A Beautiful Gril essays

A Beautiful Gril essays We are living in a society where everything is being criticizes starting from where people live to how they look physically. In the United States there has been about one hundred thousand girls diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and six thousand girls have died from it within a year. In Marge Piercys Barbie Doll, she gives the public of how offensive it can be to a girl when someone criticizes a certain part of her body. Some girls may take meaningless comment said to them in a bad way. May be it could have been a good criticism, but teenage girls are very sensitive at this age. Although the protagonist attempts to confront the external forces (man vs. man and man vs. society), she succeeds to a certain extent but fails to resolve with the internal force of man vs. himself. First conflict the author present in the poem is man vs. man. Many girls going through puberty can take a few months to get the idea that they are growing to become women. Going through it, but do not pay attention, their body changes are noticed until it is recognized by someone else other than friends or family. In the poem, the girl is faced with a comment made by one of her classmate that she had a big nose and fat legs. Even though she had a normal childhood, playing with dolls, role-playing like a mother, and miniature GE stoves. She did not worry about what was going around her. Children can make up their own world where they do not worry about physical changes. In the second stanza, she does not only deals with man vs. man, but also with man vs. society. Some do not realize they can be cruel to others by the way they see a person or even talking to a person. The protagonist has to go fro and apologizing to the people she knows for her good qualities, because she was not accepted. Even though she has these qualities, people do not see her for who she is. They just see the fat nose and thick legs. As actre ...

Create an Endothermic Chemical Reaction

Create an Endothermic Chemical Reaction Most  endothermic reactions  contain toxic chemicals, but this reaction is safe and easy. Indeed, this experiment requires no toxic chemicals   a rarity in chemistry studies. Use it as a demonstration or vary the amounts of citric acid and sodium bicarbonate to make an experiment. Materials Citric acid and baking soda are available at most grocery stores. Citric acid is used for canning, while baking soda is used for baking. Heres what youll need: 25 milliliters of citric acid solution15 grams of baking sodaplastic foam cupthermometerstirring rod Creating the Reaction Pour the citric acid solution into a  coffee cup. Use a thermometer or other temperature probe to record the initial temperature.Stir in the baking soda   sodium bicarbonate. Track the change in temperature as a function of time.The reaction is: H3C6H5O7(aq) 3 NaHCO3(s) → 3 CO2(g) 3 H2O(l) Na3C6H5O7(aq)When you have completed your demonstration or experiment, wash the cup out in a sink. Tips for Success Feel free to vary the concentration of the citric acid solution or the quantity of sodium bicarbonate.An endothermic is a reaction that requires energy to proceed. The intake of energy may be observed as a decrease in temperature as the reaction proceeds. Once the reaction is complete, the temperature of the mixture will return to ​​room temperature.

Credit cards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Credit cards - Essay Example For the rich, credit is a means of delaying payment for an item simply because the opportunity exists to purchase several resources without the use of cash transactions. For the business man credit is the chance to provide persons with resources without immediate payment whilst gaining extra income for the customer’s delayed payment. Credit therefore can be an advantage or a disadvantage. It depends on whose eyes you are using. In today’s information age the main method for receiving and allowing credit is the credit card. This essay will focus on how the credit card has evolved as well as its benefits and disadvantages. Today the credit card has become popular all over the world but does is it hold equal benefits for all its users? The piece of plastic called a credit card issued to customers by a Bank is used to make payments for various exchanges. It operates through a system of borrowing money. The customer gets to purchase items immediately and repay the bank at later date. The system of exchanging goods on credit for a card began since the late 1800s. By early 1900s oil companies and department stores gave out individual cards call ‘proprietary cards’. These businesses created these cards to improve customer loyalty and customer service (Gerson and Woolsey, 2009). The interest in cards soon spread to the other industries and in 1946 John Biggins presented the first bank card to be used in America only. It was called ‘Charg-It’. ... Therefore, 1959 marked the beginning of flexible payment but also the beginning of finance charges for customers. In 1966, credit cards were now accepted for the payment of a variety of purchases and in 1967 Barclays launched the first credit card in the United Kingdom. From this time the bank card industry grew at a rapid rate. Presently, more than fifty percent of all transactions in the United States of America and the United Kingdom are made on credit cards. This explosion of the use of credit card came about because of the seeming benefits to the customers. One of the most important features for all users is that people can pay immediately for the things they need. For all users but especially for the poor, the credit card offered a quick and easy help in times of medical and other emergencies. People now had access to a certain amount of money for dealing with unexpected costs. In addition people were able to pay for large purchases, such as furniture, electrical appliances, el ectronics and even precious jewels. What is more is people were given up to 56 days to pay in full before accumulating interest. Imagine the joy these 56 days gave to individuals who live from pay check to pay check. The supporters of credit cards suggest that users could now manage their purchases more than before as all the purchases made on these cards are listed on written or online statements. Not only did users find it easier to keep track of their purchases via the credit cards statements but they could also organise their budgets. They could observe their expenditures in detail and therefore eliminate those expenditures that were causing them to stray from their budgets. In short, credit

Impact of Technology on Business Communication Essay

Impact of Technology on Business Communication - Essay Example Unless possible clients or customers are conscious of our business, they will not cover the information to get in touch with a company or else to purchase its diverse products. When they are responsive of its business, they should be capable to contact it rather easily (Scott, 2011). This report presents the possible applications of business communications technology. In addition, this report analyzes some of the main aspects regarding the application and establishment of such communication techniques for the enhanced business contact. Business Communication Technology This section presents some of the vital business communication technologies for better business handling and management. Below are some important examples of business communication: Social Networking This technology is currently extensively used in business communication. There are lots of popular social networks those heavily support such business communication like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. ... Shared Digital Workspaces One more new and state-of-the-art business communication technology is the Shared Digital Workspace. These digital workspaces are similar to traditional specialized networks designed for file sharing, where numerous partners are able to get access and perform their functions on a particular project immediately. This permits networks better group teamwork as cooperative aimed at conflicting requirements in some relaxation intended for time and place. This is mainly valuable for companies that deal in different states all over the world. However, this business communication technology requires some proprietary communication application involving higher costs and also demands extensive application personalization for better and effective management of business needs (Nelson, 2010). Telephonic Communication Telephonic communication has turned out to be more and more significant method of business communication for the reason that it is able to connect workers, c olleagues and business experts countrywide as well as internationally. This is very effective medium for instant response along with feedback. However, the costs of telephonic communication are considerably higher, mainly if a business necessitates several worldwide calls (Carter, 2011) and (Fastrak Consulting Ltd, 1998). Verbal Communication Verbal communication is also the traditional business communication method that is used for high and extensive response and feedback. This can be face to face or distant communication among business staff as well as various groups. This technique of business communication is so far an important and well-liked technique all over the world. On the other hand,

