To Be a Successful Learning Team free essay sample

Team Cooperation and communication are the main ingredients when it comes to a successful learning team. Effective team management is a vital part of becoming a successful learning team. â€Å"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage (Thomas, E 2012) says it best. Just because we are successful on one project, does not mean failure will not revisit us. It is the trust and confidence that we put in to each other that makes failure obsolete. Being in a learning team at the University of Phoenix has really been a great experience. When working in a group, it is important to first get a feel for your group members. In our learning team, we are extremely lucky that we get along and gel great together. When working in a team, that is one of the most important pieces to this puzzle. Also, we have had an opportunity to get together for a non University of Phoenix related activity and it has also given us a chance to get a feel for each other outside of the school type atmosphere. We will write a custom essay sample on To Be a Successful Learning Team or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page We felt that was a very important piece of the team bonding experience. We also understand that we all have different learning styles but luckily there not too far off from one another. When we first formed our group, we understood how much more important it is to get together and meet as opposed to trying to do a conference call with one another. We decided that at least once a week, we will meet at the Kalamazoo Public Library to do our learning team assignments so there is no confusion with what needs to be done and what our individual responsibilities are. Trusting your team members is another vital piece to the learning team puzzle. If you cannot trust the members of your learning team, it will be difficult for everyone to participate and it can also deter the group in whatever assignment that needs to be completed. Although, trust is earned and not given, every group member needs to understand that the most important thing is the completion of the assignment and every group member needs to pull his or her own weight. â€Å"Less ssertive team members will be encouraged by the atmosphere of trust in an effective learning team to take on a more directive, custodial role on occasions. The more assertive will learn that their success depends on the success of the entire team, and they will become more aware of the value of team work and joint effort in achieving goals† (Baker University Handbook, 2010 ). When assigning tasks to different group members in your learning team, you want to assign the tasks that will appeal to a personà ¢â‚¬â„¢s strengths. If you have a member that is not very familiar with a computer or someone that is not very proficient at typing, then you do not want to put that person in charge of typing your project. You want to try to cater to everyone’s strengths, while at the same time, working to strengthen some of their weaknesses. If you have the opportunity to choose your group members, it is important to choose people that you are able to get along with. Also, you want to try to bring some diversity to the group. Different people bring different things to the table, both good and bad. It is not always a good idea to bring someone in to your group because they are your friend or you like hanging out with them. Remember, the main goal of the learning team is to have maximum participation and most of all, completing the assignment, the right way. By understanding what you need to accomplish and the steps you need to take in order to accomplish your mission, working as a learning team can be extremely beneficial to all parties involved. â€Å"Those who want success should think like a planter. They should understand that having the right seed is an essential key to success, but they must also understand that the soil that they entrust to the seed is just as vital†¦ Can you honestly say the environment(s) you are in will yield the kind of harvest you are expecting?

The Concept of Human Life Value in Relation to the Need for Life Insurance Essays

The Concept of Human Life Value in Relation to the Need for Life Insurance Essays The Concept of Human Life Value in Relation to the Need for Life Insurance Essay The Concept of Human Life Value in Relation to the Need for Life Insurance Essay Essay Topic: The Breadwinner Almutairi Yahya Professor Ruben Acad. Writing Reading June 4 2013 The Concept of Human Life Value in Relation to the Need for Life Insurance Jane and Andrew had just celebrated their fifth year wedding anniversary, and they were coming from dinner when they had an accident. Unfortunately, Andrew did not survive, and Jane became paralysed from the waist down. With no one else to turn to and no way to make an income, Jane had to go back to her parents, where she became dependent on them for the rest of her life. This is a sad situation, but, unfortunately, it represents the story of many families, who are unprepared when fatal accidents happen. The families are left suffering when they lose their breadwinner. Had Andrew and Jane thought about their lives in the future, they would have purchased a life insurance policy, which would have enabled Jane to survive comfortably and even pay for her medical treatments. She would have avoided returning home to her aging parents for care. The rapid changes in life necessitate the acquiring of a life insurance policy. This is a sound financial plan that will ensure that your loved ones are not left destitute but are well taken care of and continue to enjoy a brighter tomorrow in the case of an unfortunate event to you, as the insured, especially if you are the breadwinner. Life insurance is also vital to you in the event that you are disabled. Employers can also benefit from purchasing a life insurance for their employees (assets) to regain financial cover in the event that they lose their lives or they are rendered inefficacious in a way that they can no longer work to make profits for the company. This is referred to as insurable interest. Life insurance/assurance is a security against loss of income resulting from the demise of the insured. The mentioned beneficiary receives the proceeds, and he is thus secured from the financial repercussions that would have occurred owing to the death of the insured. This paper thus aims at looking at the concept of human value in relation to the need of acquiring a life insurance. Some of the relevant sections that will act as principal topics of discussion will include the basic principles of life insurance, the benefits of life insurance, a focus of human value and the advantages disadvantages of life insurance. The human life possesses numerous values, most of which are immeasurable. For example, a person’s relationship with others creates a set of sentimental and emotional attachments. These can barely be measured or replaced with monetary value. However, such values are not the basis for life insurance even though it upholds a strong moral and social concern. The basis for the need of a life insurance cover is the fiscal worth of a human life. With regards to life insurance, the human life has monetary value in terms of its earning capacity only if someone/people or an organization depends upon it or anticipates gaining some financial benefit through it. This secures the economic state of the beneficiary in terms of financial dependence and future savings for fear that there is a negative contingency. Determining the fiscal value of human life helps in identifying the amount of life insurance