Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Project environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Project environment - Essay Example In this scenario, the accomplishment of novel technology based infrastructure is intended to improve the general company as well as its operations management processes. I will present a complete outline of key tasks and areas those are considered to be problematic from the diagnosis point of view. Moreover, I will also propose the possible changes and improvements that we are able to carry out throughout new technology infrastructure. At the current time the businesses are facing a lot of problems regarding effective business projects management and reduced cycle time. In this regard, they are facing considerable delays between the project plan and actual implementation. Therefore, businesses are requiring to frequently adjusting company operations to survive in the everlasting competitive market situations. Additionally, to productively handle and manage new information and maintain it all through the corporation is critical to deal with these challenges. Thus, steady, business-wide knowledge sharing has, as a result, turned out to be essential. In this scenario, businesses apply solutions to collect, manage, and share knowledge. The most common opening application has been in the field of learning and training. Unluckily, usual classroom training plans are very time-consuming and costly to help businesses to tackle out mission-critical information quickly and competently (OneTouch, 2009). According to Efstathiades, Tassou, Antoniou, & Oxinos (1998) companies whose continued existence depends on upholding new, up to date, and well-informed business information need a flexible information sharing platform. Therefore, the business-wide knowledge sharing is one of most important factors. In scenario of latest technology implementation at a company there is need to change or update a lot of factors and business elements. In addition, there are a lot of issues involved in company management and

