Comparative Correlative - Definition and Examples

Comparative Correlative s In grammar, a comparative correlative is a minor sentence pattern containing two corresponding phrases or clauses, each one headed by the and expressing a comparative: the X-er . . . the X-er or the X-er . . . the Y-er. The comparative correlative is also known as the correlative construction, the conditional comparative, or the the . . . the construction. Grammatically, the comparative correlative is a type of paired construction; rhetorically, the comparative correlative is often (but not always) a type of parison. Common Comparative Correlative Expressions The greater the risk, the greater the return.The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.(American football coach Vince Lombardi)The deeper our sorrows, the louder well singLife is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.(Maya Angelou, Wouldnt Take Nothing for My Journey Now. Random House, 1993)The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.(William Hazlitt, The Spirit of the Age, 1825)The older the men are here, the more likely it is that they are wearing suits and ties.(John McPhee, Giving Good Weight. Giving Good Weight. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979)The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.(Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa in Star Wars, 1977)The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.(Seneca)The greater your achievements, the less satisfactory your personal and domestic life will be.(Saul Bellow, More Die of Heartbreak. William Morrow, 1987) The more you pay attention to the richness of the world, the more you allow your interest to be absorbed by things outside of you, the more interesting a person you will become. And the more you pay attention to the world outside you, the more it gives back: by a kind of miracle, it will become a more interesting place.(Barbara Baig, How to Be a Writer: Building Your Creative Skills Through Practice and Play. Writers Digest Books, 2010) 'The More the Merrier' This construction - schematically [the X-er the Y-er] - is commonly referred to as the correlative construction (Culicover 1999: 83-5); Culicover and Jackendoff 1999; Fillmore, Kay, and OConnor 1988). It conveys that any increase (or decrease) in the value of X is associated with, and may even be construed as the cause of, an increase (or decrease) in the value of Y. A notable feature of the construction is the fact that the word the which features in it is not a determiner and is therefore not to be identified with the definite article the. Some instantiations of the construction: (16a) The more I know the more I worry.(16b) The less they have to say the more they talk.(16c) The bigger they are the harder they fall.(16d) The earlier you start the more you chance you have of being successful.(16e) The bigger the risk the bigger the payout.(16f) The less said the better. It is also worth noting that although the correlative construction is highly unusual, given the general principles of English syntax, it is not totally isolated from the rest of the language. There are, in fact, quite a few bipartite expressions in which the first element is presented as the cause, precondition, or explanation for the second. Like the correlative construction, these expressions lack a finite verb. Here are some examples: (17a) Garbage in, garbage out.(17b) Out of the frying pan (and) into the fire.(17c) Easy come, easy go.(17d) Cold hands, warm heart.(17e) Once bitten, twice shy.(17f) Out of sight, out of mind.(17g) Once a whinger, always a whinger.*(17h) One for me (and) one for you.(17i) First come, first served.(17j) Nothing ventured, nothing gained. * This expression instantiates the construction [ONCE A N, ALWAYS A N]. Examples from the BNC [British National Corpus] include once a Catholic, always a Catholic; once a Russian, always a Russian; once a misfit, always a misfit; once a dealer, always a dealer. The construction conveys that a person is not able to change their personality or their entrenched behaviour.(John R. Taylor, The Mental Corpus: How Language is Represented in the Mind. Oxford University Press, 2012) The . . . the (129) The more John eats the less he wants.This construction . . . is composed of two phrases, each of which expresses a comparative. Both may be of the form the more XP... , in which case the first is interpreted as a subordinate clause and the second as a main clause. Or, the first clause can simply contain a comparative, e.g. John wants less, in which case the first clause is interpreted as the main clause and the second is interpreted as a subordinate clause.Of particular relevance to the present discussion is the fact that the internal structure of the more . . . is sui generis, in the sense that the learner must simply acquire the knowledge that an expression of this form can be used in the way that we have described. As shown by Culicover and Jackendoff (1998), the more functions as an operator that binds a variable, and the chain that is formed is subject to the usual locality constraints. The form the more . . . must be initial in the clause, and cannot pied pipe a preposit ion...(Peter W. Culicover, Syntactic Nuts: Hard Cases, Syntactic Theory, and Language Acquisition. Oxford University Press, 1999) The Little Word 'the' (6) The more a student studies, the better grades she will receive.In English, both the first phrase and the second phrase obligatorily begin with the little word the. The unacceptability of (7a) is due to the absence of the in the first clause, in (7b) in the second clause, in (7c), the absence of the in both clauses unsurprisingly also results in unacceptability. (7a) * More a student studies, the better grades she will receive.(7b) * The more a student studies, better grades she will receive.(7c) * More a student studies, better grades she will receive. (Ronald P. Leow, Little Words: Their History, Phonology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics, and Acquisition. Georgetown University Press, 2009)

Denouement 101 Definition and Must-Know Tips (With Examples!)