needed by the beneficiary. The simplest way to work this out is by evaluating all what you pay for and whom you support. These might include things like educational costs, health insurance, mortgages, personal loans, rent, credit card debts, food and groceries, and car insurance among others. Out of these, you can then deduct the things that your family can comfortably do without such as stocks and property investments. The overall amount you get is what determines the level of life insurance that you need (Baldwin 60). Investing in a life insurance policy demands a high level of sacrifice. Life insurance encourages people to be responsible for their own families and the society (Mishra 6). This means that you voluntarily opt to continue providing and catering for your dependant’s wellbeing after death. However, the law morally obliges you to provide for your family to the extent that your financial means permit. A life insurance cover ensures that this moral obligation and financial decency persists after death. The death or disability of the head of a family should not necessarily lead to bankruptcy or financial problems for the family. However, it should be realised that the economic value of human life diminishes with the passage of time. As much as a person’s income may tend to increase indefinitely, the period of productivity lessens as each year passes. This owes to the fact that an individual’s fiscal value is indeed the unrealized earning ability in terms of skill, and it eventually diminishes as potential income is gradually converted into actual income. The basic principles of life insurance include the principle of Utmost Good Faith. The insurer and the insured should have good faith towards one another (Gulati 39). The insurer must provide the insuree with complete and correct information with regards to terms and conditions that apply while the insured should also be willing to disclose complete, clear and correct information of the subject matter. The other principle is the law of large numbers whereby the insurance company uses a large sample size to predict deaths. All life insurance principles operate with this principle. They carefully approximate mortality rates annually to balance their resources. Another principle is the insurable interest. This is whereby the insured, must have some personal relation to the policy owner, receives economic compensation in the event of death of whom they depended on. Perfected savings is another principle of life insurance where you purchase death assurance to your loved ones. This principle is, however, limited with regards to a pre-set time or a predetermined age, upon which the contract matures and compensation are made. In the event of a policyholder’s demise before the pre-set period, the insurer compensates the insured. The transfer of risk is a further vital principle for life insurance. The risk of death is not retained in your policy but spread out among all policyholders with relations to the insurer. The last principle of life insurance is the loss of minimization. This means that the policyholder needs to be careful to reduce the risk of death. This includes careful driving, indulging in proper lifestyle issues and maintaini ng your health as much as possible. The cost of insurance is heavy in the realization that you do not uphold the principle. There are numerous advantages that come with life insurance, such as the immediate infusion of cash when dealing with adverse fiscal consequences of the policyholder’s death. Life insurance guarantees protection of one’s family. The tax treatment for life insurance is quite favourable. The death benefits are usually income tax- free to the insured. It is possible for the life insurance to be exchanged for another policy such as annuity without the incurrence of current taxation. Another advantage is that it facilitates loans without affecting the benefits of the policy (Sethi and Bhatia 181-182). The life insurance policy just like any other has its cons. These include the fact that policyholders forego some current expenditure for the sake of the insured. The surrendered cash values are generally less than the premiums paid, and at times, it is impossible to recover them fully. You may outlive your insurance term and obtain no monetary benefit from the premiums you paid. The insurer also does not provide you with a permanent life insurance protection. Many people are willing to get insurance covers for their properties, but they are not willing to take life insurance, even though life is more valuable than property. The many adversities and uncertainties of life demand that a person acquire a life insurance policy. This is an indispensable measure if you care for the life of those who depend on you. Taking a life insurance cover is proof that a person cares for his or her family, and is concerned about their welfare in case of any eventuality. Some people put off taking life policies because they think that they will be okay so long as they take care of themselves. However, it is not possible to predict death, and it is prudent to consider taking a life insurance policy. Akrani, Gaurav. The Principles of Life Insurance- 7 Basic General Insurance Principles. 2011. Web. June 2, 2013 Baldwin, G. Ben. The Complete Book of Insurance: The Consumer’s Guide to Insuring Your Life, Health, Property, and Income. Burr Bridge: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996. Print. CIFP Learning. Introduction to Life Insurance. Web. June 2, 2013 Gulati, C. Neelam. Principles of Insurance Management: A Special Focus on Developments in Indian Insurance Sector Pre and Post Liberalisation. New Delhi: Excel Books India, 2009. Print LIFE. What You Need to Know about Life Insurance. 2009. Web. June 2, 2013 Luke, Chris. Principles of Life Insurance Policy. 2012. Web. June 2, 2013 Mishra, Kaninika. Fundamentals of Life Insurance: Theories and Applications. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd, 2010. Print Sethi, Jyotana and Nishwan, Bhatia. Elements of Banking and Insurance. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd., 2007. Print

Chinas Economic Growth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Chinas Economic Growth - Essay Example China has experienced tremendous economic growth over the years. This growth however comes with a number of problems including environmental degradation, management of exchange rate, export dependency, corruption, healthcare provision, a growing income inequality and many more. These problems have threatened to undermine the benefits of the country's economic growth. Increased environmental pollution and natural resource degradation have proved to be very serious negative consequences of rapid industrial development in China. This has led to problems like desertification, soil erosion and fall in the water table, particularly in the northern parts of the country. Even though the country has passed various environmental laws and taken part in a number of international conventions against pollution, pollution still remains a very serious concern in China, both now and in the future. According to a WHO report in 1998, seventy per cent of the most polluted cities in the world are in China. China's own evaluation admits that over 66 per cent of its cities are polluted, with two thirds of them being either severely or moderately polluted. Consequently, heart and respiratory diseases have become major causes of death in the country. Most of Chinese rivers are polluted and more th... The problem of severe water scarcity has also come out particularly in northern China (Starr, 2001). This has threatened