Jacques-Louis David Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Jacques-Louis David - Essay Example However, he was more interested in drawing than studying to be an architect. Because of David’s growing discontent and his failure to do well at the college, his mother and uncles sent him to study under a distant relative; Francois Boucher, a well-known Rococo artist. Soon Boucher also recognized David’s restlessness and his rejection of the Rococo genre. As a result of this Boucher persuaded his friend, Joseph-Marie Vien, to take David under wing for the purpose of instruction him in the classical painting style. He also wanted Vien to see to it that David the attended the Royal Academy-later to be known as The Louvre. Attending the academy represented another turning point in David’s life. Finally, he was able to do what he wanted to do. Excited about the possibilities now awaiting him, it wasn’t long until he met a constitute-Gavin Hamilton. With his approval and others of the same thinking, it wasn’t long until David was confident in his own abilities and works. Soon he was recognized as one of the most important artists of the neo-classical movement. However, he felt he could do more in Paris, and returned there in 1780. In the years following this, David began to be considered as one of the most serious artists of the times to represent the social and political society in which they lived. Still under tutelage of Vien, David was full of ambition and confident in his work to the point of believing he could win the academy’s acclaimed â€Å"Prix de Rome† award. After several failed attempts to do so, David became enraged at the judges, including Vien, for their favoring lesser talented students over him. According to legend, David was so upset over this that he attempted to starve himself. Overcoming his despair, he continued to compete for the award, and in 1774, he succeeded- his diligence had finally been rewarded. Soon after this, Vien was appointed director of the French Academy of Rome in Italy.

Luxury and the Montblanc brand Essay Example for Free

Luxury and the Montblanc brand Essay It is generally acknowledged that western consumption of luxury in the 1980s and 1990s was motivated primarily by status-seeking and appearance. This means that social status associated with a brand is an important factor in conspicuous consumption. The baby boom generation luxury consumer has a passion for self-indulgence while maintaining an iconoclastic world view, which is transforming the luxury market from its ‘ old ’ conspicuous consumption model to a totally new, individualistic type of luxury consumer one driven by new needs and desires for experiences ’ . The expression of ‘today’s luxury’ is about a celebration of personal creativity, expressiveness, intelligence, fluidity, and above all, meaning. LUXURY AND POSTMODERNISM Recent arguments have been sounded that aspects of contemporary luxury consumption have reflected the phenomenon of postmodernism. Postmodernity means very different things to many different people’. Postmodernism is essentially a western philosophy that ‘refers to a break in thinking away from the modern, functional and rational’. In terms of experiential marketing, two aspects of the postmodern discourse are most relevant: hyper-reality and image. Hyper-reality refers to ‘the blurring of distinction between the real and the unreal, in which the prefix ‘hyper’ signifies more real than real. When the real that is the environment, is no longer a given, but is reproduced by a simulated environment, it does not become unreal, but realer than real’. The example of Bollywood to illustrate the so-called ‘Disneyfication’ of reality within the context of contemporary Indian society: ‘Bollywood captures not only the imagination in the form of song, music and dance but fairy tale settings, romantic melodrama and heroic storylines immerse the viewer in ‘simulated reality’. Traditional marketing was developed in response to the industrial age, not the information, branding and communications revolution we are facing today. In a new age, with new consumers, we need to shift away from a features- and-benefits approach, as advocated by traditional approaches to consumer experiences. One such approach is experiential marketing, an approach that in contrast to the rational features-and-benefits view of consumers takes a more postmodern orientation, and views them as emotional beings concerned with achieving pleasurable experiences. EXPERIENTIAL LUXURY MARKETING When a person buys a service, he purchases a set of intangible activities carried out on his behalf. But when he buys an experience, he pays to spend time enjoying a series of memorable events that a company stages to engage him in a personal way. Experiential marketing is thus about taking the essence of a product and amplifying it into a set of tangible, physical and interactive experiences that reinforce the offer. Experiential marketing essentially describes marketing initiatives that give consumers in-depth, tangible experiences in order to provide them with sufficient information to make a purchase decision. It is clear that the fact that many luxury goods are almost always experiential puts luxury marketers in a unique position to apply the principles of experiential marketing to their activities. Dimensions of the luxury experience The term ‘involvement’ refers to the level of inter-activity between the supplier and the customer. Increased levels of involvement fundamentally change the way in which services are experienced, that is, suppliers no longer create an experience and pass it to the customer; instead, the supplier and customer are interactively co-creating the experience. The term ‘intensity’ refers to the perception of the strength of feeling towards the interaction. The four experiential zones are not intended to be mutually exclusive; the richness of an experience is, however, a function of the degree to which all four zones are incorporated. Those experiences we think of as Entertainment, such as fashion shows at designer boutiques and upmarket department stores, usually involve a low degree of customer involvement and intensiveness. Activities in the Educational zone involve those where participants are more actively involved, but the level of intensiveness is still low. In this zone, participants acquire new skills or increase those they already have. Many luxury goods offerings include educational dimensions. For example, cruise ships often employ well-known authorities to provide semi-formal lectures about their itineraries – a concept commonly referred to as ‘edutainment’. Escapist activities are those that involve a high degree of both involvement and intensiveness, and are clearly a central feature of much of luxury consumption. This is clearly evident within the luxury tourism and hospitality sector, characterised by the growth of specialised holiday offerings. The launch of the Royal Tented Taj Spa (Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces) at the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur (India) recreates the mobile palaces used by the Mughal emperors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with chandeliers, royal pennants and Indian love swings. When the element of activity is reduced to a more passive involvement in nature, the event becomes Aesthetic. A high degree of intensiveness is clearly evident within this activity, but has little effect on its environment such as admiring the architectural or interior design of designer boutiques. The six-storey glass crystal design of the Prada store in Tokyo conceptualised by the architects Herzog and de Meuron has become a showcase for unconventional contemporary architecture.

Success and Failure in the US-Mexico War on Drugs Essay -- Essays Pape

Illegal narcotic drugs represent a $60 billion market in the U.S., and this year alone the State and Federal governments will each spend roughly $20 billion in attempting to stifle this market. The amount of money involved in the drug trade, substantially inflated due to prohibition, makes both systemic corruption and violence inevitable. The illegal drug trade is a sophisticated international network, and while no nation’s involvement is limited to one economic function, one relationship is crystal clear: Mexico serves as a high-volume channel of drugs into the United States, and drug traffickers will go to great lengths to continue serving the American consumers as long as their demand exists. A 1997 article stated that narcotics funnel as much as $30 billion into the Mexican economy each year, â€Å"more than the country’s top two legitimate exports combined.†[1] Despite decades of attempts to control this illegal activity, the public perception is that the United States’ war on drugs has failed to substantially reduce both the supply and demand of illegal drugs. Supply-side efforts have been plagued by conflicting political priorities and corruption in both American and Mexican administrations, while the costly anti-drug advertising campaigns and increased incarcerations of drug users have had only limited success in decreasing the demand for drugs. Furthermore, the inherent difficulty of international coordination in such an effort has hindered the success of the drug war. As James Finckenauer, Ph.D. of the National Institute of Justice states, â€Å"The complexity of the worldwide drug market and the vast resources available to narcotic producers and traffickers requires afflicted countries to collabor... ...] â€Å"Healthy People 2000 Final Review.† Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Center for Health Statistics. October, 2001. [15] â€Å"News from the DEA.† Speech by Asa Hutchinson, September 16, 2002. Baylor University. [16] Community Epidemiology Work Group. â€Å"Epidemiologic Trends in Drug Abuse: Advance Report.† National Institutes of Health and National Institute on Drug Abuse. December, 1999. [17] www.drugsense.org [18] â€Å"Gangster Cops,† a lecture by Joseph McNamara, Stanford University. Engineering 297, April 30, 2003. [19] â€Å"Gangster Cops,† a lecture by Joseph McNamara, Stanford University. Engineering 297, April 30, 2003. [20] â€Å"Vicente Fox on the Transition, NAFTA, Corruption, Drugs, the Economy...† Business Week: July 17, 2000.

