Organisational Learning Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organisational Learning - Case Study Example This is particularly demonstrated at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, as explicated by Jack Dwyer (2004). According to Dwyer, Eglin's Air Armament Center (AAC), under the leadership of Gen. Robert W. Chedister, has become a learning organisation in the true sense of the term. Making this possible, is the motivation and focus of each individual and each team within the AAC to use learning in order to increasingly produce results. This is the ultimate aim of the paradigm shift that Gen. Chedister is leading in his organisation. To facilitate the process of creating a learning organisation, Gareth Morgan (1997) suggests using metaphor in order to view the organisational structure. Whereas organisations during the Industrial Age were largely viewed in a mechanistic way, the human factor has increasingly imposed itself. Since the 1960s particularly, managers have increasingly begun to realise that job satisfaction and the meaning derived from the work day positively influences the quality of the work delivered. Hence the mechanistic metaphor for the organisation has also made way for a more organic, flexible, and generally humanistic view. within a certain environment that it influences and that influences the organisation in turn. As such, the organisation adapts and survives according to and in response to the changes in the environment. In this way, the mechanistic view of the organisation makes way for a much more flexible view, in which organisations are open systems that can adapt to change rather than being destroyed by it. At the basis of this is the recognition that an organisation is a combination of human, business, and technical needs. This is very important for the learning paradigm. Larsen et al. (1996) emphasizes that individual learning translates to the benefit for the organisational organism as a whole via systems thinking. Systems thinking entails that the individual focuses on a whole system, rather than only its parts. In this way, patterns of behaviour are derived from the systems observed at work, and team learning can ensue. This is why the vision of the workplace as an integrated organism is important. Each individual has a role to play, but these roles do not exist in isolation. Instead, each role affects each other role, and the organisation's success depends upon the quality of each individual's work. As mentioned above, understanding this integration provides the individual with meaning and motivation at the workplace. Understanding the effect of his or her own work on the performance and success of others, provides the individual with work satisfaction, and the motivation to deliver the best possible work. Innovation as Learning Paradigm According to Dwyer (2004), this is precisely Chedister's point of view. The latter recognises the current business environment as one that demands innovation in all aspects of the company, including training methods. Indeed, Chedister himself adheres to the organic, learning business metaphor by applying his own work experience to his plans for the future. It is his aim to create an integrated business model, by means of which Eglin's collective learning assets can be

Development of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) Sensor

Development of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) Sensor INTRODUCTION CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION The physical processes involved in surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomena were first reported by R.M. Wood in 1902 [1]. In this work, Wood observed a repeated pattern of dark and bright light bands in the reflected light, when he irradiated polarized light on a mirror with a diffraction grating on its surface. The physical interpretation of SPR mechanism was first initiated by the British physicist Lord Rayleigh [2], and further refined by Fano [3], but its satisfactory explanation was not available until 1968, when Otto [4] and in the same year Kretschmann and Raether [5] reported the excitation of surface plasmons on the metal/dielectric interface. Its first use in a real-time analysis of a biological system was demonstrated in 1990s by Karlsson et al. [6]. Since then, The SPR has become a crucial optical sensing technique in the areas of biology, microbiology, biochemistry, and medical sciences because of its noninvasive nature [7]. The commercially available SPR based devices are not so cost-effective and require consumable sensor chips demanding certain specifications of size, thickness, effective sensing area and so on. For example, The Biacore (acquired by General Electric Healthcare in 2006), a life science products company, are providing a variety of models of SPR-based instruments (a typical cost of $120,000–$250,000) that exhibit compatibility only with expensive Biacore accessories. Moreover, the associated high operational cost inhibits introduction of SPR technique into laboratory classes at the undergraduate or postgraduate level. In addition to that, the commercial SPR instrument is not a good teaching tool because all the components, of the apparatus, are enclosed, thus preventing the students from visualizing the details of the SPR instrumentation. The primary motivation behind the present project work is to develop a low-cost SPR based multipurpose optical sensor especially intended for undergraduate and postgraduate education and Research. The proposed homemade SPR sensor is supposed to be cost-effective, and whose all components would be accessible for visualization and manipulations in future. The presented design not only allows its integration with various other mechanical and electronic add-ons, but also could prove to be an ingenious teaching tool for the students to understand and appreciate the modern instrumentation. In addition, once developed, this instrument could also serve the Research purposes of general chemistry, biochemistry, physical chemistry, Nanotechnology and Material Sciences. For this purpose it was necessary to arrange low cost experimental components but keeping in mind that these components work well to satisfy our purpose. It took a long time first to decide the components, and then taking overviews from various places regarding the type of component available and the price of that particular component. After comparing and analyzing the need and price of whole set-up the components were arranged from different market places. After arranging the components it was necessary to prepare the experimental set-up in a well mannered way to fulfill our purposes. Again it took a long time to arrange them in a dark room (as we were working on light and its intensity measurement) as to get a well observable result. The most difficult and time consuming task was to produce a thin metallic film on the glass slide of a specific thickness to get a better result. Metallic film was of gold and the coating unit was a magnetron sputtering gold coater available in the department of the institute. Initially it was a difficult task to coat the glass slide of specific thickness, for which we coated various glass slides with different thicknesses using variable coating time of the coater. Then we did the experiments with that thickness but didn’t get the results. Then glass slides were again coated to increase the gold film thickness. This process was repeated various times and at last we were succeeded to produce the res ults from the glass slides of different thicknesses. In this dissertation work, we first introduce the principle of Surface Plasmon Resonance and other associated phenomena. Following the introduction part, we describe some literature reviews in next section of report. We further describe the details of the crucial components that would be used in the development of SPR based Sensor or can be termed as the Experimental Set-up for the Surface Plasmon Resonance phenomenon. The very next section contains the soul of the whole report or the Results, mentioned as results and discussion. We finally conclude the report by enumerating the work done so far, the future course of work followed by the References that have been used for the literature survey. SURFACE PLASMON RESONANCE- Principle: SURFACE PLASMON RESONANCE(SPR): The resonant oscillation of conduction electrons, at the interface between a metal and dielectric, stimulated at the optical frequencies is called the SURFACE PLASMON RESONANCE (SPR). This  resonance  condition is satisfied once the incident  photon frequency matches with the natural frequency of surface electrons, which are oscillating under the action of restoring force of positive nuclei of the metallic atoms. The resonance phenomena has been shown to have many applications such as in Gas detection and immune-sensing [8,9], efficiency enhancement of Solar Cells [10], and Magneto-Optical based imaging etc. [11,12]. Figure 1 shows a typical surface Plasmon resonance set-up which consists of a light source, prism, gold film, and a detector. Figure 1: Schematic diagram of a surface Plasmon resonance set-up. Here n1 and n2 show the refractive indexes of prism and air respectively. SURFACE PLASMON POLARITONS (SPP) wave -The surface  electromagnetic waves, propagating along the  metal/dielectric  or metal/vacuum interface, is known as SURFACE PLASMON POLARITONS (SPP) wave. As the SPP wave is propagating along the boundary of the metal and the external medium (air or dielectric), the aforesaid resonant oscillations become extremely sensitive to any change occurring at the boundary, for instance the adsorption of molecules to the metal surface or change in refractive index at the metal-dielectric surface. Thus the sensitivity associated with metal – dielectric interface can be exploited to obtain a non-destructive and cost effective multipurpose sensor for detection of Chemical and Biological species. According to different literature [9,12], the sensing properties has been quite useful for monitoring food quality, safety analysis, medical diagnostics and environmental changes etc. A typical SPR sensor consists of a dispersive element, such as prism or a plane reflection grating, coated with a metallic layer (Gold) and a dielectric layer (usually polymers or bio molecule layers). The Kretschmann configuration, as shown in Figure 2, is often used in most of the SPR sensor applications, where a metal (typically silver or gold) film is placed at the interface of two dielectric media. The medium 1 with higher refractive index (n1) is a prism and the medium 2 with lower refractive index (n2) can be the air or the dielectric of interest. A collimated p-polarized light beam, entering from the glass side undergoes a total internal reflection and interacts with the metallic layer at the critical angel of incidence (as shown in Figure 2). The surface plasmons (SP), at the metallic surface, are excited at the resonance optical frequency resulting in absorption of a part of incident light energy and hence leading to a sudden drop in Reflectance at a specific angle à ¯Ã‚   ±0 adjacent to the critical angle à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ±C. The resonance condition of the SPs is sensitive to any change in the refractive index of the metal-dielectric interface and leads to shift of à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ±0 to a new angle à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ±1 (Figure 2). The change in the intensity of reflected or diffracted light or its wavelength or angular spectrum can be monitored using a charge coupled device arrays or photodiode arrays, for different sensing purposes [13-16]. Figure 2: Diagram representing the Surface Plasmon Resonance mechanism. TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION AND EVANESCENT WAVES: When the light travels from the higher refractive index medium 1 (glass) to the lower refractive index medium 2 (air or dielectric), the total internal reflection (TIR) takes place within medium 1 for the incident angles ÃŽ ¸ greater than the critical angle ÃŽ ¸C, satisfying the Snell’s relation Sin (ÃŽ ¸C) = n2/n1. The Evanescent waves, a near-field wave, are produced in the lower refractive index medium 2 (air or dielectric) under the TIR condition. As the meaning of Evanescent is tending to vanish, the amplitude of evanescent waves decays exponentially with the distance from the point of incidence, to the interface of the media 1 and 2. When a nonmagnetic gold film with a suitable thickness is sandwiched between the media 1 and 2, the amplitude of evanescent wave is enhanced, penetrating in the gold film and also existing simultaneously in the medium 2. Using the well known Fresnel’s relations, magnitude of the parallel wave vector of the evanescent wave, , is expres sed as; (1) where ÃŽ » is the wavelength of the incident light, n1 is the refractive index of the higher refractive index medium 1, and ÃŽ ¸ is the angle of incidence. Figure 3: Schematic diagram showing a layer system of surface Plasmon resonance where kevan and ksp are wave vectors given in equations. SURFACE PLASMONS: Surface plasmons (quanta of plasma), are the surface electromagnetic wave travelling along the limited region of metal–dielectric interface. The magnitude of the wave vector of the surface plasmon is connected to the dielectric constants of medium 2 (n2) and the gold film (ng). For most of the non absorbing materials, the magnetic permeability is very close to unity at optical frequencies. Hence, the dielectric constant for such materials becomes equal to the square of the refractive index i.e. ÃŽ µ = n2. Here ÃŽ µ is the dielectric constant and n is the refractive index. As a result, can be obtained from n2 and ng using the following relation; (2) where n2 is the refractive index of medium 2 adjacent to the interface and ng is the refractive index of the gold film. SURFACE PLASMON RESONANCE: In presence of the evanescent wave, the surface plasmon can be excited leading to the phenomenon of surface plasmon resonance (SPR). In this situation, the intensity of the reflected light, from the metal-dielectric interface, decreases abruptly (as shown in Figure 1). In this process the energy of evanescent wave is conserved and the energy of the excited surface plasmon is coupled to phonons or photons generation at the interface. Hence, the energy conservation requires that equals to . Thus, using eqs 1 and 2 the angle , at which SPR occurs, can be determined by below relation, (3) Here, the incident angle at which the minimum reflectivity is observed is called the SPR angle. The angle has been found to be slightly larger than the critical angle . It is clear from above expression that the angle is linked to n2 if n1 and ng are kept fixed. Hence, even a slight change in the refractive index of interfacial region is reflected in a significant change in the angle . For instance, the phenomena of adsorption and desorption of any gas, on the gold surface, changes the refractive index of media 2 near the metal–dielectric interface leading to change in the . Therefore, the monitoring the change in the angle can be used, as a technique, to study and analyze the adsorption– desorption or association–dissociation phenomena taking place on the gold surface. The refractive index, in the interfacial regime, changes with the mass and density of foreign species attached to the gold film surface. As a consequence, monitoring the change in the SPR angl e provides information about mass and density change on the gold surface, effectively within 200 nm from a metal surface. As mentioned above the surface Plasmon resonance will occur when, Also from the above discussion we know that the is a function of three parameters. The wavelength of incident light. The refractive index of medium 1 or glass prism. Angle of incidence of the incident light falling on the metal-dielectric junction. And also is a function of three parameters, The wavelength of incident light. The refractive index of metallic thin film. The refractive index of the second medium or the air. So we get five different parameters which can be used as varying parameters to get the optimum condition of Surface Plasmon Resonance which are, The wavelength of incident light, The refractive index of medium 1, The refractive index of medium 2, The refractive index of metallic film, and The angle of incidence of incident light. In wavelength interrogation Surface Plasmon Resonance device, wavelength of incident light is varied whereas the other parameters including incident angle, refractive indexes of medium 1, medium 2 and medium 3 are kept constant during the whole experiment. In this case there is a variation in the intensity of reflected light with variation in wavelength of incident light as shown in figure 4. Figure 4: Shows relationship between absorbance of reflected light and the wavelength of incident light. In angle interrogation Surface Plasmon Resonance device, incident angle of light is varied whereas the other parameters including wavelength of incident light, refractive indexes of medium 1, medium 2 and medium 3 are kept constant during the whole experiment. In this case there is a variation in the intensity of reflected light with variation in angle of incident light as shown in figure 5. Figure 5: Diagram indicating the relationship between intensity of reflected light and incident angle. The other type of interrogation device is refractive index interrogation Surface Plasmon Resonance device in which refractive index of any medium is varied which is a tough task and that is why used in very rare cases. Other parameters are kept constant in this type of interrogation system including wavelength of incident light as well as the incident angle of the light. In this case there is a variation in the intensity of reflected light with variation in refractive index of the medium taken in consideration as shown in figure 6. The one other and most complicated interrogation system is phase interrogation Surface Plasmon resonance device in which phase of the reflected light provides the information about the metal dielectric interface. Very less work has been done in this field and is a good topic to work on in future as angle dependent reflectance measurement and other methods discussed above are limited for detecting low weight molecules on the metal dielectric surface. Figure 6: shows relationship between intensity of reflected light and refractive index of the medium with three different gold film thicknesses. Now refractive indexes of medium 1(glass), medium 2(air) and the gold metallic thin film cannot be varied simply during a running experiment. So we have only two parameters which can be used as variable parameters, the wavelength of the incident light and the angle of incidence of that light falling on the set-up. In our work, we have used the later one for our purpose which is angle of incidence of the incident light on the metal dielectric interface, and making the wavelength of the incident light constant near about 650 nm which means we have used a red laser as a source of the light for our experimental set-up. Angle of incidence can be varied either be rotating the light source around the prism or by rotating the prism on its axis and making light source stationary. We are rotating the prism which is mounted on a rotational prism table to vary angle of incidence.

