Deconstruction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Deconstruction - Essay Example Allan Poe was born in in 1809, in Boston. His father was called David Poe while the mother was Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins. He lost his parents before he was three, and he had to move to Virginia to live with a wealthy tradesman called John Allan. John took Poe as one of his sons. Poe went to private school and conflicts occurred between him and his guardians when he decided to pursue literary works. He attended university of Virginia, but his dropped after the first year. He had gambling debts and his guardians refused to settle the debts. He joined the army and became sergeant major. He later quit the army. He wrote many literary works. He wrote many poems when he was in West point. His life became miserable when he became a heavy drinker and smoker. He went through many problems in his live that helped him write many poems. His nature of being a heavy drinker is even realized in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†. His literary talent would not have been that interesting if were no t the way his behavior and character influenced his writing. His love for alcohol helped him incorporating the abuse of alcohol in his work. A clear evidenced in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†, where he used Fortunato show the effects of heavy drinking in the society. The names that have been used in Poe’s work have some hidden meaning. ... The name sherry could be used to mean a titular amontillado. Therefore, in Italian, it represents a Montilla wine. Therefore, there is a â€Å"relationship between the way amontillado is produced and the way Montresor is using Fortunato† (Lewis, 179). Theory of deconstruction is further illustrated trough names used on the Poe’s work and some activities that are taking place. Meanings of the names that are used are related to the activities that take place in this literary work. One of the related activities includes the way Montresor is treating Fortunato and the process that is involved during the production of Montilla wine. â€Å"Montilla wine is manufactured by allowing yeast to grow in a pipe. This yeast can only grow under certain conditions. These conditions include leaving two spaces open on the cask that is used. The wine should be protected from oxygen in order to allow fermentation to take place. If oxygen is allowed to have contact with the yeast, the wine will not be produced with the required standards. This entire process should result in production of sweet wine† (Lewis, 181). This process of manufacturing mantilla wine is directly related to the process that Montresor uses in revenging on Fortunato. Montresor views Fortunato as his sweet pretender who has been induced by alcohol. Montresor’s behavior seems to be sweet to Fortunato. This is because his behavior has been induced with alcohol and he not able to realize Montresor’s intention. Montresor enjoys the alcohol effect on Fortunato since he knows he (Montresor) is going to achieve his goal. The alcohol content in Fortunato’s body prevents him from refining himself. Another contradiction in the story comes out when the

Driving Essay Example for Free

Driving Essay Realistically as you start your day it is safe to assume that you have no intentions of being in a head on collision and your vehicle being bashed nor did the person who was nonchalantly steering the car with their knee while texting as they were driving. Ultimately I think everyone will come across at least one irresponsible driver in their lifetime. Most of us are fortunate enough to survive these encounters, however not everyone is that lucky. Reckless drivers endanger and destroy people’s lives and possessions on a daily basis. Various conducts while driving are considered hazardous. Speeding is a very common practice that can lead to a catastrophe. Drivers that speed are engaging in irresponsible and impetuous conduct. It is especially dangerous to speed in residential neighborhoods where children and pets may be playing. Speeding drivers can also be dangerous in neighborhoods where homeowners in their vehicles are entering and exiting their driveways. Driving at an excessive rate of speed is quite common. This practice is especially dangerous when driving through a residential neighborhood or a school zone. Posted speed limits are not meant to be suggestions; ignore them and you run the risk of being stopped and ticketed by police. Driving Too Slow Some drivers fail to take into account the location where they are driving and drive at the same speed on the highway as they do in a residential area. A better strategy is to look at the posted speed limits and adjust your speed accordingly. Many dangerous driving habits are a result of over confidence. Drivers with years of experience sometimes become dangerous drivers because they are over confident with driving their particular vehicle or a particular route between home and work. They are not prepared when something out of the ordinary occurs.

