The Fall of the House of Usher

Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher is a short story which makes the reader feel fear, depression and guilt from the very first page and up to the final scene.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Fall of the House of Usher specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Having read the story up to the end, it seems that Usher and his sister are the most depressive people in the house and a simple guest, Usher’s friend who arrived becomes deeply depressed too because of the general conditions and mood in the house. However, looking at the situation from another angle, it is possible to see that depressed and gloomy atmosphere in the house is much exaggerated because of the pessimistic vision of life by the narrator personally. Therefore, having read a story attentively, it is possible to doubt the events which took place there and try to consider the situation from another point of view. The Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher is a story about Usher and his family. The house is depicted as the symbol of the atmosphere and relations in the family. From the very beginning the house is shown as the place that gives â€Å"a sense of insufferable gloom† and â€Å"natural images of the desolate or terrible† (Poe, 2000, p. 1264). The narrator sees â€Å"the blank walls†¦ with an utter depression of soul†¦ after-dream of the reveler upon opium† (Poe, 2000, p. 1264). Describing the house, the protagonist sees â€Å"iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart†, and â€Å"barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn† (Poe, 2000, p. 1265).Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More All these descriptions create the gloomy mood before the reader gets acquainted with those who live in the house. Therefore, seeing the health problems the inhabitants of the house have, the reader takes it for granted that the atmosphere in the house is depressive. Reading of the books, listening to the music and even watching the paintings, in a word, everything the inhabitants of the house do puts the reader to consider the whole situation as depressive because of Usher and his sister. However, if one takes a closer reading and considers the first lines of the story, everything may be changed. â€Å"During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on† (Poe, 2000, p. 1264) is the first part from the Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. Have not seen the house, have not ex perienced the doom atmosphere there, the protagonist is already depressed. Therefore, this scene makes a reader doubt the events which took place in the story. Hinzpeter (2012) makes an offer that â€Å"the first-person-narrator may have suffered from depression or some other sort of causeless melancholy from the very beginning and was therefore easily influenced by the gothic setting† (p. 10). So, it may be concluded that the gothic setting makes the narrator discuss simple life of people who do not communicate with the outside world due to their diseases as a depressive and criminal. The events which happened in the story may be an imagination of the narrator.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Fall of the House of Usher specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, one detail makes the reader doubt this statement, the â€Å"perceptible fissure† which is not too big at the beginning, and then the fi ssures are too big at the end and they cause the house fall. Reference List Hinzpeter, K. (2012). Unreliable Narration in Poe’s ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ – The Narrative Creation of Horror. New York: GRIN Verlag. Poe, E. (2000). The fall of the house of Usher. In R. Bausch R.V. Cassill (Eds.), The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (pp. 1264-1277). New York: W. W. Norton. This essay on The Fall of the House of Usher was written and submitted by user Melody Gentry to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Cuban Missile Crisis essays

Cuban Missile Crisis essays The Americans gained control of Cuba in the late nineteenth century and by 1950 supported a shady regime under Fulgencio Batista, who took control of Cuba by force in 1933. By the late 50s, the Americans controlled the Cuban economy. Fed up with Batistas corrupt regime, Fidel Castro, a lawyer with a liberal national background, organized a coup and seized the Cuban government. Once in power, Castro nationalized the US owned companies in Cuba, destroying relations with the Americans. By 1960, the US stopped buying Cuban sugar and Castro signed a trade agreement with the U.S.S.R. in which the U.S.S.R. agreed to buy all of Cubas sugar and to provide aid. Already, signs of bitterness between the two superpowers were building up and by 1961 the U.S. broke off all diplomatic relations with Cuba. In April of 1961, President Kennedy offered a military base in Guatemala to Cuban exiles and the C.I.A. to reinvade Cuba and recapture it. The Bay of Pigs, as it was called, was a huge embarrassment for the United States as none of the Cuban patriots made it ashore. Shortly thereafter Castro announced that Cuba was a Marxist state. The separation with the USA was complete. During the spring of 1962, the U.S.S.R. decided to deploy missiles in Cuba. Since the Soviet Union was behind in the space race, Khrushchev, the soviet leader, believed that if he could get away with putting missiles in Cuba, he could equalize the strategic situation with that of the US. Cuba and the U.S.S.R. also feared an invasion by the US. Since the Bay of Pigs was a failed attempt, the Cubans and Russians believed that another invasion would soon follow. Lastly, Khrushchev believed that if he put missiles next door to the US, the US would dismantle their missiles in Turkey. U-2 spy planes in August, 1962 saw and photographed Russian surface to air missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy, informed of these missiles, had three choices: a di...

