Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Tragic Heroes in Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman and...

Tragic Heroes in Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman and Henrik Ibsens A Dolls House Dramatists such as Aristotle started to write a series of plays called tragedies. They were as follows: the play revolved around a great man such as a king or war hero, who possessed a tragic flaw. This flaw or discrepancy would eventually become his downfall. These types of plays are still written today, for example, Arthur Millers Death of Salesman and Henrik Ibsens A Dolls House. Death of Salesman shows the downfall of the modern tragic hero, Willy Loman, a middle class working man. Nora, in A Dolls House displays that characteristics of a tragic hero, in that she shows potential for greatness, but is stifled by her society. Willy Loman†¦show more content†¦Sadly, his overzealous attempts serve only to reinforce his sons inadequacy and lack of identity. Willy realizes toward the end of the play that he doesnt need to sell himself to his family, who loves him despite his failings. His suicide, an act of defiance of the system, which until now has defeated him, is also a tr agic attempt to salvage something of his dream. Willys readiness to lay down his life to secure his dream that makes Willy a tragic yet heroic figure and one to whom in Lindas words, attention must be paid finally. According to Miller, the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready t put his life aside, if necessary, to secure one thing, his sense of personal dignity (Para 3, Miller). He is saying in this quotation that even the common man can even be tragic because occasionally the one thing that he prizes the most, his sense of self dignity can be so jaded that he would rather die than except his failure. I think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life (Para 4, Miller). Perhaps Miller is correct, the reader sympathisizes with Willy because he is so passionate about his self preservation and pride. Willy was ready to throw his life away to be a well -liked man and suc cessful being. He did not want to accept the fact that he failed in his occupation, so he refused to ever acknowledge his dying career. In the end his fate was thatShow MoreRelatedThe Changing Relationship Between Individual and Society in Modern Drama3272 Words   |  14 Pageslived. The Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen, who wrote in the last half of the 19th Century, broached the subject from a rather feminist angle, stipulating that it was wrong to view an individual woman as a nonentity without rights outside the role of motherhood or marriage; In the 1930s and 40s, German-born writer Bertolt Brecht, produced a series of plays following ideologies common of Nihilist and later Marxist values; Following the second world war, Arthur Miller wrote to American audiences

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Present Status of Women Entrepreneurship in India

IMPACT OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS ON SOCIETY PRESENT STATUS, GROWTH AND IMPACT OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS Abstract Women constitute around half of the total world population. So is in India also. They are therefore, regarded as the better half of the society. In traditional societies they were confined to the four walls of houses performing house hold activities. In modern society they have come out of the four walls to participate in all sort of activities. The Indian women are no more treated as beautiful showpieces. They are also enjoying the fruit of globalization marking an influence on the domestic and international sphere. They have carved a niche for themselves in the male dominated world. Indian women well manage both burden of work†¦show more content†¦The family members and the society are reluctant to stand beside their entrepreneurial growth. To a certain extent, this situation is changing among Indian women and yet to face a tremendous change to increase the rate of growth in entrepreneurship. b) Socio-cultural barriers – Women’s family and personal obligations are sometimes a great barrier for succeeding in business career. Only few women are able to manage both home and business efficiently, devoting enough time to perform all their responsibilities in priority c) Market-oriented risks – Stiff competition in the market and lack of mobility of women make the dependence of women entrepreneurs on middleman indispensable. They are not fully aware of the changing market conditions and hence can effectively utilize the services of media and internet. d) Knowledge in Business Administration – Women must be educated and trained constantly to acquire the skills and knowledge in all the functional areas of business management. This can facilitate women to excel in decision making process and develop a good business network e) Awareness about the financial assistance – Various institutions in the financial sector extend their maximum support in the form of incentives, loans, schemes etc. Even then every woman entrepreneur may not be aware of all the assistance provided by the institutions. f) Identifying the available resources – Women are hesitant to find outShow MoreRelatedNeed Of The Study Of Women1492 Words   |  6 PagesNEED OF THE STUDY Women-owned enterprises contribute 3.09 percent of industrial output and employ over 8 million people. Approximately, 78 percent of women enterprises belong to the services sector. Women entrepreneurship is largely skewed towards smaller sized firms, as almost 98 percent of women-owned businesses are micro-enterprises. As with the broader MSME sector, access to formal finance is a key barrier to the growth of women-owned businesses, leading to over 90 percent of finance requirementsRead MoreWhy Women Empowerment And Entrepreneurs1421 Words   |  6 PagesWhy women empowerment and entrepreneurs Swami Vivekananda, one of the greatest sons of India, quoted that, â€Å"There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved, It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing. † Therefore, inclusion of â€Å"Women Empowerment’ as one of the prime goals in the eight Millennium Development Goals underscores the relevance of this fact. Thus, in order to achieve the status of a developed country, India needs to transform its colossalRead MoreWomen Empowerment Through Entrepreneurship3066 Words   |  13 PagesAbstract: Entrepreneurship is the future of the modern society. They are the driving forces behind Indian economy. Entrepreneurs are people who come out with an new ideas , innovations , do things, which are not generally done in the ordinary course of a business. Empowerment of women entrepreneur is an new mantra for development of economy. The present paper focuses mainly women entrepreneur ,they still represent a minority of all entrepreneurs. It is observed that women entrepreneur networksRead MoreIssues and Challenges for Women Entrepreneurs in India3420 Words   |  14 PagesCHALLENGES FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIA S. BALASUBRAMANYAM* Abstract More than ever before, Change is the only constant in life, especially so in industry, and as a consequence, tremendous opportunities are opening up for women entrepreneurs. It is true that the presence of women entrepreneurs is very low in India, but you can look at it as another great opportunity riding on this all-pervasive change – and not as an obstacle toughening the entry barrier further for women in industry. Read MoreEntrepreneur-Case Study2891 Words   |  12 PagesEntrepreneurship in India: Bright Prospects, Dark Realities Introduction There is a saying â€Å"there are two certainties in life: death taxes†. In the context of management, it can easily be said that there is another certainty and that is change. From the formula fifties, sensitive sixties, strategic seventies, excellence eighties and nanosecond nineties, it will not be exaggeration so say it is entrepreneurship twenty first century. Who is an Entrepreneur The term Entrepreneur callsRead MoreWhats going on in india?1397 Words   |  6 Pages Nor will many of us every really understand. In India, their citizens are suffering from many different types of violations. For instance, people are being tortured. Women are being raped and single handedly being deprived of their rights. Many women are being kidnapped, raped, tortured and some even end up being killed. Its very eye opening when you find out about these types of things because we never hear about these issues. Children in India are also facing various types of violations. KidsRead MoreEmerging Trends in Entrepreneurship4541 Words   |  19 PagesEMERGING TRENDS IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP Introduction We all know that entrepreneurship is about attempting to assemble resources including innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods. This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response to a perceived opportunity. The most obvious form of entrepreneurship is that of starting new business; however, in recent years, the term has been extended to includeRead MoreScope of Entrepreneurship Development2767 Words   |  12 PagesScope of Entrepreneurship development in India Introduction We are a very young nation – just over 55 years since independence – setting out on a path of sustained economic growth, for decades to come. We already have over a billion fellow Indians. Within the next 20 years, we will have 400 million people below the age of 35 years – more than the entire population of the United States! Each person, in this bold new generation, will be in the prime of his or her life, striving for a better tomorrowRead MoreWomen Empowerment1112 Words   |  5 PagesOf Empowering Women Abstract This essay will examine the advantages and disadvantages of empowering women so that they can hold other positions apart from their traditional ones. Firstly, it will consider the disadvantages of women empowerment mainly in terms with economical and social stand in the general society. And all of which has proven it’s drawbacks when the pressure of women empowerment transpires. Consequently, it will discuss the benefits of women empowerment and present the view on theRead MoreWomen Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh: a Case Study on Boutique Business10735 Words   |  43 Pagesthem, how they emerge, why they succeed. We know even less about who becomes an entrepreneur, and why. Women are one particularly understudied group of entrepreneurs. We know very little about female entrepreneurs, and our ignorance of this important demographic is a serious blind spot in any effort to increase the total number of entrepreneurs participating in our economy. Women’s entrepreneurship has been recognized during the last decade as an important untapped source of economic growth. A woman

