A Brush Stroke With Air :: Research Papers

A Brush Stroke With Air The history of the airbrush dates back further than most people imagine. Prehistoric man created some of the first airbrushed images on the cave walls of Lascaux and Pech-Merle in southern France over 35,000 years ago by blowing pigment through a hollow pipe probably made of bone. More Early History The latest findings indicate that Abner Peeler was the actual inventor of the modern airbrush in the year 1878. Peeler described his invention as a paint distributor. While the Walkup brothers ( Liberty & Charles ) promoted and manufactured the airbrush, Peeler is credited with refining and improving the airbrush. In 1889, Charles Burdick made significant improvements to the function and design of the airbrush. This led to his invention of the internal mix airbrush. Thayer and Chandler began manufacturing an internal mix airbrush in 1893. After several changes, the two file a patent for what will be known as the modern airbrush. Its patented features include a trigger mechanism that is attached to a valve used to control the airflow and a replaceable tip. Just one month after it’s invention, he had made the first airbrush picture ever. Three years later, in 1881, Mr. Peeler sold his invention, the world rights and his patents to Liberty Walkup for $700.00. In 1883, the Rockford Airbrush Company was founded by Walkup to manufacture and promote the first airbrush to the public. Further findings indicate that Peeler helped make two improvements to the airbrush for which he was paid $150.00. Liberty Walkup claims he was working on an airbrush at the same time as Peeler; however, he never seemed to be involved with inventing in any capacity while Peeler was a life-long inventor of some note. (Paschal 8) The modern airbrush was invented as a direct result of the popularity of re-rendered photographs. The airbrush can simulate the feel of a photograph due to its ability to spray very fine dots and to develop an image without brushstrokes. During the late 1890s, sepia-rendered photographs became so popular that the demand for color re-renderings led to sweat-shop-type employment for airbrush technicians. In some instances, up to one hundred technicians were employed to retouch and color photographs. The studio was set up in a Rubens-like manner, in which each technician dealt with only one particular segment of the entire composition – i.

Osamu Dazai Essay

Osamu Dazai was one of Japanese novelist and considered one of the most important storytellers of postwar Japan. While known primarily as a novelist, Dazai also earned recognition for his numerous short stories, including â€Å"Omoide† (â€Å"Memories†), â€Å"Sarugashima† (â€Å"Monkey Island†), and â€Å"Ha† (â€Å"Leaves†), which were published in Bannen, his first collection of short stories. Like most of his longer fiction, Dazai’s short stories are autobiographical and reflect a troubled life marred by alcoholism, drug addiction, and several suicide attempts. Nevertheless, Dazai’s fiction showcases his artistic imagination and unique confessional narrative technique. Dazai was born the youngest of ten children in Kanagi, a small town in northern Japan, to one of the wealthiest families in the region. While Dazai’s later years were turbulent, he grew up a sensitive child in comfortable surroundings. Later in his life , however, his wealthy background led to self-consciousness, contributing to a nagging sense of isolation that is an undercurrent throughout his fiction. Dazai underwent his apprenticeship in writing during the 1920s while attending secondary schools in Aomori and Hirosaki and published many of his early stories in magazines founded and run by aspiring young authors. By the time he attended Hirosaki Higher School, however, Dazai began to live the unconventional lifestyle that brought him much fame. Despite his widely recognized talent, however, alcoholism, drug addiction, affairs with geishas, suicide attempts, and frequent psychological traumas plagued him the rest of his life. In 1930, Dazai enrolled in the Department of French Literature at Tokyo University, but by the end of his first year, he ceased attending classes. Instead, Dazai became involved with left-wing politics, caroused, and renewed his relationship with a geisha he met while attending Hirosaki Higher School. His family disapproved of this relationship, leading to one of Dazai’s suicide attempts. He attempted to take his own life on at least three other occasions and finally succeeded in a double suicide with a young war widow in 1948. This episode, among several instances of double suicide in Dazai’s fiction, is retold in his widely acclaimed novel, No Longer Human. Dazai’s highly autobiographical fiction first garnered popular and critical attention after the publication of his first collection, Bannen (The Final Years). The first and most significant of these stories is â€Å"Omoide† (â€Å"Memories†). With its highly personal tone, â€Å"Memories† reveals a common narrative technique in Dazai’s writing. Revealing his childhood and adolescent traumas, as well as his need for companionship and love, Dazai’s first-person narrative attracts the reader’s sympathy while raising doubts about the authenticity of the narration beca use of exaggerated rhetoric. â€Å"Gangu† (â€Å"Toys†), another tale in Bannen, illustrates Dazai’s playfulness. In this tale, the narrator — after briefly relating his financial troubles — details his plans to concoct a tale recounting the memories of an infant. While these and other early pieces exemplify the personal tone of much of Dazai’s work, another group of tales shows his talent for imaginative storytelling. Two tales — â€Å"Gyofukuki,† translated as â€Å"Metamorphosis,† and â€Å"Sarugashima,† translated as â€Å"Monkey Island† — provide good examples of this. In place of the Dazai like protagonist present throughout most of his other short fiction; â€Å"Metamorphosis† is about a peasant girl who, on the verge of puberty, takes on the appearance and identity of a fish. â€Å"Monkey Island† presents two humanoid monkeys as its protagonists. In astonishment, one of the monkeys soon realizes they are the objects of attention, rather than the spectators, of the humans walking through the zoo. In his final years, he composed a series of stories that evince his interest in domestic issues, as titles such as â€Å"Villon’s Wife,† â€Å"Father,† and â€Å"Family Happiness†Ã¢â‚¬â€suggest. As critics have remarked, the stories of these collections are among the few works of artistic value produced by a Japanese author under the strict government censorship during World War II. While famous in Japan and avidly read — especially by the younger generation — Dazai has not achieved the international stature of Japanese writers such as Natsume Sseki, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, and End Shusaku. This is partly due to problems with translating Dazai’s highly personal style. Yet Dazai has earned himself a position in modern Japanese letters more or less comparable to that of an F. Scott Fitzgerald, as opposed to a William Faulkner, in modern American literature. Donald Keene, Dazai’s principal English translator, has described him as a Japanese writer â€Å"who emerged at the end of World War II as the literary voice of his time.