The aim of my experiment Essay Example for Free

The aim of my experiment Essay Evaluation Although I feel that my experiment was sound overall, I thought there were many points at which the accuracy was not perfect. As I have already stated, my preliminary experiment was not accurate enough to justify being used as my main experiment, mostly due to the fact that I was relying on all the bubbles being the same size, which they clearly werent, however many of the smaller inaccuracies also apply to my main experiment. Firstly, the distance between the light sources and the Canadian Pondweed were not measured to a very high degree of accuracy, especially when you note the fact that the distance should have been measured exactly from the filament of the light bulb to the centre of the plant, and it is possible here to find a percentage error. I estimate that the error could have been up to 0. 5cm and I will find the percentage error for the largest and smallest reading using this estimate: Percentage error = possible inaccuracy total reading % error distance 10 5cm 1 50cm It is clear to see that the percentage error is much less for the larger distances. Although I was not actually using the distances as part of my results, I used them as a marker for where the lamp was placed each time, as I assumed that the light intensity would be the same each time at a particular distance. Therefore, any inaccuracies in measuring the distances, i. e. if a distance was slightly different when doing the actual experiment from the distance at which I earlier measured the light intensity, an error would ensue. The second major inaccuracy was in measuring the volume of oxygen given off. When reading the syringe there could have been an error of 0.25mm, and again it is possible to find a percentage error. % error volume 3. 57 7ml 50 0. 5ml For the smallest volumes this is clearly a massive error, and to improve this, it would be necessary to do the readings over a longer period of time, therefore increasing the volumes, and in turn reducing the percentage errors. Another error would have been due to background light in the vicinity. We tried to reduce this error by closing all blinds in the laboratory, but due to practical reasons, we could not all perform the experiment in a separate room, and we therefore experienced light pollution from other students experiments. This would have had a very marginal effect on my results as a whole, but to eliminate this problem completely, it would have been necessary to perform the experiment in a totally dark room. A further inaccuracy was in the heat generated by the lamp. As I have earlier described, temperature has a very noticeable effect on the rate of photosynthesis, and so any increase in the temperature of the pond water would have had serious effects on the accuracy of my results. To ensure this did not happen, I monitored the temperature of the water before and after every reading, to check that the temperature did in fact not rise. It turned out not to be a problem, as over the short period of time taken by my experimental readings, the temperature did not rise at all. However, if I were to extend the time of my experiment to 5 minutes for each reading for example, which would have the effect of reducing other percentage errors, I would have to find some way of keeping the temperature constant. One way of doing this would be to place a perspex block between the lamp and the plant, which would absorb most of the heat, while allowing the light energy to pass through. As I mentioned in my planning, carbon dioxide concentration could have been an error in the experiment, however, I feel that due to the short period of time taken, there is very little chance that the concentration would ever have been so low as to have become the limiting factor. Again if I were to carry out the experiment over a longer time period, it would have been necessary to add sodium hydrogen carbonate to the water to increase the carbon dioxide concentrations. The last inaccuracy, though a small one, was in the time keeping. The main problem here was in when to begin the minute. If for one reading, the minute was started just after one bubble had been produced, and in another reading it was just before, this could have had a negative effect on the accuracy of my results. I therefore ensured that in each case I started the stopwatch just after a bubble had been produced, thus heightening the accuracy. Overall, I felt that due to the small volumes of oxygen involved, my experiment was not as accurate as it could have been, however I believe it was accurate enough to support and justify my hypotheses. Improvements could have been made as I have stated, mainly by simply increasing the time taken. However, due to practical time constraints in taking the readings for my investigation, and some consequential problems relating to time extension, I could not in fact make these adjustments. The other obvious way of increasing the reliability of my results would be to take many repeat readings and find an average. To extend my enquiries into the rate of photosynthesis, I could perhaps try to link in some of the other limiting factors to the same experiment, as well as investigating them in their own right. It could also be interesting to explore the effects of coloured lights on the rate of photosynthesis, which could lead to the question of whether or not other types of light, such as fluorescent lights or halogen lights, would have a different effect on the rate of photosynthesis.

