Business Data Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Business Data Analysis - Essay Example Histogram for the First Quarter Average Order Size Figure 1.3. Histogram for the Second Quarter Average Order Size Table 1.2. Relative Frequency Distribution for the First Quarter Average Order Size Order Size Intervals Frequency Relative Frequency 0-20 0 0.00 20-40 0 0.00 40-60 0 0.00 60-80 0 0.00 80-100 2 0.03 100-120 8 0.13 120-140 17 0.27 140-160 19 0.31 160-180 10 0.16 180-200 4 0.06 200-220 1 0.02 220-240 1 0.02    62 1 Table 1.3. Relative Frequency Distribution for the Second Quarter Average Order Size Order Size Intervals Frequency Relative Frequency 0-20 0 0.00 20-40 0 0.00 40-60 0 0.00 60-80 0 0.00 80-100 1 0.02 100-120 10 0.16 120-140 24 0.38 140-160 19 0.30 160-180 5 0.08 180-200 3 0.05 200-220 2 0.03    64 1 (b) Construct similar quarterly charts for the company’s total number of orders per day. ... Relative Frequency Distribution for the Third Quarter Orders Q3 Order Intervals Frequency Relative Frequency 100-110 0 0.00 110-120 1 0.02 120-130 1 0.02 130-140 4 0.06 140-150 2 0.03 150-160 14 0.22 160-170 16 0.25 170-180 13 0.21 180-190 10 0.16 190-200 1 0.02 200-210 1 0.02    63 1 Table 1.5. Relative Frequency Distribution for the Fourth Quarter Orders Q4 Order Intervals Frequency Relative Frequency 100-110 0 0.00 110-120 0 0.00 120-130 2 0.03 130-140 2 0.03 140-150 5 0.08 150-160 10 0.16 160-170 15 0.23 170-180 9 0.14 180-190 8 0.13 190-200 8 0.13 200-210 3 0.05 210-220 1 0.02 220-230 0 0.00 230-240 0 0.00 240-250 1 0.02    64 1 Table 1.6. Relative Frequency Distribution for the First Quarter Orders Q1 Order Intervals Frequency Relative Frequency 100-110 0 0.00 110-120 1 0.02 120-130 1 0.02 130-140 1 0.02 140-150 3 0.05 150-160 3 0.05 160-170 9 0.15 170-180 12 0.19 180-190 14 0.23 190-200 7 0.11 200-210 4 0.06 210-220 5 0.08 220-230 1 0.02 230-240 1 0.02    62 1 Table 1.7. Relative Frequency Distribution for the Second Quarter Orders Q2 Order Intervals Frequency Relative Frequency 100-110 1 0.02 110-120 0 0.00 120-130 0 0.00 130-140 0 0.00 140-150 2 0.03 150-160 7 0.11 160-170 7 0.11 170-180 19 0.30 180-190 13 0.20 190-200 9 0.14 200-210 4 0.06 210-220 1 0.02 220-230 1 0.02    64 1 (c) What changing patterns are evident in the data from quarter to quarter? What are some possible explanations? The histograms and relative frequency distributions of the average order size for the first and second quarters are both uni-modal and negatively skewed. This indicates that data are concentrated to the right of the mean. This supports Laurel’s trending assumptions that â€Å"orders will be more frequent and for smaller amounts than before†. Meanwhile, the histograms

Energy Drinks and There Effects Essay Example for Free

Energy Drinks and There Effects Essay Have you ever wondered what the side effects were after drinking an energy drink? People buy these types of drinks all the time and they are very popular with the younger groups. They give you a boost of energy but they can also make you sick. There are many different brands of energy drinks on the market the most popular are Red Bull and Monster. People are now mixing these with alcohol which has a serious side effect. There are several ingredients in energy drinks: caffeine, taurine, b vitamins, inositol, ginseng, glucuronolactone, artificial sweeteners, ginkgo biloba, and l-carnitine. The caffeine in these drinks can cause dizziness, jitters, nausea, irritability and nervousness. You can also have an allergic reaction like: a rash, difficulty breathing, and swelling of the mouth, face, lips or tongue. To many b vitamins like vitamin (B3) can cause flushing of the skin. Ginkgo biloba can cause nausea, vomiting, heart palpitations and the l-carnitine can cause headache, diarrhea, sleep difficulty. Why do people buy these drinks? Because they give you an energy boost when you need it. These types of drinks are more popular with the teens and college kids they drink these to give them a boost when they are studying or partying to help them stay awake but when the effects of the drink wears off they feel more tired than they already were. These drinks contain more caffeine then a regular soda a normal soda has 25-40 milligrams of caffeine and the energy drink has 280 milligrams of caffeine. This much caffeine can affect your heart rate and blood pressure. Having this much caffeine in your body can make you heart rate become accelerated. These sorts of drinks can also cause dehydration which is not good on your body. Mixing energy drinks and alcohol has become popular with people. It says that when you mix the two together the energy drinks counteracts the depressant effect of alcohol. Mixing the two causes your body to become more dehydrated than drinking one of the drinks alone. After you drink one or more of the mixed drinks your body wants more and you become more dehydrated. My thoughts about this type of drink are that they are not very healthy and they can cause permanent damage to your body. Why would anyone want to put something like that in there body? For me they are no good and would cause more damage to my heart than there already is and you only have one heart. My own children have tried these energy drinks and the effects they had on them were not pleasant they were full of energy and could not hold still for a minute and when the effects wore off they were too tired to do anything. When they woke up the next day they still felt tired and they said they didn’t feel all the greatest. References: The Health Effects of Energy Drinks-Associated content from Yahoo http://www. associatedcontent. com/article/234299/the _health_effects_of_energy_drinks_pg.

