Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Immigrant Autobiography Essay - 793 Words

What I am most proud of, is the fact that I am a hardworking immigrant. In today’s divided society, immigrants are stereotyped as â€Å"non-contributing to society† or â€Å"largely uneducated†. This ignorant stereotype is a constant reminder of how hard I should work. Some experiences have led me to believe that I am inferior to others because I am an immigrant. I was afraid to tell my peers that I was born outside of the United States because I was terrified that they would see me differently. I believed that my even my friends would see me differently. At the age of six, one of my first memories is my mother walking down the street, holding my hand, and being verbally assaulted by a women, saying that people with my skin color do not belong†¦show more content†¦I still remember my very first day of school. Neither my mom or I spoke English. I relied on other bilingual kids to understand the teacher, but within six months I was able to communicate in English. By the third grade I was reclassified as an English speaker. This was the first time I experienced first hand the result of countless hours of study. This motivated me further. From there on out, I enjoyed school to the fullest. I have found my niche in high school. I have chosen to take every AP or honors course that I can fit into my schedule, and I taken advantage of leadership opportunities. However my world was far from perfect. As I grew older, it was impossible to notice that my world was imperfect. In elementary school, all my parent’s problems here hidden; I didn’t understand my family’s economic status. As I grew older and began to ask my parents question about our lifestyle and compared it to the other people around us. This conversation would always end in the same place; because we cant afford it. My high school is composed of economically unstable families, and economically stable families. Seeing that other families were better off than mine, I grew up with the idea that a comfortable life, is a luxurious life. I know that others aroundShow MoreRelatedThe Dream Act Of The United States891 Words   |  4 PagesPeople in America Should be More Respectful to the Illegal Immigrants DREAM Act. Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 Apr. 2016. The Dream Act is on foreign immigrants that want to have the opportunity to come to America for a better education. Discussing the Dream Act’s history background and how it is affecting people in today’s society. According to â€Å"Dream Act† states, â€Å"In the following years, however, a rising number of statesRead MorePersonal Commentary On The Lives Of People Different From Ourselves1454 Words   |  6 Pagesfamily may have shaped a person’s life, but everyone s family will affect the way in which they perceive the world. The way in which they perceive the world will likely be different than mine, but this does not mean I can not understand them. Autobiographies allow for us to begin to understand a story and a perspective that is different from our own. In Ricardo Rodriguez’s, â€Å"Achievement of Desire† he uses his own personal narrative to explain the effects that family had on his life. I will neverRead MoreHunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez: Book Critique1725 Words   |  7 Pages ​The following review of Richard Rodriguez’s book titled â€Å"Hunger of Memory,† shows the author’s smart way of writing an autobiography. The book is conformed in six well explained essays of Rodriguez’s life placed together, all in order to show the reader the different outcomes during his life as a middle class Mexican-American. The author wrote this autobiography on 1982, in where he explains the moments that he and his family went by during their immigration inside the United States. RichardRead MoreThe Oral Autobiographies Of Maria Detsios Spano From Greece1021 Words   |  5 Pages In many ways, the experiences of immigrants in 19th century America were similar. They were outsiders to the dominant American culture, and left their country in search of freedom and liberty. However, through careful study of Greek, German and Chinese individual’s oral histories, we can see that immigrants’ experiences varied based on their homeland. The discrepancies in their experiences become most apparent when examining the differences in the immigrant’s treatment upon arrival to America,Read MoreWhy I Chose This Picture1187 Words   |  5 Pagesthis picture is to show the deep implications in which I am trying to portray through my essay. In the picture, I am running my first relay race in high school. The racial discrepancy shown in the photo shows the environment in which I had to blend in with. 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The term Asian American tied these groups of people together for political reasons. After the earthquake of 1906, Asian immigrants were granted access if they were related to a citizen in America. This exception caused records to be falsified. These people were referred to as â€Å"paper sons/daughters.†.[1] Upon the arrival to America, Chinese immigrants went through a screening processRead MoreThe Market Revolution Of Americ Liberty Ambition, And The Eclipse Of The Common Good Essay901 Words   |  4 Pagestaking it from them (123). Tied in with the theme of class is a theme that is present throughout the text: the white male solidarity. That solidarity helped to turn a slavery-based economic society into a caste-based one where freed slaves and immigrants were forced to take low-paying horrid jobs and or do the same job as a white male but receive far less compensation for it (152). This type of racism in the labor force translated into sexism against women as well. 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After escaping from slavery, Frederick Douglass became a leader of the abolitionist movement, garnering praise for his incredible skills as an orator. His great speaking skills led

