Critical thinking Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Critical thinking - Case Study Example This amounts to 8.5% of the total population. The American Indians are 16 people, while the Asians are 12. In percentage terms, the Indians amount to 0.77%, while that of the Asians was 0.58%. There are also other minority tribes, such as Eskimos and the Pacific Islanders. Their total number amounts to 98, which is 4.9% (Statistical abstract of the United States, 17). St. Juan is a city found in Hidalgo, one of the counties of the state of Texas. The city is located at 26Â °1133"N 98Â °9 10"W, and has an area of 11 square miles. In 2011, the city had a population of 34,091, which was an increase of approximately 30%, as compared to the statistical figures of 2000 (Statistical abstract of the United States, 36). The number of males was 16, 498, and this is a percentage of 48.4%. The female population amounted to 17,593, which represents a percentage of 51.6% (Statistical abstract of the United States, 21). The largest numbers of people in St Juan are the Hispanics, whose number was 32,734 representing a percentage of 96.7%. The Asians were 47, and the blacks were 32, which was a percentage of 0.1 and 0.09 % respectively. The total number of white people was 1012, and this was a percentage of 3%. The minority tribes of the Eskimos and the Pacific have amounted to 10 people, and this contributed to a percentage of 0.03% (Statistical abstract of the United States, 25). The reason as to why the Whites and the Hispanic are the majority in these cities is because they assimilated the minority groups of the Eskimos, the Pacific’s and the Black Americans. The Eskimos and Pacific’s are small in number; this makes them vulnerable to the dominant tribes of the Hispanics and the Caucasians. The Hispanics and the Caucasians intermarried with them, and because of their dominance, they were able to assimilate these groups. This led to the increase of the Hispanics in the St Juan city, and the increase of the whites at the city of St. jo. Intermarriage is an

Marketing Audit Report for MAC COSMETICS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Marketing Audit Report for MAC COSMETICS - Essay Example The essay "Marketing Audit Report for MAC COSMETICS" discusses the marketing report for Mac Cosmetics to analyze the various operational aspects that are involved in ensuring the company competes. Marketing can be defined as the achievement of corporate goals through ensuring the operations meet and exceed customers’ needs better than the competition. Marketing for different products provided by different companies within the same industry is conducted with the aim of beating the competitors through the market share and achieving high profits for the organization. The development of a strategic marketing plan is essential in ensuring that the products of the company are able to compete effectively in the market. Competitive markets require organizations operating within the industry to adopt intensive marketing strategies to ensure that they compete effectively within the market. The mission statement of an organization can be defined as a brief statement that defines the purpose of establishing the business while identifying the reasons behind the existence of the company. The mission statement for the company seeks to provide products which fit individuals of different demographic states. Within the mission statement of the company, it states clearly the goals which the company seeks to achieve and the responsibilities of the company to the customers. The mission statement is important to the company because it establishes the direction of the company in terms of defining the goals and targets.

African Traditional Literature Essay Example for Free

African Traditional Literature Essay Indigenous literature whether oral or written is the cultural heritage of most societies. Unfortunately, African traditional literature overtime has been treated as something inferior to their Western counterparts. But to a large extent, both traditional African literature and their European counterparts have similar socio-artistic values. Both express interest in the events happening in their society because they recognize their role as social barometer, hence, they need to express themselves properly to their audience no matter the language they use. African traditional literature shares a lot with similar literature from other parts of the world. More recent studies have indeed revealed that the old view that rural societies are not capable of producing elegant literature expressing the responses of men in an advanced culture to events around them is no longer tenable. This view was upheld by Westerners who studied traditional African literature with racial prejudice. They believed that African culture was still struggling for elementary problem of existence and was yet to attain the level of civilization that will facilitate the pursuit of literary achievement. But this view was met with a lot of controversial criticisms, as African Scholars began to argue the importance of African traditional literature in the literary world, stressing the fact that traditional literature is not only relevant, but should also be accorded a literary status in the literary world. Their reasons being that African literature perform certain functions in the society; the noticeable variety in the existing genre and; the competent evidence in the elegant use of language exhibited in the cause of performance with the resultant aesthetic effect, and with time, African traditional literature began to be accepted. But it was not wholly accepted by these Europeans. They began to employ their foreign concepts in the critical evaluation of African traditional literature. They believed that Africans do not possess adequate tools for the appraisal and evaluation of their literature. Hence, they began to employ these foreign approaches in the study of African traditional literature.

If I Had A Choice By Walt Whitan Essay Example for Free

If I Had A Choice By Walt Whitan Essay Wave resemblance in Walt Whitmans If I Had the Choice Although not rhythmically or metrically consistent throughout, Walt Whitmans poem If I Had the Choice is very consistent in its attempt to resemble the characteristics, specifically the waves, of the sea; whether read, heard, or seen, the poems adaptation to a waves nature is clearly evident. Whitmans use of repeated, but not uniform, rhythm in the poem exposes the up and down nature of waves, while the sudden, drastic change in rhythm helps depict the crashing of a wave. The metrical variation in the poem similarly attributes to the resemblance of a wave, for it goes hand in hand with the length of each line, giving the poem the physical characteristics of a wave. While the there is no metrical consistency throughout the poem (probably done because no two waves are identically alike), there is a noticeable pattern and consistency in the rhythm of the poem. The consecutive use of iambs in the first five lines of the poem help to not only emphasize the steady motion of the sea, but more importantly to give the poem a sense of the up and down motion of the waves in the sea; the pattern of unstressed/stressed/unstressed/stressed syllables in every line is very similar to the up and down undulation of a wave. The shift from the iambic rhythm in lines one through five to a loud, sudden spondee in line six clearly depicts the image of a wave crashing. The spondaic rhythm (stress/stress) of the first two words in line six, These, these, is an unexpected, drastic change from the prior unstressed/stressed pattern. Similar to the crashing of a wave, this change was drastic, and quick; it does not last long, hence the reason for the poems quick return to an iambic rhythm. The poems last three lines are once again consistently iambic; they are back to the quiet, pacific motion of waves in the sea. Just as the height of a wave affects the power of a wave, the meter of this poem affects its rhythm. Although there is no specific pattern for the number of feet per line in this poem, the meter is still greatly significant. When broken up iambically, the number of feet increase steadily from line one to four, until we reach line five, the longest (10 feet) line. The length of line five is significantly important in portraying the nature of waves; it is representative of the amplitude of a wave before it is about  to crash. Line five is ten feet long because it is followed by line six, the line in which there was a sudden rhythmical change, which portrayed the crashing of the wave. Once it crashes, the waves return to their prior size, just as the following lines of the poem go back to having the same range of feet as they did before line five. The alternating number of feet per line also allow the poems structure to resemble a wave; no two waves are similar in frequency (height) or amplitude (width), just as no two sentences of this poem are identical in length. As the lines approach the middle of the poem, they get longer, and then begin decreasing in size after they reached the longest point, line five. Since line five, the middle of the poem, is the longest line, when held sideways, this line is representative of the middle of a wave, its highest point right before it crashes. By using rhythm and meter skillfully, this poem is successful in imitating the rhythm of the sea, and the meter of the waves in the sea. In doing this, Whitman makes a very distinctive point; rhythm and meter affect each other, just as the height of a wave affects its crash. This relationship is evident whether one reads, sees or hears this poem.

“Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus: Theological Objections” :: Religion, Jewish Apologetics

In his second volume on Jewish apologetics, Michael Brown answers twenty eight Jewish theological objections. Brown summarizes this book in his preface: Theological objections, treated at length in the current volume, cut to the heart of the differences between traditional Judaism and the Messianic Jewish/Christian faith. They revolved around the nature of God (the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, the person of the Holy Spirit), the nature of man and the need for salvation, and sin and the means of atonement. In sum, these objections claim, â€Å"The religion of the New Testament is a completely foreign religion that is not only un-Jewish but is also unfaithful to the Hebrew Bible.† With regard to cutting â€Å"to the heart of the differences between traditional Judaism and Messianic Jewish/Christian faith,† I really appreciate the way Michael Brown demonstrated in a scholarly and balanced way that the Christian faith was perfectly compatible with the Jewish Tanakh. His discussion on the Trinity (the Tri-unity) was excellent. He demonstrated that the Hebrew word for one, ‘echad, does not necessarily refer to absolute unity and, in fact, could very well refer to compound unity (Page 4). He provides examples from the Hebrew Bible where ‘echad is used of a compound or complex unity as per the oneness of Adam and Eve, the many components of the tabernacle being one â€Å"unified† tabernacle, and the one nation of Israel which is made up of hundreds of thousands of people (5). I loved the way he backed up his discussion of the Shema as referring the concept of uniqueness (Deut. 6:4) by citing the New Jewish Publication Society Version: â€Å"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone† (page 6) Brown demonstrated the deity of Christ by focusing on Him as the Son of God and Word of God, who shares in the divine nature, and who revealed Himself to His people in the Old Testament (15-37). I enjoyed Brown’s treatment of the apparent conflict between the passages which declare that no one has seen God with the other passages which clearly state that God was seen by Abraham, Moses, and Jacob (27-34). As he put it, â€Å"it is Jesus the Messiah—the divine Son, the image of the invisible God, the Word made flesh, the exact representation of the Father’s being—who solves the riddle and explains how someone could really see God, even though God cannot be seen.

