Dance, Girl, Dance Essay

Dance, Girl, Dance is a film from the Classical Hollywood period that presents a complicated reading when viewed through a feminist lens. The 1940 film was directed by Dorothy Arzner, one of the most notable female directors and the only prominent woman in Hollywood at that time. Arzner presents her audience with an array of female characters, the main characters being Judy O’brien and Bubbles/Tiger Lily White. Judy is a dedicated dancer, honing her talents as a ballerina. Bubbles, on the other hand, uses her looks and sexuality to land jobs as a burlesque dancer. Dance, Girl, Dance reveals these characters’ experience in a dance troupe with several other girls. When the troupe disbands, Bubbles comes to offer Judy a humiliating job as her stooge. As tensions rise, the two eventually come to blows, quite literally, when both fall for the same man, Jimmy Harris. Through their relationship with each other and with men, a dynamic is defined that gives insight into the power of the male gaze and sexual politics, not only in the film but also in society at large in the context of 1930s America. This can be seen in the analysis of a particular scene near the beginning of the film. Judy and one of her roommates, Sally, are preparing for bed after their performance at the nightclub in the opening scene. Bubbles, their third roommate, arrives at home after a disappointing outing with Jimmy. This scene specifically highlights the contrast between the personalities of Judy and Bubbles, and speaks to the many ways female characters are coded based on their sexuality and appearance. The analysis of the scene begins at the moment Bubbles enters the room. She comes into the frame through the doorway in a medium shot. It is important to note her costume, as it speaks to her character. She is wearing makeup, jewelry, a fox fur stole around her shoulders and a feathered hat. One may get the impression that she is trying to look as glamorous or ostentatious as possible on her limited budget. At this point, Bubbles has already been partly established as a brash woman who does not shy away from her ability to attract men. This can be contrasted with Judy’s costume during this scene, modest button-up pajamas. The scene continues as Bubbles enters the tiny apartment. She turns on the light, when Judy whispers that Sally is asleep from off camera. Bubbles leaves the light on, looks down at Sally in the bed, and proceeds to loudly close the door while muttering â€Å"So, what? † As she delivers her dialogue, the camera follows her as she walks to her bed, panning over to include Judy in a two shot. One key element in this simple interaction is the difference of attitude toward female solidarity between Bubbles and Judy. Judy obviously cares to not disturb Sally, while Bubbles seems disappointed and only concerned with her own problems at this point. Then, the camera cuts to a close shot of Sally lying in bed, smiling and clearly awake. She then closes her eyes and continues to try and sleep, rendering her unimportant to the rest of the scene. The next cut brings us back to a long, two shot of Bubbles and Judy as they discuss what happened to Bubbles that evening. Bubbles is explaining how she had gone out with Jimmy, but he suddenly left her at the bar after giving her a little stuffed bull. In this shot, Bubbles is in the foreground, a little closer to the camera than Judy, making her appear slightly larger. This could be interpreted as signifying her social dominance over Judy, and the fact that she â€Å"stole† Jimmy from Judy earlier that evening. Bubbles dismissively tosses the bull onto a chair in front of Judy. Judy picks it up, stating â€Å"It’s cute. † Bubbles tells her that she can have it. The audience is clearly meant to get the impression that the token of the night has no significance to Bubbles, and she is merely disappointed that she could not add Jimmy to her list of men to dote on her occasionally. The camera stays stationary as Bubble walks to the background of the shot and sits on her bed. Judy gently places the bull back on the chair, already showing signs of her eventual fetishization of the bull and Jimmy. Then, she continues to bend and stretch her legs, as Bubbles pouts behind her. It is interesting to point out that as Judy resumes her exercises, she has gained the â€Å"high ground† of the shot. The reminder of her status as a dancer, a more artful and talented dancer than Bubbles, means she is the larger, more significant character in the frame now. The focus has moved from Bubbles proficiency as a female spectacle, completely at home under the male gaze, to Judy’s proficiency as a ballerina, with no real concern for superficial male attention. Then, this is reinforced when there is a cut to a medium shot of Bubbles, looking at Judy. The camera follows Bubbles line of sight and there is a quick cut to a medium shot of Judy, then it reverses back to the shot of Bubbles on her bed, shaking her head. She says, â€Å"I’ll say one thing for you, Pavlova. You’ve certainly got ambition, even if it’s dumb. As she says this, Judy’s foot briefly enters from the side of the frame as she kicks her leg. Once again, Bubbles is coded as having no passion for her craft as a dancer, seeing it as a means to an end of attracting men and/or making money, while Judy genuinely loves to dance. One way of reading the film is through the suggestion that Judy’s ballet is high art, while Bubbles’ burlesque is low art. In the world of the Dance, Girl, Dance, women utilizing their sexuality for physical and financial gratification given by men is deemed less valuable than artistic expression. What follows is a short series of counter shots between the two, as Bubbles ponders how she will get back to New York, going through her list of male suitors to find a solution to her dilemma. On a surface level, this shows that Bubbles needs men to get where she is going, whether it is for a trip to New York or a trip to stardom as they buy tickets to her shows later in the film. The scene comes to a close as Bubbles decides on Sam, the traveling salesman that is â€Å"sweet on her. As this line is delivered, there is a quick cut to Judy whipping her head around to look back at Bubbles. Judy has an expression on her face that is hard to describe, but it gets across the fact that her reality is very different from that of Bubbles’. Judy goes on to ask if there will be room for Sally, as the camera tracks Bubbles while she walks to the bathroom. As the camera stops tracking, it stops in a medium shot of Bubbles as she eventually replies, â€Å"†¦ All right, she can go, b ut don’t blame me. That guy’s got more arms than an octopus. † There is a cut to a close shot of Sally in bed with a wide-eyed, nervous expression as she quickly lifts up her head and plops back down. Like Judy, her reality is very different from the reality of the dynamic Bubbles, and the possibility of encountering a man from that reality seems to frighten her. After the last cut of the scene, it ends on a medium shot of Judy picking up the stuffed bull once again and smiling at it fondly. This emphasizes the fact Judy is not asexual and clearly is developing feelings for Jimmy. Although, Judy seems to have a more deep, emotional connection to Jimmy than Bubbles has for her various men. Judy only became interested in Jimmy after he helped the girls at the nightclub and talked with her earlier in the film. Her interest is not based solely on what he can provide to her. The differences in costume, behavior and motivation between Bubbles and Judy are relevant to a larger scope of the film involving sex and gender politics. For all of the above reasons found in the formal elements of the film’s visual and narrative composition, Bubbles is coded as superficial, purely physical and vapid. On the other hand, Judy is given much more value and depth. While Bubbles goes on to find success by exploiting her good looks, Judy is the winner in the end, when she lands her position in the ballet company and achieves her dreams. In this way, the film is sending a message that female self-worth is not derived from male approval or reaffirming of beauty, but from accomplishment of what are considered to be more substantial goals.