Denouement 101 Definition and Musts!) What is a Denouement? The denouement in the plot of a fictional work refers to the final moments of the story - the closing scenes and sigh of relief after the climax. It's the last stage in the narrative arc of Freytag's Pyramid, following the exposition, rising action, climax, and falling action.Of course, all books end - but a denouement purposefully provides some degree of resolution and fulfills the author's promises to the reader. If you're using the three-act structure to write a climax and then immediately jump 50 years into the future to detail an entirely new plot, only to end on a sudden cliffhanger - well, a denouement that is not. (More on cliffhangers later). What is a denouement? And how do you write one? Find the answers here! With this in mind, we can see the denouement in action when the Capulets and Montagues find Romeo and Juliet’s dead bodies, realize how their actions contributed to the tragedy at hand, and decide to try and make peace. Or Nick Carraway trying and failing to plan Gatsby’s funeral, and then reflecting on his summer in West Egg with one of literature’s most quoted closing lines: â€Å"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.†Alright, now that we all know how to define denouement, let’s start writing one.How to write a denouementBecause all stories have to end at some point, a denouement is universal to every story structure. Individual readers will, naturally, have their own definition of a "satisfying ending" but it usually combines the feeling that you reached a natural conclusion and the wistful hope that you could also know what comes next.Here are a few things to keep in mind while writing your denouement so that it achieves both those feelings. The Hero's Journey: an Author's Guide to Plotting Read post PRO-TIP:  If you're curious about how the denouement figures into narrative structures outside of the three-act structure, we recommend that you read about the Hero's Journey or Dan Harmon's Story Circle.Fire all your fictional â€Å"guns†Most of us have heard of Chekhov’s Gun - the rule that if you let readers know that something is significant, you eventually have to explain why. An unfired gun is therefore an unfulfilled promise. class=tm-tweet-clear> class=tm-click-to-tweet> class=tm-ctt-text>4 tips for writing your novel's 'beginning of the end' - the denouement. class=tm-ctt-tip>This doesn’t mean that you now have to go back through your novel, make a note of every promise you made readers, and then dump the explanations into the denouement. The closing of a story is a place to follow through on the important promises you made to readers - the ones that will add to their understanding of the story. If you have lots of other tiny guns that you haven’t yet fired by the denouement, it probably means you should remove them.That said, you don't necessarily want to over-explain everything. Which brings us to our next point†¦Tie off loose ends - for the most partSome genres come with the expectation of a particular kind of story-ending. Romance novels, for example, typically conclude with a â€Å"Happily Ever After,† where all remaining questions are addressed and we have a complete picture of the characters and their lives moving forward. What is the Narrative Arc? A Guide to Storytelling Through Story Structure Read post Mystery novels also tend to tie up most loose ends - or all the ones that pertain to the mystery at hand, at least. The narrative arc usually reaches its climactic peak when the clues scattered throughout the story suddenly click together in the detective’s mind and they identify the guilty party. After, during the denouement, the rest of the major characters are often gathered round so that the detective can explain to them (and readers) how they cracked the case, and tie up loose ends. A denouement should tie off loose ends but still leave some things in the air. Find out how. While some stories that end by wrapping all their threads into a bow can be satisfying, it can also sometimes feel a little contrived and jolt readers out of the narrative. If you’re not writing a book that specifically needs to resolve all of its uncertainties, you might be better off writing a denouement that achieves the above point of fulfilling promises, but that also leaves a few lingering questions in the characters’ minds - that feeling that there’s still more that could be said. How to End a Story: Tips from Top Editors Read post To see how some famous authors ended their stories, go here.Leave something up in the airIn the novel The Fault in Our Stars, protagonist Hazel Grace talks about her favorite book, a fictional work called An Imperial Affliction. It is revealed that the book ends in the middle of a sentence, and the fates of the characters are left completely up in the air.The abrupt ending gives Hazel pause, and she concludes that the unorthodox conclusion is meant to reflect the uncertainty of death. Hazel reading An Imperial Affliction - and probably frustrated by it's open end (image: 20th Century Fox)Now, this is an extreme way to go about leaving lingering questions in your readers’ minds - one that is sure to frustrate many of them.However, if you want readers to reflect on your story after the final words, you should end your novel in such a way that implies the characters’ lives will continue. You can do this by nudging at potential future events or by demonstrating that while major arcs have been resolved, there are minor conflicts that have yet to be worked out. These are the kinds of endings that leave readers with a sense of longing to know what’s yet to come.Underscore the themeMany fables, such as Aesop’s The Tortoise and The Hair, end by stating the moral: â€Å"The race is not always to the swift.† What is the Theme of Your Story? A Guide for Authors Read post Unless you’re writing an anthology of parables, you probably don’t want to spoon-feed your readers this way. However, the denouement can be a great place to give a final, subtle, nod to your novel’s theme or motifs. Just make sure you’re not being repetitive or heavy-handed. Instead, offer insight that gives readers a final thought to chew on. Not all books need to overtly state their theme at the end.These are the main functions of a denouement, and if you can incorporate these elements into your story’s end, readers are sure to close your book with a satisfied sigh. Next up are a few bonus tips to keep in mind and pitfalls to avoid.Additional tipsDO†¦ show the effects of the character’s inner journeyMost novels feature some kind of â€Å"character vs self† conflict - whether it’s the main conflict of the story, as with Mrs. Dalloway, or a sub-conflict that mirrors a character’s external conflict. It’s their internal conflict that drives the character arc - the inner journey that unfolds over the course of the plot. Don't bail your characters out in the denouement. More tips for ending your story inside! How to Create a Character Profile: the Ultimate Guide (with Template) Read post Just as the narrative arc comes to a head at the climax, so will the character arc. Readers will, therefore, want to know what effect the climax has had on the character and their journey. Character development should continue into the denouement, and we should get a sense of how the events of the story have impacted them.DON’T... bail your plot/characters outA Series of Unfortunate Events is known for exaggerating and parodying tropes and storytelling gaffs. The first installment of the series concludes with the antagonist - Count Olaf - escaping arrest when one of his associates simply turns a light off so that Olaf can escape.While author Lemony Snicket presents readers with this ending in a self-aware, tongue-in-cheek manner, such an ending would is an example of a writer cop out: a denouement that undermines all of the preceding plot and character development.Writer cop outs usually involve a conflict resolution that’s contrived, unbelievable, and not in tune wit h the rest of the story.DO†¦ show, don’t tellIt’s one thing to have a detective list all the clues and rule out all the suspects at the end of a novel. But most novels shouldn’t end with a big speech that explains all of the different aspects of the story. A far more compelling ending is one that shows the appropriate resolution, as opposed to stating it. Check out our new guide for more tips to nail the â€Å"Show, Don’t Tell† rule. class=tm-tweet-clear> class=tm-click-to-tweet> class=tm-ctt-text>We all know the wistful feeling of ending a novel. Find out how to write your own. class=tm-ctt-tip>DON’T†¦ forget to release the tensionAuthors write the story and readers are just along for the ride, right? Wrong. If a story is written well, readers become invested participants in the journey your story unfolds. This is one of the denouement’s most important functions: giving your readers a chance to breathe after the climax, and to see the view from the top of the mountain they’ve just spent pages hiking.DO†¦ think carefully about using cliffhangersThere’s nothing more frustrating than reading through hundreds of pages of a story, only to find it's totally open-ended. And yet, there’s nothing more exciting than starting a second or third novel in a series, keenly anticipating answers that the previous book didn’t supply. Gone Girl ended on a cliffhanger that left many readers fuming.That’s why, if you’re not writing a series, you should approach cliffhangers with caution. Many feel that to end a novel on sudden plot-twist or without any sense of resolution whatsoever is to betray your readers’ trust. So if your stand-alone novel just has to end on a cliffhanger, make sure you lay adequate groundwork and foreshadowing through the story so that readers are caught off-guard - but not left feeling like the rug has been swept out from under them. In other words, your cliffhanger should leave readers speculating, not consternating.Denouement examplesRead on for examples of denouements from famous novels that hit all the marks of a well-written denouement - but be warned: spoilers ahead.Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha ChristieThough the ending of this classic mystery novel answers all the logistical questions of how Cassetti was murdered, the denouement of Murder on the Orient Express doesn’t end on a note of total resolution. It closes with a moral debate: who should be condemned for this crime? In the end, while Poirot feels the murder was justified, there is still a question that hangs in the air: is the law absolute? And if not, where does it fade? Poirot does not seem to reach a conclusion that wholly satisfies this ethical quandary in the denouement. Hence, even though the mystery   reaches a satisfying close, the novel ends on an ellipsis that allows us to reflect on its themes.PRO-TIP: Mysteries in general are great examples of denouements. To see what we mean, you can't go wrong reading more classic works of Agatha Christie. Or if you lean more toward the cozy side,  check out these nine great cozy mystery books!To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper LeeSometimes a denouement echoes the climax as a way of hitting one final nail on the head of theme - without having to overtly state it. Bob Ewell attacking Scout and Jem in To Kill a Mockingbi rd is an example of this: it’s an outcome of the climax that occurs in the denouement and is what really drives Scout’s character development home. The denouement of To Kill a Mockingbird completes Scout's character development in the novel (image: Universal Pictures)In the aftermath of the attack, Scout realizes that Boo Radley saved her and her brother’s life. For the first time, she sees him as a human being rather than the subject of a ghoulish local legend. She also backs up Heck Tate’s decision to report Bob Ewell’s death as an accident in order to spare the already-taunted Boo from the publicity of a trial. Both of these actions and realizations signify Scout’s final steps towards acquiring a more â€Å"adult† and complete moral perspective - one Atticus has been encouraging for the duration of the book. This moral perspective includes the recognition that the human experience is comprised of experiences with both â€Å"good† and â€Å"evil,† and that people have the choice to live consciously without becoming cynical losing hope in human kindness. How to write a denouement that leaves readers wondering: "what could happen next?"   class=tm-ctt-tip>As you can see, the denouement doesn’t need to include fireworks - or even answers to every question a novel poses. Stories where everything works out and everyone rides off into the sunset can feel rather contrived or like a harsh yank from the stories world into reality. Use your denouement to fulfill your promises to your readers but to also leave a small kernel of wondering: what could happen next?Do you have examples of favorite (or most frustrating!) denouements? Perhaps you're currently working on the end of your own novel and have tips for, or questions about, getting it right. Leave any thoughts in the comments below!

