Villains of the Christian Bible

In the first half of the ancient epic of Beowulf, the eponymous protagonist portrays the traditional and conventional ideals of a morally righteous hero: good, seemingly fearless, bold and daring, loyal to his nation, strong in body and spirit, and willing to become a martyr for justice. As a king in the latter portions of the epic, Beowulf is also ideal. Beowulf is a great warrior himself, and thus could be respected without reservations by his greatest soldiers. Beowulf’s reputation as a warrior preserved the peace in his own country.Most importantly, Beowulf is a hero-king, willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of his country (as he did in his fight with the dragon). He was also one to avenge unjust deaths. He is willing to risk himself for what he believes to be moral, good, and just. Part of Beowulf’s heroism also lies in his adherence to his moral code, which is strongly tied to his religious convictions. However, Beowulf’s morals and values might not s eem as such from a modern perspective, because Beowulf’s morals and values are strongly tied to the mixed Christian and pagan ideals of the time.There are many references to religion (and thus morality) in the epic. It has strong Christian elements, such as the description of Grendel’s mother as having descended from Cain, one of the early villains of the Christian Bible. However, the epic also has a generous helping of pagan concepts. Beowulf frequently calls upon God, but also speaks of Wyrd, the â€Å"ruler of all. † Pagan practices, such as cremation and drinking of blood, are also depicted. From a modern perspective, Beowulf is a pagan tale with some Christian aspects.

Optimal Alarm Sound Design

Optimal alarm sound design: New design process for noticeable, but pleasant sounds Author 193 Track 3: what the beep? ABSTRACT The goal of this research is improving alarm sound design, focusing on the paradox of noticeable versus pleasant sounds. The characteristics of annoying sounds correspond in large extend to the characteristics of noticeable sounds. Therefore it is difficult to design an alarm sound, which is noticeable, but not annoying. A lot of studies are conducted along aspects which make sounds annoying and several guidelines are described for designing noticeable alarm sounds.However, no data is conveyed about the combination of these characteristics linked to sound design. In this study an existing design process for alarm sounds is adjusted regarding to pleasantness and noticeability of sounds. Hereby methods to analyze and test pleasantness and noticeability of sounds are added to the process. As a result this paper suggests a new design process which can be used to design an alarm sound considering these aspects. Keywords product sound design; alarm sound; annoying sounds; noticeable sounds; design processes INTRODUCTIONMost of the time alarm sounds are not optimal designed, because in the majority of cases the context of the user is not taken into account. Edworthy (2006) found that in consequence alarms are often too badly designed resulting in annoying, not effective sounds. Schmidt & Baysinger (1986) pointed out that a pleasant sound to report a complication can be more effective during an emergency. However, the alarm sound should still be clearly noticeable, so that it cannot be missed. Annoying sounds The perception of annoyance may be very personal and subjective, but research as shown that there are some characteristics of sounds that influence this perceived annoyance. (Steele & Chon, 2007). The research of Steele & Chon (2007) found that loudness is the most important determinant of annoyance in respect to sound. They also revealed that the wider the bandwidth, the more annoying the sound is perceived. Higher frequencies and modulations increase the perception of annoyance as well (Genuit, 2001). A modulation is a change from one tone to another. Besides the type of sound, there are a many other factors that influence the perception of annoyance. One of these factors, revealed by Maris et al. 2007), is the ability to influence the sound. Another study posited that age is also an important aspect for determining the perception of annoyance. (Botteldooren & Verkeyn, 2002). Noticeable sounds Obviously, the noticeability of an alarm sound is better when the volume of the sound is higher. Edworthy (2006) pointed out some other characteristics of clearly noticeable alarms sounds, like high and low frequencies, harmonics and discontinuous sounds. Hereby alarm sounds are respectively easier to localize, more resistant to masking by other sounds and less presumable to interfere with communication.Harmonics are sounds w ith frequencies that are a multiple of the fundamental frequency. Another component which makes a sound more clearly noticeable, is the variation in more than only pitch (Edworthy & Meredith, 1997). Namely, if a sound alters in more than just tone, for instance frequency, the ability to distinguish it from other sounds increases. Besides that, environmental sounds and auditory icons are easier to learn and retain (Leung, 1997; Ulfvengren, 2003). Similarities annoying and noticeable soundsThere is a lot of literature written about designing noticeable alarm sounds and about annoying sounds. However, there is barely literature which compares these two characteristics of sounds. Nevertheless, a lot of characteristics of annoying sounds are identical to the characteristics of noticeable sounds, see figure 1. Figure 1. Characteristics which make sounds annoying as well as noticeable. As you can see in this figure, loudness is an important characteristic of annoyance as well as noticeabil ity of sound. The same is true for high and low frequencies which are linked to a wide bandwidth and a high frequency.High frequency is also linked with harmonics, because a harmonic is a sound whose frequency is higher than the keynote of that sound observed by the ear. Furthermore, modulations contribute to an annoying sound, while discontinuous sounds provide a noticeable sound. This is conflicting, because if a sound has modulations it is not discontinuous as a result of the changes in tone. So most of the characteristics of annoying and noticeable sounds are similar, whereby it is hard to design an alarm sound that is noticeable, but not annoying. All the corresponding characteristics are focused on type of sound.However, there are other factors which can influence the perception of annoyance and the noticeability of sound. These factors are particularly related to the context. Research of Philip (2009) also showed the relationship between the annoyance and noticeability of sou nd. She showed a significant correlation between the urgency rating and the annoyance rating of alarm sounds. The urgency rating can be linked to the noticeability of the alarm sound, which in essence points towards a relationship between the annoyance and noticeability of a sound. Yet, there are no papers with guidelines or methods to deal with this problem.Purpose The overall goal of this research is improving alarm sound design, focusing on the balance between noticeable and pleasant sounds. The aim of this research is suggesting a design method/process which helps to create a balance between the noticeability and annoyance of sounds. In this paper will be focused on a wide range of alarm sounds. Every sound with a warning function is taken into account. Hereby the outcome is usable for a variety of alarm sound designs, see figure 2. The IC is a relevant example, because noticeability is very important in this place, but if an alarm is too annoying it is often turned off.Another example is an alarm clock. It is imported that the product helps you to wake up in time, but if the sound is not pleasant you may have a bad start to the day. Figure 2. Examples of products with alarm sound. For this research a literature study is done about existing methods which can be used to design alarm sounds. With these inputs and information about the annoyance and noticeability of sounds a new method is defined. EXISTING METHODS Design processes are most of the time iterative and consisting of different stages (Roozenburg & Eekels, 1995).Often, a design process starts with a problem definition, followed by ideas to solve this problem. Then a concept is developed to meet the determined requirements and satisfy the user. (Rouse, 1991). Design process alarm sounds Edworthy and Stanton (1995) came up with a user-centered method to design alarm sounds, see figure 3. In this method, especially the noticeability of the sound is taken into account. In the method nothing is stated a bout the annoyance of sounds, though. From this process some stages which are also usable to design a pleasant, noticeable alarm can be derived.Important stages regarding these aspects are establish the need for warning, appropriate ranking test, learning and confusion test, urgency mapping test, recognition and matching test and operation test. Figure 3. Edworthy and Stanton’s design process to design alarm sounds. The mentioned stages are particularly useful to design a noticeable sound. Therefore some stages that focus on the pleasantness of sound can be added. Besides that, the context of the users is not taken into account. However, this is very relevant to design an alarm sound, since most characteristics which are not conflicting are related to the context.Context Another method which can be used to design alarm sounds is etnography. Ethnography is a method to define the context by revealing the user’s environment and interactions between the product, user and t heir own physical environment (Leonard & Rayport, 1997). This is useful for alarm sound design, since it is important to take the environment of the user, including other sounds, into account. Pleasantness There are some known techniques for eliciting verbal attributes of product sounds, which can be used to identify the importance of pleasantness of a sound.One of these methods is the Repertory Grid Technique, succesfully applied by Berg & Rumsey (1999) for eliciting descriptions of the sound of a product. Another procedure to evoke important attributes of sounds is the Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (Stone et al. , 1974), whereby a descriptive language will be developed by participants accompanied by a facilitator. While applying these techniques no real sound examples are used, but products are presented to recall the attributes of sound connected to that product. Later in the design process eliciting can be used to rank the different sound designs by annoyance.This can be don e by deriving verbal attributes through a survey. Gabrielsson (1979) used this method by conducting an extensive experiment, where the participants were asked to rate the sounds according to their suitability. Another method to test the pleasantness of a sound is a model made by Aures (1985). This model calculates the pleasantness considering sharpness, roughness, tonalness and loudness, with an accuracy of more than 90%. NEW METHOD Based on the design process of Edworthy & Stanton (1995) a new design process can be suggested for designing pleasant, but noticeable alarm sounds, see figure 4.Establish need for warning As the process of Edworthy & Stanton, the new design process will start with establishing the need for warning by identifying the alert functions of the product. This will be done to clarify the importance of noticeability of the sound, which can be used to create an optimal balance between noticeability and annoyance. For instance, when noticeability is very essential, the annoyance of a sound may be less important. Identify context Then, the context will be identified by using ethnography. Hereby the physical environment of the user and the corresponding sounds are taken into account.Factors of the context can influence the annoyance and pleasantness of a sound. Therefore it is important to be aware of the context and use this during designing. Elicitation The last step of the analyis is elicitation of sounds, whereof users think they fit the product. By means of this method the importance of a pleasant sound can be revealed. There are two procedures which may be appropriate to do so. The Repertory Grid Technique can be used to elicit descriptions of the sound of a product. The more the word pleasant is called as description, the more important this characteristic will be.Besides that, the Quantitative Descriptive Analysis is useful to develop a descriptive language which describes the desired attributes of a product. The outcome of this techniq ue can be compared with those of The Reportory Grid Technique. The difference is in the way the descriptions are elicit. The Reportory Grid Technique uses product sounds and the Quantitative Descriptive Analysis uses no real sounds, but only products. Figure 4. Suggested design process regarding pleasant, but noticeable alarm sounds Designing sounds The design of the sound can be done exactly the same as Edworthy and Stanton escribed in their process. First, existing alerting sounds and user suggestions will be considered. After that soundimagery studies can be used. Testing pleasantness/annoyance After designing different concept sounds, the sounds can be tested in terms of annoyance or pleasantness. To do so two methods are suggested. The first procedure consists of a questionairre or survey, whereby the participants should rank the sounds by annoyance. The other technique is a model developed by Aures (1985) which calculates the sensory euphony(pleasantness) of a sound regarding loudness, sharpness, tonalness and roughness.According to these tests the sound can be modified considering pleasantness. Testing noticeability The noticeability of sounds can be tested by procedures Edworthy & Stanton (1995) described in their design process. Using these techniques the sounds can be tested concerning different aspects, like learning & confusion, urgency and recogniton & matching. The learning & confusion test is ideally performed in the real context, so it will become clear if the sound can be confused with other sounds in the environment.The urgency mapping test shows if the mapping between the signal and situation is suitable in terms of urgency using existent guidelines. In the recognition & matching test participants are asked to assign the sounds to the appropriate warning function. According to these tests the sound can be improved and optimized considering noticeability. DISCUSSION The adjustments of the suggested design process are really focused on the ana lysis and testing of pleasantness and noticeability. Consequently, the designing itself is not taken into account, but is indeed very important.Further research for this phase of the design process can be useful to improve the suggested design process. Besides that, the design process is not tested, whereby there is not been evaluated how useful the process might be. To validate the suggested process an experiment with a couple sound designers should be done. Furthermore two procedures who explore roughly the same are recommended for the elicitation phase, but only one technique is necessary in this phase. Therefore more research about these methods in regarding to pleasantness and noticeability is preferred to choose the most appropriate technique.CONCLUSION Due to the fact that most characteristics of noticeable sounds are conflicting with the characteristics of pleasant sounds, it is difficult to design a sound which is both noticeable and pleasant. However, if the designer will focus on this during the whole design process, it should be possible to find a good balance between these two aspects. Hereby it is essential to look at the context of the user and the need for warning and a pleasant sound. Furthermore the sound should be tested on these aspects, since the characteristics are subjective and therefore defined by the user.The suggested design process can be used for a wide range of alarm sounds, which requires a noticeable as well as a pleasant sound. Some examples of such alarms are alarm clocks, microwaves and alarms in intensive care units. REFERENCES 1. Aures, W. (1985). Berechnungsverfahren fur den sensorischen Wohlklang beliebiger Schallsignale. Acustica, 59: 130-141 2. Berg J. and Rumsey, F. (1999). Spatial Attribute Identification and Scaling by Repertory Grid Technique and other Methods. Proc. AES 16th International Conference 3. Botteldooren, D. and Verkeyn, A. (2002).Fuzzy models for Accumulation of reported community noise annoyance from c ombined sources, Journal of Acoustic Society of America, 112(4): 1496 – 1508 4. Edworthy, J. and Stanton, N. (1995) A user-centered approach to the design and evaluation of auditory warning signals: 1, Methodology, Ergonomics, 38(11): 2262-2280. 5. Edworthy J. and Meredith C. (1997). Influence of verbal labelling and acoustic quality on the learning and retention of medical alarms. Int J Cogn Ergon; 1: 229–43 6. Edworthy, J. and Hellier, E. (2006). Alarms and human behaviour: implications for medical alarms.British Journal of Anaesthesia, 97(1): 12–17 7. Gabrielsson, A. (1979). Dimension analyses of perceived sound quality of sound-reproducing systems. Scand. J. Psychol. 20: 159-169 8. Genuit, K. (2001). The problem of predicting noise annoyance as a function of distance. Internoise, Rome, Italy. 9. Leung YK, Smith S, Parker S, Martin R. (1997). Learning and retention of auditory warnings. In: Frysinger S, Kramer G, eds. Proceedings of the Third International Co nference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Palo Alto, CA, USA. Available from http://www. santafe. edu/_icad__ 10.Maris E. , Pieter J. , Stallen, P. J. , Vermunt R. , Steensma H. (2007). Noise within the social context: Annoyance reduction through fair procedures, Journal of Acoustic Society of America, 121(4): 2000 – 2010 11. Philip, E. (2009). Evaluation of medical alarm sounds. Doctoral thesis, New Jersey Institute of Technology. 12. Roozenburg, N. F. M. and Eekels, J. (1995). Product Design, fundamentals and methods. (Lemma BV, Den Haag. ) 13. Rouse, W. B. (1991). Design for success- A Human-Centered Approach To Designing Successful Products and Systems, John Wiley & Sons Inc.ISBN 0-471-52483-2. 14. Schmidt S. I. , Baysinger C. L. (1986). Alarms: help or hindrance? Anesthesiology, 64: 654–5 15. Steele, D. L. & Chon, S. H. (2007) A Perceptual Study of Sound Annoyance. Proceedings of the 2nd Audio Mostly Conference. pp. 19-24 16. Stone, H. , Sidel, J. , Oliver, S. , Woolse y, A. , Singleton, R. C. (1974). Sensory evaluation by quantitative descriptive analysis. Food Technology, 24-34 17. Ulfvengren P. (2003). Design of natural warning sounds in human-machine systems. Doctoral thesis, Stockholm Institute of Technology.

