Shaping Identity in William Gibsons Neuromancer Essay -- Numbers Gibs

Shaping Identity in William Gibson's Neuromancer The number â€Å"one† is not a thing. Math has no definitive reality. Numbers are a social construct, a system of symbols designed to express the abstractions through which properly developed societies explain aspects of reality. It follows that, as humanity seeks to understand more of what it is to exist, bigger numbers are needed. Soon, we need machines to understand the numbers. Society plants a base on information technology, efficiency, and a mechanical precision that is startling. What is desirable in a product is distilled to a formulaic essence and packaged neatly. Humans, too, are boiled down to science. Glossy shots, red lipstick, concrete biceps, and an ever-decreasing waistline set the standard. People are reduced to little more than the sum of their parts, a pair of matchstick legs, a rippled midsection, the right shoes and right make-up. Information technology makes the dissimilation of these trends mercilessly easy: In response to the Atkins Diet, tens of thousa nds of Americans strike carbohydrates from their diets. A cell phone that simply calls someone is archaic at best; people need infinite text messaging and a built-in digital camera (with no roaming charges) so that they can e-mail pictures of their new car to their friends in California, New York, or Antarctica. Jessica Simpson mistakes canned tuna for chicken and millions of viewers laugh at her in unison. Still, â€Å"one† is not a thing. These societal constructs chip away at the very humanity of the people who live amidst them. In William Gibson’s Neuromancer, a motley cast of characters face this cold steel reality, that their humanity is being systematically stripped, and that even attempts to take advantage... ... as perceived in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and William Gibson's Neuromancer.† 1996. Retrieved November 16th, 2004. http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5972/gibson.html. Meyer, Chuck. †Human Identity in the Age of Computers: Cyberpunk Identity.† April 1997. Retrieved November 20th, 2004. http://fragment.nl/mirror/Meyer/CyberpunkIdentity.htm. Myers, Tony. †The Postmodern Imaginary In William Gibson's Neuromancer.† 2001. Retrieved November 20th, 2004. http://www.postanarki.net/myers.htm. Saffo, Paul. †Consensual Realities in Cyberspace.† Phrack Magazine. 1989. Retrieved November 16th, 2004. http://www.phrack.org/show.php?p=30&a=8. Shaw, Debbie. †THEREFORE I AM - TECHNOLOGY & HUMAN IDENTITY.† Updated January 1997. Retrieved November 16th, 2004. http://learning.unl.ac.uk/humanIT/cybersf/ident.htm

