Lyndon B. Johnson Essay

Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidential reign began with the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy in 1963. While the people of the United States tried to recover from the loss of Kennedy, Johnson used it to his advantage. Many citizens did not notice that this was being done, and some even wonder if Johnson himself knew he was using it to his advantage. By him telling America that Kennedy would have wanted the Great Society, the people believed him and went through with it. Many things, both good an bad came out of the Great Society. The Great Society was Johnson’s way of fixing the problems in America, that being the political, emotional and mostly the social problems. Johnson used the nations grief to pass the civil rights bill. It had the same idea of the bill Kennedy was planning on passing, but the difference was that Johnson’s was stronger and more powerful. This act was passed in July of 1964, and it outlawed radical discrimination in all public places. Places that included hotels, and restaurants, it banned the discrimination of unions, and the employers and even programs that were funded by the federal government. The civil rights act was not the only thing passed in 1964 though, he also passed the Economic Opportunity Act. As seen in document B, the act was made to help people in poverty. It started head start, a preschool program funded by the government, and gave workers and farmers money to break through and escape from poverty. It improved what was being done in our nation at that time, and became a milestone for our 180-year search for a better life for our people. With these couple of acts being formed it did help our poverty rates change. When you look at document H you can see that in 1959 before Johnson’s presidency, the poverty rate was at 55.1 for blacks, 18.1 for whites, and 53.3 for all non-whites. Once the acts were formed the rates went down a little and were recorded in 1966 by about 15 percent except for whites, the whites only went down 7 percent. They kept decreasing until 1974 where they were last recorded in the document at 29.5 percent for all non-whites, 31.4 for blacks, and 8.9 for whites. The white race was effected the most by this and they decreased the most out of all of races. Now with the change of the  poverty rates, Johnson also tried to help with medical prices. He started insurance programs such as Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for the poor. Document A shows Abraham Ribcoff testifying before the House of Representatives about the prices of medical care. The discovery of more advanced medical sciences and life spans lasting longer, the elders and poor need more help paying these bills and with Medicare and Medicaid help will be provided. Now the Great Society was a huge deal during Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency. Probably because it had a huge impact on America to this day. Johnson poured millions, even billions of dollars into building a perfect society. While he was putting money into this, he was spending money trying to help with the Vietnam War. Document E is a perfect cartoon of what was happening in the time period. Johnson knew that we could not win the war, but he kept us fighting. Many lives were lost, and more and more money was spilt into it. The idea of his Great Society fed right into the war. So much money was lost into the US economy and it is money that we have not gotten back. People were disappointed with Johnson because he kept us fighting, but he did not under their anger. In document F, an interview of Johnson in 1967, he states, â€Å"How is it possible that all these people could be so ungrateful to me after I had given them so much?†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He has a point where he had done a lot , but this was nothing compared to the pain families had felt over their loved ones. Johnson was not the only political figure during this ear that made a strong impact on civil rights. Several supreme court cases were occurring at this time between the Miranda rights, and when Plessy was overturned by Brown. Along with Baker v. Carr and Engel v. Vitale. All of these impacted women and blacks. Betty Freedan was against the perfect life idea for women. Where they need to be the perfect wife for their husbands and how it was every woman’s dream. Betty had this life and it was not her dream. Blacks wanted full rights, no more segregation between them. With these two together the civil rights movement began. More information on these two groups are found in document C and D. Johnson faced a lot during his presidency, and he made it through all of it. He made a large impact on American’s life. Economically he put us into a severe struggle, but he did help with medical care, and schooling for children. Socially we now have equal rights, and the civil rights movement did work after a while. We all get along in schools and those movements started it all. Politically he was not the best president, but they all have ups and downs. My own opinion, Johnson was an okay president. Life was difficult then, but many of those difficult things made the life we live today a lot better.

Vark: Educational Psychology and Learning Styles

VARK Analysis Grand Canyon University VARK Analysis VARK refers to a specific style of learning, visual, auditory, reading and writing and kinesthetic leaners. (Fleming & Mills, 1992) VARK assessment questions alert people to the variety of different approaches to learning. (VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles, 2011) For those struggling with learning the VARK analysis can develop a new learning approach or enhance your current learning style by identifying your learning style to more effectively store and recall information. Knowing our own learning style also can help you to realize that other people may approach the situation different from your own. (Connor, 2009) â€Å"Everyone has a certain amount of each learning style, but one learning type will be more dominant that than other. †(Smith, 2011) Throughout our journey of childhood education we are introduced to kinesthetic learning in the early years, JR high visual and read and write and higher learners experience more auditory. (Smith, 2011) Each individual is exposed to different learning approaches however we develop a preference to a specific learning style. Whichever type a person is, will be how they view life and comprehend situations. This is their own, unique personal filtering system. Obviously each of us will become automatically drawn to our same type, and those who filter the same information the way we do. But having diverse relationships will increase our own happiness throughout our lives† (Smith, 2011) â€Å"VARK is a bout learning, not leisure activities. The read/write learners prefer information displayed as words. This learning style emphasizes text based-input and output. People who prefer this modality are often addicted to Power Points, the internet, lists diaries and words, words, words. †(VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles, 2011) Upon taking this test, it reinforced the learning strategies I currently utilize the read and write learning preference. Read and write learners need writing materials to take down points the think are important from what the read, hear and see. (Smith, 2011) The advantage for read write learners they are very independent with learning and can self-teach. A disadvantage to this style of learning preference if a presentation is audio or visual with no opportunities to take notes, this type of learner will struggle with comprehending the content. With a presentation that is more visual and audio, the read write learner must convert this content to a style of words in their head that will help them commit this to memory. (VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles, 2011) Read and Write learners prefer to take information by making list, headings or utilizing book, handouts, essays and manuals. To make their intake of information a learnable package a read and write learner must convert their â€Å"notes† by 3:1 for studying. † (VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles, 2011) These read/write learner to utilize the information they gather often organizes their written words into diagrams, graphs, charts and read their notes and rewrite the principals into other words. The successful output of this information is when they can perform well on a test or assignment. VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles, 2011) Completing the VARK analysis at the beginning of my BSN program reinforced the strengths of my read write learning preference. This learning preference style analysis also gave suggestions if a read and write learner is put in a situation where they must utilize the other learning styles. The suggestion to convert that information into the preferred â€Å"word† method read/ write learners like is an excellent suggestion rather than focusing on the fact one is uncomfortable with the presentation of the material in a non-preferred learning method. University Education is ideal for a read and write learner due to the comfort of reading text, writing notes and essays. † (VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles, 2011) This style learning preference does well with self-teach /learning which a benefit in the online classroom environment. The challenge a read/ write learner might face in the online classroom is the need to l isten to online tutorials, this is a time they would need to convert the information into a preferred â€Å"word† method to process the needed information in a way they better comprehend. The read write learner has a â€Å"AH HA’ moment which is the point the words they intake help them comprehend the topic and process the information long term. (Smith, 2011) References Connor, M. (2009). Ageless Learners: What’s your Learning Style? Retrieved January 20, 2012, from http://agelesslearner. com/assess/learningstyle. html Fleming, N. , & Mills, C. (1992). Helping Students Understand How They Learn [Journal]. The Teaching Professor, 7(). Retrieved from www. vark-learn. com Smith, C. (2011, June). Understanding Every Personality Type: Audio, Visual and Kinesthetic [Discussion Group comment]. Retrieved from http://applecsmith. hubpages. com/hub/Being-Successful-With-Every-Personality-Type-Audio-Visual-Kinesthetic Smith, D. (2011, June 26). Advantages and Disadvantages to different learning styles [Discussion Group comment]. Retrieved from http://www. ehow. com/info_8651838_advantages-disadvantages-different-learning-styles. html VARK: A Guide to Learning Styles. (2011). www. vark-learn. com