Incidents in the life of a slave girl (1861) by Harriet jacobs Essay

Incidents in the life of a slave girl (1861) by Harriet jacobs - Essay Example The major source of encouragement to such individuals was the dream of establishing families of their own in freedom. A major hindrance was imposed upon the slaves if they already had children or families while under the rule of their slave masters or holders. In Linda’s case, her grandmother was a source of empowerment in her life, acting as both her father and mother. Her free grandmother, who was always there for her and her brother Benjamin reinforced Linda’s economic needs and emotional support (Jacobs 4). In the story, Linda talks of her grandmother endless stream of support and refuge that indebts her to her grandmother. Linda’s grandmother is also her personal confidant to whom she tells all her secrets and dreams. As such, Linda respects her grandmother so much that she does not tell her of the struggle against advances from Dr. Flint, and this marks the first conflict between the two. Since her childhood, Linda’s grandmother was always encouragin g her to assert her sexuality in order to avoid further slavery. This is an effort to pull her out of enslavement. Nevertheless, Linda faces many challenges while maintaining her sexuality, including the advances from Dr. Flint (Jacobs 21). Ultimately, she goes against her grandmother’s wishes and gives herself to Mr. Sands. This move, which she considers as triumph over her master, will have a negative impact on her relationship with her grandmother. Her grandmother is not happy after Linda confesses to her not only because of the importance of gaining freedom by maintaining her purity, but also because of societal values. Both the whites and the slaves held the institution of marriage in high regard. Another reason was the fact that children of slaves were to follow their mother step of servitude. Despite her grandmother’s empowerment, she also acts as a hindrance in her quest to obtain freedom. The relationship between Linda and her grandmother suffer a major blow a s her grandmother does not approve of her path to freedom. Linda’s intimate relationship with Mr. Sands is completely unacceptable before her grandmother’s opinion. Linda eventually has two children with Mr. Sands, who tend to delay her escape mission to freedom. Linda eventually considers another strategy: hiding until Dr. Flint becomes discouraged and sells her and her children to another slave master. In her plan to escape with Mr. Sands, her grandmother discourages her by a mother’s guilt, telling her not to trust the man but rather stick to her kids. She goes ahead to tell her that a woman who leaves her children loses her respect. This persuasion by her grandmother is a dilemma in her escape plan, which might secure the safety of her children and herself. Linda’s grandmother continues to instill the fears of her being a bad mother by relating to her children, Ben and Ellen, like a mother. Her loyalty to her grandmother and the natural fear of forsak ing her kids continues to hinder her escape plans, but not until the safety of Ben and Ellen threatened. Linda views their proposed move to plantations as slaves revive her escape plans. She acknowledges that the slaves in plantation are subject to harsh conditions than those in serving in the urban. The thought of her children suffering cruel treatment and conditions in the plantations forces her to flee disregarding her grandmother feelings and opinions. Linda places her children’s safety before the wishes of her grandmother, opting to remaining hidden in her grandmother’

Management - Cultural Communications Assignment

Management - Cultural Communications - Assignment Example U.S. Business Communication Protocols In the United States, when someone is involved in business, there are certain protocols that are expected to be followed. The United States is an individualist society which basically means that individual is more important than the group. Because of this, many businesses are organized so that the individual must do their own work, unless there is a team. Of course, if there is a team, each individual on the team is expected to do their own work. In the United States, time is considered very important and people are expected to be punctual when approaching their jobs and/or meetings. Americans also expect that people who are â€Å"on time† are more reputable than those who are late. They also decide that people who use time well are more reliable and people who can be counted on, then those who do not use time well (â€Å"USA-Language†, n.d.). In most cases, business meets begin with a strong handshake, a smile and saying â€Å"hel lo† and people begin a meeting promptly on time whenever possible. Also, business people are expected to maintain eye contact and first names are used. Business dress can vary depending on where the individual is located, the season, and the industry the individual works within. Also, business cards are exchanged and business cards are carried in a wallet or a purse. Challenges that Protocols Create Across Culture There are many challenges that come into play when Americans interact with other cultures. LeBaron (2003) suggests that mis-communication is very easy to do when people do not understand each other’s differences in four areas: â€Å"Time and space, face and personal responsibly, face and face-saving and nonverbal communication† (p. 2). Time and Space As stated before, time is very important to most Americans and time is synonymous with progress. Americans see a monochromic time approach which makes time linear and focuses on one event or interaction bet ween people or events once at time. In Eastern cultures, as an example, time is fluid and there is no beginning or starting point. They believe in a â€Å"polychonous† system (LeBaron, 2003, p. 3) that one may find that people talk together, all at once, with several conversations going on at the same time. In business, when people are negotiating terms of a contract or conflict arises, people in monochromic time systems can become very impatient if they do not understand polychonous systems (LeBaron, 2003). Fate and Personal Responsibility Many Americans believe that they have the choice of forging their own destinies and they are confident that they can conquer anything. If an individual has something, they perceive as failure, they are often told that they just have to try again. In this environment, â€Å"action, efficacy, and achievement† are more important than anything else (LeBaron, 2003, p. 4). In many other cultures (Native American, Chinese) there can be res pect for everything in the world. In other words, they believe that there is a â€Å"natural order of things† (LeBaron, 2003, p. 4) that needs to be followed. When these two cultures class, the first may see the second as lazy or think they are dishonest. The second person, who believes in a natural order of things, may see the first person as arrogant or pushy. Face and Face Saving Face, according to LeBaron (2003) is often considered as the way that an individual seems

