Is Hamlet Really Insane - 1404 Words

Mason Michalec Mrs. Martinez English IV January 1st, 2015. Was Hamlet Really Insane? William Shakespeare, a renowned poet and playwright, wrote the play Hamlet at the turn of the 16th century– which has become known and enjoyed around nearly the entire world. Ever since it was written more than four centuries ago, there has been a decently large amount of debate between Shakespearean scholars, casual readers, literary critics, and sometimes even psychologists and psychoanalysts about whether or not Hamlet ever truly went insane at any time during the play. The controversy lies within the array of seemingly strange behavior acted out by Hamlet himself – many claim no sane person could commit such acts. Hamlet s activity may seem outlandish to some, and truly it may be, but it was acted out by a rational, sane, and conscious man. Hamlet indeed does not go insane at any point; he simply feigns madness in order to achieve revenge for his father. Firstly, it is evident that Hamlet, after discovering his father was murdered by his tr eacherous, power-hungry uncle, decided to put on a show of insanity in order to deceive his uncle. Hamlet admits this himself when he confesses in secrecy to Horatio â€Å"As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on†¦ (I. v. 170-2).† Polonius theorizes that Hamlet is truly mad, and he believes the cause to be that Ophelia had earlier rejected Hamlet s romantic advances. However, Polonius himself admits that Hamlet sShow MoreRelatedDid Hamlet Really Go Insane?769 Words   |  4 PagesThere are many ways one could argue whether or not Hamlet is insane or that he really is a psycho killer. Along those lines, I believe that Hamlet did in fact go completely bonkers and everything that happened that was not in the presence of the king or queen was just a figment of his imagination. After contemplating this Ive made up a conclusion why exactly I think he is insane. In act 1, scene 4, line 68, Horatio says to Hamlet, â€Å"What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, or to the dreadfulRead MoreWas Hamlet Faking His Insanity? Essay572 Words   |  3 PagesIn Hamlet, he seems to be mad, but there is a question that everyone asks when reading or watching this play â€Å"was it, or was it not true that Hamlet was faking his insanity, really suffering, or maybe even both.† First, this is what insanity is: insanity is acting crazy, but not knowing that they’re acting crazy. Also, it’s going through a lot of stress at the same time causing you to act stranger then a normal person. Hamlet was not totally insane. It doesn’t fit. I’m not saying that Hamlet wasRead MoreHamlet: The Irrational Prince Essay1138 Words   |  5 PagesShakespeare’s Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, named Hamlet, is the main character that’s going to avenge is fallen father. Shakespeare makes the audience wonder if Hamlet is really mad or he is just presenting some excellent acting skills that make it seem as if he has really gone insane. We must consider if he has gone mad, could be due to the loss of his father and if he is just simply acting mad, could that be to confuse his enemies? And hide is intensions? One thing is for certain and that is Hamlet cannotRead MoreHamlets Personality Faults1306 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, Hamlet’s emotions, actions, and thoughts cause much trouble during the play. Hamlet encounters stages of sarcasm, inanity, suicidal tendencies/self-deprecation, and procreation/indecision which develop not only his personality but the play itself. Hamlet uses sarcasm to express his emotions, pretends to be insane (ultimately leading him to become truly insane), self-deprecates throughout the play due to family events, and procrastinates because he is indecisiveRead MoreHamlet : William Shakespeare s Hamlet1364 Words   |  6 Pagesplay Hamlet the main character Hamlet uses several soliloquies throughout throughout the play. But there is one soliloquy; â€Å"To be, or not to be† that can arguably the most well-known soliloquy in theatre history. Even to this very day, four hundred years after the play was written, sev eral people are vaguely aware with the soliloquy, even though they may have never heard of the play. Most people misinterpret those well-known words of Hamlet’s, not knowing the background behind the words. Hamlet anticipatesRead More Hamlets Sanity Essay1522 Words   |  7 PagesThroughout Shakespeare?s play, Hamlet, the main character, young Hamlet, is faced with the responsibility of attaining vengeance for his father?s murder. He decides to feign madness as part of his plan to gain the opportunity to kill Claudius. As the play progresses, his depiction of a madman becomes increasingly believable, and the characters around him react accordingly. However, through his inner thoughts and the apparent reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actorRead More The Mood Swings of Hamlet in Shakespeares Hamlet Essay768 Words   |  4 PagesThe Mood Swings of Hamlet in Shakespeares Hamlet Hamlet has mood swings as his mood changes openly throughout the play. Towards certain people he acts certain ways. Hamlet appears to act mad when he hears of his fathers murder. No one knows if his madness is a show like he says or real like it seems. It seems as if there are two Hamlets in the play. One that is sensitive and an ideal prince and the insane uncivilized Hamlet, who from an outburst of passion and rage slays Polonius withRead MoreHamlets Insanity1513 Words   |  7 PagesIs Hamlet Insane or Sane? Throughout the play of Hamlet, one of Shakespeares most famous tragedys the main character, Hamlet is faced with the responsibility of getting vengeance for his fathers murder. He decides to pretend madness as part of his plan to get the opportunity to kill Claudius who was the suspected murderer. As the play goes on, his portrayal of a madman becomes believable, and the characters around him respond quite vividly. Through his inner thoughts and the obvious reasonsRead MoreThe Mental Illness Of Hamlet By William Shakespeare1452 Words   |  6 Pagesthe play Hamlet, Shakespeare reveals that suicide is caused by mental illness and trauma, as exemplified by Hamlet’s musing about suicide and Ophelia’s actual suicide. Hamlet experiences traumatic events during his early adulthood such as: the death of his father, finding out his uncle murdered his father, and then his mother and uncle’s marriage. These events eventually lead Hamlet to go insane. King Hamlet died unexpectedly which caused young Hamlet excessive grief and depression. Hamlet is beingRead MoreMadness And Madness In Hamlet1455 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"Hamlet, a revenge tragedy, is about Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, trying to figure out the mist behind his father’s death. By talking to his father’s ghost, Hamlet realizes that his father, King Hamlet, was killed by his own uncle, Claudius† (Kara 2). Throughout the play, the theme of madness often occurs from multiple characters. Madness can be defined as a mental disability or a pathological condition of the mind eliminating all rational thoughts caused by an unthinkable injury. These injuries