Challenges to the LEGO Group

Challenges to the LEGO Group In the recent times worldwide economy has become highly volatile and was vulnerable to a multitude issues. One such example is the latest financial crisis. Such volatility creates a variety of challenges to small and large enterprises around the globe. One of the biggest challenges for manufacturing companies is to deal with rapidly increasing globalization and competition. The solutions require the development of agile and rapid supply networks in order to cut costs and meet demand. Producers are becoming more aware of supply chain management. This awareness shifts the focus from internal logistics efficiency to the external network of relationships between various parties in the supply chain. The well-known Danish toy manufacturer LEGO has not been insusceptible to these changes. LEGO has faced major challenges, which required drastic changes within the organization. This included a transformation of the companys supply chain management system. LEGO Group had to deal with probably the most significant financial crisis since the company was founded in 1932. LEGOs crisis was not clearly visible from the outside. In fact LEGO had maintained brand recognition. This earned them the title Toy of the Century from the British Association of Toy Retailers and Fortune magazine. LEGO was the fourth largest toy manufacturer in the word and had sold US$1.35 billion worth of toys in 2004. In spite of this success, the company was losing money since 1998. LEGO had various internal operational issues. This included a complex and ineffective supply chain, which at one stage consisted of 11,000 contractors. In an attempt to address this problem, in 2004 LEGO board of directors set a goal t o cut 20 percent of logistic costs. This resulted in the risky decision to outsource a major part of the production to Flextronics, a Singaporean electronics manufacturing services provider. LEGO also established a single distribution center in the Czech Republic operated by DHL. (M. M. Larsen, T. Pedersen, D. Slepniov 2010; K. Oliver, E. Samakh, P. Heckmann 2007; J. A. Cooke 2009) Such a risky decision involved a long-term relationship with Flextronics that was not without challenges. In this research paper an overview of challenges and solutions of the case company LEGO Group will be presented. The main focus will be on LEGOs supply chain management system transformation, which was a major step towards success. The following research questions will serve as guidelines for this paper: What challenges did LEGO Group face and what decisions were made to address those problems? How did Supply Chain Management transformation helped to deal with these issues? In this paper we will first explore the Supply Chain Management (SCM) concepts. Next the case company LEGO Group will be introduced. We will then present overview of the challenges that LEGO Group has faced. The focus of this paper will be the SCM decisions that were made to deal with these problems. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT CONCEPT The globalization is increasing competition and forming new conditions for conducting business. This requires companies worldwide to rapidly respond to their customers demands and develop products. These companies must also apply information technologies in supply chain collaboration (J. S. Arlbjà ¸rn et al. 2006) Such conditions increased the importance of logistics and SCM role within organizations as it can become a major competitive advantage. Commonly, the major improvements in logistical functions may not be needed within the organization itself. It may be more beneficial to analyze the organizations supply chain. This involves various interdependent parties. SCM co-operation is gaining in major strategic importance and usually includes such characteristics: co-operating is based on end user requirements, long term co-operation and high trust between actors in the supply chains or networks, shared risks and benefits, cross coordination on various levels between companies, shared visions and similar company cultures. The advantage of such close co-operation is a more transparent supply chain. This can lead to reduced lead-time, lower uncertainty, optimization of stocks and higher capacity utilization. (T. Skjoett-Larsen 2000) The concept of SCM often represents the broader view of logistics as its main function is to ensure the smooth flow of materials from suppliers to organization and then out to customers through the operations within the organization (D. Waters 2003). The purpose of SCM can be described as to remove redundancies and communication barriers through coordination, monitoring and control functions (D. Power 2005). The supply chain usually consists of different organizations and processes, which are aimed to ensure the smooth flow of materials from the initial supplier to the end customer. In many cases, manufacturers get their materials from a large number of suppliers and sell to different customers, which is the case with LEGO Group. In figure 1, you can see an example of the supply chain around a manufacturer. Materials move from several tiers of suppliers though organization to several tiers of customers, such as wholesalers, retailers and end users. Figure 1: Supply chain of manufacturer (D. Waters 2003, 9) The toy industry is one of the oldest creative industries in the word. However, C. Y. Wong, J. S. Arlbjà ¸rnand J. Johansen in their study named Supply chain management practices in toy supply chains(2005) state that such creative business is very seasonal and volatile with strongly fluctuating demands, very short and specified selling windows as well as short product life cycles. Moreover, the toy industry can be described as intensely competitive on pricing and innovation, where retailers often start competing with their suppliers. The authors conclude that most retailers and manufacturers use a push business model. This model includes low utilization of technology and information sharing as well as slow implementation of supply chain initiatives. INTRODUCTION TO THE CASE COMPANY: LEGO GROUP LEGO can be certainly defined as one of the most famous brands in the toy industry. The Danish companys toys are enjoyed worldwide by children and adults alike, who use thousands of different pieces to construct buildings, robots and other toy. In 1932, Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish carpenter founded a company named LEGO (Danish words Leg and Godt, meaning play well). Originally a woodworking business for furniture, LEGO began producing childrens toys in 1934. The company presents itself by stating: It is LEGO philosophy that good play enriches a childs life and its subsequent adulthood. With this in mind, the LEGO Group has developed and marketed a wide range of products, all founded on the same basic philosophy of learning and developing through play. In figure 2 the core building blocks of LEGO Group are presented. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; LEGO Group, Corporate Communications 2009) Figure 2: The LEGO Company (LEGO Group 2010) Pursuing such a philosophy, LEGO has grown tremendously since its establishment. By 2009 the company was the worlds fifth largest toy manufacturer in terms of sale with 290 Million US Dollars in revenues and approximately 7000 employees around the globe. The LEGO brick which is possibly the best known toy was first introduced and patented in 1958. It has since then represented the core success and image of this company. With two just bricks there are 24 different combinations and with six there are 915 million possibilities. This enables limitless creativity. As previously stated, before LEGO brick was named as Toy of the century by Fortune magazine and later by British Association of Toy Retailers as well. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; J. Tidd, J. Bessant 2009) http://cache.lego.com/r/aboutus/-/media/About%20Us/Media%20Assets%20Library/Logos%20Bricks%20and%20Generic%20images/ts.20120125T101709.2x4brick_red.jpg Picture 1: Lego brick (source lego.com) Segmented product categories include: Pre-school products for the youngest children, who had not started the school yet, includes LEGO DUPLO products. Creative building sets or buckets of LEGO bricks without instructions. Play themes products the products with particular stories, such as airports, racing tracks and hospitals, including LEGO City line and BIONICLE. Licensed products related to movies and books, such Harry Potter, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. MINDSTORM NXT programmable robot kit. LEGO education products that are developed for educational purposes. LEGO Games new product line started in 2009 for board games. LEGO operates in over 130 countries worldwide. The companys largest market in the U.S., with together Australia, New Zealand and UK accounted for 30 percent of revenue in 2007. Despite constant challenges and growing popularity of consumer electronics, LEGO is continuing to expand. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010) Crisis and solutions In the late 1990s, the company started to have difficulties. This resulted in a major crisis and almost ended in bankruptcy by 2004. LEGO was losing huge sums of money every day, estimated at economic losses of 375.4 thousand U.S. dollars per day since 1998. When sales dropped 40 percent in 2004, it was clear that radical changes had to take place. There are many speculations, why such a well-known and previously successful company started running on tremendous losses. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010) One possible reason was increasing competition in their main product area. This was disruptive at its nature. One such example is the Canadian company Megabloks. This company offers a wide range of building toys at a highly competitive price. Also, the increasing popularity of computer games reduced the demand for traditional toys. Another possible factor was the over diversification of product line as LEGO moved into more areas like theme parks ,apparel, clothing, television and even computer games. Such diversification was a result of, as the company claims, a loss of confidence in their core product the Lego brick. The increased complexity of product portfolio confused not just the customers, but employees as well. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; J. Tidd, J. Bessant 2009; K. Oliver et al. 2007) It was mentioned before that LEGO GROUP had around 11,000 suppliers, which was twice the number that Boeing used to build its aircraft. Such inefficiency and inflexibility was soon recognized and attention was directed to the supply chain, which was 10 years out of date. Moreover, low quality customer service and product availability decreased the value of companys franchise. Jà ¸rgen Vig Knudstorp, newly appointed CEO, stated: From my perspective, the supply chain is a companys circulation system. You have to fix it to keep the blood flowing. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; K. Oliver et al. 2007) It was acknowledged that solving problems related to global supply chain could build a strong base for major changes in the organization. This could also be the needed step forward towards cost-effectiveness and an improved business model. However, such big changes are not easy to implement and presented significant challenges for LEGO Group Transformation of supply chain management LEGO Group decided to optimize their supply chain in order to deal with the most significant crisis in the companys history. LEGO realized that it was dragging behind retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour. These companies had invested huge amounts of recourses into sophisticated and efficient supply chain management systems. LEGO Group started losing the competition to companies, which optimized their costs and provided just-in-time services to its customers (K. Oliver et al. 2007). Transforming such a gigantic and complex supply chain as well as removing the inefficiencies was a very challenging goal. Keep in mind that by 2004 company had around 7000 employees working mainly in two factories and three packaging centers, located in different countries. Further issues and changes within different areas of supply chain management will be discussed, including product development, distribution and manufacturing. Product development Product development and innovation was extremely important for LEGO as it presented the core of what this company was really about. Changes in this field were difficult to implement. This was in part because of its delicate nature and inside resistance from employees. LEGOs development lab called Kitchen was steadily producing new innovative products and ideas. However, management realized that new products were returning less profit and cost more to produce. Developers and designers did not account for production and supply chain issues, in their designs. Consequently, the variety of various components and features as well as product complexity became overwhelming and started to cause major problems in manufacturing and distribution. LEGO bricks and other elements came in more than 100 color tones. LEGO sets became increasingly elaborate with thousands of different figures. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; K. Oliver et al. 2007) Such cost ineffective creativity caused problems like large stocks. This was because of seasonal demand fluctuations and short delivery times. Moreover, large amount of components and products required large investments in molds, while just 30 products generated 80 percent of companys sales. Therefore, LEGO decided to drastically cut down the number of components and features. This reduced costs in the supply chain and created a better opportunity for production outsourcing. Management revised a number of daily solutions in order to cut the costs, simplify production and eliminate inefficiencies. The palette was decreased to around 50 colors. A major reduction in variety of pirates, police officers and other figures was recommended as well. Moreover, resin-sourcing analyzes helped to cut its resin costs in half and reduce supplier number by 80 percent. Simultaneously, LEGO Groups operational team created cost matrixes and revised set of rules concerning creation of new colors, compon ents and ordering of new materials. Such step helped product developers to choose more cost-effective solutions and recognize the limitations. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; K. Oliver et al. 2007) Distribution Another area of LEGOs supply chain that required major improvements and cost reductions was distribution. At that time LEGO served thousands of smaller stores with a great responsibility. This came at a very high price, although those shops accounted just for one third of its revenue. Company had increasing amount of inventory and lost sales, because of multiple-tier inventory system to serve smaller customers from different distribution centers. The redefined distribution policies had to be developed in order to avoid costly small deliveries and labor costs associated with pick-packing in the distribution centers. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; K. Oliver et al. 2007) In order to serve customers in 130 countries around the world, LEGO had 11 warehouses and distribution centers in high-cost countries like Denmark, France, Germany and Switzerland. LEGO also employed 55 transportation providers for inbound and outbound shipments. In order to move its distributions closer to the customer and reduce exploding transportation costs, the company defined clear service policies. This helped to shift the focus to major retail chains. This also provided for more accurate demand forecasts, reduced complexity and certainly the costs of distribution. Furthermore, LEGO Group decided to centralize its distribution by closing five distribution centers in Europe, and creating a single distribution center near Prague in the Check Republic. The country was mainly chosen because of a high availability of skilled low cost labor. LEGO leased large buildings from the commercial realtor ProLogis. LEGO also decided to outsource operations to third-party logistics company D HL supply chain. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; K. Oliver et al. 2007; J. A. Cooke 2009) By 2007 a newly consolidated distribution center was serving all of LEGOs markets except the U.S., where Exel Inc. was responsible for distribution operations. Such changes reduced the complexity of supply chain, simplified the inventory optimization and reduced average distances to the market. This lead to increased customer satisfaction and significantly reduced overall logistics costs. Despite the outsourcing, LEGO maintained close collaboration with its carriers and still makes many decisions. The results of such collaboration are reduced negative effects of market seasonality. Moreover, by applying developed Web-based transportation management system LEGO was able to change the shipment scheduling and improve load consolidation. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; J. A. Cooke 2009) Manufacturing The improved production in the supply chain was probably the most important and complicated step. The challenges came from the way LEGO organized its production facilities and the complexity of manufacturing operations. In some way chaotic production operations resulted in low 70 percent of overall capacity utilization. There were hundreds of independent production units within the facilities that could place their orders in any manner. This was often without balancing supply capabilities, inventory levels and demand needs. Consequently, such fragmented system did not support long-term planning and resulted in high costs and low efficiency. Moreover, the production sites were located in high-cost countries as Denmark, United States and Switzerland, while just 10 percent of production was outsourced to China. Production sites mainly operated according the branding strategy, where, for example, Swiss factories only manufactured DUPLO and Technic products. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010; K. Oliver et al. 2007) One of the first steps was to set clear production cycles for machines instead of having them available to produce any element at any time. This approach helped to reduce constant and costly retooling as well as balance production operations. Furthermore, orders were set in the monthly meetings in that way eliminating the number of changeovers (K. Oliver et al. 2007). However, the major decision concerning production operations was to outsource large part of the production to external packaging and manufacturing service providers. One of the reasons was to cut the costs by moving the production from high-cost countries. Another reason was to reduce the number of subcontractors and utilize the economies of scale, having in mind that LEGO was producing about 24 billion bricks per year (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010). Consequently, the production capacity in Denmark was reduced and sites in Korea and Switzerland closed. LEGO Group engaged into cooperation with packaging service suppliers: Sonoco, Greiner, Weldenhammer and 2B Pack. The