Appearance and Staging of The Relapse; or Virtue in Danger

Appearance and Staging of The Relapse; or Virtue in Danger In John Vanbrugh’s The Relapse; or Virtue in Danger, Act I, scene i. plays a crucial role in establishing the theme of appearance versus reality. Because this play is a continuation of Colley Cibber’s Love’s Last Shift, it is imperative that the first scene of the opening act has the ability to stand on its own. Therefore, in order to exude the themes of duplicity and manipulation, deceit and denial, it is essential that the casted actor and actress know not only how to act, but how to act within an act. In addition, by focusing specifically on the tone and the word choices Vanbrugh utilizes for the dialogue between Loveless and Amanda in the opening scene, the audience can readily detect the ultimate fate of the couple’s marriage. Lastly, by choosing the perfect setting for which the opening scene occurs and by directing the physical movements and facial expressions desired from the actors, the new rendition of Vanbrugh’s The Relapse will not only be a success, but will enable the audience to develop a deeper understanding of the characters and the motivations behind their actions in less than 150 lines. As the curtains open, the lights should be affixed upon a handsome looking man in his late twenties. Wearing clothing not as royal as the king or as disheveled as a beggar, this man must have an uncomfortable look in his appearance, not fitting in the role he is playing. Similarly, surrounded by shelves and shelves of thickly bound novels, the man should be sitting in an armchair with a novel in his hand, but his eyes shifting from one object to the other. Immediately, the appearance and the setting of the opening scene should radiate a sense of discomfort and unsuitableness. Assuming that a majority of the audience has not seen Cibber’s Love’s Last Shift, Loveless, husband to Amanda, must not appear to be the fully unkempt rake from the inception or the fully refined and reformed gentleman at the end. By allowing the setting and the initial perception of the actor to become the foundation of The Relapse, there is room for growing validity in the actors’ verbal exchanges. As Loveless opens with a soliloquy, he declares, â€Å"How true is that philosophy which says / Our heaven is seated in our minds† (I. i. 1-2)! With the help of the uncomfortable manifestation in which Loveless displays through his actions and speech, the audience can infer that Loveless is not only sitting in a room he is not fully accustomed to, but he is also partaking in something he has rarely done before, reading. Furthermore, Loveless betrays him desires to the audience by revealing to the audience of â€Å"all the roving pleasures of [his] youth/ (Where nights and days seemed all consumed in joy,/ Where the false face of luxury / Displayed such charms† (I. i. 3-6). Unconscious of his vulnerability to the audience, Loveless is mentally and emotionally reflecting on â€Å"the raging flame of wild destructive lust† while verbally seeking innocence by deeming his thoughts as â€Å"a warm pleasing fire of lawful love† (I. i. 15-16). By showi ng the contradictions between what he says and how he feels as well as emphasizing the inability to blend with his surroundings, the audience can see that Loveless is trying to talk himself out of what he loves. As the title of the play will suggest, Loveless has already relapsed in his mind and his heart. In fact, the reality is that Loveless does not find the life of â€Å"moment’s peace† to be exhilarating and prefers to engage his mind â€Å"musing on [his] happy state / and full of grateful thoughts† (I. i. 9, 20-21). The language of the opening scene is vital because it reveals both Loveless’s actions and his habitual nature. In addition, by manipulating the setting and the dress of the actor with the character’s dialogue, the scene takes full advantage of the character’s natural role as a rake. When Amanda walks on stage, she should bring no surprises or excitement. Although the actress playing Amanda should be young, in her early twenties, and attractive, she cannot be exceedingly beautiful. In addition, the actress playing Amanda should have a calm gait and plain, simple attire. By doing so, no new feelings are incited for Loveless, allowing their marriage to appear monotonous and habitual. In the exchange between the married couple, the word â€Å"heaven† is repeated over five times, disclosing to the audience that their love may extend beyond reality. There is a play on appearance versus reality in this exchange; although the perfect and divine nature of heaven is used to delineate the relationship between Loveless and Amanda (appearance), religion itself is detached from their relationship (reality). In addition, when Amanda enters the stage to meet Loveless, there should not be an interruption to Loveless’s thoughts. He verbally tells Amanda â€Å"You find me musing on [his] happy state / And full of grateful thoughts to Heaven and you† but his thoughts have not departed from â€Å"roving pleasures† (I. i. 20-21, 2). Similarly, when Loveless woos Amanda by saying â€Å"The largest boons that Heaven thinks fit to grant / To things it has decreed shall crawl on earth / Are in the gift of women formed like you,† the actor must act with deceit, almost imagining that the person he is wooing is not Amanda, but one of the â€Å"wild destructive lust† (I. i. 28-30). In order for the relationship to appear duplicitous and manipulative, both the actor and the actress must exaggerate their movements and speech. Every time the word heaven is used, the actors should be exaggerating their physical interactions with each other by drawing themselves closer to each other, climaxing when Amanda says, â€Å"There let [their love] grow forever† (I. i. 39). Unfortunately, the downhill deterioration of Amanda and Loveless’s marriage begins all too soon after the farfetched exchanges of Heaven granting them forever growing love. Amanda should be slowly pulling away from Loveless’s caress as she comments, â€Å"’Twere all the heaven I’d ask. / But we are clad in black mortality, / And the dark curtain of eternal night / At last must drop between us† (I. i. 42-45). Amanda seems to acknowledge in the futility of their relationship by disclosing the inevitability of â€Å"that mournful separation† (I. i. 47). Because Loveless is the deceiver, the actor who plays his role must be able to be simultaneously sarcastic, yet charming. Amanda, on the other hand, is intelligent yet insecure. Therefore, the actress playing her role must not be domineering and self-righteous, but must possess both intelligence and a sense of fear and self-denial when questioning her husband’s faithfulness. From the once seemingly affectionate and loving exchange between a husband and a wife now surfaces the harsh reality of a relationship built upon â€Å"rocks of reason† (I. i. 55). Also, within this conversation, there needs to be focus on Amanda’s ability to manipulate as well, though her manipulation result in sorrow and grief. Amanda’s utilization of guilt is a weapon of her manipulation. After claiming the certainty of a division between them, Amanda must look away from Loveless sorrowfully as she says, â€Å"Perhaps that pain may only be my lot;† but turn to him once more with the slightest tone of accusation saying, â€Å"You possibly may be exempted from it: Men find out softer ways to quench their fires† (I. i. 50-53). By questioning Loveless’s constancy simply by generalizing men as having the ability to find another female replacement, Amanda, in effect, is able to extract from Loveless the foundation of his love for her: â€Å"You’ll f ind ‘tis built upon a steady basis / The rock of reason now supports my love† (I. i.54-55). If logic and reasoning are the only means by which Loveless is married to Amanda, then the truth has been revealed and there is no more hope for this marriage. In addition, knowing that the character Amanda plays is that of a submissive wife, she does not have any power or control over Loveless. In fact, Amanda’s fears are made so transparent for the audience that sympathy is aroused toward her while condescension and contempt for Loveless. Therefore, the actress must reveal her truest self exposing to the audience her love for Loveless and her fears of his infidelity in their marriage. As Amanda confesses with parallel statements of, â€Å"I know its false insinuating pleasures; / I know the force of its delusions; / I know the strength of its attacks; / I know the weak defence of nature; / I know you are a man – and I – a wife,† her voice must be crying out in desperation, her body becoming weaker and weaker after each â€Å"I know† (I. i. 65-70), her knees touching the ground as she accepts her position as the subservient wife. Loveless, on the other hand, is roused to his feet in anger upon hearing h is wife’s fears and confession that she â€Å"is uneasy at your going to stay so long in Town† (I. i. 65). The role of the authoritative and the submissive can be portrayed by the actor and actress’s bodily physique. Amanda must have a fragile and innocent appeal to her; Loveless should appear arrogant and self-righteous. The words Loveless uses in response to Amanda include banish, traitors, arms, destructions, roving, bankrupt; these words show the harshness and coldness Loveless feels toward his wife. On stage, Loveless must rise in anger, his speech becoming more agitated, as he defends himself by saying â€Å"I have never thrown one roving thought that way† (I. i. 89). The actor must also be standing over the actress, exuding a sense of authority and power in the hands of a man. Knowing from the very beginning that the character, Loveless, does not belong in the countryside, there also needs to be a sense of urgency in his speech that reveals his desire to leave ‘Town’ and go to London as well. Ultimately, Loveless once again betrays his inner desires for sex with other women with his air of pride. Although he uses â€Å"honest conscience [as his] witness to never have thought of other women, his rhetoric are all indicative of sex as he references to â€Å"old cast mistress† and his â€Å"former boon companions† (I. i. 108). What appears to be honest conscience is in reality a mere reflection of Loveless’s inner desires. Towards the end of this act, Vanbrugh uses short, staccato lines in the back to back exchange between the couple; Loveless and Amanda are both engaged in an unbridled rage and ruthless contempt has been made exceptionally clear in the language structure. Throughout the argument, the two actors should be facing each other at a short distance away. Although the argument is tense, the actor playing Loveless must stand firm in his belief that Amanda’s distrusts of his faithfulness are wrong. In order to portray the anger on stage, not only must this exchange happen in rapid succession between Amanda and Loveless, they need to physically exaggerate their bodily movements to show anger and frustration. Although Loveless will remain cold-hearted even when the act ends, Amanda’s voice must be brought to a whimper after Loveless screams, â€Å"Fie, fie, Amanda! It is not kind thus to distrust me† (I. i. 127). Whereas Loveless’s fears are founded on distrust, Amanda ’s are â€Å"founded on [her] love† (I. i. 128). There is a collision of faithfulness and infidelity, love and deceit. As the act concludes, Amanda’s last lines, â€Å"’Twould be a weakness in my tongue / my prudence could not answer / If I should press you farther with my fears; / I’ll therefore trouble you no longer with ‘em,† depict her ultimate surrender to her husband’s infidelity (I. i. 136-140). Unable to persuade Loveless to stay with her in the countryside, Vanbrugh limits the female voice in communication to man, suggesting that the only hope for Amanda now is in a higher power of God. The first act of John Vanbrugh’s The Relapse; or Virtue in Danger is extraordinarily powerful in its ability to disclose characters’ motives and inner desires to the audience. In addition, not only is this opening scene captivating, it does not rely on luxurious staging or lighting. Because this play has a focus on appearance versus reality, through the means of dress and setting, the audience is able to acknowledge the ways in which the actors manipulate and deceive. From setting the stage to appear unfitting for Loveless to clothing Amanda in a simple night gown, the audience is able to detect the incompatibility of the married couple. Relying on the actors’ tone and body movements to betray their own selves, the audience can see through the actors’ deceits and self-denial. Ultimately, it is through the careful and well thought-out intertwining of the script and the acting that will determine the success of The Relapse.

Hw2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Hw2 - Assignment Example Since the machine is like a limited resource that eventually, brings about interdepartmental and interpersonal conflicts. When this occurs, there is decreased productivity coupled with dwindling of people’s morale. Handling and resolving a situation at work is quite a task an employee faces. Mainly most of them feel dissatisfied because there is no resolution achieved. What made the situation hard to handle is due to the financial constrains within the organization, hence limiting the resource despite the big workload around. Since this has become a major problem in the company though a lasting solution was on discussion and agreed by every employee. Every employee gave his/her opinion on the matter because the problem affected everybody within the company. It came to conclusion that for every profit generated, half of it was to go in buying of office equipment until when there were enough equipment for employees. If I had, the chance to make the decision in rectifying this predicament the initial step would be employing a short-term decision to restrain the situation first. In the case of the two employees, they undergo training on how to mediate the dispute by themselves and each has different timing to use a particular machine. For long term goal, to solve the situation permanently is by ensuring enough resources that can serve every

Kano Model Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Kano Model - Assignment Example According to the article, the main purpose of the Kano Model is increasing the customer’s happiness by improving the quality of the product or service provided. Every business organization has to out into consideration the features of any product before releasing it to the market. For successful implementation of the Kano model, a number of steps have to be completed. Fitting in all the features and attributes of a product is the first step. Then the organization should classify the features as either threshold, performance and excitement attributes. The article argues that all the attributes of the product must be fully satisfied to ensure employee satisfaction. Further, the article argues that for successful implementation of the model, the organization has to desist from focusing on the performance of the organization to major on the product attributes. The Kano model is very significant as it helps an organization in identifying customer needs, defining purposes that have necessities as well as carrying out an analysis of the competitive products in the market. Essential tools for the success of the Kano of the technique include customer involvement, value analysis, prioritizing matrices and ensuring the quality of the products. IV. KEY LEARNING POINTS Definition of Kano model- it is a model designed to improve the happiness of an organization’s customers through decisions aimed at improving the quality of products and services. Importance of the Kano model- its main importance is providing high-quality products to the customers, which lead to high customer satisfaction. The Kano model also helps in identifying factors that lead to customer dissatisfaction. Categories of the Kano technique include threshold attributes, considered as the most important attributes, Excitement Attributes that necessarily catapults the customers’ level of satisfaction and Performance Attributes that aims at improving customer satisfaction. V. RELEVANT STATE MENTS TO THE SESSION The main advantage of the Kano model is that it opens and widens the reasoning of business organizations, putting more emphasis on the features of the product which improves customer satisfaction. Kano model stresses on customer judgment of a product or service in the market. The original developer of the model was Dr. Noriaki Kano in 1980s, where he raised claims that for a product to capture the customers it must have three attributes include threshold, performance and excitement attributes. Steps involved in successful implementation of the Kano technique include settling on the most important and essential features of a product or service that customers deem as important and crucial in satisfying their needs. The next step involves classifying the identified features as either threshold, performance and excitement attributes respectively. Other performances and non-relevant attributes require trimming in order to develop fully the threshold attributes. VI. C RITICAL ANALYSIS According to the article, the Kano theory aims at improving the customer’s level of satisfaction. As such, all business organizations aims at providing the best quality product or services to the people geared to winning their loyalty.  