Research Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Research Proposal - Essay Example According to research, people today give little importance to ethics in financial sectors, due to which organizations that monitor company operations as well as prevent and detect fraud have come into being. In addition, the number of fraudulent activities that take place in organizations, especially in their accounting departments, has risen rapidly due to several factors (O’Gara, pp. 29-33, 2004). Due to this, the practice of anti-fraud and risk management organizations is becoming a part of ordinary business in financial sectors. Risk management usually focuses on insurance companies, but an area of growing concern for risk management experts is occupational fraud. Due to this fact, this proposed research plans to explore the various dimensions of occupational fraud. In depth, it will analyze the specific aiding factors, which individuals use to commit fraud in financial calculations. Statement of the Problem In the light of this plan, the proposed research will include eff orts on the following purpose statement: â€Å"To discover and analyze the risks and issues related to the occupational fraud that occurs in the financial calculations that take place in an organization† Aims and Objectives ... This research also plans to broaden the perspective of risk management professionals, when they seek problems in the financial sector only concerning typical occupational fraud, and to enable them to design better fraud-prevention measures. Apart from this, the researchers also aim to establish research and findings that are both realistic and eye opening so that they aid other researchers to come in the following years. Literature Review In order to conduct a research at a maximum level of efficiency, it is necessary to develop a thorough understanding of the thesis statement presented. Thus, this paper briefly analyzes available information about risk management, focusing on the different types of occupational fraud. Prior to presenting these types, most works define the occupational fraud, often employing similar terms (Wells, pp. 42-47, 2007). They describe it as exploiting an organization against the law through unethical actions, which result in the party committing the act gai ning benefit. Experts have further presented several categories of occupational fraud, of which each outlines a different aspect of it (Koletar, pp. 19-27, 2003). One of these types involves the thievery of a company’s assets, which in most cases around the globe, means cash. Over eighty-five percent of occupational frauds involve such thefts of cash from an organization. The other most frequently occurring type of occupational fraud is management fraud, where executives indulge in fraudulent activities by abusing their authority and power in an organization (Salinger, pp. 59-66, 2005). There are several other types of occupational fraud also,

