Monday, September 30, 2019

Changmai Corporation Essay

1. What reasoning should McLeod apply to try and handle the dilemmas he is facing? Due to McLeod is a highly qualified engineer and had a wide experience gained in some of the most sophisticated pulp mills in the world, he believed that using Western standards is always only correct way. However, it seems not suitable in every country. The based ask from McLeod is to protect safety for employees, which is good, but by announced human right and ensured into contract don’t work in this area. People working in Asia are more respect strong sense of family not individual right. Based on this culture sense, McLeod could start on building relationship and imposing how important to execute safety process such as employees are property, if they get hurt, the construction will be delay. According to cultural difference, word by word in contract is not good way to enforce Asia contractors to follow. McLeod should be flexible about how to balance western standards and eastern standards. 2. How do you think Bailey’s CEO, Mr. Hartford, should respond to Bailey’s predicament? Since American is obviously not allow bribe and corruption and Mr. Hartford has always been in the press about the decline of moral values in business, he might reply Bailey it is unaccepted for special budget. However, when you work in different country, it is possible to follow their standards. In this case, if Bailey wants to make sure it is not behind schedule and the mill can be finished as soon as possible, this special reliable service tax should be paid. This is a challenge for multinational corporations to keep their own standard value or adjust to host country’s standard value. 3. What is your reaction to the debate presented in the final paragraphs? I totally agree with the Frenchman, Thierry Dupont, said that â€Å"With 13 per cent unemployment in France, anyone who creates jobs is a hero.† Corruption is everywhere but present in different form and meaning. There is no one standard for every country. Western people are announced human right and they do what they want. It spreads social problems such as dug and violence. Eastern people are hierarchical oriented and they value relationship with group not individual performance. On the other hand, their corruption and pressure from good relationship around are more than western. Everything has two sides; I would like to say it is all right for each country’s standards.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Young Girls in the Media

Never before has the sexualisation of girls in the media been as prominent, explicit and had such lasting harm on girls and women. 9 out of 10 girls say the fashion industry and the media place a lot of pressure on teenage girls to be thin (spark summit video). Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to have this opportunity to present my seminar to you on how the innocence of young females is exploited and sexualised in popular culture, particularly in advertising. It is recognised that Australians now spend in excess of 89 hours per week or almost 80 per cent of their waking hours consuming media (who 2012).The sexualisation of girls has been a topic of interest to many over past years, from the 1953 creation of the Barbie doll, the 2001 epidemic of BRATZ dolls, to the controversial perfume advertisements Daisy and OH LOLA! By Marc Jacobs; enforces the representation that young females are positioned to be sexual objects. The unrealistic representations of young women as sexual object s which is portrayed within the social media, is not only harmful to girls, but is also harmful to the wider community. But what exactly is sexualisation?Sexualisation refers to make sexual, endow with sex, or attribute sex to (Princeton. edu), not something that is commonly associated with when making reference to young women and children. Sexualisation is ever present in modern media and we are susceptible to images of women and children where the emphasis is on attraction, appeal, and seductiveness. The increasing sexualisation of the society in which we live, with a specific focus on female gender representation, plays an influential role as to how young women portray and perceive themselves.The images of women we see in mainstream media portrays to a child that they should convey a higher level of sexual maturity far beyond their years in order to be considered attractive and beautiful. These fascinations can cause severe social implications for young girls, which can potential ly be harmful. This in turn can shape our ideologies and beliefs as to what it means to be a woman and the need to conform with society. Advertising plays an integral role in the popularity of a particular product and this is created through the use of numerous sense alluring factors such as colour, sound and the overall physical attraction of the product.In 1953 the fictitious character Barbara Roberts was born into society, commonly known as Barbie, Barbie portrays the pre-conceived perfect connotation of physical appearance being tall, blonde and blue-eyed and living a luxurious lifestyle complete with a hot pink Ferrari. The advertisements for Barbie are gender specific targeting specifically females, this is insinuated through the use of the colour pink throughout the entire advertisement connoting a dream-like land of endless clothes, shoes and pink glitter which you can only experience if you purchase and play with a Barbie doll.It is estimated that over a billion Barbie doll s have been sold worldwide in over 150 countries, with three Barbie dolls being sold every second (Barbie. com). Not only is Barbie tall, thin and physically attractive, she has access to every luxury item imaginable to counterpart her so-called perfect life. To further highlight the connotation of Barbie, the exceedingly attractive and deemed perfect boyfriend, Ken Carson, also accompanies her promoting to young girls that in order to advance in life you must be either married or have a boyfriend.This unrealistic and completely inaccurate depiction of reality only further entices severe social implications, and promotes girls to dress in attire far beyond their years. Barbie dolls are predominantly targeted to innocent young girls between the ages of 6-12, influencing what they believe they should look like, and what kind of life they should lead. Perfumes are the perfect ground for aesthetically pleasing advertisements as it cements in the viewers mind what to expect when they wea r the desired perfume. The Oh LOLA!Perfume advert from Marc Jacobs, staring teenage actress Dakota Fanning was pulled in the United Kingdom ruling that the imagery is guilty of sexualising a child (research reference here). The full name of Jacob’s fragrance is LOLITA, the word Lolita means a sexually precocious young girl; a young girl who has a very sexual appearance and behaves in a very sexual way. The model is seen to be wearing a short pale coloured lace dress with the hem raised to the mid thigh, holding up the renowned fragrance shaped like a vase holding a blooming pink flower which rests in her lap between her legs.There are connotations regarding the strategic and sexual undertone to the placement of the flower. As to the professed age of the model, she looks exceedingly young, this is used to sexualise and exploit the innocence of children consequently preying on a child’s lack of knowledge. This is in turn demeans and demoralises women through denoting the m to have child look attributes. Marc Jacobs refers to his Oh LOLA ad as sensual and seductive. However the meticulous choice of actress also influences the audience's view as she appears young and innocent.Advertising for his following perfume Daisy also generated fierce debate as to the sexualisation of the young female models as they are seen reclining provocatively on horses, smiling suggestively at the camera whilst wearing transparent dresses. The music accompanying the ad â€Å"Dream A Little Dream Of Me† is also very evocative and further promotes the sexual nature of the advertisement. {DAISY VIDEO} Overall this advertisement presents an unjust view of females in the media by sexualising them through portraying women as objects rather than people.Studies have proven that these negative images in the media and the messages they send have significant impacts on the lives of young people. Mental health professionals are increasingly disturbed about the popularity of sex ualised images in the media encompassing children and young adolescents displaying traits originally associated with adult sexuality (apa. org). The unrealistic representations of gender particularly that of young women portrayed in the media is not only harmful to girls themselves but also to the wider community.The exploitation of girls as sexual objects can provide insufficient development of the adolescent brain mounting the risk of depression, eating disorders, low self-esteem and self worth and even teen suicide, impacting children and their families (who 2012). Furthermore, 31% of girls admit to starving themselves in order to loose weight (spark summit video). These images are detrimental to an adolescent mind as it promotes belief that physical beauty and sexual attractiveness is expected in our society.It is clear ladies and gentleman from these examples, and the medical research that the media, fashion and marketing industries aim to achieve profit by glorifying the most unrealistic body types, despite the fact that this encourages innocent and naive young children to regard this as an ideal image to strive towards. It is without a doubt that the media is aware of what are they promoting regardless of age as many people conform to the idea that sex sells.The construction of sexualised advertisements and images influences girls to dress and act sexy and seductively as it is considered the social norm and acceptable within society. Therefore I urge you, as members of the Australian Media Council and Advertising Bureau, to shift towards a more diverse representation of women in popular culture, advertising and media texts; that lure away from the sexualisation and innocence exploitation of young women. This will not only assist young women, but all of society to rise above the limiting expectations and social implications of this form of marketing.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

The call to good conduct in Christ Research Paper

The call to good conduct in Christ - Research Paper Example As a scholar in the making, it is imperative that I take a standpoint on the debate at hand, by postulating that the answer to the argument entails both elements of a yes and a no. First, by referring to the ways and thinking of the Gentiles as being darkened in understanding St. Paul means that the Gentiles lost consciousness of the presence of the true God. This can be explained by the fact that God in Genesis 12 had chosen the nation of Israel as an instrument of His revelation to the world and thereby handed the Law, the Scripture, religious traditions and above all Jesus the Christ through Israel. As such, unlike the gentiles who had no uniform source of specific and divine revelation of the true God, Israel had a covenant which consisted of the law and the prophets. In the Law there was the (old) covenant, the sacrificial system, circumcision on the eighth day of a male child’s life, the kosher law, law on dressings and law which governed man-man relations and man-God co ntacts. Besides these, the Jew had been blessed with the prophets who called them to repentance, reproved them, exhorted them, and gave them divine oracles concerning God’s will at a specific time. ... Biblically, deadness does not denote inexistence, it means separation. Thus, the loss of the consciousness of God is spiritual death and the effect is a life that is fashioned by the will of the natural man. The natural man is dictated by debase passions and extremes such as lust, anger, lasciviousness, idolatry, strife dissensions, simulations, fornication, and debauchery, because his mind is focused on natural things, yet these vices are natural. It is the life by the will of the natural man that is scripturally referred to as the works of the flesh. It is these works of the flesh that are spoken against as having the potency to inhibit entrance into eternal life; while life after the natural life is referred to as enmity with God – not the ethno-cultural values that a given gentile community may be living by. According to Dunn (2006), it is also not proper to assume that in Ephesians 4: 17-25 an interest to standard conduct on the part of God is shown. The fact that God is not interested in behavioral uniformity is a matter that is well underscored by the events and outcome of the Jerusalem Council in 50 AD. The Council of Jerusalem comes against a backdrop of a heated and gradual disagreement between Apostle Paul and members of the Pharisees who had converted to Christianity. These Pharisees wanted the gentile Christians to subject themselves to the ceremonial laws of Moses, much to St. Paul’s disagreement. The matter raised enough controversy to elicit a strong public rebuke from Paul to Peter, in the Gentile Church in Antioch (Galatians 2:11-14). Upon the matter being taken to Jerusalem for a uniform decision by the 12 apostles, it was decided that it

