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Wednesday 30 October 2019

Phase 2 Discussion Board Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Phase 2 Discussion Board - Assignment Example cue efforts even though it was difficult because of the harsh terrain, which made it difficult to get to a close proximity to the earthquake epicentre (Chen & Booth, 2011, p. 199). An earthquake relief team that included about 184 people from Beijing military command and Armed police General Hospital came to help in rescue efforts by providing tents, medical supplies, food and also drinking water. The Red Cross Society in China sent over eighty men to carry supplies by foot to the affected areas since the roads had been damaged completely by landslides. Humanitarian rescue efforts were crucial because the lack of road transport saw helicopters being deployed to rescue people and also provide supplies to the stranded villages. The injured were evacuated from the earthquake-stricken areas on the same day that the earthquake occurred (Chen & Booth, 2011, p. 199). The humanitarian efforts played a great role because of their efforts many lives were saved on the day of the earthquake, who would have died without the fast response. From these efforts, a commander of the armed forces in China announced that over 3,000 survivors had been rescued by the second day of t he earthquake. On the morning of May 14, a team of 15 Special Operations Troops that carried relief supplies and various communication gear managed to use a parachute and land in the inaccessible area of Mao County in the northeast of Wenchuan. In May 25, an additional 90 helicopters were deployed to assist in rescue efforts, and this maximized the number of people that were evacuated from the affected areas. Many injured and hungry were treated and given food and evacuated to safe places. On May 13th, the first outside humanitarian team from Taiwan joined China by sending a chartered flight that carried some 100 tons of various supplies. On 16th May, other humanitarian and rescue teams from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Russia and even the United States sent aircrafts with tents, medical supplies,

Monday 28 October 2019

Settlement of the power conflict between top management of Cathay and pilots Essay Example for Free

