Out of Shadows Essays

Out of Shadows Essays Out of Shadows Essay Out of Shadows Essay Change and racism evidently aids the characterisation and the development of the text because these significant themes help the portrayal of the characters as they are relatable in society. The text being explored is out of the Shadows by Jason Wallace. Change reoccurs throughout the text which helps to develop Roberts character. Similarly, the major connotation of racism also engages readers to relate to the changes of Roberts and Ivans character. Change is evident in the development of Roberts character as he experiences his journey with Ivan and his friends.At the beginning of the text, Out of the Shadows by Jason Wallace, Robert has an awkward confrontation with his ex-friend Nelson when he was with Ivan. Knowing how Ivan would react, Robert harshly told Nelson to leave him alone and not to mind his business. This is demonstrated in the quote, I dont know why I felt surprised, wasnt that what Id been after? The use of the soliloquy creates an impression t hat Robert is realising he is changing into to someone he isnt. He is questioning why he was having doubts as that was what he had wanted to achieve in the first place.This obscurity in how Robert feels about becoming a new self helps the idea that change is a recurring theme throughout the text. In another scenario, Robert is responding to his dad why he has not been playing or hanging around with Nelson anymore. In this quote, Hes not really a friend anymore. Robert replied with a tone that seemed he was trying to tell himself how he felt instead of his father. The doubt he is experiencing emphasises he is trying to turn over a new leaf in order to fit in, and hence Robert deals with change throughout the text. Another significant theme recurring through the text is racism.This is shown in the quote, Hes using his colour to his advantage. The metaphor used suggests that the author is putting out the fact that racism was still a major issue in those times and needed to be viewed d ifferently. Ivan is disgusted by Nelson, who he says is using is colour to his advantage because blacks in those time were viewed as the unfortunate. The harsh meaning behind this racist comment, gives people an urge to change and make a difference in racial equality. Ivans character persists to tell the readers he does not appreciate the blacks and always finding a reason to hate on them. This is shown in the line No, special.Hes black. The italics used for the word, special emphasises racial equality is not evident in this text. The composers use of a metaphor shows the scorn and harsh personality of Ivan and thus engages the audience in the relevant issues of society. In conclusion, change and racism are significant themes in the text which are sadly still relevant now in our society. The change in Robert’s character gives the reader’s a personal insight on how these relevant ideas involving post-colonial Zimbabwe, affect people negatively. It is responsible for t he portrayal of all the characters in ‘Out of Shadows’.

