Hitting a Baseball

It has been a proven fact that hitting a baseball is one of the toughest things to accomplish in sports. In the major leagues if you fail 7 out of 10 times you are still considered to be an incredibly good hitter. That statistic shows how challenging it is even for Athletes at the professional level to produce a perfect swing. In order to achieve this perfect swing there is a series of adjustments that must be made. In this essay I will show how hitting a baseball develops through 3 different stages of learning. When someone is first starting off usually around the ages of 7 to 9 , they do not understand that the way a bat is held effects the outcome of the swing. In the beginning process many tend to place the bat in their palm and grip it extremely tight, without aligning their knuckles. They do not realize that holding the bat this way will reduce the range of motion in the swing, causing slower bat speed. Another key component to hitting a baseball is the hitter’s stance. In the beginning stage many crowd the plate, with their toes pretty much touching the corner of the tip of the plate. The legs are extremely bent and the toes are pointing in two different directions. The hands are then placed right next to the ear with both elbows facing up. The hitters back is usually arched at the top, with their shoulders kinds of pushing in to the neck. As the ball is pitched the hitter does not take a step towards the pitch, instead they keep their feet planted on their heels. When the ball is getting closer they begin their swing by dropping the back elbow and lifting the front one up. As the bat begins to cross the plate the head begins to turn away from the ball, because they are using no hip action. The bat is stopped in front of their body, creating no follow through. There may be little or no contact at this point. As a hitter progresses around the middle school stage, one thing they begin to change is the way they grip the bat. Now that they are a little more informed they begin to align the knuckles and place the bat on the fingers instead of on the palm. The hitter now has more flexion in the wrist along them to better their chances of hitting the ball. The stance of the batter is now gradually changing as well. The batter is now able to get in a position to where they can feel a little more comfortable. The knees are just are just slightly bent still allowing them to have some mobility. The toes are both facing in the same direction but are still planted on their heels. The elbows are now facing down instead of up, and the hands are up just above the shoulders and away from the ears. The back is no longer arched and the hitter is now at a stance where they are not as stiff as they once were. As the pitch comes the hitter now takes a step forward to generate some force, and prepare for his swing to begin. As the pitch is coming the hitter now keeps his eyes on the ball as it is coming in and extends hit arms out toward the baseball but slightly drops the barrel of the bat because of this, the hitter might have a tendency to pop the ball up instead of hitting a solid line drive. At this point the swing has now gotten better but still it has not generated bat speed to its full potential. Once the collegiate level is reached the batter now understands all the key fundamentals to hitting a baseball. With many years of practice and execution the hitter’s swing is now at its perfect state making it much easier to create contact and power. At this point the hitter no longer has any difficulty with the grip of the bat, or stance. Their feet are at shoulder width length allowing them to be at their most powerful position. The hitter is on the balls of his or her feet and is no longer on the heels. As the pitch is coming the hitter shifts his weight from the front leg to the back leg. The hitter is creating negative force by taking a step back, then going forward once again. At this point, weight should be about 70 percent on the back leg, 30 percent on the front leg. This allows the hitter to stay on the back leg to generate the most amount of power possible as they are swinging. While this is happening the hitter must also shift his hand back to generate more power in the upper body as well. The next step is the key essential where many beginners go wrong when trying to hit a baseball. Many believe that the hands trigger the swing, but this is untrue. It is the explosion of the hip that creates the swing. The hips start to open and allow the hands to explode through the hitting zone at a much higher rate of speed than if the hands triggered first and were still inhibited by the body. This has been proven by some of the most respected hitting authorities in the world by using high speed motion detection software to analyze a hitter's swing. Once the hips have started to open, the hands shoot through the zone. The hitter drives the nob of the bat to the ball, and keeps the bat through the zone as long as possible. This makes it easier to hit the pitch no matter where it is thrown. Once the bat has made contact the hips naturally finish their rotation as the hands leave the hitting zone and follow through. The weight shifts forward into contact, and all of the steps come together into a fluid, quick swing. Now the batter can produce hard linedrives or homeruns instead of soft grounders or pop ups.