† While Dazai’s body of work is sometimes criticized for its narrow scope, many critics maintain that h is fiction contains some of the most beautiful prose in modern Japanese literature. Dazai became celebrated for two short novels, The Setting Sun and No Longer Human, both translated into English. I read both of them back when I was reading all the Japanese fiction I could get my hands on, but did not care for either, and have not read either again. The Setting Sun was published in 1947, and is set in those years shortly after the end of the war. It was a very popular novel, and the title came to represent Japanese of the upper classes who had fallen because of the war and American occupation. But Dazai was already well known for personal characteristics reflected in the major characters as well–nihilism, drunken dissipation, despair (a kind of model for our hippie generation)–so, although the central character is a young woman, Kazuko, the novel is read as strongly autobiographical. This is true for No Longer Human, too, which is perhaps even more autobiographical, and, as Donald Keene describes it, is â€Å"an attack on the habits and traditions of Japanese society, but above all †¦ a record of his alienation from society.† (1063) I was not attracted to the narcissistic qualities in these two novels, or to the fact that Dazai, after having failed in two previous love suicides (in which the women succeeded) succeeded in a love suicide June 13, 1948 (he and the woman drowned in the Tamagawa Reservoir). I just didn’t much like him or his characters–never used those novels in courses I taught. But I did use one of his short stories, Villon’s Wife, several times, because it was in the anthology I most frequently used in the survey course of Japanese Literature, Donald Keene’s Modern Japanese Literature, and I actually came to like that story very much (sort of like Oe’s The Catch, the exception that proves the rule). The husband in the story may be the closest self-portrait of all, and the most despicable, in his drunken dissipation, unfaithfulness, and unforgivable treatment of his wife, but the story is told by the wife, who, in her attempts to accommodate herself to all of this comes through as an attractive and courageous character–and you realize that even Dazai, in his more sober moments perhaps, must have appreciated her virtues. Anyway, that’s the one I recommend–then, if you want to read either, or both, of the novels, you will be reading fiction that was very popular in Japan in the decade after the end of the war, and may, indeed, reflect some of the values in flux in that traumatic time, particularly for young Japanese who would have seen themselves as having lost everything. I will be comparing Akutagawa to Edgar Allan Poe next month for their short lives and some of the qualities of their fiction, and it is easy to compare Dazai to Akutagawa (1892-1927), as well . Akutagawa was more of Tanizaki’s generation, but died in his late 30s, as a suicide, as Dazai did. But, I am happy to say, I am very fond of Akutagawa–a highly disciplined literary artist. (MAIN BODY) â€Å"NO LONGER HUMAN† This book, by Osamu Dazai, is an example of the Japanese genre of shishosetsu, a kind of autobiographical fiction. It’s different from what we think of as autobiography, in that the purpose is not so much to tell a story – there is no real emplotment, beginning, middle, end in the traditional (or Aristotelian) sense, but rather, the text is a sort of rambling exploration of the self. Style is de-prioritized, sincerity and immediacy are tantamount. There is no constrained form, but rather, an attempt to establish a direct link between author and reader, to explain a particular perspective. The book is largely autobiographical, based on events from Dazai’s own life. He was a literary rock star, but a deeply miserable guy, attempting suicide several times before finally succeeding. There’s actually a monument at the spot where he killed himself (along with his mistress), and apparently people gather there on the anniversary of his death every year. In any case, the book itself is interesting. It makes me want to learn Japanese, for starters, because no matter how great the translator, there’s no getting around the fact that the grammatical structure of Japanese is completely different from that of English, most importantly, for this book perhaps, in that it is entirely possible, and even common, to construct a sentence in Japanese with no subject. Apparently the entire book is written in this form, which would be particularly appropriate to the work itself. Though I wonder if the Japanese reader would really think of this as particularly artful, given that it’s apparently a standard thing to them. But I guess that’s a question for psycho-linguists to answer. The book is the related story of a very unhappy guy who is essentially chronicling his downward spiral. Though it’s hard to say if it’s really a downward spiral – though he does pinpoint a moment at which he ceased to be human, itâ €™s not entirely clear that he was ever really human (by his own definition) to begin with. One question is what it means, in his eyes, to be human. There is a clear parallel to Notes from the Underground (Dazai was big into Dostoevsky, and the main character refers to Crime and Punishment), in that both are notes from deeply unhappy men who are convinced of their own uniqueness, but there are definitely differences. Dostoevsky’s character is raging against rationality, and the way in which it dehumanizes people, so in a sense, though he calls himself a mouse, etc, he could be seen as claiming that he is really the only human. Dazai’s character, Yozo, sees himself as inhuman, mainly, it seems, because he lacks certain basic human traits. He claims, for instance, that he has never felt hungry. However, there is also a certain issue of domination at play – he is unable to say no to anyone, to turn down anything. In this sense, one could say that he is entirely determined by the outside world. Despite the fact that he has an inner life, he keeps it hidden from the outside world. In fact, his behavior is entirely, he claims, an act, he â€Å"plays the clown† for the amusement of others, refusing to let his own feelings show. But I’m not certain if this is really the case. For instance, he wants to be an artist, and actually disobeys his father in order to pursue his artistic career, and confesses to the other authority figure in his life, Flatfish, that he wants to make art. So it seems as though the masking process is incomplete in this case, and at times he does behave authentically. I wonder if the same could be said for the Underground Man? I