most risky and complex partnership was made in 2006 with Flextronics, a Singaporean based electronics manufacturer. Several product lines, like Bionicle and Technic was still mainly retained by LEGO, but the higher volume and more simple Duplo and System lines were handed to Flextronics production sites in Hungary, Czech Republic and Mexico. This helped to reduce the distance to customers. However, the relationship was not successful and contract with Flextronics was terminated from January 1, 2009, while LEGO continued with smaller outsourcing contracts. The main reasons for the failure are connected with delicate nature of toy industry and could be described in short (H. B. Dinitzen, D. Bohlbro 2010, 71-72; M. M. Larsen et al. 2010): 65% percent of production had to be done during the third quarter of the year main holiday season. Products have a lifetime of 16-18 month. Sales uncertainty is around 30%. In figure 3, the timeline of LEGO and Flextronics cooperation is presented, including goals and challenges. Despite the failure, LEGO Group has learned a lot from this outsourcing attempt, which had a positive impact in the end. Figure 3: The timeline of LEGO and Flextronics collaboration (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010, 16) In 2008 LEGO started the process of sourcing back the production, while the first factory in the Czech Republic was taken over, followed by Hungarian and Mexican facilities. In Mexico, LEGO Group eventually moved the production to a new plant, which started operating in first quarter of 2009. The final benefits of collaboration were connected mainly with gained experience in various operational fields. It helped to establish new facilities in Mexico and Hungary, while production units were no longer following branded approach, but instead serving its respective markets. Moreover, LEGO significantly improved documentation and standardization of business processes. Standardization resulted in almost halved size of components, from 12,000 in 2004 to 6000 in 2008. This enabled more flexible, efficient and smoothly running supply chain. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010) CONCLUSIONS In the end it can be stated that by taking clearly defined and harsh restructuring strategy, LEGO Group was able to defeat the crisis and become one of the successful and largest toy producers again. This statement can be backed up by financial figures, which indicate that in 2008 and 2009 company reached profit of DKK 315.6 million and 375 million U.S. Dollars, respectively. This was the highest in LEGO Groups history. (M. M. Larsen et al. 2010) A significantly restructured supply chain helped to increase the efficiency of major business operations as well as increase the overall customer satisfaction. LEGO managed to reach and, in some levels, even pass its competitors, while still cooperating with biggest retailers in such fields as joint forecasting, inventory management and mass customization. However, such transformations required dealing with many challenges, including terminated cooperation with Flextronics. Nevertheless, it gave LEGO valuable knowledge about outsourcing operations and its inner characteristics. In the end, unsuccessful outsourcing practice resulted in factories in Denmark, Czech Republic, Mexico and Hungary, which gave the needed supply chain flexibility in order to meet the global demands. Improved parts of supply chain such as product development, sourcing, distribution and manufacturing creates a well developed business model that serves as a major competitive advantage. Finally, after successful supply chain transformation, LEGO Group can shift more attention to increasing the satisfaction of its customers by developing well-liked toys for children and adults.

The Relationship Between Religion and Israel Essay -- religion, theolo

Israel, the place call the holy land, the land, which Jesus walked, however, it is widely acknowledged that tensions between secular and religious sectors constitute a salient feature of Israeli society. If one were to try to summarize the relationship of Israel to Jewish religion, he would say that it is related but not equivalent to certain concepts of Israel. Most people think of the holy land when they hear the names Israel but one must ask the question is Israel truly the holy land. This essay will show the relationship between religion and Israel. Religion in the broadest sense may be defined as man's attitude towards the unseen, and the earliest forms of human thought furnish the clue from which must be traced the development of those great systems of religion that have at different time periods been professed by certain groups of people. The term religion must also include, not only beliefs in unseen spiritual agencies, but also numerous customs, superstitions, and myths which have usually been regarded by the people of the specific society or community. As far as, Jewish religion goes, there are many different opinions about the origin and history of people and the religion. The Jews are a people who trace their descent from the biblical Israelites and who are united by the religion called Judaism. They are not a race; Jewish identity is a mixture of ethnic, national, and religious elements. An individual may become part of the Jewish people by conversion to Judaism; but a born Israel who rejects Judaism or adopts another religion does not entirely lose his Jewish identity. In biblical times the Jews were divided into 12 tribes: Reuben, Simeon (Levi), Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Ash... ...ment of the Israeli culture with religious Jewishness. Because of the diversity in the different religiosity categories’ exigencies from the social order, one may speak in this respect of the Israeli society as an example of conflictual multiculturalism. This notion designates this kind of multiculturalism where the dominant culture conditions the insertion of groups on their acceptance of exigencies which, in given respects, contradict their own self-perceptions. Religiosity in Israel is bound to multi-sided conflicts, which is conjunctively articulated through a continuum of approaches. This religious convictions stand behind the stage explains the sharpness that conflictedness may eventually take on. Yet, as we have seen, in this case, religiosity does not divide this society dichotomously and actors remain bound by common references, albeit unevenly.

