Free Essays on Bell Hook

In chapter one Feminist Politics (Where We Stand), Bell Hook explore feminism as a â€Å"movement to end sexism† sexual exploitation and oppression. She notes that in her definition of feminism men were not the enemy. It is not that â€Å"sexist thinking and action were the problems.† She suggested that sexism is misunderstood, that most people learn from â€Å"patriarchal Mass Media.† Understanding Feminism is tied to the issue of gender equality. I believe most people although not the majority, were raised to the fact that we share and we often relinquish control somewhat to the domination of the male in western countries. This goes back to our Christian roots and upbringing. Today, there is a major shift toward support of feminism, and the desire for equal rights, equal pay and justice. In Feminist Education for Critical Consciousness, Bell speaks of women learning in groups and how our lives are â€Å"rooted in theory† meaning how we think and act. (pg 19) I believe that either the male patriarchy or feminist thinking dominates much of what we read. The article exposed many bias and the need for a non-biased, open-minded approach to learning. In Our Bodies Ourselves (Reproductive Rights), Bell Hook explored the right of women to have access to healthcare at a time when it was a â€Å"class privilege† for whites and not for women of color. The shamefulness of unwanted pregnancy would force many women into marriage. This action changed their lives causing many to be stuck in unwanted long-term relationships. As the feminist movement grew so did sexual liberation for women. Women were eventually able to get access to basic education, prenatal care, and comprehensive preventive health care. These basis needs would help females to gain better understanding of how their bodies worked giving them more freedom of choice. Bell Hooks also explores birth control pills as paving the right of passage to sexual liberation.... Free Essays on Bell Hook Free Essays on Bell Hook In chapter one Feminist Politics (Where We Stand), Bell Hook explore feminism as a â€Å"movement to end sexism† sexual exploitation and oppression. She notes that in her definition of feminism men were not the enemy. It is not that â€Å"sexist thinking and action were the problems.† She suggested that sexism is misunderstood, that most people learn from â€Å"patriarchal Mass Media.† Understanding Feminism is tied to the issue of gender equality. I believe most people although not the majority, were raised to the fact that we share and we often relinquish control somewhat to the domination of the male in western countries. This goes back to our Christian roots and upbringing. Today, there is a major shift toward support of feminism, and the desire for equal rights, equal pay and justice. In Feminist Education for Critical Consciousness, Bell speaks of women learning in groups and how our lives are â€Å"rooted in theory† meaning how we think and act. (pg 19) I believe that either the male patriarchy or feminist thinking dominates much of what we read. The article exposed many bias and the need for a non-biased, open-minded approach to learning. In Our Bodies Ourselves (Reproductive Rights), Bell Hook explored the right of women to have access to healthcare at a time when it was a â€Å"class privilege† for whites and not for women of color. The shamefulness of unwanted pregnancy would force many women into marriage. This action changed their lives causing many to be stuck in unwanted long-term relationships. As the feminist movement grew so did sexual liberation for women. Women were eventually able to get access to basic education, prenatal care, and comprehensive preventive health care. These basis needs would help females to gain better understanding of how their bodies worked giving them more freedom of choice. Bell Hooks also explores birth control pills as paving the right of passage to sexual liberation....

Here Is the Reason Why Dry Ice Makes Fog

Here Is the Reason Why Dry Ice Makes Fog Why you put a piece of dry ice in water, youll see a cloud of what looks like smoke or fog billow away from the surface and down toward the floor. The cloud is not carbon dioxide, but actual water fog.   How Dry Ice Produces Water Fog Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide, a molecule that is found as a gas in the air. Carbon dioxide has to be cooled to at least  -109.3  °F to become a solid. When a chunk of dry ice is exposed to room temperature air it undergoes sublimation, which means it changes from a solid directly into a gas, without melting into a liquid first. Under ordinary conditions, this occurs at the rate of 5-10 pounds of dry ice converting into gaseous carbon dioxide per day. Initially, the gas is much colder than the surrounding air. The sudden drop in temperature causes water vapor in the air to condense into tiny droplets, forming fog. Only a small amount of fog is visible in the air around a piece of dry ice. However, if you drop dry ice in water, especially hot water, the effect is magnified. The carbon dioxide forms bubbles of cold gas in the water. When the bubbles escape at the surface of the water, the warmer moist air condenses into lots of fog. The fog sinks toward the floor both because it is colder than the air and because carbon dioxide is denser than air. After a time, the gas warms up, so the fog dissipates. When you make dry ice fog, the concentration of carbon dioxide is increased near the floor. Ready to try it yourself? Heres how to make dry ice fog, safely.

