Branded by Alissa Quart

Alissa Quart’s novel should have had a warning label on the front stating, â€Å"Would you like to know what’s really going on around you or just keep living your life. † While reading this novel I felt like I was being led by Morpheus, showing me the world after ingesting the red pill. Quart explaining the different pressures that society forces on young teens was very eye opening. Quart sparked a lot of childhood memories when explaining brand identification and the pressures peers put on each other. One memory that really sticks out is walking through the mall with my mom and buying clothes for the start of seventh grade. I insisted on only going to Abercrombie and telling her that I wasn’t shopping at Old Navy or Gap any more. Looking back made me realize how silly I was, but I understand why I felt this way. Quart explains how marketers bombarde magazines, commercials, billboards, etc with their advertisements. Back in seventh grade, Abercrombie was cool. Everyone wanted to be one of those sexy models in their ads. Quart did make me feel a little brainwashed; I didn’t choose the clothes because I liked them but only because advertisements told me too. So much of our daily lives has media exposure that its hard not to look, especially at young ages when your open to almost anything. CINEMA OF THE IN-CROWD This chapter was one of my favorites because going to the movies is something I’ve always enjoyed. However, I’ve never thought about how they were affecting me afterwards and the product integration that was taking place. Honestly what Quart describes really works. When you watch a movie your not thinking, â€Å"Oh this must be an advertisement,† or â€Å"There just trying to get me to buy that. The products and the people using them are apart of the movie and its very hard to decipher all of this when all you wanted was to watch a story. It did make me a little disheartened that something I really enjoy is getting provoked by marketers but now I feel a lot more aware and will try to not let them get to me. FACTS She’s All That, Bring It On, Clueless, Legally Blonde,Varsity Blues and Mean Girls. Mean G irls came out after this book was written but it perfectly fits into the mold these movies have created and further shows the power this genre holds. What has made these movies so popular and why were they all a must see when they came out? First, each of these movies has a popular crowd and one of these popular people has a problem. This doesn’t sound like a plot that would grab a lot of attention, but that’s only because its not about the plot. These movies bring large crowds because it’s the people in it. With out Alicia Silverstone’s smile in Clueless or Reese Witherspoon’s long blonde hair the movies would have definitely been different. So I am convinced that the first thing you need to make a blockbuster movie is attractive people. Second you need them to wear revealing or designer clothes. This is showcased in Bring It On when basically all they wear throughout the movie is revealing cheering outfits and workout wear. The Third aspect is particularly showcased within these films because of The Breakfast Club and the infamous Ally Sheedy transformation at the end. This aspect is the makeover. I never caught on to this until reading this chapter. Each of these movies has the main character go through some sort of change and of course the change only makes them better looking and more popular. The third aspect isn’t new but the film always tries to mask it as something that you wouldn’t expect. I feel that this is done so people, especially young people, don’t catch on. VALUES These movies â€Å"also has the ring of a diary entry, of what life is really like when our parents or teachers leave the room† (Quart 78). This is the key element when trying to decipher what the value is amongst these movies. What is really going on here when you strip the stars of their makeup, clothes, and posh attitudes? Sadly, it’s popularity, only because these teens will do anything to be popular. This is what motivates them throughout the entire movie and in fact is what gets them into most of their trouble. Also popularity is the one thing that they will throw away everything for. â€Å"If your not popular, your nothing† is the message young teens are coming away with. These movies get away with a value like this because there is so much covering it up. Amongst the comedy, drama, and violence it’s hard to figure out what all of this is means. I don’t feel like popularity is a good value for a movie to have. Before reading this chapter I pictured these movies as great, some even as a must see. But now I’m disgusted and look at them as shallow. Popularity is meaningless; however if I was writing this paper in middle school or high school I wouldn’t be agreeing with myself. This leads me to the question, â€Å"Do you only see the stupidity of it all when it’s over? † Right now I would have to say yes, because when these movies came out I was at the age they were targeting and this is very silly to say but, I admired all of the main characters in these movies. I once thought Elle Woods in Legally Blonde was courageous, it made me want to be a lawyer. But now I realize that I only looked at her this way because she was popular and she needed to maintain her popularity by going to law school. PRINCIPLES These movies need to be applied to Kant’s categorial imperative. What these movies have are good looking people. However, because their attractive people don’t look at what they are doing as much as just looking at them. In turn because their hot they get away with a lot more. When you apply Kant’s philosophy it tares down these movies even more. This is because Kant states that its not whose doing it but what the action is in itself. So take away Alicia Silverstone, Reese Witherspoon, Lindsay Lohan, Kirsten Dunst, Rachael Leigh Cook, and James Van Der Beek. Now all you have are their actions trying to uphold their value. Since their value is popularity most of their actions are aimed towards how to become more popular. This is the most apparent in Mean Girls and the lead Lindsay Lohan. Taking Lindsay Lohan out of the picture and only reading the script it is very apparent that the main character Cady Heron is a liar. All of these lies are aimed towards trying to make herself more popular than Regina George. At the end Cady gets sort of a wake up call but everything still comes together for her. When this movie came out it was huge; it was all over TV, the internet, and in school. For this movie to have such a big opening I know it impacted alot of teenagers and I know it influenced them to do what ever it takes to be popular. Especially when there was a string of movies right before it that glorifies popularity its nearly impossible to tell teenagers that popularity doesn’t matter. These movies have created a society of young adults that only care what others think of them and completely twisting their feelings regarding themselves. If a student isn’t viewed as popular among their peers they are going to dislike their body, their clothes, or whatever it is that they feel is holding them back from being well liked. LOYALTIES Each main character has one main loyalty, this is themselves. All of them throughout the movie try to better themselves, sometimes through buying designer clothes, wearing makeup, or the extreme of going to law school. The conceited nature in all of these characters makes the viewers very aware that this is acceptable. None of these movies help others in a way that is selfless. Yes, Cher in Clueless tries to make over Ty, Brittany Murphy’s character, but Cher admits that its only for her own enjoyment, she even goes far enough to call Ty her project. The characters loyalties also extends to their brand names they use, but I feel that this loyalty is only to uphold their loyalty to themselves because the brand names make them cooler. I feel that these movies have been a catalyst for plastic surgery. When someone gets plastic surgery it is to better themselves. These movies showcase that it’s acceptable to do this through the characters actions. Most of the characters go to the mall to make themself feel better or they start putting on makeup so their peers like them more. The characters even backstab each other to make themself more popular. I feel that these story lines not only increase plastic surgery but also fights in school. I feel like students pay more attention to what each other are doing than the school work. Young minds are easily influenced and its especially hard to erase the well put together images that these movies create. Although teenagers wouldn’t openly admit that their using these characters as role models its hard to argue their not. Most teenagers actions are completely mimicking the main characters of these movies and honestly I feel like its not their fault, especially because I used to do the same thing. CINEMA OF THE IN-CROWD CONCLUSION Overall not every movie is like this but the handful that are do a lot more damage than the society realizes. Although, of course, if these movies were removed from theaters teenagers will always act sort of like this but I strongly feel that these movies don’t help the situation. These movies also glorify the actions that teenagers are supposed to be learning not to do. Since these movies are teaching kids to be popular no matter what and to only think of yourself I’m not surprised about the reports of what happens in todays middle and high schools. The bottom line is teenagers need to be educated on what is right and wrong. If they are aware that you should lways try to be themselves and to help others selflessly these movies messages won’t be brainwashing them as badly as they could. UNBRANDED/ DIY KIDS This section of the book was particularly interesting because I wasn’t aware of all of the ways kids are rebelling. I thought this section was a nice conclusion to the first half because it gave me hope that some students do think for themselves. It actually mad e me really proud that some had the courage to stand up to their own principles and faculties. I know that I wouldn’t have had the guts to do something like that, especially alone. I thought it was really cruel the way they were teased by their peers. When did conforming start to be cool? I also has no idea about students going to schools with no grading system. I think this is great and I really liked the quirky concepts that the home schooled students had. It was a very relieving section, the contrasts between the way the kids conform to other nonconformists could be it’s own book. FACTS â€Å"An estimated 850,000 American kids or 1. 7 percent of U. S. students from five to seventeen† (Quart 203) are home schooled. Or as John Holt calls it â€Å"unschooling. These unschooled kids are not a big part of the population and most of them never go to mainstream schools. I thought that the contrast between their outlook on schools and the Logo U chapter was very appealing. Both sides were extremes and I being in the middle realized how silly they both were being. I don’t think its healthy to be either of them. I think kids should be enrolled in school because they get interaction with other kids their own age. On the other side, when you are enrolled in a mainstream school the child needs to be aware of what’s going on around them and not get stressed out like the Logo U kids. I especially feel this way about unschoolers because I’ve met home schooled kids and their usually out there. You can easily tell that these unschoolers aren’t the normal. Now this isn’t bad now when their young but will an employer higher them. Since these unschoolers need to go out into the world eventually they will have to conform one way or another. Also, these days, you need a college degree so never going to college just because you’ve never gone to a regular school has it’s set backs when trying to find a career. Quart also explains the punk scene. I have never been into punk but I’ve always liked the way they rebelled. I think that doing your own thing. if thats how you feel, is very healthy and schools should be more accepting to this. Especially when this rebelliousness only lasts during the youth years. There’s no reason to stifle something like ripped jeans, flannel, and loud music; it doesn’t hurt anyone. VALUES The core value that both of these unschoolers and punk kids have is to be yourself. Which is the complete opposite of the blockbuster movie value, popularity. I have to give both the unschoolers and punks credit because in a world where mostly everyone wants to be Alicia Silverstone or Freddie Prince Jr. its takes a lot of courage to do your own thing. I feel that in alot of ways its easier to just conform and not go against the grain. Quart entitled this chapter â€Å"do it yourself kids† because thats what these two groups have in common. When everyone else goes off to school the unschoolers stay home and do it themselves. On the other hand the punks may go to school but they do their own look, their own music, their own lifestyle; which completely contradicts the mainstream preppy is cool mantra. In a lot of ways these kids are going to turn out as better adults. This is because they will be better parents. I feel strongly about this because my parents were punk like in a lot of ways when they were young. When they were teenagers in the 70’s it wasn’t called punk, it was hippie. Hippie and punk are basically the same thing except two different generations labeled it with different names. My parents were always telling me to be myself, and as a public school student I feel this took some pressure off of growing up. I knew that they would back me no matter what. Also, when it came time for college they told me straight out you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. This was completely contradicting what my friends parents were saying and it took a lot of anxiety off of my shoulders when acceptance letters came in. LOYALTIES The loyalty that each group has is to their own cliques that they have created. I think this because unschooled kids look at schooled kids as different and by them not wanting to be in a clique they have created their own. Through the home schooled kids i have known, they told me how they would meet other unschoolers and would create their own groups within that. So actually they are forming what they tried to avoid. Home schooled kids in some ways can have pompous attitudes, acting like their better because they don’t do what everyone else does. I’ve even met unschooled kids here, at MU. When I asked him what high school he went to he cockily stated â€Å"I didn’t go to high school, I didn’t have to. † It’s not fair to say that all home schooled kids are like this but its definitely out there. For the punk kids they have their own loyalty to each other. It was very apparent in my high school because they would always walk together in the hallways and smoke cigarettes in large groups on the curb. No one bothered them but they made it very obvious they were their own group and they all identified with each other. This is something Quart didn’t discuss. She made each group sound very independent but in fact they are dependent within each other. PRINCIPLES John Stuart Mill’s utility principle can better explain the do it yourself kids perception. The utility principle emphasizes the outcome. The outcome that both groups want is to not have a mainstream. Also stated in the utility principle is an act’s rightness and how this is determined by it’s contribution to a desirable end. I feel that both groups have a desirable end in mind. The punk kids, especially just want to do their own thing. Their basement concerts show this because they are just trying to have fun, theirs no marketing involved, no celebrities, just kids in a band. I have gone to a few local shows like this and its a completely different vibe than at a mainstream high profile band. The local shows shows the joy of music with out all of the fluff the mainstream music throws in. The outcome is more genuine than anything I’ve seen at Madison Square Garden. Unbranded showed me that it is possible to live within this society and not be lured into everything you see. These kids show how you can think for yourself and do what you want. All of my life I have been a basically mainstream person. However, this book as a whole as taught me to open my eyes and realize what’s going on around me. it truly is a lot more evading than I thought. At times while reading this book I felt like I was completely brainwashed. I think every parent should read this book so that their aware of what’s going on around their children. It’s a lot different then when my parents grew up and most of the time they don’t realize the impact of these changes. I feel that the most important lesson a parent can learn from this book is to be aware and don’t be afraid to talk about it. Communication is defiantly what kept me grounded in my household and I plan on sharing that with my children as well.

