Popular Culture is Simply an Expression of Our Collective Experiences - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1478 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/07/01 Category Culture Essay Level High school Topics: Pop Culture Essay Did you like this example? I would like to agree with the phrase by a popular American blogger that Popular culture is simply an expression of our collective experiences. This opinion may seem to insinuate that popular culture is of great advantage to the American society, but this is not the real case. In the last century, this was certainly true as this was the only means by which people dealt with social problems that ailed the society. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Popular Culture is Simply an Expression of Our Collective Experiences" essay for you Create order Looking at the turn that popular culture has taken due to rise in color television, internet and different forms of media, it would be true to say we have plunged into a deep sea without life jackets as American society. Popular culture can be defined as the accumulation of cultural products like music, art, film, dance, film, television, literature or even radio that are consumed by the majority of the masses. Oftenly popular culture is of many appeals to the larger society. This term is believed to have been used as early as the 10th century. In the past, popular culture was associated with the poor and the lowly in the society, but today almost all Americans are highly immersed in popular culture. After the world war II, mass media innovations led to major social and cultural changes, and since then the meaning of popular culture has since merged with other elements such as mass culture, consumer culture media culture and image culture and are all geared towards mass consumption. In this essay, I shall be discussing the effects of modern popular culture on American society and the need for change for the better. There are two antagonistic sociological arguments relating to modern American pop culture. The first argument is that popular culture is used by the rich and elite in the society to control those who are below them as it blurs their minds and reasoning, therefore, becoming passive and thus easier to control. The second argument is that popular culture is a vehicle in which people rebel against the culture of oppression. I agree with both the arguments but the first argument carries more weight when looking at the current American trends on American consumerism. Popular culture has made Americans have less time to do the most important things such as paying bills, spending time with loved ones, taking care of our own health or bettering ourselves physically, intellectually or spiritually. It is quite ironic that we lack time to carry out important activities but have time to watch television, and movies, playing video games surfing the net and reading celebrity magazines. Many Americans are maddeningly preoccupied with celebrity lives and people who are of less importance in our lives. I always wonder what fascinates Americans about the rich and famous people. Some people have argued that is due to boredom, but I think it is something that is something troubling. We seem to search for meaning all in the wrong places. With the economic pressure, crimes, endless wars in which many Americans have died in and toxic political system that feeds the masses with negativity on the news and talk shows have left many hopeless and contributing to this e scapism into celebrity lives. Instead of looking into nourishing our souls we are seeking to temporarily anesthetize ourselves from the reality. Popular culture has affected the way people view body image and what is acceptable. Media decides how pretty should look like. Many people have been left wondering and confused by what choices to make. Growing up and you do not look like the faces advertised on television commercials then you have a problem of being bullied and made fun of. With this kind of exposure, a child grows up with low self-esteem and self-loathing. Research shows that popular culture has a great impact on teenagers. Popular culture can provide a benchmark in which teenagers spin their definition. This can be by taking characteristics from various celebrities and stimuli they see in Popular culture. Self-definition is intrinsically tied to self-esteem and confidence and if tampered with, can surely last through maturation to adulthood. Over the last ten years, households with televisions have increased drastically, these televisions have more than one thousand channels and hundreds of shows to choose from. Thes TV shows have really impacted our daily lives and we continue to keep up with the episodes. The impact has really been eminent on the younger American generation especially due to the violence, drugs, and sexual references. Young children are exposed to mature content at a very tender age. For example, in 2009 a seventeen-year boy killed his ten years old brother. When interviewed, the teenager said he was relating to Dexter. Dexter is a TV show on Showtime about a boy who is blood crazed. TV shows like Dexter are encouraging violence among young people. Over-sexualization of women in various music genres and Hollywood movies is of negative impact on women. For example, Nicki Minaj songs mostly portray women who have big boobs and backsides, this has influenced many women to think that the standards of beauty are having big boobs and backsides, some have even gone to an extent of going through plastic surgery. Some of these procedures are life-threatening and their effects are long-lasting and irreversible. Hollywood on the other side view womens beauty standards as being thin is being beautiful. Women strive too hard to fit these standards and therefore eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and others have been on the rise. Pop culture, especially in the form of visual media, greatly affects our opinions and attitudes towards race and racial minority groups. Our assumption about a particular race is greatly influenced by the stereotypical and distorted imagery presented by visual media. Media creates an imbalance between the black and the white American societies, this makes the young black people accept minority status as the real deal and the only acceptable thing. Research has also proven that millions of Americans form their opinions on the black population in America based on Hollywood films and TV shows and also dehumanizing programming and sensationalized crime reported in news. Newsreaders such as Glenn Beck and BillOReilly were found to be spreading false information about black families and many New York City-based TV newsrooms have been for the longest time inaccurately over associate black people with the crime by 75%. These media outlets have also for the longest time portrayed Blacks as poor without considering the resiliency of these families in the face of discrimination. Before, popular culture used to reflect our values as American people but today it is a voracious beast of materialism, celebrity, and excess that shape our values to greed for the benefit of a few as majority lose themselves. Many heroes who have been elevated have nothing heroic about them, these people represent unhealthy values, rituals, beliefs and myths that are tailored to satisfy their own interest. Popular culture is present everywhere, intense and unrelenting, and people have free and unlimited access to them through the internet and every social media. Pop culture is like saboteurs that infiltrate the family slowly and with deception hiding behind a veil of bright images, fun movies, and music, advertisements entertaining characters. popular culture overwhelms us with the messages in order to gain control of us up to a point we base our choices, needs, interests, and dreams upon them without giving them much thought. I may come across as military against popular culture, but I also believe that it can be a wonderful aspect of entertainment, escapism, and knowledge. Whether popular culture is bad or good all depends on the message it is sending across to the larger population. Almost all the time, these messages are negative and impact our wellbeing negatively without us realizing. Popular culture that is of true expression shared social experiences and values is beneficial to a society and is of importance in forming and growing a healthy society. A rule of thumb, authentic pop culture acts as a societal truth and as a shared glue that binds a society together. Positive popular culture instills a sense of ownership and empowerment in a society as every individual is aware of their contribution to society. When we consider societies whose popular culture was suffocated like those under Hitler and Mussolini we can be able to see deeply injured populations that have taken years to rise and recover from the societal damage and reestablish their popular culture and stabilize.It is sad that some societies are yet to experience authentic popular culture such as North Korea. When we consider all the strides we have made as people of America, we ought to fight as a society to restore our authentic popular culture and work hard to eradicate the negative popular culture that has flooded our society with negativity. This is both at the individual level and as a whole society.

An Investigation into Primary School Physical Education

An Investigation into Primary School Physical Education This report will provide a concise investigation into the developmental stages of physical education. Whilst this assignment will provide an overview of the subject in primary schools at present, it will also go on to investigate into the issue of teaching on a practical basis and also look at how physical education can develop a child. Using the information gathered from primary and secondary research, which was conducted whilst attending a primary school as a six week work placement, the latter stages will provide some critique and offer some recommendations to how physical education can be improved or†¦show more content†¦through achievement Develops muscular and respiratory systems, such as developing cardiovascular efficiency, muscle mass, heart rate, stamina, fitness Develops key skills such as communication Moral traits, such as fair play, good sporting behaviour, respect for others, accepting authority Develops organisational skills Develop self confidence Figure 1.Examples of some physiological, sociological and psychological benefits The government has a major role, and although it is not an intention to delve into the government’s involvement in physical education, it is necessary to mention their ambitions to constantly improve both the teaching and learning of physical education. This ambition can be represented through the numerous teaching schemes, courses and initiatives that have also been made available by organisations such the Physical Education Association (PEA) as reported latter on in the assignment. Furthermore the government have the responsibility for deciding on the cornerstone set of guidelines known as the National Curriculum. Literature Review The primary school which I worked at consisted of years one to six as well as a reception class. The reception class gives an early introduction to education to pre-school children, where they are given a lot of freedom to move and play,Show MoreRelatedWhat Is Job Satisfaction As An Attitude Or Emotional Response For Work Tasks?919 Words   |  4 PagesGà ®lmeanu (2015 p.70) defines job satisfaction as â€Å"an attitude or emotional response to work tasks and simultaneously to the social and physical conditions of the workplace†. 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Hasty Desicion free essay sample

Who falls in love after seeing each other for only one night. Romeo and Juliet has made some hasty decisions for those few days they were together. What do i mean about hasty decisions is like getting married and not never telling their parents knowing that they hate each other. Romeo killing Juliets cousin Tybalt during a little fight. And Romeo killing himself after hearing that Juliet fake her death. That is what i mean about hasty decisions. Romeo and Juliet were very young Juliet was fourteen years old and Romeo was sixteen or seventeen years old. Romeo and Juliet falls in love with each other as soon as they saw each other. It was at a dance. Romeo and Juliet families did not like each other for nothing in the world thats what makes it worst. How are you going to have a relationship with someone if the parents doesnt approve of it thats kind of miss up right. We will write a custom essay sample on Hasty Desicion or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page So they had a secret wedding that only the nurse and the preacher know about. Thats one the hasty decisions that were made in this story. In the story of Romeo and Juliet they make another hasty decision. Romeo kills Juliet cousin Tybalt . Romeo has made a very huge hasty decision right here by killing a family member. What makes it very bad is that the families a families already dont like each other and he go and kills his wife cousin. So they go and deliver the news to the families and Juliet family says that Romeo should die for doing a such thing. So now that Romeo has killed Tybalt is focus to move out the city or he will be killed. The last hasty decision that was made was that happen in the story is that Romeo has killed himself with some position . Romeo kills himself because he heard that Juliet killed herself. So now Romeo is gone and died somewhere else . Then they tell Juliet and she fake her death. So now that the truth commas out about them . The nurse ends up telling the families that they were married and had no other choices about but to just to get alone with each other choice but to like each other. In conclusion their were so much more hasty decision that were made. And i just chose to do those three to write my essay on how they made bad things like. Married without telling either of their parents knowing that they hate each other, Romeo killing juliets cousin Tybalt and almost getting himself killed, and Romeo and Juliet drinking a position to kill their self and that killed Romeo and they never said if it killed Juliet. But i think it did in my own opinion. That is my way of them trying to show their hasty decision. I wonder what would happen to me if i did any of these types of hasty decision that they had made.

