Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Movie Analysis - Charlie Chaplins Modern Times essays
Movie Analysis - Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times essays In Modern Times Charlie Chaplin's character is the quintessential walker." His home is the public places of the city .In this sense he could be easily compared to Walter Benjamin's Flaneur. However his role as a working class laborer, searching for money, food and shelter denies him the freedom of the flaneur and sets him apart from him. The flaneur is essentially a middle class romantic. A person who is enchanted by the teeming crowds of the city, while still possessing the economic privilege to stand outside of it looking in. Chaplin's character is a proletarian, a man defined by his labour in much the same way as a machine. He is a commodity. His dual role of Flaneur and proletarian are represented in his directorial choice of images and dialogue as well as the unique physical style of his little tramp." He walks the streets in search of, not cheap thrills or idle entertainment, like the typical flaneur. Instead he seeks a job that will give definition to his rootless existence. In Walter Benjamin's essay The Flaneur the author suggests that the first literary endeavor of this new species of city dweller was panorama literature or physiologies. In these texts different classes, creeds and breeds of the new and unfamiliar Industrial Age were simplified into differing groups of innocuous caricatures. Benjamin suggests that there were quite weighty motives for this style of anthropology. Someone who sees without hearing is much more uneasy than someone who hears without seeing. In the new city strangers were suddenly thrust together. The most extreme example of this being the new technologies of transportation. On buses and trains people were forced to look at these threatening strangers for long minutes or even hours. It was comforting to be able to view these people as harmless oddballs. Its only fitting then that Chaplins ...
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Traveling to a Retreat
Traveling to a Retreat When I found the announcement for a weekend writing retreat in Scotland in the British online Writing Magazine, I began to think how I could take a writing course in real life, not only online- and also make my dream of visiting Scotland come true. With two months lead time, I sent in the online application to Helen Walters, an English short-story writer now established in a village in the highlands of Scotland.  The answer was positive!  The October workshop would include three nights and all meals with sessions from Friday to Sunday evening, for the equivalent of $345. Each participant sent in a short story under 2,000 words ahead of their arrival, which would be critiqued one-on-one When I wrote my Scottish friend Madge to see if I could visit her the week after the workshop, she invited me for five days following the retreat. Doubly motivated, given that I’d be financing my own trip entirely, I got an early-bird fare for a return flight from where I live (in the country of Georgia) for approximately $400, so my total basic expenses would amount to $745 for a week including the retreat and an authentic visit to Scotland! Helen’s home in the Highlands has been turned into a retreat on the Black Isle, and is shared with her husband, crime writer Mike Walters who was the skilled cook for our group. When I arrived and entered the cozy living room, the other participants were already relaxing, glass in hand. My accent quickly gave me away and one woman exclaimed, â€Å"You came all this way?†However, the workshop showed we had all come for most of the same reasons. My own goal was to learn about which markets are likely to buy the kind of short stories I like to write, but I discovered much more. Helen is an outgoing and encouraging teacher - we spent group sessions sharing how we get story ideas (great fun exercises!); turning ideas into stories; creating characters (just a few are needed in short stories); as well as rhythm, theme and the mood of the narrative. During the planned sessions we faced common challenges like finishing a story (it seems this is a frequent predicament), PoV, flashback and setting. We had plenty of time for writing alone too. Helen expertly pointed out which markets are more likely to take an interest in our work. For example women’s magazines tend to like upbeat and positive themes, while anthologies might be interested in the â€Å"darker†stories some of the participants preferred writing. My visit to Scotland brought many experiences, ideas and more- it helped me create a much more vibrant relationship with my writing. I realize I don’t have to remain glued to any PoV, setting or style. This experience opened Pandora’s box – I am re-writing a short story with more humor in the twist, and already have two more ideas.  For other writers I recommend looking up retreats offered at reasonable prices, in places you would like to visit. Your sharpened senses will begin to pick out new details for stories around you in the new settings- for me it was the elderly man in the shab https://www.solusorwritingretreat.co.uk/ email: helen@helenmwalters.co.uk