National Tv Turnoff Week :: essays research papers

Every year thousands of people across the nation turn off their television for seven days to celebrate National TV-Turnoff Week. During this week people are supposed to take time to reflect, spend time with their kids, and go outside and breathe the fresh air. Participating in this event is one of the most challenging things one can do. Most will come out failing and exhausted and the ones that do accomplish it will end up going back to their comfy couch and television sets. National TV-Turnoff week is an extremely unnecessary event that corporations use to lure people out of their homes and into a high priced world where the average person cannot survive. The main goal of this week is to make people go out and spend money. As a result it makes the economy grow. But what society doesn't understand is that not everyone can afford the luxuries the world has to offer. The geniuses behind this idea are such scammers. Are viewers supposed to go a week without television and realize how amazing the outside world is and spend more time there than in their homes? North America is made up of a society where everybody owns at least one television set. It is one of the most used appliances in the household and watching it daily has become routine for most. It would be almost impossible to stop this activity cold turkey. Taking away the television would be like taking away milk from a baby. Without the television people would be deprived of entertainment. It is too expensive to go out these days considering that movie tickets, gas prices, and restaurant meals are too costly for the average person. The number one reason why the nation watches television is because of one simple word: laziness. Nowadays nobody has time to go to art exhibits, make crochet doilies, and prepare candle lit dinners. What seems to be on everybody’s mind, are deadlines, cell phones, soccer games, the Internet, fast food, and total chaos. There are so many family situations where both parents work, children are rushed into life and having a quiet dinner is absolutely impossible. Most households consider watching the television good quality, family time. It is a time where families can catch up on each other’s lives, and still be entertained. The television also doubles as an inexpensive babysitter. Children are hooked to the television as teenagers are to their CD player.