Critical Evaluation of Descartes Principle of Proofs of Existence of Essay - 94

Critical Evaluation of Descartes Principle of Proofs of Existence of God - Essay Example Descartes studies about God were to show that God is not a deceiver, and he aims to bring a clear perception in our minds. In his ontological arguments, Descartes gives two arguments about the existence of God. He sets to prove the existence of God in these two arguments. In his first argument, Descartes states that God is a perfect being and that to exist than not to exist is the perfect thing and God must therefore exist. These were properly based on his early dreams and he set out to document them. The Descartes second argument is the most complex of the two. In his publications, he distinctively sets out two forms of reality. In believing that his thoughts were innate, Descartes thought that his perceptions and the way he sees God should not be objected. He points out that God is an infinite being and that reality come in the forms of infinite, modal and finite. Descartes sees God as existing in infinite reality. He further asserts that all substances by virtue of their existence posses’ finite formal reality and that all ideas that occur in any phase of thought posses the modal form of reality. Ideas, as he puts that have a form of reality which, when they are put in relation to the objects that they represent must have an objective form of reality. He further points out that these objective realities are of three forms, which mirror the formal realities dependent on the amount of reality contained in the object that those ideas represent. Basing his ideas on objective reality, Descartes argues using his inner reasoning that God is an objective finite being. He further bases his ideas on inner logical thoughts to state that something can come from nothing. On this basis, Descartes arrived at two major principles: One of the attacks on the philosophy of Descartes about God concerns the use of God in order to justify distinctions in his idea of perceptions.

Compare and Contrast Research Methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Compare and Contrast Research Methods - Essay Example These research methods are applied in almost every field of study but their implementation in the field of business management and marketing is slightly more. For testing and analyzing quality measures, this research method plays a vital role and its significance holds a prestigious supremacy. In research methods, qualitative measures provide essential information which eventually helps in the formation of hypothesis. It has given a new sphere and horizon to the field of business management and development process in refining these techniques more is taking place (Hair, Celsi and Page, 2011). Following are some of the renowned qualitative research method approaches along with the comparison and debate with projective techniques. Their significance in business administration and usage is discussed with a conclusion to get an exact idea about the implementation and implication of these research methods and projective techniques in the mode of studies. Focus Groups To examine the impact of a product or service in the market, a focus group session is the most recognized technique. Focus group is basically a qualitative set of methodology in which people from diverse backgrounds are invited and a discussion session takes place. The discussion session is controlled by a moderator. ... (Blumberg & Schindler, 2008). (Lewis & Saunders, 2009) demonstrate that the implication of this research method is widely done in almost all major modes of studies. This gives a horizon that what actually people think. Focus group participants can vary from research to research. For instance to check out the performance of a car, focus group discussion takes place. The panel members in this discussion would be product manufacturing engineers, consumers, analysts, journalist, market guru’s and future potential customers. Their depiction of thoughts will be the quintessence of this discussion. Moderator will ask certain focused research based questions from the panel members. Members upon their respective turn will present their views. The proposition of this tactic is mostly done in the subject of psychology, sociology, marketing and its sub branches, human resources management etc. Market Surveys To get the concrete picture about the thinking of consumers, market surveys act a s the backbone. It has vast implication and is done in approximately research work. Market surveys provide the various ideas of people about a product, service or any other issue. People from diverse backgrounds provide their review about a certain product or service. They also bluntly demonstrate that what are the shortcomings and plus points of the product. Their representation of non fragmented thoughts makes this research technique powerful. Literate, illiterate- all consumers present their ideas clearly (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008). Market surveys are done in all the capacities to check out the positioning of a product or service. For instance to check out the impact of a certain mobile phone among users and customers, cell phone market survey will be done

Chapter 7 Reaction Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Chapter 7 Reaction Paper - Essay Example Stereotypes end up dehumanizing a whole group of people, essentially pigeonholing them without giving them any chance to prove their own unique identity. When talking about the â€Å"accuracy† of stereotypes, I did not like the fact that the author mentions that some stereotypes are â€Å"accurate.† The fact that he goes on to mention very objective terms (like the income of a certain group of people), further augments my point. Stereotypes, I feel are based on subjective terms and not objective ones, and that is precisely why they are so damaging. However, I did like the idea the author then goes on to say how, even though we cannot get rid of stereotyping all together, we need to recognize them for what they are so that they can be productive and not destructive. In this regard the chapter itself contains certain stereotypes, which the author also admits. However, I would have liked it if there had been mention of stereotypes causing prejudices to be formed. I liked h ow the article relays the idea that we need to acknowledge that people are different, or that certain groups of people will be different as a collective. However, if that is true, then, perhaps, there is a premise for stereotyping to be an effective social tool. Nonetheless, it need not be so if we refrain from making rigid assumptions about a whole group of people and applying them on individuals as well.