What Does the Interest that Auschwitz Should Never Happen Again Mean Essay

What Does the Interest that Auschwitz Should Never Happen Again Mean for Sociology - Essay Example Looking critically at the statement, â€Å"After Auschwitz (and in this respect Auschwitz is a prototype of something which has been repeated incessantly in the world since then) our interest is in ensuring that this should never happen again,† Adorno uses this phrase at the end of ‘Lecture II’ (1968) in â€Å"Introduction to Sociology† in order to avoid misunderstanding in students. The Critical Theory of Society is based in the philosophical position outlined by Adorno and the Frankfurt School, which is itself based on a reform of Marxism. The theory of the Frankfurt School and Adorno relates primarily to methodology in the practice of sociology. According to Jarvis (1998), the Frankfurt school asserts there is no real â€Å"thing† as society; rather it is an interpretation that is based on the subjectivity of one who approaches it as a discipline. Adorno opposes the totalizing aspects of theory when it claims to complete knowledge about the operat ion of social forces or historical evolution. He see this in Freud, Weber, Durkheim, and Marx, in their interpretive frameworks that discuss the operation of society from different perspectives, but share a totalitarianism of meaning which will limit interpretation to a range of values. Related to this is the preference for a phenomenological methodology that seeks to describe reality and social processes as they appear, rather than as they should be ideally. This represents a rejection of objectivism in knowledge by the Frankfurt School, but an acceptance of the categorical imperative of activism through morality. 2 Adorno views the totalitarian aspects of knowledge systems as operating on the model of the modern State, both symmetrical in identity and structure, implementing imperial control of consciousness and society, flattening all diversity of meaning. From this, Adorno seeks to avoid building a theory of sociology that repeats the State model of control as an aspect of indiv idual identity, for when this occurs, subjective interpretation, variance, objectivity, and fact all vanish into a monolithic machine that drives meaning to a single source, an illusory central point of vanishing into history. "If you asked me what sociology is, I would say that it must be insight into society, into the essential nature of society," Adorno says – it must be, but it is not. "Ladies and Gentleman, I would now ask you not to write down and take home what I have told you as a definition of sociology... it cannot be reduced to an 'axiom'."3 Adorno and the Frankfurt School are advocating a position of radical freedom from the State and the restrictions of theoretical interpretation through a radical re-thinking of fundamentals, universals, essences, and other aspects of bias that make claims to ultimate truth or reality in sociology. Knowledge systems inherently promote totalitarian universal values, the essential meaning of things that is fixed and unchanging, or knowledge of the inner-operation of society and the universe that inevitably falls short of the goal of accurately representing reality. As Adorno writes in â€Å"Negative Dialectics† (1970), â€Å"If one speaks in the newest aesthetic debates of anti-drama and anti-heroes, then Negative Dialectics, which holds itself distant from all aesthetic themes, could be called an anti-system.†4 If â€Å"Negative Dialectics† represents an anti-system, then Auschwitz on the other extreme represents the fully totalitarian aspects of a system in application. From the perspective of humanity, Auschwitz is a symbol of the most terrible aspects of modernism, the factory of anti-Semitism and death, the total mobilization of society to the ends of violent, fascist theory. Auschwitz motivates the moral awareness in humanity to resist, but Adorno recognizes that this requires freedom of thought and critical awareness as a basis for activism. The person

Analyzing advertisements the danger of smoking Essay

Analyzing advertisements the danger of smoking - Essay Example contribute unfavorable pregnancy outcome resulting to death and even poor health of the fetus (Ricci and Kyle, 744; Hanson, Venturelli and Fleckenstein, 307). The sad thing, both the mainstream and secondhand smoke from tobacco could have adverse impact on fetus (Hanson, Venturelli and Fleckenstein, 307). Considering that health warnings placed on tobacco package have continuously received acceptance from various countries, it seems there is observed substantial effectiveness on them, particularly on disseminating information about the health dangers associated with smoking. The goal in most of these ads is to continuously keep everyone knowledgeable about the peril of smoking, not just on the smokers’ health, but including non-smokers’ having no exemption for unborn babies. Ads like these must be degrading to tobacco products, but for as long as these offerings continue to contribute high amount of tax, the government can only regulate warnings such as â€Å"Government Warning: Cigarette Smoking is Dangerous to your Health,† which in some countries have been revolutionized by placing actual pictorials of health warnings on tobacco package, just as presented in this