Hitler Research Paper Free Essays

Brianna Milligan Mr. McCaw AP Lit and Comp 9 November 2012 On April 20th 1889, Adolf Hitler was born. Adolf is debatably the most remembered dictator in all of history; he was responsible for the genocide of 6 million Jews, and other minorities. We will write a custom essay sample on Hitler Research Paper or any similar topic only for you Order Now Why Hitler developed a strong angst against the Jews is unclear, although there are many theories, none prove to be factual. Perhaps it was this influential man’s huge desire for power that drove him to such drastic measures. Despite, Hitler’s unforgivable actions – rejection, war, and power are the three elements that created Adolf Hitler, the face of Nazi Germany. As a young German boy, Adolf loved art so much so, that all he sometimes did was sketch and paint. He was particularly gifted with academics; he passed his classes with great ease and found school to be fairly unchallenging. Despite his academic abilities, he stopped caring and trying in school as he grew older. The reason for this would be Alois’ death (Hitler’s father) when Adolf was only 13. However, it was Hitler’s biggest aspiration to be accepted into Vienna Academy of Art, but after submitting his application several times Hitler was rejected. Prior to his father’s death, Hitler and Alois had their differences due to Alois’ opinion on the pointlessness of art school. Adolf was abused by his father for many years, and it is arguable that this rejection from his own father built up unhealthy steam. After being rejected by the Academy of Art, he lived in Vienna pretending to be an art student to avoid telling his mother, Klara, the truth. In 1907, his mother passed away of cancer, and this was probably the most traumatic thing in Hitler’s youth. â€Å"Her death affected him far more deeply than the death of his father. He had fond memories of his mother, carried her photograph wherever he went and, it is claimed, had it in his hand when he died in 1945. † (Spartacus Educational) He could never face his mother, in fear of being rejected by her as well. The First World War was surfacing and Hitler had ignored his call-up papers for enlisting in the Austrian Army. Shortly after being taken in by the authorities for a medical examination for the army, â€Å"he was rejected as being: â€Å"Unfit for combatant and auxiliary duty – too weak. Unable to bear arms. (Spartacus Educational) Acceptance in the psychological development of a teenager is crucial, and Hitler was repeatedly rejected. World War I was in full action, and Hitler joined the German Army. Most soldiers look back on violent wars and talk about the brutality and struggles, but Hitler wrote, â€Å"I was overcome with impetuous enthusiasm, and falling on my knees, wholeheartedly thanked Heaven that I had been granted the happi ness to live at this time. † (Mein Kampf) Hitler found this to be his â€Å"greatest spiritual experience† (Mein Kampf) and from then on found himself becoming obsessed with the military. He volunteered for the job of ‘dispatch-runner’ which required him to run across the front-line and relay messages from regimental headquarters. Being on the front lines were extremely dangerous considering only one out of three messengers lived. Adolf Hitler won five medals including the honorable â€Å"Iron Cross. † This was one of his first successors, and WWI had become his favorite point in his life. It was until October 1918, when Hitler breathed in some British Mustard Gas and was blinded. This resulted in Hitler having to stay in the hospital until he recovered. While he was in the hospital, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles and had surrendered. The few peers and colleagues of Hitler stated that he had slipped into a deep depression once he’d caught wind of the news, and this was just another failure that Adolf had associated himself with. Post-war Hitler had been shocked that a socialist revolution had occurred, and as a dedicated German Nationalist he was infuriated with these social equality movements. He believed that communism was evil and that these Socialist party revolutions were nothing but â€Å"Jewish Conspiracies† (YouTube: Adolf Hitler the Greatest Story Never Told). Eventually, Hitler was recruited as a German political officer, and could now lecture soldiers on politics. Germany was in a state of economic downfall because of the Treaty of Versailles. All of the war reparations were to be a paid for by Germany because they had originally started the war, Hitler was deeply involved with politics and loved war. Therefore he was agitated by the fact that the Treaty was having Germany pay for everything and he rendered that it was an unfair treaty. Hitler, at this time, was a common public speaker, and not too long after all these speeches he created his own political party. â€Å"In February 1920, the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) published its first programme which became known as the â€Å"25 Points†. In the programme the party refused to accept the terms of the Versailles Treaty and called for the reunification of all German people. To reinforce their ideas on nationalism, equal rights were only to be given to German citizens. â€Å"Foreigners† and â€Å"aliens† would be denied these rights. (Spartacus Educational) This is when Hitler’s evident hatred of the Jews became visible to all of Germany, but his speaking was so influential and it made sense at the time that people didn’t disagree. His party was the biggest favored political party during this period. Hitler’s newfound party became known as the ‘Nazi Party. ’ â€Å"According to Hitler, Jews we re responsible for everything he did not like, including modern art, pornography and prostitution. Hitler also alleged that the Jews had been responsible for losing the First World War. Hitler also claimed that Jews, who were only about 1% of the population, were slowly taking over the country. They were doing this by controlling the largest political party in Germany, the German Social Democrat Party, many of the leading companies and several of the country’s newspapers. The fact that Jews had achieved prominent positions in a democratic society was, according to Hitler, an argument against democracy: â€Å"a hundred blockheads do not equal one man in wisdom. † (YouTube: Adolf Hitler the Greatest Story Never Told). It wasn’t long before Hitler ran for president, won, and became a dictator. He now had complete and total power, and had already begun deportation plans for the Jewish people in Germany. Hitler let the German people know right away that the Jewish were the reason they lost the war, he read Henry Ford’s book The International Jew, and stemmed a passionate hatred toward the very existence of the Jewish race. It wasn’t until autumn of 1941 that Hitler openly spoke about the annihilation of the Jews, but he wasted no time in preparing the concentrations camps which was ultimately his ‘final solution. (adolfhitler. dk. ) Adolf Hitler controlled everything in Germany during the holocaust, every horror imaginable was going on in these concentration camps, and Germany’s strategies in WWII were extremely violent. The mass murder of the Jewish population was called the Holocaust. Hitler took over many territories all over the world during WWII, and his army wa s incredibly disciplined and brutal. Conclusively, the Holocaust was a result of the creation of the Nazi Party. Hitler was rejected by society, became obsessed with war, and his complete control of Germany with his ultimate power led to the genocide of 6 million Jews. Works Cited: â€Å"Adolf Hitler. † Adolf Hitler. N. p. , n. d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. ;http://www. adolfhitler. dk/;. â€Å"Spartacus Educational. † Spartacus Educational. N. p. , n. d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. ;http://www. spartacus. schoolnet. co. uk/GERhitler. htm;. YouTube. Dir. Deephiddentruth. YouTube. YouTube, 23 Mar. 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. ;http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=TERKermWgIg;. How to cite Hitler Research Paper, Essays

Leadership Traits and Styles-Free-Samples-Myassignmenthelp.com

Questions: "What are the Leadership Traits, Styles, Characteristics and Behaviors that are Critical in Contributing to the Effectiveness of a Leader in their Particular Situation." Answers: Leadership plays a pivotal role in the growth and success of the business. It is the major requirement of all the business organizations in order to sustain its image and growth. Without a leader, no business can work effectively and efficiently. The leader in a business organization possesses different skills, styles, traits and behavior. This paper is prepared in order to analyze the leadership traits, styles, characteristics and the behavior of Jack Ma, which helps him in being an effective leader. Jack Ma is the Founder and CEO of Alibaba Group, who is considered as the most tenacious leader in the world. He is a very renowned person and is worth of $25.8 Billion. Ali Baba is a successful internet based business due to the goal of Jack Ma to facilitate the globalized use of the internet across the globe. Jack Ma is one of the fascinating examples of a successful leader. This man various ambitions, which were only possible and turned out to be as true only because of his leadershi p qualities, skills and styles. He possesses illustrious leadership traits, styles and characteristics (Chiemelie, 2017). He became a good leader when he faced a situation, when he came to USA and he was then introduced to the use of internet, where he never saw Chinese Page. This encouraged him and he used his various traits and leadership styles to search and develop one. With rigourous practice and efforts, he started a page which is known as Alibaba. The use of his traits and styles are discussed based on the situation highlighted. The Trait theory of Leadership outlines the importance of traits and characteristics in a leader that helps in achieving success in a particular situation. The personality traits play an effective role, thereby, various traits of Jack Ma are also discussed in order to understand his leadership style, which were used by him to establish his business over the globe as mentioned above in the particular situation. Authenticity: He possesses a strong character of being an authentic leader, which helps him in building loyalty on which his business, Alibaba grows (Whisper, 2016). The ability to become and possess the trait of being an authentic leader helps in building trust, which is the crucial aspect in growing business. Also, the sense of humor must not be sacrificed in order to complete the task or the responsibility given to the leader (Nanjundeswaraswamy Swamy, 2014). Tenacious: Jack Ma is a successful leader due to the tenacity and the his clear vision towards work. The leaders having tenacity as their trait helps them in chasing about what they want and aims at achieving. The aim of achieving the goal by bringing the other people together is the remark of being a tenacious leader. Self Confidence: This is the most important trait that helps in becoming a successful leader. Likewise, Jack Ma has the ability to overcome the issues and the power to unite the people to work together, his confidence within himself has helped him in building a huge empire. The confidence with oneself has helped him in standing at such a great position. Perservant: This trait, one of the popular leadership skills. The trait of never giving up and trying to remain confident even after losing at some point of time helps the person to become a successful leader. While developing the Chinese page, he faced various difficulties, but he believed in using them as the good options. Thereby, being assertive and never giving up has helped him in being an effective leader (Chan, 2015). With significant traits and characteristics that Jack Ma possesses, the styles of leadership that a leader follows are also important to understand. To start up the Alibaba business, he required various leadership styles in order to create the Chinese page. The most important style of leadership followed by Jack Ma is the Charismatic leadership style. Jack Ma being a charmer and being good at persuasion follows the style of charismatic. The ability to inspire the people around the leader and encourage them to work together is the quality of being a charismatic leader. Jack Ma gave importance to share his passion for work with the other in order to charm them with his own skills that has led him in building a huge successful business with the help of others. Also, does he follows the transformational leadership style, which is similar to the charismatic leadership style. This leadership style aims at empowering the employees and the co-workers to perform to their best ability in order to achieve success. Jack Ma aimed at motivating its employees and always encouraged them to use their superior skills in order to achieve the desired goals. Such qualities of him being a transformational leader are his biggest strength. He also follows the democratic leadership style, as this style aims at running a team which has the free flow of communication and ideas. Jack Ma is known as a democratic leader as he aims at encouraging the ideas from his team members and believes in providing an opportunity to the employees to participate in the decision making of the business situations. This style of leadership gives him recognition as he gives importance to the ideas of the employees working in the Alibaba Group. The characteristic of empathy is important for being a good leader, which is possessed by Jack Ma (Berger, 2008). The last leadership style followed by Jack Ma is the visionary leadership style. He is known for being a visionary leader as he aims at finding the positiv e outcome even in the poor and worst situations. His believe in finding the good in the bad times and situations helps him in becoming a leader with good vision and bold approach. It depends on the leadership behavior that a person inculcates that makes the person a good leader. Jack Ma possessed strong leadership styles with appropriate behaviors and characteristics. His qualities and behavior of being supportive, relatedness and openness helped him in becoming a strong leader (Hossain, 2015). Jack Mas behavior of welcoming the risks as opportunities to resolve them with good solutions was his biggest strength. His humble behavior towards others played a vital role in showing commitment to empower its employees. Also, his behavior to bond with the employees coming from different cultures and philantrophy proved out to be the best. The virtue of having empathy, helped Jack Ma in becoming the best leader and achieving success at every stride of his business. References Berger, R. (2008). Leadership Compendium: Young Global Leaders on Leadership. Retrieved from https://w02.unssc.org/leadership_compendium/pdf/lc_short.pdf Chan, J. (2015). Jack Ma: A Leadership Insight. Retrieved from https://johnsonchan90.wordpress.com/jack-ma-a-leadership-insight/ Chiemelie, I. (2017, May 01). Leadership: A case of Jack Ma, the Chairman and Founder of Alibaba Group. Retrieved from https://ilokabenneth.blogspot.in/2017/05/leadership-case-of-jack-ma-chairman-and.html Hossain, K. (2015, May 29). Leadership qualities for 21st century leaders. Pearl Journal of Management, Social Science and Humanities, 1(1), 18-29. Retrieved from https://www.pearlresearchjournals.org/journals/pjmssh/archive/2015/May/PDF/Hossain%20.pdf Nanjundeswaraswamy, T., Swamy, D. (2014). Leadership styles. Advances In Management, 7(2), 1-7. Retrieved from https://www.mnsu.edu/activities/leadership/leadership_styles.pdf Whisper, C. (2016, December 15). The 7 Leadership Rules of Jack Ma. Retrieved from https://www.chinawhisper.com/the-7-leadership-rules-of-jack-ma/

