Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums Essay

â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† by John Steinbeck and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are short stories which have a female protagonist struggling through a suffocating marriage and living in a society that says that women can not exist outside of marriage. â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† written by John Steinbeck is a story about a woman worn and oppressed by a male dominated world. A world which breaks a woman’s will, strips away their humanity, and obscures who they really are and what they really want out of life. Eliza, a married woman forgotten by her husband and the world, has found a bit of happiness in her garden. It is here that she finds solace and comfort. The flowers are her companions. Similarly, in The Yellow Wallpaper, written in the century before The Chrysanthemums, is also about the oppression of women in society by men. On the surface it was the story of a woman who has a child and suffered from depression. Her husband, who is also her doctor, prescribed the â€Å"The Mitchell Treatment†. This was a standard treatment for all mental disorders during this time which consisted of isolation and rest. The woman, the main character, was placed in an attic for a month of recovery. Her only companion was the peeling yellow wallpaper. In the end, both women find, brief as it may be, freedom. Though written decades apart, both Steinbeck and Gilman use symbols and character development to develop a theme of female oppression and survival. The major symbol in Steinbeck’s short story is the Chrysanthemum flower. Chrysanthemums are hearty flowers which need specific care, patience, and tending. Like children, they must be cared for daily, treated with delicate and gentle hands. Within her garden paradise she hides herself, as a woman. Steinbeck describes her as a woman that wears â€Å"a man’s black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clodhopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (1). Eliza, who is childless, takes pride and comfort in her ability to grow these amazing flowers. They represent for her the children she was never able to have. She is extremely protective of these flowers caring and feeding them like mother nursing her baby. She creates a â€Å"crib† of wire to ensure that â€Å"[n]o aphids, no sowbugs or snails or cutworms† are there. â€Å"Her terrier fingers [destroy] such pests before they [can] get started† (1). Like pointy corners of tables and light sockets, Eliza protects her â€Å"children† from the hazards of life. She cares for this flowers like she wishes someone had cared for her — gentle fingertips caressing her own blooms. These flowers inspire the only intimate moments that occurred between Eliza and her husband in the entire short story. He husband stops by her garden and tells her how lovely her flowers are. She blushes and Steinbeck observes â€Å"on her face there [is] a little smugness†(1). Eliza gives â€Å"birth† to these amazing creatures which bring so much beauty to the world, and supplies Eliza with her only taste of motherhood (Demott 3). Similarly, Gilman uses the symbol of yellow wallpaper. The Yellow Wall-Paper† is a small literary masterpiece. For almost fifty years it has been overlooked, as has its author, one of the most commanding feminists of her time. Now, with the new growth of the feminist movement, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is being rediscovered, and â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper† should share in that rediscovery. The story of a woman’s mental breakdown (Gilman 37). A major symbol in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is the wallpaper itself. The â€Å"Yellow wallpaper was a familiar character in realist fiction and was often found to be distasteful.† (Roth). The narrator is annoyed and eventually repulsed by her only companion, the yellow patterned wallpaper. The evolution of what the wallpaper symbolized parallels the mental state of the narrator. When the narrator first settled down to her month’s worth of rest in the attic of her house, it is the wall paper she hated most. It was old, tattered, and a dirty yellow color. She commented that the worse part of the wallpaper was the dull pattern. She pondered about the wallpaper : It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide–plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight (Gilman 24). The pattern became the focus of much of the narrator’s time. She attempted on many occasions to figure out what the pattern was with no success. â€Å"She is mad, of course, by this time, reduced to a paranoid schizophrenic who writes, â€Å"I’ve got out at last †¦ in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!† (36).†(Bak). After several days of trying she began to see a sub pattern which can only be seen at certain parts of the day depending on the amount of light being filtered through the windows. She decided that the sub pattern is that of a woman who is creeping along the floor on her knees, not even being able to stand. She states â€Å"There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down† (Gilman 25). This woman was imprisoned by the main pattern and wished only to escape her cage. The main pattern became clear to the narrator. She believed the main pattern were heads of those women who attempted to escape but were caught between the bars. It was clear that as the month passed the mental state of the narrator became increasingly unstable. The wallpaper and it’s pattern also represented the societal chains (treatment, family, and marriage) which have imprisoned her for so long. The yellow wallpaper has become synonymous with the domestic bars which trapped women in their inferior roles as wives and mother in the 1800s. Through the use of both symbols, Steinbeck and Gilman track the internal conflict of their respective protagonists. In Steinbeck’s short story, it is the Chrysanthemum which are indirectly responsible for Eliza awakening. The chrysanthemums create a situation in which Eliza meets a man which stimulates and re-ignites her female sensuality, that has been long forgotten. Steinbeck describes Eliza stripped of her female side and like her home, that she was â€Å"hard-swept and hard-polished† (1). Henry fails to notice and takes for granted the feminine qualities which Eliza brings to the relationship. His love for her did not exist anymore. The couple lives like strangers. Eliza, submissive and loyal, does not addresses her discontent with her husband and their relationship remains empty. He remarks, to her about her chrysanthemums, â€Å"I wish you’d work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big† (1). She is resentful and unhappy which causes her to hide in her garden. One afternoon while she is attending to her flowers she meets a traveling salesman who stops and admires her flowers. Steinbeck describes the stranger in the following way: Elisa saw that he was a very big man. Although his hair and beard were graying, he did not look old. His worn black suit was wrinkled and spotted with grease. The laughter had disappeared from his face and eyes the moment his laughing voice ceased. His eyes were dark, and they were full of the brooding that gets in the eyes of teamsters and of sailors. The calloused hands he rested on the wire fence were cracked, and every crack was a black line. He took off his battered hat. (1) When he flirts with her indirectly, she melts. She is thirsty for the attention a man gives to a woman. The stranger visually caresses the flowers, commenting that the flowers were like delicate â€Å"quick puff[s] of colored smoke,†(243) and she can feels his fingers like they were on her skin. Chrysanthemums represent Eliza long last sensuality and her need to be fulfilled physically and emotionally. Eliza quickly responds and â€Å"[tears] off the battered hat and [shakes] out her dark pretty hair†(1). The cold Elisa suddenly becomes the image of perfect femininity soft and flowing, contrasting against the strong male. She is attracted to him and offers him the only gift she can, a singe red chrysanthemum — a symbol of her sacred femininity. Through this stimulation, Eliza is inspired to again get in touch with her body and soul (Wilson 34). After a dinner eaten in silence with a man who does not love her, Eliza is forced to endure the car trip home. Weeping, and staring out the window she sees her bloody red chrysanthemums tossed on the side of the road, and she feels her soul die once again. Gilman utilizes her symbol of the yellow wallpaper in the same way, her protagonist is first imprisoned and then awakened by the wallpaper. Gilman actively asserts through her use of symbolism and the mental deterioration of the narration that women, at the turn of the century, suffering from mental illness were mistreated. Her husband, who is also her doctor, prescribed the â€Å"The Mitchell Treatment† (Hume). This was a standard treatment for all mental disorders during this time which consisted of isolation and rest. The woman, the main character, was placed in an attic for a month of recovery. Her only companion was the peeling yellow wallpaper. Slowly the unnamed narrator slipped into deep depressive psychosis. It is not until she shirked off the treatment and the invisible societal chains that she becomes well again. The theme of oppression is overwhelmingly present in both short stories. Eliza’s gift of the chrysanthemum represents the physical interaction between a man and a woman. After the stranger leaves, with quicken breath, she almost floats into her house and draws herself a hot bath. She finds her â€Å"little block of pumice† and literally scrubs her body — â€Å"legs and thighs, loins and chest and arms, until her skin was scratched and red†(1). She urgently washes, symbolically bringing blood back into her lifeless body and soul. She dresses slowly finding her best lingerie and dress. She applies makeup and prepares to go out on a â€Å"date† with her husband. She patiently awaits for her husband to come in from the fields. She hopes her husband will feel romantically toward her again. She hopes that he provide her with the same sensual stimulation that those few brief moments with the stranger. Unfortunately, her hopes are not fulfilled. When Henry finally sees his wife, he casually comments â€Å"You look strong enough to break a calf over your knee, happy enough to eat it like a watermelon† (1). Eliza laments her husband’s lack of charm, as if he is intentionally trying to crush her soul. She slowly loses the woman that she had found hours before. After a dinner eaten in silence with a man who does not love her, Eliza is forced to endure the car trip home. Weeping, and staring out the window she sees her bloody red chrysanthemums tossed on the side of the road, and she feels her soul die once again. Gilman’s narrator is also mistreated by her husband and society in general. John, her husband, a â€Å"wise† man of medicine, inflicts a loutish and gender-biased â€Å"cure† on her–and this tale, as Gilman claims, exposes such boorish barbarism. However, Gilman’s mad narrator unveils not only the ills of the rest cure treatment and a repressive domestic culture filled with Johns and Jennies, but also her hatred for a domestic (and maternal) role she has no desire to assume. â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper† not only rejects, as Gilman intended, the gender-biased rest cure of the nineteenth-century, but also indicts, less successfully, gender-biased definitions of mental illness. Married women during this time were â€Å"’freed’ from the necessity of contributing to society outside the home, presumably because marriage befit her for motherhood and motherhood required all of her energies.†(O’Donnell). Despite her triumphant unmasking of medical (predominantly male) gender bias in this tale, Gilman’s narrator falls apart so completely in the end that she tends, unfortunately, to reinforce the common nineteenth-century gender stereotype of the emotionally and physically frail nineteenth-century woman. Steinbeck through the use of chrysanthemums asserts that women are oppressed and imprisoned by world that was built for men. Through intricate detail, wit, and symbolism Steinbeck breathes life into the story of a woman completely controlled by her husband, and suffocated by world. She experiences momentary awakening during a brief interaction with a stranger. Steinbeck uses chrysanthemums evoke the feeling of rebirth, renewal, autonomy, and femininity. Eliza completely broken down and she crumbles â€Å"crying weakly-like an old woman†(X). Her husband takes her granted and does not notice that she is woman with needs and desires. Not only does her husband ignore her but so does the world. The stranger which seemed to admire all of Eliza’s qualities represents the world. Just as that man tossed away Eliza’s beautiful flowers because they were unnecessary. Steinbeck’s point is that is exactly the male dominated world views and treats women. Society is oppressive to women, allowing them not to â€Å"bloom†, keeping women submissive and docile. Eliza is not valued by the world because she is female. She meant only to exist for her husband and family. Eliza tries to be a woman in world where her womanly charms are ignored by her husband and the world in general. To survive she forgets about who she truly is and finds happiness in her garden. When she is briefly re-awakening, she attempts again to find her true self. However, her husband and the world will not let her and she must once again, for the last time, suppress who she is and what she wants. Through the use of similar literary devices the theme of female oppression and liberation is explored differently in â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper.† The oppression of women in a male dominated world has plagued society for centuries. The stories of women are often left untold and considered unimportant. To fully explore this theme both authors use symbolism and careful character development. The main symbol found in The Yellow Wallpaper is that of the decaying yellow wallpaper that is in the attic where the narrator is sent for isolation. It’s decay parallels the decay of the narrator. In addition, Gilman details this decline and explores the inner workings of the narrator through the character development leading up to the narrator’s decision that she did want to live. Similarly, Steinbeck uses the symbol of the Chrysanthemum to represent Eliza’s life, isolation, liberation, and emotional death. There is only a small set of literary tools available to authors, of any genre, through which themes like oppression can be examined. It is through the unique manipulation of these tools, and the intense expertise of great American authors that such a varied approach to survival can be interrupted, demonstrated, and shared. Works Cited Bak, John S. â€Å"Escaping the Jaundiced Eye: Foucauldian Panopticism in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper.†.† Studies in Short Fiction 31.1 (1994): 39+. DeMott, Robert. Steinbeck’s Typewriter: Essays on His Art. Revised ed. Troy, NY: Whitston Publishing, 1997. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wall-Paper. Revised ed. New York: Feminist Press, 1996. Hume, Beverly A. â€Å"Managing Madness in Gilman’s â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper†.† Studies in American Fiction 30.1 (2002): 3+. O’Donnell, Margaret G. â€Å"A Reply to â€Å"Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Reassessing Her Significance for Feminism and Social Economics.† Review of Social Economy 54.3 (1996): 337+. Roth, Marty. â€Å"Gilman’s Arabesque Wallpaper.† Mosaic (Winnipeg) 34.4 (2001): 145+. Steinbeck, John. â€Å"The Chrysanthemums.† Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. 4th Compact ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 2007. Wilson, Edmund. The Boys in the Back Room: Notes on California Novelists. San Francisco: Colt Press, 1941. Questia.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Media: a Fictional Reality Essay