Fairy Tales And Culture Industry Media Essay

Fairy Tales And Culture Industry Media Essay The western fairy tales have basically undergone three major stages of transitions: the oral form; the literary form and finally the digital form. Originally, fairy tales in the western civilization are oral folk tale of magic which serve to express lower classes wishes to satisfy their needs and wants. (Jack, ) Toward the end of 17th century, printing press adapted oral tales into a new literary genre. The rationalization of fairy tales, due to intervention of gatekeepers in blocking fantasy fairy tales while publishing those stresses christian morality, has hindered creativity. At the same time, increased production of new tales for amusement illustrates Adornos culture industry which mars cultural heritage and imagination for increased production and profits. Then came to the era of digital form, one of the most successful genres of fairy tales, during World War II and Great Depression. Widespread misery brought in the idea of producing fairy-tale films to make money from peoples longing for happiness.(Jack, ) Standards were based in the first place on consumers needs, and for that reason were accepted with so little resistance. The result is the circle of manipulation and retroactive need in which the unity of the system grows even stronger. (Adorno Horkheimer, 1976) Fairy tales have been commodified and influenced by proliferation of adaptations for films. Today, fairy tales become a form of entertainment, embracing the concept of marketing and advertising. The change is in line with two main roles of culture industry: to create profits and to stimulate economic changes. Case study: Walt Disney Company The fairy-tale film industry Walt Disney, the ever successful model of fairy-tale film industry, is said to keep fairy tales alive through films and theme parks. Bringing us back to the standard structure of western fairy tales as shown in the classic stories like The Cinderella and The Sleeping Beauty: the white princess who soon gets into trouble and rescued by Prince Charming, followed by an inheritant end of the story: and they lived happily ever after, we realize that the idea of pseudo-individualization in Disneys early films may be true. This maybe strategy to reduce quality uncertainty as well as risk of trying to be innovative and to assure profitability by providing consumers something they familiar to or previously successful storylines. However, realizing the fact that consumers are no longer as passive and uncritical as what Adorno critiqued, Disney fast to adapt to the ever-demanding consumers by moving in suprising and interesting ways instead of imitating or reproducing what had been done before. Modernisation has contributed to a switch-over in power to the consumers. Disney gives birth to its first black princess, Tiana, in its recent animated fairy-tale film The Princess and the Frog inspired by old tale The Frog Prince. Everyone knows the story in which a princess finds true love by kissing a frog that magically turns into her handsome prince. Tiana still kisses a frog but the result is quite different. Besides trying to surprise its audiences with a fresh twist in the mix of humour, thrills and melody, Disney also moved away from its usual macho genre by protraying a strong and independent girl who is so determined in pursuing her dreams instead of waiting to be rescued as other princesses. By using familiar characters and title, Disney tends to appear to the public with a simple, immediate and easily recognizable identity which helps to reduce the uncertainty and to attract consumers while manifesting the differences from the original story based on their similarities. Since film is considered an experiential commodity that quality isnt accessible prior consumption, successful branding becomes essential as it is emotionally rewarding to consumers and financially rewarding for the business. What Disney differentiates itself from other competitors is making people happy. In order to compete more effectively, besides using advanced technology to stand out among competitors, Disney also relies on advertising to lure consumers to watch its movie which again reflects self-renewal nature of culture industry of creating artificial needs through advertising and satisfying those needs through consumers consumption. Cult of stars and famous creators are also used to convince the consumers of the films quality by their celebrity status in the field. Windowing is not new to Disney. Disney has expanded its line from VCDs, DVDs to Blu-ray in recent years as part of efforts in extending the life-cycle of its films by moving to smaller theaters. Due to the rising cost of production and high risk of failure, Disney has a wide repertoire of cultural goods under it as part of risk management. As one of the worlds largest conglomerates, Disney dominates in various media business encompassing movies, music, publising, TV and theme parks. As Negus (1999) stated, Culture produces an industry. Corporate culture impacts the workers and the cultural products they produce thus affect the economic profits. As one of the worlds best company to work in, Disney has always been promoting a vibrant culture that allows risk taking and innovation. It also promotes positive and inclusive ideas about families, passion and dedication among its employees. As in other service business, the quality of service can make or break Disney. In order to keep up with consumers ever-more-demanding expectations, quality and service are built into all the training programs taught by Disney University. Benchmarks are set to measure employees quality or service. This illustrates the manipulation of emotional labour as workers are increasingly being expected to display certain emotions but to suppress others in order to provide quality services. Although workers are not passive and may react or fight back, in most cases, they tend to comply to the corporate norms as job market is very competitive. New Trends in Disney Fairy-tale Film Industry: Threats Opportunities Digital Piracy- As in other industry, piracy is not a new issue facing Disney. But the advent of file sharing system and availability of free films on the Internet further undermine the industry. Copyright protection becomes tougher as users can always develop new methods to bypass. With the advent of downloading technology, consumers are able to access to free movies just within hours after their release in theaters. Since then, consumers dont perceive a need to pay more for cinema tickets for just once and even more expensive homevideos. In addition, fairy-tale films lack of the special effects that underlying the difference between the enjoyment of the movie at the cinema or at the home is of the factors as well. Therefore, Disneys emphasizing on 3D fairy-tale films production may be part of strategies to revive the cinema as the priviledged place for film experience and high quality entertainment. Competition TV 130 With new features such as streaming Internet movies and 3D capabilities added to the digital TVs, Disney is fighting a sadder trend. Sony, Panasonic and Samsung have continually come out with new digital TVs with Internet hook-ups that can grab Flickr photos and directly link to sources such as Netflix and YouTube videos and news stories through a broadband connection. In addition, Dell and HP also sell computers with HDMI outputs that can be hooked up directly to a TV. This is especially convenient for those working people who are too busy to catch movies in cinema. It is predicted that more valued-priced TVs with Internet connection will be born in the future. Watching films online with big-screen TV will also become a mainstream and big wave in the industry. Digitalization Digitalization becomes a landmark development in Disneys evolution of home entertainment. Recognizing the pervasiveness of digital consumption especially among young audiences, Disney comes to embrace digitalization to expand its market and gain access to new revenue resources while meeting consumers demands. Recently, Walt Disney Corporation released KeyChest, a new technology that enables films distribution using computers and cell phone rather than DVDs and TVs. To compete more effectively, Disney provides value and above that provided by free films such as easy storage, higher quality, virus and legal threat protection, and acccess in multiple form and locations. KeyChest is also intended to be a multie-corporate venture as consumers wont have much of a variety to choose from if only Disney is involved. Digitalization which is more cost effective than physical one expose Disney to a larger audience. Digital medium like the Internet can serve as a new platform for its established practice of windowing . In addition, being able to grasp the opportunity of digital distribution, it is believed that Disney can better control and fight against digital piracy since it ultimately has control over consumption of the content. Nevertheless, the digitalization movement may seem to widen digital divide as some people have very limited or no access to digital and information technology at all. The high performance at box office of Disneys films indicates that consumers are still willing to pay more for good movies. While computer screen maynot where consumers want to access their films, the industry also need to cater to those consumers who like to own a physical product. By applying value-based pricing policy, consumers can watch the films in the price that matches their values, thus expanding Disneys market and increasing economic profits. It is predicted that the digital distribution of films will expand significantly and transform Disneys film from a product to a service in the recent future. Taking lessons from the music industry, the digitalisation is a great opportunity to sustain well in global market. Tie-ins and Spin-off: Selling of disneys products Disneys brand is recognized through the characters marketed in their films and mechandise. Merchandising comes with a long history, but the packages grow larger and even larger today. Fairy-tale films, especially those gain popularity, have always been the center-piece of a package with all other accessories like book, food, toys and clothes. Disney increases its productions shelf life and extracts money by generating peoples interest and enjoyment on it and though the succession of new audience-generations. Merchandising which starts even before the release of the film, is able to enhance the value of a movie that performs badly at the box office. By creating cute and appealing characters targeted mainly at children, Disney seeks to entice children who are more vulnerable to such appeals by satisfying artificial needs it creates. Since consumers tend to attribute their own value to the goods, resulting in almost worship of cultural goods. The fanatical consumption of the latest release of The Princess and the Frog wide array of merchandises is a testament to this. In addition, some tactics such as strategic positioning of outlets are used to increase consumers inclination to consume even though they never intend to do so. This brings us to realize what Bryaman (2004) called Disneyization, a process of creating variety and differences and removing of basic needs to entice consumers into consumption beyond necessity. As mentioned, consumers are not passive but most of the time, we are still unconsicously falling into the trap of consumerism. Nowadays, Disneys tie-ins to fast food restaurants seems to be a norm and results in what we call hybrid consumption. By giving consumers the merchandises they want either for free or at a lower price through fast food consumption, the fast food industry increases its patronage whereas Disney gains constant publicity for its existing or forthcoming films and makes profits from the process while keeping Disney in peoples mind. According to Disneys vice-president of marketing at Buena Vista UK, These movies are very expensive to make and release and these tie-ins get us exposure we couldnt afford to buy. Globalization disneyfication Over the years, Disney has been expanding its business in a coordinated manner to almost every corner of the planet. Robertson argued that the production and promotion of goods and services on a global scale requires close, ongoing sensitivity to cultural differences in local circumstances. Its roaring success can be attributed to its transformation into a truly global enterprise and transculturation by taking account into cultural differences while maintaining cultural authenticity American culture. In order to ensure its films dont look so different as to allienate the nonwestern audiences, Disney always seeks to modify its products to fit consumers tastes in each market around the world. Therefore, local managers are rendered more power and accountability to increase the globalization of Disneys products by ensuring the products are locally relevant to the consumers, leading to more strategic distribution and marketing planning. The company also transforms the mode of presentation to which the non-western audiences can respond such as different language subtitles in the films. In China, for exa mple, products are localized to appeal to Chinese consumers. As globalization is no longer one way homogenous cultural flow from the West to the East but multiple processes that spreads heterogenous global culture through enrichment by variety and diversity of local cultures, Disney starts to absorb and extend its narrative repertoire to include more or less distinct cultures and non-western characters in films such as Aladdin (Middle East), The Lion King (Africa) and Mulan (china). From the production perspective, the extension may be seen as marketing gimmick aimed at capturing more diverse audiences and thus expands its service coverage into international markets when it acquires more markets in these cultures. Besides catering to the needs of global audiences, Disney also creates a sense of cultural autheticity in globalizing its local cultural products. In The Princess and the Frog, there is dialectical tension between particularism and universalism. In order to capture cultural autheticity of New Orleans, one the oldest cities in America, distinctly American sound such as Jazz and gospel is used in the film. By universalising the culture to the other side of the world, Disney came out with a natural love story blended with advernturous storytelling, offbeat comedy, captivating characters built on universal longing for happiness. The fateful kiss between Tiana and the frog from different world and social status brings them on a hilarious adventure through the mystical bayous. The intricate love story and characters flaws give consumers a sense of realistic. Disney also took advantage of feminism and wove it in the film to attract audiences, especially females, by protraying a strong and i ndependent girl who has motivating desire in pursuing her dreams. As in reality, it is no longer a love at first sight but a couple who really dont like each other at first sight fall for each other after spending time together. Tiana doesnt know how to appreciate live whereas Prince Naveen is spoiled and irresponsible. A prince that really influences a heroin, he teaches Tiana how to appreciate her life. Their flaws reflects the reality which consumers can identify. Showing family love. who then facing problems of expressing love openly. The most striking fea ture is the female protagonist, Tiana. took advantage of a feminist touch to attract Asian audiences, esp women. Focuses on a tough women and wove the feminism into the film. true love can really thriump, to strive for an ending where everyone lives happile ever after. Tiana has her own motivating desire, motivations and decisions that drive her and make her interested and sympathetic. In fact, the film impressed the global audiences not really because of its uniqueness and exotics, but it pertains to their lives and cultures. Tiana is appealing as the female consumers can identify themselves with her and even want to cheer her on. The producer maintains a global-local perspective, exploiting the particularity of local culture on the one hand and universalizing it for the world on the other. By fusing the fairy tale, advernture, music and comedy together, the film is reproduced and presented in a new style to the global audiences. The fairy tale genre, the use of English language, the setting of New Orleans, the American music and so on served to bring forth a strong sense of cultural authenticity. In a nutshell, besides the ability to adapt to transculturation, the budding success of technology investment, the growing conglomeration to mobilize resources and pursue opportunities more effectively, and the elevated status of English as a global language all together provide a favourable environment for the globalization of Disneys fairy-tale films. Conclusion Disney continues to sustain our dreams despite the cruelty of reality. It is Disneys ability to make people happy captivates a large audiences over the globe, thus it would be better with innovation without changing the happy ending that audiences emotionally attached to. Through various strategic management and its fast adaptation to threats and firm grasp of opportunities, Disney is coping well in going globalization. In fact, Disneys fairy-tale films do leave more or less some impacts on its audiences. Some love Disney as it make them feel like kids again, while some may think Disney brainwashes the audiences by adding subliminal messages in its films and gives girls delusion that Prince Charming is going to knock on their door one day.

