Astronomy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 6

Astronomy - Essay Example Technical terms are broken down for novice astronomers, more advanced issues can be found for individuals that yearn for more technical knowledge, and everyone can enjoy vivid pictures of the space shuttle, planets, moons, stars, and more. Overall this website could be given the grade of an A+. Educators and students have links on the NASA website. Educators can find classroom materials to use in their classes. Students can find help for their assignments about space related issues. All ages of students can use myNASA to bookmark articles of concern. These services are provided for free. The enormous knowledge of NASA is shared through these tools. The information is vast. Everything from the first moon landing to images from the Hubble is provided by this website. An opportunity for students to watch astronauts on the space station, shuttle lift offs, and images of the earth from orbiting satellites is available. Overall this is a very informational site for educators and students. Employees and policymakers (congressmen) can also access this website. A calendar, expense report, and general accounting for operations can be found under this link. The media has a link for questions about NASA operations, press passes, and events. Employees can view videos not available to the public. Policies are explained. For example, one article â€Å"NASA Hazard and Safety Reporting† directs â€Å"If you see a situation that might result in a death or injury or damage to equipment or property, report it! All reports will receive prompt and thorough attention† (NASA.com). A login for NASA employees is also found at this link. NASA also features a news and mission link. All of the latest news and news on the shuttles is found at these links. Pictures from the Hubble telescope, reports about the finding of water on the moon, and the latest videos are available at the news link. In the news this week, NASA the Atlantis launch is scheduled for

Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe: Loss Of Identity

Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe: Loss Of Identity Research Question: how does male dominance, reputation, and responsibility lead to the downfall of Okonkwos and other characters identity. My research paper has to do with the loss of identity of the main character as well as others. The conflicting battles they had with themselves and society as a whole. I believe this is important because within this novel, Things Fall Apart, there are countless conflicts that mostly ended in disarray. My gist was that the underlying themes within this novel were mostly responsible for these conflicts and so I took it upon myself to scrutinize the novel and find out for myself. In doing so, I heavily relied on the novel attained from my high school and researched other peoples perceptions concerning this topic. Through writing this paper I have made clear the motifs in this novel such as letting power control you instead of vice versa and such things were the cause of many characters downfall or rise within the novel. Loss of Identity in Things Fall Apart From reading the novel Things Fall Apart, you instantly pick up idea that the world of the Igbo people is engulfed in ancestral believes and hierarchy. These notions are strongly embedded within the society that the villages resistance to the European rein by force rumbles disarray in the society. The reader is reminded of a similar paradigm in the days of Queen Elizabeth the first.  From an Igbos view, one could pronounce that the emergence of the Europeans might have triggered the chaos follow-on their meddling with Igbo traditions. The foremost adjustment of these set in stone conventional cultures alarmed mainly the customary authority accredited to men by their known patriarchal society. Moreover, the characters keenness for male dominance undoubtedly interrupted various aspects of the existing ancestral believes and hierarchy, particularly reputation and responsibility which were deemed manly traits. Even more so, these traits amount to the main standard for measuring a mans respect and authority/dominance. The dominance of the male characters emerges inherent, within the Igbo patriarchal community where power is usually cited as the most important factor used by men to construct their own identities as the engendered representatives of humanity.(OLI) This sort of power is portrayed at the physical level as well as on a social and interactive level. On the physical level, people who tend to be lazy are regarded as an  agbala, which means a woman in Igbo. This idea is vividly illustrated through Onkonkwos father. Okonkwo himself achieved fame after showing his strength when he defeated Amalinze in a wrestling contest. This is the first account we have of Okonkwos t physical strength and ability; Okonkwo asserts comparison to the coercive physical power exercised by the British colonisers upon Umuofia people, and which Okonkwo uses to punish his wives (EP, p.52). On the social plane, we are introduced to a structural supremacy which involves several privileges accorded to the person by the tribe they belong to. We see this being exemplified through Ogbuefi Ezeudu a character who had been a great and fearless warrior in his time, and was now accorded a great respect in all the clan. (TFA, p.57). The positive male supremacy is the ideology employed in contrast to the coercive physical power. These perceptions were values customary to clans and established by the elders as a primary foundation of their ancestral beliefs and hierarchy in the Umuofia village. Within this novel, we observe the direct link between male dominance/authority and reputation. Effectively, the structural supremacy is accorded on the basis of the persons intelligence, and as well as some principles defined by the clan. Reputation however becomes the fulcrum around which most aspects of their ancestral beliefs and hierarchy turn. A reputation being the main focus in the org anised Umuofia system is stressed upon by fact that it is a standout feature of people who are capable to accede to the leadership of the clan. Subsequently, these people (men) show a great sense of responsibility because they do not want to be viewed as failures and also to encourage values that guarantee the continuation of the ancestral beliefs and hierarchy in the clan. Likewise any man who fails to attain authority or dominance loses his identity as a true member of the tribe. Consequently, my distress lies in depicting how male dominance, reputation, and responsibility have all directed to the downfall of Okonkwo and other characters identity. Situated in Igboland approaching the beginning of the twentieth century, Things Fall Apart  is embodied via the overlapping of various premises among which one is able to pull out male dominance, reputation, responsibility, collisions of cultures, ancestral beliefs and hierarchy. The novel points out the disarray as well as the incompatible circumstances caused by the onset of the white Europeans who on their arrival brought with them a new religion, new ways of going about life, and a shift in paradigm. The beginning phase of Things Fall Apart limns the integrated community of Umuofia Village, with its kingship political system.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  The reader also experiences the initial exposure of male power through the central figure, Okonkwo who is portrayed as a strong fearless warrior whose celebrity status is undeniable across the Igboland, Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat. Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten, from Umuofia to Mbaino. (TFA, p.3) Okonkwos reputation is given more weight by the narrator who stresses on the physical account that discloses much about his personality and gives the reader insight into the main character and his capabilities: That was many years ago, twenty years or more, and during this time Okonkwos fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan.  He was tall and huge, and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look. He breathed heavily, and it was said that, when he slept, his wives and children in their houses could hear him breathe. When he walked, his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was going to pounce on somebody. And he did pounce on people quite often.  He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough; he would use his fists. He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had had no patience with his father. (TFA, pg.3-4) At this point you could come to the conclusion that Okonkwo is satisfied with his accomplishments taking into account his authority as a man and status within the community. In accordance to Ada Uzoamaka Azado: In the Umuofia community of  Things Fall Apart, Igbo men are constrained to achieve and flaunt [male superiority], in order to be seen and respected.  (EP,  p.50) (OLI) The Nigerian civilization described within the novel has been established by patriarchy which is intern manifested throughout the novel. Regardless of the concept of  Nneka, which in translation means Mother is Supreme, which brings to mind the assertion that the most important factor with regard to the woman in traditional society is her role as mother, women are often measured and represented as possessions of men: In domestic terms, women are reckon as part of a mans acquisitions. Hence, women are regarded in the Umuofia community as part of the several measures perceived to be as sociated to masculinity. The seclusion of female characters from the social hierarchy is hammered on by the narrator. It was clear from the way the crowd stood or sat that the ceremony was for men. (TFA, pg.87). However this circumstance is not typical to Umuofia alone. Actuality, in pre-colonial African culture, women were deemed inferior and not at pair with the opposite sex. It is then not surprising when the author controverts Okonkwos father to him. His father Unoka is presented as a sluggish and irresponsible drunk; Unoka, for that was his fathers name, had died ten years ago. In his day he was a lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow. If any money came his way, and it seldom did, he immediately bought gourds of palm-wine, called round his neighbors and made merry. He always said that whenever he saw a dead mans mouth he saw the folly of not eating what one had in ones lifetime. Unoka was, of course, a debtor, and he owed every neighbor some money, from a few cowries to quite substantial amounts. (TFA, pg.4) His fathers irresponsibility is portrayed through his failure to manage money properly. His main aim is to drink palm wine and to make merry with his friends. He is talked about as a failure, an  agbala. He endured mockery just because he did not live up to the standards set for men in the community; Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure. He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat. People laughed at him because he was a loafer, and they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back. /à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦/ Unoka was never happy when it came to wars. He was in fact a coward and could not bear the sight of blood. And so he changed the subject and talked about music, and his face beamed. (TFA, pp.5-6) The subdued image of Unoka is by no means accidental. Achebe uses this as a medium to represent male dominance in the Igbo society as well as to depict the perception against men who do not succeed. Therefore, one comes to the realisation that male dominance within the novel is strongly associated with the individuals own pursuit for identity. This elucidates the motive behind the main characters unending efforts to attain power which is threatened in novel from time to time. Simply, Okonkwo aims to characterize himself in the sense of creating an image that regarded as the real man with all authority accredited to him in this patriarchal community Okonkwo appears, first, as a successful man who has achieved the self-fulfilment he tries to look for. As Ifeoma Onyemelukwe states:  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   [Okonkwo] is the man who was able to resolve his identity crisis in late adolescence. At age 18 he had developed self-confidence, a high self-concept, and self-esteem and had high achievement motivation as typical of the average Igbo man. The consequence of this is his reverberating achievement and celebrity.  (EP, p.37) Okonkwos bodily strength in combination with the mans keenness to attain social climax moulded a very commanding persona which is fit for such a patriarchal community.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  The ideology of the male character as an influential and commanding individual is subsequently toughened by the image of the  agbala  which generally alludes to fruitless or sluggish men. Onyemelukwe comments:   Things Fall Apart  depicts very successful Okonkwo as showing no empathy or sympathy to less fortunate men like his father, Unoka. Such individuals, to his mind, are simply agbala  (Igbo word for woman) or she-men.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   It is not surprising that Okonkwo stands out in the novel as a macho man with a great deal of self-esteem and self-confidence.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   The cap fits Okonkwo in many instances in the given description. Achebe  portrays him as one who is neither patient nor tolerant. (EP, pp. 37-38)   Okonkwos authority is as a result of his will to attain success. This is evidently highlighted within the novel:  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his  chi  says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his  chi  agreed. And not only his  chi but his clan too, because it judged a man by the work of his hands. That was why Okonkwo had been chosen by the nine villages to carry a message of war to their enemies unless they agreed to give up a young woman and a virgin to atone for the murder of Udos wife.  (TFA, pg.27) Achebe allows the speaker to broaden the confines of Okonkwos authority, evoking what his own father could not achieve: accomplishing himself as a man and building up his reputation. However, Okonkwo was unsuccessful in effectively conveying the authority he possessed. One might argue that the power controlled his actions and in the end the rationale behind his failure may be to shed light on the flaws of the hero blinded by his reputation of and his edge to climb up on the social ladder. Okonkwos reputation drops suddenly following his accidental murder of a young boy. He is no longer deemed as the figure of authority, fame and masculinity just because a bullet from his gun inadvertently killed a young boy. In addition, the laws and regulations customary to the Igbo community demands that any being found guilty of taking anothers life must be banished to his or her motherland. This in contrast to Okonkwos macho personality highlights the shame that adorn him. Overnight, great Okonkwo, the great warrior, the great warrior, the great wrestler, one of the most outstanding achievers of his time, most respected and revered, loses all he has laboured to achieve just in the twinkle of an eye. His hope or remaining one of the lords of the clan, is shattered.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   His flight to Mbanta implies starting life afresh, from the scratch. It means loss of self-esteem, peace, happiness. His ego is obviously punctured. His fame transforms into shame. His identity crumbles. Crises and conflict set in again. (EP,  pp.41-42) It is evident that the situation Okonkwo finds himself in is a paradoxical one because, in spite of the patriarchal trend, he is still banished to his mothers village. This occurrence can be regarded as a device Achebe utilizes to reconstruct the image of women. In this regard the author celebrates the Mother as a Supreme Being, a concept which is recurrent in Achebes writings. Noticeably, Okonkwos return to his motherland plays an important role as it secures him from European influences. At this point, Okonkwo becomes fully aware of his of himself in exile. The identity alteration is first observed by his mothers brother who pertinently comments.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Why is Okonkwo with us today? This is not his clan. We are only his mothers kinsmen. He does not belong here. He is an exile, condemned for seven years to live in a strange land. And so he is bowed with grief. But there is just one question I would like to ask him. Can you tell me, Okonkwo, why it is that one of the commonest names we give our children is Nneka, or Mother is Supreme? We all know that a man is the head of the family and his wives do his bidding. A child belongs to its father and his family and not to its mother and her family. A man belongs to his fatherland and not to his motherland. (TFA, pg.133) The speaker highlights Okonkwos responsiveness to his loss of identity. [He] knew these things. He knew that he had lost his place among the nine masked spirits who administered justice in the clan. (TFA,  p.171) However, his return in the subsequent lines stress upon his reputation and responsibility:  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   He was determined that his return should be marked by his people. He would return with a flourish, and regain the seven wasted years. /à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦/ Even in his first year in exile he had begun to plan his return. (TFA, pp.171) One might wonder if the changes that have occurred in his society would allow him to achieve his reintegration without troubles. However taking into account Okonkwo we knew at the early stages of the novel, you would come to think that his return would once more rekindle the ancestral beliefs and hierarchy within the village of Umuofia. Nonetheless the overlapping of models like reputation, male dominance, and responsibility are such that they compose in a common focus characterised by violent behaviour and also the downfall of Okonkwos fame and persona Revisiting Okonkwos reassimilation within his society, he is put in the skeleton of the above body depicting that his final condition is by no means perchance. Effectively, Okonkwo composes a blend of male dominance, reputation, and responsibility. Okonkwos petulance and zeal to succeed demonstrates the fundamental nature of his character. Hence, the violent condition that has propelled Okonkwo into an inevitable downfall is a produce of the overlapping of male dominance, reputation and responsibility. The society of Umuofia is structured such that man must climb up on the social ladder if he wants to gain respect in the community. The other side of the coin is set aside for women, or in this case, men incapable of achieving masculinity. In effect, the permutation female honour / power do not lead to a decline because a woman moving upward on the social ladder is tantamount to re-examination. Its an amelioration of their rank and cannot be viewed as a downfall. This is also evident in Achebes works; A Man of the People and the Devil on the Cross when Eunice and Warrà ®Ãƒ ®nga respectively, rid themselves of their male tyrannisers. These individuals found their identity and repositioned themselves at superiors on the social ladder and hierarchy.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  In consequence, Okonkwo who is unable to find some of his previous attributes is, inevitably excluded from his rank on the social hierarchy. No longer is he perceived as a role model that he was and, as a result, declines o n the hierarchy as low as an  agbala, like his  father. Okonkwos shift on the social hierarchy is negative. The only factor resultant from the overlapping talked about themes is violence. Eunice uses this as a tool however; this is not the same in Okonkwos situation. In the first instance, violence is utilized at the personal level to liberate themselves from the Europeans, whiles the second instance has an effect on the entire village of Umuofia. Moreover, because the violence in the case of Okonkwo is not tied to one person, the reparation thereafter is irrepressible and, things fall apart. To shed light on Okonkwos failure, Achebe distances the main character from the various revolutions taking place and affecting the people of Umuofia. The author shows a significant role in conjunction to his banishment and uses that as a tool to segregate Okonkwo from the occurring changes. The altercation is no more among Okonkwo and his community, but his cultural beliefs and the European imposed culture. In point of fact, the Europeans having accomplished their efforts in convincing the Igbo people, Okonkwo is left standing alone defending the traditions of Umuofia. His accomplishments and disappointments rest on his capability to formulate a suitable decision of the three principles that constitute to his personality: reputation, male dominance, and responsibility Okonkwo inhabits a society where male dominance is the focal point of traditional beliefs. The patriarchy that he and many others have emulated from ancestral traditions vitalizes him to adopt a mind-set of superiority over the opposite sex by abusing his wives. Okonkwo rose to fame as early as the age of eighteen and since then has been most certainly blinded by fame. As a result, his main aim is to stay at the peak of his power. Okonkwo then shifts from a well-liked hero to a villain. This shift in Okonkwos character demonstrates violence as a predestined outcome of the transformations which affected Okonkwos community. For Okonkwo and many others like himself, the only respond is through violence. Achebe exemplifies Okonkwos calamity as a character falling victim to social violence on the one hand, but also of himself on the other. The first of the violence is one brought upon the Village of Umuofia by European colonisers. This violence was physically imposed and it goes up against the two different lifestyles and their cultures. The second is violence imposed by traditions on the characters. For example; Okonkwo serves seven years banishment for having killed a Klansman; the intentionally killing of twin children to avoid a curse that may strike the village; also Ikemefuna as young as she is sacrificed to Ani (the Earth goddess,) to provide justice after the death of a member of the neighbouring village. Also the individual violence Okonkwo works out on his own personality. We first observe this particular type of conflict mentally. This was where he strongly believed in recapturing his lost identity and to achieve his cause, he ends up as the physical victim of his own violence choosing to hang himself rather than fall into captivity. However, in doing this, he sheds off his reputation.   It is apparent that the last few sections of  Things Fall Apart reveal an Okonkwo who has come to terms with his failure, and tries to evoke his identity. Okonkwo now is not the same Okonkwo who said yes strongly; so his chi agreed (TFA, pg.27). Sadly for Okonkwo, he came to realisation a little late and his strive to keep the little honour he had prove to be futile. Consequentially, committing suicide is gaze at as a taboo: It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offence against the Earth, and a man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen. (TFA, pg. 207). He is forsaken even in death just because his ordeal was against [their] custom. (TFA, pg.207). However, the speakers convey some compassion through Obierika:   Obierika, who had been gazing steadily at his friends body, turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill  himself;  and now he will be buried like a dogà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ He could not say any more. His voice trembled and choked his words. (TFA, pg.208) The narrator attributes the blame of Okonkwos death to the District Commissioners men. And at this point Achebe condemns the negative and brutal aspects of the arrival of the colonisers in Africa  in general and the Igboland in  particular.  Things Fall Apart  can also be considered as a novel that Achebe uses to epitomise the irrationality of certain traditions which in the end have overwhelming effects on the individual and the entire society. Hence I conclude with this famous quote by W.B Yeats, Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Word count: 3,582

The Impact of the Internet on Schools :: Teaching Education Essays

The Impact of the Internet on Schools For this essay, I read an Article called: The Netgeneration: Internet as a classroom and community. After reading the article I came up with some very good points on how the internet has effected the way school are ran compared to the pre-computer and internet age. My conclusions are that the Internet has changed school classroom for the good by making information widely available and useable to even the poorest of schools. The internet has made it possible for teachers to communicate and learn what other teachers are doing in other countries by talking to colleagues in other countries and reading reports and research studies findings before they read the teaching methods books. The Internet also, gives teachers the ability to teach a class online so that their students will be able to stay on task when they are not able to come to class. The online class idea has also made it possible for the average person to get his or her degree with out having to go to a college campus physicall y. In total the Internet has not only increased the amount of learning possibilities in the classroom but it has created infinite amounts of learning opportunities for students and teachers. CLASSROOM Because of the Internet it is possible for schools to have access to books with out having them on the shelves of school libraries. New books and research studies are posted on the Internet daily for the world to read. In the past if you where from a poor school or a shelterd community that banded books from school libraries you may not be able to read some important infromantion. Making the student that had the oportunity to read and learn this new infromation better educated than a person whom did not have the same books in there school library shelves. The author of the article The internet as a classroom explains this fact when she says, "We have arrived at a new moment in history: a moment in which such terms as class, race, gender, sexuality, nationality and ideology are no longer useful" (Hendricks). This statement applies to education because information can be found on any subject on the web. If a school has a ban on reading a book a student can still find and read it online if he or she wants to. Censorship is not possible because of the technology called Internet.