White Mans Burden :: essays research papers

â€Å"White Man’s Burden† The movie we watched in class was called â€Å"White Man’s Burden.† According to some sociologists the white man’s burden is an unwanted burden that white men, who are in the upper part of society, must bring the minority classes up to their status. For example, if it were applied today white folks would have to help bring black folks up into a higher class. While this theory was used many years ago, it is still in consideration today. This movie took a very unique approach. It separated two classes of people, whites and blacks. They were separated by, what I believe is the greatest degree of separation today, money. In the movie the only people in the upper class were black and the main family in the movie was white. In today’s society that is different, you would expect white people to have the money and black to be in the lower class. While that is not always the case, it is what is perceived in today’s society. The movie portrayed life in the inner city as we are conditioned to see it. Everyone in the inner city was of the same race. Everyone was poor and life was rough. There was some violence in the inner city but it was on only between the two classes. Also everyone in the inner city didn’t speak proper English. The movie almost implied that it was these people fault that they were poor and that they were bad people. It did not show the fact that these people of the inner city could have been dealt a bad hand. This point is shown when John Travolta is evicted from his house. When this happens his mother in law comes over to get his wife and kids. While she is there she yells at him and asks him what kind of husband he is that he can’t keep a job and raise his own kids and support her daughter. The fact that maybe he was dealt a bad hand was over looked. John Travolta is still a good person. There were stereotypes portrayed in the movie. One can be shown when John Travolta was beaten by some cops. He was beaten by cops because he â€Å"fit† a description of a criminal. The stereotype here is that all people who are of the lower class are criminals. John Travolta was not stopped and asked for identification, it was just assumed that since he was of a lower class that he the criminal they were looking for.

Linguistic Changes of an Individual in Migration Essay

Introduction and Overview of Topic: As the world becomes increasingly globalised, we observe a rising trend where individuals migrate for educational and economic opportunities. The prestige of being educated in a highly ranked university and the prospects of higher paying jobs are definitely important pull factors for both internal and international migration (Welch, 1970). When people move, they also transfer the use of their existing linguistic repertoire to their host country. However, what might have been effective at home might be interpreted differently when placed in different socioeconomic contexts. Hence, the relative value of linguistic repertoire one possesses and how mobile are one’s language skills in the world determines how a migrant interacts with a new community. Consequently, this paper seeks to provide insight on how the relative value of linguistic resources affects one’s mobility and decisions in community interactions. Drawing on Blommaert’s study on the sociolinguistics of globalisation, this discussion will focus on how an individual’s linguistic repertoire is being used to one’s advantage within the community. It also highlights the changes which occur when one attempts to transfer the same linguistic repertoire as the shift to a place of varying cultural and linguistic ability. As Blommaert suggests, â€Å"placed resources are resources that are functional in one particular place but can become dysfunctional as soon as they are moved to other places† (Blommaert, 2003). Essentially, this essay seeks to expound on the changes of one’s linguistic repertoire and how it affects one’s interactions with new communities resulting from migration. Linguistic repertoire refers to linguistic varieties acquired by an individual to different degrees of proficiency and for different uses (Crystal, 1990). The acquisition of linguistic repertoire thus extends not only to the procurement of different types of language codes like English and Hindi, but also the speech styles and genres within each language. In light of this definition, this paper chooses to trace how one’s use of language repertoire might change in the context of internal migration and  international migration. With this in mind, a migrant from India who experienced both types of migration was chosen. India boasts twenty-two official languages as per the Constitution of India, where English is determined as the secondary official language and is used as lingua franca throughout India. Within the context of this paper, the experiences of the migrant serve to provide personal insight on language mobility within the transmigrational arena. Research methodology and background of interviewee  With this in mind, a fifty minute interview was carried out on 