction.
We have accomplished this feat through the genious efforts of Dr. Wu, who has taken DNA fragments from old dinosaur bones and prehistoric mesquitos preserved in amber to create the full strand needed to create the dinosaurs in our park. Thanks to the information provided by Alan Grant, renouned paleontologist we are able to ensure a low infant mortality rate for the baby dinosaurs, monitoring everything from their food, to medical needs. As they become more stable we release them into the secure enviroments on the island where their needs are looked after by Dr. Hartley who serves as a dino-vet for our creatures ensuring they are kept healthy and ready for the world to see.

(office) Now no doubtedly you are interested in hearing about our options for dinosaur viewing. Well our park is divided into 7 basic areas: Hysilophodont Highlands, Triceratops Territory, Sauropd Swamp, Carnivore Country, Stegosaurus South, Velociraptor Valley and Pterosaur Park. In addition to tours which go through each of these areas, you can also view any one of these areas by tuning in to the designated channel on your television in your deluxe hotel room, however we will go into more of your luxurious hotel lodgings later.
Our three principle rides are the Basic Dinosaur Tour, The Jungle River Ride and The Aviary Lodge Ride. The first will show you the 7 areas of our park moving first from the smaller dinosaurs, now by small I mean 4-10 feet, like the othnielia and Hypsilophodonts to our larger and better known animals like the stegosaurous or the most fascinating of all the infamous Tyranosaurous Rex. Our Jungle River Ride will take you across the island on our aptly named Jungle river to view many of our water front creatures such as the dilophasaur, and finally our Aviary Lodge ride will allow you to see the spectacular beauty and grace which inhibits the flight of these ancient creatures, as you soar along with them in the dome located by our Aviary Lodge.
As for accomidations you will find that we have spared nothing in the way of luxury at our two locations. Our Safari Lodge is situated by the main entrance to two of the three rides and in it you will find a very tropical atmosphere from the skylights in each of our rooms, to the misty swimming pool straight out of the prehistoric period, with modern conviences of course. Each room was designed by R. J. Pavlik, one of the top interior designers in the world, and no two rooms are the same.
Our Aviary lodge is not for those weak of stomach or afraid of heights. Each of our rooms overlooks the flying world of the pterodactyls and may be as high as 500 feet off the ground. These rooms were designed by HVScompass Interior Design, and once again no two rooms are exactly alike.

After viewing this video I am sure that you are intested in finding out more information on how you can book your vacation with us. Please see the booklet and call today for pricing information, and a customized experience you will never forget.

I’m John Hammond and this is Jurassic Park.

Chem Lab

2007-02-07T06:05:00.000-05:00

Relationship Between Temperature and Pressure
On Lab.
On Graph.
Temperature and Pressure have a direct relationship.
The extrapolated line hits the pressure of O kPa at approximately 15 K.
If everything was done perfectly the temperature should have been O K.
Percent Error = (EV -TV)/TV * 100
Percent Error = (-258 K+273 K) / -273K *100
Percent Error = 5.49 %
One of the assumptions that one can derive from the Kinetic molecular theory is that as the temperature decreases the velocity of the particles will also decrease. This decrease in the velocity will prevent the particles from bouncing off of the walls of their container and each other as much, decreasing the pressure.
The Kinetic-Molecular Theory for gas is centered around the beliefs that gases are composed of

13th, 14th and 15th Amendements

2007-01-08T06:18:00.000-05:00

The statement that, “Despite the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th amedements, for most African-Americans reconstruction was a failure”, may seem like an exaggeration or a generalization, but in many senses this statement was true. Sure the African American were now free citizens with the right to vote, but the status that they had wished to obtain, and the status that they did obtain are so different that reconstruction could be deemed a failure, not a complete failure, but a failure nonetheless. The statement mentioned above is reasonably valid, although conditions did seem to improve for a short while, many of the seeming “accomplishments” of reconstruction were cancelled out by other factors such as racism and impoverishment of black people.
The irony of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 is that it really didn’t emancipate anyone, the slaves in the border states of the union were not affected, in fact the only slaves that were affected were those inside of the confederate states who didn’t care what Abraham Lincoln said, because they felt they were no longer part of the United states. The achievement of the 13th amendment was that it , unlike its forbearer, did end the ownership of men by other men through the more literal definition of slavery. However slavery can come in other forms than the direct owenership of master and slave. With little or no money, education or opputunites many former slaves ended up working as sharecroppers or working for their former masters. As far as their living conditions were concerned, not much if anything improved, historians have alikened the conditions of sharecroppers in the south to the serfs of Russia. Also the restrictive Black codes still made African-Americans feel as if they were inferior to their white counterparts. Under these laws they were treated as second-class citizens, denied the right to vote, and often forced to sign oppressive land contracts with conditions that sounded very similar to the slavery that they had just been “liberated” from. Although they were freemen they still were treated as inferior and it is in this way that the 13th amendement failed.
After congress got wind of the Black Codes they set out to suppress them through the Civil Rights Bill which would grant African-Americans the citizenship they had been denied. It was promptly vetoed by Andrew Johnson, whose veto was soon overrun by congress. This episode would later add to the tension which would lead to Johnson’s impeachement. The 14th amendement passed by congress took the Civil Rights Bil a step forward as it not only guaranteed civil rights freemen, but reduced a southern state’s number of representatives if they refused to give freemen the vote. However like many of the seeming victories during reconstruction this one was also met by a counter in the south. Many southern states still withheld the vote from its African-american citizens, and in the compromise of 1877 the amendement was weakened when it declared that it protected only from government abuse of these rights, but individual abuse from such organizations as the KKK were not covered. In many senses this amedement did little to protect or help African-Americans.
Perhaps the biggest opposition to the reconstruction being a failure for the African-Americans comes in the 15th amendement when they are finally granted the right to vote. Despite violent threats and protests from such groups as the KKK, many African-american men (women, to their chagrin, had still not achieved the vote) took to the polls and organized politically through such organizations as the Union League, and many blacks even held office. Times were changing and the African-americans helped attribute to that change. Still in 1877 things looked bleak for the African-american cause as it was put on hold without full equality for freement being reached. It was in this way that many of the goals of equality for forsaken as persecutions of African-Americans continued.
To say that the despite the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, reconstruction for most African Americans was a failure may seem to be harsh, but in many senses this statement is perfectly valid. The 13th and 14th amendements provoked little change as each of them was met with a rebuttal in the south. With the emergence of the 15th amendement, true change and reform was finally able to take place, but the end of reconstruction brought with it the end of congressional reform for freemen for the time being. The 15th amendement was a big step for the civil rights movement, but not big enough. It’s like running 400 meters in a mile-long race, the 15th amendement was able to push forward some of the goals of freemen, but there were so many other goals that still needed to be accomplished. It is in this sense that reconstruction was a failure for most blacks. Many postitive changes were made as they achieved freedom, citizenship and the right to vote, but equality still lay far ahead.