Leadership and Personality Research

Leadership and Personality Research Section One: Leadership Model Leadership is commonly identified as an art, yet slightly understood as a science in various literatures. Leadership is both a science and an art (Hughes, Ginnett Curphy, 2011). To define what art is, in the noble words of Gunter Grass, Art is accusation, expression, passion. Art is a fight to the finish between black charcoal and white paper (Taberner, 2012). Furthermore, to borrow an interesting description of what art is not, from Leo Tolstoy, Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of mans emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity (Tolstoy, 2016). From the above, I arrived to an understanding that leadership seems to be a grey area with various definitions and identifications. I believe leadership is within oneself, it is a process that requests various human skills transformed into mere instinct, which requires a sense of understanding in regards to a particular environment via observation and experimentation as to achieve a certain goal. Many leadership styles exist, lending itself to being explained through multiple metaphors without a one size fits all model. Although it was not an easy task to determine a single metaphor for a personal leadership model, I reflected on my own personal life. Having grown up in a family of farmers, I shall thus compare leadership to farming. Farming, as defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary, is an act of growing crops and/or keeping animals. A farmer can be thought of as a leader since they attend to the following activities: Planting/growing crops and raising/breeding livestock. Continuously attending to crops and feeding livestock. Finally collecting what the land or livestock have produced. Given the above activities, a sound farmer would be one that reasons with each and every considerable act of nature as well as promotes a sense of nurture to what they are attempting to achieve. There are certain acts of nature that cannot be foreseen such as weather conditions. At a time where technology was not around to predict the weather forecast, farmers took upon themselves learning and adapting to the environment, as it was crucial and necessary in constantly maintaining the wellness of the crops and livestock. There are more factors farmers face when considering the art of appropriate farming. Appropriate farming involves the management of three different activities, that are crops, livestock and off-farm enterprises. The decision-making process is relatively difficult as it encompasses the farmers use of their knowledge as to come as close as possible to fulfilling the goal they are striving to achieve (Norman, Worman, Siebert, Modiakgotla, 1995).[1] For example, their ability to manage and allocate crops away from livestock in order to achieve a balanced healthy environment on the farm is necessary, so as not all the crops are being fed on by the livestock and no t all the livestock are grazing throughout the farm. As farmers grow crops with a high-quality yield and cater to nurturing their livestock, similarly, leaders help in growing people and ensure sustainability and profitability to a business. The land and soil are the business culture, the climate is the market, the pests and diseases are then the competition (Tole, 2017). Leaders sow their values into the lives of others through the expression of attitudes, words and actions. Regardless as to where a leader may exist, be it at work, at home or in a community, the impact that individuals may have on your leadership, your business or organization requires attention as expressions are to be highly regarded by ones emotional instinct perceived from such interactions (Hale, 2013). Given the outline and understanding of the course this was witnessed by myself in the topic of Emotional Intelligence. I learned that we must partake in being in-tune with our emotions whilst dealing with others in and out of the workplace; attempting to understand the characteristics of whom we are dealing with as well as trying to relate to them to achieve a common goal. This has been evident whilst I recollected my personal observation of farmers attending to their land and livestock with much love, care and attention as to result in better productivity without dialogue. That alone is a magnificent skill to acquire. Leaders cultivate what they have sown by continuously connecting the dots between their words and actions. This is managed by living out or modelling what matters most to them about others, work, life and faith. Having such a practice put into effect tirelessly, is regarded to be like farming, since farmers weed/water the crops and feed/raise the livestock as to facilitate the full growth of crops as well as maintaining healthy livestock (Hale, 2013). Finally, leaders harvest what they have sown and cultivated (Hale, 2013). Like farmers, leaders allow themselves to celebrate their goals as well as reflect back on what they have generated or created per se. The act of doing so simply allows the leader to indulge themselves to progress together with their team as they exemplify success to themselves and continue working positively. Reflections, allow a leader to identify where they may have gone wrong and try to approach their harvest in a different manner yet more productive way (Miller, 2012). Similarly, with farming, the farmer would feel a sense of gratification as their goals of maintaining a healthy environment on the farm and the ability to sell their fresh produce as well as having high yields of growth, and a set of well-fed/raised healthy livestock. The farmers reflection to their creation would always require attention, hence identifying newer strategies to implement and put into action as to increase productivity and mak e more use of their resources to progress forward. The personal leadership model, highly relates to leading by example which is evident in the above section, as I mention exemplifying success in order to progress for both leaders and farmers. I can see it as a vital part of a famers life since each observation I can recall from my past allows me to identify most examples that these farmers could show rather than just point it out in words. I learned actions speak louder than words throughout the life I have lived thus far. This made me understand that not everything is settled by words and sometimes complete silence and the portrayal of an action is more than enough. Therefore, art is a very relevant topic when it comes to leadership due to the understanding of what art is and is not. Leaders are an amalgamation of various skillsets and knowledge. To