Why Foreign Language Should Be a Core Subject

Silvana Domaz Professor Hussein ENG108: Writing Project #4 22 April 2012 Why Foreign Language Should be a Core Subject in Public Elementary School The benefits of learning a foreign language go beyond learning a different culture or being able to communicate with people of different backgrounds. It is essential that Americans speak languages other than English in order to compete internationally, keep the country safe, and prepare children to be world citizens.Several language organizations, educators, and policy makers have recommended the introduction of a second language at the elementary school level as a way of assuring a high level of language proficiency (Pufahl and Rhodes 273). However, the reality of foreign language education in the United States is far from that goal.The Center for Applied Linguistics conducted a nationwide survey of public and private schools in 2008 and discovered that â€Å"since 1997, the percentage of elementary and middle schools that offer foreign language courses has fallen significantly, from 31 percent to 25 percent at the elementary level and from 75 percent to 58 percent at the middle school level† (Pufahl and Rhodes 261). One of the reasons for the decline could be attributed to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 signed by President George W. Bush.The NCLB act is a framework aimed at improving the performance of America's elementary and secondary schools, with a stronger emphasis on reading. About one third of all public schools with foreign language programs reported being affected by NCLB (Pufahl and Rhodes 270). Educators and politicians see the need for improving students’ achievement in reading and math and for a better score on standardized tests (Stewart 11). For that reason schools are under pressure to allocate time and resources to math and English-language arts instruction.Educators and school administrators are left with no budget, resources or time to use for foreign language education (Pufahl and Rhodes 273). In contrast, in June 2004, the Department of Defense and the University of Maryland joined for a summit on National Language Policy. It became very clear that â€Å"there is an immediate need for governmental personnel who can function at the advanced proficiency level in foreign languages† (Byrnes 247). The government needs people who are able to communicate in other languages, people who can understand different cultures and analyze critical content and ideas from other countries.Projections for the total numbers of speakers of various languages for the year 2050 indicate that Mandarin will surpass English (Byrnes 254). Thus, it is likely that trade and diplomacy will be increasingly conducted with those who speak languages other than English, such as Mandarin. In 2000, the Center for Applied Linguistics conducted a study to collect data from 19 countries on their foreign language programs and methodologies so that the results could help improve la nguage teaching in the U. S.Those countries were Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Spain, and Thailand. Some of the recommendations drawn from the study results are: 1) start language education early; 2) push for stronger federal leadership in language teaching; 3) improve teacher education; and 4) take advantage of the rich sociolinguistic context in the United States (Pufahl and Rhodes and Christian 3).Starting language education at an early age will lead to higher levels of language proficiency not only in one language but also in multiple languages. Based on the survey, most countries begin foreign language instruction in the elementary grades, while most schools in the U. S start at age 14. In Arizona, foreign language courses are not a requirement. According to Jill Campos, World Language Academic Coach for the Scottsdale School District, â€Å"f oreign language is introduced for a semester at 6th and 7th grades as an exploratory course.Eight graders can take the first year of a world language for high school credit and continue, if they so choose, through the 5th year†. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) report that â€Å"the language areas of the brain seem to go through the most dynamic period of growth between the ages of 6 and 13† (qtd. in Talukder 3). The UCLA study instead suggests that â€Å"the elementary and middle school years are the biologically most advantageous times for acquisition of a second language† (qtd. in Talukder 3).It is during the first years of life that â€Å"the foundations for thinking, language, vision, attitudes, aptitudes, and other characteristics are laid down,† says Ronald Kotulak, author of Inside the Brain (qtd. in Dryden and Voss 266). Studies of the brain show that a second language is stored in the same part of the brain as a fir st language when learned by age 8. After that age, a second language is stored in a different part of the brain. However, simply introducing a program at the elementary level is not enough.The second recommendation is that a successful language program has to be consistent and coherent among all organizations and educational sectors. The federal government can provide leadership in developing long term policies for enhanced teacher training, incentives for school districts to offer early language instruction, and conduct long term research on language education (Pufahl and Rhodes and Christian 16). Effective teaching strategies must be implemented such as foreign language as a medium of subject instruction, immersion or dual-language programs.Foreign languages should have the same status as other core subjects such as math and reading and they should be carried through elementary to college (Pufahl and Rhodes and Christian 17). The third recommendation is enhanced teacher training. Based on the survey results, teacher training that integrates academic subject studies with pedagogical studies and teaching practice, was one of the most successful aspects of foreign language education in their respective countries (Pufahl and Rhodes and Christian 10).The fourth recommendation is that educators need to take advantage of our ethnic diversity by promoting the learning of heritage languages. The United States is one of the world’s largest Spanish-speaking countries; however, we don’t capitalize on this powerful human resource or in any other heritage languages. The majority of public schools don’t offer programs for immigrant students to build on their home languages even when there’s a large group in the community who speaks the same language.Promoting strong bilingual programs such as dual-immersion where half the students speak another language than English and both groups study together and become bilingual in both languages of instruc tion (Pufahl and Rhodes and Christian 19). A major change needs to happen in the United States in regards to foreign language education, from the national to local level. Besides personal and academic achievement, being proficient in foreign languages is extremely important for international trade, diplomacy, and national security.It is important that the federal government creates a sizable budget for language education and establishes foreign language as a core subject. Educators and teachers should benefit from the country’s sociolinguistic context and promote bilingual programs that capitalize on heritage languages. Schools should create long term programs so that students can continue their foreign language education all the way to college if they so choose. Works Cited Campos, Jill. â€Å"Re: foreign languages in elementary schools. Message to the author. 04 Feb. 2012. Email. Hines, Marion E. â€Å"Foreign Language Curriculum Concerns in Times of Conflict. † Del ta Kappa Gamma Bulletin 70. 1 (2003): 15-21. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. Larew, Leonor. â€Å"The Optimum Age for Beginning a foreign Language. † Modern Language Journal 45. 5 (1961): 203. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Mar. 2012. Meyers-Scotton, Carol. â€Å"Why Bilingualism Matters. † American Speech 75. 3 (2000): 290-292. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Mar. 012. Pufahl, Ingrid, and Nancy Rhodes. â€Å"Foreign Language Instruction in U. S. Schools: Results of a National Survey of Elementary and Secondary Schools. † Foreign Language Annals 44. 2 (2011): 258-288. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. Pufahl, Ingrid, Christian Donna, and Nancy Rhodes. â€Å"Foreign Language Teaching: What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries. † ERIC Clearing House on Languages and Linguistics (2000):1-35. Eric Digest. Web 18 Apr. 2012 (2011): 258-288.Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. Schick, Jo-Anne E. , and Paul B. Nelson. à ¢â‚¬Å"Language Teacher Education: The Challenge for the Twenty-First Century. † Clearing House 74. 6 (2001): 301-304. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. Talukder, Gargi. How the Brain Learns a Second Language. 2001 Brain Connection. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. Zehr, Mary Ann. â€Å"Elementary Foreign Language Instruction on Descent. † Education Week 28. 23 (2009):8-8. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.

A middle class family named The Birlings Essay

An Inspector Calls, written by J. B. Priestley, is about a middle class family named The Birlings. The Birlings lived in an up and growing industrial town in the north midlands. Set in 1912, the Birlings were happily celebrating their daughter Sheila’s engagement to a respectable businessman, Gerald Croft. However, the modest celebration turned out to be more than eventful when an unexpected inspector arrives enquiring the suicide and death of a young girl names Eva Smith. Whilst doing so, the inspector unlocks a chain of family secrets along the way. The play, in its time, proved to be very popular, and still does so today. In this play, I think that J. B. Priestley chose the characters very well. I think that what made the play so appealing is the way in which he gave each character such a strong personality. Each member of the Birling family has a unique personality and throughout the play some of the Birling family change. I do think however, that the Birlings as a whole family are quite stereotypical. The Birlings come across as a family that have wealth and seem to be quite a respected family of a high class. At the beginning of the play, the Birling family seem to be quite a closely bonded family but throughout the play this bond seems to drift apart as they recognise their differences. The family consists of four very unique and exciting individuals: Arthur Birling- A very self-obsessed, wealthy business man, also very self-opinionated. The perfect example of an old snob. Obviously very proud of his achievements in life, but with his heart set on a knighthood which would be his ultimate achievement. Sybil Birling- Considers herself high in regard to social standings, largely on the back of her husbands’ success and wealth. Possibly a ‘Hyacinth Bucket’ of her time. A very unlikeable woman who sees lots of people as being beneath her. Sheila Birling- comes across as a very polite and obedient woman, looking forward to her engagement to Gerald Croft. However, as the play goes on, Sheila begins to realise the truth about herself and the Birling family, and begins to stand up against them. Eric Birling-Quite an enclosed person. Eric’s personality is hard to detect. He seems to be the outcast of the family, and the family do not discover until later on in the play that Eric is in fact a heavy drinker and was to father a illegitimate child. A typical wealthy young man of the day.

Blue Moon essays

Blue Moon essays The title of my book is Blue Moon. It was written by Susan Kirby and came from the series Life at Sixteen. Blue Moon has two hundred and two pages. This book is about Deanna Findley* and her next door neighbor who is also her best friend, Michael McKinsey*. Deanna is a high school junior who doesnt care about her looks or if she is in the in crowd, but cares more about her family and friends and their welfare. Formerly know as Dee she is a happy go-lucky girl who is slim, has brown hair and loves to baby-sit her younger brother, Doug. Dees importance in this book is that she helps Michael deal with his grandfathers illness and deals with her own family problems. Michael, Dees next door neighbor and secret crush, is tall, dark complected, and a nice guy to hang out with. He is in the popular crowd in a way, but isnt stuck up. The other characters in this book are Dees brother, Doug, a rambunctious, funny, caring, nine-year-old. This book containing also Alice, Dees sister, a thirteen year-old just discovering boys and having a hobby of being a brat to her little brother. Also among other characters are Mr. and Mrs. Findley (Dee s parents), Mrs. McKinsey (Michaels mother), and Mr. Kolupa (Michaels grandfather). The majority of the story takes place in Mayfield, a bustling central Illinois community of about thirty thousand residents. The neighborhood that Michael and Dee live in most of the houses are comfortable ranch-style homes that were built closely spaced. Some of the story takes place in Michaels grandfathers old shop across town. The end takes place in a nursing home called Rosewood. Mainly the story is in the spring and summer months, such as the last few days of school and throughout the summer. Blue Moon is a book about a young girl who gets out for the summer and notices changes in her beloved graduating friend. The changes really are ...

Pan the Goat-Footed Greek God

Pan the Goat-Footed Greek God Pan- or Faunus in Roman mythology- is the noisy goat-footed god of the Greeks. He looks after shepherds and woods, is a capable musician, and invented the instrument named after him- panpipes. He leads the nymphs in dances and stirs up panic. He is worshiped in Arcadia and is associated with sexuality. Pan's Family of Origin Pan was born in Arcadia. There are various versions of the birth of Pan. In one, his parents are Zeus and Hybris. In another, the most common version, his father is Hermes; his mother, a nymph. In another version of his birth, Pans parents are Penelope, wife of Odysseus and her mate, Hermes or, possibly, Apollo. In the bucolic Greek poet of the third century B.C. Theocritus, Odysseus is his father. Attributes of Pan The attributes or symbols associated with Pan are woods, pastures, and the syrinx- a flute. He is depicted with goats feet and two horns and wearing a lynx-pelt. In the Pan painters vase, a goat-headed and tailed young Pan pursues a youth. Pan's Death In Plutarchs Moralia, he reports a rumor about the death of Pan, who as a god, couldnt die, at least in principle. Sources Ancient sources for Pan include Apollodorus, Cicero, Euripides, Herodotus, Hyginus, Nonnius, Ovid, Pausanias, Pindar, Plato, Statius, and Theocritus. Timothy Gantz Early Greek Myths itemizes many details about the Pan traditions.