The Implicat of Sin in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

The Implicat of Sin in The Scarlet Letter Sin is the transgression of a moral code designated by either society or the transgressor. The Puritans of Boston in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, establish a rigid moral code by which to purge their society of deviants. As this society is inherently theocratic, the beliefs and restrictions established by religion are not only incorporated into law but constitute all law. In this manner, the moral code of the Puritan society thoroughly pervades the lives of its individuals, and any presence of iniquity is felt in all aspects of their lives. In The Scarlet Letter, the characters' lives are controlled by the sin they commit. Hester Prynne's adultery causes her alienation from the Puritan society in which she lives. After the term of her confinement ends, she moves into a remote, secluded cottage on the outskirts of town, inducing a physical separation from the townspeople. Because of this seclusion from society, the Puritans regard her with much curiosity and suspicion: " Children...would creep nigh enough to behold her plying her needle at the cottage-window...and discerning the scarlet letter on her breast, would scamper off with a strange, contagious fear." In addition to the physical separation, a more intangible manner of exclusion also exists, in that Hester becomes a pariah. She is subject to derision and malice from the lowliest of vagrants to the most genteel of individuals of the community, though many are often the recipients of her care and attention: "The poor...whom she sought out to be the objects of her bounty, often reviled the hand that was stretched forth to succor them...Dames of elevated rank, likewise, were accustomed to distill drops of bitterness into her heart." Hester cannot feel any sort of kinship with the townspeople in light of the treatment she receives from them, thus alienating her even further from Puritan society. Formerly an inhabitant within the bounds of the community as well as a member of the community, she is now outcast in both respects. Just as the act of adultery is pivotal in Hester's life, this sin effects a similar manipulation of Arthur Dimmesdale's life. Dimmesdale's guilt over his sin continually torments him throughout

Civic Engagement: Voting, TV, and Efficacy Essay -- Politics Political

Civic Engagement: Voting, TV, and Efficacy Abstract Well known is the fact that active participation in America has gone down. Voting, especially, has been affected. Literature and statistics on voting behavior have demonstrated these shocking results. But lack of voting is simply the beginning, several factors affect civic engagement among those are the negative perceptions of politics received through televised media. This study found that several factors of significance with respect to efficacy, amount of TV watching, politician trust, and differences in gender factors. Though Robert Putnam’s suggestion of too much television does hold true, other factors can be predictors as well. Introduction America was founded on the idea of democracy. As Piven and Cloward put it, â€Å"Americans generally take for granted that ours is the very model of democracy† (2000). There seems to be an evident breakdown in American politics, the electorate is voting less than they did in previous generations (Putnam 2000). I question whether this is the beginning of a massive breakdown in American politics or simply a flux in the activity of the people. In sorting through much of the research on political opinions and voting very little is clear. Theorist and researchers differ on what is the major factor in the decline of voting in America. An influential idea provided by Robert Putnam was the increase in television watching and its effect on the American people. Others suggest that the growing economic inequality in American lives. But we are working with people who can be very surprising and strange as maybe the outcomes. I try to look at many factors that may indicate some reasons to what a portion of the population ... ... the American Electorate Eighth Ed. Washington D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press. Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. (2000). Why Americans Still Don’t Vote: And Why Politicians Want It that Way. Boston: Beacon Press, 229-237. Putnam, Robert D. (2000). Bowling Alone. New York: Touchstone, 252-253. Rust, Roland, Mukesh Bajaj, and George Haley. (1984). Efficient and Inefficient Media for Political Campaign Advertising. Journal of Advertising,13, 3, 45-49. Sifry, Micah L. Finding the Lost Voters. The American Prospect, 11, 6, 23-27. Stanley, Harold W. and Richard G Niemi. (2000). Vital Statistics on American Politics 1999-2000. Washington D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press. Uslaner, Eric. (1998). Social Capital, Television, and the ‘Mean World’: Trust, Optimism, and Civic Participation. Political Psychology, 19, 3, 441-467.