History of Computing Essay -- Computers Technology Software Essays

History of Computing 1 General principles 1 2 Etymology (Where the word is from) 2 3 The exponential progress of computer development 2 4 Classification of computers 2 4.1 Classification by intended use 2 4.2 Classification by implementation technology 3 4.3 Classification by design features 3 4.3.1 Digital versus analog 3 4.3.2 Binary versus decimal 4 4.3.3 Programmability 4 4.3.4 Storage 4 4.4 Classification by capability 4 4.4.1 General-purpose computers 4 4.4.2 Special-purpose computers 6 4.4.3 Single-purpose computers 6 4.5 Classification by type of operation 6 5 Computer applications 6 5.1 The Internet 7 6 How computers work 7 6.1 Instructions 8 6.2 Memory 8 6.3 Processing (Processor) 8 6.4 Control (Control Unit) 9 6.5 Input and output 9 6.6 Architecture 9 6.7 Programs 9 6.7.1 Operating system 10 7 Sources: 10 A computer is a device or machine for making calculations or controlling operations that are expressible in numerical or logical terms. Computers are made from components that perform simple well-defined functions. The complex interactions of these components give computers the ability to process information. If correctly configured, a computer can be made to represent some aspect of a problem or part of a system. If a computer is configured in this way is given input data, then it can automatically solve the problem or predict the behavior of the system. 1 General principles Computers can work through the movement of mechanical parts, electrons, photons, quantum particles or any other well-understood physical phenomenon. Although computers have been built out of many different technologies, nearly all popular types of computers have electronic components. Computers may directly model the problem being solved, in the sense that the problem being solved is mapped as closely as possible onto the physical phenomena being exploited. For example, electron flows might be used to model the flow of water in a dam. Such analog computers were once common in the 1960s but are now rare. They are practically dead. In most computers today, the problem is first translated into mathematical terms by r... ...this time sharing. Newer generations of CPU’s really uses HT-technologie (e.g. Intel processors). But there are also processors with more than one processing unit on it. AMD calls them dual-core processors. 6.7.1 Operating system When a computer is running it needs a program, whether or not there is useful work to do. In a typical desktop computer, this program is the operating system (OS). The operating system decides which programs are run, when, and what resources (such as memory or input/output - I/O) the programs will get to use. The operating system also provides a layer of abstraction over the hardware, and gives access by providing services to other programs, such as code ("drivers") which allow programmers to write programs for a machine without needing to know the intimate details of all the attached electronic devices. Most operating systems that have hardware abstraction layers also provide a standardized user interface. The most popular OS remains the Windows family of operating systems. Most computers are very small, very inexpensive computers embedded in other machinery. These embedded systems have programs, but often lack a recognizable operating system.

Virgin Corporate Strategy

VIRGIN’S GROUP CORPORATE STRATEGY DIVERSIFICATION 1. Introduction The Virgin Group is one of Britain’s biggest and successful empires in the 21st century. The company has successfully incorporated a great number of diverse industries under the Virgin brand. This includes travel, mobile, financial services, leisure, cosmetics, retail, and music businesses. Virgin has been able to dominate the British market and has therefore continued to rapidly expand into other regions such as the United States, Canada and Australia. The enterprise was founded by Sir Richard Branson in 1970 as a simple mail-order record retailer and has grown into one of the most prosperous business empires in the business world. To date, the Virgin Group has globalized and established in over 200 small to mid-sized firms, employing over 25,000 people. As a result, the company has exceeded over $7 billion in revenue in 2002. Each one of Virgin’s 200 firms operates as a single entity. Branson either holds ownership of a firm as CEO, or has a minority or majority stake. The Virgin Group does not hold a hierarchal presence within the empire, which allowed its various subsidiaries to operate in an autonomous manner. 2. Richard Branson: The strategic thinking As the creator of Virgin and a famous personality around the world, Richard Branson has created an entrepreneurial culture that is carried throughout the Virgin group of companies. His anti-corporation and anti-bureaucracy spirit resulted in a flat organizational structure with transparency and quick communication; his loyalty and care for friends let to an organization with great employee focus, and also attracted some of the best people to work for him for a moderate salary. Looking into his kind of strategic thinking, we can see that it is characterized by having a strong relationship with risk. His attitude towards risk is explorative, willing to take risks in order to enter into completely new businesses that the company knew nothing until now. In addition to this, their type of thinking, as an mage of their leader, is characterized by being intuitive, requiring no systematic risk analysis, based largely only in the rapid perception of alternative strategic intuition. This kind of thinkers are formerly known as entrepreneurs but in this situation combined with a strong social component as Sir Richard Branson often uses himself to convey the group’s message into the media or as a tool to promote the group’s brand. Is this kind of strategic thinking that explains the high level of unrelated diversification of the group that we are exploring in this report. 3. Organizational Analysis and Corporate Strategy Values The Virgin Group’s overall brand identity is built upon the founder Richard Branson’s philosophy which states that â€Å"if you keep your staff happy then the customer will be happy, and if you keep the customer happy then the shareholders are happy†, â€Å"shape the business around people†, â€Å"Build don’t buy†, â€Å"Be the best, not the biggest†, â€Å"Pioneer, don’t follow the leader† or â€Å"staff first, then customers and shareholders† are some the main guidelines of Richard Branson and we can see it as some of the company values. This underlying belief transcends into each one of Virgin’s subsidiaries and into each individual organizational culture. This is evident in the way in which members of the Virgin group interact with one another, as it is apparent that all members at Virgin agree strongly about certain beliefs, values, and assumptions, which are reinforced within the company. Virgin has continually retained a strong belief that it is their employees who: deliver brilliant customer service; give the company its personality, shape its culture, and innovate. They are viewed as Virgin’s greatest asset and as such, management believes that employees should be treated with respect. Management looks after their employees’ welfare and allows them the freedom to grow and be themselves. Virgin actively encourages personal expression, whether it is in their speech, creative and conceptual thinking, or dress code. It is these fundamental values and beliefs that have allowed Virgin to thrive in such a competitive environment, challenge new opportunities and excel in its markets, while still continuing to operate with integrity. As we know the core competencies of a company should meet three requirements: -Significant value creation for the clients Difficulty of imitation by competitors -Access to new markets As we look into Virgin we can see that each subsidiary shares a set of values that are continually strengthened: value for money, excellent quality products, brilliant customer service, innovation, competition and consistently having fun throughout the process. Virgin would only put its name to a project if it met four out of five criteria: it must be innov ative, challenge authority, offer value for money by being better than the competitors, be good quality, and the market must be growing. In such a large conglomerate empire as the Virgin Group, these broad set of fundamental beliefs continually work to strengthen the company’s brand as well as its culture. 3. Corporate Strategy formulation: Diversification Entering new markets using the brand Virgin is the strong asset of the group. Diversification is the name of this process in which Virgin leveraged his brand recognition as a form of growth strategy for the company. It seeks to increase profitability through greater sales volume obtained from new products and new markets. There are two kind of reasons for which a company look for diversification: – Defensive reasons which may be spreading the risk of market contraction, or being forced to diversify when current product or current market orientation seems to provide no further opportunities for growth. – Offensive reasons may be getting into new positions, taking opportunities that offers greater profitability than expansion opportunities, or using retained cash that exceeds total expansion needs. Instead of focusing in increasing the main competencies of their initial core business Virgin focused in diversifying risk acquiring new skills, new techniques and new facilities hence through an offensive strategy. Therefore, they followed not the internal development of new products or markets or acquisition of new firms but alliance or joint ventures with a complementary company which could enable them to operate in a new and unrelated market based on a set of attributes and values rather than a market sector. It was about being the consumer's champion! We can all this type of strategy as Conglomerate diversification (or lateral diversification). The corporate strategy of the Virgin Group is to operate like a venture capital firm based on the Virgin brand. This strategy involves non-related diversification at the individual business unit level. By leveraging on the Virgin Brand which has established prominence in the minds of consumers, Virgin is able to enter new business areas s haking up existing orders. Branson’s has entered in a business after another in which he perceived a set of consumers that were being underserved by a complacent and dominant player. The unique Virgin culture also allows Virgin to execute its ventures very effectively which were inspired in the keiretsu system as Branson was a convicted fan of the Japanese approach to business and â€Å"their commitment to long-term development and focus on organic growth†. The similarities are in a sense that Virgin is a group of companies pretty much diversified which have formal links in management and financial and also share a common identity. The formal linkages between the companies are, as we saw in the case, the ownership, the brand and the management. In order to protect the brand Virgin and Branson’s name the group is keeping some companies that are running with losses. Speaking in financials they are selling some of the most profitable companies as Virgin Records to finance the new start-ups. This is due to the fact that they identify a company operating in a segment which is clearly moving toward maturity to decline and instead of keeping it they sell moving to a new and growing market through diversification. The Virgin Group covers a wide range of industries-from Travel and Tourism (Limousines, Vacations, etc. , Leisure and Pleasure (Spa, Games, etc. ), Social and Environment (Green Fund, Virgin Earth), Beverages (wines and soft drinks), Media and Telecommunications (Radio, Broadband, Mobile, etc), Books, Clothing, Finance and Money, and Health (Health Bank, Life Care). But despite its diversification in terms of industries and products, it never diversified its brand names. All of its services and products in every in dustry have the name Virgin affixed to it. Virgin is a strong but universal brand name; so universal that many analysts believe the group should franchise to others unrelated companies. The Virgin brand made it possible to overcome barriers to entry in various industries and sectors and has been the group’s most important asset, together with Richard Branson. 4. Virgin Cola: Overview of Strategy Formulation Virgin Cola was created up during the early 1990s in a joint venture with Cott, a Canadian company that specializes in bottling own-label drinks for the UK market. Cott was looking for a major international brand that could have global appeal. That’s when Richard Branson attempted to extend the Virgin franchise into the cola market. Using the brand pattern in the Virgin Group’s diversification strategy, Branson claimed to fight the incumbents, Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola in alliance with an organization with core competencies in this area. Within a few months of its release, Virgin Cola had a 50% market share in the outlets that sold it. As Virgin stands for value of money, quality, innovation, fun and a sense of competitive challenge they focus in the brand awareness to create the differentiation from the main competitors. Cross-promotion has been Branson's main weapon, serving Virgin Cola on Virgin Atlantic flights and (until they closed down) at Virgin Cinemas. In fact, we can see that this pattern was repeated successively in each new diversification, in each one was followed by expansions of the products markets, based either on new strategic alliances or within internal development and Virgin Cola followed the trend and also increased the portfolio and created new products (flavor expansions). The strong brand positioning and the innovative character were the key issues in the product differentiation options which can be can be explained due to the client’s linkage with the High risk perception associated with the product’s potential malfunction and the client’s low level of confidence in the choice of the product. We can also observe several stages of internationalization to countries where there was an Anglo-Saxon matrix, in this case France, Belgium, South Africa and later on the US. We can also see that there are still some actions regarding vertical integration, but more with a commercial purpose rather than operational. So far it has failed to overtake Pepsi in the UK as Richard Branson claimed it would, and unlike Pepsi or Coke it's relatively hard to find cans of Virgin Cola on sale anywhere as they have a weakness in distribution channels.

