The Myth of Consumerism Essay Example For Students

The Myth of Consumerism Essay Every society has mythology. In some societies, its religion. Our religion is consumerism. Ellen Weis, San Franciscos Museum of Modern Mythology Consumerism fuels the capitalist fire. In a capitalist society, the goal is to make money, by whatever means possible, exploiting whichever potential weakness that might exist. The human race is one with a wild imagination, and this wild imagination, though a great strength, can, like all great strengths, serve as a potential weakness. We will write a custom essay on The Myth of Consumerism specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now It is our imaginations that advertising exploits, and it is our imaginations that religion and myth traditionally played the role of satiating, telling stories that have morals to them, lessons to be learned. Now consumerism fulfills this role. The consumer ideology serves as the golden rule, advertising serves as sermons, products serve as our idoltry, and just as religion instills faith at an early age, so too does consumerism. Ellen Weis (qtd. in Advertising Characters 1997) speaks from the perspective of one who is an authority on mythology. Her analogy between religion and consumerism is an accurate one. Undoubtedly, shes referring to this role that consumerism is playing in stimulating our imaginations. It does this by telling us a story, with us playing the lead role, painting a picture of life as being better with the products being sold to us. Our imaginations are carried away by these stories. We want to believe them because they make sense of the world. We want to believe that all it takes to be happy is a trip to the store. This making sense of the world and simplifying to such a triviality is exactly the reason why myths are created. For example, nearly every cigerette ad features a picture of an ideal person smoking their brand, ideal at least by the standards of most people who long to be accepted. For women, the smoker typically has long blonde hair, a beautiful smile, and perfect, white teeth. The ads that best demonstrates this are those for Virginia Slims. For men you have Marlboro with the infamous Marlboro man, who is a rugged, handsome loner out in the countryside with his horse and campfire. The ads seem to say, this could be you. All it takes is a trip to the store and a couple of bucks for a pack. Like all myths, the stories these ads tell have a moral to them. The lesson they teach is: your life can be better with these products or, put another way, you can be a better person with these products. This is the consumer ideology and, just like every religion has some golden rule that pervades all of its lessons, consumerism too has its own golden rule, the consumer ideology. All of its lessons seem to be based upon this underlying assumption that more is better, that we need the things were being sold, and that somehow buying them will make us happier and better people. Of course the medium for these lessons are the ads themselves. Advertising nearly always has some emotional appeal to them. Instead of catering to our intellect and giving us rational reasons why we should consume the products they flaunt, rather they cater to our emotions. What better way to stimulate our imaginations? This is almost directly analogous to the emotional appeal traditionally found in sermons. Especially before our society has become so secular and scientific, sermons were heavily driven by emotion. One heavy emotion that were susceptible to is fear. Fear tactics are used in advertising just as they are in sermons. For example, the Dial soap ads use the slogan, arent you glad you use Dial? Dont you wish everyone did? This slogan seems to assume that the consumer already uses their product which cant possibly be the case because if it were, why would they need to advertise? Thus they seem to be implying that if you arent using Dial, youd sure better redeem yourself quickly before they find out! Similar fear tactics are also used in religious sermons. One extreme example of such sermons are those presented by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), like Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, in which he says, for example, that sinners deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice . The Myth Of Consumerism Essay Example For Students The Myth Of Consumerism Essay Every society has mythology. In some societies, its religion. Our religion is consumerism.Ellen Weis, San Franciscos Museum of Modern MythologyConsumerism fuels the capitalist fire. In a capitalist society, the goal is to make money, by whatever means possible, exploiting whichever potential weakness that might exist. The human race is one with a wild imagination, and this wild imagination, though a great strength, can, like all great strengths, serve as a potential weakness.It is our imaginations that advertising exploits, and it is our imaginations that religion and myth traditionally played the role of satiating, telling stories that have morals to them, lessons to be learned. Now consumerism fulfills this role. The consumer ideology serves as the golden rule, advertising serves as sermons, products serve as our idoltry, and just as religion instills faith at an early age, so too does consumerism.Ellen Weis (qtd. in Advertising Characters 1997) speaks from the perspective of one who is an authority on mythology. We will write a custom essay on The Myth Of Consumerism specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Her analogy between religion and consumerism is an accurate one. Undoubtedly, shes referring to this role that consumerism is playing in stimulating our imaginations. It does this by telling us a story, with us playing the lead role, painting a picture of life as being better with the products being sold to us. Our imaginations are carried away by these stories. We want to believe them because they make sense of the world. We want to believe that all it takes to be happy is a trip to the store. This making sense of the world and simplifying to such a triviality is exactly the reason why myths are created.For example, nearly every cigerette ad features a picture of an ideal person smoking their brand, ideal at least by the standards of most people who long to be accepted. For women, the smoker typically has long blonde hair, a beautiful smile, and perfect, white teeth. The ads that best demonstrates this are those for Virginia Slims. For men you have Marlboro with the infamous ;Marlboro man,; who is a rugged, handsome loner out in the countryside with his horse and campfire. The ads seem to say, ;this could be you. ; All it takes is a trip to the store and a couple of bucks for a pack.Like all myths, the stories these ads tell have a moral to them. The lesson they teach is: your life can be better with these products or, put another way, you can be a better person with these products. This is the consumer ideology and, just like every religion has some ;golden rule; that pervades all of its lessons, consumerism too has its own golden rule, the consumer ideology. All of its lessons seem to be based upon this underlying assumption that more is better, that we need the things were being sold, and that somehow buying them will make us happier and better people.Of course the medium for these lessons are the ads themselves. Advertising nearly always has some emotional appeal to them. Instead of catering to our intellect and giving us rational reasons why we should consume the products they flaunt, rather they cater to our emotions. What better way to stimulate our imaginations? This is almost directly analogous to the emotional appeal traditionally found in sermons. Especially before our society has become so secular and scientific, sermons were heavily driven by emotion.One heavy emotion that were susceptible to is fear. Fear tactics are used in advertising just as they are in sermons. For example, the Dial soap ads use the slogan, ;arent you glad you use Dial? Dont you wish everyone did?; This slogan seems to assume that the consumer already uses their product which cant possibly be the case because if it were, why would they need to advertise? Thus they seem to be implying that if you arent using Dial, youd sure better redeem yourself quickly before they find out! Similar fear tactics are also used in religious sermons. One extreme example of such sermons are those presented by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), like Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, in which he says, for example, that sinners deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice .

images of music essays

images of music essays Music, is a word with several meanings, to some music is simply entertainment, and something they enjoy listening to when they are bored, of going out. For others it is an escape, a sanctuary away from the world, society, and the chaos that might surround their everyday lives. Music plays a very important role in our everyday lives; it can reflect how someone feels towards an individual or an object or it can evoke suppressed emotions. In general, music is a form of expression for ones feelings and emotions without having to say much. Music can be used for several different reasons, at several different occasions. Music at an Art Gallery is used to help the artist express his emotions and feelings derived from his work. Music at an elegant restaurant is usually soft, calming, music can be used to create a relaxed environment for an individual to enjoy their meal. Whereas, music at a Mexican restaurant or at a kids' restaurant is often lively and upbeat. At a party, however, Music is used to entertain, to make the occasion more enjoyable. A party can be called fun based on the social group, but in many cases the social group would not stick around if the music does not appeal to them. People have a variety of personality types, which can be reflected by the types of music they listen too. Some people enjoy a good rhythmic sound that they can dance to; they appreciate music like R In movies, plays and TV shows, music has more of a psycholog ...

Systems and diffusion of innovation theories as they apply to Essay

Systems and diffusion of innovation theories as they apply to healthcare delivery and nursing practice - Essay Example Such demands energy. The theory also tackles the concept of equifinality, which is among the differences between closed and open systems. Equifinality describes a system that can reach the same final state even with different states of initial condition. Unlike close systems that have positive entropy, open systems also approach minimum entropy production, thus aiming for complexity. Taking note of all of these differences, it has been described that the stable state of closed and open systems are equilibrium and steady-state, respectively (von Bertalanffy, 1950). 1. Systems Theory and Healthcare Delivery in the U. S. The Healthcare system, in general, is an open system. It does not react to changes by trying to maintain its state, but by trying to adapt to the changes it is up against. It is in a constantly changing state to maintain its stability, so to speak. Historically, in United States, from 1965, the expenses for healthcare has steadily increased at least 4.5% yearly, much gr eater than the 1.7% increase posted by the country’s gross domestic product, a measure of income. A part of the healthcare expense has increasingly been depended on the private sector, through the private health insurance provided by the employers. The government, on its part also took part in covering for the increase in healthcare expenses. The advancements in medical technologies and the deregulation of medical supply have caused such increase in expenses. However, when the country was undergoing recession, the government implemented the â€Å"managed care†, in which the government limited the use of advanced medical equipment and therapy options (Reinhardt, 2001). In addition, the healthcare system is equifinal. For example, a patient’s willingness to use a novel therapeutic option depends upon the healthcare provider’s sex, specialty, medical school, years in profession, practice volume, and practice location (Sanson-Fisher, 2004). The different perm utations that can lead to the willingness to subject to a treatment option are many. One may arrive at the final decision of (dis)agreeing to undergo the treatment option even through different initial points. 2. Systems Theory and Nursing Practice Going inside the healthcare system is a complicated one because of its complex structure. It is so complex that the nursing profession itself, which is the largest healthcare profession in the United States, is an open system. Their characteristic as an open system is evident in various instances. First, the final state in nursing practice does not depend on the amount of initial state from which it came or the tangible additions or omissions that resulted to the existence of the final state. For example, the nurses’ role in healthcare is vital because they provide the majority of the initial care to the patients, especially among those in critical condition. Specifically, nurses of a certain section of the hospital are exposed to the same conditions during their clinical practice, but yet others graciously handle the situation and others crack under pressure (Smith, 2010). Diffusion of Innovation Theory Applied to the Current Situation From the name itself, diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, as proposed by Rogers is a much more recently developed theory concerned with the adoption of innovations by a unit over time. In this theory, the contribution of the subunits in spreading the new

