Beauty in Dante and Augustines Journey Into God Essays

The Role of Desire/Beauty in Dante and Augustines Journey Into God Essays The Role of Desire/Beauty in Dante and Augustines Journey Into God Essay The Role of Desire/Beauty in Dante and Augustines Journey Into God Essay Essay Topic: Light in August The Role of Desire/Beauty in Dante and Augustines Journey Into God BY cfl?100 The Role of Desire/Beauty in Dante and Augustines Journey Into God In both Confessions and The Divine Comedy, Augustine and Dante are depicted as very creative and intelligent men. Both of them have a love for the beauty in life. These beautiful things that are put in front of them cause both men to yield sinful desires. Augustine and Dante both know that certain desires, when not recognized as being created by God, can lead to their own damnation. Dante and Augustine come o realize that, despite being human and having desires, they must be fully dependent on Gods grace and love to make the Journey to him. From a very young age Augustine presents as a person who loves beauty. In Confessions, the reader is exposed to Augustines love for physical beauty during his adolescent years. He is distracted from a young age by the physical beauty of women and seems to be constantly thinking about them, which keeps him from his studies. He alludes to this in Book 3 when he says and more sweet still when I was able to enjoy the body of my lover (Augustine, 1. 2). Augustine has a love for the beauty in knowledge as well as the beauty of women, but as a young boy and young man, his desire for the love of knowledge and language takes a back seat to his desires involving women (his desire for women precede his desire for love of knowledge and language). This is exhibited throughout Confessions when Augustine acquires a mistress. This mistress i s taken from him and he misses her greatly, yet not enough so that he abstains from relations with other women and remains faithful to her. Augustine takes more mistresses throughout Confessions and even when converted, e struggles with his ongoing physical desire for beautiful women. He struggles both consciously and unconsciously to keep from thinking about them, but fails when he has sexual flashbacks during his days and erotic dreams during his nights. He writes, These images, have such an effect on my soul, my flesh, that false images in my sleep obtain from me what true visions cannot when I am awake (Augustine, 10. 0. 237). Augustine knows that both his love for these beautiful women and his desires for them are misguided. Augustines soul is heavy with these desires and they bring him arther and farther away from the grace of God. He is so caught up in the beauty of these women that, even when converted, his mind turns to them constantly. His whole being longs for them so gravely that even while he lies dreaming, the women come to him and guide his unconscious mind away from God. Augustine is lost in a sea of desire and is struggling to fgure out how he is supposed to live a life that is dependent on Gods grace and His love, while still appreciating the beauty that God has put in front of him in the form of women. Augustine comes to realize that not all hysical beauty is necessarily sinful. He understands that God created beautiful things because beauty in itself is goodness. He looks at the world around him and says, The eyes love beautitul shapes ot all kinds, glowing and delignttul colors. These things must not take hold of my soul; that is for God to do. Certainly God made these things very good, but it is He Himself, not these things, who is my good (Augustine, 10. 34. 243). Thus, Augustine decides that all of his love should be for God, and anything that is beautiful has to be loved with connection to God. He goes on about is theory in Confessions when he discusses how to love all things cohesively with God. He says If bodies please you, praise God for them and turn your love back from them to their maker, lest you displease Him in being pleased by them (Augustine, Book 4, Chapter 12, 81). He means that if you are to fall into your desires of beautiful women, you must thank God and love God for creating that beautiful women or else you are Just pleasing your desires and displeasing God. This illustrates the concept of idolatry, which is essentially worshipping a physical image and not the idea behind t. Like Augustine, Dante is depicted as a lover of physical beauty in The Divine Comedy. Dante, like Augustine, is human, and is prone to the same desire of women and their physical beauty. Beatrice is mentioned throughout The Divine Comedy and is meant to represent all that Dante believes to be beautiful and desirable. Though Dantes soul desires the love of Beatrice, it does not stop him from seeing and appreciating other women and their beauty. Dante sees and desires these beauties that have been placed in front of him by God. In Inferno, Dante is exposed to others ho have wrongly expressed their love of beauty in the Second Circle, where the Lustful are eternally punished for their misdirected love. The souls that are trapped there are blown back and forth by terrific winds of a violent storm, which represent how powerful lust, can be. And how it can Just violently and aimlessly take you from here to there whenever it pleases. In the Second Circle, Dante meets the couple Francesca and Paulo. Francesca tells Dante the story of how they came to be in the Second Circle of Hell. She tells Dante their story in a very seductive manner, hich can sway the reader from what she is actually saying: Love, that can quickly seize the gentle heart, took hold of him because of the fair body taken from me, (Dante, Inferno, 5. 00-107). She tells the tale in such a romantic way that Dante feels immense pity for the couple that he faints after hearing their story. He did not realize initially that though it all sounds beautiful and romantic, Francesca really told a story of love that stemmed from nothing but physical attraction. She clearly says that Paulos love for her is only because of the fair body/taken from me (Dante, 01-102). Also, her love for Paulo was only formed through his beauty (Dante, 104). Clearly these two people did not have love for each others souls and for God, but were merely treating each other as two pleasurable objects, not connecting themselves with God. Like Augustine, Dante realizes that though their story may be pitiful, they are rightfully in the Second Circle because they have offended God by not loving each other on a deeper theological level?they must love and depend on God to really love each other. What Francesca and Paulo essentially did was put themselves and their esires before the one who created them. For them, their desires overshadowed their appreciation and love for God; they took advantage of the beauty that God put in front of them (each other) and did not love Him for creating said beauties. Dante explains that Francesca and Paulo were indulgent in their desires tor one another, and he says, In the moment each of the lovers had delight in the image of the other, and both of them had a mutual delight in their love. But lussuria cannot stop there; the mutual indulgence is bound too soon to become two separate single indulgences (Dante, 119). Dante means that although Paulo and Francesca did love each other, their love was only based upon the physical beauty of the other, therefore their love was deemed sinful. So by saying this, Dante rightfully places them in the Second Circle of Hell. In both Augustine and Dantes Journey into God, they were faced with multiple struggles. A main struggle was the understanding of beauty and all of the desires that come along with it. For both men, finding the balance between appreciating the beauties of the world, including women, and their desires for these beauties was necessary in their Journey into God. Through Confessions and The Divine Comedy, Augustine and Dante come to realize that beauty is not a sin in itself, and God made beautiful things and beautiful people to represent His goodness. They come to the conclusion that in order to appreciate the beauties set in front of them, they must be fully dependent on Gods grace and His love. If they did not love the creator of these beautiful things, how could they love the things at all? They would be damned if they ignored the creator, they would be lost in their own desires and stray far away from their path of their Journey into God.