16th October 2012 to gather substantial data in order to provide a comparison between internal and international migration. The sole participant is Joshua Cherian, aged 24 who is currently pursuing a postgraduate education in Singapore. He was born and raised in Kerala, Southern India, after which he moved to Jamshedpur, Northern India to pursue a tertiary education before working in New Delhi. He was taught English at a young age and learnt Hindi during university, while his mother tongue is Malayalam. During the interview, questions were asked ranging from the interviewee’s experiences of language acquisition and his experiences in India and Singapore to language policies in India. Utilising his personal insights on adapting to different communities and observing it through the concepts provided in Blommaert’s study, the relative value of linguistic repertoire consequently becomes more obvious not only from country to country but also within different areas of the community. Language repertoire in internal migration. Within India, it is said to have a de-facto three plus minus one language policy. Those who neither speak the language of the state nor the two official languages, English and Hindi, now have to grapple with learning four languages in order to pass the school systems and secure jobs within the modern sector (Laitin. D, 1989). Consequently, many people who migrate in the pursuit of education or jobs find it necessary to expand their language repertoire in order to compete for the chance of upward socioeconomic mobility within India. Joshua notes that: â€Å"There is a divide between the corporate world and industrial world, where managers and people in multinational companies speak in english, but those in manufacturing speak Hindi in work. In the north of India everyone speaks Hindi, so I had to learn Hindi. When I worked in Delhi, I spoke mostly Hindi in my workplace, because I am a manager of labourers and those who just passed tenth standard, they just need to make something so they don’t need English. People who do software need to interact with clients overseas, so it is important for them to speak English. † Due the demands of his job, Joshua was required to expand his language repertoire to include fluent Hindi in order to communicate with his subordinates effectively. Although English could have sufficed in interacting with white-collar professionals, learning Hindi would have enabled Joshua to ensure a smooth running of operations that he was in charge with. As such, it is observed that migrants tend to expand their language repertoire within internal migration according to which languages are most functional within their community. Furthermore, an expansion of linguistic repertoire also affects one’s interaction the community. As immigrants acquire proficiency in more languages, there is a tendency to broaden their participation in various communities within the area that they have settled in. This is especially evident in Joshua’s recount: â€Å"In India you would have to know many languages in order to fit into different communities. University students will use English because it is prestigious. It shows you are well educated. Outside of the education system, everyone speaks their own dialect or their own state language. I used to hang out with many friends when I was studying in Jamshedpur who came from all over India. I also managed to become my student governing body’s president, so speaking the many languages helped me reach out to a lot of people. † Even though migrants who migrate within their home country experience a new environment, there are common cultural familiarities that they can relate to by being in the same country. Naturally, this allows them to assimilate into the communities easily since they already share similar cultural and national identities. Rather, this pre-existing factor enables immigrants like Joshua to interact with different groups of people. Such a preference is also extremely beneficial to an individual within a new community as they are able to called upon a large network of acquaintances should they need help in the future. Hence, the broadening of one’s interaction with many communities would be positively correlated to the acquisition of language repertoire because both serve the same purpose of helping the migrant assimilate well into the new environment they are in. Language Repertoire in International Migration In contrast to internal migration, one’s use of language repertoire might decrease across different geographical spaces. It is noted that international migration denotes a shift to a foreign culture in which the values placed upon certain languages is different from one’s original country. As such, many migrants would utilise a language within their repertoire that is widely used in the world. Joshua relates his experience moving from India to Singapore: â€Å"When I first arrived in Singapore, everything was easy for me to get used to because I was already proficient in English. Even if I needed help, I could just approach anyone and they would reply me in English. I don’t even