Mid term sociology essay free essay sample

Mills and Bergers agree to the notation that things are not what they seem because basically humans are always looking for whats really behind the scenes of what is really going on. No one really believes everything they hear on tv or the internet etc. r really believe on ones description of ones self. Mainly because one will always make themselves seem better and cooler then who they really are. Humans are always trying to find what really going on in situations or who someone really is not who they say they are to be. One in a selected group of people is got a set of descriptions to that group weather good or bad. But people who look behind find that those stereotypes are not always what they seem to be. Coming to find that in society things arent always what they seem. And the debunking of society is agreed upon because people have set roles depending on what and who people really are. We will write a custom essay sample on Mid term sociology essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The unmasking tendency is the searching for more o reality then Just the what is thought to be believed. This is only possible if one does not take the concepts of ones own society or even of an entire historical period for granted the common sense beliefs and social actions are illusionary because one who goes about the every day way of living is Just going through the motions. Its like people now a days are robots, agreeing to things they dont agree etc. its all Just an illusion to what is seemed. For example in class we would talk about how for example at work or when a friend or stranger asks how are you doing Just naturally humans will respond good. Now one who asks that doesnt really know weather they are doing good or not but they like to hear that they are doing good. If one was to say they werent doing good and go on about how bad they are they wouldnt know how to react. It Just shows how back to that things are not what they seem public sociology is basically the spread of sociology and bringing and teaching sociology with discipline to a wider audience of people. And a societal condition is basically a social issue that is frowned upon by others. Examples being like DWIs and crime and even the smallest issues such as like blasting music while driving. People view these situations as problems even though the person doing this may not view what was done as a problem or issue. Sociologists need to speak out on this though because people need to see and record the different points of views of people and why they do the things they do. 2. ) The social actors private orbit is what is basically the limited amount to what one is able to view. Ones doesnt look at everything and isnt really able to with in the boundaries they have preventing them from seeing more. Ones self has a family a home and a Job etc. which only allows him or her to see what they do on there every day life. Only sees the city or town they live in and possibly surrounding close. Ones self isnt able to view everything on around them. The social script is basically how you act and interact in different situations. Ones self acts different at home then they do hanging out with friends. Its how you talk maneuver and act in their different surroundings. Everyone is like this for example at work you have to show professionalism and be nice even if you are having a bad day. Its what we do that tries to describe who we are to people by showing them how we talk or act weather or not thats how we really are. I feel this is eeded to be done in a lot of situations though to get by with things. Ones social self is what one is to others or wants to show who he or she is to others. One will dress and act and talk in the way they want or their own way and it will give others an idea on who they are as a person etc. ts ways of being your self. These things may change often but its what makes you, you. For ones social self it is impacted greatly on gender, age, ethnicity, family etc. reasons being I believe is so that one can be able to fit in with others. When it comes to race there is a way I feel that a race is expected o act or has acted so one acts along with that past or present. With family your family has a huge impact on how you act and how you are raised has a huge impact on what your social self is. Your peers and who you surround yourself with has a major impact on how you are as a person. Personal experience I hang and surround my self with skateboarders and festi go-ers and partiers etc. and people have seen me with this crowd and I may dress like this crowd so my first impression with people they Just assume a lot right away. I know the pressure to do things in certain roups and situations are high at times and you feel like you gotta live up to your standards and who your are seen to be. One may over come this social construction of the social actor by finding the true self of one and getting outside of there normal everyday area and getting out and seeing the world and Just being them selves and letting who ever likes them for who they are. I think one who is willing to go out and put themselves in other areas and possibly all over the map with people and groups they are in can really see how everyone views things poor, rich, cool, loser, happy or sad. Once one is able to see all he different points of views from all over the world I feel one can find ones self and become the one that is most wanted. Everything done has a reason behind it or cause. One can over come this all by basically getting out of their norm. 3. ) I asked my grandpa what he thought of social reality of the homelessness in the world. He basically summed it up in the fact that its the life style of living now a days for all these kids. They get their new technology and all this and that and then when its time for them to hit the real world they dont have the people to support them anymore and they end up becoming homeless. Also all the stupid drugs that are out in the world now. All these homeless people are Just bumming money to get more crack. None of them use or save there money to actually get themselves out of the huge rut theyre in. Plus if it wasnt so hard to get a Job now a days you wouldnt have as much of this problem around. They make it how you cant get a Job without some sort of degree. Even if one knows the subject so well yet dont have a degree not much you can do about it. And a lot of Jobs dont give kids the money now a days to support themselves and school because school has gotten so expensive. Then he oes to bring up the free masons and all that about how the rich are out to get richer dont work out like that.

The Long Telegram of George Kennan

The Long Telegram of George Kennan The Long Telegram was sent by George Kennan from the United States Embassy in Moscow to Washington, where it was received on February 22nd, 1946. The telegram was prompted by US inquiries about Soviet behavior, especially with regards to their refusal to join the newly created World Bank and International Monetary Fund. In his text, Kennan outlined Soviet belief and practice and proposed the policy of containment, making the telegram a key document in the history of the Cold War. The name long derives from the telegrams 8000-word length. US and Soviet Division The US and USSR had recently fought as allies, across Europe in the battle to defeat Nazi Germany, and in Asia to defeat Japan. US supplies, including trucks, had helped the Soviets weather the storm of Nazi attacks and then push them right back to Berlin. But this was a marriage from purely one situation, and when the war was over, the two new superpowers regarded each other warily. The US was a democratic nation helping put Western Europe back into economic shape. The USSR was a murderous dictatorship under Stalin, and they occupied a swathe of Eastern Europe and wished to turn it into a series of buffer, vassal states. The US and the USSR seemed very much opposed. The US thus wanted to know what Stalin and his regime were doing, which was why they asked Kennan what he knew. The USSR would join the UN, and would make cynical overtures about joining NATO, but as the Iron Curtain fell on Eastern Europe, the US realized they now shared the world with a huge, powerful and anti-democratic rival. Containment Kennans Long Telegram didnt just reply with insight into the Soviets. It coined the theory of containment, a way of dealing with the Soviets. For Kennan, if one nation became communist, it would apply pressure on its neighbors and they too might become communist. Hadnt Russia now spread to the east of Europe? Werent communists working in China? Werent France and Italy still raw after their wartime experiences and looking towards communism? It was feared that, if Soviet expansionism was left unchecked, it would spread over great areas of the globe. The answer was containment. The US should move to help countries at risk from communism by propping them up with the economic, political, military, and cultural aid they needed to stay out of the Soviet sphere. After the telegram was shared around government, Kennan made it public. President Truman adopted the containment policy in his Truman Doctrine and sent the US to counter Soviet actions. In 1947, the CIA spent considerable sums of money to ensure the Christian Democrats defeated the Communist Party in elections, and, therefore, kept the country away from the Soviets.​ Of course, containment was soon twisted. In order to keep nations away from the communist bloc, the US supported some terrible governments, and engineered the fall of democratically elected socialist ones. Containment remained US policy throughout the Cold War, ending in 1991, but discussed as something to be reborn when it came to US rivals ever since.