1984 Essay Essay

The main protagonist in fictional books or films is often labeled as a hero. In 1984 by George Orwell, the plot follows a man named Winston who is trying to rebel against the totalitarian government called Ingsoc. Ingsoc, also known as the Party, defeats Winston and because he is defeated he does not remain a hero in the reader’s eyes. Winston’s lack of cunning, lack of courage, and lack of effort to defeat the Party shows that he does not fit the description of a hero. Winston is not a hero, but some might argue that he displays heroic characteristics. One might consider Winston a hero because he is brave enough to oppose the Party and rebel. However, Winston is not brave. Instead he is merely angry because he has knowledge of what Ingsoc’s motives are and how the Party manipulates its citizens. If more people realizes the truth about the Party, they would likely rise up and rebel against the party like any reasonable person would. If Winston is truly brave, he would risk his life and fight the Party head on. Also, Winston opposes the Party and rebels, but his acts of rebellion have minimal effect on the Party. Winston may occasionally show signs of a hero but ultimately never lives up to it. Winston does not have the cunning edge that most heroes possess. He is often careless in covering his tracks and takes many foolish risks. For example, in part two, Winston skips an event at the Community Centre. Orwell explains how Winston is skipping his second evening at the Community Centre, which is an audacious act and Orwell also notes that his attendance will be monitored (94). Julia on the other hand, attends as many community events as she can and her performances during the Two-Minutes Hate are convincing so that the Party does not suspect her of committing thought-crime. If Winston were to be hero, he would need the cunning edge like Julia to outsmart the Party. Winston is also easily fooled because he trusts Mr. Charrington and O’Brien without question. When Winston first meets Mr. Charrington and later rents the room above the antique shop, he never suspects Mr. Charrington as being potentially dangerous because he seems like a nice old man trying to make money to make ends meet. After renting the room Winston never examines the room thoroughly because he foolishly takes Mr. Charrington’s word that the room is free of surveillance devices. Additionally, Winston absolutely trusts O’Brien and reveals everything to him even though he is not sure whether O’Brien is friend of foe. In contrast to Winston, heroic characters from other books and films are more cautious. Winston is a coward because he has many fears. In part two, Winston spots Julia while wandering around in the proletarian area and he immediately walks away in fear for his life because he believes that Julia is part of the Thought Police (Orwell, 115). He even considers killing her but instead, hurries home to safety. Heroes in today’s society such as police officers never flee from danger. Instead, they confront danger to protect citizens. Furthermore, Winston is selfish because he betrays his family and Julia. On the other hand, heroes will act for the well being of others and not for themselves. For example, firefighters will risk their lives to rescue people. Winston also has a fear of rats which the Party uses to break him. Heroes can have weaknesses but most eventually conquer them. An example is Terry Fox who was determined to fight cancer even though it was holding him back. Heroes are different from ordinary people because they can overcome their weaknesses and they are always determined to succeed. Winston’s lack of effort is another reason why he is not considered a hero. In part one, he writes down his thoughts on Ingsoc in his diary, but it is no use because he is keeping his thoughts to himself. Without Julia, he might have never opposed the party. Moreover, he believes that loving Julia is the ultimate act of rebellion, but it does not affect the Party significantly. He only rebels by loving Julia because he is sexually frustrated. In addition, Winston does not possess the leadership skills to start a rebellion. In the book The Mockingjay, Katniss leads the charge in the rebellion against the Capitol, because she passionately despises the oppressive government. In 1984, Winston has the passionate hate for Ingsoc but is unable to use it against the Party. Not only is Winston unable to spark a rebellion, he also has an idea of how overthrowing the Party might be accomplished: â€Å"If there is hope, it lies in the proles† (80). If Winston is truly a hero, he should be able to inflict more damage to the Party. It is evident that he is not much of a hero in the reader’s perspective because of his carelessness, cowardice and effortlessness. 1984 lacks a spectacular and heroic protagonist who is able to defeat the Party, and this is what Orwell intends. Winston weeps with joy because he finally loves Big Brother and the end of the book disappoints and even enrages readers. This will move readers to take action and prevent Oceania from becoming a reality.