better phrase what I previously mentioned, I believe farmers are leaders. In regards to my observations to the behaviours of multiple farmers, I can say they have acquired a high level o f emotional intelligence, have self-actualized their purpose, and yet are self-aware of their own actions towards tangible hard-to-communicate-with resources (i.e. land, crops and livestock). Effective leaders, are not always known to be good leaders whereas I believe farmers make good effective leaders due to the way they challenge the process of farming seeking opportunities to change, grow and improve their farms as well as define a model of life by behaving consistently in coordination to their associated goals. More-so the characteristics that are seen in farmers have a tendency of relying on growth and development. For example, their mere ability to encourage their competency in terms of adapting to the know-hows of running a farm as to sustain it, their integrity in acting honestly with the resources given to them as to harmonize the potential of a high level of productivity, their ability to carry on what they do in regards to their direction and the well-being of their resources and finally their vision that allows them to feel rewarded and celebrate their achievement in creating an healthy environment where all resources are put to work together to maximize grow th (Leadership, 2016). The leadership styles will vary from one style to another. The majority of styles witnessed in farming are realised to be situational, functional and moral in terms of understanding the importance of all the stages that are required to achieve the final goal. Situational comes into action whilst having to deal with unforeseen changes. Functional relates to the ways of dealing with the available resources such as the land, crops and animals in this scenario. Lastly, the moral approach comes handy whilst the farmers set to better the environment they are within by acting consistently, treating the livestock with care and provisioning a safe environment for their produce (Harvey, 2009). Section Two: Leadership Personality Assessment Self-leadership being the ability to lead oneself towards achieving goals. In understanding my purpose as a person, I became willing to work on self-development. My journey started with the growth of a need to depend on myself. Its emergence grew from self-education and the help of various others whom were regarded as leaders. I embraced my liking of leadership from certain role models in my life, starting from my family, later becoming certain icons of the past and present. I am grateful for having parents who shed the light of intellectualism and wisdom whilst growing up. Many of the lessons they taught me kept me progressing throughout life as well as catering to a greater understanding in identifying my percipience of others I characterised as role models. In the words of Jack Welch, Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others (Greenberg, 2012). Growing oneself is a lifelong process and so is leadership. It requires continuous assessment of skills and qualities, yet it helps in understanding the aims of life and co-ordinates the ability to set goals and realise potential. Personal empowerment and self-education allowed me to find greater self-confidence, self-awareness, self-management and a level of self-motivation to commit to tasks in life to reach a satisfying goal. John F. Kennedy once said: Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other (Kennedy, 1963). As I continued to grow, my path crossed with others. It is inevitable to have at least one friend or person to whom you cannot relate to or try and befriend, regardless of all stages in life. A person will eventually work with someone on a given task. This can be seen either at work, home or within the community. Given the fact that I have moved away from the home I grew up in, many obstacles came my way. I no longer lived in my comfort zone. My surroundings were new, the people within the community were foreign to me, I had to re-calibrate and learn more about the environment I was living in. Therefore, I took on setting more goals that would encourage my participation in this environment. This helped me acquire a sense in furthering my knowledge of teamwork as well as elevate my emotional intellectual instincts in accordance to the surroundings, yet not allow the surroundings change who I am. I remained true to myself, but I visualised a larger set of goals. Results from the psychometric tests are as follows: Myer-Briggs/Jungs Big Five, 16 personalities (ENFP Personality (The Campaigner) | 16 Personalities, 2017). I am an ENFP-A Appendix B. Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Prospecting and Assertive. This suggests that I possess the personality of a campaigner and has the role of being a diplomat whilst utilizing the strategy of people mastery. Tony Robbins DISC (Robbin Research International, 2017). I have a moderately low Decisive, very high Interactive, high Stabilizing and moderately high Cautious personality Appendix C. In accordance to the DISC study, I seem to always build a comfort zone. This suggestively allows me to maintain my stress levels even when I am placed in a fast-moving environment due to my tendency to consciously think about modifying my behaviour. The Narcissist Personality Inventory (NPI-40 iLearn: MGSM, 2017). Score: 15/40 The lower the score the less narcissistic I am, as suggested by Raskin Hall. This simply states I have an average level of narcissism and is concluded in seven different facets. To my understanding from this test and the diagram available in Appendix D, various qualities have suggested levels of authority, self-sufficiency, superiority, exhibitionism, exploitation, vanity and entitlement that my personality tends to project. The high level of superiority indicates my senses of being of a high intellect whilst compared to the other tests. Personal observations in accordance to the above tests: My suggested personality is ENFP-A as per 16 personalities. The individual traits that were suggested showed a high level of extraversion, a high level of being intuitive, showing feelings, a prospecting character, and moderately assertive. The role as characterised by 16 personalities suggests I am a diplomatic campaigner who uses the strategy of people mastery. Results from the interviews: Interviewee 1 (the male participant), identified my personality to be ESFJ-A as per 16 personalities. The individual traits that were revealed by him showed a high level of extraversion, a moderate level of being observant, showing feelings, judging, and a high level of assertiveness. The