The Signalman Analysis

The story begins with the narrator calling â€Å"Halloa! Below there! † into a railway cutting. The signalman standing on the line below does not look up, as the narrator expects, but rather turns about and stares into the railway tunnel it is his responsibility to monitor. The narrator calls down again and asks permission to descend. The signalman seems reluctant, but assents and waits with an air of ‘expectation and watchfulness’. The railway cutting is a damp, gloomy and lonely place. The signalman seems still to be in fear of the narrator, who tries to put him at ease. The signalman appears to have seen the narrator before. The narrator assures him that this is impossible. Reassured, the signalman welcomes the newcomer into his little cabin and the two men speak of the signalman's work. His labour consists of a dull, monotonous routine, but the signalman feels he deserves nothing better, as he misused his youthful academic opportunities. The narrator remarks that the signalman seems a sane and dutiful employee at all times but when he looks to his signal bell at two moments when it is not ringing. The visitor leaves with a promise to return on the following night. Before he makes his exit, the signalman asks him why he used the words â€Å"Halloa! Below! † on his arrival; were they not suggested to him â€Å"†¦in any supernatural way†? The narrator says no. The signalman implores him to by no means call out so again. He says that he is â€Å"troubled†. The following day the narrator returns and does not call. The signalman tells him that he will reveal to him the nature of his trouble, which is that he is haunted by a recurring apparition: he has seen a spectre at the entrance to the tunnel on two separate occasions and that each appearance has foreshadowed a tragedy. In the first instance, the signalman heard the shouted words that the narrator spoke and saw a figure with its arm across its face, waving the other in desperate warning. He questions it but it vanishes. He then runs into the tunnel but finds nobody. Within a few hours there occurs a terrible train crash with many casualties. On its second appearance, the figure is silent, with both hands before the face in an attitude of mourning. Soon afterward, a beautiful young woman dies in a passing train. Finally the signalman admits that he has seen the spectre several times within the past week. It seems to the narrator that the signalman is suffering from hallucinations. During the conversation the signalman sees the spectre, and hears his bell toll out a phantom ring, but the narrator sees and hears nothing of these events. The signalman is convinced these supernatural incidents are portents of a third tragic event yet to happen, and is sick with fear and frustration: he does not understand why he should be burdened with knowledge of an incipient tragedy when he, as a lowly railway functionary, has neither the authority nor the ability to prevent it. The sceptical narrator believes that his new friend's imagination has been overtaxed and suggests taking him to see a doctor. The following day the narrator visits the railway cutting for a third time, and is struck to see a figure at the mouth of the tunnel. This figure is no ghost, however. It is a man, one of a group of officials investigating an incident on the line. The narrator discovers his friend the signalman is dead, having been struck by an oncoming train. He had been standing on the line, looking intently at something, and failed to get out of the way. The driver of the train explains that he did attempt to warn the signalman of his danger: as the train bore down on the signalman the driver called out to him â€Å"Below there! Look out! Look out! For God’s sake, clear the way! † Moreover, the driver waved his arm in warning even as he covered his face to avoid seeing the train strike the hapless signalman. The narrator notes the significance of the similarity between the driver's actions and the actions of the spectre as the signalman had earlier described them, but leaves the nature of that significance to the reader.

Education Timeline Essay

Education Timeline Antiria Jenkins HIS324: History of American Education Instructor: Timothy Kilgore November 12, 2012 http://prezi. com/vcesi_y4xome/history-of-american-education-timeline/ Education in the United States has faced great changes toward development in the past hundreds of years. At the beginning, during the Colonial Era, the principles of education were mainly based on those already used by European nations at the time. However, the country began to adopt its own approaches toward teachings given different social, political and religious practices (Rippa 9). 1635The first Latin Grammar School (Boston Latin School): Founded on April 23, 1635, in Boston, Massachusetts, it is known as the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States. The Latin grammar curriculum was designed for boys 8 to 15, based on European Schools in a Puritan area. Schools were to prepare boys for college and the service of God. Protestantism believed that education was needed so that individuals could interpret the bible. 1751American Academy founded by Ben Franklin: The demand of skilled workers in the middle of the eighteenth century led Benjamin Franklin to start a new kind of secondary school, thus, the American Academy was established in Philadelphia. American high schools eventually replaced Latin grammar schools. Curriculum was geared to prepare students for employment. Academies eventually replaced the Latin Grammar Schools and some admitted Women. 783Introduction of Noah Webster’s Speller: Noah Webster published the A grammatical Institute of the English language, also known as, â€Å"the blue-back speller. † This was the most widely circulated of the early American textbooks and like Webster’s American Dictionary it strived to establish a national identity as well as the United States’ linguistic and cultural independence of England. As the first popular American textbo ok, the introduction of Noah Webster’s speller stands as a significant event in the history of American education. 817(April 15, 1817) Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons: The Connecticut Asylum at Hartford for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons opens. It is the first permanent school for the deaf in the U. S. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc are the school’s co-founders. In 1864, Thomas Gallaudet’s son, Edward Miner Gallaudet, helps to start Gallaudet University, the first college specifically for deaf students. 824First State-Supported School Established: Originally named the Boston English Classical School and established in 1821, the school was renamed the English High School in 1824 and also, during that year, became the first-state supported common school. The adoption of the English High as a state-supported common school is a significant event in the history of American education as it was, essent ially, the first public school. 1855Abolition of Segregation of Schools in Massachusetts: Following the case of Roberts v. Boston, the state of Massachusetts abolished segregation in their schools. The victory would be the first in a long battle lasting nearly an entire century. This was the first law to oppose segregated schools in the United States and is, therefore, a significant event in the history of American education. 1856The First Kindergarten: In the United States Margarethe Schurz founded the first kindergarten in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1856. Her German-language kindergarten impressed Elizabeth Peabody, who opened the first American English-language kindergarten in Boston in 1860. The kindergarten was much more influential in the United States and in the northern part of Europe which encouraged the National Education Association to begin a kindergarten department in 1874, and later, teachers founded the International Kindergarten Union in 1892. 1896The Laboratory School of the University of Chicago (First Progressive Laboratory):John Dewey, the father of the progressive education, established the first laboratory school for testing the progressive educational method. This would lead to a popular trend in education adopted by schools during the first half of the twentieth century. Progressive education emphasizes cultivation of problem solving and critical thinking skills through hands-on learning activities. 1905 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of Congress, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center. The Foundation encouraged the adoption of a standard system for equating â€Å"seat time† (the amount of time spent in a class) to high school credits which is still in use today. This system is known as the â€Å"Carnegie Unit. 1939 The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (first called the Wechsler- Bellevue Intelligence Scale): This scale was developed by David Wechsler and is intended to measure human intelligence reflected in both verbal and performance abilities. It introduces the concept of the â€Å"deviation IQ,† which calculates IQ scores based on how far subjects’ scores differ (or deviate) from the average (mean) score of others who are the same age, rather than calculating them with the ratio (MA/CA multiplied by 100) system. Wechsler intelligence tests, particularly the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, are still widely used in U. S. schools to help identify students needing special education. 1944 The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill of Rights): Bill signed into law on June 22, 1944 by President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. The GI Bill affords military veterans government funding to pursue or continue educational goals following their service. The GI Bill not only compensates veterans for their service, but has also been responsible for the growth of American colleges and universities. 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka: On May 17, 1954, The U. S. Supreme court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that separate schools did not provide equal education to students and therefore banned the segregation of schools nationwide with a ruling of (9–0) decision stated that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and declared unconstitutional. 1958 Defense Education Act of 1958: The Defense Education Act of 1958 was signed into law on September 2, 1958 by the United States government during the cold war in reaction to the successful launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik. The Soviets’ scientific success motivated the U. S. government to fund the U. S. Office of Education’s establishment of scientifically and mathematically centered curriculum. The act contained ten titles designed to improve the nation’s schools. 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed on July 2, 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson banned discrimination in all federally funded programs and outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women. This law helped to further the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education as many schools had continued segregation. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 financially, â€Å"cut-off,† institutions, such as public schools, which promoted discrimination of any and all types and gave leverage to the movement. 1965 The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA): The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was passed on April 9, 1965 s a part of the â€Å"War on Poverty. † It emphasizes equal access to education and establishes high standards and accountability as well as provides federal funds to help low-income students, which results in the initiation of educational programs such as Title I and bilingual education. 965 The Higher Education Act: The Higher Education Act was signed on November 8, 1965 to strengthen the educational resources of colleges and universities and to provide financial assistance for students in postsecondary and higher education. It increased federal money given to universities, created scholarships, gave low-interest loans for students, and established a Nationa l Teachers Corps. 1965 Project Head Start: The Head Start program started in the summer of 1965 as an eight week summer program for children from low-income communities going into public school in the fall (Styfco and Zigler, 2003). The program provided preschool classes, medical care, dental care, and mental health services (Kagan, 2002). 1975Education for All Handicapped Children Act now known as The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): requires public schools to make available to all eligible children with disabilities a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment appropriate to their individual needs and requires public school systems to develop appropriate Individualized Education Programs (IEP’s) for each child which will reflect the individualized needs of each student. 002 The No Child Left Behind Act: On January 8, 2002, NCLB was signed into law. NCLB supports standards-based education reform based on the premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve individual outcomes in education. The Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills. States must give these assessments to all students at select grade levels in order to receive federal school funding. All students are required to meet the standards establish by NCLB at the accountability of educators. 2004 H. R. 350, The Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act (IDEA 2004): reauthorizes and modifies IDEA. Changes, which take effect on July 1, 2005, include modifications in the IEP process and procedural safeguards, increased authority for school personnel in special education placement decisions, and alignment of IDEA with the No Child Left Behind Act. The 2004 reauthorization also requires school districts to use the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach as a means for the early identification of students at risk for specific learning disabilities. RTI provides a three-tiered model for screening, monitoring, and providing increasing degrees of intervention using â€Å"research-based instruction† with the overall goal of reducing the need for special education services (Re-authorization, 2004). The history of education has been influenced multiple times over the past years. In some shape, form, or fashion, the many changes have affected many lives, especially those with disabilities. Going from segregation to desegregation, women involvement in education and fighting for equal education of those individuals with disabilities has not only marked historical events but has brought togetherness among all races and genders. Without these historical events in shaping education, the world would be at a standstill. References Dewey, John. 1938 (1963). Experience and Education. New York: Collier Books Kagan, J. (2002). Empowerment and education: Civil rights, expert-advocates, and parent politics in Head Start, 1964-1980. Teachers College Record, 104(3), 516-562. Re-authorization of the IDEA 2004. Retrieved November 5, 2012 from http://www. nj. gov/education/specialed/idea/reauth/ Rippa, Alexander. Education in a Free Society. Eighth Edition. New York: Longman, 1997. 3-107. Print. Styfco, S. , & Zigler, E. (2003). Early Childhood Programs for a New Century. Reynolds, A. , & Wang, M. (Eds. ) The federal commitment to preschool education: Lessons from and for Head Start (pp. 3-33). Washington, D. C. : Child Welfare League of America, Inc.

