Red Dog Film

How does Red Dog Use The Distinctively Visual to Present Unique Australian Ideas of Mateship?The film â€Å"Red Dog†, directed by Kriv Stenders, effectively uses the distinctly visual to present unique Australian ideas of mateship and the harshness of the Australian outback. It is though film techniques such as camera shots, sound, colour and lighting that creates the distinct images of the Australian identity.A number of different factors combined create this great film demonstrating the typical Australian values. These include the setting, the comedic script, nostalgic elements, the love story and the pure ‘Australianness’ of the story and its characters. The film highlights the harshness of the Australian outback as well as the natural beauty of the region that serves as a scenic background for the close friendship in rural, working communities. However it is more than just a scenic backdrop, it is a landscape that portrays issues of very real threat of isolati on, starvation and death in the vast dry rural landscape. In â€Å"Red Dog†, the danger of the outback is demonstrated by John Grant’s sudden death on the desert road.In the opening sequence of the film, aerial shots are used to establish the setting and show the vastness of the landscape and the harshness of the environment. Many sound effects of bees, flies and crickets are heard by the audience as Thomas walks to the bar, to indicate that the area around is a dry arid landscape.The film represents the hot, harsh Australian outback through the use of colour and lighting. In particular, the colour of the dust (rustic red or orange) is an iconic and distinctly Australian outback colour. It symbolises the relentless heat in the outback. The degree of intensity is the strong blocks of red that is established in this scene. The bright colours and lighting and high saturation (strong colours) shows how stark the environment or heat is as well as the brightness of the sun. The orange or red tinges highlight the heat. Throughout the whole film, these ‘warmer’ colours have been used to resemble Western Australia, one of the hottest, driest parts of Australia. The colours make the terrain look dry, hot, barren and somewhat isolated.In Red Dog’s death scene, long shots are used to let the audience view the Australian outback terrain. This part of the scene opens up with an extreme long shot, highlighting the isolation that exists in the Pilbara and emphasises the vastness of this land. The film effectively provides a realistic portrayal of the harsh Australian outback through distinctly visual techniques such as camera shots, sound, colour and lighting.The familiar Australian bush-story theme of mateship, loyalty and respect between man and dog, a traditional identity of Australian life, is conveyed in â€Å"Red Dog†. The director uses skilful camera and visual techniques to portray this stereotypical value of mateship. The dire ctor uses an anthropomorphic approach through the anthropomorphism in his representation of â€Å"Red Dog†.This can be seen when the character Jack begins to explain Red Dog to Thomas and states â€Å"It’s not what he did but who he was†. This has the effect of privileging Red Dog as equal to Jack and everyone else. This also gives Red Dog an identity. He is not just some dog that they all loved, he had developed a personality and the townspeople understood Red Dog. Red Dog is a mate of the townspeople.Red Dog is a story about mateship, especially in the isolation of this big harsh country. It is a story about a man and his dog, or a dog and his master, told through the lens of mateship. The Australian notion of mateship is highlighted when Joko suggests that they erect a statue to â€Å"somebody who lives and breathes desolation, somebody that has red dust stuck up their nose and in their eyes and in their ears and up their arses!Mates who are loyal by nature no design†¦ somebody that represents the Pilbara in all of us and I say that somebody, dammit, IS A DOG!† It is also depicted in the line â€Å"More than a man’s best friend. A mate to the entire community†. The unique Australian idea of mateship between dog and human is a key theme in Red Dog which is reflected using distinctively visual techniques.Unique Australian ideas of mateship and the harshness of the Australian outback are presented through the use of the distinctly visual in Stenders’s film â€Å"Red Dog†. The director captures these Australian identities by using skilful camera and visual techniques, creating a film shaped with meaning and life.

Evil Triumphs but Never Conquers

Hakeem Hunter March 27 , 2013 English 3 In literature, evil often triumphs but never conquers. I think that this statement is saying that in works of literature evil might win the battle, as some may say, but it never wins the war. It could also mean that in all literature, there is always two sides. One being good and one being evil. The characters on the evil or bad side usually overpower the ones that are on the good side. I think that this is true because the evil characters are generally portrayed as being very smart and more ahead of the game.I agree with this statement because I’ve witnessed many things that could relate to this. No matter how far evil might seem to be ahead, at the end of the day there is always fairness. In the literary work The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor were accused of being witches. They were then summoned into court even though John Proctor confessed of being an adulterer. He seemed frustrated; he didn’t want to be hung because he was being accused. This example shows that evil triumphs. Dan forth said that his confession has to post on the church door.John immediately changed his confession and followed strongly with the rest of the innocent people to be hung. The evil side cannot conquer the good side. Another example of evil triumphing but not conquering is Abigail. Abigail serves as the spark of hate in the play. She tempts John Proctor into adultery and commits acts against the Puritan Religion. To escape her punishment when found in the unlawful act of dancing she deflects her actions and blames them on others. She has no regard for those whom may be hurt by her accusations of witchcraft on others.It even seems that she takes pleasure in her deception. All those she accuses are innocent, yet she manipulates many into believing her actions are good. Another character that plays, perhaps, the largest role in the play is the Puritan religion itself. It may not have lines itself or hav e its own body, but the Puritan code was set up in a manner that allowed the greatest evil of all, the judgment and taking of human lives. The religion is served as a holy red herring for the unholy acts of judgment, punishment, and vindictive actions. Puritan religion consistently works against all good in the play. Evil Triumphs but Never Conquers Hakeem Hunter March 27 , 2013 English 3 In literature, evil often triumphs but never conquers. I think that this statement is saying that in works of literature evil might win the battle, as some may say, but it never wins the war. It could also mean that in all literature, there is always two sides. One being good and one being evil. The characters on the evil or bad side usually overpower the ones that are on the good side. I think that this is true because the evil characters are generally portrayed as being very smart and more ahead of the game.I agree with this statement because I’ve witnessed many things that could relate to this. No matter how far evil might seem to be ahead, at the end of the day there is always fairness. In the literary work The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor were accused of being witches. They were then summoned into court even though John Proctor confessed of being an adulterer. He seemed frustrated; he didn’t want to be hung because he was being accused. This example shows that evil triumphs. Dan forth said that his confession has to post on the church door.John immediately changed his confession and followed strongly with the rest of the innocent people to be hung. The evil side cannot conquer the good side. Another example of evil triumphing but not conquering is Abigail. Abigail serves as the spark of hate in the play. She tempts John Proctor into adultery and commits acts against the Puritan Religion. To escape her punishment when found in the unlawful act of dancing she deflects her actions and blames them on others. She has no regard for those whom may be hurt by her accusations of witchcraft on others.It even seems that she takes pleasure in her deception. All those she accuses are innocent, yet she manipulates many into believing her actions are good. Another character that plays, perhaps, the largest role in the play is the Puritan religion itself. It may not have lines itself or hav e its own body, but the Puritan code was set up in a manner that allowed the greatest evil of all, the judgment and taking of human lives. The religion is served as a holy red herring for the unholy acts of judgment, punishment, and vindictive actions. Puritan religion consistently works against all good in the play.