Holographics and Virtual Reality

HOLOGRAPHICS AND VIRTUAL REALITY Major KVP Dhammika M. Phill(Electronic and Telecommunication)Engineering Mid Career Course -45 Military College of Signal Rawalpindi – Pakistan Nov 2011 CONTENT 1. Introduction 2. Aim 3. History and Background 4. Important Concepts 5. Type of Virtual Reality Systems 6. Few Virtual Reality Techniques that Actually Work at Present 7. The Extreme Future of Virtual Reality 8. Conclusion INTRODUCTION What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can hear, what you can smell, taste and feel, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. Morpheus (The Matrix) 1. It was my own belief next coming decade word virtual will be a very common to everyone since we all living in margin of real world and virtual world (Kind of dream world). When I started my high school studies in mathematics concept of imaginary numbers make me so confused but thought of its real existence me more confused. When I looked through a m irror I always thought imaginary world which was explained to me in complex numbers are exist inside the world that I am observing through a mirror. 2.When I was a kid TV show â€Å"Star Trek† and â€Å"Blake’s 7† induced my desire to study about Teleportation  (term that refers to a number of theories and notions concerning the transfer of  matter  from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them, similar to the concept  Ã¢â‚¬Å"apport†, an earlier word used in the context of spiritualism). Figure 1 Star Trek Teleportation Further my desire to learn concepts of Holography and Virtual Reality (VR) was stimulated due to two popular movies â€Å"Total Recall† and â€Å"Matrix†. . To day scientist had found that everything we experience in life can be reduced to electrical activity stimulating our brains as our sensory organs deliver information about the external world. This interpretation is what we consider to be â€Å"reality. † In this sense, the brain is reality. Everything you see, hear, feel, taste and smell is an interpretation of what's outside, and created entirely inside your head. We tend to believe that this interpretation matches very closely to the external world.Nothing could be further from the truth. 4. It is the brain that â€Å"sees†, and in some important ways what it sees does not reflect the information it derives from sensory input. For this reason, we are all living in our own reality simulations – abstractions – that we construct as a result of both what we perceive with our senses and how our brains modify this perception. Such things as color, smell and taste, for example are not properties of the outside world itself, but rather a category created by the process of perception.In order to experience the world in a meaningful way, the brain must act as a filter/interference between us and the â€Å"real† world. 5. Words have a lways been a crude method of relaying intent. VR holds out the promise of allowing us to literally show one another what we mean rather than merely describing it with crude verbal approximations. The limitation of words is that the meaning they convey is only as detailed as the definitions the reader or listener attaches to them.For this reason VR offers the possibility of evolving our communication into a kind of telepathy, ultimately bridging the gap between our discrete imaginations. â€Å"This is what virtual reality holds out to us – the possibility of walking into the constructs of the imagination. † – Terence McKenna 6. VR is the ultimate medium of syntactical intent; the only way to figuratively â€Å"show† someone exactly what you mean is to literally show them. Words are exceptionally ineffective at conveying meaning, as they are a low-bandwidth, lossy medium of knowledge transference.VR will let us remove the ambiguity that is the discrepancy b etween our internal dictionaries and bypass communication through symbolism altogether. The result will be perfect understanding, as all parties behold the same information. 7. Holography  is a technique that allows the  light  scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that when an imaging system (a camera or an eye) is placed in the reconstructed beam, an image of the object will be seen even when the object is no longer present.The image changes as the position and orientation of the viewing system changes in exactly the same way as if the object were still present, thus making the image appear  three-dimensional. 8. Virtual reality is an artificial environment that is created with software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment. On a computer, virtual reality is primarily experienced through two of the five senses: sight and sound. Today its go beyond and planning to experience in all five senses. 9.The simplest form of virtual reality is a  3-D  image that can be explored interactively at a personal computer, usually by manipulating keys or the mouse so that the content of the image moves in some direction or zooms in or out. More sophisticated efforts involve such approaches as wrap-around display screens, actual rooms augmented with wearable computers, and  haptics (  tactile feedback  technology that takes advantage of a user's sense of touch by applying forces,  vibrations, or motions to the user)  devices that let you feel the display images. 0. Today we are in a world where human being reached their new electronic telecommunication advancement to practically feasible of projecting holographic images, virtual reality games and Telepresence (refers to a set of  technologies  which allow a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance of being present, or to have an effect, via  tele-robotics, at a place other than th eir true location). 11. These two field application can be expected in almost all the fields. Specially military, education, business and entertainment. AIM 12.Aim of this research work is to acquaint student officers immerging new two technologies, holography and virtual reality. HISTORY AND BACKGROUND 13. In mid 1950s visionary cinematographer Morton H Eilig built a single user console called â€Å"Sensorama† that included a stereoscopic display, fans, or emitters, stereo speakers and a moving chair. This enabled the user watch television in three dimensional ways. 14. In 1961, Philco Corporation engineers developed the first HMD known as the â€Å"Headsight†. The helmet consisted of a video screen along with a tracking system. Then they linked to a closed circuit camera system.Then somewhat similar HMD was used for helicopter pilots. While flying in the dark these were of great help. 15. In 1965, a computer scientist named Ivan Sutherland envisioned what he called t he â€Å"Ultimate Display. † After using this display a person imagines the virtual world very similar to the real world. During 1966, an HMD was built by Sutherland, which was tethered to a computer system. The thought of virtual reality has been around since 1965, when Ivan Sutherland expressed his ideas of creating virtual or imaginary worlds. At MIT, he conducted experiments with three dimensional displays.In 1969, he developed the first system to surround people in three dimensional displays of information. Between the '70's and late '80's, the concept of virtual reality was mainly used by the United States. The military used it as flight simulators to train pilots. The other countries in the world did not show any interest in this technology until the late 1980's. Since then, virtual reality has developed in many ways to become an emerging technology of our time. 16. To my own thought we experiencing some kind of virtual reality in our own dreams. When you are in deep s leep you see dreams that you may feel it real.Day dreams also plays very vital role, all form of these dreams help to create great sciences, fictions and all form of arts. In virtual reality technology we are trying to create dream world in real life where we won’t be able to identify margin between real world and virtual world. In other way round optical illusions we experiencing like mirage and rainbows also like holographic projection humans are about to experience. 17. Holography was discovered by the British-Hungarian scientist Dennis Gabor in 1947, though its full potential waited it seems, on the birth of the laser, 1963.Holography is defined as  the process of wavefront reconstruction. In considering one of the several methods of constructing a hologram, the principles we require for understanding the process are simple. IMPORTANT CONCEPTS 18. The concepts behind virtual reality are based upon theories about a long held human desire to escape the boundaries of the à ¢â‚¬Ëœreal world’ by embracing cyberspace. Once there we can interact with this virtual environment in a more naturalistic manner which will generate new forms of human-machine interaction (HMI).The aim is to move beyond standard forms of interaction such as the keyboard and mouse which most people work with on a daily basis. This is seen as an unnatural way of working which forces people to adapt to the demands of the technology rather than the other way around. But a virtual environment does the opposite. It allows someone to fully immerse themselves in a highly visual world which they explore by means of their senses. This natural form of interaction within this world often results in new forms of communication and understanding. 19.The experience of a virtual world mimics that of a real world scenario but often without many of its constraints. Virtual reality enables allows someone to do the following: a. Walk around a three-dimensional building b. Perform a virtual opera tion. c. Play a multi-user game. d. Take part in a theatre of war. e. Interact with an artwork. Plus the fact that they can do this in a 3D environment means that they replicate an experience similar to that in the real world but without many of the dangers. This is preferable to trying to simulate these experiences in a two-dimensional setting, e. g. a computer desktop. 0. Virtual reality also acts as a problem solving device in that it enables us to explore various options as a means of finding an answer to a problem. For example, an engineering company will use virtual reality to produce a prototype which is then tested and the results fed back to the design team. The advantage of this is that it enables the designers to make alterations to their design but at far less time and cost. This is a preferred option to building a physical prototype which is expensive to build and make changes to: especially if it undergoes several alterations as part of the design process.Holography Co ncept. 21. Holography is an image registered with use of coherent laser light. It allows preserving the 3-D information of a holographed subject. With a single source of white light, the image is â€Å"played back† and appears in 3-D exactly as it was registered in the studio. Image can project deep inside, or â€Å"stick† out of the picture. Virtually impossible to copy and displaying unique visual effects, they present themselves as an unbeatable security solution for brand protection and brand promotion. 22. The Holography is based upon Nobel Prize winner Dennis Gabor's theory concerning interference patterns.Gabor theorized in 1947 that each crest of the wave pattern contains the whole information of its original source, and that this information could be stored on film and reproduced. This is why it is called a Holography. 23. Holography is the only visual recording and playback process that can record our three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional recording med ium and playback the original object or scene, to the unaided eyes, as a three dimensional image. The image demonstrates complete parallax and depth-of-field.The image floats in space either behind, in front of, or straddling the recording medium The Universe as a Holography 24. In 1982 a remarkable event took place. Aspect and his team discovered that under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. University of London physicist David Bohm, for example, believes Aspect's findings imply that objective reality does not exist, that despite its apparent solidity the universe is at heart a phantasm, a gigantic and splendidly detailed Holography.To understand why Bohm makes this startling assertion, one must first understand a little about Holographys. A Holography is a three- dimensional photograph made with the aid of a laser. To make a Holography, the object to be phot ographed is first bathed in the light of a laser beam. When the film is developed, it looks like a meaningless swirl of light and dark lines. But as soon as the developed film is illuminated by another laser beam, a three-dimensional image of the original object appears. 24.If a Holography of a rose is cut in half and then illuminated by a laser, each half will still be found to contain the entire image of the rose. Indeed, even if the halves are divided again, each snippet of film will always be found to contain a smaller but intact version of the original image. Unlike normal photographs, every part of a Holography contains all the information possessed by the whole. 25. This insight suggested to Bohm another way of understanding Aspect's discovery. Imagine an aquarium containing a fish. This, says Bohm, is precisely what is going on between the subatomic particles in Aspect's experiment. 6. According to Bohm, the apparent faster-than-light connection between subatomic particles i s really telling us that there is a deeper level of reality we are not privy to, a more complex dimension beyond our own that is analogous to the aquarium. And, he adds, we view objects such as subatomic particles as separate from one another because we are seeing only a portion of their reality. Such particles are not separate â€Å"parts†, but facets of a deeper and more underlying unity that is ultimately as holographic and indivisible as the previously mentioned rose.And since everything in physical reality is comprised of these â€Å"eidolons†, the universe is itself a projection, a Holography. In addition to its phantomlike nature, such a universe would possess other rather startling features. If the apparent separateness of subatomic particles is illusory, it means that at a deeper level of reality all things in the universe are infinitely interconnected. 27. In a holographic universe, even time and space could no longer be viewed as fundamentals. What else the superHolography contains is an open-ended question.Bohm is not the only researcher who has found evidence that the universe is a Holography. Working independently in the field of brain research, Standford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram has also become persuaded of the holographic nature of reality. 28. Pribram was drawn to the holographic model by the puzzle of how and where memories are stored in the brain. In a series of landmark experiments in the 1920s, brain scientist Karl Lashley found that no matter what portion of a rat's brain he removed he was unable to radicate its memory of how to perform complex tasks it had learned prior to surgery. Then in the 1960s Pribram encountered the concept of holography and realized he had found the explanation brain scientists had been looking for. Pribram believes memories are encoded not in neurons, or small groupings of neurons, but in patterns of nerve impulses that crisscross the entire brain in the same way that patterns of laser light interference crisscross the entire area of a piece of film containing a holographic image. In other words, Pribram believes the brain is itself a Holography. 9. Pribram's theory also explains how the human brain can store so many memories in so little space. It has been estimated that the human brain has the capacity to memorize something on the order of 10 billion bits of information during the average human lifetime (or roughly the same amount of information contained in five sets of the Encyclopaedia Britannica). 30. Our uncanny ability to quickly retrieve whatever information we need from the enormous store of our memories becomes more understandable if the brain functions according to holographic principles.Because every portion of a Holography is infinitely interconnected with ever other portion, it is perhaps nature's supreme example of a cross-correlated system. 31. The storage of memory is not the only neurophysiological puzzle that becomes more tractable in light of Pribra m's holographic model of the brain. Another is how the brain is able to translate the avalanche of frequencies it receives via the senses (light frequencies, sound frequencies, and so on) into the concrete world of our perceptions.Encoding and decoding frequencies is precisely what a Holography does best. Just as a Holography functions as a sort of lens, a translating device able to convert an apparently meaningless blur of frequencies into a coherent image, Pribram believes the brain also comprises a lens and uses holographic principles to mathematically convert the frequencies it receives through he senses into the inner world of our perceptions. 