THINGS FALL APART Essay examples -- essays research papers

Summary and Analysis of: Things Fall Apart   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many lessons that we learn in life. Chinua Achebe?s Things Fall Apart teaches one of life?s greatest lesson. True, lasting happiness matters more than ones social rank or ones rank of wealth. Okonkwo, who is the main character in this book, is trying his best to be the man that is father was not. His father was a well known bum and a man who owed a lot of debts. Okonkwo felt that men are always suppose to be strong, leaders, and do what people perceive are typical male tasks. But his father, Unoka, did not fit his description of what he felt a real man should be. He was ashamed of his father.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Okonkwo had an obsession. His obsession was his pride. And this led to him losing his head and everything that worked so had to obtain. One of his greatest fears that were portrayed in this book was that of showing any type of emotions, affection, or sorrow. He felt that showing them would make him look weak. It is okay to express yourself. That is part of being human. To protect his own image Okonkwo would do anything. He began to search for wealth and status by asking other villagers who were wealthy for support. He was loaned seed yams. This was just enough for him to begin a productive crop. He had to start at the bottom and work his way up to the top. He was able to do just that. He gained a very high standing in the Ibo tribe. And his ultimate goal was to become an elde...

Ethical Practices of Computer and Internet Technology

Computer and Internet technology use In the workplace gives rise to questionable ethical practices among employees as well as managers. For the last three (plus) decades the increasing availability and advances in technology has improved productivity; however the use of computers and Internet in the workplace leads to temptation to misuse the resource for personal gain.Employees and managers accessing private employee information for personal gain, improper data access to hose who are not privy to it and software copying were a few of the concerns discussed in the 30 year old article Computer Ethics: Questions Arise on Misuse in Business (Pollack, 1983). The social media boom of the last decade has brought with It additional questionable ethical violations In the workplace. Time stealing Is discussed in the New York Times online article Opting to Blow the Whistle or Choosing to Walk Away (Tugged, 2013).It states, â€Å"According to the Ethics Resource Center, a nonprofit research or ganization, the No. Misconduct observed ? by a third of 4,800 respondents ? was misuse of company time† (Tugged, 2013 Para. 4). Eric Swenson discusses the stealing of time through excessive personal use of Internet streaming and social media in his video Business Ethics & Stealing Time, by Eric Swenson, Demand Media Video (Swenson, n. D. ). In the words of Eric Swenson, misuse of company time Is time stealing. According to a study conducted by Eric Swenson, â€Å"The average employee in a white collar business spends 3. Hours daily on personal internet usage† (Swenson, n. D. ) However, he broaches the question does this matter? He calls the workers of the present and future, 2020 to be exact, â€Å"millennial employees who want to be connected and be Involved socially' (Swenson, n. D. ) Swenson states that employees now want to be online streaming videos, media, and music. Is this the way people work today? The consideration he gives is that he is more concerned about the productivity of the employee versus the exact method or use of time that it takes to get the work accomplished.My conclusion Is there Is definitely an ethical line to be drawn in personal use of computers and Internet technology within the work place. I would ascertain that if privacy is violated for personal gain or technology or work product is stolen as stated in the first article, it is most definitely ethical violation. As far time stealing, where the line gets fuzzier, It should be Judged on whether the time spent on Internet or social media has any impact on the productivity of the employee or benefit to their specific job.

