The Importance of Body Art as Part of Young People Identity in Britain Essay

The Importance of Body Art as Part of Young People Identity in Britain - Essay Example From the research it can be comprehended that art has been heavily influenced by faith and status among indigenous people or tribes, and the same for the Vatican. Art is seen on canvases of painters, on sounds of music albums, on cave walls, books, museums. Others say that art is natural within every individual, and how people express themselves is itself a form of art. One of the many kinds of art is the body art of which instead of a canvas, the human body is used. Not so long ago tattooing was considered only among the â€Å"tribal people† and then, in sub-cultures. But in recent years, body piercing became a craze. Its popularity has grown so much that some medical experts alarmed people that piercing could be hazardous. Only to fan its popularity. A sample of this is nipple piercing, which was once practiced by the Karankawa Indians of Texas and is still practiced by women of the nomadic Kabyle tribe in the Mountain of Algeria. In the West, nipple piercing has made a rebi rth, with many famous people having their nipples pierced. Generally the reason was for ‘fashion’ and not for any rituals or ceremony purposes. Today, the traditional body painting, body piercing and body tattooing are part of body art. Cosmetics, jewelleries, and surgeries are now the more conventional versions of body adornment. Even if it is traditional way or more advanced way, body art could produce fabulous expressions. Body art is one thing that gets easily accepted among the young people.

Social networking phenomenon in e-business

Social networking phenomenon in e-business Abstract Nowadays the social networking with its gradual growth has affected the image that we have about the web dramatically. In the following paper some issues about social networking are discussed. In particular, a critical exploration of the social networking phenomenon is presented and an evaluation of the impact on e-commerce and e-business is discussed. Furthermore some possible applications that concern opportunities, benefits and risks are given. A synthesis of the above provides a summary of conclusions that can be drawn and recommendations that can be made as well. Introduction Everyday practice shows that Social Networks popularity is increased day by day. If facebook were country it would be the worlds 4th largest after China, India and USA having over 250.000 users. Many companies have realized this phenomenon and have already started to reform their marketing policy in order to benefit from the Social Networking growth. Many professionals from music artists to business enterprises advertise themselves in social networking web sites via uploading some of their new songs, images or videos. It is obvious that Social networking has a direct impact in e-business. In order to provide an evaluation of the social networking impact on e-business, we are starting our attempt from word-of-mouth marketplaces or overstock auctions or reputation systems. Reputation Systems like Amazon or e-bay is an online marketplace that augments traditional auctions with a social networking component (Christo Wilson 2008). Furthermore some social networks applications have several critical factors that we should consider (benefits, risks, opportunities). Our research demonstrates that the gradual growth of social networking has several benefits and several risks. In particular recent surveys have shown high levels of fraud in online markets (Bhattacharjee, Goe 2005). Some of the most important malicious aspect of social networking is ballot stuffing, bad mouthing and data theft which will be described in detail in the third sector of this paper. On the other side as it was previously mentioned social networking has several benefits. Customers have lost trust in traditional sales, marketing and service or Customer Relationship Management and this plays a pivotal role in increasing of positive impact of social networking in e-business. Many people have changed their buying culture and have orientated in online reputation systems such as e-bay and Amazon that have direct relation with social networking aspects. In a few words this paper provides an overview of the social networking phenomenon evaluates its direct impact in e-business and e-commerce and presents some opportunities benefits and risks that are included. Social networking as phenomenon Social Networking is a phenomenon that has affected the whole Web and many aspects of our lives dramatically. Social networking web sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Friendster etc. provide the ability to their member/users to create their personal profiles where they can share some information, brief CVs or personal photos. Thus they have the ability to search for their old acquaintances or familiars. Furthermore they can upload or trade with other users photos, comments or videos. In fig.1 a profile sample is provided. Human beings used to create groups that consisted of people with whom they shared common interests. It was therefore expected that these networks will quickly transported to the online world. Social networks are created for many reasons and for different publics. Despite their differences the social networks are concerned with the following concepts: Profiles Each member creates and maintains