Events That Made an Impact: United States in the 1950s to 1990s Essay

After the World War II fizzled out, people around the world had no choice but to pick up the pieces of what has been left of the unrelenting devastation that the global was has brought to them. However, the lofty triumphs achieved during the war were pointless because numerous challenges had sprouted because countries realized the inevitability of the Nuclear Age, which triggered fear amongst the people as they realized a grim scenario that a single bomb could decimate cities in seconds. What have transpired beyond the events between the World War II to the 1990s are essential elements that made up what society has become in our present. Naturally, it paved the way for a future society that could learn from all the mistakes made and use it to settle all inequities that could mold conflict among nations and people. In the United States, the time from 1950s to the 1990s has been crucial in shaping democracy, equality and technology that all Americans enjoy today. From the economic boom that sparked the rise of new markets in the 1950s, to the rise of civil rights movement in the 1960s, to the concern about the Vietnam War in 1970s, to the end of the Cold War in the 1980s and the emergence of globalization in 1990s, all of these major events have etched their mark in each decade that brandished the saga of what modern American civilization has become. And despite all challenges that abound, what is important is that Americans have become more tolerant and the government has understood from heeding the call of times during these unforgettable events. The events from the 1950s to the 1990s honed a society that put the people at the forefront of all priorities, as defense policies were institutionalized to protect them from the harsh realities of war while humanitarian causes are still considered appropriately to bring benefit to the greater good of Americans and to other people from the rest of the world. Clearly, the fast-changing times at present can be daunting, but the events that happened in the 1950s to the 1990s had prepared us to be stronger in facing all the odds that lie beneath. Through breaking barriers among nations around the world, people can make things possible and could definitely make our lives better in the future ahead. 1950s – The Emergence of a Post-industrial Society   After the white flags has been raised during the conclusion of World War II, nations around the world dusted off the embers of war and began working on to build nations that would benefit people (Gaddis, 1997). Despite the unwarranted fears that the Cold War between the United States (US) and the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic (USSR) could trigger another war in the future, it is believed that what brought the greatest impact during this decade is the renaissance of the post-industrial economy that led to the emergence of the suburban culture Davidson et al. (2002) observed that during this period, suburban growth accelerated sharply and the suburbs grew 40 times faster than cities, so that by 1960 half of the American people lived in them. The return of prosperity brought a â€Å"baby boom† and a need for new housing. Davidson et al. (2002) indicated that birth rates in the United States in 1952 had spiked to 25 per thousand to reach one of the highest fertility rates in the world. New brides were also younger, which translated into unusual fertility. Americans chose to have larger families, as the number with three children tripled and those with four or more quadrupled. Because of the economic growth, automobiles made the suburbs accessible. But the spurt in suburban growth took its toll on the cities, which suffered as the middle class fled urban areas. Famous sociologist Daniel Bell indicated that the rise of the so-called â€Å"post-industrial† economy can benefit American people. For Bell, this never meant the complete annihilation of American manufacturing, but it did mean that white-collar work within the sectors of finance and banking, leisure and tourism, corporate research and development in technologies, in federal and local government bureaucracies and in retail would supersede manufacturing industry as the major structural bases of the American economy (Waters 1996, p. 112). Furthermore, the development of improved computing and communications technologies facilitated suburbanization by making it easy for companies to decentralize as the managements were able to control their operations more efficiently. American culture also changed in the 1950s. American families began to take the form of the sitcom families popular during the era. Hayden (2003) indicated that American streets and families became â€Å"similar in age, race, and income to†¦ the nationally popular sitcoms of the 1950s†¦ including Leave It to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, and Father Knows Best† (p. 128). Also, many corporations advertised in the 1950s became a cultural consensus just as much as the products they sold. They praised prosperity as a reflection of an American way of life. However, not all Americans were persuaded of the virtues of consensus and business leadership. Intellectuals and artists found in corporate culture a stifling conformity that crushed individual creativity. On the fringes of society, artists flaunted traditional behavior and values. Closer to the mainstream, a new generation of musicians created rock and roll, which became the sound of youthful rebellion that sparked in the decades ahead. 1960s – Seeking Equality and the Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement As the United States enjoyed quite an improvement in economy during the 1950s, turmoil began to spread in its social arena in the 1960s. Fact is that the civil rights movement was triggered by the Montgomery bus incident in 1955. Mrs. Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man. Mrs. Parks was arrested and subsequently, she was bailed out of jail by E. D. Nixon, the Montgomery representative of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and a local leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Later that evening, Nixon was struck with the idea of having Montgomery’s black citizens boycott the city’s segregated bus system. According to Loevy (1990), the major accomplishment of the Montgomery bus boycott was that it turned a non-violent demonstration for racial integration into a national news story. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., was elected to lead the bus boycott. Montgomery’s forty thousand blacks stayed off the city buses for more than a year, vowing not to return until the buses were totally desegregated (p. 22). The emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr., in the mid-1950s was a key event in the escalating fight for civil rights. Through the experience gained during the Montgomery bus boycott, King learned that the northern and western United States were most likely to press for civil rights reform when a dramatic instance of racial segregation was presented on the news media, particularly television (Branch, 1988). Two of the massive racial protests in the 1960s brought about by the Montgomery bus incident in produced major civil rights bills. The impetus for Congress to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which banned racial discrimination in public places) occurred following brutal white suppression of racial demonstrations led by Dr. King in Birmingham, Alabama, in the spring of 1963. An equally brutal reaction to a voting rights march led by King in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 produced the Voting Rights Act of 1965, in which gave the U.S. Government the power to register blacks to vote in southern states (Loevy,1990). It was President Lyndon Johnson had worked assiduously for the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Only months after its adoption he added muscle to the demand for nondiscrimination by issuing Executive Order 11246. The racism that had infected federal employment (and also the work forces of private firms with which the federal government did business) was no longer to be tolerated. The words of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave specificity and concreteness to the constitutional guarantee of â€Å"the equal protection of the laws.† In employment, in education, in all spheres of public accommodation, there was to be from that time forward no official favoritism for one race or ethnic group at the expense of others. The intentions of the members of the Congress in adopting this law were clearly and emphatically expressed (Cohen & Sterba, 2003, p. 10). This is why, to this very day, that American society learned to frown upon all sorts of racial preference and discrimination. 1970s – Iniquities of the Vietnam War When more than half a million American troops were sent to intervene in Vietnam’s civil war, there was a widespread dissent in United States. Campaigns were outright to denounce the US government’s military conquests in Southeast Asia, particularly in Vietnam.   Though war is a decision that is entered into by governments, public opinion plays a significant role in its execution. By 1971, the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam had surpassed 50,000, and antiwar sentiment became very strong. As war was occurring in Vietnam, bloody protests sparked also sparked in the United States. Vietnam War was a relatively young man’s war, with the average age of soldiers serving in Vietnam was 19 (Davidson et al., 2002). The wages of death and survival of these soldiers are also complicated. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried (1990), he featured his experiences in the Vietnam War and how he struggled to fight the feeling of isolation after returning home from the war. Instead of forgetting the occurrences during the Vietnam War, O’Brien faced to confront the ghosts of his terrible experiences during the war. His life is caught up in the web of his past experiences as he seeks solace to get rid of his unfavorable traumas that haunt him after the extreme experiences he encountered in Vietnam. He still feels the chaos even it is thirty years later. He wanted to get rid of denial, but his memory of the terrible experiences still traumatizes him greatly. Because of the war, US also suffered poverty because war’s annual cost soared to more than $50 billion a year as it fueled a rising inflation. This is why in 1973, the Congress passed the War Powers Act, which required the president to consult with Congress about military action and prohibited spending in Southeast Asia for more U.S. military action. Coupled with congressional cuts in aid to South Vietnam, the president’s war powers were severely limited (Walsh, 2007). Many people felt that the involvement of Americans in the Vietnam War was a losing battle both in the battleground and at home. In the 11 years of the US involvement in Vietnam, it did not only bring humiliation to the US as it failed to gain control of a small nation but also it brought a tremendous detriment in social and economic costs in its very homeland. 1980s – Closure of the Cold War Fears The silent conflict of United States and Soviet Union finally ceased in the 1980s. With the democratic reform that swept across Eastern Europe, this ended the four decades of communist rule and Soviet domination of the region. Germans, divided since World War II, dismantled the Berlin Wall, which long had been the symbol of Soviet-American confrontation and reunified their country. Nationalist groups within the Soviet Union demanded greater autonomy and Premier Mikhail Gorbachev desperately worked to reform a disintegrating economy and to hold the Soviet state together. With the Soviet Union no longer a threat, Americans felt less a sense of triumph than an uncertainty about the role of the United States in a less predictable and perhaps less stable world (Hess 2001, p. 153). The United States and Russia initiated to end the Cold War and agreed to reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons. In 1991, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) concluded and surpassed the limits negotiated in earlier SALT talks. By June 1992 US President Bush and Russia’s Boris Yeltsin had agreed to even sharper cuts. However, American foreign policy had been defined by the Cold War with the Soviet Union and its communist allies. Not just America’s relations with the rest of the world, but also its domestic political and social life were shaped by the overriding national imperative of containing the expansion of communism. But the end of the Cold War made it more difficult to articulate what exactly constituted the American national interest. With the terrorist attacks of September 2001, Singh (2003) argued that a new era was ushered into being, although most of the contours of US policy were in fact unchanged by the tragedy. Not least, the fundamental predicament for America since 1945 – whether to accept a role as global policeman while being castigated abroad as a global bully remained inescapable (p. 263). 1990s – Breaking the Barriers Through Globalization The trend of globalization has become one of the most critical factors that determine the path for changes that occur in many economies worldwide in the 1990s. It had triggered enormous changes in various sectors in society and had pressured everyone to ride the waves of change that globalization has brought about. As a concept, McGrew (1992) captured the complexity of the current view of globalization in a concise and balanced way. He defined globalization as â€Å"the multiplicity of linkages and interconnections between the states and societies which make up the modern world system†¦ it describes the process by which events, decisions, and activities in one part of the world can come to have significant consequences for individuals and communities in quite distant parts of the globe† (p. 23). United States entered into several trade agreements to ease out doing business around the world, like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Also, US became more intertwined to a global community via the Internet. The rise of the Internet also built new economies and opportunities. The revolution in microchip technologies contributed substantially to the economic expansion of the 1990s. In 1998, e-commerce alone generated some 482,000 jobs (Davidson et al., 2002). However, globalization is not without criticism. Lobeda (2006) argued that the growth theory in globalization failed to take into account distribution of wealth and income. For instance, economists point to a 22.2 percent growth in average household worth in the United States from 1983 to 1998. Yet the number of homeless people increased, more and more people were unable to obtain healthcare, and many citizens experienced severe economic insecurity and job loss. The growth indicators don’t spell out that the wealthiest one percent experienced skyrocketing increases in income, while middle- and lower-income families saw their incomes shrink. So while the average household wealth increased, the median household net worth decreased by 10 percent in the same period. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   What we could deem from the era of post World War II to the 1990s are essential events that shaped our history. These are events are very colored with numerous triumphs and some failures in different aspects. Triumphs because of all the achievements gained within this period that led to improve American society as a whole. Failures, on the other hand, will serve as lessons where we can earn our credit from learning the past mistakes so that these will be never repeated again in the future. It can, indeed be daunting that lies ahead might trigger newer challenges, like the rise of technology, terrorism and other new innovations that might have a serious impact to our future. But, with a renewed thought as one nation of multicultural origins, American people can surely take a stand in working as one nation and take advantage of what the future holds for them. References Branch, T. (1988). Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963, New York: Simon and Schuster. Cohen, C., & Sterba, J. P. (2003). Affirmative Action and Racial Preference: A Debate. New York: Oxford University Press.   Davidson, W.F., West, J., Gienapp, C.L., Heyrman, M.L., and Stoff, M.B. (2002). Nation of Nations: A Concise Narrative of the American Republic – Vol. 2, 3rd ed. NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies. Gaddis, J.L. (1997). We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hayden, D. (2003). Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000.   Westminster, MD: Knopf Publishing Group. Lobeda, C.M. (2006). Globalization Is Harmful to Society. In L.I. Gerdes (ed.), Globalization. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. Loevy, R.D. (1990). To End All Segregation: The Politics of the Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Lanham, Md.: University Press of America. McGrew, A.G. (1992). Conceptualizing Global Politics. In A.G. McGrew, and P.G. Lewis (eds), Global Politics: Globalization and the Nation-State. Cambridge: Polity Press, p. 1-28. O’Brien, T. (1990). The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway Books. Singh, R. (2003). American Government and Politics : A Concise Introduction.London: Sage Publications, Incorporated, 2003. Walsh, K.T. (2007, May 14). Echoes From an Earlier Conflict.   U.S. News & World Report. 142(17): 47-49. Waters, M. (1996). Daniel Bell, London: Routledge.