Introduction We increasingly move from one kind of reality to another. As spectacles are created with our own lives we are vastly becoming the characters we once saw on television. In media, the producing and promotion of these realities encourage people to misinterpret false depictions into reality. Advertisements When we examine media advertising we find art and technology being used to create a false reality through stories in an effort to evoke desired reactions from audiences. We see a production of characters playing physicians, housewives, used car salesmen, and everyday people with plots and quick resolutions of conflict in which the characters overcome obstacles and fulfill their desires in record time with the help of their product. For example media display products that are cosmetically altered to seem more appealing to viewers. Raw turkeys are made to look baked and delicious with food coloring, burgers are big and juicy, water drops slide down fresh vegetables, even the sizzle from cooking food turns out to be a sound effect added during editing. These sensory deceptions are supplemented by exaggerated claims, to create a false identity for the product. Commercials also include another kind of falsity in the form of digitally manipulated images. They convey a sense of life as celebration, full of people who can’t help but sing out because they love their Skittles or who emerge from swimming pools, all luminescent, with magnificent hair and wonderful lives, surrounded by bright colors, upbeat music and dancing friends, in which everything is in motion to convey a sense of what life can be if we buy the product. They invent â€Å"worlds† based on fantasy and desire. â€Å"To achieve these effects, media engage in the new production process of high-tech capitalism, which is to turn everything into an image. This process is very evident in what happens to actors — they are turned into simplified human images. Their role is to become characters in false utopias so they can act as living sales pitches for products† (Boorstin 1961). They are all false promises that make everything seem better than it is. Cities City landscapes increasingly resemble places all around the world. These false depictions serve as attractions for millions of people, as well as a pseudo reality that the media likes to make into a spectacle. For example, sin city is becoming sim city; the city of simulation. Through varies attractions people are given a misrepresented idea on how media interprets the world. â€Å"One of the city’s monuments is Luxor, a $375 million hotel and casino that is a fantasy version of ancient Egypt, presenting visitors with material images of mystery, mysticism and splendor in one of the greatest monstrosities ever built: a 36-story, pyramid-shaped hotel with a ten-story replica of the Sphinx as an entrance for valet parking. The hollow core of the pyramid is a 27-story atrium that started out with a fake river Nile at the bottom, which took visitors on a barge ride passed tableaus of ancient Egypt. Meanwhile, â€Å"inclinators† — elevators that travel diagonally, following the pitch of the pyramid — take guests to their rooms in the upper floors. † (Kens 1997) They aim at representing an ideal experience, as if you really were visiting the great monuments of Egypt, but these manipulated visions are forced onto people as true depictions of reality. â€Å"Luxor is themed, offering a story line that is intended to give the visitor’s experience a meaning and coherence. But Luxor, like many similar attractions, appears to suffer from an identity crisis: it can’t seem to keep its theme together. In place of presenting one idea or trying to show one kind of place, it has jumbled together all kinds of times and places, which are removed from any sense of context or relation to each other†. (Kens 1997) Thus, the Sphinx is the entrance to a pyramid, which contains an ancient-looking temple, which takes visitors to a dig of a fictional civilization, while a talk show goes on next door and celebrity impersonators play Michael Jackson, Madonna and the Blues Brothers, or other Vegas-style shows go on nearby in Nefertiti’s Lounge. Las Vegas thrives on having the best attractions of the world on one famous street; the Vegas strip, but they’re all attractions focused on historical allusions. Media creates a spectacle of historical information in which gets misinformed to the public. Zoos Many zoos are beginning to offer â€Å"educational† exhibits through fictional realities. Resembling scenes out of movies or Disney related themes, parks and zoos are increasingly using fictional characters and ideals to promote their parks. â€Å"They are imitations that are intended to be better than the originals. To the degree that visitors think of them as accurate representations, they will come away with an image of a rain forest as a place crowded with large animals, where one can get good vistas of peaceful surroundings full of impressive landscapes and gigantic trees. † (Eco 1990) These false depictions are being represented as an educational experience by the media and leave them with a tainted view of reality. â€Å"An increasing number of exhibits portray something that is unlike nature in another sense: under constant pressure to be entertaining, they are incorporating themed environments based on fantasy that have little to do with the natural world. In essence, these attractions, even though they are the handiwork of nonprofit institutions, have to attract an audience that will help keep the enterprise afloat financially and justify its existence. They are trying to win that audience with ever more spectacular displays and excursions into fantasy. The result is the growing numbers of those simulated ruins, suspension bridges, vines that hang over pathways and other popular fantasy elements commonly found in television and movies, which are, supposedly, the sugar that coats the pill of educational value. †(Eco 1990) The act of displaying a rainforest is for entertainment purposes but it should not tarnish the educational responsibility by providing false depictions as reality. Media provides a distorted image of rain forest by the India Jones themed movies. We come to believe that every jungle, rain forest, safari is going to have hidden civilizations, cities of gold, and ancient Mayan ruins. The reality is, that these places are not so exciting. The media raises your hopes for reality at the cost of your educational experience. â€Å"Non-Fiction† Television Newscasts are beginning to foster a type of reality that entertains a viewer as if they were watching the latest episode of Law and Order. Providing their audience with a â€Å"fictional† reality of news highly made into spectacles for entertainment rather than newsworthy purposes. â€Å"These programs are well known for reciting the daily litany of crimes, and personal and community disasters, with all the potential that has for evoking sympathy, fear and anger in audiences. † (Kens 1997) The media publishes a compelling story each with a happy ending. They are more about the storyline then the actual â€Å"factuality† and newsworthiness. Newscasts are no longer an avenue for the â€Å"need-to-know† news but rather the â€Å"want-to-know† news. It is a civil duty that we get provided with accurate information, but that sometimes gets tarnished following a new update from the Octomom. â€Å"In forms of fiction; both evoke anger, fear and sympathy in an audience and then convert these emotions into reassurance and hope. Fiction accomplishes this primarily with a happy ending. Local news does it by placing stories about danger and suffering in a program that overflows with benevolence and camaraderie. Each, in a different way, is designed to provide a satisfying emotional experience to audiences. † (Kens 2007) The experience is the most important aspect newscasts are aiming for. Kens relates newscasts as â€Å"Back to The Future†¦ the ride† because it takes viewers on a journey of images and computer generated graphics meant to serve as an entertaining attraction rather than a trusted source with direct information about the world. Conclusion â€Å"Art and technology masquerading as life. † This is medias lens on reality and how many of us perceive much of today’s world. We believe that the beautiful life portrayed in a commercial is obtainable by the simple act of buying their product. At least if we can’t look like a celebrity we can smell like one, in relation to cologne commercial. People are increasingly becoming less satisfied with their own lives and believe they can just jump into an alternative reality forever. Where there are no problems and like the actors in â€Å"Friends† seem to spend their whole lives together in a coffee shop with no relation to work or any responsibility for that matter. Being the monuments in Vegas or the story lines in â€Å"rainforests,† now days, this exposure of entertainment is increasingly becoming a pseudo reality. They are masquerading real life experiences into a huge spectacle. Media has transformed our lives and everyone in it to the characters and drama series we love to see on television. We live in fiction and are entertained by â€Å"reality. † Work Cited 1. Vick, Roger. â€Å"Story Line as Ideology. † (1989): Print. 2. Robert J. Stoller, Observing the Erotic Imagination (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985) pp. 58-61. 3. Sans, Ken. â€Å"A Culture Based on Fantasy and Acting Out. † (1997): Print. 4. Sans, Ken. â€Å"Advertising and the Invention of Postmodernity. † (1997): Print. 5. Sans, Ken. â€Å"Las Vegas: Postmodern City of Casinos and Simulation. † (1997): Print. 6. Boornstin, Daniel. The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America. Vintage, 1992. 200-320. Print.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Modern Chinese Fashion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Modern Chinese Fashion - Research Paper Example The paper "Modern Chinese Fashion" focuses on modern Chinese fashion and is basically meant to discuss the changing fashion patterns seen at festivals and traditions, how traditional and festive Chinese clothing differ from each other, mainstream Chinese fashion designers, popular dress trends, and how wealth produces influence on the type of clothes worn by the Chinese people. Integrating the creative and priceless knowledge gained from places which are considered to be centers of fashion like New York, Paris, and Milan in the native system to create modern clothes sensitively customized to the culture of China is not an easy challenge to fulfill. Chinese fashion designers are astute and sensitive enough to acknowledge the changing economical trends in the country and design their clothes while keeping the national economical state of the country in their minds so that everyone would be able to wear stylish clothes irrespective of class difference. Basic Chinese fashion elements der ive from the Tang and Song dynasties and Shiatzy Chen is one such fashion label in China run by Wang Chen which relies heavily on materials such as silk and satin. In words of Chen, â€Å"I wanted to create something that reflects Chinese culture, yet manages to achieve global recognition; a brand that would make China proud†. Class difference, though not as pronounced now as it was previously in Chinese clothing, also presents challenges for Chinese fashion designers on some levels. In the past, these elements of class difference.... Distinction made by clothes between rich and poor was undeniably so obvious in the ancient China as compared to the modern China that no one could possibly remain oblivious to it. The wealthy members of the society were identified by the richness reflecting from their royal clothes which were almost always made out of silk, while the middle class and poor people relied on wearing very simple clothes made out of cotton. But irrespective of past and modern times, silk has throughout served as a resolute status symbol in the Chinese society and has always remained the material of choice to be worn for the rich and elite Chinese people in traditional terms. It is also the general consensus among the Chinese people, fashion designers, and critics that silk has a wide range of application in both festive and ordinary clothing. From being integrated in women’s blouses and scarves to men’s dress shirts and ties, silk is recognized as the material of choice for the fashion desig ners too who design clothes in accordance with common public’s demands and tastes. The modern Chinese fashion wear largely refines the more conventional clothing approach as seen in old Chinese pictures and present day popular trends can also be considered as a major reflection of orthodox dressing trends. In the ancient days during the Tang and Song dynasties, fabrics popular in China were gauze, damask, crepe, and brocade (Csanyi). Women wore loose robes with long sleeves and used decorative cloth on the lower hems (Hua 16). Incorporation of classic Chinese symbols in the clothing is vividly apparent in the ancient Chinese clothing culture. To the present day clothing culture, symbolism still serves as one of the primarily important elements considered by the fashion designers while designing

