Saturday, August 31, 2019

Prelude no 15 in Db major by Chopin

The song Prelude no.15 by Chopin, also known as the raindrop prelude is written in ternary form, which means it's an ABA structure. It's structure unlike many other preludes has a very clear Ternary form structure with a coda at the end to finish the piece nicely. Section A is written in Db, while section B is written enharmonically in C# minor. Although it is in Ternary form the piece can be split into 4 parts. The Coda, A, B, and A again. Melody and Rhythm Just like the name of the piece, Raindrop, throughout the piece sustained notes are used to act as the continuous raindrops falling. During the piece such as in the first bar, Chopin uses descending notes and arpeggio's to represent falling raindrops. He also uses septuplets and turns to create similar effects. He changes to the relative minor and dominant keys to create variation within the melody. Tonality The Raindrop Prelude is written in Db major with 5 flats. Bb, Eb, Ab, Db and Gb. The piece is generally tonal and uses many different relative keys to create variation throughout the piece. Texture. Although the Raindrop Prelude is written and played on one piano the texture is generally quite thick throughout. Chopin, in the B section, uses a technique called doubling to create a powerful and a build up of the texture. This is where a note is played in octaves in both hands creating a more emotional feeling as well, as a feature of romantic music. The texture could be described as both polyphonic and homophonic as the melody above the pedaled notes is more complex but fits in with many of the sustained notes. Use of Piano. Because Prelude no. 15 is written for piano Chopin uses the abilities of the piano very well to create variation among sections. For example, in section B the melody is played in the Left hand rather than the Right which created a low forceful and powerful sound. Also by using pedaled notes in both the harmony and melody the sound of the piano created the feel of raindrops. Chopin also wrote Prelude no. 15 because many pieces of music were created for the piano in the Romantic era as the instrument was developed and made bigger which enables it to create Cantabile sounds and sustained slurs with pedals. Also piano's were now able to make larger ranges of dynamics, articulation and pitches because of the use of hammers on strings and the extension of octaves.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Current And Future Use of Technology Essay

Spotify has provided a way for people to access and share music with services such as exchange of selections and even mobile access. In the process of providing these services, the users’ data is acquired through initial registration and this helps categorize the market. The main target for Spotify is not registration of premium accounts without adverts but the free use by the public where adverts can be played in between songs. There are many issues handled by Spotify in the business including competition from existing online music selling companies like Sony and Apple, and challenges on fair artists’ royalties with restrictions by copyrights in some regions. The e business strategy is well established for Spotify as the company deals with music producing companies and companies who look for a way to advertise brands. The peer to peer technology used and the feature of listening to music even when offline together with a simple user interface are all technological advantages of Spotify that make it popular in the market. The future of Spotify is based on integration of the software into hand held processing devices like modern phones, and having a good relation with the sources of music. E-Business background Spotify’s business idea was to create a medium through which to provide advertisers with a way of reaching a traceable and response predictable market. By creating a digital library of a wide variety of music and an interface through which listeners can register and listen to music free, Spotify was able do just that. There are adverts pushed in between songs and last for between 15 and 30 seconds. The users that don’t want to get interference from the audio adverts can pay a monthly fee to stop them. The portion of listeners who pay this fee is so small compared to the free users, who form the main market idea for Spotify. The company has arrangement with the world’s major labels to provide their music and in return claim an 18% stake in the company. The integration of the music producing companies, the listeners and the advertisers forms the e-business model for Spotify. There is competition from similar companies like Last. fm, Amazon (which sells music online), my space and facebook; with the direct rival being Last. fm. Spotify and Last. fm have integrated their systems though and this form a way to create an entry hardship in an effort to protect high profit business and raise competition advantage for both companies to realize. Porters Five Forces model Spotify’s business faces the five forces from threats of substitute, barriers to entry, supply power, buyers power and rivalry (Porter 1985). There are various ways that it has put up strategies to deal with this. First, there is the presence of substitute firms like Last. com; Spotify has planned to sing a deal in merged operations with the company in order to increase the business opportunities for both sides. It was proposed that the advertisers/brands could then be able to buy advertising services across the platforms of the two companies (McCormick 2009). According to the nature of the platform on which the adverts are run, Spotify has created a medium where the message is streamline with the music being listened to. Apart from the major rival with whom Spotify agrees to merge business with, the brands will face a hard time looking for an alternative service of the kind. Thus the buyer’s power is low, considering that there are also many scattered brands to advertise through the electronic platform. Furthermore, the platform provides a way of major record labels availing their music to the users, making sure that brands can get the largest number of music fans at Spotify, which they cannot get from online music shops. On the suppliers’ power towards Spotify’s business, there are many music producing labels that offer a variety of music. Also, the fact that the buyers of the service are somewhat weak, the suppliers are also put in the same line; because advertisers has no much power over Spotify, they cannot demand of specific record labels. Since the entry of Spotify into the e-business, the key issue is to keep the prices offered virtually low in order to provide a barrier of entry of new competition. One strategy applied by firms to this effect is merging their markets and operations so that they can enjoy economies of scale and protect the high profit market from other entrants while keeping the quality of services high. This was a case possible from the Spotify’s deal with Last. fm. There is rivalry in the industry of e-business and marketing through electronic means has been applied by many companies. The industry is disciplined though, from previous competition, the methods of enticing the music fans and through ease of use of platforms by the market forming population. The application streams music with no buffering times and provides a very wide variety of ready to listen categories of songs; from major record labels. The fact that the market for Spotify seems to be exponentially growing means that soon the buyers will be so many and so their power will go down, providing a business advantage for the company ( ). E-Marketing The internet is a unique marketing medium in that it provides a global market with instant response dynamism. The fact that when a product is advertised through the internet can reach millions of users within a short while is enough to make it a rich market. Spotify has its marketing strategy based on online access of adverts by the users in their endeavor to listen to music. Data and Market Analysis The strongest part of Spotify registration of users is that it takes the demographic data so that the company is in a position to provide marketing strategies to advertisers based on age, location and music taste. The ability to analyze and classify a market is important to advertisers, especially when it involves technical goods and services. Promotion and mobile services The introduction of the mobile version of Spotify software has helped in a far reaching marketing strategy. The whole issue has been in news for sometime and major discussion blogs and websites like BBC NEWS, leading to less costly promotion effect in Europe. The market in Spotify is really the online internet resource as well as the users PC’s and portable mobile Activities Spotify engages in various activities that are geared towards having a wide base of users so that it can reach more people when targeting an audience for an advert. These activities include; invite scheme, tell a friend and viral advertising. The â€Å"invite scheme† is where the newly registered and the existing members are given an opportunity to invite friends and family to experience Spotify while still promoting the premium membership. The â€Å"tell a friend† activity involves a Spotify inbuilt tool to spread word of mouth. This is a strategy to use the existing users to get the message to their friends using the already existing internet framework. The other one is viral advertising where the medium mainly used is social networking frameworks like facebook. The most visited WebPages are targeted and a multimedia message displayed. Web-design Spotify has created a peer to peer application that streams music between the listeners computer, whether online or offline. Spotify has a service to which clients connect and have the contents of the cache summarized in an index which is then sent to Spotify’s stream hub. The data in the index is usually used to alert other users of the additional peers they can connect to, to fetch streamed data for specific songs being played. This arrangement is enabled and tolerated by each upon start up. Each client listen to incoming connections from other Spotify clients like a server and connects to other users to exchange cached data. The users are actually not in apposition to configure the connections or alter the bandwidth of transmission of data. These settings are hard coded in the system. The design of the entire architecture may be complicated but the interface used by the listeners is so simple and effective. There are just few controls of play, rewind and forward. The Spotify application offers the following features to the users; Catalogue: Spotify offers users access to millions of music tracks including songs from major music labels. Some specific music from some artists may not be available due to boundary regulations in the copyright. Playlists: it allows users to create collections of favorite music and lets them share them. The users can also edit the playlists with other users together through collaborating software. For this purpose, the playlists can be shared through an email or instant messaging window. On accessing the link, the data gets downloaded into Spotify. Integration with Last. fm: the specific feature from last. fm is the ability to collect the users’ preference in music and store it into Last. fm’s database. This has been integrated into Spotify without requiring external plug-ins (Spotify Archives 2010). Radio feature: this creates random playlists of songs related to the music of the currently selected artist. Spotify has a simple to use interface that allows the user to search for music by artist, album or title. It displays the user chosen playlist and some advert image, which on clicking, one can explore the promotion (Spotify Forums 2010). Business-to-Business (B2B) Spotify has introduced the music service to the listeners and charge a certain rate for ad free music. However, it does not rely on this for its source of revenue. It largely relies on the free service where the listeners will have to bear with the adverts. At this point, it does business with other firms that want to advertise their brands to the listeners. The main target for business is therefore dealing with other companies that want to reach the audience. On the same platform, there is collaboration with major record labels where they claim a certain percentage stake in the company and in turn provide their music libraries to Spotify (Nylander 2009). Spotify focuses on doing business with other businesses in its plans. It has tailored it product for mobile phones and approached the mobile phone making companies like apple in an effort to do business with them (Emerald). This is a direct challenge to Apple’s iTunes though and touches on the competition end. Mobile Commerce Spotify has produced a mobile version of the application that can allow users with premium accounts to access and listen to music wherever they go. It also allows the users to download a certain number of songs on to the phone for listening while out of network range. Mobile business seems to be the future of IT marketing, especially with the progress and expectations of pervasive mobile programming. By considering the mobile version of the application to target the users on the move and virtually at all instances of life, Spotify has provided a wider more reaching market for its business. Given that all the mobile users will have to be premium users, the focus of mobile versions will be to create a customer base where the services will be like a contract between Spotify and the user (Ionescu 2009). This eliminates the advertisers from the picture and allows Spotify to compete with earlier established businesses on the same line like Apple, while still spreading the risk. Instead of relying on the advertising source alone, the company can now create a one to one relation with the music fans through their premium accounts. Conclusions It is a good business plan for Spotify to create such a huge market base by having so many users registered, both free and premium categories. The plan of pushing adverts into streamed music provides an excellent way of gaining the revenue from brands. On the mobile world, it provides a good way of reaching a wider market and a premium account for the mobile is a plus on the revenue. This was a wise decision considering the processing power of phones cannot be compared to that of PC’s. The strategy of extending into the mobile world was a good way of preparing for the future of IT with the trends in pervasive mobile programming. Mobile marketing will form an even wider market considering the more frequent use and an extension of the PC use after work hours. Recommendations The competition in the market is high and Spotify will have to deal with some issues, especially with the application interface and specifically the technology on the size of bandwidth among other resource utilized on users machines. Criticism is usually on the fact that the interface does not give a user the access to control the amount of resources like bandwidth that Spotify uses against other systems on the same machine. The issue of coming up with a way of establishing the classification of music sources with their effect on the market using the users data to determine the ratings would be an important thing to indulge in, in order to establishing a fair royalties to the artists in order to keep everyone happy and the future of Spotify bright (BBC News 2010). More concentration on helping the production teams with useful demographic and ratings information will give the company a strong relationship with the source of music, the medium they use to make money. References BBC News, (2010) ‘Spotify boss Daniel Ek sets out future plans’, [Online], Available: http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/8478599. stm Porter M. (1998) ‘Competitive strategy: techniques for analyzing industries and competitors’, Free Press, ISBN 0684005778, 9780684005775. McCormick, A. (2009) ‘Spotify and Last. fm moot partnership’, Britannica article; Revolution (14605953) [Online], Available: http://www. britannica. com/bps/additionalcontent/18/38216709/Spotify-and-Lastfm-moot-partnership Ionescu D. , Nov 23, 2009, Spotify Lands App for Symbian Phones, today@PCworld, [Online], Available: http://www. pcworld. com/article/182833/spotify_lands_app_for_symbian_phones. html Robert Andrews, 2009, Apple Approves Spotify’s iPhone App, web article on Paid Content: UK, [Online], Available: http://paidcontent. co. uk/article/419-spotify-says-apple-still-testing-iphone-app-spotify-vanishes-from-app-s/ Emerald, Current CITE-ings from the popular and trade computing press, Library Hi Tech News, Volume 26, Issue 9, [Online], Available: http://www. emeraldinsight. com. ezproxy. cqu. edu. au/Insight/ViewContentServlet? contentType=NonArticle&Filename=Published/NonArticle/Articles/23926iae. 001. html Spotify Archives (2010) ‘Spotify for iPhone v0. 4 now available’, [Online], Available: http://www. spotify. com/int/blog/archives/2010/03/31/iphone-v4/ Johan Nylander, Record labels part owner of Spotify, from The Swedish Wire, Published Friday, 07 August 2009, [Online], Available: http://www. swedishwire. com/business/680-record-labels-part-owner-of-spotify Spotify Forums, What is Spotify? Why choose Spotify? How much advertising? [Online], Available: http://www. spotify-forum. com/what_is_spotify. php