Hindi anymore because the friends and people I meet with speak only in English. Perhaps it is because there are so many races here so communication needs to be in a common language. Although I have friends from India here, they never speak in their mother tongue! Everyone would rather speak in English than Hindi! Despite Joshua’s extensive language repertoire, he only speaks in English in Singapore, thereby showing a decrease in language repertoire employed in daily life. In most cases of international migration, migrants often move from the ‘periphery’ to the ‘core’ of the world system. As one attempts to transfer one’s language repertoire from one country to another, the languages employed more frequently within the core global system would be more mobile compared to other languages. In particular, because Singapore is a multi-racial community, it requires English as a lingua franca in order to achieve cohesiveness and efficiency. Consequently, rather than expanding one’s linguistic repertoire to gain access to every community, a migrant in Singapore need only focus on speaking proficient English, which subsequently narrows his language repertoire within the host country. Parallel to one’s decrease in language repertoire, it is observed that migrants narrow their participation to a few communities that they are comfortable with. While migrants who migrate internally tend to broaden their participation in a wide array of communities, people who migrate internationally prefer to focus their efforts in interacting with a particular community where they feel most comfortable with. Joshua, expresses that: â€Å" I like to be in a place where I can interact with people well. When I came to Singapore, everybody spoke â€Å"Singlish†. It was especially hard for me to understand the jokes of my Singaporean friends. Thats why I wanted to be in a Christian group, so I went around to look for churches and even joined the varsity christian fellowship. Then I found a church cell group to be in and we could talk about common things, at least everyone there understands what I am going through when I talk about my struggles and life. I don’t meet with the Indian community much because everyone here speaks English anyway and I am more comfortable speaking in English, so when I talk about God and faith, I don’t get any puzzled looks when I am with church people†. For most immigrants, being in a foreign community could be unsettling because there exists stark differences in culture that they might not understand. In Joshua’s case, not being able to understand Singlish hindered his active participation in various communities, especially in understanding humour within the sociocultural context of Singaporean society. As such, by participating in communities with specific shared beliefs that the migrant can identify with, it could be easier for him to assimilate into a new environment. Communities with shared beliefs also tend to share a similar use of register in their daily speech. Drawing on Joshua’s case of finding a christian community, a christian setting could be more comfortable for him because he understands the semantics of words such as â€Å"communion† and â€Å"faith† used frequently in that community. Additionally, by narrowing one’s participation to few communities, individuals would have more time to spend more effort on forging closer relationships within a particular communities. This in turn could be more beneficial to the migrant as this niche area of society provides a source of emotional support for the migrant in order to cope with the anxiety of being away from home. Conclusion What Joshua has experienced demonstrates the constant change of the value of language resources as he shifts between places in migration. This relative value of one’s linguistic resources is largely due to cultural and socioeconomic factors that have shaped the community to place emphasis on certain languages and speech styles. As such, an immigrant’s increase or decrease language repertoire is largely affected by the placed importance of certain languages within their host communities. In conclusion, this paper has asserts that language mobility is profoundly affected by the changing values of linguistic resources which vary from place to place, especially when there is a shift of resources from the periphery to the core of the world system. Whether one participates in a wide number of communities or chooses to focus their efforts in a single community depends on a change in one’s use of his language repertoire. References 0. Blommaert, J. (2003). Commentary: A Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7/4, 2003: 607-623 0. Crystal, D. (1990). A Liturgical Language in a Sociolinguistic Perspective. In D. & R. C. D. Jasper (eds),Language and the worship of the church (Basingstoke: Macmillan), 120-46 0. Laitin D. D. (1989). Language Policy and Political Strategy in India. Policy Sciences, Vol. 22, No. 3/4, Policymaking in Developing Countries (1989), pp. 415-436 0. Welch F. (1970). ‘’Education in Production’, Journal of Political Economy, 78 (1), January/February, 35-59.