Leadership Style: Sam Palmisano, Former IBM Chief Operating Officer Essay

1.0 About Sam Palmisano He began his career with IBM in 1973 as a salesman in Baltimore Maryland, Since then, Palmisano has held a series of leadership positions during his IBM career, including senior vice president for the Enterprise Systems and Personal Systems groups. Mr. Palmisano also played a key role in creating and leading IBM’s Global Services, rising to senior vice president, and building the largest and most diversified information technology services organization in the industry. He also served as senior managing director of operations for IBM Japan. He became president and Chief Operating Officer (CEO) in 2000. Sam Palmisano is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University. In recognition of his leadership role as co-chair of the Council on Competitiveness’ National Innovation Initiative, as well as his many business accomplishments, Palmisano was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2005. In 2006, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the London Business School. He has received a number of business awards including the Atlantic Council’s Distinguished Business Leadership Award in 2009 and the inaugural Deming Cup, presented in 2010 by the W. Edwards Deming Centre for Quality, Productivity and Competitiveness at Columbia Business School. He is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 2.0 IBM company background As late as 1960 IBM was still primarily a punched-card machine supplier. It was not until 1962 that computer sales equaled those of its traditional punched-card products. But by the end of the decade, its punched-card machine sales were essentially vestigial. While IBM was making this transformation in its product line in the 1960s, it was also growing at the rapid rate of 15 to 20 percent a year and soon achieved a domination of the computer market that was historically unparalleled in any other major industry. IBM’s success was creating a difficult environment for its competitors. By 1960 the mainframe computer industry had already been whittled down to just IBM and seven others. Of all the mainframe suppliers, Sperry Rand had suffered the biggest reverse, consolidating a decline that had begun well before the launch of the 1401. Despite being the pioneer of the industry, it had never made a profit in computers and was gaining a reputation bordering on derision. For many years IBM’s domination of the computer industry was attributed to a variety of factors like managerial competence, technological excellence, formidable marketing organization, monopolistic, antitrust business practices and the leadership exerted by the Watsons. A key difference between IBM and its competitors persisted right into the computer age. Thus, when company used equipment from one of IBM’s office machine competitors, it was all too likely to acquire a problem rather than a solution. Often the computer and its software were no more than a set of tools with which to fashion a solution, instead of the solution itself. Only IBM guaranteed a complete solution to business problems, and an IBM salesman was all too likely to remind a data processing manager that no one ever got fired by hiring from IBM. This was a patronizing attitude that came close to condescension, and often resulted in a love-hate relationship between IBM and its customers. 3.0 What was Sam Palmisano trying to achieve with his style of leading? While there are many factors that drive a leader’s success, style plays a key role in effectiveness. No matter what style a leader embodies, they all provide value to the organization. From the case studies, we found that there are several factors that have made IBM’s grown successfully year by year under Palmisano style of leading. 1-Major player in the Industry. Palmisano is leading IBM back to greatness. He chose to shift IBM from being a company that produced commodities to one focused on services to clients. He wants to purchase computing power directly from provider that manages and distributes it. The company will no longer own and house its own computing system. To make this become a reality, IBM plans to manage and distribute computing power which includes more open source tools and different kinds of ownership. 2-Business efficiency. During Palmisano time as a CEO, he introduces a very brave idea which is to outsource IBM computer technology operation to India. Making India the nerve centre for servicing local markets through its global delivery network, Palmisano found an enviable head start in one of the fastest growing emerging markets. IBM wants to shift its focus from pure technology to embrace outsourcing and other services as part of the business model. 3-Create more participation from employee. Palmisano created teams of people from all levels in the company and put them in charge of operations, strategy and technology. He also asked the top management team to join him in coming up with an idea that would be the major breakthrough that IBM made when it developed its new business model. One of Palmisano action was that he abolishes the bureaucratic corporate executive committees that decide every strategic initiative in the company. He stresses that effective communication to be utilized in his team to ensure that there is healthy team dynamics within and without the team. To do this he organizes training or ‘simulation exercises’ among team members divided into sub-groups to stimulate healthy rivalry and for the purpose of team-building. He also delegate tasks to breed trust among team members by elaborating the project objectives so that each team member will be aware of what to do to achieve team goals with little or no interference. 4-Develop talent. In spite of the grand scale of Palmisano’s strategy, he kept his staff small, preferring to do without the executive assistant that other CEOs had employed. He surprised many in his company when he disbanded the 12-member Executive Management Committee on January 23, 2003. The committee had been in existence for 92 years and had served as a filter for high-level planning, but was much too slow for the new century. Palmisano replaced the committee with a new system of three teams, one focusing on operations, the second on strategy, and the third on technology. Palmisano ensure participation of all team members in formulation of strategic plan, ploy, action and style for the team. Strategic plan is what will act as guide for the operation of the team. He has shown that an effective team is artificially built and not naturally born. Instead of filling each team with top-level executives, he drew members from all divisions of the company and all levels of employment. One immediate effect of this restructuring was to draw a new generation of young men and women into the heart of IBM’s operations. He had been careful to groom a generation of leaders to follow his time and to create and develop their talent. 5-Create creativity. Palmisano planned to create a single integrated system of computers, software, and other electronic devices that would allow anyone to purchase any part of IBM’s services and use it with any other part. IBM created open-source software that altered a company’s need for servers dedicated to only one task. For example, a server dedicated to computing accounts might become overloaded, causing delays of hours or even days. IBM’s new software was designed to recognize when a server had reached its capacity and automatically redirect the excess work to other servers with available space. A key part of this strategy was that if the servers at the client’s company had no excess space, the overflow workload would be sent to IBM’s own computers, which would recognize any program that accessed them and silently perform the client’s work. Palmisano hoped to take this service to the next level, which would allow IBM’s computers to check the client’s computers for flaws automatically and fix them before anyone could notice them. 6-Develop direct rapport with customer. Palmisano was very good at engaging customers, because he has a reputation for making customers feel involved. He has a good understanding of IBM’s software, services and hardware business enabling faster responsiveness, creating better customer experiences, speeding office or mobile interactions, and dramatically reducing existing communications barriers. Palmisano announced his intention to make IBM a computer services-on-demand company. IBM would function like a utility, charging its customers for the use of data-centered web sites. IBM would create software capable of fixing clients’ software problems automatically online. The clients would pay only for the amount of services they used, in the same way they presently paid for utilities bills. Palmisano mounted his own personal campaign to make sure it was a success. He toured software companies and met designers to persuade them to devise new applications that would give it a competitive edge. When he became head of global services back in the ’90s, he blocked off 70% of his calendar for customer meetings, and he still speaks to at least one customer every single day. 4.0 Was it necessary to depart from the established way of doing things at IBM? Yes, it necessary for Sam Palmisano to shift from the established way to a new leadership style. The reason is simply because IBM has already been part of his life, so he wants to make sure that the company will prosper in the long run. Although IBM was stable at that time, Sam Palmisano believes that the traditional way was not enough to drive the company into more challenging business ahead. Furthermore, most of the top management including him will not around in few years and new successor should be discovered. Before the new leadership era, all the decisions tended to be made at the top, communicated downward and then implemented by the followers. Most of the time employees did not get change to involve in the decision making. Their responsibilities were just to execute all the decision instructed although they think it was not the most appropriate one. It was all about â€Å"one man show†. Immediately after in-charge, he delegated some of the decision making responsibilities downward. Sam Palmisano created teams made up of people from all levels in the company and put them in charge of operations, strategy and technology. He believes this teams that will drive and determine the destiny of IBM. This new leadership style will benefit the company in few ways. First, the company can get more brilliant ideas from the employees that cannot be seen by top management. It is important to gather as much as perspective possible because it would assist easier and better decision making. Indirectly, it will enhance creativity of the staffs which should not come for only an individual. Second, employees will be more motivated since they feel that all of their ideas are important and they can decide their own destiny. So, there will be no more bureaucratic corporate executive committee that decided almost everything previously. Then, IBM also can develop more new talent in the company that will guide the direction of the company in future which the old leadership way hardly to offer. Sam Palmisano believes that the best way in scouting good talent was by giving them some room to make own decision. All the success and mistakes will make them better and mature. Sam Palmisano also decided to shift from a centralized system to a decentralized system. His idea is that a company will no longer own and house its own computing system. It should include more open-source tools and different kind of ownership. His leadership created an outsourcing story in many places especially India. By making India the nerve centre servicing local markets through its global delivery network, it achieved the biggest ever non-linear growth. 5.0 Was it necessary for him to reach to the bottom of IBM? Definitely yes, because Sam Palmisano wants each teams from all levels in the company to take part to bring IBM back to greatness. This strategy has given each of them to participate directly or indirectly to revolutionize Big Blue to be a great company. It is important for him to understand the function of each level. With this understanding he can drive those departments to certain level which will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of each department. The advantages of this approach are to find a root cause of each problem. He can advise and manage his team how to overcome the problem very well so that they will able to manage it in the future. Sam Palmisano needs to delegate the responsibility to his top management. This style his top management will collaborate across organizational boundaries. He believes that more ideas would come out and shared rather than only top management decision if everyone participating. Sam Palmisano wants his subordinates to show their particip ant in decision making. He believes teams will be the engines of creativity. 6.0 Is this the case of a leader who is micro managing and interfering with operation? No, Sam Palmisano is not micro managing. Micro managing is â€Å"Closely observed or controls the work of an employee with less rooms for creativity, HRD, trust, responsibility and teamwork†. In this case, we can see that Sam Palmisano do questioned a lot deep into the organization. But his intention is to understand the situation better and not to decide on his own. He wants the top management involvement in contributing new idea in reshaping the IBM. It clearly shows that he need support and valued others opinion to make a better result in his decision making. It is a room of creativity in each decision he make to suit current situation. Once did says that â€Å"Two head is always better than one† For a classic example Orville and Wilbur Wright aka the Wright Brothers maybe cannot fly the first Flight in history if they did not joined their creative idea. Sam Palmisano also do rely in his executives to run IBM. He had abolish the Bureaucratic Corporate Executives Committee that held monthly meeting and overseas every strategic initiatives. It shows that Palmisano do want his executive to cooperate but not to details in making decision. Enough for them to understand the situation and control it. So it just make the decision more efficient and more fast at each level required. Palmisano had created a teams made up of people from all levels in the company and put them in charge in operations, strategy and technology. It shows that Palmisano really serious to make his subordinate to contribute their creativity and decision in each levels. He believes team will be the engine of creativity in IBM. This will definitely create efficiency and cut all the bureaucratic. It clearly exist from team work, responsibility, trust, human resource development and combined creativity. Palmisano strongly believes that creativity in large organization not coming from the celebrity CEO alone, it is from collaboration of team works. For instant the Toyota is strongly believes in their Toyota Production System (TPS) element, one of it is KAIZEN, a Continuous Improvement as our understanding. This Kaizen is happen in each level in Toyota. Where every each of their workers can contribute the continuous improvement in their process. Same goes to Palmisano where he try to create his team to go creative at each level in their own process and decision is more efficient without Bureaucratic Corporate Executives Committee interfere in their way. Another example GENBA in TPS is† Comedown to the location and understand the problem firsthand†. Genba encourage the management especially to understand the current situation at site or workplace. Not for them to jump to conclusion instead but for them to understand further about the situation or problem occur so that they can brainstorm to come out with brilliant idea. Same goes to Palmisano where he him selves go further in the organization to understand the situation first hand and then decide. Yet we never classify the Toyota Production System (TPS) as micro manage. So this strongly revealed that San Palmisano also is not micro managing IBM. 7.0 Conclusion Sam Palmisano had proved that he is an Effective Leaders where he successfully balances this three element of Mastery of Strategy, Ability to Execute Strategy and Develop Talent. With that element he had pulled back IBM back to greatness. With the clear vision Palmisano managed to turn IBM from a profit losing company to a middleware and enterprise software and solutions giant. He had turn the Autocratic way of leadership to Deligative type of leadership, where efficient is the key of success to the current demand market. There is no more Bureaucratic Executive committee involve in decision making. Thus he is not micromanaging his company but to understand it better and drive it back to success. For the past five years (2002-2011) Palmisano had become a great leader to IBM, he really shows high value (self-sacrifice) and high expectancy (self-confidence) in his organization. Before he retired he manages to portray a new vision â€Å"Smarter Planet† for IBM. He laid down what services and products would be needed; the company since then has built hundreds of reference customers around it. Despite of his greatness in portraying his vision to reality lie a true leader that manage to pull his downstream together to works towards the vision that they build together for the sake of IBM. He really shows a high structured and consideration in making IBM leading forward in their own field.