Thursday, August 29, 2019

The Most Dangerous Game Essay

In the short story â€Å"The Most Dangerous Game† by Richard Connell, a man named Sanger Rainsford faces a conflict which is being stranded on what he thinks is a deserted island. This island was totally uninhabited with the exception of one man who lives there, General Zaroff. General Zaroff loves to hunt, but he hunts more than just animals. You see, General Zaroff got tired of hunting just animals, he claims it was too easy for him since he was such an outstanding hunter.He wanted more of a challenge. Rainsford finds out that General Zaroff has hunted humans before, therefore making him a murderer. One critic has remarked, â€Å"Ironically, General Zaroff’s belief in his invincibility weakens him and causes his defeat. † I agree with this critic for many different reasons. It is good to be smart and fearless when stuck in bad situation. It can help you get out of it quickly. However, I believe that having too much courage in these situations is not good, and n ot helpful.When you think you are invincible in scary situations, this can weaken you and cause you defeat. This is why I agree with the critic who said this statement about General Zaroff. For example, while talking to Rainsford, General Zaroff reveals how cocky he is about his hunting skills. General Zaroff says he believes that life is for the stronger and the weak people are put here to give the stronger pleasure. He also adds that he is strong and that he should use his gift.You can conclude from what Zaroff is saying that he should be allowed to hunt whomever and whatever he pleases, which includes humans. Having a gift of being an excellent hunter does not give you the right to hunt the more challenging creatures (humans). Because he has a talent, Zaroff thinks he should be able to use it. This is what makes him think he is invincible, when he really is not. He is not invincible because his cockiness led to his defeat. For example, Zaroff thinks that Rainsford commits suicide to end the game.Zaroff thinks this because he thinks anyone would end the game rather to be put to death by an excellent hunter like himself. Zaroff’s invincibility is the reason for his defeat by Rainsford in the game because Rainsford did not kill himself. He pretended to so he could fool the General. Rainsford then attacked Zaroff when he least expected it. In conclusion, General Zaroff’s belief in his cockiness and invincibility was the cause for his defeat. General Zaroff finally understands the feeling of being the prey for once – and not the predator!

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

A Practitioner's Handbook Speech or Presentation

A Practitioner's Handbook - Speech or Presentation Example Hope this exercise was fun and fruitful. Now we shall engage in a discussion of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test which, apart from the Word Attack exercise conducted, examines various other aspects of an individual’s reading ability.I shall begin my speech by explaining to you what The Woodcock Reading Mastery Test actually is. The Woodcock Reading Mastery Test is a â€Å"norm-referenced† series of assessments that enables assessors to determine the reading achievements and abilities of individuals (Rathvon, 2004). The test is administered on an individual basis and is diagnostic in nature. Basically, the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test measures the â€Å"reading readiness† of individuals. It primarily targets individuals who have difficulty in reading. The purpose of this test goes beyond the general aim of identifying reading abilities of the candidate as it highlights the individuals’ strengths and weaknesses in particular areas of reading so that target ed action may be taken. It allows specific strategies to be devised for students who have special needs in reading. Particular attention is devoted to ELL learners whose reading abilities are determined by this test. Not only does this test allow for an evaluation of the candidate but also the institution or school’s reading programs.   The history of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test can be traced back to 1973 when Dr. Richard Woodcock laid the first foundations of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test   (Rathvon, 2004).... is a â€Å"norm-referenced† series of assessments that enables assessors to determine the reading achievements and abilities of individuals (Rathvon, 2004). The test is administered on an individual basis and is diagnostic in nature. Basically, the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test measures the â€Å"reading readiness† of individuals. It primarily targets individuals who have difficulty in reading. The purpose of this test goes beyond the general aim of identifying reading abilities of the candidate as it highlights the individuals’ strengths and weaknesses in particular areas of reading so that targeted action may be taken. It allows specific strategies to be devised for students who have special needs in reading. Particular attention is devoted to ELL learners whose reading abilities are determined by this test. Not only does this test allow for an evaluation of the candidate but also the institution or school’s reading programs. The history of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test can be traced back to 1973 when Dr. Richard Woodcock laid the first foundations of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test (Rathvon, 2004). This test could be taken by children from kindergarten through the twelfth grade which was a rather broad target segment for this assessment (Rathvon, 2004). This test was best suited for ESL candidates. Furthermore, the test involved short intervals and comprised of 5 subtests including the Word Attack, Word ID, Letter ID Passage Comprehension and Word Comprehension. This test was later revised in 1998 whereby Forms G and H were introduced which were not parallel in nature (Rathvon, 2004). These two forms allowed the assessor to test and re-test as they were non-overlapping in nature. Therefore, as you may think, this assessment was highly thorough in nature.

Who Were the Two Key Figures in Philosophy at the Turn of the Century Research Paper

Who Were the Two Key Figures in Philosophy at the Turn of the Century - Research Paper Example Alison Wylie is a philosopher of science that dealt with evidential reasoning including various ideas of objectivity while attending to vagaries of a specific inference from limited data. Wylie has made a great contribution to how archeologist will be able to establish knowledge claims regarding social and cultural pasts having a radical and incomplete information base. Through his philosophies, there are ways in which ideas and objectivities can be defended while recognizing explicit partisan interest should not be biased, instead play an important role in inquiries. Roberto Torretti made a great contribution to the philosophy of Immanuel Kent relating to Geometry and Elparaiso del cantor, although much of the work did by Torreti dealt with mathematics and physics. The most recent work he did focus majorly on relativity theory and geometry of the 19th century; in addition, he wrote a comprehensive dictionary on logic as well as the philosophy of science Jesus Mosterin (Boersema) Dav id Charles Stove is a professor who made scathing attacks on issues like Popperian falsification, postmodernism, Marxism and feminism. The stove is a known defender of inductive skepticism and he was able to write various articles for magazines that were non-philosophical. One of his arguments regarding inductive skepticism is that it was fallacious and harmful and it causes modern nervousness, he also criticized biology of evolution stating that it was not as radical as it should be, especially the distortion view of human beings that is proposed by Ultra-Darwinists. Moreover, he also argued about altruism stating the altruism has given some contributions to the growth of cynicism and selfishness among human beings. Charles Darwin is a philosopher who established the theory of evolution in 1859; moreover, like many other philosophers, he also had a tremendous impact concerning the philosophy of America. Though he was not known many outside academics, two thinkers came up and wrote along with his lines of philosophy. The two thinkers are John Fiske (1842-1901) and Chauncey Wright (1830-1875), they both insisted on the importance of understanding morality and consciousness in conjunction to their evolutionary development; therefore, their way of thinking became more liked in the twentieth century. In addition, other 19th century philosophers include the three philosophers who are known as classical pragmatists, of the three Peirce Charles came up with the term â€Å"pragmatism†, the logic of relations and the studying of signs in the 1870s. Despite this, Peirce who is also known to be a mathematician, as well as a scientist, wrote about the importance of philosophy as well as the value theory. James William is another philosopher who did more work than Peirce did; moreover, he popularized pragmatism as a theory that stood for truth and resolved disputes in his work. John Dewey, on the other hand, reached more audience as compared to Peirce and James beca use he was born many generations after them. Due to his work, he was a known reformer of education who participated in public forums as well as influencing democratic and education works.  