The meaning of healing miracles Essay Example

The meaning of healing miracles Essay Christians today make of the miracle stories in the bible as influencing stories. They mainly market these stories and tell them to others or preach. The stories were read to uneducated people in a way that they could influence them to see the good in believing in God. One is when a group of demons asked Jesus if they could cast out their evil spirits into a nearby herd of pigs. The pig farmers were incensed and angry with Jesus because when the spirits entered the pigs, they all jumped of the cliff. This all makes sense if the miracle was legitimate. If Jesus was just helping someone deal with psychosis, lets say, why did the pigs all jump off the cliff? Each miracle has its own significance. Many are comparable to todays miracles, and are very encouraging to people who have illness or suffering, as they can provide faith and allow people to stay positive believing that they have hope. Miracles only happen to those who have faith in God and who believe. They use the miracle stories as part of their worship by reminding God how great he is and what he has done for them and to thank him. We will write a custom essay sample on The meaning of healing miracles specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The meaning of healing miracles specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The meaning of healing miracles specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Also this gives them a reason to stay in faith. If they ever have any doubt they can recall the miracles and see how great and powerful God is. Christians today can learn a great deal from miracles. They learn how important their faith is in God. Miracles happen anywhere. They can happen to anyone as long as there is faith, it can happen everywhere and they happen because God wants us to be fit for the kingdom. Christians can learn from this, that miracles happen to people who need them, to people who believe in him, and to people who have sinned, confessed, and apologise. They do not happen to people who have no or little faith, who question God, or who ask things of him in a selfish way. Miracles teach us that Jesus helps all kinds of people who need him. For example: the healing of the leper teaches us that we must follow Jesus teaching and his examples. We must reach out to those who are at the edge of society either by sickness or reputation. Another example is the story of the Centurion. This story shows how the faith of the Centurion saved his servants life as Jesus healed him. What is Forgiveness? What does it mean? Why is this a difficult concept? First, I must establish that Forgiveness is a process. There is no time frame. Each person will work through the process at his or her own pace. There is no magical saying or act that will produce instant results. What are your words for forgiveness? What do you feel when someone talks about forgiveness? What I have noticed is that the words for someone not able to forgive are about pain. The words about forgiveness are about healing, release and joy. Some consider forgiveness to be a miracle. Forgiveness is very important in life and miracles happen because God forgives those who have sinned. Miracles help inform Christians about Jesus and that he is the son of God. He is the one who lead people and brought them to forgive the sins of others. Miracles are proof to everybody that God exists and how powerful he is. Jesus performed many miracles, for example Turning Water to Wine: John 2:1-11. Jesus turned all the water into wine at a wedding. He is able to do this, because people believe in him, as without faith miracles cannot happen. Some churches hold healing services today. These are miraculous as they help people coping with sickness. Even if there is not enough power to heal the person or they have not confessed their sins, the thought of having God with them by their side is very comforting for those with terminal illnesses. Healing services help support people and comfort them, so yes they are miraculous services. God can save peoples lives and cure them, (even if it is just by making them believe they will get through whatever the problem is) and this gives them comfort. The Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For many of us, this is a difficult concept to grasp. The Bible declares that there is only one living God, yet we learn from scripture that He comprises three separate personages. One way to partially visualize this notion is to examine the nature of water (H2O). Water is a single compound that can exist in three states liquid, ice and vapor. An egg is another picture. It is comprised of the white, the yolk and the shell, yet it is still one egg. Of course, by no means do these examples paint a complete picture of our God, but they are illustrative of the fact that His three persons in no way invalidate His oneness. As God consists of 3 elements he is very powerful, and this is why he is able to perform such miraculous events as he does. Present day miracles may not be very obvious but they consist of things such as, the healing of sickness, speaking in tongues and exorcisms. Other miracles are not obvious at all; they may be things such as rain following drought or people being able to cope after a horrific natural disaster. Many things are miracles because of peoples strong belief in God. Today, people have access to bibles, as well as encyclopaedias. Over six million trained Christians are assisting others to gain divine knowledge based on the Bible. Thus, miracles are no longer always necessary to attest to Jesus Christ as Gods appointed Deliverer or to provide proof that Jehovah is backing his servants. There are miracles everyday such as birth, life and life and death situations. It is a miracle that people are still getting along in this day and age. If God performed a miracle for everyone so as to prove his existence then there would be no point in Religion Religion is based on faith which does not require proof and it is something you have to work on.