A Critique of Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickel and Dimed, was certainly a wonderful read and is verily able to open the reader’s eyes to a reality that is usually set aside by many. The book was originally a compilation of her researches as she went undercover to write about people who had to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Those people whose wages were below the minimum wage and were so busy with work they were not able to pursue their own interests and who were also supporting dependents. As a whole, the author was able to document her experiences as she wrote in her journal her everyday experiences. Through this, the readers were able to have a glimpse into the lives of people she had worked with as a waitress at Florida, a healthcare aide at Maine and a salesperson of Wal-Mart at Minnesota. To be able to do this properly, though, she had to fake her qualifications and disguise her motives from her fellow workers. As a journalist, she also had to restrain herself from pointing out her political views to her colleagues. I think her method of studying the people may have some flaws, some biases. Below would be several of them. First of all, she wasn’t really like them. These people has had different experiences and lived in a different environment unlike hers. Such factors would have made an impact on how the subjects would act as people, as workers. The author mentioned that her co-workers didn’t even ask about insurance or other possible benefits included on the job they were on and just accepted what their boss said. If the workers were people who knew about such things, they would probably ask. Then, again, even if they knew, most of them would not have time to think about such benefits as a whole because they would be too busy trying to ake ends meet anyway. Then, as one who had to experience the life of a poor worker, she was not able to live out the role very well. One, she did not have anyone who depended on her earnings—no family or siblings, unlike most of the subjects she studied. She did not feed anyone else other than herself nor did she have to consider the medical problems of other people. The author also did not trust religious organizations even when her coworkers were telling her that it would be a great help. She always refused to accept money from charities and other such organizations. People in actual situations would not be refusing such help; in fact, they would have been the ones who would be asking for help from such organizations, whether they believed in its cause or not. She also insisted on living alone, thus pay her rent by herself. She always seemed to talk about this issue but was never really able to solve such an easy problem. Real people would have gone and looked for roommates to share the rent of the house. That way, she could have saved more money and may even develop a relationship with other people. The last part of the statement was also one of the things she failed to do. Humans are social beings, that’s a fact even when there are a few who say they prefer to live alone. All people need each other and so far, the human race is progressing because of helping each other. The same principle still happens and is certainly one of the most effective ways to survive—to help one another. The author, unfortunately, was not able to build a proper relationship with her co-workers. She was not able to build a support network which most people actually have. I believe that this is one of the most vital parts in the lives of the working class. Yeah, they may be feeding more mouths and spending more, but the human companionship, the support, these extra people are giving to the workers actually motivate them to go on fighting and working. There was also this part on the book where she walks out in the middle of her shift as a worker in a restaurant just two weeks after being hired. The truth is, real people would not have done this, simply because they did not have the liberty to do so. They just could not afford to lose a job, however hard it is or low paying it is. And speaking of low-income, hard, stressful jobs, she also irresponsibly argues against corporations giving such small wages without considering the economics behind it like insurance and overhead. These things are work requirements and are deducted from the employees’ salaries. Of course, with those things, and probably additional loans, the employees would really get a small wage after all the deductions are done. Also, the fact that she seemed to give her own thoughts and comments on the issues that were tackled on the book made it less like professional journalism. Ehrenreich thought that the book was the product of undercover reporting, but it certainly lacked a bit of that sense because of the lack of objectivity of reporting the events. She was not even able to tell or relate the lives her subjects were living. She could have picked a person, tried to get to know him and be able to relate in the book more concretely the problems and issues the person was facing. Instead, the book was actually, in another point of view, mostly about her and how she coped up with living the life of such people. Sure, there were the other characters but it almost always seemed like she was the hero since the whole thing revolved around herself. The subjects she was supposed to be studying were like backdrops in her play. She really should have focused more on the lives of the people she was studying. She should have delved more on exactly how these people lived, what are the exact problems they were facing, if possible, what these people wanted, wished, they could do for themselves and what the government could do for them. I’m not saying that Ehrenreich was all the way wrong in her methods and because of that, her book was essentially ineffective. The truth is, although it would have been better with the above suggestion, it has, in effect, really opened the eyes of its readers of the many people who have jobs but still really are poor. The book certainly disproved the mindset that if one has a job, then everything’s going to be alright. It also might have made people reconsider their thoughts about the poor, saying that they are like that because they are lazy. The book shows that there are hardworking people, but unfortunately, even with all the jobs they are balancing, they are still not able to get out of the sticky web called poverty. Works Cited Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2001.