Awareness Of Sensory Loss Essay

In centripetal loss ( touch. mobility. vision. hearing ) this can hold a negative impact to an person like for illustration in mobility an single can see hapless mobility. tilting to one side or trouble with their coordination. the person may hold trouble to feed or dress themselves. or may non be able to take part in an activity and in some fortunes an person may non be able to manage/maintain their personal day-to-day life. Another is eyesight or vision. an person who suffers from this disablement may hold a really difficult clip pass oning or even to show themselves to what they want to make and what their wants are without the aid of another individual. This instance is the same with an person who is deaf or have limited hearing. Sometimes when you suffer from these disablements. people easy judge you in a manner that they try to sequester you or belong you to hold a below mean intelligence and presume that you can non make or believe for yourself or believe the same as other people which may do farther unwellnesss for the person such as depression. anxiousness and isolation. There can besides be a positive impact of holding these disablements because aid is ever available. AIDSs and benefits are available to back up you. there are care systems in topographic point that an person may utilize to back up them with twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours life and promote the person to hold a positive mentality on life. assisting the single lead every bit much as an independent life as possible which in the long tally will guarantee the person is happy and secure. 1. 2 Some stairss that can be taken to get the better of the negative factors could be ; With an person with sight damage guarantee the person has their spectacless on if prescribed. guarantee the spectacless are clean and the person is able see through them. Guarantee the country is clear of any obstructions to forestall the person from stumbling over or knocking into things. if the environment remains the same and points are non moved the person may happen it easier to travel around as they will be familiar with where things are and will be able to avoid them. An person who has a hearing damage may happen it easier to hear you if they are taken in to a quiet and good illume environment to speak. besides guarantee the persons hearing AIDSs are in and working and the volume is turned up to their liking. Always make the single aware of different groups and administrations that can assist them. guarantee people include the person when they can alternatively of speaking over them or go forthing them out of activities as if they are non at that place. If this does go on so dispute any favoritism and explicate why it is incorrect. 1. 3 Peoples puting restrictions on an person with centripetal loss can be disenabling. for illustration. believing that a blind/poor sighted single can’t manage entirely or can’t see what others are making toward them or others. or that of a deaf/poor hearing single are amusing because of the manner they talk or are mocked for continually inquiring for a individual to reiterate themselves. These attitudes and beliefs can forestall the individual being including in society as an equal. This can so hold a negative consequence on the person which can do a concatenation reaction of mental unwellnesss such as depression. anxiousness and isolation. 1. 4 You can get the better of disenabling attitudes and beliefs in centripetal loss by disputing favoritism instantly and explicate why it’s wrong. theoretical account good pattern. You can besides acquire involved in societal activities that promote positive attitudes. Outcome2 2. 1 Sight loss – Always place yourself to the person and guarantee you make it clear that you are talking to them and non person else. they can’t read your organic structure linguistic communication so you need to be clear about your significances and waies etc. A noisy environment can do it hard for them to concentrate on your voice so it may be better to seek cut down background noise. Hearing loss – Be respectful to the person when seeking to acquire their attending e. g. use a light touch on the arm. flex down to the persons level so they can see your face. if they lip read they will necessitate to see your face to be able do out what you’re inquiring them. you need to talk clearly at a normal gait and tone. you may necessitate to be patient and repeat things. Deaf blind – some of the above plus you need to cognize the degrees of hearing loss and sightlessness and their preferable method of communicating. 2. 2 Persons with centripetal loss such as hearing or sight can profit from different types of effectual communicating. Persons with hearing loss may profit from utilizing gestural linguistic communication or images to pass on. Those with sight loss may profit most from vocal communicating and touch. 2. 3 Information can be provided in many different ways to an person with centripetal loss listed below are a few illustrations of ways information can be passed on to the person. Centripetal loss –braille. tape recordings hearing loss – British mark linguistic communication. Makaton. ocular AIDSs e. g. images. lip reading. Deaf/blindness – . Braille is a system of raised points which can be read by touch. The Moon alphabet consists of brocaded forms which can be read by touch. Objects of Reference are objects that have particular significances assigned to them. They stand for something in the same manner that words do. Result 33. 1 The chief cause of centripetal loss is aging. as we age our senses become less and less. Centripetal loss can besides be caused by an unwellness such as dementedness or by holding an accident and sustaining hurt. 3. 2 Congenital centripetal loss means the person was born with it. whereas acquired centripetal loss is when the centripetal loss has developed as is the consequence of ageing. serious hurt or unwellness with the person. 3. 3 The per centum of the general population holding centripetal loss is 45 % . harmonizing to hypertext transfer protocol: //www. sense. org. uk/content/research-deafblindness Sense estimates that there are around 250. 000 deafblind people in the UK. Outcome 4 4. 1These are a few of the many indexs and marks to place sight loss. hearing loss and deaf/blindness.Sight loss†¢Increased sensitiveness to visible radiation and blaze†¢difficulty distinguishing colorss†¢Clumsiness. knocking into things in familiar milieus†¢difficulty separating objects from one another†¢holding books/papers near to face†¢regular headaches/eyes aching†¢reduced dark vision†¢Trouble reading little print i. e. on medicines†¢difficulty recognizing faces of household and friends†¢squinting when watching the telecasting†¢loss of involvement in avocations such as needlecraftHearing loss†¢difficulty hearing clearly when in a group conversation or noisy room†¢Asking people to reiterate themselves all the clip†¢people looking to mutter when they are speaking usually†¢not hearing the telephone ring or the door bell†¢having to hold the volume on high on the telecasting or wireless†¢hearing bett er in one ear compared to the other†¢Adult voices easier to understand than children’†¢getting tired or stressed due to holding to concentrate harder when listening Deaf and Blindness†¢to response to sound or illume†¢sensitive to being touched†¢difficulty doing sense of milieus†¢Withdrawal and isolation†¢developmental hold†¢use of other senses. gustatory sensation. odor and touch. to derive information †¢personalised methods of communicating4. 2 When concerns are raised sing centripetal loss or alterations. the first class of action should be to reach their g. p. oculus specializers who after scrutiny may mention them to a specializer at the infirmary for farther hearing and vision trials. Result 5 If you are concerned about centripetal loss or you know person who is you can describe this to your carers. seniors. troughs if in a attention place scene. Sing persons populating in their ain place you can seek advice or describe the job to your local g. p. societal worker or speak to household members. There is a web site called sense you can look on for aid and support sing centripetal loss and you’d like advice and information about the support and services available. you can name Sense on 0300 330 9256 or e-mail: [ electronic mail protected ]/* */!function(t. e. r. n. c. a. p){try{t=document. currentScript||function(){for(t=document. getElementsByTagName('script'). e=t. length;e--;)if(t[e]. getAttribute('data-cfhash'))return t[e]}();if(t&&(c=t. previousSibling)){p=t. parentNode;if(a=c. getAttribute('data-cfemail')){for(e=''. r='0x'+a. substr(0. 2)|0. n=2;a. length-n;n+=2)e+='%'+('0'+('0x'+a. substr(n. 2)^r). toString(16)). slice(-2);p. replaceChild(document. createTextNod e(decodeURIComponent(e)). c)}p. removeChild(t)}}catch(u){}}()/* ]]>*/

Shadow Banking Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Shadow Banking - Research Paper Example For instance, it is evident that the shadow banking in the U.S. rose to an index value of 162.5 in 2008 when her total assets were approximately $20.7 trillion. Currently, the index value of shadow banking in the U.S. is 72.2 which correlate with $9.2 trillion in assets. Although shadow banking has reduced significantly in the U.S. it is evident that some people are still indulging in insecure lending in the banks (Tracy 2014). It is also evident that the U.S. still licenses nonbank firms such as payday lenders as well as mortgage services. It is also evident that most of the financial lending are not supervised the ground in the U.S. additionally, it is evident that some of the banks in the U.S. are diverting their activities to nonbank financial institutions so as to avoid oversight. Unfortunately, such practices have the potential of causing a financial crisis. To combat the problems associated with shadow banking, â€Å"New York’s Department of Financial Services is probi ng large mortgage-servicing firms amid concerns about practices that could be unfair to consumers† (Tracy 2014). Just like in the U.S. shadow banking is also practiced in China. However, its rate is very high in China than in the U.S. This is as a result of the Chinese government barring local governments from borrowing money from the banks and also its support for the shadow banking through its structured financial system (Das 1). For instance, it is evident that China’s government forces most businesses to rely on shadow banking system by mandating only four banks to practice credit markets. It is also evident that China’s government takes part in the regulation of deposit interest rates, a practice that facilitates shadow banking. The curtailing of credit expansion by the China’s government through reducing loan quotas also catalyzes growth of shadow banking sector. Most banks in China have been forced to seek for alternative ways of making profits.

Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Critique - Essay Example Homosexual marriages cannot be justified without drawing help from logical fallacies and making broad generalizations. Summary of the Article In his article, Sullivan argues that gay marriage is eligible for legalization by all means. Marriage is a social contract. Marriage is a physical and emotional bond between two people irrespective of their gender. People, who have been denied to fall in love with somebody despite the natural love they feel can best understand how it feels when a gay is denied the right to get married. Illegalizing gay marriage is a torture for the homosexual people whereas legalization of gay marriage would provide the homosexual people with grounds to have normal relationships with their parents and loved ones rather than being socially outcast. Gay parenting does not have any unfavorable impacts on the children’s psychology, Homosexual marriages have existed throughout the history in forms different from the traditional marriage. Dating, love, and rel ationship; everything becomes meaningless for them when they cannot get married. Without marriage, there is no commitment. Homosexuality occurs naturally, and this challenges all conservative reasons against the legalization of gay marriage. Therefore, gay marriage should be legalized. ... ls by excessively making use of such emotional words as â€Å"most public affront possible† (Sullivan 404) and calling the traditional form of marriage between a man and a woman a â€Å"circular fiet† (Sullivan 404). While referring to marriage as a public contract, Sullivan has just highlighted one aspect of marriage i.e. â€Å"bond between two people† thus excluding all others who are affected by the marriage between the two people that include but are not limited to their parents, and their own children. Marriage is not just about two people, it has its implications on other members of the family, as well as upon the nation as a whole that might be already suffering from a negative population growth rate, and homosexual marriages are definitely going to aggravate this social problem. Sullivan has made a logical fallacy by limiting the intrinsic status of the heterosexual marriage to its understanding as intrinsically procreative. Sullivan has a preconceived no tion that a marriage between an adult and a minor is unsustainable as one of the two parties does not understand the contract. If an adult and a minor marry each other with mutual consent, Sullivan should acknowledge that as an emotional bond too just like he approves of the emotional bond between two homosexuals. Sullivan has made broad generalizations that are unfair. For example, he says that everybody who speaks in favor of heterosexual marriage does not do so because he/she disparages the homosexual marriage, but because not doing so means demanding human virtue in excess. I don’t believe that this is the reason why people support heterosexual marriages. People support heterosexual marriages primarily because of their religious beliefs, and then because of considering its positive impacts on the society.

Service Operation Management_Discussion question Article

Service Operation Management_Discussion question - Article Example Since everyone comes to such spots to relax, they can only be able to stay longer if the internal and external environmental conditions make life more comfortable for them. On the other hand, there are servicescape that can distract from the service delivery. These include high and unfavorable temperatures; noise; loud music, poor air circulation, poor decoration and bad odour. These qualify as distracters because they can not allow the clients to feel comfortable in a business premise. Thus, if they are not controlled, they can adversely affect the progress of the business (Rosenbaum & Wong, 2007). For example, if clients go to a restaurant and find that it is not clean, noisy and has unpleasant dà ©cor, it will not appeal to them. For this reason, they will not to use it any more and instead go to the rival business to acquire such services in case they can be satisfied. Therefore, business owners and top management should make the right decisions regarding

Fashion Brand - FCUK Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fashion Brand - FCUK - Assignment Example The paper "Fashion Brand - FCUK" discusses the cause of FCUK’s current financial crisis and propose methods that can help the company re-strategise their branding and market position. French Connection or popularly known as ‘FCUK’ is a fashion-led clothing retailer and wholesaler business that was founded and based in the United Kingdom. Its retail and wholesale business operates mainly in the UK, in other parts of Europe, in the U.S., and other licensed stores around the world carrying several products such as its own French Connection/FCUK brand, a designer label called Nicole Farhi, a popular UK whole sale brand called Great Plains, and the mail-order business known as Toast. Aside from their clothing lines, French Connection has also expanded its product range by producing what they call ‘complimentary products’ to their fashion collections. These complimentary products are in the form of eyewears and various fragrances. The company was founded in 1972 by its current chairman and chief executive Stephen Marks. FCUK had eventually made its mark in the fashion industry by introducing fashionable clothes at very affordable prices catering primarily to the middle-market customers with ages ranging from 18 to 35 years old (News, 2006). For so many years, FCUK have managed to put up a competitive brand against its High Street counterparts; however, just recently, FCUK had been continuously incurring noticeable decline in its sales and profits. There were actually several reasons. behind this high turnover for the company's revenues, primarily it is due to the soaring up of its prices which seems to have become quite expensive for their High Street target market to afford; another reason would be the company's effort of changing its image - trying to level it with competitors of bigger labels in an attempt to improve its market share and position thus resulting to pricing themselves out of the High Street competition; and finally, the recent advertising tactics of the company simply did not made an impact to its target market, not only in Europe but in other parts of the world as well which even contributed to driving its customers away from the brand. FCUK Current Situation Since 2002, FCUK's annual reports on its sales and profits all over the world have been progressing positively; it only means that the company has been performing well on the High Street market competition. However, due to recent events, it would really be alarming to know that the company this year has been continuously issuing warnings to investors that profits would surely be lower than expected (News, 2006). French Connection has reported a substantial pre-tax loss of 3.6 million in the first half of the year which ended on the 31st of July 2006 compared with the 5.1 million pre-tax loss it incurred the previous year; group revenues had also fallen by 6% from the previous year to 112.2 million (Interim Statement French Connection Group PLC, 2006). The problem of these declining figures originated mainly from a range of smaller problems that the company must resolve in order to hopefully gain back its losses in the future. It was found that one of the problems is that the company gravely needs to rethink of the prices it is setting on the range of their clothing lines in relation to their target market - which is

All Quiet On the Western Front Assignment- Close Reading Essay

All Quiet On the Western Front Assignment- Close Reading - Essay Example The story concludes with Paul’s death at the hands of a French sniper on a day near the end of the war. This book is not written by a military general, a politician, a hired ghost writer, a professional historian, but a common solider that has deep respect for human values. He writes without any hidden agenda. Though Paul and his friends joined the army charged with patriotism and with high expectations, soon the brutalities and other realities of war disenchanted them. The captioned pages elaborate the realities of war. In this short passage, the author has provided everything as to how a good books needs to be written. The original company of 150 men of which he has described is a mini-war front, and the description of the sufferings of the individual soldiers is moving. Paul writes about the life of a soldier and how he learns to disengage oneself from human emotions like fear, love and sympathy and turn almost cynical. Not the actual war, but the aftermath of the war worri es Paul. In the above scene, the members of the Second Company, a unit of German army men fighting during World War I, are resting to enjoy a short reprieve from active duty in the warfront. They have suffered heavy casualties, only eighty have returned from the original strength of 150. Paul gives an admirable description about the soldiers and the literary talents of the author are showing. Tjadenis a glutton, but his body is wiry, Haie Westhus, with a heavy body, Detgering who always things about his wife at home, Katczinsky, the cunning old man and the experienced one, and the unwilling cook, who goes by the rule-book of the army to issue rations. The genius of the author is showing throughout their conversation. The passages above highlight the main themes of the novel: How an ordinary soldier is impacted by the horrors of war. The usual features with the war novels are romance, valour, and heroism in the battlefield. But Paul describes about the

Participative budgeting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Participative budgeting - Essay Example In the case where Costa Rica, Chile and Mauritius were selected to investigate the performance of pro-poor outcomes, evidence showed that the project was indispensable not only to strengthen democracy in the countries but also to ensure that the most pressing needs of the population were reflected in the government spending (Liao and Zhang, 2012). Methods like public meeting, focus groups, simulation, committee and surveys have been used so that the citizens can participate in the budget adoption (Jason et al, 2009). However, public meetings are not very good at giving citizens direct influence but they can be used as forums for preliminary information sharing (OToole and Marshall, 1988). Citizen participation in budgeting, brings out potential goals like informing decision-making, educating participants on the budget, gaining support for budget proposals, influencing decision making and enhancing trust and creating a sense of community. In Brazil, the state and civil society have always been much more intertwined that the liberal conceptualization. Capitalism was implemented in Brazil by the Portuguese patrimonial state with loyal court as the center for the power (Novy and Leubolt, 2005). In Porto Alegre as all over Brazil, neighborhood movements emerged in the 1970s. Residents mainly of irregular, poorer districts rebelled against the government lack of interest in acting for their benefits. Participatory budgeting involves direct and indirect democracy since there is sharing of power with the people and thus it will satisfy the basic needs like in Brazil where improvement in education was seen (Mirko, 2014). Participatory budgeting was an attempt to elaborate an alternative model of governance. The strategy showed legitimacy in strengthening civil society in the local forms of socialism. Social innovation and an open

Answer the Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Answer the Questions - Assignment Example 2012, p. 295). The purpose behind diversification is that oftentimes a sector will witness decreases in equity value, while another sector will remain stable or even increase in price. The same is true of investments in gold or real estate. A diversified portfolio then allows the investors to shield themselves from unsystematic risk by spreading investment among various sectors of the economy. If one expects the stock market to increase in the upcoming year there are specific ways to structure the beta in their portfolio. Beta is a measure implemented in the capital asset pricing model that demonstrates the volatility of an asset in relation to the volatility of the benchmark the asset is compared to. Oftentimes then benchmark in investment portfolio is the S&P 500. A positive beta indicates that an assets value generally increases when the market increases. Therefore, if one believes that the stock market will increase in the upcoming year they should ensure that the assets in their portfolio have a strong positive

