Ancient Mesopotamia and the Epic of Gilgamesh

The epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest epics known to man, reflects the challenges of life in ancient Sumer by dealing with them metaphorically. The most important challenges in ancient Sumerian life were deforestation and flooding. After Enkidu and Gilgamesh meet and become friends, Gilgamesh proposes that they go to the cedar forest and cut down all the trees. Though Gilgamesh’s reasoning for cutting down all the trees isn’t very reasonable, he still persuades Enkidu to come along with him. â€Å"At dawn Gilgamesh raised his ax and struck at the great cedar. When Humbaba heard the sound of falling trees, he hurried down the path that they had seen but only he had traveled. † 1 Gilgamesh and Enkidu cutting down trees was a metaphor for the ongoing problem of deforestation in ancient Mesopotamia. Because Gilgamesh and Enkidu cut down the trees that were sacred to the gods, the gods cursed mankind with fire and drought. â€Å"Civilization has never recognized limits to its needs. † 2 In ancient Mesopotamia, the land was savagely deforested. In this way, deserts formed, and civilization declined. Gilgamesh yearns for immortality, and chases after the dream of being immortal. When he fails to achieve immortality, he returns to his town and realizes that because he built the wall of Uruk and other constructions and because they would last long after he was gone, he would thereby gain immortality. â€Å"He looked at the walls, awed at the heights his people had achieved and for a moment- just a moment- all that lay behind him passed from view. † 3 In the epic of Gilgamesh immortality is a theme that frequently recurs, and is a metaphor for how Sumerians, as like all humans, desire immortality but cannot achieve it. Also, a possible explanation for the reason humans do not have immortality is because Gilgamesh did not obtain immortality. Humans living in ancient Mesopotamia had difficult relations with gods; they were responsible for natural disasters, which is how the people of ancient Sumer rationalized floods, drought, famine, and locusts. Supposedly, the gods had human emotions and could become stubborn, angry for no reason, jealous, and have other petty emotions. With the gods’ ability to create those natural disasters and at the same time harbor negative emotions, humans were fearful of the god’s wrath, since the gods could be easily provoked. Before the epic of Gilgamesh, a tremendous flood is released when the gods realize how imperfect humanity is. Utnapishtim had built a large boat and every living thing was stowed away inside of it while the flood raged. When the flood recedes, Utnapishtim is the only human left alive along with other animals. He lets the animals free, and Enlil blesses him with immortality. The power of the gods in the epic of Gilgamesh is a metaphor for the flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Because the gods were violent and unpredictable, they could create disasters among the Sumerians and they could grant immortality. ’Acts of God,’ such as flooding, drought, famine, or plagues of locusts, affected entire communities. Floods were generally local but extremely destructive, causing a high death rate. † 4 Floods were one of the largest problems in Ancient Mesopotamia. The rivers could also be harsh and unpredictable because their flooding devastated ancient Mesopotamia. Ancient Sumerians could also suffer from droughts, famine, locust, and other natural disasters. On the other hand, they could gain abundant harvest when nature was compliant. Many challenges of life in ancient Sumerian history are reflected in the epic of Gilgamesh. Deforestation and flooding were the main issues faced in ancient Mesopotamia. These challenges were woven into the epic tale of Gilgamesh as metaphors; â€Å"The epic of Gilgamesh shows an understanding of ecological processes and the consequences of human action on the earth†¦Ã¢â‚¬ 5 The epic of Gilgamesh was proof that Ancient Sumerians caused their own demise by deforestation, which also led to more flooding and other natural disasters.

