Religion Experience Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Religion Experience - Research Paper Example It is important to note that Roman Catholic and some of its splinter affiliates has the majority believers population among the Christians and the world at large and this explains why this is a globally observed period with internationally recognized periods of Holiday (Catholic University of America,2002). It is important to understand the underlying concepts that constitute the entire season and the subsequent holidays which have a lot of meaning to the Christian faithful. East results from the lent season which constitutes 40 days after which the Pentecost season begins lasting 50 days. Due to its focus on this symbolic event in the life of Jesus from whom the Christian believers derive their spiritual identity, it remains the central point on which all other religious activities calendar is drawn. It is worth to note that the Easter season is dotted with many other special days before and after and one such a day is Ash Wednesday. This an exclusive day which marks the first day of Lent and falls within the months of February 14th and March 11th at an estimated six and half weeks prior to Easter. Archival records of the early Christianity indicate varied length of lent which was later fixed at 40 days from the 7th century. The lent period is set at 40 days which is consistent with the period Jesus took starving in the wilderness. In respect of that doctrine, believers are expected to go through a period of fasting and sacrificing much of their time praying and helping the needy in the society (Wilkinson & Charing, 2004). This solidifies the faith by an action slogan that is much talked about in the bible and other theological scholarly works. Abstinence from sexual intercourse from every believer is equally expected during this special season as it is generally dedicated to the service of God. The most common mark of celebrating this Ash Wednesday is the smearing of ash on the forehead of the participants as a symbol of penance and this is attached to blessings. It is worth to note that some aspects of this event have changed over time. This is in regard to the application of ash on the forehead exclusively on participants which has lately changed to a case where ash is given to the entire congregatio n during the service and all members in attendance are marked. The religious connotations that were directed towards this event have equally changed from the traditional likening of human being to dust and the new idea of preaching repentance (Catholic University of America, 2002). It is also important to notice that this ash is derived from the burnt palm fronds which previously had been used during the Palm Sunday. Within the larger concept of the Easter season, on-catholic churches like the Eastern Orthodox celebrate clean Monday which begins with the lent period and the only difference in the catholic version is skipping of Sunday with a claim that Jesus resurrected on Sunday. During the Easter season, Passion Sunday is also celebrated as a commemoration to the maiden entry of Jesus to Jerusalem before he was crucified some days later. The event actually proceeds through a procession of palm fronds which constitutes blessing and the same are later burnt to produce ash for the ne xt year’s Ash Wednesday. There are fifty days of Easter season between the end of lent and the Holy Saturday. It is important to note that Holy Saturday is very significant in respect to the celebration of the Easter holiday. This is the day when most Christians across the world begin to prepare for Easter services (Wilkinson & Charing, 2004). In the historic periods of the Christianity people engaged in an overnight fasting in preparation for baptismal of new

Marketing Program Failures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing Program Failures - Essay Example Marketing entails the link between economic response patterns and society’s material requirements. In fact, content marketing main aim is to attract customers and retain by consistently curating valuable and relevant content with an intention of changing consumer behavior. This, therefore, means that for any marketing program to succeed, the material requirements must always be appealing. However, if the marketing program has a poor content, then the possibility of the program to fail remains high. A marketing program does not have to be valuable for it to be considered perfect to the audience (Hündgen, 2011). The marketer does not have to overspend in order to achieve quality marketing. Simple programs also sell to the audience. In fact, it needs to be better that the other competing marketing programs. The standards of the marketing program should always be higher. Poor program content does not attract consumers but instead, it creates noise or misleads them, which makes it likely to fail. Poor program content can also be reflected in the grammar of the text. Incorrect grammar in the program sends wrong signals about the program. Therefore, it is always important to proofread and check the spellings of the content before posting. First impressions always send a powerful message to the audience, and they always last a longtime. Being positive in the content will, therefore, sell the company. The content must be done in such a way that it calls the reader into action. It should always tell the reader what they want to hear after reading the program. Many marketing programs simply fail because their recipients never know what to do. Marketers must always close their programs with phrases that give their audience a direction to where they are found. It is quite evident that even some of the best marketing programs are not appreciated