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Social Psychologhy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Social Psychologhy - Essay Example as depicted by the signage of â€Å"Maps to U.S.A.†Cartoon #2 shows that the officials of U.S.A. government projects conflicting messages to people of Mexico. U.S.A. offers job to immigrants from Mexico but strictly enforces stoppage of illegal immigration. Thus, people from the other side of the fence assessed the government as having a disorder. Borderline personality disorder is described as â€Å"Socially more like the neurotic but they behave vocationally more like the schizophrenic. Borderline patients act out in a variety of ways: Self destructive acts, destructive acts towards others, anti social behavior, such as drug and alcohol abuse†(Rosberg, 2006). The cartoon showed ironic remarks by one viewer asking if the representative of U.S.A. is demonstrating symptomatic behavior of a schizophrenic, but another remarked that he’s much more of exhibiting a Borderline Personality Disorder, which is manifested by his anti-social behavior towards others as demonstrated by the warnings against illegal immigration, yet offering job opportunities for non-U.S. citizens. Cartoon #3 shows the effort of a man to cross the Rio Grande to reach the American dream of securing a job. He even dodged the sight of an official patrolling the border just to be told that there’s no job available since most of the jobs are given to Mexico. The dominant theme found on the three (3) cartoons is the current social standing of the U.S. government in dealing with illegal immigration, more specifically among Mexicans who crosses the border. Mexico is currently experiencing lack of job opportunities and most of its people seek answer in adjoining country, specifically the U.S. However, the fence representing the border between the two adjoining country is a physical barrier that can easily be broken by persevering individuals who wishes to reach their American dream. But the U.S. government, despite campaigns of stopping
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
The Pain of Animals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
The Pain of Animals - Essay Example His position is that humans tend to rationalize their behavior and in doing so justify our mistreatment of certain groups of animals with no thought or concern for their inherent right to life; rather in our selfishness we too often have little regard for their well-being and quality of life. In order to substantiate his position he drew parallels through various instances of how humans either assume animals do not have emotions and can not feel pain or disregard the truth believing the human race is somehow entitled to do as they please in the name of science or sport. Drawing first on the experimentation of insects in the furthering of science Suzuki concedes that somehow that may be justifiable, but then further builds on the examples of experimentations on mice, rats, guinea pigs and other rodents to further both the medical and behavioral sciences and asks us to consider if this is the point at which the line should be drawn morally and ethically. In further defense of his position he talks about how humans are conditioned to have little disregard for the other animals with whom we share the planet. Man at one point, hunted and fished to sustain his own and his family's lives. Somewhere we have gone beyond that. We hunt and fish now not just for survival, but for sport, sacrificing the lives of animals just for our own amusement and pleasure not out of necessity.
Sunday, November 17, 2019
SELF ESTEEM & SOCIAL ANXIETY Essay Example for Free
SELF ESTEEM SOCIAL ANXIETY Essay Self Esteem and Social Anxiety The study searched measures of self- esteem and social anxiety using self-report. Social Anxiety Disorder is someone who has the fear of being social with anyone or anything, said (Rasmussen and Pidgeon, 2011). Low self-esteem is a cause of Social Anxiety Disorder. Research stated that there is evidence that individual’s with social anxiety show low self-esteem (Baumeister Twenge, 2003). (Kocovski and Endler’s, 2000) Social anxiety showed that low self-esteem had a gain in fears of negative evaluation, which in turn showed gains in social anxiety. A person who checks themself in a negative way will think that others are of the same opinion, and this anticipation of negative evaluation of the self might result in anxiety in social situations (Kocovski Endler, 2000). It was hypothesized that higher levels of mindfulness would significantly predict higher levels of self- esteem. Recent experimental evidence has shown that mindfulness buffers self-esteem from negatively valenced social experiences, which in turn reduces defensive reactions to social threats. It was hypothesized that higher self- esteem would significantly predict lower social anxiety. It was predicted that mindfulness indirectly predicted lower social anxiety via self-esteem. (Fennel Jenkins, 2004) In this experiment it was an experiment to see the levels of low or high self- esteem, which would inflict a difference on social anxiety. The mean age for this was 23.1 years old. The standard deviation was 6.72. In this experiment the percent of female students was 59%. There were coefficients ranging from 0.82- 0.86 in different studies. Results showed higher increases in self- esteem and said there were lower levels of