role as characterised by 16 personalities suggests I am a sentinel consul who uses the strategy of people mastery. More-so, interviewee 1s completion of the DISC test further acknowledged a moderately low Decisive and very high Interactive personality, whilst concluding a very high Stabilizing and moderately low Cautious personality. Interviewee 2 (the female participant), identified my personality to be ISTJ-A as per 16 personalities. The individual traits that were revealed by her showed a moderate level of introversion, a high level of being observant, being practical, judging, and assertive. The role as characterised by 16 personalities suggests I am a sentinel logistician who uses the strategy of confident individualism. More-so, interviewee 2s completion of the DISC test revealed a well-balanced result that indicates a high average Decisive, a high average Interactive, a high average Stabilizing and a high average Cautious personality. Both interviewees were asked to come up with a list of six traits to help identify who I am to them. One listed the traits, whilst the other rated them from 1 10 (1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest). The results were fascinating to me, as I would have never actually considered them about myself. To conclude the results, I have found out that I possess certain characteristics of a natural leader. Given the above suggestions describing my person, I do realise everyone has potential of being a leader in their own way. I believe leading a good life and being a good person shows greatness; those are the first signs of true leadership. I embrace my strengths and work upon encouraging further strengths to emerge, yet I disregarded any mention of weaknesses. I believe everyone has weaknesses and implying them would discredit the ability of minimising them, yet understanding them may allow a person to bypass them. As once mentioned by Shusaku Endo: Every weakness contains within itself a strength (Scott, 2016). I envision my weaknesses as partially evident within my strengths and in bettering my strengths I can overcome any weakness. Therefore, the suggested strengths I have acquired can be further worked upon to better my being and indulge my sense of leadership. As for my efforts in bettering myself via personal development, I have set goals to improve the skills I lack in. Traits like social boldness and dominance as stated by the interviewees present in Appendix E will require some work to improve on, yet maintain and improve the rest of the other traits. Whereas from my own assessments, I would have to picture myself in being more assertive and find ways to identify my dominance as I never thought of myself as being someone who is well dominant, rather someone who is very competitive. References Cambridge English Dictionary. (2017). Meaning of farming in the Cambridge English Dictionary. www.dictionary.cambridge.org. Retrieved 13 March 2017, from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/farming Greenberg, M. (2012). Six Qualities Leaders Need to Be Successful. Psychology Today. Retrieved 15 March 2017, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-mindful-self-express/201204/six-qualities-leaders-need-be-successful Hale, R. (2013). Why Leaders are like Farmers. WellSpirit Consulting Group, Inc. Retrieved 13 March 2017, from http://wellspiritconsulting.com/why-leaders-are-like-famers/ Harvey, T. (2009). Leadership theories, leadership models and leadership principles. www.learn-to-be-a-leader.com. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from http://www.learn-to-be-a-leader.com/leadership-theories.html Hughes, R., Ginnett, R., Curphy, G. (2011). Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience (7th ed., p. 5). McGraw-Hill Irwin. Kennedy, J. (1963). John F. Kennedy Speeches John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Museum. www.jfklibrary.org. Retrieved 15 March 2017, from https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/JFK-Speeches/Dallas-TX-Trade-Mart-Undelivered_19631122.aspx Leadership. (2016). www.thepeopleindairy.org.au. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from http://www.thepeopleindairy.org.au/working-together/leadership.htm Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM). (2017). iLearn: NPI-40 Narcissism Personal Inventory. ilearn.mq.edu.au. Retrieved 15 March 2017, from http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/mod/quiz/view.php?id=3829882 Miller, P. (2012). Self-reflection: the key to effective leadership. Todays Manager, Dec 2011 Jan 2012. Retrieved from https://works.bepress.com/peter_miller/133/ Norman, D., Worman, F., Siebert, J., Modiakgotla, E. (1995). The farming systems approach to development and appropriate technology generation (1st ed., p. 33). Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Robbins Research International. (2017). DISC Profile: Free Online Personality Strengths Test Tony Robbins. Tony Robbins. Retrieved 15 March 2017, from https://www.tonyrobbins.com/disc/ Scott, K. (2016). What is Your Biggest Weakness? Vistage Florida. Vistage Florida. Retrieved 15 March 2017, from http://florida.vistage.com/2016/11/30/what-is-your-biggest-weakness/ Taberner, S. (2012). Cambridge Companion to GuÃÅ'ˆnter Grass (1st ed., p. 167). Cambridge: ProQuest LLC. Tole, J. (2017). Why leadership is very much like farming. LinkedIn Pulse. Retrieved 13 March 2017, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-leadership-very-much-like-farming-jonathan-tole Tolstoy, L. (2016). What is art? (1st ed.). Bloomsbury Academic. Appendices       Appendix A: Appendix B: 16 Personalities: Personality type: The Campaigner (ENFP-A) Individual traits: Extraverted 61%, Intuitive 68%, Feeling 64%, Prospecting 53%, Assertive 63%. Role: Diplomat Strategy: People Mastery Summary: An extraverted mind that prefers groups activities, gets energized by social interaction and tends to be more enthusiastic, yet easily excited than introverts. A very intuitive individual who is very imaginative, open-minded and curious. Someone that prefers novelty over stability and focuses on hidden meanings as well as future possibilities. A naturally sensitive and emotionally expressive individual who tends to be more empathic and focuses on social harmony/cooperation. An assertive individual who is self-assured, even tempered and resistant to stress. Can refuse worrying too much and tends to not push themselves too hard when it comes to achieving goals as they believe goals will naturally come to them. Appendix C: DISC: Strengths: I have a large knowledge-base and a continuing appetite to learn more. I have the tendency to be friendly and easy-going whilst