Marriage Proposal

A Marriage Proposal (sometimes translated as simply The Proposal, Russian: ) is a one-act farce by Anton Chekhov, written in 1888-1889 and first performed in 1890. It is a fast-paced play of dialogue-based action and situational humour. Characters Stepan Stepanovitch Tschubokov, 70 years old, a landowner †¢Natalia Stepanovna, his daughter, 25 years old Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov, 35 years old, a neighbour of Tschubukov, a large and hearty, but very suspicious landowner Plot synopsis Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov, a long-time neighbor of Stepan Stepanovitch Chubukov, has come to propose marriage to Chubukov's 25-year-old daughter, Natalia. After he has asked and received joyful permission to marry Natalia, she is invited into the room, and he tries to convey to her the proposal.Lomov is a hypochondriac, and, while trying to make clear his reasons for being there, he gets into an argument with Natalia about The Oxen Meadows, a disputed piece of land between their respective properties, whi ch results in him having â€Å"palpitations† and numbness in his leg. After her father notices they are arguing, he joins in, and then sends Ivan out of the house. While Stepan rants about Lomov, he expresses his shock that â€Å"this fool dares to make you (Natalia) a proposal of marriage! † This news she immediately starts into hysterics, begging for her father to bring him back.He does, and Natalia and Ivan get into a second big argument, this time about the superiority of their respective hunting dogs, Otkatai and Ugadi. Ivan collapses from his exhaustion over arguing, and father and daughter fear he's died. However, after a few minutes he regains consciousness, and Tschubukov all but forces him and his daughter to accept the proposal with a kiss. Immediately following the kiss, the couple get into another argument. Themes The farce explores the process of getting married and could be read as a satire on the upper middle class and courtship.The play points out the struggle to balance the economic necessities of marriage and what the characters themselves actually want. It shows the characters' desperation for marriage as comical. In Chekhov's Russia, marriage was a mean of economic stability for most people. They married to gain wealth and possessions or to satisfy social pressure. The satire is conveyed successfully by emphasizing the couple's foolish arguments over small things. The main arguments in the play revolve around The Oxen Meadows and two dogs called Ugadi and Otkatai. Performance history The Proposal was successful in its first runs in St.Petersburg and Moscow, and quickly became popular in small towns across Russia. [1] Tsar Alexander III liked the play when he had it performed for him. [2] Chekhov himself thought farces were not really worth much as literature; before its success, he called The Proposal a â€Å"wretched, boring, vulgar little skit. â€Å"[3] He advised its director, Leontiev, to â€Å"roll cigarettes out of it for all I care. â€Å"[3] When Vassar College staged The Proposal in the 1920s, they performed it three times in one evening, each with a very different staging: â€Å"as realism, expressionism, and constructivism. [2] In the second version, played closer to tragedy, the actors were masked, and in the third the actors were all dressed in work suits in a playground, tossing a ball between them. [2] In 1935 in the Soviet Union, the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Vsevolod Meyerhold combined The Proposal with Chekhov's other short plays The Bear and The Anniversary to form a three-act play called 33 Swoons that demonstrated the weakness of the pre-revolutionary intelligentsia. [4] [hide]v †¢ d †¢ eWorks by Anton Chekhov Biography †¢ Bibliography PlaysPlatonov (1881) †¢ On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco (1886, 1902) †¢ Swansong (1887) †¢ Ivanov (1887) †¢ The Bear (1888) †¢ A Reluctant Tragic Hero (1889) †¢ The Wedding (1889) †¢ The Wood Demon (1889) †¢ A Marriage Proposal (1890) †¢ The Festivities (1891) †¢ The Seagull (1896) †¢ Uncle Vanya (1897) †¢ Three Sisters (1901) †¢ The Cherry Orchard (1904) NovellasThe Shooting Party (1884) †¢ The Steppe (1888) †¢ The Duel (1891) †¢ The Story of an Unknown Man (1893) †¢ Three Years (1895) †¢ My Life (1896) Related articlesChekhov's gun †¢Analysis of Anton Chechov's play.Plot of courtship of Lomov and neighbor's daughter Natalya. Importance of land and money to the characters. Reasons for their constant fighting. Depiction of the rual social system and its relationship to the characters. The play as a metaphor for marriage as a continuing battle ground. †¢From the Paper: †¢Ã¢â‚¬ In the short play â€Å"A Marriage Proposal,† Anton Chekhov describes the odd courtship of Lomov, who seeks a marriage with his neighbor's daughter. Lomov and the woman he wants to marry fight before he can make his proposal, fight while he proposes, and fight after she agrees to marry him.They tend to fight every time they speak to one another, and while this alarms her father at first, he decides that the two just like to fight with each other. In the end, the father calls this last fight the â€Å"beginning of family happiness,† though it is doubtful that a couple can fight all the time and achieve anything like bliss. The meeting between Lomov and Tchubukov suggests one sort of neighborhood arrangement, for Tchubukov could not be friendlier and more delighted to see Lomov, happier being asked about the marriage, and more positive about Lomov's prospects. †¢A Marriage Proposal is a text play written by Russian writer, Anton Chekhov, and then it is translated into English version by Hilmar Baukhage and Barrett H. Clark. The story is initiated by the explanation of setting in the text play which takes place in the reception room at Tschubukov’s country home, in Russia. T here are merely three characters involved in this text play namely: Stepan Stepanovitch Tschubukov (Natalia’s father), Natalia Stepanovna (Stepan’s daughter, 25 years old)), and Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov (Stepan’s neighbor who falls for Natalia).The plot of the text play has been so hilarious and entertaining. It simply enlightens readers that two people who fall in love each other can never be entirely united if they cannot take the edge off their own selfishness. †¢Each character actually holds different identifying features but in general we can conclude that they share the same attitude, i. e. egoistic, stubborn, and high self-esteem. They stick to their belief that the meadows—thing which is being tightly debated belong to their own family.Tschubukov, in fact, agrees to the marriage proposal proposed by his neighbor toward his daughter. But gradually he changes his mind when Lomov starts the debate that the meadows belong to his family. Indeed, Na talia and her father get mad. They simply yet totally debate and argue trivial matters such as dogs and meadows. The ultimate goal, the marriage proposal, should have been achieved earlier if Lomov doesn’t start the debate and Natalia doesn’t respond to every trivial matter in which Lomov states, for they both are fully aware that they love each other. The segmentation of this text play only consists of a single scene. It most likely leads the readers to come up with the idea that it is easily-to-read text play. In this text play, dialogue, as the most prominent primary text, plays a very significant role, for it provides the readers with funny and entertaining dialogue among the three characters. These kinds of dialogue will simply make the readers understand the text comprehensively because readers seems to enjoy a lot a text play with witty and amusing dialogue rather than serious and complicated ones.Comedy is the generic convention of this text play, for the indic ation says so—the humor mostly comes from the three characters’ arguments about the meadows and the dogs. The story also employs a tone of irony. Those three characters wish the marriage to be held and done but their insensitivity almost postpones the marriage. As a whole, the story is ended by an open ending. It remains blur to where the story will go but at least, the dispute is resolved. †¢ Anton Chekhov has a unique writing style. He goes to the extreme to prove a point, in this story capital punishment.In true life, I doubt that a person who would stay imprisoned for fifteen years voluntarily. Also, a bet like this one would have been considered as not authentic, because these gentlemen were having a heated discussion where violence could have possibly taken place. Also both men were young and hot tempered, they made their decisions irrationally without much thought of the consequences this bet does. The banker underestimates his fortune, and is too proud to rethink his offer. The lawyer is also a senseless young man who is a zealot and does not value life as much as his cause.Another style Chekhov’s writing’s have is the intense physiological transformations each character †¢ †¢was going through. One moment, which was very apparent, was the banker thinking of the ways of killing the lawyer. He debates in his mind whether to kill him. Slowly he agrees to kill the lawyer and premeditates the murder. The banker believes that the murder would be blamed on the watch and that the lawyer had become so weak that he could easily killed him without struggle. Chekhov was able to weave the thoughts of a character into something dark and evil. He discovers the human personality at its worst.Another issue Chekhov approaches is greed. Perhaps, the lawyer had taken the bet partially because of the money was worth; the whole story revolves around greed. Also another scene where greed was present was when the banker was speculati ng how to pay off the lawyer. â€Å"Why didn’t t †¢ Genre denotes a systematic way to categorize literature. The term might be considered academic jargon; however, it produces up a set of expectations that allow us to judge literature. These expectations or criteria also allow us to compare with other literature in the same as well as different genres.In spite of these expectations, genre does not dictate a set of rigid rules; in fact, genre is more descriptive than prescriptive. Problems in defining genre often arise because there are frequently sub-genres: romantic comedy might be considered a sub-genre of comedy, revenge tragedy of tragedy and gothic horror of horror. It becomes increasingly difficult to see where one sub-genre ends and another begins. Also these categories are seldom pure. For example, Hamlet, a revenge tragedy, includes aspects of romance and even a comic scene or two.Our popular culture makes defining genre challenging because what is vital one da y might disappear the next. An example of this is the current insistence upon a happy ending. Since tragedy is often characterized by an unhappy or â€Å"right† ending, according to Aristotle, popular culture no longer welcomes the tragedy with the relish it did at other times in history. Our Town being the exception that comes to mind, as well as the one-man shows. Poetry makes frequent use of this voice. In Daddy by Sylvia Plath, the author address â€Å"Daddy† throughout the poem.Shannon Chamberlain's use of Aesop's fable The Parrot and his Cage was another example of this single voice narrative. A second voice option is the drama or dialogue that involves talking between two characters with no narration. All of the plays we are reading in class fit this category as well as Stacy Burleson's example of Merlin as a legend in film. Finally, the combination of the narrator plus dialogue is just as it seems, a narrator talks to the audience (or reader) but the characters talk to each other. The TV shows The Fugitive, Dragnet, and Twilight Zone come to mind as examples of this.Narrative genre, by contrast, focuses on the storyline or plot. Tragedy frequently introduces a problem, there is struggle for control, finally a realistic and often unhappy ending that resolves the problem. Examples of this include: Romeo and Juliet (Sylvia Duncan's presentation), the recent Academy Award winner American Beauty and Moby Dick (Doris Herrmann's presentation). Comedy is another plot or storyline that usually deals with a less significant problem, there is an attempt to solve it, but the ending often brings people together.Examples of comedy are: Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest, A Marriage Proposal by Anton Chekhov, and the movie Sixteen Candles shown in class by Laura Peterson. Romance may center [or conclude] on a transcendence where the problem often includes separation, a journey or adventure might be included. [The plot of romance would be the s truggle to achieve this transcendence or goal. ] Characters are more predictable and are frequently good or bad with very little complexity. The excerpt of Sleepy Hollow shown by Cara Skinner is an example of this. true] Pygmalion and Shakespeare in Love might fit her; however, these characters do show considerably more depth than the norm. [This is a good reminder of how good any genre can be. ] Satire pokes fun at a social situation or institution and assumes the audience is familiar with what is being satirized. There is usually a less serious tone than with the original. Examples are seen in the play within a play in MidSummer Night's Dream. [good] Political cartoons and Moliere's The Misanthrope also display elements of a satire.ThePlay, â€Å"A Marriage Proposal†, shows how consideration of property and even our pride in property override other feelings and emotions like those generally associated with love and marriage. Even marriage is prompted by economic considerati ons, not by emotions. ;nbs p; Stepan Stepanovitch Tschubukov and Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov were neighbours in a village. Natalia Stepanovna was the daughter of Tschubukov. Lomov a man of thirty five wanted to marry. He thought Natalia was good at farm work and she was not bad looking. So he came to the house of Tschubukov one evening to propose to Natalia.Naturally he was in his best clothes befitting the occasion of a marriage proposal. Tschubukov received him cordially in his reception room. Like every young man going to make a marriage proposal Lomov was also excited and nervous. After some nervous stammering, he told Tschubokov that he wanted Natalia’s hand in marriage. Tschubokov was very excited and happy at the proposal. He went out and sent Natalia into the room to meet the suitor. Natalia was not told of the purpose of Lomov. Natalia and Lomov began to talk. ;nbs p; Lomov was more nervous as he was facing the bride. He made a strong preface before coming to the proposa l.He told Natalia about how the Lomovs and the Tschubukovs had been good neighbours on good terms for many years. In this context, he mentioned that his meadow touched the birch woods of Tschubukov. Natalia was surprised to hear that the meadows belonged to Lomov. She claimed that the plot of land belonged to them, the Tschubukovs. A bitter quarrel ensued. Lomov claimed it belonged to him and Natalia too claimed it to be theirs. Lomov forgot his original purpose. They called each other names, even though a little while ago they were full of good neighbourly feelings. Tschubukov came in and heard their quarrel.He too claimed that the meadow belonged to him. The quarrel grew even bitterer. They called each other names and began to expose the scandals of each others’ families. Lomov had a weak heart. He used to have palpitation in the heart. He was excited and he fainted. He rose and left the house. At this juncture, Tschubukov remarked that such a fool had dared to come seeking the hand of Natalia. ;nbs p; The moment she heard that he had come to propose to her, Natalia changed her tone. She asked her father to bring back Lomov. Her self interest overruled all other considerations like her loyalty to her family.Lomov came back. Natalia was all politeness. She even conceded that the meadow belonged to Lomov. After all, if they were married, the meadow would come to be hers only. Lomov informed that he would go hunting after the harvest. He was sorry that his dog Ugadi limped and he began to praise his dog. He thought that a hundred and twenty five roubles that he had paid for it was very cheap for such a good dog. Natalia, however, thought that it was a very high price because her father had paid only eighty-five roubles for their dog Otkatai, which was a better dog than Ugadi. nbs p; Lomov disagreed and asserted that Otkatai had a lower jaw and Ugadi was a far better dog than Otkatai. Once again their pride in their dogs led to another quarrel. Tschubukov came in and joined the quarrel. Lomov once again got excited and he fainted. Tschubukov who knew the importance of getting his daughter married, at once joined the hands of Natalia and Lomov and declared that Natalia agreed to the match. Natalia too, declared that she was willing and Lomov declared that he too, was happy. Tschubukov shouted for champagne to celebrate the intended marriage.