Business of Data Warehousing Foundations Essay Example for Free

Business of Data Warehousing Foundations Essay Executive Summary mySupermarket is a grocery shopping and comparison website which aims to provide customers with the best price for their shopping. This report examines how data warehousing provided mySupermarket with the foundation in which to build a successful enterprise, and allowed a subsequent expansion into the ‘business intelligence’ sector. The research draws attention to the problems and limitations that mySupermarket encountered including; coping with diverse sources of data streams, customer loyalty issues, achieving real-time data, data integrity and generating a sustainable revenue stream. These problems were tackled respectively through; building their own data warehouse, adopting a CRM strategy underpinned by their warehouse, adopting Microsoft’s SQL software, supermarket website ‘crawling’, offering ‘targeted’ advertising space and the realisation that the granularity of detail they offered, would allow them to expand into the ‘business intelligence’ sector. The report appreciates the importance of storing data, but concludes that data itself is the prerequisite to success, and that good management is needed to convert this data into meaningful information. It is therefore a combination of data warehousing and good management that has enabled mySupermarket to become a successful venture. Introduction â€Å"On the 31st August 2006, entrepreneur Johnny Stern received a seven-figure sum from investors to transform the way consumers shop for their groceries. From this, the price comparison site mySupermarket.co.uk was born and the company has utilised data warehousing to give consumers access to cheaper grocery shopping. The venture has not been without its problems, however four years on the company has withstood Adam Smith’s ‘Invisible Hand’[1] and grown into a c. £10m company† mySupermarket is a grocery shopping and comparison site that allows customers to compare and shop from four main UK supermarkets in one central place. Their mission statement is â€Å"to get the best possible price for your supermarket trolley while enjoying an easier and more consumer-friendly shopping experience†. Through the use of SQL and data warehousing, mySupermarket is able to collect product pricing, promotion and availability data directly from retailers websites. It then uses its proprietary technology to match identical Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) across retailers. After initial investment from Greylock Partners and Pitango Venture Capital (investors in Facebook LinkedIn), mySupermarket have faced the same difficulties as other price comparison sites in generating a sustainable revenue stream after Stern declared that â€Å"the portal would remain free in principle for shoppers†. The customer proposition for mySupermarket is to first log into their account. Then choose which supermarket to shop at from; Asda, Ocado/Waitrose, Sainsbury or Tesco. Tick their preferred supermarket and choose a delivery time/date, then start to shop. mySupermarket is updated on a daily basis so that the prices shown are the most competitive. Once the customer has made their choice of store, they start to shop by using the tabbed choices along the top of the page. These are divided up into virtual aisles so making a choice from Fruit and Veg, Meat, Fish Poultry, or Drinks etc. Once shopping has been completed, it then shows basket prices across the four supermarkets and allows the customer an opportunity to switch supermarkets. This report will critically discuss how data warehousing has enabled mySupermarket to build a successful business model including the benefits and problems that have arisen from the use of this technology. The report will finally analyse the extent to which data warehousing has contributed to mySupermarket’s success. Technologies Discussed According to Bill Inmon[2] (1993) data warehousing can be defined as, â€Å"a  subject-orientated, integrated, time variant and non-volatile, collection of data in support of the management decision making process†. It is, in essence, a large data storage facility which enables an enterprise to gain a competitive advantage through analytics and business intelligence. Providing integrated access to multiple, distributed, heterogeneous databases and other information sources has become one of the leading issues in database research and industry, IEEE Computer (1991) which can be seen through the success of First American Corporation (FAC), Cooper et al (2000) and Tesco/Dunnhumby, J. Perry (2009). Data mining is the process of ‘digging-out’ patterns from data, usually through Clustering, Classification, Regression and Association rule learning. Data mining technology can generate new business opportunities by providing: †¢ Automated prediction of trends and behaviours. †¢ Automated discovery of previously unknown or hidden patterns D. Champion and C. Coombs (2010) This process is carried out by sophisticated software packages such as Oracle, IBM and SQL. This alleviates the (potentially) very time consuming task of manually inputting and analysing the data Within data warehousing, there is a high importance placed on the quality of data, as without it, meaningful analysis is impossible. Data collection should therefore be taken with a high level of detail, and have solid definitions, as to avoid subjectivity. The purpose of a data warehouse is to support creative strategic decision making through a greater granularity of information with a consistent view of what’s happening. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) emerged in the 1990’s at a time when customers were becoming better informed and less brand loyal. CRM is an integration of technologies and business processes used to satisfy the needs of a customer during any interaction, Bose (2002, p. 89) and is underpinned by data warehousing. As with VISION in the FAC case (2000), the subsequent  benefits of CRM, is that firms are able to exploit the ‘80:20 principle’ which states that some customers are more important/profitable than others. These information sources can only come through data warehousing and data mining. mySupermarket – The Beginning The inspiration for mySupermarket came from Stern’s bargain-obsessed elderly relative; who would scour the aisles of Tesco’s to find his favourite tin of baked beans, jot down the price and travel to competitor stores to try and find a better deal. Stern identified the growing interest in online grocery shopping and felt that it was an area that could be exploited (Fig. 1). Figure 1: Mintel Intelligence – Online Grocery Data Stern spent 18 months before the launch developing the software and tweaking the concept (Fig. 2). Figure 2: Adaption of Martin et al., 2005: 193 The data warehouse was developed through ‘crawling’[3] the four supermarket websites and adding product pricing, promotion and availability data to the warehouse. Once this data was implemented in the warehouse, proprietary technology and SQL software allowed mySupermarket to match identical SKU’s across retailers. This data was also used in developing its CRM strategy through the use of ‘cookies’[4] to store data in the customers computer using the functionality of their browser to find out whether the computer has visited the site before and what SKUs they purchased. â€Å"This enables us to operate an efficient service and to track the patterns of behaviour of visitors to the website.