Masculinity in Science Fiction Essay

Throughout the past couple of centuries science fiction has become one of the most popular genres worldwide. Thousands of people of different age, gender, racial and ethnical origin submerge into a world where the level of technological development is incredibly high, and where the machines often seem to dominate their creators, humans. To begin the essay we should first give the definition for what the science fiction is. So, the Wikipedia says that: â€Å"Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology upon society and persons as individuals.† Scientists have long been arguing about the reasons that make science fiction so popular among the readers. The realm, depicted in science fiction novels isn’t magical or fairy, like the fantasy world is. On the contrary, it’s often more cruel and merciless than our reality is. One of the main hypothesis is that people like to drift into the worlds of robots, intelligent machines and spaceships because there the easy ways to solving the emerging problems exist. In most of those books there is little attention paid to the human to human relations. On the contrary, the problems that are dealt in science fiction novels are rather more global than the relations between the individuals. The authors of this kind of books prefer to write about the rise and fall of the empires, about the giant wars, won or lost with the help of the mind, intrigues and power. For lots of people in our Western, highly individualistic world, reading science fiction books is one of the few ways to forget about the necessity to maintain and keep social relations with others. Nowadays, when the society allows us, its members, to open and develop our individuality freely, communication between the individuals becomes more and more complicated, as people, given the opportunity to develop the way they want, find more differences between each other, so that they have less in common with each passing year. This fact, combined with the absence of the defined standards of communication that existed in traditional societies, make communication a tough task for the contemporary people. It’s well known, that women adapt easier and faster than the man do, thus they experience less difficulties in adjusting to this new way of communication. On the contrary, men are those who sometimes experience severe troubles when some advanced form of social interaction is required. Thus, man read science fiction in order to transfer themselves in the world where mind and power decide a lot, and emotions are usually seen as something lateral and even useless. This hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that males comprise the main auditory for the books, shows and films in this genre. In order to better understand what is science fiction about, and why is it preferred by man, we’ll research the inner genres science fiction has in it. Kay Fowler offers his classification for the genres of science fiction which is: World at Risk SF and Apocalyptic Science Fiction Political/Massive War/Doomsday Weapons Disaster Alien Invasion/Conquest of Earth Plague/Disease/Epidemic Agricultural/Ecological/Population Disasters Far Future or Ancient History-Future History . Utopias/Dystopias/and in-between Utopia near utopias; ambiguous utopias, heterotopias Dystopias Alternate Earth/Alternate History (What If?) Time Travel, Time Paradoxes, Time Patrolling, Time Wars, Alternate Time Lines Religion/Theology/Anti-religion and Science Fiction Space Opera Robots, Androids, Cyborgs, Clones and Cyberbunk/Virtual Reality, Genetic Engineering, and Nanotechnology. World Building/Terraforming/Scientific and Social Inventiveness ESP/Telepathy/Psi Powers Underwater living/ocean worlds Human Colonization/Conquest of Other Worlds Feminist Science Fiction/Alternate Sexualities/Gender Benders SF with a theme of deafness or a focus on non-oral communication (Kay Fowler, Themes/Genres in Science Fiction: An idiosyncratic and woefully incomplete list) As you can note from the list above, science fiction is mostly the literature of action, the field of action for the active people, warriors, politicians and scientists, where there is little place for emotions and emotional life. Contemporary critics say that science fiction is one of the genres whose main characteristic is reflecting and reproducing masculinity, creating the specific, sometimes even perverted image of it in the minds of those who fancy this kind of literature. Of course, some researchers of the SF literature consider that: â€Å"science fiction †¦ seem(s) also to promise more freedom than do non-genre literature to imagine alternatives to the privileged assumptions of heterosexuality and masculinity that suffuse our culture », as it is noted in The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts.   But, in the reality, the authors of the SF books put â€Å"the male as the central role and in a position of power†, as it is noted in the article Science fiction’s use of Utopian and Dystopian visions of the future in relation to challenging boundaries of gender and / or sexuality. Today, when the amount of novels, stories and tales written in this genre is enormous, science fiction authors will do anything to attract the reader’s attention to their novel. Some years ago, when the SF began its rapid development, it was new and original to make the protagonist of the story female. Unfortunately, for most of the SF writers it meant only the change of setting or decorations, not touching the key points of their writings. To attract the readers’ (and, as we can recall, those are mostly males) attention they   provide their main protagonist with huge eyes and breasts, enormously long legs and a tempting smile, but inside their â€Å"heroines† are as masculine as any male monster slayer with the huge gun is. Thus, changing the decorations for their stories, the authors evade the convictions in gender discrimination, in the same time attracting new waves of male readers who are longing to read about the long-legged half-naked amazons fighting with the evil. Thus, the heroes of science fiction novels are mostly males to the marrow of their bones, and it doesn’t depend of their physical sex. Science fiction literature usually describes conflict situations, like war, ethical, racial or cultural conflicts. The protagonists of the science fiction stories are always the people of action; those who possess notable decision-making skills, and are able to actualize their choices immediately. If we analyze current researches in the field of gender psychology, a conclusion can be deduced that those qualities characterize mostly males, while women are considered to be more of the facilitators, peace makers. Stereotypical women behavior is characterized by irrationality, which’s doesn’t belong to the features that characterize this genre. A considerable part of science fiction novels and stories are characterized by the external conflict between the protagonists of the story. Of course the existing external conflict in science fiction, like in some of the other genres, is often the reflection of the internal protagonist’s conflict, but in most science fiction stories this internal clash is moved on the background of the story. Most SF stories are written for the man to allow them to drift into the world, where power and mind is the key to solving all of the existing problems. The external conflict in the story is usually characterized by the considerable amount of power the opposing characters possess, for whether it is physical or mental. Power is the key to becoming a winner in the clash, which’s the only goal the masculine protagonists usually have in mind. Another gaze into the gender psychology study book provides us with the information that the necessity to prove one’s superiority by becoming a winner in some conflict is also mainly male characteristic. Science fiction novels are usually the stories describing concrete situations, where the plot develops, and one event causes another. To cut the long story short, SF books are usually based on logical interpretation of the events. The causal consecutive ties there are usually very strong, thus there are usually little unfinished plot lines and the events that do not have any substantional meaning to the development of the plot of the story. All the technologies used in the story are scientifically validated, the principles of their operation are usually explained or understandable to the readers, in contradiction to the principles that stipulate the usage of magic in fantasy books.   One of the reasons for which less women read science fiction than man do, is the lack of the elements of decoration that make the book â€Å"alive† in women’s opinion. In the feminine literature the event that is described or the person that appeared may be introduced only in order to help the reader to feel the atmosphere of the setting described by the author. Only few of the science fiction novels hold such seemingly useless elements in them, while in all of the others â€Å"every gun that’s hanging on the wall is going to fire†, and every person appearing, and every action been committed are the basis for some further development of the plot, as Justine Larbalestier proves in his research book The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction. Science fiction novels’ protagonists are also often characterized by their orientation on victory. It’s a usual pattern of action for the SF heroes to fight the things they don’t like or don’t understand. They rarely seek for the round-abouts for reaching their goals, preferring the straight and habitual way of defeating and destroying the things that prevent them from getting the needed things. Such a way of solving the problems is also mostly male characteristic. For women the strategy would rather be to understand the enemy, to find the reasons for which he’s opposing and try to get rid of them, preferably uniting their forces with the past rivals. Women tend to understand and not to fight, as destroying diverges with the basic female ideals, while creation is their field.   But, as we can note, there are fewer science fiction novels that tell about the cooperation between the aliens and people, than of those, that describe the wars between the different races. In addition, most of the novels that actually describe that cooperation show it is based on the military, political or economic needs only. Actually, the situation with the aliens’ psycho type for lots of SF writers is the same as it is with gender appurtenant of the protagonists. The description of the aliens’ phenotype is called to create the impression in the consumer’s mind that humans in the story are contacting with the creatures totally different from them, but if the reader looks closer he begins to feel himself pigeoned, as there are the same humans under the scary carnival masks. Unfortunately, only a small amount of the writers puts an effort to design the psycho type different from the humans’ one.   Of course, most of them don’t even need it, as it’s not necessary and is even harmful to research the enemy’s psychology thoroughly, as it may summon sympathy or, which’s even worse, the desire to find the reasons for the antagonist’s inappropriate behavior. Psychologists prove this is typically masculine approach to problem-solving. That’s why only a few books describe cultural cooperation between the people and aliens. Human to human cooperation has been thoroughly researched and described, so it’s ineffective to create the â€Å"human in masks† type of aliens, while creating and designing the psychology of the race much different from humans requires lots of time and effort. Science fiction got its name because of the numerous elements of scientific research and the results of progress that characterize the books written in this genre. Science is the world of rationality, of the casual-consecutive bonds, where all the events have their reasons, and provoke certain consequences, the world where the miracle is unlikely, because it deprives that world of the reality it possesses. Introducing miracle in SF novel is the same as bringing the atomic bomb into the world of the faeries and dragons. If it is done without the proper skills only the excellent writers possess, those new elements ruin the authenticity of the imaginary world, making it look like a child’s picture with the broken proportions. SF world is primordially opposite to the woman’ irrational view of the surrounding world, the place where the content is valued and the form is neglected. Most of the science fiction worlds demand their protagonist to belong to one of the two categories, either the warrior or the scientist, in order to survive in the surrounding society. Of course there are woman whose nature is of one of this two types, but for most of the females those roles are unfamiliar and unwanted. It sometimes happens in the SF that the woman have to play those roles despite of their desires or longings in order to survive, but most writers prefer to describe the beings that feel themselves comfortable in those two roles, as only than their heroes are capable of actualizing their hidden potential and revealing some of the inner qualities.   Thus they prefer to write about males, who are naturally designed to play those roles. It is also important for the science fiction protagonist to be centered on the goals put before him by the gods, doom or just the consequences, and the science fiction writers know that man are much more suitable for this role than woman are. Realistic heroine will be distracted dozens of times a day from her high mission by the cute kitty mioving, new wrinkle appeared or the handsome man walking nearby. It is also worthy of mentioning that science fiction literature rarely describes the societies where the human’s individuality is valued. For most of the heroes their surroundings are not valued for their personal qualities, but for the things they can do, thus the notion of personality is often replaced by the notion of function in the mind of the protagonist of the SF novel. This also belongs to the typical masculine qualities, described by the gender psychologists. Te contemporary world becomes more and more feminine with each passing year, and the science fiction is often used to , distract the males’ attention from this fact. Using the example of Terminator 2, Amanda Fernbach in her article The Fetishization of Masculinity in Science Fiction: The Cyborg and the Console Cowboy says that: â€Å"Ordinary masculinity lacks, and the technological Terminator represents a fetishized, idealized masculinity that is a desirable alternative. In Terminator 2, the Terminator represents an idealized phallic masculinity heavily dependent upon technofetishes to ward off the anxieties of the male spectator faced with the prospect of a future vision of castrated masculinity. Although he learns to make jokes, the Terminator admits he could never cry. He becomes more human in every way except those that display weakness or vulnerability.† Thus we can make a conclusion that science fiction is a genre designed specially for man in order to solve some of their psychological problems and satisfy some of their needs. SF is designed for man and about them, at least most of the examples are. References Fernbach, A   2000, The Fetishization of Masculinity in Science Fiction: The Cyborg and the Console Cowboy. Science Fiction Studies, Volume 27, Part 2 Fowler. K 1999, Themes/Genres in Science Fiction:   An idiosyncratic and woefully incomplete list. Ramaro College of New-Jersey. Viewed 11 May, 2005.   http://orion.ramapo.edu/~kfowler/sfthemes.html Larbalestier, J 2002, The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction. Wesleyan University Press Science fiction. Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. Viewed 11 May, 2005  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction> Science fiction’s use of Utopian and Dystopian visions of the future in relation to challenging boundaries of gender and / or sexuality. 2002,   Viewed 11 May, 2005 http://www.corneredangel.com/amwess/papers/sf_gits_esca.doc. Summers. C (ed) 2004, The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts. Cleis Press.      

Books Were an Important Part of Life in the Late 18th Century Essay Example for Free (#18)