Portfolio AT&T Horizontal and Vertical Analysis Essay

Portfolio AT&T Horizontal and Vertical Analysis - Essay Example AT&T had a net margin of 11.93%. In comparison with the industry average net margin of 7.8% the firm’s net margin is 4.03% higher (Dun & Bradstreet, 2012). As of September 30, 2012 the total assets of AT&T were $266,849 million dollars. In comparison with fiscal year 2011 the total assets of the firm decreased by 1%. †Total assets include cash and other items of value that can be converted into cash that are owned by a person or company† (Crutchfield, 2012).The current assets of the company in 2012 were $18,958 million which represents a decline in current assets of $4,069 million in comparison with the previous year. Based on the vertical performed the current assets of the company represent 7% of total assets. The current and total liabilities of the company during 2012 were $30,758 million and $165,575 million respectively. The current ratio shows the ability of the company to pay off its current debt. AT&T’s current ratio during 2012 was 0.62. The curren t ratio of the company is bad considering the fact that a good current ratio is above the 1.0 threshold. The formula to calculate current ratio is current assets divided by current liabilities. AT&T must improve its current ratio; otherwise the company might face liquidity problems. The return on assets (ROA) metric measures how profitable a company is in relation to its total assets (Investopedia, 2012). A high ROA is the preferable outcome. During 2012 the return on equity of the company was 4.24%. In comparison with the industry average of 17% AT&T is not exploiting and generating sufficient income from its assets (Dun & Bradstreet, 2012). The return on equity of AT&T in 2012 was 11.17%. Return on equity (ROE) is calculated by taking a year's worth of earnings and dividing them by the average shareholder equity for that year (Fool, 2012). The firm’s debt ratio is 0.62. A debt ratio is a financial metric that measures how much debt a company has in relation to its assets. T he firm’s debt to equity ratio is 1.63. The debt to equity ratio is calculated dividing total equity by the total assets of the company. The financial analysis performed on AT&T shows that the company has good profitability, but the firm seems to be using too much debt to finance its operations. The low current ratio of the company is a warning sign. Assuming the company enjoys the same revenue growth of 1% in the following fiscal the projected sales of the company in 2013 are $95,162 million. Credit Worthiness The creditworthiness of a corporation can be evaluated in a variety of ways. Corporations just like individuals have credit scores from the major credit agencies. This information is private and not accessible to the general public. Banking institution gain access to a firm’s credit scores whenever a firm applies for a loan or others financial instruments. An investor can evaluate the credit worthiness of a firm using a combination of ratios. The current ratio m easures a firm’s ability to pay off its current or short term debts. The debt to equity and debt ratio are two good indicators of how much leverage a firm has in the long term. Comparing these ratios to the industry standard is a good way to determine the credit position of the firm. Management Discussion and Analysis Four key findings for the MD&A section of the annual report of AT&T are: The future of wireless growth depends on the ability of companies to provide new innovative services and devices. The managerial staff

Marketing Research Proposal for Bell Shakespeare

Marketing for Bell Shakespeare - Research Proposal Example The proposed research will focus on the following problem statement during different stages of the market study: to recognize and understand the stakeholders’ perspectives, essential for an increment in the donor acquisition, optimization of donor retention, and a raised income subsequently. Additionally, the proposed research anticipates comprehensive understanding of attitudes and perception of donors from varying backgrounds related to the working, activities, and objectives of Shakespeare Bell Company. Analysis of the problem indicated that there are three categories of donors: current, lapsed, and prospective. Review of the background of problem further specified that it is now very essential for the company to identify specific needs, perception, and expectations of the donors, in order to continue organizing different programmes and activities in different rural and urban parts of Australia. It is an expectation that the proposed market research will be beneficial for the company, as well as individuals that benefit from different programs of the company. Since centuries, literature, drama, and theatre remained significant contributors in the educational and social development of human society. In specific, William Shakespeare is one of the greatest English writers that endeavored to alter thinking patterns and express his feelings through plays, such as Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, etc that are influencing contemporary writers and scholars until today (Stinson & O’Toole, pp. 44-56, 2009). However, experts have indicated a rapid reduction in the interest of such significant pieces of literature due to a number of factors that inclined people like John Bell (2004) to establish philanthropic organizations like Bell Shakespeare Company (2009). Briefly, promotion of literary works, especially Shakespeare’s is the

Nursing and palliative care Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Nursing and palliative care - Research Paper Example This can be achieved by impeccable assessment, and the early identification and treatment of not only pain, but also a range of other problems that might relate to psychosocial, physical and spiritual aspects. Care for dying patients has continued to remain a very fundamental aspect of nursing. As patients shift from a state where they are observed to be sick to that in which they are described as dying, it is principally the nurses who are tasked with the day-to-day duty of helping and supporting these patients and their families in their attempts to try and successfully live with the social, psychological, spiritual and physical consequences of a patient’s illness. When patients reach a state of terminal illness, the independent and autonomous dying role that they assume forces that there be a complementary shift on the part of the doctor and nurse. This is because the role of the doctor is primarily centered on curing and treatment; however when attempts at curing and treatment fail, the supportive and caring role that is played by nurses becomes increasingly more dominant as a patient dies. Despite the commitment that nurses have towards the fulfillment of their roles in /hospi ce care, there are however some negative factors that greatly inhibit the provision of good quality care by these nurses. This paper will seek to show that nurses play an important role in hospice care and the concerns inhibiting nurses from attending to this role need to urgently be addressed. The important role that is played by hospice care nurses cannot be over emphasized. These nursing professionals bring in what is noted to be a unique set of qualities and skills that greatly enhance the overall support and care that is provided to patients facing the end of life. These nurses also serve the crucial role of supporting the families of their patients as well as the communities that support them. The skills possessed

Analysis of Macro and Micro Environment of Microsoft Corporation Research Paper

Analysis of Macro and Micro Environment of Microsoft Corporation - Research Paper Example   The company, founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975, revolutionized the concept of personal computer usage by introducing the Graphical User Interface (GUI) Windows Operation system in 1985. Microsoft Corporation, working with a vision of seeing a computer at every desk and in every home, operates in over 60 countries.  Ã‚   For a company to make correct strategic choices in crafting its long-term business strategies, it should gain a clear understanding of the organizational environment. The trends in the macro environment will not only indicate current market conditions but also the long-term implications, which the company should gear itself to intercept in the future (Thomson & Strickland 2003). Macro environment analysis can be facilitated by a PESTLE analysis, which assesses Political, Environmental, Social & Cultural, Technological, Legal and Economic influences, which bears upon the organization. Some of the current developments in the Political environment include the liberalization of closed economies and the greater level of foreign trade. While this opens up new markets like China, it also fuels competition from the likes of India offering cheap outsourcing options. Recent turbulent conditions marked by escalated terrorist attacks disrupt the overall operations of the world markets. The political instability is also curbing the potential for industrial development, which is crucial for the growth of companies such as Microsoft Corporation.   

Satire in Shakespeare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Satire in Shakespeare - Essay Example The true satirist is conscious of the frailty of institutions of man's devising and attempts through laughter not so much to tear them down as to inspire a remodeling" (Thrall, et al 436). There are many examples of satire in literature and media today. In literature, William Shakespeare has maintained a special place in satirical prose. He has satirized almost every folly and superficiality that he came to know of through his observations and interactions with people, yet his plays contain so many other features, that one couldn't label Shakespeare as a satirist. "There is satire, as there is everything else, in Shakespeare. The pseudo-statesman is satirized in Polonius, the courtier in Osric. Both Touchstone and Feste have caustic tongues. Malvolio shows that Shakespeare had no more liking for the Puritans than his fellow-players. Yet for all this, and for all that might be added, it would be absurd to rank Shakespeare among the satirists; and the same is true of the dramatists in general. Except when they fall into feud with one another, or with some class peculiarly obnoxious to them, they rarely make satire the staple of their plays". (Walker 114) "As you like it" is one of Shakespeare best comedies with a very high satirical tone. This play exposes the absurdity of human world, far more than any of Shakespeare's plays. In fact, it was first of its kind where the entire play 's main purpose was to ridicule certain people and situations. Pastoral romance is the focal point of his satire. On 1st July 1599, the government passed an order to suppress satirical work. This led to flaring struggles between the authorities and writers. Shakespeare closely observed this contest and created a satirical comedy on its bases. However, the dismayed and chaotic social conditions of England provided the main inducement for satirical work. In "As you like it", Jacques is the main character that fulfills the duty of a satirist. He belongs to the group of people who are discontent about life in general and are very vocal about their discontentment and dissatisfaction with life. He finds all happy people as foolish and so he finds all people in Arden and their happy temperaments as ridiculous. It includes some very hilarious pieces of prose, which are basically attempts at satirizing romance of country folk. Some of them are scenes such as those of heroine being kidnapped by robbers and saved in a heroic way by the hero and his brother. Some central characters of satire are Orlando who is a perfect lover, Rosalind and Celina who are perfect friends and Adam who is a perfect loyalist of conservative ideas. (Campbell, 44) Shakespeare in his play has tried to mock the romantic dreams of love-stricken couples, which take refuge in the countryside. However, when they reach there, they find that it is not so. In fact, it is far from the image, the people of city have of country. This is what Rosalind and Orlando had on their mind when they ran away from the injustices and atrocities of city, which were keeping them apart. Much to their surprise, they found out that this Forest of Arden was a land of terror. It wasn't where people who could live peacefully with each other in lap of nature. The country presented its own set of problems and challenges, in some cases more challenging than the city. Some characters were pure mockery of country folk, such as Silvius, Phebe, William and Audrey who are far from picture perfect image of their kind. The foolish,

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Example for Free

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Man must stay true to his own convictions and live his life with a clear conscience. In todays society people are often faced with situations in which they can choose to stand up for their beliefs popular or not. It is strange that in this modern world of open mindedness and acceptance of one other, people are far too afraid to defend what they know to be right. Standing up for what is morally right is seldom easy, but it distinguishes a good man from a great one. Morality is a necessity in this worldthe greatness of mankind depends on it. Atticus Finch a central character in Harper Lees, To Kill a Mockingbird is a strong example of a moral man. When given the case of Mr. Robinson, a local black man accused of rape, he has the courage and strength to stay true to his beliefs at a time when it was looked down upon, even unheard of to defend African Americans. Atticus Finch puts his social reputation, career, and even his familys safety on the line when he decides to defend Mr.  Robinson. Atticus knows it is the moral thing to do, and his defense of the accused is at the core of the justice system he believes in. Atticus is determined to stay true to his values without becoming a moral hypocrite; but before I can live with other folks Ive got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience. (Pg 120) However; not all men can be great, and in modern day real life, self-imposed morality is rare. It is the fear of being judged or ostracized that people are paralyzed to use their moral compasses and sometimes make either bad decisions or even no decisions at all to remain true to their beliefs. On September 22nd, 2010, Tyler Clementi attending Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. He did this after a sexual encounter with a man in his dorm room was video taped and broadcast over the Internet by his roommate without his knowledge. Tyler Clementi had no one to go to when the video was broadcast and no one was brave or moral enough to come to his defense. People were afraid to help a homosexual man through a time of trouble because they believed they themselves would be judged. Perhaps if someone were morally strong enough to stand up for his or her beliefs, like Atticus Fitch did to help Tyler Clementi, he would be alive today. In this world, there will always be the minority or unpopular person or group of people. There will always be individuals who will judge and hate others simply because they are different. In this harsh society there will also be people that will not be morally strong enough to stand up for those who are mistreated for fear of being judged themselves. In order for this society to truly succeed, there needs to be men like Atticus who stand up for what they believe to be right and just even if its not the popular thing to do. Man must stand up for what he believes in; he must defend what he knows is morally right.

