Water Quality Of Water Pollution - 1456 Words

The purpose of the succeeding article is to weigh the opinions of two different sources concerning the topic of water pollution. Many people neglect the water issue due to the fact that it does not necessarily pertain to them. However, there are several complications that should definitely be brought to awareness among the public. This article uses two sources to explain why and how the activities of humans contributes to the poisoning of the world’s water supply, and how the articles use argumentative such as ethos, logos, and pathos to justify and compare their position. A Contamination Crisis The pollutants affecting water quality is a major issue affecting every community on a global scale. Whether individuals suffer from lack of†¦show more content†¦They actively portray this by stating â€Å"Polluted drinking water or water polluted by chemicals produced waterborne diseases like, Giardiasis, Amoebiasis, Hookworm, Ascariasis, Typhoid, Liver and kidney damage, Alzheimer’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, multiple Sclerosis, Hormonal problems that can disorder development and reproductive processes, Cancer, heart disease, damage to the nervous system, different type of damages on babies in womb, Parkinson’s disease, Damage to the DNA and even death, meanwhile, polluted beach water contaminated people like stomach aches, encephalitis, Hepatitis, diarrhoea, vomiting, gastroenteritis, respiratory infections, ear ache, pink eye and rashes,† (Marica, Corches, 2016, para. 5). This statement appeals to the emotional aspect by explaining how c ontaminated water can cause several different diseases and problematic complications. It explains how certain cases have caused errors in infants to appeal to the emotions of those with children, or uses cancerous aspects to gain the attention of those who have endured, or know someone who had endured, something similar to what is being explained. They use these examples to gain domination over the pathos, or emotional, aspect caused by water pollution. The article attempts to gain attention to the logical, or logos, side of an argument by providing examples and procedures to determine the amount ofShow MoreRelatedThe Quality Of Water Pollution1540 Words   |  7 Pagesmain component of water pollution. Produces greater rates of algae growth in ponds, streams, and lakes dissolving oxygen from water and eliminating aquatic organisms (Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program). Benthic Invertebrates An organism without a backbone or relating to other creatures without a backbone (Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program). Profusion An abundance, larger quantities, plenty of a chosen thing Water quality Characteristics that are relative and within water. A component thatRead MoreWater Pollution and Drinking Water Quality Essay937 Words   |  4 Pagesfighting to keep their drinking water clean. Whether it’s streams, rivers, or lakes, countries have taken great measures to maintain high quality drinking water for both human consumption and animal consumption. Countries must first understand the sources of the polltion, then determine the best methods to eliminate the pollution. Clean drinking water is a valuable resource and a the key to human survival. Plants and animals also depend on water for their growth, so all water must be kept clean. The majorRead MoreThe Impact Of River Macroinvertebrates On The Chemical Indices Of Water Quality And Pollution2716 Words   |  11 Pagesammonia or BOD in the water relate to the families of macroinvertebrates present. Different methods have been used to help collect and identify macroinvertebrates and monitor pollution levels. This re view mainly focuses on the kick sampling technique for collecting macroinvertebrates. It then describes the methods that are used to collect the levels of ammonia, phosphorus, BOD and nitrogen. Foy et al (2001) wished to access the effectiveness of regulatory controls on farm pollution using chemical andRead MoreEffects Of Water Pollution Essay786 Words   |  4 Pagesis water resource. It has polluted the water systems such as rivers, lakes, and oceans negatively for people, animals and plants. Water pollution has affected people in some ways. For example, it influenced human health and industrial production. Climate change can cause changes in people’s living environment. A research shows that in the parts of the land area with more rainfall, because of the increasing water level people drink more water from Earth’s surface. But the quality of the water fromRead MoreThe Impact Of Freshwater On Water Pollution Essay1547 Words   |  7 PagesStorm Water Pollution 1. Introduction Freshwater is a valuable resource that is required for people to survive. Only 1% of the freshwater on the planet is available for human use (National Geographic, 2015). Therefore water is a precious resource however human actions such as farming and pollution are degrading freshwater sources. This report seeks to find out how Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) contributes to Storm Water pollution and other issues related to Storm Water. Firstly it willRead MorePhilippine Environment Code1477 Words   |  6 PagesCode is a body of laws settling forth management policies and prescribing quality standards for the environment in its totality. †¢ Provided a comprehensive program of environmental protection and management. The Code established specific environment management policies and prescribes environmental quality standards. AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT The purposes of this Title are: a. to achieve and maintain such levels of air quality as to protect public health; and b. to prevent to the greatest extent practicableRead MoreIn America, Air Pollution Was An Insidious Problem That1486 Words   |  6 Pages air pollution was an insidious problem that became so great that the government had to step in and create laws in order to regulate human activity involving pollutants. Humans generate air pollution through the combustion of fossil fuels and wood, driving a motorized vehicle, and industrial processes, such as the smelting of heavy metals. Most air pollution exists in urban areas where heavy industries prevail. The Industrial Revolution in the late twentieth century caused air pollution to greatlyRead MoreThe Need to Control Water Pollution645 Words   |  3 Pages When you turn on the tap and drink a glass of water, Does it taste funny? Is it clear? The water you are drinking may be toxic without any such indicators. Water is all around us; it is essential for life. Over two thirds of earth’s surface is covered by water, but everyone only wants and need clean water. Each year, water pollution increases and continues to be responsible for harming our environment. According to Duhigg (2009) of the New York Times, more than 100 wells were polluted by agriculturalRead MoreWater Pollution And Its Impacts On Water Body1682 Words   |  7 Pages1 Back Ground Among all natural resource, water is one of the most important to sustain the living planet, earth and every form of life on its face, including human being. It is an integral part of human’s activities including domestic, agriculture, transport, industry, power generation and recreation. Moreover, the normal uses of human body depends entirely on adequate quantity and quality of water. But pure water does not exist by default in its quality due to natural interaction among the earth’sRead MoreThe Ganges River Of India951 Words   |  4 PagesIndia is an important river system that provides water for personal use, industry, and agriculture for well over half a million people. This river also serves a major role in the region’s cultural and religious practices. It is widely believed that this body of water is the Earthly manifestation of the Hindu goddess Ganga. For thousands of years, people have believed that Ganga can wash away a lifetime of sins and, therefor e, no amount of pollution can harm her (Conway). As a result of this belief

William Tennyson s Ulysses And The Tradition Of The Odyssey

After centuries of serving background noise to her husband Ulysses’ odes of sea storms, sirens, and celebrity, the mythological Penelope finally steps into the light in Miriam Waddington’s poetic work â€Å"Ulysses Embroidered.† Functioning as a revisionary text to both the Alfred, Lord Tennyson work â€Å"Ulysses† and the tradition of The Odyssey itself, â€Å"Ulysses Embroidered† quickly strikes its readers as a fiercely feminist re-envisioning of Penelope and the story she offers up. Waddington’s work allows for an age-old legend to be told in a new way with a bold, feminine speaker, but to what end do her changes remark on Tennyson’s original work? By engaging in two separate modes of revision by both reading against the grain and â€Å"constantly†¦show more content†¦This transfer of the power of voice plays out similarly within Waddington’s diction choices as pitched against those of Tennyson. While Tennyson brin gs to great detail the admirable bravado and intimate victories of Ulysses’ journeys, the same marvels are expressed differently through Waddington’s perspective. These events are mentioned, but by listing in passing, not in Ulysses’ terms of conquest and action. While Ulysses takes the place of a passive character and only performs an action in his coming home and â€Å"climbing the stairs,† Penelope fills the seat of the active rescuer and change-maker (25). She truly has a chance to describe him like Tennyson’s speaker offhandedly refers to her and to do so in new terms. Thus it is within Waddington’s diction choices about the actions of Penelope, not Ulysses, that her stanzas most reflect the gallant rhetoric akin to Tennyson’s work. From when â€Å"her stitches embroider the painful colors of her breath,† to her creation of Ulysses as â€Å"a medallion emblazoned in tapestry,† Penelope’s labors in the creati on and retelling of her husband constitute the most powerful language in the work (Waddington 37-40, 30-32). Here, the facade of her â€Å"blind hands† falls away to reveal the true potency of Penelope’s situation as creator and overseer. This very idea of blindness used by Tennyson and Homer’s speakers to disregard Penelope as old, naive to truth, and inane for her endless and fruitless weaving is notably alluded to twice

Bahamas Electricity Corporation Free Essays

The Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) is a government owned corporation. The corporation supplies electricity in the Bahamas except for the Grand Bahama and Inagua where their supply of electricity is outsourced. (www. We will write a custom essay sample on Bahamas Electricity Corporation or any similar topic only for you Order Now fortune. com, 2005). The current minister in charge of its operation is the Minister of Public Works and Utilities, Phenton Newmour. Its current general manger is Kevin Basden. The Corporation was founded in the year 1956 through the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and Electricity Act. In the year 1994, there have been several issues in the Bahamas Electricity Corporation regarding the corruption of the employees. There are also issues regarding the fulfillment of the agreements that the corporation had promised to its union members. The following problems would be discussed in the next few paragraphs II. Corruption inside BEC In the year 2004, it had been stressed in an article written by Candia Dames that Corruption had struck in the BEC. Loss of about $100 million over the last five years had been estimated. According to Dames (2004),these losses was due to the business persons and BEC employees conspiracy that involves the practice of meter tampering. In the year 2003, the new figures reveal that the company had lost a total of $ 18. 54 Million in non-technical losses. New Providence accounted for 79. 82% or $ 14. 79 Million in losses and 20. 19% or 3. 75 Million Dollars. Possible consequences that could happen because of these assumed conspiracy is that the reputation of the company could be torn to shreds and as such, the people’s trust would definitely decrease. It had been further explained that the company had used several countermeasures to avoid further losses. According to Ms. Dames, the company would be putting a new electricity consumption meters which is read automatically. The meters would be put into place and a precautionary had also been added as a feature of the meters which can be read automatically. Another reason why this particular device had been chosen is because the company would want to avoid the BEC workers to under read the meter which had been a cause of the losses that the company had incurred. III. Union Destabilization According to the article, the BEC needed to fulfill its side of the contract in Bahamas Electrical Workers Union. At the end of 2003, the union members in BEC had made several demands to the company. Among the issues that they wanted to be resolved are wage increases and improved pension funds. Current contribution that the company makes amount to 13%of each workers’ salary to the pension fund. However, an actuarial report had been shown about the pension fund. It shows that the company is not putting enough money for the pension funds of the employees. Based on the report, the underfunded amount is around $22 million. The solution that the company had thought of is to makeup for the shortfalls of the company by increasing contributions to 16. 6%. Computing the total annual increase, the 16. 6% shows an annual increase of $4. 5 million to $5. 7 million. Even though the company had already established this, the union had still demanded for an increase of 26. 2% which means that the annual contribution must be $7. 6 million. The company had declared that they are not capable of paying a very large amount of 26. 2%. The article reveals that a merit system for the workers is being pushed to an agreement. The merit system works to reward the employees beginning in the third year of the contract. The salary increases between 3 to 8% based on the job performance. IV. Conclusion V. Points to Ponder To analyze the case it is important to have points to think about in order to have a deep analysis of the case. First question about the case is about the solution that the company had thought of in order to reduce losses. â€Å"Is the solution of changing meters a good solution? †. Another question that could be addressed is that â€Å"Since the problem in the company had rooted from unethical practice, shouldn’t the solution involve ethical training of the employees? †. Third question for the case is that â€Å"Was the company transparent about the fact that they were not able to pay for the pension fund? †. The transparency of the company must be shown in this case because if this is established, it can be concluded that the company is open to its financial situation. Being open about the status of the company is being honest to the employees. Lastly, there had been several comments on the reward system that must be established. The question for case analysis is â€Å"Shouldn’t there be an evaluation system for the employees in a frequent basis such as quarterly, monthly? † Most companies use the performance evaluation as a means to increase the salary of the employee and at the same time to determine whether the employee deserves to be promoted or trained to improve his or her performances. REFERENCES: Dames, C. 2004. Corruption Rocks BEC. Retrieved last March 20, 2008 from Geocities. Website: http://www. geocities. com/bzephyr2002/BECC. html Fortune. 2005. Bahamas Electric Corporation. Retrieved last March 19, 2008 from Fortune. Website: http://www. timeinc. net/fortune/services/sections/fortune/intl/media/2005_11caribbean. pdf How to cite Bahamas Electricity Corporation, Papers