English: The Cure Essay

2007-01-08T06:17:00.000-05:00

The book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the movie The Cure are simililar in that they both tell a story of a friendship that rises above prejudice, and a journey in which both friends are changed forever. In the beginning of both stories the main characters (Huck and Eric) feel that they are better than, and exert certain premtive ideas towards, the supporting character of the stories (Jim and Dexter) who later become their closest friend. As both stories continue Huck and Eric learn to challege the beliefs of their timeperiods and come to respect and befriend the people they formerly looked down on with fear or disgust. Both stories also feature a journey for the friends down the Mississippi river that helps them grow as people and as friends. Along the way they meet some rapscallions, for Huck it’s the King and Duke, for Eric it’s Pony and Jim, and they end up stealing and escaping from their traveling nuicences, Huck steals $6,000 dollars and puts it in a coffin while Eric steals $300 and runs off with it. Also in both of the journeys the leads try to find freedom for their friends. For Jim its escaping north and for Dexter its finding a cure for AIDS. Along the way towards their goals both sets of friends grow stronger as friends and as people.
Although The Cure and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are very similar (Brad Renfo who played Eric in The Cure even went on to do Huck and Tom playing Huck Finn in his next movie), there are some major differences in both stories mainly focused on the time periods of each and the medium through which both stories are told. In Huck Finn the issue dealt with is that of slavery and the racial prejudices between blacks and whites, while The Cure deals with prejudice of people with AIDS and the fear of obtaining the disease. Huck Finn is told through the medium of an episodic novel it can take more time with the story and indulge in more sidestories throughout the journey. The Cure on the other hand is told through a movie format. While it does have a similar episodic feel at times, their encounter with the school bullies being one and they’re escapades at the grocery store being another, it is not able to go into few if any sidestories that don’t have much to do with the main plot. Finally the endings of both stories are very different from eachother. At the end of Huck Finn, Jim finally receives his freedom after much hoopla from Tom, another friend who enters into the picture later on, and the ending is relativiely happy, although Huck must return to society. In The Cure Eric must also return to society, but the ending isn’t quite as “happy”. Dexter returns from the trip down the Mississippi sick and dies soonafter. However the twist of the story is that in a way Eric had freed Dexter by being his friend, so instead of finding his freedom by becoming AIDS-free at the end of the movie, instead Dexter is able to find a momentary freedom from his AIDS at the beginning when Eric became his friend. Both stories tell the tale for friendship, but through very different ways.
The two things I learned from reading Huckleberry Finn were the importance of challenging the common morals and beliefs of society and the importance of friendship. Throughout the story Huck learns that it is often better to listen to your heart than to do what society wants you to. In a scene where he writes a letter to Miss Watson to turn in Jim he tears up the letter after writing it realizing that he can never do the “right thing” and betray his friend when it seems so wrong. The same is true for real life. If something feels wrong even though people and society are pressuring one to do it anyway, one should take a moment to think things through before blindly following the constraints of society. Think of it, if we had never had people who were willing to change society this much, we would still have slavery, women would be considered inferior to men, our country would still be part of England, or our country would not exist at all because the world is “flat”. Such ridiculous or inhumane notions seem laughable or inhumand now, but they were solid facts in olden times. It makes one wonder what beliefs we hold today that may be considered out-of-date in the next 20 or 50 or even 100 years. The importance of friendship is also a stong lesson which can be pulled from this book. Huck and Jim share a bond which though which they are able to learn so much from eachother. Huck learns to overcome his prejudice of blacks, while Jim becomes a father figure to Huck and guides him on his journey. The two of them become like family and when Jim gets in trouble, nothing will stop Huck from saving him (well except for Tom’s escape plan, but that’s unimportant). Our friendships should be as strong, and no factor such as race, gender, religion, or anything else should matter or prevent us from forming these friendships that will last a lifetime.
The movie The Cure really made me think about the prejudices that we impose on people today and the ignorance and innocence of youth and its consequesnces. In The Cure the characters early on talk about how AIDS is a “gay disease”, or can be caught by just by talking to a person. However AIDS can be caught by anyone big or small, though not by talking to a person who has it, but only by a blood transfusion or sexual realations with a person who has it. Both of these things were far from what Eric and Dexter did, yet Eric’s mother still insisted that he never see his friend again. This just proves that even today there are stupid prejudices in the world, and the ignorance that fuels them does nothing to help. The innocence and ignorance of youth is another theme which is esibited on their quest down the Mississippi for a cure. They believe that a mysterious doctor which they read about in a tabloid holds the cure for Dexter’s disease. They then try various plants to cure his disease, which end up nearly poisoning Dexter. After that they head down the Mississippi trying to find the doctor, but end up failing and Dexter only grows sicker. Yet despite the negative consequences of both tries, the innocence and sense of adventure in their friendship brings Dexter out of his bubble and allows him to escape from his disease for a time. Their hopes and innocence in a way are a temporary cure for Dexter.

The Adventures of Echo (The Final Part in the Trilogy)

2006-08-14T10:14:00.000-04:00

When all of the swirly spinning stopped Echo opened his eyes. He was back home on the couch with Andi kicking her feet next to him. Was it all a dream? he thought. But then Andi piped up.

