Skating on Thin Ice :: essays research papers

Skating on Thin Ice   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Olympic Games have been around for hundreds of years. They are something that people everywhere around the world look forward to all year long. Athlete or not, everyone knows what the Olympics are. With the extreme popularity comes extreme broadcasting. Millions of people turned on their televisions and radios, read newspapers and magazines, and searched the web to hear the results and news about the games this winter. Broadcasting feeds people. They crave to hear the latest scandal, see footage of the most recent event, and be informed of what is going on in the world that they live in. This year the figure skating competition drew a particularly enormous audience. Because a scandal was involved, figure skating received special attention, which left the sport with a new reputation. Media is a powerful thing; this was proven this year during the winter Olympic games.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A lot was heard, and learned, about figure skating during the past month of Olympic coverage. This year, a problem with judging and secret deals caused two gold medals to be given out; one to the Russians and one to the Canadians. What happened off the ice seemed juicier than the actual competition, according to many sources of media. What is interesting, is that controversy is not uncommon to the sport of figure skating. A Newsweek article, â€Å"The Sleazy Side of Skating,† gives many examples of past figure skating scandals. In 1908, at the London Olympics, Russian Nicolai Panin withdrew from competition, saying the judges were stacked against him. At the 1936 Games, a Hungarian judge placed the Hungarian skaters second and third, which stood out when no other judge had placed them higher than seventh. In 1927 at the World Championships in Oslo, a Norwegian skater placed first, thanks to three Norwegian judges. That led the International Skating Union to restrict each country to one judge. Although these are significant examples of figure skating trickery, they were not really important until now. Journalists are researching the history of figure skating, and making known scandals that had occurred in the past. In 1993, Tonya Harding’s husband paid $6,500 to have Nancy Kerrigan injured so his wife could have an advantage. The Harding-Kerrigan scandal was this country’s first real taste of the drama that goes on with figure skating. Because a scandal involving money and crime took place, it was shown all over television, and talked about on the radio.

Individual human identity Essay

It also means that importance of social class decreasing, but instead of class the role of status increased rapidly. For instance to show status people buy expensive cars and exclusive clothes. Differences in social classes could influence personal identity, because identity related to social groups to which the identity belongs, for example nationality, culture, ethnicity, sexuality, gender and class. First of all identity is â€Å"a sense of self that develops as the child differentiates from parents and family and take a place in society† (Jary and Jary, 1991:p665). Identity also formed through some combinations of individual choice and structured group membership (for example in Arab countries Muslim women can`t drive the car). In additional, people could express their aspects of identity in a different way. For example clothing, which clothes choose to wear to show gender, post – modernism or class; language, which words to use when people speak with fiends to show class, educational background and gender. It is goes without saying that even though ‘class’ no longer exists, but we could easily identify person`s class, status and possessions from their clothing and way of behaving. The principle of the identity is closely linked to the idea of culture. As I have already mentioned identities could also be formed through the cultures to which people belong to. â€Å"Culture is the language, beliefs, values and norms, customs, dress, diet, roles, knowledge and skills which make up ‘the way of life’ of an individual society â€Å"(Ralph Linton, 1945). For example norms and diet, in the UK at 17 o`clock most people have their couple of tea. Culture includes teaching and learning such process like socialization. We gain our identity through â€Å"socialisation†. Socialisation is the process by which we, as individuals, become members of our society or culture. We are also active participants in this process – we decide what to accept or reject. Process of learning culture or socialization includes family, school, peer, media and religion. For example: family, your parents give you name, first beliefs and tastes; school, teaches person rules and gives knowledge; religion, teach people to appreciate some values; peers, teach person how to socialize; media, gives people ideas about gender, status and class. Modern sociologists also think that being of a different class may involve differences in culture, economic circumstances, educational status, dietary preferences, housing conditions, property ownership and power. For example, differences in culture, people who are from middle and upper – middle class in free time visit museums and theatres, whereas working class visits pubs. One of the important factors in people’s culture and identity is social mobility, the ability to move from one class to another. For example, moving from the working to the middle class. Nowadays class, gender, sex, race and kinship have less influence on human identity. It is becoming more important human`s talent, knowledge, ambition and hard – working abilities for achieving a good position in the class system. World sociology has changed greatly, beginning of the XXI centuries gave to the UK a lot of new. New national socio – economic classifying statistics (NS – SEC), which replaced Registrar Generals classification. New sociologists have another view on dividing society into social classes. For instance class has been defined consisted of eight major classes. The first four is middle class, which include higher managerial and professional occupations, lower, intermediate occupations, small employers and own account workers. The other four is manual workers, including lower supervisory and technical, semi – routine occupations, routine occupations and never worked people. A big and new tendency had happened in modern Britain: the number of manual workers declines year by year. If for example in 1911 a percentage of manual workers was about 81%, in the year 2000 this percentage twice declined and become about 40% of total workforce. This become possible first of all because of developing new technologies: technique makes most manual work. Secondly because of changing of economical situation such as increasing life standards and education system. Traditionally social classes have been the main concept for understanding society, its behaviour or social conflicts, and predict the main movements of social behavior. Today`s sociologists in developed countries see classes like a historical phenomenon. The same view on social classes has Pakulski and Waters. They thought that class is no longer important factor in a human identity. According to Pakulski, we could pick out four main features such as cultuaralism, fragmentation, autonomization and resignification. For instance autonomization, which means that today`s people are not told what to do, they do what makes sense to them. For example, British working class is less likely to vote for the British Labour Party than it once was. To sum up, in this essay we discussed the different aspects of inequalities; we have seen that the UK is one of the most unequal societies. Inequalities of wealth, which means that one tenth of the UK population owns more than seventy percent of total wealth. Inequalities of income are significant, but welfare policy of the government such as taxation does have a huge effect in reducing the incomes between rich and poor. Finally, because of the government policy and developing new technologies, class has lost its power in the collective sense, however class would still remain fundamental to culture and human.