the country's economic growth, forcing the government to plan diversion of the Yangtze River water to northern China cities which include Tianjin and Beijing. Thirty per cent of China has experienced acid rain as a result of massive air pollution. China's GDP has been growing at a rate of between 7 to 10 per cent every year. However, over 300 million people in the rural parts of the country do no have access to clean, safe water. Moreover, about 800 million people in China have not seen any improvement hygiene and sanitation in the recent years. China has attempted containing its rising industrial pollution mainly through efforts aimed at increasing public awareness and through administrative procedures. The severely polluted Pearl River Delta, which is among the country's first major industrialized areas, was targeted for a clean-up. Chinese officials were hopeful that replacing sewage treatment plants in cities within the delta would make it possible for the river to sustain a fish population before the year 2000. China has also seen the emergence of a growing environmental protection industry. However, in a number of areas, pollution has been accepted as a cost related to economic development. China's Three Gorges Dam has sparked a lot of controversy with regard to its environmental impacts. This controversy has mainly been among environmentalists both within the country and without. Critics have been of the view that silting and erosion of the Yantze River is a threat to a number of endangered species in the area. On the other hand, Chinese officials have maintained that this dam will go a long

How Teachers use language Strategies in Schools to Control Behaviour Essay

How Teachers use language Strategies in Schools to Control Behaviour Increase Pupil Participation and to Facilitate Learning - Essay Example This paper stresses that a separate discipline, that centers on prioritising verbal communication, has become an increasingly focus of research. Thus, from a different set of perspectives, the focus of learning language usage is currently being understood as a necessity and not a luxury. Since language is the major symbolic code implemented in the transfer of information from the sender to the receiver, pragmatic teaching strategies could be usefully implemented to the research of communicative processes. It is suggested that pragmatics be explained as the study of the important basic principles of meaningful language use - that is, a research on how verbal communication works and how to enhance the verbal communication activity. The study of how the students and the classroom lecturer maximize language to discover how the teacher and the students converse in oral fashion. The research centers on the use of language as a medium of increasing learning in the classroom environment. Cul ture and other inputs are important to enhance the classroom learning environment. Indeed, teachers use language strategies in the classroom scenes to control student behavior, increase pupil participation, and to Facilitate Learning. This paper makes a concluison that learning will increase if the person develops one’s speech and its relation to thought. The child relies on one’s own perception to make sense of objects that appear to them to be unrelated. For example, the child creates one’s subjective relationship between objects and then mistakes one’s egocentric perspective for reality. This falls under incoherent coherence. Thus, the child learns by committing mistakes along the way. The child corrects one’s mistake until the goal or objective is finally achieved. The child includes all inputs, both successful and unsuccessful, are gathered and used to determine the proper way of doing or seeing things. Thus, the teachers must accept mistakes as part of the child’s learning process. The child’s mistakes are used as a stepping stone to generating the proper result in any activity. Social interaction plays a major role in transforming prior knowledge. Thus, speci fic functions are not given to a person at birth but given as cultural and social patterns. Lev Vygotsky believes that it is human nature for a person to learn best with the cooperation of other human beings. The child’s learning is grounded on one’s reaction to environmental inputs. Thus, the child’s and the teacher’

Fundamentals of Finance Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Fundamentals of Finance - Case Study Example '10000000. As far as the decision taken by the Swindon Plc is taken in to consideration, it is applying MACRS (Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System) depreciation is taken in to fact. "Four factors are necessary to determine cost recovery deductions under the MACRS procedure. These are (1) class life, (2) depreciable basis after credit reduction, (3) acquisition year assumption, and (4) recovery method." (The Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) - Basic Rules. 2001). It is necessary to taken in to consider that the property or asset class lives should be less than the actual life of the asset, so that the salvage value of such assets should be zero. Cost segregation and accelerated depreciation is essential for the effective implementation of investment decision. Like wise, it is necessary to increase the cash flows of an organization. While calculating the MACRS depreciation, salvage value is not as much effective in any other system for depreciation. If a particular property is utilizing for a period of five years or more then the depreciation rate should be calculated in accordance with this manner- First year-20%; Second year-32%; Third year-19.20%; Fourth and fifth year-11.52%; Last year or sixth year- 5.76%. So, by using this method, during the last or sixth year, the value of the specific asset so depreciated will be zero. (Salzmann 2007). In any organization, its structure is taking in to fact; there is a finance department, which is playing a prominent role, because finance is the life blood of any business activity. The basic and most fundamental financial activities are preparation of Balance sheet, Income statement, analysis of shareholders equity and cash flow, tools for profit analysis, preparation of capital and cash budget. Rate of Depreciation of Swindon Plc under MACRS Method. YEAR MACRS % Applicable 1 20% 2 32% 3 19.20% 4 11.52% 5 11.52% 6(Final Year) 5.76% In this particular case, the total purchase price of Drill and platform is '10000000; and this platform can be sold for '3.5M. i.e. '3500000 within a period of five years. Then, thereafter, Swindon plc bought a new platform costs '14M i.e. '14000000 with an addition of '1M i.e. '1000000 as installation charges. The latest platform should also have an estimated life of five years. But Swindon decided to undertake the sales of the latest platform after five years, at a cost of '4M i.e. '4000000. The Overall Summary of Drill and Platform of Swindon Plc. Particulars A) Cost of existing platform.Total selling price after 5years. Amount (in ') '10000000 '3500000 B) Cost of new drill and platform.Add: Installation charges. Total cost of Drill&Platform. Total selling price of new platform and drill. '14000000 '1000000 C) '15000000 '4000000. Cash flow analysis is an important tool with the finance manager for ascertaining the changes in balance of cash in hand and cash at bank. Cash flow statement analyses the reasons for changes in balance of cash in hand or at bank between two accounting period. Moreover, it shows the inflows and outflows of cash, practically, sources and applications of cash. Cash generating efficiency is a fact used while preparing the cash flow statement.