Survey Of Data Mining Techniques On Crime Data Criminology Essay

Survey Of Data Mining Techniques On Crime Data Criminology Essay Data mining is a process of extracting knowledge from huge amount of data stored in databases, data warehouse and data repositories. Crime is an interesting application where data mining plays an important role in terms of crime prediction and analysis. This paper presents detailed study on clustering techniques and its role on crime applications. This also helps the law enforcers in better investigation and crime prediction. Key words: Crime data mining, crime data analysis, clustering. Introduction In recent years, volume of crimes lead to serious problems throughout the world. Now-a- days criminals have maximum use of modern technologies and hi-tech methods which serve up criminals to commit crimes at an immense measure. The law enforcers have to effectively meet out challenges of crime control and maintain public law and order. Hence, creation of a data base for crimes and criminals is required. Data mining techniques have higher influence in the fields such as law-and-enforcement, narcotics, cyber crime, human trafficking and high-tech crimes. Crime data mining has been applied in the law and enforcement to retrieve the criminal details and useful information automatically, using named entity-extraction method. In this method, each word is compared with the noun phrases and the binary value either zero or one will be generated which indicates the match or mismatch of the name. Intelligence agencies and university of Arizona collaborated COPLINK project and applied crime data mining in two-dimensions as crime types and security concerns to analyses crime and criminals and face challenges of law-enforcement problems of massive data bases from police narrative records [9]. Suspects give details to police investigations in order to confuse and spoil the proceedings of the investigation. During the time of investigation, comparison is needed to find the differences between real entities and deceptive entities. One of the distance measurement methods is Euclidean distance method which is applied to calculate the distance between pairs of the real and deceptive entity and this distance gives the deceptions accurately at the time of detection [10]. Hence, data mining techniques and clustering algorithms have been developed for better crime analysis which leads to the prediction of crimes in future. The organization of the paper is as follows. Section II discusses some researches and applications on crime data analysis. Section III defines the role of data preprocessing in crime data mining. Section IV presents various clustering methods on crime domain and Section V discusses the conclusion and future work. II Related work Recent developments in crime control applications aim at adopting data mining techniques to aid the process of crime investigation. One of the earlier projects COPLINK, was teamed with Artificial Intelligence Lab of Arizona University, the police departments of Tuscon , Phonix solving crime and criminal network analysis [8]. Brown et al. proposed a framework for regional crime analysis (ReCAP), which was built to provide crime analysis with both data fusion and data mining techniques[2]. Data mining steps involved in crime investigations are: collection of crime data from multiple data sources such as police narrative records, criminal background information which consists of previous investigation files and police arrest records are used to diagnose whether a suspect was involved in any earlier cases. If it so, verdict clues from past annals featuring the suspect and it avails the investigators to preside in the case. Using crime data mining techniques, most required information has been extracted from the vast crime databases which are maintained by NCRB (National Crime Record Bureau) for locating à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“crime hot-spotsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . This helps the law enforcers to predict the crimes and to prevent in the near-future. Nath et al. has proposed k-means clustering technique with some enhancements to aid the process of identification of crime patterns. Semi-supervised learning technique for knowledge discovery has also been further developed which helps to increase the predictive accuracy [6]. J.S. de Bruin, K.Cocx and Kosters et al. have applied clustering techniques for the analysis of crimes and criminal carriers based on four salient factors such as crime nature, frequency, duration and severity of crime[3]. Binary (BCS) and transformed (TCS) categorical methods are similarity based methods used to find the similarity of corresponding attributes between real and deceptive entities from the crime records[13]. Ozgul et al. recently suggested a crime prediction model on crime details like location, date of the incident and mode-of-operandi of events against terrorists which have not been solved[20]. An enhanced Ak-mode algorithm called a weighted clustering algorithm which consists of two-phases to extract similar case subsets from large number of crime datasets[16]. III. Role of data preprocessing in crime data mining Data preprocessing techniques are mainly used for producing high-quality mining results. Raw data are being preprocessed before mining because data are in different format, collected from various sources and stored in the data base and data warehouses. Major steps involved in crime data mining are data cleaning, data integration, data transformation and data reduction. Data Cleaning Fill in missing crime data value. Smoothing crime data Removing outliers of crime data. Resolve inconsistent crime data. Data integration Merging of crime data from multiple data storages. Data Transformation Crime data normalization. Attribute construction Data Reduction Crime Attribute subset selection. Dimensionality reduction of crime attributes Data mining process Raw data Analysis Mining results Fig. Data Preprocessing steps in crime data mining Crime data have been collected from different sources such as police narrative records, criminal profiles, case histories and log files. In the data cleaning step, missing values are filled, noisy data are smoothened ,outliers data are removed and inconsistent data are resolved. Data integration step undergoes merging of crime data. Data normalization and attribution construction are done in the data transformation for standardizing data. When standardization of crime data, the data range falls under 0.0 to 1.0. Attribute subsets are selected from crime dataset and dimensionality has reduced. After preprocessing, finally standard data underwent the process of mining and hence better results are obtained. IV. Application of clustering methods in Crime The Clustering methods play an important role on crime applications. Some of the clustering techniques highlighted are k-means clustering, Ak-mode algorithm and other similarity methods. After preprocessing, the operational crime data are undergoing the clustering techniques for grouping the nature of crimes as different clusters. In this process, lots of unsolved crimes are also grouped together. The next step of clustering is to identify the significant or decisive attribute. This may from case to case.ie. one of the cases may need the age group of victim as decisive attribute and it is very important in a murder cases. The k-means clustering is one of the basic partition clustering techniques. The objects of similar crime cases are grouped together and are very dissimilar when compare to other groups. This algorithm mainly used to partition the clusters based on their means. Initially number of crime cases are grouped and specified as k clusters. The mean value is calculated as the mean distance between the objects. Then number of iteration are done until the convergence occur. The iterative process of weighing attributes and crime types, future crime patterns can be detected by the detectives or analysts. Unsolved crimes are clustered based on decisive attribute and the results are given to the investigators to proceed the case further. This k-mean is applicable only for numerical attributes and it is not applicable to categorical attributes. Ak- mode clustering technique is used for categorical attributes. In this technique there are two steps such as attribute weighting phase and clustering phase. Weights of the attributes are computed using Information Gain Ratio (IGR) value for each attribute. The greatest value of weight is taken as decisive attribute. The distance between two categorical attributes are computed by finding the differences between two cases give the similarity measures. The analyst has set the threshold value ÃŽÂ ± with the help of the computation result of similarity measures. Finally binary and transformed categorical similarity methods are discussed for finding similarity measures. In the data bases, attribute values are either numerical or categorical i.e. either quantitative or qualitative. In the quantitative (numerical), the difference between two attributes are calculated as the direct difference between those two values of attributes. In the case of qualitative(categorical), the difference between two attributes are calculated as binary values as 0 or 1. If there is a match than attribute value will be 1 or 0 if it is not. This method is named as binary categorical method (BCS). In the transformed categorical similarly (TCS) method, the similarity table has created for all the attributes and the differences between those attributes value will be calculated. This difference gives the similarity measures. Hence various clustering techniques are used to identify the crime patterns which helps the crime analysts to proceed the cases further. V. Conclusion and future work Crime data were under various data preparing steps i.e cleaned the data, resolved inconsistent data and outliers are removed. Grouping crime data objects of clustering was needed to identify crime patterns which support crime analysts and law-enforcers to proceed the case in the investigation and help solving unsolved crimes faster. Similarity measures is an important factor which helps to find unsolved crimes in crime pattern. K-means, Ak-mode and other similarity methods such as binary categorical and transformed categorical methods were used to find the similarity measures of attributes which are very much needed to the crime analysts and police enforcers to solve unsolved crimes. In future, some of the enhancements should be done in the existing algorithms to get an accurate results. There should be some improvement in finding similar case subsets that will be a good direction for solving crimes easily. Finally, challenge of setting threshold value without crime analyst may be an important task in future.