Nazi Germany and Virginia Holocaust Museum Essay Example for Free

Nazi Germany and Virginia Holocaust Museum Essay In this paper, I articulate my experience at the Virginia Holocaust museum, paying particular attention to my emotional and cognitive reactions. As a student of social work, I benefit from knowledge of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics, which I employ in reflecting upon the dichotomization and construction of the other that fueled the Nazi intolerance towards Jews and other ethnically diverse populations and led to their genocide. By examining the current genocide in the South Sudan, I highlight commonalities between the Holocaust and the modern plight of marginalized South Sudanese populations. Finally, I utilize the NASW ethical principles of Social Justice and Dignity and Worth of the Person to imagine how I would have reacted, as a social worker, to the Holocaust. Through this process of reflection, I gain insight into the mechanisms of intolerance and better position myself to be a positive change agent. Keywords: dichotomization, ethics, genocide, holocaust, Nazi, social work, Sudan Examining the Holocaust from a Social Worker’s Perspective Introduction The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon my experience at the Virginia Holocaust Museum on September 11, 2012. By providing a detailed and thoughtful examination of one of the most shameful chapters in human history, the Virginia Holocaust Museum elicits a strong emotional and cognitive reaction. As a student of social work and an active participant in the current political landscape, I am able to use current events and my understanding of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics as a lens in which to examine the atrocities of the Holocaust. By understanding the threads of intolerance that connect the Holocaust to the current genocide in the Sudan and applying the NASW ethical principles of social justice and the dignity and worth of the person, I am able to gain a richer understanding of the Holocaust and the millions of lives it affected. My Experience Growing up in the Virginia public school system, impersonal statistics and broad textbook generalities taught me about the Holocaust in history class. While I remember feeling unsettled and recognizing in some undefinable way that this event was truly terrible, the emotional weight of sadness and terror that the Holocaust commands did not truly sink in until my family brought me to visit the National Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. Walking slowly through the exhibits, I recall vividly the feeling that I was being turned inside out, my emotional nerve endings exposed to the pain and depravity of the collective nightmare of 11 million individuals. This was a profound experience for my young mind. The question â€Å"How could this happen? † tattooed itself on my consciousness and never received a truly satisfying answer. This question took on a renewed resonance as I took part in a School of Social Work fieldtrip to the Virginia Holocaust Museum. Returning for another in-depth look at the Holocaust, this time as an adult with infinitely more life experience, I again found myself emotionally raw. From the moment we arrived our docent, John Hagadorn, began immersing us in the facts and contextual details of the Holocaust. John overwhelmed us with the blunt statistics, sharing about the 6 million Jews and 5 million Czechs, Hungarians, Gypsies, LGBT and disabled persons who were systematically destroyed before the Allied forces of Great Britain, France, Russia and the United States were able to intervene. Hearing these numbers and the multitude of groups affected, I was struck by the Nazi’s tendency to aggregate, or lump together, different groups that did not meet the German’s ethnocentric, heteronormative, and physicalist perspectives (Rosenblum Travis, 2012). After aggregating these groups, the Nazi’s were able to dichotomize, or set themselves apart from these groups and declare them non-German and impure, their very existence in opposition to Nazi ideals (Rosenblum Travis, 2012). Despite knowing that racism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism were forces at play in the everyday German culture of the time, I find it hard to imagine that even the most relentless socialization could lead a human being to actively participate in or take a passive (but complicit) part in the extermination of millions of people based upon arbitrary differences. I know that fairness requires that I acknowledge istorical and cultural relativism when examining the Holocaust. However, as a person benefiting from an upbringing rich in openness and respect for the innate worth of all living beings, it is difficult for me to understand how so many Germans could let such atrocities culminate in the destruction of 11 million lives, and even help to perpetuate those atrocities. After being emotionally primed by the facts about the massive populations affected by the Nazi’s racist, ethnocentric, sexist, heteronormative, and physicalist campaign of hatred, I was profoundly affected by the photographs of the personal lives destroyed. From the moment we began the tour in the â€Å"Liberation† section, photograph after photograph of decimated humans greeted me with a palpable sense of sadness. Seeing the glassy eyed, hollow cheeked portraits of Jewish men, women and children reduced to emaciated skeletons gave me an entirely new perspective on human suffering. I imagine the slow, methodical torture of feeling my body wither away, day after day, and the madness of feeling powerless to feed my family or myself. Our docent, John Hagadorn, reminded us that even the most oppressive cultures often recognize children as especially vulnerable and spare them some of the abuses that adults endure. This was not the case in Nazi Germany and the photographs of children wounded and disfigured by â€Å"medical experiments† involving chemical burns, skin grafts, and â€Å"exploratory surgeries† made my stomach curdle. The replication of the experimental chamber the Nazis employed to test high altitude oxygen deprivation on concentration camp prisoners was especially gruesome. Imagining the terror and agony of the victims who endured this torture gave me a deeper understanding of the depth of dehumanization the Nazis felt for Jews. The photograph that stood out the most for me included no terrorized faces or emaciated bodies, but was simply a huge crate filled with wedding rings. With tens of thousands of rings piled atop one another, I could imagine all the families destroyed by this evil. I imagined the love that united untold couples, the dreams of children, homes, and experiences shared that were shattered. I thought of the stories created through a lifetime of shared love and humanity, destroyed before ever being written. As I imagined my parent’s wedding bands in that crate, I felt an overwhelming emptiness. I realized that mine and my sisters lives and all the moments of joy and love we have shared as a family would have been snuffed out before ever having the chance to flourish, all based on some arbitrary distinction of race, ethnicity or religious affiliation. Today’s Issues Sadly, the systematic genocide of the Holocaust is not an isolated incident in human history. Since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps in Poland in 1945, intolerant despots have carried out numerous other genocidal campaigns in Rwanda, Bosnia and Iraq. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, today one of the largest genocidal and humanitarian crises of the 21st century continues to unfold in the Sudan, with over two million civilians murdered and four million displaced (United states holocaust, 2012). According to the Virginia Holocaust Museum, since taking power of the Sudanese government in 1989, Omar al-Bashir has recruited Arab tribal militias, or Janjaweed, to eliminate the ethnic Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa tribal groups (2012). These Nuba mountain ethnic groups and any civilians who represent a perceived threat to Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP) continue to be targets of aerial bombing, mass starvation and displacement, torture, rape, and enslavement (United states holocaust, 2012). Just as the Nazis used the ethnic variance of Jews, Czechs, Hungarians and other â€Å"Non Aryan† populations as the basis for violence and oppression, the NCP based their current violence in South Sudan upon perceived ethnic differences. While the Nazis dichotomized anyone who did not fit their definition of the German race, the NCP continues to dichotomize the Nuba, Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa populations because of their ethnic differences. By employing this process of dichotomization, both the Nazis and the NCP are able to marginalize entire populations and construct them as â€Å"others† who are distinctly different and â€Å"in opposition to the dominant group† (Rosenblum Travis, 2012). This extreme process of othering plants the seeds of intolerance and hatred that later manifest as systematic violence, as the current rape, displacement and murder of millions in South Sudan illustrates. NASW Code of Ethics Social Justice  The NASW Code of ethics defines the principle of Social Justice as â€Å"challeng[ing] social injustice† and â€Å"pursu[ing] social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people† (NASW Delegate Assembly, 2008). When considering the Holocaust there are abundant opportunities to apply the principle of social justice. As a social worker, I would have had an ethical responsibility to take action to relieve the suffering of the Holocaust victims. The Nazis systematically oppressed the Jewish, Czech, Hungarian, disabled, and LGBT populations in horrific ways. Had I been a social worker at the time, I would have made it my priority to encourage social change by educating anyone I could about the violence and oppression that decimated these vulnerable populations. By spreading knowledge and encouraging others to raise their awareness of the suffering in Nazi Germany, I could have organized rallies and campaigns designed to apply pressure to our government to intervene earlier. I could have encouraged sensitivity to these diverse cultures by constructing a dialogue about diversity and challenging apathetic civilians to challenge themselves to empathize with these oppressed groups and imagine themselves as victims. Dignity and Worth of the Person The NASW Code of Ethics describes the principle of Dignity and Worth of the Person as â€Å"respect[ing] the inherent dignity and worth of the person† and â€Å"treat[ing] each person in a caring and respectful fashion, mindful of individual differences and cultural and ethnic diversity† (NASW Delegate Assembly, 2008). The very foundation of the Holocaust and the genocide of 11 million individuals was a lack of respect for cultural and ethnic diversity. The Nazi regime targeted anyone who did not meet its narrow perception of the â€Å"pure† German race. The Nazis considered any physical or mental divergence from the Nazi racial, ethnic, heteronormative, and physicalist norms a threat. Had I been a social worker at the time, it would have been my obligation to resist these oppressive views and aid marginalized people in any way that I could. By encouraging others to recognize the innate value of all human beings and the arbitrary nature of racial and ethnic distinctions, I could have assisted others in achieving a more empathetic awareness that could serve as motivation to take action to end Nazi oppression. Conclusion The Holocaust remains one of the darkest, most disturbing scars upon modern human history. Examining the mechanisms of intolerance that fueled the decimation of over 11 million lives allows me insight into the subversive nature of evil. These mechanisms of socialization, dichotomization, and the various ways in which human beings construct differences in others must be understood if such evil is to be prevented in the future. Unfortunately, as in the case of the Sudan and other marginalized regions of the world, these mechanisms are still fueling the widespread oppression of entire populations. By raising my awareness of historical and modern oppression and endeavoring to embody the NASW ethical principles like social justice and the dignity and worth of the person, I can better position myself to be an active change agent and a better human being.

Each Individuals Outlook on Life and How Its Formed :: essays research papers

Humdrum Conundrum: Does or does it not make sense to insist that how each person sees things depends entirely on that persons unique time, place, and subjective judgement? on their cultural background? I would like to point out that this paper is written assuming there is an absolute reality...and there is actually a table sitting there, and it is not just a figment of our imagination, as it were. Pardon the assumption, I have to have somewhere to work from. â€Å"Did You Just See That?† I believe it makes perfect sense to insist how someone sees something depends entirely on his or her point of view. A great modern philosopher, Bertrand Russell’s, idea of appearance and reality explains that perception of a table and its distribution of colors, shape, and sense, vary with each point of view. Commenting on the distribution of color, Russell states that, "It follows that if several people are looking at the table at the same moment, no two of them will see exactly the same distribution of colors, because no two can see it from exactly the same point of view, and any change in the point of view makes some change in the way the light is reflected." What one person sees the table as green, one might see as red at another viewpoint. And what might seem to have color is actually colorless in the dark. What one might perceive as being rectangle, may look oval in another view. What may sense the table to be hard by a touch of the fingertips may be soft by the touch of the cheek. Determining hardness of the table depends on pressure applied and judge of the sensation. No assumptions can be absolutely true because there is no determining factor in choosing the right angle to look at or sense the table. There are no determining factors in which angle or measurement is better to judge than the other in sense of color, shape, and feel of an object. So, depending on an individual’s point of reference, or point of view, will alter their sense of perception of any object, thing, or mass. It is the same idea with a photograph. Depending on the lighting, time of day, and position the picture was taken from, a table can be made to look like any number of things. If it is night, the table may look like a darker lump against a dark backdrop.