an online profile that contains information regarding individual interests, skills or any part of his personal status. For example some people provide their CV in order to find a (new/better) job Connections -Social networks enable their members to keep connections with each other chat trade images, comments and in general keep in touch via the Web (Boyd, Ellison 2007). Even though the gradual growth of social networking is something recent it is not something new as a concept. Forums, chat rooms, blogs and creations of personal web sites (even though are not something new) are also functions regarding by social networking aspects. Several sites that contained the social networking element appeared in the start of new millennium. The gradual social networking expansion is a part of a wider online phenomenon named Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a dynamic wide web platform in which several users are enabled to interact with each other without having specialized knowledge in computer systems or network issues. Evaluation of Social Networking impact on e-commerce and e-business The social networking phenomenon has undoubtedly a direct impact on e-business. Several benefits and risks could affect (negatively or positively) e-business. Some benefits could derive from contacts between professionals, ranging from finding the right expertise to identifying cross-organization sales opportunities. Whats more many professionals are eager to create an internal reputation, and to explore career prospects. Personal contacts between the workers could help job satisfaction and the maintenance and development of the local community could help in rapidly professionals resolution. Sharing of information and communication, a priority and challenge for many companies, could improve (Blackwell 2009). One more Social Networking aspect that should be considered in order to provide a deeper evaluation of the Social Networking impact in e-business is the one introduced Overstock in Auctions. Overstock Auctions is an e-commerce website that combines traditional auctions with a social networking component. However, samplings of user feedback shows that transactions between partners connected on the social network result in significantly higher user satisfaction. Official research also shows that Overstocks business ratings have big degree of accuracy, in that they have a strong correlation with user satisfaction after their transaction. According with official research it has investigated that a big percentage users of Overstock Auctions have friends common to both their business as well as personal networks. That means that we have the trust element that plays a pivotal role in marketing. Unfortunately, traditional marketing users are often unable to locate their desired merchandise in their social network. Edelman Trust Barometer mentioned that the most reliable information source about an enterprise is a person like me'. The survey relates that in the U.S., trust in a p erson like me increased from 20% in 2003 to 68% today. Thats why they prefer to buy any suggested product from a friend over a perfect stranger. Academic researchers have observed that 6% of users have 100% of their personal contacts involved in the business networks, which demonstrate that users have either only dealing with their social acquaintances, business partners or guests to participate in the personal network their friends (Wilson, Boe 2008). The next topic that we will discuss concern Word-of-mouth marketing. The companies that have only traditional marketing methods and not Social Network element are in crisis with low productivity and benefits as a result of TV and Radio advertisement saturation. On the other side companies like Amazon, Google and Hotmail succeed with virtually no marketing based solely on word of mouth. Word-of- mouth is the best predictor of business growth because it contains the trust element that plays pivotal role in e-business (Pedro Domingos 2005). Possible applications, opportunities, benefits and risks The following section provides some possible applications focusing on opportunities benefits and risks. Opportunities There are several opportunities of using social network applications such as sharing information and media with peers, finding an audience for creative works, helping young people keep in contact with peers or allowing young people to develop new contacts and friendships with each other. In businesses the importance of internal social software use is increased daily. Given that the next generation of employees will use the social software as the main medium of communication, the companies must bridge generation gaps and boundaries via the supporting of this communication method with its use in workplaces. Despite the difficulties the benefits are still huge. At first a high user percentage is directors or company representatives indicating that Social Networking Software has a wide range of potential customers or active users. Secondly by bringing this social software tool in the company, the relevant elements regarding the contacts, interests and activities of the workers are available and archive-able from the company by providing new resources and new abilities for human resources comprehension. In case these tools are not provided by the company the employees have the right to seek social software tools such as facebook etc. Benefits There are