Impact of Interstate Highway System

Impact of Interstate Highway System As the largest public works project in American history, the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways not only changed transportation methods in the United States, but systematically affected certain cultural landscapes across different regions of the country. When the act was signed into federal law in 1956, both the public and officials were unaware of the potential negative and positive influence of highways over urbanism and cityscape issues such as the creation of the idealized American Suburbia, the reduction of urban downtowns, and the destruction of scenic and tourist locations in the United States. These major highway-influenced landscape changes can be categorized into a term called roadscapes. In order to research adequately on what these roadscapes are, the history of the Interstate system must be examined in order to understand how it influences certain cultural and urban landscapes. Although invented years prior, the automobile was introduced into the American mainstream market in the early 1900s, mostly influenced by the invention of the mass production assembly line. As a direct byproduct of the use of automobiles, safer roadways became a concern for public officials across the United States, as most cities and rural infrastructures were still only suitable for horses and carriages. Most of these routes, which were generally unpaved, were created as a result of how the population moved within and between cities, with oftentimes major roads connecting nodal points in downtown districts. When the automobile became the primary use of transportation among most of these unpaved roadways, travel became dangerous due to inconsistent quality measures. During the 1920s, there were no uniform construction methods over these trails, leading to what Dan McNichol stated in his book, The Roads That Built America, chaos reigned over the road (Reid 3). From the 1920s until the mid 1950s, there were multiple factors that convinced public officials and engineers in establishing and constructing a federally controlled highway system that stretches from coast-to-coast America. During World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower moved his armies easily along routes in Nazi Germany, on expressways known as the autobahns. As his signature legislation when elected into office, Eisenhower decided that the United States was in need for a public highway infrastructure similar to that of Germany (Reid 4). Although the superhighways of America were marketed as a public use to boost automobile transportation, Congresss decision during the Eisenhower Administration to enact the law was driven by the ability to move convoys and infantry units much faster across the country than ever before. Another factor that played into the creation of the highway system were alarming anxieties about the Cold War, with the public fearing that Americans needed to q uickly be able to evacuate large cities under threat of nuclear attacks. These major possibilities allowed the highway system to be pushed as a defensive measure in Congress, as the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways (Blas 128). Within the first few years after the construction of the Interstate in some parts of the country, immediate impact on economic growth allowed certain industrial and manufacturing markets to grow, such as farming (Blas 129). However, the highway system led to long-term negative impacts on not only the natural landscape it is built upon, but the cultural and urban landscapes of the already existing cities and communities it connects, or does not connect, in some cases. Despite having numerous effects, the three significant changes further analyzed as part of the roadscape phenomena are the reductions of the importance of urban downtowns, the creation of idealized suburbia, and the lack of access to scenic routes and rural towns along previously existing Federal Routes. The first major roadscape is the Interstates general disregard for existing urban downtowns. Urban downtowns are generated by concentrated populations and also the connections within major points of such city. The determining factors of most urban downtowns and the growth of cities in America are credited to the location of rivers and railroads (Voss 33). However, population changes in most American cities followed the creation of the Interstate System, affecting the importance of urban downtowns. When the Federal Highway Act was being countered in Congress during the early 1950s, traffic was of major concern. One of the primary opposition to the Highway Act was that it should focus more on improving the conditions of the existing Federal Route system, which already generally connected cities and their urban areas. However, Eisenhower believed that with the rise of the automobile, about 5 million sold annually during the 1950s, the network of newly created superhighways should connect cities, but not into their downtown regions, to prevent escalation of traffic problems (Reid 4). Financially, though, the decision to not place the Interstate within highly concentrated urban areas were largely based upon the amount of buying out civilian properties to replace with the Interstate. Both rural areas and lower income districts surrounding downtown areas, which consisted of weaker opposition from the community, were cheaper locations to construct the highway. Therefore, constructing what is known as beltways around cities such as Houston and Washington D.C. led to the first major roadscape phenomena: the fall of urban downtowns and the rise of economy around these once previous rural locations, creating pseudo-urban forms. Houston is a primary example of having major Interstate routes existing as physical belts around the downtown district. Originally designed as a port city connecting to the Gulf of Mexico through the Houston Ship Channel, the downtown area faced economic downfall as the primary modes of industrial transportation shifted to the Interstate, located in the surrounding suburbs. This led to the rise of major pseudo-downtown business districts directly connected to the Interstate such as Southwest Houston and the Energy Corridor. While the beltway concept is used in demonstrating negative roadscapes around cities, two other city interstate systems were generally also constructed: the loop and the spur. The loop system, for ex ample, used in Philadelphia, is similar to a beltway; however, a loop is constructed to bypass the city entirely primarily for traffic concerns. Loops affect downtown areas in the same way beltways do. A spur, which is less common than all three, is constructed as a highway entering from a beltway into a downtown area and terminates into a standard roadway. While all three types of techniques yields different results, the introduction of the Interstate in these cities changed how the urban downtown functions and interacts with the rest of the city proper. Therefore, pseudo-downtowns are part of the