Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Free Essays on African Americans In The Media

â€Å"African American Portrayals in the Entertainment Media† The amusement media as we probably am aware it begun in 1891 when The Edison Company effectively exhibited the Kinetoscope. The main film to recount to a total story was Georges Milieus’ â€Å"A Trip to the Moon†. Before long there were many movies. It wasn’t until 1941 that TV came to America and alongside movies shaped the amusement media as we probably am aware it. Early movies and TV programs portrayed African Americans contrarily. It wasn’t until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that African Americans started to be seen by the amusement media in a positive manner. In 1915 D.W. Griffith discharged the movie â€Å"The Birth of a Nation†. In this film African Americans were depicted as sex crazed attackers that assaulted white ladies. Negative depictions of African Americans in the diversion media proceeded for a considerable length of time. The main African American lady to win an Academy Award was Hattie McDaniel for her job in â€Å"Gone with the Wind† where she played a cliché household. The â€Å"Amos n’ Andy† network show which publicized in the 1950’s indicated numerous African American generalizations. The characters faced a daily reality such that was isolated however equivalent from whites. The Civil Rights Act reshaped the diversion media. The show â€Å"Good Times† was the main prime time appear about an African American family that had a mother and father. At the 36th yearly Academy Awards Sidney Portier turned into the principal African American to win the Best Actor grant for his job in â€Å"Lilies of the Field†. The most sat in front of the TV program at any point was â€Å"Roots†. â€Å"Roots† was a scaled down arrangement that portrayed life as an African American slave. At the 74th yearly Academy Awards both the Best Actor and Best Actress Awards were won by African Americans. The Best Actor grant went to Denzel Washington for â€Å"Training Day† and the Best Actress grant went t... Free Essays on African Americans In The Media Free Essays on African Americans In The Media â€Å"African American Portrayals in the Entertainment Media† The amusement media as we probably am aware it begun in 1891 when The Edison Company effectively exhibited the Kinetoscope. The main film to recount to a total story was Georges Milieus’ â€Å"A Trip to the Moon†. Before long there were many films. It wasn’t until 1941 that TV came to America and alongside films framed the amusement media as we probably am aware it. Early movies and TV programs delineated African Americans adversely. It wasn’t until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that African Americans started to be seen by the amusement media in a positive manner. In 1915 D.W. Griffith discharged the film â€Å"The Birth of a Nation†. In this movie African Americans were depicted as sex crazed attackers that assaulted white ladies. Negative depictions of African Americans in the diversion media proceeded for quite a long time. The primary African American lady to win an Academy Award was Hattie McDaniel for her job in â€Å"Gone with the Wind† wherein she played a cliché local. The â€Å"Amos n’ Andy† TV program which publicized in the 1950’s demonstrated numerous African American generalizations. The characters experienced a daily reality such that was discrete however equivalent from whites. The Civil Rights Act reshaped the amusement media. The show â€Å"Good Times† was the principal prime time appear about an African American family that had a mother and father. At the 36th yearly Academy Awards Sidney Portier turned into the principal African American to win the Best Actor grant for his job in â€Å"Lilies of the Field†. The most sat in front of the TV program at any point was â€Å"Roots†. â€Å"Roots† was a small arrangement that delineated life as an African American slave. At the 74th yearly Academy Awards both the Best Actor and Best Actress Awards were won by African Americans. The Best Actor grant went to Denzel Washington for â€Å"Training Day† and the Best Actress grant went t...

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Martin Buber’s †I and Thou Essay Sample free essay sample

Martin Buber’s I and Thou ( Ich und Du. 1923 ) presents a regulation of individual duologue. in that it portrays how close to home duologue can determine the idea of world. Buber’s significant subject is that individual might be characterized by the way wherein we take part in duologue with one another. with the universe. furthermore, with God. Blending to Buber. human presences may follow two mentalities toward the universe: I-Thou or I-It. I-Thou is a connection of subject-to-subject. while I-It is a connection of subject-to-protest. In the I-Thou relationship. human presences are discerning of each oher as holding a respectability of being. In the I-Thou relationship. human presences do non understand each other as abiding of explicit. stray characteristics. in any case, participate in a duologue influencing each other’s entire being. In the I-It relationship. on the different manus. human presences see each other as abiding of explicit. stray characteristics. what's more, see themselves as bit of a universe which comprises of things. We will compose a custom article test on Martin Buber’s †I and Thou Essay Sample or on the other hand any comparable point explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page I-Thou is a relationship of commonality and correspondence. while I-It is a relationship of discreteness and withdrawal. Buber clarifies that human presences may look to change over the subject-to-expose connection to a subject-to-protest connection. or then again fragility versa. Be that as it may. the being of a subject is an uprightness which can non be dissected as an item. At the point when a subject is dissected as an article. the point is not, at this point a subject. yet, turns into an article. At the point when a subject is dissected as an article. the theme is not, at this point a Thou. be that as it may, turns into an It. The being which is investigated as an article is the It in an I-It connection. The subject-to-subject connection certifies every point as holding a trustworthiness of being. At the point when a subject picks. or then again is picked by. the I-Thou connection. this demonstration includes the subject’s entire being. In this manner. the I-Thou connection is a demonstration of taking. or then again being picked. to go the subject of a subject-to-subject connection. The subject turns into a theme through the I-Thou connection. what's more, the demonstration of taking this connection certifies the subject’s entire being. Bu ber says that the I-Thou connection is a direct relational connection which is non intervened by any progression ining arrangement of considerations. No objects of thought intercede among I and Thou. 1 I-Thou is an immediate connection of subject-to-subject. which is non intervened by some other connection. In this way. I-Thou is non an organization to some object or end. in any case, is an extreme connection influencing the entire being of every point. Love. as a