Reflections in Westminster Abbey, by Joseph Addison

William Thackeray said of Joseph Addison that he â€Å"deserved as much love and esteem as can be justly claimed by any of our infirm and erring race. † Thomas Macaulay described Addison's periodical essays as â€Å"perhaps the finest . . . in the English language. † And Samuel Johnson characterized Addison's prose as â€Å"the model of the middle style; on grave subjects not formal, on light occasions not groveling. † Keep Johnson's observation in mind as you read â€Å"Reflections in Westminster Abbey,† which originally appeared in issue 26 of The Spectator, March 30, 1711. Addison died on June 17, 1719.He was buried in the north aisle of the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey. A century later a statue was erected in his honor in â€Å"the poetical quarter†Ã¢â‚¬â€œnow known as Poet's Corner. Reflections in Westminster Abbey by Joseph Addison When I am in a serious humor, I very often walk by myself in Westminster Abbey; where the gloominess of the place and the use to which it is applied, with the solemnity of the building and the condition of the people who lie in it, are apt to fill the mind with a kind of melancholy, or rather thoughtfulness, that is not disagreeable.I yesterday passed a whole afternoon in the churchyard, the cloisters, and the church, amusing myself with the tombstones and inscriptions that I met with in those several regions of the dead. Most of them recorded nothing else of the buried person but that he was born upon one day and died upon another; the whole history of his life being comprehended in those two circumstances that are common to all mankind.I could not but look upon these registers of existence, whether of brass or marble, as a kind of satire upon the departed persons who had left no other memorial of them but that they were born and that they died. They put me in mind of several persons mentioned in the battles of heroic poems, who have sounding names given them for no other reason but that they may be killed, and are celebrated for nothing but being knocked on the head. The life of these men is finely described in Holy Writ by â€Å"the Path of an Arrow,† which is immediately closed up and lost.

Was Chivalry in Decline During the 14th and 15th Centuries

Far from disappearing, chivalry during the 14 and 15th centuries it was actually going through somewhat of a revival, some historians even go as far to say it was experiencing a â€Å"renascence† in the late middle ages albeit an imperfect one. Even though it appears in this period of medieval history that chivalry was becoming all the more popular, fashionable even, the meaning and spirit behind chivalry that were so important during the first crusades were dilapidated, therefore one can see why it can be viewed that chivalry was in decline in the 14th 15th century. This is especially apparent seeing as Chivalry became a tool to be wielded by those privileged enough to have the money and influence to use it. Furthermore despite the large amount of bravado surrounding chivalry in the later medieval period, this just underlines the fact that chivalry in the 14th and 15th centuries was a hollow shell of what it had been in the time of the crusades. Kilgour indentifies chivalry in the early medieval period as the â€Å"First heroic age† where a â€Å"fusion of military glory and religion† was achieved for the first time. In his description of the glory of chivalry in its early days Kilgour only stresses the devaluation of chivalry in its time of decline in the 14th and 15th century. The writings of J Huizinga in which he describes the return of chivalry as †a rather artificial revival of things long dead, a sort of deliberate and insincere renascence of ideas drained of any real value† offer a clear analysis of chivalry and its decline as an ideal with any real meaning during the 14th and 15th century. Even though to a large extent he is certainly right to view chivalry as a hollow shell of what it was, his statement is slightly implausible because by no means were there no chivalric deeds performed that would not have seemed out of place some 200 years earlier during the crusades, for example: â€Å"A knight of the nation of Hainault named Sir Loys de Robessart. One day it happened that his enemies found him in a village with few of his people with him. There they attacked him and staged a fine skirmish. And although his enemies where great in numbers and much stronger he drove them out of he village. Thereupon a great force of his enemies renewed the attack, and although he sighted them at a distance, all the same he disdained to flee or to show any signs of fear. But with very steady, noble and virtuous courage sallied forth and in order to uphold the honour of this order of chivalry and of himself he determined to hold his ground, and there he died gloriously, for before he di ed when he saw he could not hold he made his men withdraw to the castle, for which act he was greatly praised both by his enemies and his own men. † From this example it is apparent that there were cases in which chivalric actions were not completely selfless, suggesting to one that chivalry was not in decline. Never the less mindful of Maurice Keens remark that the value of chivalry signified by the heroic ideals of the earlier romances has been lost to sight in a quest for imitative decoration, it is thus easy to see that perhaps even the most selfless cases of chivalry recorded by historians like the tale of Roberssart just suit to underpin the inherent flaws in late medieval chivalry with their â€Å"quest for imitative decoration. There is however one issue in the early medieval period that is conceivably the defining factor in best determining if there was a decline in chivalry in the 14th and 15th century, one that is not explored by Huizinga or Kilgour. It is whether the state of chivalry in its â€Å"first heroic age† was any different in its ideals and value before it had collapsed into a â€Å"mad, exaggerated display. One aspect that might prove this conclusion to be correct is raised by Maurice Keen who observes that some of the evidence describing chivalry, although being less plentiful in the 12th century is remarkably similar to what is being said two or three hundred years later. This example is enough to convince one that there was little difference in the spirit of chivalry at its beginning in the 12th and 13th centuries, suggesting that there was not a decline in chivalry due to it losing its meaning because that meaning was unchanged in some two hundred years. Despite her argument there is some evidence which disproves Maurice Keen’s notion of a chivalric spirit unchanged over two hundred years, which apart from being implausible, is proved to be inaccurate due to the evolution of chivalry as a tool to be used for selfish ends further undermining the ideals for which chivalry stands. The best illustration of chivalry being used as a tool is when it started to be harnessed for means of propaganda. This can be seen most prominently at the Vow of the Pheasant and the banquet held at Lille in 1445, in which the banquet was used to lavishly display a sense of chivalry with the intention of trying to gain the adequate support to initiate a crusade along the Mediterranean. However this was no excessive imitation of the past but was a calculated move by King Philip the Good, a move which perfectly illustrates the decline of chivalry in the late Middle Ages. What one also needs to understand is that this was not an isolated case. Chivalry was used as a tool in other ways as well. For example many Dukes’ Counts and court officials hoped that by exploiting the genuine respect for chivalrous values and conduct they could â€Å"solidify† respect for their rather â€Å"shaky† ducal authority. This point is interestingly supported by Maurice Keen who despite her previous argument explains that â€Å"chivalry was something secular princes could exploit† mainly because it was taken so seriously by â€Å"a very important sector of people. What makes her statement even more plausible is that it is reinforced by Raymond Kilgour, whose view is that an event such as these pageants evolved without a â€Å"deeper value to society† such was the extent to the dilapidation of chivalry, and its decline in the 14th and 15th centuries Despite much evidence to prove that chivalry was in decline in the late medieval period of the 14th and 15th centuries, some events just do not lend themselves to be interpreted it in this way. Especially when taken into account that a definition of the word decline is â€Å"the period when something reaches its end† this is particularly interesting as there are some documents which raise the question whether chivalry actually ever reached a period of definite decline at all in the 15th and 14th centuries, despite its withering spirit. One such piece of evidence that supports this view is a table listing all books printed in Venice in reference to military affairs. This specific document is useful because of all the works devoted to military affairs or dealing with them, the most prevalent category of book published was that of the laws of war and chivalry. The fact that this table lists books on chivalric warfare as being so popular this late on in the 1400’s must denote that chivalry was not in decline, for if it was going through a tangible Decline it would surely not have been such a popular subject for publishing. However if we are to take Huizinga’s view that chivalry was nothing more than â€Å"a rather artificial revival of things long dead† this would explain why even though chivalry exercised a â€Å"disastrous† affect on wars in this period of late medieval period it was still so wrote about. Another interpretation which supports Huizinga’s view is that litterateurs of the time where probably trying to capitalize on chivalry as a popular subject, similar to the way that secular princes used chivalry as a tool as Maurice Keen pointed out. Chivalry in practise was obviously not in decline in the late medieval period however in spirit it was, a perfect exhibition of this is shown through the disastrous effect chivalry had on the outcome of wars and on France itself. This was mainly the doing of King John the Good whose reign was â€Å"disastrous† to France because of his â€Å"chivalric prejudice†, as is pointed out by J Huizinga who rightly claims that it was King Johns â€Å"chivalric stubbornness† and carelessness which cost him the battle of Poitiers in 1356, as well as one of his most celebrated chivalric knights Geroffroi De Charny. This use of chivalry almost seems as though it’s being used to keep up appearances with what was fashionable at the time no matter the cost, and as a result underlines the decline in the spirit of chivalry and therefore the decline of chivalry itself. In conclusion the â€Å"cult† of chivalry as it is sometimes called in the later middle ages is generally considered by the majority of historians who deal with it indirectly or directly as meaningless, and therefore it has to be perceived as being in decline. Karl Brandi labelled the elaborate protocol at play in chivalric court as an â€Å"impressive, sumptuous yet wholly meaningless shell. † Similarly J Huizinga described chivalry as â€Å"naive† and â€Å"imperfect. † Raymond Kilgour on the other hand stated that chivalry was an â€Å"extravagant† illusion to try and maintain a feeling of â€Å"significance. † All these statements overwhelmingly point at a chivalry in a dire state of decline in the late medieval period, however in reality it was going through a revival. Despite this revival, chivalry was weak in spirit and had disastrous effects on society, the outcomes of war and on France itself. From this assumption it’s hard not to see that although chivalry in practise was not in decline in practise its meanings and ideals were, hence why one can see that chivalry was in decline in the 14 and 15th century.