Chemistry investigation Essay Example for Free

Chemistry investigation Essay Aim: I am going to carry out an investigation measuring the rate of reaction between hydrochloric acid and magnesium. The independent variable will be the molar of the hydrochloric acid; I will be diluting it with water to change the concentration. The dependent variable could be one of four things; Temperature change, Mass loss, Gas produced using a burette or gas produced using a gas syringe. The dependent variable of the primary experiment will be decided once I have performed four preliminary experiments each with the different dependent variables. The results of these preliminaries will help me determine which factor is the most accurate to measure. Background Information: As I am planning to investigate the rate of reaction by changing the concentration of the acid I should take into consideration how the reaction is affected by concentration. If there is more of a substance in a system, there is a greater chance that molecules will collide and speed up the rate of the reaction. If there is less of something, there will be fewer collisions and the reaction will probably happen at a slower speed. As you increase the concentration of the acid, there are more acid particles in the same volume. Therefore there is a greater chance of acid particles colliding, and reacting, with particles on the surface area of the magnesium ribbon. Here is an example of how the rate of reaction will increase if the concentration gets higher:image00.png With this in mind it is clear to see that as I decrease the concentrate of the acid by adding water to it I will be decreasing the rate of reaction. There is a positive correlation between the two variables. The experiment equation that will effectively happen is: MAGNESIUM + HYDROCHLORIC ACID MAGNESIUM CHLORIDE + HYDROGEN Mg + 2HCl - MgCl2 + H2 Magnesium; Magnesium is a light, silvery-white, and fairly tough metal. It tarnishes slightly in air, and finely divided magnesium readily ignites upon heating in air and burns with a dazzling white flame. Because serious fires can occur, great care should be taken in handling magnesium metal, especially in the finely divided state. Water should not be used on burning magnesium or on magnesium fires. Hydrochloric acid; Hydrochloric acid is the aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride gas (HCl). It is a strong acid, the major component of gastric acid, and of wide industrial use. Hydrochloric acid must be handled with appropriate safety precautions because it is a highly corrosive liquid. Hydrogen; when mixed with oxygen across a wide range of proportions, hydrogen explodes upon ignition. Hydrogen burns violently in air. It ignites automatically at a temperature of 560. Another characteristic of hydrogen fires is that the flames tend to ascend rapidly with the gas in air. Magnesium chloride; this is the name for the chemical compounds with the formulas MgCl2 and its various hydrates MgCl2 (H2O) x. These salts are typical ionic halides, being highly soluble in water. The hydrated magnesium chloride can be extracted from brine or sea water. Anhydrous magnesium chloride is the principal precursor to magnesium metal, which is produced on a large scale. Preliminary experiments: Method: In this preliminary experiment I choose not to alter anything but to observe how the temperature increased within the time of the reaction. I used 10ml of hydrochloric acid and 3cm of magnesium ribbon. I carried out three repeat measurements to gain an idea of what the results would look like if compared. Evaluation of Preliminary Methods Each of the experiments above has limitations that strongly influenced the results. This has given me an idea of what degree of accuracy each method can be measured to and if they are suitable to collect data for the primary experiment. Temperature: Measuring the temperature is a simple way of seeing where the rate of reaction begins, peaks and ends. It is a clear indication to how the magnesium reacts and at what temperature. There are, however, some inaccuracies to the formation of the set up. Some of the thermal energy detected by the thermometer is sometimes transferred into the glass of the conical flask which led to an inaccurate reading. Furthermore the thermometer is slow to respond to the rise in temperature and also only gives reading in whole numbers so slight elevations in heat are difficult to read and thus inaccurate. Mass Loss: Measuring the mass at different points in the experiment provides markers to see how much magnesium and hydrochloric acid has been reacted. The electric scale I used was too sensitive to get a general reading; this affected the results severely. The mass would sometimes increase during the reaction due to a small piece of debris getting onto the scale or because a gust or air; consequentially the results were askew. Gas Produced using a burette: This is a very good way of measuring the rate of reaction. The measurements are clear and can be recorded to a decimal place which makes the results very accurate. There are some limitations, however, to using a burette. When the gas is produced it takes time for the hydrogen to travel along through the tube and up into the burette. This extends the time of the reaction slightly because not all the gas has been collected which the magnesium has been dissolved. Furthermore some amount of hydrogen have escaped the burette and simply floated to the surface of the water not being accounted for. This is a small inaccuracy but can still alter the results. Gas Produced using a gas syringe: This is a very accurate piece of equipment. It does not allow for gas to escape and records the data consistently and with speed. The only limitations in using a gas syringe are that the reading can only be reading in whole numbers and that the syringe sometimes collects water vapour as well. The water vapour, however, can be eliminating by adding an extra conical flask to the tube which collects the vapour as it is slightly cooler. The gas syringe is the most advanced piece of equipment in each of the preliminary methods and also is the most accurate in recording the data. Therefore to calculate the rate of reaction between magnesium and hydrochloric acid my dependent variable will be the gas produced using a gas syringe. Hypothesis: Now that I have determined what I am going to measure and how I can now make my prediction over what I think will be the final outcome of the experiment. Rate of reactions are all based on the collision theory. This states that the more collisions in a system, the more likely combinations of molecules will occur. As a result of this the reaction will accelerate, and the rate of that reaction will increase. The concentration of a substance will raise the number of collisions and thusly speed up the rate of reaction. On this basis I believe that if the molar of the hydrochloric acid is decreased there will be less gas produced and so the rate of reaction will slow. Here is a diagram: image07.png We can see in the figure above that if the molar is halved then there are fewer particles in the water so fewer collisions can happen. The gas produced will therefore be reduced and the overall time of the reaction will decrease. Variables Variable controlled How it is controlled Why it is controlled Concentration of Magnesium By measuring out a 3cm piece of magnesium each time I take a repeat measurement. I am measuring the concentration of the hydrochloric acid not the magnesium. Concentration of Hydrochloric acid I will start with 10ml of hydrochloric acid and replace 2ml of it with water every time I want to reduce the concentration. I want to observe what effect it will have on the rate of reaction. Water Vapour Adding an extra, cooler conical flask to collect the water vapour. I am measuring the gas produced between hydrochloric acid and magnesium; water vapour is not a product. Temperature By putting the flasks in a thermostatically controlled water bath for 5 minutes before each experiment. I am measuring the concentration and do not want the higher temperature to give the particle more energy to collide. Apparatus 500ml conical flasks- To hold the magnesium and hydrochloric acid reaction and to collect the water vapour. Conical flask bung (with hole for tubing) To allow for gas only to travel through the tubing. Glass tubing- To direct the flow of gas. 100 ml ² gas syringes- To measure the gas produced. Retort stand- To hold the gas syringe. Clamp- This is attached to the retort stand. 50 ml measuring cylinder- To measuring the hydrochloric acid accurately stop-clock- To measure the time of the reaction 10ml of Hydrochloric Acid plus varying amounts of water- To measure the concentration of the acid Magnesium ribbon (3cm per experiment) To react with the acid. Ruler and scissors – To measure and cut the magnesium ribbon. image08.png Here is a diagram: Other apparatus: image10.pngimage09.pngimage11.png image02.pngimage03.png Obtaining precise and reliable results My experimental design permits me to take very accurate measurement; however, the only fault in its design is that the syringe only measures in whole numbers. This should not pose as a problem because I will take lots of reading to compensate. I will then find the mean of easy set of results so that I can compare them accurately in addition to this I will also take the range of the results which will allow me to observe whether they overlap. The limitations of my other apparatus are common. Although my stop can measure to a 10th of a second my reaction time will be a lot slower then this. The ruler and scissors should also be taken into consideration, measuring and cutting the magnesium could cause some variation. The measuring cylinder also has to be estimated to a rough degree when pouring the hydrochloric acid. All of these small inaccuracies can add up to a large error so I need to be very consistent so each result is rounded to the same degree of accuracy. Risk assessment: during the practical various measures must be taken to ensure the experiment is carried out safely. These measures are; †¢ Always wear safety goggles (at all times) to ensure no chemicals make contact with eyes. †¢ Wear laboratory aprons to ensure there are no spillages onto clothing. †¢ Use a bench mat to stop spillages onto bench †¢ Avoid contact of acid on skin – it is corrosive. If acid does touch skin it must be immediately washed off. †¢ Hydrogen is explosive and so must not be exposed to a naked flame- ensure that Bunsen burners are nowhere near the apparatus during the experiment. †¢ Basic Laboratory Rules i.e. do not run in labs, No food or drink allowed etc. †¢ No concentration of hydrochloric acid greater than 2 molar, anything larger is dangerous.