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Research Paper Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Proposal - Research Paper Example Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, the proposed study aims to determine how marketers can manipulate these factors to their own advantage. Literature The findings of research study of Kollat and Willett (1969) highlight that 65 percent of buying decisions in supermarkets are made in-stores, 50 percent of these decisions are unplanned and vary based on products and 50.5 percent of the products are bought in supermarkets as unplanned purchases. These unplanned decisions contribute to impulse purchasing which is considered very favourable for the sales of consumer products. Patterson (1963) argues that impulse buying is a result of various factors and one of these factors is the store location. Two important factors that influence impulse buying decisions include product packaging and positioning. Breygelmans, Campo & Gijbrechts (2006) conducted a research to study the impact of self-positioning on online grocery store choices and they have found that shelf management is an important factor even in the case of online grocery stores. By studying the in-store marketing of Norwegian retailing, it has been identified that are the promotional techniques which are used to normalise consumers purchasing behaviour (Dulsrud & Jacobsen, 2009). By positioning products on the top shelf or near the centre, attention and evaluation of brands can be improved whereas, positioning brands on the middle shelves achieve attention but does not improve evaluation (Chandon, Hutchinson, Bradlow & Young, 2009). Another important factor that leads to impulse buying is packaging. The difference in packaging directly contributed to sales appeal (Twedt, 1968). Packaging is very significant for low involvement products like impulse purchase categories because in these categories, consumers do not have the desire or need to investigate the products (Louw & Kimber). Packaging is the key driver of impulse buying and it is significant to understand whether planned versus impulse shoppi ng occurs as a result of packaging (Sorensen Associates). The Henley Centre study (cited in Ogba and Johnson, 2010) has found that 73 percent of the purchasing decisions of the consumers at the point of sales are because of the packaging of the products because packaging influences the choices of the people. In the changing marketing environment, analysing whether shelf-positioning or packaging still plays an important role in impulse or not, will be very significant. Therefore, the proposed research study will be having significant implications for the marketers. Research Objectives The aim of this research is to determine whether better packaging or better shelf-positioning influence the impulse buying of consumers It aims to determine whether high visibility of fast moving consumers’ goods through proper shelf-positioning result in the diminishing impact of packaging on Impulse buying This research study aims to determine whether lower visibility of fast moving consumer go ods lead to a greater role of packaging to play in Impulse buying. Another objective of this research study is to determine whether better packaging and visible shelf-positioning can help the markets to achieve higher Impulse buying. Research Design and Methodology To achieve the mentioned objectives, both the qualitative and quantitative methodologies will used. In qualitative methodology, early research work and secondary data will be collected and analysed. The primary data will

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Write a letter of complain to a local newspaper Essay

Write a letter of complain to a local newspaper - Essay Example It is not even clear whether he had made indecent images of children out of the material already available in the Internet, or whether he has taken indecent photos/videos of children and used it as pornography. If this was the case, it remains to be seen whether he could be charged of pedophilia as well, after analyzing the extent to which the images reflect his psychological disposition. After the first two sentences which refer vaguely to the incidents which could have led to the Fire Chief’s resignation, the article sticks to the official version of the event. It is obvious that the persons who are in charge of the investigation are trying to save the convict’s face. The stress on the phrase â€Å"personal reasons† when explaining his resignation shows the ambiguity that runs through the report. It is evident that there is a lot of pressure from high offices to suppress the matter as much as possible, though it has become inevitable to report the untimely resignation of some at a very reputable position. Quite paradoxically, the news that is supposed to deface the Fire Chief has ended up being a paean to his glorious years of service and the accolades and praise he has received. Genuine readers could wonder whether this is a newspaper report about the Fire Chief who had to quit his job after serious charges of pornography, or a transcript of s ome speech given during his retirement. It seems highly probable that the newspaper has just made use of the material that they had already prepared as a note on his retirement, or, forgive my saying this, as an obituary. Such is the carelessness with which the whole affair has been treated that there is no relation between the headline and the article, except for the first two sentences and the wild guesses that the readers are prompted to make. I am in fact disturbed by the double standards newspapers in general show towards issues

In Bacon's rebellion, why was it said to be only a rebellion, not a Essay

In Bacon's rebellion, why was it said to be only a rebellion, not a revulation - Essay Example Bacon thought the Indians, all Indians, were the enemy. After warring Indians made raids on the white population, Bacon wanted to eradicate them. The common men liked this sentiment, so started following Bacon. Fear and racism led to Bacons successful recruitment of his followers. Bacon did not have a revolutionary statement. His rallying cry to the men was kill the Indians, not overthrow the government. Since, the government wanted to capture and execute the warring Indians, Bacons ideas were not revolutionary. Bacon rebelled because the government would not give him permission to kill the Indians. Even the permission that Bacon did receive was forced by Bacons men. The King never gave Bacon permissio to lead this band of men. If Bacon would have stuck to fighting Indians, his actions might not have even been considered a rebellion. However, his men started plundering richer citizens that sided with Berkeley. Racism against the Indians motivated Bacon, but so did greed. He plundered not only from the Indians, enslaving them, but Berkeleys friends and the richer class. When Bacon died of the bloody flux, his followers quickly disbanded. Other than a few followers, when Berkeley came back the men switched allegiance to him. The Bacon followers who did not vow allegiance to Berkeley were executed. No real change was made in the government by Bacons influence. Bacons original message about eradicating Indians was the intent of the Berkeley led government all along. Thus Bacon did not even influence this aspect of governmental policy. Berkeley had made up his mind that all Indians were bad. Bacon did not give Berkeley a chance to implement this idea, until after Bacons own death. Both men shared their hatred of the Indians. If Berkeley would have focused on taxes, corruption, or lack of protection from the Indians, a revolution could have occured. Real change could

