Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Unemployment within the labour market is primarily voluntary. Discuss Essay - 1
Unemployment within the labour market is primarily voluntary. Discuss - Essay Example ves mismatches between the demand and supply of laborers with the necessary skill set; it is encouraged by the disruptive technologies and the globalization. The classical and neoclassical economics focuses more on how rigid the labor market entails from the outside, for instance, minimum wage laws, unionization, taxes, and other policies that may put off the hiring of workers. People take unemployment as mostly bad because of voluntary choices by the unemployed and the period it takes to get a new work. Unemployment can come as a result of efficiency wages and sticky wages. Measuring unemployment is different depending on the country; they experience different levels of unemployment. Voluntary unemployment attributes to the personal decisions. Keynes theory argues that the neo-classical economic theory was not applicable during the recession because of private sector apprehension and over saving. Consequently people were thrown out of job involuntary and cannot get another acceptance for employment opportunity (Arestis 2002, p, 174). The neoclassical and Keynesian theories conflict has had a strong influence on the government policy. The purpose of the government is to eliminate and restrain unemployment through an increase in the government jobs and benefits. Government should take the step of encouraging the job seeker to both consider relocation to a new town and new careers. Involuntary unemployment does not exist in developing societies but urban cities such as India or Pakistan and mega cities of Africa (Hammer 2003, p. 220). The countries such as this, unemployed personnel should meet their survival needs at any price, getting a new job, becoming an entre preneur or amalgamating the alternative economy of the hustler. The labor market is not that sure in the sense of the word; this is because there is always some unemployment. Labor market is very special to those who make a difference between non clearing and market clearing. Human transaction takes place
Monday, October 28, 2019
Does ââ¬ÅAssassinââ¬â¢s Creedââ¬Â Influence a Teenââ¬â¢s Mind Essay Example for Free
Does ââ¬Å"Assassinââ¬â¢s Creedâ⬠Influence a Teenââ¬â¢s Mind Essay Imagine a world where everything that happened was secretly controlled by a large organization of people. Every day you are constantly recorded and monitored. Everything that you do is secretly planned out in advance, yet you think that everything youââ¬â¢re doing is by your own free will. Everyone including your family, your friends, and the government are all controlled by this organization, and you canââ¬â¢t even tell. While you blithely and involuntarily follow the path planned out for you, another organization is secretly and quietly trying to put a stop to the evil plans of the organization that wants to control your every move. This is the plotline of a very popular videogame known as Assassinââ¬â¢s Creed. Assassinââ¬â¢s Creed is a great game that has influenced and challenged peopleââ¬â¢s view on government and democracy. The game Assassinââ¬â¢s Creed influences peopleââ¬â¢s minds by making them think more outside the box, and by aiding there curiosity of conspiracy theories. Assassinââ¬â¢s Creed take places in 2012, following the life of Desmond Miles, a bartender who is a descendant of several Assassins. Although Desmond was raised as an Assassin, he fled his nomadic family to seek out a more common lifestyle. While enjoying his freedom he is kidnapped by an evil company known as Abstergo Industries, the modern-day face of the Knights Templar who are aware of Desmonds ancestry. Templars want to control everyone, and they believe in absolute order similar to totalitarianism. Desmond is forced to use a device known as an Animus which allows him to experience his assassin ancestral memories. Abstergo is seeking to discover the location of several artifacts, known as Pieces of Eden, in order to obtain great power and control mankind and alter its fate, bringing humanity into a single unified group. Later Desmond escapes Abstergo due to the help of some modern-day Assassins who he later ends up working with. Desmond uses their version of the Animus (Animus 2.0) to continue to re-live the memories of his ancestors and discover the locations of the Pieces of Eden before Abstergo can do so. Desmond relives the events of his Assassin ancestors who live in worlds full of chaos, injustice, and indirect captivity. Doesnââ¬â¢t this seem similar to the way the world is today? Several countries have yet to establish a government system where people have a say in what they want the government to do for them. There are even more countries that have yet to abolish their governing laws on slavery. Our own government is hiding secrets from us (trying to protect us), yet causing more accidents and tragedies that could be avoided if only we had access to their classified information. Assassinââ¬â¢s Creed is a completely made up story, but it has a lot of interesting and intuitive facts to its plot. In fact, the majority of it seems plausible, and many others within my age group seem to think the sa me after playing this game. Along with the several games that my peers play that can relate to Assassinââ¬â¢s Creed, there are also several books that are similar. Assassinââ¬â¢s Creed got its inspiration from the novel Alamut written by a Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol, which is what inspired most of the first gameââ¬â¢s plot. Another story very similar to the plotline of Assassinââ¬â¢s Creed is The Traveler written by John Twelve Hawks. The book takes place in the future and lays out a world where the power lies not with people or governments, but in the hands of a secret organization who call themselves ââ¬Å"the Brethren.â⬠Their enemies refer to them as ââ¬Å"the Tabulaâ⬠. The Tabula are an ancient secret society who thinks that control and stability are an absolute necessity, similar to extreme Utilitarianism. The Tabula gets the majority of their influence from the ideas of philosopher Jeremy Bentham. The Tabula wish to enforce a Virtual Panopticon which is a society where all i ndividuals become accustomed to being watched and monitored and they act at all times as if they are being observed; making them more afraid to do immoral things. The Tabulaââ¬â¢s sole objective is to kill all Travelers. Travelers are people with the special ability to ââ¬Å"cross-overâ⬠, which is often inherited from an ancestor. Crossing-over can be defined as your spirit leaving your body and going off to another realm, and then returning. Upon this return, most Travelers would have experienced a different perspective of our world. Many Travelers become religious prophets, or enemies of the Tabula who have hunted them almost to extinction. Harlequins are a warrior group sworn to defend the Travelers from the Tabula. The Harlequins are opposed to the Tabula, and the two sides spent centuries fighting over control and power which allowed the Tabula to gain control and almost completely exterminate the Travelers and Harlequins. Despite the nobility and self-sacrifice of their cause, the Harlequins are cold and cruel figures who dedicate their lives to fighting and killing without remorse or hesitation. Sound familiar? Due to its graphic, plausible, and suspenseful storyline, Assassins Creed has become a big hit to gamers, historians, and conspiracy theorist alike; causing them to have a current series of five games in all, selling millions of copies worldwide. The series has been a big success and has won a number of awards. All of the Assassinââ¬â¢s Creeds make an adolescent see the world they live in differently. I wouldnââ¬â¢t even have considered governmental control, Templars Tabula, or Assassins Harlequins as being realistic, but now Iââ¬â¢m starting to have second thoughts (I also know of several friends in the same state as me). Reading books similar to The Traveler and playing videogames similar to Assassinââ¬â¢s Creed makes one think a little more outside the box and take into consid eration other conspiracy theories and stories.
Saturday, October 26, 2019
Online Dating Essay -- essays research papers
The technology nowadays has an influence on our lives, it has affected everything in it. When this technological revolution started, we didn't expect that it would affect our emotions, and our feelings. All we expected is that technology would develop our ability to have easier life and control nature. But what really happened is that the technology started to be part of us that we can't live without. The Internet is one of the technologies which appeared in our lives, and now it is dominating our lives. The Internet is replacing many things in our lives : Email has replaced the postal services , E-shopping (e.g., ebay) is replacing regular shopping, and now you can arrange your dates and relationships on the Internet. Dating really changed in the few last years and meeting people online became not uncommon or just for young people only. But everyone now can use it to find their dates and meet new people. Love via the Internet is a hot issue which faces many Internet users, and they may have experienced a love story via the Internet. I have heard many stories from my friends and relatives which they experienced. Even, I have experienced it. I was interested in writing my third essay about love via the Internet and the opinions of the experts in this field. So I went to Fenwick library to search the databases for any articles talking about this topic. Luckily I found very few good sources. The article ââ¬Å"Love Via The Internetâ⬠[3]. The writer started the article by showing her own opinion clearly about the long distance relationships through the dating websites ââ¬Å"I'm having doubts about a long-distance relationship that started through a dating site.â⬠[3]. Then she started to give an example of a relationship via the... ...me. 8.Actually, there is a good point that mention ââ¬Å"If you are seriously looking for marriage, don't pretend you're not.â⬠9.After doing the last 8 steps and you decide to meet this person you have to make sure that you meet him or her in a public place like restaurants, parks, or coffee shops. Its better in the first meeting not to have a whole night plan which is not better at the beginning. 10.ââ¬Å"Have fun. Make lots of new friends. Don't panic or give yourself a deadline. Let love take its course.â⬠said by Jean Brandau, an expert in dating. Don't push yourself. Don't think that the Internet is the only way nowadays to find ââ¬Å" the oneâ⬠may be you will find the next person you meet at work or anywhere else is the right one for you. Love knows no boundaries. I want to say one more thing we should control the internet or any technology not to let it control us.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
George Lucas
English George Lucas 11/3/11 Greatest Producer of all Time, Mr. Lucas George Lucas, the man who created Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Lucas was born in Modesto, California on May 14, 1944. Lucas was a single child while his father sold nuts on his Walnut Farm. Before graduating Modesto high school in 1958, Lucas was in a car accident that left him in the hospital for three months. Lucas then became interested in movie making and photography.With getting into filming Lucasââ¬â¢s career took off. Lucas would film car races with a camera. Lucasââ¬â¢s filming style got the attention of Haskell Wexler, a great cameraman, who helped Lucas get into the college of USC. Lucas made eight films on campus, graduated, and became a cameraman. One of his best school films was THX:1138 which won first prize in the National Student Film Festival. After college Lucas got a scholarship from Warner Brothers to go and work with them in1969. Lucas then married Marcia Griffin in the same year.In 1973, Lucas directed, and co wrote his first movie, American Graffiti, which costs 750,000 dollars. When the movie came out Lucas was nominated for five academy awards. Lucas then started working on Star Wars, which would be a trilogy. Star Wars came out on May 1977 and was rated very well. Star Wars grossed 400 million dollars. The merchandise sold from Star Wars grossed 500 million in the first three years! In 1979 Lucas made his own movie business company called Lucas Film Ltd.The rest of the Star Wars film brought in 1 billion dollars and merchandise brought in 3 billion dollars! Star Wars placed thirteenth in top 100 Best Films of All Time. As Lucas began making money with Star Wars, he decided he wanted to start working on some new films. Lucas began working on Indiana Jones, which supported archeologist movies and work in 1940. The first of the Indiana Jones movies was Raiders of The Lost Ark which made 2,500,00 dollars. The rest of the Indiana Jones movies didnââ¬â¢t do as gre at but still made close to the same amount of money.Indiana Jones was not as great as Star Wars but came in sixty-sixth place in top 100 Best Films of all Time. Lucas changed ideas of filming. Even though Lucas has produced only six movies he still has been in many more. Lucas is known as one of the best producers on earth. Since high school he has been filming movies and working to become better at this art. Lucasââ¬â¢s movies have made the most money in the history of movie making. Lucas will be remembered for a long time. TRIVIA Lucas was a diabeticLucas adopted three kids Star wars was turned down by every big movie company except 20th Century Fox Lucas is a fan of Family Guy and lets Family Guy make skits about Star Wars Sound and music are 50% of the movies of Lucas Friends with Steven Spielberg a great producer like George Lucas Websites ââ¬Å"www. notablebiographies. com no publication date. 11/7/11 <http://www. notablebiographies. com/Lo-Ma/Lucas-> www. imdb. com â⬠1990-2011, 11/7/11 <George. htmlhttp://www. imdb. com/name/nm0000184/>