Forensic Accounting free essay sample

Although it has been around for a long time, It has become Increasingly popular In the past few years as there have been a number of corporate scandals, stricter reporting, and Internal control regulations involving public awareness and importance in the business world. Forensic Accounting is accounting with specific emphasis in conducting financial investigations for law enforcement and civil court cases. A Forensic Accountant has to do a lot of Interviewing.Although every case Is unique, a typical case for a Forensic Accountant would Include the following steps: (1) meet with the client (this is done to get the clearest understanding of the facts, parties involved and known issues); (2) complete a conflict check; (3) begin the initial investigation (it is best to do an investigation before you set your course of action); (4) create a course of action (by completing the above steps, they will help to set the goals to be accomplished ND the steps needed to reach these goals); (5) collect evidence which may include locating documents, economic Information, assets, a person or company, and proof of the occurrence of an event; (6) perform the analysis ( this Involves: calculating damages, summarizing a large number of transactions, performing a tracin g of assets, performing present value calculations utilizing appropriate discount rates, performing a regression or sensitivity analysis, utilizing a computerized application such as a spread sheet, database or computer model, and utilizing charts and rapists to explain the analysis); and lastly, (7) prepare the report. We will write a custom essay sample on Forensic Accounting or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page A lot of what a Forensic Accountant does Is salary to that of an auditor, but there are many differences. Some of the key differences include: 0 A Forensic Accountant employs a much higher degree of professional skepticism when conducting his work. He is not likely to accept an explanatory not on documents for what they say. 0 A Forensic Accountant digs much deeper into the facts and issues than a traditional auditor. D A Forensic Accountant Is more familiar with how employees can abuse ND misuse controls and processes and with the various types of fraud. CLC A Forensic Accountant is more experienced about where to look, the types of evidence to look for, how to obtain the information as relevant support when gathering facts and evidence. The Forensic Accountant is more prepared to interview and pull from company personnel and witnesses the pertinent information to the case. A Forensic Accountant works his way in a case from the bottom up where an auditor starts from the most recent event of the occurrence. Not need a Bachelors degree in Accounting, you will need to obtain a Masters degree n Forensic Accounting in addition to successfully completing the Certified Forensic Accounting Exam. There are many institutions that offer programs in Forensic Accounting. You need a 3. 0 from your undergraduate degree to be considered for acceptance. There are many career opportunities for this field also.You may find jobs ranging from law enforcement agencies for criminal investigations to firms that offer expert opinions in court cases dealing with financial arguments. I have found an extreme interest in this field as I have a love for investigation. I have looked into several institutions for their Masters of Forensic Accounting programs and the responses I have received have been plentiful. I am looking forward to pursuing a career in this field, as I have Just applied for an internship with a local company in that division.

Great Gatsby Essays (541 words) - The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby

Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby paints the picture of the way life was in the twenties. This society has the characteristics of an egotist and one who pays no attention the character of themselves. Fitzgerald's style influences the reader to portray this era as a carefree "do what feels good" society. However, Fitzgerald introduces the countless number of tragedies that take place. Through diction, imagery, and details Fitzgerald creates a morose tone. The writer evokes the reader's feelings through particular words and their meanings. In the phrase, ". . . I began to look involuntarily out the window for other cars," the word involuntarily grabs the reader. This phrase makes the reader feel melancholy for Gatsby because it it's depressing for no one to come to the funeral. It reveals how Nick and Mr. Gatz experience anticipation. Both of them know devoutly that no one will come pay their respects to Jay Gatsby. Mainly because they wait half an hour for people to show up. Also, in the phrase ". . . his eyes began to blink anxiously" the word anxiously shows Nick's dolefulness for the lack of sympathy that Gatsby fails to receive. The word procession reflects the despair and lack of friendship that Gatsby witnesses in his life. The lack of companionship that Gatsby has cogitates how lonely and despondent he is. Through the uses of certain words the author helps express feelings and emotions of the morose tone. Through imagery Fitzgerald can make the reader feel like they are in the story. Water, specifically evokes the senses. It describes how the procession of cars stopped in a thick drizzle. This depicts how gloomy it appears outside. The reader can hardly see the three cars because of continuous soaking. They describe a motor hearse as ". .. horribly black and wet." A hearse normally portrays a solemn feeling, but the words horribly, black, and wet allow the reader to feel the misery and mournfulness of death. The ground is soggy as someone splashes through it. You can smell the wet turf and feel the saturation beneath the feet. The use of water in the story aids the reader in understanding the morose setting. Fitzgerald uses certain detailed sequences to help explain the somberness of Jay Gatsby. In the first significant sequence Nick and Mr. Gatz wait for people to show up at the funeral. This shows the lack of friends and well-wishers that are in Gatsby's life. The reader feels cheerless for Gatsby due to the lack of fulfillment he has in his life. Next, after a half hour the procession of three cars finally reaches the cemetery. This pathetic scene shows the products of Gatsby's arrogant and cocky lifestyle. Because of his personality, very few come to pay their respects. This is a very lugubrious situation. Finally, the scene in which the unidentified man comes to pay his respects helps the reader view Gatsby through a different perspective. Though Gatsby was not well liked, this lone stranger looked past the arrogant ways and saw an intellectual man. However, it it's still poignant how no one comes to the funeral. These significant sequences give the reader better understanding of the morose tone and the emotional state of Jay Gatsby. Due to the way Fitzgerald portrays the passage in slow motion to make the reader feel each emotion and see each image in such vivid detail, it's as if the reader is seeing it take place. Through diction, imagery, and details Fitzgerald produces a morose tone.

How World War II Affected Women in Canada essays

How World War II Affected Women in Canada essays World War II had a significant impact on most of the countries. Although Canada was not attacked, the war had an enormous impact on Canada. Because the men were sent out of the country to fight the war, the condition of women who were left alone at home, were noticeable. The war affected women in many different ways. Watching Bye Bye Blues made it clear to me that the World War II changed the lives and the social status of Women had to face many hardships in Canada during the war. The principle role of women at that time was as wives and mothers. However, because the men were not at home at the wartime, women had to be the head of the family. They had to not only take care of the family but also work to fulfill the needs of the family. People, who thought that women were supposed to stay at home and raise the children, didnt like the women going out to work. At that time in Canada, there werent many jobs for women. Women of the middle-class or lower-class had limited choices for good job, because it required good education and skills to get higher level jobs. Many women at that time worked as sales clerks and telephone operators. Many of them had to learn new skills to get the work. They were normally paid poorly. They had a hard time getting used to the new situation of handling everything by themselves. They had to work hard to survive. In the movie Bye Bye Blues, Daisy, the main character shows how the women like her in Canada had to live to survive the situation. Daisy has to work hard to make her position in the band. Working hard to get money and taking care of children at the same time require lots of hard work and determination. The lives of many women at that time were very lonely as they had to live without their husbands or brothers. The whole responsibility of raising the family was on them. ...

Business Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words - 2

Business Plan - Essay Example to everything in life: whatever is fast requires something slow, it emphasizes yin and yang balance, a relaxation, static and dynamic binding.Tai Chi Center will try to help people absorb knowledge from our ancestors, and understand the wisdom to find a healthy and happy lifestyle, and share them with others. The purpose of the Tai Chi Center is to help people interested in its practices to enjoymental and health benefits.The Tai Chi Center will also reach out to the rest of the community. It will also serve as a bridge to help people from different countries learn about the culture of Tai Chi and integrateChinese culture toAmerican culture. Furthermore, theTCC will cultivate excellent athletes to participate in international competition to win national prestige andpromote theculture of Tai Chi. When people practice Tai Chi, they can improve cardiac health (special for people with a history of coronary artery disease);promote cardiovascular function and energy metabolism;increase the ability to resist disease; relieve psychological stressto prevent the occurrence of physiological disorders;improve older peoples mood, thinking, personality, memory, and motion stability, and can improve everyone’s quality of sleep. The TCC can achieve these goals with three important aspects: To understand what is the origin of Tai Chi, people should understand the meaning of Tai Chi. Tai Chi is taixu. The world â€Å"tai† stands for absolute vastness. The other word,â€Å"Chi† or â€Å"qi†, means emptiness. Therefore, taixu describes the environment of emptiness where there is a void. However, it is in this void that there is the true existence of qi( internal energy). This kind of energy reaches everywhere and changes of the universe and real driving force of all movement just like air we breathe to survive. Tai Chi is a way to describe the emergence of yang (positive energy) when qi is in motion, and the settlement of yin (negative energy) when qi stays motionless. This is the

Marketing Intelligence 3.3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Marketing Intelligence 3.3 - Essay Example The fact that they only use the Internet to advertise means that they are designing mostly for the younger generation; the old and the very young are neglected. Therefore, they should focus on introducing deigns for the older population, and even for the very young, in order to expand their clientele and to cater to a broader demographic. This would not only strengthen their market position, but would also increase the revenues. The fact that the company relies solely on the Internet and electronic social networking for advertisements (MLS 2012:1) could prove to be dangerous and detrimental to the growth and life of the company. It might be sufficient temporarily while the economy is down and the competition is low, but once the market conditions improve and become stable again, it might prove to be insufficient. Only a limited demographic has access to the Internet or uses the Internet for shopping and social networking. A huge portion of the demographic has been excluded this way. The company should take a serious thought into advertising through print media such as fashion magazines, newspapers, and flyers. This would not only increase the customer base substantially, but would also show to the customers that this is a serious company which is interested in serious business and is here to

Questions on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Penguin Classics Deluxe Assignment