More people are living longer Essays

More people are living longer Essays More people are living longer Essay More people are living longer Essay Our population is at a new stage; . It is such a mixed blessing for although medical science, diet, and technology can provide the resources for a longer life, not all aspects of being older are pleasant; It is a fear and inconvenience. On the other hand, it is the revealed wisdom and confidence of people because I believe that growing older is growing wiser; we become wiser only through living experiences that we have been through. The day that I started my internship in a nursing home for a week when I was in nursing program, I felt meeting that I could not express because I had seen some elderly residents who did not have a visit from their loved ones for a long period of time. In my Asian culture, we value our elderly the most, and we love to listen to the experiences that they share. We have to keep in mind that it is nearly impossible for a single caregiver to provide all the needs for an aging parent. Am I adequately able to give care for my elderly parent on a daily basis? Do I need help providing supervisory care for my parent? Is my parent showing signs of confusion or dementia? These are basic questions that we all ask ourselves to determine when it comes to caring for our elderly parents. Dementia is a loss of intellectual ability that effects memory, learning, attention, thought and language skills. People with dementia may forget family members or not know that what day it is. Sometimes they become very angry or sad, hear voices, or see things that are not there. For example, there is one resident with dementia who committed to walk everyday. He walks from his Alchemies (most common type of dementia) Unit to the other unit (where I work at) three times a day. Every time he sees me, he says, There you are! Have you made your eight dollars yet? When I respond and start a conversation, he will say that he used to live at country side; he has a dog named Missy and she is 11 years old now. He has a fixated way of communication to others especially with the staff members. Also, there is another resident who checks the main dining room repeatedly. He has a short term memory ass, but what interesting is that it mainly affects his meal time. He comes back to look at main dining room to check if the meal being served right after he returned to his room after meals. As care givers of nursing home staff members, we have experienced some elderly patients become confused or irritable after the last meal of the day and it lasts until bedtime because during the evening hours, the constant daily mental processes for normal living can become overwhelming for the elderly. It is called sundowners syndrome. One good example of a sundowner is a 60 year old lady who was Just admitted in my rehab unit for rehabilitation. She was a small and frail person who needed to rest and rehabilitation. At first, she was medicated for agitation. Right before the medication kicked in her system, she started to run towards the emergency exit door of the unit to escape. When I caught her at the door way and stopped her from elopement, she became the strongest person in elderly people that I have known and her behavior was completely changed and became ere combative. I was attacked because I was holding the door to keep it shut to In Conclusion, modern technology, medical science, and diet have provided longer life spans compare to the previous generations. It is inconvenient to live a long life in all aspects. For although modern technology world would provide physical comforts to prolong life, elderly parents want to be surrounded with family members who give them love and support. We Just have to keep in mind that one day we will be in the same position where the elderly are now.

Learning Organizations & Effectiveness Research Paper

Learning Organizations & Effectiveness - Research Paper Example However, this does not come easily as there are important aspects that come with learning and which organizations must conform to in order to effectively adapt the learning. In this regard, it is paramount for organizations to clearly define their visions and mission statements which act as guiding principles. With statements clearly stipulated, strategic plan with a clear learning strategy should lay a foundation for effectiveness of organizational learning. Characteristics of an ideal learning organization and their observable behaviors Learning strategy: It is argued that for any organization to thrive, learning is necessary. However, learning has to be strategized in order to achieve desired objectives. Therefore, learning strategy constitutes characteristics of an ideal learning organization. Organizations are expected to endorse both learning innovation as specific goals, and learning strategy (Denton, 2002). One of the strategies is the ability for the organization to learn fa ster than other competing organizations. This is the surest way to maintain competitive advantage. To achieve this, organizations need to put learning at the top of the list of priorities (Buckler, 1996). Once learning strategy has been adopted by an organization, it is apparent that this becomes a habit, which becomes an everyday occurrence. Flexible structure: After setting learning strategies, it is vital for ideal organizations to streamline a structure that would foster learning within the organization. To affect this, organizations need to create teamwork by the formation of small, core workforce (Yang, Watkins, and Marsick, 2004). Actually, a flexible structure should dispose of traditional operations like rigid job descriptions. In fact, it is believed that flexible structure encourages cross-functional cooperation which enables organizations improve the organization’s operations. Organizations that use flexibility structure tend to reduce bureaucracy and restrictive job descriptions. Blame-free culture: It is believed that learning organization should provide an ideal climate, through which learning is prioritized and valued (Denton, 2002). When mistakes are identified, they need to be viewed as a chance to learn and perk up. In fact, it is argued that learning organizations that uphold blame-free characteristic encourage employees to experiment, and in the process, they learn from the experience and become innovative. For organizations that practice blame-free culture, learning becomes automatic. Vision: The concept of a learning organization goes hand in hand with shared vision. A shared vision is needed to overcome authoritative forces that hold up the preservation of the status quo (Denton, 2002). Besides, learning cannot occur without stipulating specific objectives of the learning. Shared vision gives an overview of organization’s commitment to achieving its objectives. An organization with a clear vision would tend to establish ov erarching goals, which forms the basis of encouraging the workforce to speak in one voice. Knowledge creation and transfer: It is apparent that in a learning organization, the concept of creation of new knowledge forms the foundation of development. Knowledge may come from several directions ranging from within the organization and outside the organization (Yang, Watkins, a

Corporate governance of Westpac Banking Corporation AUSTRALIA Essay

Corporate governance of Westpac Banking Corporation AUSTRALIA - Essay Example Corporate governance has become the buzz word and has accomplished in drawing a good deal of public interest because of its visible significance of corporations and society with respect to economic healthCorporate governance is a complex concept as it deals with many different economic happenings Looking at a broader perspective corporate governance can be regarded as a set of procedures, customs, guidelines, rules and regulations affecting the way a corporation is planned, directed, governed or controlled. It also includes the relationships among the stakeholders and the aims for which the corporation is managed. The main stakeholders involved are the shareholders, management and the board of directors. Along with employees, suppliers, customers, banks the environment and the community as a whole. As mentioned earlier corporate governance is a complicated and multi-dimensional subject. Corporate governance deals with issues of accountability and fiduciary duty, making sure all the guidelines and mechanisms are implemented for the safe guard of shareholders. Another focal point is to achieve optimize economic through corporate governance to emphasize on shareholders welfare.Westpac Banking Corporation was founded in Sydney, Australia, in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales and merged with the Commercial Bank of Australia and changed its name to Westpac in 1982. Today, it is a leading provider of banking and financial services in Australia, New Zealand, and eight Pacific island nations. It is Australia's oldest bank and offers general banking services to retail, commercial, and institutional customers and provides investment management and insurance. Westpac has strived to reach the position today it has by focusing on such issues only establishing a strong relationship with the stakeholders. "Corporate governance is a field in economics that investigates how to secure/motivate efficient management of corporations by the use of incentive mechanisms, such as contracts, organizational designs and legislation. This is often limited to the question of improving financial performance, for example, how the corporate owners can secure/motivate that the corporate managers will deliver a competitive rate of return." [www.encycogov.com, Mathiesen [2002].] Companies are scored based on specific issues such as board composition, management remuneration, accounting treatment and transparency. [https://www.shareanalysis.com/asp/glossary.asp]. Westpac has always focused upon promoting corporate justice, precision and self-actualization. The corporate governance structure followed at Westpac specifies the proper allocation of rights and responsibilities of the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders and properly defines the rules and procedures for corporate decision making. Increased competition, stringent regulatory standards, and continuous change in customer wants and demands have put pressure on global banking companies like Westpac to develop creative and cost-effective business strategies. Some of the examples of how corporate governance is implemented at Westpac are as follows: (http://www.westpac.com.au/internet/publish.nsf/Content/WISEWP+Protection) SSL connection Internet Banking system uses a technology called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). This creates a secure connection between the customer and the Westpac. This is a highly beneficial technology developed by Netscape, Microsoft and RSA Inc that is supported by most browsers. Encryption Westpac has employed precise security mechanisms to guarantee that the client's information and accounts are secured. The latest encryption technologies have been used to protect the data when being sent over the internet. Westpac Internet Banking uses certificates which generate security "keys" to verify the connectivity with Westpac banking. Every stakeholder has an account with all the details. As information sent between the browser and the Bank is encrypted, it makes it

Evaluate Motivation Theories Essay Example for Free

Evaluate Motivation Theories Essay Individuals join and work in organizations to fulfill their needs. They are paying attention to organizations that have the means of sustaining their needs. These means are called incentives of rewards; organizations use them to encourage individuals to contribute their efforts toward achieving organizational goals. The continued existence of an organization depends on its ability to interest and encourage individuals to accomplish these organizational and personal goals. Newman (2010), â€Å"Motivation is defined as goal-directed behavior. It concerns the level of effort one exerts in pursuing a goal. Managers are concerned with this concept because it is closely related to employee satisfaction and job performance† (Para. The Concept of Motivation). There are 2 main concepts of theories Maslow’s and Herzberg. Maslow’s need hierarchy theory divides human needs into five levels; self-actualization, esteem, social, safety and physiological needs. Physiological needs are the basic human needs including food, clothing, shelter and other necessities of life. Once these are satisfied they no longer motivate the individual. Safety needs include economic security, protection from physical danger. Social needs are love, affection, emotional needs, warmth and friendship. Esteem can be self-esteem, self-respect, self-confidence and recognition. Herzberg found that the factors causing job satisfaction (and presumably motivation) were different from that causing job dissatisfaction. Herzberg called it hygiene factors, using the term â€Å"hygiene† in the sense that they are considered maintenance factors that are necessary to avoid dissatisfaction but that by themselves do not provide satisfaction. Company policy, supervision, relationship with boss, work conditions, salary and relationship are the leading in dissatisfaction. Achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth are the leading to satisfaction. The effectiveness of the application of these theories can be measured with observations of employee job satisfaction. Managers can evaluate satisfaction through employee surveys or by observing workers. References: Newman, M. (2010). Motivation. Retrieved from http://business.ezine9.com/motivation-149b57b275.html