Twitter Swot Analysis

Twitter, a website provides online social network and microblog services, is gradually seeping through into every area of life. It was listed as the most important invention in 2009. The same with Facebook who also provide online social network service, more and more people are feeling rely on Twitter, and could not get rid of it. On twitter, we send a real-time mail which is also known as tweets to millions of people around the world within 140 characters.As users, we could share our latest news and ideas to the followers through website interface, SMS from cell phones and mobile device apps; meanwhile, we also can get the instant information about what is happening among the followings, the country and the world. On the technology aspect, Twitter has always based on open source software from the back-end to the front-end. Nowadays, Twitter has became the top ten most visited websites. Before it was known as â€Å"Twitter†, its founders named it â€Å"Twttr†.Twttr†™s idea came from Dorsey, one of the cofounders, who expressed to â€Å"enable users carrying standard cellular phones to update small groups of people on their current situation by pressing a few buttons and tapping out message. † At the spring of 2006, Dorsey sent the first  tweet, and then, launched â€Å"Twttr† through the turmoil of headcount trimming in the same year together with the cofounders, Williams and Stone. Twttr became Twitter in 2007. We could feel the name as the buzzing of the SMS message alters and chips from birds.In this year, Twitter began to hit the market and its users kept growing in the next several years contributed from its word-of-mouth promotion. During its growth, the company continued to get venture capital invents. A lot of large companies were interested in Twitter as they thought Twitter has audiences in hands which would be lucrative. However, by 2011, the company still had problems which may bring risks in the future. According to the paper, the company had four issues: 1. The company was still on the way to seek prots.It was clearly that the company would be eventually pressured by the inventors as they largely relay on venture invention to support the company. Meanwhile, their application was totally free for use, in this case, advertising was almost the only tool to gain revenues. 2. The business model and strategy remain opaque. As mentioned by Ray Valde, Twitter was in a dilemma that they need a â€Å"robust revenue model†, while had to diminish perceived value which has a lot of potential value. 3. Did not commercially exploit its large and rapidly growing user base.As a kind of social media company, who has the audience, who will make money. User was the key factor that will determine Twitter’s fate. 4. The ongoing change in the top management team. The turmoil began at the start-up phase and even had not terminated by 2011. This may become mines for the company. This case write-up wi ll state Twitter’s business problems in detail, and use SWOT analysis to make the company’s situation more clarified. Then, raise solutions and suggestions for the company.2. Strategic analysis of problem SWOT analysisWeaknessesVery popular and acceptable by a large  number of users Creatively changed the way of messaging Greater access to capitalInternal organizational turbulence Did not exploit the user base Unclear business strategy and no solid revenue modelOpportunitiesThreatsDominant position in social media industry Competitors started to emerge A ton of public Suffer from abandonment of users A more technologically savvy plantformStrengthsVery popular and acceptable by a large number of users Why people would like to use twitter? I will give some factors according to this case: †¢ easy use †¢ free use †¢ allow users to send and receive messages to a mailing list of recipients in real-time †¢ better than online chat †¢ strong brand loy alty †¢ could run on different devices, especially mobile devices Thanks to these advantages, Twitter got 200 million users by March 2011.Although it was far from Facebook’s users, the number was still amazing and at the leading position among social network websites. The more visitors, the more the site is worth. Just account for the amount of users, we could estimate that the website of Twitter will be extremely valuable.Creatively changed the policy of messagingIt is hard to say Twitter has a big invention on technology aspect, and to a large extent, it brought about by recon?guring existing technology. However, we cannot deny it is a big revolution and has changed the policy of messaging. Twitter was built on existing technologies like SMS (short message service), IM (instant messaging), and RSS (really simple syndication), then, combined them in a unique way. It is one-to-one association when we are using SMS and IM.Now, it is one-to-many association which facing to the public, when we are using Twitter. On Twitter, we send 140 characters instant micro-blog, use â€Å"@† to mention or replay other users, use â€Å"#† to post together the same topics. All these creations changed the way people communicate. Greater access to capital Twitter had attracted plenty of capital since its establishment. For a young company, suf?cient fund and patient inventors could allow them a more space to develop and complete their big idea.Weaknesses Internal organizational turbulenceTwitter’s internal contradiction emerged at the initial phase. When