How to Prove an Argument Invalid by a Counterexample

How to Prove an Argument Invalid by a Counterexample An argument is invalid if the conclusion doesnt follow necessarily from the premises.  Whether or not the premises are actually true is irrelevant.  So is whether or not the conclusion is true.  The only question that matters is this: Is it  possible  for the premises to be true and the conclusion false?  If this is possible, then the argument is invalid. Proving Invalidity: a Two-step Process The counterexample method is a powerful way of exposing what is wrong with an argument that is invalid.  If we want to proceed methodically, there are two steps: 1) Isolate the argument form; 2) Construct  an argument with the same form that is obviously invalid. This is the counterexample. Lets take an example of a bad argument. Some New Yorkers are rude.Some New Yorkers are artists.Therefore Some artists are rude. Step 1: Isolate the Argument Form This simply means replacing the key terms with  letters, making sure that we do this in a consistent way.  If we do this we get: Some N  are RSome N are ATherefore some A are R Step 2: Create the counterexample For instance: Some animals are fish.Some animals are birds.Therefore some fish are birds This is what is called a substitution instance of the argument form laid out in Step 1.  There is an infinite number of these that one could dream up.  Every one of them will be invalid since the argument form is invalid.  But for a counterexample to be effective, the invalidity must shine forth.  That is, the truth of the premises and the falsity of the conclusion must be beyond question. Consider this substitution instance: Some men are politiciansSome men are Olympic championsTherefore some politicians  are Olympic champions. The weakness of this attempted counterexample is that the conclusion isnt obviously false.  It may be false right now, but one can easily imagine an Olympic champion going into politics. Isolating the argument form is like boiling an argument down to its bare bonesits logical form.  When we did this above, we replaced specific terms like New Yorker with letters.  Sometimes, though, the argument for is revealed by using letters to replace whole sentences or sentence-like phrases. Consider this argument, for instance: If it rains on election day the Democrats will win.It wont rain on election day.Therefore the Democrats wont win. This is a perfect example of a fallacy known as affirming the antecedent.  Reducing the argument  to its argument form, we get: If R then DNot RTherefore not D Here, the letters dont stand for descriptive words like rude or artist. Instead, they stand for an expression like, the Democrats will win and it will rain on election day.  These expressions can themselves be either true or false.  But the basic method is the same. We show the argument s invalid by coming up with a substitution instance where the premises are obviously true and the conclusion is obviously false.  For instance: If Obama is older than  90, then hes older than 9.Obama is not older than 90.Therefore Obama is not older than 9. The counterexample method is effective at exposing the invalidity of deductive arguments.  It doesnt really work on inductive arguments since, strictly speaking, these are always invalid.