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Freshwater Biome Essay
The Freshwater Biome By Lauren Finnis The freshwater biome is a complex biome that can be found all over the world. There are two major types of freshwater biomes. The first type is lotic or running which include rivers and streams. Lentic or standing is the second type; those include lakes and ponds. Since this biome is found worldwide, the species that reside in it can vary extensively, but usually it contains several species of fish, plants, and insects. Predation is a way of life in the freshwater biome. It is the main way food and energy are obtained by most of the organisms. The plankton, algae, and weeds that produce their own food through photosynthesis are eaten by the smaller fish like the minnows. Then larger fish like bass, trout, and pike eat these smaller fish. Finally birds, large mammals, and humans catch the large fish. In the freshwater biome, there are several examples of symbiosis. The relationship between the freshwater sponge and spongillafly is an example of paratism. The spongillafly lays its eggs on the sponge, and then they hatch and feed off the sponge. Another parasite is the flatworm. It resides in organisms such as the snail and can infect them with deadly diseases. There are also examples of commensalism in this biome. First is the relationship between small fish and the pond weeds; the fish hide between these weeds from larger fish. Another relationship of this type is the one between oysters and the mangrove trees. The oyster anchor and protect themselves with the roots of the tree. Finally there are also examples of mutaulistic relationships. For example some small fish enter clean the mouths of larger fish, and in exchange, they may eat whatever they clean out. There are several limiting factors in the freshwater biome. One of the most important is the availability of sunlight. In areas with little sunlight, photosynthesis can not occur; therefore, most plants can not live. Sinceà plants are the base of the food chain the whole ecosystem falls apart. Salinity is also a limiting factor. In freshwater areas, there must be a salinity of .05% or less for most organisms to survive. Humans are actually limiting factors also. We destroy and pollute habitats and eat the animals and plants in the biome. Population density in the freshwater biome varies greatly. In rivers or streams, density is usually lower in the faster moving biomes because organisms must fight the current. In lakes and ponds, the topmost areas usually are more dense because there is an ample supply of light for photosynthesis. The highest densities will probably be found in the more temperate areas that organisms can adapt to more easily. The carrying capacity of the freshwater biome depends on the size, location, and availability off light. Biotic potentials in the biome are most likely extremely large. This is because the main organisms are fish, which lay eggs in numerous amounts. Of course the carry and the biotic potential are rarely met because there are natural enemies and predator. There are also billions of one of the most deadly predator to the biome, humans.
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
A Joy that Killed essays
A Joy that Killed essays A Joy that Kills (1) was the given diagnosis for Mrs. Mallards death. But was it the joy of seeing her dead husband alive, or from another joy? A Joy that no one could have suspected or even guessed; or was it a joy that came only from finally being free. The Story of an Hour is a short essay that describes what Mrs. Mallard goes through when she finds out her husband has been killed in a train accident, and soon thereafter dies herself of an apparent joy. It is then left up to us to determine what we believe to be the real cause of her death. When Mrs. Mallard first receives the news of her husbands death, sadness takes over her body as, she wept at once with sudden wild abandonment.(2) Only after heading upstairs to her room to be alone did she slowly but surely realize that her body and soul were now free. Despite the loss of her husband, she is over-come with a happiness and rejuvenation at the prospect of being free after so many years. Mrs. Mallard saw beyond that bitter moment, a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to welcome them in.(3) In a sense she feels like a bird that has just been let out of its cage after years of captivity. After a while, she heads back down stairs to talk with Richards, the man that brought the news of her husbands death. As soon as she reaches the bottom of the stairs, Mr. Mallard walks in looking a little travel-stained. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. ( 4) The shock of seeing her supposedly dead husband alive causes her to have a heart attack and die. Mrs. Mallard plays a character that has to deal with very serious emotions. Her emotional state goes from one end of the spectrum to the other in only an hour. At first it seems that she dies bec ...
Monday, October 21, 2019
Solidification Definition and Examples
Solidification Definition and Examples Solidification, also known as freezing, is a phase change of matter that results in the production of a solid. Generally, this occurs when the temperature of a liquid is lowered below its freezing point. Although the freezing point and melting point of most materials are the same temperature, this is not the case for all substances, so freezing point and melting point are not necessarily interchangeable terms. For example, agar (a chemical used in food and the laboratory)à melts at 85 C (185 F) yet solidifies from 31 C to 40 C (89.6 F to 104 F). Solidification is nearly always an exothermic process, meaning heat is released when a liquid changes into a solid. The only known exception to this rule is the solidification of low-temperature helium. Energy (heat) must be added to helium-3 and helium-4 for freezing to take place. Solidification and Supercooling Under certain conditions, a liquid may be cooled below its freezing point, yet not transition into a solid. This is known as supercoolingà and it happens because most liquids crystallize to freeze. Supercooling may be readily observed by carefully freezing water. The phenomenon can occur when there is a lack of good nucleation sites from which solidification can proceed. Nucleation is when molecules from organized clusters. Once nucleation occurs, crystallization progresses until solidification happens. Solidification Examples Several examples of solidification may be found in everyday life, including: Freezing of water to form ice in an ice cube trayFormation of snowCongealing of bacon grease as it coolsSolidification of melted candle waxLava hardening into solid rock
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Spelling and Word Origin
Spelling and Word Origin Spelling and Word Origin Spelling and Word Origin By Maeve Maddox A reader wonders how knowing a wordââ¬â¢s origin helps spelling bee contestants arrive at the correct spelling: Recently, I was watching [a spelling bee] competition and students were asking about the origin of a spelling like Latin, French, Greek, Dutch, Italian etc. and were guessing correct spellings. How is it possible to get correct spelling from the origin of a word? One of the greatest strengths of English is its huge vocabulary, much of it borrowed from other languages. Because different languages have different spelling conventions, knowing an English wordââ¬â¢s foreign origin can sometimesââ¬ânot alwaysââ¬âprovide assistance in spelling it. English is spoken with about 46 speech sounds. Some of the sounds, like /b/ and /p/ are always represented by the same letter. Other sounds, like /f/ and /s/, may be represented by different letters or combinations of letters. For example, the sound /f/ may be spelled with the letter f as in reflex, or with the combination ph as in gramophone. The sound /s/ may be represented by the letter s, the letter c, or the combination sc, as in instant, cigar, and abscess. The sound /k/ may be spelled with the letters k, c or the combinations ck and ch: kitten, cat, luck, archetype. A spelling bee contestantââ¬â¢s first encounter with a word is its pronunciation. Knowing how sounds are spelled in the parent language can lead a speller to the correct combination of letters used to spell it in English. Take for example, the words candidate and chronology. Both begin with the /k/ sound. Knowing that candidate entered the language from Latin tells the speller to spell the sound with the letter c; knowing that chronology comes from Greek is a clue that the /k/ sound is spelled with the combination ch. Here are a few of the spelling clues offered by etymology with words of Latin and Greek origin: Latin canine, lactate, abduct The /k/ sound is usually represented by the letter c in a word of Latin origin. abscess, ascend, eviscerate The internal /s/ sound is often spelled sc in a word of Latin origin. NOTE: one speech sound used to speak English is called the schwa. The schwa is an indeterminate vowel sound that may be represented by any of the vowel letters a, e, i/y, o, or u. For example, the schwa sound is represented in the following words by the letters in boldface: America, synthesis, decimal, syringe, offend, circus, supply. When a schwa sound follows the /s/ sound in a word of Latin origin, the /s/ sound is often represented by the letter c, as in necessary. However, if the schwa sound connects two Latin elements, it is often spelled with the letter i, as in carnivore. Greek amygdala, dyslogia, symbiosis The short i sound is often represented by the letter y in a word of Greek origin. anthropomorphic, philander, graphology The /f/ sound is often represented by ph in a word of Greek origin. rhinovirus, hemorrhage, rheumatism The /r/ sound is often represented by rh in a word of Greek origin. anarchy, bacchanal, chronometry The /k/ sound is often represented by ch in a word of Greek origin. xylophone, Xena, xenophopia The /z/ sound is often represented by x in a word of Greek origin. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Fly, Flew, (has) FlownFlied?50 Nautical Terms in General Use8 Great Podcasts for Writers and Book Authors
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Social work Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Social work - Assignment Example From the first chapter, I was able to understand why it is important to study human behavior theories. According to Robins et al, a theory is an idea that has to be backed by certain evidence or proof (3). Human behavior theories are therefore ideas or propositions which try to explain why humans behave the way they do. These theories are backed by evidence that have been observed and documented over the years (4). The reason why we study human behavior theories is to be able to understand human behavior. According to Robbins et al the human behavior is a complex phenomenon (7). This is basically people are different. When the behavior of people is studied and documented in the form of theories, it is possible to understand why a person behaves the way he or she does in the society.. Without the theories, analyzing, and understand how people behave is quite difficult. From the first chapter, I was also able to appreciate the concept of social construction of theories (13). The social construction of theories is basically concerned with the development of a constructed understanding of the world (14). In the social development of these human development theories, the meaning of these theories is not developed separately within the individual but rather in synchronization with other human beings (16). From the first chapter, I was able to appreciate the various aspects that are important in developing and understanding these human behavior theories. Various ideologies, scientifically developed theories as well as social work practices form the basis of understanding the human behavior. It is however worth noting that despite the importance of the social construction of the theories, it is greatly affected by determinism nod reductionism (19). Reductionism refers to the practice of reducing the human behavior all down to a single factor such as biological cognitive or behavioral
Friday, October 18, 2019
Business Model of On-Line Retaining Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words