Monday, October 28, 2019

The Future of Books Essay Example for Free

The Future of Books Essay 1. Introduction Books have evolved greatly since the first writings in clay tablets a thousand years B. C. to nowadays with the digital versions of most books that were, not long ago, only available in paper. Even though stories have been carried and passed from generation to generation since the emergence of language, only until around the fifth century has it been heard about books and their use. In the antiquity, primitive materials in which to carve such as stone and wood were replaced by finer and more portable materials like scrolls, papyrus and manuscripts, which allowed the writing of longer texts with less effort, and which lead the reading experience reaching an elite minority until the invention of the print. The history of books in modern times is directly related to the creation of the print, in the mid 15th century, by Gutenberg. This invention allowed texts to be translated and diffused, reaching much wider audiences and narrowing the knowledge gap between different social classes. The first book that Gutenberg printed was the bible, which completely revolutionized the way in which religion was regarded by the then illiterate masses, and which’s impact was then followed by a series of not only religious, but also more general cultural transformations when all types of books were reproduced and made accessible for the people. Printing made it possible for stories and knowledge to be materialized and kept throughout the years. With the advancements of the printing industry, books became easier to publish, cheaper and more attainable to people. The first printing machine had been made of wood and required a lot of hand labor and time to print, so the available copies of a book were still relatively limited. However, as the years passed, innovators sought better alternatives to wood and created metal and later on iron printing machines, which later on became mechanized, speeding up the printing process and not depending on an extensive hand labor to function. In 1867 the typewriter was invented, facilitating the typing process. With this invention, the price of books became more affordable and an increased number of readers appeared. The paper book trend lasted for centuries, gaining more audience and strength with each print innovation that was made. From Gutenberg up to the late 20th century, print books had an enormous success and growing popularity. However, with the raise of computer technologies, in 1971 the first digital library was finally created. 2. From Papers to Screens Project Gutenberg was founded in 1971 by Michael Hart, who created the first electronic book ever, with the principle of making literature accessible to everyone and to decrease the levels of illiteracy in the world. The project gathered the most important books in history in various languages, converted them into an electronic form and made them available to the public for free. This was a turning point in the history of books, since books were no longer read only by those who could afford their price in bookstores, but also by those who did not have the means to buy hardcovers and who now had easy and free access to literature and knowledge. Without knowing, Project Gutenberg started what would become the digital age of books by leading the transition from print books to digital books. When the advantages and the success of digital books were seen, a whole new market of online retailers began to take place. The emergence of e-books attracted other authors as well as electronics businesses that saw an opportunity for innovation and big profits. Electronic readers were created, facilitating the electronic reading experience and allowing people to read mobile e-books instead of being fixed to big heavy screens. However, during the 70’s and the 80’s, e-books were mainly specialized, and they attracted segments of the population who were interested in a few available topics. As the internet progressed in the 70’s and the 80’s and e-book electronic reading devices hit the markets, the 90’s Internet advancements allowed the easy spread of e-books from computer to computer through the web, and also the digitalization of a wide variety of genres. This meant that books were made available for people with all tastes and not only for a specialized audience. Reading was able to become a means of entertainment and not only of education and knowledge for the less favored classes, like it had been up to then. Books went from being expensive and unaffordable by many, to being a commodity of which everybody could enjoy. The higher number of genres and of books in the Internet created an increasing demand for e-books, from which online retailers, such as Amazon, took advantage in the mid 1990’s. Businesses took the opportunity to digitalize books and sell them online for cheaper prices than those of their original paper formats. Another big player in the internet was Google, which decided to pay publishers to digitalize books and make certain parts, if not all of them, available for free. Apart from the digitalization of books, reading devices such as Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes Noble’s Nook, and Apple’s Ipad show the huge market that was created due to e-books, and the competition that took and still takes place in the digital world for the monopoly of e-books. 3. Reading experience As mentioned above, thanks to the invention of the print, reading became a common activity and was no longer reserved for a privileged majority. As books spread, illiteracy levels dropped and the audience for books became so diverse that it allowed for the distribution of books of all genres for all cultures and tastes. It was probably thanks to the digitalization of books that sub-genres gained popularity and were not left and forgotten in the shelves of bookstores and libraries. E-books, therefore, revived dead genres and gave an advantage to the ones that already enjoyed from a big demand in paper format. The reading experience has thus changed regarding new audiences reached and more genres available for cheaper prices. Another way in which e-books have benefited the audiences has been through the creation of digital libraries by physical libraries as well as online libraries. Since e-books do not occupy shelf space and they need only to be stored in databases, it is easy for libraries to organize their digitalized books and for customers to find specific topics and authors. In this sense, the process of finding books has been simplified compared to the regular library systems for non-digital versions. The process of digitalization is a long one but once all books become part of the digital library, they are easier to manage and to distribute when people look for them. Electronic libraries allow the storage of large numbers of books in a small memory space, without the need of bookshelves, space and a large staff. Thanks to this storage advantage, libraries can have more books readily available and people have a larger choice and are not limited by the physical space of libraries. At the same time, bookstores with e-book archives can save customers time by giving a faster service and avoiding queues and waiting lists for books that for instance, have no yet arrived to the bookstore or due to distances or to a large demand. Apart from the storage aspects, an important part of the transition from paper to screens has been the unwillingness of certain people to adapt to the electronic forms of books. Hardcover books have been part of cultures for so many centuries that for some people it is not so easy to accommodate to e-readings. The modern world is incredibly digitalized, from music to movies, so the digitalization of books appears to be natural, particularly to the youngest generations. The reading experience between paper books and e-books is clearly different since paper books offer the possibility of reading with more senses alert. For instance, when reading a handcover book, the reader can feel the pages’ texture and the smell of the book, and can see traits that are not present in e-readers, such as worn out and bended pages, which could be seen as a disadvantage, but they can also give a rewarding sensation to the reader who makes his way through the book and can perceive and appreciate how he gets closer to the end. Another element of the charm of paper books is the unhurried reading experience that they offer. This implies the easiness with which books can be transported and the little it matters where the reader is in order to be able to do his reading. Contrary to e-readers, paper books do not require battery charging, careful care from bad weather conditions, uploading or downloading of stories, among other factors. Thus, paper books can be said to be simpler to read and to offer a genuine reading experience that only requires a book and a reader. Despite these reading experience factors, future generations will very probably grow being increasingly familiar with e-books, which will be in favor for the expansion of the e-book market and will result in a further shrinking demand for print books. Children born in the digital age are not be aware of the long way that print books have come from if they are not taught about it, and they probably regard e-books as the initial state of books. Therefore, the reading experience is linked by large to former reading experiences and to the capability to compare e-books to non-digital books from an intellectual and also sentimental or sensorial point of view. 4. Writers and Cost Reductions For writers, the digitalization of books does not necessarily imply negative consequences, since there are several points which are in their favor. These include the possibility of self-publishing, no need for paper, easy editing, and no surpluses. Self-publishing is a great advantage for writers since publishing houses usually get most of the gains, leaving the authors with minimal profits from their own books. By skipping the intermediary, which in this case is the publisher, writers can put their books up in the internet for sale and get all the profits. This approach does have its risks since the advantage of going public through publishers is that they know about the business and they take care of all the steps. There is also the advantage of not needing paper, which again means fewer costs and thus, more gains for the authors. Writers can decide to publish their books directly online without having a print version if they do not wish to. This saves writers from the long lasting period of printing and book assembling before their book is launched. Also, no printing means one intermediary less in the process of book publishing. Working with publishers already costs a lot of money, so cutting any price, in this case paper, printing and assembling prices, is helpful for authors. Related to the paper advantage, is easy editing. Contrary to print books, e-books can be easily edited even if they have been already published; they do not face the inconvenience of having typos that would cost a lot of money to correct. In the case of print books, once the book is printed in big numbers, typos are not possible to correct until the next printings, but by then the public will already have the version with the typos in their hands. Editing also refers to bigger editing other than typos, such as whole passage modifications, which are possible to make in digital versions but not in paper. Writers can also benefit from the lack of book surpluses that result in money put into the rental of warehouses. Surpluses are very common for print books since at the moment of publishing, authors and publishers make an estimate of the books that will be sold, but they might not always be right or even approximate, due to the quality of the writing or of other external factors. In the case of e-books, no printing is necessary and purchases are done digitally so no warehouses are needed. This saves the authors money and allows for investment in other areas such as the advertising of their books. 5. More Readers for Writers. Concerning the readers, they have easy access to books and do not depend merely on the prices offered, since paper books usually cost a lot of money. Even if some digital books can be more expensive than others because of publishers, they are considerably cheaper than paper books. Another advantage for the readers is that they do not need to physically move if they need or want to get an e-book. As mentioned before, they have the advantage of avoiding long library and bookstore queues and waiting lists, and they can have access to the book they want directly from the comfort of their home or computer. These advantages mean that readers look for their books online more readily than they look for physical books, since these require more time, money and efforts. Therefore, writers can benefit for a wider, or at least more active, audience. 6. E-books and Different Genres In the case of the genres affected by the digitalization of books, academic books most probably will not increase their sales and will not be reaching a wider audience, since these books have a specialized audience that does not increase or decrease its demands with the availability of e-books. On the other hand, novels and books of popular genres like science fiction will most probably increase their demand numbers, since they do not require a specialized audience, but can entertain people from all social strata. Science fiction alone accounts for around 20% of all e-book purchases. At the same time, since digital readings offer the possibility of hyperlinks, search engines, and so forth, within or around the text, these distractions affect the reading quality of novels, but not so much the reading quality of dictionaries and cookbooks, for instance. 7. Concerning Publishers. Some of the players who are the most affected by the digitalization of books are publishers, since moving to digital forms has reshaped in the way in which books are marketed and also the costs involved and profits earned. Some of the advantages to publishers are the liberation from the constraints of printing and from surpluses of inventories. Another advantage is that older books that stopped selling on print can be published again in their digital form and reach wider audiences because of the cheaper prices, so profits can be made from book print inactive books. Despite these advantages, the disadvantages are also great. One of the biggest threats of publishing online is piracy, since pirates can easily take the book and distribute it illegally. Another disadvantage is the pricing for e-books in the internet, since different retailers and sellers have at times prices that differ greatly from one another and while big retailers can afford to cut costs and increase sales with some profit losses, small publishers cannot afford such a move. One more important disadvantage for publishers is that there are no more book displays in bookstore shelves that help advertise books. Publishers try, however, to create advertising for their clients through the social web in order to make up for this downfall. A technique used by publishers in order to keep their print sales alive is called â€Å"windowing† and it consists of publishing first the print version of a new book and delaying the e-version to increase the print sales. The idea is not to let people know when the e-version will be available so that they buy the print version and do not wait for the e-book to be published. However, this technique can go wrong and can create losses if the time length between the print and online publishing is not well foreseen. For instance, if the print book is sold out after a week, when the planned time was two months, then people will quickly forget about the book and once it is finally published digitally, it will not have the same effect it had back when there was expectation for the two publishes. A second technique that publishers are using is the publication of segments of a book, which the public can read, and if they like what they see, they are encouraged to make donations so that the author can finish writing the book and that it can be published. This is a very innovative idea, since it allows publishers to avoid surpluses, as well as printing if they decide to do this only with e-books. 8. Libraries Libraries are one of the most important stakeholders of the digitalization of books since they are usually decades all and have invested great sums of money on the local, the books, the maintenance, and so forth. For libraries, the conversion of books into e-books is very expensive because even though it is cheaper than storing physical books, there are far more e-books and therefore, the storage in a digital form is more expensive in the long run. Fortunately for libraries, literature will still be literature and regarded as such, no matter if it’s stored in bookshelves or in databases. This means that library clients would still frequent the library when looking for books, and also because libraries are not just places where books are stored, but also cultural places where people can gather and talk about literature or intellectual topics. At the same time, due to the creation of digital databases, libraries will have to start cutting down personnel and spaces in order to be able to afford the transition to digital forms. 9. Bookstores: Borders In the case of bookstores, they suffer more than libraries from e-books, since bookstores are not a place of consultation but of selling, and when money is involved, customers tend to turn where they can spend the least for the same service. One of the main concerns of bookstores is the low price that is charged for books in e-form, since for the same content there are significant price differences that clearly draw clients away from bookstores to the internet. Another main concern of bookstores is that the space that is used for storing and displaying print books will not be of any use, and even if they create digital databases to sell e-books in their stores, they cannot compete with online venders since they still need to cover local costs such as electricity, personnel, rent, maintenance, etc. Some of the strategies tried out by bookstores in order to survive the digital age is to host book clubs and social gatherings, as well as selling goods other than books. In the case of smaller bookstores, since they cannot compete with the others’ prices, have opted for offering writing classes, for instance, in addition to selling books in their stores. These strategies work in some cases but in others they have not been able to save bookstores from collapsing. On July 2011, the American bookstore giant, Borders, liquidated all of its stores after it went Bankrupt in February 2011. Next with its end went 11,000 lost jobs. In an interview to Border’s President Mike Edwards, he says, Following the best efforts of all parties, we are saddened by this development. We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but the head winds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, [electronic reader] revolution and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now. It is clear that Borders was not prepared for the digital wave that hit the book industry, and when it tried to react it was already too late. Borders had big stores and advanced equipment to locate books clients looked for. However, when the digitalization of books started taking place, Borders did not focus on building its own e-book market, but instead it used one of the above mentioned techniques, which was selling other goods, such as CDs and DVDs. It also invested on the infrastructure of its shops instead of taking action in the digital book market. Its main competitor was Barnes Noble, which has managed to survive and keep up by focusing on the promotion of e-books and on the release of its own e-reader, the Nook, which put it directly into the digital market and which allows it to better promote its own digital books. There is still much to be achieved and much competition to achieve from the part of Barnes Noble, but if it continues to accommodate to the digital flow then it is very likely that it will manage to sustain itself. For Borders, for Barnes Nobel, and for all bookstores nowadays, the big competitors are online retailers, especially Amazon, which is considered to be the biggest e-retailer on the web. 10. Online Retailers: Amazon Amazon was founded in the mid 1990’s and started off as an online book seller. With the years, it started expanding its market to multiple areas such as music, software, videogames and toys. Today, it sells an infinite variety of products and covers an international market as one of the biggest online retailers in the world. With the emergence of e-books and the enormous competition that surrounded Amazon, it decided not only to sell digital versions of its books but also to launch its own e-reader, the now famous Kindle. Its main adversary in terms of e-readers was and still is the iPad. In order to keep up with the competition and be the number one on the e-book market, Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle to a level where it was making no profits and was in the contrary, creating losses. The reasoning behind this strategy was to encourage people to buy the Kindle instead of other e-readers, and by buying the Kindle they would be likely to buy the e-books from Amazon too. Up to now, Amazon has been able to keep on competing with Apple, however, both are directed at different customers, since Apple’s iPad is more about design than about e-books, while Amazon’s Kindle is all about the e-books Amazon offers with it. The online retailer has the advantage on making its profits from a wide variety of products and not having to rely completely on e-books only. However, it is today the biggest e-retailer online and its e-books account for an important part of its success, and thanks to its Kindle and its prices it continues its way to dominating the e-book market. The future of Amazon is tightly related to the future of Bookstores and the future of print books. While Amazon continues to offer low prices for digital books, people will keep on turning to the cheaper digital versions and the demand for print books will keep on decreasing. At the same time, the international scope of Amazon and its prices make it difficult for bookstores to compete with it, since they rely on books mainly, while Amazon relies on many other products that it sells successfully online. 11. Conclusion The future of books seems to be as e-books mainly, even though the print versions will most probably continue to play an important role in society due to the historical and emotional charge that they carry. The generations  that grew up with print books are not likely to turn to digital forms too quickly, but as every year since the late 1990’s a new digital generation is born, print books will not have the same meaning they have today, just as they do not have the same meaning today as they had before the rise of the internet. In order for print books to survive, prices need to be lowered, and the most successful way to do this for authors is by self-publishing and reaching the audiences directly. This entails risks, but if print books continue to cost as much as they do today, the demand for them will decrease further with time. In the case of bookstores, for the moment they have no other alternative than to adapt to the digital market and to try to find other sources of income. Perhaps in the future, once the world is used to e-books, just like it is used to CD’s and not to cassettes today, people will look back and start turning to print versions which will be seen as unique and which might gain back the initial prestigious status that they once had when the print was first created. Works Cited Adam, Nabil R. Digital Libraries: Research and Technology Advances : ADL 95 Forum, McLean, Virginia, USA, May 15-17, 1995 : Selected Papers. Berlin: Springer, 1996. Print. Amazon: The Walmart of the Web. The Economist [San Francisco] 1 Oct. 2011: 57-58. Print. Amazons 15th Anniversary: A History of Online Shopping. Time. 16 July 2010. Web. http://www. time. com/time/business/article/0,8599,2004089,00. html. Archiving the Web: Born Digital. The Economist 23 Oct. 2010: 67. Print. Auletta, Ken. The IPad, the Kindle, and the Future of Books. The New Yorker. 26 Apr. 2010. Web. http://www. newyorker. com/reporting/2010/04/26/100426fa_fact_auletta. Background to Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg Australia. Web. http://gutenberg. net. au/background. html. Barnett, Emma. Self Publishing Writer Becomes Million Seller Telegraph. The Telegraph. 21 June 2011. Web. http://www. telegraph. co. uk/culture/books/booknews/8589963/Self-publishing-writer-becomes-million-seller. html. The Books Business: Great Digital Expectations. The Economist 10 Sept. 2011: 63-64. Print. Brooks, Sofie C. Publishing Words: The Future of Books | Arts | The Harvard Crimson. The Harvard Crimson. 20 Sept. 2011. Web. http://www. thecrimson. com/column/innovation-and-art/article/2011/9/20/publishing-books-amazon-new/. Cohen, Dan. The Fight Over the Future of Digital Books Dan Cohen Technology The Atlantic. The Atlantic. 23 Sept. 2011. Web. http://www. theatlantic. com/technology/archive/2011/09/the-fight-over-the-future-of-digital-books/245577/. Crowd-funding Books: A Novel Idea. The Economist 23 July 2011: 58. Print. Eliot, Simon, and Jonathan Rose. A Companion to the History of the Book. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. , 2007. Print. The Endangered Bookstore: Edited Out. The Economist 3 Apr. 2010: 60. Print. The Future of Books: Not Bound by Anything | The Economist. The Economist. 24 Mar. 2007. Web. http://www. economist. com/node/8881446. The Future of Publishing: E-publish or Perish. The Economist 3 Apr. 2010: 59-60. Print. The History of the Internet. Investintech. com. Web. http://www. investintech. com/content/historyinternet/. Howard, Nicole. The Book: the Life Story of a Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2009. Print. Kovacs, Maureen G. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. , 2004. Print. Menn, Joseph. Alliance Helps Google Finally Go into Print with 2m Books. The Financial Times [San Francisco] 18 Sept. 2009: 13. Print. Michael Hart. The Economist 24 Sept. 2011, Obituary sec. : 102. Print. Montgomery, Kathryn C. Children in the Digital Age. Media Awareness Network. Web. http://www. media-awareness. ca/english/resources/special_initiatives/wa_resources/wa_shared/backgrounders/digital_kids. cfm. Noguchi, Yuki. Why Borders Failed While Barnes Noble Survived. National Public Radio. 9 July 2011. Web. http://www. npr. org/2011/07/19/138514209/why-borders-failed-while-barnes-and-noble-survived. Postrel, Virginia. Amazon vs. Apple: What Should E-Book Prices Be? The Atlantic. 2 Feb. 2010. Web. http://www. theatlantic. com/business/archive/2010/02/amazon-vs-apple-what-should-e-book-prices-be/35131/. Printing Yesterday and Today. Harry Ransom Center. Web. http://www. hrc. utexas. edu/educator/modules/gutenberg/books/printing/. Project Gutenberg. Web. http://www. gutenberg. org/wiki/Gutenberg:About. Spector, Mike. Borders Forced to Liquidate, Close All Stores. The Wall Street Journal. 19 July 2011. Web. http://online. wsj. com/article/SB10001424052702303661904576454353768550280. html. Sutter, John D. The Future of Libraries, with or without Books. CNN. 04 Sept. 2009. Web. http://articles. cnn. com/2009-09-04/tech/future. library. technology_1_metropolitan-library-librarians-books? _s=PM:TECH. The Transformation of the Book Industry: Disappearing Ink. The Economist 10 Sept. 2011: 15. Print. Wong, Jackie. Genre-fiction Fans Quell Hunger with E-books. Straight: Vancouvers Online Source. 7 July 2011. Web. http://www. straight. com/article-402353/vancouver/genrefiction-fans-quell-hunger-ebooks. [ 1 ]. Kovacs, Maureen G. The Epic of Gilgamesh (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. , 2004) 13. [ 2 ]. Eliot, Simon, and Jonathan Rose. A Companion to the History of the Book (Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. , 2007) 87. [ 3 ]. Howard, Nicole. The Book: the Life Story of a Technology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2009) 31. [ 4 ]. Printing Yesterday and Today. Harry Ransom Center. . [ 5 ]. Background to Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg Australia. . [ 6 ]. Michael Hart. The Economist 24 Sept. 2011, Obituary sec. : 102. Print. [ 7 ]. The History of the Internet. Investintech. com.. [ 8 ]. Menn, Joseph. Alliance Helps Google Finally Go into Print with 2m Books. The Financial Times [San Francisco] 18 Sept. 2009: 13. [ 9 ]. Cohen, Dan. The Fight Over the Future of Digital Books Dan Cohen Technology The Atlantic. The Atlantic. 23 Sept. 2011. . [ 10 ]. Adam, Nabil R. Digital Libraries: Research and Technology Advances : ADL 95 Forum, McLean, Virginia, USA, May 15-17, 1995 : Selected Papers (Berlin: Springer, 1996) 244. [ 11 ]. The Future of Books: Not Bound by Anything | The Economist. The Economist. 24 Mar. 2007. . [ 12 ]. Montgomery, Kathryn C. Children in