† mysupermarket.co.uk. The feature enables mySupermarket to utilize this information by creating functions such as a ‘Regular Shop’ button, saving customers’ time on their shopping. mySupermarket – Problems Many problems can arise through the use of data warehousing, both technically and commercially. According to Mintel Intelligence (2009), â€Å"Consumer loyalty is fairly low in the [price comparison] market with more than 14 million people (c.58% of market) having used three or more different price comparison sites†. Underlying these efforts was the recognition that, to succeed with this strategy, it must know its customers exceptionally well and leverage that knowledge in website design, service and interaction with their clients. mySupermarket would therefore have to find a strategy to retain a ‘loyal customer base’ in a notoriously disloyal sector. Kimball Ross (2002) state that a common pitfall of data warehousing is to â€Å"presume that the business, its requirements, analytics, underlying data and supporting technology are static† – an early problem mySupermarket encountered was the variation in regional pricing and a growing demand for ‘real-time’ data. Another problem with data warehousing is ensuring the integrity of data, this is typically a human procedure and so subject to human error. Even the most sophisticated data mining systems cannot produce good analysis from poor data. A good illustration of this is from Blastard and Dilnot ‘The Tiger That Isn’t’ where a hospital survey found that an alarming amount of patients were being born on the 11th November 1911. Further investigation showed that nurses often would not fill in patient files properly and to save time, when asked to enter patient D.O.B. they would type 11/11/11 into the database. No matter how intelligent a computer system is, if you put ‘garbage-in’ you will get ‘garbage-out’. Beynon-Davies (2004) states that data warehousing projects are large scale development projects typically taking up to three years to complete. Some of the challenges of such problems may include; selecting, installing and integrating the different hardware and software and also, the diverse sources of data feeding a data warehouse introduces problems of design in terms of creating a homogenous data store. Finally, as with all comparison sites, the major obstacle facing  mySupermarket was generating a sustainable revenue stream from the database they had accumulated. mySupermarket.co.uk did not generate any revenue 5 months after the website went live. Originally, mySupermarket didn’t operate a ‘search advertisement’ scheme (a central platform for companies such as Google eg, BP paying for advertising of their oil spill cleanup when people typed in â€Å"BP Oil Spill† G. Cheeseman, 2010) . There are also no revenue-sharing agreements in place with the four stores whose prices it monitors in effort to remain independent. This, in part, may stem from mySupermarket’s limited market, consisting of ‘a comparison of groceries’. mySupermarket recognised that they would have to expand their focus if they were to generate a large enough turnover to operate a successful business. mySupermarket – Technological Impact The first problem mySupermarket addressed was the industries poor ‘customer loyalty’. They decided to attack this through the implementation of a CRM strategy. After the initial launch, mySupermarket was receiving feedback from customers regarding such things as; healthy options, promotions on offer, printable shopping lists and regular shops. mySupermarket realised that the information stored in their data warehouse could be exploited to meet these demands and increase customer utility. Subsequently, a Health Checker feature was launched based on the Food Standard Authority’s approved traffic light system. In November 2008, the mySupermarket ‘Quick Shop’ function was added, allowing users to type their shopping list on a virtual notepad and find their required items in one go. As delivery slots started running out towards Christmas we also introduced a new print your shopping list feature, which was popular, said Stern. A lot of our shoppers are using the website as a quick way to find the best deals and are then going to the supermarket to make their purchases†. Recent analysis of visits shows mysupermarket.co.uk has a loyal repeat following, with Stern claiming visitors are spending an average of 20 minutes on the site. â€Å"Until recently, there were few viable tools to provide real-time data warehousing nor an absolutely current picture of an organization’s business and customer† J. Vandermay (2001). To combat the problem of achieving  real-time and regional data, mySupermarket used Microsoft’s SQL software[5]. Most data integration solutions focus on moving data only between homogeneous systems and database software. However, SQL integration is capable of moving data among a wide range of databases and systems. It also offers transformational data integration tools to consolidate and synchronize heterogeneous data into a warehouse. This allows consumers to view whether a certain item is in stock in their local store, or view delivery slots for their specific region. This real-time data saves the mySupermarket team having to continually update the warehouse manually. Fortunately for mySupermarket, their website ‘crawling’ technique allows them to take the SKU data directly from the supermarkets themselves. Therefore data will only be wrong, if the supermarket has made the mistake (so would have to sell the item at that price) and so mySupermarket would not be liable. Although Stern took half the time recommended by Beynon-Davies, the warehouse has had to be continuously tweaked since its launch. After its launch mySupermarket noticed a data stream that wasn’t being filtered into the data warehouse – calories. After the realisation, mySupermarket were able to add a ‘calorie counter’ function on to the website. For any business to survive, it needs to generate a revenue stream to achieve a sustainable cash flow:mySupermarket were able to negotiate with supermarkets a commission of  £5 for every ‘first-time buyer’ that shops through their site and  £1 every time thereafter. Other sources of revenue came from the use of advertising, which could be split into two different segments on-site and search-related advertising. Marks Spencer (Fig. 3) are one company that