Business Model of On-Line Retaining - Essay Example On-Line retailing business runs over the Internet through well designed user friendly portals, whereby the products & services are displayed through electronic means (like photographs, images, videos, etc.) and payments collected either electronically or using a system that accepts remote checks, wire transfers or on-delivery cash. On-line Retailing is different from the traditional business primarily from the perspective of product display, business expenses, business location, communication & customer engagement, and technology. Supply chain management of both businesses are similar with the only exception that on-line businesses have to manage their deliveries remotely and in larger geographies (even at global levels) whereas the traditional retailers may have to carry out lesser remote deliveries within a fixed locality. We hereby analyze the on-line retailing process deployed by eBay through their portal named (www.ebay.com). The process of on-line shopping starts from a search engine - either global search engines like Google, Yahoo or the search engine built within the eBay portal. Products advertised on eBay can be approached through both the mechanisms. Once the buyer reaches the on-line display of the product of c... Once the buyer reaches the on-line display of the product of choice (two or three dimensional graphics or video along with specifications, pricing details, terms & conditions, etc), he/she can evaluate the product using published specifications & pictures/videos and then open a shopping cart where the products selected for purchase can be collected. After collecting all products, the buyer can proceed for payments where the terms on eBay are electronic (credit cards or debit cards. Given that eBay is a global on-line shopping portal, they do not offer localized choices of payments. The soft products can be downloaded online and the hard products are transferred to the customer from the warehouse that is closest to the physical address of the Customer. eBay also offers international delivery of products through world class renowned courier services which is charged to the buyer at the time of purchase. [Chatpar and Venugopalan, 2007] Key Traits and Bases of success of the marketing strategy of Online Retailers The key factors of success of Online Retail businesses are the following: (a) Excellent User Friendly Portal system: eBay is one of the most user friendly on-line shopping portal of the world. The buyers are able to quickly search and select products of their choice through well deigned categorization & guidance systems and make secured & reliable payment. (www.ebay.com). (b) High Quality Customer Services: To serve their customers, eBay has on-line chat & message boards, e-mail ids through which trained customer support specialists respond quickly to address queries or grievances. Extra information on every product is available through local product catalogues whereby the products in stock exactly match the
Two sides of the Same Coin Called Love Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Two sides of the Same Coin Called Love - Essay Example These poems illustrate the theme of eternal love, although in My Mistress' Eyes, the speaker uses a realistic approach and constructs the poem as a parody of traditional sonneteersââ¬â¢ romanticized descriptions of their mistresses, while A Summerââ¬â¢s Day underscores the speakerââ¬â¢s everlasting love through undermining the inability of a traditional notion of summer in capturing his belovedââ¬â¢s magnificence. My Mistress' Eyes lampoons the usual similes and metaphors of romantic sonneteers, whereas A Summerââ¬â¢s Day employs eternal summer and lasting lines as fitting metaphors for his eternal love and his belovedââ¬â¢s beauty. The theme of these poems is undying love, although love is depicted in different approaches. In My Mistress' Eyes, the speaker does not even start with the usual compliment given to womenââ¬â¢s physical attractiveness. Instead, he immediately begins with a negative depiction: ââ¬Å"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sunâ⬠(Shakespeare line 1). The rest of the lines are all contradictions of the common similes and metaphors of love poems, such as comparing womenââ¬â¢s beauty or their facial parts to corals, snow, roses, perfumes, and goddesses. Nevertheless, in line 13, the speaker asserts his undying devotion to his mistress when he says: ââ¬Å"And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/As any she belied with false compareâ⬠(Shakespeare 13-14). The speaker stresses that his love may probably be more lasting than those who describe their mistresses in unrealistic terms. As one article notes: ââ¬Å"â⬠¦he thinks his beloved is as unique as any other woman wh o has been lied about by other poets through the use of false comparatorsâ⬠(Grace 1).... He finds ââ¬Å"summerâ⬠inadequate, however, because it is too short, ââ¬Å"â⬠¦summer's lease hath all too short a dateâ⬠(Shakespeare 4), ââ¬Å"too hotâ⬠(Shakespeare 5), ââ¬Å"dimmââ¬â¢dâ⬠by the clouds (Shakespeare 6), and ââ¬Å"declinesâ⬠in beauty (Shakespeare 7). Apparently, the summerââ¬â¢s day is incomparable to the love he feels for his audience and the kind of beauty his beloved possesses. Instead, the only object that he can compare his love to is with his ââ¬Å"eternal linesâ⬠(Shakespeare 12). Only through these lines can his love breathe forever and that is how much he loves his target audience. The speakers of these two poems emphasize that their love is rare and undying, but My Mistress' Eyes satirizes the traditional sonneteersââ¬â¢ idealized descriptions of their mistresses, while A Summerââ¬â¢s Day underscores the speakerââ¬â¢s everlasting love through comparing his love to summer and poetry. The speaker in My Mistress' Eyes does not think twice in saying what he ââ¬Å"seesâ⬠in his mistress. He is direct in his tone, when he says that his mistress is nothing like the sun, corals, snow, roses, perfumes, and goddesses. He matter-of-factly states: ââ¬Å"Coral is far more red than her lips' red;/If snow be white, why then her breasts are dunâ⬠(Shakespeare 2-3). Her lips are not at all red and her breasts are even dun or brownish gray. Roses are red, but the speaker asserts that these roses are not found in his mistressââ¬â¢ cheeks. He even notes that her breath is far from perfume and that it ââ¬Å"reeksâ⬠(Shakespeare 8). And yet he loves hearing her speak, even when ââ¬Å"â⬠¦music hath a far more pleasing soundâ⬠(Shakespeare 10). He also cannot compare her to a goddess, for he has not seen one in his lifetime. At the same
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Price Differences Associated with Quality Essay
Price Differences Associated with Quality - Essay Example This paper will critically analyze the price differences associated with quality by giving a specific focus on imperfect competition and price differences. Effects of grade quality on demand According to an observation, ââ¬Å"grade quality is the distinguishing feature or grade of the product in appearance, performance, life, reliability, taste, odor, and maintainability etc; these are generally called as quality characteristicsâ⬠(Charantimath, 1). The grade quality or quality characteristics can have a great influence on the demand of a product because quality and price are the major determinants of a productââ¬â¢s market demand. Economic theories state that a change in quality can make a shift in the demand curve. When two identical products with different quality levels are available in the market at the same price, consumers would buy the product having superior quality. To illustrate, demand for Giordanoââ¬â¢s pizza is greater than that of Papa Johnââ¬â¢s at a gi ven price. It happens because consumers believe that Giordanoââ¬â¢s pizza has higher quality and therefore it would better satisfy their needs than Papa Johnââ¬â¢s pizza would do. ... It is observed that modern people are able to determine their needs precisely; hence, they can accurately identify product quality characteristics that are necessary to serve those needs. It is obvious that improved quality characteristics may better serve an individualââ¬â¢s needs. In other words, a consumer would get greater level of utility from a product with higher grade quality. Generally, a consumer always tries to acquire increased utility with minimum amount of money. In short, it can be stated that a product with higher grade quality will have increased market demand or demand is positively affected by grade quality. Referring to the law of demand, it is clear that the price of a product is directly proportional to its market demand. As discussed earlier, a product with higher grade quality will have a high level of market demand which in turn leads to an increase in its price. Maintenance of quality-price relationship is necessary for stabilizing an economy. To illustra te, majority of the agricultural products have predetermined grade quality standards and hence their price considerably varies in accordance with grade quality changes. Agricultural yields with a lower quality are paid minimum prices while marketers are ready to pay higher for high quality agricultural yields (ââ¬Å"Grain marketing plans for farmersâ⬠). However, the law of diminishing marginal utility is also applicable to quality-price relationship. The law states that utility derived from the consumption of a product diminishes with each unit of the same product additionally consumed. Hence, a productââ¬â¢s price will not be increased beyond a certain level if a person continuously consumes a
English in India Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
English in India - Essay Example In India the struggle between the local and the global is really of current importance, it is an illustrative example of the development of English in postcolonial period. It might be even so, that local language practices, discourses, and values will be swallowed up by the sweeping economic and political forces brought about by globalization. In his recent work, Bhatt argues that these dichotomies of standard and nonstandard English have resulted in many class differences within India, and that the richer classes in India use Standard English to maintain their hegemony over the lower classes, who speak a local variety. By using these dichotomies, Bhatt argues, Indian elites are reinforcing the biased expert discourses that sustain the hegemony of Standard English worldwide (Bhatt 59-63). According to Kachru, questions about language go beyond linguistics; these are connected with the problems of power, history, sociology, politics and economics. The most important reason for the success of English is, naturally the historical role of England as a colonial power. In India, for example, the political power naturally attributed a power to the language (the linguistic elitism strategy was typical for the times of colonization). English has been with India since the early 1600's, and by the early 1800's a large number of English schools were set up. English became the official and academic language of India by the early twentieth century. In the 1920's the nationalist movement rose, bringing some anti-English sentiment with it (even though the movement itself used English as its medium). Independence was gained, and together with it, the perception of English as having an alien power base changed. English came to be the language of the legal system, higher education, administrative network, science and technology, trade and commerce. At that time, the use of English was considered prestigious and powerful, moreover, the indigenous languages were not equipped for these roles and English provided for a convenient vocabulary (Kachru:127-136). However, more recent researches, as that of Annika Hohenthal, which studies the attitudes of Indians towards English by means of the experiment with informants, show that English has become more natural in the Indian environment: nowadays, English represents the domains of education and employment, scientific knowledge, modernization and development, as well as more personal domains, such as the family and friendship. Indians themselves understand that because of linguistic and cultural reasons Indian English is naturally different from the British standard variety of English, it is as a variety of its own. Although English is clearly perceived as a more useful language to know, at the same time, people identify themselves more easily with Hindi, only a rather small proportion identified themselves with British and Anglo-American culture. Most of the informants would like the use of Hindi to be encouraged in India, as well as they would like to see it as the official language also in future. Another important tendency: virtually all the informants were sure that their children should learn English at school. This fact
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Price Differences Associated with Quality Essay
Price Differences Associated with Quality - Essay Example This paper will critically analyze the price differences associated with quality by giving a specific focus on imperfect competition and price differences. Effects of grade quality on demand According to an observation, ââ¬Å"grade quality is the distinguishing feature or grade of the product in appearance, performance, life, reliability, taste, odor, and maintainability etc; these are generally called as quality characteristicsâ⬠(Charantimath, 1). The grade quality or quality characteristics can have a great influence on the demand of a product because quality and price are the major determinants of a productââ¬â¢s market demand. Economic theories state that a change in quality can make a shift in the demand curve. When two identical products with different quality levels are available in the market at the same price, consumers would buy the product having superior quality. To illustrate, demand for Giordanoââ¬â¢s pizza is greater than that of Papa Johnââ¬â¢s at a gi ven price. It happens because consumers believe that Giordanoââ¬â¢s pizza has higher quality and therefore it would better satisfy their needs than Papa Johnââ¬â¢s pizza would do. ... It is observed that modern people are able to determine their needs precisely; hence, they can accurately identify product quality characteristics that are necessary to serve those needs. It is obvious that improved quality characteristics may better serve an individualââ¬â¢s needs. In other words, a consumer would get greater level of utility from a product with higher grade quality. Generally, a consumer always tries to acquire increased utility with minimum amount of money. In short, it can be stated that a product with higher grade quality will have increased market demand or demand is positively affected by grade quality. Referring to the law of demand, it is clear that the price of a product is directly proportional to its market demand. As discussed earlier, a product with higher grade quality will have a high level of market demand which in turn leads to an increase in its price. Maintenance of quality-price relationship is necessary for stabilizing an economy. To illustra te, majority of the agricultural products have predetermined grade quality standards and hence their price considerably varies in accordance with grade quality changes. Agricultural yields with a lower quality are paid minimum prices while marketers are ready to pay higher for high quality agricultural yields (ââ¬Å"Grain marketing plans for farmersâ⬠). However, the law of diminishing marginal utility is also applicable to quality-price relationship. The law states that utility derived from the consumption of a product diminishes with each unit of the same product additionally consumed. Hence, a productââ¬â¢s price will not be increased beyond a certain level if a person continuously consumes a