Unlock your minds hidden potential with this trick

Unlock your minds hidden potential with this trick Who among us doesn’t want to reach our full potential? Most of us have been told by someone at least once during our lives- possibly a parent or other family member, or maybe a friend or someone else in a position of trust, like a teacher- that we have a great deal of potential for achieving great things in life, and if we could summon the dedication, discipline, and mental fortitude to unlock it and utilize it to its fullest, we’d be successful! Using our mind’s full potential could benefit us in all areas of our lives, from strengthening personal relationships to reaching our professional and career goals and everything in between, so putting in the effort to unlock this hidden potential is a worthwhile investment.According to a blog post on pickthebrain.com, there’s a great deal of evidence that suggests people can unlock significant dormant mental potential and go on to achieve great success: â€Å"Your mind is a vast, largely unexplained source of en ergy and power†¦ many very successful people have believed in these powers and used them to create incredible fortunes and success†¦They exist whether you are willing to admit it and use it to your benefit or not. If you don’t, then you are missing out on getting the very most out of your life.†So†¦ the big question remains: How do you go about unlocking your mind’s hidden potential? Well, a recent Psychology Today article by Dr. Chris Gilbert, MD, PhD may just hold the answer to unlocking what she terms your â€Å"inner genius.†Dr. Gilbert focuses on a curious phenomenon that occurs in individuals who have suffered damage to the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) in the brain and acquired what’s known as acquired savant syndrome, a disorder in which people spontaneously develop incredible  memories  and genius level abilities. This rare occurrence has been documented in a very small number of individuals (just 32 at the time of t his writing), but their experiences paint a powerful portrait of tapping into one’s latent potential.Take Derek for instance, who’s referred to in the article:Derek was a 39-year-old sales trainer with no musical skill when he dove head first into a very shallow swimming pool while visiting his mom. He suffered a severe head concussion and was taken to the hospital. Four days later, when he was resting at one of his friends’ house, he discovered that he was able to play the piano flawlessly and beautifully even though he couldn’t read music. That day, he played the piano for 6 hours. He is now working as a well-paid musician and composes music.Pretty powerful stuff, right? And Derek is just one example. There are others who, for some reason or another, often through an accident or brain altering illness like a stroke or dementia, acquired new talents after getting acquired savant syndrome. Dr. Gilbert notes, â€Å"Special skills in acquired savants, like the unusual abilities of ‘natural savants’ like autistic children, usually manifest as musical abilities- most often the piano with perfect pitch like Derek- visual memory, arithmetic abilities, painting, drawing, sculpting, and spatial skills where the savant can construct complex accurate models or excel at direction finding and map making.†However, before you go off and assume that you need to damage your brain’s LATL in order to get acquired savant syndrome, don’t get the wrong idea! Dr. Gilbert is not suggesting that anyone hurt themselves or do anything tragic and irreversible to their brains. However, she is saying that we can learn from the experiences of Derek and the others who have been diagnosed with acquired savant syndrome and apply this knowledge to answer the following question: Can healthy people acquire savant-like talents and unlock their â€Å"inner geniuses† by suppressing their LATL in a safer way? Dr. Gilbert argues tha t the LATL in our brains function to actively suppress certain portions of our ability to help us focus on the primary needs for survival, and that it keeps our full abilities and potential in check and dormant.Evidence for this has been shown in laboratory studies in individuals without brain trauma. Dr. Gilbert’s article refers to research performed by Dr. Allan Snyder, a neuroscientist at the University of Sidney, Australia, who demonstrated that there is a way to temporarily â€Å"turn-off† our LATL without any ill effects, so that all of us could exhibit savant-like talents:â€Å"Dr. Snyder artificially fatigued the LATL by stimulating it with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for 15 minutes in healthy subjects.  This technique is the equivalent of tiring out a muscle by vigorously exercising it. After TMS exposure, Snyder’s test subjects showed improved ability to draw objects from memory, to quantify the number of discrete objects in complex visu al scenes, and to accurately proof-read documents- all skills that depend upon memory for small details.†This means that there’s a potential sleeping â€Å"inner genius† inside all of us that’s just waiting to be woken up! But†¦can we emulate these results outside of a lab? It turns out that the answer is yes, we can.Based on Dr. Snyder’s work, Dr. Gilbert suggests that â€Å"anything we do that actively fatigues the LATL in a natural way could allow latent drawing, math, spatial, or musical abilities to surface.† She encourages engaging in activities that allow our brains to hyperfocus on the small, meaningless details of things to loosen the oppressive grip of our LATLs on our brain functioning. Things like transcendental meditation, repetition of a nonsensical mantra, and some forms of hypnosis can simulate the effects needed to temporarily suppress LATL activity, and allow our brains to unlock our hidden potential.The next time youâ €™re eager to unleash your mind’s hidden potential, consider the simple tricks mentioned here. Dr. Gilbert sums it up best: â€Å"So here’s the bottom line: To unleash your hidden talent, either focus exclusively on meaningless details or go overboard thinking about the meaning of things around you. Either way, you will push your LATL into the back seat and put your inner genius in the driver’s seat.†

Bruce Lee essays

Bruce Lee essays It was Bruce Lees ability, on screen and off, to cross this gap between Zen intent and violent result that made him truly special. He was a great fighter and an interesting human being who knew how to communicate to both East and West. Alex Ben Block, The Legend of Bruce Lee In light of this quotation, how did Bruce Lee bridge the gulf between Eastern and Western audiences to become an international film star? For many of his fans all across the world, Bruce Lee has achieved an almost God-like status. Many of the books written about him posthumously are written by people who greatly admire the man, people who negate the value of Bruce Lee: the international film star and instead focus, to an almost obsessive level, on Bruce Lee: the king of Kung Fu, Bruce Lee: the Eastern philosopher, Bruce Lee: the mystical sensei, Bruce Lee: the legend. This may be due to his sudden and untimely death in 1973. Less than a year after his death, the writer Alex Ben Block predicted, quite rightly, that, Someday far down the line, after East and West have met, people will tell Bruce Lee stories in the same dreamy way people tell Jimmy Dean or Buddy Holly or Janis Joplin stories. My aim in this essay is to discard all the myths that surround Bruce Lee, all the speculations about the man himself. My focus will be Bruce Lee the film star, the image that he created which appealed to both East and West. In his unfortunately short adult career he completed four films and I will examine these to try and find what it was about Bruce Lee that made him an international star, the qualities that made him popular in both Hong Kong and Britain/America. In the Chinese Year of the Dragon, on 27th November 1940, a baby boy was born to Lee Hoi Cheun (a minor star of the Cantonese Opera Company of Hong Kong) and his wife, Grace. The city of the birth was San Francisco, but this ...