The Middle Stone Ages Most Advanced Stone Toolmakers

The Middle Stone Age's Most Advanced Stone Toolmakers Howiesons Poort and Stillbay industries of southern Africa are among the most advanced stone tool industries of the African Middle Stone Age, identified at a handful of archaeological sites, mostly caves in South Africa. Recent investigations at Sibudu Cave, as additional data supporting the earlier excavations, have achieved a timeline of between ~77,000-70,000 years before the present for Stillbay and ~66,000-58,000 bp for Howiesons Poort. Howiesons Poort and Stillbay Living These sites contain lithic stone industries that are comparable to European Upper Paleolithic in their sophistication, yet they date fully 20,000 to 30,000 years earlier than the UP. Stone tools from these industries include crescent-shaped blades (arguably hafted) and lanceolate projectile points. Bone artifacts include tools, perhaps even bone arrow points. Other advances shown by Howiesons Poort individuals include abstract portable art, in the form of ochre which has been engraved in a cross-hatched pattern. Some scholars have pointed to similarly sophisticated industries in eastern Africa and Asia, at dates ranging about 30,000 to 50,000 BP. This may thus represent the migration of Early Modern Humans from South Africa beginning about 60,000 years ago along the Southern Dispersal Route, well before the European colonization by Africans leading to the European Upper Paleolithic. Dating the Middle Stone Age in South Africa Recent examination of dates from several sites in South Africa by Jacobs and colleagues found that Howiesons Poort and Still Bay are clearly separate cultures, separated by several thousand years. Howiesons Poort/Still Bay sites South Africa: Pinnacle Point, Rose Cottage Cave, Blombos Cave, Border Cave, Klasies River Caves, Sibudu Cave Sources This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to the Middle Paleolithic, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.Backwell, Lucinda, Francesco dErrico, and Lyn Wadley 2008 Middle Stone Age bone tools from the Howiesons Poort layers, Sibudu Cave, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(6):1566-1580.Henshilwood CS, and Dubreuil B. 2011. The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort, 77-59 ka: Symbolic Material Culture and the Evolution of the Mind during the African Middle Stone Age. Current Anthropology 52(3):361-400.Henshilwood, Christopher S., et al. 2002 Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa. Science 295:1278-1280.Jacobs, Zenobia, et al. 2008. Ages for the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa: Implications for Human Behavior and Dispersal. Science 322(5902):733-735.Lombard, Marlize, and Justin Pargeter 2008 Hunting with Howiesons Poort segments: pilot experimental study and the functional interpretation of archaeological tools. Jour nal of Archaeological Science 35(9):2523-2531. McCall, Grant S. 2007 Behavioral ecological models of lithic technological change during the later Middle Stone Age of South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 34(10):1738-1751.Mellars, Paul 2006 Going East: New Genetic and Archaeological Perspectives on the Modern Human Colonization of Eurasia. Science 313(5788):796-800.Mellars, Paul 2006 Why did modern human populations disperse from Africa ca. 60,000 years ago? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103 (25):9381-9386. Free downloadWadley, Lyn and Moleboheng Mohapi 2008 A Segment is not a Monolith: evidence from the Howiesons Poort of Sibudu, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(9):2594-2605.