social anxiety. This study for future research can be questioned like what variables influence the effectiveness in mindfulness practice in relation to self-esteem and social anxiety? These three different study groups could not differentiate on treatment dropout also families were more intrigued by GANA and PCIT, instead of TAU. We even hypothesized that PCIT would outperform TAU. Participants included 58 Mexican- American families. In this clinical sample, the children were in dire need of treatment. As stated, the IV is PCIT (Parent Child Interaction Therapy), treatment as usual. GANA guided active children. The DV stated that there would be lower dropout, higher father participation, better outcomes, higher parent satisfaction. The studies psychological perspective is social cultural. This is social cultural because it is studying the different social groups of different cultures of the society. A new question raised for possible future study is why dropout rates do not differ? (Bandura, A. Ross, D., Ross, S.A) The advancement concerning the influence of the gender of the model and the sex of the children in imitation of a sample experiment. The number of participants was 72. 36 boys and 36 girls had participated as the imitators of the experiment. The mean age of the children equals 37 to 69 months. The IV with operational definition was Aggressive vs. Non- aggressive children and same vs. Different sex. The DV is imitative responses (physical aggression, verbal aggression, and non-verbal responses. The result of this experiment was participants who observed aggressive models scored significantly higher in imitative responses including physical and verbal aggression as well as non aggressive verbal responses. The psychological perspective is social learning. The perspective is social learning because a child observing a behavior from an adult will impact the way they react to the independent variable of the experiment. A questioned raised to continue this study in the future is how much aggression was transmitted through imitation of the aggressive models? It is important to go about studying hypotheses using different psychological perspectives because it gives us a better and more accurate hypothesis as well as more accurate results. The study I will discuss further is Mallet Aggression (Bandura 1961). The hypothesis explored in this study was subjects exposed to aggressive models would reproduce aggressive reactions resembling their models and would differ in this of both from participants who observed nonaggressive models and those of no prior witness to any model. They tested the hypothesis with the psychological perspective known as social learning. Mood personality is another psychological perspective because a participant’s mood if experiencing anger will show that the individual will be destructive with the mallet after learning from the model. An individual could test the hypothesis with the new psychological perspective by bringing in participants experiencing anger and participants who are not experiencing anger a nd have them observe the model and see what their reaction is. References Rasmussen, Michael K., Pidgeon, Aileen M., (2010) The direct and indirect benefits of dispositional mindfulness on self- esteem and social anxiety, Anxiety, Stress Coping, 24, (2), 227-233. McCabe, K., Yeh, M. (2009) parent- child interaction therapy for Mexican Americans: a randomized clinical trial. Journal of Clinical Child Adolescent Psychology, 38, (5), 753-759. 10.1080/15374410903544 Bandura, Ross A., D., Ross, S. A, (1961) transmission of aggressive through imitation of aggressive models, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, (3), 575-582.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Essay -- Dangers of Smoking
Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Smoking is a deadly habit to keep, literally. Smoking along with other contributing factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol can cause chronic diseases. One disease that has been the number one killer of men and women in the U.S. is cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease has many contributors, but smoking itself is a high risk to contract the disease. Non-smokers also have to pay attention to the air they are breathing because the smoke around you can kill you! What is heart disease? Many of us at a young age believe that heart disease can only happen to â€Å"older†people. The truth is that heart disease has to be considered while a person is young, how a person takes care of their body inside and out will determine what diseases are in store at an older age. For instance, cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounts for forty-two percent of all deaths in the U.S. (healingwithnutrition.com) and smoking is one of the highest contributors to obtaining this dreadful disease. Cardiovascular Disease CVD also is the leading cause of death of Americans age thirty-five and older (healingwithnutrion.com)! Who says you have to be old to have heart disease? According to the 2003 General Household Survey taken by the Office of National Statistics, forty-five percent of Americans between the age of twenty-five to fifty-nine years of age smokethe highest of all age groups. Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) includes dysfunctional condi...