Princess Bride Research Paper -- essays research papers fc

The Princess Bride In the film, â€Å"The Princess Bride,† directed by Rob Reiner, it all begins with a Grandfather telling the story to his less than enthusiastic Grandson. The story opens in the country of Florin with Buttercup treating her â€Å"Farm Boy† not so well, â€Å"his name was Wesley, but she never called him that. â€Å"Very soon she realizes he loves her and she loves him in return. He sets off for America â€Å"to make his fortune across the sea.† She later finds out that he and his ship have been murdered by the Dread Pirate Roberts â€Å"who never leaves captives alive.† Scene: Humperdink castle, Prince Humperdink is announcing his bride-to-be and we find out it is the Princess Buttercup. She does not love him, but he â€Å"has the right to choose his bride.† Next Scene: Buttercup is riding her horse through the forest and comes across three strange looking men: one short, intelligent man (Vizzini), a Spaniard (Inigo), and a giant (Fezzik). They kidnap her and Vizzini reveals that he wants to start a war with the nearby country Guilder by murdering Buttercup and leaving her on the â€Å"Guilder frontier," even though Inigo and Fezzik are not too happy with the idea they follow their orders. They sail away on a ship, but soon realize they are being followed by a ship that is gaining on them. He also follows them to the Cliffs of Insanity. When they reach the top, Vizzini has Inigo stay behind to kill the man following them (the Man-in-Black) because he (Inigo) is a master swordsman. When the Man-in-Black reaches the top of the cliffs, Inigo reveals he wants revenge on a man with six fingers who killed his father. Inigo and the Man-in-Black find they have a mutual respect for each other, but they must duel and the Man-in-Black wi ns, but does not kill Inigo. Vizzini sees that the Man-in-Black is still following them, so he has Fezzik stay behind to kill him. They wrestle and again the Man-in-Black wins, but he does not kill Fezzik. Then he confronts Vizzini, they have a Battle of Wits, and of course the Man-in-Black wins again. From there, he grabs Buttercup and they run off. Meanwhile, Prince Humperdink has been following them with his friend Count Rugen. Back to the running of MIB (Man in Black) and Buttercup: Buttercup beli... ...ess than two hours. There are two types of people in this world: those who love â€Å"The Princess Bride† and those who have yet to see it. The acting is wonderful. The roles are typecast superbly, and the content has no political statements or current affair ties. The lack of ties will set this movie comfortably for years to come among the favorite of families everywhere. (dehm, Phantome Noire.) On the website, About.com, Ben Miller writes up a college student’s â€Å"Must See Movie† list. The Princess Bride ranks number twenty-six on that list. Another reason I think this movie is so incredibly wonderful is because it shows that no matter what obstacles two people face in life â€Å"True Love† will always prevail. Works Cited http://www.about.com http://www.dehm.com/movie/princess.html http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/boulevard/4355 http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/makeup/6353/princessbride.html http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/mansion/8382/main.html http://www.tough.net/eempje/princess.htm http://www.webring.org Martin, Mick, and Marsha Porter. Video Movie Guide 1999. New York: Ballantine Books, 1998. The Princess Bride. Dir. Rob Reiner. 20th Century Fox/Nelson Entertainment

