To Change the World Professor Ramos Blog

To Change the World â€Å"You can’t change the world without getting your hands dirty† – Lelouch Lamperouge Chess is the ultimate game of logic, and while war may involve a cocktail comprised of ethics, logic, law, fear, and destruction, we see a war played similarly to a game of chess when we look into the madness that is within the mind of Lelouch vi Britannia (or his alias Lelouch Lamperouge). We understand that the point of this essay is to convey thoughts on a causal analysis of a monster, a spoiler warning is necessary. Through fluid storytelling and a frightening drive, this is how a dispositioned prince takes over the world after he is exiled. His methods, though crude and brutal, would be seen as a game of chess, sacrificing many of his own in order to gain success in battle, though managing to remain a positive figure to his own subordinates throughout his time fighting for power. Lelouch Lamperouge is a 15-year-old boy who watched his mother and sister become casualties to a terrorist attack. His mother, Marianne was killed by rifle fire while protecting Lelouche’s sister Nunnally. After questioning his father for his mother’s death, Lelouch showed resentment towards his father for the death of his mother and the disablement of his sister. As a result of his outright and blatant resentment, Charles vi Britannia, the Emperor, exiled Lelouch and his sister as political pawns to Japan. This was the seed that would inevitably birth the monster. Lelouch would soon swear â€Å"to obliterate Britannia† (Episode 1 Code Geass, 2006) After Lelouch and his sister were sent, the Emperor sent a barrage of attacks to the island nation, easily conquering it with the introduction of large, robotic weapons called Knightmare Frames or Autonomous Armored Knights. Japan is quickly conquered and rebranded as Area 11. Lelouch and his best friend, Suzaku Kururugi witness the carnage, and Lelouch vows to destroy his father’s empire. These early events spark what would become one of the most well-thought-out and in-depth plotlines in anime. Years later, Lelouch and Nunnally, who are presumed dead as a result of the invasion of his father’s empire, are hidden in exile using a different last name. Lelouch remained quiet and took to playing chess and gambling with noble members of Britannian society, while staying living in the dorms of the Ashford Academy. Lelouch would soon meet his partner in crime, after accidentally becoming involved with the â€Å"witch† of a girl and a resistance group. The truck suddenly explodes, killing only the driver and Lelouch and C.C. encounter a Britannian military officer, who shows desire to kill Lelouch and innocent civilians, with no regard to humanity. Lelouch is suddenly offered the â€Å"Power of the Kings†, also known as Geass. His left eye now has a glowing, bird-like symbol that gives him the power to compel any individual to do whatever her says. He commands the Britannian officer and his subordinates to commit suicide, leading to a few dozen soldiers to suddenly and almost ceremoniously die in front of Lelouch. Suddenly, Lelouch is filled with inspiration, as he had finally understood that he finally had the ability to fight against his father, after hiding for many years. Lelouch now had the ability to begin waging war against the massive, Holy Britannian Empire, and their corrupt government, starting with â€Å"Area 11†. He tests his abilities by compelling another military officer to give him their Knightmare Frame, in which he convinces a local terrorist group to comply, in order to win a battle he suddenly put himself into. In the wake of success, Lelouch sneaks into Area 11 Viceroy’s chambers, who is also an estranged brother of his, assassinating him, and claiming the new name â€Å"Zero†, leader of the new paramilitary force (to Britannians, terrorists) called the Black Knights, whose mission is to protect the weak and displaced Japanese. The girl, C.C., gives Lelouch the ability to finally gain vengeance for the nation he believed took his family and happiness. The motions set into effect from his childhood, and coincidentally gaining the ability to control anyone, leads to his guerrilla tactics. In history, we see this occur many times. Prior to exile, Stalin had drive to change Eastern Europe and Russia, even going as far as going against Lenin, who respected, but did not care much for Stalin’s leadership. Stalin, much like Lelouch had emotions for only a few people. It was stated that the only individual Stalin truly cared for was his first wife, and afterwards, became colder to everyone else. This story also relate to Hitler, who rose to power after fighting in a war and fighting through the harsh politics of Germany at the time. Lelouch was also cold and jaded, giving little care about who dies within a large war, and that all of the means to his ends would be justified. His methods for rising to the top as the world’s most feared leader, towards the end, makes his history similar to that of the harshest leaders we’ve ever seen, such as Stalin and Hitler, however the true ends of those two differ from Lelouch’s true legacy in opposing fashion, at least within their intent. With few similarities between these leaders, could categorize him as a â€Å"monster that polices the borders of the possible† (J. Cohen, Page 12, Seven