Description and Examples of Variables

Description and Examples of Variables A variable is a name for a place in the computers memory where you store some data. Imagine a very large warehouse with lots of storage bays, tables, shelves, special rooms etc. These are all places where you can store something. Lets imagine we have a crate of beer in the warehouse. Where exactly is it located? We wouldnt say that it is stored 31 2 from the west wall and 27 8 from the north wall. In programming terms we also wouldnt say that my total salary paid this year is stored in four bytes starting at location 123,476,542,732 in RAM. Data in a PC The computer will place variables in different locations each time our program is run. However, our program knows exactly where the data is located. We do this by creating a variable to refer to it and then let the compiler handle all the messy details about where it is actually located. It is far more important to us to know what type of data we will be storing in the location. In our warehouse, our crate might be in section 5 of shelf 3 in the drinks area. In the PC, the program will know exactly where its variables are located. Variables Are Temporary They exist just as long as they are needed and are then disposed of. Another analogy is that variables are like numbers in a calculator. As soon as you hit the clear or power off buttons, the display numbers are lost. How Big Is a Variable As big as is needed and no more. The smallest a variable can be is one bit and the largest is millions of bytes. Current processors handle data in chunks of 4 or 8 bytes at a time (32 and 64 bit CPUs), so the bigger the variable, the longer it will take to read or write it. The size of the variable depends on its type. What Is a Variable Type? In modern programming languages, variables are declared to be of a type. Apart from numbers, the CPU does not make any kind of distinction between the data in its memory. It treats it as a collection of bytes. Modern CPUs (apart from those in mobile phones) can usually handle both integer and floating point arithmetic in hardware. The compiler has to generate different machine code instructions for each type, so knowing what the type of variable helps it generate optimal code. What Types of Data Can a Variable Hold? The fundamental types are these four. Integers (both signed and unsigned) 1,2,4 or 8 bytes in size. Usually referred to as ints.Floating Point Numbers up to 8 bytes in size.Bytes. These are organized in 4s or 8s (32 or 64 bits) and read in and out of the CPUs registers.Text strings, up to billions of bytes in size. CPUs have special instructions for searching through large blocks of bytes in memory. This is very handy for text operations. There is also a general variable type, often used in scripting languages. Variant - This can hold any type but is slower to use. Example of Data Types Arrays of types- single dimension like drawers in a cabinet, two-dimensional like post office sorting boxes or three dimensional like a pile of beer crates. There can be any number of dimensions, up to the limits of the compiler.Enums which are a restricted subset of integers.  Read about  what is an enum is.Structs are a composite variable where several variables are lumped together in one big variable.Streams provide a way to manage files. Theyre a form of a string.Objects, are like structs but with much more sophisticated data handling. Where are Variables Stored? In memory but in different ways, depending on how they are used. Globally. All parts of the program can access and change the value. This is how older languages like Basic and Fortran used to handle data and it is not considered a good thing. Modern languages tend to discourage global storage though it is still possible.On the Heap. This is the name for the main area used. In C and C, access to this is via pointer variables.On the Stack. The stack is a block of memory that is used to store parameters passed into functions, and variables that exist local to functions. Conclusion Variables are essential to procedural programming, but it is important not to get too hung up on the underlying implementation unless you are doing systems programming or writing applications that have to run in a small amount of RAM. Our rules regarding variables: Unless you are tight on ram or have large arrays, stick with ints rather than a byte (8 bits) or short int (16 bits). Especially on 32 Bit CPUs, there is an extra delay penalty in accessing less than 32 bits.Use floats instead of doubles unless you need the precision.Avoid variants unless really necessary. They are slower.

Heres How to Make Non-Toxic Homemade Tattoo Ink

Here's How to Make Non-Toxic Homemade Tattoo Ink The earliest tattoo inks came from nature. You can use non-toxic natural ingredients to make your own homemade tattoo ink. One common tattoo ink recipe is simple and has been used in various forms for thousands of years. Its sometimes called wood ash ink,  carbon black tattoo ink, or a poke-and-stick tattoo. How to Make Tattoo Ink The earliest tattoo inks were prepared by mixing ashes from completely burned wood together with water. The wood ashes were nearly pure carbon, which yielded a black to brown tattoo. While carbon is the base for modern tattoo inks, its not a great idea to use water as the liquid to suspend the ink (the carrier). While a homemade tattoo ink may be prepared using sterile distilled water, poking the ink into the skin will force bacteria on the skin into the deeper layers. A non-toxic disinfectant, such as vodka, is a better choice. Vodka is a mixture of alcohol in water. Any other white alcohol, such as rubbing alcohol or tequila, will also work. Prepare the ink from: one cup carbon black ashes (completely burned wood)just enough vodka to create a slurry Prepare the ink by mixing the carbon black and vodka in a blender (15 minutes to an hour). If the mixture is too thin, add more carbon pigment. If the mixture is too thick, thin it with a little more vodka. It is best to prepare fresh homemade ink for each use, though the ink could be stored in a sealed container away from sunlight and blended again. Its a good idea to wear a mask and gloves when applying a tattoo to prevent the spread of infectious agents. The tattoo can be applied using a pin or quill that is dipped into the ink and poked into the skin. Notes About Wood and Paper Some people make this ink by burning wood in a heat-proof bowl. The advantage of using paper is that it produces fine carbon particles. The disadvantage is that some types of paper are treated with chemicals (e.g. heavy metals) that may remain in the ashes.If youre using wood, be aware youll get slightly different results depending on the species of wood you burn.If you know youll need multiple batches of ink to complete a tattoo, its a good idea to use the same source for the carbon each time and to keep track of how much ash and liquid youre using. Careful measurement will help ensure each batch has the same particle density, which translates into color intensity. Tattoo Ink Safety Notes While you can prepare your own ink and give yourself or a friend a tattoo, this is not a good idea for most people.  Professional inks are much more consistent in quality and safer to use, so they will give you better results with less chance of a reaction to the ink. Also, tattoo professionals are trained in aseptic techniques, so you will have much less chance of getting an infection or accidentally puncturing a blood vessel if you get your tattoo inked by a trained artist. Source Helmenstine, Anne. Why People Use Vodka for Science Experiments. Science Notes and Projects, August 30, 2015.