Logical and Physical Data Models

The Physical Data Model (PDM) describes how the information represented in the Logical Data Model is actually implemented, how the information-exchange requirements are implemented, and how the data entities and their relationships are maintained. There should be a mapping from a given Logical Data Model to the Physical Data Model if both models are used. The form of the Physical Data Model can vary greatly, as shown in Figure 31. For some purposes, an additional entity-relationship style diagram will be sufficient.The Data Definition Language (DDL) may also be used. References to message format standards (which identify message types and options to be used) may suffice for message-oriented implementations. (Getting information from the LDM in form of file) Descriptions of file formats may be used when file passing is the mode used to exchange information. Interoperating systems may use a variety of techniques to exchange data, and thus have several distinct partitions in their Physi cal Data Model with each partition using a different form.The figure illustrates some options for expressing the Physical Data Model and an other table (in the original document) provides a listing of the types of information to be captured. A physical data model (or database design) is a representation of a data design which takes into account the facilities and constraints of a given database management system. In the lifecycle of a project it typically derives from a logical data model, though it may be reverse-engineered from a given database implementation.A complete physical data model will include all the database artifacts required to create relationships between tables or to achieve performance goals, such as indexes, constraint definitions, linking tables, partitioned tables or clusters. Analysts can usually use a physical data model to calculate storage estimates; it may include specific storage allocation details for a given database system. As of 2012 seven main databas es dominate the commercial marketplace: Informix, Oracle, Postgres, SQL Server, Sybase, DB2 and MySQL.Other RDBMS systems tend either to be legacy databases or used within academia such as universities or further education colleges. Physical data models for each implementation would differ significantly, not least due to underlying operating-system requirements that may sit underneath them. For example: SQL Server runs only on Microsoft Windows operating-systems, while Oracle and MySQL can run on Solaris, Linux and other UNIX-based operating-systems as well as on Windows.This means that the disk requirements, security requirements and many other aspects of a physical data model will be influenced by the RDBMS that a database administrator (or an organization) chooses to use. Overview Logical data models represent the abstract structure of a domain of information. They are often diagrammatic in nature and are most typically used in business processes that seek to capture things of im portance to an organization and how they relate to one another. Once validated and approved, the logical data model can become the basis of a physical data model and inform the design of a database.Logical data models should be based on the structures identified in a preceding conceptual data model, since this describes the semantics of the information context, which the logical model should also reflect. Even so, since the logical data model anticipates implementation on a specific computing system, the content of the logical data model is adjusted to achieve certain efficiencies. The term ‘Logical Data Model' is sometimes used as a synonym of ‘Domain Model' or as an alternative to the domain model.While the two concepts are closely related, and have overlapping goals, a domain model is more focused on capturing the concepts in the problem domain rather than the structure of the data associated with that domain. History The ANSI/SPARC three level architecture, which â⠂¬Å"shows that a data model can be an external model (or view), a conceptual model, or a physical model. This is not the only way to look at data models, but it is a useful way, particularly when comparing models†. [1] When ANSI first laid out the idea of a logical schema in 1975,[2] the choices were hierarchical and network.The relational model – where data is described in terms of tables and columns – had just been recognized as a data organization theory but no software existed to support that approach. Since that time, an object-oriented approach to data modelling – where data is described in terms of classes, attributes, and associations – has also been introduced. Logical data model topics Reasons for building a logical data model * Helps common understanding of business data elements and requirements * Provides foundation for designing a database Facilitates avoidance of data redundancy and thus prevent data & business transaction inconsisten cy * Facilitates data re-use and sharing * Decreases development and maintenance time and cost * Confirms a logical process model and helps impact analysis. Modeling benefits * Facilitates business process improvement * Focuses on requirements independent of technology * Facilitates data re-use and sharing * Increases return on investment * Centralizes metadata * Fosters seamless communication between applications * Focuses communication for data analysis and project team members * Establishes a consistent naming schemeLogical & Physical Data Model A logical data model is sometimes incorrectly called a physical data model, which is not what the ANSI people had in mind. The physical design of a database involves deep use of particular database management technology. For example, a table/column design could be implemented on a collection of computers, located in different parts of the world. That is the domain of the physical model. Logical and physical data models are very different in their objectives, goals and content. Key differences noted below. Logical Data Model| Physical Data Model|Includes entities (tables), attributes (columns/fields) and relationships (keys)| Includes tables, columns, keys, data types, validation rules, database triggers, stored procedures, domains, and access constraints| Uses business names for entities & attributes| Uses more defined and less generic specific names for tables and columns, such as abbreviated column names, limited by the database management system (DBMS) and any company defined standards| Is independent of technology (platform, DBMS)| Includes primary keys and indices for fast data access. Is normalized to fourth normal form(4NF)| May be de-normalized to meet performance requirements based on the nature of the database. If the nature of the database is Online Transaction Processing(OLTP) or Operational Data Store (ODS) it is usually not de-normalized. De-normalization is common in Datawarehouses. | A logical data m odel describes the data in as much detail as possible, without regard to how they will be physical implemented in the database. Features of a logical data model include: * Includes all entities and relationships among them. All attributes for each entity are specified. * The primary key for each entity is specified. * Foreign keys (keys identifying the relationship between different entities) are specified. * Normalization occurs at this level. The steps for designing the logical data model are as follows: 1. Specify primary keys for all entities. 2. Find the relationships between different entities. 3. Find all attributes for each entity. 4. Resolve many-to-many relationships. 5. Normalization. The figure below is an example of a logical data model.Logical Data Model Comparing the logical data model shown above with the conceptual data model diagram, we see the main differences between the two: * In a logical data model, primary keys are present, whereas in a conceptual data model, no primary key is present. * In a logical data model, all attributes are specified within an entity. No attributes are specified in a conceptual data model. * Relationships between entities are specified using primary keys and foreign keys in a logical data model.In a conceptual data model, the relationships are simply stated, not specified, so we simply know that two entities are related, but we do not specify what attributes are used for this relationship. Logical Model Design Physical Model Design Figure 5. A logical data model (Information Engineering notation). You also need to identify the cardinality and optionality of a relationship (the UML combines the concepts of optionality and cardinality into the single concept of multiplicity). Cardinality represents the concept of â€Å"how many† whereas optionality represents the concept of â€Å"whether you must have something. For example, it is not enough to know that customers place orders. How many orders can a custome r place? None, one, or several? Furthermore, relationships are two-way streets: not only do customers place orders, but orders are placed by customers. This leads to questions like: how many customers can be enrolled in any given order and is it possible to have an order with no customer involved? Figure 5 shows that customers place zero or more orders and that any given order is placed by one customer and one customer only.It also shows that a customer