think that it’s slightly different in his case, in that the construction of the Underground Man is such that he can’t behave authentically, because he has no stable self. Yozo, on the other hand, certainly has an inner life, it’s just a rather empty one. He doesn’t seem to have any real will of his own, or rather, the will that he does have is purely towards self-destruction – he can get booze and drugs, and drink himself into a stupor, without any difficulties. But then again, he also seems to have a brief lull of happiness, directly following his marriage. But even there, it’s hard to say if he’s happy. Maybe it’s most accurate to say that he is so constructed as to be incapable of happiness? Hmmm. There’s more thinking to be done here. Unfortunately, I seem to like each Dazai Osamu (1909-1948) book less than the previous one. No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku, 1948) is more epigrammatic that The Setting Sun (Shayo, 1947), but perhaps I am too old for it (as I was once too young to read Proust) to be much moved for the plaint of a creature too delicate for the world. I can’t muster sociological interest in it as social history of the 30s either, since dissipitation is basically timeless (though the preferred means vary). I read the epilogue differently from translator and longtime Columbia professor Donald Keene: as showing the notebook’s writer was successful at mimicking good nature, not that his widow is right and the writer wrong. (â€Å"In the way that most men fail to see their own cruelty, Yozo had not noticed his gentleness and capacity for love†-p. 9; really? a capacity for love? and gentleness? or solipsism mixed with diffidence?) I am not so sure that Keene was right that the Japanese â€Å"are certainly much more like Americans than they are like their ancestors of one hundred years ago. As far as literature is concerned, the break with the Japanese past is almost complete† (p. 7), though this is more credible now than it was six decades ago. Dazai seems very traditionally Japanese to me in many ways, a descendant of Sei Shà ´nagon both in wit and to some degree in aesthetics (Dazai is still plenty delicate and fairly indirect, even about what she would have considered vulgar and even sordid matters, very regretful and very perishable). Would Keene have been moved to translate Dazai, if there was nothing of the Japanese tradition that Keene venerates in Dazai? Let alone, recall translating Dazai â€Å"as if I were writing a book of my own,† an experience he only otherwise had with Kenkà ´Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Essays in Idleness (On Familiar Terms, p. 189). I like Keene’s characterization of Yozo as a man â€Å"who is orphaned from his fellows by their refusal to take him seriously† (p. 8, see p. 139), which in turn is a result of his desperate clowni ng. Of course, this resonates with my experience of people not believing I could possibly be serious when I am, and feeling I’m not like other people, incapable of â€Å"getting by.† And â€Å"unusual or extravagant things tempt me† (p. 23). It is interesting that someone who felt himself different from an early age and for whom â€Å"it would be no exaggeration to say that my only playmates while I was growing up were girls† (48) became a diffident lady-killer rather than a homosexual. Ã…Å'ba cannot forget his abuse by a female servant when he was young. In high school, he played the buffoon. At university, he finds bad influence from Horiki and leads a life of debauchery (nonstop smoking, alcohol abuse, promiscuity), culminating in a double suicide (it cannot seriously be billed a â€Å"love suicide†) in which the married woman drowns and he survives. After being expelled from the university, Ã…Å'ba is â€Å"clan and sober† for a time in a relationship with an innocent young woman, but Horki shows up and leads Ã…Å'ba back into temptation, now adding morphine to alcohol abuse and being incarcerated in a mental asylum, where he is numb rather than violent. As for being zombified by Japan’s defeat, Dazai seems to me to have been as self-destructive and intellectually nihilistic while the Japanese Empire was rising as in the general anomie after Emperor Hirohito renounced divinity and the US occupied the archipelago. (Imamura’s â€Å"Pigs and Battleships† show some of this social breakdown and women who were better at surviving it than the men.) The original publication sold more than six million copies in Japan, more than any Japanese novel other than Kokoro (1914) by SÃ… seki Natsume. A manga version was published in 2009, the centenary of Dasai’s birth, and also filmed. (CONCLUSION) Attending Meiji Gakuin University from the age 15 to 19, Toson gradually became aware of literature under the influence of unconventional traditions of the school. Toson literature is even said to originate during his days at the university. Toson joined Bungakukai, a literary group, and as a romantic poet, published a collection of poems including Wakanashu. Later, Toson turned a novelist and published Hakai (â€Å"The Broken Commandment†) and Haru (â€Å"Spring†), and is thus regarded as a prominent naturalist novelist. His other works include, Ie (â€Å"Family†), considered to have achieved the highest level in Japanese Naturalism literature, Shinsei (â€Å"New life†), a confession of his own incestuous relationship with his niece, Yoakemae (â€Å"Before the Dawn†), a historical novel modeled on the life of his father. Altbough he began his serialization of Tohonomon (â€Å"The Gate of the East†) in 1943, he died of a stroke at his own hom e in Oiso, Kanagawa prefecture on 22nd of August. (BIBLIOGRAPHY LIST) Dazai, Osamu, and Donald Keene. No Longer Human. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1981. Print. Lyons, Phyllis I., and Osamu Dazai. The Saga of Dazai Osamu: a Critical Study with Translations. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1985. Print. Hachimaki, Emi. â€Å"ä º ºÃ©â€"“å ¤ ±Ã¦   ¼.† é â€™Ã§ © ºÃ¦â€"‡å º «Ã£â‚¬â‚¬Aozora Bunko. Aozora, 1 Jan. 1999. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. . (REFERENCE) http://kirjasto.sci.fi/dazai.htm http://www.jlit.net/authors_works/dazai_osamu.html http://wlc.drake.edu/wordpress/japanese/2010/02/28/osamu-dazai%E3%80%80%E5%A4%AA%E5%AE%B0%E6%B2%BB%EF%BC%89/