Books Were an Important Part of Life in the Late 18th Century Essay Learning is one of important processes in human being life. It is self-evident that human development cannot stand without a proper learning. Since Learning provides unlimited Benefits, people should learn and experience it. The Reading is being reimagined over the time period. I’ll discuss about it later in this section. There are several ways that promotes Learning such as Books, electronic books, Movies, Periodicals such as Magazine, journals or Newspapers and Audio/Visual clips. Nowadays Libraries plays a critical role on keeping the Books alive due to the invention Mass media communications. I’ll talk further about this later in this section. Let’s take a closer look about Books. The book is one of the valuable sources of knowledge that provided numerous benefits, such benefits are it takes us into different worlds and cultures and it helps to learn other languages as well. So, we can tell that a book can be a truthful friend which helps to learn how to behave in practical life. Books cover different genres such as Comedy, Drama, Romance, Adventure, fiction etc. Director General of UNESCO addressed 1972 as the â€Å"International Book Year† and taking â€Å"Booking for all† as their Motto. UNESCO organizes a yearly event called â€Å"World Book day or International Day of the book† on 23th April every year worldwide to promote Reading, Publishing and Copyright. So we can understand How Important it is Reading in a life of Mankind. It was first celebrated on 23th April 1995. Writing believed to be developed between the 7th millennium BC and 4th millennium BC in china. Ancient people used to write using stones but wood was the first medium to write in the actual form of Book. From time to Time, the new technology inventions played vital part in the World. The Cambridge University Press was founded in 1534 and the first book was printed in 1583. Also the first press was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts one of the North American British colonies in the year of Year 1639. Then first North American Public library was founded in Boston in the year of 1653. Eighteenth Century Americans were mainly interested in reading books about practical arts, religious and the politics as well. American does have a long tradition on reading habits since long back. Thus they are proved to be improved in vocal, public expressions both towards and against throughout reading skills. Novels are the entertaining seldom read by Americans in the 18th century. The nation’s first novel was published in the late 18th century. The first two novels to be published were Digges’ â€Å"Adventure of Alonso† and Brown’s â€Å"The power of Sympathy†. Women were also contributed to the success of Novels, Such writers were Susuana Rowson for her novel â€Å"Charlotte: A tale of truth†. This navel was re-issued under the title of Charlotte Temple, which sold more than million and half copies. The growth of novel reading grew rapidly towards the end of the year 1750. The main reason for the growth of novel readers was the rapid growth of the source of book materials such as book seller, public library and lending library. An average person was able to obtain their reading materials from booksellers, public libraries as well through lending libraries which were a cheaper option since they were able to rent the books for a small fee. Due to the vast number of readers between the year 1773 and 1798 the number of book trading companies as well as the number of public libraries grew rapidly at faster rate than the increasing population. While the population doubled in the period of 1790’s, the numbers of the circulating libraries were tripled. So in the late 18th century, the circulation libraries played a huge influence placing reading interest among the American public. Social libraries were able to expand their firms by joining the book selling companies and they were able to purchase and loan the books for a lower rate. By the year of 1790, books were the main source of entertainment, information and literature for an average person. According to the catalogues of the sellers, the percentage of fiction readers increased by nine percent between 1754 to 1765 and increased to thirteen percent between 1791 to 1800. Circulating Library catalogues contained fifty-eight percent fiction by the year of 1800 which was higher compared (twenty-eight percent) to the early 18th century. Though the books were little expensive at that period, the people were able to join in the circulating libraries for lower rate which is another proof that people were encouraged to read during this century. During the late 18th century, the book sellers showed interest requesting novels from their suppliers. As an example Robert Ben Winans (1975) states that â€Å"In 1801, a bookseller in North Carolina wrote to his supplier requesting that â€Å"Mr. Carey will be so obliging as to send as many of the Novels as he procure; it will be mutually our interest to keep a good collection, as the good folks her love light reading†. This letter accompanied an order called a -typical order of the period about 1800, which listed sixty-three books every one of them a novel†. (â€Å"The Growth of a Novel-Reading Public in Late-Eighteenth-Century America. Early American Literature. Vol. 9. No. 3 (Winter, 1975): 267-275. Print). This is a proof that tells the novels were read by rapidly growing people in the late 18th century. This period is described as Novel reading age. I strongly believe that books today have been replaced by other forms of mass communication such as Media, newspape r and magazine, Web. Though there were so many significant political, economic developments redesigned the new world, the dramatic and unprecedented centralization of the countries and their expansion, regulations and professionalization of the state forces are still appreciable. Every time a new invention strikes in mass communications, obviously the books had to compete with that invention. The first American newspaper called â€Å"Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick† published in early 18th century. During the early 18th century, the weekly Newspapers acted as the means of carrying of intercolonial news and also the newspapers carried war news at that period . So people were interested in reading newspapers than Books at that period. Then the industrial era started from the nineteenth century initially with the telegraph applications. The first African-American newspaper was published in 1827 called the Freedom’s Journal. Also this has been followed by the inventions such as magazines, telegraph, printers, phonograph, postal discounted rates, photographic films and radio were in particular. So the century that belongs to the industrial revolution start for the mass media that affected the books and readers. Since the radio, television and movie inventions in the early 1900s, the information had started passing through voice than text form. People started feeling that listening to audio is more comfortable than reading. In 1980, first online newspaper was published on web . From time moves on, the physical form of book transformed in intangible form of text due the new inventions in this world. During the late 1980s, Information has transformed to digitalized manner and the revolution of Computer started striking the world. People believed that physically storing information was not safe, so they started storing information in digital code. In 1985, Voyagar Company stored books in CD-ROM which was the first step to the era of eBook. From then onwards, the learning has come to digital manner. Then the biggest bang to the book sales was the invention of the World Wide Web in the year of 1991. Then the first online blog was published in the year of 1997. Due to high volume of readers, authors showed an interest in writing online blogs. Convergence of Media (Video and Audio) introduced in the later 1990s. For example:-We can see presidential debates live on YouTube. So the information can be stored as Video or audio forms as well than the text form. Google has announced the Google Library Project which is digitalization of books in 2005. Nowadays libraries are playing an important role in preserving the books for the next generation. It is self-evident that physically books can’t long last because of the material and size. It is good in a way that if we store information in digital code it can long last than physically storing in a book. This generation people show interest in reading/learning, just the sales of the eBooks readers, pdf readers are the proofs. If we look into Amazon. com, we can see tons of EBooks and they also sell books as well. If we want, we can download the eBook instantly or else we have to wait till they ship it. Though the form of text (book) has changed due to new inventions, but the rate of readers has increased in the world. Earlier we had only text form but now we do have text, audio and video form as well. Nowadays people look for a better ways. I would say storing an eBook is far more convenient than carrying a book (physical book). Though the new innovation impacted the sales of the books (physical form), it’s good for the next generation to preserve the valuable information. Books Were an Important Part of Life in the Late 18th Century. (2016, Nov 29). 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Materials Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Materials - Essay Example This paper focuses on the advancement of â€Å"non-clinker green cement† through the utilization of cement kiln dust (CKD) and fly ash (FA) (Shah & Wang 16). CKD has incompletely calcified substances possessing hydraulic and cementitious qualities. In addition, sulfate, alkali, and chloride elements are high and may affect the quality of cement performance. FA, on the other hand, contains mostly vitrified alumina-silica melt and minute amounts of crystalline elements such mullet, quartz, and mica (Shah & Wang 16). Previous research indicates that appropriate blending of CKD and FA may yield a cementitious matter, thus changing waste into useful substances. This paper looks at three methodologies of activating the hydration of CKD-FA binders. These are mechanical, thermal, and chemical. Chemical activation involves the addition of 2 % and 5% sodium hydroxide to the CKD-FA systems. Thermal activation entails curing at temperatures between 38 and 50oC in comparison with curing at 24oC. The study utilizes various compositions of FAs and CKDs. Finally, mechanical activation engages various grinding regimens ranging from simple, vibratory mill, ball mill, combined (ball mill and vibratory mill grinding) and grinding aid in the form of high-speed mixing (Shah & Wang 17). The process realizes that various activation methods give various strengths at different compositions of CKD and FA. For example, highest strength arises from the addition of 2% NaOH to a binder comprising of equal quantities of CKD and FA cured at 38oC (27 MPa (4000 psi) at age of 56 days) (Shah & Wang 17). Grinding activates the materials both chemically and mechanically. This paper, therefore, concludes that estringitte is the key crystalline hydration outcome of CKD-FA, vibrator grinding for four hours is the most efficient mechanic-chemical activation technique. Addition of NaOH hastens chemical disbanding but lowers estringitte development in hydration of the binder. Overall, utilization of

Evaluation of Starbucks in global environment Essay

Evaluation of Starbucks in global environment - Essay Example Starbucks, named after the first mate in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, is the world’s leading retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee with millions of customer visits per week at stores in North America, Europe, Middle East, Latin America and the Pacific Rim. Starbucks stores may be found in urban and suburban areas, as well as many rural communities worldwide. An expanded number of Drive Thru and Off-Highway stores also provide a convenient alternative for our customers (Starbucks coffee, 2008). Starbucks purchases and roasts high-quality whole bean coffees and sells them along with fresh, rich-brewed, Italian style espresso beverages, a variety of pastries and confections, and coffee-related accessories and equipment - primarily through its company-operated retail stores. In addition to sales through our company-operated retail stores, Starbucks sells whole bean coffees through a specialty sales group and supermarkets. Additionally, Starbucks produces and sells bottled Frappuccino ® coffee drink and a line of premium ice creams through its joint venture partnerships and offers a line of innovative premium teas produced by its wholly owned subsidiary, Tazo Tea Company. The Companys objective is to establish Starbucks as the most recognized and respected brand in the world (Starbucks.com). Starbucks is dedicated to contributing positively to the communities in which it does business. The company recognizes the relationship between its success and the strength and vitality of the communities where it operates. Investing in communities is not only the right thing to do; it is also part of the Starbucks culture. At all levels of the organization, Starbucks partners strive to be good neighbors and active contributors in communities (Starbucks coffee, 2008). In spring 1995, Frappuccino ® blended beverage was introduced to Starbucks line of beverages. In summer 2004, Starbucks premiered Frappuccino ® Light blended coffee beverages in response to