Resident Attitudes towards Gambling tourism in Marcao Essay

Resident Attitudes towards Gambling tourism in Marcao - Essay Example With a very limited resources in the form of garments manufacturing, which is also now being lost to much cheaper labor cost in mainland China, gambling in the guise of tourism industry and in the form of lottery, casinos, games of fortune and horse and dog races, as well as the trendy online gaming, have become Macao’s last resort for economic survival. With a long history of monopolized gambling embedded in its economy, this study will present a balance between the advantages and disadvantages of gambling to the people and residents of Macao in the context of tourism. Issues which are not always sensationalized, and most probably, rarely reported shall be dissected as objectively as possible. The researcher has chosen this topic as a tourism student, because the tourism industry in Macao based on gambling, have impacted so much on the international identity and association of Macao. There had been so much written and talked about the gambling/tourism industry, outside of Macao regarding Macao, and yet, a little is said about the impact of gambling on the residents of Macao. The researcher does not imply that the residents have been voiceless, or that they have been totally ignored and uncounted, but only to present an objective point of view not based on the opinion of foreign observers because this abounds in the international media. The researcher would like to focus on its research subjects: local Macanese that is residents of Macao, as well as locals that are employed in the gambling casinos. Likewise, this research focus will also aid the researcher on the impact of tourism as a whole, if there would be diversification possibilities when it comes to Macao tourism, or that locals have much more to offer besides the entertainment.

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Company Report-Sony Inc - Case Study Example Sony, a Japanese multinational conglomerate, was invented in the year 1946. It was formed by Masaru Ibuka who had a radio repair shop in Tokyo and his colleague Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo. In 1955 they produced the first commercial transistor in Japan known as Sony MK-55. Sony was not the first but its transistor was most the most successful in that decade. Sony had the most vital contribution towards making Japan the most powerful exporter in 1960s- 1980s. The company expanded into various areas such as games (Sony computer entertainment), motion pictures (Sony pictures entertainment), holdings and electronics (Sony Corporation), financial services (Sony Financial Holdings), music (Sony music entertainment). The co-founder of Sony was Akio Morita founded in 1960 Sony Corporation in America. Its major part of expansion was convergence that is linking of music, film, and digital electronics via Internet. The Sony Corporation has been accelerating initiatives in the electronic business which generates stable profits for the entire Sony group. The company aims at updating strategies in three core businesses such as games, mobiles and imaging. It has the business strategy of executing growth strategies in the emerging markets. The company engages into aggressive capital investment, explores new technology, and creates value added products (Gershon, 2000). The business model can be further more specifically divided into various parts as state in the diagram below- The company focuses on delivering high quality products to its customers. They continuously measure their performance in forms of different quality standards, review, and even focusing on customer feedback. They have specific quality management organizations in each of its SBUs. It has got service reviews, design reviews, verification system reviews to constantly measure their performance and focus on further improvement. It has even

What about Magnet Status Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

What about Magnet Status - Essay Example The Magnet program in hospitals is designed to facilitate nurses and their practices (Wise, 2009, p.g. 205). Magnet hospitals have portrayed structural qualities. These qualities allow the nurses to work efficiently. The magnet hospitals also give nurses a chance to use their knowledge and capability by which they can produce excellent patient care (Havens et al, 1999, p.g. 14). Magnet hospitals have been present since two decades. Various studies have been conducted to study the pros and benefits of magnet hospitals. Results of the studies have proved that superior working environment for nurses at Magnet hospitals is beneficial for patient outcomes. Better working environment leads to higher nurse job satisfaction. Due to these pros, less nurses leave their jobs and are not exhausted. Evidence from studies is indicative that Magnet hospitals should be classified as the â€Å"best practice.† (Kelly et al, 2011, p.g.428). To summarize excellence in nursing has a two-fold benefit as it benefits patients and nurses (Lewis et al, 1998, pg. 51). Studies have shown that finding magnet hospitals these days is quiet difficult since the requirement are more than what a hospital could offer these days. Also, the work schedule required for hospitals to get this status is not possible to be infuse into the environment of the hospital (Pizzi, 2010). Other cons that these facilities get are that they only empower a nurse’s illusion. Acquiring magnet recognition is not easy as it is a procedure that requires labor and time (Magnet Reognition, n.d). Magnet status is a term that has been circulating in the health care industry for over two decades now. Health care facilities which provide autonomy, distributed organizational structures, helpful management and self-governance to the nursing staff are given the â€Å"magnet† status. Patients admitted at magnet status hospitals have a better mortality

Provide an in-depth analysis of the Gong Lum v. Rice case Study

Provide an in-depth analysis of the Gong Lum v. Rice - Case Study Example Bayor asserts that Lum was denied a chance at Rosedale Consolidated High School because of her Chinese descent (45). This was in favor of the White students, who were allowed in this high school. The defendants in the case were responsible for her racial exclusion from the learning institution. The defendant included the Mississippi state superintendent, the board of trustees of the school, and Rice. The petitioners of the case indicate that there was no school that catered for the students of Chinese descent. The constitution of Mississippi stipulates that a common school fund should be available in every county to cater for the student needs. The fund ought to constitute of the taxation obtained from the public contributions and the apportionments from the treasury department. This fund is meant to support schools for four months. The plea of the case is based on the breach of this requirement of the constitution. This is because Rosedale Consolidated High School was an appropriate school for Martha Lum. More to that, her father was a taxpayer who also helped to support the running of the school as stipulated in the legislative document. This implied that denying her the right to attend and learn in Rosedale high school was tantamount to racial discrimination, which was not allowed by Mississippi’s constitution. In essence, the fact that Martha was educable is substantial for her to be allowed to progress in her education and career. According to Dickson, it is Martha’s constitutional right to access education given that she was not a member of the colored race (67). The colored race, especially Mongolians, was verboten in the Mississippi County. The court ruled that a writ of mandamus be invoked according to the petition filed to stop the hindering of Martha attending the school. The appeal of the defendants against the ruling of the supreme court of Mississippi culminated in a stern directive by the