Settlement of the power conflict between top management of Cathay and pilots Essay 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Information Since 1993, Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (Cathay) has experienced the threat of industrial actions initiated by unions. On 1 July 2001, another industrial action was commenced, resulted in a three-month chaos in Hong Kongs tourist industry. Being the representatives of the pilots of Cathay, Mr Nigel Demery, the President of Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association (HKAOA), informed Cathays top management that the pilots refused to accept Cathays new pay proposal. Members of the HKAOA have decided to commence industrial actions to force Cathays top management to accept their demand. The event was followed by a sharp increase of pilots reporting sick leaves. Unlike previous industrial actions, Cathays top management held firm to their original standpoint and dismissed 52 pilots and chartered additional aircraft to moderate the problem of pilots reporting sick and absence from work. However, the incident did not come to an end. On the contrary, the problem escalated when HKAOA reacted by announcing support of the sacked pilots by taking legal actions against Cathay for the unfair dismissal. The pilots industrial action caused a financial loss of US$12.8 million to Cathay each day. In fact, this was not the first time for the pilots to use industrial actions as a mean to press the top management in accepting their demands. Three industrial actions have been taken place since 1999. These frequent industrial actions have not only caused financial loss, but also harmed the companys overall reputation. Table 1 provides a summary of the industrial actions that has been taken place since 1993. 2. OBJECTIVES 2.1 Objectives The chief objectives of this report include: Settlement of the power conflict between top management of Cathay and pilots Moderate the power of pilots in order to avoid or reduce industrial actions in future 2.2 Analysis of the Existing positions of both parties Luthans (1992, p.426) said that formal organizations are highly political and power is the name of the game. Managers and non-managers in an organization often manipulate power to accomplish goals. Cathays top management holds legitimate, reward and coercive power to perform various specific tasks and decisions. Legitimating refers to an upward appeal, which adds weight to an influence attempt by showing support from senior managers, rules or procedures.1 On the other hand, coercive power means the using of threats, intimidation and coercion to gain compliance.2 In the recent industrial action, the top management tried to utilize their legitimate and coercive power to gain pilots compliance. Apart from the effectiveness of this position-based power strategy, the use of coercive power always causes negative consequences such as weakening relationships. In contrast, the pilots hold strong expert power. Pilots have high-value expertise. Referring to the strategic contingencies model3 which focused on individual power and how it is obtained, the subunits that are most central to the flow of work in an organization acquires power. The major revenue of Cathay comes from passenger and cargo services. It is impossible for an aircraft to operate without a pilot. The past industrial actions showed the strength of pilots expert power. Thus, the power conflict between top management and pilots must be settled in the long run. Besides, Cathays pilots manipulated the coalition strategy to accomplish their goals. HKAOA is a typical coalition of pilots. At present, Cathay employs 1,500 pilots, more than 75% of the pilots are members of the HKAOA. Thus, each industrial action evoked by HKAOA has caused a significant impact on Cathays business and reputation. Given the fact that the majority of the general public was of the view that the pilots have been over-demanding and created much chaos to the tourist industry in Hong Kong (According to the interview results as well as from the media), it is a good opportunity for Cathay to take advantage of the situation and to moderate the power of the unions. 3. SOURCE OF INFORMATION 3.1 Source of Information This report is based on both primary and secondary information from various means. This includes:- ? Interview with representatives of both Cathay and the HKAOA. ? Annual Interim Reports of Cathay ? Newspapers ? Magazines and Journals ? Cathay Pacific Airways Official Web Site 4. FINDINGS Our findings are mainly based on the following sources:- * Interview Findings * Financial data published in the Next Magazine as showed at Tables 1-5. * Review of Cathays existing policies and procedures as showed in Appendix 1. 4.1 Interview Findings 4.1.1 Interviews with HKAOA (Interviewee: Mr. Spurrier M.) ? According to HKAOA, Cathay was intimidated by aggressive interviews by managers about delays; ? For other managers or employees acting on Cathays instructions had followed pilots into the cockpit to watch them doing flight checks even though they did not possess the required qualifications to know what was necessary, as such, prosecutions for those people may be possible under the safety law of Air Navigation Ordinance as intimidation risked distracting pilots from their jobs; ? The pay demand was reasonable to Cathay; 4.1.2. Interviews with Cathay Management (Interviewee: Mr. Tang) ? Many crews were being put under extreme pressure to sign the HKAOAs lawyers letter; ? Cathays net recurring profits has already been forecasted to fall by 20% to 25% in 2001 due to the global economic downturn; ? The pay demand of HKAOA was unacceptable; 4.1.3. Interviews with the Human Resources Department (Interviewee: Mr. Chau) ? Employees remuneration represented about 25% of Cathays Total Operating Expenses; 4.1.4. Interviews with a Cathay passengers (Interviewee: Mr. Lee) ? The respondent described the pilots pay demand as unreasonable while the economy was still recovering; ? He complained that the pilots threat of industrial action had thrown his holiday plans into chaos and the pilots union was selfish especially during peak travel seasons; 4.1.5. Interview with Tourists Right Association ? They said that industrial actions would not gain the support of the general public and would only injure Hong Kongs reputation and tourism industry; ? They claimed with anger that the pilots earned well in Hong Kong, but tried to endanger Hong Kong tourism industry; 4.1.6. Media Comments from the Next Magazine, Hong Kong ? Analysts said it would be hard for the pilots to pressure Cathay into roistering changes because of the financial implications; 5. SWOT ANALYSIS OF CATHAY 5.1 SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis may help management to identify the companys strengths and weaknesses against its major competitors in the industry and to explore the opportunities and threats for effective strategic planning purposes. The analysis has been summarized from our findings and observations by various means as mentioned in Section 4 of this report. The SWOT analysis is mainly based on our observation and analysis on the financial information provided in Cathays annual report and from that of the Next Magazine. 5.1.1 Strengths ? Strong management team such as the director of corporate development, Tony Tyler, has implemented tough policy; ? Code share agreements with a number of other international airlines to provide greater flexibility such as British Airways, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, South African Airways. Swissair, THY Turkish Airlines; ? With the decisions made to cut schedules and bring in charter aircrafts, the level of flight disruptions and delays have been considerably reduced, and the effect on sickness levels have to reduce; ? With the prevention from government regarding overseas airlines in carrying passengers in Hong Kong to other destinations, Cathay became a price maker; 5.1.2. Weaknesses ? Existence of Tenure employment contracts strengthen pilots power; ? Contracts are issued to pilots according to HKAOAs instructions, for example, all newly recruited pilots must start from the entry post of a Junior Pilot regardless of his/her previous experience; ? Long history of tolerance to pilots for their industrial actions created wrong perception to pilots that industrial action was an effective way in request for a demand; ? Lack of local pilots as substitutes in time of strike; ? High cost of training a Cadet Pilot (approximately US$128K); ? Huge amount of financial interest of about US$1.3 million a day and labor cost of US$2 million per day; 5.1.3. Opportunities ? Prolonged industrial action created unnecessary anxiety to passengers and the public, resulting in the loss of confidence in pilots and its union; ? Insufficient coalition between the union and pilots as not all the pilots are willing to participate in the industrial actions; ? As pilots were sacked, Cathay could recruit pilots at a lower cost; ? Intensive trainings were held in an Adelaide aviation training school; ? Only a 3-year contract for new recruitment could be signed; ? More better experienced pilots can be recruited with closure of airlines subsequent to the 911 tragedy in America. 5.1.4. Threats ? The corporate image was spoiled by the HKAOA strike; ? As flights were delayed or suspended, loyal customers have been lost, resulted in loss of competitiveness; ? Aviation market has been opened up for competition; ? Owing to the pilots expertise, substitutes would be extremely difficult in the case of sickness; ? The pilots are forced to sign a letter drafted by the HKAOAs lawyers to Cathay and were intimidated by having their names as non-signers on its website when they refused to sign; ? The unions source of income was supported by the membership fee from 80% of the 1,500 pilots at 1% of their income and was proposed to increase the contribution up to 5%; 6. PROBLEM-SHOOTING AND RECOMMENTDATIONS 6.1 Problems Difficulties ? The industrial action has been too powerful for the company to deal with. This was evidenced in the prolonged action that has caused substantial damage to the tourism industry; ? High level of dependency on foreign pilots to carry their passengers; ? The HKAOA vowed no resolution to the Cathay dispute unless all the pilots who have been unfairly dismissed were reinstated. 6.2 Recommendations and Strategies Our recommendations are made to achieve 3 chief objectives:- i) Strengthen the power of the company ii) Weaken the power of the pilots iii) Building-up relations with the pilots 6.2.1 Strengthen the power of the company In order to strengthen the power of Cathay, playing games will be a good tactic. Authority game can be used to resist the power of the pilot. History indicated that Cathay lost in 3 industrial actions (from 1993 to 2000), as the company did not resist the power of the other party. Hence, the company original policy should be strictly adhered in order to win the game. In July 2001, Cathay proved that the Authority Game tactic was feasible with its firm adherence to its proposed pay, benefits and roistering package with up to 9% increment (Table 2 showed the salary package as proposed by Cathay). On the other hand, Cathay has publicly refused to consider negotiating with the pilots again unless they withdrew their industrial action. Besides, Cathay may consider using the coalition-building game to form alliance with other airlines, preferably nearby airlines. Coalition game is another power-base game to increase power through forming of alliances or coalitions with groups within the subunits of the company or groups outside the organization.4 Cathay can then enjoy immediate assistance by chartering additional aircrafts and rebook passengers on other aligned airlines. This increases the flexibility for Cathay even if HKAOA imposes further destructive actions. Moreover, all airlines should agree not to hire bad-listed pilots. Furthermore, Cathay can inform outsiders about the injustice and irresponsible actions of pilots via a whistle-blowing tactic. Firstly, they should let the public know the prospect and earnings of a qualified pilot, i.e. create a high-income earner image for the pilots (Table 3), during recruitment of cadet pilots. In general, the general public will not accept high-income earners taking industrial actions to fight for salary increment. Secondly, they may let the media know that more than 10,000 passengers were adversely affected by the industrial action in July 2001. Besides, joint efforts with the Government are required to show the economic damage to Hong Kong during the industrial action. 6.2.2. Weaken the power of the pilots Political influences are a good way to conform the pilots to meet organizational value. This can be done by position-based influence strategies through pressure and threats in return for compliance. Besides, coercive power depends on fear. During the industrial action in July 2001, 52 pilots were sacked without any reasons. The action tended to show the firm position of Cathay and intimidated the pilots to accept the offer. Since Cathay could afford to pay sacked pilots a better than most package, as the Hong Kong labor laws offered the company with certain flexibility. This implies that further dismissal of pilots is possible. The enforcement of pressure and threat can be achieved by the issuance of written statement warning that lateness will not be tolerated as this would breach of the employment contracts, which may in turn lead to dismissal. Moreover, the announcement of cutting foreign-based pilots is a feasible alternative. Another way is to abolish the tenure employment so as to reduce pilots employment security. The new employment proposal is a three-year contract for newly employed pilots. Renewal of contract is subject to performance, i.e. diluting the portion of permanent pilots. Substitutability refers to the ability to engage other pilots to perform the job of the existing pilots.5 This implies that if Cathay has or can obtain alternative sources of pilots to perform the job done by the existing pilots, the pilots union can be diminished. Therefore, Cathay can consider hiring pilots from other airlines, who have been sacked during the redundancy programs, e.g. America Airline, Continental Airlines, etc. The reduction in the dependency on foreign pilots becomes the most important aspect of power which is a function of dependency. This is because the greater Cathays dependency on the foreign pilots, the greater the pilot unions power has over Cathay. It can be observed that in August 2001, 10 local pilots have completed their Cadet Pilot Programme at BAE SYSTEMS Flight Training in Adelaide, South Australia. The 10 graduates brought the number of cadet pilots who have graduated from Cathay Pacifics training programme to almost 150 since its first launch in 1988. Cathays investment brings long-term commitment to develop Hong Kong aviation industries as well as reducing the dependency of the majority of the 90% overseas pilots. Obviously, foreign pilots are the source of power. Rule of thumb, if Cathay can have its own local pilot team, Cathay will not reply to hire the pilots from overseas. The sources of pilot unions will be diluted. Therefore, it is very important to speed-up the training of Cathays own local pilots team. 6.2.3 Develop relations with the pilots Building up better relationship with pilots is a long-term solution. This can be achieved through interpersonal influence. With the application of position-based influence strategies, Cathay can offer rewards or benefits in exchange/return for pilots compliance. Rewards can be anything that another person values which is the opposite of coercive power. In Cathays case, rewards can be monetary rewards, fringe benefits, favorable promotion prospects, flexible shifts or flight territories. If the company can give someone something of positive value or remove something of negative value, the company will have reward power over that person. Emphasis should be made on the fact that Cathays pilots are still the most expensive pilots when comparing to other American and European Airlines. This has been achieved during all public announcement and negotiation (as shown in Table 4 and Table 5). Motivating the pilots is crucial to Cathays long-term success. It is important to build up common goals and values to obtain support or commitment with personal-centered strategies. These are strategies that rely on an individuals characteristics and abilities to access expert and referent power bases, or inspirational appeals and consultation.6 One suggestion is that the pilot s remuneration package should split into basic salary and performance bonus, which relates to the company s annual profit. The outcome, consensus or agreement can be achieved through Normalization. Normalization influence can gradually change the opinions and the behaviour of pilots by reciprocal process and informational influence to achieve conformity.7 In fact, coercive and reward powers are counterparts of each other. If Cathay can remove the Unions powerful/dominant value from pilots or inflict negative values upon them, Cathay will have coercive power over them. As mentioned earlier, legitimate appeal can add weight over influence attempt by showing support of the senior management. Cathay may provide indication to the general public that the pilots are under intolerable pressure from Unions. First, it can be done through media to pronounce the number of calls that management had received complaints from pilots on managing Unions intimidation. Alternatively, it will be a good tactic for management to show care and understanding of pilots difficulties and to encourage them to follow the instructions from HKAOA by signing the lawyers letters back to Cathay. Lastly, ethical success will confront ethical dilemmas by the referent-powered management, like Mr. Tony Tyler. It is important that emphasis should be stress on Cathays pilots, Unions and the general public that the current package offered by Cathay is the best. The termination of industrial action is for the good benefits of pilots, passengers and the public instead of Cathay itself, which meets the utilitarian outcome. The packages offered allow the pilots an option to choose for their terms of package. The emphasis is on fairness, freedom of choice and individual rights. No strict rules for the pilots. In return, the dismissal of industrial action is expected from pilots. Message may be made to the general public with emphasis that Cathay has confidence over the pilots professionalism and legitimate power. They will be responsible for their actions. In addition, Cathay may show appreciation for those pilots who have filled in for their absent colleagues. 7. SUMMARY 7.1 Summary Since 1999, Cathay encountered threat from industrial strikes every few years (Table 1). Cathay compromised with HKAOA in the previous three strikes and gave in to the HKAOA industrial actions. This year, the fourth industrial action organized by HKAOA with an aim to fight for higher pilots salary increment and shorter working hours have caused Cathay loss of over millions of profits, not to mention the damage on its reputation and the loss of significant market share to major competitors. (Appendix 1 provides a summary of the vision of Cathay and its traffic figures from June to November 2001) This report has examined the current power between Cathay and HKAOA and accordingly recommended Cathays management to take proper actions to counter HKAOAs industrial action and to end HKAOAs threats in future. We have interviewed both the Cathays management and HKAOAs representative and gathered necessary information from other public means. We then evaluated these information to perform a SWOT analysis and based on it defined the problems facing by Cathay in its current situation. In general, Cathay is facing a powerful union, which has a very strong bargaining power due to the pilots expertise power. Hence, we have recommended Cathay to deploy political games to strengthen the companys power and to weaken the power of the pilots. In addition, we have recommended management to build up a long-term co-operative relationship with the pilots after the power struggle. By doing so, we trust Cathay can end this industry actions in a reasonable period and to prevent the same problem happen again in future. 8. REFERENCE BIBIOGRAPHY 8.1 REFERENCE Interviewee: Mr. Chau W., Director of Personnel, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. Interviewee: Mr. Lee, passenger of Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. Interviewee: Mr. Spurrier M., Image Director of HKAOA. Interviewee: Mr. Tang A., Director of Corporation Planning, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. Luthans F. (1992). Organization Behavior 6th ed. Singapore: McGraw-Hill. 8.2 BIBIOGRAPHY Annual Report 2001, Cathay Pacific Airways Limited Botton V. Agencies, Cathay chaos may start today South China Morning Post, 3rd July 2001. Botton V., Pilots put battle plan into action South China Morning Post, 4th July 2001. Botton V. Agencies, Cathay may ground all flights South China Morning Post, 22 September 2001. Botton V., Cathay warns it may close foreign bases, South China Morning Post, 28 September 2001. Botton V., Secret Cathay peace talks fail South China Morning Post, 29 September 2001. Bowman J., Cathay turns screw on pilots South China Morning Post, 30th June 2001. Bowman J., Union denied access to Cathay mail boxes South China Morning Post, 3rd July 2001. Cheng A., Narrow nationalistic views clouding the Cathay issue South China Morning Post, 19th July 2001. Cheung C.F., Thousand stranded at airport South China Morning Post, 8th July 2001 Cheung J., Dispute may open extra routes South China Morning Post, 8th July 2001 Interim Report 2001, Cathay Pacific Airways Limited Ivancevich, J., Olekalns, M. Matheson, M. 2000, Organizational Behavior and Management, 1st Aust. Ed, Irwin, Sydney Lai C.Y., Cathay Strike, Next Magazine, 28th June, 2001. Lai C.Y., Cathay vs HKAOA Next Magazine, 12th July,2001. Lo J., Rostering and overtime remain key issue in Cathay negotiation South China Morning Post, 4th July 2001. Luthans, F., 1992, Organizational Behavior, McGraw-Hill, Singapore. Mintzberg H., 1983, Power in and around Organizations, Prentice-Hall, N.J., USA. Mullins, L., 1989, Management and Organizational Behavior, Pitman, Great Britain Pfeffer J., 1981, Power in Organizations, Pitman Publishing, M.A. USA. Porter L.W., Lawler E.E., and Hackman J.R. 1975, Behavior in Organizations, McGraw-Hill, N.Y., USA. Kotter P. 1987, The Empowered Manager, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, USA. Reuters, Airline job cuts hit Europe South China Morning Post, 21 September 2001 Robbins S. P., 1994, Organizational behavior, 4th ed., Prentice Hall, N.J, USA. See http://www.cathaypacific.com Tichy N.M., 1986, The Transformational Leader, N.Y., USA. 1Ivancevich J, Olekalns M, Matteson M (2000), Organizational Behavior and Management, 1st Aust ed., McGraw-Hill, pg. 401. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid, pg 393. 4.Ivancevich J, Olekalns M, Matteson M (2000), Organizational Behavior and Management , 1st Aust ed. McGraw Hill, pg.403. 5 Ivancevich J, Olekalns M, Matteson M (2000), Organizational Behavior and Management , 1st Aust ed. McGraw Hill, pg.395. 6 Ivancevich J, Olekalns M, Matteson M (2000), Organizational Behavior and Management , 1st Aust ed. McGraw Hill, pg.401. 7 Ivancevich J, Olekalns M, Matteson M (2000), Organizational Behavior and Management , 1st Aust ed. McGraw Hill, pg.397.

Saturday 26 October 2019

Jefferson Davis :: essays research papers

Jefferson Davis was born on June, 3rd, 1808, in Christian County, Kentucky. He was educated at Transylvania University and at the U.S. Military Academy. After his graduation in 1828, he served in the army until bad health forced him to residn in 1835. He was a farmer in Mississippi from 1835 to 1845. Then he was elected to the U.S. congress. In 1846, he resigned his seat in order to serve in the Mexican War and fought at Monterrey and Buena Vista, where he was wounded. He was a U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1847 to 1857, and a U.S. Senator again from 1857 to 1861. As a Senator, he was in support of slavery and states' rights. "He also influenced Pice to sign in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which favored the South and increased the bitterness of the struggle over slavery. (Encarta, Davis Jefferson. 97)" In his second term as a Senator he became the spokesman for the Southern point of view. He opposed the idea of secession from the Union as a way of maintaining the principles in the South. Even after the first steps toward secession had been taken, he tried to keep the Southern states in the Union. When the state of Mississippi seceeded, he withdrew from the Senate. On February 18, 1861, the congress of the Confederate States made him president. He was elected to the office by popular vote for a 6-year term and was inaugurated un Richmond, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy. He failed to raise enough money to fight the Civil War and could not obtain help for the Confederacy from foreign governments. One of the accomplishments of Jefferson Dacis, was the raising of the Confederate army. Davis had a difficult task to preform. He was the head of the new nation in the beginnings of a major war. The South had inferior railroads compared to the Union, no navy, no gunpowder mills, and a reat lack of arms and ammunition. "The South's only resource seemed to have been of cotton and courage." (Davis, W. P 128). Despite this, the Confederates demolished the North at the battle of Bull Run. Somehow, with limited resources, Dacis made facotries for arms, cannons, powders and ammunition. Old naval yards were restored and gunboats were built. Davis sent agents to Europe to buy arms and ammunition and representatives were sent to try and secure help from England and France.