CIPD- PDP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

CIPD- PDP - Essay Example As a result of frequent discussion, reading and research, I was able to gain a broad understanding of the major concepts and theories of human resource management. The second aspect of the development plan was to develop leadership skills by participating actively in skill development sessions on various topics such as employee engagement in strategic decision making and career planning. These development sessions allowed me to practice my speaking and communication skills. Contrary to my expectations, I discovered that I lacked the required level of assertiveness and persuasiveness in my communication style. On the other hand, I was able to come across as a good listener capable of demonstrating high empathy levels. I realized that I could use this as my strength in situations such as employee counselling, grievance situations, interviewing job candidates, and so on. However, I need to develop my assertiveness and persuasiveness without which I may not become a successful leader in my organization. The CIPD (2014) requirements for associate members state that competence in interpersonal and technical skills is essential. Hence, this aspect of the development plan was not met to the desired levels. The third aspect of the development plan was to develop self-consistency in the practice and application of HR practices and policies in the organizational setting. The aim was to improve my concentration and attention levels by immersing myself in actual settings. I took an internship as an HR practitioner in various departments of the organization. During my internship I learnt the functions of sourcing, recruitment, reward management and organizational development and their interaction with other functions of HR. This was the most interesting experience of following the development plan as I got the opportunity to interact with professionals and learn from experience. I sharpened several professional skills such as

Consumer Behaviour on Facebook Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Consumer Behaviour on Facebook - Essay Example The case study described clearly demonstrated the way people buy things have undergone major transition. The consumer buying behaviours have changed dramatically with the advent of the Social commerce. The case study also described about the major players, who contributed significantly in the social commerce business. The strategy followed by ‘Groupon’ that offered heavy discount on different products was a success. The inculcation of global e-commerce led to the evolution of new infrastructure in the business world. Merchandising was believed to be the key difference between old e-commerce and the new method of selling with the help of internet. The Consumer behaviour is believed to be the most important concept of marketing. The organization’s success and failure can be determined with the help of identifying the behaviours and attitude of its consumers towards the company’s product. Today E-commerce is considered to be the most important and significant evolution in the business world. The e-commerce is represented in terms of social commerce, which is believed to be the subset of e-commerce. The main function of social commerce is to facilitate the online business activities without the requirement of any hard shape structure of the business. In the new world of technology and efficiency, social networking is becoming the necessity of life for the internet users. The reason is that the social networking helps the people to interact among one another, anywhere in the world. The concept of social networking was inculcated by yahoo in 2005 (Warner, 2011, p. 439). The major reason for such inculcation was the introduction of the more convenient way of shopping. The concept of social commerce or social networking began with the co-operative movements that led to the creation of â€Å"Peoples Supermarket† movement (Clapperton, 2012). The idea behind the encouragement of â€Å"Peoples Supermarket† movement was to gather the smart entrepreneurs to make money with small start-up capital. With the passage of time, the concept of social commerce began dominating the traditional suppliers of the products. The conglomerate of large entrepreneurs, who entered in the field of social commerce, followed the strategy of ploughing back the profit into the business to offer the online products at more affordable prices (Marsden, 2012). The buyers or consumers of the products, when found the products more easily accessible and even at more affordable prices, their preferences tilted more towards the online products. The successful capturing of consumer market has now made the companies like Facebook & Google the big business giants across the world, with the net worth in billions of dollars (Dobinick, 2012, p.107). The major change that can be observed with the introduction of the concepts such as social media and social commerce, the customers can find the opportunity to directly communicate with the producers of the products. The increase in interaction between the producer and the end consumer has made

