Ikemefuna’s Death in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart Essay -- Things

Ikemefuna’s Death in Things Fall Apart Okonkwo’s participation in the slaying of his adopted son, Ikemefuna is a pivotal moment in Things Fall Apart. It is a moment of horror that cannot please Ani, the great earth goddess, the center of community, the ultimate judge of morality for the clan. It is a moment that changes the course of events, a moment eerily paralleled in the death of Ezeudu’s son. It is a moment that ultimately causes Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye’s to abandon his ancestors and become a Christian. It is a moment when the center of community life, the need to honor blood ties and the need to respect the earth goddess, can no longer hold. It is a moment when things fall apart. "That boy calls you father. Do not bear a hand in his death," advises Ezeudu, the oldest and most respected man in the village (Achebe 57). Although he treats the boy as a son (28), Okonkwo’s greatest fear is to be thought effeminate. He ignores Ezeudu’s advice and accompanies the party that takes Ikemefuna to his death. Ikemefuna feels safe, not believing that harm will come to him while his fos...

Happy people make people happy Essay

Like yawning, many recent studies have proved that laughter is contagious. Does this necessarily imply that when you smile to a complete stranger, he will smile back to you? Or on the other hand, when you frown at a complete stranger, he will frown at you as well? To find out the answer, we designed an experiment to test will happy people make people happy. Independent variables are the factors we manipulated. There are two independent variables in this test. The first one is our emotion conditions when having eye contact with the strangers, i.e. smile condition, frown condition and control condition. We define smile condition as smiling without teeth, frown condition as knitting our brows, and control condition as having a neutral facial expression. The second one is gender. To understand if gender matching matters, we will test the three conditions with strangers with the same gender and the opposite gender. Dependent variables are the variables being tested in the experiment. In this test, the dependent variables are the responses from the participants. We will rate their responded expression in 5 categories: clear frown, small frown, neutral, small smile, and clear smile. However, there are confounding factors that may affect the results of the experiment. Confounds are the extraneous variables in an experimental design that correlates with both the independent and dependent variables. Possible confound is the original facial expression of participants. Randomly choosing participants is a way to prevent confounds. To further eliminate confounds, we will choose complete strangers as participants and will not tell them about our test beforehand as they may confound the result by giving us what they believe we want to see. The last thing we do is to execute this test in a consistent way. We have strict control over our facial expression to make sure that our expressions will not defer a lot among participants. This is not a simple test as what we originally consider. The first obstacle we encounter is not having enough confidence to frown at people. It is not difficult to smile at strangers, but frowning at strangers is somewhat weird  that we hesitate for a long time before having confidence to complete the test. The second obstacle we encounter is there are possible biases in choosing participants. For example, we tend to choose participants with the same race or at similar ages with us. This may create possible confounding factors to the test. The last obstacle we encounter is finding suitable participants. Since we want to choose participants that are walking alone and not distracted by phones or music, surprisingly there are only a few can be found around campus. It takes us quite a lot of effort and time in finding suitable participants for the test. Before conducting the test, we state our hypothesis as when we smile to people, people will smile back to us; whereas when we frown at people, people will frown at us as well. We come out with this hypothesis because we believe ones emotion can influence others, that is when there are optimistic and happy people in a group, other members in the group will become happy more easily; whereas when people in a group are generally in a pessimistic and unhappy mood, other members in the group will be influenced and become unhappy as well.

