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