lives at one or more addresses and that any given address has zero or more customers living at it. Although the UML distinguishes between different types of relationships – associations, inheritance, aggregation, composition, and dependency – data modelers often aren’t as concerned with this issue as much as object modelers are. Subtyping, one application of inheritance, is often found in data models, an example of which is the is a relationship between Item and it’s two â€Å"sub entities† Service and Product.Aggregation and composition are much less common and typically must be implied from the data model, as you see with the part of role that Line Item takes with Order. UML dependencies are typically a software construct and therefore wouldn’t appear on a data model, unless of course it was a very highly detailed physical model that showed how views, triggers, or stored procedures depended on Logical Data Models (LDMs) represent data table (Entity Type) relationships. Logical Data Model Notations Entity Type Entity Type refers to a group of related data placed in an RDBMS (Relational Database Management Systems) table.An entity is an instance of an entity type represented as a single row in a data table. Relationships and Multiplicity Relationships illustrate how two entity types are related. Cardinality specifies how many instances of an entity relate to one instance of another entity. Physical data model represents how the model will be built in the database. A phy sical database model shows all table structures, including column name, column data type, column constraints, primary key, foreign key, and relationships between tables. Features of a physical data model include: * Specification all tables and columns. Foreign keys are used to identify relationships between tables. * Denormalization may occur based on user requirements. * Physical considerations may cause the physical data model to be quite different from the logical data model. * Physical data model will be different for different RDBMS. For example, data type for a column may be different between MySQL and SQL Server. Steps For Physical Data Model * Convert entities into tables. * Convert relationships into foreign keys. * Convert attributes into columns. * Modify the physical data model based on physical constraints / requirements. Physical v/s logical Entity names are now table names. * Attributes are now column names. * Data type for each column is specified. Data types can be different depending on the actual database being used. Data modeling is the act of exploring data-oriented structures. Like other modeling artifacts data models can be used for a variety of purposes, from high-level conceptual models to physical data models (PDMs). Physical data modeling is conceptually similar to design class modeling, the goal being to design the internal schema of a database, depicting the data tables, the data columns of those tables, and the relationships between the tables.      | presents a partial PDM for the university – you know that it isn’t complete by the fact that the Seminar table includes foreign keys to tables that aren’t shown, and quite frankly it’s obvious that many domain concepts such as course and professor are clearly not modeled. All but one of the boxes represent tables, the one exception is UniversityDB which lists the stored procedures implemented within the database. Because the diagram is given the stereo type Physical Data Model you know that the class boxes represent tables, without the diagram stereotype I would have needed to use the stereotype Table on each table.Relationships between tables are modeled using standard UML notation, although not shown in the example it would be reasonable to model composition and inheritance relationships between tables. Relationships are implemented via the use of keys (more on this below). Figure 1. A partial PDM for the university. When you are physical data modeling the following tasks are performed in an iterative manner: * Identify tables. Tables are the database equivalent of classes; data is stored in physical tables. As you can see in Figure 1 the university has a Student table to store student data, a Course table to store course data, and so on.Figure 1 uses a UML-based notation (this is a publicly defined profile which anyone can provide input into). If you have a class model in place a good start is to do a one-to-one mapping of your classes to data tables, an approach that works well in â€Å"greenfield† environments where you have the luxury of designing your database schema from scratch. Because this rarely happens in practice you need to be prepared to be constrained by one or more legacy database schemas which you will then need to map your classes to.In these situations it is unlikely that you will need to do much data modeling, you will simply need to learn to live with the existing data sources, but you will need to be able to read and understand existing models. In some cases you may need to perform legacy data analysis and model the existing schema before you can start working with it. * Normalize tables. Data normalization is a process in which data attributes within a data model are organized to increase the cohesion of tables and to reduce the coupling between tables. The fundamental goal is to ensure that data is stored in one and only one place.This is an important consideration for applic ation developers because it is incredibly difficult to stores objects in a relational database if a data attribute is stored in several places. The tables in Figure 1 are in third normal form (3NF). * Identify columns. A column is the database equivalent of an attribute, and each table will have one or more columns. For example, the Student table has attributes such as FirstName and StudentNumber. Unlike attributes in classes, which can either be primitive types or other objects, a column may only be a primitive type such as a char (a string), an int (integer), or a float. Identify stored procedures. A stored procedure is conceptually similar to a global method implemented by the database. In Figure 1 you see that stored procedures such as averageMark() and studentsEnrolled() are modeled as operations of the class UniversityDB. These stored procedures implement code that work with data stored in the database, in this case they calculate the average mark of a student and count the nu mber of students enrolled in a given seminar respectively.Although some of these stored procedures clearly act on data contained in a single table they are not modeled as part of the table (along the lines of methods being part of classes). Instead, because stored procedures are a part of the overall database and not a single table, they are modeled as part of a class with the name of the database. * Apply naming conventions. Your organization should have standards and guidelines applicable to data modeling, and if not you should lobby to have some put in place.As always, you should follow AM’s practice of Apply Modeling Standards. * Identify relationships. There are relationships between tables just like there are relationships between classes. The advice presented relationships in UML class diagrams applies. * Apply data model patterns. Some data modelers will apply common data model patterns, David Hay’s (1996) book Data Model Patterns is the best reference on the s ubject. Data model patterns are conceptually closest to analysis patterns because they describe solutions to common domain issues.Hay’s book is a very good reference for anyone involved in analysis-level modeling, even when you’re taking an object approach instead of a data approach because his patterns model business structures from a wide variety of business domains. * Assign keys. A key is one or more data attributes that uniquely identify a row in a table. A key that is two or more attributes is called a composite key. A primary key is the preferred key for an entity type whereas an alternate key (also known as a secondary key) is an alternative way to access rows within a table.In a physical database a key would be formed of one or more table columns whose value(s) uniquely identifies a row within a relational table. Primary keys are indicated using the stereotype and foreign keys via . Read here for more about keys. Although similar notation is used it is interes ting to note the differences between the PDM of Figure 21 and the UML class diagram from which is ti based: 1. Keys. Where it is common practice to not model scaffolding properties on class models it is common to model keys (the data equivalent of scaffolding). 2. Visibility. Visibility isn’t modeled for columns because they’re all public.However, because most databases support access control rights you may want to model them using UML constraints, UML notes, or as business rules. Similarly stored procedures are also public so they aren’t modeled either. 