Philosophy of reading Essay

â€Å"Just simply teaching a child to read is not enough; we must provide them something that is worth reading. Material that will make their imaginations grow – materials that will help them to understand their own lives and push them towards interacting with others who’s lives are completely different than there own† (Paterson). As elementary educators it is our privilege and responsibility to expose young people to knowledge. By making this introduction a fun one, it allows for the child to have a positive attitude about school and learning that they will take with them through out their entire educational career. Many children have a excited and happy attitude about starting school. Every student also feels like they are ready and prepared, no matter what their entry level literacy skills may be. It is common knowledge that not every child will enter the school system with the same levels of literacy. That is why it is up to us, as educators, to teach them how to read by using appropriately developed strategies and individualized instructions. When I was a little girl growing up I was one of a family of sixteen children, so beginning from a very young age once the school days were done we were left with our  older siblings while mom and dad worked hard to earn us a living. My mother would frequently read to me out of story books or simply stories she made up on her own. Since there were so many of us, by the time i was born we had a pretty good assortment of books to choose from. My first memory I have of reading in the classroom setting was in the fourth grade. My teacher was Ms. Bartrum, she was such a lovely woman who was the first to instill in me the joys of reading through accelerated reading programs and book fairs. I was a goal of mine to be the first one to finish one  book and move on to another one on the list, this is a case where a little competition was a healthy thing. Mrs. Bartrum was really good at picking out books that would challenge us but also capture our interests which made reading them a lot less challenging. Cunningham and Allington research has shown that those children who learned to read and write with ease had a lot of different experiences in reading and writing, which allowed them to benefit from the literacy experiences they had in school (Cunningham & Allington). Teaching students to read is not simply picking the right  reading program, and one specific program will not work with for every single student. As a teacher I feel that it is my job to be the spark for the love to read, by using an effective and balanced learning approach. It is of the upmost importance that the curriculum is designed so that it engages the students in the content, while allowing the students to use their own learning styles and accompanying to their developmental needs. The teaching method called â€Å"Best Practice† uses the idea that by using teaching methods and strategies within the classroom will create an individualized environment for learning. I continuously make an effort to use the best practices method in my everyday classroom instruction. Students learn based upon their own individual needs or interests. It is important to help students to gain their own craving for knowledge, it is critical to their academic success. By creating a learning environment that allows the students to feel safe, will in turn make it easier for them to trust you which will make the learning experience much easier. An environment that is encouraging, positive, actively engaging, and allows for social interactions will harbor the best practice learning method. The way that a classroom is arranged can have an effect on the students and how they learn as well. My personal classroom is arranged so that they students’ desks are arranged in a U-shape with my desk in the middle, this allows me to have a view of each student and to be able to get to them easier. My classroom is also full to the gill with reading materials, every which way the students turn they are greeted by books. Our reading corner is focused around our interactive word board, it holds our library with is full of many different forms of reading materials from chart books to decoding books. Also posted throughout the classroom is the alphabet, picture cards, and letter cards with a corresponding word being used in a sentence. Morning messages and charts are placed within easy access for the students so that they can review and practice whenever they want. Also made available within the classroom is environmental prints, these help the students with their writing, studies have shown that they are an effective way of aiding in emergent literacy (Jalongo, 2010). Each day there is an hour set aside to work on reading in small groups. Even though throughout the day several books are  read, this one hour period during the day is when individual reading levels are really focused on within each group. Groups are used during these lessons because studies have shown that students within the early grade levels learn more when a portion of their reading lessons are given in small groups, with regularly tested progress, and ample amount of time to understand the lesson is given (Taylor, 2005). â€Å"Reading is fundamental†, this saying is used to demonstrate the how important reading is to our youth. Having the skills to read and write is not only fundamental in an individual’s success in the academic sense but also in life itself. Reading and writing skills are a continued development throughout a person’s entire lifetime, however they early years, from birth to the age of eight, are the most crucial time frame for developing literacy skills (IRA and NAEYC, 2009). Reading has an undeniable importance because of the basic tools it provides an individual. It is the building block for the nation’s educational system. One must have adequate reading skills to be able to master any other subjects such as math or science, this is why it is the most crucial of all subjects to master. Despite it being such a simple concept, if it weren’t for reading our culture  wouldn’t be as advanced as it is today. By simply saying that â€Å"reading is fundamental† lacks emphasis, because without the ability to read our lives would be extremely different in many ways. References: Reading Rockets. Interview with Katherine Paterson. On-line. Accessed on December 5, 2014 at http:// www. readingrockets. org/books/interviews/paterson Hall, D. P. & Williams, E. (2000). Teachers Guide to Building Blocks: A Developmentally Appropriate, Multilevel Framework for Kindergarten. Greensboro, NC: Carlos-Dellosa Publishing Company Inc. International Reading Association (IRA) & National Association for the Education of  Young Children (NAEYC). (2009). Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children. NAEYC: Washington, DC. Jalongo, M. R. (2007). Early Childhood Language Arts. (4th Ed). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Taylor, B. , Pearson, P. , Clark, K. , & Walpole, S. (2005). Beating the Odds in Teaching All Children to Read. CIERA Report #2-006. University of Michigan: Ann Arbor.