Questions on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Penguin Classics) - Assignment Example McMurphy is rebellious as well due to his counterattack to the rules of the nurse. The mental ward engrosses inmates that are under the directives of the Big Nurse. She imposes rules that sought to govern the inhabitants of the ward. The rules regulated and dictated on the conduct of the inhabitants of the mental ward. According to McMurphy, these rules were oppressive to the inhabitants of the ward (Kesey, 14). Due to his exuberant nature, he disqualifies the rules and engages the other inhabitants in rebellion. This was besides his smuggling business of wine and women in the ward. These are the key events in the section of the novel. Chief Bromden is aware of Murphy’s attempts. He observes that McMurphy has intentions to revolt against the nurse. His voice formulates the narration of the novel. This is a trustworthy narrator of the events. The events of the novel mainly take place within the mental ward. Bromden is trustworthy as he is observant of the interactions and events of the characters. He is introverted and communicates purely of his observations within the mental ward (Kesey, 26). He also gives an analogy of his society, which implicates that non-conformists always face adversity and bias. McMurphy is subject to charges for battery and gambling (Kesey, 7). Conviction had not been issued, and he ran to the mental ward to escape the law. This fact in the text presents Murphy as an escapist. He opted to be in the ward to evade conviction. McMurphy is proud of rape as his entitlement (Kesey, 86). Evidently, Murphy is entirely inhumane and he deeply advocates for criminal acts. These quotes inform readers much about McMurphy’s traits and intentions. I connect much with Nurse Ratched. She has much attention on humanity. Despite of her authoritative nature, she advocates for justice. This is evident when she intends to report McMurphy to Billy’s mother (Kesey, 102). She could not tolerate McMurphy raping Billy and taking her