3. No many-to-many associations. Relational databases are unable to natively support many-to-many associations, unlike objects, and as a result you need to resolve them via the addition of an associative table. The closest thing to an associative table in is WaitList which was introduced to resolve the on waiting list many-to-many association depicted in the class diagram.A pure associative table is comprised of the primary key columns of the two tables which it maintains the relationship between, in this case StudentNumber from Student and SeminarOID from Seminar. Notice how in WaitList these columns have both a PK and an FK stereotype because they make up the primary key of WaitList while at the same time are foreign keys to the other two tables. WaitList isn’t truly an associative table because it contains non-key columns, in this case the Added column which is used to ensure that the first people on the waiting list are the ones that are given the opportunity to enroll if a seat becomes available.Had WaitList been a pure associative table I would have applied the associative table stereotype to it. Logical Versus Physical Database Modeling * March 14, 2001 * By Developer. com Staff * Bio  » * Send Email  » * More Articles  » After all business requirements have been gathered for a proposed database, they must be modeled. Models are created to visually represent the propose d database so that business requirements can easily be associated with database objects to ensure that all requirements have been completely and accurately gathered.Different types of diagrams are typically produced to illustrate the business processes, rules, entities, and organizational units that have been identified. These diagrams often include entity relationship diagrams, process flow diagrams, and server model diagrams. An entity relationship diagram (ERD) represents the entities, or groups of information, and their relationships maintained for a business. Process flow diagrams represent business processes and the flow of data between different processes and entities that have been defined.Server model diagrams represent a detailed picture of the database as being transformed from the business model into a relational database with tables, columns, and constraints. Basically, data modeling serves as a link between business needs and system requirements. Two types of data mode ling are as follows: * Logical modeling * Physical modeling If you are going to be working with databases, then it is important to understand the difference between logical and physical modeling, and how they relate to one another.Logical and physical modeling are described in more detail in the following subsections. * Post a comment * Email Article * Print Article * Share Articles Logical Modeling Logical modeling deals with gathering business requirements and converting those requirements into a model. The logical model revolves around the needs of the business, not the database, although the needs of the business are used to establish the needs of the database. Logical modeling involves gathering information about business processes, business entities (categories of data), and organizational units.After this information is gathered, diagrams and reports are produced including entity relationship diagrams, business process diagrams, and eventually process flow diagrams. The diagr ams produced should show the processes and data that exists, as well as the relationships between business processes and data. Logical modeling should accurately render a visual representation of the activities and data relevant to a particular business. Note| Logical modeling affects not only the direction of database design, but also indirectly affects the performance and administration of an implemented database.When time is invested performing logical modeling, more options become available for planning the design of the physical database. | The diagrams and documentation generated during logical modeling is used to determine whether the requirements of the business have been completely gathered. Management, developers, and end users alike review these diagrams and documentation to determine if more work is required before physical modeling commences. Typical deliverables of logical modeling include * Entity relationship diagrams An Entity Relationship Diagram is also referred t o as an analysis ERD.The point of the initial ERD is to provide the development team with a picture of the different categories of data for the business, as well as how these categories of data are related to one another. * Business process diagrams The process model illustrates all the parent and child processes that are performed by individuals within a company. The process model gives the development team an idea of how data moves within the organization. Because process models illustrate the activities of individuals in the company, the process model can be used to determine how a database application interface is design. * User feedback documentationPhysical Modeling Physical modeling involves the actual design of a database according to the requirements that were established during logical modeling. Logical modeling mainly involves gathering the requirements of the business, with the latter part of logical modeling directed toward the goals and requirements of the database. Ph ysical modeling deals with the conversion of the logical, or business model, into a relational database model. When physical modeling occurs, objects are being defined at the schema level. A schema is a group of related objects in a database. A database design effort is normally associated with one schema.During physical modeling, objects such as tables and columns are created based on entities and attributes that were defined during logical modeling. Constraints are also defined, including primary keys, foreign keys, other unique keys, and check constraints. Views can be created from database tables to summarize data or to simply provide the user with another perspective of certain data. Other objects such as indexes and snapshots can also be defined during physical modeling. Physical modeling is when all the pieces come together to complete the process of defining a database for a business.Physical modeling is database software specific, meaning that the objects defined during phy sical modeling can vary depending on the relational database software being used. For example, most relational database systems have variations with the way data types are represented and the way data is stored, although basic data types are conceptually the same among different implementations. Additionally, some database systems have objects that are not available in other database systems. Implementation of the Physical Model| The implementation of the physical model is dependent on the hardware and software being used by the company.The hardware can determine what type of software can be used because software is normally developed according to common hardware and operating system platforms. Some database software might only be available for Windows NT systems, whereas other software products such as Oracle are available on a wider range of operating system platforms, such as UNIX. The available hardware is also important during the implementation of the physical model because da ta is physically distributed onto one or more physical disk drives. Normally, the more physical drives available, the better the performance of the database after the implementation.Some software products now are Java-based and can run on virtually any platform. Typically, the decisions to use particular hardware, operating system platforms, and database software are made in conjunction with one another. | A logical data model describes your model entities and how they relate to each other. A physical data model describes each entity in detail, including information about how you would implement the model using a particular (database) product. In a logical model describing a person in a family tree, each person node would have attributes such as name(s), date of birth, place of birth, etc.The logical diagram would also show some kind of unique attribute or combination of attributes called a primary key that describes exactly one entry (a row in SQL) within this entity. The physical model for the person would contain implementation details. These details are things like data types, indexes, constraints, etc. The logical and physical model serve two different, but related purposes. A logical model is a way to draw your mental roadmap from a problem specification to an entity-based storage system.The user (problem owner) must understand and approve the logical model. A physical model is the roadmap from the logical model to the hardware. The developer (software owner) must understand and use the physical model. ERD Consider a hospital: Patients are treated in a single ward by the doctors assigned to them. Usually each patient will be assigned a single doctor, but in rare cases they will have two. Heathcare assistants also attend to the patients, a number of these are associated with each ward. Initially the system will be concerned solely with drug treatment.Each patient is required to take a variety of drugs a certain number of times per day and for varying leng ths of time. The system must record details concerning patient treatment and staff payment. Some staff are paid part time and doctors and care assistants work varying amounts of overtime at varying rates (subject to grade). The system will also need to track what treatments are required for which patients and when and it should be capable of calculating the cost of treatment per week for each patient (though it is currently unclear to what use this information will be put).