Theses). When Stalin and Hitler died, the world saw relief. Two harsh and cold leaders who’ve orchestrated the genocide of millions each would become a pox lifted from the Earth. Lelouch’s death would be seen as the same, as the two aforementioned leaders, however his death would be unique. Prior to death, Lelouch had gained such power and was feared by all of the world. He planned his own death, having his good friend take his life in front of billions of people who were watching him all over the world. All of the hatred Lelouch gained would be wiped out when he’d be assassinated on live television. The world rejoiced, and it is believed the throne would be given to his little sister, who Lelouch had envisioned in the beginning, to live a life in a world without his father’s rule. He escapes and avoids capture a few times, making him fall into the category of the monster theory, â€Å"The Monster Always Escapes† (J. Cohen, Page 4, Seven Theses). The monster was created by another monster. Charles vi Britannia, Lelouch’s father, ruled his empire with a hard fist, crushing the opposition, and becoming the scourge of the world by other leaders. He is seen as the predominant reason why Lelouch would rise in power, only to eventually triumph over his father. C.C., who gives Lelouch the power to compel anyone to do anything, would be the precipitating cause, as he would be unable to wield his power effectively without her. His true intent was to leave the world in a more pleasant state, so that his sister could live without the injustices, and that’s exactly what he did, albeit at the cost of his own life. Perhaps it would be counterproductive, considering he and his younger sister were close, and his death would leave her saddened, but taking the scandal and hatred along with him would fulfill his promise to her. Though he is seen as a scourge of the world, to only a few privileged members of his staff, he died a martyr. â€Å"Fear of the monster is really kind of a desire† (J. Cohen, Page 16, Seven Theses) is my personal favorite to relate this monster to within the seven theses. To initially wield the amount of power that gives the ability to change the world would be wished by many, for selfish or selfless reasons. But what makes the ending difficult to witness is the idea of dying as a ruthless tyrant in the eyes of your subjects, while only few understand the true intent of your own planned death, with his last words being, â€Å"I have destroyed the world and created a new†, as his sister watches him pass away. Cohen J. Monster Culture (Seven Theses). Print. 1996. Taniguchi G, Okouchi I. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. Sunrise Studios. Television Series. 2006. Hangyaku no Lelouch. MyAnimeList. Information. https://myanimelist.net/anime/1575/Code_Geass__Hangyaku_no_Lelouch Joseph Stalin. History. Biography. 2009. https://www.history.com/topics/russia/joseph-stalin

100 Reasons To Focus On Blog Readabilityâ€Not Traffic

100 Reasons To Focus On Blog Readability- Not Traffic The purpose of content marketing isnt to increase blog traffic. Yet here we are, focusing on things like  getting more social shares  or growing our email list- things that have numbers we can measure.  In the midst of all of this focus on growth, we missed on  something incredibly important: How do we get people to read our content? Youd be surprised at how much money and effort youre putting into content that isnt being read. 100 Reasons To Focus On Blog Readability- Not Traffic via @JulieNeidlingerWhy People Arent Reading Online Content Lets put a number on it: Less than half of your blog readers actually read past 100 words. Thats 100 reasons you should focus on creating content that keeps readers interested in your entire blog post. Thats a real bummer if youre writing long-form blog posts of 2,000 words or more. In 2013, Slate author Farhad Manjoo wrote an article about how people don’t read online content. Manjoo asked a data scientist to analyze Slate’s traffic, and discovered that online readers have a dismal ability to focus. By the time readers scroll to the 100-word mark, half of them have decided to leave, though some will share the partially-read post on their way out the door. Less than half of your #blog readers read past 100 words. Heres how to fix that.Manjoo, a writer, was bothered. He noted the poor connection between shares and blog readership. Lots of social action didn’t mean deep reading, and content that was fully read didn’t always generate many tweets. Manjoo’s article was shared an impressive 13,000 times, with a majority of those shares, if the research was correct, from people who didn’t read past a few introductory paragraphs. Like Slate, you put time and money into creating great content. You assume that if it was shared, it was (mostly) read. Wrong. There is a lack of blog readership happening that those sharing numbers can’t measure. You can stop reading now if you don’t care if anyone reads your content. Banner blindness and desensitization When the web was new, maybe readers noticed banner images. This is no longer the case, however. It’s called banner blindness, and it means that repeated exposure to banner images and other marketing techniques have left readers desensitized. Even if a banner graphic or pop-up modal is important, you’ve unwittingly used a form that your reader has