interacting with others. I possess the ability to focus on building my own skills and talents as well as assist others on building their own. I am modest rather than egocentric, yet can become more assertive when necessary. I have a desire to become the best that I can be, or an expert in a specific area. I acquired the ability to self-manage. Appendix D: Question 1 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I am much like everybody else. b. I am an extraordinary person. Question 2 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I am more capable than other people. b. There is a lot that I can learn from other people. Question 3 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I get upset when people dont notice how I look when I go out in public. b. I dont mind blending into the crowd when I go out in public. Question 4 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I wish somebody would someday write my biography. b. I dont like people to pry into my life for any reason. Question 5 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I am a born leader. b. Leadership is a quality that takes a long time to develop. Question 6 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. People sometimes believe what I tell them. b. I can make anybody believe anything I want them to. Question 7 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I am going to be a great person. b. I hope I am going to be successful. Question 8 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I would prefer to be a leader. b. It makes little difference to me whether I am a leader or not. Question 9 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. Being an authority doesnt mean that much to me. b. People always seem to recognize my authority. Question 10 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I can live my life in any way I want to. b. People cant always live their lives in terms of what they want. Question 11 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I really like to be the centre of attention. b. It makes me uncomfortable to be the centre of attention. Question 12 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I like to look at myself in the mirror. b. I am not particularly interested in looking at myself in the mirror. Question 13 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I dont care about new fads and fashions. b. I like to start new fads and fashions. Question 14 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I have a strong will to power. b. Power f or its own sake doesnt interest me. Question 15 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. Compliments embarrass me. b. I like to be complimented. Question 16 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I will never be satisfied until I get all that I deserve. b. I take my satisfactions as they come. Question 17 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I expect a great deal from other people. b. I like to do things f or other people. Question 18 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. Sometimes I tell good stories. b. Everybody likes to hear my stories. Question 19 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I sometimes depend on people to get things done. b. I rarely depend on anyone else to get things done Question 20 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I always know what I am doing. b. Sometimes I am not sure of what I am doing. Question 21 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I try not to be a show off. b. I will usually show off if I get the chance. Question 22 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. My body is nothing special. b. I like to look at my body. Question 23 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one: a. I just want to be reasonably happy. b. I want to amount to something in the eyes of the world. Question 24 Two statements. Which best applies to you? Select one:

Spatial Rhythm and Poetic Invention in William Carlos Williams Sunday

William Carlos Williams was fascinated by the ways in which living organisms and inert matter occupy space--how they move in it, or cannot move, are cramped or allowed to roam freely--and how the space inside organisms and matter is charted, perceived, and manipulated. Williams's preoccupation with actual space in the material world is paralleled by his formal experimentations with the placement of words on the page. "Without invention nothing is well spaced" (P 50), Williams writes at the beginning of "Sunday in the Park," raising the question, what does "well spaced" mean for Williams? How can the world and how can poetry be well spaced? The aim of this paper is to look at the relationship between Williams's use of what I will call spatial rhythms and the vision of poetry that emerges in "Sunday in the Park"--a section of Paterson particularly important for thinking about Williams's late poetic style because it contains the famous section beginning "The descent beckons / as the asc ent beckoned," marking Williams's invention of the triadic stanza with "variable foot," a form he would begin to use frequently in the 1950's. My hope is to offer a new perspective on Williams's poetics by showing how it is rooted in a conception of space, both external and internal or biological, that is constantly moving in a rhythmic fashion. Although William Carlos Williams's epic poem, Paterson, is about the city of Paterson and a man, also named Paterson, who is that city, the actual physical space of that city tends to be elusive throughout the poem, becoming most concrete in the second Book, "Sunday in the Park," which, however, does not deal with the city itself, but with the park above it. The park is both a part of the city of Paterson (... ...s: A New World Naked (McGraw-Hill, 1981), 462-63 and 466-67.[Hit the "back" button on the upper left hand corner of your browser to return to the text] 4. Mariani, 462-63.[Hit the "back" button on the upper left hand corner of your browser to return to the text] 5. Kenneth Burke, "The Thinking of the Body" in Language as Symbolic Action (Berkeley: U of California P, 1966), 340-41.[Hit the "back" button on the upper left hand corner of your browser to return to the text] 6. The last two descending sequences I have quoted †¹ the first beginning with "She was married with empty words" and the second with "The descent beckons" †¹ are also reminiscent of Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending Staircase." On Williams's interest in cubism and in Duchamp in particular, see Reed Whittemore, William Carlos Williams: Poet from Jersey (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975), 113-124.