1. Will Social Media Democratize the Arab World What role if any do Essay

1. Will Social Media Democratize the Arab World What role if any do social media play in the current social unrest in many Arab countries - Essay Example Internet has created an outlet where the young people can interact and even organize themselves around a specific cause (Ghannam 14). Besides it is easier for the dissenting groups and organizations to target the young people via internet (Ghannam 15). Internet has broadened the horizons of the Arab youth that was till now methodically managed and constrained by the more co-opted traditional media. Internet has created a space where dissent can get registered without invoking a direct threat. 3. The US indeed supports the Arab social media in the sense that it extensively politicizes the digital activism in the Arab world, thereby bolstering the zeal of the political activists, without making way for the commensurate safety measures and provisions (Ghannam 18). Though the US professes the internet freedom to be central to its foreign policy, the entire initiative appears to be a sham and double faced in the sense that the US in no way intends to destabilize the political status quo in the friendly Arab dictatorships and monarchies (Ghannam 18). 4. The social media is still at a very nascent stage in the Arab world. However, in a long term context, the social media could be positively expected to have a significant and discernible impact on the masses in the Arab world. Social media has not only increased the magnitude and frequency of people’s access to the divergent view points and possibilities, it has also changed the form and manner in which the people engage with these view points (Ghannam 23). Though social media on its own could not be expected to bring out an immediate political change, it will certainly make way for the emergence of a popular mindset and the requisite institutions, which will facilitate political change in the long run. 5. The internet in the Arab world is indeed acting as a catalyst of change in the sense that it has extended a space to the voices and agents of change, where they can express

The current strengths and weaknesses of sterling Essay

The current strengths and weaknesses of sterling - Essay Example The latter part of the essay deals with some measures that the bank of England could adopt so as to be able to resolve the particular problem that the United Kingdom is facing due to its weak currency. The value of the currency is important for any country because it determines, as Vlaar (2007) states, the position of the country in the world market. The exchange rate (the ratio between the local and foreign currencies) takes into account the present value of the currency of a particular country and ascertains the differences with respect to other currencies. This comparison is necessary because this way the effect of the exchange rates on the import and the export growth can be studied. Exchange rates are a critical determinant of the success of countries in terms of economic development. The impacts of the exchange rate on the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) are far reaching and so it is pertinent to study the values of currencies with respect to other currencies. In this paper, I would focus on the current value of sterling, the currency of the United Kingdom, and compare it to the values of the other major currencies thereby determining its strengths and weaknesses. For the purpose of research I have analyzed a few literature reviews. From the study of the value of sterling in the past two to three years one fact that is quite evident is that the value of sterling has been falling continuously. Although there have been minor deviances from the overall downward trend, for instance the value of the pound sterling rose by one penny against the Euro in February 2009, the value of pound has fallen by 16% with respect to the American Dollar and by 21% with respect to the Euro since early 2008, as Hyde (2010) states. There was a point in September 2009 according to Steiner et al. (2009) when the value of the sterling was even less than 1 â‚ ¬. The rate at which the sterling was exchanged to the Euro was just 0.99. The falling

How Pizza Has Evolved Essay Example for Free

How Pizza Has Evolved Essay As of late, pizza throughout the United States is consumed on a daily basis. Each year, the pizza market is a $30 billion industry. However, during the early years of our country pizza could only be found in high Italian populated neighborhoods located in big cities like Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia. Due to the increase in popularity and marketing strategies to compliment it, pizza went from peasant food in the 1700s to what it has become today. Marketing for pizza was born in 1993 by a pizzeria named Patsy’s. Patsy had the idea of having someone walk down the street eating a slice of their pizza to expose their product. It was genius because as a country our culture is very big on convenience and consistency. Since then marketing for pizza never looked back. Slices at the time were not considered normal but slowly changed peoples attitude about the whole idea. Since then marketing for pizza never looked back. Still the pizza market was small and not extremely profitable. It didn’t really take off until WWI when some troops returned home and expressed in the paper how handy and delicious it was over in Italy. This was great publicity because if the troops, who were stationed in Italy, say it is good it must have some truth in it. In our culture it is socially acceptable to be creative and an individual. So a couple troops created the deep dish pizza which was invented at a place called Pizza Uno in Chicago and they are still serving out pizzas today. As the country was growing and pizza was in more demand, the way about preparing and serving it had to evolve so it would be able to satisfy the consumer’s needs and wants. In 1958 two brothers created a Pizza place like none before. Pizza Hut today is an international franchise with over 6000 stores nationwide. In the beginning Pizza Hut only had one store, but as soon as they realized their business was doing well they expanded. Understanding what the consumers wanted out of their pizza parlor made it easy to branch out and provide their product to people all around the area as consistently as if it were at the original location. Dominos pizza took this idea further and then some. Since time is money and people are always on the go, Dominos was able to satisfy these demanding needs with several strategies. Instead of having to drop everything at that moment and go pick the pizza up, Dominos was able to bring the pizza right to the doorstep for free. To make their brand as consistent as possible and not have one person making a pizza differently from another store Dominos created a strong system for their company. Dominos was able to make a dumbed down process of constructing a pizza, and NASA’s hot air oven to give it that perfect cook every time. All of this was great but there was still a problem with the temperature upon arrival at someone’s house. So to fulfill the customer’s needs of warm pizza, thermal bags were created to sustain the heat for the ride in the car. Finally to push their product and service even further Dominos began to advertise to the customers about their new delivery in 30 minutes or less strategy. It showed that their product was consistent, reliable, and convenient. These two companies have perfected taste and how to serve it promptly to the customers but may be a little pricey at times. A fast and cost effective way to obtain a pizza other than ordering it from a pizzeria is picking one up at the local grocery store. This was just another way of eliminating the intermediaries and giving the people a more simplified choice. Kids have a strong influence in what their parents purchase for them. By placing the take home pizzas at eye level for kids in the freezer section, inclines parents to purchase them more unlike if they were placed up higher where kids would not notice them as much. In recent years customizing has really caught on in American society. Pizza is just another way people are able to express themselves and accomplish the status of individuality. California Pizza Kitchen was able to execute this on a nationwide scale and establish the title of a â€Å"nontraditional pizza co. † giving people the choice to make their pizza any way they like it. Pizza has been molded to form our culture and based off of that culture is how we were able to effectively satisfy the everyday needs and wants of consumers.

Attending Skills Essay Example for Free

Attending Skills Essay Bolton, in his book People Skills (1979), describes attending as giving all of your physical attention to another person. The process of attending, whether you realize it or not, has a considerable impact on the quality of communication that goes on between two people. For example, by attending you are saying to the other person I am intersted in what you have to say, however, a lack of good attending communicates that I really dont care about what you have to say. The body can be used as a tool to facilitate good communication. This is done through positioning the parts of the body so that they invite and hold an interpersonal relation. A relaxed alertness expressed by body posture seems best suited for fostering good communication. Bolton offers these suggestions to establish a posture of involvment: * Lean toward the speaker. This will communicate energy and attentiveness. * Face the other squarly (i. e. , your right sholuder to the speakers left). This communicates your involvment. It is especially important for you to position yourself so that you are at eye level with the speaker if you are seen as a authority figure. This will circumnavigate feelings of threat and can greatly aid in forming an interpersonal relationship. * Maintaining an open posture is also important for fostering interpersonal relatedness. A closed posture (i. e. , crossed arms and or legs) often communicates coldness and defensiveness. * You also need to be aware of your proximity to the speaker. We all have a concept of personal space. When those boundaries are crossed it puts the other on the defensive and makes them feel uncomfortable. However, to much distance communicates aloofness and disconectedness. Body motion, its a funny thing! Have you ever paid attention to what your hands were doing during the course of a conversation? Some of us simply shove them in our pockets or let them hang aimlessly by our sides. Then there are others, like me, who tend to fling them around as if to place some kind of emphasis on each word! There is such a thing as too little and too much. Body motion is good but it can be over done if you are not careful. The purpose of gesturing when you are listening is to encourage the speaker to continue speaking. This can most easily be done with a periodic head nod. A good listener moves his or her body in response to the speaker. Effective eye contact says that you are visually attuned to what the speaker is saying. Good eye contact involves focusing on the speakers face and occasionally shifting the focus to other parts of the body. The key is that the other is aware that they have your attention because your eyes are on them. Good eye contact should seem natural to the other person. What ever you do, dont stare them down. This makes you seem anxious and sometimes critical of them. The environment where the communication takes place is also an important factor in whether an interpersonal relationship can be formed. It is not always posible to move the conversation into a private room or office, but every attempt should be made to reduce the number of distractions that are present. In his book, The Skilled Helper (1998), Gerad Egan offers what he has labled the Micro Skills of Attending. The are very close to the infomation I have presented above from Boltons People Skills. He has developed the following acronym to help counseling students remeber these vital skills in communication. The listener has a specific responsibility in the course of communication. That is to stay out of the speakers way and to try and follow where he or she is leading. The goal of listening is not responding but understanding what is trying to be communicated. A door opener is a noncoercive inivitation to talk. Sometimes door openers are not necessay to get the ball rolling, but may be needed later in the conversation if the speaker does not seem to want to continue. Door openers dont have to be verbal cues, a good listener can also use his or her body to send the signal I am interested, you have my attention, please tell me more. The four elements of a door opener, as discussed, by Bolton are; (1) A discription of the other persons body language (i. e. , you dont look like you are feeling well today. ) (2) An invitation to talk (3) Silence (to give the other person time to decide if they want to talk and what they are going to say. ) (4) Attending (this inclueds all of the attending sk ills that are discused on the attending skills page. ) What on earth are minimal encourages? In the attempt to follow it is important not to become a nonparticipant in the conversation. Minimal encourages refers to the amount the listener speakes and the amount of direction the listener gives to the conversation, which should be very little. Sometimes encouragement is needed but the speaker needs to remain in control of the conversation. The same is true for questioning as is for encouraging. The problem is not questioning itself but the fact that most people do not do it well. Most people ask closed questions that only require specific and short answers such as yes and no. The trick is to ask open questions that are designed to spur the conversation on when it gets stuck. This means that questioning will be relatively infrequent. Finally, attentive silence is one of the most important elements in following the listener. We live in a culture in which silence is not comfortable. We often inturpert it as a cue that we need to jump in and say something. In fact, silence is an opportunity for the speaker to reflect on what he or she has said and to gather their thoughts before their next statment. What we say is not as important as giving the speaker the time he or she needs to clearly communicate their point. An important aspect of listening is to help the listner clarify his or her communication so that they can get their meaning across. To practice reflective listening is to serve as a mirror for the person speaking. One way that the speaker can do this is through paraphrasing. A paraphrase is a conscise response to the speaker that restates the essence of the communication in the listeners own words. The paraphrase deals with facts or ideas and not the emotions. In this respect it focuses the content of the speakers message. Another aspect of reflecting is the mirroring back of the speakers emotions as they make their statments. It is important to tune into the speakers emotions. If we, as listeners, miss the feeling content we have missed a major part of the speakers reaction and experience. Reflecting feelings also give the speaker an opportunity to evaluate how he or she is responding to a problem situation. Not only should the listener reflect feeling, he or she also needs to reflect meaning. Content + feeling = meaning. Sounds simple, doesnt it? But, if you get the feelings wrong or the content wrong then you cant understand the speaker. Reflecting meaning alows you to be sure you are getting what the speaker is saying. Reflecting feeling and content are the baby steps to reflecting meaning. Meaning expression can use the basic empathic formula; you feel _______ because _________ , or some variation on this formla. After a while the formula will disaper and a natural empathic responding style will develop. Finally, there is the concept of sumative reflections. This reflective response is designed to recap the major themes of the conversation and comes after an extended period of the conversation. During the course of the conversation bits of useless information can acrue. The sumation can serve to help the speaker to sort through the litter and to construct a more complete and compact conceptualization of the issue being discussed.