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Western Societys Skepticism of Reincarnation :: Religion

Western Society's Skepticism of Reincarnation "As men think so they are, both here and hereafter, thoughts being things, the parent of all actions, good and bad alike, and as the sowing has been, so will the harvest be." It had finally come down to the last of the 500 pieces for the picturesque puzzle. What A major feat for grandma and me! We had worked on it for days straight and kept it hidden under the table cloth on top of the dining room table. Grandma came over and gave me a big hug and kiss. She glanced at the clock and noticed that it was 3:30: time to feed the birds and then to start making dinner. â€Å"Let’s go feed the birds, Stephy†, she said. And we went into her little apartment kitchen, took out the package of old rye bread and headed out to her balcony overlooking Avenue Q in Brooklyn. â€Å"Ya know Stephy, the baby pigeon came by this morning with her mommy. I think she was looking for you.† I gleamed at grandma and started to blush. Grandma passed me a piece of bread to sprinkle on the floor. The ravenous birds started to arrive, one by one. Grandma sat down in her lawn chair. â€Å"When I go Stephy, I wouldn’t mind coming back as the baby pigeon. I ho pe you wouldn’t forget to come out and feed me.† So, what really happens after the last breathe is drawn? Does one go to heaven? Turn to fertilizer? Start the life process over again? There are many different beliefs, but no one knows for sure until it is their turn. Death is one of the most dreaded topics of conversation in Western civilizations. Death has many negative connotations attached. As for Tibetans following the Buddhist religion, they look death right in the face and accept it. The Tibetans do not avoid talking about the inevitable fate which every human being will meet. Rather, they prepare themselves and know that with every passing day they get closer to the end. The Tibetans live by the concept of impermanence. Impermanence states that everyone has a transient existence and that everyone will eventually die. One would think that the Tibetans are a wasteful culture, since they live their lives knowing that they will eventually die, yet it is in fact the opposite. So what motivates them? Reincarnation is the idea that the soul is reborn into a new form. Western Society's Skepticism of Reincarnation :: Religion Western Society's Skepticism of Reincarnation "As men think so they are, both here and hereafter, thoughts being things, the parent of all actions, good and bad alike, and as the sowing has been, so will the harvest be." It had finally come down to the last of the 500 pieces for the picturesque puzzle. What A major feat for grandma and me! We had worked on it for days straight and kept it hidden under the table cloth on top of the dining room table. Grandma came over and gave me a big hug and kiss. She glanced at the clock and noticed that it was 3:30: time to feed the birds and then to start making dinner. â€Å"Let’s go feed the birds, Stephy†, she said. And we went into her little apartment kitchen, took out the package of old rye bread and headed out to her balcony overlooking Avenue Q in Brooklyn. â€Å"Ya know Stephy, the baby pigeon came by this morning with her mommy. I think she was looking for you.† I gleamed at grandma and started to blush. Grandma passed me a piece of bread to sprinkle on the floor. The ravenous birds started to arrive, one by one. Grandma sat down in her lawn chair. â€Å"When I go Stephy, I wouldn’t mind coming back as the baby pigeon. I ho pe you wouldn’t forget to come out and feed me.† So, what really happens after the last breathe is drawn? Does one go to heaven? Turn to fertilizer? Start the life process over again? There are many different beliefs, but no one knows for sure until it is their turn. Death is one of the most dreaded topics of conversation in Western civilizations. Death has many negative connotations attached. As for Tibetans following the Buddhist religion, they look death right in the face and accept it. The Tibetans do not avoid talking about the inevitable fate which every human being will meet. Rather, they prepare themselves and know that with every passing day they get closer to the end. The Tibetans live by the concept of impermanence. Impermanence states that everyone has a transient existence and that everyone will eventually die. One would think that the Tibetans are a wasteful culture, since they live their lives knowing that they will eventually die, yet it is in fact the opposite. So what motivates them? Reincarnation is the idea that the soul is reborn into a new form.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Principles of Leadership in American Military History Essay -- essays