Biography of Cary Grant, Famous Leading Man

Biography of Cary Grant, Famous Leading Man Cary Grant (born Archibald Alexander Leach; January 18, 1904–November 29, 1986) was one of Americans most successful actors of the 20th century. He made his way out of an unhappy home life in Bristol, England, by joining a troupe of British comedians, then crossing the Atlantic to try his hand at vaudeville before becoming a suave screen presence and one of Hollywood’s favorite leading men. Fast Facts: Cary Grant Known For: One of filmdoms favorite leading menAlso Known As: Archibald Alexander LeachBorn: January 18, 1904 in Bristol, EnglandParents: Elias James Leach, Elsie Maria KingdonDied: November 29, 1986 in Davenport, IowaFilms: Topper, To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest, CharadeSpouse(s): Virginia Cherrill, Barbara Woolworth Hutton, Betsy Drake, Dyan Cannon, Barbara HarrisChildren: Jennifer GrantNotable Quote: So would I, when told by an interviewer that Everybody would like to be  Cary Grant. Early Life Grant was the son of Elsie Maria Kingdon and Elias James Leach, a suit presser in a clothing manufacturing plant. The working-class family of Episcopalians lived in a stone row house in Bristol, England, kept warm by coal-burning fireplaces. When Grant was young, his parents often argued with one another. A bright boy, Grant attended the Bishop Road Boys’ School, ran errands for his mother, and enjoyed movies with his father. When Grant was 9, however, his life tragically changed when his mother disappeared. Told that she was resting at a seaside resort, Grant wouldn’t see her for more than 20 years. Now raised by his father and his father’s distant parents, Grant took his mind off his unsettled home life by playing handball at school and joining the Boy Scouts. In school, he loitered in the science lab, fascinated by electricity. The science professor’s assistant took the 13-year-old Grant to the Bristol Hippodrome to show him the lighting system he had installed. Grant became infatuated- not with the lighting, but with the theater. English Theater In 1918, the 14-year-old Grant took a job at the Empire Theater assisting the men working the arc lamps. He frequently skipped school to attend matinees. Hearing that the Bob Pender Troupe of comedians was hiring, Grant wrote Pender an introductory letter, forging his father’s signature. Unbeknownst to his father, Grant was hired and learned to walk on stilts, pantomime, and perform acrobatics, touring English cities with the troupe. Grants devotion was thwarted when his father found him and dragged him home. Grant got himself expelled from school by peeking at the girls in the restroom.  With his father’s blessing, Grant then rejoined the Pender troupe. In 1920, eight boys, Grant among them, were selected from the troupe to appear at New Yorks Hippodrome. The teen sailed for America to begin a new life. Broadway While working in New York in 1921, Grant received a letter from his father saying he had fathered a son named Eric Leslie Leach with another woman. Grant gave little thought to his half-brother, enjoying baseball, Broadway celebrities, and living beyond his means. When the Pender tour ended in 1922, Grant stayed in New York, selling ties on the street and performing on stilts at Coney Island while watching for another vaudeville opening. Soon he was back at the Hippodrome using his acrobatic, juggling, and mime skills. In 1927, Grant appeared in his first Broadway musical comedy, Golden Dawn, at the Hammerstein Theater. Because of his good looks and gentlemanly ways, Grant won the leading male role in a 1928 play, Rosalie. He was spotted by Fox Film Corp. talent scouts and asked to take a screen test, which he flunked: They said he was bowlegged and his neck was too thick. When the stock market crashed in 1929, half of the Broadway theaters closed. Grant took a pay cut but appeared in musical comedies. In the summer of 1931, Grant, hungry for work, appeared at the outdoor Muny Opera in St. Louis, Missouri. Movies In November 1931, the 27-year-old Grant drove cross-country to Hollywood. After a few introductions and dinners, he had another screen test and received a five-year contract with Paramount, but the studio rejected his name. Grant had played a character named Cary on Broadway; the plays author suggested that Grant take that name. He picked Grant from a studio list of last names. Grant’s first feature film, This Is the Night (1932), was followed by seven more films that year. He took parts rejected by seasoned actors. Although Grant was inexperienced, his looks and easy working style kept him in pictures, including the popular Mae West films She Done Him Wrong (1933) and I’m No Angel (1933). Marrying and Going Independent In 1933, Grant met actress Virginia Cherrill, 26, the star of several Charlie Chaplin films, at the William Randolph Hearst beach house and sailed for England that November, his first trip home. They married on February 2, 1934, in London’s Caxton Hall registry office. After seven months, Cherrill left Grant and claimed he was too controlling. They divorced in 1935. In 1936, rather than re-signing with Paramount, Grant hired an independent agent to represent him. Grant could now choose his roles and took taking artistic control of his career, which gave him unprecedented independence at the time. Between 1937 and 1940, Grant honed his screen personality as an elegant, irresistible leading man. He appeared in two moderately successful films, Columbias When Youre in Love (1937) and RKO’s The Toast of New York (1937). Then came box-office success in Topper (1937) and The Awful Truth (1937), which received six Academy Awards- Grant, the leading actor, was not the recipient of any of those awards. Grants Mother Resurfaces In October 1937, Grant received a letter from his mother, saying she wanted to see him. Grant, who thought she had died years before, booked passage to England after he finished filming Gunga Din (1939). At 33, Grant finally learned that his mother had suffered a nervous breakdown and his father put her into an asylum. She had become mentally unbalanced from guilt over losing an earlier son, John William Elias Leach, who had developed gangrene from a torn thumbnail before he turned 1. After watching him around the clock for several nights, Elsie took a nap and the child died. Grant got his mother released and purchased a Bristol home for her. He corresponded with her, visited often, and financially supported her until she died at age 95 in 1973. Marrying Again In 1940, Grant appeared in Penny Serenade (1941) and received an Oscar nomination. He didnt win, but he became a box-office star and, on June 26, 1942, an American citizen. On July 8, 1942, Grant married 30-year-old Barbara Woolworth Hutton, the granddaughter of the founder of Woolworths and one of the worlds wealthiest women. Later, Grant received his second Oscar nomination for Best Actor for None but the Lonely Heart (1944). After several separations and reconciliations, the marriage ended in divorce on July 11, 1945. Hutton had lifelong psychological problems; she was 6 when she found her mother’s body after her suicide. In 1947, Grant received the Kings Medal for Services in the Cause of Freedom for meritorious service during World War II, when he had donated his salaries from two movies to the British war effort. On December 25, 1949, Grant got married for the third time, to 26-year-old Betsy Drake- his co-star in Every Girl Should Be Married (1948). Brief Retirement Grant retired from acting in 1952, sensing that newer, grittier actors such as James Dean and Marlon Brando were the new draw rather than light-hearted comedic actors. Drake introduced Grant to LSD therapy, which was legal at that time. Grant claimed he found inner peace regarding his troubled upbringing. Director Alfred Hitchcock coaxed Grant out of retirement to star in To Catch a Thief (1955). Its acclaim followed two earlier Grant-Hitchcock successes: Suspicion (1941) and Notorious (1946). Grant starred in more films, including Houseboat (1958), where he fell in love with co-star Sophia Loren. Although Loren married producer Carlo Ponti, Grant’s marriage to Drake became strained; they separated in 1958 but didnt divorce until August 1962. Grant starred in another Hitchcock film, North by Northwest (1959). His suave performance made him the archetype for Ian Fleming’s fictional spy James Bond. Grant was offered the role by producer Albert Broccoli, but Grant thought he was too old and would commit to just one film of the potential series. The role ultimately went to 32-year-old Sean Connery in 1962. Grant’s successful movies continued with Charade (1963) and Father Goose (1964). Becoming a Father On July 22, 1965, the 61-year-old Grant married his fourth wife, 28-year-old actress Dyan Cannon. In 1966, Cannon gave birth to daughter Jennifer, Grants first child. Grant announced his retirement from acting that year. Cannon reluctantly joined Grant’s LSD therapy, but her scary experiences strained their relationship. They divorced on March 20, 1968, but Grant remained a doting father. On a trip to England, Grant met hotel public relations officer Barbara Harris, 46 years his junior, and married her on April 15, 1981. They remained married until his death five years later. Death In 1982, Grant began touring the international lecture circuit in a one-man show called A Conversation with Cary Grant, during which he talked about his films, showed clips, and answered audience questions. Grant was in Davenport, Iowa, when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while preparing for the show. He died that night, Nov. 29, 1986, at age 82. Legacy In 1970, Grant received a special Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his acting achievements. Coupled with his two previous best actor Oscar nominations, five Golden Globe best actor nominations, 1981 Kennedy Center honors, and nearly two dozen other major nominations and awards, Grants place in film history is secure, as is his image of grace and civility. In 2004, Premiere magazine named him the greatest movie star of all time. Sources â€Å"Cary Grant.† IMDb.Cary Grant Biography. Biography.com.Cary Grant: British-American Actor. Encyclopaedia Britannica.10 Things You Never Knew About Cary Grant, Hollywood’s Greatest Leading Man. Littlethings.com.

Management (Self-Analysis & Professional Development Plan) Essay

Management (Self-Analysis & Professional Development Plan) - Essay Example Before moving into the two sections, listed below are the set of tests that I have undertaken. Also, the results to the test have been attached in the appendix for reference purposes. Before I go into my self analysis, it is essential to get a brief idea about me. I am twenty seven years old and am originally from the Middle East. I have been brought up there and hence English has been my second language. I am a simple and down to earth person with a high zest for life and a learner. Based on all of the results that I obtained from the personality tests, I have got a clearer understanding of myself and I present this as below. My basic character is a good mix of several different aspects like being agreeable, Conscientiousness, and emotional stability. I have scored a total of 13, 12 and 12 for each of the above mentioned respectively. Based on this, it is clear that I have several qualities that will help me in my career. According to the tests, I am a person who is very agreeable, with a calm, trusting, responsible, dependable, imaginative and cooperative nature. I agree to this as by nature I have always been a very quite person, with simple hopes and desires and have always been aware of my responsibilities and my surroundings. I understand the need to be aware of the feeling of others around me. I have been brought up in a large family and hence, these traits have been present from childhood. I have learnt from my mistakes that it is essential to be enthusiastic about things, yet a reasonable and rational decision can only be made with a calm and composed mindset. A saying by George Herbert, reads, à ¢â‚¬ËœBe calm in arguing; for fierceness makes error a fault, and truth discourtesy’1.Hence I pay a lot of attention to being calm, composed yet enthusiastic about life and all its giving. The test to check my Jungian 16 – Type personality also portrays and speaks a lot about me. The results of this test are very accurate and it