Odeo’s team launched Twttr Beta, six employees terminated contracts. Moreover, among the four cofounders (Dorsey, Glass, Williams, Stone), Dorsey and Williams had even acted as CEO; but both of them quitted. And the name of Glass was seldom raised in Twitter’s history. The establishment of Twitter extremely require collaboration, however, people in the founding team have different ex pectations. Inventors may lose con?dence in them.Did not exploit the user base In spite of the fact that Twitter’s success rides on the user base. However, according to the paper, Twitter did not commercially exploit it. Or we can say Twitter had no extra energy to do it. The top managers concentrated on how to make their product more advanced and how to attract inventions. They did not notice the user base was the valuable source for them. Actually, they owned the large amount of users and easier than other companies to conduct a survey on them.Unclear business strategy and no solid revenue modelTwitter has been trying to be different from other closest companies and exploiting which path was likely to take from the beginning. However, the path depended on how the ?rm perceived and de?ned itself. They just claim their blueprint for making the company â€Å"as large an impact as possible† instead of setting speci?c business strategy.What’s more, Twitter still ha d not built a solid revenue model even through their revenue kept increasing from 2009. As it stands, the company’s revenue was largely relay on advertising and the last was from data licensing. By comparison, Twitter had the similar ad model as Facebook, but facebook was trying to get rid of reliant on ad while Twitter was not able to do it at present.Opportunities Dominant position in social media industryAlthough the amount of users was lower than Facebook, Twitter still own the large amount of audiences. It was not the ?rst mover in this industry, but the ?rm acted quickly and was already far beyond other similar social media companies. Contributed by its dominant position, more and more people would like to choose Twitter based on the number of other users of this platform, and inventors would focus on the ?rm, then invent on it as they believe the one who owned the audiences would be valuable. A tongue of publicBecause of Twitter has the advantage of timeliness, it beca me a tool to publish news. In 2008, it played as a key tool in the U. S presidential campaign and the attacks in Mumbai, India. From then on, Twitter became an important role in politics. People became more and more believe the platform as they can use it to publish their opinion to the public. It was helpful to strong its social position and brand impact. A more technologically savvy platform As Stone said, Twitter was most likely a â€Å"information company.† In recent years, this platform value which was derived from information-sharing has reached the peak. Twitter has owned two advantages: a large user base and information-sharing platform. These resources could be used to improve revenue. There was no better savvy platform than Twitter to help companies promote services and products with limited budgets. This project was known as â€Å"promoted tweets†, launched in 2010. When followers log in Twitter, promoted tweets will appear at the top of the timeline, then a dvertisers will pay when a user engages.Threats Competitors started to emergeAs the industry was lucrative, some companies had started to emerge and attempted to share the cake. Now, it was not just Twitter provided free services, some large and competitive companies like Friendfeed, Identi. ca, Present. ly, and Google were looking at the market. These competitors were not just copy Twitter but offering some new functions that Twitter did not have. If Twitter stop improving their applications, it may be eliminated in the competition.Suffer from abandonment of usersOnce your friends left the social network platform, more and more connected users may leave it. Then, this website will face catastrophe. Now, Twitter was facing the trouble—although they had attracted a lot of users, the abandonment rate up to 40 per cent yet. On contrast, only 7 per cent Facebook users said they may never use Facebook. And Twitter’s active users were far below than Facebook. One data analys is showed that in Jun-10, only 12 millions U. S Twitter active users while the number was 137 millions for Facebook.3. Solutions and recommendationsConclusion about TwitterTwitter entered the market at a right time, and grabbed the larger resource in the industry. It was a big Internet Innovation and changed the way people communicate. However, it was true that Twitter did not do as good as other similar companies like Google, yahoo, and facebook. For example, in 2009, Google earned more than $18 from unique visitor, Facebook earned about $3, but Twitter only got lower than $1. They were still facing challenges and on the way to exploit the best path.The challenges which were brought by competitors’ expanding The denying and ongoing innovation of Internet will never stop in this age, and its sustainable innovation has brought about a new round of reform of the marketing mode. Twitter cannot just stay stuck in its old mode. In this industry, stagnate means decline. The first  challenge was from the companies who imitated Twitter while developed more functions. However, these competitors had precisely pushed forward Twitter and