Population Pyramids-Session Long Project Assignment

Population Pyramids-Session Long Project - Assignment Example ment on social and economic values as well as introduction of some policies to regulate the population in Germany shaped its population in a different direction (Caselli, Vallin, and Wunsch, 2006). For instance, the Germany’s May 9, 2011 population census indicated that Germany has 80,219,695 persons. This population made Germany the 16th most populous nation globally. Despite this population, Germany’s population on the pyramid data presentation shows data Germany has a zero or declining population growth that is defined mainly by aging population and a smaller cohort of youths. The changing population trend with the number of youths being smaller than aged person is attributed by many factors in Germany including education, improved health care, social elements, and government policies. It is noted that in Germany, most of the educated persons tend to have lower number of children than then lowly educated persons. This has led to the shifting of fertility being high among the elderly women (considered to have achieved low education levels) compared to the youthful women who are considered to be highly educated (Micklin and Poston, 2006). Additionally, improved healthcare in Germany has since provided adequate and efficient healthcare system to the citizens, thereby reducing death rate thereby extending or elongating life span of persons within the country. This explains why there more elderly persons in Germany. The economic status of citizen and wealth generation is also another factor that contributes to the population trend in Germany (Hobbs and Hobbs, 2009). Parents are the sole sources of finances for the families; thus, the lower the number of children the effective and sustainable such families are; hence, the families tend to smaller for economic effectiveness and efficiency. In 5 or and 20 years to come, Germany is expected to have negative population growth rate. Notably, this will follow the trend between 1982 and 1985 when the population of this