connection among I and Thou. is a liable to-subject connection. Buber guarantees that adoration is non a connection of subject-to-protest. In the I-Thou connection. themes do non grasp each other as items. be that as it may, see each other’s honesty of being. Love is an I-Thou connection in which subjects divide this honesty of being. Love is other than a connection in which I and Thou parcel a feeling of mindful. respect. committedness. what's more, obligation. Buber contends that. despite the fact that the I-Thou connection is a perfect connection. the I-It connection is an ineluctable connection by which the universe is seen as comprising of cognizable articles or things. The I-It connection is the organizations by which the universe is examined and portrayed. Nonetheless. the I-It connection may go an I-Thou connect ion. what's more, in the I-Thou connection we can associate with the universe in its entire being. In the I-Thou connection. the I is bound together with the Thou. in any case, in the I-It connection. the I is withdrawn or isolated from the It. In the I-Thou connection. the being of the I has a place both with I and to Thou. In the I-It connection. the being of the I has a place with I. yet, non to It. I-Thou is a connection where I and Thou have a mutual world. Buber fights that the I which has no Thou has a world which is less finished than that of the I in the I-and-Thou. The more that I-and-Thou partition their reality. the more complete is their reality. Orchestrating to Buber. God is the imperishable Thou. God is the Thou who supports the I-Thou connection everlastingly. In the I-Thou connection between the individual and God. there is a respectability of being where the individual can ever happen God. In the I-Thou connection. there is no hindrance of different dealingss which separate the individual from God. furthermore, in this way the individual can speak candidly to God. The ever-enduring Thou is non an object of understanding. what's more, is non an object of thought. The imperishable Thou is non something whic h can be explored or analyzed. The ever-enduring Thou is non a cognizable article. Be that as it may. the imperishable Thou can be known as the outright Person who offers trustworthiness to all being. Buber other than clarifies that the I-Thou connection may hold either conceivable being or existent being. At the point when the I-It connection turns into an I-Thou connection. the conceivable being of the I-Thou connection turns into the existent being of the I-Thou connection. Be that as it may. the I-Thou connection between the individual and God does non go. or on the other hand grow from. an I-It connection. since God. as the imperishable Thou. is everlastingly present as existent Being. Buber battles that the I-Thou connection between the individual and God is a cosmopolitan connection which is the establishment for all different dealingss. On the off chance that the individual has an existent I-Thou connection with God. so the individual must hold an existent I-Thou connection with the universe. In the event that the individual has an existent I-Thou connection with God. so the individual’s activities known to man must be guided by that I-Thou connection. Thusly. the p recept of individual duologue might be an educational technique for moral enquiry and of indicating the idea of individual obligation.

Saturday, August 1, 2020

When to Stick with Something and When to Quit

When to Stick with Something â€" and When to Quit Surely you have heard about the modern-day myth that practice makes perfect and that you just need to put your mind (or your back) into something and voila, there you have it!While its a tempting thing to believe in such happy-ending fairytales, the reality is often harder than wed like it to be.Practice and following through indeed have their place in succeeding in… well, almost everything.Sometimes, however, no matter how much you try, its just not meant to happen… not to you at least.Its not to say that perseverance is not the most important aspect of success because it definitely is, but sometimes, you just need to have some talent, be born for something or be in a specific kind of a situation in order to achieve your goals and fulfill your desires.The modern-day optimistic credo of idea + work + action = success is sometimes simply not founded in everyday existence and reality. Do you seriously need an example?Take that kid from Somalia that digs cobalt a few miles deep with in the Somalian mines for 1$ per hour every day so that you may have your lithium rechargeable batteries in your handy devices.Try explaining to that kid how he/she can do everything they want in life if they only put enough work into it.It just doesnt work.Sounds harsh?Well, thats reality for ya… and if you think that neoliberal capitalism made it possible for everyone to bathe in riches and if this offends your subtle yuppie taste, lets take another example, a one less drenched in the economy.Take a deaf person and explain to that person that he or she can be a brilliant composer or a virtuoso if he or she tries enough? Rings a bell?Yeah, sure, but a deaf person cant hear it.You can say that Beethoven could sure do it, but he wasnt born deaf and besides, how many Beethovens have you met in your life?Wake up Dorothy, youre not in Kansas anymore.Some things you just cant do and it might be wise to know how to discern between the unachievable and achievable through hard work only†¦ just to avoid trying too hard for nothing or quitting when you should have followed through.THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF QUITTINGWere all really familiar with the downsides of quitting, right?From a very early age of our development, our parents and teachers made it sure that we appall quitting and with a good reason too.The very word quitter carries a negative connotation and is used to describe someone who lacks the willpower to make an effort and succeed in something that demands a certain degree of vigor.So quitters never succeed because only a few things in this life come free of charge (except life itself maybe) and the most frequent currency in transactions is your vital energy.You spend it on everything that you want to get and achieve.When you think about it, money and material goods are just a way for you to convert your energy into means of getting the desired materials and services, but in essence… you pay for energy with energy.The point is that if you want t o have something done or simply have something, you must invest a certain amount of energy.People who dont invest dont get revenue and its as simple as that.No money, no honey. No pain no gain. Since quitters are on the no gain side of the spectrum, its clear why they dont succeed.The opposite of quitters, the doers or the achievers are the people who live by the: When the going gets tough, the tough get going and similar creeds.Its easy to assume that they are the successful part of the bunch, but sometimes, it gets more complicated.If you get stuck trying to achieve the unachievable and get too stubborn about it to admit the failure to yourself, youre bound to waste time, nerves, energy and consequently money which is, by the