The New Vampire Bram Stokers Dracula and Anne Rices...

The vampire has been a mysterious and enticing figure since its entrance into popular culture, usually regarded as the tale Dracula written in 1897 by Bram Stoker. Stoker, and later Anne Rice, as well as many other writers and directors have capitalized on the fascination the public has with these dark creatures of the night. Whether they are in books or on the big screen vampires capture our imagination, tantalizing us with a taste of the darker side of life. But if vampires are so dark and so different than we are, is that what makes them so fascinating? Is it because they symbolize the forbidden? Is it because they resemble humans, but act nothing like them? Or is it because we all have a fascination with things that we dont†¦show more content†¦(Reep, Ceccio, Francis 125) Along with this change in the vampire itself comes a change in the narrative. Instead of the vampire being merely a creature within the story, the no-question-about-it outside antagonist who must be defeated, the vampire is now the center of the story. Anne Rices vampires become our narrators; but more than that, they become the protagonists. They are no longer set completely apart from humankind. They talk like humans, dress like humans, look like humans (at least in the dark of night anyway) and act like humans. In fact, Louis and Lestat in particular go to great lengths to achieve the appearance of normal human beings while they are living at Louis house. â€Å"And great pretense was necessary....Lestat and I sat down to dinner each night with the old man and made nice noises with our knives and forks, while he told us to eat everything on our plates and not to drink our wine too fast.† (Rice 43) They had to appear as everyone else, for Lestats father and for the slaves, so they would not become suspicious. The fact that Rices vampires are so much like us makes it easier for us to sympathize with their plights, Louis in particular. Unlike Lestat, who enjoy s the taking of human life, Louis does not relish the kill. Yes, the blood is necessary, and he does try to avoid it by killing rats and otherShow MoreRelatedVampire Depictions : Dracula Vs. Louis2295 Words   |  10 PagesVampire Depiction: Dracula vs. Louis For years, the vampire has been a mysterious creature. We have all been infatuated with the appeal of immortality and distinctiveness that vampires possess. Many writers have visualized what vampires are supposed to look like and how they act. The common description of a vampire is terror, violence, viciousness, and fear. Nina Auerbach, writes that â€Å"There is no such creature as ‘The Vampire’; there are only vampires† (Saler 218). This statement recognizes thatRead MoreThe History of Vampires1194 Words   |  5 PagesThe vampire is one of the oldest mythological creatures in the world. It has been around for thousands of years and is found in nearly every culture. There are many different kinds, the red-eyed corpses from China, the Greek Lamia- a woman with the lower body of a winged serpent, the Penanggalang in Malaysia- a woman with a detachable head, etc. The most commonly known, however, is the Romanian vampire, it is used often in pop culture, from mo vies, to television, to literature. The myth of theRead MoreVampire Depiction : Dracula Vs. Louis2305 Words   |  10 PagesWerner 9 December 2014 Vampire Depiction: Dracula vs. Louis For years, the vampire has been a mysterious creature. We have all been infatuated with the appeal of immortality and distinctiveness that vampires possess. Many writers have visualized what vampires are supposed to look like and how they act. The common description of a vampire is terror, violence, viciousness, and fear. Nina Auerbach, writes that â€Å"There is no such creature as ‘The Vampire’; there are only vampires† (Saler 218). This statementRead MoreThe Evolution Of Vampire Literature2831 Words   |  12 PagesRutgers University Professor Rosetti August 12, 2014 The Evolution of Vampire Literature There are several genres of fiction at the reader’s disposal. Horror fiction certainly has a vast scope. Many of the stories can be classified into different sub-genres. Vampire literature is a particular sub-genre that has caught interest for centuries. According to online dictionary, Dictionary.com, the formal definition of a vampire is, â€Å"a preternatural being, commonly believed to be a reanimated corpseRead More Comparing Sexuality and Power in Dracula and Buffy the Vampire Slayer1657 Words   |  7 PagesComparing Sexuality and Power in Dracula and Buffy the Vampire Slayer    At first glance, Joss Whedons Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the hour-long TV series which premiered in 1997 and is now in its third season, bears little resemblance to the book which started the vampire craze -- Bram Stokers Dracula, published a century earlier. And yet, looks can be deceiving. Although the trendy -- and often skimpy -- clothing and bandied about pop-culture references of Buffy clearly mark the seriesRead MoreThe Fiction Genre Of Gothic Fiction1963 Words   |  8 Pages6) In the following piece I discuss the figure of the vampire, especially Brian Stoker’s Victorian original version of Dracula, but also contemporary examples such as Lestat and Louis of Anne Rice’s â€Å"Interview with the Vampire†. In addition to the figure of the vampire, I will address the Otherness of Stephen King’s Carrie, who possesses the supernatural power of telekinesis and telepathy. This form of Otherness is in contrast to the vampire subtler and easily neglected. T o support my arguments,Read MoreEssay on The Effects of Modern Vampires on Society1980 Words   |  8 PagesStephanie Meyer, J. R. Ward, Cassandra Clare, Lisa Jane Smith, Spirit Bliss, Claudia Gray, L.J. McDonald, Anne Bishop, Juliet Marillier. Only a few names of those authors, who constitute in a genre, which is one of the biggest phenomena of this decade, especially among young women. Romantic fantasy has become particularly popular with the Twilight books, which were released in 2005. Since then, the vampire-and other supernatural creature-themed fantasy romance novels have been extremely popular all overRead MoreThe Vampire Is Not A New Manifestation Of The Fears Of A Society1815 Words   |  8 PagesThe vampire is not by any means a new manifestation of the fears of a society. Their presence in human culture can be traced back for centuries in human folklore. The first Anglicized representations of the creature in literature date back to the English poetry of the early 1700 s, and were then followed in the fiction genre by such works as John William Polidori’s The Vampyre, Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, and of course, Bram Stoker’s Dracula. For the audiences of the 18th century, vampires embodied