roadscape phenomena. The second major roadscape analyzed is the role of the Interstate in the idealized American Suburbia. The notion of suburbia indirectly correlates to the rise of economic activity outside of the urbanized form. However, the idea of suburbs can be traced back to the 1920s, as a result of rapidly growing cities. Generally, civilians of inner-city areas did not move out to the suburbs because of the lack of ease of transport, even with the automobile. Suburbs were being slowly developed around World War I, but it was the introduction of the Interstate that greatly increased the suburbanization process, in relationship to the rise of automobile production. As the beltways around congested cities were constructed, businesses and job opportunities grew away from the inner-city (Blas 130). The idealized American Suburbia was then born, an area that was not densely populated, consisted rows of picturesque houses, and did not suffer congested physical conditions of the urban landscape. The major factor introduced in separating the ideal American Suburbs from the contextual meaning of 1920s suburb is the ability to access the interstate easily and travel to and from urban areas, which became locations not for living and culture but for working and business ventures. The interstate eventually would lead to the demise of the city as the center of life and culture (Cioc 676). Most Federal freeways are located in small-scale to medium-scale residential zones, which ties directly to suburban locations in larger cities. In fact, in most of the urban metropolitan areas in the United States, the interstate only accounts for 3% of all roadways within the urban landscape, yet they yield 40% of daily traffic (Brown 174). Highways also promoted the creation of entirely new suburban locations in the United States. In the early 1970’s, the interstate allowed people to move from older-created urban cities in the north and northeast states, such as Philadelphia and Boston, to generally newer states in the â€Å"Sunbelt† region, where climates were favored, such as Miami and Phoenix (Blas 130). Before the Interstate, migrating from Megalopolis to newer urban cities such as those in California were too costly and too timely. While the American Suburb is a unique type of roadscape, it can be seen as a direct correlation to the demise of urban downtowns and creation of pseudo-downtowns, as previously analyzed. However, the final and vastly different major roadscape phenomena involves the relationship of the Interstate and the once used scenic and tourist routes. Predating the creation of the Interstate Act in 1956, one chief proposal envisioned by Thomas MacDonald, the head of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads, was that the US Route roadways, built in the mid 1920’s, should simply be repaved and improved with modern construction, in order to handle the ever increasing load of vehicular traffic. However, headed mostly by engineers, the proposal to build superhighways across the landscape and connect urban areas without increasing traffic on currently existing roadways, such as the US Route system, was eventually favored by the Eisenhower administration (Reid 3). However, since the 1920’s, the US Route system connected not only existing urban landscapes, but spurred scenic and tourist growth in rural towns and locations alongside these routes. When the Interstate paved way for the ability to drive over rivers and through mountains, some cities grew, but even more places declined economically as traffic passed further away (Blas 131). There are numerous cases in which cities became ghost towns due to the realignment of traffic due to the Interstate system, such as Route 66 and Highway 301. Route 66 was colloquially known as the Main Street of America, which connected Chicago, ran through Missouri and Arizona, and into Santa Monica, California. During the Dust Bowl, Route 66 grew in popularity as people migrated west. Most of the Scenic Route designations alongside Route 66 were located in New Mexico and Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert. However, when the Interstate was established, most of these towns, which were economically supported by gas, declined and eventually a few of these towns were deserted, such as Montoya, New Mexico, and Canyon Diablo, Arizona. Route 66 usually took two weeks during its heyday, whereas the trip from Chicago to Santa Monica on the Interstate can be completed in 29 hours. Another example is Highway 301, which caused similar fates in cities along the route, such as Starke, Florida. However, when the Interstate expanded even further away years after the traffic declined on Highway 301, Starke city officials did not object to the new proposal. They foresaw that despite lower traffic numbers, the economy of Starke would still strive on the charm of Highway 301, a scenic attraction (Blas 131). By the late 1970’s, it was clear that the accessibility of the Interstate system was greatly favored over scenic routes, causing Starke to essentially turn into a ghost town. This leads to the obvious difference that scenic highways, which were hampered by the lack of advanced civil engineering techniques during its construction in the 1920’s, are contoured by the landscape it sits on, whereas Interstates were simply tunneled through mountains and bridged over rivers and valleys where deemed necessary for shortage of travel time. As the third major phen omena, abandoned scenic routes and the disregard to small rural towns can be considered another type of roadscape. During the research of the Interstate system the United States, it became evident that even though it is one of the most, if not, the most innovative application of technology and systematic networking in the United States, it led to a different and new phenomena known as roadscapes. These roadscapes were changes in cultural and urban landscapes directly influenced by the establishment of the Federal Highway system, whether positive or negative. However, while it generated numerous ghost towns along scenic routes and toppled the organizational strategies of urban cities, it allowed the United States economy to succeed under the modern way of life, including the automobile and fast travel. References Blas, Elisheva. The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways: The Road to Success? The History Teacher 44.1 (2010): 127-42. Ebscohost. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. Brown, Jeffery, Eric Morris, and Brian Taylor. Planning for Cars in Cities. Journel of the American Planning Association 75.2 (2009): 161-71. Ebscohost. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. Cioc, Mark. The Culture of Highways. Environmental History 10.4 (2005): 675-76. JSTOR. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. Reid, Robert. Paving America From Coast to Coast. Special Report: Civil Engineering (2015): 1-9. Ebscohost. Web. 5 Feb. 2015. Voss, Paul R., and Guangqing Chi. Highways and Population Change. Rural Sociology 71.1 (2006): 33-58. Print.