Study of neuromarketing analysis

Study of neuromarketing analysis After having read a substantial amount of the current literature on the fascinating science of Neuromarketing, I find it hard to believe that it took so long for marketing and science to find together to create an academic field of its own right. The works of the human brain and psychology have always been a passion of mine; but my initial professional career took me deeply into the fields of marketing. In fact, I implemented marketing strategies for two of the most controversial industries today: the cigarette and the pharmaceutical industry. Although in both cases, we used the most advanced instruments of modern marketing, I was always curious if there would not be a way to market a product more scientifically than we did at that time and that was despite the fact that all companies I worked for were major global players in their respective field. So when I stumbled upon Neuromarketing in the scope of this Masters degree, I was immediately intrigued by it. Neuromarketing promises to give answers to some of the most important questions of marketing, namely why do we buy things, and what does it do to our brain? I would like to express my gratitude to Malaika Brengman who enabled to seize this unique opportunity to write this thesis. Furthermore, I would thank my mother Ayse Sayin, who kindly shared her extensive knowledge about scientific problems and supported me throughout the complete working process of this paper. Finally, I would like to thank my partner Max Obenaus, who deeply shared my interest in the subject, and whose relentless effort and stimulating discussions has enabled me to write this paper. Brussels, May 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Neuromarketing, bridging marketing and neuroscience, is a rapidly growing area of research, which introduces a scientific layer to the academic field, and hence creates some high expectations on the one hand, and a lot of critique on the other. The vast amount of data retrieved through neuroscientific analysis promises to provide a better understanding of consumer behaviour, and raises the hope that the marketing strategies of the future will be more efficient and better targeted to the consumer. In fact, the controversy around the mythical buy button shows that the scope and limitations of the scientific field of neuromarketing are not yet properly defined. The horror scenario of complete corporate control of consumer behaviour often stands in the way of a proper analysis of the risks and potentials of neuromarketing; at the same time it seems that a fundamental distinction has to be made between an academic and a corporate approach to neuromarketing. In both cases the willingness to advance the science of neuromarketing should be immense. For corporations, obviously, the prospect of exerting vast scientific control over consumer behaviour is most attractive. For the academic world, it will be a challenge on many different levels. First, it is about exploring the scientific limits of consumer analysis, taking into account the subconscious forces that are at play when a purchase is made. Secondly, and more importantly, the development of neuromarketing raises fundamental moral questions. Freedom of choice, free market and ethics need to be addressed, leading to the formulation of neuroethics. Following this, a legal framework for neuromarketing needs to be defined, which decides whether or not individual consumer rights need protection via a newly defined private sphere, or if we even trust enough the dynamics of the free market to sufficiently self-regulate these moral and legal grey areas. A literature review in this field will give an idea on the studies in this nascent science that is claiming worldwide recognition and possible areas for further research. 2. DEFINITIONS 2.1. Neuromarketing This interest in neurosciences has eventually caught the attention of both businesses and academia that are involved in a subset of economics, i.e. marketing. Being able to understand how the brain processes information and reacts to marketing stimuli, to eventually come up with purchasing decisions would provide a huge leap in marketing science as well as leading to huge profits through triggering the desired consumer responses. In other words, it would be the discovery of the well publicized buy button (Wells, 2003). As a result, marketing has also started to benefit from neurosciences. The resulting multidisciplinary science is termed as neuromarketing or consumer neuroscience. Neuromarketing is broadly defined as a sub-area of neuroeconomics that addresses marketing relevant problems with methods and insights from brain research (Fugate, 2007; Lee et al., 2007). Neurosciences could provide inputs to marketing in different areas such as providing a deeper insight of consumer behaviour and decision making processes, better understanding of advertising, a clearer make-up of branding, an analysis of the market and eventually politics which benefits from all of the above. The first use of fMRI as a marketing tool was reported by Gerry Zaltman of Harvard towards the end of the 1990s (Addison, 2005). However, the term Neuromarketing was only coined by Professor Ale Smidts in 2002, and it was not until 2004 that the first ever Neuromarketing conference was held at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (Dawis,L. 2005). The tools and methods used for neuromarketing analysis are rapidly developing, enabling better visualization of the subconscious customer responses. Fugate indicates that the use of neuromarketing, if proven through use, has the capability of fundamentally changing how we design, promote, price, and package our products (Fugate, 2007) Consequently, neuromarketing is fast becoming mainstream, widening its applications within marketing. In fact, the increasing popularity of neuromarketing could be traced from Google, where the search for the specific word shows a phenomenal progression from just a few hits in 2002 to thousands in 2010 (Morin, 2011). 2.2. Neuroeconomics Traditional economics considers human beings as rational and unemotional beings that have stable, well-defined preferences that can make rational choices with those preferences (Camerer Thaler 1995, 209). However, the reality hardly matches this classic theory of economic modelling. The decision-making processes are highly influenced by numerous past experiences, emotions and subconscious processes, which alter significantly the expected behaviours. Kenning points out that These anomalies were not proven to have been included into the earlier theories of traditional economics which was based on rational behaviour. (Kenning Plassmann 2005, 343; Schmidt 2008, 8-9.) The developments in neurosciences in recent decades, enabling researchers to determine the physiological and neurological responses have led other disciplines to utilize the methodologies and findings in neurosciences to verify the assumptions in their own fields. Thus, the application of neurosciences to verify the assumptions of economics has led to neuroeconomics. Braeutigam defines neuroeconomics as a new and highly interdisciplinary field, drawing from theories and methodologies employed in both economics and neuroscience, aiming at understanding the neural systems supporting and affecting economically relevant behaviour (Braeutigam, 2005). Consequently, neuroeconomics uses brain research methods to understand and explain economic phenomena, as well as facilitating and promoting the integration of neurological findings into economic sciences. Sanfey points out that Although both economists and neurologists attempt to understand and predict human behaviour, they have used quite different methods in the past. Whereas economic research has tried to explain behaviour through observational data and theoretical constructs such as utility or preferences, neurology contemplates the physiological elements and somatic variables that influence behaviour. Neuroeconomics, which evolved from the combination of both disciplines, proposes an interdisciplinary approach and specifically examines the neural correlates of decision-making (Sanfey et al., 2006). 2.3 The Conscious vs. the Subconscious The importance of neuromarketing lies in the dual nature of perception processes, i.e., conscious and subconscious. We know why we take certain purchasing decisions but not the others. In fact the majority of our actions fall under the latter category. Hausel (2007) and Szymkowiak (2011) indicate two different types of brain activity which could lead to this. The conscious mind can process 40 bits per second, whereas the subconscious mechanism is much faster, processing up to billions of bits per second. Furthermore it is always at work. As a result, everything that cannot be processed by the conscious falls into the realm of the unconscious, which functions as an autopilot that takes over when the conscious cannot process any more. In fact, consciousness is closely connected to focusing attention. In that sense, what we perceive attentively for example when we listen forms the conscious perception, whereas the background noise of all types are recorded in the subconscious. A similar situation is valid for visual perception. Usually the peripheral vision constitutes the realm of the subconscious while the conscious records what we look at attentively. 2.4. Subliminal Messaging Subliminal is derived from the Latin words sub (below) and limen (threshold), referring to the perception below the threshold of human consciousness. The presentation of audile or visual images at a speed or form that cannot be identified by the target person would be perceived by the individual, though not consciously. These subconscious perceptions, whether it is audible or visual, make it possible to influence that individuals decision-making processes, without that person being aware of this activity. An expected consequence would be the possibility to persuade that individual to purchase goods or services, which he/she would not be making otherwise. Although the practice of subliminal messaging was identified at the end of nineteenth century, the widespread recognition was in 1957, when market researcher James Vicary, using the term subliminal advertising for the first time, set up his Subliminal Projection Company and made his well known pop corn/coke advertisement during a Kim Novak film shown in New Jersey. He claimed that by quickly flashing the words Drink Coca Cola and Hungry? Eat popcorn for 1/3000 of a second, at five-second intervals on the movie screen during every presentation of this film, he had influenced people to purchase more food and drinks, selling 57.8% more Coca Cola and 18.1% more popcorn. Vance Packards book, Hidden Persuaders, published the following year included this experiment and had wide repercussions. Although Vicary admitted later on that he had lied about the experiment, there were widespread sentiments against the practice. Life treated subliminal advertising as fact and discussed its potential not only in selling but also in gaining support for anti-litter campaigns and even promoting political candidates while The Saturday Review, addressed his readers: Welcome to 1984. (OBarr,2005) The widespread belief that subliminal messaging could lead to brainwashing led to subsequent banning of subliminal advertising in various countries. The publishing of the book Subliminal Seduction by Dr. Wilson B. Key in 1973, marked another outrage against subliminal advertisement, leading to limitation of broadcasting with subliminal techniques. (Lindstrom,2003) The use of subliminal messaging had also been used in politics, the most famous being the TV Ad for George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign. It showed words (and parts thereof) scaling from the foreground to the background on a television screen. When the word BUREAUCRATS flashed on the screen, one frame showed only the last part, RATSà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦((OBarr,2005). Music played in shops sometimes have embedded messages to spend more or discourage theft, leading to a decrease in thefts and increase in sales, which the consumer is unaware but is effective (Lindstrom, 2003) Subliminal messages could also be utilizing the associations and judgments of the consumer, fulfilling the subconscious sensory expectations from a product or service. Lindstrom argues that different aromas pumped into casinos, airplane cabins, hotel rooms, and just off the assembly line cars could be considered subliminal messaging as the leathery smell of a new car comes out of an aerosol can (Lindstrom, 2003). 2.5. The Senses Everybody perceives the surrounding world through 5 senses, that is: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. Perception involves the reception through our sensory organs and the processing by the brain. However the perception depends not only on the external stimuli, but also on the genetic set up and residues of the previous experiences of the individual, formed by learning and memory. 2.5.1. Seeing The eyes are the visual information receptors. The impulse goes through the cornea and is projected on the retina, which is composed of a layer of millions of photoreceptors that are specialized neurons transforming the light inputs into electrochemical signals, codified in the brain. Out of the two types of photoreceptors, the rods sense motion, especially in dim light or dark, predominantly in the peripheral vision, while the cones work under intense light and are responsible for sharp details. The cones are most densely packed in the centre of the retina known as the yellow spot, producing the sharpest images. (Zurawicki, 2009) The saccadic movements of the eye enables sensing parts of a scene with greater resolution, helping build up a mental map of the scene while another eye movement, the involuntary micro saccades refreshes this image. The visual attention is focused at the upcoming target locations, shifting the activations in saccade and attention areas of the brain, some hundredth milliseconds before an eye movement, (Rolfs, Jonikaitis, Deubel Cavanagh, 2011). The saccades and micro saccades are considered to be important indicators for studying the observers specific point of interest and attention focus (Zurawicki 2009, Laubrock et al.2007) recorded with the use of eye tracking camera like electronic devices. However there are also claims doubting the validity of the use of micro saccade movements in this field Horowitz et al, 2007) Each eye directs visual signals through a million of fibres in the optical nerve to the optic chiasm, where they are integrated. After passing from the optic chiasm, the optical tracts end in thalamus, which subsequently relays them to the upper layers of the cortex. The information from the two eyes are still separate in the thalamus and get integrated in the cortex where the binocular vision is created (Zurawicki 2009). The cortex sends the re-processed signals back to the thalamus. Zurawicki states that Visual cortex is divided into 6 different areas each performing a distinct function and specializing respectively in various sub modalities of visual perception, that is: exploratory and general pattern recognition, stereoscopic vision, depth and distance, colour, complex movement, and determination of the absolute position of the object as opposed to the relative one. (Zurawicki 2009) The frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital cortex, thalamic nuclei, the claustrum, the caudate, the lentiform nucleus and the culmen, declive and vernis in the cerebellum are activated during visual perception and visual mental imagery (Ganis et.al.2004) The brain uses previously stored data from the memory, to provide meaning to what is being transmitted. The brain also has the capacity to make up for missing images, referred to as blind vision (Zurawicki 2009). 