Databases, my favs

After looking through the many online databases that the UT library has to offer, I have narrowed it down to one that will help me with this upcoming paper and one that will be of help to me in the future with my choice of major.

Infotrac is the database in which I was able to find the most useful information for this upcoming paper.  One major part of my research for my paper will include looking at both the novel and the movie, The Road.  I was able to find a few articles very quickly that deals with both of these directly.

The Marketresearch.com database will be the most likely to help me in my current major, management and marketing.  I will be doing many reports and projects that will require lots of in depth research as I advance in my college career.  This database will be my first stop whenever the time comes that I need to begin looking at business research for classes.

Dr. Strangelove

The film Dr. Stramgelove, portrays a satiric spin on the 1960's and the nuclear fears that were in the minds of Americans at the time.  The film uses many stereotypes to poke fun at the different groups involved in the governement and the military.  For example, there is the drunk Russian leader, the General who immediately wants to start a full out nuclear attack at the first hint of an altercation, and the President who simply wants to talk things out and not affend anyone.  There is also the crazy Nazi scientist who is somewhat insane and has a sinister look about him.

The film is very effective at getting its point across mainly because it uses humor which is a great way to not only to get people to pay attention, but also to understand the point of whatever is being presented.  The film may fall short in the aspect that the ending, being the most important part of the film,  happens so fast that it is somewhat hard to understand exactly what happens and why all of the sudden bombs start going off as the movie ends.

Dr. Strangelove goes right in hand with a major apocalyptic topic that we have been looking at this semester, nuclear war, along with the common theme that most apocalyptic scenarios are human caused, commonly by greed or fear. 

Human Greed

Another theme that I have noticed while reading further into Boneshaker is the factor that human greed plays in most apocalyptic works.  In the case of this book it is greed in the form of wanting to drill through the Alaskan ice to find gold.  It is rare that any author or film-maker will create any apocalyptic work about a human-caused event without greed being the reason that the event was undergone in the first place.

First Analysis of Boneshaker

After reading the first little bit of Boneshaker, I have began to notice a common theme in the book that I have found prevalent in many other apocalyptic works that I have looked at.  The huge apocalyptic event in this book is a giant leak of gas from the ground which was caused by a device that was meant to find gold in Alaska.  It seems that many authors and film makers like to explore the fact that the apocalypse will be a man-made event.  Whether it be nuclear weapons, killer robots, medical made zombies, or economic collapse, there is without a doubt a trend of man made disasters in the apocalyptic genre, and especially in Boneshaker.

Book Choice

I have chosen to read Boneshaker

Writing Abstracts

While looking into writing abstracts today.  It became clear to me that this method will come to be very useful when I write the conclusion for my i-search project.  Since this is such a long and informative paper, it is important that the paper have a point where everything is summed up into larger ideas so the message of the project is not lost in all of the details that will be included in the paper.  This method will help me be able to tie up my project by revisiting and summing up all of my main points in order to make sure they are made clear.

Beginning My Research

After beginning my research for my I-Search project I am starting to become overwhelmed by the amount of information on the subject of the possibility of a major war between Israel and Palestine.  It has occurred to me that the clash of opinion between the two groups will make it somewhat difficult to gather initial broad information apart from what I already know from the time that I have spent in the area.