Software Usability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Software Usability - Essay Example Usability focuses entirely on providing information on how to design effective websites that offer better usability and accessibility to its users. Usability offers plentiful information on factors that enhance a user’s quality of experience of a site. The structure of the site offers easy accessibility to major information resources relevant to the site’s mandate. The pages have a consistent design format, which ease the process of finding information. The purpose of Usability is to help government web designers create sites that have more usability and accessibility of the sites (Usability, 2011). Usability tries to address web design issues that touch on a site’s usability and offers help on how to design, plan, and evaluate the usability of a site. The overall look of Usability is that of a well-organized online information resource. The site is true to its purpose of enhancing usability of sites through user-centered web design. Usability has no adverts on its pages, only links to content related to designing more usable web sites. The right column, which is usually full of adverts in many sites, has links to the site’s content and readers’ comments on the topic under discussion on the particular page. The feel of Usability is that of highly credible, informative, and user-oriented web site with great information architecture. The content on every page is purposely for the advancement of better web design that is adaptive to user preferences and requirements. The information feels very high ranking in credibility, judging by the user comments, reviews, quality, and the elaborate referencing of the content provided. The apparent target audience for Usability is government web designers (Usability, 2011). However, as you delve deeper into the content of the site, you begin to lose the feeling that the content’s orientation is towards government web designers. The content is useful to all web designers in general, and could be

Police Ethical Conduct Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Police Ethical Conduct - Research Paper Example The ethical codes of conduct of the police or the law enforcement officers have a significant role to play in the work of the police. One of the primary reasons requiring such ethical code is that the public, in general, would not accept a police department that is corrupted. The concept of ethics in this regard is associated with corruption, failure to act, gifts, and gratuities. In the recent times, in several countries including the United States, the corruption levels of the police officers have increased to great extents. Such corruption examples include officers not acting on criminal activities, acceptance of bribes, providing information that may put at risk an enquiry to issues or suspects of the investigation, involvement in the mission of a crime, making complaints that are fake and initiating actions by the court, failure to bear witness precisely, and forgery of police reports or official declarations for search or arrest warrants (Stering, 2004, p.37). The need for ethi cal police conduct is essential since if one police officer gets corrupted, it has a significant effect on other officers as well. In general, the public has a belief that the police are involved in corrupt activities and that they try to protect each other in their personal interests. However, police officers have been found to be proud of their profession and they tend to have values for the integrity and respect that are associated with their work. Generally, they try to perform their activities professionally and without being involved in corruption, such involvements meaning exception (Stering, 2004, p.37). The present study thus focuses on the ethical codes of conduct of the police officers also discussing the causes behind officers undertaking unethical decisions. Police Ethical Code of Conduct: The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics was in the beginning considered as an oath of a police officer rather than as an established code of ethics. However, there was an aspiration of hav ing an oath of office that could be used for graduation ceremonies. This desire led to the creation of a separate code of ethics and conduct for the law enforcement officers and the police.

Health Care Conditions Essay Example for Free

Health Care Conditions Essay As we analyze the factors contributing to health care costs we must find a solution that provides high-quality care for an aging population. Improvements to modern medicine are prolonging life causing a schism between a health care system oriented towards acute care and the increasing chronic care needs of older adults. Studies do show that health care costs for older Americans account for one third of all national health care expenditures. This being said the average expenditure for health care services for adults 65 and over is nearly four times the cost of those under 65. More significant changes need to be considered given the financial crisis our health care system faces. Health care costs are not solely due to longevity; consider increased utilization, new medical technologies, general inflation, fraud, and waste and abuse. This paper will discuss one article to be used in my final presentation on health care for anaging population. Data collection procedures The study on chronic health conditions used a questionnaire presented to study participants by in-person and telephone interview using computer-assisted software. They also used the Statistics Canada Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) for age prevalence patterns and to show how chronic condition prevalence varies by age group. The use of the CCHS survey for historical data and comparisons is very appropriate for this study. The use of a questionnaire, while not ideal, is appropriate for the large number of participants. The survey sampled approximately 130,000 people aged 12 years or older. In-person interviews are the most reliable, but the downside to using telephone interviews using computer-assisted software is that participants may go through the questionnaire quickly or skip questions if they are unsure. Identity protection for research subjects Confidentiality is the protection of information that an individual has trusted you with and disclosed to you for a particular reason. Informed consent is a process in which the researcher explains to the participant what steps are taken to keep their information confidential and what would happen if there were a data breach. The participant then has the information needed to determine if this is adequate and whether or not to continue with the project. The article does not discuss the steps taken to  protect the identity of participants. There is no mention of patient record abstraction, personal information collected or informed consent. Reading the article, it is an assumption that the only information collected was the age and number and type of chronic conditions for each participant. Study reliability and validity The reliability of this study, that is, the consistency and repeatability of the measure is high. A question related to the number and type of chronic conditions experienced by each participant is reliable and is measuring one topic. The questionnaire meets face validity – it is a common-sense assessment and the question measures exactly what they want to study. Data analysis procedures To answer the research questions, the researchers used data from the CCHS survey to develop a baseline of the number of chronic conditions within certain age groups. That data was then projected for 25 years based on the target population which was derived from a model of the economic demographic system (MEDS) projection. The hypothesis, â€Å"The expectation is that, as the large baby boom cohort moves into older age categories, the overall proportion of the population with chronic conditions will increase† (Denton Spencer, 2010), is best answered by projecting the number of people in each age group based on historical data and factoring in immigration, emigration, mortality, and fertility rates. I believe this study is quantitative. It involves randomly selected participants, uses face-to-face and phone questionnaires, the data analysis is statistical and is presented in tables and graphs, and is used to recommend a final course of action. The study design is descriptive, also called observational. Validity is important in descriptive studies; the lower the validity, the more study participants you will need. â€Å"For an accurate estimate of the relationship between variables, a descriptive study usually needs a sample of hundreds or even thousands of subjects.† (Hopkins, 2000) Conclusion In conclusion, the study shows that more than two-thirds of the population over the age of 12 has a chronic condition and 90% of them are over the age of 65. The researchers believe that as the participants move into higher  age groups the prevalence of chronic conditions will increase, which this study proves. The prevalence rate in 2005 is 68.7% and the prevalence rate in 2030 is 71.9% which is an increase of 3.2%. But how does this affect health care utilization and cost? With a modest reduction in the prevalence of chronic conditions, one-third of the projected increase in health care spending could be cut by 2030. In this study, a modest reduction is described as reducing the number of chronic conditions by one. Those with three chronic conditions would be reduced to two, two would be reduced to one, and one would be reduced to none. The strengths of this study are the high reliability and validity of the data recorded from the questionnaires. The data analysis and projections based on the target population, adjusted for emigration, immigration, mortality, and fertility was the best option for this type of study. The weaknesses of the study were the inability to abstract data on chronic conditions from the medical records of the participants, and the exclusion of participants in institutions which resulted in an under-estimation of chronic conditions in older populations. Another weakness noted by the researchers was that there was no record of the severity of the condition. This does not allow for accurate accounts of those cured of the chronic condition during the study period. References Denton, F.T., Spencer, B.G. (2010). Chronic health conditions: Changing prevalence in an aging population and some implications for the delivery of health care services. Canadian Journal on Aging, 29(1), 11-21. Doi:http://dx/doi.org/10.1017/SO714980809990390 Hopkins, W.G. (2000). Quantitative Research Design. SportsScience, 4(1), retrieved online May 26, 2014 from http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0001/wghdesign.html