More Than a Veil

More Than a Veil A Feminist Readings of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis Cultural differences have been on the foreground of the ongoing struggle between the United States and Iran since the 1970’s. Stereotypes are built on misunderstandings which can prove costly in international relationships. Our national media coverage of Iran portrays radical Islamic men oppressing their female counterparts. Many American citizens have narrow opinions on Iranian women, most of them dealing with the infamous veil that Islamic girls wear females.Marjane Satrapi in her biographical novel Persepolis examines Iranian women’s roles in the Islamic Revolution, breaks the myth of the oppressing veil, and demonstrates how Iranian boys and girls are socially constructed. Satrapi does all of this with a nontraditional writing style as she challenges the more common coming of manhood tale called a Bildungsroman (Barry p. 129) with her own coming of womanhood narrative. In America it is widel y believed that women in Iran are to be seen and not heard. That Iran is controlled by an extreme patriarchy where women voice no opinions on social issues.However, we see in Persepolis that Marjane comes from a family with strong women like her mother and grandmother. Her mother routinely takes part in protesting alongside her husband in the streets of Tehran. (Satrapi p. 18) Marjane’s mother is an example of the misconception that women in Iran are subjects. Marjane’s mother illustrates to us how women all across Iran were active during the Islamic Revolution, as protestors, collaborators, or victims. (Botshon p. 5) Agency is not just shown in adult women in Persepolis but also in adolescent girls.Many Americans are quick to point out the veil which covers an Islamic women’s face as a sign of the extreme patriarchy in Iran. However, in the beginning of Persepolis we see Marjane as a child and other little girls taking their veils off at school to use them for games like jump rope. (Satrapi p. 3) This imagery immediately shatters our connotations of disciplined Iranian girls and focuses us more on the playful resistance which the school girls demonstrate. This rebellious nature of Marjane does not stop in childhood despite the oppressive agenda of the school board.Marjane’s self-expression continues as a teenager when she adopts American culture ideas like punk rock clothing and even owning a Kim Wilde and Iron Maiden poster, which her parent smuggled in from Turkey. (Satrapi p. 127-129) In all of these scenes Marjane is drawn on the pages of the novel without having her veil on. These scenes are an example of how some girls were not submissive to Islamic rule as is it often depicted in our own media. Even though women had proactive roles in the Islamic Revolution they were still constructed and treated differently in Iranian culture.Marjane’s mother speaks of the violent soldiers she had encounter in the streets of Tehran o ne day when she was caught not wearing the mandatory veil; â€Å"They insulted me. They said that women like me should be pushed up against a wall and fucked. And then thrown in the garbage†¦And that if I didn’t want that to happen, I should wear the veil. †(Satrapi p. 74) In this scene it is clear that the Islamic regime agenda is to suppress Iranian women’s individuality, but how come these military men are so violent?The answer may be in the way that girls and boys were socially constructed during the Islamic Revolution. In Iranian culture it is common for boys to learn military values at school while girls would learn more suitable household skills like knitting and sewing so that they could make winter hoods for the soldiers. At a young age boys are taught to be soldiers and take part in war while girls are helping war efforts indirectly. Aggression in boys to some people may seem natural; however, in Iran young boys are being taught this social trait. The veil itself is a way that Islam fundamentalist try to construct their women into being oppressed and submissive. The wearing of the veil is enforced by school officials who have an Islamic agenda, however; many girls are taught contradictory ideas about the veil by their parents at home. Marjane would have been more susceptible to Islam fundamentalists if she did not come from a family with strong independent female figures. Satrapi demonstrates clearly that gender roles are taught in institutions like religion and school and are not natural.Even more importantly Satrapi writes about how she rebelled against these norms, which makes Persepolis an original narrative of growing up as a girl in Iran. Persepolis in its roots is a personal female memoir of Marjane Satrapi’s growth into womanhood while being raised in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. The story of Marjane Satrapi’s life cannot be duplicated by another author. Marjane grew up in a confusing time where c omplex issues of religions, politics, and class formed an authentic female version of a classic Bildungsroman tale.Satrapi’s Persepolis questions western thought about Iranian women. Without Marjane Satrapi’s personal experience it is easy to believe that a similar Islamic Revolution tale told by a female protagonist would focus on the hardships of being oppressed and not the variety of social classes that depict rebellious Iranian women. Without Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis could have had an unoriginal western stereotypical story about Iranian women. Marjane Satrapi literally makes herself the central character as the author.Persepolis as a feminist work shows the value of women in Iranian society, the social construction of girls and boys, and the complex issues in Marjane’s life which are reflected in her work. Many misconceptions about Iranian women are dismissed in Persepolis. Satrapi shows Iranian women as agents with a cause rather than subjects with no vo ice. Although we are use to the typical submissive Iranian women waiting for liberation, Satrapi blows this belief up for western reader. Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis humanizes the Iranian female population which is all too often illustrated in United States’ media as being oppressed by a veil.Works Cited Babak. Elahi. Frames and Mirrors in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. University Nebraska Press. Vo. 15 No. 1-2. 2007. 312-325. Article. Barry. Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. 3rd ed. Manchester. Manchester University Press. 2009 Print. Botshon. Lisa. Plastas. Melinda. Homeland In/Security: A Discussion and Workshop on Teaching Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. University of Illinois Press. Feminist Teacher, Vol 20. No. 1. 2009. 1-14. Article. Satrapi. Marjane. The Complete Persepolis. New York. Pantheon Books. 2007. Print.