E-commerce site launch bicyclesforyou.Com

E-commerce site launch bicyclesforyou.Com Task 1 You need to do some research to familiarise yourself with the subject area and to gain some ideas about how you can carry out the rest of the project. There are a number of websites that specialise in the sale of bicycles. Use a maximum of 1 hour to review these resources. Bookmark the relevant sites and make notes of information that you can use in your assignment. http://www.avoncycles.com/ http://www.herocycles.com/about.php http://www.gtbicycles.com/are/bikes http://www.atlascyclesonepat.com/ http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/ Bicycle companies having e-commerce sites provide information service related to different product range of bicycles they sell with images and descriptions, which suites all age group and gender. It also updates on latest technology, upcoming new quality of product and manufacturing details related to the product. For building relationship and trust, customer feedbacks are requested for improving the product quality and services. Customers can get information on availability of product from respective showrooms or distributor / dealer located in the region. Promotion offers details are available on the site. The e-commerce works in combination to traditional commerce strategy of selling the product to end users. Task 2 Produce a project plan for the way you intend to complete the rest of this assignment. For planning, use the timescale you have been allocated for this assignment i.e. from the date you start to the date you submit your assignment. Submit a copy of your plan to your tutor BEFORE you proceed further with the assignment. Task 3 Using PowerPoint or a similar tool, prepare a maximum of twelve slides that could be used to form the basis of a presentation to the owner of Bicycles For You. The first part of the presentation should explain how a SWOT analysis can be used to identify potential e-commerce opportunities within a company. The second part of the presentation should address the potential benefits that e-commerce could bring to Bicycles For You. For this you should list and briefly describe SIX benefits that you believe e-commerce could bring to the company, taking full account of their existing methods of operation. The power point presentation copy is enclosed with this assignment. Task 4 Write a short briefing document of no more than 1200 words that describes each of the following marketing activities and explains the role that they can play in helping to ensure the effective promotion of the new e-commerce site: Branding, E-mail marketing, Banner adverts, CRM, Search engine optimization. Branding: A brand represents a distinguish pattern of qualities and behaviour that gives the consumer a strong sense of security. There should be consistency in e-commerce branding. It is how consumer perceives your companys image and differentiates the product from all others in the market. It will help in promoting the newly e-commerce site by extending the existing product range on the web. With brand leveraging, the dominant positions can be extended to other products and services. Transferring existing brands to the web is much easier and less expensive. With clearly communication through right message, impressive visuals and delivering true market values will an important part of promoting the e-commerce site. The companys URL should always be included on product packaging. Integrating the URL with company logo on brochures can also be helpful in getting the work out about the web site. Ensuring that the site appears in search engine listings is also very important. E-mail marketing: E-mail marketing is about communicating to the consumers using electronic mail. It is very powerful element in any companys advertising strategy. For having an effective dialog with their customers on the launch of new e-commerce site, company can use automated e-mail communications. As the conversion rates on requested e-mail messages range from 10 percent to more than 30 percent, which are much higher than the click-through rates on banner ads. This will benefit the company in promoting the existing business through new e-commerce site. The marketing strategy of sending specific information only to people who have indicated an interest in receiving information about the product or service being promoted should be more successful. Email message with hyperlinks inserted will guide customers to the companys website and induce them to stay on the site and consider making purchases. Banner adverts: A banner add is a small rectangular object on a web page that displays stationery or moving graphic and includes a hyperlink to the advertisers web site. Banners ads are versatile advertising vehicles with graphical images which help increase awareness about company web site and its product. Companies use other web sites to display their banner ads through exchange network, place ads on web sites that appeal to one of the companys market segments and pays to those sites to carry the ads, using banner advertising network. CRM: Customer relationship management is about managing companys interaction with customers. Technology-enabled customer relationship management occurs when a firm obtains detailed information about a customers behaviour, preferences, needs, and buying patterns, and uses that information to set prices, add product features. With the existing customer database the marketing campaign for promoting of new e-commerce site can be done through direct email.ÂÂ   The e-commerce site will benefit company by creating and tracking specific web activities that help develop the client relationship. Search engine optimization: Search engine marketing is the medium about promoting the companys website by increasing its visibility on the search engine and improve the ranking of your website. Assigning specific keywords for the new e-commerce site, website pages can achieve higher ranking in search results with help of optimization. Task 5 Write a short report (of no more than 600 words) that defines what is meant by supply chain management and describes how this can be used to develop closer links with suppliers and provide enhanced services for customers. Supply chain management is the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service package required by end customers. It is a cross-function approach including managing the movement of raw materials into an organization, certain aspects of the internal processing of materials into finished goods, and the movement of finished goods out of the organization and delivering to the end-consumer. The purpose of supply chain management is to improve trust and collaboration among supply chain partners, thus improving inventory visibility and the velocity of inventory movement. By engaging suppliers in cooperative, long-term relationships, companies have found that they can work together with suppliers to identify new ways to provide their own customers with faster cheaper and better services. By using internet, companies simply have better and more far-reaching ways to spend up the information flow process and make it more effective. Continual communication and information sharing are key elements in building trust. Customer service can be enhanced by effective supply chain:- Better product delivery With quality information available across all the major points in the companys supply chain, the performance of the company in delivering the correct product, to the correct place, at the correct time, in the correct condition and packaging, in the correct quantities, with the correct documentation, to the correct customer will increase significantly and customers will be served better. Better responsiveness When the supply chain is running effectively, it