Thursday 24 October 2019

Essay --

LITERATÃ… ªRA 1. Dengzhe Ma, Jà ¼rgen Gausemeier, Xiumin Fan, Michael Grafe. Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality in Industry (The 2nd Sino-German Workshop). Springer, 2009. 2. RaghavSood. Pro Android Augmented Reality. Apress, 2012. 3. Gregory Kipper, Joseph Rampolla. Augmented Reality: An Emerging Technologies Guide to AR. Syngress/Elsevier, 2012. 4. Borko Furht. Handbook of Augmented Reality. Springer, 2011. 5. Buhalis D., Yovcheva Z. Augmented reality in tourism: 10 unique applications explained, 2013. Prieiga per internetÄ… (Ã… ¾iÃ… «rÄâ€"ta 2013-11-08): http://thinkdigital.travel/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/10-AR-Best-Practices-in-Tourism.pdf. 6. Webster Ã… ¾odynas. Prieiga per internetÄ… (Ã… ¾iÃ… «rÄâ€"ta 2013-10-28): http://www.merriam-webster.com 7. TarptautiniÃ… ³ Ã… ¾odÃ… ¾iÃ… ³ Ã… ¾odynas, Vyriausioji enciklopedijÃ… ³ redakcija, 1985. 8. Daniel Wagner, Dieter Schmalstieg. First Steps Towards Handheld Augmented Reality. Vienna University of Technology, 2010. 9. Alex Olwal. An introduction to augmented reality. Department of Numerical Analysis and Computer Science, 2010. 10. Irma Lindt. Augmented Reality in Pervasive Games. Fraunhofer FIT, Sankt Peterburgas, 2007. 11. Remi Paucher, Matthew Turk. Location-based augmented reality on mobile phones. University of California, Computer Science Department, Santa Barbara, 2010. 12. Andrew D. Wilson, Hrvoje Benko. Combining Multiple Depth Cameras and Projectors for Interactions On, Above, and Between Surfaces. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2010. 13. Microsoft LightSpace: Behind the 3D Revolution. Prieiga per internetÄ… (Ã… ¾iÃ… «rÄâ€"ta 2013-10-31): http://www.technocentricity.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/microsoft-lightspace. 14. Azuma, Ronald; Balliot, Yohan; Behringer, Reinhold; Feiner, Steven; Julier, Simon; MacIntyre, Bla... ...ding to the results based on analysis of a scientific literature, analytical literature comparison and comparison of microprograms, it is offered to synchronize augmented reality microprograms creation platforms for mobile operating systems between all models of microprograms platforms. If these two operating systems be synchronized, than all augmented reality platforms for microprograms in the cognitive tourism will be available for more than 90% users of smartphones and tablets. Once be downloaded such mobile application, users could have possibility to reach all microprograms installed in this platforme tourism. Empirical analysis revealed that the biggest part of respondents agree with authors opinion – in new platform for cognitive tourism should be installed all seven models for augmented reality microprograms, which were analysed in this Master‘s thesis.

Wednesday 23 October 2019

Benihana Company Essay

Helping our guests feel welcome is as important as our cooking. And it is just as great a skill. Ever striving for excellence in hospitality, it is truly our restaurant family who has built Benihana’s success. Company History: Benihana, Inc. owns and licenses restaurants in the Benihana and Benihana Grill chain of Japanese dinnerhouses. The restaurants specialize in an exhibition-style of Japanese cooking called teppanyaki. Customers sit around a communal table at which a Benihana chef slices their seafood, steak, chicken, and vegetables with lightning speed, grills their meal right in front of them, and then tosses it accurately onto their plates. The restaurants are decorated with Samurai armor and valuable art, and Shoji rice paper screens partition the dining areas. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 1996, the company had sales of over $81 million, an all-time high. By December 1996, Benihana operated a total of 49 licensed and wholly owned restaurants in 20 states as well as in Bogota, Columbia, and Aruba, Netherlands Antilles. Early History, from Tokyo to New York The founder of Benihana, Inc. was a 25-year-old Olympic wrestler from Japan named Hiroaki Rocky Aoki. He got his start in the restaurant business by working after school in his family’s coffee shop in downtown Tokyo. His mother named the family business Benihana after a red flower that survived the bombing of Tokyo during World War II. Rocky was a scrapper, defending himself in the streets and schoolyards against bigger boys. He got hooked on wrestling, became a national university champion, and earned a place on the 1960 Olympic team. Although he didn’t compete because he was over his weight limit, he did fall in love with New York when the plane stopped there on the way to the Games in Rome. That fall he left Japan for the United States. In 1964, Aoki graduated from New York Community College’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. During the summer he earned money driving the only ice cream truck in Harlem. The job was not easy, as he explained in an article in Management Review. â€Å"Every time I robbed, I get up earlier the next day and work later to make up. Every time I lose money, I get more challenge.† With that philosophy, he managed to save $10,000 during the summer, which, along with a loan, was enough to start his first restaurant, Benihana of Tokyo. Aoki’s concept for his new restaurant, derived from specialty restaurants he knew of in Japan, was part entertainment and part food service. He wanted to offer Americans food they were familiar with, such as chicken, steak, and shrimp, prepared in a novel setting. He chose the teppanyaki table–a stainless steel grill surrounded by a wooden eating surface–where customers could watch a knife-wielding, joke-telling chef prepare and serve their food. His parents and brothers came from Japan to help him get started. Unfortunately, New Yorkers equated Japanese food with raw fish and weren’t comfortable sitting at a table with strangers. They ignored the midtown Manhattan eatery until the restaurant critic of the New York Herald Tribune gave it a glowing review. Suddenly, everyone in New York, including the Beatles and Muhammad Ali, wanted to sit around one of Benihana of Tokyo’s four teppanyaki tables. Within six months after the review the restaurant had paid for itself, and Aoki quickly opened another restaurant in a larger, fancier building. The new location provided the same teppanyaki-style cooking but was decorated with valuable art, Samurai armor, heavy wooden ceiling beams brought from Japan by Aoki’s father, and sliding Shoji screens to provide some privacy. 1965-80: Building a Company The Benihana concept combined reasonable prices with good food, and, by preparing what was eaten right at the table, held waste to a minimum. Profits were good, and, in 1968, Aoki opened his first Benihana of Tokyo outside New York City–in downtown Chicago. That location made $700,000 in its first year and continued to be one of the company’s top earning outlets. Between 1969 and 1972, the company opened six more of its own restaurants and licensed franchisees to open another ten. In a joint venture with the Las Vegas Hilton, the company developed Benihana Village, a 38,000-square-foot complex of restaurants, bars, and other entertainment venues. In 1972, the company grossed $12 million and the Harvard Business School selected Benihana of Tokyo as a case study of an entrepreneurial success story. With business going so well, Rocky Aoki could devote time to his other interests which included racing balloons and powerboats, collecting items ranging from vintage cars to slot machines and learning backgammon. â€Å"Rocky wanted to play,† Joel Schwartz, the company’s president, explained in a 1989 Forbes article. To help oversee the chain’s operations and expansion, Aoki brought in a management company, Hardwicke Cos., as a partner in 1976. The relationship lasted only four years and, in 1980, Aoki ended the partnership, paying $3.7 million to break the contract. As Rod Willis of Management Review explained in a 1986 article, â€Å"He [Aoki] felt the company’s management style clashed with his predominately Oriental workforce, and he wanted to maintain control over each restaurant’s quality.† The following year Aoki settled, without admitting any guilt, a Securities and Exchange Commission charge that he had improperly traded in Hardwicke stock while serving as vice-president of Hardwicke. The 1980s: Ups and Downs To help pay off the debt incurred in the split with Hardwicke, Aoki decided to take part of the company public. He accomplished this by having Benihana of Tokyo (BOT) form Benihana National Corporation (BNC) in 1982 and then taking the latter company public the following year. Investors paid the Miami-based BNC $11 for a unit consisting of two common shares and a warrant to buy another at $6. With the $5.5 million raised by selling half a million of these units, BNC bought 11 restaurants from Aoki in exchange for 60 percent of the BNC common stock and $2.5 million to pay BOT’s debt. Later in the year, BNC bought another three restaurants from BOT for $7 million. In spite of the new corporate structure, Benihana of Tokyo and Benihana National Corporation remained under the management of the same group of executives. As corporate president, Joel Schwartz continued to oversee the day to day operation of both companies. Aoki, who served as chairman of both entities, retained 51 percent of the common stock in BNC and kept about 30 restaurants in the privately held BOT. Aoki developed new concepts for the Benihana food chain but he also continued to play hard, becoming a championship-level backgammon player and setting a world record in off-shore powerboat racing. The Double Eagle V, a 400,000 cubic-foot gas balloon, displayed the Benihana logo as it became the first crewed balloon to successfully cross the Pacific Ocean, with Aoki as one of the crew members. One of Aoki’s new concepts was Benihana National Classics, a line of Chinese gourmet frozen foods, introduced in 1984 and sold in supermarkets. Chinese cuisine was chosen when the company found that Japanese food didn’t freeze well. Within a year the Classics were the best-selling Oriental frozen foods in the United States, with sales in one quarter alone reaching more than $40 million and profits climbing to over $4 million. The company’s stock took off, going as high as $21.50 in 1985. In December of that year, Restaurant and Institution magazine named Benihana of Tokyo the most popular family-style restaurant in America. At that time, Benihana of Tokyo and Benihana National together operated or franchised restaurants in 60 locations, from Seattle to New Jersey, serving a total of 25,000 customers a day. Benihana National’s frozen food success quickly attracted the attention of major food companies. When Campbell Soup and Stouffer’s began offering their own lines of Oriental frozen foods, however, Benihana couldn’t compete. The company lost $11 million on frozen foods between 1985 and 1987 and finally sold the business, for $4.5 million, to the small company that had been producing the dinners for them. Frozen food, however, was not Aoki’s only new idea. In 1985, Benihana National opened its first seafood restaurant, The Big Splash, just north of Miami. Aoki believed the sea would be the primary supplier of food in the future, and, borrowing an idea from a Malaysian fish market, came up with the concept of a seafood marketplace/restaurant. Customers could choose from hundreds of varieties of fresh seafood, decide how they wanted it cooked, and watch it being prepared. The idea was so popular initially that a second Big Splash was opened. The seafood restaurants soon experienced difficulty, however, registering losses of $2.7 million during 1987. The wide variety of options ran completely counter to the tight focus and minimal waste of the Benihana steakhouses. At the Miami location, the majority of customers were retirees who resented the high prices and preferred to eat fish they were familiar with. â€Å"All we sold was salmon and red snapper,† Aoki told Eric Schmukler in a March 1989 Forbes article. The company closed its Big Splash outlets in March 1988. The 1988 fiscal year was a hard one for Benihana, as the company recorded a loss of nearly $7 million. Despite the company’s financial problems with Classics and Big Splash, the Benihana restaurants themselves were still popular. By the end of fiscal 1989, the publicly owned Benihana National Corp. reported profits of some $1.8 million on sales of $34 million at its 20 restaurants, with Aoki’s privately-held Benihana of Tokyo taking in similar revenues. 1990-94: Making a Turnaround Rocky Aoki kicked off the new decade by opening a gallery in one of the Miami Benihana restaurants to display a portion of what was becoming known in the art world as the Rocky Aoki Collection. Having spent more than a year consolidating his diverse collections, Aoki told Antiques & Collecting, â€Å"I think it’s a natural to have a gallery here. More than 90,000 people eat in this restaurant every year; why not provide them with something beautiful to look at, not to mention buy, if they so desire.† In a 300-square-foot space that had been the restaurant’s gift shop, diners could view etchings by Icarts, lamps by Tiffany and Handel, and bronzes by Remington. The publicity about Aoki’s collection helped generate business for the restaurant, and overall company revenues continued to grow. Profits, however, were less than a million dollars a year, and BNC stock fell below $1 a share. Angry at the situation, some shareholders sued. As Marilyn Alva reported in a 1992 Restaurant Business article, the shareholders claimed Aoki and his management team were in a conflict of interest by managing the two companies. The complainants further maintained that Benihana management had misappropriated the assets of Benihana National Corporation, passing them through Benihana of Tokyo for their personal benefit. The shareholders, however, were ultimately unsuccessful in trying to take control of the company away from Aoki. Meanwhile, Benihana management took advantage of a health-conscious American public’s growing interest in Japanese food and entertainment. With the tag line, â€Å"We have been the restaurant of the ’90s since the ’60s,† Aoki and Schwartz instituted a major advertising campaign stressing the fact that Benihana had always offered healthful food. Soon afterwards, in 1993, the Atlanta Benihana of Tokyo restaurant added an 18-seat sushi bar and 35-seat Karaoke dining room to draw more customers on weekday nights. Despite the higher labor and food costs associated with sushi, the company reported an increase in beverage sales, and a lot of sampling of the $.99 sushi pieces by people waiting to eat at the traditional teppanyaki tables. Learning from its experience a decade earlier, in 1994 Benihana National Corp. decided to get into the frozen food business again. This time, however, by entering into a licensing agreement with Campbell Soup Co., the company hooked up with a major marketer rather than trying to compete with the big names. The new product was a line of frozen stir-fry kits featuring the Benihana trademark. The dinners served six people and sold for about $8.00. As Peter McMullin, an analyst with Southeast Research Partners, told Florida Review.Net, â€Å"This time the strategy makes sense because it is linking with a high profile food company to help strengthen the distribution side and offsetting the razor-thin margins of retail by manufacturing with a low cost producer like Campbell.† By the end of the fiscal year, revenues were over $70 million, with profits up 41 percent to $2.4 million. 1995 and Beyond: A New Company At the beginning of 1995, Benihana National announced it would buy Aoki’s 21 Benihana of Tokyo restaurants on the U.S. mainland, along with the U.S. rights to the Benihana trademark, for about $6.15 million. On May 16, a newly created subsidiary, Benihana Inc., acquired the BOT restaurants and, through a merger, simultaneously acquired Benihana National. BNC shareholders received one share in the new holding company for each of their shares of Benihana National. Aoki continued to serve as chairman of the new company and Schwartz as president. Benihana Inc. now owned or licensed the 43 Benihana restaurants in the continental United States along with a franchise in Honolulu. It also had the rights to develop or license Benihana restaurants in Central and South America and the Caribbean Islands. Aoki kept private his Benihana of Tokyo restaurants in Hawaii, Britain, and Thailand. During 1995, the new company took several steps to attract more customers. Benihana introduced weekend luncheon service and, following the success in Atlanta, opened sushi bars in seven locations. The company also instituted a national Karaoke contest for its patrons. In the fall, the company opened its first smaller format unit, called the Benihana Grill, in Sacramento. At 3,800 square feet, the Grill format was less than half the size of the traditional Benihana, and enabled the company to open units in smaller locations, particularly in urban areas. Schwartz had been refining this format since 1989 as an alternative to the company’s more common free-standing, special use restaurant buildings. The Benihana Grill was designed to accommodate 10 to 12 teppanyaki tables, compared to the 18 tables in the typical Benihana. Analyst Peter McMullin remarked, â€Å"Initial indications are encouraging even before the grand opening. With the lower capital costs of approximately $500,00 0 versus a stand-alone restaurant cost of $2 million, this could become an enormous growth vehicle for Benihana.† The new hours and offerings helped increase guest counts in existing restaurants by 8.7 percent and same store sales by an average of 7.7 percent for fiscal 1996. This rise, plus the addition of the Benihana of Tokyo restaurants and the new Benihana Grill, resulted in annual revenues of over $81 million. Benihana’s growth came primarily from increased traffic in its existing restaurants, and the company continued to support that strategy. Early in 1996, in an effort to gain a larger share of the ethnic market, the company launched Spanish-language television advertisements in Miami and Los Angeles. In May, Benihana kicked off a two-year, $5 million ad campaign, focusing on the entertainment value of teppanyaki cooking. â€Å"We want to bring the Benihana name to a different audience,† company president Joel Schwartz told Nation’s Restaurant News in a May 6, 1996 article. â€Å"The ads show that Benihana is a place the entire family can come to and have a good time–a place they will see the chef perform and flip shrimp.† Individual restaurants also developed innovative marketing techniques. A visit and meal at the Benihana in Bethesda, Maryland, for example, is one of the activities in the county’s social studies curriculum for third graders l earning about Japan. The company did not depend entirely on its existing restaurants for growth. During 1996, it also signed leases for several more Benihana Grills and expanded its franchise operations, including restaurants in Bogota, Columbia, and Aruba, Netherlands Antilles. Benihana’s track record of steady growth in same store sales, rising customer count, and profitability appeared to be continuing into the late 1990s as revenues for the first half of fiscal 1997 were up over eight percent from the year before. Further Reading: Alva, Marilyn, â€Å"Very Rocky Business: Aoki Besieged by Shareholder Suits,† Restaurant Business, February 10, 1992. â€Å"Benihana Buying Founder Aoki’s Units,† Nation’s Restaurant News, January 16, 1995, p. 14. â€Å"Benihana Profits Rise 67% for First Nine Months of Fiscal ’95,† Nation’s Restaurant News, February 12, 1996, p. 12. â€Å"Benihana Testing Stir-Fry Kits,† Supermarket News, October 17, 1994, p. 28.