Friday, July 26, 2019

Criminal Law. Analyse the circumstances where liability for omissions Essay

Criminal Law. Analyse the circumstances where liability for omissions may arise - Essay Example However, there are special cases where the law specifies that a person act in order to save a situation failure of which results in criminal liability. Proponents of this type of legislations argue that the law should not bind people to help others since such a situation restricts people’s independence. Example: Tom was driving to town on a rainy afternoon, after driving for more than thirty minutes his car began heating up and huge white smoke began billowing from the bonnet of his car. Luckily, for him, the car had broken down some few meters to a bridge. He therefore alighted from his car and took a five litre water bottle which he had never travelled without from the trunk of his car and followed a small footpath that lead to the stream to fetch some water which could help cool his engine. He got to the stream, filled his container with the cold water, and began the short walk to where he had parked his car. However, a few meters from the riverbank, Tom heard hysterical sc reams emanating from the river, he turned and drowning in the river was a little boy probably seven years old. He immediately dived into the river without considering his actions, unfortunately, Tom had never swam before in a flowing water and it is only until he got into the water that he realized that he had made a mistake. He managed to grab the boy but the strength from the water current the weight of the boy overpowered him and before long, they were both drowning. It thus became a survival of the fittest situation; the boy was still alive and therefore held on to Tom tightly without letting go. Tom was fast losing breadth and he therefore needed to act swiftly to save his life or else they would both drown. In a sharp turn, he pushed the boy away from and fortunately managed to hold onto a root a few meters off the riverbank. The push from Tom combined with the strength of the water waves to give the boy a powerful thrust into a rock. The boy knocked his head and bled to death instantly. Just then, a group of young divers who had been tracing the boy from upstream arrived and one of the saw Tom push the boy away from him. They later removed the body from the water but a legal tussle was just to begin. Analysis The liability of omission begins when one decides to help in a desperate situation and later acts carelessly thereby causing a loss. In such a situation, the victim takes responsibility for his careless action. The law had not compelled Tom to try and save the boy, he could have simply looked at the young boy drown and continued with his business. In such a situation, he is acquitted from any liability since the law does not impose acts of humanity on the population. Had he left, Tom could have continued with his journey to the town and could not have answered to either the group of divers or the police. Additionally, should he have made a formal police report, he could have only been considered as responsible citizen and might therefore have appea red in the court only as a witness and helped the police with investigations to the best of his account of the event. The law does not command compulsory aid unless in special situations. By jumping into the water in an attempt to save the boy, Tom takes full responsibility of the boy and his subsequent acts of carelessness eventually result in the death of the boy. Immediately he jumps into the water, Tom

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Trial by jury has no place in modern Britain Essay

Trial by jury has no place in modern Britain - Essay Example The system of jury trial has been related to the common law. In fact, Norman kings have promoted the specific process sending their judges ‘to preside at jury trials’ (Spooner 2006, p.88). In the above context, the objectivity of the court was ensured through the following practice: the public could choose ‘four people to sit with them’ (Spooner 2006, p.88). Magna Carta has enforced the specific rule in order to ensure that judge will not influence the jury (Spooner 2006). Saxons did not accept the interference of king’s judges with the jury, aiming to keep the court independence from the ruling of the king (Spooner 2006). Today, a similar approach can be used for justifying the non-appropriateness of jury trial in English law. Due to its structure, the English legal system ensures the objectivity in trial, at least at higher level than other legal systems worldwide where the use of jury in trials often causes severe problems in the court procedure. The presence of juries in trial has been, traditionally, considered as a measure for ensuring equality in terms of law, i.e. to ensure that the decision of the court will be fair both for the perpetrator and the public, meaning that no punishment will be imposed unless the person considered as the perpetrator has, indeed, committed the offense involved. It is for this reason that in trial with juries the defendant is given plenty of time in order to present all the evidence available; in this way it is ensured that the crime will be fairly and appropriately evaluated by the jury. In practice, the participation of juries in trials has led to ‘verdicts, which have protected the personal rights’ (Hosterttler 2004, p.155). However, it cannot be stated that trial by jury always lead to the correct verdict or that juries ‘protect the law’ (Hosterttler 2004, p.155). Such perception cannot be acceptable taking into consideration the involvement of other individuals in critical parts of each trial, especially the judge in directing the trial and the lawyers in presenting/ analyzing the evidence involved. From this point of view it could be noted that juries are not indispensable part of criminal law. In the English legal system this view could be also applied, especially since in the particular system, due to its structure and its principles is quite difficult to lead to failures in regard to the evaluation of evidence, minimizing the risks for wrong verdicts. Currently, criminal trials in the English legal system are based on the trial jury, but not necessarily. In minor offences, these that are heard before the magistrate’s courts, the offender has the right to choose between ‘a trial before the magistrate court and a trial by jury before the Crown Court’ (Erastus-Obilo 2009, p.41). On the other hand, in more serious offences, the offender does not have such option. The trial is heard necessarily ‘by judge and the ju ry’ (Erastus – Obilo 2009, p.41). Moreover, the power of jury as factors determining the cases cannot be ignored. In fact, the verdict cannot replace the judgment of the court, but the verdict is the basis for the development of the judgment. From this point of view, the current role of jury in the English legal system is critical. 3. Benefits and implications of the trial by jury The use of the jury system in England has been combined with the principle of liberty; more specifically, the presence of juries in trials in England reflected the liberty of people to participate in important issues related to the law, which, as its name notes, is common among all people in terms of

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

The origin of passover Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The origin of passover - Research Paper Example The paper also explains how the Lord God instructed the Israelites to be commemorating the Passover feast in every year. For better understanding of the Origin of the Passover, it is better to look at the Passover in the context of the ten plagues that the Lord God unleashed upon the Egyptians as the result of Pharaoh’s obstinacy in letting the Jewish people leave Egypt for the Promised Land, i.e. the Canaan. The incident of the Lord’s passing over the houses of the Israelites took place during the tenth plague, which led to the death of every first born son of every Egyptian family. It was after this incident, that Pharaoh finally allowed the Israelites to leave Egypt as the Lord God had required of them as we shall see in this paper. The origin of the Jewish Passover feast is clearly recorded in Exodus 12. Before the Lord God unleashed the tenth plague upon the Egyptians, the Lord God commanded Moses to ask every Jewish household to take, on the tenth day of the month, a one year old lamb without any defect. The Jews households then were asked by the Lord God to take care of the lambs till the 14th day of the month when they would slaughter the lambs at twilight. The Israelites then were commanded by the Lord God through His servant Moses, to smear the blood of the lambs on the doorposts of the Jewish households. This was meant to distinguish the households of the Jews from the households of the Egyptians so that when the angel of destruction cane to strike the first born male child of every Egyptian household, he would easily notice and pass over the households of the Jews. On the meat of the slaughtered lambs, the Israelites were commanded by the lord to roast the meat, and to eat it with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. The bitter herb was a sigh of the Jew’s painful maltreatment by the Egyptians, while the unleavened bread was a sign of spiritual preparedness, repentance, among the Jews as

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Digestive Enzyme Experiment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Digestive Enzyme Experiment - Essay Example There are two (2) main reasons why the digestion of starches starts in the mouth (i.e. salivary amylase) and eventually stops as soon as the partially digested starches could reach the stomach. First, it is important to know that digestion of food nutrients can occur using either mechanical digestion or chemical enzymes and that starch is a polysaccharide that can be digested only via chemical reactions (Eliasson, 2006, p. 475; Sullivan and Cooley, 2004, p. 45). Second, the stomach is responsible for mechanical digestion (Rechtman, 2004, p. 114). Since starch cannot be digested mechanically, it is impossible for starch to be digested in the stomach. Basically, starch is a good example of complex carbohydrates (Shetty, 2010, p. 24; Chopra, 2005, p. 91). Because of the long chains of glucose that are heavily tied up together, carbohydrates such as starch can only be broken down by enzymes such as the salivary amylase (Sullivan and Cooley, 2004, p. 45). Eventually the reaction of saliva ry amylase can break down starch into a much simple carbohydrates which then can be absorbed in the small intestine (Eliasson, 2006, p. 475). In general, salivary amylase is not the only enzyme that can be use to digest starch. Other enzymes such as the pancreatic amylase as well as maltase can also be used in the chemical digestion of starch (McGuire and Beerman, 2013, p. 130; Eliasson, 2006, p. 475). For instance, as soon as the pancreas releases pancreatic juice like pancreatic amylase, it can further break down the polysaccharides.