Prejudice Runs Deep in To Kill A Mockingbird Essay -- Kill Mockingbird

Prejudice Runs Deep in To Kill A Mockingbird    To Kill A Mockingbird takes place in small town Maycomb, Alabama, a depression era town where people move slowly and twenty-four hours seems longer.   The narrator of the story is a six-year-old girl named Jean Louise Finch, a tomboy who hates wearing dresses and goes by the nickname "Scout."   Scout's being a tomboy is of no little significance because while we are treated to a sweet and affectionate portrayal of Maycomb at the novel's opening, we will find it is a town where racial prejudice, hostility and ignorance run deep below the surface.   Not only are the majority of the townspeople prejudiced against blacks, maintaining a feeling of superiority to the whole of their race, but there are also well-defined social roles based on gender.   To Kill A Mockingbird reflects many themes, but three of the most significant ones are courage, prejudice, and education.   Through characterization and behavior the author demonstrates the connection of these themes as crucial for manifesting real humanity within individuals.   Education and courage produce a higher level of humanity in human behavior, particularly because they allow individuals to walk in the skins of other people before judging them.   Education and courage allow for a neutralization of prejudice because they lend a broader understanding to the individual concerning others.   Atticus, the father of Scout and Jem (Jeremy Finch), often teaches the lessons of education and courage to his children.   Atticus' brand of courage and education is different than that of most people's in the town.   Atticus' brand of courage disdains the use of guns, as we see when he refuses to use one to protect Tom Robinson (a black man accused of... ...th, as surely as mockingbirds are shot because they are considered "ugly."   Education and courage allow individuals to manifest a level of humanity that is color blind and does not criticize or judge based on circumstantial evidence or before walking in the skin of another.   In the author's view the type of justice and social conditions that exist in Maycomb, Alabama, are, mirroring the words of Jem after the guilty verdict for Tom, not right "It ain't right" (Lee, 1960, 214).   Prejudice and discrimination run rampant underneath the seemingly sweet and affectionate portrayal of Maycomb at the novel's outset.   It is these two elements that will unjustly condemn an innocent man to death, two elements Lee considers a sin as surely as Atticus views killing a mockingbird as sinful. Works Cited Lee, H.   (1960).   To Kill A Mockingbird.   New York, Warner Books, Inc.

Didls on George Bernard Shaw Essay

In this letter by George Bernard Shaw, the author conveys vivid detail that is emphasized about the death of his mother. Within this text, the author’s attitude towards his mother and her cremation is utilized by the use of diction, detail, and imagery that serves to express the authors feeling of sentimentality and rebirth from the enchanted tone he attributed his mother with. Throughout the excerpt, the author begins his oration in an admirable tone. The author portrays his attitude towards his mother’s cremation as a positive outlook in life. With the excessive usage of diction, the author describes what lies beyond the oven door of the crematory oven as â€Å"wonderful†, while other people sought it as horrifying to see it. Shaw describes the oven being â€Å"No roaring draught. No flame. No fuel.†; rather, with the appearance of â€Å"cool, clean, sunny† of the coffin. Shaw evokes a sense of diction that is viewed with full of life. The cremation is depicted as a â€Å"beautiful fire† like â€Å"pentecostal tongue† suggests the mother as a spirit ascending from the coffin with the rebirth of life itself. By the presentation of diction use with the mother being rebirthed with attribution of new life, the author’s attitude can be best described in a blissful manner. Although Shaw describes the rebirth of his mother with the excessive usage of diction, he also attributes the cremation with vivid detail of imagery. Shaw’s usage of imagery with his mother’s cremation gives the reader an insight of the author’s attitude towards his mother. When Shaw describes the coffin of â€Å"streaming ribbons of garnet colored lovely flame, smokeless and eager, like pentecostal tongues†, his view of imagery suggests fire is a symbol of life and that there is a spirit ascending from the coffin. Shaw also notes his â€Å"mother became that beautiful fire,† before the cook â€Å"swept her up into a sieve and shook her out: so that there was a heap of dust and a heap of bone straps,† makes the imagery that Shaw conveys to his mother as a spirit being humorous. What Shaw portrays through these details is that by the burning of his mother, the corpse is then observed full of energy and life itself, allowing her rebirth into a spiritual figure a mockery of flesh and bone. By the use of imagery, Shaw is trying to emphasize that the quality of the cremation makes it better compared to a burial. Despite Shaw’s admirable and blissful attitude throughout his oration, there was detail among the letter that gives the reader a more insightful thought of the attitude portrayed to his mother and her cremation. When Shaw addresses â€Å"O grave, where is thy victory?†, it gives the reader the sense that the grave is provided only with death compared to the cremation that allows the spirit to somewhat escape the body and be set out as free, giving the crematory positive connotations. This puny detail shows the difference of the grave and crematory that gives an insightful attitude towards what the author is trying to convey about his mother and her crematory. In all, Shaw’s strange appreciation of the event attributes him with the recognition of victory of life over death from releasing the spirit of his mother through the fire of the crematory.

Course Project, Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements Note 1 Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Principles (10 items) Description of Business The Open-Road Motorcycle Company is the largest online retailer of salvage title motorcycles. We are focused on bringing the customer the best value on entry level motorcycles by providing lower prices than our competitors. Our motorcycles are sold all over the United States, and we currently have 30 stores all across the country. Property, Plant and Equipment All property, plant and equipment are stated at cost and depreciated over their useful lives.All depreciation expense incurred is derived using the straight line method. We do not depreciate our land. We estimate our useful life for our assets accordingly; buildings have a 40 year life, computer equipment has a 5 year life and the repair equipment a 15 year life. The estimated lives of our assets are reviewed periodically to determine if any impairment is present so the useful lives and depreciation can be adjusted for accuracy. Short-term Investments All of our investments are comprised of trading securities comprised of debt instruments in different industries.The securities are reported at fair value with any unrealized gains and losses stated on net income. Securities that are still held at the end of the fiscal year are evaluated and are adjusted if necessary. Inventory Valuation All of our merchandise on our website is recorded at cost or fair value, whichever is lower. The salvage motorcycle inventory is recorded at cost. We value our inventory using the average method. If the motorcycle is considered â€Å"unsellable†, it becomes disassembled and sold for parts.All parts received from motorcycles that have been disassembled are not recorded because the cost has already been recorded from the original purchase. The motorcycle would be written off as a loss on net income and all sales from the parts are considered gains and are stated on net income. Re fer to Note 2. Costs of Goods Sold Our Costs of goods sold is the cost of the motorcycles purchased, direct labor and depreciation expense. It includes all shipping and handling costs, air freight, train, and truck costs in received the merchandise and or motorcycles. Revenue RecognitionAll revenue generated from sales of inventory are realized when it has been earned. Generally when the item purchased arrives and the ownership transfers. All shipping and handling costs are included in the sales price. Revenues earned from sales are stated net of tax. Sales from disassembled motorcycles are listed as gains or losses on net income. Advertising Costs All costs associated with the marketing our website, which include television and internet ads, are expensed when incurred. Typically our advertising costs stay the same every year at $4 million, since our beginning in 2006. Accounts ReceivablesWe record accounts receivables at net realizable value. This value is the remainder of the amou nt due on sales on credit less estimated uncollectable amounts. We calculate our estimated amount based on past write-offs. Our company credit policy extends a 30 day period in which the full payment is due upon completion of sale. The item must have a prepayment of at-least 50% of the motorcycle sales price before it is shipped. We believe that because of this policy the amount of uncollectable revenue is reduces and sales have increased. Contingencies Our company is currently involved in a lawsuit pending a settlement agreement.A former employee was injured in an accident involving improper handling of the shipment. The settlement is considered probable and the estimated cost is $2 million. This amount is stated in current liabilities. Refer to Note 4. Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans Our company contributes to pension and other postretirement health care plans for all of our employees. We contribute 3% of gross wages into a retirement fund specified by each employee . Refer to note 11. Note 2 Inventories Our inventory is comprised of salvaged motorcycles and fully repaired motorcycles.Inventories are valued at the lower of cost or market. We base our cost on the average cost method. Repaired motorcycles have title and labor costs included in the basis of valuation. Inventories consisted of the following (in millions): December 31, 2011 2010 Salvage motorcycle inventory $ 300 $310 Repaired motorcycle inventory $250 $200Total inventories $550 $510 Note 3 Property, Plant and Equipment The following table illustrates our property, plant and equipment (in millions): December 31, 2011 2010 Land $ 600 $ 550 Buildings and garages 900 700 Machinery, repair and computers 00 350 1,900 1,600 Less: accumulated depreciation 350 300 Property, plant and equipment – net $ 1,550 $ 1,300 Note 4 Contingencies and LiabilitiesOur company is currently involved in a lawsuit that is pending a settlement. The approximate amount of the settlement is $2 million. We have determined that the contingency is probable and the amount of the settlement is accurate. This amount is stated on the consolidated balance sheet for the current period. Note 5 Changes in Accounting Principles or Estimates We are currently using the average cost method for inventory valuation in place of LIFO.We have determined this method is more accurate for valuation because prices tend to fluctuate and may skew net income unfavorably. Note 6 Post Balance Sheet Events Our company continually evaluates its motorcycle inventory to determine cost and its ability to sell. If a significant amount of inventory is deemed obsolete or â€Å"unsellable,† it is adjusted in the next period. The amount is deducted from inventory and written off as a loss.The motorcycles then become disassembled and all revenue generate from the parts are considered a gain. Note 7 Mergers and Acquisitions We recently acquired Pristine Paint Jobs Company during the year for $50 million. We acqui red all buildings, land, equipment and certain patents on paint jobs. We have decided to expand our operations by completely restoring salvage motorcycles for a lower price. The following table illustrates the assets and liabilities received from the purchase (in millions):Cash $ 3 Inventory 10 Equipment 35 Property, plant and Equipment 45 Total assets acquired 93 Accounts payable 40 Long-term debt 40 Total liabilities acquired 80 Total net assets acquired $13 Note 8 Lease Obligations We currently lease a special modification machine that restores the engine and parts to 95%. The lease agreement is based on a 5 year term for $500,000 a year. The following table illustrates our payments for the term of the lease.Years ending December 31, Lease Payments 2011 $500,000 2012 $500,000 2013 $500,000 2014 $500,000 2015 $500,000 Total cost of the lease $2,500,000 Note 9 EPS Our company has 200,000 shares authorized with 100,000 outstanding. We have no preferred stock or treasury stock. The following table will illustrate the current and previous earnings per share. 2011 2010Net Income (in millions) $ 5 $ 4 Number of shares outstanding 100,000 100,000 EPS $50 $40 Note 10 Long-Term Debt With the acquisition of Pristine Paint Jobs, we acquired $40 million in long-term debt. Our long term debt prior to the acquisition was $25 million. Our long term debt consists of a $25 million note payable at a fixed interest rate of 1. 5 percent due December 31, 2040.The following illustrates the long term debts acquired from the purchase of Pristine Paint Jobs. * $20 million total principal amount of notes due November 20, 2035, at a fixed rate of 1 percent; and * $20 million total principal amount of notes due November 20, 2035, at a fixed rate of 1. 5 percent. Note 11 Employee Pension Obligations We continue to contribute to employee retirement plans for all of our employees. These pension plans are funded and are based on salaries and years of service. The total contri bution for the year is $10 million. In 2010 our total contribution was $9 million. We contribute 3% of employee wages into the plan. The increase in contribution is due to the increase of our workforce.