Mouse Trap: Woodstream Corporation

Mouse Trap: Woodstream Corporation The company that has been chosen for this case study is Woodstream Corporation. This company was founded in 1832 and was formerly known as Animal Trap Company of America. It manufactures and markets a variety of pest control products including rodent control, caring control for pets and different types of mouse traps. It has been around for more than 150 years and marketed over 2500 unique products. Woodstream works to bring innovation to consumers by combining category leading products with technology and it services to solve the business needs of the retailer.The business strategy of Woodstream Corporation, in its own words is: â€Å"Our ‘go to market’ strategies are structured to help you optimize inventory levels, maximize sales and grow profitability† (1). The company is striving to give its retailers the maximum sell through innovative products and grow profitably. The president of the company, Harry Whaley, came up with a new and innovative plastic mouse trap also known as live mouse trap, which is more effective and easy to use than the traditional wood mouse trap.However, sales haven’t increased and in this case study we are going to look at the marketing strategy used for two different mouse traps and how it affects the buyer decision process. In order to design a customer-driven marketing strategy, a company must first understand the marketplace as well as the customer’s needs and wants. Seeing a mouse inside the house triggers an individual the need to look for a solution to take care of the problem. That individual is now going to look for a solution that they want in order to satisfy their need.In this case they probably want to get rid of the mouse permanently. In the market place there are two mouse traps available for them with Woodstream Corporation. The traditional wooden mouse trap and the innovative plastic mouse trap which are made by the same company. The traditional woo den mouse trap is known to work fifty percent of the time and it costs 15 cents for a pack of two. The new plastic mouse trap on the other hand is known to be forty percent more effective than the traditional wooden trap but costs a little more with the price of 25 cents per mouse trap.Despite the great effectiveness of the new innovative plastic mouse traps, people still tend to buy more of the wooden traps. It could be because the customer-perceived value of the traditional wooden trap is very high that people still choose to buy the old snap trap. It could also be that the company’s president Harry Whaley was too, focused on innovation and maximizing sales and profitability when creating the new mouse trap that he lost sight of the underlying customer need and value. This is when marketing myopia comes into play.The traditional wooden mouse trap is cheap, good quality and effective in getting rid of the mouse problem permanently. The way it works is the snap bar comes down violently on the head or neck of a mouse killing them instantly. The problem is being solved right then and there because the mouse died. The old traditional wooden trap satisfies the customer need by doing the entire job on its own. The new and innovative plastic mouse trap on the other hand does not complete the job entirely. It is effective in capturing the mouse; in fact it is more effective than the traditional wooden trap however, it only captures the mouse.It doesn’t get rid of the mouse by killing it. Now the consumers are left in a serious dilemma with a live mouse in their trap. Most of them do not want to kill the mouse on their own and they also don’t want to release it near their homes because they are afraid that it will come straight back into the home. In this case the customers are left with a product that solved half of their problem and don’t know what to do afterward. They are not willing to pay a higher price for a product like that despite its effectiveness and innovation.They are more willing to pay less for a traditional wooden mouse trap that satisfies their needs to its entirety. Woodstream might have failed to understand what the customers really want when building this new mouse trap. The company also does not have a well constructed marketing program that promotes the new plastic mousetrap. The more innovative product design does have a little advantage over the old one however; the pricing doesn’t create a real value for the customers. The distribution channel is great because it is being distributed from the same company.Promotion on the other hand needs a lot of improvement. The old traditional mouse trap has been around for many years. A great deal of promotion and advertising was done for this product. The wooden mouse trap also gained a lot of exposure through cartoon television shows for kids like Tom and Jerry, and other media advertising. The new plastic mouse trap on the other hand has not bee n promoted well in today’s media. Not a lot of consumers know about it and for those who haven’t had a mouse problem in the past, the new plastic mousetrap is nonexistent to them. They are unaware of the new and innovated mouse trap.