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Compare and contrast save the children uk and actionaid uk Essay
Compare and contrast save the children uk and actionaid uk - Essay Example Within just 10 years it was able to stretch in many other countries such as Spain, France, Italy and Ireland. (ActionAid, 2010) Recently, it has reached 40 countries worldwide fighting poverty and helping over 13 million people. ActionAid is working with a motive to end poverty and providing children with quality education. It helps the poor in organization against injustice and to demand the entitlement of their rights from their government. (ActionAid, 2010) They have partners all over the world from large to small entities forming international networks and national alliances, working together for justice, giving education, working for women rights, working against diseases and imposing solutions for the currently faced organizations. Save the children is a UK based charity organization, set up for the rights of children and saving lives in emergencies. It also campaigns for the rights of children and providing a helping hand in their future. (Save the Children, 2010) Save the Children was set up 90 years ago, in 1919, by a women Eglantyne Jebb. (Save the Children, 2010) It was based in the UK. The organization has now extended to about 50 odd countries throughout the world and has been able to reach over 6 Million children worldwide. Governance refers to the operations and management of an organization or a country. It is governed by the board of trustees which is headed by Andrew Purkis, who has been the chair of three well known charities. (ActionAid, 2010) It has few of the most competent people taking prominent places in the board are responsible for the major decisions. The board works on the principles of accountability, transparency and honesty for the interest of the people. It operates with a framework of good governance as it tries to attain the concept of globalization by participating along with some of the famous organizations such as the World Trade Organization, International Monetary fund and World
Monday, October 14, 2019
Internal External Balance Essay Example for Free
Internal External Balance Essay When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Bernard Baruch In review of trade policy best suited for our Nation it is time for an overhaul and start developing a more complete toolbox. As Kevin Kaiser so poignantly stated in his article in CNN Money: ââ¬Å"The economists that make the worlds crucial monetary policy decisions are the same economists who authored most textbooks in use. While superficially appealing, their theories lack empirical evidence, are riddled with internal inconsistencies, and are based upon tenuous assumptions. Specifically, their models are built on downward sloping demand curves, upward sloping supply curves, perfect competition, rational consumers, benevolent dictators, and general equilibrium; there is no dynamic analysis, no consideration of disequilibrium, and no role of private sector debtâ⬠(Kaiser, 2011). The policy cross as shown to the left indicates that as e increases m decreases, and current account improves. To offset this, an increase in g is required. The EE curve is positively sloped in the (e,g) space. An internal equilibrium is attained when the output is at the full employment level thereby raising the interest rate. Moreover, because the economy is fully employed, real output cannot increased beyond a point. Thus, an increase in inflationary pressure occurs, thereby raising domestic price, which shifts the LM curve to the left. Thus, along the IE curve, government spending and interest rate are directly related. As a Post Keynes-Industrialist, the tendency to lean towards comprehensive human market behaviors and interdependent structural issues makes developing a one-size-fits-all policy, such as the policy cross, for internal and external balance a challenge. This is particularly true when evidence for any one theory to-date has not proven to be exact and reliable. Capitalism is fickle, and doesnââ¬â¢t follow slopes as neatly as theorists would like and the global shocks being felt around the world are keeping the economic status of all countries anything but predictable. Paul Krugman wrote an article for The New York Times that explained, ââ¬Å"at the heart of the profession of economicsââ¬â¢ failure has been its emphasis on rigor, rather than relevanceââ¬âthat is, economics had been weakened by the desire for an all-encompassing, intellectually elegant approach that also gave economists a chance to show off their mathematical prowess. He offered two recommendations in addition to again making the case for renewed attention to Keynes: scholarship that questions the efficient-market view of the financial sector, and research that incorporates the realities of finance into macroeconomicsâ⬠(Krugman, 2009). For the purposes of this paper however, it would be recommended that a floating exchange rate be proposed for the following reason: The challenge of fiscal and monetary policies to keep equilibrium could be comparative to eyeballing mass versus weight of internal and external spending and determining which is more relevant at any given time. While a cleanly floating exchange rate assures external balance, it does not assure internal balance and changes in the rate to achieve external balance may exacerbate and internal imbalance. Government monetary and fiscal policies may be used to address internal imbalances at this point with a floating rate structure. ââ¬Å"The following graph can assist in understanding the impacts of booms and recessions on internal and external balances.â⬠(Johnston, M. 2011). For example, the bottom left-hand shows the effects of exports being less competitive, which reduces the number of exports and induces a current account deficit and lower aggregate demand. Currently, the US has a well-known financial problem with a large trade deficit every year. ââ¬Å"It seems many ignore this issue since our debts tend to be denominated in our domestic currency, the dollar.â⬠(Kling, A. para 6). The most recent news release for second quarter 2012 on the Bureau of Economic Analysis states, ââ¬Å"the US current-account deficit decreased to $117.4 billion (preliminary) in the second quarter from $133.6 billion (revised) in the first quarter. The decrease in the current-account deficit was accounted for by a decrease in the deficit on goods and an increase in the surplus on income.â⬠(Bea.gov, Sept 18, 2012 ). This would indicate a small shift in the left lower quadrant just slightly contracting, but very little overall. However damning the current financial situation is, the floating exchange rate remains the better choice as argued in Global Business Today, ââ¬Å"Under a fixed system, a countryââ¬â¢s ability to expand or contract its money supply as it sees fit is limited by the need to maintain exchange rate parity, leading to high interest ratesâ⬠(Hill, 2011). ââ¬Å"Another reason is the because the real exchange rate fundamentals including terms of trade, import tariffs, technology progress, composition of government expenditures and revenues, real interest rate and capital controls are always in fluxâ⬠(Wong, C. p. 7). When the exchange rate is flexible, in fiscal expansion either government expenditure increases or tax cuts raises output, but worsens current account balances. Conversely, fiscal contraction improves current account balances, but lowers output. If the economy attempts to attain both internal and external balance it could consider expenditure switching, but alone this will be inadequate. ââ¬Å"For example, if an economy is at the full employment level, i.e., internal balance is already attained, but if it is running current account deficits, policy makers in the economy could devalue its currency so that net exports rise. However, the improvement of current account balances would lead the economy to experience over-heating so that internal balance would disappear. If an economy is experiencing an inflationary gap, or over-heating, while maintaining balanced current account, a revaluation policy may reduce total expenditure back to the full employment level, but lead to current account deficitsâ⬠(web.pdx.edu, para 5). Therefore, changing how we currently think may be necessary to achieve both internal and external balances. Economics has been referred to the dismal science but as Kaiser states, ââ¬Å"True sciences expand and evolve: genetics, psychology, quantum mechanics, astronomy. Economics defends itself ââ¬â it is an ideology. What we need is an economic theory that is more relevant to a modern capitalist economy ââ¬â one that embraces uncertainty and disequilibrium, is grounded upon realistic assumptions, is judged by the accuracy of its predictions, and where debt and money are implicit, important factors.â⬠(CNN Money, 2011). References Hill, H. (2011). Global Business Today. New York: New York McGraw-Hill Kaiser, K. (December 16, 2011) Its time for economic theory to evolve. CNN Money. Retrieved on December 14, 2012 from http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/12/16/its-time-for-economic-theory-to-evolve/ Johnston, M (October 8, 2011). AS and A2 Macroeconomics: Internal and External Balances. Econofix. Retrieved on December 12, 2012 from http://econfix.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/as-and-a2-macroeconomics-internal-and-external-balances/ Kling, A. (2004). The trade balance. Retrieved on December 13, 2012 from http://arnoldkling.com/econ/macro/trade.html Krugman, P (2009). ââ¬Å"How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?â⬠The New York Times, September 2. Retrieved on December 14, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/magazine/06Economic-t.html News Release: US International Transactions. Retrieved on December 14, 2012 from http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/international/transactions/transnewsrelease.htm Wong, C-H. Adjustment and the Internal-External Balance. Retrieved on December 14, 2012 from http://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/content/pdfs/L-1b.pdf World Economy Expenditure Changing Retrieved on December 14, 2012 from http://web.pdx.edu/~ito/Expenditure_changing_switching_RE_-HI.pdf
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Types of Knowledge: Application to MDL
Types of Knowledge: Application to MDL Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) define explicit knowledge that can be captured and shared and tacit knowledge evolving from interaction from practice. The isolation of explicit knowledge is that information can be replicated without any interaction with the original source. However, knowledge is the continuous dialogue of both means of tacit and explicit. A practice based epistemology therefore assumes that knowledge is acquired through socially constructed practice or routines that workers participate in. It also emphasis that tacit and explicit knowledge are inseparable and are a product of a mutually constructed dimensions. The sector that MDL participates in, there is an emphasis that knowledge is not fragmented but rather specialised and specific to the organisation which will inevitably have features of both tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is impossible or certainly hard to write down and, even if written down, does not express the knowledge adequately. Although engineers can articulate themselves explicitly, the knowledge expressed will always remain tacit. The knowledge of the workers, in the case of engineers, are acquired through formal education and furthermore sustained through a complex web of relationships among people, material artefacts and activities (Gherardi, 2001). The nature of knowledge within a culture is also a key factor, the small group of workers who have worked long term (30%) within the organisation have built up their knowledge over time and will only be partly able to explicitly articulate their knowledge. It is to be noted that different organisational culture has different way in which it formalises knowledge and that could determine the way information is articulated. MDL is a knowledge intensive firm where employees form a major part of the workforce requiring a high level of creativity and problem-solving skills with a constant push for innovation in a competitive market. The pressure towards deadlines makes it hard for workers to contribute to tacit knowledge and subsequently, without workers willing to share or codify tacit knowledge there is a limited success of knowledge management incentives to work.Trusson (2014) found that from a workers perspective that significance of a time pressured environment is a determinant for what knowledge is shared. The majority of the development engineers typically work longer than their contracted thirty-seven