We Must Demand the Moral and Ethical Application of Technology :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument Essays

We Must Demand the Moral and Ethical Application of Technology Since the beginning of human history, earth has appeared as a nutshell that encloses many secrets. These secrets have hindered man from accomplishing his dream of mastering the world. However, as need is known to be the mother of invention, man has started to be critical about every phenomenon that takes place. Accordingly, learning has been regarded as an important tool for the improvement of humanity. Throughout the years, education has given birth to a huge database of scientific principles. Technology is known to be the application of scientific principles to the problems of everyday life. Technology is the ability of no other species but humans. Moreover, technological activity has been a measure of civilization. One cannot imagine a society without technology, as it will hardly be advanced or long-lived. Technology in itself is morally and ethically neutral. However, it is a double-edged weapon. The twentieth century has witnessed an extreme upheaval in the negative usage of te chnology. Therefore, many voices have been raised asking for a moral technology that respects human rights and ethical codes. It is very important to discuss this issue together with the role of various institutions that trigger the widespread of this idea for the benefit of humanity and for a better future on earth. Aristotle has outlined that man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all. Technology has been used primarily for the welfare of humanity. Through technological advancements, many secrets of the universe have been revealed contributing to the overall man civilization. No one can deny that good and evil are as old as the existence of man on earth. However, one can trace that as man reaches more and more progress, he looses more and more of his good instinctive human nature. This interesting but depressing relation poses many questions concerning the effect of technology on our lives. Sadly, we have witnessed many examples that show us that many immoral actions and unethical practices have been a sign of the last decades. It is crucial to define some terminologies that add a lot to our understanding of our life in general such as human rights, ethics, and morality.   These important concepts will help us to see technolog y in a wider vision rather than the narrow one that most people perceive.

Foreign and Drug Policy Essay -- American Government Politics Essays

Foreign and Drug Policy In examining the transitions in US government policy related to drug abuse and trafficking, historians are consistently confronted with the difficult task of analyzing the different motivations for variations in strategy from the Nixon administration to the present. In this specific case, our investigation centers upon the interplay of United States foreign policy in Latin America in the 1980’s (pursued mostly by the CIA) and the broad campaign against drugs both at home and abroad. At first glance, one might suppose that a moral ideology such as the war on drugs would be a multi-faceted operation with little available room for compromise. After all, an analogous crusade against terrorism has emerged as the overriding logic and driving force behind current foreign policy, so why shouldn’t narcoterrorism have a similar place in initiatives abroad? It would make sense that since we are now committed to eliminating any support for states that sponsor terrorism, nations like Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras should be dealt with in a similar manner for their complicity in drug trafficking. As we now know, this was not the case, thus further scrutiny is required. The framework for this analysis will be an in depth reading of multiple sources with differing viewpoints chronicling the events in the expansion of the Latin American narcotics trade. Our analysis begins with Oliver North, the military coordinator ultimately empowered by the National Security Council to conduct and oversee covert operations supporting Nicaraguan rebels, the Contras, in their resistance campaign. As part of Reagan’s fierce stance against communism, Latin America had become a battleground between American CIA ... ...ionale and a new direction for combating the widespread narcotics abuse in America, namely increased investment in treatment of addiction. Works Cited: Kerry, John et al. Senate Committee Report on Drugs, Law Enforcement, and Foreign Policy. Available online http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/ARCHIVE/KERRY.html. Access date 5/25/04. Korsmeyer, Pamela and David Musto. The Quest for Drug Control. Yale University Press: New Haven, 2002. Marshall, Jonathan and Peter Dale Scott. Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America. University of California Press: Los Angeles, 1991. Massing, Michael. The Fix. University of California Press: Los Angeles, 1999. PBS Frontline. Interview with Oliver North. Available online http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/special/north.html. Access date 5/23/04.