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Planning and Designing Transportation Systems †MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Planning and Designing Transportation Systems. Answer: Introduction Decision-making is regarded as a cognitive process in which there is a selection among various processes of actions depending on the possibilities. The processes that are chosen in a decision making process is final irrespective of whether it is going to be used. However, the process that is chosen in the decision making largely depends on the beliefs that the decision maker holds. The decision making process has been broadly divided into two broad categories such as group decision making and individual decision making. Further group and individual decision-making process is divided into categories such as consensus, voting-based, participative, decisional balance sheet, flipism and others. There are also various types of decision-making modes as well such as intuitive decision-making, rational decision-making, considerate decision-making, deliberative decision-making and others (Kelley, Cranor Sadeh, 2013). The report discusses about various decision-making concepts such as intuitiv e mode, considerate mode and deliberative mode.It also offers a detailed analysis about two types of decision-making models such as rational decision-making and administrative decision-making models. It further offers an argumentative reflection about the mode I follow in comparison to other modes. There are various types of decision-making concepts that are applied in daily life according to the beliefs and value of the decision maker. Some of the common mode of decision making that are used in daily life is considerate, intuitive and deliberative decision making. These three models are considered as the three dimensions of judgment that the decision maker considers in the workplace for the achievement of their targets. Personnel in the business are required to take a gainful decision for every task that they want to achieve (Van Solinge Henkens, 2014). The direction of their decision helps the company to achieve success or failure for the proposed project of the business. The decision making process is very crucial for the management because of the increasing complexity in the business. The process has become complex also because of the changing workplace of the business from the past few centuries. This requires offering greater flexibility in the business so that everyone i n the organization can adjust with the changing condition. For such type of business environment it is required that the business follow deliberative decision-making mode. This is because deliberative decision making allows the environment of the business be free from all types of demand and help to form the judgments with complete information such as logical, analytical and others. However, other dimensions such as Intuitive Mode and Considerate mode have replaced this dimension of decision-making (Beach, 2014). Both the dimensions have their own views and values in the decision-making activities. Intuitive mode and considerate mode takes into account the emotions and values of everyone while making any decision. The changing situation of the workplace in the modern days has increased a lot of pressure on the decision makers of the business. This is because there are various types of emotions, professionalism and other factors that need to be considered while making any conclusions. This has increased much pressure on the judgment makers to consider everything without hurting any stakeholder of the business. They need to take a wise decision regarding everything. The workplace nowadays has experienced a huge change, facing various ambiguity and higher cost of any decision that they take. Thus, it has been suggested by Hartman, DesJardins MacDonald(2014) that such changing environment affects the dimension of deliberation. This is because such situation does not allow the decision makers to make any decision deliberately as the change is recurring in the business. This is because in deliberative mode decisions are taken deliberately without reviewing the needs and circumstances of the business . However, such type of mode proves to be failure and everything goes wrong (Betsch, Haberstroh, 2014). Intuitive Mode Intuitive decision making on the other hand largely depends on the intuition that one holds regarding something without considering the situation of others in the company or the needs of the company. This type of decision-making is somewhat related to the deliberative decision making mode. This is because in both the modes the actual situation and opinions of others are not considered. Such type of mode is also known as rational decision making in which people lack analytical skills and facts to reach to a decision. This type of mode is considered to be invaluable while dealing with complex situation and meeting demand of the business with greater speed. However, there are few contexts in which intuitive decision-making have helped offering fast result and worked beyond the limitations and issues related to deliberative mode. This is based on the fact that in intuitive mode the decision makers utilizes its memory and emotion and thus is in the state of offering fast and automatic res ponses to the situation. This leads to fast conclusion about any issue (Epstein Gramling, 2013). However, it is seen that maximum flexibility is attained in the decision-makingonly if both the modes are used together to reach a successful decision. Thus, the operator can either work deliberately or intuitively or take help if both the modes. Thus, the options that are available are either the two extreme points or the midpoint of both the mode to operate a decision. Thus for better result it is said that the modes can work in a complementary and parallel way rather than working with a conflict with each other (Elwyn et al., 2014)). The last type of mode that is also used by the decision makers while making decision about crucial matters and dealing with eh rising complexities of business is called considerate mode. This mode is an opposite of intuitive and deliberative mode that was previously discussed. In considerate mode, the decision maker takes into account the emotion and morals of others while taking any decision. This type of mode address the issues that have been ignored by other modes discussed earlier. In such type of decision mode, the makers consider the effect of their decision on other person related to it on some way or the other. They just do not take the decision for their own benefits without analyzing other that take part with them in the process. It is like a judgment and probability that the decision makers consider between the positive and negative pact of the decision and the persons getting affected by it. Moreover, it has also been said that the cognitive considerate mode also helps th e company to overcome the conflicts rising between the other two modes such as deliberative mode and intuitive mode. it allow the people of the managers of the business to reduce the narrowness that takes place in their vision by taking into consideration the view point of others. In such type of mode a business works like a family in which everybody can participate in the process that the company is carrying out. Thus there are various benefits associated with considerate mode with the best chance to accommodate various aspects of the business (Baumann et al., 2014). It is thus seen that all the three modes have their own meaning and importance in the decision making process. However, all the three modes can work in a cooperative manner in case of complex situations in the business to get the best possible result. For the purpose, the company can make use of the entire positive effects of all the three modes (Breen, van de Werfhorst Jger, 2014). Rational Decision-making model Rational decision-making process is the first method that was used by the company for reaching any decision. It is known as the classical approach and involves formal process for analyzing the data. However, for rational decision making it is necessary that the managers have complete information about the problem and the performance of the business. Rational decisions are taken on the ground that it will help in maximize the benefit of the firm and reduces the cost of the company. Rational decision-making is said to be logical, multi-step and involves alternatives that the makers can choose from among them. There are various steps involved under rational decision making such as formulating, indentifying the factors for the decision, recognizing alternatives, carrying out analysis and finally the decision-making. Rational decision-making process offers anall-round effect to the company as a lot of things are taken into consideration (Pettigrew, 2014). There are various assumptions as well that are taken into consideration while carrying out rational decision-making process such as: There is perfect information about the company and about the issue that it is facing It is necessary to set the measuring criteria for colleting the information and for analysis The decision maker has the ability to manage time, resources and cognitive sense. Rational decision-making process is fairly similar to the deliberative mode of decision-making in which the decision make takes decision deliberately to maximize the profit of the company (Lieder, Hsu Griffiths, 2014). Administrative Decision-making model Administrative decision-making process is yet another model of decision-making that is used by some company or the other to attain the desired decision. In such type of decision making process the managers are bound with some limitation within which they are required to take some decision or the other. The managers need to consider those limitation and think of alternative before moving forward with the process. Unlike the rational decision-making, the administrative decision-making has some surroundings and considers the situation of others before reaching a conclusion. In such as decision making only some important part of the administration takes part as making decision for the company is the sole responsibility of the administration (Shapiro Stefkovich, 2016). The administrative decision-making takes into consideration the key and strategic decision that the individual needs to consider. Under such a model every stakeholders of the business get a chance to be satisfied with the d ecision. The effectiveness of such as process is marked as beyond the skills of the decision maker. In the administrative decision making process the company can divide the responsibility of solving the problems among individual depending on their skills and the area that they can serve. This shows that there are various decision making process in the organization and it is necessary that the organization choose one type of model to solve the issue and take beneficial decision(Zemenkova et al., 2016). From the above analysis, it can be seen that there are various types of decision-making process in the organization, which is utilized according to the issue they are facing, and the structure of their organization. I work in a retail company as a manager in which I need to take a lot of decision on behalf of the company. There are various issues that my company faces being a manufacturing business such as the satisfaction of the customer, the organizational structure for better manufacturing and others. However, it is necessary that the business follow certain type of decision-making model for solving the issues and take effective decision. The decision that I follow in my organization for my branch is deliberative and rational decision-making mode. I try to take all the decision deliberately with my analytical skills. However, I just try to analyses the issue and not the overall performance and ongoing structure of the business. Most of the decision that I take does not allow other s to participate in it and the final decision is given by me. According to me the deliberative and rational decision, making method that I follow is effective for the business and allow it to gain maximum benefits (Cascetta et al., 2015). However, I have also notice that the managers in other branches of my company follow a different type of decision-making process. One of my managers follows considerate decision-making mode in which they consider all the factors before taking any decision. In such type of mode they carry out an analytical process in which the survey eh condition of the company compete and then try to take the decision. None of the decisions is taken with the sole benefit of the company. It takes the issues of the employees as well as the customers and worked accordingly. The decision-making mode followed by me differs a lot from my fellow managers of other branches of my company (Li, Ashkanasy Ahlstrom, 2014). From the analysis of the decision process followed by o ther managers, I realized that my way of taking decision differs a lot from others and somehow I lack in offering maximum benefit to the company. This is because deliberative decision making mode also have various negative impact on the other members of the society. Other groups as well in my company such as higher directors and authority follow intuitive decision-making in which they take the decision by just following their inner morals. They follow this mode with the view that they know the business better than any other member does and thus they do not require to concern anyone else because of this. They also suffer from various issues lately because of ignorance and absence of true knowledge. According to me my decision, making process is better than the others, while there are others that believes that their process is better for the company. It is a mixture of processes that the company follows depending on the person taking the decision and the values they hold for the issue that is being taken care of. Improvement in my Decision Making From the above analysis, it is seen that I realized the drawback of my process for taking decision and the benefits of other processes. However, just like me there are other managers as well that follow processes that are not successful. According to my analysis I felt that the considerate process that the managers follow in certain branches is the best process to be considered. This is because it allows the managers to consult with other member of the business and reach an effective solution. Thus according to me either changing my decision making process to considerate mode or using a mixture of considerate and deliberative mode will be useful for me as well as for the company. This is because it will help me to gain an analytical impact of the situation and take a tactful and useful decision about a case. Moreover, it will also help the organization to follow better values and morals within the organizational environment. However, I feel it is not appropriate for me to use intuiti ve mode because it is somewhat same as the deliberative mode of decision-making. The negative effect of both the modes is same and thus it is not beneficial for me to change to intuitive mode. I will continue to follow the rational decision making model because it allows the business to grow at a faster rate and offer maximum benefit to the company at low cost. Conclusion From the above analysis, it can be deduced that there are various types of decision-making process that is followed in a workplace and having its own benefits and cost. The decision making process that is focused here is the three mode of decision making such as intuitive, considerate and deliberative. Further two types of models are discussed such as the rational decision-making model and the administrative decision making model. Each of these models and modes has their own benefits and cost of following them while taking decision in the business. Some causes higher cost while other causes more benefits. It is seen that the deliberative process and intuitive process has more negative effects attached to it than the considerate process. Similarly rational decision making model is better than the administrative decision making models. The better modes and model help in taking all the factors into consideration that affects the business and offers an analytical scenario. Others allow t he decision makers to take decision just following their own intuitions, which lacks morals and values. A reflective analysis of the decision model is offer din which I as a manager of the manufacturing business follow deliberative mode of decision making in which I do not follow any analytical process. On the other hand my fellow mates follow better decision making processes such as considerate and rational. Thus, I would improve my decision making process by changing my method to a better one such as considerate process in which I can consider others problems and issues. This will add value to the process and maintain a type of morality in the business. Thus, it is necessary that a proper decision making process is analyzed and followed by a company in order to gain maximum from it. References Baumann, D. J., Fluke, J. D., Dalgleish, L., Kern, H. (2014). The decision making ecology.From evidence to outcomes in child welfare: An international reader, 24-40. Beach, L. R. (2014).Decision making in the workplace: A unified perspective. Psychology Press. Betsch, T., Haberstroh, S. (Eds.). (2014).The routines of decision making. Psychology Press. Breen, R., van de Werfhorst, H. G., Jger, M. M. (2014). Deciding under doubt: a theory of risk aversion, time discounting preferences, and educational decision-making.European Sociological Review,30(2), 258-270. Cascetta, E., Carteni, A., Pagliara, F., Montanino, M. (2015). A new look at planning and designing transportation systems: A decision-making model based on cognitive rationality, stakeholder engagement and quantitative methods.Transport policy,38, 27-39. Elwyn, G., Lloyd, A., May, C., van der Weijden, T., Stiggelbout, A., Edwards, A., ... Grande, S. W. (2014). Collaborative deliberation: a model for patient care.Patient Education and Counseling,97(2), 158-164. Epstein, R. M., Gramling, R. E. (2013). What is shared in shared decision making? Complex decisions when the evidence is unclear.Medical Care Research and Review,70(1_suppl), 94S-112S. Hartman, L. P., DesJardins, J. R., MacDonald, C. (2014).Business ethics: Decision making for personal integrity and social responsibility. New York: McGraw-Hill. Kelley, P. G., Cranor, L. F., Sadeh, N. (2013, April). Privacy as part of the app decision-making process. InProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems(pp. 3393-3402). ACM. Li, Y., Ashkanasy, N. M., Ahlstrom, D. (2014). The rationality of emotions: A hybrid process model of decision-making under uncertainty.Asia Pacific Journal of Management,31(1), 293-308. Lieder, F., Hsu, M., Griffiths, T. L. (2014, January). The high availability of extreme events serves resource-rational decision-making. InProceedings of the Cognitive Science Society(Vol. 36, No. 36). Pettigrew, A. M. (2014).The politics of organizational decision-making. Routledge. Shapiro, J. P., Stefkovich, J. A. (2016).Ethical leadership and decision making in education: Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge. Van Solinge, H., Henkens, K. (2014). Work-related factors as predictors in the retirement decision-making process of older workers in the Netherlands.Ageing Society,34(9), 1551-1574. Zemenkova, M., Shalay, V., Zemenkov, Y., Kurushina, E. (2016). Improving the Efficiency of Administrative Decision-Making when Monitoring Reliability and Safety of Oil and Gas Equipment. InMATEC Web of Conferences(Vol. 73, p. 07001). EDP Sciences.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Significance of the USA in the 20th Century Essays -

