GLADIATOR

I watched a movie named Gladiator on TV. Gladiators are men that are chosen according to their physical strength to fight in an arena. They have to fight against each other in order to kill each other. The survivor is the winner. Sometimes wild animals like lions are included in the fight. Those cruel fights are set up in order to entertain people. At that time, the nation was very fond of violent battles and gladiators were popular in Roma. It takes place in grandiose theatre called the coliseum of Roma. The emperor, Commode or Cesar, they call him both, is a character with a disturbed personality. He killed his father in order to succeed him and it seems that he wants to have an intimate relation with his sister. Since their father died, she has been living in fear of her brother. Russel Crowe is the main gladiator. His name is Maximus, and he also is called The Spanish. He was a successful general in an army, before being forced to be a slave and a gladiator. It is a very deep movie with such themes as death, bravery, slavery, relationships, loyalty and political power. It portrays the culture and the traditions of the nation of Roma at this time. This movie made me feel a little nostalgic about Niger and my life before leaving Niger, because we discussed this movie in Latin class in Niger. It was part of the course. My teacher’s name was Assemat. She came from Italia I think. She is an outstanding teacher, very passionate. I wonder if she still teaches in Niger. It was an option that I took because my parents wanted to. On the long run, I learned to like it. But Latin is a dead language. It means that people don’t speak Latin. They just study it. At that time, I did not see the importance of learning Latin. Later, when I passed my Baccalaureat in Paris, I was happy that I studied Latin because it allowed me to have extra credit. Words in Latin look like amicus, amicae, amicum, bella, nostrum ect.. Lots of words in French come from Latin. Sometimes I miss those classes because it was so interesting to decipher the meaning of Latin words and because my classmates and my teachers were amazing. I wish I could take this course again.

To go back to the main point, gladiator is really a good movie. The complexity of the character of Cesar is very surprising and interesting in this movie. Also, gladiators really existed in the history of Roma. It is not a fiction.

I am in the lab with my classmates. Scott asked us to blog during 20 minutes. There is no subject. What am I going to talk about? Yesterday, I heard a very meaningful and deep quote, which says “a house doesn’t make home”. It is so true. I left Niger when I was 16 years old. Since then, I have never found a place I could call home. It makes me become aware that my home is Niger. This is where I have been the most happy until now. Scott interrupted us to say that we should not write our blog on word, but directly on the blog itself. I am so perfectionist that I do not want to have mistakes in my entree, so I always blog on Microsoft word before. Maybe I need to take things just as they come sometimes. But it is difficult for me. For example, I am totally satisfied only when I have full marks in class. I like things to be neat and perfect. My room is so carefully tidied and neat that my sister says that I am a psycho. By the way we are totally different. She is satisfied with things that are OK. She doesn’t need everything to be planned and perfect like me. Maybe it also comes from my education because my father always tells me to seek excellence. The time allowed for blogging is over.

ARTISTIC BREAKTHROUGH

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel is the great mind behind the Eiffel Tower. He was born on December 15, 1832 in Dijon, in France. Gustave Eiffel is considered as a creative genius because he applied innovative ideas to the construction of great buildings, and also because of his avant-garde design of the Eiffel tower, which is considered as a breakthrough in architecture and art.

I/ PROFESSIONAL PATH

A/ Gustave Eiffel was an intelligent scholars and finished brilliantly his studies.

- Graduated with degree both in Sciences and Humanity

- Graduated from the Engineering school Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in 1855

B/ Gustave Eiffel’s first job revealed his talent and his creativity, then he started an outstanding career in a business specializing in metal structural work in 1864

- Engineer on a project for a railway bridge, in Bordeaux, France.

Work considered great by critics; complete success

- Built great number of metal structures of all kinds all over the world

- Was renown for precise industrial installations

- Worked on the Porto viaduct over the River Duro in 1876, one of his most outstanding building

- Worked on the Garabit viaduct in 1884

- A mountainous barrier was an obstacle to reach Southern France in the late 1800

- For years, engineers tried to find a solution to the problem

- innovative idea of Eiffel: build a huge wrought-iron arch with a minimal amount of material to create a route

II/ THE EIFFEL TOWER: THE APOGEE OF EIFFEIL’S CREATIVITY

A/ By the end of his projects, Gustave Eiffel was a master of metal structural work, which lead him to the project of the Eiffel Tower

- spent the last thirty years of his life on the project of the Eiffel Tower

- wind resistance experiments

- innovative approach to the problem of wind loads

- studied an innovative solution to give resistance to the tower against wind

- imagined the Eiffel tower’s elegantly curved silhouette

- meteorological observation

B/ The elegantly curved shape of the Eiffel Tower reflects Eiffel’s creativity

- At that time, shape of the tower was impressive

- Eiffel’s purpose: to give impression of strength and beauty by the silhouette of the tower

- People shocked by such avant-garde work

- Shape reveals strong artistic temper

- Similar work never seen before

- Curve of the tower: result of mathematical calculation created by Eiffel

- Created a balance between aspiration to beauty and mathematical constraint

- Creativity help him struggling with natural conditions to build it

SUCCESS IN BUSINESS

There are many ways that lead to success in Business. How to determine the most efficient ways to build and run a successful business? One can get inspired by people’s success stories such as Soichiro Honda from Honda cars and bicycles or Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft. However, anyone can figure out his or her own recipe for success. To me, a good marketing is an essential key for success in business. Marketing is the activity of presenting, advertising and selling a company’s products in the best possible way. First, it is necessary to have an efficient and clear advertisement. For example, the KFC ( Kentucky fried Chicken) food chain, has used for its debuts early TV advertisement on which it emphasized the importance of a family gathering for a meal. It was an immediate success. Second, the slogan plays an important role in an advertisement. It has to be short, easy to remember, and catchy. For example, “impossible is nothing” from Adidas, or “just do it” from Nike. Furthermore, people who succeed in business are people who have pioneering ideas and create breakthrough technology products. For instance, the company Apple Computer revolutionized the world of electronic devices, with the portable media player iPod.