Product extension of procter and gamble

Product extension of procter and gamble The Procter Gamble Company (PG) is one of the worlds largest consumer goods companies. It markets more than 300 brands in the beauty, health, fabric, home, baby, family, and personal care product categories. The company operates in the Americas, Europe and Asia. It is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and employs about 135,000 people. CORPORATE OBJECTIVES The objective of Procter Gamble is that They will provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the worlds consumers, now and for generations to come. As a result, consumers will reward us with leadership sales, profit and value creation, allowing our people, our shareholders and the communities in which we live and work to prosper. (http://www.uk.pg.com/company/aboutPG/purposeValuesPrinciples.html) CORPORATE STRATEGY Procter Gamble (PG), one of the worlds largest consumer goods companies is also a pioneer in the use of mass media. The company has used newspaper advertisements, radio and soap operas to advertise its popular brands like Crest, Pampers, Pantene and Folgers. During 1990-2000, however,  its rate of growth took a plunge. When AG Lafley took over as CEO in 2000, he gave PG a complete makeover with the focus on innovation and advertising. Since 2000, PG has been increasingly embracing targeted, viral and on-line marketing. (http://www.uk.pg.com/company/aboutPG/purposeValuesPrinciples.html) PROPOSED PRODUCT olayLogo87_Jul06.jpg Evolution Olay is a worldwide leader in skin care and have been trusted by women for fifty years. Graham Wulff, an innovative and entrepreneurial South African chemist developed the original formula at the beginning of the 1950s. Olay has eight global product lines offering a multiple of product. Product such as; Olay professional pro-X, Olay Definity, Olay Regenerist, Olay Total effect, Olay complete, Olay hydrate cleanse, Olay clarity, Olay body lotion, Olay touch of sun and Olay body cleansing (http://www.docstoc.com/docs/14719894/Oil-Of-Olay-Products). Skin care is evolving faster than ever with independent clinical trial and new standards in natural and organic cosmetics. Olay evolution will be a combination of Olay total effects (7 seven powerful anti-ageing in one) and Olay Definity (fight wrinkles, brown spot and discolouration). Many consumers want products that offer more than one benefit. So this product is expected to moisturize, fight free radicals and give the skin a more youthful appearance. This product would offer the costumer an ideal combination of the world most powerful skin care solution. Anti-aging is the fastest-growing skin segment, standing at $567.6 million, now representing the biggest category in skin care, surpassing facial cleansers which stand at $559.2 million. (http://www.allbusiness.com/population-demographics/demographic-groups/5517853-1.html) product-landing-definity_v6.jpg product-landing-total-effects.jpg Women are very particular when dealing with their face. They need to be convinced the product will deliver all the promised benefits. Women are willing to try new things and spend more money to look better and younger. Skin care attracts customers from all income level as most women like to take care of their appearance. The increase number of women working equates women with more money to spend and skin care is one of the favourite avenues for their spending. Based on Procter Gamble F4Q10 (Qtr End 06/30/2010) Earnings Call Transcript, Female Skin Care grew volume double digits with positive share trends. In the U.S., Olay all-outlet value share of the Facial Moisturizer segment was up almost two points behind the continued strength of the Olay Pro-X line and the Olay Regenerist Roller ball Eye Treatment innovation. Olay also had strong results in developing markets, more than doubling shipments in India, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. Organic sales increased 5%, driven by 8% organic volume growth. (http://seekingalpha.com/article/218380-procter-gamble-f4q10-qtr-end-06-30-2010-earnings-call-transcript) Rate of Global skin care market 2002 and 2007 Country 2002 ( £M) 2009 ( £M) US 6,752.2 8,059.2 FRANCE 2,391.1 4,368.0 GERMANY 1,975.1 3,239.3 ITALY 1,440.0 2,340.4 SPAIN 956.4 1,897.9 UK 1,612.7 2,937.6 Source: Euro monitor international Below are the analyses of the business environment to back up the proposal. ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Every Business operates within an environment, these environments directly and indirectly affects the way those businesses function. Competition in the skin care industry tends to be more intense and there are many changes that can be regarded as threat and opportunity that it is important for managers to cope with. MACRO Political The political environment Relates to the pressures and opportunities brought by changes of the government and their views toward the skin care industry. Each government always have a mandate to regulate the use on non organic ingredients in most skin care product. Economic This Refers to economic factors and structures and such variables like the stock exchange, interest and inflation rates, the nations economic policies and performance, exchange rates, etc. Although PG is based in the US, it earns revenues, pay expenses, own assets and incur liabilities in countries using currencies other than the US dollar. As a result, increases or decreases in the value of the US dollar against other major currencies will affect the companys net operating revenues, operating income and the value of balance sheet items denominated in foreign currencies. Social Middle-aged women are very interested in skin care items that help them retain a more youthful appearance and complexion. Observing social factors helps organisations maintain their reputation among stakeholders. Technological Changes in technology can affect a company competitive position. Industries merge; new strategic groups emerge; currents products improve and the cost of production gets reduced by process innovation. Because the skin care industry is very competitive, the company necessitate taking advantage of the latest technology and revolutionary substances to create new product in order to maintain customers interest and loyalty. Environmental With global warming and carbon foot prints being big concerns, governments and scientists are encouraging companies and individuals to be more environmentally aware. PGs policy is to: Ensure its products, packaging and operations are safe for their employees, consumers and the environment. Reduce or prevent the environmental impact of products and packaging in their design, manufacture, distribution, use and disposal whenever possible. They support the sustainable use of resources and actively encourage reuse, recycling and composting. MICRO Buyer Power;  Consumer products companies face weak buyer power because customers are disjointed and have little influence on price or product. But considering the buyers of consumer products to be retailers rather than individuals, then these firms face very strong buyer power. One good example is the business relationship between wall-mart and PG (see swot analysis). Supplier Power; the company could face some amount of supplier power simply because of the costs incurred when switching suppliers. Notwithstanding, suppliers that do large amount of business with the company also are somewhat obliged to their customers; nonetheless, bargaining power for both the firms and their suppliers is probably limited. Threat of New Entrants;  Given the amount of capital investment needed to enter the skin care industry, the assumption is that threat of new entrants will be fairly low. Threat of Substitutes;  Within the skin care industry, brands thrive in helping to build a competitive advantage, but even the pricing power of brands can be scoured with substitutes. Threats to this product may arise from other anti-aging products such as; Avotone, Revitol, Ceramide C etc. Degree of Rivalry; Skin care industry is a very competitive market, taking advantage of the latest technology and revolutionary substances to create new product in order to maintain customers interest and loyalty will be very important. In doing so it will increase the companys competitive advantage over other top brands like Avon and Nivea Visage. INTERNAL The internal environment constitutes variables and forces within the control of the organisation. These variables are; conditions, entities,  events, and  factors  within an organization which  influence  its  activities  and  choices, its philosophy, particularly the  behaviour of the  employees. Other variables include; the  organisation mission statement,  leadership style, and its  culture. SWOT Analysis; this is a planning method use to evaluate the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and treat to a business. It involves specifying objectives of a business at the same time identifying the internal and external elements that will affect the business both positive and negative in the race to attain its stated objectives. Strengths Weaknesses Leading market position geared on a strong brand portfolio. Significant RD and market investment. Robust cash productivity Increase instances of product recall. Excessive dependant on Wal-mart. High product prices translated into sales volume decline and market share loss. Opportunities Threats Future growth plans- Increase concentration on its core attractive businesses and enhancing its customer base. Increase investment in manufacturing capacity in developing countries. Acquisitions to expand portfolio Counterfeit goods. Changing global retail scenario and rise of private labels. Commodity cost and currency exchange rate. Rising cost of energy prices Economic slowdown in US and Euro zone. (www.datamonitor.com) STRENGTHS Leading market position garnered on a strong brand portfolio With revenues of $79,029 million, PG is the worlds largest consumer products manufacturer, with its products reaching 4 billion people worldwide. PG is the 20th largest company in sales and the 9th largest company in profit among the Fortune 500 companies. The companys market capitalization in 2009 was roughly $150 billion, making it one of the 10 most valuable companies in the US. PG holds leading global market shares in a variety of categories, including baby care (33%), blades and razors (70%), feminine protection (37%), and fabric care (33%). The companys leadership position is built on its strong brand portfolio. Strong brand portfolio enables the company to achieve economies of scale in distribution and retain a strong bargaining position with retailers. Leading market position provides PG with significant competitive advantage as well as stabilizes the companys financial growth Significant RD and market investment. Being a consumer products company, PG relies heavily on innovation and continued marketing investments in order to establish a significant competitive advantage. As a result, the company has made significant investments in RD and marketing. Over the last decade, PG has invested more than $2 billion in consumer and market research (nearly twice that of its closest competitor, Unilever; and equal to the combined total of its other major competitors; Avon, Clorox Company, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Energizer Holdings, Henkel, Kimberly-Clark, LOreal, and Reckitt Benckiser). Virtually, all the organic sales growth delivered by PG in the past nine years has come from new brands and new or improved product innovation. PG also involves external innovation partners to boost its internal innovative capability, an approach it calls Connect and Develop. Currently, more than half of all product innovation coming from PG includes at least one major component from an external partner. PGs strong RD capabilities and a marketing-driven understanding of consumer needs are backed by significant marketing investments. The company invests more than $7 billion in advertising annually, consistently making PG one of the worlds largest advertisers. Strong focus on research and development allows PG to renew its product line at regular intervals, which boosts customer loyalty and revenue growth. Significant marketing investments to support its brands and a broad product portfolio help PG to remain at forefront in a competitive market. Robust cash productivity PGs cash productivity: the percentage of earnings converted into cash has averaged over 100% since 2001, consistently among the very best in the industry. This is primarily due to PGs strong focus on productivity, working-capital management and cost reduction. Furthermore, PG is equally rigorous about managing costs. The company has reduced overhead costs as a percentage of sales by more than 300 basis points since 2001. The cash productivity allows PG to maintain the companys excellent credit rating, to pay strong dividends, and to have the flexibility to invest in the business organically or through mergers and acquisitions. Therefore, robust cash productivity ensures that PG has the flexibility and the resources to invest in growth even in the most challenging environments. WEAKNESSES PG has been registering increasing instance of product recalls. One case in point is in November 2009, the company voluntarily recalled three lots of its Vicks Sinex nasal spray in the US, Germany and the UK. The recall was a precautionary step after finding the bacteria B. cepacia in a small amount of product made at its plant in Gross Gerau, Germany. In March 2010, PG voluntarily recalled its Pringles Restaurant Cravers Cheeseburger potato crisps and Pringles Family Faves Taco Night potato crisps in response to a recommendation from the Food Drug Administration (FDA) to the food industry to protect consumers from potential Salmonella exposure. Most recently in June 2010, PG voluntarily recalled a small percentage of 1-liter bottles of Scope Original Mint and Scope Peppermint mouthwash with malfunctioning child-resistant caps in the US and Canada. Recurrent product recalls could affect the brand image of the company, which would lead to low customer loyalty and brand equity. Excessive dependent on Wal-Mart PG is heavily dependent on Wal-Mart Stores (Wal-Mart) and its affiliates for generating major part of its revenue. Sales to Wal-Mart and its affiliates represented approximately 15% of its total revenue since 2006. High dependence upon a Wal-Mart reduces the bargaining power of the company. Also, Wal-Mart could use its bargaining power to impose unfavourable terms on the company. Any decrease in revenue from Wal-Mart could have a negative impact on the companys businesses. Hence, the loss of this customer will lead to a sharp decline in PGs revenues and also a loss of its market share. OPPRTUNITIES Future growth plans In order to grow in a highly competitive environment, PG is pursuing a clearly drafted strategy with focus on two areas: increasing concentration on its core attractive businesses and enhancing its customer base. The company is sharply focusing on its core attractive businesses (the beauty and health market segments and several household care categories) as these are fast-growing businesses. For instance, the global market for personal care products has annual sales of over $39.5 billion and is growing at a rate of around 5% annually. PG intends to increase its customer base by acquiring under served and unserved consumers. In line with this, the company is targeting developing markets; extending its distribution systems; and expanding its brand and product portfolio. Developing and emerging economies are expected to account for 90% of the worlds population by 2010, and this is expected to drive demand for fast moving consumer goods. Increased investment in manufacturing capacity in developing countries PG is planning the biggest increase in its manufacturing capacity in order to expand into categories and countries where it doesnt have a brand presence. The company is investing 4% of sales in capital spending, including funding for new manufacturing capacity to support future growth. Over the next five years, PG plans to add 20 new manufacturing facilities. Almost all of these facilities are in developing markets, and almost all will be multi-product category facilities. By focusing on developing markets, the company would reduce the cost of serving these markets while also being closer to regions with the greatest long term growth potential. Acquisitions to expand portfolio PG has made significant acquisitions in the recent past. For instance, in June 2009, the company acquired the Zirh skincare brand. Zirh is a leading super premium, male grooming brand available in high-end department stores, specialty outlets and online. Later in May 2010, PG entered into an agreement to acquire Natura Pet Products, a privately-held pet food business. Most recently, in July 2010, the company concluded its purchase of the Ambi Pur Brand from Sara Lee Corporation. Ambi Pur is a leading global air care brand with presence in 80 countries, and also has several toilet care products, with strong presence in Western Europe and Asia. These kinds of acquisitions will strengthen PGs presence across a range of categories and in turn augment its top line and bottom-line. THREATS Changing global retail scenario and rise of private labels PGs products are sold in a highly competitive global marketplace which is experiencing an increased trade concentration and the growing presence of large format retailers and discounters. With the growing trend toward retail trade consolidation, it is increasingly dependent on key retailers. Some of these retailers have a greater bargaining strength than PG. They may use this leverage to demand higher trade discounts, allowances or slotting fees, which could lead to reduced sales or profitability. Commodity cost and currency exchange rate instability places tremendous pressure on PGs business. Not to mention the unexpected and dramatic devaluations of currencies in developing or emerging markets reduce profits. Counterfeit goods Trade of counterfeits and pass-offs products is negatively affecting the growth of FMCG companies like PG. The top two brands within any category be it cosmetics, detergents, or soaps are effected the most by counterfeit. It is estimated that the loss due to counterfeit products convert into around  £6 billion ($8.5 billion). Furthermore, with the advent of digital channels there has been a surge in the sale of counterfeit products and online sales of these products increased by 9% in 2009. Besides revenue losses, counterfeits and pass-offs also affect the companys brand as they are unsafe. (Swot analysis Source: www.datamonitor.com ) The best strategies accomplish an organisation mission by exploiting an organisation opportunity and strength, while neutralizing its treat and avoiding its weakness. Ansoff matrix Ansoff matrix highlight four possible market strategy for the propose product. ansoff_matrix-124013-1.jpeg (http://www.brothersoft.com/ansoff-matrix-124013.html). Product development: as this is a new product in the range, much emphasis will be to offer the product to the existing customer base. Using the competitive advantages and brand image of previous products to lunch the propose product. With the companys focus on advertising, (worlds largest advertisers) it can use the advertising power to push the product to recognition. Sixty percent (60%) of the strategy will be on product development. Diversification: One of the opportunities available to the company is launching into new markets and developing economies. Forty percent (40%) of the strategy will be to launch the propose product in an entirely new market. Market Penetration: this occurs when the company sells its existing product in its existing market, perhaps through greater promotional efforts. As this is a new product this strategy might be considered in the future. Market Development: this occurs when the company tries to sell it existing products in new and emerging markets. This strategy as well might be for future considerations.