Narrative, Genre and representation of The Thomas Crown Affair

I have chosen to analyse â€Å"The Thomas Crown Affair† because the film has inspired me to indulge in life and make the most of the one life you get. For a film to inspire this it must be powerful and I want to analyse this film to really see how it can change people's lives and especially mine. As this was produced in the United States and being a popular film, I could tell this is Major. My Auntie works as an Administrator in the British Board of Film Classification, which means she sometimes gets free videos and gives some to me and that's how I found out about this film. Pierce Brosnan made it more enjoyable to watch because I've seen him act before and was impressed by his acting, but Rene Russo I had never even heard of until the film. The genre of the film is a hybrid between a comedy and crime because the absurd parts are humorous and the narrative is a detective crime. The iconography and the camera shots had a detective feel as well, for example, when it zoomed onto the bench and then panned up to where the painting was stolen. â€Å"Not quite as pleasurable, or guilt-inducing, as the first telling of the same story.† said Joe Rusly Which I think is absurd. In 1968 the film Thomas Crown Affair was made so this was the original one and then in 1999 it was remade and to me it's much better than the old one and even the rating has gone up by 7%. The narrative is basically a bored millionaire who decides to live his life on the edge and stages a multimillion dollar bank heist, but falls in love with an insurance investigator (from the victim bank) who suspects him of the crime. This narrative is obviously not a clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½; it's original with a twist to it. â€Å"Those expecting a caper flick will be bored to tears by the film's sluggish pace, and will be chilled by the icy chemistry between the stars.† according to a web site called www.rottentomatos.com, and I also agree myself. Nevertheless, there is a modest amount of suspense, for example, when Thomas Crown throws a painting into a bomb fire whilst the woman detective is watching and the detective and audience wonder whether that is the stolen painting. The narrative is elegant but mind twisting which is the reason I watched over and over again until I had got it, and believe me it's not sudden. The whole thing was believable but it did cross my mind that there were a lot of coincidences, for example, when the detective finds a secret painting stack the first time. The camera shots and mise-en-scene had an extensive amount of scenes and the camera shots were changing at a fast pace, in which case you could argue that it speeded up the enigma. This all made it hard to predict what was going to happen and prevents it from becoming predictable. The beginning and end were particularly entertaining with the music called Never Change and Sinnerman by Nina Simone. Combining this with the visual rhythm tic scenes is incredibly enjoyable and upbringing. The closure was closed because the woman detective went off with the so-called â€Å"Crown† in a private jet and disappeared into the horizon with the sun setting. The connotations of the horizon and sun set were that it was a contented forever-lasting relationship. The characters were believable every day people you would see if you were in New York. They were very realistic characters with authenticity. The woman was represented very stereotypically with the men complimenting her and she was always posing just so the men could talk about her behind her back. The protagonists were foreigners and they would speak in their own language and if not dreadful English. Everybody knows that all stars have make-up and special lighting to compose their look in a high-quality way. It has a big effect on the film because nobody wants to watch and old tatty film they want to see an effort has been made. The message of the film is to indulge in life and do whatever needs doing to get that thing, in this case it's the woman. If you've got the money spend, enjoy yourself, there is no point saving all that money when you only get one life, so make the most of it just like Thomas crown does. The targeted audience is middle-aged men and the odd 14-year-old boy wouldn't get hung over if he did watch it. People who believe they can get rich or even people who can be inspired would want to watch this film. The Narrative had met my expectations even if it did take three or four times to figure how his plan worked. It was surprisingly good and there was not one thing I didn't like, the music to the star appeal I got pleasure from.