Girl Power Essays

Girl Power Essays Girl Power Essay Girl Power Essay Girl power From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The phrase girl power, as a term of empowerment, expressed a cultural phenomenon of the 1990s and early 2000s. It is also linked to third-wave feminism. The term was made popular by the Spice Girls in the mid to late 1990s. |Contents | |1 Early usage | |2 Spice Girls and scholarship | |2. 1 Oxford English Dictionary | |2. Criticism | |3 See also | |4 References | |5 Bibliography | Early usage The phrase is sometimes spelled as grrrl power, initially associated with Riot Grrrl. [1] Girl power was later utilized by a number of bands during the early 1990s, such as the Welsh indie band Helen Love[2] and the Plumstead pop-punk duo Shampoo. 3] Spice Girls and scholarship The phrase entered the mainstream, however, during the mid-1990s with the British pop quintet Spice Girls. [4][5][6][7] Professor Susan Hopkins, in her 2002 text, Girl Heroes: The New Force in Popular Culture, suggested a correlation between girl power, Spice Girls and female action heroes at the end of the 20th century. [8] Other scholars have also examined the phrase, girl power, often within the context of the academic field, Buffy Studies. 9] Media theorist Kathleen Rowe Karlyn in her article Scream, Popular Culture, and Feminisms Third Wave: Im Not My Mother[10] and Irene Karras in The Third Waves Final girl: Buffy the Vampire Slayer suggest a link with third-wave feminism. Frances Early and Kathleen Kennedy in the introduction to Athena’s Daughters: Television’s New Women Warriors, discuss what they describe as a link between girl power and a new image of women warriors in popular culture. [11] Oxford English Dictionary In 2001, the Oxford English Dictionary added the term girl power,[12] defining this phrase as: Power exercised by girls; spec. a self-reliant attitude among girls and young women manifested in ambition, assertiveness, and individualism. Although also used more widely (esp. as a slogan), the term has been particularly and repeatedly associated with popular music; most notably in the early 1990s with the briefly prominent ‘riot girl’ movement in the United States (cf. RIOT GIRL n. ); then, in the late 1990s, with the British all-female group The Spice Girls. 13] The OED further offers an example of this term by quoting from Angel Delight, an article in the March 24, 2001 issue of Dreamwatch about the television series Dark Angel: After the Sarah Connors and Ellen Ripleys of the eighties, the nineties werent so kind to the superwoman format- Xena Warrior Princess excepted. But its a new millennium now, and while Charlies Angels and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are kicking up a storm on movie screens, its been down to James Cameron to bring empowered female warriors back to television screens. : And tellingly, Cameron has done it by mixing the sober feminism of his Terminator and Aliens characters with the sexed-up girl power of a Britney Spears concert. The result is Dark Angel. [14] Criticism Dr. Debbie Ging, Chair of the BA in Communications Studies in Dublin City University, was critical of the Girl power ideals, and linked it to the sexualisation of younger children, girls in particular. [15] Some question whether the concept of â€Å"girl power† is an effective media campaign to empower young women. In the last decade, it can be argued that the original girl power movement has become co-opted by the media and marketing ndustries. Amy McClure of North Carolina State University, warns against placing too much hope on girl power as an empowering concept. She says, â€Å"An ideology based on consumerism can never be a revolutionary social movement. The fact that it appears to be a revolutionary movement is a dangerous lie that not only marketers sell to us but that we often happily sell to ourselves. †[16] â€Å"Girl power† may actually limit young women’s identity development. There are numerous examples of how the media presents a narrow definition of what it means to be a girl today. A common and overused example is Mattel’s Barbie. The recent â€Å"I can be† Barbie[17] embodies this concept of â€Å"girl power†: that little girls can be anything they want when they grow up, but ultimately, it could be argued that identity options are narrowed by Barbie’s image and superficial values[18]. See also List of female action heroes Xena: Warrior Princess in popular culture Buffy studies Girl Heroes Women warriors Post-feminism References 1. ^ Rebel Girl You Are the Queen of My World: Feminism, Subculture, and Grrrl Power. 2. ^ Helen Love Gabba Gabba We Accept You 3. ^ Shampoo Interview by Free Williamsburg 4. ^ From Title IX to Riot Grrrls . ^ BBC News | Girl power | Youve come a long way baby 6. ^ Girl Power Theory. org. uk trading cards 7. ^ Girl Power: how it betrayed us 8. ^ Super Slick Power Chicks: The New Force or Elaborate Parody? 9. ^ The Third Waves Final girl: Buffy the Vampire Slayer 10. ^ Scream, Popular Culture, and Feminisms Third Wave: Im Not My Mother 11. ^ Book review 12 . ^ BBC News UK | Girl power goes mainstream 13. ^ OED:Girl power 14. ^ E y e s O n l y 15. ^ Ging, Debbie. Girl Power doesn’t empower: why it’s time for an honest debate about the sexualisation of children in Ireland July 2007. 6. ^ allacademic. com/meta/p108568_index. html 17. ^ http://icanbe. barbie. com 18. ^ http://books. google. com/books? id=Bh_Ite2-SgQCpg=PA113lpg=PA113dq=sharon+lamb+girls+identity+powersource=blots=tk4H5T_wVbsig=3kyP9E68KVLtV6r0PhdhLRDDzuEhl=enei=uoWVS_PFGOKFmQeTvfGPBAsa=Xoi=book_resultct=resultresnum=1ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepageq=f=false} Bibliography Buffy The Patriarchy Slayer Bibliography of scholarly articles on Buffy Studies. Early, Frances and Kathleen Kennedy, Athenas Daughters: Televisions New Women Warriors, Syracuse University Press, 2003. Gateward, Frances. Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice. Cinemas of Girlhood. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2002. Helford, Elyce Rae. Fantasy Girls  : Gender in the New Universe of Scie nce Fiction and Fantasy Television. Lanham, MD: Rowman Littlefield, 2000. Hopkins, Susan, Girl Heroes: the New Force in Popular Culture, Pluto Press Australia, 2002. Inness, Sherrie A. (ed. ) Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. - - - . Tough Girls  : Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. - - - . Nancy Drew and Company  : Culture, Gender, and Girls Series. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1997. Karlyn, Kathleen Rowe. Scream, Popular Culture, and Feminisms Third Wave: Im Not My Mother. Genders: Presenting Innovative Work in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences No. 38 (2003). Karras, Irene. The Third Waves Final Girl: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. thirdspace 1:2 (March 2002). Frustrating Female Heroism: Mixed Messages in Xena, Nikita, and Buffy. The Journal of Popular Culture, Volume 39 Issue 5 (October 2006). Tasker, Yvo nne. Action and Adventure Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2004. Retrieved from http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Girl_poweroldid=459167185 Categories: Feminist theory Gender Third-wave feminism Cultural studies 1990s fads and trends This page was last modified on 5 November 2011 at 17:58. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. , a non-profit organization.

The Functions of Boldface

The Functions of Boldface The Functions of Boldface The Functions of Boldface By Mark Nichol Boldface type, which has a heavier weight than, meaning it is thicker than, roman type, is employed to provide emphasis but has a prescribed set of uses. This post outlines those uses. In running text- the default wording in a piece of context, as opposed to display copy, which consists of headings, subheadings, captions, footnotes, sidebars, and other special text- boldface is appropriate only in certain circumstances. In printed and online publications, it is most often employed in educational contexts, where newly introduced terms may be bolded, or styled in boldface, to signal to a reader that such terms are key to understanding the topic under discussion. For example, in textbooks, words introduced as new vocabulary are often formatted in boldface within the running text. At the beginning of each chapter or section, these words may be listed in a sidebar, and they may be defined in footnotes or in a glossary, or list of terms and definitions, at the end of the section or the book. In most other cases, using boldface in running text is an aesthetic choice, often for humorous effect or, for example, to represent shouting in a children’s storybook. Display copy is often boldface to distinguish it from the running text, although such content is generally styled in a different font and in larger point sizes for that reason. Run-in subheads or sideheads- those that begin a paragraph or a section of type rather than appear on a line above it, and that are generally formatted the same point size as the rest of the paragraph or section- are often boldfaced to distinguish them from the narrative that follows. (Such subheads are, alternatively, often italicized.) Punctuation following a run-in subhead, whether a period, a colon, or a dash, should also be boldface. And when, for example, glossary terms are boldfaced, if punctuation follows each term before the definitions, the punctuation should be boldfaced. This is also true for figure headings (where, for example, â€Å"Figure 1.† or â€Å"Figure 1:† precedes the title of the figure) and captions, where directional terms such as above or left may be boldfaced or where a run-in heading may precede a caption’s explanatory text. However, in running text, punctuation that follows a boldfaced term, because it is associated with the surrounding text, not with the emphasized element, is not boldfaced. (This is true even if the boldfaced term is enclosed in parentheses or bracketed by a pair of commas or dashes.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Slang Terms for MoneyCapitalization Rules for Names of Historical Periods and MovementsIs "Number" Singular or Plural?

Changes in Maro environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Changes in Maro environment - Essay Example Wal-Mart in Mexico was impacted due to the 1994 currency crisis. Due to currency crisis, the interest rate was decreased in the Unites States as a result of which the amount of net capital inflows in Mexico was adversely impacted. With this macroeconomic variables’ impact, Wal-Mart’s credit position was affected which brought the firm in unstable position through increased level of cost and decreased productivity. The case of Wal-Mart in Mexico is a practical implication of the political decisions’ impact, which is a macroeconomic factor, upon the operations of a firm (Oxelheim, Wihlborg, & Zhang, 2009). The similarity between the strategies adopted by McDonald’s in China and Wal-Mart in Mexico is that both the firm strived to come out of certain adverse consequences of the macro environment and succeed in the respective markets. The difference between the strategies is that McDonald’s followed ‘customer driven’ strategy whereas Wal-Mart followed ‘competition driven’ strategy. This is because McDonald’s focused on implementing various ways of winning customers’ belief, while on the other hand, Wal-Mart concentrated on gaining competitive advantage through adoption of various innovative strategies such as opening up of banks in its stores. In the case of McDonald’s expansion strategy in China, the Chinese governmental policies towards foreign companies attempting to acquire China’s natural resources impacted upon the firm’s cost during entering the market as they had to make use of channels for avoiding this entry barrier. Utilization of channels accompanied extra cost for the company and also in certain cases, the firm had to compromise with its business structure for reducing the entry barriers. Again the case of Wal-Mart’s expansion strategy in Mexico had been highly impacted due to the trading situations between Mexico and the US resulting in various