Monday, July 22, 2019

Colour Purple, Porphyrias Lover Essay Example for Free

Colour Purple, Porphyrias Lover Essay Alphonso uses many catches, all of which helped convince Mr________ to accept Celie in marriage. Some of these bribes included â€Å"You can do everything just like you want to and she aint gonna make you feed it or clothe it† and â€Å"She’d come with her own Linen. She can take that cow she raise down there back of the crib. † These quotes show how her Pa believed he owned her. The possession he held for Celie was so great that he was able to offer her for marriage not because of the person she was, but for the things she could bring with her, and the chores she was able to complete. Browning’s Poem â€Å"Porphyria’s Lover† uses the plot of this dramatic monologue to represent and tie in the aspect of possession. The man in Porphyria’s life is so engaged in the fact that Porphyria has some sense of feeling toward him and believes that her connections with the outside world is the only thing keeping her from staying with him. This man is so in love with Porphyria that she is able to make everything for him feel better. To him, Porphyria is above all else and changes the atmosphere almost automatically. When glided in Porphyria; straight she shut the cold out and the storm, And kneeled down and made the cheerless grate Blaze up and make the whole cottage warm. † Another way Walker uses her novel to develop possession, is when Celie decides to leave for Memphis with Shug, to get away from Mr______. After years of dealing with her husband’s ways of life, putting up with all the beatings, and having to deal with being owned, Ce lie decides that everything would be better off living with Shug who truly cares for her. The true feelings and the streak of possession starts to truly show when Mr______ hears of this. He exclaims to Celie â€Å"Who you think you is?.. You can’t curse nobody. Look at you. You black, you pore, You Ugly, You a woman. Goddam, he say, you nothing at all†. He uses this to try to persuade and convince Celie that she will be no good away from him, but it does not work. She follows her feelings and escapes from the life with him. Similarly, â€Å"Porphyria’s Lover† is another example of the man trying to gain possession over the women in his life. Alternatively, Browning allows the man to effectively gain this possession. On realising that Porphyria truly does worship him, and that no matter how much her heart tells her that she loves him, she cannot tear herself away from her vein attires; he becomes determined on what to do. He realises that there is only one way to keep their love together, perfect and pure. â€Å"That moment she was mine, mine, fair, perfectly pure and good. I found a thing to do†¦. And strangled her. † This example showed how the possession was so great, that Porphyria was unable to escape. An additional way Alice Walker uses â€Å"Color Purple† to develop the idea of possession, very alike to Celie and Mr_____ relationship, is the marriage of Sofia and Harpo. Harpo does not like the idea of Sofia doing her own thing, having her own ideas and independence and so he confides with his father on what he could do. Harpo becomes convinced that to remove this independence, he needs to beat her. On attempting to beat Sofia, Harpo realises that she is not going to give in that way, and how much of a fight she can put up. On deciding that there is no way he is able to win in the frame he is in, Harpo starts to eat uncontrollably in attempt to put on weight to triumph over Sofia. â€Å"He eating more and more each day Harpo eat when he aint hungry † This still does not help him to succeed in possessing his wife. In Browning’s poetry, Porpheryias’ lover actually succeeds in possessing his love. By murdering her, he was able to keep the love between them both, allowing her joyful heart no longer to be able to break. He was able to preserve the moment of perfect love and justify it despite everything. At once, he was able to hold her, and keep her forever. â€Å"Only, this time my shoulder bore her head, which droops upon it still: The smiling rose little head, so glad it has its utmost will†. The next aspect of Love developed in â€Å"Color Purple† is the Powerlessness of women. The poem that relates to this aspect is â€Å"Child Wife† written by Oodgeroo of the Tribe Noonuccal. Both these texts help to portray how women in different cultures have to deal with the same feeling of being powerless, as well as having no say in what happens in their life. Walker again uses Celie’s relationship with her â€Å"Pa† as a way to form examples of the way women lack power in their life. Alphonso uses Celie to perform many of his duties, take care of the children as well as for his pleasure. â€Å"He never had a kine word to say to me. Just say you gonna do what you mammy wouldn’t†¦He start to choke me, saying you better shut up and git used to it. † This quote from the beginning of the novel explains how Celie’s Pa used to sexually assault her and how she was never allowed to say a word to anyone. She had no choice or say in what happened to her and always had to do exactly as she was told. Child Wife† is a similar example of the Powerlessness of women. In this poem the young girl has no choice and is forced to marry an old man The cultural ties in this tribe â€Å"Noonuccal† mean that young woman’s husbands are determined by everyone but the women herself, and don’t take int o account any lovers or any other aspects in their life. â€Å"My childhood over, I must sit forever, and the tears fall down† explains how devastated this young girl is about her marriage, but does not have the rights to be able to walk away or say no. Mr______ and Celie’s marriage is again a great example of the Powerlessness of Women. Mr_____ has sex with Celie without ever discussing or caring about Celie’s feelings or wants. Celie explains, â€Å"Most times I pretend I aint there. He never know the difference†¦Never.. Just do his business, get off, go to sleep. † Sex is just an enjoyment for Mr______, a chore, part of the business of being married. Because Celie is tied to marriage with Mr______, she has no choice but to learn to deal with it. Oodgeroo, of the tribe Noonuccal, once again uses her poems very similarly to the powerlessness of women in â€Å"Color Purple†, the only thing being that this young lady is restricted by traditions as well. The tribal traditions in Noonuccal meant that all husbands are chosen by the leaders, not based on age or the girls wants, but on what the man can provide and do, as well on what they personally think would be best for her. In this case the decision is what makes this young girl the least happy â€Å"They gave me to an old man, joyless and old. This leaves her doubting her life’s happiness and wishing she could have what she really wanted. â€Å"It was love I longed for, young love like mine, it was Dunwa wanted me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Another relationship in â€Å"Color Purple† of which the man tries to take the woman’s power is Sofia Harpo’s marriage. Harpo attempts for quite a long period to beat the independence out of Sofia to gain more power i n their relationship. The more Harpo tries to beat his wife, the more determined she becomes in doing her own thing. Eventually Sofia has enough and leaves him, taking with her all her children. â€Å"They come early one morning in two wagons to pick Sofia up. She doesn’t have much to take†¦The children. † This is Celie’s description of when Sofia’s sisters came to collect Sofia and save her from any more hassle with her husband. Harpo had attempted to make Sofia powerless, but failed, losing all his family in the process. Oodgeroo describes the young girl in â€Å"The child wife† surrounded by â€Å"Happy the small birds Mating and Nesting, Shrilling their gladness No grief may drown. Oodgeroo uses this part of the poem to explain that everything else around this little girl is happy, with no grief or sorrow, making her feel trapped by happiness. She has no choice but to be with this old man forever, powerless and drowned in pain. The third aspect of Love described in â€Å"Color Purple† and the last poem â€Å"At Seventeen† by T. S Elliot is loves absence. This aspect does not communicate the same ideas right throughout the two texts but is an aspect of which affects many characters and people in their day-to-day life’s. Whether not having experienced love, losing one that is loved or having been separated from a lover, Loves absence in either one of these texts can and does cause many emotions to evolve. Most of these emotions are powerful and are capable of accumulating into negative feelings. The only similar example, which helps to relate â€Å"Color Purple† and â€Å"At seventeen† in the same way, to the aspect of Loves Absence, is with Celie at the beginning of the novel. Celie never understood how somebody could fall in love, as she had never witnessed it herself. Nobody had ever been attracted to Celie, only ever using her for what she could do and for sex. Walker uses the quote â€Å"She not so pretty†¦Just that head of hair†¦Sure too black † to show how many people used to see Celie before Shug came along. Before Shug, Celie never really understood the meaning of true love. The same idea of Love’s absence, as shown in the first example in â€Å"Color Purple†, is shown all the way through T. S Elliot’s poem â€Å"At Seventeen†. The seventeen year old in this poem has realized that she just cannot compete with the peers her age and that she is not good enough for love. She thinks she does not have the looks or the money to attract anyone to love her. â€Å"I learnt the truth at seventeen that love was meant for beauty queens And high school girls with clear skinned smiles†. Elliot uses quotes such as this all through the poem to describe how this seventeen year old believes she is everything but glamour or beauty. Loves absence in this poem has lead this young girl to become mournful, pessimistic and depressed, at the same having a grandiose image of other girls on a pedestal compared to herself. It has lead her to believe that love is a shallow emotion only about beauty not about the person within. As a result, she leads herself to thinking she will never be able to fall in love because she feels she cannot compare. A diverse example but of equal significance in Walkers novel is between Celie and her sister Nettie. Even though the physical absence between the two sisters in this story is immense, and continues to grow and extend, Celie and Nettie still feel the same love and bonds for each other. â€Å"The years have come and gone without a single word from you. Only the sky above us do we hold in common†¦One day I will find myself gazing into your eyes†¦Oh Celie! † The passion that is showing through in this quote is becoming an all-consuming thought in Nettie’s mind, forming constant worry and anxiety about where her sister is and if they will ever meet again. The last example that transmits the same idea of Love’s absence in â€Å"At seventeen† comprises of the quote â€Å"To those of us who know the pain of Valentines that never came†¦and those of whose names were never called when choosing sides for basketball†. This does not use the same illustration as what Color purple does, as the young girl had never had a love, to lose. Instead, she wishes she had experienced the love of which others boast about. All these texts, â€Å"Color Purple†, â€Å"Porphyria’s Lover†, â€Å"Child Wife† and â€Å"At Seventeen† represent very similar but divergent issues and aspects that help develop the common theme of Love. Each one of these aspects has helped to demonstrate the boundaries and connections that can evolve in the process of Love.