Business of Data Warehousing Foundations Essay

Executive Summary mySupermarket is a grocery shopping and comparison website which aims to provide customers with the best price for their shopping. This report examines how data warehousing provided mySupermarket with the foundation in which to build a successful enterprise, and allowed a subsequent expansion into the ‘business intelligence’ sector. The research draws attention to the problems and limitations that mySupermarket encountered including; coping with diverse sources of data streams, customer loyalty issues, achieving real-time data, data integrity and generating a sustainable revenue stream. These problems were tackled respectively through; building their own data warehouse, adopting a CRM strategy underpinned by their warehouse, adopting Microsoft’s SQL software, supermarket website ‘crawling’, offering ‘targeted’ advertising space and the realisation that the granularity of detail they offered, would allow them to expand into the ‘busi ness intelligence’ sector. The report appreciates the importance of storing data, but concludes that data itself is the prerequisite to success, and that good management is needed to convert this data into meaningful information. It is therefore a combination of data warehousing and good management that has enabled mySupermarket to become a successful venture. Introduction â€Å"On the 31st August 2006, entrepreneur Johnny Stern received a seven-figure sum from investors to transform the way consumers shop for their groceries. From this, the price comparison site mySupermarket.co.uk was born and the company has utilised data warehousing to give consumers access to cheaper grocery shopping. The venture has not been without its problems, however four years on the company has withstood Adam Smith’s ‘Invisible Hand’[1] and grown into a c. £10m company†¦Ã¢â‚¬  mySupermarket is a grocery shopping and comparison site that allows customers to compare and shop from four main UK supermarkets in one central place. Their mission statement is â€Å"to get the best possible price for your supermarket trolley while enjoying an easier and more consumer-friendly shopping experience†. Through the use of SQL and data warehousing, mySupermarket is able to collect product pricing, promotion and availability data directly from retailers’ websites. It then uses its proprietary technology to match identical Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) across retailers. After initial investment from Greylock Partners and Pitango Venture Capital (investors in Facebook & LinkedIn), mySupermarket have faced the same difficulties as other price comparison sites in generating a sustainable revenue stream after Stern declared that â€Å"the portal would remain free in principle for shoppers†. The customer proposition for mySupermarket is to first log into their account. Then choose which supermarket to shop at from; Asda, Ocado/Waitrose, Sainsbury or Tesco. Tick their preferred supermarket and choose a delivery time/date, then start to shop. mySupermarket is updated on a daily basis so that the prices shown are the most competitive. Once the customer has made their choice of store, they start to shop by using the tabbed choices along the top of the page. These are divided up into â€Å"virtual aisles† so making a choice from Fruit and Veg, Meat, Fish & Poultry, or Drinks etc. Once shopping has been completed, it then shows basket prices across the four supermarkets and allows the customer an opportunity to switch supermarkets. This report will critically discuss how data warehousing has enabled mySupermarket to build a successful business model including the benefits and problems that have arisen from the use of this technology. The report will finally analyse the extent to which data warehousing has contributed to mySupermarket’s success. Technologies Discussed According to Bill Inmon[2] (1993) data warehousing can be defined as, â€Å"a  subject-orientated, integrated, time variant and non-volatile, collection of data in support of the management decision making process†. It is, in essence, a large data storage facility which enables an enterprise to gain a competitive advantage through analytics and business intelligence. Providing integrated access to multiple, distributed, heterogeneous databases and other information sources has become one of the leading issues in database research and industry, IEEE Computer (1991) which can be seen through the success of First American Corporation (FAC), Cooper et al (2000) and Tesco/Dunnhumby, J. Perry (2009). Data mining is the process of ‘digging-out’ patterns from data, usually through Clustering, Classification, Regression and Association rule learning. Data mining technology can generate new business opportunities by providing: †¢ Automated prediction of trends and behaviours. †¢ Automated discovery of previously unknown or hidden patterns – D. Champion and C. Coombs (2010) This process is carried out by sophisticated software packages such as Oracle, IBM and SQL. This alleviates the (potentially) very time consuming task of manually inputting and analysing the data Within data warehousing, there is a high importance placed on the quality of data, as without it, meaningful analysis is impossible. Data collection should therefore be taken with a high level of detail, and have solid definitions, as to avoid subjectivity. The purpose of a data warehouse is to support creative strategic decision making through a greater granularity of information with a consistent view of what’s happening. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) emerged in the 1990’s at a time when customers were becoming better informed and less brand loyal. CRM is an integration of technologies and business processes used to satisfy the needs of a customer during any interaction, Bose (2002, p. 89) and is underpinned by data warehousing. As with VISION in the FAC case (2000), the subsequent  benefits of CRM, is that firms are able to exploit the ‘80:20 principle’ which states that some customers are more important/profitable than others. These information sources can only come through data warehousing and data mining. mySupermarket – The Beginning The inspiration for mySupermarket came from Stern’s bargain-obsessed elderly relative; who would scour the aisles of Tesco’s to find his favourite tin of baked beans, jot down the price and travel to competitor stores to try and find a better deal. Stern identified the growing interest in online grocery shopping and felt that it was an area that could be exploited (Fig. 1). Figure 1: Mintel Intelligence – Online Grocery Data Stern spent 18 months before the launch developing the software and tweaking the concept (Fig. 2). Figure 2: Adaption of Martin et al., 2005: 193 The data warehouse was developed through ‘crawling’[3] the four supermarket websites and adding product pricing, promotion and availability data to the warehouse. Once this data was implemented in the warehouse, proprietary technology and SQL software allowed mySupermarket to match identical SKU’s across retailers. This data was also used in developing its CRM strategy through the use of ‘cookies’[4] to store data in the customers computer using the functionality of their browser to find out whether the computer has visited the site before and what SKUs they purchased. â€Å"This enables us to operate an efficient service and to track the patterns of behaviour of visitors to the website.† – mysupermarket.co.uk. The feature enables mySupermarket to utilize this information by creating functions such as a ‘Regular Shop’ button, saving customers’ time on their shopping. mySupermarket – Problems Many problems can arise through the use of data warehousing, both technically and commercially. According to Mintel Intelligence (2009), â€Å"Consumer loyalty is fairly low in the [price comparison] market – with more than 14 million people (c.58% of market) having used three or more different price comparison sites†. Underlying these efforts was the recognition that, to succeed with this strategy, it must know its customers exceptionally well and leverage that knowledge in website design, service and interaction with their clients. mySupermarket would therefore have to find a strategy to retain a ‘loyal customer base’ in a notoriously disloyal sector. Kimball & Ross (2002) state that a common pitfall of data warehousing is to â€Å"presume that the business, its requirements, analytics, underlying data and supporting technology are static† – an early problem mySupermarket encountered was the variation in regional pricing and a growing demand for ‘real-time’ data. Another problem with data warehousing is ensuring the integrity of data, this is typically a human procedure and so subject to human error. Even the most sophisticated data mining systems cannot produce good analysis from poor data. A good illustration of this is from Blastard and Dilnot ‘The Tiger That Isn’t’ where a hospital survey found that an alarming amount of patients were being born on the 11th November 1911. Further investigation showed that nurses often would not fill in patient files properly and to save time, when asked to enter patient D.O.B. they would type 11/11/11 into the database. No matter how intelligent a computer system is, if you put ‘garbage-in’ you will get ‘garbage-out’. Beynon-Davies (2004) states that data warehousing projects are large scale development projects typically taking up to three years to complete. Some of the challenges of such problems may include; selecting, installing and integrating the different hardware and software and also, the diverse sources of data feeding a data warehouse introduces problems of design in terms of creating a homogenous data store. Finally, as with all comparison sites, the major obstacle facing  mySupermarket was generating a sustainable revenue stream from the database they had accumulated. mySupermarket.co.uk did not generate any revenue 5 months after the website went live. Originally, mySupermarket didn’t operate a ‘search advertisement’ scheme (a central platform for companies such as Google eg, BP paying for advertising of their oil spill cleanup when people typed in â€Å"BP Oil Spill† – G. Cheeseman, 2010) . There are also no revenue-sharing agreements in place with the four stores whose prices it monitors in effort to remain independent. This, in part, may stem from mySupermarket’s limited market, consisting of ‘a comparison of groceries’. mySupermarket recognised that they would have to expand their focus if they were to generate a large enough turnover to operate a successful business. mySupermarket – Technological Impact The first problem mySupermarket addressed was the industries poor ‘customer loyalty’. They decided to attack this through the implementation of a CRM strategy. After the initial launch, mySupermarket was receiving feedback from customers regarding such things as; healthy options, promotions on offer, printable shopping lists and regular shops. mySupermarket realised that the information stored in their data warehouse could be exploited to meet these demands and increase customer utility. Subsequently, a Health Checker feature was launched based on the Food Standard Authority’s approved ‘traffic light’ system. In November 2008, the mySupermarket ‘Quick Shop’ function was added, allowing users to type their shopping list on a virtual notepad and find their required items in one go. â€Å"As delivery slots started running out towards Christmas we also introduced a new ‘print your shopping list’ feature, which was popular,† said Stern. â€Å"A lot of our shoppers are using the website as a quick way to find the best deals and are then going to the supermarket to make their purchases†. Recent analysis of visits shows mysupermarket.co.uk has a loyal repeat following, with Stern claiming visitors are spending an average of 20 minutes on the site. â€Å"Until recently, there were few viable tools to provide real-time data warehousing nor an absolutely current picture of an organization’s business and customer† J. Vandermay (2001). To combat the problem of achieving  real-time and regional data, mySupermarket used Microsoft’s SQL software[5]. Most data integration solutions focus on moving data only between homogeneous systems and database software. However, SQL integration is capable of moving data among a wide range of databases and systems. It also offers transformational data integration tools to consolidate and synchronize heterogeneous data into a warehouse. This allows consumers to view whether a certain item is in stock in their local store, or view delivery slots for their specific region. This real-time data saves the mySupermarket team having to continually update the warehouse manually. Fortunately for mySupermarket, their website ‘crawling’ technique allows them to take the SKU data directly from the supermarkets themselves. Therefore data will only be wrong, if the supermarket has made the mistake (so would have to sell the item at that price) and so mySupermarket would not be liable. Although Stern took half the time recommended by Beynon-Davies, the warehouse has had to be continuously tweaked since its launch. After its launch mySupermarket noticed a data stream that wasn’t being filtered into the data warehouse – calories. After the realisation, mySupermarket were able to add a ‘calorie counter’ function on to the website. For any business to survive, it needs to generate a revenue stream to achieve a sustainable cash flow:mySupermarket were able to negotiate with supermarkets a commission of  £5 for every ‘first-time buyer’ that shops through their site and  £1 every time thereafter. Other sources of revenue came from the use of advertising, which could be split into two different segments on-site and search-related advertising. Marks & Spencer (Fig. 3) are one company that has chosen to advertise with mySupermarket.co.uk as the content is relevant and it is independent from the four supermarkets being compared. Advertisers will typically pay $1.00 – $1.50 per 1,000 run-of-site impressions for the advertising placement. However, advertisers may pay even more for targeted sidebar advertisements. Search advertisements are targeted to match key search terms entered on the search engine, these products (advertisements) will then appear first in the search. Danone (Fig. 3) has  pa id for advertisement when the search term ‘yoghurt’ is entered, and so their umbrella brands (eg, Activia) show at the top of the list, increasing its probability of being bought. Figure 3: mySupermarket.co.uk – advertising example Due to the amount of data mining available to mySupermarket, an opportunity was identified for expansion, called ‘mySupermarket insights’. It acts as real-time B2B data service for the ‘Fast Moving Consumer Goods’ (FMCG) sector. As mySupermarket has access to SKU by SKU trends, it is able to offer extremely high level, intelligent data. The services it offers include; New Product Development (NPD) alert reports, Online auditing reports, Price comparison reports, Product substitution report and Customer profiling reports (allowing for further use of CRM through ‘cluster analysis’[6]). This sort of information is of high value to companies and a subscription to the service can range from  £5,000 –  £20,000p.a. (current clients include Kellogg’s, Innocent Smoothies, Nielson and Ella’s Kitchen). Finally, mySupermarket is often contracted by media companies, such as ‘the Independent’ to analyse trends for news stories – J. Burchill (2010). I feel that information is now widely recognised as being one of the key corporate resources, needing to be carefully managed so that it can be effectively utilised in the decision-making process. Timely, accurate and relevant information can only be generated, however, if corporate data is stored in a secure, accessible and flexible manner. The following table provides a summary of the impact that data warehousing technology had for mySupermarket: Figure 6: Technological Impact Summary mySupermarket – Conclusion To conclude, data warehousing has enabled mySupermarket to overcome issues  such as customer retention, real-time data and generating revenue. It really does appear that â€Å"information is key†, whereby data is the prerequisite for information. J. Poole et al. (2003) state ‘†¦ the underlying economic justification is ultimately based on the value a given technology provides to the customers of the computing systems and software products’ and so the determinate of mySupermarket’s success is essentially based on ‘whether people use the technology’ and ‘the value of the company’. Based on an monthly unique user level of 1 million, and 500k registered users turning over c. £10m, we can assume that at this point in time mySupermarket is justified economically. On the other hand, you could argue that mySupermarket is a ‘recession business’ and not a sustainable enterprise. In which case, the rapid growth in recent years could be due to the economic climate and not because there is a long term demand. Looking towards the future, â€Å"Our investors have international ambitions,† Stern said. â€Å"They see the potential of transporting the model to different markets.† mySupermarket are looking to expand the company’s development team to support its entry into Europe and the US. mySupermarket are currently looking for another round of funding to bridge G. Murray’s (1994) second equity gap. Technology firms often require ‘follow on development funding’, as cash is heavily plowed into ‘Prototype testing’ and ‘Research & Development’. In terms of an exit, mySupermarket would be very attractive to major FMCG companies such as P&G, Unilever and Kraft’s venture arms. I believe that mySupermarket will achieve their second round funding as they are now profitable and have a proven concept that has high growth prospects for the future. Over the past few years there has been a huge growth in the use of ‘numbers’ and ‘analytics’. Businesses are recognising that it is not enough to work harder than the competition; they also have to work smarter. Davenport (2006) argues that it is â€Å"virtually impossible to differentiate yourself from competitors based on products alone† and so to pull ahead of the pack, businesses need to compete on analytics. In which case, ‘mySupermarket insights’ is poised in a perfect position to capitalize on this new thirst for ‘business intelligence’, whereby companies feel that  they will have to subscribe to the service to compete on an even playing field. However, it is not enough to just store data, it has to be managed, analyzed, implemented and utilised to convert raw data into real information. mySupermarket realised the benefits of data warehousing and were able to exploit this, expanding from a mere ‘price-comparison site’ to a ‘business intelligence provider’ to major FMCG companies. I believe that with the current shift towards analytics and business intelligence, mySupermarket has the potential to be a major force in the FMCG sector whilst offering a greater transparency for customers, all of which stems from good management and data warehousing. References: Beyon-Davies, P (2004) – Database Systems, 3rd edition, Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 527-538 and 547-553 Bose, R (2002) – Customer Relationship Management: Key concepts for IT success, Vol. 102, No. 2, pp. 89-97 Blastland, M & Dilnot, A (2007) – The Tiger That Isn’t: Seeing a World Through Numbers Burchill, J (Aug 2010) – The Independent: So the Prince of Green Hypocrites is going on tour. Thank God I’ll be abroad Cooper et al. (2000) – Data Warehousing Supports Corporate Strategy at First American Corporation Vol. 24, No. 4 Champion, D & Coombs, C (2010) – Handout: BSC070 Enterprise Information Systems Cheeseman, G (June 2010) – Triple Pundit: Is It Ethical For BP To Buy Oil-Spill-Related Google Search Terms? Davenport, T. H (2006) – Competing on Analytics IEEE Computer (Dec 1991) – Special Issue on Heterogeneous Distributed Database Systems, 24(12) Inmon, W.H. and Kelley, C (1993) – Developing the Data Warehouse. QED Publishing Group, Boston, Massachussetts Kimball, R & Ross, M (2002) – The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Dimensional Modeling, 2nd edition Martin et al., (2005): 193 – Managing Information Technology 5th Edition, Pearson Education Inc, pp. 192-195 Mintel Intelligence (Oct 2009) – Web Aggregators, UK Murray, G (1994) – The Second ‘Equity Gap’: Exit Problems for Seed and Early Stage Venture Capitalists Perry, J (Nov 2009) – Dunnhumby: A lifetime of loyalty? RetailWeek Poole, J et al. (2003) – Common Warehouse Metamodel: Introduction to the standard for data warehouse integration Smith, A (1959) – ‘The Theory of Moral Sentiments’ Vandermay, J (2001) – Considerations for Building a Real-time Data Warehousea