Qualitative Dissertation Study Analysis LOCATE ANY QUALITATIVE Essay

Qualitative Dissertation Study Analysis LOCATE ANY QUALITATIVE DISSERTATION AND SUBMIT WITH ASSIGNMENT - Essay Example Twelve female season-ticket holders of university men’s basketball, with no recent attendance at a women’s basketball game, were interviewed using a semi-structured format† (Farrell, 2006, p. 1). The logic behind this selection of interview subjects was simple. If Farrell had analyzed women who do not like sports to determine why they do not watch women’s sports, it would have led to too obvious a conclusion: Women just do not like sports, women or men’s. However, it does seem possible that women who like sports like men’s sports, that there may be something about men’s sports in particular that would attract them in particular, such that talking to either fans of women’s sports or women who watch neither would be relevant as a control. Nonetheless, this choice of interview subject is designed to find people who not only like sports but also like them enough to buy a season-ticket pass to college games. Farrell (2006) pointed to research that identifies four different categories of research interest: characteristics of language, discovery of regularities, discerning meaning, and reflection. She also pointed out that qualitative and quantitative techniques are not strict binaries. For example, one quantitative technique, numerical and statistical analysis, is done on a fundamentally qualitative tool, a survey, by having people rank their beliefs from 1 to 7 or on any other scale. Farrell defined qualitative research, in line with Golafshani (2003), as â€Å"a naturalistic approach that seeks to understand phenomena in context-specific settings, such as a real world setting where the researcher does not attempt to manipulate the phenomenon of interest† (p. 61). Theoretical Background Farrell (2006) used social constructivism and critical theory for her interpretation, noting that many other approaches (positivism, pragmatism, interpretivism, postmodern techniques) are also equally viable. She defined s ocial constructivism thusly: â€Å"Social constructivism asserts that humans construct knowledge using collective social instruments such as language and cultural practices† (p. 62). A social constructivist argument would take it as a given that the category of â€Å"women† is not fixed, so there is no answer for â€Å"Why don’t women like women’s sports?† that has the form â€Å"Because that is what women do† or â€Å"Women are genetically programmed only to like male gladiatorial rituals†. If women do not like women’s sports, it must be a social factor: acculturation, values, the failure of women’s sports to appeal to their values or interests, etc. Farrell (2006) justified her use of critical theory thusly: The study of women in sport is, in essence, a study of gender struggles against male hegemonic values embedded in the construction of sport as a male preserve. Critical theory lends itself well to a more deliberate investigation of the power structures of sport in this study (p. 63). Indeed, critical theory’

Blood Brothers Essay Example for Free

Blood Brothers Essay I wanted to adopt but Mr Lyons is Well he says he wanted his own son, not someone elses. Myself, I believe that an adopted child can become ones own So when Mr Lyons went away on his business trip, Mrs Lyons persuaded her cleaner which is Mrs Johnstone to give one of he children to Mrs Lyons, since Mrs Johnstone was having twins. Mr and Mrs Lyons are very rich and they live in a big house, so Edward grows up in a privileged and comfortable environment. Mrs Lyons makes Mrs Johnstone promise on the bible that Mrs Johnstone will give one of her child to Mrs Lyons, the narrator says: In the name of Jesus, the thing was done, now theres no going back, for anyone. Its too late now, for feeling torn. Theres a pact been sealed, theres a deal been born. In return of the favour that Mrs Johnstone gave to Mrs Lyons, that Mrs Lyons would let Mrs Johnstone see Edward everyday. Mrs Johnstone says: I would still be able to see him everyday, wouldnt I? Mrs Lyons replies: Of course. During Edwards childhood, his father didnt spend much time with him; he was always busy with his work. For instance when Edward said to his father: Daddy we havent finished the story yet. Mr Lyons replies: Mummy will read the story, Edward. Ive got to go to work for an hour Also Mr Lyons was not spending much time with Mrs Lyons as well. After Mrs Johnstone has delivered the twins and given one of them to Mrs Lyons, Mrs Lyons became very nasty, she tried to keep Mrs Johnstone away from Edward, for example when Mrs Johnstone says: Ah hes lovely. Ah look, he wants to be picked up, Ill just. Mrs Lyons answers Hes fine. He doesnt want to be picked up. Although Mrs Lyons said that Mrs Johnstone could see Edward everyday, but she did not let her. After Mrs Lyons dismissed Mrs Johnstone. Edward has a very good education, his parents sends him to boarding school, since they have the money for it. He is a very intelligent boy, but thats because he is encourage by his parents to learn. The type of language that Edward uses is Standard English, he calls his mother: Mummy Edward Standard English because that is how he was brought up by the Lyons. His parents influence the language he uses, since his parents uses Standard English. Other people treat Edward with respect, because he is in a high standard of living and comes from a rich family. Again when there was a situation with the policeman, but with Edward. When the policeman was telling Mrs Lyons what had happened, he didnt make it as a major concern unlike with Mrs Johnstone. The police was very polite. This is how he treated this problem. Policeman says: Ah er, as I say, it was more of a prank, really, Mr Lyons. Id just dock his pocket money if I was you. But, one thing I would say if y dont mind me sayin; is well, Im not sure Id let him mix with the likes of them in the future. Make sure he keeps with his own kind, Mr Lyons. Well er, thanks for the drink, sir. All the best now. Hes a good lad. The policeman was saying that it was just only a prank, but that he said to Mrs Johnstone was totally different. Also the policeman had told Mr Lyons to keep Edward away from children like mickey. The way that this situation was handle was normal, wasnt serious like Mrs Johnstone. Mickey has a slight influence on Edward. For instance, when Edward asks his mother Are you feeling better now, mummy? Mrs Lyons replies Much better now, darling. Oh Edward, look, look at those birds. Look at the lovely black and white one. Edward immediately says Dont mummy, dont look. Its a magpie, never look at one magpie. Its one for sorrow Mrs Lyons said Edward. Thats just stupid superstition Edward replies Its not, mickey told me Therefore Edward believes in superstition, also like Mrs Johnstone, for example when Mrs Lyons put new shoes on the table, Mrs Johnstone immediately said: Never put new shoes on the table. You never know whatll happen Edward likes Mickeys company because they are very different from each other although they are blood brothers, for example when Mickey is talking to Edward, Edward admires the way that Mickey talks and Edward admires mickey very much. Edward says: Pissed off. You say smashing things dont you? Do you know anymore words like that? When Linda needed help she had Edward by her side. For instance when Mickey couldnt find a job Linda turn to Mickey. Conclusion I think that the environment around us determines our lives because it depends where we are, whom we are with. The way we become around other people everyday, the way we are brought up by our parents and the habits and dislikes we have. Like for instance Mickey and Edward are Blood Brothers, but grew up in differently in different environments.

Mr. Duffy :: essays research papers

In life people are be alone by choice, no matter if it was flat out what the wanted or alone due to some kind of forced circumstance that grew out of a previous choice they made, but when it comes down to it loneliness is never truly desired. In the short stories A Painful Case and Eveline we see examples of each type of loneliness. In A Painful Case Mr. Duffy for the most part of his life chooses to be alone. In Eveline, Eveline seems to be lonely because she’s unable to leave her duties to her family. In both stories the main characters display their desire to have someone near but when they’re finally given the chance it’s inevitably taken away from them, and then they’re driven back into the entrapment of loneliness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout Mr. Duffy’s life he has never found a satisfactory choice with anything, which explains why he sticks to a simple, plain, and routine life. He also never gave much thought to his own feelings or wrote them down most likely to assert his decision of being alone, so he wouldn’t start to rethink his decisions. But when he met Mrs. Sinico, they’re intimate discussions slowly led him into breaking down that wall that kept out all people from getting close to him. He was starting to unconsciously enjoy the company of an intimate friendship, but he couldn’t let it last for long so he pushed her away. For the longest time he didn’t realize that he missed that company until he was informed of her suicide. As he walked around the city listening for her voice to come and comfort him in his moment of shame and sorrow he finally understood for the first time in his life that he didn’t want to be alone.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Eveline has always felt lonely ever since her mother’s death but especially now when there is nothing more she can do with her life but find someone to take her away and love her. Eveline’s desire for a better life seems like it may come true when she meets Frank who she thinks will take her away to Buenos Aires. When her chance comes along for her to leave with Frank she too pushes her chance away. She thinks that she no longer deserves a better life other than fulfilling her duties to her family and chooses to be alone for eternity. Mr. Duffy :: essays research papers In life people are be alone by choice, no matter if it was flat out what the wanted or alone due to some kind of forced circumstance that grew out of a previous choice they made, but when it comes down to it loneliness is never truly desired. In the short stories A Painful Case and Eveline we see examples of each type of loneliness. In A Painful Case Mr. Duffy for the most part of his life chooses to be alone. In Eveline, Eveline seems to be lonely because she’s unable to leave her duties to her family. In both stories the main characters display their desire to have someone near but when they’re finally given the chance it’s inevitably taken away from them, and then they’re driven back into the entrapment of loneliness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout Mr. Duffy’s life he has never found a satisfactory choice with anything, which explains why he sticks to a simple, plain, and routine life. He also never gave much thought to his own feelings or wrote them down most likely to assert his decision of being alone, so he wouldn’t start to rethink his decisions. But when he met Mrs. Sinico, they’re intimate discussions slowly led him into breaking down that wall that kept out all people from getting close to him. He was starting to unconsciously enjoy the company of an intimate friendship, but he couldn’t let it last for long so he pushed her away. For the longest time he didn’t realize that he missed that company until he was informed of her suicide. As he walked around the city listening for her voice to come and comfort him in his moment of shame and sorrow he finally understood for the first time in his life that he didn’t want to be alone.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Eveline has always felt lonely ever since her mother’s death but especially now when there is nothing more she can do with her life but find someone to take her away and love her. Eveline’s desire for a better life seems like it may come true when she meets Frank who she thinks will take her away to Buenos Aires. When her chance comes along for her to leave with Frank she too pushes her chance away. She thinks that she no longer deserves a better life other than fulfilling her duties to her family and chooses to be alone for eternity.