The Puffy Chronicles :: Puff Daddy Music Musicians Rappers Essays

The Puffy Chronicles Puff Daddy, born Sean Combs on November 4, 1969 in Harlem to Melvin and Janice Combs, began his life of violence at a young age. When Sean was two years old, his father was tragically murdered. This forced Janice to move to a safer environment in Mt.Vernon, NY where she had to work three jobs in order to provide for her family. One can see that Sean’s broken home and the violence that constantly surrounded him influenced his lyrics and style of music throughout his life[I1] . His angry lyrics and shouts of aggression in his individual tracks certainly support the argument of his childhood having a big impact on his style of rap. Exploding onto the rap scene, Puffy soon found himself engulfed by the lifestyle of a rapper. For a short time, Puff Daddy was involved in one of the biggest East Coast vs. West Coast battles. Violence erupted, which lead to the death of two rappers: 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G. During this whole time, Puffy was busy producing music and influencing the style of other artists.[I2] Biggie’s single â€Å"Hypnotize† soared up to number one and stayed there long after his death. It was not long until the world would get a taste of Puffy’s very[I3] own style. Puff Daddy released the solo album No Way Out in the summer of 97’. No Way Out is an odd mixture of gangsta rap, soul, and r&b. But, somehow it seems to work for Puffy and his crew. At times while listening to the tracks, one is confused as to which direction Puffy and such featured artists as Mase, Lil Kim, Notorious B.I.G., and Busta Rhymes are headed because the tracks are either violent, apologetic, or r&b. In â€Å"Victory†, Busta Rhymes spews out angry lyrics of violence about kidnapping rival West Coast Rapper families and gunning down enemies. Then in a spin-off of Sting’s â€Å"Every Breath You Take†, one can feel the pain and anguish as well as the regret in Puff’s voice as he raps about the death of his best friend, Notorious B.I.G. â€Å"I’ll Be Missing You†, a tribute to Biggie, won the award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group (vh1.com 2). Biggie’s wife, Faith Evans, provided background vocals to th e song while Puffy raps, â€Å"Give anything to hear half your breath/I know you still living your life, after death.