Ensuring Economic Opportunities for Young Americans Essay

Ensuring Economic Opportunities for Young Americans - Essay Example Department of Labor), Algernon Austin (Director of the race, ethnicity, and the economy program Economic Policy Institute), Matthew Segal (Founder & Co-Chair 80 Million Strong, Dorothy), Dorothy Stoneman (President and founder YouthBuild USA) and D. Mark Wilson (Principal Applied Economic Strategies, LLC). The positions taken by each participant on the issue has been briefed as under. At the beginning of the session, Chairman Miller gave a concise opening speech on the alarming rate at which the unemployment among young Americans is on a rise. He briefed about the worsening economic conditions of the nation, comparable to the aftermath of the Second World War, due to which the younger generation in some instances have to compete with the more experienced in the job market, for jobs meant for the relatively inexperienced. In addition, a shortage of summer jobs for the youth constrained their potential education opportunities since often it is found that the students use the funds to pay their tuition fees. Moreover, summer jobs often taught them discipline and helped in the development of leadership skills in them. So, an axe on the number of such jobs had multi-dimensional effects on the future of the youth of the nation. Hence, the Chairman proposed an initial investment of $ 1.2 billion in the economy for employment generation. Besides there were other distingu ished contributors in the meeting who prescribed a number of policy suggestions to tackle the situation. The eminent participants addressed the issue by proposing strategies to curb the same. Mathew Segal recommended that any policies meant to address the issue must focus upon four different areas – the amount of resources allocated for investment should be increased, there must be increased facilities of education loans, the propensity for public service jobs must be enhanced among the young minds and the education imparted at schools must be

The Power of Art - Turner (complete episode) Essay

The Power of Art - Turner (complete episode) - Essay Example Turner was an outstanding romantic painter. Lewis & Lewis (2008) approve of the explicable way in which Turner presented his romantic art by describing the Slave Ship image as an ultimate romantic scene of wild beauty mixed with horror. The most interesting part about the artistic image is how Turner has managed to show both the destruction brought about by nature and the greed and fear of humans in one picture. The sad part about the art is how the slaves sink helplessly in the waters. This is indeed a remarkable piece of art work. Turner used this gift to explain to the world what was going on around them and perhaps aimed to achieve change from it. It is interesting how Turner walked with his unwashed hands as a symbol of professional pride. â€Å"Sculptors find deep satisfaction in plunging their hands into wet clay and manipulating it† (Lewis & Lewis 2008). Similarly, as a profound artist Turner converted his hands to brushes so that one his critics complained of his perpetual need to be extraordinary. But this was who he is, walking with dirty hands could easily make someone mistake him for a farmer when on the contrary he seemed to view himself as a professional artist. This alone evokes a humorous relief. Turners turn towards abstraction portrayed the beauty in his work. Stickland & Boswell (2007) talks of the gradual abstraction in Turners work in his attempts to make color alone inspire feelings. A good example of such art is his picture, Crossing the Brook, which has a blinding effect of the sun at its background. Evident by this picture, Turner painted nature at its raw, a visually captivating landscape that that could speak out the culture in it for itself. He must surely have put the sun itself into his paintings as most people said. While his critics thought he had recklessly disregarded the rules of art, the much supposed recklessness were the basis of his triumph in the field of art. Turners erotica was meant

Investments, Corp. Finance and Financial Markets Essay

Investments, Corp. Finance and Financial Markets - Essay Example This has adverse effects on the financial institution such as insolvency and therefore banks employ the 5 C’s of Credit Scoring to evaluate whether or not a person should be entitled to a loan. The 5 C’s are based on the characteristics of the borrower and are explained in detail as follows. Character- The bank seeks basic information from the borrower such as his trustworthiness, integrity, work, reputation based on previous history with lenders, any defaults. Some of this information could be accessed easily through credit reports. A credit report is a report generated by the Credit Reference Bureau detailing information on a person’s credit history including identifying information, credit accounts and loans, bankruptcies, late payments and enquiries. Because credit history shall make up the biggest percentage of a borrower’s eventual credit score, it makes sense that he focuses his attention on that factor. This helps evaluate whether he is credit worthy. Capital- The borrower’s equity or net worth is checked in comparison to the amount he so wishes to borrow. If the capital invested is way below the amount borrowed, then that could raise red flags in his ability to repay the loan. Capacity- The borrower is gauged on his sufficiency of yielding positive cash flows during the loan repayment period and the amount is pre-calculated using different analysis criteria such as the Net Present Value, Profitability Index. If he passes this stage, he has to provide a credible plan on his willingness to repay his loan when it’s due. Conditions- Economic conditions dictate whether a loan should be granted to a borrower. For instance, in periods of economic recovery or boom, it is safe for a borrower to be granted a loan because chances of him defaulting are minimal. However, in the recession period, it’s most likely that the borrower will not be in a position to fully settle his obligations and therefore banks

Education Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Education - Coursework Example The session is followed by a fifteen minutes of group or individual work, which gathers students in order to share the progress of their work. Additionally, students prefer the use of projection slides, as well as handouts in order to complete their presentation. The teacher supervisors, these presentations and group discussions in order to ensure that the content brought to class is relevant to architecture and is helpful to other students (Isenberg & Jalongo, 2010, p. 110). The lesson entails a number of practical lessons where students are involved in some architectural drawing and building and construction works. Cognitive theorists were largely concerned with various changes in the understanding of a student resulting from learning, as well as with the fundamental environmental importance. However, constructivism itself bears a number of variations like cognitive apprenticeship, discovery learning, and generative learning, based learning, and situated learning. Therefore, constructivism promotes the exploration of students within a certain structure or framework. When architecture students are working on a similar task their objectives, goals at times are different, and the discovery theory should be applicable to enable them discover on their own. At the end of every task, students should share their creations and solutions since it helps to motivate them and more importantly, it demonstrates various ways in which a single task can be completed (Kay, 2005, p.79). Group discussions are necessary in developing English, ICT, and mathematics as well as acquiring wider skills. A large number of students easily acquire knowledge when shared by their peers and can easily remember compared to the thing taught in class by a teacher. Architecture students are supposed to present using proper English, which enables students, learn fluent English outside and in class. Students undertake a large number of activities

The Dangers Of Smoking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The Dangers Of Smoking - Essay Example Therefore, it will be the express intent of this author to focus upon the risk of cancer, breathing diseases, up to and including emphysema, and heart disease that smoking has been known to trigger. Moreover, the analysis will also consider the secondary health affects that smoking can visit upon the individual exposed to â€Å"secondhand† smoke or passive smoking. Through such an analysis, the far reaching and broad health impacts that smoking portends can readily be noted. Whereas many individuals are of the opinion that smoking is a dangerous process that threatens the overall health and well-being of the individual, the fact of the matter is that the overall scope of danger that smoking represents is much greater than most individuals realized. Accordingly, as a means of categorizing this danger and promoting a level of understanding with respect to the full range of damaging impact that smoking can have upon the individual, this brief analysis will consider and discuss th e litany of negative health impacts that smoking engenders. ... will make is one that I based on a logical framework of understanding the known risks which smoking provides to both the smoker and to those that inhale the second-hand smoke. Firstly, it must be understood that smoking accounts for nearly ? million deaths each and every year within the United States. This is a figure that is larger than the overall number of people that succumb to HIV/AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle death, suicide, or murders combined. As such, the overall scope of the damage that smoking can have upon an individual is profound and affects their life in a number of different ways. Most obviously, high rates of lung cancer can almost entirely be attributed to smoking. Current estimates place this number from 80-90% of all lung cancer cases; depending upon what demographic and gender is measured. Regardless of the actual number, the statistics that have been provided show that smoking is invariably attributed to high rates of lung cancer and death. Yet, this statistic oftentimes confuses individuals who assume that lung cancer is the only means through which smoking can adversely impact upon the overall health of an individual. However, smoking also increases the chances of developed coronary heart disease by up to several times the normal rate. Moreover, a vast percentage of all deaths that are the result of chronic obstructive lung disease are normally caused by cancer. Yet, of all of the health impacts that can be felt, it is the health impact of cardiovascular disease that is the most overlooked. Due to the impact that nicotine has as well as the artery hardening properties of prolonged exposure to first or second hand cigarette smoke, the narrowing of blood vessels helps to put smokers at high risk for any type of blockage or

WADA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

WADA - Essay Example However, the likelihood of doping is reduced by the World Anti-Doping Agency. This body was established in the year 1999 with the aim making sure that athletes compete in a sporting environment that is free from doping. It has come up with policies, standards and rules, frameworks, for anti-doping programs in sports. The agency also has a list of substances that are banned and methods which are prohibited in sports. The agency spends millions annually to catch dopes, even though; this amount is believed to be far from enough. WADA has influenced the world sport by making sure that there is fairness in sports. It advocates for tests to be carried out randomly during races and severely punishes the athletes who are caught doping. These tests reduce unethical practices in sports. Many professional sports leagues including Olympics follow WADA guidelines which encourages fairness, equity, â€Å"playing true†, and which define the rules in sports (Pedersen, 2011). Some elite athletes continue to dope in sports for the purpose of achieving the victory, when anti-doping organizations only expends little to catch dopes and some sports leagues even do not have an active control of