Friday, September 27, 2019

The Role of Social Media in Business Research Paper

The Role of Social Media in Business - Research Paper Example In addition, the social media technology is the most excellent tool for the companies to promote their business, for example if a company is selling services, products or publishing ads, then social media is the most excellent method to make their website gainful in a minimum amount of time (Deepika, 2010). This paper will discuss some of the important aspects of social media and their influence on the current business industry. This paper will also outline some of the main advantages and disadvantages of the social media. The role of social media in business At the present, social media is playing a significant role in business sector. In the past it was frequently used for carrying out non-business activities. For instance, people used it to connect with their friends as well as for searching and making new friends. However, now it has become a basic need for most of the businesses since business people are making use of social media particularly Twitter and Facebook for performing market research, marketing their products and services and for supporting clients. To serve this purpose, a large number of social media related websites are available. All of them offer specific advantages and users need to follow their rules. In this regard, the graph given below demonstrates the rapid expansion for the job requirements in "social media". Additionally, this expansion rate has reached up to 1,750 percent. However, the basic cause of this expansion is very simple, since all the corporations require people skilled in creating Social Media API, particularly experts in building Twitter applications and Facebook tools (QualityPoint Technologies, 2011) and (Deepika, 2010). Figure 1Social Media Growth, Image Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-KOsYJp70RL26vkH6ZfPHgGd0wTuoILo59b3VZe0_Z7NK53y-qh4SOtj-VtQXR_KW25lNQwjwlhr8HTtioWQyJuJW4M0g9VZGPJzP2iooStHdRot8FiVGh4g4jpUlanFfmlmn-9EVEm1t/s1600/jobgraph.png Additionally, the social networking websites (such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace and Facebook) present choices for companies to build and maintain their business prof iles and pages, through which they can promote their services and products. In addition, with the modern applications that enumerate likes and dislikes of users, Facebook now allows its users to join â€Å"groups† that facilitate companies in marketing their products or services. Thus, it has become a blessing for the businesses that these social networking websites have offered. Moreover, the latest movement of users, for instance joining business groups or adding support to business ads, will be listed on the users’ profile however it is acknowledged as â€Å"newsfeed†. As well, this newsfeed presents recent news regarding the tasks performed by the users on their home page (Cortez, 2011). Furthermore, for the majority of businesses this social networking based system (or more simply e-collaboration) has turned into a base of electronic marketing. In this scenario, Facebook facilitates business managers to interact with the masses what they are going to do, wh at proceedings are happening, what attainments or recognitions have been established by other businesses. In addition, articles published in recent newspapers and other media related to business industry are copied and pasted onto the corporate profile or added to their position. For instance,

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Sustainability in construction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Sustainability in construction - Essay Example For example, the UK national Grid has planned to cut domestic emissions by 45% by 2029, while the European Union countries are in agreement to harness more than 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020; U.K’s target is15% (Huang & Infield, 2002). In addition, Scotland and UK have plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80% by 2050, and a proposed reduction of about 42% by 2020 to curb the climate change threat (Tecs Home Energy Survey Report, 2010). Therefore, as the two articles indicate, energy usage in both domestic and in industrial applications has led to an environmental threat that has been caused by increasing global warming, as a result of carbon emissions from fossil fuels. Jones in the article Reducing emissions through energy efficiency correctly articulates that energy usage in buildings contribute to almost half of carbon emissions in U.K. This is in line with the figures indicated by Tecs Home Energy Survey Report (2010). As Jones illustrates, the UK government has come up with different measures in trying to reduce carbon emissions in line with 2010 proposed emission reductions. ... tial stages of industrialization results from the increasing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere; this has resulted in the continued climate change, with temperatures in the U.K expected to increase by between 2 to 3.5 degrees centigrade this century. Therefore the intergovernmental panel set up to address this issue according to this report suggested building codes and designs that would eliminate any need for mechanical cooling in homes, which has been attributed to considerable portion of global warming gases in the atmosphere. The report suggests a new perspective in building and construction on how buildings might have special features, which might be responsive to climate changes, and which anticipate and are in accordance with future climate trends. Likewise, Jones in Reducing emissions through energy efficiency concurs with this argument and asserts that energy demand has to be maintained to a minimum by adopting more responsible designs, and adopting the use of renewa ble energy sources. This would include minimizing uncontrolled air infiltration through effective designs, and adopting natural ventilations. Generally according to Jones, this may be only achieved through an integrated design team to ensure harmonization, and good interactions between the various disciplines involved in building designs. This is an effective approach in reducing domestic energy usage, noting that more than 46 % of energy usage in U.K is through air conditioning, heating, cooling, and other general usage that may be controlled through proper designs (TECs Home Energy Survey Report, 2010). However, the article thermal comfort in a 21st century Climate puts much emphasizes on the need to control energy through responsible use of energy by tenants. The article suggests the use

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Global banking issues Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Global banking issues - Assignment Example Therefore, the reserve requirement is affected by the nature of both fed fund rate and feds discount rate. Also, the quantity demanded of reserve is determined by its price (interest rate) in the fed fund market. The quantity demanded increases with a decrease in interest rate and vice versa. In this regard, central banks can, therefore, affect the demand for reserves of commercial banks just by changing reserve requirement. Unlike other monetary tools, the impact of changes of reserve requirement is spread evenly across all banks to bring about neutrality. Changes in the reserve requirement tend to induce all banks to adjust their balance sheets rapidly. However, the reserve requirement is nowadays limited due to current sweep accounts and other loopholes of reserve requirement. Today central banks rarely use reserve requirement as the monetary policy tool because most banks operate around it (Thomas 418). The open market operate under the monetary base; that is, MB = C + R. Open market operations are preferable by most central banks because they can help to expand or contract monetary base to a precise level. With the use of open market operations, the central bank can reverse mistakes quickly because they are under its control. Open markets operations help to support the discount policy rate especially when there are excessive reserves. In the United States, Fed moves the equilibrium rate by use of open market operations toward the target established by the federal committee of open market operations. In addition, Fed can add reserves to the system by buying assets such as Treasury bond and can remove them from the system by selling these assets. Therefore, the central bank sells assets to increase the money base as well as the money supply in the system and vice versa. The central bank conducts open market operations to get the interbank lending rate near its target. Unlike other m onetary tools, OMO lack announcement effect because they are

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Law - court Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Law - court - Essay Example The tests were namely horizontal nystagmus test, walk and turn test, and one leg stand test. While performing the tests stated above, the patrol officer, the one who spotted Muniz on the roadside, asked him few questions such as Muniz's name, address, height, weight, eye color, date of birth. These questions were not intended to elicit information for investigatory purposes but it focuses primarily upon the perspective of the suspect and therefore not incriminating. After giving Muniz the various tasked, which he poorly performed, finally the patrol officer asked Muniz to submit himself for the breathalyzer test which is designed to measure the alcohol content of his expelled breath, Which is under the Commonwealth's Implied Consent Law. The result of this breathalyzer test will be used as real or physical evidence. The implied consent concept refers to the idea that when you get your driver's license, you agree that if you are ever arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI/DWI) of drugs or alcohol, you will submit to a blood, breath, or urine test (depending on availability and whether the suspected chemical was drugs or alc

Monday, September 23, 2019

Training Department Organizational Structure Assignment

Training Department Organizational Structure - Assignment Example ilarities with each other at all, plus due to the medical innovations such as new drugs and other pharmaceutical products DNA must be knowledgeable enough of these changes so that they could quickly introduce these to practitioners and allow them to use these new technologies in their line of work. DNA must be able to adapt to the needs of their customers to be able to provide them services worth paying for, otherwise not only would these customers lose to their competition but also cause them to lag behind in the latest medical trends. Due to these reasons, static training models may not be able to sustain the needs of the organization in the long run, however business-embedded training allows for a degree of flexibility by aligning organizational needs with employee training needs, thus its dynamic training measures becomes its key to effective learning and application (Hasan, Jameel, & Subhani, 2011). The Business-Embedded Training model is considered to be flexible since it is made to fit a company’s mission, vision, and objectives (Hasan, et al., 2011). It is strong in terms of recognizing that the customer base is varied thus it offers a wider range of learning modules and options compared to traditional training models. There is also no need for a special venue since attendees can stay at their work site, it has greater structure versatility and participant inclusion, it involves internal consultants who understand how the organization works and knows how to properly disseminate this information, and it empowers employees by allowing them to take charge of their own career growth (Noe, 2013). However, because of the need to disseminate information to a greater number of people, work departments, venues, and even dates, there is a considerably greater effort needed for this training model to be carried out successfully, thus the model’s weakness (Hasan, et al., 2 011). Although the Business-Embedded Training model needs a lot of effort to be done, the