Monopoly and marginal cost Essay

Practice Questions and Answers from Lesson III-3: Monopoly Practice Questions and Answers from Lesson III-3: Monopoly The following questions practice these skills: ? Explain the sources of market power. ? Apply the quantity and price affects on revenue of any movement along a demand curve. ? Find the profit maximizing quantity and price of a single-price monopolist. ? Compute deadweight loss from a single-price monopolist. ? Compute marginal revenue. ? Define the efficiency of P = MC. ? Find the profit-maximizing quantity and price of a perfect-price-discriminating monopolist. ? Find the profit-maximizing quantity and price of an imperfect-price-discriminating monopolist. Question: Each of the following firms possesses market power. Explain its source. a. Merck, the producer of the patented cholesterol-lowering drug Zetia b. Chiquita, a supplier of bananas and owner of most banana plantations c. The Walt Disney Company, the creators of Mickey Mouse Answer to Question: a. Merck has a patent for Zetia. This is an example of a government-created barrier to entry, which gives Merck market power. b. Chiquita controls most banana plantations. Control over a scarce resource gives Chiquita market power. c. The Walt Disney Company has the copyright over animations featuring Mickey Mouse. This Is another example of a government-created barrier to entry that gives the Walt Disney Company market power. Question: Skyscraper City has a subway system, for which a one-way fare is $1. 50. There is pressure on the mayor to reduce the fee by one-third, to $1. 00. The mayor is dismayed, thinking that this will mean Skyscraper City is losing one-third of its revenue from sales of subway tickets. The mayor’s economic adviser reminds her that she is focusing only on the price effect and ignoring the quantity effect. Explain why the mayor’s estimate of a one-third loss of revenue is likely to be an overestimate. Illustrate with a diagram. Answer to Question: A reduction in fares from $1. 50 to $1. 00 will reduce the revenue on each ticket that is currently sold by one-third; this Is the price effect. But a reduction in price will lead to more tickets being sold at the lower price of $1. 00, which creates additional revenue; this is the quantity effect. The price effect is the loss of revenue on all the currently sold tickets. The quantity effect is the increase in revenue from increased sales as a result of the lower price. Question: Consider an industry with the demand curve (D) and marginal cost curve (MC) shown in the accompanying diagram. There is no fixed cost. If the industry is a single-price monopoly, the monopolist’s marginal revenue curve would be MR. Answer the following questions by naming the appropriate points or areas. Practice Questions and Answers from Lesson III-3: Monopoly a. If the industry is perfectly competitive, what will be the total quantity produced? At what price? b. Which area reflects consumer surplus under perfect competition? c. If the industry is a single-price monopoly, what quantity will the monopolist produce? Which price will it charge? d. Which area reflects the single-price monopolist’s profit? e. Which area reflects consumer surplus under single-price monopoly? f. Which area reflects the deadweight loss to society from single-price monopoly? g. If the monopolist can price-discriminate perfectly, what quantity will the perfectly price-discriminating monopolist produce? Answer to Question: a. In a perfectly competitive industry, each firm maximizes profit by producing the quantity at which price equals marginal cost. That is, all firms together produce a quantity S, corresponding to point R, where the marginal cost curve crosses the demand curve. Price will be equal to marginal cost, E. b. Consumer surplus is the area under the demand curve and above price. In part a, we saw that the perfectly competitive price is E. Consumer surplus in perfect competition is therefore the triangle ARE. c. A single-price monopolist produces the quantity at which marginal cost equals marginal revenue, that is, quantity I. Accordingly, the monopolist charges price B, the highest price it can charge if it wants to sell quantity I. d. The single-price monopolist’s profit per unit is the difference between price and the average total cost. Since there is no fixed cost and the marginal cost is constant (each unit costs the same to produce), the marginal cost is the same as the average total cost. That is, profit per unit is the distance BE. Since the monopolist sells I units, its profit is BE times I, or the rectangle BEHF. e. Consumer surplus is the area under the demand curve and above the price. In part c, we saw that the monopoly price is B. Consumer surplus in monopoly is therefore the triangle AFB. f. Deadweight loss is the surplus that would have been available (either to consumers or producers) under perfect competition but that is lost when there is a single-price monopolist. It is the triangle FRH. g. If a monopolist can price-discriminate perfectly, it will sell the first unit at price A, the second unit at a slightly lower price, and so forth. That is, it will extract from each consumer just that consumer’s willingness to pay, as indicated by the demand curve. It will sell S units, because for the last unit, it can just make a consumer pay a price of E (equal to its marginal cost), and that just covers its marginal cost of producing that last unit. For any further units, it could not make any consumer pay more than its marginal cost, and it therefore stops selling units at quantity S. Practice Questions and Answers from Lesson III-3: Monopoly Question: Bob, Bill, Ben, and Brad Baxter have just made a documentary movie about their basketball team. They are thinking about making the movie available for download on the Internet, and they can act as a single-price monopolist if they choose to. Each time the movie is downloaded, their Internet service provider charges them a fee of $4. The Baxter brothers are arguing about which price to charge customers per download. The accompanying table shows the demand schedule for their film. Price of download Quantity of downloads demanded $10 0 $8 1 $6 3 $4 6 $2 10 $0 15 a. Calculate the total revenue and the marginal revenue per download. b. Bob is proud of the film and wants as many people as possible to download it. Which price would he choose? How many downloads would be sold? c. Bill wants as much total revenue as possible. Which price would he choose? How many downloads would be sold? d. Ben wants to maximize profit. Which price would he choose? How many downloads would be sold? e. Brad wants to charge the efficient price. Which price would he choose? How many downloads would be sold? Answer to Question: a. The accompanying table calculates total revenue (TR) and marginal revenue (MR). Recall that marginal revenue is the additional revenue per unit of output Price of download Quantity of downloads TR MR demanded $10 0 $0 $8 1 $8 $8 $6 3 $18 $5 $4 6 $24 $2 $2 10 $20 $-1 $0 15 $0 $-4 b. Bob would charge $0. At that price, there would be 15 downloads, the largest quantity they can sell. c. Bill would charge $4. At that price, total revenue is greatest ($24). At that price, there would be 6 downloads. d. Ben would charge $6. At that price, there would be 3 downloads. For any more downloads, marginal revenue would be below marginal cost, and so further downloads would lose the Baxters’ money.e. Brad would charge $4. A price equal to marginal cost is efficient. At that price, there would be 6 downloads. Practice Questions and Answers from Lesson III-3: Monopoly Question: Suppose that De Beers is a single-price monopolist in the market for diamonds. De Beers has five potential customers: Raquel, Jackie, Joan, Mia, and Sophia. Each of these customers will buy at most one diamond—and only if the price is just equal to, or lower than, her willingness to pay. Raquel’s willingness to pay is $400; Jackie’s, $300; Joan’s, $200; Mia’s, $100; and Sophia’s, $0. De Beers’s marginal cost per diamond is $100. This leads to the demand schedule for diamonds shown in the accompanying table. Price of Diamond Quantity of Diamonds Demanded $500 0 $400 1 $300 2 $200 3 $100 4 $0 5 a. Calculate De Beers’s total revenue and its marginal revenue. From your calculation, draw the demand curve and the marginal revenue curve. b. Explain why De Beers faces a downward-sloping demand curve. c. Explain why the marginal revenue from an additional diamond sale is less than the price of the diamond. d. Suppose De Beers currently charges $200 for its diamonds. If it lowers the price to $100, how large is the price effect? How large is the quantity effect? e. Add the marginal cost curve to your diagram from part a and determine which quantity maximizes De Beers’s profit and which price De Beers will charge. Answer to Question: a. Total revenue (TR) and marginal revenue (MR) are given in the accompanying table. Price of Diamond Quantity of Diamonds TR Demanded $500 0 $0 $400 1 $400 $300 2 $600 $200 3 $600 $100 4 $400 $0 5 $0 MR $400 $200 $0 -$200 -$400 The accompanying diagram illustrates De Beers’s demand curve and marginal revenue (MR) curve. b. De Beers is the only producer of diamonds, so its demand curve is the market demand curve. And the market demand curve slopes downward: the lower the price, the more customers will buy diamonds. c. If De Beers lowers the price sufficiently to sell one more diamond, it earns extra revenue equal to the Practice Questions and Answers from Lesson III-3: Monopoly price of that one extra diamond. This is the quantity effect of lowering the