Significance of the USA in the 20th Century The United States of America has been an influential superpower since the beginning of the 20th Century. They lead the world in education, aviation, medicine, and economic prosperity. Throughout the 20th century their role would shift from a more passive, isolated stance, to an aggressive, almost warmongering one. Before WWI the USA was referred to as the "sleeping giant" by many European nations. This was because the USA practiced a system of isolationism, taking care of all it's needs locally, and only sparingly trading with it's neighbors. That started to change when the US answered the call of war, and sent troops to support the Allies. Even though the American people didn't like the idea of fighting a European war, the support of the US did tilt the war in favour of the Allies. After the war ended, the US went back to it's old ways of isolationism, albeit with more contact to the rest of the world. Since the US was fighting so far away from home, it didn't take that hard of a hit on its resources, and because of that, the she flourished as the rest of the world was rebuilding. When charming man with a moustache (Adolf Hitler) decided to expand Germany's borders under a totalitarian regime, the world went to war once more. As they did with the first world war, the USA decided not to send troops to fight in Europe. All they did was offer financial aid to those affected by the war. That was until Pearl Harbour (1941). After the Japanese bombed the American fleet at Pearl Harbour, the people of the USA decided enough was enough. They sent troops to both fight the Japanese on the Pacific, and help the Allies get the German army back into Germany. With the help from the US, the Allies won WWII, and America looked amazing again. After Adolf Hitler died and the war ended, the focus turned on to the communist land of the USSR. America, being the extremely capitalist nation they are, naturally didn't like communism or those who practised it. The Cold War (1947-1991) was when America started going downhill. The US government didn't like how fast communism was spreading over in Europe, and did everything outside of starting a war to stop it. In this time US's media was flooded with pro American propaganda. Tensions only rose between the US and the USSR with events like the Cuban Missile Crisis, where America almost did start a war with Cuba, due to Russian missiles given to them by the USSR. In the end, Russia took its missiles back, and a war didn't break out, not for a lack of trying though. As the years progressed, and communism became more popular in Asia, the US set their sights on Vietnam. They had sent military advisors to South Vietnam to train the local forces. However the government eventually gave the order to deploy active combat units in order to fight the Vietcong and the NVA. The Vietnam war was the first time that America wasn't doing so hot in a war. The enemy was hard to distinguish, and knew the terrain better than the American forces. Because of this, there was unbelieveably low morale, and shockingly high levels of PTSD. Eventually the Americans evacuated all their ground forces, and just stuck to launching strikes from the air, with extremely limited success. After a while the Vietcong and NVA took over South Vietnam and the Americans had lost the war. This was a sort of wake up call for the US, reminding them that they can still lose a war. Over history the US has always had a spotlight on it. They were innovators in business and science, and had a culture revolving around the production of consumer goods. In the first half of the 20th century, they were the ones who started to throw away restricting traditions and start fully embracing the idea of freedom and prosperity. The US has seen many civil rights movements, such as the women's suffrage movement, to black rights movements. They're a good example of a nation which accepts change based on

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Female Sexuality and Gender Politics in A fine, A private Place by Diane Ackerman and Play