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Mini project 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mini project 2 - Assignment Example From picture 1, there are two main loads that acting on the bridge. These are 1.Dead load, This refer s to the permanent weight of both the structured and non –structure component of the bridge. This include the roadway used by the vehicle on the object , sidewalk and the attached equipments. Dead loads on a bridge are based on material unit and are based on material unit and are of constant magnitude. On designing a bridge dead load, must be estimated. In order to counteracted the resultant effects of the external loads, it is good to compute the final dead load of individual portions of the bridge structure before designing the final supporting members. This refers to the weight of the vehicle that cross the bridge. Each of these individual vehicles comprises of a series of concentrated moving loads that vary in spacing and magnitude. When the loads move, a number of changes are generated in shears, reaction and moments in the members of the structure. The extent of these resultant forces depend on the number of spacing, weight and the position of the loads on the span. To produce the maximum impacts for each stress, the designer must position the line vehicle loads well. From picture 1, it is true that when a piece of material e.g. steel or a steel reinforced concrete is stressed by a force of granite due to the load of the vehicle, the cross sectional material does several things. In general the top must compress [compression forces ] and the bottom must stretch [Tensional forces]. This gives rise to the following stresses as shown in the picture 1. This is the stress that

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Goals of Linguistic Essay Example for Free

Goals of Linguistic Essay Mr. 1. Introduction 1. 1. Approaching the issue The task of setting out (to use a neutral word) the goals of a human activity may be approached in a variety of ways depending on conditions such as who is involved in the activity and who has the power to determine the goals. In the case of the goals of a scientific discipline, the question may, in principle, be approached by established scientific methods: * Deductive approach: The highest and most general goal is taken as an axiom, more specific and lower-level goals are deduced from it. * Inductive approach: By methods of the sociology of science, the goals actually pursued by scientists may be ascertained; by sociological methods, it may be ascertained what goals a community thinks should be pursued by the sciences that it entertains. The deductive approach suffers at least from the following shortcomings: * The postulation of the highest goal is itself outside the scope of science. * Clean deduction is only possible in the logical disciplines. What is called deduction in (the rest of) philosophy, the humanities and social sciences is really informal and heavily dependent on the interpretation of words. The inductive approach suffers at least from the following shortcomings: * Just like other people, scientists occasionally pursue selfish or idiosyncratic goals, which a purely inductive approach would not be able to separate out. * The extra-scientific members of a social community – be they politicians or citizens – have limited presuppositions of making a rational contribution to the discussion of the goals of a science, lacking both knowledge and experience of the nature and possibilities of scientific work and presuppositions for appreciating the spiritual side of objective knowledge (see below). On the basis of available evidence, it is safe to say that few of them can distinguish between scientific insight and technological â€Å"progress†. Thus, if one wants at all a scientific approach to the problem of the goals of a discipline, one would have to combine – as usual – deductive and inductive methods, hoping that they will compensate for each others shortcomings. It would certainly be reasonable to do this scientific work (from time to time). However, it has apparently not been done. I will therefore abide by taking a common-sense approach to the problem, informed both by some epistemology of linguistics and by some experience with linguistic work. 1. 2. Fundamentals Like any human activity, linguistics has a place in a teleonomic hierarchy (see teleonomische Hierarchie) which is headed by its ultimate goals. Science is the pursuit of objective knowledge/understanding (Greek episteme, German Erkenntnis). The attainment of such knowledge is its ultimate goal. This goal is itself subordinate to the goal of human life, which is the improvement of the conditio humana. It is in the nature of human cognition – as opposed to Gods cognition –, that it can be fully achieved only in communication. To say that the goal is objective knowledge is therefore almost tantamount to saying that it is rational communication. This rephrasing also serves the purpose of avoiding a static conception of ‘objective knowledge’. In the more specific discussion below, the role of communication in the achievements of the goals of a science will come up again. Understanding has two sides, a spiritual and a practical one. * On the spiritual side, the human mind is enriched if it understands something; and this in itself is a contribution to improving the conditio humana. * On the practical side, understanding something is a presupposition for controlling it. Controlling1 the world in which we live is another contribution to improving the conditio humana. Some sciences make a stronger contribution to the spiritual side, others make a stronger contribution to the practical side. This is the basis for the distinction between pure and applied science. Linguistics is the study of human language. Understanding this object has a purely spiritual aspect, which constitutes what might be called â€Å"pure linguistics† and what is more commonly called general linguistics. It also has a practical aspect, which concerns the role of languages in human lives and societies and the possibilities of improving it. This epistemic interest constitutes applied linguistics. Given the divergence in the epistemic interest of pure and applied science, there can be no universal schema by which the goals and tasks of a science should be systematized. As discussed elsewhere (see Wissenschaft), there is a basic distinction between logical, empirical and hermeneutic approaches. Linguistics shares components of all of them. Here we will focus on the tasks of linguistics as an empirical discipline. For such a discipline, the main tasks are: 1. elaboration of a theory of its object 2. documentation and description of its object 3. elaboration of procedures for the solution of practical problems in the object area. In what follows, the main goals of linguistics will be characterized, at a general level, according to this schema. 2. Theory: the nature of human language The spiritual aspect of the human understanding of some object is realized in the elaboration of a theory of that object. In this respect, the task of linguistics consists in the elaboration of a theory of human language and its relation to the languages. Its most important aspects include * the structure(s) and function(s) of human language and languages * the relationship between unity and diversity of human languages * linguistic change * acquisition of ones native language In characterizing the nature of human language, linguistic theory also delimits it against other kinds of semiosis, both synchronically in the comparison of spoken and written languages with sign languages, whistling languages and, furthermore, with animal languages, and diachronically in the comparison with primate semiotic systems from which human language may have evolved. 3. Empiry: documentation and description of languages As recalled above, linguistics is (among other things) an empirical science. In such a discipline, there is a necessary interrelation between the elaboration of a theory of the object and the description of the object; one informs the other. Furthermore, since speech and even languages are volatile, they have to be documented. The tasks of linguistics in this area may be systematized as follows: 1. language documentation: recording, representation, analysis and archiving of speech events and texts that represent a certain language 2. language description: 1. the setting of the language * ethnographic * social/cultural * genealogical 2. the language system: * semantic system: grammar, lexicon * expression systems: phonology, writing The documentation of a language must be such that people who do not have access to the language itself can use the documentation as a surrogate for as many purposes as possible. In particular, it should be possible to develop a description of a language on the basis of its documentation. The description makes explicit the meanings that the language expresses and the functions it fulfils – what it codes and what it leaves uncoded –, and represents the structure of the expressions that afford this. It does all of this in the most systematic and comprehensive way possible. Such a description may be used for a variety of purposes, most of which are mentioned below in the section on applied linguistics. Both documentation and description take the historical dimension of the object into account. That is, in the synchronic perspective, they are systematic, while in the diachronic perspective, they are historical. 4. Practice: application of linguistics The daily use of language for communication and cognition is replete with all kinds of tasks and problems that require science for a proper solution. Some of them are: * compilation of grammars, dictionaries and text editions for various purposes * native and foreign language teaching * testing of linguistic proficiency * standardizing and planning languages * devising and improving writing systems * development and maintenance of special languages and terminologies * analysis and alleviation of communication problems in social settings * diagnosis and therapy of aphasic impairments * intercultural communication, translation and interpreting * communication technology: speech technology, automatic speech and text production and analysis, machine translation, corpus exploitation The descriptions produced in â€Å"pure† linguistics – not only descriptive linguistics, but also socio-, psycho-, neuro-, ethno- etc. linguistics – are exploited for the formulation of technical procedures by which tasks arising in the fields enumerated may be solved. And contrariwise, the demands arising from those practical fields are taken as challenges by theoretical and descriptive linguistics to produce theories and descriptions that respond to them. 5. Methodology: epistemological reflection and working tools The nature of the goal of science – objective knowledge – requires the elaboration and testing of methods by which putative knowledge may be attained, verified/falsified and applied in the solution of practical or interdisciplinary problems. * The epistemological side of this activity is a stock-taking of the particular nature of the activity of the linguist, its goals, conditions and possibilities. There will be reflection on the logical, empirical and hermeneutic nature of the object of linguistics and the approaches appropriate to each facet. * The operational side of methodology is the elaboration of particular methods within such a methodological frame of the discipline. Given the interplay of specific aspects of the linguistic object with specific problems and purposes, specific sets of methods may be developed to deal adequately with such aspects of the object, to solve such problems and serve such purposes. This involves * in the deductive perspective, the operationalization of concepts and theorems and the elaboration of tests * in the inductive perspective, the elaboration of standards of representation of linguistic data and of tools for processing them. While a contribution from general epistemology may be expected for the epistemological side of linguistic methodology, its operational side is entirely the responsibility of the particular discipline. Its status as a scientific discipline crucially depends on its fulfillment of this task. 6. Cooperation: interdisciplinary fertilization. The articulation of science into disciplines is, first of all, a necessity of the division of labor. As observed above, a particular discipline is constituted by the combination of an object with an epistemic interest. The object is just a segment of the overall object area susceptible of scientific insight, the epistemic interest depends on all kinds of factors, and the combinations of these two elements are consequently manifold. In other words, no discipline is autonomous and self-contained. The contribution that it makes to human understanding can only be assessed if it is compared and combined with other disciplines. The theories developed by a discipline must define their object in such a way that it becomes transparent where they leave off, i. e. where the interfaces for the combination of related theories are. And they must be formulated in such a way that non-specialists can understand them and relate them to the epistemic interest pursued by them. Thus, a linguistic theory has to make explicit what it purports to cover and what not – for instance, only the linguistic system, not its use –; and linguists should say what they think is required for taking care of the rest. Moreover, the products of linguistic description and documentation must be represented in such a way that non-linguists may use them. For instance, there must be * grammars usable by foreign language curriculum designers * semantic descriptions usable by ethnographers * models of linguistic competence testable by neurologists * formal grammatical descriptions usable by programmers. Finally, linguistics must be capable of and receptive in taking up insights and challenges from other disciplines. For instance, * phonological concepts must be related to phonetic concepts * models of linguistic activity must be inspired by findings of psychology and neurology * models of linguistic competence must be able to account for the performance of plurilingual persons. Interdisciplinary cooperation is the touchstone of the communicative capacity of a scientific community. A discipline that can neither inspire other disciplines nor be inspired by them gets isolated and unnecessary. 7. Conclusion Above, five areas of goals of linguistics have been identified: 1. Theory: the nature of human language 2. Empiry: documentation and description of languages 3. Practice: application of linguistics 4. Methodology: epistemological reflection and working tools 5. Cooperation: interdisciplinary fertilization These goals do not belong to the same level. Goal #1, the elaboration of a theory of its object, is the highest goal of any science. As already mentioned, goal #1 is interdependent with goal #2, because a theory of an object area presupposes its proper description, and a proper description presupposes a theory on which it can be based. Furthermore, the production of documentations and descriptions is a service to the society. This is even more true of goal #3: The solution of daily-life tasks and problems is a practical contribution to the improvement of the conditio humana. It has to be done by someone, and if it is done by the discipline that has the relevant know-how, it is both better for the solution of the problem and better for the social standing of the discipline. Finally, the demands emerging from extra-scientific practice may feed back into the content and form of descriptions. Goals #4 and #5 are more science-immanent. Neither the elaboration of a methodology nor interdisciplinary cooperation are anything that would be of direct relevance outside a scientific context. They are, however, preconditions for the attainment of goals #1 – #3. As said before, no serious theory can be developed, no adequate descriptions and documentations can be produced, and no practical problems can be solved, without an arsenal of pertinent methods and without a systematic interchange with disciplines that partly share the object area or the epistemic interest.