The History of Chinese Chopsticks

The History of Chinese Chopsticks Chopsticks play an important role in Chinese food culture. Chopsticks are called Kuaizi in Chinese and were called Zhu in ancient times (see the characters above). Chinese people have been using kuaizi as one of the main tableware for more than 3,000 years. History of Chopsticks It was recorded in Liji (The Book of Rites) that chopsticks were used in the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC - 1100 BC). It was mentioned in Shiji (the Chinese history book) by Sima Qian (about 145 BC) that Zhou, the last king of the Shang Dynasty (around 1100 BC), used ivory chopsticks. Experts believe the history of wood or bamboo chopsticks can be dated to about 1,000 years earlier than ivory chopsticks. Bronze chopsticks were invented in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1100 BC - 771 BC). Lacquer chopsticks from the Western Han (206 BC - 24 AD) were discovered in Mawangdui, China. Gold and silver chopsticks became popular in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907). It was believed that silver chopsticks could detect poisons in food. Materials to Make Them Chopsticks can be classified into five groups based on the materials used to make them, i.e., wood, metal, bone, stone, and compound chopsticks. Bamboo and wood chopsticks are the most popular ones used in Chinese homes. How Not to Use Your Chopsticks There are a few things to avoid when using chopsticks. Chinese people usually dont beat their bowls while eating, since the behavior used to be practiced by beggars. Also dont insert chopsticks in a bowl upright because it is a custom exclusively used in sacrifice. If you are really interested in chopsticks, you may want to visit the Kuaizi Museum in Shanghai. The museum collected over 1,000 pairs of chopsticks. The oldest one was from the Tang Dynasty.

Family in Europe History Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Family in Europe History - Coursework Example Sex was therefore often considered to be simply a means of producing the future workers of the farm. In order to make sure heirs would be born, premarital sex was not entirely frowned upon. If the girl became pregnant before marriage, it was proof that she was fertile and the marriage could be made official. The land had also become more productive and new industries were born, creating a need for greater numbers of workers and forcing society to be both more lenient toward unwed mothers and more accepting of their children. Although laws had been written to prevent servants and unlanded peoples from marrying, this did not prevent them from engaging in sex with desired partners, thereby producing illegitimate children who were often welcomed into the household as future workers and guarantors that the farm or the industry would thrive. Individuals in poorer households generally married for economic reasons and worked hard all day while practicing a general hands-off approach to human relationships. People in the upper classes often took on lovers to excite them sexually because they were not limited by the same economic constraints and their time was not wholly devoted to sustenance and support. The bourgeois morality that began in the eighteenth century grew out of the marriage and sexual practices of the nobility class. Because marriage was seen as more of an economic arrangement, it was generally considered unwise to hamper it with excessive love at the same time that an aesthetic appreciation for sex, with extramarital partners, was being developed. However, as industries began to move outside of the home and families began to live in closer proximity to each other, emotional attachments became stronger and the idea of marrying for love rather than money began to take precedence. Because the family no longer worked within a larger community of servants and siblings to maintain the family farm or the tradesman’s shop, they were

Cannabis and Marijuana Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Cannabis and Marijuana - Essay Example Although marijuana can be beneficial in the treatment of ailments like glaucoma, cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and also chronic pain, researchers like Jacques-Joseph Moreau have discovered that marijuana has numerous harmful effects on the brain and the functions of the human central nervous system. Usage of cannabis hinders movement and memory in the brain. Chemicals in marijuana, especially THC and cannabinoids directly alter the emotions, memory and function of a user's brain and central nervous system. Marijuana changes to brain function and behavior by impinging on the central nervous and attaching its elements to the neurons in the brain, thereby interfering with the natural communication between the brain's neurons. This interference causes the nerves to alter their normal behavior. For instance, after using cannabis, a nerve that was supposed to enable a person to retrieve short-term memory, tends to act do the opposite, because of the cannabinoids receptors. Thus, if a person has to recall his recent activities, maybe his activities during the last 5 minutes ago, that person will have a lot of trouble accomplishing this, if he has taken a high dose of cannabis/marijuana. Cannabis contains about 400 chemicals, and about 60 of them are known to be cannabinoids, that are psychoactive compounds that are produced inside the human body and brain after cannabis is metabolized. "Cannabinoids is known to be the active ingredient in marijuana, and "the most psychoactive cannabinoids ch emical in marijuana that has the biggest impact on the brain is THC (tetrahydrocannibol). tetrahydrocannibol is the main active ingredient in marijuana because it affects the brain by binding to and activating specific receptors, known as cannabinoid receptors. "These receptors control memory, thought, concentration, time and depth, and coordinated movement." (J. Bartholomew, S. Holroyd, and T. M Heffernan 2010) When a person uses cannabis and his or her memory is affected, the short-term memory will be triggered first, as marijuana damages short-term memory as a result of the fact that the element tetrahydrocannibol interferes with the processing of information by an area of the brain called the hippocampus, which is responsible for the proper formation of memory. "One region of the brain that contains a lot of tetrahydrocannibol receptors is the hippocampus, which processes memory. Hippocampus is the part of the brain that is important for memory, learning, and the integration of sensory experiences with emotions and motivation. It also converts information into short-term memory. As a steroid, tetrahydrocannibol also acts on the hippocampus and inhibits memory retrieval. tetrahydrocannibol also alters the way in which sensory information is interpreted. When tetrahydrocannibol attaches to receptors in the hippocampus, it weakness the short-term memory, and damages the nerve cells by creat ing structural changes to the hippocampus region of the brain. When a user has a high dose of marijuana, new information does not register into their brain and this may be lost from memory and they are not able to retrieve new information for more than a few minutes. There is also a decrease in the activity of nerve cells." (M. Yucel, N.

Syncretism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Syncretism - Essay Example In china the followers of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism actively borrowed from each other in a mutual fashion to achieve syncretism commonly known as "sanjiao heyi† meaning the â€Å"Unity of the three teachings†. Ancient Chinese believed that the three religions merged into one creed and that all the three religions should be believed and followed (Gallager 105). Through syncretism the major differences between the different religions disappears or the adherents choose to adapt the differences into their way of religion avoiding contradictions in the sencretised worship. Syncretism is unique in that it differs from the major doctrines that explain interaction of different religions; syncretism is not ecumenism which employs the belief that truth is universal. In syncretism every religion retains its fundamental beliefs and perceptions that define it. Syncretism does not seek to accommodate the religious practices of another religion but rather fully integrates the religion completely. Neither does syncretism involve integrating the other religions into one to reinforce the deficiencies and weaknesses of the individual religions (D'Costa 19). Before the Tang dynasty, the three distinct schools of thought tried successfully to remain distinct and pure from the influences of the other religions. Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism developed distinctively different and independent schools of thought, organization and ritual practices that was logical. Each religion had a different and a unique message to communicate to the society about the conduct of lif e. Syncretism of the three religions purposed to teach people to be good .They were mainly practiced by the elite’s intellectuals of the Chinese people who could be able to read, understand and translate the texts of the three doctrines. In the shengxue Zonglun text (Basic treatises on learning of the sages), the author states that the three teachings are one teaching and that the teaching of the three halls have changed because of false transmission. The author had an issue that the work was largely of Confucian doctrine aimed at destabilizing Buddhist and Taoist fundamental doctrines. This illustrates that syncretism indeed incorporated various aspects of the three religions as seen in this text which did not auger well with strong adherents of the religions who did not assent to syncretism. The unity of the three teaching was demonstrated by a practice of joint worship that incorporated cults and symbols from the other religious deities. The ‘chongful’ monaste ry had both Confucian and Buddhist traditions and religious practices. Worshippers would follow the state sanctioned cults and seek divination from the Confucian religion in a Buddhist monastery. In the sixteenth and seventieth century, the monks in the upper Tianzhu monastery constructed more than five halls of worship to non Buddhist deities. They constructed the shrine to the lingering beneficence of master Lei for the Taoist adherents. They also constructed the shrine of the three officials who protect the sage in 1574, which honored the Taoist deities of heaven, earth, and water that oversaw human actions from the underground. Many other Taoist shrines were constructed in the Buddhist monastery and they were fully functional without any disagreements, they coexisted peacefully and hence this suggests that the two religions had a functional syncretised way of worship that fully integrated Taoist and Buddhism. Joint worship of Buddha, Lao Zi and Confucius was commonly practiced i n the mid -Ming period. Though the state did not

Outsourcing with pros and cons Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Outsourcing with pros and cons - Research Paper Example There are several reasons why many firms utilize outsourcing of their services, such as enhanced efficiency, cost reductions, increased flexibility and focus on core competencies. Outsourcing offers many benefits, although clearly with many caveats. The loss of skilled, expert staff is expected with outsourcing. Other risks involved with outsourcing include: loss of innovation, creativity, and flexibility and loss of control, continuity, and cooperation. However, these risk associated with outsourcing can be controlled and minimized if executed effectively. The immediate challenge facing organizations is how to make an informed offshore outsourcing decision that maximizes the benefits while minimizing the risks. An effective way to achieve the goal is to inquire how decision-makers comprehend and evaluate the factors affecting their offshore outsourcing decision. Abstract Outsourcing allows organization to reduce cost and concentrate on its core competences and to improve its activit ies. Although, outsourcing is an attractive strategy bounded by appealing benefits but it also contains some significant risks. However, these risk associated with outsourcing can be controlled and minimized if executed effectively. The immediate challenge facing organizations is how to make an informed offshore outsourcing decision that maximizes the benefits while minimizing the risks. An effective way to achieve the goal is to inquire how decision-makers comprehend and evaluate the factors affecting their offshore outsourcing decision. Abstract Outsourcing allows organization to reduce cost and concentrate on its core competences and to improve its activities. Although, outsourcing is an attractive strategy bounded by appealing benefits but it also contains some significant risks. However, these risk associated with outsourcing can be controlled and minimized if executed effectively. The immediate challenge facing organizations is how to make an informed offshore outsourcing deci sion that maximizes the benefits while minimizing the risks. An effective way to achieve the goal is to inquire how decision-makers comprehend and evaluate the factors affecting their offshore outsourcing decision. Outsourcing with Pros and Cons Introduction Outsourcing has become one of the most important management activities in recent years (Bromage, 2000). To outsource or not to outsource is one of the questions managers are increasingly asking themselves (Gunn, 2003). It is necessary to examine the degree of outsourcing and its pros and cons. The author posits that outsourcing is very beneficial to the growth of a company as it allows organization to reduce cost and to concentrate on its core competences and improve its activities. Outsourcing Outsourcing, as it applies to manufactured goods, is the practice of moving production to an outside supplier. Companies send this work to other domestic facilities or offshore. The outsourced activities can be thought of as new intermedi ate inputs or completed imports, shifting the entire production function done at home (Robert and Gordon, 1999). The outsourcing firm can then experience a reduction in the amount of labor required to continue operation. Outsourcing is a practice being used increasingly by organizations in order to combat the competitive forces within the global manufacturing sector. According to Michael Corbett, Firms extensively â€Å"use outsourcing everyday to improve the products and services they provide customers†¦. More than 90 percent of companies state it is an important part of their overall business strategy.†(Corbett, 2004: p. 3) Pros of Outsourcing Cost Savings Cost savings is the most important and most commonly cited reason for outsourcing. According to Burmahl (2001) cost savings is among the top reason to outsource. Cost-savings calculations encompass fixed costs, which include capital and administrative overhead; variable costs, which include specific supplies, service s, and labor cost for all personnel