A Biography of Roger B. Chaffee, NASA Astronaut

A Biography of Roger B. Chaffee, NASA Astronaut Roger Bruce Chaffee was born on February 15, 1935. His parents were Donald L. Chaffee and Blanche May Chaffee. He grew up with an older sister in Greenville, Michigan until the age of 7 when the family relocated to Grand Rapids for Donald Chaffees job with the Army. Fast Facts: Roger B. Chaffee Name: Roger Bruce ChaffeeBorn: February 15, 1935 in Grand Rapids, MIDied: January 27, 1967, in the Apollo 1 fire at Kennedy Space CenterParents: Donald Lynn Chaffee, Blanche May ChaffeeSpouse: Martha L. HornChildren: Sheryl Lyn and Stephen.Career: Served in the Navy until his selection as a NASA astronaut in 1963  Education: Air Force Institute of Technology, Purdue UniversityHonors: Congressional Medal of Honor and Navy Air Medal (both posthumous) Chaffee entered the Illinois Institute of Technology as a Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) candidate and transferred to Purdue University in 1954, where he studied aeronautical engineering. While there, he entered flight training and qualified as an aviator. Upon graduation, Chaffee finished his Navy training and entered the service as an ensign. He married Martha Louise Horn in 1957 and they had two children. While in the Navy, Chaffee continued flight training in Florida, first at Pensacola and later at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville. Throughout his time there, he logged 2,300 hours of flight time, with much of that occurring in jet aircraft. He was awarded a Navy Air Medal for his work in photographic reconnaissance during his Navy career. Chaffees Career at NASA Early in 1962, Roger Chaffee applied to the NASA astronaut program. Accepted initially, he worked on a masters degree at the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson in Ohio while waiting for the final determination. Chaffees area of study was in reliability engineering, and while there he also continued adding to his flight log. In 1963 he was selected as an astronaut and began training as part of the third group of astronauts ever chosen.   Portrait of Astronaut Roger B. Chaffee. NASA Johnson Space Center (NASA-JSC) Chaffee was assigned to the Gemini program and worked as the capsule communications specialist (CAP com) for Gemini 4. He worked on deep space instrumentation equipment and its use. While he never flew a Gemini mission, he was an essential part of the team. Eventually, Chaffee was assigned to Apollo 1, which was then called AS-204 (for Apollo-Saturn). It was scheduled to fly early in 1967.   The crew of Apollo 1 at Launch Complex 34, Virgil I. Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. NASA The Apollo 1 Mission The Apollo program was the series of flights that would eventually lead to astronauts landing on the Moon. For the first mission, the astronauts would test all the spacecraft systems, along with ground-based facilities for tracking and communications. Chaffee, who was familiar with all the Gemini systems, began training with the Apollo engineers in order to understand the capsules capabilities. This included a long series of simulations that led up to what the team called a plugs-out countdown demonstration. This simulation included the astronauts being fully suited up and in the capsule as if it were in flight configuration. This took place on January 27, 1967, and Chaffees role on the mission would be as chief communications expert with the engineers and team members in the mission blockhouse.   All went well until several hours into the mission, when a power surge created an electrical short inside the capsule. That ignited a fire in the capsule materials. The blaze was so intense and hot that it overcame the astronauts while they were trying to escape. Roger Bruce Chaffee and his teammates Gus Grissom and Edward White were all killed in the space of a minute. Later investigation showed that the bare wires and the oxygen-rich atmosphere inside the capsule contributed to the strength of the blaze. It was a huge loss for the space program and focused the nations attention on astronauts and the dangers they face, leading to a major revamp of the capsule interior and hatch for future missions. Apollo 1 and the aftermath of the fire. NASA Headquarters - GReatest Images of NASA (NASA-HQ-GRIN) Honors for Roger Chaffee Roger Chaffee was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, along with teammate Gus Grissom. Edward White was buried at West Point.  Chaffee was honored with a second Air Medal by the Navy after his death, along with the Congressional Medal of Honor. He is memorialized in the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, NM, as well as the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in Florida. His name appears on a school, a planetarium, and other facilities, and there is a statue of him in Grand Rapids at the Childrens Museum.   Sources NASA, NASA, www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/chaffee-rb.html.NASA, NASA, history.nasa.gov/Apollo204/zorn/chaffee.htm.Voskhod 2, www.astronautix.com/c/chaffee.html.

Can Security Countermeasures be Overdone Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Can Security Countermeasures be Overdone - Essay Example Iraq sans UN approval, to choking off funds-flow to terrorist elements, compulsory screening, finger printing, strip & search of all non-nationals or even suspect nationals at all points of entry and exit, installation of electronic eavesdropping devices / phone tapping / mail interception, passing of draconian laws in the face of strong opposition from Human Rights activists, etc. and a myriad of other methods. Orwellian ‘Big brother is watching you’ (Orwell, 1949) has become a fact of life. All these signify the hard line, no nonsense approach, led especially by the governments in the USA and UK. They were primarily intended to assuage the injured American pride in the name of ‘war on terror’. Institutions, businesses and citizens did not lag far behind in this era of panic and paranoia. Overdoing ‘hardware intensive’ and ‘legislative’ countermeasures seem to be only partly effective in containing terrorism. Afghanistan and Iraq, in dà ©jà   vu, will testify this premise. The sweeping actions of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice (DOJ) and other investigation agencies on the one hand, and the poor record of conviction secured by them, point to the limited effectiveness of the countermeasures. That is not to say that there has been no success at all. On the contrary, some of the administrative countermeasures like enactment of The USA Patriot Act or the creation of the DHS certainly enabled putting a check on terrorist activities. â€Å"The USA PATRIOT Act equips federal law enforcement and intelligence officials with the tools they need to mount an effective, coordinated campaign against our nation’s terrorist enemies. The Act revised counterproductive legal restraints that impaired law enforcement’s ability to gather, analyze, and share critical terrorism-related intelligence information. The Act also updated decades-old federal laws to account for the technological breakthroughs seen in recent years. For example,