Deception Point Page 3

He clucked ruefully. â€Å"Thirty-four. Almost an old maid. You know by the time I was thirty-four, I'd already-â€Å" â€Å"Married Mom and screwed the neighbor?† The words came out louder than Rachel had intended, her voice hanging naked in an ill-timed lull. Diners nearby glanced over. Senator Sexton's eyes flash-froze, two ice-crystals boring into her. â€Å"You watch yourself, young lady.† Rachel headed for the door. No, you watch yourself, senator. 2 The three men sat in silence inside their ThermaTech storm tent. Outside, an icy wind buffeted the shelter, threatening to tear it from its moorings. None of the men took notice; each had seen situations far more threatening than this one. Their tent was stark white, pitched in a shallow depression, out of sight. Their communication devices, transport, and weapons were all state-of-the-art. The group leader was code-named Delta-One. He was muscular and lithe with eyes as desolate as the topography on which he was stationed. The military chronograph on Delta-One's wrist emitted a sharp beep. The sound coincided in perfect unison with beeps emitted from the chronographs worn by the other two men. Another thirty minutes had passed. It was time. Again. Reflexively, Delta-One left his two partners and stepped outside into the darkness and pounding wind. He scanned the moonlit horizon with infrared binoculars. As always, he focused on the structure. It was a thousand meters away – an enormous and unlikely edifice rising from the barren terrain. He and his team had been watching it for ten days now, since its construction. Delta-One had no doubt that the information inside would change the world. Lives already had been lost to protect it. At the moment, everything looked quiet outside the structure. The true test, however, was what was happening inside. Delta-One reentered the tent and addressed his two fellow soldiers. â€Å"Time for a flyby.† Both men nodded. The taller of them, Delta-Two, opened a laptop computer and turned it on. Positioning himself in front of the screen, Delta-Two placed his hand on a mechanical joystick and gave it a short jerk. A thousand meters away, hidden deep within the building, a surveillance robot the size of a mosquito received his transmission and sprang to life. 3 Rachel Sexton was still steaming as she drove her white Integra up Leesburg Highway. The bare maples of the Falls Church foothills rose stark against a crisp March sky, but the peaceful setting did little to calm her anger. Her father's recent surge in the polls should have endowed him with a modicum of confident grace, and yet it seemed only to fuel his self-importance. The man's deceit was doubly painful because he was the only immediate family Rachel had left. Rachel's mother had died three years ago, a devastating loss whose emotional scars still raked at Rachel's heart. Rachel's only solace was knowing that the death, with ironic compassion, had liberated her mother from a deep despair over a miserable marriage to the senator. Rachel's pager beeped again, pulling her thoughts back to the road in front of her. The incoming message was the same. – RPRT DIRNRO STAT – Report to the director of NRO stat. She sighed. I'm coming, for God's sake! With rising uncertainty, Rachel drove to her usual exit, turned onto the private access road, and rolled to a stop at the heavily armed sentry booth. This was 14225 Leesburg Highway, one of the most secretive addresses in the country. While the guard scanned her car for bugs, Rachel gazed out at the mammoth structure in the distance. The one-million-square-foot complex sat majestically on sixty-eight forested acres just outside D.C. in Fairfax, Virginia. The building's facade was a bastion of one-way glass that reflected the army of satellite dishes, antennas, and rayodomes on the surrounding grounds, doubling their already awe-inspiring numbers. Two minutes later, Rachel had parked and crossed the manicured grounds to the main entrance, where a carved granite sign announced NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE (NRO) The two armed Marines flanking the bulletproof revolving door stared straight ahead as Rachel passed between them. She felt the same sensation she always felt as she pushed through these doors†¦ that she was entering the belly of a sleeping giant. Inside the vaulted lobby, Rachel sensed the faint echoes of hushed conversations all around her, as if the words were sifting down from the offices above. An enormous tiled mosaic proclaimed the NRO directive: ENABLING U.S. GLOBAL INFORMATION SUPERIORITY, DURING PEACE AND THROUGH WAR. The walls here were lined with massive photographs – rocket launches, submarine christenings, intercept installations – towering achievements that could be celebrated only within these walls. Now, as always, Rachel felt the problems of the outside world fading behind her. She was entering the shadow world. A world where the problems thundered in like freight trains, and the solutions were meted out with barely a whisper. As Rachel approached the final checkpoint, she wondered what kind of problem had caused her pager to ring twice in the last thirty minutes. â€Å"Good morning, Ms. Sexton.† The guard smiled as she approached the steel doorway. Rachel returned the smile as the guard held out a tiny swab for Rachel to take. â€Å"You know the drill,† he said. Rachel took the hermetically sealed cotton swab and removed the plastic covering. Then she placed it in her mouth like a thermometer. She held it under her tongue for two seconds. Then, leaning forward, she allowed the guard to remove it. The guard inserted the moistened swab into a slit in a machine behind him. The machine took four seconds to confirm the DNA sequences in Rachel's saliva. Then a monitor flickered on, displaying Rachel's photo and security clearance. The guard winked. â€Å"Looks like you're still you.† He pulled the used swab from the machine and dropped it through an opening, where it was instantly incinerated. â€Å"Have a good one.† He pressed a button and the huge steel doors swung open. As Rachel made her way into the maze of bustling corridors beyond, she was amazed that even after six years here she was still daunted by the colossal scope of this operation. The agency encompassed six other U.S. installations, employed over ten thousand agents, and had operating costs of over $10 billion per year. In total secrecy, the NRO built and maintained an astonishing arsenal of cutting-edge spy technologies: worldwide electronic intercepts; spy satellites; silent, embedded relay chips in telecomm products; even a global naval-recon network known as Classic Wizard, a secret web of 1,456 hydrophones mounted on seafloors around the world, capable of monitoring ship movements anywhere on the globe. NRO technologies not only helped the United States win military conflicts, but they provided an endless stream of peacetime data to agencies such as the CIA, NSA, and Department of Defense, helping them thwart terrorism, locate crimes against the environment, and give policymakers the data needed to make informed decisions on an enormous array of topics. Rachel worked here as a â€Å"gister.† Gisting, or data reduction, required analyzing complex reports and distilling their essence or â€Å"gist† into concise, single-page briefs. Rachel had proven herself a natural. All those years of cutting through my father's bullshit, she thought. Rachel now held the NRO's premier gisting post-intelligence liaison to the White House. She was responsible for sifting through the NRO's daily intelligence reports, deciding which stories were relevant to the President, distilling those reports into single-page briefs, and then forwarding the synopsized material to the President's National Security Adviser. In NRO-speak, Rachel Sexton â€Å"manufactured finished product and serviced the customer.†