The Effectiveness Of Subliminal Mind Messaging

The Effectiveness Of Subliminal Mind Messaging Subliminal stimuli, contrary to supraliminal stimuli or above threshold, are any sensory stimuli below an individuals absolute threshold for conscious perception. Visual stimuli may be quickly flashed before an individual may process them, or flashed and then masked, thereby interrupting the processing. Audio stimuli may be played below audible volumes, similarly masked by other stimuli, or recorded backwards in a process called backmasking. Introduced in 1897, the concept became controversial as subliminal messages in 1957 when marketing practitioners claimed its potential use in persuasion. Subsequent scientific research, however, has been unable to replicate most of these marketing claims beyond a mere placebo effect. Used in advertising to create familiarity with new products, subliminal messages make familiarity into a preference for the new products. Johan Karremans suggests that subliminal messages have an effect when the messages are goal-relevant. Karremans did a study assessing whether subliminal priming of a brand name of a drink would affect a persons choice of drink, and whether this effect is caused by the individuals feelings of being thirsty. His study sought to ascertain whether or not subliminally priming or preparing the participant with text or an image without being aware of it would make the partaker more familiar with the product. Half of his participants were subliminally primed with Lipton Ice (Lipton Ice was repeatedly flashed on a computer screen for 24 milliseconds), while the other half was primed with a control that did not consist of a brand. In his study he found that subliminally priming a brand name of a drink (Lipton Ice) made those who were thirsty want the Lipton Ice. Those who were not thirsty, however, were not influenced by the subliminal message since their goal was not to quench their thirst. Subconscious stimuli by single words are well known to be modestly effective in changing human behaviour or emotions. This is evident by a pictorial advertisement that portrays four different types of rum. The phrase U Buy was embedded somewhere, backwards in the picture. A study was done to test the effectiveness of the alcohol ad. Before the study, participants were able to try to identify any hidden message in the ad, none found any. In the end, the study showed 80% of the subjects unconsciously perceived the backward message, meaning they showed a preference for that particular rum. Though many things can be perceived from subliminal messages, only a few words or a single image of unconscious signals can be internalized. As only a word or image can be effectively perceived, the simpler features of that image or word will cause a change in behaviour (i.e., beef is related to hunger). This was demonstrated by Byrne in 1959. The word beef was flashed for several, five millisecond intervals during a sixteen-minute movie to experimental subjects, while nothing was flashed to control subjects. Neither the experimental nor control subjects reported for a higher preference for beef sandwiches when given a list of five different foods, but the experimental subjects did rate themselves as hungrier than the control subjects when given a survey. If the subjects were flashed a whole sentence, the words would not be perceived and no effect would be expected. In 1983, five studies with 52 undergraduate and graduate students, found that although subliminally flashing and masking the words affects the availability of conscious processing, it however has little effect on visual processing itself. This suggests that perceptual processing is an unconscious activity that proceeds to all levels of available and redescription analysis. For example if flashed the word butter the individual would be quicker to identify the word bread than an unrelated word such as bottle. In 1991, Baldwin and others in two studies questioned whether priming individuals with images flashed for an instant may affect experiences of self. In the first study, images were flashed of the scowling face of their faculty adviser or an approving face of another before graduate students evaluated their own research ideas. In the second study, participants who were Catholic were asked to evaluate themselves after being flashed a disapproving face of the Pope or another unfamiliar face. In both studies the self-ratings were lower after the presentation of a disapproving face with personal significance, however in the second study there was no effect if the disapproving face were unfamiliar. In 1992, Krosnick and others, in two studies with 162 undergraduates, demonstrated that attitudes can develop without being aware of its antecedents. Individuals viewed nine slides of people performing familiar daily activities after being exposed to either an emotionally positive scene, such as a romantic couple or kittens, or an emotionally negative scene, such as a werewolf or a dead body between each slide. After exposure from which the individuals consciously perceived as a flash of light, the participants gave more positive personality traits to those people whose slides were associated with a emotionally positive scene and vice-versa. Despite the statistical difference, the subliminal messages had less of an impact on judgment than the slides inherent level of physical attractiveness. In order to determine whether these images affect an individuals evaluation of novel stimuli, a study was conducted in 1993 which produced in similar results. In 1998, Bar and Biederman questioned whether an image flashed briefly would prime an individuals response. An image was flashed for 47 milliseconds and then a mask would interrupt the processing. Following the first presentation only one in seven individuals could identify the image, while after the second presentation, fifteen to twenty minutes later, one in three could identify the image. Backmasking is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. During the 1970s, media reports raised a series of concerns of its impact on listeners, stating that satanic messages were calling its listeners to commit suicide, murder, abuse drugs, or engage in sex-which were all rising at the time. In a series of scientific studies, individuals listening to messages played backwards with no accompanying music could discern: the gender of the speaker; whether the message was in English, French, or German; whether the sentence was declarative or a question; and occasionally a word or meaning of a sentence. However when comparing sentence pairs, individuals were more likely to be incorrect than if their response were by pure chance: if the message were spoken by different speakers; whether two sentences were semantically