time youre through, the least of your concerns.The people who dont know how to quit either succeed or break being unable to bear the defeat.If they dont have it their way, they quit a lot more than they placed their bets on in the first place.Some of them don t want to lose the battle and they lose wars because of it.Think of gamblers who keep rolling the dice until they lose everything that theyve got.Think of people who take away their lives because their girlfriend left them or because they didnt have any friends.As Aristotle said, happiness is the balance between your wishes and your potential to fulfill them. If you wish for too much and overreach, youll be miserable, if you wish for too little and dont actualize your full potential, itll get too dull for you.Having said that, a specific downside of being too ambitious, optimistic and bent on working hard is the possibility of others exploiting your disposition as such.If you think about it, we were taught in schools to behave, listen to commands, keep quiet and repeat what is expected of us. We were also taught not to give up, because if we did, how could anyone ever make us do what they want us to do?So, quitting can have its good sides. It just depends on whether you know what, h ow and when to quit or not.If you do it as you should, it just might save you a lot of energy and time which all the money in the world cannot buy.KNOWING WHAT TO QUITBefore we start answering the question of when, the question of what should first be addressed.So what should you quit and what should you follow through?Depends on your criteria of course, but first, ask yourself is it life-threatening or not. It usually isnt though and when it is, you neither have the time nor need for reading articles like this.After youve established that you wont die if you quit, ask yourself a few of the following questions:How important is this to me? How am I going to feel if I quit?How will this affect my future?If its not that important, why wouldnt you quit? If you even find yourself thinking about quitting you must have your reasons to do so. Make a list of those reasons.Put together the for and against list and assign points to every argument.Then all you have to do is put together the poi nts and see if it adds up and youll make it easier for yourself to decide and end the agony of the dilemma.It matters to a great extent what youre quitting.Quitting a job can be a bit tricky because you can easily find yourself climbing or even falling down the corporate ladder. Calculate your salary and expenses and be sure to have a plan B in store. Other than that, youre good to go.Quitting a habit is by definition a good thing. Even if its a good habit, its not advisable to be a creature of the habit.Yes, you have to have a certain rhythm in your life and you cant consciously steer through it all the time, but disengaging from autopilot has its innumerable benefits as well.Quitting a relationship or in other words breaking up, whether its your friend or a lover can be amongst the toughest choices ever so thread carefully.Put together the pros and cons and make sure that its absolutely not worth fighting for before you quit.If your lover is a manipulative, self-centered narcissis t who doesnt value you, then you should let him/her go.If not, don’t think that Princes(ess) Charming grow on trees, waiting for you to pick them. First of all, a perfect partner doesn’t exist.Relationships are something that you build and work on, not something that starts off and turns out to be perfect on its own.DANGERS OF THE URGE TO BE CONSISTENTWe were taught not to quit by inertia so we feel guilty when were about to back down.People often find themselves making stupid mistakes because they think they should be consistent or that they should stick to a decision that theyve made or keep the word that theyve given to themselves or someone else.Its stubbornness and inertia that often get us into trouble.While its virtuous to be a man of your word, nothing that you say is ever written in stone nor should you act as it is.You have the capacity to go back on your word and utter something to overwrite what youve said.Its not to say that you should misuse that capacity and be ca pricious about it, but you shouldnt put yourself through hell just for the sake of consistency and principles either.Principles are there to serve you, its not the other way around.People are well aware of our inertia and the urge to persist no matter the cost so they can find a way of manipulating us into feeling guilty and doing what they want.If they insist on us persisting, we should always ask ourselves about their interest in our persistence.One should absolutely disregard any and all insults and labels such as quitter and such.By themselves, those categories mean nothing and they can be attributed to everything without ever specifying why someone quit or what or how did he/she quit.Come to think of it, those are important questions to answer.HOW TO QUITEven video games and computer programs are designed to manipulate our urge to be consistent.When you hit that alt + f4 shortcut, you are faced with a bunch of questions like: do you really want to quit?Some of them are witty an d even put the blame on you for being a coward.Well, the people who hold your withdrawal against their interest will do the same.Before you withdraw, carefully analyze your motives for doing so, explain yourself to yourself and answer any and all questions you might think of at the moment.Think of all the possibilities and try to examine your withdrawal from as many angles as you can, including the angle of the people who would manipulate you.That way, you will have your answers prepared in advance.Dont let anyone but yourself second-guess your decisions. That doesn’t mean youll become arrogant and self-centered.Take into consideration other peoples opinions, but as suggestions only, cause thats what they are.If you react emotionally to those suggestions, then theyve already destabilized you and affected your judgment. In other words, youve accepted them and internalized them.In that manner what was one, a suggestion becomes a truth that you feel you should deal with.To avoid such a situation, be introspective and self-critical so that, when others criticize you, you dont feel guilty or like you own them anything, not even an explanation.Youve explained everything to yourself already and you yourself are the only person who can demand those explanations. You do what you have to do to keep your composure.To be fair to others too and avoid being a selfish prick, offer your explanation to them, but only once. Dont let them draw you into the whirlpool of sophistry, diversions, and deceptions.Dont let anyone lie to you. If you feel that you should quit and that it will bring you peace, by all means, quit.Never let the inferiority complex biased feeling that you owe people something make you serve them… unless you actually owe something, which is less often the case than theyd have you believe.Feeling that you necessarily have to follow through will sometimes put you in a disadvantage before others who dont share the feeling.Not to mention the time youll lose th e following something through for