"Where's my Snorkomobile?" she demanded.

"What?" Echo replied.

"Did Emobola take it?"

Echo smiled. So it wasn't a dream after all. But Ellen would have known if they were gone...Echo looked back at the book. "I guess I'll never know".

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Well that's it for the Adventures of Echo the Economic Dude, as Economic class is coming to a close. This was the first time I have ever heard of Blogs being used to teach, but I definitely had some fun with it. My only regret with this blog is that I wish I would have started the stories of "Echo" sooner. Overall, however, I really enjoyed blogging as a part of learning about Economics.

The original idea about blogging in the classroom was that through their blogs, students could tailor whatever the course taught, to fit their individual needs. How often have students wondered Will I ever really use (insert name of frustrating class here) outside of school? As a student I plead guilty as charged. I mean, I understand how a knowledge of Economics could help my life, but Algebra or European History? I doubt that I'll use the Defenestration of Prague in everyday conversation (though there is a funny story about my friend Nick at review which had to do with it). The idea of blogs was to show how hobbies that students enjoy can reflect the things which they learn. The blogs almost make it easier to learn because suddenly when the course has to do with things which I'm interested in, I'm 10x more likely to pay attention.

I started my blog on storytelling earlier this summer with my Economics class. This was my first blog, and I was a little apprehensive about the whole idea. Progress can be scary at times. However as I started writing blogs, they became easier to write and I was able to put my own individual style into the blogs. I think I would have understood the principles of economics without the blog, but they would have been nothing more than mere principles. With the blog, economics became more, well fun. The blog helped melt away the strict line between school and everything else, and while to others that may seem like a painful process, it wasn't. Hey, it's a small world after all!

As for the future of this blog, I intend to keep on writing in it although Economics is over. I was thinking about maybe starting a time traveling series in the fall for AP American History, and I also plan to begin to post stories that have absolutely nothing to do with school. When it comes to blogs, the sky is the limit and even the sky could be overcome.

The Adventures of Echo (Part 2)

2006-08-09T11:41:00.000-04:00

When we last left our valiant hero, he and his sister had just been swirled away from their safe home into the cut-throat world of economics television. After completing The Wage Rate is Right they were swirled away to the Economics 6 o'clock news. Let's catch up with them now:

Echo fell through the dark abyss to his next destination. When he landed on pavement he was cushioned by a strange woman who he later realized was Barbara Walters. "Are you a good reporter or a bad reporter?" the cameraman asked while Barbara's assistant was humming ding-dong the witch is dead (sorry I couldn't resist). But never fear Barbara fans, it was not Barabara who was squished and then was forced to retreat into her trailer, but Barbara Walter's evil-alternate-dimensional twin.

With evil-Barbara gone, the cameraman handed Andi and Echo microphones while giving them the scoop on what was going on.

"I'm Frank, and I can't tell you how glad we all are that you destroyed the wicked witch. Now we're going to need you two to fill in for her though. We were just about to cover a story on the worker's protest from the labor union who was building the orange brick road."

"Don't you mean yellow?" Echo asked.

"What's labor union?" Andi wondered aloud.

"Well firstly, yes I do mean an orange brick road, and a labor union is an organization which tries to get a higher pay for it's members. Recently the demand for more streets to come off of the orange brick road have increased but the pay of the vertically challenged lunchkins who work on the road has not also increased so the workers decided to hold a strike and to stop work to put pressure on their employer Emobola, the some-what nasty powerful person of the northwest. So if you're ready we'll be on in 3....2....1..."

Echo was stunned. With an exception of his last adventure, he had never been on a camera before, and definitely never done a news report before. "Ummm Good Evening umm" he looked over at Frank, "Roz, I'm Echo and this is my sister...."

"Andi." Andi chirped up, happy to be in the spotlight.

"Tonight we're covering a story about the protest for higher wages from the workers on the Orange Brick Road."

"People.." Andi motioned towards a crowd of small people who were waving protest signs. When Echo, Andi and Frank reached them they felt out of place, like giants who've stepped into a town of non-giants (really descriptive I know). In order to interview the first man, Echo had to kneel down, but Andi was at ease and all of the vertically challenged lunchkins warmed up to her. Echo on the other hand, was having a hard time getting anyone to answer his questions. It wasn't until Andi asked one of the workers one of Echo's questions that he got an answer.

"All no work?" she asked

"Well," said the lunchkin who's name was Vlanderthemagnificent, "I deeply would have desired that everyone was on strike, but due to the right-to-slave-for-Emobola laws which are very similar to your right to work laws, not everyone is required to join the OBRU (Orange Brick Road Union) to work for Emobola, and if say I wanted to get a job working for her sister the somewhat-nicer-powerful person-of- the southeast, I wouldn't be required to join her union if I wanted to get a job. So basically to get to the point, not everyone is here, because not everyone is part of the union."

"How did the right-to-slave-for Emobola come to be?" asked Echo, but he was ignored.

"Why no-un-one for some lunchkins?" Andi asked, and five lunchkins tried to answer her at once. She pointed to one of the lunchkins in the front who's name was VlandothenotsomagnificentasVlander.

"Well originally our union worked with a closed door policy, where only union members were hired. Over the past few years, though, not everyone who wanted to work on the Orange Brick Road wanted to join the union. They felt uncomfortable because the steelman who runs the union doesn't have a ..."

"Heart?" Echo interrupted.

"No silly boy, an appendix. Anyway it was then that the Vlandathemostmagnificentofall Act was passed which is very similar to your Taft-Hartley Act which outlawed closed door policies like that. Now for a while we had a union shop, where all workers were required to work for the union for at least a little while but that was outlawed by the right-to-slave- for Emobola Act."

"What will happen to the pay of those who are not on the union?" Echo got an evil look.

"What happen to no-un-one?" Andi asked

"Well," said Vlandithenotsomagnificent, "Usually their pay would be less than ours by about 10%, but we hope to get higher wages for them to in the long run."

"Well that's a wrap!" Frank said as he turned off the camera. "Now to the editing board where I'll trim the story down to 30 seconds and put two commercials in the middle." he turned to Echo, "You don't mind if I cut you out do you?"