Monday, December 16, 2019

Succubus Blues CHAPTER 15 Free Essays

string(53) " get home and do damage control with Roman and Doug\." Sometimes you wake up from a dream. And sometimes, every once in a while, you wake up in a dream. That’s what happened to me. We will write a custom essay sample on Succubus Blues CHAPTER 15 or any similar topic only for you Order Now I opened my eyes, head throbbing, vaguely aware of something warm and fuzzy in my arms. Bright sunlight made me squint at first, but when I could finally focus, I realized I was looking straight into the faces of Cady and O’Neill. I shot upright, a motion my head did not approve of at all. Surely I was mistaken. Surely, no†¦ there they were. Before me, next to the bed I sat in, was a large oak desk surrounded by bulletin boards and white boards. Pinned to the bulletin boards were magazine cutouts, faces and faces of people who reflected every nuance of the characters described in Seth’s books. One section was even labeled NINAcady, displaying at least twenty different cutouts of slim blondes with cropped, curly hair, while another section – marked BRYANT O’NEILL – displayed brooding, thirty-something men with dark hair. Some of the cutouts were from major ads I recognized, though I’d never before connected the resemblance to Seth’s characters. Other minor characters from the books also had places on the display, though less noticeably so than the leads. Scrawls of notes and words filled the white boards, most done in a bizarre shorthand type of flow chart that made no sense to me. Working Title: Azure Hopes – fix later; Add Jonah Chap. 7; Clean up 3-5; CO in Tampa or Naples? Check stats; Don Markosin 8†¦On and on the scrawls went. I stared and stared at them, realizing I was seeing the skeleton foundation of Seth’s next novel. Part of me whispered I should look away, that I was ruining something, but the rest of me was too fascinated at glimpsing the way a novel and its world came to life. Finally, the smell of frying bacon made me turn from Seth’s desk, forcing me to piece together how I’d arrived here. I cringed, recalling what an idiot I’d been around Doug, Roman, and even Seth, but my hunger won out in temporarily allaying my remorse. It seemed odd that I should feel hungry after what I’d put my stomach through last night, but like Hugh’s beating, I could bounce back quickly. Disentangling myself from the covers and the teddy bear I’d unknowingly been holding, I made my way to the bathroom to rinse my mouth and study my appearance: wild-haired and downright adolescent looking in the T-shirt. I didn’t want to waste the energy to shape-shift, however, and trotted out of the bathroom, following the sounds of sizzling against a background of â€Å"Radar Love† by Golden Earring. Seth stood in a modern, well-lit kitchen, tending a skillet on a stove. The color scheme was bright and cheery, maple wood cupboards and beams accented with cornflower blue paint on the walls. Seeing me, he turned down the music and gave me a solicitous look. His shirt today displayed Tom and Jerry. â€Å"Good morning. How are you feeling?† â€Å"Surprisingly well.† I made my way to a small, two-person table and sat down, tugging the shirt to cover my thighs. â€Å"My head seems to be the only casualty thus far.† â€Å"You want something for it?† â€Å"No. It’ll clear up.† I hesitated, detecting something through the smell of salty, greasy meat. â€Å"Is that†¦ coffee?† â€Å"Yup. Want some?† â€Å"Regular?† â€Å"Yup.† He walked over to a pot, poured a mug of steaming coffee, and brought it to me, along with a cute sugar and creamer set. â€Å"I thought you didn’t drink this stuff.† â€Å"I don’t. I just keep it on hand in case caffeine-crazed women wake up in my bed.† â€Å"That happen a lot?† Seth smiled mysteriously and returned to the stove. â€Å"Are you hungry?† â€Å"Famished.† â€Å"How do you like your eggs?† â€Å"Over hard.† â€Å"Nice choice. You want bacon too? You’re not a vegetarian or anything?† â€Å"I’m an honest carnivore. I want the works†¦ if that’s not asking too much.† I felt kind of sheepish about him waiting on me, considering everything else he’d already done. He didn’t appear to mind. The works turned out to be more than I’d imagined: eggs, bacon, toast, two kinds of jam, coffee cake, and orange juice. I ate it all, thinking about how jealous Peter would be, still confined to his low- carbdiet. â€Å"I’m in a food coma,† I told Seth afterward, helping with the dishes. â€Å"I’ll need to go back to bed and sleep it off. Do you eat like this every day?† â€Å"Nah. Just when aforementioned women are hanging out. It ensures they don’t leave too quickly.† â€Å"Not a problem, considering this is all I have to wear.† â€Å"Not true,† he told me, pointing toward his living room. Looking up, I saw my dress – clean – hanging on a hanger. The sheer, bikini-cut panties I’d worn under it had been looped around the hanger’s head. â€Å"It said dry-clean, but I took a chance on putting it on extra-gentle cycle in the wash. It came out okay. So did the, uh, other thing.† â€Å"Thanks,† I replied, unsure as to how I felt about him washing my underwear. â€Å"Thanks for everything. I really appreciate what you did for me last night – you must think I’m a total freak – â€Å" He shrugged. â€Å"It’s no problem. But† – he glanced at a nearby clock – â€Å"I may need to run out on you soon. Remember that one party? It starts at noon. You can still hang out here.† I turned to the same clock. Eleven forty-seven. â€Å"Noon! Why didn’t you wake me up sooner? You’ll be late!† He shrugged again, infinitely unconcerned. â€Å"I figured you needed the sleep.† Setting down the towel I’d been holding, I darted to the living room and grabbed my dress. â€Å"I’ll call a cab. You go. Don’t worry about me.† â€Å"Seriously, it’s no problem,† he argued. â€Å"I can give you a ride home even, or†¦ well, if you wanted, you could come with me.† We both froze awkwardly. I didn’t really feel up to going to some strange party. What I needed to do was get home and do damage control with Roman and Doug. You read "Succubus Blues CHAPTER 15" in category "Essay examples" Yet†¦ Seth had been terribly nice to me, and he had wanted me to go to this thing before. Didn’t I owe him? Surely I could do this for him. An afternoon party probably wouldn’t even last that long. â€Å"Would we need to pick up anything?† I asked at last. â€Å"Wine? Brie?† He shook his head. â€Å"Probably not. It’s for my eight-year-old niece.† â€Å"Oh. So no wine then?† â€Å"Yeah. And I think she’s more into Gouda anyway.† I looked at the dress. â€Å"I’ll be overdressed. You got anything I can put on over this?† Seven minutes later, I sat in Seth’s car, driving toward Lake Forest Park. I had the georgette dress back on, along with a man’s plaid flannel shirt in shades of white, gray, and navy. The shirt was open save for a couple buttons. I had French-braided my hair in lieu of shape-shifting it into place and now frantically applied cosmetics from my purse as I rode. I suspected I had a sort of Ginger-Rogers-Joins-Nirvana look going. We arrived at the suburban house I’d dropped Seth off at a few weeks ago. Pink balloons fluttered from the mailbox, and a mother in jeans and a sweatshirt waved goodbye as a small girl disappeared into the house. Said mother then returned to the massive, soccer team-carrying vehicle running in the driveway. â€Å"Whoa,† I said, taking it all in. â€Å"I’ve never been to anything like this before.† â€Å"You must have when you were little,† Seth amended, parking across the street. â€Å"Well, yeah,† I lied. â€Å"But it’s a different experience at this age.† We approached the front door, and he entered without knocking. Immediately, four small, blond female forms slammed into him, grappling onto his limbs, nearly knocking him over. â€Å"Uncle Seth! Uncle Seth!† â€Å"Uncle Seth’s here!† â€Å"Is that for me? Is that for me?† â€Å"Desist, before I have to break out the tear gas,† Seth told them mildly, unclasping one who threatened to rip his left arm off. One of them, all blond curls and giant blue eyes like the others, caught sight of me. â€Å"Hi,† she said boldly, â€Å"who are you?† Before I could answer, she tore out of the foyer, yelling, â€Å"Uncle Seth brought a girl!† Seth made a face. â€Å"That’s Morgan. She’s six.† He pointed to a clone of her. â€Å"This is McKenna, her twin. Over here’s Kayla, four. This one† – he paused to lift up the tallest of the four, a motion that made her cackle gleefully – â€Å"is Kendall, the birthday girl. And I imagine Brandy’s here somewhere, but she’s too civilized to assault me like the rest.† A living room extended beyond the foyer, and another blond girl, a few years older than Kendall, watched us over the back of a couch. Other assorted children – the party guests, I presumed – ran and screamed beyond her. â€Å"I’m here, Uncle Seth.† Seth set Kendall down and tousled Brandy’s hair, much to her chagrin. She wore the affronted dignity only one on the edge of adolescence could have. Morgan returned shortly thereafter with a tall, blond woman in tow. â€Å"See? See?† exclaimed the little girl. â€Å"I told you.† â€Å"Do you always create such a scene?† the woman asked, giving Seth a quick hug. She looked happy but exhausted. I could understand why. â€Å"I should be so lucky. My fans aren’t half this ravenous. Andrea, this is Georgina. Georgina, Andrea.† I shook her hand as a slightly shorter, younger version of Seth entered the room. â€Å"And that’s my brother, Terry.† â€Å"Welcome to our chaos, Georgina,† Terry told me after I’d been introduced. He glanced at all of the children, his own and others, running around the house. â€Å"I’m not sure I fully understand Seth’s wisdom in bringing you here. You’ll never come back.† â€Å"Hey,† exclaimed Kendall to me, â€Å"isn’t that the shirt we got Uncle Seth for Christmas?† An awkward silence fell among us adults as we all tried to look somewhere else. Finally, Andrea cleared her throat and said, â€Å"All right, guys, let’s fall into line and get some games going.† I had expected a child’s birthday party to be wild, but what proceeded to pass that afternoon surpassed even my imaginings. Equally impressive was the way in which Seth’s brother and sister-in-law managed to control the herd of screaming, jumping creatures that somehow seemed to be everywhere in the house at once. Terry and Andrea handled them all with efficient good nature while Seth and I did little more than watch, occasionally fielding random questions tossed our way. The entire experience stunned me as a bystander; I could hardly imagine coping with it on a regular basis. It was fascinating. At one point, catching his breath, Terry saw me alone and struck up a conversation. â€Å"I’m glad you could come,† he said. â€Å"I didn’t know Seth was seeing anyone.† â€Å"We’re just friends,† I clarified. â€Å"Still. It’s nice to see him with someone flesh and blood. Someone he didn’t make up.† â€Å"Is it true he nearly missed your wedding?† Terry grimaced by way of confirmation. â€Å"My best man, if you can believe that. Showing up two minutes before the ceremony began. We were on the verge of starting without him.† I could only laugh. He shook his head. â€Å"If you continue hanging out with him, make sure you keep him in line. My brother may be brilliant, but by God, he needs a keeper sometimes.