Blood Brothers Essay Example for Free

Blood Brothers Essay Blood Brothers is a play that is so dramatic it made me change my emotions form happy to sad in the space of 5 minutes. It highlights the differences between the upper and lower classes and covers the terrible dilemma of a mother who gives one twin away to another person who lives up the road, of a much higher class. It makes me wonder what I would do if I were in that situation. The emotions portrayed in the play are much more intense than those within the book. I think it was a good idea for us to have studied the play in class as we read through it and acted it out. This gave us a very good idea of what to expect within the performance at the theatre. While studying the play we looked at freeze frames and even produced a piece of coursework on one we did where we showed the deaths of both Mickey and Eddie and interpreted it in our own way. We also focused a lot on characterisation and really looked at trying to portray the emotions of the characters through our body language, facial expressions, proxemics, and movement. I feel this really helped when we went to go and see it as it made me focus on how the characters are portraying there emotions to the audience and how my way of showing the same emotion was done differently through a different character. Having heard the songs before and listened carefully to the words, made it much more emotional within the performance and really helped me understand the story and try and get inside the characters heads. The songs gave away a lot about the characters and also related the events happening with other things that have happened in the past. I really did enjoy going to see it, it made me realise how dramatic the play actually was. From reading the book it was easy to tell the storyline was dramatic, but from watching it made it so much more than just dramatic. The performances on stage were brilliant and had such emotion and feeling from each of the characters. The production is set in Liverpool and was written in the 1980s. Willy Russell uses the play to show how different levels of class can have a huge effect on peoples lives and chances in life. Mickey was kept by his mum but grew up in a lower class family and his lifestyle was always limited. He lived in a council house and had a poor education while he was growing up. Meanwhile Eddie his twin brother was given away and brought up by a middle class family and went on to a high education and he was the one who got the better job as a result. The conflict between the two classes was very significant and I think Willy Russell portrayed it very well as the two boys from completely different classes became best friends and he showed the difference in classes right from the beginning when they first meet all the way up until they were grown men. The way in which he raised honesty as an important issue within the play was very well done and told so much about the story and how it was all going to end. The way in which he keeps the secret about the boys throughout the whole play and they do not have a clue they are twins is just so dramatic as when they do find out within 2 seconds they are both dead. It leaves the other characters in belief that it was fate and this was all going to happen no matter what. I think the narrator is such an important character throughout the play as he watches everything fall into place and builds the tension up within the other characters throughout the play. In my view the narrator was the one who made everything happen, because every time a character did something drastic he was always there and they always looked at him just before anything happened. Mickey Mickeys social class is portrayed in this play through many different acting skills. His language used and his accent shows he was brought up in a lower class family with not much discipline. His actions also suggest he has not yet learnt write from wrong and needs a push in the write direction but the audience knows it will not happen as the surroundings and people he is growing up with are just like him. The way in which he interacts with others for example when he first meets Eddie illustrates the fact that he doesnt see Eddie as someone with a bigger authority or who is in a different class to him, but treats him just the same. The soon changes throughout the play and is shown by the way Mickey ends up wanting to be Eddie because he can see that Eddie has a better life. Although Mickey is in a lower class to Eddie, Mickey has much more awareness to the real world than Eddie does. This is shown by the way Mickey learns more about sex and other issues at a younger age than Eddie. Also Mickey grows up a lot quicker than Eddie and starts thinking about responsibilities and building a life while Eddie is still a young boy at heart who just wants to have fun all the time and stay a teenager. Mickey and Lindas relationship starts of with them just being kids and close friends, but then Mickey realises Linda loves him and he cant handle the fact that his childhood friend Linda who he used to throw rocks with and play his air pistol with is falling all over him, he shows his discomfort to this situation by blocking her out and never saying what he really feels. But he also knows he really likes her but doesnt want Linda to find out. When Mickey starts outlining his appearance this shows he is not dealing with puberty and he compares himself to Eddie but he doesnt know that Linda loves him and only sees his good qualities and looks past his bad ones. As Mickey and Linda grow up they eventually start going out and later on get married and have a child. Mrs Lyons Mrs Lyons is first portrayed as a rich snob who looks down on anyone that is a lower class than she is. Unfortunately she cannot have children but her maid, Mrs Johnstone cant stop having them. This gives Mrs Lyons the perfect opportunity to raise a child as her own so her views of Mrs Johnstone soon change and she now looks up to her in hope of a child. The way Mrs Lyons gets Mrs Johnstone to agree to this, is by offering her money something Mrs Johnstone does not have much of but Mrs Lyons has plenty. She makes Mrs Johnstone see how wonderful her life would be with more money and how her child would grow up better than she thought. By offering Mrs Johnstone money Mrs Lyons is still portraying her authority over Mrs Johnstone, as she knows that Mrs Johnstone will not be able to resist because she needs the money. Mrs Lyons language that is used is much more complex than Mrs Johnstone, and her accent is completely different Mrs Johnstones. This also portrays the levels of class and shows the audience just who has more power over who. Because Mrs Lyons has a much wider spread vocabulary selection she can easily persuade Mrs Johnstone to do just what she wants. As Mrs Lyons idea about her having her own child progresses her facial expressions and gestures are much more aware to everyone in the audience who are concentrating on just how much this means to her. As soon as Mrs Johnstone has had her twins, Mrs Lyons is straight away in her face attempting to get her baby. But Mrs Johnstones change of heart make Mrs Lyons that much more eager to have one and tells her that she swore on the bible and if someone finds out about this she will be in a lot of trouble. And warns her that if she tells either child he was once a twin something bad will happen, they say that if either twin learns that he once was a pair, they shall both immediately die, this means that they are going to grow up unaware of the others existence. This is where the fear of Mrs Johnstones superstition is added to the plot. As Edward Lyons grows up, Mrs Lyons fears of what she never wants to happen seem as if they are which turns her into a growing mad woman. Happenings start to evolve around the superstitious nature. It begins to affect the play, as the characters start to behave differently. Mrs Lyons is now haunted by the superstition and it ruins her life as she approaches a mental breakdown which the change in her behaviour is effected by the superstition of having a sold child. As Edward and Mickey grow up and become friends again, when they are older, this tips Mrs Lyons over the edge as she finds a locket with which contains a picture of Mickey and Mrs Johnstone inside which belongs to Edward. The thought of Mrs Johnstone giving her son Edward this sends Mrs Lyons into a panic and she just lashes out at Mrs Johnstone. The affect this has on the up coming events is just undescribable and she is to blame for the brothers to find out who they really are. This play is a fast pace performance and has quick scene changes, which sets of the play very nicely. Because there are quick scene changes you are able to see just how different the surroundings for the scenery for the Lyons house and the street in which The Johnstones live are. Because there isnt any scenery for inside of Mrs Johnstones house I think it is a very important detail that all they need is the surroundings outside there house just to see the difference of being in a lower class family is to the scenery of The Lyons house which is a middle class family in a nice house. You can tell the diffference in social class straight away with just the scenery in place never mind the acting. The street has graffetee everywhere broken glass in the windows and just portrays this image of a bunch of kids that hang around there with no respect for the place in which they live. But The Lyons house shows a nice big sofa, a table, very spacious rooms and a very nice family feel to the environment. When the families move to the country side theres a much clearer image that the move was good as there are views of fields and there isnt as much pollution and there is much more space to run around and play. I think the scenery plays a big part in the performance as it gives you an idea of the surroundings and how people react when they are placed somewhere they are not used to. The style of the music was superb, the way the tone and pitch of the music changed to what was happening on the stage was perfect timing. Also before I had seen the play I was wondering why Willy Russell thought so thouroughlly about the effect the music had on the actuall performance and after I had seen it I knew exactly why he chose the style of songs and words for the songs to be sang at each part of the pley. The music summed up most of the play. The style of music in some songs changed from an up beat happy song to a deeper more depressing song in a matter of minutes, I thought the idea of this was brilliant and you could really tell how the music effected the performers on stage. The band was situated of stage which I found dissapointing as in other theatres I had been told the band was on stage hidden by scenery but you could still see it which I think would of made the music more affective. And it would have been more of a part of the play if the band was on stage. Although the band was of stage you could still see them in front of the stage facing it. I thought the way the characters moved from speaking to singing was so clever as you could never tell when they were going to break out in song. I really liked the use of the soft music playing in the background while someone was speaking and then just a line was sung and then it went back to the character speaking again. That idea made me really focus on the importance of that one line that had to be sung. The loud music on the fast pace killing scenes was brilliant, I loved it. It really made me feel like I was involved with the action going on and also made the atmosphere a lot more tense. The costumes within the play are very significant to the character being played. Mickey always wore ripped, dirty clothes that didnt look like they fitted him, whilst Eddie was always smartly drest with his shirt tucked in to his trousers and his clothes were always clean and also looked as if they had been ironed. The costumes clearly establish time, age and economic circumstance. The styles of the clothes show that this play must have been set in the early 80s, as this was the fashion back then. Mrs Lyons and Mrs Johnstone had a very different sense of fashion within the play. Mrs Lyons usually wore nice fitted suits that looked like they would of cost her a quite a bit of money, whilst Mrs Johnstone usually wore tatty flowery dresses, with stains over them and the colour looked as if it had been drained out of them. Linda usually wore really little amounts of clothing, as she was out to impress Mickey, and needed her character to look good in the clothes she wore but to also to show how much she really liked Mickey. Lindas wardrobe I think really reflected her personality and social status. It portrayed the life she was living as all the girls in her estate probably wore similar clothes. But if she were from a middle class family she would probably be wearing long skirts down to her ankles, or pretty dresses that made her look sweet. Through the course of this learning scheme we have been focusing on key moments in the play. The freeze frame at the beginning and also repeated at the end is a significant moment I think in the play. It sums up a lot about the characters and also tells a story without any movement or sound. In class we were told to remake this freeze frame as our own and interperate it how we wanted to. I think we did this really well and even though it was a lot different to the freeze frame performed at the theatre it was still very imaginative and a well thought out piece. When we went and watched the performance the way they showed this particular moment was I thought very well done, it had Mrs Johnstone in between her two sons who are lying on the floor dead and she had placed there hands together with hers and I think that is just a lovely way of showing the tragedy which has just occurred. This sets the tone for the rest of the play by showing what things are going to make this happen and how fate is going to play itself for the upcoming events. Throughout the performance all I could think about while the play was progressing was theres no hope its all going to end badly anyway. Although some people may think this isnt very effective as you know whats going to happen and the element of surprise is sometimes much better. But not in this play because everything that happens you know in the back of your head it is happening for a reason and you notice the mistakes the characters are making for the story to be told. Also every time there is a decision made or something occurs that you know shouldnt, you are sitting at the edge of your seat just wanting to shout out Stop, no dont do that! But it happens anyway and you know exactly why. After seeing this play I fell in love with all the characters even the bad ones and just wanted to be able to get up and start acting on there with them. I thought it was the most thought provoking play I had ever watched and I really didnt want it to end. The way it was performed was just phenomenal, I really felt as if I was inside each of the characters heads and I knew how they were feeling. I felt very attached to each of the characters as I had sat there and invested my time and energy into following these characters since they were seven years old. The simple, witty lyrics and light hearted scenes just draws you into the world of the families portrayed, and pulls you into a false sense of security which is then rapidly twisted in the second half to be made as a tragedy. I loved the way the adult actors played seven year olds they produced such lovely scenes and it added to the comedy of the play, which made the ending even more shattering than expected. I was so impressed when saw Anthony Costa from blue, playing Mickey in this production he was amazing at it and I think he added to the performance shown. The opportunity to go and watch this performance I think was fantastic. I have learnt a lot about the play and it has really helped me understand the characters within the play.