Financial Management and Control – Kingspan

Financial Management and Control Kingspan Assignment 6th December 2012 Contents Introduction4 1. Profitability Ratios4 1. 1Gross Profit Ratio4 1. 2Net Profit Ratio4 1. 3Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)4 2. Liquidity Ratios5 2. 1Current Ratio5 2. 2Quick Ratio/Acid Test Ratio5 3. Efficiency Ratios6 3. 1Debtors Days6 3. 2Creditors Days6 3. 3Inventory Turnover Days6 4. Gearing Ratios7 4. 1Gearing Ratio7 4. 2Debt to Equity Ratio7 4. 3Interest Cover7 5. Investment Ratios8 5. 1Earnings per Share8 5. 2Price Earnings Ratio8 5. 3Dividend Cover8 6. Sources of Finance9 6. 1Debt capital:9 6. 2Lease and Hire Purchase9 . 3Share Capital9 6. 4Creditor & Debtors10 6. 5Reducing stock levels10 7. Conclusion10 7. Appendices11 7. 1Appendix 111 7. 2Appendix 212 Introduction Below are the ratio findings based on Kingspan PLC’s annual report year ended 31st December 2010. The ratios are calculated for both 2010 and 2009. The ratios are as follows: 1. Profitability Ratios 1. 1Gross Profit Ratio 201020 09 Gross Profit333,694Ãâ€"100%=27. 96%308,913Ãâ€"100%=27. 45% Sales Revenue1,193,2151,125,523 There is a slightly higher Gross Profit in 2010. Kingspan are now holding onto . 51% more of each euro of sales then they were in 2009.This is due to the increase in sales. 1. 2Net Profit Ratio 20102009 Net Profit (before Int & Tax)67,405Ãâ€"100%=5. 65%62,659Ãâ€"100%=5. 57% Sales Revenue1,193,2151,125,523 There is a slight increase of. 08% in 2010 compared to 2009. If going by the gross profit ratio this should have been higher; this indicates that they need to manage their expenses more efficiently thus increasing their net profit. 1. 3Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) 20102009 Net Profit (before Int & Tax)67,405Ãâ€"100%=7. 65%62,659Ãâ€"100%=7. 97% Capital Employed (W1)880,616786,676 Kingspan has been less efficient in using their capital in 2010; they are down by . 2% from 2009. Although there was an increase in sales in 2010 the decrease in ROCE is due to the higher borrowings in 2 010. If in following years they continue this trend investors could start to worry and sell shares. 2. Liquidity Ratios 2. 1Current Ratio 20102009 Current Assets471,193=1. 55:1398,212=1. 31:1 Current Liabilities304,922303,529 The current ratio in 2010 shows that kingspan are managing their short term debt more efficiently than in 2009; this is due to increasing their current assets and managing to keep their currents liabilities relativity steady.They need to manage their debtors and stock better to further increase the ratio which will entice potential investors. 2. 2Quick Ratio/Acid Test Ratio 20102009 Current Assets less Closing Inventory (W2)342,158=1. 12:1287,391=0. 95:1 Current liabilities304,922 303,529 In 2009 Kingspan may have had difficulty in paying their short term creditors but they have managed to increase it in 2010. Given the ideal ratio of 1:1 they could look at investing the surplus assets for a return. ? 3. Efficiency Ratios 3. 1Debtors Days 20102009 Debtors218,04 7Ãâ€"365=66. 70Days181,071Ãâ€"365=58. 72Days Credit Sales1,193,2151,125,523Kingspan were managing their debtors better in 2009. There is an increase of 8 days in 2010; this could potentially lead to bad debt. Collecting their debt earlier will increase the liquidity of the business. They could offer discounts on early payment or offer a cash price. 3. 2Creditors Days 20102009 Creditors93,024Ãâ€"365=38. 68Days85,228Ãâ€"365=40. 42Days Credit Purchases (W3)877,735769,671 Kingspans creditors days have decreased by 2 days meaning they are paying off their debts 2 days earlier than in 2009. This shows that Kingspan are managing their debt more efficiently and may interest potential investors. 3. Inventory Turnover Days 20102009 Average Inventory (W4)119,928Ãâ€"365=50. 93Days134,291Ãâ€"365=60. 02Days Cost of Sales859,521816,610 Kingspan has managed their stock more efficiently in 2010; by doing so they have increased their cash flow and reduced their holding costs. ? 4. Gearing Ratio s 4. 1Gearing Ratio 20102009 Long Term Borrowing213,671Ãâ€"100%=24. 26%201,141Ãâ€"100%=25. 57% Total Capital (W1)880,616786,676 By decreasing the level of gearing they have decreased the level of financial risk, although they have increased their borrowing the increase in capital is greater meaning that they are using less debt to make their profit. . 2Debt to Equity Ratio 20102009 Long Term Borrowing213,671Ãâ€"100%=32. 04%201,141Ãâ€"100%=34. 35% Shareholders Funds666,945585,535 Debt to equity has decreased by almost 2% in 2010 showing that there are more shareholders funds to borrowings. This shows that Kingspan can manage to pay their debts which is important for future borrowings and investors. 4. 3Interest Cover Interest Cover 20102009 Profit before Interest & Tax67,405=5. 3562,659=4. 91 Loan Interest12,59412,750 There are higher interest rates associated with short term borrowings than there are with long term borrowings.By reducing their short term and increasing their lon g term borrowings Kingspan has reduced their finance costs in 2010. They have also increased their sales giving a better interest cover. It shows that in 2010 Kingspan would be able to pay their interest 5. 35 times compared to 4. 91 times in 2009. Bank and investors would look at this ratio to see how they cover their loans. 5. Investment Ratios 5. 1Earnings per Share 20102009 Profit after Interest and Tax48,657,000= â‚ ¬ 0. 28 47,658,000= â‚ ¬ 0. 28 Number of ordinary shares171,755,762171,503,951Earnings per share in 2010 have remained almost the same as 2009. It is displayed here rounded but 2010 has a slight increase. It shows the profitability of Kingspan and the consistency of the EPS shows security. Shareholders are receiving a slightly higher return in 2010. 5. 2Price Earnings Ratio 20102009 Price per share7. 49=â‚ ¬ 26. 956. 05 =â‚ ¬ 21. 32 Earnings per Share0. 280. 28 It is more expensive to buy Kingspan shares in 2010 than compared to 2009; this shows confiden ce in future earning power. 5. 3Dividend Cover 20102009 Profit after Int & tax & Pref Div48,657=7. 0NIL Earnings per Share6,661 Kingspan can pay their shareholders 7. 3 times from their available profits. They did not pay any dividend in 2009; this could have been a strategic move to increase cash flow. ? 6. Sources of Finance Kingspan operate a number of different finance sources, such as: 6. 1Debt capital: Kingspan have both long and short term borrowings. With short term borrowings such as overdrafts and hire purchase kingspan will pay a high interest rate on their 2009 borrowings of â‚ ¬31,863mn but they have managed to reduce that by over half to â‚ ¬14,259mn.This will reduce the financial costs. The interest rate for long term borrowings is generally a lot lower than that of short term loans; although Kingspan increased there long term borrowings in 2010 by â‚ ¬12,529mn they will be paying a lower interest rate, again saving on finance costs. By reducing their short t erm borrowings and increasing their long term borrowings in 2010, Kingspan have managed to reduce their overall finance cost to â‚ ¬156mn in 2010. The long term borrowings of â‚ ¬213,671mn have been scheduled for staggered repayments over 5 years, this ill allow kingspan to meet their liabilities when due. Interest rates for loans over â‚ ¬300,000 can be discussed with individual financial institutions. Kingspan’s interest rate for both long and short term loans will depend on their credit rating. They will have to be able to produce cash flow forecasts or provide security for the loan. 6. 2Lease and Hire Purchase This form of finance allows Kingspan to obtain the use of an asset without a large initial cost. It is beneficial as the risk remains with the owner and as technology changes they can upgrade the equipment with minimal cost.Kingspan have increased their lease/hire purchase costs by â‚ ¬7mn in 2010. 6. 3Share Capital The core funding in Kingspan is provid ed by shareholders; this increased by â‚ ¬81,410mn in 2010. Although there is risk involved and there may be a high return expected by using this form of financing there is no requirement to pay dividends even if profits exist. As Kingspan do not have preferred shareholders they did not pay out dividends in 2009 and allowed them to retain their profit and improve sales. 6. 4Creditor & DebtorsKingspan's creditors days decreased by 2 days in 2010; depending on the agreement they may have been able to receive a discount for early payment. However agreeing longer credit terms with their suppliers would allow them more flexibility with cash flow. In 2009 Kingspan were also managing their debtors days more efficiently than that of 2010. This may be due to the down turn in the economy and to make sales they could have offered longer repayment options. If needed Kingspan could renegotiate the terms or offer discounts for early payment. 6. 5Reducing stock levelsBy reducing the number of d ays stock is held will save on holding costs such as security, light, heat, warehousing and staff it will also reduce the risk of spoiling or obsolete goods. Kingspan have managed to reduce their stock turnover days to 51 days compared to 60 days the previous year. 7. Conclusion Overall Kingspan is performing better in 2010 than compared to 2009. The sources of finance are working well for the company, they have a low gearing ratio and have moved funds between long and short term borrowing taking advantage of a lower interest rate.They are managing their creditor, debtor and stock turnover days more efficiently than in 2009. They are leasing or using hire purchase to obtain assets this giving Kingspan the use of equipment without a large initial cost. Given the industry and the economic climate in 2010 Kingspan shows to be a liquid company and shows confidence in future earnings. ? 7. Appendices 7. 1Appendix 1 Workings (W1)Capital Employed20102009 Share Capital & Reserves666,945585, 535 Long Term Debt213,671201,141 882,626786,676 (W2)20102009Current Assets471,193398,212 Closing Inventory-129,035-110,821 342,158287,391 (W3) Credit Purchases20102009 Closing Stock129,035816,610 Cost of Sales859,521110,821 Opening Stock-110,821-157,760 Purchases877,735769,671 (W4)Average Inventory20102009 Opening Stock110,821157,760 Closing Stock129,035110,821 Total Stock239,856268,581 ? 2119,928134,291 ? 7. 2Appendix 2 Share prices for Kingspan Fig 1. 2009 share price as of 31/12/2009 Fig2. 2010 share price as of 31/12/2010 http://www. kingspan. com/kingspangroup/investors/share_info/share_chart/

Marketing strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Marketing strategy - Assignment Example It is anticipated that new courses will be added once the initial set up has been completed and has bedded in, allowing expansion of the university’s courses to a global market place through a new company set up specifically for the purpose. The venture should payback the initial capital investment within a period of three years, providing a relatively short period of risk as far as the investment is concerned. The marketing strategy focuses on niche marketing and will target those who might be interested in starting up their own business. With the potential for mass redundancies in both the public and private sectors over the next few years, there is a huge opportunity to help many people set up their own business and achieve the freedom and success that such a venture brings. This report sets out the analysis and marketing strategy supporting the introduction of a range of new e-learning courses for global consumption. A strategic analysis is provided, which considers the external environment within which the university operates, together with an analysis of actual and potential sources of competition. The strengths and weaknesses of the university will be combined with the opportunities and threats present in the current climate, to provide a solid foundation for a focused marketing strategy that analyses the proposal using the extended services marketing mix, segmentation and targeting strategies and the profile of the â€Å"typical† customer. The report concludes with a summary of the marketing strategy and why it will be successful for the university as a medium-to-long term project. Following the recent decision by the government to cut the teaching budgets for universities, it has become necessary for the university to focus on more income-generating activities to enable continued funding of vital activities. After much discussion, it has been decided that the university needs to

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE - Essay Example Womens roles were limited to that of a homemaker, where she took care of her children and husband without any complains what so ever. Education during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was not a state organized or centrally controlled affair. It was run mainly by the churches in the locality or by charitable organizations where children of the middle and upper classes were not sent for education. At this time class distinction was at its peak, great stress being laid on family wealth and powerful connections. Children of the affluent class were imparted education at the privacy of their homes and women were mostly taught lessons that would help them to run their future homes, like practical lessons related to cookery, sewing, singing, dancing and religious classes. Teaching Greek and Latin were a privilege kept mainly for the boys and the very few grammar schools that did exist did not admit girls. Well known educational institutions like the Eton, Oxford and Cambridge were special facilities reserved for the boys only. Higher education was seen as a completely masculine domain were women dared not to enter. Young men who wanted to further themselves in the social milieu opted for the church, law or the army. Women saw the scope of social advancement and wealth acquisition only through marriages and their social upbringing were aimed at this. With not much of a career and no political rights as such, higher education for women was not even considered an option during those times. The patriarchal nature is aptly shown in the starting lines of â€Å"Pride and Prejudice†, as Jane Austen tells us in a satirical tone â€Å"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife† (Austen, p.1). In this famous novel Austen paints a wonderful picture of the social fabric of the late eighteenth century England.

International marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

International marketing - Essay Example companies, in particular, are increasingly going global to ease competition pressure in the domestic market and to explore new market opportunities for growth. Pig meat is one of the agricultural products that are produced in large quantities in the U.K. Statistics show that the production of pig meat has been increasing every year in the country. Unfortunately, the production appears to outweigh the demand available considering that a section of the U.K. citizens does not eat pork because of cultural issues. Accordingly, the low demand for pig meat has been affecting most farmers negatively because it results in losses for farmers as they are forced to lower their prices because of the low demand. In March 2015, the U.K pig meat production totaled 69,300 tons, accounting for about 5% increase compared to the same March 2014 (Pig World 2015). The high production of pig meat experienced in recent months has resulted in a huge drop in prices. Therefore, the best way to save the U.K. pig farmers is perhaps to look for new market opportunities in the global market where the demand for pig meat is high. China will be the right target market for the U.K. surplus pig meat. This is because of the high demand for pork in China. Studies show that China is the worlds leading consumer of pork, which accounts for more than three-quarter of the meat consumed in the country. Currently, each Chinese consume an average of 84 pounds of pork every year (Hoffman 2014). The high consumption of pork is attributed to the fact that pork is the meat of choice among Chinese people. In fact, pork consumption in China is projected to reach more than 70 million tons by 2017(Larsen 2012). Accordingly, this makes China a lucrative market for expansion for U.K. pig farmers. Considering that China is also the most populous county in the world with more than 1.3 billion people, who eat pork, this is certainly a lucrative pork market that must be exploited by the U.K. pig meat producers who

IS628 Real-time Business intelligence at continental airlines Case Study

IS628 Real-time Business intelligence at continental airlines - Case Study Example Based on the data collected by its active data warehousing program, the management team of Continental conducts a process meeting every day to discuss about the company’s progress. There exists a strong believe among the management team members that, a thing which cannot be measured, can never be managed. Therefore in order to keep in track with the experiences of their customers using the airlines, the management team members were solely dependent on the active data warehousing program. The company’s performance was analyzed by several factors such as their customer’s satisfaction regarding flight arrival and departure times, handling of baggage, and many more. Other areas were Continental Airlines used active data warehousing are airline security, operations of flight, revenue accounting and management, fraud detection, and others. In addition to traditional ways of using active data warehousing, Continental airlines used it differently for reconstructing their goals and making their airlines the most favorite choice for their customers. They made use of active data warehousing to the maximum possible extent to gain information regarding their customer’s experience as well as the company’s performance based on its implementation. The information gathered using the real-time warehousing program was interpreted in such a way that it helped the management team of Continental to make necessary changes to improve the experience of their customers and alter their entire business to match with the needs of their customers. Continental Airlines was once at the verge of bankruptcy but achieved a turnaround after implementing some optimal strategies. Continental revolutionized its functioning by adopting strategies relevant to Business Intelligence. ‘Go Forward’ was the earliest plan adopted by Continental for revolutionizing itself. The

Number theory and RSA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Number theory and RSA - Essay Example At this stage, the message is sent to the recipient, for the receiver to get the clear message, the message is decrypted back to original plaintext. The whole process usually rely on a key, this key give a way to encrypt the message by the sender and a way for the listener to figure out what the message says (decrypt). This can be enabled with the use of the old cryptosystem which used the symmetric keys or the newly and more advanced public key cryptosystem. In symmetric keys one had to possess the key that was used to encrypt the message so as to decrypt back the message at the other end; but for the public key cryptosystem knowing the message does not mean one can decrypt the message (Stinson, 2006). For example, the trapdoor function; in this idea, a function ? is for encryption, so, to decrypt one has to find the inverse, ; which is difficult to find, this means that even if you have ? and you understand the output is A, it is still hard to find (A). However, if it happens that you know k, (extra piece information that acts as a lever that lets the inverse fall through by opening the trapdoor), then from ?, A and k one can easily come up with (A), so in this system k is kept secret but the whole message can be displayed or heard by anyone and it does not pose any threat because nobody can decrypt the message. Number Theory In Number theory, theorems have been derived to explain the public key cryptosystem and the key exchange problem (Martin J. Erickson, 2008). Some studies introduce the sage commands to aid in performing basic number theorems such as Euler’s phi function and greatest common divisor. This happens when coding the algorithms and functions, but mathematically it is not a requirement as we will notice in the examples. In definition, integers greater than 1, and their positive divisors are only 1 and itself, then that is a prime number, otherwise if not then it is a composite number (Martin J. Erickson, 2008). The fundamental theorem of arithmetic is the base equation when dealing with number theory is; n The greatest common divisor of k and m, (gcd (k, m)), is the largest number that can divide both k and m. this two positive integers greater than 0 are relatively prime if gcd (k, m) =1. This can be shown by the extended Euclidian algorithm below (T. H. Cormen, 2001), Input: k, m Output: (d, x, y) subject to d=gcd(k,m) and kx + my = d d=k; t=m; x=1; y=0; r=0; s=1; While (t>0) { q = _d/t_ u=x-qr; v=y-qs; w=d-qt x=r; y=s; d=t r=u; s=v; t=w } return (d, x, y) In the above algorithm, these Invariants were used gcd(k,m)=gcd(d,t) kx + my = d kr + ms = t using the Chinese Reminder Theorem(CRT) (Loxton, 1990), we Let m1, m2, ,,, mk be integers subject to gcd(mi, mj) = 1, i j, and †¦ This means that there exist a unique solution modulo m= and this solution is given by (a1, a2,†¦ ak) = (? ) mod m, Where = m /, and = mod This idea can be proven by these four steps; 1. Set M = 2. Find such that + = 1(this is a Bezou t). 3. Note that = 1 if j 4. Therefore, the solution to the system equation becomes: Mentioned above is the Bezout’s Identity, which is a property in the greatest common divisor (Martin J. Erickson, 2008). The Bezout’s identify states that for any two natural numbers k and m, there exist integers x

Alice A 3D Graphical Programming environmet to teach algorithm Essay

Alice A 3D Graphical Programming environmet to teach algorithm development and control structures - Essay Example Graphics and visualization helps students in understanding such internals. This paper is about use of an animated graphics tool, namely Alice, to teach C++ programming. The traditional method of teaching programming is to use class room lessons (notes, presentations), in-class demonstrations and to accompany them with assignments. Most courses employ a programming language to illustrate coding, starting off with a Hello World program written using that language. Then they move to programming concepts such as control structures, abstract data types, sorting and searching algorithms etc. The use of traditional memory maps (or sketches) to illustrate the internals of a program creates a "confusing clutter of arrows and boxes on the board or projection screen" (Dann 1). The result is that while students focus on understanding the maze of memory maps, they fail to keep track of the concept of an object. (1) A more modern approach to teach programming is to use a visual method which employs computer graphics. Such visual tools would readily animate the change of state and behavior offering immediate feedback to the students about the programs they write. Alice, developed by the Carnegie Mellon University, is one such tool. Alice is an open source programming environment offering a 3D interactive graphics interface. It is primarily a scripting and prototyping tool with an object oriented (OO) flavor. Users can program Alice using drag-and-drop based interface to animate objects in a virtual world. Alice is a friendly programming environment for novice programmers offering actions, named instructions, functions, control structures and event-driven programming. The whole experience is highly OO making the students think in terms of objects, properties and methods. The storyboarding and game programming concepts, which most students are familiar, are employed to teach algorithmic thinking and designing. (Cooper, Alice, 3-4) (IV.) Why Alice will work Programming needs abstract thinking. As stated by Booch, a pioneer in the OO approach, "deciding upon the right set of abstractions for a given domain is the central problem in object-oriented design" (42) Abstraction needs students to be able to visualize things. Further, understanding control structures, algorithms and applying them to solve programming problems need mental mappings by a student. Alice helps visualization of these programming constructs. It "offloads the mental effort from the student's cognitive system to his or her perceptual system" (Dann et al, Learning to Program, Preface to Instructors). As a result, the programming concepts become more concretely visible rather than being more abstract in the minds of the students. Will a graphical environment such as Alice help students to understand algorithms and programming constructs such as sequence, selection and repetition Yes, the evidence proves so. In a study conducted over two years at Saint Joseph's University and Ithaca College, it has been found that student performance and retention in programming courses and their attitudes towards computer science showed dramatic improvements (Moskal 5). Powers et al has also observed that Alice has been able to improve the

TERRORIST USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS Research Paper

TERRORIST USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS - Research Paper Example Terrorist activities are least likely to take place in high altitude areas since in most cases; these are areas that are always heavily militarized. Nuclear weapons are known to be the most dangerous of all weapons manufactured and utilized for military purposes (O’Neil, 2003). Terrorists are known to be using various weapons ranging from chemical to biological in carrying out their activities. Though they have not been using nuclear weapons, there has been a major concern over the use of nuclear tactic by terrorists in carrying out their activities. This paper will examine the possibility of terrorists using nuclear weapons and measures that countries can initiate to deter this menace from happening. Currently, countries cannot afford to ignore the rise of a new type of terrorism operating cross different countries and boundaries. These terrorist activities have their main aim as inflicting mass casualties and destruction. This move was illustrated by bombing of America’s pentagon House that took place on 11th September, 2001. Many people died, others sustained serious injuries and properties worth billions of dollars were destroyed. This is a clear indication that terrorist attacks using extremely dangerous weapons will remain a realistic prospect now and even in the future (O’Neil, 2003). The prospect of terror groups acquiring nuclear weapons has haunted the world at large for quite a long time now. Nuclear weapons could be made to yield a magnitude and effect of many kilotons and those weapons can be made small enough to increase their portability. There are various ways through which terrorist organizations can acquire nuclear weapons. They are the most powerful of all weapons used by terrorists in terms of their destruction. How easy are nuclear weapons to acquire? This is one question that one should have in mind. Nuclear weapons are attractive to terrorists due to their effects of