Media essays

Media essays The case that I decided to focus on is an older abuse case, but it has recently been resolved in the courts. It is a child abuse case involving James and Bonnie Zeleski. They were both charged with abusing their infant daughter. The child was brought to the hospital with a fracture in each leg, a fracture in each arm, a thigh fracture, three broken ribs, a ripped esophagus, pneumonia, malnourished and several other cuts and bruises. The girl was transferred to an Omaha hospital. The father, James, was charged on June 3, 1998 with Class 4 Felony Child Abuse. His wife, Bonnie, was later charged and convicted of a Class 3 Felony. James was sentenced to three years probation and six months in jail. His wife was sentenced to 15 to 18 months in prison. I think that this case was fairly portrayed by the media. I know at the time, there were several letters to the editor and opinion printed on the subject, but the Grand Island Independent seemed to be fair and stick to the facts. It was a horrible crime and I think they did a good job being unbiased. I think that it is a good idea to publicize crimes like this. From my other studies, I have learned that the informal sanctions, public humiliation and shame, are far more effective than the formal sanctions in preventing crime. When people who are having a hard time dealing with being a parent see something like this in the media, they may stop to think about their actions. A good idea would be to run several articles on where parents can go to for help. The combination of the two, may help prevent this from happening to another child. As a mother I have a definite interest in this crime. I cannot even begin to understand how anyone could do something like that to someone so helpless. I am also interested in this case from the legal perspective and how the case was resolved in the court system. I personally think that the sente...

Can I Learn to Like It essays

Can I Learn to Like It essays Can I learn to like this music and really want to listen to it? This question, or a question of similarity, was asked in my Music 100 class by a fellow student. He was asking our instructor if he could really learn to like classical music. Other students laughed at his insistence to know if he set forth effort, would he desire listening to the music as he did popular music of today. The answer to this question can be found in the article, Learning to Like Classical Music from Etude Magazine. The article states you need to understand background about the music to better appreciate it and desire listening to the music. The article had this to say about learning to like classical music, Most certainly it can be done, and to the same extent and with the same success that any set of earnest students will learn to enjoy good literature. The article states that you acquire a taste for the music just like any other artistic form, and with this effort a reward of something beautiful will be obtained. The article offers this advice however, By way of caution, do not try to scale Parnassus at a bound. Another words, you need to learn slowly and begin with music that is easier to understand. It mentions selections from Schumanns Album for the Young, and others that offer simpler movements and characteristics easier to listen for. Some of the characteristics it states you should look for are compositions offering attractive melodies, good harmony and pleasing rhythm. The article also discusses a musical idea involving hearing real language within a piece of music. Although it is not mentioned in the article, we have learned in class that this is called word-painting. This involves listening to the music and hearing what is taking place within the story of the music. The article uses the hooves of galloping horses in Schumanns Reiterstuck as ...