related; and label beyond pure chance whether a message was positive or negative in nature-suggesting that individual expectations influenced their response. Across a variety of tasks, the studies were unable to find evidence that such messages affected an individuals behaviour, and reasoned that if the individual could not discern the meaning of the message, then the presence of these messages would be more likely due to the listeners expectations than the existe nce of these messages in them. Effectiveness The effectiveness of subliminal messaging has been demonstrated to prime individual responses and stimulate mild emotional activity. Applications, however, often base themselves on the persuasiveness of the message. The near-consensus among research psychologists is that subliminal messages do not produce a powerful, enduring effect on behaviour; and that laboratory research reveals little effect beyond a subtle, fleeting effect on thinking. For example, priming thirsty people with a subliminal word may, for a brief period of time, make a thirst-quenching beverage advertisement more persuasive. Research upon those claims of lasting effects-such as weight loss, smoking cessation, how music in popular culture may corrupt their listeners, how it may facilitate unconscious wishes in psychotherapy, and how market practitioners may exploit their customers-conclude that there is no effect beyond a placebo. In a 1994 study comparing television commercials with the message either supraliminal or subliminal, individuals produced higher ratings with those that were supraliminal. Unexpectedly, individuals somehow were less likely to remember the subliminal message than if there were no message. Origins The director of Yale Psychology laboratory PhD E. W. Scripture published The New Psychology in 1897 (The Walter Scott Ltd, London), which described the basic principles of subliminal messages. In 1900, Knight Dunlap, an American professor of psychology, flashed an imperceptible shadow to subjects while showing them a Mà ¼ller-Lyer illusion containing two lines with pointed arrows at both ends which create an illusion of different lengths. Dunlap claimed that the shadow influenced his subjects subliminally in their judgment of the lengths of the lines. Although these results were not verified in a scientific study, American psychologist Harry Levi Hollingworth reported in an advertising textbook that such subliminal messages could be used by advertisers. During World War II, the tachistoscope, an instrument which projects pictures for an extremely brief period, was used to train soldiers to recognize enemy airplanes. Today the tachistoscope is used to increase reading speed or to test sight. 1950-1970 In 1957, market researcher James Vicary claimed that quickly flashing messages on a movie screen, in Fort Lee, New Jersey, had influenced people to purchase more food and drinks. Vicary coined the term subliminal advertising and formed the Subliminal Projection Company based on a six-week test. Vicary claimed that during the presentation of the movie Picnic he used a tachistoscope to project the words Drink Coca-Cola and Hungry? Eat popcorn for 1/3000 of a second at five-second intervals. Vicary asserted that during the test, sales of popcorn and Coke in that New Jersey theater increased 57.8% and 18.1% respectively. However, in 1962 Vicary admitted to lying about the experiment and falsifying the results, the story itself being a marketing ploy. An identical experiment conducted by Dr. Henry Link showed no increase in cola or popcorn sales. A trip to Fort Lee, where the first experiment was alleged to have taken place, would have shown straight away that the small cinema there couldnt possibly have had 45,699 visitors through its doors in the space of 6 weeks. This has led people to believe that Vicary actually did not conduct his experiment at all. However, before Vicarys confession, his claims were promoted in Vance Packards book The Hidden Persuaders, and led to a public out-cry, and too many conspiracy theories of governments and cults using the technique to their advantage. The practice of subliminal advertising was subsequently banned in the United Kingdom and Australia and by American networks and the National Association of Broadcasters in 1958. But in 1958, Vicary conducted a television test in which he flashed the message telephone now hundreds of times during a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program, and found no noticeable increase in telephone calls. 1970-2000 In 1973, commercials in the United States and Canada for the game HÃ…Â «sker DÃ…Â «? flashed the message Get it. During the same year, Wilson Bryan Keys book Subliminal Seduction claimed that subliminal techniques were widely used in advertising. Public concern was sufficient to cause the FCC to hold hearings in 1974. The hearings resulted in an FCC policy statement stating that subliminal advertising was contrary to the public interest and intended to be deceptive. Subliminal advertising was also banned in Canada following the broadcasting of HÃ…Â «sker DÃ…Â «? ads there. The December 16, 1973 episode of Columbo titled Double Exposure, is based on subliminal messaging: it is used by the murderer, Dr. Bart Keppler, a motivational research specialist, played by Robert Culp, to lure his victim out of his seat during the viewing of a promotional film and by Lt. Columbo to bring Keppler back to the crime scene and incriminate him. Lt. Columbo is shown how subliminal cuts work in a scene mirroring James Vicarys experiment. In 1978, Wichita, Kansas TV station KAKE-TV received special permission from the police to place a subliminal message in a report on the BTK Killer (Bind, Torture, Kill) in an effort to get him to turn himself in. The subliminal message included the text Now call the chief, as well as a pair of glasses. The glasses were included because when BTK murdered Nancy Fox, there was a pair of glasses lying upside down on her dresser; police felt that seeing the glasses might stir up remorse in the killer. The attempt was unsuccessful, and police reported no increased volume of calls afterward. A study conducted by the United Nations concluded that the cultural implications of subliminal indoctrination are a major threat to human rights throughout the world. Campaigners have suggested subliminal messages appear in music. In 1985, two young men, James Vance and Raymond Belknap, attempted suicide. At the time of the shootings, Belknap died instantly. Vance was severely injured and survived. Their families were convinced it was because of a British rock band, Judas Priest. The families claimed subliminal messages told listeners to do it in the song Better by You, Better than Me. The case was taken to court and the families