Susan Smith :: essays research papers fc

Susan Smith In the blink of an eye, North America was informed of Susan Smith's tragic loss of her two young boys. No one would have guessed that such a violent crime could have occurred in a small town . Throughout the ordeal , police began to see the flaws in Susan Smith's story. This lead to suspicions, causing the police to make Susan Smith their prime suspect. Days later, Susan Smith confessed to the hideous crime she committed, leaving the nation in disgust. The actions of Susan Smith, which were based on her background and the events in question have left a profound social and legal impact on society's views of violent crimes. Susan Smith lived what most would consider a normal life up to the time before the event concerning the murder of her two children. The only exceptional incident in her past was the suicide of her father when she was eight years old. Susan met her future spouse David Smith, at the age of nine- teen. The couple later went on to have two children, Michael and Alex. She was described as "well-known and well-liked" by her friends, neighbours and relatives. None of her friends or neighbours could have expected Susan Smith to commit such a horrible crime. The event took place in a small town in Union, South Carolina. On October 25th Susan Smith explained that she was "heading east on Highway 49 when she stopped at a red light at Monarch Mills about 9:15 p.m., and a man jumped into the passenger seat." She described the man "as a black male in his late 20s to early 30s, wearing a plaid shirt, jeans and a toboggan-type hat." She said that the abductor held her at gun point and told her to drive. She drove northeast of Union for about 4 miles. Then the man suddenly told her to stop the car. Mrs. Smith said she asked if she should pull over, but the man said for her to stop in the middle of the road. She claimed that she begged for the release of her two children, who were still strapped in the back seat, but it was to no avail. The town sent out thousands of volunteers to search through "over five hundred square miles for the children." The story later went national but there was still no sign of the children or the attacker. The town Sheriff, John Wells, with the help of an FBI computer system went after every lead that came in from psychics, crackpots and well-meaning citizens.

Commentary on Sonnet ¨Atlantis¨

â€Å"Around 350 BC, Plato wrote about a beautiful island in the Atlantic Ocean that went under the ocean waves in one day and one night†. â€Å"Atlantis – A Lost Sonnet† by Eavan Boland does not follow from head to toe the standards of a sonnet, being able to identify it by the length of 14 lines and its GG rhyme scheme at the end. This poem is able to move from a question about Atlantis to a memory of the author and finally to the overall meaning about memories. Boland is able to create a close and personal atmosphere throughout this sonnet through a first person narrator, the use of word choice and rhetorical questions. It is the type of narrator in a poem that helps the reader identify itself with. In this case, â€Å"Atlantis† is written in first person, meaning that the reader relates to the character`s personal thoughts and feelings. At the beginning of the poem she emphasizes the word â€Å"I† in relation to her thoughts about the myth of the missing city, â€Å"How on earth did it happen, I used to wonder†(1). In this way making the reader enter and try to understand the authors view on this surreal event. While at the centre she changes the use of the word â€Å"I† to describe her feeling, â€Å"I miss our old city — †¦ you and I meeting†(7-8). Explaining a major change in the meaning of the poem since she is no longer talking about Atlantis but if not on her past love, someone she misses. Being able to compare them both since their overall meaning of lost and disappeared forever is the same. Moreover, Boland chooses to further on explain the meaning in her poem based on the simple word choice that compares both scenarios. Straightforward words like under, missed and drowned are used in this poem because of their double meaning:† one fine day gone under? (4) †¦ Surely a great city must have been missed? (6) †¦ ave their sorrow a name and drowned it. † (14). At the end we see how this words flow perfectly with both ideas. Given that Atlantis is recognized as a city that drowned and left no evidence, we say it is hidden underneath the ocean. This idea of disappearing is a perfect example that the author is able to connect to her personal emotions of someone she really misses and will never come back to her life which would actually make the reader think about how the author decided to use this city as a representation of her now gone lover. So why is a rhetorical question applied in this sonnet? It is primarily to chieve a stronger and direct statement with no need of answering the question. In this poem there are two questions at the start and middle part; â€Å"one fine day gone under? (4)†¦ Surely a great city must have been missed? † (6), both of this are talking about Atlantis. In a sort of way, the author is being sarcastic because neither she nor we will ever know the true answer since it is a legend with thousands of explanations but neither one is 100% accurate. At the end, this types of questions cause the reader to connect to her judgments in a stronger way since they would also want to know how a city may disappear right under our noses. As a final point, the message of this powerful poem is understood in its last two most important lines, â€Å"to convey that what is gone is gone forever and never found it. And so, in the best traditions of †¦ where we come from, they gave their sorrow a name and drowned it. † (12-14). Boland?s simple rhyme, imagery, and use of personification create the final resolution of the author’s feelings and thoughts towards a past which cannot be recovered except with your memory.