Female Sexuality and Gender Politics in A fine, A private Place by Diane Ackerman and Play The poems â€Å"A fine, A private Place† by Diane Ackerman and â€Å"Play-by-Play† by Joan Murray are both concerned with the theme of female sexuality. â€Å"A Fine, A Private Place† utilizes the third person narrative voice to express the memories of a woman who fondly remembers a lovemaking experience she had with an unidentified male lover by the shores of an unidentified ocean/sea.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Female Sexuality and Gender Politics in â€Å"A fine, A private Place† by Diane Ackerman and â€Å"Play-by-Play† by Joan Murray specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, the woman reminiscing was at first none the wiser about her lover’s intentions – he had to ask twice before she could understand the nature of his request and intensions (first stanza), and before she realized his manhood was hard: an indication of lovemaking desire. However, the subseque nt lovemaking experience as reflected from the woman’s voice was mutually consented, and the lovers made love intensely and with deep feelings for each other. In â€Å"Play-by-Play†, the omniscient narrator poses rhetorical questions as the narrator watches a group of men playing softball and analyses the secrete sexual thoughts and desires of the women nearby(both old and young), as they secretly admire the men’s bodies and reflect on the men’s sexual appeal. The two poems suggest that female sexuality can be, and is, as expressive as male sexuality. In â€Å"A Fine, A private Place†, the female voice expresses the desires and thoughts of a woman during and after a lovemaking experience. These reminisces convey the idea that the female partner is not a passive player during the act of lovemaking, but is an equal partner with emotions and desires too, which have to be fulfilled and catered for in the entire lovemaking process. The male player remai ns unnamed and unidentified – ironically, the last line of stanza three has the woman wondering who the man was, yet the woman is able to make love to a point of female climax and complete satisfaction. In the last line of stanza four, the woman reaches her climax as her loins roar and she pants in climactic excitement. The fact that the woman is able to be expressive sexually with a male who is not necessarily her husband portrays a woman who has taken control of her sexuality. The woman in the poem is not tied down to certain societal expectations that women should be a passive player in both the courting/dating scene and in the act of sex/lovemaking itself (Markle 48). The woman in â€Å"A fine, A Private Place† is sexually expressive and is able to take charge of her sexual desires and her own path to sexual fulfillment. In the poem â€Å"Play-by-Play†, the omniscient narrator also highlights the sexuality of a woman being as expressive as that of a man. In the first line of the first stanza, the narrator wonders whether it would surprise the young men playing softball to discover that the women around them are admiring and discussing their sexual appeal.Advertising Looking for essay on comparative literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In the second stanza, the narrator further asks rhetorically, but poignantly, whether the men would take offence (as many women do) if they were to know that the women were lusting after them. In these expressive questions, the narrator brings outs the voice of women’s sexuality that has been previously unheard of or ignored. The questions point to the fact that the woman’s desire for sex and the pre-lovemaking bodily admiration for a potential lover is not a preserve of men. The narrator is not condoning the act of men looking lustily at a woman, as men have been doing for generations. However, the narrator brings out the fact that a woman, too, has very similar feelings and even lusts for her lover, only that the woman prefers to do her sexual longing and lusts in a manner that does not necessarily cause her potential lover public humiliation- a point men should borrow. The narrator in â€Å"Play-by-Play† further busts the female sexuality myth that has long been held – that once a woman reaches her sixties, (past menopause); her sexual desire is non-existent. The omniscient narrator indicates that the old women in their sixties who are also watching the men play softball are actively analyzing the sexual appeal of the softball players, just as much as the young virile women drinking wine and reading books a little further in the field. The narrator further vouches for the women in their sixties as being the best-placed persons to speak on the matter of a man’s sexual appeal, since, as the narrator states in the second stanza; their experience has been horned through years of being with different lovers. Again, the fact that these women in their sixties are shown as not having been involved with one lover – or one husband, but are portrayed as having experimented with different lovers, depicts female sexuality as not dissimilar to that of men. The act of old men admiring young women is considered ‘natural’ in a macho male society, but in the poem â€Å"Play-by-Play†, the old women are comfortably admiring young men, and have had different lovers, just as men in their sixties would. These women represent a sexually expressive generation of women. Similarly, in the poem â€Å"A Fine, A private Place†, the woman reminiscing on her lovemaking encounter also highlights that, by virtue of her reminiscing, she is currently not in contact with that particular lover. Additionally, one can speculate that she has made love to other men, or is currently courting another man, thus her sexual experiences are varied; therefore, the woman is sexually liberated. Therefore, both the poems â€Å"A Fine, A Private Place,† and â€Å"Play-by-Play† portray female sexuality in a much different light than what female sexuality has been thought of, especially by men keen to preserve the status quo and relegate women to secondary and passive roles in sex and lovemaking situations.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Female Sexuality and Gender Politics in â€Å"A fine, A private Place† by Diane Ackerman and â€Å"Play-by-Play† by Joan Murray specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Because sexuality is dictated by various historical, social, political, and economic factors, sexuality can be, and has been, used as a tool to subjugate women in all these realms. The subjugation has always been propagated on the myth that women are not sexually expressive. The matter of consent before a lovemaking act has been tackled in â€Å"A Fine, A Priva te Place†. The woman’s lover is portrayed as being mindful of his lover’s feelings and satisfaction throughout the lovemaking process. In the first stanza, he asks twice before he obtains consent from the woman, and throughout and after the lovemaking act, he further seeks to know whether she is fine and satisfied. Since sexuality is dictated by gender roles, the secondary role of the woman in society is usually transferred to the lovemaking process and her consent on whether she desires to make love or not is never sought – she is viewed as being ever ready, or is expected to be ever ready. This mentality plays a role in men not being overly concerned with the beastly act of rape or defilement. The poem â€Å"A Fine, A private Place† vouches for seeking the consent of the woman, and the woman’s equal status in the lovemaking process. Therefore, sexual expressiveness is parallel to women’s liberation and development within the society. Furthermore, because the woman is expected to play a subservient role in sex, her opinion on whether her lover or husband uses a condom and on the more significant way of family planning is ignored. In both poems, sexual expressiveness in the women in the poems points to the need for the women to be recognized as equal partners in not only the lovemaking process, but also in the significant issue of family planning. Women in many third world countries are saddled with child after child even when their mental and physical energies for child bearing and rearing are exhausted (Manderson, Rae Bennett, and Sheldrake 184). This occurs due to the social and political norms in such countries that reinforce the notion that women have no role in the entire family making process. The family making process is intimately linked to sex and sexuality, thus women’s sexuality is an important social, political, and economic entity. Such practices leave the women in these countries socially, p olitically, and economically disadvantaged. In conclusion, the poems â€Å"A Fine A Private Place† and â€Å"Play-by-Play† portray female sexuality as present, real, expressive, and even honorable. The role of a woman as an equal partner to the man in the sexual realm, as the poems advocate, is the first step in achieving social, political, and economic advancement for women.Advertising Looking for essay on comparative literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Manderson, Lenore, Rae Bennett, Linda, and Sheldrake, Michelle. Sex, Social Institutions, and Social Structure: Anthropological Contributions to the Study of Sexuality. Annual Review of Sex Research 10.6 (1999): 184. Markle, Gail. Can Women Have Sex Like a Man? Sexual Scripts in Sex and the City. Sexuality Culture 12.1 (2008): 45-57.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Test Your Knowledge on the Gettysburg Address

Test Your Knowledge on the Gettysburg Address Characterized as both a prose poem and a prayer, Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address is a concise rhetorical masterwork. After reading the speech, take this short quiz, and then compare your responses with the answers below. Lincolns short speech begins, famously, with the words Four score and seven years ago. (The word score comes from an Old Norwegian word meaning twenty.) What famous document does Lincoln allude to in the first sentence of his speech?(A) The Declaration of Independence(B) The Articles of Confederation(C) Constitution of the Confederate States of America(D) The United States Constitution(E) Emancipation ProclamationIn the second sentence of his address, Lincoln repeats the verb conceived. What is the literal meaning of conceive?(A) to bring to an end, close(B) to overcome the distrust or animosity of; to appease(C) to be of interest or importance to(D) to become pregnant (with offspring)(E) to keep from being seen, found, or discoveredIn the second sentence of his address, Lincoln refers to that nation. Which nation is he talking about?(A) the Confederate States of America(B) the Northern States of America(C) the United States of America(D) Great Britain(E) Union States of America We are met, Lincoln says in line three, on a great battlefield of that war. What is the name of that battlefield?(A) Antietam(B) Harpers Ferry(C) Manassas(D) Chickamauga(E) GettysburgA tricolon is a series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses. In which of the following lines does Lincoln employ a tricolon?(A) We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. (B) Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.(C) This we may, in all propriety do.(D) The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.(E) But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground.This ground, Lincoln says, has been consecrated by the men . . . who struggled here. What is the meaning of consecrated?(A) empty, containing a deep space(B) soaked in blood(C ) made sacred(D) desecrated, violated(E) greeted in a warm and friendly manner Parallelism is a rhetorical term meaning similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. In which of the following sentences does Lincoln use parallelism?(A) This we may, in all propriety do.(B) The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.(C) We are met on a great battlefield of that war.(D) But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground.(E) Both B and DLincoln repeats several key words in his short address. Which one of the following words does not appear more than once?(A) dedicated(B) nation(C) freedom(D) dead(E) livingThe phrase birth of freedom in the final line of Lincolns address calls to mind which similar phrase in the first sentence of the speech?(A) all men are created equal(B) conceived in liberty(C) Four score and seven years ago(D) dedicated to the proposition(E) upon this continentEpiphora (also known as epistrophe) is a rh etorical term meaning the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses. In what portion of the long final sentence of The Gettysburg Address does Lincoln use epiphora?(A) It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here(B) this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom(C) that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause(D) we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain(E) government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish Answers to the  Reading Quiz on the Gettysburg Address (A)  The Declaration of Independence(D) to become pregnant (with offspring)(C) the United States of America(E) Gettysburg(E) But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground.(C) made sacred(E) Both B and D(C) freedom(B) conceived in liberty(E) government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Emma Larkins Finding George Orwell in Burma Assignment

Emma Larkins Finding George Orwell in Burma - Assignment Example he radical Orwell, if anything they have just copied the difference in the British colonial government regime with that of Burma since it attained its independence because they have embraced the same imperialistic ideas. Going with the writing of Larkin Orwell was a product of the colonial era since his time as a soldier in the British colonial regime; therefore, he had both the taste of British government and that of Burma. According to Larkin, Orwell’s novels â€Å"Animal Firm† and â€Å"1984† were banned so that the ideology of Orwell toward the government were no more since it was a threat to the corrupt government. The policy of burn was commonly used by British when they felt that any idea was not favoring them. In Larkin, text here cords that the leadership of Burma hides the reality from the face of foreigners like the tourist. Tourist can come to the country, enjoy their holiday and go back to their country without knowing that Burma people undergo oppression (Myint-U 37). In a nutshell, Larkin gives an explicit detail on how the leadership of Burma tries to control the thinking and freedom of its citizens just like the British error. The concept of fear has been satisfactory use in the post-colonial government of Burma to exercise amongst its population. The power does not corrupt but rather the fear of losing power as well as those wielding it as well as fear of the plague of power that corrupts those ruled. The Burma governments used the concept of fear on four bases with the most devastating one being Bhaya-gati that stifle and gradually destroy the sense of right and wrong as well the mother of the other concepts of fear.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Low Phonemic Awareness Skills Among Disadvantaged Families Dissertation