Capital Maintenance Case of Trevor v Whitworth †Free Samples

Capital Maintenance Doctrine is not a new concept and it has existed more than a decade. This is a doctrine that was first recognized in the case of Trevor v Whitworth in the year 1887. In this case, the judge argued that it is reasonable for a company to lose money in business transactions, and this is basically because of the risks involved in business (Armour 2000). However, it is not reasonable or acceptable for a company to engage in activities that will lead to a reduction of its capital. This is because it will be against the desire of investors and their reasons of investing in a company, which is capital growth.   Ã‚  Ã‚   On this basis, it is possible to assert that the intention of the capital maintenance doctrine is to protect the capital that investors have invested in a company. However, in Ooregum Gold Mining v Roper, the court was of the opinion that capital maintenance doctrine is aimed at preserving and promoting the principle of limited liability (Hannigan 2015). The reasoning of the court is that a shareholder has a limited liability, and it is limited to the extent in the value of his shares. Therefore, reducing the capital of the organization may frustrate the ability of a company to pay off its debts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Moreover, the 2001 Corporation Act supports the doctrine of Capital Maintenance, and this is depicted in section 256A of the Act, which prevents the company from engaging in any activity that may threaten the financial position and stability of the company. Examples of these activities include financing the operations of other companies, engaging in the expensive process of purchasing buyback shares, etc (Borg 2015). In as much as the doctrine of capital maintenance is useful to creditors and shareholders, the   law allows a company to reduce its capital in some circumstances. For instance, section 254 of the 2001 Corporations Act allows a company to reduce its capital, if it is a decision that is passed unanimously by its shareholders. When a company reduces the value of its capital after getting permission from the shareholders, the process must be transparent and equitable (Hanrahan, Ramsay and Stapledon 2013). Additionally, if the company becomes insolvent because of the reduction of its capital, the directors of the company would be held liable. Therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that during the process, the value of liabilities does not exceed the value of its capital. Finally, in the case of Fowlers Vocola Manufacturing Company; it is acceptable for a company to reduce the value of its capital, if it seeks to refund investors their capital. Armour, J., 2000. Share capital and creditor protection: Efficient rules for a modern company law .  The Modern   Law Review, pp.355-378. Borg, D.J., 2015. The acquisition of own shares by limited liability companies. Hanrahan, P.F., Ramsay, I. and Stapledon, G.P., 2013. Commercial applications of company law. Hannigan, B., 2015.  Company law . Oxford University Press,.  

Explore Canadian cultural developments and further examine those which Essay

Explore Canadian cultural developments and further examine those which would impact the investment plans of a German-based luxury car manufacturer - Essay Example However, the country’s recent economic prosperity and the ability to be at par with the competitive world are some affirmations of this conservatism. According to Bill Currie, Deloitte’s chair, the Canadians feel they are good and do not need to take risks that are not comfortable with them. In a report produced by Deloitte Company, uncertainty and risk were noted as the greatest obstacles to the Canadian business owners. In addition, other Canadian business leaders claim that the high cost of labour is the primary cause that is restraining their capabilities to invest in research and development (OVSEY, 2012). According to OVSEY (2012), Prof Peridis disagrees with their claims noting that the Germans despite their high labour costs can still sell their products. They produce knowledge-intensive products and adds that a culture of modesty cannot be changed overnight. Thus, for Canada to become a serious contributor to the business globe, it needs time to change that conservative culture. Audi is among the top luxury car producing company in Germany. The Audi manufacturers are known for their numerous innovations in the automotive industry. For this reason, Audi can be termed as a risk taker in the global business world due to their willingness to venture their business worldwide. Furthermore, plans to invest globally in the Chinese and American markets are underway by the Audi automobile company. These plans were triggered by the developments in both countries and the need to sell their products worldwide to develop economically (BOUDETTE, 2014). Despite the facts that Canadian companies are conservative and do not love innovation, the Canadian country can be a good market for the Audi to sell their cars. As well, this is because the locally based companies are very reluctant in innovating anything new. As a result, Canadians may be willing to break the monotony in their countries and try to import