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
How employee engagement has been forgotten by many andor remembered by few Essay
How employee engagement has been forgotten by many and/or remembered by few Introduction            It is believed that any company which unlocks the secrets of engaging their employees is likely to get very high profits. However, this has never been the case. There are always challenges and confusions which leads to misdirection hence the failure of the employee engagement. The main cause of this is the lack of congruity when talking about the definition and also measurement of the employee engagement. Furthermore, there is also lack of clear distinction between employee engagement and other closely related concepts. This paper’s aim is to conduct an in depth analysis on the importance of engaging employees in any activities of a business activity. It will also give recommendations where the importance found from the managers who practice this will be given.            Lack of clear definition is one of the glaring issues that concern the concept of employee engagement. Different categories of individuals ranging academic researchers, corporations, practitioners and many more have extensive variations on how they give meanings. The harnessing of an organization’s member’s selves with aim of making them work their role; in engagement, people always express themselves physically, emotionally and cognitively during their role performance (Kahn, 1990).            An organization which is always widely associated with employee engagement because of their best-selling book, First, Break all the Rules, The Gallup Organization, have a different definition. They define engaged employee as one who works with passion and feel a profound connection to the company he or she is working for and have a drive innovation to move the organization forward. Employee engagement may also be defined as a process through which an organization aims to increase commitment of its employees as well as continuation to aid in the achievement of superior results. This definition is according to the International Survey Research. This definition however looks at employees’ commitment in three different ways. They may include affective, cognitive, and lastly behavioural which incorporates actions, feelings and thoughts.            The last definition that is taken into consideration by this paper is the process of translating the employees’ potentials into the employee performance as well as business success.            This as a result changes the ways in which employees perform their duty through utilizing the tools found within the armory of internal communication professional (Shaw, 2005).            Before indulging further into the issue of employee engagement, it’s prudent a proper understanding of how employee engagement measurement is done. There are reliable metrics that are used to measure the employee engagement despite the rational and emotional components available. There exists several survey instruments that have been used in measuring the employee engagement. This paper however uses the Q12 survey system which was developed by the Gallup Corporation.            The Q12 survey involves asking 12 questions which had strong linkages to high performance and measured how well the companies were meeting core requirements for the employees. According to this survey, a high score on the 12 items always reflected the underlying emotional engagement among the employees who took the survey. This engagement leads to improvement in business results, as well as increased levels of productivity, employee retention and profitability (Walker, 2012)            When dealing with employee engagement, there are a number of related concepts which must be put into consideration. The four related areas with the employee engagement include organizational citizenship behaviour, job satisfaction, work engagement and organizational commitment. These four go hand in hand to ensure that proper understanding of the employee engagement as well as its importance.            Organizational citizenship behaviour for a long time has always been referred to as the extra role behaviour. The organizational citizenship behaviour can be defined as the behaviour of an individual which is not explicitly recognized by the formal reward system and in the end promotes the efficient and effective functioning of the organization concerned. Practically, the organizational citizenship behaviour improves efficiency and the effectiveness of an organization by supplying support to transformations, adaptations and innovations within the organization. Studying the organizational citizenship behaviour from a macro perspective, it’s found out that it helps to supply direct support to the organization and the individuals found in the organization. This indirectly supports the organization (Anderson & Williams, 1991).            The organizational citizenship behaviour can be divided into many subcategories that gives a common dimension. The sub components includes self-development, organizational loyalty, sportsmanship, helping behaviour, civic virtue, individual initiative and organizational compliance. When a critical review is done on the definitions of the components mentioned above, it’s realized that their definitions is more or less the same as that of employee engagement. The helping behaviour talked about shows or implies an act of voluntary helping others and thus preventing the occurrence of any work related problem. Organizational loyalty on the other hand aims at remaining committed to an individual’s work even during tough situations.            However, the component which tends to show strong relationship with the employee engagement is the individual initiative. It can be defined as the persistence one puts on a job with extra enthusiasm or it can be said to be volunteering to perform extra responsibilities as well as encouraging others within the same organization to follow suit (Podsakoff et al, 2000).            Job satisfaction, is also another concept related to the employee engagement. A number of scholars have tried to come up with a wholesome definition of job satisfaction. According to Brief and Weiss, 2002, they described it as pleasurable or the positive and emotional state that results from recognizing one’s job or the experience from the job. There existed a number of disagreements whether the initially presumed definition was the exact one. It was found that there were so many shortcomings with the Brief and Weiss definition. This made Weiss to modify the definition. Job satisfaction came to be described as the positive or negative evaluation that a person makes about his or her job situation (Weiss, 2002). From time to time, the definition has always updated so as to include a cognitive component in the measurement of job satisfaction.            