But before Echo could protest, he started spinning. "Not Again." he thought.

The Adventures of Echo the Economics Dude (Part 1)

2006-08-08T11:12:00.000-04:00

For this blog I am going to try something new, and as whoever has read the title has probably guessed, this involves a new character called Echo the Economics Dude. This blog-post will cover chapter 9 in a different style then the previous blogs. This is a storytelling blog, so I shall try to incorporate a little storytelling of my own into it. Feel free to post and give me your opinions. Alright then let's begin.

Echo was a young boy, not all that tall but not all that short either. He had a younger sister named Andi and enjoyed playing games with her. She was at that age where she was old enough to not use diapers any more, but not so old that she had started to think that her brother was anything less than amazing. Today was a Friday, and Echo and Andi were being babysat by Ellen, their librarian neighbor, while their parents went out to dinner. It had been a busy day and Echo and Andi were tired out. Ellen had turned on the TV and adds were playing for oncoming shows. Andi had gotten up and was waddling/walking (as so 3-year olds do) towards Ellen's big stack of books and as she reached out to grab her favorite book about princesses and ponies. Yet as she was reaching towards her favorite book, another book fell down and landed at Andi's feet. She picked it up and looked at Echo with that cute little face that so many toddlers possessed. "Echo," she said "can you wead me this book?"

Echo looked over at his little sister. She was carrying a huge blue textbook. "Not right now Andi, I'd just like to relax for a few minutes."

She looked back up at him. "Pwease Echo". Echo couldn't refuse. He sat down, heaved the book onto the couch and opened it up to its first page. "Once Upon a time.." He began and then looked down at the book. "I mean, umm.." He put on his best business voice. "There are more than 25 million businesses in the United States including car companies, bookstores.." He looked down at Andi, she looked asleep, maybe he could stop reading. Gosh he thought looking down at the book, Economics sure must be boring. But then he felt a little hand hit him in the face. "More story," came the hands reply.

"Alright. Economists talk about the various types of economic structure...." Echo continued on with the TV blaring in the background until he felt sleepy. Suddenly the room started spinning and the TV was pulling him closer and closer...And then everything went black.

When Echo woke up, he was in a very frightening situation. No, it wasn't the comfy chair or the hot spotlight which was blinding him, it was the crowd of an audience who was staring at him and the man who stepped out from that crowd, Mr. Aroune, his mother's favorite television star! He was addressing the audience:

"Good Evening Olipopolis! And welcome to your favorite game show, The Wage Rate is Right, where our three contestants battle to find the correct wage rate, or price of labor, to win a brand new snorkomobile from Blonda." What little Echo understood did not comfort him. Apparently he was on a game show, about economics! Echo knew nothing about economics! "Now let's meet our contestants." Mr. Aroune moved towards Echo, "Our first contestant comes from the planet of earth and enjoys skateboarding and daydreaming in school. Let's give it up for Echo!" Mr. Aroune motioned for Echo to move over to one of the metal chairs sitting in the hot stage lights, by a desk. Echo wasn't sure if it was because he was dreaming, or because all of his nerve cells got fried on impact, that the chair didn't shock him with pain.

"Our second contestant comes from Mercury, a hot destination spot, and enjoys studying intergalactic economics when he's not running his multigazillion dollar industry." Mr. Aroune moved onto what Echo had thought was a giant pile of pudding with horns, "Please welcome Aroplasm." The Audience went wild with applause.

"Finally our third contestant also is here from earth," Mr. Aroune moved towards a contestant who was hidden by the table. "She enjoys playing princess and jumping into leaf piles, please put your hands together for Miss Andi!"

Echo was shocked. Andi was here?! She was waving at the audience who was applauding her, and smiling at Echo. "Hello Echo." she said.

Mr. Aroune then moved to the center of the stage. "Alright let the games begin. Our first question goes to Mr. Echo." All of the stage lights were suddenly turned to him and his chair started to heat up. "When the quantity of supplied labor is greater then the quantity demanded of labor there is a *blank* of labor?"

"Well umm," Echo was sweating due to the heat "it is, ummm, a lot of labor?"

"I'm sorry, Echo, the correct answer is surplus of labor. Moving on to contestant number two, Mr. Aroplasm. What happens to the wage rate if there is a surplus of labor?" The giant pudding pile was silent (note: calling Aroplasm a pudding pile is not an insult, it is an observation. And on mercury it is considered a complement since being pudding-like instead of pure-liquid -like is a sign that the being can afford snair conditioning, but anyway, back to the story).

"Correct! With a surplus of labor wage rate does fall! That puts you in the lead with 200 points. Now Andi, when there is a shortage of labor what happens to the wage rate?"

Andi really wasn't paying attention, she was too busy waving at the audience. She then turned to Echo and raised her hands. "Echo, up!" she said, which was her way of telling him that she wanted to be picked up, "Echo up!" she said again. When Echo refused to go over and pick her upon, she turned to Mr. Aroune, "Up!" she demanded.

"Correct Andi! The wage rate does go up, that's 200 points." He then motioned at a big screen which was descending behind them. "Now its time for your first The Wage Rate is Right challenge. John works in the United States, Earth. He works for 46 hours and makes $460 dollars that week. What you three need to do is each write down his wage rate on your helio-pads which will then display your answer on the screen behind you."

This is easy, Echo thought, 460 divided by 46 is 10. The only thing Echo had trouble with was trying to use the helio pad which kept moving away from him whenever he tried to write anything down. He finally was able to grab it and scramble down "10" before the time was up.

"Alright let's look at the answers. Echo had 10 which when converted on the helio-pad's ultra malculator is 4, so I'm sorry, you're wrong. Aroplasm had Quashgillion which is converted to 10 on the helio-pad. And here's an interesting turn of events. Earth-girl Andi wrote in Neptunian which is unconvertible by the helio-pad and automatically equals 10! Well with a 600-600 tie Aroplasm and Andi take the lead. Now for a word from our sponsors.