undoubtedly several possible business benefits of the gradual growth of social networking applications. At first within social network sites the employees are able to keep in touch with their colleagues. Unfortunately the percentage of distant colleagues and in general distant working relationships is increasing day by day. So it is obvious that we draw attention to the necessity of awareness increasing and contact between distant partners via the social network tools. Within several companies keeping touch and maintaining relationship in an organization is a critical factor for an successful career. Thus the social network tools help the companies to maintain or improve their productivity independently from their employees distance. Another beneficial social network application is the user support regarding the exploring and learning about the new employees and the team members. This endeavor makes the searching of colleagues with special skills or discovering of past experiences in activities that could be useful for new projects easier. Organization-based social networks could also help the professionals to approach work (or non work) issues of common interest something that improves the communication between people who interact for the first time (Joan Morris DiMicco 2007). Risks Social networking has several risks except from benefits such as bullying, abuse and exploitation of young people, too much time (distraction) spend on the computer / internet addiction, ballot stuffing or bad mouthing Ballot Stuffing A seller manages to make fake transactions via the positive ratings after collusion with other buyers. So Ballot Stuffing has as a result the inflating a sellers reputation.( Bhattacharjee, Goel, 2005) Bad Mouthing On the other hand a group of buyers may be conspiring (it could be after a collusion with a rival vendor) to deliberately give negative feedback to a particular vendor and hence less reputation. This is known as bad mouthing. ( Bhattacharjee, Goel, 2005) Malicious goals Some people tend to create fake profiles to bully, lie cheat and steal. Even though there are several benefits in communication via social network applications such as keeping touch and relationship management there is also always the potential to receive negative, insulting or unsuitable comments. In several interviews several social networking users mentioned that the rude culture of some users was a common disadvantage. There was only a small percentage that disagreed with the term disadvantage. Unlike in the real world according to the new users opinion the social network sites have not social limitations or boundaries. This means that users could behave in whatever way they want without limitations via posting rude or abusive messages. However in worst cases the rude culture of some users transact into malicious culture indicating that many users use fake profiles in order to insidiously steal data or money. I.e. A user might give his credit card password in order to buy something from an advantageous market. Thus a malicious user having the credit card password is enabled to steal money. (Davies, Cranston 2008). Distraction In an organization a social networking software installation should undoubtedly offer several benefits and tremendous power to factors regarding the productivity and profits. However Surveys have found that social networking may be a distraction to workers. In particular it was found that 8% of the work time (30 minutes in 8-hour work-time) concern with social non-working activities. I.e. even though sending of personal photos among employees could provide some indirect benefit to a company, it could also be a distracter for the employees with bad impacts to productivity and profits. Synthesis As it was mentioned Social Networking as concept is not something new. It is exist from the internet creation since 20 years. In fact Social networking is part of a wider Internet phenomenon named Web 2.0 indicating the recent Social Network event is its gradual growth due to Web 2.0 creation. Although companies are aware of the marketing and PR opportunities, using social networking software in a given company or organization is still in relatively early stage .Our main concern in this research paper is the emphasis on the need for transaction costs for a word-of-mouth system to work well and in order to avoid phenomenon such as ballot stuffing or bad mouthing . Not only is the transaction costs important for an word of mouth system to function well, the reputation of earned premiums to the seller should be associated with the transaction costs It should also be reported that not only enterprises but all of us have to protect ourselves from malicious users via permanent information. Conclusion Our study provided an overview regarding the Social Networking Phenomenon. It has also provided an evaluation of the impact of social Networking on e-business. In the stage of our evaluation we discuss about overstock Auctions. Overstock Auctions is a kind of an e-commerce website that makes a strong combination between traditional auctions and the social networking component. We have also discussed about reputation systems. The research has shown that Social Networking has both benefits and risks. Some of the risks that could be lurking are the excessive use of social network applications in workplaces, i.e the use of facebook in workplace from an employee for non business