price. But there is also a price effect: lowering the price means that De Beers also has to lower the price on all other diamonds, and that lowers its revenue. So the marginal revenue of selling an additional diamond is less than the price at which the additional diamond can be sold. d. If the price is $200, then De Beers sells to Raquel, Jackie, and Joan. If it lowers the price to $100, it will also sell a diamond to Mia. The price effect is that De Beers loses $100 (the amount by which it lowered the price) each from selling to Raquel, Jackie, and Joan. So the price effect lowers De Beers’s revenue by 3 ? $100 = $300. The quantity effect is that De Beers sells one more diamond (to Mia), at $100. So the quantity effect is to raise De Beers’s revenue by $100. e. The marginal cost (MC) curve is constant at $100, as shown in the diagram. Marginal revenue equals marginal cost at a quantity of 2 diamonds. So De Beers will sell 2 diamonds at a price of $300 each. Question: Use the demand schedule for diamonds given in the previous question. The marginal cost of producing diamonds is constant at $100. There is no fixed cost. a. If De Beers charges the monopoly price, how large is the individual consumer surplus that each buyer experiences? Calculate total consumer surplus by summing the individual consumer surpluses. How large is producer surplus? Suppose that upstart Russian and Asian producers enter the market and the market becomes perfectly competitive. b. What is the perfectly competitive price? What quantity will be sold in this perfectly competitive market? c. At the competitive price and quantity, how large is the consumer surplus that each buyer experiences? How large is total consumer surplus? How large is producer surplus? d. Compare your answer to part c to your answer to part a. How large is the deadweight loss associated with monopoly in this case? Answer to Question: a. The monopoly price is $300. At that price Raquel and Jackie buy diamonds. Raquel’s consumer surplus is $400 ? $300 = $100; Jackie’s is $300 ? $300 = $0. So total consumer surplus is $100 + $0 = $100. Producer surplus is $300 ? $100 = $200 for each diamond sold; 2 ? $200 = $400. b. In a perfectly competitive market, P = MC. That is, the perfectly competitive price is $100, and at that price 4 diamonds will be sold—to Raquel, Jackie, Joan, and Mia. c. At the competitive price, Raquel’s consumer surplus is $400 ? $100 = $300; Jackie’s, $300 ? $100 = $200; Joan’s, $200 ? $100 = $100; and Mia’s, $100 ? $100 = $0. So total consumer surplus is $300 + $200 + $100 + $0 = $600. Since the price is equal to marginal cost, there is no producer surplus. d. Under perfect competition, the sum of consumer and producer surplus is $600 + $0 = $600. Under monopoly, the sum of consumer and producer surplus is $100 + $400 = $500. So the loss of surplus to society from monopoly—the deadweight loss—is $600 ? $500 = $100. Question: Use the demand schedule for diamonds given in the previous questions. De Beers is a monopolist, but it can now price-discriminate perfectly among all five of its potential customers. De Beers’s marginal cost is constant at $100. There is no fixed cost. a. If De Beers can price-discriminate perfectly, to which customers will it sell diamonds and at what prices? b. How large is each individual consumer surplus? How large is total consumer surplus? Calculate producer surplus by summing the producer surplus generated by each sale. Practice Questions and Answers from Lesson III-3: Monopoly Answer to Question: a. If De Beers can price-discriminate perfectly, it will charge each customer that customer’s willingness to pay. That is, it will charge Raquel $400, Jackie $300, Joan $200, and Mia $100. De Beers does not want to sell to Sophia since she will only buy at a price of $0, and that would be below De Beers’s marginal cost. b. Since each consumer is charged exactly her willingness to pay, there is no consumer surplus. De Beers’s producer surplus is $400 ? $100 = $300 from selling to Raquel; $300 ? $100 = $200 from selling to Jackie; $200 ? $100 = $100 from selling to Joan; $100 ? $100 = $0 from selling to Mia. So producer surplus is $300 + $200 + $100 + $0 = $600. Question: Download Records decides to release an album by the group Mary and the Little Lamb. It produces the album with no fixed cost, but the total cost of downloading an album to a CD and paying Mary her royalty is $6 per album. Download Records can act as a single-price monopolist. Its marketing division finds that the demand schedule for the album is as shown in the accompanying table. Price of album Quantity of albums demanded $22 0 $20 1,000 $18 2,000 $16 3,000 $14 4,000 $12 5,000 $10 6,000 $8 7,000 a. Calculate the total revenue and the marginal revenue per album. b. The marginal cost of producing each album is constant at $6. To maximize profit, what level of output should Download Records choose, and which price should it charge for each album? c. Mary renegotiates her contract and now needs to be paid a higher royalty per album. So the marginal cost rises to be constant at $14. To maximize profit, what level of output should Download Records now choose, and which price should it charge for each album? Answer to Question: a. Total revenue (TR) and marginal revenue per album (MR) is shown in the following table: Price of album Quantity of albums TR MR demanded $22 0 $0 $20 1,000 $20,000 $20 $18 2,000 $36,000 $16 $16 3,000 $48,000 $12 $14 4,000 $56,000 $8 $12 5,000 $60,000 $4 $10 6,000 $60,000 $0 $8 7,000 $56,000 -$4 b. If the marginal cost of each album is $6, Download Records will maximize profit by producing 4,000 albums, since for each album up to 4,000, marginal revenue is greater than marginal cost. For any further albums, marginal cost would exceed marginal revenue. Producing 4,000 albums, Download Records will charge $14 for each album. c. If the marginal cost of each album is $14, Download Records will maximize profit by producing 2,000 albums, and it will charge $18 per album. Practice Questions and Answers from Lesson III-3: Monopoly Question: The movie theater in Collegetown serves two kinds of customers: students and professors. There are 900 students and 100 professors in Collegetown. Each student’s willingness to pay for a movie ticket is $5. Each professor’s willingness to pay for a movie ticket is $10. Each will buy at most one ticket. The movie theater’s marginal cost per ticket is constant at $3, and there is no fixed cost. a. Suppose the movie theater cannot price-discriminate and needs to charge both students and professors the same price per ticket. If the movie theater charges $5, who will buy tickets and what will the movie theater’s profit be? How large is consumer surplus? b. If the movie theater charges $10, who will buy movie tickets and what will the movie theater’s profit be? How large is consumer surplus? c. Now suppose that, if it chooses to, the movie theater can price-discriminate between students and professors by requiring students to show their student ID. If the movie theater charges students $5 and professors $10, how much profit will the movie theater make? How large is consumer surplus? Answer to Question: a. If the movie theater charges $5 per ticket, both students and professors will buy tickets. The movie theater will sell to 1,000 customers (students and professors), at a price of $5 each. Since the movie theater’s cost per ticket is $3, its profit is $2 per ticket for a total profit of 1,000 ? $2 = $2,000. Students will experience no consumer surplus, but each of the 100 professors will experience consumer surplus of $10 ? $5 = $5 for a total consumer surplus of 100 ? $5 = $500. b. If the movie theater charges $10 per ticket, only professors will buy tickets. The movie theater will sell to 100 customers (professors) at a price of $10 each. Since the movie theater’s cost per ticket is $3, its profit is $7 per ticket for a total profit of 100 ? $7 = $700. Students experience no consumer surplus since they do not buy any tickets. Each of the 100 professors experiences no consumer surplus since the price is equal to their willingness to pay. So consumer surplus is $0. c. If the movie theater charges students a price of $5, it sells 900 tickets at a profit of $5 ? $3 =$2 each for a profit from selling to students of 900 ? $2 =$1,800. Charging professors $10, it sells 100 tickets at a profit of $10 ? $3 =$7 each for a profit from selling to professors of 100 ? $7 =$700. So the theater’s total profit is $1,800 + $700 =$2,500. Since each customer is charged exactly his or her willingness to pay, there is no consumer surplus. Question: A monopolist knows that in order to expand the quantity of output it produces from 8 to 9 units that it must lower the price of its output from $2 to $1. Calculate the quantity effect and the price effect. Use these results to calculate the monopolist’s marginal revenue of producing the 9th unit. The marginal cost of producing the 9th unit is positive. Is it a good idea for the monopolist to produce the 9th unit? Answer to Question: The quantity effect is $1 (the increase in total revenue from selling the 9th unit at $1). The price effect is 8 ? (? $1) =? $8 (the decrease in total revenue from having to lower the price of 8 units by $1 each). So the marginal revenue of producing the 9th unit is $1 ? $8 =? $7. Since marginal revenue is negative, producing the 9th unit is definitely not a good idea: it lowers revenue (since marginal revenue is negative), and it increases the total cost (since marginal cost is positive). So it will definitely lower profit. Instead, the monopolist should produce less output.