sought more than US$6 million in damages. The judge, Jerry Carr Whitehead said that freedom of speech protections would not apply to subliminal messages. He said he was not convinced the hidden messages actually existed on the album, but left the argument to attorneys. The suit was eventually dismissed. In turn, he ruled it probably would not have been perceived without the power of suggestion or the young men would not have done it unless they really intended to. In 1985, Dr. Joe Stuessy testified to the United States Senate at the Parents Music Resource Center hearings that: The message of a piece of heavy metal music may also be covert or subliminal. Sometimes subaudible tracks are mixed in underneath other, louder tracks. These are heard by the subconscious but not the conscious mind. Sometimes the messages are audible but are backwards, called backmasking. There is disagreement among experts regarding the effectiveness of subliminals. We need more research on that Stuessys written testimony stated that: Some messages are presented to the listener backwards. While listening to a normal forward message (usually nonsensical), one is simultaneously being treated to a back-wards message. Some experts believe that while the conscious mind is trying to absorb the forward lyric, the subconscious is working overtime to decipher the backwards message. A few months after Judas Priests acquittal, Michael Waller, the son of a Georgia minister, shot himself in the head while supposedly listening to Ozzy Osbournes song Suicide Solution (despite the fact that the song Suicide Solution was not on the record [Ozzy Osbournes Speak Of The Devil] found playing in his room when his suicide was discovered). His parents claimed that subliminal messages may have influenced his actions. The judge in that trial granted the summary judgment because the plaintiffs could not show that there was any subliminal material on the record. He noted, however, that if the plaintiffs had shown that subliminal content was present, the messages would not have received protection under the First Amendment because subliminal messages are, in principle, false, misleading or extremely limited in their social value (Waller v. Osbourne 1991). Justice Whiteheads ruling in the Judas Priest trial was cited to support his position. 2000-Present During the 2000 U.S. presidential campaign, a television ad campaigning for Republican candidate George W. Bush showed words (and parts thereof) scaling from the foreground to the background on a television screen. When the word BUREAUCRATS flashed on the screen, one frame showed only the last part, RATS. The FCC looked into the matter, but no penalties were ever assessed in the case. A McDonalds logo appeared for one frame during the Food Networks Iron Chef America series on 2007-01-27, leading to claims that this was an instance of subliminal advertising. The Food Network replied that it was simply a glitch. On November 7, 2007, Network Ten Australias broadcast of the ARIA Awards was called out for using subliminal advertising in an exposà © by the Media Watch program on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). In February 2007, it was discovered that 87 Konami slot machines in Ontario (OLG) casinos displayed a brief winning hand image before the game would begin. Government officials worried that the image subliminally persuaded gamblers to continue gambling; the company claimed that the image was a coding error. The machines were removed pending a fix by Konami. In 2007, to mark the 50th anniversary of James Vicarys original experiment, it was recreated at the International Brand Marketing Conference MARKA 2007. As part of the Hypnosis, subconscious triggers and branding presentation 1,400 delegates watched part of the opening credits of the film Picnic that was used in the original experiment. They were exposed to 30 subliminal cuts over a 90 second period. When asked to choose one of two fictional brands, Delta and Theta, 81% of the delegates picked the brand suggested by the subliminal cuts, Delta. Although, Delta is also a real brand. In 2010, Ferraris Formula One cars sported a barcode design that was criticized for subliminally evoking the logo of sponsor company Marlboro, flouting a ban on tobacco advertising. The design was removed in response. Backmasking Backmasking (also known as backward masking) is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. Backmasking is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional. Backmasking was popularized by The Beatles, who used backward vocals and instrumentation in recording their 1966 album Revolver. Artists have since used backmasking for artistic, comedic, and satiric effect, on both analog and digital recordings. The technique has also been used to censor words or phrases for clean releases of songs. Backmasking has been a controversial topic in the United States since the 1980s, when allegations from Christian groups of its use for satanic purposes were made against prominent rock musicians, leading to record-burning protests and proposed anti-backmasking legislation by state and federal governments. Whether backmasking can be used subliminally to affect listeners is in debate by both sides Subliminal Advertising Subliminal advertising, as some call it, is primarily a set of techniques that focus and defocus the viewers attention and awareness. Doing this has an impact on what the audience will be able to consciously recall about the ad and what it will remember, but not be able to consciously recall. In magazines, for example, the advertisers main problem is that the typical reader gives a full-page ad only a glance in passing. Less than 3 seconds, typically, the time it takes to slowly turn a page and glance at it as it goes by on the way to the next page. So, in a magazine or newspaper, how can the potential buyers attention be captured and focused, in the absence of what TV depends on: motion, music and natural sound, and a human voice? To do this more efficiently, different levels of attention can be managed within microseconds of each other so that the most conscious level of perception will partially mask, but will not overwhelm low-level awareness at one or more other levels. Subliminal Marketing The use of subliminal marketing is a popular method of enhancing ones life. These messages are hidden in the many form in any music, video or text message. They reach directly the subconscious level of our mind and generally have a positive effect on our attitude, behaviour and thoughts. These subliminal marketing message are many times present in TV ads, movies and in music. They are so well implanted that they are not perceived by conscious mind, but are only received and deciphered by subconscious mind. Subliminal messages have