Does CompStat Reduce Crime free essay sample

Compstat (short for computer statistics or comparative statistics) originated in the new york city police department (NYPD) in 1994 when william bratton was police commissioner. Compstat is a comprehensive, city-wide database that records all reported crimes or complaints, arrests, and summonses issued in each of the city’s 76 precincts. City officials had previously believed that crime could not be prevented by better information and analytical tools but instead by using more foot patrols in neighborhoods along with the concept of â€Å"community policing† in which efforts were made to strengthen the involvement of community groups. In contrast, bratton and rudy giuliani, then the mayor of new york city, believed that police could be more effective in reducing crime if operational decisions took place at the precinct level and if decision makers had better information. Precinct commanders were in a better position than police headquarters to understand the spesific needs of the communities they served and to direct the work of the 200 to 400 police officers they managed. We will write a custom essay sample on Does CompStat Reduce Crime? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Compstat gave precinct commanders more authority and responsibility, but also more accountability. At weekly meetings, representatives from each of the NYPD’s precincts, service areas, and transit districts are put on the â€Å"hot seat’ at police headquarters and required to provide a statistical summary of the week’s crime complaint, arrest and summons activity, as well as significant cases, crime patterns, and police activities. Commanders must explain what has been done to reduce crime in the districts under their command, and if crime has gone up, they must explain why. Commanders are held directly accountable for reducing crime in their area of command. In the past, they were evaluated primarily on the basis of their administrative skills, such as staying within budget and deploying resources efficiently. The data these commanders provide, including spesific times and locations of crimes and enforcement activities, are forwarded to the NYPD’s compstat unit where they are loaded into a city-wide database. The system analyzes the data and produces a weekly compstat report on crime complaint and arrest activity at the precinct, patrol borough, and city wide levels. The data are summarized by week, prior 30 days, and year-to-date for comparison with the previous year’s activity and for establishing trends. The compstat unit also issues weekly commander profile reports to measure the performance of precinct commanders. The weekly commander profile reports include information on the commander’s date of appointment, years in rank, education and specialized training, most recent performance evaluation rating, the units that person previously commanded, the amount of overtime generated by police under that commander, absence rates, community demographics, and civilian complaints. Using mapinfo geographic information system (GIS) software, the compstat data can be displayed on maps showing crime and arrest location, crime†hot spots†, and other relevant information. Comparative charts, tables, and graphs can also be projected simultaneously. These visual presentations help precinct commanders and members of the NYPD’s executive staff to quickly identify patterns and trends. Depending on the intelligence gleaned from the system, police chiefs and captains develop a targeted strategy for fighting crime, such as dispatching more foot patrols to high-crime neighborhoods, or isuuing warnings to the public when a particular model of vehicle is susceptible to theft. During bratton’s 27-month tenure, serious crime in new york dropped by 25% and homicides went down by 44%. Crime in new york city has dropped by 69% in the last 12 years. Skeptics do not believe that compstat was responsible for these results. They point to the decline in the number of young, poor men, an improved economy, programs that reduced welfare rolls while giving poor people access to better housing, increasing the size of the NYC police force, and giving precinct commanders more decision making responsibility and accountability. Nevertheless, bratton, convinced that compstat was the catalyst for new york’s drop in crime, imlemented the system in los angeles to further prove its worth. Since the introduction of compstat, combined violent and property crimes in los angeles dropped for six consecutive years. Yet the ratio of police officers to residents is only half that of new york and chicago. Compstat has also been adopted in philadelphia, austin, san fransisco, baltimore, and vancouver, british columbia. Skeptics point out that crime has fallen in all urban areas in the united states since 1990 regardless of whether the cities used compstat. In fact, a critical study of compstat by the police foundation found that compstat encouraged police to be only reactive rather than pro-active in fighting crime. Sending police to where crime has become a problem is, in other words, too late. Compstat encouraged what the police foundation called â€Å"whack-a-mole† theory of policing, similar to the game played in amusement parks. Rather than change