Team Working Essay Example for Free

Team Working Essay Outcome 6. The importance of accurate record keeping. Accurate record keeping is very important for few reasons. First of all, different health professions are involved in patient care delivery and clinical process. All these professional have to communicate about patients and records is one of the best ways of doing it. Secondly, records reflect all procedures and manipulations with a patient in a chronological way so that members of staff know exactly the situation with patients to provide 24 hours care for patients. . Thirdly, accurate record keeping is important for investigating complaints and claims. The best care provided will not be counted if it was not recorded in patient’s notes (McGeehan 2007). Records should be written briefly but informative at the same time. It should be focused on the patient, factual, measurable and realistic. It also should be written strait away after an event. The nurse should put date, time of the note and write her name. Handwriting should be easy to understand. The language should be appropriate without abbreviations or jargon. Poor note taking can be regarded as negligence (McGeehan 2007). As every patient has different reasons for admission and different pathway on a ward, it is important to work out care pathways. It includes clinical risk assessment and outlining the care that this patient should be given recording to conditions. All members of the staff must sign when they use a pathway for a patient (McGeehan 2007). . Trusts can be assessed by The Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) by the way records were kept. As there are many complains and claims, every nurse should follow high standard record keeping so that records can be used as an evidence of care provided in a court (McGeehan 2007). References: McGeehah R (2007) Best practice in record keeping. Nursing Standard 21(17), 51-58 Outcome 7. Informed Consent. The concept of informed consent has been broadly discussed in medical literature. Indeed, gaining consent is very important for all health professions, including health care assistants, nurses and doctors. Medical process includes few documents where a patient signs his consent. However, in some cases the patient signs the forms without appropriate explanations. Or, explanations can be poorly understood by patient due to a difficult language (Erlen 2010). Consent should be valid which means that the patient should be over 18, have the capacity and give consent voluntarily (Department of Health 2004). Any form of consent is valid, but only a written consent can be an evidence of the fact that consent was gained. Also, consent can be verbal and non-verbal, when for example, a patient holds out an arm for blood pressure to be taken (Department of Health 2004). In English law no one has any right to touch another person without consent. As nurses deal with many patients daily, it is vitally to gain consent for every intervention. Additionally, a nurse should inform a patient about any procedure In some cases patients give implied consent. For instance, the same injection is given few times a day. However, it is important to gain verbal consent before every injection (Edwards 2010). References: Department of Health (2004) Reference Guide to Consent for Examination or Treatment. Erlen J (2010) Informed Consent. Orthopaedic Nursing. 29 (4), 276-279) Edwards M (2010) An introduction to consent. Practice Nurse 39(6), 13-15) Confidentiality. Confidentiality is a core subject in health care. It is easy to lose patient’s trust by ignoring patient’s right to confidentiality. Confidentiality preserves personal dignity, prevents information disuse and protects autonomy of patient. All professionals in health care have to communicate about patients and it is difficult to avoid information disclosure as at any times there can be unwanted listeners. For instance, when a nurse tries to make an appointment for her patient on the phone, she has to provide some information such as the name, age, address and a condition. There could be people near her at this point who will use the information. Outcome 12. Signs and circumstances associated with aggression and violence. Nurses they are reported to be at a high risk of dealing with patient aggression. Over 76 per cent of newly qualified nurses in South Wales for instance experienced patients’ aggression within first three months of employment. In most of cases the aggression was in a form of verbal abuse. Other forms of patients’ aggression are verbal or physical threats or intimidation and physical violence. As a result, nurses are at an increased risk of emotional suffering and depression (Hills 2008). The research shows that female nurses experience aggression and abuse from patients more often than male nurses. It was suggested that nurses experience aggression and violence more frequently because they deal with patients more often than other health care professionals Mullan 2007) What is more, some nurses have to take days off or sick time off after episodes of patients’ violence and aggression (Hills 2008). The study shows that aggression management training programs for nurses could be an effective way to decrease incidents of violence in clinical area (Hills 2008). Most of nurses who experienced violence or any form of aggression from patients reported that they were powerless avoid that and felt having lack of confidence (Mullan 2007). References: Mullan B Badger F (2007) Aggression and violence towards staff working with older patients. Nursing Standard 14(21) 35-39 Hills D (2008) Relationship between aggression management training, perceived self-efficacy and rural general hospital nurses’ experiences of patient aggression. Contemporary Nurse 31(1), 20-31

The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Essay Example for Free

The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Essay Despite the competition derived from proximity, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Anaheim Angel both maintain financial success. Rather than one team dominating the market in ticket sales, both have a profitable organization. Every year, both teams manage to generate a substantial revenue – despite sharing a city. The population forms an allegiance with one team or the other for a multitude of reasons. The Los Angeles Dodgers had an average attendance of 51,396 fans per game in 2009 (sportsnetwork. com, 2010). The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s average attendance was 40,005 in 2009 (sportsnetwork. com, 2010). While there is a substantial difference between the average ticket sales of both teams, other factors can account for this such as stadium size and winning streaks. For example, the Angels only have a seating capacity of 45,050 while Dodger stadium has a seating capacity of 56,000. For example, a winning streak that could lead to future playoff games and a potential spot in the World Series, the ticket sales will naturally increase for that particular team. This is true of teams that are distanced far apart as well. Proximity is merely one of several factors that contribute to the financial success of a baseball team. The Los Angeles Dodgers have a team value of $632 million and their yearly revenue is about $211 million (forbes. com, 2007). The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have a team value of $431 million and a yearly revenue of $187 million (forbes. com, 2007). Second, which is the major part, discuss the Marginal Cost and the Marginal Benefit of both teams. also, discuss some issues that could affect their marginal cost and their marginal benefit. There are many times in which marginal cost and marginal benefit can affect the team. If one piece of merchandise outsells another piece of merchandise, the manufacturer will produce less of the unpopular product and produce more of the item that has high sales. In the case of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, if one team is losing more games than the other, there could be an increased number of consumers buying tickets to the winning team’s games. The substitution of goods effect would take place in fans without an allegiance to either the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. For example, if the ticket prices are lower for one team than the other, and a family merely wants a fun afternoon watching a baseball game, the consumer would choose the lower price tickets. This is assuming the consumer has no preference for the specific teams. As the consumers in the stands buy beers and purchase hotdogs, they are eventually affected by the law of diminishing utility. In other words, as the consumer ingests more hotdogs, he will become satiated and each subsequent hot dog will be less enjoyable. As a result, the consumer will be less inclined to buy more. There are many factors that can affect the supply and demand of the market for ticket sales. Increasing the number of seats affects the aggregate supply the manager can offer fans. On a supply and demand curve, the supply would shift to the right in this scenario. An occasion to increase the number of seats would be a sold-out stadium each game. This would likely cause the owners of the stadium to try to increase the supply of seats to meet the demand of the ticket holders. Another factor that could increase the supply is a increase in the amount of merchandise offered. Usually the increase in supply is prompted by an increased demand, unless the merchandise could suddenly be produced at a cheaper cost to the manufacturer.

Importance of Communication Skills

Importance of Communication Skills I feel a deep sense of gratitude for this rare opportunity to address the concept of the importance of communication to such a respectable body of students[1]. I may be politically incorrect but as part of the Information Age generation, I try incredibly hard to convince myself that despite the lack of appreciation of the significance of communication, it is the most powerful tool one can have. To say the least, communication is complex. While it may be regarded as a personal expression of oneself, it is an exchange of communication, a method of coordination, an agent of social change and a process of development. At the same time, communication is a potentially devastating weapon. Beyond these banal clichà ©s, what I need to call attention to is the unrecognised power of communication. We take communication for granted, just as we take our eyes, our power of vision, for granted[2]. I take the perspective that communication is a powerful instrument applied in unlimited ways, and which makes up one of the principal forces that control and form human behaviour[3]. To explain the significance of communication is like to explain the significance breathing. If communication means interchange and interchange is a central aspect of human existence then no human can survive without interchange. The ability to communicate is therefore central to how we relate, what we are, how we live and how we learn[4]. To provide credence for my argument, I will take you through the four themes to show that communication is indeed important to us, as students and future professionals[5]. First, we will explore the importance of communication in development of a person. Second, we will consider the impact of communication in improving the impact of education in advancing societal interests. And finally, we will examine the importance of education to career and business advancement. First, communication is crucial for the development of a person. Researchers and educators have pointed out to the importance of communication in self-development. To this end, I must quote Morreale, Osborn and Pearson (2000) who stated that communication should in itself be viewed as general education since it improves personal skills and abilities such as critical thinking, leadership and management skills, social skills and media literacy. While we, as students, recognise the importance of communication education, we underestimate the importance of having communication skills. To this end, the significance of the ability to communicate effectively cannot be downplayed. In my view, the communication discipline should be regarded as central to student successes (Prinsen Punyanunt-Carter, 2009). I suggest that we should equate communication to feeling comfortable with people’s perceptions of us, using language effectively, reasoning with people and feeling confident about our selves[6]. Second, communication ensures effective education delivery. It checks that classroom instruction is improved and is central to effective collaboration within the entire education enterprise. To this end, communication skills are vital for the teachers, school administrators and librarians[7]. Effective communication is a prerequisite to students’ personal, academic and professional accomplishments. In fact, most of the instructions are delivered to use through oral communication. I must make reference to Morreale, Osborn and Pearson (2000) study that explored the importance of non-verbal communication within the context of education. The study found that majority of messages exchanged within a classroom setting originated from nonverbal communication. I take this angle to argue that by consciously controlling our individual nonverbal expressions, we can be able to maintain positive relationships with our audiences within the classroom setting[8]. Third, communication is essential for continuation of the society and for cross-cultural interaction. Through effective communication, we develop the proficiency to speak and interact with people from different cultures. Effective communication also enables us to take part in public life. It also enables us to gain an understanding of people from different cultures[9]. The importance of education within this context has been extensively investigated. A landmark study by Morreale, Osborn and Pearson (2000) made an insightful critical review of the importance of communication media in the society and found that communication greatly influences the direction that democracy takes in a country[10]. I anchor my argument on this study to assert that a society that has an interplay of many forces, such as; apathy, volatility, sense of vulnerability and extreme hostility, people tend to undermine the political stability of a nation, media organisations are therefore at the centre stage of res toring sobriety and order. Taking a different perspective, developing the ability to communicate effectively qualifies us to take part in public life. Like investigated by Morreale, Osborn and Pearson (2000), there is a correlation between effective oral communication through public speaking and civic responsibility. Hence, effective communication plays a critical role in qualifying one to participate in public life. As students, we should learn to appreciate effective reading and writing as a pathway for growing into citizens who can express themselves effectively and participate in public life, as great speakers. Think about all the greatest speakers and the extent to which they have moved crowds with their eloquence. Historically, public speaking was the primary medium for engaging in public affairs at the dawn of democracy in ancient Athens. It is still the primary means for taking part in public life. Fourth, effective communication is essential for career success as well as effective business operation. Take for example; most job interviews base their selections on how effective a candidate communicates. On the other hand[11], the candidate will rely on their communication skills to convince their employers that they are fit for a position. This perspective has been explored by several researchers[12]. According to Bardwell (1995), having effective written and verbal communication skills can help students to get a desirable employment. Essentially therefore, communication skills are crucial for career development. Far from this, the power of communication skills has also not been neglected in various career fields such as engineering, banking, sales and marketing, public relations, information science and politics. All these fields need effective communicators, either through the written or spoken word. Think of the accounting field for example. It consists of systematic communic ation of quantitative information on a company’s finances. Businesses also depend on communication to advertise their product, where the most effective communicator wins most customers[13]. To conclude, we should come [14]to a common understanding that communication is a powerful instrument applied in unlimited ways, and which makes up one of the principal forces that control and form human behaviour. It helps in human development, it improves the impact of education in advancing societal interests and lastly, it promotes career and business advancement. References Bardwell, C. B. (1997). Standing out in the crowd. Black Collegian, 28, 71-79. Bjerregaard, M. Compton, E. (2011). Public Speaking Handbook: Suppliment to Public Speaking. Retrieved: http://www.snow.edu/communication/public_speaking_handbook.pdf Littlejohn, S. Foss, K. (2009). Encyclopedia of Communication Theory. London: Sage Morreale, S., Osborn, M. Pearson, J. (2000). Why Communication is Important: A Rationale for the Centrality of the Study of Communication. Journal of the Association for Communication Administration 29, 1-25 Prinsen, T., Punyanunt-Carter, N. (2009). The difference in nonverbal behaviors and how it changes in different stages of a relationship. Texas Speech Communication Journal, 34, 1-7. Watt, S. Barnett, J. (2013). persuasive speaking. Retrieved: http://www.publicspeakingproject.org/PDF Files/persuasion web 1.pdf> [1] Attention step: gain attention and interest of audience: Personal greeting (Watt Barnett, 2013; Bjerregaard Compton, 2011). [2] Attention step: gain attention and interest of audience: illustration (Watt Barnett, 2013; Bjerregaard Compton, 2011). [3] Agenda-setting theory: stunningly telling the audience of what to think about, hence influences perception (LittleJohn Foss, 2009) [4] Need step: show the reason for the problem: connecting audience to problem (Watt Barnett, 2013; Bjerregaard Compton, 2011). [5] Need Step: Describe the problem: Show ramifications (Watt Barnett, 2013) [6] Need step: show the reason for the problem: connecting audience to problem (Watt Barnett, 2013; Bjerregaard Compton, 2011). [7] Satisfaction step: offer solutions for needs described in the need step: Explanation (Watt Barnett, 2013) [8] Satisfaction step: offer solutions for needs described in the need step: Show evidence, theoretical demonstration, practical experience (Watt Barnett, 2013) [9] communicators accommodate different cultural practices in cross cultural situations to relate to audience (LittleJohn Foss, 2009) [10] Satisfaction step: offer solutions for needs described in the need step: Show evidence, theoretical demonstration, practical experience (Watt Barnett, 2013) [11] Visualisation step: To help audience visualise results: contrast to compare contrast (Bjerregaard Compton, 2011). [12] Satisfaction step: offer solutions for needs described in the need step: Show evidence, theoretical demonstration, practical experience (Watt Barnett, 2013) [13] Symbolic interaction: the human mind is influenced by constructing things he can identify with (LittleJohn Foss, 2009) [14] Action Step: motivate the audience to act: Illustration (Bjerregaard Compton, 2011).