hours the argument of work overload being a factor can hinder tacit knowledge sharing. In addition, Qureshi and Evans (2015) are of the view that time and work pressure can make it difficult for the individuals in the organisations to allocate time to engage in knowledge-sharing activities outside of their work related activities. Therefore to understand why workers are not sharing knowledge should not be taken for granted. Consequently, there might a reduction in creativity in knowledge shared due to time pressure, as other senior engineers might view this approach as hoarding rather than intelligent contribution furthermore, lack of time can also constrain knowledge transfer (Leonard, 2014). The willingness to share knowledge plays a big role especially as MDL is operating within a competitive market. The main challenge is to motivate the workers from seeing the contribution not as giving away their expertise but rather facilitating them into seeing it as a mutual benefit for the organisation and a strong identification with the company. Team members may be unwilling to share knowledge and a perception that knowledge will be stolen and used by potential competitors. Since recruitment in MDL occurs annually, the concept of trust can define the degree of confidence of team members in one another this plays an important role in determining the sharing of knowledge. More specifically, trust was more closely related to sharing of tacit rather than explicit knowledge (Becerra et al. 2008). Lack of trust between individuals is likely to correlate to the willingness to share knowledge as it creates uncertainty and risk and additionally the concern that their contributed action will not be reciprocated. Furthermore, a lack of interpersonal trust can create uncertainty about knowledge sharing and can result in conflict within the organisation as study shows by Hsu Chang (2012), who correlated that having similar vision with interpersonal trust within the organisation leading to higher level of knowledge sharing. MDL is represented as a culture that is relatively open and informal and asking for advice is not frowned upon. However, culture difference can impact the outcome of such knowledge sharing activities as no one organisational climate is similar. MDL has 90 employees in total operating in China and furthermore worldwide, Hofstede (1984) explanation on organisations culture state that no one culture is the same, which influences the way knowledge sharing process is conducted. In a collectivist society there is an emphasis that individual does not exist independently but in a network of relationships called Guanxi. Which is embedded within the culture and emphasis trust which plays an important part in knowledge sharing, as discussed earlier. Chinese organisation culture retain more hierarchy structure and traditions than western culture, therefore due to this social belief, junior are expected to follow the advice of their seniors, this unequal knowledge sharing can create an unequal distribution of power, which will be discussed below. Power is defined as the ability of an agent to change or control the behaviour, attitudes and values of another agent (Rahim et al. 2001).The issue of power conflict is typically neglected in KM literature, although being interrelated (Hislop,2009) with knowledge sharing behaviours. Power is usually unequally distributed within organisations, which can create tension between workers and owners and subsequently the level of knowledge shared. A worker can have access to knowledge based power by simply possessing scarce resources and ideas. Therefore the legitimacy of power can influence the extent to which knowledge is perceived and consequently, sharing of knowledge, as power cannot be automatically deemed legitimate by workers. In relation to the engineers in MDL who work in significant fields dedicated to creativity and problem-solving skills, the transferof knowledge might be seen as inadequate due to the level of expertise and the perceived legitimacy from the workers. This can su bsequently amplify tension between workers and their employing organisations, although the workers are seen as a competitive advantage, there is a high (although industry standard) level of staff turnover (10-15%) in MDL. Scarborough and Carter (2000) suggested that its problematic to assume that organisations represent a harmonious environment where people are willing to share their knowledge and that the unequal distribution of power can have an impact on knowledge sharing within the organisations. The use of reward power is visible in MDL, as team members who complete projects on time or early are paid via financial bonuses, this Taylorism or carrot on a stick approach can be used for knowledge sharing behaviour in forms of direct powers. Employees are happier with superiors who possess expert knowledge and who are recognised for personally attractive attributes (Liao, 2008) in contrary to research evidence on managers reference and expert power on the climate of trust. The desirability of expert power is essential as employees look to managers for direction and guidance. Employees need to believe in the managers ability to set direction, give guidance and coordination to achieve good results. If there is a climate of trust demonstrated by managers within the organisation there is a willingness to share knowledge with team members. An organisation where power is only orientated towards reward can actually be detrimental, MDLs workers are a source of competitive advantage, there is no evidence of overtime pay and the bonus is relatively modest for finishing the task on time. Sharing intensive and innovative knowledge is valuable within MDL, and usually requires some levels of trust. The nature of knowledge sharing can also be a factor in the organisations culture, collectivist culture such as China (Hofstede, 1984), emphasise family and work groups above personal individual needs, therefore new employees within the company might hesitate to share knowledge as they are in a disadvantageous position and fear that they might lose face by contributing to an established work culture (Huang et al, 2008). Similarly, long-term employees might not share knowledge due to the fear of losing their experts status to the new comers. These two opposites can further manifest the likelihood of knowledge sharing within organisations as experts might seal themselves off into their own professional group in order to protect their domain of knowledge. The community of practice (CoP) is defined as a group of people informally bound by shared experience and identity (Brown Duguid, 2001) within an organisation. The high overlapping nature of the people within groups is highly dynamic and without the consideration of the difficulties and contradictions it entails could potentially lead to adverse effects within the community. Furthermore, with the acknowledgement of interpersonal trust, the cross-site difference can be more of a hindrance than an enhancement to the organisation. A CoP assumes a familiar territory, a sense of identity, engagement and at large accountability which translates into a form of competence within the organisation. In relation to Chinese collectivist culture, discussed previously, characterised by Guanxi which acts in the interest of the group and not necessarily of individuals can affect the CoP initiatives. Although a collective sense of identity and value within a member of the community can create a bond that facilitates trust, there are potential negative consequences if such bonds are too strong. As the bond can be a basis for exclusion which consequently could lead to new communities being ignored and having their knowledge not taken into importance to the existing community. Furthermore, it was also found that if employees could maintain good relationships without sharing their precious knowledge they tended not to share (Huang et al, 2008) especially in a collectivist culture. This inward looking community can create un-receptiveness within ideas generated outside the community (Brown Duguid, 1998), in this circumstances there might be ignorance to the ideas and shared beliefs transmitted from the headquarters in the UK. Subsequently this could also lead to group think behaviours within geographical diverse locations leading to lower quality in creativity and innovation. In a collectivist culture, a community of practice could potentially be limited rather than extensive leading to a community that is characterised as unwilling to incorporate new and external knowledge. In contrast, an individualist country, such as the UK, the emphasis is on self rather than the interest of the group, community member may succumb to narrow-mind thinking, which can act as brakes to knowledge management initiatives and consequently the relationship of social identity within such groups. Therefore, national culture can shape knowledge sharing across sites. The relationship between culture and knowledge reflects the value of the socialised group since, each site operates relatively autonomously with engineers never working across sites. This could lead to communication problems and furthermore the erosion of ideas across sites. People might therefore act opportunistic as the working environment does not facilitates their contribution to ideas. Therefore, the challenge identified for MDL is to increase shared identity beneficial to positive knowledge sharing and where people are not acting opportunistic or selfish. If a valuable employee leaves MDL, the new organisation will stand to gain an advantage and this will interfere with knowledge continuity within the existing organisation. Another source of conflict within cross-site is the contradictory nature of collective social practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Which suggests that while members of a community work together collectively and cooperatively, they are also simultaneously, to so me extent, competing with each other inside their organisations, for example for promotion opportunities. When newcomers arrive at the company, there will be pressure to forge a new identity to participate in existing community of practice. In this case, the newcomers are not exactly progressive as they do not necessarily seek to change the practice more than established members. There is no investment for the newcomer as they are not part of a workplace history thats already established. Therefore, to assume that old timer will facilities the new comers is and can be contradictory. The main challenge is to establish a link and connection that requires the existing members within MDL in helping to develop the knowledge of the newcomers who will, over time, take their place in the organisations. Therefore, the way in which these practices are conducted and continued depends on the characteristics and the organisational culture which is also affected by national culture. There is an influence towards culture attributed in collectivistic societies, of not losing face or wanting to contribute to outgroups, as this process of sharing knowledge might give an impression of bragging. Therefore the old timers might not fully consider the new members as being part of the group, although in the same company, this contradiction of where modesty can cause cultural restriction and reluctance for active participation just so that there is no impression of bragging. National forms of identity can affect the dynamics of the organisations, therefore KM initiatives need to be unique and cannot follow specific routes. Since the other sites are bound by culture distance this could reflect the amount of knowledge sharing that occurs. The emphasis should be focused on collaboration and interaction which leads to greater knowledge being shared. A culture that is open minded at the same time willing to collaborate could lead to knowledge management initiative being successful. Competitive and goal orientated cultures, where the emphasis focuses on striving high and the focus is on winning and success shows hesitancy to share knowledge (Wiewiora, 2012). In MDL there is an emphasis on project completion with an addition monetary incentive to motivate employees. In a high context culture, such as China, it is believed that money and success are interrelated (Chiu, 2002) their uncertainty avoidance culture furthermore reflects the lack of trust between employees and managers. The differences in business practices across cultures can create tension and ambiguity as practices might be difficult to follow in a culture which reflects a different sets of values. An example would be of a culture in UK, where imagination and creativity are encouraged (Hofstede, 1984) and people continue to work in the organisations because of such concepts. This rewarding nature of work makes them feel more committed and connected to the values of the organisation. In essence, money may provide a vehicle for motivation to some extent but this incentive will ultimately fail unless the underlying cultural climate exists that rewards, celebrates, and values knowledge application. A culture that emphasise individuality and acting in the interest of self will lead to knowledge hoarding behaviours (Long and Fahey, 2000). In comparison to a collectivist culture where group collaboration and beingÃâà part of a team will lead to members more willing to contribute (Politis, 2003), as there are more efforts toward maintaining good relationships with people around them. These cultures highly value learning, where people are willing and free to explore, and knowledge creation is encouraged, people do not feel that sharing knowledge will cost them their jobs or the potential to lose face. Another determinant for cross-site analysis is the impact of leadership