Understanding Issues in Organizational Behavior

Understanding Issues in Organizational Behavior Free Online Research Papers A. How effective are non-monetary incentives in relieving stress? Monetary incentives at first glance appear to be motivational and accepted as such by most people but not always does it carry much length in satisfaction. Relieving employee stress goes further than monetary compensation from your employer. Non-monetary compensation in consideration to assist employees with stress comes in many forms. Employees under stress would most likely look forward to paid time off, schedule adjustments and the possibility of a more flexible work shift. I my experience non-monetary incentives have resulted in a more effective response from employees. Happy employees perform better and produce better results in the work environment. B. How does employee motivation impact organizational performance? Employee motivation plays a large part in an organizations performance and productivity results. Motivation encourages people to try and achieve their designated task and goals. For many, motivation provides a sense of accomplishment and the good feeling of belonging to an organization in control of their destination. Being part of something structured can often offer much motivation for employees. Lack of motivation among the work force can result in low encouragement to achieve, promote negative feeling about the organization and the organizations concerns about its personnel. Organizations who promote positive motivation expresses awareness and acknowledgement about their employees further enhancing creativity and productivity results. C. In today’s business environment, what is the importance of a culturally diverse workforce? Today’s business is almost non-existing without cultural diversity taking main stage in the workforce. The importance of culturally diverse in the workforce is just as important as the business market today if not more. Understanding and learning how to deal with cultural diversity can only widened and opened global opportunities for organizations to succeed. By becoming more adapted to the needs and indifferences of all the many cultures within business and particularly the workforce, organizations have expanded and opened the doors to great success potential. Accepting diversity and maintaining a positive and motivated organization in today’s business world is priority for many businesses around the world. The workforce is the core structure of an organized business, dealing with diversity and creating a positive and diverse workplace will only promote success and performance. Research Papers on Understanding Issues in Organizational BehaviorResearch Process Part OneOpen Architechture a white paperAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalPETSTEL analysis of IndiaBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfThe Project Managment Office SystemTwilight of the UAWMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductRelationship between Media Coverage and Social and

A Brief History of Seat Belts

A Brief History of Seat Belts The first U.S. patent for automobile seat belts was issued to Edward J. Claghorn of New York, New York on February 10, 1885. Claghorn was granted United States Patent #312,085 for a Safety-Belt for tourists, described in the patent as designed to be applied to the person, and provided with hooks and other attachments for securing the person to a fixed object. Nils Bohlin Modern Seat Belts Swedish inventor, Nils Bohlin invented the three-point seat belt - not the first but the modern seat belt - now a standard safety device in most cars. Nils Bohlins lap-and-shoulder belt was introduced by Volvo in 1959. Seat Belt Terminology 2-Point Seat Belt: A restraint system with two attachment points. A lap belt.3-Point Seat Belt: A seat belt with both a lap and a shoulder portion, having three attachment points (one shoulder, two hips).Lap Belt: A seat belt anchored at two points, for use across the occupants thighs/hips.Lap/Shoulder Belt: A seat belt that is anchored at three points and restrains the occupant at the hips and across the shoulder; also called a combination belt. Car Seats - Child Restraints The first child car seats were invented in 1921, following the introduction of the Henry Fords Model T, however, they were very different from todays car seat. The earliest versions were essentially sacks with a drawstring attached to the back seat. In 1978, Tennessee became the first American State to require child safety seat use.