32. An impressive body of evidence suggests that the brain uses holographic principles to perform its operations.Argentinian-Italian researcher Hugo Zucarelli recently extended the holographic model into the world of acoustic phenomena. Puzzled by the fact that humans can locate the source of sounds without moving their heads, even if the y only possess hearing in one ear, Zucarelli discovered that holographic principles can explain this ability. Pribram's belief that our brains mathematically construct â€Å"hard† reality by relying on input from a frequency domain has also received a good deal of experimental support. 33.Researchers have discovered, for instance, that our visual systems are sensitive to sound frequencies, that our sense of smell is in part dependent on what are now called â€Å"osmic frequencies†, and that even the cells in our bodies are sensitive to a broad range of frequencies. For if the concreteness of the world is but a secondary reality and what is â€Å"there† is actually a holographic blur of frequencies, and if the brain is also a Holography and only selects some of the frequencies out of this blur and mathematically transforms them into sensory perceptions, what becomes of objective reality? 4. We are really â€Å"receivers† floating through a kaleidoscopic se a of frequency, and what we extract from this sea and transmogrify into physical reality is but one channel from many extracted out of the superHolography. 35. This striking new picture of reality, the synthesis of Bohm and Pribram's views, has come to be called the holographic paradigm, and although many scientists have greeted it with skepticism, it has galvanized others. A small but growing group of researchers believe it may be the most accurate model of reality science has arrived at thus far.Numerous researchers, including Bohm and Pribram, have noted that many para-psychological phenomena become much more understandable in terms of the holographic paradigm. 36. In a universe in which individual brains are actually indivisible portions of the greater Holography and everything is infinitely interconnected, telepathy may merely be the accessing of the holographic level. It is obviously much easier to understand how information can travel from the mind of individual ‘A' to that of individual ‘B' at a far distance point and helps to understand a number of unsolved puzzles in psychology.In particular, Grof feels the holographic paradigm offers a model for understanding many of the baffling phenomena experienced by individuals during altered states of consciousness. TYPES OF VR SYSTEMS 37. This section describes some of the common modes used in VR systems. a. Window on World Systems (WoW) Some systems use a conventional computer monitor to display the visual world. This sometimes called Desktop VR or a Window on a World (WoW). This concept traces its lineage back through the entire history of computer graphics.In 1965, Ivan Sutherland laid out a research program for computer graphics in a paper called â€Å"The Ultimate Display† that has driven the field for the past nearly thirty years. â€Å"One must look at a display screen,† he said, â€Å"as a window through which one beholds a virtual world. The challenge to computer graphics i s to make the picture in the window look real, sound real and the objects act real. † b. Video Mapping A variation of the WoW approach merges a video input of the user's silhouette with a 2D computer graphic. The user watches a monitor that shows his body's interaction with the world.Myron Kruger has been a champion of this form of VR since the late 60's. He has published two books on the subject: â€Å"Artificial Reality† and â€Å"Artificial Reality II†. At least one commercial system uses this approach, the Mandala system. This system is based on a Commodore Amiga with some added hardware and software. A version of the Mandala is used by the cable TV channel Nickelodeon for a game show (Nick Arcade) to put the contestants into what appears to be a large video game. c. Immersive Systems The ultimate VR systems completely immerse the user's personal viewpoint inside the virtual world.These â€Å"immersive† VR systems are often equipped with a Head Mounted Display (HMD). This is a helmet or a face mask that holds the visual and auditory displays. The helmet may be free ranging, tethered, or it might be attached to some sort of a boom armature. A nice variation of the immersive systems use multiple large projection displays to create a ‘Cave' or room in which the viewer(s) stand. An early implementation was called â€Å"The Closet Cathedral† for the ability to create the impression of an immense environment. within a small physical space.The Holodeck used in the television series â€Å"Star Trek: The Next Generation† is afar term extrapolation of this technology. d. Telepresence Telepresence is a variation on visualizing complete computer generated worlds. This a technology links remote sensors in the real world with the senses of a human operator. The remote sensors might be located on a robot, or they might be on the ends of WALDO like tools. Fire fighters use remotely operated vehicles to handle some dangerous c onditions. Surgeons are using very small instruments on cables to do surgery without cutting a major hole in their patients.The instruments have a small video camera at the business end. Robots equipped with telepresence systems have already changed the way deep sea and volcanic exploration is done. NASA plans to use telerobotics for space exploration. There is currently a joint US/Russian project researching telepresence for space rover exploration. e. Mixed Reality Merging the Telepresence and Virtual Reality systems gives the Mixed Reality or Seamless Simulation systems. Here the computer generated inputs are merged with telepresence inputs and/or the users view of the real world.A surgeon's view of a brain surgery is overlaid with images from earlier CAT scans and real-time ultrasound. A fighter pilot sees computer generated maps and data displays inside his fancy helmet visor or on cockpit displays. The phrase â€Å"fish tank virtual reality† was used to describe a Canad ian VR system reported in the 1993 InterCHI proceedings. It combines a stereoscopic monitor display using liquid crystal shutter glasses with a mechanical head tracker. The resulting system is superior to simple stereo-WoW systems due to the motion parallax effects introduced by the head tracker. What Is Virtual World? 39.Virtual worlds are three dimensional environments in which you can interact with others and create objects as part of that interaction. How do you do that? You appear as an avatar in the virtual world: an avatar is a virtual representation of you (a ‘virtual ego’) which can take on any shape or form as you so wish. 40. There are a range of virtual worlds to choose from which include fantasy, sport, historical and science fiction. Some are loosely based upon the real world but others such as fantasy worlds are as the name says: they are completely disconnected from the real world which is also part of their attraction.With virtual worlds, men appear as women and vice versa. Some people choose an animal as their alter ego. Whatever you choose the aim is to socially interact with other people in new and exciting ways. This all adds to the experience. You can communicate with another person using text, sound, graphical images and gesture. Some of the more advanced worlds allow you to use voice or touch. FEW VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGIES THAT ACTUALLY WORK AT PRESENT 41. So far, virtual reality has mostly  been a colossal disappointment. But VR has had its share of breakthroughs and innovative applications.Here are few VR technologies that work and that may yet point the way to truly successful virtual reality. a. Anxiety Therapy For years now, virtual environments have been used to  treat anxiety problems  with exposure therapy. Psychologists treat phobias and post traumatic stress disorder by exposing the patient to the thing that causes them anxiety and letting the anxiety dissipate on its own. But this proves difficult if you r stressor is a battlefield in Iraq. Enter virtual reality. Military psychologists use simulated Iraq war situations to treat soldiers.Other therapeutic VR uses include treating a fear of flying, fear of elevators, and even a â€Å"virtual nicotine craving† simulator for smoking addiction. b. VR Training Programs Virtual reality environments have also been used for training simulators. The earliest examples were flight simulators but VR training has expanded beyond just that. There are many modern military examples, including Iraqi cultural situations and battlefield simulators for soldiers. Other examples include counter-terrorism, para-trooping, welding, and mining training simulators. c.Multiplayer Online Gaming One result of virtual-reality research is the existence of entirely separate virtual worlds, inhabited entirely by the avatars of real world users. These worlds are sometimes referred to as massively multiplayer online games, and the  World of Warcraft  is the largest virtual gaming world in use now, with 11. 5 million subscribers. Another example is  Second Life. The world of Second Life can't really be classified as a game, since the goal seems really just to be to wander around and interact with people, much like the real world.There is even a  Second Life Shakespeare Company  that performs Shakespeare's works within Second Life. d. The Nintendo Wii Probably the most successful cousin of virtual reality on the market today is the Nintento Wii. The Wii owes its motion capture and intuitive interaction concepts to the virtual reality technologies of the past. The controller is basically a simplified version of the â€Å"virtual reality glove. † Both the Wiimote and the Wii Fit offer users another way of interacting with their virtual environment without having to wear any bulky equipment. e. Medical ProceduresModern medicine has also found many uses for virtual reality. Doctors can interact with virtual systems to practice p rocedures or to do tiny surgical procedures on a larger scale. Surgeons have also started using virtual â€Å"twins† of their patients, to practice for surgery before doing the actual procedure. f. Project Natal The latest entry in the virtual reality inspired gaming world is  Project Natal, a new piece of technology under development now for the Xbox. Project Natal proposes a new way of interacting with games, and indeed with computer systems in general.In their demo video, they propose a system that requires no keyboard and no controller, where a user's voice and motions serve as their method for interacting with the system. The demo video is impressive, but the technology has not been completed and released yet. When it does get released, however, virtual reality will take another giant step towards total immersion and common home usage. g. The Cave The term â€Å"CAVE† refers to any virtual reality system that uses multiple walls with multiple projectors to immer se users in a virtual world. The first CAVE was built in 1992 as a method of showing of scientific visualizations.Now, many universities have their own CAVE systems. The CAVE is used for visualizing data, for demonstrating 3D environments, and for virtually testing component parts of newly developed engineering projects. THE EXTREME FUTURE OF VIRTUAL REALITY 42. When it comes right down to it, having a physical body in a reality constrained by the limitations of the physical laws has many drawbacks. Our bodies are extremely fragile and can be damaged or killed in an instant if we are not careful, or are just plain unlucky. If anything goes wrong with a critical body part, the entire body could die.Our physical bodies are also deteriorated by aging. Either way, for now, if your body dies, your brain dies right along with it. Every human brain contains an immense wealth of information, memories, experiences and relationships. Every time a human brain dies, that incredible, unique weal th of knowledge dies with it, and is forever lost. The world is a dangerous place to inhabit in a fragile human body, and there are a lot of other problems that come with having a physical presence in a physical world. Using the bathroom, body odor, difficulty traveling, limitation of possibilities, just to name a few.Up to this point, we have had no alternative to life, besides death. Due to nanotechnology, there may come a time when people will actually have a choice between life in the â€Å"real world,† an existence inside a computer generated simulation, or death. Vertebrane – Enter The Matrix 43. â€Å"Vertebrane† is the term for a speculative brain-computer interface technology first proposed by Marshall Brain in the bookManna. The technology consists of a computer system packaged as a replacement for one of the upper cervical vertebra in the human spine. The Vertebrane system taps into all sensory and motor nerve bundles flowing to and from the brain.Ver tebrane allows for augmented reality or a complete disconnection of the brain from the biological body and subsequent electronic reconnection to a virtual body typically inhabiting a virtual world. It would be the â€Å"ultimate videogame controller. † 44. Everything you enjoy about the real world and your real body it will be possible to duplicate exactly in the virtual environment. It will also be possible to improve everything you enjoy, and make virtually (pun intended) anything that was once impossible, possible for you. 45. The Vertebrane system itself would consist of a diminutive, yet extremely powerful nanocomputer.Power would come from a small onboard fuel cell that uses blood glucose to generate electricity. The system would be installed by a robotic surgeon which would sever the spinal cord and reroute it into the Vertebrane. All sensory nerve pathways (optic, auditory etc. ) would be tapped into the system. In pass-through mode, the Vertebrane would act as if it was not there, and you would be able to function completely normally. In â€Å"game† mode, the vertebrane would disconnect your brain from your body and reconnect it to your virtual avatar. The Day You Discard Your Body: 46. Given the choice of being in your real body vs. our avatar, you will choose your avatar every time. Therefore, your biological body will become redundant and irrelevant. It will become possible to discard your body and have only your brain housed in a Brain Storage Facility, connected to a vertebrane-type computer. Here, along with thousands of other brains, your brain will be encased in a protective, liquid-filled life-support system chamber. This will eliminate all of the risks that come along with having a body. It will also greatly increase longevity by keeping the environmental conditions perpetually at ideal levels, and removing almost all risk factors of your previous life.Brain Storage Facilities will be maximum security, reinforced buildings, imp ervious to earthquakes, hurricanes, bombs, etc. Electronic Transcendence 47. Incredibly, it is possible to envision something even more radical than disembodied human brains connected to a simulated reality. The ultimate in virtual reality involves discarding not only your physical body, but also your physical brain. â€Å"Mind uploading,† â€Å"whole brain emulation,† or â€Å"mind transfer† is the theoretical process of transferring the essence of a biological brain into a computer system. There are several proposed techniques by which mind uploading could be achieved.Many mainstream research funders are not convinced of its feasibility; however some scientists do believe that this hypothetical and futuristic technology will one day become reality, so to speak. 48. Once uploaded, a mind would achieve immortality, existing as pure information, disassociated from the biological body and brain. The upload would be considered a form of artificial intelligence, som etimes referred to as an â€Å"infomorph† or â€Å"noomorph. † A digital mind could theoretically be backed up, copied, or restarted at various set points, raising interesting questions regarding individuality and identity. CONCLUSIONS If A Picture is worth a 1,000 words – How much is a Holographic Image worth these days? † 49. Holographic and Virtual Reality Technology has endless applications, as far as the human mind can imagine. These technologies are indeed available and getting more robust in abilities each year. Holographic and Virtual Reality Technologies are not just about art or business communication, they are about safety, security, education, planning and the strength of our civilization here and beyond. 50. From entertainment to data visualization we can see a bright future for Holographic Projection and the bending and manipulation of light.Those areas of society which most often bring about research and development funding in technology are present amongst the many potential applications for this science. It therefore stands to reason and makes common sense that Holographic Technologies and Spectral Imaging will become a very integral part of human societies and civilizations in the future. I am certain of that. The day people show there advertisements on clouds are very near. One fine day my son may ask from me (â€Å"ThaTha†) are you real or virtual.