reasons. Other risks that are involved are ballot staffing and bad mouthing in reputation systems. Ballot stuffing is the creation of fake fame after collusion between the reputation System company and fake buyers. Unlike bad mouthing is the defamation of the reputation system company via fake unhappy customers .S ome benefits that could be shown are the improvement of customer support in a company. A complicated problem for a company could be solved by finding an expert or locate implicit knowledge via a social network application. In particular a questioner could contact via a Social Network Site with an expert who has solved a similar problem in the past and find a solution to their problem. This paper also provides the trust component that plays pivotal role in e-commerce. Customers have lost their trust to the traditional marketing methods. The social networks enables the customer to interact with a person like him in order to get the appropriate information for any product. Thus even though the majority of users perform few transactions with their virtual friends on social network, many sampling feedbacks showed that transactions between companies representatives and customers have increased the user satisfaction degree. Also a conclusion has been drawn that Overstocks business ratings are accurate, in that they have a strong correlation with user satisfaction after their transaction. Thus a valid conclusion would be that there exists a necessity of transaction costs for a well functioning reputation system References Bhattacharjee, R. Goel, A., 2005. Avoiding ballot stuffing in ebay-like reputation systems. In Proceedings of the 2005 ACM SIGCOMM workshop on Economics of peer-to-peer systems. p. 137. Blackwell, J. et al., 2009. Design and adoption of social collaboration software within businesses. In Proceedings of the 27th international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems. pp. 2759-2762. Boyd, d. m., Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, DiMicco, J. et al., 2008. Motivations for social networking at work. In Proceedings of the ACM 2008 conference on Computer supported cooperative work. pp. 711-720. DiMicco, J.M. Millen, D.R., 2007. Identity management: Multiple presentations of self in Facebook. In Proceedings of the 2007 international ACM conference on Supporting group work. pp. 383-386. Domingos, P., 2005. Mining social networks for viral marketing. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 20(1), 80-82. Goad, R and Mooney, T, The impact of Social Networking in the UK (Hitwise Experian, 2007), Swamynathan, G. et al., 2008. Do social networks improve e-commerce?: a study on social marketplaces. In Proceedings of the first workshop on Online social networks. pp. 1-6. Withers, K, Young People and Social Networking Sites: Briefing to guide policy responses Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR, 2007).

Maos Cultural Revolution :: Chinese China History

Mao's Cultural Revolution Dressed in the drab military uniform that symbolized the revolutionary government of Communist China, Mao Zedong's body still looked powerful, like an giant rock in a gushing river. An enormous red flag draped his coffin, like a red sail unfurled on a Chinese junk, illustrating the dualism of traditional China and the present Communist China that typified Mao. 1 A river of people flowed past while he lay in state during the second week of September 1976. Workers, peasants, soldiers and students, united in grief; brought together by Mao, the helmsman of modern China. 2 He had assembled a revolutionary government using traditional Chinese ideals of filial piety, harmony, and order. Mao's cult of personality, party purges, and political policies reflect Mao's esteem of these traditional Chinese ideals and history. Mao was born on December 26, 1893 in Shao Shan, a village in Hunan Province. 3 His family lived in a rural village where for hundreds of years the pattern of everyday life had remained largely unbroken. 4 Mao's father, the son of a "poor peasant," during Mao's childhood however, prospered and become a wealthy land owner and rice dealer. 5 Yet, the structure of Mao's family continued to mirror the rigidity of traditional Chinese society. His father, a strict disciplinarian, demanded filial piety. 6 Forced to do farm labor and study the Chinese classics, Mao was expected to be obedient. On the other hand, Mao remembers his mother was "generous and sympathetic." 7 Mao urged his mother to confront his father but Mao's mother who believed in many traditional ideas replied that "was not the Chinese way." 8 Mao in his interviews with historian Edgar Snow reports how during his childhood he tried to escape this traditional Chinese upbringing by running away from home. The rebellion Mao claims to have manifested might have distanced Mao physically from his family but, traditional Chinese values were deeply ingrained, shaping his political and personal persona. His father's harshness with dealing with opposition, his cunning, his demand for reverence from subordinates, and his ambition were to be seen in how Mao demanded harmony, order, and reverence as a ruthless dictator. Yet, Mao, was also the kindly father figure for the people of China, as manifested in characteristic qualities of Mao's mother: kindness, benevolence, and patriarchal indulgence. The China that Mao was born into was fast becoming a shell of its former past.