2.5.2. Hearing The sounds funnel into the ear, reaching the eardrum, which is a membrane which vibrates at different speeds, that is, the more acute the sound, the faster it vibrates. Small bones of the middle ear (the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup) amplify the signal from the membrane and transmit it to the inner ear. The coiled part of the inner ear the cochlea is equipped with approximately 16 000 hair cells, which detect each sound frequency separately and in response to it move at a certain rhythm. This activates up to 30 000 of neurons of the auditory nerve pathways which carry the sound information via the thalamus to the temporal gyrus: the part of the cerebral cortex involved in receiving and perceiving sound. Our audiary system processes all the perceived signals in the same manner until they arrive at the primary auditory cortex in the temporal lobe. Here when speech is differentiated from other sounds, neuronal signal is directed to the left hemisphere where the language is proce ssed. (Zurawicki 2009). Audiary neurons are specialized, some responding to high frequencies and others low. Furthermore there are some which marks the beginning and others the end of a sound. Although some process of sound focalisation take place in the ears, sound recognition through specific harmonics of the sound is performed in the primary auditory cortex in the temporal lobe. 2.5.3. Smelling AKÃ…Å ¾AMA YAZCEM Ä °NÃ…Å ¾ALLAH!!! 2.5.4. Tasting BUNU DA!!!! 2.5.5. Touching BUNU DA!!!! 2.6. The Brain The brain is the central processing centre for all the motor and sensory information coming from different parts of the body. The stimuli received that are processed and distributed from the brain leads to different thoughts, as well as muscular and behavioural patterns. The processing of incoming information is carried out in different parts of the brain, that is to say there is a distinct functional differentiation within the brain. However, in spite of this functional differentiation, it is important to keep in mind that the brain is an extremely complex structure with strong inter-linkages among its billions of nerve cells (neurons) that take place within the brain, and that the brain functions as a whole. In order to get a better insight into the functional neuroanatomy of the brain, it may be useful to analyse the parts of the brain the functions of which have been more or less identified. The brain is covered with an outer layer called Cerebral Cortex. Neocortex, often referred to as grey matter takes place on the outer part of the cerebral cortex, while amygdala, cingulated cortex, hippocampus, and basal ganglia takes place in the grey pockets located within the white matter underneath. The brain is subdivided into four lobes, and two hemispheres with the deep folds. These four lobes have different functions: The frontal lobe, located under the forehead is where organising/planning, short term memory, judgement and controlling behaviour take place. Temporal lobe, which is under the ears and temples are related to understanding what we hear, speaking and memory he. visual memory is processed. BUNUN DEVAMI GELCEK!!! 2.7. Neuroimaging 2.7.1. Psychophysiological Measurement Techniques Facial expression, heart rate and skin conductance are the most relevant methods of autonomic measurement used in advertisement research. Emotional reactions to advertisement are measured by facial electromyography, which registers facial muscle activity. In facial EMG, electrodes that register muscle contractions are placed on the corrugator and zygomatic muscles. The corrugator muscle is located above the nose close to the eyebrow and contractions in this muscle are involved while frowning. The zygomatic muscle is situated around the cheeks and controls smiling (Poels and Dewitte,2006). The research of Hazlett and Hazlett has shown that facial EMG is a more sensitive indicator of emotional reactions to TV commercials and that the facial EMG responses were closely related to emotion congruent events during the commercial( Hazlett and Hazlett,1999). However, facial EMG has the drawback of being conducted in unnatural lab settings and making the subject self conscious. Skin conductance (SC) or electrodermal activity gives an indication of the electrical conductance of the skin related to the level of sweat in the eccrine sweat glands, which are involved in emotion invoked sweating (Poels and Dewitte, 2006). Either very pleasurable or very repellent advertising stimuli evoke large SC responses. However there are considerable personal variations and factors such as fatigue, medication etc can influence SC responses (Hopkins and Fletcher, 1994). The beating speed of our heart can provide clues as to attention and arousal related to commercials as well as an indication of valance of emotional response (Poels and Dewitte, 2006). In general, positive stimuli lead to an increase in the heart rate, while the negative stimuli does the opposite. Poels and Dewitte advise not to use heart rate as the single measurement method of emotional response (Poels and Dewitte, 2006). As the heartbeat is measured from the finger, it is quite convenient for the subject and is generally considered to be an easy and cheap way to measure reactions evoked by advertising (Lang, 1994). 2.7.2. Brain imagery How brain reacts to different types of stimuli is recorded through brain imagery. The major advantage of brain imagery is its objectivity, leaving out the possible response biases. Motte defines Brain imaging as a term that encompasses a set of techniques that allows for visualization of the regions of the brain that are activated in response to a certain stimulus, and Brain imaging systems as a set of techniques that allow visualizing the regions of the brain that are activated when (emotional) stimuli are presented(Motte, 2009). There are different methods for measuring and mapping brain activities related to neuromarketing. Lewis in his 2005 article refers to three brain-imaging techniques being used in Neuromarketing as fMRI (Functional magnetic resonance imaging), QEEG (Quantitative electroencephalography) and MEG (magnetoencephalography) and considers fMRI as the one which has captured the greatest interest of the market researchers among these and has enjoyed the widest publicity (Lewis, D.2005). Morin in his recent article cites electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as the only three well established non-invasive methods for measuring and mapping brain activity (Morin, 2011) EEG, in spite of its being a rather old technology in neurology, is still considered to be a good way to measure brain activity, as it is significantly less costly. Motte points out that although the price of high quality, research-purposed EEG systems can range from $10,000 to $100,000, cheaper EEG systems exist that can cost from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars (Motte,2009) To see how EEG works, it should be kept in mind that our neural circuitry consists of over 100 billion neurons and trillions of synaptic connections. When faced with a particular stimulus, these neurons fire, producing tiny electrical currents. The brainwaves, which are the differing patterns of frequencies of these electrical currents that correspond to different states of arousal, are recorded at very short time intervals, reaching up to 10,000 times per second in some of the new EEG bands, an important characteristic when attempting to evaluate the incoming high speed information coming through our senses. However, EEG, which has become very popular among neuromarketing agencies in the last 5 years as it is considered to be helpful in assessing the value of a piece of advertising at a relatively low cost is considered by some cognitive scientists as being weak, if not dubious for the purpose of understanding and predicting the effects of advertising. (Morin, 2011) QEEG, is another brain imaging technology, which is used for neuromarketing purposes. David Lewis and Darren Bridger from Neuroco, a Neuromarketing research consultancy, have used QEEG analysing the responses of viewers to television commercials and other forms of advertising, exploring the effects of looking at happy or sad facial expressions (Lewis, D.2005) They claim that although the spatial resolution of QEEG is poor, it is capable of producing a continuous recording of the ongoing neuronal activity. The benefits of QEEG, is backed by more than 2,500 research papers published in peer reviewed journals (Rothschild M et al.,1986, Rothschild M and Hyun YJ. 1990, Smith ME and Gevins A,2004) MEG is yet another non-invasive neuro-physiological technique that measures the magnetic fields generated by neuronal activity of the brain. It measures the integrated magnetic signals emitted by activated neurons (Motte, 2011). The spatial resolution of MEG is usually superior to EEG as the magnetic signals it operates on are not as easily disturbed by the skull or brain tissues, as the electrical signals processed by EEG. MEG has been used for neuromarketing purposes, although to a far lesser extent. (Lewis, D.2005) A MEG system was used in the study of Braeutigam et al., where the team investigated real-life product choice in a retail store. (Braeutigam et al., 2001) In one study MEG was used to measure decision making among consumers in a virtual supermarket. The authors reported that the right parietal cortex became active only when faced with a preferred brand and concluded that this region was involved in making conscious decisions about shopping choices, and, perhaps, for more important life choices too. (Brautigam S et al.,2001) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines are powerful magnets that can provide an accurate internal image of the human body. The MRIs are used primarily in the functional imaging mode (fMRI), in order to monitor the miniscule blood flow changes that correspond to increased activity levels within the human brain. Visualization of the brains activity and structure is enabled by the iron content of the haemoglobin molecules within the red blood cells that carry oxygen to the brain. The increased use of oxygen of the nerve cells during excessive activity of these nerve cells, and the change in the magnetic properties of haemoglobin after it delivers oxygen to the nerve cells in the brain makes it possible to follow the signals that point out to activations in the brain. The major benefit of fMRI is that it can pinpoint these activations with millimetric precision. Many consider fMRI the best technological innovation ever developed to conduct clinical and experimental research on the brain (Morin, 2011)   The first use of fMRI as a marketing tool was reported by Gerry Zaltman of Harvard towards the end of the 1990s (Addison T.,2005). fMRI permits matching a specific product experience to the regions involved in pleasure and emotions in the brain. (Motte,2009) The studies using fMRI can be very costly as the price of these machines ranges between 1 and 3 million dollars. While a moving-image fMRI machine (acquisition cost: $2.5 million) is rented for $1,000 an hour at Emory University in Atlanta; A single experiment, which includes at least 12 participants, can cost $50,000 (Wells, 2003). When these three technologies are compared as to their applicability in neuromarketing, QEEG is mostly preferred as technology of choice in due to its being less expensive, simpler to use, and enables the recordings to be made in a wide range of natural environments. NERDEN BULDUM BUNU BEN:))BULAMAZSAM GÄ °DER!!! 2.8. Memory and Learning 2.8.1. Memory Magnetic resonance imaging 2.8.2. Learning 3. CRITIQUE AND MORAL IMPLICATIONS Martin Lindstrom, one of the most prominent supporters of neuromarketing, makes a convincing argument against neuromarketings potential to endow powerful corporations with something like a buy button to control our consumer behaviour. After all, it is nothing but a scientific tool that has to be put to right use, and it is the responsibility of whoever launches a neuroscientific study to take into account the appropriate neuroethical ground rules, , which have been discussed in the previous chapter. Ä °YÄ ° DURUYO DA NERDE DEMÄ °Ãƒâ€¦Ã… ¾Ãƒâ€žÃ‚ °Z TAM OLARAK -NEUROETHICS 3.1. Academic vs. Non-Academic Research Neuroscientific research is a cost-intensive undertaking: a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanner alone is worth $4 million (Lindstrom, 2008, p. 8). This is where the controversy starts whose interest is behind a given multi-million neuromarketing study? The answer is simple, and it divides the field into two basic categories: academic and non-academic neuromarketing. In case of the latter, it is safe to assume that whether we are talking about a large-scale corporation or a political party, a powerful interest is behind the funding of a project, looking for a concrete result that justifies the large sum of investment. Academic studies, on the other hand, can probably be trusted to be more neutral in this respect. 3.2. The Buy Button-Myth Neuromarketing is by default a hybrid of corporate and academic culture and as such is doomed to experience much more intercultural turmoil than other sciences. Indeed it seems that in its young history, there has already been a vibrant exchange of critique among the fractions involved. The common media image of neuromarketing as the science in search of the buy button in our brain does not find much support on either side. German psychologist Frank Szymkowiak points out that neuromarketing, like other cognitive sciences, simply analyses the reactions of the human brain to cognitive stimuli. This, in his view, may lead to a more diversified and consumer-targeted use of marketing rather than it constitutes a threat to becoming to tool of omnipotence on behalf of the advertising agent (Szymkowiak, 2010, Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, p. 83). 3.3. A Shallow Science? Szymkowiaks, however, does have a critical view on neuromarketing, and it is far more detrimental than the buy button-allegation. For him, neuromarketing is shallow by nature and inaccurate in its analysis of scientific testing. When confronted with subconscious phenomena, neuromarketing indulges in some kind of catalogisation, counting bits of neurotransmission rather than looking for a qualified causal context. It recognises subconscious brain activity lacks the capacity to account for it. In this respect it is inferior to more substantial sciences such as depth psychology which, building upon the foundations laid by its founding father Sigmund Freud, is able to generate an explanation for subconscious behaviour by accounting for underlying motives of the human psyche (Szymkowiak, 2010, Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, p. 84). This lack of depth is due to a simplistic definition of the subconscious that neuro-marketeers. Here, the totality of the human brain activity is, just like computers, is captures in bits, and only 40 out of 11mio bits are actually processed by the rational part of the brain. The rest falls under the category of subconscious without any further explanation. Depth psychology, on the other hand, is said to delve deeply into the spheres of the subconsci