Earthquake Resistant Vernacular Architecture | Analysis

Earthquake Resistant Vernacular Architecture | Analysis The role of Earthquake Resistant Vernacular Architecture in Kashmir Introduction Vernacular architecture is the response from a community or a group of persons needs in regards to the built environment using locally available resources. It is tailored to the climatic, geographic, sociological and aesthetic needs of specific localities and emulates local traditions. As it usually a community based activity without qualified architects, the approach tends to be more unpedigreed and constantly evolving. Rural buildings in Kashmir are designed by the people living there and thus reflect the local cultural heritage as well as the strength of the community itself. In general, buildings in Kashmir have relied entirely on mud, bricks, stone and wood for a long time. In recent times, non-local materials have become more available for the communities living in Kashmir, especially more prosperous regions1. Background Information Indian-administered Kashmir includes Jammu and Kashmir sharing a border with China, in the north and east. Pakistan-administered Kashmir terrorities are Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltisan which are part of the greater Kashmir region. The Kashmir region is on the northern borders of India and Pakistan and the southwestern border of China. Gilgit-Baltisan is the northern most region of Pakistan-administered Pakistan, bordering Azad Kashmir in the south. The irregular topography accounts for the variation in temperature and is largely regulated by the Himalayas, surrounding mountainous and water occupying regions. Despite this, Kashmir has still got four distinct seasons with the highest temperatures reaching over 30 °C and the winter temperatures as low as -4 °C during the nights with snowfall. The climate is known to milder than other surrounding regions to the relatively low altitude2. The soil found in Kashmir is described as clayey, loamy rich and light with alluvial origin. Allu vial soils are known to be more vulnerable to ground failure when seismic vibrations take place. Softer soils are found in Srinagar and across the Valley of Kashmir and they can contribute to making an earthquake last longer3. The economy of the area heavily relies on agriculture with 60% of the area relying on irrigation for major crops such as rice, maize and wheat. There are dense forests that can be divided into two zones (Sub-Himalayan and Himalayan) providing an invaluable source for timber in construction4. Earthquake Risk The Himalayas itself have been created by the collision of two tectonic plates, making it one of the worlds most earthquake prone zones. The Kashmir region is a seismically active experiencing several earthquakes in the Valley of Kashmir throughout history. The boundary of the Indian tectonic plate is colliding with the stationary Eurasian plate creating areas of high stress. Studies show that the Indian tectonic plate moves at 1.8cm a year beneath the Himalayan tectonic plate. Between 1904-2015, there have been 102 earthquakes recorded at this region and there are records dating back to the 15th Century detailing severe earthquakes4. The built environment around Kashmir has changed to help minimise the impact of these earthquakes Initiatives such as the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) collaboration with India in 2006 after the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake have advocated for the preservation of vernacular buildings but also to discuss alternatives in earthquake-resistant buildings with world-renowned international experts5. Evolution of Vernacular Buildings Most of the buildings in the Kashmiri area are constructed because of the communitys adaptation to living in a disaster-prone area. Many towns and villages in Kashmir are found on soft soils or on former prehistoric lakes, therefore it is essential to have characteristic yet simple residential houses. For example, in places with soft water-laden soils, the evolution of timber-laced construction is a necessity for structural survival in the long term. These buildings tend to lean and tilt slightly with little rigidity. For a long time, the heating and cooking systems of these houses has remained intact. Wood-burning stoves were and still are made from easily sourced mud and a copper vessel embedded into the masonry wall to heat up the water. Due to very little additional expenditure, stoves made from galvanized iron sheets have become more popular. Timber-laced masonry construction systems in Kashmir date back to the 12th century, however it was only in the beginning of the 19th centu ry that these systems split into two main traditional construction styles: taq and Dhajji dewari. There has been other earthquake resistant vernacular constructions found in Kashmir after the 2005 earthquake, such as balconies resting on wooden joists, well-designed trusses and ceilings with joists that rested on the wooden built bands spread across walls. There are variations of these styles that are found in heavily mountainous areas where soft soils are not a problem.6 Therefore, the major factors that controlled vernacular architecture are access to good soil for brick-making, to water and to timber, as well as earthquake resistance. Taq (bhatar) buildings Taq buildings are a traditional form of Kashmiri construction and are known for their resistance against earthquakes. The taq system involves load-bearing masonry walls with horizontal timbers embedded in them. The unreinforced masonry is low-strength which is known as masonry laid in lime-sand or mud mortar. The masonry piers are tied together in a ladder-like format by the timber beams in each floor and window level. The symmetrical positioning of windows in a characteristic feature of taqs and is where the name originates from. These timbers resist earthquake collapse by allowing movement of the masonry and the confinement of the brick mud or rubble stone of the wall. The timbers allow an increase in ductility when absorbing the energy released from an earthquake. The full weight of the masonry can be placed on the timber allowing the structure to be held in place. These buildings have enough flexibility to sway in an event of an earthquake. However, the materials in taq are not i ndividually ductile and dont typically exhibit plastic behaviour under stress. Although, since it works as a system, the behaviour that shows this form of flexibility is because of the energy dissipation from the friction between the timbers and the masonry. This friction only occurs when the masonry has been consisted of mortar made from low-strength mud or lime. The Kashmiri house size measurements is defined by the number of window bays, for example, a 5 taq house is five window bays wide. All materials that allow flexibility are easily sourced in Kashmir yet these naturally occurring materials tend not to be strong enough to provide rigidity to the buildings. These ancient taq buildings originally possessed structural and traditional Kashmiri patterns and designs, and held a cultural significance amongst communities7. There has been an area of debate amongst engineers in introducing modern elements to taq buildings, however these have proved to be incompatible. For example, usin g steel reinforcement inside the walls however the rusting of steel when iron converts to iron oxide results in an expansion and thus, the force of this has a negative impact on corresponding materials by breaking them, e.g. the masonry. In addition to this, using steel rods and other incompatible methods such as welding, requires more skill as it is more advance2. Dhajji dewari The Dhajji dewari buildings is a mixture of timber and masonry construction that is also found in non-earthquake zones. Dhajji dewari is a Persian term meaning a patchwork quilt wall. The walls are lighter and thinner and are made of timber framing with infills of brick or sometimes stone masonry. The wall is usually one-half brick thick and then mostly made of timber and masonry. The infil is commonly brick that is made from fired or unfired clay, or rubble stone in more mountainous regions. The vertical and horizontal cage that is formed by the timber frame allows diagonal movement against sheer stress. Timber studs are used to subdivide the infill which help resist the progressive destruction of the wall and of diagonal shear cracks. The buildings are usually found in flat terrain and are detached. They are found in more rural areas since urban areas of Kashmir (e.g. Mirpur, Azad Kashmir) use modern materials such as cement and steel in present time. These materials are affordable to areas where there are less agricultural based jobs, and more industrial based employment. Dhajji buildings in urban areas can also be up to four stories high and more extravagant. In general, Dhajji buildings are mostly found in the western Himalayas in both the Pakistan and Indian-administered sectors of Kashmir. This construction type has been used for over 200 years due to the speed, cost and availability of the resources required to produce these structures. The skill required is not exhaustive for the labour involved and in fact, easier to repair than to make a new house. Dhajji buildings tend to perform better after earthquakes than the original taq buildings, however it cannot be a choice for everyone in the region due to economic means. Despite the locally sourced timber, the judicious use of it in taq and Dhajji buildings means that over the years it has become more in demand, especially post-earthquake times. Towards the 21st century, several people would construct in reinforced concrete however the disadvantages included the poor thermal performance of hollow concrete block construction, this was especially seen in the cold winter seasons. Rich merchants and politicians tend to have very large houses constructed in the Dhajji format and it works as a multi-family housing unit, especially in a region known to have extended families living together. A lot of Dhajji houses are also used for shelter for livestock. Agriculture and farming are an integral part of Kashmiri society, therefore sheltering animals during an earthquake is essential. It is also difficult for communities to move elsewhere in the region since land ownership is the main form of inheritance and records go back to 500 years8. This is another reason why buildings are built