London Calling Essay Example

London Calling Essay Example London Calling Essay London Calling Essay London Calling The article from the â€Å"Newsweek† magazine is written by William Underhill who was in London with Marie Valla. The article is informative, describing London’s best attributes and development on financial, cultural and intellectual areas. The growing prosperity and popularity is presented as a result of one thing in particular: immigration. This means the main focus in the article is how immigration has contributed to London’s culture in many ways – in fact, immigration is defined as â€Å"(†¦) the secret to London’s success,† which is clearly a flattering statement. Throughout the text, a lot of rhetorical devices are used in the article on order to promote immigration. The â€Å"Newsweek† magazine itself is a business magazine, directed to people interested in modern business and future development, such as company directors and professional investors. The article is a special city report on London. It is pretty obvious that it is business-related since the description of London focus mainly on commerce, work and culture, and barely on art and entertainment. The article does have a political background to some degree, since it takes a stand in favor of immigration and reasons against anti-immigration campaigns that are presented by the Conservative Party in the text – â€Å"As Livingstone sees it, the Tories’ extremist right-wing politics threaten to undermine the very essence of modern London the engine that powers not only Britain’s prosperity, but much of Europe’s. † – the essence of London being the result of immigration. The text relies almost too much on the pathos-appeal to be truly convincing though, making unsubstantiated claims such as â€Å"Some cities capture an era (†¦) Now it’s London’s moment – not some cool Britannia fad, fed by a few hot bands or hip designers, but a wholesale reinvention,† and â€Å"(†¦) London standing as Europe’s only world city,† and â€Å"Indeed, this is the only major European capital that is actually growing, a favored destination for work-hungry migrants from around the globe. † among others, which cannot be documented by facts. This shows how the author is also trying to make the article dynamic and exciting to read, maybe in order to purposely convince rather than inform the recipients of London’s success. Logos is very present though, documenting how London is growing, such as the professional forecast on how London will gain 810. 000 more people by 2016 – using numbers like that is using logos. But in over-all, I think the style is rather American, and would appeal more to Americans than to Europeans, since pathos and good-feel statements like â€Å"What makes us different is that we love diversity. We celebrate it,† are usually more prone to be found in the U. S. Another rhetorical device is the composition of the article. The article begins by positively describing London’s growth and how immigration has promoted the growth and popularity – what is interesting is that in the end, the author has chosen to throw in some fact on the bad consequences of foreigners streaming in the country, like traffic, high prices and the big gap between wealth and poverty. He believes this problems to be fixable though, and the up-sides to be more important, saying that â€Å"Perhaps the biggest challenges of all involves resisting political pressures that might kill the golden goose – over-harsh immigration politics to name (†¦)† This also indicates how the author is definitely not neutral, as mentioned. The purpose is not to mislead possible London-investors though, since it is an informative article. Underhill has two main purposes. He wants to show us or convince us of the fact that immigration is good and essential, and also that London is the absolute best place to be – â€Å"the 21st-century metropolis. William Underhill: †London Calling† page 51, 1st column [ 2 ]. William Underhill: †London Calling† page 51, 1st column [ 3 ]. William Underhill: †London Calling† page 50, 2nd column [ 4 ]. William Underhill: †London Calling† page 53 3rd column [ 5 ]. William Underhill: †London Calling† page 50, 1st column [ 6 ]. William Underhill: †London Calling† page 52, 1st column [ 7 ]. William Underhill: †London Calling† page 53, 3rd column [ 8 ]. William Underhill: †London Calling† page 53 3rd column [ 9 ]. William Underhill: †London Calling† page 51, 2nd column

Didelphodon - Facts and Figures

Didelphodon - Facts and Figures Name: Didelphodon (Greek for opossum tooth); pronounced die-DELL-foe-don Habitat: Swamps, lakes and rivers of North America Historical Period: Late Cretaceous (70-65 million years ago) Size and Weight: About one foot long and a few pounds Diet: Insects and small animals; possibly omnivorous Distinguishing Characteristics: Opossum-like teeth; semi-aquatic lifestyle; short, powerful jaws About Didelphodon Throughout the history of life on earth, marsupials have been mostly confined to two continents: Australia (where the vast majority of pouched mammals live today) and Cenozoic South America. However, one family of marsupialsthe pint-sized opossumshave prospered in North America for tens of millions of years, and are represented today by dozens of species. Didelphodon (Greek for opossum tooth), which lived in late Cretaceous North America alongside the last of the dinosaurs, is one of the earliest opossum ancestors yet known; as far as we can tell, this Mesozoic mammal wasnt significantly different from its modern descendants, burrowing underground during the day and hunting for insects, snails and possibly the hatchlings of prehistoric turtles at night. One of the odd things about Didelphodon is that it was apparently suited to a semi-aquatic lifestyle: the recently discovered skeleton of a nearly intact specimen, recovered near a Triceratops individual, reveals a sleek, otter-like body equipped with a Tasmanian Devil-like head and strong jaws, which may have been used to feast on mollusks in lakes and rivers, as well as insects, plants, and pretty much anything that moved. However, one shouldnt take Didelphodons guest appearances on animated TV documentaries too literally: in one episode of Walking with Dinosaurs, this tiny mammal is depicted unsuccessfully raiding a clutch of Tyrannosaurus Rex eggs, and an installment of Prehistoric Planet shows Didelphodon scavenging the carcass of a juvenile Torosaurus!