Marijuana Users: Victims of Social Stigmatization and Unjust Penalties :: essays research papers

The Ninth Amendment of the United States Constitution states, â€Å"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.† Simply put, this means that, although limited in its scope of rights and privileges, any particular right, even if not mentioned specifically in the Constitution, cannot be taken away from the American people. Yet, the chosen lifestyles of one particular group of people are violated almost every day: marijuana smokers. Victims of social stigmatization and harsh penalties, marijuana smokers must suffer because of the innumerable falsities and fallacies held by many people, including lawmakers, concerning marijuana. However, when an educated mind disregards the misconceptions about marijuana and analyzes the factual information, the relative personal and societal harm caused by marijuana usage does not warrant its overwhelmingly harsh punishment, nor does it merit the economic stra in caused by the enforcement of radical prohibition laws. What Is It? Marijuana is part of the cannabis family. Considered to be a mild hallucinogen, it produces feelings of euphoria and well-being, a loss of inhibition, an altered sense of time, heightened senses, and, upon high dosage, slight hallucinations. Its active chemical is a cannabinoid called Delta-9 tetrahyrocannabinol, or THC. Research has shown that the human body naturally produces a cannabinoid-like endorphine called anandamine, and that, upon entering the brain, THC locks onto the same receptor cells as does anandamine. THC affects the cerebellum, which coordinates movement and balance; the hippocampus, which dictates thinking and memory; and the rostral ventromedial medulla, in which the pain response is moderated (Booth 12-13). Damaging and Addictive?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The subject of marijuana’s addictive and damaging properties is a hotly debated topic. According to many opponents of marijuana, it is a highly addictive substance. Recent statistics report that 150,000 individuals enter treatment each year for marijuana addiction. Marijuana â€Å"addicts,† according to many experts, experience a decrease in social, occupational or recreational activities; are unable to discontinue their marijuana usage; experience a tolerance buildup and must consume more marijuana for the desired effect; and continue marijuana usage despite the knowledge it can cause severe psychological problems. Claiming marijuana to be emotionally and mentally addictive, experts contend that marijuana addicts allow marijuana to develop into who they believe themselves to be (Marijuana Addiction 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However, the question still remains as to whether these circumstances are entirely true, and, if so, warrant the criminalization of marijuana. Compared to studies done on food addiction, the patterns of addiction are very similar.