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 2

He Does Not Preach Pessimism My workout is interrupted midday, when Mom descends the basement stairs and says I have an appointment with Dr. Patel. I ask if I can go later that night, after I have completed my daily weights routine, but Mom says I'll have to go back to the bad place in Baltimore if I do not keep my appointments with Dr. Patel, and she even references the court ruling, telling me I can read the paperwork if I don't believe her. So I shower, and then Mom drives me to Dr. Patel's office, which is the first floor of a big house in Voorhees, just off Haddonfield – Berlin Road. When we arrive, I take a seat in the waiting room as Mom fills out some more paperwork. By now, ten trees must have been cut down just to document my mental health, which Nikki will hate hearing, as she is an avid environmentalist who gave me at least one tree in the rain forest every Christmas – which was really only a piece of paper stating I owned the tree – and I do feel bad now for making fun of those gifts and won't ever poke fun at the diminishing rain forest in the future when Nikki comes back. As I sit there flipping through a Sports Illustrated, listening to the easy-listening station Dr. Patel pumps into his waiting room, suddenly I'm hearing sexy synthesizer chords, faint highhat taps, the kick drum thumping out an erotic heartbeat, the twinkling of fairy dust, and then the evil bright soprano saxophone. You know the title: â€Å"Songbird.† And I'm out of my seat, screaming, kicking chairs, flipping the coffee table, picking up piles of magazines and throwing them against the wall, yelling, â€Å"It's not fair! I won't tolerate any tricks! I'm not an emotional lab rat!† And then a small Indian man – maybe only five feet tall, wearing a cable-knit sweater in August, suit pants, and shiny white tennis shoes – is calmly asking me what's wrong. â€Å"Turn off that music!† I yell. â€Å"Shut it off! Right now!† The tiny man is Dr. Patel, I realize, because he tells his secretary to turn off the music, and when she obeys, Kenny G is out of my head and I stop yelling. I cover my face with my hands so no one will see me crying, and after a minute or so, my mother begins rubbing my back. So much silence – and then Dr. Patel asks me into his office. I follow him reluctantly as Mom helps the secretary clean up the mess I made. His office is pleasantly strange. Two leather recliners face each other, and spider-looking plants – long vines full of white-and-green leaves – hang down from the ceiling to frame the bay window that overlooks a stone birdbath and a garden of colorful flowers. But there is absolutely nothing else in the room except a box of tissues on the short length of floor between the recliners. The floor is a shiny yellow hardwood, and the ceiling and walls are painted to look like the sky – real-looking clouds float all around the office, which I take as a good omen, since I love clouds. A single light occupies the center of the ceiling, like a glowing upside-down vanilla-icing cake, but the ceiling around the light is painted to look like the sun. Friendly rays shoot out from the center. I have to admit I feel calm as soon as I enter Dr. Patel's office and do not really mind anymore that I heard the Kenny G song. Dr. Patel asks me which recliner I want to relax in. I pick the black over the brown and immediately regret my decision, thinking that choosing black makes me seem more depressed than if I had chosen brown, and really, I'm not depressed at all. When Dr. Patel sits down, he pulls the lever on the side of his chair, which makes the footrest rise. He leans back and laces his fingers behind his tiny head, as if he were about to watch a ball game. â€Å"Relax,† he says. â€Å"And no Dr. Patel. Call me Cliff. I like to keep sessions informal. Friendly, right?† He seems nice enough, so I pull my lever, lean back, and try to relax. â€Å"So,† he says. â€Å"The Kenny G song really got to you. I can't say I'm a fan either, but †¦Ã¢â‚¬  I close my eyes, hum a single note, and silently count to ten, blanking my mind. When I open my eyes, he says, â€Å"You want to talk about Kenny G?† I close my eyes, hum a single note, and silently count to ten, blanking my mind. â€Å"Okay. Want to tell me about Nikki?† â€Å"Why do you want to know about Nikki?† I say, too defensively, I admit. â€Å"If I am going to help you, Pat, I need to know you, right? Your mother tells me you wish to be reunited with Nikki, that this is your biggest life goal – so I figure we best start there.† I begin to feel better because he does not say a reunion is out of the question, which seems to imply that Dr. Patel feels as though reconciling with my wife is still possible. â€Å"Nikki? She's great,† I say, and then smile, feeling the warmth that fills my chest whenever I say her name, whenever I see her face in my mind. â€Å"She's the best thing that ever happened to me. I love her more than life itself. And I just can't wait until apart time is over.† â€Å"Apart time?† â€Å"Yeah. Apart time.† â€Å"What is apart time?† â€Å"A few months ago I agreed to give Nikki some space, and she agreed to come back to me when she felt like she had worked out her own issues enough so we could be together again. So we are sort of separated, but only temporarily.† â€Å"Why did you separate?