police departments into nimble crime fighters, the foundation found that a database had been attached to traditional organizations, which themselves remained unchanged. Because of the emphasis placed on reducing crime and because of the newfound importance of crime statistics to officers careers, compstat has created pressure on some precinct commanders to manipulate crime statistics to produce favorable results. Officers must continue to improve their crime statistics, despite shrinking budgets and dwindling numbers of officers. A study conducted in 2009 via a questionnaire given to 1200 retired police captains and more senior officers concluded that nearly a third of respondents were aware of unethical manipulation of crime data. More than 100 survey respondents said that intense pressure to produce annual crime reductions led some supervisors and precinct commanders to manipulate crime statistics. For example, officers were known to check catalogs, ebay, and other sites for items similar to those reported stolen, looking for lower prices they could use to reduce the values of the stolen goods for record-keeping purposes. Grand larceny, a felony, is considered to be theft of goods valued at $1000 or more, whereas theft of goods valued at less than $1000 is only a misdemeanor. Using this method, precincts could reduce the number of felony thefts, considered an â€Å"index crime† and tracked by compstat. Surveys and anecdotal evidence also indicated a lack of receptiveness on the aprt of police in some areas, possibly motivated by a desire to reduce the number of crime incidents reported. Some survey respondents state the precinct commanders or aides dispatched to cime scenes sometimes tried to persuade victims not to file complaints or urged them to change their accounts of what happened in ways that could downgrade offenses to lesser crimes. Previous studies of compstat encountered an unwillingness by the NYPD to disclose their data reporting methods. A professor performing a study that ultimately praised compstat’s influence on crime on new york city was given full access to NYPD crime data, but the NYPD did not cooperate with the commission to combat police corruption (CCPC), an independent board that monitors police corruption. The commission sought subpoena power to demand the NYPD turn over its data and data collection procedures to uncover potential wrong doing by the police. Unfortunately, the commission was enied access to this data after strong police department opposition. On the other hand, versions of compstat have been adopted by hundreds of other police departments across the united states, and the compstat approach has been credited with improving police work in many cities, in new york city itself, much of the public believes that crime is down, and that the city has become a safer and more pleasan t place to live. Case study questions 1. what management, organization, and technology factors make compstat effective? 2. can police departments effectively combat crime without the compstat system? Is community policing incompatible with compstat? Explain your answer. 3. why would officers misreport certain data to compstat? What should be done about the misreporting of data? How can it be detected? Apakah CompStat mengurangi kejahatan? CompStat (singkatan statistik komputer atau statistik komparatif) berasal york city kepolisian baru (NYPD) pada tahun 1994 ketika william Bratton adalah komisaris polisi. CompStat adalah komprehensif, database yang kota-lebar yang mencatat semua kejahatan yang dilaporkan atau keluhan, penangkapan, dan surat panggilan yang dikeluarkan di masing-masing kota 76 daerah sekitar. Pejabat kota sebelumnya percaya bahwa kejahatan tidak dapat dicegah dengan informasi yang lebih baik dan alat-alat analisis melainkan dengan menggunakan patroli kaki lebih di lingkungan bersama dengan konsep community policing di mana upaya yang dilakukan untuk memperkuat keterlibatan kelompok masyarakat. Sebaliknya, Bratton dan Rudy Giuliani, maka walikota new york city, percaya bahwa polisi bisa lebih efektif dalam mengurangi kejahatan jika keputusan operasional berlangsung di tingkat polisi dan informasi jika pengambil keputusan lebih baik. Komandan polisi berada dalam posisi yang lebih baik daripada markas polisi untuk memahami kebutuhan spesifik dari masyarakat yang mereka layani dan untuk mengarahkan pekerjaan polisi 200 hingga 400 mereka berhasil. CompStat memberi komandan polisi lebih wewenang dan tanggung jawab, tetapi juga akuntabilitas. Pada pertemuan mingguan, perwakilan dari masing-masing daerah sekitar NYPD, area layanan, dan kabupaten angkutan diletakkan pada kursi panas di markas olisi dan diminta untuk memberikan ringkasan statistik pengaduan kejahatan minggu, penangkapan dan aktivitas panggilan, serta kasus-kasus penting, pola kejahatan, dan kegiatan polisi. Komandan harus menjelaskan apa yang telah dilakukan untuk mengurangi kejahatan di distrik-distrik di bawah komando mereka, dan jika kejahatan sudah naik, mereka harus menjelaskan mengapa. Komandan yang bertanggungjawab secara langsung terhadap mengurangi kejahatan di daerah mereka perintah. Di masa lalu, mereka dievaluasi terutama berdasarkan kemampua n administratif mereka, seperti tinggal di dalam anggaran dan menggunakan sumber daya secara efisien. Data ini memberikan komandan, termasuk waktu dan lokasi spesifik dari kejahatan dan kegiatan penegakan hukum, akan diteruskan ke unit CompStat NYPD mana mereka dimuat ke dalam database kota-lebar. Sistem ini menganalisis data dan menghasilkan laporan CompStat mingguan keluhan kejahatan dan kegiatan penangkapan di kantor polisi, patroli borough, dan tingkat luas kota. Data dirangkum dalam satu minggu, 30 hari sebelumnya, dan tahun-to-date untuk perbandingan dengan kegiatan tahun sebelumnya dan untuk menetapkan tren. Unit CompStat juga mengeluarkan laporan mingguan komandan profil untuk mengukur kinerja komandan polisi. Laporan mingguan Komandan profil mencakup informasi tentang tanggal komandan pengangkatan, tahun pangkat, pendidikan dan