The Civil War As A Struggle For Justice - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1144 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2019/05/18 Category History Essay Level High school Tags: Civil War Essay War Essay Did you like this example? In view of this, the battle was also heightened by a combination of several sociopolitical circumstances. Secession. The split between the southern states and the northern states became evident when the southern decided to disaffiliate (Civil war). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Civil War As A Struggle For Justice" essay for you Create order However, the president responded that the decision had no logical backing, making it illegal to separate and form the Confederate States of America (Warshauer 46,51). His decision to send troops to counter the planned breakaway triggered the Civil War leading to many casualties and injuries (Bynum 37). The differing perspectives of the southern and northern states were based on the different economic activities and modes of production. It is evident that several states in the north had shifted from plantation to industries implying that most of these people lived in the cities where slavery was no longer important or significant (Bynum 35). On the other hand, the southern states required the slave labor to work on the large plantations and maintain their productions (Gallagher 43). Therefore, they viewed abolition of slavery as an event that would detriment their well being and contribute to the economic downfall of the nations. The formation of the new state was mainly aimed at protecting the self-interests including cheap labor from slaves and farming activities (Faragher 330). The expansion of the north was also a major critical contributor to the rise of tension that catapulted the war. The industrialization and growth of cities enabled the expansion to the west, creating fear among the southern states. The south thought that the north would gain more support and power because of the size of the territory. Therefore, they planned resistance to stop the further extension of the zones leading to instances of confrontations that propelled the civil war. The inequity among the states as well as the differing rights led to conflicts. America comprised several states, but the constitution was unclear about the rights and control of resources among the partners. The consideration of the federal government as the supreme body caused discomfort among the states, leading to instances of mistrust as southern states believed that the cooperation denied them their basic powers and rights. In an attempt to gain autonomy, they spurred a revolt to seek complete ownership of the resources and activities within their states (Gallagher 50). This form of deviation destabilized the unity of America thereby leading to the subsequent encounters and battles that marked the Civil War. The rise of President Abraham Lincoln to the power intimidated the southern states who felt that he would affect their economy by ending slavery. The president campaigned on a platform of promoting ethnic equity and equality in America. A principal itinerary was to advance the Republican Party strong stance against the practice of slavery because it undermined the rights of the people especially the non-whites (Warshauer 101). The southern states perceived his election as a threat to their sustainability because he would stop slave trade meaning that they had to counter rebel (Faragher 330)). Therefore, the disapproval of his leadership by the states in the south prompted secession and subsequent wars. The Civil War emerged from the inherent instances of ethnic inequality that thrived in the American society. The concepts of peace, social coherence and respect of the rights of every member of society despite the differences are the foundations of a strong and prosperous nation. However, the events leading to the Civil War portrayed that the American society lacked these fundamental features. These were genuine ideas that could be resolved through the use of probable conflict resolution mechanisms such as dialogue to help the citizens embrace diversity. The failure to harmonize the expectations led to consecutive secessions as the southern states believed that the northern counterpart had the ill motive of denying them the opportunity to grow both economically and politically (Reid 43). The war influenced the development of present public institutions and governance struct ures. The chronology of the civil war in the United States indicates an educative aspect of the human struggles to freedom and equality within societies as well as the role of the federal government in creating unity among people (Gallagher 35). Slavery and human trafficking were some of the major contributing factors to the escalation of the conflict. Ideally, the aspects of oppression and liberty played vital roles in the rise of the United States as a strong supporter of the human rights. The war was a central event in marking various contents of revolution and social history that created the current United States of America. The victory of the Northern regions claimed the freedom of slaves as most of the federal soldiers targeted the conscience of liberation and freedom of the oppression (Warshauer 140). Nonetheless, the achievements were extremely costly on human lives as more than half a million people lost their lives during this period and many of the community members suffered the aftermath of the wars in the affected regions. The victorious parties presented the nation as unit body positing successive struggle for the liberation of the oppression and the vulnerable groups in the realm. This occurrence was the large st endeavor in the history of the land claiming the highest numbers of casualties as well as rampant displacements in the social organizations (Faragher 339). It began because of a large divisions in the set of leadership and governance in the public prowess (Warshauer 41). As the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln achieved a lot in the struggles for peace and liberation of the various people oppressed in the states (Bynum 20). The milestones enabled the establishment of institutions of governance and enforcement of the law. In the years preceding the war, one disagreement was that the constitution was unclear about the rights of the states versus the federal government. The resulting confusion offered a platform for the southern states to demand secession because they felt underprivileged in the regime controlled by the federal government. Nonetheless, the war enabled the nation to see sense in having a good constitution that spells out the privileges of the citizens and the states to avoid similar repercussions in the future. Up to now, the United States of America is a global leader in good governance, economic development, and appreciation of the human diversity. ConclusionThe American Civil War was caused by the conflicting sociopolitical and economic differences between the southern states and the northern states. However, it played a critical role in enabling the rise of the United States to become a hub recognition of human rights, respect of law and independent institutions of governance. The Civil War embodied the struggles for justice and equality between races. Although affected many lives, it resulted in unified front in a world imaged by the diversity of cultural practices and moral virtues. It is clear that the animosity and intriguing differences towards slavery was the sole cause of the conflict. Despite this, it enabled the nation to embrace diversity and institutionalize frameworks of good governance and development.