Low Phonemic Awareness Skills Among Disadvantaged Families - Dissertation Example Empirical research into language use shows that there exists a wide gap between language use among children from well up families and those from economically disadvantaged families. Most children from disadvantaged families have low phonemic skill awareness compared to those from well up families. The purpose of this research is to identify ways in which the problem of phonemic awareness among children from poor background. The research will use a sample of 50 students from whom phonemic awareness skills will be evaluated. To provide credible conclusions and recommendations, this research will take a quantitative approach. Previous Research Phonemic awareness is a topic that has garnered a lot of attention among researchers in the recent past, owing to the persistent language problem that has indicated phonemic awareness weakness among many students in institutions. Dickinson and McCabe (2004) researched on the existence of phonological problems among children with a bilingual orient ation. The deduction of this statistical survey is that there indeed exist numerous factors that contribute to weakness in language among these students. Among these factors, Dickinson and McCabe (2004) identified that the standards of living played a key role in determining the success of language learning among children. Although this research was not directly designed on measurement of poverty levels, it was possible to outline the link between educated parents and a better economic social status (Koutsoftas, Harmon & Gray, 2009). The major conclusion of this research was that children who were fostered by learned parents had a better phonemic expression. Nichols et al (2004) found that Latino children and children from low socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to fail to develop phonemic awareness and concepts in print owing to the fact that they lack preschool experience, causing them to lag behind when compared to children from different ethnicities and better socioeconomi c backgrounds. Latino children are at risk because English is not their first language meaning that they will categorize phonemes in their primary language as that is how their linguistic minds are programmed. Children from these categories are seen to either lack the prior knowledge or misunderstand the instructional discourse, along with the language of the text and teacher, resulting in delayed acquisition of crucial concepts that are in print (McGee & Ukrainetz, 2009). Notably also, findings from this study indicated that gender was not linked to development of phonemic awareness. These students require instructional intervention that looks into their needs and in a broader perspective. McDowell et al (2007) found that children, who undergo early reading challenges, receive less practice than other children, miss opportunities to develop reading comprehension strategies and are likely to have a negative attitude towards reading. Callaghan and Madeleine (2012) attributed the diff erence in phonemic awareness between children from low socio-economic backgrounds and their peers from high or middle socio-economic backgrounds to varying levels of emergent literacy. This variability is in turn explained by previous home environments, level of oral language and provision of good early intervention programs. In contrast, Neuman and Dickinson (2011) suggest that genetic predispositions

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Statistics in Business Essay Example for Free

Statistics in Business Essay Introduction This paper is going to discuss statistics in business. One will be able to understand there are different levels of statistics along with the importance statistics are in business decision making. Statistics in Business Statistics are a mathematical analysis of data collected. The data collected can in turn be used to show statistics in a number form. With the data collected, the analysis of the data, along with the financial reports from a business, one can make a better informed decision. Statistics in business is useful when making business decisions. The statistics can show important information to help judge what may happen in the future for a product or the need of a type of business. There are levels of measurement to help when data is gained to obtain the statistics. The levels of measurement include nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. Examples of these levels include the following: Nominal – Numbers on sports players jerseys for identification purposes. Ordinal – The letter grade students receive on homework assignments. Interval – This level does not have a true zero point. Ratio – When one number of measurement can be divided by another nonzero number and there is meaning to that number. At the ratio level of  measurement the number â€Å"0† has meaning as it represent there is nothing to show. Conclusion In conclusion one can see there are different levels of statistics and how important they are when making business decisions. Reference McClave, J. T., Benson, P. G., Sincich, T. (2011). Statistics for Business and Economics (11th ed.). : Pearson Education. (McClave, Benson, Sincich, 2011) Lind, D. A., Marchal, W. G., Wathen, S. A. (2011). Basic Statistics for Business Economics (7th ed.). : McGraw-Hill Company. (Lind, Marchal, Wathen, 2011)

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Failure and the Degeneration of America in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsb

   The Great Gatsby is a bold and damning social commentary of America which critiques its degeneration from a nation of infinite hope and opportunity to a place of moral destitution. The novel is set during the Roaring Twenties, an era of outrageous excesses, wild lavish parties and sadly, an era of regret and lost potential. As the audience, they take us on a journey guided and influenced by the moral voice of Nick Carraway, a character who is "simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life." Nevertheless, when Carraway rejects the East, returning to the comparatively secure morality of his ancestral West, we realize that gaiety was merely a thin facade, and that behind it lurked a hideous ugliness that penetrated to the essence of the human spirit.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It was during the Jazz generation that the common man, a man no different to James Gatz, pursued the glowing icons of his age. As religion gradually faded away, it was money that had become an object of veneration. The desire to become wealthy was parceled in the form of the American Dream, a savage ideal that was fundamentally flawed from the outset. The fallacy of the American Dream cursed all who aspired to its promises while the upper class enjoyed the luxuries that accompanied their status, exploiting those below them as a means to reaffirm their superiority.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Consequently, James Gatz, under the influence of characters like Dan Cody and Meyer Wolfshiem, underwent a self-transformation to become Gatsby, a new man who was founded on his "Plutonic conception of himself." As the embodiment of idealism and innocence, Gatsby strives to cre... ...ut also the destiny of human kind. It is a novel with a haunting tone that questions the very essence of our pursuits in life and ultimately, the meaning of life itself. It can only be hoped that we will heed this powerful message.       Works Cited and Consulted: Berman, Ronald. "The Great Gatsby" and Fitzgerald's World of Ideas. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1997. Chambers, John B. The Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald. London: Macmillan/New York: St Martin's P, 1989.   deKoster, Katie, ed. Readings on "The Great Gatsby." San Diego: Greenhaven, 1998.   Fitzgerald, F. Scott.   The Great Gatsby.   Simon and Schuster Inc., New York: 1991. Higgins, John A. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Study of the Stories. New York: St. John's UP, 1971. Whitley, John S.   F. Scott Fitzgerald: "The Great Gatsby." London: Edward Arnold, 1976.   