Tuesday 22 October 2019

Michael Strahan on the power of working hard

Michael Strahan on the power of working hard Nobody knows more about hard work than an NFL Hall of Famer. Okay, maybe an NFL Hall of Famer who built an equally-successful second career as a television personality, and launched several lucrative companies. Michael Strahan’s professional versatility means that his advice can likely be applied to whatever goal you’ve set for yourself. So listen up. [Source: Daily Fuel]

Monday 21 October 2019

Stand by Me Essays

Stand by Me Essays Stand by Me Essay Stand by Me Essay The film, Stand By Me shows the story of four young boys, Teddy, Gordy, Chris and Vern who go on a trip. The trip is to find the body of a boy who is their age who was hit by a train. The film takes place in the summer holidays between the end of junior school and the start of high school. It is set in a small-town in Oregon in the 1950s. The town is presented to us with the impressions of innocence yet it appears that the town is far from it. Children smoke and frequently swear, the complete opposite of the stereotypical view of the 1950s. The film looks to be set for young people varying in age from 12 to 16. Although if there was less or no swearing it would probably be fine for even younger viewers. Another reason why the film is attractive for viewers is the fact that it has a mixture of comedy, drama and action. The scene that I will be analysing is the Bridge Scene. This scene is a pivotal scene in the film as the bridge acts as a transition from childhood to teen life. It also shows the boys stop working as individuals and more as a unit. The scene shows how Vern and Gordy come very close to death. Earlier in the film the boys had a close encounter and it seems that in a way they are attracted to it. Earlier the boys were in a scrap yard waiting for Gordy to return from the convenience store. When he left, the other boys Chris, Teddy and Vern, were talking and when Chris returned they had gone out side the scrap yard. Gordy had to run from the owner of the yard and his dog as they chased him to the gate of the yard. He only just made it out without getting caught. However, this seems like a minor scrape when compared to the pivotal bridge scene. As the boys begin to approach the bridge an atmosphere of happy, innocent naivety is created. The popular 50s hit Lollypop is playing and Vern and Teddy are singing along and dancing which makes the boys look very innocent. As they approach the bridge, the camera rises and the true size of it is revealed. As they start to cross the obstacle in front of them we get the impression that a train will arrive or something dangerous is going to happen. The director has cleverly used a wide array of camera shots varying from Extreme Long Shots to Low Angle Shots. When the scene starts there are a mixture of shots including Long Shots, Mid-Shots and Two-Shots. The sequences are longer here giving the impression of a problem free atmosphere. When the boys reach the bridge the camera is at waist height of the boys and slowly tracks up to just above their head height. From a point on the top of the valley sides Extreme Long Shot are taken and each shot seems to make the bridge look bigger and bigger. It also makes the boys look smaller and smaller. There is also another purpose for these shots in that they show the turquoise water and the green of the trees and shrubbery of the valley. When Vern drops the comb the director uses seemingly minor details to add to our sense of apprehension and his face is shown in a Close-Up, the camera then quickly changes to a shot through the eyes of Vern. As the comb falls the film is cleverly slowed down to make it seem like it is taking almost minutes to reach the water. This adds to the tension by showing if the worst came to the worst there would be no chance in jumping to the river below, as they would die. The drama really begins to build up when an Extreme Long Shot shows the smoke of the train. This shot shows the train through the eyes of Gordy. A Close Up of Gordy is shown in slow motion showing him shouting train and warning the others. This is clever as it shows the fraught danger multiply by the inclusion of a large black steam train. Once the train is made obvious to the audience another Extreme Long Shot is shown showing Gordy and Vern, who were quite far behind Teddy and Chris, only half way across the bridge with the train getting closer and closer to them. The camera is tracking Vern and when he falls it stops with him. When Vern gets to his feet again the camera shows a Long Shot with him at the front and the train behind him. The train looks closer than it actually is by using this type of shot. The director keeps switching between the Extreme Long Shot and the Long Shot. This prepares the audience for a disastrous event in the near future. When Gordy dives on Vern moving him out of the way of the train a Medium Long Shot is shown showing the train speed past. It provides a moment of relief after the extreme tension. Sound effects also play a part in creating the tension. In the wooded tunnel at the start of the scene the music of Lollipop is heard. As the boys turned the corner to the bridge music fades to silence. This adds the tension as the viewer has the impression that they dont know what is about to happen. As we see the boys looking over the bridge we can hear the natural noises like the wind and the nature around them. As they continue again we can only hear the wind and the creaking of the bridge. As the train appears around the corner the peaceful, tranquil, natural noises are ended by the loud horn of the train warning the boys to get off the bridge. As the train is revealed we can hear the screams and shouts of the boys but mainly the horn, the whistle of the steam and the loud pistons of the train. The effect that this has on the audience is to create a sense of impending doom symbolised by the huge black train. The sound effects play a vital role and are almost executed perfectly. As in the lighting the sound effects are very natural apart from the Lollypop at the start of the scene. The lighting in this scene appears very natural. There is only really one moment when additional lighting is obvious. This is when Gordy shouts train and his whole face is lit up and looks very pale. If he shouted this and there was no additional lighting there would be shadows around the eyes, below the nose and below the lips. When the boys are in the in the tree lined tunnel there are natural shadows. The natural light is also on show as the boys cross the bridge. As the train is behind the boys there is additional use of shadows on the boys to reinforce the image of black. Even colour plays a part in creating atmosphere. The colours in this scene cleverly mix between the natural colours and the black of the train. Around and before the bridge there is the brown of the bark and the green of the beautiful healthy looking leaves, plants and other shrubbery. On the bridge the natural look continues with the green and turquoise looking water. The metal, modern for the time, looking bridge blends in well with the landscape. As the train appears the natural beauty of the area begins to end. Usually trains billow white, cloud like smoke which is actually water vapour, yet in this scene the train appears to billow a dark shade of grey smoke which adds to the darkness of the train. The clothes that Vern and Gordy are wearing contrast the dark black of the impeding train. Again to add to the black of the scene the train looks to have been freshly painted black. This makes it look tougher and more scary. An accumulation of all these effects show near death in a be tter way than if the train was white for example. The director has shown great use of creating tension on the bridge scene. The main part of this scene is when the train is following Vern and Gordy. He or she does this well by filling the whole screen with the black. I think that the scene is very well put together and good usage of natural light and colours are used. Although it is not that noticeable if you are not specifically looking at this one scene. Yet if the director didnt use natural effects it probably would be noticeable.