proved microblog had the bright prospects for development. To deal with them,Twitter had better to enhance its brand loyalty, and form its own core competitiveness. Users would like to choose the one who dominated the industry because they were easy to be impacted by conformity. Moreover, Twitter should be sure to avoid following others, developing the functions what others have. They should keep creating new ideas and act quicker than competitors. Even through competitors’ function was more advanced than Twitter, it did not mean it was an appropriate product for Twitter. Another challenge was from large companies like Facebook and Google.These companies also wanted to do everything and dominate the industry. They were similar as Twitter, owned a large amount of users, but did not do microblog. Twitter was not safe even th ough it did the best in microblog. These services were another form of social media that also may grab Twitter’s market. Twitter needs not only to improve its model to attract more users, but also continue digging potential value in other area to expand the ?rm. Exploit more sources of revenue Twitter cannot largely rely on venture capital invention and advertising any more.It needs to ?nd out another way to obtain fund. The ?rst option was to imitate Google and Apple, provide more services and develop more products to increase revenue. Another option was to imitate Facebook, launch IPO. Or it can do both. I think launch IPO will be better because Twitter did not have the technology support as strong as Google and Apple. And Twitter’s revenue model was already unclear now, if it provides more products, the model may become more confused. What’s more, IPO is a better choice for long term development.Increase the R&D activities It is not only the revenue model nee ds R&D, but also the new application innovation needs R&D. When going to Twitter. com, we will basically see the same thing that the company did years ago. They did not keep working on anything that cool. Meanwhile, they did not reveal any details about the R&D plan and result. Conducting R&D could help Twitter to improve their products and services, which was necessary for a technology company. Twitter website was built on open source software. It was helpful  to develop new applications. Furthermore, in order to keep an eagle eye on the competitors and customers, R&D should not be ignored by Twitter.Promote overseas marketIt was clear that Twitter owned a large number of overseas users, but had not ï ¬ gure out an effect proï ¬ t in other countries. â€Å"Promote the tweets† won a big market in the U.S, similarly, the foreign market had a large proï ¬ t that could be exploited. But it will be a big project that need marketing research and detailed plan before they d ecide to move in a foreign market.

Johnson s Sleeper Curve Essays

Johnson s Sleeper Curve Essays Johnson s Sleeper Curve Paper Johnson s Sleeper Curve Paper Sleeper Curve until reading this excerpt, hadnt ever really considered the idea that modern media was more than just idle entertainment. I too unintentionally looked down on video gamers and those that watch reality TV, only seeing laziness in interests of that nature. However now I would say I agree with what Johnson was trying to promote with the sleeper curve idea. While baseball statistics and video games arent my cup of tea, there are plenty of there things in my life that could be seen as similar activities in relation to the sleeper curve. An example Of this is the show pretty Little Liars, which I watch religiously. To the average Joe, this show is just teenage girl-drama nonsense. However, if looked into theres so much more at play. The person watching the show has to keep up with all of the constantly changing situations and relationships (not necessarily romantic), as well as consider character backgrounds, such as crimes committed, from previous episodes/seasons. If something major happens, its not just because; the watcher must consider motive and intention. Like Johnson referenced, this show illustrates the complexity of social networks and situational relationships. Its both relatable and usefully educational, not only to teens in high school, but also to young adults about to embark on the journey of life in the real world. Another major example is social media as a whole. Instating, for instance, is an app in which you post pictures. Sounds simple, right? However there is a much deeper thought process involved than just upload a picture. In general, the understood objective is to have a good ratio of followers to following. This means that you want to have a lot more people following you, than you follow,/. To do this, you post interesting pictures; you like other peoples photos so that theyll be more likely to return the favor. You add a filter to the photo to make it more interesting you edit it like crazy. You add lots of tags hostage) to the pictures description so that more people are likely to see it when they search that subject through the app. This app is training todays middle-cholers to be savvy in the business world. If you think about it, these children are going into high school pre-educated in marketing strategies. Theyve learned firsthand how to present themselves, hopefully appropriately, and this knowledge can be used later in the real world, such as applying for jobs. Cellophane applications also have real-life applications it seems.