now become a means of using in personal development. With the means of using positive statements to the subconscious mind, people have used it for losing weight, quitting bad habit or improving the overall personality. It gives a positive outlook to the person using it. You can use these subliminal messages to make your wishes and desire obvious. Many times you think of a goal as impossible, but after going through sessions of subliminal messages these goals seem to be quite probable top achieve. It is a powerful tool of your mind that allows you to do things which you consciously never attempted. It removes the mental block from your mind. It makes your brain change the way your subconscious mind wants to do it. It takes time to feel the change come through with the help of this medium, but if done properly you will notice the changes coming in your life. http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/subliminal-marketing-2153211.html#ixzz0vA9MCgFI Studies have shown that every day, each of us is subject to about 10,000 marketing messages, brands, logos and product offers. 10,000? Yes, thats a huge number but when you think about it, its probably close to reality. Lets see for a minute. You wake up and turn off your SONY alarm clock, go to the bathroom and brush your teeth with your BRAUN electric toothbrush and use some COLGATE toothpaste. While youre brushing, you look unconsciously look around you and see your HUGO BOSS cologne, your NIVEA lotion. You turn on your LG TV or your PIONEER radio and hear a commercial for Mossy NISSAN, another commercial for PAPA JOHNS, and another commercial for BANK OF AMERICA. You get a SMS on your APPLE iPhone; its actually a special offer from MCDONALDS because you agreed to receive SMS alerts from them. You make some STARBUCKS coffee in your BODUM French press. Its time to go to work. You grab your keys and walk through the parking lot. You walk by a FORD, a TOYOTA, a BUICK, a KIA, an AUDI (thats mine ;-). You get in, turn on the radio and hear 5 commercials for BUDWEISER, GEICO, BEST BUY, TARGET, and T-MOBILE. You drive off the parking lot and thats when the marketing hammering really starts. You drive by hundreds of different cars (different brands), some of them with stickers for various brand names, you pass hundreds of billboards. OK, lets stop here. I think you get it. How much do you think you saw of all this? None? Guess again. Reality is you saw most of it, even if youre not aware of it. Scary, huh!? But thats what marketing is all about. Its not because you didnt read the billboard that your brain didnt register the information. When you drive by this billboard, your eyes just lay on it without reading it, but your brain is smarter than you and takes a picture of the billboard, processes it in the background and register all the information without letting you know. Then you go to the store and without thinking about it, you grab some Gatorade. Why Gatorade? Maybe because its your favourite drink? Or maybe because you heard 21 commercials about it within the last week, saw 15 football teams with the Gatorade logos on their bottles, or maybe you just really like ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ No! You dont just really like it. Youve been somewhat brainwashed by marketing genius to think you really like it. These are some of the basics of marketing. I remember my first class of marketing in Business School. The teacher asked: what is the goal of marketing? Most answers were: advertising a product, or selling products. The right answer is that the goal of marketing is to create a need! Do you really an iPhone? I mean, your old BlackBerry Pearl pretty much does it all. Well, marketing creates this need for the iPhone. And theyre so good at it they even make you wait for hours in line to get ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Subliminal Messages in Marketing Fact or Fake The Latin word sublimis (meaning uplifted) is the root of the word sublime. It is not at all related to sub-limen (meaning below the threshold). Subliminal messages are very much prevalent in the world of advertising. These are messages which are presented below the threshold of human understanding. The chances of they being understood by humans is lesser than 25%. The technique is to give inputs below the threshold of conscious perception. To illustrate, consider an advertisement that flashes in front of you on TV or cinema, but is so short and fast that your conscious mind does not acknowledge it. Nevertheless, the message does get registered below your level of conscious and thus becomes an input for you to act on. This is easy to practice in cinema halls. Let me explain. It is possible to insert a single frame in twenty four. Suppose the message You are Hungry is flashed a hundred times in short periods of rime. This could stimulate your hunger and make you buy something to eat. Critics say that any kind of message can be induced in this manner, which may lead to violent and criminal tendencies in people to rise. But there is no proof to prove if this principle is true. Yes, subliminal messages are not a fiction, they are real and existent. But the issue is: How often do we encounter them? A study involving advertising executives has found that, agencies practicing subliminal messages are very few in number. Advertisements, by themselves, are very strong means to influence our brains. Hence, ad-designers will not waste efforts into inserting subliminal messages in their work. Also, if any agency practiced subliminal messages, it will sooner or later be discovered by the media. This will definitely cause a huge dent on the image of the agency. Hence subliminal messaging, although it may exist, is not commercially feasible to be practiced. Subconscious Awareness: Each of us has a certain set of principles, ethics, habits, personality which we have cultivated over a period of time. Ever wondered we develop all the above traits? Each second we are bombarded with information in all forms. Our senses observe many of them, and some get registered in our conscious mind. But the rest doesnt get wasted. It is the subconscious mind that stores it and these influence us and play a very significant role in shaping up our habits, personality and skills. So what you are today is a result of what your subconscious mind has stored. We observe a lot of things in our life, but not all information is useful to us, some of it is bad. The ratio of positive to negative feelings is very high as high as 1: 20. Though we are not conscious of these, our subconscious mind registers all the information since it takes everything to be true. Many of these thoughts also make us underestimate ourselves and limit ourselves to trying only thing we are comfortable with. This