MBA 510 Problem Set I Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

MBA 510 Problem Set I - Essay Example b. Compute the mean deviation. 3.24 square root ((N-Mean)^2+(N1-Mean)^2.../n)= Square root (42/4)= 3.74 c. Compute the standard deviation. 3.74 square root ((N-Mean)^2+(N1-Mean)^2.../n-1)= Square root (42/3)= 3.74 b. Lind Chapter 5: Exercises 8, 66 8. A sample of 2,000 licensed drivers revealed the following number of speeding violations. Number of Violations Number of Drivers 0 1,910 1 46 2 18 3 12 4 9 5 or more 5 Total 2,000 a. What is the experiment The experiment is the gathering of the data set b. List one possible eventA driver has less than two speeding violations c. What is the probability that a particular driver had exactly two speeding violations 18/2000 = .009 d. What concept of probability does this illustrate Relative frequency 66. A survey of undergraduate students in the School of Business at Northern University revealed the following regarding gender and majors of the students: Major Gender Accounting Management Finance Total Male 100 150 50 300 Female 100 50 50 200 Total 200 200 100 500 a. What is the probability of selecting a female student 200/500 = .4 b. What is the probability of selecting finance or accounting major 300/500 = .6 c. What is the probability of selecting a female or an accounting major Which rule of addition did you apply 250/500 = .5 The addition rule of independent events d. Are gender and major independent Why No, the data is dependent upon gender e. What is the probability of selecting an accounting major, given that the person selected is male 100/300 = .33 f. Suppose two students are selected randomly to attend a lunch with the president of the university. What is the probability that both of those selected are accounting majors Acct major = .4 Both acct major = .4*.4 =... 68. The American Automobile Association checks the price of gasoline before many holiday weekends. Listed below are the self-service prices for a sample of 15 retail outlets during the May 2003 Memorial Day weekend in the Detroit, Michigan, area. 70. A recent article suggested that if you earn , 25, 000 a year today and the inflation rate continues at 3 percent per year, you'll need to make 33,598 in 10 years to have the same buying power. You would need to make 44,771 if the inflation rate jumped to 6 percent. Confirm that these statements are accurate by finding the geometric mean rate of increase. 38. The accounting department at Weston Materials, Inc., a national manufacturer of unattached garages, reports that it takes two construction workers a mean of 32 hours and a standard deviation of 2 hours to erect the Red Barn model. Assume the assembly times follow the normal distribution. 44. The number of passengers on the Carnival Sensation during one-week cruises in the Caribbean follows the normal distribution. The mean number of passengers per cruise is 1,820 and the standard deviation is 120. 60. In establishing warranties on HDTV sets, the manufacturer wants to set the limits so that few will need repair at manufacturer expense. On the other hand, the warranty period must be long enough to make the purchase attractive to the buyer.

The Good, the Bad and the Legal Issues of Training Security Personnel Research Paper

The Good, the Bad and the Legal Issues of Training Security Personnel - Research Paper Example The security market is among the swiftest developing sectors in North America, as private policing looks forward to more and more public part. In accordance to Figures Canada survey, there are many more Security personnel employed in Canada these days as compared to police officers (Kent & Jacobs, 2004). Personal Security workers outnumbered police officers in both 1991 and 1996. In 1996, there have been 59,090 police officers when compared with 82,010 personal security staff: 12,230 personal investigators and 69,780 security guards (Jones & Newburn, 1995). Lawbreaker exercise is not reducing in rate of recurrence. Police organizations are anticipated to carry out a lot more with fewer sources. The broadening disparity between police service and need needs to be crammed with something, and dependent on the encounters of the last couple of years in America, most likely it will likely be made up by personal policing. Though it may be unsure that a security guard will ever be called on to replicate the substantial responsibilities of law enforcement executive, one might visualize private security dealing with amplified duties under the supervision and tutelage of the law enforcement officials. As an example, Regina Police Service has identified the benefit of an immediate interaction with the personal security field, and taken on considerable actions to synchronize with that industry via its Collaborating Policing program (Johnston & Shearing, 2002). Private security: Personal security differs from public security in a number of important ways. Private security is supplied to customers for a charge, and besides in particular situations, has its jurisdiction confined to the property possessed by the consumer. Instead of support supplied in the pursuits of the public, safety is supplied to guard the interests of the client. Customarily, regulation in Canada has acknowledged these contrasts and has not expanded the