Hotel and Information Systems Essay Example for Free

Hotel and Information Systems Essay It has been accepted for inclusion in Communications of the Association for Information Systems by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contact [emailprotected] org. 102 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 OUTRIGGER HOTELS AND RESORTS: A CASE STUDY Gabriele Piccoli School of Hotel Administration Cornell University [emailprotected] edu ABSTRACT This case describes the history, strategy, and current information systems infrastructure of a midsize, privately owned hospitality firm. The case is designed to provide the substantial background information needed to engage successfully in setting direction for IS resources and their use at Outrigger Hotels and Resorts headquartered in Hawaii. It enables students to analyze the firm’s strategy thoroughly and to assess its current use of information systems resources. With this assessment as a starting point, students can develop an appropriate IS vision, IS architecture, and a strategic IS plan for Outrigger Hotels and Resorts. The case was originally designed to use the process of setting direction for IS resources as described by Martin and colleagues [2005], but is flexible enough to adapt to the structure of other approaches to planning for information systems use. Keywords: IS planning, IS assessment, IS visioning, infrastructure, hospitality. Editor’s Note: A teaching note is available from the author to faculty so requiring it that are listed in the MISRC-ISWorld Faculty Directory. I am involved with every decision that senior management takes. They look to me for an IS slant to it – whether an IT solution can capitalize on opportunities or eliminate threats. They also expect my team to independently develop an IS strategy that will further the business. Joe Durocher, Senior Vice President CIO Every manager must have an IT strategy. You can’t delegate to technologists and only worry about your allocated cost or what training your employees need. You must understand how to be master of your own destiny and make IT work best for you. Too many managers still don’t get that. Rob Solomon, Senior Vice President Sales Marketing Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 103 I. INTRODUCTION Outrigger Hotels and Resorts, a mid-size lodging firm focused on leisure travel to the Hawaiian Islands and the South Pacific, uses Information Technology (IT) in numerous aspects of its operations and therefore must carefully engage in the information systems planning process. After analyzing Outrigger’s strategy and assessing the firm’s current use of information systems resources, we can develop an appropriate IS vision, IS architecture, and a strategic IS plan for Outrigger Hotels and Resorts. On Black Friday, September 13, 1929, Roy C. Kelley arrived in Hawaii with his wife Estelle. An architect by training, Mr. Kelley joined the firm of C. W. Dickey and was responsible for designing many of Honolulus landmark buildings, including the main building of the old Halekulani Hotel and the Waikiki Theater on Kalakaua Avenue. Nine years later Kelley set out on his own, building numerous homes, apartment buildings, and hotels on the island of Oahu. In 1963, Kelley took over the land occupied by the old Outrigger Canoe Club. Outrigger Hotels then became a reality with the mission of bringing the dream of a vacation in Paradise within the reach of the middle-class traveler. Included in the agreement were leases on three Waikiki lots that later became the Outrigger East, Outrigger West, and Coral Reef hotels. The Outrigger Waikiki Hotel was built on the site of the old canoe club, arguably the prime spot on Waikiki beach, in 1967. Throughout the next two decades, Outrigger Hotels Hawaii, as the company was named, continued its expansion in Waikiki. When in the 1970’s the zoning authority put a cap on new construction in Waikiki, Outrigger began to expand through acquisition rather than construction, ultimately becoming the largest chain in the State of Hawaii, with over 7,000 rooms and a total of 15 properties concentrated in Waikiki. Thanks to its clustered configuration, with all of its hotels located within one square mile, Outrigger was able to maintain a centralized management structure fitting Mr. Kelley’s ‘management by walking around’ style. In 1989, Outrigger Hotels Hawaii, now under the leadership of Roy Kelley’s son Dr. Richard Kelley, took over management of The Royal Waikoloan Hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii. When hurricane Iniki, heading for Waikiki in 1992, barely missed Honolulu and ravaged the island of Kauai, it provided further impetus for Outrigger’s geographical diversification strategy to and beyond neighboring islands. The firm, expanding into management agreements with third party owners, added properties on Maui and Kauai and ultimately grew to a total of 26 locations in the Hawaiian Islands. In 1996 the firm made its first international foray, opening the Outrigger Marshall Island Resort on Majuro Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Through partnerships, joint ventures, acquisitions, and new developments the firm continued to grow internationally, adding properties in Guam, Fiji, Tahiti, Australia, and New Zealand. While growing geographically, in 1990 Outrigger Hotels Hawaii began to diversify its product portfolio by adding condominium resorts. Because of ts geographical and product diversification, in 1995 Outrigger Hotels Hawaii changed its name to Outrigger Hotels and Resorts, and in 1999 re-branded fifteen of its hotels in Waikiki to launch a new hotel brand called OHANA Hotels of Hawaii. We had an identity crisis because the market moved up, we upgraded the onbeach properties where we had higher demand and bought some nice properties in neighboring islands. But we had huge variation in the portfolio—if you stayed at a budget property vs. a beach front property, you’d be very confused as to what an Outrigger was. President and CEO, David Carey Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli 104 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 Figure 1: Outrigger Properties in Waikiki Figure 2: Outrigger Properties in the Hawaiian Islands Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 105 Figure 3. Properties Managed by Outrigger Hotels and Resorts (International) The on-beach properties became upscale full-service hotels under the Outrigger brand. The condos, also typically on-beach upscale locations, maintained the Outrigger brand. Conversely, the OHANA brand was positioned to cater to the budget traveler looking for value on off-beach properties. Condominiums represented an increasingly important share of the total portfolio of properties, even though the firm stumbled upon the opportunity that condominiums offered. Condominiums appealed to independent travelers who would do much research and planning on their own. Condominiums were also complex, non-standard products that travel agents and wholesalers found hard to sell. Because condos were rarely built as business ventures, but rather were designed as primary or vacation homes for the tenants, they offered little office or staging space for management companies to operate in. They also lacked many of the typical hotel services and departments such as food and beverage, room service, laundry, and daily maid service. These difficulties notwithstanding, Outrigger found the condo business appealing because it provided a means for expansion through management contracts without the need to acquire expensive properties. By 2005, Outrigger was a sizable firm, with about 3,600 employees (of whom about 230 were at corporate headquarters), a portfolio of properties exceeding US $1. 4 billion, and approximate revenues of US $45 million [Hotel On-Line, 2003]. But at the heart of its strategic positioning a commitment remained to providing a ‘sense of place,’ an experience attuned to the culture and the characteristics of the destination, and to avoiding a cookie cutter approach. Our business is really about being a â€Å"window† to an experience, not the experience itself. We are the enabler through which people can engage in the leisure experience they desire. We don’t try to export Hawaii when we go elsewhere, but we do honor the same values in the places we operate hotels and resorts. David Carey Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli 106 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 Outrigger’s senior management believed that its key competencies resided in providing hospitality to guests visiting their properties and marketing those properties successfully through leisure distribution channels. To complement these basic competencies, Outrigger’s management developed what it believed to be a superior capability to manage in a multicultural environment, including multicultural and multilingual employees and guests. Aided by a turnover rate in the single digits and an average of 25 years of employee tenure with the company, Outrigger managed to be a mostly non-union shop in the heavily unionized Hawaii labor market. We operate properties that have good locations, we have a strong travel distribution network, and our employees really provide hospitality from the heart. That creates a differentiated product making price less important. David Carey Outrigger was wedded to the success of its destination markets and to the well-being of airlines serving its destinations. If Hawaii does well, so do we. I spend a lot of time working with local tourism authorities to improve the appeal of the destinations we operate in. But airlines can be a bottleneck. We may not have available lift at times when we need it. If the airlines are full or they have decided in their yield model that they are going to only sell their top fares, there is nothing we can do. From purely the hotels’ perspective, the best thing for us is an airline price war to Hawaii. David Carey III. THE HOTELS AND RESORTS INDUSTRY As the 21st century dawned, the global lodging industry was estimated to exceed $295 billion in sales (about 11% of the world’s economic output) and employed more than 250 million workers [Encyclopedia of Global Industries, 2003]. The leisure travel segment accounted for about 45% of total volume [Horwath International, 2002]. THE HAWAIIAN HOTEL MARKET In the Hawaiian market, which was Outrigger’s traditional stronghold, 2004 data showed performance levels above the average of the global industry. Being quite isolated from any large population pool, Hawaii was a classic destination market with an exclusive fly-in customer base. The major feeders were U. S. westbound traffic and Japanese eastbound traffic. These markets were thought to yield very high return rates1—estimated by some to be around 50% westbound and over 65% eastbound. This trend made for a very location-savvy customer base. Peculiar to this market was also the trend of multi-island stays, with guests visiting more than one destination during the same trip. Table 1. Performance of Hawaii Hotel Market Occupancy Avg. Number of rooms Average Daily Rate2 Revenue* * Amounts per available room 72. 1% 706 $198. 41 $78,488 In the hotel business, return rate is used to refer to the percentage of visitors who come back again for more than one visit to the same location. 2 Average Daily Rate (ADR), is the average of all rates charged on a given date for all rooms sold that day. A yearly ADR can be computed by averaging ADRs for all days of the year. 1 Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 107 PRICING Because the Hawaii and Pacific Rim markets were exclusive destination markets, the use of packages – including air and accommodations – was pervasive. Historically, packages were assembled and sold by wholesalers and tour operators who purchased both air and hotel rooms in bulk and re-marketed them to the traveling public. With the widespread adoption of the Internet, a new type of package was emerging under the leadership of large online travel agencies: dynamic packages. A dynamic package was one that enabled the guest to choose air, hotel, car rental, and even activities, ticket them independently, and then price them out as a bundle. Dynamic packages were appealing to suppliers because the price of each item was not disclosed, making price comparison difficult and alleviating commoditization fears. They were appealing to prospective travelers because they increased choice and fostered flexibility. Finally, they appealed to online travel agents because they built upon their value proposition—customer choice—and could potentially improve their margins. COMPETITORS As a mature destination, Hawaii had been entered by many of the larger branded hospitality and resort companies. The largest hospitality firms, such as Marriott International, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, and Starwood, developed a significant presence with eight, five, and eleven properties respectively. But the largest operators in Hawaii were geographically- and leisure-focused players such as Outrigger, ASTON Hotels ; Resorts Hawaii (with twenty-eight properties), and Marc Resorts Hawaii (with eleven properties). IV. OUTRIGGER CUSTOMERS AND THE COMPETITION THE OUTRIGGER HOTELS AND RESORTS CUSTOMERS Outrigger’s original mission was to bring the opportunity for a vacation in Paradise within the reach of middle-class families. As the firm began to diversify its portfolio, the profile of its customers and the competition also changed. The typical guest staying with the premium brand – Outrigger – was often a multigenerational customer with a sense of loyalty to the brand (about 25% of guests were returning to Outrigger) and an annual income exceeding $75,000. Outrigger guests were almost exclusively leisure travelers. This customer base created seasonality, with winter and summer being the high seasons when properties like the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach reached an ADR of $260 and an overall occupancy around 90%. Our customers are independent-minded and look for an experience that is more regional and attuned to the destination, but still within their comfort zone. They may stay with big brands in their road warrior capacity, but that’s not what they are looking for in a tropical destination. Rob Solomon Table 2. Outriggers Portfolio and Sample Competitors Location Properties Rooms Lowest Rate * Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Waikiki 2 1,383 $160 Starwood Hotels and Resorts Waikiki 4 4,132 $150 Marriott International Waikiki 1 1,297 $209 Hyatt Hotels and Resorts Waikiki 1 1,230 $210 Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Guam Fiji 2 895 $203 Starwood Hotels and Resorts Guam Fiji 3 995 $145 Hilton Hotels and Resorts Guam 1 587 $110 *Rates for comparable rooms as they appear on the company website, December 2004, for January 2005 stays Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli 108 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 Competing for these customers, Outrigger went head-to-head with major brands that enjoyed name recognition amongst the traveling public, a flow of customers redeeming points, available capital, and availability of programs for employees such as discounted travel beyond Hawaii and the Pacific region. In response, Outrigger leveraged its assets: some of the premier locations in the markets in which it competed, strong name recognition, long-term relationships with the travel distribution network, a strategic focus on vacation destinations, a deep local knowledge and community ties, and good employee relations. THE OHANA HOTELS CUSTOMERS The typical OHANA guest was a value-minded and Hawaii-savvy leisure traveler with income below $100k a year. Typically, OHANA guests had visited Hawaii multiple times, stayed longer than average, and visited more often. Business travel was mainly military personnel and employees of corporations who operated on multiple islands. Groups accounted for less that 10% of OHANA’s overall traffic. We have about 50% return guests. Your first trip you want a beach front hotel, the atmosphere, the ambiance—you want the full Hawaii experience. When you come more often, you still want the experience, but you look for more value and instead of spending $250-$300 a night for a beachfront you can stay longer offbeach for $70-$80 a night. Chuck Shishido, OHANA Hotels VP of Operations With seasonality similar to that of the full service Outrigger Hotels, OHANA Hotels typically achieved an ADR around $66 and approximate occupancy levels of 75% over the year. A number of small regional chains (such as Marc Resorts and Castle Resorts) and many off-beach independent hotels existed in the Waikiki market. Pricing for off-beach properties was much harder to manage because of the commodity nature of the hotels not enjoying a premium location. OHANA was the largest operator in Waikiki and the largest Hawaii-owned operator. Table 3. OHANA’s Portfolio and Sample Competitors Location Properties Rooms Lowest Rate * OHANA Waikiki 13 4564 $76 Marc Resorts Waikiki 4 314 $74 Castle Resorts Waikiki 6 N/A $75 * Rates for comparable rooms as they appear on the company website, December 2004, for January stays CONDOMINIUMS CUSTOMERS Two types of customers typically stayed at the condominiums. On the low end of the $90,000 to $160,000 income bracket were families visiting during school breaks, looking to control expenses, and control their vacation experience. They valued the full kitchen – a standard in every unit – and the two bedrooms and two baths. This assessment was substantiated by the fact that condos had four times as many reservations coming direct from the Internet and tended to recover faster after a soft economy. On the upper end were ‘newlyweds’ and ‘nearly dead’ couples who liked the privacy and space afforded by a condo. Because of the need to convince individual owners to join the pool of Outrigger managed units, the firm competed with small local management companies and individual owners’ beliefs that they could do a better job alone. This idiosyncrasy of condominium operations amounted to dealing with two customers—the unit owners and the guests. The guests were unaware of the workings of condo operations and looked for the same level of service they would receive at a resort. On average, a condominium with mostly two bedroom units would achieve an ADR around $175, while properties with mostly studio and one bedroom units would go for around $140. Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 109 MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION Outrigger operated a Central Reservation Office (CRO) in Denver, Colorado with anywhere from 40 to 70 reservationists (FTEs), mainly depending on the volume of business. A corporate marketing staff of 12 people, allocated about 6% of revenue, was responsible for managing the brand and for going to market. An additional 2% of revenue was used to fund reservation and other distribution costs. Reservations were centralized for all properties in Hawaii; beyond Hawaii reservations were only taken at each property. Outrigger’s executives believed that distribution was a cornerstone of the company’s success, with about 50% of the business coming from wholesalers. Consumer direct (via voice or the Web), travel agents, government and military, and corporate clients made up the rest. For international properties, the source of business percentage from wholesalers was close to 80% and almost all reservations were faxed to the property. V. OUTRIGGER’S ORGANIZATION Outrigger Hotels and Resorts was a management company wholly owned by a holding corporation called Outrigger Enterprises. Reflecting its real estate development roots, Outrigger Enterprises also owned a real estate ownership company called Outrigger Properties. Figure 4 shows the Outrigger organization. Figure 4. Organization Chart Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli 110 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 Outrigger Properties wrote and managed real estate contracts with third party owners and supervised the owned assets (accounting for about a third of all properties in the Outrigger portfolio), as well as the development, acquisition, and sale of properties. Outrigger Hotels and Resorts, the operating arm of Outrigger Enterprises, was responsible for the writing of new management contracts, and for overseeing property renovations and operations of the managed hotels, resorts, and condos. Outrigger Properties generally negotiated a base rent and a 3 percentage of revenue with tenants; revenues from leased space were assigned to the hosting property’s own PL. Room revenue made up the bulk of each property’s revenue. Income from leased space ranged from as low as 5% in hotels with little retail space to as high as 20% in some of the most appealing locations. Other more marginal revenue was derived from parking, in-room entertainment, telecommunications, and kids’ clubs operations. Outrigger Hotels and Resorts historically maintained a highly centralized organizational structure. As the firm grew in size and geographical distribution a more distributed structure emerged, but, reflecting its roots, Outrigger Hotels and Resorts remained consolidated where possible. We have centralized services – accounting, IT, finance, engineering, purchasing, special projects – that support all the properties on Oahu, as well as indirectly the neighboring islands. There is also one executive housekeeper in charge of all properties. We run the OHANA Hotels like a 4,200 room distributed hotel. It is very efficient. Chuck Shishido As the firm expanded internationally it became more decentralized, with resorts in the Pacific Rim working much more like independent operations and organized like traditional resorts. Recognizing the significant advantages offered by its centralized structure, Outrigger was looking at the possibility of integrating its international resorts better. However, distance presented new challenges: We need a reservation solution for Australia, a real-time coordination with a central reservation service. They are operated as individual hotels; the central 800 number today is just switched to the correct hotel. A centralized system would offer tremendous value because we get drive-in business and substantial potential cross-property traffic. Executive VP and COO Perry Sorenseon, VI. OUTRIGGER IT INFRASTRUCTURE Joe Durocher, the CIO of Outrigger Enterprises, was hired by David Carey in 1986. Mr. Roy Kelly was a hands-on manager. He once told me he hated two things: computers and vice presidents. As the VP of IT, I had two strikes against me. Yet, in 1986 I was brought in to overhaul Outrigger’s IT infrastructure and we built Stellex—our integrated CRS/PMS. At the time all our properties were in Waikiki, within one square mile of each other. Joe Durocher In this type of agreement the landlord receives a fixed payment plus a percentage of the total sales made by the tenant business (e. g. , restaurant, shop). 4 The CRS, Central Reservation System, is the computer system used by a hotel chain to support call center operations and, generally, its web site. The CRS holds chain-wide inventory and allows reservationists to sell room inventory at all the hotels affiliated with the chain. The PMS, Property Management System, is the â€Å"brain† of hotel operations. It is the computer system that is used to manage the inventory of hotel rooms at an individual property. 3 Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 111 Figure 5. Timeline of Major Infrastructure Developments at Outrigger OUTRIGGER’S SOFTWARE Stellex, to which Durocher refers, was introduced in 1987 as a COBOL application that guaranteed complete redundancy and 24 x 365 uptime. These two properties are particularly important in the hotel business, which depends on being able to make reservations at any time during the day and wants to make sure that its computer system is always operational. For the technically minded, the application ran on a Tandem NonStop platform and a proprietary Enscribe database management system. 5 In 1992, Outrigger introduced its first major update to Stellex, Stellex 2. 0, which ran on a Sun Microsystems UNIX platform and provided revenue management functionality and reservation center support. Because of its unique need for substantial wholesale interaction, Outrigger engaged Opus, a software company specializing on revenue management systems,6 to build their revenue management module for Stellex 2. 0. Outrigger retained control of Opus’ source code7 and over the years made substantial enhancements, mainly to manage wholesale relationships. Outrigger implemented JD Edwards ERP as the cornerstone of its back-office operations in 1990, years before the ERP craze swept the business world. JD Edwards ran on an IBM AS 400—widely considered to be a mature and stable platform. The firm felt that its centralized IT infrastructure was a source of competitive advantage. Durocher discussed the trade-offs associated with centralized IT: Decentralizing IT would decrease our capabilities while increasing overall costs. But centralized IT creates friction at times. When a hotel is sold for example, the IT allocation may increase for other properties. 8 Joe Durocher Stellex provided the anchor to which all other operational systems connected, including telephone switches, call accounting, and in-room entertainment. All of the properties in the Hawaiian Islands had access to Outrigger’s centralized IT systems, served from the Honolulu-based data center, through the firm’s proprietary Wide Area Network. Stellex, for example, was accessed using an ASP model by all the properties in the Hawaiian Islands, the firm’s Denver-based Central Reservation Office, and the Portland, Oregon-based Web servers, thereby greatly simplifying the achievement of single image inventory, disaster recovery, and overall IT management. This configuration enabled the properties to operate with PCs (as few as 12 in a 5 Tandem Computer Systems was bought up by Compaq in 1997. Compaq, in turn was purchased by HP. Enscribe is still in business in December 2004. 6 Opus was subsequently bought by Micros-Fidelio, the dominant hospitality-focused software company. 7 ‘Source code’ refers to the original, human readable computer program. By owning it, Outrigger could change it as they saw fit. Note that Microsoft, for example, guards its source code jealously so that others can’t change Microsoft’s programs. 8 In many companies, such as Outrigger, IT costs are allocated to users, such as hotels, on an annual basis. IT cost is relatively fixed and not affected much by the number of units it supports. If a property is sold, the fixed cost allocated to all other properties must therefore go up. Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli 112 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 Figure 6. Outriggers IT Infrastructure typical 500-room property) and networking equipment. The Point of Sales (POS) systems9 were not centralized, since Outrigger leased retail and restaurant space. This state of affairs generated some friction at times: The POS is the computer software used to support retail and restaurant operations. It enables operators to keep track of sales and accurately bill customers. Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 113 We offer to interface their POSs to Stellex and pay for interfaces to automate room charges. But many of those POS ar e old and can’t interface, they must be upgraded first. Restaurants have to write a manual charge voucher and walk it to the front desk for input. It’s not a popular or efficient way to do it. VP of Property Technology, Allen White Due to the need for local support, the high telecommunication costs to and from Hawaii, and the unacceptable reliability of international networks, Outrigger did not extend this centralized model to its operations in Australia and the Pacific. The properties in Australia and New Zealand, all condominiums, used a highly specialized PMS particularly well suited for their condominium properties and their unique tax code requirements. None of the properties in Hawaii has a server on property. In the outer regions we have standalone PMS’s and on-property reservations. We don’t even try to keep Stellex in sync, they just open and close. If a date is getting full, they issue a stop-sell. Reservations that are taken centrally are automatically emailed. Joe Durocher APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT Beyond maintaining and upgrading Stellex, Outrigger’s IT professionals engaged in minimal application development—mainly writing customized reports, and configuring and interfacing offthe-shelf applications. The use of outsourcing was limited to the Web site, developed and hosted by a third party in Portland, Oregon. Yet, in order to maintain the integration of direct channels, Stellex served as the booking engine behind Outrigger’s Web site. A key initiative for Outrigger was the development of electronic interfaces with wholesalers. These interfaces were customdeveloped by the firm’s IT group using XML. 10 With many wholesalers we have real-time electronic interfaces—they can check availability and we get their reservations instantaneously. Without the interface, if they create a reservation six or three months out, we don’t see it until reporting time, ten days out, when we receive a fax and manually input it. It is virtually impossible to revenue manage like that. Many big brands have great revenue management systems, but don’t have real-time wholesaler data. Moreover, we can write wholesale contracts brand-wide. Joe Durocher Outrigger felt that its electronic interfaces afforded it a competitive advantage and preferential treatment from interface-enabled wholesalers, a relationship that proved particularly important during slow periods or a soft economy. Electronic interfaces generated substantial efficiencies, including automatic billing and invoicing without human handling, lowering estimated costs for these functions to $0. 75 from an estimated $10 for manually handled ones. But not all wholesalers were able or interested in automating reservation processing. This lack of interest was particularly true for small operations or those for whom Hawaii and the Pacific represented a small percentage of business. The industry is a mess from a connectivity standpoint. We are fortunate that we have the in-house expertise and the recognition from senior management of how important this is. Even the big companies often don’t understand the conditions for success. The dirty little secret of the travel industry is that the fax machine still rules. Rob Solomon 10 XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. It is a language used to create a protocol enabling computer applications of partnering firms to exchange information easily. Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli 114 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005) 102-118 I spend 30-40 hours a week working with wholesalers on interfaces. There are many legacy systems out there; the fax is state of the art. We have made great progress with the more advance wholesalers or those that upgraded recently. Alan White Outrigger found the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) XML standards, specifying common message format and common content, of great help. But being able to pick the right partner, and avoid costly failures, remained the major challenge. While Outrigger felt it had been successful to date, with an estimated 33% of total reservations received electronically through the various channels, it still handled more than half a million faxes a year—about eight hundred a day from its largest wholesaler alone before that wholesaler migrated to the electronic interface. The firm felt that it had been able to capitalize on the use of technology to increase distribution efficiencies in the face of ever rising labor costs. Conversion rates at the Central Reservation Office improved from 20% to 45%-50% with widespread consumer adoption of the Internet. The firm estimated that as much as 60% of callers had already researched the Outrigger website and made a purchase decision but, as Solomon put it, â€Å"had one more question. † In an effort to provide support right on the website, the firm introduced live chat functionalities and offered email confirmation for significant savings in labor and postage costs. DATA MANAGEMENT In 2001, Outrigger acquired business intelligence software, a data mart, and analytical tools from 11 E. piphany running on a Windows 2000 platform. The data mart held detailed data for three years, enabling analysis down to the individual guest folio. Data were consolidated afterwards, enabling only aggregate analyses. While E. piphany was a recent purchase, Outrigger had been disciplined in collecting data for some time. We had 10 years of high quality data from Stellex; we are very rigid about data capture standardization like room category, naming conventions, request codes, [and] what goes where. For example, postal and country codes are mandatory fields. Our employees’ long tenure helps, and peer pressure is a great asset— nobody wants to be the one that ruins the value of these reports for all. Alan White The data collected by Stellex, including source of business, stay information, and consumption, were extracted every night by load programs that scrubbed (i. e. , cleaned) them, and transferred them to the JD Edwards ERP system for accounting and to the E. piphany system for analysis. Feeding historical data and forward looking availability and reservation activity, Outrigger learned to harness the analytical power of E. piphany to do forecasts and generate business intelligence both at the source of business and at guest levels. We want the marketing data. It is stupid to have a treasure trove like that and not use it. We mine it. We send thank you letters to recurring guests, we can give you history on who visited, how they got here, what in-flight magazine we should hit. We sold a resort once and they figured they would have to hire 3 people to achieve manually what our reports gave them automatically. They even set their rates based on E. piphany forecasts. Alan White The IT group served as custodian of the data, but any user with security clearance had access to E. piphany data though a web interface; the data was used for marketing and operational analysis (e. g. , analysis of call patterns to evaluate the appeal of Voice over IP solutions). Incorporating the information into daily operations was more challenging. Definitions of technical terms such as Business Intelligence, Data Mart, Data Mining, and many others used throughout this case study can be found free of charge at http://www. whatis. com. 11 Outrigger Hotel and Resorts: A Case Study by G. Piccoli Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 15, 2005)102-118 115 Outrigger found it hard to justify a frequent guest program—with an average repurchase cycle for returning guests of three years, a once a year purchase was considered very high in Hawaii resort operations. Speaking about recognition programs, Individual properties have their own customer database and a strong informal recognition system. We haven’t been able to justify the investment technologically to do it brand wide. It would be a natural extension of the recognition we give our return guests, but it must be cost-effective. Perry Sorenson If a guest did not tell us he is returning when making the reservation, our current system does not have a database with guest history. Many times we recognize our frequent return guests only at the door, or during check in at the front desk. We have special programs (e. g. , for honeymooners, wedding anniversaries), but we need to know their history to appropriately acknowledge these returning guests. VP of Operations for Outrigger’s Waikiki Beachfront Hotels Kimberly Agas, a 20 year veteran with the company, IT STAFFING AND ORGANIZATION Outrigger’s IT staff consisted of 26 full time employees. Of these, 4 data entry operators and 3 developers were housed in a separate limited liability company to help Outrigger take advantage of tax incentives offered by the state of Hawaii.