Educational Paradigms Essay Example for Free

Educational Paradigms Essay Paradigms are ways of thinking or getting things done. As time passes and new concepts evolve, the way things are being done or implemented begin to undergo significant changes. Paradigms are continually shifting and this is unavoidable. For example, prior to the beginning of the information age, education could only be achieved by physically seeking admission and going through manual registration processes before one could be considered a student. The situation has changed today. Most of these processes may now be achieved online, as is the case with American Intercontinental University (AIU). A new educational paradigm has been ushered in as a result of technological advancements (Riegle, n. d. ). Which paradigm best describes your current learning organizational environment? Why? Provide an example. The ideal paradigm is the one that favours the emergence of standard practices, improved methodologies, and a range of resources that help to establish benchmarks and develop instructional strategies that give students the opportunity to learn properly and reap the benefits of education optimally. American Intercontinental University (AIU) provides an online educational system that offers increased accessibility to students from the convenience of their homes. This is accomplished through the use of up-to-date technological devices, software programs, internet connection, and computers. Since technology has turned the world into a global village, the educational paradigm is gradually shifting from the use of traditional classrooms to an online learning system. This learning platform has necessitated the need for an interactive method of learning to supplement the lecture materials, sample essays and the numerous resources that are made available to students to facilitate their learning process. For example, Instructional strategies that involve the use of chat rooms, discussion groups, emails, forums or message boards are employed to achieve learning. How does your organizational paradigm affect your assessments and measurement of student learning? AIU strives to balance learning strategies by adopting principles of various learning theories and applying them to instructional design and students’ assessment. The University presents materials to students in formats that they can easily understand, usually in the form of video, audio, presentations, and other related methods. Measurement of student learning is achieved through the evaluation of students’ participation in group activities, discussion groups, learning teams, chat rooms, and ability to use concept maps, mnemonics or organizers to reflect their knowledge of concepts. This is in support of the Cognitivism theory which states that it is important to understand how the human mind works so that we can understand how students learn (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2008). Assessment of learning is also done by giving students home work, assignments or group projects so that they can learn through their own activities and personal experiences. This is a very important paradigm at AIU since most of the learning activities take place online. Students are encouraged to learn through simulation, exploration and active participation in message boards and various projects assigned to them. This method of assessment is in agreement with the constructivism theory which states that knowledge is imbibed through active participation and engagement of the learner. The theory asserts that for knowledge to be retained, it is important to link new concepts with familiar concepts (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2008). On a personal level, which paradigm do you feel most represents your own views of education and assessment? Even though technology has its numerous benefits and offers students various opportunities of convenience and ease of use, traditional learning methods should also be sustained because each style of learning has its own benefits. It’s important to maximize the advantages of each learning style so that optimal results may be achieved. In consonance with the theory of behaviorism, good performance should always be rewarded with praise, awards or any other form of recognition to encourage the students, while the undesired behavior (bad performance) may be rewarded by holding back such rewards (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2008). This ensures that individual performances in learning are immediately observed and weak points are focused on for possible improvement. By balancing the learning theories and employing the use of best practices in administering lectures to students, learning can indeed become an enhanced and exciting experience. References Learning Theories Knowledgebase. (2008). Index of Learning Theories and Models. Retrieved September 25, 2008 from http://www. learning-theories. com Riegle, R. P. (n. d. ). Educational Paradigms. Visionary Leadership for the Information Age. Retrieved September 26 from http://people. coe. ilstu. edu/rpriegle/wwwdocs/paradigm/welcome. htm

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Importance of Statistical Research in Medicine

Importance of Statistical Research in Medicine The Nepal Journal of Epidemiology is the first journal of its kind in Nepal. Our main objective in pioneering this journal is to attempt to provide a common platform for all researchers, particularly those doing epidemiological studies on prevailing public health problems in the community. We wish to make this journal one that follows standard criteria of scientific article writing with sound technical knowhow. We have introduced several initiatives to improve the quality, reporting, and transparency of research in general, and randomised trials in particular, by emphasising the importance of protocols. We offer to review protocols to improve trial quality and reduce publication bias. We consider submissions of randomised trials only if registered and accompanied by a protocol, which is sent with the manuscript to peer reviewers. All who use, receive, or pay for health-care interventions depend on guidance from reliable research findings and will want reassurance that medical researc h is credible. Essentially, Nepals research output is still small. More collaboration and partnerships between countries in different regions of Asia and externally must be fostered. Lack of investment in research should also be addressed by nations that are capable of investing more. Research in Nepal can and should flourish over the next decade. A brief review through almost any recently published medical journal will show that statistical methods play an increasingly important role in modern medical research. Many research papers quote at least one p-value to communicate their results while some present the results and the statistical analysis of medical data in relatively sophisticated and complex sets1-8. After extensive study of the available literature and from the personal experience in this domain, I would like to venture a few recommendations for the improvement of various aspects in medical research and its application. I believe that this brief discussion will be of great value to all professionals involved in medical research and its application. Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability, mused William Osler. Medical journals are a confluence of medicine, science and journalism-and are expected to have the values of all three. The science that underpins medicine is presented in journals, and most journals can point to landmark studies that changed medicine. Medical journals differ from scientific journals in that they are mainly read, not by scientists, but by practicing doctors. Medical journals will continue to be the main vehicle of scientific information for years to come, particularly where access to computer and internet facilities are relatively limited. Currently, the output-and rewards-of research are based almost entirely on published papers in scientific journals. Scientists in low-income and middle-income settings want an opportunity to analyze data for their populations according to their own priorities. They want to be in the frontlines of national and global conversations about their countr ys experiences. Evidence-based medicine provides several ways to quantify and communicate uncertainty, but does so from a probabilistic rather than a human perspective. We can divide Evidence based medicine/clinical epidemiology into two major methodological themes: statistical and implementation. The use and analysis of large trials, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, evidence hierarchies, cost-effectiveness analyses, and number needed to treat would come under the statistical while the improved access to evidence through literature searching, library and critical appraisal tools, guideline development, risk framing, etc. would be implementation. Researchers welcome clinical uncertainty as a source of knowledge gaps, whose answers will be meaningful to clinicians and patients. Clinical epidemiology bridges clinical practice and public health. Policies notwithstanding, despite suggestions to detect and eliminate research misconduct, training in research ethics, standards and responsible conduct is often minimal or absent in academia. The quality of medical journals depends on several factors involving three groups of people: namely the authors, the reviewers and the editors. Deciding who should be listed as an author is not simple, and too often the decision is made on the basis of power. The powerful are included, even when they have done nothing, and the weak are excluded, even though they have done most of the work. This unethical behaviour can become a major problem if the study proves to be fraudulent, as has happened many times. Sometimes journals receive coverage in the media that makes them squirm, particularly when they are exposed as having published research that is fraudulent. I worry that journals are being polluted by misconduct and that editors are not responding adequately. Scientific reading will enhance the quality of scientific writing. Critical reading and thinking will provide a relevant, interesting, feasible, ethical and novel research hypothesis. The author or researcher planning on a research study and publication should search in Medline, PubMed and other search engines for relevant reviews and literature of similar studies in world and national scenario. These studies must be examined for strengths and weaknesses, and the researcher must apply required modifications for new knowledge. It will help the author tremendously in the writing of the introduction, discussion and conclusion part of the manuscript. Before starting data collection, the researcher should decide upon the study design, target population, sample size and sampling method, inclusion exclusion criteria, study period, study variable, outcome measures and units of measurement, definition of all the terms and variables and their classification. After careful consideration, the methodology of data collection and the method of data analysis, including the computer packages and statistical methods, should be chosen. The instruments or questionnaire used to measure the variables should be described correctly and if others have developed them, referenced properly. A researcher should be well aware of the concepts of different types of data and variables, two types of errors (type I and type II errors), calculation of sample size, significance level, confidence interval, testing of hypothesis and power of the test1-11. Once these criteria are followed, the authors should allot paragraphs for each one of them in the material and methods part of the manuscript, thereby increasing the quality of the study. This meticulous planning and execution will be useful to new researchers in this area. The editorial management is a crucial part of the publishing process. The editors begin action with the receipt of the manuscript by directing the various steps of evaluation, correction and re-submission, until an editorial decision is taken to accept the paper as is, accept it after modification or reject it if it is unacceptable. They then make necessary text and layout editing. Due consideration is given to the statistical, multilingual and ethical aspects as well as to the overall uniformity of the terminology, nomenclature and style throughout the volume as a whole. Experts review plays a pivotal role on maintaining the quality of a medical journal. A reviewer is required to address a number of important aspects of the paper and to make recommendation concerning the acceptability of the paper. Findings of good research deserve to be presented well, and a good presentation is as much a part of the research as the painstaking collection and analysis of the data. Critical appraisal of 150 articles published in a reputed medical journal in Nepal reveals that in more than 70% articles experienced biostatisticians were not involved or substantially contributed (not co authored), more than 65% studies sample size calculation were wrong and 80% of the article with inadequate statistical details and wrong statistical tests. Critical reviewers of the biomedical literature have consistently found that more than half of the published articles (including scientific articles, published even in the best journals) that used statistical methods contained unacceptable errors 1-11. The term statistics here in this context, has a wider meaning and includes the methodology of research, study design, or epidemiological methodology etc 1-8. The major applications of biostatistics started in the middle of the 17th century in the analysis of vital statistics. After the early developments in vital statistics, the field of genetics was the next area that benefited most from the new statistical ideas emerging in the works of Charles Darwin (1809-1882), Francis Galton (1822-1910), Karl Pearson (1857-1936), and Ronald A. Fisher (1890-1962). Now, the fields of application and areas of concern of biostatistics include evidence based medicine, bioassays, public health, health service research, nutrition, environmental health, demography, epidemiology, surveys of human populations, community diagnosis, bio-mathematical modelling, clinical trials, brain imaging, genomics and proteomics. Computer-based statistical packages have not yet been given expertise to decide the correct method although they sometimes generate a warning message when the data are not adequate. The user of the package decides the method9. The real solution to poor statistical reporting will come when authors learn more about the statistical methods in research design and when statisticians are able to convey the importance of the methods used in the study to authors, editors, and readers; when researchers begin to involve statisticians from the beginning of research, not at its end; when manuscript editors begin to understand and to apply statistical reporting and editing guidelines; when the journals are able to screen the articles containing statistical analyses more carefully; and when readers learn more about how to interpret statistics and begin to expect and demand, adequate statistical reporting7. A researcher should never hesitate to ask for professional assistance from a biostatistician to plan the study or experiment. There may be valuable research going on in developing and financially less-privileged countries, but it usually does not reach international visibility, in spite of a large number of scientific journals in these countries. Such journals are not only invisible but by perpetuating a vicious circle of inadequacy, may be directly damaging to the local science and research culture. Journals should prevent this by constructing an editorial board including qualified editors from developed and developing countries in the editorial board. I recommend biostatisticians to join as editors and reviewers in order to help formulate journal policy, audit the quality of statistics in published papers, help produce statistical guidelines or checklists for authors, educate editors, provide explanatory statistical comments on published papers, and write expository articles about statistical matters in journals.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Transportation And Community D :: essays research papers