Disaster recovery plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Disaster recovery plan - Essay Example I have a detention center that sits on 4.5 acres of area. It’s composed of approximately 196,000 sq. feet of space, comprised of laboratories, faculty offices, administrative offices, auditoriums, classrooms, gymnasium, cafeteria and housing. All of the buildings on campus are constructed with steel frames and supported by concrete spread footing as per the uniform building codes of the State of Virginia. All basement walls are reinforced concrete and are protected by waterproofing through out. To begin with a few observations are necessary. The construction in this space are all up to code and well-built. That sort of standardization makes coming up with a place much easier. Second, the size of the area is not especially large, but it bigger than an ordinary small business. That must be taken into account. The first step to take is a Risk Analysis. What kind of risks are these operations subject to? Can they be anticipated? How serious are they? Can their impact be minimized? Virginia is not known to suffer from a lot of earthquakes or natural disasters. The most likely disaster are fires and major storms. The more serious of these—a fire—can be effectively anticipated by a serious sprinkler system and well-trained security personnel. The operations do not take place on the edge of a cliff or near a large body of water so many potential risks are therefore averted. Next it is important to look at the budget for any such plan. How much are you willing to spend. In order to protect from a fire it might be a good idea to make all walls fire retardant—that, however, would be prohibitively expensive. There is only so much money in the world. Still, it is important to remember than an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Look for effective and efficient way of reducing risk, with an eye to your pocketbook. No plan should be more than five per cent of operating costs. It is possible to become too paranoid about these sorts of things. Once

Project management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 14

Project management - Essay Example In addition, the paper will also evaluate current issues prevailing in project management and real instances in order to assess role of stakeholders in management of different types of projects. Project stakeholders are a group of individuals who has positive or negative interest in a project, which in turn affect functionality of the project. In general, interests and attitudes of individuals can be dissimilar towards a project. In any project, the primary stakeholders include: Since different stakeholders have separate set of interest in a project, their influence differs across various groups or individuals. However, every stakeholder is important for a project and one should understand their level of interest in the project as this affects success or failure. Moreover, it is the stakeholders who judge performance of a project, instead of project team and manager (Kerzner, 2013). Considering the role of stakeholders, it is crucial that their priorities, need, influence and interest are thoroughly analysed. The analysis results in better understanding of important stakeholders and development of appropriate communication strategy for stakeholder management. One of the important tools is stakeholder mapping, where key stakeholders are identified and categorised as per their interest and influence (Newcombe, 2003). A decade ago, stakeholder management was an area, which drew least amount of attention and was hardly considered in any sort of project development. Yet, growing complexity in the project management area has resulted in consideration of stakeholders as critical element of projects. There are internal as well as external stakeholders and they differ on grounds of project scope, geographical location and external environment of the project. It is a difficult task to manage the stakeholders and requires continuous involvement of project members such as, managers, for continuous improvement in relationship and building mutual trust (Pan, 2005). An

Case study of The United Arab Emirates youths (UAEU) between modernity Essay

Case study of The United Arab Emirates youths (UAEU) between modernity and traditionalism - Essay Example To determine the available opportunities for young UAE nationals for the sole purpose of the implementation of processes that aim to replace the expatriate workforce with UAE nationals it is critical to determine their priorities in terms of religious and cognitive values. This is, as a matter of fact, what this study aims to do. 3- What was / were the methods used? The methodology of the study comprised the use of a questionnaire to conduct the research. An instrument of value structure was used to measure the values among UAEU students. Scores of each item took 0 and 3, where a score of 0 represented no choice and higher grades would indicate more choice. The numbers of items used were 60 pairs and they were used to measure individual differences on this instrument. 4- How large was the sample? The sample consisted of 595 students all of who were from UAEU. The selection process for these students was random and approximately 59 percent of them were female students, while the rest were male. Furthermore 81 percent of them were less than 25 years old and 84 percent of them were UAE nationals. 5- Interpretation: what were the results? The results of the study were relatively straightforward. The first priority amongst domains for a UAE national was that of religion; aspects of praying, believing, Quran reading and charity ranking the highest. The second priority was the cognitive domain which comprised of aspects of culture, success and aspiration ranked the most. The political domain came in as the third priority. With nationality, unity and freedom ranked at the top. The forth priority was the aesthetic domain. The students held aspects of elegancy as the most important value in this domain. The Social domain came next with obedience, friendship and forgiveness given the most rating. And the last domain was that of economic values, with productivity being the first priority for the UAEU students. 6- Synthesis: what were the conclusions? As an overall conclusi on of the research paper which evaluates the social values of a UAEU national through the use of a questionnaire the results produced indicate that religious and cognitive values were prioritized by the respondents In order to explore the importance of these socio-demographic factors in explaining the variation of values, multiple regression was used. The results of which display that gender, income, family size and father’s education explain about (11 percent) of social values variation and citizenship, GPA, gender variables explain about (8 percent) of religious values variation. Hence showing that gender, income levels, family size and father’s occupation were the most important factors in?uencing values. 7- Evaluate: how valid do you think the research was? The validity of a research hinges on the fact whether it measures what it sets out to. Looking at the objectives of this study what its sole aim is to appraise the values held by the United Arab Emirates Univers ity students and to assess the influence of socio-demographic factors on their values. That being said once we analyze the methodology, sample and the produced results we can effectively conclude that the research is credible in its findings and hence valid. 8- Evaluate: What is your response to the result? What has it contributed to your understanding? After going through the results I have come to the realization that the priorities of a UAE national hinge more towards the traditional side than the modern. With factors such

CHILDHOOD OBESITY Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

CHILDHOOD OBESITY - Research Paper Example s learn about the childhood obesity problem is essential in equipping the students with the best practices for intervention in the issue of childhood obesity. The findings are important since they emphasize the interventions nurses should play in addressing the issue of childhood obesity. Berkowitz, B., & Borchard, M. (2009). Advocating for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity: A Call to Action for Nursing. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 14(1), 2-9. Retrieved March 20, 2014, from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol142009/No1Jan09/Prevention-of-Childhood-Obesity.html Like the work carried out by Ben-Sefer (2012), these two authors engage in another systemic review although they focus on literature related to childhood obesity and nurses’ interventions in the population. Hence, the authors offer a background for the discussion of childhood obesity by examining factors contributing to overweight and obesity in children and investigate the intervention roles of nurses and their intervention strategies. The authors conclude that literature supports the important intervention role of nurses in a family-based approach that focuses on advocacy, development of skills among parents, and collaborative leadership with families in order to establish healthy living among children and prevent obesity at a young age. Hence, the article is an important component of my study as it accentuates the fact that nurses have an intervention role to play. Bohman, B., Ghaderi, A., & Rasmussen, F. (2013). Training in Methods of Preventing Childhood Obesity Increases Self-efficacy in Nurses in Child Health Services: AÂÂ  Randomized, Controlled Trial. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior , pii: S1499-4046(13), 00691-X. This is a quasi-experimental study that involved a randomized, controlled trial conducted in child health services in Sweden with 60 nurse practitioners of which 38 subjects were control

Case study of The United Arab Emirates youths (UAEU) between modernity Essay

Case study of The United Arab Emirates youths (UAEU) between modernity and traditionalism - Essay Example To determine the available opportunities for young UAE nationals for the sole purpose of the implementation of processes that aim to replace the expatriate workforce with UAE nationals it is critical to determine their priorities in terms of religious and cognitive values. This is, as a matter of fact, what this study aims to do. 3- What was / were the methods used? The methodology of the study comprised the use of a questionnaire to conduct the research. An instrument of value structure was used to measure the values among UAEU students. Scores of each item took 0 and 3, where a score of 0 represented no choice and higher grades would indicate more choice. The numbers of items used were 60 pairs and they were used to measure individual differences on this instrument. 4- How large was the sample? The sample consisted of 595 students all of who were from UAEU. The selection process for these students was random and approximately 59 percent of them were female students, while the rest were male. Furthermore 81 percent of them were less than 25 years old and 84 percent of them were UAE nationals. 5- Interpretation: what were the results? The results of the study were relatively straightforward. The first priority amongst domains for a UAE national was that of religion; aspects of praying, believing, Quran reading and charity ranking the highest. The second priority was the cognitive domain which comprised of aspects of culture, success and aspiration ranked the most. The political domain came in as the third priority. With nationality, unity and freedom ranked at the top. The forth priority was the aesthetic domain. The students held aspects of elegancy as the most important value in this domain. The Social domain came next with obedience, friendship and forgiveness given the most rating. And the last domain was that of economic values, with productivity being the first priority for the UAEU students. 6- Synthesis: what were the conclusions? As an overall conclusi on of the research paper which evaluates the social values of a UAEU national through the use of a questionnaire the results produced indicate that religious and cognitive values were prioritized by the respondents In order to explore the importance of these socio-demographic factors in explaining the variation of values, multiple regression was used. The results of which display that gender, income, family size and father’s education explain about (11 percent) of social values variation and citizenship, GPA, gender variables explain about (8 percent) of religious values variation. Hence showing that gender, income levels, family size and father’s occupation were the most important factors in?uencing values. 7- Evaluate: how valid do you think the research was? The validity of a research hinges on the fact whether it measures what it sets out to. Looking at the objectives of this study what its sole aim is to appraise the values held by the United Arab Emirates Univers ity students and to assess the influence of socio-demographic factors on their values. That being said once we analyze the methodology, sample and the produced results we can effectively conclude that the research is credible in its findings and hence valid. 8- Evaluate: What is your response to the result? What has it contributed to your understanding? After going through the results I have come to the realization that the priorities of a UAE national hinge more towards the traditional side than the modern. With factors such