Friday, September 20, 2019

The corporate management mechanisms used by Nestle

The corporate management mechanisms used by Nestle The writer believes it will be reasonable to first define cross business synergies and then relate it to the analysis of the Nestle case study provided. According to Martin et al (2003), cross business synergies is defined as understanding and recognizing the value which can be created and captured, over a period of time, by the sum of the business units together with regards to what it would have been individually. This assignment is based on the Nestle case study in 2008 from De Wit and Meyer (2010). The aim is to write a report that will critically evaluate the Nestle organization at the corporate level to identify the cross business synergies, corporate growth directions throughout its history. The assignment will also highlight the corporate management mechanisms used by Nestle to leverage its synergies and outline the future scenarios for the company corporate level strategy. Identifying the cross-business synergies within the organization throughout its history According to the case study, Nestle replicated its milk district model that was initially introduced in Switzerland to ensure sufficient milk supplies in 1870s and modified it by adding value to it and facilitating the availability of the product across the continents, example, Latin America, Asia, Caribbean, African and Inner Mongolia. This shows that the company recognized that choices varies across continents and by adding value to the original product (milk) to make it easy to use and available in other continents represents a synergy which was created and captured. Another important cross-business synergy in the history of the company is the Research and Development, RD. Nestle understood the limitations and challenges involved in starting a new company that will stand alone and compete favourable with competitors in a new market and therefore, utilized the combined strength of its businesses to invent new products, Nescafe, (a soluble instant coffee) by the help of its RD team. Nescafe remain one of the largest brands in the world and have changed the way we drink coffee across the world today by making coffee drinking fun, stylish, ready to use, high class and tastier. Also important is the production of another brand Nestea (an instant tea), and the chocolate powder Nesquik by the same drying process used in making Nescafe. Furthermore, from the case study, Nestle reinvigorated Nesquik originally sold in the form of a powder used in milk into syrup form and into ready to drink varieties, this is also a very important cross business synergy for Nestle, which provided an easy access to coffee drinking in restaurants, hotels, cafe, and made the products affordable, available, and to suit individual taste and choice. Another cross business synergy was in leveraging marketing approach which helped the company to build expertise in various business units and invention of new products through its Research laboratories to launch a platform for growth which eventually increased sales and generated increase market revenue. An important cross-business synergies within the organization is GLOBE (Global Business Excellence), this is a comprehensive information system which used by Nestle to secure and bring together the companys businesses together under a common and unique technology infrastructure. Globe was used by the company to capture data and to standardized data which is based on the same definitions and units. This enables Nestle to have a unified system and measurement across its business units anywhere in the world, manage information, and create knowledge that could be transferred and shared across its business units, and provided a better customer management system, thereby building customer confidence and promoting the quality of their products across the continents. Furthermore, GLOBE provided synchronization of data between manufacturers and retailers, which resulted in an improved order fulfillment. The system also enabled retailers to add new products to their store stocks simply by clicking the mouse of their computer. Another cross business synergy is the invention of new nutrition, health and wellness vision by basic scientific research and state of the art tools such as nutrigenormics. This allowed Nestle to improve consumer healthcare, fitness and weight management, by making their products healthier and reducing fatty acids. Corporate Growth Direction of the Company throughout its history Figure 1 Corporate Growth Direction From the case study, one of Nestle corporate growth came in the direction of Horizontal integration. This represents a horizontal integration because the company expanded forward within the food business by merging with a known food processing industry Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk also a food business. The merger provided the company with more resources and capital to expand their products and later added Chocolate to their brand in 1905. (See figure 1.) The growth continued in the horizontal integration trend and expanded to other countries example, Britain, U.S., Spain, and Germany, where they operated their processing plant. The growth within the industry continued horizontally and allowed the company to expand into Brazil, Australia, and established their presence in Singapore and Hong Kong. The company merged with Maggi, Europe large producer of food enhancer and prepared food such as soup, which indicates that the company continued to expand and grow within its food industry. Nestle continued the chain of growth towards the horizontal integration direction and acquired several businesses example, canned and frozen food, bottled water and pet foods. Nestle diversified for the first time outside the food industry, and in 1974, the company became a major shareholder in LOreal, one of the worlds largest producers of cosmetics, with a 25 percent interest in the French company. Nestle undertook a second step outside food industry by acquiring Alcon Laboratories, a U.S. company which specialized in eye care products in 1977. This growth direction is called Horizontal Diversification, since it was the first time the company moved outside of its business industry. The company continued its growth in the direction of horizontal integration under new management (Maucher era) and In 1985, acquired the American food giant Carnation for $3 billion, which was regarded as one of the largest in the history of food industry during the time. From the case study, Nestle moved away from the Agricultural and processing roots and sold their Cocoa and processing plants ending their growth towards the Backward Vertical Integration direction and involvement with their supplier business. This pointed out that Nestle was moving in the Horizontal direction and has kept their competitive advantages gained over the years by continuing in the same horizontal growth direction i.e. Horizontal diversification. and Horizontal Integration. From the analysis, the writer believes that Nestle may no longer be interested in the Vertical growth direction, this may be evidence by the statement from its new CEO Brabeck who commented that the company want to reduce cost and devote more attention to other businesses that adds value There were also major acquisitions during Brabeck tenure which solidified the company position in key areas such as bottled water, coffee, ice cream, and infant formula, and also the company decision to dissociate from the Agricultural and processing business Thereafter, Ralston Purina was acquired in 2001; the pet food business has become a recognized name around the world. The company diversified horizontally again during Brabeck tenure beyond its technology and traditional line of products and processing food towards a wider vision of nutrition, health and wellness. To continue its platform for growth, the company made three important acquisitions: by acquiring Jenny Craig, a U.S chain of weight loss centre in 2006, providing Nestle a platform of moving into weight management. Novartis Medical Nutrition in 2007, which helped Nestle to strengthen their position in the area of healthcare nutrition, and the Novartiss Gerber baby foods business in 2007, thereby extending Nestlà ©s leadership in all the areas of infant nutrition. This showed that the company became interested in the healthcare and fitness business. The corporate Management Mechanisms used by Nestle to leverage its synergies The three management mechanisms used by managers to leverage synergies are: Centralization, Coordination and Standardization. These will be applied to the case study in order to discuss the corporate management mechanisms used by Nestle to leverage its synergies already identified in this assignment. One of the synergies identified earlier in this assignment was the replication of Nestle milk district model in Switzerland by modifying the product. This was possible from the writers point of view because the company retained the same standardization process and procedure which has already proved successful in Switzerland. The company simply repeated the process and then added value to the product which eventually resulted in an improved quality for consumer satisfaction and then introduced the product to other countries, example, Britain, Germany, Spain, Asia and Australia, Africa etc. Another corporate management mechanisms used by Nestle in leveraging its Research and Development are Coordination and Standardization. From the writers point of view, the establishment of the research laboratories requires the coordination of Nestlà ©s resources, activities, product offering and integration of its business units together to build world class research laboratories, and Standardization integration resulted because the company used the same process to replicate, modify and re-invent new products. Furthermore, other identified synergies were the reinvigoration of Nesquik originally sold in the powder form into syrup form. The management mechanism applied in this process is standardization mechanism. According to the passage, Nestle used the same drying process in making Nescafe and re-invented it to produce Nestea an instant tea and Nesquik a syrup form. Also of interest is the leverage of the GLOBE system using a standardized system, which synchronized data, improved information management and created knowledge that could be transferred across Nestlà ©s business unit and allowed customers to add new products to their inventories by a click of mouse. Again, the companys leverage of market approach which created a platform for growth and increase sales was based on the standardized integration mechanism system from the writers point of view. This is because Nestle continued in the same level of progress, growth direction and transferred the same management mechanism already tested and applied in some countries into other continents, which led to a rapid growth in sales and market revenue. The 60/40 benchmark standard used by the company to improve their nutrition, health and wellness and reduced fatty acids was also based on the standardized integration mechanism. According to the CFO, the process was based on taking out salts, fatty acids and sugar and putting in omega 3, whole grains and calcium to give it a healthier profile. The Future Scenario for Nestlà ©s corporate level strategy, based on the integrated organization and portfolio organization perspective One of the future scenarios for Nestle corporate level strategy is: how the company can remain relevant and dynamic and at the same time provide essential industry leadership in areas such as sustainable sourcing while keeping products affordable Firstly, based on the integration organization approach, the company should remain customer driven, always adding value to their products and improving the quality of their products by emphasizing their core competencies. Nestle should regard competencies as the core of coordination and to place their synergies at the heart of their company. They should continue to innovate and re-invent through their various RD centres, and integrate their multi business units. The company should promote synergies more than responsiveness; they should make acquisition infrequent and focus more on internal growth as stated by Bulcke the CEO. Building their business core competence should remain their strategic plan, while remaining tactical with their suppliers and sourcing of raw material. This is realizable by continuing their strategy of buying their agricultural products directing from farmers and encouraging continuity of their supplier business. These will ensure that prices are kept low and affordable while the premium quality is not affected. Besides, Integrated approach encourages looking after the brands to enable it remain relevant to customers in order to generate more sales. Consequently, the writer thinks that achieving the future ambition will be difficult using the portfolio approach. According to the portfolio approach, responsiveness should be strongly emphasized over synergies. This is risky because it may result in loss of synergies and brands. Nestle has several billionaire brands already established across the world. It will be unreasonable to risk losing any of them. Besides, portfolio approach does not encourage internal growth but is well suited to diversification through acquisition, which is contrary to the CEO vision for the future growth direction of the company from the case study. Portfolio perspective only leverage financial resources and does not recognize any synergies which are not financial related. The second scenario is to understand how Bulcke intend to balance local autonomy with global coordination. Based on the integrated organization approach, the company should balance local autonomy with global coordination by giving country managers reasonable degree of autonomy in matters dealing with the customers, they should integrate resources, activities and position along multi business synergies. Such coordination of work across multi business unit boundaries will result in the ability to operate in such a way that seems like the various part were actually in one units. The company should place the corporate centre at the forefront of competitive strategy. They should maintain the standardization activities, example GLOBE which synchronized data and information system management across the businesses. Based on the portfolio approach, the efficiency of the cash flow and balancing the business risk are regarded as more important. Portfolio approach supports, activities and produc ts offering to be split along business unit lines, hence global coordination may be difficult to realize. From the case study, Nestle future plan shows that the company will move towards an integrated organization approach. According to Bulcke, Nestle future growth will come from internal growth. The company is re-focusing its corporate strategy from the past. Nestle intend to build on their core competences and strength which according to their CEO is their products, RD, global presence, people, brand portfolio and Nestle culture. From the writers point of view, integrated approach will reinforce the companys product profile in the market and keep them very competitive by being focused, and put in more emphasis on developing and building their synergies rather than defending business unit responsiveness. The company has gained enormous synergies by sharing advances in their basic and applied sciences and research, which also helped to rapidly increase developments. Following the integration approach will ensure that Nestle does not lose their synergies or its billionaire brands through lack of invention and innovation. Nestle RD was identified as a fantastic platform for future growth, therefore, the management need to continue to leverage it better by building on the core competencies developed by the team of scientists and researchers, and integrating the multi-business units, activities, resources, and looking after their brands by supporting RD and invention programs. Nonetheless, the writer believes that the company may not be able to realize their internal growth ambition by adopting the portfolio organization approach. This is because Nestle culture over the years has been anticipation and being proactive rather than reactive according to the CEO, which showed that the company favours synergies rather than responsiveness. The company intends to focus more on reinforcing their brand, and capitalizing on their core competence for growth which does not agree with the portfolio approach. From the grow direction trend shown in figure 1. It appears that the company are not seeking to enter into any buyers or supplier business or pursuing new business opportunities towards the vertical direction but rather focusing on reinforcing their existing brand and building on their area of expertise. Conclusion This assignment has answered various questions based on the case study provided. The writer has identified the synergies which has enabled Nestle to expand its businesses globally. The growth direction of the company was also outlined and discussed with various analyses given. Furthermore, the writer highlighted the management mechanisms which relate to corporate level strategy and related it to the case study. Finally, the future scenarios of the company was outlined and discussed. Based on the discussions on integration and portfolio organization approach, the writer believes that the company will be better suited to realize its future vision and programs by adopting the integrated organization approach. This assignment presented an interesting discussions and an insight into the history and activities of a giant food industry Nestle. References Martin, and Eisenhardt, 2001,: 3. Cross-business synergy: Recombination, modularity and the multibusiness team. Bob De Wit and Ron M eyer. Strategy Process, Content, Context, an international perspectives fourth editiomn.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