nothing.THE THINGS WE CAN(T) QUIT AND QUESTIONS WE SHOULD ASK OURSELVESOnce, people were taught how to repair and hold onto things.Now the paradigm changed.When somethings broken or when something doesnt fulfill the purpose weve ascribed to it, we abandon it, throw it in the trash and buy a new one.As long as you can buy a new one it sounds good, but there are still some priceless things. Having said that, one should think about what hes quitting and why.There are questions to ask yourself when quitting your job, enterprise, relationship, a game, an agreement, a habit.Think about whether youll be able to find a better job, game, enterprise and about all the aspects of your current job:Whats the root of my discomfort here?Which of my expectations are thwarted?Can I find a better one?Did I invest too much time and energy to simply abandon this?If I stick to this, will it pay off or will I be at a loss?What do I stand to win and what do I stand to lose ?Is there a better way for me to spend my energy and my time?Is there something that would make me happyHow long will that happiness last?You can ask all of these questions, no matter what youre quitting unless its an emotional relationship.If its friendship or more than a friendship, the basic mathematics dont apply… not 100% anyway.People are not numbers nor they are questions that you can answer with a yes or no… unless youre a sociopath that is.When it comes to breaking the habit, on the other hand, go nuts. Break all the habits that you have simply because its healthy to sometimes bring awareness to what youre doing and remind yourself of the reasons for continuation.If its a good/healthy habit were talking about, by all means, reinstate it. If its something that causes addiction, break the cycle immediately. How? Improvise. Just dont go slowly.Break it immediately and break it hard. When it comes to most of the modern days addictions, withdrawal symptoms are mainly psychol ogical, although they can manifest physiologically if youre hell-bent on the habit and identify with it.But thats a problem of a different kind. If you know something is as bad as it gets and you cant find a single rational reason for enjoying it, you should examine that self-destructive urges ASAP.Take the example of smoking.The health problems that it causes are innumerable, it stinks, its aesthetically detrimental and expensive… but people still do it! Now try and justify that… or dont. Just stop.The reasons people cling to such silly habits are efforts to contribute to something while not doing anything of significance.In relation to our example, people were convinced that smoking looked cool via media such as movies from the 50-ties.Roland Barthes, a famous French literary theorist, and scientist exposed such consumerism popularization in his Mythologies.Its the same marketing tricks that have been around since fascist Germany and Goebbels propaganda. If you want people to take on a habit, just display someone desirable practicing it and insist on it being cool.Well, tough luck people. Stupid things that everyone can easily do, dont make you cool, so take control over your actions.Its common physics that mass(es) in motion always opt for the path of least resistance.The first thing that you need to quit is being a part of that machinery. Conformism and inertia… comfort-zone irrationality and infantile, self-destructive behavior are definitely things to quit.GRAY ZONE OF QUITTING CONGENITAL DISABILITIES AND HANDICAPSWhen it comes to impairments and birth defects, its sometimes futile or dangerous to engage in activities youre not meant to engage in.It can really be frustrating and irritating to be at a disadvantage like that, but when theres really not much that you can do about it, it might be for the best to accept defeat and focus on things that you can do.Not everyones meant to do everything.Youre bound to have some talents that you can hone to make this world a better place so discover them and put them to good use.On the other hand, you should not let your disadvantages discourage you as there are many examples of people with disabilities who prove the above-stated wrong and excel at what seems to be impossible for them to do.If youre hell-bent on doing something and you really, really enjoy it so much that youd devote your whole life to it, then do it! You might just defeat the odds.The one thing that you cannot do, if you suffer any impairments, is to take pity on yourself and use that as an excuse not to excel in anything in life.If youre short, you might not play basketball for the NBA, but how many of us will do that?On the other hand, you might be a great artist or a great scientist and If you waste your life just complaining about your problems, youll never get a chance to shine.Its the same for healthy people and for impaired ones.Not everyone can do everything and its good that it is so. The world would be a bor ing place if we were all perfect and the same.Its very important in life to know whats your cup of tea and what isnt.When you access that, start a dialogue with yourself and stop chasing for the unachievable.Focus on what you can do and what you can do good.Be aware of your shortcomings and work on them if you can, but dont let them take you down and become a universal excuse for being a failure.Focus on your advantages and change the game. You just might find that youre great at something you never thought of trying before.WHEN TO STICK TO SOMETHINGRemember the pros and cons list? Use it again. The basic question to ask yourself is always:Will you have more gain than losses if you stick through?You dont want it to be a Pyrrhic victory, do you? Try a couple of times. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. When you fall, get up and give it your all once again… and once again after that.Give it a few shots, but dont get stuck in a loop. Before you quit, you should try your best and the n, even if you quit, you do so with a clear conscience.Sometimes, were nearing a fruitful end of our endeavors, but were unable to see it from where were standing.Thats why perseverance is an important trait to develop and nurture.However, perseverance and stubbornness are not the same and you should definitely avoid the latter. CONCLUSIONA saying that quitters never win and winners never quit may just turn out to be untrue, at least to an extent.Its important to note what youre sticking to and what youre quitting as well as when and how are you quitting or sticking to something.Neither quitting nor following through are good or bad per se. Its the context that matters as well and that gives meaning to your actions.Besides what, when, how and where, you should give some attention to the question of why. Always make sure its not indolence or pessimism that drive your actions.If youre quitting, analyze yourself first and make sure that youre doing it with a clear conscience and out of rationality.Finally, if youre having doubts, dont rush into the decision, but dont hesitate too long as hesitation has a way of draining you.Make that pros and cons list and put two and two together.Bookmark the article and go through it again if you find yourself in a dilemma. It just may help you in your time of need.