Game Design Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Game Design Plan - Essay Example But unfortunately, you do not have enough funds and needs someone to sponsor this trip. So, you ask your boss, Mr. X for help, who comes up with a very interesting deal due to his wild craze for puzzle, according to which you, the player, must go through his special area (level of a game), populated with a set number of destructible bricks and you must break all of them using a ball and a paddle, without letting the ball fall to ground; if you succeed, then you will get a chance to fly to any one historical place in the world; in this manner, as you can predict, for each place, there will be a special area. However, if you, the player, lose then you will have to work for Mr. X for a year without any pay. The core idea of the game is heavily inspired by another, similar game - Smashing (available at http://www.miniclip.com/games/smashing/en/) in which each level has a set number of destructible bricks and the player uses a ball and a paddle to break all of them to move on to the next level; if the ball falls below the game area, a paddle is lost.. Even though, this existing game is highly enjoyable but at the same time, there are various aspects that can be enhanced or added, for example, facilitating the player to select difficulty level, inclusion of distinct sound effects for ball collisions as a means to praise the player for destroying bricks or adding a game-continue feature, therefore, becoming a clear source of inspiration to modify the existing game, without compromising the core notion that made the existing game so enjoyable in the first place. II. Genre and Audience The games that are based around the dynamics of a player controlled block, called a paddle or a bat, which hits a ball towards another player's bat or game specific object are generally categorized under "Bat-and-Ball" genre. At more specialized level of this genre, those games which are characterized by the addition of a wall of blocks or similar objects, that the player chips away at with the ball as part of the main game-play, are known as "Breakout-style game" or "Breakout clone"; most of these games highly depends on hand-and-eye coordination and quick reflexes, rather than thought and logic. Some of the notable Breakout Clone games are the Arkanoid series, Circus Atari, Thro' the Wall, DX Ball and Block Breaker Deluxe. The profusion and notability of such games has been sufficient enough for them to also be referred to by some as a genre in their own right. However, since this is a fairly narrow definition of a genre, it is often not considered as such, but even then so, in the view of above statements, our proposed game can be tagged same as a Breakout-style game, and therefore, can be categorized under "Bat-and-Ball" genre. Although Smashing is a nice game and both kids and teenagers can enjoy playing it but it might not be the choice for adults as it doesn't have much to offer, especially in terms of complexity and involvedness. On the other hand, this game will not only cover the Smashing's audience, but will also take care of

Family meals Essay Example for Free

Family meals Essay The article present the issue of meals from a good perspective: it identifies that some families eat together and others do not. It states from researches that studies carried out on families that eat together on the same table are more likely to produce positive health results than others who do not: such positive health factors are enumerated in each paragraph. It states that such family meals make it easier to control diet, amount and quality. It promotes communication about nutrition; it helps to regulate the type of food consumed. Besides it is a good forum for socialization among the family members, and even visitors.   It provides the ‘opportunity to eat better’ and also the ‘chance to connect’. The latter helps to understand each other better, find about current issues in the lives of members, and even teaches the children cooking and eating etiquettes.   It concludes with a profound statement:   Family meals arent just about food, theyre about family. I am particularly interested in the type of meal that can earn the tag ‘family meal’. And really, it is worth remembering that meals can also be a time to get together with family members. For parents that do not have time for their children, this may not possible but for others who have such opportunity, I strongly believe it is a very good idea: it creates a forum for me to learn how to cook, how to serve and how to eat especially when it involves others. If I have anything bothering my mind, I can share it there. If I also notice something about my siblings, friends, visitors, other extended family members, I can bring it and the challenge/burden can be shared. It is also a good forum to celebrate any achievement. I like the idea of family meals because it helps to strengthen families and build loving homes. There is no doubt that if we can adopt this kind of idea all over the country, things would change, families are likely to become more stable and children will live in conducive happy homes. I think that the topic was presented in a good and lively way. It has information from researches and experts in the food. After going through the article, you’d have read through an unusual topic that makes a lot of sense. It starts with a description of meal times, connects to the advantages of family means and ends with the obstacle to achieving the concept. I am also concerned about this noble idea can be implemented in this kind of age, when everyone appears to be in a hurry chasing the wild wind. Is it really practicable in this jet age? Are there other means of achieving same socialization outside meals times? REFERENCE Family meals. http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/11/07/cl.family.meals/index.html

The Importance Of Interpersonal Communication Cultural Studies Essay

The Importance Of Interpersonal Communication Cultural Studies Essay Taking this class has really opened up my eyes on just how important communication skills really are whether it be verbal communication or non-verbal communication. In this paper I am going to focus on the interpersonal relationships. I think for me this was the most helpful for me with everything I have learned on communication. With writing this paper I understand interpersonal communication a little more than I did before. Everyone should be made to take a class so they actually understand communication and a way to just not have and I dont care attitude. Today many people still lack the ability to communicate effectively with in interpersonal relationships. It is through cooperation and collaboration that effective communication occurs. By analyzing and studying the communication process we can improve our ability to communicate effectively between one another. To have a successful interpersonal relationship one must first interact with others in an informal setting, which is called interpersonal communication (Hybels pg.156). Recognizing emotions in other is a very important first step to building a relationship. If you cant feel what someone else is feeling then you cant connect with them on a personal level and that can hinder your relationship process. Interpersonal communication is important because of the functions it achieves. Whenever we engage in communication with another person, we seek to gain information about them. We also give off information through a wide variety of verbal and non-verbal cues. Verbal communication has huge effects on many aspects of life, including interpersonal relationships. Speaking and telling our needs and wants verbally or non-verbally is a necessity for daily life. Verbal communication is organized by language; non-verbal communication is not. Most of us spend about 75 percent of our waking hours communicating our knowledge, thoughts, and ideas to others. However, most of us fail to realize that a great deal of our communication is of a non-verbal form as opposed to the oral and written forms. Non-verbal communication includes facial expressions, eye contact, tone of voice, body posture and motions, and positioning within groups. It may also include the way we wear our clothes or the silence that we keep. In person-to-person communications our messages are sent on two levels simultaneously. If the nonverbal cues and the spoken message are incongruous, the flow of communication is hindered. Right or wrong, the receiver of the communication tends to base the intentions of the sender on the non-verbal cues one receives. Before a person makes an attempt to form an interpersonal relationship they must decide what attracts them to that person. There are many factors that make up attraction to others. Physical attraction, perceived gain, similarities, differences, and proximity are some of them (Hybels, 2007). Most people are first attracted to others because of the way they look. Some people might have distinct characteristics that one might be attracted to such as; blues eyes, short hair, or even a small space between their teeth. If a person is not attracted to your appearance they are not likely to come up and carry on a conversation with you. For example, if an individual, who dislikes tattoos, is taking a class and has to choose a partner for a project, but there are only two people left and one of them has tattoos he or she will mostly likely choose the individual without tattoos, even if the person with tattoos is a very intelligent individual. There are many cases where we are attracted to someone because of the perceived gain associated them for example, one might become friends with an employee at a restaurant in hope of having discounted meal when they eat there. The similarities and differences are a major factor in determining if the relationship will be right for you. Often we find ourselves attracted to people that share the same beliefs, values, and religion. Most people are also attracted to people who enjoy the same activities as they do. Contrary to the similarities people may also be attracted to the differences. For example, person who doesnt like making decisions might be attracted to a strong decision maker. Because these characteristics complement each other, they might help strengthen the relationship (Hybels, 2007 pg161). Proximity is a valuable factor also when it comes to evaluating the pros and cons of a relationship. Proximity is the close contact that occurs when people share an experience such as at work, school, or play (Hybels, 2007 pg161).If a person does not want to have a long distance romantic relationship and their partner moves away to attend college in another state, then it is most likely that the relationship will not last. Moving on to the next steps of forming an interpersonal relationship would be our motives for communicating. We are motivated to form relationships for many different reasons such as, pleasure, affection, inclusion, escape, relaxation, control and health (Hybels, 2007 pg162-163). If an individual is motivated by pleasure he or she might just want someone to go to the movies or discuss politics with. Maybe we might be motivated by affection; many people are looking for someone to give them attention; a pat on the back or a little kiss every now and then. Many marriages end in divorce because of the lack of affection from their partner, but if they could have communicated effectively to each other that they needed more affection the relationship might not have ended. But no matter what might motivate us, once we have started developing a relationship we have to decide how much of our selves we want to disclose to the relationship and at what point in the relationship. Self- disclosure is a process in which one person tells another person something he or she would not reveal to just anyone (Hybels, 2007 pg168). Self-disclosure is not simply providing information to another person. Instead, scholars define self-disclosure as sharing information with others that they would not normally know or discover. Self-disclosure involves risk and vulnerability on the part of the person sharing the information. Self-disclosure performs many functions. It is also a way of gaining information about another person. We want to be able to predict the thoughts and actions of people we know. Self-disclosure is one way to learn about how another person thinks and feels. Once one person engages in self-disclosure, it is implied that the other person will also disclose personal information. Mutual disclosure deepens trust in the relationships and helps both people understand each other more. You also feel better about yourself and your relationship when the other person accepts what you tell them. While self disclosure can strengthen a relationship it can also damage it. A relationship can be damaged if the person you are pouring your soul out to do not like what they are hearing or if self-disclosure comes too early in a relationship it can be damaged. Thus, while self-disclosure is useful, it can also be damaging to a relationship. There are five different stages that we progress through while deve loping and strengthening our relationships, these are the coming together stages. No matter what type of relationship it is; romantic, platonic, or same gender relationship each kind still goes through each stages. The first stage is the initiating stage. The initiating stage is characterized by nervousness, caution, a bit of hesitation, and risk of being rejected (Hybels, 2007 pg186). Although one might proceed with caution, this stage can be very joyful experience and the outcomes can be great. Most people leave this stage with a new friend. The next stage is the experimenting stage. In this stage people make an effort to seek out common interest and experiences (Hybels, 2007 pg186). One might express a love for children and hopes of being a parent one day. This would be an important topic to discuss for a romantic relationship; each person needs to be aware of what the future might hold for them if they continue with the relationship. When experimenting with each other by discussing important topics and seeing the reactions of other, one can make a valid decision based on their knowledge of the other person to continue the relationship to the next stage. The intensifying stage is the third s tage that we go through. Self-disclosure becomes more common in the intensifying stage. The relationship becomes less formal and statements are made about the level of commitment each has to the relationship. In this stage individuals might have nick names for one another or inside jokes. A statement about attending a vacation next summer in France is an example of the commitment one might have for the relationship. But while self-disclosure becomes more common and makes the relationship stronger it can also make the participants vulnerable to each other. The integrating stage is the fourth stage. This is the point where personalities are beginning to merge; people are expecting to see them together (Hybels, 2007 pg187). The individuals become a pair. They begin to do things together and, importantly, others come to see them as a pair. A shared relational identity also starts to form in this stage. By the end of this stage individuals should know how to communicate and responds with ease and understanding of the other persons feelings. The final stage of coming together is the bonding stage. At this point, the participants make some sort of commitment that announces their relationship to those around them (Hybels, 2007 pg 188). Two girls friends might say they are now best friends to announce their comment to their relationship or a couple might announce they are getting married or buying a house together. This stage involves a lot of commitment and dedication to the relationship and to each other. In all of the stages discussed we all have decision to make. We can either progress forward to the next stage, stay in the same stage we are in, move back a stage or exit the relationship all together. No matter what we as individuals choose to do we need to know how to communicate effectively to that next stage and we need to know how to handle conflict or resolve conflict in our relationships. We can do this by conflict resolution, which is negotiating to find a solution to the conflict (Hybels, 2007 pg202). Depending on how a conflict is resolved it can produce a positive or negative result. For example if two sisters are fight over a dress to wear on the weekend, they have two choices: one wear the dress and the other one does not, which leaves one sister unhappy (negative outcome) or neither of them wear it, so both are satisfied and neither of them are jealous of the other (positive outcome). It also helps to take a positive approach to conflict resolution, where discussion is considerate and non-confrontational, and the heart of the matter is on issues rather than on individuals. If this is done, then as long as people listen carefully and explore facts, issues and possible solutions properly, conflict can often be resolved effectively. In conclusion, communication is the key to everyday life. You have to communicate on a daily basis so why not learn some skills that are going to help you communicate more effectively so you are understood instead of misunderstood. Your body language is also an important key, you need to show that you have good body language and you can gain more positive friends and more people will be willing to walk up to you and talk. Everything now a day is based on how you present yourself to someone you meet.