Behavioural Finance Essay

Hypothesis and the extent to which they can be explained by behavioural finance theories Finance that is based on rational and logical theories, such as the  capital asset pricing model  (CAPM) and the efficient market hypothesis (EMH). These theories assume that people, for the most part, behave rationally and predictably. The Efficient market hypothesis assumes that financial markets incorporate all public information and assets that share prices reflect all relevant to the firm information (Fama, 1970). Relevant information includes past information, publicly available information and private information. Efficient market is divided into three categories. Weak form efficiency is when stock prices reflect only the past information, semi-strong form is when past information and all publicly available information is reflected and strong form is when all the past, publicly available and information only available to company insiders is reflected on the stock prices. However, there are some anomalies and behaviors that couldn’t be explained by EMH. Market participants often behaved very unpredictably. However there is a new study called behavioral finance that is trying to explain all these anomalies. Behavioral finance studies the irrational behavior of the investors. Weber (1999) makes the following observation: ‘Behavioral Finance closely combines individual behavior and market phenomena and uses the knowledge taken from both the psychological field and financial theory’. Behavioral finance attempts to identify the behavioral biases commonly exhibited by investors and also provides strategies to overcome them. Some of the main problems with EMH may be cause by heuristic responses to new information, psychological anchors, overconfidence, social fads, framing and regret avoidance and herd behavior. Overconfidence: According to Nevins (2004), overconfidence suggests that investors overestimate their ability to predict market events, and because of their overconfidence they often take risks without receiving commensurate returns. Odean (1998) finds that investors tend to overestimate their ability, unrealistically optimistic about future events, too positive on self-evaluations, over-weight attention getting information that is consistent with their existing beliefs, and over-estimate the precision of their own private information. Overconfidence about private signals causes overreaction and hence phenomena like the book/market effect and long-run reversals whereas self-attribution maintains overconfidence and allows prices to continue to overreact, creating momentum. In the longer-run there is reversal as prices revert to fundamentals. Psychological Anchors, Overreaction: Good news should raise a business’ share price accordingly, and that gain in share price should not decline if no new information has been released since. Reality, however, tends to contradict this theory. Oftentimes, participants in the stock market predictably overreact to new information, creating a larger-than-appropriate effect on a security’s price. Furthermore, it also appears that this price surge is not a permanent trend – although the price change is usually sudden and sizable, the surge erodes over time. Heuristic responses to new information: Availability heuristic is used to evaluate the frequency or likelihood of an event on the basis of how quickly instances or associations come to mind. When examples or associations are easily brought to mind, this fact leads to an overestimation of the frequency or likelihood of this event. Example: People are overestimating the divorce rate if they can quickly find examples of divorced friends. People tend to be biased by information that is easier to recall. They are swayed by information that is vivid, well-publicized, or recent. People also tend to be biased by examples that they can easily retrieve. ( Tversky and Kahneman, 1974) Confirmation bias  is a cognitive bias whereby one tends to notice and look for information that confirms one’s existing beliefs, whilst ignoring anything that contradicts those beliefs. It is a type of selective thinking. The reason for overconfidence may also have to do with hindsight bias, a tendency to think that one would have known actual events were coming before they happened, had one been present then or had reason to pay attention. Hindsight bias encourages a view of the world as more predictable than it really is (Shiller, 2000). This is the characteristic of investors, when looking back, seeing events that took place in the past as having been more predictable than they seemed before they happened. Likewise, things that didn’t happen seem, with hindsight, much less likely to have happened than they did beforehand. Self-attribution bias occurs when people attribute successful outcomes to their own skill but blame unsuccessful outcomes on bad luck (Shefrin, 1999). Availability bias is the availability deviation is a general rule or a mental shortcut which lets people guess the probability of a result and to what percent it may appear in their daily life. Those who commit such a deviation consider the easily recalled events more probable than those they can hardly imagine or perceive. Availability bias declares the person’s tendency toward deciding and judging based on available and easily accessible data (Tversky and Kahneman, 1982). Herd behavior which is the tendency for individuals to mimic the actions (rational or irrational) of a larger group. Blackmore (1991) states ‘Within an hour of birth , humans engage in imitation’. There are a couple of reasons why herd behavior happens. It’s unlikely that a large group could be wrong. After all, even if you are convinced that a particular idea or course or action is irrational or incorrect, you might still follow the herd, believing they know something that you don’t. Recency bias is the tendency for people to place greater importance on more recent data or experience. This is the problem of putting too much weight on current events or data and not enough weight on past, historic trends. Many investors expect the market to continue rising in a current bull market; likewise, these same investors often expect a current bear market to get worse. Recency is shown in momentum investing when investors buy â€Å"hot† stocks simply on the basis of their recent strong performance. Kahneman and Tversky (1973) find that people usually forecast future uncertain events by focusing on recent history and pay less attention to the possibility that such short history could be generated by chance. It is believed the net effect of the gains and losses involved with each choice are combined to present an overall evaluation of whether a choice is desirable. However, research has found that we don’t actually process information in such a rational way. In 1979, Kahneman and Tversky presented an idea called  prospect theory, which contends that people value gains and losses differently, and, as such, will base decisions on perceived gains rather than perceived losses. Thus, if a person were given two equal choices, one expressed in terms of possible gains and the other in possible losses, people would choose the former – even when they achieve the same economic end result. Regret avoidance is the tendency to avoid actions that could create discomfort over prior decisions, even though those actions may be in the individual’s best interest. Researchers have argued that one of the reasons that investors are reluctant to sell losing positions is because to do so is to admit a bad decision. This reluctance can be linked to both regret avoidance and belief perseverance. To avoid the stress associated with admitting a mistake, the investor holds onto the losing position and hopes for a recovery. According to prospect theory, losses have more emotional impact than an equivalent amount of gains. Prospect theory also explains the occurrence of the disposition effect, which is the tendency for investors to hold on to losing stocks for too long and sell winning stocks too soon. The most logical course of action would be to hold on to winning stocks in order to further gains and to sell losing stocks in order to prevent escalating losses. The flip side of the coin is investors that hold on to losing stocks for too long. Investors are willing to assume a higher level of risk in order to avoid the negative utility of a prospective loss. Unfortunately, many of the losing stocks never recover, and the losses incurred continued to mount, with often disastrous results. The January-Effect is where the average monthly return for small firms is consistently higher in January than any other month of the year; in the UK this is observed in April. This contradicts with EMH, as EMH predicts that stocks should move at a random walk. January returns are greatest due to yearend tax loss selling of shares disproportionally (Branch 1977). Another anomaly of this type is the Weekend-Effect, where Fama (1980) found that returns on Mondays tend to be negative if compared to any other week day, but this has disappeared in the UK by the 1990s. Some theories that explain the effect attribute the tendency for companies to release bad news on Friday after the markets close to depressed stock prices on Monday. Others state that the  weekend effect might be linked to short selling, which would affect stocks with high short interest positions. Alternatively, the effect could simply be a result of traders’ fading optimism between Friday and Monday. Index effect is a phenomenon where the addition to, or deletion from, a stock index causes a change in the price, trading volume, volatility or operating performance of the stock concerned. A stock entering an index will automatically receive increased demand from institutional investors – principally index tracker funds and exchange trade funds (ETFs) – while a deleted stock will experience reduced demand. The fact that a stock jumps in value upon inclusion is once again clear evidence of mispricing: the price of the share changes even though its fundamental value does not. Another anomaly is P/E effect from CAPM model; portfolios with low P/E ratios outperform those with high. The low price-earnings ratio effect occurs because stocks with low price-earnings ratios are often  undervalued and their prices eventually rise because investors become pessimistic about their returns after a bad series of earning or bad news. A company with high price to earning tends to overvalued (De Bondt and Thaler, 1985). Winner-Loser anomaly De Bondt and Thaler (1985) found that shares which initially earn extreme positive return (winners) or extreme negative returns (losers) experience extended reversals in their performance over long horizons. De Bondt and Thaler (1985) suggested the overreaction hypothesis as an explanation of their result. This hypothesis claims that the market overreacts to information. That is, the market overweights the most recent information and underweights earlier information. However, this phenomenon is reversed when it is recognized that the market’s expectations were indeed an overreaction to the information released. This hypothesis also offers an explanation of the P/E effect. Fama and French (1992) showed that a powerful predictor of returns across securities is the ratio of the book value of the firm’s equity to the market value of equity. After controlling for the size and book-to-market effects, beta seemed to have no power to explain average security returns. One explanation is that investors overreact to growth aspects for growth stocks, and value stocks are therefore undervalued. According to some academics, the ratio of market value to book value itself is a risk measure, and therefore the larger returns generated by low MV/BV stocks are simply a compensation for risk. Low MV/BV stocks are often those in some financial distress. All of these anomalies may be explained by behavioral finance. Behavioural finance is the study of the influence of psychology on the behavior of financial practitioners and the subsequent effect on markets. Behavioural finance is of interest because it helps explain why and how markets might be inefficient. There are series of  behavioural biases  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ strange twists in human nature that cause us to act irrationally and against our own interests. On the other hand all of these anomalies may instead be an artifact of data mining. After all, if one reruns the computer database of past returns over and over and examines stock returns along enough dimensions, simple chance will cause some criteria to appear to predict returns. May be this is why some anomalies appear to be lost at some point of time e. g. the weekend effect during the 90s.