Marketing to Children Essay

Advertisers spend 100s of billions of dollars a year worldwide[1] encouraging, persuading and manipulating people into a consumer lifestyle that has devastating consequences for the environment through its extravagance and wastefulness. Advertising exploits individual insecurities, creates false needs and offers counterfeit solutions. It fosters dissatisfaction that leads to consumption. Children are particularly vulnerable to this sort of manipulation. Young children are increasingly the target of advertising and marketing because of the amount of money they spend themselves, the influence they have on their parents spending (the nag factor) and because of the money they will spend when they grow up.[2] Whilst this child-targetted marketing used to concentrate on sweets and toys, it now includes clothes, shoes, a range of fast foods, sports equipment, computer products and toiletries as well as adult products such as cars and credit cards. In Australia, children under 18 have an ave rage $31.60 to spend each week and they influence more than 70 per cent of their parents’ clothes and fast food purchases.[3] Advertisers attending a conference on Marketing to Kids and Youth were told that children and teenagers between the ages of 10 and 17 spent $3.3 billion every year.[4] In the US there are over 57 million school age children and teenagers who spend about $100 billion each year of their own and their family’s money on  sweets, food, drinks, video and electronic products, toys, games, movies, sports, clothes and shoes.[5] Additionally children 12 and under spend more than $11 billion of their own money and influence family spending decisions worth another $165 billion on food, household items like furniture, electrical appliances and computers, vacations, the family car and other spending.[6] For example, one study estimated that children influenced $9 billion worth of car sales in 1994. One car dealer explains: â€Å"Sometimes, the child literally is our customer. I have watched the child pick out the car.†[7] This means that car manufacturers cannot afford to ignore the children in their marketing. Companies such as Nissan sponsor the American Youth Soccer Organisation and a travelling geography exhibit in order to get exposure for their brand name and logo in child-friendly settings. Chrysler distributes 100s of thousands of glossy cardboard pop-up promotional books by direct mail that will appeal to children who love pop-up books. And Chevrolet has used advertisements featuring children. Some car dealers have added children’s play areas and arcade games to their facilities.[8] US advertisers are now beginning to recognise the potential of the international children’s market. James McNeal in his book Kids as Customers estimates that there are about three quarters of a billion children in other industrialised countries: â€Å"Letting one’s marketing imagination run wild for a moment, if these children spend only half of what U.S. children spend, their market potential would be equal to around $86.5 billion.†[9] Brandweek magazine, also enthusing about â€Å"the marketing opportunity that kids around the world represent† pointed out that even in China where children don’t get much income and save most of it, their total spending amounts to $2.6 billion per year, â€Å"second only to the US†.[10] Brandweek cited a survey that showed McDonald’s was the favourite fast food all over the world and Coke the favourite drink. It argued: if it is possible to create global preferences with food products–where obstacles like differences in local cuisine and culture exist–transcending cultural boundaries with toys, clothing and entertainment products should be considerably easier.[11] Average Income and Spending for Children aged 7-12 yrs Regular Income Annual Income# Savings Total Spending $US/month/child $US/year/child  $US/year Germany 32.30 569.40 46% 0.9 billion UK 31.50 506.20 26% 1.7 billion US 29.10 493.10 21% 8.9 billion France 22.50 377.90 30% 2.2 billion Japan* 10.70 407.90 62% 1.0 billion China* 9.00 182.00 60% 2.6 billion * urban areas only # including special income Source: Laurie Klein, `More than play dough’, Brandweek, Vol. 38 (24 November 1997) McNeal argues that â€Å"in many nations the competition for the children’s market is not as aggressive† as in the US: â€Å"It has been said that in the United States when you get a competitor down you kick him; in Asia you help him up.† He suggests that US firms using US-style competition will therefore have an advantage: it appears that fairly standardized multinational marketing strategies to children around the globe are viable. And they are advisable for those American marketers who are wanting to avoid some of the intense competition domestically and are thinking of seeking market and profit growth across the seas.[12]] The Development of a Consumer Children represent three different markets. In addition to the direct money that children spend and the money they influence, children also represent a third major market and perhaps the most significant and that is the future market.[13] Advertisers recognise that brand loyalties and consumer habits formed when children are young and vulnerable will be carried through to adulthood. Retailers and manufacturers have two sources of new customers, those who they can persuade to change from their competitors and those who have not yet entered the market. Those who switch are less likely to be loyal than those who are nurtured from childhood.[14] According to the CEO of Prism Communications, â€Å"they aren’t children so much as what I like to call `evolving consumers’.†[15] McNeal outlines the stages in the evolution of a child consumer. From age 1: Accompanying Parents and Observing. Children are taken with their parents to supermarkets and other stores where all sorts of goodies are displayed. By the time a child can sit erect, he or she is placed in his or her culturally defined observation post high atop a  shopping cart. From this vantage point the child stays safety in proximity to parents but can see for the first time the wonderland of marketing.[16] From age 2: Accompanying Parents and Requesting. Children begin to ask for things that they see and make connections between television advertising and store contents. They pay more attention to those ads and the list of things they want increases. At the same time, the youngster is learning how to get parents to respond to his or her wishes and wants. This may take the form of a grunt, whine, scream, or gesture–indeed some tears may be necessary–but eventually almost all children are able on a regular basis to persuade Mom or Dad to buy something for them.[17] From age 3: Accompanying Parents and Selecting with Permission. Children are able to come down from the shopping trolley and make their own choices. They are able to recognise brands and locate goods in the store.[18] At this point the child has completed many connections, from advertisements to wants, to stores, to displays, to packages, to retrieval of want-satisfying products. For many parents this is a pleasing experience. Ditto for the marketers, for it signals the beginning of the child’s understanding of the want-satisfaction process in a market-driven society.[19] From age 4: Accompanying Parents and Making Independent Purchases. The final step in their development as a consumer is learning to pay for their purchases at the check-out counter. From age 5: Going to the Store Alone and Making Independent Purchases. According to Direct Marketing magazine, by the age of eight children make most of their own buying decisions.[20] Modern children can often recognise brands and status items by the age of 3 or 4, before they can even read. One study found that 52 percent of 3 year olds and 73% of 4 year olds â€Å"often or almost always† asked their parents for specific brands.[21] Advertisers recognise that brand loyalties and consumer habits formed when children are young and vulnerable will be carried through to adulthood. Kids `R’ Us president, Mike Searles, says â€Å"If you own this child at an early age†¦ you can own this child for years to come.†[22] Forms of Marketing Children’s advertising covers all types of media outlets from newspapers to television stations. By the time most US children start school they will have spent 5000 hours watching television. They will spend more time watching television than they spend in class for their entire schooling.