Christine de Pizan

Iowa’s nine counties with population densities exceeding 100 people per square mile, four (Story, Black Hawk, Woodbury, and Johnson) were among the fifteen counties with the highest poverty rates. Dallas County, which encompassing much of suburban Des Moines, has Iowa’s lowest poverty rate at 6%, but is also the only one of the nine most densely populated counties among the lowest fifteen counties by poverty rate. Polk County, by far Iowa’s most populated, has the state’s 44th highest with 12.3%…

Introduction: Magnet schools are schools of choice that are part of the public school system. They were created for the purpose of reversing the de facto segregation that was happening in urban schools in the 1970s. The school and curriculum is often built around a theme. That theme may be a subject area like STEM or the arts or an emphasis on an educational program like the International Baccalaureate curriculum or the Advance Placement program. Magnet schools have no geographic boundaries for…

Purple is known to be the hue which is between crimson and violet. We have heard people associating it with royalty, power and wealth for centuries. ‘Queen Elizabeth I forbade commoners, except only a few close relatives of the royal family, to wear the colour’. So why is this elite and sophisticated status given to this colour? The reason is actually associated with the limited availability of the colour. This rarity, lead to the colour being outrageously expensive, so much so that only the…

Blood diamonds is film, produced by Edward Zwick, released in 2006 that shows the perspective and a first person view on the war in Sierra Leone. The war consist of the rebels and the government, the rebels own diamond camps that force slaves to pan any jewels in rivers. The rebels will invade villages and kill thousands to show their dominance, they will also kidnap young children to turn them into young soldiers. Big diamond corporations will secretly buy these diamonds for a lower price than…

Blood Diamonds Conflict diamonds are a great concern in Africa especially with the bloodshed they cause. Blood diamonds, or conflict diamonds, are jewels mined in Africa and sold by rebels to gain military force. This has been a tremendous problem during the different civil wars in some countries in Africa. However, they are now being used in Liberia at rates never seen before. These diamonds are usually mined in northern and western regions of Africa. In some areas, diamonds would be placed on…

Monopolies of the Past and Present The United States has had its fair share of history with businesses that are considered to be anticompetitive. These types of businesses are known as monopolies and their common characteristic boils down to creating a lack of competition in a market. This lack of competition is known for stifling innovation and usually results in high prices of the product or service. In an attempt to foster competition in the United States economy, The Sherman Anti-Trust Act…

The old saying is “Two months’ salary for an engagement ring.” Obviously with the divorce rate rising above 50-percent for marriage in the United States calling this an “old” saying is almost old itself. However, it still goes on, the buying of expensive diamonds without recognizing who may have been killed, exploited or maimed just to get you that diamond…Blood Diamonds uses violence, labour, environment and many more. It is mostly a process using labour. Menes in Africa and especially Congo…

Diamonds Are Forever. Or so the De Beers mining company would like to remind us. For a century, if you purchased a diamond, there was a 90% or higher chance that The De Beer mining company brought it to market—a true monopoly. The last three and a half decades have not been so kind to the firm, with market share crashing to a “mere” 35%. This company was founded by none other than Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes was archetypically imperialist. We are given a small glimpse of Mr. Rhodes’ brand of…

independently, decide autonomously and take personal initiatives, the concept of individualism has acquired a positive connotation. However, individualism is also linked with the tendency to withdraw from social life and turn in towards oneself. Alexis de Tocqueville described individualism as the cool and considered attitude which drives people to withdraw into a small, enclosed world consisting of their family and a few select friends, leaving the rest of society to its own devices. The most…

Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-LeBrun, a Rococo era painter turned Neoclassical, was born in Paris on April 16, 1755. She lived to be eighty—seven as “one of the foremost portraitists in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century and during the first three decades of the nineteenth.” (NGA, web) (May, 1) Spanning a long career with over 600 paintings, Vigée-LeBrun is “characterized” and marveled “…as the much sought-after portraitist of not only European royalty and nobility, but also of notable…