Sunday 20 October 2019

How To Job Search Over the Weekend

How To Job Search Over the Weekend So you want to be a weekend job search warrior. Maybe  you set yourself some goals this week and then get too busy to fulfill them. Or maybe you just want to dip your feet in the job search pool to see how you feel when you have a bit of free time. Regardless of why you find yourself job searching on the weekend, here are some good strategies to keep in mind. Stay on top of your go-to sites.Sure, there won’t be a lot of new jobs posted over the weekend. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep an eye on your alerts and even consider responding to any that might come up. It’s a competitive market out there and someone is working harder at getting hired than you are!Use the time to play catch up.Maybe you’ve been so busy all week that the alerts and opportunities are piling up. Use the weekend to catch up and respond. Clear out your alerts, do a few searches, and send out those  networking emails. Go into Monday fresh and up to speed.Review your p rogress.Look back on the week before. How did you do? What’s working/not working? Take this time and space to evaluate your progress and make any necessary adjustments.Remember to weekend.It is still your weekend. Be sure not to burn out by spending the entire time job searching. Do something weekendy!Clean house.Are your documents all in order? Do you have old versions lurking on your hard drive that can be deleted? Any files that should be reformatted or renamed? Is everything that needs to be in your documents already there? You could even consider saving the cover letters that got you nibbles to a separate folder; you’ve obviously got something right in them!While you’re at it, tidy up your real house. Make your desk a calming and productive space where you can get in, do your thing, and get out efficiently.Dial back your search.Follow the quality vs. quantity rule and prune your list down to jobs you actually qualify for- not just partial possibles. Putting more energy into fewer applications might actually get you a job a lot faster.Follow up.You might not expect to reach anyone over the weekend, but it’s a good time to chart who you’ve heard back from and who you should nudge. You could even write your emails and save them in your drafts folder to send mid-morning Monday.

Saturday 19 October 2019

Walt Disney Cartoons Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Walt Disney Cartoons - Essay Example Asians, African Americans, Native Americans, and people from the Middle East are portrayed along racial lines. Some characters have hatred towards lesbians and gay men. The homosexuals are secluded and experience violence and hostility from other characters. This has a negative impact on homosexuals in the society watching these cartoons and other children develop negative attitudes towards homosexuals. Sexism is evident in several Disney cartoons, which portrays girls negatively. Girls and women are grossly underrepresented in films and cartoons, which represents a missed opportunity to present them in non-sexualized roles. The cartoons derive their values from the sexual appeal or behavior portrayed by their sexual attractiveness. Majority of the children’s programs contain animations and cartoons. These cartoons contain sexualizing images of girls and women. Disney portrays female characters with more cleavage, fewer clothes and are presented as sexier than those of former years. An example is The Little Mermaid where the female characters expose their cleavage and are scantily dressed. These characters are depicted as sexier than those in Cinderella or Snow White. These animations have great potential to influence girls and young teens paying every detail to the characters. Girls are primarily portrayed as domestic, concerned with their appearance and interested in boys. This overemphasizes their own self as romantic objects (Lacroix, 2004). In The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, Disney has constructed the heroines in extreme idealized forms of white femininity. The heroines are characterized as assertive and intelligent figures who take on adventures. The heroines are empowered in their actions, and idealized beauty is affirmed by their dressing. In this light, the texts form part of the popular discourse of femininity which encourages women to internalize gendered body norms. Women want to expose themselves in order to achieve the feminine character contained in the movies.

Friday 18 October 2019

Information System Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Information System Development - Essay Example   Ã‚  The third stage is system design, which specifies the functions and operations of the new system. The fourth stage is system acquisition, where an organization purchases the necessary components of the system. The fifth stage is system implementation, where the responsible personnel installs and tests the new system to make it operational (Papadopoulos, 2008). The final stage is system maintenance, where there are regular adjustments to maintain its operational status until the system’s life elapses.   The approaches to system development have their differences. The System Development Life Cycle uses stages of system development, and therefore requires a lot of time to implement. The other approach is prototyping, which involves the creation of an experimental model in a quicker and cheaper manner. The other approach is use of packages, where an organization purchases fully developed programs. The other approach is the End-user development, where an organization buil ds a system with less technical assistance, using the end-users. Finally, outsourcing is the other approach, where an organization uses external vendors for the development and operation of its information system (Davies, 2011).   In the conception activities of system development, there is the creation of a feasibility report and formulation of recommendations regarding a system. System analysis involves data collection, analysis, and documentation. For instance, the data collection occurs through interviews or observations, for the determination and documentation.

Fundamentals of Marketing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Fundamentals of Marketing - Assignment Example enjoys significant brand reputation, it is important to engage in road shows to enhance popularity of products especially to promote its numerous innovations (Solomon et al. 2011). 5.0 Conclusion 11 This paper critiques the marketing strategy of Apple Company in Australia. It is a US multinational company dealing in a wide range of technology products and services such as computers, mobile phones, software, computer peripherals, media auxiliaries, and networking services among other electronics. The company has accomplished rapid growth in the consumer electronics market as part of its brand extension strategy. It presents an industry overview, environmental analysis and the marketing strategy of Apple, which also includes how the 4-Ps of marketing mix is applied. The paper highlights some recommendations on the appropriate measures to be undertaken to improve the company’s marketing performance in the next 1-3 years. Marketing is a significant process that helps businesses to effectively interact with customers for the purpose of understanding their needs and creating the desired value. An organization that satisfies the needs of its customers is able to maintain profitability and long term sustainability. It is important that the operating environment is understood to enhance development of a successful marketing strategy. A company needs to select the right marketing mix that gives it a competitive advantage over competitors. Environmental analysis is important as it presents an overview of the micro and macro-environmental factors that influence a company’s competitiveness in the market. The marketing strategies applied by different companies are focused on maintaining a competitive advantage in the market. Effective segmentation, targeting and positioning enhance the overall success. The 4-Ps in marketing mix represents Product, Price, Place and Promotion, which are essential in satis fying consumer needs and enhancing profitability (Kim & Meyers-Levy,

Thursday 17 October 2019

Max Weber Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Max Weber - Essay Example For instance, Catholic doctrine as formulated by Aquinas differs from earliest Christianity and Stoicism in the viewpoint concerning equality of all human beings. This doctrine greatly influenced power relations in modern society metaphysically where human beings suffer either because of the original sin, individual causality of karma, or the corruption of the dualistic world. In which case, human beings suffer violence, strife, and differences in worldly social status and position. This in return created various and modern castes and stratifications â€Å"that have been providentially ordained, and each of them has been assigned some specific, indispensable task desired by god or determined by the impersonal world order, so that different ethical obligations devolve upon each.† (Weber 1993). These castes were maintained because of the regard for divinely ordained authoritarian relationship which contributes to the kind of modern social and political administration we have today. This in accordance discourage or condemn any revolt or rebellion against the authority as it only means creaturely arrogance or pride against the sanctity of God-built social order. Meanwhile, submitting to the established organic organization and functioning based from the assigned task will give person happiness in the world and in the life to come. Meanwhile, Islamic doctrine holds no regard to salvation and thus the kind of 'rulership' rejected universalism that leaves the people to decide upon any indifference to the Islamic regulations. On the other hand, social castes present in Hinduism justify discrimination and outcasts since the doctrine chiefly depends on person's fulfillment of his cast function to achieve higher chances of higher status in the next life. This can be manifested to the doctrine's affirmation to social discrimination since it believes to the idea that people who were in the lowest castes and sacrificed much can gain more in any of transmigration of souls. As Weber pointed out, political power struggle evolved to order of legal sate because of its increasing objectification. However, he also pointed that political power struggle in religion's perspective "is merely the most effective camouflage of brutality, for all politics is oriented to the reason of state, the pragmatic and self-purposive sustenance of the external and internal distribution of power. These goals must necessarily seem completely meaningless from the religious point of view. Yet only in this way does the realm of politics acquire a peculiarly rational power of its own, once formulated by Napoleon, which appears as thoroughly alien to every ethic of brotherliness as do the rationalized economic orders." (Weber 1993). Also influential is the religious antipathy to sexual acts that can be seen in cultic chastity meaningfully developed in place of the various types of magical motivation. The doctrine believes that sexual abstinence is a fundamental factor to achieve salvation. This can be done through contemplative withdrawal from worldly pleasures. Moreover, sexual drive and other related pleasures constitute the most powerful temptation that will only strengthen the hold of 'animality' to human. This religious convention greatly regarded modern sexual act as irrational and are only brought about by animalistic tendencies of human. Acts to subjugate sexual acts legitimizes marriage as a regulatory process for sexual intercourse and used the idea of legitimate child rearing to impose action fiercely against prostitution and extra-marital affairs. Karl Marx According to Karl Marx, religion depends

Morocco & Western Sahara Conflict Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Morocco & Western Sahara Conflict - Article Example According to the article the Western Sahara Conflict has caused disarray to the trade agreement, which was modeled by Arab Maghreb region. Other global entities and Tunisian government are not being able to provide their standing but want to take initiatives to act a mediator. They are urging the Morocco government to take steps to establish Maghreb unity. They are also urged to respect the rights of Saharawi people. The impact of the conflicts is not only in the Maghreb region but the entire international community suffers as well. Hence, through globalizations the issue has gotten international attention and pressures are mounting on Morocco to resolve these issues and impose strict orders to maintain harmony in the region.From this paper it is clear that  Morocco has maintained itself as a close ally of United States. Despite its cooperation in fighting against terrorist activities the US officials are not taking initiatives in solving the human rights problems of Morocco, which have occurred due to Western Sahara Conflict. United States have eased restrictions on Morocco on arms sale and have increased bilateral alliance but have side lined the main issues of Morocco.  In the same way Morocco has maintained its relation with European Union and is the beneficiary of MEDA funds, which is the aid program of EU, but they do not comment on human rights violations in Morocco.  France is also one of the key leading trade partners of Morocco.