Womens oppression in womens perspective Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Womens oppression in womens perspective - Essay Example Simon de Beauvoir, Jeanne Hyvrard, Darina Al-Joundi, and Mary Wollstonecraft, even though a dedicated all-time existentialist, claim restrictions to the existentialist principle of self-definition and self-creation, reinforce the total freedom of Sartre. On the contrary, these feminists represents an unclear image of human freedom, where in women endures the evident weaknesses of the female body. In the novels of these feminists, namely, (1) La femme rompue by Hyvrard, (2) Le Jeune Morte En Robe De Dentelle by Al-Joundi, (3) and Le jour ou Nina Simone a cesse de chanter by Simon de Beavouir, they outline a form of existential development of a woman’s existence: a narrative of how an attitude of a woman towards her being, body, and societal roles transforms, and of how society shapes this belief. In their novels, they discuss the core of the central issue of female representation: Are the alleged weaknesses of the female body ‘real’ weaknesses which are present obj ectively in every society, or are they only ‘interpreted’ to be disadvantages by the human society? These feminists resolve this issue by examining empirical evidence of the different levels of female existence. In these pieces of empirical evidence the female body is embodied as both negative and positive, and females as both free and oppressed. The female body is the place of this uncertainty, because she can employ it as a means to here liberty and feel demoralised by it. There is no fundamental reality of the issue: it relies upon the degree to which a woman views herself as a liberated entity rather than society’s object of denigration. Hyvrard (1990) remarked that whatever we see, such as other individuals, is made an ‘object’ of our scrutiny and is stereotyped by us. De Beauvoir adopts this argument and relates it to men’s view of women. The core idea of ‘woman’, as argued by de Beauvoir (1997), is a masculine notion: the f emale is constantly the ‘other’ because the man is the ‘seer’ (Alison 2005, 81): ‘he is subject and she the object—the ‘meaning’ of what it is to be a woman is given by men’ (ibid, p. 81). In the aforementioned novels, which will be the sources of the analysis of feminist themes in French literature, it was argued that it is not the natural position of women as such that comprises a disadvantage: it is how a woman sees this situation which makes it negative or positive. As shown in Al-Joundi’s novel, none of the unique experiences of women, such as the menstruation, pregnancy, have a significance in themselves; however, in an oppressive or antagonistic society they can acquire an essence of being a disadvantage and a weakness, as women decide to accept the stereotypes of a patriarchal society. De Beauvoir (1997) stresses that pre-adolescent girls and boys are actually not especially different: they â€Å"have the sam e interests and the same pleasures† (ibid, p. 295).This essay will review the feminist themes of the French novels mentioned above, with an emphasis on the works of De Beauvoir and Wollstonecraft. The Oppression of the Female Body De Beauvoir (1997) claims that as the development of a female’s body takes place, each new phase is endured and separates her ever more roughly from the opposite sex. As the female body develops, society responds in a more and more aggressive and threatening way. Wollstonecraft (2004) refers to the dynamic of ‘becoming’, which is the mechanism whereby an individual understands oneself as a bodily, and sexual being open to the scrutiny of others. This does not have to be detrimental, but inopportunely, girls are frequently compelled to ‘become’ against their free will (De Beauvoir 1997): The young girl feels that her body is getting away from her... on the street men follow her with their eyes and comment on her anatom y. She would like to be invisible; it frightens her to become flesh and to show flesh (ibid, p. 333).

Is the current welfare system a problem Essay Example for Free

Is the current welfare system a problem Essay Poverty and inequality has always been the problem that confronts the many leaders of different nations. It was a long weary issue yet unfaltering. The many times we can behold it, the many times will I yell the grievances of the poor and the deprived. Hierarchy of classes occurs since time immemorial. The Biblical times even have account for that, but the most disgusting is the continuous perpetuation of the situation, the despicable and unfathomable exploitation of the poor by the elites and the growing wealth disparity. How many times did proposals were made and yet proposals remain as it is, it never attempt to address the basic needy of the poor. People grew weary and tired in of hoping that all their ails were to be address accordingly, but it was always a fancy illusion. When somebody toils for subsistence, the state always exploits him, his vulnerable soul. Heavy taxes and the cost of living were surging. How can he find fulfillment in a society, which he lives thereby/ it’s all useless. Even justice was at all naught. It favors those who live in luxury and never was fashioned to the marginal population. In every corners of the world, anvil is laid for the rich, and never for the poor. Sometimes, you cannot blame for their wrongdoings, for their transgression on the lives of others. The society pushes them to do so, and apparently, their body reacts. Even the figures published by the government were all falsely done. In a broader perspective poverty does not alleviate, it even upsurge. We need not to dig deeper on the and establish a methodology to measure a single family their capability or incapability to sustain their family to come up to a conclusive grounds that they are really belongs to the poverty line. It is more then enough to see their famished predisposition. But famish must be understood not on its context only. Everybody feels famish at times, anyway. Famish co-exist with duration. The longevity of being coiled to starvation is not a natural process of life. It is a disease inflicted by the society’s unsophisticated individuals. Thus, it is problems that need to be resolve before it’s too late to mend it. Enough for the hullabaloo’s of many politicians who intermittently exhibit their philanthropist being, because as quoted and which I have absorb the lot â€Å"those that are lavish in words are niggard in deeds†, it is undoubtedly true. We cannot deny the fact that we are inclined to let things bend over us, to satisfy our tiny whims or our desire to shower ourselves with gold. But let this not blind us. In the far end, we will become the victim of our addiction. For if we let the hurricane whirls on our surrounding and we keep still, we will sink in the center and drown out to death. The powerless and aimless vast number and keeps on expanding poverty-stricken families will one day, gain their leverage to unite in numbers and fight the oppressors of the world, to oust them in power and to establish a society devoid of injustices and inequality. The rise of modernism aggravated the plight of the poor; you cannot blame them to raise a couple of counter reactions against the elites; their rights and privileges were deprived and naturally, they were determined to assert it. Why should we wait for ‘Nature’s vendetta’ to come when we can make tiny reparations and adjustments to give what is due for our brothers and sisters. This about it, tomorrow will never become brighter, while the remnants of injustices are alive. Yet, we are looking forward to a brighter future. Let’s then mark an end to widening poverty line in our own tiny ways.