upwards on one land plot as well the high density of development in these areas. There is a sense of craftsmanship in making these buildings as simple and reproducible for the community as possible. Cator and Cribbage There are several historic mosques in Srinagar that have employed a cator and cribbage style which is another variation of timber-laced masonry. These structures have also proven to be stable in earthquake-prone regions. The timber-laced masonry is much heavier with a greater use of timber and have been around for approximately 1,000 years. The corners of the building are made of a cribbage of timber with masonry, which connects to the timber belts (cators) running across the walls. These concepts of design come from the Islamic cultural influence from the Middle East, notably in Turkey where it dates back 9,000 years. The walls would usually have religious carvings and symbolism8. Fig.5: Cater and Cribbage technique A comparison of Modern Vernacular Architecture with Traditional Vernacular Architecture After the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake with a high magnitude of 7.6 killed approximately 80,000 people and over 3 million Kashmiris left homeless. Despite the government introducing more steel and reinforced construction over the last 20 years, it made little difference to the impact that the earthquake had, infact Dhajji and bhatar construction turned out to be more stable. This result from reinforced concrete has been witnessed in other earthquakes e.g. Ahmedabad in 2001 and Iran in 20038. Survival rates of those trapped under these constructions was higher than those trapped under concrete based buildings. There has been a modernization of cities such as Srinagar involving the replacement of masonry and timber based constructions with reinforced concrete, affecting the aesthetic appeal of the traditional buildings. Local traditional design usually involves large windows for the summer seasons, however with concrete houses, central heating during the harsh winters is poor and a large ma jority of Kashmiris fall into the lower economical class where they cant afford the fuel to heat up their homes. Due to their flexibility over the years, Taq and Dhajji buildings have showcased that they can survive low to medium Richter Scale earthquakes. Using natural occurring resources such as mud mortar and locally available supplies such as bricks and wood have allowed Kashmiri traditional houses to have a lower level of thermal conductivity than concrete, and thus greater insulation. This is a crucial need for those living in Kashmir because although the summers are short, they can be very warm therefore a house without windows is futile. The materials used for these structures is also useful in the sense that they were recyclable, and it was easier to re-build or reuse the materials for another purpose after an earthquake. This is much more difficult for a concrete building. There are more problems left for the residents after a concrete house has collapsed, such as the removal of debris and rescuing survivors. However there has been strain on the timber supplies due to the deforestatio n rate increasing as the number of earthquakes and population increase. This has led to a larger number of cement plants in Kashmir. Although, high-strength cement-based mortar is now a generic material recommended by most engineers for building on earthquake areas, but Kashmir which experiences considerably larger earthquakes, the mortar ceases to make a beneficial difference once the walls of the building begin cracking. With timber-based masonry, the low strength mortar is used to hold the bricks apart, rather than together allowing the dissipation of the earthquakes energy to other units of the structure. Therefore, internal damping is an area that differs between both kinds of buildings. In addition to these construction problems, many people in the region are more likely to have poor construction practice (due to the more complicated procedures and skills) such as poor mixing or inadequate hydration of concrete which increases the likelihood of a collapse. Tourism has also become an economically beneficial industry in the Kashmir regions providing new employment for its communities, therefore the need to keep its natural attractions is crucial. Prices of timber have increased over the years too and the cost to maintain wood structures has deterred many residents. Overall, the need for modernization and emulating westernization standards of housing has shifted what the communities want, rather than need. Taq and Dhajji dewari have become a symbol of the old times and the prevalence of architecture as a profession has helped create this shift. International architects and engineers have introduced new ideas and concepts to an area that has little similarity to other places in the world, due to its unique geography and climate. The consequences of the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake have caused a detachment from traditional architecture, despite the uniqueness and the performance of it under previous natural disasters. Using Vernacular approaches in Modern Times: Yasmeen Lari One architect that has adopted a vernacular approach in the Kashmir regions is Yasmeen Lari. Lari is Pakistans first female architect. She has been known to be an advocate for the preservation of historical and cultural Pakistani sites. Like others in Kashmir, she has a keen interest in maintaining cultural heritage yet also having a modern perspective. She has built 45,000 structures since 2010 withstanding earthquakes and even flash floods. Lari has also created the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan employing architecture students to teach and train the local community to build more sustainable homes. The foundation aims to increase the involvement of women in rebuilding their homes after natural disasters. Previously, male family members would be part of the community activity of rebuilding and restoration due to cultural reasons. Her technique involves using mud, bamboo, lime and mix lime with mud to create a strong foundation for buildings. The pillars of the houses consist of bam boo roofs, the walls are made from a mixture of mud, lime and other locally sourced material. The rood is known as the Karavan roof, whereby the bamboo can last for 25 years when covered with straw matting, and to make it waterproof a layer of tarpaulin and pozzolana is added. The sizes of the houses range from a single room to a larger room suitable for 5 people, kitchen, bathroom and verandah. After 3 years, it was found that these houses were still standing and in good condition. The reluctance to use cement, steel and burnt bricks for her was since these high-cost materials dont work as efficiently under a disaster situation. It also provides help to communities that arent as economically stable as others in Kashmir (e.g. Mirpur in Pakistan has a large British Pakistani population allowing greater expenditure on buildings) and are not in favour of modernisation. The idea behind Laris concept is the same that has been used in Kashmir for years before modernisation occurred, it ba sically ensures that buildings are simple enough to be rebuilt by inhabitants when in need. The importance of local involvement has been witnessed in the building of Taq and Dhajji Dewari buildings. Laris main objective is to enhance the focus on heritage methodology and learn from the past and advocate zero-cost and zero-carbon solutions9. Conclusion In current times, the Dhajji dewari system is still being used in and adapted in places such as Srinagar, although the principles are the same, new additions such as mud mixed with straw for brick infill are being explored. However, the shift to reinforced concrete buildings is noticeable and has left some taq and Dhajji buildings out of fashion. The combination of vernacular techniques and methods with modern materials and technology are slowly being advocated by groups such as UNESCO. Taq and Dhajji dewari systems have become a symbol of continuity and tradition. The idea of improving the quality of life by modernization has overshadowed the need for traditional timber-based masonry buildings in an extremely earthquake zone. The evolution of earthquake resistance buildings in Kashmir has been rushed to the most generic and common answer (reinforced cement construction), but the disadvantages of this have been witnessed by communities, especially poorer communities. Older designs te nd to complement the climate and the resources available to a higher degree but reverting completely back to them is not ideal. There is general rediscovery of the advantages of old fashioned methods by the government too and a conscious shift to a pre-modern Kashmir but with also new building science. References Vernacular Architecture By Henry Glassie pg 12 Living in Harmony with the Four Elements 12-14 December 2010 Earthquake Resistant Traditional Construction is Not an Oxymoron* The Resilience of Timber and Masonry Structures in the Himalayan Region and Beyond, and its Relevance to Heritage Preservation in Bhutan By Randolph Langenbach Auerbachs Wilderness Medicine By Paul S. Auerbach, Tracy A Cushing, N. Stuart Harris pg 1926 History of Natural Disasters in Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Kashmir with Special Reference to Earthquakes Sidrat Ul Muntaha Anees M. Sultan Bhat Dont Tear it Down!Text and Photographs by Randolph Langenbach Preserving the Earthquake Resistant Vernacular Architecture of KashmirBOOK EXCERPT:Showing Forword, (2) pages 59-61: Section 3.6.2 corner vertical rebar in taq [timber-laced masonry bearing wall] constructionand definition of taq and dhajji dewari construction. FROM:Orig inal publication Info:Produced by UNESCO Cultures and Disasters: Understanding Cultural Framings in Disaster Risk edited by Fred Krà ¼ger, Greg Bankoff, Terry Cannon, Benedikt Orlowski, E. Lisa F. Schipper pg 65 Traditional Earthquake Resistant System Kashmir Mohd Akeeb Dar Sajad Ahmad Hazards and the Built Environment: Attaining Built-in Resilience International Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering Research ISSN 2348-7607 (Online) Vol. 2, Issue 2, pp: (86-92), Month: October 2014 March 2015, Available at: www.researchpublish.com Building of a disaster By Shahnawaz Khan Srinagar, July 3, 2014:  http://www.tabletwoproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Yasmeen-Lari.pdf