What is the description of a leader? Honor, respect, dignity, self-confidence, kindness, etc.? Moreover, what is the portrait of a leader? Is it the man who is able to stand in front of a crowd of thousands? Or the man who sits in his office, addressing the public through a TV screen? Is it the man who struggles for the rights he was born with, that people refuse to hand to him? Or is it the man who goes to jail after fighting for liberty and justice? These are all fine examples of leaders. It does not matter what their claim is. They all eventually die with honor, gain respect, and had the self-confidence to go public and go the extremes in order to obtain righteousness. There is nothing wrong with a leader failing, but future leaders should learn to not repeat the past, for better and for worst. There are â€Å"crossroads of our history† that are very similar to the recent news we are presented with, which defies not making the past’s mistakes. Whether they succeed fail, or fall back into the same hole the past has fallen into, these men display different qualities of a leader, positive or negatively. Both Patrick Henry and Barack Obama gave powerful speeches and shined a new light among many in their crowds with one major leadership skill: unity. In his speech at the Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry’s most persuasive qualities lay in his rhetorical questions. Beginning with â€Å"They tell us, sir, that we are weak—unable to cope with so formidable an adversary,† Henry jumps straight into his repetition of questions, hitting his audience with his words so continuously, they seem ultimately unanswerable. Following when the country will be stronger, he asks â€Å"Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall b... ... minds, our opinions, our words, our strength and our will belong to the individual, and that is the most powerful weapon. There is no sign of an end to war, only the destruction of humanity. The timeline of history is repeating. Is our government looking at the errors of the past? Comparing our current crisis to Kennedy’s situation, is today’s enemy willing to compromise? Understandably, the precautions we have taken and the steps put forth these passed few years is due to the unpredictable behavior of our adversary. Perhaps we have really fallen into the same hole as our ancestors many years before, and our options really are limited and aiming in the same eventual fate. Maybe soon, every American, and others across the globe, will hold the same belief President Bush claims to own when he once said, â€Å"Out of this long political darkness, a brighter day will come.†

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Synopsis on Consumer Behaving Behaviour

Consumer Buying Behaviour Introduction: Consumer buying behavior is the study of human responses to products or services and the marketing of products/services. The study of consumer behavior focuses on how individuals make their decisions to spend their available resources (time, money, effort) on consumption related itemsor consumption related aspects (What they buy? When they buy? How they buy? ). It also study of individuals, or organisations and the processes consumers use to search, select, use and dispose of products, services, experience, or ideas to satisfy needs and its impact on the consumer and society.Buyer behaviour is deeply rooted in psychology with dashes of sociology thrown in just to make things more interesting. Since every person in the world is different, it is impossible to have simple rules that explain how buying decisions are made. But those who have spent many years analysing customer activity have presented us with useful â€Å"guidelines† in how so meone decides whether or not to make a purchase. The evaluation of marketing concept from mere selling concept to consumerorientedmarketing has resulted in buyer behaviour becoming an independentdiscipline.The growth of consumerism and consumer legislation emphasizes theimportance that is given to the consumer. Some consumers are characterized as being more involved in products andshopping than others. A consumer who is highly involved with a product wouldbe interested in knowing a lot about it before purchasing. Hence he readsbrochures thoroughly, compares brands and models available at different outlets, asks questions, and looks for recommendations. Thus consumer buying behaviour can be defined as heightened state of awareness that motivates consumer’s to seek out, attend to, and think about product information prior to purchase.Company profile: The City of Chennai is the Citadel of South. This City is known for promotion of culture, tradition and industry. The House of Kh ivraj is well known in the Automobilein this Metro. The flag ship company of the Group is â€Å"KHIVRAJ MOTORS LTD â€Å". This Company was dealing in the vehicles manufactured by Hindustan Motors Ltd for 35 years. This company was also dealing in two and Three Wheelers of Bajaj Auto Ltd for four decades. Now, the company has taken Dealership for Maruti Vehicles. The Company is proud to have an independent Body shop with modern gadgets.The Company has diverted the Dealership for Bajaj Auto Ltd. ’s products to its sister concerns to have clear focus in its operations. These concerns have modern show rooms and operate speciality ideal workshops for two and Three Wheelers. The automobile turnover of the group has crossed billion rupees. The management of the Company vests with Shri AJIT KUMAR CHORDIA who is a young dynamic technocrat and administrator with admirable skills in different spheres and Shri BHARAT KUMAR CHORDIA a young administrator who is known for his acumen in s everal fields and managerial capacity.They are guided by the Company Chairman Shri NAVARATANMULL CHORDIA who is groomed by the Founder of the Company Late Shri KHIVRAJ CHORDIA. Statement of the Problem: †¢ Consumers are booking for a bike and at last they are not purchasing the bike. †¢ Availability of goods & services at proper time. †¢ Comparing of dealership in terms of price and discount. Need for the Study: †¢ To understand the buying roles of the consumer †¢ To analyse the consumer’s decision making process. †¢ To know growing market segments of company for consumers To know what features or product design acceptable by consumer Objectives of Study: †¢ To understand the major factors influencing consumer behaviour. †¢ To Know and recognize the types of buying behaviour decision behaviour. †¢ To understand how consumers make purchasing decisions and respond to purchasing. †¢ To understand how marketers analyse consumer de cision-making. Scope of the Study: †¢ To distinguish different consumer groups and to develop products that satisfies the needs. To understand how consumers make purchasing choices among products/services. †¢ To know how consumers will respond to different product features, prices, advertisement appeals. Research Methodology: Research methodology is the systematic process of collecting and analyzing information (data) in order to increase our understanding of the phenomenon about which we are concerned or interested. In other words research methodology is an endeavour to discover answers to intellectual and practical problems through the application of scientific method.Research Design: Survey research is the systematic gathering of information from respondents for the purpose of understanding and/or predicting some aspects of the behaviour ofthe population of interest. It is the most common method of collecting primarydata for marketing decisions. Survey can provide data on attitudes, feelings, beliefs, past and intended behaviour, knowledge, ownership, personal characteristics and other descriptive items. Survey research is concerned withadministration of questionnaires (interviewing).The survey research must beconcerned with sampling, questionnaire design, questionnaire administrationand data analysis. Sampling: Sampling is the process of selecting units (e. g. , people, organizations) from a population of interest so that by studying the sample we may fairly generalize our results back to the population from which they were chosen Sample size: The sample size of a statistical sample is the number of observations that constitute it. It is typically denoted n, a positive integer. Total 200 samples taken for analysis and interpretation.Data collection methods: For making analysis and interpreting the data; there are two methods have been used for collecting the data i. e. primary method and secondary method. Tool for data collection: Questionnaire ( Sequence and layout) †¢ Primary Data: Questionnaire Method and interviewing method. †¢ Secondary Data: Marketing Management book and weekly journals. Chapter Scheme: Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. Company Profile Chapter 3. Research Methodology Chapter 4. Analysis and Interpretation Chapter 5. Findings recommendations and Conclusion

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Rear Window and Vertigo essays

Rear Window and Vertigo essays Janet Leigh Taking a shower, Tippi Hedren hiding from a flock of crazed fowls in a phone booth; James Stewart and Farley Granger wrestling over a gun; Cary Grant lying low as a crop Duster flies by mere feet overhead; Doris Day singing Que Sera Sera at the top of her lungs: these images bring to mind the classic obese silhouette which could belong only to one person-Alfred Hitchcock. For decades, director Alfred Hitchcock has brought the world numerous films of suspense, romance and horror. While some moviegoers wrote him off as just another director looking to cash in on playing with peoples emotions, others saw him as an insightful man with a genuine interest in telling a good story that would speak truthfully to his audience. The characters in his films were true to life experiencing problems and emotions to which the audience could relate. Rear Window and Vertigo are two Hitchcock films in which the main character shows voyeuristic behavior, experiences relationship problems and suffers from some sort of a handicap, be it physical or psychological. In both Rear Window and Vertigo, the main character displays voyeuristic behavior. L.B. Jeff Jeffries displays his voyeuristic nature in Rear Window by spying on his neighbors. His behavior is, more or less, a displacement-Jeff (as he is called) prefers to watch his neighbors from a distance, rather than examine his own life. Ironically, Jeffs nurse at one point tells him, Weve become a race of Peeping Toms; what people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in, for a change, not realizing she has hit upon his exactly what Jeff is doing. Rather than focusing on his own less than perfect life, Jeff begins to live vicariously through the lives of his neighbors. John Scottie Ferguson, the hero Vertigo, has a similar problem with voyeurism. When an old high school friend, Gavin Elster appears and asks the aimless Scottie to put ...

Monday, October 21, 2019

You Know You Want Online Prep - Is Tutoring For You

You Know You Want Online Prep - Is Tutoring For You SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips You’ve decided that you want to do online test prep for the SAT or ACT. Congratulations! You're already ahead of many students in the test prep game/process. The question now becomes: Do you opt for tutoring as well?

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Counterintelligence essays

Counterintelligence essays As far as intelligence organizations, intelligence designates information that is gathered by these governmental agencies and used for purposes of national security and foreign policy. The US Intelligence Community is comprised of sixteen agencies but the total number of security and intelligences agencies is much larger covering an impressive number of possible threats to national security; it included the Central Intelligence Agency CIA an independent organization. Thesis: Intelligence responsibilities need to be shared by multiple agencies because different threats require different approaches; this would also prevent prevailing partisan influences. Intelligence agencies are governmental thus political tools for shaping foreign policy and for homeland protection hence they are subject to the process of specialization. Specialization is a concept which is applied to science; it allows close study of problems and theories; its downside is that it focuses the attention on a single area of study which in turn, limits valid perspectives in other areas which might influence our area of interest. Specialization is needed not only in the academic field but also for its contributions to public discourse and policy1. Intelligence techniques are utilized both during war and peace for a wide range of foreign policy functions, from espionage to political assassination. In the case of public policy making, decision makers apply one instrument in a set of cases based on estimates of likely effects. The governmental function of intelligence agencies are normally shrouded in secrecy. As far as foreign intelligence, it implies understanding past events, analyzing current conditions, and thus attempting to predict the future. This predictability is crucial to intelligence agencies whose mission is to gather information, provide a coherent analysis, and cooperate with other institutions. Some voices are quite critical of the way in...