Compulsive gambling Essay

More than 5 million Americans are pathological, compulsive and problem gamblers, and another 15 million are at risk of becoming just like them. A common definition of problem gambling is: a progressive disorder characterized by a continuous or periodic loss of control over gambling and irrational thinking and behavior despite the consequences. When gambling interferes with any one’s life, it can be categorize as an addiction or disease, just like alcohol and drug addiction is categorize as a disease. A study conducted for the National Gambling Impact Study Commission found that 20 million American have or could develop gambling problems. Also they have estimated those 1. 8 million American adults as well as up to 1. 1 million American adolescents age 12 through 17 engage in severe â€Å"pathological† gambling each year. As legalize gambling has become more common in the United States; problems have sprung up as well. That negative influence is becoming more apparent as gambling is more widely available. It is becoming increasingly easy to gamble in the United States particularly in the last 10 years, and problems with gambling are much more common now than they ever were. Studies show that for every dollar gambling produces for a regional economy, three dollars are lost because of the economic and social cost of gambling. The study has also said that if the government legalizes more gambling, taxpayers will lose money, whether they gamble or not. The gambling industry believes it is just selling an innocent form of family entertainment, but they don’t mention how much the players lose or how gambling encourages addictive behavior or the enormous costs it creates for the rest of society. It has been said that, gamblers with higher counts of gambling symptoms will have higher rates of problem. There many consequences associated with compulsive, pathological and problem gamblers. Examples of such consequences include job and financial problems, divorce, poor health, and criminal involvement. These addictions are the lifeblood of the gambling industry, said an economist from the University of Illinois by name Earl Grinols. He researches and found out, that casinos earn more than half their revenues from compulsive, pathological, and problem gamblers. â€Å"The casino industry is heavily dependent on the revenues of psychologically sick people†, says Grinols. Millions of families are paying a heavy price, not just financially, but also strains in family and marital relationship. Family members of compulsive and pathological gamblers are hurt by their disease, mainly because an emotional withdrawal occurs, which leads to separation.