Target Company - Sprint Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Target Company - Sprint - Essay Example The corporate structure and the organizational culture are the backbones of the company’s success (Ante 54). This is demonstrated by the value that the company leadership and management have for the employees and all stakeholders of its business operations and activities. The organizational culture and behavior of the company is however determined by the various forces and variables within the business environment. The economic environment within Sprint’s business activities is characterized by increased competitiveness from its major business rivals and new entrants into the wireless telecommunication industry (MarketWatch 284). It is due to the company’s need for staying competitive that its core corporate values are designed to demonstrate and achieve maximum integrity in the provision of wireless telecommunication services and products to its customers. Integrity is achieved through both the words and actions of the management and employees (Curran 30). Integ rity means that the company endeavors to remain competitive by becoming the most reliable internet provider within the business environment. Additionally, economic forces have caused the company to provide its customers with competitive prices for its telecommunication services. ... ocial and cultural forces within the telecommunication industry and business environment in general have mandated the company to adhere to its corporate responsibility. Additionally, the company values its ethical responsibility to all of its stakeholders (Ante 55). It is in this regard that the directors of Sprint are drawn from diverse cultures to ensure that the needs of all stakeholders with all their differences are effectively met. The company’s directors and management value good relationship with the employees through effective leadership approaches, enhanced communication and collaboration. More importantly, the leadership and company management focuses on gaining the confidence of the investors (MarketWatch 288). In this sense, the interests of the company’s stakeholders are taken into due consideration by the decisions of the directors. Furthermore, the company’s ethical responsibility has been embedded into the company’s business behavior which is characterized by well compensated and motivated employee. As a result of this, the company’s work force is creative and innovative in the design and production of various telecommunication services. The political and legal environment has led to the company’s adherence to the regulations and policies of the government in all its operation (Curran 30). The behavior of the company’s directors and the management team is thus influenced by the regulatory environment within the legal and political business environments. The election of directors is through a majority vote as required by the legal framework. Additionally ethical practice in the presentation of financial statements is highly valued by the company. More importantly, the company has adhered to the regulations on taxation (Ante 56). The

Critically evaluate Kelleys ANOVA model of attribution Essay Example for Free

Critically evaluate Kelleys ANOVA model of attribution Essay Attribution theories involve the use of social and psychological research to explain how we interpret the events and behaviours we see around us. When observing behaviour, our own or other peoples, we attempt to provide explanations for its occurrence, these explanations are usually situational or dispositional. Thus, attributions are personal expressions about causal factors of events or behaviours. Theories have offered important insights into the ways in which people explain their own actions and the actions of others. Many theoretical models have been suggested; they usually involve a search for the cause of the behaviour, and an attempt to determine whether this is internal or external, followed by a decision as to whether the behaviour is logical or rational. Some of the most prominent theories are initially Heiders (1948) Model, which highlighted the fact that all behaviours have both internal and external causes. There is also Jones and Davis (1965) Correspondent Inference Theory that is concerned with how we move from observing behaviour, to understanding the intention of the actor, to concluding the disposition which caused the intention. There is also Kelleys (1967) ANOVA model, which is concerned with what information we use to arrive at a causal attribution. In this essay, I shall attempt to further discuss and evaluate Kelleys model, as it is one of the most recent and widely discussed. Inevitably, all of these theories have been further formalized and extended by later psychologists. The key question for Kelley (1967) was what type of information does the person use in order to make a causal attribution? (Scott and Spencer, 1998). He saw the person as a nai ve scientist who weighs up several pieces of information before arriving at an explanation for events causes. Kelly believes that in order to determine the origins of a behaviour, for example Nicola argued with her dad, we need three types of information; distinctiveness, consensus and consistency. Distinctiveness refers to information we require about the stimulus, which in this case is Nicolas dad. If Nicola only argues with her dad the distinctiveness is high, however, if she argues with everyone the distinctiveness, of her dad, is low. The second type of information that is needed is consensus details about Nicola herself. There is high consensus for Nicolas argumentative behaviour if many people argue with her dad and low consensus if it is only she. Finally, consistency information, about the circumstances surrounding the argument, needs to be considered. For example, there is high consistency if Nicola argues with her dad in many situations, but low consistency if Nicola has only argued with her father on this specific occasion. When all of this information has been obtained we use the principle of covariation, deciding what factor is always present with this behaviour, to determine what was the cause of the argument.