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Unit 3 -IP- Samples Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Unit 3 -IP- Samples - Essay Example In order to test whether the two variables have the same means, a two – sample, two – sided t – test must be performed. The two - tailed test is used because the concern is not whether some variable has a larger or lower mean, but whether the two means are different. As a result, the null hypothesis was established in equation (1) below, stating that the difference in means of the two samples is random. Since the sample sizes are relatively small, the t – test is used as the preferred test (Baltagi, 2008, p.31). The confidence interval is constructed in order to test this hypothesis. The confidence set with confidence level must be determined such that the true difference of the sample means is included in this set. What this implies is that the confidence set will include the true difference of population means with probability â€Å"at least † (Paolella, 2011, p. 13), as shown in equation (3) below: The confidence level chosen is 0.95, which implies that the corresponding confidence set will contain the true population mean difference with 95% probability (Paolella, 2011, p.13). The probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true is as a result 5% (Baltagi, 2008, p.21). This error is denoted as type I error. The larger the confidence interval, the larger the probability that the null hypothesis will be accepted when it is in fact false (Baltagi, 2008, p.22). This error is denoted as type II error. A t – score must be calculated by subtracting the sample means and dividing by the square root of the adjusted population variances, which can be estimated through sample variances. There are in total degree of freedom (Neustadl, n.d.). The resulting t – value is  ± 2.009, which is also the critical region (Dawson, 2012;Ruud, 2000, p.224). The t – test can be seen in equation (4) below: The t – test is preferred because of the data dependence. Both variables have in common the type of

Friday, October 18, 2019

Community Supported Agriculture Research Proposal

Community Supported Agriculture - Research Proposal Example re created by individuals, and especially farmers in European parts of the globe to bear the expenses of farming, in order to acquire most out of the land. (Duram, pp. 77) In terms of definition, farming is performed and food is distributed according to a new socio-economic model, referred as community-supported agriculture. Moreover, community and its members play a vital and significant role in the development and maintenance of community-supported agriculture, which results in mutual benefits for the community from food production. Some of the tasks involved in CSA are delivery of produced foods on a weekly basis, which is performed by different community members. Nowadays, community-based agriculture is mostly used in the United States; however, a number of similar approaches of agriculture can be seen in other parts of the globe as well. In order to understand this form of agriculture in a detailed manner, it is essential to explore the different characteristics of it. Specifically, production of high-quality fruits and vegetables is the notion and mission of community-supported agriculture, which is achieved by the support of community members. A stronger consumer relationship can be observed in such form due to greater involvement of consumers with the producers. Every season, a supportive group of community decides to fund the budget of production, and thus, all the tasks and jobs are performed by the individuals in a collective manner. According to theories related to community-supported agriculture, a higher quality during the production of foods can be achieved by collective support and management of farming, and that is the core of such form of agriculture. In community-based agriculture, farmers do not have bear the expenses alone, which often results in reduction of quality standards, in order to lower the costs. However, the whole budget of a season is supported by the community members, and weekly production is distribution among these members,

W5A 590 Develop the format and framework for your final project Essay

W5A 590 Develop the format and framework for your final project - Essay Example The sources and solutions to the problem will constitute the paper’s literature review. Finally, the work will cover the concomitant effects of the problem to the women and minority groups before noting the areas that warrant further research on topic. The project paper will be addressing the issues that face women and other minority groups in any military recruitment process. In particular, the paper will show that these minority groups occasionally have a disadvantage when it comes to the process of socialization after selection. In keeping with Johnson and Clark (2014), unlike in the business world, women in the military service often lack effective mentorship to allow for the development and improvement of leadership skills. The paper will mostly dwell on the need for appropriate mentorship and motivating factors that can allow the minority groups in the military service to cope with this fundamental duty. 1.1 Problem statement. Women and other minority groups that have just joined the military always undergo both physical and psychological problems (Eden, 2015). Therefore, the project will seek to identify the most active solutions that can assist them in conquering this inevitable challenge. Finley and Moore (2011) note that a majority of women and minority groups joining the military service mostly undergo both psychological and physical frustrations. The authors attribute the following issues to the prevalence of the problem: difficulty in fitting in, illnesses, command structure, and fears before and during a war. The final paper will focus on these causes and present a comprehensive account of their contribution to the identified issue. In line with Dunklin (2008), the definite approach to the challenge is mentorship. The author holds that informal and formal mentorship programs can considerably prevent loneliness, cultural and behavior change, communication breakdowns, and psychological problems. Finley and Moore (2011) also bolster

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Conclusion chapter for dissertation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Conclusion chapter for dissertation - Essay Example The study sought to analyse the general demographic profile of the golf players through a critical analysis of certain characteristics which include age, frequency of playing golf, household income as well as establishing whether the purchases were made by self or others. The behaviour of players with regards to their preferences as well as frequency of their purchases with regards to the value of Nike Golf Drivers were used as the yardsticks to measure the most important qualities sought after in a golf driver by the players. In view of the rising to prominence of golf in Thailand and the booming of the industry, the government has thrown its weight in supporting the development of the Golf industry in Thailand so intensely that it is already involving huge amounts of money and tourists have also recognized Thailand as a Golf tourist destination. It is against this background that Nike has realised a niche in this fertile industry and has sought to craft techniques to be in advantage. However, it has been noted that golf clubs have short lived lifecycles hence the need for manufacturers to constantly research on new technological innovations that would appeal to the consumers. This was thought to be the problem for management of products within their short life cycles. Thus, an important inquiry needs to be addressed if Nike is employing the correct strategy with regards to influencing consumer behaviour in this seemingly lucrative industry. Overally, the study sought to establish the consumer buyer behaviour with regards to the effects of demographic profiles on the purchasing decisions such as the effect of household income on the price of the golf driver bought, the effect of age and frequency of playing golf on quality preferences and the effect of Nike Golf Driver ‘offer sales’ on the purchasing behaviour of golf players. The study also sought to

Management and Organisational Development Module Essay - 1

Management and Organisational Development Module - Essay Example The managerial structure of Reddix has suggested the promulgation and inception of a knowledge management initiative which would ensure that they are better able to cope with the rapid advances in healthcare and have to a health care  in understanding and interpreting clinical information and data in to interpret context-based healthcare information. The consultants have already declared that the current IT infrastructure at Reddix cannot cope with this restructuring.It is admitted that the KM system as proposed by the consultants will be immensely beneficial to the patients and management in terms of integrating the electronic patient records (EPR) that are held by the NHS with the process of physicians and GPs ordering medical tests or medications. The main hurdle is thus not technical. Knowledge management is a culture and does not entail a simple change of hardware and software and processes. Thus the suggestion for the inception of a ‘knowledge sharing culture’ wh ich entails management of information as well as the management of people in whose hands this information is. This report focuses on one of major gaps in any Knowledge management Initiative and that is the lack of this Knowledge sharing culture with in the key stakeholders of the Hospitals Organisational structure. The way ahead for an institution which is falling behind in the technological arena is indeed Knowledge Management and as I would like to add to this strategy it should also incorporate the notions of Strategic Information Management and the Business Score Card Approach ,which will allow the strategic management of information to avoid future problems of interoperability.

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Conclusion chapter for dissertation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Conclusion chapter for dissertation - Essay Example The study sought to analyse the general demographic profile of the golf players through a critical analysis of certain characteristics which include age, frequency of playing golf, household income as well as establishing whether the purchases were made by self or others. The behaviour of players with regards to their preferences as well as frequency of their purchases with regards to the value of Nike Golf Drivers were used as the yardsticks to measure the most important qualities sought after in a golf driver by the players. In view of the rising to prominence of golf in Thailand and the booming of the industry, the government has thrown its weight in supporting the development of the Golf industry in Thailand so intensely that it is already involving huge amounts of money and tourists have also recognized Thailand as a Golf tourist destination. It is against this background that Nike has realised a niche in this fertile industry and has sought to craft techniques to be in advantage. However, it has been noted that golf clubs have short lived lifecycles hence the need for manufacturers to constantly research on new technological innovations that would appeal to the consumers. This was thought to be the problem for management of products within their short life cycles. Thus, an important inquiry needs to be addressed if Nike is employing the correct strategy with regards to influencing consumer behaviour in this seemingly lucrative industry. Overally, the study sought to establish the consumer buyer behaviour with regards to the effects of demographic profiles on the purchasing decisions such as the effect of household income on the price of the golf driver bought, the effect of age and frequency of playing golf on quality preferences and the effect of Nike Golf Driver ‘offer sales’ on the purchasing behaviour of golf players. The study also sought to

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

ANALYSIS OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH STUDY REPORT PowerPoint Presentation

ANALYSIS OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH STUDY REPORT - PowerPoint Presentation Example In this design, the behavior of a subject is observed without affecting it in any way. This design was appropriate because it is often used as a tool of both qualitative and quantitative designs of research since it gives a common outline as to what variables should be tested quantitatively. This makes the design less expensive and less time-consuming as compared to other designs. Internal validity is the truth in the inferences of a cause-effect relationship. In this research, one threat to the internal validity is history. This occurs when repeated experiments of the research done by researchers earlier affect the participants’ response to the procedures in the experiment (MCQuarrie, 2005). Another threat is maturation, where subjects change during the cause of the study. For instance, with time, a patient may develop complications that are not as a result of the cardiac catherization during the time of the study, hence non-valid results are obtained. Threats to external validity explain how wrong a person might be in making specific conclusions. One of the threats to the external validity is aptitude treatment interaction, where the independent variable may relate with certain features of the sample. Another threat is the situation, which includes all situations that limit the generalization of a study. The sample size here can be chosen based on the quality of the findings and the cost of the collection of data. The sample size is also based on the hypothesis’ strength. The sample representative of the population is the small group of individuals who have undergone cardiac catherization and are interviewed in order to represent the larger population of the patients recovering from it (Griffiths, 1998). The representative sample is obtained by identification of the population being sampled by researchers. The setting in which data was collected is appropriate because it enabled the researchers to calculate the descriptive statistics, to