Urban Pattern Essay Example

Urban Pattern Essay Example Urban Pattern Essay Urban Pattern Essay Settlements of any size and type can always be formally synthesized by their patterns, so it means pattern identify the settlements. Town houses in gridiron blocks, high-rise office structures, academic campuses, suburban estates, and highway retail sprawl are good examples. Urban form, then, is a result of the bringing together of many elements in a composite totality:the urban pattern. Patterns are the outstanding formal features of urban areas. A pattern can be defined as an elaboration of form that results from a composition of parts. Thus, patterns assume complex characteristics based on their formal elaboration; they also assume some degree of universality, since the total pattern can be represented by a sector. For example, an identifiable area in a city, or village can be best understood through a typical sector showing circulation, buildings, and open spaces; this typical sector ‘represents’ the formal characteristics found throughout the area and thus acquires some ‘universality. ’ Patterns have the potential of carrying powerful formal syntheses or visual codes over a geographic space. Formally, cities have a greater similarity to rugs and carpets than to other design products, with intricate motifs covering thier surfaces and various combinations of patterns complementing one another. Patterns are the physical expression of an underlying, continous formal system. Their visual essence lies in the complexity of a number of interrelated motifs, rather than in the total composition, since patterns are fragments or parts of a continuum and not totalities. Patterns can be conceptualized as models of field designs that can be extended over geographic space. They are reflecting the impact of a society on the earth, through the imposition of their cultural artifacts of shelter and movement. Clearly, urban patterns do change from one sector of a city to another, according to location in the city and time of development. The commercial high-rise pattern of down-town merges with the dense residential pattern of town houses-two patterns resulting from different land uses and accessibility at different locations. The tight pattern that originated in preautomobile times contrasts with the open pattern typical of the automobile era-two patterns resulting from two periods of development. In this way, an urban area is truly a tapestry of patterns, each corresponding to specific morphological factors-location, technology, culture, and so on. Furthermore, patterns tend not to reflect the will of a single designer, but rather composite wills-like the inherited wills involved in the traditional design of carpets or the pluralistic wills that have shaped so many human habitats. Indeed, patterns are true community forms. URBAN DUALITIES How is one to gain an initial formal understanding of urban patterns? Quite often, complex forms can first be grasped through the identification of their range of formal outcomes. Let us identify the ‘formal extremes’ that patterns can take, which we shall call dualities because they tend to appear as nominal opposites. Urban patterns, complex community forms that they are, can be conceptually understood through a series of dualities. The world is full of dualities. I have selected three dualities for examination here, not only for their descriptive duality, but because of their operational value for designers :unbuilt space versus built form, continuous events versus discrete events, and repetitive elements versus unique elements. Unbuilt space-built form duality This duality recognizes that urban patterns integrate built structures enclosing space for some use together with unbuilt areas used as open space or circulation. It provides the basic gestalt of urban areas, with figure-and-background images. Spatial concepts and definitions, environmental qualities, microclimate and health conditions, and other aspects of urban life can be thrown into relief by examining this relatively simple duality of unbuilt space versus built form. This dualit is related to the distinction between public and private realms in cities. Although most unbuilt space-open space and circulation-can be considered public, some open space can be private, as in institutional or residential courtyards. Also, enclosed space can be public or enjoy some sort of semipublic status, as in the case of churches, museums, department stores, and even street-covered arcades. Between enclosed buildings and open spaces there are many intermadiate possibilities: buildings lacking one wall, suh as Greek stoas; buildings with a roof supported by free standing columns, such as the arcades of Bologna; a space open to the sky and surrounded by walls, such as a stadium; a plaza with a few vertical elements, suh as San Marco. Continuous-discrete events duality This duality recognizes that urban patterns are made up of two quantitatively different kinds of elements: Some are interconnected and extend virtually over the whole area; others are discrete. This gometric difference is extended to implicit qualitative differences in the two types of events. The first can be characterized as continuous forms-networks-and the second as sets of discrete forms aggregated within or adjacent to the networks-infillings. Communities are structured by continuous networks within which an infill of discrete events takes place. The combination of networks and infillings results in a total pattern. Urban networks are identified primarily with transportation and other city infrastructures, which by nature must be continuous throughout the pattern. Streets, roads, avenues, boulevards, canals, highways, aqueducts, rail lines, and high-tension lines are all continuous networks that structure urban areas in one way or another, and in so doing they have more than just a utilitarian function; they become outstanding visual elements of the urban pattern. Buildings have occasion-ally played the same role, ranging from defensive walls in the Middle Ages to the megastructures of the 1960s. But in most cases, buildings, from cathedrals to houses, garages to skyscrapers, as well as most open space, are all infillings within the network structure, defining the three-dimensional architectural quality of a place. The interface areas between networks and infillings costitute the most alive zones of the man-made environment. Human beings are not truly participants in community life until they are on foot; the interface between transportation and networks infillings is the place where people shift from being passive riders to being active pedestrians. For this reason, the design of these interfaces-subway stations, but stops, train terminals, garages, sidewalks, and docks-is critical for the vitality of social and economic life in urban areas, as well as for their aesthetic expression. The dictinction between continuous and discrete events is not absolute, however. Size and scale may affect this distinction since what appears to be discrete on a metropolitan scale may seem continuous on a neighborhood scale. For example, rows of party-wall town houses, which are discrete elements on urban scale, can be seen as continuous events on an neighborhood scale. Repetetive-unique events duality This duality recognizes that urban patterns are made up largely of a limited number of relatively undifferentiated types of elements that repeat and combine. It implies that the image of a city can be created by the visual repetition of undifferentiated elements as well as by unique elements. Notre Dame de Paris is a powerful image and symbol for that city, but the repetetive elements of the city`s urban pattern-apartment buildings, hotels, and offices-represent it as much as does its unique cathedral. Repetetive elemets are the true urban form givers, sheltering the community`s activities and expressing its way of life and culture. Unique elements are the expresion of either a very specialized activity or, more likely, the apex and more symbolic layers of the community hierarchy. Human habitats and workplaces are repetetive elements, but temples, palaces, town halls, parliaments, universities, opera houses, and museums are unique and higly visible in each community. In preindustrial traditional societies, repetetive buildings such as dwellings vary according to regions, whereas unique buildings are universal. Repetetive buildings, although roughly the same within an urban area, tend to change drastically among regions and cultures; unique buildings, although special in their urban area, tend to repeat themselves across regions and even cultures. The wide regional variety of human dwelling types found in the cities, towns, and villages of Europe stands in contrast to the minor stylistic variations of similar unique buildings-for example, Gothic churches-that exist across the continient. The attachment of repetetive elements to land and local culture, which become regional expressions, as well as the universal character of unique elements, are critical to the understanding of community forms. Probably no other duality has been so misunderstood. To consider an obvious example, skyscrapers built in downtown areas for the purpose of housing the managerial activities of corporations often indulge the egocentric corporate identity. A corporate workplace is a repetetive building type making up the majority of downtown urban patterns; it is not meant to be unique. Whenever the design of skyscrapers becomes a competition among corporations, the result is pointless escalation, confusion, and the breakdown of the urban pattern. Combination of dualities Dualities represent ranges of formal outcomes in urban patterns, taken one parameter at a time. In reality, patterns synthesize the various dualities in a single form. The following are possible combinations and examples: Unbuilt space, continuos, repetetiveUrban streets Unbuilt space, continuous, uniqueIstiklal streetts Unbuilt space, discrete, repetetiveNeighborhood plazas Unbuilt space, discrete, uniquePiazza Ortakoy Built form, continuous, repetetiveArcades Built form, continuous, uniqueDefense walls Built form, discrete, repetetiveOffice buildings Built form, discrete, uniqueBlue Mosque PATTERN ANALYSIS Urban design has a long tradition of borrowing from the past, one of that continues today as neotraditional designers look nostalgically back to the towns as an alternative to conventional development. Breaking down the analysis into layers facilitates comparison on each dimension. The five layers are: 1-Built form: Showing the footprints of all structures and the resulting grain and pattern of development. 2-Land use: Patterns showing the location and density of housing, as well as retail, office, industrial, and civic activity. 3-Public open space: Including parks, plazas, walkways, and water bodies. 4-Circulation system: Including vehicular roads, alleys, parking lots, and bicycle and pedestrian paths. 5-Pedestrian access: Showing areas with one quarter and one half mile access from a central point in the development, such as a local community or shopping center. In addition to studying the form and pattern of the developments, the analysis examines the character of public streets and public spaces; adequecy of the transportation system and the accesibility of the development to jobs, services, recreation, and schools; livability for children, teens, and elderly; and market success. URBAN TYPOLOGIES Urban patterns are formed by repetetive elements within which unique elements occur. These patterns have strong similarities and can be grouped conceptually into what we call typologies. The many similarities among certain urban structures, facilities, and spaces suggest a ‘family resemblance’ among them. This family resemblance can be found among network elements such as streets and infill elements such as buildings, among unbuilt spaces such as plazas and built forms such as urban blocks, and even among unique buildings and spaces. Some typologies are universal, others are bounded by culture. In other words, all elements in urban patterns can be, to various degrees, typical. Some definitions are in order. ‘Type’ is defined as the general form, structure, or character distinguishing a particular kind, group, or class of objects. ‘Prototype’ and ‘archetype’ are practically interchangeable concepts, indicating the first or primary type of any thing. ‘Stereotype’ is defined as something continued or constantly repeated without change. The definition of ‘type’ is based on the recognition of the essence of an object as well as on the possibility of reproducing that essence in another object. The essence of a typology is made up of a combination of key characteristics of the elements in the typology, as well as by the range of variations that the elements can experience without losing their affiliation with the typology. I am talking deliberatily about essence and not standards, a type witout the of catalogue models. Thus, any and all specific designs of a type must be variations,options, and interpretations of that type, with perhaps a few of them being closer than the others to the ideal. Urban types sre basically types of spatial organizations in settlements. However, additional cultural factors introduce the aspect of style. Gridiron blocks with row houses, central plazas, and roadside developments are ubiquitous patterns, for instance, are typical of baroque urbanism. How do typologies come into being? The concept is simple: Built elements that face the same (or very similar) sets of requirements and constraints will, in end up generating one typology as the best solution to these conditions. It is possible to imagine more than one good solution, but since human behavior tends to follow early successes, the result is often that a single typology emerges as the dominant one. In the development of a typology, several periods can be distinguished. At a given point, socioeconomic, cultural, and technological conditions may all come together to foster a new typology. For example, the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent development of industrial corporations led to the creation of large pools of adminisrative personel working together in central cities served by streetcards and, later, subway systems. The introduction of iron and, eventually, steel structures, as well as the invention of the elevator, made it possible to build tight clusters of high-rise office buildings in central buildings. Later, the development of air- conditioning systems eliminated the constrains on the size of those buildings imposed by the need for natural ventilation. Common determinants that affect a typology include the physical urban structure, municipal services, zoning and codes, technology, financial and tax structures, alternative investments, cultural beliefs, microclimate, and many others. Specific project requirements that affect a typology include the program-which is itself biased by cultural beliefs-the organization of the development entity, land and construction costs, demand markets, soil conditions, competition, and others. Technology, economic systems, social instutions-in a word, culture-are the social factors that, together with natural factors (such as microclimate, soil, and bodies of water), shape the patterns of human settlements. Technology, especially since the nineteenth century, has had an increasingly important effect in the shaping of urban typologies, including the critical areas of urban transportation- public transit, commuter rail, buses, and trolleys, as well as private automobiles along with highways and parking garages-building structures, mechanical systems, vertical circulation, instant communications, and,most recently, information processing. But quite often, built types herald later technological advance; some of the first skyscrapers in Chicago were built with load-bearing masonry walls. Culture is the prime mover in the development of urban typologies. Technology, as one of the cultural components of society. The central city skyscraper, for example, is a product of both technology and a cultural trend that encourages certain patterns of social behavior and, ultimately, certain events. Tall office buildings exist, in part, because there is a pervasive trend toward concentrating greater economic power in fewer corporations, which cluster together with other financial institutions and use their headquarters to project a corporate image. Cultural factors have always affected urban typologies. In the Middle ages, the high cost of transportation, the uncertainty of life beyond defensive walls, growing trade opportunities within a feudalistic system, and the universal institution of the churc led to the generic mediaval urban typology. It was a tightly clustered pattern, with market place and trade streets, often two centers of power (political and religious), and social institutions such as a hospital, asylum, orphanage and school near the church. Culture, building program, and technology shape typologies. Often, old types built for some specific users can be successfully adapted to other users, indicating that programs and types are not locked in a one-to-one relationship; instead, programs determine types through cultural interpretations. The basilica of Hagia Sophia, built by Constantine to be the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, was taken by the Turks and immediately converted to the Mosque of Istanbul, after which all other Turkish mosques have been patterned. The basilicas, in turn, were adapted from a Roman type of legal court building by early Christians, who used them as temples. Are these cases of cultural lag or adaptation, of program or type flexibility, or something different? One of the main roles of typologies may be to shape cultural symbols. Both the Byzantines and the Turks needed impressive halls to exhibit the religious glory of their empires: Hagia Sophia, the most unique element in the pattern. One of the trends most damaging to environmental richness is the cultural homogenization of urban typologies in many areas of the world. This phenomenon is well known to travelers, who find that hotels built in recent decades do not reflect regional differences, so that one cannot tell whether one is in Cairo, New York, Singapore, or Mexico, unless one leaves the hotel. Technology, of course, makes possible large climate-controlled shells anywhere, but it is the cultural dependency of many Third World countries that bears a major responsibility for this environmental impoverishment. Typically, human habitas have been rooted in the land and the local culture. Universality was restricted to the apex of the community hierarchy. It is only now that we see repetetive elements such as office buildings being elevated to the status of the universal, betraying their transnational character. As already mentioned, some typologies are local, while others are universal. The wide difference in the residential typologies of human habitats indicates that local conditions impose heavy constraints on people: Microclimate, defense, construction materials, and topography account for the majority of the differences among habitat typologies. Climate and culture can be overcome by technology. Thus homogenity, with its by- products of anonymity, gigantism, and lack of meaning, pervades urban areas in many countries. Cultural homogenity is a result of the increasing absorption of the world in the markets of the industrialized countries –primarily the United States- and the reshaping of regions and local cultures to fit the needs of the world economic metropolis. This reshaping includes the manipulation of what is considered the ‘good life’ and thus the generation of ‘perceived needs’ by local markets (and cultures). Arround the world, the good life is seen as benefiting from the replacement of local goods with foreign ones, like collage of Coca Cola and hamburgers, blue jeans and permanent press, Chevrolets and highways, glass skyscrapers and suburban developments-the glutton`s paradise. Local production is eliminated, local lifestyles are forgotten. And in the process regions become ‘culturally addicted’ to expensive, and often wasteful, foreign technologies and capital. By focusing on the right combination of localism and universality, designers will be able to produce far more responsive designers and also to (re)create new urban typologies suitable to time and place.