Global Warming Webquest Essay Example

Global Warming Webquest Essay Example Global Warming Webquest Paper Global Warming Webquest Paper How are climate and weather related? Climate is weather that happens over a period of time, Weather is now. They are both related because they both have changes in the weather. Plus they are use to refer what are the temperatures in a country. What is the green house effect? The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, for example) trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earths average temperature would be about OFF colder. Because of how they warm our world, these gases are referred to as greenhouse gases. How is amplified warming different from natural warming? Normal warming is mostly caused by natural gases. Amplified warming is mostly caused by heat changes that cause mutations of climate. Also amplified is more spread around the world than normal warming. What factors are most responsible for significant changes in the climate? The major actors are carbon dioxide, deforestation, burning of fossil fuels, road vehicles, pollution, volcanic eruptions, sunspots, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, etc. Which of these are natural causes and which are driven by human activity? Most of these causes, like pollution and road vehicles, are cause by human activity and they are some of the major causes of the change in the Earths climate. Volcanic eruptions and sunspot are natural causes that are putting our world in danger too. How will humans be impacted by changes in the climate? : The sea levels will raise and land will be lost, seas temperature are going to rise, there will be lost of rain, a lot of dry places, lots of diseases, agricultural places and lots of animals die because of these problem. How will global warming change ecosystems and the environment? Environment Impacted by Global Warming: As the surface of the Earth heats up, unseasonable temperatures and weather phenomenon have become the norm in many areas of the world. The changes in the temperature and weather patterns have already begun to cause changes in land that was once able to produce or grow food. More and more areas are experiencing drought, which has caused a lack of food in areas, which are in great need of water. Global warming has also had the opposite effect in some areas creating catastrophic flooding and other weather phenomenon that has impacted the environment in a disastrous way. Ecosystems Impacted by Global Warming: The ongoing concern right now is the rise in sea level due to glacial ice melting and causing sea level to rise. The rise in sea level could have the potential to not only swallow land along the coast, but to dump salt water in otherwise fresh water habitats such as marshes and wetlands. The infiltration of this salt water will create an unstable environment for many of the animals that call the fresh water habitats their home. Just a slight change in the ecosystem can greatly affect the symbiotic relationships be;en the animals and organisms that are native to these areas. How do CO emissions levels differ from country to country? In Some countries there is a lot of power stations, motor vehicles and industries. These things send a lot of CO emissions to the atmosphere. This s why economically develop countries have more CO than others.