pelatihan khusus, terbaru kinerja Peringkat evaluasi, unit orang yang sebelumnya diperintahkan, jumlah lembur yang dihasilkan oleh polisi di bawah bahwa komandan, tingkat absensi, demografi masyarakat, dan keluhan sipil. Menggunakan MapInfo sistem informasi geografis (GIS) software, data CompStat dapat ditampilkan pada peta yang menunjukkan kejahatan dan lokasi penangkapan, kejahatan hot spot, dan informasi lain yang relevan. Perbandingan grafik, tabel, dan grafik juga dapat diproyeksikan secara bersamaan. Ini presentasi visual yang membantu komandan polisi dan anggota staf eksekutif NYPD untuk dengan cepat mengidentifikasi pola dan tren. Tergantung pada intelijen yang diperoleh dari sistem, kepala polisi dan kapten mengembangkan strategi ditargetkan untuk memerangi kejahatan, seperti pengiriman patroli kaki lebih ke lingkungan-kejahatan yang tinggi, atau isuuing peringatan kepada masyarakat saat model tertentu kendaraan rentan terhadap pencurian. Selama masa Bratton 27 bulan, kejahatan serius di new york turun sebesar 25% dan pembunuhan turun sebesar 44%. Kejahatan di new york city telah menurun sebesar 69% dalam 12 tahun terakhir. Skeptis tidak percaya bahwa CompStat bertanggung jawab atas hasil ini. Mereka menunjuk ke penurunan jumlah anak muda, laki-laki miskin, ekonomi membaik, program yang mengurangi gulungan kesejahteraan masyarakat miskin sambil memberikan akses ke perumahan yang lebih baik, meningkatkan ukuran dari kepolisian NYC, dan memberikan komandan polisi lebih pengambilan keputusan dan tanggung jawab akuntabilitas. Namun demikian, Bratton, yakin bahwa CompStat merupakan katalisator untuk penurunan new york dalam kejahatan, imlemented sistem di los angeles untuk lebih membuktikan nilainya. Sejak diperkenalkannya CompStat, dikombinasikan kejahatan kekerasan dan properti di los angeles turun selama enam tahun berturut-turut. Namun rasio polisi terhadap penduduk adalah hanya setengah dari new york dan Chicago. CompStat juga telah diadopsi di philadelphia, austin, san fransisco, baltimore, dan vancouver, british columbia. Skeptis menunjukkan bahwa kejahatan telah jatuh di semua wilayah perkotaan di negara bersatu sejak tahun 1990 terlepas dari a akah kota digunakan CompStat. Bahkan, sebuah studi kritis CompStat oleh yayasan polisi menemukan bahwa CompStat mendorong polisi untuk hanya reaktif daripada proaktif dalam memerangi kejahatan. Mengirim polisi untuk di mana kejahatan telah menjadi masalah adalah, dengan kata lain, terlambat. CompStat mendorong apa dasar polisi disebut mendera-a-mole teori ke polisian, mirip dengan permainan yang dimainkan di taman hiburan. Daripada perubahan departemen kepolisian menjadi pejuang kejahatan gesit, yayasan menemukan bahwa database telah melekat pada organisasi tradisional, yang sendiri tetap tidak berubah. Karena penekanan pada mengurangi kejahatan dan karena pentingnya baru ditemukan tindak kriminal kepada petugas karier, CompStat telah menciptakan tekanan pada beberapa komandan polisi untuk memanipulasi statistik kejahatan untuk menghasilkan hasil yang positif. Petugas harus terus meningkatkan statistik kejahatan mereka, meskipun menyusut anggaran dan berkurangnya jumlah petugas. Sebuah studi yang dilakukan pada tahun 2009 melalui kuesioner yang diberikan kepada 1200 kapten pensiunan polisi dan perwira yang lebih senior menyimpulkan bahwa hampir sepertiga dari responden menyadari manipulasi etis data kejahatan. Lebih dari 100 responden survei mengatakan bahwa tekanan kuat untuk menghasilkan pengurangan kejahatan tahunan menyebabkan beberapa supervisor dan komandan polisi untuk memanipulasi statistik kejahatan. Misalnya, petugas diketahui untuk memeriksa katalog, ebay, dan situs lainnya untuk item yang sama dengan yang dilaporkan dicuri, mencari harga yang lebih rendah bisa mereka gunakan untuk mengurangi nilai barang yang dicuri untuk tujuan menyimpan catatan. Pencurian berat, kejahatan besar, dianggap pencurian barang senilai $ 1000 atau lebih, sedangkan pencurian barang senilai kurang dari $ 1000 hanya kejahatan ringan. Dengan menggunakan metode ini, daerah sekitar dapat mengurangi jumlah pencurian kejahatan, dianggap sebagai kejahatan index dan dilacak oleh CompStat. Survei dan bukti anekdotal juga menunjukkan kurangnya keterbukaan di aprt polisi di beberapa daerah, mungkin didorong oleh keinginan untuk mengurangi jumlah insiden kejahatan yang dilaporkan. Beberapa responden survei menyatakan komandan polisi atau pembantu dikirim ke Cime adegan kadang-kadang mencoba membujuk korban untuk tidak mengajukan keluhan atau mendesak mereka untuk mengubah account mereka dari apa yang terjadi dengan cara yang bisa menurunkan tindak pidana kejahatan ringan. Studi sebelumnya CompStat mengalami keengganan oleh NYPD untuk mengungkapkan data mereka metode pelaporan. Seorang profesor melakukan penelitian yang pada akhirnya memuji pengaruh CompStat pada kejahatan di new york city diberi akses penuh ke data kejahatan NYPD, tetapi NYPD tidak bekerja sama dengan komisi untuk memerangi korupsi polisi (CCPC), suatu lembaga yang independen yang memantau korupsi polisi. Komisi mencari kekuatan subpoena untuk menuntut pergantian NYPD atas data dan prosedur pengumpulan data untuk mengungkap potensi perbuatan salah oleh polisi. Sayangnya, komisi itu ditolak akses ke data ini setelah oposisi kepolisian yang kuat. Di sisi lain, versi CompStat telah diadopsi oleh ratusan polisi departemen lain di seluruh negara bersatu, dan pendekatan CompStat telah dikreditkan dengan meningkatkan kerja polisi di banyak kota, di kota new york sendiri, banyak masyarakat percaya bahwa kejahatan turun, dan bahwa kota ini menjadi tempat yang lebih aman dan lebih menyenangkan untuk hidup. Pertanyaan studi kasus 1. faktor apa manajemen, organisasi, dan teknologi membuat CompStat efektif? 2. dapat departemen kepolisian secara efektif memerangi kejahatan tanpa sistem CompStat? Apakah perpolisian masyarakat sesuai dengan CompStat? Jelaskan jawaban Anda. 3. mengapa petugas salah melaporkan data-data tertentu ke CompStat? Apa yang harus dilakukan tentang misreporting data?