Development of a Learner in a Hospital Setting

Development of a Learner in a Hospital Setting Clinician To Educator Nurse Additional skills and requirements Making the transition from clinician to educator is an exciting step in a nurse’s career. Clinicians considering the transition should be familiar with the role of the nurse educator (Culleiton Shellenbarger, 2007, pg 254). A nurse educator should also understand and illustrate teaching-learning skills. This paper will discuss briefly how to facilitate learning and the development of a learner in a hospital setting. In a staff educator setting, the educator will be educating new and experienced nurses. Nurse educators must have the capability to convince the learners of knowledge and expertise they have. In addition, the expectation would be to engage in administrative work, participate in scholarly research, and have collaborative professional associations (Role transition: Clinician to Nurse Educator, 1). The transition from clinician to nurse educator requires an understanding of learning theories that will create meaningful learning experiences (Learning theories learning styles, 2008, 1). According to the online readings there are some key learning theories. One theory is behaviorism in which we learn by the concept of conditioned response to stimulus, for example in a telemetry unit, the expectation is the nurse can recognize EKG strips and differentiate between heart rhythms. Tele nurses do not know this information as new grad nurses, however from our everyday learning we learn to recog nize certain irregular heart rhythms and we expect to see certain signs and symptoms. The nurse educator directs the thought process of the learners in accordance to their own experience (Learning theories and learning styles, 2008, 2). As the nurse educator in the role of behaviorism, we have a source of knowledge that shapes, supervises and directs the thought processes of learners in accordance to their own experiences (Learning theories, 2008, 2). When dealing with constructivism, the nurse educator is a facilitator who helps learners acquires knowledge and figure out solutions to problems. The educator teaches in sequences of events that are relevant to the knowledge (Learning theories and learning styles, 2008, 2). Both one of these theories can be used in the teaching-learning process and individual learning styles are a reflection of the individual preferred way of learning. As the nurse educator transition into their new role, a curriculum needs to be formulated, if not already done by the institution, identify expected program outcomes, develop competency standards, choose an appropriate, varied, and engaging instructional strategies to deliver the content. In addition, the nurse educator continues to evaluate and re-evaluate the different learning styles, learner needs, learner abilities and achieve desired learning outcomes and objectives (Identifying learning needs, 2008, 2). How does the nurse educator know the learners are getting the expected information? In staff development, evaluation of learning outcome can include a pre and post multiple choice exams. For example, most hospital residency programs last approximately 3 months with classroom studies and floor orientation with an experienced nurse. During classroom studies, the nurse educator follows a curriculum, delivers the content, provides hands on with equipment such as temporary pacemakers, group case studies, dosage calculations and a final test along with a program evaluation form filled out by the learners which can identify for the nurse educator what worked well and what did not. This will continue to help the nurse educator transition into their role from the clinician role. Regardless of the setting, using appropriate assessment and evaluation strategies is important to the learner and learning goals. It is also important to utilize evaluation data to improve the teaching-learning process (Learning outcome evaluation, 2008, 2). In addition, effective communication with the learners’ and co-workers along with networking with other nurse educators/mentors is essential for the growth development of both nurse educator and learner. In conclusion, making the transition from clinician to nurse educator may be an excellent option with new opportunities to mentor future generations of nurses. Successful nurse educators will be able to demonstrate teaching-learning skills. References Culleiton, A.L., Shellenbarger, T. (2007). Transition of a Bedside Clinician to a Nurse Educator. MEDSURG Nursing, 16, (4), 253-257. South University (2008). Learning theories and learning styles. Retrieved July 14, 2008, http://myeclassonline.com.