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Best-Self Portrait

| Learning Project 1, Part 4-6 | | | LP1, Part 4: What are others' experiences of me when I am my best? Phase 1: Creating the Reflected Best-Self Portrait When I am at best, I help people. I motivate myself and feel motivated when I get to help others. Whether it’s a stranger, colleague, friends, or family, I feel my passion in assisting those in need. As long as it’s within my capability and moral belief that what people ask for help is ethical and legal, I give them my attention and time. I feel happy that I am able to give a hand, and I feel happy to see people become happy with the help I give them.Helping others put smiles on my face and also on them as well. I feel proud of myself that I have the power to help the others. For families and friends, I am always open for help and be supportive. I believe that if there are people out there who love to help, there will be many people who will return the helping spirit to other people. I always try to be responsible wit h tasks I have been given, and also be responsible with myself. I believe it is important to have trusts and both independence and dependence to others. Being responsible is an important part of me.When I make a promise, I try my best to keep the promise because it is my responsibility. I am persistent and drive myself to bring the end result, a good result, of things I was responsible for. As an employee, I hold onto the responsibilities as an employee to provide my best in each shift, and do all the tasks given by my supervisor and managers. It is in my best interest to never lose any reason to not smile. I try to find reasons to smile everywhere and every day, whether the reason involves weather, my job, friends, or smaller things like I woke up early for the day.So I make reasons to be optimistic, to start the day content and positive. I know that it’s important for me to stay positive and find things to be happy about. I love having opportunities to learn new things and experience and gain new skills. The fact that there still are opportunities for new experiences is important to me. Because I think these opportunities are getting less as you get older, I try my best to grab every opportunity I can do learn new skills that are practical in the future.When an opportunity is shown to me, I commit myself until I achieve in grabbing that opportunity and absorb everything I can do to face new challenges and learn. I adapt to the new circumstances and am open-minded to different things. I may not be competitive, but I am ambitious to get things done and be successive at it. I stay focused on what I have started and never give up until I complete the task. I am a hard-worker, who tries the best to achieve success. As long as I don’t bring negative effects around me in the process, I don’t only give up but also continue to put my best effort to be triumphant.I stay focused. My family is important to me. Because I can’t see them often o r regularly, I am more loyal to them than ever. I care and cherish them. I express my love in many different ways. I let them know I still love them no matter how far I am now today. I support them mentally and orally; I let some tension and troubles away from them; and I always stay responsive to them. When asked for help, I am enthusiastic to help them the best I can. I feel responsible to love them and be a supportive family member to them as they are to me.Like it is my job to love and be dutiful to my parents as a daughter, my job is exactly the same for all the other family members. I am a good friend. I am a good listener, listening to my friends’ problems and worries. I support my friends but I know when to be honest and realistic, with the purpose of helping them Patterns/Themes| Declaration| Examples Given| Helpful| I believe in being selfless, making small differences, putting smiles on others’ faces, being compassionate, and have a heart to help. | 1. Helpi ng Coral out, with the Calgary geography2. Listen to Danny's concerns and problems. Responsible| I believe in giving trust and confidence to others. I believe in being trustworthy, reliable, and accountable to my actions and behaviors, regardless of situations. | 1. Being the daughter to my parents. 2. Be responsible as an employee and a co-worker to help and provide fitting skills at Swarovski. | Supportive| I believe in backing up the people I care about, encouraging them, helping them, defending them, and loving them. | 1. Encouraging and complimenting Coral and her new place. 2. Compliment and Recommending the trendy styles to Danny. Adaptable| I believe in the power to adapt to new surroundings and situations, learning new skills and experiences to make them my own. | 1. Adapting to the new country, new city and new language when first immigrated to Canada. 2. Adapting to the new atmosphere of working places when got the job at the Swarovski. | Ambitious| I believe in being com passionate and eager to have goals, work hard, and successfully achieve them. | 1. Accepting new responsibilities and tasks at work. 2. Got in to the school band, to let off my flute skills. | Loyal| I believe in loving my families, giving them my time and effort.I believe in the presence of family value and care for one another. | 1. Be the best supportive and loving family member to all of my families and relatives. 2. Always be on the side of my friends, trusting them. 3. Have Danny's back with his problems. Cheer him up even when I wasn't very much interested. | Open-minded| I believe in the differences in ideas, interests, and conflicts. I acknowledge those differences and am unbiased and receptive. | 1. Be open to the sensitive questions from Danny3. Be receptive to what can be condescending questions and statements from Danny about my religion2.Open to different cultures, when first came to Canada. | Loving and welcoming| I believe in the loving and welcoming all of those who enters into my life. Once entered, I love and value them regardless of circumstances | 1. Welcoming Coral to Calgary and to my friends. 2. Making Sinae feel at ease at my place. | Appendices Best-Self Stories 1. From a work colleague: I have the ability to give a hand whenever any co-worker asked. For example, there was a time when Choa asked if I could help her with arranging all the inventories in the back room, I agreed to help with a smile.The back room was a mess and it was going to take a long time to arrange because the inventories were not in order of product names. Choa and I started get to work, by prioritizing the sections that we needed to organize. I set the sections in the best order so we could finish by the end of our shifts. Although we didn’t work together many times before, we managed to work together well, helping one another. I didn’t lose smile although there were lot of work to do. I helped her when she was handling heavy inventories. In the end , we managed to finish our jobs, and end up gotten closer than before. 2.From a work colleague: I was fast getting used to the new working place as well as being with new co-workers. When I got the job at the Swarovski, I was the only one who was new and all the others all so close to one another. But I got along with the co-workers, getting used to their system of how they do things in their own ways. Although Choa's way of working was bit different than the others, I soon adapt to her system, so I could help her better and let her work with me more effectively and faster. I was very civil and almost diplomat that she or others did not feel threatened or uncomfortable during my first couple of weeks.By the time my job was near the end, I was friends with everyone, including the manager. 3. From a friend: I am receptive and open-minded whenever Danny wanted someone to talk to. For example, there were times when he talked about religions. Although our religions were different, and th ere may have been times where Danny’s questions were perhaps inappropriate and offensive, I never judged him or get offended. I understood the differences in views of people, and I thought it is normal and possible for others to have such views or questions that might be condescending.I tried my best to help him understand my point of views with all the knowledge I know about my religion. And I listened to what he sees and perceives about religions and actually paying attention to what he is saying without stopping him or correct him. 4. From a friend: I was always nice to a friend, and be the best friend. For example, because Danny loves shopping, he used to ask me if I could join him time to time. If I wasn't too busy, I always accompanied him to the mall, helping him choose the clothes.There were times when I didn't want to go because I end up wasting my money but I still went most of the times because he needed that to be cheered up and I knew he needed a company. I was a lways supportive, even if I was tired and exhausted following him, and even recommended the trendy and fitting styles to him. He trusted me to tell him what was good or bad for him, and I did exactly that when necessary. I listened to his problems and gossips when we are together, when we were shopping, and I backed him up and cheered him when he felt down and discouraged about his relationships or looks. With the best advices thatI could give him, he could steam off some stress and worries for that week. And I was also happy because I could see he became happy. 5. From a friend: I am great at making people happy and comfortable. For example, I visited Korea with Sinae for the summer. And she was staying at my parents' place with me for the whole trip. She was little bit uncomfortable and apologetic that she might disturb any family moments. The whole atmosphere of the Korean neighborhood made her being unease. I made sure that she didn't feel uncomfortable by always being with her and invite her to the family outings.I constantly talked and joked with her when we were with my families so that she can join in the same conversation and be more active and feel welcomed. She later was fully relaxed and was herself. 6. From a family member: I am great being responsible. As a daughter, I did and still do my best to take care of family/daughter duties. For example, it is hard to live alone with both of my parents living in another country. But I always find the time to write them letters for celebrations, to call and email them, and always keep constant interactions with them.Because my parents do not know what’s going on with my life, I let them know, talking to them about almost everything, from small to big things. I feel responsible as their daughter to update them with my life, whether I have exams coming up or I have an interview. But I think it is also my responsibility to not make them worried. So I don’t tell them how stressed I am with my sch ool or having a boy crisis. 7. From a family member: I am great at adapting to new environment and new challenges. When we first immigrated to Calgary, all I know was the simple hi, how are you English.Everything was just so different, with people, language, and the culture. But when I started going to a junior high school, I never complained or cried. I never screamed at my mom, that I want to go back. I adapted well, studying English hard as well as other regular classes. I also got into the school band, because I wanted to play the flute. I was one of the good performers who knew how to play the flute, which helped me make friends lot better. If I didn't have power to adapt, I would've never fully got use to Calgary, made no friends, and cried every night. 8.From a friend: I am always being kind to her. From the moment I met Coral, I tried my best to be supportive and a friend to her because she was new to Calgary. Because she did not have any friends or didn’t know any pl aces to buy things or go eat, I showed her to good restaurants and good stores to buy school suppliers with good prices. If I had time, I sometimes went to the places she wanted to go with her so that she wouldn’t get lost. I introduced her to my friends with the same major as her or similar habits. I invited her when I hung out with my friends so she wouldn’t get lonely.Now, we are closer than anyone, trusting one another. Coral helps me with the problems I have, returning all kindness to me, which I am very grateful for. LP1, Part 6 Personal Integrative Analysis Analysis 1. What are the five ideas or insights from this course, central to the primary question? There are many ways to find out my transferable skills, and I actually have more transferable skills than I previously thought. The exercises taught me to never lose confidence within myself because they showed me different skills that I didn't realize before.Another insight that I learned is that there are many different ways to see things and each way can allow myself to express my transferable skills, capacities and/or values differently. Depends on how I value myself, I can have different skills on one thing. The more I can gain and improve many transferable skills, the more my individual genius to be able to overlap with the world of work. I believe that if I can increase my zone of skills and values, I will easily find the appropriate fit between myself and the world. I will know many skills, both professional and practical, to allow me to adapt to the outside world lot better and faster. . What are three insights that I have been able to integrate within this course? One of the insight that I was able to integrate within this course is that there are many things that I am and should be grateful for and I now know I should be expressing them. I learned that it is important for me to feel appreciated to things around me and within me; I shouldn't take things for granted. Feeling grate ful for even small things can change my mood and the way I feel and act. Another insight is that I should pause my life once in awhile and look at my life in terms of goals, achievement, and stages that I am in right now.Am I in the right path of being happy with my life? Where am I with my goals and achievement? I learned that although things around me, like a job and relationships with people, are important, taking care of myself and evaluating myself is also very important to me too. When I am working and trying to survive in the outside world, I will know better to stop and go through my life mission and goals. The knowledge I was able to grab from this course is that truly knowing who I am, what I want, and what I did and have is priceless.I always thought that I knew myself pretty well, better than anyone else, but this course taught me how and what to do in order to look within myself. I now know that I will try to go over these steps I have learned to update my info to mysel f time to time. 3. My individual genius when interacting with others? I think I am more aware of my individual genius when I'm interacting with others than before. Because I know more about my individual genius, I think I will be able to grab many opportunities to improve on them while interacting with other people.I know what and when I can exercise and best perform my transferable skills. 4. Two new interest or values? One of my new interest is the self-awareness. I think I entered this new level of not only understanding about myself, but of the ways and steps that I am to learn about myself. I never thought that knowing myself is valued this much by everyone in professional world as well as in personal life. I now know that it is in one of my best interest to continue with widen my self-awareness and self-understanding. It is good knowing myself, and it's beautiful being confident.After all the exercises, I now learn to be appreciative. Exercises I did in classes first forced me to find things that I feel grateful, and then after couple of them, I know the importance of being grateful. Things I have been ignoring are now the ones that am grateful for. These exercises opened my eyes. The fact that I feel grateful for small to big things, I feel like I am more positive. I didn't know that this exercise made to see more beautiful things than I did before. 5. When am I most confident? When am I least confident? I am most confident when I am using my top strengths, helping people.When I am in a position to help other, which is whenever, there is no need for me to waste time to see if I'm confident to help or now. If I can help, I help. If the help requires a special knowledge that I do not have, I either don't help or I take instructions. I am most confident when I look at myself. I know myself the best, and I can express myself to me the best. With the help of this course, I think I am better at it. When I'm at least confident, I'm standing in front of the cla ss, getting all the unwanted attention, and have to present.Although I may be most confident expressing myself to me, I am least confident when I am either expressing myself to the group of people or present. It makes my whole body shake and my heart beat fastens like there is no tomorrow even when I'm thinking about speaking out loud in a class full of people. I am also least confident when I need to be the sole leader. I think that even if I am qualified to be a leader, I can't come out and lead because I never had that many opportunities before. I think that when I am assigned to be a leader, that's when I'm scared for myself.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Erythropoietin and Athletes