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Sage 50 vs Lawson ERP Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sage 50 vs Lawson ERP - Research Paper Example As described in its website, the major Sage 50 Apps include Tracker App, Mobile Sales App, Foreign Trade App, and Construction Industry App. The Tracker App provides businesses a secure access to their accounts through the smartphone. The Mobile Sales App assists businessmen to work on the move using tablet. Foreign Trade App is really beneficial to make the work of trading in multiple currencies easier. Similarly, the Construction Industry App provides all the facilities needed to manage industry specific tax (Sage). The Sage 50 Accounting is a comprehensive software capable of managing VAT, sales, expenses, and profits more efficiently. In addition, this accounting software allows businesses to access their accounts remotely using the Sage Drive. The company offers annual pricing as well as monthly pricing options. It charges $269 annually and $29.5 monthly for the subscription of this accounting product (Sage 50 products). The Sage 50 Accounting software does not require any speci al hardware or software, and therefore it is easy for businesses to implement this software. Lawson is the world’s leading Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software company having strength of over 4,500 customers, 4,000 employees, and offices in more than 40 countries around the globe (Lawson Software). The company has well-expanded operations worldwide, and it offers a wide range of ERP applications and industry-specific solutions to meet the needs of small, medium, and large scale enterprises. The company was acquired by Infor recently, and currently the combined organization is the world’s third largest enterprise software company behind Oracle and SAP (Lawson Software). The two major product offerings of Lawson are branded as S3 and M3. Here, the letter S stands for service and this product (S3) was introduced to â€Å"help service industries ‘staff, source, and serve† (Lawson

Monday, August 26, 2019

Practical Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Practical Decision Making - Essay Example In HTAB there are three kinds of Hypothesis - Research Hypothesis, Statistical Hypothesis and Substantive Hypothesis. Research Hypothesis is a statement of what the researcher believes will be the outcome of an experiment or a study. Statistical Hypothesis is a more formal structure derived from the research hypothesis. Substantive Hypothesis is a statistically significant difference which does not imply a material substantive difference. (Business Statistics 4e by Ken Black). A preconceived conclusion is an inevitable outcome of Research Hypothesis. The researcher tends to become biased. For example, older workers are more loyal to a company. That may true in most cases. But it is still a hypothesis. There maybe some old workers who resent company policy to the extent that they have been nursing grievances or have not been allowing new employees to prove their potential in the company. Statistical hypothesis is to some extent also preconceived . Although it has a more formal structure it is essentially based on the preconceived notion of the Research Hypothesis. Substantive Hypothesis is the significant difference which does not always encompass material or quantitative difference. There are two parts of Statistical hypothesis - a null hypothesis ... There maybe some old workers who resent company policy to the extent that they have been nursing grievances or have not been allowing new employees to prove their potential in the company. Statistical hypothesis is to some extent also preconceived . Although it has a more formal structure it is essentially based on the preconceived notion of the Research Hypothesis. Substantive Hypothesis is the significant difference which does not always encompass material or quantitative difference. There are two parts of Statistical hypothesis - a null hypothesis and an alternative hypothesis. According to Null Hypothesis one might be tempted to conclude that nothing new is happening. However, according to the Alternative Hypothesis one would emphatically conclude something new is happening. The Null and Alternative Hypotheses are mutually exclusive. Only one of them can be true. They are also collectively exhaustive. They are stated to include all possibilities. While Null Hypothesis is assumed to be true, the onus of proof falls on the Alternative Hypothesis. Failing to reject a false null hypothesis and rejecting a true null hypothesis are the two types of errors which occur in HTAB system. Once the Hypothesis is made it is tested. Based on the test result statistical action is taken. Then the Business Implications are determined. The first step in Testing Hypotheses is to establish the hypothesis and state the null and alternative hypotheses. Then the appropriate statistical test and sampling distribution is determined. After specifying Type I error rate the decision rule is stated. Sample Data is gathered and the value of the test statistic is calculated. Once the statistical conclusion is stated and the business implications are determined a managerial

Sunday, August 25, 2019

MGMT 3000 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

MGMT 3000 - Essay Example Here possessing high score refers to organized, responsible and dependable nature where scoring low refers to unreliable and disorganized nature. Emotional Stability: It deals with ability to handle stress. People having high emotional stability, always tend to become secure and self-confident and have comparatively higher job and life satisfaction. On the other side people with low emotional stability tends to be anxious, depressed and nervous. Openness to Experience: It focuses to determine desire and interest towards the creativity and novelty. People scoring low have a tendency to be conventional, where as on the opposite side high scorers tend to be curious, creative and artistically sensitive. Positive core self evaluators like themselves and consider themselves as capable and effective. They usually set ambitious goal and tend to perform better to achieve them where as negative evaluators dislike themselves and consider themselves as powerless. It defines the ability of the people to fit external and situational factors through adjusting their behaviors. People scoring low in this factor usually have high behavioral consistency and vice-versa. High self-monitors take leadership positions instead of having less commitment to their organizations. There are basically two personality types A and B. Type A refers to the competitive people and can work well in high level of stress also. They are basically fast workers and less quality conscious and highly prized in America. Where as Type B people are less competitive by nature and have less time urgency. Proactive Personality: Possessing this personality, enable individuals to show initiatives and identify opportunities. They are use to be the leaders and change agents and like to challenge the status quo. It ranks the individual’s value into the hierarchical value system. It consists of the content and intensity which denotes the importance of the mode of

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Dr. Henry Cotton Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dr. Henry Cotton - Essay Example He observed that the patients with high body temperature frequently experience delusions and hallucinates; Meyer proposed that the presence of infectivity causes the behavioral disorders on the basis of biological grounds and Dr. Henry Cotton would turn out to be the major practitioner of this new concept in States. After developing into medicinal manager of Trenton State Hospital at the young age of just 30, Henry A. Cotton began to introduce various progressive plans, for example eliminating mechanical moderations that had formed frightening situations in refuges for a lot of years and executing staff meetings on a daily basis to talk about patient care. Cotton began to realize these newly rising medical theories by having patients teeth removed if they were alleged of harboring concealed affectivities. In the incident that this failed to treat a patient, he wanted sources of virus in tonsils and sinuses and frequently a tonsillectomy was suggested as further treatment. If a treatment was not attained after these processes, other organs were assumed of harbor infection. Testicles, ovaries, gall bladders, stomachs, spleens, cervixes, and mainly colons might be alleged as the center of infection and eliminate surgically, through the extra parts aimed at the rendering plant for additional procee ds. This was before even basic technical methods for instance manage groups -- much less double-blind experiments -- existed, statistical tactic for applications in human performance and medical study did not appear throughout the life span of Cotton. He might only go after imperfect techniques to collect information, a lot of it permitting for protrusion of predictable results. He described brilliant achievement with his methods, with heal rates of 85 percent; this, in combination with the feeling at the moment that inspecting such biological causes was the situation of the skill of medicine, fetched him

Friday, August 23, 2019

Punnet squares experiment lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Punnet squares experiment - Lab Report Example The phenotype is the way of the expression of the combination of the genes. When the two alleles for a particular characteristic are identical, it is called as homozygous allele and if different it is called as heterozygous allele. If two different alleles are present in a trait, then only characteristics is expressed. It is called as Dominant allele and the other is called as the recessive allele. In the scenario 1, the heterozygous gray-bodied fly and the homozygous black-bodied fly are crossed and the first felial generation was obtained. The Punnet square for this crossing is given below. The F1 generation contains 2 heterozygous gray-bodied fly and 2 homozygous black-bodied fly as the offsprings. In the scenario 2, two heterozygous gray bodied flies are crossed and the first felial generation was obtained. It was found that the F1 generation contains 2 heterozygous gray bodied flies 1 homozygous gray bodies fly and 1 homozygous black-bodied fly as the offsprings. The Punnett Square for this crossing is given below In the scenario 3, homozygous long-winged fly and the homozygous vestigial – winged fly are crossed and the first felial generation was obtained. The F1 generation was found to have 4 heterozygous long-winged flies. The punnett square for this crossing is given below. The fourth scenario is based on the mating of homozygous long-winged fly with the heterozygous long-winged fly. The F1 generation obtained was found to contain 2 homozygous long-winged fly and 2 heterozygous long-winged fly. The punnett square is given below. In the scenario 5, the mating of the heterozygous long-winged flies was carried out and the first felial generation obtained was found to contain 1 homozygous long winged fly, 2 heterozygous long-winged flies and 1 homozygous vestigial-winged fly. The punnett square for this mating is given below. The 6th Scenario is based on the mating of the homozygous gray bodied fly with the