Diego Rivera An Artist Essays - Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo

Diego Rivera An Artist DIEGO RIVERA BY ANGEL MENDOZA My artist name is Diego Rivera he is a Mexican painter who produced murals on social themes and who ranks one of my countries greatest artists. He was born in Guanajuato and educated at the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts , in Mexico City. he studied painting in Europe between 1907 and 1921, becoming familiar with the innovative cubist forms of the French painter Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso. In 1921 Riviera returned to Mexico and took a prominent part in revival of mural painting initiated by artists and sponsored by the government . Believing that art should serve the working people and be readily available to them , he concentrated on painting large frescoes, concerning the history and social problems of Mexico, on the walls of public buldings.His works during 1930s included frescoes the Ministry of Educational Mexico City and in the National Agricultural School in Chapingo. Rivera was an active member of the Mexican Communist party , and he painted murals in the National Palace , Mexico City 1929, and the Palace Cortes , Cuernavaca1930 .In 1929 Riviera married Frida Kahlo who is now considered to have been a leading 20th century Mexican painter. I think what I like the most the murals that he painted I liked how he drew the Indian people their faces the scenery , the palace and his style. Riviera's murals are rich in archeological detail and painted in sharply outlined , linear style. Most of them have clear , three dimensional figures in a shallow space , although a deep spatial extension of landscape appears at the top of some works . Rivera also executed easel paintings and portraits and designed and built his Mexico City house , the Anahuacalli, which is now a museum housing the extensive collection of pre-Columbian art that he left for Mexican people . I liked the water colors that Riviera used for the murals and the way he painted the pictures .I imagine take him a long time to draw the murals and paint them and drawing the faces . I have seen his murals in the walls in Mexico City and I really think is very hard to draw the murals and I also have seen in the museums alot of pictures that Riviera has drawn and I was really impressed with all his work. The thing that I liked the most were the murals that he drew and the painting and how he drew the faces of the people and the different colors of skins of the people . I enjoyed learning about Diego Rivera and also because his from my country. Art Essays

Five Reasons Why Blogging Improves Your Writing

Five Reasons Why Blogging Improves Your Writing Five Reasons Why Blogging Improves Your Writing Five Reasons Why Blogging Improves Your Writing By Ali Hale Do you have your own blog? If so, do you sometimes feel guilty about spending time writing for your blog rather than working on something which you consider more â€Å"worthwhile†? If you don’t have a blog, have you ever thought of starting one? Perhaps you’re not sure whether it would be worth the investment of your time and energy. Here are five great ways that starting your own blog, or continuing writing the one you already have, can improve your writing. 1. You’ll get into the habit of writing regularly We’ve covered ways to write every day before, and this really is a good habit to establish if you have serious writing ambitions. Blog posts tend to be short and can be online as soon as you’ve written them: it’s much easier to write daily on your blog than to keep plugging away on stories and articles that might not be published for months, if at all. 2. Instant feedback lets you know how you’re doing If you are writing purely for yourself, you don’t need feedback. Most of us, though, feel that a piece of writing is not complete until it has a reader. (Indeed, there is a school of critical theory that insists a piece of writing only truly exists whilst it is being read.) One of the best things about blogging is that not only is publishing instant, feedback is too. As soon as your piece is posted, readers will start adding their comments, emailing you, or even linking to it from their own blogs. You’ll know when your writing is good because you’ll get positive responses. Negative feedback, or none at all, will tip you off that your style might need work, or that the content of your piece may be boring, trite or over-done. 3. Having readers for your work is a big motivation Do you have days when you sit down to write †¦ and stare at the screen for ages before giving up in frustration? Sometimes you just aren’t â€Å"in the mood† to write. When you’re feeling motivated, though, the words come easily. Knowing that real people are reading what you write is a huge boost – something you can only appreciate once you’ve experienced it. Even on days when you’re feeling less than inspired, the thought of your readers can be enough to get you writing. 4. Your writing will improve The best way to get better at anything is to practice. Writing frequently for your blog means your writing will improve – both as you react to feedback, and as you learn how to craft effective sentences and choose perfect words. If you already write a blog, look back at your earliest posts. Do they make you cringe, when compared to your writing now? 5. Blogs are an ideal medium for experimentation Sometimes, you might want to try out a new style or form of writing. Short sentences. (With no verbs.) Bullet pointed lists A more verbose, elegant and poised style, using the rhythms and cadences of the English language to transform a piece of writing into a work of art. Writing a whole story, article or even a book in a new style could be a big risk – what if it doesn’t work? A blog post, on the other hand, is quick to write and free to publish: if it fails, you’ve not lost much. Blogging gives you the freedom to experiment, to try out something new. If blogging’s made you a better writer, let us know how in the comments below. 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 General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Dialogue Dos and Don'tsâ€Å"As Well As† Does Not Mean â€Å"And†90 Verbs Starting with â€Å"Ex-†

Operation Management and Quality Management Essay

Operation Management and Quality Management - Essay Example However, quality management remains an under-researched concept in strategic resource management (Powell, 1995). The standards provided by the ISO 9000 (ISO) were developed from the ISO/TC document, and quality management criteria is now used in corporations across the globe which have been taken up by over 880, 000 corporations in over 161 nations (International Organization for Standardization, 2006). As such, the ISO is a generic management system benchmark for quality management expectations in business due to; its customer-centered approach to their needs and requirements; its regulatory requirements; its orientation toward customer satisfaction; and commitment to continual improvement achieving these goals (International Organization for Standardization). An individually owned corporation that has successfully implemented the ISO standards is FEXCO in County Kerry, Ireland, is an internationally recognized competitive company (FEXCO, 2006a). The corporation provides world wide payment services for both corporate and public markets, for activities such as financial transfers, bureau de change and currency conversion. On average, FEXCO processes 