Definition and Examples of the Series in Grammar

Definition and Examples of the Series in Grammar Definition In English grammar, a  series is a  list of three or more items (words,  phrases, or  clauses),  usually arranged in parallel form. Also known as a list or catalog. The items in a series are usually separated by commas (or semicolons if the items themselves contain commas). See Serial Commas. In rhetoric, a series of three parallel items is called a tricolon. A series of four parallel items is a tetracolon (climax). See Examples and Observations below. Also see: Writing With Descriptive ListsAsyndeton and PolysyndetonAuxesisBill Brysons ListsClimactic OrderCoordinate Adjectives  and  Cumulative AdjectivesDiazeugmaHypozeuxisEdward Abbeys List of ExamplesEnd-Focus and End-WeightEnumeratioListicleNikki Giovannis ListsParallelismSystrophe EtymologyFrom the Latin, to join   Examples and Observations With their repetitions, their strong rhythmic qualities- lists are often the most musical section of a piece of prose, as though the writer suddenly broke into song.(Susan Neville, Stuff: Some Random Thoughts on Lists. AWP Feb. 1998)Twitter has become a playground for imbeciles, skeevy marketers, D-list celebrity half-wits, and pathetic attention seekers: Shaquille ONeal, Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest.(Daniel Lyons, Dont Tweet on Me. Newsweek, Sep. 28, 2009)Tea is the steady companion of the Scottish day, and each hotel, no matter how humble, stocks its rooms with supplies for brew-ups: electric pot for boiling water, ceramic pot for brewing, china cups and small tea creamers, a raft of teas, honey, fresh milk, and lemons.(Emily Hiestand, Afternoon Tea,  The Georgia Review, Summer 1992)Donkey: I dont get it, Shrek. Why didnt you just pull some of that ogre stuff on him? You know, throttle him, lay siege to his fortress, grind his bones to make your bread? You know, the whole ogre t rip.Shrek: Oh, I know. Maybe I could have decapitated an entire village, put their heads on a pike, gotten a knife, cut open their spleens and drunk their fluids. Does that sound good to you?Donkey: Uh, no, not really, no.(Shrek, 2001) Daisy said some cruel and heartless things about me, my personality, my looks, my clothes, my parents, my friends, the way I eat, sleep, drink, walk, laugh, snore, tap my teeth, crack my fingers, belch, fart, wipe my glasses, dance, wear my jeans up around my armpits, put HP sauce on my toast, refuse to watch The X Factor and Big Brother, drive . . . The litany went on and on and was interspersed with tears and sobs.(Sue Townsend,  Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years. Penguin, 2010)Go on vacation with your siblings; you will be back in the treehouse of code words and competitions and all the rough rivalries of those we love but do not choose as family. I am more likely to read trashy books, eat sloppy food, go barefoot, listen to the Allman Brothers, nap and generally act like Im 16 than Id ever be in the dark days of February. Return to a childhood haunt, the campground, the carnival, and let the season serve as a measuring stick, like notches on the kitchen doorway: the last time yo u walked this path, swam this lake, you were in love for the first time or picking a major or looking for work and wondering what comes next.(Nancy Gibbs, To the Time Machine! Time, July 11, 2011) The fictional model for the country gentry is the hard-riding, heavy-drinking, red-faced, Hanoverian-damning, Pox!-exclaiming, no-nonsense Squire Western in Fieldings Tom Jones.(Jeremy Paxman, The English: A Portrait of a People. Overlook, 2000)Throughout [the movie] Sinister, the rooms remain darker than crypts, whether at breakfast or dinnertime, and the sound design causes everything in the house to moan and groan in consort with the heros worrisome quest. I still cant decide what creaks the most: the floors, the doors, the walls, the dialogue, the acting, or the fatal boughs outside.(Anthony Lane, Film Within a Film. The New Yorker, October 15, 2012)Knowing already of the towns carefully nurtured reputation for gentility, I moved [to Bournemouth] in 1977 with the idea that this was going to be a kind of English answer to Bad Ems or Baden-Baden- manicured parks, palm courts with orchestras, swank hotels where men in white gloves kept the brass gleaming, bosomy elderly ladies in mi nk coats walking those little dogs you ache to kick (not out of cruelty, you understand, but from a simple, honest desire to see how far you can make them fly).(Bill Bryson, Notes From a Small Island. Doubleday, 1995) Most of the public lands in the West, and especially in the Southwest, are what you might call cowburnt. Almost anywhere and everywhere you go in the American West you find hordes of these ugly, clumsy, stupid, bawling, stinking, fly-covered, shit-smeared, disease-spreading brutes. They are a pest and a plague. They pollute our springs and streams and rivers. They infest our canyons, valleys, meadows, and forests. They graze off the native bluestem and grama and bunchgrasses, leaving behind jungles of prickly pear. They trample down the native forbs and shrubs and cacti. They spread the exotic cheatgrass, the Russian thistle, and the crested wheat grass.(Edward Abbey, Even the Bad Guys Wear White Hats. Harpers Magazine, January 1986)I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or a sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a humble-bee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the northstar, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a Jan uary thaw, or the first spider in a new house.(Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854) Oh, look, she said. She was a confirmed Oh-looker. I had noticed this at Cannes, where she had drawn my attention in this manner on various occasions to such diverse objects as a French actress, a Provenà §al filling station, the sunset over the Estorels, Michael Arlen, a man selling coloured spectacles, the deep velvet blue of the Mediterranean, and the late mayor of New York in a striped one-piece bathing suit.(P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves, 1934)Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, mee t any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.(President John Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961) The sandwiches were stuffed with alfalfa sprouts and grated cheese, impaled with toothpicks with red, blue, and green cellophane ribbons on them, and there were two large, perfect, crunchy garlic pickles on the side. And a couple of cartons of strawberry Yoplait, two tubs of fruit salad with fresh whipped cream and little wooden spoons, and two large cardboard cups of aromatic, steaming, fresh black coffee.(Thom Jones, Cold Snap, 1995)While politely discussing with him my fathers sudden journey to town, I registered simultaneously and with equal clarity not only his wilting flowers, his flowing tie and the blackheads on the fleshy volutes of his nostrils, but also the dull little voice of a cuckoo coming from afar, and the flash of a Queen of Spain settling on the road, and the remembered impression of the pictures (enlarged agricultural pests and bearded Russian writers) in the well-aerated classrooms of the village school which I had once or twice visited; andto continue a tabulati on that hardly does justice to the ethereal simplicity of the whole process- the throb of some utterly irrelevant recollection (a pedometer I had lost) was released from a neighboring brain cell, and the savor of the grass stalk I was chewing mingled with the cuckoos note and the fritillarys takeoff, and all the while I was richly, serenely aware of my own manifold awareness.(Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited. Random House, 1966) The one with the assortment of smiles, the oneJailed in himself like a forest, the one who comesBack at evening drunk with despair and turnsInto the wrong night as though he owned it- oh smallDeaf disappearance in the dusk, in which of their shoesWill I find myself tomorrow?(W.S. Merwin, Sire. The Second Four Books of Poems. Copper Canyon Press, 1993)The Length of a SeriesAlthough the four-part series is indicative of a human, emotional, subjective, involved attitude, each additional lengthening of the series increases and magnifies this attitude, and begins to add an element of humor, even absurdity. [William] Hazlitt, writing about human beings, the Public, his own kind, [above] uses the long series to indicate great involvement, great feeling, and a certain sense of humor about it all. The Public is mean, but so ornery that we almost have to laugh.(Winston Weathers and Otis Winchester, The New Strategy of Style. McGraw-Hill, 1978)Usage Tips: Arranging and Concluding a Series- In a n unenumerated series, place the longest element last.(James Kilpatrick)- Do not use etc. at the end of a list or series introduced by the phrase such as or for examplethose phrases already indicate items of the same category that are not named.(G. J. Alred et al., The Business Writers Handbook. Macmillan, 2003) Pronunciation: SEER-eez

Ancient Africa and Andrea Primary Sources Assignment

Ancient Africa and Andrea Primary Sources - Assignment Example This shows the importance of the river and the important role which it played in the growth of the Oyo kingdom. In the land of the Seyon, the red sea and the historic ivory trade routes influenced the development of the Ethiopian kingdom. In regard to this, Andrea and Overfield (2001) record that the Ethiopian kingdom thrived as a result of its strategic location between the trade route that joined the Mediterranean world and Egypt. The adoption of Christianity in the Ethiopian kingdom during the reign of King Ezana was also a factor to the growth of the kingdom (Andrea & Overfield, 2001). The religion served to unite the people of Ethiopia. Historical markets and geographical tropical rainforests were also very influential in the development of kingdoms in the medieval Africa. Andrea and Overfield (2001) note that the Berber and Arab Merchants showed keen interest in the land of Ghana-Western Sudan kingdom because of its location between the tropical rainforests and the markets of North Africa. In addition, the cities of the Mediterranean north developed because of the gold mines, as Andrea and Overfield (2001) records. Similarly, the kingdom of the land of Zanj grew as a result of its closeness to the Indian ocean. The Indian ocean offered transport for traders and a conducive environment for the tremendous rise of the kingdom. In sum, the medieval African continental societal changes were greatly influenced by geographical features like the rivers, mountains, seas and the

British Airway is a listed industrial company on the London Stock Essay

British Airway is a listed industrial company on the London Stock Exchange,obtain its published annual reports and aacounts - Essay Example The financial performance and position analysis of British Airways can be done with the help of profitability, leverage and liquidity ratios in comparison with one of its major industrial competitors i.e. Air France-KLM (banker.thomsonib.com). The analysis of Air France-KLM would serve as a benchmark for the evaluation of performance and position of British Airways plc. The profitability ratios presented in the above table highlight both the companies i.e. British Airways plc and Air France-KLM for the last 4 years 2002-05. The return on assets ratio for British Airways reveals that the company has been generating a declining return on its various assets over the last four years. This ratio has decreased by about 39% in 2005 as compared to the year 2002. For Air France, this ratio also shows that the return generated by the company on its various assets has been consistently declining over the four years. The ratio has decreased by about 50% in the year 2005 as compared to 2002. Despite this fact, Air France's return on asset ratio is about 12% higher than that of the British Airways plc for the year 2005. This suggests that Air France has been more successful in utilising its assets towards the generation of profit. The return on capital employed ratio indicates the extent to which a company generates return on the funds invested by its investors. According the above table, British Airways' return on capital employed ratio has been on the declining trend for the last four years suggesting a significant plunge in the company's net profits. The ROCE for British Airways has declined by about 30% in the year 2005 as compared to 2002. Approximately, the similar situation has been with its competitor Air France plc; its ROCE has also been declining but at a higher rate than British Airways i.e. 50% if the figures for the year 2005 are compared with 2002. Still, Air France's ROCE is much higher than that of the British Airways. The three profit margin ratios depicted in the above chart i.e. the gross profit margin, operating margin and net profit margin provide an insight into these companies' general profitability. The gross profit margin shows the revenue that is left with the company after accounting for various production and distribution costs. The operating margin reveals the extent to which a company loses its sales revenues in meeting its

Casual Analysis of a Superhero Movie Trend Essay

Casual Analysis of a Superhero Movie Trend - Essay Example All the movie makers want a piece of the share of the market, thus resulting in a large number of feature films about a superhero of all forms. As the mass development of superhero films progresses, this raises the query of how many superheroes are required in the lives of human beings. It is also intriguing that the identical movie characters have existed throughout the days, with no decrease in the movie market supply or demand (King 67). This paper will analyze the origin, causes and probable consequences of superhero movies. The classic superhero model stemmed from comic books, but their eminence in widespread culture has enlarged to film and television. These superheroes were initially merely narrative means employed to mirror the present-day need for a guardian of public justice. Since that period, the superhero has developed into a versatile and timeless entertainment symbol. Just as the television industry, the movie sector has made a large number of remakes of superhero movi es. Spiderman is one of the utmost glaring films of all-time (King 46). In addition, the regard behind the superhero movies lies in their reliability and their predictability. For example, the superhero trope is without doubt identified with moviegoers. Moviegoers go to the movie theaters with a reasonably proper comprehension of the common story line; have an encounter with the superhero, observe their flamboyant powers; have an encounter with the baddies, dread their menacing strategies of evil. The plot frequently entails a rescue operation, which in due course finishes to the culmination of a heroic battle between virtuous versus wicked. There may be differences between the varying narratives, but the expectation of the viewers will always remain consistent (King 33). People are aware of what they are receiving from the superhero films. Nonetheless, the model is also varied enough to give numerous varying explanations in its characterization. Superhero characters are adaptable a nd may be categorized under different areas of ethical scale from a morally confusing antihero, for example, Catwoman to a straight-laced protector of justice, for example, Captain America. Consequently, the storytelling capacity could have infinite probabilities. While the plots may be the same, the dissimilarities in the directorial techniques, the cinematography, and in the characters differentiate one film from the other. Prior to Spiderman, superhero movies tended to lie in between different categories with regard to urban staging. They characteristically also failed or did not try to extensively deconstruct the goal of the comic-book superhero, and it still may be argued that, to a large degree, both of these concerns are still prevalent to the genre. But the puzzle trailer for Spiderman suggested both a new form of superhero city and also a prolonged unsettled take on urban slump that had been moderately absent from action cinema (DeScioli and Kurzban 248). Roland Emmerichâ⠂¬â„¢s work had and still continues to teach viewers that the CGI’s epiphany is the absolute annihilation of the urban surrounding. With Spiderman, there was not only the World Trade Center, but also a sign of the urban literally intertwined with the superheroic. Even