The gender income gap

Abstract The Gender Wage Gap is something invented by prehistoric man back in the sass's. Designed to keep women from making the same money and receiving the same benefits as their male counter-parts. This was a devise born in gender discrimination , intended to keep women in her place. When it was found to be unconstitutional they tried to fix it , but the monster had grown out of proportion. It had gotten so out of hand that no one not even the original creator could recognize it.There are so many factors that make up the gap but the largest factor still remains as discrimination. The Gender Gap For as long as there have been Jobs and Women in the workplace. There still exists a terrible unaddressed form of gender prejudice. Statistics indicate that it doses*Г? matter if they have the same Skills, more time on the Job or the same Education. Women do not make the same money and receive the same benefits as men doing the same Job. How many female Coo's have you seen in fortune 50 0 companies?According to Francine Blab & Lawrence Kahn from the National Bureau of Economic Research @ http://www. Never. Org/papers/we Both gender-specific factors,including gender differences in qualifications and discrimination, and overall age structure contributed to this ever increasing gap. As far back as 1957 women chose occupations for which on -the -Job training is less important, gender differences in occupations would also be expected. Women would especially avoid jobs requiring large investments in skills which are unique to a particular enterprise.Because the returns to such investments are reaped only as long as one remains with that employer. At the same time, employers may be reluctant to hire women for such Jobs because the firm bears some of the cost of such firm-specific training, and ears not getting a full return on that investment. Many employers thought of women as temporary workers due to the probability of them leaving to start a family or already having a family or a successful husband who had the means to support them. Here lies the fallacy off man has to support his family.The ever present threat of pregnancy loomed in the heads of most employers. The playing field was evened out a little with the emergence of the birth control pill. The Power of the Pill. According to Claudia Golden & Lawrence Katz from the National Bureau of Economic Research @ http://www. Never. Org/papers/7527 When the pill was introduced to the female population after FDA approval in the sass's. Its had a direct positive effect on women's career investment by almost eliminating the chance of getting pregnant and thus the cost of having sex.The Pill also created a social multiplier effect by encouraging the delay of marriage generally and thus increasing a career woman's likelihood of finding an appropriate mate after professional school. Even though women are outpacing men in getting college degrees thief not enough to close the gender pay gap. The American As sociation of University Women tackled he pay gap question by looking at workers of the same educational attainment*name kind of college, same grades;loading the same kinds of Jobs, and having made the same choices about marriage and number of kids.They found that college-educated women earn 5 percent less the first year out of school than their male peers. Ten years later, even if they keep working on par with those men, the women earn 12% less. .. Jane Farrell and Sarah Jane Glenn explore the question of whether there is more gender equality among minority men and women than among whites†¦. Playing the Numbers. The Gender *rising High Education. According to Doyle, William R. Change. (May/June 2010) volume 42 Issue corporate Resources. There are two factors that contribute to the higher education gender gap in the US.First, the gap begins, and in mostly accounted for, by gaps in high school completion. Second the labor market continues to provide differential earnings for men and women, even those who are similar in terms of the education, experience, and choice of careers. Even if women and men had similar educational credentials, scores on standardized tests, field of study, and degree from college of similar selectivity the gap in earnings would be about $4,400. The Gender Gap for Young Professionals in the Corporate and Financial sector.According to a report written by M. Bertrand, C. Golden and L. Katz from the National Bureau of Economic Research @ http://www. Never. Org/papers/w14681 The career's of Mamba's, who graduated between 1990 and 2006 from a top US Business school, are studied to understand how career dynamics differ by gender. Although male and female Mamba's have nearly identical (labor) incomes at the outset of their career's , their earnings soon diverge , with a male annual earnings advantage reaching almost 60 log points and ten to 16 years after MBA completion.There were three identifiable reasons for the large and rising gender ga p in earnings: is differences in training prior to MBA graduation; differences in career interruptions; differences in weekly hours. Gender differences in earnings across the years following MBA completion. The presence of children is the main contributor to the lesser Job experience, greater career discontinuity and shorter work hours for female Mamba's. Gender differences in the annual Income of psychiatrists. According to Weeks, W. B. , & Wallace. ,A. E. (2007)Psychiatric Services,58(4),51 5-20.American Psychiatric Publishing,Len. In this article published on a study of the annual Income of female psychiatrists vs. that of male counterparts was 13% lower on an average from the 1980 thru to the 1990 and persisted on thru to 2001. It also stated that the female Doctor would more likely be employees of the practice, as opposed to having an ownership interest in the practice. This tells me that it din*Г? even matter how much education a woman had . Even in the halls of higher lea rning , there still existed this gender gap.It din*Г? matter if she had the same Education as a male doctor, There was still no equality in pay. And you know there was no physical inhibitors. Why wives earn less than husbands. According to Kraft,Susan. American Demographics.. Jan 94, Volvo. 16 Issue 1, Corporate Resources. Some married women are closing the earnings gap with married men, but most work fewer hours and at lower paying Jobs. A woman has a hard time matching a mans income, even if the man doses*Г? work. Because men who don*Г? work still have income from unemployment, disability, pensions, and investments.Working wives whose husbands don*Г? work make the largest contribution to family income, but even their contributions accounts for less than half(42%) of that segment's aggregate income. Then we have the two income households, where many wives find it too expensive to work. Many dual income families must subtract the cost of child care, and a second car. They only add an addition 14% to the families income. So more than likely they are working for Job benefits. And last but not least according to Thatcher, J. (2013). Art Monthly 50:50, (367), 5-8.Women are still woefully under-represented in the art world argues Jennifer Thatcher. :Last year an artist fired one of their studio assistants for being pregnant. She recalled that as soon as she made the announcement she was treated fervently , and spoken to as though she had made a huge mistake. Despite working as hard as she could in an attempt to prove she could manage the work. She was eventually asked to leave and forgo her rights to statutory maternity pay. There lies the Physical inhibitors, Gender Specific discrimination.This type of discrimination still exists in the work place, and they are not trying to hide it. To be spoken to and treat like you had a disorder of some sort is Just not exceptionable and against the law. For over 50 years women have suffered the consequences of this wage gap, between them and their male counter-parts. Since 1963 there has been a bill sitting in the halls of Justice and not in-forced due to its lack of Importance to our nations leaders (UN-popular). Women have suffered UN-imaginable hardships caused from this gap . Women are doomed from the beginning starting with their very first paycheck.The gap Just gets wider and wider not stopping until they receive their very last Social Security check. This gap has had serious ramifications for women and their families. What happened to our human rights? I thought I lived in America, we have gone to war in foreign countries defending their human rights. But when this issue comes up , they Just explain it away by saying men have to support their families Based on the evidence that I have submitted, you be the Judge is it fair that men and women doing the same Job don*Г? get paid the same money? This is discrimination in its worst form.