An Analysis of Emily Dickinsons I Felt a Funeral in My Brain :: Felt a Funeral in My Brain Essays

An Analysis of Emily Dickinson's I Felt a Funeral in My Brain This poem is very interesting in many aspects because it reminds me of a person that I use to know. In my life I have met people just like Emily Dickinson who were mentally depressed and very unsociable. In this poem it shows how unstable her mind was in words that she wrote in her poems. I do not want people to get me wrong she was a very smart woman it was said that she attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, it also said that she was one of the best poets of all times. I do not understand were she went wrong because she lived a normal childhood in which she was very bright, witty, friendly to people, she had friends, and she went to parties. So where did she go wrong? By her early 30's she began to separate herself from everyone, even the people who she obviously loved had to speak with her from the other side of a closed door. In her life it was that she was in love with some man who died this maybe her for become very depressed. Emily Dickinson was ver y suicidal (meaning she tried to kill her many times, but was afraid of what it would be like). I am glad we got this poem because I have some things I would like to say about this weird acting woman. In my town were I come from their was a girl who acted just like this lady. This girl would not talk to anyone, she would run away all the time, she tried to commit suicide a couple of times, but did not succeed. Her parents it seemed they would be always looking for he all the time. So finally one day they decided to put her into a hospital to see what was causing her to act like this. In my mind I think she was depressed because she did not have any friends. And according to my knowledge Emily Dickinson was the same way. Emily Dickinson was a very smart person, but she was very strange acting. For example, I read her poem " I Felt a

Lease Application for Rent :: Residential Lease Agreement Contracts

Lease Application for Rent [_] This package contains (1) Instructions and Checklist for Residential Lease Agreement; (2) Information about Residential Lease Agreements; (3) Residential Lease Agreement; (4) Inspection Checklist; (5) Lead Paint Disclosure. [_] The Landlord must sign the Lease Agreement [_] The Tenant(s) must sign the Lease Agreement. If there is more than one adult Tenant, all should sign the Lease Agreement. [_] Generally both the Landlord and the Tenant(s) get an original signed Lease Agreement each. Therefore, if there is one Landlord and 2 Tenants, 3 original leases should be executed (i.e. signed). [_] The Landlord and the Tenant(s) should conduct a joint inspection before the beginning of the lease. [_] If a lease exceeds a certain number of years, some states require that the lease be recorded. Recording a Lease would generally also require notarization. The parties should also investigate under what circumstances a Lease may need to be recorded. [_] Some states require the Landlord and Tenant to conduct an inspection of the premises to be rented, before physical occupancy by the Tenant or before the lease is signed. Even if a state does not require a joint inspection, it is always a good idea to do one. [_] If the property is built before 1978 property (i.e. pre-1978 property), federal law requires that the Landlord and Tenant (and their Agents) sign the  ¡Ã‚ §Disclosure of Information on Lead-Based Paint ¡Ã‚ ¨. Federal law requires the Landlord to keep the signed copy of the  ¡Ã‚ §Disclosure of Information on Lead-Based Paint ¡Ã‚ ¨ for a minimum of three years as proof of compliance with the rules. A copy of the  ¡Ã‚ §Disclosure Of Information On Lead-Based Paint and/or Lead-Based Paint Hazards ¡Ã‚ ¨ form is included in this package. [_] These forms contain the basic terms and language that should be included in similar agreements. The laws in some states require a seller to make additional written disclosures, including disclosures about the condition of the house, the neighborhood, environmental disclosures and any other known problems. Some cities and other municipalities may also have specific disclosure requirements that need to be included. Check with a real estate agent or attorney in your area to determine what additional disclosures, if any, are required in your state or locality. If not required by law, a Buyer may still request the disclosures and try to make them part of the agreement. [_] Laws vary from time to time and from state to state. These forms are not intended and are not a substitute for legal advice.

Teenage Abortion Essay -- essays research papers

Teenage Women, Abortion and Law Abortion has always been a very controversial issue. This can be due to the fact that people have different beliefs that are emphasized by their own religion and set of moral values. Many people believe that abortion is wrong, but they believe that is it only wrong under certain circumstances. This could be true, but is it more right to kill for a specific reason than to just do it because you made an irresponsible decision? Because of the wide spectrum of religion and various moral beliefs, there will never be a right or wrong answer to abortion. Fact: Each year, one million American teenagers become pregnant, and 85% of these pregnancies are unintended. Four in every five Americans begin having intercourse before age 20. Many of the youngest women in this group (60% of those age 15 or under) report having had sex forced on them. By the time they turn 20, about 40% of American women have been pregnant at least once. Many of these young women have little understanding of their bodies and have begun having sexual intercourse before knowing about ways to prevent pregnancy. Because teens in other developed countries receive more education about sexuality and have more access to contraception and family planning services, they have much lower rates of pregnancy and abortion. For example, in the Netherlands, where teenage sexual activity is about the same as in the U.S., pregnancy rates are only one-ninth those of the United States. Fact: Of teenage women who become pregnant, about 35% choose to have an abortion rather than bear a child. Next slide Teenagers with unplanned pregnancies face difficult choices. If a teen gives birth and keeps the baby, she will be much more likely than other young women to: „X drop out of school; „X receive inadequate prenatal care; „X rely on public assistance to raise her child; „X develop health problems; „X have her marriage end in divorce. Children born to teenage mothers are more likely than children of older mothers to suffer significant disadvantages: medical, psychological, economic, and educational. New slide Many states have enacted, or are considering, laws that restrict teenagers' access to abortion by requiring parental involvement in the abortion decision. Such laws include: „X Parental notification laws that require medical personnel to notify a minor's parent(s) of her i... ...el forced to have a baby against her wishes; her parents may turn their backs on her or force her out of their home; or she might run away from home to face her pregnancy alone. Some teens may resort to a secret, unsafe, illegal or self-induced abortion if her way to a confidential, legal abortion is blocked. Any additional state laws restricting abortion (such as mandatory waiting periods between abortion counseling and abortion procedures) are doubly burdensome for teenage women who have fewer resources, less privacy, and less ability to meet all the requirements. All such restrictions to a woman's access to safe and legal abortion rob her of her ability to take control of her life. Fact: Laws restricting teen access to abortion. Laws in 46 states and the District of Columbia allow mothers who are under 18 to place their children for adoption without involving their parents, but many of those same states require parental notification or consent before these young women can obtain abortions. This sets up a standard that clearly favors one resolution over another, restricts the reproductive choices of young women, and forces some to bear children that they do not want to bear. Teenage Abortion Essay -- essays research papers Teenage Women, Abortion and Law Abortion has always been a very controversial issue. This can be due to the fact that people have different beliefs that are emphasized by their own religion and set of moral values. Many people believe that abortion is wrong, but they believe that is it only wrong under certain circumstances. This could be true, but is it more right to kill for a specific reason than to just do it because you made an irresponsible decision? Because of the wide spectrum of religion and various moral beliefs, there will never be a right or wrong answer to abortion. Fact: Each year, one million American teenagers become pregnant, and 85% of these pregnancies are unintended. Four in every five Americans begin having intercourse before age 20. Many of the youngest women in this group (60% of those age 15 or under) report having had sex forced on them. By the time they turn 20, about 40% of American women have been pregnant at least once. Many of these young women have little understanding of their bodies and have begun having sexual intercourse before knowing about ways to prevent pregnancy. Because teens in other developed countries receive more education about sexuality and have more access to contraception and family planning services, they have much lower rates of pregnancy and abortion. For example, in the Netherlands, where teenage sexual activity is about the same as in the U.S., pregnancy rates are only one-ninth those of the United States. Fact: Of teenage women who become pregnant, about 35% choose to have an abortion rather than bear a child. Next slide Teenagers with unplanned pregnancies face difficult choices. If a teen gives birth and keeps the baby, she will be much more likely than other young women to: „X drop out of school; „X receive inadequate prenatal care; „X rely on public assistance to raise her child; „X develop health problems; „X have her marriage end in divorce. Children born to teenage mothers are more likely than children of older mothers to suffer significant disadvantages: medical, psychological, economic, and educational. New slide Many states have enacted, or are considering, laws that restrict teenagers' access to abortion by requiring parental involvement in the abortion decision. Such laws include: „X Parental notification laws that require medical personnel to notify a minor's parent(s) of her i... ...el forced to have a baby against her wishes; her parents may turn their backs on her or force her out of their home; or she might run away from home to face her pregnancy alone. Some teens may resort to a secret, unsafe, illegal or self-induced abortion if her way to a confidential, legal abortion is blocked. Any additional state laws restricting abortion (such as mandatory waiting periods between abortion counseling and abortion procedures) are doubly burdensome for teenage women who have fewer resources, less privacy, and less ability to meet all the requirements. All such restrictions to a woman's access to safe and legal abortion rob her of her ability to take control of her life. Fact: Laws restricting teen access to abortion. Laws in 46 states and the District of Columbia allow mothers who are under 18 to place their children for adoption without involving their parents, but many of those same states require parental notification or consent before these young women can obtain abortions. This sets up a standard that clearly favors one resolution over another, restricts the reproductive choices of young women, and forces some to bear children that they do not want to bear.