Drama Evaluation †The Ash Girl Essay

I could not find the necessary evaluation sheet for the ash girl, so I have used the sheet for Macbeth, but I believe that the questions are similar in context, and will try to include extra to compensate for parts that may not be specified otherwise. For our interpretation of the ash girl, we chose to focus on human characteristics, and what effects the 7 deadly sins would afflict them with. We chose this style of representation as the strong feature of the play is the illustration of the sins in the key characters, and why they cause certain events. To incorporate this into our piece, we acted as humans with strong features as their corresponding sins, we also included the qualities of the equivalent animals, in our intonation and presence. We felt that if we used the animalistic approach it may detract from the motif used in this piece, (the illustration of the sins in the key characters, and why they cause certain events). We used the original setting of the forest, but at the same time we tried to interpret a contemporary and simplistic approach from a very structurally complex piece, with many characters and ongoing ideas, themes and motifs. Our aims in particular, were to convey to the audience how the sins react with the characters to form a basis of understanding in context to the rest of the play. We wanted to express how important the sins were in the development of the whole play as a structure, and how the sins cans be suggested through key characters. We initially wished to use all methods of technical effects, lighting, audio, props and even our positioning on the stage and how this can be expressed through out characters. For lighting our characters all have an assigned colour, which in the right environment would create an atmosphere of that quality. We chose them according to folklore and general belief. The following are our selections; CHARECTER COLOUR Pridefly Navy Blue Slothworm Neutral/beige Angerbird Red Greedmonkey Yellow Envysnake Green We chose the colour blue for Pridefly as it has connotations of respect and hierarchy. The colour of RAF uniform is also blue; we felt this was key as the character is a fly. Slothworm is a very dull, slow, lethargic and utmost boring creature to be around, we chose a dull boring colour for him, something neutral with no bright colours. Angerbird was primarily always going to be the colour red. Obviously through connotations of the colour, we automatically respond to the colour red with anger, fear, bloodshed, war, but sometimes passion for things. In this case, Angerbird who feels so passionately about killing and destruction should have two different juxtaposed connotations side by side as they do in the right context actually compliment each other. Greedmonkey, has the colour yellow is for the most part it has connotations of happiness, brightness, quick pace, the sun, fun, however like Angerbird and the colour red there are also dualities that compliment each other such as cheeki ness, sneakiness and slyness. We interpretated Greedmonkey as someone who regularly steals and this can be shown through the combination of being a rather quick minded person, always jumping from certain ideas to another, but at the same time calculating, slow and rather sneaky physically. Envysnake was another easy combination with the colour green. We subconsciously associate green with envy, and jealousy. Possibly because of many phrases heard, such as: â€Å"sick with envy† or â€Å"green with envy†. We used these colours as lighting, so that when each character was introduced or had a significant part in the piece, we could create an aura to incorporate the theme, which in turn would strengthen our piece by helping the audience visually relate to the character. We also had decided to produce a forest setting with the lights, using a selection of plates and gel films, to create the illusion of a forest. We originally wished to use audio in our piece, out main aim was to create sounds of the forest, and also a selection of songs, which had a surreal and abstract feel to them, i.e.) some that were short listed were angel by massive attack, and a song by Iron Maiden. The use of a repeating bass line and no vocals in Angel would have not distracted the audience from the drama, and it was also a rather spooky, and very surreal song. We never got round to discussing which Iron Maiden song we might use, however in general, it would have added to the atmosphere of supernatural, as the sins are supernatural, abnormal creatures. We decided to not use a song, as we then went for a contemporary setting which focuses more on the dramatisation of the piece and not the auditory effects. Props were generally if needed, and we didn’t really go as far as to say that they were compulsory, as we felt that props were not needed to all characters. Props that we did use were to develop the story or to reinforce characterisation. For example, David Edgar who played Pridefly used a walking stick. Aynslie Carnan who played Greedmonkey stole, my characters, (Envysnake’s), jewellery, which I used as a prop. David Roberts who played Slothworm used a sleeping bag to create the sleep theme, and to produce the look of a worm. In our piece, I played Envysnake. Overall, Envysnake has snide, envious, superior personal traits. I wanted the audience to feel this through instead of being jealous with was very hard to play, being vain, superior and conceited, which would give the same kind of effect but in a more psychologically demanding way, as it involves causing the audience to become envious and to empathise with her. The secondary feature of this is that it also brings out envious features in the characters on stage. This technique is far more effective than just acting envy, as the creature inflicts envy on others, and by using the other technique that is exactly what it does. Vocally I added a very soft, innocent accent, as I believe contradiction of the intonation increases the effect of the dramatisation. I incorporated the snake idea into my accent; to do this I exaggerated the sibilance in the script, to create a hissing sound. I did not focus on movement much as an aspect of dramatisation. We felt that clear positions on stage were necessary to stop distraction from the main points, this is incorporated in out contemporary theme, this way we had less movement on stage and less confusion. However if I had used movement primarily, I would use a walk, which appeared to flow, and slink across the stage, as she is a snake. I personally dread performing, and am more of a theoretic student rather than practical. I feel that my fear of performing since my last Macbeth practical, had made me nervous and caused a great lack of my confidence in acting this affected my flow of dialogue and also my mental attitude towards performing. To improve on this, I would encourage my group to attend regular rehearsals, and make sure that we have practiced thoroughly at least 3 times before doing our final assessed performance.. I was most pleased with the contemporary attitude we took to the piece. When many students are given opportunities to include various pieces of media, whether it be auditory or just lighting, I feel it can be abused, and when overused it detracts from the actual piece. I also believe that people may use it to cover blemishes. We chose this style to make the audience focus more on the dramatisation and the feel of the piece and its meanings. The factors, which affected the sucsess of the piece, were probably lack of proper rehearsals. We couldn’t get enough practice from the time when we decided what styles we would choose. However I don’t feel it affected the piece significantly. However there were prompts needed for a few members of the group, which did break the flow in some places but only slightly. If I had unlimited resources, I would have still remained with the same contemporary style, and would not have changed anything. However unlimited resources meaning time would be greatly appreciated.