Work engagement is the third component related to the employee engagement. Work engagement of employees measured or looked at into different categories. It involves vigor, absorption and dedication. Starting with vigour, it can be described as being fully charged with energy as well as resilience in job even during the days when nothing serious happens. Dedication involves one being proud of their work and getting convinced that whatever activity an individual undertakes is significant. Lastly, absorption as a concept means being carried away work to the extent that one forgets everything in the surrounding (Hallberg, 2005).            Lastly, the fourth concept related to the employee engagement is the organizational commitment. This concept entails the process that is gone through when obtaining the goals of an organization’s multiple constituencies. The goals ranges from a broad organizational goals and their values to a more specific formulation. Organizational commitment may also be defined as the willingness to persist in a course of action as well as the reluctance to change plans while keeping the main goal to stay on course. Both the definitions highlight the fact that people are committed to multiple entities. These multiple entities involve emotional and rational components (Vance, 2005). The emotional concept is defined as the positive feeling towards an entity while thee rational component means the state of being conscious as well as thoughtful in planning and executing actions that fulfill commitments.            Having dealt with that, it’s crucial that factors which keep employee engaged are looked into in details. There are three main vital ingredients that make employee engaged. First is the leadership of any particular business organization. The leaders any an organization must set standards that in terms of dedication and then rubs it off to the rest of the employees. The leaders must be able to make difficult decisions correctly and fairly. Furthermore, they should be competent and show consistency in whatever they do. In areas where this is not displayed by the leaders, the employee always feels looked and upon and as result they are always not engaged in whatever activity they undertake. The employees always talk and so poor leadership may be used as the stepping stone to quit any particular job. Good leadership makes an organization to have a very strong employee engagement hence better results (Taylor, 2014).            Secondly, communication and transparency is also a factor or an ingredient that may make your employee engaged or not. This factor however has been underestimated by many and taken for granted. Senior people in an organization always have a notion that employees concern themselves with earning their wages to a larger extent and care very little for other things (Taylor, 2014). The truth of the matter however is that large majority of employees put a lot of emphasis on whether they are regularly being kept in the loop. It always doesn’t matter to them whether it concerns their own development or big decisions of the organization. What actually matters is that it concerns everyone. Openness and good communication makes the employees to feel highly appreciated and hence part of the organization. They don’t feel detached. This makes the organization a better place to be in.            Lastly, enjoyment is also a key ingredient for engaging employees. The most important aspect of employee engagement is considering the fact that they are human beings. The organization does not run at a loss when they introduce elements of fun in the work place. The fun and enjoyment may range from a number of activities like a dress down party on Fridays, monthly trips, or any other thing that appeals to your employees.            The aim of such enjoyment is to make employees feel like they want to work. This will thus make them stay as long as they want. This is however not the case with many jobs. Not many employees always want to make their employees have fun. This makes people have negative attitude towards such jobs leading to very few people doing such jobs. On many occasions, work does not necessarily have to be done with a serious mood at all times. The only way an employer can make the employees feel engaged it to make them feel as if work is something that should be enjoyed rather than being a chore (Taylor, 2014).            It’s therefore clear that employee engagement can be grouped into two main broad categories or rather approach. There is the philosophical approach and the pragmatic approach. The philosophical approach deals with the management philosophy that are considered when making overall decisions of a human resource. The pragmatic approach on the other hand deals with the dedication programmes for employee engagement. Here, measurement of engagement is done. None of the approaches either is stated to provide a clear winner when trying to achieve an engaged work force (Shaw, 2005).            Having placed more emphasis on the engaged employees, it’s now prudent to talk about the disengaged employees. It’s documented that stress is one of the factors that can dislodge a highly engaged worker from conducting his or her duties without other workers or the organization getting aware of the in depth of the problem. Historically, many organizations have not done an in depth survey on how to deal with stress or other emotional problems.            The former acting manager of the Freddie Mae, David Kellerman, committed suicide due to stress April 22, 2009. His death was attributed to the organizations failure to respond to the signs he was showing. The government seized his company after running at a loss of $108 billion. The work environment was also stressing. As if that was not enough, he always received so much criticism from the media. All these prompted him to commit suicide. This is the worst that happens when employees are not engaged. Recommendations for managers            From the readings and research done, the following are some of the recommendations that ought to be considered by managers to ensure a proper way of promoting customer engagement.            