Oil Prices Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Oil Prices - Essay Example The oil market has highly inelastic demand and supply especially in the short run mainly because there are a few if any substitutes for it. Scientists have attempted tirelessly to create solar and CNG run cars and there has been an attempt to harness nuclear power at all levels of the industrial use. Oil supply is also inelastic because of the cost of the refining and infrastructure costs incurred by the crude oil suppliers to make the oil marketable. Also associated are the costs of maintaining such infrastructure because the cost of infrastructure remains constant regardless of any output. For example when in 1973 the OPEC cartel announced a US-Israel Boycott there was a reduced supply in the overall oil output therefore for any given price level, there would be lesser oil supplied. Natural causes like earth quakes or war situations also have a significant effect on oil supply. An example is the recent disaster of the Hurricane Katrina which affected production in the Gulf of Mexico. More so the increasing industrial demand for oil in the third world countries is also a factor in the rising oil prices. In the following diagram at any given level of price, more oil is demanded and the price increases. However with regard to oil prices in the long term there are other factors at play. The long term demand and supply of oil are very much elastic. Long term demand is likely to change if the oil shortage is constant. A short term disaster may change consumer behaviour temporarily but in the long term if the supply remains short constantly the following might happen; People might start adopting to the shortage by using more fuel efficient cars, using CNG,solar power or even nuclear power. At the industrial level nuclear power or coal power can replace oil powered generators.These are slow changes but have permanent long term effects on the demand of oil. There might be increased oil exploration in areas where previously it was too difficult to start wells. This may be because a supplier is restricting the oil supply. The effect of finding new oil fields will be to break already established cartels or oligopolies. There is not just one answer to the reasons behind the rising real oil prices.This has become an issue much influenced by war and politics.The demand and supply factors are very much influential in the short term but in the long term the consumption trends and investment are greater reasons for the shifts in the demand and supp

How Do the films Pretty Woman and Maid in Manhattan Attempt to Revive Essay

How Do the films Pretty Woman and Maid in Manhattan Attempt to Revive the Screwball Genre - Essay Example However Comedy as truly said in the quote above is a serious business. It is a serious business because unlike a real life business, comedy has only one agenda to achieve and that is to make a people laugh and be merry. In this essay we are going to analyse what is comedy with reference to screwball genre of comedy. After we have a look at various types of genres in comedy we will look into screwball genre with help of two movies ‘Pretty Woman’ and ‘Maid in Manhattan’. How do we define comedy? It is basically professional entertainment consisting of jokes to make the audience laugh. It can be in various formats such as plays, films, television shows, etc. Comedy comes in various types. What makes us laugh while we are watching a comedy? We laugh when we find something funny especially when something in front of us is twisted and crooked than our expectations from a situation. For ex: We laugh when we see someone stepping on a banana skin and having a fall. D o we expect people to fall tripping over a banana skin? Yes we do. But what if someone does step on a banana skin and doesn’t fall? Or the person even tries to balance him or herself awkwardly to avoid the fall? The entire gesture of regaining balance and composure becomes hilarious than the actual fall. It is contrary to our expectations of a person tripping over a banana skin. This is one of the many situations which gets funny and causes humour or comedy. There is no definite situation why a person may or may not feel humorous or funny. Comedy hence is very difficult to predict. In literature or other art forms, all other forms are definite, be it tragedy, anger, frustrations, seriousness etc. The audience reaction is predictable because the form is designed with a distinct purpose. For Ex: A tragedy like Othello or Macbeth is definite in its purpose which makes the audience feel strongly about vanity of values and ethics in life. Hence making people laugh or comedy become s a business seriously done. Although the basic purpose is to make an audience laugh, the shades of humour change from each type. Ranging from a very light effervescent humour to black dark comedies, comedy is a medium used to comment on the paradoxes of society. It is often said that comedy is essentially a good tool to put a point across, because it acts like a fist in velvet glove. Considering this we can state that comedy has different styles and types or genres. Let us have a look at various genres of comedy: 1. Slapstick comedy: Slapstick is a boisterous comedy usually consisting of crude practical jokes and physical humour. The topmost name in slapstick comedy genre is of Charlie Chaplin. Audience ruptured into laughter while watching Chaplin on screen. For ex: He is walking on a footpath looking here and there and without noticing the electricity pole and suddenly bumps into it drives the audience mad with laughter. Slapstick is a form which has stayed longest in all the com edies presented so far. The latest example of slapstick comedy is Jim Carrey in the movie ‘The Mask’. The mask brings out the inner desires and emotions of the person who wears it. No other form of comedy would have done justice to the eccentricity of the character portrayed than slapstick. 2. Parody and Spoof: Parody is deliberate mimicking to cause humour. Although spoof and parody have a very thin line of