Managing Human Resources Essay Example for Free

Managing Human Resources Essay This assissment is going to be about Human Resource Management and it’s going to contain information about different perspectives of human resources management and what the role involves. . HRM system is based on HR system , both work together to the same way. The example is HR strategies defining the direction in which HRM intends to go. We got few models of HRM , one I want to describe is Guest’s Model of HRM. David Guest’s model of HRM has 6 dimensions of analysis : HRM strategy HRM practices HRM outcomes Behaviour outcomes Performance outcomes Financial outcomes This model is prescriptive in the sense that it is based on the assumption that HRM is different from traditional personal management. How guest’s model is adopted in Harrods? In my opinion is adopted by having similar commitments for example the Guest model is prescriptive on the sense that it is bases on the assumption that HRM is distinctively different from traditional personnel management and rotted in strategic management. Also the Guest’s model of HRM outcomes are fairly similar as Harrods engages employees to continues success of the business by committing to what they are doing and one of the outcomes that the Guest’s model states is commitment. David Guest’s analysis financial outcomes in his model of HRM and when looking at the financial outcome at Harrods, we can see that they are loosing money due to the employee turnover. When looking at the case study it shows that the research that has been done about the turnover indicates that the employee turnover has significant cost and performance effects to the business. For example the employee turnover at Harrods measures the rate at which employees leave their employer normally after one year. The claim of the Guest model that it is superior to others is partly justified in the sense that it clearly maps out the field of HRM and delineates the inputs and outcomes. But the dynamics of people management are so complex that no model (including the Guest model) can capture them comprehensively. P. 1. 2 The purpose of HRM is to ensure that the employees of an organization are used in such a way that the employer obtains the greatest possible benefit from their abilities and the employees obtain both material and psychological rewards from their work. Personnel management is the traditional approach to managing. It deals with the reactive side, which are rules, and regulations, wages, pension, and leave administration. It is administrative in nature. Human Resource Management are people oriented an treats employees as an asset. It is the modern approach to managing an organisation and people in the organisation. It is the proactive side of managing which puts people first. The term industrial relations has developed both a broad and a narrow meaning. Industrial relations is increasingly being called employment relations or employee relations because of the importance of non-industrial employment relationships. Industrial relations has three faces: science building, problem solving, and ethical. In the science building phase, industrial relations is part of the social sciences, and it seeks to understand the employment relationship and its institutions through high-quality, rigorous research. From this perspective, an industrial relation covers all aspects of the employment relationship, including human resource or personnel management and employee relations. The difference between personnel management and human resource management is that personnel management basically deals with the employees, for example they deal with payroll recruitment. Where the HRM deals with the management of the work force, training and the well-being of all employees. Also we can say that Human Resources is to incorporate and develop personnel management tasks, while at the same time seeking to create and develop teams of workers to the advantage of the organization. Personnel management comprises mainly of administrative tasks that are considered to be traditional and routine. The Human Resources management at Harrods helps to build a competitive edge by positively getting involving the employees. The HRM at Harrods use an appropriate leadership style and they use two-way communication, which is very effective as it allows information to be passed on correctly and quickly. Similar organization which adopted IR practice and Personal is NHS. The NHS UK practice managers work within the primary care sector, where they manage the overall running of general practices surgeries. Practice managers come from a variety of backgrounds and do not necessarily need to be a qualified healthcare professional. Industrial relations in the UK health care sector are characterised by high levels of social dialogue and joint regulation, particularly in the public part of the sector. P. 1. 3 At Harrods the role of the line manager is to encourage communication targets and advice to employees through face-to-face interactions. This might involve sitting down in the staff room, or in a more formal setting, to agree objectives and to give advice about improvements and new ways of working. Acting as a coach helps the line managers to develop their managerial skills, build relationships and reinforce trust at Harrods. Employees play the most vital role in HRM because they are the key advantage and we also must remember that high-performing and innovative employees are the foundation of productivity. Some major implications for HRM are, they can set direction and implement a company strategy, which builds commitment to what they do. Employees at Harrods help to develop performance metrics for on going improvements in the business. In order to increase the productivity at Harrods the line manager or HRM support their employees by communicating effectively and giving them regular feedback on their performance and by them doing that it decreases the errors and frustration caused to employees at work. Also an effective reward system for employees at Harrods motivates them towards better performance. Non-monetary factors like better status can motivate employees in addition.