† After party games came cake, and after cake came presents. Kendall lifted Seth’s up expertly and shook it. â€Å"Books,† she declared. Brandy, older and therefore quietest of the group, glanced at me and explained, â€Å"Uncle Seth always gets us books.† This did not seem to faze Kendall any. She tore open the package and crowed delightedly over three books of pirate stories contained within. â€Å"Pirates, huh?† I asked Seth. â€Å"Is that politically correct?† His eyes danced. â€Å"She wants to be one.† As the party wound down and guests were retrieved by parents, Kendall beseeched Seth to read stories, and I followed him, the nieces, and other stragglers into the living room while the girls’ parents attempted to clean up in the kitchen. Seth read in the same compelling way he had at his signing, and I curled up in an armchair, content to just listen and watch. I was therefore startled when Kayla’s small form scrambled up and sat on my lap. Youngest of the girls, she could shriek with the best but tended to speak very little. She studied me with her globes of eyes, touched my French braid with interest, and then snuggled into me to listen to Seth. I wondered if she understood any of what he was saying. Regardless, she was soft and warm and smelled like little girl. Unconsciously, I ran my fingers through the fine, corn silk strands of hair and soon began weaving it into a braid similar to mine. When Seth finished a story, McKenna noticed what I was doing. â€Å"Me next.† â€Å"No, me,† ordered Kendall eagerly. â€Å"It’s my birthday.† I ended up braiding for all four of the younger girls. Brandy shyly demurred. Not wanting four copies of me, I elected other styles for the girls, herringbones and plaits that delighted them. Seth continued to read, occasionally glancing up at me and my handiwork. By the time we were ready to leave, I felt drained physically and emotionally. Children always made me feel a little wistful; being in close contact like this made me downright sad in a way I couldn’t explain. Seth said goodbye to his brother while I lingered near the door. As I did, I noticed a small bookcase beside me. Studying the titles, I picked out Burberry’s New Annotated Bible: Old and New Testaments. Remembering what Roman had said about the King James Version being a bad translation, I opened this one up to Genesis 6. The wording was nearly identical, a little cleaner and more modern sounding here and there, but mostly unchanged. With one exception. In verse 4, the King James Version had read: â€Å"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This version, however, said: â€Å"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterwards, when the sons of God went to the daughters of men†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Nephilim? A superscript number appeared by the word, and I followed it to the appropriate footnote. The word † nephilim† is sometimes translated as â€Å"giants † or â€Å"fallen ones.† Sources vary in accounts of these angelic offspring, citing them sometimes simply as neighbors to the Canaanites and other times as Titan-like creatures reminiscent of Greek heroes (Harrington, 2001). Frustrated, I looked up the Harrington reference in the book’s bibliography, finding it linked to Biblical Arcanaand Myth by Robert Harrington. I memorized the title and author, slipping the Bible back into its place just as Seth turned to go. We drove in silence, the sky graying early as Seattle’s winter loomed nearer. I might normally have interpreted the quiet in the car as awkward or weird, but I found it comfortable as my mind pondered the nephilim reference. I needed to get a hold of the Harrington book, I decided. â€Å"They didn’t have ice cream,† Seth suddenly noted, interrupting my thoughts. â€Å"Huh?† â€Å"Terry and Andrea. They had cake with no ice cream. You want to get some ice cream?† â€Å"Not enough sugar for you already?† â€Å"They just go together, that’s all.† â€Å"It’s only about fifty out,† I warned as he pulled up next to an ice cream parlor. Ice cream in inclement weather seemed odd to me. â€Å"And it’s windy.† â€Å"Are you kidding? In Chicago, a place like this wouldn’t even be open this time of year. This is balmy.† We went inside. Seth ordered a double cone of mint chocolate chip. I ordered a more adventurous double of blueberry cheesecake and mocha almond swirl. Sitting at a table by the windows, we ate our sugary confections in more silence. Finally, he said, â€Å"You’re quiet today.† I turned on him in wonder, pausing in my mental dissection of nephilim. â€Å"That’s a switch.† â€Å"What is?† â€Å"Usually I think you’re too quiet. I have to talk and talk to keep things going.† â€Å"I’ve noticed. Er, I didn’t mean that like it came out. That sounded bad. You talking is a good thing. You always know what to say. Exactly the right thing at exactly the right time.† â€Å"Not last night. I said horrible things last night. To Doug and Roman both. They’ll never forgive me,† I lamented. â€Å"Sure they will. Doug’s a good guy. I don’t really know Roman, but†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"But what?† Seth suddenly looked embarrassed. â€Å"I imagine you’re easy to forgive.† We looked at each other for a moment, and warmth flushed my cheeks. Not blood boiling, get naked and jump someone warm, but just cozily warm. Like being wrapped in a blanket. â€Å"That looks terrible, you know.† â€Å"What does?† He pointed at my cone. â€Å"That combination.† â€Å"Hey, don’t knock it until you try it. They actually go pretty well together.† He looked doubtful. I slid my chair over by him and offered him a bite. â€Å"Make sure you get both flavors.† He leaned in for the bite and managed both the blueberry cheesecake and mocha almond swirl. Unfortunately, a piece of the blueberry cheesecake scoop fell off onto his chin in the process. I instinctively reached out to stop it, sliding it back to his mouth. He just as automatically nabbed the wayward piece with his tongue, licking it off my fingers. A blast of eroticism coursed through me, and looking into his eyes, I knew he’d shared it too. â€Å"Here,† I said hastily, reaching for a napkin, ignoring the desire to return my fingers to his mouth. Seth wiped his chin with it, but for once, he didn’t let his self-consciousness get the better of him. He stayed where he was, leaning close to me. â€Å"You smell amazing. Like†¦ gardenias.† â€Å"Tuberose,† I corrected automatically, dazed by how close he was to me. â€Å"Tuberose,† he repeated. â€Å"And incense, I think. I’ve never smelled anything like it.† He leaned a hair closer. â€Å"It’s Michael by Michael Kors. You can get it at any high-end department store.† I nearly groaned as the words left my flustered lips. What an idiotic thing to say. My nervousness made me flippant. â€Å"Maybe Cady could start wearing it.† Seth was all seriousness. â€Å"No. This is you. Only you. It would never smell exactly the same on anyone else.† I shivered. I wore this perfume because it was reminiscent of what other immortals sensed in my unique signature, my aura. This is you. With just a few casual words, I felt as though Seth had uncovered some secret part of me, looked into my soul. We sat there then, chemistry burning between us like crazy, neither of us acting. I knew he would not try to kiss me as Roman had. Seth was content simply to look at me, to make love to me with his eyes. Suddenly the wind caught the door to the tiny restaurant, forcing it open as a huge gust swept in. Wisps of hair blew into my face, and I slammed my hands down on the napkins that flew up from our table. Other items in the parlor had less success as more napkins and scraps of paper drifted around, and a cup of plastic spoons fell off the counter, spilling its contents on the floor. The clerk behind the counter ran to the door, fighting against the wind to make the latch catch. When he’d finally done so, he glared at the door resentfully. With the moment – whatever it was – shattered, Seth and I picked up our things and left shortly thereafter. I asked him to drop me off at the bookstore. I hoped Doug would be there to apologize to, plus I wanted to get ahold of that Harrington book. â€Å"You want to come in and hang out? Say hi to anybody?† I somehow felt reluctant to leave Seth now, in spite of all the things I needed to do. He shook his head. â€Å"Sorry. I’ve got to go. I’m meeting someone.† â€Å"Oh.† I felt kind of foolish. He could have a date now for all I knew. And why shouldn’t he? It wasn’t like I was his only social connection, especially after my no-dating spiel. I was foolish to be reading so much into the ice cream encounter, especially since I was supposedly crazy about Roman. â€Å"Well. Thanks again for everything. I’ll make it up to you.† He waved his hand dismissively. â€Å"It wasn’t anything. Besides, you paid me back by going to the party.† Now I shook my head. â€Å"I didn’t really do anything there.† Seth only smiled. â€Å"See you around.† I stepped out of the car and suddenly stuck my head back in. â€Å"Hey, I should have asked you this earlier. Do you have my book signed yet? The Glasgow Pact ? â€Å" â€Å"Oh†¦ man. No. I can’t believe I forgot about that. It’s still at my place. I’ll sign it and bring it soon. I’m sorry.† He looked sincerely contrite. â€Å"Okay. It’s no problem.† I should have ransacked his condo for it. We said goodbye again, and I turned into the bookstore. If I remembered my schedule right, Paige should have opened and Doug should be here now as the late manager. Sure enough, he stood at the information desk, looking on while Tammi helped a customer. â€Å"Hey,† I said, walking up to him, uneasiness filling me as I recalled my harsh words. â€Å"Can I talk to you for a minute?† â€Å"No.† Whoa. I’d expected him to be upset†¦ but this? â€Å"You need to call your friend first.† â€Å"I – what?† â€Å"That one guy,† Doug explained. â€Å"That plastic surgeon that hangs out with you and Cody.† â€Å"Hugh?† â€Å"Yeah, that’s the one. He’s called, like, a hundred times, leaving messages. He’s been worried about you.† His expression turned both soft and wry as he took in my dress and flannel ensemble. â€Å"So have I.† I frowned, wondering at Hugh’s urgency. â€Å"Okay. I’ll call him now. Come talk to me later?† Doug nodded, and I started to pull out my cell phone until I remembered I’d broken it last night. Retreating to the back office instead, I sat on the desk’s edge and called Hugh. â€Å"Hello?† â€Å"Hugh?† â€Å"Jesus Christ, Georgina. Where the hell have you been?† â€Å"I, er, nowhere†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"We’ve been trying to get ahold of you all last night and today.† â€Å"I wasn’t at home,† I explained. â€Å"And my cell phone broke. Why? What’s going on? Tell me there hasn’t been another one.† â€Å"Afraid so. Another murder this time, no more friendly beatings. When we couldn’t reach you, the vampires and I thought he’d got you too, even though Jerome said he could feel that you were fine.† I swallowed. â€Å"Who†¦ who was it?† â€Å"Are you sitting down?† â€Å"Sort of.† I braced myself, ready for anything. Demon. Imp. Vampire. Succubus. â€Å"Lucinda.† I blinked. â€Å"What?† All my theories of an avenger of evil shattered. â€Å"But that’s impossible. She’s – she’s – â€Å" † – an angel,† Hugh finished for me. How to cite Succubus Blues CHAPTER 15, Essay examples