Bhggh

Lie Wisely wrote a book based upon survival and using everything to its fullest. Even through the struggle of being in those concentration camps, Lie was still capable of overpowering the enemy and push forward. In the novel Night, by Ell wisely, the theme Is to never stop moving forward and to make the most of what they have. The first major theme Is that people should never stop moving forward. In other words, this means that no matter what life throws at someone, people need to find the strength to pick them selves up.These thoughts were going through my mind as I continued to run, not feeling my numb foot, not even realizing that I was still running, that I still owned a body that galloped down the road among thousands of others. † This quote symbolizes that Lie was injured, but still had high hopes of hanging on, even if it meant to endure the immense pain coming from his foot. The second main theme is to make the most of what they have. In better detail, even if the Jews don't have anything, they use every inch, every aspect of the littlest to their advantage.They use everything to Its fullest extent. â€Å"We all got up. We all pulled our soaked blankets tighter around our shoulders. And tried to take a few steps, to shuffle back and forth, In place. † This quote encourages that even In the state of being helpless and cold, they still found a way to make the best out of their situation. In the book Night, by Lie Wisely, the themes are to never stop moving forward and to make the most of what they have.

Expansion and Capture of New Markets

Expansion and Capture of New Markets Introduction Within the recent years,the e-commerce retailing market is rapidly growing and maturing. Creating the specialized website, Superdry has penetrated into the e-commerce market successfully. At the same time, the design of the website requires further improvements as well integration of the social media options for the purpose of attracting new customers and retaining the old ones. The peculiarities of the spheres of the e-commerce and the clothing market need to be taken into consideration for assessing the associated risks.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Expansion and Capture of New Markets specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Research findings According to the results of the recent market research, Superdry not only obtains all the necessary characteristics of a successful retailer, including high quality product, strong brand name and recognizable brand identity, but also looks for new opportunities for p enetrating new markets and utilizing new channels by re-assessing their digital strategy. Superdry as a clothing brand remains popular among various demographic groups (Cotter â€Å"Is Superdry Still Fashionable?†). The tactic which was chosen by the designers, namely the combination of the features of Chinese and American street-wear styles was rather risky but appeared to be successful (Phong â€Å"Brand Pofile: Street-Wear Label Superdry†). Realizing the benefits of the penetration into the e-commerce market, Superdry pays attention to improving the customer’s interface and incorporating new options into the e-commerce retailing site of the company for the purpose of increasing the customer’s satisfaction with the services and attracting the continuous customers. The analysis of the market Within the recent years, a tendency for the rapid growth in the sphere of the European e-market has been observed with more than 25% of growth in sales per year. For example, in 2009 the e-market sales in Europe reached $307, 1 billion as compared to $ 196.9 billion in 2007 and $ 255.7 billion in 2008. According to the forecast for the e-sales in the year 2011, it is expected to be more than $ 400 billion (â€Å"European E-Commerce to Reach 323 Billion Euros in 2011†.) This statistic data and the experts’ forecast for the future growth demonstrate that the investments into the sphere of e-commerce are expected to be profitable. Graph 1 (Adapted from Marketing Charts Website)Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Though the clothes are one of the products requiring trial fittings with the emphasized importance of the color integrity, the clothing is one of the most successful spheres of e-commerce (â€Å"The E-Commerce Market: Size and Trends†). With the quick maturation of the e-market, companies cannot rely o n the prolonged period of its development and should pay proper attention to the development of the sphere in a timely manner (Rigby â€Å"Social Commerce Set to Be Key in 2011†). The criticism of the interface The success of the e-commerce strategies depends upon the convenience of the interface of the company’s web site. In that regard, the design of Superdry website is not consumer-friendly, limiting the opportunities for filtering the products by colour, price and style. Another restriction of the layout is the lack of the option of viewing all the products on one page. With the high competition in the sphere, the customer’s convenience is crucial and the disadvantages in the layout can have a significant impact on the customers’ choices and preferences. The poorly designed website can even have a negative impact on the company’s off-line reputation (â€Å"How to Be an E-Commerce Success†). Being induced to scroll the long lists of the u nfiltered products, customers can decide to switch the service provider. Proposal for the improvement of the Superdry website The major directions for the improvement of the Superdry website include enhancing the customers’ convenience in working with the site and incorporating the social media options into the website layout. Developing the segmented databases for processing the data on the products can be beneficial for increasing the customers’ satisfaction with the interface and even increasing the e-sales of Superdry. Providing customers with opportunities for printing newsletters and generating their awareness on the loyalty programs would be beneficial for generating the consumers’ awareness of the available products and existing options.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Expansion and Capture of New Markets specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Including the elements of the social media into t he interface of the website could be helpful for enhancing its effectiveness. It is possible to start from the automated communications such as welcome, birthday messages for the registered users and proceeding to more complicated options such as creating the links with the social networks. The experience of installation of the specialized cameras in the fitting rooms for providing customers with opportunities to share photos with their friends on the Facebook and ask them for a piece of advice has increased the company’s sales (Rogers â€Å"Integrated Experience Design†). Adoption of this experience and developing the idea of incorporating the social media options into the retail e-commerce can be beneficial for Superdry. Recommendations for Superdry For the purpose of creating a competitive edge and enhancing the effectiveness of the retail e-commerce website, Superdry should focus on the customer-friendliness of the website interface as well as generating the consum ers’ interest by making some special offers, such as vouchers, discounts, gifts packaging. One of the major recommendations is providing customers with opportunities to find exactly what they were looking for by integrating the filtering options into the website interface (Jody â€Å"Superdry, Superbrand!