While some commercial on platopaste was playing, Echo stood up and tried to cool off his well.... After the commercials were done Echo sat back down on the burning chair as Mr. Aroune stepped back onstage.

"We're back. And now its time for round two. Our First Question goes to Andi. Now Andi, the benefits of a job include money benefits and what?"

Echo could see that Andi was getting tired out and getting sick of the game show so it didn't surprise him when she answered. "No money!" What really surprised Echo was Mr. Aroune's response to her blatant attack of his show.

"Correct, and with 800 points Andi takes the lead. Now lets move on to Echo who is in the hot-chair with 0 points. Now Echo what are money benefits also known as?"

Echo actually knew this one. His father had lectured him on it the night before. "Income"

"Correct, and with 200 points you have no chance of winning now!" Then with the same happy look on his face, he replied "Did I just say that out loud, whoops! Moving on to our other contestant who still has a chance at winning, Aroplasm. A derived demand is a change in demand that results from some other demand, give an example."

Aroplasm was silent once again.

"Correct! If the demand shnoozeball decreases then the demand for shnoozeball players will also decrease. Now with a 200-800-800 scoring round we move onto Guess that wage, a portion of our show where our contestants must guess the lowest wage rate by which the minimum wage rate law for an area allows. Aroplasm, you will go first. What is the minimum wage for Pluto?"

As usual aroplasm was silent.

"Correct, 2 rocks! Now Echo since you are a harffle of a snorzak behind everyone else we'll give you an easy question. What is the minimum wage in the United States of America on Earth?"

Echo had done a report on this earlier. It looked like things were finally going his way. "Five dollars and fifteen cents."

"Correct! Now our final question goes to Andi. What is the minimum wage on Quashtrash."

"Andi doesn't want to answer," Andi replied.

"Once more, correct. The minimum wage is impossible to calculate, what a prodigy!" Mr. Aroune then motioned for Andi and Aroplasm to step forward. "Now for the final question and a chance to win a snorkomobile from Blonda we have Andi and Aroplasm! Now on Earth the real wage is computed by dividing the money wage by the consumer price index. The percentage found by this formula represents to percentage of a composite good that can be bought. What is a composite good composed of?"

Before Aroplasm could speak up (or go silent depending on what language you speak), Andi shouted out all of her troubles. "I'm hungry, I wasn't to go home and I want Echo to read me my princess book."

"Correct Andi! You are the winner. A composite good is composed of a little bit of food, housing an entertainment. Now if you'll just come this way your snorkomobile..."

But just as Andi was about to step forward the world started spinning again, transporting Echo to the 6 o'clock news...

The Economics of Storytelling: Movies

2006-08-07T10:13:00.000-04:00

When many people think of the movie industry they think of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, but the movie industry is so much more. Movies are produced all over world. From Hollywood to Bollywood and each movie has its own style and flare. What I mean to look at in part three of my blog series is the different market structures that are found all over the world which help bring storytelling to the screen. What market structure a business belongs to is determined by their characteristics and how easily a business can enter the market.

Let us first look at a perfectly competitive market, if the movie industry in the USA belongs to that market structure, and the consequences if it did. This type of market has the following characteristics:

Many buyers and sellers: Well our current movie industry has millions of viewers across the globe and there are a lot of movie producers (Warner bros. And Disney as examples)
All Firms Sell Identical Goods: In this respect I think the movie industry is lucky it doesn't satisfy this aspect of a perfectly competitive market. Imagine if all of the movie studios produced identical movies about hobbits and elves. I love Lord of The Rings, but even that would be pushing it.
Buyers and Sellers have relevant information: Well technically this can be debated. Some would say that trailers and the movie info count, but I've seen many a movie where the trailer had nothing to do with the movie. So I'm going to have to say that the Movie Industry does not fall under that category.
Firms have easy entry and exits: Not really. It is really hard to get a movie studio up and running to the point where it is nationally recognized, and once a movie studio is in the spotlight, it may be a wee bit tough to suddenly say that they are no longer producing movies (see the corporation bit in the blog before).
Price Takers (sellers in the market) sell the product at the equilibrium price: Well actually this is pretty much the case if you look at the price of movie tickets which are similar almost everywhere you go. Movie theatres cannot raise the price for a particular movie, or customers will just go see something else, but they really have no reason to lower the price for a certain movie if they don't have to. However if you look at DVD and VHS sales, the cost may be debatable for different movies. Some DVD sellers will sell DVD's for less for the equilibrium price as long as members keep buying a lot of DVD's at the equilibrium price, and some movie's prices may be debatable on whether it is not at equilibrium price.

Now it is time to decide whether the Movie Industry fits the characteristics of a perfectly competitive market. My final evaluation is that the Movie industry is not a perfectly competitive market, but it's pretty close. Technically if a market has price takers, then it is perfectly competitive, but for the movie industry that can be debated. Now lets assume that the Movie industry is perfectly competitive, could the industry end someday. Since perfectly co competitive markets are easy to get into, if too many new studios entered the movie-making world there may be a surplus of movies and the price of movies would fall until no new movie studios can see the profit of entering the business. Lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) for the movie industry, getting into the industry can be pretty tough, and thanks to the diversity of movies, it will probably be a while before the industry goes down. Another way for the movie industry to be hurt is if the government implemented a heavy tax on profits of the industry making entry pointless, but luckily this has yet to be the case in the USA.

Moving on we shall see if the Movie Industry can be considered a Monopolistic Market which would mean it would contain the following:

One Seller: Unless you believe in a huge conspiracy theory about the corporations of today, then it is safe to say that this is not the case. In fact the Movie industry is known for the many studios around the world.
The Single Seller sells a product with no close substitutes: This is not the case in our movie industry today at all. There are all sorts of movies, and if movie prices get too high there are TV shows and Theatre productions to substitute for them.
The Barriers to Entry (the higher the harder to get in) are high: Well with the internet nowadays one could argue that this is not the case since all you need is a camera, computer and a registration to YouTube (www.youtube.com) or ifilm (www.ifilm.com) to enter the market. Yet to really get into the bigtime movie business (having the movie playing at a cinema) the barriers are pretty high so this is a debatable statement.