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Ebola Virus

Question: What is the Ebola Virus ? Answer : Introduction Ebola is one of the most aggressive contagious conditions that have the ability to cause fatal fewer syndromes that leads to the death of both humans and primates. The first case of Ebola was in the Ebola Valley in 1976. Outbreaks of the disease have occurred in the past with death rates of 50 to 90%. Despite the condition being prevalent in Africa, Ebola has become a condition with global dimensions. The derivation and habitats continue to be unidentified making the condition a severe and often fatal in human and not- human primates (Caroll and Archie, 2014). How Ebola is transmitted The Ebola virus is spread to people from wild animals and spreads among the human population through contact. It is not spread through air or water. The virus first came into existence in 1976 in two outbreaks in South Sudan and Congo, just around the Ebola River where it then got its name. The natural host has not been discovered yet, but scientists tend to assume that the most likely natural reservoir are bats. This means that the way a human being first catches the virus which results into an outbreak has not been found out yet. The disease is brought about by a virus which is from the genus Ebolavirus. So far there has been five known species, four in humans (Zaire ebolavirus, Sudan ebolavirus, Bundibugyo ebolavirus and Tai forest ebolavirus) and the one which causes Ebola in the primates that are not human (Reston ebolavirus). In human-to-human transmission, (Thilmany, 2013) it is contracted by coming into contact with the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth or eyes and the broken skin of a person who already has the disease. The transmission fluids are blood or other body fluids such as semen, vomit, saliva, sweat, and urine or breast milk of someone who is suffering from the disease or has already died due to Ebola. Contact with syringes and other sharp objects such as needles, and semen from people who have recovered from Ebola, and also infected primates can transmit the virus. The medical professionals, friends, and families who come into close contact with patients suffering from Ebola are at the greatest risk of getting an infection. Why Ebola has No Vaccine Ebola has not yet got a vaccine because of the extremely harmful features of the virus which make it dangerous to study, according to experts (Thilmany, 2013). Also, another cause that has limited the discovery of an effective vaccine is the rate of mortality of the victims which makes the virus had to study. In this case, the virus requires high-level safety precautions (biosafety level 4 laboratories) limiting the experiments. Generally, scientists find it more difficult to develop a treatment for diseases caused by viruses than those caused by bacteria, and Ebola is a viral infection. Viruses are small molecules with very few proteins, thus fewer targets for treatment. This also makes it hard to develop vaccines since the bodys immunity system is a small target and the vaccines can only prepare it for the Ebola attack. The virus develops quickly, so a vaccine developed today might not protect against the future outbreak. Also, not very many people have suffered from Ebola and very few of those infected have survived and this makes it difficult to study people who have already been infected or even getting an explanation of the specific biological factors that make other people recover. There are a number of experimental vaccines but they have not yet been made safe for human use, without a chance of infection. There are a number of candidates that have undergone trial vaccines but so far none of the viruses have undergone a full approval process. A variety of potential treatments is available, such as immunity therapy, drug therapy, and blood products which are being tested at the moment. In addition, the study is limited because Ebola is poorly funded, in terms of body count and risk of spread to the world. Other epidemics like HIV and malaria are better funded, probably because they are continuous and do not come as outbreaks. Also, the nature of these diseases is not as unusual as Ebola. There is a total of seven trial vaccines for Ebola. They utilize a vectored glycoprotein from Ebola viruses, introduced to the immune system without the ability to cause Ebola. The current one is EBOV?VP30, using the replication-defective strain of the virus, further treated with hydrogen peroxide to ensure it is not explicative. This one showed effective and safe immunity against the Zaire strain in the recent 2013-2016 outbreak. In the new experimental vaccine, rVSVZEBOV, scientists developed a virus that was able to replicate, cause no disease to humans and was also genetically modified to express a surface glycoprotein similar to the one produced by the Zaire species of the Ebola virus. Experimentally those exposed to the virus were vaccinated immediately, and others after twenty-one days. Those vaccinated immediately got substantial protection against the disease, with no cases occurring, while 23 individuals who got the vaccination late contracted Ebola. The incubation period f or the Ebola Virus was found to be ten days (Thilmany, 2013). These vaccinations have not had any adverse long-term effects, with those under observation after vaccination experiencing headaches, fatigue, and muscle pain. Only three serious cases were reported, one experiencing fever and the other anaphylaxis, while the last one had flu-like symptoms (Rodriguez and Daniel 2015). Each vaccine has had to be tested on humans to know the effectiveness, some yielding somewhat effective results while for some trial ones, the patients still succumbed to the virus. These vaccines may however not prove effective if and when another outbreak occurs due to the quick evolution of the Ebola virus. Public Health Management and Prevention of Ebola There are several ways in which the Ebola condition can be managed and controlled. Since there is yet no vaccine that can be used to prevent Ebola infection there are only prevention techniques. The main objective of these prevention strategies is to prevent direct contact of the uninfected person with the body fluids of infected persons, such as blood, sweat, and mucus. Healthcare workers in charge of taking care of people with the risk of being infected by the Ebola virus should also refrain from coming into close contact with their patients body fluids, as they are the ones at the most risk of infection, due to their direct contact with the patients (Caroll Archie, 2014). People should avoid traveling to areas where there are Ebola outbreaks while the health care workers should take proper precaution when offering health care services in the areas where Ebola outbreaks are taking place. Precautions that the health care workers can practice are for instance; putting on protective gear like goggles, gowns, masks and gloves when providing health care. There are also infection control measures that health care workers can practice as well, thorough equipment sterilization and a routine use of disinfectant. The infected persons or patients must be isolated from the uninfected persons (Johnson, 2017). There are control guidelines for Ebola provided for Public Health Units. Ebola can, therefore, be controlled through a variety of measures. Since the vectors which are also called the reservoirs have not been identified yet, eliminating vectors from the proximity of human beings is out of the picture, however in order to control Ebola, first, there should be an improvement in public health care, sanitation, and health education especially in schools. Second, ensuring health workers use barrier techniques and isolation when treating Ebola patients. Third, quarantining of the infected people as well as the people showing symptoms of Ebola is also a very efficient way of controlling the spread of Ebola especially when there is an outbreak. Forth, restricting or doing a very careful survey of international travel (Julian and Taylor, 2010). Lastly improving the dissemination of information uncovered in epidemiology, giving the appropriate reports and the harmonization of health department s and public notifications could be of great help. In conclusion, although Ebola is not curable as of today, people can work together towards eliminating this dreadful virus from the face of the earth. All people need to do is be careful, get proper medical care, and follow the suggested activities to control and prevent Ebola and in no time the West and East Africa, as well as the world, will be free of Ebola. References Caroll, Archie B (2014). Ebola Virus Disease Academy of Management Review. 4(4): 497-405 Cornish, J. P., Diaz, L., Ricklefs, S. M., Kanakabandi, K., Sword, J., Jahrling, P. B., ... Johnson, R. F. (2017). Sequence of Reston Virus Isolate AZ-1435, an Ebolavirus Isolate Obtained during the 19891990 Reston Virus Epizootic in the United States.Genome Announcements,5(2), e01448-16. Delta Peptide of Ebola Virus has Potent Viroporin Activity.Biophysical Journal,112(3), 185a. Geisbert, T. W. (2017). Persistence of Ebola virus RNA in seminal fluid.The Lancet Global Health,5(1), e12-e13. He, J., Melnik, L., Komin, A., Starr, C. G., Fuselier, T., Wiedman, G., ... Garry, R. F. (2017). Delta Peptide of Ebola Virus has Potent Viroporin Activity.Biophysical Journal,112(3), 185a. Julian, Taylor. (2010). Prevention and Control of Ebola. APRO Software. Retrieved 16 May 2016. Geisbert, T. W. (2016). First Ebola virus vaccine to protect human beings?.The Lancet. Fitzgerald, F., Wing, K., Naveed, A., Gbessay, M., Ross, J. C. G., Checchi, F., ... Jah, H. (2017). Refining the paediatric Ebola case definition: a study of children in Sierra Leone with suspected Ebola virus disease.The Lancet,389, S19. Sell, T. K., Boddie, C., McGinty, E. E., Pollack, K., Smith, K. C., Burke, T. A., Rutkow, L. (2017). Media Messages and Perception of Risk for Ebola Virus Infection, United States.Emerging Infectious Diseases,23(1), 108. Thilmany, J. (2013). Ebola Vaccine: Is it Safe? 52 (2) HR Magazine 105-110 Rodriguez, Daniel. (2015). Ebola Causes, Symptoms and Tre

Saturday, November 30, 2019

South America Is A Land Of Different Cultures And Has A History Essays

South America is a land of different cultures and has a history of as many different types of government, mostly dictatorships. Most of South America won independence from Spain and Portugal between 1810 and 1824. In 1823, President James Monroe enunciated the first US policy on Latin America. The Monroe Doctrine warned European nations against interfering in the affairs of independent nations in the Western Hemisphere. In 1904, Roosevelt's Corollary said the US would act as a "policeman", intervening militarily when US interests were at risk. After W.W.II, the independent countries of the Western Hemisphere formed the Organization of American States, a military alliance to prevent aggression against any American nation. South America is the fourth largest continent. It ranks fifth in population. The continent is divided into 12 independent countries and two political units. The countries consist of Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Guyana, Surinam, and French Guinea. In the 12 countries of South America, democracy has slowly been on the rise since 1959. The rise started in Venezuela and ended in Surinam last year. One by one South America's countries have turned form dictatorships into democracies where the voters control the elections. Even with democracy taking control, the countries still have many problems. The largest problem is the tradition of corruption of the political leaders. The corruption has mainly been the use of bribe-taking and bribe-giving. "By definition, democracy presumes equal opportunity; bribery and corruption make the playing field uneven and weakens democracy's foundations." Recently, corruption has reached into high places in Venezuela and Brazil. President Carlos Perez (1993) and Fernando Collor de Mello (1992) were forced to resign when faced with corruption charges. The large drug trade has also caused problems for the rise of democracy in South America. Each year, hundreds of tons of Cocaine feed an illegal US drug market. It is worth an estimated $38 billion a year. This illegal money has found its way into the pockets of many people in high places. In Columbia, a major source of illegal drugs for the US, President Ernesto Samper was accused of taking a $6 million bribe to allow drug trafficking to continue as usual. Laundered drug money has financed development in many South American cities, but it has also brought bloodshed. The large gap between rich and poor of South America has presented another challenge for democracy. In South America, the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. But since the rise of democracy economic conditions have not worsened. Recently, the poor have been taking their demands for better economic conditions to the streets. In Argentina, workers have protested the privation policies of President Carlos Menem. They are demanding job security to go back to "the good old days" of the Peron era. The military also threatens democratic systems in South America. Today the soldiers are back in their barracks, "but in most nations, the possibility remains that the generals, heeding a real or imagined call to restore order, will impose military rule. This threat is illustrated by Chilean President Eduardo Frei's problems with Chile's former dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet who still controls the military until the year 1998. Each country in South America has faced some action that has tried to return them to what they once were--dictatorships. In Venezuela, which has the oldest civilian regime in South America, suffered two coup attempts by army officers in 1992; both were unsuccessful and were put down. In Chile, Gen. Pinochet still commands the armed forces, but because of free elections he is no longer the head of state. With democracy having a hard time in South America, "only Chile seems to respect the rule of law." In Bolivia, which had 189 military coups in its first 168 years of independence, has become a country with stable democracy. Voters elected President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to be the head of state in their new democracy. Columbia, the most violent country in South America, has had the hardest time dealing with corruption in their democracy. This is due to their booming drug trade. It has 83 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, nine times the US murder rate. Someone gets killed in Bogota, the capital of Columbia, every hour. In Medillin it's every half hour. Columbia has a type of "narco-democracy" in which drug traffickers have achieved control over the top levels of government through bribery and intimidation. Brazil is another country where violent actions have played a part in the corruption of their democracy. Legislator Edmundo Galdino, paralyzed from the waist down by a hired gunman, said, "...its' easier, cheaper, and more certain of success

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Dangerous jargon - Emphasis

Dangerous jargon Dangerous jargon Jargon can bring clarity for experts and irritation for laypeople, but could it sometimes be life threatening? Yes, according to the coroner heading up the inquest into the London terrorist attacks of 7 July 2005, Lady Justice Hallett. Simple impatience with unclear terms is a more serious problem when it comes to understanding the situation at the scene of an emergency, she asserted on the last day of evidence-giving at the 7/7 hearing. Is it really worth the time it takes to refer to a conference demountable unit from a management centre, rather than a portable incident room, for example? And obscure job titles could confuse and disguise peoples roles, she pointed out. I dont know whether a crew manager is somebody who is responsible for supplies or is used to fighting fires. I have no idea, she said. Jargon has a long history of naysayers, but Lady Justice Halletts criticism touched on the most fundamental practicality of appropriate language. This isnt just somebody being pedantic about the use of English when it comes to managing incidents, people dont understand what the other person is.