Mice of Men Essay Essays

Mice of Men Essay Essays Mice of Men Essay Essay Mice of Men Essay Essay By Golda Bhebhe. â€Å"Of Mice and Men. † In the novel â€Å"Of Mice and Men† by John Steinbeck we are introduced to two main characters, George Milton and Lennie Small. These men are close friends who travel together looking for employment in America in the 1930s. Lennie is quite a simple guy who sometimes gets into trouble. Steinbeck uses a range of writing techniques to portray Lennie and we are left at the end feeling very sad that he has had to die. When we first meet Lennie and George we immediately notice that George is the leader and Lennie is slower and seems to await instructions. George is described as a small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong feature. It also moves on to say that every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose. The author creates a very masculine attractive imagine of George by making him look put together and neat with very chiselled bone structure which in society has always been considered very handsome. On the other hand Lennie is described as a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders. This creates a very unattractive look for the character because he seems to be coming of slightly a large untidy man who doesn’t seem to take pride in the way he looks. When the two men first walk into the brush George is leading the way and Lennie is carefully following him. They were walking in single file down the path, and even in the open Lennie stayed behind George. This shows that Lennie is very dependent on George in the way that a child would be. The two men soon move into the wider world of the ranch and here we see how other people react to Lennie. Steinbeck evokes sympathy for Lennie when he shows the way other people react to him. The ranch workers at the start are very inquisitive and some even envious of Lennie George’s relationship. Some are slightly intimidated by Lennie because he is a big guy but they don’t know that he really a child at heart could never hurt anyone intentionally. One of the workers who are especially intimidated by Lennie is Curley. Curley is the boss’s son. He is a thin young man with brown face, with brown eyes and head of tightly curled hair. Curley seems to be intimidated by Lennie because of his large size and him being a small man feels the need to look down on him to make himself feel like a â€Å"big guy† because he knows Lennie can’t do anything because he is in the position of power. â€Å"Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he’s mad at’em because he aint a big guy. † This shows that Curley has always been jealous of bigger men. So he finds pleasure in bullying Lennie because usually it’s the other way round.

Econometrics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Econometrics - Essay Example The classical linear regression model is written such that the coefficients of the independent variables measure the sensitivities of the dependent variable on the independent variables. It is usually assumed that there is an error term which measures the unexplained variance of the dependent variable that is not accounted for by the independent variable. Therefore, only a proportion of the variance is explained by the regression analysis. c) Any particular normal distribution can be related to the normal distribution because the normality assumption allows us to perform statistical tests concerning the estimated parameters using the normal distribution and related tests involving chi-square, t-distributions and F-distributions. d) It is not appropriate to take natural logarithms of interest rates, expressed as percentages because natural logarithms of interest rates are taken to minimize autocorrelations and render the interest rates scale free. However, interest rates expressed as percentages are scale free and uncorrelated already and therefore there is no need to take natural logarithms again. e) The Durbin Watson statistic can be used to estimat... (http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/churvich/Forecasting/Handouts/DWTest.pdf) 2. a) Omitting a significant variable from a regression analysis overstates the marginal impact of other variables in the model. For example, lets consider the impact of education on earnings. This relationship can be written in the form of a regression model as follows: (1) (Greene, 2003: p. 9). The above regression neglects the possibility that most people have higher incomes when they are older than when they are young, regardless of their education. (Greene, 2003: p. 9). Thus overstates the marginal impact of education on earnings. If age and education are positively related, then the regression model will associate all the observed increases in income with increases in education. Therefore a better way to study the determinants of income is to include the effects of age in the regression as follows: (2) according to Greene (2003: p. 9) earnings tend to rise less rapidly in the later earning years than in the early ones. To accommodate this possibility, the above model can be extended as follows: (3) (Greene, 2003: p. 9). b). Regression analysis studies the relationship between two or more variables. One variable is considered independent while two or more variables are considered to be independent. (Anderson et al, 2005). The aim of the regression analysis is to measure how changes in the dependent variable are explained by changes in the independent variables. Including an insignificant variable as one of the independent variables may minimize the effects of the actual variable causing the variation in the independent variable. Like in the example above, if truly age is not a determinant of income as

Gender Differences and Similarities between the United States and Term Paper

Gender Differences and Similarities between the United States and Afghanistan - Term Paper Example The society in the US has undergone great transformation overtime while that of Afghanistan has resisted the forces of globalization with small changes taking place over time1. This term paper focuses on the gender differences and similarities between the United States and Afghanistan. Most of the differences between these two nations are founded on the differences between the traditional customary practices in Afghanistan and the modern setting of the American society. As a result, there exist many differences between the gender roles in both countries than similarities. Gender Differences and Similarities between the United States and Afghanistan There have been consistent principles in the Afghanistan society in matters concerning gender role. The principles reveal differences between genders in regards to the roles of the women and men in the society. On the other side, in US, there exist differences between the both genders and there are limited differences between the roles pla yed by men and women. Gender reforms have continued in US overtime, and are supported by most of the citizens. Contrary, in Afghanistan gender reforms have been limited despite the existence of contentious issues that need to be changed2. Since American gained independence in 1776, the gender reforms have continued to be implemented and the reforms are geared towards guarantying gender equality. In Afghanistan, the gender reforms that have faced great resistance, and are responsible for the 1929 fall of King Amanullah for his support of gender reforms3. The differences and similarities between the two distinct societies are displayed by the society level of transformation, acceptance, or rejection of change. The governments in the two nations have also played a critical role in the differences and similarities. Whereas the US is a democratic federal presidential constitutional republic, the Afghanistan has recently adopted a democratic government; in 2004, and the gender reforms are still underway but in a slow rate. More so, the number of major political parties in Afghanistan is nine whereas in US, they are two major parties. The number of political parties reveals the degree of democracy and the ease with which the government can make and implement policies. Similarities between the men and women in the United States and Afghanistan Despites resistance by some individuals who are non-reformist, a number of the Afghanistan women along with those of American origin have been allowed by their respective constitutions to serve in the public offices. However, those of Afghan origin are few because it comprises only those in the urban centers and can have access to higher education. More so, the Afghanistan education system mostly encourages education of the boy child. Majority of the American women have equal education and employment opportunity as the men. Many of the women work in senior public and private positions. Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Condoleez za Rice are among the most senior women public servants in the US history. In Afghanistan, very few women serve in senior government positions since most are not sufficiently educated and the educated are discriminated by the male dominated society4. Irrespective of that fact, reforms are taking place and it is expected that the effective equal employment opportunity for all gender will be achieved in the future. In reference to their