Art in the Stone Age Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Art in the Stone Age - Research Paper Example The essay "Art in the Stone Age" discovers Stone Age's art. Despite the fact that there is no ‘written’ record of these people and their beliefs, the artwork they produced reveals much about the way they thought, what they believed and the technologies they had developed for the easing of everyday concerns or needs. Although both the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods are named for the dependence upon stone as the primary material for everything from tools to shelters, these two eras are distinctly different in the ideas expressed and the technologies mastered evidenced in their artwork as these objects were created. Although it is traditionally thought these two eras are easily marked by a profound shift in social development, this study will show that Paleolithic cave paintings are a highly innovative technology reveling a society far more advanced that previously thought. According to Phillip Myers (1904), early Paleolithic art is essentially non-existent. Based upon t hose items that have been found, the early Paleolithic period is marked by a concentration on the production of chipped flint tools with an occasional use of bones, horns, tusks or other material to assist in cutting, scraping and other survival needs. â€Å"What we know of Paleolithic man may be summed up as follows: he was a hunter and fisher; his habitation was a cave or rock shelter; his implements were in the main roughly shaped flints; he had no domestic animals save possibly the dog and the reindeer; he was ignorant.

Choose a multinational company,and Selecting one new market and one Essay - 1

Choose a multinational company,and Selecting one new market and one product, detail and justify a marketing plan for the launch of this product into this, hither too, new market segment - Essay Example In 2012, Sony reported a net loss of 67.3 billion yen (Hirai 2012). In 2011, Sony reported a loss of 199.8 billion yen, indicating a significant problem attaining revenue growth which is attributable to increased competition in the electronics industry and changing consumer preferences throughout the globe. Sony, to combat these significant financial losses, is to launch the new Sony HMZ-T1 Personal 3D Viewer, a head-mounted display device allowing consumers to enjoy three-dimensional video content that is akin to the three dimensional movie theatre experiences. This product, already accepted as a revolutionary product in a variety of international markets, fits snugly and comfortably around the users’ brow, offering an unparalleled, horizontal viewing range of 45 degrees. The device offers supplementary high-quality Surround Sound capabilities to enhance viewing experience. The objective of this new launch is to recapture revenue losses, disrupt the personal electronics market, and improve Sony’s brand image in the new Serbian market, a developing nation that can provide new profit opportunities for Sony. Serbia scores low on Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Framework in masculinity, a cultural propensity to value achievement and personal success as primary lifestyle-centric drivers (Hofstede Centre 2012; Hofstede and Hofstede 2005). This makes Serbia a feminine society, one where citizens seek solidarity, consensus, and a cultural set of values about promoting equality for all peoples. These values are inherent in the luxury buyer segment, which is representative of upper- and middle-class consumers. Serbia maintains cultural characteristics that have many collectivist values, in which loss of face (reputational) is a significant consideration from a social perspective (Cheung et al. 2008). This collectivist mentality

History of the Brooklyn Bridge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

History of the Brooklyn Bridge - Essay Example After 60 years of political, financial as well as technical negotiations, John Roeblings plan was accepted, the New York Bridge Company was formed and, in the year 1869, construction of the bridge at last began. In the year 1867, a group of well-known leaders formed the New York Bridge Company for the reason of constructing as well as maintaining a bridge across the East River. Via the enabling act, the Brooklyn city subscribed for three million dollars of the capital stock, while the New York City just subscribed for one and a half million dollar. The company was allowed to fix toll rates for pedestrians as well as all kinds of vehicles, getting a profit of no more than 15% per annum. The bridge was built over fourteen years in the face of huge complicatedness. Roebling died by an accident at the onset; a fire in the Brooklyn Caisson smoldered for a few weeks; Roeblings son, Washington, who occupied the post as chief engineer, endured a crippling attack of the bends during the build ing of the Manhattan Caisson, and sustained to direct operations, sending messages to the location by his wife, Emily. After the towers were constructed, a cable parted from its port killing two people; there was fraud committed by the cable contractor (Trachtenberg, 1990). Soon after ground was broken on January 3, 1870, work on the Manhattan and Brooklyn foundations. Life in the caissons was unhappy. Immigrant laborers worked in the profound foundations, paid $2.25 per day to work in perilous circumstances lacking electricity, telephones or other conveniences.

Slave Culture Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Slave Culture - Assignment Example h of slavery, as Couvares and Saxton state, â€Å"had plunged him deeply into social history, that is, into the realm of group experience and collective fate that seemed very far away from the world of intellectuals and political leaders that had once so occupied him† (16). Morgan found no conflict between the ideas of liberal democracy as espoused by America’s founding fathers and the country’s dependence upon slavery. Instead, he believed that slavery minimized class conflict, thus making the experiment of social democracy easier to accomplish in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Unlike other historians of his era, Morgan believed that racism had little to do with the origins of slavery. Rather, he felt that its existence had more to do with â€Å"elite English attitudes towards manual labor, a short supply of indentured servants, and an elite fear of their unruliness† (111). In other words, slavery was used by the English colonists of the U.S. to control the lower classes. For Morgan, slavery was more of a class issue than a race issue. Black slavery developed out of a response to a serious labor shortage in the colonies, not due to violent feelings towards Africans. Morgan pointed to the English treatment of Native Americans earlier and stated that they were not enslaved as Africans were because their attempts to exploit Native Americans failed. Consensus about other beliefs, Morgan held, had more to do with the origins and development of slavery in