Friday, November 22, 2019

What Comes After Trillion Names of Large Numbers

What Comes After Trillion Names of Large Numbers SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Not sure what number comes after trillion? Interested in the names of other very large numbers? What is a Googol exactly? Read on to learn what comes after trillion, the name of every important number that’s larger than trillion, and some ways to help you conceptualize extremely large values. // What Comes After Trillion? What’s after trillion? Trillion is a 1 with 12 zeros after it, and it looks like this: 1,000,000,000,000. The next named number after trillion is quadrillion, which is a 1 with 15 zeros after it: 1,000,000,000,000,000. // There are, of course, many numbers between trillion and quadrillion, but it isn’t until quadrillion that that number value actually gets a new name. Numbers between the two would always include the word â€Å"trillion†: two trillion, a hundred trillion, etc. // As you can see from the chart in the next section, there is a new name every time the power of a large number increases by 3. // Names of Large Numbers While trillion is an incredibly large number, there are actually many numbers that are larger than it. Below is a chart of all the significant numbers that come after trillion. // The numbers are written with scientific notation to make them easier to read and understand. Name Number Million 1 x106 Billion 1 x109 Trillion 1 x1012 Quadrillion 1 x1015 Quintillion 1 x1018 Sextillion 1 x1021 Septillion 1 x1024 Octillion 1 x1027 Nonillion 1 x1030 Decillion 1 x1033 Undecillion 1 x1036 Duodecillion 1 x1039 Tredecillion 1 x1042 Quattuordecillion 1 x1045 Quindecillion 1 x1048 Sexdecillion 1 x1051 Septendecillion 1 x1054 Octodecillion 1 x1057 Novemdecillion 1 x1060 Vigintillion 1 x1063 Unvigintillion 1 x1066 Duovigintillion 1 x1069 Trevigintillion 1 x1072 Quattuorvigintillion 1 x1075 Quinvigintillion 1 x1078 Sexvigintillion 1 x1081 Septenvigintillion 1 x1084 Octovigintillion 1 x1087 Nonvigintillion 1 x1090 Trigintillion 1 x1093 Untrigintillion 1 x1096 Duotrigintillion 1 x1099 Ten-duotrigintillion (or Googol) 1 x10100 Skewer’s Number 1 x10130 Centillion 1 x10303 Googolplex 1 x 1010100 Skewes’ Number // As you can see, for most of the chart, the power of 10 increases by three for each new number, which means you add three extra zeros to the end of the number to get the next number.For example, a billion is a 1 with nine zeros after it or: 1,000,000,000. Trillion, the next number, is a 1 with twelve zeros after it, or: 1,000,000,000,000. // This pattern continues until you get to Ten-duotrigintillion, more commonly known as a Googol (yes, this is where search engine Google got their name from). There are no names for the numbers between Googol, Skewer’s Number, Centillion, or Googolplex. // You may have noticed that â€Å"zillion† is not on here. Zillion is not actually a real number; it’s simply a term used to refer to an undetermined but extremely large quantity. Understanding Large Numbers You can see all the key massive numbers by looking at the chart above, but what do those numbers actually mean, and how can you understand them?It can be difficult, or even impossible, to conceptualize extremely large numbers, but there are some tricks to getting a general idea of just how large they are.Trillion is one of the smallest numbers in the chart, but it’s still an incredibly large number. If you were to try to count to trillion, it’d take you roughly 31,709 years to do so! A googol, or a 1 with one hundred zeros after it, looks like this when written out: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Writing a large number out like that can sometimes give a better sense of how big it actually is compared to using scientific notation. And what about a googolplex, one of the massive numbers in the chart? A googolplex is 1 followed by a googol of zeros. A googolplex is such a large number that there really is no known use for it yet in math, and some mathematicians and astronomers hypothesize that a googolplex is even greater than the number of atoms in the universe. But, there are numbers even larger than a googolplex. Skewes’ number, developed by mathematician Stanley Skewes is 10 to the 10th to the 10th to the 34th. Skewes was particularly interested in prime numbers, and, when his number was introduced in 1933, it was described by a colleague as "largest number which has ever served any definite purpose in mathematics." However, Skewes’ number has since lost that distinction to Graham’s number, which is currently designated as the world’s largest number. Graham’s number, which cannot be written with conventional notation, was developed by mathematician R.L. Graham. It is so large that, even if all the matter in the universe was converted to pens and ink, it still wouldn’t be enough to write out the number in its entirety. Summary: What Comes After Trillion? What’s after trillion? The next number after trillion is quadrillion, or a 1 with 15 zeros after it: 1,000,000,000,000,000.Knowing the names of large numbers can be useful if you’re working with extremely large values or doing higher-level mathematics. Currently, the largest known number is Graham’s number, which is too large and complicated to either be written down or conceptualized. What's Next? Writing a research paper for school but not sure what to write about?Our guide to research paper topics has over 100 topics in ten categories so you can be sure to find the perfect topic for you. Learning about natural logs? Check out our guide on the 11 natural log rules you must know to ace this subject. What is dynamic equilibrium and what does it have to do with rusty cars? Find out by reading our complete guide to dynamic equilibrium.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Team Locomotive Charter Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Team Locomotive Charter - Assignment Example All of us have different skills and interests. But we decided to use our skills and interests in a fruitful manner so that each and every member of our team may benefit from the skills of others. As a group, we have created the shared goals of inspiring each member to pursue excellence inside and outside of the classroom. We also hope to improve our ability to communicate effectively as a diverse unit. Since we are from different parts of the world our effective communication might be obstructed by the language barriers. But we know that more than 80% of the ideas are communicated through nonverbal means. So language barrier may not affect us much. In addition, we hope to broaden our cultural horizons while learning how to effectively work as a unit. Globalization has brought many changes in the business world and most of the major companies are operating internationally now in order to exploit the business potentials in other countries. Even the biggest companies like Microsoft, Apple etc are looking for every expansion opportunities in other countries. Such internationalization of business has raised the importance of a multicultural workforce in organizations at present. It is difficult for Microsoft or Apple to operate in a country like India or China with the help of the Americans alone. They need a blend of the diverse workforce including the Americans, Indians, and Chinese in order to sustain their business successfully in these countries. Diversity in our group will definitely help us to learn more about how to work in a multicultural team environment and these learning may help us in our future endeavors also. Without establishing expectations, our goals would be nearly impossible to accomplish. We set our expectations high. We expect each member to attend each meeting unless an emergency arises. We also expect each member to put forth 100% at all times.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Strategic Marketing Planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Strategic Marketing Planning - Essay Example This strategic marketing plan provides an outline for apt planning, management and marketing in Mandurah and the region for the next five years (Kelph 2010, p. 72). Besides, it is meant for all interested parties devoted to the coordinated expansion of the tourism, leisure and events sector in Mandurah and its environs. Basically, the strategic goal is to make certain that Mandurah and the surrounding establish a viable, vivacious and flourishing tourism industry. The plan is utterly based on sustainability and partnership as its key guiding policies. The management’s decision making takes into account the contribution of tourism to the vast society in terms of social welfare, economic progress, and distribution of resources along with environmental conservation. The strategy also embraces partnership with both the public and private sectors to capitalize on the existing wealth. Financial Summary The economic alarms, skyrocketing costs, intensifying competition as well as the unpredictable fluctuations in end user perception all depict the contemporarily progressing nature of the tourism, leisure, events and hospitality sector (Lumsdon 1997, p. 67). As a result, syndicates within the industry must uphold a well-founded grip on the fluctuating consumer wishes as well as taste inclinations to persistently create goods and services that ultimately satisfy consumer needs. In the present day, operational upheavals encompass consumer security, association, extension and customer allegiance along with labor recruitment and retention. Fundamentally, brand cognizance attracts vital concentration as the industry rummages around for fresh openings to establish dependable market share. Mandurah’s financial and economic position... The Tourism Strategic Marketing Plan 2013-2016 virtually provides a significant dream for the tourism, hospitality and service industry in the City of Mandurah. Mandurah’s direct role in the industry has progressively increased in recent times. As part of the recommendations, the city and the Australian government at large should embrace, provide and support the products and capabilities that complement the contemporary position of the destination while at the same time taking into account the prospective markets and existing tourism linkages. Besides, the management should establish a matching set of experiences that typify Mandurah and act as a magnet-card to draw target markets on top of exploiting both traditional and momentous resources in order to develop areas of specialization. The city is also projected to attract fresh venture to provide more housing elegances and marketing opportunities among other leisure nest eggs. In addition, it must also increase the quantity a nd quality of service sector experiences by facilitating access and infrastructure as well as working in partnership with the private sector to convey integrated tourism marketing posts.To maximize and uphold the expanse’s artistic powers and sporting experiences to vested interest tourists, the management must also address expertise and experience standards within the industry and the community at large besides engaging the vast industry to ensure they are utterly conversant, interested and compassionate.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Transportation And The National Economy Essay Example for Free