Wednesday 16 October 2019

Max Weber Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Max Weber - Essay Example For instance, Catholic doctrine as formulated by Aquinas differs from earliest Christianity and Stoicism in the viewpoint concerning equality of all human beings. This doctrine greatly influenced power relations in modern society metaphysically where human beings suffer either because of the original sin, individual causality of karma, or the corruption of the dualistic world. In which case, human beings suffer violence, strife, and differences in worldly social status and position. This in return created various and modern castes and stratifications â€Å"that have been providentially ordained, and each of them has been assigned some specific, indispensable task desired by god or determined by the impersonal world order, so that different ethical obligations devolve upon each.† (Weber 1993). These castes were maintained because of the regard for divinely ordained authoritarian relationship which contributes to the kind of modern social and political administration we have today. This in accordance discourage or condemn any revolt or rebellion against the authority as it only means creaturely arrogance or pride against the sanctity of God-built social order. Meanwhile, submitting to the established organic organization and functioning based from the assigned task will give person happiness in the world and in the life to come. Meanwhile, Islamic doctrine holds no regard to salvation and thus the kind of 'rulership' rejected universalism that leaves the people to decide upon any indifference to the Islamic regulations. On the other hand, social castes present in Hinduism justify discrimination and outcasts since the doctrine chiefly depends on person's fulfillment of his cast function to achieve higher chances of higher status in the next life. This can be manifested to the doctrine's affirmation to social discrimination since it believes to the idea that people who were in the lowest castes and sacrificed much can gain more in any of transmigration of souls. As Weber pointed out, political power struggle evolved to order of legal sate because of its increasing objectification. However, he also pointed that political power struggle in religion's perspective "is merely the most effective camouflage of brutality, for all politics is oriented to the reason of state, the pragmatic and self-purposive sustenance of the external and internal distribution of power. These goals must necessarily seem completely meaningless from the religious point of view. Yet only in this way does the realm of politics acquire a peculiarly rational power of its own, once formulated by Napoleon, which appears as thoroughly alien to every ethic of brotherliness as do the rationalized economic orders." (Weber 1993). Also influential is the religious antipathy to sexual acts that can be seen in cultic chastity meaningfully developed in place of the various types of magical motivation. The doctrine believes that sexual abstinence is a fundamental factor to achieve salvation. This can be done through contemplative withdrawal from worldly pleasures. Moreover, sexual drive and other related pleasures constitute the most powerful temptation that will only strengthen the hold of 'animality' to human. This religious convention greatly regarded modern sexual act as irrational and are only brought about by animalistic tendencies of human. Acts to subjugate sexual acts legitimizes marriage as a regulatory process for sexual intercourse and used the idea of legitimate child rearing to impose action fiercely against prostitution and extra-marital affairs. Karl Marx According to Karl Marx, religion depends

Tuesday 15 October 2019

Role of stake holders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Role of stake holders - Essay Example The first stage was introduced by the philanthropy, then social activism that focused on the protection of the environment. Then again, enactments with respect to the rights of consumers were created that resultantly compelled the change of the corporate practices and humored them to engage in conducts that would make them more agreeable in social, legal and client fulfillment setups(Williams, Siegel and Wright, 2006). The phase that followed in the development of CSR, in the corporate world, rested with the retention of social role which was to be aligned with the profit-taking practices of organizations’ owners. It is important to note that over the years organizational stakeholders, both internal and external, have played a critical role when it comes to the development as well as implementation of CSR. Stakeholders may have a negative or positive influence in CSR. Therefore, in order to understand the role of stakeholders within CSR this paper will look at the influence that both secondary and primary stakeholders of Barclays’ Bank in the U.K have in relation to the bank’s CSR approach. As a way of undertaking stakeholder role, the paper will look at the stakeholder’s theory of CSR with an aim of understanding the role that stakeholders are supposed to play in the bank’s CSR strategy development and implementation. Finally, the paper will look at the role that different stakeholders of the bank play in its CSR. Barclay is a multinational bank that is British-owned. It provides financial and banking services to its clients. The organization’s headquarter is in London. It is an all-inclusive bank with operations in retail, investment and wholesale banking. The bank is also involved in wealth administration, home loan provision and offers Master card services. It has operations in excess of 50 nations and regions and has customers approximated at about 48 million customers.

A Dolls House - Henrik Ibsen Essay Example for Free

A Dolls House Henrik Ibsen Essay Henrik Ibsens in one of his most revolutionary plays, A Dolls House, filled his set and narrative with symbols that emphasised the idea that above everything, one must be an individual. Doors, macaroons and the tarantella are all symbols that are used by Ibsen to convey to the audience that the life of Nora and Torvald isnt what it seems to the naked eye. The doors in the dolls house set, are emphasised, to symbolise the separate worlds Nora and Torvald live in; the illusive macaroons symbolise the control Torvald has over his wife and the wild tarantella dance is symbolic of Noras desire to escape from her restricted and heavily defined existence. Doors in A Dolls House are not just a wooden blocks that can be used as a thoroughfare between rooms; they are used to distinguish between the two different spheres, Noras sphere and Torvalds sphere. All throughout the play, Nora never enters her husbands world. Guests for Torvald were instructed to not come in here (Noras living room), and they went on into Torvalds study. As Krogstad slammed the door on the way out of his house, Noras world was smashed into a million shards of tiny fragile pieces. The character of Nora is sent into a spiral of depression, anxiety and out-right craziness that turned a seemingly normal dance into a 19th century movement of oppressed emotions. The macaroons that Nora possesses in the beginning of the play are more than just a common snack. Nora has the macaroons in the early stages of the play, with Torvald around. They give the audience the knowledge of Noras child-like behaviour and emotions. All through A Dolls House, Torvald treats Nora like an inexperienced child, and the macaroons are one of many indications of this. She offers it to guests as they enter her world, but not to her husband, in which she hides them from him. The child-like behaviour is also witnessed in the scene where Nora is playing with her children, calling them little dolls and playing with them like they are her friends and shes not their mother. This child-like behaviour was encouraged by Torvald, by simple nicknames, such as skylark and mockingbird, to make Nora be more immature towards Torvald and keeping her youthfulness that he liked so much. The infamous dance, the tarantella, was an expression of the oppressed society that woman had to go through in the 19th century. The tarantella was used to convey emotions that woman couldnt express in normal, everyday life. They used raw energy to express that raw emotion. In A Dolls House, Nora uses, just as other woman have, to express and release the oppressed emotion that was given by Torvald towards her. In the scene where Nora is dancing for Torvald as practice of the dance and Dr. Rank comes in, Torvald keeps telling Nora to stop it and do it as I said. Nora is completely oblivious to Torvald and keeps on dancing in her own style. Dr. Rank comes in and takes over Torvalds role as piano player to fuel the flame that Nora was burning. The dance becomes more and more wild as the scene progresses, until the music stops and Nora is just still. The oppressive moment of woman in the 19th century created this dance. A Dolls House uses this symbols of child-like behaviour, different worlds and an oppressed dance to show the audience that the world of the 19th century wasnt a blissful place where men and woman were equal in everything they had rights to, like they do now. Torvald showed that he was a man of conformity and tried his best to bend his family into the social norms of the time. Torvald never let Nora have her way and treated her like a child, making her regress into one and even making her be his child. She was scared to wrong by her husband, even hiding a simple sweet from him so he wouldnt find out that she was eating it. By the end of A Dolls House , Nora grows up. After the problems arisen by Krogstad, she learns that her husband isnt her saviour anymore and she doesnt love him. The party ended when Torvald wanted to leave. Nora got home and changed out of her formal attire, and into outdoor wear, making Torvald wonder, Why are you dressed like that? The taking off of her formal clothes gives the impression that Nora is now taking off her old life, her oppressed life, and starting afresh. After an emotional discussion with Torvald, she ends up leaving him and the children. Walking out of her house, through the door, again is symbolising the end of something. This time its Noras life with Torvald. As the door closes, this time its Torvald who breaks down, mirroring Noras emotions when Krogstad leaves the  letter in the letter box. Symbolisation is a major part in any play, even more so in A Dolls House. The emotion scenes with Nora, Torvald, Dr. Rank and even Krogstad wouldnt be the same without objects such as the doors or macaroons, or the two different spheres dividing Noras world and Torvalds. The dance itself plays a vital role of showing emotion without the notice of Noras own husband. Without such devices, A Dolls House wouldnt be the same revolutionary play that we see today; it would just be mere words on a page. Bibliography: A Dolls House Henrik Ibsen