European Cultural Adoption of the Cherokee Indians Essay

European Cultural Adoption of the Cherokee Indians - Essay Example One of the most talked about and studied groups of Native Americans are the Cherokee Indians, a group of native occupants of the American continent. Historians believe that the Cherokee Indians occupied the southeast part of America ling before the forces of civilization and the American colonization took center stage. â€Å"Cherokee lands covered parts of Tennessee, North Carolina, south Carolina, Virginia, west Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas.† The tribe was one of the strongest tribes in the American continent and had significant influence during the 14th and 15th century. They existed in smaller groups and sub-tribes ruled by chiefs and kings and other religious leaders who had significant influence on this group of people. â€Å"The various Cherokee villages formed a confederacy. There were two chiefs per village a red (or war) chief and a white chief (most beloved man or woman) who was associated with civil, economic, religious, and judicial functions . Chiefs would be male or female and there was little or no hereditary component† The history of the Cherokee Indians is highly complex and is characterized by episodes of resistance, war conflicts and revolutions that rocked the American continent. Thirteen colonies of North America decided to break from British rule. To register their displeasure towards the new occupants of the American continent who were now fighting against the British, the Indian Cherokees fought from the British side against the Americans. â€Å"Cherokee support towards the British during the American Revolutionary war (1755-1783 brought retaliatory attacks from southern states militia†5 During this time and prior times, the interaction of the Indian Cherokees with the British and other foreign occupants of the country flourished; the tribe experienced a major tribal revolution that resulted into adoption of new cultural and significant cultural assimilation and integration. â€Å"After the Amer ican Revolution, the Cherokee adapted British style farming, cattle ranching, business relation, and government becoming cohesive and prosperous†6 In the paper, the cultural assimilation and adoption that occurred during the 17th and 18th century among the Cherokee Indians will be highlighted. It will thus seek to provide a description of the events that characterized the cultural changes and integration during this period. The adoption of foreign and new cultures significantly affected the lifestyle of the Cherokee Americans that resulted into assimilation and the loss of the prior cultural identity that the tribe enjoyed. The first documented history of the contact between the Cherokee Indians and the Europeans was around 1540. â€Å"The Cherokee encountered Hernando De Soto around 1540, probably not long before they arrived in their historic homeland†¦

Share Trading Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Share Trading Assignment - Essay Example For the theoretical analysis, the LSE provided all the performance charts for all the companies highlighted and presented in this paper. For the fundamental analysis, the LSE provided all the data in terms of income statements, profit and loss accounts, as well as balance sheets for all the companies stated and highlighted in this paper. A common trend in the investment market in the UK has shown that the trading of securities has been increasing in recent years. The London stock market (LSM) has been in existence for the last 300 years. Many people believe that the LSM holds the ideology where the rich get richer by owning percentages of firms in the financial market. However, due to the introduction of pro trading skills, the LSE has changed its identity allowing an open avenue for any suitable investor to play a vital role in the investment and financial market. The mechanisms of trading in the stock market have been complicated for these investors, a phenomenon that has increased the risks of investment. However, the study of the theoretical and fundamental analysis makes the comprehension of the securities trading mechanism easier to absorb. In this paper, these two phenomena have been identified and explained comprehensively and a comparison analysis has been made to further explain how trades can be made in the London stock market. A case study has also been outlined to determine the two analyses by using 100,000 pounds in the UK local trading floor. A stock is a portion in the proprietorship of a company. Stocks characterize a privilege on the companys properties and earnings. As an individual acquires more stock, their proprietorship stake in the establishment becomes larger. It should be taken to account that the terms stock shares or equity represent the same thing. Most stocks are transacted on exchanges, which are dwellings where customers and vendors set and decide on a price. During the previous few years, the typical persons concern in the

You will be analyzing the lateral pass in rugby and the spike in Lab Report

You will be analyzing the lateral pass in rugby and the spike in volleyball - Lab Report Example The environment does not, therefore, affect the skills and movements are based on a set of patterns. In addition, the performer is conversant with what exactly he or she is doing and when. On the other hand, spiking in volleyball is based on an open skill classification. This is because when the environment changes constantly during the game, one has to continually adapt the movements. Skills such as a lateral pass in rugby are externally paced and predominantly perceptual. On the other hand, closed skills take place in a predictable as well as a stable environment (Payton 36). The overall performance objective is the ultimate goal that must be achieved with any kind of sports by the respective players. The Overall Performance objective for a lateral pass in Rugby is an accurate projection with speed, while that of spike in volleyball is a projection with accuracy (Ashby and Heegaard 289). a) To describe body segment motions in the rugby lateral pass, there is a lever action in the elbow and a wheel-axle movement on the shoulder. On the other hand, the spike in volleyball, there are 2 wheel-axle movements, in the shoulder and in the wrist, while a lever motion takes place on the elbow (Payton 76). b) In rugby lateral pass the sequence is transverse flexion at the shoulder, elbow extension, and wrist extension. The starting position is when the player is holding on to the ball and has squared his shoulders towards his ankles. On the other hand, the Volleyball spike-analysis of body segment movements is complex. These movements involve the take off phase as well as coordination aspects during flight phase. The most commonly preferred spike position is position four against diagonal spikes. The flight angle of the ball is also considered while the jump height is essential for the success in volleyball spikes. In addition, body segments contribute in a sequential manner from proximal towards distal in order to increase the

Annotated Bibliography of 5 different online sources

Of 5 different online sources - Annotated Bibliography Example In this article, Cary reflects back in history when the legal drinking age was 18. With regular patrols by the university police, students drank responsibly. Being among the 7 minority countries with a high legal drinking age of 21, task forces aimed at solving the problems of alcohol and drug abuse in colleges would not bear fruit; lowering the drinking age would. The writer concludes with remarks of preference of seeing her child drink in a well-patrolled environment than letting the child drink in secret ending up binge drinking and drug-overdosing among other vices. Supported by evidence from research conducted for over twenty years, Engs in this article argues for the lowering of the legal drinking age to 18. Engs attributes the irresponsible drinking among many of the college students to the perception of drinking as â€Å"adulthood† and â€Å"rebellion against authority.† Similar prohibition laws failed twice in the 1920s and 1850s, hence no need to go back to them again. Citing the examples of Greeks, Italians, Chinese and Jews, the drinking age should be lowered, accompanied by appropriate education, so as to quash the notion of alcohol as poison and promote responsible drinking behaviors across all age groups. In support of lowering the legal drinking age, Griggs reports on the argument by Professor Dwight B. Health of Brown University that the younger the people start drinking, the safer they become, citing cultural models of countries like Italy and France. Through this, parents get to educate their children on alcohol and deter children from irresponsible drinking behaviors. According to Griggs, Professor Heath argues that the â€Å"’forbidden fruit’ syndrome† promotes irresponsible drinking with the drinking age banned to 21. Therefore, the US should opt out of the minority countries with higher drinking age and join the majority who have the drinking age as low as 16 and promote

Individual assinment of leveraging information technology for business Essay

Individual assinment of leveraging information technology for business advantage - Essay Example Less time is wasted with e-tickets for both consumers and producers. E-tickets save many ticket-issuing steps and thus the process speed is faster for every passenger. Airlines not only save paper ticket costs but also operating costs. Travel agents also save time by skipping the process of printing paper tickets for the consumers. Consumers, on the other hand, spend less time waiting in line for check-ins. One only needs to provide a photo ID at the airport to get the boarding pass directly, without any busy paper work. Alternatively, and more efficiently, one can simply do advance check in online at home and print the boarding pass on the day of travel. For business people on tight schedules, this would be extremely convenient. They would no longer have to worry about having not enough time to wait in long lines to do check-in. Also, with unusual yet unpreventable circumstances such as airline strikes, airlines and travellers are better off with interlining e-tickets: no more delay ed flights or significant loss of profit during strikes (e-ticketing n.d para 2). It also does away with the fear of one’s ticket being lost or stolen. Like paper ticketing, e-ticketing is a way of documenting a sale, both for the passenger and for the airline. But rather than paper, the e-ticket uses a database to track the sale and use of tickets – and the database is stored and updated by the validating airline. All subsequent ticket transactions – including refunds, exchanges, check-in, void and settlement – involve this holding database. Those airlines not adapting to e-ticketing by the end of 2007 risk a number of serious disadvantages. They will not be able to sell through key third-party e-commerce providers (such as Expedia and Travelocity), they will be at a competitive disadvantage as a result of the continued high costs associated with paper tickets and settlement, and they will be more exposed to paper ticket fraud (The Smart Route to