With 1/3 (well reality .5/3) matches, I think that it is safe to say that our Movie Industry in the USA is not a monopolistic market.

Although the Movie Industry itself is not a monopoly, in some places certain movie theatres can hold a monopoly. This usually takes place when a movie theatre is the only one in a pretty large area, so the choices are very few. These monopolistic theatres often have price searchers instead of price takers. The difference between the two is that while price takers can only charge one price for the tickets to the movie and concession stand, price searchers can charge a variety of prices. This doesn't mean that they have unlimited price options. The monopolistic theatre will sell its tickets and drinks for as high as it can, but that doesn't guarantee that it will make enough to earn a profit. Sometimes businesses are kept at monopolistic markets through a public franchise, but with theatres this is rarely the case. Now say if a theatre wanted to have a natural monopoly and it had very low costs (say it had bought the building and all of the screens so it didn't need to pay off the money for a new theatre and the owner won a contest for a lifelong supply of popcorn for her company (it could happen)), it could lower its prices until the other competing company was run out of business.

Now in the wonderful USA the government has put several laws into effect called anti -trust laws which limit the power of monopolies. These laws include the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Federal Trade commission Act and The Robinson-Patman Act to name a few. To regulate natural monopolies (like the free-popcorn owner discussed earlier) the government guarantees it a certain rate of profit so that it has no incentive to hold down its costs.

Blending the previous two market structures we come to a monopolistic competitive market and whether or not it applies to the Movie Industry today will be decided on by the following:

Lots of Buyers and Sellers: As concluded before, this is definitely the case with the movie industry.
Firms produce and sell slightly differentiated products: Well this is certainly the case because movie studios all produce movies and occasionally moichendice (thank you yogurt from spaceballs), but each movie is slightly different whether it covers pirates, hobbits, boxers, or producers.
Firms have easy entry in and out of the Industry: Well this is the big debatable one. It matters on what is considered a movie studio and whether or not internet movies count.

Well with 2-3/3 (depending on the opinions concerning the third bullet point) I think that it is pretty safe to say that the movie industry of today is a monopolistic competitive market. Although the market is competitive in this market however, the market tends to use price searchers, not price takers. This is because even if they raise the price of their good, some people will still buy it. This is often the case with DVD sales, while theatre prices often remain at equilibrium.

Moving on, we shall examine an oligopolistic market which may be another competitor for what the movie industry may be. Well let the characteristics begin:

It has Few Seller: Debatable if internet movies are included, but if only movie studios who get their movies onto the big screen are included then yes, it fits.
Firms Sell Identical or Only Slightly Different Products: Although the movie industry all sells movies, the types of movies which are sold are so different and unique that identical products seems to be an incorrect statement.
The Barriers To Entry Are Significant: As mentioned before this is very debatable.

In the end whether or not the movie industry falls under this category is debatable, at the most. However just like the monopolistic markets of yore this market does contain price searchers which often fit for DVD sales in the movie industry. Now if the movie industry was a oligopolistic market, then in order to reduce competition between the major movie studios the CEO's could meet together to agree to reduce competition by only producing 2 new action flicks a year and only one hobbit film per studio. This would form a cartel agreement. In the end, though, this might decrease sales for movies overall, since variety is one of the things that moviegoers prize.

In the end I think that the market that most applies to the Movie Industry today is the Monopolistic competitive Market, with the most matches.

Now looking at price discrimination in the movie industry, this usually occurs in situations where selling the movie, or movie tickets for a lower price would benefit the movie company. This can also often occur when the item being sold can not easily be resold.

Often times a movie theatre will charge children less than adults, this is because a kid is probably not going to buy 10 movie tickets and then sell them outside for 7 bucks. However for the Lord of The Rings 3-movie sitting show, the tickets were $30 regardless of age because a kid could resell them for quite a nice profit, if he/she got a reasonable discount.

Well that's all for now. Stay tuned though, I plan to try something new using chapter 8. We'll see how it turns out....

The Economics of Storytelling: Magazines

2006-08-03T10:15:00.000-04:00

Magazines and storytelling, for some the link between the two is more obvious then others. Magazines range in topic from news and literary magazines to motorcycles and sports. One thing that all magazines do have in common is the fact that they all contain stories. The stories may range in type, from news stories to short fictional stories, but they all spread ideas through a written medium. So now, ladies and gentlemen, I shall produce part two of my economics class blogs on storytelling.

Unlike in my previous blog where I depicted one instance of a musical and followed it through the basic principles of economics, here I plan to contrast various types of business firms which run magazine industries. Now in order to be a business firm a company would have to use resources (which for magazines would include writers, photographers, equipment to produce the magazine etc.), to produce a good (the magazine itself) which would then be sold to the consumer (the readers). Now in an ideal world everything would run smoothly for these business firms, but unfortunately there are people who tend often participate in shirking. Such proprietors of this mischief would include writers who don't finish their stories, or editors that always show up late, or website designers who consistently forget to fix a server. And so to keep an eye on the staff, so that they don't all become "shirkers", monitors are introduced who keep everyone in line. These "monitors" are often referred to as the dreaded bosses.

Now moving away from that happy road which I'm sure is littered with a whole bunch of storytelling itself, lets move on to the types of business firms that exist. The first one I shall mention is a sole proprietorship which would be a business which is owned by only one person. An example of one such sole proprietor is Peter Blake, who in 1981 founded the magazine Throttle, an alternative music and culture magazine. Now Mr. Blake had several advantages as the sole proprietor of his magazine.

Aside from government regulations in the USA, starting up his business was relatively easy, and if he decided to get rid of his newly formed magazine, it would be easier then say, a corporation.
Mr. Blake has all of the power over his magazine as publisher and owner, and can make whatever changes he sees fit.