The Conduct Of Inter Professional Practice Social Work Essay

The Conduct Of Inter Professional Practice Social Work Essay This study aims to investigate the conduct of inter-professional practice in areas of social and health care, with specific regard to the involvement of service users in such practice. The case study prepared by the City and Hackney Local Safeguarding Children Board on Child A and Child B is taken up for analysis and review in this context. The case study is taken as read and is not elaborated for the purpose of this essay. Health and social care in the UK is currently being significantly influenced by a growing commitment towards greater public involvement in the design, delivery and evaluation of services, greater availability and choice of services for all categories of service users, reduction of inequality, greater emphasis on provisioning of services at the local level, (including from the independent and voluntary sectors), the commissioning process, integration of social and health care, and professional roles for delivery of care on the basis of actual needs of service users (Barrett, et al, 2005, p 74). Such reforms call for the blurring of strict boundaries between the different professionals and agencies working in health and social care (Cowley, et al, 2002, p 32). They also call for greater inter-professional and inter-agency working and for significant alterations in organisational cultures in order to enhance the power base of service users and members of the public in different aspects of social care provision (Cowley, et al, 2002, p 32). It is now widely accepted that health and social care professionals need to be more responsive to the rapidly changing needs of service users. Such changes call for the development of health and social care practitioners to improve care for clients and service users (Day, 2006, p 23). Such improvement is required to be brought about by more emphasis on person centred care for clients and service users and the greater involvement of such people in different aspects of planning, delivery and evaluation (Day, 2006, p 23). The increasing contemporary emphasis on user involvement in the policy and practice of social care is however coming in for increasing questioning from disenchanted service users and service user organisations (Branfield Beresford, 2006, p 2). Service users, whilst highlighting the benefits of their involvement in the social and health care process, are raising various questions about their actual participation in social and health care and the continuance of various barriers that prevent their genuine contribution to the process (Branfield Beresford, 2006, p 2). The case study under question details the results of an enquiry into an episode, wherein a mentally disturbed mother killed her two children after (a) being released from institutional surroundings, and (b) being integrated with her children with the full knowledge and approval of an overseeing group of social, health, nursing and mental health professionals. The enquiry raises disturbing issues about the extent of involvement of service users in social and health care processes and in the decision making of the inter-professional group overseeing the care, treatment and rehabilitation of a mentally disturbed and potentially dangerous individual. The essay investigates the involvement of service users in inter-professional practice in the UK, with specific regard to the case study and the enquiry report. Whilst doing so it takes cognizance of (a) identification of sources for evidence based social work practice, (b) the use of enquiry reports as sources of evidence, (c) the relevance of themes that emerge from such enquiries, and (d) the implications of evidenced based practice for the development of practice in social work. The essay is analysed vis-a-vis the Every Child Matters programme and makes use of legal, political and ethical frameworks. Inter-professional Practice Inter-professional practice and inter-agency collaboration aims to ensure the coming together of service providers, agencies, professionals, carers and service users in order to improve the final level of quality of planning and delivery of services (Mathias Thompson, 2001, p 39. Whilst partnership and collaboration are often considered to be interchangeable, collaboration is the actual foundation for joint working and the basis for all successful partnerships (Mathias Thompson, 2001, p 39). The UK has been enacting legislation and policies for the promotion of Inter-professional and inter-agency collaboration (IPIAC) for the last five decades in order to enhance standards and reduce costs in health and social care (SCIE, 2009, p 1 and 2). The development of IPIAC was shaped by the white paper Caring for People in 1989, followed by the enactment of the NHS and Community Care Act 1990. The government has in recent years issued various policy documents for the promotion of collaboration in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness (SCIE, 2009, p 1). Greater emphasis on IPIAC is expected to improve care because different professional groups like social workers, physicians, teachers and police officers will during the course of such working bring their individual perspectives to the collaborative process (SCIE, 2009, p 1and 2). The IPIAC process will aim to ensure the best ways in which such individual and sometimes differing perspectives can be made to come together, as also the ways whereby respective contributions of different professionals and agencies can be utilised to enhance standards of service and experiences of service users and carers (Freeth, 2001, p 38). Consideration requires to be given to collaboration between organisations, as well as professionals, in the course of IPIAC working. It is also important to consider the differences in the working practices and cultures of the various organisations that are required to work together and to take appropriate action to minimise the impact of such differences in order to make inter-professional practice effective (Freeth, 2001, p 38). Policy makers and practitioners agree that adoption of IPIAC will result in greater service delivery despite the existence of various personal, individual and organisational barriers that can practically hinder its efficiency and effectiveness (Day, 2006, p 23). It is however also widely accepted that effective IPIAC working cannot take place in the absence of deliberate involvement of service users and clients in all stages of planning, delivery and evaluation processes (Day, 2006, p 23). The white paper Modernising Social Services, published in 1998 clearly states that people cannot be placed in neat service categories and users will inevitably suffer if partner agencies do not work together (SCIE, 2009, p 1).It is now mandatory that social work programmes, as well as nursing and midwifery, embrace the involvement of patients and service users. Contemporary government reforms are based on public involvement in different aspects of service delivery (SCIE, 2009, p 2). Person centred approaches in health and social care recognise the need for valuing the opinions and experiences of patients and service users and the adoption of person centred approaches by social work practitioners (SCIE, 2009, p 2). Current research however reveals that service users often feel left out of the process of social care, despite the progressive implementation of IPIAC concepts and approaches (Branfield Beresford, 2006, p 2). Service user organisations state that the knowledge of service users is by and large not taken seriously or valued by professionals and service agencies. Many service users find such attitudes from professionals and agencies to be intensely disappointing and disempowering (Branfield Beresford, 2006, p 3). Agencies and practitioners do not appear to be interested in the information provided by service users and do not accord the respect to such knowledge that they otherwise provide to professional knowledge and expertise. Service users also feel that the cultures of social and health care organisations continue to be closed to service user knowledge and reluctant to change (Branfield Beresford, 2006, p 3). The study of the case review of the episode involving the deaths of child A and child B appears to reinforce the impression of service users about their continued exclusion from the working and decisions of different agencies and professionals involved in delivery of social and health care (Henderson, p 261). The Every Child Matters Programme requires social work agencies and professionals like social workers, health care specialists, teachers, nurses, doctors and mental health professionals to constantly ensure the safety, security and protection of children wherever they can. Extant legislation and policies like The Children Act 2004 and the Every Child Matters Programme clarify that it is everyoneà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s job to ensure the safety of children (Henderson, p 261). The report clarifies that various agencies were involved in the assessment and treatment of Ms. C, the wife of Mr. D and the mother of the two children, child A and child B. The report further reveals that agencies, as well as individual practitioners, failed to consider the views, opinions, and experiences of service users, even as it also contains a number of examples of sound agency and inter-agency practice. There is limited evidence of professional contact with Mr. D, the father of the children, after the contact session in October 2006, and it appears likely that professional networks assumed the agreement of Mr. D with arrangements for Ms. C. Professionals also paid inadequate attention during their provisioning of support to Ms. C, in response to her request for re-housing, and did not communicate with Mr. D to ensure that future arrangements would serve the best interests of the children. Interviews conducted with Mr. D and his parents also revealed significant differences b etween their expectations of the roles of social workers roles and what was implied by the records kept in the agency. Mr. Dà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s family members, it appears, were clearly under the impression that they had little choice in the rehabilitation process and were furthermore required to facilitate the contact of the children with their mother. Whilst the report elaborates the role and sincerity of various agencies and professionals in assessing Ms. Cà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s condition and her rehabilitation in society, it specifically refers to (a) the under involvement of Mr. D in the process, (b) the lack of communication with him (Mr D) by social workers and agencies, (c) the differences in perceptions about the role of social workers between Mr. D and his family and the agency, (d) the poor communication of agencies with the parents, (e) the absence of school records of children, and (e) the scope for improvement of involvement of GPs and the police in the social care process. Although the report makes several recommendations, the specific references to involvement of service users calls for detailed and greater involvement of parents and carers of children in planning of discharge and assessment of risk in order to ensure that actions are based on full information. One of the agencies, the East London and the City Mental Trust has been asked to involve family members and carers of children in all processes, even as the Hackney Children and Young Peopleà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s Service has been directed to ensure that decisions are not taken on issues that can affect children without communicating carefully and appropriately with current carers. Emerging Themes and Evidenced Based Practice The revelations of the enquiry into the report reveal a number of themes in different areas of inter-professional practice, inter-agency working and the involvement of service users in planning, delivery, and evaluation of health and social care, which can be beneficially used to inform future social work practice. The report specifically refers to (a) the lack of participation of services users in social and health care processes, and (b) the involvement of different agencies in their exclusion, thereby reinforcing the need for greater emphasis by agencies and practitioners on involvement of service users in their care plans. It also becomes obvious that much of the sentiments and ideas about involvement of service users in social care processes continues to remain in the realm of rhetoric and that it will need determined and deliberate effort by practitioners to truly bring services users into the actual planning, intervention and evaluation functions of social work practice. Enquiry reports serve as important sources of evidence for development of future social work practice. The impact of the enquiry conducted by Lord Laming into the death of Victoria Climbie led to the revelation of evidence on gross inadequacies in the social care system for children and widespread organisational malaise (Roberts Yeager, 2006, p 19). The publication of the report led to radical changes in governmental policy on social care for children and to the introduction of the Every Child Matters Programme and other important policies for the physical and mental welfare of children (Roberts Yeager, 2006, p 19). The utilisation of research evidence for guidance of practice and development of policies in the area of social services and health care is becoming increasingly important for enhancing the effectiveness of social and health care interventions, especially so because of the limited available resources with the government and the pressures to achieve positive outcomes (Johnson Austin, 2005, p 5). Scholars however feel that much of research based evidence is not absorbed by practitioners and have identified five important requirements for research evidence to practically influence practice and policy, namely (a) concurrence on nature of evidence, (b) a strategic approach to the conception of evidence and the progression of an increasing knowledge base, (c) effective distribution of knowledge along with development of useful means for accessing knowledge, (d) initiatives for increasing use of evidence in policy and practice, and (5) a range of actions at organisational level to increase use of evidence (Johnson Austin, 2005, p 5). Conclusions This study investigates the conduct of inter-professional practice in areas of social and health care, with specific regard to the involvement of service users in such practice. The case study prepared by the City and Hackney Local Safeguarding Children Board on Child A and Child B is specifically taken up contextual review. Inter-professional practice aims to ensure the collaborative working of service providers, agencies, professionals, carers and service users in order to improve the planning and delivery of services. Policy makers and practitioners also agree that whilst adoption of inter-professional working is likely to lead to improved care, it cannot occur without the involvement of service users in all stages of the care process. Person centred approaches also recognise the importance of considering the opinions and experiences of service users in planning, intervention and evaluation of care. Contemporary research however reveals that service users feel that their knowledge is not valued by professionals and agencies. The results of the enquiry reinforce the possibility of service users being excluded from the working of agencies and professionals and refer to a number of instances, where the opinions of the service users were not considered for taking of practice and intervention decisions. The report reveals a number of themes in different areas of inter-professional practice that can be beneficially used to inform future social work practice. The use of research evidence for guidance of practice in social work is becoming increasingly important for improving the effectiveness of social and health care interventions. Enquiry reports serve as important sources of evidence for development of future social work practice. Scholars however feel that much of research based evidence is used by practitioners and that certain specific conditions, which have been elaborated in the last section, need to be met for the improvement and application of evidence based practice. Word Count: 2530, apart from bibliography