Betrayal: Rhetoric and Ethos Julius Caesar

To get credit for the collaboration activity, Betrayal 01, 02, 04, 05, and 06: A. ) Submit this attachment in A Collaboration Process. Then copy and paste the below information in the student comment area of A Collaboration Product and Betrayal 01, 04, and 05: 1. Date you attended the session. 2. At least 3 sentences explaining how Shakespeare’s story about Julius Caesar is different than what really (historically) happened in Caesar’s life. 3. Give examples of the three persuasive techniques from either Antony’s or Brutus’s speech. logos, pathos, and ethos) 4. Give an example of one traitor and one patriot with supporting examples from the play. 5. At least 3 sentences explaining what you did in the session so that someone who did not attend would have an understanding of it. 6. At least 3 sentences evaluating how well your group worked together to accomplish your task. B. ) Submit this in Betrayal 02: 1. Complete the Lesson 2 Quiz. For the essay question s, you may respond, â€Å"I attended the Betrayal Live Lesson on __________ (date). C. ) Schedule Betrayal 6 DBA as we still need to complete that on the phone. If you are an honors student, complete the honors assignment before the dba. D. ) If you are an honors student, complete lesson 8. Lesson 8 Assignment 1. ) Choose which character from â€Å"The Lay of the Were-Wolf† you would like to defend. 2. ) Analyze the story to find examples of logos, pathos, and ethos that support your character’s innocence. 3. ) Determine how to present your examples in a persuasive argument. 4. Write a three-paragraph â€Å"closing argument† for the trial that will persuade the jury that your character is not a monster. a. ) Paragraph #1 – logos b. ) Paragraph #2 – pathos c. ) Paragraph #3 – ethos Julius Caesar Recordings: a read-along for each act. Enjoy! Act I, Scenes i, ii, iii https://sas. elluminate. com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback. jnlp? psid=201 2-01-23. 1812. M. 18C7F05BEF4B1A91008CFEA56749A1. vcr&sid=679 Act II, Scenes i, ii, iii, iv https://sas. elluminate. com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback. jnlp? psid=2012-02-03. 107. M. 18C7F05BEF4B1A91008CFEA56749A1. vcr&sid=679 Act III, Scenes i, ii, iii https://sas. elluminate. com/p. jnlp? psid=2012-02-07. 0726. M. 18C7F05BEF4B1A91008CFEA56749A1. vcr&sid=679 Acts IV & V https://sas. elluminate. com/p. jnlp? psid=2012-02-07. 0817. M. 18C7F05BEF4B1A91008CFEA56749A1. vcr&sid=679 Brutus’s Funeral Speech: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=ab68AjRMKmA Antony’s Funeral Speech: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=Zd9BLib8448 Materials from Live Lesson and Play in original language: http://vimeo. com/41708712 Betrayal: Rhetoric and Ethos Julius Caesar To get credit for the collaboration activity, Betrayal 01, 02, 04, 05, and 06: A. ) Submit this attachment in A Collaboration Process. Then copy and paste the below information in the student comment area of A Collaboration Product and Betrayal 01, 04, and 05: 1. Date you attended the session. 2. At least 3 sentences explaining how Shakespeare’s story about Julius Caesar is different than what really (historically) happened in Caesar’s life. 3. Give examples of the three persuasive techniques from either Antony’s or Brutus’s speech. logos, pathos, and ethos) 4. Give an example of one traitor and one patriot with supporting examples from the play. 5. At least 3 sentences explaining what you did in the session so that someone who did not attend would have an understanding of it. 6. At least 3 sentences evaluating how well your group worked together to accomplish your task. B. ) Submit this in Betrayal 02: 1. Complete the Lesson 2 Quiz. For the essay question s, you may respond, â€Å"I attended the Betrayal Live Lesson on __________ (date). C. ) Schedule Betrayal 6 DBA as we still need to complete that on the phone. If you are an honors student, complete the honors assignment before the dba. D. ) If you are an honors student, complete lesson 8. Lesson 8 Assignment 1. ) Choose which character from â€Å"The Lay of the Were-Wolf† you would like to defend. 2. ) Analyze the story to find examples of logos, pathos, and ethos that support your character’s innocence. 3. ) Determine how to present your examples in a persuasive argument. 4. Write a three-paragraph â€Å"closing argument† for the trial that will persuade the jury that your character is not a monster. a. ) Paragraph #1 – logos b. ) Paragraph #2 – pathos c. ) Paragraph #3 – ethos Julius Caesar Recordings: a read-along for each act. Enjoy! Act I, Scenes i, ii, iii https://sas. elluminate. com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback. jnlp? psid=201 2-01-23. 1812. M. 18C7F05BEF4B1A91008CFEA56749A1. vcr&sid=679 Act II, Scenes i, ii, iii, iv https://sas. elluminate. com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback. jnlp? psid=2012-02-03. 107. M. 18C7F05BEF4B1A91008CFEA56749A1. vcr&sid=679 Act III, Scenes i, ii, iii https://sas. elluminate. com/p. jnlp? psid=2012-02-07. 0726. M. 18C7F05BEF4B1A91008CFEA56749A1. vcr&sid=679 Acts IV & V https://sas. elluminate. com/p. jnlp? psid=2012-02-07. 0817. M. 18C7F05BEF4B1A91008CFEA56749A1. vcr&sid=679 Brutus’s Funeral Speech: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=ab68AjRMKmA Antony’s Funeral Speech: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=Zd9BLib8448 Materials from Live Lesson and Play in original language: http://vimeo. com/41708712