Friday, May 22, 2020

Gone Girl By David Fincher - 1268 Words

In the way a finger leaves a print specific to the touch of its owner, auteurs stylize elements of their works so that their creation is definitive enough to be traced back to its creator. In order to identify these definitive components, an auteur must establish common thematic and formal elements that their texts typically contain. In David Fincher’s film Gone Girl (2014), Amy Dunne suddenly vanishes, seemingly from violent kidnapping, leaving her husband, Nick Dunne, in a media frenzy over his suspected involvement in her disappearance. The film utilizes some of his most common thematic elements: paternal or maternal abandonment during childhood and its influence on adulthood, the poststructuralist critique of social systems, and†¦show more content†¦Amy’s mother and father abandoned their hopes of having a daughter that was as successful as they desired by creating an improved version of Amy in their lucrative children’s series, Amazing Amy. Entrench ed in the comparison of her fictitious counterpart, Amy lives her life fooling those around her to believe she is an enhanced version of herself while silently dwelling on her discovery of Nick’s infidelity. The individuals that Nick and Amy become because of these childhood influences cause them to comply with another prevalent thematic element: â€Å"Fincher’s men act, often recklessly, but his women know (Orgeron et al. 2011).† In this example, Nick’s infidelity is his â€Å"reckless† behavior, while Amy’s â€Å"knowing† is her false appearance of ignorance, but as Orgeron states, â€Å"†¦behind this static gaze lies a more complete, more complex knowledge of the American family, its dissolution, its decay.† This idea of reckless men and knowing women is also an important thematic element in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Zodiac (2007), and Seven (1995). Frequently presented in Fincher’s films is a posts tructuralist critique of one or more social systems (present in Seven, Fight Club, The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Zodiac). In Gone Girl, the two systems under criticism are the judicial system and tv news broadcasting. Although initially remaining compliant with the policemen that are investigating his wife’s

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Animal Rights and the Ethics of Testing

Animals have been used as test subjects for medical experiments and other scientific investigations for hundreds of years. With the rise of the modern animal rights movement in the 1970s and 80s, however, many people began to question the ethics of using living creatures for such tests. Although animal testing remains commonplace today, public support for such practices has declined in recent years. Testing Regulations In the  United States, the  Animal Welfare Act  sets certain minimum requirements for the humane treatment of non-human animals in laboratories and other settings. It was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966. The law, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sets minimum standards of care and treatment be provided for certain animals bred for commercial sale, used in research, transported commercially, or exhibited to the public. However, anti-testing advocates rightfully claim that this law has limited enforcement power. For example, the AWA explicitly excludes from protection all rats and mice, which make up approximately 95 percent of the animals used in laboratories. To address this, a number of amendments have been passed in subsequent years. In 2016, for example, the Toxic Substances Control Act included language that encouraged the use of non-animal alternative testing methodologies. The AWA also requires institutions that perform vivisection to establish committees that are supposed to oversee and approve the use of animals, making sure that non-animal alternatives are considered. Activists counter that many of these oversight panels are ineffective or biased in favor of animal experiments. Furthermore, the AWA does not prohibit invasive procedures or the killing of the animals when the experiments are over. Estimates vary from 10 million to 100 million animals used for testing worldwide on an annual basis, but there are few sources of reliable data available. According to The Baltimore Sun, every drug test requires at least 800 animal test subjects.   The Animal Rights Movement The first law in the U.S. prohibiting the abuse of animals was enacted in 1641 in the colony of Massachusetts. It banned mistreatment of animals kept for mans use. But it wasnt until the early 1800s that people began advocating for animal rights in both the U.S. and the U.K. The first major animal welfare state-sponsored legislation in the U.S. established the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York in 1866. Most scholars say the modern animal rights movement began in 1975 with the publication of Animal Rights by Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher. Singer argued that animals could suffer just as humans do and therefore deserved to be treated with similar care, minimizing pain whenever possible. To treat them differently and say that experimentation on non-human animals is justified but experimentation on humans is not would be  speciesist. U.S. philosopher Tom Regan went even farther in his 1983 text The Case for Animal Rights. In it, he argued that animals were individual beings just as humans are, with emotions and intellect. In the following decades, organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and retailers such as The Body Shop have become strong anti-testing advocates. In 2013, the Nonhuman Rights Project, an animal rights legal organization, petitioned New York courts on behalf of four chimpanzees. The filings argued that the chimps had a legal right to personhood, and therefore deserved to be freed. The three cases were repeatedly rejected or thrown out in lower courts. In 2017, the NRO announced it would appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals. The Future of Animal Testing Animal rights activists frequently argue that ending vivisection would not end medical progress because non-animal research would continue. They point to recent developments in stem-cell technology, which some researchers say could one day replace animal tests. Other advocates also say  tissue cultures, epidemiological studies, and ethical human experimentation with fully informed consent could also find a place in a new medical or commercial testing environment. Resources and Further Reading Davis, Janet M. The History of Animal Protection in the United States Organization of American Historians. Nov. 2015. Funk, Cary and Raine, Lee. Opinion About the Use of Animals in Testing.  Pew Research Center. 1 Jul. 2015. United States Department of Agriculture. Animal Welfare Act. USDA.org Should Animals Be Used for Scientific or Commercial Testing? ProCon.org. Updated 11 Oct. 2017.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Parker Free Essays