Essay about Oil and Texas A Cultural History - 1599 Words

Oil and Texas: A Cultural History Soon the 4-inch drill pipe†¦shot skyward. After the mud, water, and pipe were blown out, gas followed, but only for a short time. Then the well was very quiet. We ventured back, after our wild scramble for safety, to find things in a terrible mess...We started shoveling the mud away-when, without warning, a lot of heavy mud shot out of the well with the report of a cannon†¦In a very short time oil was going up through the top of the derricks, and rocks were being shot hundreds of feet into the air. Within a very few minutes, the oil was holding a steady flow at more than twice the height of the derrick†¦Ã¢â‚¬  —A. W. Hamill (one of the drillers at Spindletop) Houston Daily Post Texas tea, black gold, crude,†¦show more content†¦The discovery of oil at Spindletop triggered a flood of speculation in the surrounding areas, which led to several other significant discoveries, including: Sour Lake, Batson and Humble. Because of the excess of oil being found and refined, prices for oil dropped to three cents a barrel—a huge difference from the $107.94 a barrel today (Williams). Texas’ history with oil starts much earlier than the 1901 Spindletop gusher. As early as 1543, there were reports of natural oil seeps along the coast of Texas which was used as both medical treatments and caulking for boats by Spanish explorers (Wooster). In 1866, the first of Texas’ oil producing wells was drilled in Nacogdoches County, however the supply and profit was not high enough to justify further development. In 1895 in Corsicana, Texas there was a minor oil find that led to the creation of Texas’ first oil refinery in Nacogdoches, Texas. Another large oil find is the East Texas Oil Field which spans 140,000 acres and is considered to be the largest oil field in the United States (excluding Alaska); this oil field has produced over 5.2 billion barrels from its 30,340 historic and active oil wells (Smith). 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Washington Irvings The Legend Of The Sleepy Hollow And...

How does different literature, written years and centuries apart by different authors, still contain the same prevailing ideas? Some ideas occur over and over again in literature, often revolving around human nature. Humans have a tendency to do the same thing over and over again even across different years and locations. This idea can be seen when observing these romanticism and gothic writings. Washington Irving’s The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown are all Romantic literary writings. They all feature characters who have a psychotic element to them and claim supernatural events have occurred; it’s Ichabod in The Legend of the†¦show more content†¦Ichabod’s paranoia made him perceive the object as a head, although the reader discovers later it was just a pumpkin. Ichabod hastily rationalized this event as an act of the headless h orseman because the rider appeared to have no head and he had heard the legend of the Horseman. He let his feelings of fear create the situation into the Headless Horseman, and Ichabod created a new version of events because it is human nature. He created events that matched his paranoia, thus he was petrified and fled the town. It is part of human nature for people to rationalize events as supernatural or create new events to make themselves feel better or correct. Furthermore, Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher exemplifies how humans rationalize events by equating then as supernatural. The Fall of the House of Usher follows Usher, a name who is overcome with an unnamed disease; he is plagued by physical pains and mental hallucinations and fears after his sister dies. The house appears to be haunted or possessed, so the narrator had a creepy vibe from the house. The narrator tells that â€Å"as if in the superhuman energy of his utterance...the huge antique pa nels to which the speaker pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, ponderous and ebony jaws. It was the work of the rushing gust-- but then without those

Organizations Mostly Invest Huge Capital †Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Organizations Mostly Invest Huge Capital? Answer: Introduction Corporate venturing is defined as the form of financial investment by an organization for earning enhancing business profit. The study will prepare an external environment report for Samsung. It is a South Korean multinational conglomerate, which is also the topmost seller of electronics products in global market. Moreover, the study will evaluate Technological Environment, Economic Environment, Competitive Environment, Labour Environment, Resource Environment, Customer Environment, Legal and Regulatory Environment and Global Environment. Furthermore, the study will also evaluate the main threats and opportunities of the organization. Company Overview Samsung is a South Korean multinational conglomerate, which is comprised of numerous affiliated businesses. The head quarter of the company is located in Samsung Town, Seoul. The company was established in the year 1938 by Lee Byung-chul. Over the next three years, the organization had diversified into different business areas like textiles, securities, food processing, insurance and retail. Samsung entered into electronic industry in late 1960, which had driven substantial business growth. Moreover, Samsung Electronics has become the 2nd largest information technology company of the world by its revenue. As per the market value, the organization has held 5th position in the world market (Samsung Australia, 2017). The revenue of Samsung is equal to 17% of South Koreas $1,082 billion GDP. It is also the largest seller of Smartphone in the world (Samsung Australia, 2017). The organization has hold double the market share of the Smartphone to its closest competitor Apple. The market share of Samsung is also increasing for enhancing sales volume of TV, Refrigerator, speakers, smart home, home theater and smart appliance. Samsung has also held top position in the global market at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016, which is the largest mobile trade show in the world. Samsung has also become the 7th topmost brand in the world market, which has actually increased its brand value in the whole world. Figure 1: Best Global Brand (Source: Lee Lee, 2017) The unique design and technically advanced electronic products have made Samsung to stand out uniquely in the market. The unyielding passion for excellence and unfaltering commitment of Samsung always provide best products and service to the customers. External Environment Analysis Technological Environment Samsung effectively uses technological advancement of the developed countries for fostering the business growth. Moreover, the technical advancement of the developed countries like USA, UK, South Korea and others has led the organization towards incorporating innovative technical features in all their electronic products. Moreover, the organization also used the digital media advancement of these countries for better promotion of their innovative products. The organization gets compatibility of their innovative technology with the technological advancement of these technologically advanced countries. The organization is also aimed at launching 5G technology in near future having the support of such advanced technology (Jung, 2014). However, in some underdeveloped and developing countries, the organization faces technical compatibility