Genetic Problems Of The Cousin Marriages Sociology Essay

Genetic Problems Of The Cousin Marriages Sociology Essay Scientists working on the genetic issues of inbreeding argued that autosomal recessive gene increases homozygosity and produce malformations which are a common cause of cardiovascular, central nervous system, urogenital, ophthalmic, gastrointestinal, skeletal, cutaneous, and also multiple malformations (5 page 14). Similarly, Bundey and Alam found postneonatal mortality and childhood morbidity in the offspring of consanguineous Pakistani parents (6). Ahmed, et al (1) identified hemoglobinopathies as a major genetic problem among Pakistani cousin couples. The research- team studied 15 families carrying hemoglobin and eight control families without the history of a hemoglobin disorders. The scientists in this study found that the cousin couples carry -thalassemia and 0.5 to 1 percent carry hemoglobin S or hemoglobin E. The infants of the cousin couples affected ratio is 1.3 per 1000 live births, and according to the study infants present -thalassemia. The ratio of genetic disorders amo ng the children of the control couple was lower than the cousin marriages couple. Bullock and Khalid (4) found increased risk of low intelligence, mental instability, sickle-cell anaemia and cystic fibrosis among the children of the cousin couples. Bittles (2) argued that various types of genetic disorders have been reported to be more common among consanguineous children. For example congenital disorders including neural tube and congenital heart defects were reported. According to Bittles Autosomal recessive hearing loss disorders and visual defects such as early-onset retinal dystrophies, primary congenital glaucoma and anophthalmos also are present at increased prevalence (2 page 95) among the children of the consanguineous spouses. These inbreeding studies are conducted among the Pakistani ethnic diaspora communities living in the Western countries. However, there is a dearth of inbreeding studies within the Pakistani society. However, second perspective (8, 9) argued that the chances of the genetic disorders are low and exaggerated. This perspective claimed that there are lower chances of the genetic disorders and that the media has stigmatized ethnic minority groups which alienated the community from mainstream Western society  [1]  . Socio- Genetic Problems Genetic Problems Social Problems Congenital malformations Learning difficulties, hearing impairment, infant mortality, morbidity, long term disability, increase birth prevalence, blindness Cardiovascular disease Asthma/ eczema Single-gene disorders (neurological disorders) Cerebral palsy Down syndrome Metabolic disorders Spontaneous abortion or infertility Cystic fibrosis Urogenital Ophthalmic Gastrointestinal Skeletal Cutaneous Hemoglobin Thalassaemia Fig 1 Genetic and social issues found in relevant literature Hence, it is claimed (10) that the chances of a 4 % health risk are possible among the non-relative marriages. The chances of unrelated cousins are also high and there is nothing significant on cousin marriage offsprings (11). Genetic effects appear in later age and are overtly emphasized on the basis of medical justification (9). Thus, it can be seen from the above debate on genetics that the problem exists and the main cause is the consanguineous marriages. This is accelerating debate among medical healers, geneticists and other health professionals within the Western countries about populations carrying genetic disorders and being stigmatized on medical grounds. However, this debate is nor prevalent within the countries where cousin marriages occur on a large scale. 1.2 Cultural traditions of the cousin marriages Consanguineous marriages constitute from 20 to 60 % of all marriages (9, 12). Worldwide 8.5% of child births are from consanguineous couples (9,12 ). Ten percent of worldwide congenital and genetic disorders are due to these marriages. In the Middle East and parts of Japan, and South Asia the marriages are dominant. Nevertheless, the majority ratio is in the Middle East (30 %) and in Pakistan (40 %) (1). Such marriages are under criticism in Europe and America; get on common in Asia, Africa and Middle East (4, 7). A number of factors are listed in favour of cousin marriages; for instance property preservation within the similar social group, socio-cultural concerns of the cousins, blood ties maintenance, purification of family and association among the similar group (5). The marriages are a closed network of relatives, and they form socio-political alliances. The marriages are a source of social welfare and strong ties between the cousins that forms a kinship structure (12, 13). This pattern of marriage is customary in the Middle East and pre-dominantly in Muslim societies, especially Pakistan. There is growing argument and debate over the issues, caused by the genetics problems which are originating mainly through cousin marriages. The perceptions of genetic problems are over- emphasized in the developed nations (due to the technology, medical treatment available and awareness of the genetic issues) and with less serious concern in the developing countries which could not afford the technolog y and cost of medicine. Therefore, there is a need to know, how and where the problem lies and what impact it has on child health care. 1.3 Cosmopolitanism and indigenous knowledge of cousin marriages Cosmopolitanism is the notion that all human beings share a similar moral and scientific normative system (14, 15). The cosmopolitan knowledge is the common body of knowledge across the discipline and geographical boundaries. In this paper cosmopolitan knowledge I used as scientific debate on the cousin marriages. The term indigenous knowledge refers to ethnic and cultural perceptions of the people in a particular region which share origins and a common belief system. Cosmopolitan knowledge is a lesser debated issue among the common man in developing countries, like Pakistan, where cousin marriages prevail on a large scale. Does the cosmopolitan knowledge of congenital disorders undermine the indigenous perspectives of the belief system in the community of Kabirwala (Pakistan)? The study is aims to understand the genetic problems due to cousin marriages and the peoples perceptions of cousin marriages (daughter/ sister exchange for spouse selection) and the impact on congenital diseas es. This is an effort to know how cosmopolitan knowledge differs with the indigenous perceptions of congenital diseases among the families who are living under a woman exchange system (among cousins) and how the system is affecting child health care and why health services are unable to handle the issue within the cultural context. 2. Research design I was working on my research project exchange marriage system in Kabirwala, a town in Pakistan. During the fieldwork, I found the blind and disabled persons whose parents were married on the basis of the exchange marriage. Fig 2 Respondents level of the education  [2]   I conducted interviews in a village of Kabirwala with the spouses who were married with cousins, their children to know the issue of genetic and their perceptions about the issue. The data was analyzed in line with Grounded Theory Method. This method develops the categories from the data (19, 20, 21). I developed the concepts and categories from the interviews. I interpreted and elaborated the data relevant to genetic problems for understanding the issue and categorized the data according to the themes. Relevant reports, articles were used to strengthen the findings of the primary data (16, 17, 18).   3. Results I categories the results into below categories: 2.1 Destiny and Luck: cousin marriages and congenital diseases Mehboob  [3]  57 year old male is married with his cousin Rubia, 42 years. Rubia has nominal education. The couple have 11 children (3 sons and 8 daughters), and one child (Rakha in Fig 3) died one month after birth. Among the 11 children, two (Tahir and Najma) are blind and one child (Mehwi) has a hearing problem. The couple called it a matter of taqdeer (destiny) and argued that two children are blind due to their sin and one had died because us kay din poray ho gaye thay (he has finished his life: means he has only this life given by God). Fig 3 Family of Mehboob When I asked, was this not a genetic problem?, the respondents replied that it was Gods will and this was the reason for his sons death. It is a matter of luck, destiny and genetics has minor role to play, explained the respondents. 2.2 Religious authority and genetic problems Aslam, a 57- year old man has different views about the genetic issues and he argues that genetic issues are not real ones, and that the Prophets daughter was married with Ali (the cousin of Prophet Muhammad). He explains: it is not possible that cousin marriage has problems and that the Prophet did not forbid it. People believe that the religious interpretation is the real one, and it is Allah who gives and solves genetic problems. The family has authority to arrange the marriages and enjoy in return obedience of the son/daughter. It encourages the elders to be conformist with the local traditions and follow the traditional norms to regulate cousin network. However, a 29-year, Kalsoom a female, argued that parents control the decision-making authority because they want to rule their offspring. She tells that religion has given authority to parents but they should use this authority in a careful manner. She explains that genetics has no link with cousin marriage. The respondent claimed it is God who does whatever HE wants. Nevertheless, Kabir, a 33- year male believes that cousin marriages are as a source of security, stability, strength and unity. 2.3 Consanguineous marriages and formation of social capital Cousin marriages determined the level of the kinship involvement in the Kabirwala community. Marriage with nearest relative is preferred. The relationship between in-laws extends beyond the couple. If a marriage is successful, it will be followed by others between the two families. Fig 4 indicates the few ratios of alternatives. Fig 4 Marriage patterns Cousin links, formed through marriages persist and are reinforced through the generations.  The foremost source of the marriage proposal is within the lineage (22). It is found in this study (see Fig 5). Fig 5 Marriage trends The cousin marriages form a kind of social capital because the relatives are responsible to provide for a person in need. These cousins help, support and maintain the social security of a person in Pakistan. 2.4 Public health problem: the gaps between knowledge and indigenous belief system Akram, a 50- year male respondent elaborated his account and said, his children are more beautiful than his brothers because he was married with his cousin and his brother was married with someone other than cousins. He mentioned that it was due to his own genes that his (spouse) gave birth to beautiful children. However, Kalim a 30-year, male disagreed with the above argument and he said it was marriage of his cousins that has given a blind child. Akram is a single case so whose generalization is not possible. Some young and educated respondents have awareness about the cousin marriages and genetics problems. Rabia, 25 years, a single, female respondent mentioned that cousin marriages creates zahanat ki kami (less intellect), kamzori (physical-weakness), zahni bemari (abnormality), and apas main gharello jahgrey (domestic conflicts). Although there is evidence of blind and disabled children from cousin marriages. This appears to be with medical research on the subjects. There is nom inal awareness among the people of the genetic issues. The community is not aware about role of the genetic disorders. If anybody in the community has knowledge they negate it due to the belief system. Cultural opportunities and constraints Opportunities Constraints Purification of the family Family conflict, less knowledge of congenital disorders, lack of research, lack of awareness, lack of medical treatment infrastructure availability in the community of Kabirwala, lack of counseling opportunities, paternal authority, superstitions Strengthen kinship ties Availability of the spouses within family Support for woman status Better relations with in-laws Old age care Stable marriages Property preservation Preservation of land fragmentation Less stigma Loosening ties brings social problems Political alliances Fig 6 Comparison of opportunities and constraints 2.5 Policy steps to handle the issue of consanguineous marriages There is a dearth of the research in the community of Kabirwala with reference to the cousin marriages and the probability of genetic diseases. The scientists working in the field of inbreeding have an opportunity to study the community which has a chain of cross-cousin marriages from generations. The inbreeding scientists may be able to find some significant results about the chain of genetic diseases; the following policy steps are suggested. 1) Genetic problems are considered an important issue among the scientists and less concern among the people as the present study shows. The people in the community of Kabirwala believe that disease is a matter of destiny and luck. They do not know that there is a possibility of positive relationship between the genetic disorders and the marriages. It is possible to provide education to the people. It would be helpful to add the issue to the school syllabus. 2) The local imam (religious preacher) could spread awareness of the issue in their Friday-sermons. The imam is a person who may effectively convince the people, because the majority of the people could not read and write. The people believe the religious teachings. These illiterate people could be influenced through the cultural specific ways and means. This is an easy way for the health professional to convince the local imam about the possible inherited diseases so that he is a catalyst of social change. Short run measures are also possible to sensitize the people through media and stage-drama. However, these measure are likely not sustainable because the media is either restricted or without due credibility to spread such kind of information. 3) Counselling services create awareness if they can be delivered to the remote communities like Kabirwala. However, there is no counselling service available in the community of Kabirwala yet. 4) Legislation is a last step to ban the cousin marriages. But the ban on cousin marriage will be counter productive in this cultural context where breaking the law is considered as fashion and symbol of superiority. Non-conformity indicates a high social status in this community. 3. Discussion and conclusion Cosmopolitan knowledge has diagnosed two distinctive problems among the Pakistani cousin marriage couples, hemoglobin and thalassaemia. However, the hemoglobin is the main genetic trouble among Pakistani ethnic people (1, 4, 23, 25, 26). Human biological diseases are crucial one and need proper attention from health professionals and policy makers within the cultural and religious setting. A significant factor of cousin marriage is protection of property, to avoid land fragmentation and to maintain the close family ties and reassurance of the bride (5 page 13). This is similar to work by Shaw (24) which argues that social environment and religious belief has affected the prenatal diagnosis. Cousin marriages are stable and have a low divorce rate among first cousins (10) and have a strong socio-economic impact on the traditional family system in Pakistan. These traditional marriages are cousin, caste and endogamy marriages. The marriages form a single fabric, and if violated can harm marriage patterns with serious moral-decay consequently emerging (5, 25, 26). Thus, the present debate has a strong affect on the exchange marriages, which are overwhelmingly cousin marriages and has a negative affect on the public health. In my data, despite of the fact that respondents have education they have less knowledge about this issue. The community is lacking lively debate on the problem. Genetically disorders, visible from the health conditions, are likely to happen among the community. Cosmopolitan perspective Indigenous perspective Physical incapacity Exaggerated issue, stigmatized issue, qismat (luck) and taqdeer (destiny), child beauty, children are integrated Mental incapacity Harmful Chronic disorder Fatwa (an authoritative ruling on a point of Islamic law) Fig 7 Cosmopolitan and indigenous perspective Contrary, indigenous belief and attitudes have pointed to a few concerns: less awareness of the genetic issues, knowledge and facilities availability. The people in the community of Kabirwala believe that genetics problems have a negative relationship with the cousin marriages. This is the issue of a Western society and has less validity in Pakistani society. It is matter of destiny and luck and not a medical concern. Kabir explains: does western medicine ever stop a person to dying? This indicates apathy towards the genetic phenomenon where has less validity in the community. Therefore, the study found the evidence that cosmopolitan knowledge has no relevance with the indigenous belief system based on the above data. Culture centred techniques to cope with these problems reduce chances of cousin marriages. For example, if a local imam/ molvi or the school syllabus stresses these. There are chances to reduce the possibility of the cousin marriages in coming generations. However, this is the turning point to convince the community to tackle and handle the issue with proper strategy. This is an open choice for the public and the health professional able where with proper facilitation and information can attract the public effectively. A failure to tackle the issue in a culturally specific manner could betray the health professional. The current study found that community knowledge, belief and indigenous practices are the main causes responsible for the prevalence of cousin marriages in Kabirwala. These factors are also the stumbling-blocks in making the indigenous knowledge compatible with the cosmopolitan knowledge. Therefore, there are few concerns among the Kabirwala community about the genetic problems which way occur. They feel protected by their system of beliefs. Notion of luck and destiny is dominant in indigenous knowledge.