AirAsia Consumer Behaviour Essay

1.0. Introduction AIRASIA: AirAsia is a Malaysian company, that introduced the Low Cost Carrier service to the domestic market and eventually the asian region. Currently AirAsia is  the leader in this market segment. Before it becomes the AirAsia that we all know today, AirAsia was a poorly performed company owned by a government-link company (GLC) in Malaysia, DRB-HICOM. In 2001, it was sold to the current owner, Tony Fernandes and its TuneAir company, for a sum of only RM1.00 or approximately US$0.30, together with its accumulated debt of RM40 million (AirAsia, 2008). Within two years, Tony Fernandes exceeds everyone’s expectations, and turned AirAsia to a profit making company. By the third year it was listed in the Kuala Lumpur bourse with outstanding IPO (initial Public Offer) of RM717.4 million (AirAsia, 2008). In 2006, the AirAsia was given the use of LCCT terminal in Malaysia, because its passenger load have expanded to such a capacity. This assignment will describe how AirAsia, managed to become the company it is today, started with a fleet of only 1 aircraft in 2001, to a fleet of 72 aircrafts, flies over 61 domestic and 108 international destinations, and operates over 400 flights daily from hubs located not only in Malaysia, but also Thailand and Indonesia, and launched AirAsia X for longer haul flights with its wide-body aircrafts, through the eyes of Consumer Behaviour, from psychological drivers, sociological drivers and consumer decision making process. 2.0. Psychological Drivers of consumer behaviour There are psychological drivers that influence the consumer’s behaviour. They are; motivation, perception, learning, values, beliefs and attitudes, and lifestyle, are useful for intrepeting the consumer’s buying process and directing the company’s marketing efforts. 2.1. Motivation. Motivation is the energizing force that causes behavior that satisfies a need. The needs are hierarchical, from the basic of it and higher. 2.1.1. Hierarchy of Needs From this Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, before AirAsia, air travel is generally considered in the higher hierarcy of needs, esteem, where some people intend to show others their ability to travel by air, and visit destinatations that others can’t. This is what AirAsia realized, they created the tagline â€Å"now everyone can fly†, hence creating the awarenes to the people, and also created the motivation that now air travel is no longer  considered in the ‘esteem’ hierarchy of needs, people can travel just to fulfil their Love/Belonging needs, whether people travel to seek the ones they love, friends or family, or they travel to please those loved ones, such as holiday destinations, by air. 2.1.2. Means-end chain. Means-end chain follow a time-honered approach for thinking about motivational issues. The central premise — that objects have value only because they produce desirable consequences or enable one to avoid negative consequences — is at the heart of most modern conceptualizations of motivation (Atkinson, 1964, Lewin, 1951, Tolman 1959). The above chain shows that at the end of the day, a consumer who purchase AirAsia as way of their air travel, will have excess money to save or to spend on something else in their travel or holiday. The ad above, shows that because of the AirAsia’s cheap price of airticket to London, consumers get to spend their money on something else, like shopping and visiting heritages places in London. AirAsia marketing people created the motivation of a desirable consequences if consumer purchase their service 2.2. Perception. Perception is â€Å"the process of assembling sensations into a useable mental representation of the world,..perception creates faces, melodies, works of art, illusions out of the raw material of sensation† (Coon, 1983) or to summarize, is the process by which physical sensations are selected, organised and interpreted. Individuals with the same need might not purchase or choose similar products or service due to the difference in perception. From the perceptual process model above (Solomon, 2006), AirAsia succeded in creating stimulations and attentions, and try to generalized the perception of people that now everyone can fly. Obviously they stimulate the sights first, by using the same tagline in every ads, media and online and billboards. Thus, consumers remember this information, which results when they want to purchase an airline ticket, AirAsia is the first choice comes to mind. 2.3. Learning Learning is â€Å"the process by which relatively permanent changes occur in behavioural potential as a result of experience† (Anderson, 1995). AirAsia’s marketing people understand consumer’s learning process affecting their decision making. 2.3.1. Behavioural Learning. Repeated exposure to an experience will result in the process of developing an automatic response to that particular situation. In the AirAsia case, the company is trying to develop that automatic response is choosing AirAsia as their airline, everytime a customer wants to buy an airline ticket. e.g: As AirAsia owns by Tune group who also owns the Hotel chain of Tune Hotel, the company able to sell air tickets together with hotel fares, resulted in cheaper and convenient way to travel. Customers learned that through the website, they can purchased the air ticket together with hotel. This resulted in repeated behaviour of purchasing AirAsia ticket, as the customer find it more convenient. 2.3.2. Cognitive Learning. AirAsia is trying to make connections between the two ideas of purchasing airline ticket together with the hotel. But now, as the customers uses the AirAsia website to purchase the air ticket, they can also choose a wider range of hotel choices, not just the AirAsia’s own Tune Hotel Chain. AirAsia through their website now also act as an agent, where customer, as they’re saving money by buying airasia’s ticket, have the options to spend more whether to indulge in more luxurious way of staying, by choosing more luxurious hotels that now available in the company’s website. The above screenshot of airasia’s website shows that cosumers can purchase airticket and hotel vouchers at the same time. 2.3.3. Brand Loyalty. One of the way of doing applicating learning principles by AirAsia is introducing their reward programs to AirAsia’s customers, there are the frequent flyer miles, or free ticket, or holiday vouchers to give away to its customers. These things reinforce their behaviour and build brand loyalty toward AirAsia itself. AirAsia is trying to educate the people, they themselves become the catalyst of the learning process. The outcome of learning is memory. By putting inputs and information out there, â€Å"now everyone can fly†, even the people who are not in needs of air travel, learned that there is now a cheap way to fly. Hence, this information is recovered from memory when these consumers are in need of air travel, and choose AirAsia. 2.4. Beliefs and Attitudes. Beliefs and attitudes play an essential role in influencing the buying decisions of consumers. No matter how good the service is, but if the consumer feels it is useless, he/she would never purchase it. From the attitude-towards-the-ad models, AirAsia, creates such an exposure to ads for consumers, with the same theme of red and white, in their billboards ads, website’s look, magazine and newspaper’s ads, thus affecting the beliefs towards the AirAsia brand. Constant exposure to these ads and commercials, with red and white coloured themed, create the attitude of choosing AirAsia, when the time is come for consumer to make a choice. 2.5. Lifestyle. A person’s activities, interests and opinions, often resulted in that particular person’s lifestyle. The technology nowadays created a new lifestyle in people’s life. Internet and smartphones is becoming more and more important to people. AirAsia recognized this, beside website as their purchasing portal, now people also can purchase air ticket and hotel voucher as well through their smartphones, by creating application for smartphone’s plattforms such as iOS and android. 3.0. Sociological Drivers of consumer behaviour 3.1. Personal Influence. Personal influences resulted from the interaction between one individual and others. These influences can also come from opinion leaders, where one individual can exert certain infulence over other people. e.g., in a working environment, when a manager decided to use AirAsia, even for his/her personal travel, his/her subordinances will be influenced to do the same  thing. 3.2. Reference Groups. When a certain individual looks to a group of people, as a basis of self-appraisal or as a source for personal standards, these group of people can be considered as Reference groups. Marketers must understand: how groups influence individual behaviour, how group influences vary accross products and brands, how to use group influences to develop effective strategies. Recognizing these groups can help the marketing people of AirAsia for their marketing strategies. There are three types of reference groups to create a difference in marketing implications: 3.2.1. Membership group. A membership group is where an individual is actually belong to. 3.2.2. Aspiration group. An aspiration group is a group where an individual want to be indentified to. 3.2.3. Dissociative group. A dissociative group is a group where one individual wants to maintain a distance to, because of differences in values or behaviour. 3.3. The Family. Differential influence of family members can affect the pruchasing decisions. AirAsia recognized this by introducing one credit card for all transactions in their home website. In asian region, in a family, decision usually carried out by the head of the family (the father), or the one who is providing for the whole family. Thus, even where a situation like a joint decision making is arised, the father who has the biggest income usually make the decision. In their website, a father, can create a username, which already included with all the credit card’s data. In this case, any family member who wants to purchase air ticket can easily use their husband’s/father’s username. 