The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs Essay Example for Free

The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs Essay One of the two friends were killed, the other managed to escape† (Versii). Thirteen more murders followed, often with multiple bodies found in the same day. Two victims were found every day from July 14 through the 16 (â€Å"Lowlifes planned 40 murders†) The three suspects were arrested on July 23, 2007. Igor Suprunyuck attempted to sell a mobile phone they had stolen from one of their victims at the local pawn shop. When that phone was turned on to show that it worked, its location was tracked by law enforcement agents. Igor Suprunyuck and Viktor Sayenko were arrested in the pawn shop (Katsman). Alexander Hanzha was arrested at home, reportedly managing to flush other stolen phones down the toilet. The phones were recovered, but all the information on them was lost (GlavRed). They were charged with 29 separate incidents, including 21 murders and 8 more attacks where the victims survived. Suprunyuck was charged with 27 of the cases, Sayenko was charged with 25, and Hanzha with counts of armed robbery (Kommersant). Ally three confessed quickly, Suprunyuck later withdrew his confession. Suprunyuck’s original defense awyer dropped out of the case after reportedly being disappointed at failing to have a plea of insanity accepted by his client (Segodyna). â€Å"On February 11, 2009, the court in Dnepropetrovsk found Igor Suprunyuck and Viktor Sayenko guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Alexander Hanzha, who was found guilty of robbery and sentenced to nine years in prison (Olinikova). Hanzha said of Suprunyuck and Sayenko: â€Å"If I had know n the atrocities that they were capable of commiting, I would have not gone near them at gunpoint (â€Å"Dnepropetrovsk serial killers sentenced to life imprisonment†). The parents of Igor Suprunyuck and Viktor Sayenko repeated their belief in the innocence of their sons. The parents of Suprunyuck and Sayenko also argued that the sentence of Alexander Hanzha had been too lenient (Segondnya). From what i’ve read, the murderers didn’t have a specific motive. â€Å"Local media reported that the killers had a plan to get rich from the murder videos that they recorded. One of the suspects’ girlfriends reported that they were planning to make forty videos of separate murders. This was corroborated by the suspects’ former classmates, who claimed that he often heard Suprunyuck was in contact with an unknown â€Å"rich foreign website creator† who ordered forty snuff videos, and would pay a large sum of money once they were made† (â€Å"Lowlifes planned 40 murders†). Regional security chief, Ivan Stupak, rejected the claim that the murders had been committed to make internet snuff videos, saying that no evidence had come to the light during the investigation that supported the claim (Segodnya). Detective Bogdan Vlasenko stated: â€Å"We think they were doing it as a hobby, to have a collection of memories when they get old (Segodnya). Deputy interior minister, Nikolay Kupyanskiy, commented â€Å"For these young men, murder was like entertainment or hunting (â€Å"Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs captured! †). â€Å"At the trial, it emerged that Suprunyuck had collected newspaper cuttings about the case† (Segodnya). â€Å"Some of the photographs of the crimes had captions added, including â€Å"The weak must die. The strongest will conquer (Segodnya). The suspects’ mobile phones and personal computers contained multiple video recordings of the murders taking place. One full video was leaked on the internet, showing the murder of 48-year-old Sergei Yatzenko. He is seen lying on his back in a wooded area, and is struck repeatedly in the face with a hammer held inside a plastic bag. One of the attackers stabs Yatzenko in the eye with a screwdriver, and also stabs him in the abdomen with the screwdriver. Yatzenko is then struck with the hammer in order to ensure that he is dead. The attack lasts over four minutes, during which the victim lapses in and out of consciousness. One of the murderers can be smiling towards the camera during the video† (â€Å"Shocking Murder Video Makes Rounds on the Internet†). Personally i’ve seen the video and I wish I could take back every minute of it. The suspects were also found in possession of multiple photographs showing them attending funerals of the victims. They can be seen smiling and â€Å"flipping off† the coffins and gravestones (â€Å"Killers captured death of victims on video (with television news video)†). The photographic and video evidence was shown in court on October 29, 2008, as part of a larger presentation of over 300 photographs and two videos (Leontieva). In conclusion, my opinion on the murders is that they were horrible. There had to be something mentally wrong with them. No one can do something like that and not have any kind of sympathy, without something being wrong with them. The Dnepropetrovsk Maniac murders were definitely some of the worst killings in the last 100 years.

Tinnitus - Have You Experienced It Yet? Essay -- Biology Essays Resear

Tinnitus - Have You Experienced It Yet? Can you ever recall hearing a strange annoying noise in your ears that remained constant for days or seemed recurrent? If you answered yes to this question then you may be one of the 50,000,000 individuals in the U.S. who suffer from tinnitus. Almost everyone at one time or another has experienced brief periods of mild ringing or other sounds in the ear and it is estimated that one out of every five people experience some degree of tinnitus (1). The presence of tinnitus is a very common and annoying occurrence that affects about 17% of the general population and 33% of the elderly (2). With such statistics, could it be that we are all most likely destined to become a victim of tinnitus? Tinnitus is the internal perception of sound when there actually is no external sound present. It is a symptom that can occur in either or both ears or can seem as if it is coming from somewhere in the head. Tinnitus can sound like a bell, whistle, roar, screech, hum, crickets, tone, something else, or any combination of the above. It can be continuous, pulsatile, or can fluctuate in character or loudness (3). Tinnitus is classified into two forms: objective and subjective. Objective tinnitus, the rarer form, consists of a sound that may be audible to people other than the sufferer. The noises are usually caused by vascular diseases or abnomalies, repetitive muscle contractions, or inner ear structural defects. The sounds are heard by the sufferer and are generally external to the auditory system. Benign causes, such as noise from the jaw joint, openings of the Eustachian tubes, or repetitive muscle contractions may be the cause of objective tinnitus. It can be an early sign of increased intracrania... ...on sufferers are so seriously debilitated that they cannot function on a day-to-day basis. The upsetting notion of tinnitus is that it can strike people of all ages and, for most, it does not go away. Tinnitus is just a nuisance for some, but for others it is a stressful, life-altering condition (7). WWW Sources 1) Tinnitus FAQ- Discovering and Understanding http://www.cccd.edu/faq/tinnitus/discover.html 2) Tinnitus Information Network http://members.aol.com/MyTinnitus/English/definition.html 3) Tinnitus & Loudness Sensitivity Center http://www.earaces.com/tinnitus.htm 4)Tinnitus Relief Center: FAQ http://www.tinnitusrelief.com/faq3.html 5) Tinnitus Relief Center: About Tinnitus http://www.tinnitusrelief.com/abouttinnitus.html 6) ASHA Brochure - Tinnitus 7) American Tinnitus Association http://home.teleport.com/~ata/FAQS~RC.HTM

Blue Nile Essay

The spreadsheet I did presents a summary of Blue Nile financial results from 2005 to 2009. From 2005 to 2007 revenues and net income both increased. The deep recession which began in late 2007 seriously affected the revenue in 2008. And then in 2009 the revenue recovered and increased slightly. I am going to analysis the financial performance in three parts. First, profitability ratios. Blue Nile had steady return on asset ratios around . 1. The company utilized its assets very efficiently and outperformed their competitors. By doing research on Yahoo Finance, we know the industry return on equity is 0. 18. Blue Nile’s return on equity ratio was much higher. It created better return to investors. Net profit margins were mostly lower than the industry average level. For example in 2009, Blue Nile only had net income of 4 cents for each dollar sale. Its low margins can be explained by its low pricing of products. As Rita said, Blue Nile had a much lower markup than Tiffany. Blue Nile’s number for liquidity ratios are impressive. Such high ratios from 2005 through 2009 show the company’s great ability to pay short-term debt. One of the company’s strategies is that suppliers finance Blue Nile’s sales growth. ( ) The business model contributed to higher sales volumes with minimal additional capital investment. With respect to leverage ratios, Blue Nile had really low long-term debt to equity ratios compared to the industry. Tiffany’s long-term debt to equity was as high as . 39. Because Blue Nile offered a balance between the debt to equity range and firm’s cost of capital, its capital structure was optimal. The company had low capital investment financed by creditors and bondholders. Its debt to assets ratios are over . 5, which means it, had a lot of debt obligations. However, most of the company’s debt was current and it was able to pay off creditors in a timely manner. Creditors did not need to worry about getting paid. Blue Nile’s strong financial performance intuitively indicated the company’s strategies were pretty well-conceived and well-executed.