Legalization of Marijuana Essay

BODY PARAGRAPHS: I. Topic Sentence that supports the thesis: Making Marijuana legal will save the U.S. government and the average tax payer a lot of money.  ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­ Example: Billions of dollars are spent every year to arrest and lock up Marijuana users. Example: Taxpayers have to bear the cost for the expenses: food, housing, health care, attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses for these people. Example: In addition, if marijuana were legal, the government would be able to collect taxes on it, and would have a lot more money to pay for effective drug education programs and other important causes. Closing or Transitional Sentence: We would have more money to spend on more important problems if marijuana were legal. II. Topic Sentence that supports the thesis: Legalization of this drug would reduce drug-related crimes. Example: All illegal drugs are expensive because their production, transportation and sale are very risky. Example: People with drug addictions must often resort to theft and other crimes in order to generate the funds necessary to purchase these types of drugs. Example: Legalization would reduce the risks, the prices, and, therefore, the crimes. Example: In addition, crimes related to drug disputes would also be reduced once Marijuana becomes a legal drug. Closing or Transitional Sentence: Not only could the legalization of Marijuana save the lives of drug dealers and their clientele, but it could also save many terminally ill patients from suffering. III. Topic Sentence that supports the thesis: Marijuana can be used as a treatment for certain medical conditions. Example: Marijuana could be  used to treat terminally ill AIDS patients by stimulating their appetite so they can resist emaciation (drastic weight loss). Example: Smoking this drug will alleviate the severe nausea that is a common side effect of chemotherapy. Example: In addition, Marijuana has been known to ease the pain of severe migraine headaches. Closing or Transitional Sentence: Since it is evident that Marijuana could be a valuable drug in the fight against many terminal diseases, it should be legalized. CONCLUSION: Repeat the idea of your thesis: By lifting the ban on marijuana use and treating it like other drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, the nation would gain immediate and long-term benefits. Summarize/Reinforce the outline of the body: Marijuana, a common and easily produced wild plant, could be beneficial to many if legalized. Return to a general level of the subject: Prohibition does not work. Education and treatment are better to address the drug problem in this country.

Celta

CELTA P/T Karolina Szybinska Assignment 3: Skills Related Tasks -1I decided to use the â€Å"Metro† article on Big Brother for my skills related task. I think it is an appropriate text for English language learners, because the article was published in â€Å"Metro† – a free newspaper which students will immediately recognise (proven that they have lived in London for more than 2 weeks). I also think that the use of an â€Å"authentic† text could be hugely appreciated by the students; the ability to read and understand a newspaper they see daily is an enormous confidence booster for them.The article deals with contemporary issue, and the topic is not culturally biased as the concept of Big Brother will be known to European students and possibly to other students with a little bit of an interest in the western culture. But, most of all, this article is perfect for a reading activity, as the topic is known to be a very controversial one and would make it a gr eat discussion/ productive skill extension.I would use it with an intermediate/upper intermediate level students (depending on the individual students too, trying not to match the level to the strongest students, but also making sure the students are not bored or unchallenged because I focus too much on the weaker ones). -2– I think a good starting point for this lesson would be playing a trailer of The Truman Show movie and start from there. Many students will be familiar with the movie already and if they are not, the trailer provides a good explanation of the problem in the movie.The idea of being invigilated 24/7 is put across quite bluntly in the trailer alone. The trailer is also a good aid to use, should any Assignment 3 P/T Celta Karolina Szybinska 1 students have problems with a sentence in the text â€Å"The Truman Show-style concept†. Students could first discuss