The Jungle

The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair (1878–1968). Sinclair wrote the novel to portray the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago and similar industrialized cities. However, most readers were more concerned with his exposure of health violations and unsanitary practices in the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century, based on an investigation he did for a socialist newspaper.

The book depicts working class poverty, the lack of social supports, harsh and unpleasant living and working conditions, and a hopelessness among many workers. These elements are contrasted with the deeply rooted corruption of people in power. A review by the writer Jack London called it, "the Uncle Tom's Cabin of wage slavery."

Sinclair was considered a muckraker, or journalist who exposed corruption in government and business. He first published the novel in serial form in 1905, in the Socialist newspaper, Appeal to Reason, between February 25, 1905 and November 4, 1905. In 1904, Sinclair had spent seven weeks gathering information while working incognito in the meatpacking plants of the Chicago stockyards for the newspaper. It was published as a book on February 26, 1906, by Doubleday and in a subscribers' edition.

The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book (1894) is a collection of stories by English author Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–94. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six years of his childhood there. After about ten years in England, he went back to India and worked there for about six-and-a-half years. These stories were written when Kipling lived in Vermont. There is evidence that it was written for his daughter Josephine, who died in 1899 aged six, after a rare first edition of the book with a poignant handwritten note by the author to his young daughter was discovered at the National Trust's Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire in 2010.

The tales in the book (and also those in The Second Jungle Book which followed in 1895, and which includes five further stories about Mowgli) are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons. The verses of The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down rules for the safety of individuals, families, and communities. Kipling put in them nearly everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the Indian jungle." Other readers have interpreted the work as allegories of the politics and society of the time. The best-known of them are the three stories revolving around the adventures of Mowgli, an abandoned "man cub" who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. The most famous of the other four stories are probably "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", the story of a heroic mongoose, and "Toomai of the Elephants", the tale of a young elephant-handler. As with much of Kipling's work, each of the stories is followed by a piece of verse.

Jungle

A jungle is land covered with dense vegetation dominated by trees. Application of the term has varied greatly during the last several centuries. Jungles in Western literature can represent a less civilised or unruly space outside the control of civilisation: attributed to the jungle's association in colonial discourse in the British Raj. Therefore, the nearest equivalent scientific term is probably monsoon and seasonal tropical forest.

Etymology

The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala (Sanskrit: जङ्गल), meaning uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to dry land, it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its connotation as a dense "tangled thicket" while others have argued that a cognate word in Urdu did refer to forests. The term is prevalent in many languages of the Indian subcontinent, and the Iranian plateau, where it is commonly used to refer to the plant growth replacing primeval forest or to the unkempt tropical vegetation that takes over abandoned areas.

X Ambassadors

X Ambassadors (also stylised XA) is an American alternative rock band from Ithaca, New York. The band has had hits such as "Unconsolable", "Jungle" and "Renegades". The band's debut full length album titled VHS was released on June 30, 2015.

History

2009–12: Ambassadors EP and Litost

X Ambassadors began as a band titled simply Ambassadors, touring with artists such as LIGHTS. During this time, they self-released their debut EP, Ambassadors EP, creating a music video for its lead single, "Tropisms". Shortly after, the band self-released its debut LP, Litost. The band started a Kickstarter account to shoot a video for the lead single, "Unconsolable," which would be re-recorded later. The LP's titular song, "Litost", would later be used on the soundtrack for The Host and, like "Unconsolable", on the Love Songs Drug Songs EP. The group was noticed by Imagine Dragons while frontman Dan Reynolds was sick in the hospital in Norfolk, Virginia. Reynolds heard an acoustic version of "Unconsolable" on 96X WROX-FM and asked Interscope to sign the band as soon as possible.

PAW Patrol

PAW Patrol is a Canadian animated television series created by Keith Chapman. The series first aired on August 12, 2013, on Nickelodeon in the United States and in Canada on TVOKids on August 27, 2013. The series is produced by Spin Master Entertainment in association with TVOKids and Nickelodeon, with animation provided by Guru Studio. On November 14, 2013, Nickelodeon announced that PAW Patrol had been renewed for a second season, which began airing on August 13, 2014. On June 9, 2015, Nickelodeon announced that PAW Patrol had been renewed for a third season, which began airing on November 20, 2015.

Plot

A tech-savvy boy named Ryder leads a pack of seven dogs: Marshall, Rubble, Chase, Rocky, Zuma, Skye and Everest (the last of which was added to the team in season two). With a unique blend of stunts, pop culture references and lots of child-friendly humor, the PAW Patrol works together on high-stakes rescue missions to protect the city of Adventure Bay. Their most frequent caller is a fisherman named Cap'n Turbot, who knows a lot about the ocean and loves hanging out with the pups.