becomes easier for a company to provide accurate information to its customers regarding any product or activity because the information is readily available. Better reliability If the supply chain becomes more reliable, the individual member companies (called partners) also become more reliable, at least from a customer service point of view because they tend to give more reliable deliveries and responses to queries. Faster Responsiveness The speed at which a supply chain provides products to the customer and resolves their problems improves dramatically, primarily because obtaining the information that customers need requires less effort and fewer procedures. Without supply chain management, many departments requested information from the partners by placing telephone calls. After the call was made, an employee was assigned to handle the particular query. Responding to the queries frequently involved counting items and retaking stock and other time -wasting procedures. Real time information systems in a well designed supply chain eliminate all these procedures and giving speedier returns. Task 6 Write a briefing note (of no more than 500 words) that lists FIVE main security threats that could pose a risk to the operation of the new e-commerce site. Explain the risks that each of these threats could pose to the site and briefly describe FIVE specific countermeasures that could be put in place to protect against these threats. The five main security threats that will pose a risk to the operation of new e-commerce site are as explained below: Confidentiality threat Confidentiality is the prevention of unauthorized information disclosure. It allows only authorized parties to read protected information. Breaching confidentiality on the internet is not difficult. If any customer login to ‘Bicycle For You website that contains a form with text boxes for name, address and e-mail address. When the required information is entered and the information is sent to the web-server for processing, the captured data and the HTTP request to send the data to the server is then sent. If the customer changes his mind and goes to some other website, the other website may choose to collect web demographics and log the URL from the site which the customer just came. By this way the other website breaches the confidentiality by recording the secret information the user has entered. Integrity threat An integrity threat exists when an unauthorized party can alter a message stream of information. Unprotected banking transactions are subject to integrity violations. Some other website can represent your website as an original, creating havoc on website. Using security hole in a domain name server, perpetrators can substitute the address of their own website in place of your companys website to spoof website visitors. Integrity threat can alter vital financial information of the company and its customers. Availability threat The purpose of availability threat, also known as delay or denial threat, is to disrupt normal computer processing or to deny processing entirely. It involves getting the server to perform a large number of mundane tasks, exceeding the capacity of the server to cope with any other task. Slowing the internet service will drive customers to competitors website. Database threat E-commerce systems store user data and retrieve product information from database connected to the web server. Database connected to your companys e-commerce site contains valuable and private information that can damage the company if it were disclosed or altered. If someone hacks user authentication information, then private and costly information can be revealed. Communication channel threat The internet serves as the electronic chain linking a customer to an e-commerce resource. Weak access points in information infrastructure and security that can expose company information and trade secrets. The specific countermeasures to protect against security threats are:- Secure Socket Layer (SSL) As there is enormous amount of information exchange over the internet, secure socket layer is a protocol which encrypts data between the customers computer and the websites server. With the use of secure socket layer, when the clients sends the request to access the company site, the browser identifies the server as a trusted entity and passes encryption key information back and forth. Server firewall Firewall protects the server and network from virus attacks and hackers trying to access the personal and confidential information. Having a firewall on the newly e-commerce site will block hackers from accessing to any customer information. It ensures that requests can only enter the system from specified ports and in some cases ensures that all accesses are only from certain physical machines. Password Policies Ensure password policies are enforced for customers and internal users as well. Task 7 Put together an outline project plan for the development and launch of the Bicycles For You e-commerce site. This should be made up of TEN key project stages and associated objectives, together with a brief description of each. The project plan should also include the associated timescales for undertaking these project stages and achieving the specified objectives. The project plan for launch of new e-commerce site for Bicycles For You will be executed in different stages as explained below: Benefits With the growing demand for its product range, company is interested in business expansion and increase profits. There is a potential of increasing sales and decrease costs. E-commerce increases the speed and accuracy with which businesses can exchange information, which reduces costs on both side of transactions. Project Scope Define goals for undertaking this project. Specifications about business model which fit for e-commerce site. Estimated time, cost, schedule for launching new e-commerce site. The objective shall be to create and maintain a high revenue e-commerce site which will be one of a kind in the bicycle industries, by developing a new and successful e-commerce business using a combination of e-commerce business models. The site will use business to consumer and business to business models. Research Conduct a research on existing business model and for e-commerce business model. Research on products and services which customer demand. Designing the website and technical requirements Design the website which should be fresh and appealing, caters to the interests and preferences of your intended market audiences. It should develop a smooth user interface, which makes customer experience enjoyable and pleasant. Approach a service provider for website hosting. Regular site maintenance is necessary to update content, perform technical upgrades. Review of risks measure Identify and research possible risks regarding starting up a new e-commerce site, technology costs and marketing / advertising costs. Security control issues for protection and continued operations, if the site goes down due to technical glitches. Testing Several functional testing is required prior to the launch of the website. Checking browser compatibility for accessing the website, testing of java scripts flash and other plug-ins for running the visuals and search functionalities. Marketing Extensive marketing campaign for the launch of new e-commerce site will be carried out. Branding, social media, direct email and search engine visibility will be used means of marketing for the launch of new e-commerce site. Creating a domain name thats easy to recall and resonates your brand, product and services. Post-launch After the launch of e-commerce site, monitor and respond to feedback received from consumer. Updating the site content based on changes in the product development and business process management.