[23]  Similarly in Australia, where in one in four homes children have their own television sets, children spend an average of a quarter of their spare time in front of the television.[24] A version of the infomercial aimed at children is the television show whose main characters are modelled after toys. By 1988 64% of television toy advertisements were for toys related to children’s television programmes. Often cartoon characters would be launched as movies, be followed up by television series and then be merchandised on hundreds of products from t-shirts to toys.[25] The head of Disney explained to Advertising Age in 1989 how the Disney Corporation’s activities all reinforced each other: â€Å"The Disney Stores promote the consumer products which promote the [theme] parks which promote the television shows. The television shows promote the company.†[26] Advertisers not only feature cartoon or other characters from children’s television programmes to gain their endorsement for their products (known as host selling) but they sometimes even place those advertisements in the breaks of the television programmes about those characters, thus blurring the distinction between programming and advertising and taking advantage of the affection children feel for those characters.[27] Television advertising makes up about 70% of the total amount spent on advertising to children in the US but total advertising expenditure makes up only about 15% of the total amount of money spent on marketing to children. In fact much marketing to children now consists of sales promotions such as direct coupons, free gifts and samples, contests and sweepstakes, and public relations such as using celebrities and licensed characters which visit shopping centres and schools. New technologies have also provided new opportunities such as the Internet and telephone services that enable â€Å"new, personalized promotions† aimed at children.[28] Marketing in schools is also a rapidly growing arena.[29] Kids clubs, organised by retailers, producers and media outlets, have proliferated in recent times. They offer an opportunity to develop a more personal relationship with each child, get information about the children for marketing purposes that can be used for mailing lists and data bases, and to promote products to children of particular age groups and geographical locations.[30] These additional forms of marketing have supplemented rather than replaced advertising as the importance of the children’s market has grown. Their aim however is the same as advertising,  to create brand loyalties and customers amongst children. Also, those wanting to sell goods recognise that some older children become somewhat cynical of advertisements and therefore publicity in children’s newspapers and magazines as well as other marketing strategies are alternative ways of reaching these children.[31] Advertising on the Internet A new arena for advertising is the internet. It is estimated that about four million children are using the internet world-wide and this figure is bound to increase dramatically over the next few years.[32] According to the director of Saatchi & Saatchi Interactive, â€Å"This is a medium for advertisers that is unprecedented†¦ there’s probably no other product or service that we can think of that is like it in terms of capturing kids’ interest.†[33] In their advertising material Saatchi and Saatchi explain their Kid Connection service: We at KID CONNECTION are committed to understanding kids: their motivations, their feelings, and their influences. In keeping with our mission to connect our clients to the kid market with programs that match our clients’ business objectives with the needs, drives and desires of kids†¦Interactive technology is at the forefront of kid culture, allowing us to enter into contemporary kid life and communicate with the m in an environment they call their own.[34] Children as young as four are being targeted by advertisers on the internet and often the interaction with the children is unmediated by parents or teachers.[35] These advertisers elicit personal information from the children by getting them to fill out surveys before they can play and offering prizes such as T-shirts for filling in â€Å"lengthy profiles that ask for purchasing behavior, preferences and information on other family members.†[36] Advertisers then use this information to â€Å"craft individualised messages and ads† targeted at each child. The ads are integrated with the other content of the internet site which is designed to keep the children engrossed in play for hours at a time. There are even product â€Å"spokescharacters† to interact with the children and develop relationships with them so that long lasting brand loyalties can be developed.[37] Michael Brody, spokesperson for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, told a US Federal Trade Commission workshop on privacy that preadolescent children do not understand what personal information is. What is more, he pointed out, they look up to  fictional characters and tend to do what they ask of them.[38] The Centre for Media Education (CME) studied 38 children’s sites â€Å"commonly found on lists of popular places for children† on the internet. It found that 90% of them collected personal information from children and forty percent used incentives such as free gifts and competitions to encourage children to give that information. One in four subsequently send children an email after they visit the site and 40 percent send `cookies’ to those visiting the site to get unsolicited information from them.[39] Concerns There are questions about the ability of children so young to understand advertising and its intent and not be deceived and manipulated by it. Experts say that children don’t understand persuasive intent until they are eight or nine years old and that it is unethical to advertise to them before then.[40] According to Karpatkin and Holmes from the Consumers Union, â€Å"Young children, in particular, have difficulty in distinguishing between advertising and reality in ads, and ads can distort their view of the world.†[41] Additionally children are unable to evaluate advertising claims. At the same time, Richard Mizerski, an Australian professor of marketing, observes; â€Å"their cognitive structures are beginning to form and they are most sensitive to external influences.†[42] This is especially a problem when advertisements appear on school walls and posters and book covers and gain legitimacy from the supposed endorsement of the school so that children think th ey must be true.[43] One study by Roy Fox, Associate Professor of English Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia, found that children watching athletes in television commercials thought that the athletes paid to be in the advertisements to promote themselves rather than the products. They believed children in advertisements were real rather than paid actors and they often confused advertisements with news items. Generally they did not understand the commercial intent and manipulation behind advertisements.[44] Older children pay less attention to advertisements and are more able to differentiate between the ads and TV programs[45] but they are also easy prey for advertisers. Around puberty, in their early teens, children are forming their own identities and they are â€Å"highly vulnerable to pressure to conform to group standards and mores.†[46] At this age they feel insecure and want to feel that they belong to their  peer group. Advertising manipulates them through their insecurities, seeking to define normality for them; influencing the way they â€Å"view and obtain appropriate models for the adult world;† and undermining â€Å"fundamental human values in the development of the identity of children.†[47] Advertisements actively encourage them to seek happiness and esteem through consumption. It is for these reasons that marketing to children should be carefully restricted. In particular advertisements aimed at children under the age of 9 years old, including on the internet and during children’s television programmes, should be banned. Such advertising subsidises the cost of these services at the cost of our children’s values, sense of well-being, health and integrity. Moreover the future of the planet is at stake if we allow advertisers and marketers to turn children into hyper consumers of the future.