Erythropoietin and Athletes Steven D. Jackson Student, American Military University Abstract Erythropoietin (EPO) use as a performance enhancing agent in sport carries both significant and detrimental risks to go along with its suggested benefits. As such, it was banned by the International Olympic Committee in 1990. Shortly thereafter, successful and reliable testing methods have been developed to test athletes for its potential use.Despite widespread knowledge of its potential adverse effects and the testing for its attempted use, EPO use remains substantial amongst endurance athletes of nearly all ages and disciplines, both professional and amateur. This paper will provide a history of EPO as a performance enhancing substance, explain its associated risks and perceived and actual benefits, attempt to analyze why athletes feel compelled to use it, and examine the sanctions, regulations, and weighty repercussions associated with its use. Erythropoietin and AthletesIn sport, there ar e a virtually limitless number of ways in which one can influence or positively impact physical or mental performance. These methods can come in the form of mechanical aids, pharmacological aids, physiological aids, nutritional aids, and psychological aids. Regardless of its source, any means by which one seeks to improve performance by enhancing the physiological capacity of a particular system of the body, removing psychological constraints which adversely affect performance, or by accelerating recovery from training or competition is called an ergogenic aid (MacKenzie, 2001).These may include something as simple and innocuous as a healthy meal consumed the night prior to a competition, but seemingly, the ergogenic aids which athletes are turning to more increasingly are those that have been banned by organizations such as the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Olympic Committee, and the like. Often, these substances have been banned because they not only represent perver se and unethical behavior, but also, as is the case for a substance like recombinant erythropoietin, because they can have serious adverse health effects for heir users. Over time, these substances have changed, but the desire to gain an unfair competitive advantage remains. Hematopoiesis is the process which involves the production of mature cells in the blood and in lymphoid organs. Mature erythrocytes, or red blood cells, have no nucleus, so they cannot reproduce in the traditional fashion as other cells can. Erythropoiesis, then, is the process by which erythrocytes are produced. Erythropoietin is a naturally occurring hormone found within the human body which controls this red blood cell production.It is released by the kidneys, and to a lesser extent the liver, and in very little quantities in the brain in response to a negative feedback. The physiological stimulus of erythropoietin production is hypoxia, or prolonged oxygen deficiency in body tissue, and in the majority of in stances is related to the number of circulating erythrocytes within the kidneys. At high altitudes, for example, where the pressure oxygen in the air is reduced, oxygen delivery to the body’s tissues initially decreases.This drop in oxygen triggers the release of erythropoietin, which travels via the blood to the red bone marrow and stimulates red blood cell production (Shier, Butler, & Lewis, 2011). This is important to note, as this negative feedback of loss in oxygen is essentially no different than the body observing a loss in blood, which also necessitates the release of erythropoietin. In cases of hemolysis or hemorrhage, erythrocyte production will also increase rapidly and substantially for the body to attempt to accommodate for the amount of blood lost.However, overproduction of erythrocytes does not occur, both in extreme hypoxic environments and even after the most severe loss of erythrocytes (Robinson, et al. , 2006). This balance is very important, because adequa te oxygen delivery to tissues depends on having a sufficient number of red blood cells to transport oxygen. Decreases in their number or function can hinder oxygen delivery and thus affect exercise performance. Red blood cells serve a primary function of facilitating this transport of oxygen, which is bound to the hemoglobin found in red blood cells.Hemoglobin contains iron, which binds oxygen. As such, the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood is determined by its hemoglobin content. Accordingly, when hemoglobin levels fall, exercise performance is subsequently impaired. Being familiar with this, athletes, trainers, and coaches often practice iron supplementation in an effort to prevent anemia and attempt to boost hemoglobin levels. However, this supplementation cannot boost the blood’s oxygen carrying capacity beyond that which is normal.Consequently, doctors, trainers, and athletes have come up with various alternative means to try to boost blood’s oxygen-carrying capac ity, and in turn boost performance (Mottram, 2011). In traditional medical settings, the need for a means to raise red blood cell counts in patients suffering from kidney failure in order to alleviate their extreme anemia, as they have so few red blood cells that they typically experience near-permanent exhaustion. The demand for a way to treat these kidney patients precipitated the development of synthesized erythropoietin.There was no question that they needed red blood cells, and the proposition of providing them via erythropoietin seemed logically safer than the more natural and traditional repeated transfusions and dialysis. The same logic applied to the much larger number of people whose kidneys were weak or damaged, but not yet failing. Raising their red blood cell count, and subsequently their hemoglobin levels, up to a normal amount like the more attractive option, and it was only a matter of time before it could be discovered (Burch, 2011).In 1985, the gene responsible for the synthesis of erythropoietin was successfully cloned for the first time. This synthesized erythropoietin is known as recombinant erythropoietin, and first became available in Europe in 1987 and was later patented by Amgen in 1989 (Mottram). With this development, it quickly became evident that recombinant erythropoietin would be used illegally as a performance enhancer in endurance sports. As such, the International Olympic Committee elected to ban this drug in 1990, even though all forms of blood doping had been officially banned since 1984 (Robinson, et al. ).In its earliest clinical trials, recombinant erythropoietin proved very successful, and it was quickly put to use with patients requiring their hemoglobin be raised to normal levels. The trials showed the drug’s benefits outweighed its risks, but not by much. In 2005, researchers and kidney specialists concluded their trials ahead of schedule when they were stunned by what they found. After years of raising red blo od cell counts in patients to normal healthy levels, which also raised their hematocrit—the proportion of red blood cells to total blood volume—doctors were not seeing decreased occurrences of troke, heart complications, and even death. These rates were actually increasing. Therein laid the problem with EPO use, especially in uncontrolled environments and when used by athletes (Burch). Before EPO’s adverse effects were widely known, and to a great extent even today, its proposed benefits led to its immediate abuse by endurance athletes. The first cases were reported in several newspapers within the four years after recombinant EPO appeared in Europe. These articles claimed a link between rumored EPO abuse and the deaths of 18 Belgian and Dutch cyclists.This unfortunate wave seemed to roll on for some time, seemingly striking hardest amongst in the sport of cycling, and often resulting in death. For some time, cyclists publicly denied using EPO, but at the 1998 T our de France, a masseuse for the Festina team was caught with EPO and several other banned drugs. The entire team and its staff were ejected from the Tour, and eventually seven of the nine Festina riders admitted to doping. Even the winner that year, Marco Pantani, was ejected the following year for signs of EPO use in an earlier drug test (Eichner, 2007).Though the bulk of EPO use reported in the media comes from cycling, other sports are not free from it. Chinese runners, swimmers, and rowers, Russia’s top female cross-country skiers, Finland’s tops skiers, and Germany’s top runners all have been caught for suspected EPO use of some kind or another. Russian and American runners and sprinters, including American sprinter Kelli White, have been stripped of medals and handed bans for their admitted EPO use after failing drug tests.Even Lance Armstrong—who has always denied any EPO use—has been suspected of illegal EPO use brought about by claims of his former teammates (Eichner). Perhaps the greatest contributing factor for the prevalence of continued illegal EPO use is in its difficulty of detection. While some athletes may think that they are using a drug for which there is no means of detection, which is not the case, others may simply know that EPO can be a very elusive drug to detect.Early detection strategies for EPO use as a drug were limited to blood testing only. Though blood tests could confirm inconsistent hematocrit levels and other blood markers compared to base samples in athletes who may have been using EPO supplementation up to, and sometimes over, a week prior, or those that had been using EPO when they originally provided a base sample and had discontinued its use, a direct method for detection in urine had yet to be established.Furthermore, early attempts at developing a urine test proved to be expensive, overly sensitive, and unreliable. Since blood doping had been common practice in some endurance sports for decades due to its clear performance advantages, it regrettably became even more attractive once recombinant EPO became available. Athletes have exploited these limitations of testing, particularly in sports that relied solely on urine specimen testing (Robinson, et al. . Successful urine testing had finally been developed and came into the picture in 2000. Serving as the only direct method of recombinant erythropoietin detection approved by the Court of Arbitration for sport, this method utilized electrophoretic techniques to separate the isoform profiles of recombinant and endogenous erythropoietin found in urine according to their isoelectric points (Diamanti-Kandarakis, et al. , 2005).Not only could this newly approved testing mathematically and scientifically identify EPO use—or discontinuation of its use—but it could also isolate the various forms of forms of EPO, including erythropoietin alpha, beta, omega, and delta, as well as newer generations of EPO anal ogues like darbepoetin and mimetic peptides. The disadvantage of such an effective urine testing method, however, was that it discouraged athletes from recombinant EPO use. Athletes now fearful of getting caught moved back to using—or rather misusing—blood doping and transfusions in an attempt to raise hematocrit and hemoglobin levels.For that reason, some international sports federations elected to limit their testing to either blood or urine. However, more recently the trend has been to attempt to keep their current testing procedures randomized (Robinson, et al. ). The risks of illegal EPO use remain high. Some athletes choose to supplement with EPO in smaller doses with the intent of limiting their potential exposure in drug tests, and, just as likely, with the expectation that this practice would be â€Å"safer. Regardless, the results of EPO use are largely unpredictable, and tests have revealed that hematocrit values in EPO users can greatly exceed what is cons idered the healthy or normal upper limit of 50 percent. Once the hormone has been put in the body, the athlete is at great risk for substantial increases in blood viscosity. This places the individual in danger of thrombosis, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, hypertension, stroke, and pulmonary embolism. However, with the ever-increasing pressures to excel in competition, and the draw of larger rizes, purses, sponsorships, and notoriety in sport today it is not beyond reason as to why teams, athletes, trainers, and coaches would feel compelled to explore an option which may offer athletes a clinically documented six to eight percent increase in their VO2max and 13 to 17 percent increased time to exhaustion (Kenney, Wilmore, & Costill, 2012). Athletes who use banned EPO also risk disqualification from a particular competition, with the risk apparently greater if the athlete’s result is good, as the top-placing finishers in competitions almost certainly are subje ct to testing more and more frequently.They can also be banned from their sport, typically for a minimum of a year, but potentially for life. In their quest for enhanced performance, athletes can easily get caught up in the hype surrounding these sorts of substances and the purported benefits they might bestow. Unfortunately, too many athletes are blinded by ambition and do not consider the consequences of their actions until their careers have become jeopardized or their health has been seriously affected.Considering recent reports of even amateur athletes being dealt bans and imposed fines after testing positive for EPO use in events that are considered recreational, the need is definitely present for the likes of the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee to take more aggressive and decisive action in the battle against doping and illegal drug use. The misuse of medical and biotechnological advancements to enhance athletic performance is an issue that wi ll clearly not go away on its own.It is imperative for sports federations to be able to collect blood samples from their competitors and institute a continuity system which keeps track of appropriate individual values. The appropriate way to fight blood doping and EPO use is to markers for each individual athlete to have a record of each marker and measure of their blood. In this way it will not be necessary to take into account complicating factors during testing and analysis such as sex, ethnic origin, and the kind of sport in which the athlete is participating.With a system such as this, it would be possible to identify which athletes are manipulating their bodies based on their own set reference values and markers over time. This, combined random, unannounced testing is the only way currently possible to effectively mitigate doping. Even still, it is supremely difficult for sports organizations and control agencies in sport to stay ahead of the always sophisticated doping method s. Summary Erythropoietin and all of its forms were developed with the intent of rehabilitating and alleviating the extreme symptoms of kidney patients.Their appeal is strong to competitive athletes, especially with more and more on the line each year. Despite their undeniable ability to enhance performance, EPO can cause serious negative health effects. In an era where performance-enhancing drug abuse is rampant across nearly all disciplines of sports despite rigorous legislation and testing throughout the world, it is necessary to understand the harmful effects of all substances when considering their use.The undesirable effects of EPO use are virtually countless, but—and perhaps worse yet—the potential long-term effects of chronic use are not well known. References Burch, D. (2011). Blood sports. Natural History 119(6), 14-16. Diamanti-Kandarakis, E. , Konstantinopoulos, P. , Papiliou, J. , Kandarakis, S. , Andreopoulos, A. , Sykiotis, G. (2005). Erythropoietin abus e and erythropoietin gene doping. Sports Medicine, 35(10), 831-840. Eichner, E. (2007). Blood doping. Sports Medicine, 37(4/5), 389-391. Kenney, L. W. , Wilmore, J. H. , & Costill, D. L. (2012).Physiology of sport and exercise (5th ed. ). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Mackenzie, B (2001). Ergogenic aids. Retrieved from http://www. brianmac. co. uk/ergoaids. htm Mottram, D. R. (2011) Drugs in sport (5th ed. ). New York: Routledge. Robinson, N. N. , Giraud, S. S. , Saudan, C. C, Baume, N. N. , Avois, L. L, Mangin, P. P. , & Saugy, M. M. (2006). Erythropoietin and blood doping. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 40, i30- i34. Shier, D. , Butler, J. , & Lewis, R. (2012). Hole’s essentials of human anatomy & physiology (11th ed. ). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Political Science Thesis