†). Along with working on the layout of the pages and enhancing the convenience and satisfaction of users, the Superdry web designers should aim at creating the opportunities for receiving customers’ feedbacks and taking them into account for making the desirable improvements. Providing customers with an opportunity to express their opinion concerning the work of the website and the quality of the service in general would produce the impression of the involvement into the company’s progress. At the same time, the analysis of the customers’ feedbacks is a valuable source of information on the existing demands of the target customer population. It is important to incorporate particular revolutionizing options for ensuring the user that the company provides the unique opportunities of making reservations in store schemes and trial a click and collect, for example. Growth opportunities and integrated digital strategy The main opportunities for the growth of the company include refining the Google adwords, integrating the social media options with the e-commerce retail options and working on the multi-language campaigns for broadening the customer database and targeting at multi-language audience. For the purpose of optimizing the work of the search engine, Superdry asked for help of Rice Media, the digital agency which had worked on the improvement of the Superdry online marketing strategy and increased the number of visitors of the website by 15% (Cowan â€Å"Superdry Appoints Rice Media for Online Drive†).Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Social media options, including the design of the mobile-friendly site and providing customers with opportunities for socializing inside of the site on the forums and through the link to the most popular social networks, are expected to attract wider audience and increase the chances of repeating purchases. The website contains the information on the policy concerning the company’s motifs for collecting the personal information which is believed to enhance customers’ sense of security (â€Å"Privacy Policy†). Creating the links to the social networking websites would motivate users to create the authorized accounts and consequently provide the administration of the website with their personal information which can be used for developing future marketing strategies. Engagement path The achievement of the customers’ involvement into the dialogue with the company retailer is a gradual process including the four major stages of awareness, evaluation, conversi on and engagement. The stage of awareness presupposes enhancing the customers’ awareness of the brand and increasing its popularity for generating the public interest. On the stage of evaluation, customers analyze their experience, making the conclusions which would have impact on the following process of decision making. On the stage of conversion, customers are supposed to make a choice between the various existing tools and decide on the most suitable of them. After the completion of the three previous stages, when an individual has got certain experience and has evaluated it, the engagement of the customers into the dialogue with the company is more probable. Methods of influencing the individual buying phases With the recent shift to the customized approach to the e-commerce, the retailing companies have to develop strategies for retrieving the information on the customers’ preferences, processing it and choosing the appropriate methods for influencing the custome rs’ buying phases. After attracting the customers’ attention with promotions and advertisements, the company should concentrate on retaining the attention. It is important to provide customers with all the necessary support, ranging from the technical support in navigating the site to the opportunities of price comparison. While making the purchase, customers should be provided with the information on the price reductions and discounts. Proper attention to the after-sale phases would increase the chances of the repeating purchases. Companies need to take into consideration the delivery and guarantee terms as well as stimulation for future purchases such as bonus and invitation for the sale events. Conclusion The penetration into the e-commerce retailing market provides a number of opportunities for Superdry though the peculiarities of the quickly growing market need to be taken into consideration by the company for evaluating the existing risks. The success of the e-co mmerce retailing market is associated with the technical integrity and convenience of the website interface as well as the optimization of the search engine, thus, requiring new specialists (â€Å"Managing Risk in E-Commerce†). At the same time, considering the peculiarities of the sphere of the clothing retailing which requires trial fitting of the products, the refunds and exchanges are a separate category of risks which need to be taken into consideration (Budania, Sunil. â€Å"E-Retailing – A New Strategic†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Budania, Sunil. â€Å"E-Retailing – A New Strategic†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Sunil Budania Blog. Web. Cotter, Gary. â€Å"Is Superdry Still Fashionable?† Buzzle.com. 16 October 2010. Web. Cowan, Katy. â€Å"Superdry Appoints Rice Media for Online Drive†. Creative Boom. 13 July 2010. Web. â€Å"European E-Commerce to Reach 323 Billiopn Euros in 2011†. Marketing Charts. n.a. 9 August 2010. Web. â€Å"How to Be an E-Commerce Succ ess†. A-K Strategic Business Solutions. n.a. n.d. Web. Jody, Leon. â€Å"Superdry, Superbrand!† Pondering’s of a Digital Marketer: Industry News, Trends, Strategy and Insight. 30 June 2010. Web. â€Å"Managing Risk in E-Commerce†. Business Link. n.a. n.d. Web. Phong, Luu. â€Å"Brand Pofile: Street-Wear Label Superdry†. Fashion. Telegraph. 10 February 2010. Web. â€Å"Privacy Policy†. Superdry Website. n.a. n.d. Web. Rigby, Chloe. â€Å"Social Commerce Set to Be Key in 2011†. Internet Retailing. 12 Nov. 2010. Web. Rogers, Teri. â€Å"Integrated Experience Design†. Think. Create. Deliver. Blog. 17 June 2010. Web. â€Å"The E-Commerce Market: Size and Trends†. Global Merchant Services. n.a. n.d. Web.