Organizational Innovation and Change - Critical Thinking Mod 4 Essay - 1

Organizational Innovation and Change - Critical Thinking Mod 4 - Essay Example Such concerns and reservations on the part of the employees must be resolved at the earliest as this is a grave issue which has cropped up at Perrier. One should believe that the key elements behind this resistance to change include the unionization of the employees. It does not sit well with Perrier and needs to be done away with at the earliest. It creates hurdle of sorts for Perrier which is simply an unacceptable proposition. Whether or not Nestle aims to join hands with Perrier, it should not be a concern of the employees who are working under the realms of the union (Trott, 2008). They are after all the loyal employees of Perrier and any lingering thoughts to be more dedicated towards the union itself are a step in the dark for them. Hence all-out consideration needs to be paid towards the unionized philosophy which is creating hurdles for Perrier. In fact, Perrier is self-reliant in its understanding as to how it must go ahead and form significant touch points with Nestle, which is essentially the world’s largest food company. Another key element why the employees are resisting changing is due to the fact that they w ould have to face more stringent policies that Nestle shall bring with it. It would mean that the employees would find it hard to live up to the expectations of Nestle, which is indeed a much sought after name (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2007). Perrier, on the other hand would not impose similar issues for the employees and the joyride would sustain even in the future as it is being carried out at the present. A change management strategy for Perrier would be devised keeping in mind the adherence of employees towards the unions and how they are actually resisting to the philosophy of change in essence. This is a grave aspect that needs much consideration on the part of the employees, without which there would be

The Visions And Intensions Of Karl Marx Essay Example for Free

The Visions And Intensions Of Karl Marx Essay From the content of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, it is seen that Marx and Engels are not talking of any freedom but freedom from exploitation, freedom from class oppression, and freedom from class conflicts. In this sense, society cannot be considered free until it replaced capitalist exploitation with the free collaboration of all members of society. Freedom as deliverance of the worker from capitalist exploitation, is only one, though the most important aspect of his freedom. It cannot be restricted by negative characteristics, as in â€Å"freedom from something†. Freedom makes sense only when man is free not due to negative forces, to deliver him from something or the other, but due to positive forces, to show his real individuality (Hart, 1982). For Marx, freedoms like freedom of religion and the freedom to own property are hollow freedoms. In the manifesto, Marx wrote, â€Å"But dont wrangle with us so long as you apply, to our intended abolition of bourgeois property, the standard of your bourgeois notions of freedom, culture, law, etc. Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class made into a law for all, a will, whose essential character and direction are determined by the economical conditions of existence of your class.† Thus, only in a classless society would a human individual truly gain freedom. Karl Marx and Maximilian Weber are two of the founders of Modern Sociology. Marx and Weber were influential figures during their time, as both were active and visible in German politics. Their words hold a power in them that denotes authority and conviction thus becoming an inspiration or a threat to those who hear and read, yet were also widely criticized and disputed. These two however, as many people believe, share opposing views in many issues, particularly with regards to the controversial debate of capitalism and socialism. Yet they also share commonalities.Karl Marx is popularly known for his works that gave rise to the concept of communism. Marx is in fact trained in the field of philosophy but eventually veered towards economics and politics. Hence for many scholars then and now, he was more of a revolutionary communist than a philosopher. For Marx nevertheless, â€Å"the philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it,† this he wrote in his Theses on Feuerbach (Wolff, 2003). His most popular work was the Communist Manifesto (1848), which he co-authored with his lifelong friend, Friedrich Engels. Yet according to many academicians, even if the Manifesto is the most famous of Marx’ works, it is not the best material to use to analyze his sentiments and belief. In fact many deem the Economic and Political Manuscripts of 1844 as the heart of Marx’s analysis particularly in relation to economics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Prior to communism, what paved the way to the development of communistic ideas was the theory of Historical Materialism. This is Marx’s version of history, where forms of societies experience a constant rise and fall because that society had grown to inhibit human productive power. During his time, capitalism was the dominant society, thus, capitalism impedes human productivity. What follows the decrease in productivity is a revolution or epoch change because the former society can no longer serve the needs of man. Marx believes that the historical process or the progression or human societies undergoes a series of changes in the mode of production but will eventually culminate to communism; communism will replace capitalism giving rise to a â€Å"society in which each person should contribute according to their ability and receive such according to their need† (Wolff 2003).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Marx’s postulates, though some were regarded as unempirical, were nonetheless necessary, as he was able to discuss economics using â€Å"material bases† rather than relying on philosophical abstractions and dialectics (Kemerling, 2002). Most importantly, his works were viewed as the inspiration for the victory of the Bolsheviks several decades later in the October Revolution. His most notable and recognized ideas is that the Proletariats, Bolsheviks for the Russians, are not given their fair share during the production of commodities, thus there is no harmonious relationship between the capitalist profit earner and the working man and neither will there be an equilibrium in the capitalist market (Weber, 2006). Karl Marx believes that revolution is inevitable. Nations will aspire for a society that fosters equality and progress for everyone and not just the ruling class. This emerges from an uprising from the proletariat as they continue to feel antagonism from the bourgeoisie. Modern day societies, according to Marx, are basically divided into two major classes: the bourgeoisie, or the capitalist, ruling class, and the proletariat, or the working class. With this class distinction, material wealth of a nation is totally controlled by the capitalists, while the working class only depends on salary as they work for the continued wealthy existence of the bourgeoisie. Marx believes that ultimately, the working class will notice the inequalities in their society and will wish to bring about major changes that can only be possible through revolutionary means. (Kemerling). Marx acknowledges the differing ideas on socialism and communism, but eventually concludes that it is through revolution that true communist ideals can be met. Believers in socialist and communist systems assert that antagonism persists as industrial development continues. Since the economic condition does not provide for the emancipation of the proletariat, â€Å"they therefore search after a new social science, after new social laws, that are to create these conditions† (Marx 110). Central to Marx’ concept is class distinction, which has been present throughout the course of history. The modern capitalistic society is itself a product of the feudal society, but has brought about new forms of oppression. Capitalism evolved from feudal concepts and continues to evolve in order to sustain itself – incessantly changing the means of production and exchange. The bourgeoisie has made itself the center of every society in the world as it compelled all nations to follow its model of society – a society that has enormously increased urban population so as to take them away from the simple rural life (Marx 64-64). It has also promoted a mode of production, which it presents to be based on freedom, i.e., free trade and globalization. In the process, the bourgeoisie has given power and wealth to only a few people, that is, the ruling class. On the other hand, the proletariat becomes mere commodities as capitalists continue to look for cheaper labor, and the workers, since they are selling themselves for labor and are competing with other workers for daily sustenance, turn out with lower wages in the end. In the long run, labor becomes more burdensome to the workers even as the wages go down. The economic situation of the working class, as they will eventually discover, is due primarily to the system of production, the system that the capitalists themselves have developed for their own welfare. Marx also notes that even the small shopowners, tradespeople, and handicraftsmen, unable to compete on equal footing against the larger capitalist groups, become part of the proletariat, although they are more conservative, considering only their future interests (70-71). The working class is the revolutionary class that is bound to face the bourgeoisie, starting with small groups until it forms into a national group that will take power from bourgeoisie to centralize all instruments of production. Communists envision a classless society and promote the common interests of the proletariat, and support the overthrow of the capitalists so that the working class will gain power. Marx believes that the communists are the most advanced of all sectors of the working class, as they work towards the abolition of private property, which has been the basis for antagonism of the working class (80-81). Marx predicts that the capitalist society will eventually evolve, leading to its demise as the proletarians resist the system and fight for the emancipation of the working class.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   REFERENCES Hart, M. (1982) The Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, Galahad Books, New York City. Kemerling, G. (2002, August 7). Karl Marx. Retrieved Jan. 25, 2007 at:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/marx/htm Marx, K. and   Engels, F.   The Communist Manifesto. New York: Simon and Schuster Inc., 1964. Weber, M. (2006, July 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved Jan. 25, 2007 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   index.php?title=Max_Weberoldid=66750368 Wolff, J. (2003, August 26). Karl Marx. Retrieved Jan. 25, 2007 at:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/

Ang Katay Essay Example for Free

Ang Katay Essay Riting a biography is hard work. Whether its analyzing the mindset of philosophers who died many millennia ago, or encapsulating the lasting impact of the life of an American president, its always a great challenge. Fortunately, youre not alone on your quest to write an A essay. Couselling on Smoking Cessation Therapeutics II: Counselling on Smoking Cessation Nancy Unsworth March 18, 2011 Counselling on Smoking Cessation For the purpose of this assignment, this client will Premium 4130 Words 17 Pages Jack London Jack London Jack London is one of the most famous American writers. He wrote many great books over his short lifetime. Many of his stories are about animals and nature Premium 2680 Words 11 Pages Mary Shelley: Life of Literature I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on (SparkNote on Frankenstein). This famous quote said by Frankenstein, in Premium 1429 Words 6 Pages Chief Lieutenant of the Tuskegee Machine Gaitor, Bridget Word Count: 1,859 The Chief Lieutenant of the Tuskegee Machine by David H. Jackson Jr. exemplifies the life of Charles Banks as Booker T. Washingtons Premium 1881 Words 8 Pages John Steinbecks Greatest Accomplishments John Steinbeck, born in 1902 in Salinas California to John Ernst and Olive Hamilton Steinbeck, became one of the greatest American writers of his century. Growing up Premium 973 Words 4 Pages The Consumer Appeal of Underdog Branding.Docx