The managers should take specific actions or steps to achieve success. While doing this, they must always remember that each and every company is unique and therefore the action they take should be specific to that particular company. The customers should always be provided with as much information as possible to help make them engaged.            The managers should always know the approach that their organization ought to take and why that approach is important. The employees should also be given the approach used by the organization. When this is done, it makes them know why it’s done. This makes them feel part and parcel of the organization and hence promotes the level of employee engagement. Mutual agreement should also be made with the employees. This makes them know what is expected of them.            Rechanneling of extensive time and resources should be done by the employers. This always forms the basis of creating a new employee engagement initiative. A company may be working on the already made initiatives. These initiatives may be giving forth good results. Coming up with a whole new initiative might lead to misdirection in a healthy focus which has been in existence for a long time and thus would lower the progress of a company. Engaging in such activities should be avoided at all cost. Conclusion            The concept of employee engagement is one that is very wide. The engagement of employees affects different levels of an organization ranging from micro and macro levels. So as to reduce the existing ambiguity when it comes to matters of the employee engagement, a lot more need to be done in this area. Any organization willing to get better results from applying the issue of employee engagement should do so with a lot of caution. Anything done be based on the strengths and weaknesses found, any related concept as well as all the unveiled fields in the issue of employee engagemen References (2006). Gallup Study: Engaged employees inspire company innovation. Gallup Management Journal, retrieved from http://gmj.gallup.com/content/defaut.aspx?ci=24880&pg=1. Hagerty, J. & Fields, G. (2009). A Fallen Mortgage Titan, Tragedy amid the Turmoil. Wall Street Journal 6- 5-2009 Hallberg, U. (2005). A thesis on fire: Studies of work engagement, type a behaviour and burnout. Department of Psychology, Stockhlom University, ISBN 91-7155-171-9 Podsakoff, P., Mackenzie, S., Paine, J., Bachrach, D. (2000). Organizational citizenship behavours: A critical review of the theoretical and Empirical literature suggestions for future research. Journal of Management, 26, 51, 1-56. Shaw, K. (2005). Employment engagement, how to build a high performance workforce. Journal on Human Resource, 0-9547741-3-2.Taylor, R. (2014). Maximising employee engagement. Journal of Leadership. 23-05, 47474 Walker, S. (2012). Employee engagement and communication research measurement, strategy and action. London: Kogan Page. Williams, L. & Anderson, S. (1991). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment as predictors of organizational citizenship and in role behaviours. Journal of Management, 17, 3, 601-617 Source document
Sunday, November 10, 2019
Web Site Structure
The purpose of this paper is to discuss and compare three Web site structures from the student textbook â€Å"New Perspectives on the Internet†by Schneider and Evans. This student will identify the preferred structure and why; provide two Web site locations with URL addresses, and discuss advantages to Cascading Style Sheets in the creation of a web page. A hierarchical structure is where the â€Å"pages are linked going from the most general page down to more specific pages†¦In a hierarchical structure, users can easily move from general to specific and back again.†(Schneider/Evans. 2006. p. 65). A linear structure is where â€Å"each page is linked with the pages that follow and precede it in an ordered chain.†(Schneider/Evans. 2006. p. 64). Linear structure does allow for augmented pages â€Å"in which each page contains an additional link back to an opening page.†(Schneider/Evans. 2006. p. 65). The third type of structure is called Mixed structure where â€Å"the overall form is hierarchical, as users can move from a general introduction to individual†¦however, links also allow users to move through the site in a linear fashion. (Schneider/Evans. 2006. p. 66). A Mixed structure provides the up and down and side to side movement within a site. The preference of this student would be Mixed structure and Hierarchical structure as these two types of structures provide maximum movement throughout a Web site. Formatting links, home pages and paths are unique to each Website; but, however, are similar depending on structure. A web site that this student enjoys to peruse is the National Geographic Web site, with the URL located at http://www.nationalgeographic.com. This site appears to be styled in a hierarchical structure, as it allows general to specific inquiry. It also allows the movement of backward and forward. Another web site of interest to this student is Facebook, with the URL located at http://www.facebook.com. This web site is designed on the linear structure with augmentation. Facebook pages are linked with pages that â€Å"follow and precede it in an ordered chain.†(Schneider/Evans. 2006. p. 64) Because Facebook does support an augmented style, links to outside sources and other available pages are available to the user. This design, however, from the user opinion, is lacking in personality and compatibility with the user. The design appears to be generalized, and simplified, allowing for many users in many locations and of many cultures. It is, therefore, very generic. Both Web sites provide home page links; but, because of the differences in structure, movement within each web site page is different. After some research in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), this student has discovered several advantages in creating web pages. âž ¢ Cascading Style Sheets are written outside of the HTML codes and are therefore easy to access, change and manipulate. âž ¢ Cascading Style Sheets provide the designer the ability to change one section within the one sheet and having all similar sheets change as well in numerous locations. In closing, Cascading Style Sheets are a must in the creation of a web site. They provide ease of movement; top to down, back and forward and specific movement side to side. This ability provides a user-friendly web site. Depending on the information provided by the Web site and the audience to which it is geared, determines how the structure of the web site is designed.