style and its implication on organisational culture. Transformational leadership behaviours engender attitudes in subordinates leading to the adoption of new practices (Judge, 2004) therefore effective leadership can facilitate knowledge sharing, however, transformational leadership may not be the prime impetus within an organisations as the leaders active involvement could just be an activity rather than direct inspiration. Therefore the challenge lies in creating an equal playing field where leaders emphasis on meeting goals should be aligned with the capabilities of the creative workers in MDL. With senior managers having project teams of eight to ten staffs with a focus on day to day detail there must be a style of leadership that accommodates for the diversity of intensive knowledge workers. National culture perspective could assume that transformational leadership influence is more prominent in culture with high power distance such as China, where the relationship between subordinates and seniors are polarised. In contrast to culture with low power distance where managers rely on teams for their expertise. This conflict within leadership style could hinder KM initiative within the organisation. MDL HQ in the UK must be the starting point for which KM initiatives are implemented. It is not only concerned with creating an appropriate work climate and attitudes but also workers commitment and facilitating of workers loyalty towards knowledge sharing behaviour. A good leader, therefore, should provide their beliefs and set values as to how the groups should function. The senior leaders in MDL should promote in creating an atmosphere for where knowledge sharing activities are promoted. The trend and the shift in the power has changed the dynamic business organisations. For KM initiative to be effective the interests of the company and workers needs to be aligned, in a knowledge intensive firm transformational leaders can develop such working environment. Leaders also develop a culture based on knowledge sharing by highlighting the importance of working together and collaborating in a way that enhances the knowledge sharing capacity within organisations. Knowledge intensive ICT firms in the UK (Analoui, 2012) who engaged in diverse business functions found the effectiveness of transformational leaders for the long-term vision of the company where its primary goals are in the interest for the good of their organisation. Likewise, the workplace in MDL must see the workers as being decision makers within the organisation, allowing the workers to be actively participating and engaging in knowledge sharing activities. Integrating such form of leadership is geared towards motivating and developing plans to achieve organisational goals. Knowledge intensive firms in France (Bacha, 2014) who implemented transformational leadership style into existing practice changed the way employee perceived their jobs which led to enhanced job performance inductive to knowledge sharing. Furthermore, in the case of Alvan Sabet the biggest producer of textiles in the Middle East, through strengthening tolerance and being open minded to errors incurred, transformational leaders were better able to facilitate knowledge sharing within organisations (Gelard, 2014). A leader can also influence the perception of rewards, MDL current level of bonus pay is linked financially and distributed across project teams. Although financial incentive can encourage knowledge sharing it can also lead to knowledge hoarding behaviour, or at times, the unwillingness to share because the knowledge is perceived as being more superior. It is therefore recommended that leadership should not single out a team or an individual for financial incentive as this culture can lead to hoarding of knowledge. Chen (2011) identification of group based appraisal was found to support knowledge sharing. Group trust and a supportive climate for knowledge sharing were positively related to group knowledge sharing in 86 work groups in a high tech industry (Wu, 2016), by publicly praising groups, a group leader becomes a role model for employees to follow. Group based reward acts in the same way as individual reward which is based on performance except the target is set of group within the company. A bonus pool where performance is calculated by senior managers on each project could be reward at six-month intervals or this could be deferred for teams not reaching targets by moving the reward at the end of the year, which could improve the long term view of project in relation to innovation capabilities. Group scheme such as this can foster teamwork and a sense of community amongst workers within the organisation. Another difficulty identified was the lack of social identity and trust within MDL, a lack of identity can create difficulty in knowledge management initiatives. Employees who identify strongly within the organisation are more likely to share the knowledge as the interest and benefit retained are mutual. A good community of practice requires strong commitment from leaders to follow through the initiative and foster an organisational culture that see everyone as equal. MDL engineers are a pool of highly qualified professionals whose interest might be in protecting and sealing the domain of their knowledge. Mangers have the responsibility to cultivate groups of people, the emphasis of community of practice should be around giving independence while also managing through organisational support. Study on AlphaChemicals in Germany (Borzillo, 2011), found the effectiveness of having a step in and step out phase for cultivating such pratices. Rather than having a constant evlaution on proje cts, in MDL, the use of step in (every three months) where managers within sites define specific goals and employees discuss innovative startegies. Whereas with the step out phase, the independece of the group allows for radical innovation for development of smartphones. Hemre (2005), identified groups at Ericsson appointing a community leader to meet on regular basis, focusing on non- work related aspect which created a strong sense of community. In MDL, the senior manager managing the project team could facilitates such events. These events can create a sense of community between different sites, not just for the sense of working but finding a common ground for which team can enhance the level of trust and openness to business practices. Newell (2007), identified that the use of social interaction between Indian firms and US firms through building personal relationships where an environment for effective knowledge transfer was established. This suggest that just because practices are in place does not mean that the level of trust increases, its about finding the mutual ground where community see themselves and innovative enables. In line with this, is the implication of ICT, although information systems might be useful for younger generations, it also needs to facilitate older generations who might not be familiar with such systems. Therefore, mentoring can work both ways, for personal learning and providing encouragement to less experienced workers. Bryant (2005) found that the impact of mentoring in software firms, helped workers learn transferable skills. Furthermore, case study in Lebanese and Iranian bank (Karkoulian, 2008; Bidmeshgipour, 2012) showed that the use of informal mentoring was more effective. In MDL, informal mentoring with good mentors should be a way to bridge the gap in organisational learning and increasing social identities within diverse workgroups. Using informal means of mentoring can furthermore provide informal guidance within organisations such as explanation of unwritten rule within organisation which can also help build up group trust. MDL is geographically diverse, therefore, the use of boundary spanner with ICT can create a synergy to develop a link between sites to foster a virtual community. A strong communication within team members can correlate to creativity and innovation. Olaisen (2016) study on Scandinavian banks found that teams consisting of diverse multicultural professions using ICT online interaction worked very well. In MDL, internet-based channels, such as video conferencing (Skype), could be used to create a global virtual community. An affordable alternative to face to face, this would create a sense of social identity within MDL furthermore facilitating knowledge sharing and foster a culture of cooperation. In MDL the use of a broker (responsibility is taken by senior manager) can connect disconnected ideas by using job rotation across sites, therefore bridging the gap and crafting a common knowledge for mutual understanding. Through shared practices implementing job rotation can facilitate knowledge transfer and movement throughout the organisation, this is especially applicable when organisations possess technical skills. Food links in the field of sustainable food production and consumption, uses brokers as a means to shape group learning process and synthesise existing knowledge (Karner, 2011). Employees, therefore, engage throughout the company and engage in a broader content specific knowledge tasks. Enabling staff to work in different areas of the organisation through cross-functional job rotation can contribute to increased knowledge sharing and the likelihood of expert knowledge being shared throughout the organisation. MDL senior manager across the different geographical sites can act as a broker to sites in-between the face to face meeting conducted every six month with the aim to identify common themes, targets and future goals of similar interests across geographical sights. In contrast to the resource-based approach, Foucaults understanding of power isà fundamentally relational (Foucault, 1972, 1977,à 1978,à 1980). Foucault, a historian,à recognised that a key feature of the development of the modern state was a fundamentalà shift in the nature of power relations. Foucault suggests that in contemporary society powerà is no longer primarily a privilege that one might possess but rather operates within aà network of relations, constantly in tension, in activity (Foucault, 1977, pp. 26-27). Does Stop Motion Animation Have A Future In The Multimedia Era? Does Stop Motion Animation Have A Future In The Multimedia Era? This multimedia project will be to get an answer to this question does stop motion animation has a future in our new multimedia era? the aim of this dissertation is to determine whether traditional stop motion is going to be replaced by digital stop motion and if digital stop motion animation will be replaced by other means of digital animation techniques for example CGI (Computer Generated Images). The reason for choosing this topic as my research basis is because there was always a determination and attraction within myself for learning new thing and techniques about animation so the decision was set to one of the earliest animation forms and the one I admire the most. Application With the help of these case analyses as reference when necessary, I will move to the core part of me of my dissertation. I will put forward the research I made to determine whether stop motion animation has a future in our new multimedia era. Examples of newer technologies, techniques that are currently being used will be put forward and investigate why they seem to be overtaking or changing traditional stop motion. These will be supported by my research work. Discussion between older and newer techniques in the making and production of a film will also be made. A questioner will also be done in order to get a better view of how much people know about stop motion and there actual knowledge of it if they do have one. These will perhaps lead me to answer the question does stop motion animation has a future in our new multimedia era? I will support my argument and say why traditional stop motion is so nice to see almost magical and make everyone fill with joy while watching it, and also as an animator why it is so amazing while creating it actually. Then all descriptions , steps , minutes of discussion and every information that will be necessary will be set forward concerning the post production and production of the short stop motion animation that I will do from all the knowledge and piece of information that I will go through this dissertation. Post production chapter 1 FROM HUMAN HAND TO COMPUTER MOUSE, THE JOURNEY History of animation 1 In this section, a brief history of animation will be elaborated. Important dates will be included within the timeline of animation, leading to when stop motion was first created meaning the very first form of it and also the different techniques that was used. Some facts also will be presented, things that have been longer questioned before, like, the equipment used and why 24 frames per second are being used. Paul wells a Canadian journalist and pundit [Wikipedia Paul wells] later nominated as the director of animation, within the academicals institution [Southborough University school of Art and Design. 2010] talks about some early involvements in animations. He also discussed some equipments used how animation was discovered while experimenting for the cinematic moving image. He also told how since 1798 people have been inventing equipments than can project some drawn moving images. [Wells: A. 2004:88] The Phenakistoscope 1.1 The famous Phenakistoscope was one of Joseph Plateau revolutionary invention that will make a real change in the world of animation, created in 1832 the journey begins here even if this principal was first recognized by the Greek mathematician nuclide and was later experimented by Newton Joseph plateau was the one who further pushed this experiment and developed it. This device was an early form of optical toy that allowed one to see houses or acrobats moves. Luc Sanders, a freelance writer, animator and also a graphic designer with a background in computerized design and animation. He wrote on a website, how the device was made and how using wheel this device was able to create animation. The animation was done by a series of sequence image that was around the circumference of the wheel. This will be translated in nowadays terms as each individual frame used to create a film. Slits are made in the wheel and when this is placed in front a mirror, the device is spun and the animation occurs the picture starts to move. [Picture showman. 