3.4. Social Class. Social class is a relatively permanent, homogeneous divisions in a society into which people sharing similar values, interests, and behaviour are grouped. The determinant of social class usually include occupation, source of income and education. AirAsia’s marketing strategies and advertisement spotted these social classes in society, especially the middle-class. The  rise of middle-class economy in asia pacific region created more value-oriented consumer, where value for money is important. Co-workers, students even housewives group can now easily travel and spend holiday together. 3.5. Culture Culture refers to the set of values, ideas and attitudes that are accepted by a homogeneous group of people and transmitted to the next generation. The South East Asian region, where AirAsia is based, is translated to a growing market. By studying the buying patterns of these people, AirAsia can focused their marketing strategies. These growing market in South East Asia, which also recognized by the growing economies, means more and more people have an extra disposable income. The South East Asian people are easily affected by others. A trend is easily formed, if a group of workers, families or students are using AirAsia to travel and explore new places and shared their experiences through social media, it can easily influence other similar groups in the society to do the same thing. 4.0. Consumer Decision Making process. 4.1. Problem recognition. First stage of the consumer decision making process is the problem recognition. At this stage, a consumer is perceiving a need. In AirAsia’s case, is the need to travel. In some AirAsia’s advertisement, the marketing people shows a numerous travel destination, with each separate own picture, and shows how cheap it is now to get to those places by using AirAsia as their airline. Hence, it is underlining the need of the people. This relates to marketing mix, of PRODUCT, PRICE and PLACE. For PRODUCT and PRICE, no airlines before airasia can provide this low fare of airtickets. As for PLACE, airasia provides more destination regionally than any other airlines and also have new sales office in major cities not just in Malaysia, but also Indonesia and the Phillippines. Another thing, the internet booking, how airasia manage to save consumer’s time in purchasing of airticket, people can now buy their airtickets online, or even from their smartphones. The ad shows how cheap it is to travel to Paris. The need to travel,  especially overseas, maybe as honeymoon, is already there, but now AirAsia, with these commercials all over the place, is enhancing that need. 4.2. Information search The information search by the consumers, clarify what options are there available to them. Which airline is the cheapest, which one is the most comfortable, hassle free and so on. There are two steps of information search; 4.2.1. Internal Search. Internal search is where one search one’s memory, recall any previous experience or information, in this case, related to air travel. An individual may remember how hard it is to purchase a ticket using a physical store, where the need to be at the travel agent physically and purchased the ticket. In marketing mix, PROMOTION, airasia is going all-out with their â€Å"now everyone can fly† tagline. Consumer can see this tagline everywhere; billboards on roadsides, magazines, newspaper, even on news website as pop-up advertisement. Airasia is trying to plant this tagline inside everyone’s mind, hence, by the time they want to purchase airticket, they straight away remember of airasia’s â€Å"now everyone can fly†. 4.2.2. External Search. Sources for external information are usually friends and family, public sources, and marketer-dominated source. Marketer-dominated sources are where AirAsia’s marketing team excelled at. Their advertising aggressive all over the place and media, their websites are constantly updating with new time-limited promotions, causing people to access it more often. Now, consumer’s can even subscribe for their newsletter by emails. In relation to marketing mix, airasia provide new PRODUCT/SERVICE. The screenshot above shows AirAsia comes up with hassle free website, with its flash page technology, that shows multiple destinations pictures that always changing in the home page. 4.3. Evaluation of alternatives At this stage, a consumer is evaluating what are the alternatives of choices  he/she has. The company will always enhancing what are their superiorities over competitors. PRICE is one obvious thing why consumer choose AirAsia, theirs will often cheaper than others. Other way doing this is always one step ahead in the technology side of marketing. AirAsia is the first airline that providing online purchasing through the internet. Now, where other low-cost airline also have the same feature on their website, AirAsia have come up with smartphone application. This application can be downloaded to a consumer’s smartphone, and he/she can easily make flight queries or purchasing ticket(s) or even buying hotel voucher, just by using his/her smartphone. 4.4. Purchase decision At this stage, consumer are making their decision in which airline service to choose. AirAsia’s marketing people understand at the previous stages of CDP, they have excelled. Hence, at this stage, their marketing mix, PRODUCT, PRICE, PROMOTION and PLACE of AirAsia have succesfully target the consumer and guiding them into purchasing their service. 4.5. Postpurchase behaviour At this stage, the consumer compares the service they purchased with expectations and is either satisfied of dissastified. Expentancy disconfirmation with performance approach (Oliver, 1997) and the balancing paradigm (Fournier and Mick, 1999) are two current theories of consumer satisfaction. Satisfaction more likely to lead to repeat purchase/loyalty and positive Word of Mouth (WOM). Dissatisfaction more likely to lead to brand switching, complaints and negative word of mouth (WOM). In AirAsia’s case, they try to minimize the consumer’s expectations as low as possible. The two pictures above are the screenshot of airasia website when consumer purchasing airticket. It clearly shows that passengers will not get in-flight refreshment, no complimentary luggage, no choice of seats, unless they purchase all of these things in the website. By doing this, AirAsia managed to get their customer’s expectations as low as possible, beacuse they don’t promise other than the service that you, as a customer, already purchased online. 5.0. Conclusion Airasia has established themselves as a profit making company and a succesful low cost carrier that prompted other airlines in the south east asian region to do the same thing. This company build their brand name with their tag line â€Å"now everyone can fly†, telling people that flying is now more affordable and easy. This tagline is also shaping their marketing mix. For their Product, Price, and Place, airasia clearly introduced a new way of flying by airlines, a cheap and easy one. At Consumer Decision Making process, the Product and Price influenced consumer at the Problem recognizition and Information search step process. With Promotion, they influence the steps of Information search and Purchase decision in the CDP process. Airasia is so aggressive in their promotional activities, by putting their tagline â€Å"now everyone can fly† in every advertisement and commercials. By understanding the psychological drivers and sociological drivers of consumer, airasia have executed its marketing plan briliantly, putting the type of advertisement that suitable. By understanding the Consumer Decision making process, AirAsia provide what kind of values that consumer seeks and asses in the information search, and evaluation of alternatives stages. By the time consumer making their purchase decision and postpurchase behaviour, these values are good enough to make them purchase airasia’s service and by not giving the consumer high expectations from the first time, the satisfaction rate from consumer is high. The succes story of AirAsia marketing strategies shows how important it is for a brand to understand the psychological drivers, sociological drivers and the decision making process of consumer behaviour. 6.0. Bibliography AirAsia.com, 2013. Corporate profile. [online] Available at: [Accessed 22 December 2013]. Cohen, J, B, and Warlop, L. A Motivational Perspective on Means-End Chains. [online] Available at: [Accessed 30 December 2013]. Hawkins, D. I., Best, R. J. and Coney, K. A., 2001. Consumer Behaviour: Building Marketing Strategy. 8th ed. New York: Irwin/McGraw-Hill. Lim, Y, K., Mohamed, R., Ariffin, A. and Guan, G, G., 2009. Branding an Airline: A Case Study of AirAsia. [online] Available at: [Accessed 22 December 2013]. Management of Technology, 2009. The AirAsia company strategic management:†How AirAsia can be a leader in the lowest cost carrier in the airplane industry†. [online] Available at: [Accessed 22 December 2013]. MANAGEMENT STUDY GUIDE, 2013. Social factors affecting Consumer Behaviour. [online] Available at: [Accessed 25 December 2013]. MANAGEMENT STUDY GUIDE, 2013. Psychological factors affecting Consumer Behaviour. [online] Available at: [Accessed 25 December 2013]. Onwutalobi and Claret, A., 2008. Understanding Marketing Mix in AirAsia Airline Bhd. [online] codewit. Available at: [Accessed 30 December 2013]. Sdsu, 2013. how to print notes. [online] Available at: [Accessed 25 December 2013]. Schiffman, L. G. and Kanuk, L. L., 2000. Consumer Behaviour. 7th ed. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. The Market, Media, Life., 2013. MARKETING 101: PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS OF CONSUMER BUYER BEHAVIOUR. [online] Available at: [Accessed 25 December 2013]. The Market, Media, Life., 2013. MARKETING 101: SOCIAL FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMER BUYER BEHAVIOUR. [online] Available at: [Accessed 25 December 2013]. THE TIMES 100, 2013. Marketing mix (Price, Place, Promotion, Product). [online] Available at: [Accessed 30 December 2013]. USC Marshall, 2008. Consumer Behaviour. [online] Available at: [Accessed 25 December 2013]. Yaashoda, Y., 2012. AirAsia Berhad: Strategic analysis of a leading low cost carrier in the Asian region. [online] Available at: [Accessed 22 December 2013]. Yeoh, E. and Chan, J, K, L., 2011. Malaysian Low Cost Airlines: Key Influencing Factors on Customers’ Repeat Purchase Intention. [online] IDOSI Publications. Available at: [Accessed 22 December 2013]. Yuswohady., 2012. Consumer 3000: Revolusi Konsumen Kelas Menengah Indonesia.