Art a Bar at the Folies Bergere by Edourd Manet

elly Turner A Bar at the Folies Bergere by Edourd Manet In the detailed work of art by the artist, Edourd Manet, the subject matter is depicting a barmaid who is alone working in a crowded bar shown in the mirror behind her but at a far distance away. The look on her face seems like she is distracted and overwhelmed with so many customers that she can’t handle taking everyone’s order. The subject matter comes from the artist who maybe is unhappy with his own work and maybe overwhelmed with all the pieces he needs to create for a certain event.The media of this work is an oil painting. Oil paintings are used on a canvas. It is a slow drying process which gives the surface of the painting richness and depth of colors. To use oil paint you need good quality sable brushes, turpentine for cleaning and thinning brushes, a canvas, and paint. Points, lines, and shapes help create oil paintings. There are symmetrical forms of the barmaid depicting visual weights and counterweigh ts in the piece, A Bar at the Folies Bergere, by Eduaor Manet.The shapes in this piece are geometric by the reflection of the mirror and also soft edged by the crowd in the background in the mirror almost faded out. The overall balance is destabilized. The masses in this painting are mostly focused on the bar tender then geometrically have the crowd smaller and faded away in the mirror depiction. The textures of this image are implied because there are x-ray photographs that reveal that Manet twice shifted the barmaid’s reflection further right. The color scheme is broken down with light and dark colors making it appear naturalistic.The space is created in two dimensional work with the barmaid’s image reflecting off of the mirror with the crowd portrayed in the background as pretty far away from her and also by balancing to lead our eyes around the work. Elements are arranged with the barmaid as the main element which is big and catches our eyes before we notice the sm aller people in the mirror reflection. Unity is created by the mirror reflecting her back image talking to a man knowing that they are all one big room. There is variety n this piece because the barmaid is very finely painted yet the crowded area of people in the mirror is almost fuzzy and unrecognizable. The scale of this work is half life size half not with the women being painted as a normal size yet the other people are very tiny with just their upper bodies being painted. The woman is extremely emphasized in this picture and the man along with the bar top is emphasized as well but not as much as the woman. In the detailed work of art by the artist, Edourd Manet art can be described in many various ways to depict so many different aspects of the painting.

story of the hour essays

story of the hour essays So it seems, the world is overrun by predominantly male figures, aggressively trying to out do, so to speak, the large population of frail, unintelligible women. As time permits, this formality has been a constant, just as the sun rising every morning is to this world is it necessary to claim that in fact woman exert characteristics of frailty? Or is it general consensus to say they dont know better? Most ignorance is vincible ignorance, claims Aldous Huxley, we dont know because we dont want to know. In relevance to Kate Chopins dynamic character, Mrs. Mallard, she battles with the hand of a stereotypical society in order to render lost feelings of self and individuality. In spite of what we would like to claim as equality amongst the sexes, women of our own generation can often be depicted as a typical housewife, furnished with kids and the ideal home. In the rush to produce such an image, many have overlooked the obvious truth-that this world is composed of intellectual women. Mrs. Mallard can easily be placed in a category as your typical woman. Perceived by all as weak, she isnt even given the chance to prove otherwise. Constantly reminded of her failing heart, it seems she herself has come to terms with how the world assumes her to be. If one told you enough times, would you believe it? When given the news of Mrss Mallards husbands death, it only reinforces her fragile state. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment. The dependence on a male figure is no longer there. She feels alone, deserted and why? Because as women, we have been shaped and molded so to think we are not complete without our better half, the male. Mrs. Mall ard is left helpless, she can no longer function only exerting another weakness on her part. At last, Mrs. Mallard isolates herself. She emphasizes the delicious b...

Free Essays on Barn Burning

Barn Burning William Faulkner’s short story, â€Å"The Barn Burning,† discusses the problems of the sharecropper, in the late nineteenth century South; Primarily a story about the relationship between father and son, the story presents itself through the use of symbolism. The most vital symbol in the story is fire. The fire symbolizes the father’s anger and, his lack of respect for other people’s property. The story begins and ends with the burning down of a barn. Throughout the story, Faulkner uses symbolism in his struggle between morality and ethics. Is blood truly thicker than water? Fire is used to represent anger. Abner always just walked away without much reaction, but inside he was always raging,. Because Abner would not vent or let out his anger it just kept growing and growing like a fire. The more injustice he was given the more the fire grew within himself. Abner would let the fire grow until he finally destroyed what seemed to have shown him the injustice. When Abner becomes angry, rather than searching for a reasonable answer for his problems, he resorts to rashly destroying the property of whomever he thinks wronged him. This shows the lack of respect Abner has for other people’s property and belongings. This side of Abner shows he feels he can destroy anything to make things better and relates to fire perfectly. Fire destroys anything in its way, has respect for nothing and never feels remorse for what it has done. Just like fire, Abner does not respect boundaries. Abner stops at nothing and respects no one. Abner’s relation to fire de monstrates his relation to his own anger, the immerse power that his anger has over him. Rather than venting his feelings, he holds them in, as he contains the small fire, until he can lash out with the full force of the hatred. Abner’s son Sarty was the character with the most internal conflict throughout the story. He was faced with many different situations tha... Free Essays on Barn Burning Free Essays on Barn Burning Barn Burning â€Å"You’re getting to be a man. You got to learn. You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you.† This quote from William Faulkner’s â€Å"Barn Burning† does reveal a central issue in the story, as Jane Hiles suggests in her interpretation. The story is about blood ties, but more specifically, how these ties affect Sarty (the central character of the story). The story examines the internal conflict and dilemma that Sarty faces. When the story begins, Sarty and his family are in a courtroom. Sarty, known in a proper setting as Colonel Sartoris, which in itself gives an insight into the families mentality. Sarty’s father, Abner Snopes is being accused of a barn burning. Right away, as Sarty is called to testify, you get an idea of what is going through the boy’s head, and the mentality that has be ingrained in him. He thinks to himself, Enemy! Enemy!, referring to the peop le that his father and his family for that matter are up against. Sarty would later discover that things are not always the way that his father leads everyone to believe they are. Sarty, somewhere deep down wants to just do what is right, but being roughly 10 years old, I don’t think he quite has that figured out yet. His sense of right and wrong has been biased under the tyranny of his father. We also get a good idea of the personality of the father, Abner, by the way Sarty describes his physical appearance. Abner is not a man of a lot of words, demonstrated in many instances. We see this in the way he addresses his family, in the way he communicates with other characters, and most importantly in his outrageous stunts in his attempts to prove that know one will ever run over Abner Snopes and his family. He more or less uses actions to speak for him. That’s sort of the whole idea behind Abner Snopes. He’s a man with so much pride that he will go to any lengths t o get revenge upon those who wr... Free Essays on Barn Burning Barn Burning William Faulkner’s short story, â€Å"The Barn Burning,† discusses the problems of the sharecropper, in the late nineteenth century South; Primarily a story about the relationship between father and son, the story presents itself through the use of symbolism. The most vital symbol in the story is fire. The fire symbolizes the father’s anger and, his lack of respect for other people’s property. The story begins and ends with the burning down of a barn. Throughout the story, Faulkner uses symbolism in his struggle between morality and ethics. Is blood truly thicker than water? Fire is used to represent anger. Abner always just walked away without much reaction, but inside he was always raging,. Because Abner would not vent or let out his anger it just kept growing and growing like a fire. The more injustice he was given the more the fire grew within himself. Abner would let the fire grow until he finally destroyed what seemed to have shown him the injustice. When Abner becomes angry, rather than searching for a reasonable answer for his problems, he resorts to rashly destroying the property of whomever he thinks wronged him. This shows the lack of respect Abner has for other people’s property and belongings. This side of Abner shows he feels he can destroy anything to make things better and relates to fire perfectly. Fire destroys anything in its way, has respect for nothing and never feels remorse for what it has done. Just like fire, Abner does not respect boundaries. Abner stops at nothing and respects no one. Abner’s relation to fire de monstrates his relation to his own anger, the immerse power that his anger has over him. Rather than venting his feelings, he holds them in, as he contains the small fire, until he can lash out with the full force of the hatred. Abner’s son Sarty was the character with the most internal conflict throughout the story. He was faced with many different situations tha... Free Essays on Barn Burning William Faulkner’s short story â€Å"Barn Burning† describes a steadfast type of relationship between the poor and wealthy people of the Civil War Era. The Snope’s Family, sharecrops to make a living. Abner Snopes, the main character of the story has hatred towards wealthy people. He lashes out at them in resentment and burns their barns. Through the story he shows a blatant disregard for the law and respect for his family. Abner’s character does not change throughout the story showing and proving that he is a heartless, vindictive, and violent man. The beginning of the story starts with Abner and his family being sentenced to leave the country. He shows no remorse for his actions to his family, never once apologizing. Once the family has relocated due to his disregard to the law, he begins to order around his wife, his sister and two daughters to start to unload the wagon as soon as they arrive at their new home. Abner enters De Spain’s house without permission and then ruins his rug by wiping his horse manure covered feet. Once Abner was told to clean the rug he made his daughters clean the rug and then to hang it dry. Abner then ruines the rug further by taking a rock to it. When he returned the rug he threw it on the porch instead of properly handing it to him. Once the damages were evident he was charged to repay the damages. The result of his sentence to repay for damages infuriated Abner causing him to retaliate by attempting to burn Major De Spain’s barn. Abner’s character is unchanged even when he is caught breaking the law. His first experience of breaking the law comes about when he was in the Civil War, not fighting in the war but stealing horses from both sides of the lines. The story began with Abner in court over Hyatt 2 the burning of Mr. Harris’s barn. However the was not enough evidence to rule against him. He was told by the judge to leave the country. Abner was not in his new hou... Free Essays on Barn Burning William Faulkner’s short story â€Å"Barn Burning† describes a typical relationship between wealthy people and poor people during the Civil War. The main character, Abner Snopes, sharecrops to make a living for his family. He despises wealthy people. Out of resentment for wealthy people, he goes and burns their barns to get revenge. Abner’s character over the course of the story is unchanging in that he is cold hearted, lawless, and violent. First, Abner’s unchanging character shows his cold heartedness. After being sentenced to leave the country for burning a man’s barn, he shows no emotions to his family. During the story, there was not a time when he apologized or offered a word of encouragement to them. His tone of voice when talking to them is bitter and bossy, and he never said thank you. Later in the story after they had arrived at their next house, he orders his wife, her sister and his two daughters to unload the wagon. He walks with his son to DeSpain’s house where he entered without given permission, and proceeded to wipe his feet that was covered with horse manure, thus staining the rug. â€Å"Abner moves through life with no regard for his fellow humans and with no respect for their right to material possessions† (731). After being told to clean the rug, Abner took a rock and further ruined it. His coldness is shown when he demands his two daughters to clean the rug in pots of lye and then hanging it to dry. Later in the evening Abner calls his son to get to return the rug to DeSpain. When Abner returned to DeSpain’s house he threw the rug on the porch instead of knocking on the door and returning it to DeSpain properly. Abner was later charged for the damages he did to the rug. â€Å"This is enough to satisfy Abner yet again that the social system only works in behalf of the rich, and he sets out that night to redress this wrong by burning DeSpain’s barn† (855). Abner’s unchanging character is evident no...