Effects Of The Financial Crisis On Iceland Economics Essay

Effects Of The Financial Crisis On Iceland Economics Essay The country of Iceland is the smallest economy within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with a gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007 of about $11.8billion. The Icelandic economy has been based on marine and energy resources. More recently, Iceland has developed a very strong services sector, which accounts for two-thirds of the economic output. Since the start of the decade i.e. from 2000, Iceland has experienced particularly strong growth in its financial services sector. Trade accounts for a large share of Icelands GDP, with imports accounting for 46% in value and exports accounting for 35% in value of goods and services of GDP. Icelands main export item was fish and other marine products until the year 2006, when Iceland began to capitalize on its abundant thermal energy resources to produce and export aluminum. A combination of economic factors over the early to mid-2000s led to Icelands current economic and banking distress. In particular, access to easy credit, a boom in domestic construction that fueled rapid economic growth and a broad deregulation of Icelands financial sector spurred the banks to expand rapidly abroad and eventually played a role in the eventual financial collapse. Iceland benefited from favorable global financial conditions that reduced the cost of credit and a sweeping liberalization of its domestic financial sector that spurred rapid growth and encouraged Icelands banks to spread quickly throughout Europe. The 2008-2010 Icelandic financial crisis was a major ongoing economic crisis in Iceland that involved the collapse of all three of the countrys major banks (Kaupthing, Landsbanki, Glitnir) following their difficulties in refinancing their short-term debt and a run on deposits in the United Kingdom. Relative to the size of its economy, Icelands banking collapse was the largest suffered by any country in economic history of the world. This was the main reason why Iceland had to suffer so much in the crisis. Commenting on the need for emergency measures, Prime Minister Geir Haarde said on 6 October 2008, There [was] a very real danger that the Icelandic economy, in the worst case, could be sucked with the banks into the whirlpool and the result could have been national bankruptcy. He also stated that the actions taken by the government had ensured that the Icelandic state would not actually go bankrupt. At the end of the second quarter 2008, Icelands external debt was 9.553 trillion Icelandic krà ³nur (à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬50 billion), more than 80% of which was held by the banking sector. This value compares with Icelands 2007 gross domestic product of 1.293 trillion krà ³nur (à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬8.5 billion). The assets of the three banks taken under the control of the FME totaled 14.437 trillion krà ³nur at the end of the second quarter 2008. MONETARY POLICY Monetary policy is the process a the government, central bank, or monetary authority of a country uses to control (i) the supply of money, (ii) availability of money, and (iii) cost of money or rate of interest to attain a set of objectives oriented towards the growth and stability of the economy. Monetary theory therefore provides insight into how to craft optimal monetary policy. Monetary policy is contrasted with fiscal policy, which refers to government borrowing, spending and taxation. During the financial crisis, Icelands monetary policy credibility had been very seriously damaged. Unsatisfactory inflation outcomes had already undermined the credibility of the monetary framework, even before the financial crisis started and, consequently, inflation expectations were poorly anchored. Icelandic economists had said that due to the huge impact of the crisis, rebuilding the credibility was likely to take time, and also maintaining it might be very difficult. However, after the crisis, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) had voted to lower the Central Bank interest rates by 0.5 %. By supporting the interest rate cut, it lead to the appreciation of the krona in trade weighted terms. As in the ISLM Model, a decrease in the interest rates leads to an increase in the money supply. Therefore, this has lead to an expansionary monetary policy, as the interest rates were lowered, and also the MPC supported or voted for lower interest rates. MONETARY POLICY GRAPH The above graph shows the shift in the LM towards right, which has lead to an expansion in the LM curve. Since the MPC voted for a lower interest rates , the money supply was increased. Therefore, the LM curve shifts from LM1 to LM2, leading to an expansionary of the monetary policy. FISCAL POLICY In economics, fiscal policy can be defined as the use of government expenditure and revenue collection to influence the economy. Fiscal policy refers to the overall effect of the budget outcome on economic activity. There are three possible stances of fiscal policy: Neutral stance, which implies a balanced budget where, govt. spending = Tax Revenue Expansionary stance, increase in the govt. spending and reduction in tax revenue Contractionary stance, decrease in the govt. spending and increase in tax revenue During the financial crisis, there was an increased government debt. Due to the recession and rising debt servicing costs, the public deficit was projected to be above 10% of GDP in 2009, adding to the public debt burden. As a result, a considerable fiscal consolidation was therefore needed to put public finances back on a sustainable path and to pave the road for a successful euro-area entry. It was also important to reduce the deficit vigorously in the coming years, so that the country can reach the goal of balance. In order to eliminate the deficit, the government of Iceland had the option of tax increases as well as spending cuts, it then decided to opt for the former as they were easier to introduce immediately. The starting point for the tax increases would have been to reverse tax cuts implemented over the boom years, but Iceland could no longer afford. This would involve the increase in the personal income tax and also lift the reduced rate of VAT (Value Added Tax). This planned fiscal consolidation, would involve measures which would help to contain the expenditures. FISCAL POLICY GRAPH The above graph, shows the shift in the IS curve towards left, which leads to the contraction of the IS curve. Since the govt. decided to reduce their expenditure and increase the taxation, in order to consolidate the fiscal policy, the IS has moved towards left, leading to an contractionary fiscal policy. INFLATION In economics, inflation can be defined as the rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. When the price level rises, then each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, annual inflation is also erosion in the purchasing power of money a loss of real value in the internal medium of exchange and unit of account in the economy. The effects of inflation on an economy are manifold and can have both simultaneously positive and negative impacts. Since Iceland, comes from a small domestic market, the banks in Iceland have financed their expansion from getting loans on the inter-bank lending market and, more recently, by getting deposits from outside Iceland (which are also a form of external debt). Large amount of debt was also taken by the households, which was equivalent to 213% of the disposable income, causing inflation in the country. Due to the practice of the Central Bank of Iceland issuing loans (liquidity) to the different banks on the basis of uncovered bonds which are newly issued and printing money on demand, this lead to inflation being exacerbated. Due to the financial crisis, the country of Iceland suffered inflation. On 25th of March 2008, popular website, Bloomberg.com that Iceland had raised its rates to 15% by raising its repo rate by a huge 1.25% in one day. The website also reported that the country was facing an inflation rate of about 7%. However, the Central Bank of Iceland had a goal of maintaining the inflation rate of about 2.5%. Also the Icelandic currency, krona has declined against the euro, from about 100 ISK per euro at the beginning of the year (2008), to its nadir of 125 on March 19 2008. Due to the interest rate hike it had the effect of moving it to about 116 from about 122. In August 2006, the country of Iceland made news when it had increased its interest rate to 13.5%. At that time, the krona was very strong against the euro. Iceland made news previously in August, 2006 when it increased its interest rate to 13.5%. The krona was then trading at a stronger at 90 to one euro. Some main factors why Iceland incurred inflation was mainly due to, the value of krona depreciated, secondly the prices of various commodities kept on soaring, and lastly, there was uncertain effect on wage agreements on labour costs. Since the financial crisis brought a huge change in the development of the economies in the world, as well as making many banks go bankrupt, the Icelandic debt is now over 320 billion krona, which is roughly about $4 billion US dollars. This figure is huge; as one can say considering that its about a quarter of their GDP. INFLATION GRAPH Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2010 6.60 7.30 8.50 2009 18.60 17.58 15.19 11.89 11.63 12.18 11.32 10.90 10.81 9.71 8.63 7.50 2008 5.77 6.79 8.72 11.76 12.32 12.74 13.55 14.54 14.02 15.89 17.15 18.13 2007 6.89 7.41 5.87 5.29 4.67 4.01 3.76 3.45 4.18 4.47 5.19 5.86 The above graph shows Icelandic inflation rate over the past 3 years. In the graph, one can make out how the inflation rate climbed up consistently in the year 2008, whereas in the year 2009, the inflation rates kept on falling except in the month of June where it increased, but since then it had kept on decreasing. In the year 2008, the reason why inflation rate climbed up consistently, was because of the krona which had been depreciating, where as in the year 2009, the inflation rates kept on falling as the property prices fell, which resulted in the fall of prices. UNEMPLOYMENT Unemployment can be defined as people who do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the past four weeks, and are currently available for work. Also, people who were temporarily laid off and are waiting to be called back to that job are counted as unemployed. Some types of unemployment are listed below: Structural Unemployment. Frictional Unemployment. Cyclical Unemployment. Since the financial crisis, lead to large percentage of unemployment all over the world, Iceland was also one of them which had a quite high rate of unemployment. Unemployment in Iceland increased tree times more by the end of November 2008. There were more than 7000 registered jobseekers (about 4% of the workforce) in November compared to just 2136 at the end of August 2008. The debt repayment had become more costly as household debt (80%) and 13% denominated in foreign currencies had become indexed. The impact of the crisis was such that since October 2008, 14% of the total workforce had experienced reductions in pay, whereas around 7% of the workforce had their working hours reduced. According to IFL (Icelandic Federation of Labour) president Gylfi Arnbjà ¶rnsson, the above figures were lower than expected More than 85% of the workforce who were currently registered as unemployed in the country, stated that they had become unemployed or lost their jobs in October after that, due to the economic collapse. In December 2008, the unemployed figures which were registered in Iceland was 4.8 per cent, or around 7,902 people an increase of some 45 percent in November, according to the figures from the Directorate of Labour. These unemployment figures were the highest, Iceland had recorded since January 1997. In the same month i.e. December in the year 2007, unemployment rate partly was 0.8 percent, or 1.357 people. The Directorate of Labour had estimated that the figure will rise to 6.4-6.9 percent by the end of January 2009. Among those unemployed, the rate of unemployment among young people had increased the fastest, with the number of registered 16 to 24 year olds jumping from 1,408 to 2,069 in the month to the end of December 2008. This age group accounts for 23 percent of the entire jobless total. UNEMPLOYMENT GRAPH 0.00% 1.00% 2.00% 3.00% 4.00% 5.00% 6.00% 7.00% 8.00% 9.00% 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 The above graph shows the rate of unemployment over the past 7 years. During the financial crisis, the rates skyrocketed especially in the year 2010, due to the banking as well as financial collapse. Many became jobless as banks and other sectors were closed. Other reason why the rate was high in 2010 was, because the fishing sector was affected. This sector accounts for 10% of the total workforce in the country. GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is defined in economics as a basic measure of a countrys overall economic output. It is the market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year. It is often positively correlated with the standard of living, though its use as a stand-in for measuring the standard of living has come under increasing criticism and many countries are actively exploring alternative measures to GDP for that purpose. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can be determined in three ways, all of which should in principle give the same result. They are the product (or output) approach, the income approach, and the expenditure approach. Prior to the 2008-2010 crises, the economy of Iceland had achieved high growth, also had a low rate of unemployment, and a remarkably even distribution of income all over the country. The economy depended heavily on the fishing industry which is the main source of their income, which provides 70% of export earnings and employs 10% of the work force. Icelands economy had been diversifying into manufacturing and service industries in the last decade, with new developments in software production, biotechnology, and tourism. During the global financial crisis, the crisis-stricken Icelandic economys GDP shrank by a record 6.5% in 2009, despite having a decent growth of 1% in 2008 and massive growth of 6% in 2007. The decrease in the gross domestic product (GDP) by 6.5% was a record in the national accounts of Iceland. There was a sharp decline in GDP in last year (2009) as the domestic expenditure plunged by 20.1%, then the household consumption also fell to 14.6% due to unemployment and government consumption dwindled by 3%. Also, Icelands fixed capital formation dropped by 49.9%. These were the reasons why the gross domestic product (GDP) fell by a huge margin, in the year 2009. After the crisis, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Iceland managed to expand at an annual rate of 3.30 percent in the last quarter i.e. in the year 2009. Iceland Gross Domestic Product is now worth 17 billion dollars or 0.03% of the world economy, according to the World Bank. Icelands Scandinavian-type social-market economy combines a capitalist structure and free-market principles with an extensive welfare system, including generous housing subsidies. GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) GRAPH Year Mar Jun Sep Dec Average 2009 -5.10 -0.40 -7.20 3.30 -2.35 2008 2.90 -6.00 1.80 3.20 0.48 2007 2.10 0.80 5.10 -1.00 1.75 The above graph, describes the changes in the gross domestic product (GDP) of Iceland over the past 3 years. During the years 2007 2008, Iceland recorded a growth in the GDP, which helped in boosting the Icelandic economy. However, most of the year in 2009, it recorded a huge decline of 6.5%, except in the last quarter i.e. in the month of December where it a recorded a positive GDP. The main reasons why the GDP declined in the year 2009 was because the household consumption, the government consumption, as well the domestic expenditure rate had fallen massively, resulting in a negative GDP for the most part of the year. CURRENCY The Iceland currency which is known as krà ³na had been declined more than 35% against the euro from January to September 2008.Inflation of consumer prices was running at 14% and Icelands interest rates had been raised to 15.5% to deal with the high inflation. In the month of October 2008, the effects of financial crisis brought about a collapse in the Icelandic banking sector. The Central Bank of Iceland abandoned its attempt to peg the Icelandic krà ³na at 131 krà ³nur to the euro after it had tried to set this peg in the month. During the month, the Icelandic krà ³na was trading at 340 to the euro when trading in the currency had collapsed because the last major Icelandic bank had been takeover by the FME and thus the loss of all krà ³na trade clearing houses. Then, the central bank introduced restrictions on the purchase of foreign currency within Iceland. From October to November, the European Central Bank quoted a reference rate of 305 krà ³nur to the euro. The Central Bank of Iceland had then set up a temporary system of daily currency auctions in the month of October to facilitate international trade. The value of the krà ³na was determined by supply and demand which took place in these auctions. The first auction sold à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬25 million at a rate of 150 krà ³nur to the euro. Commercial krà ³na trading outside Iceland had again been started in the end of October, at an exchange rate of 240 krà ³nur to the euro, after which Icelandic interest rates had been raised to 18%. The foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Iceland had felled by US$289 million during the month of October 2008. During November 2008, the real exchange rate (discounting inflation) of the Icelandic krà ³na, which was quoted by the Central Bank of Iceland, was approximately one-third lesser than the average rate from the period 1980-2008, and also 20% lower than the historical lows during the same period. The external rate which was quoted by the European Central Bank was still lower. On the last trading day of the month November, the Central Bank of Iceland had quoted 182.5 krà ³nur to the euro, while the European Central Bank had quoted 280 krà ³nur to the euro. INTERNATIONAL TRADE The economy of Iceland is small and subject to high volatility. Icelands standard of living is among the worlds highest, in part due to the overall openness of its economy, which has allowed Iceland to reap significant benefits from specialization and trade according to a report on the trade policies and practices of Iceland published by the WTO Secretariat. Iceland has a mixed economy with high levels of free trade and government intervention. Iceland has a free market economy with relatively low taxes compared with other OECD countries. However, government consumption is less than in other Nordic countries. Icelands trade policy is pursued along three main tracks: multilateral trade liberalisation through the WTO, regional liberalisation through the European Economic Area (EEA) with its EFTA/EEA partners and the European Union and finally, bilateral free trade agreements in cooperation with its EFTA partners Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Icelands international treaties hav e strengthened foreign trade. The EEA Agreement covers the free movement of goods, persons, capital and services. Membership in the EEA in 1994 and the Uruguay Round agreement brought greater market access for Icelands exports, capital, labor, and goods and services, especially seafood products. Agriculture is heavily subsidized and protected by the government, with some tariffs ranging as high as 700 percent. Iceland is a part of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The WTO was established on the 1st of January 1995. It is an organization designed to supervise and liberalize international trade. Since the early 1990s, Iceland and its other partners in the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland have established an extensive network of contractual free trade relations in Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean region and with countries in other parts of the world. The WTO deals with controlling of trade between participating countries; it provides a framework for negotiating trade agreements. The country has signed a large number of multilateral and bilateral agreements. Iceland is furthermore strongly committed to the Doha Development Agenda and a fair and equitable outcome that will benefit the entire membership. Iceland supports the Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund, which is intended to assist developing countries in taking advantage of the opportunities created by increased trade liberalization. Iceland exports 40% of fish and fish products, 40% of aluminum and alloys and animal products. The main imports are machinery and equipment, petroleum products, foodstuffs and textiles and Cement. Icelands primary import partner is Germany, with 12.6%, followed by the United States, Norway, and Denmark. Currently, the largest trading partner countries are Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries. The fishing industry is one of the most important industries. It provides 70% of export income and employs 6.0% of the workforce; therefore, the state of the economy remains sensitive to world prices for fish products.  [i]  The diversity of Icelands exports has, however, increased significantly in recent years, due to structural reforms and privatisation of state owned entities in finance and other sectors. Exports of manufactured products have been growing rapidly. Services now account for 36% of total export revenues while in 1990 the share was 26%. Icelands ratio of services to total trade is one of the highest among OECD countries. It is the Governments stated objective to provide Icelandic agriculture with a realistic opportunity to adapt to changes in its operating environment, to the benefit of farmers and consumers alike. The growth of international trade had been affected in the 1930s by the existence of tariffs and other barriers to international trade. To avoid such problems an agreement, the general Agreement of Trade and Tariffs, was concluded between 44 countries which included Iceland. Iceland joined GATT in 1968. GATT stated that an international agreement should be created which required a binding code of conduct for international trade; its main objective was the liberalization of world trade. Its principle was that there would be mutual benefits if international trade took place on the basis of non-discrimination and should be gradually reduced through negotiations. The liberalization for international trade gave Iceland confidence in their trade. During the period 2003-07, Iceland developed from a nation best known for its fishing industry into a country providing sophisticated financial services, but was consequently hit particularly hard by the 2008 global financial crisis, which extended into 2009.  [ii]   Self-protection and self-preservation have characterized Icelands foreign trade policy since its independence from Denmark. While Iceland is a highly developed country, until the 20th century, it was among the poorest countries in Western Europe. However, strong economic growth has led Iceland to be ranked first in the United Nations Human Development Index report for 2007/2008.  [iii]   TARIFF Iceland enjoys some of the strongest economic freedoms among all countries However; Iceland is very isolationist as regards to the import of farm products and licenses as well as state monopolies of imports (undergoing a dismantling). Some plant products such as potatoes and flowers are subject to seasonal limitations. Iceland implements high tariffs on agricultural products in order to protect the domestic agricultural sector. Tariffs on certain varieties of vegetables, e.g. tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers are significantly higher during the growing season to protect domestic greenhouse producers. Meat and dairy products, and potatoes are also protected by substantial duties. Animal feed can carry tariffs up to 55%. Over 90% of imports are not subject to import restrictions or duties other than the same value-added tax applied to domestically produced goods. Special excise taxes are levied on sugar and some sugar products, potatoes, and motor vehicles. Agricultural products remain the most heavily taxed. In March 1970, Iceland acquired full membership in EFTA. On 28 February 1973, Iceland ratified a trade agreement with the European Community (later named the European Union) leading to the elimination of tariffs on industrial goods. A law authorizing the establishment of free trade zones went into effect in 1992. Icelands trade regime underwent considerable liberalization in the 1990s with accession to the European Economic Area (EEA) in 1993, and the Uruguay Round in 1994. Current duty rates generally range from 0% to 30% ad valorem and the average weighted tariff is 3.6%. Some goods enter duty-free, such as meat, fish, and dairy products. Icelands average MFN applied tariff is 5.9%. A high percentage of tariff lines (70%) benefit from duty free treatment. The average MFN applied tariff rate  for agricultural products is 18.3% (WTO definition) compared with 2.5% for other goods.  [iv]   Iceland offers preferential tariffs on imports from 37 WTO Members under several free-trade agreements. Regional liberalization has advanced the most within the framework of the European Economic Area (EEA); nonetheless, the average tariff on products from EEA partners is still 3.2%, reflecting the exclusion of several agricultural products from duty-free treatment. A new Customs Law came into force on 1 January 2006 (Act No. 88/2005). According to the authorities, customs clearance for all importation aspects is computerized; electronic data interchange (EDI) covers 98% of the declarations of import and export firms. Customs clearance using EDI takes a matter of minutes, or a few hours if processed manually. CONCLUSION The occurrence of the financial and economic crisis left economists and policymakers wondering about its causes. A vast majority of economist and policymakers blamed the free-market reforms. At the beginning of 1990s, the government of Iceland implemented a set of free-market reforms under the leadership of David Oddsson. The companies own by the state were privatized. Financial markets were liberalized. The central bank was granted full independence in refining extensive inflation. Also, the corporate tax rate was cut from 52 percent in 1985 to 15 percent in 2008. When the financial crisis battered the stock market which led to the breakdown of the banking sector, many economists, analysts and policymakers immediately blamed free-market reforms as the foremost origin of the crisis. However, the empirical evidence and a macroeconomic analysis reverse this kind of thinking. The main origin of the financial and economic crisis that evolved in Iceland is a failure of monetary policy. In 2002, Iceland witnessed a mild recession that ended quickly. Ever since then, the central bank constantly failed to meet the inflation target. In response, it raised benchmark interest rate to double-digit levels. As a consequence of a stunning gap in interest rates, the Icelandic krona strongly appreciated. In such circumstances, high domestic interest rates discouraged the domestic banking sector from borrowing in domestic currency. With interest rates standing at double-digit levels, uncovered interest parity encouraged households, firms and banks to borrow in foreign currency. Iceland has been a part of the news lately because of the recent volcanic eruptions which took place on 15th April 2010 in the glacier Eyjafjallajokull in South Iceland. Day to day business in Iceland apart from the directly affected areas in the south has not been affected. The ash hurled into the atmosphere by the eruption has however caused serious disruption of air traffic due to which number of flights have been cancelled and also heavy losses has been incurred to the aviation sector, especially in UK.