has chosen to advertise with mySupermarket.co.uk as the content is relevant and it is independent from the four supermarkets being compared. Advertisers will typically pay $1.00 $1.50 per 1,000 run-of-site impressions for the advertising placement. However, advertisers may pay even more for targeted sidebar advertisements. Search advertisements are targeted to match key search terms entered on the search engine, these products (advertisements) will then appear first in the search. Danone (Fig. 3) has  paid for ad vertisement when the search term ‘yoghurt’ is entered, and so their umbrella brands (eg, Activia) show at the top of the list, increasing its probability of being bought. Figure 3: mySupermarket.co.uk advertising example Due to the amount of data mining available to mySupermarket, an opportunity was identified for expansion, called ‘mySupermarket insights’. It acts as real-time B2B data service for the ‘Fast Moving Consumer Goods’ (FMCG) sector. As mySupermarket has access to SKU by SKU trends, it is able to offer extremely high level, intelligent data. The services it offers include; New Product Development (NPD) alert reports, Online auditing reports, Price comparison reports, Product substitution report and Customer profiling reports (allowing for further use of CRM through ‘cluster analysis’[6]). This sort of information is of high value to companies and a subscription to the service can range from  £5,000  £20,000p.a. (current clients include Kellogg’s, Innocent Smoothies, Nielson and Ella’s Kitchen). Finally, mySupermarket is often contracted by media companies, such as ‘the Independent’ to analyse trends for news stories – J. Burchill (2010). I feel that information is now widely recognised as being one of the key corporate resources, needing to be carefully managed so that it can be effectively utilised in the decision-making process. Timely, accurate and relevant information can only be generated, however, if corporate data is stored in a secure, accessible and flexible manner. The following table provides a summary of the impact that data warehousing technology had for mySupermarket: Figure 6: Technological Impact Summary mySupermarket – Conclusion To conclude, data warehousing has enabled mySupermarket to overcome issues  such as customer retention, real-time data and generating revenue. It really does appear that â€Å"information is key†, whereby data is the prerequisite for information. J. Poole et al. (2003) state ‘ the underlying economic justification is ultimately based on the value a given technology provides to the customers of the computing systems and software products’ and so the determinate of mySupermarket’s success is essentially based on ‘whether people use the technology’ and ‘the value of the company’. Based on an monthly unique user level of 1 million, and 500k registered users turning over c. £10m, we can assume that at this point in time mySupermarket is justified economically. On the other hand, you could argue that mySupermarket is a ‘recession business’ and not a sustainable enterprise. In which case, the rapid growth in recent years could be due to the economic climate and not because there is a long term demand. Looking towards the future, Our investors have international ambitions, Stern said. They see the potential of transporting the model to different markets.† mySupermarket are looking to expand the companys development team to support its entry into Europe and the US. mySupermarket are currently looking for another round of funding to bridge G. Murray’s (1994) second equity gap. Technology firms often require ‘follow on development funding’, as cash is heavily plowed into ‘Prototype testing’ and ‘Research Development’. In terms of an exit, mySupermarket would be very attractive to major FMCG companies such as PG, Unilever and Kraft’s venture arms. I believe that mySupermarket will achieve their second round funding as they are now profitable and have a proven concept that has high growth prospects for the future. Over the past few years there has been a huge growth in the use of ‘numbers’ and ‘analytics’. Businesses are recognising that it is not enough to work harder than the competition; they also have to work smarter. Davenport (2006) argues that it is â€Å"virtually impossible to differentiate yourself from competitors based on products alone† and so to pull ahead of the pack, businesses need to compete on analytics. In which case, ‘mySupermarket insights’ is poised in a perfect position to capitalize on this new thirst for ‘business intelligence’, whereby companies feel that  they will have to subscribe to the service to compete on an even playing field. However, it is not enough to just store data, it has to be managed, analyzed, implemented and utilised to convert raw data into real information. mySupermarket realised the benefits of data warehousing and were able to exploit this, expanding from a mere ‘price-comparison site’ to a ‘business intelligence provider’ to major FMCG companies. I believe that with the current shift towards analytics and business intelligence, mySupermarket has the potential to be a major force in the FMCG sector whilst offering a greater transparency for customers, all of which stems from good management and data warehousing. References: Beyon-Davies, P (2004) – Database Systems, 3rd edition, Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 527-538 and 547-553 Bose, R (2002) – Customer Relationship Management: Key concepts for IT success, Vol. 102, No. 2, pp. 89-97 Blastland, M Dilnot, A (2007) – The Tiger That Isn’t: Seeing a World Through Numbers Burchill, J (Aug 2010) – The Independent: So the Prince of Green Hypocrites is going on tour. Thank God Ill be abroad Cooper et al. (2000) – Data Warehousing Supports Corporate Strategy at First American Corporation Vol. 24, No. 4 Champion, D Coombs, C (2010) – Handout: BSC070 Enterprise Information Systems Cheeseman, G (June 2010) – Triple Pundit: Is It Ethical For BP To Buy Oil-Spill-Related Google Search Terms? Davenport, T. H (2006) – Competing on Analytics IEEE Computer (Dec 1991) – Special Issue on Heterogeneous Distributed Database Systems, 24(12) Inmon, W.H. and Kelley, C (1993) – Developing the Data Warehouse. QED Publishing Group, Boston, Massachussetts Kimball, R Ross, M (2002) – The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Dimensional Modeling, 2nd edition Martin et al., (2005): 193 – Managing Information Technology 5th Edition, Pearson Education Inc, pp. 192-195 Mintel Intelligence (Oct 2009) Web Aggregators, UK Murray, G (1994) The Second Equity Gap: Exit Problems for Seed and Early Stage Venture Capitalists Perry, J (Nov 2009) – Dunnhumby: A lifetime of loyalty? RetailWeek Poole, J et al. (2003) – Common Warehouse Metamodel: Introduction to the standard for data warehouse integration Smith, A (1959) – ‘The Theory of Moral Sentiments’ Vandermay, J (2001) – Considerations for Building a Real-time Data Warehousea