Early Seventeenth Century Literature Essay

The earlier seventeenth century is famous for such writers as William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Miguel de Cervantes, Francis Bacon etc. Literature is always depends on political situation in the world and, surely, art trends. Seventeenth century – is the bloom of reformation and struggle against Catholicity and this fact has its reflection in the literature and art of that period also. The beginning of the seventeen century was a complicated period in the world history. It was the reformation in its full swing, old dogmata which seemed immutable, were overthrown without any respect. The process of reformation divided not only European countries, it divided layers of society in each country, and, sometimes, it divided people in the same family. The reformation was not only a clergy process, it reflected also a natural people’s striving for spiritual and mind renewal. Early Seventeenth Century Literature The most remarkable trends in points of view of the prominent writers in the beginning of the seventeenth century are critical opinions as to the human environment. For example, Lope de Vega, in his dramas â€Å"Fuente Ovehuna†, â€Å"The star of Sevilla† showed a broad panorama of the Spanish society in the seventeenth century. The authors tried to outline in their works the most problem points of their contemporary society. The beginning of the seventeenth century is the reformation time, so a lot of writers firstly after a long time had an opportunity to have a point of view in their writings and to write about real events in their countries. That’s why the literature of that period is full of critical opinions as to the human environment, heroic dramas and reformation sense. Saying about trends in the use of symbolism in the literature of the beginning of the seventeen century, it is possible to mention Robert Hall, who was was really interested in the question of using symbolism in the literature. Appearance of any symbol is not accidental. â€Å"To what extent can it be maintained that the two processes are compatible, and that the individual writer can be assumed to be reflecting such non-individual phenomena as cultural patterns and problems? † (Hall, 1963, p. 161). In the middle of sixteen-beginning of seventeen century the objects of latent fears and diseased imagination became to appear in the literature. For example, â€Å"Don Kihot† (1605) – the main symbol of Servantes cognominal writing, who has spent his life for nothing but reading novels about knights’ gests and struggling for windmills. The literature of seventeen century could show this because of some liberty from the Church mind. Trends in a central theme of the most writings were depended on the fact that the literature of the first half of the seventeenth century belonged mostly to humanism. Therefore, the main theme of the most works was the man, as the individual, who opposed to the inertness and the sluggishness of the masses. It is not occasionally, that almost simultaneously two great works of humanistic literature arose , – â€Å"Hamlet† by William Shakespeare (1601) and the first volume of the â€Å"Don Kihot† (1605). Both heroes, Don Kihot and Hamlet have much in common. They both look at the world around differently compared to their environment, they both are regarded crazy by other people. The theme of loneliness of the man in the world was begun for future development exactly at that period of time. Also, some changes and characters had writer’s style of that epoch. The global reformation impacted to the writer’s style in the beginning of the seventeen century. Global liberty and heroic climate which was born in numerous military conflicts had its reflection in the literature in heroic dramas and other similar writings. The bright example of reformation literature could be such writing as â€Å"Henry IV† by William Shakespeare. Also, the beginning of the seventeen century – is the time of staggering popularity of theater. That time theater was more popular then books and people preferred to see rather to read. Surely, this fact had a really great impact on the literature and writer’s style of that period as the most of writers began to write plays instead of habitual novels. To my point of view, the work that best exemplifies the beginning of the 17th Century is â€Å"Hamlet† by William Shakespeare. This tragedy reflects the main idea of the epoch – idea of disunity and incomprehension between people from one side, and the idea of the nobility and the grandeur of the man, of the human. â€Å"He was a man, take him for all in all† (Shakespeare, 1603, Act 1, Scene 2) – the main hero of the tragedy says. These words show new vision, new parameters of the ideal man for that time. The Hamlet’s speech shows the ideal of the man, that was inherent to the epoch of Humanism, Reformation and New Age. The late king was a harmonic thought incarnation in Hamlet’s eyes. Therefore Shakespeare demonstrates the main demand for the Hero of the Time – to think, to contemplate. Surely, it is difficult to find out what exactly has the most impact each to other – literature on the environment or vice versa. But literature is always like a mirror that shows the climate in society and country. The literature of the beginning of the seventeenth century was a base for humanism trends in the world literature. It was courageous for that time and free from past pressure of violent morality and Catholicity. Later, those humanism ideas has proceed and expanded and found their reflection in such events like English revolution in 1640 and French revolution in 1789. References Hall, Robert A. , Jr. (1963). Cultural Symbolism in Literature (169 pgs). Ithaca, N. Y. , Linguistica. Goncalves, H. (1985). Character, Ideology and Symbolism in the Plays of Wedekind, Sternheim Kaiser, Toller and Brecht (145 pgs). London the modern humanities research association.

The Humanization of Gods and Kings in Renaissance Art

The Renaissance period of history was one that provided profound changes in the way in which people viewed traditional modes and models of thought, self-awareness, science, religion and art. What is interesting is the in the art of the Renaissance period is that the pulse of the time period is clearly reflected because much that was not explicitly stated in other modes is clear in the subtext of the artwork as subtext often appears below the radar of, for lack of a better term, censors of the period.When Galileo announced that the earth revolved around the sun and that the commonly held belief that the sun revolved around the earth was a fallacy, he was promptly thrown in jail. Therein lies one of the most forgotten aspects of the revolution of the Renaissance: much of what has become accepted in today’s day and age that derived from the brilliance of the Renaissance thinkers was not exactly welcomed by the traditionalists of the day. However, if there was a common flaw presen t within the realm of traditionalists it would be the fact that traditionalists are not known for possessing the common faculty of creativity.As such, much of the anti-traditionalist viewpoints of the Renaissance are present within the artwork of the Renaissance period and this anti-traditionalist, anti-classical approach found in the artwork are revealed upon closer examination of said artwork. Caravaggio’s The Calling of St. Matthew looks somewhat benign on the surface, but its underlying subtext betrays a profound departure from what is commonly considered the imagery of artistic representation of gods and kings.In order to understand this radical departure one must examine what was the common classical imagery of religious figures in the traditional era. That is to say, the traditional and classic imagery of religious figures was primarily one of idealization. The figures presented in Greek sculpture, for example, were generally depicted as flawless entities. The imagery was devoid of imperfections and it was clear that those represented and displayed in the artwork were presented as being ‘otherworldly’ and definitely not representative of the average person.(This lack of imperfection in the imagery of the gods is where the colloquialism â€Å"a body like a Greek God† derives) Now, this imagery of perfection was not designed in such a matter to be deceptive. Rather, it was done in such a way because there needed to be a distinct representative difference between Gods and Kings vs. plebian populace members. To a great extent, this was done in order to facilitate a belief in the gods. While there are many myths and legends found in the tales of the Greek gods, much of what is found in these tales was completely absent from the average daily life of the Greeks.The entirety of their religion was based on the premise of the existence of constant interference in the lives of ‘regular’ by mythic creatures, deities and enti ties, despite the decided lack of presence of any of these fantasy images in the daily life of those who believed in the legends. Hence, the legend of the myth must b preserved and in order to preserve the belief clearly no representation of the gods could invoke any criticism. Because of this, the visual imagery of the gods often wallowed in images of absolute perfection as a way of separating the gods from the common people.In Caravaggio’s world, the artist takes the opposite approach and in doing so the artist is consistent with the Renaissance approach to art which generally promoted a radical departure from classical art. To put it bluntly, classical art had long since become passe and was fairly boring and repetitive by the time the Renaissance occurred. The art world required a compelling new format and in The Calling of St. Matthew there is clearly evident a major departure from the classical art because religious figures are clearly de-mythicized and made far more hu man.Hence, religion becomes more real because it is in the hands of the people and not in myths. When one looks at the image of St. Matthew in the painting, there is an interesting psychology present within the frame: it is clear that St. Matthew is an everyman. That is, he is not a mythic god or a hero born of the gods. He is a normal person who lives in the real world surrounded by real people. Hence, St. Matthew is far more believable and more credible a figure than a mythic legend. Furthermore, to be like St. Matthew is attainable.For the average human to be like Hercules is impossible. However, to be like St. Matthew is attainable for all one needs to do is to turn one’s back on vice and live a life of faith. In the painting, there is a clear representation of Matthew turning his back on the world of money lending which is a life of vice. As such, to be like Matthew is attainable and this is an ideology that is thoroughly removed from the classical representation This ty pe of imagery is further seen in the neoclassical work of Jacques Louis David’s The Death of Marat.Jean Paul Marat was a hero of the frnch Rvolution who gave up a very successful life as a scientist to join the â€Å"good fight. † This would prove to be his undoing as he would later be assassinated. As such, Marat has bcome a symbol of selflessness and revolution in world imagery. What makes this painting interesting is the fact that there is a mix of humanizing and deifying the subject matter that while seemingly paradoxical on the surface is crafted into logical sense in the actual presentation within the painting.In other words, Marat is pictured at the moment of his death and his death appears remarkably unremarkable. In other words, he does not die in a cinematic or melodramatic manner. He collapses and dies like any other human. While a hero and an individual who achieved in his life more than what any other person in the world may achieve, he returns to â€Å"n ormalcy† in death. In a way, the subtext here is that any person can be a hero if they so seek to achieve such heights and one does not need the mythic powers of the classical heroes in order to make a difference,Additionally, Marat’s death imagery is very derivative of the common images of Jesus Christ’s death. Again, there is much subtext at work here as the similarity in the imagery would infer that Marat’s sacrifice was Christ like and selfless. Furthermore, it would also infer that the ability to be like Christ is found within everyone and can be achieved if one dedicates his or her life to such Christ like values. This is a RADICAL departure from the unattainable heights the classical gods and heroes embody in the ancient myths of antiquity.If there ever was a painting of the period that thoroughly lambasted the classical notion of gods and kings it would be Goya’s Saturn Devouring One of His Own Sons. In the legend of Roman (Greek) myth, Satu rn believed that his own sons would supplant his rule so he ate them. Now, this may seem morbid when reading the words, but there never was an image that depicting such a description much less one that depicted Saturn in such an unflattering manner. There is good reason for this: in Ancient Rome one would have been tortured and put to death for such an unflattering image.With Goya, the image is presented and it is presented in about as unflattering a manner that it could possible be presented: Saturn is depicted as a homicidal, maniacal lunatic. The expression in his face is that of insanity and mania. He is depicted about as far from a god as possible and the ugliness of his actions is clear for the world to see. In a way, this painting provides the proverbial final nail in the coffin of the traditional image of gods and kings by essentially stripping away any veneer of anything positive.The actions of the god are despicable and there is no attempt to put a positive spin on it. In a way, it would seem that those classic thinkers who repeated the tale of Saturn were nothing more than apologist for bad behavior and with his painting Goya essentially kills off the classical notion of what it was to be a god not by creating a false image, but by creating a realistic image. Bibliography Schneider, L. (2001) Italian Renaissance Art. New York: Westview Press. Snyder, J. (2004) Northern Renaissance Art. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Each Generation Has Something Valuable to Offer Essay