with partners whether or not they have seen the movie, how they feel about being filmed, do they know any other movies/books/TV programs where this idea is explored . After eliciting Big Brother, ask some additional, personalised questions like â€Å"Have you ever watched BB? , â€Å"Would you like to be one of the contestants? †, â€Å"Have you ever applied for the show? †. Then I could move to the first reading activity. -3Although there are plenty of new vocabulary items in the article, I think students would not have any significant difficulties with grasping the overall meaning of the text. I am not a fan of pre-teaching vocabulary, I agree with Jeremy Harmer here, who claims that â€Å"by giving them some or all of those words we deny them [a chance to practice tackling authentic texts]† (Harmer, 203) i.I think that students get the better grasp of the word if they work themselves towards the meaning, e. g. from the context, and in this article I would only preteach key vocabulary, such as contestants, to air sth, to screen sth, pittance. I would us e pictures/movies and CCQs to convey the meaning. For the remaining vocabulary issues I would count on the students to try and convey the meaning from the context or give them a matching exercise of words and synonyms to be completed in pairs in the pre-reading stage of the lesson. 4I would use this article to practise skim reading. It is not long, but consists of enough paragraphs to cater for the teacher to set up skimming activities. My activities for practising skim reading through this article would be as follows: ? Match the paragraph with the heading ? Put the scrambled paragraphs in order. Assignment 3 P/T Celta Karolina Szybinska 2 I would remind/explain to the students that skim reading is a skill that require quick reading and ability to choose only important information.After instructing activity, give them the handout to match headings with paragraphs and give the students quite conservative time limit (2 minutes), as they need the push to read quickly and finish before the time is up, otherwise the students tend to focus too much on unknown vocabulary instead (Riddell, 102)ii. After that, pair and then group feedback. Then give out another handout with scrambled paragraphs and give them another 3 minutes to put them in a correct order, followed by pair and group feedback. For this task I prepared two various copies.If the group is energetic, I would just ask the students to number the paragraphs from 1-6. If the group is low on energy and needs some kinaesthetic and personalised activities, I would give them scissors, glue and a blank sheet of paper, so they would have to cut the paragraphs up and glue the correct order. -5For the more detailed understanding task, I would use 2 activities, which I think will be suitable. ? a set of questions with multiple choice answer. ? a True/False questionnaire about the article, each followed by â€Å"why? so the student can also identify the fragment of the article containing the relevant information. Davi d Riddell says that answering multiple choice and T/F questions required scanning the text for specific informationii but I truly think that this activity could be used as the detailed reading task. Because students would have already skimmed the text by then, additional scanning would supplement the initial task Assignment 3 P/T Celta Karolina Szybinska 3 and together it could form a comprehensive and detailed reading activity. Particularly if the questions were not too easy with an obvious answer. 6For the last part of the lesson I would put pictures of Big Brother contestants engaged in various activities in the house (sleeping, cooking, working in the garden, cleaning, dancing etc. ) around the classroom. I would also play a short clip of Davina McCall reporting from a Big Brother house. Students will be put in pairs and told that they are news reporters broadcasting from outside the Big Brother house and that their producer gave them 10 minutes to prepare the topic and wants th em to mention specific items (new vocabulary from the lesson, put on the board).The students can walk around the classroom and decide what information they would like to include in the broadcast. After ten minutes each pair stands in front of the rest of the classmates and â€Å"broadcast† their story on Big Brother. Assignment 3 P/T Celta Karolina Szybinska 4 i Harmer, J. The Practice Of English Language Teaching. 3rd Edition. Longman, 2001. Riddell, D. Teach Yourself Teaching English as a Foreign/Second Language. McGraw-Hill, 2003 ii