Is The Criminal Justice System Racially Biased? Essays -- essays resea

Is the Criminal Justice System Racially Biased? Most criminologist use two sources of criminal justice data in the United States: the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Surveys (NCVS). The URC data is made from law enforcement agencies and include crime incidents reported to or obtained by the police. NCVS data is obtained from a very complex national survey of a sample of homes and provide information about crime incidents and victims for both reported and unreported crimes, excluding homicide. For my report I obtained research information from questionnaires and from several text books. I gave the questionnaire concerning bias in the criminal justice system to four whites, four blacks, one Asia, and one Mexican. Although this sample is not representative of racial attitudes in general, it can used to develop a better sense of differences among students. To discuss my findings fully I must define a few terms. The Criminal Justice System is the network of agencies that respond to crime, including the police, courts, jails, and prisons. Minority Group is a group of people who, because of physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out for differential and different and who regard them as objects of collective discrimination. Discrimination is the act of singling out for unfair treatment. Labeling is stereotyping, or putting a tag on someone, and treating them accordingly. Self-fulling Prophecy is an expectation about how things will be the situations that they predicted or expected. Finally, Differential Association is the idea that interacting with others learns criminal behavior. It is no secret whites and blacks in America experience life differently because of their race. Therefore, whites and blacks view the criminal justice system differently. My research found 70% of those studied agree the courts do not offer equal treatment. Although both agree that the system is biased, whites seem to have a more positive view about the whole system, while Blacks feel the system is corrupt and works' against them. 50% of my non-white sample and 20% of my white sample felt the courts discriminate. James Henslin, author of the text Social Problems, states "[Violent crime] recedes with income ... people with higher incomes live in better, more affluent and less viole... ...that continue to target poor minorities. My results did show that there was differences in the way black and white students in American society view the criminal justice system. Because race can be compared to SES non-whites have a more negative view of how often police discriminate. On the other hand whites are not ignorant to the negative police discrimination non-whites face; nevertheless they feel it happens much less than it actually does, or almost never. Similar, in the courts, more non- whites feel their is discrimination. My answer to this could be that non-whites are being convicted, going to jail and receiving the death penalty, while white are the ones suing, and are not getting convicted for crimes when they are arrested. While we all agree the criminal justice system is corrupt, my studies show, whites and blacks disagree with the extent to which it happens. This is an obvious result because blacks and whites are in two separate moral communities. Blacks have been negatively labeled, and stigmatized as lower class citizens who cause trouble. Inturn they have been the victim of legislation that keeps them in the dismal status they are in.