Thursday, November 7, 2019
College Degree Nearly Doubles Annual Earnings
College Degree Nearly Doubles Annual Earnings Just in case you still had some doubts as to the power of a college degree, the U.S. Census Bureau has released data proving the substantial value of a college education in the United States. Workers 18 and over sporting bachelors degrees earn an average of $51,206 a year, while those with a high school diploma earn $27,915. But wait, theres more. Workers with an advanced degree make an average of $74,602, and those without a high school diploma average $18,734. According to a new census report titled Educational Attainment in the United States: 2004, 85 percent of those age 25 or older reported they had completed at least high school and 28 percent had attained at least a bachelorÂ’s degree Ââ€" both record highs. Other highlights for the population 25 years and over in 2004: Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska had the highest proportions of people with at least a high school diploma, all around 91 percent.The District of ColumbiaÂ’s population had the highest proportion with a bachelorÂ’s degree or higher at 45.7 percent, followed by Massachusetts (36.7 percent), Colorado (35.5 percent), New Hampshire (35.4 percent) and Maryland (35.2 percent).At the regional level, the Midwest had the highest proportion of high school graduates (88.3 percent), followed by the Northeast (86.5 percent), the West (84.3 percent) and the South (83.0 percent).The Northeast had the highest proportion of college graduates (30.9 percent), followed by the West (30.2 percent), the Midwest (26.0 percent) and the South (25.5 percent).High school graduation rates for women continued to exceed those of men, 85.4 percent and 84.8 percent, respectively. On the other hand, men continued to have a higher proportion of their population with a bachelorÂ’s degree or higher (29. 4 percent compared with 26.1 percent). Non-Hispanic whites had the highest proportion with a high school diploma or higher (90.0 percent), followed by Asians (86.8 percent), African-Americans (80.6 percent) and Hispanics (58.4 percent).Asians had the highest proportion with a bachelorÂ’s degree or higher (49.4 percent), followed by Non-Hispanic whites (30.6 percent), African-Americans (17.6 percent) and Hispanics (12.1 percent).The proportion of the foreign-born population with a high school diploma (67.2 percent) was lower than that of the native population (88.3 percent). However, the percentages with a bachelorÂ’s degree or more were not statistically different (27.3 percent and 27.8 percent, respectively).The data on educational trends and attainment levels are shown by characteristics such as age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, occupation, industry, nativity and, if foreign-born, when they entered the country. The tables also describe the relationship between earnings and educational attainment. Al though the statistics are primarily at the national level, some data are shown for regions and states.Source: U.S. Census Bureau Education Also Effects Unemployment Just as income increases, unemployment decreases with higher educational attainment. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nationwide unemployment rate based on educational attainment in 2017 dropped from 6.3 percent among those who did not complete high school, to 4.6 percent among high school graduates, to 2.5 percent among persons with a bachelor’s degree, to only 1.5 percent among persons with doctoral or professional degrees. In addition, higher levels of education tends to reduce the time required for persons who find themselves between jobs to find new employment at equal or better wages.
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Why Fahrenheit 451 Will Always Be Terrifying
Why Fahrenheit 451 Will Always Be Terrifying There’s a reason dystopian science fiction is evergreen- no matter how much time goes by, people will always regard the future with suspicion. The common wisdom is that the past was pretty good, the present is barely tolerable, but the future will be all Terminator-style robots and Idiocracy slides into chaos. Every few years political cycles cause an uptick in attention being paid to classic dystopias; the 2016 Presidential election pushed George Orwell’s classic 1984 back onto the bestseller lists, and made Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale a depressingly appropriate viewing event. The trend continues; HBO announced a film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s classic 1953 science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451. If it seems surprising that a book published more than six decades ago might still be terrifying for modern audiences, you probably just haven’t read the novel recently. Fahrenheit 451 is one of those rare sci-fi novels that ages wonderfully- and remains just as terrifying today as it did in the middle of the 20th century, for a variety of reasons. More Than Books If you’ve been alive for more than a few years, odds are you know the basic logline of Fahrenheit 451: In the future, houses are largely fireproof and firemen have been re-purposed as enforcers of laws that prohibit the ownership and reading of books; they burn the homes and possessions (and books, natch) of anyone caught with contraband literature. The main character, Montag, is a fireman who begins to look at the illiterate, entertainment-obsessed, and shallow society he lives in with suspicion, and begins stealing books from the homes he burns. This is often boiled down to a slim metaphor on book-burning- which is a thing that still happens- or a slightly more subtle hot-take on censorship, which by itself makes the book evergreen. After all, people are still fighting to have books banned from schools for a variety of reasons, and