Pearl Harbor :: essays research papers

Pearl Harbor was the beginning of a war between two countries that would last nearly 4 years and cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The attack was swift and successful for the Japanese and it caught the Americans totally off guard. The â€Å"Day that will live in infamy† drew the United States into a World War in which would change American history forever. The political climate in the pacific area in 1940 was filled with turmoil. The Japanese had extended their empire south through French Indochina and the Japanese Army was invading China, conquering a third of the country. The United States of America was shocked to see this after witnessing Hitler and his Nazi's conquer most of Europe. So, the American's had placed embargoes on their extensive trade with Japan and both countries were negotiating to try to solve their differences. The U.S. tried to negotiate with the Japanese to try to avoid war, trying to convince them that if war broke out between Japan and the United States, Japan, in the long run, would be devastated. So, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Japanese ambassador Namura and Kiruzo talked on how to solve this crisis. These negotiations proceeded into the summer of 1941.By this time, the Japanese had realized that if they wanted to expand their empire, they would have to fight America and, possibly, her allies. So, they decided to fight. But, in order for Japan to fight America on even terms, they would have to move south, into the East Indies (where there was a lot of raw materials for the Japanese War Machine), which, at that time, were controlled by the western powers: Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, and the United States. But, there was another thorn in Japan's side, the United States Pacific Fleet was moved from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This was a knife at Japan's throat. If they decided to move south, then the Americans would attack. So, the Japanese had to come up with a plan to get rid of this threat. They called upon their new Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. He saw that the British, in 1940, torpedoed the Italian fleet at Toranto using old Fairy Swordfish torpedo bombers. So, Yamamoto thought if the British could use old biplanes to sink three battleships at Toranto, then he could use his modern Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers and Aichi D3A dive bombers to destroy more. Pearl Harbor :: essays research papers Pearl Harbor was the beginning of a war between two countries that would last nearly 4 years and cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The attack was swift and successful for the Japanese and it caught the Americans totally off guard. The â€Å"Day that will live in infamy† drew the United States into a World War in which would change American history forever. The political climate in the pacific area in 1940 was filled with turmoil. The Japanese had extended their empire south through French Indochina and the Japanese Army was invading China, conquering a third of the country. The United States of America was shocked to see this after witnessing Hitler and his Nazi's conquer most of Europe. So, the American's had placed embargoes on their extensive trade with Japan and both countries were negotiating to try to solve their differences. The U.S. tried to negotiate with the Japanese to try to avoid war, trying to convince them that if war broke out between Japan and the United States, Japan, in the long run, would be devastated. So, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Japanese ambassador Namura and Kiruzo talked on how to solve this crisis. These negotiations proceeded into the summer of 1941.By this time, the Japanese had realized that if they wanted to expand their empire, they would have to fight America and, possibly, her allies. So, they decided to fight. But, in order for Japan to fight America on even terms, they would have to move south, into the East Indies (where there was a lot of raw materials for the Japanese War Machine), which, at that time, were controlled by the western powers: Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, and the United States. But, there was another thorn in Japan's side, the United States Pacific Fleet was moved from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This was a knife at Japan's throat. If they decided to move south, then the Americans would attack. So, the Japanese had to come up with a plan to get rid of this threat. They called upon their new Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. He saw that the British, in 1940, torpedoed the Italian fleet at Toranto using old Fairy Swordfish torpedo bombers. So, Yamamoto thought if the British could use old biplanes to sink three battleships at Toranto, then he could use his modern Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers and Aichi D3A dive bombers to destroy more.

Animal Emotions Essay -- essays papers

Animal Emotions Do animals feel joy, love, fear, anguish or despair? What ere emotions, and perhaps more importantly, how do scientists prove animals are capable of emotion? Sea lion mothers have often been seen wailing painfully and squealing eerily as they watch their babies being eaten by killer whales. Buffaloes have also been observed sliding playfully across ice, excitedly screaming â€Å"Gwaaa.† Emotions are defined broadly as psychological phenomena that help in behavioral management and control. This is a challenging question to researchers who are trying to determine the answer to this question. Through current research by close observation combined with neurobiological research, evidence that animals exhibit fear, joy happiness, shame, embarrassment, resentment, jealousy, rage, anger, love, pleasure, compassion, respect, relief, disgust, sadness, despair, and grief is likely. Charles Darwin said, â€Å"The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happines s, and misery.† I agree with Darwin. I believe animals do exhibit emotions, and denying that animals have emotions because the subject cannot be studied directly is not a reasonable explanation. One recent headline in the news showed an extraordinary event on film. When a three-year-old boy fell into a gorilla enclosure at the zoo, and was knocked unconscious. A female Gorilla named Binti Jua picked up the boy, and cradled him in her arms as if he was her own. The gorilla then gently carried the boy over to the caretaker’s door and set him down. Did the gorilla feel empathy for the boy? By watching the film alone the gorilla seemed to show emotions for the boy, but without studying the animal neurobiologically scientists cannot understand how her emotions and cognitions were linked. One scientist, Damasio, provided an explanation how emotions can be felt in humans biologically. Damasio suggested, â€Å"Various brain structures map both the organism and external objects to create what he calls a second order representation. This mapping of the organism and the object most likely occurs in the thalamus and cingulate cortices. A sense of self in the act of knowing is created, and the individual knows â€Å"to whom this is happening.† The â€Å"seer† and the â€Å"seen,† the â€Å"thought† and the â€Å"thinker† are one in the same.† By mapping the brain scientists can have a better understandi... ...ung children. He said â€Å"A greylag goose that has lost its partner shows all the symptoms that John Bowlby has described in young human children in his famous book Infant Grief. . . the eyes sink deep into their sockets, and the individual has an overall drooping experience, literally letting their head hang.† Elephants stand guard over a stillborn baby for days with their head and their ears hanging down like they were sad. The experiments and other data show that animals are not just driven by instincts alone. There is more to them than that. It is hard to watch dogs play and believe that they derive no fun or pleasure from it at all. Animals have shown that they are sensitive to their social surroundings. They punish one another and alleviate other’s pain. Some monkeys in established communities attack those that find food and don’t share. These studies are important. A better understanding of how animals are feeling could create a whole new guideline of rules on the way animals should be treated. Humans should not be so arrogant to believe they are the only animals capable of emotion. How are we capable of seeing from their viewpoint and assume they feel no emotion.

violence in movies Essay -- essays research papers

If you watch movies these days you know you’re sure to see some sort of violence whether it be a killing, beating, or some kind of cruel act. Now every time you watch TV, you are likely to see a commercial promoting a new movie with a catch title such as â€Å"Scream† or â€Å"Fear.† Whether you think these movies are necessary or not, production companies know they will get the viewers and this is why they keep making them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I was watching a movie the other day, with my lovely girlfriend of course, by the name of â€Å"The Matrix.† The title caught both our eyes as we browsed the aisles of the movie store searching for something good to watch. Seeing that my girlfriend does like violence in movies and thinks its unreal, it seemed like a good enough choice for me. The back of the box showed nothing of violence and the description gave no hints to shootings and killings. The beginning of the movie went well but about a half hour into it, as soon as we could blink our eyes, one of the characters pulls out about twelve machine guns planning to kill the whole city I guess. After blasting all 10,000 of the bullets into the ten guys he was trying to kill, my girlfriend got right up, marched over to the VCR in disgust, and pushed stop before I could get one word of protest out. As you can see, these days there’s not much you can do to get away from watching a movie with even a l ittle violence in it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Why is it that violence attracts us t...