19 million transactions annually. Over 1,400 staffs are employed with the company, almost half of them being based in Kerry, and the others located in country offices in countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain, Malta, Australia, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Dubai and the USA. Predominantly, FEXCO has adopted ISO 9000 guidelines to assist with decision making with regard to information technologies (IT), and country and currency codes. The corporation first implemented the ISO code in 1996.FEXCO displays its commitment to ISO principles in its description of its core competencies and values; a commitment to the best technology, staff and services; a focus on the customer (i.e., people matter); a desire to form long-term relationships with stakeholders; transparency and accountability of corporate practices; embracing innovation and treasury management; and having technology driving the global payment transactions (FEXCO, 2006b). The organization was recently awarded the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) compliance accreditation for its excelling efforts to implement technology that secures cardholder account data security. The award is an example of the effectiveness of ISO principles, as further elaborated by Managing Director of FEXCO, Dermot O'Shea: We are delighted to have received this important payment card industry accreditation. As FEXCO deploys its Dynamic Currency Conversion solutions internationally, it is vital that we are accredited by the Visa AIS and MasterCard SDP programs to ensure a high level of confidence for our ever-growing customer base (FEXCO, 2006c). With regard to its focus on continual improvement of staff, FEXCO has drawn on ISO standards to develop managers by providing them the opportunity to pass a Diploma in Management FEXCO, 2006d). Working in conjunction with Carole Hogan & Associates, the managers were accredited by the Institute of Commercial Management, a world renowned Foundation that provides high quality education. The Diploma was initiated in February of 2005 in Kerry, and aims to expose new managers to an overview of corporate culture, procedures, guidelines (e.g., ISO 9000) and goals. Identify the

MPH502-Introduction to Public Health (Module 3 SLP) Essay

MPH502-Introduction to Public Health (Module 3 SLP) - Essay Example In this step it is assessed as to how much a certain disease is prevalent and what has been done in this regard. In this step the government takes data of different hospitals and analyzes which disease or disorder is increasing and needs to be addressed. It also analyzes if the health care programs are fulfilling the needs of the individuals who are suffering from such problems. Moreover all this is analyzed by the government officials and specific figures are taken. These figures are then compared and a proper research method is carried out to see how much the disease has affected people and how much is being done in this regard. This particular step is mainly developed by the federal government as they are the ones who design policies. And it is the state and local governments who have to follow these policies later. In this step specific policies are developed so as to counter act on the analysis of different diseases that have been found in the region. These policies also include health care programs for workers and other civilians. Programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance program are examples of the policies designed by the government. These programs help to provide insurance to those people who have a low income or are above the age of 65. Similarly environmental policies are also implemented which aim at lowering the incidence of a certain disease such as the swine flu. All these policies were developed in the aim of lowering the prevalence of a certain disease and increasing health coverage to all the individuals living in the society. However more policies are needed regarding the prevention of certain diseases and disorders, for example coverage for all the individuals living in the society for free and without any exceptions. State governments are mainly responsible for the health promotion activities. Health promotion activities such as the prevention of AIDs have been widely

Ornament and Crime by Adolf Loos | Analysis

Ornament and Crime by Adolf Loos | Analysis The art of argumentation is not an easy skill to acquireà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ It is easy to name call, easy to ignore the point of view or research of others, and extremely easy to accept ones own opinion as gospel.1 The 1908 essay Ornament and Crime by Adolf Loos is a collection of contradictory, hysterical, ill-conceived rants that were fomented by a sullen elitist. Loos implores the reader to cast off the wicked ways of the old and take up the fight for a new modern and more civilized era-an era that pictures the human race at its zenith with no ornamentation whatsoever. Although he was there to ride the wave of the Modernist Movement his essay decrying the ornament of the past can best be described as a reflection of a troubled man. Instead of putting forth new ideas he directs the reader to look with derision on other ones. Ornament and Crime has no continuity and is, in large part, simply opinions with little, no or bizarre base in facts. Loose writes of a civilization where, Men had gone far enough for ornament no longer to arouse feelings of pleasure in them, of a place where if there were no ornament at allà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦man would only have to work four hours instead of eight, and of a place where people say, Thank God,' when theres a fire, now there will be work for people to do again.' Loos could not have been more wrong about the future of art, architecture and human civilization. Ornamentation is not needless expression and is indeed an integral part of modern civilization that cannot be eliminated. Ornament and Crime begins with Loos describing an overly simplistic and narrow view of humans early development that shows his relativistic and class-based thinking. The human embryo goes through the whole history of animal evolution in its mothers womb, and a newborn child has the sensory impressions of a puppy. His childhood takes him through the stages of human progress; at the age of two he is a Papuan savage, at four he has caught up with the Teutonic tribesman. At six he is level with Socrates, and at eight with Voltaire. For at this age he learns to distinguish violet, the colour that the eighteenth century first discovered before that violets were blue and tyrian was red. Physicists can already point to colours they have named, but that only later generations will be able to distinguish. Loose breaks no ground with his observation that the senses of newborns are feeble; this is the very definition of what it means to be newborn. But the comparison between humans and dogs is ludicrous; might one not also consider the inherit potential that lies inside a newborn dog on one hand, and a newborn human on the other? At age two human is like a Papuan, a dark-skinned person from what is now Papua New Guinea, an evolutionary link just above a dog. Just able to walk on two legs and form rudimentary words but apparently unable to achieve full human status. Although racism was and still is all too common, science had fully blossomed by 1908 and such concepts as the theory of evolution had already been around for over 50 years. When attempting to write