Transportation affects every aspect of our lives and daily routine, including where we live, work, play, shop, go to school, etc. It has a profound impact on residential patterns, industrial growth, and physical and social mobility. Roads, highways, freeways and mass transit systems do not spring up out of thin air. They are planned. Someone makes a conscious decision to locate freeways, bus stops, and train stations where they are built. Transportation is no less a civil rights and quality of life issue. Safety and accessibility are the most significant considerations in transportation planning. Zoning and other practices of exclusion result in limited mobility for poor people and those concentrated in central cities. Over the past decades, automobile production and highway construction have multiplied, while urban mass transit systems have been dismantled or allowed to fall into disrepair. The end result has meant more pollution, traffic congestion, wasted energy, urban sprawl, residential segregation, and social disruption. All communities have not received the same benefits from transportation advancements and investments. Some of the governmental policies in housing, land use, environment, and transportation may have even contributed to and exacerbated social inequities. Some communities accrue benefits from transportation development projects, while other communities bear a disproportionate burden and pay cost in diminished health. Generally, benefits are more dispersed, while costs or burdens are more localized. Having a multi-lane freeway next door is not a benefit to someone who does not even own a car. The automobile-oriented construction and infrastructure projects cut wide path through low-income and destitute neighborhoods, physically insolated residents from their institutions and businesses, disrupted once-stable communities, displaced thriving businesses, contributed to urban sprawl, subsidized infrastructure decline, created traffic gridlock, and subjected residents to elevated risks from accidents.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Transportation is critical to healthy, livable and sustainable urban and rural communities. The transportation system influences, and in turn is influenced by, economical development decisions, land-use patterns, real estates investment decisions, and energy consumption patterns of the public and private sectors. The interests of those making transportation decisions, middle and upper class, educated professionals primarily, are served, while the interests, perspectives and needs of people left out of the decision-making process, people of color, poor, working and transit-dependent people, are not. The value of social justice and ecological sustainability are not major priorities in the existing transportation system.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Poor people and people of color are subsidizing our addiction to the automobile. They pay the highest social, economic and environmental costs and received the fewest benefits from an automobile-dominated transportation system. Transportation And Community D :: essays research papers Transportation affects every aspect of our lives and daily routine, including where we live, work, play, shop, go to school, etc. It has a profound impact on residential patterns, industrial growth, and physical and social mobility. Roads, highways, freeways and mass transit systems do not spring up out of thin air. They are planned. Someone makes a conscious decision to locate freeways, bus stops, and train stations where they are built. Transportation is no less a civil rights and quality of life issue. Safety and accessibility are the most significant considerations in transportation planning. Zoning and other practices of exclusion result in limited mobility for poor people and those concentrated in central cities. Over the past decades, automobile production and highway construction have multiplied, while urban mass transit systems have been dismantled or allowed to fall into disrepair. The end result has meant more pollution, traffic congestion, wasted energy, urban sprawl, residential segregation, and social disruption. All communities have not received the same benefits from transportation advancements and investments. Some of the governmental policies in housing, land use, environment, and transportation may have even contributed to and exacerbated social inequities. Some communities accrue benefits from transportation development projects, while other communities bear a disproportionate burden and pay cost in diminished health. Generally, benefits are more dispersed, while costs or burdens are more localized. Having a multi-lane freeway next door is not a benefit to someone who does not even own a car. The automobile-oriented construction and infrastructure projects cut wide path through low-income and destitute neighborhoods, physically insolated residents from their institutions and businesses, disrupted once-stable communities, displaced thriving businesses, contributed to urban sprawl, subsidized infrastructure decline, created traffic gridlock, and subjected residents to elevated risks from accidents.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Transportation is critical to healthy, livable and sustainable urban and rural communities. The transportation system influences, and in turn is influenced by, economical development decisions, land-use patterns, real estates investment decisions, and energy consumption patterns of the public and private sectors. The interests of those making transportation decisions, middle and upper class, educated professionals primarily, are served, while the interests, perspectives and needs of people left out of the decision-making process, people of color, poor, working and transit-dependent people, are not. The value of social justice and ecological sustainability are not major priorities in the existing transportation system.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Poor people and people of color are subsidizing our addiction to the automobile. They pay the highest social, economic and environmental costs and received the fewest benefits from an automobile-dominated transportation system.

Friday, July 19, 2019

Comparing Dictators Adolf Hitler versus Benito Mussolini versus Joseph

This essay will compare the three leaders who are famous for their dictatorship and totalitarianism during the 30's decade-Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin. Totalitarianism is when a government gains absolute and total control over the country, including the freedom of thought and will as well as the citizen?s lifestyle, no other political parties are allowed and has the concept where the country is most important. The difference and similarity between their ideology, usage of propaganda & censorship and the method of improving the economy would be stated and explained through examples. Basically, their ultimate aim was the same, they all tried to make their country better. However, there was their own ambition wanting for power included in their ruling which was probably why they all ended up dictating their county. They all abolished the democracy idea and used similar methods to rule their country, they all had control over the media for example censoring media and books and editing them in order to favor their own image. There are major similarities and minor differences between the ways of these leaders?s ruling. There would be a bigger gap between Stalin and the rest because he claimed himself as a communist whilst Hitler and Mussolini were fascists. Firstly, the three leaders all had similar ideology-they rejected the democracy idea, this is because they all dictated and dictatorship is a complete opposite of democracy. In democracy, the leader of the country cannot possess complete control over the country and is very easy to loose their position because the public has power over the government, and Hitler believed that Germany could only become stronger under his dictatorship. So it is obvious why Hitl... ...e similar things to Hitler, he also tried to decrease the unemployment rate and the most magnificent achievement was that under his order the railroads were completed. Stalin was truly successful at improving their country?s economy state, whilst Hitler and Mussolini only managed exterior success. This is probably why Germany was eventually defeated by Russia. In conclusion, there were a lot of similarities and differences between the three leaders. The similarity can be seen most clearly in the propaganda and censorship section and the differences in the economy section. There seems to be more similarity comparing to differences. Overall, they had same basic concepts, they were affected by same issues and thought closely in big branches and each developed them into different ways, their ideologies all lead them into dictatorship no matter the minor differences.

Ages of Faith, Reason, and Romantics Essay -- History Literature Writi

Ages of Faith, Reason, and Romantics Works Cited Missing The first three time periods in American literature had distinguishing characteristics in their subject matter and writing styles. Puritans wrote about their religious beliefs and daily life during the Age of Faith. During the Age of Reason, the Revolutionary War was going on and much of the writings were political documents as a result of the war. The Age of Romantics brought about the first fictional writings. The three time periods, which have unique characteristics in their subject matter and writing styles, were the Age of Faith, Age of Reason, and Age of Romantics. During the Age of Faith, the subject matter and writing styles were unusual. Puritans wrote about their religion in letters, journals, diaries, and sermons such as ?Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God? by Jonathan Edwards. In this sermon, Edwards uses ?scare-tactics? to get ?un-saved? members of his church ?saved?. Edwards, like many other Puritans, believed that ?un-saved? persons are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell? (Edwards 37). Puritan daily life was centered around their religion. Puritans wrote about interactions with the Native Americans, farming, weather, hunting, and other happenings in the settlements such as in Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford. The plain writings of the Age of Faith proved to be quite unusual to the readers of today. The writers of the Age of Faith wrote about religion because that was the ...