Comparing the Concepts of Authority and Individualism in Literature :: Shawshank Redemption Fahrenheit 451 Essays

Comparing the Concepts of Authority and Individualism in Literature Authority is defined as a person or group of people who control the society and make major decisions affecting the society. Individual is a person who has no particular influence on the society and neither do his decisions. The term Authority may be applied to any type of people who hold some sort of influence or power on the society such as The Police; Courts from local courts to supreme courts and of course the ruling party of the government. The individual may be a single civilian. This essay will compare and contrast the way the following text types present the concept of Authority and the individual: Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury; Billy Budd, by Hermann Melville; Shawshank Redemption, by Hollywood Studios; And the poem Naming of parts by Henry Reed. It will discuss how symbolism, language of features, themes, and text form contributes to the way they present the idea of Authority and Individual. It will also discuss the state of Authority in that particular text type (for example is the Authority right or wrong in it’s believes and practices), Fahrenheit 451 is a book written by Ray Bradbury, set in a futuristic society, about a fireman named Guy Montag whose job is to go and burn the books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. The two main themes in this novel are Social change and the banning of books to stop inequality and Individualism. One of the changes the Authority is responsible in this novel is Social change. Their main purpose is to not let the individual think alone. The Authority does this by giving individuals no time to think, as captain Beatty puts it: ‘Give them zippers instead of buttons’ (pg 63) Clarisee also says in School, children are given fun activities, are blasted with useless facts and information, and given no time to ask questions. In the world of Fahrenheit 451 the books are banned. Figures of Authority believe that books create inequality by creating an educated class: ‘We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢(pg 65) Books present readers with conflicting views, thus causing confusion: ‘We stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought’ (pg 69)