Tribalism :: Personal Narrative Papers

Tribalism I. My sister recently put a map of the world in her bedroom, where she dreams always of being chased. Warfare is the greatest affair of state, the basis of life and death, the Tao of survival and extinction. It must be thoroughly pondered and analyzed. If you want to succeed in battle, act as if deranged. 1 I overheard two women arguing. One of them was me, in a later life. The other was God. My sister pushes her dream away and we'll call her a mystic; her lived reality defers to the visions, and details of where we'll live, how we'll earn a living, or who is at the door sink into the background. If creatures are helpless in a world of flags and fairies, we can break tyrants with our fists. Why wake up from that vision? If I could remember, I would never return to sunburn, rental cars, boy scout leaders, garbage, greasy hair, no water in the desert, cold nights of sweat and gleaning. Trust me. Spring the trap - a package with an umbilical cord, ties straining. Mourning doves and the sound of birds and rapids. The wind pushes the river backwards, completing the cycle. Before night fell into your lap you stared blankly at the traffic light on the corner wondering, why consult the Book of Changes? Every sign you need is right here: fire trucks a staple on brook street, power lines buzzing overhead like soldiers of fortune. The planets align in your seventh house, poking feebly at an electromagnetic field. So if I ever say anything I'm lying to you. Feel better or worse, see if I care. March toward madness, in the evening we swore up and down to stay alive. Foundry the boundary down to the last gravedigger. Morning or evening times are unimportant; don't live to compete, but fight when you must for a better world. We are all singers and mad and we make less and less money every year. Perhaps you care about all this loss, heaped onto your plate like steaming eggs on an English. Further along and we come to a crossing, where I found you waiting for me and left. Pretend you have come to a crossing. Not a fork in the yellow wood but a good city intersection, with traffic and manholes and strangers not particularly watching.

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been -Joyce Carol Oates

Nightmare or Reality? Joyce Carol Oates creates an inquisitive plot that causes the reader to question events in the story, â€Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? † She develops this story featuring a girl named Connie, who has an encounter with a boy at a restaurant that she doesn’t know. â€Å"He wagged a finger and laughed and said, â€Å"Gonna get you, baby,† and Connie turned away†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Oates 210). Startled Connie only saw this boy once that night, but the story goes on, and a few days later he comes to her house where she learns that the boy’s name is â€Å"Arnold Friend. She is unaware how the boy knows anything about her, where she lives, and the fact that he knows all about her family and friends. In the short story, â€Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? † Joyce Carol Oates creates significant details that some readers might miss, revealing that Connie is actually having a nightmare where Arnold Friend is an im aginary character. The day that Arnold Friend came to Connie’s house she had been left at home alone, while her family went to a barbecue at her aunt’s house. â€Å"Connie sat with her eyes closed in the sun, dreaming and dazed†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Oates 211).This is when Connie begins to fall asleep in the story as she is laying outside in a lawn chair. Joyce Carol Oates never directly states she is now dreaming but provides the reader with clues to suggest it. The story reads â€Å"when she opened her eyes she hardly knew where she was, the back yard ran off into weeds and a fence-like line of trees and behind it the sky was perfectly blue and still† (Oates 211). When a person is dreaming they can be in an unacquainted place and sometimes unaware of where they are. Connie is experiencing these happenings as she â€Å"wakes up† or begins the journey into her nightmare. The asbestos â€Å"ranch house† that was now three years old startled her- it looked small. She shook her head as if to get awake† (Oates 211). Oates included this in the story as a clue to readers that Connie is still asleep. The phrase â€Å"as if to get awake,† indicates that she shook her head, but it did not wake her up. Arnold Friend shows up at Connie’s house to convince her to come take a ride with him in his car. He seems nice at first, but she soon realizes how creepy and unusual this boy really is. She keeps telling him to leave and that she does not want to go for a ride, but that doesn’t stop Arnold from attempting to persuade her.Connie refuses to step outside and stays in the house. While she is inside Joyce Carol Oates says, â€Å"The kitchen looked like a place she had never seen before, some room she had run inside but that wasn’t good enough, wasn’t going to help her. The kitchen window had never had a curtain†¦ † (216). This is another example that during a nightmare the place you live can loo k different and unfamiliar, and some things look a bit strange. This is what Connie is experiencing in the story as she examines her surroundings, and these details are information that proves she is dreaming. â€Å"Seen you that night and thought, that’s the one, yes sir.I never needed to look anymore† (Oates 217). This is a flashback in Connie’s nightmare where she is remembering the reality of seeing the boy in real life that triggered the nightmare she experiences in the story. The reader has to infer that things that frighten a person in their life have the ability to develop nightmares because we are worried or fearful, which makes it hard to forget them. Arnold threatens to come inside multiple times if she touches the telephone to call the police. Having a nightmare gives us the capability to create ways to keep the â€Å"bad guy† or in this case, Arnold, away from us.Connie is able to stay safely inside away from him as long as she does not touch the phone. In reality Arnold Friend might come running inside regardless of if she touched the phone, and drag her out to the car. The very last sentence in the story says, â€Å"so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it† (Oates 219). This is the ending of the story right after Connie gave up and agreed to go with Arnold, and she is describing her view as she walks out the door and into his arms.Joyce Carol Oates creates the idea that Connie does not recognize anything around her house, and she had never seen it before. This is an important detail the reader needs to catch in order to realize that Connie is in fact, in a dream. In conclusion, there are several details throughout this story to support the argument that Joyce Carol Oates develops her story portraying Connie experiencing a nightmare. To thoroughly understand this story I had to reread the vital parts that indicate she is in a dream. Analyzing th e story gave me the advantage of nterpreting and discovering this information, because before I explored the text I did not believe it was about a girl having a nightmare. It is important for any reader to do the same, because the author never directly points out these possible aspects of the story. There are clues to indicate that Connie was also not in a nightmare, but I found more indications leading towards the fact that she was. One clue being that Oates never specifies Connie being fully awake or asleep. So the story is still a mystery in the idea that, is it a nightmare or reality?