Mischief, Mayhem, In Tyler We Trust: A Textual Analysis of Personality

Psychological disorders are widely represented in films, as well as in other media texts such as novels, television shows, etc. One film that portrays more than one example of a psychological disorder is Fight Club, a Twentieth Century Fox movie released with an R rating in 1999. Directed by David Fincher; and produced by Art Linson, Cean Chaffin, and Ross Grayson Bell, the movie mainly introduces Dissociative Identity Disorders (also known as Multiple Personality Disorders), but also hints at insomnia and depression. The movie is adapted from the book Fight Club written by Chuck Palahniuk. Fox marketed the movie using a â€Å"myriad of merchandise, including posters, the soundtrack, and even email addresses (yourname@fightclub.com)† (CNN). The movie’s production budget was set at $63,000,000 with the movie grossing $37,030,102 (Daily Box Office). The characters of the movie refer to themselves as the â€Å"middle children of history† with the feelings of having no purpose or place in life. They convey that they have no history-making events or real set goals and/or destiny to look forward to. They were brought up by society to believe that one-day they would be rich, famous and loved just as those depicted on television. This is symbolic of society during the surrounding time of the movie’s release. It is prevalent in modern society to strive to become someone/something that one sees in the media. The movie is directed towards Generation-X, but the â€Å"†¦hope was that the film would demonstrate the themes of the story to a larger audience. It would offer more people the idea that they could create their own lives outside the existing blueprint for happiness offered by society† (Palahniuk). This message was one that demanded that its viewers put all that drives them aside, and rethink what they had been taught from childhood. After the film’s release, instead of delivering the message that was intended, it was m et with criticism and misunderstanding. This was due partly to the fact that it was scheduled for release shortly after the Columbine shootings. The movie became an easy target for those upset by the blatant violence which surrounded the Columbine incident. Although Fight Club is a film full of violence it is in reality one that promotes anti-violence, and points out to the audience the human impulses that cause violent behavior. Ironically, despite all of the med... ...iative Identity Disorder (DID) Fact Sheet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://cameronwest.com/did1.html Doak, Robert. Studies in Popular Culture: Who Am I This Time? Multiple Personality Disorder and Popular Culture. http://pcasacas.org/SPC/spcissues/22.1/doak.html Hamilton, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Medical Encyclopedia: Sleeping Difficulty.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.rwjhamilton.org/Atoz/encyclopedia/article/003210.asp Maisto, Albert A, and Charles G. Morris.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Psychology: an introduction. 12th edition. 2005.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Palahniuk, Chuck.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fight Club DVD booklet. PsychNet-UK.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dissociative Identity Disorder: Disorder Information Sheet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/dissociative_identity_disorder.htm University of Iowa Health Care.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Multiple Personality Disorder: Health Topics: UI Health Care.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.uihealthcare.com/topics/mentalemotionalhealth/ment3157.html

Looking for Alaska

Looking For Alaska In life we face many issues and challenges. Perhaps the most challenging time is when we are Teens. Being a teen means being in that time period when we feel invincible, reckless and we are still trying to figure out who we are. For Miles Halter, he was just like everybody else. John Green’s novel Looking for Alaska tells the story of Miles Halter, a shy teenager who transfers to Culver Creek Boarding School for his junior year of high school, in search of the â€Å"Great Perhaps. † While at Culver Creek, Miles faces many issues including trying to fit in, falling in love, and death. When Miles lived in Florida he had no friends. He would always eat lunch by himself and everybody picked on him. When the chance came up for Miles to go to a boarding school in Alabama, he begged his parents to let him go. When Miles arrived at Culver creek he was greeted by his roommate Chip. The first night at his dorm Miles was awoken to some boys who picked him up and threw him in the lake. For many teenagers moving to a new place means starting over. You get to make new friends and nobody knows who you are. The challenges kids face when moving, however is trying to fit in when everybody knows each other. The surroundings are new and you don’t really know anyone. For me moving when I was 13 it was the scariest thing in my life. I, like, everyone else had a hard time making friends, but eventually I did. Falling in love is also another issue teen’s face. When in high school there is always that boy or girl who catches your eye. When Miles started hanging out with his roommate Chip, he met Alaska Young. Alaska was the girl that didn’t care what anybody thought of her. She smoke, she drank, and she even pulled pranks, but Miles started falling in love with her. The issue that Miles had to face with falling in love was that he was starting to turn bad. Miles started smoking and drinking just to look cool for Alaska. I think many Teenagers do things that they normally don’t do to impress a girl or boy whether it’s good or bad. After a night of partying Miles wakes up and gets a phone call. The person explains to miles that Alaska got in a car accident while intoxicated and died. Miles thinks it is one of Alaska’s pranks and starts to laugh. When Chip opens the door sobbing, Miles realizes that what the person said on the phone wasn’t pulling a prank. Sobbing, Miles realizes that the girl he loved is dead. During her funeral, Miles is nowhere to be seen and is skipping class to get drunk and high. Many teens have to deal with a loved one dying. When a loved one dies many teens get the mindset that their live is not important without that person in it. All in all Miles did have to face more issues than many teens, but the struggles Miles had to face made him who he is. We all face issues during our teen live whether it’s trying to fit in, falling in love, or the death of a loved one. We must move on from these issues in the end, and they will make us the people we are. Looking for Alaska Looking For Alaska In life we face many issues and challenges. Perhaps the most challenging time is when we are Teens. Being a teen means being in that time period when we feel invincible, reckless and we are still trying to figure out who we are. For Miles Halter, he was just like everybody else. John Green’s novel Looking for Alaska tells the story of Miles Halter, a shy teenager who transfers to Culver Creek Boarding School for his junior year of high school, in search of the â€Å"Great Perhaps. † While at Culver Creek, Miles faces many issues including trying to fit in, falling in love, and death. When Miles lived in Florida he had no friends. He would always eat lunch by himself and everybody picked on him. When the chance came up for Miles to go to a boarding school in Alabama, he begged his parents to let him go. When Miles arrived at Culver creek he was greeted by his roommate Chip. The first night at his dorm Miles was awoken to some boys who picked him up and threw him in the lake. For many teenagers moving to a new place means starting over. You get to make new friends and nobody knows who you are. The challenges kids face when moving, however is trying to fit in when everybody knows each other. The surroundings are new and you don’t really know anyone. For me moving when I was 13 it was the scariest thing in my life. I, like, everyone else had a hard time making friends, but eventually I did. Falling in love is also another issue teen’s face. When in high school there is always that boy or girl who catches your eye. When Miles started hanging out with his roommate Chip, he met Alaska Young. Alaska was the girl that didn’t care what anybody thought of her. She smoke, she drank, and she even pulled pranks, but Miles started falling in love with her. The issue that Miles had to face with falling in love was that he was starting to turn bad. Miles started smoking and drinking just to look cool for Alaska. I think many Teenagers do things that they normally don’t do to impress a girl or boy whether it’s good or bad. After a night of partying Miles wakes up and gets a phone call. The person explains to miles that Alaska got in a car accident while intoxicated and died. Miles thinks it is one of Alaska’s pranks and starts to laugh. When Chip opens the door sobbing, Miles realizes that what the person said on the phone wasn’t pulling a prank. Sobbing, Miles realizes that the girl he loved is dead. During her funeral, Miles is nowhere to be seen and is skipping class to get drunk and high. Many teens have to deal with a loved one dying. When a loved one dies many teens get the mindset that their live is not important without that person in it. All in all Miles did have to face more issues than many teens, but the struggles Miles had to face made him who he is. We all face issues during our teen live whether it’s trying to fit in, falling in love, or the death of a loved one. We must move on from these issues in the end, and they will make us the people we are.