string(27) " of the Parker 51 in 1941\." PARKER : Penning global strategy Ankita Jain Hrishikesh V Nilotpal Sinha Abhinav Sharma Great Lakes Institute of Management November 18, 2011 Caesar had perished from the world of men, had not his sword been rescued by a pen. Abstract In this study, we look at two strategies adopted by Parker Pen. The ? rst is a highly successful strategy of product di? erentiation through technological innovation. We will write a custom essay sample on Parker or any similar topic only for you Order Now The second is an unsuccessful execution of globalization strategy. 1 A brief history of Parker Pen The Parker Pen Company was born in 1888 when George Sta? rd Parker tried to repair some fountain pens that were leaking and in the process began to manufacture his own pens. Six years later in 1894, Parker Pen won the patent of the †Lucky Curve† feed, which was claimed to draw excess ink back into the pen body when the pen was not in use. This technology remained the di? erentiating factor for Parker pens until the arrival of the Duofold in the 1930s. 1 2 The forty years period ranging from 1920s to the 1960s, in the pre ballpoint pen era, was the golden period of Parker Pen’s reign when it consistently ranked either number one or number two in worldwide writing instrument sales. In 1931 Parker Pen created 1 2 Key words and phrases. Parker Pen, fountain pen, ball-point pen. This study was conducted for completion of the group project for Strategy Execution. 1 the Quink (quick drying ink) which eliminated the need for blotting and led to the development of the most widely used pen in history Parker 51 which generated over $400 million in sales. A Parker pen stood for quality, prestige, tradition, steadfastness and strength highlighted by the fact that Parker pens were the pen of choice to sign important documents in history such as the World War II armistices. Parker Pen expanded its business and by 1980s the company had extended up to 154 countries. The company adopted globalization strategy to establish market presence. However the execution of this strategy was unsuccessful; the managers failed to create proper marketing strategies that would have made them compete in international markets with inexpensive products from other parts of the world. In 1993 Parker Pen was acquired by the Gillette Company, which already owned the PaperMate brand, one of the best-selling disposable ballpoints. In 2000, Gillette sold the writing instruments division to Newell Rubbermaid, whose own Stationery Division, Sanford, became the largest in the world owning such brand names as Rotring, Sharpie, Reynolds as well as Parker, PaperMate, Waterman and Liquid Paper. In recent years, Parker Pen has abandoned both the entry level market as well as the traditional retail outlets in North America and moved into up-scale luxury retailers. 2 Innovation as a di? erentiation strategy Throughout its history, Parker Pen has used technological innovation as a strategy to di? erentiate itself from the competition. The company has been a pioneer in research on writing instruments and introduced several revolutionary products . In this section, we look at some of the iconic products from Parker Pens which have driven both the company as well as the pen market. (The current portfolio of Parker Pen’s products can be found in Ref. [1]) 2. 1 Duofold – 1921 In 1921 the company introduced the Parker Duofold (Ref. [2]) fountain pen. It was a state of the art pen for its time and Parker Pen positioned the Duofold in the premier segment and priced it expensively $7. 00, equivalent to about $85 in 2011. In 1926 the Duofold became the ? rst pen in the world to have a guaranteed life of †forever†. It was an instant success. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used one to write the exploits of Sherlock Holmes. General Douglas MacArthur signed the document ending World War II in the 2 Paci? c with his 20 year old Duofold (Ref. [3]). By the early 1930s the Duofolds design had grown dated in the USA but it remained popular in Europe until the 1960s. In 1988, Parker launched the Duofold Centennial series of pens. The modern Duofold is a key part of Parker Pens product portfolio. . 2 Quink – 1928 In 1928, after three years of research and an investment of $68,000, Parker Pen came up with Quink (a portmanteau word from ’quick’ and ’ink’; also known as Double Quink and Parker 51 Ink) that would eliminate the need for blotting. The success of Quink lay in the fact that it had a number of useful features: it resisted water, it did not clog, it had the desired q uality of ink ? ow, it resisted moulding, it was non-corrosive, it did not leave deposits, it did not fade, and, most importantly, it was quick-drying. However, the new ink was strongly alkaline and contained isopropyl alcohol, a solvent not previously used in inks, which often damaged the pen barrels of that time which were manufactured using pyralin. This problem eventually led to the development of the world’s most successful pen, the Parker 51 in 1941. In 1941, when the Parker 51 was launched, Double Quink was renamed and repackaged as †Parker 51 ink† as a marketing initiative. Parker Pen’s ink sales became the key to maintaining the company’s pro? tability. This revenue generation model is used by the modern day computer printer companies, whose main source of revenue comes from the sale of printer cartridges. Further enhancements were made to Parker Pen inks with its revolutionary †Super Chrome† ink. This ink was marketed in 1947 after a research period that lasted 17 years and cost over $200,000. This was the ? rst basic ink improvement in the last three centuries. Today, more than seventy years later, Quink is still the world’s biggest selling pen ink. 2. 3 Vacumatic – 1933 The Parker Vacumatic (Ref. 4]) fountain pen was introduced in 1933, as a replacing the Duofold as Parker’s top-of-the-line product. The Vacumatic featured a new ? lling mechanism which boasted a much higher ink capacity than the Duofold. The pen remained Parkers top-of-the-line product until the launch of the Parker 51 in 1941. You read "Parker" in category "Essay examples" The US production continued through 1948, and until 1953 i n Canada. 