Transportation And The National Economy Essay We’ve come a long way when it comes to transportation. One need not look closely to notice the many changes that occur during the long period of time when our ancestors used the primitive way of transport by riding horses astride or making them carry their carts and the like. Surely, transportation played a large and important part in our lives. Nowadays we need not spend long voyage over seas when we want to visit our friends and relatives who happened to live on the other side of the world. However, the importance of transportation did not end from visiting one relative or another. Transportation plays a major part on our economy not only because some people make use of transportation for their business or whatever. In all the uses we get from transportation, transportation is also considered a necessity by our businessmen in delivering products for their customers. Due to these reasons among many others it seems to suffice to say that transportation does indeed contributes largely to how our economy operates.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, the way one values transportation differs from one person to another. Aside from the fact that the avoidance of traffic could cause us great travel time savings and also it could lessen gasoline cost there are also people who values time or rather, there are those who consider time as money, and thus a quick and efficient way of transportation for them is a must. The same thing however, does not apply for those who can live idly or even for those who have other things more important for them than time. For people of the latter sort, spending too much money on transportation would be a waste of important resources, for those kinds of people believes that there are other things more important than transportation which needs notice.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Countries with growing economy for one, appreciates forms of transportation that are quick and efficient. They believe that a reliable form of transportation is needed by companies for them to produce jobs for those who have none. Ex-president Clinton and his vice-president Bush are examples of people who give high credits on a good transportation. These two famous people formed an alliance with the world’s greatest auto manufacturers, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. They both believe that such an approach would help greatly in terms of economy. Of course there are others like them who have got so much faith on transportation. It was due to this that many debates and arguments are happening on the national level because both sides can’t meet on the middle on how much resources should be spend on the development of transportations.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     I can see the benefits we could reap out of good transportations and the like however, I think that there should be a limit as to how much resources we should spend on transportation projects alone. There are other important things which contribute to our economy and I don’t believe that those things should be kept in the dark only because most of our politicians have so much faith on transportation benefits. I believe that a thorough examination of the pros and cons is needed before pursuing a project on transportation and other projects as well. If the benefits we could reap are greater than its cost then I think it’s only right for both our public and private sectors to go on with the project. Also, they should also put into account other things which are important such as education, better housing for those who are homeless and the like. Before they should spend our resources on transportations they should first weigh if transportation is really the one we need to improve and not other things which also plays a major factor on our lives. They should also weigh if the majority of the population would benefit for the project or not. If they could keep the majority of the population satisfied, the better. Such, I think is the proper approach in lessening the dispute between the two parties, those who believes in the great value of transportation and those who believes that there are more important things than transportation that the government should focus their eyes on. Thus, as a conclusion I think that the betterment of the many should catch they eyes of our public officials first and foremost. Reference: http://www.apta.com http://www.ibiblio.org

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Palm Essay -- essays research papers

Hawkins is an inventor, and he walked away from PDA’s because he saw cell phones were everywhere and wanted to invent the best voice based application. He new there was a need for an application that could combine all the features of the mobile communication and organization tools in the market today. I believe he was not only creative, but very smart about the market place, because, he foresaw that PDA’s were becoming commodities. The price, at which PDA’s were being sold, would severely cramped margins of any company expecting large returns from these devices. Every person on the block could now knock off a version of a Palm Handheld, Hawkins found a complimentary market, and handspring was nimble enough to beat all the big players to that market. The Treo is the hottest device on the market because it was first to market, and has very little competition. It appears that the advance features of the Treo blows away the competition when it comes to providing a small convenient tool that replaces all the other gadgets. I believe the main competitive advantage is that the Treo wasn’t tied to one specific carrier by contract, so they were able to build a network of sales through their affiliation with different cellular carriers. Another competitive advantage of the Treo is the fact that it’s not a phone masquerading as a PDA or even a PDA trying to be a cell phone. The Treo was designed from the ground up to be more than a phone, while I believe the phone makers are trying to... Palm Essay -- essays research papers Hawkins is an inventor, and he walked away from PDA’s because he saw cell phones were everywhere and wanted to invent the best voice based application. He new there was a need for an application that could combine all the features of the mobile communication and organization tools in the market today. I believe he was not only creative, but very smart about the market place, because, he foresaw that PDA’s were becoming commodities. The price, at which PDA’s were being sold, would severely cramped margins of any company expecting large returns from these devices. Every person on the block could now knock off a version of a Palm Handheld, Hawkins found a complimentary market, and handspring was nimble enough to beat all the big players to that market. The Treo is the hottest device on the market because it was first to market, and has very little competition. It appears that the advance features of the Treo blows away the competition when it comes to providing a small convenient tool that replaces all the other gadgets. I believe the main competitive advantage is that the Treo wasn’t tied to one specific carrier by contract, so they were able to build a network of sales through their affiliation with different cellular carriers. Another competitive advantage of the Treo is the fact that it’s not a phone masquerading as a PDA or even a PDA trying to be a cell phone. The Treo was designed from the ground up to be more than a phone, while I believe the phone makers are trying to...

Monday, November 11, 2019

As completely as possible, sketch the supply chain for Zara from raw materials to consumer purchase Essay

Zara makes about 40% of their raw material (fabric). The remaining 60% is outsourced from within Spain, mostly from the La Curuna. Designing of clothes at Zara is done by creative teams of over 300 professionals at the headquarters in La Curuna, Spain. They act on the information fed to them from the stores managers. The first stage in Zara’s production system is cutting of fabric. The design is then sent for sewing by one of several hundred local cooperatives. After sewing, the clothes are returned to Zara’s facilities for ironing by an assembly line of workers. After this, the clothing items are wrapped in plastic and transported on conveyor belts to a group of giant warehouses. In the warehouse, the customised machines patterned after the equipment used by overnight parcel services, sorts, packs, labels, and allocates clothing items for shipment to Zara’s retail stores. For Zara’s retail stores within a 24-hour drive, goods are delivered by truck whereas goods meant for stores beyond 24-hour drive are delivered by cargo jets. Zara sells to customers at their own retail stores, each managed by a retail manager who gives feedback on fashion trends to the design team. 1. Discuss the concepts of horizontal and vertical conflict as they relate to Zara. Channel conflict is generated when one channel member’s action prevent the channel from achieving its goals. It can stem from difference between channel members goals and objectives, from disagreements over the domain of responsibility and from difference in perception of the market place. Channel conflict can be vertical or horizontal. Horizontal Conflict occurs among firms at the same level of the channel. Vertical Conflict, conflicts between different levels of the same channel, is even more common. 2. Which type of vertical marketing system does Zara employ? List all the benefits that Zra receives by having adopted this system. The type of vertical marketing system which Zara employ is the Corporate Vertical System which integrates successive stages of production and distribution under single ownership. Zara makes 40 percent of its own fabrics and produces more than half of its own clothes, rather than relying on a hodgepodge of slow-moving suppliers. New designs feed into Zara manufacturing centers, which ship finish products dirictly to 1,161 Zara stores in 68 countries, saving time, eliminating the need for warehouses, and keeping inventories low. Efective Vertical Integration makes Zara faster, more flexible, and more efficient than International competitors. 3. Does Zara experience disadvantages from its â€Å"fast-fashion† distribution system? Are these disadvantages offset by the advantages? 4. How does Zara add value for the customer through major logistic functions? Zara System One of the successful organizations that use the vertical marketing system (VMS) is Zara which have a distinctive feature of business model. With the aid of the vertical integration, the company is allowed to develop the strong merchandising strategy that continuously led the Zara to create the opportunities particularly in the fast-fashion system. Because of the lack of flexibility found in traditional retailing, the organization is obliged to produce the products in varieties, amount, and frequency of the new styles. This type of system begins in the corporate areas, wherein the leaders plan the changes that will create an impact in the organization. All the plans are administered to the stores that are mostly visited by the customers. In this way the regular customers will know that the new products are already available for merchandise (Craig, Jones, & Nieto, 2004). The quick response of Zara in the fast-fashion system places the emphasis on using the VMS to be very quick fashion follower than to achieve manufacturing efficiencies. The continuous product development in the retail environment enables the organization to facilitate the chain f competitive advantage.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Indian Cultural Ethics Values and Business Management