Portrayal Of Homosexual Characters In Disney Film Studies Essay

Portrayal Of Homosexual Characters In Disney Film Studies Essay The Walt Disney Company first appeared in America (and soon after the rest of the world) in the 1920s. 90 years later and it is still going strong and is a corporation to be reckoned with. From their beginnings as a simple animation company, it now covers lots of different genres of film as well as branching out to television companies, theme parks, books, theatre adaptations, cruises and music labels. To date, Disney has produced 49 animated films, 10 live-action, 11 DisneyToon productions, two stop-motion and 10 Pixar films with the hugely anticipated release of Toy Story 3 in June 2010. But concentrating on their main produce, their range of animated films has been experience by everyone from the ages of 1 to 101. Disney is at the forefront of family entertainment as well as a form of escapism (a flying elephant, living toys, mermaids and monsters?!) and a hidden (if not obvious to adults) way to introduce morality to children as early as possible. However, who decides what morals to portray in these very Americanised films? In recent times, Disney films have reflected the social climate with the introduction of the first black protagonist in The Princess and the Frog (2009). So as these films are becoming true to life and educating future generations, has there been an introduction of non-heterosexual characters as well? The Disney Companys first feature length animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) was a colossal project which pushed every employee working on the production extremely hard but the results were worth it. The amalgamation of a moral filled story with realistic animation then paved the way for the following Disney films during, what was known as their Golden Age: Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942). The morals contained within these films and all to follow, were seen by conservative Americans as important family values and trusted upon Disney to teach these values to everyone. For more than 50 years Walt Disney Company has represented all that is good and pure and wholesome in our nation. Families flocked to Walk Disney World and Disneyland because they knew that Walt Disney respected and nurtured the traditional American family and its strong moral values. Disney could always be counted on to provide parents and children alike with family-friendly, good-natured entertainment Letter from a coalition of Florida lawmakers, 1995 However, are these morals and values shared by all? And does the way in which they are portrayed actually reflect reality? They are American ideals of conservative family values which support the life storyline of romance, marriage (to someone of the opposite sex) and then children in a parallel world to that of the traditional Anglo-Saxon, Christian American upbringing. Reading further into these ideals are that of the issues of individuality, love and capitalism that are being depicted to all Disney viewers, namely children. These viewers cannot differentiate what is being shown to them as not necessarily the reality of the world (as the world consists of more than just the one religion of Christianity). New generations of children subjected to Disney films are growing up with ideologies from these stories as they have faith in them to contain some element of truth. Not all the storylines can be deemed as promoting negative beliefs though. Disney movies always contain an aspect of the follow your heart love which if regarded as the most important moral, then maybe some people will overlook the American family values shown in favour of love. However, this follow your heart belief can only really exist within some religions as others have strict rulings as to who you can marry and really fall in love with. Throughout film history (up until recently), there were very few storylines which contained a gay or lesbian character as a protagonist. The general film public saw those films, which did include a main gay character, as gay-themed (so not to their tastes) or alternative. In recent years, filmmakers have seen a niche in the market for gay films, although it was in 1896 with The Celluloid Closet that a gay subtext was used within in a film. It would then take some 70 years later before Queer Cinema would come about. Censorship on homosexuality in films came about in Britain in 1912 with the founding of the British Board of Film Censors and in 1934, the Production Code in America was enforced. Within this strict guideline for good taste was that homosexuality or bisexuality must never be represented or even inferred. Slowly though, gay and lesbian characters were brought into films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Clueless (1995) and Billy Elliot (2000). But as previously sa id, only in supporting roles as the gay best friend. When they finally were given the main storylines, the characters were shown to imitate heterosexuality as much as possible to be accepted. This can be seen in Philadelphia (1993) where many believe this to a patronising look at gay life and the yearning to be accepted as normal in a heterosexual world. There are no outrageous scenes of affection between Hanks and his partner within in the film. Queer identity can be related to many different people not just gay and lesbian individuals. The Western world may seem like a land of equality but to those in the minorities, it is not. Studies have shown it is suggested by traditional teachers and career advisors that schoolgirls go into feminine jobs (Apter, 2000) while schoolboys are driven away from jobs seen as traditionally female (Woodward, 2000). Men and womens identities have changed however as equality for women in the workplace is fought more and more showing that females can be the provider that men traditionally were. This leaves the men unsure of their identity in the world but through popular culture and mass media, they can be shown as well as women where they belong in contemporary life. So as society has become accepting of women in the workplace by it being reinforced by popular culture and mass media (but perhaps not by Disney films) that when non-heterosexual characters are introduced, tolerance towards them sho uld improve? With Disney films, the morals and values are chosen so it can be said that capitalism will control how homosexuality is visualised and dealt with. Despite this limited perspective, society is becoming more accommodating of different sexualities although many non-heterosexuals are still facing prejudice and discrimination from older generations and others. America is slightly less open-minded than the UK as a survey by Gallup showed that although homosexuality is tolerated more as an acceptable lifestyle, 42 per cent of the people surveyed felt that homosexuality should be illegal. Contrasting against this is a poll from the same year showing that just 17% of people in England felt less positive towards non-heterosexuals (MORI, 2001). Heteronormativity can be defined as a set of lifestyle rules to which society follows and falls into a specific gender with an outlook of a traditional role in life. Heteronormativity occurs in nearly every film in various ways. It can promote the message of men being the dominating person in a relationship with women following after them being housewives. However it is usually seen to promote that heterosexuality is the normal sexual orientation and any kind of sexual relationships should only be between a man and a woman. Sometimes it is obvious and other times the viewer does not realise that the story they are watching is promoting heterosexuality and that this is the ideal (or assumed, expected, ordinary and privileged) sexuality. Viewers can recognise that films have hidden meaning and semes such as good vs. evil, rich vs. poor, children vs. adults etc. However it is the seme of heterosexuality vs. homosexuality, which is the problem with films pushing heteronormativity. Films that set up neat systems of good and evil dos and donts are part of the pervasive simple-mindedness that posits heterosexuality and queerdom as irreconcilable opposites which cannot co-exist respectfully. Todd Hayward, The Lyin King Planet Homo 69 (21st Sept 1994, 17) With heterosexuality being the assumed sexuality of society, this only reinforces discrimination and prejudice towards non-heterosexuals. The amount of different heterosexual storylines shown will increase the amount of heteronormativity within the media in general as generations are exposed to it. With heteronormativity shown in most popular culture, it also redefines how homosexuality is perceived. It can be compared to public vs. private, with heterosexuality being public and homosexuality being private therefore something to be hidden. Even before a viewer experiences heteronormativity in a film, the masculine/feminine definitions of gender are promoted first. From this, sexuality, pleasure and identity can then come forth as the storylines and characters develop, which leads to heteronormativity. Obviously it is easy to see that Disney films promote heteronormativity although many people believe Disney films to be sexually free, it can still be a non-sexual part of our lives. Disney films show the traditional domesticity of the roles of men and women against a credible heterosexual backdrop by replacing sex with romance and reinforcing the patriarchal family structure. This can be seen in Bambi (1942) as Bambis character is promoted as the King of the Forest and will take over from his father. It also depicts his forsaking of his dependence on his mother as she is killed during the film. The very over-used storyline of the princess or girl being romanticised by the male character, which then leads to an eventual wedding, is predominant in many Disney films. A comparison of Disney films against other animated films from different companies made during 1990-2005, show that there is a much stronger hetero-romantic storyline in Disney films. Many Disney films have a reference to a hetero-romantic storyline, usually as the main plot but they also contain sexiness (Kazyak and Martin, 2009) as womens bodies are portrayed as curvaceous with semi-revealing costumes. With these hetero-romantic storylines, heterosexuality is glamorised as being special and different from other kinds of relationships. It is shown to have the power to change the world (either by breaking a spell (Beauty and the Beast), belonging to the ideal world (The Little Mermaid), stopping a war (Pocahontas) or changing an old-fashioned law (Aladdin)). These storylines are usually only shown through kissing and no other sexually embodiment. This can reinforce the heteronormativity, as Conservatives believe that any two characters have to be heterosexual unless seen kissing someone of the same sex. For instance, there could be some homosexual affection between Aladdin and the Genie but viewers do not read into this friendship with this outlook. The friendships portrayed in Disney films do not re flect reality as it is unusual for a female character to have a same sex friendship with another character unless they of a maternal nature, whereas in reality, many young girls and women have a female best friend. For males they usually have a comical friend/sidekick which could be said to show reality slightly more. All of this can be shown that Disney endorses heterosexuality within the majority of their films and even tries to influence the thinking that being heterosexual is far more glamorous than being homosexual. With this educating outlook, Disney actually took another step by creating military and educational films during the 1940s. As the Second World War took its toll, Walt Disney knew his company was facing bankruptcy as the profits from Snow White were transferred into the productions for Pinocchio and Fantasia but these did not reach the same high profits. With a strike by animators also, productions were delayed for months. Disney knew he had to keep his company going and believed that his animation films could be used to help the war effort through education and propaganda. Military training films were churned out at an amazing rate and low budgets. The films used the, by now, well-known characters and newly designed mascots to keep the soldiers morales high. Soon they were being made to also keep the spirits high of Americans at home, while their loved ones went overseas to fight. With these films, the federal government and Disney were forming a strong relationship, as the studios were used by army personnel and kept afloat for the duration of the war. The federal government even made it possible for Disney to obtain the chemicals needed to make the films despite its requirement for the making of weapons. The films were hugely popular as they used the traditional animation and moral-driven narrative used for the previous Disney films and this suited the governments needs. Many cartoons started to take on a wartime theme to entertain but also to educate. Disneys public health and education films were, in part, attempts to provide models for domestic life (Cartwright and Goldfarb (1994), 175). Within these educational films, there was the notion that hard work combats illness whereas laziness breeds disease. So as well as supporting heteronormativity within their films, Disney had started to educate not just America but the world, in their ideals. Being practically sponsored by the federal government, the issue was then whose ideals were being portrayed Americ as or what the government wants its country to represent? Even within their films for children, Disney started to become an influential power over everyone who watched their films. Subliminal messaging started to occur in its short films as a humorous way for the animators to disrespect Disney as he refused to share creative credit. However, some of Disneys films from the 1990s started to have questionable sexual subliminal messaging. Some instances of these hidden messages are an erect penis on the cover of The Little Mermaid video as well as an erection in the film (which was actually the characters knee). Others saw the word sex depicted in The Lion King (it says SFX as a credit to the special effects team) whilst others heard someone whispering All good teenagers, take off your clothes in Aladdin. And finally it was thought you could see that Jessica Rabbit wasnt wearing any underwear in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? These supposed messages could be seen as queer readings (not in the non-heterosexual meaning but in the non-standard meaning) as people started to think of Disney as a lewd company with a gay agenda. However these messages are focussed on sex not sexual orientation and really do rely on the viewer knowing to listen or look for them. But when a child likes a film, many will watch it over and over again. And through this repeated viewing, children can begin to understand more and perhaps the innuendoes that were meant only for adults. This is particularly so as it is becoming almost impossible to avoid popular culture and advertising which can broaden a childs mind prematurely. A survey in 2006 of 1,300 UK families showed that seven in 10 children now have their own television in their bedrooms, with more than half of these also owning a DVD player. Similarly, a survey in America released in November 1999 showed that 88% of all US households have two or more televisions, 60 % have three or more and 53% of all children have a television in their bedrooms. With all this access to popular culture, children are growing up with the medias point of view on situations and relationships. With Disney such a presence in childrens lives also, once again whose morals are they growing up with? (EXPECTATIONS OF ENTERTAINMENT PARAGRAPH) Disney films can be a used a form of escapism, not just for children but also for adults. Despite whether its supporting heteronormativity or Americanism, their storylines often show that a good life is possible despite misfortune and difficulty. Even the homosexual culture has adopted this chance of escapism (QUEER READINGS PARAGRAPH) However as the 20th Century progressed, as did the heads of the company. With the passing away of Walt and then his brother Roy Disney, Michael Eisner took charge during the mid 1970s and started to change a few things about the company. Miramax films were brought under the Disney umbrella, which allowed an outlet for (more profitable) R and X-rated films (15 and 18 under the BBFC). This started to threaten the Disney ideals that had been so strongly portrayed in many of its films. Right wing Christian fundamentalists felt it was a betrayal of their trust in a company they had believed in for so long. Various organisations (the American Family Association, the Family Research Council and Morality in Media for example) started to boycott Disney as they thought that the company

Free College Essays - Dante’s Paradiso :: Dante Paradiso Essays

Dante’s   Paradiso In spite of all the sheer effort put behind it, Dante’s Paradiso is not easy to enjoy. It is an alliance between difficulty and controversy. It is a narration of Dante’s so called visit to heaven, which seems tangible to no one but him. He slowly gives us his perceived account while inserting an archive of philosophical tidbits, which often divert the reader’s attention from the supposed plot. Dante claims himself gifted and says that all his said experiences are ones that he encountered first-hand. And so the reader is assumed to believe that the author is not in a make-believe world and his arguments with heavenly beings are actually marvelous adventures. The theme is not relevant at all to the present, as scholars today would say that his ideas are primitive and unsubstantial. The only thing applicable to today be the fact that it is based on the timeless issue: the afterlife. And as he inserts his personal views in life, he does it in an authoritative method as his heavenly friends explain them to him. Now if the reader assumes this is all make-believe, it is tiresome to go on as the book is direly detailed. On the other hand, if the reader believes Dante’s account, then I am afraid he is very misled. As many biblical verses are inserted in the text, it is quite bothersome that his explanations and fabulous stories take on a less dogmatic direction. It doesn’t seem right to quote religion to serve both misinterpreted purposes and claims to a divine philosophy. This dissenting view is the only social impact I can make out of the book. As I read on the translated verses looking for some conflict or climax, I reached neither. It just seems as if this popularly supposed story is intended to be educational just like a textbook. Nevertheless, it is not hard to see why Paradiso was dubbed a masterpiece. If the title of "masterpiece" is labeled upon the works of great worth, I am afraid entertainment value is not somethi ng distinguishable in this case even if there is an undoubtedly enormous amount of effort, skill, and thought that was invested in it. All the lines rhyme in pairs, and are written in deep Spanish. A rhyme scheme is followed and even literary formality is observed. Dante is obviously intellectual, as his work shows.

Mike Nichols Film, Wit Essay -- Film Movies

Mike Nichols' Film, Wit In the film Wit, directed by Mike Nichols, Emma Thompson (Vivian Bearing) is portrayed as a woman professor who had dedicated her life to teaching and studying John Donne and his sonnets. She was about 48 years old and was diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer. This film showed us some of the hard decisions that Vivian had to make such as when she agrees to the radical and painful chemotherapy. The film showed us the changes she went through like in her body and mind (hair, weakness, weight, color etc.). Wit was a difficult and heartbreaking film to watch. By the end of the fist scene I knew where the film was headed just by technique and tone. How many films have you seen with a woman diagnosed with cancer, have a happy ending? Most of the action takes place in Vivian’s bed. There are a lot of close-ups on Vivian. The camera was all in her face even while throwing up. This film reminds me of one of my favorite movies Ferris Beuler’s Day Off. How, at times it was as if he was speaking right to the camera and the viewers. In the film V...