Free Essays on Who Moved My Cheese

Who Moved My Cheese? This has been my second time reading this book, and even though I’ve read this book before, there’s always something new to learn. I think everyone has a little bit of all the characters that were portrayed in this book, in them. In reading this book, I’ve learned a lot about myself, which character I portray, and how to deal with changes or better known as â€Å"moving cheese† in life. Growing up I’ve had to deal with a lot of changes in my life. My parents got divorced when I was eleven or twelve, so I had to adapt or adjust to my dad moving out, and from seeing him everyday to every other weekend. I had to adjust to the new family setting in the beginning I was probably more like Hem in this situation. I was very comfortable in my secure little bubble and I didn’t know or didn’t want to see that changes were taking place. Like Hem I was afraid of the unknown I didn’t know how my family could run without the two-parent sup port system I was so used to, so like Hem I didn’t deal with it. I was very angry about my life being turned upside down without anyone telling me. Even though I didn’t like the changes that were happening around me, it wasn’t helping me to be in denial about them. This is when I started to portray the character Haw. I knew that in order for me to feel better about what was going on I had to first try to adapt to the changes around me even though I was afraid. When I finally decided to accept that my parents weren’t getting back together that didn’t mean that my family was over, just different I was able to feel better about the situation and was able to move on. Life is full of unexpected changes, twists and turns, ups and downs. It’s how you choose to handle the change that makes the real difference. Some people are afraid of what’s different and changes. That’s what’s holding some people back from experiencing the good changes in life. Some... Free Essays on Who Moved My Cheese Free Essays on Who Moved My Cheese Who Moved My Cheese? This has been my second time reading this book, and even though I’ve read this book before, there’s always something new to learn. I think everyone has a little bit of all the characters that were portrayed in this book, in them. In reading this book, I’ve learned a lot about myself, which character I portray, and how to deal with changes or better known as â€Å"moving cheese† in life. Growing up I’ve had to deal with a lot of changes in my life. My parents got divorced when I was eleven or twelve, so I had to adapt or adjust to my dad moving out, and from seeing him everyday to every other weekend. I had to adjust to the new family setting in the beginning I was probably more like Hem in this situation. I was very comfortable in my secure little bubble and I didn’t know or didn’t want to see that changes were taking place. Like Hem I was afraid of the unknown I didn’t know how my family could run without the two-parent sup port system I was so used to, so like Hem I didn’t deal with it. I was very angry about my life being turned upside down without anyone telling me. Even though I didn’t like the changes that were happening around me, it wasn’t helping me to be in denial about them. This is when I started to portray the character Haw. I knew that in order for me to feel better about what was going on I had to first try to adapt to the changes around me even though I was afraid. When I finally decided to accept that my parents weren’t getting back together that didn’t mean that my family was over, just different I was able to feel better about the situation and was able to move on. Life is full of unexpected changes, twists and turns, ups and downs. It’s how you choose to handle the change that makes the real difference. Some people are afraid of what’s different and changes. That’s what’s holding some people back from experiencing the good changes in life. Some...

Free Essays on Worldly Problems

In the world today, we are faced with many problems. Some problems that we face in almost every country are unemployment, food, politics, our governments, education and politics. Although we have those problems, it is the government’s job to deal with most of them. This essay will discuss which government is the most progressive and profitable. The reason I say most progressive and profitable because there really is not a best government in the world at least right now in this present day. The four standards that you should use to judge and acknowledge the quality of a government are: How strong their military is and how it can protect their country; How well they provide money for education and press it more, how well they raise employment and prevent high unemployment. The last standard that I chose to expect from a quality government is how well they balance their budget for the economy. These are four very important issues that a government has to deal with and must improve on everyday. Why I chose these four selections? Military, in order to have a strong government you have to have a strong military to back you in case of disagreements with other countries. Education, because people in our country need to be educated so they will know more about their government and it is just as important for the government to be educated just like everyone else. I chose employment because everyone needs a job in every country in order to live and take care of his or her families. Most importantly, the reason I chose that every government needs to balance their budget and economy is to prevent the country from being in Depth. The Government that is doing the best right now is China. China has always been known to have many educated people. Their government is one of the strongest governments in the world today. â€Å"China’s communist government has maintained tight control over politics and speech has opened up the economy†. China ... Free Essays on Worldly Problems Free Essays on Worldly Problems In the world today, we are faced with many problems. Some problems that we face in almost every country are unemployment, food, politics, our governments, education and politics. Although we have those problems, it is the government’s job to deal with most of them. This essay will discuss which government is the most progressive and profitable. The reason I say most progressive and profitable because there really is not a best government in the world at least right now in this present day. The four standards that you should use to judge and acknowledge the quality of a government are: How strong their military is and how it can protect their country; How well they provide money for education and press it more, how well they raise employment and prevent high unemployment. The last standard that I chose to expect from a quality government is how well they balance their budget for the economy. These are four very important issues that a government has to deal with and must improve on everyday. Why I chose these four selections? Military, in order to have a strong government you have to have a strong military to back you in case of disagreements with other countries. Education, because people in our country need to be educated so they will know more about their government and it is just as important for the government to be educated just like everyone else. I chose employment because everyone needs a job in every country in order to live and take care of his or her families. Most importantly, the reason I chose that every government needs to balance their budget and economy is to prevent the country from being in Depth. The Government that is doing the best right now is China. China has always been known to have many educated people. Their government is one of the strongest governments in the world today. â€Å"China’s communist government has maintained tight control over politics and speech has opened up the economy†. China ...

The Virgin Group in 2012 Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Virgin Group in 2012 - Case Study Example owards the achievement of the companies’ mission which is being a shopper victor through delivery of brand values such as superior quality products dazzling customer service and competitiveness. The vision of the organization is implementing its plan of global presence in travel, entertainment, and mobile communications such that their involvement in this existing markets benefits both the organization and the consumers in general The history of the company dates back in 1968 while Branson was a student and he published a magazine which displayed his sub sequential entrepreneurial features. His magazine targeted the young generation appealing to its optimism, irreverence and its interest in fashion, music and avant-grade culture. He later ventured into mail-order record business in a street in London and in 1984 he ventured into airline business( Rosenberg, 2010). His private company expanded in internal cash flows and external financing with his new businesses concentrated around travel, holidays, retailing, IT, deregulation and privitasation and international expansion. With his ample knowledge in business, Richard amplified consciousness in matters of the business relationship with environment, ethics and the social role pressured his business to creating a project aware design to widen reliable business operations. The management in the virgin company has been in the forefront in contributing to issues of its relationship with culture ,ethics and the social role by participating in initiatives and creating awareness to its stakeholders. Branson believes that employees are the holding pillar to the business and attending to their needs helps the feel the sense of belonging to the company and hence take responsibility in running the company smoothly. The company provides spotless, vigorous and a secure working environment for its workers with reasonable terms and conditions of operation(Great Britain press,2013). This motivates the employees to work harder

Arguments for and against the Legitimacy of 2003 Invasion of Iraq Literature review

Arguments for and against the Legitimacy of 2003 Invasion of Iraq - Literature review Example Right through its history, America has not hesitated to use force under the pretexts of principles, sovereignty, and justice.   American military intervention in world affairs has risen drastically since the end of the Second World War.   The period following the Second World War saw America assume the role of a superpower that headed the western coalition in what was a bipolar world.   Since the collapse of Soviet Union, America has had at its disposal the most potent military force.   Its economic structure complements military spending; leading to a military industrial complex. Noted political commentator Ivo Daalder raises some valid questions regarding the legitimacy of the invasion.   Daalder argues that the invasion was illegitimate on two counts: 1.there was no provocation from Iraq and 2.the United Nations Security Council did not approve of the war.   Military actions of countries such as Iran and North Korea were condemned by the U.N. and the United States alike.   If the same standards were to be applied to all participant countries then the United States deserves its condemnation. On the other hand, supporters of the Bush Administration argue that toppling Saddam Hussein was a just act that needs no further legitimacyÃ'ŽÂ   Liberating the country from an oppressive dictatorship is deemed a just act in and of itself.   Apart from the geopolitical significance of Bush Administration’s militarism, the image of the country is also at stake.   Popular opinion in the rest of the world is very unfavorable towards Americans – they don’t seem to make a distinction between the government and its populace.   According to Robert Kagan, â€Å"To forge a renewed political consensus on the use of force, we first need to recognize that international legitimacy does matter. It matters to Americans, who want to believe they are acting justly and are troubled if others accuse them of selfish, immoral or otherwise illegitimate behavior. It matters to our democratic friends and allies, whose support may attest to the justness of the cause and whose participation may often be necessary to turn a military victory into a lasting political success.†

CORRELATIONAL METHOD Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

CORRELATIONAL METHOD - Essay Example Harvey tries to control for education, but the only meaningful control she makes is that of years of education. Perhaps mothers who saw reduced results from going to work were educated at worse schools or had lower academic performance. Certainly, the academic performance of the child can't be separated from the academic performance of the mother. Another factor could be genetics. Mothers in the early-employment group may have different genetic backgrounds, anomalies or diseases that could explain lower cognitive or academic functioning. Harvey can't control for these factors either. She does control for mother's IQ, but the NLSY doesn't account for father's IQs. Harvey appropriately controls for race, but only controls for African-American or Hispanic status. Yet Asian-Americans also face notable difficulties (Wise, 2005) . Other groups that might face discrimination or social stigma that could vary the results are Native Americans and Middle Easterners. It is possible that the chil dren who faced difficulties were Asian-American or Middle Eastern in background.

Maintaining Race and Ethnic Identity Essay Example for Free

Maintaining Race and Ethnic Identity Essay The world we are living is very dynamic and exhibits various types of movements for both plants and animals including humans. History insinuates that man practiced considerable movements from one place to another since its first existence. This movement from one locality to another is referred to as migration. Migration can be 1) internal which is within the country, state or continent and maybe 2) international which crosses boundaries to other country, state or continent. With the development of technology and globalization, international migration continues to increase over the past decades. In 1960, there were 76 million international migrants and increased to 191 million international migrants in 2006. It was noted that a relatively high migration rate is from 1985 to 1990. Generally, ethnic identity diversifies according to the length of distance and therefore international migration increases the gap of connectivity in relation to ethnicity. Human migration can be classified as permanent or semi-permanent depending on their reasons which maybe voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary migration is generally practiced in search for a â€Å"greener pasture† and satisfaction of one’s preferences. This includes employment, climate, food supply, self development like education, religion and family. Involuntary migration, on the other hand, includes migration due to calamity, political conditions like when in war or in exile, slave trades or human trafficking and ethnic cleansing. (Boyd, 2003) Refugees can eventually be immigrants. Based from Human Migration Guide of the National Geographic Society, â€Å"A refugee is a person who is residing outside the country of his or her origin due to fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. † (What is Human Migration? 2005) . This involuntary migration results to a hefty impact on self identity rather than voluntary migration. Human migration has taken a major participation in shaping and honing the present status of the population. It allows the diffusion and combination of the structures, cultures, beliefs, ideas, principles, religion, and other traits which results to the modification of each others traits. Rejection of the integration, however, sometimes results to conflict that may cause decline of socio-cultural capital and values. Although immigrants tend to maintain their ethnic identity and cultures at home, the children of the second, third generation is common or comparable with generations of the host country. This means that these generations are highly acculturated to the host community and country. Intentional or not intentional, this is in response to their quest for belongingness. On the other hand, some immigrants give high regard to their culture which is linked to nationalism. Some may even believe that there is no other culture than theirs and fail to recognize cultures of other immigrants within the community. Some host countries like Western European nations and Japan are deeply concern about the effect of these immigrants on their culture and ethnic identity which can be compromised. Oftentimes, conflict such as racial discrimination exist and become the subject of debates. Different countries have their own policies regarding immigration. Other countries begin to recognize immigrants with different race and cultures. They are respected in preserving their respective cultures and interact peacefully within one nation. This official policy is known as multiculturalism and can be seen in Canada, Australia and the U. K. It is also called as the cultural mosaic of different ethnic groups. Nevertheless, immigrant groups are still encouraged to learn the language of the host country and participate in the activities of the major society including labor force. However, this policy gained many criticisms such as it divides the people even there is a need to be united on certain social issues and justices. Debates on immigration law and racism are still on-going issues of every host country.