3 Amazing CoSchedule Features That Will Keep You Super Organized

3 Amazing Features That Will Keep You Super Organized If marketers have anything in common it’s that we all need fewer scheduling headaches and more free time. We need to stay organized, and that’s why we built in the first place. It’s also why we keep adding more time-saving features to your favorite editorial calendar. As we head into a new year of publishing, here are a few of our newest and most popular features that you should already be using to save time while staying organized. They are all new, and exclusively available in our newest set of plans.Feature #1: Google Chrome Extension Curate content from around the web and track it on your calendar. Our brand new Google Chrome Extension is the answer to one of our most requested features of all time. has always made it easy to schedule social media messages that promote your own content, but many marketers are also looking for an easier way to curate content from around the web. With our new extension, you can quickly add social messages from anywhere on the web to your calendar. Youll have a perfectly-tuned social media presence in no time. Can I tell you, I FREAKING LOVE ! Why didnt I jump on this MONTHS ago? Its SO awesome being able to just schedule this stuff and know that its going out,  that Im promoting, but dont have to be sitting on the computer (as I most often do) to do it!!! - Lynne Feifer Feature #2: Built-In Headline Analyzer Write the best headlines without ever leaving .  You know that headlines matter. They matter a lot. A well-optimized headline can get you more shares, retweets, clicks, likes, and loves. More importantly, a great headline can help you get the traffic you deserve for each and every post. At , we’ve collected data from millions of blog posts to  develop the internets leading Headline Analyzer Tool, and now that technology is built right into - saving you time, and making your marketing even better. As you are creating new blog posts and marketing content you can now score your overall headline quality in seconds and rate its ability to result in social shares, increased traffic, and SEO value. Headline Analyzer is awesome! Always more reasons to love .† - Danielle, Blue Kite Marketing Feature #3: Evernote + Google Docs FTW Write your content in Evernote (or Google Docs) and convert it into WordPress  with a single click.   The world of a marketer includes many tools- including a few that are specifically geared at content creation. We asked our customers what their most important editing tools were and both Google Docs and Evernote immediately jumped to the top of the list. During the past year, we’ve integrated with both.Now, allows you to connect your Evernote Notes or Google Docs directly to . To sweeten the deal, weve even built a way to convert those Notes (or docs) into real live WordPress blog posts. Simply click convert, and we’ll import all your formatting, text, and images directly into WordPress without skipping a beat. It’s the perfect integration to leverage some of your favorite tools, while saving tons of time in the process.

Honor vs. Honour

Honor vs. Honour Honor vs. Honour Honor vs. Honour By Maeve Maddox One of the most noticeable differences between U.S. and British spelling is that of pairs like honor, honour and glamor, glamour. The dropping of the u in such words is often attributed to the progressive thinking of American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758-1843), but Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) thought of it first. As a printer, Franklin had a professional interest in spelling. In 1768, he published his ideas and ordered a custom type font that included eight extra symbols. Years later, he approached Noah Webster with his innovations. Webster was not interested: There seems to be an inclination in some writers to alter the spelling of words, by expunging the superfluous letters. This appears to arise from the same pedantic fondness for singularity that prompts new fashions of pronunciation. Thus they write the words favour, honour, etc. without u† In 1768, Webster’s view was that it was better â€Å"to speak our language with propriety and elegance as we have it,† but by 1789, he’d changed his mind: I once believed that a reformation of our orthography would be unnecessary and impracticable. This opinion was hastyI now believe with Dr. Franklin that such a reformation is practicable and highly necessary.† By the time Webster published his first small dictionary in 1806, he was ready to drop the u from the â€Å"honour family† of nouns. Modern British spelling retains the u in armour, behaviour, clamour, colour, endeavour, favour, fervour, flavour, glamour, harbour, humour, labour, neighbour, odour, rancour, rigour, rumour, saviour, splendour, and similar words. Even in British spelling, however, when certain endings are added to these nouns, our becomes or. The endings that alter the our spelling are -ous, -ary, -ation, -ial, and ific. The following are both British and U.S. spellings: glamorous, humorous, laborious, rancorous, rigorous, coloration, honorary, honorific, armorial. Note: the word behaviour seems to be putting up a fight. The OED gives both spellings, behavioural and behavioral. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Words for Facial ExpressionsCapitalization Rules for Names of Historical Periods and MovementsList of 50 Compliments and Nice Things to Say!

The Causes and Dangers of Yellow Snow

The Causes and Dangers of Yellow Snow Yellow snow is the topic of many a winter joke. Since snow in its purest form is white, yellow snow is said to be colored with yellow liquids, like animal urine. But while animal (and human)  markings  can indeed turn  snow yellow, these  arent the only cause of yellow snow. Pollen and air pollution can also lead to large  areas of snow cover that looks like lemonade. Here are the ways snow can acquire a golden hue. Blanketed in Spring Pollen One harmless reason for yellow-tinted snow is pollen. Common in spring snows when flowering trees are already in bloom, pollen can settle in the air and on snow-covered surfaces,  marring the white color of snow. If youve ever witnessed your car covered in a thick coat of yellowish-green mid-April, then you know how thick a coating of pollen can be. Its the same with spring snows. If a large enough tree is overhead above a snow bank, the golden appearance of the snow can be spread over a large area. The pollen may be harmless  unless you happen to be allergic to it. Pollution or Sand Snow can also fall from the sky with a yellow color. Yellow snow is real. You may think snow is white, but other colors of snow exist including black, red, blue, brown, and even orange snow.   Yellow snow can be caused by air pollution  as certain pollutants in the air can give snow a yellowish tinge. Air pollutants will migrate towards the poles and become incorporated into the snow as a thin film. As sunlight hits the snow, a yellow hue can appear. When snow contains particles of sand or other cloud seeds, it can be a source of yellow or golden snow. When this occurs,  the color of the condensation nuclei can actually tint the ice crystals yellow even as it falls through the sky. One example was in South Korea when snow fell in March of 2006 with a yellow tint. The cause of the yellow snow was an increased amount of sand in the snow from the deserts of Northern China. NASAs Aura satellite captured the event as weather officials warned the public of the hazards contained within the snow. Yellow dust storm warnings are popular in South Korea, but yellow snow is rarer. Yellow snows often cause concern that they come from industrial waste. An intense yellow snow fell in areas of the Russian Urals region in March 2008. Residents worried that it came from industrial or construction sites and preliminary reports said it was high in manganese, nickel, iron, chrome, zinc, copper, lead, and cadmium. However, the analysis published in Doklady Earth Sciences showed that it was due to dust swept up from the steppes and semidesert of Kazakhstan, Volgograd, and Astrakhan. Dont Eat the Yellow Snow When you see yellow snow, its best to avoid it. Regardless of what caused snow to turn yellow, its always safest to find fresh fallen, white snow whether youll be using it for snowballs, snow angels, or especially snow ice cream.

Western Carolina University GPA, SAT ACT Requirements

Western Carolina University GPA, SAT ACT Requirements Western Carolina University GPA, SAT and ACT Graph Western Carolina University GPA, SAT Scores and ACT Scores for Admission. Data courtesy of Cappex. How Do You Measure Up at Western Carolina University? Calculate Your Chances of Getting In  with this free tool from Cappex. Discussion of WCUs  Admissions Standards Western Carolina University has moderately selective admissions. The admission bar is not overly high, but the acceptance rate was just 40% in 2015.   Successful applicants will need solid grades and standardized test scores as you can see in the graph above. The blue and green dots represent students who were admitted. Most had SAT scores of 950 or higher, an ACT composite of 18 or higher, and a high school average in the B range or better. Note that there are a few red dots (rejected students) and yellow dots (waitlisted students) mixed in with the green and blue in the middle of the graph. Some students with grades and test scores that were on target for Western Carolina University did not get get in. Note also that a few students were accepted with test scores and grades a bit below the norm. This is because Western Carolina University has an admissions process that is at least partly holistic for many students, the university will look at more than grades and test scores. The rigor of your high school courses matters, and success in honors, AP, and IB classes is factored into the admissions decision. Also, although not required, WCU will consider  a personal essay and letters of recommendation. Finally, realize that some programs at WCU have additional admission requirements such as a portfolio, audition, or minimum GPA. To learn more about Western Carolina University, high school GPAs, SAT scores and ACT scores, these articles can help: Western Carolina University Admissions ProfileWhats a Good SAT Score?Whats a Good ACT Score?Whats Considered a Good Academic Record?What is a Weighted GPA? Articles Featuring Western Carolina University Southern ConferenceSouthern Conference SAT Score ComparisonSouthern Conference ACT Score Comparison If You Like Western Carolina University, You May Also Like These Schools Appalachian State University:  Profile  |  GPA-SAT-ACT GraphWingate University:  Profile  North Carolina State University:  Profile  |  GPA-SAT-ACT GraphGardner-Webb University:  Profile  Campbell University:  Profile  |  GPA-SAT-ACT GraphElon University:  Profile  |  GPA-SAT-ACT GraphUNC - Wilmington:  Profile  |  GPA-SAT-ACT GraphCoastal Carolina University:  Profile  |  GPA-SAT-ACT GraphMars Hill University:  Profile  Clemson University:  Profile  |  GPA-SAT-ACT GraphWake Forest University:  Profile  |  GPA-SAT-ACT Graph