Thursday, August 22, 2019

The Power of Fallacy in Advertising Essay Example for Free

The Power of Fallacy in Advertising Essay Fallacies in advertising are prevalent nowadays to gain commercial advantage to the target audience primarily because people do not bother giving attention to traditional ads whether it is on the radio, on television, or on the Internet. Its a very powerful advertising tool that focuses on deceptive claims that makes us hear what we want to hear and see what we want to see. Take the Xenadrine EFX diet pill advertisement for example. The advertisement claims to help burn off fat by boosting metabolism, though they never cited a qualified scientific study to back it up. The marketers of the product hired already physically fit actors and actresses to create an illusion that Xenadrine EFX helps in reducing body fat. The claim was later investigated by the Federal Trade Commission and was found guilty of falsifying claims and was therefore fined. Using fallacy in advertising helps attract viewers by leading them to believe in the effect of the product even if its effects are not proven. It has its downsides as the example above explains, but it still is a very powerful tool that captures the target audiences effectively. Another form of fallacy thats very popular nowadays is called ad hominem. According to The Dictionary website, ad hominem is defined as â€Å"Appealing to ones prejudices, emotions, or special interests rather than to ones intellect or reason. † (2006) Ad hominem is used more often because the nature of it is judging a person by what they do and who they are rather than hearing what he has to say and what he has to offer. In reality, people always use ad hominem always, especially they fight for what they think is right based on their own judgment. Most people are opinionated and full of pride that they tend to judge first based on their common knowledge. Ad hominem is a type of fallacy that people are accustomed to. Its basically the kind of fallacy that seems to be around for ages even before the word itself was invented. Generally, people subconsiously practice it everyday without even knowing it, therefore its easier for them to apply it in everything that they do. Reference (2006). Ad hominem. Retrieved February 26, 2008 from http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/ad%20hominem. (n. d. ). US weight-loss pill marketers fined for falls claims. Retrieved February 26, 2008 from http://www. contactomagazine. com/articles/weightloss0107. htm

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Clausewitz in the 21st Century Essay Example for Free

Clausewitz in the 21st Century Essay The work of Carl von Clausewitz continues to bring about heated debate in the 21st Century. While many scholars see Clausewitz’s On War as an indispensible military thought in the modern times, others view it as an obsolete or morally repellent argument for unlimited, unrestrained and brutal warfare. [1] Notwithstanding the opposition of present times, this renowned work is considered incomplete and its lack of prescriptive contents has subjected it to interpretations and discourses. Facing this encumbrance, the study of On War has to go beyond textual analysis to an appreciation of the historical context which influenced the author’s thinking and the evolution of the book over time. Fortunately, with the enduring efforts of numerous historians, we now know that Clausewitz’s experiences in the Napoleonic Wars and his study in the age of Frederick the Great (and beyond) allowed him to create a unified, all encompassing theory of war. [2] To date, much literature has been written to attest to the relevance of Clausewitz’s theories in modern warfare and assert the timelessness of On War. This paper examines the insights gained from the great studies on Clausewitz’s works and re-confirm the continued relevance of his theories by: (1) identifying the character of 21st Century warfare, followed by (2) an interpretation of Clausewitz’s theories and his underlying thinking, and finally (3) examining the relevance of the theories concerned and determine how they can be applied in the 21st Century. The 21st Century Warfare The character of warfare has evolved since the passing of Carl von Clausewitz 180 years ago. The likelihood of massive clashes between onventional forces seems to be diminishing and the world has seen the dawn of non-state actors challenging established states with asymmetric warfare[4] techniques. William Lind aptly chronicled the evolution of warfare in four generations, which began with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. He described present day warfare as fourth-generation warfare (4GW) that is characterized by a universal crisis of legitimacy of the state, where militaries had to fight against threats that are transnational in nature and are very difficult to deal with. 5] The capabilities of these threat entities stem from the effects of globalisation that have enabled further, faster, deeper and cheaper means to reach around the world. [6] In addition to the physical reach, today’s information technology has also brought about various modern communication avenues that allow collaboration and ready access to information. Consequently, this also allowed rapid access to media pipelines enabling belligerents to exploit them to further their cause. These have bestowed transnational terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda, and the more sophisticated Hezbollah[7], with the abilities to acquire equipment, knowledge and instruments that rival those of the traditional state to wage wars. According to Lind, 4GW also brings together the relevance of mass firepower dominated by artillery in the second-generation warfare and manoeuvre concepts of third-generation warfare, making it more complex than ever before. Therefore, we can conclude at this point that 21st Century strategists and war-fighters have to contend with both conventional threats from traditional states and unconventional threats from non-state actors, both whom are capable of waging wars. Intricacies of Clausewitz’s Work To grasp how Clausewitz’s theories can be applied in 4GW, it is necessary to decipher the underlying thinking of the author’s work. Many of Clausewitz’s theories articulated in On War are remarkably well integrated despite the fact that On War is an unfinished book. Without going into details, this can be illustrated using Clausewitz’s famous paradoxical trinity. The constructs of the trinity comprises three interrelated components of war, namely â€Å"the commander and his army†, â€Å"the people† and â€Å"the government. †[8] Clausewitz connected each of these human actors to three sets of forces: (1) The commander and his army are paired mainly with non-rational forces of riction, chance and probability, (2) the people are paired mainly with irrational forces that refers to the emotions of primordial violence, hatred and enmity, and (3) the government, which is less of a concern in this paper, is paired mainly with the rational force of calculation and reasoning. [9] As illustrated, Clausewitz has unified many ideas and concepts he developed over the period of study in his own youth and middle age. The following discussion will examine the specific ideas and theories concerned. The Irrational Elements Irrational forces† is one of the three forces that were interpreted by Bassford to provide a symmetrical representation of dominant tendencies in Clausewitz’s trinity. [10] While the three sets of forces were paired with each component of the trinity, it must be stressed that Clausewitz actually used the word â€Å"mehr†¦zugewendet† in his original German manuscript, which means â€Å"mainly,† in the associations. [11] Thus, it is clear that the author did not rule out that any one of the forces can be present in all components to some variable extent, and that this is the reason behind dialectical relationships between components. Indeed, looking at the real world, military men and politicians are also members of â€Å"the people,† given that they may belong to different parts of society. In that sense, irrational forces are linked to all human actors and therefore its dominant beliefs will provide the fuel for political decisions[12]. This in turn may shape the outcome of a military campaign, which is consequential based on Clausewitz’s argument that â€Å"war is an instrument of policy. † In his book, Clausewitz contended that the â€Å"[population is] an integral element among the factors at work in war†[13] and conceived the idea of â€Å"People’s War,† defining it as a state-sponsored insurrection by armed civilians against an invader in support of action by army and the regular forces of allies. [14] This phenomenon was observed during the Napoleonic period where enormous armies that were raised using conscripts led to overwhelmed defending states to adopt â€Å"another means of war† by arming their people. 