2004]Phenakistoscope_3g07690u.jpg The phenakistoscope also known as the phenakistiscope was famous for about only two years as due to this creation this gave great ideas to other invents that will be the future of animation at this time.[Wikipedia 2010] Zoetrope 1.2 Later a derivative of phenakistoscope was the zoetrope. Created around 130 AD by a Chinese inventor ting human and later developed by William George Horner around 1800, who almost received all the credit. zoetrope.jpg It was also called the daedal (ingenious wheel). It only became popular decades later when the French and American marketed it as a toy. Then the American developer, William Lincoln re-named the zoetrope (life turner). Working on the same principals as the fantascope, just that the pictures were drawn on a strip are set around the bottom third of a metal drum, the latter was mounted on a spindle so that it could be spun, and when viewers looked though the slits they could see cartoon strip from a single moving image. [Companion for the apprentice wizard by Oberon Zell- raven heart] Critics of a writer 1.3 Maureen Ruth Furness of president of the society for animation is a writer, animation historian, critic, animation theorist, professor and president of the society for animation studies. [Wikipedia. 2010]. In animation bible she made some analysis about the techniques of stop motion stating that the technique is to be achieved by manipulating objects in from of the camera. Frame by frame.[Furniss:A.2008:232] this book is really a pleasure to read I have received great knowledge from this book as Maureen furnish has been through great detail about the processes, techniques in the creation of animation, and also great examples are also given. The father of animation cartoon 1.4 From the reference to the website, pitureshowman, James Stuart blacktop is known as the father of animated cartoon and born in England Sheffield in 1875. 4064t.gif In 1906 he created the first animated film known as Humorous phases of funny faces, the very first cartoon ever made. The technique he used was stop motion; he drew the faces on a blackboard and filmed it. He then paused the filming and changed the faces and continue his filming repeating the same process to create a moving image. [Mosley. 2010] This technique set a revolution in the 1914th, Windsor McKay a prolific artist, pioneering early animated films far outshone the work of his contemporaries, and also set a standard followed by Walt Disney and others in later decades. By (1867-1934) he invented Gertie the dinosaur one of his best creation ever. [Absolute astronomy. 2010] Van Eatons website discuss how gentile the dinosaur was a little different to humors phases of funny faces, there was a certain interaction between the characters and the animator. For example gentile was instructed to do some tricks like bowing to audience. [Eaton. 2010]gertie_on_tour.gif Furniss theory 1.5 Being inspired by McKay, this technique was further developed and animators experimented with different materials to create 2d stop motion animation.furniss talked about the different types of 2d animation in animation bible [Furniss. 2004] explaining how 2d stop motion animation has many different forms how each technique used is unique. For example to create shadows, sand, salt, pins and cut out bits of paper and many more Medias. From Kuban leviers website, he made a web site on a famous scripter, artist, film director and animator Alexandra korejwo. Graduated from the academy if fine arts in Poznan (Poland), she has been the owner of many distinguished titles and awards. She made animation films in her very own style with the use of colored salt as media.aboutolaglowna.jpgShe then created an animation called Carmen habanera from the same technique and media. She made use of gouache watercolors to change the sands color and the allowed it to dry before to a black colored canvas an d use feathers to manipulate it. [Korejwo-art. 2010] 3D stop motion animation 1.6 Later all these inspiration drew animators to make use of 3d objects to create stop motion animations. From the same book mentioned in the above paragraph, furnish spoke also about 3d stop motion , her description was how 3d stop motion has get quite an advantage in field comparing to 2d stop motion as they were the result of animation such as morph , Wallace and grommet, which were both very popular and famous. In both animations the media use was clay and with the help of this media they made the characters and surroundings as well. makingof.jpg As an example of 3d animation, we can refer to the famous LEGO bricks; this technique is also called the brick film. The animators made use of the bricks of Lego to design an animate a magical world. Later on in 1989, an Australian animator called Lindsay flea that created an animation made from bricks of Lego this film was called the magic portal. This film was sixteen minutes long and took four and a half year complete it .[furniss:A:2008:243,244] More in deep on animation procedures 1.7 According to this book computer graphics multimedia and animation by pakhira, it says there are different types of animation possible, depending on the technique used for depicting animated frame sequences. For example: Cell animation: the most simple and widely used ones. This made use of the onion skinning process, that is animated objects are drawn manually and positioned by using an onionskin- like translucent sheet called a cell. The background is drawn only once and only the moving object is redrawn frame by frame. This concept is implemented as layers on the background. The principal is simple the background is kept fixed and the animated frames (cells) keep changing in between frames. Thus using a different layer for each different object. We also have key frame animation. Key frames are image frames that are designed to identify key positions of the object and mark significant changes and path in the animation sequence. In brief the beginning and ending frames are marked as key frames. This can vary for more complicated film there may be more key frames involved for example in between to introduce an important scene. These help to smoothen the movements of objects over complex trajectory. For linear motion, the frames in between are make using linear interpolation that is also called lerp over the time scale. Now for curvilinear trajectories the technique called spin interpolation is being used. This can be one by the b -spine interpolation, Bezier interpolation or LaGrange interpolation. [Pakhira. 2008:255] The rostrum camera secrets 1.8 Also Jeff golden make reference to the most recognized piece of equipment in the creation of 2d stop motion in his blog. He was talking about the rostrum camera. The rostrum camera is a camera which is pointed downwards, and is parallel to a board (that will be like a stage for the animation). The frames are shots individually while the objects are being manipulated under the camera. A bit similar to when James Stuart blacktop created the famous humorous phases of funny faces. The 3d stop motion process is not different from this one, the same principals are being apply here, however to demonstrate 3d effects and depth of the scene, the camera is positioned to the side of the object. [Golden. 2008] With the fast improvements and evolution of technologies, creating these same effects is now much easier with the help of computers. It gives the same feel like it has been crafted by hand. But does the fact that knowing it has been processed by computers decrease the feel and scenes of magic? Kit laybourne the chief creative officer for the whistle, (a cross media platform concentrating on kids and sports). [wikipedia.2010] says how digital animation uses the same processes as the traditional way but only the tools had changed. He also says how with the help of these new tools the work has become easier to produce. [Laybourne. 1998:65] Why 24 frames per second? 1.9 There one thing that is very important to know while creating an animation, that is the speed that is going to be used, also known as the frames per second. Very often I wondered why 24 frames per second were more commonly to be used by animators. John wyvern had discussed this in a very scientific manner; he said the reason for having 24 frames per second is simply so because the human brains read the images continuously thus giving a feeling that is was only one image that was continuously moving. He also stipulates: Ever since sir Isaac Newton, (1642-1727) scientists had discovered the common effects by the reaction that when the eyes stares a light and then looks away. With this little experiment, the deduction was that the retina retains a bright after-image, which quickly fades out. This is usually known as persistence of vision, this effects or reaction has been use by lots of historians to explain how the eye and brain tend to connect the strings of static images which are projected as a film, that also mentally create the feeling and impression of smooth movement. This information about these changes that are being done in the images are automatically being understood and recognized in a specific area of the brain that is separated from the principal acts of perception. So the result is as long as these images are being played at a speed below the perceptual threshold (film with 24 frames per second) they will be read as continuous by the brain. [Wyvern. 1989:10, 11] The persistence of vision the debate continues. 1.10 This argument and idea of persistence of vision was further explored on the media college website , they agreed with wyverns argument , there was a little controversy saying that these scientists ideas were accused of being false arguments in 1912,as there are no pertaining proof or evidence that this is the way our brain works. This website continues by informing that it is thought that the illusion of continuous motion is caused by unrelated phenomena such as beta movement (the brain assuming movement between two static images when shown in quick succession). [Wavelength Media. 2010] the use of 24 frames per second is also known as, full animation, where each frame is different and is commonly used once, due to accuracy. This is also discussed by furnish in her book called art of motion animation aesthetics. Shes also explored what is called limited animation to get a comparison with full animation. The difference is that it uses less frames and play lot on camera movements to cove r the gap in between the scenes (continuous frames) to form the animation. Furness explains that planning over the art work to create a good flow and sconce of motion if we are reducing the number of drawings. [Furniss: B. 2007:133,134] this would result in less production time also. Two great milestones 1.11 The latter also suggested comparing two different animations to help explain her thesis. She suggested watching Mickey mouse clock cleaners (1937)images.jpg And the birth of astro boy (1963)Astro Boy The Beginning DVD.jpg. The answer was clear after watching these two movies, one could feel as if there were missing parts(frames) in the first film but hereby one could understand the story though and it gives a feeling of heavy busy action that is the scene was too loaded and fast.jules angles, the one who is noted internationally for his great contributions to abstract animation and film,[Tobey cross. 