† â€Å"Mostly because I didn't appreciate her and was a workaholic – chairing the Jefferson High School History Department and coaching three sports. I was never home, and she got lonely. Also I sort of let my appearance go, to the point where I was maybe ten to seventy pounds overweight, but I'm working on all that and am now more than willing to go into couples counseling like she wanted me to, because I'm a changed man.† â€Å"Did you set a date?† â€Å"A date?† â€Å"For the end of apart time.† â€Å"No.† â€Å"So apart time is something that will go on indefinitely?† â€Å"Theoretically, I guess – yes. Especially since I'm not allowed to contact Nikki or her family.† â€Å"Why's that?† â€Å"Umm †¦ I don't know, really. I mean – I love my in-laws as much as I love Nikki. But it doesn't matter, because I'm thinking that Nikki will be back sooner than later, and then she'll straighten everything out with her parents.† â€Å"On what do you base your thinking?† he asks, but nicely, with a friendly smile on his face. â€Å"I believe in happy endings,† I tell him. â€Å"And it feels like this movie has gone on for the right amount of time.† â€Å"Movie?† Dr. Patel says, and I think he would look exactly like Gandhi if he had those wire-rim glasses and a shaved head, which is weird, especially since we are in leather recliners in such a bright, happy room and well, Gandhi is dead, right? â€Å"Yeah,† I say. â€Å"Haven't you ever noticed that life is like a series of movies?† â€Å"No. Tell me.† â€Å"Well, you have adventures. All start out with troubles, but then you admit your problems and become a better person by working really hard, which is what fertilizes the happy ending and allows it to bloom – just like the end of all the Rocky films, Rudy, The Karate Kid, the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies, and The Goonies, which are my favorite films, even though I have sworn off movies until Nikki returns, because now my own life is the movie I will watch, and well, it's always on. Plus I know it's almost time for the happy ending, when Nikki will come back, because I have improved myself so very much through physical fitness and medication and therapy.† â€Å"Oh, I see.† Dr. Patel smiles. â€Å"I like happy endings too, Pat.† â€Å"So you agree with me. You think my wife will come back soon?† â€Å"Time will tell,† Dr. Patel says, and I know right then that Cliff and I are going to get along, because he does not preach pessimism like Dr. Timbers and the staff at the bad place; Cliff doesn't say I need to face what he thinks is my reality. â€Å"It's funny, because all the other therapists I've seen said that Nikki wouldn't be back. Even after I told them about the life improvements I have been making, how I am bettering myself, they still were always ‘hating on me,' which is an expression I learned from my black friend Danny.† â€Å"People can be cruel,† he says with a sympathetic look that makes me trust him even more. And right then I realize that he is not writing down all my words in a file, which I really appreciate, let me tell you. I tell him I like the room, and we talk about my love of clouds and how most people lose the ability to see silver linings even though they are always there above us almost every day. I ask him questions about his family, just to be nice, and it turns out he has a daughter whose high school field hockey team is ranked second in South Jersey. Also he has a son in elementary school who wants to be a ventriloquist and even practices nightly with a wooden dummy named Grover Cleveland, who, incidentally, was also the only U.S. president to serve two terms that were not back-to-back. I don't really get why Cliff's son named his wooden dummy after our twenty-second and twenty-fourth president, although I do not say so. Next, Cliff says he has a wife named Sonja, who painted the room so beautifully, which leads to our discussion about how great women are and how it's important to treasure your woman while you have her because if you don't, you can lose her pretty quickly – as God really wants us to appreciate our women. I tell Cliff I hope he never has to experience apart time, and he says he hopes my apart time will end soon, which is a pretty nice thing to say. Before I leave, Cliff says he will be changing my medication, which could lead to some unwanted side effects, and that I have to report any discomfort or sleeplessness or anxiety or anything else to my mother immediately – because it might take some time for him to find the right combination of drugs – and I promise him I will. On the drive home I tell my mother I really like Dr. Cliff Patel and am feeling much more hopeful about my therapy. I thank her for getting me out of the bad place, saying Nikki is far more likely to come to Collingswood than to a mental institution, and when I say this, Mom starts to cry, which is so strange. She even pulls off the road, rests her head against the steering wheel, and with the engine running, she cries for a long time – sniffling and trembling and making crying noises. So I rub her back, like she did for me in Dr. Patel's office when that certain song came on, and after ten minutes or so, she simply stops crying and drives me home. To make up for the hour I spent sitting around with Cliff, I work out until late in the evening, and when I go to bed, my father is still in his office with the door shut, so another day passes without my talking to Dad. I think it's strange to live in a house with someone you cannot talk to – especially when that someone is your father – and the thought makes me a little sad. Since Mom has not been to the library yet, I have nothing to read. So I close my eyes and think about Nikki until she comes to be with me in my dreams – like always.