YUDHISHTIR AND DURYODHAN| Indian Cultural Ethics Values And Business Management | | 10/30/2012| Submitted by:-Au As we all are living in the 21ST century which in which their are plethora of all the men made gadgets to provide immense pleasure which some where increasing the endless desire of a mankind and in search of completing or fulfilling those desire with a fast pace men are turning materialistic, egoistic, stubborn, felineness and also diverging from the way of ethics and value which are thought by our parents and teachers also by the religious epics.We can also say that these endless desires giving birth to Duryodhana in each of us The epics, the Ramayana and t he Mahabharata contains many morals, from which we can learn how to live and conduct ourselves in various situations. The epic are meant for the laymen, people who are serious about their religious duties and salvation, but not able to make it the most important thing in their lives and pursue it steadfastly.Since they are in narrative form, their messages, morals and lessons are easy to understand and remember for the last several centuries, both the epics served people well by inculcating in them a deep sense of reverence, devotion, commitment to the path of righteousness and belief and interest in the live beyond.Usually this the first stage that ultimately leads to a more instance spiritual aspiration, culminating in one’s salvation by drawing a clear distinction between the good and evil , the right and the wrong, the appropriate and in appropriate, and by personifying these concepts in moral percepts clearly into appealing characters and personalities, these epics help men develop inside into our religion and cultivate budhi or discriminating intelligence , which would otherwise required years of dedicated study and religious practice.Truly speaking the epics are illustrative of the divine knowledge contend in the smriti text such as the Vedas and the Upanishads , in the language and idiom familiar to the masses . The eldest of the pandava brothers was dharma raja, who was known for his sense of justice and fair play , but with a weakness for gambling. He was clear in his conscience and soft in his heart and action, which was often misunderstood by his rivals and his weakness. The eldest of the kaurava brothers was duryodhana, known for his physical power, pride, arrogance, envy, greed, and lust for power.He personified unbridled ambition, aggression, egoism and complete disrespect for tradition in seniority in his own family. Both were cousins, but certain events in their lives made them become arch enemies. According to the laws of inheritance as prescribed in our dhramshashtra, dharamraj was supposed to be become the rural of the kuru Kingdome. But duryodhana was intent upon becoming the rural by whatever means. For him end justified the means. So he enticed his cousins to play a game of dice with him and used deceptive means to snatch the kingdom from him.B y falling in the trap laid out for him, dharamraj not only lost his kingdom, his self respect and his wife , but also head to force his brothers and himself into an ignominious exile for 12 long years as a part of his irresponsible wager. Finally after returning from the long exile, when they requested duryodhana to return their kingdom, they were flatly refused. In a desperate move, they requested him to at least grant them five villages. so arrogant and drunk with power duryodhana was that he close all doors of negotiation by telling them point blank that he would not grant them even that much land where they could pin a needle.With that it became clear to the pandavas that the only way they could settle the dispute was through a war. It was what exactly duryodhana wanted. His anger and jealousy towards his cousins was so intense that he wanted destroy all of them through a deadly war and settled the issue of succession once and for all. Lord Krishna who was related to both sides through many alliances, tried to reconcile both side. But when a person was drunk with power and blinded by egoism and ignorance, how could anyone put sense in to his mind?Duryodhana was not only stubborn, but dangerously destructive and egoistic. The sensible advice of his elders and lord Krishna fell upon his deaf ears. Once it clear to both side that their differences could be resolved only through a prolonged and destructive war they began making preparations for it. Emissaries and messengers were dispatched by both parties in all direction to muster support. It was a war in which almost every rural of the Indian sub-continent was destined to take part.It was also a war on whose outcome the effectiveness of dharma upon earth depended. Everything was at stake, our religion, tradition, family values and the very future of the land of the bharata. Hence the title, the great war of India or Mahabharata yuddham. Those who were sympathetic to the cause of the pandavas and came forward to lend their support and participate in their war on their side was actually less in number because it was a time during which evil was on the rise and dharma or righteousness was on the wane.Many rural agreed to support duroydhana either because they were impressed by him personally, for evil attracts evil or because they were afraid of incurring his wrath by refusing to support him. Some warriors supported him, though with great reluctance, because they were duty bound to their king who at that time was duryodhana. As a result of these developments, compared to dharamraja, duryodhana was succeeded in securing the support of great majority of the acclaimed warriors of his time. It seemed as if the fate of the war was already sealed and duryodhana was about to win.It was at this crucial juncture that duryodhana made one major blunder which cost him dearly in the end. What change the course of the war and its ultimate outcome was the participation of lord Krishna in it. At that tim e lord Krishna was the ruler of a powerful kingdom, with a formidable army of yadus who under his leadership, got the acclaimed as fearless and unstoppable warriors. He had no particular enmity with the kaurvas, although he was well aware of their evil nature and their unbiridled political ambition. Just as they approached other rulers, both sides decided to secure the support of Lord Krishna.So both Dharmaraja and duryodhana rushed to the city of dwarka to meet lord Krishna and present him with their respective proposals. Lord Krishna, knowing the nature of both, offered them a rather difficult choice. He told them they could either choose his moral and personal support or his material support in the form of his well trained army. They could choose only one of the two, but not oth. It was a clever ploy in which he put to test the buddhi (discriminating intelligence) of both his relations. True to his nature, duryodhana chose the army.Being ignorant and egoistic, who believed in his own prowess rather than that of god, he believed that lord Krishna’s power and stature stemmed from the yadu warriors and that they were more powerful than him. Wicked as he was in his thoughts and intentions, he thought that having them on his side would be a clever strategy in his plans for further aggression. By fighting against each other, the yadus and the pandavas would self destruct each other, resulting in the weakening of the political sway of lord Krishna and his yadu clan.Thus once the issue with the pandavas was settled, he could deal with lord Krishna appropriately from a point of strength rather than weakness. Dharmaraja on the other hand chose lord Krishna himself. He believed that lord Krishna was greater than all the armies put together and having him on their side would tilt the balance of power significantly. He had greater faith in the intelligence and wisdom of lord Krishna than the might of his army. Being spiritual in nature, he believed in the unlimit ed potentialities of spiritual power rather than in the limited capabilities of physical power.Besides, he knew lord Krishna was not an ordinary person. He saw him personally helping draupadi, after he lost his gamble, when the kauravas dragged her into the court in a show of strength and try to disrobe her in front of all people. Being a wise person himself, he was able to discern clearly the divinity in the person of lord Krishna. In doing so, dhrmarja changed the very character of war from a family war to a war between the good and the evil forces, with god actively participating on the side of the good.Most of us know what happened afterwards. The pandavas were greatly benefited by the presence of lord Krishna amidst them. The entire army of the kauravas consisting of millions of soldiers and legendary warriors was wiped out in the battle field and duryodhana himelf met with an ignonimous death. Lord Krishna stayed with the pandavas throughout the war and proved indispensable. H e gave them valuable advice and guidance on every challenging occasion and helped them deal with many formidable opponents like bhishma, karna, dronacharya,asvatthamaand so on.He personally served as the charioteer of arjuna and boosted his marole in the battlefield with his divine discourse (bhagavadgita), when the later lost his heart and refused to fight with his own kinsmen on the grounds of moral dilemma. Without him, arjuna would have probably lost either the battle or his nerve or both. The moral of the story is in whatever we do we should always seek the help and guidance of god and make him a partner in all our endeavours. It does not matter whether we are rich or poor or weak or powerful.What is important is whether we have god on our side or not. Of what use all power and riches in the world, if god is not with us and god is not part of our effort? Duryodhana had everything he wanted. But he lacked faith. He ignored the support of the god. He thought he had the necessary power and resources to deal with his enemies. He thought unwisely that he could do everything by himself. He did not care to stand against god in the battle field and fight with him. He believed in himself and that he was the master of his own fate. He would win, if necessary by fighting against god.He would take the help of god in securing the assets and the resources, but would not personally want him on his side. Such attitude and thinking proved his undoing. There is an important lesson in all this, which is very relevant today and which we can learn to save ourselves from the consequences of our selfish actions. If you look carefully you will see that in the present day world there are more duryodhanas amidst us than dharma rajas. We have people among us who would go to any length and resort to any means to achieve success and popularity in their lives.It does not matter to them whether god is with them or against them. They don’t care whether they are righteous or other wise. They have scant respect for relationships, family, tradition and moral values. What matters to them is material success in the form of money, power and wealth. They feed upon their own pride and revel in their own glory. They may use the name and power of god, but only with a selfish intent and for a selfish purpose, without ever acknowledging it. If necessary they don’t mind to defy him or his law to achieve their goals.Seeing but themselves and living or acting for themselves, they live under the illusion that their personal efforts are responsible for their achievements and they are masters of their own fate. Their obsession with power, name and fame is so strong that they make take credit for the work done by others, but rarely come forward to appreciate others. In a similar vein, they show no gratitude for the silent support rendered by god. This is unfortunate because in doing so they are exposing themselves to the consequences of thir own actions (kama) and also alienating themselves from their own inner divinity.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Seymour Cray and the Supercomputer