Walmart Security Issues

Review our  cookies information  for more details Special report:  Managing information A different game Information is transforming traditional businesses Feb 25th 2010 | from the print edition * * IN 1879 James Ritty, a saloon-keeper in Dayton, Ohio, received a patent for a wooden contraption that he dubbed the â€Å"incorruptible cashier†. With a set of buttons and a loud bell, the device, sold by National Cash Register (NCR), was little more than a simple adding machine. Yet as an early form of managing information flows in American business the cash register had a huge impact.It not only reduced pilferage by alerting the shopkeeper when the till was opened; by recording every transaction, it also provided an instant overview of what was happening in the business. Sales data remain one of a company's most important assets. In 2004 Wal-Mart peered into its mammoth databases and noticed that before a hurricane struck, there was a run on flashlights and batteries, as mi ght be expected; but also on Pop-Tarts, a sugary American breakfast snack. On reflection it is clear that the snack would be a handy thing to eat in a blackout, but the retailer would not have thought to stock up on it before a storm.The company whose system crunched Wal-Mart's numbers was none other than NCR and its data-warehousing unit, Teradata, now an independent firm. A few years ago such technologies, called â€Å"business intelligence†, were available only to the world's biggest companies. But as the price of computing and storage has fallen and the software systems have got better and cheaper, the technology has moved into the mainstream. Companies are collecting more data than ever before. In the past they were kept in different systems that were unable to talk to each other, such as finance, human resources or customer management.Now the systems are being linked, and companies are using data-mining techniques to get a complete picture of their operations—â⠂¬Å"a single version of the truth†, as the industry likes to call it. That allows firms to operate more efficiently, pick out trends and improve their forecasting. In this special report * Data, data everywhere * All too much *  »A different game * Clicking for gold * The open society * Show me * Needle in a haystack * New rules for big data * Handling the cornucopia Sources & acknowledgementsReprints Related topics * China * Nestle * IBM * Royal Shakespeare Company * WalmartConsider Cablecom, a Swiss telecoms operator. It has reduced customer defections from one-fifth of subscribers a year to under 5% by crunching its numbers. Its software spotted that although customer defections peaked in the 13th month, the decision to leave was made much earlier, around the ninth month (as indicated by things like the number of calls to customer support services). So Cablecom offered certain customers special deals seven months into their subscription and reaped the rewards. Agony and t orture Such data-mining has a dubious reputation. â€Å"Torture the data long enough and they will confess to anything,† statisticians quip.But it has become far more effective as more companies have started to use the technology. Best Buy, a retailer, found that 7% of its customers accounted for 43% of its sales, so it reorganised its stores to concentrate on those customers' needs. Airline yield management improved because analytical techniques uncovered the best predictor that a passenger would actually catch a flight he had booked: that he had ordered a vegetarian meal. The IT industry is piling into business intelligence, seeing it as a natural successor of services such as accountancy and computing in the first and second half of the 20th century respectively.Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM and SAP are investing heavily in their consulting practices. Technology vendors such as Oracle, Informatica, TIBCO, SAS and EMC have benefited. IBM believes business intellige nce will be a pillar of its growth as sensors are used to manage things from a city's traffic flow to a patient's blood flow. It has invested $12 billion in the past four years and is opening six analytics centres with 4,000 employees worldwide. Analytics—performing statistical operations for forecasting or uncovering correlations such as between Pop-Tarts and hurricanes—can have a big pay-off.In Britain the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) sifted through seven years of sales data for a marketing campaign that increased regular visitors by 70%. By examining more than 2m transaction records, the RSC discovered a lot more about its best customers: not just income, but things like occupation and family status, which allowed it to target its marketing more precisely. That was of crucial importance, says the RSC's Mary Butlin, because it substantially boosted membership as well as fund-raising revenue. Yet making the most of data is not easy. The first step is to improve the accuracy of the information.Nestle, for example, sells more than 100,000 products in 200 countries, using 550,000 suppliers, but it was not using its huge buying power effectively because its databases were a mess. On examination, it found that of its 9m records of vendors, customers and materials around half were obsolete or duplicated, and of the remainder about one-third were inaccurate or incomplete. The name of a vendor might be abbreviated in one record but spelled out in another, leading to double-counting. Plainer vanilla Over the past ten years Nestle has been overhauling its IT system, using SAP software, and improving the quality of its data.This enabled the firm to become more efficient, says Chris Johnson, who led the initiative. For just one ingredient, vanilla, its American operation was able to reduce the number of specifications and use fewer suppliers, saving $30m a year. Overall, such operational improvements save more than $1 billion annually. Nestle is not alon e in having problems with its database. Most CIOs admit that their data are of poor quality. In a study by IBM half the managers quizzed did not trust the information on which they had to base decisions. Many say that the technology meant to make sense of it often just produces more data.Instead of finding a needle in the haystack, they are making more hay. Still, as analytical techniques become more widespread, business decisions will increasingly be made, or at least corroborated, on the basis of computer algorithms rather than individual hunches. This creates a need for managers who are comfortable with data, but statistics courses in business schools are not popular. Many new business insights come from â€Å"dead data†: stored information about past transactions that are examined to reveal hidden correlations. But now companies are increasingly moving to analysing real-time information flows.Wal-Mart is a good example. The retailer operates 8,400 stores worldwide, has mo re than 2m employees and handles over 200m customer transactions each week. Its revenue last year, around $400 billion, is more than the GDP of many entire countries. The sheer scale of the data is a challenge, admits Rollin Ford, the CIO at Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. â€Å"We keep a healthy paranoia. † Not a sparrow falls Wal-Mart's inventory-management system, called Retail Link, enables suppliers to see the exact number of their products on every shelf of every store at that precise moment.The system shows the rate of sales by the hour, by the day, over the past year and more. Begun in the 1990s, Retail Link gives suppliers a complete overview of when and how their products are selling, and with what other products in the shopping cart. This lets suppliers manage their stocks better. The technology enabled Wal-Mart to change the business model of retailing. In some cases it leaves stock management in the hands of its suppliers and does not take owner ship of the products until the moment they are sold. This allows it to shed inventory risk and reduce its costs.In essence, the shelves in its shops are a highly efficiently managed depot. Another company that capitalises on real-time information flows is Li & Fung, one of the world's biggest supply-chain operators. Founded in Guangzhou in southern China a century ago, it does not own any factories or equipment but orchestrates a network of 12,000 suppliers in 40 countries, sourcing goods for brands ranging from Kate Spade to Walt Disney. Its turnover in 2008 was $14 billion. Li ; Fung used to deal with its clients mostly by phone and fax, with e-mail counting as high technology.But thanks to a new web-services platform, its processes have speeded up. Orders flow through a web portal and bids can be solicited from pre-qualified suppliers. Agents now audit factories in real time with hand-held computers. Clients are able to monitor the details of every stage of an order, from the ini tial production run to shipping. One of the most important technologies has turned out to be videoconferencing. It allows buyers and manufacturers to examine the colour of a material or the stitching on a garment. â€Å"Before, we weren't able to send a 500MB image—we'd post a DVD.Now we can stream it to show vendors in our offices. With real-time images we can make changes quicker,† says Manuel Fernandez, Li ; Fung's chief technology officer. Data flowing through its network soared from 100 gigabytes a day only 18 months ago to 1 terabyte. The information system also allows Li & Fung to look across its operations to identify trends. In southern China, for instance, a shortage of workers and new legislation raised labour costs, so production moved north. â€Å"We saw that before it actually happened,† says Mr Fernandez.The company also got advance warning of the economic crisis, and later the recovery, from retailers' orders before these trends became apparent. Investment analysts use country information provided by Li ; Fung to gain insights into macroeconomic patterns. Now that they are able to process information flows in real time, organisations are collecting more data than ever. One use for such information is to forecast when machines will break down. This hardly ever happens out of the blue: there are usually warning signs such as noise, vibration or heat. Capturing such