shapes us what we are today and what capabilities we believe in. We will always be subjected to good and bad experiences and we can control the amount of influence they have on us. When we limit ourselves to our comfort zone, it is indicative of the fact that we are having a high influence of our thoughts which bar us from realizing our full potential. This hampers our creative skills and out of box thinking to a very huge extent. It is very much necessary to overcome these negative influences in our personality if we ever want to taste success. Human being is different from every other living thing on the earth because we are endowed with a unique feature that of thinking. But this has the potential to be our best buddy and even the worst of all enemies. What you think largely shapes up your life. We are never bound to adhere to some predetermined set of values, ethics and culture. We are free to try out all new things and then think over to select some and reject some. The most value adding investment is on oneself. This investment should be such that we become more proactive, creative, inspired, perfectionist and confident to list few of the many possible positive traits. The subconscious mind is not a new concept at all. Its been a subject of huge research for more than a century now. A number of studies and researches have been conducted to understand fully the human behaviour. Hypnosis was a technique which became popular and known in the 1800s. It is from this time that we became our mind that in addition to the conscious intake of input we are also capable of responding to audio, visual stimuli which is below the threshold of conscious brain or in other words we can respond to subliminal stimuli too. Subliminal the literal meaning is below (sub) the threshold (limen) i.e. below the limit of our conscious mind. It is a very self explanatory term. Computers and technology have been very helpful to discover new traits about these subliminal phenomena. A thorough understanding of bio computer has also helped light some light in the dark and mysterious arena of the subconscious. It is the advertising world that is believed to be the pioneer in using subliminal concepts for practical purposes. But it came to the fore only in 1958 through James Vicarys experiment. An experiment was conducted for a period of six weeks during which people watch Kim Novak in the movie Picnic, at Fort Lee, New Jersey were subjected to flash messages displayed on the theatre screen. These messages conveyed them to eat popcorn and drink Coca- Cola. The results were astounding. The sales of Coca cola and popcorn had increased by 18 and 55 per cent! But the degree of influence was not uniform. People, who never ate them, could not be influenced. Subliminal advertising is banned in the US. There are specific norms framed so as to discourage anyone from using subliminal messages. While we can be vigilant towards things that are visible and audible, we cannot be certainly sure about monitoring things like music, colour and the fragrance. To illustrate for colour, Chinese restaurants use a lot of red while designing the ambience. Red is known to stimulate hunger, hence useful for any restaurant. A department store uses a variety of fragrance, which also is a powerful means to communicate subliminal messages. The most powerful way to influence your subconscious for self-help and self hypnosis purposes is, definitely, visual subliminal messaging. There are a lot of programs based on subliminal messages in the Web, the most powerful for today is Subliminal Flash, that displays subliminal messages on your computer screen (duration of every separate message is not more 10 milliseconds, but your subconscious mind is able to notice and accept new objectives that are being sent to it every second). Subliminal Advertising Works Subliminal advertising involves the use of messages sent to the subconscious in order to convince people about a particular product or service from the inner depths of their minds. The subconscious mind of a person is responsible for controlling every action and thought instigated by certain conditions. These thoughts and actions include memory extraction and storage as well as breathing and body temperature maintenance among others. The subconscious mind even controls most of the cor

Life and Work of Langston Hughes :: Biography bio Hughes Langston Poet Essays

Life and Work of Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes, an African American, became a well known poet, novelist, journalist, and playwright. During the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes gained fame and respect for his ability to express the Black American experiences in his works. He was one of the most original and versatile of the twentieth century black writers. Influenced by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Carl Dandburg, and his grandmother Carrie Mercer Langston Hughes, Langston Hughes began writing creatively while he was still a young boy (Barksdale 14). Born in Joplin Missouri, Langston Hughes lived with both his parents until they separated. Because his father immigrated to Mexico and his mother was often away, Hughes was brought up in Lawrence, Kansas, by his grandmother Mary Langston. His grandmother embedded Hughes? sense of dedication. Her second husband (Hughes's grandfather) was a fierce abolitionist. She helped Hughes to see the cause of social justice. Although she told him wonderful stories about Frederick Douglas and Sojourner Truth and took him to hear Booker T. Washington, Hughes did not get all the attention he needed. Furthermore, Hughes felt hurt by both his parents and was unable to understand why he was not allowed to live with either of them. These feelings of rejection caused him to grow up very insecure and unsure of himself. Because his childhood was a lonely time, he fought the loneliness by reading different books. ?Books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas? (Hughes 16). Langston Hughes began writing in high school, and even at this early age was developing the voice that made him famous. High school teacher and classmates recognized Hughes writing talent, and Hughes had his first pieces of verse published in the Central High Monthly, a sophisticated school magazine. An English teacher introduced him to poets such as Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, and these became Hughes?s earliest influences. In 1921 he entered Columbia University, but left after an unhappy year. Langston was very fascinated and influenced by Harlem?s people and the life itself, there. The Big Sea, the first volume of his autobiography, provided ?such a crucial first person account of the era? that much of what we know about the Harlem Renaissance we know from Hughes?