Computer Platforms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Computer Platforms - Essay Example This paper is will discuss various types of computers, comparing tin terms of processor speeds, Read Access Memory, Storage capabilities and Internet capabilities. These were the first computers in the mankind invasion, which currently are almost extinct. However, unlike digital computers, they perform numerous mathematical operations simultaneously. They are unique in terms of operation as they utilize continuous variables for the purpose of computing mathematical data. They have an advantage of utilizing mechanical, hydraulic and electrical energy during operation (Beskeen, 2009) As the name suggests, they are a combination of both Analogue and Digital computers. The most important thing about the Digital computers, they work under the principal of a binary digit system of â€Å"0† and â€Å"1† which gives very accurate and precise results. However, these computers are too slow, hence, cannot handle large operations of mathematical computing. The Digital computers perform Robotics and Process control by the converted analog signals. These types of computers are the most bulky and with a great deal of advanced technology, though they are almost becoming extinct. They can cover an entire room and costs millions of dollars. Mainframe computers are referred to as the predecessor of servers because they support multi-users efficiently. They are used in complex of research, meteorological calculations, engineering works, graphics and other advanced operations in Banks and government operations. They constitute UNIX and IBMs z/OS, and others. A supercomputer is one of the modern computers that is capable of handling speedy mathematical computing and calculations. They are the fastest with the highest processing speeds. For that reason, they are employed in specialized applications that require large scale amounts of mathematical calculations; they are preferred in producing animation graphics, weather

Risk Management and the Supply Chain Research Paper - 1

Risk Management and the Supply Chain - Research Paper Example This paper will focus discussing the way unknown-unknown risk has a negative impact to supply chain. Moreover, it will also explain the way investing in redundancy, increasing velocity in sensing and responding, and creating adaptive supply chain community can assist in mitigation of this form of risk. A significant aspect of unknown risk is consequences that cannot be predetermined; through they have adverse effects on supply chain of an organization. For example, earthquake is a type of unknown risk, which occurred in Japan on March 11 2010 leading to the devastation of infrastructures that supported supply chain in the country. In this case, this unknown risk interrupted the power systems, and destroyed infrastructures by dumping debris on roads, which interfered with the transport system (The Economist, 2009). Seemingly, this earthquake led to significant interruption of supply chain, which is associated by numerous Japanese companies. Evidently, there were interruptions caused by this disaster such as halting production in companies operating from the north and east of Japan; in fact, they were forced to evacuate. Therefore, these firms were subjected to this unknown risk since consequences such as closing the plant due to shock caused by the earthquake were not anticipated. On the companies affected by this disaster was Renesas, which is a manufacturer of microcontrollers, whereby they were subjected to this unknown risk that led to closure of six facilities. Damages resulting from this disaster have a negative impact on other components that support supply chain such as ports, railway lines, and roads. Therefore, goods are neither transported to local nor international markets. For instance, occurrence of the earth in Japan led to interference of operations in various organizations that are market based such as Sony, whose supply chain was significant affected. Apparently, the impact of this earthquake was also transmitted to

Shakespeare in love Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Shakespeare in love - Movie Review Example The film revolves around the basic fact that how love changed the life of Shakespeare; once when he was betrayed by his lover and the time, when he was unable to complete his comedy play as the tragedy of Romeo Juliet and at the other time, when Viola de Lesseps brought happiness and inspiration in his life and he completed his project under the influence of love. Love can leave a huge impact on the life of a person; either negatively or positively. After watching this movie, I felt that William Shakespeare, the greatest writer as known to the entire world, had same emotional feelings like any of us. He was no different from a common man. Love was the greatest inspiration in his life which made him a successful man and an emotional playwright. During the Elizabethan age, theater and literature rose to a great height. Queen Elizabeth was very much fond of Shakespeare’ plays and supported the theaters. However, during this period women were not allowed to participate in plays and theaters due to societal norms and restrictions. In this movie, Viola de Lesseps went against the rules of society and disguised herself as a man to participate in Shakespeare’s play but the theater had to pay the heavy price for her involvement in the play as soon as the officials came to know about the truth. The movie highlights the era when women were deprived of their rights and involvement in arts and literature much broadly. After watching the movie, I realized that William Shakespeare had the same feelings like an ordinary man who derived his inspirations from living examples, more particularly, his own ones. Love has played a key role in giving a romantic and emotional touch to his work. In the movie, he has appeared as a sensitive man to whom love meant everything and a divine inspiration which helped him to achieve new heights in the world

WHAT COULD FAR-RIGHT PARTIES DO TO IMPROVE THEIR POLITICAL Essay

WHAT COULD FAR-RIGHT PARTIES DO TO IMPROVE THEIR POLITICAL FORTUNESWHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS THEY FACE AND HOW COULD THEY SEEK TO OVERCOME THEM - Essay Example It is only in the 1990s that Far-Right entered a new millennium of political stability where they could face the challenges of their opponent groups, but still the success of the Far-Right is too ahead of them. We found most comparisons of today’s right-wing extremism with interwar fascist movements and Nazism rather wanting, and emphasised instead the diversity of contemporary manifestations, cultural and social trends, movements, skinheads and radical right parties. (Ware, 1996, p. 170) Instead of the old right-wing causes of 50-75 years ago-even of 30 years ago-a whole range of new confrontations, social problems and issues now appear to trigger responses on the radical right. There are new elements that are often hardly susceptible to the strong-arm solutions of yesteryear. Many of the new problems, in fact, may have no solutions at all, or at least few governmental ones that would not place democracy itself at risk. (Maerkl & Weinberg, 2003, p. 23) Among the most important European political parties based upon conducting racist activities is the BNP (British National Party). (Race Equality Digest, March 2006) Europe’s extremist Right Wing parties after formation of groups within the EU, have come up with a new political group called Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty (ITS). (Spiegel, 2007) Composed of 23 nationalist members, ITS is defined in context with its anti-immigration and anti-EU Constitution policies. Might be this time the racist parties of EU have come up with some solid ground to overcome the barriers that are created by other opponent groups of ‘Race Equality’, but this time parties like BNP must have this fact in mind that the younger generation is heading towards the thresholds of literacy, awareness and ‘racial equality’. In order to influence today’s youth, there is a need of effective leadership, which instead of creating differences directly must develop and diffuse r acial and ethnic

When are people justified in rebelling from a government Essay

When are people justified in rebelling from a government - Essay Example Simply put, whenever a government fails to keep up the social contract it has with the citizens, rebellion against that government becomes justified according to Locke and that rebellion is not illegal or unjust. Therefore, it is important to understand the social contract, the idea of rebellion and how Locke sees the legitimacy of government for any student of History, sociology and even philosophy. Additionally, comparisons can be made in terms of how other philosophers such as Hobbes have seen the legitimacy of government as opposed to Locke to fully understand the position Locke takes on what a government should do to keep the social contract. The social contract theory is a common concept used in many different fields such as political science, economics and sociology. It basically suggests that there is a contract which exists between the state and the individuals who are part of the state regarding their individual rights and privileges. A social contract can also exist between a company/organization and its members or a social group and the participants of the group. The idea of a social contract has been developed and expanded greatly by philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke amongst many others (Wikipedia, 2006). However, the Ideas of Locke are very important in this case because he was the first to establish the criteria for a social contract and then establish the course a people should take up if their own government does not uphold its end of the bargain. Hobbes was the earlier of the two philosophers and outlined his ideas concerning a social contract in his magnum opus titled Leviathan. Hobbes suggests that the natural inclination of mankind breaks men into strong and weak. The strength of a strong man may come from his physical abilities or his mental prowess but in either case, he has an advantage over the weak. However, this