3 2. 4 Parker 51 – 1941 In 1941 Parker Pen introduced the Parker 51 (Ref. [5]) which arguably is the best pen of all time both in terms of popularity and sales. General Eisenhower signed the victory in Europe in 1944. The futuristic design of the Parker 51 heralded as †Ten Years Ahead† of its time, a revolutionary pen, with its hooded, tubular nib and multi-? nned collector, all designed to work in conjunction with the pen’s proprietary ink, allowing the nib to stay wet and lay down an even line with either the ultra-fast drying ink or more traditional inks. It was advertised as the ’The Worlds Most Wanted Pen’ which created huge demand which took Parker several years to ful? l. By 1970, the Parker 51 generated over $400 million in sales, higher than that generated by any single pen ever. 2. 5 Jotter – 1954 In the 1940, the world had seen a ? erce battle for market share fought between the traditional fountain pens and the new ballpoint pens. Despite some initial success, ballpoint pens died a consumer death and by 1951, the fountain pen became the pen of choice of the world. In 1954, Parker Pens introduced its ? rst ballpoint pen, the Jotter which wrote ? ve times longer than the best ballpoint pens available in the market, the Eversharp and the Reynolds ballpoint pens. It was the introduction of Jotter that revived the ballpoint pen market. Parker sold 3. 5 million Jotters at $2. 5 to $8. 75 in less than one year. In 1957, Parker Pen introduced the T-ball Jotter with tungsten carbide textured ball bearing which to this date remains an industry standard. The famed styling of the Parker Duofold was revived in 1972 as a ball pen and within the next decade, ballpoint pens overtook fountain pen as the number choice of pen in the world. 3 Rise of competition – 19 80s After about a century of dominating the ? ne writing instrument market, Parker Pen entered into a period of crisis in the 1980s and the reason for this was that the company was driven by the wrong strategy. Parker was facing competition from three fronts. First, the Japanese were mass marketing cheaper and disposable pens and had captured a large portion of the low end market in USA and Europe and were gradually eating into Parker Pen’s market share. Second, like the Japanese, American brands such as Paper Mate, Bic, Pilot, and Pentel had created signi? cance presence in the low end segment and gradually eroding and were pulling away parker Pen’s customer. Third, in the high 4 end segment which had been Parker Pens main target segment, competition had become ? ercer with reputed German brands such as Montblanc and A. T. Cross making progress in the European markets. 4 Globalization strategy – 1982 Parker Pen faced two contrasting challenges. On one side the weakened dollar generated high foreign revenue since about 80% of the company’s sales were abroad, the pro? ts derived from those sales represented even big pro? ts when translated to local currency. But on the other side, this over dependency on foreign sales exposed the company to foreign competitors, especially the inexpensive brands from Japan which used low pricing as a strategy to compete in the international market. Parker Pen realized that a competitive strategy based on product di? erentiation through technological innovation was not su? cient to thwart the challenge from competitors. In 1982, James R. Peterson became the CEO of Parker Pen,having joined it from Reynolds. He was given the responsibility of reinventing the brand. Peterson decided to launch a global marketing campaign to target all market segments. A consequence of the decision to adopt globalization was standardization. Everything including products as well as marketing campaign was to be standardized for all the markets across the world. Issues in executing globalization strategy When Peterson took over Parker, he was met by a highly proud, mismanaged company that prided itself on its extensive decentralization. The atmosphere re? ected the founders pride in the fact that they had a unique pen for every place in the world. They were a federation of autonomous geographical units. It became immediately clear to Peterson that huge changes were on the anvil. The immediate problems were twofold. The ? rst was the products positioning. Having positioned itself at the higher end of the market for a signi? ant part of the previous century, it had now began to face problems with regard to its image. It was clear that a complete clarity of its brand positioning and image was essential. The second issue that confronted Peterson was its complete ine? ciency in managing its product portfolio. When Peterson entered Parker, it didnt even have a proper idea of the range of products that it was manufacturing. It was a situation of complete chaos 5 with more than 500 products in simultaneous existence. Its decentralized structure had completely turned against its pro? ability, resulting in every distant subsidiary and distributor involved developing a customized product for that particular market. While the company was proud of its decentralized multinational structure, it was ailing on account of an obvious lack of econom ies of scale and a uni? ed command and strategy. The company clearly lacked a common driving force across markets. However, this decentralization had its positive aspects as well, most notably in the area of advertising. Pens meant and mean di? erent things to di? erent people. While the Europeans tended to choose a pen based on its style and feel, people in less-developed countries tended to see a pen as nothing more than a badge of literacy. Within Europe itself for instance, tastes tended to vary from one country to another. While the French showed a de? nite attachment to the fountain pen, the Scandinavians favoured the ballpoint pen. The company justi? ed the existence of numerous advertising agencies in its employ feeling that while it bred a certain amount of ine? ciency, it paid o? from a sales standpoint. Many individual advertising ? ms were able to develop excellent customized messages for their audience that successfully struck a responsive chord within them. For instance, the Lowe Howard-Spink agency in London was able to make the UK division of Parker the most pro? table division during its tenure. Its creative genius is clearly visible in the advertisement that it created showing a dead plumber with a giant Parker pen protruding from his hear t. The situation seemed bleak to Peterson. He immediately implemented a strategy by which Parker would position itself in the entry-level segment. He felt that in the face of the trends at that time, this would be the ideal positioning that would succeed in turning around the company. He also dissociated Parker from the numerous advertising ? rms that it was associated with, retaining only one, Ogilvy and Mather, to oversee a worldwide common strategy in terms of communication and advertising. However, this strategy failed miserably on two counts. It failed to provide a customized communication strategy to each market and thus failed to account for the cultLural di? erences across geographies. It also failed to leverage the premium positioning of the brand and reduced it to an entry-level brand. 