15] When a state has to wage a People’s War, the significance of irrational forces heightens and the interplay amongst the three components of Clausewitz’s trinity become more distinct. In the light of this discussion, it implies that the irrational elements in war can be referred to both the human actors of Clausewitz’s trinity, predominantly â€Å"the people†, and also, what Clausewitz called it, the â⠂¬Å"blind natural force† of primordial violence, hatred and enmity. [16] Friction, Chance and Uncertainty The concepts of chance, uncertainty and friction can hardly be examined independent of each other. When Clausewitz himself introduced friction, he brought in chance as the key subject to friction in war: â€Å"This tremendous friction cannot†¦be reduced to a few points, is everywhere in contact with chance, and brings about effects that cannot be measured, just because they are largely due to chance. †[17] For Clausewitz, friction is neither extrinsic nor abnormal[18]; it is the reflection of the effects in the real world. Friction can be generation internally within the military â€Å"machine†[19], as in physics, and externally by the collision of two opposing armies. [20] Thus with the concept of friction, Clausewitz conveyed that one can never fully anticipate how the battle will unfold, and it is only through a good military system and the strong will of the commander that friction in war can be counteracted. [21] Throughout On War, apart from Clausewitz’s pervasive mention of chance, its definition can nowhere be found. Beyerchen aptly brought in the three forms of chance conceived by the late nineteenth-century mathematician, Henri Poincare, to explain Clausewitz’s interpretation of chance. The first form is a statistical random phenomenon whereby Clausewitz referred to the role of possibility in a commander’s assessment. While some statistical analysis can be used, this form of chance requires the judgment of an experienced commander in war. The second form is the amplification of a microcause, where Poincare explained on a system point of view that certain deterministic system can cause disproportionately large effects at later time. Clausewitz work has embedded this idea in his very articulation on uncertainty and friction where the various contact of chance at the micro level, which may be concealed, can develop and produce effects at the macro level. The third form is the function of analytical blindness which is a result of simplifying the real world phenomena by people and making war seems like a linear concept instead of a complex and nonlinear state of affairs[22]. With all the complexities involved, Clausewitz stressed that the play of chance goes beyond the commander’s simple calculation of probability to a need for an intuition that allows him to exploit chance to his advantage. Culmination of the Attack Clausewitz defined culminating point of the attack as â€Å"the point where [the attacker’s] remaining strength is just enough to maintain a defence and wait for peace. † Moving beyond that point exposes the attacker to counterattack from the enemy â€Å"with a force that is usually much stronger than that of the original attack. [23] According to Clausewitz, losses will usually be greater than the gains in an attack. As the army advanced, its lines of communication will be stretched, forces will be pulled aside to control areas and other situations may be developed which will turn against the attacker. [24] As a result, the attacker has to stop at some point to rest and adopt a defensive posture for a period of time before proceeding. This is the point where the commander has to decide and exercise his imagination, as Clausewitz concluded, â€Å"what matters therefore is to detect the culminating point with discriminative judgement. †[25] Center of Gravity Antulio J. Echevarria II, a lieutenant colonel in the U. S. Army, observed that center of gravity (CoG) appeared more than fifty times in On War, and explained Clausewitz’s conceptualization of the centre of gravity as being based on mechanical sciences, just as he had conceived his theory on friction. [26] Clausewitz described CoG as a focal point, â€Å"the hub of all power and movement, on which everything depends. †[27] By this, which is often misunderstood, he does not mean that the CoG is the source of power. In fact, it is the centralizing function that holds power system together, and in some cases give them purpose and direction. Clausewitz qualified that CoG is valid only when the enemy, â€Å"whether a single state or an alliance of states, have a certain unity and therefore some cohesion. †[29] When the enemy’s CoG is identified, Clausewitz advocates that all â€Å"energies should be directed† at this point to defeat the enemy. [30] Relevance of Clausewitz’s Theories in the 21st Century Thus far, the paper has briefly built a foundational understanding on present day warfare and some of Clausewitz’s brilliant ideas. Already it is quite obvious that many of Clausewitz’s thoughts still stand in present day context and are potentially applicable in 4GW. This proposition is contrary to what many critics have suggested; On War as bloodthirsty, misguided and obsolete. [31] These comments can easily be dispelled because they are often made on the superficial understanding that went little beyond the textual analysis of the book, and often built upon erroneous readings from others. Nevertheless, the fact remains that On War was written almost two centuries ago where the political, social, economic and technological evolutions of today could not be foreseen by Clausewitz. Therefore, in order to render Clausewitz his deserved place in the today’s modern age of technology, the following discussion on his ideas and concepts will not be critical towards the material changes in the 21st Century. Significance of Irrational Elements in 4GW It is axiomatic that conflicts nation-states engage in today relate closely the effects from irrational elements. Following the September 11 attacks, the world saw invasions into Afghanistan in 2001 followed by Iraq in 2003 by coalition forces. In the case of Operation Enduring Freedom (the war in Afghanistan), the cause of war stemmed from worldwide public uproar and support to root-out terror. Given the mandate by the people, the governments gain legitimacy and political will to commit their armed forces to the enduring global war on terror (GWOT). On the other hand, Operation Iraqi Freedom presented a case of â€Å"unconvincing† invasion of Iraq. As seen from how the operation unfolded, the war lost its popularity amongst the populace due to controversies that were presented as a result of the prolonged and seemingly unending war. Pressures began to be exerted by the public on their governments to draw down their armed forces’ involvement. After three years of coalition occupation in Iraq, it was found that majority of the British and Canadian people believed that the war in Iraq was unjustified. [32] A poll conducted on by the BBC World Service in January 2007 had also shown that 73% of the world population was against the handling of the Iraq War by the U. S. [33] It is thus arguable that the large-scale withdrawal of coalition forces which followed in 2009 was largely a result of public disapproval. Therein, it aptly demonstrated the significance of irrational elements, even in the context of the GWOT. Another noteworthy case in the GWOT will be the utility of â€Å"force† by terrorists. Their strategy resembles the â€Å"People’s War† which Clausewitz described. Despite being technologically and numerically inferior, Taliban operatives in Afghanistan are able to capitalize on the people, the natives of the land, to solicit like-mindedness through provocation and propaganda of the deed. [34] Until the NATO coalition is able to sever linkages between the terrorists and the natives, a repeat of the U. S. efeat in Vietnam War remains in prospect. This is an arduous task but nevertheless is in progress. It is thus clear that irrational elements of both sides (own and the native population) have to be part of the strategic and operational considerations in the 4GW. Without due considerations to pacify and buy-over the irrational elements will result in an unbalance trinity and ultimate defeat. Influence of the CoG in 4GW The wide recognition and various adaptations by various militaries of the CoG concept allow this paper to further examine on how this concept influenced the conduct of modern wars. If the current war in Afghanistan is a People’s War, like the paper has suggested, the native population becomes a logical focus. Indeed, the new strategy adopted by NATO since 2010 has placed the Afghan people as the CoG in this conflict. [35] Two of the main thrusts announced by NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, Admiral James Stavridis include the protection of the Afghan people and to conduct effective strategic communication to win their hearts and minds. [36] Correspondingly, the U. S. ’s Af-Pak strategy that is in effect since early 2009 also focuses on the protection of Afghan people as a top agenda. Over the past one year, U. S. counterinsurgency (COIN) efforts have been more deliberate in their intelligence gathering and analysis to ensure that the most appropriate actions are taken, even at the lowest tactical level. In essence, the enhanced intelligence work effectively supports the traditional hunt-the-enemy role and at the same time, prevents unnecessary collateral damage thereby keeping the population safe. [38] With this brief account of the coalition effort in Afghanistan, it suffices to show that tremendous energies from all levels are directed at the CoG. Therefore, it can be concluded that the CoG concept remains relevant in 4GW and once it is identified, it produces consequential downstream effects that influences operations at the operational and tactical levels. Relevance of Friction, Chance and Uncertainty in the Technological World While it was earlier noted that Clausewitz would not have envisaged the technological development of today, his arguments on the variables of war – friction, chance and uncertainty – had not been altered. In fact, the element of uncertainty has now been compounded by the introduction of a new dynamic variable – technology itself. The advancement of technology has brought about chain of effects, impacting the social, political, bureaucratic, managerial and psychological systems. All these caused a quantum jump in the complexity of warfare. [39] Correspondingly, this led to the increased specialization and compartmentalization of the military which in turn create internal friction. If the contact with chance creates friction, like what Clausewitz suggested, with the existing military technologies today that enable longer range communication and observation capabilities, the amount of contact with chance increases and hence friction from external sources. Take for instance, intelligence collection – with so much information that can be acquired with the use of today’s technology, that is far from being unreliable as during Clausewitz’s time, the commander may be overwhelmed and become paralyzed just by trying to sift the relevant data from the trivial ones. As Clausewitz put it, â€Å"We now know more, but this makes us more, not less uncertain. †[41] While technology today may have eradicated many of the old-time difficulties, it created new problems. Among the problems, include a tendency of over-reliance on technology which may hinder the development of intuition and readiness to accept risk,[42] the qualities of commander that are necessary to exploit chance and counter friction. Hence, in today’s military context, friction that arises from both external and internal sources should be dealt with.