Glucose Transporter 4 (GLUT4) and Diabetes

Glucose Transporter 4 (GLUT4) and Diabetes Insulin and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signal pathways are known to be involved in glucose uptake regulation, but the integration of signals between these two pathways in maintaining glucose homeostasis remains mysterious (1). Insulin stimulates glucose uptake into skeletal muscle mainly via the translocation of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) to the plasma membrane (2). Also the exact mechanism involved is not yet fully understood, however, in insulin-induced glucose transport cascade it seems that insulin activates specific protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms (2). In Liu L. Z. et al work, stimulation of insulin conferred a glucose uptake or translocation of surface glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4).Using specific inhibitors to key kinases of both pathways and PKCzeta small interference RNA, it was found that protein kinase C zeta (PKCzeta) regulate insulin-stimulated protein kinase B (PKB) activation and inhibit AMPK activity on dorsal cell surface, whereas in the presence of berberine, PKCzeta controlled AMPK activation and AMPK blocked PKB activity in perinuclear region. The inhibitory effect exerted by PKCzeta on AMPK activation or the arrestment of PKB activity by AMPK still existed in basal condition. Overall, these results are suggestive for an antagonistic regulation between insulin and AMPK signal pathways, which is mediated by the switch roles of PKCzeta. The protein kinase Akt is associated with different cellular processes, including cell proliferation, growth, metabolism and importantly, insulin-regulated transport of glucose into muscle and fat cells. Activation of Akt involves binding of an extracellular ligand to its cognate tyrosine kinase receptor, which lead to activation of PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase) and generation of PtdIns(3,4,5)P3. This in turn enables the translocation of Akt to the plasma membrane where it is phosphorylated at Thr308 and Ser473 by PDK1 (phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1) and the mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin)/rictor (rapamycin-insensitive companion of mTOR) complex respectively. Once activated, Akt phosphorylates a range of substrates that regulate a variety of key biological processes (3). There are several Akt isoforms, Akt1 function is mainly related to growth and proliferation. On the other hand, Akt2 is more involved in metabolism, and loss-of function mutations in Akt2 have been link ed to Type 2 diabetes (3). Akt has been involved in the insulin-induced expression of GLUT1 in hepatoma cells and GLUT3 in skeletal muscle (4). Insulin-regulated transport of glucose into muscle and fat cells is thought to be mediated by Akt-dependent movement of GLUT4 glucose transporters to the plasma membrane (3). It was found after Tan S. X. study that non-ATP-competitive allosteric Akt inhibitors in 3T3-L1 adipocytes caused a decrease in the Akt signaling pathway simultaneously with reduced glucose uptake, notwithstanding, no such reduction in GLUT4 translocation to the plasma membrane was seen. This is explained by the fact that minimal amount of Akt phosphorylation is prerequisite for robust GLUT4 translocation, thus a marked reduction in Akt phosphorylation may not necessarily translate into a similar reduction in GLUT4 translocation to the plasma membrane (3, 5). Additional investigation revealed that the inhibitory effects on glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes of these compounds were independent of the Akt signaling pathway. Moreover, inhibition of glucose transport was also noticed in other cell types such as hum an erythrocytes that are rich in GLUT1 and T-47D breast cancer cells, proposing that these effects are not specific to GLUT4, and that the Akt inhibitors affect glucose uptake in different cell types (3). Alternatively, the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signal transduction pathway is a well-known mediator of cell growth, proliferation, and survival signals. Riley J. K. et al studied the Inhibition of the PI3K pathway, and results indicated that inhibition of this pathway cause an induction of apoptosis in both murine blastocysts and trophoblast stem cells. Moreover, the apoptosis induced correlates with a decrease in the expression of the glucose transporter GLUT1 at the plasma membrane (6). Additionally, blastocysts cultured in the presence of the PI3K inhibitor LY-294002 exhibited a reduction in 2-deoxyglucose uptake and hexokinase activity. In rat primary brown adipocytes, insulin acutely stimulated glucose uptake in a PI3-kinase-dependent but p70S6-kinase-independent manner, and Akt represents an intermediate step between these kinases. Therefore, the goal of Hernandez R. et al study was to investigate the contribution of Akt to insulin-induced glucose uptake in brown adipocytes using ML-9, a recently proposed chemical inhibitor of Akt activity (7) and by using Akt protein with dominant-negative activity to block (4). ML-9 treatment of primary brown adipocytes showed a complete inhibition of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and also impaired GLUT4 redistribution from internal membrane to plasma membrane in response to insulin. It was found that ML-9 inhibited Akt activity and Akt phosphorylation at Ser473. Furthermore, results showed that long-term treatment with ML-9 produced down-regulation of the GLUT4 mRNA accumulation, inactivation of Akt, and possibly its translocation to the nucleus (8). Co-transfection with à Ã‚ ªAkt prevented insulin stimulation of GLUT4 promoter activity, suggesting that PI3-kinase/Akt pathway is regulating GLUT4 gene transcription by insulin (4). It is well known that phosphatidylinositol (PI)3-kinase activation mediates GLUT4 redistribution to the plasma membrane, and overexpression of the catalytic subunit of p110 produced GLUT4 translocation and increased glucose uptake (9). Alternatively, inhibition of PI3-kinase (by chemical inhibitors or by microinjection of blocking p85 protein, or by transfection with a dominant-negative mutant of p85) prohibits insulin-induced GLUT4 translocation (10). Two classes of Ser/Thr kinases have been suggested to act downstream of PI3-kinase, and they are Akt/PKB and the atypical protein kinase (PK) C isoforms ÃŽ ¶ and ÃŽ » (PKC ÃŽ ¶/ÃŽ »). It well established that expression of a constitutively active, membrane-bound form of Akt cause a persistent localization of GLUT4 at the plasma membrane and increased glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, yet, it did not promote GLUT4 translocation or glucose transport in L6 myotube(4, 11). Despite the fact proved by in vivo studies that GLUT4 expression in insulin-responsive tissues is under insulin and/or metabolic control (12), experiments performed with cultured fat cells had failed to establish a stimulatory role of insulin in GLUT4 expression (13), and the positive effect of insulin seen on GLUT4 gene expression had only been noticed in the presence of dexamethasone (14). Nevertheless, rat cardiomyocytes showed a direct effect of insulin on GLUT4 transcription (15). Different studies have validated that insulin-stimulated glucose uptake is separated from GLUT4 translocation based on using phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor; wortmannin .Therefore, it can be concluded that GLUT4 translocation and the intrinsic activity of GLUT4 are differentially regulated. Insulin is known to activate p38MAPK, and using SB203580; p38MAPKÃŽ ± and p38MAPKÃŽ ² inhibitors reduce insulin- stimulated glucose uptake without affecting GLUT4 translocation. p38MAPKs are serine/threonine kinases that are activated by several factors such as environmental stressors, inflammatory cytokines, protein synthesis inhibitors, growth factors like insulin and muscle contraction. It has four isoforms; p38ÃŽ ± and p38ÃŽ ² that are ubiquitously expressed, p38ÃŽ ³ that is highly expressed in skeletal muscle and p38ÃŽ ´ in the lung and kidney (16). Full activation of p38MAPK necessitates dual phosphorylation on residues corresponding to threonine-180 and tyrosine-182 on p38ÃŽ ± catalyzed by dual-specificity MAPK kinases 3 and 6 (MKK3 and 6). p38MAPK inhibitors like pyridinyl imidazole derivatives (SB203580 and SB202190) or azaazulene pharmacophores (A291077 and A304000) have the potential to inhibit insulin-mediated glucose uptake without producing any effect on GLUT4 translocation. As a conclusion, insulin increases the intrinsic activity of GLUT4 via p38MAPK (16). Antonescu, C. N. et al aimed to determine whether p38MAPK is required for insulin- stimulated glucose uptake in L6-GLUT4myc myotubes using a mutant of p38ÃŽ ± (DR-p38ÃŽ ±) resistant to SB203580, dominant-inhibitory mutants of p38ÃŽ ± and p38ÃŽ ² and siRNA against p38ÃŽ ± and p38ÃŽ ². The results obtained by these independent molecular methods to interfere with p38MAPK signaling did not interfere with stimulated glucose uptake. Nonetheless, SB220025 was found to inhibit p38MAPK as strongly as SB203580, but again, had no effect on insulin stimulated glucose uptake. So, collectively, it can anticipated that p38MAPK is not involved in insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and that the SB203580-mediated reduction in glucose uptake is a result of SB203580 action on another protein (16). References 1. Liu LZ, Cheung SC, Lan LL, Ho SK, Chan JC, Tong PC. The pivotal role of protein kinase C zeta (PKCzeta) in insulin- and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-mediated glucose uptake in muscle cells. Cellular signalling. 2010;22(10):1513-22. Epub 2010/06/24. 2. Braiman L, Alt A, Kuroki T, Ohba M, Bak A, Tennenbaum T, et al. Activation of protein kinase C zeta induces serine phosphorylation of VAMP2 in the GLUT4 compartment and increases glucose transport in skeletal muscle. Molecular and cellular biology. 2001;21(22):7852-61. Epub 2001/10/18. 3. Tan SX, Ng Y, James DE. Akt inhibitors reduce glucose uptake independently of their effects on Akt. The Biochemical journal. 2010;432(1):191-7. Epub 2010/09/08. 4. Hernandez R, Teruel T, Lorenzo M. Akt mediates insulin induction of glucose uptake and up-regulation of GLUT4 gene expression in brown adipocytes. FEBS letters. 2001;494(3):225-31. Epub 2001/04/20. 5. Ng Y, Ramm G, Burchfield JG, Coster AC, Stockli J, James DE. Cluster analysis of insulin action in adipocytes reveals a key role for Akt at the plasma membrane. The Journal of biological chemistry. 2010;285(4):2245-57. Epub 2009/11/10. 6. Riley JK, Carayannopoulos MO, Wyman AH, Chi M, Moley KH. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity is critical for glucose metabolism and embryo survival in murine blastocysts. The Journal of biological chemistry. 2006;281(9):6010-9. Epub 2005/11/08. 7. Smith U, Carvalho E, Mosialou E, Beguinot F, Formisano P, Rondinone C. PKB inhibition prevents the stimulatory effect of insulin on glucose transport and protein translocation but not the antilipolytic effect in rat adipocytes. Biochemical and biophysical research communications. 2000;268(2):315-20. Epub 2000/02/19. 8. Salinas M, Lopez-Valdaliso R, Martin D, Alvarez A, Cuadrado A. Inhibition of PKB/Akt1 by C2-ceramide involves activation of ceramide-activated protein phosphatase in PC12 cells. Molecular and cellular neurosciences. 2000;15(2):156-69. Epub 2000/02/16. 9. Martin SS, Haruta T, Morris AJ, Klippel A, Williams LT, Olefsky JM. Activated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase is sufficient to mediate actin rearrangement and GLUT4 translocation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. The Journal of biological chemistry. 1996;271(30):17605-8. Epub 1996/07/26. 10. Cheatham B, Vlahos CJ, Cheatham L, Wang L, Blenis J, Kahn CR. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activation is required for insulin stimulation of pp70 S6 kinase, DNA synthesis, and glucose transporter translocation. Molecular and cellular biology. 1994;14(7):4902-11. Epub 1994/07/01. 11. Kohn AD, Summers SA, Birnbaum MJ, Roth RA. Expression of a constitutively active Akt Ser/Thr kinase in 3T3-L1 adipocytes stimulates glucose uptake and glucose transporter 4 translocation. The Journal of biological chemistry. 1996;271(49):31372-8. Epub 1996/12/06. 12. Berger J, Biswas C, Vicario PP, Strout HV, Saperstein R, Pilch PF. Decreased expression of the insulin-responsive glucose transporter in diabetes and fasting. Nature. 1989;340(6228):70-2. Epub 1989/07/06. 13. Flores-Riveros JR, McLenithan JC, Ezaki O, Lane MD. Insulin down-regulates expression of the insulin-responsive glucose transporter (GLUT4) gene: effects on transcription and mRNA turnover. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 1993;90(2):512-6. Epub 1993/01/15. 14. Hajduch E, Hainault I, Meunier C, Jardel C, Hainque B, Guerre-Millo M, et al. Regulation of glucose transporters in cultured rat adipocytes: synergistic effect of insulin and dexamethasone on GLUT4 gene expression through promoter activation. Endocrinology. 1995;136(11):4782-9. Epub 1995/11/01. 15. Petersen S, Bahr M, Eckel J. Insulin-dependent regulation of Glut4 gene expression in ventricular cardiomyocytes: evidence for a direct effect on Glut4 transcription. Biochemical and biophysical research communications. 1995;213(2):533-40. Epub 1995/08/15. 16. Antonescu CN, Huang C, Niu W, Liu Z, Eyers PA, Heidenreich KA, et al. Reduction of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in L6 myotubes by the protein kinase inhibitor SB203580 is independent of p38MAPK activity. Endocrinology. 2005;146(9):3773-81. Epub 2005/06/11.