Video Game Design Essay Example for Free

Video Game Design Essay Video games is no doubt the widely celebrated market leading the entertainment industry for youngsters. From the basic Atari consoles with mere up and down buttons and a special plastic rifle spewing infra red bullets to Level Up internet games where you can fight opponents in the other side of the world, this violent entertainment industry is definitely not stopping from evolving into a bigger money making monster. News reports further observe that â€Å"fueled by a growing portable gaming market, sales of video game software and hardware topped . 5 billion, a six percent increased over 2004s $9. 9 billion and topping 2002, which held the previous record of $10. 2 billion, according to The NPD Group. † (CNNMoney. com. , 2006) The industry is not devoid of morale and ethical issues despite its support from the business sector and overwhelming support from its consumers. In fact, conferences of video game event are worldwide in scope. The Entertainment Software Association are preparing for the E3EXPO slated for next year. â€Å"E3Expo remains an important event for the industry and we want to keep that sense of excitement and interest, ensuring that the human and financial resources crucial to its success can be deployed productively to create an exciting new format to meet the needs of the industry. The new event ensures that there will be an effective and more efficient way for companies to get information to media, consumers, and others,† (ESA, 2006) as its leader Lowenstein promoted. With video gamers on one side, video game creators on another, the public continues to debate on the issue of social responsibility in this video game industry. Who is responsible for all the violence found in video games? Debates arise from the breadth of the studies against video games to those that could see measures that regulate the games aimed at protecting young minds who could not distinguish from real to non real. These debates arise because people acknowledge the social responsibility that needs to be addressed. Social responsibility is the vanguard of the morales of a community. When something is not ethical, these two words are brought up like a bell that calls people into order. In the video gaming industry, where sex and violence reach both adult and juvenile minds, where gamers can spend days on end in front of a monitor totally locked in a world of play and totally forgetting his other social duties and responsibilities, something is not right. Video game designers must be socially responsible not to design games that are violent. They should not step outside market decision. There is no such thing as letting the market decide in this age of complex marketing and advertising tactics and strategies. Social and psyschological studies would prove that issues arising from violent video games must find immediate solutions from all stakeholders including designers. â€Å"Not only can excessive video game playing cause behavioral and social changes in a person, but it can also result in neurological changes as well. A recent study utilized positron emission tomography in order to show that levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine increased while playing video games. (Ingram, 1998) â€Å"The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in unincorporated Jefferson County, Colorado, near Denver and Littleton. Two teenage students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, carried out a shooting rampage, killing 12 fellow students and a teacher, as well as wounding 24 others, before committing suicide. It is considered to be the deadliest school shooting, and the second deadliest attack on a school in United States history after the Bath School disaster. † (Wikipedia. com. 2006) The advent of video games was expected with the development of software and computer hardware industries. Tracing back, the need for entertainment increased the need to develop technologies that would cater to this need. The need for entertainment was spawned by the decline of social values that are based on physical social interaction. This is not over simplification. Statistics show that one of three six year old have their own televisions in their room. The alarming statistics should make the community act on these issues. Unfortunately, the community itself is hooked on these video games where society’s need to release their frustrations can be exhausted. Doctors believe that whatever the content, children and adults must not be hooked on technologies like the computer and television for more than two hours a day. American statistics note an average of five hours of television and computer use a day. Health risks due to technologies are on a rise. One of three people in America is obese due to improper diet and lack of exercise. One of ten teenagers have been jailed for at least five times before turning eighteen. It is a fact that parents hold two jobs to sustain a family. One million children a year become member of divorced households. The need to be entertained exists because a void in the values exists. And this void is being nurtured by sex and violence found in games created by the very same people who are void of this nurturing. There is no amount of creative video game that can replace family and social dynamics. Violence is violence. As it is, the juveniles are desensitized from blood and gore so much so that the need for more blood and gore leads to more blood and gore. Unlike television, video game is an interactive system. The creator is the one who thinks of the big plot where all subplots follow. He is the one who creates the characters that the gamers choose from the start. How can the creator not be responsible for something he created when he is a member of society who will feel and face the consequences of his creations. Maybe these video game creators rake in millions of dollars now but a few years from now, the wars they create and on the video console will become flesh and blood as proven by recent bomb attacks. But no matter how violent this creative output becomes, American dare not cross the right to free speech. Courts are also in disparities. â€Å"Our contemporary court decisions show that the right to free speech is more important to us than eliminating offensive content about women, says Ren Reynolds. Whether games even qualify as speech, though, is still up for debate. St. Louis County recently asserted that games are not speech, and therefore are not protected under the First Amendment. However, in a separate case, the 7th Circuit U. S. District Court of Appeals found that games are speech. Most of us, including feminists concerned by representations of women, are not in favor of diminishing our rights under the First Amendment. † (Hall, 2002). Video game creators cannot forever run away from their social responsibility. Sooner or later these young creative dynamic people at the prime of their lives will become old. They will one day see themselves at the hands of their caregivers in hospices. Their game buddies would be in other hospices as well remember good old killing days of blood and gore. They must not expect society to be as compassionate when they can’t keep up the level of their games when they grow old. Investing on one’s future is answering to the call for social responsibility. This responsibility is not in the hands of just a few but in all of the stakeholders. Being responsible is just like thinking about creating the bomb that can be dropped in Hiroshima. The Chernobyl accident effects have been passed on to generations in the enviornment as well as with their people. It is only when creators give true service to the community when they are truly creative and worthy of awards. Reference CNN Money. Video game set sales record in 2005 January 14, 2006: 3:56 PM EST Game Boy, PSP lift the industry, despite languid holiday season http://money. cnn. com/2006/01/13/technology/personaltech/gamesales/index. htm ESA. Entertainment Software Association Announces Evolution of E3Expo for 2007 http://www. theesa. com/archives/2006/07/for_immediate_r. php Hall, Wesley. Kitchen Sink. Oakland: Oct 31, 2002. Virtual Morality; Violence and Ethics in Video Games Vol. 1, Iss. 1; pg. 75 Ingram, Jay. June 12, 1998 Positron Emission Tomography Wikipedia. com. 2006

Monday, October 14, 2019

Effect of the Thirty Years War on Europe

Effect of the Thirty Years War on Europe A number of Europe’s leading powers were involved in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), including France, Denmark, Sweden, and Spain. Most of the fighting took place in Germany and it suffered the most awful effects of the war. This war was undoubtedly the most destructive war in history of Germany before the 20th century. Up to 1/3rd of the urban population and 2/5th of the rural population might have been killed during the war. (Carter, 2011) The end of the Thirty Years War caused a number of dramatic changes and transformed Western Europe in remarkable religious, social and political ways. The post-war period caused the ending of the Holy Roman Empire and the succeeding collapse of the Hapsburg powers. The further divisions made Europe much like it is now with Catholic areas in south and the Lutherans beyond north and more significantly, it took the principal power from the Catholic Church. (the social and economical consequencs of thirty year war) It also worked to suppress some of the religious fights with the ultimate Peace of Westphalia. The war also had a great influence on society as it reduced a large percentage of the German population, damaged crops, assisted in the spread of disease and abolished the German economy from the large to small scale. The mediocre people living in Europe during that time were the most affected by the war. In order to fund huge armies, taxes were raised by the state. Increasing demands of the government, planted the seed of rage toward government that later emerged throughout the future rebellions. Though it was not easy but resolution of the â€Å"Peace of Westphalia† was signed in 1648 and as a consequence, Western Europe was politically changed. (Thirty Years War (1618-1648)) A number of significant geographical changes occurred as a result of the war, Germany was shattered, the Swiss Confederation and the Netherlands were stated as independent nations, and most significantly, the Holy Roman Empire lost supremacy and started to decline from the formal acceptance of the Peace until modernism. Another important development that occurred during the Peace of Westphalia was that Sweden and France arose as a lead of European commerce, pushed Spain out and changed the path of European history until that point .The Spanish Hapsburgs were not the primary power and were ultimately enforced to announce Dutch and Swiss independence. The political flows transformed when the Holy Roman Empire was no more the focus of Europe as other countries arose to take over. This became even more significant later with the growth of secularism as a consequence of the Enlightenment. (THIRTY YEARS’ WAR) Other than the geographical and political changes, other modifications occurred through Europe like a new way of engage in warfare. All parties that were involved in the war went almost broken because of the extent of their corresponding armies and this successively had a devastating influence on the economies altogether. Other than this, new bureaucracies were required to meet up the increasing demands of state and those changes still exist today in European politics. The fact is of great importance that to fund those vast armies the states were compelled to gather greater amount of taxes. That unfair taxation during the Thirty Years War had an influence on the budget and also the farmers. Internal political conflicts soon followed based on the outer conflicts that initiated before the Thirty Years War. (The Thirty Years War 1621 to 1626) While discussing the last years of this War it is almost easy to overlook that it all started because of religious differences other than geography and politics. One result of the termination of the war was that the Catholic Hapsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire were no longer dictating the spiritual beliefs of a large percentage of Europeans. Instead of this, after an ending of the war, princes of Germany were permitted to announce their own affiliations, Western Europe was changed exceptionally. Another significant aspect of the ceasefire of Westphalia on overall European history and its religious conflicts is that after it was signed, all the princes in Germany had the right to announce their provinces Catholic, Calvinist or Lutheran. This permission created partitions throughout Europe stand on religious relationship with the Lutherans in central Germany, the Catholics in southern part of Europe and the Calvinists in the north of Europe. Although this is not to mention that the termination of the war restored relations amongst those of dissimilar faiths, this separation was made so that it was the last religious war fought. Socially, the Thirty Years War created noteworthy problems, especially for the farmers and working people. There was great number of revolutions throughout Europe, specifically in France. During the time of the Thirty Years War agricultural production deteriorated considerably. As a consequence, people were having difficulty feeding their families. These difficulties were all combined and a long duration of disease and overall famine swept across Europe and was predominantly bad where the armies passed by. At times anxious peasants attacked and revolted nearby monasteries and castles. War and recurrent outbreaks of plague charged some German towns’ 1/3rd or more of their inhabitants. In general, the Thirty Years War initiated because of religious clash. Whereas this was one of the main initiators for the subsequent military action, it is also notable that there was already huge instability throughout Europe, mainly because of the split nature of the individual states and their mixed unions. With the collapse of the Roman Empire and the Hapsburgs, Western Europe transformed dramatically as the power moved from Rome and faith to a more secularly-based set of states that were more concerned with economics, trade, and non-religious affairs. One of the most noteworthy consequences of the Thirty Years War is that that this religious war, end all wars. After this period, religious differences were no more of primary significance, especially as there was a progressively unbalanced sprea ding of wealth among countries. Countries like Sweden and Denmark that had upheld them strong through the first years of the War were find themselves in the shelter of richer nations like France. (Thirty Years’ War ) Another more general outcome of the War was that it permitted, for the first time in history of European, that a country can obtain prominence on basis of economics, trade, politics other that the reason that it was center of religious hierarchy. So, without the actions and resolutions of the Thirty Years War in Europe the equilibrium of wealth and rule would be exceptionally different. (smith, 2011) Bibliography Carter, J. (2011, june 6). The Social and Economic Impact of the Thirty Years War. Retrieved from humanities 360: http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/the-social-and-economic-impact-of-the-thirty-years-war-12901/ smith, n. (2011, december 7). The Consequences and Effects of the Thirty Years War. Retrieved from articlemyriad: http://www.articlemyriad.com/consequences-effects-thirty-years-war/ the social and economical consequencs of thirty year war. (n.d.). Retrieved from jstor home: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/649855?uid=3738832uid=2uid=4sid=21105451982173 The Thirty Years War 1621 to 1626. (n.d.). Retrieved from history learning site: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/30YW_1621-1626.htm Thirty Years War (1618-1648). (n.d.). Retrieved from Geni: http://www.geni.com/projects/Thirty-Years-War-1618-1648/11799 THIRTY YEARS’ WAR. (n.d.). Retrieved from history: http://www.history.com/topics/thirty-years-war Thirty Years’ War . (n.d.). Retrieved from britannica: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/592619/Thirty-Years-War