All throughout the world there are many different genres of music being played and listened to at all time of day. Music has a way of distracting people, making them forget about the world and just focus on what makes them happy. Each person has their own taste in music, the music that makes them happy. Therefore, the songs of the world have defiantly shaped our culture. Would our culture be the same without it? Most people would say â€Å"no† because music is a huge part of our culture and without it the idea of fun would be totally different. Many people listen to the same music resulting in bringing a community together to raise a better culture. Music has always been a part of mankind because every beat contributes to the tune of the song, doesn’t matter if it came from a stick tapping on the dirt or the notes coming from an instrument. The Beatles, an iconic band in the music world, made it easier for other artists like Michael Jackson and Beyonce with their experimenting in the mid 1960s. Throughout centuries music has changed drastically to the present day, evolving slowly from the beginning. Whether we look at the past, present or future generation one thing is definite; each generation has something valuable to offer to the music industry. Music of the past started from the earliest of mankind, no man had an instrument to play to make music. They made their own music with anything they could find in nature. People made something beautiful out of items that were originally made for an entirely different purpose. This creativity was the true beginning of music. From then music has evolved to become a much bigger craze. People learned they could sing and instruments were made. The first instruments, the flute and some stringed instruments date back to somewhere between 7000 and 6600 BC in the Prehistoric eras. With music, dance came along in Ancient Egypt and became part of tradition and rituals. Musicians and singers started accompanying the theater plays for the entertainment of community members making music part of everyday life lifestyle. Choirs started to grow in the churches because music became more of an art and people wanted to share it with others. And finally in the Baroque era, instruments were being intergraded into songs and dance resulting in the beginning of the music we know and listen to today. In the mid 1960s, The Beatles blew up the charts. They claimed many positions in the top 100 and at one point they had fourteen songs on the chart. They were the new wave of rock n’ roll/pop and everybody was crazy about this new boy band. Although they experimented with many things in sound and vocals, they brought new elements to the music industry. They were edgy and brave striving to be the first of many things. The Beatles wrote most of their own songs, played their own instruments and even sang their own vocals with complex harmonies. This was a thing unheard of by any bands before their time, they were beyond normal, but this difference resulted in their huge popularity by the majority of the population. Being one of the first to make albums, people considered them more important and the other singles were put behind them. The Beatles were the first pop group to be taken seriously by classical music enthusiasts because of their global success. A great accomplishment for the group and every member deserves the title of legends to live on after their deaths. Twenty first century music technology and styles have changed from previous years. The development of advanced technology for recording and distributing music made a wide variety of artists to gain global recognition across the world including Michael Jackson and Beyonce. As well there were dramatic innovations in musical forms and styles transitioning into country music, hip hop and punk rock to name a few. Michael Jackson was a man of many talents; he is recognized as the most successful entertainer with his singer, dancer and fashion contributions. MJ has the number one bestselling album of all time, Thriller. Also, along with Thriller his other albums become ranked among the world’s bestselling albums making him one of the bestselling artists of all time. He has been awarded with 13 Grammy Awards, 26 American Music Awards, 18 World Music Awards and the estimated sale of 350 to 400 million units worldwide on all his albums combined. Beyonce is the most awarded female of the 21st century; she has won 17 Grammy Awards throughout her career but overall she has won over 185 awards. The released of her debut solo album Dangerously in Love earned her five Grammy Awards and sold a total of 4. 9 million copies in the US. Billboard named her the Top Female Artist and Top Radio Songs Artist of the 2000s decade in 2009, and ranked her as the fourth Artist of the Decade. A great attribution to the music industry by both Michael Jackson and Beyonce, making their names recognized forever. In the past, present or future generations it will always be true that music has evolved over many centuries and in every generation it continues to make people happy and have fun with. Mankind grew from simple music to something much greater and more beautiful. With newer technology artists could share their talent with everyone across the world giving others happiness while listening. The Beatles brought new things to the music industry and helped the success of other artists in the future like Michael Jackson and Beyonce. Saying that music became a much bigger success as the generations went by, making each singer or band more popular by the year. Everyone has their own taste in music but many people even listen to the same songs. The music has shaped the culture and the culture is the bringing together of the people that listen to the same music. There is not one day that goes by that people aren’t listening to music, there has to be at the very least a few hundred people listening to different songs across the world.

Critical Discourse Analysis, Organizational Discourse, and Organizational Change Essay