Quantitative Research Essay -- Scientific Research Science Essays

Quantitative Research Quantitative research is based on statements such as "anything that exists exists in a certain quantity and can be measured." "While Thorndike’s statement from 1904 appears to be fairly innocent and direct, it staked an important philosophical position that has persisted in social science research throughout most to this century." (Custer, 1996, p. 3). In 1927, William F. Ogburn successfully lobbied to have Lord Kelvin’s motto: "When you cannot measure, your knowledge is meager and unsatisfactory" prominently and permanently carved onto the face of the University of Chicago’s social science research building." In this decade, however, the competing paradigms of quantitative and qualitative research have become almost working partners in educational research. Many researchers today advocate a "paradigm of choices that seeks methodological appropriateness as the primary criterion for judging methodological quality. This will allow for situational responsiveness tha t strict adherence to one paradigm or another will not" (Patton, 1990, p. 30). The ideals of quantitative research call for procedures that are public, that use precise definitions, that use objectivity-seeking methods for data collection and analysis, that are replicable so that findings can be confirmed or disconfirmed, and that are systematic and cumulative—all resulting in knowledge useful for explaining, predicting, and controlling the effects of teaching on student outcomes (Gage, 1994, p. 372). This is the basic definition of quantitative research that will be discussed in this paper. For purposes of comparison, qualitative analysis will be frequently mentioned along with quantitative analysis. The Two Paradigms "A quantitativ... ...litative Research Methodologies." Journal of Industrial Teacher Education 34(2): 3-6. Gage, N. L. (1994). "The Scientific Status of Research on Teaching." Educational Researcher 44(4): 371-383. Hathaway, R. S. (1995). "Assumptions Underlying Quantitative and Qualitative Research: Implications for Institutional Research." Research in Higher Education 36(5): 535-562. Hoepfl, M. C. (1997). "Choosing Qualitative Research: A Primer for Technology Education Researchers." Journal of Technology 9(1): 12-39. Howe, K. R. (1985). "Two Dogmas of Educational Research." Educational Researcher 14(8): 10-18. Liebscher, P. (1998). "Quantity with Quality? Teaching Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in an LIS Master's Program." Library Trends 46(4): 668-680. Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. Newbury Park, CA, Sage Publications, Inc.

An Analysis of Joyce Carol Oates’ Where Are You Going, Where Have You

An Analysis of Joyce Carol Oates’ Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most productive writers of our time. Between 1971-95, Oates published twenty-five novels, eighteen short story compilations, three collections of novellas, five volumes of poetry, six editions of plays, eight books of essays, and countless more umcollected works (Kellman 487). As the format for her writing varies, so does her subject matter. Her creations cover a wide range of genres, but Oates' main fascination is contemporary America with its "colliding social and economic forces, its philosophical contradictions, its wayward, often violent energies" (Johnson 8). Oates' works, and somethimes even Oates herself, have been subject to responses ranging from extreme praise to harsh criticism from the literary community. Oates has won many significant literary awards and has even been nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in literature but has also received her share of bad press. Oates' work has time and time again been criticized for being too violent, to o bizarre, degrading to women, and "the exact antithesis to the feminist movement" (gtd. in Wesley par. 32). I believe the opposite is true. Oates herself has been quoted as saying that her subject matter is "today's culture," and that all she is trying to do is to bring the ills of our cuture "to a place where it can be examined" (Johnson 10). Some of her stories are purely fictional, but many stories seem to be ripped from the headlines. Zombie, a 1995 novel, is loosely based on the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings (Seltzer 288). The highly acclaimed short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" draws its inspiration from the case of an Arizona serial killer,... ...arterly Review 38 (1999): 487-495. Literature Online. 13 July 2002 . Oates, Joyce Carol. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Selected Early Stories. Princeton, NJ: Ontario Review Press, 1993. Seltzer, Mark. Serial Killers: Death and Life in America's Wound Culture. New York, NY: Routledge, 1998. Smooth Talk. Dir. Joyce Chopra. Perf. Treat Williams, Laura Dern, Mary Kay Place, Elizabeth Berridge, and Levon Helm. Vestron Video, 1986. Southner, Randy. "Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Homepage." 2002. University of San Francisco. 12 July 2002 . Wagner, Linda W. Critical Essays on Joyce Carol Oates. Boston, MA: G. K. Hall, 1979. Wesley, Marilyn C. "Reverence, Rape, Resistance: Joyce Carol Oates and Feminist Film Theory." Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 32.3 (1999): 75-85. Literature Online. 13 July 2002 .

Essay page

Have chosen the story called â€Å"Facing poverty with a rich girl's habits† by Suck Kim. She starts out with very descriptive details on how her and her family went from the white picket fence and maids to staying with people and not having much at all. Another point I believe she tried to make was that she didn't fit in very well, there were other Koreans in the school, even in the same class as her but they didn't have much in common. She had playmates but that didn't last very long she didn't speak English. Skim's purpose in writing his story was to mainly say how she lost everything in a blink of an eye and ended up over here in America.This story would be nonfiction, and I would say her audience would be the people who have been through the struggle, the ones who have been there in life. Skim's attitude comes off in the beginning as snotty, mad, an upset teenager, but when you've been through something dramatic like that you couldn't say you wouldn't feel angry. During t he middle, it seems like she learns to deal with it, and realizing its part of life but Xx far from easy, but towards the end it seems like she's more laid back ND humble about life.My outlook on this story is that it was very eye catching from the title â€Å"facing poverty with a rich girl's habits† to the very last word. It was very interesting to say the least. Knowing that unexpected things to happen in life, and that not only did she have to move but to have to learn a whole new language, a whole new culture ,and to leave everything behind that she once knew is really tough on an adult let alone a child. Eve been there many times. Overall I'd say this was one of the best stories I've read.

Beano Ice Cream

Amanda Dundee BEANO CASE QUESTIONS 1. Harris’s partnership proposal is not fair for Smith. He completely revised the original investment amount and loan deal that they had original discussed. He is asking to raise his share to 49%, which would pose many problems for Smith in the control of the company. Giving Harris that high of a stake in the franchise would be giving him a lot more money, and half of the control. Smith would be dependent on Harris, and if something suddenly happened to him, or the deal didn’t end up going through, then Smith would be out of business.His SCORE counselor recommended that he does not give up more than 20% share to one investor, and this is above and beyond that. He is also asking to be paid back his full loan of $95,000 over the first five years. This is completely unreasonable, since it is a brand new company and they will not be returning high profits in those primary years. With that expectation, Smith is expected to not only pay back his SBA loan, but also an extra $19,000 per year, with an added prime rate of interest, to Harris.With estimated incomes of only $41,000 after their first year in business, his entire salary for the year would be $8,695. Not only that, but Harris would get his loan back in five years, plus an extra $111,867. This is an extra 22 times the amount he put in, while Smith would be left with close to nothing. 2. Even though the estimated net incomes are increasing at a steady pace, it will take him at least five years to get to an average salary point around $60,000. Even then, he will have his SBA loan and Harris’s personal loan to pay back, which would be a huge detriment into his salary.It would be much more rewarding for him if he could come to a negotiation with Harris as an investor, or find a new investor all together. This way he could pay off his loan over a longer period of time, and maybe not give up a lot of his control. With the equity stake and loan that Harris is of fering, Smith would not be getting a great salary or return from all his hard work. This particular franchise seems to be pretty stable with only a 5% failure rate. Once he gets past those first few years, he will start seeing more of a rofit, with some stores even reaching $500,000 in sales, and they are number three in market position in sales. The franchisee program comes with a lot of perks that will make it much easier for Smith to be successful in his ventures, and the company has a solid competitive advantage with specifics that include superior ingredients, new product and market development, and environmentally conscious behavior. 3. I would not recommend Smith to go into a partnership with Harris.He does not seem very fair in his projections of what his is putting into the company, and seems to be attempting to connive Smith into giving up a ton of his control for not a great amount of return. His financials expectations are completely unfair and not warranted. Smith will be left with an extremely low salary, and Harris will be making 22 times the amount of his investment in a short period of time. While Smith wants to get started as soon as possible on this first franchise due to his financial problems, if he chooses to go with Harris he could be getting himself into much deeper trouble.The franchise itself seems to be a decent option, with its great location, franchise support, and competitive advantage, but Smith should wait to find a better partner. This business will not succeed if the two owners do not get along. It would ruin their entire organizational and managerial structure. FINANCIAL APPENDIX | | | 51%| | Cash flow| Distributions| Smith's share| 1997 with loan| $ 17,050 | $ 17,050 | $ 8,695 | 1998 with loan| $ 37,050 | $ 24,350 | $ 12,418 | 1999 with loan| $ 55,650 | $ 41,750 | $ 21,292 | | 1997| 1998| 1999| 2000| 2001|EBT| $ 29,000 | $ 49,000 | $ 67,600 | $ 87,100 | $ 87,800 | Add depreciation| $ 12,000 | $ 12,000 | $ 12,000 | $ 12,000 | $ 12,000 | Cash flow| $ 41,000 | $ 61,000 | $ 79,600 | $ 99,100 | $ 99,800 | Price earning ration (3) | 3| 3| 3| 3| 3| Company value(average of cash flows from previousyears x 3)| $ 123,000 | $ 153,000 | $ 181,600 | 210525| $ 228,300 | Investor ownership| 49%| 49%| 49%| 49%| 49%| Buy out amount| $ 60,270 | $ 74,970 | $ 88,984 | $ 103,157 | $ 111,867 |