A Tricky Problem of Stagflation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A Tricky Problem of Stagflation - Assignment Example It was pathbreaking in several ways, in particular, because it introduced the notion of aggregate demand as the sum of consumption, investment, and government spending; and because it showed (or purported to show) that full employment could be maintained only with the help of government spending (Library of Economics and Liberty 2008.) By 1965, there was a backlash against Keynesian economic thought. â€Å"In 1965 Scott Gordon declared that, in Canada, throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s ‘Keynesian statements were confined to the abstract planes of discourse; they were not connected with actual policy’† (Neill 180). However, Gordon did not take into account that Keynesian economics assumed a closed, and mature economic system, and the Canadian economic climate at the time was open and small (Neill 173) Gordon was not alone, however, many economists shared his views, and this was the downturn of the popularity of Keynesian economics. NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement, opened up trade between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Because of NAFTA, there are no longer any tariffs or trade restrictions between these countries. There is no question that the United States is economically the strongest of these nations, however, there are benefits to all of the countries involved. â€Å"Both Mexico and Canada see NAFTA as a way of securing access to the U.S. market and the trade benefits cannot be of the greatest significance for the United States, the United States looks at Canada and Mexico in terms of industrial and commercial location as much as trade† (Hoebing, Weintraub, and Baer 108). Those who oppose NAFTA argue that NAFTA should have environmental standards and minimum wages. This is because of the shift of work moving to Mexico from the United States, there are less environmental regulations in Mexico, and workers can be paid less than they can in the United States. The quiet revolution took place in the 1960’s in a spirit of Quebec nationalism.     Ã‚  

Powell v. Alabama Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Powell v. Alabama - Case Study Example Most of the local bar despite the order of the court withdrew from the case. Two attorneys did appear on behalf on the accused but the appearance could be described as superfluous at best because the attorneys had no opportunity to investigate the case and consulted with the defendants for only thirty minutes prior to the trials. Not surprisingly, eight of the defendants were convicted and sentenced to death after quick trials. There was a hung jury in the case of the remaining defendant. The lower court argued that each state is its' own sovereign and that accordingly, each state has the right to decide what it will and will not give to its' indigent defendants. One does not have an absolute right to counsel in the state system and a state cannot be ordered to pay for the defense of it's defendants. In one hundred and forty years, the legal governance of the states has never been interfered with, so why should it happen now The decision of the lower state court was reversed and remanded back to the lower court for further proceedings. Ultimately the court held that the fundamental due process rights of the defendants had been violated. The court found that fundamental due process rights carry both into the state court and the federal courts. One's due pro One's due process rights do not drop simply because there is a change in venue. Due to the lack of counsel the defendants were not granted a fair and impartial trial. Indeed, the entire proceedings were found to be deliberately contrived so as not to afford the defendants an impartial jury. Blacks were systematically not picked for the jury. The defendants were unable to prepare with their attorneys and finally were not even asked if they wanted attorneys. Supreme Court Decision 1. The rule denying the aid of counsel to persons charged with felony, which (except as to legal questions) existed in England. Page 287 U. S. 46 2. The rule that no part of the Constitution shall be treated as superfluous is an aid to construction which, in some instances, may be conclusive, but which must yield to more compelling considerations whenever they exist. P. 287 U. S. 67. 3. The fact that the right of an accused person to have counsel for his defense was guaranteed expressly (as respects the federal Government) by the Sixth Amendment, notwithstanding the presence of the due process clause in the Fifth Amendment, does not exclude that right from the concept "due process of law." Pp. 287 U. S. 66-68. 4. The right of the accused, at least in a capital case, to have the aid of counsel for his defense, which includes the right to have sufficient time to advise with counsel and to prepare a defense, is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Pp. 287 U. S. 68-71. 5. In a capital case, where the defendant is unable to employ counsel and is incapable of making his own defense adequately because of ignorance, feeble-mindedness, illiteracy or the like, it is the duty of the court, whether requested or not, to assign counsel for him as a necessary requisite of due process of law, and that duty is not discharged by an assignment at such a time and under such circumstances as to preclude the giving of effective aid in the preparation and trial

A Tricky Problem of Stagflation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A Tricky Problem of Stagflation - Assignment Example It was pathbreaking in several ways, in particular, because it introduced the notion of aggregate demand as the sum of consumption, investment, and government spending; and because it showed (or purported to show) that full employment could be maintained only with the help of government spending (Library of Economics and Liberty 2008.) By 1965, there was a backlash against Keynesian economic thought. â€Å"In 1965 Scott Gordon declared that, in Canada, throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s ‘Keynesian statements were confined to the abstract planes of discourse; they were not connected with actual policy’† (Neill 180). However, Gordon did not take into account that Keynesian economics assumed a closed, and mature economic system, and the Canadian economic climate at the time was open and small (Neill 173) Gordon was not alone, however, many economists shared his views, and this was the downturn of the popularity of Keynesian economics. NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement, opened up trade between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Because of NAFTA, there are no longer any tariffs or trade restrictions between these countries. There is no question that the United States is economically the strongest of these nations, however, there are benefits to all of the countries involved. â€Å"Both Mexico and Canada see NAFTA as a way of securing access to the U.S. market and the trade benefits cannot be of the greatest significance for the United States, the United States looks at Canada and Mexico in terms of industrial and commercial location as much as trade† (Hoebing, Weintraub, and Baer 108). Those who oppose NAFTA argue that NAFTA should have environmental standards and minimum wages. This is because of the shift of work moving to Mexico from the United States, there are less environmental regulations in Mexico, and workers can be paid less than they can in the United States. The quiet revolution took place in the 1960’s in a spirit of Quebec nationalism.     Ã‚  

Leadership journal 2- change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Leadership journal 2- change - Essay Example Likewise, the response to evaluating the change in the work setting would necessitate including a change theory and detailing how the use of the theory did or would have helped the implementation of the change. The Change Transition in the Work Setting One is currently working as a registered nurse with a Nursing and Rehabilitation Health Care Facility. The change that currently occurred in this work setting is transitioning from manual or paper-based documentation to computer-based documentation system. Due to the fast paced-technological developments that ensued in the current century, the impetus for change to transcend from paper-based documentation to computer-based documentation through the electronic medical record (EMR) was deemed inevitable. Previous Paper-Based Documentation System The system that had been used to document crucial information, assessment, and interventions provided to patients were traditionally recorded through charting. This means that a patient’s chart is used to record all pertinent information since the patient’s entry in the health care setting for confinement. Several health care practitioners and professionals use the patients’ charts to document their observation, recommended intervention, and diverse health-related information to record the patients’ progress throughout the confined period. Several variables or factors paved the way for the paper based documentation system to exhibit inefficiencies in the health care setting. For one, the volume of patients that have significantly increased through time could not appropriately contain all the information through a patient’s chart. In addition, the number of diagnostic or laboratory tests, and recommended interventions by different health care professionals make recording tedious and complex. As such, there were evident disadvantages found to be related to paper-based documentation; including it being considered a â€Å"poor repository of p atient information†¦ also the tasks associated with such record keeping consume up to 38 percent of the physician's time associated with an outpatient visit† (Tang, LaRosa, & Gorden, 1999, par. 5). Likewise, it is prone to wear and tear; have greater tendencies for encountering difficulties in updating and keeping in file through time; missing information or record; as well as ineligble handwriting could significantly affect and influence the quality and accuracy of patient care that would be provided on a timely manner. Proposed Electronic or Computer-Based Documentation The change that is currently being implemented in using a computer-based patient record (CPR) or documentation system. According to previous studies, the objective or goal of the CPR is â€Å"supporting patient care and improving the quality of care as well as enhancing the productivity of the health care personnel while reducing the costs of health care delivery† (Rodriguez, Borges, Rodriguez, An garita, & Munoz, n.d., p. 1). The CPR therefore addresses all the weaknesses of the paper-based documentation system, particularly limiting or preventing errors in transcribing ineligible handwriting; preventing records being lost; and doing away with filing the patients’ records in repositories which could be destroyed or ineffectively maintained. The Manner by Which the Change was Received Several health car