Seymour Cray and the Supercomputer Many of us are familiar with computers. You’re likely using one now to read this blog post as devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets are essentially the same underlying computing technology. Supercomputers, on the other hand, are somewhat esoteric as they’re often thought of as hulking, costly, energy-sucking machines developed, by and large, for government institutions, research centers, and large firms. Take for instance China’s Sunway TaihuLight, currently the world’s fastest supercomputer, according to Top500’s supercomputer rankings. It’s comprised of 41,000 chips (the processors alone weigh over 150 tons), cost about $270 million and has a power rating of 15,371 kW. On the plus side, however, it’s capable of performing quadrillions of calculations per second and can store up to 100 million books. And like other supercomputers, it’ll be used to tackle some of the most complex tasks in the fields of science such as weather forecasting and drug research. When Supercomputers Were Invented The notion of a supercomputer first arose in the 1960s when an electrical engineer named Seymour Cray, embarked on creating the world’s fastest computer. Cray, considered the â€Å"father of supercomputing,† had left his post at business computing giant Sperry-Rand to join the newly formed Control Data Corporation so that he can focus on developing scientific computers. The title of world’s fastest computer was held at the time by the IBM 7030 â€Å"Stretch,† one of the first to use transistors instead of vacuum tubes.   In 1964, Cray introduced the CDC 6600, which featured innovations such as switching out germanium transistors in favor of silicon and a Freon-based cooling system. More importantly, it ran at a speed of 40 MHz, executing roughly three million floating-point operations per second, which made it the fastest computer in the world. Often considered to be the world’s first supercomputer, the CDC 6600 was 10 times faster than most computers and three times faster than the IBM 7030 Stretch. The title was eventually relinquished in 1969 to its successor the CDC 7600.  Ã‚   Seymour Cray Goes Solo In 1972, Cray left Control Data Corporation to form his own company, Cray Research. After some time raising seed capital and financing from investors, Cray debuted the Cray 1, which again raised the bar for computer performance by a wide margin. The new system ran at a clock speed of 80 MHz and performed 136 million floating-point operations per second (136 megaflops). Other unique features include a newer type of processor (vector processing) and a speed-optimized horseshoe-shaped design that minimized the length of the circuits. The Cray 1 was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976. By the 1980s Cray had established himself as the preeminent name in supercomputing and any new release was widely expected to topple his previous efforts. So while Cray was busy working on a successor to the Cray 1, a separate team at the company put out the Cray X-MP, a model that was billed as a more â€Å"cleaned up† version of the Cray 1. It shared the same horseshoe-shape design, but boasted multiple processors, shared memory and is sometimes described as two Cray 1s linked together as one. The Cray X-MP (800 megaflops) was one of the first â€Å"multiprocessor† designs and helped open the door to parallel processing, wherein computing tasks are split into parts and executed simultaneously by different processors.   The Cray X-MP, which was continually updated, served as the standard bearer until the long-anticipated launch of the Cray 2 in 1985. Like its predecessors, Cray’s latest and greatest took on the same horseshoe-shaped design and basic layout with integrated circuits stacked together on logic boards. This time, however, the components were crammed so tightly that the computer had to be immersed in a liquid cooling system to dissipate the heat. The Cray 2 came equipped with eight processors, with a â€Å"foreground processor† in charge of handling storage, memory and giving instructions to the â€Å"background processors,† which were tasked with the actual computation. Altogether, it packed a processing speed of 1.9 billion floating point operations per second (1.9 Gigaflops), two times faster than the Cray X-MP. More Computer Designers Emerge Needless to say, Cray and his designs ruled the early era of the supercomputer. But he wasn’t the only one advancing the field. The early ’80s also saw the emergence of massively parallel computers, powered by thousands of processors all working in tandem to smash though performance barriers. Some of the first multiprocessor systems were created by W. Daniel Hillis, who came up with the idea as a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The goal at the time was to overcome to the speed limitations of having a CPU direct computations among the other processors by developing a decentralized network of processors that functioned similarly to the brain’s neural network. His implemented solution, introduced in 1985 as the Connection Machine or CM-1, featured 65,536 interconnected single-bit processors. The early ’90s marked the beginning of the end for Cray’s stranglehold on supercomputing. By then, the supercomputing pioneer had split off from Cray Research to form Cray Computer Corporation. Things started to go south for the company when the Cray 3 project, the intended successor to the Cray 2, ran into a whole host of problems. One of Cray’s major mistakes was opting for gallium arsenide semiconductors – a newer technology as a way to achieve his stated goal of a twelvefold improvement in processing speed. Ultimately, the difficulty in producing them, along with other technical complications, ended up delaying the project for years and resulted in many of the company’s potential customers eventually losing interest. Before long, the company ran out of money and filed for bankruptcy in 1995. Cray’s struggles would give way to a changing of the guard of sorts as competing Japanese computing systems would come to dominate the field for much of the decade. Tokyo-based NEC Corporation first came onto the scene in 1989 with the SX-3 and a year later unveiled a four-processor version that took over as the world’s fastest computer, only to be eclipsed in 1993. That year, Fujitsu’s Numerical Wind Tunnel, with the brute force of 166 vector processors became the first supercomputer to surpass 100 gigaflops (Side note: To give you an idea of how rapidly the technology advances, the fastest consumer processors in 2016 can easily do more than 100 gigaflops, but at the time, it was particularly impressive). In 1996, the Hitachi SR2201 upped the ante with 2048 processors to reach a peak performance of 600 gigaflops. Intel Joins the Race Now, where was Intel? The company that had established itself as the consumer market’s leading chipmaker didn’t really make a splash in the realm of supercomputing until towards the end of the century. This was because the technologies were altogether very different animals. Supercomputers, for instance, were designed to jam in as much processing power as possible while personal computers were all about squeezing efficiency from minimal cooling capabilities and limited energy supply. So in 1993 Intel engineers finally took the plunge by taking the bold approach of going massively parallel with the 3,680 processor Intel XP/S 140 Paragon, which by June of 1994 had climbed to the summit of the supercomputer rankings. It was the first massively parallel processor supercomputer to be indisputably the fastest system in the world.   Up to this point, supercomputing has been mainly the domain of those with the kind of deep pockets to fund such ambitious projects. That all changed in 1994 when contractors at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, who didn’t have that kind of luxury, came up with a clever way to harness the power of parallel computing by linking and configuring a series of personal computers using an ethernet network. The â€Å"Beowulf cluster† system they developed was comprised of 16 486DX processors, capable of operating in the gigaflops range and cost less than $50,000 to build. It also had the distinction of running Linux rather than Unix before the Linux became the operating systems of choice for supercomputers. Pretty soon, do-it-yourselfers everywhere were followed similar blueprints to set up their own Beowulf clusters.  Ã‚   After relinquishing the title in 1996 to the Hitachi SR2201, Intel came back that year with a design based on the Paragon called ASCI Red, which was comprised of more than 6,000 200MHz Pentium Pro processors. Despite moving away from vector processors in favor of off-the-shelf components, the ASCI Red gained the distinction of being the first computer to break the one trillion flops barrier (1 teraflops). By 1999, upgrades enabled it to surpass three trillion flops (3 teraflops). The ASCI Red was installed at Sandia National Laboratories and was used primarily to simulate nuclear explosions and assist in the maintenance of the country’s nuclear arsenal. After Japan retook the supercomputing lead for a period with the 35.9 teraflops NEC Earth Simulator, IBM brought supercomputing to unprecedented heights starting in 2004 with the Blue Gene/L. That year, IBM debuted a prototype that just barely edged the Earth Simulator (36 teraflops). And by 2007, engineers would ramp up the hardware to push its processing capability to a peak of nearly 600 teraflops. Interestingly, the team was able to reach such speeds by going with the approach of using more chips that were relatively low power, but more energy efficient. In 2008, IBM broke ground again when it switched on the Roadrunner, the first supercomputer to exceed one quadrillion floating point operations per second (1 petaflops).

Monday, November 4, 2019

Attitude Formation And Stereotypes

Attitude Formation And Stereotypes ‘Stereotypes’, according to Hogg and Vaughan(2002:46), are impressions of people that are strongly influenced by widely shared assumptions of personality, behaviour and attitudes based on group membership for example, sex, race, ethnicity and nationality. These assumptions are a simplified evaluative image of someone or a social group and its members, mental representations influence impressions we form of a person or group and are seen as a social schema. As individuals stereotypes help us to deal with a large amount of social information we receive from a person or group of people. All this information helps us to simplify our social world to make it manageable, controllable and predictable. According to Pennington and McLoughlin (2008:184) Hogg and Vaughan (2002) have done many studies over the last 50 years and they summarise there research, the findings include; Stereotypes are quick to form and hard to change. Many stereotypes form in childhood and early teens. We show a tendency to rapidly stereotype others on the basis of a small number of traits and characteristics. Stereotypes are important as they influence impression formation, example when we first meet a person we assign them to a social group without finding any information out about them; from this we have formed a pre existing stereotype from our first impressions. Attitudes We cannot see or measure attitudes directly; the term attitude is used to represent a quite complex mental process. As individuals we continually seek to discover others attitudes, we tell others our views and try to change others opinions. According to Petty and Cacioppo (1986) say attitudes are a general evaluation we make about ourselves, others and issues, they go on to say ‘attitudes have a past, present and future; they were developed from past experience, they guide our current behaviour and can direct our development in the future’, (Pennington and McLoughlin, 2008:193). Through this defin ition it is thought attitudes strongly influence the way we behave. There are two different approaches to understanding attitudes; the structural approach and the functional approach. The structural approach (Katz 1960)- states that attitudes are an evaluation (positive or negative) of an attitude, i.e. It is expected for you to hold a positive attitude towards a close friend and you might hold a negative attitude towards a political issue, this approach is broken down into three components. (Pennington and McLoughlin 2008:193-194). Cognitive- our thoughts; Affective- our feelings and emotions; Behavioural- our behaviour The functional approach ties to understand and explains what the purpose of the attitude is for the individual; there are five different attitudes in this function. (Pennington and McLoughlin 2008:197). Adaptive function- helps achieve goal and avoids the undesirable. Self- expression- our opinion, attitudes and views. Ego- defensive function – protects self- esteem and promotes positive self image, Freudian theory. Knowledge function- helps with structure and organisation. Social adjustment function- helps manage social situation. Central traits – are pieces of information we latch onto whilst forming first impressions, these have disproportional influences over our final impressions. Primacy effect – information presented first has the strongest influence on impressions formed.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

How similar are the experiences of minority ethnic groups in the UK Essay

How similar are the experiences of minority ethnic groups in the UK labour market Give evidence for your answer - Essay Example Whites always had good percentage of people having better jobs as compared to non-whites. To be more specific, the major professional and managerial based jobs were mainly held by the whites. Non-whites found to have been struggling in the labour markets of UK and thus majority of non-whites either remained unemployed or self-employed. However, in the last decade, the dynamics of UK labour market has experienced significant improvements. These improvements have emerged as a result of increasing employment rates of minority ethnic groups especially Black Africans, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis over a period of around 30 years (Cohen and Kennedy, 2007, p.16). The major reason behind this is the improvement in educational credentials and professional skills of these minority ethnic groups. Despite having such improvements, still the majority of jobs, attainments and occupational trainings are mainly provided to white British population and the other minority ethnic groups are found to hav e been obtaining jobs quite narrowly especially at managerial and professional level. With the increasing racial and discriminating practices prevailing in UK labour market, the gap between the whites and non-whites in labour market still exists effectively. Undoubtedly, tremendous amount of growth can be experienced in terms of non-white men getting closer to their white counterparts in getting jobs. However, this situation is quite disappointing in case of non-white women getting employed as compared to white women. For Pakistani and Bangladeshi women, the scenario of getting employment among women is worse than expected such that their employment rate is even blow 30%. Even though there are more bright prospects available for the minority ethnic groups in terms of achieving better jobs than before due to their higher educational professional background, yet their living conditions are unable to portray these bright prospects. As a result, the minority ethnic groups preferred to g et self employed rather than going after the managerial positions as the future prospects for the whites are readily available for them as compared to minority ethnic groups, most of them are Chinese and Indians. The other minority group comprising Pakistanis and Bangladeshis remained stick to their original preference of self employment such that they are mainly working under specific sectors which include small retail business, fast food restaurants and taxi driving occupations. The way these minority ethnic groups are viewed and perceived among UK social classes, is the major reason behind such discrimination that occurs with the minority ethnic groups in the labour market. Having non-British origin has created immense difficulties for those minority ethnic groups, due to which they are unable to reach at the higher executive level positions even though they are well equipped in terms of their educational background (Macionos and Plummer, 2008, p.22). Ethnicity itself has become a greater hurdle for the graduates belonging to minority ethnic groups to avail employment opportunities and getting higher positions in their jobs. Their efforts are declined even though they have tried to mitigate the impact of their ethnic background by acquire high quality education and training. Similarly, in terms of receiving salaries and earnings, minority ethnic g