Christopher Columbus Day Essay

I believe that Christopher Columbus is a villain. I think the anniversary of Columbus be not a time for celebration but for reflection and repentance because he took a whole bunch of Indians captive, hoping they would take him to gold and other treasures. Some other reasons why Columbus Day shouldn’t be celebrated is he kept on collecting gold and Indians to other places he went. Christopher Columbus also opened up the continent to slavery, he was one of the first European slave traders in the world. He had the Indians go to all sorts of places to serve people there. The Spanish came up with an idea with the help of Columbus to make Indians get gold and if they didn’t then they would get their heads chopped off. Ancestors of the European conquest must acknowledge a continuing history of oppression, degradation and genocide because Columbus killed an entire people. Because of what Columbus started the Spanish started to move to African slaves because the Indians were dying too quick. Its not a good idea to celebrate Columbus Day, unless you want to celebrate how he tortured, killed and raped so many Indians and Africans just to get treasure. When other countries realized that there was a new continent they started there own search for gold and other riches. This led to the major countries in Europe colonizing undeveloped countries and establishing colonies. Aboriginals peoples around the world were exploited and used as cheap labour. This is a practice that still continues today. Politically the richer countries set up governments in the poorer countries and began to make the laws and govern these new colonies. Economically money from the poorer countries was sent back to the European countries. Environmentally the search for natural resources like gold and oil, destroyed and damaged the environment. The richer countries didn’t care very much about this. In recent years we have began to take better care of our planet but a lot of damage has already been done.

In Mrs Tilschers Class Essay

In Mrs Tilschers Class The poem â€Å"In Mrs Tilschers Class† by carol Ann Duffy deals with childhood throughout. The theme of the poem is that childhood is a time of fun and learning but also change as we reach adolescence. The poem is about the poets memories of primary as she takes the reader on a journey through being in a classroom to eventually being ready tot go to high school. The readers understanding of childhood is deepened by the use of techniques such as the word choice, imagery and structure.At the end of the first stanza, Duffy demonstrates the fun and joy of being a child. This is depicted in the lines â€Å"A window opened with a long pole. The laugh of a school bell swung by a running child. † Duffy uses the word â€Å"laugh† to suggest a human action which is full of joy and shows the fun of being a child. The words â€Å"running child† shows the freedom of being a child and how it is a time of happiness as children have no worries. Duff y uses quite short sentences to emphasis the happiness of a child.The readers understanding of the poem is deepened further as they realise that childhood is a time where you are care free and have a magical time having fun and learning at the same time. In the second stanza, Duffy demonstrates the attitude of a child and how they are easy to excite and please. This is shown in the lines: â€Å"Mrs Tilscher loved you. Some mornings, You found she’d left a gold star by your name. † The word â€Å"loved† shows the child’s attitude and how they enjoy the feeling of knowing that they are liked and loved by their teacher.When Duffy uses the words â€Å"gold star† it instantly draws the reader in closer as it is something they can relate to as it brings back memories of being a child and feeling proud whenever you got rewarded. The memories and feelings off primary school are emphasised to show how good it felt as a child. The third stanza starts to show the changes as you get older, as you start to realise that things aren’t as simple as they used to be. The lines that show this are: â€Å"A rough boy told you how you were born. You kicked him, but stared at your parents, appalled, when you got back home. Duffy uses â€Å"A rough boy† to show how she thinks boys are disgusting and isn’t interested in them yet. The last sentence shows that now that she knows this, she has lost all her innocence. The reader becomes aware of the changes we go through from being a innocent child and thinking that everything is sugar ‘N’ spice and everything nice, to learning things about ourselves and the world that seems so wrong and out of place from what we are used to. The final stanza shows the changes in ourselves as we reach adolescence and how we cant wait to grow up.This is depicted in the lines: â€Å"You ran through the gates, impatient To be grown, as the sky split open into A thunderstorm. Duffy illustr ates the impatience and desire to grow up into a teenager. The word â€Å" thunderstorm† is used as a metaphor to show adolescence as it wont be a smooth ride, it will be full of bumps along the way. The readers understanding of growing up is deepened in this final stanza as it shows how we all want to grow up and how it is an amazing time for us. Megan Mackie