lighthod Binary Oppositions in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay

Binary Oppositions in Heart of Darkness       In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad used a series of reversed traditional binary oppositions to convey the theme that every man has his own heart of darkness that is simply masked by the superficial light of civilization.    The novella focused primarily on the adventurer Charlie Marlow's journey into the African Congo, but dealt with larger themes. Marlow was from Europe and understood the basic premises of imperialism, but was unprepared for the world he encountered in the wilderness. The world of the African jungle did not abide, at that time, by the same laws with which Marlow had been raised. There was an inherent savagery in the jungle that he had not previously encountered and for which he was unprepared. This is first apparent when Marlow encountered the shaded death grove early on in his journeys. Marlow saw the natives suffering immensely for what seemed to be nothing - their work seemed for naught - but he did not speak up or stop his trek. This is also the first time that the reader gets a glimpse of the broader binary oppositions within the text. Marlow glanced at one of the dying natives, one with a piece of white European yarn tied around his neck. In the area that is the Outer Station, th e white Europeans had the natives - and vicariously the jungle nature, as the natives became symbols for the land surrounding each station - in a stranglehold. In this case, the color white, usually associated with purity or goodness, became a symbol for the evil that was imperialist colonialism. The black of the native's skin, bearing the color often associated with evil and inner darkness, is a stark contrast to the white of the yarn. The fact that Marlow responded with q... ... oppositions, it becomes clear that it is only through the pretense of civilization that mankind is able to resist the internal darkness inherent in its nature. However, the intensity of civilized behavior is directly related to the physical and moral environment in which humans are placed, and is therefore unstable. Through Kurtz and Marlow, and their underlying binary oppositions, Joseph Conrad proved that every man has a heart of darkness that is often obscured by the false illumination of a civilized society.    Works Cited and Consulted Adelman, Gary. Heart of Darkness: Search for the Unconscious. Boston: Little & Brown, 1987. Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. 17th ed. New York: Norton, 1988. Levenson, Michael. "The Value of Facts in the Heart of Darkness." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 40 (1985):351-80.   

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Ronald Takakis Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th-Century America Es

Ronald Takaki's Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th-Century America After America declared its independence from British rule, the founding fathers faced a conundrum: How to build and maintain a successful republican government that was ultimately dependent upon the passions and character of its people. Their solution was to propose the construction of what historians have called "iron cages," which were ideological devices intended to deter the corruption and folly that might consume a free people, and instead promoterational and virtuous American citizens. Ronald Takaki expands upon this concept in his historical analysis, Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th-Century America, explaining that these constructs functioned specifically to separate the white man from blacks and Native Americans, who were believed to be devoid of the civility required to build a democratic nation. As patriot leaders attempted to resolve the exclusiveness of American identity to Anglo-Saxon peoples, rhetoric and reality merged to form ideology: In a land where "all men are created equal," race was constructed as a justification for why all men would not be treated equal. Takaki's book illustrates how literature came to play a vital role in the creation and reification of these racial ideologies. He states that, "What white men in power thought and did mightily affected what everyone thought and did." Americans viewed the founding fathers as interpreters of both law and society. These same men, whom Takaki names "culture makers," not only shouldered the task of explaining society, but were also instrumental in its conception. Takaki explainsthat their ideas were disseminated, and American mores were subsequently shaped through writing. Hi... ... finds America imprisoned behind a fourth "iron cage," that which acts as an amalgamation of the republican, the corporate and the demonic. He explains that, "Like the republicans of the American Revolution, we continue to insist on our right of and capacity for being self-governing individuals. But we find ourselves again under the rule of a king - an authority exterior to the self. This time, however, we cannot as easily identify the king and declare our independence." Despite the prejudice, hate and violence that seem to be so deeply entrenched in America's multiracial culture and history of imperialism, Takaki does offer us hope. Just as literature has the power to construct racial systems, so it also has the power to refute and transcend them†¦ The pen is in our hands. Works Consulted: Takaki, Ronald. Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th-Century America