Product Life Cycle (PLC): Strength and weakness

Product Life Cycle (PLC): Strength and weakness Introduction: Marketing is a process which is based on communication and whereby individuals obtain what they need through others creating or exchanging products and value with them. For companies to sell their products, marketing is the most important factor to reach out to customers as Kotler Armstrong, (2008) define. This essay presents the product life cycle and focuses on its strength and weakness points. The concept of Product Life Cycle (PLC): Product life cycle (PLC): is an idea from cradle to grave and considered sales record of a product time. PLC has four hypotheses: 1. a limitation life of products, 2. each phase has its own different features such as: methods of sales, 3. profits variation throughout the life cycle, 4. strategic methods used at each stage differ (Bennett, 1995 Thetimes100, 2009). The Stages of PLC: PLC has five stages 1. Development (pre-Launch), 2. Launch (Introduction), 3.Growth, 4.Maturity (Saturation), 5.Decline (Thetimes100, 2009). The development phase: In this stage, a firm has an idea and tries to make improvements to it, which is done by employing the researching skills for that purpose. This usually costs a lot of money in designing, production, advance promotion and if there were no sales, there would be no profit (Mark, 1998). The introduction phase: If the product agreed on, which a firm has decided to launch was its own innovative, unique one, normally, in this case, chances are less that any difficulty get in the way, especially and mainly from competitors. It remains at the beginning of this stage from the 4 Ps mentioned previously: promotion and place. A firm needs to create awareness, encourage sales, advertisement, public relations, and most importantly develop an image (Mark, 1998 Netmba, 2009). The growth phase: When a product achieves success, competitors will have reaction that entering market as quickly as possible. As a result promotional cost would increase in this stage for the sake of persuading consumers that the product of ours is better than other competitors (Mark, 1998 Netmba, 2009). The maturity phase: Competitors are rising sharply in the market and there is no space in for new copartners. Firm at this stage will exert all promotion options to preserve its brand loyalty within its own customers. However, at this stage sales and price begin fall down in the same time there are a large several of versions of product. By using different approaches competitors will detach part of market from the firm (Blythe, 2009). The decline phase: This is the stage leading towards the end. In other words, it is the stage where the death of the product begins to take place. There are a small number of balance sheet promotion sections which could manage it with. As much as the firm can keep its product on the life, it will still be able to earn some money. However, in this stage, varieties of versions are not available and the price might need to be raised (Blythe, 2009). â€Å"In fact, most decision to eliminate products is made on the basis of intuition and judgment rather than any formal analysis† (Blythe, 2009.pp:81-82). Strengths of the PLC. When used alongside analysis of sales figures and forecasts, PLC can be a powerful tool in providing guidance and marketing tactics that are appropriate at a particular stage (suite101, 2009). What are the keys of succeeding? Clearly, to allow a product to succeed and penetrate the market, it has to fulfill the needs of a sizable number of customers. With new products, this usually occurs automatically when the product possesses some new features which cannot be found in other existing products. Improvement in operation and technology is another cause of success (Dibb et al., 2006). Weakness of PLC. Even with using the PLC diagrams, there is no way to predict the length of each phase that the product is going to stagnate at. Furthermore, neither can it be used in forecasting accurately. These are the main failures and weakness points of the PLC model (Know this, 2004 mind tools, 2009). What is the fatal mistake which marketers do? Why do some products fail? The critical major mistake that marketers may neglect is when the product they introduce to the market does not meet the needs of the customer. This occurs for any of the following reasons: 1. the product does not offer value and therefore fails to progress in the marketplace. 2. The branding is ineffective or not well known. 3. Sometimes, the mistakecan be within the design. 4. In some other cases, technical problems appear. Moreover, Distribution and overestimation of the market size problems are considered a huge mistake which marketers can possibly commit (Dibb et al., 2006). What are the internal and external factors have effects on PLC? There are many features which effect PLC and the vital of them Product decisions and Consumer behavior. Product decisions (Internal factor): Product decisions include those intended to have an effect upon the firm primarily, then product, its sales, and, hence, its lifecycle and not related directly to the consumers. This is so clear in the example of Coca-Cola case below. Consumer behaviour (External factor): Decision making process elements are considered many three issues: First: Personal characteristics: personality, lifestyle, motivation, beliefs, attitudes, and perception. Second: Circumstances of the buyer: gender, age, family, life-cycle, income, and education level. Third: Social environment: culture, reference groups, and social class (Hill OSullivan, 1999). These are out-of-control factors that a firm has no hand on. They affect the life cycle of a product and given the name, external factors. In fact, this is not precisely the case. Because this is mainly more related to the customer buying that very product, a fair look at psychology can be devoted here to face any of the problems caused by any of the above factors. If looked more closely at the nature of this situation, one finds that it is concerned with decision-making process area of psychology. As soon as a consumer makes the decision to buy that product, which is what marketers look forward to, the business will begin a nd the product introduced will continue going through the stages to live its cycle. The external factor effect should be clear in the Kelloggs example later (Hill, OSullivan, 1999). Coca-Cola case study In this case study, it will be shown clearly that some of the products dont even reach the growth or the maturity stages but straightforward towards the declining stage. This was when Coca-Cola thought to launch its own bottles of water in 1993. â€Å"Dasani†, was the marketing name of the product. In the UK, what happened was that the factory had contaminated the bottles with what a cancer-causing chemical called â€Å"bromated†. This is different from the chemical substance â€Å"bromide†. The factory was using the tap water which comes normally from the Thames River. Then, this is being purified using the reverse Osmosis method of purification. After, this purified water is added to a batch of â€Å"Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)† and â€Å"bromide†. When Ozone gas is pumped into that batch, the bromide will be oxidized to â€Å"bromated†. This was mainly the reason for Coca-Cola to divest this kind of a product. Apparently, for this reason, the water of Thames River is being monitored to check the existence, or the concentration for that matter, is below the 10 micrograms per litre. This clearly shows how the internal factor effect here led to the end of the product (Dibb et al., 2006). Kelloggs Nutri-Grain Case study: In 1997, Kelloggs has achieved successes for approximately fifty per cent, which was part of the growing a puffed rice of market Perform in short time less than three years. Until 2002, sales continued growing and increasing within new improvements of flavour and ingredient to the original product. Nutri-Grain, as an example, grew gradually to be identified and recognised by the customers themselves. Nutri-Grain has changed customers understanding from missing breakfast to become a health daily snack. All Bran bars and Alpen bars are the main competitors of Nutri-Grain yet the interesting issue about the two is that both are from Kelloggs itself. However, there are others producing similar products to Nutri-Grain which slightly caused cutting of total profits. Each product of Kelloggs itself has a life cycle, some of which spend months within one stage and others, such as: Nutri-Grain spent years in only the growth stage. In the middle of 2004, Kelloggs noticed that Nutri-Grain sales started falling and losing its position. Meanwhile, the rate of market reached 15% of growing. It is obvious that Kelloggs should choose one of two decisions, either to withdraw Nutri-Grain or add some improvements to it to return it back to life (Thetimes100, 2009). Evaluation Simply, an analogy to the PLC is the life of a being. The living being starts developing from the moment it is born. Next step comes the stage of growth when it becomes a youth through towards maturity when it becomes adult. Finally, it dies which is similar to the withdrawal of a product from the market but before that it gets old; its sales show a decline. Having stated that, it shall be clear as to why be it that not all the products come through the lifecycle phases in the same pattern! As figure number 1 shows: The above plot shows the general typical life cycle that virtually every product should go through if no obstacles were on the way but the pattern differs. As expected in the research and development stage, the sales are zero since the product is not introduced to the market yet. Then, once it is introduced, the sales will begin and this is shown on the graph as sudden rise forming a curvature upwards shape. The rise continues until the stage of decline is reached and this is represented as a downward curvature shape indicated that the sales have fallen. In the development stage, small firms and big firms are not equal in terms of the precautions and the initiatives they take and so for the new and old companies. New Companies are more vulnerable to suffer from the consequences that the old ones and the reason for that is that the old have far more experience than the new firms. Big companies have a strong finical base which allows them to fight in the market with no fear. As have been stated above, in the introduction phase section, that the awareness and sales encouragement and more importantly the advertising is done actively at this stage. Doing the same kind of comparison between small and big firms, the latter have a variety of products in its production line which, in turn, adds a huge space for marketing activities such as, making ads about two or more products of their own, in other words, promotional effect dominates more than in the small firms. After passing the first two stages and the product reaches the growth stage safely, competitors reaction did not exist, both of the small and big firms are equal. However, if their reaction was catalyzed and competition was prevalent, they are not similar in the sense that the potential of each differs. As result, the course of action of each will be different and each will reap the harvest of competitors reaction differently, in accordance to their potential. Some products, although reach their decline stage, do not believe in what is called the decline phase and getting old. As a result, they overcome this problem and regain their position and popularity after taking the necessary strategies. This normally occurs when a little innovative tweak, be it a promotion, or an additional feature that is applied to the existing product. To reinforce the point of weakness mentioned earlier about the model that it fails to predict the exact time a product will spend at a certain stage, a set of examples are presented and exposed to evaluation. One of the examples is clothing. Cloths cannot be handled, to some extent, somehow to extend its life cycle as it is down to the fashion of the year. So, normally this kind of product lasts for no longer than a couple of months up to a year. (Know this, 2004) On the contrary, products like cars or bells live longer and can be trusted for at least five years or even more than that. These products life cycle, unlike the cloths, can be extended Products in between are prone to societies. A typical example is mobile phones. In some communities, people consider the mobile phone as fashionable item that is changeable each time a better, newer one is launched to the market. Others are fulfilled with it as being merely a mean of communication and that it is hard to do its job. Internal and external factors are equally as important. It has been seen in the example above how exceeded legal limit of bromate of a bottle of water has led Coca-Colas product towards death directly from the introduction phase; internal phase. Similarly with Nutri-Grain, Realistic snackers interest in healthy food, and it being the only healthy product have forced Kellogs to revitalize Nutri-Grain, external factor. Conclusion: PLC is a brief description or representation of a life cycle of a product in terms of graph. It is one of the powerful analysis tools in business generally and in marketing specifically. PLC mode can imply the possible strategies to be pursued in order to extend the life cycle of the product having known the stage at which the product is at standing. It can be concluded that in order to overcome this external factor, a marketer needs to play with the elements of decision-making process. By the death of the product, a complete description of the whole life of the product will be provided by the PLC model that can be used later on in the research and development stage of a new product. Business Culture Differences: USA and France Business Culture Differences: USA and France Globalisation has prompted many researchers to conduct intercultural studies. This report analyses the case of Southern Candles Tour De France and identifies several cultural differences. The ideas of Halls cultural model and Shannon-Weavers communication process will be presented with cultural issues. INTRODUCTION The purpose of report is to recognise the differences of business culture between U.S. and France and how they influence the cooperation of Southern and Belles companies. This report will be divided into three four dimensions. The first section presents a sequenced identification of cultural issues in the case. Theories of Halls and Shannon-Weaver models will be defined in the second section with clear tables and figure. The third section contains of some viewpoints about how the cultural issues relate to the chose models. Various perspectives of suggestions will be included in the last section. MEETING STRUCTURE Based on the research (1), the French prefer to have a flexible meeting and often change the plan easily, whereas, the Americans prefer to have a formal meeting and often adhere religiously to the plan (2). The conflict of meeting structure can be described as a cultural distinction. Conversely, this conflict can also significantly affect the positive impression of companies. For instance, the Americans may think that the French do not respect the meeting, and the French may think that the Americans are not creative. LUNCH TIME Another cultural issue between U.S. and France can be observed while Durand and his team members spent twenty minutes into meeting but used two hours break time to have a hot lunch. According to the research1, the Americans can just eat a small sandwich as their lunch and turn back to work, but a hot lunch is essential for the French to fulfill their energy. REACTION At the end of meeting, the reactions between Picard and Durand can also be considered as a cultural issue. U.S. people often present their reactions on surface (3); for instance, Picard gave a quick okay sign to his team members after finishing a well-presented meeting but the U.S. okay sign actually means zero or useless in France (4). Contrarily, the French frequently reserve their reaction and then release their decision after a series of discussion3. For example, Mr. Durand had decided not to corporate with Mr. Picard after two weeks consideration. DRESS APPEARANCE In Frenchs culture, formal dress look is very important at all times particularly in the meeting with high management level5. However, Picard made a mistake of this different cultural issue as only he took off the coat during the business meeting after an uncomfortable hot lunch. NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION In France, eye contact, handshake, and double kiss are three main skills of non-verbal communication to show their friendly manner (6). In the case, Dubois extended a warm greeting in French to Durand. Nevertheless, the Americans usually avoid physical contact with people and this cultural issue creates an arrogant impression for the French1. WORK AND LIFE SEPARABILITY The problem of work and life separablity can be simply discovered when Picard kept mentioned several times the business meeting earlier in the day, but conversation always drifted back to social amenities. For the view of Durand, he has strong tendency to build lifetime relationship with Picard during the party dinner. However, Picard is accustomed to a short-term business relationship (2). LANGUAGE BARRIER The serious barrier between two central leaders is that they do not have same language to do deeper communication and this problem may have impact on building a trust business relationship. Although Picard has hired Dubois as his representative, the problem of different languages still significantly influences the interaction with Belles. For illustrate, Durand and his team members are repeatedly staring at Dubois because they think that she is the only person to give response so they put more concern on her reaction. LITERATURE REVIEW EDWARD TWICTHELL HALLS CULTURAL MODEL 1981 Hall is an anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher and he developed a cultural model that emphasised the importance of nonverbal signals and modes of awareness over explicit messages7. There are three fundamental dimensions: CONTEXT HIGH CONTEXT AND LOW CONTEXT Hall adds that high context communication or message is one in which most of the information is already in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of message. A low-context communication is just the opposite, that is, the mass of the information is vested in the explicit code7. The following table shows the characteristics of Halls high context culture and low context culture3: HIGH CONTEXT CULTURE LOW CONTEXT CULTURE Much convert and implicit message Much overt and explicit message Reserved actions Reactions on surface Distinct in groups and out groups Flexible in groups and out groups High commitment Low commitment Open and flexible time High organised time TIME -MONOCHRONIC AND POLYCHRONIC Hall explained that monochronic cultures value schedules and can evolve efficient bureaucracies. Polychronic cultures regard events as embedded in more of a simultaneous matrix of occurrences5. The following table gives the characteristics of two different time concepts (2): MONOCHRONIC POLYCHRONIC Do one work at a time Do multiple works at a time Concentrate on job Are highly distractible and subject to interruptions Are committed to the job Are committed to people and human relationships Work is clearly separate from personal time Work is clearly not separate from personal time SPACE (PROXEMICS) INTERPERSONAL DISTANCE Proxemics is the study of the human use of space within the context of culture. People handle space differently the way they do largely determined by the culture in which they are immersed9. Related to the case, only the theory of intimate and social distance will be provided. Intimate distance ranges from body contact to approximately 45 cm. At intimate distance, the presence of the other person is unmistakable (9). Social distance is the casual interaction-distance between acquaintances and strangers and ranges from 120 to 360 cm. Its close phase, 120 to 210 cm, is the characteristic of informal interaction9. The following figure shows that distance of Proxemics concept (10): SHANNON AND WEAVERS COMMUNICATION MODEL 1961 Shannons model of the communication process is a general model of the communication process that could be treated as the common ground of such diverse disciplines as journalism, rhetoric, linguistics, and speech and hearing sciences11. The following figure shows the communication process of Shannon-Weaver model (12): This model consists of 7 elements which are (13): Information source chooses desired message among a set of possible messages which can be mixture of any form of written or spoken, image or sound. Transmitter changes the message into the signal, also known as encoder. Message is the thing which is sent and received and all communication is about. Channel is the path that message passes through from the transmitter to the receiver. Receiver is the reverse transmitter which changes the signal back into the message, also known as decoder. Destination is the target place of the transmitted message. Noise is any unwanted additions to the transmitted signal which cause distortion or error in transmission. CASE ANALYSIS EDWARD TWITCHELL HALLS CULTURAL MODEL LES BELLES CHOSES Meeting Structure In the mind of the French, the meeting structure of U.S. represents low creativity and boring. In the mind of the Americans, Frances meeting structure is not organized and disciplined. Reaction Information is more likely transmitted in indirect way so the reaction is normally reserved. Reaction is normally appeared in a very direct way and also comes up with different signals. Interpersonal Relationship People always have strong boundaries and hard to adapt an outsider as part of their group. People are more flexible to accept outsider or a new culture. POLYCHRONIC MONOCHRONIC Schedule Schedule can be arranged independently if the better achievement can be established. Also, they do not mind to do multiple things simultaneously and always have a great involvement with human relationships since they are more concerned with family and friends. Time is very important as they often complete one project at a time or before the deadlines. Therefore, the Americans may think that time was dispersed with two hours lunch break and the French are not focused on the corporation. Work-life separability The issue of work-life separability also has direct impact on the corporation. Durand tended to create a close relationship with Picard but it was disturbed by irrelevantly conversation. The Americans typically follow the rules, show great respect for private property and less to build long-term relationship. So, Picard kept mentioned the works during personal time is eliminating the potential of cooperation. INTIMATE DISTANCE SOCIAL DISTANCE Interpersonal distance and Non-verbal communication People can accept the intimate distance mean that they often have body involvement with people or strangers. In the case, Durand and Dubois have an extended greeting in French. However, Mr. Picard did not have this action with Durand. People in the category of social distance mean that they have less body involvement with people and always in a common distance to do interaction with strangers. This kind of people usually avoids physical contact with people. Picard who from U.S. is a typical example. SHANNON-WEAVERS COMMUNICATION MODEL Destination Meeting Party dinner Decoder Durand receives the message and decodes the meaning Channel Dubois is the interpreter Encoder Picard sends the message and encodes the meaning Information sources Business proposal Ideas Opinions Noises Error messages, mistakes in translation, Wrong meaning created by interpreter Information source includes business proposal (written message), ideas, and argumentative opinion (spoken message) that were identified during meeting and party dinner. Transmitter is also called as encoder. In the case, Picard is the sender who is encoding the meaning. Message refers to the every information that was sent and received in the communication process. Channel will be the interpreter. For example, Dubois is responsible for translating the meaning for Picard and Durand. Receiver is also known as decoder. In this case, Durand may change the received messages and signals back into his preferred language or meanings. Destination refers to the meeting or the target place to do presentation in the case. Noises may include the error messages and meanings due to Picard and Durand are using different languages. RECOMMENDATIONS MEETING ALERT In France, people will never skip lunch and they are allowed to have lunch at least forty-five minutes at the company cafeteria and ninety minutes at a restaurant 14. Picard should have awareness of the Frenchs office hours and lunch hours and schedule the best time to have meeting. BUSINESS DRESS CODE If dealing with senior management level in France, a formal suit and well business dress code are highly needed15. Social gathering requires tastefully coordinated clothes even the invitation card with states that informal dress15. During the meeting, Picard should sustain his formal dress appearance. CONVERSATION Language barrier between Picard and Durand creates a resistance in their conversation. The best way to remove the barrier is to learn the same language; however, it could not be reached in a short period. There are some tips for Picard to increase the potential of success16: Practice effective communication as much as possible Convey ideas in a positive, clear and convincing manner PROSPEROUS ENTERTAINING Actually, a business meeting is not supposed to be conducted during lunch or dinner. However, sharing a meal is intended to help establish a personal acquaintance17. In France, business lunches are the most common form of entertaining business contacts18. For that reason, Picard can use a business lunch to present his sincerity of cooperation and his respect to the Frenchs culture. PUBLIC BEHAVIOUR In Frenchs culture, some non-verbal communication actions are expected to be performed19. To gain more familiarity with French, Picard should learn some greeting behaviour and avoid some objectionable public behaviors. GIFT-GIVING In France, gifts are expected for social events, especially as thank you after a dinner party20. When Picard was invited to the party dinner after meeting, he should awake that gifts-giving for the host is important to show an honor manner in the Frenchs culture. CONCLUSION After looking the ideas of Hall and Shannon-Weaver, it is easier to understand why problems occur from different cultural backgrounds. These ideas especially help in workplace and international cooperation. The recommendations proposed will provide a guideline on how to cooperate and avoid some unpleasant problems. References 1. http://www.understandfrance.org/France/Intercultural3.html 2. http://hackvan.com/pub/stig/etext/monochronic-vs-polychronic-time.txt 3. http://www.siu.edu/~ekachai/dimensions.html 4. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=France:_Public_Behaviour 5. http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/Meals-and-Entertaining-in-France.html 6. http://www.culture-at-work.com/highlow.html 7. Hall, E.T. (1998). Basic concepts of intercultural communication: The Power of Hidden Differences. Maine: Intercultural Press Inc. 8. Hall, E. T. (1983). The dance of life: The other dimension of time. New York: Random House. 9. Hall Edward T.: The hidden dimension, 1966, Doubleday Company, Inc. 10. Tool for Proxemic research: Edward T. Half, A System for the Notation of Proxemic Research, American Anthropologist, Vol. 65, 1963, pp. 1003-1026. 11.http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/Handouts/Communication%20Models.htm#TheShannonWeaverMathematicalModel1949 12. http://faculty.mdc.edu/jmcnair/Communication%20Theory%20A%20First%20Look.htm 13. http://www.zainbooks.com/books/mass-communication/introduction-to-mass-communication_4_elements-of-communication-and-early-communication-models.html 14. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=France:_Appointment_Alert! 15. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=France:_Business_Dress 16. http://plushtext.com/6-ways-to-communicate-more-effectively-in-the-workplace 17. http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/Meals-and-Entertaining-in-France.html 18. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=France:_Prosperous_Entertaining 19. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=France:_Public_Behaviour 20. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=France:_Gift_Giving