Couric Family Tree - Ancestry of Katie Couric

Couric Family Tree - Ancestry of Katie Couric 1. Katherine Anne (Katie) COURIC was born on 7 Jan 1957 in Arlington, Va. Second Generation 2. John Martin COURIC Jr.  was born on 28 Aug 1920 in Brunswick, Glynn Co., Ga. He married Elinor HENE married on 26 Jan 1944 in Chicago, Cook Co., Ill. 3. Elinor HENE  was born on 30 Jun 1923 in Omaha, Douglas Co., Nebr. John Martin COURIC Jr. and Elinor HENE had the following children: i. Emily COURIC was born on 5 Jun 1947 in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, and died of pancreatic cancer on 18 Oct 2001 in Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Virginia. ii. Clara (Kiki) COURIC (living) iii. John Martin COURIC III (living) 1 iv. Katherine Anne (Katie) COURIC Third Generation 4. John Martin COURIC  was born on 19 Jan 1886 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  and died on 13 Apr 1947 in Laurens Co., Ga.  He married Wildie Churchill HIBBLER on 11 Jan 1912  and is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. 5. Wildie Churchill HIBBLER  was born on 5 Jul 1886 in Miss.  and died in Apr 1974 in Arlington, Va.  She was buried in Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. John Martin COURIC and Wildie Churchill HIBBLER had the following children: i. Charlotte COURIC  was born about 1914 in Georgia.2 ii. John Martin COURIC Jr. 6. Berthold B. (Bert) HENE  was born on 18 Jun 1890 in Burlington, Des Moines Co., Iowa.  He worked as an architect  and described himself as medium height and build, with grey eyes and black hair.  He married Clara L. FROHSIN. 7. Clara L. FROHSIN  was born on 8 Jan 1898 in Alexander City, Tallapoosa Co., Ala. and died on 20 Nov 1987 in Atlanta, Fulton Co., Ga. Berthold B. (Bert) HENE and Clara L. FROHSIN had the following children: 3 i. Elinor HENEii. Bert HENE Jr.  was born about 1926 in Nebraska. Explore More of the Couric Family Tree First Generation Second Generation Third Generation Fourth Generation Fifth Generation Sixth Generation Back to Generations 1-3 8. Alfred Alexis COURIC was born on 20 Feb 1843 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  and died on 17 Dec 1917 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  He married Sarah Sophia (Sallie) MCKLEROY on 20 Dec 1871 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  and is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. 9. Sarah Sophia (Sallie) MCKLEROY was born on 18 Apr 1850 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  and died on 9 Jan 1900 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  She is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour County, Alabama. Alfred Alexis COURIC and Sarah Sophia (Sallie) MCKLEROY had the following children: i. Mollie Shorter COURIC was born on 2 May 1873 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  and died on 24 Apr 1947 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  She is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.ii. Alfred Alexis (Lex) COURIC was born on 11 May 1876 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  and died on 23 May 1941 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  He is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.iii. Katherine Kolb COURIC was born on 18 Jan 1878 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  and died on 6 May 1936.iv. William McKleroy (Roy) COURIC was born on 25 Jun 1880 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  and died on 12 Sep 1918 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  He is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.v. Sarah Pauline COURIC was born on 3 Feb 1882 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  and died on 11 Sep 1954 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  She is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.vi. Charles Mathuron COURIC was born in 1884 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. an d died in 1934 in Dawson, Ga.4 vii. John Martin COURICviii. Junius Battle COURIC was born on 28 Jun 1889 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. and died on 3 Nov 1968 in Miami, Dade Co., Fla.ix. Edmonson Shorter COURIC was born on 5 Jan 1891 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. and died on 23 Aug 1953 in Miami, Dade Co., Fla.x. Martha Gill COURIC died at the age of 7 months, 1 day  and is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. 10. James Edmund HIBBLER  was born on 20 Sep 1847 in Alabama and died on 25 Feb 1921. He married Ida Hill IVY on 2 Mar 1871 in Noxubee Co., Miss. 11. Ida Hill IVY  was born on 5 Dec 1849 in Mississippi and died on 5 May 1927. James Edmund HIBBLER and Ida Hill IVY had the following children: i. Carrie B. HIBBLER  was born about 1871 in Noxubee Co., Miss. ii. Fannie HIBBLER  was born about Apr 1873 in Mississippi. iii. James S. HIBBLER  was born about 1874 in Noxubee Co., Miss. iv. Robert HIBBLER  was born about 1876 in Noxubee Co., Miss. v. Mary A. HIBBLER  was born about 1879 in Noxubee Co., Miss. vi. Lottie J. HIBBLER  was born about Mar 1882 in Mississippi. 5 vii. Wildie Churchill HIBBLER viii. Laura HIBBLER  was born about Oct 1890 in Mississippi. 12. Aaron HENE  was born about Oct 1848 in Bavaria.  He immigrated about 1864-1865 to the United States  and was naturalized in 1893.  He worked as a cigar maker  and married Matilda MEYER about 1883. 13. Matilda MEYER  was born about Aug 1862 in Germany.  She immigrated in 1874  or 1889  to the United States and was naturalized in 1893. Aaron HENE and Matilda MEYER had the following children: 6 i. Berthold B. (Bert) HENEii. Robert D. HENE  was born about Mar 1899 in Nebraska. 14. Isaac FROHSIN was born on 2 Aug 1865 in Brakel, Hoxter, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany and died on 26 Dec 1922 in Alexander City, Tallapoosa Co., Ala. He is buried on 28 Dec 1922 in West Point, Troup Co., Ga. Isaac married Emma HAGEDORN on 10 Feb 1897 in West Point, Troup Co., Ga. 15. Emma HAGEDORN was born on 4 Aug 1865 in Giershagen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany and died on 13 Apr 1946 in Alexander City, Tallapoosa Co., Ala. She is buried in West Point, Troup Co., Ga. Isaac FROHSIN and Emma HAGEDORN had the following children: 7 i. Clara L. FROHSINii. Leon FROHSIN was born on 5 Jan 1899 in Alexander City, Tallapoosa Co., Ala. and died on 6 Nov 1973 in Fulton Co., Ga.iii. Ralph FROHSIN was born on 24 Aug 1902 in Alexander City, Tallapoosa Co., Ala. and died on 13 Oct 1994 in Alexander City, Tallapoosa Co., Ala.iv. Lewis FROHSIN was born on 16 Apr 1906 in Alexander City, Tallapoosa Co., Ala. and died on 8 Aug 1977 in Fulton Co., Ga. Explore More of the Couric Family Tree First Generation Second Generation Third Generation Fourth Generation Fifth Generation Sixth Generation Back to Generations 1-3 16. Charles Mathuron COURIC was born on 24 Nov 1817 in Laurient, France  and died on 19 May 1861 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  He married Henrietta Francoise Farier DOUTRE about 1839 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. and is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. 17. Henrietta Francoise Farier DOUTRE was born on 10 Aug 1805 in Saintes, France  and died on 22 Nov 1873 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  She is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. Charles Mathuron COURIC and Henrietta Francoise Farier DOUTRE had the following children: i. Lucien COURIC was born about 1841 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. and died about 1898 in Wetumka, Ala.8 ii. Alfred Alexis COURICiii. Frances Elizabeth COURIC was born about 1845 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. and died on 1 Jan 1900 in Union Springs, Ala.iv. Alida Mathilde COURIC was born on 25 Oct 1847 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. and died on 14 Mar 1933 in Mobile, Ala. 18. Captain William Henry MCKLEROY was born unknown. He married Martha Gill SHORTER. 19. Martha Gill SHORTER was born about 21 Sep 1821 in Pass Christian, La.  and died on 6 Sep 1855. Captain William Henry MCKLEROY and Martha Gill SHORTER had the following children: i. Emily Francis MCKLEROYii. John Martin MCKLEROYiii. William Henry MCKLEROY IIiv. Mittie MCKLEROYv. Mary MCKLEROY9 vi. Sarah Sophia (Sallie) MCKLEROYvii. Reuben S. MCKLEROY died in Sep 1855 in Pass Christian, La. 20. James Lawrence HIBBLER was born on 24 Nov 1812 in Edgefield Co., S.C. and died on 20 Mar 1880. He married Mary Ann AMASON on 9 Feb 1838 in Sumter Co., Ala. 21. Mary Ann AMASON was born on 19 Aug 1819 in N.C. James Lawrence HIBBLER and Mary Ann AMASON had the following children: i. Laura Jane HIBBLER was born on 10 Dec 1838 in Sumter Co., Ala.ii. Infant HIBBLER was born in 1840 in Sumter Co., Ala. and died in 1840 in Sumter Co., Ala.iii. Thomas William HIBBLER was born on 15 Aug 1842 in Sumter Co., Ala. and died on 3 Oct 1857 in Sumter Co., Ala.iv. Robert HIBBLER was born on 10 Nov 1845 in Sumter Co., Ala.10 v. James Edmund HIBBLERvi. Infant HIBBLER was born on 10 Dec 1849 in Sumter Co., Ala. and died on 10 Dec 1849 in Sumter Co., Ala.vii. Infant HIBBLER was born on 15 Dec 1851 in Sumter Co., Ala. and died on 15 Dec 1851 in Sumter Co., Ala.viii. Mary Frances HIBBLER was born on 11 Aug 1852 in Sumter Co., Ala. 22. Bird IVY  was born on 5 Mar 1812 in Warrenton Co., Ga. and died on 8 May 1884 in Pickens Co., Ala. He married Caroline Jemima COCKRELL and is buried in 1884 in Old Memphis Cemetery, Cochrane, Pickens Co., Ala. 23. Caroline Jemima COCKRELL  was born on 5 Oct 1827 in S.C. and died on 30 Nov 1895 in Noxubee Co., Miss. She is buried in 1895 in Odd Fellows Cemetery, Macon, Noxubee Co., Miss. Bird IVY and Caroline Jemima COCKRELL had the following children: i. Thomas William IVY was born about 1846 in Noxubee Co., Miss.11 ii. Ida Hill IVYiii. Charlotte Gibson IVY was born about 1851 in Ala.iv. Jesse Churchill IVY23 was born about 1854 in Miss.v. Jeremiah A. IVY was born about 1856 in Miss.vi. Carrie Moore IVY was born on 15 Jun 1860 in Noxubee Co., Miss.vii. Fannie Barrett IVY was born on 18 Sep 1861 in Miss. 24. Wolfgang HENE was born about 1814 in Geinsheim, Germany He married Mahle (Mable?) UNKNOWN. 25. Mahle (Mable?) UNKNOWN  was born about 1813 in Bavaria. Wolfgang HENE and Mahle (Mable?) had the following children: i. Isaac HENE  was born about Mar 1838 in Geinsheim, Germany and died on 14 Mar 1905 in Cook Co., Illinois.  He immigrated in 1863 to the United States  and worked as a vegetable peddler in Chicago.ii. Simon HENE was born on 15 Feb 1843 in Geinsheim, Rhein Pfalz, Germany  and died on 25 Mar 1895.  He is buried in the Jewish Cemetery, Burlington, Des Moines Co., Iowa.iii. Charles HENE  was born on 12 Dec 1844 in Geinsheim, Germany  and died on 3 Jun 1901 in Colorado.  He was a cigar manufacturer in Chicago, Cook Co., Ill.  and is buried in Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, Colo. 12 iv. Aaron HENE v. Bertha HENE  was born about 1854 in Bavaria.vi. Blondiso (Blondie) HENE  was born about Jul 1873 in Germany. She immigrated in 1885 to the United States. 26. MEYER was born and had the following children: 13 i. Matilda MEYERii. Freda MEYER  was born about 1873 in Germany. Fifth Generation Continued Explore More of the Couric Family Tree First Generation Second Generation Third Generation Fourth Generation Fifth Generation Sixth Generation Back to Fifth Generation, Part One Fifth Generation, Continued 28. Solomon FROHSIN was born about 1838 in Brakel, Hoxter, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. He married Julia LEVINSOHN. 29. Julia LEVINSOHN was born. Solomon FROHSIN and Julia LEVINSOHN had the following children: i. Jonas FROHSIN was born on 27 Aug 1856 in Brakel, Hoxter, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany and died on 23 Apr 1949 in New York, N.Y. He is buried in Atlanta, Fulton Co., Ga.ii. Ida FROHSIN was born on 27 Aug 1857 in Brakel, Hoxter, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany and died in 1938.iii. Abraham FROHSIN was born on 20 May 1864 in Brakel, Hoxter, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany and died on 14 Apr 1942 in New York, N.Y. He is buried on 17 Apr 1942 in Mt. Sinai Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pa.14 iv. Isaac FROHSINv. Cecelia FROHSIN was born on 28 Sep 1869 in Brakel, Hoxter, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany and died on 15 Jun 1949 in Philadelphia, Pa. She is buried on 17 Jun 1949 in Mt. Sinai Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pa. 30. Abraham HAGEDORN was born on 26 Oct 1819 and died on 15 May 1908. He married Clara ROSENBAUM. 31. Clara ROSENBAUM was born on 10 May 1825 and died on 19 Apr 1897. She is buried in Giershagen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Abraham HAGEDORN and Clara ROSENBAUM had the following children: 15 i. Emma HAGEDORN Sixth Generation 38. Reuben Clarke SHORTER Sr was born on 13 Feb 1787 in Culpepper Co., Va.  and died on 14 Jul 1853 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.  He married Mary Butler GILL on 31 May 1812 in Jasper Co., Ga. 39. Mary Butler GILL was buried in Shorter Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala. Reuben Clarke SHORTER Sr and Mary Butler GILL had the following children: i. Sarah Elizabeth SHORTERii. Emily Frances SHORTER was born on 15 Aug 1816  and died on 13 May 1839.iii. John Gill SHORTER was born on 23 Apr 1818 in Monticello, Jasper Co., Ga.  and died on 29 May 1872.  He was the Alabama Civil War Governor.19 iv. Martha Gill SHORTERv. Eli Sims SHORTER was born on 15 Mar 1823 in Monticello, Jasper Co., Ga.  and died on 29 Apr 1879 in Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.vi. Reuben Clark SHORTER Jr. was born on 22 Jan 1825 in Monticello, Jasper Co., Ga. and died on 14 May 1853 in Montgomery, Montgomery Co., Ala. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery, Montgomery Co., Ala.vii. William James SHORTER was born on 28 Oct 1826  and died on 2 Oct 1839.viii. Mary Butler SHORTER was born about 1828.ix. Sophia Herndon SHORTER was born on 22 May 1830  and died on 18 Mar 1850.  She is buried in Shorter Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.x. Sampson Slaughter SHORTER was born on 23 Sep 1834  and died on 29 Oct 1840.  He is buried in Shorter Cemeter y, Eufaula, Barbour Co., Ala.xi. Henry Russell SHORTER was born about 1833 in Jasper Co., Ga. and died in 1898.xii. Laura Maria SHORTER 40. Jacob HIBBLER was born in 1762 and died in 1835. He married Virginia BELCHER. 41. Virginia BELCHER was born on 26 Aug 1774 in Greenwich, Sussex Co., N.J. and died in 1824. Jacob HIBBLER and Virginia BELCHER had the following children: 20 i. James Lawrence HIBBLER 56. Louis FROHSIN married UNKNOWN. Louis FROHSIN had the following children: 28 i. Solomon FROHSIN Prepared by Kimberly Powell, January 2006 Explore More of the Couric Family Tree First Generation Second Generation Third Generation Fourth Generation Fifth Generation Sixth Generation