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

The Return: Nightfall Chapter 34

Elena had once fallen off that balcony and Stefan had jumped and caught her before she could hit the ground. A human falling from that height would be dead on impact. A vampire in full possession of his or her reflexes would simply twist in the air like a cat and land lightly on their feet. But one in Damon's particular circumstances tonight†¦ From the sound of it, he had tried to twist, but had only ended up landing on his side and breaking bones. Elena deduced the latter from his cursing. She didn't wait to listen for more specifics. She was off like a rabbit, down to the level of Stefan's room – where instantaneously and almost unconsciously, she sent out a wordless plea – and then down the stairs. The cabin had turned completely into a perfect duplicate of the boardinghouse. Elena didn't know why, but instinctively she ran to the side of the house that Damon would know the least: the old servant's quarters. She got that far before she dared whispering things to the house, asking for them rather than demanding them, and praying that the house would obey her as it had obeyed Damon. â€Å"Aunt Judith's house,† she whispered, thrusting the key into a door – it went in like a hot knife into butter and turned almost of its own volition, and then suddenly she was there again, in what had been her home for sixteen years, up until her first death. She was in the hallway, with her little sister Margaret's open door showing her lying on the floor of her bedroom, staring with wide-open eyes over a coloring book. â€Å"It's tag, sweetie!† she announced as if ghosts appeared every day in the Gilbert household and Margaret was supposed to know how to deal with it. â€Å"You go running to your friend Barbara's and then she has to be It. Don't stop running until you get there, and then go see Barbara's mom. But first you give me three kisses.† And she lifted Margaret and hugged her tightly and then almost threw her at the door. â€Å"But Elena – you're back – â€Å" â€Å"I know, darling, and I promise to see you again another day. But now – run, baby – â€Å" â€Å"I told them you would come back. You did before.† â€Å"Margaret!Run!† Choking on tears, but maybe recognizing in her childlike way the seriousness of the situation, Margaret ran. And Elena followed, but zagging toward a different staircase when Margaret zigged. And then she found herself confronted by a smirking Damon. â€Å"You take too long to talk to people,† he said as Elena frantically counted her options. Go over the balcony into the entry way? No. Damon's bones might still hurt a little but if Elena jumped even one story, she would probably break her neck. What else? Think! And then she was opening the door into the china closet, at the same time shouting out, â€Å"Great-aunt Tilda's house,† unsure if the magic would still work. And then she was slamming the door in Damon's face. And she was in her Aunt Tilda's house, but the Aunt Tilda's house of the past. No wonder they accused poor Auntie Tilda of seeing strange things, Elena thought, as she saw the woman turning while holding a large glass casserole dish full of something that smelled mushroomy, and screaming, and dropping the dish. â€Å"Elena!† she cried. â€Å"What – it can't be you – you're all grown up!† â€Å"What's the trouble?† demanded Aunt Maggie, who was Aunt Tilda's friend, coming in from the other room. She was taller and fiercer than Aunt Tilda. â€Å"I'm being chased,† cried Elena. â€Å"I need to find a door, and if you see a boy after me – â€Å" And just then Damon stepped out of the coat closet, and at the same time Aunt Maggie tripped him neatly and said, â€Å"Bathroom door beside you,† and picked up a vase and hit the rising Damon over the head with it. Hard. And Elena dashed through the bathroom door, crying, â€Å"Robert E. Lee High School last fall – just as the bell's rung!† And then she was swimming against the flow, with dozens of students trying to get to their classes on time – but then one of them recognized her, and then another, and while apparently she'd successfully traveled to a time when she wasn't dead – no one was screaming â€Å"ghost† – neither had anyone at Robert E. Lee ever seen Elena Gilbert wearing a boy's shirt over a camisole, with her hair falling wildly over her shoulders. â€Å"It's a costume for a play!† she shouted, and created one of the immortal legends about herself before she had even died by adding, â€Å"Caroline's house!† and stepping into a janitor's closet. An instant later, the most gorgeous boy that anyone had ever seen appeared behind her, and rocketed through the same doors saying words in a foreign language. And when the janitor's closet opened, neither boy nor girl was there. Elena landed running down a hallway and almost crashed into Mr. Forbes, who looked rather wobbly. He was drinking what seemed to be a large glass of tomato juice that smelled like alcohol. â€Å"We don't know where she's gone, all right?† he shouted before Elena could say a word. â€Å"She's gone right out of her mind, as far as I can tell. She was talking about the ceremony at the widow's walk – and the way she was dressed! Parents don't have any control over children anymore!† He slumped against the wall. â€Å"I'm so sorry,† murmured Elena.The ceremony. Well, Black Magic ceremonies were usually held at moonrise or midnight. And it was just a few minutes before midnight. But in those minutes, Elena had just come up with scheme B. â€Å"Excuse me,† she said, taking the drink out of Mr. Forbes's hand and dashing it directly into the face of Damon, who had appeared out of a closet. Then she shouted, â€Å"Some placetheir kind can't see!† and stepped into†¦ Limbo? Heaven? Some place their kind couldn't see.At first Elena wondered about herself, because she couldn't see much of anything at all. But then she realized where she was, deep in the earth, beneath Honoria Fell's empty tomb. Once, she had fought down here to save the lives of Stefan and Damon. And now, where there should have been nothing but darkness and rats and mildew, was a tiny, shining, light. Like a miniature Tinkerbell – just a speck, it hovered in the air, not leading her, not communicating, but†¦protecting, Elena realized. She took the light, which felt bright and cool in her fingers, and around her she traced a circle, big enough for a full-grown person to lie down in. When she turned back, Damon was sitting in the middle. He looked strangely pale for someone who had just fed. But he said nothing, not a word, just gazed at her. Elena went to him and touched him on the neck. And a moment later, Damon was again drinking deep, deep, of the most extraordinary blood in the world. Usually, he would be analyzing by now: taste of berry, taste of tropical fruit, smooth, smoky, woody, rounded with a silken aftertaste†¦But not now. Notthis blood, which far surpassed anything for which he had words. This blood that was filling him with power such as he had never known before†¦. Damon†¦ Why was he not listening? How had he come to be drinking this extraordinary blood that tasted somehow of the afterlife, and why was he not listening to the donor? Please, Damon. Please fight it†¦ He ought to recognize that voice. He'd heard it enough times. I know they're controlling you. But they can't controlallof you. You're stronger than they are. You're the strongest†¦. Well, that was certainly true. But he was getting more and more confused. The donor seemed to be unhappy and he was a past-master at making donors happy. And he didn't quite remember†¦he really should remember how this had started. Damon, it's me. It's Elena. And you're hurting me. So much pain and bewilderment. From the beginning, Elena had known better than to outright fight the tapping of her veins. That would only cause agony, and it wouldn't do her the slightest bit of good except to stop her brain from working. So she was trying to make him fight off the horrible beast inside him. Well, yes, but the change had to come from inside. If she forced him, Shinichi would notice and just possess him again. Besides, the simpleDamon, be strong gig wasn't working. Was there nothing to do but die, then? She could at least fight that, although she knew that Damon's strength would make it pointless. With every swallow he took of her new blood, he got stronger; he changed more and more into†¦ Into what? It washer blood. Maybe he would answer its call, which was also her call. Maybe, somehow inside, he could beat the monster without Shinichi noticing. But she needed some new power, some new trick†¦ And even as she thought it, Elenafelt the new Power moving in her, and she knew that it had always been there, just waiting for the right occasion to use it. It was a very specific power, not to be used for fighting or even for saving herself. Still, it was hers to tap. Vampires who preyed on her got only a few mouthfuls, but she had an entire blood supply filled with its enormous vigor. And calling upon it was as easy as reaching toward it with an open mind and open hands. As soon as she did, she found new words coming to her lips, and most strangely of all, new wings springing from her body, which Damon was holding bent sharply back from the hips. These ethereal wings were not for flying, but for something else, and when they fully unfurled they made a huge, rainbow-colored arch whose very tip circled back again, surrounding and enfolding Damon and Elena both. And then she said it telepathically.Wings of Redemption. And inside, soundlessly, Damon screamed. Then the wings opened slightly. Only one who had learned a great deal about magic would have seen what was happening inside them. Damon's anguish was becoming Elena's anguish as she took from him every painful incident, every tragedy, every cruelty that had ever gone into making up the stony layers of indifference and unkindness that encased his heart. Layers – as hard as the stone at the heart of a black dwarf star – were breaking up and flying away. There was no stopping it. Great chunks and boulders fractured, fine pieces shattered. Some dissolved into nothing more than a puff of acrid smelling smoke. There was something at the center, though – some nucleus that was blacker than hell and harder than the horns of the devil. She couldn't quite see what happened to it. She thought – she hoped – that at the very end even it blasted open. Now, and only now, could she call for the next set of wings. She hadn't been sure that she would live through the first attack; she certainly didn't feel as if she could live through this one. But Damon had to know. Damon was kneeling on one knee on the floor, with his arms clasped tightly around him. That should be all right. He was still Damon, and he'd be a lot happier without the weight of all that hatred and prejudice and cruelty. He wouldn't keep remembering his youth and the other young blades who'd mocked his father for being an old fool, with his disastrous investments and his mistresses younger than his own sons. Neither would he endlessly dwell on his own childhood, when that same father had beaten him in drunken rages when he neglected his studies or took up with objectionable companions. And, finally, he would not go on savoring and contemplating the many terrible things he'd done himself. He had been redeemed, in heaven's name and in heaven's time, by words put into Elena's mouth. But now†¦there was something that he needed to remember. If Elena was right. If only she were right. â€Å"Where is this place? Are you hurt, girl?† In his confusion, he couldn't recognize her. He had knelt; now she knelt beside him. He gave her a keen glance. â€Å"Are we at prayer or were we making love? Was it the Watch or the Gonzalgos?† â€Å"Damon,† she said, â€Å"it's me, Elena. It's the twenty-first century, now, and you are a vampire.† Then, gently embracing him, with her cheek against his, she whispered,†Wings of Remembrance.† And a pair of translucent butterfly wings, violet, cerulean, and midnight blue in color, sprouted from her backbone, just above her hips. The wings were decorated with tiny sapphires and translucent amethysts in intricate patterns. Using muscles she had never used before, she easily drew them up and forward until they curled inside out, and Damon was shielded within them. It was like being enclosed in a dim, jewel-studded cave. She could see in Damon's fine-bred features that he didn't want to remember anything more than he did right now. But new memories, memories connected with her, were already welling up inside him. He looked at his lapis lazuli ring and Elena could see tears come to his eyes. Then, slowly, his gaze turned on her. â€Å"Elena?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Someone possessed me, and took the memories of the times I was possessed,† he whispered. â€Å"Yes – at least, I think so.