Political Science Thesis Political Science Thesis Political Science Thesis: Tips AdvicesThe politics becomes more and more fashionable in the latest times. If you do not know nothing about it, so you do not hold dear of your country and the spirit of patriotism is not for you. People imagine the politic men as the showmen now. Because they are the first people who appear in the TV set every morning and a whole day is full of their faces, actions, squabbles and other things. So the political science thesis can be interesting, especially for those students, who want to work in the governmental system then. It would be a great experience, if they observe the situation from various points of view. However, in the political science thesis the politics should be defined, first of all, for the good understanding of the mental and social behavior and relation to the politics. The politics, if we take it as functioning as singular, is the practice or study of the art and science of forming, directing, and administrating stat es and other political units; it is the art and science of government; political science. It can also be the complex or aggregate of the relationships of people in society, especially those relationships, involving authority or power. If we take the politics as functioning as plural, so they are political activities or affairs or the policy-formulating aspects of government as distinguished from the administrative, or legal. There can be singled out the main types of the politics for the writing: slackwater politics, above politics, gutter politics, machine politics, national politics, party politics and others. The Topics For The Political Science Thesis The politic science and the nature of the politic regulations History of political relations and its origin in other states The principles of the political science Governments in the world and the international politics Parties and their increasing number nowadays Foreign relations and the international contig uity American organizations connected with politics Secrets Of Successful Political Science ThesesYou can use as many laws and political treatment bills as possible. You can examine the work of your own government and suppose the real development in the future. Take the experiment in the watching their debates and actions. You can observe their work during the time before the election. It is called electioneering. However, sometimes the actions, which were undertaken during this time and the promises, which were given, will be not regulated then, even if they will be in the top. If you want to know more about the political science thesis, you can order it at us. We are professional service, which offers you writing different types of work. We can guarantee you the shortest terms of writing, 100% non-plagiarism and the professional writers in the different areas. Our Political Science Thesis Writing Assistance Address our company now for not to regret in the futur e! Do not forget about the fraud companies, which can serve you non-professional help. The mistakes and rewriting of their works are the top orders at out site. We are waiting for you, dear students!

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Fun Family History Activities for Family Reunions

Fun Family History Activities for Family Reunions Like many families, you and your relatives may have made plans to get together this summer. What a great opportunity for sharing stories and family history.  Give one of these 10 fun family history activities a try at your next family reunion to get people talking, sharing and having fun. Memory T-Shirts If you have more than one branch of an extended family attending your reunion, consider identifying each branch with a different colored shirt. To further incorporate the family history theme, scan in a photo of the branchs progenitor and print it out on an iron-on transfer with identifiers such as Joes Kid or Joes Grandkid. These color-coded photo t-shirts make it easy to tell at a glance who is related to who. Color-coded family tree name tags offer a more inexpensive variation. Photo Swap Invite attendees to bring their old, historic family photos to the reunion, including pictures of people (great, great-grandpa), places (churches, cemetery, the old homestead) and even previous reunions. Encourage everyone to label their photos with the names of the people in the photograph, the date of the photo, and their own name and an ID number (a different number to identify each photo). If you can get a volunteer to bring a scanner and laptop computer with a CD burner, then set up a scanning table and create a CD of everyones photos. You can even encourage people to bring more photos by offering a free CD for every 10 photos contributed. The rest of the CDs you can sell to interested family members to help defray costs of the scanning and CD burning. If your family isnt very tech-savvy, then set up a table with the photos and include signup sheets where people can order copies of their favorites (by name and ID number). Family Scavenger Hunt Fun for all ages, but an especially good way to get the kids involved, a family scavenger hunt ensures plenty of interaction between different generations. Create a form or booklet with family-related questions such as: What was great-grandfather Powell’s first name? Which Aunt had twins? Where and when were Grandma and Grandpa Bishop married? Is there someone born in the same state as you? Set a deadline, and then gather the family together to judge the results. If you wish, you can award prizes to the people who get the most answers correct, and the booklets themselves make nice reunion souvenirs. Family Tree Wall Chart Create a large family tree chart to display on a wall, including as many generations of the family as possible. Family members can use it to fill in the blanks and correct any inaccurate information. Wall charts are popular with reunion attendees as they help people visualize their place within the family. The finished product also provides a great source of genealogical information. Heritage Cookbook Invite attendees to submit favorite family recipes- from their own family or one passed down from a distant ancestor. Ask them to include details on, memories of and a photo (when available) of the family member best known for the dish. The collected recipes can then be turned into a wonderful family cookbook. This also makes a great fundraising project for the following years reunion. Memory Lane Storytime A rare opportunity to hear interesting and funny stories about your family, a storytelling hour can really encourage family memories. If everyone agrees, have someone audiotape or videotape this session. Tour of the Past If your family reunion is held near where the family originated, then schedule a trip to the old family homestead, church or cemetery. You can use this as an opportunity to share family memories, or go a step further and recruit the clan to clean up the ancestral cemetery plots or research the family in old church records (be sure to schedule with the pastor in advance). This is a particularly special activity when many members are attending from out-of-town. Family History Skits and Reenactments Using stories from your own family history, have groups of attendees develop skits or plays that will retell the tales at your family reunion. You can even stage these reenactments at places that are of importance to your family such as homes, schools, churches, and parks (see Tour into the Past above). Non-actors can get into the fun by modeling vintage clothing or ancestral outfits. Oral History Odyssey Find someone with a video camera who is willing to interview members of the family. If the reunion is in honor of a special event (such as Grandma and Grandpas 50th Anniversary), ask people to talk about the guest(s) of honor. Or, ask questions on other select memories, such as growing up on the old homestead. Youll be surprised how differently people remember the same place or event. Memorabilia Table Set up a table for attendees to bring and display treasured family memorabilia- historic photos, military medals, old jewelry, family bibles, etc. Be sure all items are carefully labeled and the table is always hosted.