Monday 14 October 2019

History of the Feminist Art Movement

History of the Feminist Art Movement Before the twentieth century, women artists struggled to participate in the male-dominated art world. Male domination forbade female learning in general. Women had minimal access to courses in art history, philosophy, and anatomy of the human body. Not gaining any perspective of the human anatomy hindered the women artists from creating realistic portraits or accurate majestic scenes. Along with the educational limitations, female artists were forbidden to sketch from live models because it compromised their integrity. Proper social protocol would suggest that self-expression of a female was limited to bearing children, conforming to proper social etiquette and lace making. Some women artists rejected social protocol of marriage to pursue freedom within their artistic expressions. These female artists laid the foundation for equality of artistic freedom despite the harsh regulations placed on their paintings. These pioneering female artists would discreetly incorporate feminist meanings into their work and wanted to remove the gender label from their artworks. The purpose of de-gendering their art was to compete and find recognition of their talents within the art society. By de-gendering their paintings, female artists started to gain recognition of their talents. During the early nineteenth century, female artists reputations affirmed their talents and they slowly achieved success. The twentieth century marked a major social and cultural movement for them. Female artists insisted equality within society by protesting the gender biases and limited opportunities within the art community. Their disapproval provided a foundation for women artists to fight for equality and justice within museums and art galleries. Along with verbally fighting for equality, these women designed their art to cross gender, sexual, and social norms. Early generation feminist artists inspired future generations o f female artists to break the stereotypes of art. Pioneering female artists had the courage to create artistic masterpieces, expose the gender biases within the art community, and shatter creative boundaries within society. This path for womens equality in art was received with criticism and objectification. Noticeable separation of male to female artists is illustrated in Johann Zoffanys group portrait of the newly founded Royal Academy in 1772. Female artists Kaufmann and Moser are not included among the male artists but their portraits hung on the academys walls (Chadwick 7). Their artistic talents were comparable to the gentlemen within the academy, yet, Zoffany treated these women as objects, not equals. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, women were barred from the study of the nude models that formed the basis for academic training. The lack of academic training provided to these women did not stifle them from succeeding within the art community. Sofonisba Anguissola illustrated in fifteenth century that women could challenge the male artist, even with the limitations placed on their artistic boundaries. Women were confined to paint only self-portraits or respectable landscapes. Sofonisba Self-Portraits exemplifies her techniques in painting by the contrast, lights, and colors used in her portraits. These portraits incorporate her place within society, culture, and her own virtuoso. Sofonisbas father stifled her paintings when she became of age to marry. She refused to stop painting and defied society by continuing to paint when she was married and was bearing children (Chave). Her portraits still astound the art community with her brush techniques. Artemisia Gentileschi challenged society with her portrait of Susanna and the Elders created after the conviction of Artemisias rapist. She lived a horrible life of torture, rape, and deception. Her father was a great artist and ran his own studio for inspiring male artist. Her father taught her how to paint within the boundaries of properly raised females. During one of her fathers sessions a young student lured Artemisia to an outside room and raped her at the age of twelve. The charge of rape was unheard of and the case was taken to the high courts. At the trial, her thumbs were bound and tightened with each question asked by the court. This torture was to ensure the court that she was telling the truth under pain. The young gentleman was convicted, which embarrassed her fathers reputation. Artemisias father disowned her for many years over the judges ruling. She was able to transform her passion and personal pain over the years to create artistic masterpieces. With her success, s he opened a school for women artist at the young age of 14 (Mieke). Womens liberation was still considered absurd through the 1800s, but one woman artist took the world by surprise. Rosa Bonheur was an extraordinary woman that was restricted to drawing and painting wildlife portraits and landscapes. Rosa incorporated messages of empowerment and rebellion in The Horse Fair, which illustrates horses being pulled and shoved by the male handlers. The message of The Horse Fair was translated over the years as the horses represented the womens struggle for equality and freedom. In her personal life, she broke the mold by dressing as a man, having a female companion, and controlled her own money (Madden). Rosas conviction to be a woman artist and self reliant demonstrated early ambitions of womens liberations. The womens liberation movement started to gain momentum in the early 1900s with the Womens Suffrage Movement. This movement involved women uniting for equality within the social and political organizations. These rebellious women uprooted themselves from the daily tasks of cooking and cleaning to picket the White House for equality. The feminist movement for equality did not gain much political ground and many of these organizations disbanded over the inequality frustrations. This movement influenced many women to start exploring their own freedoms within society. This female exploration developed into various feminist organizations that promoted carefree attitudes of dancing, smoking, and enjoying life. Enjoying life was short lived for the early feminist groups due to the Great Depression in the 1930s. During WWII, feminist started to pull out of the depression and began performing masculine rolls within society. Rosie the Riveter was an image of the powerful women supporting their family and the country while at war. The image of Rosie fueled the sense of independence and freedom within women lives. Unfortunately, the war ended and men returning home from war wanted their positions back as the family provider. Women returning to the role of homemaker did not sit well with the feminist organizations because they started to gain social and political freedoms (Nguyen). The early 1900s laid a foundation for women rights and freedom of self-expression and liberation. However, it took another twenty years for the feminist movement to gain any ground within society or the art community. Through the 1960s and 1970s, America was facing the Vietnam War and social changes within the largest social structure, the Catholic Church. Women realized their lack of representation within society and the art community. They began to organize themselves into support groups in order to raise awareness of equal opportunities. A new wave of feminism gained momentum by actively questioning gender norms and tackling stereotypes. The Womens Liberation Movement in the Sixties started with the fight for Civil Rights among blacks, the left-wing political student revolution of 1968, and the demonstrations against the Vietnam War (Humm 132). In addition, these protests included the struggle for abortion-rights, sexual freedom, social, and economical equality. The Womens Liberation and female artists became intimately joined forces in fighting for visualizing the injustices of society. The inequality of women expanded into the artistic community that escorted the first protest on the American art world. These protests focused on racism and sexism within the art community that enraged many feminist. The progress for equality was beginning to become organized and powerful, which allowed for all injustices to be fair game. One of the organizations was the Art Workers Coalition that was formed by artist George Takis. He removed one of his sculptures from the Museum of Modern Art or MoMA in 1969, which drew attention to his disapproval of the treatment of various artists (Gross). However, his protest for women artists equality was not as important to him as other causes. This infuriated the women artists within the group to strike out on their own. The Women Artists in Revolution or WAR was an established as a fragment organization to protest the male dominated Art Worker Coalition. Cindy Nemser is an art historian and critic, who published numerous journals in the 1970s about the liberation of women artists. She attended one of the first meetings of WAR. They gained recognition as artists and not as objects within the art community (Russell and Spencer 112). One of the crucial topics during the first meeting was the debate whether to have an all womens artist exhibition. A few women felt fearful that they would be stigmatized by exhibiting their artwork with only women. Within moments the debate resolved to the resolution to have a exhibit featuring twelve women artists, which they would call X12:X. The intention of this exhibit was to illustrate the power and talents of women artists and it became a milestone for equal artistic rights. These twelve women artists conducted their exhibition on the roof in the East Village, NYC in 1970. Artists were: Iris Crump, Lois DiCosola, Maryann Gillies, Silvianna Goldsmith, Helene Gross, Doloris Holmes, Arline Lederman, Inverna Lockpez, Carolyn Mazzello, Vernita Nemec, Doris OKane, and Alida Walsh (Bock DiCosola). That same year of the X12:X exhibition the A.W.C. and W.A.R. collaborated to protest the actions of the Whitney Museum. The Whitney Museums Annual opening in 1970 featured 143 artists and only 8 of the artist were women (Gross). This lack of women artists representation in the museum piloted demonstrations by the Women Artist in Revolution and the Art Workers Coalition. These organizations advocated equal opportunities by direct open letters, demonstrations, and media interviews. The purpose of these demonstrations was to insist that all the art institutions reorganize the museums exhibition agenda. These demands included topics of feminism, anti-racism, and anti-war movements that needed to be incorporated into the museums exhibitions. In addition, these demands included the participation of the art institutions to exhibit and place minorities and womens artists within society. Due to the intensive fight for equality of female representation at the museums the Whitney Museum raised from 5% in 1970 to 22% in 1971. These protests opened many avenues for social and artistic equality within society (Tobias). Another organization fighting for women artists rights was AIR or Artists in Residence. The AIR Gallery open in 1972 and is the first non-profit gallery that exhibits women artists in America. These female artists would determine what programs and exhibits would be illustrated in the gallery. Also, each female artist would have the opportunity to demonstrate their works by designing and installing their own show. Some of these exhibits would attract some commercial venues but the majority of the exhibits would challenge the view against the stereotypes of women in society (Chave). This artistic evolution opened numerous opportunities for writers to focus on the history of womens equality within the artistic society. Moreover, these writers wanted to expose the tainted past with the historical perception of women artist. Linda Nochlin published an essay in 1971 called, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? This essay inspired women artists to reject art history of women because of the injustices within the educational and cultural opportunities. These rejections offered women the authority to reject the customary artistic education, which was held in reserve for male artists. She communicates that the fault for the lack of women artist did not lie within their stars or hormones. Linda explains that women artists do not have the golden nugget of genius and continues to state that women artists were not born with the genes to be a great artist because of the lack of a penis (Nochlin). Lindas publication encouraged many women artist to reject the past and re ach within their soul to find new inspirations within female art. Judy Chicago read Nochlins essay and began to re-educate herself in art history by rejecting the tilted observations of male art history. Judys earlier exhibitions of her work at the Jewish Museum included paintings as the Rainbow Pickets and Primary Structures. These earlier artworks utilized the Minimalists approach (Chave). However, this approach to art was abandoned with the awareness of the fight for womens equality within the artistic community. Nochlins essay inspired women like Judy to move toward the feminist art faction and to usher in aspirations of artistic creativity. The female artists of the revolution went beyond gender bias to create a new generation of stirring and proactive art. This evolution of womens expressionism facilitated the new wave of liberating topics that was incorporated into paintings, sculptures, and education (Lucie-Smith 196). Miriam Schapiro embraced the female experience of crafts and developed a new median of art. She was inspired by this feminist movement to demonstrate and elevate the status of crafts to a fine art through sewing, collage, and painting. The use of embroidery and cross-stitching within art has come to be known as femmage. Femmage was a word that stood for hand sewn art that incorporated different fabrics and textures. This unique use of crafts elevated her work to the high-art of collages, which is seen in the Dolls House at the Womanhouse project (Bock DiCosola). Schapiro wanted to encourage the ordinary housewives to be inspired and made aware that their daily tasks could be turned into beautiful art. Her popularity within the womens community allowed her to challenge the establishments of injustices and encouraged women to emerge from the isolation of the housewifes persona. Schapiros enthusiasm for liberating the housewife included educational projects with Judy Chicago. Judy and Miriam became acquainted by their recognition of each others earlier artistic challenges in the male dominated art society. They first met at a dinner held in the home of Allan Kaprow, where they discussed the possibility of Schapiro lecturing at the university where Judy resided. Both of these women embraced the emancipation of women and women artists. The first advancement of educational programs for women in art was created by Judy at California State University. Judy and Schapiro integrated their talents to design the first Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of Arts (Lucie-Smith 194). It was the intention of this school to create a new generation of artists, who had an expanded knowledge of the feminist self awareness. These challenges and recognition of each others work encouraged Judy and Miriam to have an exhibit that allowed the women artists to express their new femininity. In 1972, Womanhouse project was a brainstorm of Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro and integrated the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts. This exhibition encouraged students of the Feminist Art Program to participate. The intention of the Womanhouse is to showcase womens performances and