Free Fall Lab

Free Fall Lab Natalie Soria Lab Partners: Ryan Michaely Iqra Haji Yan Huang 1. Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is to determine the acceleration due to gravity by observing the motion of a free falling object. 2. Equipment Used: A. Timer Switch B. Time-of-Flight Accessory C. Control Box D. AC adapter E. Drop Box F. Steel ball G. Solid gold ball H. Big plastic ball 3. Method Used: 1) Place the steel ball on the drop box. 2) Set the timer to â€Å"Time: Two Gates† mode. 3) Measure the distance between the bottom of the ball and the plate and record in table 4) Release the ball using the timer switch and record the time it takes to fall. ) Change the distance and repeat step (4) until table is complete 6) Repeat steps (3) – (5) with solid golf ball 7) Repeat steps (3) – (5) with big plastic ball 4. Diagram: Time-Of-Flight Accessory Time-Of-Flight Accessory Timer Switch Timer Switch Timer Timer DROPBOX DROPBOX 5. Data: STEEL BALL Table 1: Determining the accel eration of the steel ball dropped Distance (M)| Time(S)| Time(S2)| 0. 80m| 0. 4074s| 0. 166s2| 0. 75m| 0. 3969s| 0. 1575s2| 0. 70m| 0. 3809s| 0. 1451s2| 0. 65m| 0. 3692s| 0. 1363s2| 0. 60m| 0. 3546s| 0. 1257s2| 0. 55m| 0. 3438s| 0. 1182s2| SOLID GOLF BALLTable 2: Determining the acceleration of the solid golf ball dropped Distance (M)| Time(S)| Time(S2)| 0. 80m| 0. 4044s| 0. 1635s2| 0. 75m| 0. 3906s| 0. 1526s2| 0. 70m| 0. 3785s| 0. 1433s2| 0. 65m| 0. 3643s| 0. 1363s2| 0. 60m| 0. 3494s| 0. 1257s2| 0. 55m| 0. 3390s| 0. 1182s2| PLASTIC BALL Table 3: Determining the acceleration of the plastic ball dropped Distance (M)| Time(S)| Time(S2)| 0. 80m| 0. 4111s| 0. 169s2| 0. 75m| 0. 4026s| 0. 1621s2| 0. 70m| 0. 3849s| 0. 1481s2| 0. 65m| 0. 3698s| 0. 1368s2| 0. 60m| 0. 3553s| 0. 1262s2| 0. 55m| 0. 3382s| 0. 1144s2| 6. Calculations: Determining Avg. Time for each trialWith formulas:With numbers: T1+T2+T3 = Avg. T (S)(. 4072s) + (. 4078s) + (. 4073s) = Avg. T(S) 33 .4074s = Avg. T (S) Determinin g T2 With formulas:With numbers: T = S2 T = (0. 4111s)2 T = 0. 169s2 7. Conclusions: The objective was to determine acceleration due to the effects of gravity. Gravity stayed constant through the whole experiment. Source of error could be due to measuring between ball and mat inaccurately. Answers to questions (1) Using our kinematics equations and the concept of a straight line (y=mx+b), show that the graphs made in part (7) should indeed be a straight line.What should the theoretical values for the slope and y-intercept be for this graph? (2) What are the actual values of the slope and y-intercept for the three graphs. Compare these to the theoretical values. Calculate the gravitational acceleration for all three balls from this information. (3) Comment on why the acceleration due to gravity is less for the plastic ball than the others. Give some ideas why you think this particular ball would behave like this and the other balls would not. The gravitational acceleration due to gra vity is the same for every object, the total acceleration is not.Acceleration is reduced a bit by the particular mass of the ball. In cases where â€Å"m† is large (like the steel ball and golf ball), the factor will be small and therefore falling at almost the same acceleration. But in the case where â€Å"m† is small (like the plastic hallow ball) the factor could be large, and therefore the balls acceleration could be significantly less due to the hollowness of the ball. Although the plastic ball is bigger in size, its mass is lighter. (4) A ball is thrown upward. While the ball is in the air, does its acceleration increase, decrease, or remain the same?Describe what happens to the velocity of the object from when it is thrown until when it returns. While in the air, the balls acceleration would remain the same. When the ball is thrown, its velocity is positive and decreasing as it’s going up, and at the highest point, the velocity is zero. When it’s c oming back down, the velocity is negative and increasing. (5) Explain conceptually (without using equations) what the shape of Distance vs. Time would look like for a ball falling to the ground. Use kinematics to explain why it would be like this. The falling ball is moving at a constant rate ( 9. 80 ms-2 )

Robert Frost is an American poet – What do you find specifically American in his poems and what do you find is universal?

Robert Frost wrote many poems about everyday rural life that are closely linked with human emotions. Most of his poems contain hidden meanings that are not clear at first sight. Firstly, I will talk of the specifically American aspects in Frost's poems. One thing sometimes found in Frosts poems that is American is the place in which the poem is set. The locations of Frosts poems often give a feeling of wide stretching forests and fields that go on for miles that don't exist in many other countries. â€Å"I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line† This phrase, from â€Å"Mending Wall†, immediately suggests vast amounts of space as the speaker talks of, â€Å"beyond the hill†, having a hill on ones land indicates that it must be spacious, and, â€Å"we meet to walk the line†, this ‘walking the line' gives an image of a boundary between two sizeable pieces of territory. â€Å"After Apple-Picking† also gives a sense of immense space with its' title and subject matter. The title tells the reader of the event that is occurring in Frost's orchard. Having an orchard on ones property implies a huge amount of land is owned. â€Å"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood†, â€Å"And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth† These phrases from â€Å"The Road Not Taken† also indicate a vast space. The second of the two phrases especially does this as the path travels so far in to the enormous wood that the speaker can not see its' end, he can only see where it bends further on. â€Å"Some boy too far away from town to learn baseball† This line from â€Å"Birches† also emphasizes the space in America. The fact that a boy I too far from the nearest town to learn how to play baseball shows that there is a lot of room between heavily populated areas. Robert Frost uses the landscape's size to indicate a feeling of isolation and loneliness. Another American aspect of Frost's poems are certain word spellings and place names. â€Å"neighbor† – Mending Wall â€Å"color† – Gathering Leaves â€Å"Vermont† – Out, Out! â€Å"woodchuck† – After Apple Picking â€Å"Axe-helve† – Axe-helve The first two phrases are spelling differences from United Kingdom English. â€Å"Vermont† is a state in America. â€Å"woodchuck† is an animal native to America and an â€Å"Axe-helve† is the American way of saying axe handle. However, I believe that these parts of the poems are superficial and aren't really important to the poem's content and idea. American traditions are also sometimes mentioned in Frost's poems. â€Å"I like to think some boy's been swinging on them† This line, from â€Å"Birches†, talks of the tradition of swinging from branches of birch trees. The speaker tells the reader of how young boys, who are far away from a town and other young children, like to swing from branches. â€Å"Birches† also mentions another American tradition, â€Å"Some boy too far away from town to learn baseball† Lastly, I will discuss the distinctive American climate that is portrayed in Frost's poems. â€Å"We sit indoors and talk of the cold outside. And every gust that gathers strength and heaves Is a threat to the house.† It is not often that you see climates like this outside of America, Especially not in the United Kingdom. â€Å"He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.† This line is from â€Å"Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening. This is also very much an American climate. Snow is quite rare in most other countries including the United Kingdom, particularly to the extent shown in this poem. I will now talk of the Universal aspects in Frost's poems. One aspect of Frost's poems that is not centred on America is human emotions and philosophies. For example, at first sight â€Å"Mending Wall† seems to be a poem about two men building a wall between their two properties, however, the poem has a hidden meaning. The poem is really focused on the human barriers that people put up between themselves and others and the traditional views that the speaker disagrees with. This is a main characteristic of Frost's poems and is featured in most of his work. There is also a hidden meaning in â€Å"Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening†. On the surface the poem talks about a man who stops by some woods to watch them fill up with snow, however, its hidden meaning is about a man who seems somewhat weary of life and he wants to take a â€Å"time out†, but he can not do this as he has other responsibilities to adhere to. Another example of this is the poem â€Å"The Road Not Taken†. This poem talks of a man trying to decide which road to talk in a wood. Its hidden meaning is about the choices we have to make and how we can come to wonder if we have chosen the right path. Also other aspects of Frost's poems that are universal are his verse structures and some of his rhyme patterns. However, also some of his rhyme patterns were unique and exclusive to him. An example of this can be taken from â€Å"Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening†. He uses the same rhyme sound for each line in the four-lined verse, except for line three when he uses a new rhyme sound. He then carries this rhyme down to the next verse as the common rhyme sound and so on. When he reaches the last verse the rhyme sounds are all the same. This is a very clever technique as it makes the poem flow well and allows the reader to see the interconnecting superficial theme and hidden meaning. Also by keeping the rhyme sound constant in the last verse he makes his final point stand out and rounds off the poem. In conclusion, I would say that on the whole Frost's poems are universal and have universal appeal as they deal mainly with human emotions. The aspects of his poems that are specific to America are superficial and have no real relation to the poems themes and ideas.

Critical Review of On Coffee Talk and Break-Room Chatter: Perceptions of Women Who Gossip in the Workplace

Farley, Timme, and Hart's (2010) article describes a study, which investigated the perceptions of female gossipers within the workplace. Approximately 500 students were asked to complete an online survey, 87 of whom (aged from 23 to 64) completed all 54 items. A questionnaire was conducted which included demographic items, and the subscales of a modified FIRO-B. Participants were arbitrarily allocated to a condition and were asked to â€Å"think of a female co-worker who frequently or rarely contributes negative information about other people during conversation† (Farley et al. p. 365) and then evaluate the target using a modified version of Schutz’s (1958) FIRO-B, which is a measuring instrument that contains six scales of nine-item questions (cited in Farley et al, 2010). Participants then judged the female co-worker on a five-point Likert-Type scale. The results showed that high gossipers were rated as needing to express more control than low gossipers. The participa nts also rated the high gossipers as wanting others to control them less than low gossipers.Furthermore, high gossipers were rated as less emotionally close with their peers than low gossipers. These findings support the hypothesis that high gossipers would obtain higher ratings on the express control dimension than low gossipers. The results also support the hypothesis that high gossipers would be rated as less likely to want others to put forth power over them than low gossipers. Farley et al. ‘s (2010) experiment needs a small degree of critiquing. For one, it uses a poor assortment of participants, as the sample is too constricted to make any real generalizations.Participants were recruited via email. This method of assignment would have led to unequal groups in terms of demographic characteristics such as different ages and gender (cited in Farley et al, 2010). Older people may be more judgmental of gossiping than younger people; therefore this may hinder the final result s. Also, the experimenter only used females in the questionnaire, drawing on the myth that the majority of gossipers are females; therefore it does not generalize to everyone in the workplace.There may well have been an interaction effect between gossipers and gender; therefore males as well as females should have been included in the questionnaire. Furthermore, I am not satisfied with how the authors defined ‘gossip’; in fact there is no clear statement delineating ‘gossip’. The lack of the experimenters’ control over the independent variable (gender) makes it a subject variable as opposed to a manipulated variable, therefore it is a quasi experiment and you cannot infer causality from the results.