Discourses is an element of all concrete social events (actions, processes) as well as of more durable social practices, though neither are simply discourse: they are articulations of discourse with non-discoursal elements. ‘Discourse’ subsumes language as well as other forms of semiosis such as visual images and ‘body language’, and the discoursal element of a social event often combines different semiotic forms (eg a television programme). But the use of the ‘term ‘discourse’ rather than ‘language’ is not purely or even primarily motivated by the diversity of forms of semiosis, it is primarily registers a relational way of seeing semiosis[i], as one element of social events and practices dialectically interconnected with other elements. The overriding objective of discourse analysis, on this view, is not simply analysis of discourse per se, but analysis of the dialectical relations between discourse and non-discoursal elements of the social, in order to reach a better understanding of these complex relations (including how changes in discourse can cause changes in other elements). But if we are to analyse relations between discourse and non-discoursal elements, we must obviously see them as ontologically (and not just epistemologically, analytically) different elements of the social. They are different, but they are not discrete – that is, they are dialectically related, in the sense that elements ‘internalize’ other elements, without being reducible to them (Harvey 1996, Chouliaraki & Fairclough 1999, Fairclough 2003, Fairclough, Jessop & Sayer 2004). A realist view of social life sees it as including social structures as well as social events – in critical realist terms, the ‘real’ (which defines and delimits what is possible) as well as the ‘actual’ (what actually happens). There is a general recognition that the relationship between structures and events must be a mediated relation, and I follow for instance Bhaskar (1986) and Bourdieu (Bourdieu & Wacquant 1992) in regarding social practices as the mediating entities – more or less durable and stable articulations of diverse social elements including discourse which constitute social selections and orderings of the allowances of social structures as actualisable allowances in particular areas of social life in a certain time and place. Social fields, institutions and organizations can be regarded as networks of social practices. Networks of social practices include specifically discoursal selections and orderings (from languages and other semiotic systems, which are counted amongst social structures) which I call ‘orders of discourse’, appropriating but redefining Foucault’s term (Foucault 1984, Fairclough 1992). Orders of discourse are social structurings of linguistic/semiotic variation or difference. Realist discourse analysis on this view is based in a dialectical-relational social ontology which gives ontological priority to processes and relations over objects, entities, persons, organizations etc, yet sees the latter as socially produced ‘permanences’ (Harvey 1996) which constitute a pre-structured reality with which we are confronted, and sets of affordances and limitations on processes. Epistemological priority is given to neither pre-constructed social structures, practices, institutions, identities or organizations, nor to processes, actions, and events: the concern is with the relationship and tension between them. People with their capacities for agency are seen as socially produced, contingent and subject to change, yet real, and possessing real causal powers which, in their tension with the causal powers of social structures, are a focus for analysis. Social research proceeds through abstraction from the concrete events of social life aimed at understanding the pre-structured nature of social life, and returns to analysis of concrete events, actions and processes in the light of this abstract knowledge. Discourse and non-discoursal elements of social events and social practices are related in many ways. I distinguish three main ways: representing, acting (and interacting), and being. At the level of social practices, orders of discourse can be seen as articulations of specific ways of representing, acting, and being – ie specific discourses, genres and styles. A discourse is a particular way of representing certain parts or aspects of the (physical, social, psychological) world; a genre is a particular way of (inter)acting (which comprises the discoursal element of a way of inter)acting which will also necessarily comprise non-discoursal elements); a style is a way of being (the discoursal element of a way of being, an ‘identity’, which will also include non-discoursal elements). I shall use the term ‘text’[ii], in a generalized sense (not just written text but also spoken interaction, multi-semiotic televisual text etc) for the discoursal element of social events. Texts are doubly contextualized, first in their relation to other elements of social events, second in their relation to social practices, which is ‘internal’ to texts in the sense that they necessarily draw upon orders of discourse, ie social practices in their discoursal aspect, and the discourses, genres and styles associated with them. However, events (and therefore texts) are points of articulation and tension between two causal forces: social practices and, through their mediation, social structures; and the agency of the social actors who speak, write, compose, read, listen to, interpret them. The social ‘resource’ of discourses, genres and styles is subject to the transformative potential of social agency, so that texts do not simply instantiate discourses, genres and styles, they actively rework them, articulate them together in distinctive and potentially novel ways, hybridize them, transform them. My focus in this paper is on organizational change, and this version of CDA has indeed been developed in association with research on discourse in social change. Social change comprises change in social structures, social practices, the networking of social practices, and (the character of) social events; and change in languages and other semiotic systems, in orders of discourse and relations between orders of discourse, and in texts. With respect to orders of discourse, social change includes change in the social structuring of linguistic/semiotic variation, therefore change in discourses, genres and styles, and change in their articulation in orders of discourse, and change in relations between orders of discourse (eg political and media orders of discourse). With respect to texts, social change includes tendential change in how discourses, genres and styles are drawn upon and articulated/hybridized together in various types of text. The process of social change raises questions about causal relations between different elements. Causal relations are not simple or one-way. For instance, it would seem to make more sense to see new communication technologies (ICTs) as causing the emergence of new genres than vice-versa – changes in discourse caused by changes in non-discoursal elements. In other cases, change appears to be discourse-led. A pervasive contemporary process (for instance in processes of ‘transition’ in central and eastern Europe) is change initiated through the recontextualization[iii] in an organization, a social field, or a country of ‘external’ discourses, which may then be enacted in new ways of (inter)acting including new genres, inculcated as new ways of being including styles, and materialized in for example new ways of organizing space. These enactments, inculcations and materializations are dialectical processes. There is an important proviso however: these processes are contingent, they depend upon certain conditions of possibility. For instance, when a discourse is recontextualized, it enters a new field of social relations, and its trajectory within those social relations is decisive in determining whether or not it has (re)constructive effects on the organization, social field etc overall. In contexts of social change, different groups of social actors may develop different and conflicting strategies for change, which have a partially discursive character (narratives of the past, representations of the present, imaginaries for the future), and inclusion within a successful strategy is a condition for a discourse being dialectically enacted, inculcated and materialized in other social elements (Jessop 2002, Fairclough, Jessop & Sayer 2004). Discourses construe aspects of the world in inherently selective and reductive ways, ‘translating’ and ‘condensing’ complex realities (Harvey 1996), and one always needs to ask, why this particular selection and reduction, why here, why now? (For a discussion of ‘globalisation’ discourse in these terms, see Fairclough & Thomas forthcoming. Locating discourses in relation to strategies in contexts of social change enables us to connect particular representations of the world with particular interests and relations of power, as well assess their ideological import. Discourses do not emerge or become recontextualized in particular organizations or fields at random, and they do not stand in an arbitrary relation to social structures and practices, forms of institutionalization and organization. If we can construct explanations of change in non-discoursal elements of social reality which attribute causal effects to discourses, we can also construct explanations of change in discourses which attribute causal effects to (non-discoursal elements of) structures and practices, as well as social and strategic relations. The social construction of the social world may sometimes be a matter of changes in non-discoursal elements caused by discourses (through the concrete forms of texts), but discourses (and texts) are also causal effects, the dialectics of social change is not a one-way street. We can distinguish four elements, or moments, in the social trajectories of discourses: their emergence and constitution (through a re-articulation of existing elements); their entry into hegemonic struggles from which they may emerge as hegemonic discourses; their dissemination and recontextualization across structural and scalar boundaries (ie between one field or institution or organization and others, and between one scale (‘global’, macro-regional (eg the EU), national, local) and others; and their operationalization (enactment, inculcation, materialization). These are distinct moments with respect to the causal effects of discourses on non-discoursal (as well as discoursal, ie generic and stylistic) elements of social life, and they are all subject to non-discoursal as well as discoursal conditions. CDA claims that social research can be enriched by extending analysis of social processes and social change into detailed analysis of texts. More detailed (including linguistic) analysis of texts is connected to broader social analysis by way of (a) analysing texts as part of analysing social events, (b) interdiscursive analysis of shifting articulations of genres, discourses, styles in texts (Fairclough 2003). The latter locates the text as an element of a concrete event in its relationship to orders of discourse as the discoursal aspect of networks of social practices, and so allows the analyst to (a) assess the relationship and tension between the causal effects of agencies in the concrete event and the causal effects of (networks of) social practices, and through them of social structures (b) detect shifts in the relationship between orders of discourse and networks f social practices as these are registered in the interdiscursivity (mixing of genres, discourses, styles) of texts. Text can be seen as product and as process. Texts as products can be stored, retrieved, bought and sold, cited and summarized and so forth. Texts as processes can be grasped through seeing ‘texturing’, making texts, as a specific modality of social action, of social production or ‘making’ (of meanings, understandings, knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, feelings, social relations, social a nd personal identities, institutions, organizations). The focus is on ‘logogenesis’ (Iedema 2003:115-17), including the texturing of entities (objects, persons, spaces, organizations) which can, given certain preconditions, be dialectically internalized (enacted, inculcated and materialized) in non-discoursal elements of social life. See for instance the discussion of the significance of nominalization as a logogenetic process in texts in processes of organizing, producing organization objects, in Iedema (2003). Organizational Discourse  I shall construct my very selective comments on organizational discourse analysis around the following four themes: organization and organizing; variation, selection and retention; understandings of ‘discourse’; and intertextuality. Organization and organizing Mumby & Stohl (1991) argue that researchers in organizational communication most centrally differ from those in other areas of organization studies in that the former problematize ‘organization’ whereas the latter do not. ‘For us, organization – or organizing, to use Weick’s (1979) term – is a precarious, ambiguous, uncertain process that is continually being made and remade. In Weick’s sense, organizations are only seen as stable, rational structures when viewed retrospectively. Communication, then, is the substance of organizing in the sense that through discursive practices organization members engage in the construction of a complex and diverse system of meanings’. Another formulation of this shift in emphasis from organizations as structures to ‘organizing’ (or ‘organizational becoming’, Tsoukas & Chia 2002) as a process is that of Mumby & Clair (1997: 181): ‘we suggest that organizations exist only in so far as their members create them through discourse. This is not to claim that organizations are â€Å"nothing but† discourse, but rather that discourse is the principal means by which organization members create a coherent social reality that frames their sense of who they are’. Despite the disclaimer at the beginning of the second sentence, this formulation can as argued by Reed (forthcoming) be seen as collapsing ontology into epistemology, and undermining the ontological reality of organizational structures as constraints on organizational action and communication. From the perspective of the realist view of discourse I have outlined, it makes little sense to see organizing and organization, or more generally agency and structure, as alternatives one has to choose between. With respect to organizational change, both organizational structures and the agency of members of organizations in organizational action and communication have causal effects on how organizations change. Organizational communication does indeed organize, produce organizational effects and transform organizations, but organizing is subject to conditions of possibility which include organizational structures. The paper by Iedema, Degeling, Braithwaite and White (2004) in the special issue of Organizational Studies is an analysis of how a ‘doctor-manager’ in a teaching hospital in Australia manages ‘the incommensurable dimensions’ of his ‘boundary position between profession and organization’ by positioning himself across different discourses, sometimes in a single utterance. The authors identify a heteroglossia ‘that is too context-regarding to be reducible to personal idiosyncracy, and too complex and dynamic to be the calculated outcome of conscious manipulation’. They see the doctor-manager’s talk as a ‘feat’ of ‘bricolage’, not as a display of ‘behaviours that are pre-programmed’. Nor is it an instantiation of a ‘strategy’, for ‘strategies are they assume ‘conscious’. Although the authors recognize that organizations can ‘set limits’ on what workers can say and do, impose ‘closure’, they see the doctor-manager as successfully ‘deferring closure on his own identity and on the discourses that realize it’. One can take this as an interesting and nuanced study of organization as the ‘organizing’ that is achieved in interaction (nuanced in the sense that it does not exclude organizational structures, though it does suggest that they are more ‘fluid’ and less ‘categorical’ than they have been taken to be, and it does recognize their capacity to impose ‘closure’). I would like to make a number of connected observations on this paper. First, one might see the doctor-manager’s ‘feat’ in this case as a particular form of a more general organizational process, the management of contradictions. Second, discourse figures differently in different types of organization (Borzeix 2003, referring to Girin 2001). The type of organization in this case seems to be in Girin’s terms a ‘cognitive’ (or ‘learning’, or ‘intelligent’) organization, in which the normative force of (written) texts (rules, procedures) is limited, and there is an emphasis on learning in spoken interaction. There seems to be, in other terms, a relatively ‘network’ type of structure rather than a simple hierarchy, where management involves a strong element participatory and consultative interaction with stakeholders. Third, connecting the first two points, spoken interaction in this type of organization accomplishes an ongoing management of contradictions which contrasts with the management of contradictions through suppressing them by imposing rules and procedures. Fourth, the doctor-manager’s ‘feat’ can be seen as a performance of a strategy as long as we abandon the (somewhat implausible) claim that all aspects and levels of strategic action are conscious – the doctor-manager would one imagines be conscious of the need to sustain a balancing act between professional and managerial perspectives and priorities, and of certain specific means to do so, but that does not entail him being conscious of all the complex interactive means he uses to do it. Fifth, while particular performances of this strategy (or, indeed, any strategy) are not ‘pre-programmed’, the strategy is institutionalized, disseminated, learnt, and constitutes a facet of the type of organization as a network of social practices, ie a facet of organizational structure. Sixth, it strikes me that bringing off a sense of creative bricolage is perhaps itself a part of the managerial style of this type of organization, ie part of the strategy, the network of social practices, the order of discourse. My conclusion is that even in a case of this sort, rather more emphasis is needed on the relationship between organizing and organization, performance and practice, ‘feat’ and strategy[iv]. Organizational discourse studies have been associated with postmodernist positions (Chia 1995, Grant, Harvey, Oswick & Putnam forthcoming, Grant, Keenoy, Oswick 2001), though the field as a whole is too diverse to be seen as simply postmodernist. Chia identifies a postmodern ‘style of thinking’ in organizational studies which ‘accentuates the significance, ontological priority and analysis of the micro-logics of social organizing practices over and above their stabilized ‘effects’ such as ‘individuals’. As this indicates, the focus on organizing rather than organisation is strongly associated with this ‘style of thinking’. Like the dialectical-relational ontology I advocated earlier, this ‘style of thinking’ sees objects and entities as produced within ontologically prior processes. The key difference is that this ‘style of thinking’ tends towards a one-sided emphasis on process, whereas the realist view of discourse analysis I have been advocating centres upon the tension between (discoursal) process and pre-structured (discoursal and linguistic, as well as non-discoursal) objects. This form of realism is not subject to the tendency within modernist social research which is criticized by Woolgar (1988) to take the objects it arrives at through abstraction (which would include in the case of CDA orders of discourse, as well as language and other semiotic systems) to be exhaustive of the social reality it researches. The key difference in this case is whereas this form of modernist research moves from the concrete to the abstract and then ‘forgets’ the concrete, the dialectic-relational form of realism I have advocated crucially makes the move back to analysis of the concrete. CDA is not merely concerned with languages and orders of discourse, it is equally concerned with text and texturing, and with the relations of tension between the two.