Manegerial Rolls and Skills

Answer. To meet the many demands of performing their functions, managers assume multiple roles. Henry mintzberg has identified ten roles common to the work of all managers. The ten roles are divided into three groups: interpersonal, informational, and decisional. The informational roles link all managerial work together. The interpersonal roles ensure that information is provided. The decisional roles make significant use of the information. The performance of managerial roles and the requirements of these roles can be played at different times by the same manager and to different degrees depending on the level and function of management. The ten roles are described individually, but they form an integrated whole. The idea of a role comes from sociology and is the pattern of actions expected of a person in his activities involving others. It arises as a result of the position that he occupies in a group in a given situation. Thus, a manager who occupies different positions in different situations plays different roles because people in each situation have different expectations of him concerning his functions. Interpersonal Roles: The three interpersonal roles are primarily concerned with interpersonal relationships. In the figurehead role, the manager represents the organization in all matters of formality. The top-level manager represents the company legally and socially to those outside of the organization. The Informational Role: The direct relationships with people in the interpersonal roles place the manager in a unique position to get information. Thus, the three informational roles are primarily concerned with the information aspects of managerial work. The Decisional Role: The unique access to information places the manager at the centre of organizational decision-making. There are four decisional roles. In the entrepreneur role, the manager initiates change. Q. 4 What are the factors influencing perception? † question. The assignment question is written for SMU MBA MB0038 assignment. We already have shared some solved assignments for MB0038 – Classification of Personality Types of Myers and Briggs and Methods of Shaping Behavior. Answer. Factors Influencing Perception: A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes distort perception. These factors can reside: 1)In the perceiver ) In the object or target being perceived or 3) In the context of the situation in which the perception is made 1. Characteristics of the perceiver: Several characteristics of the perceiver can affect perception. When an individual looks at a target and attempts to interpret what he or she stands for, that interpretation is heavily influenced by personal characteristics of the individual perceiver. The major characteristics of the perceiver influencing percep tion are: a) Attitudes: The perceiver’s attitudes affect perception. This attitude will doubtless affect his perceptions of the female candidates he interviews. b) Moods: Moods can have a strong influence on the way we perceive someone. We think differently when we are happy than we do when we are depressed. c) Motives: Unsatisfied needs or motives stimulate individuals and may exert a strong influence on their perceptions. d) Self-Concept: Another factor that can affect social perception is the perceiver’s self-concept. An individual with a positive self-concept tends to notice positive attributes in another person. ) Interest: The focus of our attention appears to be influenced by our interests. Because our individual interest differs considerably, what one person notices in a situation can differ from what others perceive. f) Cognitive Structure: Cognitive Structure, an individual’s pattern of thinking, also affects perception. Some people have a tendency to perceive physical traits, such as height, weight, and appearances more readil y. g) Expectations: Finally, expectations can distort your perceptions in that you will see what you expect to see. The research findings of the study conducted by Sheldon S Zalkind and Timothy W Costello on some specific characteristics of the perceiver reveal knowing oneself makes it easier to see others accurately. One’s own characteristics affect the characteristics one is likely to see in others. People who accept themselves are more likely to be able to see favourable aspects of other people. Accuracy in perceiving others is not a single skill. These four characteristics greatly influence how a person perceives others in the environmental situation.