data enables firms to act before a breakdown.Similarly, the use of â€Å"predictive analytics† on the basis of large data sets may transform health care. Dr Carolyn McGregor of the University of Ontario, working with IBM, conducts research to spot potentially fatal infections in premature babies. The system monitors subtle changes in seven streams of real-time data, such as respiration, heart rate and blood pressure. The electrocardiogram alone generates 1,000 readings per second. This kind of information is turned out by all medical equipment, but it used t o be recorded on paper and examined perhaps once an hour.By feeding the data into a computer, Dr McGregor has been able to detect the onset of an infection before obvious symptoms emerge. â€Å"You can't see it with the naked eye, but a computer can,† she says. Open sesame Two technology trends are helping to fuel these new uses of data: cloud computing and open-source software. Cloud computing—in which the internet is used as a platform to collect, store and process data—allows businesses to lease computing power as and when they need it, rather than having to buy expensive equipment.Amazon, Google and Microsoft are the most prominent firms to make their massive computing infrastructure available to clients. As more corporate functions, such as human resources or sales, are managed over a network, companies can see patterns across the whole of the business and share their information more easily. A free programming language called R lets companies examine and p resent big data sets, and free software called Hadoop now allows ordinary PCs to analyse huge quantities of data that previously required a supercomputer. It does this by parcelling out the tasks to numerous computers at once. This saves time and money.For example, the  New York Times  a few years ago used cloud computing and Hadoop to convert over 400,000 scanned images from its archives, from 1851 to 1922. By harnessing the power of hundreds of computers, it was able to do the job in 36 hours. Visa, a credit-card company, in a recent trial with Hadoop crunched two years of test records, or 73 billion transactions, amounting to 36 terabytes of data. The processing time fell from one month with traditional methods to a mere 13 minutes. It is a striking successor of Ritty's incorruptible cashier for a data-driven age. from the print edition | Special report Recommend 140 * * * Submit to reddit * inShare2 * View all comments (4) Related items TOPIC:  China  Ã‚ » * Recommended economics writing: Link exchange * Trade: Mexico rising * The Economist: Digital highlights, November 24th 2012 TOPIC:  Nestle  Ã‚ » * Consumer goods in Africa: A continent goes shopping * Schumpeter: Pretty profitable parrots * Nestle buys Pfizer Nutrition: Feeding little emperors TOPIC:  IBM  Ã‚ » * Schumpeter: Taking the long view * IBM's mainframes: Old dog, new tricks * Phase-change memory: Altered states TOPIC:  Royal Shakespeare Company  Ã‚ » * William Shakespeare: A digital reinvention Culture: Going for gold * Green architecture: The retrofit revolution More related topics: * Walmart Want more? 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By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.Review our  cookies information  for more details Special report:  Managing information A different game Information is transforming traditional businesses Feb 25th 2010 | from the print edition * * IN 1879 James Ritty, a saloon-keeper in Dayton, Ohio, received a patent for a wooden contraption that he dubbed the â€Å"incorruptible cashier†. With a set of buttons and a loud bell, the device, sold by National Cash Register (NCR), was little more than a simple adding machine. Yet as an early form of managing information flows in American business the cash register had a huge impact.It not only reduced pilferage by alerting the shopkeeper when the till was opened; by recording every transaction, it also provided an instant overview of what was happening in the business. Sales data remain one of a company's most important assets. In 2004 Wal-Mart peered into its mammoth databases and noticed that before a hurricane struck, there was a run on flashlights and batteries, as might be expected; but also on Pop-Tarts, a sugary American breakfast snack. On reflection it is clear that the snack would be a handy thing to eat in a blackout, but the retailer would not have thought to stock up on it before a storm.The company whose system crunched Wal-Mart's numbers was none other than NCR and its data-warehousing unit, Teradata, now an independent firm. A few years ago such technologies, called â€Å"business intelligence†, were available only to the world's biggest companies. But as the price of computing and storage has fallen and the software systems have got better and cheaper, the technology has moved into the mainstream. Companies are collecting more data than ever before. In the past they were kept in different systems that were unable to talk to each other, such as finance, human resources or customer management.Now the systems are being linked, and companies are using data-mining techniques to get a complete picture of their operations—â€Å"a single version of the truth†, as the industry likes to call it. That allows firms to operate more efficiently, pick out trends and improve their forecast ing. In this special report * Data, data everywhere * All too much *  »A different game * Clicking for gold * The open society * Show me * Needle in a haystack * New rules for big data * Handling the cornucopia Sources & acknowledgementsReprints Related topics * China * Nestle * IBM * Royal Shakespeare Company * WalmartConsider Cablecom, a Swiss telecoms operator. It has reduced customer defections from one-fifth of subscribers a year to under 5% by crunching its numbers. Its software spotted that although customer defections peaked in the 13th month, the decision to leave was made much earlier, around the ninth month (as indicated by things like the number of calls to customer support services). So Cablecom offered certain customers special deals seven months into their subscription and reaped the rewards. Agony and torture Such data-mining has a dubious reputation. â€Å"Torture the data long enough and they will confess to anything,† statisticians quip.But it has become far more effective as more companies have started to use the technology. Best Buy, a retailer, found that 7% of its customers accounted for 43% of its sales, so it reorganised its stores to concentrate on those customers' needs. Airline yield management improved because analytical techniques uncovered the best predictor that a passenger would actually catch a flight he had booked: that he had ordered a vegetarian meal. The IT industry is piling into business intelligence, seeing it as a natural successor of services such as accountancy and computing in the first and second half of the 20th century respectively.Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM and SAP are investing heavily in their consulting practices. Technology vendors such as Oracle, Informatica, TIBCO, SAS and EMC have benefited. IBM believes business intelligence will be a pillar of its growth as sensors are used to manage things from a city's traffic flow to a patient's blood flow. It has invested $12 billion in the past four years and is opening six analytics centres with 4,000 employees worldwide. Analytics—performing statistical operations for forecasting or uncovering correlations such as between Pop-Tarts and hurricanes—can have a big pay-off.In Britain the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) sifted through seven years of sales data for a marketing campaign that increased regular visitors by 70%. By examining more than 2m transaction records, the RSC discovered a lot more about its best customers: not just income, but things like occupation and family status, which allowed it to target its marketing more precisely. That was of crucial importance, says the RSC's Mary Butlin, because it substantially boosted membership as well as fund-raising revenue. Yet making the most of data is not easy. The first step is to improve the accuracy of the information.Nestle, for example, sells more than 100,000 products in 200 countries, using 550,000 suppliers, but it was not using its huge buying po wer effectively because its databases were a mess. On examination, it found that of its 9m records of vendors, customers and materials around half were obsolete or duplicated, and of the remainder about one-third were inaccurate or incomplete. The name of a vendor might be abbreviated in one record but spelled out in another, leading to double-counting. Plainer vanilla Over the past ten years Nestle has been overhauling its IT system, using SAP software, and improving the quality of its data.This enabled the firm to become more efficient, says Chris Johnson, who led the initiative. For just one ingredient, vanilla, its American operation was able to reduce the number of specifications and use fewer suppliers, saving $30m a year. Overall, such operational improvements save more than $1 billion annually. Nestle is not alone in having problems with its database. Most CIOs admit that their data are of poor quality. In a study by IBM half the managers quizzed did not trust the informatio n on which they had to base decisions. Many say that the technology meant to make sense of it often just produces more data.Instead of finding a needle in the haystack, they are making more hay. Still, as analytical techniques become more widespread, business decisions will increasingly be made, or at least corroborated, on the basis of computer algorithms rather than individual hunches. This creates a need for managers who are comfortable with data, but statistics courses in business schools are not popular. Many new business insights come from â€Å"dead data†: stored information about past transactions that are examined to reveal hidden correlations. But now companies are increasingly moving to analysing real-time information flows.Wal-Mart is a good example. The retailer operates 8,400 stores worldwide, has more than 2m employees and handles over 200m customer transactions each week. Its revenue last year, around $400 billion, is more than the GDP of many entire countries . The