Now although he may have several advantages in starting his own business, there are also several disadvantages such as:

He has unlimited liability, which means that if he can't pay of the debts of the company his own items may be taken, such as his car or even his house, to pay off his debts.
For his initial starting money Mr. Blake probably had some difficulty raising enough funds, because most banks or lenders won't lend money to a business which may not succeed.
The third disadvantage is that the business usually ends with the retirement or death of the company owner, and many employees would doubt the stability of their jobs. However if Throttle becomes more successful, when Mr. Blake wishes to retire, another owner may step up to the helm.

Now the next company I'm going to talk about is Tin House, a literary magazine which featured stories by new writers, interviews with established literary figures and much more. In 1998 Win McCormack came up with the idea for the magazine, but rather than starting a business of his own he formed a partnership with two New York Times Editors, Rob Spillman and Elissa Schappell, and through this partnership each of the co-owners would share any profits the business earns and would be held responsible for any debts incurred by the firm. Now by choosing to form a partnership for his magazine, Mr. McCormack faces these advantages as he sets up his company:

Each co-owner's specialization can be incorporated fully in to the company. For example, Mr. Spillman and Mrs. Schappell who lived in New York City have more of a specialty for the eastern US beat, while Mr. McCormack, who lives in Oregon, was able to capture the western US beat.
For the partnership only personal income taxes apply, while corporate taxes do not.

However a partnership also faces several disadvantages:

Just like sole proprietorships, the partners of Tin House face unlimited liability. This can be a major problem if say Mr. Spillman ran off with $45,000 of the company's money and left the other two trying to make up for his debts.
Decision-making in a partnership can often times be frustrating and major arguments may prevent the future growth of the magazine.

Moving on from partnerships we'll journey on to corporations. Now one well known magazine which has developed into corporation is Reader's Digest. Now as a corporation Reader's Digest can conduct business in its own name in the same way an individual does is owned by its stockholders, people who buy stock in a corporation. Each piece of stock that a person buys represents a claim on the assets of the company which include anything over which the firm has legal claim. Now the advantages of being a corporation include the following:

The owners of a corporation are not personally liable for the corporation's debts, unlike the previous businesses discussed, and contain limited liability which means they can't be sued for the debts of their corporation.
If one or more of the owners of Reader's Digest dies or retires, the business does not end but continues, ensuring future stability.
Also unlike Throttle, which had to raise all of its money by itself, Readers Digest can raise money by selling stock.

As you have probably caught on, with every advantage there is a disadvantage, and Readers Digest has to face the following:

As a corporation Reader's Digest has to pay double the taxation of partnerships or sole proprietorships because of corporate and income taxes.
Corporations are also pretty complicated to set up, as in addition to the owners and stockholders there is often a board of directors who decides the policies of the company. That's also not taking into account the financial set-up aspect which comes with distributing stocks and bonds.

Moving on with our tour of various ways magazine companies may be owned, we come to the franchise, which takes place when a business allows a person or group of people to use its name and sell its products. Homes & Land Magazine is a franchise, and when someone wants to set up a franchise (the franchisee) he or she would talk to the owner of Homes & Land (the franchiser) and set up a deal. Now by starting a franchise, one can hope for help from the "parent company" in advertising and training, but sometimes if there are disagreements within the franchise, the best thing to do is pull out.

Now, after examining the different types of magazine businesses that are out there its time to look at the costs involved. For this I plan to examine one of my favorite magazines Muse. Now for Muse and many other magazines the variable costs that change with the number of magazines produced may include the cost of paper and the cost of ink for the magazine. Now some of the other costs which the owners of Muse has to pay include fixed costs that do not change with the amount of magazines produced such as employee costs and the rent for the building in which Muse is produced. Now if one adds up the fixed and variable costs for Muse, one would get the total cost. In order to find the average total cost of producing each magazine, Muse would divide the total cost by the quantity of magazines produced. Now say Muse just got in a last minute subscription to there magazine and had to publish one more copy of that particular issue. The cost of producing that one more copy would be the marginal cost. The marginal cost may be greater or less than the average total cost.

Now when considering whether or not to let the late subscription slide and produce another copy of the magazine, Muse has other questions to consider besides how nice they want to be. If the marginal revenue, or the amount of money made from producing one more copy of the magazine is greater than the marginal cost then the company is more willing to produce that one extra copy. A similar concept is used when Muse wants to compute how much profit or loss it can be held accountable for. Muse takes the total revenue (the price x the quantity of magazines sold) and takes from it the total cost to reveal the total profit/loss.

Now going back to the "marginal" theme earlier in the last paragraph we can look at the law of diminishing marginal returns. Now for the amount of writers that Muse hires this law can show that as Muse hires more writers to write for a set number of pages in the magazine, then eventually the amount of additional writing that each new writer hired does will decrease. If that sounded a bit confusing think look at the chart below:

# of Workers	Pages of Additional Writing Added Per Worker	Total Number of Pages Written
1	10	10
4	10	40
8	8	72

As you can see as more and more writers are added, the pages of additional writing added per worker decreases.

Now once again I'd like to thank you for plowing through another wonderful blog of mine, and if you are interested in any of the magazines which I mentioned in this blog the websites can be found below:

For Throttle by Peter Blake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throttle_(magazine)

For Tin House: http://www.tinhouse.com

For Reader's Digest: http://www.rd.com

For Homes and Land: http://www.homesandland.com

For Muse: http://www.cricketmag.com/ProductDetail.asp?pid=12

The Economics of Storytelling: Musicals

2006-07-27T10:34:00.000-04:00

My passion is storytelling, so for this assignment on economics, I will delve into the genre of Musicals and how it effects economics.

Supply and demand effects the production, success and effect of musicals on the general public, whether on Broadway or your High School show. Firstly there must be a demand for the musical, or the belief someone would want to see the musical. After all, the production may be amazing and jaw-dropping, but it won't be produced unless there is a demand for it, or someone to come and see the musical, pay for the tickets and provide money to pay the expenses for the show. Demand also has shaped the many genres, types and subjects of musicals from comedic musicals about weddings to dark musicals about murderous barbers. There must first be a demand for a type of musical before it produced.