a forward-thinking essay it is tragic that Loos found it necessary and thought it acceptable to use such backward examples as part of a logical argument. Papuans had developed agricultural based societies some 6,000 to 9,000 years ago. Given better resources with which to work with Papuans may have well have been the ones to put Europeans in zoos.2 At age four, Loos writes, people are like the barbarians from the north that ancient Rome fought nearly two millennia ago-heathen savages. Then, quite unexpectedly there is a great leap in learning; a six-year-old is able to philosophize on the level of Socrates. Loos then takes one of many fantastic swerves from logic and declares that at the age of Voltaire a child is finally able to distinguish subtleties in the color wheel. It is unclear why Loos would choose Voltaire, a philosopher and writer, to use as an example of the developmental level when a person can distinguish a specific color, or its relevance. It is amazing to think that Loos knew children of eight years of age that had the wit of someone as legendary as Voltaire, not to mention the six-year-old Socrates. Perhaps most amazing though, is Loos complete and total lack of evidence that any of what he writes in his opening paragraph can be substantiated. His introductory observations continue and Mr. Loos writes of amoral children, murder, cannibalism, tattoos and morality. When a tattooed man dies at liberty, it is only that he died a few years before he committed a murder. This is his tie to the argument that ornament is a criminal act? This is why no school should have a statue at its front entry; no lapel should be adorned with a pin? Will these wanton decorations lead to mass murder? According to a 2004 survey by the American Academy of Dermatology, 24% of the respondents had a tattoo.3 By Loos standard we are all in deep trouble. Is it possible that he overstates himself? Mariners commonly had tattoos during his time and while they might have been a rough bunch as a whole, to state that their death is the only thing preventing them from committing murder is truly odd to any steady thinker. There is also no escaping the fact that the civilization that Loos felt was nearly at the point of building Zion, the holy city, the capital of heaven, was already in the midst of a period of slaughter and genocide such as the world had never seen. Not by savages and tattooed marauders but by politicians and titans of industry.4 After Loos interprets the amoral human embryo and the tattooed man, he launches into the origins of art and ornament. All art is erotic. Loos states. The first artistic act was performed to rid oneself of surplus energy. He compares the horizontal dash with a reclining woman and the vertical dash with a man penetrating her, concluding that the first ornament to be born was the cross, which was erotic in origin. Though ancient cross symbols have been seen as phallic symbols the fact that he sees only eroticism in the simple lines is bizarre in a truly Freudian way. Loos also neglects to elaborate on the other, probably older symbol, the circle. This reflects on his view of the profane, which is his main point, apparently, in the first section of the essay. He seems incapable of thinking that images of reproduction were not eroticism but merely represented life. His next argument for ornament as a crime is by using bathroom graffiti and the drawings of young children as examples of art. As to the former, One can measure the culture of a country by the degree to which its lavatory walls are daubed. To the latter, [a childs] first artistic expression is to scrawl on the walls erotic symbols. Loos is quite obviously deeply haunted by perverse thoughts and was himself in need of an outlet for his own surplus energy. To claim that young children are scribbling erotica on the walls is troubling. In a modern setting if a child were to actually do this, an investigation into criminal acts of pedophilia would take place. Again, with nothing to back up his claim, no correlative story, one has to wonder how he came to these conclusions. In order to bring any cohesion to Ornament and Crime and Loos thesis, The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from utilitarian objects, it is necessary to take a look at the experiences Loos had and the context in which he lived. Loos traveled to America in 1893. During that year he attended the Worlds Fair in Chicago and was impressed by much of the current architecture, particularly of American architect Louis Sullivan. Sullivan is famous for his saying, form ever follows function, which would later be shortened to form follows function.5 Sullivan and fellow-minded American architect Frank Lloyd Wright had the idea that buildings themselves could become ornament. They should fit into their surroundings and become part of the landscape. They were not however, opponents of ornament. Towards the end of his career in fact, Sullivan designed a number of buildings that were highlighted by ornament and are called his Jewel Boxes.6 Frank Lloyd Wright, in additio n to being an architect, was an art collector and dealer. He also designed the furniture for many of his buildings. Though the American architects had new visions for ornament it certainly was not left out of their design work. Loos remained in America for three years and while there, he was forced to labor at menial jobs such as floor layer, brick layer and even dish washer until late in 1894 when he found a position as an architectural draftsman in New York. He returned to Vienna a changed man. Back in Vienna, Loos was confronted with a floundering empire that dwelled on old architectural styles that promoted flourishes and grand faà §ades. He responded by designing the Cafà © Museum in 1899. It was well designed yet very simple. It had arched windows looking into an arched room. The light fixtures left the light bulbs exposed and he did a novel thing by making the electrical connections to the chandeliers out of brass strips banding the ceiling. Cafà © Museum was stark for the time but by no means free of ornament-the ornament had just become more streamlined. The response to this functional design was not complimentary, Loos created this simple Viennese coffee house during the peak of the Art Nouveau period. The cafà © was nicknamed Cafà © Nihilism7 and Loos was incensed that the privileged classes of Austria werent as forward thinking as the people in America and Britain. He called his critics, hob goblins and blamed them for smothering a society he saw only evolving without ornament, Humanity is still to groan under the slavery of ornament. Loos blames the stagnant attitudes, the ornament disease on the state, which was the centuries old Austro-Hungarian Empire. Ornament does not heighten my joy in life or the joy in life of any cultivated person. So on one hand Loos decries the fact that a carpenters bench wouldnt be preserved for the ages as worthy of notice and on the other he preaches that the love of something unadorned is something only the cultivated can understand. He blames the slow speed of cultural-revolution on stragglers and gives as examples his neighbors that are stuck in the years 1900 or 1880, the peasants of Kals (a secluded mountain town in Austria) are living in the twelfth century, and the man of the fifteenth century [who] wont understand me. These very people who are stuck in the past and are keeping society from moving forward also seem to be the focus of a contradiction Loos is unable to explain away, try