Fairy Tale :: Essays Papers

Fairy Tale Eloise: bored and wants someone to appreciate the value of her work and she wants a baby. She makes night-dresses and petticoats for a shop in town. She considers men to be brainless and only good for one thing. Simon and she moved into the woods because she got a lot of money from Max (Clare's ex-husband). She moved into the woods to discover her spiritual roots. She likes neatness and having everything in order. Simon: Eloise's husband. Before they went into the depths of Wales (the woods) he was an ordinary, nice boy with a promising career, now he does woodwork. Rational. Eloise & Simon: not compatible. Clare: Eloise's mom. Jewish. Miriam: Clare's oldest friend. Vodka drinker. Moonbird: Spiritual (crystals, pyramids, hagging trees), New Age friend. Humans should be polite towards Nature. She's fond of Native Americans. Four men in suits come to the house, saying they want to buy it. Simon doesn't want a baby (Simon's mom got a child at the age of 13, which he considered to be in the way of his development into manhood). He tells her that if she feels that lonely she should ask her mom over. Simon calls Clare saying Eloise missing her. Se never showed much affection so Clare wonders what the catch is. Clare can't go because she is expecting a phone call from Claud (a French tv producer). The men return for a second time leaving her brochures. Clare encourages Miriam to go because she is Eloise's godmother. Third return of the men. Moonbird and the men say the same things, but the meaning behind them is different. Eloise wakes up, the men are gone, the clock has stopped and the cat is afraid. Simon comes home. Clare is depressed, Miriam asks if she is suicidal again. Clare found out Claud was having dinner with another woman. She called him the next morning, and he didn't even know who she was. The next morning cloth. Miriam goes to Eloise. The next day Clare goes as well. Eloise comes back from the woods where she had fallen asleep. While it has been raining hard all day Eloise is completely dry, this surprises Miriam. Miriam is surprised that no one in the village has talked to them. Miriam and Clare go out for groceries and the shopkeeper shows great interest in them when he finds out they live in the Queen's house.

Hierarchical Team

A hierarchical team is a type of team organization structure in which the team is divided into hierarchies and there are many middle management (Mohr 1982). There is an overall manager of the team who is place at the top of the hierarchy. This manager is responsible for leading or controlling the managers in each hierarchy to make sure that the team’s objectives are met as well as the overall objectives of the organization. The manager works with the middle managers to make sure that the team is ran smoothly and that the organizational goals are being achieved by the team. There is a manager in each hierarchy who is called a middle manager who is in charge of their own department. This helps the department to be independent and therefore is able to deal with their own problems in their department without bothering what the other departments are doing. The manager who is in charge of this department is leads the department towards achieving team goals (Heckscher and Donnellon 1994). The manager is responsible of the whole department at large and in making sure that the team’s objectives are being achieved as well as the overall objectives of the organization. The middle managers communicate their progress to the overall team manager who is able to evaluate performance and decide if the team is achieving the intended objectives as well as the overall objectives of the organization. Because in hierarchical teams the team is divided into hierarchies (Robbins and Judge 2007), the team is able to run smoothly because each department has its own jobs which are allocated to it and the department are able to undertake their jobs independently. This helps in making sure that the department or rather the hierarchy undertakes their work perfectly as they are responsible for themselves and can not blame any other department or hierarchy in case they do not deliver. This makes each department to work hard to achieve their target so as not to be blamed in case the team fails to achieve the intended objectives as well as organizational objectives. The team members are able to interact as they work and therefore (Thareja 2007), are able to combine their skills and achieve the organizational goals easily. The structure below shows how a hierarchical team looks like. A team in an organization is very important as it helps the people in an organization to work as team in order to achieve organizational goals. People are also able to work in a friendly environment and therefore, they are able to create a good working environment as well as a more relaxed environment. When people work when they are relaxed, they are able to deliver better than those people who work under any tension (Thareja 2007). Therefore, people in the hierarchical team are able to deliver well than those people that are working individually because; the people in the hierarchical team are able to interact as they perform their duties. Advantages of hierarchical team 1.Division of work- each hierarchy within the hierarchical team is allocated certain jobs to undertake, therefore, they are able to undertake the tasks (Lim and Sambrook 2010) because that is what they are good at and therefore are able to deliver the best. 2.Flexibility- within a team, there are people who are able to perform more than one tasks. Therefore, in case someone is absent in a department, another person is able to perform their duties and therefore, work is able to continue smoothly without much problem. 3.The hierarchies within the team are able to share ideas. This will help in making sure that the organizational goals are met. 4.Because the departments are independent, they are able to make their own decisions which is best for them and which will help them achieve the team’s goals as well as organizational goals. 5.Even though the whole hierarchy is a team, each department is allocated their particular job, makes the department to feel the ownership of a success (Pugh 1990). For example, if a department in a team is allocated the work of advertisement, the hierarchy will feel good if there is an increased sale. 6.Working as a team even though in a hierarchy boosts the morale of the workers. This is because, they are able to interact as they work, and the work is shared amongst the hierarchies. 7.Because the team is organized in an hierarchical manner, leadership is shared in that, a middle manager is allocated for each department (Thareja 2007), this helps in smooth running of the team and that, not just one person who is responsible for the team but several people according to the number of hierarchies in that team. 8.The team is able to deliver better products because they are comprised of a mixture of people with different talents and therefore, these talents can be used to achieve organizational goals. Disadvantages 1.Work can be divided unfairly amongst the departments. The work that the whole team is supposed to undertake may be divided unfairly amongst the departments or the hierarchies (Amaral and Uzzi 2007). This therefore means that some hierarchies or departments may be allocated more jobs than the others thus making them work more than the other departments. 2.Arguments amongst the departments may rise. In case the team’s objectives are not met, the departments may start blaming one another and thus result to arguments and even destroyed relationships in the organization. 3.Because each department is able to make their own decision, coordination of that team may be difficult as the departments work independently. 4.Because the hierarchical team focus more on working as a team rather than an individual, some talents and skills of some workers may become stagnant because they may not be needed or used in the team (Burns and Stalker 1961). 5.Poor communication because, communication is vertical in that, the top manager in the hierarchy has to communicate through the hierarchies while the manager at the bottom of the hierarchy has to reach the top manager vertically. 6.If one department fails to perform its tasks, it may lead to the failure of the whole team in that the whole team may not be able to achieve its goals.