Green Architecture Essay -- Environmental Ecology Essays

Green Architecture Green Architecture began with the first Earth Day in 1970, and has grown in popularity as awareness of the earth’s many ecological problems become more wide spread. Professor Rocky Brittain states "I’ve been teaching this subject for twenty years and have watched interest grow. Now I could say there is some element of sustainability taught in just about every architecture school in the country."(Talarico, 1998) Economic factors have also helped the green movement by causing changes in building materials, and technology. This is most notable in changes to heating and cooling systems, and improvements in insulation and window construction which decrease heat loss and therefore decrease heating and cooling costs. Also, "Alternatives including engineered lumber, made from wood chips or strands laminated together have become commonplace†¦[this is a consequence]†¦the rise in wood prices and decline in wood quality due to the lack of properly managed forests." (http: //www.reddown.com/featartll.html.) Not only are these materials more cost efficient, they also often outperform solid wood. Affordability is of vital importance if green architecture is going to become wide spread in a capitalistic economy. Gail Lindsey, chairman of the AIA Committee on the Environment states: "Until recently, being green was something of a luxury, reserved for homeowners who had enough money to buy triple-pane argon-filled glass windows or wool wall-to-wall carpeting. But with the growing availability of less expensive green materials, this is no longer true. Sustainable design is a balancing act, a matter of concentrating the architect’s time and the client’s resources on choices that will do the most good. We’ve learned that a house... ...bie, 1995) In conclusion, the last twenty years have seen quite an improvement in the popularity and use of green architecture. Green architecture continues to grow as society begins to understand the importance of preserving the environment. Technology is improving, lowering the cost and increasing the quality of green building products. Professionals are working to set and implement standards for the quality of green products and buildings. All these factors seem to point to a promising future for green architecture. Works Cited Crosbie, Michael J. "A Maturing Green Architecture". Progressive Architecture.January 95 Talarico, Wendy. "The Nature of Green Architecture". Architectural Record. April 98. Volume 186 Issue 4. Green Architecture In the 21st Century. Residential Environmental Design Featured Article. http://www.reddawnb.com/featart11.html