Human Generosity Essay

The Ghost of Christmas Past goes on to show Scrooge an incident that is obviously very painful for Scrooge to watch, for by the end he is crying, â€Å"Spirit! Show me no more! Conduct me home. Why do you delight to torture me? † The vision is of a time when Scrooge is beginning to shut other people out of his life, and start a new life in the lonely world of earning money obsessively with no one to share it with. He is shown his â€Å"release† from his fianci for the reason that she has seen his, â€Å"nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until one master passion, Gain, engrosses you. † On the arrival of the second Spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, Scrooge is prepared. Dickens presents the spirit as a large, jolly fellow who shares most people’s merry feelings about Christmas. When Scrooge encounters him initially, piles of food surround the Spirit, â€Å"Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking pigs, long wreaths of sausage, mince pies†¦ † These lists are typical of Dickens’ style, emphasising the richness of it all. The Spirit shows Scrooge more images of how much others, rich and poor, enjoy Christmas. He sprinkles his own â€Å"flavour†, his own form of generosity, upon the shoppers’ food, especially that of the poor, before taking Scrooge to the Cratchits’ home. The Cratchits have little in the way of a Christmas dinner, but appreciate every last mouthful. Each and every one of them is in high spirits, Tiny Tim included. Tiny Tim is a young, crippled boy, with an iron frame supporting his limbs and a tiny crutch. Yet he too joins in the festivities with joy and love in his heart. â€Å"‘Spirit’ said Scrooge with an interest he had never felt before, ‘tell me if Tiny Tim will live. ‘† We can see him beginning to redevelop the caring attitude that he had buried so long ago. The Ghost tells him that if the future remains unchanged then no; Tiny Tim will not survive. The change in Scrooge is again apparent when he cries, â€Å"Oh no, kind Spirit! say he will be spared. † The Spirit quotes Scrooges words, â€Å"If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. † Scrooge is deeply ashamed by the words of his former self and hangs his head, quite overcome by â€Å"penitence and grief†. As he visits more and more homes, full of people enjoying Christmas, he hears their unkind words about him. They laugh at his ways and, for the first time, he realises what he has been missing out on for all these years and discovers deep feelings of remorse that he never dreamt he would possess. It is the final Spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come that has the most profound effect on Scrooge. The Phantom’s silent, deadly way terrifies him, as do the scenes of death he is about to see. He is shown views of various people discussing a death, but with no compassion in their voices. It is clear to him that the person they talk of was not liked and will not be missed. â€Å"It’s likely to be a cheap funeral, for, upon my life, I don’t know of anybody who will go to it. † The people ask only of what he did with his money, illustrating how money was the only thing of importance in this man’s life. Scrooge is agonized that no one appears to have any emotion for someone whose life had seemed so similar to his, â€Å"The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My life tends that way now. † By now Scrooge is fully aware of how his lack of generosity will lead; he will die alone and unloved. He is deeply traumatized, â€Å"Let me see some tenderness connected with a death, or that dark chamber, Spirit, which we left just now, will be for ever present to me. † The Spirit obeys but Scrooge is surprised to find himself back at the Cratchits’ home. On further investigation, Scrooge discovers that it is not the same death for which he is being shown the grieving. He realises the sad, but true fact that Tiny Tim has died. The comparisons between the unbearable sadness felt for a small boy who, despite being poor and crippled, had love and joy in his heart, and the complete lack of emotion felt for a money obsessed old man could not be further apart. Before the final Ghost departs Scrooge begs him to reveal who they saw lying dead, although it is quite possible that he already knows but refuses to believe it. He hesitates before going to look at the gravestone to which he has been conveyed, for he has something he needs to know, â€Å"Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they the shadows of the things that May be only? † Scrooge is desperate for a chance to change and live a life that could not only prevent Tiny Tim form dying, but also prevent his own life from ending in the way he had seen the other man’s to have done. Although the Ghost does not reply, Scrooge does not pursue the matter, for he knows already that he can change the future by letting others into his life and bringing more joy to theirs with just a little human generosity. He advances towards the grave and uncovers the tangled weeds of neglect to reveal the name: â€Å"EBENEZER SCROOGE† Falling to his knees he cries promises of change, claiming he will â€Å"honour Christmas† and live in the â€Å"Past, the Present and the Future†. And so he does. The story ends with Dickens describing Scrooges joy that he has not missed Christmas, â€Å"A happy merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo! † He pays a poor carol singer to order the largest turkey in the shop to be delivered to the Cratchits. He offers Bob a pay rise. He goes to his nephew’s home and joins in the celebrations that he has missed out on for so many years. And what is more, he continues to live like this, resulting in him indirectly saving Tiny Tim’s life. There are many themes running through the story of A Christmas Carol, but in the end they all come back to the same simple idea of Human Generosity. Scrooge’s story demonstrates that having money is not at all important if there is no one with which to share it. In his final gestures, he brings great happiness not only into the lives of others, but also his own. And then we come to the Cratchits who, despite having very little of material value to share, are some of the most generous people that can be found. For it is love that they share among them and, without that, there is nothing to life.

Comparison of the three CMS’s Essays

Comparison of the three CMS’s Essays Comparison of the three CMS’s Essay Comparison of the three CMS’s Essay Since the usage of Moodle is free, majority of the respondents considered using it as course management system software than the other two which require fee upon subscription. However, a relatively large number, eight (8) out of 40 respondents choose not to utilize any of the CMS’s software. Comparison of the three CMS’s based on the survey criteria presented Moodle. Based on the criteria presented, majority of the respondents prefers Moodle because of its many features and efficiency of usage.Moodle offers basic communication tools for the ease of interaction between the students and the instructors, students and the students and the class as the whole. Using email under Moodle, messages can also be sent to offline users and can be read once they log in their respective accounts. Chatting is also possible, using instant messaging; online users may talk through the internet. Discussion Forums are also available in Moodle which are of three types, according to Product Comparison (2006).First, the instructors may choose to rate the post of their students on a particular topic; students, nevertheless, can also rate the response of their colleagues. Second, the posts in the forum will be mailed automatically to the class participants. Third, unread posting will always remain visible for viewing and also, any member of the class can create the forum. In terms of grading schemes, the instructors can create their own scale such as Poor, Fair, Good and Excellent, and use it in all graded activities.The instructors can also receive and get reports indicating the frequency of the visit of a certain student, including the time and date. A report that sums up each student’s performance on assignments can also be received. The instructors can also keep a secure place where private notes about each student can be kept and monitor who are currently logged in to the course (Product Comparison, 2006) In terms of giving assignments, Moodle provides three types of assignments that either the instructor or the student can choose from, depending on the needs- Offline Activity, Online Text and Upload a Single File Assignment.Also, in Moodle, a lesson workbook is also available wherein the lessons are delivered in a flexible and interesting manner. In Moodle, the course calendar is always updated, where upcoming events and activities –including quiz or assignment- will be shown in Activities Block. WebCT. WebCT also provides communication tool features. The instructors can send email message to all students or those in a subset of workgroup. Unlike Moodle, as assessed in the article, Product Comparison (2006), chatting or the instant messaging can only be utilized if the other user is online.Discussion forums are also invited though only one type of forum is allowed, where the students can reply to the discussions without making or creating his/her own topics. The special communication tool that makes WebCT different from the other two is the use of Whiteboard where students can share and show, in real time, their drawings and images. For the benefit of the instructors, the students’ activities online can also be tracked using WebCT.The instructors can get reports regarding the frequency of visit of the students, including the time and date. A report showing the time duration spent by a student on particular settings on the website, including the course content, course units and the discussion forums. Also, the tracking information received by the instructors can also be shared with the students. In giving assignments, WebCT only allows the use of one type of assignment where a student submits files in connection to this specific assignment.WebCT does not also provide programs for the lesson workbook of the instructors. In an article, A Brief Overview of the WebCT, WebCT has set of tools that can help instructors assess the students’ performance and also to evaluate the effectiveness of the course. This system has assessment engine that facilitates in the scoring of tests and other surveys. It also provides very flexible scoring methods in different types of questions whether multiple choice, essay, short answer, matching type and calculated results.All these question types are being graded automatically except the essay, which is left uncheck for the instructor’s own evaluations. In accomplishing this type of grading scheme, security coding through password keeping is applied so to ensure the dependability of the results. Student files, messages, reports and course access data are also part of WebCT systems. Thus, the performance of the students can be kept as long as the instructors want to (2001).