Ghost Story of the Landon House Essay examples -- Urban Legends Ghost

Landon House: Urbana, Maryland Urban legends and ghost stories play an important role in society. Supernatural and â€Å"uncanny† events are evident in the folklore of every culture. Stories of the supernatural, such as ghosts and magic, are typically passed down as oral traditions from generation to generation. With the advent of mass media, such as television and the Internet, ghost stories can become easily popularized. The realm of ghost stories and urban legends is divided among skeptics and believers. However, â€Å"the lack of verification in no way diminishes the appeal urban legends have for us,† (Brunvand 2). Whether one believes in ghosts or not, it is not uncommon for some people to blame peculiar happenings on the supernatural. This is not unlike the unexplained chill that goes up you spine or makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Regardless whether a ghost story is fantastical or ostensibly based in truth, the overall impact of the story on the listeners depends on t he delivery of the orator. When prompted for a ghost story or urban legend of our town, my girlfriend pointed to the Landon House as a source for several ghost stories and supernatural happenings. I was told this story while driving back from the movie theater at about one A.M. The route back to our homes ironically leads past the Landon House. We both also live approximately one mile from it. As we turned off the highway, onto the deserted back roads, she began the story: For as long as anyone can remember, late at night at the Landon house a white figure of an old woman carrying a candle has been seen walking through the hallways of the second floor. Passersby claim to witness the flicker of a candle in a window long after the fina... ... story and compare it to those that already exist. As any story gets passed along, the minor components will always vary with the stable elements will remaining the same. The symbols in the Landon House ghost story, specifically the old woman, the civil war soldiers, and the dogs, show that our society believes that repeated actions transcend time, that death leaves its mark, and that disturbing the peace of spirits tends to â€Å"awaken† them. Works Cited Brunvand, Jan Harold. The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings. New York: W. W. Norton, 1981. Cannon, Timothy L., Nancy Whitmore. Ghosts and Legends of Frederick County. Frederick, Maryland: Studio 20 Inc., 1979. Dunne, Patrick. "Ghost Stories Haunt Landon House." The Frederick Newspost 27 Oct. 2005. 6 Apr. 2008 http://www.gazette.net/stories/102705/newmnew200912_31894.shtml.