Aleatoric Music Of The 20th Century Music Essay

Aleatoric Music Of The 20th Century Music Essay compositional and instrumental methods utilized by John Cage. The biographical background, educational influences and examples of the musical compositions of Cage will also be illustrated. This paper continues by describing the various methods and processes employed by John Cage in the formation of music written during the minimalist movement. Contrived instruments, ambient audience noise, non-traditional tone structures and electronic music will be identified and defined. Furthermore, this paper will explore the debate over aleatoric music as art form versus noise. Traditionally, Western music is highly structured and organized- however, music written in aleatory form generally lacks traditional instrumentation, time, and other methods present in Western forms. According to whom one would ask, aleatoric music can be extremely complex, emotional and intellectual. On the other hand, there are those who believe aleatoric music is nothing more than random noise with no structure, rhyme or reason. Over the course of this paper, the reader will be able to discern that aleatoric music is a definitive musical genre. ii Aleatoric Music of the 20th Century: Compositions of John Cage An Art Form, Not Noise Introduction Aleatoric music refers to musical compositions where some aspect of the music is left to chance. The tempo, instrumentation, dynamics, order of the written music, or various other devices can be manipulated. Simply put, aleatoric music is left up to some amount of chance. However, the amount of chance is not immeasurable. In many cases, the composer only allows a portion of the entire composition to chance while the rest conforms to standard Western-influenced counterpoint. The American composer John Cage was one of the foremost composers who utilized aleatory in musical works. He was also the father of the avant-garde in music during the minimalist movement. THESIS: By studying the devices used in Cages compositions, the argument will be clearly made that aleatoric music, while sometimes free in form and function, is clearly a structured art form and not random noise. ii Aleatoric Music of the 20th Century: Compositions of John Cage An Art Form, Not Noise Outline: Aleatoric Music Explicative definition of aleatoric music Overview of aleatoric devices John Cage Early life and education B. Utilization of aleatoric devices in compositions Thesis support Compare and contrast with opposing viewpoint Acknowledge and dismiss opposing view utilizing evidenciary support Conclusion Summarize main points Reinforce the argument that aleatoric music is not random Markham 1 Selena Markham MUS 2930 Dr. Valerie Austin November 22, 2010 Aleatoric Music of the 20th Century: Compositions of John Cage An Art Form, Not Noise Aleatoric music refers to musical compositions where some aspect of the music is left to chance. The tempo, instrumentation, dynamics, order of the written music, or various other devices can be manipulated. Simply put, aleatoric music is left up to some amount of chance. However, the amount of chance is not immeasurable. In many cases, the composer only allows a portion of the entire composition to chance while the rest conforms to standard Western-influenced counterpoint. The American composer John Cage was one of the foremost composers who utilized aleatory in musical works. He was also the father of the avant-garde in music during the minimalist movement. By studying the devices used in Cages compositions, the argument will be clearly made that aleatoric music, while sometimes free in form and function, is clearly a structured art form and not random noise. One of the most prolific composers of music in aleatory, John Cage, was born September 5, 1912 in Los Angeles, California. He was the only child of Markham 2 parents Lucretia and John Cage, Sr. (two other sons passed away as infants). His father was an inventor and his mother worked on and off as a writer for the Los Angeles Times. The couple met in Greeley, Colorado. John Cage, Sr.s father was a Baptist minister who felt music was of the Devil. His mother, Lucretia (her maiden name was Harvey) was considered rebellious because she read books (a practice her family forbade). The young couple fled the restrictive atmosphere of Colorado for the more welcoming state of California. John Cage, Sr. had an avid interest in undersea vessels and, in fact, invented a device that was used in the English Channel to successfully detect German submarines during World War I. The intellect and innovative spirit of his mother and father would serve young Cage well throughout his lifetime. (Rich 142). As early as age eight, the young Cage began to express an interest for music that was slightly outside of the norm. While taking piano lessons with his aunt, the young boy confessed he enjoyed the music of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (Rich 145). When Cage graduated in 1928, his grades earned him the record of having the best academics in Los Angeles High Schools history. From high school, Cage spent two years at Pomona College (Struble 287). While at Pomona College, he studied ministry and writing. (Rich 145). Cage then went on hiatus to Europe for two years. While there, he composed many short works, some using mathematical formulas. Unfortunately, Cage did Markham 3 not save these early works- as he traveled, he would go through his belongings and discard any non-essential items in order to lighten his load (Nicholls 175). He returned to the United States in 1931 and in 1933, John Cage began to study piano under Richard Buhlig, who introduced the composer to serialism, an aleatoric musical device. Serialism is music which has been written with a high degree of organization (Brindle 17). Since Buhlig had premiered serialist composer Arnold Schoenbergs composition Three Piano Pieces, Cage hoped Buhlig would introduce him to Schoenberg. Instead, Cages first published piece, Sonata for Clarinet (1933), brought him to the attention of Henry Cowell, a professor teaching the new music at the New Music Society of California in San Francisco. Though Cage was able to informally study with Schoenberg, Cowell was his primary influence (Lipman 22). The Sonata for Clarinet also shows how Cage used serialism to reproduce the same pitches in retrograde in the last movement from the first movement of the same composition in a highly organized fashion. Ironically, when the Sonata for Clarinet premiered, Cage found himself performing it on piano because the clarinetist was unable to do so (Nicholls 176). Over the course of the next two years (1933-34), John Cage invented a new technique called 25-pitch non-repetitive serialism. In this technique, each voice is limited to a twenty-five note pitch area and no pitch can be repeated Markham 4 until all twenty-five have been played. He also used this technique in three additional pieces he wrote during this period: the Sonata for Two Voices (Nov. 1933), Composition for Three Voices (1934) and Soloà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and Six Short Inventions (1933-34). The use of this technique was generally not harmonically sound with the exception of a few phrases (Nicholls 177). John Cage composed two pieces in 1935 (Three Pieces for Flute Duet and Two Pieces for Piano) that also used the serialism technique. The harmony was paired with a highly chromatic melodic line that made the pieces overwhelmingly contrapuntal. However, these pieces tended to possess a higher percentage of harmonically pleasing subject matter (Nicholls 184). These works also coincided with his introduction to Merce Cunningham, an author, choreographer and Cages lifelong love interest. As a result, Cage began to be interested in how music correlated with dance. John Cage and Merce Cunningham collaborated to organize performances using Cages music and Cunninghams choreography over the course of their lifetimes (Thomson 77). Another interesting device John Cage used in his composition was ambient noise. In his piece 4 33 (1952), a piano or any ensemble is to conduct themselves as if they were preparing to play. However, the instrument(s) or performer(s) never utter a singular sound- for the entire four minutes and Markham 5 thirty-three seconds. The idea is to attune ones self with the ambient noise of the room, the noise entering the room from outside and the natural noises of the people within (Lipman 30). The piece has also been said to be an example of freedom in general (Brindle 122). This work had its premiere by pianist David Tudor in Woodstock, New York, on August 29, 1952, in the Maverick Concert Hall (located near where the 1969 Woodstock Festival was held). Cage (interviewed in the late 1980s by William Duckworth) stated that he listened to the piece every day and that in Indian culture, it is we that turn away from the music. However, the music is always there (Bonds 588-589). An original device employed by John Cage was an invention all his own- the prepared piano. A prepared piano is a grand piano where the inside strings are manipulated by foreign objects to produce a twelve-tone scale. Such was the case with Cages composition Bacchanale (1940)- a percussive piece he was commissioned to write to be performed with a dance group. The work was originally intended for percussion instruments, but was relegated to the prepared piano when it was deemed the concert hall was too small for all of the required instrumentation. Cage required that bolts and weatherstripping be attached to the strings connected to the 12 different notes (Bonds 590). John Cages influence in the realm of electronic music began as early as 1937. His composition Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939) was one of the first Markham 6 written in the electronic genre. It consisted of recording oscillatory frequencies on two 78rpm gramophone records (Brindle 99). He also wrote a piece comprised of fifty-one tapes (each twenty minutes long) produced on the computer system of Illinois University (Illiac) that could be played in any order along with seven live harpsichords and a light show of sorts. This piece was written in 1967 and titled HPSCHD (Brindle 125). John Cage began to write pieces titled by the number of performers later in his life. For example, the work titled One (1987) was for one pianist. Another work, titled Five (1988) was for string quintet. These pieces are dubbed number pieces (Moser 31). Even these odd little pieces have a structure- the structure being the amount of time the performer has to perform each measure and the number of musicians required for performance. As illustrated with the devices John Cage used in his compositions, his works are very structured and organized. Cage was one of the total serialists, who felt that music composition could be planned and analyzed with the precision of scientific experiments (Lipman 56). In his own words during a lecture in Darmstadt in 1958: The function of the performerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ is comparable to that of someone filling in color where outlines are given; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ is that of giving form, providing, that is to say, the morphology of the continuity, the Markham 7 expressive content; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ is that of a photographer who on obtaining a camera uses it to take a picture; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ is comparable to that of a traveler who must constantly be catching trains the departures of which have not been announced but which are in the process of being announced (Moser 8). It is clear by reading these words that Cage finds his music to have form, which is a staple of Western music. In addition, his music is generally left up to the interpretation of the performer- definitively not an aspect of Western music. Even still, form is readily detectable within his works regardless of how the stated form is interpreted by the performers. Another argument concerning music in aleatory is that there are no determinate ways to discern the number of possible arrangements. This simply is not true: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the exact number of realizations of an indeterminate score can often be determinedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Moser 11). In conclusion, John Cage lived during an exciting time in American history. Just after his birth in 1912, the United States found itself fully engaged in World War I. The United States truly became a world power during this time. The enlightenment through his well-rounded and educated parents as well as the Markham 8 excitement and innovations of the new century served John Cage well, as he was able to thrive and grow as an intellectual and musician in this environment. Although his music is sounds extremely dissonant and non-harmonic, it exhibits a high amount of structure. Cages earlier works illustrate a mathematical approach to the music- meaning that the music makes sense based on mathematical principles, but not necessarily traditional ideals surrounding musical composition. The influence of John Cages music can certainly be felt today in late 20th century jazz and numerous other works that allow the performers greater freedoms. Take, for instance, the piece recently performed on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Dr. Joanna Hersey premiered a work for her Low Brass Ensemble at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke titled Sails, Whales and Whalers (2008) by Gary Buttery. This work included recorded whale song interspersed with the live music produced by the L ow Brass Ensemble (Hersey Krosschell). Perhaps Gary Butterys composition was influenced in some way by the works of John Cage. There is no doubt that many musicians past, present, and future have been and will continue to be influenced by Cages maverick attitude toward music. Markham 9

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Shintoism in Japan Essay -- Papers

Shintoism in Japan Shintoism is the indigenous and national religion of Japan. The word Shinto means the way of the gods. Shintoism is a nature worship based religion. Shintoism is a unique religion with its own concepts on deities, ethics and life. Shintoism is based on the beginning of the race when "the trees and the herbs had speech"(Underwood 16). At the beginning of the Earth, Shinto followers believed, that the animals acted and spoke like men. The religion does not directly deal with common religious themes of; problem of evil, man's consciousness of sin and his need for redemption. Shinto followers believe that spirits exist everywhere whether good or evil. The religion is unorganized worship of these deities. The name given to these spirits and deities are Kami. Kami is a key concept in Shintoism and is difficult to define. "All that is wonderful is God, and the divine embraces in its category all that impresses the untrained imagination and excites it to reverence or fear." (18) Objects of worship included: the sky, heavenly bodies, mountains, rivers, seas, trees, beasts, great fishes, reptiles and the process of reproduction in nature and humans. There are four historical written sources, which provide scholars with information on the beginnings of Shintoism. The first of these books is the Kojiki, which means records of ancient matters. The Kojiki was written in a combination of archaic Japanese and Chinese. The book was compiled in 712 CE by an emperor who feared that many variants may destroy the foundation of the monarchy. The book's principle aim was to demonstrate the divine origin of the ruling family and the foundation of the state. Some refer to this book as the "Bible of the Japa... ...lose connection with the state. Every Emperor in Japan's imperial lineage has served as both sovereign and priest. The Emperor was head of the Shinto faith as well as head of the nation. This in turn transferred down the ranks. The heads of the provinces were also head of Shintoism in that province. The head of each clan was the head priest for that particular clan. And the head of each family was the head priest of that family. And even today the priests of Japan's over 50 000 Shinto shrines are under state control. Shintoism is a uniquely Japanese religion. It is inseparable from the Japanese state and is critical in defining Japanese culture. Shintoism is a thriving religion as many people in Japan follow both the teachings of Shintoism and Buddhism without any difficulties. The religion stresses the importance for respect of nature and oneself.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Essay --