issues due to backdated technology of those countries. Economic Environment While considering the home country of Samsung, it has been found that South Korea is an economically developed country. Moreover, the economy of this country is built upon the export of electronics and automobile products. Such developed economic condition of the country has actually raised the return on investment of the organization. Furthermore, the organization also utilizes the developed economic condition of the countries like USA, UK, Australia and others. As per Park and Lee, (2015), the organization has got expanding retail space and scope of adding more product line in developed economic condition. However, Manikandan and Ramachandran, (2015) opined that Samsung faces less profit potentiality in the weak economic condition of some countries like Myanmar, Malaysia and others. In such weak economy, consumers are constrained with their limited earnings and economic stability. Therefore, there is less profit potentiality for this organization. Competitive Environment According to Ghanbari et al., (2017), in South Korea, the organization faces tough competition from the competitors like HP, LG and others. Such competitors are also providing same types of electronic products to the customers. However, high brand value and unique features of Samsung electronic products have assisted the organization to create unique market position in its home country. Moreover, in South Korea, the organization has grabbed 59.31% market share, where Apple holds 20.12% market share and LG holds 14.34% (Refer to Appendix 1). However, Kim, (2014) in the global market, the organization faces extremely tough competition from the major market players like HP, Apple, Lenovo and others. Moreover, the global smart phone market share of Samsung has been dropped to 20.7 per cent from 23.3 per cent. Furthermore, the quality and design of Apple is creating tough challenges for Samsung in its home country as well as in global market. Therefore, in the global market, Apple more ma rket share than Samsung with their unique product features (Refer to Appendix 2). Some Chinese players are also creating quite hard challenges for the organization. Labour Environment According to Chang et al., (2013), the youth unemployment rate of South Korea has declined to 3.6% from 3.8%. In such situation, Samsung gets wide labour pool in this country, which can enhance the productivity of the organization. Moreover, the organization also gets pool of talented labour for effective organization performance. The employees of South Korea mostly face lack of job security in their organization. In such situation, Samsung also get huge access to the job interrupted and talented employees even in lowest cost. On the other hand, Park, (2015) opined that Samsung also gets wide access to the labour pool in the global market like India, China and others. These countries also have increasing unemployment rate, which helps the organization in getting wide range of talented labours in such market. Resource Environment In South Korea, Samsung gets wide access to talented human resources in lowest cost. Furthermore, Rani et al., (2016) opined that Samsung also gets wide access to the suppliers for providing raw materials for effective production of electronic products. Moreover, adequacy of suppliers provides scopes to Samsung in switching from one supplier to others for getting best price for the raw materials. Growing economic condition of South Korea assists the organization in getting financial resources even in low interest. However, ?irjevskis, (2016) argued that in developing countries, the organization faces lack of adequate supply of raw materials due to inadequate suppliers. Moreover, inadequacy of suppliers has also increased the price of raw materials in these countries. However, the organization gets wide pool of talented human resources also in these countries. In this way, the organization has got easy access to all types organizational resources in both of its domestic market and glo bal market. It actually adds to the organizational success with reduced organizational cost. Customer Environment In South Korea, the organization has got huge customer base with its unique product quality. According to Sundstrm and Radon, (2015), the customers of South Korea are confident upon their spending power. Moreover, growing economic condition of the country has increased their earning and purchasing power. Therefore, they are more inclined to live sophisticated life having using technical advanced electronics. Furthermore, Deschamps and Nelson, (2014) opined that in most of the developed countries, customers are now high tech savvy. Therefore, such customers mostly prefer technically advanced equipments of the organizations like Samsung. Therefore, such tech savvy customers actually enhanced the sales volume of the organization. On the other hand, Salihu, (2015) opined that in some underdeveloped countries, customers are having limited purchasing power with limited earning sources. Therefore, such customers cannot spend much on their luxurious products line Smart Phone, TV, refrigerators and others. In this way, such limited spending power of the customers actually decreases the profit potentiality of the organization. On the other hand, competitor companies are frequent launching new and more technically advanced electronic products. Furthermore, customer preferences and demand are also changing with enhanced technical advancement in their countries. In such situation, the organization often faces issues in meeting the customized demand of the customers. Legal and Regulatory Environment In the external environment, Samsung faces wide varieties of legal and regulatory policies, which have huge influence on its organizational success. Samsung has to face strict patent laws of the different countries. In such case, Samsung has already got penalty for breaking the patent laws and imitating Apples the iPhone and iPad. Such accusation has hampered the corporate image of the organization in the market. As per Daeyoup and Jaeyoung, (2015), South Korea has free trade agreement for enhancing industrialization of the country. Moreover, the organization gets reduce tariff rate for international trades and enhanced the profit level from international trade. Furthermore, Wen-Ting, (2014) stated that the organization also gets the scope of reduced business tax rate of the country. It has actually reduced the organizational cost of the organization and enhanced its profit level. Furthermore, the organization is also concerned with global environment protection laws through recyclin g the electronic materials and reducing carbon footprint through using sustainable materials in their electronic products. Global Environment Samsung has wide global reach beyond its South Korea, which has increased the sales volume and customer base in international markets. Increasing global market reach has provided various business opportunities to the organization for enhancing its product lines as per global customer needs. It has actually added to the competitive edge of the organization for beating the major competitors in the market. However, Liu et al., (2016) in the global market, Samsung is facing extreme tough competition from Apple. Moreover, the unique features and design of their products are creating tough competition for Samsung. In this way, tough competition is actually dropping the global market share of the organization. Interpretation and Discussion Main