sheer scale of the data is a challenge, admits Rollin Ford, the CIO at Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. â€Å"We keep a healthy paranoia. † Not a sparrow falls Wal-Mart's inventory-management system, called Retail Link, enables suppliers to see the exact number of their products on every shelf of every store at that precise moment.The system shows the rate of sales by the hour, by the day, over the past year and more. Begun in the 1990s, Retail Link gives suppliers a complete overview of when and how their products are selling, and with what other products in the shopping cart. This lets suppliers manage their stocks better. The technology enabled Wal-Mart to change the business model of retailing. In some cases it leaves stock management in the hands of its suppliers and does not take ownership of the products until the moment they are sold. This allows it to shed inventory risk and reduce its costs.In essence, the shelves in its shops are a highly eff iciently managed depot. Another company that capitalises on real-time information flows is Li & Fung, one of the world's biggest supply-chain operators. Founded in Guangzhou in southern China a century ago, it does not own any factories or equipment but orchestrates a network of 12,000 suppliers in 40 countries, sourcing goods for brands ranging from Kate Spade to Walt Disney. Its turnover in 2008 was $14 billion. Li ; Fung used to deal with its clients mostly by phone and fax, with e-mail counting as high technology.But thanks to a new web-services platform, its processes have speeded up. Orders flow through a web portal and bids can be solicited from pre-qualified suppliers. Agents now audit factories in real time with hand-held computers. Clients are able to monitor the details of every stage of an order, from the initial production run to shipping. One of the most important technologies has turned out to be videoconferencing. It allows buyers and manufacturers to examine the col our of a material or the stitching on a garment. â€Å"Before, we weren't able to send a 500MB image—we'd post a DVD.Now we can stream it to show vendors in our offices. With real-time images we can make changes quicker,† says Manuel Fernandez, Li ; Fung's chief technology officer. Data flowing through its network soared from 100 gigabytes a day only 18 months ago to 1 terabyte. The information system also allows Li & Fung to look across its operations to identify trends. In southern China, for instance, a shortage of workers and new legislation raised labour costs, so production moved north. â€Å"We saw that before it actually happened,† says Mr Fernandez.The company also got advance warning of the economic crisis, and later the recovery, from retailers' orders before these trends became apparent. Investment analysts use country information provided by Li ; Fung to gain insights into macroeconomic patterns. Now that they are able to process information flows i n real time, organisations are collecting more data than ever. One use for such information is to forecast when machines will break down. This hardly ever happens out of the blue: there are usually warning signs such as noise, vibration or heat. Capturing such data enables firms to act before a breakdown.Similarly, the use of â€Å"predictive analytics† on the basis of large data sets may transform health care. Dr Carolyn McGregor of the University of Ontario, working with IBM, conducts research to spot potentially fatal infections in premature babies. The system monitors subtle changes in seven streams of real-time data, such as respiration, heart rate and blood pressure. The electrocardiogram alone generates 1,000 readings per second. This kind of information is turned out by all medical equipment, but it used to be recorded on paper and examined perhaps once an hour.By feeding the data into a computer, Dr McGregor has been able to detect the onset of an infection before ob vious symptoms emerge. â€Å"You can't see it with the naked eye, but a computer can,† she says. Open sesame Two technology trends are helping to fuel these new uses of data: cloud computing and open-source software. Cloud computing—in which the internet is used as a platform to collect, store and process data—allows businesses to lease computing power as and when they need it, rather than having to buy expensive equipment.Amazon, Google and Microsoft are the most prominent firms to make their massive computing infrastructure available to clients. As more corporate functions, such as human resources or sales, are managed over a network, companies can see patterns across the whole of the business and share their information more easily. A free programming language called R lets companies examine and present big data sets, and free software called Hadoop now allows ordinary PCs to analyse huge quantities of data that previously required a supercomputer. It does th is by parcelling out the tasks to numerous computers at once.This saves time and money. For example, the  New York Times  a few years ago used cloud computing and Hadoop to convert over 400,000 scanned images from its archives, from 1851 to 1922. By harnessing the power of hundreds of computers, it was able to do the job in 36 hours. Visa, a credit-card company, in a recent trial with Hadoop crunched two years of test records, or 73 billion transactions, amounting to 36 terabytes of data. The processing time fell from one month with traditional methods to a mere 13 minutes. It is a striking successor of Ritty's incorruptible cashier for a data-driven age. rom the print edition | Special report * Recommend 140 * * * Submit to reddit * inShare2 * View all comments (4) Related items TOPIC:  China  Ã‚ » * Recommended economics writing: Link exchange * Trade: Mexico rising * The Economist: Digital highlights, November 24th 2012 TOPIC:  Nestle  Ã‚ » * Consumer goods in Africa: A continent goes shopping * Schumpeter: Pretty profitable parrots * Nestle buys Pfizer Nutrition: Feeding little emperors TOPIC:  IBM  Ã‚ » * Schumpeter: Taking the long view * IBM's mainframes: Old dog, new tricks * Phase-change memory: Altered states TOPIC:  Royal Shakespeare Company  Ã‚ » William Shakespeare: A digital reinvention * Culture: Going for gold * Green architecture: The retrofit revolution More related topics: * Walmart Want more? Subscribe to  The Economist  and get the week's most relevant news and analysis. * Print edition X Feb 27th 2010 Feb 20th 2010 Feb 13th 2010 Feb 6th 2010 * Next in The world this week X Politics this week * Next in The world this week X Business this week * Next in The world this week X KAL's cartoon * Next in Leaders X Technology The data deluge Businesses, governments and society are only starting to tap its vast potential * Next in LeadersX Argentina and the Falklands The beef in Buenos Aires The Kirchners could have more oil if they stopped bullying Argentine business * Next in Leaders X Japan's frustrating politics Nagasaki fallout Japan’s prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, should jettison his Svengali, Ichiro Ozawa * Next in Leaders X India Ending the red terror It is time India got serious about the Maoist insurgency in its eastern states * Next in Leaders X Genetically modified food Attack of the really quite likeable tomatoes The success of genetically modified crops provides opportunities to win over their critics Next in Letters X Letters On Spain, al-Qaeda, Yemen, torture, Britain, juries, stereotypes, Benjamin Disraeli * Next in Briefing X Argentina under the Kirchners Socialism for foes, capitalism for friends While some private businesses in Argentina have faced harassment or even nationalisation, others†¦ * Next in Briefing X The first family's businesses Welcome to the Hotel Kirchner Such a lovely little earner * Next in United States X Health reform Seizing the reins, at long las t After leaving Congress in charge for too long, Barack Obama unveils his own plan * Next in United StatesX Mitt Romney and the Republicans Fired up, ready to go Mitt Romney takes centre-stage * Next in United States X The administration's economists Grading the dismal scientists How good is the Council of Economic Advisers? * Next in United States X The economy Back to the crash The American economy has just had its worst decade since the 1930s * Next in United States X Arkansas politics Democrats beware A spirited scramble for suddenly open Democratic seats * Next in United States X Schools and testing The finger of suspicion Is too much weight given to testing? * Next in United States XCalifornia's prison-guards' union Fading are the peacemakers One of California’s most powerful political forces may have peaked * Next in United States X America's children Protecting the weakest The recession may hurt America’s vulnerable children * Next in United States X Lexington Is Barack Obama tough enough? Conservatives call him too weak to be a warrior. Tell that to the Taliban * Next in The Americas X Corruption in Brazil The money trail Many corruption scandals stem from the high cost of politics, and unrealistically tight†¦ * Next in The Americas X Presidential ambitions in PeruPolitical satire Jaime Bayly’s breath of fresh air * Next in The Americas X Latin American summitry In ever-closer union, divided we stand * Next in The Americas X Canada's Mohawks Get out of our canoe When a Canadian is not a Canadian * Next in Asia X Tackling Japan's bureaucracy Floundering in the foggy fortress The DPJ is finding that it needs to befriend its bureaucrats, as well as bash them * Next in Asia X India's Naxalite insurgency Not a dinner party India’s Maoist guerrillas carry out two slaughters, then offer a truce * Next in Asia X Western aims in AfghanistanPlayed for fools Hamid Karzai’s shenanigans make the going even harder for NATO * Next in Asia X Migrant workers in Thailand Inhospitality Life gets harder for Thailand’s guest-workers * Next in Asia X China's National People's Congress Democracy in action Making sure that China’s supreme legislative body is toothless * Next in Asia X Animal welfare in China Off the menu The right to eat cats and dogs is under threat * Next in Asia X Banyan The mother of all dictatorships To understand North Korea, look not to Confucius or the Soviet Union, but to fascist 1930s Japan * Next in Asia X