Top Gear Reviwe

As Jeremy Clarkson explained on Twitter, â€Å"fat people singing† has been in Top Gear’s way for the past year. So it’s ironic that the programs return opened with the overweight presenter screeching â€Å"we’re back! † with all the keenness of a desperate X Factor finalist. This is where comparison between padded-out talent contestants and Top Gear end; however the free-wheeling motoring show was very nearly a full hour of fun, witty entertainment. Top gear was officially complained about by the Indian High Commission on its recent trip to India.Jokes about terrorism, the Nazi regime and incest in tonight’s episode suggest Top Gear’s tone remained unchanged by critics and complainers. The banter between Top Gear trio Richard Hammond, May and Clarkson just great, May was old; Hammond’s choice of clothes was laughable, Clarkson moaned about motorway signs in his usual comic way. The Homeland’s star Damian Lewis was the â €˜Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’, who dropped names and great story’s (playing at Old Trafford, surviving a motorcycle accident) with genuine humour, which was much needed, because a few jokes seem a bit manufactured. Top Gear thrived outside of its dull studio.We saw Hammond yell theatrically inside a â€Å"savage† supercar: the Pagani Huayra is worth ? 800,000 and now takes its place at the top of the Power Lap Board – which set the bar high for the rest of the series. Eagle-eyed fans will have seen September’s leaked footage of May co-driving a Bentley continental GT Speed on a WRC rally stage. Tonight’s full feature was one of dramatic skies, dark forests and a tough lesson for him in rally driving (rally pace notes: directions given in hasty anticipation to the driver). â€Å"Either get it right or shut up†, growled May’s quietly, terrifyingly soiled professional driver.Pleasingly, the Bentley’s four-wheel driv e dealt well with a proper thrashing. Enthusiastically, Clarkson showed us his self created ‘P45’. The vehicle (it can hardly be called a car) aims to be smaller than the Peel P50 – a 1960s micro mobile invented for city driving. Clarkson, just shy of two metres tall, was transformed into a grumpy toy robot in the weird contraption, driving along country lanes, bombing down dual carriageways and sneaking into shopping centres with pleasant hilarity. Add in some comical humour, serious cool cars and it’s like top gear never went away.

Globalisation and Free Trade Essay

Globalisation, also referred to as global integration is an important economic concept used to understand the economic, structural, political and cultural changes that have occurred in the world today. Globalisation is argued to have shaped the post-war world. Globalisation can be defined as the increase of interconnectedness between countries through international trade. The reduced policy barriers to trade and investment in the public sector and the reduced communication and transportation costs in the private sector are believed to be the main driving force behind globalisation (Frankel, 2006). Due to globalisation, the concept of free trade operates. Free trade is a policy where countries are able to trade freely with each other as there are no tariffs applied to imports and no quotas or subsidies applied to exports. According to the law of comparative advantage, the free trade policy allows both countries to gain mutually from trade – increasing economic growth. The increase in inequality and job losses which is occurring around the world is argued to be as a result of global logic of competitive profit-making management techniques of outsourcing and corporate migrations, atomisation, downsizing and widespread technological progress which all came about as a result of globalisation and free trade (Ukpere and Slabbert, 2007) Due to some consequences of globalisation, movements were formed against it (Krugman et al, 2012). The anti-globalisation movements argue that although globalisation increases the overall income of a country however the benefits are not equally distributed between the citizens. This widens income disparities which brings up social and welfare issues and could also limit the forces which drive economic growth as opportunities brought about as a result of globalisation may not be fully taken advantage of. Maintaining citizens support is important in order to sustain globalisation, however support shown by citizens could largely be influenced by the rising level of inequality (Subir Lall et al, 2012). The Ricardian Model of comparative advantage states that goods are produced competitively using one factor of production; labour, utilising constant-returns-to-scale technologies that vary across countries and goods (Deardorff,2007) . The Ricardian model puts forward that countries would export the good in which they have comparative advantage which is determined by opportunity cost, labour cost and labour productivity. A country has a comparative advantage in the production of a good if the opportunity cost of producing that good in terms of other goods is lower in that country than it is in other countries (Krugman et al, 2012). The Ricardian model illustrates a world with two countries, A and B which both utilise a single factor of production – labour in producing good X and Y respectively. Assuming country A has comparative advantage in producing good X, then country A should specialise in the production of good X and would export it to country B. Since it is more cost effective for country B to import good X , Production of good X would decline in country B leading to a reduction in the demand for labour. As a result workers would lose their jobs leaving them with less disposable income – increasing inequality. As a result of globalisation, the cost of communication between countries is low, reducing the cost of controlling the geographically dispersed parts of an organisation. This allows organisations identify countries which have low production costs and set up branches in such countries in order to exploit the low production costs. This is referred to as outsourcing. Through this fragmentation of industry, the host countries are able to pursue their comparative advantage and maximise the use of their resources. However due to outsourcing, the movement of production to the host country causes people in the foreign country to be laid off their jobs as there is a decline in the demand for labour, increasing job losses and also the inequality gap. The factor-proportions theory stresses the importance of the interaction between the proportions of the factors of production that are utilised by countries in production and the proportion of the factors of production the country possesses (Krugman et al, 2012). The Hecksher- Ohlin model is a version of the factor-proportions theory . The model assumes that the country that is abundant in a factor exports the good whose production is intensive in that factor and can be referred to as â€Å"2 by 2 by 2†: Two factors of production, two goods, two countries (Krugman et al, 2012). Assuming we have two countries, country A and B which utilise two factors of production; labour and land to produce goods X(labour intensive) and Y(land intensive) respectively. The Hecksher-Ohlin model states that If country A has abundance of Labour and country B has abundance of land then country A would be effective in the production of good X and country B would be effective in the production of good Y. The Hecksher-Ohlin model purports that owners of abundant factors benefit from international trade and owners of scarce factor would lose from trade. Owners of the scarce factor would then be forced to lay off some workers – leading to disparities in the distribution of income which increases inequality (Krugman et al, 2012). The Stopler- Samuelson theory describes an interaction between relative factor rewards and the relative prices of goods. The theory purports that under some economic conditions (perfect competition, constant returns, equal number of goods produced to equal number of factors) the rise in market price of a good would result in an rise in the return to that factor that is most intensively utilised in producing that good whereas a reduction in the return to the other factor occurs. Due to free trade, there are reduced tariffs on imports and as a result, there is a decrease in the price of imported goods that are high skill-intensive reducing compensation of limited high-skilled workers. Also, there in as increase in the price of exported goods which the country has abundant factor, that are low skill-intensive and the compensation of low-skilled workers. In a developed country with relatively abundant high-skill factors the opposite would occur with a rise in openness resulting in higher inequality. Inequality is argued to be rising amongst countries. The differences between the global poor and global rich continues to increase (Haines, 2001). The income share of the richest quintile is increasing whilst the income share of the rest of the quintiles is decreasing. Although globalisation is argued to be largely responsible for the increase in job losses and inequality, we can also argue that technological progress has contributed to some extent. Technological progress is responsible for the increasing gap between the skilled and unskilled workforce as it puts greater importance on worker skills. As a result of this, in most countries skilled workers are paid significantly higher wages than unskilled workers as a result leading to differences in income distribution. Also, in most households nowadays, we’ll find that most people use telephones and computers, making it possible for individuals to purchase a wide range of goods and services from a global supply chain. Countries that sell goods and services at a lower price compared to other countries tend to have comparative advantage in producing the good according to the Ricardian Model. As individuals we tend to then purchase goods from the country which sells it at the lowest price when compared to other countries. These current patterns have led to a large section of the labour market withering away, increasing inequality and job losses amongst countries (Martin and Schumann, 1997). Samuelson (2004) indicated that using the Ricardian model, with two goods and two countries with different levels of productivity, technological progress in the lagging country would benefit the latter and the more developed country would end up losing from international trade. This reduces the mutual benefits from international trade – increasing inequality. In order to decrease the rising inequality and job losses the government should make providing easy and free access to education a matter of high importance. This gives unskilled and low income groups an opportunity to take advantage of opportunities which arise from globalisation as a result they would be able to lessen the disparities in income distribution and have more job opportunities (Subir Lall et al, 2012). Globalisation is believed to have significantly contributed to the increase in the overall wealth amongst countries however it has a disequalizing effect as access to wealth between the rich and poor segments of the population is unequal. Government should put in place policy reforms which are aimed at opening up access to finance, developing institutions that encourage lending to the low income groups in order to enhance the general distribution of income, which in turn helps to support the overall growth of the economy.