Valenzuela 1 Daniel Valenzuela Professor Fairweather December 15, 2013 Philosophy 101 Value and Meaning Nozick’s has a couple ways in defining value and meaning while both are somewhat similar to each other. By defining value, Nozick introduces intrinsic value which states that other kinds of value exist by their relation (Nozick, pg 162). Also, while defining value, there are a couple of different specific characteristics, such as, organic unity, which means ‘unity in diversity’. Nozick defines meaning by stating that meaning cannot be gained with something that is completely worthless (Nozick, pg 167). By having value and meaning accustomed in my life, I can see my growth and development along with having special value with health, family, and friendship. I could make drastic changes in my life to make it more meaningful and to have a much better value. While having a better value and meaningful life, this shows how much happier I can be along my life. Nozick states that when something has intrinsic value, its organic Valenzuela 2 unity is its value (Nozick, pg 164). There can be many different specific characteristics in describing value, but the one that really does is organic unity, this shows a major dimension that controls most of the value. Also, according to Nozick, â€Å"...a resultant organic unity depends upon two things, the degree of diversity and the degree of unity to which that diversity is brought† (pg 164). With this said, the different varieties of diversity, the harder it is to bring unity. Also, in order to have a special value in our lives and activities that we cherish, we want the highest degree of organic unity. By describing this, Nozick states, â€Å"We want to encompass a diversity of traits and phenomen... ...myself to receive a better outcome. Now, knowing that in order to be successful and achieve happiness, you’re going to have some road bumps and sometimes even fail. However, it’s not about failing, its about how you bounce back to see if you could achieve it again or come back stronger. By having this asset, this teaches me the value and meaning of life. In conclusion, Nozick defines value with organic unity and then states that meaning is the grand scheme of things. Arguments and explanations that Nozick interprets that shows the definition of meaning and value actually makes a lot of sense due to the analogies being used and the understandable way he writes it. All in all, by having a valuable and meaningful life, true happiness will be achieved. Citation Nozick, Robert. The Examined Life: Philosophical Meditations. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Book Review of 25 to Life by Lesley Snyder :: 25 to Life Lesley Crocker Snyder Essays

Book Review of 25 to Life by Lesley Snyder Leslie Crocker Snyder is a New York Supreme Court Justice. As a child, she already had her sights set on a career in law. She entered college at 16 with her eyes on the prize. She eventually became a part of the system over 30 years ago. This career path has taken her to many interesting destinations. She looks back down the legal road in 25 to Life: The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth. Snyder discusses the barriers she faced in the late 1960's as a woman in a male-dominated profession. When she expressed her desire to try homicide cases, she was told to "bring a letter of permission from her husband." Not one to let anything stand in her way, the author eventually got the job (without the letter) and moved her way up the legal ladder, eventually forming the Manhattan District Attorney's Sex Crimes Division. Most of 25 to Life is devoted to stories from the trenches. Snyder recollects her most memorable cases. She plays no favorites, candidly discussion the good, the bad and the ugly of lawyers and their clients. The author has a reputation for tough sentences, thus earning nicknames like "Ice Princess" and "25 to Life" among defendants. Several criminals who passed through her courtroom have threatened her life. Her family has had round-the-clock protection on several occasions. One chapter in this book is devoted to the judge's experience and perspective as a "victim" in regards to these threats. Though Snyder is clearly tough as nails, she doesn't appear to have the ego that is evident in some legal/law enforcement memoirs. She's very honest and forthcoming about her opinions, yet respectably grounded when talking about her calling.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Media Analysis †The Apprentice Essay

The purpose of the introduction to The Apprentice is to introduce the programme to its audience; the main aim is to gain TV ratings so the first four minutes are crucial in drawing in the audiences’ attention and making the show interesting and appealing to the target audience so they continue to watch. There are many visual codes in the opening of the programme. The contestants are first introduced and the camera is watching them enter the city of London. All of the contestants are shown near or on some form of transport, this could symbolise how the best people have been chosen from all over the country to come to one business orientated and busy city to compete for one life changing journey. Furthermore, the journey is metaphorically amplified by the contestants carrying suitcases and walking forwards, this creates a sense of them embarking on a life changing journey together with only one outcome. This is anchored by the dialogue the contestants use, for example â€Å"I am a winner† this shows to the audience that this is going to be an intense battle to find the winner. The contestants are seen walking in a group together over a bridge, this could connote the ‘bridge to successes’ and they are walking over to the other side trying to gain the success that they want, which again signifies a journey and the camera movement used here is tracking the whole group so the audience know that they will be following them on the journey. The programme is set in London which is pragmatically suggesting this is the centre of business in the United Kingdom and that’s why they have gathered here. In the clip the audience are shown how busy the city is by the amount of transport and people, this could suggest that there is competition between the contestants and also competition in the business world. The scene is set at dawn this connotes the idea that business never rests in London and that the business world is awake and ready. There are also visual codes displayed by the characters that anchor business; firstly all of the contestants are dressed smart, in suits or skirt suits. They also all carry some form of briefcase which is stereotypically something that a business person has with them all the time. When the characters speak they pragmatically and stereotypically show that they are business minded people â€Å"I am the best† â€Å"I am what Alan Sugar is looking for† are examples of what are said and these are expressed in a very strong, arrogant and argumentative way. In the opening there is a point where the audience are shown Alan Sugar on top of a large building in the central of London looking out to the city which suggests his power, this is anchored by the camera shot used here which is a low angle, this connotes the idea that he is a powerful man and the centre of attention, the use of the camera movement ‘crab’ also anchors his power as it arcs around Alan Sugar so we are given a 360 degree view of him and the city. Sound is used to anchor Alan Sugar’s power throughout; the soundtrack and underscoring music builds up into a dramatic tension when he is talking to the contestants and when the camera is focusing on him. Furthermore, the iconic dialogue â€Å"you’re fired† is repeated more than once in the scene, something which is significant to his persona and something the audience recognise. This is reinforced with the crop shop of Alan Sugar’s hand pointing towards the fired contestant, in addition to this the crop shot also creates a sense of mystery as the audience are left unaware of the contestant that has been fired and who he is pointing at, so they are left wanting to watch the show with the suspense that all but one contestant will be fired and they can try judge who he will fire within the programme. The contestants are portrayed as weak when they are around Alan Sugar; there are lots of reaction shots used to show their expressions and reactions to the tasks and what Alan Sugar says to them, this shows his power over them and signifies the meaning of the programme and his role and the contestants’ role. The underscoring music also adjusts to the mood and atmosphere and is anchorage for what the contestants are portraying themselves as, at the beginning when the contestants are trying to display power then the music is louder and faster but when they are portrayed as more vulnerable facing Alan Sugar the music is quieter and slower and towards the end of the opening fades out into the beginning of the programme. I think that the opening scene of The Apprentice is very successful in fulfilling its purpose. I feel that it engages the audience by the visual codes and they all create a strong anchorage for what the programme is about. There are many different camera shots, angles and movements used which again draws in the audience’s attention and makes them want to carry on watching the programme. Finally, the mix of the soundtrack and underscoring music with the dialogue allow the opening to intensify reality and give an insight into the programme and also the contestants and Alan Sugar.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Customized Degree Plan Essay

1 Why have you chosen the elective classes in your degree plan? I attended the University of Phoenix, before I started my classes at Kaplan University. While attending the University of Phoenix, majority of my electives were pre chosen for me. I would like a career in criminal profiling or criminal investigations. My choice of elective classes will be Psychology, sociology, or criminal profiling. Although while attending the University of Phoenix, I was majoring in Business; so two of my electives were Psychology and Sociology. I need this knowledge to be as successful in interrogations or crime scene evidence. 2 What skills, and knowledge do you expect to learn from these classes? The classes I attended at the University of Phoenix gave me the basic knowledge. Psychology and Sociology gave me the insight on how to figure an individuals, mental and social behaviors. I learned that you have to get into a person’s mind, and understand how they operate in their own habitat. I plan to gain the extra knowledge of how to understand the criminal justice field and the emotional stability and social environment of the individuals I encounter with. 3 How will these individual skills and knowledge help you in your field? The skills that I learn will help me to visualize individuals and learn their social behaviors. I plan to be successful my field and help keep the crime down and the community safe, by catching the culprits who want to commit crime. The youth need guidance and the neighborhoods need a makeover for drug free and violence free community. 4 How will these electives further your career goals? The electives I choose will help me to achieve my goals and accomplishments at obtaining my degree in the criminal justice field.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