Restaurant Business Plan

Confidentiality Agreement The undersigned reader acknowledges that the information provided in this business plan is confidential; therefore, the reader agrees not to disclose it without the express written permission of . It is acknowledged by the reader that information to be furnished in this business plan is in all respects confidential in nature, other than information that is in the public domain through other means, and that any disclosure or use of this confidential information by the reader may cause serious harm or damage to .Upon request, this document is to be immediately returned to >. Signature: Name: Amanda Walsh David Cagney Date This is a business plan. It does not imply offering of securities. (1) Executive Summary The Grab: Do you want to expand your horizons when it comes to good quality Italian cuisine? The Taster offers you the opportunity to sample food before ordering off the menu free of charge. They recognized that people stick to their comfort zone when it comes to ordering food in restaurants and wanted to change this by letting the customers excite their taste buds.The Problem: A problem the restaurant is preparing to face is to distinguish between serious customers who have an interest in trying new cuisines and customers who come into the restaurant and take advantage of the service in a negative way and don’t appreciate the offer that is provided. This problem could have serious repercussions and affect the profit of the business significantly and therefore must be controlled. The Solution: The solve this issue the staff have to monitor the customers closely, allowing customers limited samples of the food to ensure they don’t fill up on free samples and leave.The chef’s responsibility is to ensure each customer only receives a bite size amount of the food, over indulging the customers will eat into the profits and defeat the purpose of the service provided. The Opportunity: It can be rather challenging to tar get different market segments simultaneously but at The Taster restaurant we are planning on catering to a wide customer base. We segmented the market according to Geographic, Demographic and Psychographic.Our market size is relatively small in comparison to world wide international restaurant chains for example the Hard Rock cafà © however we do have the potential to grow in the market and expand our business in Ireland and possibly the United Kingdom. Your Competitive Advantage: Currently there are six other restaurants in the area and it puts the Taster in direct competition with Casa Pasta & Pizza. The menus that the two restaurants offer are very similar as they are both Italian cuisines however the taster has an advantage over them as they have a potential unique selling point of sampling the food as mentioned above.The Model: The Taster aim to generate revenue from their target market by creating a ground-breaking, unique restaurant with a relaxed sophisticated atmosphere th at will clearly differentiate the restaurant from others. The main goal is to use nothing but high quality fresh Italian ingredients and to approach each customer with the highest standard of service imaginable all of the time with none expectations what so ever. This makes the restaurant scalable as it has the potential to generate growth in the revenues considerably faster than its cost base.The Team: The team at The Taster have the ability to achieve all the goals and succeed in the business and it grows and becomes more successful. When hiring staff for the restaurant only qualified, trained and experienced people will be made part of the team. Highly motivated and enthusiastic people will be favoured. Additional training will be provided as the restaurant wants the highest level of customer service and for customers needs to be dealt with before the customer even anticipates them to allow them to have an incredible dining experience.Financials: Our financial projections for the first five years are as follows. The key driver to succeed is that the company needs to successfully operate through the first year in order to provide adequate cash flow to be self-sufficient in year two. The Ask: The initial financing available to the company in addition to the capital contributions from the owners, will allow The Taster to successfully open and maintain operations for the initial five years of business and offer the customers in the Donnybrook area a unique dining experience.Start-up costs and initial financing are as follows. Jane Ericson will be investing $20,000 of savings and guaranteeing a loan for another $30,000 with personal assets. In addition, the business will receive an interest-free loan from a family member of $10,000, to be repaid within the first year. (figures to be changed) (2) Team and company The Taster was founded in 2011 by Amanda Walsh and David Cagney who are the two joint investors in the project. They created Italian restaurant that off ers customers fresh homemade Italian food at a reasonable price.There is also the opportunity for the customer to taste a bite sized amount of the food if they are unsure before ordering. They will offer a few different types of menus depending on the day of the week and time of day including lunch and early bird menus during the week and set menus and lunch menus at the weekend. The Taster will be open seven days a week, serving lunch and early bird menus Monday till Thursday and set menus and al la carte menus Friday till Sunday. What relevant experience has the team got? David Cagney has been working as a bar man for the past two years in the Aviva Stadium.He has recently graduated from the Aviva Academy which was a significant achievement as he was picked from a group of one hundred applicants out of two hundred. David has also worked as a part-time waiter in Foleys Bar, near Stephens Green and in Graingers along the Malahide road. Amanda has over two years’ experience as a chef and a waitress for the Bad Ass Cafà © in Temple Bar. As we have both have experience in the hospitality industry, their skills complement each other which makes it easier to occasionally share ideas and views on how to take their business proposition to the next level.What are the gaps in the team? Both members of the team are very weak when it comes to the financial aspects of setting up a business. They contracted professional accounts to help with this aspect of the business as it is a very important. The businesses needed someone to draw up a cash flow, profit and loss account and a balance sheet for their financial projections. Has the team worked successfully in the past? The team have not worked with each other in the past, except for the development of their feasibility study.Despite the fact that they have never worked with each other they are making significant progress and working alongside each other throughout the project. Are they well known in the industry? T he team are currently not well known in the industry as they have never worked with each other in order to make a name for themselves. They are confident that their ideas will satisfy customers’ expectations and will make their dining experience a pleasant one, one which they will want to go back and tell all their friends and family about. Who has the experience with solving this customer problem?The team will only gain this experience by actually going out and setting up the business, with the skills they have picked whilst working in the hospitality sector. Who has experience selling competitive offerings to this market? Both Amanda and David have limited experience on how to sell competitive offerings, although they have some knowledge in relation pricing strategies from their marketing studies.They believe that how they’ll price their menus as opposed to other Italian restaurants in the market i. e. , Casa Pasta and Pizza, will be vital in the early stages of thei r launch. 3) Product and market The opportunity problem: Value proposition: The Taster restaurant satisfies the customers’ needs of eating out and gives them the knowledge they need behind them when ordering food. Waiters can be very vague when describing the taste of the dishes that customers are curious about and a lot of times have never tasted the foods themselves. The Tasters gives the diners an opportunity to try the foods so they can have their own opinion and peace of mind when a ordering a new dish or something a bit different, so they know exactly what they are getting.This business goal could generate potential customers in the long run through word of mouth and effective advertising as it has many benefits to the customer. It allows customers to try new foods and avoids them been left with a full meal they won’t enjoy which saves them money on wasted food. The customer: The Taster has created a market for several different categories of customers. The indiv idual people that go for lunch or dinner by themselves usually during or after office hours. Families and friends who dine together for lunch or dinner usually on a Sunday, they intend to make Sundays a very family orientated day.Couples usually go out on a Friday or Saturday night for a romantic meal. To encourage as many couples as possible they plan on having a set menu for two people including a bottle of wine. And finally People on a budget, they took into consideration the recession and that a lot of people are on a budget now so they created an early bird menu from Monday to Thursday to cater for these people on a low budget and hopefully fill the restaurant during the week on nights that it wouldn’t necessarily be busy .The Market: The Taster is faced with the exciting opportunity of being the first restaurant to be able to sample the food before ordering. This concept puts them in a great place in the market and gives them the potential to become a huge success. Ther e isn’t a huge market as we can only reach a percentage of the country but there is huge potential for the market to grow at a steady pace as the restaurants expand, every five years if all goes to plan. There is no shortage of restaurants in the Dublin four area, which puts The Taster in a competitive market.According to Porter’s five force model The Taster is structurally attractively as they have an advantage over their rivals in relation to changing price with their set menus and the fact they can differentiate their product from others in the market with similar establishments. Market size: Market context: Here is the pest analysis for The Taster restaurant. All of these factors are inevitable and cannot be changed by the restaurant * The political factors include Government regulations for food preparation has been put to place to ensure the safety of customers in the restaurants.Food safety authority of Ireland has put a procedure called HACCP into place to regu late this. The government have full control over tax and vat rates. For the initial set up of the restaurant high interest rates might discourage us from borrowing money from a financial institution because it costs so much to borrow. * Economic factors are Inflation, which will increase the amount of wages for employees and automatically increase the business expenses as wages is one the highest expenses in a business. Eating ut in restaurants isn’t an essential it’s a luxury that many people in this economic climate cannot avail of as they have lack of disposable income. * Social factors include the huge increase in health awareness and people concern more about their diet and lifestyle.The Taster took this into consideration when creating their menu and included many healthy options to choice from. Over the past few years the media have put a lot of attention on healthy living and healthy life styles. The chefs had to take this into account when we are preparing the food in the kitchen.A lot of woman are now working full and part time and not staying at home so there is a huge decrease in the amount of people cooking at home as it is more convenient to eat out and get take- aways. * Technological factors in the restaurant have made significant changes for example when an employee puts a customer’s order into the till the order is sent directly to the kitchen so it saves time. The process of ordering food is made simply and efficient as the chefs can make food orders online. This allows them to order exact quantities of food at any given stage during the day even on weekends.Handheld computer devises also allows staff members to take orders quicker and not have to write it down, not only does this save on paper it also like the till sends orders directly to kitchen. Competitive positioning and advantage: The Taster’s positioning in the market will generate sales against the competition and give them a competitive edge over the oth er establishments. By offering the consumers a unique product, along with outstanding service, The Taster will stand out in comparison to the competition which is an attractive prospect for potential investors to the restaurant.Currently there are six other restaurants in the area and we are in direct competition with Casa Pasta & Pizza. They also have lunch specials and early bird menus to attract customers. The foods we are providing are very similar because they are both Italian so we have obvious similarities in the menus. The competitors will respond to a new restaurant opening in the market by been even more competitive with prices, quality and the service. They have an advantage over the direct competition that competes with what they are offering as they have a unique set up in the restaurant as it provides customers with samples of the food.They also have the advantage that they have a variety of food menus on offer to compete in the recession and cater for most people†™s budgets. The one disadvantage that The Taster has over the competition is that the other restaurants are well known and well established in the market place and have a regular customer base. Competitive Advantage: As mentioned above The Taster intends on competing with the competition by been unique, competitively priced, produce dishes from the finest freshest ingredients and serve the dishes with the highest standard of quality. Risk Factors: Risk| Comment/mitigation|What if there are customers that come in and try our food and samples and walk out? | We will not only rethink the way we produce our cuisine, but we will also rethink how we make our dining service more attractive. | What if a lot of disinterested passers are attracted by the offer and will go in and take the food samples and are generally being very messy? | They will have to look into hiring security in order to manage any antics that might occur from the disinterested people. | How will the restaurant fair wi th the Italian restaurant across the road and the ones in town?This risk is somehow too vague to consider quite just yet, although it will turn into a concern later on. | What will happen if the restaurant can’t manage to balance revenue from our expenses? | This is a possible problem that may occur in the early stages of the business if they don’t manage their expenses well. | What will happen if the main suppliers go out of business for whatever reasons? | They will have to figure out a way of contracting a back-up supplier in the likely event of something as unfortunate ever happening. | Exit StrategyThe Exit Strategy is one of the most important parts in the business. The company needs to ensure that the exit of the company and handing it over to another investor is successful. A plan has to be put into place to make the transition successful according to the company’s circumstances and any requirements that an individual shareholders of the company may have . Assuming The Taster turns into a successful business they intend on selling all of their assets and dividing the finance accumulated among the shareholders in proportion with the money they initially invested into the company.They are assuming they won’t be in debt and each shareholder receives a desirable profit from the business venture. The Taster exit strategy could be due to the liquidation of the company, the sale of the company or the strategic alliance with a partnering company. Although they are assuming they will be success they have to discuss all possibilities and outcomes with the investors to show them what will happen in the worst case scenario and inform them of all risks that are attached. The investors will review all risks and rewards and make a final decision if they want to invest into the company.

Do Women Lust

Do Women Lust? I think that all women lust because every female has a hormone that comes out when they see a hot guy. They begin to start thinking about the guy and what he looks like with his clothes off. Some women even go as far as telling their friend that’s around them what they would do to the dude. Most people don’t really realize or notice when a lady lust after something. Most females don’t show there expressions on their face but on the inside her mind is running wild about the person whether it’s a male or another female.Most women won’t typically show that their lusting like men try to do. Sometimes the ladies eyes can tell you if they might be lusting or see a man that has caught their eye and they will probably watch them until they leave their sight. Women thoughts are just like men because they have their thoughts and ideas of how they can please the guy. Women know exactly how to turn on a man. They know how to turn them on by manip ulating this hardwired â€Å"quirk† that absolves them of the need to actually know anything about a woman.This means that the women start acting sexy but acting distant at the same time. They do things that they know will make the man want to see what they really can do once they are able to take the woman’s clothes. The women know what they be doing when the start teasing the guy by slowly taking off her clothes and a sexy dance with it. The women know most of the times that they don’t really want to have sex with the man so she will play with his emotions until she gets tired of doing that or until she take it too far and wants to have sex for real with him.