10 Common ESL Mistakes

10 Common ESL Mistakes 10 Common ESL Mistakes 10 Common ESL Mistakes By Guest Author This is a guest post by Pratiti Diddi. If you want to write for Daily Writing Tips check the guidelines here. Learning a new language is never easy. Below you will find ten common mistakes among students of English as a second language. Even if you are a native English speaker I guess you could use a reminder on some of them. Incorrect: My sister is photographer. Correct: My sister is a photographer. Incorrect: It is more cold today. Correct: It is colder today. Incorrect: I have told you all what I know. Correct: I have told you all (that) I know. Incorrect: Which is the biggest city of the world? Correct: Which is the biggest city in the world? Incorrect: I have done a mistake. Correct: I have made a mistake. Incorrect: I have been here since three days. Correct: I have been here for three days. Incorrect: We waited one and a half hour. Correct: We waited one and a half hours. Incorrect: According to me, it’s a bad film. Correct: In my opinion, it’s a bad film. Incorrect: It’s getting winter. Correct: Its getting to be winter. Incorrect: Except Angie, everybody was there. Correct: Except for Angie, everybody was there. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Rhetorical Devices for Rational WritingTaser or Tazer? Tazing or Tasering?Adverbs and Hyphens

A Thousand Paper Crane Book Report Essay Example

A Thousand Paper Crane Book Report Essay Example A Thousand Paper Crane Book Report Essay A Thousand Paper Crane Book Report Essay Sadako was a Japanese girl. When the atom bomb dropped in Japan, she was only a little baby. Her grandma was killed by the bombing. Today is a memorial day; the family did the tradition way to remember her, which is to set free a white drove. The new school year has begun; Sadako was excited to join the track team. But she kept feeling dizzy and was sent to the hospital. The doctor told her that she had Leukemia. She can’t believe it, that means that she has to stay in the hospital and can’t join the track team. The first couple day in the hospital was hard her sister reminded her story of the paper cranes. In that story if a sick people fold a thousand paper cranes, then the god will grain they wish and make they healthy again. She started to fold them and everyone she folded she feels a bit better. One day she met Kenji, who has Leukemia also. Kenji knew he is going to die soon. Just one day she Sadako was in form by the Nurse that Kenji had pass away. Sadako is afraid, some day she might be the next victim of the disease. Even though folding crane make her feel cheerful, but as day went by, she is getting weaker and weaker. Her mother cried everyday; she hated herself for making her mom feel sad. Later she can’t tell days and night anymore, and only wake up short amount of time, she’s too wake to fold crane anymore. And the six hundred and forty fourth cranes was the last crane she ever folded. During the World War II, United State drop an atom bomb on Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945, destroyed the down. Later causes many people have Leukemia. Sadako is one of them, even though she was far away from where the atom bomb. She never thought that some day she would get Leukemia. Ehen she had Leukemia the legend from her culture give her strength away hope. In the hospital, she met Kenji who also had Leukemia just like Sadako. Even though he wasn’t born when the atom bomb was drop in Japan, but he still got the disease from his mom, who passed away because Leukemia. This story is talk about how brave Sadako is when facing the deadly disease. Her culture is what supported her, her family and the story of the thousand paper cranes. When the atom bomb was drop, she was only a little baby. In 10 year the disease develop inside of her. The story take place in Hiroshima, Japan in other country, it wouldn’t have the story at all Atom bomb was the cause of her death, but her believe make her feel stronger inside. When I was reading this book, I would feel sad and hurt. Sadako is so young she doesn’t deserve to die. I don’t know how to explain that feeling, but the way the author wrote the story makes I feel that she’s some one I live and about to let me behind. From the beginning seeing her as the happy little girl whose excited and happy everyday to the strong girl who willing to face her own death, it’s not easy. If I were in that same situation, I wouldn’t know what to do. Another thing about this story is that it’s make me start to think of my own life, the rest of my life. No body will live forever, so we have to be grateful about the time we have. Sometimes, I also think about what would happen if we do die, how is it feel? But those questions can not be answer. Even though I am curious, I don’t want to know the answer, if I have to find that answer myself. I think it’s because how well the author written, but I still don’t care a lot about the author. Just because you like the last book, doesn’t mean that you going to like the next book by the same author. Different story base on different thought, and you might I always believe to let your heart tell you to choose what to read. No body knows you better than yourself. Every time I finish a chapter, I like to do a summery. I think that help me a lot when I do the summery for the whole