been trained to ignore and skip. How bad is this ability to ignore? According to HubSpot, the average clickthrough rate of display ads is 0.1%, with half of those being accidental. Readers are learning to tune things out, and this includes your content. Your best work, your most clever copy, your beautifully designed ad. Unnoticed. There is so much content marketing spilling over the dam that readers, in doing everything they can to maintain focus, have learned to block out what they think isn’t important- just like they learned to ignore banner ads. To cope with all of the content, readers default to skimming and skipping. Elmore Leonard and the skippable parts In his 10 Rules Of Writing, author Elmore Leonard ended his list with this: Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Leonard understood how people read books, whizzing by solid paragraphs of purple prose to get to the dialogue. The dialogue, after all, is where the characters develop, where they interact, where the action happens. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. - Elmore Leonard How do people read online? They read just as Leonard warned us about. They skip what they think is unimportant. They skim until they see something interesting. According to Tony Haile, CEO of Chartbeat (the same company that Slate used for data analytics) 55 percent of online readers spend less than 15 seconds on a page. Why aren’t they reading the whole thing? People are reading under time constraints. They are reading in hyperspeed. A bulleted list tells them that they can grab information quickly. Paragraphs that have more than one idea won’t fly. Every paragraph’s first sentence must be a lede. They don’t have time to read a lot of copy. They’re busy looking for something to share, not a meaty thesis that they have to think about. People are only reading what they think is relevant. Researcher Jakob Nielsen found that readers are skimming first, deciding whether or not there are enough indicators that tell them to read. They want to see keywords highlighted through the copy, whether as subheaders, bold text, or color. They don’t want to see clever subheadings. People want the conclusion first. They warm to the inverted pyramid style of writing that is familiar to journalists, laying out the conclusion first. 80 percent of a reader’s time is spent â€Å"above the fold†, i.e. before they have to start scrolling. Everything important has to be at the top. People don’t have time for snake oil. Readers look for cues that you and your copy can be trusted. They don’t like marketese (â€Å"best ever!†), and they want to see outbound links. In essence, skippable parts are the author’s vanity at the expense of readers’ time. Your content must be built for skimming. Unfortunately, content marketers are busy creating long-form posts because search engines seem to prefer them, according to Neil Patel of QuickSprout. They compound this insult using questionable graphics and call-to-action techniques because the analytics â€Å"prove† that this works. This is a problem. With the explosion of content marketing techniques that are built for  traffic hits and analytics rather than readers, we have trained our readers to ignore our content. Have we trained our readers to ignore #contentmarketing like they ignore banner ads?There is less and less leeway when it comes to getting  your content noticed in a crowded arena with weary and unwilling readers. It’s do-or-die within in a few seconds.  It has to happen in 100 words. How To Get People To Read Your Content Nielsen’s research suggests that only 20 percent of your web copy is read. How do you feel about that? You probably hoped for a better return on your financial and time investment. Your introductions really do matter. Introductions start with the hook- that matters. You have to avoid the initial bounce of readers who click in and out in an instant. But past the hook? Your first 100 words are important. Write headings that tell what the content is about. People are skimming the internet, so be sure your headings and subheadings are clear. Avoid vague headlines. That way, if someone is skimming, they know what your content is about and whether or not it's worth their time to read. If they determine it isn't worth their time... You have to let some readers go. Not everyone wants to read every piece of content you create. Perhaps a  team blog has a leg up on solo blogs in that having a team of bloggers with different writing styles  and topic ideas  means you'll have a good mix of content. Some content is a hit, some is a miss, and some topics your regular readers don't care about. That's fine. You must make your content fit how people want to use it. You may wish to write 5,000-word blog posts, but your readers may only want cursory coverage. Bend your content to fit how it will be consumed. Not getting comments? Not getting much discussion on content toward the end of a long post? Readers not sharing s from the end of your posts? Then maybe your readers want shorter posts. Stop fixating on clicks, hits, and conversions. What happens after the click is as important. Medium.com understood this from the beginning, and chose to measure how much a piece of content is read versus whether someone clicked through to it. This is your takeaway: readers use your content how they want to, not how you want them to.