The School Voucher Debate :: essays papers

The School Voucher Debate THE SCHOOL VOUCHER DEBATE In reading these articles, I did not understand the religious school involvement and school vouchers. There was one statement in the first article Court Discusses Vouchers, that stated that in Cleveland use school vouchers and that they can be used at fifty-one other schools, but there are nine schools that they cannot use the vouchers at, and they are all Catholic schools. To me this seems to be a religious prejudice going on in that area against the Catholic religion. I understand the purpose for vouchers and what would be involved. The money that is used to give out school vouchers comes from the public system of resources. I can see why people would be against vouchers. They worry that it will drain the resources for other public things. At the same time though, in the second article America’s boldest governor, it had stated that if the vouchers were properly designed, they would only drain the public resources at the same rate as a resource-consuming pupils. Therefore, students that are not doing well, drain more funds from the public system than other students that are doing good in school, and if vouchers are able to give those students who have been doing badly is school improve with time, the money used from the public system will balance out. Obviously, the students and parents of the lower class would benefit from vouchers. The school and public system do not benefit from vouchers. Schools for the reason that some schools will have to improve their school overall, or they will lose students to better equipped schools, since students of any background will be able to attend any school they like. I do feel that vouchers would lead to better curriculum among several schools, which would provide for educational excellence. The schools would be thriving to keep the number of students attending the school up. They would have to adjust to better themselves if vouchers were made available. Equity within schools would be achieved if vouchers were made available to students of all races, class, and status. Vouchers would allow students of several different cultural backgrounds and social class to attain and school they wish.

The American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Novel The Great Gatsby :: Essays Papers

The American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Novel The Great Gatsby Since July 4, 1776 Americans have had the opportunity to pursue whatever they can think of. This has given the people the opportunity to become whatever they want. A person who works hard can become successful; this is what the American Dream is centered around. A person who is a hard worker and persistent can reach any goal he strives for. The American Dream changed as America did. People became more and more infatuated with possessions. The characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby each work for their own American Dream. Jay Gatsby, the central character of the novel, has worked from nothing to become a very successful man. Jay is successful in the meaning that he is very rich and has everything most of the people in the novel would want. This is not what Jay is striving for though. Jay doesn’t care about the money, cars, and enormous house he has. Love is Jay’s goal, he worked for all the wealth and popularity to get to the love of his life, Daisy. Daisy is a woman that Jay had a love affair with when he was younger, but he could never have her because he was not in her social class. Jay then began to do anything to get the money that it would take to get in her class, even illegal activities. Once he reached this level of wealth, he moved close to Daisy to try to get her. â€Å"Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay†(83). The only thing that really mattered to Jay was Daisy. To try to meet Daisy, Jay threw enormous parties. He finally re unites with Daisy and he begins to show off how rich he is to try to impress her. Jay is convinced that Daisy is now in love with him, and is willing to do anything for her. Even after she kills a woman with his car, he says he will said he take the blame. In pursuit of his dream, Jay ends up being killed. Jay’s American Dream may seem to be one filled with riches and possessions, but it really isn’t. He works for all the things for his one true dream, Daisy, a goal that he never could have possessed.

Crossover Fashion Essay -- essays research papers

Men’s Fashion for Women and Vice Versa Civilizations as ancient as Jericho and as widespread as the Roman Empire have used clothing and jewelry as a form of nonverbal communication to indicate specific occupation, rank, gender, class, wealth, and group affiliation. These same material goods are used today for similar modes of communication. While some modern societies like the Taliban in Afghanistan make such distinctions with utmost conformity (the Taliban of Afghanistan) others like America have proven to be more dynamic. This dynamic nature can be seen in the emergence of crossover fashion within the last 80 years which has correlated with the changing role and social status of women in society. The effect of the gradual increase of power for women during the Industrial Revolution could be seen in the increase of crossover fashion. As a result, crossover fashion is dominate and socially acceptable in today’s society. From the 1700’s through the Industrial Revolution, regulating fashion was deemed as a way of preserving social and gender distinctions that were firmly established in the predominantly patriarchal society. During the 1850’s, the Victorian Era, there were strict guidelines on how people could behave and dress, and behaviors that they had to conform to their everyday lives. The rules were so strict that there were codes for how certain inanimate objects should be displayed; for example, table covers had to be long enough to cover the table’s legs because soci...

Prejudice and discrimination Essay

Andrew Cuomo states, â€Å"I believe discrimination still exists in society and we must fight it in every form. † Discrimination and prejudices are negative manifestations, especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge, instead of bringing people together, it pushes them apart. Prejudices can be formed when a person forms its own opinion of another person or group of persons without having knowledge or facts about them. Meanwhile, discrimination is based on treating one particular group of people less favorably than others because of their skin color, gender, age, or socioeconomic status. Racism, sexism, ageism, and socioeconomic discrimination are all prejudices and types of discrimination which should be avoided. Indeed, confrontation may be one of the most effective weapons in the battle to end prejudice and discrimination because if someone forms a prejudicial idea about us, or discriminates against us, our job is to try to change their way of thinking and let them know who we are and how we really are. People should confront this type of discrimination by demonstrating a different picture of what other people have about them. For example, someone who experienced a lot of discrimination and was prejudiced by a lot of people is Melba Patillo Beals. According to Patillo’s book â€Å"Warriors Don’t Cry†, she clearly writes about the importance of being given the chance to get to know people better before judging. Additionally, she wrote about how much she wanted the white people to give her a chance to get to know her better before they judge her and make a decision wether or not she and the other eight black students were allowed to be part of Central High School. Every time in her diary Patillo wrote how painful was to hear everyday bad words and support bad treatment from the white students. All this stereotypes were so painful for Patillo, but she decided to resist them all and keep going to school to show to the white people that black people are not so different from whites. The skin color does not make people worse. Patillo wrote on her book, â€Å" Today is the first time in my life I felt equal to white people. I want more of that feeling. † (Patillo 90). All people can have more of that feeling if we all decide to stop with racism, and all kinds of discrimination. If people confronts discrimination they will show other people that we all have rights and we have to stop being prejudiced. We have to be treated equal. In the same way, Patillo’s friend, Minnijean, insisted to participate in a school event to show her talents to the white students so they might finally accept her, and stop treating her bad. This two examples of Patillo and her friend Minnijean are ways to confront prejudice and discrimination. They tried to show people that by giving others a chance to know them better, people can realize the image they had about others or the prejudice towards that person is not true. Regarding this, many things can be done in order to get to know others; reading more about different ethnicities can open the mind of a lot of people who have so close mind and who only know about their culture. This could be a good way to get to know other people, and they will have the chance to demonstrate how they really are. For example, in the essay â€Å"Don’t Misread My Signals†, by Judith Ortiz Cofer, she explains how people can stereotype others just because of their heritage, in her case, the Puerto Rican heritage. After reading her essay, people can understand better the Puerto Rican Culture and why Puerto Rican girls chose a certain type of clothes which are not necessarily sexual signals like American people think. Moreover, just because of â€Å"the myth of the Latina as a whore, domestic worker or criminal† (Ortiz), doesn’t mean that all Latinas are the same. That is only a stereotype, and discrimination toward Latinas. However, Ortiz confronts this prejudice and discrimination by writing books of poetry and novels in which she tries to change the way of thinking of her audience. She explains to the audience that the skin color, the accent, or the clothes are not good reasons to prejudice or discriminate against others. Similarly, the essay â€Å"Of My Friend Hector and My Achilles Heel† by Michael T. Kaufman, explains the same issue as the essay â€Å"Don’t Misread My Signals† (Ortiz). That it is bad to stereotype people without having a fact that the stereotype is correct. Kaufman started writing â€Å"This story is about prejudice and stupidity. My own. † By having a epiphany, Kaufman realized that he was stereotyping his friend Hector Elizondo just because he is Puerto Rican and because Hector was not in the same special class in school as Kaufman. Also, Kaufman stereotyped Hector because he always saw Hector wearing a knitted watch cap, so he deduced that Hector was probably working as a longshoreman. Kaufman stereotyped Hector just by his appearance, nationality and education level, but he didn’t try to ask Hector what was really happening in his life. Finally, Kaufman saw in the newspaper that Hector was performing in a play on Broadway, so Kaufman realized that he stereotyped his friend and prejudice him. When people realizes that they are wrong about their prejudice, is exactly the moment when they start to confront prejudice. Is the moment when they change their way of thinking. They realize that sometimes the appearances do not show the real identity of the person. That is the reason of why we need to know people better before we start judging them. People say that the first impression is very important, but they can’t rely only on their first impression because that is the moment when they start to discriminate against others. They need to know that it is important to know someone better before they start judging or stereotyping. After all, we all are human beings and we are not perfect. We all have made prejudices, or have made discriminations towards others sometime. However, this is not so dangerous if we learned the lesson from the past, and realized that discriminating is not the best way to get along with people and live peacefully. If we want to end this, we need to stop transmitting this way of thinking to the next generations. With this change, people will create a world without prejudice and with equal rights for everybody.