The Exorcism of Emily Rose Essay

Although demonic possession is not an appealing subject, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, directed by Scott Derrickson, presents many Catholic teachings and is important to watch and understand the reality of the Devil. This movie, in depth, shows the true evilness of the Devil and has many themes that go along with it. So what is it that makes possessed person so scary, its only actor’s right? The reality of demonic possession is so frightening in this film; there is no doubt about the reality of the devil after watching. The reality of the devil is displayed in many ways. For example, one of the most obvious displays is when the lawyer is affected. She goes home to her apartment and the devil starts â€Å"messing† with her, opening doors and intimidating her. Another way that the reality of this exorcism creates horror in the viewers is that it is based on a true story. The girl that was possessed was named Anneliese Michel from Germany. Both of these displays of the reality of the devil show the power of evil as well as the power of the divine. Emily, or Anneliese, is possessed by the devil and her body is taken over, showing this power. These events have many effects on the audience. It makes them think about the reality of possession and challenges them to come to their own understanding about possession. Another effect on the audience is the realization that â€Å"facts† are interpretations and not always concrete. Although the prosecutors brought in doctors to prove the priests neglect, they did not have anything that truly eliminated the supernatural possibility. Another major and important theme in the Exorcism of Emily Rose is the concept of the â€Å"victim soul† and redemption is possible. With this in The Exorcism of Emily Rose, it is seen that the good always overcomes evil. Erin Bruner, the defense lawyer says â€Å"Either these things exist, or they don’t.† This means that she believes it is a fact that if there is a God, there is a devil and if there is a devil, there is a God. This was a good defense because it was an emphasized point that the prosecutor was as methodist, therefore he believes in God, leading to him HAVING to believe in the Devil. The Exorcism of Emily Rose is such a worthwhile film to watch because of its accurate interpretation of the supernatural and evil world. Scott Derrickson developed the reality and conception of the â€Å"victim soul† phemonionally in  this movie. This movie is very important in demonstrating the true evilness of the devil, and true redemption offered by God.

Apush 1790s Essay

Vital domestic and foreign events have occurred in the 1790s and were both what helped shape American politics. There were domestic affairs such as the Whiskey Treaty, establishment of the first bank of the United States, Alien and Sedition Acts, and discussion of narrow and broad views of the constitution. Foreign events include the XYZ Affair, Jay’s Treaty, and Pickney’s Treaty. There were two political parties that were shaped by these and many other affairs: Federalists and Republicans. The Federalists who supported Hamilton who wanted a strong centralized government, high taxes, and a national bank to find financial stability in the country. The Republicans were supporters of Jefferson who wanted to limit federal power, not create a national bank because of which they had a narrow interpretation of the Constitution. Hamilton, the Federalist, tried to repay the debt the U. S. had owed. This caused tension between the North and South creating the two parties: Federalist and Republican. A domestic affair , the Whiskey Tax was promoted by Hamilton which the tax money was used to pay off debts the U.  S. had owed. The establishment of the First Bank of the United States was what helped create the thoughts of Federalists of creating a financially stable nation. Though opposed by Jefferson saying that it would only benefit merchants and investors and hurt the rest of the country, it was established anyway. The Alien and Sedition Acts were used by Federalists to get rid of whatever Republican enemies they had from France. The Acts made it harder for one to become a citizen, creating a stronger Federalist Party. It also allowed the President to deport anyone of suspicion of making false writings about the government. This was later ruled as unconstitutional by Jefferson and repealed. The Federalist Party was shaped by domestic affairs into becoming a party that cared a lot about the country’s financial position. The foreign affairs for example the XYZ Affair, almost led to war between the United States and France. The United States had sent Federal diplomats to negotiate with the French, but was asked for compensation to make agreements. The U. S. didn’t compensate any money and later came back to negotiate under serious conditions. This Federal victory had led to the Alien and Sedition Acts. Jay’s Treaty was opposed by the Republicans because of the negotiations made with Great Britain for trading purposes. These commercial reasons were thought by the Republicans that there would be a ruling elite group of merchants and investors and a large group of the poor remaining population. More and more wanting of financial stability of the country Is what led to the Pickney treaty that allowed the U. S. to use the Mississippi River trading route granted by Spain. The Republican Party was weak in forming their party because of the power it had in compare to the Federalists. The creation of the Federalists and Republicans were what Washington wished to avoid, but inevitably were created. The domestic and foreign affairs containing from the Whiskey Tax to the Pickney Treaty were used by Federalists to increase their party’s strength and to fix the nation’s debt. The Republicans, though still unmanageable to receive any favors in the Federal government, still benefitted from events like the Alien and Sedition Acts which were to be later used against the Federalists as unconstitutional to help win Jefferson’s presidency. The 1790s was an important time period in creating the first two opposing political parties.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Analysis Of Benjamin Franklin s Autobiography, The...

FRANKLIN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography is an inspiring tale of his personal, as well as public achievement throughout his life. Franklin’s life embodies the exemplary model of a life composed of discipline, self-reliance and self improvement. From his humble beginnings as an apprentice candle and soap maker in his father’s business to a successful business man, author, philosopher, civil activist, politician scientist, inventor, and diplomat, above all Benjamin Franklin was, and†¦ The man Benjamin Franklin eventually became a man of good character and willingness to accept others. However, as the story of Ben Franklin unfolds you see he was indeed just a man. A man found to be of the same fault and human flaw as us all to which we were born, and that is into sin. Franklin as well as all people fell short. God told us in his word long before Ben Franklin ever existed. Romans 3:23 states â€Å"for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.† (NIV). Franklin did prove however†¦ and esoteric essence of his own existence. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is an account of Franklin’s life experiences that taught him a deal of self-righteousness, virtue, self-actualization, knowledge and wisdom. Franklin recalls many past, powerful instances of his life that have influenced the ethical and intellectual development. The memoir also represents various events that built his keen interest in literature, linguistic and writing. Moreover, it also unfolds various historical events†¦ Instructor: Course: Date: Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin An autobiography is the life history of a person that is written in a book and the history is written by the same person. Autobiography mainly centers its focus on the times and life of the person writing it. The autobiography nature is very subjective and therefore the writer should be able to recall memories promptly so that incorrect and false information should be avoided. Some autobiographies are fictional whereby people write the†¦ become what we want to be, I was surprised. I began thinking about what I could do as a semester long project in which I could set a goal and record my progress. I had read Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography a few months earlier and I remember him writing about a personal program that he had developed for himself. Benjamin Franklin was fascinated with the idea of perfection, and diligently tried to achieve it while he was here on earth. His method of self improvement he called â€Å"The Art of Virtue†. What†¦ In the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin written by Benjamin Franklin has the story line of his life. He explains how the political life in the 1700’s and how he learned from his experiences. One of the virtues Benjamin Franklin has is being humble, shown throughout all of his writing. The writing style he uses is very formal and addresses his audience with very different occasions. Having been from a big family he started in the workplace at an early age. Working for his father’s business took†¦ The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin’s life made a huge impact on the history of America. He also was an influence for many citizens. Since Franklin lived during the eighteenth century, a period of growth for America, he also played a part in the political founding of the United States. To help future generations, Franklin wrote an autobiography of his life. An autobiography is a piece of literature about someone’s own life. He separates his into four parts, each one depicting†¦ The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin explains the life of this amazing man in history. I this autobiography it focuses on the revolution years as one may expect to learn from this biography about Benjamin Franklin’s; origins, family and all the decisions and events that lead him to become the grandfather of the American nation. Due to the deep description of the situations that Benjamin Franklin went through and the different cities that he visited in this autobiography, draws a visual idea of†¦ Benjamin Franklin, a well rounded American adept in many fields, once said, â€Å"either write something worth reading or do something worth writing† (Benjamin). Although this quote presents a false dilemma, Franklin chose a third option in which he did something worth writing and then wrote about it in his autobiography. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin is a different beast in its literature. Unlike most books, and possibly most autobiographies as well, Franklin’s autobiography†¦ The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was not an easy book to read. Writing styles have changed tremendously since the 1700’s. Despite the cultural differences I learned a lot about the man and the time. Benjamin Franklin was a remarkable man. He was a printer, author, politician and an inventor. He was one of fifteen children in his family. Because he was from such a large family he was sent out to work at a very early age. He only had a few years†¦

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Company A and B Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Company A and B - Essay Example mpany A and Company B arrange a derivative to be transacted on the 1st April 2014 so that Company A pays fixed interest over the period and Company B pays floating rate interest over the period. Assuming that the fixed interest rate agrees with the Company A is LIBOR + 7% (fixed at inception), that LIBOR is 0.5% on April 1 2014 and that on June 30, 2014 the LIBOR rate raises from 0.5% to 1%. a) Describe the derivative trade that would enable such an exchange, the reasons why each company might want to transact such a derivative and calculate what the swap rate would be for Company A at inception. A derivative is a security whose value is dependent or derived from its underlying assets. The derivative represents a contract agreement between two or more parties. Its price is affected by any slight changes in its original assets. Some common underlying assets include bond’s interest rates stocks, commodities, currencies and market indexes. The major characteristic of derivatives is high advantage. For the case of company A and B would adopt the interest rate swaps as described below Interest rate swap occurs when Party A agrees to pay Party B through a fixed interest rate, and the counterpart Party B agrees to pay Party A through a floating/variable interest rate which is attached to a reference rate (the most used reference rate is the London Interbank Offered Rate, LIBOR).Each counterpart in a swap has a "comparative advantage" in a different credit market and it is through such an advantage in a particular market that is used to obtain an equal advantage in a another separate market to which credit access was denied. Companies in the two different markets agree to an exchange deal in which a fixed rate is exchanged with a floating/variable interest rate loan. In this case Company B prefers liabilities which are floating but would prefer a fixed loan rate. It is therefore prudent that enters into a swap with company A and exchange its fixed rate loan for