5 Common Private School Interview Questions

5 Common Private School Interview Questions If your child is applying to private school for middle school or high school (usually fifth grade and beyond), he or she can expect to have an interview  with a member of the admissions team. This interaction is typically a required part of the application process and allows the admissions committee to add a personal dimension to the students application. This is an important aspect of applying to private school and is a great way for a student to enhance his or her application.   While each student will have a different experience during the interview, and each school varies in what it asks applicants, there are some common questions that many students applying to private school can expect to encounter. Your child can practice answering these questions to be fully prepared for the interview: What in Recent Current Events Has Interested You? Older students, in particular, are expected to follow current events and know what’s going on. To answer this question in a thoughtful way, students should make a habit of regularly reading their local newspaper or following local news outlets online, as well as familiarizing themselves with international and national news. Outlets such as The New York Times  or The Economist are often popular options and are available both online and in print. Students should think through their views and speak knowledgeably about events happening in the U.S. and abroad. Many private school history classes require students to read the news regularly, so it’s beneficial for students to start following current events even before entering private school. Following major news outlets on social media is another way to stay on top of breaking news and issues facing our world.   What Do You Read Outside of School? Even if students prefer to spend time on the computer rather than curled up with a paperback, they should have read three or so age-appropriate books that they can speak about thoughtfully in the interview. They can read books on their digital devices or print copies, but they need to engage in regular reading. Not only is it useful for the admission process, but it is good practice to help improve both reading comprehension and  vocabulary. While it’s acceptable to speak about books students have read in school, they should also have read some books outside of class.  Students should develop an idea of why these books interest them. For example, are they about a compelling topic? Do they have an interesting protagonist? Do they explain more about a fascinating event in history? Are they written in an engaging and suspenseful way? Applicants can think about how they might answer these questions in advance. Other reading material might include books related to a childs hobbies or recent travel that the family has done. These books can help the admission officer better connect with the applicant and provides the student a chance to speak about specific passions. Both fiction and non-fiction options are acceptable, and students should engage in reading material that interests them.   Tell Me a Bit About Your Family This is a common interview question  and one that is potentially filled with minefields. Applicants can talk about who’s in their immediate and extended family, but they should steer clear of difficult or potentially embarrassing subjects. It’s fine to state that the child’s parents are divorced, as this fact will be obvious to the admissions committee, but the applicant shouldn’t speak about topics that are too personal or revelatory. Admission officers expect to hear about family vacations, what holidays are like, or even about family traditions or cultural celebrations, all of which paint a picture of what the home life is like. The goal of the interview is to get to know the applicant, and learning about family is a great way to do this. Why Are You Interested in Our School? Admissions committees like this question so that they can assess how motivated the student is to attend their school. The applicant should know something about the school and which academic classes  or  sports  he or she might participate in at the school. It’s compelling if the student has visited classes at the school or spoken to coaches or teachers to speak in a first-hand, vivid way about why he or she wants to attend the school. Canned, clichà ©d answers such as, â€Å"Your school has a great reputation† or cynical answers like, â€Å"My dad said I would get into a really good college if I went here† don’t hold much water with admissions committees. Tell Us More About What You Do Outside of School This one is a no-brainer. Students should be prepared to speak eloquently about their area of interest, whether it’s music, drama, sports, or another area. They might also explain how they will continue this interest while at the school, as admissions committees are always looking for well-rounded applicants. This is also a chance for an applicant to share a new interest. Private schools tend to encourage students to try new things, and sharing with the admission officer a desire to try a new sport or get involved with art is a great way to show a desire to grow and expand.

Xculture Project- Disneyland in Dubai Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Xculture Project- Disneyland in Dubai - Essay Example First of all, Disneyland can benefit from a stable politics since a government that has good reputation in the world market is one factor that can affect the inflow of foreign investors and tourists. By examining the political stability of each chosen country, it is possible to detect which among the three chosen countries is the best place to expand the business. Strategic location is very important when selecting the best place to expand the business. To benefit from economies of scale, Disneyland should select a country that is located far away from other Disneyland’s existing amusement parks. With the use of effective geographic strategies, the company will benefit from being able to make its products and services readily available to all people around the world. The economic stability of a country also matters when it comes to selecting the best place. In most cases, a stable economy readily invites more people from different countries to visit the country. Aside from having a relatively low crime rate, the presence of an economic stability will also give the tourists more reasons to visit the country. In this study, three countries where Disneyland is not yet operating include Dubai, the Philippines, and India. As compared to India, Dubai and the Philippines have a strong political stability (Biswas, 2012; Government of Dubai, 2012; Morella, 2012). During the past century, Dubai is globally known for having a stable political environment and low crime rate (Government of Dubai, 2012). With regards to fighting graft and corruption, the political stability of the Philippines was recently made possible under the strong leadership of President Benigno Aquino (Morella, 2012). Graft and corruption in India is still very rampant (Biswas, 2012). In terms of having a high inflation rate and economic growth, the economic stability of India is not good (Biswas, 2012). Therefore, it is best to immediately disregard this country in the business expansion plan of Disneyland. Between the Philippines and Dubai, it is important to consider the geographic location and economic stability of these t wo countries. Specifically the economic stability of Dubai attracts not only new foreign investors but also more tourists (Government of Dubai, 2012). Because of political stability, the Philippines was recently reported to have a 6.1% growth rate as of the first quarter of 2012 (Harjani, 2012). Since the economic status of the Philippines and Dubai are both positive in terms of economic growth rate, it is best on the part of the company to consider the strategic location of these two countries. Aside from being close to the Africa, Dubai is situated between the Far East and Europe (Government of D

White-Collar & Organized Crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

White-Collar & Organized Crime - Essay Example However, white collar crime has evolved since the late 1930’s. White collar crime no longer needs to be in an occupational setting. Technological advancements have provided a new gateway for crimes to be committed. Historically white collar crime was associated with organized crime. Many people associate the mafia with white collar crimes. Through the use of the mafia members demonstrated power over others to achieve their economic advancements. This was further emphasized through government corruption. During the 1920’s it was not uncommon for mafia family members to bribe officials. Moreover, many individuals feared mafia family members and would not testify against them if they had witnessed a crime (Cornell University, n.d.). During this era determining the identity was easier of the victim was easier as technology was not readily available. Current white collar crimes often do not know their victims as many crimes take place online. However, these crimes do not necessarily need to occur online for the criminal to not know his victim. For example, the Enron Scandal caused significant harm to the stock market and all employees and share-holders within this company. The Enron executives could not have identified every possible person they harmed when committing their crimes. Although the Enron scandal happened approximately nine years ago many other businesses have committed similar acts. However, these acts may not be as extreme as the Enron scandal. According to the United States Department of Justice (2006), â€Å"In 2005, among 7,818 businesses 67% exhibited one cyber crime.† Moreover calculating the exact number of cyber crimes is often hard to determine. In the research by the United States Department of Justice most businesses did not report the cyber crimes to authorities. 2. White collar crime attempts to accomplish many of the same characteristics as organized crime. Although organized crime has declined the number of white collar