Obesity essayEssay Writing Service

Obesity essayEssay Writing Service Obesity essay Obesity essayObesity as a social problem can be seen from many perspectives. Each of the three core sociological theories can be applied to the explanation of the concept of obesity. Using the definition provided by the text, it is possible to categorize obesity as a highly prevalent social problem. Obesity is associated with public concerns regarding the overall health of the nation (Korgen Furst, 2012).   In other words, obesity as a social problem serves concrete social functions. There are many examples of individual and societal factors leading to obesity, such as unhealthy foods, psychological problems, economic problems, poor physical activity, and other factors. The individual and social consequences of doing nothing to address this problem involve the risk of having chronic illnesses (heart failure, diabetes, etc.) poor performance, economic and psychological consequences, and other consequences (Overweight and Obesity, 2014). A conflict theorist would explain the problem of obesity as a â€Å"conflict between the goals of eating enjoyment and the goals of weight control† (Heshmat, 2011, p. 180). A functionalist would explain the problem of obesity as a problem caused by the disorganization of society and the establishment of the so-called social pathology. Each part of society affects other parts, contributing to social instability in the context of eating behaviors (Heshmat, 2011). A symbolic interactionist would explain the problem of obesity as a problem caused by human behavior and symbolic interaction with others. The self is socially constructed; therefore, human behavior is influenced by social interactions. Based on recent research and on my personal reflection on obesity, symbolic interactionism is the most appropriate theoretical perspective regarding my views on obesity (Mooney, 2014). It explains the causes of obesity in a proper way. Obesity influences all aspects of social life. Obese people are often discriminated by others. B esides, obesity is associated with class inequalities, as well as inequalities in incomes and promotions, what leads to low self-esteem. Based on my analysis, it is necessary to conclude that the issue of obesity should be addressed as a social problem.

Definition and Examples of Lipograms

Definition and Examples of Lipograms A text that purposefully excludes a particular letter of the alphabet  is called a lipogram. The adjective is lipogrammatic. A contemporary example of a lipogram is Andy Wests novel Lost and Found (2002), which does not contain the letter e. Etymology From the Greek, missing letter Examples and Observations: The earliest lipograms are thought to have been composed in the sixth century BC, but none has survived; maybe they were never actually written down, only imagined, to circulate among the clerisy as instant legends of verbal skill. . . . [T]he lipogram should be a purposeless ordeal undertaken voluntarily, a gratuitous taxing of the brain, and the severer the better. It should make the business of writing not pleasanter but harder.(John Sturrock, Georges Perec. The Word From Paris: Essays on Modern French Thinkers and Writers. Verso, 1998)Gadsby: A Lipgram on EUpon this basis I am going to show you how a bunch of bright young folks did find a champion; a man with boys and girls of his own; a man of so dominating and happy individuality that Youth is drawn to him as is a fly to a sugar bowl. It is a story about a small town. It is not a gossipy yarn; nor is it a dry, monotonous account, full of such customary fill-ins as romantic moonlight casting murky shadows down a long, winding co untry road. Nor will it say anything about tinklings lulling distant folds; robins caroling at twilight, nor any warm glow of lamplight from a cabin window. No. It is an account of up-and-doing activity; a vivid portrayal of Youth as it is today; and a practical discarding of that worn-out notion that a child dont know anything.Now, any author, from historys dawn, always had that most important aid to writing: an ability to call upon any word in his dictionary in building up his story. That is, our strict laws as to word construction did not block his path. But in my story that mighty obstruction will constantly stand in my path; for many an important, common word I cannot adopt, owing to its orthography.(Ernest Vincent Wright, from Gadsby, 1939a story of more than 50,000 words that does not contain the letter e) Most common of all marks from A to Z,Its tyrant to orthography, and smugThat not a thing of worth is said withoutOur using it. . . .(Daniel J. Webster, A Lipogram: Writing Without It. Keeping Order on My Shelf: Poems and Translations. iUniverse, 2005)A Void: Another Lipogram on ENoon rings out. A wasp, making an ominous sound, a sound akin to a klaxon or a tocsin, flits about. Augustus, who has had a bad night, sits up blinking and purblind. Oh what was that word (is his thought) that ran through my brain all night, that idiotic word that, hard as Id try to put it down, was always just an inch or two out of my graspfowl or foul or Vow or Voyal?a word which, by association, brought into play an incongruous mass and magma of nouns, idioms, slogans and sayings, a confusing, amorphous outpouring which I sought in vain to control or turn off but which wound around my mind a whirlwind of a cord, a whiplash of a cord, a cord that would split again and again, would knit again and again, of w ords without communication or any possibility of combination, words without pronunciation, signification or transcription but out of which, notwithstanding, was brought forth a flux, a continuous, compact and lucid flow: an intuition, a vacillating frisson of illumination as if caught in a flash of lightning or in a mist abruptly rising to unshroud an obvious signbut a sign, alas, that would last an instant only to vanish for good.(Georges Perec, La Disparitiona 300-page novel that does not contain the letter e; translated by Gilbert Adair as A Void) 181 Missing OsN mnk t gd t rb r cg r plt.N fl s grss t blt Sctch clips ht.Frm Dnjns tps n rnc rlls.Lgwd, nt Lts, flds prts bwls.Bx tps, nt bttms, schl-bys flg fr sprt.N cl mnsns blw sft n xfrd dns,rthdx, jg-trt, bk-wrm Slmns.Bid strgths f ghsts n hrrr shw.n Lndn slp-frnts n hp-blssms grw.T crcks f gld n dd Iks fr fd.n sft cltl fstls n Id fx dth brd.Lng strm-tst slps frlrn, wrk n t prt.Rks d nt rst n spns, nr wd-ccks snrt,Nr dg n snw-drd r n cits rlls,Nr cmmn frg cncct lng prtcls.(Unknown, quoted by Willard R. Espy in The Game of Words. Grosset Dunlap, 1972)

Indian Music essays

Indian Music essays 1) Music is the organisation of sounds with some degree of rhythm, melody, and harmony. 2) Popular Music is music produced for and sold to a broad audience. Indian popular music, which is most strongly influenced by Indian folk music is shaped by social, economic, and technological forces. Popular music is closely linked to the social identity of its performers and audiences. 3) Indian Popular Music has one of the worlds most extensive popular music industries. Most Indian popular music is associated with the commercial film industry, centred on Mumbai, in which song-and-dance scenes are inserted into plots. 4) Film songs are heard all over India, in city streets and even in remote villages, and have also become one of the country's major cultural exports. It is a remarkably eclectic genre, borrowing freely from other Indian musics and popular music's from around the world, including some Western harmonic procedures. 5) Both Indian cinema and its film music are widely popular elsewhere in the developing world, from Africa and the Middle East to Eastern Europe and other parts of Asia. 6) While it is difficult to generalize about such a vast and diverse entity, certain observations can be made about Indian popular music. Like classical Indian music and Indian folk music, it is overwhelmingly monophonic: melodies are sung or played solo, rather than in harmony with another singer. 7) The Indian music industry got off to an early start with the production of local recordings in 1901. By the 1950s the film industry had grown phenomenally, and soon became the largest in the world, producing some 700-feature films annually. Music directors like Naushad and S. D. Burman composed scores for hundreds of films, while top singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi, and Kishore Kumar have each recorded several thousand film songs. Most were sentimental love songs designed to fit the romantic and often escapis ...

Globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Globalization - Essay Example Globalization as a phenomenon requires the imposition of certain types of values and traits which are mostly Western in their orientation. Such outcome therefore results into the diminishing of the local values and thus gradually erodes the local culture and replaces it with more modern Westernize culture. Appiah’s arguments therefore of relatively more important considering the fact that the systematic overhaul of the different social values may further result into discernment for globalization rather than generating a widespread acceptance for it. The universalization of the values under globalization therefore can create significant resistance to the same despite the fact that globalization can actually result into the transfer of economic and technological benefits for the developing countries. (Jameson and Miyoshi). Appiah’s arguments therefore are more critical considering the fact that globalization may adversely affect the local cultures and superimpose other cu ltures on local cultures thus creating so called moral disagreement between developed and developing countries. This moral disagreement therefore can result into the clash of civilization and globalization as a whole may fail to provide the desired results. It is also critical to understand therefore that in order to make globalization a successful process and phenomenon, it is critical to understand that globalization must support or allow local cultures and civilizations to grow with the global culture also. The mismatch between the two may create the critical differences between the nations and cultures and thus forcing globalization to fail to provide the desired results to the less developing countries. Foer’s arguments however, offer a deep and practical aspect of how globalization actually failed to erode the local culture. Considering the example of soccer, Foer presents the argument that the local culture associated with the global game of soccer has not changed over the period of time despite the fact that global clubs such as Manchester United and Real Madrid are considered as global icons being followed across the globe. The critical difference between the arguments of both the authors therefore provides a rare glimpse of the possible and concrete differences between theory and practice. Appiah’s arguments are more theoretical in nature suggesting the normative aspects of globalization and how this may result into the overcoming of the local culture through universalization of culture. Foer on the other hand however, has offered a different opinion regarding the failure of the globalization to actually overcome the local culture in its real settings thus potentially failed to achieve its intended aims. Foer believed that the soccer and the culture associated with it is actually a deep impression of the generations of the individuals who carried forward the tradition from generation to generation. However, soccer is also considered as anti-American because it is perhaps the only non-American trend which is dominating the world and which has remained purged from the increasing power of America and its value systems. In fact Soccer is seen as a threat in America because of its resilience to maintain its local cultural orientation. Western values therefore have failed to dampen the real spirit of soccer despite the fact that the sport as a whole has become more commercialized over the period

Buddy Holly Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Buddy Holly - Research Paper Example It was his family who encouraged his early musical gifts, and he was able to learn playing the fiddle and the piano from a tender age, even as his older siblings taught him how to play the guitar. The family had a business in tiles, while the parents were tailors, but they all let Buddy Holly develop his musical gifts in small and big ways, providng much moral support. Then after secondary school, he formed a band, out of which he further developed his talents, until that fateful event in 1955 when he fronted for Elvis Presley who was touring through their town, and was shortly after signed to a recodring contract by an agent who saw him perform. His early work with the Crickets in 1956 and 1957 paved the way for a career as a solo artist, in 1958, but that career would prove shortlived, as he was killed in a plane crash just a year after. His most famous songs, as reflected in their landing in the Top 40, would come from his work with the Crickets before 1958, notably ‘That Wi ll Be the Day’ recorded in 1957. In all, seven songs from the Cricket era landed in the American Top 40 from that time that Holly spent as the lead of the Crickets. Without that fateful plnba crash shortening the brilliant career of Holly, he would have been in his seventies by now, and would have left as big an imprint as the other greats of rock and roll who have come after him, and who have all cited his work as instrumental in shaping the course of their own music and of rock and roll in general. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Maria Elena Santiago holds the intellectual property rights to the work of Buddy Holly and all artifacts associated with the estate, and this is due to the fact that Santiago had become Holly’s wife in 1958. It was on their first date that Holly proposed marriage, and though the widow would suffer a miscarriage, the consummation of their marriage occurred just a few

Small Businesses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Small Businesses - Essay Example From this research it is clear that business success or failure is not ultimately the result of fate or random chance, but there are good reasons why a business did well or the other one didn’t. When a business man plans to set up a business, he may have some initial concerns such as which particular business to be started, who are the main customers to be targeted, how much capital to be invested and what market to be concentrated etc. In today’s rigorously competitive market landscape, the main indicator for the success or failure of a business is the ability of the business to meet customers’ specific as well as general requirements and thus to ensure customers’ satisfaction. As Freeman emphasized, no one who starts their own small business plan to fail, but sadly they fail to plan and therefore they fail. No matter whether the business is small or big, developing a well thought about plan and comprehensive strategic planning is critical to setting a bu siness successfully. In the modern business contexts, small businesses represent a good portion of the economy since it 1) provides increased employment opportunities, 2) Requires less gestation period, 3) encourages growth of local entrepreneurship and 4) improves the standard of living of the local people. In the UK alone, it is estimated that there are 3.7 million small businesses and this plays greater roles in its economy. A small scale business is one in which management is mostly independent and usually the manager is the owner, area of the operation is mainly local and ownership is held by an individual or small group of people. (Analoui and Karami

Comparison of of two psychiatric intervention, that is Pharmacology Essay

Comparison of of two psychiatric intervention, that is Pharmacology and Behaviour Therapy - Essay Example Two weeks prior to the current incident, Cleo lowered her dosage of medication (she lives with her family and they encouraged her to alter her medication). This action led to a "decompensation" of her mental state which the doctors think could have been a contributing factor to her most recent episode. It should be noted that Cleo has a "significant history" of non-compliance with treatment and medication regiments. Cleos family, though they are supportive, do not understand the extent of Cleos mental health. Although Cleo talks about her family a lot, she also believes them to be involved with the Nazis and she must protect them; hence the reason why she does not want to be in the hospital. During her current hospital stay, she became violent and suspicious with staff. Her behaviour is always unpredictable: She can be talking nicely to staff one minute and then jump across the counter to hurt someone in the next minute. She is also sexually promiscuous with other patients and she takes things form them. Other behaviour that she has exhibited include burning her hair, shaving her head (to be in fashion), and later cutting herself and licking the wound to "cleanse her spirit" (Case Study, p. 38). Through Cleos promiscuous behaviour she has contracted a sexually transmitted disease. She was caught having sex with one patient and trying to seduce another. Although the hospitals has a policy that allows patients to have sex, staff questions whether Cleo can actually give consent for sex. After talking to her family about it, they are split as to how they feel. Part of them feel she has a right to have sex with anyone she wants, and the other part of the family thinks that the other patients may take advantage of her. Cleos behaviour has created safety issues for everyone on the Ward. Many employees want to move to another area and others want Cleo to be moved. There have been increased absences and requests for workplace safety and Insurance Board claims.

Research -week 6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research -week 6 - Essay Example The research study that I participated in online is central to addressing the question ‘how personality and emotions are related to the way people deal with situations of everyday life?’ Keeping that in mind the study examines, through the use of a series of online questionnaires, the personality, emotional disposition and individual choices. The questionnaire used a rating scale that was provided to get an indication of how accurately the participant though each statement described him. There were five possible responses to each statement from ‘very inaccurate’ (number1) to ‘very accurate’ (number 5). Example of some of the research questions was: ‘I feel comfortable around people’, ‘I have a vivid imagination’, ‘I get upset easily’ etc. The online survey highlights the fact that by participating in the research complete anonymity as the questions asked do not require identifying information. Also entering the survey will be equal to giving consent so that the information provided can be used by the researcher in his study. These two measures effectively eliminate the chances of any ethical implications compromising the validity of the research. There are many advantages of conducting the research survey online. Some of these are the ability of the researcher to obtain a large and diverse sample which increases statistical power. Also it prevents data entry errors as data is automatically coded. Lastly it reduces the cost of conducting the research. Some disadvantages are some subjects might rush through the study, it might be difficult to recruit subjects online and lastly there is also a high chance that most participants might drop out from the study or exit the survey before completing it. (Psychwiki) I do not believe an online survey is the way to gather information on my research topic of juvenile delinquency mostly because it requires the participants to be of a specific type whereas online surveys are mostly effective for a randomized diverse large sample. References: Elizabeth Austin (20110. Personality, emotions, and making choices. University of Edinburgh. Survey link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0lO5XPOkxGqPx68WUvVRIg%3d%3d Psychwiki. Internet research. Retrieved from: http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/What_are_the_advantages/disadvantages_of_doing_internet_research%3F Research Design week 6 Assignment 2 The survey aiming to analyze the meaning of sex in a relationship by asking several intimate questions would make confidentiality of critical importance for a participant. This would be a key ethical issue for the researchers, the sole importance of which can simply be realized when you look at the discomfort and unwillingness to share the answers with a third party (the professor) here for instance. By mixing the asked questions with random one’s might be an adoption to divert the participant’s attention for a while or perhaps s imply to make sure that one does not simply fill away at answers at random. This being one of the cons of conducting an online study that can be countered by simply asking questions that are linked to each other or are repeated to check the level of attention paid by the participant. The pros of an online survey might be relevant in gaining information on parents feedback in regard to their child’s ADHD. However to gain a further advantage interviews might be a lot more helpful to gouge the body language and responses by

Story Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Story - Assignment Example He remembered clearly the summer day when the first case was reported – he was hanging out in his favorite rock bar with Tony, his best friend (in college, they used to dream of rock career, playing KISS and AC/DC covers) and a talented biology teacher at the local school. It was Sunday – and sun was literally scorching that day indeed – and they decided to get a refresh. An urgent phone call from the same guy, Jake, interrupted Jonathan’s leisure: a female body was found in the park, bearing traces of violent murder. Limbs covered with bruises, marks of stifling and†¦ a lily sticking up from her mouth. The town was staggered by this blatant and odd crime, yet the motives weren’t clear. Until the following cases of the same nature did arrange this horror into a logical sequence. Jonathan made a cup of cheap instant coffee – Iris always made delicious drip coffee, adding a drop of rum syrup into it, but he himself was too lazy and exhausted those days. Probably, he was reluctant to do that not only because of listlessness, but even more because of that overwhelming uneasy feeling that tortured him every time he thought of their â€Å"used-to-be† happy marriage and the way it all corrupted. Having slipped on Levi’s jeans and fished a clean shirt out of the wardrobe, Jonathan sat down on a couch and began looking through newspaper clippings arranged carefully in the chronological order. The first one, dated June, 11, said: Jonathan kept skimming through the clippings. The picture was daunting: once in ten days beginning with the 10th of June one young woman was violently murdered – either stifled or stubbed with a knife, and every time a flower was put into her mouth as if a murderer wanted to celebrate her beauty for the last time. Despite his experience, Blade hadn’t encountered anything like this before, yet he was rather decisive in his intention to clarify the case and bring the serial killer to

Comparison of of two psychiatric intervention, that is Pharmacology Essay

Comparison of of two psychiatric intervention, that is Pharmacology and Behaviour Therapy - Essay Example Two weeks prior to the current incident, Cleo lowered her dosage of medication (she lives with her family and they encouraged her to alter her medication). This action led to a "decompensation" of her mental state which the doctors think could have been a contributing factor to her most recent episode. It should be noted that Cleo has a "significant history" of non-compliance with treatment and medication regiments. Cleos family, though they are supportive, do not understand the extent of Cleos mental health. Although Cleo talks about her family a lot, she also believes them to be involved with the Nazis and she must protect them; hence the reason why she does not want to be in the hospital. During her current hospital stay, she became violent and suspicious with staff. Her behaviour is always unpredictable: She can be talking nicely to staff one minute and then jump across the counter to hurt someone in the next minute. She is also sexually promiscuous with other patients and she takes things form them. Other behaviour that she has exhibited include burning her hair, shaving her head (to be in fashion), and later cutting herself and licking the wound to "cleanse her spirit" (Case Study, p. 38). Through Cleos promiscuous behaviour she has contracted a sexually transmitted disease. She was caught having sex with one patient and trying to seduce another. Although the hospitals has a policy that allows patients to have sex, staff questions whether Cleo can actually give consent for sex. After talking to her family about it, they are split as to how they feel. Part of them feel she has a right to have sex with anyone she wants, and the other part of the family thinks that the other patients may take advantage of her. Cleos behaviour has created safety issues for everyone on the Ward. Many employees want to move to another area and others want Cleo to be moved. There have been increased absences and requests for workplace safety and Insurance Board claims.