Legalized Gambling Essays - Genovese Crime Family, Murder, Inc.

Legalized Gambling Essays - Genovese Crime Family, Murder, Inc. Legalized Gambling Through the years, gambling has become America's pastime. Over 60 million Americans make some sort of wager every day.1 When compared to other recreations(in billions of dollars) in 1990, gambling institutions made 2.2 more than magazine sales, 8.3 more than book sales, 20.9 more than theaters, and a whopping 21.8 more than movies.2 This number has increased to this high level because of the growth in the amount of legalized gambling establishments and the accessibility to these establishments, both of which increases the number of gamblers. The compulsive or pathological gambler affects society most. According to Stuart Winston, The compulsive gambler is the backbone of gambling. Without the compulsive gambler, there would be no Las Vegas, no Off Track Wagering. Two thirds of the race tracks in America would close. The attendance of sporting events would drop 50%, and T.V. wouldn't bother with sports beyond championship events.....The compulsive gambler bets a piece of his life everyday, and a piece of his family's. The other 45 million people who gamble are having fun.(Out of the 60 million who gamble every day)3 These gamblers often resort to crime to pay off their debts and anger. Even though legalized gambling has changed through time, and has been "accepted" in America today, it remains detrimental to society, and should not be legal anywhere. American gambling can be traced back to the early years of the nation. Different forms of gambling, such as lotteries, remained popular until 1890, when U.S. jurisdiction made lotteries and all other forms of gambling illegal by direct prohibition.4 Gambling had become more and more a "low life" thing to do. These low lifes, called "rowdies", would bet or take a bet on anything. Most tried to look different from everyone else by wearing thick imitation gold chains, a dyed black mustache, a velvet coat, and long hair. New York City alone had about 30,00 people earning a living from gambling in the 1890's. The casino's were plush and usually had a buffet with alcohol. The operation made a lot of money, most from cheating. Each casino would hire "agents" to come in and claim winning keno numbers, afterwards giving most of it back to the casino. Counterfeit money was also handed out to the few people who happened to win. Any protest from a loser and he would end up with a black eye. Oscar Handlin said, "An individual may sometimes take away substantial sums of money, but in the long run the banker must win."5 Essentially, gambling hurt society in the early years of America. For the next 25 years, gambling became unpopular again because of reports of cheating and changing American values. Anything thought of to be harmful to society became illegal. For example, alcohol became illegal by Prohibition. The reintroduction of gambling resulted in the return of corruption and fraud. By the mid 1920's, state after state abolished its anti-gambling laws. Gambling had become more and more accepted because of churches holding bingo sessions and legitimate racetracks being built. In 1931, gambling became totally legalized in Nevada to replace the money the state was getting from depleted ore rich mountains.6 Organized crime started to turn toward gambling as their main source of income after Prohibition ended in 1933. These criminals made most of their money bootlegging alcohol during Prohibition, so once alcohol prices went down, they needed another way to make a lot of money fast: gambling.7 Organized crime started getting more involved with gambling once Las Vegas started to boom. Bugsy Siegal, a half insane murderer who was sent to Nevada to enforce mob control of the race wire services, opened up the first hotel/casino in Las Vegas. His hotel, the Flamingo began a long period of gang involvement in Las Vegas. In 1947, the Desert Inn opened, run by a gang from Cleveland. A savage group of people, including the infamous Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano, established the Desert Inn in 1947. Lansky, the brains of this group, was a genius with numbers, while Luciano, the brute of the group, was a genius for finding Lansky. 1952 brought the opening of the Sahara by some run-out's from Oregon. The Sands, with Frank Sinatra as