† â€Å"And someone hurt you.† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"I swore to kill him or make him your slave a hundred times over. Hestruck you. He took your blood by force. He made up ludicrous stories about hurting you in other ways.† â€Å"Damon. Yes, that's true. But, please – â€Å" â€Å"I was on his track. If I'd met him I might have run him through; might have ripped his beating heart out of his chest. Or I might have taught him the most painful lessons I've heard tales of – and I've heard a lot of tales – and at the end, through the blood in his mouth, he would have kissed your heel, your slave until he died.† This wasn't good for him. She could see it. His eyes were white all around, like a terrified colt's. â€Å"Damon, Ibeg you†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"And the one who hurt you†¦was me.† â€Å"Not you by yourself. You said it yourself. You werepossessed .† â€Å"You feared me so much you stripped yourself for me.† Elena remembered the original Pendleton shirt. â€Å"I didn't want you and Matt fighting.† â€Å"You let me bleed you when it was against your true will.† This time she could find nothing to say but, â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"I – dear God! – I used my powers to afflict you with terrible grief!† â€Å"If you mean an attack that causes hideous pain and seizures, then yes. And you were worse to Matt.† Matt wasn't on Damon's radarscope. â€Å"And then I kidnapped you.† â€Å"Youtried .† â€Å"And you jumped out of a speeding car rather than take your chances with me.† â€Å"You were playing rough, Damon. They had told you to go out and play rough, maybe even to break your toys.† â€Å"I've been looking for the one who made you jump from the car – I couldn't remember anything before that. And I swore to take out his eyes and his tongue before he died in agony. You couldn't walk. You had to use a crutch to get through the forest, and just when help should have come, Shinichi drew you into a trap. Oh, yes, I know him. You wandered into his snow globe†¦and would be wandering still if I hadn't broken it.† â€Å"No,† Elena said quietly. â€Å"I would have been dead a long time ago. You found me at the point of suffocation, remember?† â€Å"Yes.† A moment of fierce joy on his face. But then the trapped, horrified look returned. â€Å"I was the tormenter, the persecutor, the one you were so terrified of. I made you do things with – with – â€Å" â€Å"Matt.† â€Å"O God,† he said, and it was clearly an invocation to the deity, not just an exclamation, because he looked up, holding his clenched hands to heaven. â€Å"I thought I was being a hero for you. InsteadI'm the abomination. What now? By rights, I should be dead at your feet already.† He looked at her with wide, feral, black eyes. There was no humor in them, no sarcasm, no holding back. He looked very young and very wild and desperate. If he'd been a black leopard he'd have been pacing his cage frantically, biting at the bars. Then he bowed his head to kiss her bare foot. Elena was shocked. â€Å"I'm yours to do what you please with,† he said in that same stunned voice. â€Å"You can order me to die right now. After all my clever talk, it turns out that I'm the monster.† And then he wept. Probably no other set of circumstances could have brought tears to Damon Salvatore's eyes. But he had boxed himself in. He never broke his word, and he'd given his word to break the monster, the one who had done all this to Elena. The fact that he had been possessed – at first a little, and then more and more, until his entire mind was simply another of Shinichi's toys, to be picked up and put down at leisure – didn't make up for his crimes. â€Å"You know that I – I'm damned,† he told her, as if perhaps that might go a small way toward restitution. â€Å"No, Idon't ,† Elena said. â€Å"Because I don't believe that's true. And Damon, think of how many times you fought them. I'm sure they wanted you to kill Caroline that first night you said you felt something in her mirror. You said you almost did it. I'm sure they want you to kill me. Are you going to do it?† He bent toward her foot again, and she hastily grabbed him by the shoulders. She couldn't stand to see him in such pain. But now Damon was looking this way and that, as if he had a definite purpose. He was also twisting the lapis lazuli ring. â€Å"Damon – what are you thinking? Tell me what you're thinking!† â€Å"That he may pick me up as a puppet again – and that this time there may be areal birch rod. Shinichi – he's monstrous beyond your innocent belief. And he can take me over at a moment's notice. We've seen that.† â€Å"He can't if you'll let me kiss you.† â€Å"What?† He looked at her as if she hadn't been following the conversation properly. â€Å"Let me kiss you – and strip out that dying malach inside you.† â€Å"Dying?† â€Å"It dies a little more each time you gain enough strength to turn your back on it.† â€Å"Is – it very big?† â€Å"As big as you are by now.† â€Å"Good,† he whispered. â€Å"I only wish I could fight it myself.† â€Å"Pour le sport?† Elena answered, showing that her summer in France last year hadn't been entirely wasted. â€Å"No. Because I hate the bastard's guts and I'd happily suffer a hundred times its pain as long as I knew I was hurtingit. â€Å" Elena decided this was no time for delay. He was ready. â€Å"Will you let me do this one last thing?† â€Å"I told you before – the monster who hurt you is your slave now.† All right. They could argue about that point later. Elena leaned forward and tilted her head up, lips pursed slightly. After a few moments, Damon, the Don Juan of darkness, got the point. He kissed her very gently, as if afraid to make too much contact. â€Å"Wings of Purification,† Elena whispered against his lips. These wings were as white as untrammeled snow, and lacelike, barely existing in some places at all. They arched high above Elena, shimmering with an iridescence that reminded her of moonlight on frosted cobwebs. They encased mortal and vampire in a web made of diamond and pearl. â€Å"This is going to hurt you,† Elena said, not knowing how she knew. The knowledge seemed to come moment by moment as she needed it. It was almost like being in a dream where great truths are understood without needing to be learned, and accepted without astonishment. And that was how she knew thatWings of Purification would seek out and destroy anything foreign inside Damon and that the feeling could be very unpleasant for him. When the malach didn't seem to be coming out of its own accord, she said, prompted by her inner voice, â€Å"Take off your shirt. The malach is attached to your spine and it's closest to the skin at the back of your neck where it entered. I'm going to have to strip it out by hand.† â€Å"Attached to my spine?† â€Å"Yes. Did you ever feel it? I think it would have felt like a bee sting at first, as it entered you, just a sharp little drill and a blob of jelly that attached to your spine.† â€Å"Oh. The mosquito bite. Yes, I felt that. And then later, my neck began to ache, and at last my whole body. Was it†¦growing inside me?† â€Å"Yes, and taking over more and more of your nervous system. Shinichi was controlling you like a marionette.† â€Å"Dear God, I'msorry .† â€Å"Let's make him be sorry instead. Will you take off your shirt?† Silently, like a trusting child, Damon took off his black jacket and shirt. Then, as Elena motioned him into position, he lay across her lap, his back hard with muscle and pale against the dark ground on either side. â€Å"I'm sorry,† she said. â€Å"Getting rid of it this way – pulling it out through the hole where it entered – will really hurt.† â€Å"Good,† grunted Damon. And then he buried his face in his lithe, flat-muscled arms. Elena used the pads of her fingers, feeling at the top of his spine for what she was looking for. A squishy point. A blister. When she found it, she pinched it with her fingernails until blood suddenly spurted. She almost lost it then as it tried to go flat, but she was pursuing it with sharp nails – and it was too slow. At last she had it held firmly between thumbnail and two fingernails. The malach was still alive and aware enough to feebly resist her. But it was like a jellyfish trying to resist – only jellyfish broke apart when you pulled. This slick, slimy, man-shaped thing retained its shape as she slowly pulled it through the breach in Damon's skin. And it was hurting him. She could tell. She started to take some of the pain into herself, but he gasped, â€Å"No!† with such vehemence that she decided to let him have his way. The malach was much larger and more substantial than she had realized. It must have been growing a long time, she thought – the little blob of jelly that had expanded until it controlled him to the fingertips. She had to sit up, then scoot away from Damon and back again before it lay on the ground, a sickly, stringy, white caricature of a human body. â€Å"Is it done?† Damon was breathless – it really had hurt, then. â€Å"Yes.† Damon stood and looked down at the flabby white thing – barely twitching – that had made him persecute the person he cared most about in the world. Then, deliberately, he trampled on it, crushing it under the heels of his boots until it lay torn in pieces, and then trampling the pieces. Elena guessed that he didn't dare blast it with Power for fear of alerting Shinichi. At last, all that was left was a stain and a smell. Elena didn't know why she felt so dizzy then. But she reached for Damon and he reached for her and they went to their knees holding each other. â€Å"I release you from every promise you made – while in the possession of that malach,† Elena said. This was strategy. She didn't want to release him from the promise of caring for his brother. â€Å"Thank you,† Damon whispered, the weight of his head on her shoulder. â€Å"And now,† said Elena, like a kindergarten teacher who wants to move quickly on to another activity, â€Å"We need to make plans. But to make plans in utter secrecy†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"We have to share blood. But Elena, how much have you donated today? You look white.† â€Å"You said you'd be my slave – now you won't take a little of my blood.† â€Å"You said you released me – instead you're going to hold that over me forever, aren't you? But there's a simpler solution. You take some ofmy blood.† And in the end that was what they did, although it made Elena feel slightly guilty, as if she were betraying Stefan. Damon cut himself with the minimum of fuss, and then it began to happen – they weresharing minds, melting seamlessly together. In much shorter a time than it would take to speak the sentences aloud, it was done: Elena had told Damon of what her friends had found about the epidemic among the girls of Fell's Church – and Damon had told Elena everything he knew about Shinichi and Misao. Elena concocted a plan for scaring out any other possessed youngsters like Tami, and Damon promised to try to find out where Stefan was from the kitsune twins. And, finally, when there was nothing more to say, and Damon's blood had restored faint color to Elena's cheeks they made plans as to how to meet again. At the ceremony. And then there was only Elena in the room, and a large raven winging its way toward the Old Wood. Sitting on the cold stone floor, Elena took a moment to put all she now knew together. No wonder Damon had seemed so schizophrenic. No wonder he had remembered, and then forgotten, and then remembered that he was the one she was running from. He remembered, she reasoned, when Shinichi was not controlling him, or at least was keeping him on a very loose rein. But his memory was spotty because some of the things he'd done were so terrible that his own mind had rejected them. They had seamlessly become part of the possessed Damon's memory, for when possessed Shinichi was controlling every word, every deed. And in between episodes, Shinichi was telling him that he had to find Elena's tormentor and kill him. All very amusing, she supposed, for this kitsune, Shinichi. But for both her and Damon it had been hell. Her mind refused to admit that there had been moments of heaven mixed in with the hell. She was Stefan's, alone. That would never change. Now Elena needed one more magical door, and she didn't know how to find one. But there was the twinkling fairy light again. She guessed it was the last of the magic that Honoria Fell had left to protect the town she had founded. Elena felt a little guilty, using it up – but if it wasn't meant for her, why had she been brought here? To try for the most important destination she could imagine. Reaching for the speck with one hand and clenching the key in the other she whispered with all the force at her command: â€Å"Somewhere I can see and hear and touch Stefan.†