Story Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Story - Assignment Example He remembered clearly the summer day when the first case was reported – he was hanging out in his favorite rock bar with Tony, his best friend (in college, they used to dream of rock career, playing KISS and AC/DC covers) and a talented biology teacher at the local school. It was Sunday – and sun was literally scorching that day indeed – and they decided to get a refresh. An urgent phone call from the same guy, Jake, interrupted Jonathan’s leisure: a female body was found in the park, bearing traces of violent murder. Limbs covered with bruises, marks of stifling and†¦ a lily sticking up from her mouth. The town was staggered by this blatant and odd crime, yet the motives weren’t clear. Until the following cases of the same nature did arrange this horror into a logical sequence. Jonathan made a cup of cheap instant coffee – Iris always made delicious drip coffee, adding a drop of rum syrup into it, but he himself was too lazy and exhausted those days. Probably, he was reluctant to do that not only because of listlessness, but even more because of that overwhelming uneasy feeling that tortured him every time he thought of their â€Å"used-to-be† happy marriage and the way it all corrupted. Having slipped on Levi’s jeans and fished a clean shirt out of the wardrobe, Jonathan sat down on a couch and began looking through newspaper clippings arranged carefully in the chronological order. The first one, dated June, 11, said: Jonathan kept skimming through the clippings. The picture was daunting: once in ten days beginning with the 10th of June one young woman was violently murdered – either stifled or stubbed with a knife, and every time a flower was put into her mouth as if a murderer wanted to celebrate her beauty for the last time. Despite his experience, Blade hadn’t encountered anything like this before, yet he was rather decisive in his intention to clarify the case and bring the serial killer to

Music Study Guide Essay Example for Free

Music Study Guide Essay Music is an art based on the organization of sounds in time. Also the universal language of man or something who knows Pitch is the relative highness or lowness that we hear in a sound Tone is a sound that has a definite pitch Interval is the distance in a pitch between any two tones Tones are separated by an interval called the octave Tones have a specific frequency in music Pitch range is the distance between the lowest and highest tones that a voice or instrument can produce Range of an untrained voice is between 1 and 2 octaves Dynamics are degrees of loudness or softness in music Loudness is related to the amplitude of the vibration that produces the sound Accent is an emphasis of a note Instrument may be defined as any mechanism that produces musical sound Register is the part of the tonal range of an instrument or voice Pizzicato- plucked string Double stop- two notes at once Vibrato- rocking the left hand while pressing down with the other. Throbbing expressive tone that causes small pitch fluctuations that make the tone warmer Mute- a clamp that veils or muffles that tone Tremolo- rapidly repeats tones by quick up-and-down strokes of the bow Harmonics- Very high pitched tones are produced when the musician lightly touches certain points on a string Woodwinds have little holes along their length that are opened and closed by the fingers or pads controlled by a key mechanism Flutes and piccolos are played by blowing across the edge of a mouth hole Recorders are played by blowing through a whistle mouthpiece Single-reed woodwinds are played by fastening a reed over a hole in the mouthpiece that vibrates when the player blows over it (ex- clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone) Double-reed woodwinds use two narrow pieces of cane that are held between the musician’s lips (ex- English horn, contrabassoon, bassoon) Bass instruments are played by the musician blowing into a cup- or funnel-shaped mouthpiece (vibrations of bass instruments come from their lips) Pitch of brass instrument is regulated by varying lip tension and by using slides and valves Mutes alter the tone color of bass instruments When a pianist’s finger strikes a key, a felt-covered hammer swings up against a string (greater the force on the key, more powerful the hammer’s blow, louder the tone produced) Damper comes down on the string to stop the vibrations when the pianist lets go of the key Damper pedal is the most important pedal, allows a pianist to sustain tones Una corda pedal, on the left, veils the sound Sostenuto pedal, in the middle, allows the pianist to sustain some tones without sustaining others Harpsichord has strings that are plucked. Controlled by one or two keyboards. Pipe organ has many sets of pipes controlled by several keyboards, including a pedal keyboard played the organist’s feet Tape studio was the main tool of composers of electronic music during the 1950s Synthesizers are systems of electronic components that generate, modify, and control sound Analog Synthesis is based on representing data in terms of measurable physical quantities Digital frequency modulation synthesis is based on representing physical quantities as numbers Sampling involves placing brief digital recordings of live sounds under the control of a synthesizer keyboard Instrument Digital interface (MIDI) is a standard adopted by manufacturers for interfacing synthesizer equipment Consonance is a tone combination that is stable. They are points of arrival, rest, and resolution. Dissonance is a tone combination that is unstable. Its tension demands an onward motion to a stable chord Dissonance has its resolution when it moves to a consonance The Middle Ages The Middle Ages spanned from 450-1450 Most important musicians were priests Church officials required monks to sing with proper pronunciation, concentration, and tone quality Church frowned upon instruments because of their earlier role in pagan rites Gregorian chant is a melody set to sacred Latin texts and sung w/o accompaniment Gregorian chant is monophonic in texture, its rhythm is flexible, w/o met.er, and has little sense of beat. The melodies tended to move by step within a narrow range of pitches. Used church modes as a scale. The Renaissance The Renaissance spanned from 1450-1600 The Renaissance mass is a polyphonic choral composition made up of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei Baroque Baroque era spanned from 1600-1750 Baroque era used violins a lot. Organ and harpsichord where the main keyboard instruments Baroque suite is a set of dance-inspired movements. It is made up of movements that are all written in the same key but differ in tempo, meter, and character. Usually in A A B B French overture is a common Baroque suite opening. Short Answer Middle Ages (450-1450) Renaissance (1450-1600) Baroque (1600-1750) Classical (1750-1820) Romantic (1820-1900) Contemporary (1900-now) 3 Composers per period: Middle Ages- Hildegard of Bingen, Perotin, Francesco Landini Renaissance- Josquin Desprez, Thomas Morley, Giovanni Gabrieli Baroque- Johann Sebastian Bach, George Fredric Handel, Henry Purcell Italian dynamic markings: Pianissimoppvery soft Piano psoft Mezzo Pianompmoderately soft Mezzo fortemfmoderately loud Fortefloud Fortissimoffvery loud Orchestras contain string, woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments. Symphonic bands contain brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Duple Meter- measure has two beats Triple Meter- measure has 3 beats Quadruple Meter- measure has 4 beats Gregorian chant is monophonic in texture, its rhythm is flexible, w/o met.er, and has little sense of beat. The melodies tended to move by step within a narrow range of pitches. Used church modes as a scale. Polychoral Motet- motet for two or more choirs, often including groups of instruments Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D Major (1721), by Johann Sebastian Bach. Ritornello form, duple meter. Used a string orchestra and a group of soloists consisting of a flute, violin, and a harpsichord. Essays Compare and contrast two periods of music that we’ve learned Middle Ages and Renaissance Compare: Musicians worked in churches. The church remained an important patron of music. Vocal music was more important the instrumental music. Both had sacred music(Gregorian chant, Renaissance mass). Both used church modes as their basic scale of music. The cantus firmus (Melody used as the basis of a polyphonic choral) was used in both periods. Contrast: Musical activity gradually shifted to the courts in the Ren. Musicians had higher statuses in the Ren. Ren music sounds fuller than MA music. Bass register was used for the first time in the Ren, expanding the pitch range to more than 4 octaves. Invention of the printing press widened the circulation of music, and the number of composers and performers increased in the Ren. Ren music was more about men rather than God. Instruments were used more often in the Ren. Composers were no longer content to remain unknown; in the Ren they wanted fame and recognition for their works. Bach’s contributions to the Baroque period Bach was the mack daddy of Baroque music. His works show an astounding mastery of harmony and counterpoint, and they are used as models by music students today. With his set of six Brandenburg Concerto’s, Bach brought immortality to a German aristocrat, the margrave of Brandenburg. In Concerto No.5, Bach uses a string orchestra and a group of soloists consisting of a flute, violin, and harpsichord. This was the first time a harpsichord was given a solo in a concerto grosso. The harpsichord’s solo at the end of the first movement is spectacular. His audience marveled at this brilliant harpsichord solo within a concerto grosso, and audiences today are still blown away by it. Bach wrote fugues that were the peak among works in the form. In his collections of preludes and fugues, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Back explored with unprecedented thoroughness systems of tuning instruments that enabled a composer to write in all 24 keys, even keys with many sharps and flats. Bach also composed what is probably the most monumental setting of the Roman Catholic mass (Mass in B Minor). It was too long to be performed in a mass, so Bach was just probably being a show-off. Bach wrote about 295 church cantatas. Cantata No. 140 is his most famous.