Toddler development assessments essays

Toddler development assessments essays Development assessment is a structured evaluation of all of the childs developmental skill such as physical, language, intellectual, social, and emotional skills. The development assessment of a toddler can provide very helpful information to parents. Assessment also holds great potential to help caregivers understand the children they care for. Development assessment can increase your knowledge about your child. The child pediatrician or teacher may supervise the child, and if they notice an area where the child is lagging, they may request and evaluation with a developmental assessment specialist. Also they may give you a suggestion on how to work with your child at home. It doesnt mean that the child has a problem; in many cases the result is that the child is absolutely normal and may not need further treatment. Since every child is different, the development assessment is different too. The development specialists will tailor the childs assessment according to his age. If the child pediatrician asks you for an evaluation you must be prepare to answer a wide variety of detailed questions about your child growth, movement, behavior, play, and interactions with family members an the rest of the world. This assessment is going to be conduct by a team that can include a pediatrician, audiologist, child psychologist, and child psychiatrist, among others. This teen will observe how the child plays, learns, reasons, moves, and interacts. The child will be expose to several tests. To get the best result for the child, both parents need to be prepare. Also they need to attend any meeting or screening exams. The child needs to be healthy and comfortable during testing. At the end parents must receive a written report of the assessment. If the results end with a delay, you can consider getting a second opinion. ...

Interoperability and Middleware Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Interoperability and Middleware - Research Paper Example This was aimed at improving the service offered by the ICT sector. After this development, the ICT sector became more comprehensive and demanded more research and advancements on telecommunications and computing network flexibility (Lerner, 2002). Today interoperability standards are applied in ICT world to improve effective communication compatibility, exchange of data and services. The smooth interaction between two or more components of the operating software for communication compatibility, services and data exchange can be termed as inter-operatibility. Interoperability is a necessity in ICT because it is a tool that increases the connectivity of computers via the internet and offers a solution to operational costs. Furthermore, its software has been proved to be of quality provided heterogeneity is maintained, for instance, on systems written in different language programming; running on different hardware programs and operating system; using different data representation; impl ementing unlike syntactic or semantics interpretations; and using different control platforms (Puder, Ro?mer & Pilhofer, 2006) For interoperability heterogeneity to be realized there has to be a middleware software package. Today, there are many telecommunication and computation industries that offer middle ware products. The industry built middleware product essentially develops a connector that makes interoperability system to configure for use. Middle ware refers to application software that serves the purpose of a transition layer or exchange of resources between two networked counterparts. It also merges and incorporates two networked counterparts to communicate with each other either running on the same or different platforms. Middleware software applications are divided into two major categories, application management and resource management. In application management invokes specific services that perform given tasks for them. This application management is also divided int o other two categories, the higher and the lower, that is dependent on the level of service abstraction the middleware offers. The lower application known as inter-application management communication middleware operates with remote procedure calls in general while the higher application middleware totally abstracts the network by substituting procedure calls with direct service calls. The second middleware category, resource management, acts as resource management utility. Just like the first category it is divided into two groups, higher and lower resource management dependent on the type of resource managed by the middleware. The higher resource, also referred to as database middleware, manages software related resources such as transaction processing and database access as these resources are related to the database while lower resource middleware manager, also known as resource middleware, manages hardware related resources like CPU, hard drive space and memory (Puder, Ro?mer & Pilhofer, 2006). At the time of manufacture its main aim was to set up new standards of addressing the issue of differences that occur due to heterogeneous networks. It also provided for grid distinctive characteristics like file sharing, processor and additional grid functionalities such as API (application programming interfaces) with a primary concern aimed in resource

Changing Water Cycle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Changing Water Cycle - Essay Example According to the argument on reducing water levels, the regions indicated will suffer profusely in the agricultural and energy aspects. The consequential outcome of the challenges will further affect the society’s welfare at the advent of insufficient commercial production of specialty crops, recreation, and the general amenities. The figure shows that the southwest states’ water levels reduced by 14% from the beginning of the millennium to the present period, and the anomaly will remain at 84% until 2035. Further, the states’ water resources will dwindle to 66% and 43% between the ranges of 2041-2070 and 2070-2099 respectively. Therefore, it is certain that the south and west states along the US-Mexico border would be vulnerable to the consequences borne from the drastic climatic changes. The figure indicates that the water levels reduction process is imminent to the current societal practices. The region’s dependence in hydroelectric energy should cease as continuation of the practice risks the society’s welfare with the current prospects, which indicate a rapid rate of population increase in the agriculture-dependent area. Therefore, the concerned authorities should invest in geothermal, wind, and solar energy production projects as the alternative and eco-friendly sources to adapt to the changes. Secondly, the economic dependence on irrigation-based agricultural practices would flourish after the region’s reconsideration of constructing alternative water reservoirs and boreholes for use in the projects over the stream water sources. Apparently, the practice is a sustainable measure to ascertaining growth in the farming industry in the absence of water scarcity. The municipal water supply systems should conform to the measures of sustainability by reviewing the water distribution systems’ to match the environmental changes. Lastly, the