Financial Regulatory Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Financial Regulatory Systems - Essay Example All these points are dealt with close contrast between Australian and Singaporean financial system. The main aim of the paper is to deal with some important points that make a well-structured financial system by comparing the Australian system with that of Singaporean one. It brings sharp contrast of the western financial system with that of Asian. The paper stresses the importance of institutional structure in the design of strong financial regulatory system. After thorough study of sources like International Monetary Fund's report on Australia's and Singapore's financial system, the report of Monetary Authority of Singapore (2006), Perkins, J.N.O., book , The Dergulation of the Australian Financial System: The Experience of the 1980, Ng Nam Sin's speech in 2004, Ginnie Teo's articles on Singapore. There are other sources of information that help to make this paper worthwhile. The main findings of the paper is the structure and functions of the financial regulatory system in Australia and Singapore and the related changes that both the nations have brought in to stand as the ultimate destination the financial sector. The paper concludes with the point that how both the nations are trying to become the regional financial services hub. For this the two countries are ready to bring certain changes in each other system to show their prowess in the financial sector. ... e some recommendations in the form of table, which is vital for financial stability and that's more important for any country to fit into the global financial regulatory system. "Identify and discuss the differences and similarities between the structure of the Australian Financial regulatory system and one Asian country, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia or Hong Kong". Introduction Maintaining financial stability is an important step towards the development of economy. Every nation is now working hard to bring financial stability. It not only checks the inflation but also brings transparency in the financial system, including the activities of hedge funds. The main objectives of the financial regulatory system are to maintain market confidence in the given financial system; to create public awareness of the financial system; to protect the consumers and to minimize financial crime. A well-structured financial regulatory system encourages competition and diversity in the provision of financial services through information disclosure, auditing and enforcement. It is a known fact that the financial system structures changes continually in response to financial innovations and to changes in both the economic environment and the regulatory framework. If we are talking about the world-class financial regulatory system then Australia tops the list. Australia has built a world-class financial sector regulatory regime, which provides security and integrity, through a sound, flexible and strong system of financial regulation. It is specially designed to prevent systemic failure, and avoid unnecessary burdens on business. Even some of the Asian countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. are also trying to ensure a strong financial regulatory

I don't know the title yet, please advise Essay

I don't know the title yet, please advise - Essay Example re than any other element in that society, helped create a consciousness among Japanese of their history and identity and provided, and still provide, a context for an understanding of the aims and accomplishments of their culture. In addition, there is now a greater interest in traditional Japanese culture abroad than ever before. Art exhibition, touring theatrical groups, translations of traditional Japanese literature... This implies that the Japanese culture is one of the cultures in the world that is quite authentic. This is the main reason as to why I chose for my essay to analyze the Japanese craftsmanship. The craftsmanship itself has simplicity and pays attention to the rigorous details and furthermore the procedure and art of how the objects are made with. One of the main inspiration of the Japanese concept is from my visit to an exhibition that was held at Design Museum †Product Fitness 80† by Muji that was held in the last spring of 2012. In this exhibition I was inspired greatly by the main purpose of the exhibition which was to bring into focus the minimum usage of materials and energy in order to make various products. One of the eye catching products that I saw in this exhibition is the pottery that was assembled using Kintsugi technique. This technique uses old objects that are recycled in order to come up with a new product. This was common in the Edo period. With this in mind my paper will be split in to different sections in order to analyze the Japanese craftsmanship in a simple manner. The first section of the paper will be looking at the history of the Japanese craftsmanship briefly thereafter I shall look at different aspects of craftsmanship through a series of case studies being analyzed. According to Lonsdale (2008), the Japanese style has many strands that re made together in order to come with a modern style in the Japanese culture. Swann (1979) points out that the Japanese art is a subject that covers a wide array of styles and

Individual Report (IMC) tools on (Brecon Jazz Festival) Essay

Individual Report (IMC) tools on (Brecon Jazz Festival) - Essay Example The festival was held in 1984 for the first time. Usually the event is held in the first week of August. This year the event would be held on 11th of August. The main objective is the festival is to bring Jazz lovers from various parts of the world. But the significance of the program is actually more than just music, as such events help the nation of Wales to improve tourism and boost economy. It is believed that the difference between a successful event and a not so successful one lies in the essence of good marketing and communication plan. Experts believe that one of the best ways to market an event is through suing all the elements of the communication mix i.e. through integrated marketing communications or IMC. The study looks to focus on the analysis of various elements of the communications mix and the implications of various elements of the communication mix in order to market the event effectively to the target audience (Henry, 2008, p. 89). Literature Review Marketing mix is a set of elements that a company or as a matter of fact any organization can use to its advantage for the marketing purpose. Neil Borden first termed these elements as marketing mix. Later E. Jerome McCarthy reduced the twelve elements to for elements and termed those four elements as the four P’s of marketing. The four P’s of marketing would be product, price, place, promotion. The integrated marketing communication belongs to the 4th P- Promotion. Promotion means to convey the main attributes of the product to the customers. Promotion is mainly used by the marketers to generate demand among the audience. Mainly marketers use the promotional mix or the communication mix to promote a product. The various elements of the promotional mix are Advertisement, Sales Promotion, Public Relation, Personal Selling and Direct Marketing (Kotler, 2001, p. 25). As the business environment became competitive, the marketers felt a need for a more integrated approach towards the mar keting and communication process giving birth to integrated marketing and communications approach. IMC can be defined as an integrative approach to achieve efficiency through synergy. IMC approach involves the application of all communication elements that allows an organization to express itself with one voice and one look (Proctor, 2002, p.121). IMC is a customer centric marketing and communications approach which helps an organization to integrate all the elements of the promotional mix to position and promote a product or business in the market. The American Marketing Association has defined IMC as a concept that identifies the value of a detailed and comprehensive plan that evaluates the key strategic roles of various mediums and techniques of communication to maximize the impact of communication . (Czinzota, Ronkainen, Moffett, Marinova & Marinov, 2009, pp. 423-429). Across the globe there happens to be continuity in the de-regulation in market and emergence of customized segm entation customer tastes and preferences. Therefore IMC has not been an easy process as it had to deal with various internal and external changes such as the rise of the digital medium, consumer empowerment, fragmentation of media, increase in advertisement clutter, etc. Among this the rise of the

Currency Options and Their Role in International Trade Essay

Currency Options and Their Role in International Trade - Essay Example In order to deal with the problem of changing market prices, the trader needs to continually evaluate and analyze the functions of the market and the goals of the business enterprise (Stanley 1998). In addition, the business must be in a position to put in place new market rules and to be monitoring the trade trends and its development. In most of the world states, trade has emerged as one of the key sectors of the economy and most of her citizens depend on the trade for their source of living. The growth of the energy markets and the strategies of the energy providers have been the driving force of these trade improvements over the recent years. A number of commodities in the energy sector such as power, gas, carbon dioxide and even the weather have found their way into the trade market in societies. This has led to the improvement of the use of the scarce resources and increased complex organizations, process interfaces and the system infrastructures. The increased demand for data quality has led to most organizations to adopt the need for risk management that reduces the operational costs during the production process and the actual trading exercise (Dell’Ariccia & Marquez 2010). The international trade is finding its way in society and people have actively been involved in the same and this has led to the emergence of new market models such as market coupling are being discussed and this has made it easier for cross-border trading. On the other hand, the international trade implies that different rules and procedures must be followed and this has led to a change in the trading system that bring on board a number of challenges that require adaptation into existing risk management mechanisms. Exchange Traded Currency Options Foreign exchange traded currency options give a company or an individual the right to exchange the currency of their country into another currency of another country at pre-agreed exchange rate at a given time in the future. This i s the world’s market option although most of the currency trade is done in private and hence it is not possible to determine exactly how large the market is. This form of trade is regulated however in a minimized way and most of the transactions are over the counter. With a few exceptions that are traded on exchanges such as the International Securities Exchange, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange that has options for future contracts (Dong-Hyun & Gao 2003). In the past, the universally accepted currency option was valued by the Bank for International Settlements. For any business enterprise that wish to grow in the international market, there is the need to value the Foreign Exchange factor. Most of the organizations often do not take this risk factor into consideration during their contracts hence the delayed growth, and success in the international market. The international market often fluctuates in value and a given asset or commodity val ued at a given price at a present time might be valued at a higher or lower price in the future due to the exchange rate factor (Manzur, Hoque, & Poitras 2010). In the currency option therefore, the product that is to be traded called a derivative is based on a universally acceptable instrument that

Dark child Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Dark child - Essay Example Two of the major characters in the book are his parents. His father is the village goldsmith, whose spirit dwells in a snake; â€Å"No one was to kill him because he was my fathers guiding spirit!†(Laye 22). He is described as an â€Å"open handed, lavish giver† albeit â€Å"temperate†(Laye 20- 21). Laye portrays him as a great man, the man in whose footsteps he could have followed to attain a similar greatness, but for the fact that he opts for Western education instead. It is his father whom Laye turns to for guidance when he must choose whether or not to attend school in Conkary; â€Å"What must I do if I am to do the right thing?† (Laye 29). His father tells him â€Å"There is a certain form of behavior to observe, and certain ways of acting in order that the guiding spirit of our race may approach you also†¦..I fear, I very much fear little one that you are not enough in my company. You are all day at school.† (Laye 27). Laye’s ance stral heritage is replete with mysticism, charms and spirits, his father’s spirit is a snake, his mother’s a crocodile – each has an individual totem with which identification is complete. But young Laye is unable to find his own totem; â€Å"yes the world rolls on†¦.and the proof of it is that my own totem†¦.is still unknown to me.† (Laye 75). Laye’s grandmother is portrayed as the typical Universal grandmother, who loves him without question or reason, examining him every time he visits her and moaning about how thin he is. His mother is the strongest influence in his life – Laye shares a special relationship with her, awe struck by her supernatural powers. She is portrayed as a strong influence in the home; â€Å"everything was done according to her own rules and those rules were strict† (Laye 68). She was authoritarian, unlike other African women who played a more submissive role and Laye states; â€Å"It was due to the strange powers she possessed.† (Laye 69).