as he might. And somehow, through this narcissistic attitude of preaching to the aristocrat, Loos seems to have stumbled upon a rational argument and an undeveloped reasoning behind his thesis. Ornament is a crime against the national economy that it should result in the waste of human labour, money and material. Loos recognizes, however briefly, that people naturally tire of objects before their use is done, and if gone unchecked, the need to consume could become problematic. As an example of this wastefulness, Loos points to a mans suite or a ladys ball gown but he then irrationally compares them to a desk. But woe if a desk has to be changed as quickly as a ball gown because the old form has become intolerable. Loos inability to give the credit of common sense to his audience is only exasperated by his next argument. If all objects would last aesthetically as long as they do physically, the consumer could pay a price for them that would enable the worker to earn more money and work shorter hours. Loos does however scrape the surface and begin to relate how craftspeople are paid poorly and how changing tastes are causing some items that are completely unadorned to be priced the same as items with a high degree of ornament. He points out that productivity can increase with an end to frills and filagree. What economic paradigm was he using that would allow greater compensation for more productivity in less time? I will grant that I have one hundred years of economic history to look on that Loos wasnt privy to, but thinking that workers would benefit from working less defies logic. In addition, didnt Loos argue that the birth of ornament sprang from mankinds surplus energy? His point then becomes ridiculous-remove ornamentation from all utilitarian objects in order to save time and money thus providing mankind with the surplus energy necessary to ornament. This is where Loos argument completely falls apart. It is ironic and a pity that what seems to keep Loos from realizing that he is against consumerism and greed and not necessarily ornamentation seems to be his own fear to take a stand for what he believes in instead of what he is against. But he then compares a Chinese carver working for sixteen hours to an American worker, a product of the Industrial Revolution, working just eight hours. Of course the workers will make more money due to increased productivity. Yet, with this seemingly benevolent view of the working class he reminds us of his true thoughts, Loos touches on this when he recognizes that, people on a lower footing [are] easier to rule. Is it that the mason is too closely aligned with the working class and so is worthy of derision? So even with a plausible argument, that wasteful design is criminal, Adolf Loos goes off track and gets wrapped up in outlandish statements like, set fire to the empire and everyone will be swimming in money and prosperity and ornamented objects are tolerable only when they are of the most miserable quality. In his misdirected logic, Loos takes on some of the biggest names of the day, artist Otto Eckman and architect and designer Henry van de Velde, but he only weaves himself into further contradictions and confusion regarding ornament and crime. Loos claims that their works are not only a waste but that they fall out of fashion so quickly that furniture, clothing, entire households must be thrown out to make way for the new designs but he then goes on to say that the time is incapable of producing new ornament. You cant have it both ways, incapable of producing and producing too much. His entire argument that mankind was beyond ornament disregards the vibrant atmosphere around him; Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, Deutscher Werkbund, The Secession even the advent of Modernism. Although some of the buildings he designed had some redeeming points to them his obsession with a purity of design resulted in his writings getting more attention than the buildings he designed. White and boxy with no aesthetic would be one way to describe the later Loos style. His low point probably came when he designed the Rufer House in 1922. Loos tried very hard to make a point but when his buildings are taken as point of reference I find it difficult to believe he made one. In the end is Queen Capitalism to be our sovereign? Is the capitalist a more advanced human than the artisan? How dare an architect refuse to acknowledge the suffering of his companions, his peers. That one can draw an interesting collection of boxes and with the other can carve beautiful scrollwork into marble, are they both not working to create a more visually distinctive and enjoyable world? Indeed, Loos himself admits that ornaments produce joy-only not for him. When he concedes that he is not above wearing ornament for the sake of others he is truly exposed as a fraud. As far as making a point in debate however, it is quite skillful of Loos to infer that any who oppose his view are simply lower forms of life, possibly even sub-human. If in discussion, someone dared disagree, Mr. Loos could simply fall back on the intellectually fraudulent, You obviously dont understand or Maybe the concept is beyond you. These tactics are well known to debaters but they are hollow in that they accept a theorem without a firm foundation of facts, and Ornament and Crime is fraught with ideological foundation issues. Had he said, How can so much wealth and effort go into a theatre when people are starving? That is an argument for ornament being a crime. Woman giving birth to children on the street and not being cared for at the expense of some filigree, that could be argued to be criminal. The people with plenty spend their time shirking their duty to their fellow human beings; that could be considered criminal. It sounds like this son of a stonemason was trying too hard to impress his friends. In the end he has been remembered, not so much for his building designs but for this argument. Bringing aesthetic value to something is a gift, not a crime. To make an object that is already useful, graceful and a delight to the senses enhances the value of that object. The true crime is to deny or suppress the human desire to create, beautify, fashion into something that can only be seen in the mind. Of the question Is Ornament a Crime? I will retort by asking my own questions. Is a flower ostentatious? Is the plant much more pleasing before it has bloomed? I would boldly state that flowering plants are indeed not cultivated for their leaves and stalks. Is a bird, bright with plumage, blight on the horizon? Does water flow in such an objectionable way as to create eddies and whirlpools to offend the senses? I must answer no to these questions and simply say that ornamentation is the flower of humankind, a necessary expression for all civilizations that cannot and will not be eliminated while there is still a creative spark in us. -A note about the lack of accompanied imagery- There are a multitude of images that could be displayed as examples of ornament that could be viewed as good or bad. Humanity has created a myriad of expressions since self-realization happened. The expression itself is not the point, it could be any expression at any point in the history of mankind. The fact that humans should not be inhibited to create is what is at issue whether it be in architecture, dance, art, song; therefore I felt it would be superfluous to include snippets of creativity that could never encompass what all peoples have created in the last. 20,000 years.