Comparing the Theme of Sacrifice in My Antonia and The Song of the Lark

Theme of Sacrifice in My Antonia and The Song of the Lark      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A common trait for Willa Cather's characters is that they possess a certain talent or skill. This art usually controls the lives of these characters. According to critic Maxell Geismar, Cather's heroines who possess a skill often either do not marry or marry men whom they dominate; if they do marry the marriage is without excitement because their passion is invested in their art. In a sense, Geismar accuses Cather's heroines of sacrificing their marital roles for their art (172). However, marriage is not the only aspect that raises the subject of sacrifice for Cather's protagonists - there is also the issue of family. This is because a woman artist, or any woman, is judged not only on her art but also on her personal life, especially by her submissiveness to man in the role of daughter, wife and mother. If a woman is unable to commit towards one of these roles, she is blamed for renouncing her expectant role for something that is associated with a ma n's world - talent. Many readers judge Thea Kronberg and Lena Lingard according to these female roles, and hence place the accusation of sacrifice upon them. Thea Kronberg and Lena Lingard in Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark and My Antonia, respectively, are accused of sacrificing too much for their art because they apparently choose to overlook their families and love relations in respect to their art. On the surface, it appears as if Thea sacrifices her relationship with her mother and her love with Fred Ottenburg in order to achieve her musical desires. Similarly, Lena is depicted as a female who sacrifices her bond with her mother and her prospects for marriage for the life of an indepe... ...r orator skills (i.e. they usually become Lawyers), and postponing marriage prospects until they are independently and financially settled. However, these men are never accused of sacrificing their relations, or too much for their art. Unfortunately, even in the literary world men and women are depicted differently in terms of their relational expectations. This difference goes as far as accusing the pursuit of art as a sacrifice only when the individual is a woman.    Works Cited    Cather, Willa. My Antonia. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995. Cather, Willa. The Song of the Lark. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1943. Geismar, Maxell. The Last of the Provincials: The American Novel 1915 to 1925. Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1947. Sabiston, Elizabeth. EN 4210 3.0E Seminar. Toronto: York University, October 15 2002.   

John Keats’ To Autumn and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind E

John Keats’ To Autumn and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind Even though both John Keats’s â€Å"To Autumn† and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s â€Å"Ode to the West Wind† are about the same season, they are very dissimilar. Keats’s poem concentrates on the creating power of autumn, and makes it seem a gentle season, while in Shelley’s poem death is a repeating image, and shows autumn’s destroying power. In â€Å"To Autumn†, Keats uses three stanzas of eleven lines each. The first seven lines of each stanza follow an ABABCDE rhyme-scheme. The remaining four lines of the first stanza follow a rhyme-scheme that is different from the other two stanzas. The first stanza has DCCE and the other two have CDDE. Some lines in the poem are indented, whereas others are not. Numbering the not indented lines 1, the lines with one extra spacing 2, and the lines with two extra spaces 3, the indenting of the lines follows exactly the same pattern as the rhyme-scheme, namely 1212-123-2113 for the first stanza, and 1212-123-1223 for the other stanzas. Shelley’s stanzas are composed of four interlinking triplets, following the principle of terza rima, and one couplet. The stanzas have ABA BCB CDC DED EE rhyme-scheme. Both poems have alliteration to emphasize the quality of the season: â€Å"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness† shows the kind nature of Keats’s autumn, while â€Å"O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumns being† shows the powerful character of Shelley’s autumn. The first stanza of â€Å"To Autumn† describes the way in which autumn is able to support life. On the one hand, its about ripeness as things grow older as the year is approaches its end, and helped by the â€Å"maturing sun† (l. 2), autumn has to â€Å"fill all fruits with ripeness to t... ...ally a form of hibernation. In â€Å"Ode to the West Wind†, death is a recurrent theme, but death is also mentioned in â€Å"To Autumn†. In Keats’s poem, however, it is clear that the creative power of autumn dominates the references to death. In â€Å"Ode to the West Wind†, the autumn is not only the brutal power it seemed to be at first: according to Shelley, autumn also has the ability to preserve life, by letting it die symbolically first. All in all, both poems show that autumn has a number of different facets, and it cannot be described by one or the other, but all. Works Cited: Keats, John. Ode to Autumn. The Norton Anthology of English Lit. Ed. M. H. Abrams, et al. 7th ed. Vol 2. New York: Norton, 2000. Shelley, Percy B. "Ode to the West Wind." The Oxford Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Frank Kermode and John Hollander, New York: Oxford UP, 1973.

Gay Marriage and Hawaii Sovereignty :: Politics Political Gays Hawaii Essays

"Lesbian/gay work sits on a lily pad. The lily pad is the foundation, the Kanaka Maoli struggle: the beautiful pink flower is the lesbian/gay work." —Ku’umeaaloha Gomes (1) â€Å"It’s a big industry, the exotification of Hawaii and its people, making it into every white man’s paradise. It’s nice now that we have ownership of our own stories.† —Lois-Ann Yamanaka (2) Hawaii is arrival. To arrive in Hawaii is to follow all of history, one group at a time. To the Kanaka Maoli, the people who first traveled in ancient times across the ocean in canoes and small boats from Polynesia, Hawaii was the promised land. It was the end of their pilgrimage, the land of powerful spirits and gods in need of worship. The Kanaka Maoli developed a complex society around this new land and these new spirits; a free society built around peace, love, and worship of one’s homeland. This way of life flourished for thousands of years, until the arrival of Christian missionaries in the 18th and 19th centuries declared their freedom evil, their nakedness vile, and their gods false. Christianity flooded the shores of the islands, pulling with it white entrepreneurs, who set up massive farms and plantations to take advantage of Hawaii’s unique agriculture, and Japanese workers for those plantations, with whom Christianity gained its strongest base in the i slands. Then came the political opportunists, who in less than one century pulled the Hawaiian monarchy up to its highest levels of Western pomp and circumstance, only to tear it down again with the overthrow of Queen Liliu’okalani in 1893 with help from the United States Government (who later annexed the island chain). Next came the arrival of the expatriates; the tourists; the haoles (whites) who saw Hawaii as nothing more than a tropical novelty or an escape from their stress-filled lives back on the mainland. Statehood came quickly in 1959, as did immigrants from the Phillipines and Korea. I came in 1995, with my haole military family, to a land that would become my adopted home the way it had for so many others. I found a land carved up like a puzzle; each person, each culture, each idea holding onto their piece with the will of God or gods. Today, there are many Hawaii’s. Depending on where you go, you can witness the poor, the rich, the privileged, the op pressed, the loud, the silent, the passive, and the active.