Monday, September 16, 2019

A Woman Without Paint Is Like Food Without Salt

People may be surprised to know that makeup has its own past. In fact there is a long history of makeup that has led it to the point where it is today. Pharaohs and great queens of Egypt wore, makeup thousands of years ago and while it wasn't composed of the same materials, they still used it in similar ways as people do today. Women and men have been wearing cosmetics for over centuries and still are now in days. The styles have certainly undergone some dramatic changes over time but makeup is still being used the same way. Everyone wore makeup Nutt Amy from the website History of Make Up discovered that the ancient Egyptians took a lot of pride in their appearance. Everyone, of all ages or gender wore make up. Men, women and children of all ages and classes wore makeup for important ceremonies like marriage, rebirth after death, temple festivals and religious ceremonies, and it was also used in the daily basis. Women wore it to attacked man, and men wore it to let the women know that they were clean men and liked to be attractive, most of the children wore it to be creative and fun. All women and men wore this makeup for medical reason to protect themselves from the sunlight and other infections that were in Egypt. Now a day’s makeup is not worn to cure diseases or protect your self from sunlight but it is used to look more attractive. How it was made According to Mega Partin from the website Egypt Makeup. com Udju was made from green malachite (green ore of copper) from Sinai. Sinai and its mines were considered under the spiritual dominion of Hathor, ancient goddess of beauty, joy, love and women. Lady of Malachite. † Mesdemet, a dark gray ore of lead, was derived from either stibnite (antimony sulphide) or, galena (lead sulphide. ) Galena was found around Aswan and on the Red Sea Coast. The powders in ancient Egypt, preparations were a little more different then ours. The cosmetic material had to be powdered on a palette and then this powder mixed with a substance, (analysis indicates that these were usually ointments derived from animal fat) to make the powder adhere to the eye. Eyes liner was usually a powder substance it was made out of kohl made of crushed antimony, burnt almonds, lead, oxidized copper, ochre, ash malachite, chrysocolla (a blue-green copper ore). Mascara was made out of blended kohl with crocodile dung, water and honey blended together. These were they materials that Egyptian men slaves used to create makeup. Although we don’t make makeup with the same material it is still used in the same way as in Ancient Egypt, Eye Liner in Egypt According to Tiller Christy, eye liner was applied with a small stick. The upper and lower eyelids were painted in a line that extended to the sides of the face for an almond effect. Dark thickly lined eyes were the fashion; eyeliner could restore poor eyesight and reduce eye. It was even thought. Eyeliner can be found in liquid, powder, wax, kohl, and even gel varieties. This was used in different ways by both men and women. It was worn in different styles women wore it in an almond shape because the eyebrows of the women were much more even. The men wore it under their eyes but a little bit darker. Women now a day wear the eye liner like they used it in Egypt witch is called the â€Å"cat eye†. Mascara in Egypt Ancient Egyptians play a large part of the rich history of mascara. As far as 3400-30 B. B. Mega Partain from Egypt. com found in the sands of Egypt used bones and ivory as mascara applicators, water and honey to create the first mascara. Egyptians used mascara to deepen their lashes. Because eyes were believed to be the windows of the soul, they said that the makeup was used to ward of evil sprits and bad energy. Egyptian men wore mascara, as did Egyptian women. Ancient drawings of Cleopatra suggest that mascara was widely using for protection, celebration and war and death practices. Although the Egyptians were the first know era that used mascara. The history of mascara began with cake mascara reformulated, and is still found today. Cleopatra’s beauty is a result of some excellent makeup, for their eyes. By the 1sy Dynasty of Egypt decided that decorating persons eyes, heeks and lips was consider a statement of royalty. We don’t use it the same and don’t look at it the same because back then they were queens and kings and today we don’t have any queens and kings to show royalty to because of their beauty. Lipstick in Egypt Lipstick was also applied with a small stick just like the eyeliner. The ancient Egyptian women squeezed out purple red color from iodine and bromine, leading to serious diseases. With time, it came to be known as â€Å"the kiss of death†. Most of the women and also men died because of this lipstick the women died because they were wearing it and it went through their skin, the men died from it because they got kissed by the ladies who had it. It is said that Cleopatra’s lipstick were made from carmine beetles, which gave a strong red color pigment. This was mixed with and eggs, which provided the base. This lipstick is still used like it was used in Ancient Egypt it has the same base and shine to it. Eye Shadow in Egypt The Egyptians used eye shadow in their burials and back in 10,000 BC. Tillery Christy French from the website the History of Makeup. om says Eye shadow has been used in different parts of the world. However, the common fact in this culture is that eye shadow is generally used on females and very rarely on males. The western worlds consider eye shadows as a female makeup. This is because the average distance between eyebrows and eye lashes is more in women than in men. For the fact that its more girly then manly and men don’t believe in wearing makeup because it would make them feel feminine and in Egypt men like wearing makeup because it would make them look clean and attractive to women. Makeup has been with us for centuries and is and can be used in many different ways with men and women, men use it for movies or any other type of action, and women use it to beautify themselves and attract males with the beautiful colors. Lip liner, lipstick, eyeliner, eye shadow, and mascara create gorgeous designs on your face that’s what they are made for, to create a different person and to make you feel better about your self. It’s incredible what makeup can do, and how it was made before with animals, insects, and oil, the techniques that Egyptians used with the tools and the different Egyptian design they did on the lady’s face. I never imagined that makeup was used even before I was born. And now the different techniques that were used before are used now and are being passed on because of the queen Cleopatra. You will never see a woman walk out of their house with out being beautified, Cleopatra never walked out with out her makeup on why should you?

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Factors That Influence College Students of Dela Salle Lipa in Choosing Communication Program

Factors that influence College students of Dela Salle Lipa in choosing Communication Program By Lester Garcia and Joselle Segismundo of Dela Salle Lipa Abstract: * There are factors that influence a student in choosing a communication program. * There is a dilemma on which course to take. A bright future is considered. * Student’s age, gender, income, hobbies and interests are considered. Introduction * DLSU Lipa has been offering AB Communication since 2002 like Broadcasting, Journalism, PR, Film, etc. This study aims to: * Know the demographic profile of respondents * Factors that influence the first year respondents * Their expectations RRL * Reynolds (personal interest) * Baumerster (values) * Taylor (gender differences) Theoretical framework Human action approach model Conceptual Framework Man: student -> Choice B: AB Comm. ->Enroll in AB Comm. -> Working in comm. related field Methodology * Descriptive method * 51 respondents (2 sections) * 1st year AB comm. tudents (2010-2011) * Survey questionnaire conducted in classroom Discussion of Data * The comm. course is female dominated. 80. 39% of respondents are female. * 29. 41% 17 years old * 100,000-300,000php annual income * Hobbies: 62. 75% editing pictures, 58. 82% watching news, 52. 915 watching mainstream TV and film * 45% have good English skills, 39. 22% skilled in lay-outing, 37. 25% good writing skills * Want to be: 1. Layout designer 2. Writers 3. Photographers Summary Course choice is influenced by many factors like p ersonal interest, abilities, educational background, future employment and future plans Conclusion * The industry is dominated by women * Their first years are fit to the course because they have background. Recommendation: * Entice men to enroll in AB Comm. * Students should assess themselves * Institution should offer career orientation * There should be job opportunities for graduates * Parents should guide in the decision making * High school curriculum should be reviewed because it’s a place where students develop