story. Or sometime I like to put myself into the character and think, what would I do id I were her. That would help me to better understand the purpose of the writer. In this book, I think that it’s really easy; I don’t remember I have a lot of difficult parts or difficult vocabulary. I think if I do have difficult vocabulary, I would look into the dictionary. And from my experience in the past when I have difficult part I don’t understand, I would reread them and the previous and the next sentence to get the meaning. I’m not really sure what it mean by comfortable with this book, but by what I know, I think it’s good for all ages. This book it’s the easiest book I ever this year. It’s really easy and I think I would like to read something else that is more difficult. Even though I like to read something that’s easy, but I think it’s better for me to learn some new vocabulary. The reason I chose this book is because of my interest on World War II. And this is a historical fiction and its base on real story that happen after the atom bomb drop in Japan. Keep reading the same kind of setting of the book make it easier for me, because sometimes I don’t know what to read. So if I have an idea, it would be easier and not waste much time. Next time, I might read about the World War II again, or read something interest to me, which I don’t know what it is yet.

What is the relationship between philosophy and the good life Essay

What is the relationship between philosophy and the good life - Essay Example Such a life cares for values like honesty, integrity, independence and justice, over personal comforts or wealth. Thus a human being can understand the values of life only through philosophy; and therefore it becomes apparent that philosophy is the path to good life. Thus when a good life is the end, philosophy is the means to attain that end. Philosophy has developed and evolved as a most significant branch of learning because humans always pursue a better understanding of the meaning of life. Ancient philosophers like Socrates has seen the purpose of human life as serving for the common good of all as is evident from the way he lived his life. Rather than being blinded by materialistic pursuits he has lived his whole life in learning and teaching philosophy. Thus his life inspired many people, especially Plato who took up the call and embarked upon a journey similar to that of his teacher, seeking a good life by pursuing and teaching philosophy. Their search for the true meaning revealed to others that a good life is a life that gets closest to the realities, eschewing the delusions that veil the face of truth. It is through philosophy that their lives became meaningful by which they still retain their validity in the modern world. Philosophy’s relation to good life is emphasized by many experts in the field. â€Å"It is the task of philosophy to determine the central values pertaining to conscious life, which provides guidance in the choice of those concrete values, thereby enabling the achievement and enjoyment of life.† (Philosophical Reflections: Values). This theory confirms the role of philosophy in attaining the objective of a good life and establishes that to reach the actual goal of life one must follow the path of philosophy. This is further evidenced in the lives of great thinkers like Socrates and Plato whose philosophical ways we emulate even the

Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 9

Research - Essay Example Research based solutions are beneficial because they take into account the most recent advancements in the medical field in question while also coming up with practical solutions on how to confront the existing problem. A good example of this is the use of virtual doctor’s assistants in order to leave more registered nurses free to perform the existing duties. Virtual assistants will not just be helpful in ensuring that a lot of medical personnel are liberated to fulfill other duties, but will also contribute towards the streamlining of the use of information technology in various respects by medical organizations. Many hospitals still struggle to implement electronic records that function well. Virtual assistants will help in ensuring that there is better tracking of the records of patients’ health every day. This will in turn reduce the number of doctor visits on a daily basis, empower the patients in terms of their healthcare, and reduce the incidence of serious medi cal problems. The use of virtual assistants is not a reality in many parts of the world and its practicality is still doubted by many healthcare experts (LittleJohn, Campbell, Collins-McNeil, & Khayile, 2012). In addition, there is not much research that has been conducted to substantiate the claims that this is one subject that can help in dealing with staff shortages among other problems. However, it is evident that the use of virtual assistants has more potential benefits than any other solution to date. A virtual assistant will even be able to monitor doctor prescriptions, reducing the incidence of visits to the doctor and thus saving costs. In recent times, health-related developments such as health-monitoring and data tracking have began to be accepted in the mainstream as viable health care solutions. Virtual assistants also need to begin being seriously considered as a serious answer to the majority