Opportunities Developed Economy Samsung has wide business opportunities in the developed economic condition of developed countries like US, UK, Australia and others. In such developed economic condition, the organization has huge opportunity to earn increasing profit. Moreover, developed economic condition can lead to higher rate of return for the organization (Park, 2015). In this way, Samsung has huge potentiality for increasing profit level in all over the world. Technological Advancement Samsung can grab the opportunities of technological development in the developed countries. Moreover, Piao and Kleiner, (2015), pointed out that technological advancement in the developed countries can enhance the promotional opportunities of the organization. In such developed countries, the organization can get the technological blessings of the developed in digital media, social media and others. In this way, the organization can stand unique in the market through conveying their unique value to the customers. Furthermore, technologically advanced equipments of these developed countries has smoothened the business process, which can reduce the operational cost of the organization. Wide Resource Pool Samsung can also grab the opportunities of wide resource pool in the developing countries like India, China and others. Moreover, Jung, (2014) stated that these countries are having increasing unemployment rate over the years. Therefore, the organization has huge opportunities to hire talented employees even in lowest cost. Apart from that, the organization also has the opportunities to get wide source of suppliers for acquiring raw materials in reduced cost, which can enhance business performance. Free Trade Agreement The home country of Samsung namely South Korea has free trade agreement for running business. In such free trade agreement, the organization can get flexible business opportunities for doing both import and export related to their business. Apart from that, in such business environment, Samsung can get reduced tariff rate for doing international business (Kim, 2014). Therefore, Samsung has got huge opportunities for global expansion in such business environment. Main Threats Competitive Pressure In the global market, Samsung is facing extreme threats from their competitors like Apple, HP, Lenovo and others. As per Rani et al., (2016), Apple has held 27.80% market share in the global market, whereas Samsung has held 22% market share. Apple is being far more capable of providing innovative design of the electronics products. Therefore, Samsung is facing huge competitive pressure from Apple in the global market. Changing Consumer Preferences Consumer preferences are changing rapidly day by day. Moreover, they are expecting more technically advanced apps and features in their all electronic equipments. Therefore, it is becoming too much difficult of the organization to frequently modifying their product features as the changing customer needs (Piao Kleiner, 2015). In this way, lack of customization in the electronic products actually reducing its sales volume. Legal Restrictions In some countries, Samsung faces increasing tariff rate for operating business. It actually increases the operational cost of the organization. It also faces environmental restrictions in regards to utilization of hazardous substances like mercury, cadmium, lead and many others (Park, 2015). Therefore, such restrictions can hamper the business process of the organization. Conclusion While concluding the study, it can be said that Samsung is a popular South Korean conglomerate, which is the topmost seller of electronics products in global market. From the analysis of external environment, it can be known that developed economic condition of the countries like USA, UK, and Australia has increased return on investment of the organization. However, the organization faces competitive pressure in the global market from the competitors like HP, Apple, Lenovo and others. Samsung has huge opportunities to get access to wide talented labor pool from the developing countries like India, China and others. The new generation customers are becoming highly tech savvy, which can an opportunity for the organization. However, changing customer preferences may impose threats on the business progress of the organization. References Chang, Y., Kim, J., Joo, J. (2013). An Exploratory Study on the Evolution of Design Thinking: Comparison of Apple and Samsung.Design Management Journal,8(1), 22-34. ?irjevskis, A. (2016). Designing dynamically signature business model that support durable competitive advantage.Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity,2(1), 15. Daeyoup, K., Jaeyoung, K. (2015). Business model innovation through value delivery differentiation: Multiple case studies.Indian Journal of Science and Technology,8(21). Deschamps, J. P., Nelson, B. (2014). Innovation governance: how top management organizes and mobilizes for innovation.management,42, 3. Ghanbari, A., Laya, A., Alonso-Zarate, J. and Markendahl, J. (2017). Business development in the Internet of Things: A matter of vertical cooperation.IEEE Communications Magazine,55(2), pp.135-141. Jung, S. C. (2014). The analysis of strategic management of samsung electronics company through the generic value chain model.International Journal of Software Engineering and Its Applications,8(12), 133-142. Kim, H.J. (2014). Concentrated Ownership and Corporate Control: Wallenberg Sphere and Samsung Group.J. Korean L.,14, p.39. Lee, M., Lee, S. (2017). Identifying new business opportunities from competitor intelligence: An integrated use of patent and trademark databases.Technological Forecasting and Social Change,119, 170-183. Liu, X., Chen, J., Xie, Y., Wu, D. (2016). Strategic transformation through innovation in emerging industry: a case study.International Journal of Technology Management,72(1-3), 192-209. Manikandan, K. S., Ramachandran, J. (2015). Beyond institutional voids: Business groups, incomplete markets, and organizational form.Strategic Management Journal,36(4), 598-617. Park, C., Lee, H. (2015). Value Co-Creation ProcessesEarly Stages of Value Chains Involving High-Tech Business Markets: SamsungQualcomm Semiconductor Foundry Businesses.Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing,22(3), 229-252. Park, S.O., 2015. 23. Samsung: restructuring, innovation, and global networks.Handbook of Manufacturing Industries in the World Economy, p.362. Piao, M., Kleiner, B. (2015). Excellence in the Electronics Industry: The Comparison of the Organizational Culture among Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics and Google Inc.Conflict Resolution Negotiation Journal,2015(1). Rani, H. M. N. S., Zuber, F., Yusoof, M. S., Zamziba, M. N., Toriry, S. A. (2016). Managing Cross-Cultural Environment in Samsung Company: Strategy in Global Business.International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences,6(11), 605-613. Salihu, M. A. (2015). Specific Business and Management Challenges in Globalised World: Opportunities and Recommendations.ILIRIA International Review,5(2), 113-126. Samsung Australia. (2017).Samsung au. Retrieved 17 August 2017, from https://www.samsung.com/au/ Sundstrm, M., Radon, A. (2015). Utilizing the concept of convenience as a business opportunity in emerging markets.Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies,6(2), 7-21. Wen-Ting, L. (2014). Founder-key leaders, group-level decision teams, and the international expansion of business groups.International Marketing Review,31(2), 129.