T Dinosaur Extinction Event

The K/T Dinosaur Extinction Event About 65 and a half million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period, dinosaurs, the largest, most fearsome creatures ever to rule the planet, died off in vast quantities, along with their cousins, the pterosaurs, and marine reptiles. Although this mass extinction didnt happen literally overnight, in evolutionary terms, it may as well have - within a few thousand years of whatever catastrophe caused their demise, the dinosaurs had been wiped off the face of the Earth. The Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction Event - or K/T Extinction Event, as its known in scientific shorthand - has spawned a variety of less-than-convincing theories. Up until a few decades ago, paleontologists, climatologists, and assorted cranks blamed everything from epidemic disease to lemming-like suicides to intervention by aliens. That all changed, though, when the Cuban-born physicist Luis Alvarez had an inspired hunch. Did a Meteor Impact Cause the Extinction of the Dinosaurs? In 1980, Alvarez - along with his physicist son, Walter- put forth a startling hypothesis about the K/T Extinction Event. Along with other researchers, the Alvarezes had been investigating sediments laid down all over the world around the time of the K/T boundary 65 million years ago (its generally a straightforward matter to match geologic strata - layers of sediment in rock formations, river beds, etc. - with specific epochs in geologic history, especially in areas of the world where these sediments accumulate in roughly linear fashion). These scientists discovered that the sediments laid down at the K/T boundary were unusually rich in the element iridium. In normal conditions, iridium is extremely rare, leading the Alvarezes to conclude that the Earth was struck 65 million years ago by an iridium-rich meteorite or comet. The iridium residue from the impact object, along with millions of tons of debris from the impact crater, would have quickly spread all over the globe; the massive amounts of dust blotted out the sun, and thus killed the vegetation eaten by herbivorous dinosaurs, the disappearance of which caused the starvation of carnivorous dinosaurs. (Presumably, a similar chain of events led to the extinction of ocean-dwelling mosasaurs and giant pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus.) Where Is the K/T Impact Crater? Its one thing to propose a massive meteor impact as the cause of the K/T Extinction, but its quite another to adduce the necessary proof for such a bold hypothesis. The next challenge the Alvarezes faced was to identify the responsible astronomical object, as well as its signature impact crater - not as easy a matter as you might think  since the Earths surface is geologically active and tends to erase evidence of even large meteorite impacts over the course of millions of years. Amazingly, a few years after the Alvarezes published their theory, investigators found the buried remains of a huge crater in the region of Chicxulub, on Mexicos Mayan peninsula. Analysis of its sediments demonstrated that this gigantic (over 100 miles in diameter) crater had been created 65 million years ago - and was clearly caused by an astronomical object, either a comet or a meteor, sufficiently large (anywhere from six to nine miles wide) to occasion the extinction of the dinosaurs. In fact, the size of the crater closely matched the rough estimate proposed by the Alvarezes in their original paper! Was the K/T Impact the Only Factor in Dinosaur Extinction? Today, most paleontologists agree that the K/T meteorite (or comet) was the prime cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs - and in 2010, an international panel of experts endorsed this conclusion after re-examining massive amounts of evidence. However, this doesnt mean there couldnt have been aggravating circumstances: for instance, its possible that the impact was roughly concurrent with an extended period of volcanic activity on the Indian subcontinent, which would have further polluted the atmosphere, or that dinosaurs were dwindling in diversity and ripe for extinction (by the end of the Cretaceous period, there was less variety among dinosaurs than at earlier times in the Mesozoic Era). Its also important to remember that the K/T Extinction Event wasnt the only such catastrophe in the history of life on Earth - or even the worst, statistically speaking. For example, the end of the Permian period, 250 million years ago, witnessed the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event, a still-mysterious global catastrophe in which over 70 percent of land-dwelling animals and a whopping 95 percent of marine animals went kaput. Ironically, it was this extinction that cleared the field for the rise of the dinosaurs toward the end of the Triassic period - after which they managed to hold the world stage for a whopping 150 million years, until that unfortunate visit from the Chicxulub comet.