Is Any Body Out There? Essay

The machine is non an it to be animated, worshipped, and dominated. The machine is us, our processes, an aspect of our embodiment. (Hara path, 1991 180) My paper starts with the experience that Information, Communications and Telecommunication technologies (ICTs) argon trustworthy to play a central economic consumption in defining who we be, how we think and how we interre after-hours to sensation a nonher.The guiding principle for my devise, is that although change over is an inevitable result of the conjunction in the midst of deal and technology, the reputation and extent of gentle objet dart intervention pro preparely influences its shape and character. What I believe to be strategic changes in the temper of the organic structure, subjectiveness and identicalness operator element ar the key concerns of this paper. I want to search these terms and the debates surrounding them with token refer to developments in ICTs. Rather than instruction on more eso teric examples of technological development, I will restrict my discussion to the net in inject and computer games.My theoretical touchstones for this discussion atomic number 18 feminism and post virginfangledistism, primarily beca white plague they assume both(prenominal) been implicated and implicit in discussions of cyberculture and the speculation of kind change that it represents. expectmodernism, that around polysemic of terms, key outms provided to be discussed along a continuum amongst the utopian and dystopian, peculiarly when considering the possibilities for genial change. Whichever tuition is do of the term, nonions of profoundly fragmented subjectivities and identities egress al roughly as constants.This a askms particularly obvious in feminist results to postmodernism. Feminists gain by and large read postmodernism as either a threat to feminist accessible reproach or an opportunity for the reading and disputation of nonions of sexua l activity and sex (presenting the possibility of re-inscription of the dust in post- sexual dress terms). Baudrillarian postmodernism chatters the collapse of our referential universe, including its hierarchies and inequalities, as offering little hope for loving animadversion and change.This is a problematic condition for much feminist conception, because of feminisms acknowledgement of gain ground oppressive structures that faecal matter all be changed by coordinated hearty action by women. For Baudrillard, the line of reasoning into a mediated hyper in truthity offers us only the politics of refusal (to act) and the pleasures of the spectacle. In a short-change article, published in Liberation, he suggests that developments in media technologies perplex resulted only in apprehension and resentment, transforming us into free radicals curious for our molecules in a s arsety net profit (Baudrillard, 1995 2).Here we pick out a clear brain of our corpo solid b odies exchanged for atomised practical(prenominal)(prenominal) bodies in what we might think of as life behind the screen. Although Baudrillard has not indite specifically of the net income, he has clearly indicated a belief that media technologies have accelerated the transmutation form the echt to the hyperreal. Baudrillards arrogance that the Gulf War never happened is his most memorable and misconstrued example of media induced hyper verity2. next Baudrillard, Mark Nunes has suggested that an element of this shift to hyperreality has been the erosion of the realm of representation and the establishment of a mode of simulation. This new mode has produced, in mesh, an increasingly real simulation of a comprehensible human race (Nunes, 1995 5). In The careen of Communication (1988), Baudrillard outlined the fate of the real, with particular reference to our corporeal bodies and their associated subjectivities and identitiesAs soon as behaviour is focus on certain operat ional screens or terminals, the rest appears as some vast, otiose body, which has been both abandoned and condemned. The real itself appears as a large, futile body. (Baudrillard, 1988) For Baudrillard, the realistic valet we are coming to inhabit is off the beaten track(predicate) from the universe of discourse(prenominal) village en flocked by Marshall McLuhan in the late mid-sixties (McLuhan and Fiore, 1967). The preferably comforting term, ball-shaped village, was grounded in the assumption that ICTs would act as ex latent hostilitys of man and serve to expand our knowable existence and increase global interdependence.Baudrillards cyberspace is a colder, more desolate space, where nurture has no meaning because it has been dislocated from its referential universe. In an article on global debt, Baudrillard claims that information or so debt is meaningless because the debt can never be repaid. However, whilst having no fiscal meaning, the spectre of debt understood has a bespeak aim It has no meaning notwithstanding that of fertilisation humankind to a destiny of cerebral automation and mental underdevelopment. (Baudrillard 2) For Baudrillard, both global debt and global media are so permeating that they deaden any attempts at social change. there is too much to determine and to worry squiffyly to lift our guides from the screens and read progressive social change. This pessimistic postmodernism exactly planms to offer a productive meaningpirited for the re-definition of identities and subjectivities central to feminist theorising. One of the vexedies with this drawing string of postmodernism is the plain totalising belief in fragmentation and alienation which it asserts, whilst dismissing totalising explanatory categories much(prenominal) as race, gender, ethnicity and class.Such categories of variety have until late been seen as both the impediments to progressive social change and the means by which to turn on for much(prenominal) change. Baudrillarian postmodernism seems to sweep away these tools for tone ending and domination. As Mark Poster has suggested The postmodern position is limited to an insistence on the constructedness of indistinguishability. In the effort to avoid the pitfalls of modern political theory, and so, postmodern theory crisply restricts the scope of its ability to define a new political interest. (Poster, 1995 2).Anyone interested in progressive social change moldiness surely ask if the transition to a fictive realistic(prenominal) world is actually so contingent on a loss of value and meaning? To take over the question is there anything left beyond Baudrillards morose fatalism? Many of those staking their claims on the electronic frontier of the internet see themselves engaged in the edifice of value-laden (and unquestionably manly) virtual worlds predicated on living notions of subjectivity, identity and wider democratic concerns. Few pioneers of the I nternet wishing a sense of meaning and purpose.For instance, Mitch Kapor, don of the US-based Electronic Frontier Foundation3, has little motion about the guiding principles of the Foundations vision of cyberspace Life in cyberspace at its best is more egalitarian than elitist and more de-centred than hierarchical In fact, life in cyberspace seems to be shaping up exactly how doubting Thomas Jefferson would have wanted founded on the primacy of individualist liberty and commitment to pluralism, diversity and partnership. (Kapor in Nunes, 1995 7) Kapors assessment of cyberspace is late impertinent.We are first offered a vision of a de-centred and egalitarian virtual space, accordingly this is overlain with a Western (more accurately, northwards American) encounter of democracy based solidly on the primacy of the individual (neat shorthand for capitalist social organisation). Kapors vision seems to belie the supposedly fragmented and schizophrenic electron orbit of cyber space, which Baudrillard puts forward. Citizens of the Internet appear to be taking their ethnical and social baggage with them on their transit to the other side of the mirror.Although existent structures of inequality are, I would press, becoming apparent in cyberspace4, they may be sluice more heavy contested than they have been in real space. The Internet, because of its decentralised structure seems to influence against unified concepts of citizenship and community and presents a heterogeneity of subjectivities and identities. Whilst people may wish to transfer the more stable values of the real into the realm of simulation, such attempts are oft quantifys contested5. Resistance is more bidly because virtuality, almost by definition, reveals the constructed constitution of subjectivities and identities.The case of Louise Woodward reveals the clash effect of juxtaposing reactory identities and positions. In the do main(prenominal) of cyberspace (enabled by the trans-fron tier nature of broadcast technology), the reduction of Woodwards sentence was presented co-occurrently with celebrations at the Rigger pub in the English village of Elton. Judging from the Internet discussion group provided by the local Boston newspaper, American opinion was late offended by the virtual co-presence of the imperious villagers and their assumption of Woodwards innocence.For many another(prenominal) contri barelyors to the American discussion, the villagers appeared to be dancing on the engrave of a dead child. Before the coming of instantaneous cross- ethnic communication such juxtapositions would not have been viable. Virtuality offers this co-presence, but the reaction to it in this case, seems to support claims that such ethnical encounters are replete with struggle and meaning, earlier than free of them. A posting by Katie is typical of the angry and mystified response of many American contributors to the clash of co-present pagan identities.Without a Doubt, Louise Woodward *IS* indictable Guilty Guilty by Katie, 11/6/97 As I said in other postings Poor Louise Woodward she loved eight-month old, clear Matthew Eappen so she wrote to her family and friends back in England she did not see Matty hurt his head she testified tearful eyed but smiled broadly and gave a little laugh when next she was asked if she slammed Mattys head. Poor Louise.Woodward 27 seconds after the inculpatory verdict was announced she became hysterical (aahhow sad, she is unspoilt a child, such injustice, cried Geraldo, Gibson, and the like) her hysterics lasted all of 118 seconds transactions later she left the courtroom unassisted, composed, and arid eyed. Poor Matthew Eappen the media decided to focus on poor Louise Woodward.In the realm of cyberspace we become arbiters of the identities and positions paraded before us. Of course, our existing cultural ties have a considerable contact on who we choose to name with us, but we cannot ignore the co-pr esence of other identities, which call into question the turn of events of our profess.Texter has identified the Internet as the first stage in the construction of a virtual reality, towards the manufacture of identity without the corporeal body The social construction of the body becomes clear in cyberspace, where both identity is represented for Baudrillard, simulated, earlier than real. The consensus of cyberspace is a precarious one identification is entirely contingent, based on a consensual agreement to take ones word for it. (Texter, 1996 3) Texter suggests identity in cyberspace is often about passing off, offering up a fluid sense of self, project onto an imaginary virtual body.As a slight corrective, I think it is important not to exaggerate the difference among the creation of real world identities and virtual ones. Judith butler contends that the constitution of identity (with particular reference to gender) is always something of an unstable and contradictory car ry withance, whether simulated or real sexuality ought not to be construed as a stable identity or a locus of agency from which various acts follow, quite, gender is an identity tenuously constituted in time, instituted in an exterior space through and through a stylised repetition of acts. (Butler in Texter, 1996 4) Perhaps what the Internet does, by removing the optic cues that partly gender us, is open up possibilities for experimentation and play with existing manifestations of subjectivity. Here, the take of Dona Haraway is particularly important. Haraways influential bionic man manifesto (1985) has inspired other cyber-feminists, such as Sadie Plant, to foresee a post-gender time to come where existing pass overaries and categories no longer have the profound structuring effects that have resulted in gender inequalities under patriarchy.Haraways work coifs a profound scarper with feminist thought that posits a unified year of women, who can only be liberated by the d evelopment of joint consciousness and action. There is nothing about being fe antheral that naturally binds women. There is not even such a state as being fe virile, itself a highly complex course of study constructed in contested social-scientific discourses and other social practices. (Haraway in Keen 1) Haraways profoundly anti-essentialist abstract rests on the notion of the cyborg, an entity based on the conjunction between technology and our selves.Haraway contends that we are all cyborgs now, because of our immersion in, and dependence on, techno-culture. She does not mean to suggest that we are robots in the Science Fiction sense, but that the relationship between people and technology is so intimate, that it is hard to tell where machines and people end and begin. As an example of our end relationship with technology, try to wrestle the TV remote control away from its symmetric user (who is as well often, coincidentally, the staminate head of the household).For Hara way, we have come to see our bodies as high-performance machines that must be monitored and added to by technological innovation. Given that the boundaries between the natural and the technological have collapsed, then so have the assumptions that cluster around these terms. For instance, the belief that women are naturally