Free Essays on Understanding Abusive Parents

STUDY OF FAMILY INTERACTION LEAD TO NEW UNDERSTANDING OF ABUSIVE PARENTS Researchers at the University of Toronto have taken important steps toward producing a profile of an abusive parent. Prof. Gary Walters and doctoral student Lynn Oldershaw of the Department of Psychology have developed a system to characterize parents who physically abuse their children. This could ultimately allow social service professionals to identify parents in child abuse. Over the last five years, Walters and Oldershaw, in collaboration with Darlene Hall of the West End Creche, have examined over 100 mothers and their three to six-year-old children who have been physically abused. In the laboratory, the mother and child spend 30 minutes in structured activities such as playing, eating and cleaning-up. The family interaction is video-taped and later analyzed. The researchers have developed a system which allows them to record the effectiveness of parenting skills. They are particularly interested in disciplinary strategies because abuse most commonly occurs when the parent wants the child to comply. "It's a question of trying to determine which type of parent produces which type of child or which type of child elicits which type of parental behaviour," explains Oldershaw. As a result of their work, Walters and Oldershaw have identified distinct categories of abusive parents and their children. 'Harsh/intrusive' mothers are excessively harsh and constantly badger their child to behave. Despite the fact that these mothers humiliate and disapprove of their child, there are times when they hug, kiss or speak to them warmly. This type of mothering produces an aggressive, disobedient chi... Free Essays on Understanding Abusive Parents Free Essays on Understanding Abusive Parents STUDY OF FAMILY INTERACTION LEAD TO NEW UNDERSTANDING OF ABUSIVE PARENTS Researchers at the University of Toronto have taken important steps toward producing a profile of an abusive parent. Prof. Gary Walters and doctoral student Lynn Oldershaw of the Department of Psychology have developed a system to characterize parents who physically abuse their children. This could ultimately allow social service professionals to identify parents in child abuse. Over the last five years, Walters and Oldershaw, in collaboration with Darlene Hall of the West End Creche, have examined over 100 mothers and their three to six-year-old children who have been physically abused. In the laboratory, the mother and child spend 30 minutes in structured activities such as playing, eating and cleaning-up. The family interaction is video-taped and later analyzed. The researchers have developed a system which allows them to record the effectiveness of parenting skills. They are particularly interested in disciplinary strategies because abuse most commonly occurs when the parent wants the child to comply. "It's a question of trying to determine which type of parent produces which type of child or which type of child elicits which type of parental behaviour," explains Oldershaw. As a result of their work, Walters and Oldershaw have identified distinct categories of abusive parents and their children. 'Harsh/intrusive' mothers are excessively harsh and constantly badger their child to behave. Despite the fact that these mothers humiliate and disapprove of their child, there are times when they hug, kiss or speak to them warmly. This type of mothering produces an aggressive, disobedient chi...

The History of TV Dinners and Inventor Gerry Thomas

The History of TV Dinners and Inventor Gerry Thomas Gerry Thomas, a salesman with the Swanson food company, claims credit for inventing the Swanson TV Dinner in 1954. Swanson TV Dinners fulfilled two post-war trends: the lure of time-saving modern appliancesthe fascination with a growing innovation, the television Swanson TV dinners were the first commercially successful frozen meal. More than 10 million TV dinners were sold during the first year of Swansons national distribution. For $.98 per dinner, customers were able to choose among Salisbury steak, meatloaf, fried chicken, or turkey, served with potatoes and bright green peas; special desserts were added later.  The food groups in a TV dinner were displayed neatly in a divided metal tray and heated up in a conventional oven.   Goodbye TV Dinner, Hello Microwave Swanson removed the name TV Dinner, from the packaging in the 1960s.  The Campbell Soup Company replaced the aluminum trays of Swanson frozen TV dinners with plastic, microwave-safe trays in 1986. Today frozen dinners are offered by a variety of brands, including Stouffers, Marie Callenders, and Healthy Choice. Going Down in History In 1987 the original  TV Dinner tray was placed in the  Smithsonian Institution  to commemorate the trays impact on American culture, sealing TV Dinners place in American cultural history. Celebrity figures from Howdy Doody to President Eisenhower touted the dinners.  In 1999, Swanson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Pinnacle Foods Corporation, the current owners of Swanson products since 2001, recently celebrated fifty years of TV Dinners, and Swanson TV Dinners still remain in the public conscience as the dinner phenomenon of the 50s that grew up with television.

Ethics case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

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Liabilities and Remedies of Parties in a Contract Essay

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Quantitative Reasoning - Essay Example The following paragraphs will separate the results obtained after employing descriptive statistic tools to the pair of observations. These tools figure out the mean and the median percentage of smokers in the population, distinguished on the basis of gender. Mode has been ignored in this respect since it is irrelevant to figure out the maximum percentage to assess the average characteristics. The mean as well as the median percentage of smokers is lower for females than for males. An obvious implication from the same is that males are more inclined towards smoking than their female counterparts. Here mean is the weighted average implying approximately 19% and 27% of the female and male populations in any nation to be regular smokers, respectively. On the other hand, the median value indicates that among all nations taken collectively, in half of the cases, more than 18.9% of the females are found to smoke, in contrast to 24% among the males (Gravetter & Wallnau, 2008). Measures of dispersion indicate the degree to which the observations are scattered around the mean value. The higher the value of the measure, greater will be the dispersion about the mean and thus, the applicability of the mean value as a core feature of the population will be disturbed. Significance of standard deviation is almost equivalent to that of variance given that the former is the positive square root of the latter. The percentage of female smokers distributed among various groups in the entire population differs from the mean value so calculated, though it is lower than the degree of dispersion of the male smokers. The variance and standard deviation statistics yield that percentage of male smokers in some nations is much higher as well as lower than the mean percentage of male smokers so calculated. However, similar statistics for females rule out such extremeness. The adjoining diagram compares the percentage of male and female smokers in the entire