An Overview of Antonal Music

An Overview of Antonal Music Kenneth Laino I. What is Atonality? Unfamiliarity is the basis of atonal music; a musical genre whose foundation deprives the wired human minds desire of a tonal resolution. In a sense the whole movement can be seen as anarchical expression. For generations it has been ingrained in our western culture for music to stay in a particular key or to develop the idea of tonality, where music plays at the constant ebb and flow of resolution and tension yet such principles that seemed inherent to the very existence of enjoyable music are cyclically toyed, abandoned, and reinvented. The modern era was prime for such radical changes in philosophy. In order to avoid an era of resignation, leaps of defiance were stated and claimed to achieve a sense of progress and identity. As such we can view the experiment of atonal music as characterized by the occurrence of pitches in novel combinations, as well as by the occurrence of familiar pitch combinations in unfamiliar environments (Forte 1977, 1). Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center or key, it refuses to conform to a system of tonal hierarchy, where pitches focus on a single, central tone, and instead retorts with mastery of independent function for the creation of new roots- thus atonality is inspired.   Ã‚   II. Origins: The Development of Impressionism and Expressionism The early 20th century was a culmination of an artistic endeavors, experimenting in different styles both in the visual and audial mediums. The main proponents explored in this musical era would be the inclusion of impressionism and expressionism. For a brief look into the musical scene of impressionism there was leading figures, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, both of whom were dissuaded by their labels given by critiques, that imbeciles call impressionism, a term employed with the utmost inaccuracy. An aesthetic and philosophical term borrowed from the parallel, artistic revolution; a vivid analogy to painters who would focus on the audience perception to achieve an overall impression. Simply put, the key goal was to arouse emotion and convey moods, and as such various composers in Western classical music followed suite arriving at the defining characteristic of the entire impressionism movement: color or in musical terms, timbre. Displaying landscapes through orchestration, harm onic usage, and texture. Other elements developed included the general use of new chord combinations (that were unresolved such as the 9th, 11ths, 13ths), ambiguous tonality, extended harmonies, parallel motions, extra-musicality, and relishing on top, the use modes and exotic scales. In order to capture a sense of detached observation, the normal syntax is usually disrupted and individual styles are carry through to maintain that integrity of the works meaning. Already essential themes to the era including experimentation for the mediums progress, the destruction of well established systems, expressing the individual, and moving away from the tonal key. As the mostly French focused on Impressionism, the corresponding movement of their rivals, the Germans, are going to focus on music differently; thus Expressionism is in existence. The underlying construct in Expressionism is psychological rather than artistic. With the advent of influential psychoanalysis studies, such as Sigmund F reud, making people think about the reasons why they behave in certain ways, drawn out the more oppressed, twisted side of the human psyche. Expressionism had a dark, intense color and unlike Impressionism were generally not solely instrumental, in fact operas were a hallmark of these styles in order to reciprocate the story of peoples actions. In the 20th century there is finally variety in the ways of expression. In order to truly create tension or the sense of a person loss, Atonality is an excellent tool to convey that. The music lacks focus and doesnt have a sense of direction as were dependent on patterns and repetition to guide us thus we move away from a tonal key and instead builds an exuberant amount of tension in the perspective of possibly someones personal strife and the general mental condition. The leaders of this movement would be Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg. Alban Berg would use structures well-known and prey on them. For example an opera by him, Wozzeck is common in it having three-acts labeled as Exposition, Development, and Catastrophe. He leads us into the thought of a sonata cycle where the end is a typical tragedy. Staying faithful to tradition, each act has 5 scenes familiar to a balanced classical style. However these characteristics are just for surface appeal theyre twisted each act is a set of variations, placing it under new context. It attempts to drive the listener it away a sense of tonality. And he uses Sprechstimme, a compositional technique similar to modern day improvisation where the score for the singer would be specified rhythms but intentionally be left without the notes which created a structured eery sound where the pitches arent specified and lost a direction of key, and possibly amplified with the abandonment of lyrics for spoken words. Techniques and styles that were the byproduct of expressionism and impressionism were vital to evolution of atonality in the 20th century split in music. III. Writing Atonal Music : 12 Tone Technique After the deaths of Mahler (1911) and Debussy in (1918) the world was open to pushing the limits of western harmonies. In fact a small 20th century split developed between tonal composers, lead by composers such as Igor Stravinsky, saw over a gradual evolution of the tonal system, expanding on musical ambiguity but still remained in the confines of the well-established tonal system. Eventually this process would lead to a point of no return which serial or non-tonal composers would turn to, such as Arnold Schoenberg, whom dove straight to a convulsive transformation of the tonal system to a complete new language of music. Of course disputes of which side truly represented modern music were brought up, Stravinsky almost switching tonality on and off versus Schoenberg who declared a complete break with tonality and symmetric syntactic structures. Yet they shared the motivation; to increase expressive power in music. Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer and conductor who migrated to America during WWII. During his time, he focused on promoting new music to the world to advance a sense of progress, and thus supported new ideas and impressionist movements in his works. In 1905 he composed Pelleas and Melisande a popular story at the time which importantly introduced the first use of a trombone glissando in an art music. Gradually, we sense pleas to escape the chains of tonality, with his development of Quaternary Harmonies (building chords on fourths) in pieces such as Kammersymphonie (which means chamber symphony) in 1907 as influenced by the impressionists who would use these quartal chords because it didnt lead anywhere. Eventually he would have dissonance that never resolve a lingering tension. In 1909 he would abandon writing key signatures at all! His first piece resembling any form of atonality would truly be his Opus 11. A string quartet with a soprano voice rejecting tonality would sing Ich fà ¼hle Luft von einem anderen Planeten (I feel the air of another planet) And thus breath was finally spoken, which lead to the idea of free atonality (which would not be until his Opus 25, the first use of his 12-tone technique). Atonality at the time seemed to fulfill the condition of progress and continue romantic expression from Mahler and it seemed to be the next logical and inevitable milestone; however, by reaching a dead through the abandonment of all the rules and absolute freedom from constraints made it difficult to listen to. Even with the intuitively brilliant syntax of these works, unfortunately, it was hard for the composer and listener to avoid the innate drive for atonality. The experiment to get away from tonality sadly ended with the burdening sense for a resolution, without a working structure, and without any cues or clues for general memorability. In the end if you listened to Atonal Music you would know why its never used again. (Luthye, 2017) In order to begin writing atonal music like Schoeneberg, lets focus on the most basic compositional strategy in writing for the serial method (which is to use all 12 tones all the time but without any tonal relationship). The goal of atonality is to move away from a certain key. Tonality is developed through the repetition notes and thus notes must equally used without a specific relation. In the Twelve-Tone System or Dodecaphonic Technique you develop a tone row, however unlike Debussy who always stayed with in the key, it must use all 12 tones before it can repeat any of the tones. After writing a tone with 12 different tones the goal is avoid repetition to maintain interest and avoid making that tone row the new tonal center. Common variations include, a retrograde, playing all notes in the tone row backwards and an inverse, playing all notes in intervals of the opposite direction (notes go equidistant in half-steps but in the opposite direction.) Keep in mind however a tri-tone interval would remain the same as theyre equidistant. From there the music can be simply written with personal variation; with multiple applications such as an inverse-retrograde and retrograde-inverse, variety of rhythms, and having many different tone rows the possibilities are endless, so get creative! Atonality takes its roots in being a product of a period of extreme artistic progress. Though its inability to be defined as art, or even appealing lead to its downfall its experimentation wasnt in vain. Though not fully used, it showed us the limits of music and expanded musical expression in pure variety; allowing for full control of chromaticism and modulation still seen today in Jazz. Sources: Beach, David (ed.). 1983. Schenkerian Analysis and Post-Tonal Music, Aspects of Schenkerian Theory. New Haven: Yale University Press. Forte, Allen. 1977. The Structure of Atonal Music. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-02120-2. Kostka, Stefan and Payne, Dorothy (1995). Tonal Harmony. Third Edition. ISBN 0-07-300056-6. Schoenberg, Arnold. 1978. Theory of Harmony, translated by Roy Carter. Berkeley Los Angeles: University of California Press. Zimmerman, Daniel J. 2002. Families without Clusters in the Early Works of Sergei Prokofiev. PhD diss. Chicago: University of Chicago.

What employers are looking for in a job applicant? :: essays research papers

What employers are looking for in a job applicant? Finding a job, whether it is the first, a return to work after years at home, or just another step in the career, is never easy. Most job seekers have a distorted sense of an employer’s priorities in making hiring decisions. Too many applicants put the emphasis on educational credentials and ignore the qualities employers seek with the keenest interest. What do employers look for in job candidates? What impresses them the most? Knowing what an employer wants and expects in job applicants can help them to prepare themselves for the interview. Experienced interviewers typically value maturity and stability. The way an applicant relates to the interviewer and the way he handles interview questions, follow-up calls and call-backs presents opportunities for an employer to observe and evaluate these subtle but critically important qualities. They can not be taught and there is no substitute. Loyalty is another very important quality an employer is looking for. Even loyal people switch jobs from time to time. But the people who do that once a year for no compelling reason lack loyalty to the companies that took chance in hiring them. Sure, exceptional circumstances warrant quick job switches, but a pattern of short stints is a dead gateway of a lack of loyalty. Employers simply can not afford to invest valuable training time, resources and compensation on workers who routinely stay less than two years. How an employee grooms and dresses is an excellent indication of his level of self-respect and respect for a professional business environment. Employers are humans, they would rather work with clean, neatly-dressed people than with slobs. Diligence and reliability are the qualities that hardly need explanation. Telltale signs include arriving on time for the interview, calling at the promised time or day, conscientiously following up in providing promised information. Employers need people who demonstrate enthusiasm and energy. They look for people who are willing to take the initiative to perform their job. If an employer feels that he will be constantly telling an employee to do something, he will likely not hire an applicant. Another reason for why an employer let an employee go is because the worker does not get along with others. Creativity is very important to most employers, because in business situations with customers, employees often have to respond to sudden changes and unfamiliar problems.