Crafting and Executing Strategy Essay

Develop an argument supporting the importance of a strategic plan for the success of the defined business. For the success of the defined business, in this case for Whole Foods Market, the importance of a strategic plan is unquestionable. In Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases Arthur A. Thompson, Jr., A.J. Strickland III, and John E. Gamble (2009) state that â€Å"a company’s strategy is management’s action plan for running the business and conducting operations† (p.6). They go on to further explain that a company’s strategy is all about how management intends to grow the business, how it will build a loyal clientele and outcompete rivals, how each functional piece of the business will be operated, and how performance will be boosted. Any organization without these defined â€Å"how’s† cannot succeed because all aspects of the business would be out of sync and could potentially take action that would be counterintuitive to the success of the company as a whole. If Whole Foods Market’s strategy (outlined below) didn’t fit the company’s situation, didn’t help the company achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, or result in better company performance, than the overall strategy would come up short and need to be re-evaluated to meet the needs of the business to drive success in these three big areas. Whole Foods Market’s strategy focuses on being America’s healthiest grocery store, seeking out the finest natural and organic foods available, maintaining the strictest quality standards in the industry, and having an unshakeable commitment to sustainable agriculture. All of these pieces make up the Whole Foods Market’s strategic plan for its day-to-day operations in all aspects of the business, and without all of its employees being clear on this it would fall apart and not be the success that it is since its inception in 1980. Create a mission statement for the company explaining how the mission will be essential to the company’s success. Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble state that the mission statement for any organization is essential to a company’s success because â€Å"†¦it represents the company’s present business purpose and reasons for existing, and sometimes its geographic coverage or standing as a market leader† (pg 28). The mission statement for Whole Foods Market is a good example of this due to providing customers and potential customers what Whole Foods Market is now and how they function as an organization. Whole Foods Market’s mission is to be known for selling the highest quality of natural and organic products available, for satisfying and delighting their customers, supporting team member excellence and happiness, creating wealth through profits and growth, supporting communities and encourage local involvement, promoting environmental stewardship, acknowledging all business associates, and operate with balance and integration. All of these boil down to one fact†¦ that Whole Foods Market intends to grow, and that today’s growth is just the beginning of tomorrow’s development. If Whole Foods Market didn’t have a mission statement clarifying exactly how they want to be portrayed in the food retail industry, then any current or potential customer would never know the type of business they were dealing with. The drive to be a leader in the organic and natural foods industry, and for every single â€Å"team member† to be a part of that drive, is an indicator that the organization values its standing in the industry and has a trusted staff invested in its own success. This is used as a lure for customers to want to do business with an organization that prides itself on being the best in the country. Whole Foods Market states that â€Å"our customers are the most important stakeholders in our business†¦ we want to meet or exceed their expectations on every shopping trip. We know that by doing so we turn customers into advocates for whole foods† (WholeFoodsMarket.com). The more customers that promote their experiences and happiness with Whole Foods Market, then the more they will want to continue to do business with them and potentially grow with the company as a whole and help more and more customers become a part of the Whole Foods Market customer base. Create a vision statement for the company explaining how the vision statement supports the company’s mission. Thompson, Strickland, and Gamble state that â€Å"a strategic vision delineates management’s aspirations for the business, providing a panoramic view of ‘where we are going’† (p.25). They go on to say that a strategic vision can only function as a valuable management tool it must do two things – illuminate the company’s directional path, and provide managers with a reference point for making strategic decisions and preparing the company for the future. Whole Foods Market’s vision statement is its Declaration of Interdependence: â€Å"Whole Foods Market is a dynamic leader in the quality food business. We are a mission-driven company that aims to set the standards of excellence for food retailers. We are building a business in which high standards permeate all aspects of our company. Quality is a state of mind at Whole Food Market. Our motto – Whole Goods, Whole People, Whole Planet – emphasizes that our vision reaches far beyond just being a good retailer. Our success in fulfilling our vision is measured by customer satisfaction, Team Member excellence and happiness, return on capital investment, improvement in the state of the environment, and local and larger community support. Our ability to instill a clear sense of interdependence among our various stakeholders (the people who are interested and benefit from the success of our company) is contingent upon our efforts to communicate more often, more openly, and more compassionately. Better communication equals better understanding and more trust.† (WholeFoodsMarket.com) This vision statement supports Whole Foods Market’s mission because it brings out to the open for all of its team members a lighted patch to take to drive the success of the business, both on a small and grand scale. Because the vision provides a purpose to all team members it highlights that Whole Foods Market is known for being a leader in the organic and natural food industry, and it also provides a roadmap to everyone employed within the company with the big-picture plan on how to succeed at continuing to be a leader within the industry. Establish five (5) key objectives for the company encompassing operational, financial, and human resource aspects of the business and justify why each of these objectives is essential to the success of the business. Whole Foods Market has six (6) key objectives that encompass operational, financial, and human resource aspects of the business, and each of them are essential to the success of the business currently and for in the future. The ten key objectives are: (1) quality standards, (2) organic farming, (3) seafood sustainability, (4) animal welfare standards, (5) caring for communities, and (6) Whole Trade guarantee. Each of these objectives fits within either the operational, financial, or human resource aspect of the business, and each of them plays an important role in the success of the organization as a whole. Whole Foods Market’s goal operationally and financially is explained in each of the six objectives in more depth because they explain how Whole Foods Market will operate day-in and day-out to perform as a company†¦ the types of standards being used to the types of the types of products being used, as well as how giving back will even help the company operate in the long run and into the bottom line. Each of the six (6) key objectives listed by Whole Foods Market is essential to the success of the business because they outline exactly how the business will be functioning in its everyday interactions with all of its customers, even demonstrating how future decisions and actions taken by a team member will drive their own personal/business success along with the success of Whole Foods. The Whole Foods Market brand thrives on being known as a leader in the organic and natural food retail industry, and by making it known to the public how it will drive customer experiences for future growth it gains even more customer loyalty. This subsequently drives the bottom line for any successes it has achieved as well as plans to achieve in the future. Justify how the five (5) key objectives established support the mission and vision statements of the company as defined by management. The six key objectives listed above for Whole Foods Market supports both its mission and vision statements because it outlines in depth how the company as a whole functions to drive its desire to be a market leader within the natural and organic food retail industry and utilize all of its resources (from locations to team members, etc.) to ensure the organization’s success is not just financial gain. The company prides itself on its customer service and ability to provide excellent products and services to its customers because its customers are what will continue to allow Whole Foods Market to do what it loves to do best. References Thompson, A. A., Strickland, A. J., & Gamble, J. E. (2010). Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage: Concepts and cases: 2009 customer edition (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill-Irwin. Whole Foods.  © 2013 Whole Foods. http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company-info

Detailed explanation of how other businesses support the retail sector P2 Essay

There are many different businesses that help in the retail sector to keep the business going and running efficiently and without these businesses it would be extremely hard if not impossible to get a business off the ground or even keep one running. Opening a sports shop in Manchester To begin with we need a place for all the money to go so that we can keep track of incoming and outgoing money so we need a business account with a bank. A bank is a business that provides a place for you to hold your money securely and also providing a way to track and manage your money and accounts making it easier for you to manage your taxes sales and expenditures and having an account you need someone to manage these for you so you would need an accountant there are businesses that can provide you with an accountant or accountants that will work for you they manage your accounts balancing your sales, expenditures and your taxes giving you more time to work on other areas of the business. A lot of business is now done on computers or if it’s a shop on tills so this requires a place for you to get your computers, tills or other hardware needed to run the store being a sports shop we will be using tills for the sales of products, computers for managing accounts and emailing, printers for making bank notes, receipts and bills and telephones for making calls to make sales and orders so we will need a phone company to provide us with a phone line and an account with them for phone usage, an internet provider to give us an internet connection so that we can send e-mails, check accounts online, make a website to advertise and even sell our goods on which will require a web designer who will make the website and manage it for us. We also need electronics stores that could sell us the computers, telephones and printers. Tills are a specialist item to buy so you will need to find a company that will provide and perform the necessary upkeep on them and we also need I.T specialists who can provide us with the software and management of the software for the tills and computers. We also need to find a supplier to provide us with the sportswear and sporting goods for us to sell a supplier is a company that usually make the goods themselves or buy it from the manufacturers and sell everything in bulk for a cheap price and then you sell the goods on for a profit, so they are two more businesses that can help us manufacturers and  suppliers without these businesses we would struggle to get the goods we need to sell. Then we need logistics companies to transport these goods to us and even from us to the customers, we might also need a place to store our goods so we will need warehousing and possibly security services to make it safe to store the goods so you might look into security companies/businesses that will manage the shops and warehouses. We also have accidents at work in stores and possible needs for legal action so we could do with lawyers/solicitors so finding a law firm that can help is also a good thing to be aware of. When you have problems with the buildings that you are using for your business activities you will need trades people to fix any issues you may be having i.e. Say your plumbing is leaking or toilet facilities or malfunctioning you will need to find a plumber to come and fix the problems you are having, if you need lighting or sockets or general electrical work doing you will need an electrician, if you are building a new building you will need architects, brick layers, window fitters, roofers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, landscapers and possibly more to make your new building. If you want to expand your business and help it grow but you haven’t got the money for it straight away you might consider looking for investors who will give you the money upfront for your business venture for a percentage of the company profits. We also have accidents and tragedies that happen and could cause problems or losses within a company and for these times you can also get insurance from an insurance company who will help you and even pay for any issues that need to be fixed and solved. So to sum it all up there are many businesses that we need to make a business and to keep a business running and without these different businesses there would be no retail and no business.