even Fahrenheit 451 was bowdlerized by its publisher for decades, with a â€Å"school version†in circulation that removed the profanity and changed several concepts to less alarming forms (Bradbury discovered this practice and made such a stink the publisher re-issued the original in the 1980s). But the key to appreciating the terrifying nature of the book is that it isn’t just about books. Focusing on the books aspect allows people to dismiss the story as a book nerd’s nightmare, when the reality is that what Bradbury was really writing about is the effect he saw mass media like television, film, and other media (including some he couldn’t have predicted) would have on the populace: Shortening attention spans, training us to seek constant thrills and instant gratification- resulting in a populace that lost not just its interest in seeking the truth, but its ability to do so. Fake News In this new age of â€Å"fake news†and Internet conspiracy, Fahrenheit 451 is more chilling than ever because what we’re seeing is possibly Bradbury’s terrifying vision of the future playing out- just more slowly than he imagined. In the novel, Bradbury has the main antagonist, Captain Beatty, explain the sequence of events: Television and sports shortened attention spans, and books began to be abridged and truncated in order to accommodate those shorter attention spans. At the same time, small groups of people complained about language and concepts in books that were now offensive, and the firemen were assigned to destroy books in order to protect people from concepts they would be troubled by. Things are certainly nowhere near that bad right now- and yet, the seeds are clearly there. Attention spans are shorter. Abridged and bowdlerized versions of novels do exist. Film and television editing has become incredibly fast-paced, and video games have arguably had an effect on plot and pacing in stories in the sense that many of us need stories to be constantly exciting and thrilling in order to keep our attention, while slower, more thoughtful stories seem boring. The Whole Point And that’s the reason Fahrenheit 451 is terrifying, and will remain terrifying for the foreseeable future despite its age: Fundamentally, the story is about a society that voluntarily and even eagerly abets its own destruction. When Montag tries to confront his wife and friends with thoughtful discussion, when he tries to turn off the TV programs and make them think, they become angry and confused, and Montag realizes that they are beyond help- they don’t want to think and understand. They prefer to live in a bubble. Book-burning began when people chose not to be challenged by thoughts they didn’t find comforting, thoughts that challenged their preconceptions. We can see those bubbles everywhere around us today, and we all know people who only get their information from limited sources that largely confirm what they already think. Attempts to ban or censor books still get robust challenges and resistance, but on social media you can witness people’s hostile reactions to stories they don’t like, you can see how people create narrow â€Å"silos†of information to protect themselves from anything scary or unsettling, how people are often even proud of how little they read and how little they know beyond their own experience. Which means that the seeds of Fahrenheit 451 are already here. That doesn’t mean it will come to pass, of course- but that’s why it’s a frightening book. It goes far beyond the gonzo concept of firemen burning books to destroy knowledge- it’s a succinct and frighteningly accurate analysis of precisely how our society could collapse without a single shot being fired, and a dark mirror of our modern age where unchallenging entertainment is available to us at all times, on devices we carry with us at all times, ready and waiting to drown out any input we don’t want to hear. HBO’s adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 doesn’t have an air date yet, but it’s still the perfect time to re-introduce yourself to the novel- or to read it for the first time. Because it’s always a perfect time to read this book, which is one of the most frightening things you could possibly say.
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Papper 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Papper 2 - Essay Example The explosion at Deepwater Horizon can be traced back to several key missteps by all the companies involved. Their actions, purposefully or not, changed the lives of many individuals and ultimately deprived them of their fundamental international rights, hence violating their minimal duty and acting in a completely unethical way. In addition, the Deepwater Horizon spill is the exact opposite of the utilitarianism theory, because it actually minimized utility for everyone who was affected. The spill devastated coastal beaches and businesses that relied on tourism and fishing besides being a health hazard. This was unethical because the oil spill caused more harm than good to the society. However, the profits from the BP spills benefited the new wildlife fund. Still referring to the Deepwater Horizon case, an engineer’s responsibility to safety was violated. United States federal report blamed the worst spill in the US history on poor leadership and poor cement job by BP and its engineers. The explosions were as a result of poor risk management, last minute changes to plans, failure to observe and respond to critical indicators, inadequate well control response, and insufficient emergency bridge response training by companies. In relation to the code of ethics view, BP failed to institute safety and risk management policies that would help protect individuals from deprivation. Furthermore, their disaster preparedness plan was poorly
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