Thursday, July 18, 2019

The Manufacture and Use of Cigarettes Should Be Made Illegal

The manufacture and use of cigarettes should be illegal. This is not just a simple statement. It is an undisputable fact. Cigarette smoking is a detriment to every society in which it is practiced. Firstly, cigarette smoking impinges one’s health. Cigarette smoke contains over 4000 chemicals, including nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide, which are found in tobacco. The daily intakes of these chemicals have devastating effects on the body. Every puff, every cigarette, every pack consumed destroys the body slowly but surely. Airways, lungs, heart and blood vessels suffer daily from the effects of the intake of numerous damaging substances. The effects of smoking includes an increase in the risk of getting throat cancer, lung cancer, heart diseases, it increases the amount of red blood cells in the body which could lead to a stroke or heart failure. Cigarette smoking also affects the skin and male and female reproductive organs. It can also significantly decrease the smoker’s life span. Besides impinging one’s health, smoking impinges one’s wealth. No tobacco product is taxed more heavily than cigarettes. One might therefore say that the manufacturing of cigarette is beneficial to governments and to the building up of one’s nation. However, when we add up the amount of money one spends on buying cigarettes, the amount of money spent on medical bills, the amount spent for heart transplants, rehabilitation centers and funeral homes, is that really so? Hard earned money is being thrown down the drain all for the sake of cigarettes. Thirdly, cigarette manufacture and smoking has a negative impact on our environment. Deforestation is considered one of the most severe environmental problems worldwide. Modern cigarette manufacturing uses wood to cure the tobacco and to roll and package the cigarettes. A cigarette manufacturing machine uses approximately four miles of paper per hour to roll and package cigarettes. It is estimated that for every three hundred cigarettes produced one tree is consumed. It is believed deforestation is changing the world's climate and contributing to global warming. Cigarette smoking also produces carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, hereby further contributing to global warming. The large amount of pesticides and fertilizers necessary for the cultivation of tobacco also contributes to the pollution of our waterways and ecological systems. Cigarette butts take approximately twenty-five years to decompose. Through improper disposal they end up in our seas, rivers and lakes. Different animals and fish eat them by mistake and can die since they are unable to digest the filters. Cigarettes are one of the leading causes for fatal household fires, also affecting the environment. Finally, besides affecting one’s health, wealth and environment, cigarette smoking also affects the rights of non-smokers and children. Second hand smoke can also kill and is considered to be worst than first hand smoke. A person who chooses to smoke chooses to die. However, why should he choose whether the people around him should die too? Who gave him the right to decide who lives or dies? Many people, specifically the children of smokers, are exposed to second hand smoke. As a result many people who do not smoke suffer from respiratory problems due to no fault of theirs. Cigarette manufacture and smoking is indeed detrimental to a person’s health, to their financial status and to the environment. It therefore affects society in many ways. In order for a nation to have stronger, healthier persons in their society, use less government funds for health institutions and programs to quit smoking, not infringe on the rights of non-smokers and children, and to have a cleaner environment, the manufacture and smoking of cigarettes should be made illegal.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Nationally Identity Cards

accredited ID entrust not make hoi polloi each safer no matter how people strive and tailspin it. In reality people ordain be less safe from dictatorship and despotism than ever before for the discernment that it doesnt come from tabuside forces al iodin right here in the native land our deliver backyard (AJY, 2005). The terrorist attacks of September 11 restrain revived proposals for a subject field individuation gameboard transcription as a way to confirm the own(prenominal) individuation operator of flight path passengers and keep away from terrorists from move intoing the sylvan (Kristof and Stanley, 2004). For instance, the Chairman and CEO of Oracle Corp., Larry Ellison, deep called for the introduction of a subject field ID system and offered to make avail qualified the software for it without charge.The newest calls for a internal ID are only the current in a spacious serial of proposals that redeem cropped up repeatedly all over the past deca de, typically in the manakin of immigration policy, honorable now also in connection with gun control or health care re row. and the creation of a guinea pig I.D. mailing be a misplaced, superficial quick fix. It offers only a false sense of hostage measure and allow not enhance our security but will pose unspoiled threats to the civic liberties and civil rights. A depicted object ID will not keep people safe or free.The problem is the card itself. No matter how unforgeable we make it, it will be forged. And even worse, people will get legitimate cards in fraudulent names (Schneier, 2004). A interior(a) ID card system will not avoid terrorism. It would not work frustrate the September 11 hijackers, for instance, lot of whom reportedly had assignment documents on them, and were in the artless legally.Terrorists and criminals will continue to be able to get by legal and vicious means the documents needed to get a government ID, such as induce certificates.Yes, thes e new documents will have info like digital fingerprints on them, but that wont show real identity just that the carrier has obtained what could without difficulty be a fraudulent document. And their creation would not excuse the speak to to Ameri arsehole taxpayers, which according to the hearty credentials Administration would be at least $4 billion. It is an impractical and unable proposal a simplistic and nave try to use gee-whiz technology to figure out difficult social and economic problems.A national ID card system would not treasure us from terrorism, but it would construct a system of internal passports that would extensively diminish the freedom and privacy of law-abiding citizens. erst part put in place, it is extremely incredible that such a system would be restricted to its original purpose. Social Security numbers, for instance, were initially intended to be utilise only to administer the retirement program. But that limit has been routinely ignored and st eadily aband geniusd over the past 50 years. A national ID system would adventure the privacy that Americans have always enjoyed and stepwise amplify the control that government and lineage wields over eitherday citizens (Miller, 1995).What happens when an ID card is stolen? What conclusion is utilize to make a determination that gets a card? A national ID would require a governmental database of each person in the U.S. containing continually updated make outing selective information. It would possible contain numerous errors, any wiz of which could render approximatelyone unemployable and plausibly much worse until they get their blame straightened out. And once that database was created, its use would some for certain expand. Law enforcement and different government agencies would presently ask to link into it, while employers, betoken mailers, landlords, private investigators, landlords, accredit agencies, mortgage brokers, civil litigants, and a long list of early(a) parties would begin seeking access, further dilapidate the privacy that Americans have always evaluate in their personal lives.Americans have long had a visceral aversion to mental synthesis a society in which the regimen could act like totalitarian sentries and entreat your papers please And that everyday forwardness would be conjoined with the full force of modern computer and database technology. When a law of nature partingr or security view as scans your ID card with his pocket bar-code reader, for instance, will a permanent record be created of that check, including the period and your location? How long before office buildings, doctors offices, gas stations, spiritedway tolls, subways and buses incorporate the ID card into their security or payment systems for gravid efficiency? The end result could be a nation where citizens movements inside their own country are monitored and recorded through these internal passports.Rather than eliminating incons istency, as some have claimed, a national identity card would foster new forms of discrimination and harassment of anyone perceived as looking or sounding foreign. That is what happened after congress passed the Employer Sanctions provision of the Immigration Reform and fancy Act of 1985 widespread discrimination against foreign-looking American workers, particularly Asians and Hispanics. A 1990 General news report Office study found almost 20 percent of employers engaged in such practices.A national ID card would have the same effect on a massive scale, as Latinos, Asians, Caribbeans and other minorities became subject to ceaseless status and identity checks from police, banks, merchants and others. Failure to carry a national I.D. card would likely come to be viewed as a reason for search, storage area or arrest of minorities. The stigma and discomposure of constantly having to prove that they are Americans or legal immigrants would weigh heavily on such groups.National ID i s an extremely terrible intellection it really isnt clear to me that a national ID card does not make identification more reliable as substantially as realizing important economic savings by standardization. In particular while I agree that using one ID system introduces an ordinary point of high value failure it also economically feasible to invest a great deal more in the ID system. If one ID replaces n IDs you can make the ID cost roughly about the sum of the cost of all those other IDs. If one national ID replaced our entire drivers licenses, passports, credit cards and so forth it could afford more sophisticate safeguards than any of the former IDs individually.National ID system is a bad idea. Unfortunately, insecure and badly ill-treat national ID system already follow the Social Security Number. Using SSN and Drivers Licenses as ID systems is bad, bad, bad. There are little or no regulations governing how these data can be used and this result in the current state of th ings with your name and SSN, an identity thief can wreak butchery on your life. With a plain, secure, and open architecture for individual IDs, then we, as citizens, could nominate power over how our identities are used and disseminated for things like insurance forms, employment applications, credit applications, etc. Unfortunately, the need to positively identify and track an individual for these purposes is a pock cold part of daily life.Rather than turn down outright the notion of any form of national ID we should be actively workings towards an architecture that actually works and provides safeguards for our personal information, while at the same metre making application processes easier and more streamlined. Honestly, it makes me smoking that I have to fill out my personal and insurance information every time I go to any medical professional. Why cant I enter a PIN number or password into a secured touch lozenge and automatically authorize the download of my informati on automatically? Enabling this sort of ability would be moving forward, not backward.REFERENCEAJY, real(a) ID Act Is Our National ID panel Real Bad, Real Stupid, 2005 Bruce Schneier. A National ID Card Wouldnt Make Us Safer. Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2004 http//www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/05/real_id.htmlKristof and Jay Stanley. Should the U.S. adopt a national ID card system? Many countries discipline national ID cards. Post-9/11 security concerns have prompted a debate about whether ) An oblige from New York Times Upfront, Scholastic, Inc., 2004.Miller, John J. A national ID system Big brothers ancestor to illegal immigration, Cato Institute (1995).