Examine A Population In The News Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Examine A Population In The News - Essay Example lack of consistency, such that the results differed across the three; and presented a review with the idea of recommending one poll as being better than the other two. In the Bloomberg National Poll the incumbent was reported to have opened a 13 point advantage over Romney, 4 points advantage in the Pew Research Center Poll, and 3 points in the AP Poll. In an attempt to explain the disparities in the figures reported, methodological issues and change in opinions by voters (considering how closely rated the candidates were) were cited. Drawing from an expert’s position, the reporter cited voter commitment as low, which led to massive swaying of potential voters who were polled. However, these adduced low levels of voter commitment were not measured. Among the poll questions were candidates’ favorability ratings, in which Romney’s score sank back to the initial 39% when he entered the presidential race, becoming 17% more ill-favored. The Bloomberg poll also found out that Obama had gained a 19 points advantage over his opponent in terms of being in touch with the ordinary citizens. On their part, Pew Research Center’s results showed that Obama was voted as being 31% ahead of Romney in terms of being in touch with the ordinary citizens (Tacket, 2012). The Bloomberg poll had a slightly higher percentage of respondents who believed the country was headed the wrong direction (62%), against the AP’s 60%. You would expect these high percentages to impact the incumbent’s rating negatively. However, the three pollsters showed a contrasting trend, which could indicate extreme losses for the opponent. In fact, this has been highlighted by the recorded further 17% of respondents who ill-favored the Republ ican candidate at the time, Mitt Romney. In the Bloomberg survey, 1002 adult respondents were polled, and the scores associated with their responses had an error margin of  ±3.1%. Out of this sample, 734 were registered voters, and their responses’ margin of

M chap 3 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

M chap 3 - Coursework Example scale and large scale businesses may always employ certain approaches as well as techniques relevant to changes in consumer behavior (Dietrich and Media, 2015)s. In marketing, businesses always need to acquit themselves with certain information from their consumers including their locations, what they want, as well as who their real consumers are. Changes in consumer behaviors always make businesses to conduct thorough researches, as well as, surveys in order to know what the consumers want. For example, in case they fail to satisfy the changing consumer interests and needs, marketing of such products may be compromised and can easily fail. As such, the businesses always conduct surveys and research through sales forecasts, internet researches, as well as, market sensing (Dietrich and Media, 2015). This gives them a competitive advantage in the marketing spectrum as they deeply understand the needs of their customers, failure to which, can lead to failure of the companies. It is important to note that the issue of consumer behavior is also affected by the economy of the United States in certain ways. For instance, if the economy strengthens, the consumer demands and tastes increases (Rao, 2010). However, if the economy faces some crises, the consumers also feel these economic crises, thereby limiting their consumption demands. It is of critical significance to note that changes in consumer behavior are not influenced by any legislation. This is because consumer behaviors are majorly dictated by their own personal interests, tastes and preferences. As such, it is important to note that consumer behavior can affect the market in various ways. According to my opinion, consumer behavior always controls the markets in various ways. as such, the changes in consumer behavior can always make some companies to experience big losses if they do not device effective marketing strategies to approach the situations occasioned by the changes in consumer behaviors. Therefore,