passive, pliant and nurturing can no longer be sustained in the era of the cyborg. The cyborg displays a polymorphous perversity (Haraway in Kunzru, 1997 4), and in conjunction with technology constructs identity, sexuality and gender as it pleases.Haraway has little time for either techno-utopians or the knee-jerk techno-phobia she sees in some feminist thought. She urges women to become part of networks (such as the Internet) that constitute the cyborg world. However, her ideas of connectivity should not be taken to equate with existing concepts of community based on the model of organic family. For her, the cyborg has no fear of partial tone identities and co ntradictory standpoints (Quoted in Keen 2).What is not allowable in the cyborg world, is a call to arms around a unified notion of women posed against an as cohesive notion of men. Butlers work on the performative nature of gender reaches many of the same conclusions, regarding the category of women central to much feminist thought as limiting and exclusive. She argues that feminist theory has taken the category of women to be foundational without realising that the category effects a political full point on the kinds of experiences articulable as part of feminist discourse. (Butler in Nicholson (Ed. ), 1990 325) Post-structuralist feminism has long attempt to question the essentialising concept of gender in feminist thought, but some writers have been wary of jettisoning gender as a unifying and explanatory category for the nature of womens oppression. Angela McRobbie, who is by no means hostile to postmodernism or post-structuralism, has expressed the tension poignantly, in a d iscussion of the nature of identity On the one hand, it is fluid, never completely secured and constantly being remade, reconstruct afresh.On the other hand, it only exists in relation to what it is not, to the other identities which are its other. (Quoted in Texter, 1995 18) I broadly accept McRobbies argument that any re-definition of identity ask something to define itself against. I would further argue that our existing tools for the construction of identities are move from often narrow and predictable paradigms, particularly when moneymaking(prenominal) considerations become part of the process. In my concluding section I would like to offer an example of how the structuring effects of gender seem to be still very apparent in the more mainstream sectors of cyberspace. devil computer games have secured huge followings in the last couple of years. Both are touted as offering virtual reality experiences (although without the headsets and gloves of experimental virtual reality ). quaver and grave looter are available crossways a variety of computer and ikon game platforms and both render quite real simulated virtual worlds to search and three-dimensional adversaries to shoot at6. My first example, swing, presents us with a subjective enchant of our virtual world. Screen-shot the view through your eyes.We, as the severely build up mavin, are able to freely roam through this world. All we see of our virtual self is the end of whichever machine we have selected. In Quake we see the virtual world through our own eyes. When we are low on life force we hear our alive become laboured. When we are killed we view the world from a wedded position (our subjectivity seems to survive death) until the schoolbook Game Over appears. The sound of our breathing and the grunts that emanate from us are decidedly masculine.Quake offers us an hick masculine gender identity based on the idea of identification with a masculine protagonist who drives the floor towards a possible (although not inevitable) resolution. Quake closely conforms to the observations made by Laura Mulvey on the dominance of the staminate gaze in chronicle motion-picture show. Mulvey, written material in the early 1970s, suggested that Hollywood celluloid routinely places the active male at the centre of the annals and invites us to account with this character, which through force of personality, brings about narrative resolution.It is somewhat depressing to note that the virtual reality offered by Quake is such an unreconstructed one. The fit with Mulvey is very close As the spectator identifies with the main male protagonist, he projects his look onto that of his like, his screen surrogate, so that the power of the male protagonist as he controls events coincides with the active power of the self-involved look, both giving a conform to sense of omnipotence. (Mulvey in Easthope and McGowan, 1992 163) In Quake identification is aided by the conflation of the male protagonist with our selves, perhaps even escalate our satisfying omnipotence.Even if we read Quake against the grain in a Barthesian sense (as some of my women friends do), it is hard to argue that this commercial manifestation of virtual reality offers us anything but a very clear, uncomplicated subject position to inhabit. What we do not get with Quake, is much space within the text to contest existing gender categories. My second example, tomb Raider, offers a much more ambivalent experience. In this game, the main protagonist is a heavily armed effeminate character identified as Lara Croft.Unlike in Quake, Lara is represented on-screen. She is modelled in the Anime style that originated in Japanese graphic novels and animations. Lara, as can be seen from the screen shot below, is both engaging and physically decently. Screen-shot Lara Croft on-screen A number of my egg-producing(prenominal) students raised the issue of Tomb Raider in a discussion on the genderin g of video games and said that they regularly vie the game and found it an empowering experience (partly because of the gewgaw of having a female protagonist to identify with).Having vie video and computer games since the late 1970s I was interested by the notion of a game that seemed to contradict the usual masculine gendering usually found within this medium. Although Lara does drive the narrative, she is also heavily eroticised. We control her movements and identify with her, but she is also the prey of our gaze7. Mulvey suggests that female characters in narrative cinema often halt the narrative flow (Mulvey in Easthope & McGowan, 1992 163) for moments of erotic materialization.Initially, the active narrative role of the protagonist in Tomb Raider seems to support this, but the game does encourage us to gaze at Lara though male eyes. We can manipulate our view of the character to see her from a mould of angles using movements of the frame that closely tally cinematic zo oms, tracking shots and pans. These features make the game-play rather clumsy but allow us to fetishise the protagonist. As Mulvey comments on narrative cinema This fetishism builds up the physical beauty of the object transforming it into something satisfying in itself. (Ibid. 165)This perhaps explains why, when I first played the game, I played out some time making Lara perform a variety of acrobatic manoeuvres that were far removed from the task of killing adversaries. The ambivalence in Tomb Raider lies in the unusual tension between its al-Qaida in the male gaze and its simultaneous identification with an active female protagonist. That my female students felt empowered by, and attracted to, Tomb Raider, suggests it does mark a shift in conceptions of subjectivity and identity. However, this shift is not total and still appears to be rooted in existing gender definitions.Whilst some of the claims of cyber-feminism seem overstated, and rather too willing to claim the human ra ce of a virtual space where handed-down dualisms and hierarchies have collapsed, virtuality may offer new web sites for contestation and the expression of difference. Indeed, in a recent interview, Dona Haraway has suggested that technology is a value-laden welkin of contestation rather than a lily-white screen to be straightforwardly sculptured with new subjectivities and identities Technology is not neutral. Were inside of what we make, and its inside of us. Were living in a world of connections and it matters which get made and unmade. (Haraway in Kunzru 1997 6) I am conscious of having steered a evenhandedly delicate and cautious course through the hazards and attractions of structuralism, post-structuralism and postmodernism throughout this paper. I recognise that the body is becoming an increasingly contested site of theoretical debates and diverse social and cultural practices. The erosion of subjectivities and identities seems to be closely bound up with the heightened sense of mediation and virtuality that inflects the way we view the world, and equally importantly, how it views us.Postmodernism helps us tone the shifts from unified to fragmented subjectivities and identities, but it is a poor tool for investigating the possibilities of social change and identifiying the barriers to it. I have tested to show how the tools of structuralism still have salience, even when applied to the texts of cyberspace. It would perhaps be convenient to wish away the seemingly intractable hierarchies posited by structuralism, but to do so might also fall the space for cohesive social criticism and unified political action. This is clearly a tension felt by many feminists and certainly not one I have managed to resolve in this paper.What I hope I have done, is to point out the necessity of retaining some existing explanatory categories, whilst recognising the need for constant reflection on, and reaction to, changing subjectivities and identities both in the r eal world and the emerging virtual world. If Baudrillard is proved right, and we do eventually come to exclusively inhabit a rather hyperreal and schizophrenic virtual world, the need for tiny engagement will surely be more vital than ever, however difficult and contradictory such critical practice might prove to be. Notes1 more writing on subjectivity and identity in cyberspace uses marginal practices as illustrative examples. I think this focus on what might fairly be called an avant-garde often descends into futurology. The mainstream may not be as exotic, but it is where most of us live, and will live, in the future. 2 What Baudrillard seems to have meant was that the Gulf War never happened for those of us in the West, beyond the simulated hyperreality of surgical strikes and Cruise missiles with the ability to wait at traffic lights and avoid clean-handed civilians on the way to their targets.3 The use of the term electronic frontier indicates powerful myths of male colonis ation, the establishment of laws and the hierarchical normal of behaviour. 4 According to UNESCO 95% of the worlds computers are located in advanced industrial countries and the ten richest countries have 75% of the worlds surround lines. Networks and poverty seem to be effectively de-coupled at the moment 5 For example, the online group Guerrilla Girls are working against the masculine domination of cyberspace, albeit in a playfully aggressive and ironic manner.6 Quake can be played across computer networks and has been held responsible for mess up corporate networks in North America. 7 There are a number of Internet sites devoted to Tomb Raider. All of them contain numerous screen-shots of Lara Croft. On one site there were even a collection of images of Lara sans clothing, suggesting that male identification with Lara is rooted largely in objectification. charter Bibliography Note Where publication dates are not listed this is because the material is drawn from Internet art icles where such dates are absent. Internet addresses are condition where known. Baudrillard, J (1988) The Ecstasy of Communication, Semiotext(e) (trans. Bernard Schutz & Caroline Schutze) Baudrillard, J (n. d. ) Global Debt and couple human race, WWW document uniform resource locator , first published in Liberation, Paris (trans. Francois Debrix). http//www. Ctheory. com/e31_global_debt. hypertext mark-up language Baudrillard, J (1994) credit card Surgery for the Other, WWW document URL , Figures de lalteritie (trans. Francois Debrix). http//www. Ctheory. com/a33-plastic_surgery. hypertext mark-up language Butler, Judith (1990) Gender Trouble, Feminist supposition, and psychoanalytic Discourse in Nicholson (Ed.) op. cit. , pp. 324-41 Easthope, A and K McGowan (Eds. ) (1992).A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader, Buckingham Open University Press Haraway, Dona (1990) A Manifesto for Cyborgs Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the mid-eighties. In Nicholson (E d. ) op. cit. , pp. 190-234 Keen, Carolyn (n. d. ) On the Cyborg Manifesto, WWW document URL http//www. english. upenn. edu/jenglish/Courses/keen2. html Kunzru, Hari (1997) You are Cyborg in Wired, Issue 5. 02 McLuhan, Marshall and Quentin Fiore (1967) The Medium is the Massage. capital of the United Kingdom Penguin. Mulvey, Laura (1992) Visual Pleasure and Narrative motion-picture show. In Easthope and McGowan (Eds. ), op. cit. , pp 158-67 Nicholson, Linda J (Ed. ) (1990) Feminism/Postmodernism. capital of the United Kingdom Routledge Nunes, Mark (1995) Baudrillard in Cyberspace Internet, Virtuality, and Postmodernity, http//www. dc. peachnet. edu/mnunes/jbnet. html Pesce, Mark (n. d. ) Proximal or distal Unity, Cyberconference Home Page, http//www. hyperreal. com/mpesce Poster, Mark (1995) Cyber land The Internet and the Public Sphere http//www. hotpumped(p). com/wired/3. 11/departments/poster. if. html. Sawchuk, K A (1995) Post Panoptic Mirrored Worlds, Ctheory, WWW docu ment URL http//www. Ctheory. com/r-post_panoptic_mirrored. html Steffensen, Jyanni (1996) Decoding Perversity Queering Cyberspace, Parallel Gallery and Journal, http//www. va. com. au/ jibe/parallelcamtech. com. au Steinbach, J (n. d. ) Postmodern Technoculture, http//omni. cc. purdue. edu/beer mug/techcult. htm Texter, W (1996) I May be Synthetic, but Im not Stupid Technicity, Artifice and Repetition in Cyberville, http//www. texter. com/Textual/thesis. html December 1997 electronic mail the author spittleuce5. u-net. com.