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Italo Calvino :: Essays Papers

Italo Calvino b. Oct. 15, 1923, Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba--d. Sept. 19, 1985, Siena,Italy), Italian journalist, short-story writer, and novelist, whose whimsical and imaginative fables made him one of the most important Italian fiction writers in the 20th century. Calvino left Cuba for Italy in his youth. He joined the Italian Resistance during World War II and after the war settled in Turin, obtaining his degree in literature while working for the Communist periodical L'Unità   and for the publishing house of Einaudi. From 1959 to 1966 he edited, with Elio Vittorini, the left-wing magazine Il Menabà ² di letteratura. Two of Calvino's first fictional works were inspired by his participation in the Italian Resistance: the Neorealistic novel Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno (1947; The Path to the Nest of Spiders), which views the Resistance through the experiences of an adolescent as helpless in the midst of events as the adults around him; and the collection of stories entitled Ultimo viene il corvo (1949; Adam, One Afternoon, and Other Stories). Calvino turned decisively to fantasy and allegory in the 1950s, producing the three fantastic tales that brought him international acclaim. The first of these fantasies, Il Visconte Dimezzato (1952; "The Cloven Viscount," in The Nonexistent Knight & the Cloven Viscount), is an allegorical story of a man split in two--a good half and an evil half--by a cannon shot; he becomes whole through his love for a peasant girl. The second and most highly praised fantasy, Il Barone Rampante (1957; The Baron in the Trees), is a whimsical tale of a 19th-century nobleman who one day decides to climb into the trees and who never sets foot on the ground again. From the trees he does, however, participate fully in the affairs of his fellow men below. The tale wittily explores the interaction and tension between reality and imagination. The third fantasy, Il Cavaliere Inesistente (1959; "The Nonexistent Knight,"in The Nonexistent Knight & the Cloven Viscount), is a mock epic chivalric tale. Among Calvino's later works of fantasy is Le Cosmicomiche (1965; Cosmicomics), a stream-of-consciousness narrative that treats the creation and evolution of the universe.

Friday, October 11, 2019

The Longest Day :: essays research papers

The Longest Day Few of God's miracles cause protests in the "scientific" community like the account of Joshua's long day - when God made the sun and moon to stand still. But science and modern technology have done more to verify this phenominal biblical fact than they have to refute it. Common sense would say it is impossible for such a major disruption to occur and not totally destroy the precise, perfect balance in the solar system. But given a God, who created the heavens and the earth, who established the rotation of the planets and stars to the fraction of a second, making the earth stop rotating for 24 hours is not such a difficult task. Yet, computer scientists in the space program and mathematicians - one a former professor at Yale University - have discovered that a whole day has been unaccountably added in time. The positions of the moon, sun, and planets have to be calculated precisely for all space shots to avoid problems in establishing the satellite's orbit. The orbit has to be calculated for the life of the satellite to avoid its running into something else in space. Using computers, scientists can tell the exact location of the planets and their moons for years into the future. By the same means, they have been able to backtrack and determine these specific locations in the past. It was during one such search that the extra day appeared. From various accounts of the incident, it appears that something "did not compute." The extra day was just there. There was no computer malfunction; there was no explanation for the interruption of normal time patterns. When this apparent error appeared and no explanation was forthcoming, one of the scientists related that he had studied in Sunday School about time standing still. A preposterous idea to scientists, but faced with no other explanation, they asked him to show them the story. In the story in the tenth chapter of the book of Joshua, Joshua had asked God to make the sun and moon stand still to enable Joshua to defeat his enemies. Joshua 10:13 says, "And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies... So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day." There was the extra day that science couldn't account for. But scientists are more exact than that. The term, "about a whole day" was not close enough for them. They rechecked their computers, going back to the time when the story was