5. 1 Two speci? c cases of execution failures The following examples show two speci? c cases of execution failure by Parker Pen. 6 (a) At a corporate level, Parker Pen targeted almost all market segments. However at the business level, management failed to introduce products which would cover the market segments with middle and lower income levels. This allowed competitors with inexpensive products to take up the market. (b) Some of the marketing campaign failed to adjust to the local environment. For example, when Parker Pen ? rst expanded their market to Latin America, they wanted their advertisement to say, †It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you. † The company did not realize that the Spanish word †embarazar † has two meanings; it means †to embarrass,† and it also means to †impregnate. † So, to some unsuspecting people, the ad read: †It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant. † (Ref. [6]) 6 Acquisition of Parker by Gillette and beyond In May 1993, Gillette announced its acquisition of Parker Pen Holdings Ltd (Ref. [7]). (See Exhibit X). This made Gillette the world leader in the pen market. Gillette took an after-tax charge of $164 million for a reorganization of its overseas operations, including the integration of the Parker Pen facilities into the Gillette structure. Nearly 2000 jobs were lost as a result of this restructuring process. Gillette sold the writing instruments division to Newell Rubbermaid, whose own stationery division, Sanford became the largest in the world with brand names such as Rotring, Sharpie, Reynolds as well as Parker, PaperMate, Waterman and Liquid Paper under its umbrella. The next few years were one of a complete downsizing of Parker, marked by job losses across the board. In July 2009, the 180 workers at the Parker headquarters of Newhaven, UK were given notice that the factory was going to be shut down on account of the production moving to France. On August 18, 2009, Newell Rubbermaid announced that Janesville Wisconsin would close the remaining operations of Parker. This resulted in the loss of 153 jobs. According to the company, †This decision is a response to structural issues accelerated by market trends and is in no way a re? ction on the highly valued work performed by our Janesville employees over the years. † Newell Rubbermaid stated an o? er of transitional employment services and severance bene? ts. What remained of the Parker brand was moved to the upscale segment of the writing instrument market and was sold via luxury retailers. Traditional retail outlets were abandoned. This completely removed the brand from the entry leve l segment of the market. 7 In 2011, Parker Pen announced the ? nest innovation in the history of writing, Parker 5TH Technology which o? ers a genuine ? th way of writing. Until then the world knew only four forms of ? ne writing – fountain pen, ball point, roller ball and the mechanical pencil. ground-breaking innovation has rea? rmed placed Parker as leaders in terms of both innovation and market share. 7 7. 1 Exhibits Financial statement 8 7. 2 Product display Duofold – Lucky 8 Limited Edition Ingenuity Parker 51 9 7. 3 Current product portfolio TABLE I T ype Ink Quink Fountain Pen Duofold, Premier, Sonnet, Vector, IM Ballpoint pen 7. 4 M odel Facet, Executive, Esprit, Frontier, Urban, I. M. , Vector Jotter Acquisition of Parker by Gillette References [1] http://parkerpens. net/catalogue/parker catalogue 2009. pdf [2] http://www. parkerpen. com/en/discovery/range/iconic/duofold [3] http://www. patricktaylor. com/parker-duofold [4] http://www. vintagepens. com/Parker Vacumatics. shtml [5] http://www. pentrace. net/penbase/Data Returns/full article. asp? id=468 [6] http://parkerpens. blogspot. com/2007/09/advertizing-campaings-that-wentwrong. html [7] http://www. nytimes. com/1993/05/08/business/company-news-gillette-completesacquisition-of-parker-pen. html 10 How to cite Parker, Essay examples

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Red Dragon free essay sample

The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, Anthony Hopkins returns as brilliant madman Hannibal Lecter in this thriller based on the novel in which author Thomas Harris introduced the character. Will Graham (Edward Norton) is an FBI agent with a rare gift for tracking serial killers who brought Hannibal Lecter to justice; however, his confrontation with Lecter proved to be a bloody, near-death experience, and afterward Graham retired from the Bureau, moving to Florida to spend his time with his wife, Molly (Mary-Louise Parker), and their son. However, a particularly grisly killer is on the loose, and Jack Crawford (Harvey Keitel), Grahams one-time mentor at the Bureau, asks him to return to duty to find him. The Tooth Fairy is a vicious murderer who kills entire families at once, covering the eyes of his victims with bits of a shattered mirror. Graham finds he needs help putting together the pieces of the Tooth Fairy case, and he calls upon Lecter looking for advice. We will write a custom essay sample on Red Dragon or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Lecter, at once vaguely helpful and self-serving, as usual, offers scraps of information to Graham which help him zero in on the killer. But Lecter knows more than hes telling; the Tooth Fairy is actually Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes), a troubled and withdrawn man who admires Lecters violent panache and corresponds with him. Dolarhyde works at a film processing lab, where one of his co-workers, a blind woman named Reba McClane (Emily Watson), seems to be quite attracted to him. As Dolarhyde wrestles with both his murderous impulses and his feelings for McClane, Lecter plays Graham and Dolarhyde against one another so that, as the FBI agent comes closer to catching the Tooth Fairy, Dolarhyde moves in on his next victim Grahams family.