Business Opportunities in Food and Beverage Industry Essay

Business Opportunities in Food and Beverage Industry - Essay Example Food is a very defining element of a culture. Eating different kinds of foods does more than just satiating the craving for taste; it provides a greater insight into other cultures. This paper discusses a business idea of establishing a South Asian Tea Restaurant in New York. Americans generally like the South Asian foods a lot. â€Å"one should not be surprised if a seven-year-old American kid walks up and asks for aloo mater samosas and his mom is keen on having the complimentary chai† (Deccan Chronicle, 2013). Popular food items include but are not limited to samosas, pakoras, halwa poori, murgh cholay, and lassi. These foods are not only very tasty, they also have a high nutritious value since they are all made from natural products and do not include the use of any preservatives or chemicals that is a big plus point. â€Å"Everything is made right there, even the samosas(no frozen boxed samosas here), pakoras, and chutneys(not jarred like most places serve) are all made fresh here and delicious† (Justin, 2013). The fundamental purpose of establishing any business is to make money. Most of these food items are extremely cheap to make and yet sell for a very large price primarily because of their nutritional value, their exceptional taste, their exotic looks, and their cultural affiliations. Even more, when these food items are made in bulk, they become all the cheaper to make and more profitable to sell at the same time. At a famous Indian restaurant, â€Å"While Samosa and Idli Sambar are available for $5.50, one has to spend $7 for Masala dosa and $7.5 for two pieces of gulab jamun† (First Post, 2012). Considering the ingredients used in the making of a samosa, one samosa might cost the owner no more than $0.15. Comparison of this to the amount it sells or provides evidence of the profitability of the business. The other food items are similarly cheap but with a huge profit margin. It takes careful planning and strategy to establish s uch a business at the right point. The owners should look for an area where the population of South Asians is relatively higher as compared to other regions in America since the prime consumers of this business are people from such countries as Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Such areas are not hard to find since most of these families tend to live together in neighborhoods since they have common cultural values and find one another helpful in America. In order to have an edge over other such restaurants, the owners need to pay special attention toward ambiance. Songs of old legendary singers like Noor Jehan, Lata, Rafi, Mukesh, and Kishore can provide the place that extra boost that it requires to appeal massive in-pour of consumers. South Asians mostly like to have samosas and pakoras with tea during the lunch breaks and as snacks, so these items should be available all day long whereas other items like halwa poori and murgh cholay should be made available in the breakfast. Menu for lunch and dinner can be decided depending upon how large the owner wants the business to be. Establishment of this business successfully imparts the need to advertise it in such a way that the benefits of these food items in general and what they offer in comparison to the typical Western food, in particular, are easily noticeable for the audiences. To achieve this, the contemporary issue of diseases caused by consumption of chemicals needs.

System Overview of Banks Global Market Business Term Paper

System Overview of Banks Global Market Business - Term Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that in the present scenario, the banking industry has changed in an immense manner owing to different factors that include technological innovation and international market competitions. Additionally, there are other factors that include increased disintermediation, corporate behavioral changes, and deregulation in relation to financial services. The banking crisis is also accountable for changes in banking operations as well as structures. The changes are adopted by global banks with the intention of ensuring that business operations are conducted in a stabilized manner. Subsequently, global banks are identified to develop alliances with domestic as well as foreign-owned banks in order to minimize risk exposure. Presently, global banks in response to the changing business scenario have adopted different measures which include enhanced quantity along with a quality of capital and risk coverage with the aim of ascertaining that the banking operations are conducted successfully. Moreover, global banks are identified to develop strict regime based on risk management and enhanced regulatory framework in order to manage bossiness operations for better sustainable growth. The global banking sector is developing in a rapid way. The banking sector is also identified to face critical challenges that include customer demand and increased operational costs among others. In this changing competitive business scenario, global banks are required to conduct their operations abiding by adequate financial regulations with the aim of performing business operations systematically. Correspondingly, the global market business of banks comprises different systems which include booking system, valuation system, sub-ledger system and general ledger system.