Managing Customer Relations Essay

This helps them to gather customers feedback by collating the responses and discussing about them during meetings, to see if there is an alternative, or a solution to the problem. However, not all feedbacks can have a solution as there are shortages of certain resources such as manpower, turnover rate and space in shop area. Overall, Food For Thought is a successful organisation despite not having a CRM system. They are able to generate high profits every month due to loyal customers and customers who frequent that area. Company’s Background Food for Thought is a Food and Beverage Restaurant (F&B) that sells western-styled food. It started out as a cafe in North Bridge Road. After a few years of establishment, the company decided to open another outlet at a nearby location of a larger space and closed down the cafe. Currently, there are 2 outlets (Queen Street and Botanical Gardens). They sell a variety of foods including salads, pastas, pancakes, cakes and desserts. The company has 2 selling points that differentiate them from other restaurants. First, the ambience provides a good place for customers to relax and hang out with family or friends. The overall layout emits a homely touch. Using recycled items, they decorate the restaurant with 540 jars of emptied pasta sauce. Secondly, they practice societal marketing concept by giving back 10% of their yearly profit to charity organizations. Their 5 missions include ‘Give clean water, ‘Feed good food, ‘Make poverty history ‘, ‘Teach them all’ and ‘Inspire kind acts’. (Refer to appendix A) CRM Planning Process Through the interview conducted, we found out that Food for Thought have yet to implement CRM system. However, they are considering implementing it after the organization is stable. Food for Thought connects with their customers through the use of Facebook and Twitter by learning customers’ needs and wants. Their target markets are the SMU students and the people working around the area of their location. In order to increase the awareness of their organization, they place their advertisement on the SMU daily newsletter and provide promotions for the students. Food for Thought staffs focuses on creating customer’s experience in order to build relationship with the customers. The staffs recognize their loyal customers and create a personal friendship with them. Likewise for new customers, the staff will create a customer relationship as they exercise relationship marketing. CRM Implementation Process In our opinion, Food for Thought has the basic foundation for implementing CRM system as they focus on managing customer’s experience. They start out by creating a Facebook page in order to encourage feedbacks from the customers. The management then analyzes the comments before deciding appropriate measures that should be carried out. Even though Food for Thought doesn’t have a CRM system, they collect their customers’ name card and sent out emails to update them on various promotions and competitions. They initiated the use of smart-phone apps such as chope. com or hungrygowhere. com to provide customers the convenience of making a reservation online. On the other hand, they are able to track their customers’ spending and number of times of reservation made. When queried on why they have yet to implement CRM system, Mr. Pala stated that the organization will only consider implementing a proper CRM system when the organization faces the situation whereby there is a need to analyze customer’s needs and wants to an extent. Impact of CRM on Sales and Marketing Strategy Food for Thought sales strategy focuses on the need to develop solutions to meet customer’s specific needs. The management team conducts a meeting every two weeks to review on the feedbacks mentioned through email, Facebook and Twitter (as mentioned above) to analyze on the customer’s needs. They collect verbal feedback from different customers and inform them about their menu recommendations based on customer’s individual needs and preferences. While they are collecting payments from the customers, the staffs will focus on being dialogue-oriented by engaging in small talks with the customer to understand their needs better before stating the feedback of the food to the head chef. The head chef will then make alternative recipe to meet and satisfy the customer’s needs. Through the use of sales forces, Food For Thought is able to process customer information quicker to meet customers’ need. They focus on sales force automation by using key account management such as the POS system to tabulate monthly and yearly sales. The sales activities allow them to identify the most favorable and least favorable items, via this method; they will up-sell the most favorable item to the customer while considering removing the least favorable items. The use of social media has provided the staffs with information to identify and differentiate their customers. By using this method, the staff will then be able to create a different marketing strategy to interact and customize various offerings to suit the needs of individual customers. For example, premium seating (bar table) are provided to their loyal customers, this allows the customers to not only observe the chef’s method of cooking but also engage in small talks with the staffs. Food For Thought focuses in building relationship. They believe in gaining true loyal customers by creating strong relationships through exchanging information while engaging  in dialogues with the customer. Through this method, customer knowledge will increase and therefore strengthening the relationship with the customer. Most of the loyal customers are under the undivided loyalty. They come from the workplace located nearby and only dine at Food for Thought. Loyal customers are more profitable as they help to spread positive word-of-mouth about the organization. Food For Thought implements retentio n strategies to the customers. One of which would be by rewarding loyal customers – for example, SMU students are entitled to 5% discount. This develops effective acquisition strategies to encourage word-of-mouth referrals for the customers. Loyal customers are entitled to preferential treatment as the organization treat loyal customers like family and refer to them by their name. Outcome of CRM implementation With limited resources, Food For Thought has to identify their desirable customers. Without CRM system, it is difficult to analyze customer from the restaurant. Food For Thought is currently in the stage of developing comprehensive CRM; therefore they do not have a fixed answer of the success or failure in implementing CRM in this restaurant. The current CRM implementation process has help gain customer knowledge, customer satisfaction and help building up the relationship with the customers. As Food For Thought is a developing business, there are rooms for improvement in the CRM implementation. They measure the effectiveness of CRM program through customer feedback. Using the feedbacks provided, the management is able to know the satisfaction of customers regarding the service or food of the restaurant. Unlike other restaurant that focuses on being profit-orientated, Food For Thought is customer-orientated. This implies that customer’s experience is more important than the profit gained. Moreover, customer interaction provides a measurement for the effectiveness of program. This shows that restaurant should improve on their service to retain existing customers. The increase in customer touch point will lead to an increase in opportunity in gaining customer’s knowledge thereby creating a learning relationship between the organization and the customers. Conclusion and future plans of company’s CRM strategy We have concluded that Food for Thought is a successful organization, where  they focus on building customer relationship rather than being profit-oriented. When there is a relationship built with the customers, trust will be built, and because Food for Thought believes in being customer-oriented, they never fail to recognize their loyal customers, which in turn would make the customers feel recognized and good, therefore bringing returned business. Not only do th ey build and strengthen the relationship with their external customers, Food for Thought has also built and strengthened the relationship with their internal customers, namely their co-workers. Food for Thought has also place customer satisfaction as their upmost priority, which is also another factor whereby they are successful in retaining their existing customers or acquiring new customers. Food for Thought currently has no plans to implement CRM yet as it is still a small organization. However, according to Mr. Pala, he has claimed that when the time comes when the organization faces the situation whereby there is a need to analyze customer’s needs and wants to an extent, it is then they will implement CRM, for now, they want to focus more on relationship building with their customers. Lesson Learnt Food for Thought and many other organizations faces the same problem which is the lack of manpower. Such situations are unavoidable and the turnover rate is usually higher in the F&B business as most locals prefer other lines of job than F&B. One way to overcome this problem is to have some employees, mainly the supervisor, to be on standby. Another method to overcome this problem would be to implement self-service in the outlet. However, Mr. Pala has claimed that this method may hinder the process of building relationship with the customers. Being customer-oriented, they value their loyal customers by treating them as a part of their family. Through this strategy, Food for Thought is able to build customer relationship and strengthen the bond between the organization and the customers. They gain customer’s trust by providing service beyond expectation by getting close to the customers and engaging small talks with the customer, proving that they value the relationship with each individual customer. â€Å"All customers are equal, regardless of them being loyal and long-term or new,† quoted from Mr.  Pala. They practice building customer relationship through breaking the ice by engaging in small dialogues with the customers either when they order food or upon settling the bill. When queried on how each and every staff managed to practice building customer relationship, Mr. Pala replied with the answer indicating that practice comes from the inner heart. They believe that by strengthening the bonds with ever y staff and treating them like a family will naturally bring out the courage in each and every staff to build a relationship with the customers.