How Nutrients Get in, and Wastes Out :: essays research papers

How Nutrients Get in, and Wastes Out. In a human being, nutrients are necessary for survival. But how are these nutrients obtained? This report will go into depth on how the food we eat gets into our cells, and how the waste products that we produce get out of the body. Also, the unicellular organism Paramecium will be compared with a human being, in terms of all of the above factors. Dietary Nutrients The chief nutrients in a diet are classified chemically in four groups: carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins (Which do not require digestion) and fats. Carbohydrates in the diet occour mainly in the form of starches. These are converted by the digestive process to glucose, one of the main nutrients needed for cellular respiration to occour. Starch is a large molecule, a polymer of glucose. Dextrin and maltose are intermediate products in the digestion of starch. Some foods contain carbohydrates in the form of sugars. These are the simple sugars, such as sucrose (cane sugar) or lactose (milk sugar), that must be processed into smaller units. Occasionally, the simplest form of sugar, a monosaccharide such as glucose, is present in food. These monosaccharides do not require digestion. Proteins are polymers composed of one or more amino acids. When they are digested, they produce free amino acids and ammonia. Vitamins are a vital part of our food that are absorbed through the small intestine. There are two different types of vitamins, water-soluble (All the B vitamins, and vitamin C) and fat-soluble (vitamins A, D and K). Neutral fats, or triglycerides, are the principal form of dietary fat. They are simple compounds, and within digestion are broken down into glycerol and fatty acids, their component parts. Ingestion Intake of food in the Paramecium is controlled by the needs of the cell. When food is sensed, the organism guides itself towards the food, and guides it into the oral groove, then enclosing it in a vacuole. Enzymes are then secreted to digest the food, which is then absorbed into the cytoplasm and made available to the various organelles. But, a Paramecium has to be able to move to its food source, while a human cell has his food brought to it through the circulatory system. In man, a much more complicated system exists than that of a unicellular organism, for the size of the animal and the fact that all of the cells within the animal must be able to absorb food and get rid of wastes, just like the Paramecium does. Digestion in the Mouth Upon entering the mouth, the food is mixed by mastication with saliva, which

Floating Power Plant

FLOATING POWER PLANT [pic] By K. SRIKAR 10071A0228 VNR VJIET Ph no: 8341103940 Srikar. [email  protected] com CH. PRADEEP 10071A0211 VNR VJIET Ph no: 7207606693 [email  protected] com ABSTRACT: The concept of the Floating Power Plant is so far the only one known in the world that has combined the two energy forms and has an operating prototype. Our abstract deals with the Floating Power Plant, the current prototype is called Poseidon 37and MH-1A. INTRODUCTIONFloating Power Plant (FPP) is a new type energy source based on technologies of shipbuilding and designed to provide a reliable whole-year energy supply to households, industry and infrastructure facilities [pic] FPP, can combine heat and low-power nuclear station, are vessels projected that present self-contained, low-capacity, floating nuclear power plants. The stations are to be mass-built at shipbuilding facilities and then towed to the destination point in coastal waters near a city, a town or an industrial enterprise.Al though the world's first floating nuclear power station was MH-1A, the Rosatom project represents the first mass production of that kind of vessel. By 2015, at least seven of the vessels are supposed to be built. The floating power plant can economically supply electricity to a specific district or to a specific facility that temporarily uses the electricity and can minimise limitations caused by environmental regulations, and can be used as an emergency electrical power source HISTORY MH-1A was a pressurized water reactor and the first floating nuclear power station.One of a series of reactors in the US Army Nuclear Power Program, its designation stood for mobile, high power. The FIRST FLOATING NUCLEAR reactor was built for the U. S. Army by Martin Marietta under a $17,000,000 contract (August 1961), with construction starting in 1963. The original ship propulsion system was removed, and a single-loop pressurized water reactor, in a 350 ton containment vessel, was installed, using low enriched uranium (4% to 7% 235U) as fuel. The reactor supplied 10 MW (13,000 hp) electricity to the Panama Canal Zone from October 1968 to 1975. pic] Waller Marine has played an important role in the reintroduction of the Floating Power Plant (FPP) since the late 1980’s when the Company was asked to inspect the power barge â€Å"Impedance†; a barge constructed with steam generating technology that was first used in the Philippines by the US Army in 1940. Since that time, Waller has been involved in development, design, construction and operations of numerous power barge projects using all available generating technologies, different fuels and cooling system [pic]Floating Power Plants (FPPs), or Power Barges as they are more commonly called, have been around for many years. In fact one of the earlier units, constructed in 1940 by the US Army Corp of Engineers, a 30 MW steam generation facility and put into service in the Philippines, is still in operation at a site in Ecuador. . .Heavy fuels were selected as the fuel of choice mainly due to cost and availability, with consideration being given to simply meeting World Bank emissions standards being made at the time. Single barge designs ranged from 30 MW up to 100 MW. DESIGN:- BARGE CONSTRUCTION:-When using a semi-submerged structure for a wave energy device, the structure is modified radically compared to a standard barge. On the Poseidon 37, three sections constitute the barge: *The front section, which contains the turret mooring, *The middle section carrying the wave absorbers, and *The rear section. The whole structure is 37 meters wide and 25 meters long (excluding the buoy). The middle section can be disconnected from the front, and the energy device can thus be sailed to port without interfering with the mooring. This is needed since the P 37 is a prototype and a test facility.The front and rear sections ensure that the Floating Power Plant always turns against the wave front – a nd that it does so in a passive way without consuming energy. [pic] The wave absorbers (floaters) are hinged at the front. The floaters absorb the pressure motion of the wave both forwards and upwards. Up to 34 percent of the incoming wave energy is converted to electricity in the Floating Power Plant. According to FPP, this has been confirmed by the research and consultancy organization DHI (Danish Hydraulic Institute) in the latest wave flume test series.Each absorber on Poseidon 37 weighs 4. 7 tonnes without ballast and 24 tonnes fully ballasted. The ballast system is an active control system. Along with trimming of the submerged depth, these are the only two active controls in the whole structure, thus the only part where energy is consumed. Ballast is used to secure the optimum floater movement: in this way the floaters have high efficiency in small as well as large waves. MOORING With a floating structure that turns towards the waves, an anchor system which allows full 360 deg rees rotation is needed.With the Pivot Hinged Wave Absorber, a standard system from the oil and gas industry is used: the Turret Mooring System. Turret mooring is widely used on so-called FPSO vessels (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading). FPSOs typically extract oil and gas from fields far away, refine it and store it, and then offload it onto a transport vessel. Because of the oil extraction (through pipelines), a FPSO has to remain at the exact same position regardless of weather conditions. For this purpose, the vessel is secured with a Turret Mooring System.The turret is in its essence a buoy held in place by three or more mooring lines. The mooring lines are secured with anchors – in Poseidon’s case, these are plow anchors. A tugboat drags the anchors into the seabed until a given tension is achieved. [pic] The mooring lines have enough slack for the turret to move up and down when water levels rise and fall – but because of the number of mooring l ines, the horizontal position remains the same with little deviation. Thus, a platform installed at more than 40 meters depth will be able to follow a rise in the sea level of up to 30 meters.The system is not suited for depths less than 40 meters because of the energy in the waves at low depths. It would not be commercially viable. ENERGY PRODUCTION Whether one has a starting point in the wind industry or in wave energy, the logic behind a combination of the two energy forms is that it increases the return. The benefits of adding a wave energy device to a floating support structure for a wind turbine is stability and the boat landing. The wave energy device absorbs the wave motions, and thereby makes the structure even more stable.According to FPP, 70-90 percent of the energy in the wave motion is absorbed into a controlled system. This provides stability compared to a normal floating structure without any absorption. [pic] The wave absorbers convert the forward and upwards pressur e from the waves to an upward and downward motion. The movement of the floaters drives a double piston pump on each flow, pushing water at high speed and pressure through a turbine. The prototype Poseidon 37 has a rated power of 140 kW from the waves and 33 KW from wind, a total of 177 kW.Power production On the Poseidon 37 the wave absorbers start production at 20 centimetres significant wave height (Hs). Cut-out is at 1. 5 meters wave height (Hs). Plants will be dimensioned after the specific conditions at the given site, thus the cut-in and cut-out values can be varied. Apart from the waves, the rest of the energy comes from the three wind turbines. The size and power of the turbines are chosen according to a single criterion: tower height. The surface area and weight of the platform defines how high the tower can be. And the tower height defines what turbines are available on the market.In the case of the Poseidon 37, engineers chose a common onshore wind turbine: the Gaia-Wind 133-11kW. The tower is normally 18 meters high, but offshore 12 meters was possible. Instead of a standard lattice tower, a tubular tower was chosen to improve corrosion protection. According to Floating Power Plant, the wind turbines can be of any type and the number will vary from 1 to 3 turbines. The turbine can be upwind or downwind, and fitted with any number of blades. Only the tower height matters. In fact, the turbines have been proved to stabilize the whole construction’s pitching at sea. pic] Normally, the direction of wind and wave are overall the same, and this is also the optimal scenario for the plant. For the Poseidon, the power output from the middle wind turbine declines when the wind turns out of alignment with the wave direction. In rare cases with crosswinds the power output from turbines is at its lowest. On average, the middle turbine produces 85 percent of rated power, and the two front turbines produce up to their rated power. UPCOMING PROJECTS The nex t step is the construction of a power plant of 110 meters width to be installed in Oregon, USA.The Collaboration between Floating Power Plant and American venture capitalists was announced in April 2011, and the new prototype will be installed between 2014 and 2015. The largest scale of the Floating Power Plant will be 230 meters wide and mounted with three 2 MW turbines. The wave energy device will have a rated power of approximately 5-6 MW. The yearly production will be 50 GWh – of this 60-70 percent will be produced from wave energy, because the waves represent a more stable energy source. PROS AND CONS ADVANTAGES * Relatively fast construction dependent upon equipment availability. * Transportable power. Fast supply of electricity to areas with limited infrastructure. * Provides fast supply of electricity to areas with limited infrastructure * Is a mobile asset, possible to relocate or trade . * Does not require a large site. * Is independent of soil quality. * Provides s ecure power supply in the event of earth quakes or floods. * Eco friendly, doesn’t produce any harmful gases. [pic] DISADVANTAGES:- * FPP has end user power demand and supply cannot be synchronized. * Access to the installation is critical and infrastructure is costly. CONCLUSION: There are several positive environmental impacts from the construction of Poseidon.The energy production from a 230 meter Poseidon power plant will reduce the annual emission from a traditional fossil fuel power generation by: †¢ 145 tons of sulphur dioxide †¢ 120 tons of nitric oxides †¢ 35,000 tons of carbon dioxide †¢ 2,600 tons of slag and fly ash Poseidon utilizes and absorbs the inherent energy from the waves, thereby reducing the height of the waves significantly and creating calm waters behind the front of the plant. REFERENCES http://www. floatingpowerplant. com/ http://www. wallermarine. com/ http://www. lorc. dk/Home http://www. google. co. in/ http://en. wikipedia. or g/wiki/Wiki