Body Rituals Among the Nacirema free essay sample

â€Å"Body Rituals Among the Nacirema, â€Å" by Horace Miner, is an essay written about the Nacirema, or American people, from an outsider’s perspective. Miner gives an insight on the Nacireman people, which he describes in his essay as an unknown tribe, and the completing of the Nacireman’s magical beliefs and practices, which involve daily, involuntary body rituals that cause much pain and discomfort. Miner shows how an outsider’s perspective can affect the way a culture is seen. In his essay, Miner uses a tone that is formal and unbiased, which happens to be humorous at the same time. Miner’s thesis is clear, he is simply showing the reader of these practices. It is understandable that Miner is speaking of a strange culture with rituals that are strange and unheard of. The territory that Miner is referring to in his essay, the one that lies between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles, is America. Nacirema is American spelled backwards. Miner describes the Nacirema, or American culture as being â€Å"a highly developed market economy which has evolved in a rich natural habitat. He explains that every household as a shrine, in which they perform their daily body rituals in hopes to prevent illness. This is where Miner first begins to explain and give examples about the strange culture. This shrine that Miner refers to is the bathroom where bathing and excretion, along with other rituals, take place and the chest in the wall that carries the charms and magical potions, are the medicine cabinet and the medicine. This shrine that Miner refers to is a metamorphic statement. Miner then talks about health care professionals: refers to dentists as holy-mouth-men who work on tooth decay, and doctors as medicine men, who work at the latipsoh, which is hospital backwards, and â€Å"the listeners, a. k. a. psychologists. Miner’s choice of previously stated words add a bit of humor to the story and might make it more confusing for writers that have not yet figured out that Nacirema is America. Also, these examples that he chose to provide give a reader an insight on the unknown tribe and their daily â€Å"rituals. Miner goes on to describe the ovens that women bake their heads in are the old school hair dryers that are used at salons. Miner uses great word choice throughout his essay and although some words are unclear, such as those spelled backwards, most of Miner’s essay is clear and very understandable for any reader. Towards the end of his essay Miner describes intercourse and methods of protection to prevent pregnancy. Miner states, â€Å"Efforts are made to avoid pregnancy by the use of magical materials or by limiting intercourse to certain phases of the moon. This example that Miner provides is excellent because it gives you insight on method, which almost sounds like a cultural myth, which the Nacireman culture practice for safe sex. Miner is very descriptive in his essay, as you see with the women and old-school hair driers and the medicine cabinets. With the other information Miner provides about the doctors, nurses, hospitals, and medicines, it is evident the Nacireman people get sick, go to the doctor or hospital, end up using the medication twice, and then it stays in the medicine cabinet for a very long time. He gives the reader more than enough information to paint a vivid and bold picture of what he is talking about. The way Miner presents his findings of these rituals and the instruments used in these everyday body rituals is very unique. Writing from an outsider perspective, he finds these rituals uncommon and essentially unheard of. He portrays the Nacireman culture and being very strange. Miner’s introduction may seem a bit confusing and may not be clear to the reader at first but it makes the reader curious and want to continue on. As the reader catches, the essay seems to have a great sentence structure. The words and sentences flow freely throughout the essay, making it enjoyable. Everything fell into place where it should be. Seeing the daily brushing of the teeth or the shaving of the face as a ritual seems about right because essentially that’s what it is It seems as though Americans are pressured by society to feel pretty (both men and women, perhaps by the media, which results in these beautifying, daily rituals. The purpose of Miner’s article was to explain the realism of the Nacirema culture. It is evident that Miner is criticizing the American culture and is showing that they do daily â€Å"rituals† to improve their outer appearance as opposed to improving their inner being. Even if Nacirema isn’t apparent to you in the beginning, there are signs throughout the story that Miner is talking about the American culture. By demonstrating and introducing the daily body rituals of the Nacirema, whether they are painful or pleasurable, nd describe American customs, Miner was able to show us the good, bad, and the ugly of the culture from an outside perspective. After reading Miner’s essay, the reader may have different opinions of the Nacireman culture and may even see them as â€Å"stuck-up† for having all of these unnecessary rituals that most other cultures do not perform, especially on a daily basis. Overall, Miner did a fantastic job on his essay. The time period matched the language that Miner used, which was very clear.