2001] disagrees clearly with furnish thesis saying that there is no such thing as limited animation, only limited talent.. Each style of graphic and each kind of gesture has its own requirements for motion. [Furnish: 2007:136] to conclude both had their own reasons for their thesis. Production chapter 2 Literature review .2 Case analysis of Adam Elliot, cousin 2.1 Adam Elliot also qualified as an independent stop motion animation writer, Clamatorial and director. Born on the 2 of January 1972 in Berwick, with only five films he already participated in about six hundred film festivals and received about one hundred awards. [Wikipedia 2010] His entire great master piece was based on his family member for example, uncle (1996), cousin (1998) and brother (1999) accordingly. This little summary was on a website called Ezine articles. I will concentrate more on cousin, cousin as stated earlier is about Adams cousin, and his childhood friend who had suffered from a cerebral palsy. This tragedy is cruelly ended by some epic scene like liquorices smelling, toe-nail collects, one -armed cricket playing, super -hero costume wearing, and also cake baking and so on This continues when cousins parent was killed in a car crash and he is force to live in a group homeà [i]à . [Ezine articles] According to a blog I found, [the animation blog] it says that this film was originally shot in a small storage unit in the outer suburb of moorabin in Melbourne at a facility owned by his father. For this time, Elliot made use of digital equipment called AVID in order to edit the film footage that was shooting on a 16mm film band. The result of his effort made him win his second AFI award for the best Australian animation. . In a biography by Melodrama Pictures, it is stated that, Adams films have connected with audiences through focusing on loneliness and difference with compassion, humor and pathos. [Melodrama Picture: A. 2007]. To define this film, the characters were basically made from from clay, manipulated by hand to produce a different result motion in each frame. This was originally a mute film and people had to rely only by the characters expressions and narration from William McInnis. This was indeed a good decision to allow McInnis to narrate that eventually helped a lot to understand the feeling of the history and the sadness moments as well as funny ones. The color of the film was perfect for this period of animation revolution if i can say, and with so bringing a good feel of the film. The of the color grey as primary and dominant color was excellently chosen as its a tragedy after all. Scott Iains stated concerning this thesis about color used and the narration perfectly matches the sad tales and the beautiful melancholia of William Mc Inness outstanding narration. [scott.2008] I do believe that this classic is the best in its traditional stop motion way. I am sure if this was done using CGI techniques; the feeling of sadness the mood and the traditional magic that non CGI can replace would be gone. I will also add to this, that this film should not be presented as a cartoon as it has a high degree of mature humor and tragedy. Case analysis of Pixars Monsters Inc 2.2 In this part of my dissertation, I will comment on a famous animation created by the use of CGI techniques, this film is known as Monsters Inc. I will also talk about the great Pixar animation studio that eventually created this film. The aim through this comment and analysis section is to be able to critically analyze this work to be able to give an answer to a specific question. That is there a future for stop motion animation? With the arrival of CGI technologies, this will just keep on lowering my cause. Nevertheless lets not get too shacked away. A brief description of this film will also be given. Peter Wisher, professor and also dean at the school of film and digital media, [Amazon.2004] had also written a book titled moving pixels: blockbuster animation, digital art and 3d modeling today. He says that Pixar studio of animation first started in 1986 and they first begin their career by first creating television advertisements. Also some of the most sophisticated software concerning CGI techniques were designs by Pixar, for example CAPS and Render Man. The revolution continues with the help of Pixar for doing the first fully CGI animated film in 1995 called Toy story. Later on this was continued and many CGI films were made including Monsters Inc which was realized in 2001. [Weisher.p 2004:112] Monsters Inc as guessed is based on monsters that have been fooled in to believe that children are dangerous and that in scaring them this may generate electricity out of their screams. There is a scream business that actually goes out in the film; the story main character sullies (Sullivan) and his one eyed friend Mick. They accidentally let a child came in their town, and soon after, they realized that boo (the child) was not dangerous at all. And those children in fact are not dangerous and that in fact laughter generates more electricity than screaming. This film is completely CGI generated. The reason why these characters look so realistic and are detailed. I could see each of their hair on the characters and more realistic when light reflects in the eyes of the characters. As said , there are 2,320,413 computer animated hairs on Sullivan, and Pixars technical team will tell you that animating all that hair and making it look real was no easy task'[ Pixar . 2010] Unlike in cousin it was not a numb film narrated by an author. But this one each character had their own line to say and in their own voice that give and advantage in realism compared to cousin. In doing so, this has allowed small children to understand the story and to enjoy it as well and elders. The excellent artistic job made in Monsters Inc is flawless. The colors, the background, the lightening and the frame work also the character design was done with perfection. Compared to cousin this can be called a movie for children and this will at the same time make the children less afraid of monsters. A very nice film though. Trial and error analysis 2.3 Stop motion test one 2.3.1 This was my very first stop motion realized after the end of my research work. To give a brief, the work is a white board stop motion. This is basically a numb animation with no voice sound etc This was an 11 photo work. A very short work indeed but that made me realizes lots of thing and mistake. Story line. The story is a little story that is a stick figure trying to go through a rail and puts all his effort in . Comments My comment about this work would be that this was a tough work, why, because to animate frame by frame and to draw it with the same lengths and characteristics with all the detail that was merely impossible for me. I was not even being able to create the effect of motion for this little film. The character was drawn the only part that was moving was the shaft that should be used to pull out the platform on which the animation stick figure was to be pulled on. It was really difficult for me to move more than one part in the work. The animation sticked to only one part of the stick figure to move. As to be able to draw the stick figure with his accessories was difficult as if I did so I would be drawing 50 t0 60 stick figure and there accessories. For this trial a normal camera was taken to shoot the small film. And a professional tripod was also used that why the image do not tremble while playing. White board as media. Working with white board as frame work and also media was very very difficult to manage. This media is so tangible its very flexible and though difficult to get straight lines and therefore accuracy in the drawing is very difficult. I had to erase and re do lots of parts many many times thus this was very time consuming. After late trials, I was very irritated and my sense of creativity has all went away. I was not able to draw and create or imagine anything. So I stopped here and animated it just to see the result. Movie maker as software. Windows movie maker is a very interesting software very simple to use and understandable. I firstly imported the photos and drag them to the story board. Then I selected all the photos and add and effect called speed up double . This made the frames become smaller and then the frames were viewed more rapidly. This is how we can achieve the famous concept of 24 frames per second. Unfortunately as i was not able to work with the media too much i only took 11 photos so its difficult to make an animation of 24 frames per second when we have only 11 frames (photo). Thus the animation was very dull and un-lively. There was less feeling of movement and also less graphic. Second stop motion trial 2.3.2 For my second stop motion trial, I will explore the effects of real stop motion. That is to make a person or living thing to be the subject and character of my stop motion film. This is a little trial movie done that is not very professional without even taking into account light , position, distance, proportion nor frames the work properly. Without using a tripod the work was shooting as far as possible. My main emphasis while doing this trial was to be able to make the person go from one place to another with stop motion technique and without any movement with the legs. Story line. The story or rather path, is to succeed in making my character move from 1 place to another and vice versa without any effort seen in the legs and be able to like slide to the other places, that is without giving the viewer any feeling that the person could had walk to go to this place. Comment. This work was executed more rapidly and smoothly than the first trial. Being a trial more emphasis were made on the main theme of creating movement. But the magic only occurs in a second when you mount everything on the software and you press play its then that those 24 frames per second look totally magical. It was a nice trial for me and gives me lots of practice and experience to do my third trial that will be an improvement of the first trial media and the second trial experience and tactics. To return with this trial, I as the cameraman had pretty much difficulty to shoot and maintain a specific frame work. This is surely shown in the film it trembles a lot. This was done purposely so as to see the difference and difficulties while doing that without the tripod. The animation as implemented on the same software windows movie maker. Final project description 2.3.3 Through this dissertation I will at the end design and mount a stop motion animation. The main reason behind is to actually get to know how much I have been reading and understanding the key fundamentals of stop motion animation. And this project will give support to my dissertation. Story. The story is mainly about a fancy world where the characters here are games, billiard balls and normal playing cards. These characters will do series of movement at the same time giving the audience a scene of magic movement. And will follow a specific track to end the video. Software. As my early trials the only software used through the whole project was windows movie maker. This is great software indeed. Difficulties. The difficulties Ive been through were mainly that the software always had bugs and was very slow to respond. For example after I have imported the pictures, I could wait 10 minutes before the program does any effects to the work. Advantages. The software is very easy to use to search commands. Its work space is very large giving much emphasis on the production rather than unnecessary literature. Anyone can after couples of trials generate a video out of images. Also we have been covering this software through our multimedia program at university o f Mauritius. Process. First of all I started with a great disadvantage. I didnt know that we were not able to take the tripod out of the faculty. So I had to shoot the whole final scene without a tripod and with the use my imagination as far as possible I tried to fix the camera on a cue (this a playing stick made of wood used to play pool and billiard) with great difficulty i started the work. Then I situated all my four main shooting frame position and marked them. After that, the background was the pool table itself with green color. And I started by first positioning the balls in the traditional way for playing pool. Then I manage to move little by little the objects that according to the story board needed to move. After what I changed frame position and introduce my second character the playing card deck. From them following his pattern it moved along the pool table and made couple of movements to finally join the billiard balls. After the entire photo was taken I can now move to the final phase that is the mounting phase. Mounting phase. With the help of windows movie maker, I mounted the work. First of all I imported all the photos I have taken about 250 photos was taken. I then reviewed one by one and erase those that was not ok and were out of frame after assuring that everything is ok I click on import pictures. And then after waiting a couple of minutes for the software to load all these photos, I adjusted the time space of each frames (photo) and also the time of transition. After I added the effect speed double that increased the video display allowing each frame supporting this effect move faster. After all these above steps, the title and the end screen were made. Then the video was saved. After I have viewed the small clip. Past production chapter 3 Chart .3 This is the result of my questionnaire presented bellow. The result is clear and straight forward. As you can see there are many people who dont know about stop motion animation, and if they do know they wrongly associate stop motion with other design animation. CONCLUSION 3.1 In this section I will put all the pieces of the puzzle together (research work case analysis) and try to give and answer to the question set in my introduction, does stop motion animation has a future in our new multimedia era? I will start by a personal feeling of this then I will use the research I have found to support my arguments. Personally, I will say that traditional stop motion will never die and there will always a crazy, ambitious animator designer that will surely make an animation that everyone will keep watching. The simple fact that we as mere human with the means of a camera can make a non living object move and do lots of incredible thing, make a clay get a character and convey a message to an audience, that whets the main talents and animator need to have and let me remind all this is done without any digital equipment like CGI. To support my thesis, Adam Elliot stated, à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã ¦audiences love seeing things on the big screen they know are not computer generated. When they see the fingerprints on the plasticize, they know that it hasnt been generated by a computer, and theres something magical about that. Thats why I think the art form is here to stay, and will never go away [Elliot. A 2009]. With the research work I have done for this dissertation, I would say that as man saw this extraordin ary means to control people in certain means. Every ambitious person was after some new amendments and invention to try to bring as much audience as possible for their films and inventions. A great example would be toy story created in 1995 which was only sixteen years ago. But the fact is what will happen in the next sixteen
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