Social Smoking

One potentially important factor is social influence (Van den Putte, Yzer, & Brunsting, 2005), as this has been shown to be a significant predictor of the uptake of smoking (Kobus, 2003; Mayhem, Flay, & Mott, 2000). An important model which explicitly takes into account social influence and the role of the social environment is the theory of planned behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991). This theory proposes that people’s intentions to behave in particular ways are informed by three main factors: their personal attitude towards the behaviour; their perceptions of social pressure from significant others to perform the behaviour, or subjective norms; and the amount of control they believe they have over performing the behaviour, or perceived behavioural control. In the smoking domain, TPB variables have been shown to predict both quitting intentions (Abrams & Biener, 1992; Droomers, Schrijvers, & Mackenbach, 2004; Godin, Valois, Lepage, & Desharnais, 1992; Norman, Conner, & Bell, 1999) and actual quitting (Godin et al. , 1992; Norman et al. , 1999), as well as the uptake of smoking among adolescents (Wilkinson & Abraham, 2004). Of primary interest to the present study is the role of subjective norms. Out of the three main TPB variables, norms have generally been shown to have the weakest effect on intentions (Armitage & Conner, 2001; Godin & Kok, 1996). However, it has been argued that this is due to the poor measurement and inconsistent conceptualisation of norms (Armitage & Conner, 2001) or the lack of variation of norms within a culture at any point in time. Research by Wiium, Torsheim, and Wold (2006) demonstrated that different kinds of norms differentially influence intentions and behaviour, and argued that the assessment of different kinds of norms in the TPB model can both extend the concept of ‘norm’ and improve its predictive power. In the present study we distinguish between norms from significant others (i. e. erceptions of what significant others believe about smoking) and societal norms (i. e. perceptions of what society in general believes about smoking). In this respect, we depart from previous smoking research that has treated these kinds of norms as two components of a higher order social norm (e. g. Hammond, Fong, Zanna, Thrasher, & Borland, 2006). We argue that it is important to distinguish between these two sources of normative influence, as individuals’ perceptions of the broader social desirability of smoking may differ from their perceptions of what their significant others believe. This distinction is particularly important when examining cultures that have quite different normative environments regarding smoking. In some countries, such as Australia and the USA, smoking has become a socially undesirable behaviour. This has occurred, at least partially, through decades of communication about the harms of smoking and a range of tobacco control policies, including the reduced capacity of tobacco companies to promote their products, health warnings on cigarette packs, and restrictions on where smoking is permitted. However, the social undesirability of smoking is not a global phenomenon. Some countries, such as Malaysia, have had a comparatively tobacco-friendly environment, with a relative lack of strongly enforced tobacco control policies and a higher prevalence of smoking than in many Western countries, at least among men. Nevertheless, individual Malaysian smokers’ families and close social networks may still disapprove of smoking. Thus, it is of interest to examine the relative influence of these two potentially opposing smoking norms on quitting intentions in different countries.

Invisible Man Essay

In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the character of Trueblood is unique and well developed. Trueblood is a man who impregnates his wife, and at the same period of time commits incest and impregnates his daughter. This character’s reasoning for having sexual relations with his daughter is that he was dreaming when this happened; a feat that while fantastical, could also be plausible due to Trueblood’s nature. Trueblood, while a moral character aside from his transgression, is also oblivious. A good example of this happens on page 48 when Dr.  Norton asks â€Å"You feel no inner turmoil, no need to cast out the offending eye? † to which Trueblood replies â€Å"I’m all right, suh. My eyes is all right too†. Regardless of his ignorance, Trueblood shows remorse for his actions, and believes that a â€Å"man don’t leave his family†, which attests to the morality of the character. Much like the Invisible man, Trueblood found his own morality which did not exactly follow society’s guidelines. When explaining his situation, Trueblood brings up the issue regarding awareness of reality, since according to him he has sex with his daughter during a dream state. As he describes it on page 59, the dream seems to be a metaphor for what actually happened: â€Å"I runs and runs till I should be tired but ain’t tired but feelin’ more rested as I runs†¦ Only I’m still in the tunnel. Then way up ahead I sees a bright light like a jack-o-lantern over a graveyard. It gits brighter and brighter†¦ it burst like a great big electric light in my eyes†. Trueblood comforts himself by saying â€Å"You ain’t guilty†; he does not admit his guilt since he does not see fault in what he did since he was not in control of himself. This is his perception of reality. Again, this unawareness of reality is parallel to the Invisible Man’s life, who cannot see anything as real until understanding he is invisible. The way Trueblood has been treated by the white community, however, seems to be one of the major issues. Before impregnating his own daughter, he claims his life to have been hard: â€Å"Every time I think†¦ what a hard time we was having I gits the shakes† and â€Å"it was cold and us didn’t have much fire†¦ I tried to git help but wouldn’t nobody help us†. After his sinful act, surprisingly enough, it was the white community which came to his aid. Not only are the police ssisting by giving Trueblood protection from the black community, but also assisting by giving him money. To this, Trueblood says â€Å"I done the worse thing a man could even do in his family and instead of chasin’ me out of the country, they gimme more help than they ever give any other colored man† (67). Again, morality is the theme here – the white community is treating Trueblood in a way as if rewarding him, even though his act was actually reprehensible. While this could be seen as the white community’s moral obligation to assist someone who was ostracized from their own community, it could also be seen as moral hypocrisy.