Developing New Venture for an Entrepreneur Essay

Developing New Venture for an Entrepreneur - Essay Example Reflective learning enables use to learn from the past experience and improve upon that. While an entrepreneur exploits opportunities, a good entrepreneur creates opportunities innovatively. The success of Hinna Azeem in the jewellery brand is a proof of her reflective entrepreneurial skills. Introduction A few years ago Hinna Azeem was a young girl living a hectic life in London. She happened to have a passion for Gems and Jewellery. She turned to be more enthusiastic as she became familiar with it. She cherished the dream of becoming a jewellery designer and she took up the evening class to learn jewellery making and designing at St.Martin’s Collage of Art and Designing. Hinna’s dream rolled out as jewellery brand in the year 2000. It took more than two years to stabilize the business through a steady growth. Her passion for designing jewellery got better with her travelling experiences around the world including the gemstone rich areas of Africa, Asia and South Ameri ca. Her professionalism and personal inclination to stones helped her to make unique and versatile designs. While it was designed to be stylish to enhance the beauty of women, she aimed to make those available at affordable prices. She promoted on the view of making a women look complete with perfect set of jewellery. The timeless designs of H. Azeem, along with affordable price tags, soon captured the attention of the masses and the brand became very popular. Steadily climbing up in the graph the company turned out to be profitable in less than two years. Her production was outsourced to suppliers in the far off countries with the objectives of cheap labour and availability of materials. Though she had gained the potential to turn her brand into an icon of fashion, using tactics like outsourcing and so on, she kept the public trust by maintaining low prices. Having achieved tremendous success in the business, Now, H. Azeem plans to enter into the category of men’s jewellery. As it enhances the market for the business, she provides an excellent customer service department with an effective network of after sale service. She outsourcers to retailers for sale and now the firm also have an online portal for sale. These could be termed as the strategic and technical skills she adapted to remain unique in the market. Being young and intelligent, she has been acknowledged as one of the outstanding entrepreneurs. She has now been recognised by scholars and news makers as an innovative, successful proprietor. Report The following is the report of our group. As we kept on moving about fulfilling the task requirements, each one of us was challenged with problems and difficulties. This report, however, formatted individually, enables one to analyse how every one had completed the assigned task in connection with our reflective learning outcomes. At the end of the individual report is the conclusion which is the group’s overview. Individual 1 An entrepreneur is the one who look forward to exploiting opportunities to maximum

Business and Social Approaches to Social Media Essay - 1

Business and Social Approaches to Social Media - Essay Example Identifying how this particular tool is now being used and identifying the ways that it can work for others that are using the Internet is then creating a different approach to connecting online. Theories of Social Media The use of social media for businesses is one which relates specifically to the ability to connect with others online through specific mediums. The social media platforms consist of areas which users can interact and connect with other like-minded users. The growth of this has led to platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and business areas where others can connect. The concept is now known as web 2.0, where interaction and user-generated content is providing more applications and alternatives for those that are online. The concept of using these tools is based on the demographics, ability to display a specific message to viewers and the ability to collaborate with business ideas that will attract potential customers to a business (Kaplan, Haenlein, 2010). Th e approach which is now being taken with social media has allowed the main concept to transform the way in which many are approaching business and interactions. When searching for the user-generated content, there is the ability to connect with others that are interested in specific ideologies, consumerism, and choices. A business can specify demographics, target markets and other concepts that are from a given profile. From this, there is the ability to transfer information and knowledge about the business and to create a connection to customers. This creates a social graph, in which one business connects to potential customers and begins to expand with the specific target markets that are available through the interactions and known interests that are listed on the various online portals (Qualman, 2011). The concept which has been used with approaching target markets has also led to the promotional mix is a model which is followed. This has been built into a hybrid model that is u sed for communicating with others and for interactions that are able to get specific results with online marketing. Consumer to consumer communications as well as promotions from businesses is the two main focuses of the hybrid promotional mix that is used for user-generated content. This occurs with the main promotion, advertisement or page that is listed on a social media site or website. The consumer then has the ability to focus on direct responses by commenting on the promotional tools with engagement. For businesses, this means that the promotions need to have positive responses from consumers while ensuring that the discussions work in favor of the business. The promotional mix that is needed is then based on gaining a sense of control with the promotions that are used for the social media portals (Mangold, Faulds, 2009). The interactions with customers and the way which this is associated with the promotional mix are then leading to the need to put the public relations of a business as the main priority. The amount of control that is a part of the user-generated content is based on finding a way to build credible forms of marketing and interactions that are online. The use of effective communication, ability to increase exposure and creating a strong presence and brand loyalty are some of the focuses that are a part of using social media online.