The Genesis Account of Creation: Myth or Reality

I always do recall, while reading through the first few pages of the Bible, (i. e. the book of Genesis), how highly impressed I was as a child, to see how the world began and how God put everything in place but then kept pondering; who was there with God taking a record of events while he was creating? Once upon a time, I asked my Christian Religious Studies teacher in School and he stood there dumbfounded unable to give any response. During my Catechism days, I was made to understand I must believe everything that the bible contains as true without doubting. However the more I tried to understand the creation narratives, the more questions generated within me. Was the world actually created just as the book of Genesis tells us? Did the same God, who created man last on the sixth day in Chapter One, come back again in Chapter Two to create the same man first before other things? In fact, considering the recent advancements in science and the claims by evolutionists today about the origin of the world, can we say that these creation narratives amount to mere myths? According to the Anchor Bible Dictionary, prior to the period of the Enlightenment, the question of whether or not the Bible contained any myths at all was not so pronounced. In fact, it was as from the 18th century that people started wondering if the Old Testament stories such as the creation narratives could possibly count as myths. This was basically fuelled by the various movements which came up to stress that the basis for anything to be considered true was its historical verifiability. Hence, the debate about myths in the Bible was initially a question of its truth and falsity. For instance, when the Bible speaks of events which took place prior to when the world itself began (when no man could have possibly existed to take a record of them), a successful attempt to show that they are actually myths translates to saying they are simply products of human imagination. And if this is the case, it follows then that the entire Bible itself rests on a questionable foundation. Hence over the years, several scholars have invested a great deal of time and effort on this quest. Before we proceed, it is important to bear in mind that at the heart of this debate lies the eaning and conception of the term myth. What is myth? And what constitutes a myth? What is Myth? Etymologically, the English word myth comes from the Greek mythos. In early Greek mythos meant â€Å"word, speech, design†; it was more or less synonymous with epos (â€Å"word, speech, message†), and close in meaning to logos (â€Å"account, talk†); myth is narration, tale-telling. Gradually it came to be used as a technical term for an entertaining tale, the truth of which was uncertain or unwarranted. From the time of Plato onward, mythos then became a contrasting term for logos (i. e. the rational, responsible account). To this day, whenever the word myth is used, there is an underlining tendency to consider that which it refers to as superstition. As B. Batto observes, â€Å"the derogation of myth as pagan superstition and therefore false and incompatible with Christian dogma remained the characteristic Christian attitude until the modern period – and is still the prevalent in some circles. † Initial Conclusion – No Myths in the Bible Based on the above, it becomes clear that with this understanding of the term myth, the Bible contains no myths since it has no pagan superstitions incompatible with Christian dogma. Now it becomes easy to see how stories as such as the Enuma Elish, Altrahasis or even the various African traditional stories of creation, etc could best be described as myths. In line with this, the word myth came to be defined as â€Å"stories about the gods† (a definition which was popularised by the Grimm Brothers) thereby distinguishing the Bible narratives out as non-myths. Since the Bible is essentially monotheistic it cannot possibly contain any myth as myths essentially refer to stories about several gods. Following this same principle, in his Introduction To The Old Testament, Wermer H.  Schmidt, goes further to explain that the Old Testament based on its conception of God â€Å"uses the language of myth in giving expression to its faith and it in fact borrows from surrounding cultures a number of mythical motifs and bits of mythical stories†¦ but it does not itself develop any myths. † In other words, the Genesis accounts of creation for instance only borrowed certain mythical motifs from those of the Ancient Near East but do not in themselves constitute any myth. The Evolution of Meaning and the Possibility of Myth in the Bible From the foregoing, it appears our case has been solved already. Just as we have shown, the meaning of the term myth gradually evolved from its simple understanding as a ‘narration’ to later take a negative connotation as ‘false tale. ’ At this point it was very easy to distinguish what could count as true (believable) and what should be dumped as myth (entertainment). However the trouble began when the term myth came to be positively re-defined with time. The Italian philosopher Vico posited â€Å"that myth came from within man’s own deepest inner nature; using the imagination rather than reason the first men gave true – even if non-rational and pre-scientific – answers to the original human dilemmas. German scholar David Friedrich Strauss (1808–74) working principally on the New Testament using the theory of Euphemism reached quite shocking conclusions that bulk of the O. T and N. T narratives such as the birth and conception of Jesus were not historically true, even if as mythical materials they did offer a deeper kind of human truth. His book Life of Jesus (1835), though had immediately rendered him famous eventually, led to the end of his academic career as many couldn’t accept his opinions. Nonetheless with a growing body of research and findings in Biblical archaeology which seemed to support Strauss, there arose some tension towards the end of the 19th Century with regard to the continued denial of myths in the Bible. Scholars after Strauss such as Hermann Gunkel, insisted that myths are stories about the gods and that â€Å"for a story of the gods at least two gods are essential† but since OT â€Å"from its beginning tended toward monotheism,† the Bible contains no complete myths. With time, scholars outside the realm of biblical studies dismissed this definition of myth â€Å"as inadequate, overly narrow, and apologetic. † In other words, as the meaning of myth gradually evolved from the negative to the positive conception of myth as deep truth, (that is â€Å"the profound symbolisation of realities which transcend human capacity to comprehend and express in ordinary language but which are profoundly true and paradigmatic for authentic life†), scholars such as Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) now propelled by the historico-critical method soon began to associate the term myth with certain key biblical mysteries. For Bultmann, the term myth assumed a much broader definition as â€Å"one of the ways in which any culture objectifies and symbolizes its entire worldview. † With such a broad understanding of myth, it was impossible to deny that much biblical narrative is inherently mythological. In this regard G. H. Davies in 1956 defined myth as â€Å"a way of thinking and imagining about the divine† and not necessarily about the gods such that myth can also occur in monotheistic religions. Following this trend of thought, John L.  McKenzie SJ in his Dictionary of the Bible (1976), came to the conclusion that â€Å"when we compare the thought processes of the OT with the processes of Semitc myth, we observe that the OT rejects all elements which are out of character with the God whom they knew. But what they knew of God could be expressed only through symbolic form and concrete cosmic event, and the relations of God with the world and with man were perceived and expressed through the same patterns and processes which elsewhere we call mythical. † In this same line of thought came more recent scholars such as B. S.  Childs as well as F. M. Cross. Today scholars believe that â€Å"in Israel, no less than in Ancient Near East generally, mythopoeism (myth-making) constituted one of the basic modes of speculation about the origin of the world and the place of human kind. † Reflecting personally on the above, I have come to realise that the debate about myth in the Bible, (a debate which had initially being sparked off by those movements who claimed that the basis of truth is historical verifiability) over the years now became a debate about the meaning of the word myth. As such, scholars delved into the issue over the years failing to realise that those who began the debate had in mind a conception that whatever fails the test of historical verification is untrue and as such should be considered as a myth. Scholars jumped into the debate without first realising the mistake of these movements. Historical verifiability is not the only criterion for truth. If for instance as at when I was born, nobody took records of my birth and it so happened that all my entire generation, my parents my siblings and everybody around me then suddenly died, the fact that I have no historical poof of my birth does not mean I wasn’t born at all. Hence the real error wasn’t about the definition of the term myth but the misconception that whatever is pre-history is false. No wonder, as long as myth remained in its original conception as false tale, the Bible was free of myths but the moment the definition of myth shifted into the more positive light as deep truths, the same Bible suddenly became full of myths. What we should bear in mind is that when this debate began the concept of myth was basically negative. (Recall that from Plato, myth was seen as a contrast for logos). And as long as the debate continues, the definition ought to remain the same. Even to this day, as long as we continue to regard the word myth as a false narrative, then the Bible contains no myths; the Genesis accounts of creation are not myths but pure realities, truths – although not historical, not scientific, not mathematical, but theological.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Larkin’s use of language Essay

The poems that I have chosen to comment on from the collection The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin are Here, Nothing to be said and Faith Healing. I have chosen to write about these three because they are all very different in terms of theme, language, verse form and Larkin’s message and purpose. Here is the opening poem of The Whitsun Weddings. It locates the reader in Larkin’s England and centres around a journey the protagonist is making from London to Northumberland via Larkin’s hometown of Hull. Larkin uses a range of language and writing devices to express his feelings and at times his prejudices through his poetry and he does this especially well in Here. The first stanza begins with â€Å"swerving east†. The word â€Å"swerving† suggests a dangerous movement and a lack of control from the person or thing that is swerving. When someone swerves it is usually to avoid something so by using the word â€Å"swerving† Larkin is immediately presenting the reader with a sense of avoidance and lack of control. Larkin then goes on to say that the fields are â€Å"too thin and thistled to be called meadows†. This shows that he is passing through an area of land, which cannot quite be classed as countryside but is not quite urban. This could possibly be a representation of how Larkin is feeling at the time about life because even the countryside is not genuine; therefore Larkin may be commenting on the falsity of life because of its in-between state. The words â€Å"Thin† and â€Å"thistled† are harsh sounding words that make up alliteration. This alliteration may have been used to mimic the gentle hissing sound of the train or can moving along the track or road. The harsh sounding words are probably applied as a vent for Larkin’s disdain on a philosophical level for the falsity and lack of true meaning in life and on a smaller level for the land he is passing through that is not quite beautiful enough to be countryside. A technique that interests me is used in the line â€Å"harsh-named halt†. This phrase uses a repetition of the /h/ sound, which is quite a hard sound to pronounce and therefore actually halts the reader’s rhythm. This includes alliteration of the /h/ sound but also a kind of onomatopoeia because the word â€Å"halt† is actually a word that sounds like a stoppage or halt and actively brings the reader to a momentary pause. The word â€Å"harsh† is actually a harsh word, which adds more emphasis to the phrase. This technique is very effective because it immerses the reader in the journey of the protagonist as it actually halts their flow when the protagonist’s train comes to a halt. Larkin uses a lot of alliteration in Here, an example of this occurs in the first stanza when alliteration occurs four times in the space of two lines: â€Å"Swerving to solitude of skies and scarecrows, haystacks, hares and pheasants†. There is a repetition of the word â€Å"swerving† which reiterates the lack of control of the protagonist. It also shows the part of the journey that is taking him through the countryside and he is â€Å"swerving† east away from the towns and towards the countryside. The repetition of the /s/ hissing sound gives a sense of speed and also replicates the sound of the train or car moving. The /s/ sound runs throughout two lines which links them together and helps demonstrate the onward movement of the protagonist and the passage of time. The actual shape of the letter /s/ is flowing and therefore mimics the journey flowing onward. In the last line of the first stanza Larkin describes the entrance to a town by saying â€Å"the shining gull-marked mud gathers to the surprise of a large town†. â€Å"Gull-marked mud† can be used as a comparison to â€Å"harsh-named halt† a few lines previously and demonstrates the difference between town and country. The comparison between â€Å"harsh-named halt† and â€Å"gull-marked mud† can also be drawn through the hyphen between the first two words (which could be used to show the onward motion of the journey) and the alliteration used of the /h/ and /m/ sounds.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

American history----assess the view that the success of the new deals Coursework

American history----assess the view that the success of the new deals 1933-41 has been over rated by historians - Coursework Example What is also significant to note about this whole initiative is the fact that it resulted into the strong economic recovery and a complete and new change in the way America society tend to work and behave. The intervention by the government in the economy allowed the economy to pick up and vital economic variables such as growth, unemployment and inflation started to show positive signs. It also brought forward a new political alignment in the country as the Democratic Party started to emerge as the sign of liberal ideas and newly empowered trade unions and minorities. (Edsforth, 2000) Though the New Deal left many important political, social, as well as economical imprints on the American society however, question remains as to whether the New Deal has been really successful or whether its success was overrated by the Historians. This paper will therefore attempt to discuss and argue as to whether the New Deal was really a success or it was overrated by the Historians. From economics point of view there are many reasons as to why the great depression happened however, the overall impact of the great depression has on the economy of US and its society have been great. During this era gross domestic product of the country greatly declined and there was a sharp increase in the unemployment level. High unemployment levels therefore created the general unrest within the American society and people were looking for change which can actually bring overall relief to the general masses of the society. (Weatherford & Sergeyev, 2000). What is also significant to note that before the great depression there was also a general political complacency in the country. Conservatives were ruling the country and they maintained a very strong stance of having minimum government intervention into the markets. Minimum interventions by the government therefore resulted into the over-hyped activity in the markets