Argumentative Essay on Abortion

Today, satellite and cable television, interactive video and electronic games, the personal computer and the internet are central to the daily lives of children. Yet, little is known about the uses and impact of these new technologies. Children are no longer passive recipients of the media. Use of the internet, participation in e-mail, chat rooms, and instant messaging are some of the ways they are participating with the new media. As their enthusiasm for creating innovative uses of new media shows, children have an important role to play in the future development of new media.If information and communication technologies (ICT) are indeed an integral part of The New Economy, then how children use ICTs in their daily lives is a crucial research question to address. What is the place of new media especially the internet, in children’s lives today? Will some children be excluded from these opportunities while others live in an increasingly information-rich environment? Will the g rowing importance of the media add to the variety and pleasure in their lives, or will it contribute to their withdrawal from traditional leisure activities and even from social participation? Lets analyze these questions one after the other.New media especially the internet has positive effects on Child Development. Childhood is all about exploration, through the interactive world of technology, our children are being shaped by their exploration of computers and the Internet. The modern computer and the Internet offer today’s children a powerful device that, if used appropriately, can enhance the development of the child’s physical, cognitive, and social skills. Children get interested because they can make things happen with the Internet. The Internet is a powerful tool that is revolutionizing our children’s learning, communication and play.Impact on Physical Development It may not seem to the naked eye that exposure to the Internet would have a positive effec t on the physical development of children. However, knowledge of muscular development and motor control skills leads us to deduce that regular Internet usage would naturally enhance a child’s eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills due to keyboard and mouse usage. Impact on Cognitive Development Children who use the Internet show gains in cognitive abilities such as memory, spatial and logical problem solving, critical thinking, concentration, abstraction and comprehension.The Internet exposes children to information to improve the quality of learning that they can transform into knowledge. Through the use of the Internet, children’s language and literacy development is often promoted, allowing for greater gains in verbal and nonverbal skills. New media also includes interactive video games: Speed of visual processing-There is growing evidence that playing action video games increases people's ability to process visual information quickly and to make decisions base d on that information. So also cartoons on children.Cartoon films are central focus of many very young children's lives, used by parents to help manage busy schedules and keep the peace. Many parents also express satisfaction with the educational benefits of TV and how it can teach positive behaviors. Some of these positive effects are : Educational benefits: By watching educational cartoon films, children at every age learn so many things. Infants and toddlers start learning different words, objects and their meanings. Also, they can improve overall cognitive knowledge among young children.When a kid watches TV in his very early age, he learns many things before going to school. He takes up things easily and tries to learn how to speak and conduct himself. Helps Improve Vocabulary and Learn new languages. Makes a Child feel more confident: While watching their favorite cartoon show, kids adopt many things and sometimes they talk and behave in the same manner as their favorite chara cters do. Doing so they feel more comfortable and confident that they can talk to people and even can perform in front a crowd Enhance imagination and creativity: By watching cartoon films, children become more creative.They try to do things in different ways, so their imagination and creativity is enhanced. There is also evidence in the literature that children’s imaginative play can be positively affected by television content. The children get new ideas with which they can show their talent. Develop parent-children relationship: When parents buy different storybooks, watch different cartoons and children programs with their children or let their children to cinemas for watching movies. In each of the above case parents spend time with their children.As a result parents child relationship is improved. Source of entertainment: Cartoon films are also source of entertainment for every child even for infants and toddlers. Like infants and toddlers enjoy sounds and movement and at the same time they also learn from it. Cell Phones and Their Positive Effects In Nigeria today, 45 percent of teens own their own cell phone, which today is much more than a phone. Many cell phones function as small computers, with Internet capabilities, games, pictures, videos, texting and email.Cell phones for youth are mobile communication devices that they can use in a wide variety of ways. There are many concerns about the impact of the constant media input that cell phones provide for youth, but there are many advantages as well which includes: Communication: The most obvious benefit of cell phones for youth is their ability to help teens communicate. Although this can be a disadvantage if not properly managed, it is frequently an advantage. A teenager who owns a cell phone is always able to call her parents.If she's at a party or a friend's house and finds herself in an uncomfortable or inappropriate situation, she doesn't have to find the landline or ask permission to use the phone; she can always call her parents from anywhere, at any time. This is even more valuable in situations where a landline might not be accessible, such as when her car breaks down or she has an accident. For her parents, knowing that their child can easily communicate with them at any time offers peace of mind. Safety: For a teenager, having a cell phone available in emergency situations can make the difference between life and death.A teen who is suspects she is a witness of criminal activity can call 911 on her cell phone. If necessary, she can even make the call without other people being aware by dialing with the phone still in his pocket. Youths have also used cell phones with video and phone capability to record criminal events, making them into reporters and helping police identify criminals and observe exact events in a crime. Engagement and Education: Cell phones have also been leveraged as an important tool for youth engagement, especially in developing countries a nd  rural areas.In places where youth are less likely to have access to the Internet or landline phones, cell phones are becoming a way for them to connect with the global world and give their opinions on issues that affect them. For example, a radio program in Burundi in 2009 allowed marginalized rural youth to share their opinions on public policy questions, using cell phones to call in to the radio show. Some teachers and campuses are beginning to take advantage of the educational potential of cell phones.On some college campuses, students can organize their schedules and take quizzes through their phones. Some high schools take advantage of educational games for cell phones. Educators can also teach students how to use their phones as research tools, which encourages youth to take more initiative in their own learning. With these numerous benefit, another question that comes to mind is: Will some children be excluded from these opportunities while others live in an increasingl y information-rich environment?In a developing country like ours, advances in ICTs have brought a lot of opportunities and perhaps a whole lot of challenges as well. One of the main challenges is the gap between the information have-s and information have-nots -what we call the digital divide. Not every family and child has access to computers, the Internet and interactive media. Persistent differences across socio-economic and ethnic lines have rightly generated an important public policy debate about possible implications and solutions to this inequality.Major challenges faced in the path towards digital opportunity include poverty, illiteracy, political instability, and poor ICT infrastructure. In closing the â€Å"digital divide† , NITDA has since the past five years, set up Many RITCs (Rural Information Technology Centres) in the six geo-political zones to provides a range of services – education and communication facilities so that underprivileged children, with or without any planned instructional intervention, can achieved a certain level of computer literacy.As expected there has been a remarkable feature among the users, particularly with the young ones, of these centres. Will the growing importance of the media add to the variety and pleasure in their lives, or will it contribute to their withdrawal from traditional leisure activities and even from social participation? The Internet cannot and should not replace human interaction or relationships, nor take the place of activities such as sharing verbal conversations with our children or reading together.However, if properly used, the Internet can serve as a medium for acceptable social interaction. The Internet allows children to socialize with other children through the use of email, chat rooms, and instant messaging, increasing the development of communication and social skills. As children use the Internet to connect with places around the world and exchange mail with electronic pen pals, they are able to share different cultures and traditions. Often the use of Internet in classrooms allows the children to work together, encouraging the sharing of ideas and cooperative learning.Students that find conventional methods of learning difficult will frequently find learning via the Internet to be fun. From this positive experience these children improve their attitudes about learning while enhancing their curiosity and self-concept. Many parents whose children use the Internet in school believe that the Internet has improved their child’s overall attitude toward school. â€Å"Education is also the single most common motivation parents cite for their children to use the Internet from home. The Internet allows children to actively participate in an independent learning environment.Children can use it to find inspiration, stimulate the imagination, explore the world and gain new experiences. The process is known as play. Play has its own pursuit of amusement, competition, and companionship – all which can be fulfilled on the Internet. Though it is no true replacement for physical social play, the Internet offers uniques alternatives, which are especially important for those that are physically disabled and unable to engage in physical play. The Internet today is part of our children’s natural environment.When kids are online, they’re reading, thinking, analyzing, criticizing and authenticating – composing their thoughts. Kids use computers for activities that go hand-in-hand with our understanding of what constitutes a traditional childhood. They use the technology to play, learn, communicate and form relationships as children always have. Truly, the Internet has become a daily part of many children’s lives. It is little wonder that it has such a pervasive effect on their social development. Internet Safety A wide range of potentially negative effects of new media have been identified.These include effe cts relating to: Violent content – including imitation (in the form of aggression or antisocial behavior), desensitization and fear †¢ Sexual content – including imitation (in the form of promiscuous or unsafe practices), arousal, and shock or disgust Advertising – in relation to misleading claims, as well as consumerist or materialistic attitudes more broadly Inappropriate or unwanted contact with others – for example in the form of ‘stranger danger’ or bullying †¢ Health – for example to do with smoking, alcohol and drug-taking †¢ General personality disorders, such as low self-esteem, ‘identity confusion’ or alienation †¢ Physical effects of excessive use – for example RSI-type conditions and eyesight problems relating to computers †¢ Reduced time for family interaction, or relationships with peers†¢ Reduced levels of educational achievement, or reading more specifically †¢ Mist aken values, attitudes or beliefs – for example in relation to gender or ethnic stereotyping. In addition, children are exposed to insults and inappropriate language. The Internet Child Safety Foundation has worked out some safety tips which are as follows: Keep the computer in the living room Listen to your kids and get involved Make some simple rules Consider parental control software Use filtered search engine Check website rating At this point, I must mention that Parental attitudes play a large role in determining what children watch.Parents who believed that TV was beneficial to children were more likely to choose educational programs for their children. By contrast, parents who have not had opportunities for higher education are more likely to allow their children to watch what they want, and have the television on more during the day. Also, when searching for information, youngsters could be encouraged to use child safe search engines. Parents need to educate their ch ildren. They need to sit with the child and help regulate his or her Net routine right from the very first time. This could help prevent addiction. Safe websites for Children http://fss. live. com/kids/Microsoft family safety and child friendly websites http://www. surfnetkids.com/Educational activities for your family or students, this is the place to be and for educators interested in integrating technology into their curriculum. http://www. crime-safety-security. com/Learn lifesaving lessons from 22 years of research and experience teaching countless children’s groups, college students, civic groups, corporations, rape survivors, and veteran cops at police academies – dozens of original insights you've never imagined and will find nowhere else http://www. allsafesites. com/Safe browser for children and teens http://www. kidsites. com/Great series of educational resources, games and fun stuff for children, parents and Teaches www. topmarks. co. ukWell designed and go od fun reference site for all those homework queries. www. askkids.com Safe search engine for children. www. need2know. co. uk Sound, straightforward and well-judged advice for children and teenagers. www. howstuffworks. com Engaging encyclopaedia of the modern (and not so modern) world, with good illustrations and clear text. www. habbo. co. uk Social networking for teens. www. friction. tv A You Tube-style site for campaigners. Make a short video and get your message across. www. mrmen. com Videos, games, stories and more from 24 of Roger Hargreaves' unbeatable creations.www. nick. com Play games, share your avatar, download screensavers and catch up on your favourite cartoon characters at the Mecca of TV cartoondom. Plus Nick Junior (www.  nickjr. co. uk), customised for pre-schoolers. www. seussville. com A gentle celebration of all things Cat In The Hat. switchzoo. com/zoo. htm From a calligator to a dogophant, create crazy new animals online. www. guinnessworldrecords. com S earchable database of record-breaking feats – but only some, of course, they still want you to buy the book. www. innocentkids. co. uk Great series of games and activities from the smoothies people. Match the animal with its poo is particularly engaging. www. cool-reads. co. uk Ten- to 15-year-olds pick and review their favourite books. More than 2,000 entries and growing. www. travellingwithchildren. co.ukTips, products and destinations for taking the little darlings on the road. http://www. commonsensemedia. org/website-listsGreat websites for kids with easy hand-picked lists of fun, age-appropriate kids' sites and online games. SAFE SEARCH ENGINES FOR CHILDREN www. studysearch. com. au/Home. aspx Its one of the mostly used customizable Search Engine used at Australian schools and it is Google Powered. This is developed by keeping the Primary and Secondary school students in mind. This is the safest Search Engine and best suggestible for Parents for make their kids use it. kids. yahoo. comEngine that directs to the Yahoo Directory and its the most suggestible Search Engine for Kids.Its one of the most attractive search engines that keeps you child to engage with it easily. www. askkids. comSearch Engine from Ask. com specially developed for Kids and it provides the results from Ask Directory. It provides the 5 different categories like Movies, Videos, Schoolhouse, Games, and Images with entire clean and tidy results www. kidrex. orgGoogle Search powered Search Engine for kids with interface design developed with child crayon drawing. Its completely a kids Search Engine. Popular Television Programs and DVD Series for Young Children Barney & FriendsEvoking a preschool setting, Barney the dinosaur teaches songs and dances to young children.The show focuses heavily on pro-social themes of sharing, empathizing, helping others, and cooperating. Blue’s CluesA human host encourages viewers at home to help solve a mystery with his dog friend, Blue. The show is often repetitive and encourages interactivity by asking viewers to find clues and solve puzzles. Bob the BuilderBob the Builder and his construction crew face building, renovation, and repair challenges. The series often focuses on identifying a problem and making a plan to solve the problem. Dora the ExplorerFeaturing a bilingual Latina girl as the lead, Dora and her friends go on quests and help others, encouraging viewers to help out through their own actions or by telling her what she needs to know.In addition to highlighting traditional educational content such as color and shapes, Dora teaches language by repeating words and phrases in English and Spanish. Sesame StreetCombining puppetry, live action, and animation, this long-running series focuses on a wide range of topics including the alphabet, numbers, emotion management, conflict resolution, music, dance, and healthy lifestyles. TeletubbiesCentering on four colorful characters, the Teletubbies speak in a baby-like language and learn through play. The Teletubbies have televisions in their stomachs that show clips of real children from around the world. This program is targeted at toddlers.Thomas & FriendsBased on a book series, Thomas the Tank Engine and his engine friends learn to work hard and be cooperative with each other. The WigglesFeaturing a four-man singing group for children, episodes of The Wiggles include songs and skits focused on solving a problem. The Wiggles encourages children to sing songs and move their bodies to music. Baby EinsteinSeries content covers wide range of topics including music, art, language, poetry, and science. Targeted at children starting at one month. Brainy BabyEducational series highlighting range of subjects including alphabet, art, music, shapes, foreign languages, and right and left brain development. Targeted at children starting at nine months.Sesame BeginningsFeatures baby versions of the Muppets from Sesame Street. The focus is on encouraging int eractions between child and caregivers. Targeted at children starting at six months. In conclusion, the internet is an amazing tool for learning and formation. Knowing how to use it effectively is increasingly important and necessary. Providing children more direct access to multimedia equipment and Information Communication Technology (ICT), could provide them with new opportunities to explore their own creative imagination. In seeking to prevent negative effects, it is important to ensure that we do not also undermine or preclude the potential for positive effects.