HY 1110-08F-2, AMERICAN HISTORY I (HY1110-08F-2) Essay - 3

HY 1110-08F-2, AMERICAN HISTORY I (HY1110-08F-2) - Essay Example This is especially true of the temperance societies. These groups saw a great deal of society’s ills manifest in the use of alcohol. They crusaded against â€Å"demon rum† and sought for a prohibition against the use of alcohol. Women were prominent members and often the leaders of these societies. In this way, the battle for temperance and women’s suffrage carried on together, often with one society for temperance being almost indistinguishable from societies that advocated women’s suffrage. Both of these concerns were part of the Second Great Awakening because churches began to adopt a theology that said they should be stewards over society. They believed that Christian principles should be applied to all aspects of culture, so they became involved in causes, such as temperance and women’s suffrage because the current state of the nation did not reflect good Christian principles and values (Sutton, 1992). Nowhere did this manifest itself more than in the movement to abolish slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a good example of how the abolitionist viewed slavery and how the participants of the Second Great Awakening viewed the Christian’s duty in regards to curing social

The Philosophy of the Enlightenment Research Paper

The Philosophy of the Enlightenment - Research Paper Example It is safe to say that every aspect of life is dependent upon history. It is through history that one is able to make predictions, give valid evaluations, connect forms of life with another, creates programs and strategies as they relate to success and continuity. History helps to revolutionize the thinking processes. The different experiences help to prepare a generation of people for a new age and a new era. The level to which they use the knowledge to steer away from the mistakes of the past should not solely be the responsibility of history and historians. The consequences are related to the attitudes, will, and direction of events at any given time. History is responsible for producing new schools of evidence and debate. In the different explanations of the creation story, for example, there are opposing sides as to how the earth was generated. In the absence of the concrete record that can withstand the scrutiny of scientists and other scholars, history provides a medium throug h which religion, philosophy, sociology, and psychology can equally share and contribute to the different explanations.  One must admit that although history is essential and indispensable there exist many doubts and uncertainties. In many prominent universities such as the University of Oxford, while subjects such as theology, law, music among others were included in the curriculum of the university for many years it was not until 1850 that history was added to the program of studies. It could not be described as having claims to a wealth of truth and there was a lack of systematic knowledge.

SCP model Strategy Essay Example for Free

SCP model Strategy Essay Building on the SCP model, Michael Porter developed the highly influential five forces model. Porter’s model identifies five key competitive forces that managers need to consider when analysing the industry environment and formulating strategy: Porter‘s 5 competitive forces model is starting point for strategic analysis that is used for assessing the attractiveness of an industry (Johnson,et al , 2008) and discovering a desirable strategic innovation that improve the industry and company profitability (Wit and Meyer,2005) The threats to new entrants: The threat from new entrants is very high. Entering the electric automotive industry in 2003, Tesla itself faced the challenges of being the new entrant into the market having numerous financial troubles that required high capital investments, building the brand and distributions channels. However, for established manufacturers with considerable economic power to enter this market is relatively low due to their capabilities and governmental program support for developing electric vehicle (Shirouzu, 2011). There is a relatively low barrier to entry due to the higher demand for environmental friendly vehicles and with other outlets for available technology for lithium-ion batteries, it is a level of playing field where any company can replicate (Shirouzu,2011). This is an external threat that Tesla faces because this technology is easy to imitate by competitors. The bargaining power of Buyers Overall bargaining power of buyers is modest. According to Tesla Annual Report (2014), they rely on their relationship with Daimler and Toyota (Brown, 2013). The partnership is very important for Tesla, because supplying these companies constitutes the high share of their profit and thus, they cannot lose them, making their power considerably high. However, they also sell their cars to individual customers, and many government incentives give potential customers tax credit deduction (Ministry of Transportation, 2010). These programs stimulate the demand of electric cars that makes bargaining power low. Threat of Substitution The threat of substitutes is considerably law in automotive industry, because there are only few choices in the substitution of car. One of the  substitutes can be walking or biking that is very inconvenience for long distances. Moreover, mass transportation such as trains, buses, and subways are substitutes that are suitable for local and distant travelling (Dutch, 2008). However, many people prefer to have their own car that is more convenient. The Bargaining Power of Suppliers The power of suppliers is very high due to the fact that company is highly dependent on these suppliers and any problems with components delivering will result in production disruption that negatively reflects on company image. This is due to purchasing components from over 200 suppliers over the world. Despite of building close relationships with main suppliers such as Panasonic (Tesla Motors, 2014), working together on the development of new battery cell and replacing Lotus supplier ‘s chassis with manufacturing by themselves (Tesla Motors, 2014), many suppliers stay single sources of components used in their cars (Harryson and Keller, 2013) The Intensity of Rivalry in the Industry The rivalry in the whole automotive industry is very competitive. However, within electrical vehicle market in which Tesla position itself, the rivalry is modest because of small number of competitors in the face of 18 different current models, the main of which are Nissan Leaf Ford Focus BEV and Chevrolet Volt (Insideevs.com, 2014). However, this market is very attractive and expanding fast, therefore more companies, including BMW, Audi and Volkswagen, has entered it recently with their plug-in models (White, 2013). In addition, every company is trying to create their niche, developing many alternatives in term of environmentally friendly cars, including hybrids, small performance turbo diesels and biodiesel cars. Thus, in future, the rivalry will be more intensive and companies will need to keep innovative, improving and making better cars. Brown, N. (2013). Daimler Wants Increased Cooperation With Tesla Motors. [online] CleanTechnical. Available at: http://cleantechnica.com/2013/11/07/daimler-wants-increased-cooperation-tesla-motors/ [Accessed 6 April. 2014 Harryson, S. and Keller, S. (2014). Tesla Motors Case II: From Technology Start up to Commercialization Vehicle.CIEL. [online] Available at: http://ciel-lab.dk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Case_Tesla-Motors-Part-II.pdf [Accessed 1 April. 2014] Insideevs.com, (2014). February 2014 Plug-In Electric Vehicle Sales Report Card | Inside EVs. [online] Available at: http://insideevs.com/february-2014-plug-in-electric-vehicle-sales-report-card/ [Accessed 3 April. 2014] Ministry of Transportation, (2010). Newsroom : Ontario Paves The Way For Electric Vehicles. [online] Available at: http://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2010/06/ontario-paves-the-way-for-electric-vehicles.html [Accessed 4 April. 2014] Tesla Motors, (2014). About Tesla | Tesla Motors. [online] Available at: http://www.teslamotors.com/about [Accessed 20 April. 2014 Wit, B. and Meyer, R. (2005).Strategy synthesis. 3rd ed. London: Thomson Learning.