art outside of the school environment. Projecting the students into the social community gave a new purpose for their art and a chance to open the minds of the public to liberating womens artistic abilities. This exhibition joined forces with all the students to prepare a dilapidated house in a suburban area of Hollywood. Students that worked several jobs had to prioritize their lives to create new pieces for the exhibit. Beyond their own works of art, the students became laborers in repairing windows, rewiring electric and other carpentry related tasks. Unfortunately, the undertaking of this project became overwhelming for the students and staff. Numerous students were pushed to their limits and suffered sleep deprivation and exhaustion in preparation. Judy became the general of this project by yelling, poking, and pushing students to their limits (Sider). The students and staff managed to convert this house into a month long art exhibition for the public. Each woman was given a room to create whatever they wanted, providing it followed the parameters of the females experiences. The Womanhouse exhibition was received with mixed reactions by the critics. These participating artists were less concerned with the critics and more concerned with raising the conscious awareness in femininity. Each night of the show, the media and spectators filled the exhibition rooms to interact with many talented artists. The general, or Judy, created the Menstruation Bathroom that included a waste basket overflowing with dirty, bloody pads. She also scattered around the bathroom various feminine hygiene projects. Another inventive use of household items is the Linen Closet designed by Sandra Orgel. The Linen Closet illustrates a women trapped inside the closet or incorporated into the closet next to the folded towels. The head of the females appears to have been chopped off and placed on the self. The one leg appears to be outside but also attached to the body, it seems to be that she was stuck inside the boundaries of traditional womens duties. The traditional womens duty was challenged by a room called Waiting at Womanhouse. Waiting at Womanhouse was performed by Faith Wilding, which involves her sitting in a room with her hands folded while she rocks back and forth reciting words that stereotyped women. Faith would mutter words like, waiting for someone to feed me, put me on the toilet, or waiting for menopause. The message provided by this piece demonstrates the outdated suppression of females but also provides a powerful voice to break the cycle of oppression. Nurturant Kitchen was a combined insulation by Susan Frazier, Robin Weltsch and Vicki Hodgetts. The Womanhouse exhibit provided a creative outlet for the artist to explore the feminist view of unequal opportunities in society. Moreover, it illustrates the talents that women possess when they are not muffled by the male dominated society (Sider). During the Womanhouse exhibit, another organization for womens equal rights was beginning to assemble. In 1971, the Women in Arts Foundation or WIA became a structured foundation that addressed the discriminations against women artists. This foundation challenged the unfair practices of jurying female artists for shows. Also, they provided educational and professional information to these artists, so that they could govern their careers with knowledge. A majority of these educational programs tackled topics dealing with various law practices, grants, art dealers, and coping with critics (Morgan). The WIA organization also contributed in protests that took to the streets of New York. They would have television interviews, speeches, and even picketed events that were unjust to the female artist. WIA conducted a protest in front of MoMA, which included numerous open letter campaigns to the New York museums to reorganize their ignorance toward women artists. The result of this protest led to the Women Choose Women exhibition that opened in 1973. This show included only 109 of nearly 500 WIA members (Tobias). Although the percentage of women was low, it still set a precedent for future womens exhibitions. Women Choose Women was essential not only because it was the first womens museum exhibition but it gained recognition by the art community. It was important because it demonstrated that women artists were no longer under the control of the male influences and these males could no longer determine what works of the females would be exhibited. Also these women artists would decide how these exhibitions would be interpreted. Inverna Lockpez was one of the artists featured in this exhibition with an untitled painting. Lockpez was always involved with the womens movement since the early sixties and felt that this show was overdue. Buffie Johnson, Betty Parsons, and Mary Frank were among some of the diverse artists that were featured in this exhibit. This show illustrated various womens artistic abilities and was hosted by the New York Cultural Center (Jolly). The Women Choose Women show set precedence for other women artists to unify and take control of their artwork. The Women Choose Women and the sexual revolution aided in the liberation of homosexual and bisexual female artists. However, the fight for womens freedom was still ongoing and to tackle another issue for female homosexual equality would be challenging. The League for the Advancement of Lesbianism in the Arts was founded in Los Angeles. This foundation provided a safe environment for their members to explore the freedom of sexuality through their art. In New York City lesbian artists protested the lack of support within the art community. Ellen Turner, Maxine Fine, Flavia Rando, Ellen Turner and Fran Winant would target high traffic populated areas and saturate them with copies of their artworks. These artwork flyers would have the female artists drawings, which was stamped with the word lesbian art across the flyer. In 1974, the Lesbian Herstory Archives was founded in New York City by Joan Nestle and Deborah Edel. The undertaking of this foundation was to gather and preserve records of lesbian lives and activities so that future generations will have access to the material. Moreover, lesbian artists were gaining some recognition in 1978 with A Lesbian Show exhibition (Jolly). Harmony Hammond created the A Lesbian Show which was an exhibition that featured lesbian artists. In the early 1970s, she exhibited art pieces that resembled the feminist attitudes of the times. Beyond the confronting of the current feminist agenda, Harmony came out as a lesbian and became a strong voice for future generations of lesbian artists. She is an accomplished artist that incorporates lesbian feminism into her paintings, sculptures, and writings. Her artistic works incorporates the female stereotypical household materials into her sculptures and paintings. Some of these materials included the use of blankets, curtains, and any recycled cloths that were transformed into crocheted painted rugs. Harmony also experimented with latex and rubber materials in her sculptures which are illustrated in her bag collection. Today, this pioneer of womens art is still an accomplished artist, writer, curator, and publisher on the topic of lesbian art (Russell and Spencer 220-221). In the 1970s there were many foundations that supported the feminist fight. However, lets go beyond the organizations or exhibitions and explore a few of these pioneering feminist artists. These women used their artistic creativity to express unique insights within feminist art. It is important to recognize each of these following women as courageous and bold women within their own convictions to broaden the artists awareness to female art and equality. Cindy Sherman established her reputation as an artist by using Untitled Film Stills to provide a different prospective on photography. In the late 1970s, she created a series of black-and-white photographs which the artist depicted herself dressed in the guises of clichà ©d B-movie heroines. Another artist that used film within the artistic community was Joyce Wieland. She was a painter, writer, and director of her own movies, which include The Far Shore. Joyce is called the pioneer of the idea of women working together to create art. She was the first artist to hire outside individual quilters to quilt various pieces for her Reason Over Passion(Chadwick 383). Joyce was considered one of the most important artist figures with the U.S. and Canada. Judy Chicago used other female artists to aid her creation of the 1979 piece called The Dinner Party. She had taken the idea of getting other women to help her from Joyce Wieland, but unlike Wieland, Judy Chicago never paid the people who worked for her. This Dinner Party took five years to complete and she has since received a bad reputation for exploiting the work of other artists by taking the credit for herself (Chadwick 229). Judys efforts and drive helped the feminist movement toward a positive direction but after this show her past accomplishments were over shadowed by her greed. Benglis is the next feminist artist that rocked the artistic community. Her creations are very unusual concepts of the use of latex. During the feminist movement, she poured latex and foam to create sculptures. Benglis angrily created these works of art to represent the male dominated fusion of paintings and sculptures that had taken place within Process Art and Minimalism. Movement of the material was the purpose for creating these sculptures with the foam and latex. Benglis work was met with controversy over the critical awareness of the abstraction of content and the gesture of the mass (Tobias). Her creations of sculptures were very formal but used unique materials that captured the audience imagine. The sculptures during the feminist movement varied from latex to fiberglass. Hesses preferred material was fiberglass, which incorporated organic geometric elements into the sculptures. Most of her sculptures were rigid and contained mechanical shapes and forms. Unfortunately, during her peak of artistic genius, Hesse discovered that she had a brain tumor. It has been said that her unique situation gave her the inspiration to boldly use materials like latex, rubber, and cheesecloths to define movement within the sculptures (Chadwick 340). The last feminist artist that inspired this research for the liberating art movement was Betye Saar. She began creating artworks that incorporated the social injustices arranged within boxes with windows. Saar used mixed media collages, assemblages, and installations to illustrate her message of freedom. Saars work had a methodic element of passage of life, death, and rebirth. Each of her artworks conveyed stories of equalities, her own mixed culture, and the fight for civil liberties. The majority of her art work deals with issues of race and gender equality. The Liberation of Aunt Jemima forces the audience to see the injustices within the social boundaries of life(Barko). In closure, the evolution of the artistic freedom illustrates the level of bias within the education and opportunities offered to the early pioneer women artists. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, female artists began to organize and fight for equal artistic and personal freedoms. These early struggles for equal exhibitions led many female artists to conduct protests and boycotts of various museums to gain recognition. Various female artists that had the opportunity to exhibit their works opened new avenues for future feminist artists. These artistic pioneers illustrated that females are just as talented, bold, and provocative as male artists. The golden egg theory that males had a gift from God to be great artists was trampled by the feminist artistic movement. Moreover, these feminist artists demonstrated that their artworks were just as marketable as the male artists works. The organizations formed by these women were used to provide support and advancement within the artisti c community. Many of these feminists artistic organizations still exist today. They still continue to fight for equality and equal exposure for the female artist and their artworks. Nowadays, women artists are able to benefit from these pioneers of liberation; however, to benefit from the past is to maintain the level of artistic freedom in the future. Work Cited Anguissola, Sofonisba. Self Portrait. 1561. Painting. http://www-english.tamu.edu/pers/fac/phillippy/_women_artists/anguissola/. 30 Nov. 2009. Barko, Cortney Cronberg. Rediscovering Female Voice and Authority: The Revival of Female Artists in Wendy Wassersteins The Heidi Chronicles. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 29.1 (Mar. 2008): 121-138. Academic Search Elite. EBSCO. Westmoreland County Community College Learning Resources Center. 23 Aug. 2009 . Benglis, Lynda. Quartered Meteor. 1969. Photo.http://www.cheimread.com/exhibitions/2002_10_bettina-rheimslynda-benglis/. 30 Nov. 2009. Bock DiCosola, Lois Ann. Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975 . 2007. 13 September,2009. . Bonheur, Rosa. The Horse Fair. 1853. http://www.shepherd.edu/englweb/artworks/A8.jpg. 30 Nov. 2009. Chave, Anna C. I Object Hannah Wilkes (Feminism). Art in America 97.3 (Mar. 2009): 104. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Westmoreland County Community College Learning Resources Center. 23 Aug. 2009 . Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society . 4th Ed. Canada: Thames HudsonWorld of Art, 2007. Chicago, Judy. The Dinner Party. 1974-79. Photo. http://arthistory.about.com/od/from_exhibitions/ig/spring07/sp2007exh_03.htm. 30 Nov. 2009. Chicago, Judy. Menstruation Bathroom. 1973. Photo. http://feministartrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/12/womanhouse-1973.html. 30 Nov.2009. Chicago, Judy. Rainbow Pickett. 1965. Photo.http://www.lewallencontemporary.com/judychicago. 30 Nov. 2009. Frazier, Susan, Hodgetts, Vicki, Weltsch, Robin. Nurturant Kitchen. 1973. Photo. http://feministartrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/12/womanhouse-1973.html. 30 Nov.2009. Gentileschi, Artemisia. Susanna and the Elders. 1610. Painting. http://www.artemisia-gentileschi.com/susanna.html. 30 Nov. 2009. Gross, Alexander. The Artists Branch of the Movement. Inside the Sixties Book. 2009.September 15,2009. . Hammond, Harmony. Bag XI. 1971. 1973. Photo. http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/harmonyhammond.php?i=832. 30 Nov. 2009. Hammond, Harmony. Floorpiece VI. 1973. Photo. http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/harmonyhammond.php?i=832. 30 Nov. 2009. Hesse, Eva. Right After. 1969. Photo. http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/eva_hesse.php?i=1700.30 Nov. 2009. Humm, Maggie. The Dictionary of Feminist Theory. 2nd ed. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1995. Lucie-Smith, Edward. Movements in Art Since 1945. 1st Ed. Canada: Thames Hudson World of Art, 2001. Jolly, Margaretta. Lesbian Herstory Archives. 2009. LHEF, Inc..13 September,2009. http://www.lesbianherstoryarchives.org/index.html. Lesbian Herstory Archives. Lesbian Herstory Archives Photo 1974. Photo. http://www.lesbianherstoryarchives.org/index.html. 30 Nov. 2009. Lockpez, Inverna. Untitled. Movements in Art Since 1945. 1st Ed. Canada: Thames Hudson World of Art, 2001. Madden, Gerry. Rosa Bonheur, a Boy in Petticoats. Hopscotch 16.6 (Apr. 2005): 36. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Westmoreland County Community College Learning Resources Center. 22 Aug. 2009 . Mieke, Bal. The Artemisia Files: Artemisia Gentileschi for Feminists and Other Thinking People. 1st ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. Morgan, Ann Lee. Feminist Art. Art Journal 54.3 (Fall95 1995): 102. MasterFILE Premier. Westmoreland County Community