Getting through the most awkward interview moments

Getting through the most awkward interview moments At some point in your career, you’re going to have an awkward interview moment. It may be something you say; it may be coming from the interviewer; it could be anything. In the end, all you can do is laugh it off and hope for the best (or start working on the next opportunity), but there are also some strategies you can implement that can make things a little smoother in the meantime. 4 ways to ease interview awkwardness1. When you don’t know the answer to a questionYour brain is shouting, â€Å"Stall for time!† while you think about the answer to a question you don’t understand- or just plain don’t know. The problem is that the interviewer can tell that you’re a) stalling for time or b) bluffing your way through if you try to get around the answer. Your best bet is just to be honest.â€Å"I don’t know† isn’t a great response, but try framing it differently. â€Å"That’s a good question! Can you clarify what you m ean by the [X-Y-Z] process?†2. When you’re trying to avoid an elephant in the roomLet’s say you’re interviewing at Y Corp, and Y Corp just happens to be infamous for shady corporate behavior or poor reviews by former employees. You definitely don’t want to lead with that, but you might have legitimate concerns about what it would be like to work there. Instead of putting the interviewer on the defensive, try framing it as a question about what the culture is in the office, and whether the company is addressing some of the issues raised in public. If your query comes from a place that’s thoughtful and curious, rather than accusatory, it creates less friction with the interviewer.3. When you’re being asked about highly personal informationIt’s illegal for employers to hire (or not hire) based on factors like religion, family status, or ethnicity. So if you find yourself being asked questions about this (either directly or in an indirect way, like through small talk), you can redirect. You don’t have to come on strong, talking about legal employment statutes, but it’s okay to steer the conversation away.For example: if you think the interviewer is trying to figure out if you’re likely to have children in the near future, emphasize that you’re committed to the job as a priority, regardless of what is going on in your personal life.4. When you got fired from your last jobIt happens. Not every job ends with a seamless transition to the next one. If you’re trying to cover a firing (even if you were fired for something you did), it’s not necessarily a dealbreaker, and you should be prepared to talk about it. Practice your response ahead of time for a question like, â€Å"Why did you leave your last job?† or â€Å"Can you tell me about the circumstances when you left your last job?† Practicing it beforehand can decrease anxiety in the moment- a plan in place means you know exactly what to say. It can also help you modulate your tone, because you really don’t want to seem angry or defensive in front of a potential new employer.Be sure to limit your answer to just the pertinent info. If you find yourself inclined to start with, â€Å"Okay, here’s the story of what really happened. My boss was a total jerk, and†¦Ã¢â‚¬  then it’s time to edit. Keep personal details and opinions out of it. And it’s fine to give a brief, one-or-two sentence discussion of what happened. The interviewer isn’t looking for a saga- just the basic understanding.And above all else- be positive. Even the worst situations can provide valuable learning opportunities, so you can say, â€Å"It was a challenge, but it taught me much more about how to handle a situation like this proactively and helped me refocus my energies on the skills I needed to build.†Being able to get through these awkward moments can make the difference between a failed interview and a saved one. Staying calm and talking through it can usually fix an embarrassing moment and hel p you get things back on track.

Questionnaire and design Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Questionnaire and design - Research Paper Example The segmentation of the questionnaire is positive as it makes the process easier to understand. On the other hand, the dell questionnaire is complex and this may increase the non-response rate. The long questions and innumerable options in some of the questions will make the process tiresome and boring hence response error (McDaniel & Gates, 2006). This would also mean that the respondents will have to spend a long period in submitting information. Moreover, there are biased questions that will therefore impair the responses. These questions will influence the choice of answers of the respondents. A sample of a better questionnaire is provided below. Burke is an independent research firm whose services personal computer DELL computers to gather honest opinions of DELL personal computer systems have sourced. The questionnaire asks questions about DELL and on level of internet