Consequences Of Passive Listening English Language Essay

Consequences Of Passive Listening English Language Essay Passive listening occurs when a person is fully aware of a lecture, Conversation, or something audio that is going on in his or her presence but the person does not react to it. This essay is going to attempt to explain in details the consequences of passive listening. A passive listener does not interrupt the speaker or perform any action whatsoever at the same time in which the speaker is delivering his or her speech. In most cases, a passive listener does not nod his or her head, make appropriate facial expressions, and make eye contacts with the speaker or any other action that indicates whether a person is paying attention or not. When a person concentrates on making non-verbal cues (nodding, eye contacts and so on), then he or she is probably not paying much attention in other words, listening passively because those actions come naturally to a person who is actively listening i.e. he or she does not have to concentrate on doing them. In some cases, passive listening is associated with students in the class room. A student who is listening passively to a lecture barely pays attention to details but at the end of the lecture, the student tends to remember 10% or less of the information passed through during the lecture session. This is because although the student was not paying much attention to the details, the student will zone in and out of his or her mind at regular intervals and in the process accidentally take in some valuable information. Usually, passive listening in students is caused by a dull lecture or an interruption in which a student is attracted to for example, cell phones. It is not always the fault of the lecturer because some topics are uninteresting by nature. Despite all the reasons and excuses a student might have for his or her lack of interest during lectures, the consequences for this action will have to be put into consideration because it can adversely affect a persons academic participation and result. Listening passively without checking in on a conversation to verify that you have a message correct often leads to communication error. By simply being in a conversation without interjecting questions or active statements that uncover the speakers real message, a persons personal ideas might begin to form about what the message might mean instead of what the message actually means. An example is when an apprentice technician joins the audience in an inaugural lecture. If he listens passively, he will only manage to listen to the sounds, he will not be able to meaningfully identify the spoken signals not to talk of correctly interpreting what is being said. This will result in errors in the persons solutions or answers. If a person is listening passively, then the person is not speaking. Effective communication allows both the message sender and the receiver to express themselves in an even exchange of ideas. A passive listener can be compared to a rock, you can see it and you know it is there, but it does not seem to be absorbing anything that you are saying. The reason why passive listening is mostly associated with students is because it occurs mainly with teenagers. Passive listening requires a lot of focus because a passive listener severely focuses on what he or she is listening to but is not doing anything apart from listening meaning he or she is not absorbing any information. The strain on unmonitored focus affects a persons ability to understand. A person can store information correctly in the brain only when both the mind and brain of the individual are relaxed. Straining the brain to listen without any interest on details therefore results in a persons lack of understanding, wastage of time and possibly head ache or brain clogging. Some other practitioners of passive listening techniques are those attempting to learn a foreign language the audio way that is through an mp3 player or an audio CD player. This is common because when advertising these products, the marketing team make promises of satisfying results to whoever uses them. They include attractive slogans like learn French the easy way just by listening to this audio CD while finishing your chores. If a person is performing a task while listening to something, then the person is listening passively. The shocking truth is that passive listening cannot get a person to fluency in a language because it ever rarely produces any good results. What is even worse is that it will not help the ability of the person to understand the language he or she is attempting to learn. It is a fact that a passive listener is unable to correctly store, interpret and recall information, this fact also applies to a language learner who is listening passively. In plain words, a language learner who is listening passively will not be able to store, interpret and recall what has been said because language learning needs some amount of focus and understanding. In some cases, a person does not deliberately listen passively to a lecture or speech, passive listening can occur due to absent mindedness. In this situation, the source of this action is either the speaker or the listener. The speaker can be the cause of passive listening in an individual if his or her voice volume is too low and the listeners will have to strain their ears to listen. There will come a point in time when the listeners will finally give up on listening to the lecture because they are tired of straining their ears and the rest of the valuable information the speaker has to deliver will pass by the listeners ears and go to waste. There is also the case of complexity. When the speaker is using too many complex words or unnecessary issues and details, the listener tends to zone out and start to imagine all sorts of consequences for the discussion at hand and in the process missing out on some of the important key points. The listeners can also be at fault because at tim es, they focus on passing judgment on the speaker, topic or lecture so much that they forget the currently important speech they are supposed to be actively listening to and as a result they listen passively and miss out on the most important parts of the lecture. In my research I have learnt that the word consequence means outcome. The outcome of an event can be both good and bad since everything that has an advantage has a disadvantage. Everything I have mentioned on passive listening so far has been negative but it also has its own advantages.