Comparison of Stereotypes and Stereotyping in A Dolls House and The Breakfast Club :: Movie Film comparison compare contrast

Stereotyping in A Doll's House and The Breakfast Club      Ã‚   When you see someone with expensive jewelry, driving a Lexus with tinted windows, rap music blaring from a mega stereo system, do you assume that he is a punk or drug dealer? This is an example of stereotyping. How are stereotypes assigned? Often they are created by society and are based on gender, race, religion, age, or social standing. Henrick Ibsen focused on the theme of stereotyping in his play A Doll's House.    In A Doll's House, Nora is seen as more an object than a person. When the play was written, women in general were viewed as wives and mothers, not individuals. Nora skillfully plays the part of obedient wife as Torvald questions her about what she did in town, assuring him that she "would never dream of doing anything [he] didn't want [her] to (Ibsen 933)." In "The Breakfast Club," the characters' peers designate stereotypes as a result of a combination of social status and behavior. Brian is "the brain" because he is an A student, Bender is "the criminal" on account of his rebellious behavior, and so forth. In his essay to Mr. Vernon, Brian addresses the stereotypes that have been placed on him and his peers:    "...we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us...in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed" (Hughes).    In agreement with the opening quote from the movie, these characters "are quite aware of what they're going through" (Hughes).    Stereotypes are superficial, however, and when they are peeled off they often reveal something completely unexpected. When Torvald receives the letter from Mr. Krogstad and learns of Nora's secret, he begins to see her as "a hypocrite, a liar...a criminal" (Ibsen 974). When the conflict is resolved and it becomes clear that no one will suffer because of her forgery, Torvald returns Nora's stereotype of vulnerable woman, telling her he "wouldn't be a proper man if [he] didn't find a woman doubly attractive for being so obviously helpless" (Ibsen 975). In "The Breakfast Club," the teenagers have been aware of their stereotypes for quite some time.

James Fenimore Cooper

Connor Roche Research Paper JAMES FENIMORE COOPER James Fenimore Cooper was an important literary figure of the 1800s, best known for his novels. He is perhaps most noted for his greatest work of literature: The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757, a tale that chronicles the journey of several English people and a few Native Americans during the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Days War. Cooper’s work on this novel and others such as The Prairie reflects his different approach regarding certain commonly held ideas of the time. This was especially true concerning the present-day views most people had about Native Americans. However, Cooper’s work also reflected his compliance with the most popular fine arts movement of his time: Romanticism. To completely grasp the scope of Cooper’s writing, some background on Cooper’s life, and the social customs and ideas of his time are necessary. Cooper was born on September 15, 1789 to Elizabeth Fenimore and William Cooper, the founder of the city of Cooperstown, NY. After expulsion from Yale College, Cooper pursued a career as a sailor on a merchant ship, traveling as far as the Strait of Gibraltar. Following this was a brief stint in the United States Navy, followed by farming. During his expeditions at sea, James Cooper seriously considered becoming a writer. In fact, most of his stories tell tales of sailors and sea trips, inspired by his own days on the water (Literature Network). At the time of Cooper’s writing, Native Americans were often held in contempt, mistreated, and oppressed. This had been a common aspect of society since the days of Columbus’ first expeditions to the Americas (Cassutto). The Native Americans were regarded with prejudice, hatred, and most of all fear, as is present when experiencing any unknown thing. Often times, brutal massacres were carried out, killing hundreds of innocent Native Americans. Cooper attempted to change such ideas through the relationships established between characters in his books, as is best shown by The Last of the Mohicans. This book was actually the second (and best known) in a series of five â€Å"Leatherstocking Tales† In this story, the two of the main characters are a white man named Natty Bumppo and a Native American named Uncas, who is the titular â€Å"Last of the Mohicans†. These two men, though they were from completely different backgrounds, form a very close bond, and show that interracial cooperation is extremely plausible, and actually useful. Furthermore, Natty Bumppo goes as far as adopting a Native American name, Hawkeye, to show that he truly could blend in with the Native Americans and act peacefully with them. The actual story takes place during the French and Indian War, about 30 years before Cooper was born. Though the war is named after two groups, the actual struggle was part of a huge conflict between several nations, including Austria, England, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Sweden. In the American colonies, the war resulted from excessive pressure from the British for additional resource collection and production. This resulted in higher taxes, more strenuous work, etc. During the war in the colonies, the Native Americans (Indians) faced the French, who, allied with the British, extended the war for seven years. Considering the effects that the events of the time period would have had on the people, the works of James Fenimore Cooper could even be considered revolutionary. Despite the heavy racism of the time, Cooper stressed the importance and possibility of interracial cooperation, and even seemed to promote it. In other words, he was not afraid to change the stereotype and provide an alternate view of Native Americans. However, as with all situations, James Fenimore Cooper also provides a negative, more foreboding side to the relationship between different cultures. Specifically, he seems to promote friendship and brotherhood, but strongly warns against interracial romance. This seems to be a common theme of his contemporaries, who also strongly agreed that interracial romance was to be strictly off-limits. Though not stated directly by Cooper, the fates of several of the characters in The Last of the Mohicans shows that Cooper believed that interracial love would lead to tragedy. This is implicitly stated through the unfortunate deaths of two of the main characters. In the story, Uncas, the aforementioned Mohican, and Cora Munro, an English general’s daughter, begin a budding romance that leads to their eventual demise. Cora is kidnapped by the villain of the story, a Native American of the Huron tribe named Magua. During rescue attempts, both Cora and Uncas are inevitably killed. The death of these two characters seems to suggest that interracial romance will lead only to failure and is highly dangerous. On a very basic level, it is the essential differences between the cultures that cause a split that leads to the failure of the romance. In this case, the brutal nature of the Native Americans causes the death of both the sheltered English girl, and even the tough, hardened Native American man. At this point, it is clear that James Fenimore Cooper did not adhere to the racial conventions of his time. Despite some warning of the dangers of cultural mixing, in his literature, he stood by his own beliefs of interracial interaction. However, James Cooper did follow others in his era with the type of literature he wrote. His work was reflective of the Romantic style of writing and at the time of his novels’ creations, the Romantic Era was in full-swing in America. The Romantic era was a movement in the fields of art, literature, and intellectualism that originated in Europe in the late 1700s. The movement placed a heavy emphasis on emotions such as fear, horror, and awe rather than reason. Also, there is a superiority of mystery over clarity, and importance given to the individual, rather than the standards of society. This could be easily expressed through art, but through literature, the conveyance of such emotions was a very new experience. Certain effects of the movement were clearly reflected in Cooper’s literature. For example, along with the Romantic movement came the inspiration of political change, and also, in stark contrast, descriptions of heavily romanticized (hence the name of the period) situations and settings, such as â€Å"a mock-medieval castle perched dramatically above a craggy ravine† (History World). Elements such as these are clearly evident in Cooper’s work, especially the emphasis on setting. Using rich descriptive language, Cooper gives details of all the areas that his characters venture through. At times, the extensiveness of his description is so rich that a reader may feel as though he or she is actually experiencing the setting. This was very common in Romantic literature, and can be seen in the following passage from The Last of the Mohicans: â€Å"The mountain on which they stood, elevated, perhaps a thousand feet in the air, was a high cone that rose a little in of advance of that range which stretches for miles along the western shores of the lake, until meeting its sister piles, beyond the water, it ran off toward the Canadas, in confused and broken masses of rock thinly sprinkled with evergreens. † (The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper, 177) Aside from the Romantic descriptions of locations and characters, Coopers work also showed a great amount of diversion from previously held ideals, as mentioned above in his explorations of interracial friendships and interaction. This seems to carry an underlying feeling of political activism, which was another of the attributes of the Romantic Movement. The activism lies in the implication that racial boundaries should be reexamined and reevaluated. Though Cooper does not say outright that his novel should spark a revolution, his work does imply that there is a desperate need for change in society. Furthermore, some aspects of the novel could be seen as an anti-war statement made by Cooper. This was a shared sentiment among many of his contemporaries, and carried on even through the Vietnam War in the late 1900s. However, this sentiment could be seen by analyzing the novel from a Romantic Movement point of view. Returning to the idea of descriptive nature, Cooper often gives descriptions not only of the beauty of the land, but also of its inherent danger. In the story, nature provides almost as much of a struggle for the main characters as the war does for the soldiers. In a sense, it seems as if Cooper was trying to say that nature was the real enemy, not other humans. The anti-war sentiment could not only be interpreted metaphorically through the text, it was also sometimes stated explicitly. In the following passage, James Cooper’s disgust for war and fighting is evident, as he describes the battle as an extremely gruesome occurrence: â€Å"More than two thousand raging savages broke out from the forest at signal and threw themselves across the fatal plain with instinctive alacrity. We shall not dwell upon the revolting horrors that succeeded. Death was everywhere in his most terrific and disgusting aspects †¦ The flow of blood might be likened to the outbreaking of a torrent†¦ and as the natives became†¦maddened by the fight, many among them†¦drank freely†¦hellishly of the crimson tide. †(Mohicans, Cooper 222) As was made clear by this passage, Cooper clearly resented the war and the horrors it brought with it. In Conclusion, the works of James Fenimore Cooper gave a clear representation of the ideals and movements of his time. His writing was reflective of the new intellectual, artistic, and literary Romantic Movement, shown by its beautifully descriptive passages and also by its deviation from what was previously accepted as normalcy. Furthermore, his works deviated from not only his predecessors, but also his contemporaries, as he implicitly supported the furthering of positive interracial interaction and cooperation. Coopers work was a great addition to his era, and greatly helped reflect the changing times and culture of the 19th century.

The Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli

The Birth of Venus, Sandra Poetical Before writing this review of a painting, I asked myself several times of what should I choose, what is my favorite or the most peculiar masterpiece for me? After a short dilemma I figured out that I am fond of Italian Renaissance, especially Early Renaissance. Most of all I enjoy and admire the Florentine School, brightly represented in the paintings of Sandra Poetical. The painting of his that attracts me most is The Birth of Venus. The work on it was accomplished in nearly 1486 and the painting itself is now kept in Fizz, Florence.It is the most famous and recognized reproduction of the myth about the birth of Venus, Roman goddess of love and beauty. Venus is an Italian Renaissance ideal: blonde, pale-skinned, voluptuous. Poetical has picked out highlights in her hair with gold leaf and has emphasized the femininity of her body (long neck, curliness). The brilliant light and soothing colors, the luxurious garden, the gorgeous draperies of the ny mph, and the roses floating around the beautiful nude all suggest that the painting is meant to bring pleasure to the viewer. The naked goddess swims to the coast in the opened pearl shell.Venus is escorted by Zephyr, god of western wind, and Flora, his wife. By this Poetical shows the beauty that Venus brings in our world: freshness from the offshore breeze and dour from the flowers. On the shore she is welcomed by one of the Graces. Therefore, Venue's advent to this world is accompanied by celestial beauty and charm. The background also deserves a special attention. The color of Venue's body is purely divine; the chord is used excellently to show the darkness of the horizon ND to express the feeling of anxiety, fading away, and even mystery.Contrariwise, the front side is saturated with bright colors meaning the commencement of something unknown and heavenly. To sum up, rather than choosing one of the many interpretations offered for Botulism's depiction of The Birth of Venus it m ight be better to view it from a variety of perspectives (mythological, political, religious). Nevertheless, you should definitely get acquainted with this eternal masterpiece for it will always symbolize beauty, magnificence, grace, and divinity.One of the most moon phrases concerning music used by musicians and non-musicians alike is â€Å"Music is the universal language. † But what does that really mean to people? Music is a universal language that transcends boundaries and bond people even thousands of miles apart. Even if you don't recall a single melody or flow of notes, still your subconscious has been catching all the music played in the background. Slowly easing and swaying to the rhythm, you enjoy the atmosphere that is created around. To begin with, music is called the universal language of the world because of many reasons.First and the foremost, music is made up of 7 main notes. No matter what part of the world you are and what instrument you play, all the music created is one of the 7 notes. There may be different names for all 7 notes in different parts of the world, but for the performer, they are still the same. Therefore, music is a versatile kind of art that finds approach to every humans taste. Furthermore, being a form of art music can reach the deepest parts of your heart and soul. You don't have to be a patient or a psychologist to understand music.As long as any melody and rhythm aka you feel yourself, it is the best doctor a person can find, and best remedy anyone can recommend. You can recollect your bygones or precious moments of your life. You can think of future, prospects, plans, and ideas. You can relax and take delight in listening to the beat or piano play. Consequently, music can be a reflection of your mood, style, and even life. Finally, like any other language music can express any and every type of emotion. But where it scores more is where the words fell short of expressing, while music can go on and on visualizing all that you ever want to say.Sometimes music is the way you can show love, hatred, anger, fury, calmness etc. It takes only a couple of lines to say what you mean in a very exquisite way. Thus, music is a useful tool to reveal your attitude to things and, what is more, to people. To conclude, no matter how much evolved a form of music is or how sophisticated its approach, music touches everyone's soul. If you do not connect to any music, you probably are losing a part of yourself. Let's celebrate this form of art with a quote by William Shakespeare, â€Å"If music be the food of life, play on†.

Experiencing Cities Essay

The text â€Å"Experiencing Cities† by Mark Hutter deals with micro sociology and symbolic interaction theory. This means the way people experience the urban world in relationship to their everyday lives. This would include the interaction with others that would create meaning for them from the physical and human environment of the city. The exercise was to pick up certain aspects of micro sociology and use my life experiences as examples to show my understanding of this theory. The text uses perspectives from other social science disciplines in studying the city. Some of these included urban history, art, architectural history, urban geography and environmental psychology. Global urbanization is discussed in the last chapter, which to me helped me to understand where I am in the context of the world. I am a twenty-one year old, female student. I attend college full-time, work full-time and live with my parents in New York City. I am single and have no children and hope to obtain my degree in Social Sciences. First I would like to discuss symbolic interactionism and the self in society. Functionalism, conflict theory and evolutionism tend to be macrotheories that direct the sociologist toward large-scale phenomena, their relationships and changes in them. To use an example from my life would be the terrorist acts that happen on 911. This is a macrosocial phenomenon but at the micro level it affected me and my family, the family members of the victims and New York City. On the Macro level it affected the United States, and on a wider picture it also affected the globe. Symbolic interactionism, like exchange theory, is a micro orientation. It is a theoretical map that directs the sociologist in quests to understand how individuals interact in face to face relationships, relationships that are the foundation of social life. Unlike exchange theory, symbolic interactionism does not stress concepts of rewards and costs. Instead it is an emphasis on the human self, symbolic communications and interaction between persons based upon symbolic communication. The self is the process that is made up of the interaction of two self-aspects. These are â€Å"I† and â€Å"Me†. This is the knowing of self, the self asking and revising questions in the present or the â€Å"I†. Then there is the self-aspect composed of past experiences and conscious identity, the â€Å"Me†. The â€Å"I† is the self-aspect that exists in the present, which notes the world around it, that questions, that is impulsive, and that suggests my behavior. The â€Å"me† is based on past experience and is judgmental of my impulses. The â€Å"I† is my creative self; the â€Å"me† is my social self. For example I am basically a night person; I am working on this exercise at midnight. Being a night person I believe that the best way to be sure to have a good morning is to sleep through most of it. Because of this I have always tried to have my classes scheduled for afternoon or evenings, when possible. But last quarter I found to my horror, that due to a series of circumstances, I was forced to take a course that met on Monday’s at 8 a. m. This is a time of day I have rarely seen and when I have seen it, it was not because I was up very early, but because I was up very late. When the alarm clock rang at 6:15, the immediate impulsive action of my self arising in my â€Å"I† was to pull the plug on the alarm and go back to sleep. I would have done so, had not the â€Å"me† aspect of my self reminded me that would be a bad idea. As the socially aware, judgmental self-aspect, it reinforced me of the need to get up, shower, and eat so I could meet my responsibilities as a student and my goals. But I was still very tired and my â€Å"I† suggested that I sleep another half hour. My judgmental â€Å"me† aspect suggested twenty minutes more was the maximum time I could sleep if I was to meet my responsibilities. I proceeded to go back to sleep for twenty minutes and at 8:00 a. m. I went to my economics’ class ready to absorb the knowledge. Society is created by interactions between persons first with their selves that allow them to plan and coordinate their own behaviors. But social interaction first requires more than selves and it depends on symbolic communication through language. A verbal symbol is a sound which indicates some object. The spoken word say for example chair means something to sit on. People who are born in the same society learn more or less the same symbols. For example, I went to Ohio once to visit a friend I asked for a soda and was told that she didn’t have soda but she had Pepsi. That’s what I wanted, but in Ohio they ask for a pop. People born in the same society that pick up the same symbols helps conversations between persons in which joint plans are made and communicated. So the existence of the self and symbolic communication makes group interaction possible. Because I have self and can communicate symbolically I can form groups such as my family, my college and my religion. These are the foundation of social life. People will think of the world in terms of symbols that represent objects and these objects can be physical like chairs and books, social like teachers or sisters, and abstract such as truth, liberty, or evil. To understand cities and the development of cities I thought of looking at urbanization first. Urbanization refers to masses of people moving to cities and to these cities having a growing influence on society. Urbanization is worldwide. To understand the city’s attraction the first thing to consider is the pull of urban life. New York City offers an incredible variety of social events such as music ranging from rock to classic, architectural history, and cultural diversity. It also offers anonymity, which I find so much better than the scrutiny and restriction my friend had in her small town in Ohio. But probably the most important factor would be the opportunities in jobs. There are three types that life in cities by choice the cosmopolites, which I fall into, are students, intellectuals, professionals, artists, and entertainers. We are pulled to the city because of the conveniences and cultural beliefs. The single, another group I can associate with, are young unmarried people that are staying in the city because of the job and entertainment. Staying in the city reflects a stage in my life course, because after I marry and have children I have thought of moving to the suburbs. Then there are the ethnic villagers that are united by race-ethnicity and social class. These people live in tightly knit neighborhoods that resemble villages and small towns around New York City. Moving within a close circle of family and friends trying to isolate them from what they view as the harmful effects of city life. There are two groups that have little choice about where they live; they are the deprived and the trapped. Symbolic interactionism focuses on society as an outcome of persons with self-identities interacting with one another. An example of how symbolic interactionism can be applied to me by how I view myself as say; a drinker I have been taught about drinking through interaction with my friends. The learning requires interaction in a number of steps. This process is often accompanied by learning to explain away some unpleasant sensations caused by drinking in excess. Once drinking begins individuals will change their self-concept and thoughts of themselves as an occasional or to regular use of alcohol. So major changes made by alcohol were not caused by the alcohol but by learned changes in self identity. So in addition to other theories critical theory, phenomenology and ehtnomehtodology are also important to experiencing cities. Critical theory focuses on alienation and social contradictions and how they are overcome. Phenomenology focuses on how claims to knowledge about society are constructed. Ethnomethodology looks at how social actors make sense of their own actions and all of these are used to understand society.