Summary Explaning English Grammar – Tense and Aspect

J. A SUMMARY TENSE AND ASPECT Overview Some basic meaning distinctions between different tense forms are offered in terms of the REMOTE (or not) and FACTUAL (or not) status of perceived situations including notes on the future, time expressions, and the HISTORICAL PRESENT. A distinction is made between LEXICAL ASPECT, concerned with inherent properties of verb meaning such as STATIVE, DYNAMIC, PUNCTUAL, and DURATIVE, and GRAMMATICAL ASPECT, concerned with an internal versus an external perspective on situations. Basic forms The basic element in a English sentence is the ver.We need to talk about TENSE, to describe different forms of the verb. English has two distinct tense forms, PRESENT and PAST TENSE, and to two distinct forms for the aspect, PERFECT and PROGRESSIVE ASPECT. The MODAL VERB will is included typically as an indication of future reference. Basic English Verbs Forms Verb forms Examples Simple present I love your Mercedes Present progressive you are standing too close to it. Simple past I wanted a car just like it.Past progressive you were aiming too high. Simple future I will work for it Future progressive you will be working forever Present perfect I have worked hard before Present perfect progressive you have been working for nothing. Past perfect(pluperfect) I had saved my money Past perfect progressive you had been saving pennies Future perfect I will have saved enough Future perfect progressive you will have been saving in vainWe always need a basic verb (e. g. eat,, love,sleep) and a basic tense, either past or present. With a tense (e. g. past) and verb (e. g. eat, we can create the simple verb structure in I ate. Changes the tense to present and we get I eat. These basic elements, tense and verb are always required. We can add a modal element (e. g will) to get I will eat. We can also include elements that indicate aspect, either prefect of progressive. If we include perfect aspect (i. e have †¦+ -en), we get the structure in I have e aten. It is simply conventional to analyze the verb ending in the perfect + -en.Other verbs actually have different forms as endings,, as in the perfect aspect versions of I have loved and I have slept. We can also choose progressive aspect (i. e. be †¦ + -ing), so that different forms of the verb be are included before the basic verb, ending with + -ing as in I am eating be is sleeping. The basic structure There is a very regular pattern in the organization of all these elements used to create English verb forms. Basic structure of English verb forms Tense| Modal| Perfect| Progressive| Verb| PAST or PRESENT| WILL| HAVE+ – EN| Be + -ING| VERB|The left to right order of components is fixedEach component influences the form of the component to its right| PRESENT TENSE, HAVE †¦ + EN,BE†¦ + ING, sleep I have been sleeping. The first element is created from the influence of PRESENT TENSE on HAVE(=have). The next element is created from the influence of + -EN (=been) . The next element is formed by attaching + -ING to the verb sleep, once again at the end, to create SLEEP + -ING (=sleeping). When we choose different elements, we get different verb forms. Ex a. past tense, have †¦ + EN, love b. I had loved.In a the effect of PAST TENSE on the HAVE element creates had. The influence of the + -EN element on the verb love results in loved, as in b. Notice once again that the + -EN element actually becomes –ed at the end of most English verbs. a. PAST TENSE, BE ING,sleep b. I was sleeping. In, the PAST TENSE element combines with BE to create was and the +ING element attaches to the verb sleep to yield sleeping, as in b. Its important for teachers to understand that a grammatical element that consists of two separate parts will always be very difficult to learn. Basic meaningsTense in English is not based on simple distinctions in time. Tense The basic tense distinction in English is marked by only two forms of the verb, the PAST TENSE (I lived there ten) and the PRESENT TENSE (I live here now). Conceptually, the present tense form ties the situation described closely to the remote from the situation of utterance. The past tense form makes the situation described more remote from the situation of utterance. There is a very regular distinction in English which is marked by that versus now, there versus here, that versus thin, and past tense versus present tense.Situations in the future are treated differently. They are inherently non factual, but can be considered as either relatively certain (i. e. perceived as remote from happening) or relatively unlikely or even impossible (I. e. perceived as remote from happening). The verb form that is tradionally called ‘the future tense is actually expressed via a modal verb which indicates the relative possibility of an event. This modal also has two forms which convey the closeness (I will live here) or the remoteness (I would live there) of some situation being the ca se viewed from the situation of utterance.Meanings of the basic verb forms Concepts| Verb-forms| Remote + factualNon remote + non factualNon-remote + non-factualRemote + non factual| Past – livedPresent – liveFuture –will liveHypothetical – would live| Events described by the simple paste tense form are presented as being facts and remote from the time of utterance. The simple present tense indicates that events (also treated as facts of ‘being the case’). Are non remote. The future Future events are not treated as facts, hence are only possibilities. They are distinguished in terms of being non-remote possibilities versus remote possibilities.The forms of the verb used in statements about hypothetical (i. e. remote and non factual) such as [10], are usually described as past tense forms, but their reference is clearly not to past time. [10] If I was rich, I would change the world. Reference to time The widely recognized difference in time be tween situations referred to via the past and the present tense forms can be interpreted in terms of remoteness (or non-remoteness) in time from the time of utterance. Generally, adverbial expressions of time are used to establish time frames within which situations can be described.They do not determine how the speaker may choose to mark the relative remoteness of the event via tense. Thus, an expression like today can establish a time frame for talking about events that the speaker can describe as remote, via the past tense(e. g I slept late), or non remote, via the present tense(e. g. I’m tired). The speakers now These observations on tense in English would suggest that the widely used image of a time-line running from the past (yesterday) through the present (today) to the future (tomorrow) is not, in fact, the basis of the grammatical category of tense.The speaker’s perspective The time –line perspective Past time- present time – future time The spea ker’s perspective Remote non remote remote (non-factual) The common use of the past tense in English to represent reported speech, as 16 b, would seem to fit a more remote interpretation better than a’ past time’ interpretation. The difference between the direct speech of 16a and indirect speech of 16b is not a matter of time, but of distance from the reporting situation. 16 a. She said. ‘I am waiting here. B. She said that she was waiting here.Aspect In order to talk about ASPECT, we have to look inside the situation, In terms of its internal dimensions, a situation may be represented as fixed or changing, it may be treated as lasting for only a moment or having duration, and it can be viewed as complete or as ongoing. These are aspectual distinctions. Because aspect has to do with the kind of situation perceived or experienced, it can be expressed both lexically and grammatically. The grammatical expression of aspect is accomplished via the perfect and p rogressive forms of the verb. Stative dynamicVerbs commonly used with STATIVE meanings apply to situations that are relatively constant over time and describe cognitive (i. e mental) states such as knowledge (know, understand), and emotion (hate, like) or relations (be,have). Most verbs are not used with stative meanings, but have the concept of change as an essential characteristic and apply to DYNAMIC situations. Dynamic situations can be divided into those viewed as having almost no duration (non durative) versus those having duration (durative). Punctual or durative Verbs used with non-durative meanings typically describe isolated acts (kick, hit, smash).Another term for non-durative is punctual aspect, related to the point in time interpretation of expressions (fire a gun, smash a window) which do not extend through time. DURATIVE aspect is an essential feature of verbs that denote activities(run, eat). Types of lexical aspect Stative Dynamic Punctual Durative Cognition Relatio nsActs Activities ProcessesBelieve be hit eat becomeHate belong jump run changeKnow contain kick swim flowLike have stab walk growUnderstand own strike work hardenWant resemble throw write learn| Those verbs that denote stative concepts in English tend not to be used with progressive forms.Those verbs that are typically used with punctual aspect, describing momentary acts (kick, cough), take on a slightly different meaning when used in the progressive form. Grammatical aspect The basic GRAMMATICAL distinction in English ASPECT is marked by two forms of the verb. These are traditionally described as versions of the verb be with the present participle (Verb+ ing) for the progressive, as in [20a], and versions of have with the past participle (Verb + -en/ed) for the perfect, as in [20b]. 20. a. I am/was eating b. I have/had eaten Grammatical aspect Concept of situation Progressive viewed from the inside, in progress.Perfect viewed from the outside, in retrospect. Combining lexical and grammatical aspect Grammatical aspect Lexical aspect Implicated meaning Perfect + dynamic Completed activity retrospectively viewed Perfect + stative Pre-existing state retrospectively viewed. Progressive + dynamic ongoing activity internally viewed Progressive + stative Temporary state internally viewed The tense of the verb will that implicated meaning to the situation of utterance. Meaning components of verb formsI PRESENT HAVE+-EN/ED BE + -ING work very hard Time of utterance external view I PRESENT HAVE+-EN/ED BE + -ING work very hard Time of utterance external view internal view dynamic activity in retrospect in progress(= at this time I look back at myself in an activity viewed internally as in progress| You PAST HAVE+-EN/ED BE + -ING learn a l ot Remote from external view internal view dynamic processTime of in retrospect in progress utterance (= at that I looked back at you in a process viewed internally as in progress). | Meanings in contextThe distinction in tense between remote (past) and non remote (present) has a typical application in organization information in discourse. Information that is treated as part of the BACKGROUND will tend to be expressed in the past tense. Information that is of current concern, in the FOREGROUND, will be expressed in the present tense. Background scene setting, particularly in stories, is often expressed in the past progressive. In narratives In less technical writing, a similar distinction can be maintained between, present tense for presenting general statements and past tense for specific events. In narrative text, there can also be a general background versus foreground effect associated with different tenses.There is no obvious reason, in terms of narrating the events, why the fate of two people should be described in the past tense and that of another in the present. Within narratives that only use past tense, there is often a background role given to the past progressive and a foreground role for the simple past. In spoken discourse The speaker uses the past progressive for the initial background, or scene-setting, then shifts into the present tense to highlight the salient event in the story and her own internal reaction. Background and foreground information Background information past tense (Specific acts, events, old focus, settings) Foreground information present tense (General statements, facts, new focus, changes).