Changing to War essays

Changing to War essays Three of the major causes of the Civil War deal mainly with the idea that the Souths Break Up was a direct result from the lack of consideration that the North had. Each cause was created by a sort of tension between the two. Each had their opposite ideas of how the U.S. should be ran, along with the way of living. Mainly tensions were brought up and about from slavery decisions such as the Dred Scott Decision, the presidency of the time, since it needed to be an asset to the time for both the North and South, and the Territory of which the peoples needed to be decided on whether they were to be pro or anti slavery, mainly dealing with the Kansas Nebraska Act. Each created tensions that grew as time went along, which also began to raise emotions. In 1854 Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a U.S. law authorizing the creation of Kansas and Nebraska, west of the states of Missouri and Iowa and divided by the 40th parallel. It repealed a provision of the Missouri Compromise that had prohibited slavery in the territories north of 36Â ° 30', and stated that the people of the territories should decide for themselves the validity of slaveholding. This was known as popular sovereignty. Those did not gain anything from this law and other opponents of slavery responded by forming the Republican Party. Popular sovereignty soon degenerated into a civil war in Kansas, known as the Border War, or Bleeding Kansas, as Southerners and Northerners battled over the status of slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was sponsored by the Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. By opening up what had been Native American country to white settlement, Douglas and other northern leaders hoped to facilitate construction of a transcontinental railroad through their states rather than through the southern part of the country. The removal of the restriction on the expansion of slavery ensured s ...

Some Perennial Grammar Questions

Some Perennial Grammar Questions Some Perennial Grammar Questions Some Perennial Grammar Questions By Maeve Maddox The DWT team appreciate the great feedback to Daniels question What topics do you want to see covered in the blog? and are busily responding. Questions of grammar and usage are never out of date. Doubtless well be writing new posts on topics that have been dealt with in the past. Preposition usage, for example, could fill a book. Here are some of the recent suggestions, together with links to archived posts that may have already addressed them. Verbs used intransitively and transitively†¦ English grammar 101 introduction to the English verb †¦if you could address who/whom it would be great Beware of whom the difference between principle and principal Principle or principal the difference between assume and presume. Is there a difference between assume and presume? I’d like to know when (or if) it became acceptable to refer to an individual in the military as a troop, i.e. â€Å"Three troops were injured today.† Soldiers or Troops? Plural possessives? The possessive apostrophe When to form a plural with an apostrophe give a list of ALL the parts of speech†¦ English grammar 101 parts of speech use of the subjunctive subjunctive if I was The subjunctive mood I wish I were Do you have an archive so I could catch up on topics already covered? Archives Please do a blog on the difference between lie (recline) and lay and their conjugations. Lay/lie moribund but not dead yet Mixing up lay and lie the difference and usage of ‘passed’ and ‘past’ Passed vs past Confusing passed with past Taking another pass-at â€Å"passed† I recall an experience from my days of classroom teaching. Id just given a lesson on the use of the apostrophe to form the possessive. The students had been attentive and I was certain that my explanations and illustrations had been especially inspired. Still glowing as I passed a senior teacher, I shared my feeling that Id settled the apostrophe problem for that group of students once and for all. I can still see the kind, but pitying expression that flitted across her face. Common errors are common for a reason. At some level, the error makes sense to us. Once an error is habitual, effort and repetition are required to rid ourselves of the habit. And the first explanation is not necessarily the one that will prove effective in clarifying the matter. Keep those suggestions coming. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:70 Idioms with HeartComma Before ButHow often is "bimonthly"?

Camparative Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Camparative Politics - Essay Example This paper examines and compares the political, economic and security system in United States with Japan and Canada. The United States is the leading military and economic power in the world, and it has an overwhelming and unrivaled global influence in the globe. Economically, United States gross domestic product is about a quarter of the total countries in the world. In addition, the country’s military expenditure is almost equivalent to the total defense budgets in the rest of the world. Besides the overwhelming economic and security influence of the United States to the rest of the world, the country plays a major role in influencing entertainment and sports industries in the globe (Dan and Robert pp56-59). Lincoln (41) traces the political and economic system in the United States to the American Revolution that separated the country from the British colonial power. United States drafted the country’s constitution in 1787, which Upham (15) attributes to the firm economic and political foundation. According to Upham (27), the constitution is the shortest in the world and it has undergone just twenty-seven amendments since it was drafted. The constitution established federal government that decentralized power in the country since its enforcement. The United States government structure comprises of three branches that exercise high level of autonomy from each other. Equally important, the constitution established a system of checks and balances, which ensures that none of the three established branches rules over the others. This system has nurtured a democratic and open society that ensures that the American citizens enjoy their constitutional rights in the country (Newman 18) The three branches of the American government include the executive, judiciary and the legislative branch. The president of the United States holds the executive