Now recently on the radio I heard that David Hasslehoff is planning on making a musical about the life of David Hasslehoff (himself really), so for the next few paragraphs I'm going to use his musical as an example. Now Mr. Hasslehoff thinks that there is a demand for a musical about his life, which may be true since Hasslehoff has recently been in the spotlight for his pledge to stop his drug addiction and his spot on "America's Got Talent". Now for the next few paragraphs I would like to continue on the theme of the Hasslehoff Musical, but instead of having Hasslehoff as the author we will use and imaginary author (John), to make it easier for me to fit in my needed vocabulary words. Just as a note: David Hasslehoff is the true writer. Now lets say John is ready to produce the musical, there are a few things he needs to consider:

Quantity Demanded: There may be a demand for a David Hasslehoff musical but is there enough of a demand to allow for John's musical to be a hit?
Whether the show is a Normal Good or an Inferior Good or a Neutral Good: John may think that his show is good, but if the songs are dull, and his plot is shoddy, success is virtually impossible because as income increases then the demand for the good may decrease. However if the show is full of songs which are knock-your-socks-off amazing and a plot which is flawless, success is on the horizon because as income increases then often the demand also increases. Now if his show is pretty much normal, not all that great or not that bad, then it is probably a neutral good which will allow it to be somewhat successful because as the income increases then the demand will probably remain the same

Now John is concerned about casting for his show, and what he will have to pay the actors who will star. John would like to hire David Hasslehoff to play himself in his musical, but he may have to choke up a lot of money to hire Mr. Hasslehoff because of these reasons:

Supply: There is only one David Hasslehoff, and his willingness to participate in the musical at different costs may determine whether he will participate due to the:
Law of Supply: As the price John is willing to pay Hasslehoff increases, the more willing Hasslehoff is to star in the show and the longer the amount of time he is willing to star in the show.

If David Hasslehoff wanted to show John how much he wants to be paid for the amount of time he performs in the show he could do it in one of two ways, or both ways. He could use a Supply Curve or a Supply Schedule.

Supply Schedule:
Price Amount of Time
$10,000 a month three months
$15,000 a month six months
$20,000 a month a year
Supply Curve:

Now for his other actors, the cost to John may vary, depending on how much of an established reputation John wants for his actors. Hopefully he will be able to reach equilibrium, where the price he is willing to pay for the amount of established reputation of an actor matches the price that the actor wants to be paid for their work. The price he then pays for these actors would be the equilibrium price, and the amount of actors he is able to hire for that equilibrium price would be the equilibrium quantity.

Now let's say that John has put together a stellar, one-of-a-kind cast and his show is ready to be put on sale on the market, which is in this case ticket buying services reached either by phone, e-mail, or manually. Now normally the law of demand would institute that as John increased the price of his tickets the amount of tickets he would sell would decrease. This can be illustrated through a Demand Schedule:

Price of Ticket	Amount of Tickets Bought
$50	5,000
$30	4,000
$25	3500

Now while this is the normal way that the prices will be adjusted there may be other factors that may effect how much the tickets may cost. One of the principle factors is the elasticity of the price of the tickets. If the price of the tickets has an elastic demand or supply, then a change in price, whether up or down, will greatly affect the amount of tickets sold. Now if the tickets become an inelastic demand or supply then the price can be moved up with either the same or more amount of buyers leading to an increase in profits, or a lower amount of buyers but not enough to hurt or decrease the amount of revenue. Now two of the factors that effect whether the tickets will be an inelastic or elastic are as follows:

How many other shows with similar themes, or substitutes are there?: If there are a lot of shows on Broadway about the lives of television celebrities or shows with similar songs and themes as John's musical, then his show will be relatively elastic because if the price for his tickets go up, then the audience could just go see another musical for less of a cost. However if there are few musicals on Broadway and none about the lives of celebrities, then his show will be relatively inelastic because the audience doesn't have much of a choice on what to see.
What are the prices of complements?: Complements in this case would include prices of restaurants, concession stand prices, hotel costs and other travel expenses. If these complements greatly increased in price, then John's tickets would become more elastic because people would be more pressed for money. However if the prices of complements decreases then Johns tickets would become more inelastic allowing him to charge more and increase his revenue.

Now in addition to elasticity there is one other factor that may affect John's price and that is Quantity Supplied vs. Quantity Demanded. If there is more quantity demanded than quantity supplied then John is faced with a shortage which will allow him to increase the price of his tickets. If there is a larger quantity supplied than quantity demanded then John is faced with a surplus which will probably lead him to decrease his price. John will usually want to have a shortage so he will be able to charge a higher price for his tickets and earn more profit for the show.

Now with his newfound knowledge of economics, John is ready to produce his musical and make it a big success. I would just like to wish David Hasslehoff the best of luck as he prepares to launch his musical and if anyone is interested in learning more there is and excellent article at http://www.insideeonline.com/news/details/20060630-360/david_hasselhoff..._the_musical?.html .

Introduction To the Tales of Libby sparrow

2006-07-26T11:47:00.000-04:00

Hello, welcome to my first blog, believe it or not! Well here goes nothing (or everything depending on how you look at it)!

If you are viewing this blog you probably think that there is something somewhat interesting here and I am pleased to tell you that sadly you have wasted your time and that is not the case. But please, don't leave and go waste your time somewhere else, for out of all places to waste your time this has to be among the top 1000. Anyway I do plan for this blog to become more interesting as time goes on.

Here is where I plan to post my feelings and discoveries on the various areas of storytelling from musicals to plays to movies to novels to songs to tradition and fairy tales. Here is also where I plan to post some of my own stories, plays, songs, musicals and such, as well as tell updates on my perilous journey into the foggy depths of the methods of storytelling. Now a little about me.

Once Upon a Time there was girl named Libby Sparrow, named so because a few years ago she was convinced that she would audition for and get the part of Jack Sparrow's neice in the second Pirates of The Carribean Movie. This girl loved to sing, dance, act, write and most importantly dream. Dream of imaginary or real worlds in which characters overcame gigantic odds and achieved great feats. So she started a blog and now your reading it.

Price	Amount of Time
$10,000 a month	three months
$15,000 a month	six months
$20,000 a month	a year